Raja yoga and Patanjali's eight limbs

Domain XIII · Contemplative & religious disciplines · Patanjali · -200 · India

What it is

"Raja yoga" (royal yoga) is the name Vivekananda gave to the meditative discipline set out in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, a text of about 195 short aphorisms in four chapters (padas) that The Yoga Institute dates to "before 200 BC". The text defines yoga as the stilling of the fluctuations (vrittis)…

Format

• Format and dose. Vivekananda advises practice twice daily, ideally at dawn and dusk and before eating, in a clean, quiet place if one is available, with moderation in diet (neither luxury nor austerity). Neither the primary text nor the sources used here give a number of sessions or weeks; no…
• Monitoring and adaptation: check each session for adverse or challenging experiences, adjust dose and attention style, adapt for trauma.

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Version followed: Patanjali's Yoga Sutras (Sanskrit text with the English rendering by BonGiovanni on sanskritdocuments.org; sutra numbers follow that edition and differ by one in places in other editions), read through Swami Vivekananda's Raja Yoga (Ramakrishna Order and Vedanta Society lineage; first published 1896) and the present-day teaching of The Yoga Institute, Santacruz, Mumbai. Postural (hatha) schools are…
• "Raja yoga" (royal yoga) is the name Vivekananda gave to the meditative discipline set out in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, a text of about 195 short aphorisms in four chapters (padas) that The Yoga Institute dates to "before 200 BC". The text defines yoga as the stilling of the fluctuations (vrittis) of the mind (1.2); when they are stilled, the seer rests in its own nature (1.3), and otherwise it takes on the shape of…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Does it involve fasting, a special diet or 'detox'? Have you discussed this with your doctor?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• idealisation of the therapist as a spiritual authority.
• depression or physical illness reframed only as spiritual failure.
• vairagya read as emotional numbing or withdrawal from relationships.
• a teacher discouraging medical or psychological care; confidentiality breaches.
• secular framing offending a devout client, or religious framing pressuring a secular one.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.