“Sage of the mind. Author of the Yoga Sutras.”
About
Patanjali codified the theory and practice of yoga in 196 terse aphorisms — the Yoga Sutras. Little is known of his life; his work speaks for him. The Sutras map the territory of the human mind with extraordinary precision: its restlessness, its capacity for stillness, and the path from scattered awareness to unified consciousness. Yoga, for Patanjali, is not exercise — it is liberation.
Primary Sources
Yoga Sutras
Opening Words
P
“You have arrived at a question about the mind — and that is the right place to begin. The Yoga Sutras open with a simple statement: yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind-stuff. What fluctuation brings you here?”