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Ashtanga Yoga (अष्टाङ्गयोगः) (view source)
Revision as of 13:04, 7 February 2023
, 13:04, 7 February 2023Adding content with reference - to be edited
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The Ashtanga Yoga expounded by Maharshi Patanjali is interpreted as a method to bring about the union of body, mind and consciousness. While the earlier order practices of yoga like Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama and Pratyahara facilitate the union of mind and body, the higher order exercises of dharana, dhyana and samadhi help to unite the mind with consciousness. The physical practices help clean the body and prepare the ground for union between mind and body. While higher Yogic exercises help to clean the mind, which is a necessary condition for bringing about the union between consciousness and mind.<ref name=":0">K. Ramakrishna Rao & Anand C. Paranjpe (2016), Psychology in the Indian Tradition, India: Springer.</ref>
The Ashtanga Yoga expounded by Maharshi Patanjali is interpreted as a method to bring about the union of body, mind and consciousness. While the earlier order practices of yoga like Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama and Pratyahara facilitate the union of mind and body, the higher order exercises of dharana, dhyana and samadhi help to unite the mind with consciousness. The physical practices help clean the body and prepare the ground for union between mind and body. While higher Yogic exercises help to clean the mind, which is a necessary condition for bringing about the union between consciousness and mind.
Yoga formulates a psychophysiological method involving eight steps to control the fluctuations of the psyche. The first two are yama and niyama, which include certain moral commandments such as truthfulness, nonstealing, continence, cleanliness, and contentment. The next two, āsana and prāṇāyāma, are physical exercises that involve sitting in comfortable postures and practicing breath control. The fifth stage, pratyāhāra, is a specialized form of introspection, a passive attentive state, designed to have access to the workings of the psyche and have access to bare perceptions. The last three, dhāraṇā (concentration), dhyāna (meditation), and samādhi (a standstill state of psyche) are the most important ones in attaining the yogic meditative state.
The first five are preparatory and the last three are the essential stages of yoga. According to Patanjali’s own characterization, the first five are the outer layers (bahiraṅga), whereas the last three are the inner core (antaraṅga) of yoga. The need for the ethical and physiological practices in the yogic training is not difficult to understand. Desires and sensory indulgence encourage further involvement in the sensory processes resulting in constant fluctuations of the psyche which are precisely what yoga seeks to control. The physical exercises are also designed to control internal processes, to reduce the sensory input from outside, and to ensure bodily health, the failure of which would be a source of distractions.
The pratyāhāra or introspective stage is quite important. It seems to focus on certain internal monitoring processes, some sort of biofeedback. It is what appears to be the connecting link between the physiological and the psychological exercises. It is by introspection that the practitioner of yoga is able to regulate the body to suit the requirements of his mental states. Such introspection, it would seem, enables the yogin to isolate those experiences he is seeking, and to produce them at will later.<ref name=":0">K. Ramakrishna Rao & Anand C. Paranjpe (2016), Psychology in the Indian Tradition, India: Springer.</ref>
== Yoga and Ayurveda ==
== Yoga and Ayurveda ==
== संयमः ॥ Samyama ==
== संयमः ॥ Samyama ==
The culmination of yoga practice is in the triple effort of dharana, dhyana and samadhi. This is collectively referred as samyama. Saṁyama is taken broadly as meditation.<ref name=":0" />
The culmination of yoga practice is in the triple effort of dharana, dhyana and samadhi. This is collectively referred as samyama. Saṁyama is taken broadly as meditation.<ref name=":0" />
Concentration or dhāraṇā produces in us a state in which the natural wandering of our thoughts, the fluctuations of the psyche, are brought under control. In a state of concentration, the psyche attends to one thing so that there is intensification of activity of the mind in one particular direction. In a state of concentration the focus of attention is narrowed. This focus is expanded when one goes from concentration to contemplation or dhyāna. Contemplation helps to concentrate longer and to fix one’s attention on any object for a length of time with ease and in an effortless manner. When this is achieved, the psyche progresses to a standstill state in which the mind is steady and becomes one with the object of concentration. This is the state of samādhi. The triple effort of dhāraṇā dhyāna samādhi is called saṁyama. Saṁyama is meditation in its totality.
== Dharana ==
== Dharana ==