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The Yoga Sutras

The book is divided into four chapters or padas (parts or quarters), covering the art, science and philosophy of life. The 196 sutras are succinct, precise, profound, and devout in approach. Each contains a wealth of ideas and wisdom to guide the aspirant (sadhaka) towards full knowledge of his own real nature. This knowledge leads to the experience of perfect freedom, beyond common understanding. Through ardent study of the sutras, and through devotion, the sadhaka is finally illumined by the lamp of exalted knowledge. Through practice, he radiates goodwill, friendliness and compassion. This knowledge, gained through subjective experience gives him boundless joy, harmony and peace.

As with the Bhagavad Gita, different schools of thought have interpreted the sutras in various ways, placing the emphasis on their particular path towards Self-Realization, whether on karma (action), jñana (wisdom) or bhakti (devotion). Each commentator bases his interpretations on certain key or focal themes and weaves around them his thoughts, feelings and experiences. My own interpretations are derived from a lifelong study of yoga, and from experiences gained from the practice of Asana, pranayama and dhyana. These are the key aspects of yoga which I use to interpret the sutras in the simplest and most direct way, without departing from traditional meanings given by successive teachers.

The four chapters or padas of the book are:

1 Samadhi pada (on contemplation)

2 Sadhana pada (on practice)

3 Vibhuti pada (on properties and powers)

4 Kaivalya pada (on emancipation and freedom)

The four padas correspond to the four varñas or divisions of labour; the four asramas or stages of life; the three guñas or qualities of nature and the fourth state beyond them (sattva, rajas, tamas and guatita) and the four purusarthas or aims of life. In the concluding sutra of the fourth pada, Patañjali speaks of the culmination of purusarthas and gunas as the highest goal of yoga sadhana. These concepts must have been wholly understood in Patañjali’s time, and therefore implicit in the earlier chapters, for him to speak of them explicitly only at the very end of the book.

The ultimate effect of following the path laid out by Patañjali is to experience the effortless, indivisible state of the seer.

The first pada amounts to a treatise on dharmasastra, the science of religious duty. Dharma is that which upholds, sustains, and supports one who has fallen or is falling, or is about to fall in the sphere of ethics, physical or mental practices, or spiritual discipline. It appears to me that Patañjali’s whole concept of yoga is based on dharma, the law handed down in perpetuity through Vedic tradition. The goal of the law of dharma is emancipation.

If dharma is the seed of yoga, kaivalya (emancipation) is its fruit. This explains the concluding sutra, which describes kaivalya as the state which is motiveless and devoid of all worldly aims and qualities of nature. In kaivalya, the yogi shines in his own intelligence which sprouts from the seer, atman, independent of the organs of action, senses of perception, mind, intelligence and consciousness. Yoga is, in fact, the path to kaivalya.

Dharma, the orderly science of duty is part of the eightfold path of yoga (astanga yoga), which Patañjali describes in detail. When the eight disciplines are followed with dedication and devotion, they help the sadhaka to become physically, mentally and emotionally stable so that he can maintain equanimity in all circumstances. He learns to know the Supreme Soul, Brahman, and to live in speech, thought and action in accordance with the highest truth.

Samadhi Pada

The first chapter, samadhi pada, defines yoga and the movement of the consciousness, citta vrtti. It is directed towards those who are already highly evolved to enable them to maintain their advanced state of cultured, matured intelligence and wisdom. Rare indeed are such human souls who experience samadhi early in life, for samadhi is the last stage of the eightfold path of yoga. Samadhi is seeing the soul face to face, an absolute, indivisible state of existence, in which all differences between body, mind and soul are dissolved. Such sages as Hanuman, suka, Dhruva, Prahlada, sankaracarya, Jñanesvar, Kabir, Svami Ramdas of Maharastra, Ramakrsna Paramahamsa and Ramata Maharsi, evolved straight to Kaivalya without experiencing the intermediate stages of life or the various stages of yoga. All the actions of these great seers arose from their souls, and they dwelled throughout their lives in a state of unalloyed bliss and purity.

The word samadhi is made up of two components. Sama means level, alike, straight, upright, impartial, just, good and virtuous; and adhi means over and above, i.e. the indestructible seer. Samadhi is the tracing of the source of consciousness – the seer – and then diffusing its essence, impartially and evenly, throughout every particle of the intelligence, mind, senses and body.

We may suppose that Patañjali’s intention, in beginning with an exegesis of samadhi, was to attract those rare souls who were already on the brink of Self-Realization, and to guide them into experiencing the state of nonduality itself. For the uninitiated majority, the enticing prospect of samadhi, revealed so early in his work, serves as a lamp to draw us into yogic discipline, which will refine us to the point where our own soul becomes manifest.

