Yama and Niyama Sadhana:

A Pathway to the Guru Within

by Pandit Tejomaya

 Establishing an intimate relationship with the Guru within is one of the greatest benefits of a life of Sadhana; with such a Divine Friend, a Sadhaka is truly never alone!  In the eight years I have lived as a Vanaprastha, off grid in the literal and figurative forest, far from the gross presence of Lineage, this sacred friend has become my steadfast companion, guide, teacher, corrections officer, comforter.  Not only do we sit together in the meditation hut each morning where I can formally offer my prayers and devotion, but we speak together throughout the day in the way that a parent and infant speak, with a knowing that is beyond words. 

 Guru is within each of us. This is the reality of our Lineage.  If that Truth seems illusive or mysterious, there are practices which can help us to illuminate this sacred relationship.  I would like to share a simple, yet transformative practice from my own sadhana which had the unanticipated effect of just such an illumination.

 I had long been fascinated by the first two limbs of Patanjali’s eight fold path, the Yamas and Niyamas, but I struggled to bring them meaningfully into my life.  I kept thinking I had to practice all ten topics simultaneously and proficiently, which was way too much for my untrained brain to process and in the overwhelmingness of it all, I did nothing.  Years later, I recall being on one of our retreats at St. Thomas University in Minnesota when “the practice” appeared in my mind with an imperative clarity.  The next day I began:

 Commit to twenty-one days without speaking anything negative.

With each mistake, return to day one

until I achieve twenty-one consecutive days.

 I don’t recall how many months it took for me to make it through twenty-one consecutive days, but the journey and the power of its lessons was the start of a seven year period of sadhana which not only transformed my outer and inner life, but Illuminated the Guru within in a way I had not known possible!  I had just committed to a simple, specific, subjectively measurable practice of Ahimsa at the level of speech.  To successfully attain twenty-one consecutive days, I had to align myself with the eternal witness, the Guru within, to observe every single word that came out of me and assess it. The many mistakes I made were only disappointing for a little while because I began to ask myself why and I quickly came to realize that I was being given the opportunity to experience the reality of my inner being; to experience the presence and relative strength of my personal kleshas, and to see, in real time, what had only been theory before which I’d read about in the Sutras.  I was thrilled!

 When I finally did reach my goal of twenty-one consecutive days, it felt like I had begun something important, so I decided to continue with Satya: twenty-one consecutive days without speaking anything that was untrue.  Same reliance on the Guru within to observe each word and assess it by this new criteria.  Loads of mistakes and real-time opportunity to observe inner causes arising from my kleshas.  Similar number of months to make twenty-one consecutive days.  Now I saw this would be part of my life for a while and choosing to remain at the level of speech, I made my way through each of the five Yamas, selecting a discipline that represented my understanding of each unique topic.  The benefits of the practice were amazing and mostly unexpected.  I had naively thought I knew quite a bit about the Yamas because I had read about them, but the practice brought each topic out of the book and into the realm of lived experience.

 Then came the Niyamas!  If the Yamas are a set of “Don’t Do’s”, the Niyamas are a set of “Do’s”.  I had spent many, many months engaged in a serious start at breaking habits or unlearning my unhelpful karmic patterns at the level of speech.  Now it was time to commit to learning new, helpful patterns, still at the level of speech.  Such a beautiful change!  It began with Saucha, twenty-one days of speaking only “pure” words.  One of the many unexpected benefits to this long practice was that I, with the support of the all-knowing Guru within, was the only judge and jury.  It was up to me to assess, in real time, what it meant for my words to be “pure” which sort of felt like being in a museum looking at a phenomenally beautiful piece of art and knowing it to be beautiful without knowing why.  Each of the Niyamas then took me to a slightly different aspect of these tremendously helpful karmic patterns.

 By the time I’d made it through all five Yamas and five Niyamas, I was a couple years into the practice, but far from finished.  I had come to begin to truly appreciate the brilliance and completeness of Patanjali’s system.  Yamas and Niyamas have a symbiotic yin/yang sort of relationship; one without the other is incomplete, but together they create the possibility for complete transformation of a whole person.

 Swami Rama had said many times in his writings that a Sadhaka must work at the levels of speech, action, and mind.  During this first period of my Yama/Niyama sadhana, I very consciously stayed at the level of speech.  Of course, the sadhana had an effect on my subtler layers as well, but I allowed myself to have a negative thought, etc., as long as it did not come out in words, since I had come to see that this first round would be a “warm up” for two that were to come.

