OBSTACLES IN YOGA - Part 3

You have heard several brilliant lectures, delivered by learned monks or Sannyasins. You
have listened to several discourses and expositions on the Bhagavad-Gita, the Ramayana, the
Bhagavata and the Upanishads. You have also heard several valuable moral and spiritual
instructions. But you have not at all endeavoured to put anything into serious earnest practice and to do protracted solid Sadhana. Mere intellectual assent to a religious idea, a little closing of the eyes in the morning and at night just to deceive yourself and the Indweller and the Witness, a little endeavour to stick to the daily spiritual routine and to develop some virtues in a halt-hearted, careless manner, some mild effort to carry out the instructions of your spiritual preceptor perfunctorily will not suffice. This kind of mentality should be entirely given up. You should follow the instructions of your master andthe teachings of the Scriptures to the very letter. No leniency to the mind. There can be no half measures in the path of Yoga. Exact implicit and strict obedience to the instructions is what is expected of you.
Do not make any thoughtless remarks. Do not speak even a single idle word. Give up idle
talk, tall talk, big talk, loose talk. Avoid evil company. Become silent. Do not assert for rights in this physical, illusory plane. Do not fight for rights. Think more about your duties and less about your rights. These rights are worthless. Assert your birthright of God-consciousness. Then you are a wise man. If you are endowed with good character, celibacy (Brahmacharya), truthfulness, mercy, love, tolerance, forgiveness, serenity these qualities will more than counterbalance many other evil qualities you may possess. Then gradually these evil qualities also will vanish, if you are careful, if you focus your attention on them. If you remain in the company of a developed saint, you will be really benefited by his magnetic aura and wonderful spiritual currents. His company will be like a fortress for you. You will not be affected by evil influences. There is no fear of downfall. You can have rapid spiritual progress. Young aspirants should remain in the company of their Gurus or other experienced saints till they are firmly moulded and established in deep meditation. Nowadays many young aspirants wander aimlessly from place to place. They do not care to hear the instructions of their masters. They want independence from the very start. Hence they do not make any progress in Yoga. Humour is a rare gift of nature. It helps aspirants in their march on the spiritual path.
It removes depression. It keeps one cheerful. It brings joy and mirth. But you should not cut jokes at the expense of others and wound their feelings. The humorous words must educate and correct others. You should laugh in a mild, delicate and decent manner. Silly giggling, guffaw, or
boisterous, indecent, unrefined laughter in a rude manner should be given up, because it prevents the spiritual progress and destroys serenity of mind and serious magnanimous attitude. Sages smile through their eyes. It is grand and thrilling. Intelligent aspirants only can understand this. Don’t be childish and silly.
From - SRI SWAMI SIVANANDA

OBSTACLES IN YOGA - Part 2

It is rather a difficult business to eradicate the self-assertive nature. This nature is born of ignorance only. Everyone has built his personality from beginningless time. This personality has grown very strong. It is hard to bend this personality and make it pliable and elastic. You want to dominate over others. You do not want to hear the opinions and arguments of others, even though they are quite logical, sound and tenable. You have a pair of jaundiced eyes. You say: “Whatever I say is correct. Whatever I do-is correct. The views and actions of others are incorrect.” You never admit your mistakes. You try your best to support your own whimsical views by crooked arguments. If arguments fail, you will take to vituperation and hand-to-hand fight also. If people fail to show you respect and honour, you are instantaneously thrown into a fit of fury. You are immensely pleased with anybody who begins to flatter you. You will tell any number of lies to justify yourself. Self-justification goes hand in hand with self-assertive Rajasic nature. You can never grow in Yoga so long as you have this self-assertive nature with the habit of self-justification. You should change your mental attitude. You must develop the habit of looking at matters from the view-point of others. You must have the new vision of righteousness and truthfulness. Then alone you will grow in Yoga and spirituality. You should treat respect and honour as offal and poison, andcensure and dishonour as ornament and nectar. You will also find it hard to adjust yourself to the ways and habits of others. Your mind is filled, as it were, with likes and dislikes, prejudice of caste, creed and colour. You are quite intolerant. The faultfinding nature is ingrained in you. You jump at once to find the faults of others. You cannot see the good in others; you have a pair of morbid eyes. You cannot appreciate the meritorious actions of others. You brag of your own abilities and merits. That is the reason why you fight with all people and cannot maintain cordial relations with others for long time. You should overcome these defects by developing tolerance, love and other good virtues. The old Samskaras (latent impressions) of vanity, cunningness, crookedness, arrogance, petty-mindedness, fighting, boasting or bragging nature, self-esteem or thinking too much of yourself, speaking ill of others, belittling others may be still lurking in your mind. You can never shine until you remove these faults thoroughly. Success in Yoga is not possible unless these undesirable negative qualities of lower nature are completely eradicated. Those who engage themselves in hot discussions, vain debates, wranglings, lingual warfare and intellectual gymnastics cause serious damage to their astral bodies. Much energy is wasted. The astral body gets actually inflamed and an open sore is formed. Blood becomes hot. It bubbles like milk over fire. Ignorant people have no idea of the disastrous effects of unnecessary hot discussions and argumentations. Those who are in the habit of arguing unnecessarily and entering into vain discussions cannot expect an iota of progress in Yoga. Aspirants must entirely give up unnecessary discussions. They should destroy the impulses by careful introspection.

