hat is the relation of the Yogas?tra to yoga therapy?

The Yogas?tra is not intended to be a work on health and disease. It is a work on the psychology of self-transformation, and the philosophy extends from this psychology.

Arguably, we are all in need of the “therapy” that the Yogas?tra provides, in that our mind is scattered and our emotions are not in our hands. Beyond a point, this lack of control over the mind can become a mental health problem. However, a somewhat scattered mind is what we consider “normal” in our ordinary lives. The Yogas?tra maps the process of transforming this ordinarily scattered “normal” mind into an extraordinarily still mind.

When we transplant concepts from the Yogas?tra into a therapeutic context, we areextending these concepts beyond their principal purpose and setting. We must take care to mitigate the risk of diluting foundational insights. The Yogas?tra will serve us poorly if it is reduced to watered-down pop psychology presented under the authority of Patañjali.