We all have seen so many posts and pictures of people practicing yoga asanas, such beautiful
and intimidating postures that make you want to try the pose, and at the same time make you
wonder if you’re as fit or as dedicated as them to be able to do those postures.
It’s true that yoga requires consistency, perseverance, discipline, and hard work. But what is the
main thing that is a prerequisite for yoga and is non-negotiable? What has to be there in the
yoga practitioner, practicing any type or form of yoga, that truly makes them a yoga practitioner
in the real sense?
After reading multiple texts on yoga, seeing different traditions of yoga from different places, and
through my personal experience, one common thing that I observed was INTEGRITY. Yes,
being a good person is required for being a yogi or yogini.
If you see the major text on yoga, the Patanjali Yoga Sutras, it gives the 8 limbs of yoga, the
eightfold path of Raja Yoga. Out of these 8, the first 2 limbs are about the moral values needed
for a yoga practitioner to move to the next limbs and to deepen the practice. Even in the
Bhagavad Gita, there is a concept of the threefold nature of human beings, Sattva, Rajas, and
Tamas, that is the good, the mixed, and the dark respectively.
The Importance of Increasing Sattva Guna in Yoga
And to practice and do well in yoga, one needs to increase Sattva, the good guna of nature, by
eating healthy, fresh food, praying, being a righteous person, and practicing things daily without
expecting a reward.
So why is being a good person important? Why increase the Sattva guna?
If you observe nature, there are invisible laws that everything seems to follow. One species
contributes to the growth of others, like butterflies and bees helping in pollination. This part of
nature feels like Sattva. Then there is a part of nature where the big species eat the smaller
ones. There is a food chain that seems like nature has no moral compass, like the lion eating a
deer or a big fish eating a small fish. This part is Rajas, the materialistic or action-driven side of
nature. And at last, there is the dark side of nature, the unknown, the fierce, or the catastrophic
side of nature, which reflects Tamas.
And just like that, we are also nature.
According to the philosophy of yoga, we are a product of Prakriti, nature, and Purusha,
consciousness or soul. Now we know that nature has all three gunas, Sattva, Rajas, and
Tamas. Therefore, nobody is 100 percent good, mixed, or bad. We are all a combination. That
is why there is a need to consciously increase Sattva.
Because the extent differs for each being, but we all are a mixture of the good and the bad, and
mostly materialistic. But the question still remains, why is Sattva so important?
How Yoga Amplifies Your Dominant Guna
There are many reasons for that, but the most important one is that yoga amplifies the guna that
is predominant.
So if you’re Rajasic, meaning anxious, competitive, or action-driven, you will be automatically
drawn to asanas and the physical part of yoga. And that will amplify and keep you thinking that
asanas alone are enough. But it never gives you that balanced state of mind needed to deepen
the practice and upgrade to the next levels of yoga.
Only when the Sattva guna is amplified can a yogi truly transcend into deeper levels of yoga.
Then one can truly experience meditation, balance of mind, and increased awareness. When
Sattva is amplified, one can also use their energy and practice for the welfare of society, by
teaching their practice or simply spreading Sattva in nature through their presence and actions.
Yoga, Siddhis, and the Need for Integrity
Another important reason is powers. Yoga tends to give us certain powers, at least theoretically.
As we go deeper into practice, we may acquire certain abilities that can impact our
surroundings.
Some stories of great practitioners in the past have shown that these powers made some of
them arrogant, and they started practicing these powers instead of yoga itself. Their Rajas and
Tamas took over and caused great destruction.
One such practitioner was Ravana from the epic Ramayana. His arrogance led to a lot of
destruction. Here, the important message is that when we increase Sattva, it becomes easier to
detach from the powers and continue going deeper in yoga, ultimately leading to Samadhi, the
final state.
So now it makes a lot of sense why the major texts on yoga highlight moral values and integrity
in individuals as a prerequisite to practice yoga.
It’s amazing 🩷