SIMPLE WORDS

Dr. Patanjali J. Yogendra

A famous lecturer was asked the formula of success in public speaking. “Well”, he said, “In promulgating your esoteric cogitations and articulating superficial, sentimental and psychological observations, beware of platitudinous ponderosity.  Let your extemporaneous decantation and unpremeditated expatiations have intelligibility and veracious veracity without rodomontade and thrasonical bombast.  Sedulously avoid all polysyllabic profundity, pusillanimous vacuity, pestiferous profanity and similar transgressions.

“Or to put it a bit differently,” he concluded smiling “talk simply, naturally, and above all, don’t use big words."

Isn’t it true in life – the best things are the simplest.  What does it need to communicate your innermost feelings – a simple nod, a smile, a genuine handshake, a pat on the back or I would go to the extent of saying simply, good feelings in the heart.

This is what the Yogins classified as the highest mode of communication.

Published in the October 2011 edition of Yoga & Total Health Magazine. 

CONSCIENCE

Dr. Patanjali J. Yogendra          

A sculptor was at work. People gathered to watch him. He was carving the statue of Athena to be placed at the Acropolis. The sculptor was taking great pains to chisel the strands of hair at the back of the head of the statue. Some of the onlookers commented, “When this statue is completed, it will stand 100 feet high, with its back to the wall. Who will know all the details you are putting behind there?”

The sculptor momentarily stopped his work and looked at the person, “I will”, he said.

It is rightly said that a person’s work is a reflection of himself.   

It may seem momentarily that we have deceived someone or gotten the better of someone. But when looked at in an objective way, the Karmic cycle over a period of time balances it out. Satya therefore is not only truthfulness to others but to one’s own self and happens to be one of the earliest steps of Patanjali’s Astanga Yoga.

Published in the June2011 edition of Yoga & Total Health Magazine. 

ADHIKARI

S. N. Desai.
 

Founder, Shri Yogendraji, left his only relation – his father and went to the jungle with his Guru. There he spent six months learning nothing. He then told his teacher to teach him something. The teacher, as if reminded, asked him to sit in a posture and went away for three hours, then came back and tapped the young boy on his shoulder and said, “That’s all for today.”

One single act of sitting continuously was the objective. That the learner has this kind of objective capacity is what is required. One has to be an Adhikari. To be an Adhikari is very important in yoga. Are we Adhikaris?

Yoga is only for those who are capable. Yoga does not require speed and show. What is required is quietening oneself so that beliefs can sink.

We can reach a steady state if an Asana is done well, but because of our temperament, we can’t enjoy the steady state. We change sides during the Asana, we think a lot. Apparently we do an Asana, but not in the way it has to be done. We are in a hurry.

We can overcome external problems like heat and cold through Asanas. If the body is in a certain state, the mind becomes steady and can be controlled. A simple test of an Asana done well is the achievement of a steady state of mind for a long time. Variety of Asanas is not required. But our make up is such that we can’t do even a single Asana well.