When we are children, we run freely, because we have no great subconscious burdens to carry. Very little has happened to us. Of course, our parents and religious institutions try to prepare us for life’s tests. But because the conscious mind of a child doesn’t know any better, it generally does not accept the preparation without experience, and life begins the waking up to the material world, creating situations about us—magnificent opportunities for failing these tests. If we do not fail, we know that we have at some prior time learned the lesson inherent in the experience. Experience gives us a bit of wisdom when we really face ourselves and discover the meaning of failure and success. Failure is just education. But you shouldn’t fail once you know the law. ¶There have been many systems and principles of ethics and morality established by various world teachers down through the ages. All of these have had only one common goal—to provide for man living on the planet Earth a guidepost for his thought and action so that his consciousness, his awareness, may evolve to the realization of life’s highest goals and purposes. The ancient yoga systems provided a few simple yamas and niyamas for religious observance, defining how all people should live. The yamas, or restraints, provided a basic system of discipline for the instinctive mind. The niyamas, or positive observances, are the affirming, life-giving actions and disciplines. From the holy Vedas we have assembled here ten yamas and ten niyamas, a simple statement of the ancient and beautiful laws of life. §
The Ten Niyamas, Observances For Spiritual Life from the Vedas§
Life offers you an opportunity. As the Western theologian speaks of sins of omission as well as sins of commission, so we find that life offers us an opportunity to break the law as indicated by the yamas, as well as to omit the observances of the niyamas. If we take the opportunity to live out of tune with Hindu dharma, reaction is built in the subconscious mind. This reaction stays with us and recreates the physical and astral body accordingly. ¶Have you ever known a friend who reacted terribly to an experience in life and as a result became so changed mentally and physically that you hardly recognized him? Our external, conscious mind has a habit of not being able to take the meaning out of life’s most evident lessons. ¶The basic laws of life are so simple that many people don’t heed them. Why? Generally because the opportunities afforded us to fail these tests are so plentiful that we generate very good reasons for not paying attention to our lessons. Shall we say it is normal to fail some of these tests? Yes, isn’t this like getting a failing grade on a report card in school, not passing some of the tests and having to take a course over again? We must learn from our experiences or find ourselves repeating them again and again. ¶It is our teaching not to react to life’s experiences, but to understand them and in the understanding to free ourselves from the impact of these experiences, realizing the Self within. The true Self is only realized when you gain a subconscious control over your mind by ceasing to react to your experiences so that you can concentrate your mind fully, experience first meditation and contemplation, then samādhi, or Self Realization. First we must face our subconscious. ¶There are many amusing ways in which people go about facing themselves. Some sit down to think things over, turning out the light of understanding. They let their minds wander, accomplishing nothing. Let me suggest to you a better way. ¶In facing ourselves let us relate our actions, our thoughts and our feelings to the yamas and the niyamas, the wise restraints and observances of Hindu Dharma. In aligning ourselves with these universal laws, we can soon see how clear or muddy is our own subconscious. Fulfilling the restraints first allows us to take the next step on the spiritual path, which is the fulfillment of the observances. As long as we are evading our taxes, it is difficult to live up to the ideal of honesty. As long as we are beating our children, it is difficult to adhere to nonviolence. As long as we are swearing, using asura-invoking, profane words in the home, it will be difficult to cultivate patience. As long as we indulge in pornography, a mental form of adultery, it will be difficult to practice purity. Yes, it will be difficult to cultivate a contemplative nature. All these and more will require serious penance, prāyaśchitta, as it is known in Sanskrit, to change the nature and bring it into harmony with the profound ideals of the ancient Indian sages and yogīs. §
We carry with us in our instinctive nature basic tendencies to break these divine laws, to undergo the experiences that will create reactive conditions until we sit ourselves down and start to unravel the mess. If we are still reacting to our experiences, we are only starting on the yoga path to enlightenment. As soon as we cease to react, we have for the first time the vision of the inner light. ¶What do we mean by this word light? We mean light, literally, not metaphysically or symbolically, but light, just as you see the light of the sun or a light emitted by a bulb. Even in the Abrahamic scripture it is given, “When your eye becomes single, your whole body shall be filled with light.” You will see light first at the top of the head, then throughout the body. An openness of mind occurs, and great peace. As a seeker gazes upon his inner light in contemplation, he continues the process of purifying the subconscious mind. As soon as that first yoga awakening comes to you, your whole nature begins to change. You have a foundation on which to continue. The yamas and the niyamas are the foundation. ¶On the spiritual path to enlightenment, each of your decisions is going to be a basic decision, based on your knowledge of the laws of the mind. You must be aware that if you have not been tested by life through breaking its laws, you will in the future be so tested. You have to be aware that each test is an opportunity for either failure or success, and it is all up to you. Circumstances will always present opportunities for failure, and your reasoning mind will always be able to say, “I could have done nothing else under the circumstances.” ¶Often, even under the circumstances, advanced souls are able to take the more difficult course through the natural exercise of humility. Decisions of this nature direct the conscious mind to the recognition of natural inner security. When you fail one of life’s tests, all you can fail is yourself, the Self within you. §
