friends, or even safe employment. At the time all I had was my prac
tice of asana, of yoga postures-not even the breathing practices of
pranayama, not texts, not yoga philosophy.
I embarked on the practice of asana as a man might set off to sail
the world in a craft he could barely handle, clinging to it for dear life
and finding only solace from the stars. Although I knew that others
had sailed the world before me, I did not have their maps. It was a
voyage of discovery. In time I came across some maps, usually charted
some hundreds or thousands of years before, and found that my dis
coveries corresponded with and confirmed theirs. I continued, heart
ened and encouraged, to see if I too could make their distant landfalls
and better learn how to handle my ship. I wanted precisely to chart
every coastline, measure the depth of every sea, happen on beautiful
unknown islands, and record each perilous hidden reef or tidal current
that threatens our navigation of the ocean of life.
In this way, body became my first instrument to know what yoga
is. The slow process of refinement started then and continues in my
practice to this day. In the process yogasana brought tremendous phys
ical benefits and helped me to grow from a sickly child into a reason
ably fit and agile young man. My own body was the laboratory, in
which I saw the health benefits of yoga, but I could already see that
yoga would have as many benefits for my head and heart as it did for
my body. It would be impossible to overestimate the gratitude I bear
to this great subject that saved and uplifted me.
Your Yogic JourneyThis book is about Life. It is an attempt to light the way for you and
other spiritual seekers. It aims to map out a path that all may follow.
It offers advice, methods, and a philosophical framework at a level that
even a newcomer to the practice of yoga may grasp. It does not offer
shortcuts or vain promises to the gulliole. It has taken me more than
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