I outlined briefly in my introduction of “What is Silent Motion Yoga” about the 8 Limbs of Raja Yoga created by Sage Patanjali. I would like to cover this topic in some more depth now, before launching into a breakdown of each of the Sivananda basic poses.
I am going to list these in reverse order, as this structure is intended to be seen as a ladder:

• Samadhi- Self-Realization, The Goal of Life (8)
• Dhyana- Meditation, the mysterious ladder to real knowledge (7)
• Dharana- Concentration, one pointed focus (6)
• Pratjahara- Withdrawal of the Senses, removing the mind from their influence (5)
• Pranayama- Control of the Vital Force, which allows all things to live (4)
• Asanas- Postures without movement, yoga poses (3)
• Niyamas- Observances, “The Do’s”, things one must do (2)
• Yamas- Restrictions, “The Don’ts”, the things one must refrain from (1)

The bottom two sections- the yamas and niyamas- form what could be thought of as the "Ten Commandments" so to speak, of yoga. Essentially, the ethical precepts of practice. In the modern world, we don't even talk about this- we just start doing asanas. It's assumed you are a good person, etc. Also, it's important to note that the details of much of these practices weren't addressed at all by Patanjali, because in his time, nearly everyone did pranayama as a regular part of their lives, so why go into it?

At Silent Motion Yoga, it's recognized that all of these principles aren't separate in any individual, including the children we teach, in pre-schools and childcare facilities.

I have read that Sage Pantanjali thought of this "Kriya Yoga" before it was co-opted by some modern teachers (i.e. Paramahamsa Hariharananda, Paramahansa Yogananda and his disciple Swami Kriyananda)- because this indeed is what is is a method of. The word kriya means "cleansing" and it also means "action". Since karma also means "action" it's important not to confuse them. One is a cleaning effort, a purification, and the other is the fruits of your previous actions.

YOU CAN DO IT
What is interesting about this, and is never really talked about among the casual student of modern yoga is that considering this entire ladder, conceptually presented to us as a service to the world by Patanjali, really means that true understanding of ourselves and others is within our grasp, it's possible.

What is more, it means it's TRAINABLE. For a longtime athlete, and coach of athletes like myself, this particular things was HUGE in my consideration as to what system of thought to align myself with. Yoga is an entire comprehensive set of practices whereby one starts mainly with purification. I think that this applies also to everyone in all walks of life. I have broken down Ashtanga Yoga, Swami Vishnu-devananda's 5 Points of Yoga, and the 4 Paths of Yoga into parts applicable to the athlete also in some detail. In later posts, I will talk about this, or think about attending one of my courses on this subject.

The problem here is that the idea of purification itself has been poisoned by many Western practices of religion, and because yoga is thought to be religion, then it gets thrown into the same negative bucket of ideas as that.
A closer look tells us differently. Not helping matters is a long line of so-called 'gurus' from the sixties and seventies who took advantage of the largesse of the Western devotee (even including the Beatles!), and made a mockery of real spirituality. Unfortunately, this is still going on today, even in the middle of good institutions set up by real gurus like Swami Vishnu-devananda.

The founding instructional method of teaching in yoga practice is called the gurukula. Guru means "remover of darkness. 'kula' meaning 'house of'. So literally, the student would come and live with the guru, usually from age 8 or so and stay until 25 where they would then go back to their parents and talk about marriage. We will talk about the phases of life in a later post. Typically, this instruction was free, and people would donate with the idea to continue the guru's means of instructing the students.

Again, the difficulty here is that in the modern age, we have no proper teachers from which to support an entire school based on their ideas. The best we have in this respect, and I think of them as gurus are people like Rudolf Steiner (Waldorf schools), and Maria Montessori (Montessori Schools). I will talk more about the gurukula system in later posts.

In later posts (as this one is getting long), I will break down these asht (8) angas (limbs) one by one and discuss them.
Kindly write me with any questions you would like to see answered or your comments are welcomed.

Thanks,
DurgaDas (Regis Chapman)

Tags: ashtanga, poses, postures, asanas, Meditation, yoga asanas, pranayama