Chances are, you ponder who you are and where you are in life, accept the current realities as best you can, and yet still plan a path toward your ideal. Your yoga practice undoubtedly helps you on this journey. And the yoga tradition suggests more than just postures to aid your transformation. Centuries ago, the great sage Patanjali laid out a kind of map—one that suggests not just asana and meditation but also attitudes and behaviors—to help you chart your own course to contentment.
At first glance, Patanjali's Yoga Sutra, written in Sanskrit and interpreted in many ways, may seem esoteric and impenetrable. But the ancient manual is worth a closer look, because it contains essential advice for daily living. "Patanjali has offered us guidelines that will allow us to have enhanced emotional and mental well-being and a more fulfilling and meaningful life," says Joan Shivarpita Harrigan, a practicing psychologist and the director of Patanjali Kundalini Yoga Care. "The Yoga Sutra is specifically designed to lead to greater happiness and spiritual fulfillment for you and everyone around you."
Much is contained within this ultimate guide to virtuous transformation, including the eightfold path of classical yoga (or ashtanga yoga), which suggests a program of ethical restraints or abstentions (yamas), lifestyle observances (niyamas), postures (asanas), breath control (pranayama), withdrawal of the senses (pratyahara), concentration (dharana), meditation (dhyana), and absorption into the Divine (samadhi). They are designed to lead you, step-by-step, toward everlasting contentment.
If you've been practicing yoga for a while, you're familiar with asana, pranayama, and meditation. But you might not know much about the first two steps of the path: the five yamas and five niyamas. These are the ethical precepts, or core values, of yoga as well as its starting place—meant to be practiced before you do your very first Sun Salutation. They provide a recipe for living in the world with ease.
"The yamas are really about restraining behaviors that are motivated by grasping, aversion, hatred, and delusion; the niyamas are designed to create well-being for ourselves and others," says Stephen Cope, a senior Kripalu teacher and the author of The Wisdom of Yoga. People sometimes think of them as yoga's Ten Commandments, but they aren't concerned with right or wrong in an absolute sense. "There's no thought of heaven or hell. It's about avoiding behaviors that produce suffering and difficulty, and embracing those that lead to states of happiness."
You Can Transform Your Life
Rather than thinking of the yamas and niyamas as a mandatory "to-do list," view them as invitations to act in ways that promote inner and outer peace and bliss. "They create harmony within you, and in relationship to your environment and to others. Where there is harmony, consciousness can expand," says John Friend, the founder of Anusara Yoga. "They lead us to a natural revelation of insight into the nature of being, and joy naturally arises."
They also provide a mirror in which to study your practice and your Self. Viniyoga teacher andYoga Sutra scholar Gary Kraftsow says they represent the qualities of an integrated human being. You get there through practice, contemplation, meditation, and working to transform yourself. "The path of practice begins with understanding and refining the different dimensions of who you are, and it unfolds progressively, not all at once," says Kraftsow. "The whole goal of yoga is Self-realization, which can also be called freedom." The yamas and niyamas give you infinite opportunities to truly transform your life.
Patanjali doesn't tell you how specifically to "do" the yamas and niyamas—that's up to you. But if you align your life with them, they'll lead you to your highest aspirations: peace, truth, abundance, harmonious relationships, contentment, purity, self-acceptance, love, and meaningful connection to the Divine—the essence of happiness. Here, we've asked prominent yoga teachers and philosophers to share their interpretations of the yamas and niyamas to help you make them a part of your path.
Ahimsa: Nonharming
In yoga philosophy, ahimsa—often translated as "non-violence" or "nonharming"—is the opportunity to relinquish hostility and irritability, and instead make space within your consciousness for peace. "In that space, all the anger, separation, and aggression resolve themselves," says Kraftsow. This allows you to let others be who they are, and to relate to the world in a whole new way.
To incorporate ahimsa into your life, look at all the attitudes you have that might be keeping you from feeling at peace. "I encourage students to notice how many times they have an enemy image of something—a neighbor, a co-worker, even the government," says Judith Hanson Lasater, a renowned yoga teacher and the author of six books, including A Year of Living Your Yoga. "Write down your five most negative thoughts," she says. "These thoughts themselves are a form of violence." Lasater recommends that you hold your negativity in your consciousness and step back from it a bit. Just noticing the negativity will help you stop feeding the thoughts and will lead you toward peace.
"My favorite description of ahimsa is of a dynamic peacefulness prepared to meet all needs with loving openness," says Charlotte Bell, a longtime Iyengar Yoga teacher and the author of Mindful Yoga, Mindful Life. "There's a suggestion of a state of balance that can evolve, that meets each situation in an open and accepting way."
This openness can extend to others. "You may mistakenly think that to refrain from harming another brings benefit to that other, and not to yourself," says Sharon Gannon, the co-creator of Jivamukti Yoga. "But when you start to understand how karma works, you realize that how you treat others determines how much suffering you experience." Gannon believes that if you truly become "other centered" (putting the happiness and well-being of others first), then not only do you experience less suffering, but the other yamas also unfold effortlessly.
Satya: Truthfulness
The Yoga Sutra holds truth among the highest of ideals. Many interpretations promise that once you're fully vested in satya, everything you say will come to be realized.