From - SRI SWAMI SIVANANDA

OBSTACLES IN YOGA - Part 1

There are certain obstacles in the path of Yoga, which you should, by all means, overcome
in the very beginning of your Yogic career. If you do not adequately guard yourself against these impediments in right time by the warning voice of your Guru, they will smash all your hopes and aspirations to pieces and will eventually bring about miserable downfall. Lust, greed, anger, hatred, jealousy, fear, inertia, depression, prejudice, intolerance, evil company, arrogance, self-sufficiency, desire for name and fame, curiosity, building castles in the air and hypocrisy are foremost among these. You should ever introspect and watch your mind. You should take effective measures to remove these obstacles root and branch. “Women, beds, seats, dresses, and riches are obstacles in Yoga. Betels, dainty dishes, carriages, kingdoms, lordliness and powers; gold, silver, as well as copper, gems, aloe wood, and kine; learning the Vedas and the Sastras; dancing, singing and ornaments; harp, flute, and drum; riding on elephants and horses; wives and children, worldly enjoyments; all these are so many impediments.” (Siva Samhita: Ch. V-3).
The Yogic student should not possess much wealth as it will drag him to worldly temptations. He may keep a small sum to get the wants of the body. Economical independence is ofparamount importance to an aspirant; because it will relieve him from anxieties and will enable him to continue his practices uninterruptedly. If you get easily offended even for trifling things, know that you cannot make any progressin Yoga and meditation. You should, hence, cultivate amiable, loving nature and adaptability.Some aspirants easily get offended, if their defects and vices are pointed out. They become indignant and begin to fight with the person who shows the defects. They think that the person is concocting them out of jealousy and hatred. This is bad. Others can very easily detect your defects.If you have no life of introspection, if your mind is of outgoing tendencies, how can you find out your own defects? Your self-conceit veils and blurs your mental vision. If you, therefore, want to grow in spirituality and Yoga, you must admit your defects, when they are pointed out by others. You must endeavour to eradicate them and must be really grateful to the man for pointing out your defects.
From - SRI SWAMI SIVANANDA

