Yoga for Health, Happiness and World Peace-9. Sri Swami Chidananda

21/04/2018

Insisting upon this total giving up of any covetousness, any avarice, any stupidity, any greed, refusing to allow the mind to look upon things that do not belong to you, that are unnecessary, reducing lifestyle to simplicity; and adhering to the path of virtuous conduct, purity of thought, word and deed, and strictly abiding by truthfulness, making yourself a centre of kindness and compassion, never hurting, never harming, never giving pain to any living creature, already there comes about a transformation in your entire character and conduct.

By cultivation of these five positive qualities, there comes about a gradual eradication of the main handicaps of human nature in the form of impure conduct and untruth. All these things contradict a certain universal ethical norm and criteria of right conduct. There is a code of conduct. It is called Dharma. In every religion, in various ways, they speak of a moral law. They speak of a certain ethical norm for human conduct. We call it Dharma, Neeti.

So the very first entry point to Yoga, the very first of the eight Angas, ensures that you start moving in a right direction, ensures that you bring about a total purification of your entire outer life, your conduct, your relationship with others and your relationship with your own senses. Senses now do not enslave you.

They are not the master. They do not dominate you. They do not pull you hither and thither and push you towards indulgence. You are the master. Your own relationship with your own senses, with your own mind changes and you become a person of self-discipline. You become a person of self-mastery. That is the commencement, the key, to supreme blessedness.

To be continued ...