the restlessness, or the external vrittis, is the mood of yoga. We should be always in a
tendency to meditate, just as there are people who are in a tendency to sleep.
Wherever they sit, they are in a mood to sleep. Whether they are in the office, or in
the kitchen, or in satsanga, they will be nodding their heads a little; that is a mood to
sleep.
Likewise, we must be in a mood for yoga, always. At the very first opportunity
provided to us, we should be in a mood of concentration, just as if we have a very
delightful hobby or something which we like very much, we will resort to it
immediately when the impediments to it are lifted. There are people who knit
clothes—sweaters, etc. Wherever they go—whether it is a temple or it is a kitchen, it
doesn’t matter—they will be knitting. They will be knitting everywhere because that is
the mood of the mind, and they like to do it. It is a hobby, and it gives satisfaction.
We are not able to do it only when there is an impediment or obstacle. The moment
the impediment is lifted, we go to the natural mood. What the yoga requires of us is
that our natural mood should be of yoga. We should not bring the mood of yoga with
great effort and compulsion; that is not yoga. Yoga is spontaneous. A yogi is one who
is spontaneously a yogi, not compulsively a yogi. We are not forced to practise yoga
by anybody; that will not be successful.
The nirodha parinama mentioned in this sutra is, really speaking, a mood of yoga
that is generated within the mind by repeated practice—for days and months and
years together. For this purpose we have to take very great care that we do not make
mistakes, because even the least mistake that we make will be enough for the mind to
find a loophole and see that the practice is not completed. The caution that one has to
exercise mostly in this practice, if we want early success and real success, is that we
should sit for yoga meditation every day. We should not miss it even for one day,
because if we miss one day, the next day it will not come; the mood has gone. Also, if
possible, we must sit at the same time every day. We should not go on changing the
time of sitting—not morning today, evening tomorrow, etc.—because the mood will
not come at other times. Just as hunger comes at a particular time and is not there
always, throughout the day, because there is a mood of the organism to generate the
requisite enzymes for the purpose of digestion which is called hunger, likewise there
is a peculiar mood of the mind which comes up at a particular time of the day due to
repeated practice. So, keep up the practice daily at the same time, not changing the
time; and if we can maintain the same place also, that is still better. But more than
place, time is very important. And the same method of concentration should be
adopted—this is also very important.
We should not go on changing the ways of thinking. We should not experiment with
different types of concentration. Then, the little bit of concentration that we have
gained yesterday, in respect of a particular type of concentration, will not come
today, because we are trying a new method. It is something like trying to hit a nail on
different place, instead of hitting it on the same place. The caution that is usually
expected to be exercised for the purpose of success in yoga, to bring about a mood of
yoga in one’s mind always, perpetually, is to maintain regularity of practice,
continuity of practice with intensity of will and ardour of feeling, maintaining the
same mood for an equal length of time—not diminishing it or even extending it
beyond certain limits—at the same place, and at the same hour, so that it becomes
our regular profession and we have no other work. Even if we have some other
profession, some other duty or work, it becomes secondary to our practice. This