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Niyama (Practices, Observances)
Niyama means non-control. It refers to the observances,
or "do’s," on the path of yoga. The rules listed are five:
1) Cleanliness
2) Contentment
3) Tapasya, or Austerity
4) Swadhyaya, or Self-Study
5) Devotion to the Supreme Lord
As with the rules of yama, those of
niyama must be understood in a subtle as well as in an
obvious sense.
Cleanliness means not only physical
cleanliness, but also a heart cleansed of attachments, and of
the vain preoccupations of a worldly mind.
Cleanliness, outwardly and inwardly,
physically and mentally, is a necessary step towards freedom
from the physical imperatives. Patanjali says that from
perfect cleanliness there arises a consciousness of freedom
from the body, a disinclination for its natural pleasures. By
the same token, he says, one who has reached this state is no
longer inclined to seek pleasure from others, physically, nor
to commune with them on a physical plane; one’s love for them
becomes selfless and spiritual. For when the heart has been
freed of internal impurities, one is able to see through the
veil of matter and to discover in all men the spiritual
essence that is his own Self. Once the dust of selfish desire
has been removed from the rooms of man’s inner consciousness,
he is able to see that the things he has desired in this
physical world are but Spirit, too, in essence.
Cleanliness on all levels helps to free the mind, that it
may soar in the infinite skies. In meditation, approach God
with a pure heart, offering up all your desires to Him. In the
practice of hatha yoga, too, cleanliness must be
considered a paramount principle. It is probably the essence
of hatha yoga practice, involving as it does the
removal of toxins and of other physical impurities, of
tension, of obstructions to the flow of energy in the body.
Hatha yoga concentrates less on increasing one’s energy
than on removing those impurities which prevent one from
having the perfect strength and radiant well-being that are
his spiritual birthright.
Contentment is often praised by yogis as the supreme
virtue. If one can oppose with deliberate contentment the
tendency of the heart to reach outside itself for its
satisfactions, one feels joy inwardly unceasingly.
Every worldly satisfaction is possible only because of a
joyousness in the heart. Without inner joy, external
fulfillment is impossible. If one has inner joy, however, and
knows that it is within that the source of joy truly lies, he
can enjoy all things innocently as reflections of that inner
consciousness. Purity and cleanliness mean freedom from the
need for anything, in the realization that one already is
everything. This realization brings supreme joy to the soul.
The soul realizes that it is joy.
But joy cannot be found by merely waiting for it to come,
as if it, like outward fulfillments, were hiding somewhere
over the horizon in futurity. Joy is always right NOW. Divine
states have a way of coming (in the words of Jesus) "like a
thief in the night." We should not pray,
In the practice of the yoga postures, do them always with a
sense of quiet enjoyment. Feel almost as if you were smiling
while you practice the postures. Learn the rhythm and
capacities of your own body, and lead it gently on the pathway
to perfection. Western culture is not geared to think that one
can be conscientious in doing one’s duty, whether to oneself
or to the world, and yet remain inwardly happy. The furrowed
brow, the compressed lips—these, to the worldly mind, are the
price one pays for having serious goals in life. But in fact
one can accomplish a great deal more if he enjoys his work.
One can advance far more rapidly in yoga, too, if one bears in
mind this teaching of great yogis, that contentment is the
supreme virtue.
Tapasya, or austerity, is not a popular word
in the West. To the Westerner, a contented life means one that
is cluttered with the so-called "good" things: television,
fine clothes, the best of foods, the latest in transportation.
Patanjali says that from this redirection of one’s
energies—from external matter to the inner self—one develops
certain subtle powers, or yogic siddhis, that are
latent in man. Once these powers, no longer spilled and wasted
on the sands of matter, are gathered and directed
one-pointedly by a consciousness that is in full command of
itself, yogis claim that there is scarcely any feat of which
one is not capable. It is said that great yogis can create and
destroy galaxies. Certain it is that the fulfillment found in
the Self is far greater than could possibly be found by a mind
that imagines itself to be free in its scorn for
self-restraint, while it runs undisciplined through the
"labyrinthine ways" of sense indulgence.
Every act of the yogi should be deliberate. He should sit
with a sense of setting his body down to rest, rather than of
collapsing into a chair. He should move, talk, smile, and eat
always with a sense that he is his own master, never with the
feeling that his body is running away with him like a car on a
hill when its brakes suddenly fail.
In hatha yoga one should be very deliberate, and yet
harmonious, in every movement, whether it be only the uncurling
of a finger. Austerity, far from implying a grim attitude, is
really the concomitant of an attitude of perfect inner
contentment.
Swadhyaya is usually translated to
mean, simply, "study" (usually of the scriptures). But swa
means self. The proper translation, then, is "self-study."
The proper study of man lies not in books or in the gathering
of intellectual information; it is the supreme adventure of
self-discovery. But again, self-study means a great
deal more than self-analysis and the probing of one’s hidden
motives. It means also, in a deeper sense, self-awareness.
Self-study begins with the careful observation of one’s
thoughts, feelings, and motives. As one advances in this
practice, he discovers that central reality of his being which
is beyond thought, form, and substance, which cannot be
observed and analyzed, which cannot even be truly defined,
though it is sometimes described by its essential quality:
JOY.
Patanjali says that when one becomes perfect
in his practice of swadhyaya, he attains the power to
commune with beings on higher spheres of existence, and to
receive their help.
This, it must be understood also, is the deeper purpose of
yoga postures: not merely to give one a healthy body, but to
prepare the body as one would a temple for communion with the
Infinite Lord, and with those exalted beings who live always
in His light.
Devotion, To have devotion to the Supreme Being is
essential for spiritual progress. Without devotion, one can no
more advance on the path to God than one would advance on any
difficult road in this world, if one had no desire to reach
the journey’s goal. True devotion is not a slavish attitude.
It is only an effort of the heart to lift itself up into that
consciousness where Divine Love is felt and known. As with
self-study (swadhyaya), where one attunes himself to
those rays of light on which higher beings move and is thus
able to commune with them, so also with this practice of
devotion: Patanjali says that by supreme love one enters upon
that ray of divine love on which the Infinite Consciousness
forever dwells. Without that love, it is not possible to
receive the subtle broadcastings emanating from the heart of
the Infinite Silence. That is why Jesus said: "Blessed are the
pure in heart, for they shall see God."
Even the yoga postures should be done with a sense of
worship if one is to receive from them the fullest benefit.
They were originated, not by football coaches and P.E.
teachers, but by great sages who recognized in certain
postures the outward expressions of inward movements of the
soul.
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