Real Yoga

In a way you can begin knowing your Self by knowing why You chose to do Yoga. Some people wish to do the postures because they have heard about its health effects, or how they can keep fit and get slim. Others have some fanciful idea about the almost magical powers they may acquire by studying Yoga.

Somewhere along the line you may have read about Siddhi Powers as listed by Patanjali. Still some are attracted to the proverbial meditation techniques of Yoga and/or Zen, and what Theta Wave Mind State they can put themselves in. Others are attracted by friends who extol the benefits of a Yogic Vegetarian Diet, or even the fantastic Guru they have met and by solicitation get swept up into the same group as their friends.

Yet, many have read books on yoga and the somewhat mysterious world of astral bodies, levitation, magical powers and visions of heavenly hosts, and by all of the above, find themselves entering the Yogic Door. Motivations are very interesting. Some people are motivated by a strong desire to get closer to God or to better themselves by becoming a better person.

But the interesting thing is the motivation and how it changes as we grow and develop along this Yogic Path.

You may even find now, after some months of practicing, that this Yoga business is not going quite as expected. The postures are too difficult and your old carcass you carry around cannot maneuver the positions and so might feel like giving up on them.

Meditation, whatever sort you are doing, may seem to be going nowhere, and using visualization in the Kriya technique might just be too much work. And the time! Where does one find the time to do the Postures, the Breathing, the Meditation and the Gnana Yoga and still carry on with household duties and ones daily job — and still, what I hope you will all do in some small way, teach what you have learned to others for free! All the while living quite a normal functional life.

Yoga is a way of life that you work into your daily activities. How many minutes that add up to hours are wasted in the day — sitting on a bus, driving to town etc. These are moments you can steal and practice Pranayama. You can even practise my meditation technique while you are working. Yes you can — work at it.

No matter how late you come in from an evening out — perhaps an evening at the theatre or a dinner party, you can practise before you sleep. Meditation can take the place of sleep and so does Pranayama. You will not miss sleep once you get the hang of making Yoga a way of Life.

Just think also of the attention needed to prepare your meals in a Sattvic manner. Yoga is union with the SELF, and the SELF (without attributes) is living through You, throughout the day and night, and it is in these living experiences we can commune with our true SELF. This communion may be rough at first, but in time, by not renouncing anything but by fulfilling ALL of your nature, you will finally wake up to who you really are — living in this shell with a label with your name on it. You, the real you, will realize then, as Shakespeare said, that you are an actor on the stage, a shadow picture on the screen, fulfilling the shadow's Dharmic patterns. In the meantime, YOU, the real you, will be bathed in Bliss, and unlike in deep sleep, you will be FULLY aware of it.

So no matter how you began Yoga, or what your motivations were, press on, keep active in this way of life. It is a life time training. There is no hurry. We are not going anywhere as there is nowhere to go. We are HERE. We are always HERE.

Hopefully motivations will slowly remove you from being dependent on a cult, or a guru, or an ashram, or a religion, but should you not be able to let go and make decisions based on these idealistic forms, that is alright also. What is important is that when you can't let go, you look into your conditioning. How did the mind become so attached to this or the other belief?

We know from Patanjali that attaining Samadhi takes nothing more than being still and silent. That is to totally annihilate mental fluctuations (chitta vritti nirodha). If that is so, then how can any ideal or chosen religion remain to influence you?

It is not as though I am asking you to do something which is ego–centric on my part, but I am asking you to realize what has been known for thousands of years — even before Patanjali was to write that famous aphorism.

All of the Yogas are important in that they can help you center your attention to being still and silent. So don't give up the studies. To be still and silent takes a tremendous Will, and these Yogic techniques give the opportunity for Will to become Self–evident.

You have to be still and silent in full consciousness — full awareness of that state. To drift off, to dream, to sleep, to have mystical experiences, to phantasize (fantasize) or to have illusory experiences — or even to see lights and other worlds, IS NOT IT!

Nature gives us a way of calculating exactly where we are on this Yogic Path. Although you may have a pleasurable experience of floating, or astral travel, you have to come back to awareness enough to know that this IS NOT IT. And begin again to renew that total stillness and silence in Full Consciousness.

Can this really be done? Of course. Yogis have entered True Samadhi and the more Advanced Samadhis for eons. Disenchantment sets in when one is allowed to develop bad habits in meditation and realizes after years of that practise that they are getting nowhere.

Oh yes, they have some pleasant theta wave states, but that is not it either.

Question — questions. Questions always arise in the mind when those kind of bad habits are tolerated, but when Absolute Reality is experienced as Satchitananda, all questions cease. Why should there be a question? You have just experienced that you live forever, you are conscious forever and that you are ever blissful. Now tell me where a question can arise? That experiences answers all and knows all.

Most people expect that in that knowledge one should be able to forecast events, but remember events are Mayic and not real and cannot really be known, except that they are transient and perishable, mere shadow pictures.

Now surely with all that in mind, motivation should be to attain stillness and silence. Nothing more.

If one feels that spirituality is separate from life itself, then they will have to constantly look for the emotionally miraculous experience based in Maya. Once a miracle is understood, it is no longer miraculous and belongs to the Science of Life. Knowledge eradicates the concept of miracles.

I realize that nearly everyone has experienced a miracle of some kind in their life, but on close scrutiny it will be understood to fall under natural law. If not then it is a happenstance experience (would have happened anyway) or it was the power of the mind itself being influenced by some outside influence (usually not long lasting — called short lived miracles).

Most people find Prayer to be a Miracle — if it is answered. The percentages here though per capita are worse than winning money on the slots in Vegas. Prayer in any religion is just not being answered. Take a look around you and around the world. Our present communications have made it all too evident, that no matter how many pray for world peace, war rages on. No matter how many pray for food for their starving children, children die by the millions.

All of the above, miracles, prayers, religious beliefs are mere soporifics to keep the lazy man appeased into thinking that even though he cannot sit still longer than 3 minutes, nor concentrate for longer than ten seconds, then these other methods will suffice.

For the Yogi though, who is motivated for Union with the SELF, these other methods will not suffice.

These lessons will help you to see just what has to be done to attain that Union.

Articles by Swami Harinanda and Yogi Karmananda are © 2026 and are licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

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