The Complete Yoga Community

YOGA

When your body is vigorous,
Your mind clear,
Your spirit exalted,
Your blood pure,
Your nerves disciplined,
Your physique resistant to disease,
When you have made your physical frame an instrument
Worthy of the Divine Player,
THIS IS THE BEGINNING OF YOGA

When your service is to your Creator
and your fellow man,
When you perform hateful tasks joyfully,
When you are humble in success,
When you are cheerful in adversity,
When you are indifferent to praise or offence,
When you bow down in gratitude for the difficulties
and obstacles you encounter,
THIS IS THE PROGRESS OF YOGA

When you are master of thought,
When you are ruler of emotion
When, amid all vicissitudes your calm enjoyment of
inner peace is complete,
When every detail of existence evokes in you wonder and awe,
When you feel each moment of life to be a miracle,
When you merge your soul in the ocean of infinite silence,
When you truly love all living beings as part of yourself,
THIS IS THE ATTAINMENT OF YOGA

Handed in by a pupil to Nellie Snyders

BUTTERFLY

Sitting on my porch I saw a butterfly,
exquisite and fragile, so free in the sky.
Its wings were purple, edged in pink and blue,
patterns shaped like lace as only God can do.

It made a soft landing on the veranda mat
and settled quite close to the couch where I sat.
What a chance to study its glorious splendour,
as it opened its wings in sweet surrender.

It really sat still for a very long time
and allowed me to write down its story in rhyme.
The body was dark, so slender and perfect,
still showing a trace of its previous aspect.

Before from its narrow cocoon it did burst,
the butterfly had been a caterpillar first.
With limited movement it crawled on the earth
and then in deep silence prepared for rebirth.

Released from the bondage of mundane matter,
it emerged from its shelter a creature much better
equipped to exist in the element of air
to dance its way home in one day of prayer.

It did make me think of the phases of man,
first steeped in dense matter again and again.
When suffered enough, he then turns within,
surrounded by the cocoon he will spin.

He’ll emerge like the butterfly as a new being
with greater dimensions, expanded and seeing
the Kingdom of God with himself as the heir
to dance his way home in rapture and prayer.

by Nellie Snyders