Faith will sustain us to achieve the state of Yoga.
This sūtra explains how a common man can reach Yoga. It is only through śraddhā one can get to the state of Yoga. Without śraddhā, the quality of the practice is lacking.
Faith is the unshakable conviction, the bullheaded determination that we can arrive at the goal. One should not lose focus of the bigger picture and must work through all the distractions. Vyāsa describes śraddhā as the inner faith that protects one like a caring mother. It gives one the energy to do what they have to do.
śraddhā – Inner faith
vīryam – courage
Smriti – memory, focus, constantly being reminded of the goal
Samādhi – perfect concentration
Prajña – highest knowledge
pūrvaka – preceding
itara – other
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Shraddha,
Do you think it is easier for an India than for a European to have (get?) this faith ?
I can see that for me it’s not obvious to imagine I can get the state of yoga by practicing it ; not only for me but for anybody. It’s so far from our cultural way of thinking.
Have good time in Canada. paroa.
I quite disagree with that. I must say that most of the people who I think are true yogis have all been identified as North Americans and spotted walking in Mission district of San Francisco.
It does not make it any easier being Indian. I dabbled with Yoga for many years. But, it is only after I studied about Sri Krishnamacharya that I got introduced to real Yoga. It took a long time to feel the light.
As Rabindranath Tagore said-
Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings when the dawn is still dark.
Paroa, I must add that the explanation of this sutra is not from my point of view- If I have/get the faith because I am Indian.
I agree with you that this is pretty complex. State of Yoga is not something that is easy. I personally do not understand the state of Yoga at all. What is this stillness? I don’t get it. It can take forever to get there. And it is not for everyone to get at this stage. But anyone can try. I do understand a lot of things discussed in the sutras, but not the “State of Yoga”. At any rate, sraddha is what is required to get there.
If you look at it this way, yoga sutras are generic lifestyle guidelines. Faith in something that you want to pursue is absolutely required. If you don’t have that, it is somewhat meaningless to pursue it. Why do you go after something if you are not convinced or not have the faith? You see? I have faith in Yoga, but not State of Yoga. That is beyond me in this lifetime : )
What I wanted to say is that, for a French person like me for instance, we don’t have well known examples of people (guru or acharya) having reached a permament state of samadhi or even lower level of samadhi. They maybe are some people like that but they are not known, not “public” people. If one day, I will be a more advanced yogin I may meet this kind of people but so far I feel that I have not met any of them (or if so, they have well hidden it – which I can understand). So, I often have doubts (samshaya –see YS-I30) that one can really reach a samadhi state. In this situation, doubt is more or less the opposite of faith !
Also because a yogi has probably a better understanding of himself and his surronding than other people (due to “viveka”) the world looks pretty bad to him (see YS-II15).
So the situation is difficult. In one hand the state of yoga is supposed to be ananda but meanwhile it is more suffering. So, difficult to keep the faith is you dont’ have read the Baghavad Gita and Shri Aurobindo when tennager and never seen Amma on the TV.
Due to their culture, I feel that Indians have better samskara than us.
(A different matter : have you seen my web site http://www.paroa.fr/kaivalyam ?)
I made a mistake : in this sentence : “So, difficult to keep the faith is you dont’ have read the Baghavad Gita and Shri Aurobindo”, one should read “if” not “is”.
Paroa, Your website is awesome. good work!
I have to disagree again with you on your comment though. Although, I understand what you are saying. I run the other way, if I come across anyone in saffron robes. When I was a child in India, I would see more than enough people in saffron robes who were anything but yogis. It never helped me to see “godly” men and women in real or in tv. I always thought they were after money or sex or both.
Now, I have made only a small change to that. Most people in saffron are still charlatans, with the exception of very few. If you are looking for inspiration from any of these people, stop. They will not help you. They are only trying to rip you off and your euros. I saw it first hand in some ashrams in India.
Samadhi is something I am not even trying to understand. It sounds like it is some ways off of reality. I am not ready for it this time around.
To reply to your comment in brief, you will not meet anyone in “samadhi” state even in India. So, you are not missing much being in France. I highly recommend reading “A search in secret India”. Here’s my review on that book-
http://www.yogzilla.com/2008/11/11/a-search-in-secret-india/
Can you comment on what you said about people in saffron robe in India ? Are you talking about all religions we can see in India : hindouim, bouddhism … ?
