Celebrating The First International Day of Yoga

MENTAL PROCESSES IN YOGA
really use and what makes him or her happy. It is a very efficient
exercise in austerity to devote time to someone else. In this way
the egoism, which veils the intuition, is reduced. If we still think
that we have “no time for Yoga”, then it is even more austerity
to give this apparently non-existent time to others.
“It requires mental training to keep your
balance, which in turn needs energy,
and that energy can be drawn from the
practice of asanas and pranayama.”
Another remarkable exercise of spiritual practice consists
in taking a few minutes to see the relativity of things and their
finite nature. It is the choice of seeing the glass half full or half
empty. If intuition is covered by egoism, then the glass will
always be “half empty” because greed has taken the upper
hand and always wants more and more for oneself. But once
you have determined that the car in the garage is not the basis
for your happiness, you have taken a major step.
Yoga is a science, because we experiment with ourselves.
Therefore it has nothing to do with religion, but rather with
an attitude not to resign oneself to negative thinking and to
cultivate the power for personal change instead. It all happens
only on the mental plane. Outwardly the same things may
happen as before: you get sick, you lose the job, etc., but the
way you deal with it has changed, by the yogic thinking, which
was developed step-by-step. This is one of the most important
aspects of the yoga practice and does not require time. All it
needs is strength.
It is said that the seekers of self-realisation find intuitive
knowledge of who we really are and what is really going on
in this universe. These intuitive revelations are the source
of the yogic scriptures: the Vedas, the various Upanishads
or the Bhagavad Gita. They tell us that we have a great potential,
that there is great wisdom within us, and that this great bliss,
ananda, may be experienced. That is the overwhelming
message of the scriptures: Yoga can be experienced.
However, it requires a change of lifestyle, a transformation
of habits. Actually the entire way of life has to be reviewed.
Those who deal exclusively with the things which can be
experienced by the senses, are veiled by the Unreal, by Maya,
the illusion of life. Those who look beyond these things, turn
to the Higher, the Divine. The inner path begins when the
question arises: “Who am I? What is the meaning of all this?”
It is really all about personal practice. Swami Vishnudevananda
often told a joke which contains a lot of truth: I am posting a
sign next to my bed or in the bathroom which says: “Tomorrow
I will practice asanas.” Each time you read it, it says “tomorrow“.
We get entangled in many worldly concerns and it becomes
difficult to untie the knot. Only practice helps. The longer we
practice with sincerity, the easier it becomes to open the knot.
This condition of the human mind regarding this situation has
hardly changed over the centuries. So many spiritual practices
have already been offered and so many really fantastic masters
have walked on this earth, but if the respective era is over, it is
only history. In this regard, Swami Sivananda clearly emphasised:
“Do not make a religion out of me, be practitioners.”
Getting oneself entangled in this way happens again and
again, so there is no need to feel inferior and think that you are
the only one to whom this happens. The whole of humanity
gets itself entangled again and again. We live in this world in
order to learn not to get ourselves entangled, and to recognise
the entanglement and how to get out of it. In this respect the
objects of the world serve as a training ground. The objects
exist in order to learn how to renounce them. This is the inner
path, the necessity of the inner practice.
Many practitioners do recognise the entanglement, but do
not understand that this is a recurring normality. Therefore they
say “I'm not yet ready for this.” It is recommended to be gentle
with oneself when the entanglement comes up again, to look
ahead and not to fall into apathy and lethargy, to become sleepy
and disinterested with regard to the question “Who am I?”.
Swami Vishnudevananda often said that many people are
actually in a permanent state of sleep with open eyes. It is true
that often life situations lead to apathy and disinterest. One is
only interested in one’s own area, quickly closes the door and
thinks: “Let them all do what they want.” We are lacking
strength and this sleepiness is often enhanced by dietary habits,
alcohol and the lifestyle in general. The time available to
actually educate oneself and to be awake is quite short in one
lifetime. During the four week yoga Teachers’ Training course
one can see how much one is capable of achieving in a short
period of time. This has to be experienced directly. Theoretical
study of books cannot give this knowledge. Yoga provides an
experience that you did not know before, and this experience
is based on one’s own practice.
It is about the experience of real happiness that is independent
of external things. It is good to remember this, so that yoga is
not used exclusively on the material level, for example, to look
slimmer, to be more successful or to be more relaxed. When
it is seen that this inner happiness cannot be equated with
money and success, then one is ready to make changes in life
by making it a bit simpler.
With this the confidence in the Sadhana will grow. With
practice comes experience. This goes beyond belief. You do not
believe that yoga is good for you, you know it. This makes you
more awake and younger. It may take a while until you have
found your path and the right teaching lineage. Therefore Swami
Sivananda says that perseverance is especially important.
The five points defined by Swami Vishnudevananda appear
simple and below the intellectual capacities of even a beginner
student. But it may actually take years until you come to under -
stand that these five points contain a profound wisdom. It may
well happen that one gives up the practice too early, because
one does not want to hear or read always the same instructions.
There is a lack of perseverance to wait and allow something
to develop. The teachings have to become interwoven with daily
life and that happens only through persistent practice. There
is no way around it. n
Taken from lectures given by Swami Durgananda in February
2015 at the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres in Vienna,
Berlin and Reith near Kitzbühel, Tyrol, Austria.
Swami Durgananda is Yoga Acharya (spiritual director)
of the Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Centres in Europe.
e-mail: SwamiDurgananda@sivananda.net
10 YOGALife |Autumn/Winter 2015