Patanjali Yoga Sutras: The next major step came with Patanjali and his profound treatise ‘Patanjali Yoga Sutras‘. For the first time the practices of Yoga were codified, organised and Yoga was given a definition and structure that guides us even today. In fact all that we know of Yoga today is based on the tenets of Yoga (called Raja yoga) that Patanjali laid. The yoga sutras were passed on verbally from Guru to student and thus the knowledge was kept in tact; later to be printed in countless books.
The great yogi defined Yoga as such: “Yogas Chitta Vritti Nirodhah“. In four eloquent, terse words he described the end-result of Yoga: ‘Yoga is the cessation of all modifications of the mind’.
He also laid out an 8-step process of attaining Yoga; which included
1)Yama (5 abstentions),
2)Niyama (5 observances),
3)Asana (meditative sitting posture; and not the physical postures we know today as asanas),
4)Pranayama (breath & life-force control),
5)Pratyahara (sense-withdrawal),
6)Dharana (single-pointed focus),
7)Dhyaan(meditation) and finally
8)Samadhi (liberation).
1)Yama (5 abstentions),
2)Niyama (5 observances),
3)Asana (meditative sitting posture; and not the physical postures we know today as asanas),
4)Pranayama (breath & life-force control),
5)Pratyahara (sense-withdrawal),
6)Dharana (single-pointed focus),
7)Dhyaan(meditation) and finally
8)Samadhi (liberation).
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