There are many aspects of yoga, yet it has to be clear to us what is important and useful for people. What is important is not spiritual realization, which can be the choice of a few and not of everyone. For everyone the choice is health, happiness and harmony, and that is what we need to focus on. It is the right step to take. When people are happy with themselves and have acquired the skills to deal with their daily health ups and downs or mental ups and downs, they will be better prepared for other aspects and dimensions of yoga. When somebody is hungry, do not tell them, ‘I have a restaurant with so many different varieties of food. You can come and eat.’ Give them something to eat then and there, so that they can overcome their hunger and make the right decision to come to your restaurant for a bigger and better meal.
The need of everyone today is physical and psychological well being, psychological and internal happiness, joy, positivity, support, cooperation and harmony all around. That is the basic preparation, which you have to focus on when you think of yoga propagation. You do not only teach yoga; you also encourage people to adopt yoga as a lifestyle. When you encourage people to adopt yoga as a lifestyle, you have to emphasize other aspects of yoga which are non-physical. In your asana class or in your normal session, you can teach asana, pranayama, relaxation, meditation; you do that during the one hour class. What about the remaining twenty three hours? Give them a target and have a target yourself. Have the target to connect with the positive and joyous within you, and give them also this target for themselves.
People write many times, ‘I think this and I get angry. I think that and I feel this emotion or sentiment’. Then I think, ‘Why do people always have to identify with anger and think about it even more? Why can’t they identify with some different conditions or states of mind which are also there? Why do they always identify with something that is frustrating and depressing?
To change this conditioning is the role of yamas and niyamas. We always identify with the negative or destructive. We always identify with something that goes wrong or with our aggression; we do not think of how it can be improved or corrected. It is just a snappy reaction all the time. It is a small thing, yet it defines all our life. If we are able to tweak this, and instead of identifying with aggression and reaction, there is some understanding, then there will be more joy in life and our nature and personality will change. It will become different; it will become better. A different understanding will dawn.
This is the purpose of yoga lifestyle. In the yoga class you teach your APMB, however in yoga lifestyle, connect with the joyous, positive and optimistic aspect. This keeps you more peaceful and happy. The first yama of yoga is manahprasad, happiness. It is not a discipline like speaking the truth or becoming non-violent. That comes much later in raja yoga. The first lesson you are taught in yoga is to be happy and stop worrying. If worry becomes a nature, there is a danger.
If worry is simply a passing condition in life, it is okay. If the passing condition becomes something that we hold onto and it becomes our nature in life, danger bells and warning bells ring. For this reason, yoga said that the first lesson people need to learn is to be happy. To be happy you have to let go of those things that you hold onto to remain unhappy. You hold onto something to remain unhappy as you are continuously brooding on the restrictive, the negative, the limiting. You are feeling further dejected and depressed. Why and why? What have I done? Why is this happening to me? This is always the last question.
Yoga practice and yoga lifestyle are different. There are teachers of yoga who teach the practices, meditation and relaxation for the corporates. There is yoga here, there and everywhere. It is a technique presentation which will only last for the period that they are doing it. Then they fall back in the same environment, the same rut as before, with a few one hour sessions of relaxation in between through yoga. The situation does not change. So introducing yoga lifestyle to people has to go along with yoga teaching.
The first requirement is to be happy. The second requirement is to know how to disconnect from the stressors of life. To disconnect from the stressors of your life and find your own balance, you need japa. The purpose of japa is to disconnect from the things that create stress in life and remember something nice. Be happy, see the angels blowing their trumpets and be happy. At least it changes your mind. It changes the mind completely. Disconnection from stressors and being happy are the first steps of yoga lifestyle.
Another point is that people find it difficult to forget and forgive. So there is kshama. Kshama means to forgive. Forget and forgive what other people do to you. If you get affected by what other people do to you, you are allowing them to influence you, your behaviour and performance; and people know it. They can manipulate it to their advantage. If you can forget and forgive, you simply keep on advancing in life without any worries, while other people are left scratching their head, ‘What happened to this person? This person did not react in any manner.’
These are the little tweakings that you do in life to live a yogic lifestyle. An indication of this is given in the book, Yoga Dharma. It has about six basic steps which you can use to improve your lifestyle without changing or altering anything drastically. You are just tweaking your awareness and your understanding, and you apply your wisdom and your patience.
If we can incorporate yoga practice with yogic living, the vision of yogis can be realized. Otherwise I find it ridiculous when people say, ‘I am a yoga teacher. The aim of yoga is samadhi and to become spiritual. However, I only teach ten asanas that I have learned.’ They tell you that by practising ten asanas you can become spiritual and attain samadhi. This is the general impression that people get when they see a yoga teacher. Instantly the idea comes, ‘You know everything about yoga and you have also experienced samadhi.’ Everybody is in awe, ‘Oh you are a yoga teacher. Have you awakened your kundalini? Have you experienced samadhi? Have you opened up your chakras?’ That is the expectation, when you hear the word ‘yoga’; these are the images that come to mind. These images do not change. The yoga teacher only knows maybe twenty asanas, and is behaving as if his kundalini is awakened, or he has attained the experience of samadhi.
Ultimately, where will this type of teaching and presentation lead humanity? If it leads anywhere positive, I will accept it, yet I don’t see it leading anywhere positive. There is no change in the person’s life, thought or action. The only way yoga can become effective in life is if we are able to combine the practices with the lifestyle principles. So keep that in mind and I am sure you will have many interesting and good experiences, if you work with yoga in this manner.
27 March 2023, Bihar Yoga Traditional Teaching for Yoga Teachers, Ganga Darshan, Munger