There are 196 sutras in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, the text most often cited as the foundation of yoga. Exactly three are about posture. They don’t name a single pose. Here they are, in full.
The three sutras
स्थिरसुखमासनम्
sthira-sukham āsanam
Posture should be steady and easy.
Yoga Sutras 2.46
Āsana literally means “seat”, from a root meaning to sit. Sthira is steady, firm, unmoving. Sukha is easy, comfortable, pleasant. A good posture holds both at once: stable without strain.
प्रयत्नशैथिल्यानन्तसमापत्तिभ्याम्
prayatna-śaithilya-ananta-samāpattibhyām
It comes through relaxing effort and resting the mind on the infinite.
Yoga Sutras 2.47
The way to a good posture isn’t more effort but less: letting go of unnecessary strain, and letting the mind settle on something boundless. That’s close to the opposite of how posture is often taught, as something to push into.
ततो द्वन्द्वानभिघातः
tato dvandva-anabhighātaḥ
From that, one is no longer disturbed by the pairs of opposites.
Yoga Sutras 2.48
The pairs of opposites are heat and cold, pleasure and pain, praise and blame. A steady, easy seat is the beginning of a mind that isn’t thrown about by them. That’s what the posture is for.
What the oldest commentary adds
The earliest surviving commentary on the Sutras, the Yoga Bhāṣya attributed to Vyasa, gives examples of postures: the lotus seat (padmāsana), the hero seat (vīrāsana), the auspicious seat (bhadrāsana), the svastika seat, the staff (daṇḍāsana) and a few others.
Nearly all are seated. They’re ways to sit still, upright and at ease, for breath work and meditation. There are no standing sequences, no inversions, no flows.
Where the many poses came from
Later hatha yoga texts expanded the repertoire. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika, written around the 15th century, describes fifteen postures, still mostly seated, and says tradition speaks of 84. The large number of standing poses and flowing sequences common today developed mostly in the 20th century. More on that in is yoga just exercise?
How this can change your practice
You don’t need to give up your favourite class to take Patanjali seriously. Try bringing these three sutras onto the mat:
- Steady and easy: in any pose, look for the point where you’re stable and comfortable, and stay there rather than pushing past it.
- Relax the effort: notice what’s working that doesn’t need to: the jaw, the shoulders, the breath. Let it go.
- Rest the mind: let attention settle on the breath or on the space around you, not on how the pose looks.
- Sit: end every practice with a few minutes of simply sitting still. In Patanjali’s terms, that’s the posture.
The test Patanjali offers isn’t how deep the pose is. It’s whether you can stay in it steadily, at ease, with a quiet mind.
Where to go next
Questions people ask
How many sutras about asana are in the Yoga Sutras?
Three, in the second chapter (2.46 to 2.48), out of 196 sutras in total. They describe what a posture should feel like and what it leads to, but name no poses.
What does sthira sukham asanam mean?
It's Yoga Sutra 2.46: posture (āsana) should be steady (sthira) and comfortable or easy (sukha). It's the only description of posture Patanjali gives.
Which poses are mentioned in the Yoga Sutras?
None. The oldest commentary, attributed to Vyasa, lists examples, and they're nearly all seated postures for meditation, such as the lotus (padmāsana) and hero (vīrāsana) poses.
Sources and further reading
- Patanjali, Yoga Sutras 2.46–2.48, with the Yoga Bhashya attributed to Vyasa
- Edwin F. Bryant, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali (North Point Press, 2009)
- Svatmarama, Hatha Yoga Pradipika, chapter 1