From Yama to Samyama

Byline: T. Srinivasan Yama and Samyama form the start and culmination of yoga practices. Yama is personal practices consisting of ahimsa (noninjury), satya (truthfulness), asteya (not appropriating what belongs to others), brahmacharya (moving toward Ultimate Truth or Brahman), and aparigraha (nonacceptance of gifts). This is followed by Niyama which are restraints of saucha (purity), santosha (content), tapah (penance), svaadyaaya (study), and Isvara pranidhana (surrender to a higher principle). Samyama is bringing together the last three stages of the practices, namely, dharana, dhyana, and samadhi. Having defined these (in a limited way), let us look at their role in yoga practices. It is said that these are yoga angas. The word “anga” could be understood in two ways: Steps or limbs. If these are steps, we need to take one step at a time. If it is interpreted as limbs, we could practice all eight limbs of yoga and as we progress, the limbs grow, mature, and attain completion. Practice of Yoga Angas Thus, it is important that the limbs of yoga practices are brought forth by Yoga teachers so that a complete psychospiritual basic of yoga is understood and practiced. This psychospiritual base need not violate anyone's preferred spiritual orientation or belief system. In general, it is possible to enhance one's spiritual attitudes through Kaivalya, which is defined in the last sutra of Patanjali (4:44) as reversal of natural tendencies in a person. Thus, practicing yoga, we are moving beyond nature! Nature has endowed us with certain predispositions, certain mix of satva, raja, and tamo gunas. This is our baggage we carry and yoga teaches us not to fall in the trap of gunas, rather to outwit them and transcend them through our practices. Thus, the last sutra instructs us to become gun?tita – move beyond gunas, as Bhagavad Gita also intones. The ultimate objective of yoga practices is thus to move beyond one's natural tendencies of anger, frustration, disappointment, happiness, and contentment, all of which could be short lived. To reach a state of eternal happiness or bliss, one needs to start from Yama and reach Kaivalya through practice of Samyama. The eight limbs of yoga cater to the well-being of the physical, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of the practitioners. Proper food gives strength to the body; asana and pranayama practices provide uniform movement of prana in the body bringing calmness to the mind; self-study provides a plenum for progress toward our goal and surrender to the Ultimate Principle takes us to experience bliss. Thus, each anga of the yoga practice has a role to play in the complete success of the practices. However, it should be noted that the angas are not separate entities; it is said that the eight limbs should progress simultaneously and in equal measure. Thus, as asanas are practiced, one thinks of maintaining an attitude of expansion into infinity; with pranayama, one should surrender to the higher principle. Then, in Samyama, we bring attention to inner reality and its connection to the external world. Thus, as each anga is practiced, we bring to bear the entire psychospiritual nature into focus. In a recent article, the authors say: “Even considering asana alone, there are significant differences in the way physical movements are done in yoga and physical exercise. This makes it compelling to call yogasana as a movement-based contemplative practice or a psycho-spiritual practice rather than just a set of physical movements.”[sup][1] Spiritual Quotient Intelligent quotient was a popular measure to assess a person's capability in terms of his/her contribution to the bottom line of an organization. …

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