The goal of yoga is the path itself.🔗

yadā hi nendriyārtheṣu na karmasvanuṣajjate sarvasankalpasannyāsī yogārūḍhastadocyate

Any one is said to have attained the state of yoga when, having renounced all material desires, he neither acts for sense gratification nor engages in result focused activities

Yoga is a technique to achieve the Divine experience

There is a beautiful word in Saṃskṛit: brahmacarya. Brahmacarya refers to a person who lives like the gods, who lives with Existence. Brahmacarya refers to one who lives with reality, one who lives unattached. One of the four stages of life as defined by the scriptures is brahmacarya. This period of brahmacarya at Gurukul, under the Master's guidance in one's early years, provides the background to shed fantasies and live life in reality.

Brahmacarya is nothing but being authentic with high energy happening in you.

Kṛṣṇa says, 'Just renouncing the sacred fire and not performing one's duty does not mean one is an ascetic or sannyāsi.' In those days, fire was the basis for everything, whether it was cooking or spiritual practice. For everything one needed fire.

The word 'fire' with 'cell phone' for today's world! In this age, we can say, 'Don't think that by sacrificing the cell phone and laptop you become a sannyāsi or a great karma yogi.' Just like how the cell phone and laptop have become a basic necessity today, in those days agnī (fire) was a basic need in life.

Usually, wherever our body is, our mind is not. To bring the mind to where the body is to renounce the inner chatter by completing with thoughts patterns. Thoughts cannot be suppressed. The more we suppress them the more they erupt. We need to let go. We need to constantly bring ourselves back to where our body is, to the present space of completion, to the here and now, away from the dead past and the unborn future.

We may think that we are in control of our mind. But actually, our mind controls us. This is what Kṛṣṇa means by sañkalpa, self-interest, because the mind wishes to satisfy the senses that it operates and controls. By visualizing, by hearing, by smelling, by tasting, by touching, through the sense organs, our mind wants us to experience pleasures that will keep us under its hold. Only when we renounce the mind's control by going beyond the senses can we become a true renunciate.

Yoga is the renunciation of fantasies that we feel we need for self- satisfaction is Yoga. Yoga is the state when our desires, expressed through sensual pleasures, dissolve. We unite with our true Self in this state. In this state, there is no gap between the Divine and us.

In Sanskṛit there are two terms, 'dṛṣti sṛṣti' and 'sṛṣti dṛṣti'. Dṛṣti sṛṣti means to look at the world as it is and take life as it comes. Sṛṣti dṛṣti is just the opposite, when we want to create the world as we would like it to be, as we want to see it. We want the world running according to our fantasies, instead of coming to terms with the reality of the world. This is a sure recipe for disaster.

Yoga integrates body, mind and spirit. It is a journey into the inner Self, towards the Self. In Patañjali's Aṣtāṅga Yoga, bliss is the goal, the path, and the end result. Patañjali's system of yoga is a way of life. If we practice this with integrity and authenticity, it will lead us into enlightenment.

Yoga is a straight technique to achieve the Divine experience. This formula cannot be modified or altered. Actually, yoga refers to the process of uniting. The method in which we do postures in yoga is not important. It is the thought, the idea with which we move our body in the posture that matters. When we reach the state of yoga, we are in a meditative state of bliss.

To help the child live in the present moment without being attached to fantasies of it. To help the child understand that our mind wants to keep us under its hold and that the mind wishes to satisfy the senses that it controls.

• ❖ Who is a brahmacarya?
• ❖ If fire was necessary in those days, what's necessary these days?
• ❖ Does sacrificing essentials like a cell phone make you a yogi?
• ❖ Can we suppress our thoughts?
• ❖ What are our 5 senses?
• ❖ Does the mind control us or do we control the mind?
• ❖ What do these two Sanskṛit terms mean, 'dṛṣti sṛṣti' and 'sṛṣti dṛṣti'?
• ❖ What is the purpose of doing yoga ?
• ❖ Can the technique of yoga be modified, changed, or altered?
• ❖ What is important when we move our body?

MATERIALS NEEDED:

• 1. Paper
• 2. Pencils & Pens

PROCEDURE

Draw a person with some strong thought bubbles that they may want to suppress but that may be wanting to erupt out of them. For example, they have some sad news but they are in a shop and don't want to talk about it there. Draw their thoughts in their thought bubbles.

INFERENCE

Thoughts cannot be suppressed. The more we suppress them the more they erupt.

CONCLUSION

We need to let go and bring ourselves back to the present and to completion

PROCEDURE

Get children to sit in a circle. A child starts by saying one activity they did recently. The child on their left says whether the activity is "dṛṣti sṛṣti" (take life as it comes, for example, playing with a friend) or "sṛṣti dṛṣti" (wanting the world to be like a fantasy, like watching tv). Keep repeating with kids taking turns to say the activity that they did.

INFERENCE

The importance of understanding the difference between seeing the world as it is and wanting to run the world according to our fantasies. Yoga is a renunciation of fantasies.

Hold Vaakyartha sadhas on how the children understand that when they are doing yoga, what is most important is the space from which the actions are done and the context and reason from which the actions are done.

CONCLUSION

To become a yogi live with reality not fantasies. Yoga is a way of life that can lead us into enlightenment What is important in yoga is the journey