Thursday, August 16, 2012

Sooo many translations....

Ok, a yoga teacher certification is probably on every yogi's mind at least a few times during their journey. For the past year, it has been on mine. Before my pregnancy it was a close possibility but now, the further I get and closer to birth time, the less of a possibility it has become... at least for now. My husband wants our son to "talk" before I attempt to leave for a teacher training. Granted (depending where we are) there are plenty of trainings close to home so I would only need a babysitter for certain times, unless it is a multiple week intensive. Nevertheless, I'm getting restless and trying to find ways to battle this restlessness.

So, I was trying to find texts that would most likely be required (or at least touched on) during the certification process. Outside of the Yoga Sutras, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika has been listed on sites but I'm not sure which translation would be the best to read. I guess that goes for the Yoga Sutras as well. There are so many translations that it's hard to know which translations are worthy of reading. Granted there is a section dedicated to the Sutras in Gregor Maehle's book, I want a copy of my own. Even if it means printing it myself.

I'm trying to find texts that will help prepare me or even make my teacher training certification that much better. I already own Yoga Mala and have almost completed it. I also have Guruji but haven't started that one. What others are good? I'm sure it also depends on your discipline or style of yoga.

I guess for now I'm just going to delve myself into the practice I'm continuing, as well as find ways to broaden my knowledge base in Ashtanga yoga and older texts. I want to find Four Chapters on Freedom but it appears that Amazon has that listed for several hundred dollars, which I find ridiculous.

Nevertheless, I'll be reading through the Yoga Sutra text in Gregor's book for now. :)

Signing off,
Yoga Hopeful

4 comments:

  1. Hi Brianna
    HYP translation by Muktibodhananda is a good one. The Yoga Sutras translated by Swami Satchitananda and the Upanishads and The Bhagavad Gita by Eknath Easwaran. These are thought of as the key texts for any yoga teacher. They probably won't make any sense to you until you start a TT program, they didn't me!! lol These are the translations chosen by my British Wheel of Yoga teacher (the governing body for yoga TT in UK).
    Enjoy!!
    Micqui

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    1. Awesome! I'll check those out :). There's a good bit right now that is a bit schetchy but I'm sure it I'll smooth over the further I go along in my studies.

      Thanks for your thoughts. I appreciate them.

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  2. I'm just coming back to Gregor's commentary on the Sutras and having another look. He told me he was strongly influenced by Hariharananda Aranya's commentary on the sutras and that Aranya 'opened up the sutras for him'. It was the same for me but Aranya, while wonderful can be heavy going at times so i hesitate to recommend it. Gregor's might be a more accessible option, I notice already that Gregor quotes Aranya in it.

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    1. I started on that section this evening but only made it through the first of the sutras. Apparently I'm a slow reader, or I neglected to realize how late it was when I started. Either way, the first sutra wasn't hard to understand from Maehle's commentary.

      I'll probably end up going over his sutras commentary and working my way backwards in time as far ask who wrote commentary. It's all quite interesting.

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