Yamas mean self-restraint. These are five in number

1. Ahimsa: Not to cause injury to any living being through thought, words or deeds. In other words, love of the entire creation is Ahimsa.
2. Satya: Satya or truthfulness is saying exactly what one sees with one’s own eyes, hears with one’s own ears and understands through one’s own brain. It means that truthfulness should not only be external, but internal also.
3. Asteya: Not to steal anything and not to be greedy of others’ wealth or possessions.
4. Brahmacharya: To keep one’s sense organs, including the organs of procreation, under control and not to be tempted by the lustful enjoyments through thought, words and deeds.
5. Aparigraha: It means non-covetousness. In Asteya, one gives up stealing but may accept charity. But in Aparigraha, charity is also not accepted. Hoarding of wealth, riches and other materials of enjoyment for selfish ends is Parigraha, while the absence of these is Aparigraha.

Niyamas are also five

1. Shaucha: It implies purity, internal and external. The purity of mind is specially to be emphasised. The body can be kept clean and pure by Sattvic food, six types of yogic purifications etc. Mind’s purity is achieved through giving up of attachment, jealousy and other base ideas, so that man’s thinking becomes pure and clean.
2. Santosha: It means contentment. One should be content with whatever is acquired while doing one’s duty truthfully or whatever is received through the grace of God.
3. Tapa: It means keeping the mind detached and under control and bear pleasure and pain, heat and cold, hunger and thirst with equanimity.
4. Swadhyaya: It is the study of spiritual books to gain real knowledge and spending one’s time in the company of good people and sages and exchanging ideas with them.
5. Ishwarapranidhana: It is the complete surrender of self to God in words, deeds and thought. It implies worship of God, chanting of His name, hearing about Him and thinking of Him as all pervasive, omni-present and omniscient.