Purification

Over 18 million Americans are practicing yoga according to a recent survey, and while the benefits are certainly reaching many, a failure to understand the true nature of Yoga has prevented us from seeing a fully realized American Yoga culture to date. This is largely because the Yoga tradition is mysterious in nature-- in ancient times only the rarest of disciples would be given initiation into the practice of Yoga because mastery of Yoga is said to give mastery over all the elements and indeed the very forces of the Universe itself. In the West, we're inclined to believe such purports to be myth and based on exxagerated accounts of the abilities of Eastern Mystics and so we're satisfied to take the lowest level of the teachings of yoga, the practice of asana (postures), to be sufficient for our needs. But even this is almost universally being practiced with an improper, Western based, understanding of the body and exercise. To understand how to approach a yoga practice, one needs to truly understand what Yoga is and why it was developed.
All of Yoga can be summarized in one word, actually. It's not breath, unless by breath you mean praana which is obviously true because praana is everything, and it's not strength or flexibility or focus of concentration. These are all RESULTS of practicing yoga. The word Yoga in English is actually best translated as simply PURIFICATION.
Why purification? Sri Swami Satchidananda used to say, "There is nothing you can do to make yourself happy, but if you calm your mind and empty your thoughts, you will realize that Happiness is Your very nature."
Yoga says that everything is, comes from, and dissolves into One limitless consciousness. This consciousness is nothing less than perfect SatchidAnanda (Truth-Knowledge-Bliss). Stop to contemplate this: if you're happy, you have everything. Do this experiment: imagine you're happy and then imagine what else you could possibly need. If we can firmly accept this as Truth, then the goal of all life becomes a simple quest: to find LASTING happiness. How wonderful if our very own nature IS what we're seeking! But if it is, why aren't we happy? Yoga has a very simple explanation to give us hope: there are toxins in our body and mind that prevent this True nature from being consciously experienced. Thus, eliminate the toxins, eliminate all unhappiness. PURIFY and receive the grace of the Highest Eternal Happiness!
This is isn't such a hard concept to buy into; think about how many of the things that used to bring you joy now seem gross and immature. For example, most of us, at least, don't pick our noses anymore and the concept of bathing once a week is positively revolting! We've *grown* away from these things as our understanding and appreciation of life grew.
There's a famous story of how once Lord Indra, the King of the Gods in Heaven, once came to Earth in the form of a pig in order to help liberate those souls stuck in pig-incarnations. Growing up in the mud and other pleasures sensual to a pig's senses, Indra quickly lost site of His purpose in being there and haven taken a pig form. He found a sow with which to mate and enjoy sex with, and they had several little piglets. Indra was enjoying a lazy life sunning himself in the mud most of the day. The other Gods were terrified and aghast!! How revolting!! They came to Indra and explained that its best they usher Him back to Heaven now and forget this ever happened, only Indra refused to leave! The Gods then took the lives of His piglets in order to make His existence as a pig less bearable. Indra wailed on the ground, but then took solace with His sow with whom He started to mate in order to produce more piglets. The Gods, really getting disgusted now, took His sow's life also. Indra wailed on the ground, but then took solace flailing his pig body in the mud. Finally, the Gods took Indra's life. Back in Heaven, Indra reviewed His actions with shame, "I can't believe I fell prey to the illusion in the world", He said. The Gods replied, It was pretty bad, Sir.
This story is poignant to our predicament as 'dirty humans' who have forgotten our Pure state. It's precisely because we don't believe the tradition of Yoga that we tend to fall short in what we hope to get from yoga. We stop at physical fitness, muscle tone and flexibility, and never think that Yoga can actually free us from our addictions as well! If Indra was only fortunate enough to have a Guru to pick Him out of the mud and clean Him off, He might have paused to think, "wow, it actually DOES feel good to be clean!!" He still might have gone back into the mud, in fact most of us will many times with our die-hard vices, but every time we CLEAN ourselves, we give ourselves a taste of the bliss of PURE consciousness. This bliss IS, in fact, higher than any joy we could possibly derive from the world, but this is very hard to believe until it is experienced first hand!!
