Yoga in India

Menu

• Home
• About Us

More..

• Hathayoga
• Rajayoga
• Yogasana (Posture)
• Pranayama
• Yoga and music

Rajayoga

The principles of Rajayoga are based on the Yoga sutras of Patanjali.

Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

The great Sage Patanjali formulated the Yoga sutras(formula). It is very precise and practicle as mathematics. Yoga is one of Shad Dashanas (Six orthodox philosophical schools i.e

• Nyaya: The school of Logic.
• Vaisheshika: The atomist school.
• Samkhya: The School of duality.
• Yoga: The School of Patanjali
• Purva Mimamsa: The school of Vedic exegesis
• Uttara Mimamsa also called Vedanta: The Upanishadic School.)

Although Yoga of Patanjali agrees with Sankhya Philosophy, it is more theistic than Sankhya. Patanjali is known as the founder of formal Yoga Philosophy. The Yoga of Sage Patanjali is known as Rajayoga. Sage Patanajali in his Yogasutra defines Yoga as "Yogaschitta vritti nirodhaha". Yoga is the cessation of mental waves. Swamy Vivekananda describes this sutra as "Yoga is restraining the mind (Chitta) from taking various forms (Vrittis)"

Rajayoga is also called as Ashtanga Yoga(Eight-limbed Yoga).The eight limbs of Rajayoga are

• Yama: The various forms of abstention from evil doing.
• Niyama: The various observances.
• Asana: Asana means "sitting posture", which is used for Yogic practices i.e. Dhyana, Dharana etc.
• Pranayama: Control of Prana. It also means extention of Prana.
• Pratyahara: Withdrawal of the mind from sense objects.
• Dharana: Concentration, attention on an object.
• Dhyana: Continuous flow of mind on an object.
• Samadhi: Higher state of meditation where the mind is absorbed in the object of meditation.

In the third chapter "Vibhutipada", Sage Patanjali give Sutras to attain super human powers. The last chapter is about "Mukti" (liberation, self-realisation).