Astanga yoga in day-to-day life by BKS Iyengar

[This article was taken from a talk Guruji gave and was transcribed and edited by Mary Palmer Dunn and Chris Saudek. Astanga Yoga refers to the eight limbs of Yoga described by Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras. Yogapushpanjali, pp 483-490]

For the last sixty years, I have been a practitioner of yoga and have taught for the past fifty-eight years. Six decades ago when I took up yoga, it was not as popular as it is today. Many, even in India, were under the impression that yoga was meant only for sannyasins (renunciates), recluses and those who had left their houses and families. People pointed their fingers at me saying, "There goes a madcap!" As there was little knowledge of yoga in those days, it was a Herculean task that I undertook to ignite not only interest, but also the culture of physical and mental well-being through yoga. To impress people of the value of yoga, I began to give lecture demonstrations to enable people to see directly and perceive the art. Over the years, I covered the world, bringing yoga to the masses and creating interest in the subject. Now the masses have taken yoga to mean therapy and health building exercises. Health clubs have sprouted everywhere and yoga is taught in many of these clubs. Yoga plays an important role in maintaining the structural body as well as keeping the respiratory, circulatory, nervous, digestive, and hormonal systems in balance, and giving mental uplift and intellectual clarity. But is yoga meant only to remove structural disorders and emotional stresses and strains, or has yoga something more to offer? In the beginning all of us are motivated to get rid of physical or emotional problems. When we get relief from these, why do we continue to practice? Is it just to tone the body, or is it to tune the mind? Through our practices, we gain some sight and understanding of the body and, to some extent, the sight of the mind also.

Ultimately, the aim of yoga is to have the sight of the soul - the seeker becoming one with the seer. This is called atma darshana. So the question becomes, can we transform our lower motivations into higher level ones as we tone our bodies? Self-realization is an automatic process. There is no need to seek in the field of atma darsha. If you know the known, the body, well that is sharirya darshana. If you observe the fluctuations and oscillations and stop them, you understand the mind. That is called mano darshana, or sight of the mind. Then the seer comes to the surface automatically. We normally practice as doers. When we begin to see and observe while doing, we may change our attitudes and feel something hidden expressing as an art. This becomes a source for the transformation from the physical and mental toward the spiritual. As doers we have to learn to transform the physical body, the mental body, and the spiritual body to another level not dependent on the day-to-day needs of life.

According to Hindu belief, we are born products of two kinds of karma, sanchita karma and praradha karma, which together form the seed of our present life. Sanchita karma (the accumulated effects of past actions) may affect us in this without apparent rhyme or reason. It is stored as subliminal impressions. Prarahadha karma is the oscillation of pleasure and pain which affects us daily. Kriyaman karma is the karma which we build by the actions of the present life and which forms the seed of our next life. We practice yoga to conquer these three karmas, which are the obstacles to self-realization.

When we practice yoga with deep understanding, we have no room to generate actions which build up reactions in the future. Knowingly, we create only 'fruitless' actions which will not create actions. Secondly, as practitioners of yoga, we cultivate tolerance and patience to face the onslaughts of the laws of karma so that latent subliminal thoughts may remain latent be vanquished. Though the problems of a man who does not do yoga and one who does may be identical, the law of karma will be fiercer on a nonpractitioner than a practitioner.

The law of karma holds that because there is a variance in our thoughts and actions, we get afflicted with merits and demerits and this determines our class of birth, span of life, and what experiences are to be undergone which will again produce pleasant or unpleasant feelings or both. Thus the cycles of birth and death continue (II.11-14). Patanjali explains the changes of understanding in each individual in those sutras of the second chapter.

Theory of cause and effect

Life is a continuity. Everyone wants to refine his or her intelligence and understanding, to become better. This is a natural phenomenon. If there were no laws of cause and effect, then all men and women would have the same intelligence, mind, and physiological poise, but this is not so. For example, in an asana class of forty students, all hear the same words of the teacher but each notes the points according to his or her mental calibre. Observation of these differences is enough proof for us to know that we have existed in the past, we exist in the present, and we shall live in the future also. This will continue until we wash away the subliminal impressions and create no room for fresh imprints. Nothing can exist without nothing. But if we create fresh imprints, that becomes the seed for the continuity of life after death. That which exists may fade and bloom again. So the cycle continues.

