Introduction
The 8 Limbs of yoga are placed within Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, very deliberately and precisely as the means to achieve the final three, concentration, meditation and samadhi. The first 5 mentioned in Chapter 2 and the final 3 in Chapter 3. Chapter 1 is for those who are already adept at concentration and or meditation.
But, in order to appreciate why Patanjali would want to assist the aspirant to the point of giving a precise practice that anyone can begin, we would benefit from reading all of the sutras, to realise why the yoga sutras really are for everybody. The 8 limbs are not a ladder they are an indicator of the types of practices required, start where you may as one effects the other, no everyone needs asana or pranayama or sense withdrawal, Yama and niyama practices, my a few or one of them helps them concentrate or meditate and maybe when the meditate their morality, ethics and life choices improve?
Think of it like this, we are not solid, therefore whatever we do, say or think is matter and matter is a vibration - not solid, so they all effect us individually and the whole.
What Patanjali pieced together is essential and the ideal reference for any yogi. What I mean by that is, reading it once is fine but this great work is as relevant as the Bhagavad Gita and any other Sutras one may choose - as Rama Krishna discovered they all lead to the same thing if followed, whether they are religions or practices - it is how we use them that count. Consequently the sutras reveal more, the more you read it and they themselves can effect you metaphysically.
We in the west are still by majority newcomers when it comes to sanskrit, so the words, phrases and scientific references take a while to embody and fully comprehend as well as standing up to our reasoning. Partly I would say due to modern sciences hubris when it comes to knowledge and partly because trust needs to be established in its credentials, which means culturally accepting that maybe they knew all along.
In fact as we peel back the layers you will see that Samkhya metaphysics and yoga science, is very diligently laid out from proof and experience, from those who knew. It tells us what we and the universe are made of. The best bit is though, our purpose is far greater than the delusion or illusion of existence as we see it.
The yoga sutras is independent of course to our own purpose in this lifetime as Patanjali is very aware. We are all here with our own baggage as it were and therefore with our own unique interpretation of life.
What we take from yoga and offer back into the illusion we call day to day living is entirely our choice and we are presented with a very practical and dare I day loving guide in Patanjali who is willing to accept us as we are, without pretence as to who we think we are or how important we feel we are.
He suggests that we examine it all and let the yoga practices do the work, create the shift or allow things to fall away. We are not fixing the mind here with the mind, (as with therapy) but via the subconscious mind with neurological re programming and the subtle body, and by the practices outlined through the wisdom of those ‘who have seen’.
We are guiding each other home, however there comes a point when we have to go it alone and trust ourselves to become our own pioneers. We are like the Rishi students studying and observing, using our bodies, our minds, our experiences in the world to present the feedback loop required to instinctually know for ourselves and then gain confidence and trust in the knowing (through deeper and deeper enquiry), observing our physical body responses, experience and ‘seeing’ the subtle for ourselves.
I suggest to you that this book is one of practicality, that I recognise many teachers and practitioners are like myself they just want to know it logically first. Not just for themselves but for their students. This creates confidence and the intrigue to study further.
I am happy to read the eloquent complexities of the texts and their woven intellectual poetry but this is sometimes more useful speaking to the reasoning inference rather than the heart.
Which is why Samkhya philosophy appeals to the yogi of experiential being. Suffice to say that I am a romantic, I am a Bhakti yogi, born of my own experience in the loving embrace of the Supreme, but I lay that part of myself down for the Jnana Yogi inside of me because I know through my own journey and study of many great sutras, that study is a joy that serves only to create more love, more passion and more realisations of truth.
So then, as you read this the language may feel sterile at times and lacking intimacy or spiritual hugs. I would suggest to you that you imagine them there. Because for me this work is one of the greatest love stories ever told by a man, a master, Patanjali, who wanted nothing more than to show mankind the way to absorption, bliss and union.
I therefore offer this with both my mind and heart and hope that as you read my overviews of the samkhya metaphysic explanations and groupings of the practices for each limb, that you can begin to choose which practices work best for you and that you know I wish you well on your journey to connection.
I hope that you garner all the strength, trust and love you need to continue your journey inwards and become your own pioneer of the macro and microcosm. Maybe you will reach similar conclusions to myself, maybe not, whatever happens for you I hope you see it as your flow of existence, your opportunity and your choice.
May you use what you will to share the potent scientific realities of ashtanga yoga or raja yoga.
For we are all one collective consciousness and may we realise this through love.
The Science
Entangled within the yoga sutras of Patanjali is Samkhya metaphysics and philosophy. Yoga being the scientific darshana of the 6 Hindu Darshanas and Samkhya philosophy being another. It is impossible to separate the two, as one very definitely informs the other. Samkhya science and philosophy’s origins begin deep in the heart of the vedas with the Rishis, they are expounded upon throughout the early BCE millennia Rig Veda, however their exact origins look to be Ayrian and pre Indus Valley.