Patañjali describes the fluctuations, modifications and modulations of thought which disturb the consciousness, and then sets out the various disciplines by which they may be stilled. This has resulted in yoga being called a mental sadhana (practice). Such a sadhana is possible only if the accumulated fruits derived from the good actions of past lives (samskaras) are of a noble order. Our samskaras are the fund of our past perceptions, instincts and subliminal or hidden impressions. If they are good, they act as stimuli to maintain the high degree of sensitivity necessary to pursue the spiritual path.

Consciousness is imbued with the three qualities (gunas) of luminosity (sattva), vibrancy (rajas) and inertia (tamas). The gunas also colour our actions: white (sattva), grey (rajas) and black (tamas). Through the discipline of yoga, both actions and intelligence go beyond these qualities and the seer comes to experience his own soul with crystal clarity, free from the relative attributes of nature and actions. This state of purity is samadhi. Yoga is thus both the means and the goal. Yoga is samadhi and samadhi is yoga.

There are two main types of samadhi. Sabija or samprajñata samadhi is attained by deliberate effort, using for concentration an object or idea as a ‘seed’. Nirbija samadhi is without seed or support.

Patañjali explains that before samadhi is experienced the functioning of consciousness depends upon five factors: correct perception, misperception (where the senses mislead), misconception or ambiguousness (where the mind lets one down), sleep, and memory. The soul is pure, but through the sullying or misalignment of consciousness it gets caught up in the spokes of joys and sorrows and becomes part of suffering, like a spider ensnared in its own web. These joys and sorrows may be painful or painless, cognizable or incognizable.

Freedom, that is to say direct experience of samadhi, can be attained only by disciplined conduct and renunciation of sensual desires and appetites. This is brought about through adherence to the ‘twin pillars’ of yoga, abhyasa and vairagya.

Abhyasa (practice) is the art of learning that which has to be learned through the cultivation of disciplined action. This involves long, zealous, calm, and persevering effort. Vairagya (detachment or renunciation) is the art of avoiding that which should be avoided. Both require a positive and virtuous approach.

Practice is a generative force of transformation or progress in yoga, but if undertaken alone it produces an unbridled energy which is thrown outwards to the material world as if by centrifugal force. Renunciation acts to shear off this energetic outburst, protecting the practitioner from entanglement with sense objects and redirecting the energies centripetally towards the core of being.

Patañjali teaches the sadhaka to cultivate friendliness and compassion, to delight in the happiness of others and to remain indifferent to vice and virtue so that he may maintain his poise and tranquillity. He advises the sadhaka to follow the ethical disciplines of yama and niyama, the ten precepts similar to the Ten Commandments, which govern behaviour and practice and form the foundation of spiritual evolution. He then offers several methods through which consciousness detaches itself from intellectual and emotional upheavals and assumes the form of the soul – universal, devoid of all personal and material identity. The sadhaka is now filled with serenity, insight and truth. The soul, which until now remained unmanifest, becomes visible to the seeker. The seeker becomes the seer: he enters a state without seed or support, nirbija samadhi.

Sadhana Pada

In the second chapter, sadhana pada, Patañjali comes down to the level of the spiritually unevolved to help them, too, to aspire to absolute freedom. Here he coins the word kriyayoga. Kriya means action, and kriyayoga emphasizes the dynamic effort to be made by the sadhaka. It is composed of eight yogic disciplines, yama and niyama, Asana and pranayama, pratyahara and dharana, dhyana and samadhi. These are compressed into three tiers. The tier formed by the first two pairs, yama and niyama, Asana and pranayama, comes under tapas (religious spirit in practice). The second tier, pratyahara and dharana, is self-study (svadhyaya). The third, dhyana and samadhi, is Isvara pranidhana, the surrender of the individual self to the Universal Spirit, or God (Isvara).

In this way, Patañjali covers the three great paths of Indian philosophy in the Yoga Sutras. Karmamarga, the path of action is contained in tapas; jñanamarga, the path of knowledge, in svadhyaya; and bhaktimarga, the path of surrender to God, in Isvara pranidhana.

In this chapter, Patañjali identifies avidya, spiritual ignorance, as the source of all sorrow and unhappiness. Avidya is the first of the five klesas, or afflictions, and is the root of all the others: egoism, attachment, aversion and clinging to life. From these arise desires, sowing the seeds of sorrow.

Afflictions are of three types. They may be self-inflicted, hereditary, or caused through imbalance of elements in the body. All are consequences of one’s actions, in this or previous lifetimes, and are to be overcome through practice and renunciation in the eight yogic disciplines which cover purification of the body, senses and mind, an intense discipline whereby the seeds are incinerated, impurities vanish, and the seeker reaches a state of serenity in which he merges with the seer.

For one who lacks ethical discipline and perfect physical health, there can be no spiritual illumination. Body, mind and spirit are inseparable: if the body is asleep, the soul is asleep.

