Now the next principle of Niyama is Svadhyaha – that’s a Sanskrit word which means – you can have this piece of paper – Svadhyaha means self-study.
Self-study and also study of Scriptures. Now, I’ve given you an example before – I don’t know if it was here or in America or wherever – it’s worth repeating: what does self-study mean?
Self-study can be interpreted as self-analysis, for one, and it can also be interpreted as self-evaluation, self-evaluation.
Now every evening I have a habit, every evening while I’m lying in bed I review the whole day. What have I done during this day? Has this day been lived, and well-lived or not? In my case the answer might be yes all the time, but nevertheless. (General laughter).
I am very fun-loving, because life is joy, so be joyful. For example, you know one thing that hurts me very much is that our beloved Jesus is always portrayed with tears running down his eyes.
You know it’s possible he might have had eye problems like me. (General laughter) But one thing I tell you, that he was one of the most cheerful men on earth, because he said, ‘Be of good cheer’. And Jesus would not preach anything which he did not practise. Remember that. So be of good cheer – let’s laugh.
So, self-study means self-analysis, and it also means self-evaluation.
So when I go to bed at night, I evaluate the whole day, what I have done and what I have not done and what I could have done. Pity the body’s not so strong, could have done so much more.Good. Right.
Now here is a very simple way for self-analysis. I’ve spoken about it before, that if a person goes through five seconds of negativity, let the next six seconds be of positivity, you have one second in the credit balance.
After that, ten seconds go in negativity, let eleven seconds go in positivity – credit balance, two. Now, if we live our daily life consciously, with the practice of Yama and Niyama, then at night we’ll have the finest sleep, no insomnia.
No insomnia, because we will sleep contentedly, that totalling up the day’s activities I’ve got so many seconds, or so many minutes, in my credit balance.
Now, you count up all those credit balances of each day, times three hundred and sixty five and a quarter.
If you total it all up, the year has gone good, times it by another sixty or seventy, or as long as you want to live, and you have evolved.
You are then leaving this world, you are leaving this world a much better place than when you came into it, because you are leaving this world a better person.
That is the result of self-evaluation, self-study.
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