The 8 Limbs of Yoga: Patanjali's Eight Limbs Explained

The 8 limbs of yoga are the eight practices Patanjali lists in the Yoga Sutras (2.29): yama (restraints), niyama (observances), asana (posture), pranayama (breath regulation), pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses), dharana (concentration), dhyana (meditation) and samadhi (absorption). Together they are called ashtanga yoga, "eight-limbed yoga". They move from how you treat other people, through the body and the breath, to a mind that can rest on one thing.

What "ashtanga" means

The Sanskrit is short. Ashta means eight. Anga means limb, or part of a body. The sutra that names them ends with ashtau angani, "the eight limbs".

The word "limb" matters. A body grows all its limbs at once, and many teachers read Patanjali the same way: you work on all eight side by side. Others read them as steps, one after the other. We come back to that below.

The Yoga Sutras are 196 short lines in four chapters. Most scholars date them to the first centuries CE, often to around 400 CE, although estimates vary. The eight limbs take up only a small part of the text, from the end of chapter two into the start of chapter three.

The 8 limbs at a glance

1. Yama: five restraints in how you treat others.
2. Niyama: five observances in how you treat yourself.
3. Asana: a steady, comfortable seat.
4. Pranayama: regulating the breath.
5. Pratyahara: drawing the senses in from their objects.
6. Dharana: holding the mind on one point.
7. Dhyana: meditation, attention that flows without a break.
8. Samadhi: absorption, where the object alone remains.

Patanjali calls the first five the outer limbs and the last three the inner limbs. When dharana, dhyana and samadhi happen together on one object, he gives them a single name: samyama.

1. Yama: the restraints

The yamas are about your conduct toward others. Patanjali lists five (Sutra 2.30):

• Ahimsa: non-harming.
• Satya: truthfulness.
• Asteya: non-stealing.
• Brahmacharya: sexual restraint. Traditionally this meant celibacy. Many modern teachers read it as moderation.
• Aparigraha: non-grasping, not collecting more than you need.

Patanjali calls them the "great vow" when they hold everywhere, for everyone, with no exceptions for time, place or circumstance. On the mat, ahimsa is the one you meet first. You stop pushing a stretch that hurts.

2. Niyama: the observances

The niyamas turn inward. Sutra 2.32 lists five:

• Saucha: purity of body and surroundings.
• Santosha: contentment.
• Tapas: discipline. The word comes from a root meaning heat.
• Svadhyaya: self-study, which in the tradition includes the study of texts and the repetition of mantra.
• Ishvara pranidhana: devotion to Ishvara, the Lord, or surrender of the results of your practice.

The last three also appear at the start of chapter two as kriya yoga, the yoga of action. Tapas is getting on the mat on a day you would rather not.

3. Asana: the seat

Asana means seat. Patanjali gives it three sutras. The best known, 2.46, says the posture should be sthira sukham: steady and comfortable. His aim was a seat you can hold for meditation without the body pulling your attention away.

The standing poses, backbends and flows of a modern class come later, from medieval hatha yoga texts such as the Hatha Yoga Pradipika and from teachers of the 20th century. The principle carries over well. In any pose, look for both parts: effort that keeps you stable, and ease that lets you breathe. Our longer guide to asana, the third limb goes through it in detail.

4. Pranayama: the breath

Pranayama joins prana, breath or life force, with ayama, extension, or yama, restraint. Both readings are used, and they point to the same practice: making the breath longer and more regular. Patanjali describes it as working with the inhale, the exhale and the pause, noticing their length, place and count.

He places it after asana. Once you can sit still, you can start to work with the breath. In a class this is the slow Ujjayi breath, or a long exhale before Savasana. A longer exhale tends to slow the heart rate a little, which is one reason breath work settles people.

5. Pratyahara: withdrawing the senses

Pratyahara means drawing back. Patanjali describes the senses following the mind inward instead of running after their objects (2.54). The Bhagavad Gita uses an older image for the same idea: a tortoise drawing in its limbs. You still hear the traffic. It stops pulling you out of the room.

This is the bridge between the outer and inner limbs. On the mat it can be as plain as closing your eyes in a forward fold and feeling the back of your legs instead of watching the person next to you.

6. Dharana: concentration

Sutra 3.1 defines dharana as binding the mind to one place. The object can be the breath at the nostrils, a sound, an image or a point in the body. The mind wanders. You bring it back. That return is the practice.

Yoga already trains this in small ways. The drishti, or gaze point, of each pose is a way to keep attention in one place.

7. Dhyana: meditation

In dhyana the attention you had to keep bringing back now stays. Patanjali describes it as one steady flow of awareness toward the object. The difference from dharana is continuity: in dharana you keep returning, in dhyana you have stopped leaving.

