Inside Yoga 25

Category : General advice, Philosophy 11th March 2011

(First published 5/10/09)

In the second chapter of Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, called Sadhanapada, the yoga master describes the “qualities necessary to change the mind effectively and gradually from a state of distraction to one of attention.”

Patanjali’s short aphoristic sentences are designed to guide the student, to stimulate reflection and inquiry into the practice and our relationship with it.

The first verse, according to TKV Desikachar’s interpretation, states that the practice of Yoga must reduce both physical and mental impurities. It must develop our capacity for self-examination and help us to understand that, in the final analysis, we are not masters of everything we do.

In Sanskrit, the text reads: tapahsvadhyayesvarapranidhanani kriyayogah.

The key words used in this verse are tapah, which refers to heat or burning zeal to practice; svadhyaya, which means self-study; isvara pranidhanani, which for some is surrender to God, or surrendering to a universal power or force, and for others acceptance of powers beyond our control – whatever that might be in our belief system.

And the last words, kriyayogah refers to yoga of action. In other words, none of the above will happen unless we take action ourselves. This is a crucial element of yoga and one of the reasons I was attracted to it in the first place; and that yoga is a self-empowering practice. Yoga gives me a guide and a method, and then it’s up to me to put it into practice and to reap its rewards.

This could feel quite daunting to some people, left alone to find your way, but to me, this is a liberating feature – that I am free to make my way down this path and no one is doing the journey for me. All I have is a guide.

Going back to the verse, Desikachar elaborates: “If the practice of Yoga does not help us remove the symptoms and causes of our physical and mental problems, it cannot lead us on to discovering our inner being and does not lead to understanding the nature and quality of actions.”

It is a subtle and paradoxical teaching. On one hand, we are guided that we have the means to achieve what we seek and on the other hand, warned that ultimately we must not take the fruits of our actions for granted, that some things are beyond our control. It allows us to realise that our efforts must be measured and done with a degree of detachment – to outcome and finality.

For example, we enter and hold a physical yoga posture, using the techniques the teacher has taught us and the lessons we have learnt from our own practice, we apply the effort to get the best result – this being the tapah or heat of practice – and then we allow ourselves to surrender to the asana. This is when we open our hearts and minds to the unknown, to see how we are in that present moment. To see what happens.

We might have been in this yoga posture a thousand times, but we need to approach it as if it is the first. In fact, if we think about it, this is the first time. The next moment has never happened before – every second is fresh and new. Consequently, every second we hold a yoga posture is the first time. This is a form of surrender; allowing ourselves to watch and observe without trying to dictate an outcome.

Through this ability to stay in the present moment, we can cultivate detachment. The opposite, attachment, is where problems lie – where things can go wrong. Where we can become obsessed and cut off from reality – attached to an outcome we seek. Hence the caution, that we achieve an acceptance of powers beyond our control.



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