Requirements for yoga
” Knowledge (Jnana) does not come about from practice of yoga techniques alone. The practice of yogic approaches is not the methods by itself, yet it is just out of that practice of yoga that the excellence in understanding comes about.
All things rest upon something else-that is, all things are supported by another. Yoga, then, likewise needs assistance. Patanjali really thoroughly and totally describes the aspects of the assistance required by the candidate, offering vital info on how to ensure success in yoga.
The very first Yoga Sutra states: “Now the exposition of yoga,” suggesting that there should be something leading up to yoga in the type of essential advancements of awareness and character. These requirements might be considered the Pillars of Yoga, and are called Yama and Niyama
Yama and Niyama.
Each one of these Five Do n’ts (Yama) and Five Do’s (Niyama) is a supporting, liberating Pillar of Yoga. Here is the total list of these 10 Pillars as provided in Yoga Sutras 2:30,32:
1) Ahimsa: non-violence, non-injury, harmlessness
2) Satya: truthfulness, sincerity
3) Asteya: non-stealing, sincerity, non-misappropriativeness
4) Brahmacharya: sexual continence in deed, word and idea in addition to control of all the senses
5) Aparigraha: non-possessiveness, non-greed, non-selfishness, non-acquisitiveness
6) Shaucha: pureness, tidiness
7) Santosha: satisfaction, tranquillity
8) Tapas: austerity, useful (i.e., result-producing) spiritual discipline
9) Swadhyaya: reflective self-study, spiritual research study
10) Ishwarapranidhana: offering of one’s life to God
All of these handle the natural powers of the human being-or rather with the abstaining and observance that will establish and launch those powers to be utilized towards our spiritual excellence, to our self-realization and freedom.
These 10 restraints (yama) and observances (niyama) are not optional for the aiming yogi-or for the most sophisticated yogi, either. (Bhagavad Gita 6:14) So yama and niyama are techniques of yoga” in themselves and are not simple accessories or help that can be optional.
At the very same time, the practice of yoga assists the hopeful yogi to follow the required methods of yama and niyama, so he must not be dissuaded from taking up yoga right now, believing that he must wait till he is “all set” or has actually “cleaned up his act” to practice yoga. He must determinedly embark on yoga, niyama, and yama at the same time.
The practice of yogic techniques is not the methods by itself, yet it is just out of that practice of yoga that the excellence in understanding comes about. Each one of these Five Do n’ts (Yama) and Five Do’s (Niyama) is a supporting, liberating Pillar of Yoga. (Bhagavad Gita 6:14) So yama and niyama are approaches of yoga” in themselves and are not simple accessories or help that can be optional.
At the exact same time, the practice of yoga assists the ambitious yogi to follow the needed methods of yama and niyama, so he ought to not be prevented from taking up yoga right now, believing that he must wait till he is “all set” or has actually “cleaned up his act” to practice yoga. He needs to determinedly embark on niyama, yama, and yoga concurrently.