Yoga principles were built into our life

  Many Yoga principles were built into our life, in ancient India. Our tradition is rich in these yogic practices. But, there are very few who explain their significance today. Therefore, many of these healthy practices are vanishing.

(ii)        Our five senses are all outward-bound and they try to perceive what is happening outside us. There is a huge world happening inside our body and mind. We don’t experience anything of it. We don’t experience even the blood flow happening in our system.

(iii)      The world of course exists outside us. Things do happen outside. But, when we carefully analyze, every thing is happening inside our mind, because of perception through our five senses and its synthesis inside the mind. We are the ones giving meaning to every thing happening outside.

(iv)      As we can easily see, our happiness is happening within us. Our sorrows are happening within us. So are our angers and all other thoughts and emotions. Our inner world is manufactured by us. Who creates our anger? We. Who creates our happiness? We. We are responsible for whatever we create inside us. If we want happiness, we must create it inside us.

(v)         Spirituality needs to happen where we are. One need not go to Himalayas, or renounce families for this purpose. Spirituality does not need that we should leave some one. We only need to adopt the inward path.

(vi)      Our 5 senses, which are all outward-bound, are  of course, useful for our living in this external world. They are important. But, mere living is not sufficient for human beings.

(vii)    If we want to go beyond mere living, if we want to go inward, if we want to discover our self, these 5 senses are insufficient.

(viii)  But, understanding our internal world , understand our self becomes much easier with a Guru, who can show the path, rather than without a Guru.

(ix)      Spirituality is well within  us. We are therefore very, very near to it. But, if we are outward bound because of the nature of our 5 sense instruments, spirituality becomes very far.

(x)         Our inward journey is very easy and natural. Now, this 'Ananda alai ' is precisely, to make us a little inward bound, a little spiritual.

(xi)      We can keep our body-mind complex also well, by our  own thought power, our will power. And, we can become joyful in each cell of  us very easily.

(xii)    Despite all efforts of Isha Yoga, only a few have so far taken advantage of this opportunity (to become joyful by themselves) provided by Isha Yoga. Most people are yet to use this opportunity.

(xiii)  In next 8 years, spirituality must reach at least a little to each individual in Tamilnadu.. This is Isha Yoga’s effort. Tamilnadu is denoted by its temples. In each individual also, there should be that divinity, which is the source of creation.

(xiv)   A selfless, generous Individual is a temple in himself. Every selfless individual houses the  divinity within himself.

(xv)     In life or death, people must be peaceful and joyful. Even dying persons also must leave in peace and joy. This is Isha Yoga’s effort.

(xvi)   What is Karma?  We perform our actions through our body,  intelligence, emotion and energy. These are the four sources of  our action.These actions which we perform , are our Karma. They decide our destiny.

(xvii) This means that  our destiny is created by us through these four sources of our own actions. We create our destinies through  our actions.

(xviii)       Once a Yogi saw a crippled Fox being fed by a generous lion in a forest. The yogi read a divine message in it that there are generous people like this generous lion who was feeding the crippled fox in the forest. So, he concluded that he too should wait for such generous Individuals instead of making his efforts for his living. But then, this waiting made him starve and suffer. Another Yogi passed by that way, saw him and heard his story from him. The second Yogi chided him and said -  don’t wait like the crippled fox for your destiny. Become like the generous lion, which not only makes its own destiny, but helps others as well. That is the divine message sent to you.

(xix)   We cannot absolve our responsibility of creating our life the way we want it. Let us understand that our life is 100 % our making.

(xx)     Human life is a brief happening. When  we have an urge to do some thing good in our life, we must do it immediately. We can’t wait for another day. We don’t have a 1000 year life. We must not  postpone doing any good thing. Let good things happen out of our karma.

These are some of the valuable thoughts I picked up from Sadhguru’s words at AnandaAlai. Hope, readers will find them interesting enough. But, please do find an audio / video of the event, and enjoy the direct taste. There are lots of things there – like an excellent meditation. Like Sadhguru’s stories; like anecdotes of his life etc. All of them, simply superb.

At the end of the Ananda Alai, there was a beautiful down pour of rain. Not one in the crowd moved. The Ananda Alai went on. It looked as  though that the rain gods also descended on the place to take part in the Ananda Alai.