Two limbs of yoga (I) - social ethics

 

Every moment that you spend here, in this place, just know that you are in a Divine place… in the Divine space. Know that you are on this planet for a very unique and big purpose, and not just to eat, sleep and talk. You are here for a greater cause. Just remember that. Take a challenge – “Come what may, I am going to smile today and be happy!” 

For our growth, and to strengthen our lives, we need to follow some rules. These rules are called “yama” (social ethics) and “niyama” (personal ethics). They are the first two steps (or limbs) of yoga – of inner union. 

Yama:

There are five rules to living peacefully in society and the environment: The first rule is “ahimsa” or non-violence. Non- violence unites you with the whole creation. Just as you don’t harm yourself, you don’t harm the rest of creation. Everything is part of you, so how can you harm anything? Ahimsa is the practice of yoga, of not harming, and realizing that everything is here. 

You don’t lie to yourself, do you? You can’t lie to yourself. If you are weaving beads, you don’t say, “I am not weaving beads.” You are, and you know it. When you have chocolate in your hand, you don’t say, “I don’t have chocolate in my hand.” You do have chocolate in your hand! So, the second rule is “satyam” or truthfulness. 

The third is “astheya”, meaning, not missing what you don’t have at this moment, nor wishing things were different from what they are at the moment – not regretting. Astheya is not: “I wish I had a voice like that person! I wish I could sing like that person. I wish I were young like that person. I wish I could run like that person. I wish I could be as intelligent as that person…” It is not comparing yourself with others or wishing for what they have and you don’t have. Astheya is not wishing you could have those things.

Fourth is “brahmacharya”, meaning, not interested in small things; not interested in the shapes and forms of the body. The mind, here, sees beyond the physical, to the infinite. Brahmacharya is keeping the mind on bigger things. “Brahma” means big; moving in bigger things.

“I am this”, “I am small”, “I am a man”, “I am a woman”, “I am a good person”, “I am a bad person”, “I am hopeless” – all these are small identifications. you collect the garbage and hold on to it very safely! This is what most people do. They are ready to bounce up, take negativity and keep it to themselves. If someone is taking out garbage and throwing it into a basket, you don’t have to take it! Don’t take anything from anybody, including insults! Of course, compliments don’t really bother us! They just go to our heads! What really bother us are the insults, the hurt, and all the negative words that we take from people. Don’t take them! Do you understand? This is aparigraha, the fifth rule.

Recognize duality to see unity

 

Some people misuse yoga for the fulfilment of their carnal instincts; this is wrong. It should be the other way around. Whenever there is a carnal instinct, it should be transformed into a divine inner experience. There is a beautiful word in Sanskrit called atma rati, union with one’s being, rejoicing in one's self. 

There are two things, prakriti (nature) and purusha (consciousness). There is an interplay of nature and consciousness all the time. The union of your body and soul — your body is female (prakriti), and your soul is male (purusha) — is happening all the time. And, seeing that union within oneself is samadhi. 

That is why samadhi is considered to be a thousand times more joyful than carnal desires. Whatever joy sex gives, samadhi offers a thousand times more because there is no effort and no action there. It is only being and just being. When just the being, the play and display of consciousness come to one’s awareness, it becomes one’s experience — exquisite and beautiful! 

Don’t keep any corner of your existence away from divinity. The divine should be interwoven into every aspect of your life, and this is called brahmacharya, which means moving with the infinity, uniting with the infinity. In India, you find both aspects — Shiva and Parvati who symbolize prakriti and purusha, consciousness and matter — everywhere. First recognize the duality and then see the unity. They are not two, they are not different but two sides of the same coin.

You are complete. You are both man and woman. Getting rid of this label, ‘I am man’, ‘I am woman’ — getting out of your limited identity, this is the highest philosophy of the universe. We keep identifying ourselves, ‘I am a man’, ‘I am a woman’, ‘I am old’, ‘I am young’, ‘I am educated’, and ‘I am illiterate’. Throw away all these labels. What remains is pure consciousness. Just know that you are the consciousness.

Don’t go around saying I am nothing. Adi Shankaracharya once said, ‘One who labels himself as something is a fool and one who labels himself as nothing is a bigger fool.’ One who is nothing does not talk, so just keep quiet. How can you say, ‘I am nothing’, when you are saying something! There cannot be somebody there saying, ‘I am nothing.’ 

When you consider the basic necessities of food and sex as sacred, then aggression in you disappears and surrender, gratefulness and love dawn in you. That is when the devotee and the divine have become one. They have blissfully merged into one. But there is a difference between bliss and sex. Sex is energy consuming and draining while bliss is energy conserving. All emotions that you experience are nothing but energy moving through you, through the chakras in the body.

Why we should review our lives in the time gone past

 

As we flip the calendar, we need to keep flipping our mind as well. Often, our diaries are filled with memories. See that you don't fill your future dates with past events. Allow the space for creativity to unlearn from the past and move on.

In the past year (and many of us rang in a new year just a few weeks back), how many days were you in sanyas? How many days were you struggling, being caught in maya? Turn back and remember the whole year.

Do not run away from anything. Do not reject anything. Do not go away from anything. At the same time, let your attention be on the self. This is a delicate balance. That balance is yoga.  

