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 (Samadhi). He says in Yoga Sutra 1.13 (tatra sthitau yatno-‘bhyāsaḥ) that practice is basically the correct effort required to move toward, reach, and maintain the state of Yoga. He elaborates this further in 1.14 (sa tu dīrghakāla nairantarya satkāra-ādara-āsevito dṛḍhabhūmiḥ) it is only when the correct practice is followed for a long time, without interruptions and with a quality of positive attitude and eagerness, that it can succeed.

When we make our new-year resolutions, we tend to make them slightly lofty and aggressive that we are unable to keep up for ‘a long time, without interruptions’ and hence they tend to wear off after a few weeks. If you are struggling to establish a consistent home yoga practice, start with smaller goals of getting to the mat every day and doing something for 15 to 30 minutes – starting with a few Sun Salutations, a few asanas and deep relaxation. Some days you just feel like staying on the mat longer and you will love doing it. Remember that a practice done for 15 to 30 minutes every day is much more effective than 90 minutes practice just on the weekends. Slowly adjust your goals to stay longer, say 45 minutes, every day by adding more rounds of Sun Salutations, a few more asanas and longer deep relaxation. As Patanjali says, doing it for a “long time, without interruptions and with a quality of positive attitude and eagerness” is the key and it will just happen if you start with smaller goals and establish a consistent practice routine first. It is always good to also attend a few classes to learn new tools and techniques from experienced teachers, get your alignment mistakes corrected, enjoy the positive vibrations from class mates and continue to bolster your own home practice.

Swami Sivananda beautifully puts it: "An ounce of practice is better than a ton of theory."

Thank you for reading and happy practicing. Wish you all again a happy, healthy and peaceful new year.

Best regards, Shailesh and Milpitas Yoga Bharati Team

(Winter calendar at: https://yogabharati.org/milpitas-classes)