Most of us in the Western world when attending a generic Yoga class might have certain expectations. Sun salutations for example, the warrior poses, an inversion and maybe a longer held stretch to wind down before a few minutes in Savasana. How far removed this is from what the ancient wisdom tradition had meant for us! Patanjali was an Indian sage who is believed to be the author of The Yoga Sutras, a classical Yogic text dating to 200BCE-200CE. The Yoga Sutras are a guide book of 195 aphorisms to self-realization, written it is estimated around 2000years ago but the teachings are undoubtedly much older, this is simply when they were written to make the path to enlightenment available to the masses. Who Patanjali truly was remains a mystery; some saying he fell from the heavens in the form of a snake as a reincarnation of the mythical snake king, others say Patanjali was not one person but many and that to know who they were would steal the limelight from the importance of the teachings themselves. Though the origins are shrouded in mystery, the messages of the Sutras are anything but, offering us ethical guidelines and spiritual teachings to live a pure, peaceful and balanced life.
Though the Sutras are guiding us to enlightenment, they offer up rich wisdom and practical tools to live in a more meaningful and purposeful way making them useful to all, not exclusively those who wish to live in spiritual austerity.
The Yamas and Niyamas
The Yamas are moral codes, literally translating to “restraints”, whilst the Niyamas are ethical codes of conduct or “observances”.
The Yamas:
Ahimsa – non-violence
Satya – truthfulness
Asteya – non-stealing
Brahmacharya – right use of energy
Aparigraha – non-attachment
The Niyamas:
Saucha – cleanliness, purity
Santosha – contentment
Tapas – discipline
Svadyaya – self-inquiry
Ishvara pranidhana – surrender
Learn more about these teachings by joining a class with My Happy Body where the Yamas and Niyamas are sometimes uses as class themes or explored within a practise. Visit the schedule here.