As I have complained last summer, no translation of Patanjali’s masterpiece I have seen to date is to my taste (“Patanjali and I,” June 10, 2013). Thus I thought of my own translation, but then I changed my mind on account of Patanjali’s religious ideas, which are not to my taste, either. I concluded that my own rendering of yoga is all that is needed (“Ten Principles of Bon Yoga,” November 13, 2012). But the idea of a new translation is still with me. Come what may, I would like to try my luck with it. In that direction, I am copying the one-hundred and ninety-six Patanjali’s sutras in three translations I have on hand into separate files. One is already behind me, and two are still to go. But the joy of copying by hand, as well as doing it over and over again, is enormous. It beats reading by a wide margin. Besides, it is an exercise in yoga in its own right. Although Patanjali and I have a long way to go still, the path we are taking is full of joy at every step.

Addendum (October 26, 2016)

I finished copying Patanjali’s sutras from the three translations I have on hand about a year ago. They are by Swami Satchidananda,[1] Shyam Ranganathan,[2] and Edwin Bryant.[3] In addition, I have found on the World Wide Web a reasonable translation by a certain BonGiovanni, about whom I know next to nothing.[4] But my own translation is still pending. So far, I have managed to complete at most a half of Patanjali’s masterpiece. Book Three, which is teeming with accomplishments and powers, turns out to be the major stumbling block for me (“Screw Accomplishments or Powers,” April 5, 2014). Each and every time I come across such notions, I freeze. Who knows, I may well give up my attempt at translation of Patanjali’s sutras in the fullness of time. Screw accomplishments and powers, indeed.

Footnotes

1. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Buckingham, Virginia: Integral Yoga Publications, 2007.

2. Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra, London: Penguin, 2008.

3. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, New York: North Point Press, 2009.

4. URL: http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/yogasutr.htm (accessed on April 22, 2014).