Most people who say they meditate practise dharana, and dhyana comes in moments. That is normal. Our beginner's guide to meditation is a good place to start.

8. Samadhi: absorption

Samadhi is often translated as bliss or union with the divine. Patanjali's own definition (3.3) is more precise: meditation in which only the object shines, as if the mind itself had gone quiet. The sense of a separate "me" doing the meditating falls away.

The Yoga Sutras describe several levels of samadhi. The aim beyond them is kaivalya, "aloneness" or liberation: pure awareness no longer mistaking itself for the thinking mind. That is a different goal from union with a god, and the difference is worth knowing if you read other sources.

How the limbs are practised today

Few people start with the yamas. Most walk into a class for the body and meet the other limbs along the way. A realistic sequence for a week of practice looks like this:

• Asana: a class of 20-60 minutes, with attention to steady and easy in each pose.
• Pranayama: five minutes of slow breathing after the class.
• Pratyahara and dharana: five to ten minutes seated with eyes closed, attention on the breath.
• Yama and niyama: one principle a week, noticed in daily life. Ahimsa is a good first one.

The name also lives on in a style. Ashtanga yoga as taught by K. Pattabhi Jois is a set series of postures linked with breath. Jois named it after Patanjali's eight limbs, and the series itself is asana and breath. When someone says "ashtanga", check which one they mean.

Where the sources disagree

Steps or limbs? Some teachers present the eight as a ladder: master the yamas, then posture, then breath. Others, B.K.S. Iyengar among them, stress that they are limbs of one body and develop together. The text supports parts of both. Patanjali says each limb prepares the next, as with asana before pranayama, and he also calls the yamas a vow for all times. For a student, the practical answer is the same: you do not have to perfect ethics before you are allowed on the mat.

How old is the posture practice? "Asana is an ancient practice" is half right. Sitting still for meditation is old. Most of the poses taught in a modern class are not in the Yoga Sutras at all. Historians trace much of today's posture practice to hatha texts from roughly the 11th-17th centuries and to 20th-century teachers such as Krishnamacharya.

Are there always eight? No. Patanjali's list is the best known, and older and later texts count differently. An earlier Upanishad describes a six-limbed yoga, and several hatha texts drop the yamas and niyamas from their list. Patanjali's eight became the standard in modern yoga teaching largely through 20th-century teachers and books.

What does samadhi mean? Studio language often says union or bliss. Patanjali's system draws on Samkhya philosophy, which separates awareness from matter, so his goal is closer to isolation of pure awareness. Later Vedanta teachers read yoga as union with Brahman. Both readings are in circulation. They come from different schools.

Chant the opening of the Yoga Sutras

Clare Nicholls teaches the opening mantras in the traditional way, line by line, by listening and repeating.

To hear Sutra 2.29 itself, watch Clare's short class on the eight limbs in Sadhana Pada, part of our introduction to the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and our yoga philosophy classes.

Frequently asked questions

What are the 8 limbs of yoga in order?

Yama (restraints), niyama (observances), asana (posture), pranayama (breath regulation), pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses), dharana (concentration), dhyana (meditation) and samadhi (absorption). This is the order Patanjali gives in Yoga Sutra 2.29.

What are the 8 stages of Ashtanga yoga?

They are the same eight limbs: yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana and samadhi. Ashtanga means "eight limbs". The Ashtanga Vinyasa style of K. Pattabhi Jois borrowed the name, but its set series of poses covers asana and breath.

Do you have to practise the limbs in order?

Not strictly. The later limbs build on the earlier ones, and asana comes before pranayama in the text. Most teachers today practise several limbs at once: posture, breath and a few minutes of concentration in the same session, with the yamas and niyamas in daily life.

What is the difference between the 8-fold path and the 8 limbs of yoga?

The Noble Eightfold Path is Buddhist: right view, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness and concentration. The eight limbs are from Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. Both begin with ethics and end in meditative absorption, but they belong to different traditions and use different terms.

Is eight limbs yoga spiritual?

In its source, yes. The Yoga Sutras aim at liberation, and one niyama is devotion to Ishvara, the Lord. Many people practise the limbs without a religious belief, as ethics, posture, breath and meditation. Both ways of practising are common.

Which limb of yoga is asana?

Asana is the third limb. In the Yoga Sutras it means a steady, comfortable seat for meditation. Patanjali says little more about it. The many poses of modern yoga were developed later.

What is the goal of the 8 limbs of yoga?

For Patanjali the goal is kaivalya, liberation: awareness that no longer confuses itself with the moving mind. Samadhi, the eighth limb, is the last stage on the way there. For most students the more immediate aim is a steadier body, a slower breath and a mind that can stay with one thing.