Yogi at 65+ Years

Meditationtime Forum Post

Date:  Posted 5 years before Feb 26, 2018

MiBeloved 5 years ago

Breath infusion practice this morning was routine with Srila Yogeshwarananda on the astral side making a telepathic comment about old age. He said this:

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As the body gets older there is a reluctance to practice asanas and pranayama. This is because these two processes require great expenditure of energy. As the body goes older, there is a mood of inertia which prevails. If the yogi is affected by this, then his practice will diminish as the body ages.

In India when a known yogi reaches the stage of say about 65+, then people no longer expect that he has to do anything strenuous practice. The idea is that he is advanced enough to abandon the elementary practice. Subsequently many fake yogis pass themselves off as being in samadhi while in fact they did not properly progress through asana, pranayama and pratyahar. They are given the benefit of the doubt. Due to some remnant cheating mentality, they ride on a wave of people’s confidence in them as being Maharajas, Swamis, Dadas or old spiritual fathers. This is bad for a yogi if he or she falls under this scheme.

There are also the pretense gurus who pretend that they can give darshan like a deity, like a stone idol. Once the idol is installed with mantras, and becomes an established pilgrimage, then people come and take blessings. So some gurus act as if they are stone idols and give darshan. Some give touch or shaktipat which could be the touch of a finger or the glance from the eye.

Now if you are a student at 65+ then obviously you won’t pose as a guru and you will continue the strenuous practice, if your body can handle it. Remember that what happens to the body in any life is more or less dependent on what happened during your minor years when you were in the charge of parents or guardians. This means that what happens to your body is not only based on what you did with it but also on what your parents did with it. What was the diet of the parents? What was the medical situation? What was the training or lack of it?

Up to about say 16 years of age, the body was in the charge of the parents. That set up the conditions on which the body would perish in the end. If your body is in a good condition then you should continue the asanas, pranayama and pratyahar practice if you can.

This is the best course. Do not pretend that you are a guru or yoga teacher. Remain as a good student under the care of a real father guru who knows what you should do to attain spiritual perfection.

But suppose despite your willingness to be a student till the body dies, the body fails you and cannot do asana and pranayama, then what should you do?

Then you should do the best you can with whatever mastery you gained over the mind. Calm yourself down. Tell yourself that you are not a fit guru because you did not master the science of yoga sufficiently. Advise a few persons in those aspects which you did master. Keep a daily practice in so far as the body allows you. And pray for the best.

It is no fun sitting it out in an old body which is infirmed and diseased in some way, but what can you do? That was your luck. Sit it out anyway and do whatever little you can do. Let it sink into your mind that this material existence is unpredictable.