Intellectual setting
The Yoga Sūtra shares much with Sāṃkhya but develops a practical discipline and a role for Īśvara that its commentators variously interpret.
Key ideas
Cessation of mental fluctuations
Yoga disciplines the changing activities of mind so consciousness can be distinguished from them.
Eight limbs
Ethical restraints, observances, bodily practice, breath, withdrawal, concentration, meditation, and absorption structure practice.
Legacy
Classical Yoga traditions and modern global yoga reception repeatedly return to the sūtras, though their historical interpretation is diverse.
Scholarly notes
Author and text · contested
Traditional attribution of the Yoga Sūtra to Patañjali does not settle its exact date, redactional history, or identification with grammarians bearing the same name.