Ask someone what yoga is all about and the most likely response will have to do with headstands and other physical stuff. It’s an interesting case of the tail wagging the dog, for way back when it all began the physical postures, or asanas, were only a small part of the main affair. Some two millennia ago Patanjali, whose work marks the first clear beginning of what is known today as yoga, produced the yogic sutras, a series of short aphorisms which formulate ashtanga, or eight limbed yoga. The asanas, or hatha yoga, are just one limb, and not one that received much of the founder’s attention.
Patanjali’s sparse aphorisms were intended to be memorized and handed down verbally by teachers who would then amplify with
