Simplify your life as you walk the path of Yoga

When a Yoga aspirant decides to live a life guided by Yogic principles, he often finds the task too difficult or tedious. Yogic texts keep advocating vairagya or detachment as the essential attribute to attain spiritual success and such a detachment sounds out of reach to most of the beginners. After trying the advice of Yogic texts for a while they feel frustrated because of their inability to follow the principles and they may be tempted to give up the path altogether. The root cause of this frustration is the wrong understanding and approach to detachment. People often fear detachment because it implies sacrificing luxuries and living a meager life and they are never used to it. Neither physically nor mentally.

First step towards detachment is - simple living. By simple living it is meant to get rid of things that are not absolutely essential for one's life. By eliminating clutter from your life you are essentially reducing your dependency on other things. You are learning to live a happy life with bare minimum necessities. You are learning to do things you love the most rather than weighing them in terms of money. Modern lifestyle, however luxurious it may sound at first look, adds to the complexity, stress and chaos of life. One desire fuels another and this cycle keeps on repeating endlessly. There is a story that summarizes this nicely. The story goes like this :

A Sadhu under the instructions of his Guru built for himself a small hut at a distance from the haunts of men. He began his practices in his hut. Now, every morning after taking the bath he would hang his wet cloth and kaupina (loin-cloth) on a tree close to the hut, to dry them. One day he found that the rats had cut holes in his loin-cloth. So the next day he was obliged to go to the near by village for a fresh one. A few days later, the same incidence happened. The sadhu thought - "Where shall I go again to beg for a cloth? Whom shall I ask for one?"

To escape from the trouble of rats he decided to keep a cat, thinking that it will keep away the rats. So he secured a kitten from the near by village and carried it to his hut. Soon his problem of rats was solved and he felt very happy.

The sadhu used to go to the village every day and beg for some milk for the kitten. One day no one gave him milk. He thought - "Who will give me milk now? I better keep a cow so that I need not beg for the milk everyday." So he now adopted a cow.

His problem of procuring milk was now solved. However, he needed to go to the village to get some straw for the cow. For the first few days the villagers happily gave him what he wanted. However, later they showed their inability to give him any straw for his cow. They suggested him to cultivate a small piece of land hear his hut so that he need not beg for the straw.

The Sadhu now started farming the land near his hut. Days passed by. He also engaged some laborers to help him. Gradually he also built barns to store his crop. Over a period of time he became a small landlord. At last he married with a girl from near by village so that he can look after his big household.

After many years, his Guru came to see him. Finding himself surrounded by goods and chattels he felt puzzled and asked a servant - "A sadhu used to live here in a hut; can you tell me where he is?" The servant didn't know the answer and pointed him to his landlord. The Guru entered the big house and to his surprise saw his disciple inside. the Guru said - "My son, what is all this? What happened to you?" The disciple, in great shame, felt at the feet of his Guru and said - "My Master, all for a single piece of loin-cloth!"

Simplicity means different to different people

While learning to simplify your life, you need to understand that simplicity means different to different people. For example, simplicity for a businessman who is accustomed to highly luxurious lifestyle will be different than that for a middle class man working as a clerk in some office. The bare minimum needs of a businessman will be quite different as compared to the clerk. Turing to simple living in no way means you take extremists approach. You first need to figure out what is "simple" in your current situation. Factors such as your work environment, social status, financial status, family background will influence your definition of simplicity. If you decide to adopt a simple lifestyle that is not suitable for your personality there will be a friction. Simplifying life is a gradual, step-by-step process. This way your body and mind won't revolt against your decision. Too much drastic change in your current lifestyle may have boomerang  effect.

Simplicity doesn't mean starving your personality of its necessities. A poor man who is unable to buy any luxuries of life but is craving for them is not living a simple life! At least not as per Yogic meaning of simplicity. Simplicity should become natural to its follower. Purpose of adopting simplicity is to enhance and enrich your life experience, to live a more happier and fulfilling life.

