The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: The Book of the Spiritual Man
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: The Book of the Spiritual Man
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali is not a book you read once. It is a book you return to for the rest of your life. Composed of 196 terse aphorisms written in Sanskrit around the fourth century CE, this ancient text offers a precise, systematic methodology for training the mind and achieving liberation from suffering. Unlike modern yoga as exercise, the sutras concern themselves almost entirely with the interior landscape: the ethics that prepare a practitioner, the concentration that stabilizes awareness, and the progressive stages of meditation leading to samadhi, the state of complete absorption where the seer and the seen become one. Sri Swami Satchidananda's commentary renders these cryptic threads accessible, grounding abstract philosophy in lived experience. The sutras propose a radical idea: that human beings are not trapped by their minds but can, through disciplined practice, awaken to their true nature. Whether you come to it seeking inner peace, mental clarity, or the deepest spiritual realization, this text remains the definitive manual for anyone willing to take the journey inward.
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“We are not going to change the whole world, but we can change ourselves and feel free as birds. We can be serene even in the midst of calamities and, by our serenity, make others more tranquil. Serenity is contagious. If we smile at someone, he or she will smile back. And a smile costs nothing. We should plague everyone with joy. If we are to die in a minute, why not die happily, laughing? (136-137)””
— Patañjali
“If you have done something meritorious, you experience pleasure and happiness; if wrong things, suffering. A happy or unhappy life is your own creation. Nobody else is responsible. If you remember this, you won’t find fault with anybody. You are your own best friend as well as your worst enemy. (99)””
— Patañjali
“Truth is the same always. Whoever ponders it will get the same answer. Buddha got it. Patanjali got it. Jesus got it. Mohammed got it. The answer is the same, but the method of working it out may vary this way or that. (115)””
— Patañjali
“[T]he period between four and six in the morning is called the , the Brahmic time, or divine period, and is a very sacred time to meditate. (140)””
— Patañjali
“If you do not pour water on your plant, what will happen? It will slowly wither and die. Our habits will also slowly wither and die away if we do not give them an opportunity to manifest. You need not fight to stop a habit. Just don’t give it an opportunity to repeat itself. (67)””
— Patañjali
“At various points in our lives, or on a quest, and for reasons that often remain obscure, we are driven to make decisions which prove with hindsight to be loaded with meaning. (225)””
— Patañjali
“There’s no value in digging shallow wells in a hundred places. Decide on one place and dig deep. Even if you encounter a rock, use dynamite and keep going down. If you leave that to dig another well, all the first effort is wasted and there is no proof you won’t hit rock again. (52)””
— Patañjali
“The five points of , together with the five points of , remind us of the Ten Commandments of the Christtian and Jewish faiths, as well as of the ten virtues of Buddhism. In fact, there is no religion without these moral or ethical codes. All spiritual life should be based on these things. They are the foundation stones without which we can never build anything lasting. (127)””
— Patañjali
“Mere philosophy will not satisfy us. We cannot reach the goal by mere words alone. Without practice, nothing can be achieved. (3)””
— Patañjali
