VoyForums
[ Show ]
Support VoyForums
[ Shrink ]
VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: [1], 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 10:09:18 01/28/06 Sat
Author: ketch - 5 Dec 2005
Subject: Re: Yama/Niyama - The Hardest Part of Yoga
In reply to: dr - 5 Dec 2005 's message, "Re: Yama/Niyama - The Hardest Part of Yoga" on 10:08:05 01/28/06 Sat


Dr, firstly I have visited "yogani's" website and looked at the forums there. Nothing in them changes my opinion.

"Let's be specific - i'm not advocating laziness where the moral precepts are concerned but it is worth bearing in mind that Patanjali's 8 fold path is not really a systematic procedure from 1 - 8, it is much more ALL of the steps together at once."


In my opinion that statement is wrong. The higher stages rely on the lower ones. They must be mastered in the correct order to be effective. If I am wrong about this then please tell us all how we can practice samadhi directly without the need for years of meditation and sadhana?

I am not saying that yama/niyama has to be perfected before we move on. That is probably impossible, but we have to have made significant progress. Pranayama simply will not work without the correct foundation. It will not be effective.

"Perhaps you want to elucidate why initiation and having a guru are seemingly all-important requisites for liberation?"


I do not believe I said that about formal initiation. What I said was that many of the "initiations" being given are completely worthless.

On the need for a guru it is the teaching of all true yogi's. Even Ramana Maharishi who had no living guru himself was insistent upon this. In the ultimate sense the guru is within. That may be true, however, very few are actually able to receive guidance from the divine directly. The need for external guidance exists. Perhaps a very few such as Lord Buddha can attain the highest achievements without a guru, but they are rare exceptions.

Furthermore the true guru must be able to help the disciple at all stages of the path, not just in passing on a few meditation techniques. In this regard consider the way that Lahiri Mahasaya was able to help his great disciple Swami Pranabanada to the final experience which had eluded him despite years of practice. Do you think some of the self appointed kriya "guru's" teaching today could do that?

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]
[ Contact Forum Admin ]

Forum timezone: GMT-8
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.