Ashṭāṅga Yoga

Ashṭāṅga Yoga · ashṭa-aṅga yoga, “the yoga of eight limbs”

Ashṭāṅga yoga means “yoga with eight limbs” (ashṭa = eight, aṅga = limb). It is a step-by-step path of discipline, breath control and meditation, from right conduct to complete absorption in meditation.

The eight limbs are yama (restraint), niyama (observances), āsana (posture), prāṇāyāma (control of the breath), pratyāhāra (drawing in the senses), dhāraṇā (concentration), dhyāna (meditation) and samādhi (absorption).

The Śiva Purāṇa, the Skanda Purāṇa, the Garuḍa Purāṇa and the Agni Purāṇa each teach it. In the Agni Purāṇa, Agni Deva teaches it to Vasishṭha over seven chapters for the removal of the burning distress of saṃsāra, giving every limb in detail: the ten kinds of hiṃsā and the eight kinds of maithuna to be given up, the Praṇava as the heart of svādhyāya, the grades of prāṇāyāma, dhyāna on Bhagavān Vishṇu in the lotus of the heart, the four dhāraṇās of Vishṇu, and samādhi with its obstacles.

The Bhāgavata Purāṇa teaches the eight limbs as a path to Śrī Hari. Bhagavān Kapila gives Devahūti the whole ashṭāṅga yoga, from the yamas to the meditation on Śrī Hari limb by limb, and says that by it, or by bhakti-yoga alone, one reaches the Parama Purusha; Śuka gives Parīkshit pratyāhāra, dhāraṇā, dhyāna and samādhi, and the yogī’s leaving of the body through the six cakras; Śrī Kṛshṇa teaches Uddhava the yamas and niyamas, prāṇāyāma with the Oṃkāra and dhyāna in the lotus of the heart, and names himself samādhi among the eight limbs. The Purāṇa also shows the limbs in the lives of Brahmā, Dhruva, Malayadhvaja and Ajāmila, and says again and again that what yoga gives, bhakti gives more easily.

Per Śiva Purāṇa

The Vāyavīya Saṃhitā, the last book of the Śiva Purāṇa, teaches ashṭāṅga yoga in its Uttara Khaṇḍa (Chapters 37–39) as part of the Śaiva Pāśupata way. Here the final goal is to still the mind and to reach union with Śiva through dhyāna (meditation).

The text describes five kinds of yoga, ten obstacles, the working of prāṇāyāma (breath control) in the body, six lotus-centres (padmas) for meditation, the siddhis (special powers) linked with each element, and the inner states that come with progress. It ends with samādhi, in which the difference between the meditator (dhyātā), the act of meditation (dhyāna) and the one meditated on (dhyeya) melts away completely in awareness of Śiva.

Five Kinds of Yoga

Chapter 37 opens with Upamanyu‘s definition of yoga: “the unmoving fixing of the mind on Śiva after all other movements of the mind (vṛttis) are held back.” He then names five kinds of yoga:

Of these five, Mahāyoga is the highest. The seeker should practise them in rising order, and should not try a higher one until the lower one is firm.

The Eight Limbs

The full form of this yoga has eight limbs:

The Vāyavīya also accepts a short (saṃkshepa) form that leaves out yama and niyama and counts six limbs, from āsana to samādhi. These six are the limbs that belong to yoga proper.

Prāṇāyāma in Detail

The Three Movements

• Recaka: breathing out. One nostril is closed and the other breathes out completely
• Pūraka: breathing in fully through the other nostril
• Kumbhaka: holding the breath, neither breathing in nor out; the state of a full kumbha (pot)

The Four Grades of Prāṇāyāma

The grades are measured in mātrās. One mātrā is the time it takes to turn the wrist briskly and snap the fingers.

The fourth grade of prāṇāyāma is the doorway to samādhi. The Vāyavīya adds a practical warning: “Do not attempt the higher grades without a guru’s supervision.”

The Ten Prāṇas

When prāṇāyāma is mastered, it gives the yogī control over the ten prāṇas (vital airs) in the body:

Signs That Prāṇāyāma Is Working

The Vāyavīya tells the practitioner to watch for these signs that prāṇāyāma is bearing fruit:

• Less phlegm and waste
• The ability to eat more (surprisingly, as the body works better)
• Slower breathing, subtle and deep
• Lightness of body
• Speed in walking
• More enthusiasm
• A sweet voice
• Freedom from disease
• Beauty and radiance of body (brahmavarcas)
• Courage, good memory and youthfulness

These outer signs show inner mastery of prāṇa.

Dhāraṇā, Dhyāna and Samādhi

Dhāraṇā (Concentration)

The mind is held to a single point for a set time without slipping. The length of twelve prāṇāyāmas makes one dhāraṇā. The Vāyavīya says the point of focus must in the end be Śiva alone, because fixing the mind on any other object brings the limits of that object with it.

Dhyāna (Meditation)

Twelve dhāraṇās held without a break make one dhyāna. Dhyāna is defined as the unbroken flow of awareness towards Śiva, like oil poured in a steady stream. The definition draws on Pāṇini‘s verb root dhyai (“to think, to contemplate”). True dhyāna of Śiva includes both Śiva (as nirguṇa, beyond qualities) and Pārvatī (as saguṇa śakti, divine power with qualities). The Vāyavīya insists that Pārvatī should always be meditated on together with Śiva.

Six Lotuses for Dhyāna

Chapter 38 describes six lotus-centres (padmas or cakras) in the subtle body for dhyāna, from the base to the crown. Each lotus has a set number of petals, each bearing a Sanskrit letter:

The meditator may place Śiva and Pārvatī in whichever lotus the mind settles in most steadily.

Forms of Śiva for Dhyāna

The Vāyavīya gives several forms in which Śiva may be pictured during dhyāna:

• A being the size of a thumb (aṅgushṭha-mātra), blazing with his own light
• Like a pure lamp flame
• Like the crescent moon
• Like a star
• Like a fine thread inside a lotus stalk
• Like a mustard seed (round and white)
• Like a dewdrop

For beginners a sthūla (gross, visible) form is advised. As the mind grows steady, the meditator moves on to sūkshma (subtle) dhyāna.

