The tradition of yoga began many thousands of years ago. It was started by rishis who were following a specific lifestyle. The lifestyle that the rishis or renunciates in the past used to follow was based on vedic and vedantic principles. Yoga developed as an aid to connect with the idea of Vedanta. What is Vedanta? It literally means ‘the end of knowledge’. Where does knowledge end? When you are able to transcend the duality in life, and experience unity or oneness with the higher nature. That is the theory of Vedanta – recognize the good quality in everyone, inspire people to follow the path of dharma, inspire people to develop viveka or discrimination, vairagya or dispassion, inspire people to practise yoga and meditation and encourage people to cultivate faith and belief in the higher reality. In this way, in the ancient times rishis defined Vedanta or vedic teachings, so that one could ultimately rise above the consciousness of duality and become one with and merge with transcendental reality. If you keep this in mind, then the purpose of yoga becomes clear. Yoga becomes an aid to attain what is stated by the vedic or the vedantic philosophy.
People in society look at yoga as a practice, however yoga has two different parts or compartments. One is the practice and the other is the lifestyle. Every yoga from hatha yoga to kriya yoga, laya yoga, nada yoga, whichever yoga you name, they will always have these two components – the practice and something that you can incorporate in your lifestyle to aid the practice. What do we incorporate in our lifestyle? What is its purpose? The purpose is to develop awareness and create an attitudinal, positive change in mind, thought, behaviour, in responses and actions; to overcome the tamasic influences and expressions that are natural to us in life.
This is quite obvious. You have not gone to any school or you have not asked any teacher or guru how to cultivate anger, jealousy or hatred. However, you do ask a teacher or guru, ‘How can I become more compassionate? How can I become more kind? How can I become more loving?’ Why do you ask that? It indicates that these qualities are not your natural expression.
The natural expression in life is what you experience every day: anger, hatred, jealousy and discontentment. Whatever traits you experience in the course of the day represent the tamasic behaviour of the individual. If you shout, that is a tamasic expression; if you scream and yell, that is a tamasic expression. It is an expression which you are not able to control, despite knowing that you should not yell or scream. It is natural. To be nasty is easy, but to be kind is difficult. It is difficult to be compassionate and kind. That is an indication that the natural expression of our personality is tamasic. When we seek the positive and sattwic, we ask, ‘How do I do that?’ as it is not a natural expression, yet when we adopt positive attitudes, there is a complete change in our life.
Therefore, every yoga has two compartments. The practice: you can mechanically practise all the techniques of yoga, and many do that. For decades they practise without awareness, without any change in attitude, without trying to improve the performance of the senses and mind, without improving the performance of emotions. Practice is happening, but there is no change in lifestyle. You are still in the same spot. You may become more flexible and loose physically, yet your mind is still that same wild-natured mind.
How does yoga deal with this aspect? The answer is simple – along with the practice of yoga, you also have to work with your own mind; you have to work with your awareness; you have to work with your attitude and your responses; you have to work to remain more connected with the positive, and less with the negative. This is the reason or the purpose why yamas and niyamas are given in every yoga.
When we start our education, it is not the university which is important, but the primary school. It is in the primary school that you learn how to recognize a-b-c-d, write a-b-c-d, combine them to make small words, combine those to make larger sentences. The basic skill which helps you study in higher education is acquired in the primary class. That is the system.
Hatha yoga is like that primary class; without perfecting hatha yoga even yogis do not go to the other yogas. Our whimsical mind says, ‘Okay, I have done this; let me try this today, let me try that tomorrow.’ Whereas yogis always say, ‘Perfect one thing first, then move to the other.’ This perfection in hatha yoga is the initial learning, so that one can easily go through the other classes of raja yoga and other higher yogas. Therefore, to create balance in our lifestyle, to improve our lifestyle and learn to live better, there are twenty yamas and twenty niyamas in hatha yoga. They are not defined separately like they have been defined in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali have a separate chapter on yama and niyama. The yamas and niyamas of Patanjali are not relevant for hatha yoga, they are relevant only for raja yoga as all of them deal with mental behaviour.
