Yoga For Healthy Aging: Arjava: Cultivating Honesty

by Ram

Modified Pigeon Pose
from "Art of Sequencing: Asana Modifications" by Melina Meza

Yoga Yajnyavalkya Samhita is the earliest known textual commentary on yoga, written by Sage Yajnavalkya. The story goes that Yajnavalkya explains the principles and practice of yoga to his wife Gargi and to other sages in a hermitage. Yajnavalkya’s text differs from Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras in some respects; some key terms are explained differently, and there are alternative explanations to various steps and stages of yoga. The yoga limbs of Yajnavalkya are more extensive than those of Patanjali. Unlike Patanjali’s yoga, Yajnyavalkya Samhita describes ten don’ts (yamas) and ten do’s (niyamas) (see Forgiveness (Kshama)). Some scholars believe that Patanjali may have borrowed verses from the Yajnyavalkya Samhita and deleted those that may have seemed unnecessary or redundant in his opinion.

In his commentary on the yamas, Yajnyavalkya introduces arjava as the sixth of the ten yamas. Arjava translates as honesty, sincerity, decency, uprightness, integrity, and righteousness. Now one may wonder about the difference between arjava (honesty) and satya (truth). In Sanskrit, at least, there is a big difference, and let me put it loosely in English. Arjava is a moral characteristic and is a personal virtue. Only the self needs to believe in it in order to be honest. So if you believe in uprightness or integrity then you are being honest. Satya is a proven fact or reality. This is more of a quality and less of a virtue. It requires multiple people to share the same view or opinion to be recognized as true. One can be untruthful (astaya) and either hide in it or be honest about it (arjava).

Yagnavalkya encourages cultivating honesty and rectitude, and renouncing deception, wrongdoing, unscrupulousness, deceit, and dishonesty. Cultivating arjava serves as an antidote to hypocrisy, covetousness, greed, sensual desires, and attachment to superficial possessions. In his message Yajnyavalkya implores his disciples to act honorably even in hard times. To cultivate arjava one needs to:

Obey moral laws
Be straightforward in business
Do an honest day's work
Desist from seeking bribes or giving bribes
Do not cheat, deceive, or circumvent to achieve a task
Face and accept faults without blaming others
Live without anxiety, anger, prejudice, inner conflict, or confusion
Maintain a pure mind such that words and actions resonate both in one’s inner and outer settings
Be free from hypocrisy

Thus, in order to have a harmonious life, practice arjava on all levels: by way of thoughts, actions, and words. This not only creates integrity and harmony in our lives, but it also provides a platform for honest and open communication with others. While it may seem obscure and impenetrable, cultivating arjava is worth investigating so as to adopt this virtue in our daily lives.

Practicing arjava has health benefits as well. Dr Anita Kelly, a psychology professor at the University of Notre Dame, focuses on honesty and its impact on physical and mental health. In a study where she spent 10 weeks tracking the health of 110 adults, she noticed that the health of adults went down considerably when they told more lies. Study participants who told fewer and minor lies had very few health complaints compared to participants in the group who lied more. Those who lied more complained of being tense or melancholic, and suffering from sore throats and headaches, Not surprisingly, both mental and physical health improved when the participants in the group of liars started being honest and stopped lying (see Telling fewer lies linked to better health and relationships).

How do we cultivate arjava when we are on the mat? If you have a regular yoga practice, you are already on the path of kindness and honesty. In addition, on the mat you have a choice to be honest to yourself by respecting and listening to your body or disregarding the harmful warning signs from your body. As an example, let’s say you are limited in the full range of motion of the hip joint and you have knee issues. While transitioning from Downward-Facing Dog pose (Adho Mukha Svanasana) to Pigeon pose (Kapotasana) and recognizing your weakness, arjava/honesty requires that you do not attempt the full pose and do a modification that will not only help in opening the hips and strengthening the knees but you will also have the satisfaction of being in modified Pigeon pose. Even better would be to practice poses that include external rotation of the hip joint that would also help to release tension in the deep external rotators of the hips, for example, Wide-Angle Seated Forward Bend (Upavista Konasana), Cobbler’s pose (Baddha Konasana), Lotus pose (Padmasana) or Thread the Needle pose (Parsva Balasana). For your knees, you would learn to recognize the difference between the healthy stretch sensation of the muscles and connective tissue lengthening as opposed to the compression of the tissues and bones that often happens with deep folds of the knee joints.

However, if, despite all the warning sensations, you push your way through the pose, you are going against arjava, the simple truth that your body is yelling to retreat. If you pause, you are inviting a dialogue with your own body, enabling you to listen more deeply and gathering more information. All this helps in gaining a sense of clarity and honesty that goes a long way in teaching about aligning with your own inner truth.

Being honest comes from knowing yourself and honoring what you know to be true for you at any particular moment. If we cultivate arjava, our inner truth finds its way from our heart into the hearts of those around us. Arjava is an important virtue for daily/good living and serves as the GPS for our lives, as it offers a map or guidance that allows us to have enhanced emotional, mental well-being and a more fulfilling and meaningful life. And that is the ultimate Truth!

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