by Sri Swami Satchidananda

Hatha Yoga is a form of meditation. Every posture, every breathing practice is a form of meditation. It calms your body, breath, and mind. After only an hour of practice, you walk away with all peace and serenity and usually feel relaxed for hours. It is a very great practice.

The asanas are completely different from other forms of exercise, which are usually done with quick movements and a certain amount of strain. Exercises accelerate your breathing, waste your energy, and draw your circulation to the surface of the body. They develop the muscular part of the body. That means your vitality goes to the muscles at the cost of the inner glands and nerves.

According to Sri Bhagavan Patanjali, the Father of the Yoga teachings, asana literally means a posture that brings steadiness and comfort. So, the Yoga asanas should be practiced with utmost ease and comfort. We are very, very careful not to make Hatha Yoga another exercise. That’s a great difference between many other types of Yoga and the Integral Yoga technique. Only very few do it in a nice, gentle way. It is not our interest to make you an acrobat or a gymnast and teach you 150 asanas. Still, they will give you all the strength you’ll ever need — and mental strength as well.

Never forget that health is much more important than muscular strength. You might be able to lift heavy weights, run long distances, jump to extreme heights, break chains, or swim for miles, but are you immune to illness? Even great mental ability comes second to health. Having phenomenal powers of memory is of no use without a balanced mind, one that can accurately weigh pleasure and pain, praise and censure; one that is fearless, residing in permanent peace and bliss.

Have some other kind of exercise if you want; it doesn’t matter. But if you don’t have time for that, at least do the Yoga practices. Hatha Yoga is a must. It is the main meal. The various exercises are like desserts, side dishes.

If you want to combine other exercises and asanas, do the exercises first, relax, and then do the asanas afterward. End with the asanas. If instead you practice the asanas first and then do the exercises, you will disturb what you have built by the asanas.

The Pradheepika, an ancient Hatha Yoga scripture, states that: “Anyone who practices Yoga properly and sincerely becomes a siddha (an accomplished one); be he young, old or even very elderly, sick or weak.” From prince to peasant, child to grandparent, ailing to robust, all can practice these Yoga postures with maximum advantage.

The word “bhakti” means devotion. Devotion cannot be compared with any other approach. It is something super. When you develop devotion you rise above all doubts. You feel the Presence always with you, and you feel that you are totally protected. You can develop that kind of devotion by constant remembrance of the Divine.

A bhakta is a devotee, and his goal is to attach himself completely to God as his most Beloved. Our entire nature is based on such love. We are attached to so many things. From early childhood, we learn to cling to someone or something – parents, sisters or brothers, and later to position, money, or education.

To take advantage of that habit of getting attached to things, we make use of the same technique to achieve God. We learn to love God more than anything else. But since the mind is finite and limited, it is almost impossible to understand the infinite One through it. That is where the nameless, formless, infinite One becomes finite, named, and formed. We bring it down to suit our capacity. We take just a sample, a part, and treat it as the whole. And when we understand God in that part or symbol, we have understood the entire God.

We limit the relationship, we select the relationship, according to our taste and temperament. One person wants to call God father. Another might think of God as mother. Some people relate to their friends a little better; they can think of God as their friend. God can be your master. God can be your child. God is ready to come in any form that will help you to realize the Spirit.

There are hundreds of saints and sages who expounded on different relationships with God, and they all attained to the same goal. So you bring God to a level you can understand, and then have a relationship as you would in the world.

Stick to one type of relationship. Choose a particular form of God that you are devoted to, and then that becomes your ishta devata, the beloved form of God for you. Start giving everything, doing everything, for the sake of your Beloved. When you have a sweetheart, if you get a nice sweet mango, what do you do immediately? You think, “Ah, she will love it. I’ll keep it for her.” You keep all the best things for your beloved. Do that with God also. Offer everything to Him. That’s dedication – offering to God, constantly living in His memory.

A sincere prayer will certainly be answered. If your prayer is not answered, don’t blame God for that. It simply means that you have not prayed enough. It’s not just a question of the length of time. You may be praying for ten years and get nothing. Somebody else might pray for one minute and get everything. So the quality of the prayer is the important thing, how honestly, how sincerely you pray.

