Foundations · Reading
Raja Yog
The royal path: Patanjali's eight-limbed Yog of the mind.
Awaiting subject reviewWritten from our source material and not yet checked by a teacher of this practice. Read it as reference, and learn the practice from someone who teaches it.
Philosophy
Raja means royal. Raja Yog is the name the later tradition gave to the system set out in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, a path that works directly on the mind.
Its structure is the eight limbs: yama and niyama, the ethical ground; asana and pranayama, the body and breath; pratyahara, the turning inward of the senses; and dharana, dhyana and samadhi, the deepening stages of meditation. The Ashtanga Vinyasa practice takes its name from these eight limbs.
Further reading
- Yoga Sutras 2.29
Ideas behind it
Sources and tradition
- YOG Union App Content Map, 2 November 2026, pp. 2–3
- Patanjali, Yoga Sutras, 2.29