Sk Amirul Haque
Special Issue June 2023
Volume-XI, Special Issue, June 2023 | ||
Published Online: 30.06.2025 | Page No: 306-313 | |||
Yoga Ethics: Theory and Practice
Sk Amirul Haque, State Aided College Teacher,
Department of Philosophy, Panchmura Mahavidyalaya, Bankura, West Bengal, India | |
The yoga ethics is too much important relevant at the present situation of India as well as the world. It wants to offer a complete package of morality to human being. In Yoga Sutra we find aṣtānga-yoga, i.e. yama, niyama, āsana, prānāyāma, pratyāhāra, dhāranā, dhyāna and Samādhi. Yama constitutes with five values, i.e. ahiṃsā, satya, asteya, brahmacārya, and aparigraha. Niyama also constitutes by five elements, i.e. śouca, saṃtoṣa, tapas, svādhyāya and īśvarapranidhāna. Yama and niyama of astānga-yoga offer mental training to the people interested to follow the path of yoga. Yama is concerned with mental training and niyama is concerned with physical training. It is said that yama and niyama together constitutes a moral framework of positive aspect of yoga. What to do is the main concerned of these stages. The other elements of astānga-yoga are also important to attain Mokṣa. Ᾱsana is the yogin exercise by which one can attain disassociation from bodily destruction. Prānāyāma is the practice of breathe control. Pratyāhāra indicates the withdrawal of senses from the world. Dhāranā is a long practice of concentration to place the chitta on a single object. Dhyāna is the deep meditation by which one is able to assimilate the object of dhāranā with consciousness. Samādhi is the last stage of aṣtānga-yoga which helps the yogin to have the truth of self and in this way to attained liberation. So it can be said that yoga ethics does not deal only with theories, rather it offers a practical way of life. A human being has various aspects of life; physical, moral, psychological and spiritual. All these four aspects or dimensions of human life are address properly by the ethics and morality of yoga philosophy. Yama deals with the psychological aspect. Niyama is engaged with the purification of physical aspect. Āsana is purely physical posture. Prānāyāma and Pratyāhāra are related with physical dimension. Dhāranā, Dhyāna and Samādhi are related with the spiritual aspect of human life. | |
Keywords: Yama, niyama, āsana, prānāyāma, pratyāhāra, dhāranā, dhyāna and Samādhi, puruṣa, prakṛti, yogaścittavṛttinirodhah, Mokṣa. |