Tapas in the Yoga Sutra: Why Ancient India Considered Voluntary Discomfort Sacred and Necessary
What Patanjali Actually SaidIn 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. Sutra II.43 makes…
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