Praise for The Secret Power of Yoga
This sweetly voiced explication of the Yoga Sutras is disarming in its simplicity, charming and inviting the reader into the happiness of realizing that she/he is actually a manifestation of the Divine. I read it smiling all the way, and learning yoga philosophy as I was doing it.
S YLVIA B OORSTEIN , author of Pay Attention, for Goodness Sake:
The Buddhist Path of Kindness
Nischala Joy Devi has provided a dynamic new interpretation of the Yoga Sutras, one of the most important but esoteric guidebooks to deeper Yoga practice, that will make this wonderful ancient teaching accessible to modern readers and useful in their daily life. She has explained the essence of Yoga in a simple, direct, and relevant manner for all sincere students of the spiritual path.
D AVID F RAWLEY (V AMADEVA S HASTRI ), author of Yoga and Ayurveda
Weaving together her deep knowledge of the Yoga Sutras with her many years of teaching and studying, Nischala Devi has created a very readable and insightful book. Her words ring with the authenticity of a committed practitioner, and the exercises she offers the reader can be truly life changing. But I must admit, I loved her funny and inspiring stories the best! A book to be read again and again.
J UDITH H ANSON L ASATER , P H. D., P.T., yoga teacher since 1971 and author of six books, including A Year of Living Your Yoga
Nischala Devi has given us a fresh and compelling new look into the mysteries of one of yogas most important scriptures. Bravo! I heartily recommend her new book to all who want to understand (and trod) the practical path of liberation so brilliantly described by Sri Patanjali.
S TEPHEN C OPE , author of The Wisdom of Yoga: A Seekers Guide to Extraordinary Living
This book has the feel of divinely guided inspiration. A loving call to every woman who walks the sacred journey. Nischala Joy Devi breathes new life, enthusiasm, creativity, and insights into the endless secret powers of yoga.
L ILIAS F OLAN , PBS host and author of Lilias! Yoga Gets Better with Age
You hold within your hands a treasure box filled with priceless gems, collected by a most wise, gentle, and generous woman. This book promises to guide us, joyfully, to divine realization.
S HARON G ANNON , cocreator of the Jivamukti Yoga method
Devi boldly reinterprets the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali from a personal acknowledgment of feminine intuition. Many women will find it refreshingly accessible and uniquely relevant to their spiritual quest on the Yogic path. Nischala brings a delightful emphasis on the celebratory Divine, inviting readers to allow this liberating text and the visualizations shes added, to illumine our own sacred journey to the heart.
SARAH POWERS , international Yoga and mindfulness teacher
A wise womans guide to a life of peace and harmony. Full of heart and with a beautiful earthy wisdom, Nischala Joy Devi has crafted a whole new and feminine dimension to these ancient writings, bringing the age-old teachings of yoga right into our everyday actions and reactions.
A NGELA F ARMER , cofounder of Yoga from the Inner Body
This book is revolutionary! With great skill, Nischala Devi guides us on a journey through the Yoga Sutras; not through a dry, intellectual dissection of words, but by bringing us out of our heads and into our hearts, where the intuitive insights of these teachings reside. An inspiring guide that will nourish your practice and your life.
J ANICE G ATES , author of Yogini: The Power of Women in Yoga
By telling the story in another way Nischala Joy Devi allows these ancient Sutras from the soul to resonate in your heart. She delivers a bounty of stories, examples, experiential exercises, and new ways to awaken sacredness and experience life as a living joy. Like a green coconut, The Secret Power of Yoga invites you to hold it in your hands and open it. Read each Sutra aloud; through Nischala Joy Devis tender and subtle rendering may you find every line fresh, fragrant, and deeply satisfying.
S HANTI S HANTI K AUR K HALSA , P H. D., director of the Guru Ram Das Center for Medicine & Humanology
Nischala Joy Devi illuminates a practical way to apply the Yoga Sutras to everyday living and spiritual awakening. Within the flow of her message is the trinity of bhakti, Jnana, and karma. With bhakti, her approach and understanding come from the heart as she inquires into the heart of the matter. Jnana comes from her years of devotion to yoga. She complements this experience with cross-references to various classic scriptures. Karma is reflected at the completion of each sutra with a lesson that welcomes self-inquiry and calls for positive action. Nischala Joy Devis commentaries, inspired from the feminine voice, will nurture many on the path of yoga.
K ALI R AY (S WAMINI K ALIJI) , internationally renowned yogini and founder of TriYoga
ALSO BY NISCHALA JOY DEVI
The Healing Path of Yoga
To all the future generations of women and men
who will never even wonder if the
scriptures are also for women.
CONTENTS
Chapter 3. Karma and Karma Yoga: As You Sow,
So You Shall Reap
THE WISE WOMANS STONE
A wise woman, who was traveling in the mountains, found a precious stone in a stream.
She reverently placed the gem in her bag.
The next day, she met another traveler, who was hungry.
The wise woman opened her bag to share her food. The hungry traveler saw the precious stone in the wise womans bag, admired it, and asked the wise woman to give it to him.
The wise woman did so without hesitation.
The traveler left, rejoicing in his good fortune.
He knew the jewel was worth enough to give him security for the rest of his life.
But a few days later he came back, searching for the wise woman.
When he found her, he returned the stone and said,
I have been thinking. I know how valuable the stone is, but I would like to exchange it in the hope that you can give me something much more precious. If you can, teach me the secrets about the power you have within you, the power that enabled you to, without hesitation, give me this precious stone.
A FOUNDATION FOR TRANSFORMATION
T ODAY, AN ESTIMATED 18 million people practice the physical aspect of Yoga. Most of them are women. Why is this? Is it because weve read in magazines that Yoga will give us a better body tighter abs, buns of steel, or that well look and stay younger? Or perhaps we come to Yoga with problems we need fixed: physical issues, like stiff necks or sore backs, or emotional ones, such as depression, insomnia, or anxiety.
If these are the reasons we initially attend class, what keeps us coming back to Yoga, even after our problems are resolved or weve gotten in shape? Does something happen deep within us after we have stretched and squeezed and twisted and bent? Is there a special feeling that comes when we let go for just a moment and experience something magical inside? Something that seems familiar, something we have longed for or forgotten? Perhaps touching that mysterious part of ourselves is so powerful that were motivated to return to it again and again.