Patanjali compiled the Yoga Sutras, 196 short aphorisms that systematize the philosophy and practice of yoga. Drawing on older traditions, he defined yoga as the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind. His eight-limbed path moves from ethical restraints through physical postures and breath control to progressively deeper states of meditation, culminating in samadhi, a state of complete absorption. The text is terse, almost mathematical. Centuries of commentary have grown around it.
Patanjali compiled and organized centuries of yoga philosophy into 196 brief aphorisms. The text does not invent yoga but gives it a coherent structure for the first time, drawing on older practices and weaving them into a single thread.