You do not have to practise everything in yoga. If you know the right practice, fifteen minutes will do to transcend the outer space. You do not need days and years together. However, if you are practising the wrong techniques, which are not appropriate for your quality or functions, then it will take years and years.
One important practice which I have seen working with all people is to close the eyes and follow all the thoughts that come into your mind. Do not suppress anything. That should be done for about ten to fifteen minutes. Do nothing but sit down quietly and ask yourself, ‘What am I thinking? Am I thinking about business, family, relations, future, past, useful, useless, evil thoughts, good thoughts?’ Anything, let all thoughts come. You just become a seer, you just remain a witness.
Do not be attached and do not be detached, just look at them impartially. Do it for about ten minutes and then turn to your mantra. The tranquillity will come within twenty minutes. Then you must have a point, an image or a form for concentration. You must have it! You can have a star, a flame of light, a flower, a deity or a living guru; it is all the same. You must have some image or form on which you must be able to concentrate your mind.
I am talking about day-to-day life. People need a strong mind which can be made by the practice of yoga. A little yoga practice will save you from an emotional crisis. Maybe, if there are conflicts in your personality, you can do something about them. I will not tell you that just by a few days’ practice of yoga you can become free from conflicts. It is very difficult; but it is true that by the practice of yoga you can bring about harmony between your two personalities: bhoga means suppression and yoga means union.
When two things become one that is called yoga. What are those two things that become one in yoga? Philosophers have been telling us that the individual self and the cosmic self become one. Bhaktas tell us that the jivatma and Paramatma become one. As a student of psychology I feel that there are two personalities in every man: the ego and the super-ego. They are always in conflict with one another. Every man has two personalities, the subconscious personality and the upper personality. You are something to yourself and something else to me.
This schizophrenic attitude I call a split personality. We are two personalities, and the two personalities should be fused into one; that is the ultimate aim of yoga. What you are inside, you are outside, and what you are outside, you are inside. If I am a thief, I am a thief to me; I am a thief to all. If I am a good man, I am a good man to me; I am good to all. This particular fusion of the split personality into one is called yoga.
It is not possible in one day; it takes time, but according to the science of psychology and the science of yoga as long as there is a struggle between these two personalities, the ego and the super-ego, your behaviour will not remain the same. You will always remain abnormal somehow or other. Your thoughts will be clouded and your decisions will never be true.
Therefore, in order to succeed in life and be happy along with success, it is necessary that everybody practises yoga.
Man has been wanting success and he has been working for it, but even after having achieved success, he does not achieve happiness. There are some people who are successful but unhappy, and yet there are some people who are happy but unsuccessful. Happiness and success must come together and in the Upanishads that is called shreya and preya. Preya means pleasant and shreya means the good; both must come to man, and then life becomes complete.
Action, karma, is one hand and yoga is the other hand. We should get along with life and be aware that this modern civilization, which has been a matter of allurement to us, is not complete and it is not final; it is a phase. Students of history will tell you a lot about it, and perhaps in a decade or two, if we all meet again, we shall know the limitations of this modern civilization. It is a phase; it is not complete in itself, and it is going to lead somewhere.
If we have faith in modern civilization, and if we depend on modern civilization, perhaps we will be led to the same point in history as Babylon and Greece. However, if we are alert about this modern civilization, and especially as far as the effects on the human mind are concerned, then perhaps we may survive as a culture, just as India has survived against the accidents of history and ravages of time, not because India has something else, but India has faith; it is rooted in the permanent culture.
We want everything modern, which is fine, but at the same time we know that it is not final. Once we become the slaves of modern civilization, naturally our minds will become weak, and as a culture we will perish. It has happened in the past. Therefore, it is necessary that we accept the modern culture and civilization, because it is a part of human life, but we have to understand its limitations and supplement it with yoga.
So yoga for the mind and civilization for your creature comforts, with both together you will survive in the culture and it will be possible for you to see the day of happiness.
May 1968, Indo-Japan Society, Japan