Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtras are the classical work of the Yoga School of thought, one of the Six Darśanas studied in the Bhakti Tirtha course. They focus on how to attain direct experience and realization of the puruṣa, or the individual self. As the classical treatise on the Vedic understanding of the mind and consciousness and on techniques of meditation and self-realization, it has exerted immense influence over the religious practices of Hinduism in India and, more recently, in the West. For Vaiṣṇavas, the Yoga Sūtras are especially helpful in understanding the first two chapters of Bhakti-rasāmṛita-sindhu.
This course completes the first two chapters – Samādhi Pada (Meditative Absorption) and Sādhana Pada (Practice).
When you don’t have the intelligence to understand and control your emotions, one solution in the material world is to forget about it and drink alcohol or do drugs. When people in spiritual circles who have made a vow not to use these vices can’t control their emotions, they turn to criticizing, gossiping, threatening, manipulating and controlling Guru, or others, instead of just facing squarely what is there inside their own heart.