A poor man celebrates New Year once a year. A rich man celebrates each day. But the richest man celebrates every moment. How rich are you? If you celebrate every moment, you are the Lord of Creation.

Review the year while you celebrate. This is your homework. Compare your performance in the year before last and smile. This year is fortunate because you are living at this time. When you are living for the sake of the world, the world is fortunate.  

Let time celebrate your presence. You keep smiling as ever. When you let time celebrate you, you are witness amid celebration.  

The heart always longs for the old, the mind for the new. Life is a combination of both. Let the New Year bring into our life ancient wisdom and modernity, as life is incomplete without either of them.  

Don't feel shy to speak about human and spiritual values. The time has come now to call the whole world. Be ever new, happy you.

Boredom is an opportunity!

 

In life both are essential, the heart and the head. If you are only in the heart, it is no good. And if you are only stuck in the head, that is also no good. Balancing both is Yoga. Spirituality is balancing the heart and head together. Anyone who feels that they are a failure, just wake up! So what?! Life is eternal.

Meditation acts like a bridge connecting your head and heart. Take a few moments to sit down, be open to boredom, and you’ll effortlessly move into a deep meditative state. Otherwise, that boredom might just lead you to sleep. It’s a choice — either you sleep, become more sluggish, or you seize the opportunity of boredom to delve into a deep meditation. There are 365 days in a year and there are so many years in your life. If for one or two days you feel you are wasted, life is a failure, it’s okay, never mind!

On a full moon, if it is cloudy and the light cannot shine on the Earth, the moon does not get upset. If on one full moon night, you cannot see the moon rising, so what? The moon is still there. Like that, inside you there is potential, there is divinity which is so complete. If it has not come to the surface in one day, never mind! You have all the great qualities. If some do not exhibit on a particular day, never mind.

Don’t blame yourself, don’t analyze yourself too much. We start analysing ourselves too much; to the extent that we feel upset and down. We are so hard on ourselves. I am saying this to those who feel bad about themselves. NEVER MIND, WAKE UP! Never mind if these many years are wasted. The future is bright and there is still so much for you to do. All regrets happen only when you are looking at the past. If you are walking and your head is turned backwards, then that is called regret. Turn your head and look forward, and you will see the future is always bright.

How is boredom related to memory

 

In an ocean, the waves keep coming non-stop, it doesn’t get boring! Birds sing the same song, every morning, all their life, they don’t get bored! It is only human beings who get bored! ‘Oh! Once again the same thing.’ And why do you get bored? It is because of memory. You remember whatever you have done before, so you get bored.

Memory is both a blessing and a curse. It is because you get bored that you feel the need to look for something different, something new, and that is how creativity comes up; you look for the ultimate. Otherwise, you could have remained like an animal doing the same thing every day. But, you can’t do it because you get bored! So, in that sense, boredom is a blessing. Because you get bored, you move on, you look forward, you become a seeker and you rise higher. 

At the same time, boredom is also a curse because it doesn’t allow you to be centered and steady in one place. So your mind aimlessly keeps jumping from one place to another. Because you get bored of everything, you can’t enjoy anything.

There are two different paths that boredom leads you to. Boredom is a blessing when it leads you to wisdom. Boredom is a curse when it leads you to frustration and depression. Because you are bored, you can’t enjoy it, and when you can’t enjoy it you get depressed and frustrated. Or, because you are bored you wake up and begin with a quest.

When life feels dull, there’s this magical moment where everything becomes lively. You can repeat the same thing over and over, and it won’t bother you. It’s like finding a spring of life. Just let go of the past, be like a carefree child, and every moment becomes priceless.

You move ahead and you look into the Self which is fresh all the time! The Self is ever new. Because you are bored with the ephemeral, the surface, you go deep into the Self. So boredom is both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because it takes you away from the routine monotonous life, makes you aware and brings life into you. And it is a curse because it doesn’t let you stabilise. People who are in love don’t get bored. The heart knows no boredom. The head knows boredom.

It's funny, how humour works

 

Humor is the buffer that saves you from humiliation. If you have a good sense of humour, you can never be humiliated, and if you refuse to be humiliated, you become invincible. 

Humour brings people together while humiliation tears them apart. In a society torn with humiliation and insults, humour is a breath of fresh air. A good sense of humour relieves you from fear and anxiety. 

Humour should be coupled with care and concern. Mere humour, without care and concern or appropriate action, can irritate those who come to you with serious problems. Humour can keep spirits high, yet if overdone it leaves a bad taste. 

Humour with wisdom creates an atmosphere of celebration, but humour without wisdom is shallow. Humour without sensitivity is satire and it comes back to you with more problems. 

The wise use humour to bring wisdom and to lighten every situation. The intelligent use humour as a shield against humiliation. The cruel use humour as a sword to insult others. The irresponsible use humour to escape from responsibility. The fool takes humour too seriously. Humour is spontaneous; to make an effort to be humorous makes no sense! 

