Patañjali Yoga Sūtras

The ''Yoga Sutras of Patañjali'' is a collection of Sanskrit sutras ( aphorisms) on the theory and practice of yoga – 195 sutras (according to Vyāsa and Krishnamacharya) and 196 sutras (according to others, including BKS Iyengar). The ''Yoga Sutras'' was compiled in the early centuries CE, by the sage Patanjali in India who synthesized and organized knowledge about yoga from much older traditions.

The ''Yoga Sutras'' is best known for its reference to '' ashtanga'', eight elements of practice culminating in '' samadhi''. The eight elements are '' yama'' (abstinences), '' niyama'' (observances), ''asana'' (yoga postures), '' pranayama'' (breath control), '' pratyahara'' (withdrawal of the senses), '' dharana'' (concentration of the mind), ''dhyana'' (meditation) and '' samadhi'' (absorption). The main aim of practice is '' kaivalya'', discernment of '' purusha'', the witness-consciousness, as distinct from '' prakriti'', the cognitive apparatus, and disentanglement of ''purusha'' from ''prakriti's'' muddled defilements.

The ''Yoga Sutras'' built on Samkhya notions of ''purusha'' and ''prakriti'', and is often seen as complementary to it. It is closely related to Buddhism, incorporating some of its terminology. Samkhya, Yoga and Vedanta, as well as Jainism and Buddhism, can be seen as representing different manifestations of a broad stream of ascetic traditions in ancient India, in contrast to the Bhakti traditions and Vedic ritualism which were prevalent at the time.

The contemporary Yoga tradition holds the ''Yoga Sutras of Patañjali'' to be one of the foundational texts of classical Yoga philosophy.Stuart Sarbacker (2011), Yoga Powers (Editor: Knut A. Jacobsen), Brill, , p. 195. However, the appropriation - and misappropriation - of the ''Yoga Sutras'' and its influence on later systematizations of yoga has been questioned by David Gordon White, who argues that the text fell into relative obscurity for nearly 700 years from the 12th to 19th century, and made a comeback in the late 19th century due to the efforts of Swami Vivekananda, the Theosophical Society and others. It gained prominence as a classic in the 20th century.

Author and dating

Author

The colophons of manuscripts of the ''Yoga Sutras'' attribute the work to Patanjali. The identity of Patañjali has been the subject of academic debate because an author of the same name is credited with the authorship of the classic text on Sanskrit grammar named '' Mahābhāṣya'' that is firmly datable to the second century BC. Although some scholars argue that this is the same Patanjali who authored the ''Yoga Sutras'', the two works are completely different in subject matter, and Indologist Louis Renou has shown that there are significant differences in language, grammar and vocabulary. Before the time of Bhoja (11th century), no known text conflates the identity of the two authors.

Dating

Philipp A. Maas assessed Patañjali's ''Pātañjalayogaśāstra'''s date to be about 400 CE, based on synchronisms between its arguments and those of Vasubandhu, on tracing the history of the commentaries on it published in the first millennium CE, on the opinions of earlier Sanskrit commentators, on the testimony of manuscript colophons and on a review of extant literature. This dating for the ''Pātañjalayogaśāstra'' was proposed as early as 1914 by Woods and has been accepted widely by academic scholars of the history of Indian philosophical thought.

Edwin Bryant, on the other hand, surveyed the major commentators in his translation of the ''Yoga Sūtras''. He observed that "Most scholars date the text shortly after the turn of the Common Era (circa first to second century), but that it has been placed as early as several centuries before that." Bryant concluded that "A number of scholars have dated the ''Yoga Sūtras'' as late as the fourth or fifth century CE, but these arguments have all been challenged. ... All such arguments or a late dateare problematic."

Michele Desmarais summarized a wide variety of dates assigned to Yogasutra, ranging from 500 BCE to 3rd century CE, noting that there is a paucity of evidence for any certainty. She stated the text may have been composed at an earlier date given conflicting theories on how to date it, but latter dates are more commonly accepted by scholars.

Compilation

The ''Yoga Sutras'' are a composite of various traditions. The levels of samādhi taught in the text resemble the Buddhist '' jhanas''. According to Feuerstein, the ''Yoga Sutras'' are a condensation of two different traditions, namely "eight limb yoga" (aṣṭāṅga yoga) and action yoga (''Kriya yoga''). The ''kriya yoga'' part is contained in chapter 1, chapter 2 sutras 1-27, chapter 3 except sutra 54, and chapter 4. The "eight limb yoga" is described in chapter 2 sutras 28–55, and chapter 3 sutras 3 and 54.

