Friday, October 21, 2011

ANOTHER CONDITION FOR SUCCESS IN YOGA IS CHASTITY. IT IS THE CORNER - STONE OF ALL PRACTICE


Another condition [for success in Yoga] is chastity. It is the corner-stone of all practice. Married or unmarried — perfect chastity. It is a long subject, of course, but I want to tell you: Public discussions of this subject are not to the taste of this country. These Western countries are full of the most degraded beings in the shape of teachers who teach men and women that if they are chaste they will be hurt. How do they gather all this? ... People come to me — thousands come every year — with this one question. Someone has told them that if they are chaste and pure they will be hurt physically.... How do these teachers know it? Have they been chaste? Those unchaste, impure fools, lustful creatures, want to drag the whole world down to their [level]! ...

- Swami Vivekananda
(Delivered in San Francisco, April 5, 1900) The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 1/Lectures And Discourses/Practical Religion: Breathing And Meditation

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