I am mainly concern about bouddhism because, in general, we love them in France (and so, I do), especialy Thibetans.
Here the robes are (were would be more accurate) black and, same same, the history shows thay have made really bad things.
Thanks for the web site. If you look at the “cours de yoga”, you will see that I give two classes a week and it’s a great news.
The classes are starting with : om saha navavatu …
Do you teach classes remotely? : )
Good work, Om to that.
Anyway, faith as Patanjali describes is something I see in sports people : ) more than the self proclaimed spiritual folks.
When you said that maybe Indians can get the concept of faith better, I wanted to say, not really. Maybe it is a little easier for Indians than Europeans, because of the religious background.
Even though there is a lot of saffron robed spiritual people, that does not mean they are the examples of faith that Patanjali describes.
I did not mean Hinduism or Buddhism or anything particular. Just because someone claims to be spiritual leader to guide other people, that means nothing to me as I do not trust most of these people. I thought you mentioned there are a lot of examples in India for faith on tv and everywhere and not in France.
Yes, Buddhism is quite popular in all advanced countries.
Why do you say remotely ? Of course not. I have about 6 students to each class, I have started in september and this number of students is perfect because I can really take care of them and adapt the asana to each of them according to their body and level. I have not really started pranayama … just perception of briefing … pranayama will come after Christmas.
To come bach on faith. I understand that Patanjali did not mention faith on god but faith on ourself, like in sport for instance but if feel that having examples of guru or acharya maintaining this faith.
Yesterday evening, a watched a video about saddhus living in north of India. For me, it’s motivating seing this kind of people (or it is one more illusion ?).
When I say remotely, I mean if I can take your class all the way from the pacific standard time. That was supposed to be funny.
Anyway, good to know you get your inspiration from the sadhus. I think what you are looking for is a guru or some guide.
Sorry for the “remote”, I had not caught it. The class is not recorded on video ; I just scan the “funny drawings” for personal filing.
I have been impressed by the sadhus since teenager. It is just a fact (some kind of samskara I should meditate about !). This reminds me the sutra I-37 that says : a way to cool down the mind might be (it depends on the person) to meditate on someone who has no more passion.
I am curious to know what is your feeling about sadhus.
I may “need” a guru. I don’t know. If yes, he/her will meet by the time I will be ready. If I don’t meet him/her, it means that I am not yet ready.
You are not yet ready, my son. But you will be ready soon. And yes, you need a guru. Since I know you have lots of euros, I am willing to be your guru : ) if you ask me, I mean if you beg me and stand on your head for a week. Do some tapas(not black bean kind), I may be impressed. I might teach weekend seminars and workshops to meditate on someone who has no passion. I think I can come up with that. I am even learning French.
I don’t know much about sadhus, have not come across anyone in real life. I mean, I have seen one too many, but don’t know them. So, I cannot comment on them, sorry.
I have been reading your interesting chat, and I can’t help myself to stay away… I think Sraddha is one of the main differences between east and west, and defines the way we live our faith in anything… In the field of religion or spiritual development, I think that in India (or east), most of the people rely (have inconditional faith or sraddha) in his/her guru, or the teachings that he/she follows, and that is the way things happen since ancient times. In the west, teachers try to develop criticism or judgment in their students, so they lost “faith” and rely only in logic thoughts… So, in some way I think it’s “easier” to eastern people to trust, to have sraddha, because the environment helps them, it’s a “value” to be “full of faith”… western people is encouraged to be “skeptical”. And maybe this is so because in eastern culture and religion “god” is us (tat tvam asi), “that” is inside us, so we just need to feel, to trust in our feelings, we don’t need to “convince” ourselves, just to rely, to have sraddha; in western culture “god” is an outsider, is a different entity, we need to know something that is not part of us, we need to know him through reason, to know him “intellectually” at least at first sight…
I don’t really know if it’s better in order to reach the state of yoga one way or another (as a western, I’m skeptical about yoga sutras); I just think that Patañjali wrote yoga teachings in a way that works better in the culture that surrounded him at that time…
An old teacher used to say in my catholic school, “If Jesus had decided to live in XX century, he had used TV to show his miracles and teachings…”
I get it when all you western folks tell me that you don’t get what Patañjali is talking about. Or that it is better understood by someone from the same country and culture. I understand your confusion. Having lived in the west for so long, my brain is wired to understand the eastern thought process and the so called western “logical” thinking.
