Microsoft Word - Taimni - The Science of Yoga.doc

It is, however, necessary to understand what is really to be aimed at in giving
up sensual enjoyments. As long as we are living in the world and moving among all
kinds of objects which affect the sense-organs we cannot avoid feeling sensuous
pleasures of various kinds. When we eat tasty food we cannot help feeling a certain
amount of sensuous pleasure—it is the natural result of the food coming in contact
with the taste-buds and arousing particular sensations. Has the Yogi then to attempt the
impossible task of shutting out all pleasurable sensations? No! not at all. The trouble
lies not in feeling the sensation which is quite natural and in itself harmless but in the
craving for the repetition of the experiences which involve pleasurable sensations. It is
that which has to be guarded against and rooted out because it is the desire (Kama)
which disturbs the mind and creates Samskaras and not the actual sensation. The Yogi
moves among all kinds of objects as anybody else but his mind is not attached to ob-
jects which give pleasure or repelled from objects which give pain. He is, therefore,
unaffected by the presence or absence of different kinds of objects. The contact with
an object produces a particular sensation but the matter ends there.
But this condition of non-attachment can be attained only after a very prolonged
and severe self-discipline and renunciation of all kinds of objects which give pleasure,
though in the case of some exceptional Sadhakas who bring powerful Samskaras from
past lives it comes naturally and easily. There are some people who allow themselves
to remain under the self-deception that they are unattached to enjoyments of the senses
even though they continue outwardly to indulge in them. It will help these people to
destroy this self-deception if they ask themselves seriously why they continue to in-
dulge in those pleasures if they have really outgrown them. The fact is that for the or-
dinary Sadhaka it is only by renouncing pleasures of the senses that indifference to-
wards them can be developed and tested. Austerity is thus a necessary part of the Yogic
discipline. Those who allow themselves to lead the soft life of sensual pleasures under
the illusion that ‘these things do not touch them’ are merely postponing the effort for
the earnest pursuit of the Yogic ideal. To the worldly-minded this austerity appears
forbidding if not meaningless and they frequently wonder what the Yogi really lives
for. But to the Yogi this freedom from attachment brings an undefinable peace of mind
and inner strength beside which the enjoyments of the senses appear intolerable.
Aparigraha: Aparigraha is sometimes translated as absence of greediness but
non-possessiveness perhaps gives the underlying idea better. In order to understand
why it is essential for the would-be Yogi to eliminate this tendency in his life we have