Why did yogis consider the practices of asana, pranayama, mudra, bandha, pratyahara, dharana, kriya, and so on as part of lifestyle? Why did they not treat these subjects as a practice that you do for half an hour and then forget about it? They said it is part of lifestyle as it changes the human nature, behaviour and mind. It moves away from the negative and destructive towards the more positive and constructive. For this reason, they developed yoga as a lifestyle with practices you could do during the day and maintain that awareness. Then maintaining that awareness is a natural process.
If you are in a heated place where fires are burning, you would definitely tread the ground carefully. If you are in a snowy place with ice on the roads and paths, again you will tread the ground carefully. You will not be walking naturally; you will be treading the ground with awareness. That awareness is not imposed; it is natural. In the same manner, when you become aware of your nature, qualities and expressions, and you are continuously and constantly trying to improve them, then that awareness will maintain your balance, peace, joy and harmony. The moment you slip out of it, you will want to come back to it.
Yogis saw the whole practice as a lifestyle. They came up with an idea that there are different bodies within this physical body, different layers of clothing over the body. You have the anandamaya kosha which is the spiritual awareness, and you cover the naked body of anandamaya kosha with underpants and t-shirt, which becomes your vijnanamaya kosha. Then you put on a proper shirt over the t-shirt and proper full pants over the half pants, and that becomes manomaya kosha, another layer is put on. Then you put on your big coat and hat, that becomes your pranamaya kosha, another layer added on. Just as you add on different layers of clothes to your body, internally too there are different layers which are recognized as annamaya kosha, pranamaya kosha, manomaya kosha, vijnanamaya kosha and anandamaya kosha.
In the lifestyle routine, you have to treat these koshas separately, not as one unit. Therefore, you do something for your annamaya, a good set of hard dynamic motivational exercises. Then you sit quietly, forget annamaya, focus on pranamaya, do your pranamaya, lengthen, control, deepen your breath, whatever you need to do. Then you forget pranamaya kosha, and observe your thoughts. You practise antar mouna, ajapa, chidakasha, you develop the tendency to visualize, observe, see; and that is manomaya kosha. Then when you free yourself from the reactions of what you have experienced, that is vijnanamaya kosha. Finally, have no worry and be happy, that is anandamaya kosha.
If we pass our day like this, observing every behaviour and regulating it, then yoga becomes a natural part of lifestyle and does not remain a practice that you do for so many minutes or hours every day. A continuous and constant awareness is there that ‘this is happening’. When we say that the nature, the personality and the behaviour changes, what does it mean?
The colours that colour the mind are observed. Most of the time, the colours are more tamasic, dark and drab. The six friends of the mind, do not help in finding your own luminosity; they take you away from discovering yourself. That is the work of the six friends of the mind. The passion, the greed, aggression, infatuation, jealousy, ego take you away from your own luminosity into deeper darkness, leading you to stress, anxiety, insecurity, fears. You pass your life worrying about things, being stressed out about things, head-tripping about things and reacting, never in a positive manner but always expressing a bitchy nature. That nature is a negative one. You just crib about something and go on cribbing. That is a negative, tamasic nature. It is this nature which changes into a positive one and that is the purpose or focus of yoga lifestyle.
Changing the nature is much more difficult than the practice of asana and pranayama. You can have mastery over asana and pranayama yet it is difficult to have mastery over your behaviour, reactions and responses. It is this challenge which has to be taken up in yogic lifestyle, saying to yourself, ‘I will make the effort to deal with the negative. I will make the effort to change the negative into positive. I will make the effort to change the weakness into strength. I will make the effort to convert all negative into all positive.’ Just doing that much is enough to kick-start your journey towards positivity. That journey towards positivity is known as yogic lifestyle. It is the change of nature that yoga expects and hopes for. Not that suddenly you become spiritual masters overnight because you had a good session of meditation and you had some good experiences in your meditation. Don’t dream of becoming a spiritual master. No, it is not worth it! People listen, they do not apply. So be a sadhaka who listens and applies.
9 March 2023, Bihar Yoga Tradition Teaching for Teachers, Ganga Darshan, Munger