2.02

Sūtra 2.01 identifies the three practices of kriyā yoga, and this sūtra says what they are for. Patañjali gives two purposes: cultivating samādhi, and weakening the kleshas, which he lists in the sūtra that follows.

The word tanū means thin or attenuated. Patañjali does not say here that the afflictions are destroyed, only weakened, and he returns to the question of removing them later in the chapter. That distinction is part of why some commentators read kriyā yoga as preparatory work rather than as the whole of the practice.