The levels of samadhi taught mediante the text resemble the Buddhist jhanas. According onesto Feuerstein, the Yoga Sutras are a condensation of two different traditions, namely “eight limb yoga” (a??a?ga yoga) and action yoga (Kriya yoga). The kriya yoga part is contained con chapter 1, chapter 2 sutras 1-27, chapter 3 except sutra 54, and chapter 4. The “eight limb yoga” is described sopra chapter 2 sutras 28–55, and chapter 3 sutras 3 and 54.

There are numerous parallels durante the ancient Samkhya, Yoga and Abhidharma schools of thought, particularly from the 2nd century BCE puro the 1st century AD, notes Larson. Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras may be a synthesis of these three traditions. From the Samkhya school of Hinduism, Yoga Sutras adopt the “reflective discernment” (adhyavasaya) of prakrti and purusa (dualism), its metaphysical rationalism, and its three epistemic methods esatto gaining reliable knowledge. From Abhidharma Buddhism’s idea of nirodhasamadhi, suggests Larson, Yoga Sutras adopt the pursuit of an altered state of awareness. However, unlike Buddhism, which believes that there is neither self nor soul, Yoga is physicalist and realist, like Samkhya, per believing that each individual has verso self and soul. The third concept that Yoga Sutras synthesizes into its philosophy is the ancient ascetic traditions of isolation, meditation and introspection, as well as the yoga ideas from the 1st millennium BCE Indian texts such as Katha Upanishad, Shvetashvatara Upanishad and Maitri Upanishad.

According esatto Wujastyk, referencing Maas, Patanjali integrated yoga from older traditions durante Patanjalayogasastra, and added his own explanatory passages preciso create the unified rete di emittenti that, since 1100 CE, has been considered the work of two people. Together the compilation of Patanjali’s sutras and the Vyasabhasya, is called Patanjalayogasastra.

Yogabhashya

The Yogabhashya is a commentary on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, traditionally attributed puro the legendary Vedic sage Vyasa who is said to have composed the Mahabharata. This commentary is indispensable for the understanding of the aphoristic and terse Yoga sutras, and the study of the sutras has always referred esatto the Yogabhashya. Some scholars see Vyasa as verso later 4th or 5th century AD commentator (as opposed onesto the ancient mythic figure).

Scholars hold that both texts, the sutras and the commentary were written by one person. According preciso Philipp Verso. Maas, based on per study of the original manuscripts, Patanjali’s composition was entitled Patanjalayogasastra (“The Treatise on Yoga according sicuro Patanjali”) and consisted of both Sutras and Bha?ya. This means that the Bha?ya was in fact Patanjali’s own rete di emittenti.

The practice of writing a batteria of mytranssexualdate aphorisms with the author’s own explanation was well known at the time of Patanjali, as for example sopra Vasubandhu’s Abhidharmakosabha?ya (that, incidentally, Patanjali quotes). These research findings change the historical understanding of the yoga tradition, since they allow us to take the Bha?ya as Patanjali’s very own explanation of the meaning of his somewhat cryptic sutras.

The Yogabhashya states that ‘yoga’ durante the Yoga Sutras has the meaning of ‘samadhi’. Another commentary (the Vivarana) by per excretion Shankara, confirms the interpretation of yogah samadhih (YBh. I.1): ‘yoga’ con Patanjali’s sutra has the meaning of ‘integration’. This Shankara anche Vedantic scholar Adi Shankara (8th or 9th century). Scholarly opinion is still open on this issue.

Contents

Patanjali divided his Yoga Sutras into four chapters or books (Sanskrit Pada), containing durante all 196 aphorisms, divided as follows:

• Samadhi Pada (51 sutras). Samadhi is a state of direct and reliable perception (prama?a) where “the seer” (Purusha, anche se consciousness, the Self) abides sopra itself. Samadhi is the main technique the yogi learns by which sicuro calm the workings of the mind, whereafter Kaivalya, the isolation of ‘the seer’ from the impurities of the mind, is attained. The author describes yoga and then the nature and the means of attaining samadhi.