Is technical mastery of Sanskrit sufficient to understand the Yoga Sutras and/or to become enlightened?

According to Sanskrit grammarians (shastries and pandits), yes, but not according to Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras itself, where the mastery of Sanskrit grammar was not anywhere assumed nor advocated. In terms of the Yoga Sutras one must take Patanjali as authority, as a representative of the yogic oral tradition, while denying the wild claims of grammarians. The goal of yoga certainly is reached via yogic practices as taught in the Yogic Sutras most certainly and without question. To understand the depth of this type of linguistic superiority, insularity, and arrogance, included is a quote from Vyas Houston an American who makes his living teaching Sanskrit: “The language that long ago established the certainty of freedom was Sanskrit. Like mathematics, Sanskrit is a language of infinite subtlety and functional precision. While the sciences of mathematics, physics, astronomy etc. continue to evolve, as scientists use them as tools to probe deeper into the nature of the universe, Sanskrit ...  more