Ashtanga

Question 1

What is Yama?

Answer 1

Yama stands for the cultivation of such principles of good conduct as nonviolence (ahimsa), truth (satya), non-stealing (asteya), celibacy (Brahmacharya), and non-possession (aparigraha).

Question 2

What is Niyama?

Answer 2

Niyama stands for the observance of such rules of good conduct as purity (saucha), contentment (santosha), austerity (tapas), study of the sacred texts (svadhyaya), and devotion to God (Isvarapranidhana).

Question 3

Asana

Answer 3

Of the different postures, eighty-four are the main ones. Of these, again, four, viz., simha, bhadra, padma, and siddha5 are said to be excellent. Of these too, it is only siddha, that is the most excellent. Thus the yoga texts declare

Question 4

Pranayama

Answer 4

Exhaling the vital air is rechaka, inhaling is puraka and retaining it in the Heart is kumbhaka. Thus pranayama should be practiced daily according to ability, slowly and gradually. Then, there would arise for the mind a desire to rest in happiness without moving.

Question 5

Pratyahara

Answer 5

This is regulating the mind by preventing it from flowing towards the external names and forms. The mind now becomes controlled. The aids in this respect is fixing the attention between the eyebrows, The mind that has thus become one-pointed will be fit to stay in one place. After this, dharana should be practiced.

Question 6

Dharana

Answer 6

This is fixing the mind in a locus which is fit for meditation. The loci that are eminently fit for meditation are the Heart and Brahmarandhra (the crown of the head). One should think that in the middle of this place, there shines, like a flame, the Deity which is the Self, i.e., Brahman, and fix the mind therein.

Question 7

Dhyana

Answer 7

This is meditation, through the ‘I am He’ thought, that one is not different from the nature of Brahman. If one makes the enquiry ‘Who am I?’, then ‘The Brahman which is everywhere shines in the Heart as the Self that is the witness of the intellect’. This mode of reflection is the best meditation.

Question 8

Samadhi

Answer 8

As a result of the fruition of the aforesaid meditation, the mind gets resolved in the object of meditation without harboring the ideas ‘I am such and such; I am doing this and this’. If one practices this everyday, God will soon confer on one the supreme state of quiescence of mind.