YOGA FOR YAHOOS 
  
THIRD LECTURE.     NIYAMA. 
  
  
     Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. 
     1. The subject of my third lecture is Niyama. Niyama? H'm! 
     The inadequacy of even the noblest attempts to translate these 
wretched Sanskrit words is now about to be delightfully demonstrated. 
The nearest I can get to the meaning of Niyama is 'virtue'! God help us 
all! This means virtue in the original etymological sense of the word—the 
quality of manhood; that is, to all intents and purposes, the quality of 
godhead. But since we are translating Yama 'control,' we find that our two 
words have not at all the same relationship to each other that the words 
have in the original Sanskrit; for the prefix 'ni' in Sanskrit gives the 
meaning of turning everything upside down and backwards forwards,—as 
you would say, Hysteron Proteron—at the same time producing the effect 
of transcendental sublimity. I find that I cannot even begin to think of a 
proper definition, although I know in my own mind perfectly well what the 
Hindus mean; if one soaks oneself in Oriental thought for a sufficient 
number of years, one gets a spiritual apprehension which it is quite 
impossible to express in terms applicable to the objects of intellectual 
apprehension; it is therefore much better to content ourselves with the 
words as they stand, and get down to brass tacks about the practical 
steps to be taken to master these preliminary exercises. 
     2. It will hardly have escaped the attentive listener that in my 
previous lectures I have combined the maximum of discourse with the 
minimum of information; that is all part of my training as a Cabinet 
Minister. But what does emerge tentatively from my mental fog is that 
Yama, taking it by long and by large, is mostly negative in its effects. We 
are imposing inhibitions on the existing current of energy, just as one 
compresses a waterfall in turbines in order to control and direct the 
natural gravitational energy of the stream. 
     3. It might be as well, before altogether leaving the subject of Yama, 
to enumerate a few of the practical conclusions which follow from our 
premise that nothing which might weaken or destroy the beauty and 
harmony of the mind must be permitted. Social existence of any kind 
renders any serious Yoga absolutely out of the question; domestic life is 
completely incompatible with even elementary practices. No doubt many 
of you will say, 'That's all very well for him; let him speak for himself; as 
for me, I manage my home and my business so that everything runs on 
ball bearings.' Echo answers . . .