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The Historical and Philosophical Background of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras

Yogarishi Sri Patanjali, also known as the Father of Yoga, is thought to have written the Yoga Sutras between 300BCE and 200CE. They are considered to be the most important classical text, yet were written after the Vedas, Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita.

The foremost aim of the Sutras is to offer practical techniques which can enable anyone to achieve ‘moksha’ or liberation from human suffering. The word ‘sutra’ means thread signifying that each statement offers an essential truth which can be interpreted according to ones own level of experience. As such, the Sutras can have many interpretations and meanings but are non-religious.

In terms of the Astika Darshana , the six view points, through which the nature of reality may be known, the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali are based upon Samkhya . The Samkhyan framework of reality enumerates or categorizes the evolution of matter or Prakriti helping the practitioner to see how involution or the movement back to Purusha, Pure Consciousness, can be achieved. It outlines 26 tattwas or categories of existence helping us to discern the difference between Purusha and Prakriti. It helps us to see how our mind is structured so we may develop Buddhi, our more sattvic power of discrimination, our higher intelligence and how our Manas (Manomaya Kosha ) is purely our sense mind, helping to analyse and store information. We see that we are not in essence our mind, which is part of Prakriti (manifested prana or energy) but rather pure consciousness, Purusha (unmanifested prana). The most significant thing is that we can, through the practices of the Sutras actually experience this dualism and one day access metaphysical (unified) knowledge directly.

Through Samkhya we can also see that Patanjali offers us the possibility of using Ishwara (or Nirguna Brahman) as a more personal reflection of the Source, this option means we can bring a more religious bent to our practices but it is helpful for us that Ishwara is seen purely as a Special Intelligence which has never been born meaning the practices within the Sutras are open to all. Also the samkhyan basis means we can utilize the concepts of the Gunas so that we can endeavour to bring more Sattva into our lives to aid our transformation.

The name Patanjali is thought to indicate a desire to teach yoga. He is said to have fallen, ‘pat’ from heaven into the open palms of a woman, ‘anjali’. However, it is unknown whether Patanjali wrote the entire Sutras himself of whether other authors contributed.

Within the text, Patanjali describes two paths, Kriya Yoga and Ashtanga Yoga. He is most well known for describing the Eight Limbs of Yoga (Ashtanga) yet many authorities on the subject believe that the system was already known.