But be careful not to confuse your point of view with the truth. "You have to have integrity and humility to realize that the truth may be bigger than you," says Nischala Joy Devi, the author of her own translation of the Yoga Sutra, The Secret Power of Yoga: A Woman's Guide to the Heart and Spirit of the Yoga Sutras. "In each moment, you must ask yourself: Am I speaking the truth? Am I just giving my opinion, filtered through my mind and all my prejudices?"
Satya requires that you consider both the spoken and unspoken aspects of your words. You don't want to mislead through omission; neither do you have to say everything that's on your mind—especially if it's hurtful. "Don't gossip, even if the information you're giving is true," says Kraftsow. "Instead, speak only of the highest. Use your words to elevate the listener." When you do so, you elevate yourself in the process.
Many spiritual seekers find that spending time in silence helps them notice the distinction between opinions and reality. Slowing down your internal chatter can help ground you in satya. "Silence is discriminative restraint," says Cope. "You are able to examine the roots of speech on an inner level, which enables you to better control your gross outward communication." You then establish a way of interacting with the world that includes both ahimsa and satya, both peacefulness and truthfulness.
Asteya: Nonstealing
Don't steal, the Yoga Sutra says, and all good things will come to you. Because asteya is commonly translated to mean refraining from taking anything that is not freely offered, the first things most people think of are money, clothes, food, and other tangible stuff. But there's more to asteya than what is found on the material plane.
"There are lots of things you can steal," says Devi. "You can steal someone's time if you are late. You can steal someone's energy. You can steal someone's happiness. You can steal someone else's ideas if you represent them as your own."
Asteya also calls for a focus on how and what you consume. "If you are taking something, you need to consider how to give back the appropriate energy or amount," says Friend. "Because everything is interconnected, whatever you receive is taken from somewhere else. Most people don't stop to consider all the different levels of energy involved in all they are consuming. Energetically and karmically, you create a major imbalance if you take and don't pay back." Or, to borrow a line from the Beatles: "The love you take is equal to the love you make."
To invite asteya into your life, consider what you truly need and refrain from letting your desires persuade you to take more. Have fair trade be your mantra—not only in your shopping habits but also in all of your day-to-day interactions. Respect the time and energy of others, give credit where credit is due, and see if you can help build up the world's kindness reserves by giving more than you take.
Brahmacharya: Energy Moderation
The most talked about interpretation of brahmacharya is celibacy. But you needn't become a monk to be a good yogi. You can just accept a broader interpretation of this yama. "It literally means 'walking in the way of God,'" says Harrigan. "It's about preventing the dissipation of one's energy through the misuse of the senses. It's a personal energy-conservation program—when you practice brahmacharya, you are not letting the senses rule your behavior; you are not urge driven."
Anything that causes turbulence in the mind and stirs the emotions might be seen as a violation of brahmacharya: overstimulating foods, loud music, violent movies, and yes, inappropriate sexual behavior. "Whatever disturbs the mind and body disturbs the spiritual life—it's all one energy," says Devi. "Brahmacharya asks you to consider how you spend it. Look at energy like money in the bank: If you have $100, you don't want to spend it all right away so that you have nothing left. Become a good energy manager."
Brahmacharya has real applications in the physical practice, says Bell. "When you're working with asana, you need to learn to regulate your effort so that you're not pushing and forcing, which drains the life force," she explains. "I'll put my students in a pose and have them consider what they would have to do—or stop doing—to stay in it for an hour. Almost universally, their faces will relax and their shoulders will drop down, and they'll find that they put energy into things they didn't need to. Asana should be replenishing your energy, not draining it."
Experiment with this practice on your mat, then take it into the rest of your life. No matter what's going on—whether it's being delayed for your next appointment by a long line at the supermarket, or nervously kissing a new love interest—ask yourself: Can I let go of my tension and relax into this moment?
Notice how the situation doesn't need your stress to resolve itself. And by not giving so much energy to intense moments—by not squandering your life force—you are more at ease and happier in all moments.
Aparigraha: Nongrasping
Aparigraha means "nongrasping," and it can be a tough sell in this consumer culture of ours. But freedom from wanting more and more is just that: freedom.
"Aparigraha is the decision to not hoard or accumulate goods through greed but rather to develop an attitude of stewardship toward the material world," Harrigan says. "Before you bring anything into your home, ask yourself: Do I need this for my role in life? As a parent? As a spiritual seeker? Or am I just accumulating stuff out of my own fear and greed?" If you don't consider these questions, your possessions can take over. "Once you get so much stuff, you have to take care of and defend it," Harrigan says. "You start to get attached to it and identify with it. It's easy to start thinking you are your stuff, but the truth is that stuff comes and goes."
The idea is: Just let it go. "If our homes are filled with old junk that doesn't apply to us anymore, there's no room for new energy to come in," says Bell. That holds true for the nonmaterial ideas and attitudes you cling to as well. "If you are hanging on to old beliefs about yourself or your relationships, or clinging to a career that no longer feeds you, there's no latitude to move in a different direction."
To invite aparigraha, try a simple practice. "Acknowledge abundance and practice gratitude," says Devi. "You don't need more and more if you are grateful and feeling fulfilled with what you have in the moment."
By Hillari Dowdle