How does one cultivate a sense of humour? Humour is not just words; it is the lightness of your being. You can cultivate your sense of humour in many ways, like: 

• Being cordial and lighthearted brings out authentic humour, while reading and repeating jokes will not. 
• Do not take life too seriously, because you will never come out of it alive! 
• Have a sense of belongingness with everybody, including those who are not friendly. 
• Practice yoga and meditation. 
• Have unshakable faith in the Divine and in the laws of karma. 
• Be in the company of those who live in knowledge and who are humorous. 
• Be willing to be a clown.

Three essential things everyone must do, to be happy

1. Look back in the past and see that it was futile feeling insecure. This gives you strength.

2. Know that there are good people on this planet. They will always come to your help. There is a power which is going to guide you and help you out. With this wisdom and understanding, get over insecurity.

3. Third is to get rid of prejudice. There are many types of prejudice. There is prejudice between generations where young people will not sit and share with senior citizens. There is a generation gap. There is prejudice about class, about gender, about religion, culture, language, and so on in many parts of the world, so many types of prejudices. Wisdom is to rise above prejudice and see the whole world as one family. 

If everyone has this idea of a "one world family", there will be no war, no crime and none of the problems that we are facing in the world today. See how many people are being killed. There is so much violence in the world. This is all because of lack of a broad vision and wisdom. With meditation, yoga and breathing techniques, get over stress. 

With wisdom, get over prejudice, and reflecting on your own life and having the confidence and faith, get over insecurity. Once you get over stress, insecurity and prejudice, then you are like a child, full of joy, and happiness simply wells up in you. 

Happiness is already there, it is just covered by these three things, and once you removed all these three things, it becomes obvious. 

Creating a happy world through peace

 

In a world marked by conflicts and a ballooning mental health crisis, one pressing question beckons: Is there a way out of this?

The post-pandemic world continues to fluctuate between extremes of aggression and societal violence on one end and depression and suicidal tendencies on the other. Mental health and loneliness have become silent epidemics with estimated one in every three individuals in the world suffering from anxiety or depression.

With nearly two mass shootings per day and classroom violence becoming commonplace in the U.S., it makes one wonder if we are regressing to a barbaric age. In today’s virtual world where more and more people seem to be operating in silos, there is an increasing feeling of mistrust and isolation.

How did we even get here? Let’s look at life through the lens of these three fundamental aspects: passion, dispassion and compassion.

Passion is essential to achieve anything worthwhile. Without it, one could feel lost, unenthusiastic or even depressed. On the other hand, unbridled passion can lead to anxiety, fear of uncertainty and even insomnia.

While passion propels one into action, dispassion allows one to relax. Certain amount of dispassion is essential in order to feel sane, safe and to have a sound sleep. It broadens one’s vision and allows one to look at life from a bigger context, acknowledging the fact that people and situations are constantly changing. When one embraces this sense of impermanence, the world appears like a transit lounge. Both, modern scientists and ancient sages concur that the world is illusory in nature. This awareness makes individuals pause and reconsider the priorities of their life.

The third aspect is compassion which defines humanness. In absence of which, life appears dry and meaningless. While compassion towards others is essential, compassion towards one’s own self is equally important. It also creates an environment where people feel heard and included thus mitigating the adverse impact of loneliness.

When these aspects go out of balance, it induces stress and societal discord. This is the primary cause of today’s mental health crisis. Unfortunately, neither at home nor in school have we ever learned how to manage stress and emotions. Popular interventions such as therapy and medication are cosmetic at best as they don’t seem to offer a long-lasting solution. This calls for a fundamental rethink.

Breathwork and meditation hold the key to eliminating stress and restoring balance in all aspects of life. 42 years ago, when I first started to travel across various countries, yoga and meditation were colored with prejudice. While the stigma around these practices is waning, there is still a long way to go.

Our breath has many secrets that have not been explored fully. Each emotion corresponds to a distinct breathing pattern. If emotions can impact how we breathe, the reverse is also true. From ancient times, people have been using breath as a way to relax and strengthen their minds. A strong mind can carry a weak body. However, a weak mind cannot even support a strong body.

Meditation helps individuals experience a rare state of outer dynamism and inner calm. It is no longer a luxury, but a modern-day necessity. Meditation and breathwork are not just cures but also preventive measures for maintaining mental and emotional well-being. Even if one person in a family is disturbed, it affects the entire family. Inner peace is key to the peace in family, society and eventually in the entire nation.

Wars originate as a conflict in the mind of an individual. Perceived threat from others, breakdown of communication and lack of trust fuel discord, resulting in loss of sensitivity and sensibility. Thus, it is all the more necessary for people in positions of power to have inner calm and peace. This enables them to think better and act more effectively for the greater good of our planet.

In global discussions, peace and security are always mentioned in the same breath. However very little attention is given to peace education. It will serve the planet in the long run if governments could spend a fraction of their security budget on peace education and mental health towards creating a happy world.

A violence-free society, quiver-free breath, stress-free mind, inhibition-free intellect, trauma-free memory, and a sorrow-free soul is the birthright of every individual. My vision is to see a happier society. Some may say it’s utopia but I’m confident that together we can make it a reality.

The true essence of sports

 

Should we take sports seriously or lightly? The answer is both. 

It loses its charm and lightness if you take sports too seriously. It turns into a battle or business and that’s where all the unethical practices can stem from.

