Dr. Jayadeva Yogendra
“Whether it is the Guru or God that you believe in, constantly keeping that feeling and functioning can make us more efficient. So that’s what they say, that in which you have faith, you have only that much. If we have small faith, we remain small. So this is a topic that has been thought of very well in the old times. We also are affected by this but we have not thought about it that much. Let us try and do some thinking, let us think about faith.”
– (12th Jan 2013 -Saturday)
“You see the word is ‘Sanyasa‘. We have got the craziest ideas. It means a certain attitude. You see the attitude to give up, it rarely comes. The desire is to hold on and then all the consequences, see all our pain is because of lack of Sanyasa. We want to maintain our properties, family, our ego, so the suggestion is to learn to give them up, bit by bit. And the state of mind when one is free is to be understood. You see we are unable to get to that stage, the sense of responsibility is too great. So naturally god is forgotten because there is no such person to take care. So this is a condition that comes very late. It is suggested that after the age of 75 one should cultivate it. But now a days after the age of 75 person is still busy holding important positions, responsibilities, and quite worried. When i meet many of them they say that there are ‘too much responsibilities’. Actually in our Indian thinking after the age of 50 the responsibilities should be given up. But we can’t follow that. What are your views? ”
– (14th Jan 2013 – Monday)
“The basic thinking in this system, ‘samkhya’ and also yoga, is that prakriti – nature, is responsible for things that are happening. See the sun rises and the winds are blowing. All these factors are not in our hands,not in the hands of laboratories, they are the normal natural consequence of arrangements that are there, we don’t know who made them but they are carrying on. We don’t have to get up in the morning to see whether the sun has risen or not. It will rise. Life will start. It is unfortunately this ‘I’ sense that has been developed in us to any extent. It believes that it is doing things, it knows, it can organize. That is the way our life is moving. And we feel happy that we are responsible to move any little thing like a brick to make a building. So this faulty thinking has got into us very deep. And that is causing all kinds of problems. Things that will happen on their own we are not understood and we keep on trying to change and in the end we find that no change is possible, it is very late. So the statement is very simple. That is is Prakriti or nature that is responsible for all the events that are happening. The individual is more like a witness, and should not enforce himself as the doer. This is a statement not very hard to understand, but we never understand.”
– (15th Jan 2013 – Tuesday – Bhagwad Gita)
“There is a question- whether we can maintain a happy, peaceful attitude when we are confronted by different kinds of people. Our usual reaction is, if there’s a good person we are nice, bad person we are angry and unkind. Throughout the day this goes on. The result, we are not very steady in our mind. Depending on who we see, who we talk to or whom we listen to on the telephone and what not. The attempt here is to see that the mind remains cool. I don’t know if you can carry out such an instruction, provided you are interested to maintain the mind in a stable state. Because yogic techniques and practices start after that. You see if the mind is steady you can instruct and concentrate. If the mind is unsteady then where is the concentration. So these are called as Parikarmas. They are the starting point for those who are genuinely interested in yoga. Those interested in their usual worldly life, have their own angle, and they react. If there’s a bad neighbor they will react accordingly. To maintain that friendly attitude, is very hard. So how do we look at it? ”
– (18th Jan 2013 – Friday – Yoga Sutra)