Yoga Sutras

(“aphorisms on yoga”) A set of brief sayings traditionally ascribed to the sage
Patanjali, which are the foundational
texts for the Yoga school, one of the six
schools of traditional Hindu philosophy. Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras are usually
read with a commentary ascribed to the
sage Vyasa, and this commentary has
become accepted as an integral part of
the text. The text of the Yoga Sutras is
divided into four parts, with each part
devoted to a particular theme: The first
part focuses on concentration (samadhi),
the second part on the mechanics of
spiritual development (sadhana), the
third part treats various attainments
(vibhuti), including magic powers (siddhi), and the last part describes the state
of yogic isolation (kaivalya), which the
text describes as liberation. The text presupposes the cosmology taught by the
Samkhya school, another of the six
schools, and the Yoga school is often
considered the “practical” articulation
of Samkhya theory.