Secrets of Yoga

Talks on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
Vol. 8 of the Series: Yoga: The Science of the Soul
Audiobook Series
In stock

Osho takes the reader on a journey through the ancient sutras compiled by Patanjali, dissecting, translating, illuminating in intricate detail – and also responds to questions from a contemporary international audience. He understands the sutras intimately, from a mystic’s down-to-earth viewpoint.

Secrets of Yoga
Click on Chapter Titles below for Details of Each Talk

Osho takes the reader on a journey through the ancient sutras compiled by Patanjali, dissecting, translating, illuminating in intricate detail – and also responds to questions from a contemporary international audience. He understands the sutras intimately, from a mystic’s down-to-earth viewpoint.


Excerpt from: The Secrets of Yoga, Chapter 3

     “Patanjali is not a speculator. He is not an airy-fairy philosopher; he is very down-to-earth. He means business, as I mean business. His approach is scientific, and that very approach makes him totally different from others. Others have been thinking about the truth; he is not thinking about the truth, he simply prepares you to receive the truth.

     “The truth cannot be thought, it can only be received. It is already there and there is no way to think about it. The more you think, the farther away you will wander from it; thinking is a wandering, a rambling in the clouds. The moment you think, you are already going away – the truth has to be seen, not thought.

     “Patanjali’s basic approach is how to create the clarity, the eyes, which can see it. Of course it is going to be hard work; it is not just poetry and dreaming. A man has to become a lab, a man has to transform his whole life into an experiment – only then can the truth be realized.

     “So while listening to Patanjali’s sutras, never forget that he is not handing you some theories, he is giving you a methodology that can transform you. But then it depends on you.

     “There are four types of people who become interested in religion. The first, the majority, is only curious, is in search of something amusing, something outlandish, something interesting, something fascinating. Patanjali is not for those, because a curious person is never so deeply interested that he can be convinced to transform his life. He is looking for a sensation. Patanjali is not for those people.

     “Then there is a second type we will call the student. He is interested intellectually. He would like to know what this man Patanjali is thinking, saying – but he is interested in knowledge. Not in knowing, but knowledge. He is interested in gathering more information. He is not ready to change himself; he would like to remain himself and gather more knowledge. He is on an ego trip. Patanjali is not for that type either.

     “Then there is the third type, the disciple. A disciple is one who is ready to discipline his life, who is ready to transform his whole being into an experiment, who is courageous enough to go on this inner adventure – which is the greatest, which is the most daring, because nobody knows where one is moving. One is moving into the unknowable. One is moving into the abyss. One is moving into the uncharted. Yoga is for the disciple; the disciple will be able to get in tune with Patanjali.

     “Then there is the fourth state, or the fourth type. I will call it the devotee. The disciple is ready to change himself, but still not ready to sacrifice himself. The devotee is ready to sacrifice himself. The disciple will go far enough with Patanjali, but not to the very end unless he becomes a devotee also, unless he comes to recognize that the transformation that religion is concerned with is not a modification. It is not just modifying you, making you better and better; it is a death, and one has to sacrifice oneself totally. It is a discontinuity with your past.

     “When the disciple is ready, not only to transform himself but to die, he becomes a devotee. But a disciple can go far enough and if he goes, one day or other he will become a devotee. If he becomes a devotee, only then will he understand the whole of Patanjali, the whole beauty of it, the whole grandeur of it, the tremendous door that Patanjali opens into the unknown.” Osho

More Information
Publisher Osho Media International
Type Series of Talks