Internet Explorer users should note that, because Internet Explorer is not fully CSS2 compliant (despite Microsoft's claims), you will be unable to view this site as it is intended. I have made every effort to make this site useable by IE but if you should fine any problems with it, please email me.
Asteya, non-stealing, is the third of the yamas identified by Patañjali in his Yoga Sutras:
2.29 The eight limbs of Union are self-restraint in actions, fixed observance, posture, regulation of energy, mind-control in sense engagements, concentration, meditation, and realization.
2.30 Self-restraint in actions includes abstention from violence, from falsehoods, from stealing, from sexual engagements, and from acceptance of gifts.
2.31 These five willing abstentions are not limited by rank, place, time or circumstance and constitute the Great Vow.Yoga Sutras of Patañjali, 2:29-31
Patañjali touches on each of the yamas and says this of asteya:
2.37 All jewels approach him who is confirmed in honesty.
Yoga Sutras of Patañjali, 2:37
Like the other yamas, asteya appears at first glance to be quite straight forward: If it's not yours, don't take it. As with the seemingly simple svasana where one simply lies prone with arms and legs outstretched and relaxes, there is much more to asteya than first meets the eye. The obvious beginning point is, of course, do not take something which belongs to another but this admonition does not apply only to physical things but to intangibles as well. What of the coworker who claims another's efforts as his own? What of the visiting friend who, on learning of her host's troubles, feels the need to overshadow her host's troubles with those of her own? Haven't both actually stolen something, be it credit or even their own sympathy, which rightly belongs to another? Asteya encourages a yogi to observe others and see that one's own actions do not steal from, do not diminish, the life of another.
How easy it is to improve our own standing by demeaning those around us. Some aspects of society seem to encourage or even reward such thieving behavior; there can be only one survivor, right? Yet Patañjali indicates that All jewels approach him who is confirmed in honesty.
Is it possible that giving credit where credit is due, by actively not stealing such intangibles but by actively making the worth of others known, that we will actually receive more, all jewels
, than we would otherwise?
Namasté