The Taproot of Yoga

The Sanskrit for Patanjali's Yoga Sutras has existed unchanged for more than 2000 years. No authentic, accurate, and reliable translation of it exists. Purported 'translations' and interpretations do exist, but they are robustly incorrect, entangled with, and distorted by, the influence of the accumulations of continually evolving teachings of religions and yoga cultures. This book is unique: it avoids those errors by using definitions contemporary with Patanjali and shunning modern influence. This second volume responds to the practical, intellectual, and moral obligation to be transparent about the translation process. For each of 196 sutras it discusses that process for each word and sutra, and how the other books arrived at their versions.

The Sanskrit for Patanjali's Yoga Sutras has existed unchanged for more than 2000 years. Purported 'translations' and interpretations do exist, but they are robustly entangled with and distorted by the influence of personal beliefs and the continually accumulated teachings of yoga cultures and religions. This Yoga Sutras book is unique: it avoids those errors by using definitions contemporary with Patanjali, deliberately shunning modern influences. This second volume of The Taproot of Yoga, The True Yoga Sutras responds to the practical, intellectual, and moral obligation to be transparent about the translation process. Its presence should reassure readers that the translation from the Sanskrit has been conducted carefully and caringly. Further it is present for those who wish to use a detailed reading to verify its accuracy, learn more about the modern interpretations, or critique its contents. No Modern Yoga Sutras author has provided similar documentation. For each of 196 sutras this second volume discusses the translation process and how the other books arrived at their versions. The translation of each word is shown. Where the word, or its sutra, differs from that of any author(s), the difference is analyzed and documented, often providing the opportunity to show why and how the difference came about. Out of respect, no author name appears in this analysis. The use of modern definitions for Sanskrit words, rather than a definition contemporary with Patanjali, was a frequent cause of error in the current books. Even more dangerous to accurate translation, certain important words in the modern versions came from the Hindi/Urdu dictionary. A problem common to multiple authors arises from substituting religious god names for the 'Supreme Being' of the original. Similarly, using a gender of 'He" in the place of the neutral 'it' or 'that' changes the viewpoint. Many authors translated the meanings of multiple sutras around the eight 'occult powers,' which Hinduism had not yet stated during Patanjali's time. In more than a few cases, authors seem to have molded their interpretations around an established modern model. Accomplishing substitution of the model for translation required adding, deleting, or mistranslating words. Translation frequently included, or warped toward, what were clearly personal beliefs. The exact copying of erroneous wording across authors was worrisome. Further, rather than translating, authors sometimes used wrong interpretations said to come from an iconic early mystic such as Vyasa. Those are just a sampling of the translation problems. In combination, the result is the production of Modern Yoga Sutras books that are greatly different from this original. In addition to modern sutras being incorrect, the original has a core theme completely unrecognized in modern yoga and pattern strings that weave through the core theme.

Beck Anamin's upstate New York life began in 1936. After family life and education, he earned a bachelor's degree in Geology and a master's degree in Management. With a family to support, he was fortunate to be offered a job programming first generation computers, beginning a 38-year career in information technology. In 1970 a huge change came about in his personal life after experiencing several spontaneous spiritual events. Already yearning for that spirituality, he now knew it was possible to attain, and began study and practice of Integral Yoga at Swami Satchidananda's nearby ashram. Two years later, he began what would become 45 years of yoga teaching. Over time additional teaching accreditation and advanced training in pranayama and meditation accumulated. His teaching programs expanded from the core Integral Yoga program, to include meditation, pranayama, and the Yoga Sutras. After retiring in 1998 from his twenty-year job as manager of a large Information Technology Center, he bought a house on a pond in New Hampshire. By then alone, the setting enabled further settling into what he calls 'No One's Land,' a personal mind space free of outside influences where no one owns people, viewpoints, or the truth. He became further absorbed in his passion for research and writing of three books providing the truths hidden by current representation of the Yoga Sutras, meditation, and evolution. Final editing of each took place in 2017.