Patanjali begins his Sutras: "Now follows the exposition of yoga," and "restraint of the movement of consciousness makes the soul shine in its own glory." In the fourth chapter, Sutra 30, he brings out the hidden effects of yoga: "Through perfection in yoga, cycles of action and reaction which cause pain and sorrow come to an end." This indicates that sorrow and pleasure sprout from karma, and hence one should work to restrain the actions which boomerang on one, and to perform only those actions which do not have reactions but lead to emancipation.

As long as there is sorrow or mixed pleasure, there will be vrittis (mental waverings). The moment one is free from sorrow, at once the waves of the citta (mind in its total or collective sense) also become still. This stillness is termed as nirodhah (restraint). This restraint should come naturally and not by force. With this natural restraint the soul shines out, and the whole body becomes effulgent (I.47). When this is attained, the search for self-realization comes to an end (IV25).

Learn to watch the state of the citta while practicing, and find out how the quality of mind, intelligence, and consciousness become transformed in the beginning, in the middle, and at the end of practice. Observe this each day and store the changes in the seat of memory as a starting point to observe further subtle changes taking place in the cells of the body, mind, and intelligence. Though we practice yoga sincerely, our understanding can be limited by the desire for health and peace which belongs to the anatomical, physiological, and mental bodies. We are made of five elements: earth, water, fire, air and ether. The counterparts of these elements: aroma, taste, shape, touch and sound. Earth and aroma represent annamaya kosha; water and taste represent pranamaya kosha. The development of these two koshas (sheaths) leads to physical health and coolness or calmness in the cells. Fire and shape represent manomaya kosha. Fire burns impurities, and the fire element shapes the quality of mind to develop poise through yoga. Vinanmaya and buddhimaya kosha belong to the element of air and quality of touch. The touch of intelligence and contact of it throughout the self enlivens the self. This enlivening of the self and contact with the ethereal body (anandamaya kosha) belongs to ether and sound. Contact with the anandamaya kosha produces vibrations in the soul to stir up and see on its own the total action of the practice. When we do asana or pranayama, we have to learn to connect all these koshas or sheaths of the soul. This touch of the soul dynamizes and atomizes all the sheaths and all appear as soul. This is the diffusion of the self.

As mahat (cosmic intelligence) stirs prakrti (nature, the original source of the material world) to function, so does citta as the first principle create action by stirring the five elements and their counterparts, the five senses of perception, action, mind, intelligence, and I-ness into activity. So the yogis of yore understood that the first principle of a human being (citta) has to be controlled, and hence citta vritti nirodhah (restraint of the fluctuations of the mind) became the guiding principle. We have lost the high intellectual perception of the ancient sages, so we begin with other principles of nature and come in contact with the first principle, citta, at a later stage when maturity sets into our yoga practices. Thus, if we who have been practicing for years learn to go from the periphery toward the first principle, then citta vritti, the waverings of the mind, cannot take place.

This is the conquest of karma. Many of you have read the Bhagavad Gita wherein Lord Krishna presents his universal form for Arjuna to see (visrarupa darshana). Lord Krishna proved to Arjuna that he existed in all things. He is within each of us as paramatman. (Atman means the individual soul and paramatman means that which is subtler than the soul, the universal soul.) We..practice yoga to discover paramatman, this hidden force. To discover it, we have to discipline our body, senses, mind, intellect and consciousness to become worthy and ripe to have that sight. Until then, we cannot perceive that spirit or see it. We must extend our practices in such a way that the viratarupa (expansion and diffusion) of the soul touches us from the core to the periphery and from the periphery to the core. Then, like a river which is one from its source to the sea, duality disappears and infinity of oneness sets in. If one extends one's practices from the exterior (annamaya, pranamaya, and manomaya) towards the interior (vijanamaya, cittamaya, and atmamaya), the sadhaka (seeker) becomes a siddha (seer). When the elements and their counterparts, the organs of action, senses of perception, mind, intelligence, ego, consciousness-all appear as one sheath, this practice is visvarupa darshan, the sight of the soul. This sense of oneness is a stepping stone for God-realization. This is spiritual abbyasa (constant and determined study or practice) of asana or pranayama. When practice of asana and pranayama touches the more subtle elements of air and ether, spiritual lift has begun.

