Part 1 — The definition (Sutra 1.1–1.4)

1.1 अथ योगानुशासनम् — Atha yogānuśāsanam "Now, the discipline of yoga is expounded."

1.2 योगश्चित्तवृत्तिनिरोधः — Yogaś citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ "Yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind."

1.3 तदा द्रष्टुः स्वरूपेऽवस्थानम् — Tadā draṣṭuḥ svarūpe 'vasthānam "Then the seer abides in its own true nature."

1.4 वृत्तिसारूप्यमितरत्र — Vṛtti-sārūpyam itaratra "Otherwise, the seer takes on the shape of the fluctuations."

The core claim: the mind is a lake, thoughts are waves, and the seer (the real you) is the lake's surface. When the waves churn, the surface reflects fragments — you mistake yourself for your thoughts. When the waves settle, the surface reflects what is real. You are not your thoughts; you are the one watching your thoughts. Every practice in this library — imagination, autosuggestion, meditation, breath — is one method of stilling waves.

Part 2 — What the mind is made of: the five vrittis (1.5–1.11)

Patanjali classifies every mental fluctuation into five kinds:

The practice is not to destroy these — it is to stop identifying with them. Thoughts arise and pass like weather; the sky is not the weather.

Part 3 — The two engines: abhyasa and vairagya (1.12–1.16)

1.12 ताभ्यां तन्निरोधः — "Their cessation comes through practice and dispassion."

• Abhyasa (practice): repeated, sustained effort to hold a steady state. Sutra 1.14: practice becomes established when done "for a long time, without interruption, with devotion." — the exact three conditions every system in this library demands.
• Vairagya (dispassion): letting go of the results. Practice without grasping. You do the work; the outcome is not your business. (This is Ishvara pranidhana wearing a different name.)

These two are the engine: effort in, attachment out. One without the other fails — effort without dispassion burns out; dispassion without effort is laziness.

Part 4 — The obstacles and the one remedy (1.30–1.33)

1.30 The nine obstacles: vyādhi (illness), styāna (staleness), saṁśaya (doubt), pramāda (carelessness), ālasya (laziness), avirati (sensuality), bhrānti-darśana (false perception), alabdha-bhūmikatva (failure to reach a stage), anavasthitatva (instability — falling back after progress).

Every one of these will visit every practitioner. The list is valuable because it normalizes the experience: the obstacle is not a sign you are failing; it is a named stage of the path. You are not supposed to be free of obstacles; you are supposed to keep practicing through them.

1.33 चित्तप्रसादनम् — Citta-prasādanam "The mind becomes clear and serene through friendliness toward the happy, compassion for the unhappy, delight in the virtuous, and equanimity toward the unvirtuous."

The one remedy for all obstacles: the four attitudes — be glad for others' joy, kind to others' pain, appreciative of the good, and undisturbed by the bad. This is the shortest complete emotional practice in the sutras, and it can be done anywhere, anytime, in ten seconds.

Part 5 — Kriya Yoga, the shortcut (2.1–2.2)

2.1 तपः स्वाध्यायेश्वरप्रणिधानानि क्रियायोगः "Tapas, svadhyaya, and Ishvara pranidhana — this is Kriya Yoga."

Before the eight limbs, the practice is three things:

1. Tapas — disciplined heat: show up daily, especially when you don't want to. The friction burns old patterns. (Your Surya Namaskar, your daily script, your 100 Chalisa on Saturdays — all tapas.)
2. Svadhyaya — self-study: reading the scriptures (these pages) and honestly observing yourself. Not self-criticism — self-observation.
3. Ishvara pranidhana — surrender to the higher: do the work, release the outcome.

That is the entire engine of this library in three words: show up, observe, surrender.

Part 6 — The kleshas: the five root causes of suffering (2.3–2.9)

2.3 The five kleshas: avidyā (ignorance), asmitā (egoism), rāga (attachment), dveṣa (aversion), abhiniveśa (fear of death).

The kleshas are the soil in which the vrittis grow. You do not fight them one by one; you cut the root (avidya — the false identification), and the others wither. Sutra 2.16: "The suffering that is yet to come is to be avoided" — it is avoidable, because it is caused, and causes can be changed.

Part 7 — The Eight Limbs (Ashtanga, 2.29) — with daily application

1. Yama — the five restraints (how you treat the world)

2. Niyama — the five observances (how you treat yourself)

3. Asana — the seat

Steady, comfortable posture — the body still enough to forget. (Your Surya Namaskar and sitting practice are this limb.) The posture is not the goal; the posture is the container.

4. Pranayama — the breath

Extension of the life-force through breath control. Inhale 5, exhale 8 (see 14). The breath is the lever the mind cannot ignore — when the breath calms, the mind has nothing to hold onto.

5. Pratyahara — the senses turned inward

The senses stop reaching out; attention stops leaking. This happens naturally in the last minutes of your meditation — do not force it; let the breath bring it. The phone in the other room during your morning practice is pratyahara in action.

6. Dharana — concentration

Holding the mind on one point — one breath, one word, one image. This is the SATS scene held still; this is what 13 trains nightly. The mind will wander; the practice is the return.

7. Dhyana — meditation

The holding becomes effortless; the stream of attention flows without tension. Concentration is gripping the thread; meditation is the thread unspooling by itself. You cannot force this stage — you can only keep doing dharana until it becomes dhyana.

8. Samadhi — absorption

The meditator, the meditating, and the object of meditation dissolve into one awareness. The wave returns to the lake. Patanjali describes a ladder within samadhi — from savitarka (with thought) through savicara (with subtle thought), sananda (with bliss), sasmita (with ego-sense) to asamprajnata (beyond all seeds) — but the practical instruction is simple: keep practicing dharana; the rest unfolds.

Part 8 — The ladder in one day

Part 9 — Freedom: kaivalya (the destination)

The sutras end with kaivalya — isolation, freedom: the seer established in its own nature, no longer shaped by the fluctuations (1.3, restated as the whole goal). It is not withdrawal from life; it is the end of being pushed around by life. The sage lives fully, loves fully, acts fully — but is not at the mercy of the weather inside the mind. That is the destination this library's daily practices are pointed at, whether the day is a good day or a bad day.

⚑ Micro-details

• Waves settle faster if you stop adding to them — the "do not argue with the doubting mind" rule in 13 is Patanjali applied
• Progress is measured in return time: how quickly you notice the mind has wandered and return it — that speed is the practice
• The limbs are not sequential mountains; they are one day, repeated
• Sutra 1.14's three conditions — long time, without interruption, with devotion — are the same three conditions as the Five Systems
• The four attitudes of 1.33 are the fastest remedy: use them the moment an obstacle appears
• The kleshas are not enemies to hate; they are visitors to observe — observation is already disidentification