Leading Light | Can Yoga Cleanse Your Mind? | Lifestyle News

Last Updated:June 20, 2025, 09:37 IST

Yoga is more than asanas—it’s the science of consciousness. Sage Maharishi Patanjali has offered four timeless attitudes to cleanse the mind and stay centered in a chaotic world.

There is no greater enemy or friend than our own mind. If you can win over your mind, you can win over the whole world! But neither in school nor at home are we taught how to control our mind or emotions.

Sage Maharishi Patanjali, one of the most exceptional minds, a prolific scientist and seer, gave us formulas to understand different aspects of our consciousness, in the form of the ‘Patanjali Yoga Sutras’. Even though shared thousands of years ago, this wisdom is still relevant today.

Unfortunately, over time, the word ‘yoga’ became synonymous with asanas. Asanas are actually a very minuscule part of yoga. The major portion is about the Self, about the consciousness. It is a highly intellectual exercise and you have to be really sharp and alert to pick up the finer points. That is why I call yoga ‘The Science of Consciousness’.

Patanjali knew the human mind very well. And he knew all the crooks and bumps in it. He knew that it could not have the same feeling towards everybody all the time. Knowing this, how can you keep the pleasantness of the mind? It is not that there are only good and happy people in society, but all kinds. There is misery in the world, there is joy, there are both good and bad things in the world. How do you deal with all of them? What is the attitude you should have? Here, Maharsi Patañjali gives a great formula:

maitri-karuna-mudita-upeksanam-sukha-duhkha-punya-apunya-visayanăm bhavanatah-citta-prasadanam. For your consciousness to be pleasant, to be in a state of equanimity, what do you need? You need to have four kinds of attitude.

Be Friendly with Happy People

Patanjali said to have an attitude of friendliness with all those who are happy. If you do not, you will be jealous. But if you feel that you own them and that they belong to you, it does not bother you when they are very happy. You are never jealous about the happiness of someone very close and dear to you.

Be Compassionate Towards Unhappy People

Have sympathy and compassion for people who are suffering. But do not be friendly with them because this friendship will drag you down and make you unhappy, too. When you agree with them that they are suffering, you push them lower down. Actually, you should be trying to pull them out of the rut they have pushed themselves into. Instead, you do the opposite and you do it unconsciously.

You should not pity people who are suffering. There is a big difference between pity and compassion. When you pity a person, you push him further down. With pity, you make the belief of the suffering person, about his sorrow, more concrete. If someone thinks that a great injustice has been done to them and they are on a self-pitying trip, you are not helping them in any way if you pity them too. You will not help them in any way to wake up to the truth. You should have compassion and not friendliness, for people who are suffering.

Be Happy for Successful People

Feel happy for those doing good work. We should become one with them; feel that we are doing the good job with them. Then, the sense of competition disappears and jealousy subsides.

The people who complain, normally, would not have done much themselves. Criticism comes from people who do not work. So, we should feel that those who are doing something good are a part of us, and that we are doing a good job along with them. Share the happiness, feel happy.

Remain Indifferent to Those Committing Sins

Just ignore those people who are committing sins. If somebody says something which is not true, just brush it off. It is not even worth thinking about. But we do the reverse. We do not think of people who are doing meritorious work. But we keep on thinking about people who are doing sinful things.

So, when you see people doing sinful things, you should educate them and then ignore them. You educate out of compassion and then ignore. Otherwise, you will think about their actions and get bothered. You may think they’re imperfect. If you go on thinking so, you will become imperfect. Then, you will become like them, maybe even worse.

Secondly, you think that the other person is wrong and you are right. If you look honestly at yourself, you will realise that you may be wrong too. If you point an accusing finger at somebody, then there are three fingers always pointing at you. But if you stop differentiating between yourself and others, then you can just turn inward.

If you keep these four attitudes in your mind, your mind will blossom. Grace will dawn in the mind.

The author is a humanitarian leader, spiritual teacher and an ambassador of peace. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.

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