The Spiritual Teaching
and Its Actual Practice

Response to a question submitted prior
to the Satsamgha in New York City on May 10, 2002

This question was submitted prior to the Satsamgha in New York City on May 10, 2002.

Question from a student: As a new student of Yoga, I was introduced to many teachings and did not understand the importance of all of the teachings... and I am still trying to understand the need to understand. Some people do not accept everything they are taught without understanding the NEED to understand. In other words, it is difficult for me to have "faith", to believe those things which I cannot experience. To me, one cannot have true knowledge without having both the theoretical knowledge and the experience that verifies the teaching.

Sri Mahayogi: Very well. That is fine. However, you must experience. And as your experience deepens, true faith occurs.

Yoga does not demand blind faith. Rather, Yoga teaches that one should obtain intuitions concretely through one's own experience coming from one's practice. In Yoga, the result of what one intuits depends on the quality of one's mind. In order to heighten that quality, one must study and practice deeper. If the process of deepening continues boundlessly, by default, one will have no choice but to eventually reach Perfection, or the Truth.

The Truth [and the teachings] written in The Universal Gospel of Yoga is neither my personal notion nor ideology. It is the teachings of the Truth, which the Enlightened Ones have found over thousands of years. You don't need to memorize the teachings word for word, but you must bear them in your mind.

The Truth is not only for the East, nor is it limited to the Buddha or Ramakrisna. The Truth is Universal. For instance, there is a commandment of non-killing or non-violence in Yoga. [Yama and Niyama are the commandments, which are a part of the eight limbs of Yoga.]

What is the reason why violence or killing is unacceptable? Because it is a crime? Because it is a social evil? Or is it because it is against ethics or morality? It is none of these reasons. It is the teaching based upon the Truth, in which, "All creatures are equal, and equally precious; therefore, no one has any right to hurt anyone and anything."

However, in actual society, violence is prevailing all around. The results are the suffering and misery before our very own eyes. The minds, which have forgotten the Truth and are grounded in ignorance, are the cause of all that.

So, do not think that Teachings of Yoga is something special or different. It is the universal Truth, and of course, your Truth also. Please think and meditate to realize that.

In order to meditate, one must think beforehand. In order to think, one must study beforehand. In order to study, one must have the enthusiasm to know. Are you really serious and fully dedicated?

It is possible to explain all aspects of Yoga - including asanas - physiologically, psychologically and philosophically, like science. It is easy to explain them. However, it is more important to experience the positive changes in the body and the mind, rather than to understand them intellectually. Enlightenment is not simply to know and understand, but to become and to be. That is the Eastern spiritual practice over thousands of years.

The Truth is within you already, but the movement of the mind keeps one from realizing it. The mind is like wind, the breath is like water, and the body is like ice. They are all H2O, but it is very difficult to grasp the wind. So, given that ice is the easiest thing to grasp, we control our physical body by practicing asanas. Then the breath, likened to water, will obey the body, a vessel. When the breath is controlled, then the mind is controlled. Once the mind is tranquilized, the True Self is Realized.

That is Enlightenment.