Concept

Yoga

Also known as: Yoga (philosophy), yoga darśana, the philosophical Yoga school, Pātañjala Yoga

One of the six classical philosophical schools (*darśanas*) of [[hinduism]], and the contemplative-practical tradition codified in the [[yoga-sutras|Yoga Sūtras]] of Patañjali (c. 200 BCE – 400 CE). The Sanskrit word *yoga* derives from the root *yuj* — *to yoke, to join, to harness* — and names the discipline by which the practitioner *yokes* the activity of the mind to its source. Distinct from the much more widely known modern postural yoga (the *āsana*-centered practice that emerged in the early 20th century from the work of T. Krishnamacharya, B.K.S. Iyengar, K. Pattabhi Jois, and others), classical Yoga is primarily a contemplative tradition: the *Yoga Sūtras* devote three short verses to *āsana* and 196 to other matters. Patañjali's eight-limbed path (*aṣṭāṅga yoga*) — *yama*, *niyama*, *āsana*, *prāṇāyāma*, *pratyāhāra*, *dhāraṇā*, *dhyāna*, *samādhi* — is the canonical structure of the discipline.

The word yoga in contemporary English usage is severely overloaded. In most Western contexts yoga now refers primarily to the postural-physical practice — [[hatha-yoga|Hatha yoga]], Ashtanga vinyasa, [[bks-iyengar|Iyengar]], Bikram, power yoga, yin yoga, etc. — that has spread globally over the past century. This entry treats yoga as a philosophical-contemplative tradition, distinct from but related to the postural practice; the postural tradition deserves its own treatment.

The classical Yoga darśana

In classical Indian philosophy, Yoga names one of the six āstika (Vedic-affirming) darśanas — schools of thought — alongside Sāṃkhya, Nyāya, Vaiśeṣika, Pūrva Mīmāṃsā, and [[the-upanishads|Vedānta]]. The Yoga school’s foundational text is the Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali (composed sometime between roughly 200 BCE and 400 CE; the dating is uncertain). Yoga shares its metaphysical framework with Sāṃkhya: both posit a fundamental dualism between puruṣa (consciousness, the witness) and prakṛti (manifest nature, including the mind). The two schools are sometimes called Sāṃkhya-Yoga together; the Yoga school adds to Sāṃkhya’s metaphysics a developed contemplative methodology.

The eight-limbed path (aṣṭāṅga yoga)

Patañjali’s structure organizes the practice into eight progressive aṅgas (limbs):

Yama — ethical restraints. Five of them: ahiṃsā ([[ahimsa|non-harm]]), satya (truthfulness), asteya (non-stealing), brahmacarya (sexual restraint or fidelity), aparigraha (non-grasping).
Niyama — observances. Five of them: śauca (purity), santoṣa (contentment), tapas (ascetic discipline), svādhyāya (self-study and study of sacred texts), Īśvarapraṇidhāna (surrender to the divine).
Āsana — seat; in the Yoga Sūtras this means a stable comfortable seated posture for meditation, not the elaborate physical postures of modern practice. The text gives only three short verses to āsana.
Prāṇāyāma — extension of the breath; breath practices that begin to refine the prāṇa ([[qi|vital energy]]).
Pratyāhāra — withdrawal of the senses; the deliberate disengagement of attention from the field of sensory inputs.
Dhāraṇā — concentration; sustained attention on a single object.
Dhyāna — meditation; the unbroken flow of attention on the chosen object, in which the distinction between attender and attended begins to thin.
Samādhi — absorption; the further deepening in which the attended-object stands forth without the apparent presence of the attender. Patañjali distinguishes several stages of samādhi; the deepest is nirbīja samādhi, seedless absorption.

The first two limbs (yama and niyama) are the ethical foundation; the next three (āsana, prāṇāyāma, pratyāhāra) are preparatory; the final three (dhāraṇā, dhyāna, samādhi) are the internal limbs that constitute the contemplative practice proper.

What the school teaches

A few central claims:

Citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ. The opening definition of yoga (Yoga Sūtras 1.2): yoga is the cessation of the modifications of the mind. The mind in its ordinary state is constantly modified by the activities of perception, conceptualization, memory, sleep, and emotion. Yoga is the discipline by which these modifications subside, allowing what is prior to them — the puruṣa, the witness — to be recognized.
The five kleśas. The afflictions that bind the practitioner to suffering: avidyā (ignorance), asmitā (ego-identification), rāga (attachment), dveṣa (aversion), abhiniveśa (clinging to life / fear of death). Most of the practice is the gradual loosening of these.
The siddhis. Patañjali devotes the third book of the Sūtras to the various siddhis — extraordinary capacities (telepathy, clairvoyance, and many more) that arise in the course of advanced practice. The text’s posture is mixed: these are described carefully, but the practitioner is warned not to mistake them for the goal. They are obstacles if grasped, useful if released.
Liberation as recognition. Kaivalya — isolation, the term Patañjali uses for liberation — is the recognition of the puruṣa as distinct from the prakṛti; the witness becomes free of identification with the modifications. The terminology differs from [[the-upanishads|Vedānta]]‘s mokṣa; the structure is similar.

