has mastered an asana, it becomes uninteresting. That is why you can
see many people mechanically doing the same thing over and over
again, but their minds are elsewhere. Blind spots develop, and you
cannot savor the asana. It is not the right approach. People think they
have attained the end. How can they know? It may be only a begin
ning. You must always see if you can cross the line of past experiences.
You have to create within yourself the feeling of beauty, liberation, and
infinity. These can be experienced only in the present.
As we grow more adept and asanas come to us, it becomes
tempting to contain our practice within a zone of proficient compla
cency. I call this "bhoga yoga," or yoga exclusively for pleasure. No
longer do we employ the mirror of reflexive intelligence to seek out and
correct imperfection; we use it for the purpose of self-regarding vanity.
The yogic journey is becalmed in the doldrums. If there is no wind in
our sails, the only way out is to row. This means to reapply ourselves
to zealous, effortful, sustained practice, to lay down a new challenge.
What is wrong? Where and how can I improve? This is where the fire
of practice (tapas) ignites the lamp of intelligence, and self-knowledge
(svadhyaya) dawns. The word tapas contains the meaning of inner in
tellectual heat, which burns out our impurities.
If we ever find ourselves apart from or superior to others, purer or
more elevated by yoga, we can be sure that we are becalmed or even
drifting back into a state of ignorance. It was Ramanuja, the saint and
philosopher, who, more than nine hundred years ago, exposed the Brah
minical misconception that we can be "above" others. On the contrary,
practice and purity of life place us "among" not above. Just as we have
discussed inner integration within our own bodies, this naturally leads
to integration with all other life. Integrity means one. One is the number
that can go into all other numbers. The fully sensitive and sensible being
becomes not a "somebody" but the common denominator of humanity.
This takes place only when the intelligence of the head is transformed
by humility and the wisdom of the heart and compassion is kindled.
II 1\ S I Y 11• N II 1\ II