Spirit of Patanjali’s Yoga & Asana Sutras

4 min readOct 30, 2019

A few sutras from Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras and its relation with the teachings of Gita. Exploring the sensor imaging, configuration and its effects on duality.

atha yogānuśāsanam

And now… we start the Yoga Sutras.

yogaḥ cittavṛtti nirodhaḥ

Yoga is the restrain of thoughts and vibrations in the the mind.

tadā draṣṭuḥ svarūpe avasthānam

Then one can discover his own nature (only after the thoughts and mental activity is in rest)

vṛtti sārūpyam itaratra

Otherwise… he is just the imagery of his senses and thoughts

vṛttayaḥ pañcatayyaḥ kliṣṭā akliṣṭāḥ

The oscillations and streams of the chitta are five-fold.. Some of them painful and some of them not painful.

pramāṇa viparyaya vikalpa nidrā smṛtayaḥ

The five envelopes of the chitta are perception, false knowledge, false perception, sleep and memory.

In the teachings of Gita and Upanishads-We have the body at the gross level. The Sense organs indriyas are indeed superior as they help in gathering information about our surroundings and help us with the perception and imaging of the world. The mind manas dwells on recollections and is even superior. The buddhi is the centre of discerning and discrimination and is even more superior. Superior to the sense organs, mind, buddhi is the soul within.

The sense organs dwell on the objects around it. There is a constant perception and imagery.. Sometime with a background defocus and focus only on points of interest. Sometimes shut off like in times of sleep.. Sometimes recalibrated at higher performance as in Dharana where in High Definition data is streamed in real time and precision.

The sense organs and its imaging have mild likes and dislikes -the raaga and dweshaas. Inside the mind manas, they get recollected, amplified and replayed as kaama and krodha. These are born from the rajas which is the source of action. It is upto the buddhi to allow the ego ahankara to seep in or to control the desire and kaama.

The desire is indeed very deep rooted. At the doors of the senses, mind and intellect, they sit there deep rooted and with a burning insatiable appetite.

O Arjuna, cut asunder this eternal enemy of desire and recalibrate reestablish yourself by your self knowing that the soul is greater than the mind.

We binge eat chips without even thinking about it.. Or pass through a coffee shop and just acknowledge the good aroma.. This is the work of the sense organs at level 1. We start craving for chips.. This is at level 2 at the mind.. The intellect says.. after all the chips is for you.. or let us start dieting from next week..or enough of binge eating.. this is intellect behaving at level 3.

anubhūta viṣaya asaṁpramoṣaḥ smṛtiḥ

Smrithi or Memory or Mana does not allow the mental impressions to escape.

abhyāsa vairāgyābhyāṁ tannirodhaḥ

The oscillations and streams can be controlled through practise and vairagya.

The dualities and sukha dukha are matra sparshesu .. an imagery of the experience and senses.. Just like seasons they come and go, the dualities of raaga dwesha, sukha dukha, victory and defeat, profit and loss are mere imageries of our senses.

Yogastha kuru karmaani.. Perform from the seat of Yoga. Yoga Karmasu kaushalam.. Yoga calls for dexterity and skillfulness. Yoga samatavam uchyathe.. Yoga calls for balance and equipoise.

The stream of senses can be quite powerful indeed just like the wind blowing off the boat from its voyage. If needed, just retract your senses like the tortoise and let your calm be reestablished. Let the streams of senses filter and trickle in the ocean of your inner calmness.

In his Astanga Yoga, Sage Patanjali defines Asana as a means to realise Yoga and union with the infinity by controlling the body through the mind.