The word "sutra" translates in Sanskrit to "a thread or a line that holds objects together." The Yoga Sutras, as a collective, can be thought of as 195 pearls of ancient wisdom strung together as a guide for mental and spiritual evolution, and as a blueprint for morally correct living. Many yoga scholars believe that Patanjali, an Indian sage, organized and recorded this list of aphorisms sometime between 200 and 300 BCE.
Patanjali's Yoga Sutras
The Yoga Sutras is a treatise of maxims thoughtfully arranged and divided into four separate chapters called "padas." Each pada illustrates a pattern of human spiritual development, from complete confusion and disillusion to supreme enlightenment, and each provides practices to move a person beyond suffering and spiritual ignorance toward true self-awareness.
Chapter 1
In the first chapter, Samadhi Pada, Patanjali explains how the changeability and variability of the mind create disturbances in the clarity of one's consciousness. As translated by world-renowned yoga master, B.K.S. Iyengar, the second sutra states that, "Yoga is the cessation of movements in the consciousness." Meaning that, by practicing yogic disciplines, a person can quiet the thoughts and ideas in her mind and attain true awareness.
Chapter 2
The sutras in the second chapter, Sadhana Pada, are probably the most widely recognized, as they list the "eight rungs," or limbs, of yoga that when practiced cultivate ecstatic awareness and help to eliminate the causes of suffering.
The eight limbs are: Yamas, five moral restraints; Niyamas, five personal observances; Asana, yoga postures; Pranayama, energy-controlling breathing techniques; Pratyahara, the practice of sensory detachment; Dharana, concentration or focus; Dhyana, meditation; and Samadhi, enlightenment. By following these practices, a person is able to connect the physical and mental senses to pure consciousness.
Chapter 3
The third chapter, Vibhuti Pada, states that, through mastery of the practices revealed in the first two chapters, one attains a "higher power." Meaning, when one whole-heartedly attempts and achieves a goal, great benefits will follow. Patanjali warns, however, that a person should look beyond the "rewards" and continue on the spiritual path with steadfast determination. A translation of the 10th sutra by Iyengar states that, "The restraint of rising impressions brings about an undisturbed flow of tranquility."
Chapter 4
In the final chapter of the Yoga Sutras, Kaivalya Pada, which means liberation, Patanjali notes that by continuing on the path of yoga, one moves closer to attaining the profound peace found within the soul. Sutra 31 states, "Then, when the veils of impurities are removed, the highest, subjective, pure, infinite knowledge is attained, and the knowable, the finite, appears as trivial."
References
- "Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali"; B.K.S. Iyengar; 1993
- "The Deeper Dimension of Yoga"; Georg Feuerstein; 2003
- Traditional Yoga and Meditation of the Himalayan Masters: Yoga Sutras
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