What are Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras?

You may have heard the name in yoga class, in Sanskrit chants, or seen a statue of Patanjali with a hood of snakes and all sorts of exotic paraphernalia. Patanjali is credited with compiling the Yoga Sutras, an early handbook of classical yoga philosophy, and still our most thorough exposition of what classical yoga is. 

Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras contain 196 Sutras, divided between four chapters, called Padas. The sutras discuss the aims and practice of yoga, the development of “yogic powers” and finally, liberation, enlightenment, or freedom.. The Yoga Sutras warn you of the pitfalls on your spiritual journey and offer the means to overcome them. In Vedic texts, it is common to encapsulate the whole teaching early in the discourse. Patanjali does this in the first few sutras, giving you the essence of what’s to come: 
“Yoga is the progressive settling of the mind into silence”, also translated as “Yoga is the cessation of movements in the consciousness”. 
When the mind is settled, we are established in our own essential state, which is unbounded consciousness, also translated as when the mind becomes still, then the seer dwells in his own true splendour. Our essential nature is usually overshadowed by the activity of the mind, also translated as  at other times, the seer identifies with the fluctuating consciousness.
This means: Your spiritual practice should be to look within. Your true Self lies hidden in the silence between your thoughts, beyond all limitations. However, the doubts, chaos, and confusion of your thoughts cause you to forget who you really are.

1. Samadhi Pada: The Chapter on Contemplation

The first chapter of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras begins with the sutra or thread: “Now begins the exposition of the Art of Yoga”. The word now has been much debated, and is said to imply that teaching has come before. It implies: “Having learned the basics, you are now ready to dive into the art of yoga”.

This first chapter gives a definition of yoga, as the stopping of the movement of Chitta, or consciousness, as explained above. It then breaks down the movements of consciousness, and gives the tools to still the consciousness: Practice and Detachment. Patanjali then informs us that practice and detachment develop different types of Samadhi, and gives us the types of effort which must go into the practice. Patanjali speaks of the nature of God, and how he is represented by the mantra Om, which he calls the Pranava mantra, or primeval mantra.

2. Sadhana Pada: The Chapter on Practice

The second chapter of  is the most practical chapter. It outlines in a practical way how to attain Samadhi or freedom. It gives a breakdown of Kriya yoga, the yoga of action. Kriya Yoga has three portions, Tapas or burning seal, Svadhyaya or self-study, and Isvara Pranidhana, or surrender to a higher power (some say god).

Patanjali then outlines the obstacles to achieving success in practice, and give advice on how to overcome these obstacles. He outlines seeded and seedless Samadhi, and tells us that eventually through practice, Sattva or luminosity occurs, and a new life begins for the Sadhaka (the practitioner).

The causes of your suffering (the Kleshas) are the following:

• Avidya: Ignorance, or forgetting who you really are
• Asmita: Living from the ego
• Raga: Attachment, or clinging to pleasure
• Dvesha: Repulsion, or avoiding pain
• Abhinivesha: Fearing death

All of these are resolved through meditation when you remember your essential nature of unbounded consciousness.

Patanjali also discusses essence of Prakruti (Nature), and breaks it into three Gunas. Rajas (motion), Tamas (inertia) and Satva (luminosity).

Sadhana Pada discusses the seer and the seen, and how Avidya (lack of awareness) creates a false identification of the seer with the seen. It instructs us that we Kaivalya (emancipation) occurs when a ceaseless flow of right knowledge is held, braking the link between the seer and the seen. Patanjali then outlines seven states of Chitta (consciousness).

Sadhana Pada gives us a further breakdown of Kriya Yoga into the famous 8 limbs of yoga, or Astanga Yoga.  When I took up yoga firstly I was told that the 8 limbs were like 8 rungs on a ladder, to be climbed one at a time. However they are described as limbs not rungs in Sanskrit, so think of yoga as being like an octopus or spider, where all all limbs are developed at once. When I took up Iyengar Yoga the guidance was that all of the limbs are in each moment, in each pose. So shall we look at these limbs?

The 8 Limbs of Yoga 
The Yoga Sutras contain a set of observances and practices to guide your spiritual journey. These are known as the 8 Limbs of Yoga. 

