So Patanjali says there IS a God? I know that the sutras ask for devotion to God … but it is still not clear to me that Pat. Says there is God. I know that I don’t understand this yet – help! I must restudy this piece; the answer must be in there. So, IS there God? Is it God within? The one we must discover and give face and name to? Or is there the supreme, all-knowing God who directs everything: the Higher Power that’s talked about in AA meetings? Goodness, I’m confused! Hamsa
I am reading a book called Yoga for the Three Stages of Life by Srivatsa Ramaswami, a 30-year student of Krishnamacharya. He states that Krishnamacharya taught him that va in Yoga Sutras I, 23 – usually translated as ?or? is to be translated as only. The rendering thus makes the sutra read ? that the goal of yoga is attained ONLY by devotion to God. Krishnamacharya definitely believed in God as both formless and omnipresent Iswara and that with form of Narayana. The qualities of God are spelled out in Patanjali Yoga Sutras I-24-28. That True Self is omnipresent both within and without. All there is, is that One Being. Only a few of the qualities of that one are expressed by Patanjali leaving one to find that One in the form most acceptable to each individual. One must realize of course that the first chapter is intended for the highest student who can attain samadhi without instruction. Instruction is given only in directing awareness. For all other students who cannot meditate teachings of chapter two are given of how to discipline oneself through the stages leading to the absorption of samadhi.