this wonderful instance. But all that failed. It did not work because we cannot protect
a person like that, by putting them in a jail. Though we may imprison the body, the
mind cannot be imprisoned. Whatever be the care that we take, there will be some
little loophole which we might have forgotten. It is impossible to be aware of every
aspect of the matter. Something is forgotten because that is the weakness of human
nature and the very inadequacy of the nature of the mind itself.
If such protected minds like Rishyasringa could not succeed, and they could be
sidetracked by the very things of the world from which he wanted to guard himself,
what to talk of other people? As Bhartrihari says in one place, “The whole mountain
of India will float on the ocean if people who eat rice, ghee, milk, etc., every day can
control their senses.” Mountains will float on the ocean? It is impossible. People who
lived on air and leaves could not control their senses; and people who drink ghee
every day will control their senses? It is not possible. If that could be done, the
Himalayas would be floating on the surface of the Pacific. These are cautions.
Cautions have been given millions of times, but they go like empty sounds before the
tricks of nature.
Therefore, it is to be reiterated that these preliminaries in yoga, the yamas especially,
have to be practised from the very beginning. It should be, in a sense, the duty of the
parents themselves to bring up the children in a spiritual atmosphere. It is very
unfortunate indeed if parents think that the way of yoga is contrary to the welfare of
life or the good of the world, and children are brought up in atmospheres which are
totally the opposite of what is spiritually good. How can one suddenly retrace one’s
steps from this muddle in which one has been brought up for years together and
suddenly become divine overnight? That is not possible. But this is the difficulty of
people. They have been born and bred in unfavourable atmospheres, whether in
villages or cities. The whole thing is rotten—it is good for nothing. But that is where
we are born; we cannot help it. We have been living there for years and years, and
suddenly one night we change our minds and try to live in Brahma-loka. That is not
possible. This, again, is an unfortunate feature of modern life. The psychology of yoga
practice calls forth a discipline at a very early age in one’s life so that there is a
tendency of the mind to appreciate certain conducive atmospheres, and it is not
suddenly presented with a surprise in the form of a monastery, or a temple, or a life
of sannyasa, etc.
The importance of these canons of yama cannot be over-emphasised because these
terrors, which even sages like Swami Visvamitra and Parashara had to face, were
nothing but these very things which we regard as non-essentials, or initial stages, or
things which we already know and have mastered to some extent. It is very
unfortunate to think like that, because the canons of yama are the ways in which we
lay the very foundation to protect ourselves for the future onslaughts which everyone
has to expect. No one can be exempt from these difficulties. What path one has
trodden, another also has to tread; and what difficulties I have, you will also have.
You cannot escape them. Perhaps the difficulties will come in the same form, though
at different times and through different instrumentalities.
Thus, at the very beginning itself, the physical atmosphere, the social conditions and
the external relationships ought to be such that they should be helpful in the practice
of the yamas. We cannot live in the distracting atmosphere of Piccadilly or
Hollywood and then start thinking along the lines of a higher practice. The physical