not mere well-being of body and mind, the well-being that Yoga seeks in
ultimate liberation requires self-discipline of body and mind, and that
self-discipline contributes to psychophysical health. While Yoga’s goal is
religious Self-realization, health is regarded as instrumental to this path;
therefore, to maintain one’s health is an ethical obligation.
Non-healthful practices (such as smoking or inappropriate diet) vio-
late the principle of ahims ̇ ̄a. Even haste can be a form of violence, for
damage to self and/or others may result from rushing to do things with-
out sufficient time. Thus behaviors inciting stress-related syndromes,
such as heart disease, aggravated by a sense of time pressure, violate the
principle of ahims ̇ a ̄, so they are contrary to the good, as conceived by
Yoga. Physician Larry Dossey notes the modern Western cultural presup-
position that linear time is “running out,” and our lives with it. He ex-
plores the medical implications of human response to time-markers: “the
watch, the alarm clock, the morning coffee, and the hundreds of self-
inflicted expectations that we build into our daily routine.”
Our sense of time is not only a major determinant in our awareness of
pain, it affects our health by influencing the development and course of
specific diseases.Dossey contends that we suffer from “hurry sickness”:
—expressed as heart disease, high blood pressure, or depression of our
immune function, leading to an increased susceptibility to infection and
cancer.^33The metaphysical foundations of Yoga’s soteriology counter the distress-
ing and erroneous views that Self is body, and that one’s existence ceases
at physical death. Yoga’s ethical foundation of non-injury is a compre-
hensive discipline implying freedom from all destructiveness, whether
based in ill-will, or in ignorance alone. In terms of personal health main-
tenance, ahimsÓ ̄a requires adjustment of attitudes and behavior to prevent
direct damage to the body, and avoidance of the mental distress that con-
ditions physical illness.
Satya, truthfulness, the second of the restraints, requires that one nei-
ther express non-truths nor omit truths. The purpose of speech is the com-
munication of knowledge. Speech is to be used for the good of others, not
to injure, so Yoga prohibits speech that is “deceptive, confused, or barren
in knowledge” [YBh 2.30]. As with all yogic ethical principles, along
with preserving others’ well-being, satyaserves the purpose of preventing
classical yoga as a religious therapeutic 107