Vedanta and Yoga - Part 2

This world is a great school. This world is for your education. You learn several valuable
lessons daily. If you are wise enough to utilise all opportunities to the best possible advantage in the spirit of Yoga, your capacities and will-power will develop to an astonishing degree. You will
grow. You will evolve. You will expand. There will be integral development. You will march
forward towards the goal. All veils will drop down one by one. All limitations or barriers will be
annihilated. All shackles or fetters will be torn asunder. You will receive more and more Divine
Light Knowledge, Purity, Peace and Spiritual Strength.
You are the author of your own fate. You yourself have created this. You yourself are
entirely responsible for this. You are the architect of your joys and sorrows. Just as the spider or the silkworm creates a web or cocoon for its own destruction, so also you have created this cage of flesh by your own actions, attractions, repulsions and false egoism. You have become the slave of the flesh, slave of your body and mind, slave of countless desires. You are sunk in the quagmire of deepest ignorance.
Weep not, my child! Sorrow not! A glorious brilliant future is awaiting you! Strive to come
out of this false cage of illusion right now, this very second. If your attempt is true and sincere, if
you endeavour with all your might and main to achieve this end, then by the ready Grace of the Lord thou shalt drive away these dark clouds of ignorance and shine in your true divine colours, in your native, pristine glory. Cast aside the erroneous idea: “I am the body.” Develop the consciousness and realisation of the real “I” within you. This real “I” is Sat-Chit-Ananda or Atman or the Self, the one common
Consciousness, the spiritual thread that links all hearts.
Awaken yourself to the conscious realisation of your actual oneness with the Supreme Self.
Think of the Self continuously. As Tennyson says: “Let thy voice rise like a fountain for me night
and day.” This is the real spiritual practice (Brahma-abhyasa). This will eventually lead to
Self-realisation. Let the struggle be keen. Let your endeavour be sincere. Let your motive be pure.
There must be iron discipline, iron determination, iron will and iron Sadhana (spiritual practice).
Then there will be no difficulty in the attainment of the final beatitude of life—a life sublime in its
nature, resplendent with spiritual light, radiant with splendour, vibrant with ecstasy and replete with
Peace. Mere intellectual conception of this identity or oneness will not serve your purpose. You
must actually feel and experience the truth of the same through intuition. You must become fully
aware of the Real Self, the basis or substratum or bed-rock of this world, body, mind, Prana and the senses. You must enter into a consciousness in which the realisation becomes part and parcel of your daily life. You must live this ideal spiritual life daily. Let your neighbours actually feel how entirely a changed being you are—a superman. Let them smell the Divine Fragrance from you. A full-blown Yogi can never be concealed. Just as fragrant fumes emanate from scented sticks so also sweet spiritual fragrance will emanate from your body, the moment you attain perfection in Yoga,even though you may shut yourself up in a cave of the far-off Himalayas.

From - SRI SWAMI SIVANANDA

Vedanta and Yoga - Part 1

The Religion of the Vedanta and Yoga stands forth as a brilliant guiding star to the student
of Yoga Philosophy and Occultism, inviting him to the mysterious unknown world, which he
would gladly explore, and encouraging him to march onward until he reaches a stage, when all
powers dear to every human heart lie at his command, and all earthly attractions cease to influence
him any more. It is a truism that it is in the nature of every human being to strive for happiness, but
the c he gains by his actions, he finds to his utter dissatisfaction and sorrow, is only of a
limited duration. The enjoyments of the senses are transient, and the senses themselves are worn out
by excessive enjoyment. Further sin generally accompanies these enjoyments and makes him
unhappy beyond comparison. Even if the pleasures of the world are enjoyed as much as their nature
would permit, even if they are as intense, as various, as uninterrupted as possible, yet old age in all
its hideous shape threatens him with death and destruction. It should be remembered that the
enjoyments of heaven itself are not in reality more enviable than these pleasures of the senses; they
are of the same nature though more unmixed and durable. Moreover they also come to an end as
they are gained by actions; and as actions are finite their effect must also be finite. In a word, there is
necessarily an end to all these enjoyments.
O little man of little faith! Why do you vainly strive for pleasures, which you know cannot
satisfy you beyond the moment of enjoyment? Look out for an unchangeable, infinite and supreme
happiness which must come from a Being in whom there is no change. Search and find out such a
Being, and if you could only succeed in your quest, then you can get that unaltered happiness from
Him.
All the great religions of the world proclaim in one unanimous voice that there is One Being
as mentioned above. This Being, believe me, is not very far from you. He is quite close to you. He
resides in the body-temple of yours, in the innermost recesses of your heart. He is the silent Witness
of your mind, the Watcher of all the activities of your intellect. He is the Supreme Being of the
Scriptures so highly eulogised by Saints, Sages, Yogins, Philosophers and Prophets. This Being can
be realised by all through the practice of Yoga.
It is a well-known fact that any number of zeros have no intrinsic value unless the No. 1 is
placed before them. Even so the wealth of all the three worlds is nothing, if you do not lead a
spiritual life, if you do not try to acquire the Spiritual Wealth, if you do not strive for
Self-realisation. You will have to live in the Soul or the Self within. You will have to add Atman to
the life here. That is the reason why Lord Jesus says: “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His
righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.”
Every one of you is a power in yourself. You can influence others. You can radiate Joy and
Peace to millions upon millions of people far and near. You can elevate others even from a long
distance. You can transmit your powerful, soul-stirring, beneficial thoughts to others, because you
are an image of God, nay, you are God Himself the moment the veil of ignorance enshrouding you
is rent asunder.

From - SRI SWAMI SIVANANDA