Suppose that even a whole-hearted prayer doesn’t get answered. Then the question is, did you pray with total faith? If you offer a prayer with absolute faith in God, and if the prayer is not answered, will you lose that faith? It is true that all of your sincere prayers will be answered, but that does not mean you will necessarily be given what you want. The answer might be: “It’s no good for you, my child. However much you cry, I can’t give that to you because it will hurt you. Without knowing how to use it, you may hurt others also. It’s dangerous.” If you understand that and accept it, you prove that you trust in God.

Don’t just trust in God when you get everything. If, out of one hundred requests, ninety-nine are denied, you should still have that faith. That will eventually lead you to a higher form of prayer where you don’t request anything. You simply say, “Why should I ask You? The fact that I am asking You means that I think You don’t know what I need. How ignorant I am. You know what is good for me; You know what is not good for me. Do whatever You want. Why am I even asking for something? Maybe You made me ask. Even the asking seems to be Your prompting. Because You wanted me to ask, I am asking. Still, I leave it to You to give it or not. Maybe You asked me to ask You; then You are going to say ‘no’ to see whether I will accept it or not. Okay, I am ready for that also.” Just remember that God always gives whatever is necessary for you. If you have faith, it’s no problem at all.

The great Saint Ramalingam prayed to the Lord: “You are feeding me; I am fed. You are making me sleep; I am sleeping. You are showing me; I am seeing. You are making me happy; I am happy. And not only me — the entire universe is like that. You are the One behind every movement, every experience.” If you want to have a prayer, pray to God to help you to always remember this Truth: that you are His child and He is taking care of you every minute.

When you practice Karma Yoga, a member of your family might say, “Hey, you’re constantly doing for others. Don’t you know that you have a husband, or a wife, and children? They are missing their benefits.”

It’s not that you should ignore them. But don’t continually spend all your time, money, and energy serving one or two people alone. The husband might demand all the wife’s service. She can simply say, “Sir, there are various things that you deserve and need. I will certainly do them for you. But the rest of the time other people may need me more. Sometimes, you may demand too much.” You can say that. There’s nothing wrong in it. If there is an opportunity to do something more important for the public, that’s God’s work, and your spouse should understand. Your life must be well divided this way. It’s something like having five children. If one child constantly demands your attention, and you always do all that he asks, you will neglect the other children.

A family is given to you by God. It is not really yours, but you have a responsibility toward it. If God has given you a few people under your care, you are their servant and caretaker. The mother is the servant of the baby and the husband is the trustee of both. We all have responsibilities, but we should do our duties without attachment. Our family members should not demand more than they are due.

If you keep giving, the world will take care of you. If a cow gives milk, won’t the cowherd take care of her? If she doesn’t give milk, what would he do? Simply dispose of her. If a tree brings forth a lot of fruit, we take good care of it. We pour more water, nourish it, put a fence around it. But if it’s not bearing fruit? We chop it down.

Sometimes when we first offer ourselves to God we seem to run into problems. We may encounter suffering and losses. It’s easy to be devoted when we are always gaining from God. If our businesses thrive, it’s very easy to love Him. But if we offer ourselves totally to God and the next day lose $10,000 in business, we ask, “What kind of God is this?” The proof of our devotion is that we still love Him regardless of what happens. He may test us in the beginning.

But once that Cosmic Consciousness knows fully well that you are really offering your service and not expecting anything in return, once that is proved, then abundance will be with you. A person who is totally free from wanting will be wanted by the Higher Will. He or she will be taken care of by the Higher Will through friends and other people. You may not get proper care immediately, but it will come. God is never selfish. If you lead a selfless life, you are in God. When you have God, certainly everything else will be added unto you.

So don’t think that by giving yourself completely you are losing yourself. When a drop gives itself completely to the sea, would you say that the drop loses itself? Maybe the drop loses its name “drop.” It drops out as a drop, but it drops in to become the sea. So drop into that universality, and become one with the ocean of divine bliss.

