What attracts you to Yoga? || Acharya Prashant (2020)

Acharya Prashant

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Transcript

00:00And what is it usually that people find attractive in the eight-step process of

00:13yoga?

00:18Who cares for the stages higher up?

00:28And who finds yam and niyam exactly fascinating?

00:38It is neither dharana dhyan and samadhi that attract.

00:48Yam and niyam are obviously prohibitive.

00:54Pratyahara is about gathering yourself from the outside and withdrawing into oneself.

01:06So what is it that really appeals?

01:09What accounts for the massive popularity of yoga?

01:21Well-toned bodies and the promise that your diabetes or arthritis or obesity or stiffness

01:34in the body will be taken care of.

01:44Often, forget dhyan, how many people even display interest in pratyahara?

02:06Because pratyahara does not really fascinate the ego.

02:16But a well-toned body does.

02:19I'm not alleging that all yoga practitioners are seeking only bodily attractiveness.

02:30That's what happens most of the times.

02:41And that also explains why even renowned teachers with perfect yoga-toned bodies have often

02:58discovered to be very mediocre, even vicious human beings.

03:16Because it was not really the final unity that they were after.

03:23Yoga is final oneness.

03:27And that final oneness is not really a merger.

03:29That final oneness is your dissolution.

03:38Only the real one remains.

03:42That is yoga.

03:43It's not as if you and the other one enter into some kind of pact, a 50-50 JV.

04:01Yoga simply means you are gone.

04:05You are no more.

04:08Only the truth is, only the one that deserves to continue, continues.

04:15And you, the unworthy one, disappear.

04:18That's yoga.

04:21And that's not what we are after.

04:25And surely that's not what we get.

04:32But yoga is so popular.

04:36Yoga is so popular because it gives a body-identified person what a body-identified person would want.

04:49What?

04:53A better body.

04:58People would ask, would my digestion improve?

05:04Would I get better and deeper sleep?

05:09And the yoga teacher would entice him.

05:12Oh, you'd start looking 10 years younger.

05:15Now this is a yoga teacher.

05:22And that's what he's telling the student.

05:24Come, enroll.

05:26Look 10 years younger.

05:34And it's a six-month course.

05:39Minimum of 10 kg weight loss is guaranteed.

05:47So happy.

05:51Your skin will glow, ma'am.

06:03And we'll turn your muscles into rubber.

06:13And all these stretch marks and wrinkles, they'll be gone.

06:26Are you ridding her of desire or provoking more desire?

06:35That's how the whole thing works.

06:37That's how the whole thing has always worked.

06:41That's what makes the rishi of Niralambu Upanishad say that Ashtang Yoga is a bondage.

07:00And it should not be interpreted to mean that the rishi is selectively targeting only Ashtang Yoga.

07:09What he's saying is, anything that you do, even the highest thing in your personal estimate,

07:18for the fulfillment of your desire, would only contribute to the pre-existing set of your bondages.

07:35You are in bondage.

07:37And from that point, you do something to be relieved of the bondage.

07:45And the result is even more bondage.

07:53Can you let this sink in?

07:55You are in bondage.

08:00Like people who accidentally find themselves in quagmires.

08:08Thick, deep, muddy waters.

08:14They are in bondage.

08:17Now from that position, what do they try to do?

08:23They want to just throw about their limbs and do something quite vigorously, rather desperately,

08:35to be relieved of their state.

08:38The result?

08:40They keep sinking deeper in bondage.

08:51Or a little kitten that has somehow managed to get entangled

09:08in a mass of wool yarn.

09:17A little kitten.

09:20And there is a ball of yarn.

09:23Seen those yarn balls?

09:27Our mothers used to knit sweaters using those.

09:35And the kitten has somehow managed to get entangled.

09:38And what does it do now?

09:44It energetically tries to gain freedom.

09:49The result?

09:52It gets all the more entangled.

09:56That's the ego for you.

10:09Are you getting it?

10:15So, that's the danger.

10:19How to avoid this danger?

10:21Avoid yourself.

10:23You are the danger.

10:27Doesn't matter that the scripture that you are using is the highest.

10:37Doesn't matter that the path of yoga you have selected is the highest.

10:50Nothing matters.

10:53No means will be effective

11:00if you are the driver of the means.

11:09Getting it?

11:14You may give a supercomputer to a criminal.

11:26It only adds to his destructive power.

11:38It doesn't quite transform him.

11:46There is a lowly thief.

11:56He steals bicycles.

12:04He started his career with stealing seats from bicycles.

12:25Now he has graduated to picking away entire bicycles.

