Last week on the Internet I happened across a comment that cries out for a response. To paraphrase: traditional Hatha Yoga is a “preparation” for the “true” yoga, Raja Yoga (the “royal” or “kingly” yoga), the appellation commonly used for the practice outlined by Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras. This is one of the three [...]
Tag Archive for ‘philosophy’ 
When A Body Meets A Body Going To The Ghats
The first attempt at an English translation of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra (“Threads of Yoga”) was made by James Robert Ballantyne (1813-1864), a Scottish Orientalist and linguist. From 1846 to 1861 he was the principal of the prestigious Sanskrit College in Benares, established in 1791 by the British East India Company. Ballantyne, an adherent of a [...]
Piedmont Yoga Studio News May 2010: The Meaning of Guru
Like many Sanskrit words in the Yoga lexicon, the word guru has both a literal and symbolic meaning. Literally it means “heavy, weighty; heavy in the stomach (as food), difficult to digest; excessive, difficult, hard; important, serious, momentous; valuable, highly prized; venerable, respectable.” The guru is the venerable “weighty one,” heavy with wisdom, that’s both [...]
