Quarterly Newsletter
The Very Root of the Ashtanga System Is Attention
Excerpted from SADHANA the Path to Enlightenment, Yoga the Sacred Science, volume 2 by Swami Rama
Ashtanga yoga is more commonly known as raja yoga. When he was in the West, Swami Vivekananda coined the term raja yoga for the convenience of westerners. The word raja means “royal.” The path of raja yoga, or ashtanga yoga, leads you systematically from the gross to the subtle, from the subtle to the subtler and from the subtler to the subtlest aspects of your being. This is the final destination, the royal palace in the deep recesses of the inner chamber of your being, where His Majesty dwells. If you follow the path of ashtanga yoga as Patanjali has prescribed, you will be able to verify that your true nature is divine and realize your fullest potential for creative thought and action.
Ashtanga yoga encompasses teachings from many different paths. These are revealed teachings of divine origin that go back many thousands of years. Through the practical methods of ashtanga yoga you can achieve mastery of all three realms—physical, mental and spiritual—and full realization of the Self. At present you are only aware of your mortal self. The knowledge that you are a mortal self, having a body, breath, conscious mind and unconscious mind, does not help to transform your personality. Self-realization means you have realized the center of consciousness, the Self-existent truth that is within. There is no need to search in the external world or to go to any temple, mosque or church. Self-realization is the expansion of your individual soul to cosmic consciousness. For knowing the Self you will have to systematically tread the internal journey deep into the inner chamber of your being. You have two levels of energy or power; one is asleep and one is awake. If you remain asleep, you will always be weak. You can easily awaken and use those powers creatively and expand the field of the conscious mind until there is no longer anything unconscious. Then you will be able to consciously bring forward whatever knowledge you want from the infinite library within for use in your daily life. Those great sages who walked on the earth like Christ, Moses and others, were human beings like us. They became great because they knew how to use the infinite library within.
Millions of people tread this path, but only a fortunate few persist to complete the journey. This is because you are confused about what you are seeking. You say you are searching for God, but if He were to suddenly come and ask you what you want, many of you would ask Him to give you a new car, or a good boyfriend or girlfriend. And if God were to ask you who you are, you would only be able to respond that you don’t know. In order to meet the president, you will also have to be a president. If you go as a beggar, his attendants will tell you to get out because the president has no time to meet a beggar. But if you go as a president, he will come out and graciously receive you.
Ashtanga yoga is considered to be a very good path for everyone, especially for those who want to understand the true value of life with its currents and cross currents. On this path even though you will definitely meet many obstacles, you will also encounter many milestones to indicate how much progress you have made and what you have yet to do. You have all the potentials within to enlighten yourself. If you understand and systematically practice all the steps, you will definitely progress.
Patanjali has divided the science of ashtanga yoga into two parts, external and internal. Yoga acknowledges that there are conflicts within and without. If you want to understand life, you have to make conscious effort to learn how to deal with all these conflicts. By practicing the first five steps that constitute the outer face of ashtanga yoga—yama, niyama, asana, pranayama and pratyahara—you will gain the skill to deal with disturbances that come from the external world and to have control over your external activities. However, life is not limited to the external world or to exploration of the external world. You also have to take steps to understand and deal with internal disturbances, which are deeper and stronger. In the ladder of ashtanga yoga the last three steps are internal: dharana, dhyana and samadhi. These three steps comprise internal techniques that lead to control over mind and its modifications, or perfect self-control.
You are aware of your conscious mind and senses, that part of mind you have been educating to be successful in the world and to enjoy life, but you do not realize that the conscious mind is merely a small part of the totality of the mind. If you come to comprehend the entire mind and all its functions, you will realize that the real source of disturbances is your mind. When you become aware of the totality of the mind, you can easily gain control of that part of mind you use during the waking state. You can even learn to control the dreaming mind that functions only during the dreaming state. Likewise the part of mind that creates a state of deep sleep for you can be brought under conscious control. Then only can you attain the fourth state, turiya, the superconscious state of your mind.
The first two rungs of the ladder of ashtanga yoga consist of ten moral commitments, the yamas (restraints) and the niyamas (observances). The persistent practice of the yamas and niyamas is the foundation of yoga sadhana. If you practice these ten commitments, you will comprehend the basic principles of yoga sadhana and all the great religions of the world.
ISBN 978-81-88157-68-6, $18.98, paperback, 304 pages
January 2012
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