Yoga Sastras: Sutras of Patanjali and the Bhagavad Gita
Both the Bhagavad Gita and the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali are authoritative texts on yoga (Yoga Sastra)
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali / Bhagavad Gita
Both Yoga Teachers and Asana (“Physical Yoga”) practitioners, especially in the West, know, in greater or lesser depth, the Yoga Sutras as an authoritative text on Sastra (Yoga Sastra) in the form of Aphorisms (Sutras), that is, concise statements of scientists principles about yoga, codified by Patanjali.
It is usually common to refer to the Yoga Sutras when talking about Philosophy of Yoga. We must not forget that it was Swami Vivekananda who rescued them from history in the 19th century, through his essays on Raja Yoga and the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.
However, few know that there is another Yoga Sastra, that is, an authoritative scripture on yoga (Spiritual), and that many Swamis and experts consider the most sacred of the sacred Hindu scriptures. And this Yoga Sastra is the Bhagavad Gita, which also contains the essence of the Upanishads and Brahma Vidya (knowledge of Brahman, the supreme entity that pervades everything). In fact, all the chapters of the Bhagavad Gita end like this:
“Thus concludes the third chapter, entitled Karma Yoga in the dialogue between Lord Krishna and Arjuna, on the Science of Yoga as part of the knowledge of Brahman in the Upanishad known as the Bhagavad Gita.”
The term Sastra appears in several verses of the Bhagavad Gita, but perhaps the most significant is the following:
“Therefore let Sastra be your authority to determine what should and should not be done…” Bhagavad Gita 16.24
The Yoga Sutras covers one part of Philosophy of Yoga, the Bhagavad Gita covers another part. Both complement each other, and are not exclusive.
But the Bhagavad Gita is considered in addition to a philosophy of Yoga as a Para-Vidya science or science of the soul and also as a Moksha Shastra (liberation and self-knowledge)
Did you know that both the Bhagavad Gita and the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali are authoritative texts on yoga (Yoga Sastra)?
Yoga Sastra: Sutras de Patanjali y Bhagavad Gita.
(c) Gita Institute & Pedro Nonell
