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Patanjali Yoga Sutras says, “Practice of austerity (asceticism) removes impurities; body and sense organs become perfect.”

By practicing austerity, discipline, and yoga, we extract energy that we call tapas.

In older times, tapas was standing on one leg in water for many days or keeping a hand above the head for many days. In the Mahabharata, Arjuna did great penance for Lord Shiva to please him and gain a very powerful weapon. So he went to the Himalayas and started doing his tapas.

Swami Satyananda Saraswati explains that, etymologically, the word tapas means process of purification, through which a person becomes mature.

Tapas – it’s like universal energy that helps you to realize all kinds of ideas: for spiritual development, for realizing projects, ideas, even for pleasures.… skaityti daugiau

Santosha means that you’re satisfied and happy with what you have or don’t have. You accept whatever happens in your life: good and bad. You are already happy right now, and you don’t need something to become happy.

Santosha is about you as a person, your life, job, material side, money you have, or yoga practice. You already have everything to grow.

Mind always want something more, newer, better, or a different color. Our neighbor bought a new car, and we think that we also need to buy a new car.

Usually we think that the more items we have, the more money, better work, and the happier we are.

People often have everything, but still they don’t have peace of mind.… skaityti daugiau

Body level: cleanliness of body, wash your body, clothes, house, flat, personal items, work desk, inner organs.

In yogic texts there are many examples of shatkarmas. Shatkarma – it is six cleansing techniques that help to purify the body from inside and maintain good health, body, and energy. There are techniques like Trataka, Nauli, Kapalabhati, Neti, Basti, Dhauti, Kunjala, Shankaprakshalana, fasting, and others. Healthy and simple food is very important for the Shaucha principle.

Speech level: telling the truth, calm and pleasant intonation, words with meaning, remove word parasites, bad words, and do not curse or tell dirty words.

Mind level: remove negative thoughts like anger, lust, greed, jealousy, negative emotions.… skaityti daugiau

There are at least 2 ways to understand the Brahmacharya principle:

1) Control of senses.
2) Walking with the Brahman. You see Creator everywhere.

Brahmacharya has a wide understanding, from sexual abstinence to refraining from taste. People get used to wasting energy: watching movies, going to the cinema, listening to music, browsing the internet, scrolling on mobile, and eating food. People became addicted to getting emotions. When you throw away energy, satisfaction comes, and then you become calm for a short time. When you don’t have energy, it’s not possible to grow spiritually. That’s the reason why we need to learn to control our minds. We always want to raise our energy as high as possible.… skaityti daugiau

We live in an era of consumers. Everybody wants more and more better items. People think that the more they buy, the happier they will be. It’s a strange way of understanding life and this world.

Every item uses our energy. To get an item, we need to work, save money, buy the item, and maintain this item. In all those 4 stages, you spend your time and resources. The more items we have, the more energy we spend to maintain them near us.

For example, if you have 5 houses, you need to take care of all of them: clean rooms windows, maintain the surrounding area, and so on.

When you have many items, they start using your time and energy.… skaityti daugiau

When you do not steal and do not take things or services that do not belong to you, it creates harmony with other people. Sage Patanjali in Patanjali Yoga Sutras explains, “By keeping the vow of non-stealing, a yogi gets all wealth.” Or “When non-stealing is established, yogi can get whatever he wants.”

Asteya means abandoning the intention, desire, or possession of stealing anything: material, items, services, achievements, relationships, or whatever does not belong to you through force or cheating, actions, words, or thoughts.

From an energy point of view, stealing always has consequences. Stealing causes guilt. When people try to get something free without paying or giving back, it has negative consequences.… skaityti daugiau

Yoga Pradipika: “If you have a habit to cheat and fool others, after some time you will believe in your own lies.”

Satya  is the practice of saying and doing truth in our daily life. It is the practice of not lying. In Sanskrit, “sat” means “absolute truth.”

A truthful man is absolutely free from worries and anxieties. He has a calm mind. He is respected by society. There will be power in your speech.

Following Satya in our lives gives us confidence and inner power. People who tell the truth have very strong energy. People who always lie are very weak.

Your thoughts should agree with your words, and the words should agree with your actions.… skaityti daugiau

In Sanskrit, word Ahimsa means: “himsa – violence”, “a – denial, against.”

There are 3 levels of Ahimsa: body, speech, and thoughts.

1) Body level: do not kill or harm other humans and animals.

2) Speech level: do not harm with your words, don’t gossip, don’t talk about information that you don’t know, no judging, and do not curse.

3) Thoughts level: good thoughts, without harm to others, no judging, without hating other people, without abuse, without uttering lies in any way.

The Law of Karma means that whatever bad we do for others, it will come back to us. It means if we say bad words about another person, somebody will need to say bad words for us in the future (actually, it can be our karma from the past, or it could be our future).… skaityti daugiau

Beginner practitioners meet with physical discomfort when practicing asanas, but even more when trying to sit with a straight back and crossed legs by going to inner practices: pranayamas, concentration, and meditation. And often physical pain in the legs or back becomes a serious trial. One thing is to practice from time to time, and it is absolutely different from long, intensive retreats, where you need to sit for many hours and where pain becomes an enemy who is “always with you.”

Remember that to feel discomfort during meditation is a normal fact in the beginning of your way. Everybody who practices faces that. Pain and distraction do not say that practice is unsuccessful.… skaityti daugiau

To understand for myself what yoga is, I decided to ask people what they understand about it. I asked people who practice yoga and who heard something about yoga, about 50 and 50 percent.

Results:

– It is a system of knowledge about the inner human world and the universe.
– Path of knowledge and self-development, self-growth, self-knowledge.
– Teaching about soul.
– Exercises for health.
– Helps to relax stress, anxiety, and fatigue.
– System of knowledge that helps to harmonize the inner world and surroundings.
– Exercises in fitness for health.
– Exercises that help to reach goals.
– Love for God, Creator.
– System that will allow determining the relation between self and the external world.… skaityti daugiau