Microsoft Word - Taimni - The Science of Yoga.doc

Tapa: The second affliction which is inherent in human life is Tapa or anxiety.
All pleasures, indulgences and the so-called happiness are associated with anxiety,
conscious or sub-conscious. For indulgence in pleasure, or dependence for our happi-
ness on the uncertain and passing things in the outer world owing to attachment, means
fear of losing those objects which give us pleasure or happiness. If we have money
then there is always the fear that the money may be lost and our security may be
threatened. If we love people then there is the fear that those people may die or may be
taken away from us. Most of us have such fears and anxieties gnawing at our heart
constantly though we may not acknowledge or be even conscious of this fact. It is only
when a crisis comes in our life that these fears emerge into our consciousness but they
are always present in the sub-conscious mind and secretly poison our life. We may be
too dull to notice them or too ‘strong’ mentally to allow them to worry us markedly
but there is hardly any person not following the path of Yoga who is above them.
Samskara: This word means impression but in the present context it can best be
translated by the word ‘habituation’ as we shall see presently. There is a law of Nature
according to which any experience through which we pass produces an impression on
all our vehicles. The impression thus produced makes a channel for the flow of a cor-
responding force and the channel thus becomes deeper and deeper as the experience is
repeated. This results in our acquiring habits of various kinds and getting used to par-
ticular kinds of environment, modes of living and pleasures. But there is at work si-
multaneously, the law of change, referred to already, which is constantly changing our
outer environment and places us among new surroundings, circumstances and people.
The result of this simultaneous action of two natural forces is that we are constantly
acquiring new habits, getting used to new circumstances and also being forced out of
them. No sooner do we settle down in a new habit or a new environment than we are
forced out of it, sometimes easily and gradually, at other times roughly and suddenly.
This continuous necessity for adjustment in life is a source of constant discomfort and
pain to every individual. Nature hardly allows us breathing time and is continuously
driving us into new kinds of experiences, much as we would like to settle down in our
grooves and comfortable positions which we have gained. Of course, the intelligent
man accepts this necessity for adjustment and does what he can to reconcile himself to
it but the fact remains that this is a major affliction of life from which everyone would
like to be free.