When we do not take sports in a lighter spirit and treat them as larger-than-life, we get depressed and anxious about failing. For many sportspersons, this becomes a trigger for a host of mental illnesses. A game is a game because it is foolish. If you find meaning, it is not a game. A fool does something unique, yet meaningless. All entertainment, including games, are an act of foolishness in some way.

Just imagine if somebody from another planet lands here and sees a huge crowd watching a game – one ball in the middle, a player trying to hit it all over, another trying to catch it and bring it back to the centre, only to throw it away again. Why go through all this trouble, the alien might wonder. It would appear absolutely funny and pointless. For hours together other people sit there, howling, yelling and clapping. You can watch the whole drama, with awareness. There is really nothing in it. George Bernard Shaw said somewhere, “Cricket is a game where 11 fools play and 11 thousand watch.”

Not just cricket, make your whole life a game. Take it lightly and easily. Play the game. That is worship. Have you ever seen kittens, or even small monkeys, when their stomachs are full? They don’t just sit around. They play. They are not really fighting with each other but they run, punch, scratch, and do somersaults. Sports is a natural phenomenon where we laugh and cry together. A sport or a game is the first expression of life. A baby, even before it starts recognising faces and speaking, starts playing.

I would say sports is the purest expression of life, and so honouring it is honouring our own life force. Whether it is politics, economics, music, art, religion or sports, there is only one aim of all these avenues – to bring happiness. And sport is one of the most important tools to create happiness, harmony and well-being. But we need to look at sports and sportsmanship from a broader dimension, to keep the violence, aggression and short-sightedness out of it.

We need to learn the art of equanimity. Letting a win go to our head can lead to arrogance and allowing the loss to get to our hearts can lead to depression and anxiety. Somehow, the feverishness of winning has gripped the arena of sports. Even between countries, when one country wins, the people from other countries get so upset, and in some cases, there is violence. This can be avoided if the true essence of sports is brought to light – to uplift the spirit and unite people and have happier societies.

In a game, somebody is going to win, but that somebody’s win should be eventually a celebration for everybody, a celebration of talent. I tell sportspersons, there are only two scenarios — either you win or you make others win. That puts their minds at ease. If that is not the spirit, then it is not a game, it is a war or business. Infusing this spirit in sports is important to uplift human consciousness. If this is not there, then we are missing something that is basic to sports.

Sports have this special dimension: You can be happy just by playing, keeping aside the results. Their result is not as important as the process or the joy of being involved in the act of playing, and how well you have played your role.

It is important to make sure mental health of sportspersons is looked after. They should be beaming with real happiness when they are playing. While the physical side of training for players has advanced significantly, they should also explore their inner dimension. A strong mind can carry a weak body, but a weak mind cannot carry even a strong body. To be able to handle the demands of modern competitive sports, a calm and balanced mind is indispensable. That can come from practices that increase their focus and sense of relaxation simultaneously, like yoga, some breathing and a few minutes of meditation.

The purpose of yoga

 

The definition of ‘asana’ is a posture that is stable and pleasant. You should feel comfortable when doing yoga asanas. What is the definition of comfort? When you don’t feel the body. If you are sitting in some odd positions then you feel those parts of the body, painfully. Your focus is more on the discomfort there. When you do any asana, what you feel first is discomfort. But if you take your mind through it, you will find that in just a few minutes the discomfort has disappeared, and you don’t feel the body. You feel an expansion or infinity in the postures.

How should a posture be done? Get into a position and let go of the effort. What happens then? Infinity abides in you. So each asana should be done keeping in mind that the goal of this is not just the correctness of the posture, but to feel an expansion within. This is the most important thing in yoga asanas. The purpose of yoga is not only to keep a good physical shape but also to experience infinity and timeless expansion within. And that starts happening to you with some practice.

The other definition of yoga is to get back from the scenery to the seer. Slowly take your attention from outside to inside. First, from the environment, bring your attention to the physical body. Then go one step further because even the body is the scenery and take your attention to the mind. Now when you witness the thoughts that are coming into the mind, even that becomes the scenery. Go deeper. So movement from the scenery to the seer, to the one who is seeing everything is another definition of yoga.

Whenever you experience joy, ecstasy, bliss and happiness in life, knowingly or unknowingly you are abiding like the seer. Otherwise, at other times, you are with different activities of the mind, and you are lost in them.

What are these different activities of the mind? The modulations of the mind are of five forms; some are problematic and some are not. These are:

• Pramana: when the mind is engaged in wanting proof
• Viparyaya: means wrong understanding
• Vikalpa: means an imaginary notion, not conforming to reality
• Nidra: which means sleep
• Smruti: living in memory

These five vrittis or modulations of the mind drain the potential of a human being. Having control over these modulations of the mind is what yoga is all about. They are like horses. If the reins of the horses are in your hands, then you can give them direction, but if you are at the mercy of the horse then it takes you wherever it goes. So it is said, ‘Yoga chitta vritti nirodaha’ – Yoga is that which arrests the modulations of the mind. When you practice an asana, the goal is to feel comfortable and then feel the expansion; not by wanting to feel, but by letting go; by not ‘doing’ something. So the first step in yoga is to let go, to relax and the last step in yoga is also to let go and relax.

