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Explores the experience of yoga in the Yogasutra of Patanjali.Silence Unheard maintains that the reality of Patañjali's
Yogasūtra is a profound silence barely and variously audible to the scholars and interpreters who approach it. Even the
Yogasūtra itself is an "approach," a voice articulating an other-- a silent, beyond-speech yogin. Author Yohanan Grinshpon presents Patañjali as a Sāṅkhya-philosopher, who interprets silence in accordance with his own dualist metaphysics and Buddhistic sensibilities. The
Yogasūtra represents an intellectual's conceptualization of utter otherness rather than the yogin's verbalization of silence.
Silence Unheard focuses on the yogin's supra-normal experiences (
siddhis) as well as on the classification of silences and the ultimate goal of disintegration through
guṇa balance. The book provides a translation of the
Yogasūtra divided into two sections: an essential text, concerning the yoga practitioner, and a secondary text, concerning the philosopher. Grinshpon also surveys the encounters of intellectuals, scholars, seekers, devotees, and outsiders with the
Yogasūtra.
About the author
Yohanan Grinshpon is Lecturer in Indian Studies at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
