NOW (atha) THE DISCIPLINE (anushaasanam) OF YOGA (yoga)
One peculiarity of Patanjali as opposed to others like Krishna, Buddha, Christ is that Patanjali is not poetic. He is extremely terse and to the point. He does not beat around the bush. He is a scientist extraordinaire. In the very first sutra here Patanjali declares that now let us begin the discipline of Yoga. Though terse there is an impact created by every word in the sutra. The meaning comes straight and clear.
The word 'Now' signifies an important meaning in this context. It indicates a condition; a state which when reached the Yoga study can be commenced. Hence he says, 'now the discipline of Yoga'. What is this condition?
It's not a pre-requisite. It's not something what you need to do. It's not a homework, which you need to finish before you take up the study of Yoga Sutras. It is something, which needs to happen by itself. The seeking should have begun. The hankering for truth should have begun. Then you are truly eligible to receive in totality the great truth expounded in this scripture.
Let us understand what is this seeking. And seeking what? A very dear question confronted by every spiritual seeker. It's a question, which 90% of the seekers find it difficult to answer. The common answers are enlightenment, liberation, to be one with God etc. But these are mere concepts or ideas created by the mind. If we probe deeper into the question what is enlightenment, again one might give different definitions, which are at the realm of the mind, another idea or concept created. So the question what am I seeking can never be answered satisfactorily. It can only be experienced. Actually the question cannot be answered because the thing, which is being sought, is not a thing. It's not an object but the ultimate subject. And the subject can never be sought, it just is. An object can never seek the subject; but in spite of all this intellectual gymnastics, its our common experience that there is something called seeking that is happening within all of us all the time.
Then who is seeking? Isn't it the subject who is seeking? Again the answer is yes and no. If it is the mind that is seeking the answer is no as the mind is just an object. An object cannot seek the subject. When the seeking happens without the interference of the mind then the real seeking starts. The seeking becomes permanent. This is the state when the subject seeks it self and mind is seen just as an obstacle that prevents this seeking. This is the state that Patanjali is talking about; the state when the subject seeks itself.
True seeking starts when the mind is not involved. When the mind is involved, the seeking is just a thought that appears and disappears. It is not permanent. And a thought cannot seek. Because it's very life is limited by time. A thought stays for few seconds and disappears. Something transitory cannot seek the permanent. The seeking should begin from the being.
Ramakrishna used to give analogy of a toothache. An experience of toothache; the pain experienced during a toothache always remains in the background irrespective of what activity we are doing. The seeking should happen in a similar way. Irrespective of what external activity we are doing, our being should seek continuously. The intense longing for the truth or the absolute should always be there.
Once a disciple asks his Guru. "Why doesn't God reveal himself to me? I have been meditating for years and reading scriptures and practicing all other disciplines." The Guru takes the disciple to a nearby pond and holds his head and puts it in water. After sometime the disciple starts struggling for air. The guru still holds his head under water. Just before the disciple is going to die the Guru takes his head out of water and allows him to breath. The disciple is perplexed and is unable to comprehend the purpose of this sudden action by his Guru. Then the guru asks the disciple "What was the thing he longed for when he was just about to die". The disciple says that of course he was gasping for air. In a similar way the Guru explains that longing to see God should be of equivalent intensity as his longing for air when he was about to die. If this longing has not developed then God will not reveal himself.
This is a beautiful analogy of how our seeking should be. At the instant of dying all he cared for was air to breath. Have we reached a stage where all we care for is union with the absolute or the truth? If yes, then we are perfect candidate to begin the discipline of Yoga. If not then the time has not yet come. We can just study theoretically but it may not bring about a transformation because we are not seeking any transformation.
