1. SAMADHI PADAH :- TL. – atha yoganusasanam -1:1 WM. Atha=now yoganusasanam= a systematic presentation of yoga. CE. Some traditional commentators have tried to see behind the word ‘atha’ (Now), a kind of auspicious invocation or prayer. This is because, in the old Indian tradition traticularly originating feom Vedic tradition, a treatise, even on a nonreligious & worldly subject, was having such an auspicious prayer or salutation to some deities & this was usually called ‘mangalacaranam’. Books written on topics closely related with religious matter & tradition, therefore, had such a mangalacarana as an essential part. In the orthodox & traditional view point, yoga was looked upon as closely related to religion i.e. Vedic or Hindu religion, so much so, that it was considered as an essential & integral component of religious practices. On account of this, to the old orthodox commentators, it would seem almost a sacrilege that a work on yoga like Patanjai’s “Yoga Sutras” is having no mangalacarana. To remove this deficit or fault, they looked upon this word ‘atha’, which is no doubt an introductory word, as the mangalacarana & have imagined that a lot of hidden meaning of that nature lies behind the word. But this outlook is merely sentimental, the meaning given in this way being only arbitrary & it is very doubtful whether the author patanjali had all that idea in his mind when he used that word. VIBHUTI PADAH (Section of Vibhutis i.e. Special Developments) TR – The three (i.e. dharana, dhyana & samadhi),(1) at one spot (i.e. on one subject); (2) to- gether (become) samyama. CE.- Though the second pada is named Sadhana-pada, strangely the most important of the sadhanas, which here are astangas, are enumerated in the first three sutras of Vibhuti-pada. Lokking in this way the discussion of all the eight angas ends at the eighth sutra of this pada & so the Sadhana-pada should end at this eighth sutra & the Vibhuti-pada should begin from the ninth sutra onwards. It is not very clear why Patanjali has ended the Sadhana pada, as it is found at present in all the versionsof Yoga Sutra. This anomaly has led many scholars to opine that the original arrangement & division into padas of Patanjala Yoga Sutras might have been different, whan they were compiled by Patanjali & probably later some editors might have altered the arrangement in various ways. This might have probably occurred more than once, leading to the present, somewhat irrgular, arrangemant. The only explanation for such ireegularies seems to be that the word ‘pada’ used for these sections means a ‘leg’ or ‘foot’ & the idea behind this is a ‘stable stand or foundation’. Then the four legs should be of similar length just like the four legs of an animal. To have such equalization, some sutras of the Sadhana pada might have been taken into the next pada describ-ing vibhutis. However, this is also not a very satisfactory explanation, since the fourth i.e. Kaivalyapada is of much shorter length than the other & even the first i.e. Samadhi-pada contains four sutras less than the fifty five each in the Second & the Third padas.