ABSTRACT
Patanjali is the compiler and systematizer of a set of aphorisms, the longest consisting of only a few lines, known as the Yoga Sutras. Scattered references are made to yoga in the Vedas, and the yogic tradition in Hinduism predates Patanjali. To many people in the West the term ‘yoga’ is associated with exercises, popular since the 1960s, in breathing and physical posture. The Yoga Sutras certainly incorporate such exercises: several of the sutras contain information such as, ‘The mind may also be calmed by expulsion and retention of the breath’, and ‘posture is…firm but relaxed through control of the natural tendencies of the body, and through meditation’. 1 An improvement in posture and breathing is not the sole nor even the primary aim of yoga. Instead, it is either a therapeutic method of freeing the mind from false beliefs, or the insight into ultimate reality, the dharmas , achievable by this method. Yoga is an intricate and integrated system consisting of metaphysics, the philosophy of mind, the theory of knowledge, ethics and the philosophy of language. It aims at the union of atman , or that within the self which is ultimately real, with Brahman , or ultimate reality in its universal aspect. 2 Patanjali's work has been of enormous influence in all schools of Buddhism that follow the meditative method, particularly that of Yogacara.82
