History and origin
Raja yoga is the royal path of Patanjali's Yoga Sutra: eight limbs from ethics to settled attention. The limbs are restraint, observance, posture, breath, a drawing-in of the senses, concentration, meditation, and the absorption the text calls samadhi. Asana is only one limb. The aim, as the sutra states it, is a mind that can stay.
The Sanskrit word for eight limbs is also the name of a strong counted series taught in Mysore in the twentieth century, from Krishnamacharya's teaching as codified by K. Pattabhi Jois. That series is another class. Raja yoga here is the sutra's map, not the primary series. Later teachers, Vivekananda among them, presented Patanjali under this name. The text is older than that presentation.
Philosophy
Restraint, practice and a kind of non-grasping make the mind usable. The first limbs concern conduct: how one treats other people, and how one keeps one's own affairs in order. Breath and concentration are tools, not performances. Stillness is the fruit of that work, not a mood you chase. The sutra is terse. A class that follows it will not turn every line into a belief you must recite.
How a class proceeds
A class moves from simple posture into longer sitting and breath. You may stand or sit in a steady shape, then stay with the feeling of the breath, then sit in silence. You will be asked to notice distraction without a fight. Instruction is slow, and there is time when nobody is talking.
You will not be led through a long invented sequence. Strong binds are not the point, and the breath is not forced into long retentions. If a teacher counts the breath, it stays comfortable enough to repeat. Intensity is mental more than athletic. You finish lying down, the limbs heavy, without sleep as the goal.
Intensity
The load is moderate, and it sits more in staying than in strength. A long seat, a plain standing pose and an unhurried breath ask for patience. The muscles are not the test. Concentration can tire you in another way. If you are new to sitting, use a support and shorten the sit rather than endure pain in the knees. This is not a soft hour of props and rest, and it is not a power class.
Benefits
People who practise in this way often find it easier to notice when the mind has left and when it has come back. The ethical limbs, if they are actually used, make some daily choices less muddy. A steady seat and an even breath are practical skills in any other form that asks you to stay. The sutra describes further limbs. This page does not promise them, and it does not grade an inner life.
Who it suits
People who want a map of meditation, not only shapes. It suits those who can take ethics and attention as one work, and who will sit after the body has already done enough.
Hard if you dislike sitting still. It is also a poor fit if you want music, a flowing sequence, or a teacher who invents a new class every week. Pain in the knees or the back needs a chair and a teacher who will change the seat. The map is not medical care, and it is not a treatment for a troubled mind.
Beside similar forms
Raja yoga is Patanjali's eight-limbed yoga. The studio method called Ashtanga is a set series counted with the breath, drawn from Krishnamacharya and codified in Mysore by K. Pattabhi Jois. The names meet. The hours do not. Hatha, in the medieval manuals, is the physical work of posture and breath, and those manuals often present it as a ladder toward a quieter mind. Jnana inquires by reading and discrimination. Kriya, in the line of Lahiri Mahasaya, is a precise breath given in person. It is not written out here, and it is not this map.
Best positions
Meditation seat
Sit upright on a cushion or a chair, eyes soft, jaw loose, and keep the breath ordinary. Let the hands rest so they do not become a task. The seat is the posture Patanjali's limb of asana is mainly for: steady enough, and comfortable enough, that attention can remain. If comfort goes, change the height before you change your ambition.
Breath watch
Stay with the feeling of breath at the nostrils for a few minutes. Do not lengthen it yet, and do not hold it. When the mind leaves, note that it left, and come back to the next exhale. The watching is concentration in its plain form. It trains a return, not a special sensation.
Settled corpse
End lying on the back, legs released, arms away from the ribs, eyes covered if the light bothers you. Let the limbs be heavy without sleep as the goal. Do not review the sit for a score. The pose gives the body a clear finish after stillness, and it keeps rest from being confused with collapsing in a chair.
Easy standing
Stand with the feet together or hip-width, knees soft, arms hanging. Feel the weight in both heels and both forefeet. Stay for several breaths without adjusting your clothes or your hair. The pose is a small asana before the seat: it wakes the legs and shows you whether the mind can be still while the body is upright.
Supported seat
Sit on a folded blanket or a chair so the hips are at least as high as the knees. Lean the back lightly on a wall if it trembles, without hanging on it. The support is part of the practice of comfort that the sutra asks of posture. A steadier seat makes the breath watch possible. Pride in sitting low is not a limb.
Sense rest
Sit and soften the gaze, or close the eyes, and let sounds in the room be heard without going after them. Do not plug the ears and do not hunt for silence. For a few minutes, notice a sound and leave it. This is a modest form of drawing the senses back. It reduces the tug of the room so concentration has less to argue with.
Quiet hands
Rest the hands in the lap, one palm in the other, thumbs lightly touching if that is easy, or simply apart if it is not. Do not squeeze. The gesture gives the fingers a place so they stop searching for a pen, a bead or a phone. Fewer errands in the hands make the breath easier to stay with.