Part I: Chapter II / II – (i)-(ii)

Yamas and Niyamas

1. Yama: The term yama literally means to expel, to eject, to throw out or to eliminate. It denotes abstention from vices and from entertaining any evil thoughts, or accepting any negative impressions which may tend to weaken the mind and the will.

2. Niyama: The term niyama on the contrary, signifies acceptance, cultivation, observance and development of positive virtues, harbouring good feelings, and absorbing these virtues into one’s system.

Thus, these two words connote the simultaneous rejection of evil, and the assiduous cultivation and acceptance of good, respectively.

Patanjali, however, enumerates these abstinences and observances, as under: –

• Ahimsa (non-injury),
• Satya (non-lying),
• Asteya (non-stealing),
• Brahmcharya (non-sexuality) and
• Aprigreha (non-covetousness or non-possession).

Here, we may examine, by way of illustration, some yamas and niyamas:

In respect of abstinences, it is said:

1. One who is rooted in ahimsa, has no enemies.
   
   
2. One who is anchored in satya, his words cannot but come true and bear fruit.
   
   
3. One who is established in asteya, is a true friend of nature, and nature lays bare unto him all her riches.
   
   
4. One who practices brahmcharya comes to acquire absolute power.
   
   
5. One who practices aprigreha, solves the enigma of life, and to him the past, the present, and the future appear like an open book.

The five observances are: Shaucha (purity of body and mind), Santosh (contentment), Tapas (austerity), Svadhyaya (scriptural study including japa, etc.) and Prasadhna or Ishvara Pranidhana (thoughts attuned with, and absolute dependence on, God).

1. Shaucha brings in cleanliness and dislike for Sparsha (contact with another’s body).
   
   
2. Santosh makes one contented and thus mentally rich.
   
   
3. Tapas rids one of all impurities and confers supernatural powers (e.g., to atomize oneself, to lose all weight, to become all speed, to gain instantaneous access to any place, to have all wishes fulfilled, to become all-pervasive, to acquire divine powers, to control all beings and elements in nature, etc.). All these come of themselves by contemplating and concentrating on the opposite of what one actually desires.
   
   
4. Svadhyaya personifies the deity worshipped.
   
   
5. Ishvara Pranidhana brings in satiety and desirelessness.

In the Upanishads, however, each of these lists consists of ten abstinences and observances. Thus aprigreha in the first category has given place to kindness, rectitude, forgiveness, endurance, temperance and purity. Similarly, in the second list, shaucha has been replaced by faith, charity, modesty, intelligence, japa and fasts. However, the end in either case is sadachar or righteous living, which prepares the way for inner spiritual development. The list of the virtues to be inculcated and the vices to be discarded may vary from teacher to teacher but the purpose is ever the same. Thus, Manu explains the principles of sadachar or dharma in terms of his own categories.

The practice of both yamas and niyamas – restraints and observances – make up sadachar or right conduct, which constitutes the bedrock of all the religions of the world. Manu gives us the essence of dharma as :

Ahimsa, satya, steyam, shaucham, indriya nigreha. – Harmlessness, truthfulness, purity, right living and control of senses.

According to Sandalya Rishi, the list comprises:

1. Shaucha (external bodily purity along with that of place and direction, and internal purity of thoughts, feelings and emotions).
   
   
2. Daya (mercy and compassion for all living creatures in all circumstances).
   
   
3. Arjava (balanced and steady mind in all actions and under all conditions).
   
   
4. Dhriti (fortitude and endurance in all circumstances).
   
   
5. Mit-ahara (disciplined life of temperance generally, and in foods and drinks in particular).

In the Bhagavad Gita too, Lord Krishna lays great stress on the practice of yamas and niyamas.

The compassionate Buddha also prescribed for his followers the noble Eight-fold Path of Righteousness, comprising right views (knowledge), right aspirations (determination), right speech, right conduct (behavior), right livelihood, right effort (suitable striving), right mindfulness (thinking and perception), and right contemplation (absorption) and above all he laid great stress on right association or company of the holy, Truth-winners and arousers of faith who, through a process of osmosis (infiltration) instill faith and devotion in the minds of the aspirants.

