When you hear the word yoga, numerous thoughts come to mind like flexibility, spirituality, a heated room, exercise, Buddhism, lululemon, physical postures, meditation, balance, the list goes on. The question ‘What Is Yoga?’ can have various answers depending on who you ask. There is no single correct way to define yoga, but across all answers there is one consistent truth: yoga is a system to achieve a better way of life and yogic practices give direct and tangible benefits to all who practice them.

In this blog post, we’ll explore the history, philosophy, and main goals of yoga, and expand on the royal path (raja yoga) as outlined by Sage Patanjali. What is usually offered at Western studios as a yoga practice is some combination of asana (physical postures), pranayama (breathwork), and pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses), which are all parts of Patanjali’s eight-limbed royal path. This post is meant to serve as a reference for studio-goers who wish to expand their knowledge of the history and principles of yoga. Through expanding one’s awareness of the different aspects of yoga off the mat, a yogi can deepen their practice on the mat.

Much of the information in this blog post has been collected from YogaUnion’s Yoga Teacher Training Manual, written by Ourania Bouzouki and Spyros Kapitsinos over years of hard work and dedication. The Manual was written with accuracy and passion by the authors, and it served as a valuable study guide during my 200-hour YTT with YogaUnion in 2022.

Introduction

Yoga comes from the Sanskrit word ‘yuj’ which means join, connect, or union. The aim of yoga is to expand the narrow, egotistic personality – the understanding that you are separate from the rest of existence – to one of union. In the yogic context, this refers to the joining of the self with the rest of reality (the Universal Self).

Yoga philosophy holds that there are two aspects of the universe: (1) the never-changing, intangible pure consciousness and (2) the ever-changing, tangible material cosmos. The intangible needs the tangible to experience itself, but to understand the intangible you must go beyond the tangible. As humans we are preoccupied with the material world and its illusions and we naturally search for happiness through our senses. In this context, happiness is a manner of ‘having.’  We believe we’ll be happy when we have the job, the partner, the house, the friends, the vacations, etc. because they make us feel good temporarily, and we chase that feeling in perpetuity. Yoga is a pathway of remembering that happiness is within us, and everything else is a bonus. When we silence the mind and see beyond the material world that surrounds us, we are reminded that contentment doesn’t depend on any outer circumstances. Our true state of being is bliss and pure unconditional love that connects us to each other and all other beings. Through meditation, we transcend our ego and feel the presence of our true soul. We see clearly.

Background and History

Yoga’s roots can be traced back over 5000 years to northern India. The purity of the practice is preserved there as its teachings are handed down through a living tradition across generations. Though not a religion itself, yoga is deeply tied to Hindu and Buddhist traditions and its teachings have their roots in historical scriptures including the Vedas and Bhagavad Gita. Over time, numerous schools and philosophies of yoga have evolved. This post will focus on classical yoga as developed by Sage Patanjali.

Sage Patanjali is often considered the father of yoga. Throughout his life, he collected, synthesized, and systematized fragmented concepts of yogic traditions and wrote the Yoga Sutras. The Yoga Sutras organize the practice of yoga into an eight-limbed path that guides the student toward samadhi (the highest state of mental concentration). According to Patanjali, yoga is the process of gaining control of the mind (yogas citta vritti nirodhah).

Raja Yoga

The Bhagavad Gita outlines four yogic paths we may follow, known as The Four Yogas. The paths all share the same goal – to transcend our ego and awaken us to the understanding of our divine nature. Raja yoga, known as the royal path or classical yoga, is one of these four. The basic premise of raja is that our perception of the divine self is obscured by the disturbances of the mind, and if the mind can be made still and pure, the Self will automatically, instantaneously shine forth.

According to Patanjali, matter and spirit are dualistic and the way to connect one with the other is through the eight limbed path of raja yoga. Each limb in the path builds upon one another, and one should practice them in sequence. Working from our external environment inward, the limbs are designed to bring the body and mind into a state of peace and stillness, where one can hope to meditate. They are as follows:

Yama

It is important to understand that there is no effective way to practice meditation without practicing moral virtues in tandem. This is why the yogi begins their journey with the yamas. The yamas are a set of external restraints meant to clarify your soul with the world.  They allow the yogi to be free of feelings that can plague the mind and hinder the goal of meditation, such as guilt, regret, jealously, and resentment, to name a few. Practicing them is easier said than done and sometimes we may fall short of these ideals, but the yogi should strive to do their best in upholding them irrespective of place, time, circumstance, or social status. The five yamas are:

