Patanjali’s way of life for Self-discipline

• By- Shivani Batra
• Uncategorized

Discipline is a fundamental tenet of human life. Our ancient Yogis knew this from the very beginning. When we go through our ancient texts, we find different ways of attaining discipline which are still applicable to our modern lifestyle. Sage Patanjali, who is known as the “Father of Yoga” gave 5 principles for self-discipline:-

1. The first kind of discipline that is Cleanliness; it should be of our mind, body and soul. Every one of us takes a bath everyday for purification of our physical bodies. But do we take a pause and about our our mind and soul? Don’t you think they need cleaning too?
Imagine a car which you clean daily from outside, and never clean it’s interiors or never give it for servicing. What will happen to it? It will be damaged soon.Same way, along with our bodies, our mind and soul also need cleaning through various breathing practices or meditation techniques.

2. The second discipline is Contentment; which simply means be to satisfied with whatever you have. But does that mean we should stop working to improve ourselves? Obviously not. We should keep improving ourselves and carry out our actions but should not be affected by the result and be satisfied with our self and when we attain such a mindset ultimate happiness is achieved. Even the Bhagwat Gita preaches “actions without attachment”.

3. The third discipline is Austerity. In the name of austerities many people start torturing themselves. Eating no food at all, standing in cold water for days, No sleep for months etc. This is not Tapas but torturing the physical body. We should make our bodies conducive for Tapas slowly like maybe we can do fruit fasting for a day or so. This will lead to burning of our physical, mental and emotional impurities.

4. The next discipline is Swadhaya that is Study of Self; to know yourself. We should try to understand ourselves, our behaviour, recognizing our habits and thought processes; slowly we come to know how far we are from understanding ourselves. And when we keep doing this, we start to come closer to our inner Self.

5. The Last stage of self-discipline as per Patanjali is Surrender to God. Whatever we think, speak, drink, eat or do we should surrender that unto the Supreme. It helps us to redirect our energies from the selfish desires, we learn to surrender to some higher power and dissolve our mental agitations.

So, these various stages of Self-Discipline help to improve our lives physically, mentally and emotionally. These principles are not only valid for the yogis but also for the modern man, in every field or aspect of lives, be it business, teaching, student life, science, engineering, medicine and more. It depends on the individual how well one can implement these yogic principles to create miracles in one’s life.