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RELIEF FROM MENTAL TENSIONS
Exercises in the yoga camps are comprised of breath perception, body perception and käyotsarga (abandonment of the body). What is the purpose of these exercises and what do we achieve from them ? The greatest problem for the modern man is that he is over-pressurised. He suffers from tension and strain. When our body is light, our experiences become wholesome and when the body is tense, they become exacting. This applies to the mind also. A tense mind is uneasy and a relieved mind feels easy.
Every one wants to lead a comfortable life. He likes to feel light. The initial achievement of sadhana is the feeling of being light. It means relief from pressures and tensions.
The modern man is a patient of mental and physical tensions. He lacks in peace of mind. He is always restless. Having done exhausting labour he needs rest and calm. When one shoulder of a man carrying a heavy load becomes tired, he · shifts the load to the other shoulder so that the tired shoulder may get a little rest. Sometimes he puts the load down and stops to rest. Our activities are an alternation of work and rest. We are thus constantly in need of rest so that we may feel that there is no burden on us and no tension in our mind.
We know that we have a body and that we work and labour with it. We also know how to give rest to the body. We work with the mind also but we do not know how to give it rest. We think but we do not know that state of the mind in which there is no thinking. We do not know how to get rid of thinking. Once we have begun to think, it becomes difficult to stop the process of thinking. All this is due to the fact that we have not yet known the value of thoughtlessness.
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