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| | | Book Name: Yoga - The Alpha and the Omega, Vol 4 | Previous Next | |
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was at a loss. He thought and thought and he said, 'We don't think that anything else is needed. Don't be offended; you are a great King, you can give everything -- but we don't need. If you insist, you can send a little salt and butter.' He was an austere man.
In this austerity, religion happens naturally. You don't think about God, there is no need to; life is God. You don't pray with folded hands towards the sky; it is foolish. Your whole life, from the morning until the evening, is a prayer. Prayer is an attitude: you live it, you don't do it.
Epicurus could have understood Patanjati. I can understand him. I can feel what he means. It is for you that I am saying all this, so that you don't get confused, because there are other commentaries which say just the opposite.
KRIYA-YOGA IS A PRACTICAL, PRELIMINARY YOGA, AND IT IS COMPOSED OF AUSTERITY, SELF STUDY AND SURRENDER TO GOD.
The first word is 'austerity'. Masochists have converted austerity into self-torture. They think that the more you torture the body, the more spiritual you become. Torturing the body is the way to become spiritual: this is the understanding of the masochist.
Torturing the body is not a way; torturing is violent. Whether you torture others or yourself, it is violent; and violence can never be religious. What is the difference between torturing someone else's body and torturing your own body? What is the difference? The body is 'the other'. Even your own body is the other. Your body is a little closer and the other's body is a little further away, that's all. Because yours is closer it is more likely to become a victim of your violence; you can torture it. And for thousands of years people have been torturing their bodies with the false notion that it is the way towards God.
In the first place, why would God give you a body? He has not provided you with any implements to torture your body. Rather, on the contrary, he has provided you with sensibilities, sensitiveness, with senses: to enjoy it, not to torture it. He has made you so sensitive because through sensitivity awareness grows. If you torture your body you will become more and more insensitive.
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