Bikkhu Buddharakkita, while describing the Majjhima Patipada, the Middle Path, or the Golden Mean between the two extremes of self-indulgence and self-mortification, to modern readers, gives us the Buddhistic course of development and discipline through bhava, viz:

1. Shila Bhavna: Ethical purity.

2. Chita Bhavna: Mental purity.

3. Pragna Bhavna: Intuitional insight.

The same author emphasizes the need of developing shila or moral purification as the basis of everything else, whether in mundane life or in spiritual advancement. Buddha declared that five benefits accrue to the truly virtuous: good fortune through diligence, fair name abroad, respect in all congregations, clear conscience till the end, and rebirth with a happy destiny.

The basic minimum for the Buddhist layman is the five precepts, or Panch Shila, that go to make right conduct or behavior, one of the important steps in the eight-fold path as described above. These are: abstinence from killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, and from drinking intoxicating liquor, and alongside thereof, the observance of positive virtues: maitri (friendliness to all), daan (charity), brahmcharya (chastity), adherence to truth, and temperance. In the Panch Shila of Buddha, we find an exact parallel to the yamas and niyamas as prescribed by the ancients.

The shila, or the process of purification, rests on the two fundamentals: hiri, conscience, and ottappa, shame; for one rejects evil out of self-respect and scruple on the one hand, and observes respect for another, while the other fears blame or censure. The result is that one develops modesty along with rectitude and propriety. What is true of Buddhism is true also of Jain thought, which enjoins the five great vows of non-violence, non-stealing, non-covetousness, truthfulness and chastity.

This two-fold stress on yamas and niyamas is not just an idiosyncracy of ancient Indian thought. It is to be observed among all people whenever religious experience is actively sought. Thus when we examine the development of Jewish and Christian thought, we come across the same phenomenon. Moses laid down the ten commandments which pointed out the weaknesses to be avoided, namely, worship of gods and deities, engraving images to represent God, vain repetition of God’s names, polluting the Sabbath, dishonoring one’s parents, commission of heinous crimes like killing, adultery and stealing, and lastly, social evils like bearing false witness and coveting a neighbour’s house, wife or his belongings (Exodus 20:4-17).

It was left to Jesus to complete the picture when he emphasized the virtues to be developed, in his ten beatitudes: simplicity of spirit, mourning, meekness, hunger and thirst after righteousness, mercy, purity of heart, peace-making, suffering persecution for the sake of righteousness and calmly bearing all manner of reviling and slander (St Matthew 5:1-11).

It was not without justice that he claimed,

I have come not to destroy the law but to fulfil the law.

The teachings of Islam lay stress on shariat (moral injunction), tauba (repentance), faqr (renunciation), tazkiya-i-nafs (subjugation of the senses), tawakal (trust in God), tawhid (unity) and zikr (spiritual discipline), while the Sikh Gurus (prescribing cultivation of essential virtues like chastity, patience, understanding, knowledge, fear of God, austerity, love and compassion), coming much later, reveal a similar pattern.

Guru Nanak, in a nutshell, placed true living above everything else:

Truth is higher than everything, but higher still is true living.

Guru Nanak, Sri Rag M1

Why should this be so is not difficult to understand. To be able to progress spiritually, peace and harmony of mind is an absolute necessity. So long as one is the slave of this desire or that, such harmony is impossible. Therefore, one must root out all desires that lead the self away from this harmony. But nature abhors a vacuum; and what is true of physical phenomena is also true of the psychological. The only way to clear the mind of its negative and disintegrating impulses is to replace them by positive and integrating ones. However, while cultivating sadachar, the seeker after truth must remember that it is only a means, not an end, and knowing this, go beyond it to his spiritual goal.

Swami Vivekananda, who has analysed the process with great lucidity in 'The Secret of Work,' puts the matter thus:

You must remember that the freedom of the soul is the goal of all yogas […] A golden chain is as much a chain as an iron one. There is a thorn in my finger, and I use another to take the first out; and when I have taken it out, I throw both of them aside […] so the bad tendencies are to be counteracted by the good ones, and the bad impressions on the mind should be removed by fresh waves of good ones, until all that is evil disappears, or is subdued. Thus the 'attached' becomes the 'unattached.'