When the word Yoga comes many people imagine a person doing some complicated posture on a Yoga Mat and belive success in Yoga means ability to do a complicated posture and while doing a complicated posture is not an ordinray task and it does involve lot of practice on the part of the individual to train himself / herself to do that complicated posture but that alone will not qualify for the full success as a Yoga Practitioner .That can be considered as success of Yoga on the Mat but what about that person managing himself along with others outside the Yoga Mat ? Does he /she radiate the qualities as mentioned in Patanjali Yoga Sutras when it comes to their behavior outside the Yoga Mat ? This is where the big challenge comes and this is where real Yoga lies .I was motivated to write about this article when a relative of mine went to meet a very prominent Yoga Teacher for a personal consultation and that teacher no doubt had very great credentials and has been involved in a very rigorous training from a prominent Yoga School and also been Certified as a Teacher . My relative was highly put off by the behavior of this Yoga Teacher and she felt that the Teacher's attitude right from the start was very negative , cold and indifferent . She said while one can appreciate a Professional's strictness towards their job but one must have some basic decency when it comes to dealing with people for the first time and she also said that this was not the first time she faced such a situation and she has faced a similar situation from a couple of other Highlly qualified Yoga Teachers and she asked me why do they behave that way .I told her that I cannot give a direct answer as I have never personally met those people and so cant judge their behavior based on his experience but can understand her frustration as why people who are highly qualified as Yoga Teachers behave so rudely and sometimes even unethically . This blog attempts to answer that question .
According to me Success in Yoga = Success in Yoga on the Mat + Success in Yoga off the Mat .
While getting success in Yoga on the Mat is itself a difficult task as one needs to spend many years in perfecting that art and Science of Yoga both as a practitioner as well as a teacher but the problem is that most people feel that success in Yoga on the Mat will automatically bring success Yoga off the Mat . It is not always so . It may bring in success or partial success or no success at all and in worst case it may make a person also a very negative person as success in Yoga on the Mat can make a person loose his humility and can bring in the worst form of qualities in him / her ( The last 5 years have seen the fall of many prominent Yoga Teachers and Spiritual Teachers both in India and Abroad ) . Sucess in Yoga on the Mat though difficult is quite a predictable journey as it can be studied in a predictable way and also demonstrated / evaluated in a predictable way but success outside the Yoga Mat is not like that . Its journey can never be predicted , nor evaluated properly . It demands lot of honest inner reflection and inner work and most people are unwilling to put that sort of effort due to their over enthusiasm in establishing themseleves as successful Yoga teachers once they finish their Certification . They just stick to legal correctness and remain silent with regard to Moral correctness . Nobody can be expected to be 100% Morally Correct in today's intense competitive world but there must definitely be some effort to increase one's ethical /moral percentage slowly and steadily especially when it comes to the role of a Teacher and that too as a Yoga Teacher / Spiritual Teacher and that is what Success outside the Yoga Mat comes . Unfortunately that is a less talked subject in many Yoga Schools leave alone being taught except for mentioning the word Yamas and Niyamas when it comes to talking about the Moral aspects of Yoga.and one of the books that deal heavily on this topic is the book "Bringing Yoga To Life - The Every day Practice of Enlightened Living " by Donna Farhi is one of the best books dealing on this topic and I have also kept the title of this blog based on the title of this book and in the absence of this aspect of Yoga being talked about in the Yoga Centres or Yoga Schools , I feel the few who are interested in developing success in both aspects of Yoga ( i.e Yoga on the Mat as well as Off the Mat ) must take it upon themselves to nurture he qualities needed for success in Yoga outside the Mat and one of the main aim of this blog is to focus more on developing success outside the Yoga Mat ( along with success on the mat ) as I feel that is where the real hard work lies and that is where the real sadhana lies and that is also the area that is least talked about I being myself a traveller on this path and will keep sharing my insights on this topic at regular intervals. Before I counclude I wish to say that next time when you meet a Highly Qualified Yoga / Spiritual Teacher ( for training or consultation ) behaving rudely or unethically , do not be surprised .They are qualified only to teach Yoga on the Mat but have a long way to go in qualifying themselves in matters related to Yoga off the Mat and so just appreciate / pay them them for what they are qualified for and use other sources to enrich yourself in matters related to matters outside the Yoga Mat .
