The Yoga of Patanjali

96 Lessons on The Yoga of PatanjaliI find the day too busy”. Unfortunately the day has only 24hours, partly to eat, partly to drink, partly to dance, partly toearn, partly to woo, partly to sleep, partly to spend the weekendat the end of which we are weakened. To be busy is adisease, to be active is health. This disease of developing theautosuggestion that we are busy is a great obstacle.A student remarked : “It is interesting to note perhapsthat lethargy is more with the orientals, while theautosuggestion of being busy is with the Occidentals”.Answer : “Precisely so. We can take these two obstaclesas the leading features of the orient and the Occident.The next obstacle is “illusion”. We understand something which is not there within the purview of Yoga. When peopleread that Madam Blavatsky received wisdom from her Masters,they began to receive messages from their own source whichthey called Masters. Today we find mediums who receivemessages and say “Master Morya asked me to eat eight applesa day”. This is because he received a message to that effect.His followers begin to eat apples and go sick. All this is calledspiritualism. Some people call it Theosophy, but Theosophy issomething different. Having illusions about Yoga practice leadsthem into many practices that do harm and waste away thelife.The ninth obstacle, last but not least, is as powerful asany one of these eight. It is “instability”. The practitioner hasnot yet experienced anything in his Yoga practice. “Had youany experiences this night? What is your experience? are thequestions that the colleagues of a Yoga school put to one another.Common sense tells us that Yoga is the way to lead life inperfection. People want to feel themselves by self-stupificationand self-mystification to find what they call experiences. Onesays “I have gone to the higher mental plane and I saw a golden