When we come to hatha yoga, you will find modifications or changes in our lifestyle, and they are represented as yama and niyama. As an example, mitahara is one of the rules of hatha yoga. Mitahara means balanced eating, not stuffing yourself, but eating enough so that maximum energy can be taken from the nourishment, with minimum effort from the body. People who have practised hatha yoga are not aware of this simple niyama of mitahara, or having balanced food habits. This balanced food habit is connected to lifestyle, it is connected to your routine; not only to your breakfast, lunch and dinner, but also what you do during the day. It is an awareness that extends through the whole day and possibly until midnight as well. There are many people who like to eat at midnight, open the fridge, take out things, eat and then sleep.
People talk of the yamas and niyamas of raja yoga, but who speaks of the yamas and niyamas of hatha yoga? The hatha yoga yamas are similar to the raja yoga yamas. In fact, one could say that from the hatha yoga selection, Patanjali has chosen a few to incorporate in raja yoga. The hatha yoga yamas also begin with ahimsa, satya, asteya, brahmacharya – these four are common. Then hatha yoga moves on to kshama, forgiveness. It is an aspect of mental awareness and attitude, so that you are more in control of your reactions and responses so that they are not unconscious. They come into the conscious field of awareness and you are able to manage them in a better manner. Rather than becoming subject to those unconscious emotions and reacting, you are developing the attitude of forgiveness.
Dhriti, endurance, is a yama related to asana. For instance, if you are in the final posture, there should be the capacity to hold and endure the posture. In the 1970s, when Sri Swamiji used to teach us yoga, during the practice of asanas when we were adopting one pose, he would ask us to hold that pose until he went to each one and corrected the posture. Now imagine our group of 300 people here. All of you have to hold one pose and I go around to each one, correcting your posture. How long will you be in that posture? Sometimes half an hour, sometimes twenty minutes. We were able to perfect the posture in one class due to our endurance.
We had to develop endurance, we had to be in that posture because the guru was watching and we could not move, we could not shift, we could not change. We were all attentive and that developed physical endurance. No matter what the asana was, even chakrasana, the wheel pose, which people can only perform for maybe ten seconds, we had to hold it for a long period until he came to check it. By that time, we had found a way to adjust our body so we were comfortable. The first ten minutes used to be difficult, but then the resilience of the body used to kick in and it was a perfect posture, not that we had to try for months to come to that stage. Of course, another big factor was that we were pliable and young, not stiff and advanced in age. So that helped. The aspect of endurance, sustaining a posture for a longer period, has to be there.
Then comes sthairyam, steadiness, and dhairyam, patience. One should be patient and allow the body to adjust to a posture, not push or demand from the body. One should allow the natural flow of the body and follow that with patience. Then there is daya, compassion; arjavam, straightforwardness; mitahara, balanced or moderate diet; shaucha, cleanliness; manahprasad, happiness; mouna, keeping silence; indriya nigraha, restraint of the senses. Then there is dakshinyam, politeness, which is interesting. If you are practising yoga or you are starting to practise yoga, you should also develop politeness. It is an awareness of mind, it is a change of attitude, it is a change of perspective. Not only politeness, but maardavam, gentleness. This is followed by bhava shuddhi, purity of emotion, and vairagya, detachment.
Out of the twenty niyamas of hatha yoga, some are tapas, self-discipline; santosha, contentment; daanam, charity, ishwara poojanam, worshipping of God; hri, modesty; mati, discerning intelligence; pratyaksha, acceptance; japa, mantra repetition; hutam, sacrifice of ego for spiritual experience. These are some of the niyamas which have been defined in hatha yoga. They are definitely not a moral code of conduct or ethics propagated by yoga, as many western commentators write. The yamas and niyamas are connected to the development of a better quality of nature and character.
These twenty yamas and twenty niyamas of hatha yoga represent the lifestyle component. If you adopt one yama and one niyama per month, in twenty months you would have perfected hatha yoga, because each one of these yamas and niyamas helps to prepare your body and your mind, to receive the benefits of hatha yoga. I am telling you today that yoga is not only practice, but a major component of yoga is lifestyle.
19 November 2024, Third Munger Yoga Symposium