12:40You make this thief sit in a high-end BMW.

12:57And you hand over the key.

13:03And after an hour, you expect a Buddha to emerge from the car?

13:18No Buddha will emerge from the car because there will be no car.

13:34Your wannabe Buddha has bicycled away the car.

13:43He has done with the car what he has always done with bicycles.

13:57That's what.

13:59Give the thief Ashtang Yoga and he will do with Ashtang Yoga

14:06what he has done with any resource all his life.

14:16Because everything is a resource to him.

14:20His first commitment is towards his own preservation.

14:30The ego is his God.

14:32He says I have to continue.

14:35Now whatever you give me has to be in service of my continuation.

14:43I am the Lord. Everything else is the servant.

14:48I will remain as I am.

14:55Are you getting it?

14:59Now we are taking very blatant examples where it is obviously brazenly clear

15:08that the fellow is evil-minded.

15:14This is not how we always operate.

15:18We mask our intentions.

15:22The thief is clear. I want to steal.

15:28There might come somebody and say you see I very well know that if I trust myself

15:34and my intellect then I'll never change.

15:41My intention really is not self-preservation.

15:47My intention is dissolution and therefore I am entering the process of yoga.

15:56Don't think that this fellow is necessarily submissive or willing to change.

16:09This fellow might be much more wicked than the thief.

16:15You know what this chap will do?

16:20The thief hijacks the process.

16:24This fellow will not hijack the process.

16:29This fellow will put the entire responsibility of his improvement or transformation or dissolution upon the process.

16:44He will say you see now I am a student of yoga.

16:50Therefore yoga has to take care of me.

16:57I will do nothing.

16:59What will be done will be done by yoga.

17:05Or now I am in the tutelage of some great teacher.

17:13So why do I need to be responsible anymore?

17:16I am not responsible anymore. Who is responsible? The teacher.

17:22But neither a process nor a teacher can work without your consent.

17:29Ultimately it's about your transformation, your life.

17:34Things will change if you really want them to change.

17:37Otherwise no change is going to come.

17:41So you won't really allow the change to come.

17:44By saying that who am I? I am a little speck of dust.

17:48The great teacher must now be in the driver's seat.

17:57He holds great responsibility for my improvement.

18:01And if I try to do anything while he is at work then I might be obstructing his work.

18:08Therefore I will do nothing.

18:11I will do nothing.

18:15This fellow sounds so respectful, so obedient.

18:23He is far more nefarious than the thief.

18:30The thief was at least clear with his intentions.

18:38I am a thief, I will steal.

18:41This fellow is trying to act as a yoga practitioner or a disciple.

18:49Whereas he has no intention at all of embracing Samadhi.

19:07The thief will just hurt you once, he has taken away the car, fine.

19:11This fellow will keep hurting the teacher continuously.

19:19And he will defame the whole process, the whole system, the teacher included.

19:31He will say, you see I was there and I completely handed myself over.

19:35I said I will do nothing. I am now all yours.

19:38You are the puppeteer, I am the puppet.

19:41Such was my surrender to the process and the teacher.

19:48And yet see no improvement happened.

19:50This is what he will say.

19:52He will cause the whole thing a deeper damage than any thief can ever cause.

20:03His resistance is passive.

20:13And when resistance is passive, it is even more insidious.

20:18The thief's ways are open and active.

20:34Are you getting it?

20:39Can you imagine this fellow?

20:46He is one of us. He is within us.

20:52Declaring externally sadly, inwardly proudly.

21:01You see I have tried everything, all kinds of yoga, all kinds of teachers.

21:07But nothing works, you know.

21:11All these yoga systems are dated and all the teachers are fraudsters.

21:18Nothing works.

21:20I haven't improved.

21:26And that's why the Upanishad says that the Sankalp,

21:34the Sankalp that makes you enter Ashtanga Yoga is a bondage.

21:43You are so obstinate that you will turn even yoga and gods and the best of men into your tools.

22:07Are you getting it?

22:09Like somebody hell-bent on ending his life.

22:15Throwing himself in front of a high-speed train.

22:21The high-speed train was meant to take you to a beneficial station, was it not?

22:32That was the entire vision.

22:37That sane people will board the train and use it to reach their destinations.

22:45But you can use even such a fine product to destroy yourself.

22:55And that's how most of us are in the inward sense.

22:59We might not jump in front of trains.

23:05But then there are more ways of destroying life than one.

23:21You need not physically kill yourself.

23:27You can keep mentally killing yourself.

23:35It's a great way to keep mentally killing yourself by abdicating the responsibility of your transformation.