Most of you are in the first stages of practice, without doing yoga in vijanmaya kosha (the sheath of discriminative discernment or sheath of wisdom). The mind is not easily gripped; it is like mercury. Mercury cannot be held in the hand, but it can be stored in a capsule. The body is like a capsule in which the mind is bound. As mercury spreads when spilled, so does the mind spread to every nook and corner of the body. Through yoga, mind, being the element of fire, is set ablaze to engulf the entire body. Without cultivation, the fervor of the mind diminishes and loses its quality to blaze forth.

The mind contracts and loses its power to ignite the cells of the body and the intelligence.

When you do your practices, the mind loses its grip; it starts fading in a split second. Yoga is not a question of quantitative practices. The question to ask is "What is the qualitative approach of my intelligence in that fifteen minutes that I am staying in a pose?" The flame should be continuous. If the flame is continuous, then you are sure to experience the inner light in your own daily practices: then, that illuminative light is there as wisdom to guide us to experience the infinite soul in this finite body.

The definition of asana is not just to sit in any comfortable pose. By staying in the postures you develop mental tolerance and physical tolerance. The aim in our asana practice should be to see the purusha (soul) engulf the body, to see it in each and every part. Let us consider the sutra, sthira sukbamasanam (firmness in the poses) on the levels of the anatomical and physiological body. You have to apply the power of tejas (brilliance) while doing the asanas so that it ignites the intelligence to penetrate the body in rhythm and harmony. It is not like focusing on one point and changing the point every now and then. One has to focus on all parts of the body throughout the practice of an asana or asanas so that awareness (prajna) may bring out the essence of the discriminative power of the mind as fuel for the intelligence. Use the mind as fuel to generate power in the intelligence for you to experience the splendor of the self (virata purusa). When we practice with this zeal, will there be room for actions to generate or create reactions? There will be no room for karmas and therefore no karmaphalas (effects of karma). In this way, you put a stop to kriyamana karma. There is no room for the seen or the unseen, for pleasant or unpleasant feelings, or for troubling and non-troubling stress.

Astanga yoga is like a single chain with eight links. One who practices yoga cannot separate the links of the chain of yoga, because he is involved subjectively. Armchair speakers see yoga objectively and separate the chain from the links. When the links are removed, the chain exists no more. In the same way, if the links of the chain of yoga are separated there is no yoga. All links are interwoven and we, as practitioners, have to be in contact with the links and the chain of yoga. It is fine to grasp the theory and value of yoga, but theoretical knowledge does not help in the way yoga has to be adopted and adapted. One can cook food, but only if you eat can you taste and relish it. One also can 'cook' the mind, but one has to undergo daily practice to make the fibers, cells, mind, intelligence, and consciousness taste and relish its essence.

Yoga definitely helps in this life to free oneself from the effects of action. At the same time, it helps to face the sanchita and prarabdha karmas with a cool mind, a mind free from anger and hatred. One becomes free from blaming or speaking ill of others. Practice of this kind keeps one away from committing sins and builds up forgiveness (kshama).

The same principle can be applied in the following way. Just as an actor plays various roles based on one theme, so does the consciousness. It plays various roles from moment to moment, though it is one. It becomes active with the thoughts of the world, submissive when it does not want to play a part. If overdone, it wants to restrain. At other times, it wants to focus on a given thought or object. On account of these fluctuations of the consciousness, the I-ness leads and disturbs man, creating pores in the consciousness.

This can manifest as dejection and a broken heart in the intellectual. Citta is like a dramatist playing various roles in one. The moment citta realizes its trueness, it is no longer an actor but a witness. Practicing yoga as a witness or an observer, one washes off all the past karmas and keeps the present life free from the generation of karma.

As the waters of a river are disturbed when hit by a stone, if intelligence fades or is disturbed when one is doing an asana or taking a breath, ripples are caused in the consciousness. So practice yoga in such a way that consciousness can observe the transformations in the body and mind without any obstruction or restriction. This leads to ananda, a state of bliss which is free from motivation.

In pranayama, too, keep the intelligence as a bridge between the core of the being and the outer body and observe the source that initiates inhalation and how the inhalation spreads. Similarly in exhalation, observe how the outer body reaches the core. And in retention, observe the union of the core with its sheaths - they are a single unit.

Patanjali says in his Yoga Sutras (II.28), "As practice of astanga yoga brings exalted intelligence (virekaja jnanam), actions and the fruits of action come to a standstill." This experience, when one is free from the fruits of karma, is that of moksha - liberation and beatitude.

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