Samādhi

Twelve dhyānas make one samādhi. The Vāyavīya defines samādhi as the state in which:

• The dhyeya (Śiva) alone shines
• The dhyātā (meditator) disappears as a separate being
• Dhyāna (the act of meditating) disappears as a separate activity
• Only pure awareness remains, like a still flame where no wind blows

A person in samādhi does not hear sounds, cannot smell or taste, cannot speak or see, and is as still as a log, with no inner movement. Yet he is fully alive in the awareness of Śiva.

Ten Obstacles to Yoga

Chapter 38 lists ten vighnas (obstacles) that stop the sādhaka (practitioner) from moving forward:

1. Ālasya: laziness of body and mind
2. Vyādhi: illness from imbalance of diet and body
3. Pramāda: carelessness; not paying attention to practice
4. Sthānasaṃśaya: doubt about whether this practice is the right one
5. Anavasthita: the mind cannot stay in one place
6. Aśraddhā: lack of sincere faith in the path
7. Bhrāntidarśana: confusion; taking one thing for another
8. Duḥkha: suffering (from other beings, from divine forces, and from within oneself)
9. Daurmanasya: low spirits from desires not fulfilled
10. Lolatā: the restless mind caught up in sense-pleasures

These ten are overcome by steady practice. When they clear, the first siddhis of yoga appear as signs of progress.

The Siddhis of Yoga

Chapter 38 also describes the siddhis (special powers) that arise naturally from the practice of yoga, grouped by tattva (element):

• Paiśāca-pada (8 powers from mastery of the earth element): taking on different bodily forms and sizes; spreading fragrance everywhere
• Jala-aiśvarya (16 powers from mastery of the water element): living in water; drawing water out of the earth; drinking up oceans; changing tastes
• Taijasa-aiśvarya (24 powers from mastery of the fire element): making fire; not being burned; burning the world; cooking in the mouth; fire in water
• Māruta-aiśvarya (32 powers from mastery of the air element): moving at the speed of the mind; entering the bodies of others; lifting mountains; controlling weight
• Aindra or Āmbara-aiśvarya (40 powers from mastery of the space element): becoming invisible; flying through space; becoming bodiless; mastery over sound

The Vāyavīya carefully warns that these siddhis become obstacles to moksha (liberation) if one clings to them. They are signs of progress, not goals. The true Śaiva yogī uses whatever siddhis arise for the good of all beings and keeps going towards samādhi.

The Highest Fruits of Yoga

• Dhyāna burns up all karma, both puṇya (merit) and pāpa, like a great fire that consumes both dry and wet wood
• Even a moment of sincere dhyāna on Śiva brings endless merit
• A yogī who dies before finishing the path is born in a family of yogīs and takes up the practice again
• No amount of outer ritual, tapas or dāna (giving) is worth even one sixteenth of prāṇāyāma

“There is no tīrtha equal to dhyāna, no tapas equal to it, no yajña equal to it — therefore let the wise person meditate well.”

Per Skanda Purāṇa

Chapter 55 of the Kaumārikā Khaṇḍa of the Skanda Purāṇa keeps a teaching on Ashṭāṅga Yoga given by Nārada Ṛshi to Arjuna.

Nārada gave this teaching at the Mahīsāgara Saṅgama (the place where the Mahī river meets the sea), after the account of Nārada’s mūrti (sacred image) and the story of Bābhravya. He presents the eight limbs within the devotional setting of the Purāṇas. The teaching stresses inner purification of the practitioner and ends with the understanding that the final aim of yoga is to realise Paramātmā.

Where the Teaching Was Given

In Chapter 54, Bābhravya passed on to Arjuna what Kṛshṇa had said about Nārada‘s nature. After this, Nārada himself spoke to Arjuna about yoga at the Mahīsāgara Saṅgama. The Kaumārikā Khaṇḍa presents this not as abstract philosophy but as practical guidance, given by the divine ṛshi to the great warrior on pilgrimage at one of the holiest tīrthas (pilgrimage places) of Bhārata.

The Eight Limbs

Nārada explained the classic eight-limbed path:

1. Yama (restraint): the basic rules of right conduct: ahiṃsā (not harming), satya (truthfulness), asteya (not stealing), brahmacarya (celibacy or self-control) and aparigraha (not grasping at possessions). These are the outer moral base. Without them, all the later limbs are unsteady.
2. Niyama (observances): personal practices that purify: śauca (purity), santosha (contentment), tapas (spiritual discipline), svādhyāya (study of oneself and of holy texts) and Īśvara-praṇidhāna (surrender to Paramātmā). These are the inner partner of the yamas.
3. Āsana (seat or posture): a steady and comfortable sitting posture that allows long meditation. In the Purāṇas, āsana mainly means the seat for meditation, not physical exercises.
4. Prāṇāyāma (control of breath): guided lengthening, holding and releasing of prāṇa (life-breath) through the breath. Prāṇāyāma cleans the nāḍīs (subtle channels) and makes the mind ready for concentration.
5. Pratyāhāra (drawing in the senses): pulling the senses back from outer objects, turning the attention away from the world of the senses and toward the inner field of awareness.
6. Dhāraṇā (concentration): fixing the mind on one point or object, such as a form of the deity, a mantra, a holy place or the breath. Dhāraṇā is steady concentration that still takes effort, before it becomes effortless.
7. Dhyāna (meditation): when dhāraṇā becomes continuous and unbroken, it becomes dhyāna, the steady, unbroken flow of the mind toward its object.
8. Samādhi (absorption): when the one meditating, the act of meditation and the object of meditation become one, that is samādhi. In the setting of bhakti (devotion) in the Purāṇas, it is the absorption of the devotee’s mind in Paramātmā.

The Goal: Paramātmā

Presenting this path at the Mahīsāgara Saṅgama, Nārada stresses that Ashṭāṅga Yoga leads to moksha (liberation) when it is practised with devotion to Paramātmā, not as a mere technique. The practitioner who moves through the eight limbs and turns every stage toward Paramātmā reaches the final goal that the Kaumārikā Khaṇḍa always names as the purpose of all sādhanā (spiritual practice): the lasting end of saṃsāra, the cycle of birth and death.

