Item 7 in Yamas and Niyamas
Santosha — Contentment
Cultivate contentment without allowing it to become indifference to preventable injustice.
- Position
- 7
- Form
- Virtue to cultivate
- Obligation
- Recommended
- Wording status
- Editorial paraphrase
- Intended audience
- Practitioners of classical Yoga, with later application in wider Hindu and modern yoga traditions
- Last reviewed
- 28 June 2026
Names and terminology
Canonical name: Santosha — Contentment
Original term: Santoṣa
Source wording
Editorial paraphrase: Cultivate contentment without allowing it to become indifference to preventable injustice.
Literal meaning
Cultivate contentment without allowing it to become indifference to preventable injustice.
Broader interpretation
Interpretation depends on the framework's historical purpose, intended audience and relationship to its other principles.
Ethical purpose
To shape conduct or character in a way consistent with the wider ethical framework.
Modern application
Modern application requires attention to consent, rights, evidence, foreseeable harm and changing social conditions.
Criticism and difficult cases
Application can become difficult when this principle conflicts with another duty, when harm is indirect, or when ancient social assumptions do not fit modern conditions.
Truth By Reason analysis
Truth By Reason assesses this principle according to evidence, rights, intentions, foreseeable consequences and consistency with the treatment of all affected beings.
Ethical themes
Sources
- Yoga Sutras of Patanjali Academic / peer reviewed