The Niyamas (Systemised Daily Routine)

Divine Life Society Publication: True Spiritual Living by Sri Swami Krishnananda

The niyamas mentioned by Patanjali are, generally speaking, the necessary disciplines of body, speech and mind. We are averse to discipline because we have been brought up in an atmosphere of enjoyment of the senses and too much social contact. This is how we have been brought up by our parents, by our teachers, by our friends; and this education, this culture, this civilisation, which has gone into our blood, makes it impossible for us to follow any system or any kind of discipline. It is, therefore, necessary to awaken ourselves into the seriousness of the matter. We should forget the past as it is never too late to mend, and earnestly take to this practice.

Purity of body, speech and mind is emphasised by Patanjali, which he refers to in a single word, saucha, which includes pure thoughts, pure words, pure diet, pure physical contact, and pure sensory activity. We should not see anything that is disturbing, we should not hear anything that is disturbing, and so on. Nothing that is going to defeat our purpose should become the object of the senses, the body should not come in contact with things which are going to stir up passions within us, and we should not speak what is not going to affect either ourselves or others in a positive manner; and the mind, of course, the supreme factor of all, is to be kept in perfect control. The Bhagavadgita gives a beautiful description of this discipline, called manasika, vachika and kayika tapas, which will bring us the needed satisfaction, contentment, santosha, without which tapas, or austerity, is not possible—all which are brought together in what is called kriya yoga. Kriya yoga, according to Patanjali, is this combination of some of the principles of the niyamas.

To make it possible and easy for us, the system also prescribes certain advantageous practices such as the study of holy scriptures, and a perpetual remembrance of the presence of God. The practice of the presence of God is ultimately the key to success. Sā hānistanmahacchidra sā cāndhajaḍamūḍhatā, yanmuhūrtaṁ kṣaṇaṁ vāpi vāsudevaṁ na cintayet. (Pandava Gita 70) says the Pandava Gita, which means that all sorrows befall us, calamities come upon us, everything becomes difficult and the entire horizon looks dark before us as if there is no hope at all, the moment we forget the existence of God. One of the main teachings of the Sufi school of mysticism is that what we call samsara, or the life of earthly bondage, is not merely the world that we see outside. Samsara is not merely this world in which we are living, samsara is a name given to the forgetfulness of God. The moment we forget the existence of God, we are in samsara. Merely because we are living in a world of trees and mountains, it does not mean that we are in samsara. Samsara is an entanglement of consciousness, and it is not merely the physical location of our body in the astronomical wonder of this world.

In his Yoga Sutras, Patanjali regards saucha, santosha, tapas, svadhyaya, and Ishvara pranidhana, as he calls it, as a combined necessity to bring about an order in our life. This can be applied with the necessary intensity, each one for oneself, according to one’s own conditions of living, strength of mind, and so on. But what it finally means in essence is that there should be a stipulated method of thinking, speaking and acting. We must know what we will do at what time, and then we will see that success is not far off even in the ordinary life of this world, not merely in the spiritual field, because method or system is the way by which we focus our energies, and wherever there is a focusing of energy, there is strength—just as a focused beam of the sun’s rays can burn things, while the sun’s dissipated rays cannot.

It is, therefore, necessary to have a systematised daily routine. We must know when we will get up in the morning, what we will do after getting up, whom we will see, how much work we will do and in what manner, at what time—including even such minute details as bathing, walking, meals, the time of going to sleep, what we do before going to sleep, what should be around us and what should not be there. All this should be at our fingertips. This is method, this is system, this is niyama; and when this system is introduced into our life, we become ready for the higher practice. Each succeeding step becomes easy of approach and practice when the preceding step is firmly placed.

Again, we are to remember that we should not take an advanced step unless the earlier step is well placed. Hurry and too much enthusiasm are not called for. What is required is a pure, dispassionate understanding of our strengths as well as our weaknesses. Whatever our weaknesses are, they must be overcome by the strengths that we have. One has to be very dispassionate about this because we are going to open our hearts before the Truth of all truths—the Great Reality before us—and nothing can be hidden from its eyes.

Excerpts from

The Niyamas (Systemised Daily Routine) - True Spiritual Living by Sri Swami Krishnananda