Yoga — Patañjali's system
योग
Also written: patanjali · yoga sutra · ashtanga yoga · raja yoga · yoga darshana · योगसूत्र
Patañjali's Yoga Sūtra takes Sāṅkhya's metaphysics as given and asks a purely practical question: given that consciousness has become entangled in nature, what does one actually do? Its answer occupies 196 aphorisms, and its second sūtra is the most concise definition of yoga ever written.
योगश्चित्तवृत्तिनिरोधः।
yogaś citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ
Yoga is the stilling of the modifications of the mind.
तदा द्रष्टुः स्वरूपेऽवस्थानम्।
tadā draṣṭuḥ svarūpe'vasthānam
Then the seer abides in its own nature.
The four pādas
| Pāda | Subject |
|---|---|
| Samādhi | What yoga is; the modifications of mind; practice and dispassion; the kinds of samādhi |
| Sādhana | The means: the kleśas, kriyā yoga, and the first five of the eight limbs |
| Vibhūti | Saṁyama and the powers that arise — and the warning that they are obstacles |
| Kaivalya | Isolation: the nature of liberation, karma, and the final freedom |
The five kleśas — what actually causes suffering
| Kleśa | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Avidyā | Ignorance — mistaking the impermanent for permanent, the not-self for the self. The root of the other four |
| Asmitā | I-am-ness — identifying the seer with the instrument of seeing |
| Rāga | Attraction — clinging to what gave pleasure |
| Dveṣa | Aversion — recoiling from what gave pain |
| Abhiniveśa | Clinging to life — present, Patañjali notes, even in the wise |
The eight limbs
| Limb | Sanskrit | Content |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Yama | यम | Restraints: non-injury, truth, non-stealing, continence, non-possessiveness |
| 2. Niyama | नियम | Observances: purity, contentment, austerity, self-study, surrender to the Lord |
| 3. Āsana | आसन | Posture — 'steady and comfortable'. Patañjali devotes three sūtras to it in total |
| 4. Prāṇāyāma | प्राणायाम | Regulation of the breath, and through it of prāṇa |
| 5. Pratyāhāra | प्रत्याहार | Withdrawal of the senses from their objects |
| 6. Dhāraṇā | धारणा | Concentration — binding attention to one place |
| 7. Dhyāna | ध्यान | Meditation — unbroken flow of attention toward that place |
| 8. Samādhi | समाधि | Absorption — the object alone shining, the sense of the meditator gone |
The six Darśanas — the philosophies
Nyāya, Vaiśeṣika, Sāṅkhya, Yoga, Pūrva Mīmāṁsā and Vedānta: six complete philosophical systems, each with its …
Nyāya — the science of right reasoning
Gautama's logic: the four means of knowledge, the sixteen categories, the five-membered syllogism, and why eve…
Vaiśeṣika — atoms and the categories of being
Kaṇāda's system: the indivisible atom, the six (later seven) categories of what exists, and the definition of …
Sāṅkhya — the enumeration of the principles
Puruṣa and prakṛti, the three guṇas, and the twenty-five tattvas: the oldest systematic philosophy of India, a…
Pūrva Mīmāṁsā — the philosophy of dharma and of language
Jaimini's system: injunction as the heart of the Veda, apūrva, the eternality of the word, and the rules of in…
Vedānta — the enquiry into Brahman
Uttara Mīmāṁsā: the three foundations, the central question of the relation between Brahman, the self and the …
Last revised 2026-08-16. Corrections are welcome — see how this site is written.