2.29 · The Eight Limbs

Restraints, observances, posture, breath control, withdrawal of the senses, concentration, meditation and absorption are the eight limbs.

Word by word

yama

restraints

niyama

observances

āsana

posture, seat

prāṇāyāma

breath control

pratyāhāra

withdrawal of the senses

dhāraṇā

concentration

dhyāna

meditation

samādhayaḥ

absorptions

aṣṭau

eight

aṅgāni

limbs

Where it fits

Vyāsa: here the limbs of yoga are set out (Woods p. 177). The eight limbs answer the question of 2.28, how discernment is reached. The rest of this pāda covers the first five, from the restraints (2.30) to withdrawal (2.54–2.55). The last three open the third pāda (3.1–3.3), and 3.7 calls them the inner limbs.

Reading

Aṅga means a limb, as of a body. Whether the eight must be taken up in order depends on how Vyāsa's next sentence is parsed. Woods reads 'the following up of these must be performed in succession'; Rama Prasad reads 'we shall describe in order their practice and nature'. The Sanskrit allows both. Either way the list moves from the outside in: how you treat others, how you treat yourself, the body, the breath, the senses, and then the three inner limbs of the mind. Posture, which most people today call yoga, is one limb of eight.

Vyāsa

“Here the limbs of yoga are set out. … We will describe, in order, how each is practised and what it is.”

Vyāsa's Yoga-bhāṣya, the oldest commentary. New translation from the Sanskrit, with reference to Woods (1914), p. 177.

Practice

Draw a circle with eight petals and write one limb in each. Shade the ones you practise regularly. Look at the empty petals.

A question to sit with

Which limb needs your attention?

Where commentators disagree

Does Vyāsa say the limbs must be practised in order, or only that he will describe them in order?

Vyāsa

Woods reads yathākramam eṣām anuṣṭhānaṃ svarūpaṃ ca vakṣyāmaḥ as two statements: 'The following up of these must be performed in succession. And what they are we shall describe.' (Woods 1914, p. 177)

Vyāsa

The same words read as one sentence about the exposition: 'We shall now describe their nature and practice in order' (Rama Prasad); 'We shall now describe in due order, the form and practice of these' (Jha). On this reading 'in order' qualifies the description, not the practice. (Rama Prasad 1912, p. 155; Jha 1907, p. 81)

Bhoja

Concentration, meditation and absorption serve absorption directly; the restraints and observances serve it indirectly by removing hesitation over harming and the like. From posture on, each limb rests on the one before: once posture is mastered, the breath becomes steady, and so on. (Tatya 1885, p. 74; Mitra 1883, wisdomlib on 2.29)

Surendranath Dasgupta

The outer limbs are the 'indirect and remote conditions' for the inner three. A person already free of the distractions they remove, through good deeds or the grace of God, may begin at once with concentration (dhāraṇā). (Dasgupta 1920, p. 154)

Key ideas

aṣṭāṅga (the eight limbs), saṃyama (holding together), samādhi (absorption)