VIRTUE AS YOGA
(Sri Swami Atmaswarupananda)
Sometimes Pujya Swami Chidanandaji describes The Divine Life Society as having seven pillars—the four principal yogas as represented by the words Serve, Love, Meditate, Realise in The Divine Life Society crest, and ahimsa, satyam and brahmacharya, which Gurudev described as the foundation of yoga and Vedanta, and are the conditions of membership in The Divine Life Society. Gurudev declared, “Practise, ahmisa, satyam and brahmacharya. This is the foundation of yoga and Vedanta.” And he wanted us to integrate the four yogas, to have an integral yoga, so that head, heart and hand would all be engaged in our yoga practice.
Many of us would like to engage our entire being in our yoga practice, in our search for God, but we run into practical difficulties. Let alone practising yoga or an integral yoga, we scarcely have time to practise any yoga in this busy modern world. However, we all know that, whether we have time to practise a yoga or not, we should live decent lives, we should live according to dharma. And this is the special significance of the practice of ahimsa, satyam and brahmacharya—non-injury, truthfulness and purity—because in actual fact, the practice of these fundamental virtues, if properly understood, is itself yoga.
Non-injury is a reflection of God as love, truthfulness is a reflection of God as truth, and brahmacharya is a reflection of God as purity. The practice of these virtues or, indeed, of one alone, will not only make us better human beings, will not only act as a foundation of yoga and Vedanta, but they have the power to become a yoga of their own and connect us directly with God as love, truth and purity.
We practise in the beginning not hurting others. That grows into the practice of benefiting others, of expressing love for them. Finally, we see others as our own Self; we see others as God sees them, through God’s eyes of love. Truthfulness begins with speaking the truth to each other. We then graduate to strictly telling the truth to ourselves and then we begin to understand the truth that God alone is. Brahmacharya begins with self-control. Then it becomes everything for God, nothing for me. Finally, we see nothing outside ourselves—there are no objects here, only God’s purity.
Thus, in this busy modern world, we may not have time for sufficient practice of our individual yoga, but we can practise virtue, especially the virtues of ahimsa, satyam and brahmacharya. And if there is sincerity and determination in our heart, they can become our yoga—our connection to God.
* * *
