Tenets for The Spiritual Life

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Sage Patanjali established Yoga as a precise discipline with eight essential practices. This system is known as Ashtang Yoga, or "the eightfold path of Yoga." Ashtang Yoga is comprised of three distinct spiritual exercises. The first two limbs are known as yam and niyam. Together they provide a moral code of conduct for the yoga aspirant. These restraints (yams) and vows (niyams) cultivate the ethical behavior essential to the pursuit of the spiritual goal. The second group is composed of bahirangs, or external practices, which include Asan, Pranayam, and Pratyahar. This group is called Hatha Yoga. These practices focus primarily on physical discipline. They strengthen the body, increase the vital force, and quiet the mind. The third group is known as Raja Yoga, which includes the antarangs (internal practices) of Dharana, Dhyan and Samadhi. The practice of Raja Yoga focuses on the mental concentration required for Samadhi, the state of super consciousness.

Those who intend to follow the path of spiritual enlightenment must first purify the body mind, and heart, the tri-fold abode of Spirit. The first two limbs of Yoga help to achieve this goal.

This book re-affirms the primacy of yam and niyam in yoga practice.

Swami Rajarshi Muni was born on 11th February 1931 in Porbandar, in western Gujarat, in the princely lineage of the Jadeja rulers of Kutch. He received sannyas initiation in February 1971 and thereafter devoted himself almost exclusively to secluded Yoga sadhana of the khechari mudra expounded and practiced in the modern spiritual tradition of Lord Lakulish, twenty-eighth incarnation of Lord Shiv, in which he is the present spiritual head. In 1993, in response to a spiritual calling, he temporarily interrupted his self-imposed seclusion to undertake a worldwide campaign to spread the knowledge of Yoga and the moral, cultural and spiritual values of the Sanatan (eternal) Indian heritage. He resumed secluded sadhana in 2007 to complete his Yoga and establish the authenticity of the principle of the indestructible Divine Body, on which he has shed profound light from a position of eminent qualification based on personal practice and experience. He is an advanced yogi, a realized Master in the classic mould of Indian adepts, knower of the kundalini and master of the khechari mudra. The extraordinary heights he has attained in his Yoga practice establish him firmly as the latest addition to the lineage of siddha (adept) Sants and Sages which has long embellished the Indian spiritual tradition.

There are many shades of philosophical thinking prevalent in the present day world but broadly speaking there are two major and basic concepts of thinking: materialism and spiritualism. Materialism encourages human beings to make progress in the external world and try to score victory over outer nature. Spiritualism on the other hand encourages human beings to advance towards inner peace and tranquility and to score victory over inner nature. Only a person who realizes his inner self or spirit attains eternal peace and tranquility.

Materialistic progress has enabled human beings to enjoy material abundance and the pleasures of the senses, but it has failed to lead the human beings to experience mental calm and everlasting peace. The riches of the world and exploration of electrical or atomic energy has produced both good as well as evil results for mankind. Spiritual endeavor and exploration of the inner self, though difficult to be pursued initially, ultimately yields only good and most beneficial results. Hence, human beings should strive to conquer the inner, not the outer, nature. They should try to know the real substance of spirit and not the shell or form.

The Vedic culture of India rightly advises mankind to adopt the path of Shreya (spiritual well-being) and not the path of Preya (material well-being). Vedic seer-philosophers were fully convinced that the exploration of the riches of the earth, the manufacturing of various tools and goods and travels by cars or airplanes can offer many physical comforts, various pleasures of the senses and the pride of vainglory but still a human being remains poor in the development of his soul. "What profit does he derive from the gains of the whole world if he loses his soul?" question the seers. They suggested certain tenets for the spiritual way of life which can fulfill the requisite conditions for the development of the soul. These tenets are called Yams and Niyams in the parlance of yoga.

Yams are abstentions and Niyams are observances. We can call them the commandments for the aspirant of yoga. The abstentions or Yams are the moral or ethical laws designed for universal application. They are to be put into practice in everyday behavior. The observances or Niyams are the prescribed disciplines for the realization of the inner spirit. According to these tenets prescribed by the yoga scriptures it is for the benefit of the individual as well as of the world that one must live. As far as the spiritual aspirants are concerned, these tenets are all the more important and imperative. This book deals with these tenets viz., Yams and Niyams, in detail.

I hope this book will prove useful not only to spiritual aspirants but also to others who desire to lead a righteous, contented and peaceful life.

My thanks are due to S. Trinity (U.S.A.) for editing this book carefully and to Fateh Singh Jasol for arranging to make this book ready for publication.

Over the concluding decades of the last Century Yoga, the ancient Indian spiritual science of India, has taken vast strides beyond its homeland. In this, the first decade of the present century, it is a global phenomenon. It commands a world-wide following of trusting adherents. It is at the center of a multi-billion dollar industry of goods and services catering to their interest. Most parts of the world have adherents practicing one or the other aspect of yoga with full confidence that it will contribute to their well-being.

In the course of its slow and long journey from its homeland to shores abroad, it has attracted distortions and aberrations that represent a departure from authenticity. The knowledge and practice of yoga derive their authority from the Indian Scriptures and the classic Yoga texts. These have remained substantially unaltered and unquestioned over the centuries because they have been validated again and again by successive practitioners who have perfected their yoga and reaffirmed what the texts had laid down. As interest in yoga grew in the west as well in the country of its origin, so did the number of those who answered the growth in demand for its purveyance. The recipients had no way of evaluating the authenticity of the product or its packaging. Resultantly, what presently seems to pass for yoga the world over seems to be confined for the most part to asan and pranayam, the posture of yoga and the science of breath control. Even more regrettably, a plethora of teachers and institutions have mushroomed, even purporting to impart instruction concerning dhyan and Raja Yoga, the highest mansions of yoga which but a chosen few achieve after lifetimes of arduous sadhana. Yet the trusting recipients lend themselves to promises of instant dhyan and Raja Yoga, little suspecting that these lofty mansions of yoga practice are not attainable unless the practitioner makes the ascent up the path laid down by the established masters. In the process, truth and authenticity are sacrificed, the pupil gains little from his effort and remains ignorant, giving in eventually to disillusionment and disappointment. Inevitably, Yoga itself earns a bad name when it fails to confer the promised result. Last but not least, the dharma of teacher and preceptor to at all times adhere to Truth and truthfulness suffers much injury. Sooner or later the full truth about Yoga would have to be told by a qualified Master.

The author of this book is an advanced Yogi with a phenomenal mastery over the subject, derived both from a vast study of the classical texts and a personal authentication and revalidation of the same from his personal practice of yoga over more than three decades.

This book, whose time has come, serves as a reminder that the Yoga of India is a lofty eight-floored mansion of which the highest is the abode of the Ultimate Truth and confers liberation from the endless cycle of birth and death. According to Sage Patanjali who established Yoga as a precise discipline of eight essential and sequential practices, the eightfold path of Yoga consists of Yam (rules of moral restraint), Niyam (rule of moral observances), Asan (the posture of yoga), Pranayam (breath control), Pratyahar (withdrawal of mind from the senses), Dharana (mental focusing), Dhyan (meditation), and Samadhi (state of total introversion, super-consciousness attained through Yoga practice). Thus, 'the eight disciplines of Yoga are progressively designed to purify the body and mind' and yam and niyam provide the prerequisite moral code of conduct that help the aspirant to progress towards that goal.