Hello, my friend!
Have you been practicing the yamas in your daily life yet? I’ve personally starting noticing the many little ways in which I invite negativity into my life or others’ as well as when I tell myself stories that deviate from the Truth. It’s interesting isn’t it?
Being exposed to the yamas and thinking about it deeply really propels you be more conscious of your thoughts, words, and actions in a way you otherwise wouldn’t be.
The niyamas of Ashtānga Yoga, the second limb, build upon this awareness of intention behind thoughts, words, and deed, and is the focus of this next post in the "What is Yoga?" Series.
Each niyama, or observance, is meant to augment the yamas to prepare you physically and mentally for a deeper spiritual state.
So what are the 5 niyamas?
saucha: purification
santosha: contentment
tapas: discipline
svādhyāya: self-study
īshvara pranidhāna: surrender to the Infinite
As you will see, the niyamas are deeply intertwined with the yamas, and they both work in conjunction with the other to prepare you for the deep spiritual bliss that is Yoga.
Saucha
Saucha, or purification, encompasses the purification of mind, body, and soul. The intention is to cultivate a lifestyle and foster surroundings that uplift and purify you in every way.
The way my guru explained this in my 200h YTT was through the analogy of food. Everyone is exposed to this idea of “healthy” food vs. “unhealthy” food - generally, the more processed the food, the more unhealthy it is. Now, it’s probably safe to say you’re aware of how eating more processed foods leads to a higher likelihood of health problems by virtue of the food’s abilities to harm your body; whether that manifests as diabetes or high pressure or something else, your body will eventually negatively react to your diet because it was not beneficial for your body in the first place.
This expands more broadly to anything you ingest in your daily life. The shows you watch, the podcasts you listen to, the conversations you partake in, the music you’re exposed to, the lotion you put on your skin, the oil you put in your hair, etc. are all “food” for you in different ways.
What you’re listening to or watching impacts your mind, influencing the way you think, the biases you develop, the thought patterns that are repeated, and ultimately, your mindset and the way you interact with your world. The more negativity in which you douse yourself, the more negative your self-talk, and the higher your likelihood of pessimism and depression. The more positivity with which you’re surrounded, the more positive your self-talk, and the higher likelihood of contentment and self-confidence.
Additionally, what you’re putting on or in yourself, as well as the movement your body is exposed to, impacts your physical health, determining how flexible you are, your general strength, your cardiovascular abilities, your immune health, likelihood of disease or injuries, etc. This inadvertently also impacts your mental health through blood circulation patterns, vitamin/mineral levels, and hormonal imbalances, among other things, that drive the ability of our brains to function in various ways, not to mention the fact that a healthy body means having the ability to do the things you want to do, which also boosts your mood and self-confidence.
Hence, to practice saucha in our lives, we must be cognizant of what we expose ourselves to in every interaction with our world. Every exposure is food for our mind or body, and ultimately, it is up to us to feed ourselves the healthy food.
Like we would in a grocery store, we have to make choices in our day-to-day lives to allow our homes, jobs, people around us, and habits to purify our mind and body such that we are ready to advance in our Yoga journey and are happy in our lives.
Santosha
Santosha, or contentment, is the second niyama of Ashtanga Yoga. The intention of santosha is to cultivate a sense of inner contentment such that the ebbs and flows of our material world cannot sway us.
From Swami Vivekananda’s translation of the pātanjala-yoga-sūtra, the shloka on santosha says “From contentment comes superlative happiness”; frankly, I cannot summarize or convey the importance of santosha better or more succinctly than him.
In practice, this means leaning into gratitude in moments of negativity and learning to appreciate the present as an experience. I grew up hearing my dad emphasize life as an experience; there’s no good or bad experience, just a long list of experiences that build you, shape you, and define you. Whether you take an experience in the positive direction or negative is your choice.
Santosha is integrating that deeply, where each moment is simply an experience to appreciate and envelope yourself in before it passes.
Obviously, it’s hard in the beginning to do that, but every time you catch yourself becoming stressed or frustrated or annoyed, simply observe the emotion and remind yourself to appreciate the experience while it’s there. It’s a practice that’s helped me, and hopefully, helps you too.
Tapas
Tapas, or discipline, is most definitely my greatest kryptonite. In Sanskrit, tapas translates to heat. Heat and fire (agni), in Vedic philosophy, are extremely important; they are deeply rooted in the concepts of transformation and purification.
This is why you'll see that Hindu rituals, be it a puja or a wedding, have some form of a fire in its very center, ensuring the purity of the ritual in shaping a person’s life, mindset, luck, etc.
In Yoga philosophy, tapas carries this same notion of purification and transformation. Āsana, prāṇāyāma, and meditation are all different forms of tapas because they take us outside our comfort zones into the heat of challenge and transformation.
In fact, that is what tapas is in practice: the beneficial or positive actions and habits that we do not want to do or don’t think we can do but will ourselves to do anyways.
This internal struggle between what you want to/think you can do vs. what you will yourself to do creates this “heat” within your mind, burning away beliefs, ideas, weaknesses, and imprints or patterns (samskara) that serve a lower version of you.
Furthermore, movement often begins as a practice of tapas before becoming part of one’s daily ritual; as we know, movement creates heat in our bodies, burning away impurities within our bodies and transforming our physical vessel to be stronger, healthier, and disease-free.
The periods of time in which I’ve dedicated myself to tapas, I devote myself to a single habit or action until it is no longer a cause of friction or challenge within me. I’ve applied this to cold showers, waking up early in the morning to practice Yoga, and simply incorporating a daily practice of Yoga in my life, and these periods of time have enormously shaped me and impacted me more profoundly than I imagined.
