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.

The Yogi in Sangita Dhvani - by Shri Yogendra

The later Shri Yogendra, founder of The Yoga Institute of Santacruz was also a poet. Under the pen-name Masta Mani he wrote many poems and melodiously expresses positive philosophy like in The Yogi:

Mani Haribhai Desai became Shri Yogendra
after receiving traditional training in Yoga
from Paramahamsa Madhavadasaji
at Malsar, Gujarat, India.

The banyan roots grace
A pitched dark night,
And the solitary desolate place
Is devoid of light.

But from somewhere a song arose
Like feeble lunar glow,
Round the faint dhuni, a Yogi froze
Into a mystic smiling overflow.

In his lap a lute he played,
His fingers moved on strings
And well engrossed thus he stayed,
Experiencing a mystic musing.

The voice arose the joy to keep,
His ears sensed a thrill
He stayed in this divine sleep
Ending all his worldly ills.

As transcribed in the book The Householder Yogi. Life of Shri Yogendra by Santan Rodrigues and published by The Yoga Institute of Santracruz, Mumbai - India (1st Ed - 1982) 

Hansaji at International Yoga Seminar in Ujjain

Namaskaar Yoga friends,

Daniel and I (Jeenal) were delighted to see our beloved Guru Shrimati Hansaji Jayadeva Yogendra inspiring hundereds of people with her charming personality, wise words of wisdom and her beautiful smile at the International Yoga Seminar at Ujjain, organised by Ujjain Life Society of Pt. Radheshyam Mishra. Hansaji was the Chief Guest Speaker of the Inaugration Ceremony. There were aslo other several eminent guests speakers present in the seminar who are great Yoga scholars and spiritual teachers as well.

She spoke beautifully on Yoga to the audience motivating them to follow the Yogachars (The 4 pillars of Yoga). Futher she spoke on life management, concepts such as Dharma (Duty) and Shraddha (Faith), Yogic eating habits and many other deeper aspects of human personality in relation with Yoga. Her speech had valuable and effective practical advices on life and lifestyle and were extremely appreciated by all the Yoga aspirants. Hansaji shined like a star, she looked beautiful inside out in her purple Indian Saree and a bright red bindi on her forehead. Her humble speech touched everyone's heart..she spoke with grace and power.

Every one and I myself, we all were moved when she concluded her ending note with wise words such as ''you have to continuosly flow in life, accept everybody in life, just see that everybody has it's own place in the world, go ahead and you will be really happy..blissful..we really do not need to put in so much effort to be healthy, we just need to become simple, make our food habits simple..make our thoughts simple"!!

Such a great personality..such a beautiful human, so humble gesture of namaste that she made as she bowed to everyone with humility and thanking the people.

Jai Gurudeva!! OM!!

PS : I will be soon putting in more details about her speech and about our experience at the International Yoga Seminar in Ujjain. Namaskaar,

Jeenal Mehta