Ashtanga Yoga means Yoga of the Eight Limbs. Those 8 limbs are Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi and they contain instruction on how to treat others, how to treat ourselves, how to control the body and the breath and how to control the senses and attention for meditation and a state of total equilibrium.