The foundation of yoga is spiritual experience, not in abstract terms, but in very clear and precise terms. One day my guru, Swami Satyananda, gave me the duty of looking after the ashram garden while he was away on tour. I was seven or eight at the time and undertook the duty to the best of my ability. When he returned, he asked me what had happened, because all the trees, plants, flowers and fruits had dried up. I told him that every day I had dusted the leaves, removed the insects, smelt the flowers and polished the fruits until they shone. My guru said, “I appreciate your efforts, but just answer one question: did you water the plants?”
That was my first lesson about yoga and spiritual life and about this physical life. My teacher explained that the important part of a tree is not the external part that we see, but the roots which are underground and invisible. The roots sustain the tree and as long as they are nourished, the tree can face any situation, but if the roots are neglected and forgotten, the tree will become weak and fall down in a tempest. Our life is also like that because we identify with the body, senses, mind and emotions, which are the external manifestations of our personality. We ignore and are not aware of the greater potential that exists within us, which is recognized as spirit.
Spirit is not something abstract and vague, but part of the evolution of consciousness. Life is a process of constant evolution at different levels. Evolution is the outcome of a focused and illuminated mind. We all come with the same possibilities. God has been very generous to us. We have within us the same qualities as Christ and Buddha had. The only difference is that they were experimenting with those qualities and we have ignored that aspect of our life. They were continually refining themselves while we have stagnated at one point. This is the barrier we all face as human beings, the limitation that we cannot overcome in our lives.
When yoga appeared, it was to discover that inner potential, which is spiritual, not material. At the same time, those who developed yoga realized that growth had to take place in all dimensions of existence. The body needs to be harmonized so that it can manage illness, disease and physical stress. To manage physical imbalances, the physical postures were developed, which have become famous worldwide. Many people do them as stretching exercises or as aerobic exercises to experience lightness in the body and freedom from tension and tightness. Physical harmony will alter and influence the activity of the brain, and this cerebral and physical harmony will alter the mental behaviour. In the process of harmonizing the personality, the mind also comes in tune with its inner strengths. This is the beginning of yoga.
The classical literature states that yoga begins with mind management. It does not say that self-realization is the aim of yoga, but clearly states that the aim is managing the mental behaviour. Desiring self-realization is like a blind man wanting to see the sun when his real need is for eyesight with which he can see not only the sun, but the entire creation in its full glory. If my need is to obtain vision, then in terms of yoga my aim becomes to prepare and transform myself, to change my nature and the restrictive components of my life. How we can realize and manage our mind, body and emotions is the main theme of yoga. The rest is only the outcome of this harmony.
In the past, this concept was not made clear by yoga teachers and therefore yoga was seen as a mystical, abstract subject. Fifty years ago, yoga was not well known, even in India. In the 1960s it began to be propagated by those who realized that yoga was the need of people everywhere, then and in the future. Awareness of yoga became more widespread. At the same time, there were many taboos associated with yoga because nobody really knew what yoga was. To play safe, people only practised the physical aspect because the body felt light, vibrant and energetic. That is how hatha yoga first became popular. Today there are many brands of hatha yoga around the world, and most people only understand the physical aspect. Yoga was practised in this way until approximately the end of the twentieth century. Integral yoga: head, heart and hands.
At that time an important event took place in the history of yoga. A yoga university was established in India. This was the fulfilment of an idea conceived of by Swami Sivananda, who was a medical doctor and a philosopher. He believed that yoga should be established in scientific terms and that people should understand the practical and scientific aspects as well as the philosophical and abstract aspects of yoga. Swami Sivananda’s vision was carried forward and developed by my guru, Swami Satyananda.
Swami Satyananda was one of the first exponents of yoga to incorporate the mental, psychological and psychic aspects for personality transformation, for the management of physical, psycho logical and spiritual imbalances. He also propagated how yoga could be applied in society. This is called integral yoga or Satyananda Yoga. The main theme of integral Satyananda Yoga is awakening the faculties of head, heart and hands. The head represents intelligence, wisdom, know ledge, understanding, awareness and observation. The heart represents feelings, emotions and sentiments. The hands re pre sent the ability to act, to perform and to create. The ability to manage these three components of our life is the need of the twenty-first century, because this balance will make a person complete.
19 May 2005, Santillana Foundation, Bogotá, Colombia