There are numerous parallels in the ancient Samkhya, Yoga and Abhidharma schools of thought, particularly from the 2nd century BCE to the 1st century AD, notes Larson.Larson, pp. 43-45 Patanjali's Yoga Sutras may be a synthesis of these three traditions. From the Samkhya school of Hinduism, Yoga Sutras adopt the "reflective discernment" (''adhyavasaya'') of ''prakrti'' and ''purusa'' (dualism), its metaphysical rationalism, and its three epistemic methods to gaining reliable knowledge. From Abhidharma Buddhism's idea of ''nirodhasamadhi'', suggests Larson, Yoga Sutras adopt the pursuit of an altered state of awareness. However, unlike Buddhism, which believes that there is neither self nor soul, Yoga is physicalist and realist, like Samkhya, in believing that each individual has a self and soul. The third concept that Yoga Sutras synthesizes into its philosophy is the ancient ascetic traditions of isolation, meditation and introspection, as well as the yoga ideas from the 1st millennium BCE Indian texts such as Katha Upanishad, Shvetashvatara Upanishad and Maitri Upanishad.Larson, pp. 43-45

According to Wujastyk, referencing Maas, Patanjali integrated yoga from older traditions in ''Pātañjalayogaśāstra'', and added his own explanatory passages to create the unified work that, since 1100 CE, has been considered the work of two people. Together the compilation of Patanjali's sutras and the Vyasabhasya, is called Pātañjalayogaśāstra.

''Yogabhashya''

The ''Yogabhashya'' is a commentary on the ''Yoga Sutras of Patañjali'', traditionally attributed to the legendary Vedic sage Vyasa who is said to have composed the Mahabharata. This commentary is indispensable for the understanding of the aphoristic and terse Yoga sutras, and the study of the sutras has always referred to the ''Yogabhashya''.Bryant, Edwin F. The Yoga Sutras of Patañjali: A New Edition, Translation, and Commentary; Introduction Some scholars see Vyasa as a later 4th or 5th century AD commentator (as opposed to the ancient mythic figure).

Vyasa is, however, not the only commentator on the text. Another well-known commentator on the''Yoga Sutras'' is Vachaspati Mishra, who had also written commentaries on other schools of Indian philosophy such as Vedanta, Samkhya, Nyaya, and Mimamsa. After Vyasa, it is believed that Vachaspati Mishra’s commentary is the "next most authoritative." Other commentators include Bhoja Rāja, Vijñānabhikṣu, and Rāmānanda Sarasvatī. Vijñānabhikṣu, according to Bryant, wrote the "most insightful and useful commentary after that of Vyasa's." Bhoja Rāja and Rāmānanda Sarasvatī's commentaries follow the previous commentaries, without expanding much on what their predecessors have said. Hariharānanda Āraṇya, in contrast to the above figures, is a modern commentator on the text. Bryant explains that, even though "his is a standpoint exposed to Western thought", it is still "thoroughly grounded in tradition".

Scholars hold that both texts, the sutras and the commentary were written by one person. According to Philipp A. Maas, based on a study of the original manuscripts, Patañjali's composition was entitled ''Pātañjalayogaśāstra'' ("The Treatise on Yoga according to Patañjali") and consisted of both ''Sūtras'' ''and'' ''Bhāṣya''. This means that the ''Bhāṣya'' was in fact Patañjali's own work.

The practice of writing a set of aphorisms with the author's own explanation was well known at the time of Patañjali, as for example in Vasubandhu's ''Abhidharmakośabhāṣya'' (that, incidentally, Patañjali quotes). These research findings change the historical understanding of the yoga tradition, since they allow us to take the Bhāṣya as Patañjali's very own explanation of the meaning of his somewhat cryptic sūtras.

The ''Yogabhashya'' states that 'yoga' in the ''Yoga Sutras'' has the meaning of 'samadhi'. Another commentary (the ''Vivarana'') by a certain Shankara, confirms the interpretation of ''yogah samadhih'' (YBh. I.1): 'yoga' in Patañjali's sutra has the meaning of 'integration'. This Shankara may or may not have been the famed Vedantic scholar Adi Shankara (8th or 9th century). Scholarly opinion is still open on this issue.

Contents

Patañjali divided his ''Yoga Sutras'' into four chapters or books (Sanskrit ''Pada''), containing in all 196 aphorisms, divided as follows:

Samadhi Pada

* Samadhi Pada (51 sutras). Samadhi is a state of direct and reliable perception (''pramāṇa

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