Per Garuḍa Purāṇa

The Garuḍa Purāṇa gives two linked teachings on yoga. The first is the eight-limbed yoga taught by Dattātreya to King Alarka. The second is a shorter shaḍaṅga yoga (“six-limbed yoga”) taught by Sūta to the ṛshis gathered at the forest of Naimishāraṇya.

Together these chapters trace the whole inner journey: from moral restraint, through praṇava japa (repeating Oṃ), to the final realisation of the self as Parabrahman, the Supreme, beyond all qualities (nirguṇa) and full of bliss (ānandamaya).

Ashṭāṅga Yoga: Dattātreya’s Teaching to Alarka

In Chapter 226, Dattātreya explains the eight limbs of yoga to Alarka in their classical form.

The Eight Limbs

1. Yama (moral restraints):

• Ahiṃsā: not harming
• Satya: truthfulness
• Asteya: not stealing
• Brahmacarya: self-restraint in sexual life
• Aparigraha: not being possessive

2. Niyama (personal disciplines):

• Śauca: purity, inner and outer
• Santosha: contentment
• Tapas: austerity
• Svādhyāya: self-study and study of the sacred texts
• Īśvara-cintana: keeping the mind on Īśvara (Parameśvara)

3. Āsana: a steady, comfortable posture of the body that allows long meditation.

4. Prāṇāyāma (control of the breath), at three levels:

• Laghu (light): lasting 10 mātrās (units of time)
• Madhyama (middle): lasting 20 mātrās
• Uttama (highest): lasting 30 mātrās

Prāṇāyāma is also divided into two kinds:

• Sagarbha: done together with japa (repeating a mantra) and dhyāna (meditation); this has the stronger effect
• Nirgarbha: done without japa

5. Pratyāhāra: drawing the senses back from their objects and turning the attention inward.

6. Dhāraṇā (concentration). The text names ten places in the body where the mind may be fixed:

1. Nāḍī (the subtle channels)
2. Hṛdaya (the heart)
3. Kaṇṭha (the throat)
4. Mukha (the mouth or face)
5. Nāsikā (the nostrils)
6. Bhrū-madhya (the point between the eyebrows)
7. Mūrdhā (the crown of the head)
8. Ātman (the self, perceived directly)
9. and 10. Two further points of concentration on the inner light

7. Dhyāna: an unbroken flow of attention toward the chosen object of meditation, as dhāraṇā deepens into steady absorption.

8. Samādhi: the state in which the meditator, the act of meditating and the object of meditation become one. The one who sees disappears into what is seen.

Praṇava Japa and the Nature of Brahman

The text gives special weight to praṇava japa, meditation on Oṃ, as the highest form of sādhanā (spiritual practice) within ashṭāṅga yoga. The text records that even Indra reached his status as a deva through praṇava japa. This shows the power open to any sādhaka (practitioner) who takes up this practice sincerely.

The liberating realisation to which this yoga leads is expressed in a statement much like the mahāvākyas (great sayings) of the Upanishads:

Nityaśuddha-buddha-mukta-ānandamaya-advaita-jñānasvarūpa-jyotirmaya parabrahma am I.

This means: “I am the Parabrahman who is always pure, always awake, always free, full of bliss, one without a second, whose nature is consciousness, and whose form is light.”

Shaḍaṅga Yoga: Sūta’s Teaching to Śaunaka

In Chapter 235, a shorter six-limbed yoga is taught to the ṛshis at Naimishāraṇya:

1. Prāṇāyāma: control of the breath, the basic practice
2. Japa: repeating a mantra, especially Oṃ
3. Pratyāhāra: drawing the senses back
4. Dhāraṇā: concentration
5. Samādhi: absorption
6. Dhyāna: meditation (placed here as the highest point)

Sabīja and Nirbīja Dhyāna

Two kinds of meditation are described:

• Sabīja dhyāna: meditation “with a seed,” with a particular form, mantra or sacred image as its object
• Nirbīja dhyāna: meditation “without a seed,” pure absorption without form and without any object

Nirbīja dhyāna leads to the citta (mind) dissolving into Brahman.

The Point Between the Eyebrows as the Seat of Buddhi

The bhrū-madhya (the point between the eyebrows, the ājñā cakra) is named as the seat of buddhi, the power of clear judgement and direct knowing. Steady dhāraṇā at this point reveals an inner light (antar-jyoti) and opens the door to nirbīja samādhi.

Obstacles in Yoga and Their Remedies

The text names four main obstacles that stop yoga from deepening:

1. Aśvastirta: restlessness; not being able to stay still
2. Bhrānti: delusion; mistaking the path or misunderstanding the self
3. Daurmanasya: low spirits; heaviness of mind; despair
4. Pramāda: carelessness; lack of watchfulness in practice

The remedy for all four is the same: steady effort, sat-saṅga (the company of good and holy people), and surrender to Parameśvara as both the means and the goal.

The Final Realisation

The two chapters point to one single realisation. When the citta becomes saṅkalpa-rahita (free from all mental constructions), it dissolves in brahma-laya, absorption in Brahman. The text gives an illustration: just as the flame of a lamp merges into the greater fire when the wick is taken away, the individual mind merges into universal consciousness when mental activity stops.

The example of Śiśupāla is given. He kept his mind fixed on Kṛshṇa, but out of hatred (dvesha-smaraṇa, “remembering through hatred”). Even so, the strength of that constant smaraṇa (remembrance) brought him moksha (liberation). This shows that the kind of bhāva (feeling) matters less than how constant and deep the mind’s attention to Bhagavān Kṛshṇa is.

