The five rules of yama, or control, are proscriptive. When a man can remove physical and mental inharmony from his system, he will not have to work to become harmonious. He is Spirit; all that shows him to be otherwise is merely a veil of delusion that has been cast over the eternal perfection of his true nature. Gold may be buried under mud, but if we clear away the mud we shall not have to work on the gold to make it more golden. The rules of yama, then, are:

Ahimsa is a term that was popularized in our times by Mahatma Gandhi. By non-violent resistance he led India to political emancipation from Britain. In the practice of yoga, it is important to understand that the life flowing in our veins is the same life which flows in the veins of all creatures. All of us are expressions of God, in the same way (to use a favorite illustration of my guru’s) that the individual jets on a gas burner, though appearing separate from one another, are only manifestations of the unifying gas underneath. If I hurt you, I am in a real sense hurting myself.

The goal of yoga is to realize the oneness of all life. If I am willing to hurt the life in me as it is expressed in another human being, then I am affirming an error that is diametrically opposed to the realization which I am seeking to attain. It is necessary, if I would truly realize the oneness of all things, for me to live also in such a way as constantly to affirm this oneness—by my kindness towards all beings, by compassion, by universal love.

The principle of ahimsa must be understood in subtle ways, not only in gross. If you harm anyone in the slightest way—if, for example, you kill his enthusiasm (which is in a sense the life within him), or if you deride him, or if you treat him with disrespect—in all of these ways you will be harming him, and also, by reflection, yourself. Patanjali gives us a test by which we can tell if we have developed our practice of ahimsa to perfection. He says that once this has been accomplished, even wild animals and ferocious criminals will become tame and harmless in our presence.

Non-lying Truthfulness is the necessary attitude for us if we would overcome our own false notions about life. Our path to God is entirely a matter of ridding ourselves of our delusions. The scientist who probes deeply into the nature of things, refusing to permit any personal bias to influence his investigations, is, to a degree, practicing truthfulness. The person who examines without prejudice his own likes and dislikes is practicing truthfulness also, and in a more vital form because a deep probe into the nature of reality demands above all that man’s own vision be made crystal clear.

To be truthful, then, does not necessarily mean to be literally factual. It might be well to tell a dull fellow that he is bright, if in the telling we try also to penetrate his mind with an affirmation of his inner potential for intelligence. Truth is always beneficial. To make harmful statements, even if they are based on obvious, but superficial and temporary, facts, is in the deepest spiritual sense untruthful.

Truthfulness means to look always for the Divine Light that shines in the midst of universal darkness, to see God in everything and everyone, to affirm goodness even in the face of evil, and yet always to do so from a center of absolute honesty, never of mere wishful thinking.

Patanjali gave us a test by which we might tell whether we have achieved perfection in this virtue. He said that a person in whom this principle of truthfulness becomes firmly established will develop the power to attain the fruits of action without even acting. His mere thought, his mere word will be binding on the universe.

In the practice of hatha yoga, while practicing the stretching poses, for example, concentrate on the tension that prevents you from stretching further; be complete in your recognition of it. You will notice that once you have really "faced" this obstruction, accepting it for what it is, you will be able to release it as you could never do if you tried merely to ignore it. In all of the yoga postures, an attitude of strict truthfulness, which is to say, simply, awareness, is a necessary prerequisite to final mastery.

Non-stealing means more than simply not taking another person’s property. It means also not coveting his property. It means not desiring anything that is not yours by right. It means actually not even to desire that which is yours by right, in the realization that whatever is rightfully yours will surely come to you anyway, but that your happiness is not conditioned by whether you get it or not. Desire only keeps one looking to the future for his fulfillment, instead of realizing that perfection is his already. You need only to realize more and more deeply your already-existing oneness with all life. Why feel that you need anything in the universe, when in truth you are the universe! Covetousness is like a rope that ties the balloon of consciousness to the ground, preventing it from soaring into the free skies of spiritual bliss.

As a test of one’s progress in the development of this virtue, Patanjali says that when non-stealing becomes firmly rooted in one’s consciousness one will find wealth coming to him whenever he needs it.

In the practice of the yoga postures, too, try entertaining the awareness that all the energy of the universe is yours already to command. Open yourself mentally to its inflow, and direct it through your body by the direct exercise of your will. Radiate it also outward, in harmony and blessing to all men, for it is not enough merely to cease taking from the ocean of life; if the proscriptive rules of yama are practiced perfectly, they will release energy in a positive way.

Brahmacharya, or non-sensuality, is based on a little-known fact: Although man’s inner peace is disrupted by physical and emotional tension, he cannot find inner harmony by merely releasing that tension outwardly in sense indulgence.

Every outward direction of energy constitutes, in a sense, an expenditure. As in business ventures, however, there are certain expenditures which are necessary if one would increase his inner wealth. Activities that are undertaken in a spirit of joyous service have the effect of putting one in tune with the infinite source of all power. The more consciously one acts as a channel for divine energy, the more he finds his inner powers actually increasing. If one expends his energy after uplifting it, his activities bring him more, not less, peace, freedom, and joy. It is the outward expenditure of downward-directed energy that results in mere dissipation, for it entails no corresponding inflow of cosmic energy.

An expenditure of downward-directed energy results from any sense indulgence where there is a wish merely for release of inner pressures; where the thought of self-indulgence, not of self-giving, predominates; or where the aim is not superconsciousness, but only a form of unconsciousness—if only a lessened consciousness of the inner discomfort produced by desire. All of these entail a downward movement of energy. It must be understood that not all sense pleasures entail sensuality, as defined by Patanjali. God never meant for this world to be shunned by His human children as a thing of evil.

When one can learn how to direct his energy into wholesome channels instead of letting it stagnate in a pool of unfulfilled desire, or instead of wasting it on a field of clay, he finds that, far from there being any harmful effects in this deliberate effort at self-control, the effects are entirely positive: greater joy, a more dynamic power of concentration, greater physical strength. It is no accident that even in the West, where celibacy has been underrated and scorned as contrary to God’s law, many creative geniuses have never married, or have remained celibate for long periods.

Non-greed  perfectly practiced, leads one to become non-attached even to his own body. It is by such perfect non-attachment that the blindness of temporary identifications is overcome, with the result that one can remember his past identifications with other bodies, other places and events.

In your practice of the yoga postures, too, it is important to conquer body attachment. Realize that the body is yours to use, not to pamper. You are the ever-perfect, eternal soul. Learn not to give in to the body’s dictates, nor to assume to yourself its feelings of fatigue. One should never say, "I am tired." The body may be tired, but the body is not the Self. Say, if you must, "My body needs rest," but try gradually to discipline the body as one would a wayward child, until it obeys every command of your will.