योगसूत्रyoga-sūtra · the threads of yoga
The Yoga Sutras of Patañjali
3 min read · Updated October 17, 2026 · sources checked October 17, 2026
In short
The Yoga Sutras are a Sanskrit text attributed to Patañjali: 195 short aphorisms in four books (pāda) on absorption, practice, extraordinary attainments and liberation. Sutra 1.2 defines yoga as the stilling of the movements of the mind; sutra 2.29 lists the eight limbs. Scholars date the text, with its commentary, to roughly 325-425 CE.
What kind of text it is
The word sūtra means thread. A sūtra text is a chain of very short statements, many without a verb, built to be learnt by heart and unfolded by a teacher. Patañjali's 195 sutras fit on a few pages; their meaning lives in the commentary that has always travelled with them, the Yogabhāṣya attributed to Vyāsa. The chapter endings of the Sanskrit edition call the whole work pātañjala yogaśāstra, Patañjali's treatise on yoga.
When was it written? The Indologist Philipp A. Maas, who edited the first book critically, argues that sutras and commentary form one work, composed between about 325 and 425 CE: it answers Buddhist idealist positions of Vasubandhu's time, and was already the authoritative text on yoga by the early seventh century. Other scholars place the sutras earlier and the commentary later. What we know, and do not know, about the author is set out on who was Patañjali.
The four books
| Book | Sanskrit | Sutras (GRETIL) | What it covers |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Samādhi-pāda | 51 | Definition of yoga, the five movements of the mind, practice and non-attachment, Īśvara and Om, obstacles, the stages of absorption |
| 2 | Sādhana-pāda | 55 | Yoga of action, the five afflictions, karma, suffering and its cause, the first five of the eight limbs |
| 3 | Vibhūti-pāda | 55 | Concentration, meditation, absorption, the extraordinary attainments, and why they must be left behind |
| 4 | Kaivalya-pāda | 34 | Karma and latent impressions, why the mind is not the self, final independence |
Count: 51 + 55 + 55 + 34 = 195. If your edition has 196, the extra number usually comes after 3.21, where the sentence "by this, the disappearance of sound and the rest is explained" is printed as a sutra; GRETIL prints it inside Vyāsa's commentary. From there on, book 3 numbers differ by one: 3.37 here is 3.38 there.
Six sutras to know by heart
The opening (1.1).
अथ योगानुशासनम् ॥
atha yogānuśāsanam ||
Now, the teaching of yoga.
The definition (1.2), explained word by word on yoga citta vṛtti nirodhaḥ:
योगश्चित्तवृत्तिनिरोधः ॥
yogaś citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ ||
Yoga is the stilling of the movements of the mind.
The result (1.3).
तदा द्रष्टुः स्वरूपेऽवस्थानम् ॥
tadā draṣṭuḥ svarūpe 'vasthānam ||
Then the seer abides in its own nature.
The two means (1.12).
अभ्यासवैराग्याभ्यां तन्निरोधः ॥
abhyāsa-vairāgyābhyāṃ tan-nirodhaḥ ||
They are stilled through practice and non-attachment.
The eight limbs (2.29).
यमनियमासनप्राणायामप्रत्याहारधारणाध्यानसमाधयोऽष्टावङ्गानि ॥
yama-niyamāsana-prāṇāyāma-pratyāhāra-dhāraṇā-dhyāna-samādhayo 'ṣṭāv aṅgāni ||
Restraint, observance, posture, breath regulation, withdrawal of the senses, concentration, meditation and absorption are the eight limbs.
Each limb has its page: the eight limbs, yamas and niyamas, pratyāhāra, dhāraṇā, dhyāna, samādhi.
The seat (2.46).
स्थिरसुखमासनम् ॥
sthira-sukham āsanam ||
The seat is steady and comfortable.
That is almost all Patañjali says about posture. Vyāsa, commenting, gives examples of such seats, among them the lotus (padmāsana), the auspicious seat (bhadrāsana), svastika, the staff (daṇḍāsana), sitting with a support, the couch seat (paryaṅka), the seated postures of the heron, the elephant and the camel, and finally "whatever is comfortable" (yathāsukham). Nearly all are ways of sitting still for meditation.
