Practice of Yoga

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Q. Is the practice of yoga always conscious? Or can it be quite unconscious, below the threshold of awareness?

In the case of a beginner the practice of yoga is often deliberate and requires great determination. But those who are practicing sincerely for many years, are intent on self-realization all the time, whether conscious of it or not. Unconscious sadhana is most effective, because it is spontaneous and steady.

Q. What is the position of the man who was a sincere student of yoga for sometime and then got discouraged and abandoned all efforts?

What a man appears to do, or not to do, is often deceptive. His apparent lethargy may be just a gathering of strength. The causes of our behavior are very subtle. One must not be quick to condemn, not even to praise. Remember that yoga is the work of the inner self (vyakta) on the outer self (vyakti). All that the outer does is merely in response to the inner.

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Reading these talks, I am reminded of the conversation from the Bhagavad Gita (Chapter 6, Dhyana Yoga) where Arjuna questions Sri Krishna along the same lines.

Arjuna asks,

What O Krishna, is the fate of a man who, though endowed with firm faith, is not steadfast in his practices owing to distractions, and therefore fails to reach spiritual perfection? 

O mighty armed Lord! Bewildered in the path of Brahman, supportless, does he not lose this world and and the next? Does he not perish like a rain-cloud rent asunder?

Krishna answers,

He does not meet with downfall either here in this world or in the hereafter. Know for certain, O dear one, that one who treads the path of virtue never goes to ruin.


The fallen Yogi goes, after death, to the spheres of the righteous, and after having lived there for unnumbered years, is reborn in this world in a pure and prosperous family. Or he is reborn in a family of men full of wisdom and spirituality. Re-birth under such conditions is passing hard to get in this world.

There, O scion of the clan of Kurus, he will regain the spiritual discernment of his previous birth, and then he will strive harder than ever for perfection.