Yoga is not just a physical practice, its also a change in attitude. Often when we encounter certain difficulties in the course of our sadhana, we ask for help. It is perfectly valid. We have to ask for help. We need some guidance, some direction on the way forward to reach a certain stage. But when we need to ask for such help, it simply means that we have not yet perfected the stage of yoga in which we were previously. We were unable to change our attitude, our perception, our performance. We are not practicing in accordance with our own capacity. We are not aware of our strengths.
For this reason, I developed the theory SWAN. It is the theory of pratyahara. The word SWAN represents our Strength, Weakness, Ambition and Need. We all have certain strengths, weaknesses, ambitions and needs, but are we aware of what they represent? We do not know who we are, what goes on inside our heads. We are not aware of ourselves. We cannot even develop our consciousness to a point where the observation becomes a force. Our observation is limited by the direction, the area that our consciousness perceives every time.
Our consciousness is limited in the same way that our vision. If I look ahead, I cannot look back, if I look at one side, I cannot see each other. We could only observe what is happening in the field of consciousness. However, in developing the power of self-observation we become aware of a larger area. We may become able to observe everything around us and within us, not just the part to where our present consciousness is moving.