A sincere prayer will certainly be answered. If your prayer is not answered, don’t blame God for that. It simply means that you have not prayed enough. It’s not just a question of the length of time. You may be praying for ten years and get nothing. Somebody else might pray for one minute and get everything. So the quality of the prayer is the important thing, how honestly, how sincerely you pray.

Suppose that even a whole-hearted prayer doesn’t get answered. Then the question is, did you pray with total faith? If you offer a prayer with absolute faith in God, and if the prayer is not answered, will you lose that faith? It is true that all of your sincere prayers will be answered, but that does not mean you will necessarily be given what you want. The answer might be: “It’s no good for you, my child. However much you cry, I can’t give that to you because it will hurt you. Without knowing how to use it, you may hurt others also. It’s dangerous.” If you understand that and accept it, you prove that you trust in God.

Don’t just trust in God when you get everything. If, out of one hundred requests, ninety-nine are denied, you should still have that faith. That will eventually lead you to a higher form of prayer where you don’t request anything. You simply say, “Why should I ask You? The fact that I am asking You means that I think You don’t know what I need. How ignorant I am. You know what is good for me; You know what is not good for me. Do whatever You want. Why am I even asking for something? Maybe You made me ask. Even the asking seems to be Your prompting. Because You wanted me to ask, I am asking. Still, I leave it to You to give it or not. Maybe You asked me to ask You; then You are going to say ‘no’ to see whether I will accept it or not. Okay, I am ready for that also.” Just remember that God always gives whatever is necessary for you. If you have faith, it’s no problem at all.

The great Saint Ramalingam prayed to the Lord: “You are feeding me; I am fed. You are making me sleep; I am sleeping. You are showing me; I am seeing. You are making me happy; I am happy. And not only me — the entire universe is like that. You are the One behind every movement, every experience.” If you want to have a prayer, pray to God to help you to always remember this Truth: that you are His child and He is taking care of you every minute.

You quickly learn your weaknesses while serving others. The world is like a big mirror, it shows you your ugly spots. You see your limitations and drawbacks; you test yourself in the field. You understand your attitudes and moods better than when you’re alone.

You should analyze your motives. Find out what will bring peace and joy to yourself and others. Always analyze in those terms. If you have some sort of emotional or psychological problem, come back, sit down quietly, and analyze the problem. “I went to serve him, but got annoyed when he didn’t thank me. Why should I expect him to thank me? That’s not right. Next time, I’ll do the same thing, but I won’t look for thanks.” That way you shape your mind well. By such analysis you can soon reduce the tendencies that disturb your peace. If you ignore the disturbances and simply try to continue your service, the problems will come back again and again.

Making mistakes is not really bad. We may fall down, but we should get up and walk. An intelligent person will learn something from a mistake, but a fool will make the same mistake again and again. Our failures should be stepping stones to our success. All the great people, the sages and saints, have also fallen many times before they achieved their goals.

Sometimes the best test is what you call menial work. You often hear how great sages tested themselves in that way. To see if he had become proud after becoming a big guru, Sri Ramakrishna went to the slum areas and washed the toilets with his hair. Jesus washed the feet of his followers. Great people have done this. So go, take the dirtiest, nastiest job. Remember that you are not doing the job for the sake of the work as much as for yourself. It’s easy to simply go sit in a corner and meditate. But there’s another form of meditation that is done in action. During Karma Yoga you meditate on what you are doing. You watch your feelings and your mind. It’s a mental training program.

So if you are really interested in serving, you don’t need to pick and choose what you want to do. Service is service, wherever and whatever it is. Why should you think that one is superior and the other inferior? Would you say, “I’ll take care of my eyes, but not my feet?” Okay, you may take care of your eyes and wear nice glasses, but if you want to see something beautiful, the legs should take you there. If you don’t take care of the legs, you can’t even go there.

For a spiritual seeker, everything is beautiful. It doesn’t matter what you do, where you are. From the shrine to the toilet, from the garden to the kitchen, whether you use a pen or an axe, everything is equally dignified and all a worthy field for your service.