The Missing Yama

I’ve taken many yoga classes - maybe you have too! - where the yoga teacher begins by saying “There are five yama”. While this isn’t entirely incorrect, it’s also not entirely true. 

In case this word yama is unfamiliar to you, the yama (यम) and the niyama (नियम) are the moral code of yoga. The yama are the list of moral restraints, the “do-nots”, and the niyama are the moral observances, the “to-do’s.”

The word yama first appears in the Rigveda (ṛgveda, ऋग्वेद), which is the oldest known Vedic Sanskrit text, dating back to 1500 BCE. Aside from The Hunger Games movies, I’ve never seen a chariot in action. But I can imagine the way the driver has to work the reins to direct the horses that pull the chariot. In the Rigveda, the word yama is used to evoke that act of curbing or restraining that a charioteer driver does to control the vehicle.

When someone says there are five yama in yoga, what they really need to clarify to make that statement true is that there are five yama according to Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras (Pātañjalayogaśāstra, पाञ्चजलयोगाशास्त्र)

The Yoga Sutras are taught in nearly every yoga teacher training program; however, most yoga classes today are actually taught with an ethos more closely aligned with a completely different philosophical underpinning.

As you probably know, the goal of yoga is liberation. Even though there is a relatively small Sansrkit vocabulary, this language has many, many words that mean freedom, all of which are referenced in yoga philosophy including nirvana (nirvāṇa, निर्वाण), moksha (mokśa,मोक्ष), apavarga (अपवर्ग), svatantrata (svatantratā, स्वतन्त्रता), svatantrya (svātantrya, स्वातन्त्र्य), mukti (मुक्ति) and more.

The particular word chosen for freedom in the Yoga Sutras - kaivalya (कैवल्य) -  means isolation or detachment. In other words, the practices of yoga listed in Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras - including the yama do-not’s - are designed to help you find freedom by isolating yourself from other people.

Look, I know how tempting it is to retreat into ourselves and our own little worlds, especially in times like these when the outside world is full of power-grabbing abuses and complete disregard for order and cooperation. Who wouldn't want to heed the advice of the isolationist philosophy of the Yoga Sutras and focus on our own sphere, particularly when we feel so disempowered and fearful?

And of course no one really disagrees with any of Patanajli’s list of do-nots. Obviously we want to abide by his rules:

Do not harm. (Ahimsā, अहिंसा)

Do not lie. (Satya, सत्य)

Do not steal. (Asteya, अस्तेय)

Do not use your energy frivolously. (Brahmacharya, ब्रह्मचर्य)

Do not be greedy. (Aparigraha, अपरिग्रह)

Now imagine how much easier it would be to abide by these rules if you didn’t have to kill a mosquito in your house, tell your annoying relative that you’ll be in town, buy too many Q-tips at Costco because that price was so good, or fight for a parking spot in downtown DC.

While the isolationism supported by the philosophy of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras may sound compelling, we are not renunciates. We do in fact have bills to pay and relationships with people and things to navigate as modern householders.

Our ethical code needs more nuance than just the five do-not’s that Patanjali offers us.

Fascinatingly, other texts that predate the Yoga Sutras by hundreds of years, offer us a more comprehensive list of qualities to cultivate in order to live an ethical life. 

One such text is the Shandilya Upanishad (Śāṇḍilyopaniṣad, शाण्डिल्यउपनिषद्), dated to 100 CE. The Shandilya Upanishad is classified as one of the twenty so-called minor Yoga Upanishads, predating Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras by as much as 300 years.

One of the yama that the Shandilya Upanishad includes but Patanjali excludes is:

Do not be a hypocrite. (ārjava, आर्जव)

K. Narayanasvami Aiyar’s translation and commentary of the Shandilya Upanishad says: “Arjava is the preserving of equanimity of mind, speech, or body in the performance or non-performance of actions.” 

It’s not until much later in yoga writings that we get a good explanation as to why non-hypocracy leads us to equanimity and why it is a moral edict for modern day life. This text is called the Ashtavakra Gita (Aṣṭāvakragītā, अष्टावक्रगीता.) 

In English we would say The Song of Ashtavakra. Perhaps you have heard of or practiced the pose called Ashtavakrasana?

For the record, I do not think we need to practice this pose on the regular.

This “Eight-angle Pose” is named after a man named Ashtavakra who was a highly esteemed Vedic sage, born with a physical disability that shaped his profound understanding of the human form and the soul. Ashtavakra’s story appears in many important Indian literary works including the Ramayana (Rāmāyaṇam, रामायणम्), the Mahabharata (Mahābhāratam, महाभारतम्), and the Puranas (Purāṇas, पुराण).

The Song of Ashtavakra is a conversation between Ashtavakra and King Janaka that helps to explain the non-dualist philosophy of the Advaita Vedanta (Advaita Vedānta, अद्वैत वेदान्त) tradition.

Unlike Patanajli’s Yoga Sutras that are teaching us how to find the end of our own individual suffering, the philosophy of Advaita Vedanta encourages us to consider that unless all of us are at peace, none of us are.

It isn’t possible to end suffering when our own personal suffering ends. Instead, our work toward freedom is in trying to see ourselves in each other, all beings as inseparable and interconnected and part of one force of divine essential goodness. Or as Ashtravak says to inspire us: “Truly I do not even see dualism in a crowd of people.”

The Advaita Vedanta tradition - especially as presented in the Ashtavaka Gita - does not espouse a step-by-step moral code the way the Samkhya philosophy of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras does. 

And yet the Ashtavaka Gita and the Shandilya Upanishad’s assertions about the value of arjava feel essential. Committing to be sincere with ourselves and each other, acting with integrity, aligning our actions with our words… Imagine a world where we say what we want to say honestly, with self-awareness, compassion and kindness because we can see ourselves in each other.

The Ashtavaka Gita tells us:

“When the sage has realised that he himself is in all beings, and all beings are in him, it is astonishing that the sense of individuality [and the ensuing suffering it causes] should be able to continue.” 3.4

So yeah, Patanjali. I think you missed one.