Day 1
Shaasana are the rules that society or somebody else imposes on you. Anushasan are the rules that you impose on yourself. Now, why is Yoga called a discipline? Where is the need for a discipline? When does the need for discipline arise? When you are thirsty, you want to drink water.
You don't feel that it is a rule to drink water when you are thirsty. And when you are hungry, you eat. You do feel that you have the discipline of eating when you are hungry, that you have a discipline of enjoying the nature. No discipline is necessary for enjoyment. When is discipline relevant?
Not when something is enjoyable at the very first step. A child never says that it has the discipline of running to his mother when he sees her. Discipline arises where something is not very charming to begin with, when you know that it would be ultimately give a fruit that is very good and enjoyable but that, in the beginning, it is not enjoyable.
When you are abiding in yourself, when you are in joy, and when you are in peace or in happiness, true happiness, then you are already in your self. There is no discipline there. But when that is not so, the mind will wag its tail all the time. Then, discipline is essential to calm it down so that it can come back to it Self. The fruit of this is eventually very blissful and joyful.
A diabetic patient has a discipline not to eat sugar. Someone with cholesterol has to be disciplined and not to take too much fat. This is because, though fats are tasty, they will raise unpleasant complications later. There are three types of happiness - sattvic, tamasic and rajasic.
Sattvic, to begin with is not so enjoyable but it always leads to joy. The happiness which is felt after a certain discipline is really Sattvic happiness - a long lasting happiness. A happiness which is enjoyable to begin with and ends in misery is no happiness at all, so a discipline is necessary to have this authentic sattvic happiness.
Discipline is not torturing oneself unnecessarily. The purpose of discipline is to attain joy. Sometimes people impose disciplines on themselves which doesn't give any joy to them or anybody else at any time. This is Tamasic happiness. Tamasic happiness just appears to be but it is misery from the beginning to the end.
No discipline is necessary for tamasic happiness. Lack of discipline is tamasic happiness. Rajasic happiness appears very enjoyable in the beginning but ends up in misery and suffering. It's caused by following the wrong discipline. It may also arise from a lack of discipline. Discipline is essential for sattvic happiness.
To bear what is uncomfortable is discipline. It need not to be uncomfortable all the time. But if it's uncomfortable, you need discipline to be able to bear it and move through it. That's why Patanjali began with “now” - when things are not clear and when your heart is not in the right place.
Nobody has imposed the discipline of Yoga on you. They are self-imposed. What are the rules that you have imposed on yourself? When you wake up in the morning, you brush your teeth. You do it before going to bed, too. This is your discipline. But this has been imposed on you from childhood.
When you were a kid, your mother had imposed it on you. Once it became a habit and when you understood that it was good for you, it was no more your mother's rule. It became your rule. Keeping yourself clean and observing hygiene, exercising, meditating, being kind, considerate and not being rude.
You have imposed these rules on yourself to help maintain discipline. Now, what does that discipline do? Discipline unites your Self and unites all the loose ends of your existence.
Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji
PATANJALI YOGA SUTRAS