On the relation to modern postural yoga

A note for clarity. The yoga most globally practiced today — physical postures organized into sequences, often with breath and visualization, in studios — is a 20th-century development with limited continuity to the classical Yoga of Patañjali. The major figures in the early-20th-century formation: [[t-krishnamacharya|T. Krishnamacharya]] (1888–1989) of Mysore, who synthesized Indian wrestling, gymnastics, [[hatha-yoga|haṭha yoga]] manuals, and his own practice into a systematic postural method; his students B.K.S. Iyengar, K. Pattabhi Jois, T.K.V. Desikachar, and Indra Devi, each of whom developed distinctive lineages that spread internationally. The work of Mark Singleton (Yoga Body, 2010) has documented this history carefully; the platform takes the modern postural traditions seriously as their own valid practice while distinguishing them from the classical Yoga darśana.

Sources

Patañjali. The Yoga-Sūtra of Patañjali. Trans. Barbara Stoler Miller as Yoga: Discipline of Freedom. Bantam, 1995. Source class: primary text.
Patañjali. The [[yoga-sutras|Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali]]. Trans. Edwin F. Bryant. North Point, 2009. Source class: primary text + extensive commentary.
Mikel Burley. Classical Sāṃkhya and Yoga: An Indian Metaphysics of Experience. Routledge, 2007. Source class: book / scholarly study.
Christopher Chapple. Yoga and the Luminous: Patañjali’s Spiritual Path to Freedom. SUNY, 2008. Source class: book / scholarly study.
Mark Singleton. Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice. Oxford, 2010. Source class: book / definitive history of [[modern-postural-yoga|modern postural yoga]].

Lenses still to grow

The Yoga Sūtras as a text in their own right (separate entry).
Sāṃkhya as the metaphysical companion school.
[[modern-postural-yoga|Modern postural yoga]] as a distinct tradition deserving its own entry.
[[hatha-yoga|Haṭha Yoga]] and its medieval texts (the [[hatha-yoga-pradipika|Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā]], the Gheraṇḍa Saṃhitā) — the bridge tradition.
[[t-krishnamacharya|Krishnamacharya]] as the principal modern figure; his students and lineages.
Yoga and embodiment — the contemporary scholarly engagement.

What links here, and how

Inbound connections from across the wiki, grouped by lens and by relationship. These appear automatically — every entity page declares what it links to, and that data populates here on the targets.

Practical

part of

Asana third limb of the eight-limbed path (*aṣṭāṅga yoga*); preparatory in Patañjali's structure, central in modern practice
Pranayama fourth limb of *aṣṭāṅga yoga* — preparatory to the inner limbs of *pratyāhāra*, *dhāraṇā*, *dhyāna*, *samādhi*
Yoga Sutras the foundational text of the classical Yoga *darśana*; codifies the eight-limbed path that has structured the tradition since

parallels

Bhakti Yoga one of the four classical yogas; the *Yoga Sūtras* themselves note *Īśvarapraṇidhāna* (surrender to the divine) as a *niyama* and an alternative direct route to *samādhi* (YS 1.23)
Jnana Yoga one of the four classical yogas; Patañjali's *rāja yoga* shares structural commitments (the witness as prior to the modifications of mind) but is metaphysically Sāṃkhya-dualist rather than Vedānta-nondualist
Karma Yoga one of the four classical yogas alongside Patañjali's *rāja yoga*; structurally distinct path with overlapping ethical foundation (*yamas* and *niyamas*)

subset of

Hatha Yoga develops the *āsana* and *prāṇāyāma* limbs of Patañjali's eight-limbed path into an elaborate embodied science; metaphysically more tantric than classical-Sāṃkhya

Spiritual

teaches

Himalayan Institute yoga teacher training and residential study programs in classical traditions

instance of

Integral Yoga Institute of New York the studio holds asana, pranayama, philosophy, and chanting as inseparable
Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health yoga, meditation, Ayurveda, and yogic philosophy held as inseparable in the Kripalu curriculum
Sama yoga, meditation, and dharma study held as one practice rather than separated

parallels

Samkhya Sāṃkhya and Yoga share metaphysical commitments; Sāṃkhya provides the framework, Yoga the contemplative method — the two are often called *Sāṃkhya-Yoga* together

Cultural

parallels

T. Krishnamacharya a serious Patañjali scholar; his teaching always framed *āsana* and *prāṇāyāma* as preparatory to the inner limbs of Patañjali's eight-limbed path

Historical

parallels

Modern Postural Yoga shares vocabulary and lineage gestures with classical Yoga but is a distinct practice; the relationship is genealogical, not identical

14 inbound links · 10 outbound

The classical Yoga darśana

The eight-limbed path (aṣṭāṅga yoga)

What the school teaches

On the relation to modern postural yoga

See also

Sources

Lenses still to grow

What links here, and how