• Ahimsa (non-violence in physical action, word, and thought)
• Satya (truthfulness and harmony between thought and word)
• Asteya (non stealing)
• Brahmacharya (moderation in all things; maintaining balanced energy)
• Aparigrahah (non-greed, non-possessiveness, and gratitude; living a simple life)

Niyama

While the yamas harmonize our relationship with other beings, the niyamas harmonize our relationship to ourselves. The niyamas are a set of internal restraints, or observances. They cultivate moral discipline through the inner life of the yogi and allow us to achieve a liberated state of being. The five niyamas are:

• Sauca (purity; cleanliness, organization, clarity, and precision of mind/body/life)
• Santosa (contentment; satisfaction and gratitude for what we have and maintaining an attitude of abundance)
• Tapah (discipline; dedication to one’s practice despite all challenges that arise)
• Svadhyaya (introspection; self study/reflection and study of materials that promote spiritual development)
• Isvara pranidhana (devotion; self surrender and surrender to the divine/higher power)

Asana

While yama and niyama protect the mind complex, asana prepares the body to withstand the impact of higher yogic practices. The object of asana is to eliminate body consciousness. If one is disturbed by discomfort in the body due to suboptimal physical health, the mind cannot concentrate, let alone meditate. We move through asanas so that we may be still.

Asana can mean two things: (1) the place on which the yogi sits and (2) the manner in which one sits. Originally asana described the seated posture in which a yogi would meditate, with the spine extended in a long column. Because subtle vibrations occur along the spine during yoga practice, it is necessary to keep the spine in a straight line. Over the centuries, the term asana has been extended to describe any of the hundreds of postures we may assume during a yoga sequence. Each unique posture allows space and awareness to be developed in different parts of the body, which in turn allows for the free flow of pranic energy during pranayama.

Pranayama

Pranayama means control and expansion of the breath/life force. Prana is the vital energy that sustains life, and in the human body it is expressed through breathing. The ultimate aim of pranayama is to be able to retain the breath. This makes pranayama an advanced yogic practice since prana is wild, and to tame it one needs steadiness and patience. The practice of pranayama requires one to sit still and focus their awareness only on the breath in and out of the body. By controlling and regulating pranic energy with breathing, the yogi is gradually able to control their inner nature. Each pranayama technique produces different effects in the body at the physical and energetic level (heating, cooling, or balancing), and the practice has a profound effect on the brain and nervous system. In this limb, the yogi strives to increase the amount of prana flowing in the body while decreasing the amount of respirations per minute (retaining the breath). Once you are comfortable with your asana practice in the studio, you can deepen your pranayama practice by being more mindful about the breath as you move. Try to hold your awareness on the breath for the duration of class, not just the beginning and end portions, and consciously slow it down/deepen it to calm the body in each asana.

Pratyahara

Pratyahara means withdrawing the mind from objects of sensory experience (i.e. shutting off hearing, seeing, feeling, etc.) so that the senses may follow the mind inward. Tuning into the inner world sharpens the sense of interoception, the awareness of the sensations within the body. This is different from our sense of feeling, which is related to the external world, emotions, and physical pleasure/pain. Interoception creates awareness of things such as the heartbeat, blood flow, electricity flow through the nervous system, muscle tension, respiration, and how emotions manifest in the physical body. Like pranayama, this requires controlled effort on the part of the yogi.

We are programmed to use our senses to survive and protect ourselves from threats in our environment, so to turn them off is to surrender. For one who wants to meditate, it is very important to be able to introvert oneself from omnipresent external distractions. Your mind cannot become aware of the deeper facets of consciousness if it is constantly preoccupied with the external world. Thus, the purpose of pratyahara is to purify sensory awareness by turning it inward.

There are many ways to practice pratyahara, such as Yoga Nidra and guided meditation. In the studio, one can practice this limb effectively at the beginning and end of class during seated meditation or savasana. Sit or lie completely still with the eyes closed, release all tension from the body, and use the time to move your awareness through different parts of your internal body.

