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Times Life
Times Life
Lifestyle
Aishwarya Kapoor

Tapas in the Yoga Sutra: Why Ancient India Considered Voluntary Discomfort Sacred and Necessary

Patanjali Yoga India Anxiety Bandra

What Patanjali Actually Said

In the second chapter of the Yoga Sutras, the sadhana pada, Patanjali opens with three words: tapas, svadhyaya, ishvara pranidhana. Discipline, self-study, surrender. He calls this combination kriya yoga, the yoga of action. Tapas comes first. Not devotion, not study. The discomfort comes first.

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