Obstacles
to Yoga
Before considering the
capacities needed for this definite practice, let us run over the
obstacles to Yoga as laid down by Patanjali.
The obstacles to Yoga
are very inclusive. First, disease: if you are diseased you cannot
practice Yoga; it demands sound health, for the physical strain
entailed by it is great. Then languor of mind: you must be alert,
energetic, in your thought. Then doubt: you must have decision of
will, must be able to make up your mind. Then carelessness: this
is one of the greatest difficulties with beginners; they read a
thing carelessly, they are
inaccurate. Sloth: a lazy man cannot be a Yogi; one who is inert,
who lacks the power and the will to exert himself; how shall he
make the desperate exertions wanted along this line? The next, worldly-mindedness,
is obviously an obstacle. Mistaken ideas is another great obstacle,
thinking wrongly about things. One of the
great qualifications for Yoga is "right notion" "Right
notion" means that the thought shall correspond with the outside
truth; that a man shall he fundamentally true, so that his thought
corresponds to fact; unless there is truth in a man, Yoga is for
him impossible. Missing the point, illogical, stupid, making the
important, unimportant and vice versa. Lastly, instability: which
makes Yoga impossible, and even a small amount of which makes Yoga
futile; the unstable man cannot be a yogi.
