First Things First in Yoga: The Yamas

So you’ve heard of the yamas, and maybe you even already know the non-harming precept from Buddhist ethics, which actually derives from the earlier codes of behaviour set forth for yoga practitioners,—but how important are the yamas? The yamas are in fact number one, the beginning, the very first limb of Patañjali’s eight-limbed discipline, or “Aṣṭāṅga Yoga.” Dharma Mittra, the famed Brazilian yogi who has been living and teaching yoga in New York City since the 1970s, is fond of saying “No Yama, No Yoga,” they figure so importantly for him. The yamas are usually translated as abstentions, or moral principles, in short they are the ideal code of conduct for any yoga practitioner. Tirumalai Krishnamacharya couldn’t seem to overemphasize the importance of both the yamas and the niyamas (the second limb), and stated that practicing the yama limb alone will cause one to experience compassion towards all living beings, pretty nice that. So what are they?

Many major yoga texts such as Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtra, the Upaniṣads concerning yoga practice, and the Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā speak of precepts, or behavioural codes, which yoga practice or yoga sādhāna depend on. These moral standards are organised into groups, named yama and niyama. Different texts have different numbers of yamas and niyamas, but in this article we’re just going to focus on the yamas from the Yoga Sūtra. In it, the sage Patañjali lists five yamas: ahiṁsā, satyam, asteya, Brahmacarya, and aparigraha. Just as the eight-limbs of Aṣṭāṅga proceed in a meaningful enumeration, the ordering of the yamas is not incidental. First things first in the yamas is ahiṁsā, which means to not kill or to not harm. As we shall see, each subsequent yama builds upon this essential principle of nonharming.

Ahiṁsā

Ahiṁsā, simply put, means to just be nice. We can all recognise how much smoother our personal affairs go when we are simply nice to other beings, that truth is self-evident, on n'attrape pas les mouches avec du vinaigre. The expression is fitting because we are truly trying to consider all living beings in our efforts to not harm, even insects, not just ourselves and other humans. In a practical sense within your practice of the āsanas, not hurting yourself means injuries won’t impede your progress. To hurt yourself, in yoga practice or just in ordinary life, unfortunately often also leads to hurting your ability to serve others—so it’s a double whammy. Importantly, the rule of nonviolence may at rare times have to be violated, such as in the extreme case of self-defence, or defence of others against an aggressive force, where inaction could lead to greater suffering. Therefore practicing and observing ahiṁsā is always context dependent. We must strive to do our best to take the least harmful path in any given situation requiring our action, and we can do this by carefully considering all of the circumstances. To end on a sunny point here, Patañjali states that the practice of nonviolence acts as a kind of forcefield around the practitioner, dispelling hostility.

Satyam

Satyam, the second yama, means honesty and is often translated as “truthfulness.” Being truthful in our actions assures that their resulting “fruit” is pure—not rotten. Practicing satyam means recognising the limits of our knowledge, and being honest about it when we really do not know something. It also means that we don’t get a free pass to ignore something apathetically when our knowledge would help us to act upon and transform it in a positive way. Observing satyam does not mean that we get to be brutally honest with those around us, as this would violate ahiṁsā or the principle of non-harming, so we must always circle back to that essential first principle. Satyam is, metaphorically, a clean mirror. With a clean mirror, true reality may be reflected back to us clearly.

“No Yama, No Yoga”

Dharma Mittra

Asteya

Next comes asteya, meaning to not steal. This sounds obvious at first but a closer inspection reveals that not stealing can also be subtle and obscure. For example, stealing something that is not your own is easy for others to recognise and hard for yourself to deny, but steering a friendship or relationship with a hidden agenda or for self-satisfaction can be trickier to recognise, and harder to admit to. Nowadays the controversial Artificial Intelligence is ubiquitous, and even though it certainly has positive applications and potential, the large language models that generate AI’s ability to “think” are themselves created with stolen or plagiarised information scraped from billions of webpages, books, and articles without paying or explicitly asking individual creators. It is an unprecedented violation of copyright law in its original conception. If in your practice of asteya it is unclear to you whether you are stealing something or not, you can go back to ahiṁsā and ask yourself if any beings will be harmed by your action.

Brahmacarya

Brahmacarya, often translated as celibacy, means literally “to act within Brahman,” treating all beings as sacred. Going deeper into the meaning of Brahmacarya we learn that it means more than just the practice of celibacy, as traditionally it would mean to approach life as a sort of monk or nun, someone who follows a righteous and rigorous routine. Recognising our universal connection to all other beings precludes any ego scheming about using them, in the sense of selfish gratification or exploitative motivations. To practice Brahmacarya is to work for establishing and maintaining harmony between ourselves and others. This yama builds on the four preceding it meaning that any sexual activity undertaken is practiced within the framework of: non-harming, honesty, and not claiming something for ourselves (or someone) that actually does not belong to us. The power and influence of sexual energy is so strong that it can easily override our ethics or values. Additionally, careful consideration of the power dynamics at play that we willingly put ourselves into within society (or within the yoga world) is essential in order to ensure our intoxicated egos are not taking advantage of ourselves, or others. According to Patañjali, observing “celibacy” will give rise to “heroic” energy.

Aparigraha

The final yama for Patañjali is aparigraha, which means to not grasp, on any level of experience. We may grasp for material things, or for status, or even for a different embodied situation than the one we are currently in. Very often our motivation and intention for doing something can veer off in the direction of greediness, despite sound beginnings. By constantly looking again at our own motivation and intentions we can see whether they remain pure, or if they have crossed over into warped self-righteousness. Practicing aparigraha leads to letting go of comparison between ourselves and others, nipping jealousy or envy in the bud. Observing aparigraha can also stop other negative emotions from taking root that obscure our internal experience and break our concentration on what is arising in our own immediate experience.

So much more can be said and unpacked regarding Patañjali’s five yamas, and it is good food for thought to imagine how you may or may not be observing them faithfully. Remember that failure is an integral part of the spiritual journey. We are not perfect, but we can strive to improve our situation, learning from past failures. Often it can seem like certain ideals in the yogic journey are old-fashioned, out-of-date, or simply not possible given our modern attitudes and situation. Not so says Patañjali in sutra 2.31, where he states that observing the moral principles of the yamas are universal, regardless of status, location, the time period, or specific life circumstances. Indeed, the first step in undertaking yoga practice is making the mahavātra or the “great vow”, which are the observance of the five yamas. Good luck to us all!