राजयोगrāja-yoga · the royal yoga
Rāja yoga, the royal path of the mind
3 min read · Updated October 17, 2026 · sources checked October 17, 2026
In short
Raja yoga, the royal yoga, is the path that works directly on the mind through concentration and meditation. In the Hatha Yoga Pradipika it names the goal, samādhi, which hatha yoga prepares. Since Swami Vivekananda's Raja Yoga (1896) the word usually means Patañjali's eight-limbed path of the Yoga Sutras.
Rāja means king. Rāja yoga is the "king of yogas", the path that goes straight to the mind, where the other paths arrive in the end. It does not ask you to be flexible or devotional by temperament. It asks you to sit, to look at your own mind, and to come back, day after day.
Where the word comes from
The name has had several lives, and knowing them clears up a lot of confusion.
| Period | What "rāja yoga" means | Source |
|---|---|---|
| 12th century | the highest yoga, a state beyond the mind | Amanaska, a Śaiva text, the first to define the term (Birch 2013) |
| 15th century | the goal of hatha yoga: samādhi | Haṭhapradīpikā 1.1-1.2, 4.3-4.4 |
| 16th century onward | a name for Patañjali's yoga | commentaries on the Yoga Sutras |
| 1896 | Patañjali's eight limbs, presented to the West | Swami Vivekananda, Raja Yoga, New York |
Patañjali himself never uses the word rāja yoga. He calls his path simply yoga, and its method aṣṭāṅga, the eight limbs.
Rāja yoga in the Hatha Yoga Pradipika
The fifteenth-century manual of hatha yoga opens by placing itself below rāja yoga, as a staircase below a summit:
प्रणम्य श्रीगुरुं नाथं स्वात्मारामेण योगिना । केवलं राजयोगाय हठविद्योपदिश्यते ॥
praṇamya śrī-guruṃ nāthaṃ svātmārāmeṇa yoginā | kevalaṃ rāja-yogāya haṭha-vidyopadiśyate ||
Bowing to the venerable guru, the Lord, the yogi Svātmārāma teaches the science of hatha only for the sake of rāja yoga.
In its fourth chapter it gives rāja yoga a list of synonyms, which shows what the word meant to its author: a state, not a technique.
राजयोगः समाधिश्च उन्मनी च मनोन्मनी । अमरत्वं लयस्तत्त्वं शून्याशून्यं परं पदम् ॥
rāja-yogaḥ samādhiś ca unmanī ca manonmanī | amaratvaṃ layas tattvaṃ śūnyāśūnyaṃ paraṃ padam ||
Rāja yoga, samādhi, unmanī and manonmanī, immortality, dissolution, the real, the void that is not void, the highest state…
The next verse completes the list (amanaska, non-duality, the unsupported, the stainless, liberation in life, the natural state, the fourth) and ends: "these words all mean the same" (4.4). The text is equally firm in the other direction. Hatha yoga without rāja yoga is wasted effort: "those who practise only hatha, not knowing rāja yoga, I consider practitioners deprived of the fruit of their labour" (4.79). And the rule of 2.76: no success in rāja yoga without hatha, and none in hatha without rāja. Read more on hatha yoga.
Rāja yoga as Patañjali's path
From the sixteenth century, and decisively with Vivekananda in 1896, rāja yoga came to mean the method of the Yoga Sutras. It is this sense that most teachers use today. Its definition is the second sutra:
योगश्चित्तवृत्तिनिरोधः ॥
yogaś citta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ ||
Yoga is the stilling of the movements of the mind.
Patañjali gives two means for this stilling, "practice and detachment" (abhyāsa-vairāgyābhyāṃ tan-nirodhaḥ, 1.12), and then the eight limbs, from ethics to absorption. The full text, word by word, is in the Yoga Sutras.
What a rāja yoga practice looks like today
There is no single "rāja yoga class". A daily sitting built on the eight limbs can look like this, and takes about half an hour:
| Time | Practice | Limb |
|---|---|---|
| 5 min | sitting still, spine upright, eyes closed | āsana |
| 5 min | slow nasal breathing, then alternate nostril breathing without retention | prāṇāyāma |
| 3 min | listening to sounds without following them | pratyāhāra |
| 10-20 min | attention on one object: the breath, Om, a mantra, the space between the eyebrows | dhāraṇā, dhyāna |
| 5 min | reading and reflecting on a sutra | svādhyāya (niyama) |
During the day, the practice continues as the yamas and niyamas: watching speech, contentment, non-harming. See yamas and niyamas.
Good to know
Rāja yoga is measured in regularity, not in duration. Fifteen minutes at the same time every day does more than an hour once a week. Patañjali says practice becomes firm when it is kept up "for a long time, without interruption and with care" (1.14).
Who it suits
- People drawn to meditation and to understanding how the mind works.
- People who cannot practise demanding postures: rāja yoga needs only a stable seat, on the floor or on a chair.
- Practitioners of other paths: the Bhagavad Gita gives its whole sixth chapter to meditation (dhyāna), with the seat, the gaze and the steady mind "like a lamp sheltered from the wind" (6.19).
How to begin, step by step
- Choose a fixed time and place. Early morning is the traditional choice.
- Sit on a cushion, a folded blanket or a chair, spine upright, hands resting.
- Breathe naturally through the nose for a few minutes and let the body become still.
- Choose one object of attention and keep it for weeks: the breath at the nostrils, or Om repeated silently.
- When the mind wanders, notice it and come back, without blame. This return is the practice.
- End with one sutra read slowly. Start with how to meditate for details, and dhāraṇā, dhyāna and samādhi for the stages.
To compare rāja yoga with the other paths, see the paths of yoga.
Questions people ask
What is the difference between raja yoga and hatha yoga?
Hatha yoga works through posture, breath, seals and locks; raja yoga is the stilled mind they lead to. The Hatha Yoga Pradipika says neither succeeds without the other (2.76).
Is raja yoga the same as the Yoga Sutras?
Today, mostly yes: since Vivekananda, raja yoga usually means Patañjali's eight limbs. In medieval texts the word first meant the goal, samādhi, and only later became a name for Patañjali's system.
Who should practise raja yoga?
Anyone drawn to meditation and the study of the mind. It asks for regularity more than flexibility: a steady seat, an ethical life and a daily sitting.
Is Raja Yoga the same as the Brahma Kumaris' Raja Yoga?
No. The Brahma Kumaris, a twentieth-century movement, teach their own meditation under that name. Jason Birch notes that such modern systems have little to do with Patañjali's eight limbs or with the raja yoga of the hatha texts.
Sources
- Haṭhayogapradīpikā of Svātmārāma, Sanskrit text (GRETIL, University of Göttingen) checked October 17, 2026
- Patañjali, Yogasūtra, Sanskrit text (GRETIL, University of Göttingen) checked October 17, 2026
- Birch J. Rājayoga: The Reincarnations of the King of All Yogas. International Journal of Hindu Studies 17(3), 2013 DOI 10.1007/s11407-014-9146-x checked October 17, 2026
- The Hatha Yoga Pradipika, translated by Pancham Sinh (Allahabad, Panini Office, 1914), Internet Archive checked October 17, 2026