The eight limbs

What this passage does

The eight limbs are named (2.29), and the first two set out. Five restraints govern conduct toward others (2.30) and become a great vow when kept without exception (2.31). Five observances govern one's own life (2.32). The last three observances repeat the yoga of action of 2.1, so the beginner's practice turns out to sit inside the larger scheme.

Learning goals

• Name the eight limbs in order and say which are outer and which inner (3.7).
• Give the five restraints and five observances with Vyāsa's sense of each.
• Explain the great vow of 2.31 and why Vyāsa puts non-violence at the root.

The argument, step by step

1. The limbs are eight: restraints, observances, posture, breath control, withdrawal, concentration, meditation and absorption.
2. Vyāsa's next sentence can be parsed two ways: the limbs are to be followed in succession (Woods), or he will describe their practice and nature in order (Rama Prasad); this pāda sets out the first five, and 3.1–3.3 the last three.
3. The restraints are non-violence, truthfulness, not stealing, chastity and non-possessiveness, and the others are rooted in non-violence.
4. Kept without exception of kind, place, time or circumstance, they become the great vow.
5. The observances are purity, contentment, discipline, study and devotion to Īśvara; the last three are the yoga of action of 2.1.

The sūtras

1. 2.29 yamaniyamāsanaprāṇāyāmapratyāhāradhāraṇādhyānasamādhayo 'ṣṭāv aṅgāni
   Restraints, observances, posture, breath control, withdrawal of the senses, concentration, meditation and absorption are the eight limbs.
2. 2.30 ahiṃsāsatyāsteyabrahmacaryāparigrahā yamāḥ
   The restraints are non-violence, truthfulness, not stealing, chastity and non-possessiveness.
3. 2.31 jātideśakālasamayānavacchinnāḥ sārvabhaumā mahāvratam
   When they are not limited by kind of being, place, time or circumstance, they are universal: the great vow.
4. 2.32 śaucasaṃtoṣatapaḥsvādhyāyeśvarapraṇidhānāni niyamāḥ
   The observances are purity, contentment, discipline, study and devotion to Īśvara.

Study

2.28 promised that practising the limbs would wear away impurity. 2.29 names them: "Restraints, observances, posture, breath control, withdrawal of the senses, concentration, meditation and absorption are the eight limbs." Vyāsa's next sentence, yathākramam eṣām anuṣṭhānaṃ svarūpaṃ ca vakṣyāmaḥ, can be parsed two ways. Woods: 'The following up of these must be performed in succession' (p. 177). Rama Prasad: 'We shall now describe their nature and practice in order' (1912, p. 155). The Sanskrit allows both. Vācaspati adds that practice, letting go, faith, energy and the rest from 1.20 also belong among the aids (Woods p. 177). The list of eight organises the practice; it does not exhaust it.

The first limb, 2.30: "The restraints are non-violence, truthfulness, not stealing, chastity and non-possessiveness." Vyāsa defines each (Woods pp. 178–179). Non-violence is bearing no ill will toward any living being, in any way, at any time. The other restraints and observances are rooted in it and are taught to make it spotless. Truthfulness is speech and thought that match what was seen, inferred or heard, used for the good of all. Not stealing is refusing to take what belongs to another, and being free even of coveting it. Chastity he defines as control of the sexual organ. Non-possessiveness is not acquiring things, because one sees the trouble in getting, keeping, losing and clinging to them, and the harm involved.

2.31 sets their reach: "When they are not limited by kind of being, place, time or circumstance, they are universal: the great vow." Vyāsa's examples are concrete (Woods pp. 180–181). A fisherman harms fish and nothing else. Someone vows not to kill in a holy place, or on a holy day. Someone kills only for gods and brahmins. A warrior harms only in battle. Each restraint has an exception; without exceptions, it is the great vow.

2.32 turns to one's own life: "The observances are purity, contentment, discipline, study and devotion to Īśvara." Vyāsa: purity is outer, by washing and pure food, and inner, washing away the stains of the mind. Contentment is not wanting more than the means at hand. Discipline is bearing the pairs of opposites, hunger and thirst, cold and heat, standing and sitting (Woods pp. 181–182). The last three repeat the yoga of action of 2.1, so the beginner's practice sits inside the larger scheme.

Readings differ on order, and Vyāsa's sentence, as shown above, does not settle it. Some modern teachers practise them together. The inner limbs plainly presuppose the outer, so the live question is whether the order is one of time or of foundation. Brahmacarya is a second dispute. Vācaspati extends Vyāsa's definition to attachment roused by sight, talk or touch (Woods p. 179). The bhāṣya does not address married life, and teachers today read it as celibacy or as moderation and faithfulness.

For practice, conduct comes first, before posture or breath, and non-violence is its root. By the text's own design, a practice that skips the first two limbs is missing its base.

For discussion

1. Why might the text put conduct toward others before posture, breath and meditation?
2. What does Vyāsa mean when he says the other restraints and observances are rooted in non-violence?
3. Vyāsa's truthfulness rules out accurate speech that harms. Where would you draw that line?
4. Which of Vyāsa's four kinds of exception (kind, place, time, circumstance) do you recognise in ordinary conduct?
5. Are the limbs a sequence of stages or a set practised together? How do the two readings of Vyāsa's sentence differ, and what does the structure suggest?

A common misreading

The eight limbs are often taught as a ladder on which ethics is a first rung left behind. Vyāsa makes non-violence the root of every restraint and observance (Woods p. 178), and 2.31 asks that the restraints hold everywhere, which is the work of a whole life.

A practice for the room

Truth and non-harm. Each person thinks of one true thing they have meant to say to someone and have not. Silently, they test it against Vyāsa's measure on 2.30: is it accurate, and is it for that person's good? They decide privately whether to say it, soften it, or let it go. Nothing is shared. Close with two minutes of quiet sitting, the teacher saying the word ahiṃsā once at the start and once at the end.