Per Agni Purāṇa

In the Agni Purāṇa, Agni Deva teaches Vasishṭha the ashṭāṅga yoga “for the removal of the burning distress (tāpa) of saṃsāra”, over seven chapters (Chapters 372–378): the yamas and niyamas, then āsana, prāṇāyāma and pratyāhāra, then dhyāna, dhāraṇā and samādhi, ending in the knowledge of Brahman. The Purāṇa counts ashṭāṅga yoga among its own subjects (Chapter 383), and gives the eight limbs again, in short, in the dharma of the sannyāsī (Chapter 161) and in the Yama Gītā, Yama‘s teaching to Naciketas (Chapter 382).

Agni Deva first defines his terms. Jñāna is that which makes Brahman directly known. Yoga is the one-pointedness of the citta; restraining the movements (vṛttis) of the citta is also yoga; and establishing the citta in the jīvātmā and the Paramātmā together is the highest yoga.

Yama

The five yamas are ahiṃsā, satya, asteya, brahmacarya and aparigraha.

• Ahiṃsā is not causing pain to living beings. It is the highest dharma: as the footprints of all who walk a road fit inside the footprint of an elephant, so all dharmas fit inside ahiṃsā. Hiṃsā is of ten kinds: causing agitation to others, causing them affliction, causing them disease, drawing blood from their body, carrying tales, obstructing their welfare, revealing their secrets, taking away their happiness, binding them without cause, and killing. Not doing these is ahiṃsā.
• Satya is speech most beneficial to beings. One should speak the truth and speak what is pleasant; one should not speak an unpleasant truth, nor a pleasant untruth. “This is the sanātana dharma.”
• Brahmacarya is giving up maithuna, which is of eight kinds: remembering, speaking of it, amorous play, looking, speaking in secret, the resolve to obtain, the effort towards it, and its accomplishment. Brahmacarya is the root of all rites; rites without it bear no fruit. Even those great in age and tapas, Vasishṭha, Candra, Bṛhaspati the ācārya of the devas and Śukra, were deluded by women. Surā is of three kinds, made from jaggery, from flour and from madhu; woman is the fourth surā, who deludes the whole world, for surā intoxicates only when it is drunk but she intoxicates at the mere sight, so the yogī should not look at her.
• Asteya: one who takes by force any of another’s wealth, however little, or eats the havis meant for the homa, is surely born as an animal.
• Aparigraha: one may keep a cloth for the kaupīna, a quilt against the cold and sandals, and nothing else; one may accept the cloth and the like that the body needs, and the body is to be protected with care, in keeping with dharma.

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 372

Niyama

The five niyamas, which give both bhukti (enjoyment) and mukti, are śauca, santosha, tapas, svādhyāya and Īśvara-pūjana.

• Śauca is outer, done with earth and water, and inner, the purity of one’s feeling (bhāva); only one who has both is pure.
• Santosha is delighting in whatever has come; it is also called tushṭi.
• Tapas is keeping the mind and the senses one-pointed; conquering the senses and the mind is the dharma higher than all dharmas. Tapas is threefold: mantra-japa is tapas of speech, vairāgya is tapas of the mind, and the pūjā of the devas is tapas of the body; this threefold tapas gives everything.
• Svādhyāya rests on the Praṇava. The Vedas begin with the Praṇava and stand in it, and all speech is its form. Its three mātrās, a, u and m with the half-mātrā, are the three Vedas, the three worlds, the three guṇas, the three states of waking, dream and deep sleep, and the three mūrtis Brahmā, Vishṇu and Maheśvara. Its fourth mātrā, Gāndhārī, is perceived at the crown of the head; it is the turīya, the light of Parabrahman, standing like a lamp in a pot in the lotus of the heart. The Praṇava is the bow, the ātmā the arrow and Brahman the target. Its chandas is Gāyatrī, its ṛshi Antaryāmī, its devatā the Paramātmā. Twelve thousand japas of the Praṇava a day bring the dawn of the knowledge of Parabrahman in twelve months; a crore of japa gives aṇimā and the other siddhis; a lakh of japa brings the grace of Sarasvatī and the other devatās.
• Īśvara-pūjana: the pūjā of Vishṇu is vaidika, tāntrika or mixed, and one may take up whichever one likes.

These teachings become clear only to one who has the highest bhakti for the devatā he worships, and the same bhakti for his guru.

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 372

Āsana

Binding padmāsana or another āsana, one should meditate on the Paramātmā. In a pure place one makes a firm seat, neither too high nor too low, spread with cloth, deer skin and kuśa grass. Seated on it, restraining the citta and the senses and making the mind one-pointed, one practises yoga for the purification of the self. The body, head and neck are held even and still; the gaze rests on the tip of one’s own nose, without looking about; the heels guard the organs of generation; the arms lie across the thighs, the back of the right hand on the left palm; and the face is raised a little and held forward. Then one meditates.

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 373

Prāṇāyāma

The vāyu in one’s own body is prāṇa, and restraining it is prāṇāyāma. In recaka one presses one nostril with a finger and sends the air out upward through the other; in pūraka one fills the body with outer air as a bellows is filled; in kumbhaka one neither lets the air out nor takes it in, but stays still like a full pot.

One should not mount a stage of prāṇāyāma for which one is not qualified. For one who has conquered prāṇa, the impurities of the body become very slight; prāṇāyāma gives health, a swift gait, enthusiasm, a sweet voice, strength and a clear complexion, and destroys all faults. Prāṇāyāma without japa and dhyāna is agarbha, and with them it is sagarbha; one who seeks to master the senses should practise sagarbha. One who has conquered the senses by jñāna, vairāgya and prāṇāyāma has conquered everything. The body is the chariot, the senses the horses, the mind the charioteer and prāṇāyāma the whip, and with the reins of jñāna and vairāgya the mind is kept in control and slowly becomes still. Whatever fruit comes from a hundred years of tapas, drinking once a month only a drop of water from the tip of a kuśa blade, prāṇāyāma gives that much.

