Summary of B. K. S. Iyengar's Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 The word citta has been translated as mind in the West. In India, it is considered that mind not only has the power of conation or volition, but also of discrimination. But citta really means consciousness. #2 The first chapter of the Yoga Sutras is dedicated to the analysis of consciousness and its behavioral patterns. It explains how its fluctuations can be stilled in order to achieve inner absorption and integration. The second chapter reveals the whole linking mechanism of yoga, by means of which ethical conduct, bodily vigor, and health and physiological vitality are built into the structure of the human evolutionary progress towards freedom. #3 Yoga is the control of the movement of consciousness, which leads to their complete cessation. It is extremely difficult to convey the meaning of the word citta because it is the subtlest form of cosmic intelligence. #4 The practice of yoga integrates a person through the journey of intelligence and consciousness from the external to the internal. It unifies him from the intelligence of the skin to the intelligence of the self, so that his self merges with the cosmic Self.