Ashtanga Yoga - The Eightfold Discipline of Mental Mastery
- Daniel McKenzie
- Sep 7
- 3 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
When we hear the word “yoga” today, most think of postures and stretching. But in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, yoga means something far more subtle: citta vṛtti nirodhaḥ — the quieting of the mind’s movements. To achieve this mastery, Patanjali prescribes a graduated discipline known as aṣṭāṅga yoga (ashtanga yoga), the “eight-limbed path.”
The eight limbs are not eight separate practices but an integrated system:
Yama — ethical restraints such as non-violence and truthfulness.
Niyama — personal disciplines like purity, contentment, and surrender to the Lord.
Asana — steady, comfortable postures.
Pranayama — regulation of the breath.
Pratyahara — withdrawal of the senses from external objects.
Dharana — one-pointed attention.
Dhyana — sustained meditation.
Samadhi — absorption, where subject, object, and process converge.
At its heart, ashtanga yoga is a discipline of reclaiming ownership over the mind. Left unchecked, the mind runs on involuntary thoughts — fears, anxieties, regrets — that kidnap attention and exhaust vitality. Through deliberate practice, one snatches the mind back from these intruders and trains it to be steady, present, and luminous.
Vedanta accepts the practice of ashtanga yoga not as an end in itself, but as a preparation. A quiet mind is not liberation, but it is indispensable for it. A yogi may reach nirvikalpa samadhi, a state of thought-free absorption, but this too ends; it is still an experience within time. Self-knowledge alone reveals the timeless freedom that is not gained or lost. Thus, Vedanta honors ashtanga yoga as a profound sadhana, a discipline that refines the mind into a fit instrument for inquiry, while making clear that the final step is knowledge, not experience.
Root & Meaning
Aṣṭa = eight
Aṅga = limb
Together, “eight limbs” — the eightfold discipline of yoga set forth in the Yoga Sūtras.
Scriptural References
Yoga Sutra (2.29): enumerates the eight limbs.
Bhagavad Gita (6.5–6): emphasizes the importance of mind-discipline, resonant with the aims of ashtanga yoga.
Vedantic Commentators (Shankara, Swami Paramarthananda): reinterpret ashtanga yoga as mental discipline serving Vedantic inquiry.
Traditional View
Alongside the classic eightfold structure given by Patanjali, teachers in the Vedantic tradition often treat ashtanga yoga as the practical basis for what is now called upasana yoga — meditation and contemplative practices meant to prepare the mind for knowledge. In this context, the Yoga philosophy (dualistic metaphysics) is set aside, while the discipline of the eight limbs is preserved as a powerful method of inner purification.
The eight limbs are:
Yama — universal values (ahiṃsā, satya, asteya, brahmacarya, aparigraha).
Niyama — personal disciplines (śauca, santoṣa, tapaḥ, svādhyāya, īśvara-praṇidhāna).
Āsana — posture.
Prāṇāyāma — breath regulation.
Pratyāhāra — sense withdrawal.
Dhāraṇā — concentration.
Dhyāna — meditation.
Samādhi — absorption.
Vedantic Analysis
Strengths: Ashtanga yoga disciplines the mind, reduces emotional disturbances, and cultivates focus and serenity. It is invaluable in preparing the mind (antahkarana shuddhi).
Limitations: Samadhi is still an experience, and therefore finite. Liberation (moksha) in Vedanta is not experiential absorption but the recognition of the ever-free Self.
Resolution: Practice ashtanga yoga to purify and steady the mind, then use that mind for shravana–manana–nididhyasana, the means to Self-knowledge.
Common Misunderstandings
Yoga equals posture: In truth, asana is only one limb; the goal is mastery of the mind.
Samadhi is liberation: It is profound, but temporary. True freedom is not an altered state but recognition of what is always present.
Vedanta rejects Yoga: Vedanta rejects Patanjali’s metaphysics but accepts ashtanga yoga as a powerful discipline, reinterpreted in harmony with non-duality.
Vedantic Resolution
Ashtanga yoga is not the destination, but a preparation for it. As Swami Paramarthananda notes, the “property dispute” between us and our wandering thoughts is won through steady practice; once the mind is claimed, it can reflect the Self clearly.
Vedanta acknowledges the striking similarity between Patanjali’s eight limbs and the Buddha’s Noble Eightfold Path. Both systems emphasize ethical conduct, discipline of the mind, and cultivation of deep meditative absorption. The parallels are so strong that some scholars argue the Buddha borrowed this framework from pre-existing yogic culture, while others suggest that both traditions emerged from the same broader shramana stream of practice (an early renunciate movement emphasizing individual liberation through meditation, austerity, and ethical discipline).
The difference is interpretive:
For Yoga, the end is kaivalya (isolation/liberation of pure awareness).
For Buddhism, the end is nirvana (the extinguishing of craving and ignorance).
For Vedanta, the end is moksha — the recognition of the Self as ever-free.