Knowra Raja yoga Raja yoga Raja yoga is a yoga tradition centered on meditation, mental discipline, and progressive stages of contemplative absorption. In modern usage, it is often associated with the eight-limbed system described in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali : A Sanskrit aphoristic work on yoga, traditionally attributed to Patanjali and organized into four chapters. The text most closely associated with Raja yoga’s systematic account of mental discipline.
Dharana : The focused fixing of attention on a chosen object or point. Raja yoga treats sustained concentration as the immediate preparation for meditation.
Patanjali : The name traditionally associated with the authorship or compilation of the Yoga Sutras. The text attributed to Patanjali supplies Raja yoga’s best-known classical framework.
Kriya yoga : A yoga discipline of practical methods; the Yoga Sutras also use the term for austerity, self-study, and devotion. The term overlaps with Raja yoga in classical sources but names distinct modern practice traditions.
Ashtanga : The eight-limbed path outlined in the Yoga Sutras, progressing from ethical restraints to meditative absorption. Its eight stages provide the framework most commonly used to explain Raja yoga.
Dhyana : An uninterrupted flow of attention toward an object of meditation. It names the meditative continuity that follows concentration in the eight-limbed sequence.
Classical Yoga : A philosophical tradition systematized in the Yoga Sutras, emphasizing disciplined practice and the distinction between awareness and nature. Raja yoga is commonly presented as the practical path of this philosophical system.
Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga : A modern postural yoga system linking breath with a sequence of poses, associated with K. Pattabhi Jois. Its name shares the eight-limbed ideal, but its defining practice is a dynamic posture sequence.
Yama : Ethical restraints in yoga, including nonviolence, truthfulness, and non-possessiveness. These restraints establish the conduct that Raja yoga places before formal meditation.
Samadhi : A state of deep contemplative absorption in which ordinary subject-object awareness is transformed. Raja yoga presents absorption as the culmination of its meditative stages.
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