Niyama: Second Limb of Yoga

Each Monday as I said before we would have some post on yoga .Last Monday we discussed about " Yama" the First Limb of Astanga Yoga .Today we would deal with the second limb of it namely called as " Niyama ". Both Yama and Niyama are recommended to be used at any stage of life and your pursuit for in search of being " One" .The results are always positive .

The word "Niyama" means Self discipline . Ethical discipline was dealt in the earlier part of Astanga yoga namely called as "Yama". Today's post would more guide you in how to discipline our self in our journey to learn and understand the principles of Yoga .

Niyama as in Yama are also divided in to 5 parts they are namely:

a] Saucha:
Saucha in its literal meaning means Cleanliness. Cleanliness of our body, our mind, our behavior. Cleanliness of body like having shower , brushing teeth , and so on and so . Cleanliness of mind is kept with good reading habits listening good music and thoughts and avoidance of any impure thoughts .Anger , lust ,greed , competition are thoughts that we should avoid as they could be of harm to us in the long run .

Q Please ask a question to your self about all the thoughts that arises during your period of time in the yoga class . Are they pure or impure ..What can be done to it ..work on it .

b] Santosha :
Santosha or Contentment . Its said that the mind which is not content cannot be controlled .So as a disciple of yoga we need to be content in ourselves. How many of us have been nagging about weather daily, our life, our boss . Be content in our life in what we have, in what work we do , in what money we earn . Try not to seek what is not meant for us .Wondered how many time in a day we do say to ourselves Ohh I wish I was rich , Ohh I wish I had more money!! Try to be happy in what you have got in your plate and not what you do not have .It will build your character as the old timers would say .

Q. So are you content in what you got ? Are you running for simple pleasures of life ? Check them out ,they might bring sorrow for you in the long run .


c] Tapas :{ Austerity}:
Tapas or Austerity is just the literal translation. The word “Tapa" meaning blaze, burning , shine, suffer pain. An ore of gold has to undergo the intense heat to change itself to a shinny nice metal the gold . The actual heat , the flames would help the small rock to burn all its impurites to form that piece of shinning Gold.
Most of the world religion you would find this mention of physical and mental self strain , harm done to the body to seek Austerity or Tapas , in order to be One with the Universe. Even in yoga the same tapas has been used to gain benefits for ones cleanliness .Self denial has been a very literal translation of the word tapas .. but tapas is also self denial in moderation. It could be just of a small thing like say not drinking water for a day.. or even simple as that standing in one position or asana for 3 min .. Simple thing. But for many that 3 min can be like 3 years due to rigidity of the workout.

Q What self denial can you practice ? Can you be without your blackberry for one day ? That is a nice self denial...

d]Swadhya { study of self}:
Swadhya or study of self . Many times this word has been wrongly understood as reading ancient scriptures , religious books and stuff . Yes in one way you need to too but the meaning used by most of the great yogis is defiantly about knowing our self.
Try it some times some times in the night when you lying on the bed , think about how did you do today . See how you reacted to different happenings of the day . Study your own judgment, mistakes ,flaws .
The more you would do this , the more you would try to improve yourself in the long run. which results to a happy individual , happy family , happy society .So study SELF ...

Q.Try to study yourself for just 2 minutes . How are you reacting on different happenings in your life .Are you right or wrong ?

e] Ishwar Pranidhan{ Complete surrender to The Supreme Being }:
Have your experienced some times we just do not have clue to some of our problem and suddenly we are just at the mercy of the Supreme Being .Yes the same Supreme Being who some one called as God, or Jesus, or Allah . Try to surrender your self to that Supreme. Some do not like the idea of supreme being , OK at least you do surrender to some condition in your life. You are late to work due to traffic..you cannot just go ransack or create havoc , we have restrain and surrender to the routine for a moment or two .. The part that is important is Surrender.. it is one thing that can help us work with our egos .. in future can work on to be with The One .

Q For moment in a day accept that we just are a small creation in this crazy world and we do have and do not have the power to rule the world .


Yoga is the practice of quieting the mind. ~Patanjali, translated from Sanskrit

Posted by Sudeep


Related Links :
1] 6 things to know before doing yoga .
http://www.e-swastya.com/2009/04/6-things-to-know-before-doing-yoga.html

2] "Yama "The first limb of Astanga Yoga .
http://www.e-swastya.com/2009/04/yama-first-limb-of-yoga.html