What Makes Yoga Special

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What Makes Yoga Special

Of all the things in the world, of all the things that a human being can do, why yoga? Everything that human beings can do is essentially an expression of who they are. Somebody sings a song, somebody dances, somebody writes a book, somebody paints a picture. Whatever else we do is an expression of who you are.

You may be conscious of it. You may be unconscious of it, but still everything that you say, everything that you do, everything that comes out of you is essentially an expression of who you are.

So, yoga in that way is diametrically opposite to this because it’s not an expression of who you are. It’s about determining as to who you are. It’s about determining as to what you want to be. Changing the very fundamentals of one’s existence.

Today, there is substantial medical and scientific evidence to show that the fundamentals of the activity of your brain, your chemistry, even your genetic content can be changed by practicing different systems of yoga.

This needed no confirmation we’ve always witnessed this, but today there is scientific data to prove this. So, this is not an expression of who you are. This is about determining the nature of who you wish to be. Changing the fundamental ingredients which has made you who you are.

Yoga, as a system, needs much more involvement than any of the things that one … Any other forms of things that we do, which are merely an expression of who we are. If you find full expression to any particular activity, it may also leave you somewhat transformed. If you cook with all your heart, sometimes transformation may happen. Yes, taking care of a cow can change your life, you know.

If you sing with all your heart, some transformation may happen. If you dance with all your heart, some transformation may happen, but that is only a certain impact that is happening because of absolute involvement in a particular activity, but essentially, that activity by nature is an expression of who you are. It is not determining the nature of who you are.

When we transform our activity, not as an expression of who we are, because who wants to find expression like this in the morning. Definitely not, isn’t it? It is not an expression. It is a method. It is a means. It is a technology through which you can change the shape of who you are. Literally, also. Otherwise, also.

You can change the very shape of who you really are right now. That can be transformed because who you are right now, as a person, is a combination of things. Genetic material. Before that, the karmic substance that you carry. Because of that, you chose a certain home so the genetic material and since the moment you were born, whatever kind of impressions that have gone into you in the form of variety of experiences, situations, thoughts, emotions, relationships, associations, whatever else you have embarked. All these things make you a certain kind of person.

When you say, “I’m a certain kind of person,” what you are saying is, “I have this kind of compulsions.” When you say, “I’m this kind of person,” what you are saying is, “This is the kind of compulsions that I identify myself with, so I am this kind of a person.”

People … I know it’s a very much Western thing, but it’s very much there in India today. You get a lot of Indians who are far more Western than West. You go all the way West, you come back to India, so they are much more Western than Westerners are today.

People say, “I’m a morning person. I’m an evening person.” What they mean is, “Morning, I cannot wake up in the morning. That means I’m an evening person. I can’t stay awake in the evening, so I’m a morning person.”

Not only that, people … It’s going far. I know some are Blackberry people, some are Apple people. The world is getting divided in so many ways. They’re not just instruments that you use and keep you down. You get identified with it.

So, there are Chipotle people, there are rice people, there are dozens people, there are Italy people. All kinds.

What kind you are is essentially a certain type of compulsions.