NEW HORIZONS OF YOGA   Swami Satyananda Saraswati

Laymen have very vague, and often strange, ideas on yoga. But even those who have some knowledge of this ancient science and have come into practical contact with it, often find it difficult to appreciate some of its more obvious truths; indeed, a few of the ideas propounded here may appear to be new and will very likely uproot many pet theories on yoga.

What are these new ideas? Firstly, it is not essential to leave one’s house or go into oblivion to practice yoga. It is about time we discarded the belief that only renunciate’s or monks (sannyasins) are fit to practice yoga. Secondly, marital relations do not present any obstacle in the practice of yoga. Thirdly, non-vegetarians need not give up their food habits just because they have taken to yoga. The real aim of yoga is, indeed, to attain peace and tranquillity within. For attaining this, you need not give up any of your normal ways of living. Running away from the difficulties of life is not the way to deliverance.

The battlefield of life is not illusory. It may be illusory to the philosopher; his world is one of imagination and his feet are not firmly planted on the ground. Yoga is practical and has nothing to do with the philosophical flights of fancy. Never believe for a moment that a householder’s station in life is inferior and that a renunciate’s or monk’s superior, and let no woman thinks that her status in life is inferior to that of man. Yoga has a special role to play in the world of today. Its practice alone can remove mental and physical afflictions. It can bring joy to our hearths and homes. Yoga does not lay down extraordinary conditions of self-discipline and behaviour patterns. You can continue enjoying the good things of life and still be a yogi; nor, indeed, is it necessary to give up worldly ambitions or material aspirations to take to the yogic way of life. One need not, however, become a slave of one’s desires. Those who sincerely practice yoga remain undisturbed like an ocean, which receives the turbulent waters of in-rushing rivers. While enjoying sense gratifications a yogi is careful not to allow them to over power him. It does not help to despise life. There is no virtue in retiring to the woods and sitting enchanted in the solitary grandeur of Samadhi (self-equilibrium).

Heroism lies in remaining steadfast in the tumult of life even when the scales are heavily loaded against us, and in attaining the Samadhi of equilibrium in the midst of all odds. A physician who wants only healthy persons for his patients is no physician. Likewise, if yoga were to work its wonders only on the physically and mentally fit, it would cease to be an amazing science of life; its scope would be very much limited. It being a highly rational science, yoga can benefit all people under all circumstances of life. After the daily round of mental and physical tail, it can bring back resilience and vigour and restore equipoise.

For worldly men life is a continuous sacrifice. Their labours to keep the home fire burning, their activities to discharge social, national and international responsibilities are oblations. Once this truth is understood, the vision of self-realization can be kept undimmed even in the midst of unremitting hard work enjoined by one’s station in life. Ceaseless activity in the turmoil of life takes its own toll. Anxieties, frustrations, exhaustion of mind and body and all these accelerate the ageing process.

Yoga is a powerful remedy against these forces of destruction. Is life-long celibacy a sine qua non, notwithstanding what the wise yogis of old have declared, for the pursuit of the soul-lifting science of yoga? The answer is no. Age also is no barrier. Whether one is on the threshold of life, or in the spring of youthfulness or has yielded to the venerable ness of old age, anyone can learn yoga. In yoga there are no limiting factors.

Yoga does not mean solely the Ashtanga yoga (yoga of the eightfold path) described in the Yogic Scriptures. Simple practices such as a regular course of asana (yogic postures), pranayama (yogic breathing exercise), japa (repetition of a mantra), nada yoga (yoga of sound) and trataka (yogic gazing, akin to crystal gazing) are also very effective.

Karma yoga, bhakti yoga, gyana yoga and raja yoga are all different facets of yoga. Music being an integral part of it, bhakti yoga has a soothing effect on the bottled-up emotions and a fevered mind. Why go that far? Life itself is yoga. Our day-to-day work is yoga. The field is vast and inviting. Let the thrill and quiver of yoga transform all our activities in life. In the snares and pitfalls of life, one cannot allow oneself to be divorced from reality.

Patanjali’s yamas (moral abstinences) and niyamas (observances of conduct or character), as popularly interpreted, were for an age that is gone and done with. The simple adamantine fact is that they have no place, if professed according to these interpretations, in the world of today. In the good old days the air that our ancestors breathed was full of these virtues. The vitiated air that we breathe today is full of falsehoods, violence and countless other imperfections. Truth (satya), non- injury (ahimsa), etc., are admittedly forces of great potency, but they are so only if one practices them to perfection in obedience to an inner compulsion. Yoga is not concerned with the cultivation of impossible virtues. We had better leave them to the moralist.

Yoga is a rational science with technical systems for stilling the turbulent mind, for harnessing the physical and mental energies and for maintaining resilience. In a word, yoga aims at developing an integrated personality. The best way to achieve this is a synthesis of bhakti, karma, gyana and raja yoga. Man should not be all intellect; he should not be all emotion. There should be a happy blend of both; otherwise, there will be no peace in his life.

The word yoga is of great significance. It is derived from the Sanskrit root yuj (unite). Yoga means union, identification. Identify with the joys and sorrows of everyone, extend your horizons, live above the pettiness of life. If you take yoga in this sense, it ceases to be individualistic. Just as a mother and child have emotional identification, so should you have an emotional integration with all around you. Yoga stands for both physical and mental well-being. It comes to suffering humanity as a blessing in the guise of psychosomatic treatment. It comes to the seekers of truth as the shortest cut to God-realization. Indeed, yoga is a blueprint of perfection. You can consider it as a program, a method and a philosophy. It is a program, insofar as it assumes the shape of a movement with definite aims and objects. It is a method in the sense that yogic practices are methodically pure.