Elsewhere the Agni Purāṇa calls prāṇāyāma the great tapas and the highest tapas (Chapters 165, 215). In the nāḍī chapter, pūraka is drawing in as much air as one can, kumbhaka is holding it like a full pot, and recaka is releasing it upward through one nostril (Chapter 214). The sannyāsī’s prāṇāyāma is measured by mātrās of twelve and twenty-four, a mātrā being one beat or the time of a short syllable, with Oṃkāra recited softly during it (Chapter 161). Prāṇāyāma is also a prāyaścitta: the vidhi-snāna is preceded by prāṇāyāma, done with the Nārāyaṇa mantra (Chapter 22); for killing creatures without bones the atonement is prāṇāyāma (Chapter 169); one bitten by a dog, jackal, donkey, cat, mongoose, man, horse, camel or pig is purified by prāṇāyāma (Chapter 170); Veda japa, prāṇāyāma, Gāyatrī japa and vratas remove pāpas (Chapter 171); a hundred prāṇāyāmas remove all pāpas (Chapter 173); and for sannyāsīs, dhyāna and prāṇāyāma alone are the prāyaścitta (Chapter 161). The vyāhṛtis are used in prāṇāyāma, and from prāṇāyāma came vāyu, from vāyu fire and from fire the water that purifies in ācamana (Chapter 215).

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 22, 161, 165, 169–171, 173, 214, 215, 373

Pratyāhāra

Pratyāhāra is drawing back and restraining the senses that roam in the ocean of objects. As one who is drowning lifts himself out of the water, one who is drowning in objects should lift himself up by himself; and one swept away by the river of enjoyments should take refuge in the tree of jñāna.

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 373

Dhyāna

Dhyāna is thinking of Vishṇu again and again with a mind free of distraction; it is the ātmā, freed of every limiting condition, absorbed in the contemplation of Brahman; it is the mind holding to the object of meditation with one like thought after another and no other; it is holding a single knowledge, fixed on the object, in any place. The meditator (dhyātā) has jñāna and vairāgya, śraddhā and patience, is a bhakta of Vishṇu and meditates always; the object (dhyeya) is Parabrahman, with form and without form, Śrī Mahāvishṇu who is both sakala and nishkala; the fruit is aṇimā and the other powers, and mukti. In the shrine of one’s own body, at the seat of the heart, one installs Keśava and worships him with dhyāna. On the white eight-petalled lotus at the navel, twelve aṅgulas wide, whose petals are the eight powers, whose centre is jñāna, whose stalk is vairāgya and whose root is Vishṇu-dharma, one meditates on Parameśvara, pure as a lamp-flame and the size of a thumb, in the form of Oṃkāra, or on the four-armed or eight-armed Vishṇu in the Agni-maṇḍala on that lotus. One who meditates on Hari with śraddhā for a muhūrta, or half a muhūrta, reaches a goal that all the great yajñas cannot give. When tired of dhyāna one does japa, and when tired of japa, dhyāna, and so Vishṇu becomes gracious.

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 374

Dhāraṇā

Dhāraṇā is fixing the mind on the object of meditation, with form or without form; fixed on Bhagavān Vishṇu it is mūrta-dhāraṇā and amūrta-dhāraṇā, and gives the attainment of Bhagavān Vishṇu. Holding the mind unmoving on an outer target for as long as it stays, or on a target within the body for a fixed time, is dhāraṇā. A dhāraṇā is twelve āyāmas; twelve dhāraṇās make a dhyāna; and if the mind stays one-pointed for twelve dhyānas, that is samādhi. One who gives up his prāṇas while practising dhāraṇā uplifts twenty-one generations and reaches svarga, the supreme state.

Agni Deva teaches four dhāraṇās of Vishṇu:

1. Āgneyī (of fire): a circle of rays whirls through the body from the big toe to the head, up and down, until the body seems burned to ash within; then it is withdrawn. It destroys diseases of cold and phlegm and their pāpas.
2. Vāruṇī (of water): drops of water gather into a mass of snow, and its cool, amṛta-like streams flood the world and the cakras from the brahma-randhra to the mūlādhāra, while one meditates on the circle of the moon in the sushumnā. One worn down by hunger and thirst should practise it for his satisfaction, giving up sloth and doing japa of the Vishṇu mantra.
3. Aiśānī (of Īśāna): when prāṇa and apāna rest, one meditates on Vishṇu’s grace in the lotus of the heart until anxious thought ceases, then on the peaceful, spotless Mahābhāva in the form of the half-moon. Once the supreme truth is learned from the guru, the whole world, with knower, knowing and known, dissolves into the lotus of the heart.
4. Amṛtamayī or Amṛtātmikā (of amṛta): one meditates on lotuses like the full moon at the centre of the nāḍī of the head, and on a moon in the sky equal to ten thousand moons, full of auspicious waves; then the same in one’s heart lotus, seeing one’s own body in its middle.

Through the dhāraṇās all the afflictions (kleśas) of the sādhaka perish.

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapter 375

Samādhi

Samādhi is the dhyāna in which consciousness is still like a calm ocean, and no object but the ātmā appears. The yogī who holds the citta on the object, unmoving like a lamp in a windless place, is established in samādhi: he does not hear, smell, taste or feel touch, and knowing nothing outward he is like a log of wood, absorbed in Īśvara. As he draws near, divine obstacles arise as signs of siddhi: pain in the ear and the body, the offers of devas, kings and the wealthy, the śāstras and kāvya rising in him of themselves, elixirs, herbs, crafts and arts, and the daughters of the lords of the suras. One who throws all these aside like blades of grass is blessed by Vishṇu. The yoga ends in the knowledge of Brahman: “I am the Purusha who shines in the orb of the sun; I am Oṃkāra; I am the undivided Parameśvara” (Chapters 377–378).

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 376–378

The eight limbs in short

In the dharma of the sannyāsī (Chapter 161) and again in the Yama Gītā (Chapter 382), the Agni Purāṇa gives the eight limbs in brief. The yamas are ahiṃsā, satya, asteya, brahmacarya and aparigraha, and the niyamas śauca, santosha, tapas, svādhyāya and Īśvara-pūjā. Āsana is padmāsana and the others; prāṇāyāma is the conquest of the prāṇa-vāyu; pratyāhāra is restraint of the senses; dhāraṇā is fixing the citta on one auspicious object (in Chapter 161, fixing the mind firmly); dhyāna is holding that dhāraṇā again and again on the same object (in Chapter 161, the remembrance of Īśvara); and samādhi is abiding in the state “I am Brahman.” Knowing the union of Brahman and the ātmā through yama and the other limbs, a man becomes Brahman.

