Patañjali

Patañjali is the name tradition gives to the compiler of the Yoga Sūtras, the classical handbook of the Yoga school of Indian philosophy. Almost nothing is known of his life. Scholars date the text anywhere from the second century BCE to around 400 CE, and many doubt that he was the same person as the famous grammarian Patañjali. In 195 or 196 terse aphorisms he defines yoga as the stilling of the fluctuations of the mind, sets out an eightfold path running from ethical restraints to meditative absorption, and names the goal as kaivalya, the isolation of pure consciousness from the workings of nature. His framework borrows much from Sāṃkhya but adds Īśvara, a special self, as an object of devotion. Modern yoga still treats his eight limbs as a reference point.

Key ideas

• Yoga is the stilling of the fluctuations of the mind (citta-vṛtti-nirodha); then the seer rests in its own nature.
• The path has eight limbs: restraints, observances, posture, breath control, withdrawal of the senses, concentration, meditation and absorption (samādhi).
• Suffering springs from afflictions rooted in ignorance, above all mistaking the changing mind for the true self.
• Liberation (kaivalya) is the isolation of pure consciousness (puruṣa) from nature (prakṛti).
• Devotion to Īśvara, a special self untouched by affliction and karma, is one route to absorption.

Major works

• Yoga Sūtras (c. 2nd century BCE – c. 400 CE, date disputed)
• Yogabhāṣya (commentary traditionally ascribed to Vyāsa; some scholars argue it is Patañjali's own, c. 400 CE)

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