The second chapter of the Yoga Sutras is called Sadhana Pada, the chapter on practice. Where the first chapter describes the goal and the general orientation of the path, the second chapter addresses the ordinary practitioner who is not yet able to enter the subtler meditative states directly. It does so with striking clarity about why the path is difficult and what to do about it.
Kriya Yoga
The chapter opens with Kriya Yoga, the yoga of purifying action: tapas, disciplined effort; svadhyaya, self-study and study of sacred texts; and Ishvara pranidhana, surrender to the ultimate reality. These three practices are not the complete path but the purifying preparation for the deeper practices. They address the practitioner whose mind is too turbulent, too conditioned, too habituated to distraction to simply sit down and quiet itself through an act of will.
The Five Afflictions
The central diagnostic section of the chapter identifies five kleshas, afflictions that are the root causes of suffering. These are avidya (ignorance of one’s true nature), asmita (the egocentric identification that follows from ignorance), raga (attachment), dvesha (aversion), and abhinivesha (the deep, instinctive clinging to life). Patanjali is precise about the relationship among these: avidya is the root, and the other four afflictions are its branches. All the suffering that human beings experience, from the most mundane frustrations to the deepest existential dread, can be traced back to this fundamental misidentification of consciousness with what it is not.
The solution is the reduction and eventual elimination of these afflictions through practice. The chapter describes this as a progressive process: gross colorings of the mind are addressed first, through the observances and restraints of ethical practice; then subtler colorings are approached through meditation. The practitioner does not need to be free of all afflictions before beginning. The entire practice is itself a process of gradually loosening their grip.
The Eight Limbs
The chapter introduces the eight limbs of yoga in sutra 2.29. Their significance in this context is the framing: the eight limbs are not goals in themselves but the means for developing the discriminative attention that eventually cuts through ignorance. Each limb prepares the ground for the next, and all of them together constitute the graduated path that makes the realization described in the first chapter actually accessible.
The second half of the chapter works through the first five limbs systematically. The yamas (restraints: non-violence, truthfulness, non-stealing, sensory moderation, non-possessiveness) address the practitioner’s relationship to the world. The niyamas (observances: cleanliness, contentment, tapas, self-study, surrender to the ultimate) address the practitioner’s relationship to themselves. Asana is described in just three sutras: the posture should be steady and comfortable, the effort relaxed, and when it is achieved the practitioner ceases to be afflicted by opposing sensations. The contrast with the asana industry that developed two millennia later is instructive.
Pranayama and Pratyahara
Pranayama, the regulation of breath and vital force, is described as what naturally follows the establishment of asana. When the body is stable and the breath can be consciously regulated, the breath begins to function as a bridge between the gross and subtle dimensions of practice. The breath and the mind are intimately linked: steadying one begins the steadying of the other.
Pratyahara, the withdrawal of the senses, marks the transition from the outer limbs to the inner. It is the point at which the practitioner’s attention has been sufficiently gathered that it can turn fully inward, no longer pulled outward by sensory stimulation. This is where the second chapter ends, at the threshold of the inner practices. The third chapter continues with concentration, meditation, and samadhi, but the Sadhana Pada’s work is essential. Without the foundation it establishes, the interior practices have nothing solid to rest on.
