Determination will give us the energy to practice yoga
saṅkalpa-prabhavān kāmāṃs tyaktvā sarvānaśeṣataḥ manasaivendriya-grāmaṃ viniyamya samantataḥ
Giving up completely all the fantasies born of the mind, one can regulate all the senses from all the sides by the mind
When we bring the light of knowledge, ignorance is removed and we see the object as it is
Kṛṣṇa talks about key elements to experience yoga: practice with determination and practice without deviating from the prescribed way.
Nithya Yoga — the yoga of eternity — is re-presenting yoga. The method has evolved but the system, the truth itself is the same as the original system offered by the great master, Patañjali. His system is so complete that we can't add even a single word to the techniques. It is the experience of Truth and Truth cannot be developed.
Patañjali's Aṣtāṇga Yoga, eight organs of yoga or aṇga has unfortunately been wrongly translated as 'eight steps of yoga'. Because of this, it has become just a small few techniques or methods to make your body flexible and a little healthy. That is a disgrace done to yoga. When you get a diamond and you use that diamond just as a vegetable cutter, it is a disgrace to the diamond. In the same way, when you use the powerful science of yoga just as technique to bring a little health, it is so unfortunate!
This is what Kṛṣṇa means when He says, 'Self is satisfied by the Self in the Self'. All of this has to happen together, not part by part. When one aspect is complete, all others also become complete. This is the state of pūrṇa, complete completion. Nothing can be taken away from it. Nothing can be added to it that would make any difference to its state of completeness. No joy can make it more blissful, no sorrow can make it less blissful. One becomes centered in bliss. When centered in bliss, it is forever!
The way yoga is taught and practiced in many places, one is moved away from reality into a fantasy world, to fulfill one's imagined needs. The senses and the mind wander aimlessly. Running after the fantasies created by the mind is just like running after a mirage or running after the horizon. We can never achieve bliss by running behind these fantasies because these fantasies have no existence in reality.
Be completely complete, practice without deviating from the prescribed way To understand we can never achieve bliss by running after fantasies
- Can Patañjali's system of yoga be developed and more words added?
- What is the correct translation of Patañjali's eight anga of Aṣtāṇga Yoga, are they eight organs of yoga or eight steps of yoga?
- Is yoga only to make your body flexible?
- What is the state of pūrṇa?
- Can anything be added to the state of complete completion or take away from it?
- What is a mirage?
- Can we ever touch a horizon?