What is Knowledge : Ch-7.3

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Chapter 7: Yoga Discipline.3

Thus, in the posture that we are to maintain in yoga, known as asana, we should not think that it is merely an action of the body, that whatever the mind is doing is immaterial because the body is the only thing concerned in the yoga asana.

I mentioned a few points last time, which would have made it clear that the yoga asana is not a physical exercise like the games played in the fields outside. This is not a game, and it is not a physical exercise.

It is an exercise of the human personality, which cannot be identified merely with the physical body.

Thus, no benefit worth the while or worth the name can be expected from the performance of yoga asanas if the mind, and the emotions especially, do not cooperate with this performance.

There would be no benefit even in the intake of a medical prescription for the health of the body, if the mind is totally opposed to it for some reason or the other. You cannot cure a disease by swallowing a drug if the mind wholeheartedly resents the treatment due to its occupation with something which is totally contrary to the process of the treatment indicated.
Swami Krishnananda
 To be continued  .....


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