The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali : an introduction

The Yoga Sutras are the most lucid and authoritative of all the texts that serve as maps for the inner journey. The results of many hundreds of years of experience, the sutras  are not necessarily the work of one author. They were compiled by Patanjali, about whom we know nothing except that he lived in India, probably in the 3rd century before Christ. Whatever their origin, the Sutras  are the purest distillation of the knowledge of Yoga. In just under two hundred crystalline verses, Patanjali codified a teaching of such transluscence taht he created one of the most remarkable works of spiritual literature in the world.

Patanjali : Sculptural Representation

The word Sutra  means thread. As a literary style it is an aphorism of extreme brevity. All the Indian philosophical  systems including the works on ritual, grammar and meter, have used the Sutra form , as many of the Buddhist writings. Because a Sutra is so succinct - Patanjali's average only six words each in Sanskrit - a lively and varied commentary has arisen. Each new commentator brings the lights of his own understanding to bear ont he original gnomic texts; his conclusions then become part of the ongoing tradition.

Sage Vyasa : Illustration

The earliest commentary ont he Yoga Sutras dates from the fifth century and is attributed to Vyasa, of whom we know little. Tradition loosely identifies him with the compiler of the Mahabharata and the Puraanas, but Vyasa, means "the arranger", and may well be a title given to renowned scholars than the name of an individual. Vyasa's interpretation has been considered virtually indispensable for an understanding of the Sutras and has been the starting point for nearly all subsequent commentary.

As the nodes of what was, and still is, essentially an oral teaching, the Sutras, are almost like lecture notes, mnemonics. Each Sutra resembles  a knot of the finest thread that must be teased out and unraveled, so that every inch of its meaning is displayed. Only then can the whole fabric of the teaching be woven together.

The spinning of this thread that guides us back out of the maze of ignorance is the work of a teacher (guru). He by definition, is one who enjoys the higher levels of consciousness described in the text. Teaching from his own experience, he is able to lead the pupil form darkness (gu) to light (ru).