Swami Sivananda’s 18 Yamas

Swami Sivananda’s 18 Yamas

(excerpts from Development of Satyananda Yoga by Sw. Nirajan)


Swami Sivananda gave certain guidelines, in the form of 18 yamas or disciplines to be followed to overcome the lower, tamasic tendencies in life and to cultivate spiritual awareness. Sage Patanjali prescribed five yamas. There are only related to the mind and applicable for altering the states of the mind. I am referring here to the yamas that are capable of altering the nature of the ego. Do not confuse the two.

Swami Sivananda’s eighteen yamas which we call ‘ites’, are: serenity, regularity, absence of vanity, sincerity, simplicity, veracity, equanimity, fixing, non irritability, adaptability, humility, tenacity, integrity, nobility, magnanimity, charity, generosity, and purity.

You should make the attempt and effort to cultivate these qualities in life. If you are able to grow these wonderful flowers in your life, then the thorns will not bother you. The bush of roses is thorny. When there is no rose on it, only thorns are seen, but when the rose opens up, nobody looks at the thorns; everyone looks at the beauty of the rose. The thorn exists, but it is the beauty which empowers the mind. In the same manner, these 18 virtues have to be cultivated.

Swami Sivananda taught the practice of the 18 yamas so that you can strengthen your spiritual life and make it powerful. These yamas help you free yourself from the injuries and insults that you face due to the presence of the ego. He believed that if you incorporate one yama for a period of one month, then in a period of 18 months you will be able to cleanse your personality, get rid of all the dirt and become radiant. This, he said, is the divine life: to free yourself from negative qualities and acquire good, virtuous qualities. 

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