The Yoga Sutras

The Yoga Sutras were written down somewhere between  500BC and 250BC by Patanjali (Pa-tawn-ja-lee). Patanjali is considered to be the organizer and recorder of the Sutras not the originator.  While the practice of Yoga predates Patanjali by 2500 years, he is still considered in the modern world to be the Father of Yoga.  He knew and understood Yoga to be first and foremost the scientific practice of understanding and mastering the mind.

Patanjali wrote down 196 Sutras (ideas or threads) on the practice of Yoga.  These threads comprise a road map, leading one to the ultimate goal of Samadhi or absorption with the Divine.  Some have called this place super-consciousness or enlightenment.  You cannot travel outwardly to Samadhi, it is a journey through the inner workings of one's own self.  Do not be fooled, the terrain can be rough and at times down right obnoxious!  Over and over again, you meet yourself round corners and stumble through the obstacles of who you think you are... only to realize that it was equivalent to a dream.  What you always thought "was" really wasn't after all.  To ad insult to our injured ego, Yoga asks us to accept all that is, as it is.  To become the Observer not the Judger.  Further still, be the observer of the Observer.  At first it all sounds kinda crazy... until you begin to see... begin to become the observed and the Observer.

The first Sutra is the introduction and tells us that what we are about to read is an exposition on Yoga.  The second Sutra says that Yoga is the restraint of the modification of the mind-stuff.  In Sanskrit it is written as chitta vritti nirodhah.  When I think about chitta, which translated means mind-stuff, it sounds a lot like the word chatter.  Vritti means to swirl, go in circles at a dizzying pace.  So to practice Yoga one is committing to restraining the chattering vortex of the un-restful mind.  The next 194 Sutras are a how to guide on bringing calm to the storm and liberating one's true self from one's mind.

While Yoga is highly beneficial for the body, all physical practice is meant to aid in the focusing, cleaning and clearing of our thought processes and assuaging the endless chatter and changing thoughts that can swirl incessantly.  Yoga is quite simply about transcending the mind.  To transcend we must practice.