Now the Discipline of Yoga: What Patanjali's First Sutra Really Means

So what does the sage Patanjali (pronounced Puth-unj-ali) mean by that opening line in his famous Yoga Sutras? "Now the discipline of yoga." (Or, as some people say it 👉🏽 "Now the instruction in union.")

It's less to do with physical discipline and more about staying the course (mentally) and not losing heart with life ❤️🫶🏽

The way I hear that first line is this 👇🏽

In each stage of life it means something a little bit different. Before Laura, that one line hit differently. It would have meant something else to me at that time. After Zaccy, when my whole concept of love, life and purpose was thrown upside down 🙃, it meant something else again. And after losing my dad, and still finding ways to deal with it, that opening from Patanjali means something else entirely.

Patanjali is saying to me that NOW it starts. And I could be forgiven for thinking, why now? I've already done so much. But when I read it today, Patanjali is saying to me that NOW begins the next stage of your inner journey. The long, winding and volatile path of self reflection and growth, where you continue to grow to be the best you can be. In spite of your struggle, your trauma and your ongoing battles.

And the DISCIPLINE part means that even when something knocks you sideways, the way losing my dad came out of the blue, the discipline is to stay on the path anyway. Trust where the inner search for meaning has brought you thus far, and where it will continue to take you.

You and I and all of us, regardless of our battles, physical and emotional, have come so far. Further than we realise when we allow ourselves a moment of self reflection.

NOW is not the time to lose heart ❤️. And the DISCIPLINE is there to remind us of the strength we've discovered along the way.

Some people spend their whole lives avoiding the demons that rest within. But like the concept of darkness in yoga (Kali/Kala), it is not something to be feared, but to be understood.

If you've come to a yoga class in spite of your inner battles and struggles that so many of us carry, then with that one word, discipline, Patanjali is telling you something. You've done so much. You've come so far. Keep the path. Keep the discipline. Because you are worthy of more than you will ever know.

Namaskar, Zahir 🫶🏽

In the next blog, I'll elaborate on the concept of darkness in yoga. How both internal and external darkness reflect the same thing. And why "love and light," cute as it sounds, isn't technically yogic.

Western wellness took the light and quietly binned the darkness. But the tradition always held both, and insisted you go through the dark to reach anything worth calling light. The yogi embraces that darkness. It's how we unpack ourselves, learn what and who we are, and carry on the path of self discovery.

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