Purity via Yama and Niyama

Satchidananda focuses this week's Words on how to obtain mental purity. He states that, "when you become more established in yama and niyama, your concentration becomes easy." The reason you have trouble keeping the mind focused during meditation is "...because it has accumulated so much of worldly desires..it doesn’t want to stick to one place." Through my discussion of the yamas and niyamas in December, this was made clear to me.

There was one thing I disagreed with the way he wrote his Words. He began, "If we are going to practice Yoga continually and a little more deeply, then naturally we must have mental purity." This seems to put the cart before the horse, in my opinion. You don't need to have mental purity to achieve a deeper practice of yoga. I think that through a regular, focused practice of yoga, you achieve mental purity. But my name is not Sri Swami Jaycie. What do I know, really? :)