While, in one way, this uncompromising adherence to one's principles makes
the observance of the Great Vow not an easy matter and may involve great hardships
on occasions, in another way, it simplifies the problem of our life and conduct to a
very great extent. It eliminates completely the difficulty of deciding what has to be
done under all kinds of situations in which the Sadhaka may find himself. The univer-
sality of the Vow leaves no loop-holes through which his mind may tempt him to es-
cape and his course of action on most occasions will be quite clear. He can follow the
right path unhesitatingly, knowing that there is no other path open to him.
It should be noted, however, that though there is insistence on doing the right,
the interpretation of what is right is always left to his discretion. He has to do what he
thinks to be right, not what others tell him. If he does wrong, thinking it to be right,
nature will teach him through suffering but the will to do the right at any cost will pro-
gressively clear his vision and lead him to the stage where he can see the right unerr-
ingly. Seeing the right depends upon doing the right. Hence the tremendous impor-
tance of righteousness in the life of the Yogi.
- Purity, contentment, austerity, self-study and self-surrender constitute
observances.
We now come to Niyama, the second Anga of Yogic discipline which serves to
lay the foundation of the Yogic life. Before we deal with the five elements of Niyama
enumerated in this Sutra it is necessary to consider the distinction between Yama and
Niyama. Superficially examined, Yama and Niyama both seem to have a common pur-
pose—the transmutation of the lower nature so that it may serve properly as a vehicle
of the Yogic life. But a closer study of the elements included under the two heads will
reveal at once the difference in the general nature of the practices enjoined for bring-