Source: Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 161, 382

Per Bhāgavata Purāṇa

The limbs in Śuka’s teaching

Śuka Maharshi tells Parīkshit how the seeker prepares when death draws near: master of his senses, he leaves his house, bathes in a tīrtha, sets a seat in the proper way on a pure spot in a solitary place, sits in the proper posture and does japa of the Oṃkāra, then brings the mind under control by prāṇāyāma. Pratyāhāra is turning the senses back from their objects with the reins of the mind, through buddhi the charioteer of the chariot of the body; dhāraṇā is fixing the scattered mind, with a buddhi of good saṃskāras, on the form of Bhagavān Vishṇu; dhyāna is meditating on each limb of that form without slipping from the whole; and samādhi is remembering nothing other than that form. Steady dhāraṇā on that auspicious form makes love for Bhagavān Vishṇu sprout quickly, and by it the seeker attains him.

Parīkshit asks how dhāraṇā is made firm, on what it is held, and what form of it removes the mind’s stain at once. Śuka answers: by practice the seeker conquers the āsana, conquers the breath by prāṇāyāma, conquers attachment and masters the senses, and then with the deciding buddhi fixes the mind on the gross form of Bhagavān Vishṇu, the Virāṭ form, the whole brahmāṇḍa, limb by limb; nothing in the world is other than that Virāṭ form. By such dhāraṇā Brahmā himself, who at the beginning of creation had no memory of the world’s form, held Parameśvara in his mind; Parameśvara was pleased, and Brahmā’s memory returned, so that he created the world as it was in the former kalpa. The seeker fills his mind with the four-armed form in the heart until the mind is still in dhāraṇā.

The yogī who wishes to leave the world sits in a firm āsana such as siddhāsana, does prāṇāyāma with resolve, withdraws the senses, and does not fix his mind on place or time. He merges the mind into the buddhi, the buddhi into the drashṭā, the witness of the buddhi, the drashṭā into pure consciousness and that into Parabrahman, and ceases from effort. At the time of leaving the body he presses the anus with his heel and brings the prāṇa upward through the six places: svādhishṭhāna in the lower belly, maṇipūra at the navel, anāhata at the heart, viśuddhi at the throat, ājñā between the brows, and sahasrāra, the brahmarandhra. From the throat he brings it to the root of the palate, closes the seven openings of the head, holds it between the brows with his buddhi fixed on Brahman for about half an hour, breaks through the brahmarandhra and becomes one with the Paramātmā. The yogīs perfect in four sādhanas, upāsana, the practice of the dharma of Bhagavān Vishṇu, ashṭāṅga yoga and right knowledge, have a body subtle as the wind and can move as they wish inside and outside the brahmāṇḍa; no karma can give this.

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapters 1–2

Brahmā’s yamas and niyamas

Brahmā tells Nārada that the final goal of ashṭāṅga yoga is Nārāyaṇa (Skandha 2, Chapter 5). Before Bhagavān Vishṇu showed him Vaikuṇṭha, Brahmā himself practised, for the welfare of the worlds, the five yamas, ahiṃsā, satya, asteya (not stealing another’s wealth even in thought), brahmacarya and aparigraha (freedom from greed for enjoyment), and the five niyamas, śauca inside and out, santosha (contentment with what one has), tapas, svādhyāya (study of the scriptures of moksha) and īśvara-śaraṇāgati (taking refuge in Īśvara) (Skandha 2, Chapter 9). Parīkshit asks Śuka, among his questions, about ashṭāṅga yoga (Skandha 2, Chapter 8). The lokapālas tell Brahmā that those who meditate on him with bhakti master the breath by prāṇāyāma, the senses by pratyāhāra and the mind by dhāraṇā, and know no defeat (Skandha 3, Chapter 15).

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapters 5, 8–9; Skandha 3, Chapter 15

Kapila’s ashṭāṅga yoga

Maitreya Maharshi tells Vidura how Bhagavān Kapila taught his mother Devahūti. The sādhaka must love Kapila without desire for fruit, hear his accounts, and practise with śraddhā the limbs of yoga beginning with yama and niyama (Skandha 3, Chapter 27). In the chapter on the method of ashṭāṅga yoga Kapila teaches the sabīja yoga, yoga with a support, by which the mind becomes serene and fixed on Bhagavān Vishṇu. Its practices, in the text’s order, are:

1. performing one’s dharma according to one’s ability;
2. staying away from adharma;
3. being content with what comes by prārabdha;
4. worshipping the feet of the knowers of the ātmā;
5. staying away from karmas that increase attachment to enjoyments;
6. love for the dharmas of moksha, such as listening to the accounts of Śrī Hari;
7. eating pure food in measure;
8. always living alone in a place free of fear;
9. ahiṃsā, not harming beings;
10. not speaking untruth;
11. not stealing another’s wealth;
12. gathering only what is needed to keep the body going;
13. brahmacarya;
14. tapas;
15. keeping body and mind pure (śauca);
16. studying the scriptures of moksha;
17. worshipping Parameśvara;
18. keeping silence (mauna);
19. practising āsana daily and sitting steady;
20. slowly conquering the breath by prāṇāyāma;
21. pratyāhāra, drawing the senses back with the mind from their objects and holding them in the heart;
22. dhāraṇā, holding the prāṇas with the mind in one of the places beginning with the mūlādhāra;
23. remembering the līlās of Śrī Hari;
24. one-pointedness of the buddhi.

Āsana and prāṇāyāma. Sitting steady in one yogāsana for a time is āsana-jaya, mastery of posture; the sādhaka spreads his seat in a pure place and sits upright and at ease. In prāṇāyāma he breathes in and holds the breath, then lets it out and holds it outside, or in the reverse order; this purifies the nāḍīs and makes the mind still. As metal heated in fire and fanned by the wind loses its impurities, the mind of the yogī who conquers the breath quickly becomes pure.

