Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati
6 June 2014, Kathmandu, Nepal
The mind is influenced by six expressions: kama, passion and desire is one, and everybody has desires; krodha, aggression and anger; lobha, greed; moha, infatuation – all these are in everyone; so is mada, ego or pride; and matsarya, jealousy, which also exists in everyone. These six traits define the behaviour of the mind in everybody's life. People speak of tension, stress and anxiety, and they try to deal with these, but they are not dealing with the cause of tension, stress and anxiety.
It is just as in medicine: if people have hypertension, they take a tablet to bring down the hypertension, however, they do not treat the cause of hypertension. For diabetes they take tablets or insulin injections to increase the output of insulin, yet there is no treatment to rectify the imbalance, for the body to again produce insulin. This is where yoga becomes most effective, for it allows the body to regain its health.
The same applies to the mind. When we speak of stress and tension, where are they arising from? When our desires are unfulfilled, that is a cause of stress. We relate stress to either work, family or the social environment or situation, yet they are only trigger points for bringing out these traits of the mind.
Dissatisfaction comes when desires or expectations are not fulfilled and becomes the cause of stress. Dissatisfaction comes when we are not able to manage our aggression and that becomes the cause of anxiety and tension. Therefore, when we are looking at the root cause of stress and tension, we discover that they emanate from one of the six tendencies or behaviours of the mind.
When we teach yoga, whether to adults or to children, our approach is not only physical; it also allows them to become self-observant, to recognize their reactions and responses, and to manage their uncontrolled and unguided reactions and responses in a better manner. Once that happens, they become free from the direct effect and influence of these mental behaviours and discover their own peace and creativity.
It is not the physical posture which is changing the human nature; it is not the mental practice which is changing the human nature; it is becoming aware of the environment and how one responds to different situations in life. The essence of yoga lies in giving one the ability to respond in an appropriate, harmonious, constructive and positive manner even in a destructive and deteriorating situation.
Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati
What kind of sadhana should you perform so that yoga becomes an integral part of your life? The biggest obstacle in this attempt is that you believe you need to take time out to be able to practise yoga. Not at all. To learn yoga, yes, but not to live it as a lifestyle. As a lifestyle, it becomes a regular part of your behaviour, something that you do not even need to think about. A musician will hear music in the hammering of a nail into the wall. Someone who is proficient in a subject will bring it into every experience of his life. Slowly, as you practise these yogas, little changes begin to come into your life, which will eventually lead to a change in your lifestyle. Then, you will begin to live yoga as a lifestyle.
When you go to school, you study and pass your exams, your lifestyle changes. As you grow up, your thoughts, intellect and viewpoint change. This is called maturity. You say that the person has become an adult. It is the same with yoga.
When you perform your actions with patience and endurance, and your behaviour reflects these qualities, then you are called a karma yogi. Similarly, when you use your common sense and are practical in life, then you become a jnana yogi. When you do not get carried away by your emotions, then you are called a bhakti yogi. This is yoga sadhana. That is how yoga has to be experienced in life.
Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati,
10 August 2014, Ganga Darshan Vishwa Yoga Peeth, Munger
How to experience and express yoga? There has to be a process by which you experience something, and after experiencing it, express it. Experiencing, realizing, knowing is one aspect where one becomes fulfilled, and after the personal fulfillment one is expressing, giving, sharing and helping others achieve the same fulfillment in their life. These two aspects have to go together: experience and expression.
People misunderstand yoga. They believe experience is the ultimate and expression is the normal behaviour of society, marital life, social life, or stressful life. Externally nothing changes. They live in society, their family, their environment and profession, yet internally they want to experience samadhi. They are only looking at the experience aspect and people have never looked at the expressive aspect, so even the search that people have in spiritual life is only a partial search: to experience something different to their normal condition or state.
Yoga provides the process of experiencing through hatha yoga, raja yoga, kriya yoga. Hatha yoga for annamaya kosha, pranamaya kosha; raja yoga for manomaya kosha, vijnanamaya kosha; and kriya yoga for anandamaya kosha.
The sequence of hatha yoga, raja yoga, leading into kriya yoga is the experiential aspect. The expressive aspect is Swami Sivananda's 'serve, love, give': to serve is karma yoga; to love is bhakti yoga, and to give is jnana yoga. Without understanding, without knowing, you cannot help anybody, you cannot give anything to anybody. Jnana, the awaking of awareness, perception, understanding and wisdom, leads to the nature of giving and sharing. Bhakti leads to the cultivation of the pure sentiment of love, union and oneness. Karma yoga is harmony of action, what you express. These three are the expressive yogas, while the previous three become the experiencing yogas.
The combination of the two aspects and the six yogas is what completes the cycle of human experience in this life. From this perspective yoga must be understood as a process that leads one through the experience of positive change and stability and allows one to express the creative and the harmonious.
Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati,
27 January 2017, Ganga Darshan Vishwa Yoga Peeth, Munger
In reality, the purpose of yoga is twofold: one is expansion of consciousness and the other is liberation of energy. People think, ‘Oh if I meditate expansion of consciousness will happen’. They retain this idea of expanding the consciousness by simply observing themselves for ten or fifteen minutes during the meditative practice. They don’t think of expanding that awareness into the normal day-to-day, moment to moment activities of the entire period of the day.
In lifestyle the focus is to extend awareness into the normal routine, learn it through practice and extend it into daily life. Ultimately, one has to integrate the principles of yoga and awareness into life, not only into meditation, asana and pranayama.
Therefore, whatever you do, your focus should be to include and incorporate the ideas of yoga, the principles, the practices, the yamas and niyamas of yoga, in whatever manner possible in your life. Start with the first yama of being happy, of happiness, manah prasad. Be happy and extend the moment of happiness from a five-second smile to a six-second smile tomorrow, to seven seconds the day after until you get a fixed grin on your face. In this way you extend the moments of happiness.
Even that first yama is a big achievement and attainment. What will it do? It will improve your life, it will improve your mind, it will improve your energy, stamina and mood. There will be an overall change. The same applies to the other things you do, your asana, your pranayama. If you do it at the right time, in the right manner, benefits will be derived.
