strategic yoga

Verse 3.40: The senses, the mind and the intelligence are the sitting places of this lust. Through them lust covers the real knowledge of the living entity and bewilders him.

Strategy and planning are essential ingredients to achieving success.

Whether your desire is to pass your physics final, travel around the world or become a great singer, everything requires planning and strategy. Today, we learn that the practice of yoga is no different.

In order to be successful yogis, we require a strategy..

One of the biggest obstacles to discovering who we really are is lust. That lust is what blinds many of us us from realizing that we are the recipients of great gifts and instead compels us to think that everything is ours. It promotes selfishness and pride and masks the mood of service and love which lies dormant within us.

It only makes sense that one who is truly seeking lasting happiness will want to understand who they really are. As we've mentioned before: if you don't know who you really are, then how will you know what will make you happy?

The Gita has already outlined that we are eternal souls, which means that only those things that are eternal will make us happy. It's not that temporary relationships, things and situations don't make us happy, it's just that they can't provide the two key elements that we are constantly looking for: eternal love.

Now, when we understand that lust is a covering that is preventing us from realizing our true selves, it only logical that the thoughtful yogi would want to know how to remove this impediment.

And that, my friends, is called strategic thinking. That's why today's verse of the Gita is so important. It is giving valuable information which we can add to our strategic plan of discovering who we are - where lust can be found.

Three places are specifically named:

1. Senses
2. Mind
3. Intelligence

Continuing along the lines of strategic yoga, it makes sense that instead of spending our resources trying to combat this lust in these places that we start where it can make the most difference. Previously, we learned that there is a hierarchy. The mind is the leader of the senses and the intelligence is what is supposed to control the mind.

By this token, if we can start to remove lust (or the tendency of trying to enjoy the property of the Supreme instead of engaging in a relationship with the Supreme) from the intelligence, then naturally the mind and senses can start to become free from it as well.

So then how does one go about clearing lust from these different places? Join us tomorrow to find out!