10 DEFINITIONS OF YOGA FROM SANSKRIT SOURCE TEXTS

Translations by Seth Powell unless otherwise noted

Updated: Dec 3, 2018

1. tāṃ yogam iti manyate sthirām indriyadhāraṇām

When the senses are firmly reigned in, that is thought to be yoga

— Kaṭha Upaniṣad 6.11

2. yogaś citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ
Yoga is the stilling of the turnings of the mind


— Yogasūtra 1.2

3. ātmeśvara-saṃyogo yogaḥ 

Yoga is the union of the self and the Lord 


— Pañcārthabhāṣya 1.1.43 (comm. on Pāśupatasūtra 1.1)

4. samatvaṃ yoga ucyate

Yoga is known as equanimity


— Bhagavadgītā 2.48

5. yogaḥ karmasu kauśalam

Yoga is skill in action
— Bhagavadgītā 2.50

6. atha tattva-darśanābhyupāyo yogaḥ 


Yoga is the direct means to perceive reality 


— Unknown sūtra quoted in Śaṅkarācārya’s Brahmasūtrabhāṣya 2.1.3

© Yogic Studies 2018 yogicstudies.com 1

7. … ātmasthe manasi saśarīrasya sukha-duḥkhābhāvaḥ sa yogaḥ
When the mind is established in the Self, there is the absence of pleasure and
pain for an embodied one. That is yoga.

— Vaiśeṣikasūtra 5.2.17

8. yogam ekatvam icchanti vastuno ’nyena vastunā


Yoga is said to be the oneness of one entity with another.

— Mālinīvijayottaratantra 4.4

9. Now I will teach yoga, together with its ancillaries, which bestows [pure]
consciousness. Yogic experts state that yoga is the oneness of the individual
soul (jīva) with the ātman. Others understand it to be the ascertainment of
Śiva and the soul as non-different. The scholars of the Āgamas say that it is a
Knowledge which is of the nature of Śiva’s Power. Other scholars say it is the
knowledge of the primordial soul.

— Śāradātilaka 25.1-3b (trans. S. Vasudeva 2004)

10. The Goddess said: “What is yoga defined as, Lord, and what is achieved by
yoga, tell me all of this, Śaṅkara!” 



God said: “Yoga is defined as the unification of the many pairs of opposites,
[such as] the unification of inbreath and outbreath, as also one’s blood and
ones semen, the unification of the sun and the moon, [or] of the individual
soul with the supreme soul.

— Yogabīja 88-90ab (trans. S. Vasudeva 2004)

© Yogic Studies 2018 yogicstudies.com 2