The Correlation of Inner and Outer Yoga — Bahiranga and Antaranga
Patanjali distinguishes the outer (Bahiranga) limbs — Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara — from the inner (Antaranga) limbs — Dharana, Dhyana, Samadhi — recognizing them as distinct in kind but inseparably interdependent.
Sutra 3.7-3.8 distinguishes the eight limbs into inner and outer groups. The first five limbs (Yama through Pratyahara) are described as Bahiranga (outer) Yoga — the preparation of the instrument. The last three (Dharana, Dhyana, Samadhi) are Antaranga (inner) Yoga — the operation of the instrument at its most refined. But sutra 3.8 immediately qualifies this: 'Tad api bahir angam nirbijasya' — even these (Dharana, Dhyana, Samadhi) are outer limbs compared to Nirbija (seedless) Samadhi. The hierarchy has three levels: the first five limbs prepare the ground; the next three limbs cultivate the meditative dimension; and Nirbija Samadhi transcends even the meditative dimension to rest in pure consciousness. This three-level architecture is the key to understanding why the Yoga Sutras requires all three: preparation without depth is incomplete, depth without liberation is incomplete, and liberation without preparation is unstable.
These three together (Dharana, Dhyana, Samadhi) are inner yoga compared to the previous five; but even they are outer compared to seedless samadhi.
Philosopher Michael Polanyi's distinction between subsidiary and focal awareness provides a framework for Patanjali's inner-outer distinction: in Dharana, the body and breath are subsidiary supports for focal attention; in Samadhi, even the object of meditation becomes subsidiary to the pure focal awareness of consciousness itself.
Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
Written about in
- What the Yoga Sutras say about breath and pranayama
Breath work is grouped with the outer limbs, the preparation of the instrument, while concentration, meditation and absorption are called inner. Even those, the text then says, are outer compared with what lies past them.