The 18
ITIES of Swami Sivananda (Extracts)
Swami
Sivamurti, Founder and Acharya, of Satyanandashram Hellas, Greece.
I am very
honoured to be here at this World Yoga Convention, and to be a part of the
Golden Jubilee celebrations.
My topic
today has to do with the ‘18 ITIES’ of Swami Sivananda. These are the cardinal
actions that, when practised, bring about a reprogramming of the mind and
enable us to put into practice the ashtanga yoga of Swami Sivananda: Serve,
Love, Give, Purify, Be Good, Do Good, Meditate, Realize. This is what Swami
Sivananda called the Divine Life.
Of course,
alongside practising these ITIES, which we will discuss shortly, we need to
keep up with our regular yoga sadhana: asana, pranayama, mudra, bandha, yoga
nidra, the concentration techniques and the meditation techniques. We just add
this one ingredient, because when we work with the ITIES, we are working with a
sadhana in its own right.
What are
the ITIES?
Swami
Sivananda was often asked by his disciples and ashram well-wishers to mention
the important virtues that should be developed by a spiritual aspirant. He
summed these up in his song called the ‘18 ITIES’, which I heard being sung in
the ashram last night, but nevertheless I will read it to you right now. The 18
ITIES are English words that all end with the letters ‘i’, ‘t’ and ‘y’, they
all end in ‘ity’, so when one sings the song, it rhymes. The song goes as
follows, and I’ve taken the liberty of adjusting the last line for this
particular occasion:
Serenity,
Regularity, Absence of Vanity
Sincerity,
Simplicity, Veracity
Equanimity,
Fixity, Non-Irritability
Adaptability,
Humility, Tenacity
Integrity,
Nobility, Magnanimity
Charity,
Generosity, Purity
Practise
daily these 18 ITIES
You will
soon attain immortality
Brahman is
the only real entity
Mr So and
So is a false non-entity
You will
abide in eternity and infinity
You will
behold unity in diversity
You cannot
attain this in the university
But you can
attain this in the ashram in Munger
These are
timeless virtues. What has Swami Sivananda told us? “Develop strength and
quietness of mind.” This empowers us.
When you
examine them, these 18 ITIES give us an aim, a philosophy and a discipline.
Swami Satyananda greatly emphasized how important it is to have a goal, aim or
purpose in life, whether that be short-term, mid-term or long-term. It is also
necessary to have a philosophy to enable us to live and achieve that goal. The
philosophy should be such that it enables us to face the vicissitudes in life,
to face the setbacks in life. As we all know, life is not always
smooth-sailing; there are many ups and downs. Therefore, the philosophy we
establish in life needs to be such that we are able to stand firm and steady,
and not fall under when we face the problems and difficulties that arise while
achieving our goal.
Working
with the ITIES
Swami
Sivananda advised that we take one ITY and work on it, we develop it, we
eradicate in toto all the negative qualities of its opposite, we meditate on
that ITY, we meditate on the benefits that the ITY will bring us, and on ways
to achieve the ITY. As we progress with the ITIES, they reprogram us. They
become part of the process of reprogramming our minds. They adjust the way we
think, the way we talk, the way we act. They change our negative and emotional
reactions to people, events and things. We cannot change people; they are as
they are. We cannot change events and circumstances that come into our lives,
but we can change the way that we respond to them. So the ITIES are also responsible
for changing our attitudes and transforming our attitudes from negative to more
positive.
One of the
many practices given in Satyananda Yoga that definitely helps us in developing
the ITIES is pratipaksha bhavana, cultivating the opposite emotion. This is a
technique whereby we learn to superimpose a positive quality over a negative
quality in a strategic position. For example, if we happen to be going through
the day and we notice a negative attitude, a negative thought, or a negative
emotion, then we immediately try to superimpose the positive over that. Of
course, there are many stages in the technique of pratipaksha bhavana, but I’m
just giving you an idea of how the technique works and how it can be used to
help us work with the ITIES.
