Are You Following Yoga? (Words of the Master)

A considerable amount of confusion seems to prevail in the minds of many who come to this Institute (The Yoga Institute of Santacruz) for the study of Yoga. Unless such persons help themselves to remove many inhibitions, there is little scope for them to realize true Yoga.

When one wants to study Yoga, it is not for him to decide what is Yoga. 

Shri Yogendraji - Founder of The Yoga Institute
of Santacruz, Mumbai - India

First, many already hold preconceived notions incompatible with genuine Yoga which they are incapable of modifying in spite of all proof to the contrary.  Second, there is something like craze or greed to know more and more practices without appropriate habituation to what has already been learnt under conditions required by Yoga. Third, there is confusion in the mind of many who suffer from distractions and inhibitions common to the modern life and who remain subconsciously unwilling to follow Yoga under the requirements of its study.  Fourth, all are in a hurry to get all knowledge about Yoga in the shortest possible time from any place or teacher without finding out whether they have absorbed the true spirit of Yoga in their day-to-day behavior.  Each day their knowledge of Yoga and the practice of Yoga make for a wide gap which they are never able to fill up. Fifth, tagging Yoga as mere knowledge without its personal experience leads one nowhere. So while one may amass considerable information about Yoga by reading or learning it, the real achievement of Yoga evades him.

The reason for all this is that none is prepared to undertake the study of Yoga according to the requisites of Yoga (Adhikara) while at the same time anticipating the results ascribed to Yoga.

Unless one is willing to subscribe to the requirements for the study of Yoga and adopt the same into his day-to-day life, there is no chance of success by the mere mechanical study of Yoga, it does not matter how much he knows.

Therefore, the net result which should be regarded as normal is disappointment for many who search for Yoga but fail to achieve it. For this, they have only themselves to blame!

Shri Yogendra

This article was published in Yoga & Total Health (October 2012) - the monthly magazine of The Yoga Institute.