The seeker is taught to perform Asanas so that he becomes familiar with his body, senses and intelligence. He develops alertness, sensitivity, and the power of concentration. pranayama gives control over the subtle qualities of the elements – sound, touch, shape, taste and smell. Pratyahara is the withdrawal into the mind of the organs of action and senses of perception.

Sadhana pada ends here, but Patañjali extends dharana, dhyana and samadhi, the subtle aspects of sadhana, into the next chapter, vibhuti pada. These three withdraw the mind into the consciousness, and the consciousness into the soul.

The journey from yama to pratyahara, described in sadhana pada, ends in the sea of tranquillity, which has no ripples. If citta is the sea, its movements (vrttis) are the ripples. Body, mind and consciousness are in communion with the soul; they are now free from attachments and aversions, memories of place and time. The impurities of body and mind are cleansed, the dawning light of wisdom vanquishes ignorance, innocence replaces arrogance and pride, and the seeker becomes the seer.

Vibhuti Pada

The third chapter speaks of the divine effects of yoga sadhana. It is said that the sadhaka who in this state has full knowledge of past, present and future, as well as of the solar system. He understands the minds of others. He acquires the eight supernatural powers or siddhis: the ability to become small and large, light and heavy, to acquire, to attain every wish, to gain supremacy and sovereignty over things.

These achievements are dangerous. The sadhaka is cautioned to ignore their temptations and pursue the spiritual path.

Sage Vyasa’s commentary on the sutras gives examples of those who became ensnared by these powers and those who remained free. Nahusa, who belonged to the mortal world, became the Lord of heaven, but misused his power, fell from grace and was sent back to earth in the form of a snake. Urvasi, a famous mythical nymph, the daughter of Nara Narayana (the son of Dharma and grandson of Brahma), became a creeping plant. Ahalya, who succumbed to sensual temptation, was cursed by Gautama and became a stone. On the other hand, Nandi, the bull, reached Lord siva. Matsya, the fish, became Matsyendranath, the greatest hatha yogi on earth.

If the sadhaka succumbs to the lure of the siddhis, he will be like a person running away from a gale only to be caught in a whirlwind. If he resists, and perseveres on the spiritual path, he will experience kaivalya, the indivisible, unqualified, undifferentiated state of existence.

Kaivalya Pada

In the fourth chapter, Patañjali distinguishes kaivalya from samadhi. In samadhi, the sadhaka experiences a passive state of oneness between seer and seen, observer and observed, subject and object. In kaivalya, he lives in a positive state of life, above the tamasic, rajasic and sattvic influences of the three gunas of nature. He moves in the world and does day-to-day work dispassionately, without becoming involved in it.

Patañjali says it is possible to experience kaivalya by birth, through use of drugs, by repetition of mantra, or by tapas (intense, disciplined effort) and through samadhi. Of these, only the last two develop mature intelligence and lead to stable growth.

Man may make or mar his progress through good actions or bad. Yogic practices lead to a spiritual life; non-yogic actions bind one to the world. The ego, ahamkara, is the root cause of good and bad actions. Yoga removes the weed of pride from the mind and helps the seeker to trace the source of all actions, the consciousness, wherein all past impressions (samskaras) are stored. When this ultimate source is traced through yogic practices, the sadhaka is at once freed from the reactions of his actions. Desires leave him. Desire, action and reaction are spokes in the wheel of thought, but when consciousness has become steady and pure, they are eliminated. Movements of mind come to an end. He becomes a perfect yogi with skilful actions. As wick, oil and flame combine to give light, so thought, speech and action unite, and the yogi’s knowledge becomes total. For others, whose knowledge and understanding are limited, an object may be one thing, experience of the object another, and the word quite different from both. These vacillations of mind cripple one’s capacity for thought and action.

The yogi differentiates between the wavering uncertainties of thought processes and the understanding of the Self, which is changeless. He does his work in the world as a witness, uninvolved and uninfluenced. His mind reflects its own form, undistorted, like a crystal. At this point, all speculation and deliberation come to an end and liberation is experienced. The yogi lives in the experience of wisdom, untinged by the emotions of desire, anger, greed, infatuation, pride, and malice. This seasoned wisdom is truth-bearing (rtambhara prajña). It leads the sadhaka towards virtuous awareness, dharma megha samadhi, which brings him a cascade of knowledge and wisdom. He is immersed in kaivalya, the constant burning light of the soul, illuminating the divinity not only in himself, but also in those who come in contact with him.

I end this prologue with a quotation from the Visnu Purana given by sri Vyasa in his commentary on the Yoga Sutras: ‘Yoga is the teacher of yoga; yoga is to be understood through yoga. So live in yoga to realize yoga; comprehend yoga through yoga; he who is free from distractions enjoys yoga through yoga.’