A Facebook friend wrote the other day. In my profile, I say I am a yogi and he wanted to know what kind of yoga I practiced since he was newly interested in it. I replied to him: “Hello, in years past I went through all the forms of yoga: raj yoga, bhakti yoga, jnana yoga, kriya yoga, karma yoga and studied many texts by many other yogis. That was in the 1970’s when there were not many books on the subject, but the books that were available were powerful. Paul Brunton’s Search in Secret Egypt and Search in Secret India were early favorites. Now there are many writers and a few really good books. Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda was the first text I read of that sort, and it awakened my consciousness and led me to read other books. So much is available to read for free online.
I don’t now name or label the type of yoga I do. I don’t do any of the newly trademarked names of hatha yoga styles. I do hatha yoga twice a day, and do a class now and again. I did regular classes at Yoga Shakti Mission and other ashrams for several years. I recommend doing some classes and you’ll run across either a teacher that clicks, or other students that turn you onto different books and classes and information.
For me as a yogi, yoga is a lifestyle. I feel a union with everything around me. That includes not just people and animals but plants and minerals and the car I drive and the door I open and the shoes I wear and the house I live in. I recognize in my interaction with these items that they have a life of their own and more importantly, they all want to please me.
The flower wants to bloom in the courtyard and the squirrel wants to delight me with his antics and even the sunshine comes out just for me. This isn’t just entertainment, it is evidence that what I think about and how I feel about what is around me affects how I experience it.
That means my thoughts are affecting the molecules of the things around me. That means I can direct my thoughts so that I can have maximum enjoyment and personal fulfillment in my life. When I’m having a good life, I attract more people who have a good life and more sign posts directing me further on my path.”
“Keep me posted!” I wrote him. “It’s always nice to have a brother on the path.”
YOGA: (1) A discipline aimed at training the consciousness for a state of spiritual insight and tranquillity. (2) A system of exercises practiced as part of this discipline to promote control of the body and mind.