Posts Tagged ‘hinduism’

The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali is a religious text on the practice of yoga. By yoga, I am referring to the full definition of yoga in the Hindu tradition and not merely the asana practice that is popular in the West.

It is made up of 196 verses. I read the longer version that has been translated into English by Sri Swami Satchidananda who also provides extensive commentary on the verses. This was very helpful to understanding. The text is broken down into four books and his commentary on the first two books made them reasonably accessible whereas the second two books, where commentary is limited, were more challenging.

My favourite concept from the book is the idea that anger is a package that you have to accept delivery of. And if you choose not to accept the delivery, the sender is stuck with it. If only it was that simple in real life, of course, but certainly an attitude I would like to cultivate.

Following on from last week’s first session, on the Quaker movement, this week Perspective Citywide was joined by Aarik Subramanyam to talk about Hinduism. This was the first time a Perspective course has never covered Hinduism so we were very excited to learn about a religion which many people in the West know little about. The session was interesting and very informative, and not one to miss!