Victoria Klein

There are countless interpretations and commentaries on the Yoga Sutras, originally compiled by Patanjali thousands of years ago. Personally, I’ve only read 2 others before reading this version, so my point of reference may be considered narrow. 

I found Swami Satchidananda’s version to be informative and somewhat blunt - and I mean that in a good way. He uses a few modern examples throughout the text to help improve the reader’s understanding. This book was originally published in 1978 and the examples he uses still apply (both ironic and sad). 

His attempt to explain the overall concept of “never-ending consciousness” that is a key part of the spirituality of Yoga felt a bit incomplete, or at the very least, confusing. His use of the word God to symbolize said consciousness made it hard to distinguish between the Christian concept of God and the yogic concept of consciousness/God/Light … etc.

If you are looking for a complete commentary on the Yoga Sutras, this is not the book for you. Swami summarizes and skips over certain sutras entirely within Books 3 & 4. Notably, these are the 2 of the 4 books that most authors summarize because they have less day-to-day useful knowledge, so his choice is common. 

Personally, I am very happy that I took the time to read this interpretation of the Yoga Sutras and I’d widely recommend it to others, especially those delving into the world of teaching Yoga. That being said, this isn’t a be-all end-all translation (no book is), so I implore you to read other Yoga Sutras commentaries as well.

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