The Complete Commentary by Śaṅkara on the Yoga Sūtra-s

Sankara is the prime architect of the non-dual Vedanta school of Indian phi- losophy and practice. He is considered by many as India’s greatest religious and philosophical genius. This book ‘The Complete Commentary by Sankara on the Yoga Sutras’ contains the first complete English translation of the pre- viously unknown sub-commentary, or vivarana, by Sankara on Vyasa’s com- mentary on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.

If the vivarana is a genuine sub-commentary by Sankara, it is of the greatest importance to the study of Sankara’s thought and teaching. Whilst the Yoga school of Patanjali differs from Sankara’s Vedanta on certain philosophical points, Sankara regards it as authoritative on meditation practice which is central to both schools.

Leggett considers the issues surrounding the authenticity of the Vivarana as a work by Sankara in his Introduction and this is also commented on in the new Foreword by Dr Kengo Harimoto which was written for the e-book published in 2017.

This edition also includes a previously unpublished section by Leggett on ‘How to use this Book for Yoga Practice’ in which he says ‘When enthusiasm flags read sutras 11.15-17; look around you and see how anxiety, pain and death are rushing towards us like an express train. Yoga is a way to escape them.’

Trevor Leggett (1914 – 2000) practiced Adhyatma Yoga for over sixty years and for eighteen years he was a pupil of Hari Prasad Shastri until his death in 1956. He studied Zen and Judo in Japan where he achieved sixth dan from the Kodokan and he was one of Great Britain’s leading teachers of Judo. For many years he was head of the BBC’s Japanese Service until his retirement in 1970. His books on Yoga and Zen include Encounters in Yoga and Zen, Lotus Lake Dragon Pool, The Chapter of The Self, Jewels from the Indra Net, Realisation of the Supreme Self, Zen and the Ways, Three Ages of Zen and The First and Second Zen Readers.