Knowing the law puts you at a psychological disadvantage, in a way. It is not quite as bad when you act for the first time out of ignorance, in any situation. Suppose you are riding with a friend in a car and he passes through a red light and gets a ticket and a scolding from the officer, and you say to your friend, “Oh, that’s all right, you didn’t know. You haven’t been driving long and your lesson may cost you some money.” You are forgiving of your friend’s error. Two months later, in riding with him again, he passes through another red light. And, what do you know, he gets another ticket and a scolding, and you sit back and say, “There is no excuse for that; you knew better. You saw that red light, didn’t you?” This time you are not lenient with your friend, because you know he is aware of the law. ¶You will behave with your own mind in the same way subconsciously if you depart from the spiritual law once you recognize its intrinsic value. Through concentration on life’s basic principles, you will become subconsciously aware of these laws, and then it will be easy for you to maintain them without effort, and the example of your life will be a light to shine for the benefit of many others. ¶Have you ever stood right at the edge of a mountain cliff? You were very careful about falling over the edge, weren’t you? But have you ever experienced that tendency in your nature that makes you a little shaky at the edge of the mountain, that makes you wonder what it might be like to be falling over the cliff, even if the first ledge, shall we say, is not too much of a drop? What is it that makes you want to experience falling over the edge? Some people say they experience this feeling. Others may not have. But let anyone stand on the edge of a mountain precipice and then say that there is not something occurring within them that makes them be quite careful. ¶If you deliberately fall, even a short distance, you could not climb back to the top without having some kind of scar or bruise on your physical form—maybe only a blow to your pride. But you would carry back with you the results of the fall. It is the same with the spiritual law. Once you are aware of its operation and you deliberately allow yourself to fall, you can return to the path with effort, scarred by the memory and strengthened with the influx of renewed energy as you again search for enlightenment, remembering that we only fail when we stop trying. ¶Concentrate each night upon the events of the day and see how close you have come, either consciously or subconsciously, to deviating from your newly established yoga principles. Your span of life here is only a short time, and it benefits you to live it the best way that you can. §
Your journey on this Earth has only one goal, Self Realization. You are here to attain the highest possible states of consciousness. You are not here to react to the petty incidents that occur in the valley of the subconscious. You are here to learn to control the mind and live on the mountaintop. If you fail yourself, you are the one who must suffer your failure. Often, in retelling their failures or their sufferings, people react to or re-enact the original experience all over again. But learning to extract the lesson from the experience is like walking through the rain without getting wet. ¶We have to hold a constant vigil and keep our feet firmly planted on the spiritual path at all times, knowing that we can fall off the path until we have attained full illumination, or Self Realization, in this or future lives. By taking a stand within yourself on small issues, you can always find a different way, a way which will open the door to new opportunity, selflessness and serenity. But, to the degree that we are unable to restrain the inclinations of our lower mind, to the degree that we find ourselves incapable of entering into positive observances, so do we open ourselves to inferiority complex, jealousy, hatred, self-indulgence, lust, fear, greed and all sorts of mental and physical ailments. Being aware of the laws of life allows an uninhibited and natural unfoldment, just as a bud unfolds into a flower. ¶People sometimes say to me, “I am a little fearful of the path of classical yoga unfoldment, because I don’t want to lose the way I am.” Of course, these people are not really happy with the way they are. Look back at your baby pictures and you will see that most naturally you lost and left behind the form that was yours at that time, and assuredly this will happen in the future. As you unfold in yoga, you will lose the way you are. You will mature as a bud matures into a flower, fulfilling its evolution, but it must leave behind its original shape, and open. In this same way, through discipline, your mind will open up into its fullness. ¶Here is a visualization exercise. Bring before the vision of your inner eye the qualities and attributes which you would like to unfold in your nature. Visualize yourself being the kind of person you want to be, doing the kind of things that are going to benefit mankind most. Look back over your day and find out how close to the edge of the mountain you came. Train your subconscious mind to keep you away from the edge of the mountain. Make the yamas and niyamas meaningful habit patterns to your subconscious, as they were meaningful to your intellect. §
