Niyama (personal ethics):
There are five rules for one’s inner development.
The first is “shaucha” or everyday cleanliness. It includes showering and keeping yourself clean, wearing clean clothes, and seeing that you don’t have bad breath. If someone stinks, he (or she) doesn’t notice it, but others have problems sitting next to him (or her) in satsang or during Sudarshan Kriya! Someone has to do the Sudarshan Kriya, and he is thinking, “Oh! Why is this person next to me?!” As “So Hum (practice of Sudarshan Kriya)” goes on, instead of focusing on “So Hum”, he is saying, “Go away! Go away! My God! Oh God!”
The second is “santosha” or contentment, happiness. Be happy! If you don’t take a step towards being happy, nothing in this world can make you happy, and you go on complaining about this and that. Once, a farmer was complaining that the apples on his trees were not too good. Then, one year, he had very good apples! He had apples in plenty – three times more than the usual crop! Then he started complaining about having too much work to do, about having to pick all those apples, about how many were rotting, and about how the prices had gone down! There’s no end to complaining – but life goes on anyway! It flows like a river. How do you want to live the rest of your life – the remaining thirty, forty or fifty years? Smiling? Or grumbling, feeling horrible about yourself, and blaming the whole world? So the second rule is to be happy and content.
Third is “tapas” – forbearance or penance – meaning, something is uncomfortable, but you still put up with it, happily. It’s like people, who go on marathon walks for 20 miles or 20 kilometres. If we had to simply walk 20 kilometres, we would grumble, but when it’s a marathon, then one says, “Oh! I am going to walk!” Whether you walk in a marathon, or you walk because your car broke down, your legs go through the same pain! But when you think you’re in a marathon, you come back the same, sweating and tired, but with a smile: “Oh! I did it!” This is tapas – willingly taking it.
Suppose you have to travel in a plane for a long time – say eight or ten hours – what do you do? If you were asked to sit for ten hours, you would never do it, but in a plane, there is no way out! You have to sit… with a seat belt! You can watch TV to keep your mind occupied, but you have to sit! So, willingly accepting opposites is tapas. This makes your body and mind strong. Whatever you can change – change. What you cannot change, accept. If it is too cold, put on a sweater. If it is too hot, take off your coat. It’s as simple as that! When it is raining very heavily, and you get wet, in spite of an umbrella – get wet! Tapas. We have to take it. Forbearance.
Fourth is self-study – “swadhyaya”. Observe your mind and see what your mind says, how you behave, how you act, how you feel. Do you feel good? Do you feel bad? If you are feeling bad, just observe, you will start feeling good again. When you are feeling good, observe. All feelings – good or bad – will change. Swadhyaya is self-study, self-observation.
Fifth is “ishwara pranidhaana”, meaning, love for the Divine – surrender to the Divine. When you feel you are totally helpless, you say, “Oh, God! You take whatever it is that I am feeling!”
These are the ten rules (yama + niyama) that make you very strong – that make you whole and complete. If you are clean inside and you’re clean outside, then your mind is clean and free. Put anything that doesn’t feel right, anything that’s bothering you, into the “Botheration Basket (part of Art of Living's Silence Program)” and feel you are cleansed from inside.
To feel clean inside, we have two things – “So Hum” and “So What?!” “So What?!” will certainly work, but if it doesn’t, “So Hum” most definitely will! With “So what?!” or “So Hum”, keep your smile!
