Yoga Is Not Just Asana. Here Are 8 Limbs Of Yoga Sutra You Didn’t Know About

What comes to your mind when you hear the word Yoga? I can bet all my money on the fact that it is either someone meditating or someone performing a particular Asana. But, Yoga is so much more than breathing and body postures. It is a way of living dedicated to creating a union between body, mind and spirit. Yoga can be practiced in everything we do in our day to day life. You don’t need a pleasant weather and tranquility to become a Yogi. You need to make balance and create equanimity so as to live in peace, good health and harmony with the greater whole.

The foundations of Yoga which perfected this art of living were written down thousands of year ago in the Yoga Sutra of Patanjali around 200 AD in India. This consecrated text portrays the internal workings of the mind and gives an eight-stage plan for controlling its anxiety in order to appreciate enduring peace.

Now you might be thinking that you do not have the time or efficiency for practicing the way of living preached in old scriptures but trust me, it’s not at all complicated. The heart of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra is an eight-limbed path that forms a structural framework for your practice. No one element in this structure is given priority over the other in any sort of hierarchical way. Each limb has its own holistic importance to help you find your connectivity to the divine.

The eight limbs of Yoga are as follows:

1. YAMAS (Universal Morality)

Ahimsa – Compassion for all living things

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No one can expect a peaceful life until they shed out all the malice against any living creature from their head. Ahimsa means not to injure or ill-treat any person or any creature in any way possible, but it goes beyond that. It deals with your duties and responsibilities and a considerate attitude towards everything.

 

Satya – Commitment to Truthfulness

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‘To speak the truth’ is the greatest virtue one can have. Yet it is not always correct to speak the truths it can bring harm to someone unnecessarily. The right thing to do is consider what you say and how you say it keeping in mind the ways it can affect others. If the truth can bring negative influence, then it’s better to say nothing. Satya should not contradict you paths of ahimsa.

 

Asteya – Non-stealing | Keeping trust

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Asteya means not stealing anything, but its meaning goes beyond that. It stands for keeping someone’s trust. If someone trusts you with something or confides in you, then you should not take advantage of the situation. Also, you shouldn’t take something that belongs to someone else without their permission or use it for the purpose that is not intended.

 

Brahmacharya – Sense control

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Brahmacharya focuses on forming a relationship which fosters the understanding of the higher truths. It doesn’t necessarily imply celibacy, but it promotes responsible behavior with respect to moving towards truth. It means that we utilize our sexual vitality to recover our association with our profound self. It likewise implies that we don’t utilize this energy in any capacity that may hurt others.

 

Aparigraha – Neutralizing the desire to acquire and hoard wealth

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Aparigraha intends to take just what is essential, and not to exploit a circumstance or act greedy. We ought to just take what we have earned; in the event that we take more, we are abusing another person. Aparigraha additionally suggests relinquishing our attachments and an understanding that impermanence and change are the main constants.
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2. NIYAMA (Personal Observances)

Saucha – Purity

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This means purity and cleanliness from both outer and inner aspect. The outer cleanliness implies our personal hygiene and keeping our surroundings clean whereas the inner cleanliness has to do with our health and proper functioning of our body and mind.

 

Santosa – Contentment

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Being happy with what you have can give you the joy that no other feeling can. To be at peace with one’s way of living and finding contentment eventually becomes a process of growth in all situations. The theory of ‘Karma’ tells us that there is a reason for everything and hence we should accept what happens. It means being happy with what you have rather sulking about what you don’t.

 

Tapas – Disciplined use of our energy

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Controlling your inner urges and directing your feeling towards your ultimate goal is the toughest thing one can ever do. Tapas is a kind of cleansing procedure which keeps you from getting distracted. You should learn to control any desires and burn them without any outer show.

 

Svadhyaya – Self study

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Any movement that develops self-reflective awareness can be considered svadhyaya. It intends to deliberately discover mindfulness in every one of our exercises and endeavors, even to the point of inviting and tolerating our constraints. It shows us to be focused and non-receptive to the dualities, to wear out undesirable and self-damaging propensities.

 

Isvarapranidhana – Celebration of the Spiritual

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You can be a believer or an atheist, but you won’t deny the living energy that resides inside you. Celebrating the spiritual doesn’t necessarily mean that you are praying to God. It is the acknowledgment that the spiritual suffuses everything and through our consideration we can adjust ourselves with our role of the creator. Taking some time out every day to recognise that force will help you do that.
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3. ASANAS (Body postures)

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Asanas, the postures rehearsed in yoga, include the third limb. In the yogic perspective, the body is a sanctuary to the soul, the consideration of which is a critical phase of our spiritual development. Through the act of asanas, we build up the propensity for control and the capacity to think, both of which are essential for reflection.

As one practices asana, it encourages a soothing of mind, in this way it gets to be a preparation for meditation. Discharging to the stream and inward power creates an establishing deep sense of being in the body. The physicality of the yoga postures turns into a vehicle to extend the cognizance that pervades our body.

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4. PRANAYAMA (Breath Control)

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Pranayama is about breath control. It consists of various methods to gain control over our respiratory process while establishing the connection between out pattern of breathing, mind and feelings. Practicing pranayama not only invigorates and rejuvenates our body, but also extend our lives. Taking some time out everyday to practice some simple breathing exercises can help you a lot.

A specific breathing pattern is to be followed with every asana you perform. The correct breathing cycle holds the power to cleanse your body and avoid many disorders.

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5. PRATYAHARA (Control of the Senses)

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Pratyahara is the withdraw of the 5 senses. Our entire lives the 5 senses (touch, taste, sight, hear, and smell) are putting information into our mind and pratyahara is the place we kill those so that we may turn from the external world and experience the inward domain of the psyche.

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6. DHARANA (Concentration and cultivating inner perceptual awareness)

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Focus. One-pointedness. The meditator is completely centered around the object of fixation, his brain as still as the flame of a candle in a windless room. At the point when this state is kept up sufficiently long, it will prompt dhyana.

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7. DHYANA (Devotion , Meditation on the Divine)

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Uninterrupted meditation is called dhyana. Concentration prompts the condition of meditation. The objective of meditation is not unconsciousness or nothingness. It is increased mindfulness and unity with the universe. How would you differentiate between concentration and meditation? If there is familiarity with diversion, you are just concentrating and not meditating. The calm accomplished in meditation overflows into all parts of your life.

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8. SAMADHI (Union with the Divine)

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The eight and final stage is your ultimate reward. It is that state of ultimate bliss and ecstasy where the mediator transcends himself all together. One realises the profound connection to the divine and the interconnectedness with all the is living around him. That realisation can bring you the peace which will lie beyond every euphoria.

At first glance, this may appear to be a fairly elevated, “holier than thou” sort of objective. Nonetheless, in the event that we respite to inspect what we truly need to escape from life, would not happiness, satisfaction, and opportunity by any mean discover their direction onto our rundown of trusts, wishes, and goals? What Patanjali has portrayed as the fulfillment of the yogic way is the thing that, where it counts, every individual yearns for – Peace.

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