Ashtanga Yoga, which means “eight-limbed yoga”, aims to cleanse both mind and body. This can be done through the eight spiritual practices: yama or moral codes, niyama or self purification and study, asana or posture, pranayama or breath control, pratyahara or sense control, dharana or concentration, dhyana or meditation, and samadhi or contemplation.
The eight limbs of Raja Yoga
The eight "limbs" or steps prescribed in the second pada of the Yoga Sutras are: Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana,Dhyana and Samadhi.
Ashtanga yoga consists of the following levels:
- Yama refers to the five abstentions
- Ahimsa: abstention from violence
- Satya: abstention from lying; truth
- Asteya: abstention from theft, and by extension, non-covetousness
- Brahmacharya: abstention from sexual intercourse; continence
- Aparigraha: abstention from possessions, and by extension, abstaining from greed for possessions
- Niyama refers to the five observances
- Shaucha: purity
- Santosha: contentment
- Tapas: austerity
- Svadhyaya: Self study; introspection
- Ishvarapranidhana: surrender, or devotion, to God ('particularly' Ishvara)
- Asana: Posture of the body, especially perfect posture for meditation.
- Pranayama: Control of prana ('life force') or vital breath
- Pratyahara: withdrawal of the mind, defined by Vyasa as "that by which the senses do not come into contact with their objects and, as it were, follow the nature of the mind."[citation needed]
- Dharana: Fixing the attention on a single object; concentration
- Dhyana: Meditation
- Samadhi:Oneness with Brahman or a super-conscious state