The second step is niyam, fixed observance: a life which has discipline, a life which has a regularity about it, a life which is lived in a very disciplined way, not hectic. Regularity…but that too will sound to you like slavery.
All the beautiful words of Patanjali’s time have become ugly now. But I tell you, unless you have a regularity in your life, a discipline, you will be a slave of your instincts. You may think this is freedom, but you will be a slave of all the vagrant thoughts. That is not freedom. You may not have any visible master, but you will have many invisible masters within you; and they will go on dominating you.
Only a man who has a regularity about him can become the master some day.
That too is far away still, because the real master happens only when the eighth step is achieved; that is the goal. Then a man becomes a jina, a conqueror. Then a man becomes a buddha, one who is awakened. Then a man becomes a christ, a savior, because if you are saved, suddenly, you become a savior for others. Not that you try to save them: just your presence is a saving influence. The second is niyam, fixed observance.
The third is posture. And every step comes out of the first, the preceding one: when you have regularity in life, only then can you attain posture, asan.
Try asan sometimes; just try to sit silently. You cannot sit – the body tries to revolt against you. Suddenly you start feeling pain here and there. The legs are going dead. Suddenly you feel, on many spots of the body, a restlessness. You had never felt it. Why is it that just sitting silently so many problems arise? You feel ants are crawling up. Look, and you will see there are no ants; the body is deceiving you. The body is not ready to be disciplined. The body is spoiled. The body does not want to listen to you; it has become its own master and you have always followed it. Now, even to sit silently for a few minutes has become almost impossible.
People pass through such hell if you tell them to just sit silently. If I say this to somebody he says, “Just to sit silently, not doing anything?” – as if “doing” is an obsession. He says, “At least give me a mantra so I can go on chanting inside.” He needs some occupation. Just sitting silently seems to be difficult. And that is the most beautiful possibility that can happen to a man: just sitting silently doing nothing.
Asan means a relaxed posture. You are so relaxed in it, you are so restful in it, that there is no need to move the body at all. In that moment, suddenly, you transcend your body.
The body is trying to bring you down when the body says, “Now look, many ants are crawling on you,” or you suddenly feel an urge to scratch, to itch. The body is saying, “Don’t go so far away. Come back. Where are you going?” – because the consciousness is moving upwards, going far away from the bodily existence. The body starts revolting. You have never done such a thing. The body creates problems for you because once the problem is there, you will have to come back. The body is asking for your attention: “Give me your attention.” It will create pain. It will create itching; you will feel like scratching. Suddenly the body is no longer ordinary; the body is in revolt. It is body politics. You are being called back: “Don’t go so far away, be occupied. Remain here”; remain tethered to the body and to the earth. You are moving towards the sky, and the body feels afraid.
Asan comes only to a person who lives a life of restraint, fixed observance, regularity; then posture is possible. Then you can simply sit because the body knows that you are a disciplined man. If you want to sit, you will sit; nothing can be done against you. The body can go on saying things…by and by it stops. Nobody is there to listen. It is not suppression; you are not suppressing the body. On the contrary, the body is trying to suppress you. It is not suppression. You are not saying anything for the body to do; you are simply resting. But the body does not know any rest because you have never given rest to it. You have always been restless.
The very word asan means rest, to be in deep rest; and if you can do that, many things will become possible to you.
Tags: Asan Niyam Second Step Third Step
