In this episode of the Chai Sessions, I'm talking to good friend, podcast regular and yoga philosophy maestro James Boag.

We explore the relationship between two of the best known yoga texts, the Yoga Sutras and the Bhagavad Gita. We talk about how each is presented in a different form and how there’s a different purpose for each these texts too.

The Yoga Sutras is ultra distilled. It concisely defines and encodes the foundation principles of yoga.

Whereas the Bhagavad Gita is presented as a poem. It’s considered to be a distillation of all the teachings of the Upanishads so it's got a much broader scope and is more elaborate.

James tells me they also have a lot in common. They're both considered key foundation texts in the yoga-shastra. They're tried and tested over time. They tell us about the reality of what it means to be a human and they both remind us that there's something more.

James's perspective in terms of basic yoga method is, it's the same yoga. He says:

“It's not about believing anything. It's giving us a framework to put things to the test, to follow the path laid out and see what happens."

I start by asking James to talk about the timeline of the Yoga Sutras and the Bhagavad Gita. And of course, his answer is rich in the teachings of the Indic tradition, where ideas about time and authorship are very different from those that we might have.

I really enjoyed this conversation, and as always, there was so much more we could have talked about. I hope you enjoy it too.

Listen below or look for 'The Chai Sessions' on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or Amazon Music. You can also watch our chat on Youtube.

I loved this conversation with James. The pragmatism and the inclusivity of the yoga tradition really shines through in the way he speaks about the Yoga Sutras and the Bhagavad Gita.

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Until next time, thank you so much for listening.

Judi x

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