Before we turn our attention inward, what must we learn to observe in the way we live?

When we think of Yoga, we often picture someone performing a posture, practising breathing techniques or sitting in meditation. Yet Patanjali’s framework begins with something broader. Before Dharana (concentration), Dhyana (meditation) and Samadhi, it presents five limbs that help prepare the ground for this deeper exploration.

These are Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama and Pratyahara.

We can explore them as external preparation, not because they concern only the outside but because they help us examine our conduct, habits, body, breath and relationship with sensory experience. Together, they offer a foundation for investigating the mind more closely.

Yama – Examining How We Relate to Others

Our relationships often reveal aspects of ourselves that we might otherwise overlook. Anger, dishonesty, possessiveness, competitiveness and the desire to control can influence our behaviour before we have fully understood what is happening.

Yama introduces five ethical principles – Ahimsa (non-harming), Satya (truthfulness), Asteya (non-stealing), Brahmacharya (moderation or disciplined use of energy, among other interpretations) and Aparigraha (non-possessiveness).

These are not merely rules to follow. They can become questions for observation.

What happens within us when someone challenges our opinion? Why do we sometimes distort the truth to protect an image? When does a desire become possessiveness? Can we recognise the impulse to react before acting upon it?

Yama invites us to examine our relationship with others and through it, to understand the impulses that shape our actions.

Niyama – Examining How We Relate to Ourselves

If Yama directs attention towards our conduct in relation to others, Niyama turns attention towards our personal habits and disciplines.

Its five principles are Shaucha (cleanliness or purity), Santosha (contentment), Tapas (discipline or sustained effort), Svadhyaya (study of the self) and Ishvara Pranidhana (dedication or surrender to Ishvara, understood differently across traditions).

Again, the invitation is to investigate rather than merely comply.

Can we recognise the difference between contentment and complacency? What happens when we encounter discomfort? Do we understand our habitual reactions or do we repeat them without examination? How willing are we to study ourselves honestly?

Niyama encourages us to bring greater care and awareness to the patterns through which we live.

Asana – Examining the Body

Asana is the limb most widely associated with Yoga today. In Patanjali’s framework, however, its role is not simply to develop flexibility, strength or physical skill.

The Yoga Sutras describe asana in terms of steadiness and ease, “Sthira Sukham Asanam”.

The body becomes an opportunity for observation. We notice tension, balance, effort, discomfort and the urge to achieve ease. We may discover how quickly comparison enters our practice or how impatience changes the way we move.

The posture itself is only part of the experience. Equally important is what we learn by observing our responses to it.

The body provides a tangible starting point for an inquiry that can extend beyond physical movement.

Pranayama – Examining the Breath

Breathing is both an automatic bodily function and something we can influence deliberately. It often changes alongside our emotional and mental states, becoming rapid under stress, shallow during tension or calmer when we settle.

Pranayama involves the regulation of the breath through specific practices described in the Yoga tradition. It is more than simply taking deep breaths or trying to relax.

Through careful practice, we can investigate the relationship between breathing, bodily sensations, attention and mental activity.

What happens to the breath when impatience arises? Can we notice a change before we react? How does deliberate regulation influence our experience?

The purpose is not to assume that every breathing technique produces the same result but to observe carefully and understand what occurs.

Pratyahara – Examining the Senses

Our senses constantly connect us with the surrounding world. Sounds attract attention, images capture the eyes, tastes invite desire and sensations can provoke comfort or aversion.

Often, attention follows these attractions automatically. We hear a notification and reach for the phone before considering whether we need to. We encounter something unpleasant and immediately turn away. We seek stimulation even when we intend to concentrate.

Pratyahara is commonly understood as the withdrawal or drawing back of the senses from their usual engagement with external objects.

This does not necessarily mean shutting out the world or suppressing sensory experience. It points towards a change in our relationship with sensory input, learning not to have attention continually carried away by every stimulus.

Can we hear a sound without immediately following it? Can a desire arise without automatically dictating our next action? Can we notice a sensation without becoming entirely absorbed in it?

Pratyahara invites us to examine the space between sensory experience and the movement of attention.

Preparation for What Comes Next

Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama and Pratyahara address different dimensions of our experience. They concern how we behave, how we discipline ourselves, how we relate to the body and breath and how we respond to the sensory world.

They are not merely preliminary tasks to complete before the “real” Yoga begins. Each can be a meaningful field of inquiry in its own right.

At the same time, Patanjali’s framework continues with Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi, the final three limbs, which are more directly concerned with the development and deepening of attention.

The first five limbs help establish a foundation for this exploration. They give us opportunities to observe patterns that might otherwise remain unnoticed and to investigate the conditions that influence the mind.

At Rishikesh Vidyapeeth, we approach these practices not as a checklist of achievements but as ways to develop a more careful understanding of ourselves and our experience.

Preparation begins when we stop treating our habits as unquestioned facts and start investigating how they shape the way we live.