योगश्चित्तवृत्तिनिरोधःPatañjali's Yoga Sūtra in four decks
195 cards, one for every sūtra. Each carries the Sanskrit, a new translation and a painting framed like an Indian miniature folio. A guidebook adds a reading, a practice and the words of Vyāsa, the text's oldest commentator. Use them to learn the sūtras, or draw one each morning for reflection.
One email when the decks launch, and nothing else. Your address is kept privately and never shared. Privacy
Four decks, one for each chapter
The Yoga Sūtra has four pādas, or chapters. Each deck has its own colour, and each card back carries a yantra. The Yoga Sūtra itself contains no diagram; every shape was chosen to stand for one of its teachings. Each deck keeps the shapes of the next and adds one outer layer, so the figure moves inward as the text does.
- The point, at the centre of every back: the one-pointed mind (3.11–3.12) and the seer resting in its own nature (1.3). It never changes; only what surrounds it falls away.
- The square with four gates, Samādhi only: the four attitudes that make the mind clear, friendliness, compassion, gladness and equanimity (1.33).
- The eight-petalled lotus, Samādhi and Sādhana: the eight limbs of yoga (2.29), and the lotus of the heart, one of the places Vyāsa names for concentration (3.1).
- The three circles, Samādhi, Sādhana and Vibhūti: concentration, meditation and absorption, which together are saṃyama (3.4).
- One circle around the point, Kaivalya: liberation, the seer standing alone in its own nature (4.34).
What is on every card
The card
- A painting, set in a ruled folio frame as Pahari and Rajasthani miniatures are mounted
- The sūtra in Devanagari and in roman transliteration
- A clear new translation, made word by word from the Sanskrit
- A name to remember it by, such as The Moon in the Water
The guidebook
- A word-by-word breakdown of the Sanskrit
- A short reading of what the sūtra teaches
- A practice to do that day
- The words of Vyāsa, the oldest commentary, newly translated from the Sanskrit
- A question for when you draw the card, and its meaning reversed
“Just as medicine has four parts, the disease, the cause of the disease, health and the remedy, so this teaching also has four parts: the round of rebirth, its cause, liberation, and the means to liberation.”Vyāsa on Yoga Sūtra 2.15
A reflection draw, not a fortune
A drawn card tells you where to put your attention today, not what will happen. The spreads come from the text's own lists: the five afflictions (2.3), the eight limbs (2.29) and the three fires of kriyā yoga (2.1). A reversed card points to one of the nine obstacles Patañjali names in 1.30, so even a hard draw teaches something from the text.
Study free, now
The companion app is free at yogasutra.net. Learn the sūtras with spaced repetition, put passages back in order, draw spreads, and see all 195 on a spiral map that links the ideas they share. All four decks are there today, with Vyāsa's commentary on every card.
How the decks are being made
The text
The Sanskrit follows the Ānandāśrama edition of 1904. Every translation is made fresh from the Sanskrit, and every quotation from Vyāsa is checked against the source. All 195 cards are now written, and the translations are being reviewed before print.
The paintings
The images you see now are AI-generated placeholders. The aim is for the printed decks to be painted by hand by a living miniature painter working in the Pahari or Rajasthani tradition. Joining the list is the best way to help make that happen.