Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
Patanjali's 196 sūtras codifying the practice of Yoga across four padas (Samādhi, Sādhana, Vibhūti, Kaivalya). Charles Johnston's 1912 interpretive translation.
Source context· Indian stream · Ancient Indian cultural impulse
- Stream
- Indian
- Cultural impulse
- Ancient Indian (1st post-Atlantean cultural age)
- Composed
- c. 200 CE
- Written down
- Greco-Latin (4th post-Atlantean cultural age) manuscript epoch
- Soul-faculty
- Sentient Soul
What this work carries
The Yoga Sutras codify the ancient Indian yogic discipline of withdrawal from the sense-world and the stilling of mental modifications (citta-vritti-nirodha) toward the recovery of a remembered spiritual reality. Patanjali's eight-limbed path (ashtanga) preserves in technical form the inward soul-training originally cultivated by the holy Rishis of the ancient Indian epoch.
Language frame
Composed in compressed Sanskrit aphorisms across four padas (Samadhi, Sadhana, Vibhuti, Kaivalya), the text functions as a mnemonic compendium presupposing oral commentary. Charles Johnston's 1912 translation renders it within a theosophically-inflected English idiom contemporary with Steiner's own work.
Steiner’s engagement
- GA 95, 1906-09-03Steiner names the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali as the old Indian classic exemplifying the form of instruction proper to oriental schooling, distinguishing it from the path appropriate to the modern Western consciousness soul.
Cross-tradition congruence
- Bhagavad Gita (Krishna's yoga teaching)Both texts systematize the yogic disciplines of the ancient Indian stream, though the Gita situates them dramatically while Patanjali abstracts them into technical sutras.
- Buddhist eightfold pathPatanjali's ashtanga (eight limbs) parallels the Buddhist eightfold path as parallel codifications of post-Vedic soul-disciplines arising in the same cultural matrix.
- 1Book I — Samādhi Pāda — The path of contemplative absorption
51 sūtras defining yoga (citta-vṛtti-nirodha — the stilling of mind-fluctuations), the kleśas, the modes of consciousness, and the progressive stages of samādhi from saṃprajñāta to asaṃprajñāta.
5,688 words - 2Book II — Sādhana Pāda — The path of practice
55 sūtras on Kriyā Yoga (austerity, study, surrender), the five kleśas, the law of karma, and the first five limbs of the Eightfold Path (yama, niyama, āsana, prāṇāyāma, pratyāhāra).
7,616 words - 3Book III — Vibhūti Pāda — The path of supernatural attainments
56 sūtras on the inner three limbs (dhāraṇā, dhyāna, samādhi = saṃyama) and the siddhis — the supersensible perceptions and powers that arise from concentrated meditation on specific objects.
10,181 words - 4Book IV — Kaivalya Pāda — The path of isolation / liberation
34 sūtras on the dissolution of citta into Puruṣa, the nature of liberation (kaivalya), the gunas in their final resolution, and the distinction between seer and seen at the threshold of release.
7,009 words
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