Yoga

Ashtānga Yoga - The
eight limbs of yoga

A seed has the possibility of a tree, of the leaves, of a branch, of fruits, of flowers, of multiplication. With optimum conditions - soil, sunlight, water - the seed will sprout and blossom. Lack of these conditions can keep the seed dormant for years together keeping its possibility within itself. So it is with the human consciousness, the human mind. The sprouting of the seed of human consciousness is vivekā, discrimination. Freedom comes with vivekā, discrimination.

All other species in this creation are totally governed by nature. You will not find any animal overeating in general. Normally, animals eat and mate on time. They have no choice. They do not need discrimination nor do they have the freedom. So, they never break the laws of nature. 

 

Human mind, human consciousness has been given freedom and discrimination. It is through  vivekā, wisdom, discrimination that the human mind and human consciousness can progress, or it can remain where it is.  

So how can this be enhanced? How to make the seed sprout? How to nurture the sapling? Once the sapling has come up, it will need watering again and again till it grows. But if it is not watered, then the possibility remains a possibility and does not manifest.

Here Patañjali steps in and says –

yogāṅgānuṣṭhānād aśuddhikṣaye jñānadīptirā vivekakhyāteḥ॥28॥

 योगाङ्गानुष्ठानादशुद्धिक्षये ज्ञानदीप्तिरा विवेकख्यातेः ॥२८॥

By the sustained practice of the eight limbs of yoga, the impurities are destroyed and the light of wisdom, discrimination shines forth.

-Patañjali Yoga Sutra 2.28

Yoganushtanad, by practicing the eight limbs of yoga, ashuddikshaye, the impurities get limited or destroyed. 

Jñānadīpti,  viveka, the wisdom shines forth. The husk is gone and the sprout comes up.

Now, what are the limbs of yoga?

yamāniyamāsanaprāṇāyāmapratyāhāradhāraṇā dhyānasamādhayo'ṣṭāv aṅgāni ॥29॥

यमनियमासनप्राणायामप्रत्याहारधारणाध्यानसमाधयोऽष्टावअङ्गानि ॥२९॥

The eight limbs of yogā are ethics, rules, āsana, and prāṇāyāma, withdrawing the senses, focusing the mind, meditation, and samādhi.

-Patañjali Yoga Sutra 2.29

Many times, people think that the eight limbs are eight steps: first practice yamā and then niyamā, then prāṇāyāma. Maharishi Patañjali clearly says, these are limbs of yogā. They are not steps of yogā. Yogā has eight limbs just like a chair has four legs. Each limb is connected to the rest. So if you pull one, everything else will come along. If you pull one leg of the chair, the whole chair follows. When the baby is developing, all the organs develop together.  Not that the nose develops first and then the ear. That is why Patañjali says that these are all the limbs of yoga.

Of course, there is a sequence. But to the degree you experience these, the others will also come along with you. One method is going from yamā, niyamā, āsana, prāṇāyāma and so on and another method is to first experience samādhi and then  practice all the others. Many saints of this country, in the flash of a moment, got connected to the being, and then their whole life changed. Maharishi Vālmiki is one such saint. Just one incident, one moment changed his life. The same happened with Angulimāla. A robber, a dacoit who just met Buddha and changed immediately. He had a glimpse of samādhi and that changed his whole life. 

>>Change is Inevitable

>>The five Yamas of Patanjali

(This is part of a series of knowledge sheets based on Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's commentaries on Patanjali Yoga Sutras.)

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