Patanjali’s Yoga Darshanam aka Yoga Sutras is the first authoritative work on Yoga. Patanjali (Puh-th-anjali) is not the author or the originator of Yoga. He is the one that compiled it in writing for the first time. He assembled the vast knowledge of Yoga from the Vedas, Upanishads and from the teachings of his guru.
The concepts related to Yoga are scattered all over the place in the Vedas and Upanishads. Yoga was taught in the oral tradition and had been in existence for many many years (millenia is the word used in some books). Patanjali did not just compile it from the Vedas. There were some Yoga concepts there and it had evolved to another darshanam (philosophy) called Sankhya and then in to Yoga at the time of Patanjali.
Patanjali wrote this knowledge in the form of Sutra. A Sutra is made up a few words and they are hardly a complete sentence. They are concise but full of meaning. The entire Yoga Sutra is less than two thousand words, but there is enough content in it, to study this over a life time. They are so rich in meaning that so many commentaries have been written about them.
It takes a genius to write Sutras, as they are extremely difficult to write. They are so profound and deep in their meaning. Although Bhagavad Gita mentions Yoga, it is Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras that talk about how exactly a restless mind can be brought to peace and extraordinary wisdom can be attained. It is so precise in explaining how certain things can be achieved, the Sutras look like algebraic equations. I could always draw a nice flow chart for all the concepts being explained.
There are four chapters with about 50 Sutras in each (in all, there are 195 Sutras). Out of these, there are 2 Sutras that talk about asana, 5 Sutras about pranayama. Pranayama gets a little more respect with 5 Sutras than asanas with just 2. The rest of the 188 Sutras are for the mind. It is simply about understanding the mind, the issues of the mind and getting over them. Of course, if you showed up at a so called yoga class, you would think it is just about asanas. I am sure Patanjali would not approve of any mass produced yoga class with asana being the poster child.
The Sutras are short so it can be memorized, passed on to the students in a simple form as a chant. The meaning is what is so complex and it is intentionally written this way. You can’t give a diamond to a monkey. The student needs to prove that he is worthy first of all to receive such precious teachings. The words are there for everyone to see, but its meaning cannot be grasped so easily.
Sri Krishnamacharya calls Yoga Sutra the heart of Yoga. The heart, hrdya, is that which does not change and Patanjali gave a permanent definition and form to yoga in his Sutra. However the prana to the Sutra is brought in by the teacher that explains it to the student. TKV Desikachar studied Yoga Sutras with Sri Krishnamacharya seven times over thirty years. Every time they studied it, Sri Krishnamacharya could explain it so differently, they were progressively enriching depending on how ready the student is to take in all there is to say. Sri Krishnamacharya says there is an ocean between the atha and iti, the first and the last syllables of the Sutra.
More to follow in the future posts as I am smitten with Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras.
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