Yoga

You said that yoga is a science, a methodology for inner awakening. But effort to be, to go nearer to no-mind, implies motivation and hope. Even to undergo the process of inner transformation implies motivation. Then how can one move on the path of yoga with hope and motivation? Does not even waiting imply motivation?

Yes, you cannot move on the path of yoga with motivation, with desire, with hope. Really, there is no movement on the path of yoga. When you come to understand that all desire is absurd, all desire is misery, there is nothing to do, because every doing will be a new desire. There is nothing to do! Simply you cannot do anything because whatsoever you do will lead you into a new misery. Then you don't do. Desires have dropped, mind has ceased, and this is yoga; you have entered. This is not a movement, it is a stillness. Because of the language, problems arise. I say that you have entered, it appears that you have moved. When desire ceases, all movement ceases. You are in the yoga: NOW THE DISCIPLINE OF YOGA. With motivation, in the name of yoga, you will create again other miseries. I see every day…

Why do so many persons on the path of yoga adopt an attitude of fight, struggle, over-concern with keeping strict rules, and warrior-like ways? Is this necessary in order to really be a yogi?

And trust, shraddha, faith, was easier in a world which was non-technological. A technological world needs cunning, calculation, mathematics, cleverness -- not innocence. In a technological world, if you are innocent you will look foolish; if you are cunning you will look clever, intelligent. Our universities are doing nothing but this: they make you clever, cunning, calculating. The more calculating, the more cunning, the more successful you will be in the world. Quite the reverse was the case in the East in the past. If you were cunning it was impossible for you to succeed even in the outside world. Only innocence was accepted. Technique was not valued too much, but inner quality was valued too much. If a person is cunning and he makes a better shoe nobody will go to him in the East in the past. They will go to the person who is innocent. He may…

Yesterday morning you referred to the eight stages of yogic achievement and emphasized that you move from number one to number eight, in that order. Is it not possible, in individual cases, that an individual could reach one or the other states first and then move in his or her own order to achieve all eight of them?

It is possible, but when I say possible I mean only rarely, very rarely. Exceptions are always there with every rule, but when Patanjali talks, he talks about the rule, not about the exception. Exceptions need not be talked about. The greater mass of humanity cannot reach from anywhere in any other way. They will have to follow step by step -- from one to two, from two to three. They move in an organic unity. But there are freaks who can go and jump -- but then they too will have to come back and absorb the left-behind part. Their arrangement can be different, that's possible. You can start with pranayam, but then you will have to come to asan, you will have to come to YAM.... You can start by meditation, but then you will have to move to other parts which are left behind. But all the…

What is the basic difference between the more familiar systems of yoga and the system that you have developed?

The jump is possible. And I think that for us today, it has become urgent that we move within. But the preparation is bound to be different than it has been in the past, so my method works first as a catharsis. Then, it tries to create a harmony with your body. We are separated from our bodies. All the old traditions have emphasized that body and mind are two things. That is absolutely wrong. Body and mind are just two poles of one existence. The old traditions have emphasized that you are not the body, but my emphasis is quite the contrary. You are the body. You are more than the body, you go beyond the body, but you are also the body. There is no division as such, no conflict. We have created the conflict, and that conflict has created a gap. The gap has to be bridged.…