It is also
a good idea to understand the different synonyms, the related qualities, and
the antonyms, the opposing qualities, of each ITY. If we happen to recognize a
certain negative trait within us which is not directly the opposite or antonym
of one of Swami Sivananda’s 18 ITIES, we can still recognize it and connect it
with the ITY. We can then replace the negative antonym that we have discovered
and try to eradicate it with the ITY or its synonym.
Other
techniques, of course, in developing the ITIES are antar mouna, a very
important practice of Satyananda Yoga–Bihar Yoga, and yoga nidra, just to
mention two.
Now I would
like to run through the ITIES in their succession and give a few points, on
what each ITY means.
Serenity
The first
ITY is ‘Serenity’. It is the foundation ITY. It is the ITY we start with, and
which forms the base. It comes about through developing pratyahara, or sense
withdrawal. Pratyahara is a technique where we withdraw the mind from the
external objects that nourish the senses, and then the senses follow suit; they
follow the mind internally and withdraw their attraction to external objects.
When working with the ITIES, it is very important to work with pratyahara.
Swami Niranjan has explained to us that pratyahara is not just a one-off thing,
it is a process. There are five stages in pratyahara which, once learned, can
be practised and applied to different ITIES as we progress.
Swami
Niranjan said that the ideal way to practise the ITIES is to take one ITY each
month and work on that to the best of your ability. Then the next month, take
another ITY and work on that to the best of your ability. The third month, take
another ITY, and so on and so forth. After eighteen months, he says, “Who
knows!” We may manage to develop sanyam, restraint, of the mind. Yoga aims at
developing restraint on our mental and emotional reactions. It is very
important and the ITIES help us a long way in doing this.
Regularity
The second
ITY is ‘Regularity’, and regularity is what you see here in this Convention.
Everything is running better than a Swiss clock, it is running to perfection.
That kind of organization doesn’t come about in just a few days. It has taken a
long time, years actually, to bring about the event we are all participating in
today. We are seeing the final product. We haven’t seen the build-up and all
the work that has gone into that. So, regularity, essentially, has to do with
time management, with managing our time well; making a routine where possible
of the activities of the day – for example, getting up or going to sleep, or
mealtimes and program times as it is here – so that it leaves our mind free, we
don’t need to think about it any more, we can apply our mind to other things.
Absence of
vanity
The next
ITY following regularity is ‘Absence of Vanity’. Absence of vanity has to do
with being without pretence, trying to be the natural you, trying to be
unaffected in your behaviour.
Sincerity
From
absence of vanity we move to ‘Sincerity’. Sincerity is one of the keywords of
the sankalpa of this Convention: seriousness, sincerity, commitment. Sincerity
develops honesty, non-deviousness, checking to see if we are sincere with
ourselves, with others, with keeping our promises.
Simplicity
From being
sincere, we discover that we carry a lot of baggage around with us, whether
material or mental, and this leads us to ‘Simplicity’. Through simplicity,
which is the fifth ITY, we try to simplify our lives. We look into our
wardrobes and see what we don’t require, what we don’t need, and we offload it.
There is always someone in greater need than us and we can give that away. If
we look into our minds, we see that we carry a lot of conditioning, a lot of
mental programming that is absolutely not necessary for our stage of
development now. It may have been necessary in the past, where it helped us,
but now it is no longer necessary. So we need to review our minds and ask
ourselves: ‘What am I carrying around inside me that is no longer necessary?’
From there, we can simplify our lives. As Sri Swamiji used to say, “Simple
living and high thinking.”
Veracity
The next is
‘Veracity’. Through simplicity we come closer to our true self, closer to who
we are, and we develop veracity. Veracity is adherence to truth, being true to
oneself. As it is said in Hamlet:
This, above
all – To thine own self be true
And it must
follow, as the night the day
Thou canst
not then be false to any man.
Equanimity
From
veracity, from feeling good with ourselves – because when we are true to our
nature we feel calmer and more relaxed, we feel more balanced – the seventh ITY
naturally arises: ‘Equanimity’. Equanimity is the ability to handle the pairs
of opposites in our lives, to maintain balance in provocative and challenging
situations, not to lose one’s calm in profit or loss, success or failure,
praise or criticism. It is knowing how to be balanced: when to lead and when to
follow; when to talk and when to listen. This all comes about through
practising equanimity.
