---
type: Concept
bundle: dharmic-ethics
bundle_version: "0.5.0"
id: santosha
title: "Santoṣa — Contentment Independent of Conditions"
iast: "santoṣa"
devanagari: "संतोष"
description: "Active equanimity that does not depend on getting what one wants; the second niyama. Not complacency, not settling, not mere satisfaction, and not the dispassion (vairāgya) of the foundation bundle."
darshana:
  - Yoga Darśana
  - pan-dharmic (sādhāraṇa-dharma)
school_scope: "Second niyama (YS 2.32, 2.42). Distinct from vairāgya (dispassion toward objects, dharma-foundation): santoṣa is the positive equanimity that remains when grasping is released."
text_source: "YS 2.42"
tags:
  - santosha
  - niyama
  - contentment
  - tier-2
not:
  - term: "complacency"
    why: "complacency is a dull self-satisfaction that stops striving; santoṣa is a vivid equanimity that frees effort from anxiety, so one acts fully while unattached to whether the world delivers the wanted result"
    instead: "Render santoṣa as contentment or equanimity independent of conditions; not as complacency."
  - term: "settling (for less)"
    why: "settling is resignation to a lesser outcome out of defeat; santoṣa is not lowering one's aim but releasing the inner dependence on outcomes, a freedom that can coexist with the highest aspiration"
  - term: "satisfaction"
    why: "satisfaction is the pleasant state of having gotten what one wanted, and it ends when the wanting returns; santoṣa is contentment that does not depend on getting, which is why YS 2.42 calls its fruit unsurpassed happiness"
  - term: "dispassion (vairāgya)"
    why: "vairāgya (dharma-foundation) is the turning-away from objects of craving; santoṣa is the positive peace that fills the space dispassion opens, the contentment that remains when the grasping has gone"
related:
  - /concepts/aparigraha.md
  - /concepts/saucha.md
  - /concepts/ishvara-pranidhana.md
  - /concepts/nishkama-karma.md
timestamp: "2026-06-25"
okf_version: "0.2"
license: "CC BY-SA 4.0"
---

# Santoṣa — संतोष

**Not:** complacency, settling (for less), satisfaction, dispassion (vairāgya)

Santoṣa is contentment that does not depend on conditions: an active equanimity that remains steady whether or not one gets what one wants. As the second niyama it is not the dullness of having given up but the freedom of no longer being ruled by the next acquisition.

## Etymology

From *sam-* (fully, completely) + √*tuṣ* (to be pleased, to be satisfied). Santoṣa is "full satisfaction," but the tradition specifies a satisfaction that is complete in itself rather than completed by an external object. The prefix sam- signals wholeness: a contentment that is entire, not the partial relief of a craving met.

## What It Actually Means

YS 2.42 makes the strongest claim of any niyama: from santoṣa comes unsurpassed happiness (santoṣād anuttamaḥ sukha-lābhaḥ). This is not the pleasure of getting; it is the happiness available precisely because one has stopped staking one's peace on getting. Santoṣa is therefore compatible with vigorous, ambitious action: one works wholeheartedly and yet is not destabilized by the result, which connects it directly to niṣkāma-karma. It is the felt interior of non-grasping (aparigraha).

## Why the Substitutes Fail

"Complacency" and "settling" both read santoṣa as a slackening of effort or aim, when it is in fact the steadiness that lets one act without anxiety. "Satisfaction" is conditional and temporary, ending when desire restarts; santoṣa is unconditional, which is the whole point. And vairāgya (in `okf/dharma-foundation/`) is the prior turning-away from craving; santoṣa is the positive peace that occupies the cleared ground.

## Cross-References
- [Aparigraha](aparigraha.md) — santoṣa is the felt fruit of non-grasping
- [Śauca](saucha.md) — a purified, clear mind settles naturally into contentment
- [Īśvara-Praṇidhāna](ishvara-pranidhana.md) — surrender of outcomes and contentment with what comes are one movement
- [Niṣkāma-Karma](nishkama-karma.md) — contentment is what makes desireless action livable, not grim

## Audience Metaphor

Think of two travelers caught in the same delayed flight. One paces, refreshes the app, snaps at the staff, and is miserable for six hours over a thing entirely outside their control. The other, equally inconvenienced, reads, rests, and is fine. Nothing differs in their circumstances; everything differs in where their peace is anchored. Santoṣa is the second traveler, and the lesson is not "lower your standards" but "stop renting your happiness to events." The flight is just as late. Only one of them is free.

## Citations

1. [Yoga Sūtra](/references/yoga-sutra.md) 2.32, 2.42 — santoṣa as the second niyama; unsurpassed happiness as its fruit
2. [Bhagavad Gītā](/references/bhagavad-gita.md) 2.55, 12.13-14 — the sthitaprajña and the devotee content and steady in all conditions
3. [Mahābhārata](/references/mahabharata.md) — contentment praised as a foremost source of happiness in the dharma teachings
