All Efforts at Self Improvement is Yoga.
Men and Women are confronted by existential questions about Happiness, Tranquility in Life and question the Meaning of Life.
It is impossible to know whether these age old questions would ever be solved.
At this second decade of the 21st century, a myriad of self improvement methodologies are available, and it is so vast, so varied, so contradictory and so confusing in its claims and counterclaims. There exists no compilation of all available thought methodologies of our era. Nor can there be one, since all of us live in the context of Time Urgency.
Yet, at a time when Sages existed with devotion to knowledge and lack of time urgency, they were able to write that which had a purpose, more than the purpose of writing for its own sake or propagandization of ones thoughts as an ideology or religious faith.
One such sage was Patanjali, thought to have lived around 200 BCE, around 2300 years before our current era.
He set out to compile the variety of techniques of self discipline of that time, and wrote it under the title, Yoga Sutras. As the son of the founder of the Yoga Institute in Santa Cruz, Dr Jayadeva Yogendra, has stated: Yoga in Patanjali’s view was a process of complete control of one’s personality, so that any one may discover one’s own true self.
The cultivation of one’s consciousness, to transcend our normal mundane and routine existence and attain the experience of the absolute or a higher level of consciousness was the goal, then 2300 years ago as it is today.
All of us wish to better our lives regardless of our social, economical, educational status.
But the demands of Time on an individual makes this search very difficult. Understanding the importance of discipline, continuing study of the philosophy, makes Yoga an appealing method of attaining the path to self realization and its by products on the body and the mind: health and better living. Our objective is self realization and better health and better living are some of its by products. Better living includes, what the sacred text, Gita, had said: Yoga is Efficiency
I am being introduced to the teachings of the Yoga Institute, Santa Cruz, Bombay, India by one of its recent graduates. (pictured above).
My notes are commentaries on Yoga Sutras by Patanjali annotated by Dr Jayadeva Yogendra. Referenced to his work and commentaries..
Thoughts on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali
