If you want to experience real, life-changing results from your yoga practice, make self-realization your goal.
Self-realization isn’t just an abstract idea without any realistic value; it’s an intention that can produce a very practical benefit:
Equanimity: the ability to keep your balance in a chaotic world.
The basic principle of self-realization is knowing that we are not these temporary material bodies, that our true, eternal, and changeless nature is one of pure consciousness. Practicing yoga is a way of using our human bodies as a vehicle to realizing our true nature beyond the body.
Clearly, this material life is not eternal and we’re bound to experience a roller coaster of highs and lows. The perfection of yoga means attaining a state of equanimity throughout the highs and lows and, ultimately, arriving at the realization of our eternally blissful nature.
All traditional yoga systems have self-realization as their goal. Practicing yoga to stay fit and reduce stress is fine, but it’s not the ultimate goal of yoga. Any exercise program can help keep our bodies healthy and there are many ways to maintain our mental health.
The real goal of practicing yoga is to realize the true self within the body and the real benefit of self-realization is the ability to move through a chaotic world without being disturbed by it.
Does your yoga practice help you feel a sense of equanimity?