The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali is the compilation — traditionally dated between the 2nd century BCE and the 4th century CE — of 196 aphoristic sutras systematising the philosophy and practice of classical Yoga across four padas: Samadhi (the nature of yogic absorption), Sadhana (the means of practice, including the eight-limbed ashtanga path), Vibhuti (the powers acquired through advanced practice), and Kaivalya (liberation as the isolation of pure consciousness from prakritic activity). The sutras assume rather than argue, requiring commentary to be intelligible.
The text defines yoga in its second sutra as citta-vritti-nirodha — the cessation of the turnings of thought — and the work is concerned throughout with citta, the mental capacity whose activity, or vritti, the practitioner learns to still. This page cites Barbara Stoler Miller's 1996 translation, Yoga: Discipline of Freedom, one of several modern English renderings alongside those of Vivekananda, Iyengar, Desikachar, Edwin Bryant, Chip Hartranft and Vyasa's canonical Yoga Bhashya.
Yoga is the cessation of the turnings of thought.
Yoga Sūtra 1.2, “Samādhi Pāda” (trans. Barbara Stoler Miller)
First lines
This is the teaching of yoga. Yoga is the cessation of the turnings of thought.
Contents
Samādhi Pāda — On Contemplation
Sādhana Pāda — On Practice
Vibhūti Pāda — On Powers
Kaivalya Pāda — On Liberation
Reception
The foundational text of classical Yoga and one of the six orthodox darshanas of Hindu philosophy. Read continuously since antiquity through Vyasa's Yoga Bhashya (the canonical commentary) and Vachaspati Mishra's sub-commentary; recovered for modern audiences principally through Vivekananda's 1896 translation, then through Iyengar, Desikachar, Edwin Bryant, Chip Hartranft, and Barbara Stoler Miller. Indological scholarship (Philipp Maas's manuscript work, Mark Singleton's Yoga Body) has clarified that 'classical Yoga' as the modern postural-yoga lineage understands it differs substantially from what Patanjali actually taught, but the sutras themselves remain the indisputable canonical reference point for any serious yoga study.
Frequently asked
What are the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali about?
They are 196 aphoristic sutras systematising classical Yoga across four padas — Samadhi (yogic absorption), Sadhana (practice, including the eight-limbed ashtanga path), Vibhuti (the powers of advanced practice), and Kaivalya (liberation as the isolation of pure consciousness from the activity of prakriti). The text defines yoga as the cessation of the turnings of thought.
What is the eight-limbed (ashtanga) path?
Set out in the second pada, Sadhana, the eight limbs are the means of practice: yama (restraints), niyama (observances), asana (posture), pranayama (breath regulation), pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses), dharana (concentration), dhyana (meditation), and samadhi (absorption). Modern postural yoga draws its name from this scheme.
Which translation does this page cite?
Barbara Stoler Miller's Yoga: Discipline of Freedom (University of California Press, 1996). Other major English renderings include those of Vivekananda, B. K. S. Iyengar, T. K. V. Desikachar, Edwin Bryant and Chip Hartranft, read alongside Vyasa's canonical Yoga Bhashya commentary.