Niyam are rules to be follow by the sadhak who does spiritual practices and yoga. Though listed out in Hindu Texts, these rules are self imposed and followed by virtuous people all over the world. These are restraints and essential guidelines for those who wish to live a life of dharma, ethics and principles. They are universally accepted as they are commonsense codes of conducts and have been recorded in the ancient Vedas.
Five niyam given in the Patajali Yoga Sutras:
shoucha or purity of body, mind and speech,
santosha or contentment,
tapas or austerity,
svadhyaya or self study or self effort which leads to knowledge about God,
Ishvarpranidhana or surrender to God.
The other niyams are
hri or being modest and showing shame for misdeeds,
dana or giving without seeking reward,
astikya or faith in Guru and God,
mati or cognition/developing a spiritual will and intellect under the guidance of Guru and
vrata or fulfilment of scared vows, japa or daily chanting of mantras.
Shoucha -Purity: Purity here is purity of physical, oral and mental. Physical purity includes cleansing of mouth, nails, hair, body, bathing and wearing of fresh clean clothes. Yogic practices like Dhouti, Basti, Neti, Tratak, Nouli and Kapalbhati are means of internal cleansing and must be learnt properly from a Yoga teacher and then practiced.
Truthful and sweet speech when speech cannot be avoided and practice of mouna or silence are important. Mouna is physical restriction of talking. It is also reducing and then stopping mental chatter. It includes avoiding backbiting, gossiping and use of foul language. Trataka is a method by which we bring about mental purification.
When we practice Shoucha, we realise the tremendous amount of impurities that our body, mind and tongue have and we stop giving great importance that we used to give this body. We realise the importance of going within and experiencing the clean and pure bliss of the soul.
We must understand the importance of a clean and healthy body, as such a body is an efficient and useful tool in performance of daily duties and routines in an effective manner and also in focussed performance of spiritual practices. Shoucha includes maintaining a clean uncluttered home and surroundings ; clean well organised work place; good company; keeping away from mental filth, violence and pornography; worshipping with faith and regular meditation. When Shoucha is followed, the purification process brings good physical health, mental calmness and happiness and lays a strong base for spiritual sadhana.
Santosh -Contentment: When we are content, we are joyous and peaceful. We are in a better frame of body and mind to perform our duties productively. All creatures are engaged in a never ending effort in their day to day lives in order to get mental contentment and peace. We make wrong assumptions that earning and possession of material things gives contentment. Contentment is independent of all external things or achievements in material world. It is not a reaction to any incident. It is a state of mind. We can be content despite all the incidents around us.
When we aim at contentment in our lives, we make continuous and determined efforts in our work but are happy with what we get. Thus, our suffering in life reduces. We live in an attitude of gratitude for all the blessings bestowed on us. We do not complain about what we do not possess. We see every situation in life positively as an opportunity for self improvement and as an opportunity for spiritual progress. We live in the eternal ‘now’ and identify with the immortal ‘You’ and not the short lived body. The intensity of thirst for possessions reduces and the satwa in us glows. We are in heavenly peace and bliss in this life itself.
Contd in the next blog – Niyam-2
