Abhyāsa, in Hinduism, is a spiritual practice which is regularly and constantly practised over a long period of time. It has been prescribed by the great sage Patanjali in his Yoga Sutras, and by Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita as an essential means to control the mind, together with Vairāgya.[1][2]
Sutra 1:12 "Both practice (abhyāsa) and non-reaction (vairāgya) are required to still the patterning of consciousness."[3]
Sutra 1:13 "Practice is the sustained effort to rest in that stillness."—as translated by Chip Hartranft in his work The Yoga Sutra of Patanjali.[3] According to Swami Krishnananda sutra 1:13 means "Abhyasa or practice is the effort to fix one's own self in a given attitude." Prolonged periods of practice within a given attitude to align ourselves with our soul's freedom, this is practice. Our attitude is fixing series of mistakes by ourselves such that we "tend to greater and greater stages of freedom of the soul, and a lessening and decreasing of the intensity of bondage."[4]
References
edit- ^ "Abhyasa and Vairagya". The Hindu. 13 December 2016. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
- ^ "Abhyasa yoga". The Hindu. 13 November 2017. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
- ^ a b "Abhyasa". Blurbwire. Archived from the original on 25 October 2014. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
- ^ Maharaj, Swami Krishnananda. "The Study and Practice of Yoga - Swami Krishnananda". www.swami-krishnananda.org. Retrieved 28 June 2019.
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