Decide your priorities

First step in simplifying your life is to decide your priorities. Life expects us to play many roles and every role has certain share of responsibilities. You need to clearly decide which role is more important to you than other roles. For example, if you are a working professional, father, husband and a Yoga practitioner, you need to decide which of these roles are more important to you than others. May be have a list of roles based on their priority and pay attention to the roles based on their weight in the list.

If you are not clear about your priorities in life, you will always  be in dilemma when it comes to sharing your time between your responsibilities. A common observation amongst novice Yoga aspirants is that they compromise on their practice time over other things of life when faced with scarcity of time. Such behavior indicates that other things of your life are more important to you than your Yoga practice. Once you decide that you wish to walk the path of Yoga, it should get the highest priority and importance in your life. Having clear idea about your highest priority will result in you paying more attention to it than other activities.  Time allotted to less important activities will automatically reduce.

Consider, as an example, the following set of activities :

• Work in office
• Sports
• General Reading
• Watching TV
• Yoga practice
• Spiritual reading
• Household work
• Meeting with friends and relatives

One possible prioritization for a novice Yoga practitioner can be this :

• Yoga practice
• Work in office
• Household work
• Spiritual reading
• Meeting with friends and relatives
• Sports
• General Reading
• Watching TV

Decide on your necessities

Based on your priority list, you need to arrive at the necessities of life. You should evaluate each necessity in three categories viz. absolutely necessary, nice to have, luxury. Absolute necessities are the things and activities without which you cannot live as per your definition of simplicity. Nice to have things and activities are such that their presence or absence does not acts as a hurdle in living a simple life. Luxurious things and activities are such that they are not at all needed for living a simple life but you are used to them because of past habits or just because you can afford them. 

To begin with, you should eliminate all the things and activities falling in the third category. Consider an example of a mobile phone. Suppose you wish to purchase a new mobile phone. As per your definition of simple life you need a mobile phone to make and receive calls and to occasionally send text messages. Further, suppose that you are earning a handsome pay package and can easily afford a costly mobile device. In this example the mobile phone can be classified as per the three categories mentioned above like this :

• A phone that can make and receive calls and text messages
• A phone with above features + MP3 player + Camera
• A phone with above features + 3G internet + foldable keyboard + touch screen + handwriting recognition + extra memory

Now, as per your requirement the first type of mobile equipment is all what you need and you should go for it. If you go for the second type of mobile device then you are crossing the boundaries of bare minimum and purchasing something that is nice to have but not absolutely necessary. If you go for the third type of gadget, you are purchasing a luxury. What is given above is just a simple example of an electronic gadget. You will find many such opportunities wherein you can trim down your necessities and opt for a simple alternative.

Another important aspect is to identify and eliminate false needs. False needs are the necessities that are result of your social status and past habits. You may not need certain things but your body and mind is so used to them that you portray them as your needs. For example, wearing expensive wrist watch of some specific brand. Wrist watch might be your bare minimum requirement but insisting on certain expensive brand comes out of your past habit of proudly showcasing such things amongst your friend circle. At times your habit of using or doing certain things may make you forget about the possible alternatives giving the same end results. You can certainly eliminate all such false needs.

Learn to say No

Every interaction with people around you have some or the other expectation attached with it. Based on their past experience people expect you to respond in a specific way. Often they take you for granted. They assume that you will behave only in certain fashion. Over a period of time such expectations become a burden for you. You are forced to respond in a particular manner even if you don't want to. When this happens a normal tendency is to blame the people around you. But who has set these expectations at first place? Most of the times the answer will be - You. It is up to you to set correct expectation for others. If the burden of fulfilling these expectations is becoming a hurdle in simplifying your life you must learn to say NO.

