June 29, 2023
Right from the very beginning of the practice of yoga, the student discovers that the intelligence in the body is capable of meeting every situation that arises in life from moment to moment. This is the “purpose” of the yoga asanas (postures).
During pranayama the yogi again discovers the great power and vigilance of the life force, which is beyond the ego-sense, and which alone enables us to live. In meditation the yogi discovers (uncovers) self-ignorance. Then, self-knowledge (knowledge as the self or self as pure knowing) alone is. This is freedom, liberation - which ever is and should, therefore, not be treated as the goal, nor as an idea.
There is not even a “rejection” of pain, but the realization that such rejection makes pain painful! There is not the pursuit of pleasure, but the realization that it is the pursuit that makes pleasure pleasurable - and its inevitable reaction, painful. When there is neither rejection nor pursuit, life is liberated from the haunting shadows of ignorant notions. There is enlightenment. All life becomes divine life. All this becomes clear only when one is able to observe the life of a great Master like Gurudev Swami Sivananda.