Skip to main content
Namaste – we regularly chant and study Patanjali’s yoga sutras in our Milpitas (and other) Yoga Bharati yoga classes.  A few folks from our classes have asked me to share some of these discussions in a blog so that their friends and families can also benefit from these wonderful messages.  With blessings from our gurus like RaghuramJi, Ashwini, and a few authors who have imparted most of this knowledge to us, this is a humble effort to share some thoughts here, on a regular basis.
In today’s fast paced world, our mind can be easily distracted and disturbed by all the interruptions (think Smartphone!), peer-pressures, competitions, relationship issues etc. Sage Patanjali gives a few techniques that can be applied in our daily life to overcome these disturbances and lead the mind to a tranquil state. 

One such technique that Patanjali suggests is to cultivate an attitude that exhibits the following four qualities:
Maitri (Friendliness) – Can we always be pleased and be friendlier to others who are happier than us?
Karuna (Compassion) – Can we always be compassionate to others who are suffering and less fortunate than us?
Mudita (Joy) – Can we always be glad and appreciate others who are doing praiseworthy things in this world?
Upekshanam (Undisturbed calmness) – Can we always maintain our equanimity and be undisturbed by others’ errors and unfortunate, non-virtuous activities happening in this world?

Practicing such attitude can lead us from a distracted mind (Chitta Vikshepa) to a tranquil and serene mind (Chitta Prasadanam).

We can also connect the above beautiful message by Patanjali to Swami Vivekananda’s famous quote – ‘Manifest the divinity within us by one or more techniques – work, worship, philosophy and/or psychic control’.  Can we be compassionate and have our full heart and joy behind every work we undertake, especially to serve the less fortunate? Can we dissolve our ego (worship) and be friendly and loving towards everyone? Can we ensure our knowledge doesn’t become our arrogance, but is used to maintain calmness in difficult situations and to handle others errors with a balanced state of mind? Can we develop a deep inner discipline to meditate on above attitudes and to develop and maintain healthy relationships (See importance of good relationships: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KkKuTCFvzI)?

Thank you and wishing you all a very happy and healthy 2017!

Best wishes,
Shailesh
(Yoga Bharati)


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Happy new year 2020 and a message

Namaste everyone, Yoga Bharati Milpitas team wishes you all a very happy and healthy new year. We hope that you all are enjoying the winter break and spending some quality time with friends and family. As you look forward to the new year and your goals, please make stress management as one of your top goals. 75-90% of all doctor's office visits are for stress-related ailments and complaints. Studies show that stress can play an important role in developing ailments such as headaches, high blood pressure, heart problems, diabetes, skin conditions, asthma, arthritis, depression and anxiety. Patanjali’s yoga sutras give us many tools and techniques to deal with stress.   One of the important aspects we can learn from yoga sutras is about sadhana. Yoga Sutra 1.13 (tatra sthitau yatno-‘bhyāsaḥ) defines Sadhana - practice is basically the correct effort required to move toward, reach, and maintain the state of Yoga and 1.14 ( sa tu dīrghakāla nairantarya satkāra-ādara-āsev...
Post a Comment
Read more

PYS - Techniques to calm the mind (1.35)

Namaste, let us continue to study the techniques Patanjali suggests to calm the mind. Please note that Patanjali suggests that you adopt one of the techniques suggested and practice it with deep conviction, sincerity and earnestness to accomplish the quietness of mind. The technique we are going to study today is an inquiry into how our senses (hearing, touch, vision, taste and smell) can affect our mind. Our senses can be affected by what we eat, what TV shows we watch, who we interact with, where we go on our vacations, what music or talks we listen to, where we live etc. Based on how the senses are affected, they can either become an attention (citta svarupanukara) or a distraction to our sadhana. The effect of senses on the mind can be explained with a beautiful illustration from Kathopanishad. This illustration is symbolically denoted by the chariot driven by Lord Krishna in Bhagavad Gita . It describes the five horses as the five senses , the reins as the mind and the...
Post a Comment
Read more

Patanjali Yoga Sutras - Sadhana (1.13 tatra sthitau yatno-‘bhyāsaḥ and 1.14 sa tu dīrghakāla nairantarya satkāra-ādara-āsevito dṛḍhabhūmiḥ)

Namaste everyone, Yoga Bharati Milpitas team wishes you all a very happy and healthy new year. We hope that you all are enjoying the winter break and spending some quality time with friends and family. This is the time many of us make important resolutions. Some of us are good at keeping them, but many of us aren’t and the resolutions start to wear off after a few weeks. We would like to just give some suggestions to keep up your ‘yoga practice’ resolution. We have been blessed over the last several years to have listened to many gurus about leading happy, healthy and peaceful lives. Many gurus provide these messages in their own beautiful way, based on their lineage, personal experiences and other aspects. One of the important aspects all of them talk about is the importance of ‘ Sadhana ’ or ‘a strict discipline of a routine practice’. Patanjali’s Ashtanga Yoga discusses in depth about Sadhana required to go from outward interactions (Yamas) to deep state of absorption (Sa...
Post a Comment
Read more