I sometimes get impatient as I wander through The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali translated and commented upon by Edwin Bryant.[1] The same happens to me with any other edition of the work, I hasten to add. I have a strong wish to rid the text from all metaphysical garbage. Thus I decided to read Bryant’s introductory essay.[2] I was disappointed not to find a word about the roots of yoga in shamanism. But then I came upon a longish section dealing with yoga and Sankhya. Bryant opens it with the following words: “The history of yoga is inextricable from that of the Sankhya tradition. Sankhya provides the metaphysical infrastructure for yoga and thus is indispensable to an understanding of yoga.”[3] Now, Sankhya is considered to be one of the oldest metaphysical systems in India. Strongly dualist, it conceives of the world as consisting of mind and matter. To its credit, it is atheist, as well. According to Bryant, yoga and Sankhya refer to two distinct paths of salvation—the former by meditation and the latter by knowledge or cogitation.[4] Returning to my impatience, I have a strong wish to rid yoga from Sankhya. Metaphysical infrastructure is for the birds. Perhaps it was needed to give credibility to yoga in Patanjali’s time, or even before, but times have changed. All that is really needed is a clear guide to practice. Welcome to shamanism once again!

Footnotes

1. New York: North Point Press, 2009.

2. “The History of Yoga,” op. cit., pp. xvii-xix.

3. Op. cit., p. xxv.

4. Op. cit., p. xxx.