Would you like to be ruled by strict governance, where laws are set everywhere and must be followed at every moment? Focused solely on functionality, it strips away all spontaneous, beautiful, and creative expressions. It eliminates individuality by submitting to a greater will, like binding tree branches with metal wires, shaping them into a predetermined form, and cutting them down when they don’t conform to the intended design.
How about the opposite: expressing life through compulsions and bubbling desires, expanding your resources and those of others to pursue a narrow path of sensory satisfaction and power. Enjoying excess sleep, food, lust, and bodily comfort, while believing the ultimate purpose in life is gratification. Being ignorant of your own mortality and disregarding the welfare of others—unless it serves to gain praise or recognition — because everything must serve the freedom of your unique expression.
The reader might feel that both examples are extreme and that the path of moderation is the answer. However, we have all seen people whose health has broken down due to overindulgence, or who have become entangled in legal issues in the name of self-expression. Since everyone has their own unique sense of what moderation is, each expression is destined to collide with others.
"Humanity has a unique gift: unlike all other creatures on earth, we possess free will.”
This gift has liberated us from our animalistic past and given us total reign over our destiny. However, without knowing how to conduct ourselves in this state of unlimited freedom, many have suffered from this very gift. So, what is true liberation? It is a selfless state of joy, both within and without.
Roughly two thousand years ago, when more than a thousand yoga schools flourished in India—each specializing in a unique aspect of yoga—a sage named Patanjali felt that yoga had become too fragmented. He decided to organize the teachings into a single Yoga Sutra (scripture).
One of the most powerful teachings within the Sutra is the Eight Limbs (stages) of self-mastery (Ashtanga) toward spiritual union. The first two stages—Yamas and Niyamas (each containing five subsections)—are dedicated to Tapas, or self-discipline (Tapas, a Sanskrit term, means "discipline," "heat," or "passion"). These stages prepare the aspirant for the journey toward total freedom.
The five subsections of Yamas and Niyamas:
Yamas (Outward Control):
1. Ahimsa - non-violence
2. Satya - truthfulness
3. Asteya - non-stealing
4. Brahmacharya - the ultimate path
5. Aparigraha - non-hoarding
Niyamas (Inward Control):
6. Saucha - cleanliness
7. Santosha - contentment
8. Tapas - discipline
9. Svadhyaya - study of self and sacred texts
10. Isvara Pranidhana - surrender to the divine/cosmic harmony
Each of these self-guided principles is vastly profound in nature, as they explore the physical, mental, and spiritual relationships within the aspirant. In the coming weeks, I will be delving into these yogic teachings in great detail during my yoga practice for the next few weeks. Please join me in contemplating true self-liberation and freedom.
Om Tat Sat
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