Patanjali's Yogasutra is an ancient canonic Indian text composed in Sanskrit in the 3rd or 4th century. Belonging to a very different cultural milieu, this multi-layered text is philosophical, psychological and practical in nature. Offering a philosophical reading of Patanjali's Yogasutra, this book discusses themes such as freedom, self-identity, time and transcendence, and translation - between languages, cultures and eras. Drawing substantially upon contemporary Indian materials, it discusses for the first time classical yoga as reflected upon by Daya Krishna (1924-2007) with constant reference to Krishna Chandra Bhattacharyya's (1875-1949) studies in yoga philosophy. The genuine attempt on behalf of these two original thinkers to engage philosophically with Patanjala-yoga sets the tone of the textual exploration provided here. This book features a new annotated translation of the Yogasutra, and the author provides a useful background to the extensive Samkhya terminology employed by Patanjali. Daniel Raveh also offers a close reflection of a very act of translation, and the book concludes with suggestions for further reading and a glossary of central notions.

Author Biography

Daniel Raveh is Lecturer of Indian and Comparative Philosophy at Tel Aviv University, Israel. Over the last twenty years he has divided his time between Israel and India, and has translated several Indian texts into Hebrew.