Within the sevenfold yoga of the Gheranda Samhita, ethical discipline is presented through a clear articulation of yamas (restraints) and niyamas (observances), which serve as the moral groundwork for all subsequent practice. The text is understood to list five principal yamas: ahimsa (non‑injury), satya (truthfulness), asteya (non‑stealing), brahmacarya (chaste control of the senses), and aparigraha (non‑possessiveness). These are not merely social virtues but inner restraints that refine thought, speech, and action, gradually loosening the hold of violence, deceit, greed, and sensual excess. By cultivating these restraints, the aspirant prepares the mind and character for the more demanding disciplines of posture, breath, and meditation that follow in the sevenfold path.

Alongside these restraints, the Gheranda Samhita is also understood to present ten niyamas, which function as positive observances that shape the aspirant’s inner life. These include sauca (purity), santosa (contentment), tapas (austerity), svadhyaya (study of sacred teaching and self‑reflection), and Isvarapranidhana (devotion or surrender to the divine). Further observances such as dana (charity), Isvarapujana (worship of God), siddhanta‑sravana (listening to established doctrine), hri (modesty or a wholesome sense of shame), and mati (right understanding or spiritual resolve) broaden the ethical field from personal discipline to devotional and intellectual refinement. Together, these niyamas encourage a life that is clean, content, devoted, generous, and guided by sound discernment.

In the overall architecture of the text, these yamas and niyamas are not presented as an end in themselves but as preparatory purifications that make the higher limbs of yoga genuinely fruitful. The sevenfold path of the Gheranda Samhita emphasizes powerful physical and subtle practices—such as asana, mudra, pratyahara, pranayama, dhyana, and samadhi—but it places these upon the foundation of ethical clarity. Without the softening of violence through ahimsa, the stabilizing of desire through aparigraha and brahmacarya, and the deepening of devotion and understanding through Isvarapranidhana, dana, and mati, the more advanced techniques risk becoming hollow. In this way, the text quietly affirms that true yogic attainment rests as much on character and orientation of heart as on technical mastery.