Asteya

That's a funny word, you might think. What does it have to do with yoga?

Asteya is one of the five Yamas of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. It refers to not stealing. We might be more familiar with some of the others that feel more straightforward, like Satya (honesty) or Ahimsa (non-harming.) It sometimes feels like Asteya is so straightforward that it's not worth putting much effort into understanding it, but as usual there are nuances that are worth exploring.

Non-stealing is about far more than just not taking physical objects that don't belong to you. Of course that's not cool either, but let's start there and expand on the ideas. A physical object represents a person's certain investment of energy. You must work to earn money, which you use to purchase an object. So that object represents a time, education, and energy investment you've made. Some of those objects are intended to be fleeting and consumable, but others are enduring. We make all kinds of choices on the way to purchasing something. Is it worth our time? Is it worth sacrificing for to get? Or maybe it's the impulse of a moment. Whatever those choices are, the object is the manifestation of it.

It's worth noting that the value of an object is not only about its dollar value. An inexpensive trinket from the dollar store might not cost much in money, but if that trinket was given to you by someone special, it represents not just the dollar amount spent on it, but the energetic exchange of the relationship you have with the person who gave it to you. So it can have a much higher energetic value than dollar value.

This brings me to the idea of non-stealing in the context of time and energy. You might be familiar with the idea of an energy vampire, that kind of person that sucks energy from you in one way or another. They might take up lots of your time when you're not particularly happy to give it, or demand your energy in the form of planning or effort that you aren't perfectly willing to give. This includes things like when people take up so much physical space that you must change how you walk in the world in response. If, in a studio or group setting, someone is doing physical poses which make you feel like they are or might be encroaching on you, that is stealing from you because it takes more of your energy to make sure you don't get fallen on, for example.

It's important to note that there are plenty of times when you're giving your energy in a lopsided way. That's not automatically a situation where Asteya comes into play. The difference is your willingness to give energy versus having it taken from you. Giving our energy freely, whether it's in the form of time, effort, or physical objects, is very different from having to give those things unwillingly.

With all of these things in mind, we can see how Asteya fits in to the structure of yoga as a moral philosophy. If a person is taking energy that isn't freely given, they are an obstacle to the ultimate goals of the practice. So take some time to see how Asteya works in your life, and see if you are consuming energy in a balanced way, or if others are overconsuming your energy. Then you can begin to bring more balance to your life.

A masked burglar holding a tray of hamburgers