Yoga

Yamas and Niyamas in My Practice of Yoga

I tried to combine my practice of physical aspects of Yoga with work on the psychical and mental levels . Five niyamas are set of rules and actions we adopt for ourselves . They also have outer and inner aspects like sauca , for example . On the physical level sauca means clearness of the body and it not very difficult to follow it . Real difficulty starts when I try to follow inner clearness and keep my thoughts clean

Inner niyamas are even harder to follow than yamas because

they reflect inner work and there is nobody who will control you or decide how successful you follow them

I spent much time reflecting on Samtosa . Finally , I came to a kind of conclusion : Samtosa , in a sense of modesty , can be simply understood by our mind but another aspect of this niyama , such as feeling a connection with everything in the universe , can be only experienced . After this realization I gave up mental efforts to explain all that changes using rational thoughts and now I can oftener see inner harmony in all people and events , which surround me . I have noticed that this happens when I do not enter into usual reaction of my mind and do not try to give rational explanations of the world around me and rather try to feel what happens . For me , this principle is very closely connected to svadhyaya because as soon as you start seeing divine purpose in everything (samtosa , you start feeling as a part of this divine purpose (svadhyaya . Tapas for me consists of regular physical exercises , such as asanas and pranayama and right eating habits . Despite I do not always success to consume all food in a healthy manner this is the goal I am striving for

True Yogi stays an impartial observer of all his thoughts and actions That is the state of the mind everybody should strive for . I do nothing at all ' - thus will the harmonised knower of Truth think - seeing , hearing , touching , smelling , eating , going , sleeping , breathing speaking , letting go , seizing , opening and closing the eyes - convinced that the senses move among the sense-objects (Radhakrishnan , The Yoga of Renunciation ,

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After the process is finished a person can experience an ultimate reality , which surrounds him . He can feel Brahman inside and outside himself and finally realizes that entire Universe is Brahman . to those whose ignorance is destroyed by knowledge of the Self , like the sun knowledge reveals the Supreme (Brahman (Radhakrishnan , The Yoga of Renunciation . Practicing isvarapranidhana we can approach this state especially if we make it an everyday practice . Dedicating all actions to God we stop being to the results of our actions and , thus , can observe life around us without judgement

Ahimsa , or nonviolence to all living beings ' is a basic principle of Yama , which makes the basis for other Yamas . This principle of non-violent actions contains several aspects . Vegetarians follow this principle in not to...