The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
A guide to Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, the classic text of yoga philosophy: its four chapters, the definition of yoga, the eight limbs, the obstacles of the mind and the goal of liberation.
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali are the foundational text of classical yoga. In fewer than two hundred short aphorisms (sutras), they set out a complete system of meditation for calming the mind and achieving spiritual liberation. Although yoga today is often associated with physical postures, the Yoga Sutras say very little about them; their focus is the mind.
Author and date
Almost nothing is known about Patanjali. Tradition sometimes identifies him with a grammarian of the same name from the 2nd century BCE. Most scholars date the text to somewhere between the 2nd century BCE and the 5th century CE, with many favouring the early centuries CE. The oldest and most authoritative commentary, the Yoga Bhashya, is attributed to Vyasa, and the sutras have always been read together with it.
Structure
The Yoga Sutras contain 195 or 196 sutras, depending on the edition, in four chapters (padas):
- Samadhi Pada: on meditative absorption and the nature of yoga.
- Sadhana Pada: on practice, including the obstacles of the mind and the first five limbs of yoga.
- Vibhuti Pada: on the higher stages of meditation and the extraordinary powers (siddhis) they bring.
- Kaivalya Pada: on liberation.
What is yoga?
The second sutra gives the famous definition: yogash chitta vritti nirodhah, “yoga is the stilling of the fluctuations of the mind” (1.2). When the restless activity of the mind is stilled, the true self, pure consciousness (purusha), rests in its own nature (1.3).
The obstacles: five kleshas
Patanjali identifies five afflictions (kleshas) that cause suffering (2.3):
- Avidya: ignorance, mistaking the impermanent for the permanent and the non-self for the self. The root of the others.
- Asmita: ego, the sense of “I am”.
- Raga: attachment to pleasure.
- Dvesha: aversion to pain.
- Abhinivesha: clinging to life and fear of death.
The eight limbs
The best-known part of the text is the eight-limbed path (ashtanga yoga, 2.29), described in detail on our page on the four paths of yoga: ethical restraints (yama), observances (niyama), posture (asana), breath control (pranayama), withdrawal of the senses (pratyahara), concentration (dharana), meditation (dhyana) and absorption (samadhi). The first, ahimsa (non-violence), is the foundation of all the others.
On posture, the text says only that it should be “steady and comfortable” (2.46).
Practice and detachment
The mind is stilled, Patanjali says, by two complementary means: abhyasa, persistent practice, and vairagya, detachment (1.12). He also recommends devotion to Ishvara, the Lord, a special self untouched by affliction or karma, whose sacred sound is Om (1.23–28).
The goal: kaivalya
The Yoga Sutras build on the dualist philosophy of Samkhya, which distinguishes pure consciousness (purusha) from matter and mind (prakriti). Liberation, called kaivalya (“isolation”), is the state in which consciousness is no longer confused with the activities of the mind. See Yoga philosophy.
Influence
The Yoga Sutras were widely studied in medieval India, then fell out of use for several centuries. They were revived in the late nineteenth century, above all through Swami Vivekananda's book Raja Yoga (1896), which presented them to Western readers. Today they are studied in yoga teacher training courses around the world and have been translated more than almost any other Indian text.
Sources and further reading
- Edwin Bryant (trans.), The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (North Point Press, 2009).
- David Gordon White, The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali: A Biography (Princeton University Press, 2014).
- Swami Vivekananda, Raja Yoga (1896).