1. Yama: Correct behaviour toward others

• • Nonviolence
  • Truthfulness
  • Not stealing
  • Not wasting energy
  • Abstaining from greed

2. Niyama: The principles by which you should live your own life

• • Purity
  • Contentment
  • Spiritual observances
  • Study
  • Devotion 

3. Asana: Postures to prepare the body to be a fountain of consciousness

4. Pranayama: Expanding the life force through breathing exercises

5. Pratyahara: Turning the senses inward to explore the inner world, sense withdrawal

6. Dharana: Effortless focused attention; training the mind to meditate

7. Dhyana: A continuous flow of consciousness, meditation perfected

8. Samadhi: Union with the body, the mind, the breath, the soul some say, the divine others say. A state of blissful presence

The first four limbs or Angas prepare the body for the next three, which take you to the doorway of the eighth, Samadhi or blissful presence.
Dharana, Dhyana, and Samadhi practiced together is known as Sanyama. Patanjali says that reaching Samadhi and practicing Samadhi gives you yogic powers (Siddhis). More on that soon!

Levels of Samadhi
Even Samadhi has several levels:

Savikalpa Samadhi

You move beyond the physical world until you are only aware of bliss. Only the I-ness remains.

Nirvikalpa Samadhi: You become one with the Soul—no mind—only infinite peace and bliss. 

Sahaja Samadhi: The constant experience of Nirvikalpa along with daily activity.

Dharma Megha Samadhi: The highest Samadhi, the state of Unclouded Truth. All desires, even the desire to know God, have dissolved. All that affects the mind, the causes of suffering, and the bondage of action disappear. You eventually reach the state where Pure Unbounded Consciousness remains forever established in its own Absolute nature.

3. Vibhuti Pada, The Chapter on Yogic Powers:

This is the chapter of results of practice, or of Siddhis, “magical powers”!

Please do remember this was written 2,000 years ago…

The third chapter of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras initially takes off where the second chapter leaves off. We open with Dharana or concentration, Dhyana or meditation, and Samadhi. which is bliss or enlightenment. These are the 6th, 7th & 8th limb of Astanga Yoga, which Patanjali says constitutes integration or Samyama, and they are classed as internal, compared to the previous five limbs. However even these internal limbs appear as external compared to seedless Samadhi. Seeded and seedless Samadhi, what is that? Well seeded Samadhi is bliss with ties to the mundane world. Seedless Samadhi is when you are no longer tethered to karma and the world around you. Patanjali says that the consciousness can be transformed through the restraint of rising impressions, which will lead to tranquillity, or the rise of one pointed attention in the Citta or consciousness. When we master one pointed attention, we move to no pointed attention, and finally to focusing on the soul, and we become one with it.

Having explained how consciousness is transformed and perfected through Samyama, he then tells us about some of the powers which yogis attain through dedicated practice. Here are some of the powers or accomplishments which Patanjali says may manifest:

– Knowledge of past and future

– Knowledge of the languages of all beings

– Knowledge of all previous lives

– The ability to read the minds of others

– The ability to become invisible

– The ability to become invisible to all of the sense organs

– He will be able to see the future fruition of his actions and be able to tell the time of his death.

– Through moral and emotion strength the yogi will have friendliness toward all.

– The strength and endurance of an elephant.

– Knowledge of the stars and constellations.

– Knowledge of the course of destiny.

– Knowledge of the disposition of the human body, and mastery of his own body down to cellular level.

– Hunger and thirst shall be overcome.

– The ability to become as steady and immobile as a tortoise.

– The ability to see perfected beings.

– Knowledge of all knowledge.

– Knowledge of the contents and tendencies of pure consciousness.

– The ability to differentiate between the intelligence and the soul, between the unreal and the real.

– The ability to experience the five senses through unlimited space.

– The ability to enter another’s body at will.

– The ability to levitate, walk over water and through thorns without injury.

– Control of the element of fire.

– Control of the element of air, and with it the ability to hear all things everywhere. Control of the element of ether, and with it the ability to become light as cotton fibre. The ability to remove consciousness from the body, and be anywhere in space.

– The ability to become lord of all of the elements.

– The ability to shrink to the size of an atom, or expand to great size.

– Mastery of all of the senses.

– The yogis’s speed of body, senses and mind match that of the soul.

– Supreme knowledge of all that exists and manifests.

