Gary Kissiah’s Illustrated Yoga Sutras

Posted in Blog by Eric Shaw

There are many beautiful books out there on the spiritual life and yoga. I think  of Kathy Phillip’s The Spirit of Yoga and Huston Smith’s The Illustrated World’s Religions.

John Friend and I are also at work on such a book–an illustrated history of yoga.  But Gary Kissiah has joined this esteemed club quicker than us by publishing The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali:  Illuminations Through Image, Commentary and Design, which is heartbreakingly beautiful. (It may be veiwed and purchased here).

It is not only an image-fest, but a clear guide to the text, which makes use of a range of reflections on its wisdom from many cultures and writers.  Gary and I participated in California Institute of Integral Studies Yoga Philosophy program a few years ago, and he excitedly shared about the process of finding beautiful images and commentary for the project.

I admit, I was a bit skeptical about his approach then. It wasn’t a scholarly project he was embarking on, and I wondered if it would have sufficient authority to stand among other Yoga Sutra translations–often written by enlightened saints and brilliant women and men of letters.

It’s a pleasure to say, he succeeded well at what he set out to do.

There is no copy of the Sutras like this and it is very rare for any entire scripture to get such an elegant treatment with images.

Hat’s off to Gary.

A montage of a few images is below.