by Yogi Ananda Viraj (Eugene P. Kelly, Jr.)
Welcome to sadhana and the sadhana class. As a new student you will come into contact with many things that, at first, will seem strange. You will hear Sanskrit words, see flames and incense burning and be asked to do what appear to be foreign things. Please do not let all of this “throw” you. Formal yoga training is a most involved and different undertaking. It is to be expected that this will involve the “strange.” However, as time passes and you familiarize yourself with sadhana the element of strangeness will vanish and yoga practice will become an everyday reality.
Often students come to the sadhana class without having read about yoga or without prior study. This is fine as long as it is kept in mind that the true significance of sadhana can only be realized through lengthy practice. That is, formal yoga training is a “body-training” that takes time and sincerity for change to be accomplished. So, a word to the wise, be patient.
What is Sadhana?
The Sanskrit word sadhana comes from the word sadh meaning succeed. On one level this term has importance to yoga students because they do sadhana, that is, they practice yoga. To do sadhana is to do those practices which aim at success in yoga. On another level to do sadhana with total sincerity is to succeed because any action done without a view toward personal gain is a liberating action. In this sense practice may be said to be the goal. However, few students are able to enact this highly concentrated form of practice without some prior doings, without prior practice.
What is the Sadhana Class?
The sadhana class is mainly concerned with the practice of yama and niyama. For the sake of convenience we will translate these words as restraint or abstinence and observance respectively. At Yoga Anand Ashram we practice four yamas or restraints and four niyamas or observances. These together are commonly called the yogic virtues. However, their significance lies far beyond virtue in the everyday sense. For the time being let us say that they are the beginning of yoga practice as well as the end. It is for this reason that an entire class at the Ashram, which students spend no less than a year in, is devoted to yama and niyama.
In order to help you with the process of familiarization we will provide you with a listing and translations of the yamas and niyamas. The yamas are: ahimsa or non-violence, satya or abstention from falsehood (truthfulness), asteya or abstention from mis-appropriation or stealing, and aparigraha or abstention from possessiveness. The niyamas are: sauca (pronounced shaucha) meaning cleanliness or purity, santosa (pronounced san-tosha) meaning contentment, tapas meaning austerity and svadhyaya meaning study. Generally you will be asked to practice one or perhaps two of these a week. The practice of yama and niyama involves a recognition of the role of language in our lives. It is language that “makes us or breaks us.” Through the practice of the abstentions and observances the yoga student learns how language acts to insure appropriate incarnating for appropriate action or how language acts to ensnare us in the confusion and suffering of self-centered inadequate incarnations. Basically, yama and niyama as sadhana are the yoga student’s tools for becoming conscious of the way of incarnate living.
The practice of yama and niyama in the sadhana class is augmented by basic breathing exercises, known as pranyama and practice of yoga postures (asanas). The ashram does offer classes in asanas for those students who have had no training in them. Given that yoga is primarily a body training, that is, a reconditioning of the entire neuro-muscular system, it is necessary that some adequate form of “exercise” accompany the sadhana process to facilitate yogic development. Pranayama also serves this function.
Diligence and sincerity in the practice of abstentions and observances will prepare the body for the more advanced practices of pranayama, pratyahara or detachment, dharana or concentration, dhyana or meditation, and samadhi or absorption. However, do not be mislead by the word “advanced.” These five latter stages of yoga are never practiced in isolation from yama and niyama. In fact, there is a very real sense in which these latter five aim at the perfection of yama, niyama, and asana. The yoga “system” must be taken as a whole. A key word in the understanding of how that whole functions is “reciprocity.” There are, if you have been counting, eight stages to yoga training and these eight work to reinforce each other. We start in asana and aim at samadhi; but samadhi is effectively being incarnate (asana) in order to act appropriately. The yoga path is not a one way path. In yoga, to go up is to learn the way down. Life in yogic terms, is the play of reciprocity. The body is the actor; many roles are incarnated.
Let this short essay serve as an introduction to yoga class. The function of the introduction is to lead within. Please, take the time to get inside of sadhana; learn what it feels like to practice yoga. It is not something that can be thought. We, as teachers, will do all we can to assist you. Feel free to talk with us and ask questions. Yoga is one of those activities of human living which has to be shared. Again, welcome to sadhana.
Sincerely,
Yogi Ananda Viraj