While you can incorporate tapas into your life by applying yourself to many different habits at once, this approach has personally been the most effective for me; it keeps me from practicing tapas due to pride or ego and keeps me from being overzealous and harming/injuring myself as a result of going too far.
While cold showers are no longer a practice of tapas for me, my daily Yoga practice and early mornings are still a discipline I am working to establish in my life. The one time I was able to practice Yoga consistently for months deepened my spiritual accumen and self-perception so extensively that it irreversibly changed who I am, so even after I lost my connection with Yoga, that experience led me right back to this philosophy and practice.
As a result, practicing tapas everyday, i.e. creating a discipline of challenge for growth and betterment of self, will make your will stronger, increase your perseverance and determination in the face of challenge, and prepare you mentally and physically for the deep spiritual experience of Yoga.
Svadhyaya
Self-study, or svādhyāya, is the fourth niyama. The intent of this niyama is to commit to a practice of understanding oneself.
I personally think svadhyaya is inherent to succeeding in any of the yamas and niyamas, but as you deepen your Yoga sadhana, it becomes increasingly important in understanding your true self.
Svadhyaya goes beyond just understanding why you think the way you do, react the way you do, or behave the way you do - it also includes understanding who you are when stripped of every identity - i.e. who are You?
As a result, svadhyaya is a practice that is integral in every stage of Yoga. A beginner must use it in their journey to internalize the yamas, the very first limb of Yoga, then apply it in their efforts to integrate all the niyamas in their life, and then, as a Yoga practitioner when they begin to shed the layers of identity and beliefs that will eventually lead to the experience of Yoga.
Integrating this into your life can be as easy or hard as you make it; journaling is a very effective method of honest self-reflection (I’ve gone back to read journal entries from years ago, and it’s incredible how my perception now of how I felt/reacted to an experience years ago can actually be so wrong!) and is probably the easiest to integrate into your daily routine. If you’re more dedicated or have more time, maintaining a longer practice of self-reflection and self-questioning may augment or drive your journaling, while those on a time crunch can simply resort to jotting down notes in a list throughout the day as observations or realizations arise.
I’ve done both types of journaling depending on what my life looks like, but I personally think svadhyaya has been the most important practice in my holistic growth throughout my entire life. Self-study is critical to understanding how you embody your principles and morals now, so you can better embody who you want to be as you continue life.
Ishvara Pranidhana
Īshvara pranidhāna, the last of the niyamas, is surrender to the Infinite. The intention of this niyama is to let go of expectations and trust that things will happen as they must.
Swami Vivekananda puts it as follows: “By sacrificing all to Ishvara comes samadhi.” By letting go of all expectations and simply trusting the Universe, you begin to act from a place of selflessness or duty in contrast to attainment of worldly benefits (fame, wealth, pride, etc.).
This leads to a purer practice of Yoga, since any motivator coming from a place of pride or ego is vanquished, and it also leads to a more fulfilling life, since action is no longer driven by ego-desired results but from a place of selflessness and/or love.
Ego-less action, action taken out of a sense of duty or righteousness without expectation of its fruits, is, therefore, action that is above the enticement of the material world.
Based on my interpretation of the philosophy, īshvara pranidhāna is the incorporation of Karma Yoga into Rāja Yoga and is what enables a Raja Yogi to be a householder, maintaining a family, career, and material wealth while pursuing the path of Yoga.
To be able to remain separate from the pulls of the material world while being so deeply embedded within it, the practice of Karma Yoga is essential to continue deepening one’s connection to Self (and inadvertently shedding this perception of “I” or ego) beyond one’s dedicated Yoga sādhana.
In the context of Rāja Yoga, īshvara pranidhāna serves this purpose by instilling this sense of trust in the Universe and life without expectation, inherently guiding you into the practice of Karma Yoga.
The Relationship between the Yamas and Niyamas
The niyamas, as may be evident, are more general practices to integrate into your life rather than principled approaches to the world around you, like the yamas are. As a result, the yamas work together to help you internalize the niyamas more naturally, and the niyamas build on each other to be successfully implemented in your life.
Let’s take tapas, for example. Tapas, or discipline, must have a foundation of all five of the yamas to be successful.
Ahimsā will prevent you from overexerting yourself, since exerting yourself beyond your present limitations is likely to result in injury.
Satya, or embodiment of Universal Truth, will act as a measure of accountability, so you cannot, for example, use laziness as an excuse under the guise of avoiding overexertion to avoid your practice of tapas.
Asteya, or non-stealing, means you must live up to your highest potential to prevent depriving the world of your best; as a result, since tapas is a practice to help reach your highest potential, you cannot practice asteya without also consistently performing tapas.
Brahmacharya, or moving towards the Infinite, entails you use your energy intentionally for betterment of self and a higher purpose, so tapas is a practice of brahmacharya.
Aparigraha will help you maintain egolessness in your tapas because it will instill nonattachment to your practice as well as to the results that come from it.
Before you go further in incorporating the niyamas into your life, I strongly recommend taking time to reflect on how the yamas and niyamas are intertwined.
This will force you to question what these look like in your life as well as deepen your understanding of each yama and niyama and their importance in helping you create a fulfilling life. As I’ve written this post, I have also deepened my understanding of each niyama, so this reflection of how the yamas and niyamas fit together will be the next step in my personal journey.
With that, you’ve learned the first part of Raja Yoga, one’s approach to life! In the next post in the "What is Yoga?" Series, we will begin to study the second part, the physical preparation a Yogi must undergo on their path to Yoga.
Until next week!
Yours truly,
Shreya