Dharana

Dharana is confinement of the mind to one point, object, or area (i.e. concentration). In ordinary consciousness the mind wanders outward and thinks about many things, shifting from one object/idea to another with great rapidity. The purpose of dharana is to slow the thought waves and direct them in a continuous flow toward a single object rather than outward at many objects. The object can be a thought, word, mantra, the breath, or body sensations. During dharana, the mind does not move or leave the point of concentration and there is no awareness of anything except for the point of focus.

In the studio, dharana should be practiced during seated meditation or savasana, as the body must be at complete rest. If the teacher prompts you to create an intention for your class, the intention may be your object of focus. When first practicing this limb, it’s not possible to concentrate for long periods as breaks in concentration occur due to external or internal factors. However, the longer one practices, the stronger concentration becomes. When the mind is concentrated on a single point, perception becomes intense and we begin the transition into dhyana.

Dhyana

Dhyana means to meditate; it is an unbroken stream of concentration, where little to no sense of self remains. At this stage it becomes extremely difficult to use words to describe these inner experiences of yoga. The state of meditation by its nature transcends our material, human experience and everything that is related to it. Dhyana may only occur after years of disciplined practice; it is not the ‘meditation’ sold in the West (a combination of pranayama, pratyahara, and dharana), but something much more profound. The fluctuations of the mind make meditation an unachievable goal for most people and only with dedicated preparation can concentration and meditation arise naturally. Pratyahara and dharana must be mastered before dhyana can occur.

Samadhi

The practice of concentration and meditation will eventually find fruition in samadhi, or realization of consciousness/soul. When samadhi is achieved, we identify only with our soul and the material world and all it brings cease to exist. Samadhi is the ultimate level of consciousness at which a yogi feels ‘at One with the Universe.’ It starts when the relationship between the mind and object of concentration deepens to a point at which the mind’s awareness of itself concentrating is diminished and awareness of the object consumes the mind. Samadhi is not necessarily an everlasting, unbroken state; it temporarily stills our attachments, perceptions, and senses of the material world and lifts us into higher consciousness. These cannot be put off for long in practicality, but as the yogi advances, samadhi may be experienced for longer periods and the knowledge yielded from this state has a more lasting effect on the mind. In the Hindu tradition, it is believed that after samadhi is achieved, reincarnation ceases, and one joins the Universal Soul upon death.

Conclusion

The highest goal of yoga is Self-realization: to still the body and mind, extend our awareness beyond the illusions of the material world, and gain insight into the nature of the Universe and our essence. Ultimately, this will result in a feeling of liberation and union with all that exists, which gives us the ability to cast away suffering and live in the present moment indefinitely. The eight limbs described by Patanjali offer a pathway to this goal and are just one of many pathways the yogi may take. Other traditions of yoga use different techniques to achieve similar phenomena. For example, in the tradition of Hatha and Tantra yoga, it is believed that awakening dormant Kundalini energy through each chakra is required for the yogi to attain spiritual union with the divine.

For most people, yoga is a means of maintaining health and well-being in an increasingly stressful society. It is a system to achieve a better way of life, not a religion or doctrine, and can be applied to any human endeavour. It follows that spirituality is not a necessary component of the practice and that other reasons for coming to the mat are equally as valid as the goal of Self-realization. There is no ‘right way’ to practice yoga, so long as the practice you create for yourself improves your wellbeing and, consequently, the wellbeing of others.  As you deepen your practice over the years, be sure to have fun, stay curious, and allow your practice to take you wherever it naturally chooses to go.

A Note from the Author

I was first introduced to yoga in highschool by my sisters through weeknight classes at our local gym. My practice started as a form of therapeutic physical exercise; I loved the way the movements made my body feel and how they allowed me to enter a flow state where I could forget about everything. As time went on, the mental and spiritual benefits of yoga became apparent, and these now drive the reason I return to my mat daily. For me, yoga allows the time and space to detach from my environment and connect with my soul. It is a constant reminder to look beyond my daily experience and remember that we are all connected through something much greater. It is not a means of renouncing the world, ignoring problems, or avoiding pain – but a rock amidst the chaos of life, just like family, friends, and a great partner. No matter what happens in life, yoga reminds us that everything we need lies just below the surface of our experience. It allows us to be calm under pressure and go about our lives without ever losing site of the truth: that dignity is inherent, happiness is available at any moment, and there is nothing to be afraid of. There are many avenues and activities beyond yoga that can summon up these truths time and again when they’re forgotten. I hope you will find yours and hold it close to your heart.