The fruit of each limb. Prāṇāyāma removes the doshas of the body, vāta, pitta and the rest; dhāraṇā on a place such as the form of Īśvara removes the saṃskāras of pāpa; pratyāhāra removes attachment to enjoyments; and dhyāna on Parameśvara removes rāga, dvesha and the other qualities that turn one away from Īśvara. Then, the mind one-pointed as if gazing at the tip of the nose, the sādhaka meditates on Śrī Hari’s form, first as a whole and then limb by limb from the soles of his feet to his smile, until the mind, like the flame of a lamp whose oil is spent, merges into the ātmā. For the jñānī this is the last birth.

Bhakti-yoga and ashṭāṅga yoga. In the next chapter Kapila gives the dharmas of the bhakta, the bhāgavata dharmas, among them the five yamas, ahiṃsā, satya, asteya (not coveting another’s wealth), brahmacarya and aparigraha (not running after enjoyments), and the five niyamas, śauca inside and out, santushṭi (contentment), tapas, svādhyāya and īśvara-śaraṇāgati. Then he says: “O daughter of Manu, I have told you both bhakti-yoga and ashṭāṅga yoga. Whichever of these two the sādhaka practises, he reaches that Parama Purusha” (Skandha 3, Chapter 29). Among the means that help to reach Bhagavān Vishṇu he names pūjā, kratus, dāna, tapas, study and inquiry into the Veda, conquest of mind and senses, sannyāsa, ashṭāṅga yoga, bhakti-yoga, nishkāma dharma, viveka and vairāgya (Skandha 3, Chapter 32).

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapters 27–29, 32

The limbs in the fourth to the sixth skandhas

• Bhagavān Śiva at Kailāsa. Bhagavān Śiva, the Jagannātha, practises upāsanā, one-pointedness of mind and ashṭāṅga yoga to show the path to seekers (Skandha 4, Chapter 6).
• Nārada to Dhruva. Nārada sends the child Dhruva to Madhuvana on the Yamunā: bathe three times a day, keep yama and niyama as far as your strength allows, sit in a yogāsana on a seat and mat, and do prāṇāyāma of three kinds, pūraka (in-breath), recaka (out-breath) and kumbhaka (holding), joined with the Oṃkāra; then the movements of prāṇa and apāna become balanced, restlessness leaves the mind and the wandering of the senses ceases, which is pratyāhāra; then, firm in courage, meditate on Śrī Hari (Skandha 4, Chapter 8).
• Dhruva at Badari. At the end of his reign Dhruva went to Badarikāśrama, bathed, purified senses and mind by yama and niyama, sat firm in his āsana, did prāṇāyāma and pratyāhāra, held his mind in dhāraṇā on the gross Virāṭ form of Bhagavān Vishṇu, attained nirvikalpa samādhi, beyond the difference of meditator and meditated, and let go even of that form (Skandha 4, Chapter 12).
• Bhagavān Vishṇu to Pṛthu. “I am not attained by yajñas, by tapas or by sādhanas such as ashṭāṅga yoga alone, without such guṇas and character, as easily as by those whose mind is even in pleasure and pain” (Skandha 4, Chapter 20).
• Sanatkumāra to Pṛthu. Sanatkumāra teaches the five yamas, ahiṃsā, satya, asteya (not coveting another’s wealth), brahmacarya and aparigraha (not heaping up things of enjoyment), and the five niyamas, śauca of body and mind, santosha, tapas, svādhyāya (study of the moksha-śāstra) and īśvara-praṇidhāna (surrender), to be practised without desire for fruit; such a sādhaka gains ātma-sākshātkāra and becomes jīvanmukta. Yet, he says, the good easily untie the knot of ahaṅkāra by bhakti for the radiance of Vāsudeva’s toes, while those given to yoga, even with pratyāhāra and samādhi, cannot so easily cut it (Skandha 4, Chapter 22).
• Malayadhvaja. Rājarshi Malayadhvaja on the Malaya mountain kept the yamas, satya, ahiṃsā, asteya, brahmacarya and aparigraha, and the niyamas, śauca, tapas, santosha, svādhyāya and īśvara-praṇidhāna; with them he rooted out the vāsanās, then practised prāṇāyāma, pratyāhāra, dhāraṇā and dhyāna, and dissolved his mind in Parabrahman, which is samādhi (Skandha 4, Chapter 28).
• Nārada to Prācīnabarhi. Nārada tells the king to withdraw his ears into the mind and dissolve the mind in the buddhi, to leave the gṛhastha’s talk of pleasures, take up nivṛtti step by step and win the grace of Śrī Hari (Skandha 4, Chapter 29).
• Ṛshabhadeva to his sons. Among the steps of their sādhana: control the prāṇa by prāṇāyāma, the senses by pratyāhāra, and the mind by dhāraṇā and dhyāna (Skandha 5, Chapter 5).
• Śuka on the niyamas. As diseases do not trouble those who eat wholesome food, one who keeps the niyamas slowly removes the vāsanās of pāpa and gains well-being; sādhakas with viveka and śraddhā destroy even great pāpa by tapas, brahmacarya, control of mind and senses, tyāga, satya, śauca, and the yamas and niyamas, as fire burns a thicket of bamboo, while some, for whom Vāsudeva alone is refuge, destroy pāpa by bhakti alone, as the sun dispels mist (Skandha 6, Chapter 1).
• Ajāmila. Ajāmila resolved to control his breath, his senses and his mind by prāṇāyāma, pratyāhāra and dhāraṇā, so as not to sink again into naraka; at Haridvāra he took up the path of yoga, withdrew his senses from their objects, merged his mind in the ātmā and became established in it (Skandha 6, Chapter 2).

