Many people become exhausted by life – how can hatha yoga solve this problem?
Swami Niranjanananda: In order to make the body and mind free from disease and disorders, purification is important. Shodhanam, which means purification, is listed in Gheranda Samhita as the first of the sadhanas necessary for a sadhaka.
Generally, people pursue physical pleasure or follow thought processes through which they seek to advance themselves. Due to the effort they put into it, they naturally come to expect success. When failure comes instead, disappointment follows. In normal life a person then feels tired, physically, mentally and emotionally, but a yogi does not feel tired. Here tiredness does not mean the way the body feels after physical labour. It means virakti, disinterest. Many people say that they are tired of fighting with life. There is no interest in doing anything; the mind does not like anything, as if there is no desire left. Sometimes this state of tiredness is so deep that there is no interest in the family, eating, reading, writing and so on. Lack of interest is evident in every field of life. There is depression. However, there is no such lack of interest in the dictionary of yogis.
These deep feelings of exhaustion and disinterest are created when the past keeps revolving in the mind side by side with concern about the future. When the past is related with the future and not with the present, a state of virakti, indifference, disinterest, is created.