Yoga (Patanjala)

The Yoga darshana is the system of the Yoga Sutras, traditionally attributed to Patanjali, read with the commentary (Yoga Bhashya) traditionally attributed to Vyasa. It defines yoga as the stilling of the fluctuations (vrittis) of the mind-field (chitta), so that the seer, purusha, abides in its own nature. It largely shares Sankhya's metaphysics of purusha and prakriti, but adds Ishvara, a special purusha untouched by affliction and karma, as an object of devotion and support for practice. The path is set out as eight limbs (ashtanga): ethical restraints, observances, posture, breath regulation, withdrawal of the senses, concentration, meditation and absorption (samadhi). The goal is kaivalya, the isolation of consciousness from the movements of mind. "Yoga" in the wider sense — in the Gita, in Hatha Yoga, in Tantra and modern practice — overlaps with but is not identical to this system.

• ?What is the mind, and why is it restless?
• ?How can the fluctuations of the mind be stilled?
• ?What is the role of God in practice?
• ?What are the stages of meditation and absorption?

What problem is it trying to solve?

How can the suffering that arises from the mind's entanglement with the world be ended by stilling the mind itself?

What does it consider real?

Like Sankhya: many purushas and one prakriti with its evolutes; in addition, Ishvara, a special purusha forever free.

What is valid knowledge?

Three: perception, inference and testimony (agama).

What is the Self?

The Self is purusha, the seer: pure consciousness that only appears to be coloured by the mind's fluctuations.

What causes bondage?

Five afflictions (kleshas): ignorance (avidya), I-am-ness (asmita), attraction, aversion and clinging to life, of which ignorance is the root; they drive karma and its fruits.

What is liberation?

Kaivalya: the seer abides in its own nature, isolated from the play of the gunas, when the mind's fluctuations have been fully stilled.

What is the path?

Practice (abhyasa) and dispassion (vairagya); the eight limbs from ethical restraint to samadhi; and devotion to Ishvara (ishvara-pranidhana).

• Yoga 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.Source not yet ingested
• Bhagavad GitaA 700-verse dialogue in which Krishna counsels the warrior Arjuna, who has collapsed in despair on the battlefield, on action, the Self and devotion.Full text available
• Hatha Yoga PradipikaThe best-known medieval manual of hatha yoga, compiling postures, cleansing practices, breath control and seals as preparation for raja yoga.Source not yet ingested
• Yoga YajnavalkyaA dialogue-based yoga text that sets an eightfold yoga, with detailed breathwork, inside a Vedic and Vedantic frame.Source not yet ingested
• AparokshanubhutiA verse manual on 'direct realisation' of the Self, known for recasting the limbs of yoga in terms of Vedantic knowledge.Source not yet ingested
• Gheranda SamhitaA late hatha yoga manual that organises practice into seven limbs, from bodily purification to samadhi.Source not yet ingested
• Shiva SamhitaA hatha yoga text that joins subtle-body practice with a broadly Vedantic, non-dual view of the self.Source not yet ingested
• Shvetashvatara UpanishadA theistic Upanishad that identifies Brahman with a personal Lord, Rudra-Shiva, and weaves in early Sankhya and Yoga ideas.Source not yet ingested
• Raja YogaVivekananda's influential presentation of Patanjali's yoga, with lectures on practice and his own rendering and commentary on the Yoga Sutras.Source not yet ingested

• With Sankhya · Ishvara and method

  Yoga adds Ishvara and places far greater emphasis on meditative practice than on discriminative knowledge alone.

• With Advaita Vedanta · plurality of selves

  Advaita accepts yogic disciplines as preparation but holds there is one Self and that knowledge, not stillness, liberates.