The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

I love books, hardcover (hardbound as my father, a publisher for life used to refer it) books with aesthetic cover designs attract me to them like a ‘bee to nectar’. That’s why I purchased G.U.Pope’s Tamil Handbook, a few years ago. I do buy a lot of paperbacks and ebooks at Amazon, but I miss this “experience” of seeing and feeling books – that’s why whenever I see any of the remaining bookstores I will have to go in and spend some time inside them; often to the chagrin of my wife and son.

Today while window shopping at OM Bookstore (LG at Phoenix Marketcity, Chennai) a colourful large book caught my attention. The book was displayed with its pages open in a beautiful wooden reading stand – my father had been selling this in the 1950s along with LIFCO’s Valmiki Ramayanam, but that story is for a different day. The book on display was on Maharishi Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra. It contained the sutras (aphorism poems) in Sanskrit, and in English along with well-written meanings accompanied with exclusive illustrations that by themselves were captivating – just for seeing the illustration, visit the bookstore, it will be worth it. Every aspect of the book was artistically designed – from the hardbound cover to every page which was printed on Japanese handmade paper. The book is published by Nightingale publishers from Sivakasi, India. Instinctively I know the book will be expensive, a few thousand rupees I thought – when I enquired with the store manager I was surprised he said it costs Rs.45,000 (US$ 700). For that price, you get the large book of few hundred pages, a wooden box to keep it, wooden reading stand, yoga mat and more.

It’s beyond the amount I can afford to spend on a book, but I aspire to own it someday! What do you think, will you buy the book?