Viniyoga® FAQ 164 | The Niyama-s | What is Svadhyaya?

Transcript

[Music] namaste my dear friends The Fault niyama is called Swati Arya it's a very beautiful concept Swati aya is the concept of self-inquiry going closer to oneself Swati aya must not be confused to self obsession or ego obsession today we are living in a world of selfies and self-obsession people like to take pictures of themselves wherever they are whether they are in a concert whether they're in a restaurant whether they are even doing yogic practices they are not in the yoga they are putting pictures of themselves while doing the yoga on Facebook on Instagram on which art or other social media this is not so odd Jaya so what Yana is to go closer and closer to our self not ego self but the real self the pawnshop the problem with most of us is we are so disconnected from ourself we don't know even basic feelings that we have like hunger and thirst and fatigue we don't eat nowadays because we are hungry we eat because of an appointment if I have to teach at 9 o'clock in the morning I try to eat my breakfast before that and if my lunch break is between 12:00 and 1:00 I try to eat my lunch at this time not because my body is hungry but because there is an appointment waiting that's a disconnection hunger is a natural instinct of the body and we are disconnected from that the same with sleep tiredness fatigue exception we have to sleep when the body was to sleep all in the body's meant to sleep and this can change from time to time from season to season in winter normally you have to sleep much more the summer we have to normally act much more this is how nature is designed when you look at animals and plants they hibernate in the winter and they are busy working in the summer we human beings are so intelligent pun intended sarcasm intended that we do the opposite we worked like crazy during winter so that we can take summer vacation it's exactly the opposite and so we are so disconnected from many things about ourselves and that is why we don't know who we are we don't know what is our Dharma we don't know what to do in our life that is why Patanjali says we need to engage in Swati aya because unless we fulfill our Dharma our potential we are not going to be liberated so what the ayah is the process of reconnecting with who we really are and there are many ways to do svidaniya one very common approach that was taken in the ancient time was to have discussions and guidance from our teacher or acharya another important way was through the concept of mantra japa or Vedic chanting at jeonnam that is what Vyasa defines for Swan Jaya in his commentary to the yoga Sutra prana diamond rajagaha swaha akka at the anima either you are reciting mantras like Pranava through the initiation of a teacher or to learn the Vedic monk us that are belonging to your section that you belong to now extending that to the international concept it could be the study of scriptures that come from your tradition and your culture because there will be answers to you from that just because we don't like something we reject that thing it doesn't mean that that is going to be helpful to us so the process of reconnecting to our deep self discovering who we are discovering our Dharma discovering our potential and slowly beginning to express that potential that is called swadhyaya and there is a beautiful verse many reference swab the ayam yoga meseta yoga swadhyaya male 8 so what the ayah comes from the appropriate practice of yoga Yoga is nourished by the appropriate practice of Swati ayah this is very important because we must do practices that fit us to take us closer to our Dharma we must not do practices that do not take us closer to our Dharma just because I like a train I cannot take a train from Chennai to Singapore I have to take a flight or about same way I have to practice that practice that will take me closer to my thermo not just to whatever I want or whatever I like or whatever I can buy that's what is the opposite of swathi anya so swab shia is a very important topic in yoga philosophy and very important philosophy in life because we need to rediscover who we are and express who this is so a DI my dear friends namaste [Music] you