International Yoga Day is being celebrated on 21st June and it is something that everyone should practice so that life itself becomes a celebration.

Yoga is most commonly identified with the Asana aspect all over the world. However Yoga is actually “the cessation of mental modifications” as defined by Mahrshi Patanjali. It is a path followed by people who wish to get the experience of being one with the Absolute/ Divinity. This state is called Samadhi by Mahrshi Patanjali whilst it could be referred to as Nirvana, Zen, Self Realisation, Satori etc by others. Yoga is not a religion, it is a path chosen by those who wish to seek this enlightenment and the only way you can know Yoga is by experiencing it – it is an experiential path.

There are different approaches to yoga: Karma yoga, Hatha yoga, Kriya Yoga, Bhakti yoga, Gnana yoga. Karma Yoga lays emphasis on working without expectations, Hatha Yoga lays emphasis on control of Body, Diet, mind; Kriya Yoga focusses on Prana Shakti; Bhakti Yoga involves total surrender to the Divine and Gnana Yoga uses the sharp intellect to negate everything till you reach the stage of enlightenment. You could start with whichever path suits you but know that ultimately all the paths merge into one.

A combination of all approaches is Raja Yoga also called as Ashtanga Yoga as codified by Mahrshi Patanjali for people who really wish to experience Samadhi. This approach is comprehensive and deals with training all the aspects of your existence: your physical body, prana, emotions and intellect. You have to regularly and consistently practice the 7 steps of Yama (self-restraints), Niyama (fixed rules), Asana (postures), Pranayama (Breath control), Pratyahara(sense withdrawal), Dharana (concentration), Dhyana(Meditation) in order to ultimately reach the eighth level of Samadhi.

Wish you a great journey in Yoga and pray that you are graced with the ultimate experience of Yoga…

As they say, an ounce of experience is worth a ton of theory. Many people believe that reading books on spirituality written by Masters makes them Spiritually Advanced. Nothing could be far from truth than this. Unless the assimilated knowledge is put into action in transforming your personality and for well being of all, such assimilated knowledge would only inflate your ego which is actually spiritually regressive than progressive…

Whilst reading spiritual literature is a way of communing with the Masters and the free souls that walked the face of the earth but that by itself is just an inspiration for you to make the necessary changes in your life and get on with your spiritual evolution. Don’t get stuck with gathering such ‘knowledge’, move on.

Keep some time aside for learning but keep a majority of time for implementing the learning by incorporating the good practices in your daily life…

As Abu Bakr puts it: without knowledge action is useless, knowledge without action is futile…

In Buddhism you are taught to experience the law of impermanence called Annijja through observation of your own breathing and sensations. It is only when you observe in silence that you realise that everything is changing, including yourself. This is the simple basis for buddhist meditation, the deeper your observation so would be your experience. It is a negation of all impermanent things that ultimately brings you before the ultimate reality which is permanent and unchangeable…

Cultivate this habit of silent observation and perhaps it would take you closer to divinity than all prayers and rituals put together…As they say in Zen: You never enter the same river twice since both the river and you have changed since the last time you have entered it.

In life we keep praying for pleasant experiences to come our way and the unpleasant ones to be taken away but unfortunately thats not how things are… Life happens, time is ticking, how are you engaged with it is the question. If you are blissful during the engagement by accepting whatever comes your way and doing your best immaterial of whether you like it or not, then possibly it would be a life well lived…

It is not easy to lead life in total acceptance. For that you have to dissolve your attachments to the various roles, duties and desires. It doesn’t mean that you run away from them, it simply means that you perform them with utmost love and in a detached manner. That is Karma Yoga.

There are ways in Yoga available to transform yourself, you should be open to trying them out. As Swami Satyananda Saraswati puts it – Yoga is not an ancient myth buried in oblivion. It is the most valuable inheritance of the present. It is the essential need of today and the culture of tomorrow…

We were at the fag end of the day at a Yoga Retreat that I recently attended and tired of doing all the Asana’s and Pranayamas from 6 am onwards and that was the time that we were told to go out on the ground and start playing games – essentially picnic games like dog and the bone or frisbee. Teams were created and people in their teens were playing the game as enthusiastically as were people in their 50’s and 60’s. The tiredness was gone, everyone played in a childlike manner, people forgot who they were for that time and had the energy to play for an hour and return rejuvenated & refreshed for another 2 hours of Yoga and Meditation.

What this indicated was that enthusiasm (and energy) is essentially our response to a situation. If we are given a sport/art we respond to it enthusiastically(and energy is provided for the activity) but if we are given work or performing duties then we don’t respond enthusiastically(and energy is not provided for the activity).

Understanding that enthusiasm is an individual response 100% under our control and not choosing to relinquish it to an external activity, event or person is 100% in our control. Unfortunately we have conditioned ourselves to respond with enthusiasm only to things that we like. So to be 100% joyful we try to include as many activities that we like in a day and avoid the activities that we dislike, but that is the wrong way. We must instead work on re-conditioning ourselves to respond to every situation/person with equal enthusiasm. It is possible if we use the power of auto – suggestion and tell ourselves that we will respond enthusiastically every moment then in time, it will happen. As with all things, it would be difficult to practice in the beginning but would be a habit over a period of time.

If you are able to do this then not only would the quality of your life improve but also you would have made considerable progress on the spiritual path… As Swami Vivekananda puts it – Don’t look back—forward, infinite energy, infinite enthusiasm, infinite daring, and infinite patience—then alone can great deeds be accomplished.

