Ashtanga Yoga

According to Yoga, time is connected to mutability. Since consciousness is immutable, there is no time in consciousness. Time is an intellectual construct of the mind, a conceptualization. Time is born from mind; it is a child of the mind. Once the mind is dissolved into prakrti, time is dissolved with it.

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We know time only from changes in nature. We observed that the earth turns around its axis and called it one day. Apart from that movement and its result, the changes in daylight, there is no justification for the idea of the day. Hours, minutes, and so on are only subdivisions of the concept “day.” We observe that the earth circles around the sun, and we call it a year. We watch a certain movement in nature and call the sum of instants that passed “time.” If for some reason the earth lost contact with the sun, our time units would become meaningless, and we would have to look for other changes in nature. Time is a conceptualization (vikalpa). Vikalpa is defined as a word that does not have a corresponding object. Time has no corresponding object in nature; it is merely deduced by the human mind, based on observation.
Our universe is said to be billions of years old and is predicted to last for another fifteen billion years. Prior to the Big Bang, all matter was condensed in one spot. Time is dependent on observation of change, an external reference point, and an observer. None of them can be ascertained prior to the Big Bang. This leads us to the conclusion that there was no time either.

In this way, yoga is a very forgiving, down-to-earth approach that takes into account the human condition and allows us to progress at our own rate. However big our failures and however deep our despondency initially, we just keep going, knowing that no effort we make is ever lost.16 Even if we cannot see the light of knowledge now because our mind is clogged up, change (parinama) is possible. The change or transformation toward stillness happens by replacing the subconscious impressions of mental clutter by those of stillness.

Seeing that we are practicing yoga, the mind gets interested in understanding what yoga is

We have to realize that the wound will not heal unless we accept the medicine. The medicine is letting go of the idea that any form of external stimulus will help. With the letting go of this idea comes contentment. For the first time we can just sit and be, and not try to do something to get better. Out of sitting and being eventually arises the joy of pure being, which surpasses any joy dependent on the presentation of earthly or heavenly objects.

Austerity (tapas) is the ability to face adversity. Even when facing hardship in our practice, we are asked not to give up. Successful practitioners might enter into periods of hardship that can last for years. It is in the face of such hardship that a real researcher of yoga arises or one remains a shallow good-weather practitioner. We need to ask ourselves at this point what we are ready to give to become free. We have to expect that, when we practice, certain things will happen that will test us. The purificatory effects of the practice can be temporarily unpleasant, depending on our past actions.

The Rishi Yajnavalkya expresses it in the Brhad Aranyaka Upanishad thus: “The husband is not to be seen as the physical form, but as the immortal consciousness (atman). The wife is not to be looked at as the body, but to be recognized as the immortal consciousness.” Partnership is used in yoga to recognize the inherent divinity in the other. This does exclude casual sex. The problem here is that usually one of the partners (often the female) looks for more than just sex. This partner will be hurt when being abandoned. Casual sex in this case is a form of violence.
Let us look at the case of two consenting partners engaging in casual sex. There is no violence involved here, one may say. The following, however, must be considered: Sexual intercourse is in many scriptures described as karma mudra, the seal of karma. It seals a strong karmic bond between the partners, even if we have become so desensitized that we can’t feel that anymore. This karmic bond is formed through a connection of the subtle bodies of the two partners. In popular language we call this connection “heartstrings.” It can be felt even long after two partners have separated. When this connection is formed we have a certain karmic duty toward the other, especially in nurturing and supporting them emotionally and making them feel loved. Swami Shivananda went as far as to say that, for every affair we have, we will be reborn to satisfy that person throughout a marital life. Whether that’s true or not, if we keep “breaking hearts” it will get back to us sooner or later.

It is suggested that all limbs be practiced in some form, starting with the lower ones to ensure harmonious development. The first four limbs provide a solid base and firmly establish one for what is to come. To ignore them and go straight to advanced meditation practice can lead, in an extreme case, to schizophrenia. A schizophrenic person, from the yogic viewpoint, is not mad, but sees too much and cannot integrate it. On an energetic level that means one or all of the three higher chakras are open, while one or all of the four lower chakras are closed (excluding the base chakra, which deals with survival: closing it leads to death).

Some students become bored after having done the Primary Series a thousand or two thousand times. However, any sign of boredom tells us only that the mind is not resting in the present moment. Simply sitting and watching one’s breath is, from the standpoint of the mind, boring. If, however, one surrenders into the experience, it can reveal a majestic beauty that is difficult to rival by any sensory input.

There is an important misunderstanding here to be aware of. Some modern authors, often inspired by Vedanta and Buddhism, have described yoga as a cult of self-annihilation. This view shows a lack of understanding of Patanjali’s system. The sutra here clearly states that, for the liberated yogi, awareness of the world ceases and not awareness of the true self. This means that, after freedom is achieved, we are permanently established in awareness of consciousness. This is a state entirely different from annihilation; it is, rather, limitless freedom and ecstasy. That which could limit — the world of appearances — is lost out of sight, since it has served its purpose.