तपःस्वाध्यायेश्वरप्रणिधानानि क्रियायोगः ॥ २.१ ॥
समाधिभावनार्थः क्लेशतनूकरणार्थश्च ॥ २.२ ॥

tapaḥsvādhyāyeśvarapraṇidhānāni kriyāyogaḥ || 2.1 ||
samādhibhāvanārthaḥ kleśatanūkaraṇārthaśca || 2.2 ||

1. You have to practice daily

Yoga is a sadhana. You have to do many years of practice, constantly and without interruption.

The first aspect of Kriya yoga is tapas, but it doesn’t amount to anything without svādhyāya.

Without tapas, the discipline and enthusiasm, to practice everyday, it is impossible to learn anything. However, even if you have the daily dedication to practice, but do not do so mindfully, you will not progress along the path either.

2. You have to practice with awareness

The Bhagavad Gita lists svādhyāya as one of the virtues and one of the austerities of a yogi. I see svādhyāya as fine-tuning your awareness in all aspects of your life. In your practice, your focus should become more and more subtle and you should become increasingly present. In Ashtanga yoga, the things that help us find this acute awareness are drsti and vinyasa: if you withdraw your senses within and become impeccable about your breathing you will find svādhyāya. If you ignore drsti and vinyasa, you cannot be practicing svādhyāya. If you are breathing incorrectly, you are not practicing svādhyāya. Of course the studious aspect of svādhyāya, implies you should know at minimum the correct vinyasa, drsti and āsana name of everything you practice on your mat, before you commence this activity of daily svādhyāya.

3. You have to do it yourself

I have heard Sharathji say that svādhyāya means that if a teacher alludes to something, the student must take it upon themselves to go and research and gain more knowledge around whatever subject their teacher mentioned, be it Ganapati or sattva. I see it in the way Guruji and Sharathji have always taught: they might tell a student something once and then it is up to the student to do it. On a student’s first day in class, Guruji would teach them surya namaskara A a few times, and then walk away to make coffee. He would return 30 minutes later to see if they had figured it out and were doing it correctly. He had given them the proper knowledge, then had left them to learn it themselves. Similarly, once a student went to closing (in the old shala in Mysore, it used to be done in the restroom), Sharath was no longer watching them. He has seen them do it in led class, it is up to the student to do it correctly on a daily basis by themselves. Sharathji has likened this process to a student climbing a coconut tree. The teacher can push them the first few feet, but then it is up to the student to actually climb the tree themselves and use their own strength and awareness. There is wisdom in this: it is much more empowering to discover things for yourself, after some initial guidance. The correct way has already been pointed out for you.

4. You have to listen

Listening is svādhyāya too. For example, in led class, the student is told very precisely the count and vinyasa. Over years of practice, a student has probably attended led class tens or hundreds of time. When I attend led class with Sharathji, he always says the same thing. Every time I take class I try to listen harder. Did he say jump out and spread the arms? No? Why am I spreading my arms then? Did he say bend the arms and put the head on the ground? No! Why am I bending my arms when he said “head up, straight arms”? Did he say turn the heel out? Or the toes? In led class nothing is superfluous and everything is unambiguous if you listen with attention. In this way, if we continue to listen with total presence over the years, our practice will become acutely refined. Listening properly is a superpower. Sharath has seldom corrected me. He waits for me to hear and seems to appreciate it when I do (for my sake). All the knowledge is there, right in front of you. The method is to accept more and more of it as your awareness and ability increases. That is svādhyāya.

5. You have to treasure this knowledge

This knowledge is precious, you should not throw it away. If a teacher has given you a diamond and you discard it, why should they give you more? Sharathji’s advice to teachers is “do not give gold to a monkey” or to someone who is not ready for it. Svādhyāya is also an understanding that this knowledge is sacred. It should be given at the right time and the student should be able to experience it for themselves. In this śruti paramapara, knowledge is passed down directly from teacher to student. A teacher does not give knowledge to someone who is not their student and a student does not take knowledge from someone who is not their teacher (and they should only have one teacher). Offering or taking knowledge outside of this violates dharma and paramparā. I have had students in the past whose ego and ignorance motivated them to believe they should be advising other students about their practices. All they were actually doing was robbing their fellow students of the opportunity to explore and discover their practices for themselves and experience svādhyāya.

6. You have to be silent to hear

Concentrate on applying yoga (including the yamas and niyamas) within you and to your practice. Don’t talk too much, because then you cannot listen. It is surprising how difficult this is for people. I used to think it was because of mental incapacity or lack of language comprehension, but now I realize it is just that we are not used to listening, our minds are too busy. If you are mindless in your practice (or in anything), you develop bad habits and patterns (samskaras). The more these are repeated, the stronger they become. It is better to develop positive imprints and samskaras, by repeated correct and positive methods daily. You will only truly see your habit patterns through svādhyāya. If you have a busy mind, do not simply surrender to it. Try to discipline your mind by enforcing silence in the early mornings before practice. Yogis should be able to sit still with quiet minds. Don’t avoid it merely because it is uncomfortable. Transformation requires effort. Put away your phone, close your mouth and eyes and listen to your breath for an hour! Go into nature. Thich Nhat Hanh recommended the practice of waiting. When you are waiting, don’t default to scrolling on your phone. Sit still and be silent. Watch your mind.

7. You have to be humble

Svādhyāya can also mean being okay with not knowing. There is no way you will know everything in the beginning and yet each day when we practice, we slowly see a little more as the light of knowledge starts to dawn. Be alright with that. Even after years, cultivate that beginner’s “not knowing” mind. It allows us to continue to learn with curiosity and openness. In many of the eastern traditions, in the first years of practice the shisya (disciple) is not meant to ask any questions as they have not yet earned the right or do not understand enough to ask an intelligent question. They should merely digest information, wait for it to settle and observe themselves. Sharathji says svādhyāya is studying yourself before the texts. You will not understand them properly until you have understood yourself. He advises students to not worry too much about the scriptures in the first two years of practice. Just practice. How you apply knowledge in your daily life is more important than book knowledge. It has to come from within you, a teacher cannot force it on you. or help you with this.

8. You have to have faith in the process

Svādhyāya and īśvara pranidhāna are the same: īśvara pranidhāna arises once one has mastered and sustained svādhyāya. If you practice everyday with awareness and listen to your teacher, you will find that the answers are all already there and will come to you if you are receptive rather than grasping. Guruji famously used to say “99% practice, 1% theory”. Before practice, theory is meaningless. After practice, theory is obvious. The solution: practice, practice, practice!

स्वाध्यायाद् इष्टदेवतासंप्रयोगः ॥ २.४४ ॥
svādhyāyād iṣṭadevatāsaṃprayogaḥ || 2.44 ||