By Paramhans Swami Maheshwarananda

The central idea of yoga is to live happily, and that happiness lies in everybody and everything. Who doesn’t want to be happy? Everybody wants that. However, many people are trying to find happiness outside themselves, in the external world, and in the end they are disappointed.

Yoga means more than doing a headstand or having a good figure. Comprehensive as it is, yoga actually includes those things too. The aim of yoga is discovering inner peace, inner harmony, realizing one’s Self, finding the answer to the question, "Who am I?" We suffer because we don’t know who we really are. Finding out who we really are is the true purpose of yoga. You can achieve many things through good health. The physical body is the most important instrument for the development of a person. Therefore, yoga consists of a number of specific postures of the body which are called asanas. Yoga asanas are psychosomatic exercises, not only gymnastics.

In my opinion, a yoga practitioner should not immediately start with advanced postures. A yoga aspirant should grow gradually, like a plant.

Westerners have one problem. They see a book about yoga full of nice photos showing yoga asanas. They are impressed by the asanas and want to do them themselves. They come to the instructor and ask him or her, "How long will it take before I master all this? How much will it cost? Is there any way of perfecting it sooner?"

It’s all a mistake. Yoga is not a car, a train or an airplane to take you to your destination at once. It is something that develops slowly to last you the rest of your life.

The mountain may look nice, you may want to start climbing it to the top, but you must know how and where to start climbing. You cannot reach the top immediately. Therefore, you need to prepare the body systematically for yoga exercises. With this in mind, I have set up a system, which I have named Yoga in Daily Life.

On Patanjali’s System of Raja Yoga

When you say yoga, it is taken for granted that you have raja yoga in mind. Patanjali, who wrote on yoga philosophy, in his work Yoga Sutras divided yoga into four parts, four systems: bhakti yoga, raja yoga, gyana yoga and karma yoga. But in fact, raja yoga encompasses them all.

Raja yoga has eight stages. It means that consciousness develops in eight successive phases: yama – self-control, niyama - discipline, asana – physical exercises, pranayama – breath exercises, pratyahara – withdrawal of the senses from external objects, dharana - concentration, dhyana - meditation, samadhi – complete Realisation. The first sentence in the Yoga Sutras is:

Atha Yoga Anusasanamatha
"Yoga starts with discipline."

Anusasanam means "with discipline". Without discipline you cannot succeed in yoga. It means that you are careful about what kind of food you should eat, how long you should sleep, how long and how regularly you should practice yoga and how strictly you should follow your path.

The next thing Patanjali points out is:

Yogas Citta Vritti Norodhah

This means that your development in yoga begins from the moment when you are able to control your citta vrittis. Citta means "consciousness". Vrittis are disturbances or movements of your mind, in other words, "thoughts."

Modern life is very hectic and stressful. For example, you want to meditate in the morning, you sit down and close your eyes, but in your thoughts you are in the department store because you’ll have to do shopping that day. Or you practice in the evening and your thoughts drift away, "Oh, that client was so unkind…" That means that you cannot control your thoughts, your mental activity. And so long as you can’t do that, you can’t progress in yoga, not for one step. The first two stages of Patanjali’s eight-stage system are yama and niyama. Each consists of five principles and when you consider all 10, you’ll realize that Patanjali didn’t set up this philosophy only for svamis and yogis who want to live outside of the society, but that the system is meant for all, especially family people.

The first principle of yama is ahimsa, the principle of "non-violence" or non-injury to living beings. Ahimsa was the only weapon of Mahatma Gandhi, one of our greatest leaders. Ahimsa means love. If you feel love, you can’t harm anyone. The second principle of yama is brahmacarya. Brahma means "the Supreme", carya is "motion". Brahmacarya means "being directed towards the Supreme". What it actually means is that the person who thinks about the Supreme, has no time to think about anything else. He directs his energy to supreme things.

The third principle of yama is satya – "love of truth". You should always tell the truth, which is not so easy. You often bring yourself into a situation where you have to lie. And when you lie, you lose your inner peace, power and courage. And you also lose the trust of other people. Therefore, you should always tell the truth, but bear one thing in mind, and that is as my Master used to say, "Do not cut others with the truth like with a knife, but tell the truth with love."

The fourth principle of yama is asteya, "not stealing." It is also very hard not to steal since this stealing includes more than only actions, such as, for example, taking somebody else’s watch. That is only one aspect of stealing. You can steal many things and do it in a number of ways which you are not aware of. Asteya means that you should never take anything that rightfully belongs to another. This means not only material objects, but also the stealing of mental property, to rob someone of an opportunity, hope or joy. The exploitation of nature and destruction of the environment also fall into this category.

