The Eightfold Means of Yoga

As we have already said, a man cannot realize spiritual truths so long as his mind is tainted with
impurities and his intellect vitiated by evil thoughts. It is in the pure heart and the clear
understanding that the truth of the spirit is revealed and directly experienced. The Sankhya Yoga
system holds that liberation is to be attained by means of spiritual insight (prajna)into the reality
of the self as the pure immortal spirit which is quite distinct from the body and the mind. But
spiritual insight can be had only when the mind is purged of all impurities and rendered perfectly
calm and serene. For the purification of and enlightenment of citta or the mind, the Yoga gives us
the eightfold means which consists of the disciplines of (1)yama or restraint, (2) niyama or
culture (3) asana or posture (4) pranayama or breath control (5) pratyahara or withdrawal of the
senses, (6) dharana or attention, (7) dhyana meditation and (8) samadhi or concentration. These
are known as aids to yoga (yoganga). When practised regularly with devotion and dispassion,
they lead to the attainment of yoga, both samprajnata and asamprajnata.

The first discipline of yama or restraint consists in (a)ahimsa or abstention from all kinds of
injury to any life (b) satya or truthfulness in thought and speech, (c) asteya or non-stealing (d)
brahmacharya or control of the carnal desires and passions, and (e) aparigraha or non-acceptance
of unnecessary gifts from other people. Although these practices seem to be too well known to
require any elaboration, yet the Yoga explains all their details and insists that a yogin must
scrupulously follow them. The reason for this is obvious. It is a psychological law that a sound
mind resides in a sound body, and that neither can be sound in the case of a man who does not
control his passions and sexual impulses. So also, a man cannot concentrate his attention on any
object when his mind is distracted and dissipated by sin and crime and other evil pr4opensities.
this explains the necessity of complete absention from all the evil courses and tendencies of life
on the part of the yogin who is eager to realize the self in samadhi or concentration.

The second discipline is niyama or culture. It consists in the cultivation of the following good
habits: (a) sauca or purification of thebody by washing and taking pure food (which is bahya or
external purification), and purification of the mind by cultivating good emotions and sentiments,

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such as friendliness, kindness, cheerfulness for the virtues and indifference to the vices of others
( which is called abhyantara or internal purification), (b) santosa or the habit of being content
with what comes of itself without undue exertion (c) tapas or penance which consists in the habit
of enduring the cold and heat, etc., and observing austere vows, (d)svadhyayaor the regular habit
of study of religious books, and (e) Isvarapranidhana or meditation of and resignation to God.

Asana is a discipline of the body and consists in the adoption of steady and comfortable postures.
There are various kinds of asana, such as padmasana, virasana, bhadrasana, etc. These can not be
properly learnt only under the guidance of exports. The discipline of the body is as much is
necessary for the attainment of concentration as that of the mind. If the body is not completely
free from diseases and other disturbing influences, it is very difficult to attain concentration.
Hence, the Yoga lays down elaborate rules for maintaining the health of the body and making it a
fit vehicle for concentrated thought. It prescribes many rules for preserving the vital energy, and
strengthening and purifying the body and the mind. The asanas or postures recommended in it
are effective ways by which the body can be kept partially free from diseases, and all the limbs,
especially the nervous system, can be brought under control and prevented from producing
disturbances in the mind.

Pranayama is the regulation of breath. It consists in suspension of the breathing processes either
after exhalation (recaka), or inhalation (puraka), or simply by retention of the vital breath
(kumbhaka). The details of the process should be learnt from experts. That respiratory exercises
are useful for strengthening the heart and improving its function is recognized by medical men
when they recommend walking, climbing, etc., in a garaduated scale, for patients with weak
hearts. The Yoga goes further and prescribes breath control for concentration of the mind,
because it condues to steadiness of the body and the mind. So long as the function of breathing
continues, the mind also goes on fluctuating and noticing the cutrent of air in and out. If, and
when, it is suspended, the mind is in a state of undisturbed concentration. Hence, by practising
the control of breath, the yogin can suspend breathing for a ling time and thereby prolong the
state of concentration.

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Pratyahara consists in withdrawing the senses from their respective external objects and keeping
them under the control of the mind. When the senses are effectively controlled by the mind, they
follow, not their natural objects, but the mind itself. So in this sense the mind is not disturbed by
sights, sounds, etc., coming through the eye, the ear, and other senses, but keeps all of them
under perfect control. This state is very difficult, although not impossible, of attainment. It
requires a resolute will and long practice to gain mastery over one's senses. The five disciplines
of restraint and culture (yama and niyama), bodily postures (asana), breath-control (pranayama)
and control over the senses (pratyahara) are regarded as the external aids to yoga (bahiranga-
sadhana). As compared with these, the last three disciplines are said to be internal to yoga
( antaranga-sadhana), because they are directly related to some kind of samadhi or yoga. These
are dharana dhyana and samadhi.

Dharana or attention is a mental discipline which consists in holding (dharana) or fixing the mind
(citta) on the desired object. The object thus attended to may be a part of one's body, like one's
navel, the midpoint of the eyebrows, etc. or it may be external to the body, like the moon, the
images of gods, etc. The ability to keep one's attention steadily fixed on some object is the test of
fitness for entering on the next higher stage of yoga.

Dhyana or meditation is the next step. It means the even flow of thought about, or rather, round
about, the object of attention. It is the steadfast contemplation of the object without any break or
disturbance. This has the effect of giving us a clear and distinct representation of the object first
by parts and aspects. But by long-continued meditation the mind can develop the partial
representation of the object into a full and live presentation of it. Thus dhyana reveals the reality
of the contemplated objects to the yogin's mind.

Samadhi or concentration is the final step in the practice of yoga. In it the mind is so deeply
absorbed in the object of contemplation that it loses itself in the object and has no awreness of
itself. In the state of dhyana, the act and the object of thought remain distinct and separate states
of consciousness. But in samadhi the act of meditation is not separately cognised; it takes on the
form of the object and loses itself, as it were. So here only the object of thought remains shing in

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the mind, and we do not even know that there is a process of thought in the mind. It should be
observed here that this samadhi as a discipline is different from the samadhi or the yoga
previously defined as "the restraint of the mind" (cittavrttinirodha). The former is but the means
for the attainment of the latter which is its end. A lon-continued practice of the one leads to the
other. These last thrre steps in the practice of yoga are called internal means (antaranga-
sadhana).They should have the same object, i.e. the same object should be firstattended to, then
meditated and lastly concentrated upon. When thus combined they are said to constitute
samyama which is very necessary for the attainment of samadhi-yoga.

A yogin believed to acquire certain extraordinary powers by the practice of yoga in its different
stages. Thus we are told that the yogins can tame all creatures including even ferocious animals,
get any object by the mere wish of it, know directly the past, present and future, produce
supernatural sights, sounds and smells and see substle entities, angles and gods. They can also
see through closed doors, pass through stone walls, disappear from sight, appear atdifferent
places at the same time, and so forth. While these may be possible, the Yoga system warns all
religious aspirants not to practise yoga with these ends in view. Yoga is for the attainment of
liberation. The yogin must not get entangled in the quagmire of supernormal powers. He must
overcome the lure of yaugic powers and move onward till he comes to the end of the journey,
viz. liberation.