ASHTANGA YOGA – the stages of RAJA AND HATHA YOGA, part of ABHEDA

Ashtanga Yoga are the 8 stages of yoga described by the sage Patanjali.
Ashtanga is NOT a particular form of yoga, but there are yoga classes that have preferred this name, which they then manifest as a brand under which they operate.

Ashtanga yoga is the 8 stages of Raja Yoga, which also contains Hatha Yoga.
That is, the most widespread yoga as it is presented, but often diluted or modified to the idea of sport, to Western practitioners.

These are rather stages in
transcending inner limitations and
attaining the state of complete freedom, consciousness and happiness (samadhi).

There are people who have greater affinity for one of these stages and consider it “their way” what it may seem to them at first glance, authentic.

However, on their way to realization starting from one of the Ashtanga stages they will manifest, in reality, all the ashtanga yoga stages, but less obvious and imprinted by the stage for have a great affinity.

However, it is better to understand Astanga yoga as 8 steps that are taken in the process of transcending limitations and attaining the state of full freedom, consciousness and happiness (samadhi) which is the ultimate goal in yoga.
We will discover them present both in Hatha Yoga (yoga that starts mainly from the physical body aiming for more plable and desired results by people) and in almost any form of meditation (an approach that is more refined and profound).

<>1. YAMA (“what not to do”)- are restrictions or, in other words, what we should NOT do. They are instructions necessary for the neophyte in yoga, because for him, at this stage it is more necessary to understand and limit his inferior tendencies. Yama contains elements that Western culture considers to be related to what in the West is known as moral and ethical issues.
These are:
– ahimsa (non-violence)
– satya (not to tell what you know to be a lie)
– asteya (non-theft),
– brahmacharya (mastery in controlling creative energies – active or passive sexual abstinence)
– aparigraha (non-possessiveness, non-accumulation or simplicity);

2. NIYAMA (“what to do or aspects that we should not refrain from”) are aspects that we must NOT restrain, but we can develop them as well as we can. These are:
– saucha (purity – careful purification of both the physical structure and especially the mental and emotional structure),
– santosha (thanksgiving),
– tapas (austerity),
– svadhiyaya (individual study)
– ishvara pranidhana (uninterrupted worship and self-giving to God);

3. ASANA – the relaxed and perfectly still physical postures of the body, which must be practiced in such a way that they lead the yogi to the effective approach to the practice of meditation and at the same time give him a state of perfect health;

4. PRNAYAMA – full control of subtle breaths through breath control;

5. PRATYAHARA – the “withdrawal” of the senses from the perception of surrounding objects;

6. DHARANA – the concentration or firm focus of attention on a single point or, in other words, on a single object of meditation;

7. DHYANA – meditation, which is the phase in which concentration becomes stable AND THE PROCESS OF TRANSCENDING MENTAL FLUCTUATIONS OCCURS;

8. SAMADHI – the concrete transcendence of mental fluctuations, which also knows several inner stages and is characterized by the transcendence of inner limitations, obtaining the state of full freedom, consciousness and happiness.

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Leo Radutz

yoga teacher, founder of Abheda Yoga Academy