I would like to address the biggest misconceptions about Yoga in the West by stating a few things that we can derive from this understanding:
* Yoga is NOT primarily for the muscles. Yoga is purifying the NERVES, the very link between body and mind, and for the ORGANS in order to bring the chemical/neuroligical hormone systems into optimal harmony.
* Breath alone is the only way to purify the nerves, and therefore poses need to be HELD for at least five breaths (according to Sri. T. Krishnamacharya) before any benefit is derived from the practice of an asana.
* Alignment in practice should only be taken into consideration SECOND to how to best eliminate toxins from the body using a yoga practice. Map the optimal daily practice first.
* A LITTLE YOGA EVERY DAY IS INFINITELY BETTER THAN A LOT OF YOGA ONCE IN A WHILE. You don't shower a lot once a week, you shower a little everyday to stay clean. The traditional Hatha Sun series are very rarely taught in classes today, but this is a perfect COMPLETE yoga routine that takes only 10 minutes and can be easily practiced daily. It's best to be initiated into the Sun Series by a master, however, this is what it looks like:
http://www.yogashakti.org/surya-namaskar/
* Of course it goes without saying that your practice will remain limited until you devote more time to it, but most of us only need to be able to sit on the ground comfortably and this can be achieved with a 30 min. daily asana practice! Once this goal is reached, sitting on the ground is the only asana one needs to practice; though one should continue to perform some sort of Surya Namaskar at the auspicious twilight hour such as Gayatri performed with ablations to Saavitri.
* Strength in yoga is derived from improving the nerves' ability to conduct signals to the muscles, NOT from the Western model of tear down muscle in order to build it up. Thus, IT IS POSSIBLE TO BUILD STRENGTH BY MEDITATION ALONE. (I have witnessed this in several of my students as well.)
* Unbalanced asana routines that strain the muscle groups CREATE toxins in the nervous system and are actually hindering your Yoga practice! Maharshi Patanjali says, "an asana is light and steady and is mastered by lessening restlessness through meditating on the infinite"
* Our nerves work on a clock in tune with the Earth's rhythms. Therefore, practice is best done at the Sandhya (twilight) times of dawn and dusk. Practice at noon is not recommended because the nervous system is already peaked energetically, and other practice during the day should be done on an empty stomach-- at least two hours after eating (Swami Satchidananda used to say four hours). Solar Yoga practice done after 9pm DESTABILIZES the nervous system and CREATES toxins. Only lunar yoga practice can successfully be practiced in night hours and there are very few qualified teachers of lunar practice.
* Addressing a New York Times article this past weekend, "Yoga and Wine" do NOT mix. Yoga says alcohol is cursed to make you forget yourself and cannot be integrated with anything related to yoga.
When we practice Yoga daily, with a mind full of reverential gratitude, and we enjoy the practice slowly taking care to feel our breath deepening the experience of an asana, THEN we are doing real work towards Self-improvement and freedom from misery. If we take to Yoga as work and something that we should be exhausted from afterwards, then we will never be able to relax the deep rooted toxins in our nervous system. If we take to yoga with fear of injury, and stress about every little muscle's position, we will never be able to smile at our true blissful Self. If we practice yoga properly and pay attention to how we feel after cleaning our systems, our journey into re-toxification will be less and less frequent.
*One should never attempt an asana practice without initiation from a qualified teacher, unless one has a guru under whose blessings may take initiation from someone else. Because work on the nerves, work on the mind means the really hard work of rooting out the bad karmas, or cycles of negative behavior, in our lives. Without such protection, we risk many adverse effects such as excessive lust without the ability to raise the energy cultivated into higher consciousness centers, enhanced power in our power of word and the potentially disastrous consequences of losing control under anger, cultivating energy for the acquisition of wreckless selfish desires which only serves to further extend the karmic chain of misery, indeed the list is infinite and potential for pitfall is great! The Satguru, the One Only True Satguru, is limitless beyond time and space. That is why we need the Satguru's blessings, even if just the inner dialogue with the One Universal Love that is the Satguru! When you're ready to see the Satguru in a human form, the Satguru will come! Only devotion will bring us to the other shore... JAI GURUDEV!!! JAI SRI GURUDEVI!!!