June 6, 2025
Patanjali, in his Yoga Sutra, gives us quite a number of exercises. He describes Astanga Yoga. This is the yoga which is eight limbs, not steps. The limbs that together constitute yoga, are yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana and samadhi.
Samadhi, direct experience of truth, is like dhyana or meditation, also a limb of the body of yoga. I may pretend that whatever I am and do in my life, as long as I sit and meditate for half an hour every morning, I can call myself a yogi. But this is like my amputated leg telling you, "I am Swami Venkatesananda." In fact it is cut off from the main body and is nothing but a rotten piece of flesh.
One limb does not make a person. Similarly, it is all the eight limbs together that constitute yoga practice. We cannot claim that any part of the body is more important than any other. It would not do to say, “Swami is a nice fellow. To have him with me, I will take the head home, as the head is the most important part. The rest can be picked up later." One cannot isolate one limb and call it yoga.