Introduction

Patanjali's Yoga Sutra is a foundational text of the grand tradition of yoga. The adept Yogin does indeed wield the magical powers just mentioned and other powers besides. This rather occult portion of the text is rarely highlighted in scholarly discussions of early yoga, perhaps because interpreters find it embarrassing or just irrelevant to the philosophical teaching of the sutras. But it should not be discounted; talk of supernatural powers fits with the overall message of Yoga: that we are capable of mastering and transcending nature itself.