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Handling Desires
| **Baba Times Digest© | 22 June 2014 19:14 EST | New York Edition** |
Handling Desires
Divine Life Society Publication: Chapter 9 – True Spiritual Living by Swami Krishnananda
All that is outside in the world of creation is connected with us by subtle appurtenances. So, whichever be the spot within us becoming predominant in its strength, that particular spot stimulates its corresponding part in the world outside and draws its counterpart towards itself. This activity of the mind is called indulgence, which it does through the senses, which are its instruments of action.
Many a time, we are likely to be under the impression that our troubles come from the outside world, and there are occasions when we feel that the troubles do not always come from the world outside – that they are all inside us only. Both these are partial truths because the trouble arises simultaneously from both sides.
But we are prone to a one-sided approach always. It is difficult for the human mind to consider both sides of an issue, due to a weakness of its nature. Either we hang on something outside, or we hibernate in our own minds.
While it is necessary for us to find out what are our weaknesses, we have also to recognize at the same time what are the things around us which may be in a position to stimulate these weaknesses into activity. We have to subdue our passions and inordinate urges within – not only by an inward analysis, philosophical contemplation, and company of the wise, saints and sages, etc., but also by keeping physically away from those counterparts of these inner urges which can stimulate us into activity in spite of our satsangas, studies, japas, meditations, etc. So, there is a necessity to perform a double action at the same time: inwardly, be wary, cautious, vigilant, self-introspective, and pure to the extent possible; but outwardly, also be guarded. So, seclusion is one aspect of the matter, and self-analysis is its other side.
As our great guide Patanjali puts it, success is quick in the case of those seekers who are persistent in their practice and do not break the practice by discontinuing it even for a day, and keep up the intensity of the practice in the same manner as they entertained it in their hearts at the commencement of a fit of renunciation with the love for God in their lives.
The very caution that we have taken may become an instrument of our indulgence and fall. In other words, the conducive atmosphere that we are thinking of in our mind may become an obstructing atmosphere. Our desires have various stages and forms of manifestation, and they are very wise, like snakes. They know how to act when the time for action comes. They know how to withdraw themselves when it is time for them to withdraw themselves.
_ Four Conditions of Desire _
Prasupta
The prasupta condition is the sleeping condition of a desire. If circumstances are unfavourable, the desires will be sleeping. You would be undergoing a kind of compulsive austerity, and for a time it will look like you are on the spiritual path, practicing penance for the sake of God-realisation. But, beware! The desires are sleeping and are not destroyed, because they are lying in ambush to catch you at the earliest opportunity that may be provided to them.
Tanu avastha
Sometimes, the desires are thinned like a weakened snake which has been starved for many days and is slowly trying to move, wriggle out of its hole and find an opportunity to fulfil itself. But it cannot, due to the restrictions of the atmosphere in which one lives.
When we voluntarily fast – not under compulsion – on ekadashi, for example, the desire for food is thin. It is not destroyed, because we have a satisfaction that tomorrow we will have a good meal. That satisfaction is itself a strength to bear the pain of today’s fasting.
Our attempt at a sublimation of desires would not always be fruitful, because who is to control or subjugate the mind? It is the mind itself that has to rectify itself by an internal adjustment of its constitution. In common language it is sometimes called the higher mind controlling the lower mind, etc.
Thinness of desire is an occasional device which the mind may adopt for the sake of making it appear that the desires are not there, while this subtle connection in the form of that thinned form of desire, thinned shape of desire, can swell it into inflated action the moment opportunities arise or suitable conditions are provided. The thinned form is called tanu avastha.
Vicchinna avastha
At other times, desires are intermittent; they come and they go. This is called vicchinna avastha. Today you are angry, and tomorrow you are in a very pleasant mood. So, it is possible for a person to behave in different ways under different conditions of pressure, appearing to be one thing now and another thing afterwards. This is the intermittent condition of human desire, which takes shapes suitable to the conditions prevailing outside.
Udara avastha
And when every condition to manifest the desire is fulfilled, it can fully manifest. That is called udara avastha. Then, it will come like a roaring flood and swallow us.
Prasupta, tanu, vicchinna, udara are the four conditions of desire mentioned by Patanjali; and we are always in one or the other of these conditions. It does not mean that we have controlled the desires, or subjugated or sublimated them, because the moods that manifest in daily life will indicate they are still there.
Methods to Overcome the Various Conditions of Desire
One of the methods is to live in a positive atmosphere even though there may be a rumbling of desires from within – for example, in the vicinity of a Guru. The proximity with a great sage or a spiritual master produces a positive effect of its own. It is like the light and warmth of the sun, which destroys all infectious germs and purifies the whole atmosphere outside.
While this is, perhaps, a very desirable method that can be suggested in the case of everyone, it may not be practicable for all people to be always witnessing holy worships in temples, or to be in the presence of a master. They have various difficulties of their own in their personal lives. The alternative method then suggested is to take to holy study for a protracted period – as, for example, Bhagavata saptaha or a purascharana of a mantra, which takes all our time so that we have no time to think anything else.Our desires are kept in subjugation for such a long time that they become very weak, and the positive influence exerted on them by the purascharana of the mantra or the holy reading, called the svadhyaya, may sublimate them, may liquefy them and rarefy them to such an extent that they get either tuned to our holy aspirations or are made to vanish altogether.
