Patañjali’s Yoga Sutra

Moreover, they held that an absolute prerequisite for liberation is a strict adherence to originally four, and later five, moral strictures. These are the Mahāvrata-s, or a commitment to 1. abstaining from harm, 2. truthfulness, 3. abstinence from theft, 4. sexual restraint, and 5. unacquisitiveness (Ācārāṅga Sūtra II.15.i.1–v.1).17 Failure to live according to these rules resulted in karma (that is, actions) accruing to the soul like dirt or physical matter that kept the soul in bondage.