There are 2 P’s in everyone’s life: Prarabdha and Purushartha. 

Prarabdha is “fate”: what you are born with, what situations you would face in life and what kind of people you would come in contact with. This part is uncontrollable and there is no use in getting frustrated or bothered with what comes your way.

What is controllable is your response to it, which is Purushartha: which is the “response-ability” of each person. This is broadly divided in 4 categories: Dharma, Artha, Kama and Moksha. Dharma is nothing but responsibility towards self and all sentient beings. Artha is the pursuit of a meaningful purpose in life that gives the person the ability to make a living, Kama is recreation and moksha is the path towards spiritual liberation. If all aspects are aligned towards Sattva (upholding the well being of all sentient beings) then your life would be meaningful and fulfilling… Purushartha shapes your future prarabdha; so destiny is actually in our hands as well, if we so choose…

Unfortunately, people consider earning wealth, power, fame are the only ends in life and hence the sorry state of our society. Purushartha is a concept that has been buried under such ambitions. To resurrect the concept is upto us…

If you do not do what you cannot do, thats no problem. But if you do not do what you can do, you are a tragedy: Sadhguru

To be worried about doing something of value in life or wondering where all this is headed, is such a waste of time. All you have is the moment now, nothing more, nothing less. If you can’t be joyful in this moment what makes you think you’ll be joyful in life?

It’s not the designation you’re eyeing, nor is it the dream house/car or for that matter any event, person or thing that would bring you joy. Joy always comes from within and nowhere else.The only way of finding this joy is in losing everything that you have perceived to be yours or are seeking. Nothing is yours, not your body, not your mind, not even your will (you may fancy it to be yours but sorry to break the bubble). Once you experientially realise this, you start living a detached life and start living in the moment without worries. Nothing of your external situation or relationship needs to change for this realisation to dawn on you but an effort of meditating is required till the time you reach the point of experiencing this detachment. 

Once you reach this point life suddenly becomes beautiful and lovely without there being any external stimulus for the state to be triggered. You’re on a permanent high.
Freedom is non dependence on anything external to bring you joy.

I pray that you may find your freedom…

Compassion is the end result of dissolving all layers of ego.

How do you do this? There are two simple methods:

the first one is to meditate and observe for yourself that who you think you are is nothing but a set of likes and dislikes that keep changing over a period of time which is the wrong beliefs(ego) that you have to dissolve through sustained meditation.

In addition to meditation, you need to develop an attitude of gratitude by consciously being grateful to Mother Divine for the blessings bestowed on you: not only the positive things in your life but also the negative ones, since its from the negatives that we actually learn life lessons. Be grateful for everything and everyone in your life. By consciously holding this attitude, you will see compassion arising in you over a period of time.

As the Dalai Lama says: If you want others to be happy practice compassion, if you want to be happy practice compassion…

Who you look to as a role model, speaks a lot about what your ambitions are and what you truly value from within. Just a dip stick survey of asking people who their role model was actually brought out a strange fact, that either most people don’t have role models or the role models were people who have passed on and are no longer living. If this is also the case with you, then join the gang.

Be that as it may, it is important to have the right direction in life. Unfortunately the life that is being glamorised today is that of having material success, indulgence in sensual pleasures, etc. People know only one thing that they must earn money, fame, power, and thats what they set out to do through their lives, not even stopping to find out whether the direction is right…

Todays life is captured well by the advertisement of a soft drink company – “dil maange more” – people just want more of everything without understanding the value of anything. It is time to take a pause and ask yourself what you consider to be the true purpose of your life. Some people may express this in terms of money, some in desires(bucket list), some in terms of happiness.. Ask yourself what is your purpose of life – its your life in any case…

If you find that your present direction is not aligned with your purpose, then make the change no matter how difficult…

We are living in times where form, unfortunately, is preferred over substance. People focus more on looking good rather than developing a healthy lifestyle of which good looks is a consequence. The number of young people dying of heart attacks, cardiac arrests, cancer etc is on the rise. Almost all people are on some form of medication for diseases like Blood Pressure, Diabetes, Psychiatric disorders,….

A disease is nothing but a mismanaged indisposition. It always begins with an indisposition and when not attended to for a long period of time, becomes a disease. For instance a simple mismanaged diet is a cause for a number of diseases. However it actually starts at a much deeper level. I came across this interesting hypotheses that that states probable causes which I tend to agree on

1. “Acidity” is not only caused only by diet errors, but more dominated because of “stress”.
2. “Hypertension” is not only caused by too much consumption of salty foods, but mainly because of errors in “managing emotions”.
3. “Cholesterol” is not only caused by fatty foods, but the “excessive laziness” is more responsible.
4. “Asthma” not only because of the disruption of oxygen supply to lungs, but often “sad feelings” make lungs unstable.
5. “Diabetes” not only because of too much consumption of glucose, but selfish & “stubborn attitude” disrupts the function of the pancreas.
   

True causes of diseases are

Spiritual:   50%

Psychic:    25% 

Social:       15% 

Physical:   10%

Mismanagement of emotions, thoughts, desires is leading to all kinds of diseases that can be controlled if we have a spiritual outlook to life and focus on managing emotions, thoughts, behaviour and last but not the least, the physical body (since it is only an outcome of everything else stated earlier). So if you want to be healthy start inside – out.

In is the only way out – Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev