Note About the Use of Sanskrit in This Book
Sanskrit is a sacred and beautiful language; however, its translation into English is not without its challenges. In an effort to make this book as accessible and readable as possible, while preserving the tradition, I have made the following decisions:
* All Sanskrit words are written in their closest phonetic English approximation so that you may sound them out and get an accurate reflection of the correct word, instead of using the standardized diacritical marks established by the IAST.
* A common mistake in using Sanskrit words by English speakers is the pluralization of words by adding -s or -es, such as in “nadis.” For words that have entered into English lexicon, such as asana and chakra, I have continued to do this. For words that have not yet become mainstream, I have preserved this grammatical technicality, and so they appear in what looks like singular form, though may refer to multiples, such as nadi, klesha, and yama.