The worthwhileness of a thing does not depend upon our mere notion about it. One
has to pass through it by experience. This experience may be either merely rational
or sensory. One is, by the power of rationality and investigative capacity, able to
understand the nature of things and be in a position to be away, psychologically,
from their tempting characters. Or, one might have passed through the experience
physically and known what it is, so that there is less likelihood of getting into it
again—though one is not, of course, really free from it.
Hence, the stages of yoga called yamas and niyamas are not unimportant stages.
They are the very things that will ask for their dues one day or the other, in a manner
which will be very unpleasant, because if we do not honourably and intelligently
tackle this question at the very outset, we will be compelled to do it later on under
painful conditions. Therefore it would be wisdom on the part of a seeker not to be
over-enthusiastic about things, and to be very dispassionate in the investigation of
one’s mental make-up and susceptibilities.
If one is sufficiently honest to oneself, it would not be difficult to know one’s
weaknesses. If we do not want to know them, that is a different matter. Sometimes
we would not like to know that we have weaknesses; that is a very foolhardy attitude.
But if we are dispassionate enough and cautious enough to probe deep into our own
nature, it will be easy for us to know our weaknesses in a few days. Perhaps in a
single day we can know what our weaknesses are. Many of us know them, only we
would like to smother them under the veneer of a notion which is more pleasant than
this painful conduct of an enquiry into one’s own nature. But this is going to be the
ruin of a seeker if he is really intent upon the practice of yoga, because yoga is the
blessedness which one seeks deliberately for one’s own self, and it is not thrust upon
oneself by anybody else, so there is no use merely posing a perfection which one does
not have.
Ahiṁsā satya asteya brahmacarya aparigrahāḥ yamāḥ (II.30). Śauca santoṣa tapaḥ
svādhyāye Īśvarapraṇidhānāni niyamāḥ (II.32). These are the sutras of Patanjali which
state the principles of the yamas and the niyamas. All these things are known to us. I
do not want to go on in detail explaining what the yamas are, what is ahimsa, etc.,
because these subjects have been treated earlier. But the background of it and the
rational foundations of it have to be properly understood before we step into the
higher stages, because if the foundation is strong, the building will be strong. It is
already well known that there is no use thinking of erecting a grand palace on a sandy
foundation.
The scriptures say that the senses are our enemies, and that the mind is also an
enemy when it is a friend of the senses, because a friend of an enemy is also an
enemy. The mind is a friend of the enemy, which is the senses, and so mind also has
to be regarded as an enemy. We are vitally associated with the mind, and it is a part
of us. We ourselves are the mind; nevertheless, we have to be cautious because it is
this that comes up to the surface one day and asks for its dues.
The student of yoga, in the present age especially, should exert a little more than was
the case for students who lived ages back. First of all, we cannot find Gurus. It is very
difficult to find a Guru in this age. We cannot find a place to sit, because every place
is infected with some difficulty or the other. And, we have weaknesses of body, and
mind, and senses. We have so many difficulties—personal weaknesses, unfavourable