The Eight Limbs of Yoga
Around 400 CE, the sage Patanjali codified yoga into 196 aphorisms. The eight limbs (Ashtanga) form a complete map from ethics to enlightenment. Yogananda claims Kriya Yoga encompasses all eight in a single practice.
Yama — Ethical Restraints
Ahimsa (non-violence) · Satya (truthfulness) · Asteya (non-stealing) · Brahmacharya (wise use of energy) · Aparigraha (non-possessiveness). The foundation. Without these, the rest doesn't work — it's like building a house on sand.
Niyama — Observances
Saucha (purity) · Santosha (contentment) · Tapas (austerity/discipline) · Svadhyaya (self-study) · Ishvara pranidhana (surrender to the Divine). The internal character work that prepares the practitioner.
Asana — Posture
Originally: simply a stable, comfortable seated position for meditation. The elaborate physical practice of modern yoga came much later. Patanjali devotes exactly three sutras to this limb. The point is a steady body that doesn't distract the mind during meditation.
Pranayama — Life Force Control
Breath regulation as a gateway to controlling prana (life energy). This is where Kriya Yoga lives. The breath and the mind are intimately linked — control the breath, and the mind follows. This is the hinge between the external limbs (1–3) and the internal limbs (5–8).
Pratyahara — Withdrawal
Drawing the senses inward — disconnecting from external stimuli. Like a tortoise pulling its limbs into its shell. In Kriya practice, this happens naturally as prana is withdrawn from the sensory nerves and redirected toward the spine and brain.
Dharana — Concentration
Fixing the mind on a single point — the breath, a mantra, a chakra, the space between the eyebrows (ajna). Most meditation struggles happen here: the mind wanders, you bring it back. The training ground for what comes next.
Dhyana — Meditation
Sustained, unbroken awareness — when concentration becomes effortless and the meditator and the object of meditation begin to merge. This is what people mean when they say they were "in the zone." The difference between trying to meditate and actual meditation.
Samadhi — Absorption
Complete merger. The subject-object distinction dissolves. The meditator disappears into the object — and eventually into pure consciousness itself. This is the goal. Not an experience you have; a state you become. See below for the stages of Samadhi.
