disturbances to the mind. For example, untruthfulness often perpetuates
complications engendering distress in self and others. This distress might
have manifestations in the form of physical health-problems, as well as
generating obstructive karmic consequences. Another reason for truth-
fulness is to encourage the optimum functioning of buddhi, the faculty of
discriminative awareness. Buddhiallows one to see beyond illusions, and
its cultivation requires truthfulness in word, thought, and deed. Truthful-
ness is a form of ethical integrity, and this means in yogic terms the inte-
gration of one’s knowledge, values, and action. The practice of truthful-
ness at the mundane level is requisite for grasping truth at the ultimate
level, the truth of puruÓsaas the ultimate real.
Asteya, non-stealing, refers to any kind of misappropriation, whether
of goods, money, or undeserved praise or privilege. Mah ̄atma Gandhi
considered any possession of goods beyond those needed for the basic
maintenance of life to be a form of theft, as long as there are persons
whose basic needs remain unmet.^34 Gandhi’s thinking informs the idea of
the healthy communities:a community’s well-being depends in part on
each citizen’s having access to adequate resources for a wholesome life.
The Yoga-s ̄utras’ commentators emphasize that not just theft, but
any inclination toward misappropriation must be overcome: “Inasmuch
as the functioning of speech and body depend upon the mind, the mental
modification is mentioned here as the principle factor” [TV 2.30]. Non-
stealing requires development of one’s awareness of the subtler forms of
misappropriation that may arise in the process of eradicating cruder
forms of dishonesty. Consonant with Yoga’s prescription for cultivation
of consciousness as the means of liberation, truthfulness and non-stealing
demonstrate the function of religious therapeutics to perpetuate one’s
spiritual evolution through purificatory efforts carried out on the stage of
the body, but with the aim of purifying the consciousness.
Brahmacarya, the fourth yama, is restraint of sensual and especially
of sexual enjoyment. Again, this means not merely abstinence from sen-
sual activities and emotions, but eradication of attachment to them, be-
cause craving various forms of sensual enjoyment disturbs the mind and
causes suffering. The Yoga-s ̄utraslist benefits of each of the yamas, and
the benefit offered for sexual continence is v ̄ırya:‘vigor’ or heroic life-
energy [YS 2.38]. The practitioner sublimates the body for the sake of
greater spiritual power: vital energy ordinarily discharged in sexual activ-
ity may be rechanneled within a spiritual current. The capability of teach-
ing Yoga to others requires attainment of the power consequent on brah-
macarya[YBh 2.38].
108 religious therapeutics