The Niyamas: Second limb of the Eight Limbs of Yoga
Building upon one of my previous blog articles on the famous Eight Limbs of Yoga or Ashtanga Yoga, I’d like to introduce you to the niyamas (personal observances), the second of the Eight Limbs.
In Sanskrit, the word niyama translates to: controlling, any rule or law, agreement, promise, vow, any act of voluntary penance.
So it’s time to look a bit more inward to create more balance, or sattva, for ourselves. The yamas are about our relationships with others, but the niyamas are about our relationship with ourselves.
In the Yoga Sutras of Patañjali, the niyamas are another set of five rules:
1. Śauca (cleanliness)
2. Samtośa (contentment)
3. Tapas (austerity)
4. Svādhyaya (daily study)
5. Iśvara-Pranidhānām (faith, trust, belief in a higher power)
The niyamas teach how we are to maintain ourselves through cleanliness, contentment, discipline, study, and belief. These are five things that we should actively maintain and do on a daily basis because they will help us be more balanced. Being more balanced will be helpful in creating more mental stability, which then helps provide clarity as we navigate difficult situations and decisions in life, which will result in us having more skillful responses versus patterned reactions.
In other words, the niyamas are vows we make with ourselves on how to care for ourselves daily to promote balance. This helps us have greater clarity which allows us to more accurately connect with our Knowing and operate from that place as we navigate life’s challenges.
One of the main issues regarding difficult situations and decisions is that we get upset. When we are upset, our old patterning and emotions tend to take over, and it becomes increasingly difficult to be focused (or present). When it’s harder to be present, it’s more difficult to have clarity, and we need clarity to have refined reactions or make skillful decisions. Patañjali states this in the very beginning of chapter one of the Yoga Sutras, sutra 1.2: Yogas chitta vrtti nirodaha, or “Yoga is defined as sustained attention and presence.” What is the result of sustained attention? Sūtra 1.3: "Tada drashtahu svarpe avistanam” or “clarity and authenticity.”
The result of being attentive and present is clarity and connection to our true authentic selves — our Knowing. It gives us some clarity about ourselves and what we should be doing and choosing, how we should be behaving, and so on.
All of this presence and attention is founded in our ability to remain balanced. If we can’t remain balanced, it will be very hard to be present.
So, in Ashtanga Yoga (the Eight Limbs), the first five limbs are about helping us develop new supportive patterns and habits which will help us to maintaining this balance (sattva). That way, when some big storm comes our way, we are sattvic (balanced); we can be present, and we can respond or react more skillfully and authentically because we have clarity and are connected to our Knowing.
We can even be present with our anger. When we’re aware that we’re very upset and should not respond to a situation in the moment — that we will communicate when our emotions are settled — we are more balanced, connected with ourselves, and have more clarity that will lead to a refined or appropriate response later.
There are challenges and difficulties in life which we have little or no control over (a hurricane, pandemic, death, illness, financial collapse, and more), but how we react and respond in these situations will dictate their level of impact on us. Therefore, if we can apply and practice the five niyamas on a daily basis, it will help us maintain the balance, presence, and clarity we need to guide us towards more skillful actions and reactions during challenges and difficulties that arise.
Stay tuned to learn more about each of the five niyamas as well as the rest of the Eight Limbs in my upcoming blog articles.
A note for context: My perspective is based in the Viniyoga/Desikachar lineage. Viniyoga is a traditional Indian lineage of Yoga taught by TKV Desikachar, who was the son of Krishnamacharya. My teacher, Chase Bossart, was a 20+ year private student of Mr. Desikachar. I have studied this text with Chase, word for Sanskrit word, for over three years.
Namaste,
Kelly