Just 196 short aphorisms, compiled in the second or third century CE, make up the masterpiece that is the Yoga-Sūtra. Pata jali provides here a road map of human consciousness--and a particularly helpful guide to the mind states one encounters in meditation, yoga, and other spiritual practices. It expresses the truths of the human condition with great eloquence: how we know what we know, why we suffer, and how we can discover the way out of suffering.