We’ve now come to the fifth principle of yama – aparigraha, "not accumulating." We should not accumulate goods, but only acquire and use what we need to live. One who has many possessions, also has many worries. We are born without belongings and when we again depart from this world, we leave all behind. Not-accumulation also means to grant other people their freedom – not to hold onto others. In letting go, we also free ourselves.

Next Patanjali describes the second level – niyama. Niyama also means "to follow something." The aspects of this level are more internal than those of yama.

The first principle of niyama is called sauca, "purity." Not only external purity, but more importantly, inner purity. Our clothing, our body, as well as our thoughts and feelings should be pure. The same holds true for the people we associate with. For our spiritual development it is of great benefit to keep good company of people who impart a good influence upon us, who are spiritual and support us with their wisdom.

The second principle of niyama is santosa, or "contentment". Contentment is the greatest wealth we are able to possess. The Indian poet Tulsidas, said: "You may possess mines of gold and precious stone, but inner discontent destroys all wealth." We can attain contentment only when we recognize that all worldly goods bring disappointment and that inner wealth provides more happiness than material possessions.

According to Patanjali and in order to perfect santosa, you should follow the third principle of niyama called tapas, which means "austerity", "self-control", "self-discipline." In life when we encounter adversity and obstacles, we should never give up. Rather we should continue on our chosen path with firm determination. To continue to practice, with self-discipline, patience and perseverance – this is the key to success. Tapas means being constantly in the same mood, never losing one’s peace of mind, no matter whether you are happy or unhappy, whether somebody tells you nice or unpleasant words. That is balance. Things such as hunger, cold or fame don’t matter to the yogi.

In order to achieve inner trust and follow the teachings you have chosen, Patanjali gives the fifth priciple of niyama – isvara pranidhana, which means "devotion." Trust yourself, your master, and your path. Trust will bring you great love, happiness and inspiration.

Next, Patanjali describes the third level, and that is asana. Asana means "sitting in a yogic manner" – to sit for a long time without any movement, because when you move you interrupt your concentration. If your body is restless, constantly moving, then such is your spirit, and you’ll never be successful in your yoga practice. Therefore, we should practice hatha yoga asanas, which keep our body flexible and healthy and enable us to sit for a long time. The fourth stage of Patanjali’s system is pranayama. Prana is "life force, vitality." It binds everything into a harmonious whole. Subtle prana is spread all over the cosmos. Pranayama is a yogic term for "breathing techniques". Yoga practice isn’t full unless you do pranayama, it is even more important than practising asanas, because it is the life-force that we inhale and exhale. When we were born the first thing we did was inhale, and in the last moment of our life we will exhale.

The next level is pratyahara, which means to "withdraw the senses" from the external world. As yogis we should be able to be introverted or extroverted at any time, according to our wishes. The consciousness of the yogi is always alert and ready to act if necessary. In order to dig up the treasure from the deepest part of your consciousness, you should be able to dive deeply into yourself, but this is impossible as long as you are occupied with external activities.

The next level of raja yoga is dharana, "concentration" – the ability to focus your attention on a certain object for a long time. By that we mean alertness, complete awareness of everything you do and of what happens around you. Until we are capable of concentration on a thought or object for a length of time, in any situation, we still have not mastered dharana.

Seventh grade of raja yoga is "meditation," or in Sanskrit, dhyana. It refers to the state when your mind dissolves and becomes one with the object of concentration. One cannot learn to meditate, just as we cannot "learn" to sleep. Sleep just happens when our body becomes relaxed and quiet. Meditation happens when the mind is quiet. In meditation there is no imagination, because imagination arises from the intellect. But in meditation, we experience pure being. The moment the intellect is still and the individual ego ceases to exist, Divine light shines within the heart and we are one with it.

The eight level of raja yoga is samadhi – "complete realization". Samadhi is where the knower, knowledge and object of knowledge unite. The yogi’s consciousness finds eternal quiet, peace and bliss – the yogi is liberated. In this state all duality is dissolved. There is neither day or night, neither darkness or light, no qualities or colour. Everything is one in the Supreme Self. This union of the individual soul with the Cosmic soul is he goal of yoga.

This is an excerpt from a public lecture, published in the book "Meetings with a Yogi, by Swami Paramhans Maheshwarananda (Swamiji), the founder of the Yoga in Daily Life System. He is giving public lectures at Yoga in Daily Life Centre, 2245 W. Broadway, Vancouver on 14–16 March. Tel 604–608–8734. www.vanyoga.com.

Asanas, relaxation, meditation and pranayama according to Swamiji’s system are practiced at Yoga in Daily Life Centre throughout the year.




Top