That's the reason patanjali uses the word Athatho. Most of the scriptures start with this word. For e.g. Brahma Sutra starts with Athatho Brahma Jigyasa. Narada Bhakti sutras also start with the word Athatho. What is the significance of this word "now"? For a new reader it might seem like a very abrupt start. He might feel that he has missed some previous book that he is supposed to read before starting this book. How can a scripture start with "Now"? This is a misconception, which a western mind has when it reads this word 'now'. They think that some book, which was a pre-requisite to this book, got lost. The eastern mind falls into a different kind of trap. They feel that this book is for old people. They think that the word 'now' points towards age. Both the interpretations of the eastern mind as well as the western mind are incorrect. The truth is that this book is for mature people. It's for people who are seeking the truth; who have understood the futility of mundane living; people who have a deep quest for the truth. Those are the people who will get maximum benefit from this book.
In our current state, the seeking for enlightenment is just one other desire along with other desires. We want our family, friends, job, parties, picnics and also enlightenment. Our seeking for enlightenment is one desire among many other desires we cater. It's like a part time desire. We are always looking for security. We seek only as long as all things around us are perfectly secure. If not then let's first make sure that we are safe from all aspects like money, name, fame etc. This is our attitude. We need to abandon such attitude because this prevents seeking from happening. It will just make you a professional seeker, not a true seeker. The energy, which is capable of holding the earth, sun, other planets, solar system and the galaxies in place, is very much capable of running our lives smoothly. Then why do we worry so much about trivial things? This intelligence should dawn and then the real seeking shall begin.
Seeking starts when we start realizing that no effort from our end can make things happen. As we think of ourselves now; we are just an object and we can never comprehend or understand the grand plan of the ultimate subject. It's like a painter painting a picture. An object in the painted picture can never know what is in the mind of the painter. A sculpture can never know the mind of the sculptor. When this hopelessness begins then effortless seeking starts.
Hopelessness has to be understood in the correct light. Hopelessness does not mean absence of hope. Hopelessness is an understanding. Hopelessness is a deep understanding that I as an individual or an object cannot know the truth. When this happens, the individuality, the smaller self, the ego starts diminishing and the higher self, the real 'I' starts shinning forth. When hopelessness is seen as absence of hope then it just means that you are looking for some hope. There is still some hope to find hope. This is not hopelessness. Hopelessness is a state where you renounce hope. Even if there is hope you know the futility of running behind it.
When we reach the state of hopelessness, the seeker ego within us starts reducing. As long as you are seeking, the seeker ego remains and becomes the biggest hindrance in the seeking. That does not mean that there should be no seeking. The seeking should definitely be there, but there should be no seeker. This is a very subtle point I want you to understand. The absence of seeker in the seeking is the state we should be in. As long as there is a seeker, you will carry this ego that 'I am seeking something'. Immediately you reduce the truth to an object of seeking. If the truth could have been sought then it should be an object. But truth is not an object, so it cannot be sought. Hence the seeker ego comes as the biggest difficulty in the path. This has to be relinquished first and then the effortless seeking will begin. Then you will just flow with existence.
A master used to live with many disciples in a monastery. Once the master called a disciple and told him that he has attained good spiritual wisdom and now he should go back home and report to him his progress every month by mail. The disciple obeys the master's order and leaves the monastery. The first month the Master receives a letter from this disciple. The letter reads 'Master, now I could experience the state of witness. I could see that I am different from the objects I see that the objects cannot really affect the subject which is me'. The master just crumples the letter and throws it in the bin. The other disciples are perplexed. The next month the second letter arrives and it reads 'Now I can experience the state of supreme aloneness. The state where there are no objects. All I could see is myself'. After reading this letter, the master again crumples it and throws it in the bin. Again the third letter arrives the following month and it reads 'now I experience that the entire manifestation is nothing but me. My true nature is that of consciousness and so is the world. I and the world are non-different.' Again the master crumples the letter and throws it in the bin. Then the forth letter comes the following month and it reads that 'Now I have realized that there is nothing to be achieved. There is nothing to be done. All I need to do is relax into my own true state'. Once again the master crumples the letter and throws it in the bin. All other disciples are not able to decipher Masters intention. After the fourth month, several months pass without receiving any letter from the disciple. The master wonders about the disciple's progress and so he writes back to the disciple enquiring about his progress and reminding him about his promise to write back every month. Immediately after few days, the master receives a letter. The master reads the letter – it has just 3 words and he laughs out loud. His other disciples are amazed to see this gesture. Then the master reads out the letter to them. The letter reads 'Enlightenment, Who Cares!'
