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Ashtanga Yoga- Eight Fold Path of Discipline
Yoga is more than just a physical discipline. It is a way of life. It is a way to achieve liberation. The yamas (restraints) and niyamas (observances), in and by themselves, are ten good common-sense guidelines for leading a healthier, happier life for bringing spiritual awareness into a social context. They are for you to think about and ponder over with a rational mind, because yoga is not about mindlessly accepting externally imposed rules—it is about finding the truth for yourself—and ‘connecting’ with it.
Yoga believes in achieving Him through a sound mind in a sound body and does not advocate self mortification. It calls for control of sensual attachments and passions and for this gives an Eight-Fold Path of Discipline ie Ashtanga Yoga.
The first step is adhering to the self restraint as a way of life. This called Yama or Restraints. For a rigorous discipline, there are 10 Yamas, but 5 are the minimal requirement. In fact, Yoga practice or not, they are extempore rules on their own.
• Satya (truthfulness), Thou shall be truthful always.
• Asteya (non-stealing), Thou shall not steal
• Brahmacharya (celibacy) and
• Aparigraha (non-covetousness) Thou shall not covet what is lawfully not yours.
According to the Yajnavalkya Samhita, ahimsa or non-violence is the awareness and practice of non-violence in thought, speech and action. It advocates the practices of compassion, love, understanding, patience, self-love, and worthiness.
Patanjali describes truthfulness as: “To be in harmony with mind, word and action, to conduct speech and mind according to truth, to express through speech and to retain it in the intellect what has been seen, understood or heard.” A perfectly truthful person is he who expresses in his speech exactly what he thinks in his mind and in the end acts according to it.
Non-stealing or asteya is the third constituent of the yamas of Ashtanga Yoga. It upholds forgoing the unauthorized possession of thought, speech and action. Asteya stands against covetousness and envy. It advocates the cultivation of a sense of completeness and self-sufficiency in order to progress beyond base cravings.
The Vedas, Smritis and Puranas all glorify the fourth constituent of celibacy. It is believed to be a behavior, which brings man nearer to the Divine. This yama believes in avoiding all sensual pleasures, whether mental, vocal or physical.
The literal meaning of apigraha, the fifth yama, is the non-accumulation of worldly objects, caused by covetousness and attachment. The commentator Vyasa says that this last state of yama is attained when one remains totally detached from sensual pleasures of all kinds and so effectively refrains from committing himsa or violence of any sort.
Yoga is more than just a physical discipline. It is a way of life. It is a way to achieve liberation. The yamas (restraints) and niyamas (observances), in and by themselves, are ten good common-sense guidelines for leading a healthier, happier life for bringing spiritual awareness into a social context. They are for you to think about and ponder over with a rational mind, because yoga is not about mindlessly accepting externally imposed rules—it is about finding the truth for yourself—and ‘connecting’ with it.
Yoga believes in achieving Him through a sound mind in a sound body and does not advocate self mortification. It calls for control of sensual attachments and passions and for this gives an Eight-Fold Path of Discipline ie Ashtanga Yoga.
The first step is adhering to the self restraint as a way of life. This called Yama or Restraints. For a rigorous discipline, there are 10 Yamas, but 5 are the minimal requirement. In fact, Yoga practice or not, they are extempore rules on their own.
- Yamas:
There are many interpretations of and opinions about the yamas and niyamas. While the ancient Indian text, the Bhagavata Purana assigns 12 yogic restraints the Parashar Smriti, another text, puts forward ten. But the yamas as described in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra are only five, which are also known as the great universal vows or the sarvabhauma maha vratas, because they are not limited by either class, creed, time or circumstances. They are the guidelines for how we interact with the outer world, the social disciplines to guide us in our relationships with others. These five are:
• Satya (truthfulness), Thou shall be truthful always.
• Asteya (non-stealing), Thou shall not steal
• Brahmacharya (celibacy) and
• Aparigraha (non-covetousness) Thou shall not covet what is lawfully not yours.
According to the Yajnavalkya Samhita, ahimsa or non-violence is the awareness and practice of non-violence in thought, speech and action. It advocates the practices of compassion, love, understanding, patience, self-love, and worthiness.
Patanjali describes truthfulness as: “To be in harmony with mind, word and action, to conduct speech and mind according to truth, to express through speech and to retain it in the intellect what has been seen, understood or heard.” A perfectly truthful person is he who expresses in his speech exactly what he thinks in his mind and in the end acts according to it.
Non-stealing or asteya is the third constituent of the yamas of Ashtanga Yoga. It upholds forgoing the unauthorized possession of thought, speech and action. Asteya stands against covetousness and envy. It advocates the cultivation of a sense of completeness and self-sufficiency in order to progress beyond base cravings.
The Vedas, Smritis and Puranas all glorify the fourth constituent of celibacy. It is believed to be a behavior, which brings man nearer to the Divine. This yama believes in avoiding all sensual pleasures, whether mental, vocal or physical.
The literal meaning of apigraha, the fifth yama, is the non-accumulation of worldly objects, caused by covetousness and attachment. The commentator Vyasa says that this last state of yama is attained when one remains totally detached from sensual pleasures of all kinds and so effectively refrains from committing himsa or violence of any sort.
