- Dr. Jayadeva Yogendra
13th Apr 2013 – Saturday – Peace
“See we talk about peace, but basically, of course, we are at war. Then only peace has a meaning. We are not able to accept the world as it is. We are not able to accept the world as it is, the people as they are. Disquiet is there, dislike, and expression. Whereas it is reverse in case of a Yogi who has no feelings and can accept anything. He is peaceful. Eternally peaceful. The Founder of the Institute lived at an Ashram of a man who was 121 years old. That man had no war. Right from morning till night he was just singing the praise of God or filling the kettle or occasionally meeting somebody. There was no quarrel, no dislikes. That kind of mentality we don’t have. Right from morning we have something to say about our neighbour, something about the office, government, or even the home. So we are not really ready or fit to experience that peace – which is of course, a very good thing, a good feeling, which we never experience. And that harms and hurts. The mind is agitated, tense, disturbed and we are accustomed to that. We have come to believe in that world and expect it to be like that forever. Yoga is of course, the reverse. Yogis have no wars, no quarrels. You see, the teacher of the Founder of this Institute who lived for 121 years, rarely he had any reason to speak anything ill about anybody though he used to come in contact with hundreds of people everyday. So if we can create the internal peace, there will be no wars.”
15th Apr 2013 – Monday – Tapa
“The Founder of this Institute encouraged people to practice yoga and change their life and he continued. He started in a small way and then he was encouraged to go abroad. He continued a yoga centre in New York for two and a half years and then later on he returned with India with this intention to make yoga popular. He tried to follow techniques like scientific instruments and use of medical people. So all that helped. Yoga got itself established and in the United States the medical institutions, hospitals, doctors who took to yoga. In that sense he did great work. Only difficulty was, he had to rely on modern machines, modern kind of thinking, using scientific instruments now those things had their own logic. He realized and later on he started reducing not depending only on instruments and machines and scientific studies, rather on experiences, or changes in lifestyle, attitudes and right till the end that effort was continuous. He did not want to become a great sadhu having a big following. He was interested in the good that can happen to the learner, good that can be examined and ascertained. So that is how here yoga is being taught, but not just as a science, it’s more of an art. Art of living. Continuously the emphasis is on changing your habits, your attitudes, your diet, way of life, rather than trying to be very exact about the exercise and that kind of scientific precision. So Yoga has a scope of keeping to its original purpose. In doing this he had to say goodbye to much of this present kind of scientific study. But he recognized that this scientific study has its limitations. It doesn’t lead the individual to a spiritual kind of a growth. Today the institute is teaching yoga more as a style of life, psychological effects on the personality and all these areas and it has succeeded. Merely throwing big charts and scientific data has been given up. that is not the ultimate in yoga.”
16th Apr 2013 – Tuesday – Bhagwad Gita 4.9, 4.10.
“So the instructions are clear. See all our problems are because of ourselves. See we take it as if we are suffering, we are the doers and like that. The fact is that there is a god who is the doer. And this unfortunately doesn’t get into our head. So we are all the time concerned about actions we did and results we get and suffering and what not. But the instructions here are clear that merge yourself into the thought of God in the real sense. In that manner, forgetting oneself, one becomes one with God. No desire, no fear, no anger, totally retired into God. Then there is no problem. But that is very hard, we can’t forget ourselves hiking the whole world alone. That is the thinking we have.”
18th Apr 2013 – Thursday – Swadhyaya
“Swadhyaya, is the topic. ‘Swa’ – oneself and ‘Adhyaya’ –study. Self-study. Not how much money we have, how much properties. It is a study of ones self, one’s thoughts, ones objectives, goals. This is a different kind of study. In yoga it is very necessary. You’re constantly aware of how you are proceeding in life, whether any progress is made in the direction of understanding oneself. Because we are ignorant. Who am I? How many can answer this? We don’t know ourselves. So some time should be spent when one tries to understand these deeper issues. And if they are constantly carried out they can mould our life. Our actions will be different.”
19th Apr 2013 – Friday – Yoga Sutra 1.46
“So we are on the 46th Sutra. You see these are about ‘Samadhis’. We use only one word ‘Samadhi’, but there are so many types. They could be gross – some definite object, or they could be subtle- towards ideas and the mind has to be concentrating for long, and the knowledge that is gathered is very special. Just looking at the object we can only very vague knowledge. In these Samadhis, there are four kinds where I want to go deep depths and understand the essence. Now these are ideas which are very difficult for us to understand, but they are part of the study so we refer to that. The point is the so called attention, concentration- we no doubt are able to keep the mind somewhere, but that is very gross. We are not able to penetrate into the essence and that is what would give us the real knowledge. A Yogi sitting quietly for hours, in a quiet place, he is in touch with that essence and he understands. So these are described in detail. We can only know them by their names, Sabija and Nirbija, Savichar and Nirvichar.”