This is a story with a beautiful moral. As long as the disciple thought that he is seeking and he is getting the experiences the master just tore the letter and threw it in the bin. Finally when the disciple realized that there is nobody who was seeking and wanting enlightenment, he reached the state when the seeker ego vanished and out of that ecstasy he exclaimed 'Enlightenment how cares!' This was the time when he really got enlightened.
Similarly I want all of you to reach the state when the yoga sutras can penetrate you and bring about a transformation. You will then be able to appreciate the sutras in totality. When the seeker ego disappears then automatically you start having patience. A deep waiting begins. What I mean by deep waiting is that the process of waiting goes unnoticed by the person who is waiting because the person who is waiting does not carry the load and the burden of the seeker in him. If the seeker ego is present, it's like the monkey who is continuously digging the ground to see whether the seed is in perfect condition. How will then the tree grow? You need to give time for the seed to break and the tree to grow.
When you are going by a plane from Bharat to US and you look outside the window when the plane has gained some height, you may not experience that the plane is moving. But when you reach US, then you know that the plane has reached. Similarly in spiritual seeking you may not be able to figure out whether you are progressing or not. But when you reach the destination; when you achieve the state of enlightenment, you will realize that all this while you were progressing. So patience is an essential quality for a spiritual seeker.
Once the great sage Narada was going to meet Lord Vishnu. On his way he saw a person doing intense penance. He was meditating for years and was covered by an anthill all over his body. Only his face could be seen. On seeing Narada, he asked him as to where he was going. Narada said that he is going to meet Lord Vishnu. The person meditating asked Narada to enquire with the Lord about his enlightenment and how long would it take for him to get enlightened. Narada obliged and said that he would certainly ask the lord. Narada then continued to walk and on his way he saw another person sitting under the tree and just relaxing. On seeing Narada this person asked him where he was going and then asked Narada to ask the same question to the lord i.e. how long would it take for him to get enlightened. Narada visited lord Vishnu and on his way back he first saw the man doing penance. This person was very anxious to hear the answer given by Lord Vishnu. Narada said that it would take around four lives for him to be enlightened. This man who was doing penance became very sad and morose. He started weeping and wailing that he has to do this penance for four more lives. Narada consoled him and started walking towards the person relaxing under the tree. On seeing Narada, this person asked him to sit and then started asking him about Lord Vishnu, his glories etc. After some time, Narada mentioned that Lord Vishnu thinks that it would take him as many lives as the number of leaves on the tree above to get enlightened. On hearing this, the person started dancing in ecstasy. Lord Vishnu suddenly appeared and said 'Son, you will get enlightened right now' and this person got enlightened.
This second person got enlightened, as he was extremely patient. The first person though was doing so much penance was not delighted to hear that he would get enlightened in four lives. He was thinking more about the goal rather than the path. He was finding the path very difficult and so he started weeping on hearing Lord Vishnu's answer. On the other hand, the second person who was not doing any penance was elated to hear that he would get enlightened after many years. Because the very fact that he would get enlightened one day, brought a wave of bliss into his being and he started dancing in ecstasy. He did not care when it would happen. Just the assurance of it happening was enough to put him in bliss. And this in turn impressed Lord Vishnu and he granted him the fruit of enlightenment there and then.
