“For a keen student this one Sutra would be enough because the rest of them only explain this one.”

– Sri Swami Satchidananda, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

“This is the heart of Raja Yoga. Each word is heavy with meaning. This sutra alone could form the basis of a lifetime of contemplation and practice.”

– Reverend Jaganath Carrera, Inside the Yoga Sutras

“…once the basics are grasped, the teachings of Yoga become progressively clearer as one advances through the text….this sutra will be unpacked, explained, reiterated, and elaborated on repeatedly and in great detail throughout the remainder of the text such that one soon becomes familiar with the system.”

– Edwin F. Bryant, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

“Yoga consists of keeping the mind quiet and wakeful so that one is totally present to what one is doing. Thoughts no longer rush forth of themselves in all directions, but are fully controlled and directed. …The other aphorisms will not be properly understood unless they are approached in relation to this one.”

– Bernard Bouanchaud, The Essence of Yoga

“…ultimate reality is perceived as the product of two distinct oncological categories: prakrti, or the primordial material matrix of the physical universe, and purusa, pure awareness, the innermost conscious self or soul.

…The essential point Patanjali is making here is that since all forms or activities of the mind are products of prakrti, matter, and completely distinct from the soul or true self, purusa, they must all be restrained in order for the soul to be realized by the yogi as an autonomous entity distinct from the mind.”

– Edwin F. Bryant, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

“The citta [mind] is not a separate component of Prakriti [matter] or an equivalaent to the Purusha [soul]. It is the reflected consciousness of the Purusha on Prakriti.”

– Reverend Jaganath Carrera, Inside the Yoga Sutras

“…intelligence…ego…mind. These layers, …the “internal body”, constitute the inner life of an individual, and the purusa soul is cloaked in these psychic layers prior to receiving a gross physical body equipped with senses.

…intelligence…is the most important aspect of the citta [mind] as it is from its function of discrimination that liberation is achieved.

…ego…delimits awareness, which is potentially omnipresent, and refracts it into the contours of the particular body and mind within which it finds itself.

…mind…imposes a conceptual structure on the chaotic field of raw sensations, recognizing and identifying sensual impetuses and categorizing them…. It exhibits attraction to some sensory possibilities and aversion to others — in other words, the functions of feeling, emotion, and desiring. It is the bridge connecting the world of sense objects as accessed through the sense organs; the ego, which appropriates this under the notion of I; and the intelligence, which judges, evaluates, and strategizes over the input…what to do about it, how to respond or act.”

– Edwin F. Bryant, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

“Yoga begins with the mind, as this is the part of citta that comes into contact with the objects and creates the feelings.”

– B. K. S. Iyengar, Core of the Yoga Sutras

“A vritti is not simply a thought; it is the activity of forming conceptions from individual thoughts that arise in the mind….The mind takes [a] solitary thought (pratyaya) and begins a tornado-like dance, rapidly weaving together webs of thoughts in a frenetic search for other, related thoughts….We are at the axis of a universe that we created; we are the weavers who spin the realities of our life….What is stunning is that the version of reality that we have created through vritti activity is based on whirls of largely nonsequential activity in which our attention constantly shifts (often rather wildly) among many different thoughts, beliefs (both true and untrue), and memories. You can confirm this yourself after a few minutes of attempting quiet inner awareness.”

– Reverend Jaganath Carrera, Inside the Yoga Sutras

“The presence of distracting activities, thoughts, ideas, and baggage is what blocks us from experiencing our inner light of awareness.”

– Nicolai Bachman, The Path of the Yoga Sutras

“…nirodha’s ability to still the activity of the vrittis is not due to brute repression, but a process of selective focus: redirecting and holding attention on one object or idea….[It} requires the cultivation of discipline, the redirection of attention, the attainment of discriminative discernment, the development of nonattachment, and is supported by clear moral and ethical principles….practices such as worship, prayer, selfless service, and study that also rely on selective focus lead to releasing the hold of the vrittis on the mind.”

– Reverend Jaganath Carrera, Inside the Yoga Sutras

“The entire outside world is based on your thoughts and mental attitude. The entire world is your projection….Things outside neither bind nor liberate you; only your attitude toward them does that”

–Sri Swami Satchidananda, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

“The mind is the mirror in which we perceive ourselves. If it is distorted by vrittis, we often see ourselves as limited, frail beings, not one with the Self….Nirodha is the means to regain the memory of who we truly are. We cease to identify with the vrittis. We realize that all of our turmoil, fears, doubts, anger, and depression are in the mind, not in our Self.”

– Reverend Jaganath Carrera, Inside the Yoga Sutras

“The real secret to making progress in Yoga lies in cultivating helpful habits while breaking harmful ones.”

– Reverend Jaganath Carrera, Inside the Yoga Sutras