Be One With Yourself With Yoga

"Activity and rest are two vital aspects of life. To find a balance in them is a skill in itself. Wisdom is knowing when to have rest, when to have activity, and how much of each to have. Finding them in each other - activity in rest and rest in activity - is the ultimate freedom."

- Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

- Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

It is Discipline that gives freedom and freedom that protects discipline. Discipline is needed when you don’t have love, when you love something you don’ t say, you need discipline.

Now, let us look into the discipline of yoga. Shaasana means rules that somebody else puts on you. Anushaasana is the rule that you put on yourself. Do you see the difference? Shaasana is the rules and regulation that the king or society imposes on you. Anushaasana is the rule you make on yourself, impose on yourself. Now, why yoga called a discipline? Where is the need for discipline? When does the need for discipline arise?

When you are thirsty and you want to drink water, you do not say; “Oh! This is a rule, I must drink water.” Or that you have a discipline to drink water. When you are hungry you eat. You do not say; “Oh! I have a discipline of eating. I have hunger.” Or, you do not even say; “Oh! I have a discipline of enjoying nature.” When it comes to the question of enjoyment, no discipline is necessary. Where does discipline come? Not somewhere where it is enjoyable, at the very first step. A child never says, “I have a discipline of running to my mother when I look at her.”