Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

A sutra is a 'thread': a very short statement, meant to be memorised and then unfolded by a teacher or commentary. The Yoga Sutras are among the most concise texts in Sanskrit; many sutras are only two or three words long. Together they give a complete map of the mind, the causes of suffering, and the practices that lead to freedom.

The Yoga Sutras belong to the six classical darshanas (schools of philosophy) that accept the authority of the Vedas: Nyaya, Vaisheshika, Sankhya, Yoga, Mimamsa and Vedanta. They are not shruti; they are a systematic shastra that the tradition regards as consistent with the Vedas. Their philosophy is close to Sankhya, which distinguishes purusha, pure consciousness, from prakriti, the material world including the mind, but Yoga adds Ishvara, a special purusha untouched by affliction and karma, whose word is Om (1.23–1.27).

The text has four padas (chapters). The sutra counts below follow the text on Sanskrit Wikisource, which gives 195 in all; some editions, such as B. K. S. Iyengar's, count 196 by dividing one sutra in the third pada.

Hindu tradition honours Patanjali as an incarnation of Adishesha, the divine serpent on whom Vishnu rests, who came down to earth to teach. A well-known traditional verse praises Patanjali for purifying the mind through yoga, speech through grammar and the body through medicine, identifying the author of the Yoga Sutras with Patanjali the grammarian, author of the Mahabhashya on Panini. The oldest commentary, the Yoga Bhashya, is traditionally ascribed to Vyasa.

Scholars are more cautious. The grammarian Patanjali can be dated to about the 2nd century BCE, but many doubt that he wrote the Yoga Sutras, given differences in style and content. Proposed dates for the Yoga Sutras range from as early as 500 BCE to about 450 CE, and later dates are more commonly accepted. The Indologist Philipp A. Maas, studying the manuscripts, argues that the sutras and the Bhashya were composed together as a single work, the Patanjala Yogashastra, around 400 CE. Scholars also note that the text draws on older Sankhya ideas and shares terms with Buddhist thought of the time. These questions remain open.

The mind and its fluctuations. The chitta (mind-field) is constantly moved by vrittis of five kinds: right knowledge, error, imagination, sleep and memory (1.6). Yoga is the stilling of these, so that the seer, pure awareness, can rest in itself.

The causes of suffering. Five kleshas, avidya (ignorance), asmita (the sense of 'I am this'), raga (attachment), dvesha (aversion) and abhinivesha (clinging to life), drive karma and keep the cycle of birth going (2.3). Avidya, mistaking the impermanent and impure for the eternal and pure, is the root of the rest.

Practice and dispassion. Steady practice over a long time, done with devotion, and freedom from craving are the two wings of the path (1.12–1.16).

Devotion to Ishvara. Surrender to God is named both as a direct path to samadhi (1.23) and as part of daily kriya yoga (2.1). Repetition of Om with reflection on its meaning is recommended (1.28).

The eight limbs. The best-known section of the text is ashtanga yoga, eight limbs that move from ethical conduct to deep absorption.

Sutra references are to the Sanskrit Wikisource text.

The Sanskrit below follows the text on Sanskrit Wikisource.

For centuries the Yoga Sutras were studied mainly through commentaries: Vyasa's Bhashya, Vachaspati Mishra's Tattvavaisharadi, King Bhoja's Rajamartanda and Vijnanabhikshu's Yogavarttika. Scholars note that the text was relatively little studied in the later medieval period, when hatha yoga texts became more influential. Swami Vivekananda's 'Raja Yoga' (1896), with a translation and commentary, brought it to a world audience, and teachers in the lineage of T. Krishnamacharya, including B. K. S. Iyengar and T. K. V. Desikachar, made it central to modern yoga teaching.

Today the sutras are chanted in yoga schools, and many teacher trainings begin with them. The International Day of Yoga, observed every 21 June since 2015, has further raised interest in the text. A traditional reminder is worth keeping: asana is only one limb, and the Yoga Sutras are mainly a guide to the mind.

Choose an edition that gives the Sanskrit, a word-by-word meaning and a commentary. Gita Press, Gorakhpur publishes a 'Patanjal Yogadarshan' with Hindi explanation, and Swami Hariharananda Aranya's 'Yoga Philosophy of Patanjali', with the Bhashya and his commentary, is a respected classic. For English readers, Edwin F. Bryant's 'The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali' (North Point Press, 2009) surveys the traditional commentaries in depth, while Swami Satchidananda's and B. K. S. Iyengar's 'Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali' are popular practitioners' guides. The Sanskrit text is freely available on Sanskrit Wikisource.

Read slowly: one or two sutras a day, with a commentary, is the traditional pace. Begin with the first sixteen sutras of the Samadhi Pada, then the Sadhana Pada, before the more technical third and fourth padas.