Silence Unheard

<p><b>Explores the experience of yoga in the Yogasutra of Patanjali.</b></p><p><i>Silence Unheard</i> maintains that the reality of Patañjali's <i>Yogasūtra</i> is a profound silence barely and variously audible to the scholars and interpreters who approach it. Even the <i>Yogasūtra</i> 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 <i>Yogasūtra</i> represents an intellectual's conceptualization of utter otherness rather than the yogin's verbalization of silence. <i>Silence Unheard</i> focuses on the yogin's supra-normal experiences (<i>siddhis</i>) as well as on the classification of silences and the ultimate goal of disintegration through <i>guṇa</i> balance. The book provides a translation of the <i>Yogasūtra</i> 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 <i>Yogasūtra</i>.</p>