To Be, To Know And To Learn

To Be, To Know And To Learn

Discipline means the capacity to be, the capacity to know, the capacity to learn. All yoga postures are not really concerned with the body; they are concerned with the capacity to be. Patanjali says if you can sit silently without moving your body for few hours, you are growing in the capacity to be. Why do you move? You cannot sit without moving even for a few seconds.
You cannot say to the body , ``Now for one hour I will not move.'' The body will revolt immediately and it will force you to move, to do something, and it will give reasons: Patanjali's asanas, postures, are concerned not really with any kind of physiological training, but an inner training of being, just to be ­ without doing anything, without any movement, without any activity , just remain.

That which is remaining will help centring.

If you can remain in one posture, the body will become a slave; it will follow you. And the more the body follows you, you will have a greater being within you, a stronger being within you. And, remember, if the body is not moving your mind cannot move, because mind and body are not two things. You are not body and mind, you are body-mind. Your personality is psychosomatic ­ body-mind both. The mind is the most subtle part of the body . Or you can say the reverse, that body is the most gross part of the mind.

So whatsoever happens in the body happens in the mind, and vice versa: whatsoever happens in the mind happens in the body . If the body is non-moving and you can attain a posture, if you can say to the body ``Keep quiet,'' the mind will remain silent.

When you are, when you have become centred, when you know what it means to be, then you can learn, because then you will be humble. Then you can surrender. Then no false ego will cling to you because once centred you know all egos are false. Then you can bow down. Then a disciple is born.

A disciple is a great achievement. Only through discipline you will become a disciple.

Only through being centred you will become humble, you will become receptive, you will become empty , and the guru, the master, can pour himself into you. In your emptiness, in your silence, he can reach you. Communication becomes possible.

A disciple means one who is centred, humble, receptive, open, ready, alert, waiting, prayerful. In yoga, the master is absolutely important, because only when you are in close proximity of a being who is centred your own centring will happen.

Only a disciple can be close. Closeness means a loving trust.

Why we are not close? Because there is fear. Too close may be dangerous, too open may be dangerous, because you become vulnerable and then it will be difficult to defend. So just as a security measure we keep everybody at a certain distance.

Everybody has a territory around him.

Whenever somebody enters your territory you become afraid...Because of this constant protection, you cannot love, you cannot trust, you cannot be friendly . A disciple means a seeker who is not a crowd, who is trying to be centred and crystallised, at least trying, making efforts, sincere efforts to become individual, to feel his being, to become his own master. All discipline of yoga is an effort to make you a master of yourself.

Om Namah Shivay