What keeps you from living your truth?

Yogas citta vrtti nirodhah  
The restraint of the modifications of the mind-stuff is yoga.
The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Book 1 Sutra 2

What keeps you from living in a state of spiritual awareness?
What keeps you from being in yoga (union)?

The Yoga Sutras explain that, as humans, we experience modifications (vrttis) to our mind-stuff (our connection to the universal truth) in order that we may live within the society into which we have been born. Unfortunately, we develop a lot of attachment to these vrttis; and they interfere with our ability to live consistently in a state of yoga. Therefore, we must learn to restrain, control, and/or govern, these vrttis. There are five basic vrttis with which all of us will contend as part of being human. They can be perceived as good or bad, painful or painless (Yoga Sutras 1.5), but they occur as part of our human experience.

They are: Right Knowledge, misconception, verbal delusion, sleep, and memory (Yoga Sutras 1.6).

We all experience these vrttis. If you want yoga, you need to learn to control your attachment to them.

Yoga is the restraint of the modifications of the mind-stuff.

Now, the learning of yoga begins for you!

Atha Yoganusasanam – NOW the Instruction of Yoga begins. Book 1 Sutra I of, The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.

Atha yoganusasanam
NOW, Yoga is being made apparent to you, reader.
NOW, it is time for you to step into the spiritual deep waters of your time.
NOW, it is time to do your practice.
NOW is not the time to simply listen to others talk about the benefits of yogic living, or to read of the transformative experiences of others and acknowledge their credibility, but to do it.
Be in it, walk it, breathe it, eat and sleep it.

NOW, TODAY.
If this sutra has found you, if you are hearing, seeing, or reading it then you are being given a sign to begin your spiritual practice. If you have fallen away from your practice and are now reading this first Sutra, you must recognize that your inner truth is calling you, crying to you to return to your practice.  Atha Yoganusasanam – NOW, the teaching of yoga begins, right here, and right now. Listen. Take the step. Know it and be in it. Be ready for what comes next.