Yoga Sutras of Patañjali

The first purpose is to point out that everything that follows (the sutras) will define and explain the practice of yoga; yoga definition. The second purpose is to point out that in order to sincerely start and have the highest success with the path towards enlightenment or Self Realization, one has to be ready.


You have to be ready: not in the sense of eating a healthy meal, having enough sleep, preparing your meditation room or putting on some music etc. It means that you have to be ready in the highest sense of the word; ready to begin with yoga, the path towards Self Realization. Ready in the sense of being earnest enough to dedicate yourself to this practice and being willing to let go of anything that holds you down. Yoga definition says that to be truly ready you'll have to be finished or let go of doing the things you wanted to do in a social perspective. The preparation-stages of your life (childhood, study, parenting etc) should feel complete, finished, or unnecessary to the extent that you are ready to let go of it.

Only with this kind of readiness will the actual purpose of yoga definition have a chance to unfold itself to the student. I am not saying that it cannot be done otherwise, but it will be a much slower process and the eventual goal of enlightenment will probably not be attained in this life time. Regular progress in the spiritual field can be made at any stage of life, but becoming the Buddha requires a high level of readiness. The inner decision to be ready can arise at earlier stages in life before one enters the stage of parenting or even the stage of studying. This depends on many factors in regard to the evolution of the individual.