One thing you have to understand that Swami Sivananda did not teach yoga, but he taught and he presented the yogic lifestyle. If you look at his writings, you ’ll see that he focuses on the daily routine that one should live and on sanyam that one should have.
Look at this time of pandemic all around us. What has been the biggest impact of the pandemic. Some people may say the effect of the pandemic has been economic, some people may say it has been social. But if you look at all the behaviors of people and the demands of people throughout this world during this pandemic you will notice that it has had a very big impact on the lifestyle and habits of people.
And it is the lifestyle we need to look into and focus to improve it. And we are able to focus on lifestyle. He says your daily routine has to be properly managed. Wake up at 4 am brahma muhurta, do meditation, do japa, do asaan, do pranayama. These are the guidelines that he is giving.
Do asana, do pranayama, do japa, do meditation. Get up at 4 am. Then he says do swadhyaya, do satsang, practice mouna. Be ready to help others. Be responsible for what you do. Do not shun any responsibility to others. Be proactive to bring happiness and joy.
And in this manner, he sets out the routine one can follow in life, from morning to evening apart from working profession or at home. But there is an engagement with life, a positive and constructive engagement with life, it is not whiling away the time in life.
Today people wake up at 8, 9, 10. After sunrise. Today people sleep at 10, 11, 12, 1. Midnight. That is an indication as to how the turn has taken in our life. We cannot control our selves any more. We are subject to our own desires, vims and fantasies and greed and selfishness. There is no sanyam, no restrain.
The more you engage in materialistic pursuits the more you become materialistic hypnotized. You lose sanyam in your life. Maybe your grandparents had sanyam but definitely you do not have sanyam.
Can’t control what you eat, can’t control what you say, can’t control what you think, can’t control the negative, can’t control the destructive, can’t control the mental dissipation and agitation and stress, anticipation and anxiety and tension and fear and insecurities. Can’t control the desire to splurge, to go out to do this to entertain one self, so that I feel happy.
Is that the sanyam? Is that the restraint? There has to be restrain in life. Restraint is not restriction. But it is doing anything according to need. Eat a little. Eat everything but little of everything. Drink a little. Drink everything but a little of everything; not that you are habituated to have only coca cola for months and the whole life. And not a single drop of water goes into your mouth.
Sleep a little. Know the requirement of your sleep. But regulate the life. Regulation is the first thing in lifestyle. Restrain is the second thing in lifestyle. Regulation and restrain. And this is what Swami Sivananji’s teachings have always told us. You can see his teachings. You can see his writings.
You will know that he always emphasizes not only good deeds and good thoughts and good interactions with everyone else, but also how to develop a balanced timetable for the day and how to cultivate the awareness which can lead you to sanyam, to restraint.
That is the biggening of self-help. Seva. And that is the biggening of helping others as well.
Paduka Darshan, Sannyas Peeth, 9 September 2021
From Lakshmi Narayana Maha Yajna Satsangs, 8-12 September 2021, Sw Niranjanananda Saraswati