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The Journey In Library · Sacred Texts · No. 13

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

The founding text of yoga, in Sanskrit and plain English with notes

Sanskrit · c. 2nd century BCE – 4th century CE · Yoga

1.2

योगश्चित्तवृत्तिनिरोधः ॥

yogaś citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ ||

Yoga is the stilling of the movements of the mind.

In 195 compressed aphorisms, Patanjali sets out what the mind is, why it suffers, and how it can be brought to stillness, including the famous eight limbs of yoga. Each sutra comes with a plain-English translation and notes that unpack the technical terms.

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From the book

“Yoga is the stilling of the movements of the mind.” With that definition, Patanjali begins the text on which classical yoga rests.

A sutra is a deliberately compressed statement, meant to be memorized and then unpacked by a teacher. This edition does some of that unpacking: short notes explain the technical terms and the steps of the argument wherever a sutra would otherwise be hard to follow.

What's inside

  1. About this edition and key terms
  2. Chapter One: on absorption
  3. Chapter Two: on practice, including the eight limbs
  4. Chapter Three: on powers, and why not to chase them
  5. Chapter Four: on freedom

About this edition

The original Sanskrit in Devanagari script, with a new translation into plain, modern English written for The Journey In, and short notes where a verse needs context.

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