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YOGA AND ITS OBJECTS

PRACTICAL LESSONS
IN
YOGA
By
SRI SWAMI SIVANANDA

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Yoga Philosophy is one of the six systems of Hindu Philosophy which exist in India. Unlike
so many other philosophies of the world, it is a philosophy that is wholly practical. Yoga is an exact
science based on certain immutable Laws of Nature. It is well known to people of all countries of
the world interested in the study of Eastern civilisation and culture, and is held in awe and reverence
as it contains in it the master-key to unlock the realms of Peace, Bliss, Mystery and Miracle. Even
the philosophers of the West found solace and peace in this Divine Science. Jesus Christ himself
was a Yogi of a superior order, a Raja-Yogi indeed. The founder of the Yoga Philosophy was
Patanjali Maharshi, who was not only a Philosopher and a Yogi, but a Physician as well. He is said
to have lived about three hundred years before Jesus Christ.
Patanjali defines Yoga as the suspension of all the functions of the mind. As such, any book
on Yoga, which does not deal with these three aspects of the subject, viz., mind, its functions and
the method of suspending them, can he safely laid aside as unreliable and incomplete.
The word Yoga comes from the Sanskrit root “Yuj” which means “to join.” Yoga is a
science that teaches us the method of joining the individual soul and the Supreme Soul. It is the
merging of the individual will with the Cosmic or Universal Will. Yoga is that inhibition of the
functions of the mind which leads to the absolute abidance of the soul in its own real nature of
Divine Glory and Divine Splendour. It is the process by which the identity of the individual soul
and the Oversoul is established by the Yogi. In other words, the human soul is brought into
conscious communion with God. Yoga is the Science of sciences that disentangles the individual
soul from the phenomenal world of sense-objects and links with the Absolute, whose inherent
attributes are Infinite Bliss, Supreme Peace, Infinite Knowledge and unbroken Joy.
Yoga is that state of Absolute Peace wherein there is neither imagination nor thought. Yoga
is control of mind and its modifications. Yoga teaches us how to control the modifications of the
mind and attain liberation. It teaches us how to transmute the unregenerate nature and attain the
state of Divinity. It is the complete suppression of the tendency of the mind to transform itself into
objects, thoughts, etc. Yoga kills all sorts of pain, misery and tribulation. It gives you freedom from
the round of births and deaths, with its concomitant evils of disease, old age, etc., and bestows upon
you all the Divine Powers and final liberation through super-intutional knowledge.
The word Yoga is also applicable in its secondary sense to the factors of Yoga, viz.,
self-training, study, the different actions and practices that go to make up Yoga as they are
conducive to the fulfilment of Yoga and as such indirectly lead to emancipation. Union with God is
the goal of human life and that ought to become the touchstone of all human endeavours. That is the
be-all and end-all of existence.
Equanimity is Yoga. Serenity is Yoga. Skill in actions is Yoga. Control of the senses and the
mind is Yoga. Anything by which the best and the highest in life can be attained is also Yoga. Yoga
is thus all-embracing, all-inclusive and universal in its application leading to all-round
development of body, mind and soul.
1
The object of Yoga is to weaken what are called the five afflictions. The five afflictions are:
Ignorance, Egoism, Likes, Dislikes and the instinct of self-preservation (or clinging to bodily life).
Ignorance is the fertile soil which bears an abundant crop of the rest. On account of ignorance only
egoism has manifested. Wherever there is egoism, there invariably exist likes, dislikes and the rest
side by side. Clinging to bodily life or fear of death is born of likes only. It is nothing but
attachment.
Egoism is a specific form of ignorance. The mind gets itself attached wherever there is
pleasure. If the mind likes pomegranate, it gets itself attached to this fruit, as it derives pleasure
from eating it. The mind runs after things that have been associated with agreeable experiences in
the past. This is attachment (like). The mind runs away from objects which have caused pain. This is
dislike. These are all the faults of man himself. The world can never hurt you. The five elements are
your best teachers. They help you in a variety of ways. The things created by the Lord are all
beneficial. It is only the creation of man that brings pain and misery. These five afflictions bind you
to the outside objects and reduce you to piteous slavery. These afflictions remain as tendencies even
when they are inoperative. These afflictions and tendencies can be attenuated by Yogic discipline.
On account of ignorance you have forgotten your primitive Divine Glory. On account of
this evil you are not able to remember your old status of Godhood, your original immortal, blissful,
divine nature. Ignorance is the root cause of egoism, likes, dislikes and the rest. These five
afflictions are great impediments to Yoga. They stand as stumbling-blocks to the attainment of
Self-realisation.
These five afflictions remain in a dormant, attenuated, overpowered or fully developed
state. When the husband begins to quarrel with the wife, his love for her becomes dormant and he
shows dislike for her for the time being. In a Yogic student these afflictions become thinned out or
attenuated by the spiritual force of his Yogic practices. But they do exist in a subtle state. They
cannot do any havoc. They are like the cobra whose poisonous fangs have been extracted by the
snake-charmer. The “overpowered state” is that state in which one set of impressions is kept under
restraint for some time by another powerful set of impressions; but they manifest again, when the
cause of the suppression is removed. In a worldly man with passions and appetites these can be seen
operating in fullest swing. But in a fully developed or full-blown Yogi these afflictions and
impressions are burnt in toto.
Owing to ignorance you have mistaken the physical body for the Self and this is all the
mistake you have committed. But it is a serious mistake indeed. By changing your mental outlook,
by purifying your heart and intellect, you can attain Knowledge of Self. Mind, Prana, body and the
senses are all instruments only. The real Seer is the Self who is pure, unchanging, eternal,
self-luminous, self-existent, self-contained, infinite and immortal. When you begin to identify
yourself with this immortal, all-pervading Self, all miseries will come to an end.
Likes and dislikes are the causes for doing good and evil deeds. Good and evil deeds bring
pleasure and pain. Thus the round of births and deaths is kept from time immemorial by the
six-spoked wheel of Likes, Dislikes, Virtue, Vice, Pleasure and Pain.
2
YOGA AND ITS OBJECTS
The Yogic student should first try to weaken these five afflictions. Three practices are
prescribed for this purpose. They are: Austerity (Tapas), Study of Scriptures (Svadhyaya) and
Resignation to the Will of the Lord (Isvara-pranidhana). The practitioner should have intense faith
in the efficacy of his practices. Then the energy to carry on with the practices will manifest by itself.
Then the real memory will dawn. When there is memory, then there is no difficulty in practicing
concentration. If there is concentration, discrimination will dawn. That is the reason why Patanjali
says: “Samadhi will come through faith, energy, memory, concentration and discrimination.”
Therefore, to get success in concentration, meditation and the practice of Yoga, you must
have tremendous patience, tremendous will and tremendous perseverance. Plunge yourself in
concentration. Merge the mind in the one idea of God and God alone. Let the mind fully get
absorbed there. Forget other things. Let the whole body, muscles, tissues, nerves, cells and brain be
filled with the one idea of God. This is the way to positive success. Great sages and saints of yore
have practiced Yoga in this way only. Work hard. You will reach the goal. You will also become a
great saint. Whatever one has achieved can be achieved by others also. This is the Law.

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