 Following the years of discipline at the level of speech, I moved on to speech plus action: e.g. 21 days of no negative actions, etc., and 21 days of only pure actions, etc. The challenge of these years of the practice were definitely greater than those at the level of speech alone, but Guru had prepared me for the progression.  The insights were growing stronger and more directed.  For example, I had come to some level of understanding of my kleshas during the first round of Yama practices and wanted to do something about them in the second round.  The Yoga Sutras (especially Swami Veda’s commentary) provided great insights into the methods and means to attenuate the kleshas, so the years dedicated to this second round allowed me to not just observe, but to systematically seek to change my karmic makeup. 

 Finally, I did what felt like the ultimate round for my ability level at the time; speech plus action plus mind.  With so many years of preparation, it was wonderfully challenging but absolutely possible to complete twenty-one consecutive days without a negative thought, etc., and twenty-one days with only pure thoughts, etc.  Throughout this  final round, working at the level of mind, my connection to the Guru within felt constant and not just during the waking state; dream and sleep states were influenced by the sadhana as well.  Guru taught me to be aware of what could become a thought before a thought ever arose and trained me to have the strength to choose whether to give birth to the thought or not. These seven years, especially the final round, are among the most precious of my life.

 Did I “finish” the Yamas and Niyamas?  Absolutely not!  From my perspective, the need for these twins pillars of sadhana will remain until one reaches full Self Awareness.  But when a particular practice is finished, swaha, it is finished and time to allow Guru to open new doors of sadhana.

 For anyone wishing to illuminate the Guru within, the beautiful discipline of Yamas and Niyamas provides a proven framework for mindful living regardless of how one practices them.  Some practical thoughts on how and why to engage in such a practice:

-        The brilliance and effectiveness of Patanjali’s first two limbs, which uniquely offer a comprehensive means to break free of our unhelpful habits and fill ourselves with helpful habits, is, in my opinion, one of the greatest gifts of the Sutras.

-        Based on study of the relevant Sutras (especially from Swami Veda’s translation and its commentaries) select a discipline for each topic that is meaningful and personal to you.  When I began with not speaking anything negative, I was certainly aware that Ahimsa is a much larger topic than just that, but this allowed me a meaningful way to begin and allow my experiential understanding to expand.

-        Because each personally chosen discipline in these ten topics calls for you to observe and assess yourself, the entire practice is non-theoretical!  The profound implications of this still astound me.   No theories, only real-time experience of what the sages describe in the Sutras brought to life in the context of your life and the opportunity begin to stop what must be stopped and start what must be started. 

-        I selected to work in twenty-one day periods because there was anecdotal belief that it takes twenty-one days to change or create a habit.  This has been disproven in the psychological literature, but I found that twenty-one days was a “sweet spot”; short enough to keep my attention and motivation yet long enough to be meaningfully challenging. 

-        Progressively working at speech, then speech + action, then speech + action + mind was very helpful.  As with any discipline in life, it is important to start with the gross and create a firm foundation before moving to the subtle. 

-        Anticipating that I might “cheat” or give up, I chose to build two levels of accountability into the practice which were helpful at the time. (1) I created a Blog and wrote daily about the practice, all my failures and successes and insights.  (2) I trained myself to think that Swami Veda could call me at any time of day or night and I would be able to answer two questions without hesitation: What are you working on in this moment?  What are the results?  While I found this self-imposed accountability very helpful at that stage of my spiritual life, it must also be balanced with the spiritual philosophy of “na dādtavyam” or “do not share”. 

-        There were times when I had to adjust my chosen discipline on a given topic either because it was too easy or too hard.  Especially as the practice matures, you will find the right level of challenge for yourself! 

-        To be “successful” in the practice, you must illuminate the Guru within, meaning:

-        Allow the One who never sleeps to BE THE WITNESS of all that you speak, act, and think.

-        As you assess your words, actions, and thoughts, LISTEN carefully to the wordless voice of the Guru who always knows what is right. LISTEN so carefully and for such a long time that you can clearly distinguish Guru’s voice amongst the chatter of chitta.

-        Keeping Guru in mind at all times, ACT as you are informed through the real-time practice, reducing that which is unhelpful and increasing that which is helpful.

 May you find your own way to illuminate the hallmark of our lineage within yourself!  From your Sadhana, may the light of God and Guru shine through you in all of your words, your actions, and your thoughts!  And may your sincere, tireless efforts lead you to your Self!