Yoga and spirituality - India's gift to the world

 

Yoga and spirituality are given tremendous respect all over the world today. Regardless of the country, people all over are rapidly adopting and integrating Yoga in their lives.

If you go to the city of Tromsø in Norway, which is the last point of the country closest to the Arctic Circle, where the sun shines for just two months in a year, even there, people are practicing pranayama, and meditation. The chants of Om Namah Shivaya are resonating even in such a faraway place.

In the same way, the last city in the Southern hemisphere of the Earth – Tiera del Fuego, after which begins the Antarctic Circle; there also you will find thousands of people gathering together to chant Om Namah Shivaya and practicing the Sudarshan Kriya. This is India’s gift to the world.

India has made a place for itself in every home in the world (by virtue of Indian Spirituality). Our rishis (wise sages) have said, "krunavanto vishwam aryam". It means, "we will grow and spread glory through the world".

I see their dream turning into a reality today.

Success in failure

 

Everyone wants to be successful in his/her examination. But what is success? It is having strength, having an unshakable smile that nobody can take away, and having such courage that does not diminish in the face of adversity.

In exams, some may get very good results and some others may not. It is natural to feel bad when one fails. There is tension, fear and worry about the future. But look at life from a broader perspective. Consider this life as a bigger examination than the one you have been through. Do not think that passing or failing in exams determines your entire life’s direction.

Some disheartened students commit suicide when they fail. No one should commit suicide. Do not become a victim of stress. This life is very precious. In life you have to accept failures and success. There is no control over the fruit of action.

Everyone who fails in an exam is not a fool and everyone who passes an exam is not necessarily intelligent. My request to parents is to encourage children even if they fail and to ensure that they come out of their depression. Parents must make them understand that life is beyond this exam.

When faced with difficult times, invoke the valour in you and tackle the challenge with confidence. Practices such as yoga, meditation will help tremendously. Have faith that you are supported by nature. And you will succeed.

Life is a mixture of everything; failure and success complement each other. If you fail, then you know the value of success. It is a stepping stone. You need to move forward; ask yourself, what did I learn from the past, and then what is my vision for the future? If you fail 10 times, you will be successful the 11th time. Remember as a child how many times you have fallen before you could stand up on your legs?

Tell yourself now, “Whatever happens, I will never go down. God will always hold my hand.” This much is enough to pull you up.

Benefits of yoga

 

The benefits of yoga are multi-fold. The first is that it improves your health. Yoga provides us tools and techniques to lead a stress-free and tension-free life. Yoga is also the greatest wealth of humankind. What is wealth? The purpose of wealth is to bring happiness and comfort. Yoga is wealth in the sense that it brings absolute comfort.

A violence-free society, disease-free body, confusion-free mind, inhibition-free intellect, trauma-free memory, and a sorrow-free soul is the birth-right of every individual. Parliaments all over the world are striving to achieve this goal of human existence – happiness! We all want happiness for our people and yoga is a way for that much-needed happiness factor in life. We think yoga is some sort of exercise.

In the ’80s and ’90s, when I would tour the world, yoga was not easily accepted in mainstream society. Today, I am glad that there is an awakening and people have recognised the importance of yoga. The world over, yoga has become synonymous with relaxation, happiness and creativity. Even big companies in their advertisements put people sitting in a yoga position or in meditation pose to depict inner peace. Whether we like it or not, we are all born yogis. You do not need a yoga teacher if you observe a baby. Any baby in the world, from the age of three months to the age of three years, does all the yoga postures. The breathing, the way they sleep, the way they smile, everything is yoga. A baby is a yoga teacher, a yogi. That is how a baby is stress free, there is happiness – it smiles 400 times in a day.

Another important benefit of yoga is that it changes the behaviour of a person because behaviour depends on the stress level in a person. It creates a friendly disposition and a very pleasant atmosphere in people. Yoga helps to improve our vibes. We convey a lot through our presence, even more than our words. Speaking in terms of quantum mechanics, we are all emitting vibes or wavelengths. When communication breaks down, we often say, “Our wavelengths don’t match” because our ability to communicate depends on our ability to receive communication from others. Here, yoga helps us to have that clear mind.

Yoga also helps in developing skills within oneself. The propounder of yoga, Lord Krishna has said in the Bhagwad Gita: “Yoga is skill in action”. Yoga is not just an exercise, it is how skillfully you can communicate and act in any given situation. Innovation, intuition, skills, and better communication: all these are effects of yoga. Yoga always promotes harmony in diversity. The word yoga itself means uniting; uniting all diverse aspects of existence, of life. Now, whether someone is a businessman or a public figure or a private individual, we want peace, we want to smile, to be happy. Happiness is only possible when we look into the root cause of unhappiness. Unhappiness is due to lack of vision, stress and tension. The world has been talking a lot about GDH. From GDP, we are moving towards Gross Domestic Happiness (GDH). Here is something that can aid that and be a very useful tool. A large percentage of our population today is suffering from depression. Just popping a Prozac or anti-depressants will not help. We need something that is natural, as natural as our breath, that we can use and elevate our spirit.

The purpose of yoga is to put a smile on your face in spite of all the stress, tension and situations we face in our day-to-day life.

