(This article on Yoga is of elementary level and for beginners. Please see the footer where you can visit other posts of advanced nature)
Yoga strictly speaking means union with God. The mind through the gradual process of purification and refinement becomes absorbed and unites with the omnipresent Spirit and is then guided by it in all the activities and endeavours of the practitioner.
Broadly speaking, minds are of two types-worldly and unworldly. Most minds are worldly and materialistic in nature but through the regular practice of yoga in daily life, the chakras or spinal centres of energy are cleansed and purified and the mind is enlightened and illuminated. The dormant spiritual energy is awakened and god realization takes place. Higher levels of consciousness and understanding can be reached through this ancient science of god realization. The evolution of the soul accompanies shift in understanding and quality of actions are refined and so become superior. The life of the sadhak or aspirant becomes useful to the society.
The word Yoga needs to be approached in a holistic manner. It encompasses many aspects like discipline of the mind and body, purification and widening of the mind, a restful mind, acquiring new skills and abilities, higher levels of energy, subtler understanding, achieving great heights in personal and professional work, setting better and higher goals in life and in this way adding a valuable contribution to the wealth and capital of the world in terms of knowledge and services to mankind.
Dear child, so far we have discussed spirituality in the previous posts and as we go along, we are going to delve in a different aspect of yoga today- that of personal grooming and development. Mahavatar Babaji and Nityananda Swami have expressed their wish to us that we all must aspire and develop to our highest potential through yoga and make a wholesome contribution towards our society to make it a purposeful and worthwhile place to live in. The more we develop ourselves, the more we are capable of perceiving the working of God in our daily life and in this way we are able to serve God.
Did you know that we can either be constructive or destructive in our tendencies at a set given point of time? By being constructive here means that we should make a continuous attempt and effort in increasing the quality and value of our life and get better in our overall personality too. We must aspire to progress bit by bit everyday to develop our mind, intellect and senses to unfold the unused and undeveloped divine qualities lying within us. But the question is how do we do it?
There are many courses, programmes or education programmes available on improving the quality of our life, personality development, grooming, management programmes in our cities to improve productivity, be successful, make profits and gain new insights in gaining access to our hidden potential of the sub-conscious mind etc. But as I understand they do not show very high success rates because personality development should not be superficial. If these programmes only touch and hardly scratch the surface of our psyche, the end results are not satisfactory. The mind of the person involved should change and the person should experience a positive transformation within. The deeper levels and realms of the aspirant should be contacted and he should re-orient his life into upward climb in every sense. The first noticeable change should be in the area of his daily work.
A new thought should bring a change in the manner the person works and the end result must be more constructive, productive and must show improvement in terms of quality and quantity.
It is desirable that the educational programme of development should also have practical application by telling the aspirant ‘how’ to do it through solo and group activities. And only then the quality of performance, tasks and productivity can be expected to be outstanding after attending the programme.
Dear, can you think and tell me now as to why a fresher in an organization who is so full of promises and brimming over with creative energy and potential becomes de-motivated in 2 years? Surely something must be missing or lacking somewhere, something goes wrong and the performance of the worker or correspondingly for that matter even a spiritual seeker declines slowly and he loses sight of his vision?
I have looked around and also searched my answers from my own experiences and found out that some of the reasons for non performance or under performance in material and spiritual fields also are-
- A sluggish mind. Make the mind sharp, quick and witty by doing mental exercises.
- Lack of motivation within. Motivate yourself by getting inspired by great men, being positive in life and generating hope and aspirations.
- Lack of competence. Keep improvising your existing skills and knowledge and acquire new interests, abilities and talents.
- Jealousy. It is a destructive feeling and beware of it. Instead think and feel good for others, wish well for all. Do not harbour inferiority complex.
- Failure to recognize opportunities. Opportunities come in disguise, grab them. Be daunting, fearless and take on challenges. God loves bravehearts. Learn while you move up. Look at the best 10% performers in your field and learn from them by observation and also through the process of asking ‘why’ and ‘how’. Do not feel shy to admit that you don’t know a particular task or thing.
- Reluctance to work hard, put in extra time and effort. We achieve nothing in life if we do not burn the night oil. While others play and wander and lose sight of their vision, Mandira, my child you please stay focused in your life. Do not splurge your precious time and money in unproductive ways foolishly.
- Unwilling to accept new ideas, new concepts and thoughts so essential for our progress and growth. Keep the doors of your mind always open as even a small thought by God’s will can change one’s whole life. Do not miss that.
- Unwilling to learn from past mistakes. Mistakes are great masters and teachers. There are lessons to acquire from them.
- Not setting goals for achieving material and spiritual success. Nothing great and worthwhile can be achieved without asking yourself what do you want and then setting up those goals for our selves. Make a journal or maintain a diary in which you can write your goals. Once they are achieved, mark them and write new ones.
- Not practicing Yoga in daily life. We all need a few minutes to de-stress and re- connect with our inner peace after performing our duties and work everyday to replenish our energies. The quality and standard of our work is escalated by receiving God’s thoughts and power by daily God thoughts and meditating upon Thee. God is the infinite sea of energy, power, talents and gifts, ideas and inventions as well as creativity. A quiet and calm mind performs better and produces applauding results. One excels in this way. Peace and tranquility are a great source of right thinking which makes us do right actions. Right actions produce right results. Right results or effects makes our life worth living and meaningful.
(Also read related post on practical application of Yoga- How to live today and How to increase your capacity to do work? Food and breath control, How to increase the power of your will? Kundalini Shakti-I, Kundalini Shakti-II and Kundalini Shakti-III to lead a yogic life style)