Fixity
Through
equanimity we develop a certain steadiness of mind and this leads us to
‘Fixity’, which is the ability to focus on one goal and ignore all the rest.
One can learn this well in antar mouna: just focus your mind on the thought or
the appropriate thoughts to achieve your goal.
Non-Irritability
From fixity
we move to ‘Non-Irritability’. We mustn’t become too fixed, because if we
become too fixed and things don’t go our way, we can easily become irritable.
With non-irritability we develop patience, tolerance, knowing when to let
things go; when to let them pass without making an issue of it.
Adaptability
Then comes
‘Adaptability’. Adaptability arises when patience and tolerance have developed
through non-irritability. Here we learn to adapt, adjust and accommodate, that
famous saying of Swami Sivananda, “Adapt, adjust and accommodate, bear insult,
bear injury, this is the highest sadhana.” We learn to adapt to people, adapt
to events, adapt to circumstances as they come; adapting to different types of
personalities. As people trying to practise the 18 ITIES, we have to find a way
to adapt to the person rather than expect that person to adapt to us.
Humility
‘Humility’
follows. Humility comes about when we recognize the importance of everyone and
everything. We realize no one is inferior, and that comes through developing
gratitude, by being grateful for everything that has been given to us, by
taking time to consider first how very fortunate we are. How very fortunate we
are, for example, to be here today. In time, through humility we develop the
ability to recognize the underlying divinity that is within each and every one
of us.
Tenacity
From
humility we move to ‘Tenacity’, the ability to ‘hold on’, especially to all the
previous ITIES that we have developed. We learn to not let them go; we hold on
to the ITIES that we have already developed. We add one to the other. So
tenacity is holding on to what you have got, not letting go. Being tenacious is
not giving up until your goal is reached.
Integrity
This is
followed by ‘Integrity’. Integrity is holding on to one’s principles and
values, being a person of high moral principles, a person of character. This
develops through integrating the head, heart and hands, which is very much a
part of our system of Satyananda Yoga. Integrity has to do with following
dharma,the natural law in one’s life, doing what is righteous, what is
appropriate according to the time, place and circumstances that we find
ourselves in.
Nobility
Integrity
and abiding by dharma develops what we call ‘Nobility’, which is the fourteenth
ITY. A noble person is loyal, dedicated to virtue, serious, sincere, committed;
a person of character.
Magnanimity
This is
followed by ‘Magnanimity’, which is nobility in its broadest sense. Being very
broad-minded, being open-hearted, and seeing the positive qualities in a
person, not the defects. A magnanimous person doesn’t dwell on insignificant
things. They see the larger picture.
Charity
The
sixteenth ITY is ‘Charity’, which is a natural outcome of magnanimity.
Understanding that one’s wealth, whether it is material, mental or spiritual,
is not ours; we are only its trustees. We are there to share it, to give freely
whatever we have with others.
Generosity
Charity
necessarily moves on to ‘Generosity’, which is the seventeenth ITY. It is being
liberal in our giving, being open-handed and unselfish. It is the ‘give, give,
give’ that we hear from Swami Satyananda: giving without expectation, giving
without thought of receipt, giving without thought of any form of ‘thank you’
or gratitude, giving because it is your very nature to give, and never
resisting a generous impulse.
There was a
great Greek man named Epiclesis who had the famous saying, “Whenever a generous
impulse comes, do it now. Don’t resist, don’t allow the mind to come in and
prevent that generous action taking place.”
Purity
Then we
come to the final ITY, which is ‘Purity’. Of course, from giving and being
generous, and from the outcome of all the other ITIES, purity develops. Purity
is the expression of the true self – in motive, thought, word and deed, and it
is the final outcome of all the other ITIES. It is the quality of an innocent
person, a childlike person. It is the innocent and childlike person that can
come close to God and who has the ability to feel the guru and perhaps get a
glimpse of what he really is, behind all the appearances on the surface.
— Address, 26 October 2013, Polo Ground, Munger
