Note that due to the limitations of some ereading devices not all diacritical marks can be shown. BKS Iyengar’s translation and commentary on these ancient yoga sutras has been described as the “bible” of yoga. This edition contains an introduction by BKS Iyengar, as well as a foreword by Godfrey Devereux, author of Dynamic Yoga.

B.K.S. Iyengar--hailed as "the Michelangelo of yoga" (BBC) and considered by many to be one of the most important yoga masters--has spent much of his life introducing the modern world to the ancient practice of yoga. Yoga's popularity is soaring, but its widespread acceptance as an exercise for physical fitness and the recognition of its health benefits have not been matched by an understanding of the emotional, intellectual, and spiritual development that the yogic tradition can also offer. In Light on Life, B.K.S. Iyengar brings readers this new and more complete understanding of the yogic journey. Here Iyengar explores the yogic goal to integrate the different parts of the self (body, emotions, mind, and soul), the role that the yoga postures and breathing techniques play in our search for wholeness, the external and internal obstacles that keep us from progressing along the path, and how yoga can transform our lives and help us to live in harmony with the world around us. For the first time, Iyengar uses stories from his own life, humor, and examples from modern culture to illustrate the profound gifts that yoga offers. Written with the depth of this sage's great wisdom, Light on Life is the culmination of a master's spiritual genius, a treasured companion to his seminal Light on Yoga.

Composed over two millenniums ago, the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali remains the philosophical thread that unites the ancient and current world of yoga. Yet, its many translations are underwhelming, lacking connection to reality and practicality. Innumerable forms and sects of yoga have come and gone in between. Obsessed with gaining special powers over mind and body, yoga’s re-tellers have clouded its history in a mystical mist of fantastic claims. It is human nature to crave powers to radically change our lot in life. These layers of dazzle and glitter have over the centuries led us further away from yoga’s spiritual core. The sutras’ clear, logical, and practical path has been blurred and lost. Radically breaking with this mystical tradition, A. K. Aruna seeks to reclaim for us this fountainhead of yoga by retying the understanding of these sutras to the even more ancient source of spiritual knowledge and yoga—the Upanishads. The Upanishads eschewed limited pursuits in order to seek an ultimate goal that was not time-bound. In this still pure form of the yoga of seeking ultimate, timeless truth, the words of Patanjali become crystal clear and practical. Yoga shines in timeless relevance. A. K. Aruna’s Patanjali Yoga Sutras: A Translation in the Light of Vedanta Scripture has brilliantly refocused the light on the Yoga Sutras. This is a companion, translation only, booklet to the Translation and Commentary version of the text by A. K. Aruna.

This volume is an original paraphrase, with commentary, of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. The Yoga Sutras are of ancient origin, first reduced to writing by Patanjali, who is considered the founder of the Raja Yoga School. Control of the mind and its illumination by the soul are brought about through the practice of Raja Yoga. The Sutras have a power and a timelessness about them which demonstrate the accuracy with which they pinpoint the basic truths of human evolution from subservience to personality clamours to the serene freedom of the soul. Most human problems today originate in selfish desire; the prostitution of the feeling nature to self-centred action. This is also brought out clearly in the teaching of the Lord Buddha, the treading of the Noble Eight-Fold path providing the only way out of the maze: "Right Values; Right Speech; Right Mode of Living; Right Thinking; Right Expression; Right Conduct; Right Effort; Right Rapture or True Happiness". These are attributes of the soul. Patanjali explores exhaustively the means, the techniques and the mental posture which create the connecting thread between the form-centred personality and these stages towards spiritual achievement and soul fusion.

A study of the philosophical core of yoga offers commentary on and explanations of Patañjali's sutras and illuminates the spirituality that is the foundation of yoga practice, in a work containing the sutras in their original language.