Yoga ~ Sincerity-of-Purpose

For those who are practicing yoga as it is defined in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, Sincerity-of-Purpose is important. It is the link between the possibility of failure and guaranteed success in the near future. It is important because a yogi is not always facilitated by providence, and must on occasion commit actions which contravene the objective in yoga.

Actions committed which dull his practice or which retard it, do not necessarily kill the progress of the yogi. If he or she has sincerity of purpose, then such actions will sabotage the practice in the near future but uplift the practice and aid it in the long term.

Sincerity of purpose shields a yogi who absorbs counterproductive influences in the short term. Such influences have impact, negative impact, and people notice this. The yogi himself feels this. And yet, because there is Sincerity-of-Purpose, that energy does not allow the short term damage to be a long term condition.

This subject came to fore in a psychic conversation with Yogeshwarananda. He noticed that my progress was steady despite the fact that I may on occasion be bogged down by influences which contravene yoga. When such influences are imposed by fate, then there is nothing a limited being, even a yogi can do to stop them. However if the yogi remains committed to the objective and true onto himself in the motivation for the execution of methods of yoga, the short term damage is superficial for him.

The yogi must however slip away from these influences as soon as he can, otherwise his sincerity of purpose will whittle away and his situation will be dire.

Yogeshwarananda said that it was wonderful how if a sincere yogi, even if he cannot go into isolation, will progress on a subtle level even if on another plane, he seems to have lost ground. Eventually he sheds the format he used on the level of his contravening actions. He slips over into the higher plane where such contamination is not current. This happens because of the energy of Sincerity-of-Purpose.

Wonderful is Sincerity-of-Purpose. A yogi should hang on to that for dear life.