The True Nature of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras

“The object of focus must inspire passion in you.”

—Sadhguru

Apart from his realization, Patanjali was a kind of intellect that would make top scientists look like kindergarten children–that is the kind of understanding he had about every aspect of life. In Patanjali’s time thousands of years ago, yoga had started specializing in such a way that there were hundreds of schools of yoga. It is like the specialization in medical science today. Thirty years ago, you just had one family doctor. Now, for every part of the body, you have a different doctor. Maybe in another fifty years, it will become like this that if you want a medical checkup, you need one hundred doctors. By the time you get an appointment with these one hundred doctors, either you are well or you are dead.

Once specialization crosses a certain point, it tends to become ridiculous in terms of practicality. There is value in studying the details, but in terms of people learning and making use of it, it becomes quite ridiculous. This happened to yoga at that time–hundreds of schools handling different dimensions of yoga. Patanjali saw that it had become completely impractical, so he codified yoga in almost two hundred sutras.

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