Dear Ramji,
After today’s satsang, I kept thinking about the relationship between Yoga and Vedanta. You know that I’m a full-time yoga teacher and have been sharing Yoga for 21 years. When I began studying with you I thought that Yoga was the same as Vedanta, because there is a high resonance of your lectures with my Yoga studies. After a while I see that they are not the same but not different either.
When you said Yoga is for the doer and Vedanta is for the Self, it became clear that Vedanta doesn’t need Yoga but Yoga needs the real practice of Self knowledge from Vedanta. The experience of Yoga is necessary for people because after all we’re here experiencing the world thanks to our senses and the right perception of the world is through our only vehicle, the body/mind complex. For perceiving the objective world accurately, we actually need healthy bodies and minds. But the Self realization, acceptance, and bliss of what we really are comes from Vedanta. Self-realization and the evolution of the person is interconnected, right? What do you say? Much love and gratitude to my beloved teacher.
James: Right. Good for you! You understand the essence of the complete teaching. You hit the nail on the head. You can even argue that Yoga is more important than Vedanta because Self-realization won’t stick unless the mind is prepared by Karma Yoga.
Much love,
Ramji
