In my lecture this evening I was talking about Yoga. What is Yoga? Often I hear "I do Yoga daily, two times a week or four times a week".
Once I was invited in a fitness center to give a lecture about Yoga. That was also my first experience, giving lecture in a fitness center. It was a very new scene for me. There were many machines for building muscles and many people sitting on these machines, in front of them the TVs and in the ear the earphones! Everywhere I see this and then there is also a small group standing there waiting for me to tell them about Yoga.
And I said "It is good that you invited me here but you have to know that Yoga is not only the physical exercise. It is much much more than that!"
The word 'Yoga' is from Sanskrit and the literal meaning of it is 'union'. This is Yoga. When you are in Yoga then it is your life. You are living in Yoga. It is not about one hour, two hours, two times or three times. It is a lifestyle. When you are in Yoga then your everything is Yoga. It doesn't matter if you are sleeping, eating, drinking, walking, talking. It is in everything. Then it becomes life. I wouldn't say doing Yoga, but being in Yoga. When your soul wants to make connection with its source, from where it comes. When the soul wants to makes this union.
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I do not practice “Yoga” but I know Yoga. It has been helpful to me, in my past, to have a practice that would lead me into presence. For me this practice was farming. Bending over to uncover the earth and place a seed in it and then to take one step and plant another, to carefully pluck ripened eggplant or zucchini from its branch or to deliver mulch from one place to another, rotating my hips deliberately to keep a healthy balance and rhythm. This work gave me a gift of happiness. Now I am a farmer wherever I go. It is not that I think of myself as a farmer. It is being a farmer that allows me to not think of myself as anything. I am here, breathing, happy. When I wash the dishes, as I am walking or speaking with a dear friend or stranger, I take care to farm, to move deliberately with concentration and joy. You do not need Yoga to experience this but Yoga can be a very good teacher. Try and see what fits for you.
Love this photo Swami Ji! Keep ’em coming.
Unfortunately Yoga have become an industry instead of becoming life style. People talk like Yoga is many billion dollars industry.
You’re right, it is an industry. Sad how things change. Almost as soon as something breaks through to become good, it is changed and steers away from it’s purity. That why we have to keep searching for pure good.
I started doing yoga in a mostly physical way, but I think that unconsiously it guides you in a different direction. It will move into other areas of you life and then become a way of living.
Hi! I just read a number of your articles on teaching yoga and living yoga. As a yoga teacher and studio owner, these are the words I need to hear. I have been feeling down and disconnected and need to focus on my living of my yoga and not as a business. Thank you for your wisdom. I can’t wait to read more! Yours, Maya