There is a story from the teachings of Swami Vivekananda about a lioness. She was big and young, and one day, in search of prey, she saw a flock of sheep and leapt upon them. She died in the effort, and a baby lion was born, motherless.
The sheep took care of the cub and brought it up. It grew up with them, ate grass and bleated like a sheep. Although in time it became a big, full-grown lion, it thought it was a sheep.
One day another lion came in search of prey and was astonished to find, in the middle of the flock, a lion fleeing like the sheep at the approach of danger. He tried to get near the sheep-lion to tell it that it was not a sheep but a lion, but the poor animal ran away. He waited for his opportunity, and one day found the sheep-lion sleeping. He approached and said, “You are a lion.”
“I am a sheep,” cried the other. It could not believe otherwise.
So the lion dragged it to a lake and said, “Look: there is my reflection, and there is yours.” The sheep-lion looked at the lion, then at its own reflection, and in a moment came the realization that it was a lion. It roared, and the bleating was gone.
Yoga is the lake
If we are told our whole lives that we are one thing, it isn’t necessarily true. We carry hundreds of false identities, but they don’t change who we are inside.
Our yoga practice gives us a point of reference. Our teachers provide the lake for us to look into. Practice gives us the experience of simply being, which has been kept from us for so long. It connects us to our bodies, eventually changes our relationship with our minds, and in time lets us truly experience the center of the self. That center is permanent. It never changes, like all those other identities do. And you can prove it for yourself, unlike other people’s opinions of you.
Yoga gives us proof of who we are, and it is far more beautiful than anything anyone has told us. It is pure: a wellspring of energy, inspiration and peace. All we need is to see to the bottom of ourselves.
What the Yoga Sutras say
The opening sutras describe yoga as the gradual turning of attention inward through all the levels of our being, until we come to rest in our true nature, which lies beyond all of them (Yoga Sutras 1.2 to 1.3). The rest of the time, we are so entangled with our false identities that we don’t even notice we have mistaken ourselves for them (1.4).
For all the detail in the sutras and their commentaries, the central theme is simple: setting aside the obstacles, veils and false identities. When they are set aside, the true Self, which was there all along, naturally shines through. That is why it is said we are asleep and need to awaken. That awakening to the Self is the meaning of yoga.
