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:''This is an article about the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. For general information on sutras, see Sutra. For a list of Hindu sutras, see List of sutras.''
The 'Yoga Sutras of Patanjali' are a foundational text of Yoga. In Indian philosophy, Yoga is the name of one of the six orthodox philosophical schools.^[1][2] Though brief, the Yoga Sutras are an enormously influential work that is just as relevant for yoga philosophy and practice today as it was when composed.
The Sanskrit word Yoga, as used by Patanjali, refers to a state of mind where thoughts and feelings are suspended or held in check (Sanskrit ''nirodha''), and sutra means "thread". This is a reference to the thread of a Japa mala, upon which (figuratively speaking) the yoga aphorisms that make up the work's content are strung like beads. The title is sometimes rendered in English as the Yoga Aphorisms.

Contents

Authorship and dating

Philosophical roots and influences

Traditional Usage

Current Usage

Text

The eight limbs of Raja Yoga

See also

Notes

References

Further reading

Authorship and dating

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali are ascribed to Patanjali, who, may have been, as Max Müller explains, "the author or representative of the Yoga-philosophy without being necessarily the author of the Sutras."^[3] Radhakrishnan and Moore attribute the text to Patanjali, dating it as 2nd century BCE.^[4] Scholars such as S.N. Dasgupta^[5], claim this is the same Patanjali who authored the Mahabhasya, a treatise on Sanskrit grammar^[6].
Indologist Axel Michaels is dismissive of claims that the work was written by Patanjali, characterizing it instead as a collection of fragments and traditions of texts stemming from the second or third century.^[7] Gavin Flood cites a wider period of uncertainty for the composition, between 100 BCE and 500 CE.^[8] A contemporary scholar with a focus on Tibetan Buddhism, Robert Thurman writes that Patanjali was influenced by the success of the Buddhist monastic system to formulate his own matrix for the version of thought he considered orthodox.^[9]

Philosophical roots and influences

The Sutras are built on a foundation of Samkhya philosophy. The division into a version of an Eight Limbs (Sanskrit ''Ashtanga'') of Yoga is reminiscent of Buddha's Noble Eightfold Path; inclusion of Brahmaviharas (Yoga Sutra 1:33) also indicates Buddhist influence^[10].
In the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali prescribes adherence to eight "limbs" or steps (the sum of which constitute "Ashtanga Yoga", the title of the second chapter) to quiet one's mind and merge with the infinite. The Yoga Sutras form the theoretical and philosophical basis of Raja Yoga and are considered to be the most organized and complete definition of the discipline.
The Yoga Sutras not only provides yoga with a thorough and consistent philosophical basis, but in the process, also clarifies many important esoteric concepts (like karma), common to all traditions of Indian thought.

Traditional Usage

The ''sutra'' form is a distinct type of literary composition, based on short aphoristic statements which generally use various technical terms. The literary form of the ''sutra'' was desgined to be very concise, as the texts were intended for memorization in some of the formal methods of scriptural study (Sanskrit: ''). Since each line is highly-condensed, another literary form arose, in which commentaries (Sanskrit: '') on the ''sutras'' were written to explain them.^[11] Although Patanjali's work is encyclopedic in terms of the types of Yogic practices it deals with, its succinct form and availability caused it to be pressed into service as a general didactic tool by a variety of schools of Yogic thought.^[12]

Current Usage

The Yoga Sutras with commentaries, have been published by a number of successful teachers of Yoga, and as well by academicians seeking to clearify issues of textual variation; there are also other versions from a variety of sources available on the internet. These versions may vary widely. The text has not been submitted in its entirety to any rigorous textual analysis, and the meanings in context of many of the Sanskrit words and phrases remain a matter of dispute. ^[13]

Text

Patanjali divided his Yoga Sutras into 4 chapters or books (Sanskrit ''pada''), containing in all 195 aphorisms, divided as follows:

★ 'Samadhi Pada' (51 sutras)
:Samadhi refers to a blissful state where the yogi is absorbed into the One. The author describes yoga and then the means to attaining samadhi. This chapter contains the famous definitional verse: ''"Yogas citta vritti nirodha"'' ("Yoga is the restraint of mental modifications"^[14]).

★ 'Sadhana Pada' (55 sutras)
:''Sadhana'' is the Sanskrit word for "practice" or "discipline". Here the author outlines two forms of Yoga: ''Kriya Yoga'' (Action Yoga) and ''Ashtanga Yoga'' (Eightfold or Eightlimbed Yoga).
:''Kriya yoga'', sometimes called ''Karma Yoga'', is also expounded in Chapter 3 of the Bhagavad Gita, where Arjuna is encouraged by Krishna to act without attachment to the results or fruit of action and activity. It is the yoga of selfless action and service.
:''Ashtanga Yoga'' describes the eight limbs that together constitute Raja Yoga.

