On the parallels b/w Patanjali Yoga Sutras and Bhagavad Gita These are texts separated perhaps by several centuries The Gita likely is a few centuries older than the common Era, while Yoga Sutras are usually placed around the Gupta period Yet the common vocabulary is striking
Let's take this verse from Bhagavad Gita - असंशयं महाबाहो मनो दुर्निग्रहं चलम् | अभ्यासेन तु कौन्तेय वैराग्येण च गृह्यते || 35|| From Chapter 6, Verse 35
Translation - "O mighty-armed son of Kunti, what you say is correct; the mind is indeed very difficult to restrain. But by practice (abhyAsa) and detachment (vairAgya), it can be controlled"
This is a very popular verse. But the terms abhyAsa and vairAgya are also used by Patanjali as we shall see Let's examine the sutras 12, 13, 14, 15 in Chapter 1 of the Yoga Sutras
Sutra 12 : अभ्यासवैराग्याभ्यां तन्निरोधः॥१२॥ [The vRtti sttes of mind] are stilled by practice (abhyAsa) and dispassion / detachment (vairAgya) Notice the use of the same terms that the author of the Gita did many centuries prior to Patanjali
Then there is an elaboration on what is meant by abhyAsa and vairAgya in Sutras 13-15 Sutra 13: तत्र स्थितौ यत्नोऽभ्यासः॥१३॥ Among these, practice (abhyAsa) is the effort to be fixed in concentrating the mind Note: these are not literal translations as the sutras are brief.
Sutra 14: स तु दीर्घकालनैरन्तर्यसत्कारासेवितो दृढभूमिः॥१४॥ Practice becomes firmly established when it has been cultivated uninterruptedly (nairantarya) and with devotion over a long period of time (dIrgha kAla)
Sutra 15 : दृष्टानुश्रविकविषयवितृष्णस्य वशीकारसंज्ञा वैराग्यम्॥१५॥ Dispassion (vairAgyam) is the controlled consciousness of one who is without the craving for sense objects, whether they are perceived (dRSTa), or heard about.
So clearly the themes are very similar to what kRSNa brings up in the Gita - the older of the two texts Goes to show that the intellectual tradition of Yoga cannot be divorced at all from the larger H-tradition Patanjali was not creating new themes. Rather reiterating old ideas
The commentaries of the medieval theologian Madhusudana Sarasvati on the Gita verse is discussed in the thread below The bhAshya writers elaborated in ways that are not inconsistent from what you see in the Patanjali commentaries
Post-script : The Sutras and the "expanded" translations for them are sourced from Edwin Bryant's fine book on Patanjali Yoga Sutras
