outside oneself; and we know very well that there is nothing outside the Real or the
Ultimate Truth. These insistent urges are those which are to be sublimated and
harnessed for the purpose of higher concentration. The externalisation of the urges,
which is the feature of the opposite of the practice of the yamas, is contrary to the
attempt at yoga in the practice of concentration and meditation, because
concentration and meditation mean the conservation of the motive force, the energy
in oneself, and not its externalisation. Meditation is the universalisation of energy,
whereas the personal urges normally present in people are the pressures towards
externalisation of energy.
While the counter-forces of the yamas are pressing us forward externally towards
dissipation of energy, yoga requires us to move in a different direction for the
purpose of the universalisation thereof. Therefore, we know very well why the yamas
are necessary. The yamas emphasise the need to develop an outlook or attitude of
life which will befriend those features of Reality that are going to be the object of
one’s meditation. The tendency to universalisation is the requisite of yoga; and the
tendency to externalisation is the demand of the senses and the pleasure-seeking ego.
Hence, it should be very obvious and simple to understand why there is so much of
emphasis laid on the practice of the principles of the yamas, which are much more
than what we know as moral principles or ethical mandates.
The yamas do not mean merely moral mandates. They are the disciplinary processes
of the total personality, the complete individuality of oneself, which includes not
merely the moral nature but other factors also, in such a way that we may say that the
practice of yamas means a readjustment of oneself in one’s total being to the
character of that Supreme Object which is going to be the aim of meditation in yoga.
Chapter 72THE PREPARATORY DISCIPLINESThe purifications and disciplines known as the yamas and niyamas in yoga are not
ordinary or simple steps that can either be bypassed or be practised with a
stepmotherly attitude. They are very important stages which contribute to the
strengthening of one’s being—the entire personality—and make it fit for the higher
practices. But if we read, in the history of religion, the lives of seekers who have
endeavoured hard to practise yoga, we will be surprised to observe that they had
always some difficulties, and most of these difficulties are connected with these
essentials—which are often regarded as non-essentials in comparison with the higher
stages of dharana, dhyana and samadhi.
These little steps, known as the yamas and niyamas, become stumbling blocks when
not properly attended to in the further stages of practice. This applies particularly to
the yamas. As a matter of fact, we have no obstacle in yoga except the troubles that
are created by the inattention that we pay to the essentials of the yamas. Most people
go scot-free under the notion that they are prepared adequately for confronting the
higher objective in meditation, but this is not the case, because the practice of the
yamas is really the process of fortifying oneself against all the weaknesses that are