★ 'Vibhuti Pada' (55 sutras)
: Vibhuti is the Sanskrit word for "power" or "manifestation". This book describes the higher states of awareness and the yoga techniques to attain them.

★ 'Kaivalya Pada' (34 sutras)
: Kaivalya literally means "isolation", but as used in the Sutras stands for emancipation, liberation and used interchangeably with moksha (liberation), which is the goal of Yoga.

The eight limbs of Raja Yoga

The eight "limbs" or steps prescribed in the second ''pada'' of the Yoga Sutras are: ''Yama'', ''Niyama'', ''Asana'', ''Pranayama'', ''Pratyahara'', ''Dharana'', ''Dhyana'' and ''Samadhi''.
''Ashtanga yoga'' consists of the following levels:

★ 'Yama' refers to the five abstentions
:
★ 'Ahimsa': non-violence
:
★ 'Satya': truth
:
★ 'Asteya': non-covetousness
:
★ 'Brahmacharya': abstain from sexual intercourse
:
★ 'Aparigraha': abstain from possessions

★ 'Niyama' refers to the five observances
:
★ 'Shaucha': cleanliness
:
★ 'Santosha': satisfaction
:
★ 'Tapas': penance and associated observances
:
★ 'Svadhyaya': introspection
:
★ 'Ishvarapranidhana': surrender to (or worship) Ishvara

★ 'Asana': seat, position

★ 'Pranayama': control of breath

★ 'Pratyahara': withdrawal

★ 'Dharana': concentration

★ 'Dhyana': meditation

★ 'Samadhi': oneness with the object of meditation, the Supreme Spirit.

See also

★ Abhyasa

★ Pranava yoga

Notes

1. For an overview of the six orthodox schools, with detail on the grouping of schools, see: Radhakrishnan and Moore, "Contents", and pp. 453-487.
2. For a brief overview of the Yoga school of philosophy see: Chatterjee and Datta, p. 43.
3. Müeller (1899), Chapter 7, "Yoga Philosophy", pp. 97-98.
4. For attribution to Patanjali and dating of 2nd c. BCE see: Radhakrishnan and Moore, p. 453.
5. Dasgupta, Surendranath. Yoga-As Philosophy and Religion Port Washington: Kennikat Press, 1924
6. For the philosophical nature of Sanskrit grammarian thought see: Lata, Bidyut (editor); ''Panini to Patanjali: A Grammatical March''. New Delhi, 2004.
7. For the Yoga Sutras as a collection dating to second or third century, see: Michaels, p. 267.
8. For dating between 100 BCE and 500 CE see: Flood (1996), page 96.
9. Robert Thurman, "The Central Philosophy of Tibet.'' Princeton University Press, 1984, page 34.
10. For works on the Buddhist influence on the Yoga Sutras: Eliade, M. Le Yoga, Immortalité et Liberté, Payot, 1954. and Miller Stoler, Barbara. Yoga Discipline of Freedom. The Yoga Sutra attributed to Patanjali. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995
11. For discussion of the literary form for '', their terse nature as a summary of ideas for memorization, and the rise of the commentorial literary form as an adjunct to '', see:
12. For an overview of the scope of earlier commentaries: Complete Commentary by Sankara on the Yoga Sutras ISBN: 0-7103-0277-0
13. Christopher Key Chapple; Reading Patanjali without Vyasa: A Critique of Four Yoga Sutra Passages, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol. 62, No. 1 (Spring, 1994), pp. 85-105
14. Radhakrishnan and Moore, p.454

References

★ An Introduction to Indian Philosophy, , Satischandra, Chatterjee, University of Calcutta, 1984,

★ An Introduction to Hinduism, , Gavin, Flood, Cambridge University Press, 1996,

★ Hinduism: Past and Present, , Axel, Michaels, Princeton University Press, 2004,

★ Six Systems of Indian Philosophy; Samkhya and Yoga, Naya and Vaiseshika, , Max, Müeller, Susil Gupta (India) Ltd., 1899, Reprint edition; Originally published under the title of ''The Six Systems of Indian Philosophy''.

★ Patanjali. 1989. (Feuerstein, G. trans). The Yoga-Sutra of Patañjali: A New Translation and Commentary. Inner Traditions.

★ A Source Book in Indian Philosophy, , S., Radhakrishnan, Princeton University Press, 1957, Princeton paperback 12th printing, 1989.

★

Further reading

★ Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, , B. K. S., Iyengar, , 1993,

★ Master E.K., ''The Yoga of Patanjali'' Kulapathi Book Trust ISBN 81-85943-05-2