The fifth and final yama in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras: non-greed or non-acquisitiveness, the restraint of taking or holding more than one's genuine need, distinguished by commentary from the Jain mahavrata of total non-possession by degree rather than kind.
Facts
Disputed
Origin PeriodDated by scholars anywhere from the second century BCE, on older assumptions of a single ancient author, to as late as the fourth or fifth century CE, on newer philological readings that treat the text as a later compilation. There is no scholarly consensus on a single date for the Yoga Sutras. 1 Attributed Author / CompilerTraditionally attributed to Patanjali, the compiler of the Yoga Sutras. Scholarship debates whether this is the same Patanjali credited with the Sanskrit grammatical treatise of that name, and whether the text as it stands is the work of a single author or an edited compilation of older material. 1 Status
Status Within the TraditionStandard teaching, not formally defined 1 Doctrinal Status DetailThe fifth and last of Patanjali's five yamas, ahimsa, satya, asteya, brahmacharya and aparigraha, named as a set at Yoga Sutra 2.30. Yoga Sutra 2.31 further names them a mahavrata, a great vow, when held universally, unconditioned by birth, place, time or circumstance, the same term Jain ethics uses for its own parallel five vows, without either scheme deriving from the other. 1 Origins
Place of OriginIndia; nothing internal to the Yoga Sutras or its early commentarial tradition fixes a specific region of composition within the subcontinent. 1 Origin of the NameSanskrit aparigraha, from a-, not, and parigraha, grasping or accumulation. 2 Attestation
Meaning in the Attesting SourceThe fifth and final yama: non-greed or non-acquisitiveness, the restraint of taking or holding more than one's genuine need. 1 Connections
Belongs to Tradition
Source The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: A New Edition, Translation, and CommentaryEdwin F. Bryant
In Language
Opposes
Originates in Language
Source Encyclopedia of HinduismDenise Cush, Catherine Robinson and Michael York (eds.)
Related To
Renunciation of sensual attachment overlaps closely with the Yoga yama of non-greed.
Source Visuddhimagga (The Path of Purification)Buddhaghosa
Same As
Hindu-tagged Yama virtue completing the same-as link its Jain-tagged twin already carries.
Sources
1. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali: A New Edition, Translation, and Commentary
Edwin F. Bryant, North Point Press, 2009Yoga Sutras 2.30 and commentary on aparigraha
2. Encyclopedia of Hinduism
Denise Cush, Catherine Robinson and Michael York (eds.), Routledge, 2008- the aparigraha entry
- Originates in Language: Sanskrit, Stored language property on this entity, cited to this source: sanskrit
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