Wow, that is a list! According to Patanjali, these accomplishments can distract the yogi, and drag him back into the realm of the Gunas and the mundane. Patanjali says they should be shunned, or at best treated as acknowledgements that the yogi is on the right path, but not embraced.Then, when the intelligence has been purified and clarified to the level of the purity and clarity of the soul, the yogi attains perfection in yoga.

4. Kaivalya Pada, The Chapter on Liberation:

The fourth and final chapter of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras outlines the path of renunciation of worldly objects and desires. Immediately, in Sutra 1, Patanjali outlines five ways that mystical powers can be obtained: birth, use of herbs, mantra, self-discipline, and Samadhi. Pride and/or negligence may effect yogis who attain accomplishments through the first three ways. This will not happen to yogis who gain their powers through self-discipline or Samadhi, they will instead become shining, fully liberated souls. In sutra 2 Patanjali mentions how evolution can happen by birth. Sometimes the reward for sadhana (practice) may not flower in the current lifetime, but may mature in a subsequent lifetime.

Patanjali then outlines how soul or atman is single and pure, and is the spiritual heart. However it becomes self-conscious, and like the trunk of a tree splits from one trunk into many branches, first of consciousness, then of ego, intelligence and mind. This gives rise to fluctuations and afflictions, and this is where we all find ourselves. Through strong sadhana, the yogi begins to discriminate between the trunk and the branches or shoots, bringing the citta (consciousness) back to its single pure state. The tool to achieve this is Dhyana or deep meditation.

After that Patanjali gives an exposition of the law of Karma. This is a discussion for another day, so I will not take on the minefield which is Karma!Patanjali then outlines how though the perception of an object may change due to fluctuations in the consciousness, its essential nature remains unchanging. He shows us that two people may see the same object differently, due to differences in the development of each person’s consciousness, and the interplay of the 3 gunas in relation to their consciousness. Through diligent practice the yogi will realise that the perciever is not the real perciever, but an instrument of the seer.The yogi will then start to see objects as true without the fluctuations of the gunas. This leads to a merging of the mind with the seer, and Atma Jnana occurs, wisdom of the soul. Patanjali then explains how consciousness wants to join with the seer. Consciousness cannot be self aware, it cannot illuminate itself. Eventually consciousness is absorbed by the seer.Ultimately, through the sadhana which Patanjali outlines, our limited and self-limiting identity falls away. And then we are left with the seer, abiding in its true timeless and transcendent essence.

And that ends our discussion of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras!

Who or what is Patanjali?

You may have heard the name in yoga class, in Sanskrit chants, or seen a statue of Patanjali with a hood of snakes and all sorts of exotic paraphernalia. Patanjali is credited with compiling the Yoga Sutras, an early handbook of classical yoga philosophy, and still our most thorough exposition of what classical yoga is. We will discuss the sutras in the next blog post, but now let’s see what we know about the author. Very few facts are actually known about this sage called Patanjali. There are quite a few wonderful and colourful stories, but how seriously can we take them? 

Firstly, the name: Patanjali is actually a compound of Pata, to fall or fly, and Anjali, which is hands together in prayer. In Hindu mythology, the god Vishnu is said to sleep on a snake with a thousand heads, called Ananta. Ananta wanted to come to earth to teach yoga. He fell from the sky in the form of a small snake, into the praying palms (Anjali Mudra) of Gonika, who was also a powerful yogini. This explains why Patanjali is often represented with a protective hood of snakes, or the tail of a snake wrapped around his lower body. Patanjali was raised by Gonika, and in time shared his wisdom by writing down the 196 lessons of the Yoga Sutras.

He is credited with giving us other wisdom also…

Legend has it that the legendary sage and yogi Patanjali compiled the Yoga Sutras, but that was not all. He is credited as having written a commentary of Sanskrit called Mahabhashya. And apparently he wrote a commentary on ancient Ayurveda (traditional Indian medicine) called the Carakavarttika. Now we have a dilemma. From Analysis of the language, it has been estimated that the yoga sutras were written anywhere between 200 BC and 200 AD. The Mahabhashya was reportedly written around 200 BC, and the Carakayarttika was written 800 AD to 1000 AD. Ahaa, I sense a conundrum! Perhaps we need to remember that in the Hindu tradition, Patanjali is seen as a divine figure, descended from a snake god, and writing books 1,000 years apart is doable when you are immortal. Hmmm.