You change your own circumstances all the time, whether you know it or not. Even your mind is different today than it was a week ago. The various experiences you have brought to yourself have made it that way. The point to realize is that you can gain an intricate control of the various things that change in and about you. Lean the thoughts and feelings of your creation in the right direction, and discover how quickly your circumstances will change their direction. This is the secret of self-control. This is the practice of yoga. Try it, and lose the habit of concern, for concern is only a by-product of a part of the mind being out of control. ¶What does the world offer us but an opportunity for action? It is the reaction that we sometimes get surprised by. The circumstances of your life are either pushing you toward greater understanding, if you are aspiring to realize the real Self, or they are pushing you toward confusion, if you have a tendency to react animalistically, making the personal self predominant. When personal concerns become the most important things in life, you are bound to suffer under the emotion of resentment, and resentment is just a confused state of mind. ¶The unfortunate thing is, resentment tends to attract even more circumstances worthy of even more resentment. So don’t bother to resent, because you are only making yourself inferior to the person or the circumstance that you hold resentment for. That is right. Resentment, in all its heaviness, places your consciousness beneath that of the person you feel is imposing on you. ¶Be equal to whatever you meet! That is a better way to react to life. It is accomplished simply by meeting everything in understanding, by demanding understanding from within yourself. And if you feel that everything happening to you is a play of universal love and you are able to maintain that consciousness of universal love in yourself, then you are beyond the happenings of the world. Lifted in consciousness, you can see through and enjoy all the states of consciousness. The circumstances of your life will reflect this change. ¶Watch for those small incidents that imperceptibly get under your skin and create an eruption a few days later. Little things that do not contribute creatively to your life are an indication that there is some kind of subconscious disturbance that you have not resolved. Look your nature right in the face in meditation, without squirming, and you will discover what the little disturbances are, some issue over which you are rationalizing, a small resentment or worry that is keeping a part of your mind confused, and thus, necessarily, most of your circumstances confused. §
People always tend to identify, instinctively, freedom with abandon. But the type of abandon that seeks personal gratification always gets you “tied up in a knot.” Abandon instead your personal fears and desires by bringing your mind under the dominion of concentration in everything you do, and you, the real you, will become freed, released from the bonds of your own mind. Concentrate your mind when you are feeling confused, and you will bring peace to its disturbed states. Peace is control, and control is freedom. ¶If everyone gave half as much thought to the digestive power of the mind as we do to our stomachs, there would be fewer asylums. Are you able to assimilate and understand everything you put into your mind? Or do you carry experiences with you for days, mulling over the past? Some of the things that you see, hear, read about or think about impress you deeply. Other things do not. What kind of impressions do you carve upon your mind? Turning our backs on everything that may be unpleasant to us is not the answer, but if you observe your reactions as they are taking place and then later, the same day, turn a calm, detached eye to your experience, you will reenter understanding through the controlled state of your meditation. Do not wait for muddy waters of the mind to settle down in their own good time when you feel confused. You will only hasten your evolution by making your mind silent and composed by using a dynamic willpower to restore order when you feel least disposed to do so. Draw upon your resources. ¶People like patterns. The subconscious has a natural tendency to resist change. It is slow to realize that life is constant change. That is why it is so easy to fall into a rut. It requires a daring, spirited nature to call forth unused resources, to step out of the routine into a fuller and freer life. It requires daring to leave behind confused states of mind and bring forth new knowledge or wisdom from a meditation. Control is always silent power. Emotion, confusion, lack of control is noisy weakness. ¶Learn to assimilate. When you are engaged in conversation, do as the wise men of India do, pause after a while and let your thoughts assimilate. Have a view of the direction in which your mind is going, and you will have a good control over the direction of your life’s circumstance. Rely on the Self. Find the permanency within you that has never changed through the ages, and you will realize that change is only in the ever-changing mind. Control your mind to the nth degree and you will realize your own natural state of Being, beyond all circumstances—the Self. You will go through many different tests to prove your own realization to yourself. Face each test graciously. Welcome each test and welcome each temptation that shows you the strength of your will over the chaotic senses. You have only to quiet all things of the mind to realize your identity with the eternity of God Śiva, the Spirit, the eternal Self within you. §