Samkhya metaphysics and yoga science are entangled together not only as an experience but as a culture. Many Indians will be familiar with Samkhya before even stepping foot inside a yoga shala or meeting a yoga master. Although different to the Brahma Sutras, Brahmins (Hindu priest cast) will also be taught Samkhya philosophy and scientific principles. But it doesn’t end there, many different lineages of both yoga, tantra, vedanta and aescethism, even buddhism will be aware of the Samkhya principles of the 25 Tattvas and 3 gunas.
Samkhya is one of both nature and consciousness, and the science that unites those two is beyond the realms of science in the west. In the east it includes cycles of time, astrology, palmistry, karma, physics, and many many so called miracles - that which baffle everyman logic. However here in India it is not considered separate or in need of proof. They have the proof, they have experience the evidence by masters and they are most definitely forerunners when it comes to modern day terms such as law of attraction or neurolinguistic programming or creating new neurological pathways to healing and optimisation of the mind.
So words such a Prana alludes to the space within the atoms and the direction and flow of energy, the person being the storehouse of the energy and the more alignment between consciousness, mind, will and contraction in absorption and bliss the greater the body’s ability to store energy. The yogi is like a battery slowly charging over time.
The Philosophy
The philosophical influence of yoga is one with many cross overs. The 6 Hindu Dharshanas (philosophies), as well as Jainism, Buddhism, Tantra, Shramana plus the great works such as the Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita and the Mahabharata providing the backdrop to the Yoga Sadhana whether Bhakti (devotion), Karma (action), Raja (meditation) or Jnana (study).
Omnipotence running through its core either duel or non dual in essence, bound to the religious influences, sociological, political and topography of their era. Like a thread they shift and change form to meet the required needs, experiences or masters who have discovered another way, but at the heart they remain entangled. With Om being the primordial sound and symbol of God or the Supreme they all echo that vibration of absolute truth.
To my mind I have read Patanjali’s sutras with both dualism and non-dualism floating in my mind and neither feels misinterpreted other than to say that in the end (the final stages of samadhi) the purusa is aware of itself only, which suggests total union. Many commentators agreeing that the Buddha’s teachings are included particularly when Patanjali gives discourse on the final stages of samadhi.
The religious elements that are placed upon Santana Dharma or Hinduism can only be recognised here faintly as a backdrop of ritual and God, Brahma. Hinduism itself being an all inclusive journey of self enquiry at its core, with millions of Hindu’s practicing yoga. The beauty of yoga is (as with Hinduism) that we take our own beliefs into it. With yoga science we are shown the way to experience Yogash Chitta Vritti Nirodha (When you are in a state of yoga, all misconceptions that can exist in the mutable aspect of human beings disappear). We are reminded by Patanjali that the final stages are one of total belief in God and Surrender to the absolute.
The History
Yoga history is such an extensive topic whenever I paraphrase it I feel as if I am conducting a huge disservice.
The Harappan Valley or Indus, was a matriarchal civilisation with meditation at the heart.
A golden time where there is no evidence of war or conflict, where remnants of female archetypes can be seen still to this day sitting in seals (yogic postures).
Before those times there was a great migration of wisdom from the north, west and south, culminating with a meeting and mixing within the north of the subcontinent. What brought them there no-one knows, but what is clear is that the mysticism came not from one place alone.
From that great time, we take the journey over Bharat from the North down to the south with the oldest living temples, dna and practices to be found in Tamil Nadu (South East India).
Yoga as we know it today, has many roots; in early tantra, aesthetics, vedanta, samkhya, and a little later with buddha, hatha and bhagavad gita, and the list goes on, with one thing in common that yoga was always initially written as the goal - not the method, even the Hatha (Yoga) Pradipika began without the word ‘yoga’ in the title.
We can look at this as a movement through the ages and the Yugas downward (vibrationally) to the inevitable fall into Kali Yuga (the dark ages). And as we begin our journey back to the Golden age we have many years to traverse, but why wait? With the Yugas being the most epic of timeframes we are offered a choice by Masters such as Patanjali as to whether we can continue the cycle of birth and death until such time as we go back to a Golden age, or, do our best now, find our spiritual fervour now, and take each moment as an opportunity.
Yoga has always absorbed and refined depending on where it is in history and today is no different with postural yoga and mediation leading the way, back at the turn of the century, and now seekers are looking wider. More and more people are taking the time to study the philosophies and entanglement of practices, which opens the door to even greater numbers understanding that yoga is a possibility for anyone.
We are invited to choose a path and stick to it.
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