Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

The Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali are 196 sūtras (aphorisms) that constitute the foundational text of yoga, and in particular of rāja yoga. They present the royal (rāja) yoga in an eight-limbed (ashtānga) system. The text is based on the Sankhya school.

The Yoga Sūtras were written (or compiled) by Patañjali, the opinion of many scholars being that Patañjali was not the creator of yoga, which existed well before him, but merely a great expounder.

Structure

Patañjali divided his Yoga Sutras into four chapters or books (Sanskrit: pada) as follows:

• Samadhi Pada (51 sutras): Describes the state of absorption (samādhi) where the yogi becomes one with the object of meditation.
• Sadhana Pada (55 sutras). Describes the practice or discipline that leads to the attainment of samādhi. It includes two forms of yoga: a preliminar one called Kriya Yoga and the first five "limbs" of the eightfold yoga (ashtānga yoga).
• Vibhuti Pada (56 sutras). Describes the three final and central "limbs" of the eightfold system and the psychic powers (Sanskrit: siddhi) that result from the practice of yoga.
• Kaivalya Pada (34 sutras). Describes the process of liberation (Sanskrit: Kaivalya, literally "isolation"), which is the goal of yoga.

Theosophists and the Yoga Sutras

Several members of the Theosophical Society translated this text or written commentaries about it:

• Charles Johnston. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. New York: Quarterly Book Department, 1912. Available online at Wikisource and Hathitrust.

• William Quan Judge The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali. Available at PHX-ULT.

• Tukaram Tatya.The Yoga Philosophy: Being the Text of Patanjali, with Bhoja Raja's Commentary. Bombay: Subodha-Prakash Press, 1885. 2nd edition revised, edited, and reprinted for the Bombay Theosophical Publication Fund by Tookaram Tatya, with introduction by Col. Olcott. Translations in English by Dr. Ballantyne and Govind Shastri Deva. Available at Blavatsky Archives.

• Manilal N. Dvidedi. The Yoga-sūtras of Patanjali: Sanskrit Text and English Translation Together, with an Introduction and an Appendix, and Notes on Each Sutra Based upon Several Authentic Commentaries, All in English. Revised edition Delhi: Sri Satguru Publications: 1980. Available at Hathitrust

• I. K. Taimni . The Science of Yoga: the Yoga-sūtras of Patañjali in Sanskrit with Transliteration in Roman, Translation and Commentary in English. Adyar, Chennai, India: Theosophical Publishing House, 1961. Numerous editions, under various titles, including versions in Italian, Finnish, and recorded for the blind. Limited online access at Hathitrust.

• Rohit Mehta Yoga: The Art of Integration. Adyar, Chennai, India: Theosophical Publishing House, 1975. A review of this collection of lectures is available from M. P. Pandit.[1] Available as CD audiorecording from Quest Books.[2] Limited online access at HathiTrust.

• Rama Prasad. "Self-Culture of the Yoga of Patanjali" in 15 parts, "The Theosophist", 1906-1907.

• Mabel Collins. The Transparent Jewel. London: W. Rider & Son, 1912. On the Aphorisms of Yoga compiled by Patañjali. With the text of Sutras in English, partly in the translation by Manilala Nabhubhai Dvivedi, partly in that by Tukarama Tatya.

See also

• Rāja Yoga
• Patañjali
• Yoga
• Meditation

Online resources

Books

• The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali An Interpretation by W. Q. Judge