Key idea of the Yoga Sūtras
kriyā-yoga · the yoga of action
Discipline, study and devotion to Īśvara: yoga for a mind not yet still.
Book II opens with kriyā yoga, the yoga of action: discipline (tapas), study (svādhyāya) and devotion to Īśvara (2.1). Vyāsa explains why it comes here. Book I described the yoga of a mind already concentrated; this begins to show how even an outward-turned mind can reach it. Kriyā yoga has two aims: it cultivates absorption and thins the afflictions (2.2). It does not destroy them at a stroke. All three parts return among the observances of the eight limbs (2.32), each with its own fruit: perfection of body and senses from discipline (2.43), communion with one's chosen deity from study (2.44), and perfection in absorption from devotion to Īśvara (2.45). Vyāsa glosses discipline as what reduces impurity without disturbing the mind's calm, study as reciting purifying words such as Om or studying the texts on liberation, and devotion as offering all actions to the supreme teacher, or giving up their fruit (on 2.1).
Vyāsa
“It has been stated what the yoga is of one whose mind is concentrated. [This sutra] gives the start to the problem [which considers] how even one whose mind-stuff is emergent may be concentrated (yukta) in concentration (yoga).”
Vyāsa's Yoga-bhāṣya in J. H. Woods' translation (1914), p. 103.
How it has been read
Kriyā yoga is read sometimes as preparation and sometimes as a complete path. Vācaspati Miśra explains it as what the outward-turned mind needs, since practice and non-attachment do not arise in it at once (on 2.1).
A common misreading
Tapas is often rendered 'austerity' and imagined as self-punishment. Vyāsa limits it to discipline that does not disturb the calm of the mind (on 2.1).
Where the text defines it
- 2.1 Discipline, study and devotion to Īśvara are the yoga of action.
- 2.2 It cultivates absorption and thins the afflictions.
- 2.32 The observances are purity, contentment, discipline, study and devotion to Īśvara.
- 2.43 From discipline, as impurity wears away, comes perfection of body and senses.
- 2.44 From study comes communion with one's chosen deity.
- 2.45 From devotion to Īśvara comes perfection in absorption.