Talks at Yoga Centre Toronto in 1979
This talk, delivered to and for an invited audience of Canadian yoga teachers was organized by Yoga Centre Toronto in 1979. Sadly, the video tape of the first day didn’t survive forty years of storage, and was unable to be saved for posterity. Happily, however, we do have the second day of this event, session two being presented here in the two parts listed below. It is one of the few video recordings of Swami Venkatesananda that remain from 1970s.
Yoga Centre Toronto Part 1
So today we shall briefly look into what the spirit of yoga is, and how with it, life becomes richer and all of our spiritual practices become truly spiritual. And how, if the spirit of yoga prevails in our heart, we become naturally good. Holiness is not something which we can talk about, read about and then apply like lipstick. It is not cosmetic discipline. Beauty must grow from within, virtue must grow from within, love must grow from within. These are not things which can be acquired and applied. It is the spirit of yoga that enables all these to manifest. What is that spirit of yoga?
The spirit of yoga can very simply and briefly be put: discovery of truth. (…) When I say I love God in all, in the form of Krishna, Jesus, Christ or Buddha or whoever it is, that it’s God who my love, that it’s God whom I love and all of you, do I know it’s the truth or am I assuming something in bluffing you. That’s the question!
That question is answered when the spirit of yoga manifests in our hearts. Yoga is discovery of truth. When this truth is not discovered, or to use the usual expression, when this truth is not realized, a concept arises in its place, an assumption arises in its place. When I do not know who I am, what I am, I assume I am so-and-so. When I do not know who you are, I assume you are so-and-so. Hmm? I assume I am so and so. I assume you are so-and-so.
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Please do not treat this as an intellectual game! One day or the other, you must experience or know this; not think that these are concepts, but know that these are concepts!
Yoga Centre Toronto Part 2
The practice of yoga, the practice of meditation, leads to the blazing of this insight or inner light. Only if this is so is it possible for one to be established and self-knowledge. (…) “Is it possible that I think I am meditating, that I think I am enlightened.” Of course it is possible as long as we only think we are meditating, that we only think we are enlightened. But if this insight or inner light is blazing all the time, that will prevent the shadow of concept from arising.
If all this is treated as some kind of intellectual game, it is possible to construct more concepts, build the concept known “enlightenment” and console oneself by saying “I am enlightened.” But if this wisdom has really and truly been kindled within, if this insight is unveiled within oneself through the practice of yoga, that trouble is avoided. That insight clearly reveals … the truth. And if the truth is that there is no self-knowledge, there is no justification for pretending to have had self-knowledge. There is no sense in it!
I, the ego, may not know when there is enlightenment, but the ego does know when there is non-enlightenment, when there is ignorance. Certainly there is confusion, terrible confusion. There is inner conflict. There is doubt. And, there is disharmony within oneself. All these indicate the existence of the self. And there is lack of self-control, lust, anger, greed, vanity, jealousy, all the rest of it. All these indicate that the self is very much alive, and at work. And if the self is at work, surely ignorance reigns supreme, and there is no self-knowledge.