The Parikarmas

Diamonds in the rough

- Smt. Priyamvada Waghmare

By cultivating attitudes of friendliness toward the ones you don't particularly feel friendly to, compassion for the unhappy or unsuccessful, delight for the virtuous and those doing better than you, and disregard towards the non-correctable, the mind can be cleansed of impurities and can be made more receptive to spiritual and evolving states.

This Sutra on the four Parikarmas or attitudes of mind, is a tool amongst others to help us get through many of life's challenges. Our goal on this path of yoga is to achieve serenity and a balanced state of mind. Practice of this tool will help maintain peacefulness through any difficult situation.

Via this Sutra, Patanjali advocates that there are four categories of people: Sukha (happy people), Dukha (unhappy people), Punya (the virtuous), and Apunya (the not-so-virtuous). At any given moment, any person - including ourselves can fit into one of these four categories.