“Chitta vrutti nirodaha”

"Kiran", my name literally means, "Sun Rays". Sunrise has always fascinated me. But today it was a sunset, right after my Yoga class. 

Today while coming back from my Yoga class, I saw this beautiful sunset. It was so serene, I stopped my car and kept gazing at it for some time. 

Was my mind free of you? No. I still had you in mind. I do not know whether I was happy or sad, peaceful or perturbed. But, despite trying hard, I could not be away from you. Was I restraining the mind or freeing it?

Happiness is an idea when you don't know it. And when you know it... you ARE it!

"Never demand love of others. Love them without worrying whether or not your love will be returned. One who gives love freely is, of all people, the most certain to receive it back — even a hundredfold."

- "The Art of Supportive Leadership", by S.Kriyananda

- Patanjali Yoga Sutra #2

Yoga is the act of restraining or freeing the mind from the clutches of its modulations.

There are five types of modulations of the mind:

• Lack of comprehension
• Wanting proof for everything
• Imagination
• Sleep
• Memory

All through the day, your mind is in one of these modulations. But, if there are those moments when you are not sleeping, not remembering old things, not imagining, or looking for proof, then that moment yoga has happened.

At that moment, what is happening? You are just by yourself in the journey of your own Self, which is the source of joy, the source of love, the source of peace and knowledge.

There are two types of thinking — occidental and oriental. In the oriental way of thinking, it said that there is an ultimate and in the ultimate everything happens. In the occidental way of thinking, you are always looking for an ultimate. In either of the approaches, yoga is what happens when you are in the moment so totally at ease and peace.

So, when does this happen? Whenever you are watching the sunset or when you experience beauty in your life or when you experience lot of energy in the body. This also happens after pranayam (breathing techniques) or during meditation. The mind is then free from all these five modulations. That is why when you do yoga asanas (yoga postures), you put the body, mind, and breath all in one rhythm. That is when real yoga is happening and you are with yourself.

“Tado drashtuhu swarupe avasthanam”

- Patanjali Yoga Sutra #3

Means ‘the seer then rests or remains in his/her own nature’.

Discipline is to unite yourself, to unite all the loose ends of your existence.

“Vrutti sarupyamitaratra”

- Patanjali Yoga Sutra #4

Means ‘you identify yourself with the modulations of the mind all the time’.

What this means is that your mind is engaged in the outside world all the time. With eyes open in the waking state you are caught up in all that you see, smell, hear, touch, taste. If not, you return to sleep or to the state of dreaming where you are completely shut off from the world.