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapters 6, 8, 12, 20, 22, 28–29; Skandha 5, Chapter 5; Skandha 6, Chapters 1–2

Śrī Kṛshṇa’s teaching to Uddhava

• The sādhaka’s practice. The sādhaka should sit firm on his seat, do prāṇāyāma, by practice make the mind one-pointed, and practise vairāgya as well (Skandha 11, Chapter 9).
• Yamas and niyamas. The sādhaka whose supreme goal is Śrī Kṛshṇa practises with reverence the yamas, ahiṃsā, satya, asteya, brahmacarya and aparigraha; the niyamas, śauca, santosha, tapas, svādhyāya and īśvara-praṇidhāna, he practises only now and then, so far as they do not obstruct ātma-jñāna (Skandha 11, Chapter 10).
• Satsaṅga. Neither the niyamas such as śauca nor the yamas such as ahiṃsā, nor yoga, study, tapas, sannyāsa, dāna, vratas, yajña or tīrthas bring Śrī Kṛshṇa under one’s control as satsaṅga, the company of the good, does (Skandha 11, Chapter 12).
• The yogīs’ view. Among the many views of śreyas, the highest good, the yogīs name satya, restraint of the senses and of the mind, the yamas and the niyamas (Skandha 11, Chapter 14).
• The method of dhyāna. When Uddhava asks, “O lotus-eyed one, with what attributes and in what form should I meditate on you?”, Śrī Kṛshṇa teaches: sit on a level seat, body upright, hands in the lap, gaze on the tip of the nose. Purify the nāḍīs by prāṇāyāma, pūraka (drawing the breath fully in), antaḥ-kumbhaka (holding it inside), recaka (letting it fully out) and bāhya-kumbhaka (holding it outside). Let the Oṃkāra, like the sound of a bell, begin subtly in the heart and rise fine as a lotus fibre with the outgoing breath, and make the nāda steady in its m; one who does this prāṇāyāma with the Oṃkāra ten times at each of the three times of day, well and steadily, conquers the prāṇa in less than a month. In the heart, like a closed lotus with its stalk up and face down, meditate on an open eight-petalled lotus facing upward; in its pericarp, the Sun; in the Sun, the Moon; in the Moon, Agni (“if one meditates on this form of mine in the middle of the fire, auspiciousness comes”); and in the fire, the form of Śrī Hari: well-proportioned, serene and exceedingly beautiful, with four long arms, a beautiful face, a lovely neck and soft cheeks, a smile shining on his face, dark like a cloud, in yellow garments, with shining makara-kuṇḍalas, the Śrīvatsa and Lakshmī Devī herself on his chest, the divine śaṅkha, cakra, gadā, padma and vanamālā, nūpuras shining on his feet, the Kaustubha gem, a shining kirīṭa, bracelets, a waist-string and armlets, beautiful in every limb, his eyes turned in readiness to bless, and tender; the sādhaka fixes the mind on every limb. In pratyāhāra the discerning sādhaka turns the senses back from their objects with the buddhi, the charioteer of the chariot of the body, and fixes the mind on Śrī Kṛshṇa. Then he meditates on all the limbs, then on the smiling face alone, no longer meditating on the other limbs, then draws the mind from the face to the consciousness of the ātmā, which is like ākāśa, and, one with him, resolves on nothing at all. Seeing Śrī Kṛshṇa as the ātmā in himself, he merges into him as a light merges into fire, and is quickly freed from the delusions “the body is the ātmā”, “I am the doer” and “knower and known are separate” (Skandha 11, Chapter 14).
• “Among the eight limbs I am samādhi.” Naming his vibhūtis, Śrī Kṛshṇa says that among the eight limbs of yoga, yama, niyama, āsana, prāṇāyāma, pratyāhāra, dhāraṇā, dhyāna and samādhi, he is samādhi, the stilling of the movements of the citta (Skandha 11, Chapter 16).
• The wandering mind. When the mind wanders even in dhāraṇā, the seeker should, without laziness, bring it under control by coaxing it. By the limbs of yoga beginning with yama and niyama, by inquiry into the tattvas, or by worshipping and meditating on Śrī Kṛshṇa, the mind becomes steady and rests on the Paramātmā; there is no other means. And whatever ashṭāṅga yoga, dāna, dharma and vratas give, whether svarga, moksha or Śrī Kṛshṇa’s dhāma, his bhakta gains easily by bhakti alone (Skandha 11, Chapter 20).

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapters 9–10, 12, 14, 16, 20

Elsewhere in the Bhāgavata

• Śamīka Maharshi. When King Parīkshit came to his āśrama, the muni sat with eyes closed in peace, his senses withdrawn (pratyāhāra), his breath held (prāṇāyāma), his mind and buddhi restrained (samādhi) (Skandha 1, Chapter 18).
• In Satyaloka. When the foot of Bhagavān Vāmana reached Satyaloka, the Vedas, the Upavedas, the yamas, the niyamas, Nyāya, the Itihāsas, the Vedāṅgas, the Purāṇas and the Saṃhitās, living there in embodied form, bowed to that foot (Skandha 8, Chapter 21).
• Without bhakti. Śrī Kṛshṇa tells Mucukunda that some without bhakti make the mind one-pointed by prāṇāyāma, dhāraṇā and the like, but because the vāsanās in their minds are not destroyed, the mind runs back to the pleasures of the senses (Skandha 10, Chapter 51).

Source: Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 18; Skandha 8, Chapter 21; Skandha 10, Chapter 51

Sources

• Śiva Purāṇa, Vāyavīya Saṃhitā (Book 7), Uttara Khaṇḍa, Chapters 37–39
• Skanda Purāṇa, Māheśvara Khaṇḍa, Kaumārikā Khaṇḍa, Chapter 55
• Garuḍa Purāṇa, Ācāra Khaṇḍa, Chapter 226
• Garuḍa Purāṇa, Ācāra Khaṇḍa, Chapters 235–236
• Agni Purāṇa, Chapters 22, 161, 165, 169–171, 173, 214, 215, 372–378, 382, 383
• Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 18; Skandha 2, Chapters 1–2, 5, 8–9; Skandha 3, Chapters 15, 27–29, 32; Skandha 4, Chapters 6, 8, 12, 20, 22, 28–29; Skandha 5, Chapter 5; Skandha 6, Chapters 1–2; Skandha 8, Chapter 21; Skandha 10, Chapter 51; Skandha 11, Chapters 9–10, 12, 14, 16, 20