The Patanjali Yoga Darshan
Everything we teach traces back to one text — the Yoga Sutras of Maharishi Patanjali, composed roughly two thousand years ago as a systematic map of the mind and a path beyond its disturbances.
A way of seeing, not a belief system
In the Indian tradition, a darshan is a "viewpoint" — one of six classical schools that examine reality and the self through a distinct method. The Yoga Darshan is the school built around Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, closely paired with Samkhya philosophy's map of consciousness and matter.
Patanjali opens with a definition rather than a doctrine: yoga is the stilling of the fluctuations of the mind (चित्तवृत्ति निरोध). When those fluctuations settle, the sutras say, the seer rests in its own true nature.
The four padas of the Yoga Sutras
Patanjali's 195 aphorisms are organised into four chapters, moving from theory to practice to power to freedom.
Samadhi Pada
The chapter on absorption — what the mind is, what disturbs it, and what stillness looks like when it settles.
Sadhana Pada
The chapter on practice — introduces Kriya Yoga and the eight limbs of Ashtanga as the working path.
Vibhuti Pada
The chapter on attainments — the subtler capacities said to arise from sustained concentration and meditation.
Kaivalya Pada
The chapter on liberation — the nature of the self once it is no longer entangled with the mind's activity.
Ashtanga Yoga — the eight limbs
This is the sequence we teach toward, folding each limb into class as students are ready for it — not a checklist to rush through.
Non-violence (ahimsa), truthfulness (satya), non-stealing (asteya), moderation (brahmacharya), and non-possessiveness (aparigraha) — how we deal with the world around us.
Purity (shaucha), contentment (santosha), discipline (tapas), self-study (svadhyaya), and surrender (ishvara pranidhana) — how we deal with ourselves.
A steady, comfortable seat — the entry point most students meet first, and the base every other limb is built on.
Regulating the breath to steady the nervous system and prepare the mind for concentration.
Drawing attention away from external stimulation — the hinge between the outer and inner limbs.
Fixing attention on a single point — breath, a mantra, a candle flame, or a sensation in the body.
An unbroken flow of attention toward that same point — concentration matured into continuity.
The meditator and the object of meditation cease to feel separate — the stated aim of the entire path.
Where therapy fits into this path
Yoga therapy is not separate from this tradition — it is Ashtanga's early limbs applied with clinical patience to a specific body and condition. Asana and pranayama, adapted and sequenced, become tools for managing pain, anxiety, and chronic illness.
See Therapy & Wellness Programs