There was a person who wanted to dig a well. He started at one point on the ground. He dug some 10 meters and water did not come out. So he started digging at some other point and dug 10 meters. Here too the water did not come out. Likewise he started digging 10 meters at different places but he could not find water anywhere. Finally he gave up the venture and left. This is what we do in our spiritual practice. Because of our impatience we keep changing our meditation techniques, and trying out new things. If we were to pursue just one technique sincerely and patiently we would reach the ultimate state, just as the person digging the well would have found water if he would have dug persistently at one place itself rather than changing the positions one after the other.
Amongst the spiritual seekers, there are the window shoppers! They go from Master to Master seeking. Going from Master to Master is not wrong, but not learning from any Master is what is wrong! I always tell people to go to as many gardens, pluck flowers and make a beautiful garland. Many people go to many gardens, but they don't pluck any flowers from any garden. They just want to satisfy themselves that they are seekers. They want to have spirituality as a showcase item in their homes.
As long as your questions have not become a quest and your urge has not become urgent, you cannot call yourself a seeker. Enlightenment should become a basic necessity in you; only then the real alchemy will start happening. In order to clear your doubts, a deep passive waiting without knowing what is going to happen is required. This is what is passive surrender - total surrender.
Two types of people come to me. The first category of people are those who have a problem and think they know the solution, but want my support and help to get the solution. The second category of people is the ones who have a problem, they don't know the solution and they request my help to get the solution. The former think that they have buddhi (intelligence) but not shakthi (powers). The latter understand that they have neither shakthi nor buddhi. The moment you think that God has powers but no intelligence, you start guiding him. When you guide, it only means that your ego is not mature enough to fully surrender. If you know the solutions for your problems, why are you still suffering? They tell me a problem and give the solution along with it! When you start believing that God has got powers, religion starts. When you start believing that He has got intelligence, spirituality starts. With the former, you do all the rituals to bribe Him to get His powers. With the latter, you try to link your individual consciousness with universal consciousness.
The moment you decide to wait forever, things will simply start happening. When you are in a hurry for the lotus to bloom, you open out its petals. Can this be called 'lotus flowering?' No! You need to give it some space and it will happen. You have to wait till you decide to wait! The moment you decide to wait, you don't have to wait anymore.
People ask me, "Swamiji, I decided to wait but it is not happening!" How can you say that you have decided to wait when you are already asking the second half of the statement! An utter, clear and total decision to wait is the basic necessity to become enlightened.
Either have the urgency or forget the urge itself. Don't play the in-between game. You will end up in depression. As long as the blood is hot, you will pull along; the moment the blood becomes cool, you will fall into depression, because all along you were playing the game of 'hide and seek', not real seeking. You were on a mud horse while entering the river. Be very clear - see if you are really seeking or playing the game of 'hide and seek'. The deep quest has to happen in you for it to become a tremendous waiting - for Enlightenment!
Now let us try to understand what we mean by the word discipline. Discipline has its roots in the word 'disciple' which means a student. A person who is capable of following the role of the disciple is said to exhibit the quality of discipline. Yoga is a discipline. It's not a philosophical discussion or dialog between two people, but is a discipline which needs to be practiced. Upanishads contain dialogs and the declarations of the great rishi's of yore who experienced the ultimate reality. But yoga is different from them. It directly aims at transforming an individual step by step in a scientific way. It does not give theories, but it gives a discipline, which needs to be practiced. It provides a foolproof mechanism for getting enlightened.
It requires certain qualifications to become a true disciple. There are so many so-called disciples but you will find very few true disciples. In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna says that out of thousand people one person is a seeker and out of thousand seekers one truly knows me. In a similar manner, a true disciple is very difficult to find.
One of the important qualifications of a disciple is an open mind. A closed mind cannot receive. However attentive the person may be, if his mind is closed then the master cannot penetrate. When you are in attention, you are at tension. When you are aware you are open. Awareness is the key to open the lock for the closed mind. Awareness puts you in a no-mind state and then the words of the Master directly touch your being. As long as you are listening with the mind, only the words which you want to hear touch your being. Only when you listen with no-mind the words start working on you. A transformation starts happening.
