The Eight Limbs of Ashtanga Yoga

The sage Patanjali outlined eight aspects—or "limbs"— of spiritual yogic practice in his Yoga Sutras:

• Yama (moral codes)
• Niyama (self-purification and study)
• Asana (posture)
• Pranayama (breath control)
• Pratyahara (sense control)
• Dharana (concentration)
• Dhyana (meditation)
• Samadhi (contemplation) ^[6]

The first four limbs—yama, niyama, asana and pranayama—are considered external cleansing practices.

• 1 # Yama (moral codes)

In the Yoga Sutras of Patañjali, the yamas are the first limb of the eight limbs of Raja Yoga. They are found in the Sadhana Pada Verse 30 as:

1. Ahimsa : non-harming
2. Satya : absence of falsehood
3. Asteya : non-stealing
4. Brahmacharya : appropriate use of vital essence
5. Aparigraha : absence of avarice

• 2 # Niyama (self-purification and study)

In Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, the Niyamas are the second limb of the eight limbs of Raja Yoga.They are found in the Sadhana Pada Verse 32 as:

1. Shaucha: in the traditional codification, this item is listed under Yamas; this word means purity.
2. Santosha: contentment.
3. Tapas: austerity.
4. Svādhyāya: self-study or study of spiritual scriptures.
5. Ishvarapranidhana: self-surrender.

• 3 # Asana (posture)

In the Yoga Sutras, Patanjali describes asana as the third of the eight limbs of classical, or Raja Yoga. Asanas are the physical movements of yoga practice and, in combination with pranayama or breathing techniques constitute the style of yoga referred to as Hatha Yoga.^[6] In the Yoga Sutra, Patanjali describes asana as a "firm, comfortable posture", referring specifically to the seated posture, most basic of all the asanas. He further suggests that meditation is the path to samādhi; transpersonal self-realization. ^[7]

The eight limbs are, in order, the yamas (restrictions), niyamas (observances), asanas (postures), pranayama (breath work), pratyahara (sense withdrawal or non-attachment), dharana (concentration), dhyana (meditation), and samadhi (realization of the true Self or Atman, and unity with Brahman (The Hindu Concept of God)).^[5][7]

• 4 # Pranayama (breath control)

Pranayama is the fourth 'limb' of the eight limbs of Raja Yoga mentioned in verse 2.29 in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.^[9][29] Patanjali discusses his specific approach to pranayama in verses 2.49 through 2.51, and devotes verses 2.52 and 2.53 to explaining the benefits of the practice.^[30] Patanjali does not fully elucidate the nature of prana, and the theory and practice of pranayama seem to have undergone significant development after him.^[31] He presents pranayama as essentially an exercise that is preliminary to concentration, as do the earlier Buddhist texts.^[31]

Many yoga teachers advise that pranayama should be part of an overall practice that includes the other limbs of Patanjali's Raja Yoga teachings, especially Yama, Niyama, and Asana.^[32]

• 5 # Pratyahara (sense control)

Pratyahara or the 'withdrawal of the senses' is the fifth element among the Eight stages of Patanjali's Ashtanga Yoga ^[1], as mentioned in his classical work, Yoga Sutras of Patanjali written in 2 BCE ^[2].

This involves withdrawal of senses, or sensory inputs into our physical being, coming from our five senses, namely organs creating a sensory overload, and hence hinders collection of the mind, as in Dharana, the next stage of Yoga ^[5]

• 6 # Dharana (concentration)

Dhāraṇā is the sixth stage, step or limb of eight elucidated by Patanjali's Ashtanga Yoga or Raja Yoga.

Dhāraṇā (from Sanskrit dhāraṇā) is translated as "collection or concentration of the mind.

• 7 # Dhyana (meditation)

According to Patañjali, this is one method of achieving the initial concentration (dhāraṇā: Yoga Sutras, III: 1) necessary for the mind to become introverted in meditation (dhyāna: Yoga Sutras, III: 2). In deeper practice of the technique, the mind concentrated between the eyebrows begins to automatically lose all location and focus on the watching itself. Eventually, the meditator experiences only the consciousness of existence and achieves self realization. Swami Vivekananda describes the process in the following way:

When the mind has been trained to remain fixed on a certain internal or external location, there comes to it the power of flowing in an unbroken current, as it were, towards that point. This state is called dhyana. When one has so intensified the power of dhyana as to be able to reject the external part of perception and remain meditating only on the internal part, the meaning, that state is called Samadhi.^[1]

• 8 # Samadhi (contemplation) ^[6]

This is generally interpreted to mean that samādhi is a state of complete control (samadhana) over the functions and distractions of consciousness.

Samādhi is described in different ways within Hinduism such as the state of being aware of one’s existence without thinking, in a state of undifferentiated “beingness" or as an altered state of consciousness that is characterized by bliss (ānanda) and joy (sukha). Nisargadatta Maharaj describes the state in the following manner:

When you say you sit for meditation, the first thing to be done is understand that it is not this body identification that is sitting for meditation, but this knowledge ‘I am’, this consciousness, which is sitting in meditation and is meditating on itself. When this is finally understood, then it becomes easy. When this consciousness, this conscious presence, merges in itself, the state of ‘Samadhi’ ensues. It is the conceptual feeling that I exist that disappears and merges into the beingness itself. So this conscious presence also gets merged into that knowledge, that beingness – that is ‘Samadhi’.^[6]

Daily meditation is required to attain samādhi. The initial experience of it is enlightenment and it is the beginning of the process of meditating to attain self-realization (tapas). "There is a difference between the enlightenment of samādhi and self-realization. When a person achieves enlightenment, that person starts doing tapas to realize the self."^[7]