Yoga

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Yoga is a perfect practical system of self-culture. Yoga is an exact

science. It aims at the harmonious development of the body, the mind

and the soul. Yoga is the turning away of the senses from the

objective universe and the concentration of the mind within. Yoga is

eternal life in the soul or spirit. Yoga aims at controlling the mind

and its modifications. The path of Yoga is an inner path whose

gateway is your heart.

 

Yoga is the discipline of the mind, senses and physical body. Yoga

helps in the co-ordination and control of the subtle forces within

the body. Yoga brings in perfection, peace and everlasting happiness.

Yoga can help you in your business and in your daily life. You can

have calmness of mind at all times by the practice of Yoga. You can

have restful sleep. You can have increased energy, vigour, vitality,

longevity and a high standard of health. Yoga transmutes animal

nature into divine nature and raises you to the pinnacle of divine

glory and splendour.

 

The practice of Yoga will help you to control the emotions and

passions and will give you power to resist temptations and to remove

the disturbing elements form mind. It will enable you to keep a

balanced mind always and remove fatigue. It will confer on you

serenity, calmness and wonderful concentration. It will enable you to

hold communion with the Lord and thus attain the summum bonum of

existence.

 

If you want to attain success in Yoga, you will have to abandon all

worldly enjoyments and practise Tapas and Brahmacharya. You will have

to control the mind skilfully and tactfully. You will have to use

judicious and intelligent methods to curb it. If you use force, it

will become more turbulent and mischievous. It cannot be controlled

by force. It will jump and drift away more and more. Those who

attempt to control the mind by force are like those who endeavour to

bind a furious elephant with a thin silken thread.

 

A Guru or preceptor is indispensable for the practice of Yoga. The

aspirant in the path of Yoga should be humble, simple, gentle,

refined, tolerant, merciful and kind. If you have a curiosity to get

psychic powers, you cannot have success in Yoga. Yoga does not

consist in sitting cross-legged for six hours or stopping the pulse

or beatings of the heart or getting oneself buried underneath the

ground for a week or a month.

 

Self-sufficiency, impertinence, pride, luxury, name, fame, self-

assertive nature, obstinacy, idea of superiority, sensual desires,

evil company, laziness, overeating, overwork, too much mixing and too

much talking are some of the obstacles in the path of Yoga. Admit

your faults freely. When you are free from all these evil traits,

Samadhi or union will come by itself.

 

Practise Yama and Niyama. Sit comfortably in Padma or Siddhasana.

Restrain the breath. Withdraw the senses. Control the thoughts.

Concentrate. Meditate and attain Asamprajnata or Nirvikalpa Samadhi

(union with the Supreme Self).

 

May you shine as a brilliant Yogi by the practice of Yoga! May you

enjoy the bliss of the Eternal!

 

(Source: Essence of Yoga by Sri Swami Sivananda)