By  Dr. P. M. Sharma  


THE FIRST STEP: --

RAJYOGA is divided into eight steps. The first is YAMA—non- killing, truthfulness, non-stealing, continence, and non-receiving of any gifts. Next is NIYAMA—cleanliness, contentment, austerity, study, and self surrender to god.

Then comes ASNA, or posture; PRANAYAM, or control of PRANA; PRATYAHARA, or restraint of the senses from their objects; DHARANA, or fixing the mind on spot; DHYANA, or meditation; and SAMADHI, or super- consciousness.

The YAMA and NIYAMA, as we see, are moral trainings; without these as the basis no practice of YOGA will succeed. As these two become established, the YOGI will begin to realize the fruit of his practice; without these it will never bear fruit. A YOGI must not think of injuring of anyone, by thought, word, or deed. Mercy shell not is for men, alone, but shell go beyond, and embraces the whole world.

The next step is ASANA the posture. A series of exercises, physical and mental, is to be gone through every day, until certain higher states are reached. Therefore it is quit necessary that we should find a posture in which we can remain long. That posture which is the easiest for one should be the chosen.

For thinking, a certain posture may be very easy for one man, while to another it may be very difficult. We will find later on that during the study of these psychological matters a good deal of activity goes on in the body.

Nerve currents will have to be displaced and given a new channel. New sorts of vibrations will begin; the whole constitution will be remodeled, as it were. But the main part of the activity will lie along the spinal column, so that the one thing necessary for the posture is to hold the spinal column free, sitting erect, holding the three parts; the chest, neck and head- in a straight line.

Let the whole weight of the body be supported by the ribs, and than you have an easy natural posture, with the spine straight. You will easily see that you cannot think very high thoughts with the chest in. the portion of the yoga is a little similar to the HATHA-YOGA which deals entirely with the physical body, it aim being to make the physical body very strong.

We have nothing to do with it here, because it practices are very difficult and can not be learnt in a day, and, after all, don’t lead to much spiritual growth. Many of these practices you will find Delsarte and other teachers, such as placing the body in different posture, but the object in these is physical, not psychological. There is not one muscle in the body over which a man can not established a perfect control.

The heart can be made to stop or go on at his bidding, and each part of the organism can be similarly controlled.

The result of this branch of yoga is to make men livelong; health is chief idea, the one goal of the HATHA-YOGI. He is determined not to fall sick, and he never does. He lives long; a hundred years is nothing to him; he is quite young and fresh when he is one fifty (150), with out one hair turn gray. But that is all.

A banyan tree lives some time 5000 years, but it is a banyan tree a nothing more. So, if a man lives long, he is only a healthy animal. One or two ordinary lessons of the hatha-yogis are very use full.

Far instance, some of you will find it a good thing for headache to drink cold water through the nose as soon as you get up in the morning; the whole day your brain will be nice and cool, and you will never catch cold. It is very easy to do; put your nose into the water, draw it up through the nostrils and make a pump action in the throat.

After one has learnt to have a firm erect seat, one has to perform, according to certain schools, a practice called the purifying of the nerves. This part has been rejected by some as not belonging to RAJYOGA, but as so great an authority as the commentator SHANKRACHARYA advises it, I think fit that it should be mentioned, and I will quote his own directions from his commentary on the SWASTH VRITA UPNISHADA: “ the mind whose dross has been cleared away by PRANAYAMA becomes fixed in BRAHAMAN; therefore PRANAYAMA is declared.

First the nerves are to be purified, than comes the power to practice pranayam. Stopping the right nostril with the thumb, through the left nostril fill in air, according to capacity; than, without any interval, throw the air out through the right nostril, closing the left one.

Again inhaling through the right nostril eject through the left, according to capacity; practicing this three or five times at four hours of the day; before dawn, during mid day, in the evening and at midnight, in fifteen day or a month purity of the nerves is attained; than begin the pranayam.”

Practice is absolutely necessary. You may sit down and listen to me by the hour every day, but if you do not practice, you will not get one step further. It all depends on practice. We never understand these things until we experience them. We will have to see and feel them for our selves. Simply listening to explanations and theories will not do.

There are several obstructions to practice. The first obstruction is an unhealthy body; if the body is not in a fit state, the practice will be obstructed. Therefore we have to keep the body in good health; we have to take care of what we eat and drink, and what we do. Always use a mantel effort what is usually called “ Christian science” to keep the body strong. That is all- nothing further of the body. We must not forget that health is only a means to an end. If health were the end, we would be like an animal; animal rarely became unhealthy.

The second obstruction is doubt; we always feel doubtful about things we do not see. Man cannot live upon words, however he may try. So doubt comes to us as to whether there is any truth in these things or not; even the best of us will doubt some times. With practice within a few days, a little glimpse will come; enough give one encouragement and hope. As a certain commentator on yoga philosophy says, “ when one proof is obtained, however little that may be, it will give us faith in the whole teaching of yoga”.

For an instance, after the first few month of practice, you will begin to find you can read another’s thoughts; they will come to you in a picture form. Perhaps you hear something happening at a long distance, when you concentrate your mind with to wish to hear. These glimpses will come, by little bits at first, but enough to give you faith, and strength, and hope.

For instance, if you concentrate your thoughts on the tip of your nose, in a few days you will begin to smell most beautiful fragrance, which will be enough to show you that there are certain mental perceptions that can be made obvious without the contact of physical object. But we must always remember that these are only the means; the aim, the end, the goal of all this training is liberation of the soul.

Absolute control of nature, and nothing short of it, must be the goal. We must be the masters, not slaves of nature; neither body nor mind must be our masters, nor must we forget the body is mine, and not I the body’s.