What is the Yoga Sutras of Patañjali?
If you’ve practiced yoga for while, at some point you’ve probably heard your teacher refer to the Yoga Sutras or to someone named Patañjali and wondered, “What and who exactly are they talking about?” That would be Yoga philosophy, and the philosophy of Yoga is the soul of the practice.
There are many ancient Yogic texts and theoretical paths in Yoga. The Yoga Sutras of Patañjali was written and arranged during the classical era of Yoga (somewhere between 500 BC and AD 400), and is one of the most well known and commonly referenced Yogic texts today. Yogis who accept, study, and practice the Yoga Sutras are part of the Raja Yoga path (Raja means royal, highest, king and chief). There are many other paths of Yoga, (Bhakti, Tantra, Vedanta, etc.), and while they may vary, their end goal is the same: liberation and enlightenment.
In the Yoga Sutras, Patañjali defines Yoga according to one of its many components — the mind. He says, “It’s the ability to restrain the activities of the mind” (Chapter I, Sutra II: Yogas Chitta Vritti Nirodhah). Most people interpret this as the capacity to completely quiet the mind. This is not wrong, but it is not the whole of it either. Restraining the mind’s activities involves keeping the mind from wandering from one object to another; it is not the absence of activity.
Preventing the mind from wandering takes an extremely deep ability to focus. To acquire that ability, we need to learn how to bring our physical system (our container: body and mind) into balance and to maintain that balance; and then — with great practice over a long period of time, that deep ability to focus continually improves.
As we improve this ability to focus inward and still the mind, we become able to differentiate between what is our container (prakriti, or matter) and our True Self (purusha, or spirit); or as I like to call it, our Knowing.
Patañjali’s Yoga Sutras is not so much a philosophy as it is a psychology, and the text presents a sort of curriculum on how to come out of suffering (i.e., being trapped in the fluctuations of the mind) and into samadhi, or liberation (i.e., liberation from the torment of the mind and into a deep spiritual realization of your True Self). Patañjali further explains that this is something which is attainable now and in this lifetime. Yoga, from the presentation of Patañjali, is about transformation.
The structure of the Yoga Sutras of Patañjali
The Yoga Sutras is divided into four chapters:
Chapter One: “Samadhipadah” (Samadhi)
The first chapter is an overview of what Yoga is. Patañjali starts out by saying “Here is the definition of Yoga,” “Here is the result of Yoga,” and “Here is what it looks like when there is no Yoga.” He explains that Yoga is the capacity to direct the mind in a chosen direction, and to maintain that. He goes on to say the capacity to be present with whatever we are doing is fundamental to Yoga, and that this capacity to be present is developed by our ability to be balanced. We have to put in efforts and relinquish the things that get in the way so that slowly, over time we ground ourselves in balance.
If you can do this in life, then it will lead to transformation. If you can maintain your balance during the trials and tribulations of life, then the result will be that you will transform through the difficulties rather than succumb to them.
In a nutshell, chapter one describes Yoga and explains how to obtain a state of Yoga. It also says that, while life gets rough at times, if you can maintain this state of Yoga then you will start to respond to your life differently [than you would have otherwise]. This altered response will cause you to have different experiences, which will result in you becoming different [transformation].
Chapter Two: “Sadhanapadah” (Practice and Procuring)
Chapter two can be broken down into three sections, but they all answer the same question, “How do you obtain a state of Yoga?” Patañjali tells what we need to do and practice in order to procure a state of Yoga.
The first section discusses how we ourselves cause most of our own problems. Patañjali has a process for both identifying and escaping that (Kriya Yoga, or Yoga in action). If we work that process (essentially self-observation), we start to realize that we are “many different people” and they are not all the same — there is one of you who has a different quality than of the others.
In the second section, Patañjali offers ideas about how to differentiate that one You from the rest. He basically says that the goal of Yoga is to “learn how to consistently and accurately differentiate this version of yourself from the other versions” (purusha from prakriti, or spirit from matter). In other words, we must learn how to identify the internal voice that has a different quality than all of the other internal voices — your Knowing (purusha, or spirit) — and operate from there. Patañjali calls this Viveka Khyati, or the experience of discerning.
