Elvis taught me about Asteya and Whitney died for it

Asteya is one of the Yama's of the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. It basically means that we should not steal, but stealing in yoga means a lot more than just taking something without paying for it. It also means not taking that which is not given.

Understanding the law of Karma which is the effect of the cause we choose to act on, then Asteya can be understood more easily. Non-stealing no longer just means being deprived of something we want that does not belong to us, but also not having something be taken from us at some point in our lives. When you have the law of Karma firmly placed at the forefront of your mind, you no longer act without first thinking about the possible consequences.

Another part of Asteya we should look at is envy because at the root of all stealing is the desire to have something that belongs to someone else which is called envy and which at times can be silent but seething. Jealousy and envy are close cousins that tend to want what another person has. Wishing we had somebody else's life for example because our own is too boring or difficult, creates deep seated unhappiness and fertile ground for growing feelings of envy and creating negative Karma by not observing Asteya.

The biggest traps people fall into with Asteya is thinking that copying, which is also stealing, is a form of compliment. But I don't know many people who feel very flattered when people copy their ideas. They feel ripped off because they know that their hard work has been taken without asking. So another way to look at Asteya is by exploring laziness.

Elvis, the King of Rock n' Roll

I remember when I was in grade 5 or 6 I was working on a school project and I had chosen to write about Elvis Presley. I don't know why but maybe it had to do with my teacher's jeans. The back pocket said, The King, and I always wondered who the king was so when I found out it was Elvis, I thought I'd explore him further. However, I quickly found out that doing a school report (it was my first) based on research was more work than I liked. There was a lot of reading to be done and then rewriting in my own words what I had learned about my subject. It seemed like a lot of effort for something I didn't really find too interesting in the end. Elvis's life was not in my realm of understanding (I couldn't quite grasp his strange relationship with his mother for example and wasn't too interested either). So I picked a few paragraphs from some of my resources and transferred them onto my school report. Well, my teacher was no dummy of course and she immediately explained to my young mind that this was a no-no and it had a name: plagiarism. I felt properly embarrassed and learned my lesson. 1. Not to steal other people's work 2. To take more time choosing my subject matter and 3. Being lazy was going to get me into trouble.

Basically, I had learned a little about Asteya long before I would even hear about the Yamas. I fell into the lazy trap twice. The first time by choosing a subject matter randomly instead of by putting thought into it, and the second time because I didn't have the patience to write the information in my own words.

It was like a big can of worms, one wrong move brought about many other wrongs that then created a moment of embarrassment with my teacher. My teacher liked me and I liked her so I knew that I had been responsible for making a very conscious error which was being lazy and not caring about the consequences of laziness. She didn't accuse me of stealing, but she did explain that I could not pass nor get any kind of grade by handing in a plagiarized project. That was enough for me and generally should be for those who prefer to succeed than to fail.

There are too many ways that Asteya creates negativity to list but a few of my favorites are downloading music without paying for it. Someone once bragged that he had downloaded over 400 songs for free and I immediately thought, wow, I wonder how he'll pay for it in the future. When I started teaching yoga my students used to ask me to burn a CD for them of the music I played in class. At the time I thought it was a way of being of service so I did it until one day my computer broke down and I could no longer burn CD's. I paid the price and learned my lesson. Now I flat out refuse to do it and send everybody to my favorite website Spirit Voyage to buy the very same music I use in my classes. 

Whitney Houston

When Whitney Houston died many articles were written about her drug abuse but one article in particular caught my eye. It didn't speak about her drug abuse but about her success. When "I Will Always Love You" became a mega hit in the early 90's apparently her then husband Bobby Brown experienced some envy. Being the ever gracious wife, Whitney tried very hard to downplay her success by telling everyone to call her Mrs. Brown. It was apparently the early signs of destruction. 

Competition between partners is sure to end in a less than beautiful way. If she did not have support for her success then perhaps unconsciously, she desired to sabotage it in order not to lose her husband's love. It's a very complex psychological dance but it's possible that she unconsciously fell into having to make a very tormenting choice between her success and her love for her husband and she chose her husband with whom she was doing drugs. 

Drug abuse is nothing less than sabotage of one's life. Eventually she lost both her husband and her own self. The publicity that ensued about her terrible fall into the grip of crack cocaine started the kind of gossip nobody had ever spoken about her before. Gossip falls under the first Niyama called Saucha which means purity. Keeping your thoughts and words pure. Asteya was perhaps the main reason for her fall from grace but without backtracking and fixing this Yama, others were sure to follow.

Whitney's ex-husband's envy was not the only source of stealing she endured. Apparently, other stars in her category also expressed envy as often happens in show business. All these people stole her joy by being envious of her stardom to then only add insult to injury by judging her for her addiction. So where is the love? Is there any doubt that stars lose themselves in the falsity of idol worship?

Support creates abundance for everybody. Observing Asteya can bring abundance to those who create it for themselves and respect the creations of others. Being inspired by others is great but being envious of others because they can sing like angels and you can't creates negative karma for everybody.

When we learn to love ourselves and accept ourselves fully without wishing we were somebody else or had someone else's life, gives us the possibility to learn to observe and put into practice all the Yamas and Niyamas more easily.

The best way to put Asteya into practice is to always try to be the creator of our own lives. Everything we do should come from our own resources and everything we then get will be a result of our own effort. The reason we then receive is because we have built the good karma on our own. When we reap on other people's shoulders, we then lose it in the same way. 

Thoughts and actions are all based on energy. A star is born when many minds are put together to create the success of a person. A star dies in the same way, when many minds are put together to create the downfall of a person. It's a domino effect and good vibrations are just as contagious as negative ones.

Both Elvis and Whitney died of drug and alcohol abuse. How different would their lives have been if they had studied the Yamas and Niyamas?

For further information on the Yamas and the Niyamas visit Brad Priddy's site: "Yama and Niyama are the ethical precepts set forth in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras as the first and second of the eight limbs of yoga.   They are the foundation of our practice without which no spiritual progress along the path of yoga can be made.  Many people come to yoga initially as a physical exercise and only later begin to understand the profound spiritual effect it has on our lives.   But to establish these spiritual effects firmly upon our mindstream, to embed them within our consciousness, they must be grounded on the bedrock of ethical behavior.  Our practice begins with Yama and Niyama, and extends into asana and the other limbs of yoga."