Understanding Ahimsa

 

There is a beautiful sutra mentioned in Patanjali Yoga Sutras that says, Jatidesha kalasamayanavachchinnaha sarvabhouma mahavratam meaning ‘the great vows are universal and are not limited by life, state, country, time or circumstances’.

These words are applicable everywhere, all the time and to everyone. The sutra mentioned above is universal. An animal does not go into violence for no reason. Wild animals hunt only when they are hungry and when they want to eat. Humans hunt out of pleasure. Human beings have no qualms about killing in the name of God. Mindless violence is prevalent in the world in the name of country, in the name of religion, in the name of race. This is total lack of viveka or wisdom. A violent person cannot listen to anybody.

Why does violence arise? Frustration is the answer. The mind gets frustrated and frustration builds up. The question ‘why, why, why?’ transforms into violence and becomes contagious, so to speak. A crowd commits violence. Individually, a person may not be able to do that violent act, but when that person is in the crowd he joins hands. Viveka is when a person takes to non-violence saying, “I will not kill any animal or any life on this planet consciously or unconsciously.” Already without your knowledge you are destroying many creatures. You walk and many ants are dying under your feet. You are not killing anyone. It is just happening. But an intention to destroy something, an intention to do violence can destroy your very basis, your very root. Dropping this intention for violence is ahimsa.

What is the effect of ahimsa? Patanjali Maharishi gives a beautiful explanation in Sutra 35: Ahimsapratishtayam tatsannidhau vairatyagaha, which means “When a person is established in non-violence, then violence is dropped in his or her presence.”

If you are established in non-violence, in your very presence, violence will be dropped by other creatures. For example, someone comes to attack you. As soon as they come near you, because your vibrations are totally non-violent, they drop down. They stop being violent. Lord Mahavira emphasizes on ahimsa. It is said that whenever he walked, twenty kilometers around him, people would stop being violent. The story goes even to that extent and says even the thorns would not prick anybody but would instead become soft.

Ahimsa gives rise to tolerance. Have you ever felt like hitting somebody? Why is that violence arising in your mind? What is the source of the violence? As you watch the source of violence, you will see that violence disappears, dissolves and peace dawns. Yoga brings that inner peace which in turn establishes non-violence. Practice of non-violence is two-way traffic. Ahimsa or non-violence brings about the union of the mind or peace of mind and when you are peaceful or calm within, you naturally become non-violent.

World Yoga Day

 

On 5th December 2011 at a conference on ‘Yoga: A Science for World Peace’, several yoga institutes came together and signed a proclamation to have 21st June celebrated as International Yoga Day.

Today, Yoga has reached 170+ countries, and billions of people. But we must remember that 2/3rd of the world population is yet to reap the benefits of yoga!

Yoga, though born in India belongs to the whole world. Though yoga was conceived in the ancient Sanatan Dharma, it opens its avenues to the whole world. Yoga is a technology that allows you to be more compassionate, more loving, more friendly and happy! It’s a technology that can remove stress, greed and all these negative emotions!

Yoga is not just a set of stretches but an attitude - how you care for nature, how you connect with people of all races, cultures & religions. That oneness with Divinity, with nature & people is the real essence of yoga.

A world without violence

 

Deep within, we aspire for that which is our true nature and everybody wishes to be happy and joyful. Yet, the world is caught in the grip of violence. Nearly every nation is affected by violence and terrorism today. In order to bring peace to our world, we have to understand what the root causes of violence are. When our joyful nature gets covered with stress, our thoughts, speech and eventually our actions are distorted. In extreme cases, this distortion becomes a disorder.

Most of the incidents of shootings that we hear of, including suicides, involve people with such a disorder. The need today is the methods to relieve stress from society and many studies indicate that yoga and meditation can help. Apart from individual incidents of violence, another kind of violence happens on a larger, more organized scale, which arises out of religious fanaticism.

They are not open to any dialogue and violence is their only tool. To restrain this ideology, puritanism among religious leaders must be shunned. Instead, they must play a role in imparting multi-religious and multicultural education. When people are given a healthy exposure to the wisdom in other religions, especially from a young age, they will not harbour prejudices against them.

The third kind of violence involves rebel groups fighting for independence or other rights. Wherever there is a lack of social justice and humane leadership, there is rebellion in society. It begins with a mission, a cause but eventually erupts as terrorism and terrorism is blind. It has led neither to economic progress nor to justice anywhere in the world. However, these so-called extremists are full of passion, sincerity and a fierce sense of sacrifice.

Their readiness to put their life on the line for a cause is commendable. I have met several extremist groups over the years with the intention of bringing them back to the mainstream. Our experience has been that if these people are approached with an open mind, they are willing to engage in dialogue and share their side of the story. When they gain confidence in the justice and humaneness in society, they can turn around and contribute a lot to society. Their rehabilitation and re-integration in the mainstream are quicker and more effective if the establishment supports it, like in the case of FARC in Colombia.

For 50 years, a civil conflict raged on in Colombia between the government and rebel group FARC which claimed more than 220,000 lives. In June 2015, with consent from the then Colombian president, Juan Manuel Santos, I met top commanders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

After a three day long dialogue, FARC announced in a joint press conference by saying that they would adopt Gandhian ways of non-violence and announced a unilateral ceasefire within days which was never breached after and went on to become a milestone in the Colombian peace process. The Art of Living Foundation has continued to work with victims of both sides of the conflict. In September, The Art of Living facilitated a forgiveness meeting between FARC leaders and the families of 12 deputies who were kidnapped and finally killed by FARC. 

