Patanjali's YOGA SUTRAS are absolutely pure. No one has ever interpolated anything in them. There are reasons it cannot be done. First, Patanjali's YOGA SUTRAS is not a popular scripture. It is not a gita, it is not a ramayana, it is not a Bible. Common masses have never been interested in it.
When common masses are interested in something, they make it impure. It is bound to be so because then the scripture has to be dragged down to their level. Patanjali's YOGA SUTRAS has remained only for experts. Only a few chosen ones will get interested in them. Everybody is not going to be interested. And if, by chance, you happen accidentally to have Patanjali's YOGA SUTRAS, you can read only a few pages and then you will throw it away. It is not for you. It is not a story, it is not a drama, it is not an allegory. It is a simple, scientific treatise — only for few.
And the way it has been written is such that those who are not ready for it will turn their back automatically. A similar case has happened in this century with Gurdjieff. For thirty years continuously, he was preparing one book. A man of the caliber of Gurdjieff can do that work in three days. Even three days may be more than enough. Lao Tzu had done it: in three days the whole TAO TEH CHING was written.
Gurdjieff can do it in three days; there is no difficulty. But for thirty years he was writing his first book. And what he was doing? He will write one chapter, and then he will allow it to be read before his disciples. Disciples will be listening to the chapter, and he will be looking to the disciples. If they can understand, he will change it. That was the condition: if they can understand, he will change it. If he sees that they are following it, then it is wrong. Continuously, for thirty years, every chapter was read a thousand and one times, and every time he was watching. When the book became completely impossible, that no one can read and understand it…
Even a very intelligent person will have to read it at least seven times; then glimpses of meaning will start coming. And that too will be just glimpses. If he wants to penetrate more, then he will have to practice whatsoever he has said, and through practice meanings will become clear. And it will take at least one's whole life to come to the total understanding what he has written.
This type of book cannot be interpolated. Really, his first book, it is said that very few people have read it completely. It is difficult — one thousand pages. So when the first edition was published, he published it with a condition: only hundred pages, the introductory part, were cut. All other pages were not cut; they were uncut. Only hundred pages were cut, and a note was given on the book that "If you can read the first hundred pages and still think to read ahead, then cut other pages. Otherwise, return the book to the publisher and take your money back."
It is said that there are very few people alive who have read the whole book completely. It is written in such a way that you will get fed up. Reading twenty, twenty-five pages, it is enough; and this man seems to be mad.
These are sutras, Patanjali's sutras. Everything has been condensed in a seed. Somebody was asking me that, "Patanjali has condensed sutras…" Just the other day somebody came and asked me, "… and you speak so much on those sutras." I have to, because he has made a tree a seed, and I have to make the seed again a tree.
Each sutra is condensed, totally condensed. You cannot do anything in it, and no one is interested to. Just to keep the book always pure, this was one of the methods. And for many thousands of years the book was not written, it was just memorized by disciples; it was given from one to other just as a memory. It was not written, so nobody can do anything to it. It was a sacred memory, preserved.
And even when the book was written, it was written in such a way that if you put something in it, it will be found immediately.
Unless a person of the caliber of Patanjali tries that, you cannot do it. Just think, if you had one Einstein formula, what can you do to it? If you do anything, it will be immediately caught. Unless a mind like Einstein tries to play with it, you cannot do anything. The formula is complete — nothing can be added; nothing can be deleted. In itself, it is a unit. Whatsoever you do, you will be caught.
These are seed formulas. If you add a single word, anyone who is working on the path of yoga will immediately come to know that this is wrong.
OSHO
Yoga: The Alpha and the Omega, Vol 1
Chapter #6