The Qualifications for a Student of Yoga

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The Qualifications for a Student of Yoga By Sri Swami Sivananda

 

Life is the greatest of all teachers and this earth is its school. Truly, the

world is the best school. All its lessons are taught through the book of nature.

Nature everywhere abounds with such lofty lessons which alone are quite

sufficient to bestow the highest wisdom to man. Each day is a valuable page in

this book and each thing and natural phenomena embodies a lesson to one who

observes and reflects. And if you carefully analyse and reflect upon every

phenomenon of nature, you will find that they all speak of the glory of God, the

grandeur of the inner spiritual life; a life of unalloyed peace, bliss and

perennial happiness,—yes, it urges you to launch upon the actual Sadhana to make

you happy and to free you from grief, affliction and sorrow.

 

All the ancient saints and seers—the men of God who have had intuition—have been

declaring to all the mankind the great bliss, the vast power and knowledge that

can be experienced if only man would turn from sensual, the sinful life and

strive for the higher divine life. Yet we see today that man is as much

immersed—if not more—in worldliness as he was centuries ago and the state of

mankind is as apathetic and lethargic towards these questions of a `life' in the

Spirit as it was in the beginning of creation. Why is it that in spite of the

clarion call of very many great seers, of the confident assurance of the

scriptures, of the repeated experience of man himself in failing miserably to

attain happiness amidst external physical world, you are again and again being

deceived? Why is it that man has not yet learnt to take to Sadhana? Because he

does not have a deep and abiding faith in the admonitions of saints, in the

scriptures, in the words of those who have trodden the path and attained the

goal. If only man did really believe in these great ones, he would certainly be

induced to act up to their words. It is this basic lack of faith in man that is

at the root of his failure to do Sadhana.

 

Thus, if only man has faith in spiritual course of action, he will act up to it.

If a man has to take up Sadhana, if he really wants to obtain this bliss which

is not mixed with pain, he will certainly have to repose in faith. The entire

social structure and order upon which mankind smoothly runs is based upon faith

in mankind which is but a passing phenomenon, why should you not put faith upon

the very Creator of these things? Thus you see that the first quality you have

to acquire is faith.

 

Now comes the question that having first of all full faith in the words of the

seers and realised the necessity of Sadhana, what is the procedure, what is to

be done? You may have faith, but if you do not put them into practice—if you do

not begin to translate them into action, they will ever remain plans in the

blueprint stage. So, after the faith in Sadhana comes practice. You must set

about doing. No question of believing. A belief must become on act. Having

reposed faith in the words of sages and scriptures, you begin doing Sadhana.

 

Once you commence Sadhana, the next important thing you should bear in mind is

that you should not give it up. Perseverance is of the utmost importance. All

process in this universe are gradual. They have got stages. If you want to go

through all the stages of Sadhana and attain the goal, you must have patience

and perseverance. Therefore, you should have to always persevere, exert and plod

on till the goal is reached.

 

There is another important point that in spiritual Sadhana you should not merely

be contented with the positive forces. There are active forces that oppose the

Sadhak, that actually assail him and pull him down. Herein comes the necessity

of the fourth important weapon—that is fortitude. While persevering man has to

have a little courage, not to be easily shaken by the obstacles that assail him.

He will have to brave the storm and proceed in spite of the difficulties and

adverse conditions, trying to cow him down, to push him off from the path of

Sadhana. It is with this fortitude he refuses to be discouraged and relying upon

the inner Self he proceeds with the Sadhana, and ultimately he attains the ideal

for which he has taken this birth upon earth; and while going through the

process he will have to see that he keeps in mind the necessity of giving minute

attention to all the small details upon the path, because in every process all

such small details of the process are to be attended to, very carefully. If any

small detail is left out, thinking that it is a superfluous, he will find that

ultimately he has lost his valuable time and labour. This delays progress. It is

the conglomeration of small things that go to achieve high ideals.

 

Therefore, with firm faith, practical application, perseverance, careful

attention to even small details and fortitude in trials, you must set foot and

proceed on the path of Sadhana.

 

Raise aloft that banner of the Divine Life. Feel all humanity to be one and

spread the message of man's divinity, the message of brotherhood and cosmic

love, to every home and broadcast them to all. Ever assert your divinity every

moment of your life. Ever strive to live in the consciousness that you are

essentially divine and you have been given this human birth only to recognise

your essential divine nature.