THE YOGA SUTRAS OF PATANJALI

"The Book of the Spiritual Man"

Interpretation by

Charles Johnston
2001

The Yoga Sūtras date from around 200 BC. Patañjali has often been called the founder of Yoga because of this work, although in reality he is a more major figure. The Yoga Sūtras, as a treatise on Yoga, build on the Samkhya school and the Hindu scripture of the Bhagavad Gita (see also: Vyasa). Yoga, the science of uniting one's consciousness, is also found in the Puranas, the Vedas and the Upanishads. Still, this work is certainly a major work among the great Hindu scriptures and serves as the basis of the yoga-system known as Raja Yoga. Patañjali's Yoga is one of the six schools or darshanas of Hindu Philosophy. The sūtras give us the earliest reference to the popular term Ashtanga Yoga which translates literally as the eight limbs of yoga. They are yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana and samadhi.

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