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HOW TO BE A YOGI
24 HOURS A DAY
The secrets of the ancient science of yoga were passed
down from our rishis, saints and sages who came to these
very Himalayas for divine inspiration. Through their
meditation, austerities and prayers, a treasure-chest of wisdom
was bestowed upon them for the benefit of humanity.
Yoga is not a religion. It does not require you to believe in
a certain God or to chant certain mantras. It is an ancient
science which leads to health in the body, peace in the
mind, joy in the heart and liberation of the soul.
These days people take yoga classes to learn all about the
various techniques of asanas, of pranayama, of meditation.
But yoga is more than that. Yoga is a way of life, and its
teachings should penetrate every aspect of your being –
from your actions to your speech to your thoughts.
meditation? How to practice yoga in the grocery store?
How to live like a yogi in your family, in your work place,
when you are stuck in traffic?
Yoga is an eight-fold path. Asana is one part; pranayama
is another; meditation is still another. Two other aspects of
this path are called yama and niyama. These can be loosely
translated as righteous living. These are the rules for life.
By following these moral, ethical, and spiritual guidelines,
one’s entire life becomes yoga.
In general, yama is exercising restraint over our lower,
baser, animal-like instincts, for instance, overcoming greed,
lust, anger, and envy, and definitely never acting based
on these impulses. Niyama can be seen as the embrace of
higher, spiritual, humane values, for instance, being
generous and selfless, cultivating piety, devotion,
compassion, loyalty and humility.
I am not going to go into the details of yama and niyama
as these are complex concepts deserving their own articles
and books. However, they can be summed up as “do good
and be good; do divine and be divine; have the Lord’s
name in your heart and on your lips, and do His work
with your hands.”
An asana session has a beginning and an end. You start at
8:00 for instance, and you finish at 9:00. Your pranayama
has a beginning and an end. You start at, say, 6:00 and
you finish at 7:00. Even meditation – at least in the begin-
These moral and ethical principles affect us whether we
ning – has a fixed starting point and a fixed ending point.
believe in them or not. People may say, “But, I’m not
You sit in meditation for a certain number of minutes or
Indian” or “I’m not Hindu, so I don’t have to follow these
hours each day.
ethical laws.” However, this is not true. As I mentioned,
yoga is not a religion. That means NONE of the eight
But, what about the rest of the time? How to live yoga
aspects depends upon one’s spiritual belief system. Just as
even when you are not doing asanas, pranayama and
shirshasana is beneficial whether one “believes” in it or
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