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Indian PhilosophyOS

Yoga (Patanjala)

पतञ्जलि

Patanjali

The Yoga Sutras are placed by scholars anywhere between about the 2nd century BCE and the 5th century CE; many recent scholars favour a date around the 4th–5th century CE.
Editorial overview

Historical context

Almost nothing is known of the person behind the Yoga Sutras. Tradition identifies the author with the grammarian Patanjali, who wrote the Mahabhashya (around the 2nd century BCE), and sometimes also with an author of a medical text, and presents him as an incarnation of the serpent Adishesha; most scholars treat these identifications as traditional rather than historical. The Yoga Sutras gather and systematise earlier practices of meditation into a concise work that became the root text of the Yoga darshana. Some scholars argue that the sutras and the earliest commentary (the Yoga Bhashya) were composed together as a single work.

On attribution: Whether the author of the Yoga Sutras is the same person as the grammarian Patanjali is debated; most scholars think not.

Core ideas

  • Yoga is the stilling of the fluctuations (vrittis) of the mind-field (chitta)
  • Practice (abhyasa) and dispassion (vairagya) are the two pillars of the discipline
  • The eight limbs (ashtanga): ethical restraints and observances, posture, breath regulation, withdrawal of the senses, concentration, meditation and absorption (samadhi)
  • Suffering arises from the kleshas (afflictions), rooted in ignorance (avidya), which confuses the seer (purusha) with the seen
  • Liberation is kaivalya, the 'aloneness' or isolation of pure consciousness from prakriti; Ishvara is a special purusha and devotion to Ishvara is one means

Major works

Textयोगसूत्रYoga Sutras of PatanjaliThe root text of the Yoga darshana: a terse manual on the mind, its afflictions, and the disciplined path to isolation of pure consciousness.TextराजयोगRaja YogaVivekananda's influential presentation of Patanjali's yoga, with lectures on practice and his own rendering and commentary on the Yoga Sutras.

Also: Mahabhashya on Panini's grammar (by the grammarian Patanjali; identity with the Yoga Sutra author is traditional and doubted)

Concepts

ConceptयोगYogaJoining or disciplining — a path of practice toward freedom.Conceptचित्तChitta — mind-fieldThe whole field of mind, with its thoughts, memories and latent impressions.ConceptसमाधिSamadhiComplete absorption of the mind in its object, or beyond any object.Conceptध्यानDhyanaMeditation: an unbroken flow of attention toward one object.Conceptप्राणायामPranayamaRegulation of the breath and the life-force (prana).Conceptवैराग्यVairagya — dispassionFreedom from craving — the fading of attraction to what cannot satisfy.Conceptअविद्याAvidya — ignoranceFundamental misunderstanding of oneself and reality — the root of bondage.ConceptपुरुषPurusha — pure consciousnessThe conscious witness, distinct from all that changes.Conceptप्रकृतिPrakriti — naturePrimal nature or matter — everything that changes, including the mind.Conceptईश्वरIshvara — GodThe Lord — God as ruler, creator and object of worship.

Philosophical disagreements

Presented so you can understand each side — not to declare a winner.

  • With Buddhist philosophy

    The Yoga Sutras share much vocabulary and practice with Buddhist meditation traditions, but affirm an enduring purusha and a special purusha, Ishvara, which Buddhist schools reject; some sutras are read by commentators as responding to Buddhist views of mind.

Lineage of ideas

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Related thinkers

कपिलKapilaईश्वरकृष्णIshvarakrishnaगौतम बुद्धSiddhartha Gautama, the Buddha

Traditions

योगYoga (Patanjala)