________________
६६
श्री पुष्करमुनि अभिनन्दन ग्रन्थ : नवम खण्ड
YOGA & WEST
SWAMI VISHNU DEVANANDA
W hen I came to the West 20 year ago, I had nothing except faith in my master,
Swami Sivananda. But that was more than enough. He had told me to go the West where people were waiting. He felt that the time was right for the people in the West to accept the teachings of the ancient science of Yoga,
Of course, Master Sivananda was right. The West has reached a point in its history and development where it has attained the heights of material success. People have enough food to eat, they have comfortable houses, big motor cars, etc. Yet they are not happy.
Every sort of sensual pleasure is readily available, yet there are many people who have 'dropped out'. They have found that material things do not bring happiness and have started to look elsewhere. Unfortunately, many of these people have looked to drugs. But eventually, even they discover that the answer to the search for happiness is not in drugs or any other external means. The answer is within-within one's self.
It is like the old woman who lost her needle and went out to the garden to look for it. She did not look inside the house because it was too dark there.
Here in the West, we have built overselves the most beautiful and luxurions gardens. But the thing that is missing is still not there. To find the lost thing, we must take a light and go inside to look for it.
Yoga is that light. More and more Westerners are learning to use the light of the beautiful teachings of Yoga. They are taking this light searching within themselves for what they have lost.
And what is it that we have all lost? It's the the realization that I am That"--Tat Twam Asi." I pray, that with the Lord's Grace you may all find illumination in this very lifetime.
OM SHANTI
* * *
O
While Yogi rests in Pranayama, his mind becomes quiet and still. By the stillness of mind, he attains higher kind of knowledge, and by the dint of this higher knowledge, every thing of the world mirrorred clearly in it.
- Jñānārnova. 29/14
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