In general, there is a lot of faith that goes with religion. Very true. Yoga sutras were compiled from the Vedas, Upanishads, Sankhya and more. Yoga for most part is derived from Sankhya, which did not accept god. Faith is a common theme through out the Vedas.
But, I don’t completely agree with a limited understanding of that. The kind of faith that Patañjali is talking about has nothing to do with just a religion or god. The faith that you have could be anything, like a sports person who has this intense passion about his or her sport, or a scientist who is determined to figure out something that he ends up inventing or discovering something. Or someone who has so much faith that his idea will work out. This kind of faith is not just religious faith. It is programmed in every cell, every molecule of your being. You don’t question it. You don’t bother explaining it to anyone, because no one else will get it. It is sort of madness, in some sense. It is your desire for anything.
I personally think yoga sutras is timeless and not restricted to a religion. If you gave it to an Olympic athlete, he or she would understand in a short time. It could be a manual that coaches could use for athletes. There is so much material about how to get to a certain thing. But his teachings are not simple, they are quite extreme and the problem with understanding it comes from that.
I agree that an Indian background is helpful in understanding yoga sutras itself, but the concept of faith is universal.
For all the western skeptics and “logical” thinkers, read this post by my favorite blogger here-
http://www.yogzilla.com/2008/11/04/east-is-east-and-west-is-west-%E2%80%93-or-are-they/
Hye Hanuman, I am very happy to get news from you. Still faith in yoga … good.
My post will be very short, today I have a limited internet access because and I am travelling back from a (so good) week-end of yoga.
When I was talking about faith, I thought faith in yoga, faith that with yoga I can reduce my pain and reach ananda.
I have always been sceptical about God. It might be because our cultural religion (catholism here) has done so many bad things in the past. So it might be a kind of “reaction”. Many of us here, as far as I know, are a mix of “athée” and agnostics.
Shraddha. The more I learn about the sutra, the more I think they are universal, untemporal, ….
It’s incredible to imagine that it has been written so long time ago.
I don’t think that my yoga teacher(s), Krishnamacharya lineage, tries to develop any kind of sceptism. That’s this opposite. There speech is complying very well with Patanjali spirit.
Both of us would be welcomed here (but I am not ready to pay the air fly ticket … too bad for you), only good accomodation, french food and good condition for yoga practice.
I agree with you on the meaning of Sraddha; I don’t believe that faith is related to religion, and yes, I think the concept is universal; I think faith is some kind of “inner force” that moves some people to act. I’m just trying to say that eastern people is moved by faith more than western people, which tend to be moved by “logic”, but I mean the faith that you describe… If your teacher tells you “stand on your head for a week”, an eastern student will do that, without hesitation, because he or she has faith on his/her teacher; on the other hand, the western student, before doing anything will ask: “Why? What is the purpose of that?” and if he or she is pleased with his/her teacher’s answer the student will do it; but if he or she doesn’t like the answer, probably will look for another teacher, because faith is not strong enough…
I agree that yoga sutras is timeless and not restricted to religion; I just can’t avoid to think that a western and contemporary Patañjali would use “jigīṣā” instead of “sraddha” like the first impulse to act…
Paroa, Thanks for the invite. I will visit you on my way to India next time. I will stop by and solve all your confusion : )
Hy great guruh, your already found a way to solved my self confidence problem …. Sure that staying a full week standing on both hands will help me … it seems you are reading in someone else’ spirit !!!
To come back on the subject, faith, I read again what Hanuman wrote before and if it’s true that most Indian think they have “god” in them, then it makes a big difference. This idea is so “strange”, so “exotic”, to me … and yes, we, western people are clearly motivated by jigîshâ. Our ego is so well developped.
Paroa, nice to hear about you. Thank you for the invitation; I think that I’ll go after Sraddha, to learn what you have learned… so Sraddha will become my paramguru…