Ashtanga (eight limbs of yoga)
He defined the eight limbs as yamas (abstinences), niyama (observances), asana (posture), pranayama (breathing), pratyahara (withdrawal), dharana (concentration), dhyana (meditation) and samadhi (absorption).
The posture, asana, must be steady and comfortable for a long time, in order for the yogi to practice the limbs from pranayama until samadhi.
[3] Swami Vivekananda translates the sutra as "Yoga is restraining (nirodhah) the mind-stuff (citta) from taking various forms (vrittis).
[28] Āraṇya translates verse II.47 as, "asanas are perfected over time by relaxation of effort with meditation on the infinite"; this combination and practice stops the body from shaking.
Shankara gives the example of a yogin in a state of dharana on the morning Sun may be aware of its brilliance, color and orbit; the yogin in dhyana state contemplates on Sun's orbit alone for example, without being interrupted by its color, brilliance or other related ideas.
Samprajnatah and 1.18 can also be interpreted as 'with and without (four kinds of) cognition', describing a progression of meditative immersion,[71][d] while in Buddhism the terms also mean 'with or without clear comprehension'.
[75][d] Vyasa's commentary describes samprajnata as four successive stages of vitarka ("gross thought"), vicara ("subtle thought"), ananda (bliss), and asmita, the sense of "I-am-ness" or mere being, "the perception of an unified self," when vitarka, vicara and ananda have disappeared.
[64][65] The first two associations, vitarka (deliberation) and vicara (reflection), form the basis of two types of samāpatti (samadhi) which are further detailed in YS 1.42 and YS 1.44:[75][76][77] In Buddhist studies, the interpretation of vitarka-vicara as initial and sustained concentration on a meditation object has been questioned by both practitioners and scholars since the 1980s, noting that vitarka-vicare refers to normal discursive thought, "the familiar but usually unnoticed stream of mental imagery and verbalization,"[80] connecting samadhi to mindfulness and awareness of the body.
It "involves focusing on [something] and then breaking it down into its functional components" to understand it, "distinguishing the multitude of conditioning factors implicated in a phenomenal event.
"[82] Vitarka-vicara in the Buddhist dhyanas can also be seen as initial inquiry and subsequent investigation[83][84][85] of dhammas (defilements[86] and wholesome thoughts.
The explanations of the classical commentators on this point appear to be foreign to Patanjali's hierarchy of [ecstatic] states, and it seems unlikely that ananda and asmita should constitute independent levels of samadhi.
[88] Whicher refers to Vācaspati Miśra (AD 900–980), the founder of the Bhāmatī Advaita Vedanta who distinguishes savitarka-samāpatti and nirvitarka-samāpatti, and divides both in four kinds, based on the meditational object.
Vijnana Bikshu regards joy (ananda) as a state that arises when the mind passes beyond the vicara stage.
Continued practice of dispassion leads to the cessation of pratyaya (perception, thought, intention, but also the 'causes' of rebirth), leaving the mind empty and the samskaras in a latent state.
[78][n] Chip Hartranft translates YS 1.18 as "after one practices steadily to bring all thought to a standstill, these four kinds of cognition fall away, leaving only a store of latent impressions in the depth memory.
"[71] According to Bryant, the purpose of yoga is liberation from suffering, caused by entanglement with the world, by means of discriminative discernment between Purusha, the witness-consciousness, and prakriti, the cognitive apparatus including the muddled mind and the kleshas.
The eight limbs are "the means of achieving discriminative discernment," the "uncoupling of puruṣa from all connection with prakṛti and all involvement with the citta."
He refers to the three last limbs of yoga as samyama, in verses III.4 to III.5, and calls it the technology for "discerning principle" and mastery of citta and self-knowledge.
[49][96] In verse III.12, the Yogasutras state that this discerning principle then empowers one to perfect sant (tranquility) and udita (reason) in one's mind and spirit, through intentness.