The last section is about the famous Ashtanga Yoga, or the eight limbs of Yoga. The primary philosophical focus of a first level teacher training in the West is an overview of this section of the Yoga Sutras.
Here Patanjali outlines a set of actions which we can and should do on a daily or regular basis. This list of actions in Ashtanga Yoga is helpful in the process of self-observation (Kriya Yoga) and facilitates discriminative discernment (Viveka Khyati). Its purpose is to provide context for getting better and more consistent at correctly identifying your Knowing.
Chapter Three: “Vibhutipadah” (Contemplation)
Vibhuti, from chapter three’s title, means extra-ordinary capacity (in this context, it includes a deep focus on meditation). Once you’ve obtained the capacity to remain in a state of Yoga and can apply that in your life consistently, extra-ordinary capacities become possible. Chapter three describes this process.
Chapter Four: “Kaivalyapadah" (Isolation and Freedom)
The fourth chapter is known also as the teacher’s section because it is directed more towards teachers and very advanced students. It is an explanation of how the process works, what the stages are and the reasons for why certain things happen along the way.
Patañjali’s Yoga Sutras is a Sutra, or a particular class of text. The word Sutra translates to thread (but also means indicate, show, manifest, reveal, etc.). A Sutra is a text that is an arrangement of ideas written in a specific manner, with a certain spacing, etc., that gives it an order. When the order is precisely arranged, it is beautiful: There is an aesthetic to it, like an ornate pattern of threads sewn together to reveal a design.
Sutras are meant to have six characteristics, which make them very hard to translate:
1. alpaksaram, or few syllables
2. asandigdham, or there is no ambiguity
3. saravat, or all words have essence
4. visvatomukham, or universal facing,
5. astobhyam, or it is real or able to be experienced
6. anavadyam, or it is dignified
The main translation challenge for the Yoga Sutras is it was written in Sanskrit, and Sanskrit words have a lot of different meanings. If look up a Sanskrit word in the dictionary, you will find several English definitions (to offer an English example: Will Will have the will to sign the will?). However, with Sanskrit there is an essence to each word because it is a sound-based language; English, on the other hand is knowledge-based. In the Yoga Sutras the essence of each Sanskrit word is extremely important!
Additionally, each one of the Sutras is written to have at least two different meanings: one that applies to the process of Yoga and one that applies to the result of Yoga. One of the difficulties in translating this text is to capture both of those meanings at the same time.
That said, Yoga is lineage-based in practice and teachings. The texts and teachings are passed down generation by generation, and they are not able to be fully self-taught. The YogaSutras are meant to be studied with, or taught by, a teacher. Teachers who have studied the Sutras in depth and read them repeatedly with their teacher(s) are then able to teach the texts themselves, unpacking them and guiding their students in the process.
In the beginning of your study, it is very helpful to have an experienced teacher provide context for what is being said and why. Once you have that, you can go back and read the Yoga Sutras, they will make a lot more sense, and you can get a lot more richness from the text.
My experience and study of the Yoga Sutras of Patañjali:
I have read the Yoga Sutras four times, with four different and very experienced teachers. I have spent over four years studying the text in depth, word for Sanskrit word, on a weekly basis with my teacher Chase Bossart. Chase was a 20+ year private student of T.K.V. Desikachar, son of guru Sri T. Krishnamacharya and the founder of Viniyoga. I completed a 19-month study of chapter two, a 17-month study of chapter three, and am presently nine months into an 18-month study of chapter one.
I teach a series of annual courses named “Yoga in Life,” which are overviews, lectures and discussions on chapters one and two of Patañjali’s Yoga Sutras; in my courses, I cover how to apply the Yoga Sutras in real life. In other words, I offer Yoga beyond the mat for teachers and practitioners who want to learn and understand more about the soul of Yoga, the philosophy.
Recommended translations of the Yoga Sutras of Patañjali:
The Heart of Yoga by T.K.V. Desikachar
Liberating Isolation by Frans Moors
The Yoga Sutras of Patañjali: A New Edition, Translation and Commentary by Edwin F. Bryant
Namaste,
Kelly
*If you have been misguided on your yogic path, or have felt frustrated with the current yoga scene, I invite you to download my free e-book: How Yoga Philosophy Can Transform Your Teaching