The Yoga Sūtras (योगसूत्र) of Patañjali contain fewer than two hundred short aphorisms, yet they may be the most influential manual of the mind ever written. Today they are quoted in yoga studios worldwide, often by people who have never heard of their philosophy. The original text is stranger, deeper and more demanding than its popular image.
Date and Structure
The text is usually dated between the 2nd century BCE and the 5th century CE; scholars such as Edwin Bryant suggest a date around the early centuries CE. Its earliest and most authoritative commentary is attributed to Vyāsa. It is arranged in four chapters (pādas): on absorption (samādhi), practice (sādhana), powers (vibhūti), and liberation (kaivalya). Its philosophy largely follows Sāṃkhya, with one important addition: Īśvara, a special Self.
The Definition
The second sūtra defines yoga:
"Yoga is the stilling of the movements of the mind." (yogaś citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ, 1.2)
The third gives the result: "Then the seer abides in its own nature" (tadā draṣṭuḥ svarūpe'vasthānam, 1.3). Yoga is not mainly about the body. It is about consciousness resting in itself when the mind's restless activity settles.
Five Kinds of Mental Movement
Patañjali lists five vṛttis (1.5–11): valid knowledge, error, conceptualisation, sleep and memory. Remarkably, even correct knowledge must eventually be stilled; the goal is not better thoughts but freedom from identification with any thought.
Practice and Detachment
The two great means are named early:
"They are stilled by practice and non-attachment." (abhyāsa-vairāgyābhyāṃ tan-nirodhaḥ, 1.12)
Practice becomes firm when it is done "for a long time, without interruption, and with devotion" (1.14). This is perhaps the most useful sentence in the text for anyone who has started a habit and dropped it after a week.
Patañjali also offers devotion to Īśvara as a path in itself (1.23), with the syllable Om as its expression (1.27).
A Psychology of Kindness
One of the most practical sūtras concerns relationships:
"The mind becomes clear by cultivating friendliness towards the happy, compassion towards the suffering, joy towards the virtuous, and equanimity towards the unvirtuous." (1.33)
These four attitudes, shared with Buddhist tradition, are a complete guide to staying calm around other people.
The Afflictions
The second chapter diagnoses five afflictions (kleśas): ignorance, ego-sense, attachment, aversion and clinging to life (2.3). Ignorance is the field in which the others grow (2.4). The chapter's most hopeful line is short:
"Suffering that has not yet come can be avoided." (heyaṃ duḥkham anāgatam, 2.16)
The Eight Limbs
The famous eight limbs (2.29) move from outer to inner: ethical restraints (yama), observances (niyama), posture (āsana), breath regulation (prāṇāyāma), sense withdrawal (pratyāhāra), concentration (dhāraṇā), meditation (dhyāna) and absorption (samādhi). Posture receives only three sūtras (2.46–48); it is defined simply as "steady and comfortable". Its fruit is that one is no longer disturbed by the pairs of opposites, such as heat and cold (2.48). The first five limbs are called external; the last three, practised together on a single object, are called saṃyama (3.4), the inner discipline from which insight arises. Patañjali also gives a shorter "yoga of action" (kriyā-yoga, 2.1): austerity, self-study and devotion to Īśvara.
Liberation
The final chapter describes kaivalya, the "aloneness" of pure consciousness, free from entanglement with nature. The guṇas, having served their purpose, return to their source (4.34).
A Text with a Biography
David Gordon White's study The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali: A Biography (2014) traces how the text was neglected for centuries, then revived in the colonial and modern periods. Its global fame is relatively recent; its wisdom is not.
For Every Reader
- For children: when your mind is busy, sit still and count ten slow breaths. That is the beginning of yoga.
- For adults: take sūtra 1.33 for a week. Each day, notice one person in each of its four categories.
- For organisations: 1.14 is an excellent rule for any programme: long-term, consistent and done with care.
References
- Patañjali, Yoga Sūtras, with Vyāsa's commentary, trans. Edwin F. Bryant (North Point Press, 2009).
- David Gordon White, The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali: A Biography (Princeton University Press, 2014).
- Georg Feuerstein, The Yoga-Sūtra of Patañjali (Inner Traditions, 1989).