The kindness of a stranger and Yoga 101

Back in 2017, I was walking in the alleys of Colaba/Fort, near my office and home in those days.

Near India House, as always bumped into a foreign national.

Later got to know that his name is Bart.

Can't recollect exactly whether he was from North America or Europe but thought of taking a chance of talking to a stranger. Maybe I could learn something new.

What followed was an amazing hour-long conversation where he explained to me everything about Yoga and his journeys in India.

I learned so much about Yoga on that day which I could not otherwise even though had been trying to learn Yoga for almost a decade prior to that conversation.

Not only that, the next day Bart wrote an elaborate email explaining his overall approach towards Yoga he had learned over the years, many excellent resources, and also practical tips on how one can do better. I was struggling a lot to continue the Yoga practices at that time.

Bart, you are the best and have reinforced my belief in the kindness of strangers.

On International Yoga day, here is a copy of that amazing email from Bart which I hope you will find useful and helpful.

Have slightly modified it and also have got the author's permission to share the same.

Hi Mahesh,

If you wanna practice Yoga on a deep level, you have to make it a life journey and an integral part of your daily existence. You must make the choice to leave other things behind. Maybe you cannot skip time on family life, work, etc. but you can on all other things like entertainment, TV, and socializing.

It is of utmost importance to spend 3 hours per day on Yoga and actually you would need 4-5 hours daily.

At the beginning of the path, you will encounter a lot of resistance from your mind, ego, energy system, and body. Since it is conditioned to different patterns and it will request to return to them. But slowly they will weaken and their power diminish. This is what you mentioned as your discipline issue. It is normal and human, it's always there, this is what Yoga is about. You will need to conquer this. Not by force, but with a vigilant awareness (just observe what's happening in your mind-body and recognize what it is). Just never stop en go back to your practice.

After some time, your system becomes more purified and from here the power of the mind and energy will increase and you will be filled with divine-cosmic energy as it starts working through you. It will empower you so heavily that discipline is not required anymore since your whole body-mind-complex wants nothing else and it will lift you and take you with it, and you don't need to force yourself anymore to go to the practice, your whole body-mind system now only wants to be there. Now the ego is weakened and the infinite cosmic energy (Shakti-Cit) can flow more freely and abundant through you.

One of the most important things, in order to get to the self-conquering of the mind, is imposing a fixed scheme. Choose a fixed time and place to do Yoga and do it each day in these hours. Don't change times because then your mind will look for excuses to escape it or to shorten it. If you do it on fixed hours, your body-mind knows that it will get programmed in its operating system and it knows there cannot be alternatives. This also applies to people around you who then know you just are not available at these hours and cannot be disturbed.

The best time is between 5-8 am, as during Brahmamurta the cosmic energy is intense and pure, during these hours there is a deep peace and strong power in the universe. And being present during the awakening of the world is a sacrifice to the higher reality as it shows gratefulness to life and it symbolizes your own path, which is one of awakening in a new world too. If you can it would even be better to wake up at 4 am, as you have more time. Most Yogi's awake around this time. It seems radical but it's not, your mind-body will get used to it and it prevents you from wasting time in the evening since you will desire to sleep early.

There are some indispensable components of the daily practice:

- asana-pranayama

- meditation

- study of Scriptures

- practicing a still and inwardly directed awareness during the day

You seem to have a Sattvic nature. If this is so then you are privileged cause it will enable you to progress more quickly. This is probably why you are so open to it, already doing Yoga and desiring more. That is excellent.

You need to have some kind of Guru. The real Guru, however, is an inner Guru, it is your connection with your higher Self that is already present, it is a light that will guide you (Gu-Ru means "light in the darkness"). An external guru is an outer reflection of this one. If you find one, you can work with him but it would need to take a coincidence to meet him, or you can of course look for committed yoga teachers in Mumbai. But India has a strong heritage of wise spiritual teachers and you can work with them through their books. Studying books is very important. 

The following works I can strongly recommend to study deeply. They will push you on and through the path, motivate you, and awaken your inner spiritual consciousness:

The Holy Geeta - Chinmayanda

The Synthesis of Yoga - Aurobindo

Light on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali - BKS Iyengar

At a later stage you definitely have to study 2 books:

- Yoga Vasishta - Venkatesananda*

- The Life Divine - Aurobindo

These are total sacred works that will transport you to a different universe, light years away from where you now are, and still here.

If you get to the stage where these books grasp you, you will get to the endpoint of the highest sacred Knowledge.

(But also if you will not get there, it doesn't matter, just continue on the Path, never give up, it is more important than anything else in life).

You can find them at:

Kitab Khana, Somaiya Bhavan, Ground Floor, 45/47 M.G. Road Fountain, Mumbai - 400001 Tel: 022 - 61702276 /77 /78

Venkatesananda's Yoga Vasishta you can and must study on a daily basis on the following site. Start doing that directly, read every day the page for that date under Daily Readings.

https://www.venkatesaya.com/241_vasistha01_annex/index.vasistha01_annex.php

The Holy Geeta of Chinmayanda is an excellent and crucial book to lead you through the Path. Synthesis of Yoga of Aurobindo too. Chinmayananda focuses very insistently on how to get to the stilling of the mind. This book is very impressive, a perfect guide for the path. 

Studying these books also stimulates you deeply, they push you on the Path, since they explain and stress the importance of Sacred Knowledge. It is important to keep your consciousness there because the world and all its temptations and distractions will try to tempt you away and tell your ego-mind that it has a much better proposition and life-road for you, which is a lie of the ego-mind itself to keep you away from the Path. 

I know a lot of other important and sacred books, I can tell you them later.

The following website contains endless information, and in very good quality. It is important to study this daily. Go with a still mind through the links and read it and let it sink in. Also when you do not understand it fully or not at all, just keep on studying.

www.swamij.com

For the rest you just have to start immersing yourself in it and just experience for yourself what happens, increase the allocated time each day a bit more, read more and more about it, and things will happen, an inner consciousness will be awakened and you will be slowly guided to the Holy Door of the Sacred Knowledge.

You will gradually experience that you will get transformed and that you become more relaxed, aware, peaceful and that you get connected with some source of higher power and knowledge. 

The basis of all Yoga is practicing a still and quiet and empty mind. During work or in a shop you cannot do this since the mind-instrument is required, but when you are in a car, bus, train, or walking you can 24/7 practice stilling the mind. Start with observing the mind-waves (vrittis) and see how this though-train takes absorbs you. Then go back to an empty still mind by keeping your awareness fully in the Now, Here and Now, always. Keep on practicing this. It will take years but it's very enjoyable. This is not about the destination but about the journey.

Good luck......

Kind regards,

Bart