Book recommendation: Light on Life

This is meant to be a book on yoga, but it might as well be a book on life itself.  Rather, it is about the way one should live life from the yogic viewpoint.  Iyengar, with commendable help from his western friends, Evans and Abrams, draws from his immense reserve of yogic sadhana (disciplined practice) to help us understand the real purpose of doing yoga.  

But first, a little bit about yoga, as I see it.  I undertook yoga classes after a health scare about six years ago.  I have been practising it everyday ever since, and so far, I have been able to maintain my health, weight and fitness.  I also advise patients to do yoga regularly, apart from taking the regular treatment advised by me or other medical practitioners.  

I have written about the misconceptions surrounding yoga, and the health-based research done on yoga in another post.  But even these scientific studies only scratch at the surface.  They tend to focus on yoga's usage as a physical exercise at the superficial level, and as a mind calming exercise at a deeper level.  

In this book, Iyengar shows that it is much more than that.  Physical and mental health benefits are just byproducts of the actual purpose of yoga: spiritual progress.  I see yoga more as a preventive practice than a curative intervention; a Positive Medicine and/or a Positive Psychiatry practice that works at the spiritual level by achieving a balance between body, mind and spirit. 

Essentially, yoga is a Hindu spiritual practice, the theory and practical steps of which was compiled by Patanjali in his Yoga Sutras (Aphorisms of Yoga) several centuries ago.  But the practice itself is said to have originated by the Adi Yogi (The First Yogi - Lord Shiva), and its import and subtypes are fully explained in the Bhagavad Gita.  It is a way to your - and our - Inner Self itself.  It is, among several other spiritual means of reaching the Indivisible One, a simple, practical and accessible method of reaching Kaivalya - the ultimate goal of emancipation. 

For ease of understanding, Iyengar divides the book into chapters corresponding to the five sheaths of being: the annamaya kosa (physical body), pranamaya kosa (breath/vital energy), manomaya kosa (mind), vijnanamaya kosa (intellect) and anandamaya kosa (bliss).  As one can glean from this, it progresses from the gross to the subtle; from the body to the soul, with the mind and intellect in between.  

He enlightens us on Patanjali's eight constituent limbs of the ashtanga yoga: yama (ethical disciplines - not to be confused with the Lord of Death), niyama (internal ethical observances), asana (bodily yogic postures), pranayama (breathing techniques), pratyahara (sensory control and withdrawal), dharana (concentration), dhyana (meditation) and samadhi (blissful union), in that order.  

Of these, yama comprises of ahimsa (non-violence), satya (truth), brahmacharya (controlling senses and celibacy), asteya (non-stealing) and aparigraha (non-covetousness).  Niyama is further divided into soucha (cleanliness), santosha (contentment), tapas (austerity/heat), swadhyaya (self-study) and ishvara pranidhana (devotional surrender to God).  

Iyengar says he is a hatha yogi (ha = sun, tha = moon); the sun referring to the soul that one aspires to find on the yogic journey.  He was also a guru to many (gu = darkness, ru = light); a person who leads from darkness to light.  He also was a married man, which he reiterates throughout the book to drive home the point that one does not have to become a sanyasin (mendicant/celibate) to become a yogi.  Further, as Iyengar points out, you do not need to be religious, or even a Hindu, to start practising yoga, which is a truly universal spiritual practice.   

There is a beautiful metaphor of the river in the book to highlight the meaning of the four purusarthas (objectives of human life): dharma (rightful duty) and moksa (ultimate emancipation, or as Iyengar puts it, freedom from desires) that form the two banks of the river.  The flow of the river is formed by the other two purusarthas; artha (money/work) and kama (love/sensuous pleasure).  Iyengar points out that artha, which may lead one to greed, and kama, which may lead one to lust, should never overflow the two banks.  Lyrical, and illustrates the point brilliantly.

My only critique of the book is to do with the fact that sometimes the reading can be dry and esoteric.  You do need a lot of dharana to read and understand the concepts of yogic practice.  Illustrations are confined to the last pages, and comprise of yogic postures to relieve mental agony.  More anecdotes from Iyengar's rich life, more stories, and more examples of students benefiting from the practice  of yoga might have enlivened the narrative.  

Nevertheless, if you can put yourself through the tapas of reading the book itself, you will reach the goal of realising the true potential of yoga, which can then be used to redirect your yogic practice more meaningfully.

Highly recommended reading for yoga teachers, aspirants, yogis, non-yogis and human beings in general.     

Image source: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51OjhK3g5LL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg
Referenes: http://yoga108.org/pages/show/57-ashtanga-yoga-8-limbs