Maharishi Patanjali did not invent yoga — but he gave it its most complete and enduring structure. In his Yoga Sutras, compiled around 200 BCE, he laid out the eight limbs (Ashtanga) as a graduated path — moving from the outermost layers of conduct inward, all the way to the dissolution of the individual mind into Supreme Consciousness.
The Eight Limbs
A Graduated Path from Conduct to Consciousness
- Ahimsa — Non-violence in thought, word, and deed
- Satya — Truthfulness
- Asteya — Non-stealing
- Brahmacharya — Moderation and right use of energy
- Aparigraha — Non-possessiveness
- Shaucha — Cleanliness of body and mind
- Santosha — Contentment
- Tapas — Disciplined effort and self-purification
- Svadhyaya — Self-study and spiritual study
- Ishvarapranidhana — Surrender to the divine
Physical postures that develop strength, stability, and ease in the body. In Patanjali's understanding, asana is not the destination — it is preparation. A body that is settled, steady, and at ease can sustain the stillness required for deeper practice.
Techniques to consciously regulate the breath, enhancing the flow of prana (life energy) through the body. The breath is the bridge between body and mind — when the breath is stilled, the mind follows.
Detaching from external sensory distractions to redirect the mind inward. The senses stop chasing the outer world — they begin to serve the inner one. This is the threshold between the outer limbs and the inner limbs of yoga.
Focusing the mind on a single point, object, or centre. The scattered mind is gathered and held steady. Dharana is the beginning of the mind learning to be still — not by force, but by sustained, deliberate attention.
In deep meditation, the flow of life energy naturally rises and touches the Bhrumadhya — the eyebrow center, the Ajna Chakra. Here the meditator experiences a profound stillness — a cessation of mental fluctuation — as awareness rests at its own source. The practitioner is no longer doing meditation; they are being meditated.
The life energy travels even further — rising to the Brahmarandhra, the crown of the head. Here it becomes completely still. The meditator and the meditated are no longer two things. Time itself ceases. What remains is pure, undivided Consciousness — the state the ancient texts call Samadhi, and what some traditions call liberation.
The Structure
Outer Limbs, Inner Limbs
The first five limbs — Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara — are the outer limbs. They purify, prepare, and steady the practitioner. The last three — Dharana, Dhyana, Samadhi — are the inner limbs, called Samyama. They are not so much practices as they are progressively deeper states of the same awareness.
You cannot force your way into Samadhi. You can only remove the obstacles — the tension in the body, the agitation in the breath, the restlessness of the senses, the scatter of the mind. When everything that is not stillness has been cleared, stillness is what naturally remains.