Yoga Sutras

The Yoga Sūtras (Pātañjala Yogasūtra) are short — about 196 aphorisms across four books, totaling perhaps 1,200 Sanskrit words. The aphoristic form is so compressed that the text cannot be read without commentary; the commentarial tradition is therefore where Yoga’s textual life has happened.

Authorship and dating

The text is attributed to Patañjali. Whether this Patañjali is the same person as the grammarian Patañjali (author of the Mahābhāṣya commentary on Pāṇini) is contested; the modern scholarly consensus is that they are different figures. The dating of the Yoga Sūtras is uncertain — proposals span from roughly 200 BCE to 400 CE; the text shows familiarity with classical Sāṃkhya and with some Buddhist categories and is conventionally placed in the early centuries CE.

Structure

The four books (pādas) treat:

1. Samādhi-pāda (51 sūtras) — on the meditative absorptions. Opens with the famous definition: yogaś citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ — yoga is the cessation of the modifications of the mind (1.2). Develops the typology of mind, the obstacles to practice, and the various stages of samādhi.
2. Sādhana-pāda (55 sūtras) — on practice. Treats the five kleśas (afflictions: ignorance, ego-identification, attachment, aversion, clinging to life), the goal of liberation, and the first five limbs of the eight-limbed path (yama, niyama, āsana, prāṇāyāma, pratyāhāra).
3. Vibhūti-pāda (56 sūtras) — on the manifestations / accomplishments. Treats the inner three limbs (dhāraṇā, dhyāna, samādhi) and the siddhis — the extraordinary capacities that arise in advanced practice. Patañjali catalogues these carefully (knowledge of past and future; understanding of all sounds; reading the minds of others; entering other bodies; etc.) and warns that they are obstacles if grasped.
4. Kaivalya-pāda (34 sūtras) — on liberation. Develops the philosophical foundation for the practice and the metaphysics of kaivalya (the isolation / liberation of puruṣa from prakṛti).

The classical commentary tradition

The earliest extant commentary is the Vyāsa-bhāṣya (often called simply the Yoga-bhāṣya; attributed to Vyāsa, though scholarly opinion varies on the actual author and date — typically 5th c. CE). Vyāsa’s commentary is essentially treated as part of the canonical text, since the sūtras are nearly unreadable without it. Subsequent major commentaries:

• Vācaspati Miśra (9th c. CE) — Tattva-vaiśāradī; the most important sub-commentary on Vyāsa.
• Bhoja (11th c.) — Rāja-mārtaṇḍa; an alternative commentary.
• Vijñānabhikṣu (16th c.) — Yoga-vārttika; influential later commentary integrating Yoga with Sāṃkhya and [[the-upanishads|Vedānta]].

In the modern period, scholarly translations have multiplied. Edwin Bryant’s The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali (North Point, 2009) provides the standard contemporary English translation with extensive commentary drawing on the classical sources.

Key sutras

A handful of the most-cited sūtras give the flavor of the text:

• 1.2 yogaś citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ — yoga is the cessation of the modifications of the mind.
• 1.3 tadā draṣṭuḥ svarūpe avasthānam — then the seer abides in its own form.
• 1.33 maitrī-karuṇā-muditā-upekṣāṇāṃ sukha-duḥkha-puṇya-apuṇya-viṣayāṇāṃ bhāvanātaś citta-prasādanam — the mind becomes purified through cultivating [[metta|loving-kindness]] toward the happy, compassion toward the suffering, sympathetic joy toward the virtuous, and equanimity toward the non-virtuous. (The brahma-vihāras, almost identical to the four divine abodes of Buddhism.)
• 2.1 tapaḥ-svādhyāya-īśvarapraṇidhānāni kriyā-yogaḥ — kriyā yoga is austerity, self-study, and devotion to the divine. The three foundational practices.
• 2.46 sthira-sukham āsanam — posture is steady and comfortable. The single sūtra on āsana (posture); contrasts sharply with the elaborate development of postures in [[modern-postural-yoga|modern yoga]].
• 3.1 deśa-bandhaś cittasya dhāraṇā — concentration is the binding of the mind to a place.

On translations

• Edwin F. Bryant (North Point, 2009) — the standard contemporary English translation with extensive commentary; draws on the classical Sanskrit commentaries.
• Barbara Stoler Miller (Bantam, 1995, as Yoga: Discipline of Freedom) — accessible translation.
• [[bks-iyengar|B.K.S. Iyengar]] (Light on the Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali, Aquarian, 1993) — translation by the major [[modern-postural-yoga|modern postural yoga]] teacher; useful for that perspective but not the most scholarly.
• Christopher Chapple & Yogi Ananda Viraj (The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali, Sri Satguru, 1990) — careful scholarly translation.
• Georg Feuerstein (The Yoga-Sūtra of Patañjali, Inner Traditions, 1989) — accessible scholarly translation.

See also

Auto-generated from this entry’s typed relations: frontmatter, grouped by relation type so the editorial signal isn’t flattened.

• Member of: [[book]]
• Part of: [[yoga-philosophy]]
• Defines: [[asana]] · [[pranayama]]
• Precursor of: [[hatha-yoga]]

Sources

1. Patañjali. The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali. Trans. Edwin F. Bryant. North Point, 2009. Source class: primary text + extensive commentary.
2. Patañjali. Yoga: Discipline of Freedom. Trans. Barbara Stoler Miller. Bantam, 1995. Source class: primary text / accessible translation.
3. Patañjali. The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali. Trans. Christopher Chapple & Yogi Ananda Viraj. Sri Satguru, 1990. Source class: primary text / scholarly translation.
4. Mikel Burley. Classical Sāṃkhya and Yoga: An Indian Metaphysics of Experience. Routledge, 2007. Source class: book / scholarly study.

Lenses still to grow

• The Vyāsa-bhāṣya as a commentary in its own right.
• The eight-limbed path in detail (own concept entry).
• The five kleśas as a piece of Yoga psychology.
• The siddhis — Patañjali’s careful catalog and the tradition’s complicated relationship with them.