Page 12 - NAMAH-Oct-2018

Namah Vol. 26, Issue 3, 15th October 2018

The idea of yoga We can take an analogy to better understand it.
For example, we cannot understand swimming
The principles of yoga are based upon discoveries by merely reading a book or all possible books
made by yogis. These men and women may on swimming since however much we may
well be called scientists of the Spirit or of know about it theoretically, a gap, even a
human nature, if we like. They explored the fundamental gap will always remain between
boundaries of nature, ventured to go beyond our readings and the actual experience of the
the limits ordinarily set for our life, entered swimmer. The swimmer has tried various
hitherto unknown territories and observed the ways to stay afloat and conquer the law of
effects of these discoveries and their impacts water and establish a new way of relating with
quite objectively on their own life and others’. this medium. He has experienced the joy and
Once they had discovered their own unique the danger, learnt about the predictable and
point of contact with the Beyond, they shared yet unpredictable behaviour of the different
the discovery with other seekers. This allowed water-bodies. Unlike the reader who has
the experiment to be replicable. In other simply engaged in brain exercise, the actual
words, their discovery was not confined to swimmer has challenged his body and mind
themselves but could be replicated in others to align it in a new way with regard to the
if the conditions required for the process river or the sea. He has learnt a new way
to bear fruition were followed. This is very to be. And to stretch the analogy a little far
different from armchair theorists who sit in without disturbing its logic, if the swimmer stays
their air-conditioned offices with high-paid longer and longer in water he would completely
salaries pursuing their ambitions and who modify his physiology and perhaps in time to
start writing papers on yoga and compare it come, if more and more swimmers did the
with other systems and theories of psychology! same, even the anatomy and very genetic
But yoga has to be done and practised, better constitution will change to bring out a new
still lived, to be understood in the true sense. It species! After all, dolphins and many other
is not a philosophical system of thought but a creatures did evolve that way. The mud-fish
practical psychology. The philosophy follows jumped out of water twisting and turning
later and can even be left out. Therefore yoga for breath until it changed into a tadpole and
cannot be taught in classrooms or through began to breathe as naturally and normally
seminars and webinars. These activities can be on land as well as in water.
helpful as groundwork but to truly understand
it one must go beyond the classroom, into the On the other hand the four-footed creatures
fields of one’s nature, enter into its dangerous that began to love the life of water some 90
jungles and charming territories, grapple with million years ago began to develop new
the luminous forces and the shadows that ways of breathing in water and evolved into
move us, study the actual impact of countless modern dolphins. Seen thus, we may look
inner forces that are at work in our lives. It is at yoga not just as some set of exercises to
a vast and deep work, fairly complex in its heal or keep fit but a new mode of living, a
nature and generally speaking cannot be safely dwelling in a new state of consciousness, a
undertaken without some kind of a guidance change of our internal habitat as much as of
or better still a guide. our outer habits, a dwelling upon the heights

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