Applying a modern analytical lens to this dilemma, it may be that there was more than one Patanjali. Or perhaps Patanjali is a cover name for multiple wise yogis, grammarians and Ayurvedic physicians who’s names have been lost to time. Does that reduce the wisdom of the Yoga Sutras? Not a jot in my mind! Anonymity is typical of the great sages of ancient India. They recognised that their teaching was the outcome of a cooperative group effort that spanned several generations, and they often refused to take credit for themselves, instead attributing their work to some other, older teacher. This is a habit still upheld by modern yogis, who bow to their lineage and give credit to their teachers.

For many yoga practitioners, their first exposure to Patanjali is the Patanjali chant, mantra or invocation, which is often said in some form at the beginning of a yoga class.  This chant is approximately 1,000 years old. It is credited as having been written by an ancient monarch, King Bhoja, a patron of arts, literature, and science who ruled in central India in the 11th-century. He wrote a commentary to Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, and in the introduction he wrote a prayer which is now chanted at the start of yoga practice.

Here it is in the original Sanskrit:

yogena  cittasya  padena  vācāṃ

ṃalam  śarīrasya  ca  vaidyakena

yopākarottaṃ pravaraṃ munīnaṃ

patañjalim  prānjalirānato’smi

ābāhu  puruṢākāram

śankha  cakrāsi  dhārinam

sahasra  śirasaṃ śvetaṃ

praṇamāmi  patañjalim

Here is an English translation:

“I bow with folded hands to Patanjali, the noblest of sages, who gave us yoga for serenity and sanctity of mind, Sanskrit grammar for clarity and  purity of speech and medicine for perfection of health.

To the one whose upper body has a human form, who holds a conch and a wheel, who is crowned by a thousand-headed cobra, to that Patanjali, I bow.”

In the chant, you see reference to Patanjali’s three books, yoga, Sanskrit grammar and Ayurveda. And then his appearance is described. This is to link him to divinity and give him a kind of immortal status. Which is necessary if he has supposedly written books 1,000 years apart! His lower body is that of a coiled snake, in reference to his origin story as an incarnation of the divine snake Ananta. He holds a conch, which is used ritually to herald proclamations and  announcements. the conch also represents life coming out of primal waters, and is often depicted in the hands of Hindu gods. In his other hand he holds a disc or wheel. This is actually a weapon, and is associated with the god Vishnu, the protector god. As such it is a weapon of protection rather than provocation. Finally, he is crowned by a thousand-headed cobra, which is also associated Vishnu, and also signifies  protection. 

If you feel odd or silly chanting a 1,000 year old invocation to a character linked to Indian gods, I understand your reticence. If you, like most of us, had some version of a Christian upbringing it can be jarring when you look into yogic/Indian/Hindu mythology. However might I suggest you look at it from a different angle? I see these gods and heroes in the same way I see the ancient gods of Greece. No one is suggesting that they exist in reality and take form in the world. I view them more as representations of archetypes. There are so many of them, they have roles to play, they are not omnipotent, and they are prone to anger and even pettiness, just like the Greek or Roman gods, just like ourselves. Stories of the Indian gods, and heroes like Patanjali, are told to educate and illuminate, but also to entertain and evoke a sense of wonder. And with so much negativity in the world today, a sense of wonder can be a wonderful thing.

As an aside, I was recently chatting to our Sanskrit scholar friend Rutger. He was telling me about Indian views of Gods compared to Christian views of God. Specifically he said that with a Christian upbringing it is seen as a negative thing to call on the name of God. Isn’t it a sin to take the Lord’s name in vain? He said it is quite the opposite with Indian Gods. If you shout out a God’s name in frustration or anger it is a positive thing, you are calling on the God to assist you. The positivity of that is lovely, isn’t it?

Separately, and subjectively, I feel that a chant like this connects us to the yogis who have gone before us, the teachers and the trailblazers. I love the Patanjali chant because I learned it from my teachers whom I hold in very high and fond regard. I chanted it daily with the Iyengar family in the Iyengar Institute in India, and every time I do it it makes me feel connected with these wonderful teachers, and with all of the yogis who have guided me on the path.