Podcast details
The Four Principles
Teaching yoga is a profound act of selfless service. A teacher's effectiveness diminishes with self-interest, as they lose their essential quality and others' respect. The system's founders sought only human well-being, for human harmony dictates nature's harmony. The unguided human intellect is the planet's most dangerous force, easily educated toward saintliness or destruction, with all actions arising from the conditioned subconscious. The ṛṣis gave spiritual science freely, like God gave the elements. To help others, one must possess a divine conscience that quits self-interest. A teacher must first embody four principles: vairāgya (detachment and seeing equality), tyāga (renunciation of personal interest), dhyāna, and bhakti. Renunciation is the sole gate to the divine. A teacher represents complete wisdom but must first be a supatra, a worthy vessel, to receive and multiply the teaching. This role transcends physical instruction, requiring jñāna (wisdom utilized for oneself) to avoid being like an animal. Bhakti is feeling another's pain as your own. Realizing these four principles makes one a receptive vessel.
"Enter the kingdom of God through the gate of sacrifice."
"Renounce and enjoy."
Filming location: Strilky, Czech Republic
This text is transcribed and grammar corrected by AI. If in doubt what was actually said in the recording, use the transcript to double click the desired cue. This will position the recording in most cases just before the sentence is uttered.
The text contains hyperlinks in bold to three authoritative books on yoga, written by humans, to clarify the context of the lecture:
- Yoga in Daily Life - The System
Paramhans Swami Maheshwarananda. Ibera Verlag, Vienna, 2000. ISBN 978-3-85052-000-3 - The Hidden Power in Humans - Chakras and Kundalini
Paramhans Swami Maheshwarananda. Ibera Verlag, Vienna, 2004. ISBN 978-3-85052-197-0 - Lila Amrit - The Divine Life of Sri Mahaprabhuji
Paramhans Swami Madhavananda. Int. Sri Deep Madhavananda Ashram Fellowship, Vienna, 1998. ISBN 3-85052-104-4
