S p i r i t ua l i t y S t u d i e s 4 - 2 Fa l l 2 0 1 8 2 5 Mark Graceffo 1 Introduction The Yoga Sūtras of Sri Patañjali and Saint Benedict’s Rule (further quoted as RB) are two timeless classics that continue to inspire and guide the spiritual lives of countless men and women. Both are masterful teachings on how to live with equanimity of mind, free of selfish attachments, and in refined loving service to others. To guide us on our path of Self-discovery, Sri Patañjali offers nearly two hundred sutras, or ”threads” of teaching, while Saint Benedict’s Rule consists of seventy three chapters. Although Sri Patañjali’s Sūtras, are mostly short aphorisms, and the chapters in Saint Benedict’s Rule mostly just a paragraph in length, both texts brim with truth and wisdom, and offer the enthusiastic student a lifetime of study, reflection, and spiritual practice. Whereas the wisdom of Sri Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtras is historically placed with India’s ancient forest-dwelling sages, Benedict’s wisdom, though rooted in the desert tradition of Eastern Christianity, emerged from a Western Christian milieu. But curiously, notwithstanding the years and cultures that separate their authors, traces of Sri Patañjali’s teachings are seen as well in the Rule of Saint Benedict. A close reading of the Rule reveals that Sri “Patanjali’s pulse” [1] beats throughout Saint Benedict’s Rule, and that Kriya Yoga practices – accepting pain as help for purification, study, and surrender to the Supreme Being (Yoga Sūtras 2.1) – are seen as especially important by Saint Benedict for the spiritual formation of both monks and lay person alike. Interestingly, while the teachings of these spiritual masterpieces have survived and grown in popularity for over a millennium, very little is known about their authors. What we know about the life of Saint Benedict comes primarily from Pope St. Gregory the Great (590–604) who authored the first biography of Benedict probably around 593–594 AD (Gardner 1911). Other than this work, we must glean insight into Saint Benedict from examining the Rule itself. We can be confident in our efforts, for as Pope St. Gregory said of Saint Benedict: “If anyone wishes to know his character and life more precisely, he may find in the ordinances of that Rule a complete account of the abbot’s practice; for the holy man cannot have taught otherwise than as he lived” (RB Preface). While Saint Benedict wrote his Rule about 1500 years ago, there is much less certainty about the origins of the Yoga Sūtras. Although Sri Patañjali’s birth is generally placed in the second century, the person of Patañjali himself (herself?) is questioned by scholars. Was it just one person who put forth these teachings? Or was Patañjali really multiple people, About the author Bhaktan Mark Graceffo (1960) is academic librarian at Saint Peters University, the Jesuit University of New Jersey, where he also teaches religion as adjunct lecturer. Bhaktan is a disciple of Sri Guruji Reverend Jaganath Carrera (founder of the Yoga Life Society) and learning the path of bhakti, the yoga of devotion. His email is mgraceffo@saintpeters.edu.
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