By Gurudevi Nirmalananda

There’s always a reason behind your actions. You are a volitional being, meaning you have free will. Animals function by instinct but humans have more options. What is it that motivates you?

When you lack any of the basics, they are your priority… Yoga honors the reality of such needs and reactions. You must prioritize basic issues, perhaps making yoga part of your support system when setting up a better quality of life. I have been fortunate to help a few yoga students facing such difficulties. Yet I recognize that most people come to yoga only when their basics are managed.

Once you have room to look at yourself and your own process, I ask — why do you do what you do? Hopefully you’re not focused on the instinctual level anymore. You have some breathing space in your life, enough that you’re interested in yoga. That means you have freedom of choice.

As an adolescent, I made choices based on anger. I was deeply frustrated at the incongruity between the ideals I’d been taught compared to the reality of the world around me. The prevailing message seemed to be, “Do what I say, not what I do.” My knee-jerk response was to try both what was recommended as well as what was advised against. What I learned in the process fueled my aspirations for something greater. I first sought it in higher education, but intellectual achievements were not enough for me.

Only yoga’s timeless teachings satisfied me. Now, for five decades, I’ve deliberately deepened my yogic knowledge and the experiences it has opened up in me. This is truly a bottomless well! Yoga has empowered me to live up to the highest ideals, yet in a down-to-earth way.

I think of my life’s path as a good use of my free will. Svatantra means free will. Svatantrya is God’s free will. Only you and God have free will. It is the distinguishing characteristic of…