Some people ask, can an atheist be a student of yoga. I say neither an atheist nor a theist can be a student of yoga. Both these terms refer to a person who strongly believes in something. Atheist means that the person believes that there is no God whereas a theist believes that there is God. Both are not qualified to be a student of yoga. When you believe in something strongly you have closed your mind. You already believe in something. Nothing else can enter. If at all it has to enter, it has to comply with your beliefs; else it will be rejected. When you believe in something, your mind is closed. You are not fit then to receive Yoga. The right attitude for being a disciple is the attitude when you realize that you know nothing. Only when you realize that you don't know anything, then you can receive. When you understand that you don't know at least you know that you don't know. When you think that you know, you don't even know that you don't know. So the understanding of not knowing signifies knowledge whereas thinking that we know indicates ignorance. This is a very important and a subtle point to be understood. So just drop the mind and be ready to receive this priceless wisdom given by Patanjali
Knowledge comes from the being and not from the memory. The misconception that the mind is necessary for knowledge to dawn has to be removed. In fact mind is a hindrance to knowledge. That is the reason many pundits miss the reality. They know too much; they have read too much. So they are closed when they approach the master. They try to compare the Masters words with what they have read. The master is beyond the scriptures. He is the source of the scriptures. The scriptures were written because of the enlightenment expressed by the Masters. The master is the authority of the scriptures. He has the right to defy the scriptures if needed. Scriptures are like the finger pointing to the moon. They are not moon itself. Vedas are good till we meet the Master. They help us to meet the Master. But once you have met the Master then his very words are the Vedas.
Swami Vivekananda used to say that people know too much. So they are not able to imbibe anything; they are not able to digest anything. As a result when they get an opportunity they vomit their so-called knowledge on others. The knowledge has not helped them but its there with them. So the only way it can be expressed is by inflating their ego by proving their superiority in front of others. This is very dangerous. So it's good to know some five simple concepts and imbibing them completely rather than trying to know the entire book. In fact a single concept is good enough to bring about enlightenment. But the human mind is so fickle that it can never be satisfied with a simple concept. It always wants more. It wants to make things complicated. People come to me and ask me how to be blissful. I tell them just relax and rest in your being. Then they ask me how to relax. Relaxation does not need a technique. You just have to relax. There is no technique to relax. If there were a technique, then the very technique would be anti-relaxation. But people don't understand. They want a technique even for relaxation. They want to make simple things complicated because the ego gets satisfied, only by doing complicated things, not simple things. Actually truth is so simple that it's sometimes hard to believe. People ask, how can enlightenment be so simple. It cannot be so simple. I have to do intense meditation and in order to be enlightened. From my experience I am telling you. Enlightenment is very simple. You just have to drop all your fantasies about enlightenment. Your expectations and imaginations are the biggest block. All effort and sadhana is required to drop the expectations and imaginations. Once that happens enlightenment happens naturally.
Once a Zen Master was asked. How much time does it take for one to be enlightened. The Zen master said, it takes less than 1/1000th of the time taken for blinking the eye in order to be enlightened. I always tell people. I was searching one thousand keys outside to unlock the door but the real key, which was with me I never searched. After intense sadhana I found that key. Now I am here to tell you the source of that key. So there is no need for you to again search unnecessarily for the thousand keys when the Master is here to give you the right key.
Discipline is something, which every seeker needs to imbibe for him or her to be successful in the spiritual path. Actually the word discipline is sometimes misinterpreted. Discipline does not mean control or suppression or seriousness in character. Discipline means sincerity. If one is sincere then he has the right discipline and is qualified to commence the study of Yoga. With sincerity, discipline follows automatically.
