साधनपादsādhana-pāda · the quarter on the means
Sādhana-pāda, the book of practice
2 min read · Updated October 17, 2026 · sources checked October 17, 2026
In short
Sādhana-pāda is the second book of Patañjali's Yoga Sutras, with 55 sutras, and the most practical. It opens with kriyā yoga, discipline, study and surrender (2.1), analyses the five afflictions and karma, says that future suffering can be avoided (2.16), then lists the eight limbs (2.29) and teaches the first five: yama, niyama, āsana, prāṇāyāma and pratyāhāra.
The book in one paragraph
Book 1 of the Yoga Sutras described yoga for a concentrated mind. Vyāsa opens book 2 with the real question: "how can one whose mind is turned outward also be engaged in yoga?" The answer is a method. First a daily yoga of action, then a diagnosis of suffering as precise as a doctor's, then the eight limbs, of which this book teaches the first five, the "outer" ones. If you read only one book of the Yoga Sutras, read this one.
The plan, sutra by sutra
| Sutras | Theme |
|---|---|
| 2.1-2.2 | Kriyā yoga: discipline, study, surrender; its aims |
| 2.3-2.11 | The five afflictions (kleśa) and how they are thinned |
| 2.12-2.14 | Karma: the deposit of action and its fruits |
| 2.15-2.17 | Everything is suffering for the discerning; future suffering can be avoided; its cause |
| 2.18-2.24 | The seen and the seer; their conjunction, caused by ignorance |
| 2.25-2.27 | Freedom, and its means: unwavering discernment |
| 2.28-2.29 | The eight limbs |
| 2.30-2.34 | The five yamas, the "great vow", the five niyamas, cultivating the opposite |
| 2.35-2.45 | The fruit of each yama and niyama |
| 2.46-2.48 | Posture |
| 2.49-2.53 | Breath regulation |
| 2.54-2.55 | Withdrawal of the senses |
Vyāsa remarks, on 2.15, that the teaching has four parts like medicine: illness, its cause, health and the remedy. Here: suffering, its cause (the conjunction of seer and seen), freedom, and the means (discernment).
Key sutras
The yoga of action (2.1).
तपःस्वाध्यायेश्वरप्रणिधानानि क्रियायोगः ॥
tapaḥ-svādhyāyeśvara-praṇidhānāni kriyā-yogaḥ ||
Discipline, study and surrender to the Lord are the yoga of action.
Word by word: tapas, heat, discipline; svādhyāya, recitation and study (see svādhyāya); īśvara-praṇidhāna, surrender to the Lord; kriyā-yoga, yoga in the form of action. The next sutra gives its purpose: to cultivate absorption and to thin the afflictions (2.2). The modern lineage that took this name is described on kriya yoga.
The five afflictions (2.3).
अविद्यास्मितारागद्वेषाभिनिवेशाः क्लेशाः ॥
avidyāsmitā-rāga-dveṣābhiniveśāḥ kleśāḥ ||
Ignorance, the sense of I-am, attachment, aversion and clinging to life are the afflictions.
Ignorance is the field of the other four (2.4): taking the impermanent, impure, painful and not-self for permanent, pure, pleasant and self (2.5).
The most hopeful sentence of the text (2.16).
हेयं दुःखमनागतम् ॥
heyaṃ duḥkham anāgatam ||
Suffering that has not yet come is to be avoided.
Word by word: heyam, to be avoided, abandoned; duḥkham, suffering; anāgatam, not yet come. Vyāsa's explanation is simple: past suffering has been lived through, present suffering is being lived; only the suffering to come can still be prevented.
When disturbing thoughts arise (2.33).
वितर्कबाधने प्रतिपक्षभावनम् ॥
vitarka-bādhane pratipakṣa-bhāvanam ||
When harmful thoughts press, cultivate their opposite.
Vitarka here means thoughts of harming, lying, stealing and the rest, whether done, caused or approved (2.34). The yamas and niyamas themselves are set out on yamas and niyamas and ahiṃsā.
Posture (2.46-2.47).
स्थिरसुखमासनम् ॥
sthira-sukham āsanam ||
The seat is steady and comfortable.
प्रयत्नशैथिल्यानन्तसमापत्तिभ्याम् ॥
prayatna-śaithilyānanta-samāpattibhyām ||
Through relaxing effort and merging the mind with the endless.
The result: one is no longer struck by the pairs of opposites (2.48), which Vyāsa illustrates with heat and cold.
Breath (2.49).
तस्मिन्सति श्वासप्रश्वासयोर्गतिविच्छेदः प्राणायामः ॥
tasmin sati śvāsa-praśvāsayor gati-vicchedaḥ prāṇāyāmaḥ ||
Once the seat is established, prāṇāyāma is the interruption of the flow of inhalation and exhalation.
Sutra 2.50 describes three movements, outward, inward and held, observed by place, time and number, becoming long and subtle; 2.51 a fourth that goes beyond both. Then the covering of the inner light thins (2.52) and the mind becomes fit for concentration (2.53).
What it changes for your practice
- A daily triad. One small discipline, one passage read, one offering of the day's effort: kriyā yoga in ten minutes.
- Name the affliction. When a strong reaction comes, ask whether it is attachment, aversion or fear (2.3), without judging it.
- Prevent, do not relive. Sutra 2.16 turns attention from regret to what can still be avoided.
- The opposite thought. Practise 2.33 once a day, on a real thought.
- Seat, then breath. A seat that is steady and easy comes first; breath work comes after (2.49).
The following book, Vibhūti-pāda, turns inward: concentration, meditation, absorption. The whole progression is summarised on the eight limbs.
Questions people ask
What does sadhana mean?
Sādhana means the means that leads straight to a goal, an accomplishment, a practice. In the title of the second book, sādhana-pāda, it is the quarter on the means of yoga.
How many sutras are in Sadhana Pada?
55, from 2.1 (kriyā yoga) to 2.55 (complete mastery of the senses). The count is the same in all common editions.
Why is the second book so important?
Because it is written for an ordinary, distracted mind. Vyāsa introduces it with the question: how can one whose mind is turned outward also be engaged in yoga? Everything that follows is an answer.
Does Sadhana Pada teach postures and breathing techniques?
It gives principles, not techniques: the seat must be steady and comfortable (2.46), effort relaxed (2.47), and prāṇāyāma is the interruption of the flow of breath (2.49-2.51). Named postures and breathing methods come from later hatha texts.
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
- Monier-Williams, Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899), entry sādhana, Cologne Digital Sanskrit Dictionaries checked October 17, 2026
- James Haughton Woods, The Yoga-System of Patañjali, Harvard Oriental Series 17 (1914), Internet Archive checked October 17, 2026