Patanjali's Yoga Sutras are one of the most concise and accurate texts on the philosophical system of Yoga, also presenting aspects of its psychological approach. The word “Sutra” comes from the root “siv” which means to sew, thus, they present the characteristics of being linear and linked to the previous sutra.
There are 196 sutras distributed in 4 chapters. The first chapter already begins with the introduction of Samadhi, clarifies its meaning and also postulates the mental faculties and the way to gather the senses of the mind (manas) and the intellectual activities of citta (the intellectual mind). The second chapter helps on how to identify a disturbed mind and guides a methodology to eliminate disturbances and lead the mind to other states of consciousness, in this case, an intuitive state of consciousness. It is in this chapter that the 8 components of Yoga are presented:
The third chapter describes the last 3 stages of this methodology as well as the transformations of the mind and psychic powers that can be acquired with practice.
The fourth chapter, Kaivalyam, comments on the existence of numerous mental nuclei and how only one of them has the ability to promote the recollection of mental activities. The vasanas are the thoughts elaborated by other cores, with the aim of strengthening themselves, but they also take us away from our authentic nature.
And returning to Chapter 1, sutra 2 through 3:
योगश्चित्तवृत्तिनिरोधः॥२॥
Yogaścittavṛttinirodhaḥ||2||
Yoga (yogaḥ) is the suppression (nirodhaḥ) of mental modifications (vṛtti) (citta)||2||
तदा द्रष्टुः स्वरूपेऽवस्थानम्॥३॥
Tadā draṣṭuḥ svarūpe'vasthānam||3||
Then (tadā), there is permanence (avasthānam) in the essential nature (sva-rūpe) of the Observer (draṣṭuḥ)||3||
(Then the one who sees manifests in his authentic nature.)
In other words, the mind and its vrttis (mental activities), from the moment of birth, tend to identify with everything around it, often even with things that are far from its essence. In this sense, decreasing mental activities and also the senses helps the being to find its divine manifestation.
¹ G. BARBOSA, Carlos Eduardo; “Os Yoga Sutras de Patanjali”, São Paulo, Mantra, 2015
