Philosophy

The word yoga comes from the Sanskrit root yuj, to join or to yoke. In the Yoga Sūtras, Patañjali defines it in a single line: yogaś citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ, yoga is the stilling of the movements of the mind (I.2). The Bhagavad Gītā offers two more: yoga is equanimity, samatvaṃ yoga ucyate (II.48), and yoga is skill in action, yogaḥ karmasu kauśalam (II.50). Swami Satyananda described yoga as a science of right living and, on a more practical level, as a means of balancing and harmonising body, mind and emotions. Through its practices we come to know our own nature.

The postures most people meet first are one part of a much wider tradition that includes the breath, relaxation, concentration, meditation and a way of living. Why practise? Because the mind is restless, and the body carries the weight of that restlessness. Practice creates the conditions for steadiness and ease: the body settles, the breath slows, and attention returns to the present.

We practise for the rest it gives, for the strength and space it builds in the body, and for what it teaches about attention. The tradition also describes deeper aims, from the easing of suffering (duḥkha) to self-knowledge. Each person meets the practice where they are. Over time the aim is not to become someone else. It is to remember what is already there, and to live with more awareness, balance and kindness.

Patañjali sets out eight limbs, aṣṭāṅga (II.29): yama, ethical restraints towards others; niyama, personal observances; āsana, a steady and comfortable seat; prāṇāyāma, regulation of the breath and vital energy; pratyāhāra, withdrawal of the senses; dhāraṇā, concentration; dhyāna, meditation; and samādhi, absorption.

The five yamas are ahiṃsā (non-violence), satya (truthfulness), asteya (non-stealing), brahmacarya (continence, often read today as moderation) and aparigraha (non-possessiveness). The five niyamas are śauca (cleanliness), santoṣa (contentment), tapas (discipline), svādhyāya (self-study) and īśvara-praṇidhāna (surrender to the Divine). Of āsana, Patañjali says little more than that it should be steady and comfortable, sthira-sukham āsanam (II.46), attained by relaxing effort and resting the mind on the infinite (II.47), so that the pairs of opposites no longer disturb (II.48).

In his commentary Four Chapters on Freedom, Swami Satyananda explains that the first five limbs are called bahiraṅga, the outer practices, and the last three antaraṅga, the inner practices, following the sūtras themselves (III.7). Together they are less a ladder than one body with eight limbs: each supports the others, and a practitioner works with several at once. In a class, yama and niyama appear as attitude, āsana and prāṇāyāma as the practice itself, and the last limbs as the quiet that follows.

In the yogic tradition prāṇa is the vital force that animates the body and the mind; the texts describe it moving through the subtle body along the nāḍīs, the channels. Prāṇa is closely tied to the breath, which is why breathing practices are its most direct doorway, but it is not the breath itself. The breath is the vehicle we can feel; prāṇa is what the tradition says the breath carries.

Prāṇāyāma is often translated as breath control, but the word joins prāṇa with āyāma, extension or expansion. Swami Niranjanananda describes it as the practice through which prāṇa is expanded and regulated by means of the breath. The tradition also names five principal movements of prāṇa in the body, the pañca-vāyus: prāṇa, apāna, samāna, udāna and vyāna.

A breath has four parts: inhalation (pūraka), exhalation (recaka), and the pauses between them, retention inside (antar kumbhaka) and outside (bahir kumbhaka). Beginners work with the first two; retention is learnt gradually and with guidance. The Haṭha Yoga Pradīpikā links breath and mind directly: when the breath is unsteady the mind is unsteady, and when the breath is still the mind becomes still (II.2).

A note on language: prāṇa is a traditional concept, not the same as oxygen or anything measured in a laboratory. What can be observed is simpler, and enough: slow, even breathing is calming, and attention on the breath steadies the mind.

The Haṭha texts describe a subtle body: a network of channels, the nāḍīs, through which prāṇa moves, and centres, the cakras (wheels), where channels meet. Tradition speaks of seventy-two thousand nāḍīs, of which three are principal: iḍā on the left, associated with the moon and a cooling, receptive quality; piṅgalā on the right, associated with the sun and an active, warming quality; and suṣumṇā, the central channel along the spine.

Swami Satyananda’s Kundalini Tantra describes seven main cakras along this central axis, from mūlādhāra at the base of the spine to sahasrāra at the crown, with svādhiṣṭhāna, maṇipūra, anāhata, viśuddhi and ājñā between them, together with bindu at the top back of the head. Each has its own symbol, element, seed sound (bīja mantra) and qualities. The neat chart of seven rainbow colours found in many modern books is a recent simplification and is not how the classical texts describe them.

Kuṇḍalinī, “the coiled one”, names a dormant spiritual potential that the tradition locates at mūlādhāra. The Haṭha and Tantric texts describe its awakening and gradual rise through suṣumṇā as the unfolding of higher awareness, prepared through āsana, prāṇāyāma, mudrā, bandha and meditation. These are maps drawn from contemplative experience, not anatomy: they describe how body and mind are felt from the inside. They are best approached with patience and, for the more intensive practices, with a teacher.

Pratyāhāra, the fifth limb, is the withdrawal of the senses from their objects: attention turning away from the outer world and inward. It is the hinge between the outer practices and meditation.

Yoga Nidra, yogic sleep, is a systematic method of deep relaxation developed by Swami Satyananda Saraswati from the tantric practice of nyāsa. It is practised lying in Śavāsana while the voice of the teacher guides awareness through a set sequence: settling and the saṅkalpa, a short positive resolve; the rotation of consciousness through the parts of the body; awareness of the breath; the experience of opposite sensations; visualisation; the saṅkalpa again; and a gradual return. The body rests as if asleep while awareness stays awake.

In the tradition Yoga Nidra is understood as a practice of pratyāhāra: the senses withdraw, and the mind is led toward the threshold of concentration and meditation. Practically, it is one of the most accessible ways to experience deep rest and to meet the inner world without effort. At Aura Shanti it closes the Tuesday class, after Yin.

A note on claims: many benefits are attributed to Yoga Nidra. Here we describe the practice as the tradition presents it. Questions about medical conditions belong with a doctor.