23:43You might say, now I am with the great Patanjali and let him take care of me.

23:55How will Patanjali take care of you?

24:00You are so determined that you will take care of yourself.

24:07What can Patanjali do?

24:14Getting it.

24:20So, there is a great problem with all processes, methods and the guidance of teachers.

24:41The method might be there, but you are the one applying that method.

24:50The teacher might teach, but you are the one receiving the teaching.

24:56Therefore, it's all squarely upon you.

25:06But the teacher or the renowned process makes it easy for you to abdicate responsibility.

25:22And it makes it easier for you as well to declare that you are such a gone case that even Patanjali could not help you.

25:39If even Patanjali failed in uplifting me, surely there is no possibility of upliftment.

25:49Therefore, let me continue as I am.

26:01If even Patanjali failed on me, surely I am not made to improve.

26:10Maybe there is some genetic problem or something, I do not know.

26:13But what is certain is that even the best of teachers could not transform me.

26:20So fine, now that there is no hope of improvement, why waste time and energy in trying to improve?

26:29A better use of time and energy is have fun and you got what you wanted, right?

26:38Cheap and dirty fellow.

26:41This is what you always wanted, to have your cheap and little and dirty fun.

26:51And to have that little thing, you went to the extent of denigrating and defaming even Ashtang Yoga, even Patanjali, even the best of teachers.

27:11Just to relieve your guilty conscience, you want to tell yourself, it's not that I didn't want to be better.

27:21You see, I wanted to be better and the proof is that I went to Patanjali.

27:26But even Patanjali could not do anything.

27:29So I said fine, now let me enjoy life.

27:44The fact is you did not allow Patanjali to do anything.

27:57It says that there is danger in Ashtang Yoga.

28:06This is exactly what the ego wants to order from the menu, right?

28:19Yes, Ashtang Yoga is a problem, Upanishads are a problem, Bhakti is a problem, Bhagavad Gita is a problem.

28:30All these are just bondages.

28:33So why go after them?

28:37What is the point?

28:43The ego loves to hear this.

28:47I do not need the Bhagavad Gita, I do not need Ashtang Yoga.

28:53They all lead to bondages, they all lead to conditioning.

29:08The pig emerging freshly from the gutter is saying, I do not need the soap and the shampoo.

29:23They are just external things and they will become a layer on my pure and pristine skin.

29:42See, there is proof. You look at anybody using soap and there is so much foam, so much of an external thing on his existence.

29:59We do not need these things.

30:02We are pure as we are, says the pig.

30:33Or there can be even more fascinating arguments.

30:41All is one.

30:47So why have a deprecating attitude towards night soil?

31:10If God is everywhere, then he is there even in the contents of the gutter.

31:17Why must I unnecessarily discriminate?

31:38Since all is one, therefore the Bhagavad Gita and the grocery store pamphlet are the same.

31:47And I read a lot of grocery store pamphlets.

31:53Why do I need Bhagavad Gita?

32:00Or I am already Brahm. Am I not?

32:06You are Brahm, I am Brahm. It's quite egalitarian.

32:12There is nothing but Brahm.

32:14Alright, if I am not Brahm, at least I am 50% Shiva.

32:21Then why do I need the Bhagavad Gita?

32:26Look at your face, you 50% Shiva.

32:34How do you manage to sleep?

32:38How do you manage to look into the mirror?

32:46It's because of people like you that such verses had to be composed to warn.

32:57The verse says, there is bondage in the worship of gods and men.

33:02You can worship Shiva with the entire hidden purpose of just furthering bondage in the world.

33:28You have to be very very careful.

33:39Nothing will work, as they say, if you do not.

33:48Nothing will change for you if you do not.

33:57Therefore, from where I look at it, it all boils down to one word, intention.

34:06Do you even want the truth?

34:17Or another equivalent word, honesty.

34:22Is there honesty in your want?

34:33Many years back, someone used to keep saying, I tried this, I tried that.

34:41I have been in sadhana since many decades now.

34:47And his favorite refrain was, mila nahin kuch.

34:52Didn't get anything, mila nahin kuch.

34:56And one day, a bit fed up, I said, chahiye kya?

35:05He used to repeat, mila nahin.

35:11And I said, chahiye kya?

35:15Did you even want it?

35:22But it's a great way to shun responsibility and play the victim card.

35:30I tried my best.

35:33You can't blame me.

35:43I visited six teachers, did a nine-month course at Rishikesh,

35:50even flew abroad once to meet one great American master.

36:08Mila nahin kuch.

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