In the commentary to “the Yoga Sutras As-It-Is”, why are there so many Buddhist references?
Patanjali lived in predominately Buddhist area of Northern India in an era that was predominately Buddhist. Buddha, in fact, was a practitioner of yoga and Buddhism was well known to Patanjali. In fact Buddhist thought greatly affected Patanjali’s time and place and served as an evolution from samkhya. Although some Hindu orthodox commentators might ignore that fact, and hence have chosen to interpret Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras within the context of Hindu parochialism via samkhya dialectics, that is their choice, but it is an arbitrary one. Rather Patanjali does not teach religion, idol worship, prayer, the caste system, nor samkhya, but rather it is not difficult to glean a universal teaching in the Yoga Sutras. The closest thing that the Yoga Sutras may come to being identified as Hinduism is that it mentions the word isvara. Thus one must ask is isvara a Hindu god or is the word indicative of the inner master/inner teacher since “Ish” means inner or intimate and “svara” is master. Simi
In the commentary to “the Yoga Sutras As-It-Is”, why are there so many Buddhist references?