The number of people who cause violence in the world is proportionately very small. However, news about their activities dominates headlines. I would say the silence of good people is more responsible for this than the violence of the others. Those who are at peace within themselves have a responsibility to bring peace around them. Sensible people everywhere must get together and empower each other to take greater responsibility to better the world. If there is a will, it is possible to have peace at all levels, from individual to global. Never before has the collective will for peace in the world been stronger and never before have the means been so available. A world without violence is a dream worth making every effort for.

Five methods for successful meditation

 

Meditation is the air conditioning for the mind to be comfortable. We want comfort but we don’t know how to be absolutely comfortable. Let us explore five methods for a successful meditation.

The first is through yoga and physical exercise. When our body does certain postures, with a certain rhythm, the mind slips into meditation. If you are very active or too well rested, you cannot meditate. But in a state where the body has the right amount of tiredness, yet still not that tired; in that very delicate balance, your whole system slips into meditation.

The second is through breathing techniques and pranayama. The mind becomes quiet and still and you can slip into meditation effortlessly.

The third is through any sensory pleasure — sight, sound, taste, smell or touch. Being 100 per cent engrossed in a particular sensory object brings you to a state of meditation. Just lie down and keep looking at the sky, or when you are completely engrossed in hearing music, a moment comes when the mind becomes still.

The fourth way is through both positive and negative emotions. When you feel utterly hopeless or very angry, you say, ‘I give up!’ It means, ‘This is it. I can’t take it anymore.’ During those moments, if you don’t slip into frustration or depression or violence, you will find that there is a moment where the mind stands still.

The fifth is through the intellect, knowledge, awareness. This is called jnana yoga. When you sit and know that this body is made up of billions of cells, something gets stimulated deep inside. The context of life immediately changes when you become aware of the magnanimity of the universe: Who are you? What are you? Where are you? How are you in reference to the unfathomable, infinite universe? Some shift happens within you.

To meditate, you just need to know how to relax. If you are on a massage table, you let the masseur take care of you. Similarly, in meditation, you do nothing. Let nature or the spirit take care of you.

Discipline of yoga

 

Yoga is what happens when you are in the moment, so totally at ease and in peace. So what is yoga? It is chitta vritti nirodaha. Yoga means uniting with your source. This happens when the mind, which is chattering all the time, suddenly becomes silent. Yoga is called a discipline. When does the need for discipline arise? Discipline arises when something is not very charming to begin with.

There are three types of happiness. One is sattvic — happiness which is not pleasurable to begin with, but ends in joy; rajasic — happiness that seems to begin well but ends in misery; and tamasic — there appears to be happiness but in reality there is only misery from beginning to end. 

No discipline is necessary for tamasic happiness. Wrong discipline results in rajasic happiness. For sattvik happiness, discipline is essential to begin with. It need not be uncomfortable all the time. But if it is uncomfortable, then you should be able to bear with it. You need discipline. That is why Patanjali begins with the present, when things are not clear and when your heart is not in the right place. 

The discipline of yoga is nobody’s imposition, it is self-imposed. Shasana means rules someone imposes on you. Anushasana is the rule you impose upon yourself. When you are thirsty and want to drink water, you do not say “Oh! This is a rule, I must drink water”. When you are hungry you just eat. When it comes to the question of enjoying oneself, no discipline is necessary. When you are happy, when you are in peace or happiness, then you are already in yourself. There is no discipline there. But when the mind is wagging its tail all the time, then discipline is essential to calm it down. The fruit of it is eventually blissful, joyful. Like a diabetic saying, “I have the discipline not to eat sugar”. 

There is a lot we impose on ourselves — every morning we wake up and brush our teeth, and brush them again before going to bed. But these have been self-imposed from childhood by your mother. Once it became a habit, you understood it was for your own good. And then you found it was no longer your mother’s rule, but your own. In the same way, keeping yourself clean, hygienic, exercising, meditating, being kind, considerate etc- all these rules you have imposed on yourself are discipline. 

Yoga is the act of restraining or freeing the mind from the clutches of the modulations of the mind. There are five types of modulations of the mind — wanting proof for everything, lack of comprehension, imagination, sleep and memory. All through the day, your mind is in one these modulations. But, if there are those moments when you are not sleeping, not remembering old things, not imagining, or looking for proof, then that moment yoga has happened. 

At that moment what is happening? You are just by yourself in the journey of your own self, which is the source of joy or source of love or source of peace and knowledge. This happens whenever you are watching the sunset or when you experience beauty in your life or when you experience lot of energy in the body. This also happens after pranayama (breathing techniques) or during meditation. The mind is then free from all these five modulations. That is why when you do yogasanas you put the body, mind and breath, all in one rhythm. That is when real yoga is happening and you are with yourself.

Four powerful ways to happiness in 2021

 

Celebration can be attributed to any reason, because the nature of our spirit is to celebrate. The new year is a time when the spirit of celebration engulfs the whole world. This is also an opportunity to reflect on the year gone by and take stock of the lessons learnt. A celebration has social, emotional and spiritual components. Often, we focus on the first two and forget the third. True celebration happens when the spiritual aspect is attended to.

