The limbs of yoga

Patanjali said that there were eight limbs of Yoga. They were Yama, niyama, aasana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana and samaadhi.

- Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

He went into the details of each and the results to be expected from it. Yoga has eight limbs, just as a chair has four legs. Each is connected to the whole. So, if you just pull one, the whole chair will move. The whole body develops together. Organs develop together. It is not that the nose develops first, and then the ears. That is why Patanjali called them the limbs of Yoga. Unfortunately, people think that these are stages and come one after the other; that we have to achieve each, one by one. This is not right. It is a misconception.

Yama is the first limb. What are yamas?

Ahimsa satya asteya brahmacharya aparigraha. There are five yamas.

Ahimsa – non-violence, satya – truth, asteya – non- stealing, brahmacharya – moving in