Yama and niyama in everyday life
The eight limbs of yoga begin with yama and niyama. Iyengar discusses them alongside posture and breath. Their position in the sequence shows how daily actions and habits belong to the practice from the beginning.
Yama and our actions
The five yamas are ahimsa, nonviolence, satya, truthfulness, asteya, nonstealing, brahmacharya, traditionally associated with restraint, and aparigraha, nonpossessiveness. Sutra II.31 describes the restraints as a shared foundation across places and circumstances. In conversation, for example, you might look for a way to be accurate while choosing words that cause less harm. Each principle contributes a question to the decision.
Niyama and personal practice
The niyamas are shaucha, cleanliness, santosha, contentment, tapas, discipline, svadhyaya, study and self-study, and Ishvara pranidhana, dedication to Ishvara. The last three also appear in the account of kriya yoga. One way to reflect on contentment is to notice what was already available in a session before deciding what to work on next.
When truthfulness and care meet
Imagine that someone asks you what you thought of a class that left you frustrated. Truthfulness calls for an honest answer. Nonviolence asks you to consider how you express it. A useful response might describe the particular instruction you found confusing and give the other person room to respond. The example shows how two yamas can shape a single choice. You can ask what is accurate, what is relevant, and what kind of harm careless wording could cause.
What we hold on to
Aparigraha turns attention to the impulse to accumulate or hold on. In daily life, it may raise a question about how much equipment or how many resources we feel we need to begin. Someone who already has a stable chair and a quiet place to sit can consider what an additional purchase would actually change. Asteya, the principle of taking nothing that belongs to someone else, raises a separate question about how we treat what others have made or entrusted to us.
How the observances inform each other
Contentment and discipline appear in the same list. Consider someone who sets out to practice regularly and finds that a brief session is what their day allows. Contentment gives them a way to recognize what was possible. Tapas is the effort of showing up and working with care. Svadhyaya adds the question of what they learned about their habits. Looking at all three makes it easier to see how personal observances can inform a decision without being reduced to a checklist.
Where ethics enters the practice
Yama and niyama apply to ordinary matters like speech, possessions, effort, and the ability to recognize enough. They bring the study of yoga into decisions that arise well beyond a session.
Source
B. K. S. Iyengar. Heart of the Yoga Sutras.