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The Importance of Ahimsa - Yoga Sutra.

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prasad1

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I attended a seminar on Patanjali's Yoga sutra at Arsha Vidya.
The following is an excerpt from that seminar.(My understanding).


The five Yamas
: The first rung is the five Yamas, which are considered codes of restraint, abstinences, self-regulations, and involve our relationship with the external world and other people (Scroll down or click the links to go to the sutras dealing with the individual Yamas):


  • Ahimsa: non-violence, non-harming, non-injury
  • Satya: truthfulness, honesty
  • Asteya: non-stealing, abstention from theft
  • Brahmacharya: walking in awareness of the highest reality, continence, remembering the divine, practicing the presence of God
Aparigraha: non-possessiveness, non-holding through senses, non-greed, non-grasping, non-indulgence, non-acquisitiveness.

2.35 As a Yogi becomes firmly grounded in non-injury (ahimsa), other people who come near will naturally lose any feelings of hostility.
(ahimsa pratishthayam tat vaira-tyagah


  • ahimsa = non-violence, non-harming, non-injury
  • pratishthayam = having firmly established, being well grounded in
  • tat = that, of his or her
  • vaira-tyagah = give up hostilities (vaira = hostility, enmity, aggression; tyaga = abandon, give up)
Ahimsa brings peace from others: For one who increasingly experiences the natural inner peace of a non-harming attitude, others give up their hostilities or aggression in return. It is an automatic process, which we have all felt when in the presence of a truly non-violent person.
Non-harming does not mean love: Non-harming and love are two different things. It is not a practice whereby you are feeling the drive to harm others and you practice love to stop that. Rather, the first step is to focus on the cessation of the harming at the levels of actions, speech, and thoughts. Then, the natural love can come shining through. This has extremely practical application in daily life. Trying to directly cultivate love for a person you dislike might be extremely difficult, whereas working on letting go of the negative is more direct or immediate. Then, it might come more naturally to like or love that person. Take a look at the article on the five sheaths, and notice that the level of bliss or love (ananda) is far deeper than the mental level where the more surface emotions dance.
Cultivating opposites brings positive fruits: With each of the Yamas and Niyamas, cultivating opposites of our negative habits or conditionings brings positive fruits.

  • In the case of not-harming, one might have the inclination towards harming, hurting, or injuring others to varying degrees, so as to get what one wants.
In cultivating the opposite, or reminding oneself that such behaviors, words, or thinking will only bring personal misery and suffering, the ensuing letting go process allows a natural demeanor towards which others drop any feelings of hostility or ill-will.
 
2.36 As truthfulness (satya) is achieved, the fruits of actions naturally result according to the will of the Yogi.
(satya pratisthayam kriya phala ashrayatvam)


  • satya = truthfulness, honesty
  • pratisthayam = having firmly established, being well grounded in
  • kriya = actions
  • phala = fruition, results, effects
  • ashrayatvam = come as a result of, are dependent on, are subservient to (the Yogi)
Satya brings whatever is willed: For one who increasingly practices honesty or truthfulness in actions, speech, and thoughts, his or her will is naturally fulfilled.
Cultivating opposites brings positive fruits: With each of the Yamas and Niyamas, cultivating opposites of our negative habits or conditionings brings positive fruits.

  • In the case of truthfulness, one might have the inclination towards dishonesty to varying degrees, so as to get what one wants.
  • In cultivating the opposite, or reminding oneself that such behaviors, words, or thinking will only bring personal misery and suffering, the ensuing letting go process allows a natural flow of goodness or positive fruits to come.
Exercising care in speaking truth: Truth is concurrence between thought, word and deed. It must be true to fact and at the same time pleasant. If by speaking the truth, another is hurt it ceases to be truth and becomes himsa [harming]. There is a story which illustrates this point:
In olden days there was a sage renowned for his austerities and observance of the vow of truth. It so happened that once when he was sitting by his little hut, a frightened man with a bundle ran past him and disappeared into a cave nearby. A couple of minutes later there came a band of fierce robbers with gleaming knives, apparently looking for this man. Knowing that the sage would not lie, they asked him where the man with the bundle was hiding. At once, the sage, true to his vow of not uttering falsehood, showed them the cave. The cruel robbers rushed into it, dragged out the scared man, killed him mercilessly and departed with his bundle. The sage never realised God in spite of his austerities and tenacity for truth for he had been instrumental in the murder of a man. This is not the kind of truth that yoga requires. It would have been better if the sage had remained quiet for that would have saved the poor man. Great care is therefore to be exercised in speaking and each word must be carefully weighed before it is uttered.
Relation of Truth and Non-Harming: One of the challenges, if not confusions, that often happens with practicing satya (truthfulness) and ahimsa (non-harming) is how to balance them. It's important to remember that non-harming is the central practice of the five Yamas, and that the other four Yamas are in service of that. To not harm or hurt others is the central goal that the others serve. Learning how to delicately balance not lying while not being painfully honest with others is a real art of Yoga. Think of the many situations in life when your so-called truthfulness could cause pain to others, including simple examples such as your comments about a meal served at a friend's home or what you might say if someone asked you about their physical appearance or clothes when dressed for some special event? If your mind isn't--in the moment--quick enough to artfully maneuver around such a situation, which would you choose, to be painfully honest or marginally honest for the sake of not hurting the other person? Sure, we'd like to be quick-minded enough to do both non-harming and non-lying in perfect balance, but many of us don't yet have the skill of the master, and need to be ever mindful of the most important practice, which is to first and foremost to cause no harm. The same principle applies to practicing the other of the four Yamas.
http://www.swamij.com/yoga-sutras-23545.htm
 
hi

in ASTANGA YOGA OF PATANJALI YOGA SUTRAS................YAMA....NIYAMA.....AASANA....PRAANAYAMA....PRATYAHARA


DHYAANA....in yama....the first yoga sutra....YOGAHA CHITTHA VRITTI NIRODHAHA.....means control of chittha vritthi...

so AHIMSA also chittha virtti....
 
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