Very often, people ask me how I see the future. And I say that the future is for them to build however they want it. The unwise regret the past, think the future is destiny and are miserable in present. The wise see their past as destiny, the future as free will and are happy in the present.

However significant the events of the past year were at the time, looking back, you cannot see them all as anything but a dream. Reflecting on these events, what stands out is the impermanent nature of all things. Events are like stones and pebbles in the great river of time which keeps flowing unabated. In life, things are to be learnt and forgotten — learnt so that you do not repeat the same mistakes and forgotten so that they do not leave you traumatized.

Here are four ways to happiness in the new year:

Make Meditation a Part of Life
Modern life’s demands lead to stress and restlessness, which can be released through a few minutes of meditation. Meditation gives you deep rest. The deeper you are able to rest, the more dynamic you will be in activity. It is the best tool to wipe your mind clean of all past impressions that weigh you down.

Often, we get pulled in different directions and are unable to devote time to ourselves. We do not take out the time to think and reflect. This can leave us dull and tired. A few quiet moments everyday are the source of creativity. Silence heals and rejuvenates and gives you depth and stability. Sometime during the day, sit for a few minutes, get into the cave of your heart, eyes closed, and keep the world away.

Serve
Make a commitment to make this world a better place to live. Do some acts of kindness without expecting anything in return. Service (seva) alone can bring contentment in life. It creates a sense of connectedness. When you bring some relief to someone through selfless service, good vibrations come to you. When you show kindness, your true nature, which is love and peace, come to the surface.

Feel Grateful
Our love, faith, and belief should be deep-rooted, and then everything else moves on its own. The feeling that “I am blessed” can help you overcome any failure. Once you realize that you are blessed, then all the complaints and grumbling disappear, all the insecurities disappear and you become grateful, contented and peaceful.

Spend time with Nature
If you are not amazed by the magnificence of this creation — your eyes are not yet opened. Tell me, what in this creation is not a mystery? Birth is a mystery, death is a mystery. If both birth and death are mysteries, then life is certainly a greater mystery. Being completely immersed in the mystery of life and in this creation is samadhi.

Just like we live in the outer world of events and circumstances, we also live in the inner world of emotions and feelings, which we are not always aware of. The distance between the outer and the inner worlds is just the blink of an eye. Yoga is the skill of keeping attention on the inner world while acting in the outer. When you are lost in the outside world, there is disharmony in the inner world and life is like a war. When you are established in the inner world, there is clarity in the outer world and life becomes a game.

I wish you all a very Happy New Year!

Know that you are needed, you are useful

 

People commit suicide to escape misery but they do not realise it puts them in greater misery. It is like, someone is shivering in the cold and he goes out and removes his jacket. Will the cold become any less? No! People who commit suicide find themselves there because they are so attached to life. They are so attached to some pleasure, to some joy, that they want to kill themselves. And when they kill themselves they find themselves in a bigger soup. They feel, ‘Oh my God , this restlessness, these desires which had created such intense agony inside me has not gone. My body has gone but the agony has remained.'

It is only through the body that you can dispel the agony and get rid of misery. Instead you destroy the very instrument by which you can get rid of agony. When energy goes down you get depressed and when it goes further down suicidal tendencies arise. When the prana is high, this thought will not come. You will not be violent to yourself or others when your prana is high. Through proper breathing exercises, some meditation and through good and loving company energy can go up.

Anyone with suicidal tendencies should be led to someone who can teach them meditation, who can make them do some breathing exercises and raise their energy level. Every day, for ten minutes meditate and become hollow and empty. We need to create a society free from stress and violence, and the way for it is through meditation. Many times when we sit for meditation, the mind goes all over the place. That is where Sudarshan Kriya, which is a breathing technique, and yoga, both of these help the mind to calm down and become serene. Personal development is very important for everyone. See life from a broader perspective. 80 years of life we are living, is it worth being stressed, unhappy? In this short span of life, we should spend our time being happy and making others happy.

If you get thoughts of committing suicide:

1. Know that it is just your prana which is low, so do more pranayama

2. There are millions of people who are suffering more than you, look at them. When your suffering becomes smaller you will not think of committing suicide.

3. Know that you are needed, you are useful. You have to do something in the world.

4. Forget about what people think of you: People commit suicide because they think they have lost their prestige, their status. What status? What prestige? Who has time to think about your prestige?

Everybody is entangled with their own problems, with their own mind. They can’t step out of their own mind, where do they have the time to think about you? It is worthless to worry about what the society thinks of you. Life is much more than just a few material possessions. Life is much more than blame or appreciation from someone. Life is much more than a relationship or a job.

The reason for suicide is failure in relationship, failure in job and not being able to achieve what you want to achieve. Life is much more than the small desires that pop up in your consciousness, in your mind. See life from a bigger perspective and engage yourself in some sort of social activity; service activity. Service or seva can keep people sane and keep them out of this mental depression. Mental depression is worse than an economic recession. One has to take responsibility to sail over this and help others around them. Taking every crisis as a challenge, as an opportunity is what we need to promote in the world.