Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
The mind, and how to settle it. Yoga's founding text.
What it is
Around 195 short aphorisms, compiled by Patanjali roughly eighteen centuries ago. It is the closest thing yoga has to a founding document, and it is almost entirely about the mind.
Why it matters
This is where yoga gets its definition and its map. The eight limbs that later traditions build on, posture and breath among them, are laid out here in a few compact lines.
Where to start
Read the opening handful of aphorisms, then the posture verses in chapter two. You can leave chapter three, a catalogue of yogic powers, for much later.
The whole definition in one line: yoga is the settling of the mind.
Yoga is restraining the mind-stuff (Chitta) from taking various forms (Vrittis).
YS 1.2tr. Swami Vivekananda (1896)read it →What a posture actually is, steady and at ease.
Posture is that which is firm and pleasant.
YS 2.46tr. Swami Vivekananda (1896)read it →A practical way to keep the mind clear around other people.
Friendship, mercy, gladness, and indifference, being thought of in regard to subjects, happy, unhappy, good, and evil respectively, pacify the Chitta.
YS 1.33tr. Swami Vivekananda (1896)read it →