The commentary that goes with them
Read alone, many sutras are riddles. Vyāsa's Yogabhāṣya is the key, and every later commentator explains Vyāsa rather than the bare sutras. Three examples of what it adds:
- On 1.1 it states that "yoga is samādhi" (yogaḥ samādhiḥ) and describes five states of mind: scattered, dull, distracted, one-pointed and stilled. Only the last two belong to yoga.
- On 1.12 it gives the image of the river of the mind, which "flows both ways: towards good and towards harm". Non-attachment dams the stream towards sense objects; practice of discernment opens the stream towards freedom.
- On 2.15 it compares the teaching to medicine, which has four parts, illness, its cause, health and the remedy: here, the round of existence (saṃsāra), full of suffering, its cause, liberation and the means to it.
Later commentaries include Vācaspati Miśra's Tattvavaiśāradī (around 950 CE, according to Maas), and King Bhoja's Rājamārtaṇḍa (around 1040 CE), both dated by Maas.
How to read the Yoga Sutras
- Start with books 1 and 2. Book 1 gives the map, book 2 the practice. Books 3 and 4 make sense afterwards.
- One sutra a day. Read it aloud in Sanskrit (the Sanskrit pronunciation guide helps), then word by word, then a translation. This is what the tradition calls svādhyāya.
- Keep the commentary close. When a sutra seems obscure, the problem is usually that it was never meant to be read alone.
- Compare two translations, and check which words belong to the Sanskrit and which to the translator.
- Practise what you read. Book 2 is a programme: kriyā yoga (2.1), the yamas and niyamas, a steady seat, calm breath.
Where to read the text free
The Sanskrit is published by GRETIL (Göttingen), from the Pune edition of 1904. Several English translations are in the public domain: Woods (Harvard, 1914), the most scholarly, with Vyāsa and Vācaspati Miśra; Charles Johnston (1912), free and readable; M. N. Dvivedi (1890); Vivekananda's Raja Yoga (1896). The page Yoga Sutras PDF gives the links and what each edition is worth.
Our edition
Our book gives all 195 sutras in Devanāgarī and IAST, a word-by-word gloss, our own translation and a short commentary grounded in Vyāsa, with a twelve-week study and practice plan built on the text.
The four books, page by page
Questions people ask
What are the Yoga Sutras?
A Sanskrit treatise on yoga as a discipline of the mind, attributed to Patañjali. It is written in sūtras, very short statements meant to be memorised and explained by a teacher, and has always been read with the commentary attributed to Vyāsa.
How many Yoga Sutras are there?
195 in the edition we follow (GRETIL, after the Pune edition of 1904): 51, 55, 55 and 34 in the four books. Some editions count 196, mainly because they treat a sentence after 3.21 as a separate sutra.
What is Yoga Sutra 1.1?
Atha yogānuśāsanam: now, the teaching of yoga. The word atha, now, marks the formal start of a work; Vyāsa adds that yoga here means samādhi, absorption.
What is Yoga Sutra 1.33?
Four attitudes that make the mind clear: friendliness toward the happy, compassion toward those who suffer, gladness toward the virtuous, and equanimity toward those who do wrong.
Which Yoga Sutras speak about pranayama?
Sutras 2.49 to 2.53 define prāṇāyāma as the interruption of the flow of inhalation and exhalation, describe its three movements and a fourth, and give its fruit. Sutra 1.34 already mentions exhaling and holding the breath to steady the mind. No named techniques are taught.
Are the Yoga Sutras about postures?
Hardly. Only three sutras (2.46-2.48) speak of āsana, the seat for meditation, which must be steady and comfortable. The many postures taught today come from later hatha yoga and the twentieth century.
Sources
- Patañjali, Yogasūtra, Sanskrit text, ed. Āgāśe 1904, digitised by Philipp A. Maas (GRETIL, University of Göttingen) checked October 17, 2026
- Patañjali, Yogasūtra with Vyāsa's Yogabhāṣya, Sanskrit text (GRETIL) checked October 17, 2026
- Philipp A. Maas, A Concise Historiography of Classical Yoga Philosophy (2013, pre-print on Zenodo, CC BY 4.0) checked October 17, 2026
- James Haughton Woods, The Yoga-System of Patañjali, Harvard Oriental Series 17 (Harvard University Press, 1914), Internet Archive checked October 17, 2026
- The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, an interpretation by Charles Johnston (1912), Project Gutenberg checked October 17, 2026