There are several seekers who have been seeking for years. Many people come to me and tell me that they have been seeking for twenty years; they have been seeking for thirty years. I ask them 'Are you sure that you were sincere in you seeking or it was just a slipshod effort'. Then these people keep quiet. Because they know that they were not sincere. According to me one year is more than enough to have a deep spiritual experience, if not enlightenment. In fact any meditation practiced for twenty-one days sincerely is bound to produce the desired results.
Most of the time our meditation becomes just a routine. Just the way we have our bath and other daily chores we do meditation. The juice in the activity is lost and it becomes boredom. This is because the sincerity is not there. If we are really sincere we can never get bored. The zeal to realize the self, the longing to realize the self will be so strong that boredom can never strike. The longing is what keeps the sincerity alive.
Sincerity is the straight way to liberation. This is the only thing we lack and we postpone our enlightenment. We are not persistent enough. If we were then the gates of enlightenment are already open, we just need to enter. With sincerity there is no chance of missing the truth. This is such a simple technique that it becomes too hard to believe and then we miss it. We go around reading and learning hundred things but lack the sincerity to follow even one thing. The problem is that we know too much. Instead of having a whole library in your head, just know five concepts in your heart.
Whatever you believe, even if it is atheism, if you add shraddha to that concept, you will achieve Enlightenment. Buddha, Krishnamurti and Gurdijeff, all never spoke of God, yet they are all great Enlightened Masters who have enlightened so many others. What you believe is not important. It is how intensely you believe that is essential.
Sincerity is experimenting, executing; not just knowing and hearing about spiritual Truths; it is having the courage to execute. Meditation and gambling both need courage. Meditation is the ultimate gamble. With meditation, you gamble with your whole Being, with your ego. It is the only game where losers win. When you put your ego at stake, you win it all. You give up the false to experience the real. We need courage to experiment with spiritual Truths
There are some books, which need to be more than just read. They need to be experimented with. The yoga sutra is one such book. Unless we have the sincerity and courage to experiment with these Truths, it is dangerous. We have all these Truths and we start hallucinating that we know. Knowing without knowing is dangerous. We don't even know that we don't know.
A small story: This story is from the life of Dakshinamurti Swamigal, who lived in Tamil Nadu. When he was alive, one poet was inspired by his presence to write a song called 'Bharani'. This is normally written for someone who has killed one thousand elephants in war. This poet wrote one thousand songs in bharani style. The king of the city was also considered to be a bharani. Someone sang bharani on him too. His ego was deeply hurt and he said, "I am the only bharani in this kingdom. How could a beggar be a bharani?" He summoned the poet. The king ordered the poet to be killed, as that was the trend at that time. Of course, only unintelligent beings resort to violence, because they don't have the intelligence or clarity to consider, or be open to the truth. The poet said, "I have no problem with the death sentence; I am ready to die; I have experienced the truth. But you have to do this one thing: You have to go and see this bharani. You must experience him."
The king thinks about this. He goes to see Dakshinamurthy Swamigal with his whole army. He finds him sitting under a banyan tree without even any clothes. The king has all his paraphernalia with him. Kings always need this; otherwise they lose their identity easily. Masters don't have any social identity to maintain, so there is no need for such things.
Swamigal just sits there totally lost in Existence, in that intense silence and peace that penetrates other beings. The king comes close to the Master. The Master doesn't do anything. He simply opens his eyes and looks into the king's eyes directly. It is the first time anyone has ever looked so directly into the king's eyes. Normally the king will look into someone's eyes and then they will look away. This time the king looks down. The Master doesn't say anything, but with just an expression on his face he bids him to sit. The king simply sits. His entire army drops their weapons and sits.
They sit for one hour, then two, in complete silence; no words, no instructions. It becomes one day, then two. After the third day, the Master says, "You can go." The king prostrated before him and left.
The king had killed ten thousand elephants. Killing ten thousand elephants is not a great accomplishment. Killing your mind is that that takes real courage.
