This is the most programmatic verse of the entire text: jñānaṃ yogātmakaṃ — knowledge is of the nature of yoga; yogaścāṣṭāṅgasaṃyuktaḥ — yoga is endowed with eight limbs; saṃyogo yoga — yoga is union, specifically the union of jīvātman (individual self) and paramātman (Supreme Self). This tripartite definition — knowledge is yoga, yoga is eight-limbed, yoga is union — provides the conceptual framework for everything that follows.