Let me give a trivial yet practical example. Let's say one fine day you decide that from now onwards you won't eat certain food items so as to follow Yoga diet. However, other family members or friends will keep expecting that you will eat them because they know you used to eat them in the past. When they offer you  food items that you no longer wish to consume, you should be firm (yet polite) to refuse their request. If you accept their offering because they are insisting too much then you are actually setting a wrong expectation about you. Next time they will expect the same behavior from you and you will then feel awaked to refuse their request. In such cases it is up to you to flag them what to expect from you now onwards. Tell them the reasoning behind your changed habit and if they really care about you they will understand.

Be in the good company

A lot of people struggle day in and day out to maintain or enhance their social status. They try to copy people around them. Lifestyle of people around you influences your own lifestyle. You feel it compelling to toe the same line of luxuries and material pleasures. Somewhere you have a fear - What will people say? If you find it too difficult not to allow your lifestyle to get influenced by others, it is best to avoid such company and be in company of like minded people. At times you may not be able to choose people around you (say at your work place) but you can choose to maintain a safe distance from them so that their habits and way of thinking won't affect yours. Make friends who understand you well and possibly are also following simplistic lifestyle. Don't deviate from your simplicity guidelines just because they will contradict with others. Over a period of time when people understand that you are serious about your pursuit they generally accept your choice of lifestyle. Some of them may even feel inspired to follow your example.

Also, keep away from people spreading negativity. Their negativity can be infectious and it will affect your moral and faith in your lifestyle. At times it is difficult to completely avoid negative minded people; especially when they are part of your family. In such cases you should learn to shield yourself under "safety barriers" so that they don't emboss their negative feelings on you. A good remedy is to be in company of people who you love the most. Spend more time with them.

Company of like minded people and loved ones is, no doubt, essential but also essential is the company of "self". Make a habit of going into seclusion at least for a few days once or twice in a year. Gradually increase this time. Observe silence during this period. Silence has a power of its own. Your own "self" is your best friend. Try to communicate with it. You will find that such a communication and introspection brings a lot more clarity about your own personality. 

Use technology wisely

Information overload is very common in the modern world. Internet, fancy communication devices, email and social networking services have become a part of modern lifestyle. At one hand they are great means to effective communication but at the same time they can be addictive. Too much reliance on them can contradict your belief in simple living. Internet and online media throws a lot of information at you and most of the information is never used. Just because you are being bombarded with information and data doesn't mean you should get entangled in it. Filter out the information that really interests you. Try to read only important and consumable pieces of information. Learn to read "quickly" rather than going in each and every line of information. Remember that internet and mobile devices make you "always connected" with rest of the world but they do have "switch off" button. You must learn to use it as and when required.

Just to give an example let's consider social networking websites. You might be "friends" with hundreds of people but that doesn't mean you should read each and every post made by all of them. Decide who is more important to you. Then configure your settings to filter only those posts. Read other posts on weekends or whenever you have spare time. Do not keep posting mundane things of your life just because hundred others are doing just that. Have some fixed time and duration for interacting with online friends. Don't keep visiting such sites throughout the day. That will distract your attention from your core job.

What I discussed here are only a few common areas of life that need to be addressed in order to live a simple life. When you start your journey on the path of Yoga, there is no need to get bogged down by the mention of Vairagya. Aim for a simple lifestyle first. Once you get used to it, one day Vairagya will follow on its own. A few points to consider before I stop :

• Do not take extreme steps to change your lifestyle from the very beginning.
• When you decide to switch to a simpler lifestyle, suddenly all sorts of temptations will come in your way. Life is like that! Be firm. Look at these situations as opportunities to test how far you have acquired the art of simple living.
• Set simplicity goals that are practically attainable. You cannot become totally detached like an Avadhuta from the first day.
• Do not set simplicity goals that are too easy to attain. Set goals that will make you stretch beyond your normal capacity. You must strike a balance between "too diluted" and "too strict" goals.
• Keep checking your progress regularly. It is easy to skip simplicity rules in the modern world.