Deepak Chopra MD - Living in the Light: Yoga for Self-Realization

Whatever you are doing to make your life better, Royal Yoga can bring you more of everything you want.

In that opening sentence lies the essence of this book, an immense promise that isnt just a matter of belief. For centuries in India, a path to fulfillment has been proven to work. In Sanskrit it is called Raja Yoga, Raja meaning kingly, royal, or simply the highest. Royal Yoga is a splendid way to put it. My aim is to show you why and how the path of Royal Yoga is the highest and most important of all Yoga traditions, explaining everything in terms that apply to modern people and everyday life. As far as I know, this goal is unique; Ive never found another book that accomplished it.

We are talking about personal transformation that reaches beyond any lifestyle you might choose to follow, beyond any approach to wellness and healing, beyond any faith or religion. Royal Yoga is universal and all-embracing.

The Yoga part of Royal Yoga needs a little clarification at the outset. The basic Sanskrit word Yoga simply means to yoke, join, or unite (the English word yoke can be directly traced back to its ancient roots). In my part of the book (Part I), when I talk about Yoga, I mean the complete system of Yoga, namely, the union of all aspects of lifephysical, emotional, and spiritual. Only one part of the whole Yoga system contains the exercises that people learn in yoga class (I will put the exercise part in lowercase and refer to the system of Yoga with a capital Y). The system is often called Yoga philosophy, but that phrase sells the whole vision short. In Royal Yoga, no aspect of existence is left out. Everyone is used to dividing life into distinct parts: mind, body, emotions, work, family, relationships, and so on. Those are handy divisions, of course. The experience of going to the doctor, the gym, or yoga class can all be put in the compartment labeled body. Raising a child, going on a family vacation, and planning for retirement can all be placed in the compartment labeled family. As natural as it feels to divide life in this way, this kind of compartmentalization creates a problem that cuts to the very heart of existence.

Royal Yoga holds that these compartments are false to the wholeness of life. There are hidden possibilities that you will never reach, an intensity of fulfillment you will never experience, when your life is chopped into separate pieces like a loaf of bread cut into neat slices. Imagine yourself going through certain rituals and habits of your dayyou get up, eat breakfast, go to work, call friends, do things with your family, and so on. Take a moment to visualize some specific ways that might make your day more satisfying. Perhaps a friend tells you a piece of good news, you complete a project at work, or you watch your child or spouse smile at you and you feel a rush of love.

If you rewind these experiences and evaluate them through the prism of Yoga, each event might look the same on the surface. But if you practice Royal Yoga, what happens inside is transformed: You find that you are living in the light. The effect is all-embracing, because if there is life, there should be light.

What is the light? For some this is a vague spiritual term that connotes religion. A Christian might think of the phrase, Dont hide your light under a bushel basket or Jesuss declaration to his disciples, You are the light of the world. In the rabbinical tradition of Judaism, the divine presence is Shechinah, which brings the light of God into the world when it permeates a devout or holy person. In many traditions, angelic beings are creatures of light, and saintly people emanate (physically or symbolically) a pure white light.

Royal Yoga transcends these religious connotations while embracing their deeper meaning. Light is pure awareness; it is the cosmic consciousness that creates and maintains the universe and everything in it. In practical terms, living in the light is about living consciously, and the ultimate goal in life is to live only in the light, having cast off every form of ignorance, pain, and suffering.