Sincerity to one single truth is enough. You don't have to do big things. What we do is not important. It is how we do it that counts. One great saint would simply just pluck flowers for a garland every day to offer to Vishnu. He became Enlightened simply from doing just this.
A Buddhist Monk was secretly deeply devoted to Shiva. He would go every day to a small Shiva linga under a tree and throw a stone at the linga from a distance, pretending it is a flower. An old man happened to notice and asked what he was doing. The monk told him, he was just throwing stones at Shiva. The old man said, "Your devotion to Shiva is apparent. The way you throw the stones shows your devotion." The monk confessed that he showed his devotion to Shiva every day in this way. The old man gave him darshan as Shiva, and the monk became Enlightened.
In Tamil, they have three words for the Truth: vaimai, unmai and maimai. The first means - speaking the Truth through the mouth. Most of us manage this one. The second, unmai, means - speaking the Truth through the mind and heart. The last, maimai - means living the truth though the body. We all miss the boat at this point. Honesty and sincerity in what we believe, is the ultimate step to Enlightenment.
Prakriti has three gunas; tamas, rajas and sattva. Tamas includes people who are negative and full of doubt, those who are prejudiced. Rajas includes those who believe but do not practice. And the third guna or virtue - Sattva includes those who believe and practice sincerely. Patanjali gives the technology of how to raise ourselves to the sattvic type of sincerity from wherever we are.
But somehow we always have this loophole of practicality. Yet, if we are not able to put whatever we believe as the truth into practice, we make it a lie. Whether it is a lie or truth is only decided based on your Consciousness. All you have to do is, take one concept and practice it for a few days; just live it sincerely. To just have the courage to experiment with it for two days and that is enough. Let these words penetrate you. Experiment with the truth.
Just take one single concept and imbibe it to the core. Let your whole being just vibrate with that one idea. You cannot lose from trying. If you practice it with sincerity and it doesn't work, then you can search somewhere else. If it works, then you are enlightened and blissful. All you need is courage to try. Be sure to understand the spirit of the words.
A small story: A monk was sent to Alaska to spread God's words. Before going, the father called him and said, "Your rosary and wine will take care of you." After a year, the father decides to go and see how the mission is coming on. The monk says, "You were so right. The rosary and the wine have kept me going. Otherwise I would have died a long time ago. Father, would you like a cup of wine?" He turns and calls into the kitchen, "Rosary, bring a cup of wine."
Words can be easily misunderstood. We don't have the mental setup of receiving the Truth and practicing it. We usually receive it, understand it intellectually and then don't have enough courage to practice it. Be very clear: if you aren't going to practice it, simply decide that it is not true and not for you.
Sincerity is a basic spiritual virtue. Scientists have the courage to go after outer truth. We have to be an inner scientist to have the courage to live the Truth.
One Enlightened Zen Master and his disciple go to the river. The disciple falls into the river and starts drowning. He calls to the Master to save him. The Master says, "You are atman, save yourself." The disciple says, "Save me first and then teach me your philosophy." The Master shouts, "Stand up and save yourself." The disciple cries, "Please save me!" The Master shouts, "Fool! Stand up! Save yourself!" The disciple is shaken and just stands up. The water is only up to his knees.
We just need the courage to stand up. Nothing can be lost. If practicing the Truth can lose something, then better to lose it now! Whatever can't stand let it be washed away. It is better for your Being that it be lost as early as possible. It is your sincerity that plays a role. If you are not sincere, even God cannot help you. God always responds in the way we need. Sometimes it is what we want, sometimes it is not. Making your dreams become reality is Shakti or power. Making you understand that reality is a dream itself is Buddhi or intelligence. Let us move from Shakti to Buddhi and realize the intelligence flowing within us.
With this background now let us begin the discipline of yoga. To prepare you for that let us now practice a small meditation technique.
योगाश्चित्तवृत्तिश्चिनुरोधः
Yog Chitta Vritti Nirodaha