How to deal with temptations?
“You grow in your own eyes when you choose the ‘right’ over everything else.”
In fact, yesterday I was telling her, how I got up in the morning and everything in me told me that today your back is very stiff, today you should not take a risk with your back, so you skip yoga today. Don’t do yoga. Everything in me convinced me about the entire thing and I was also absolutely convinced. And after five minutes, I said, “Aren’t you ashamed?” How much you talk about growth & development… tomorrow you’ll go sit and do all these things and now your body is saying, “No way!” So, I rolled the yoga mat, kept the cushion.
First two practices… after two practices, I was absolutely convinced my back is very tight and today I should not do anything. In fact, the problem is, Deepak, yoga mat is here, bed is here. Okay… Yoga mat is 4 mm, bed is 6 inches. And in yoga, last is Savasana, on the bed from the beginning it is Savasana. So, it was not difficult for logic to tell me, I think you should rest today, so much has to be done. Right now, you should not take any chance with the body and all. Religiously I rolled the yoga mat, took the cushion, went & kept it inside, came, lay down on the bed, covered myself with the blanket.
Adjusted AC to 18 degrees. Kept the fan at 5. Some of you will say it should not work together. For me, everything in life is This and That. And I also took my favourite position to lie down. And still one voice inside said, “Aren’t you ashamed?” Just your body has decided you will not do yoga today and you have decided not to do it? I threw my blanket aside and went back. I again rolled the yoga mat, again got the cushion back, again started. Halfway through the asana, the way I looked at myself changed. The higher won over the lower.
Every moment, Deepak, there are easy alternatives, wrong alternatives, tempting alternatives, desiring alternatives, other alternatives, every moment in life, and amongst all that is available, there’s one right choice. And the way you grow in your eyes, every time you choose ‘right’ over all the other options available, forget about scripture, hell, heaven, karma, everything else, the way you grow in your own eyes when you know, amongst all the choices you had, you chose ‘right’ over everything else. You know, in all these instances, the higher in you is prevailing over the lower in you. You grow in your own eyes. What yoga did to me is nothing in that moment.
What the decision not to yield to the pleading of the lower and still sticking to… that moment when I threw the blanket and got up…that moment of arrogance is worth a lifetime. And we all go through this every moment. Simply decide not to have coffee from today for one week, not lifetime and all. Three days later, you’ll feel today only you’ll die. Four days later, it’ll learn to live without a coffee. You drink coffee again. Immediately if I teach this people say, “I decided from now onwards I’ll never have…” For what? One week, small, small things. Just to establish mastery over the body. Just to establish mastery over the body.