Study of these scriptures, is not merely a means of gathering information on spiritual matters, but a positive technique of transmuting one’s emotions into those conditions of thought and life. Thus, svadhyaya of scriptures and japa of mantras, resorted to in a very consistent, austere manner as a sadhana, would be a safeguard against possible difficulties on the spiritual path.
Excerpts from:
Handling Desires - Chapter 9 – True Spiritual Living by Swami Krishnananda
If you would like to purchase the print edition, visit:
The Divine Life Society E-Bookstore
If you would like to contribute to the dissemination of spiritual knowledge please contact the General Secretary at:
generalsecretary@sivanandaonline.org
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Persistence and Surrender
| **Baba Times Digest© | 21 June 2014 21:01 EST | New York Edition** |
Persistence and Surrender
Divine Life Society Publication: Persistence and Surrender by Swami Atmaswarupananda
The spiritual life is meant to be progressive. It is not meant to be static, it is meant to be progressive. But the fact is, most seekers throughout the ages have known long periods where their spiritual life was anything but progressive.
For most of us the spiritual life is progressive in the beginning. If it wasn’t, it would never attract us. Perhaps one way to explain that early progressive period is that it may be a recollection of what we have learned in previous births. However, the unfortunate feature of that part of our spiritual life—no matter how positive it may be from many points of view—is that it is all about us. We are thrilled with what we have found, and very often it gives us a feeling of our own importance. We have been called by God, we are special, we are making unusual progress. It is all about how good we are as an ego.
That, of course, is a total contradiction of the truth that we are learning. The truth that we are learning is that all is One, and to realise the truth, the ego has to die. But here, the ego is actually getting fattened by learning and experiencing these truths. This, of course, is a contradiction that has to fall under its own weight. The result is a dry period or even a dark night of the soul.
Sooner or later this should be replaced by a progressive period which is usually made possible by the dose of humility we get during the dry period. The dry period is actually a period of purification. Our ego is brought under control. It is humiliated until there is a recognition that we are not so great, and a humble dependence upon God begins to dawn.
If the dry period has gone on long enough and the surrender is deep enough, then whether we know it or not, our spiritual life becomes progressive again, but on a different basis. Pujya Swami Chidanandaji once said, “The spiritual life doesn’t really begin until you know who you are.” However, the spiritual life can begin in a real sense without us consciously being aware of who we really are. If deep surrender and trust is there, then in fact we know who we are without knowing who we are. It is so because we are coming from the right place and our spiritual life is being done on the right basis.
Actually, our goal is to be rid of any idea that we are anything. We think that God-realisation means that we can boldly state, “I am That.” Perhaps it is so, but we don’t see the great ones walking around declaring, “I am that.” Rather, there is a deep humility, an emptiness that we see in them. It is these long periods of dryness that help to empty us of “I am this, and I am that,” and lead us towards the emptiness we see in the great ones.
What is required of us is two things—persistence and surrender. Never give up, never give up, never give up: “It all belongs to You, O Lord. I will never give up, and I will wait patiently upon Your grace.”
Excerpts from:
Persistence and Surrender by Swami Atmaswarupananda
If you would like to purchase the print edition, visit:
The Divine Life Society E-Bookstore
If you would like to contribute to the dissemination of spiritual knowledge please contact the General Secretary at:
generalsecretary@sivanandaonline.org
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Duty and Cosmic Will
| **Baba Times Digest© | 20 June 2014 21:16 EST | New York Edition** |
Duty and Cosmic Will
Divine Life Society Publication: Duty and Cosmic Will by Swami Sadananda
There are different notions about duty, not only in different countries, but also in the same country, among different grades of society. We may say that duty comes up only when society has been formed. There is a danger of the strong attacking the weak, and, therefore, civilized man requires that some control should be exercised by the strong over themselves lest they should do harm to the weak.
Basic Principles
We may, therefore, say that duty varies from time to time according to the stage of development reached by society. Yet, there are certain fundamental principles which do not get changed. For instance, the idea that one should love another as oneself is a duty which underlies all other forms of duty. In short, we can say that there are one’s duty to the community and one’s duty to oneself.
What should one do to make oneself happy and what should one do to see that he does not create unhappiness to his neighbours? That is the essence of real duty. When one thinks of oneself, one has to ask the question of what one is. Though one is not the body, or the mind, or the dweller in the body only, one is all these as long as one is in the world and alive. Therefore, one has a duty to one’s body, a duty to one’s mind, and a duty to the indweller.
Aspects of Duty
As long as a person refrains from causing any injury to another person’s body, and as long as he refrains also from causing trouble to another’s mind, he may be said to have performed a part of his duty. This is a negative aspect of one’s duty to one’s neighbours, but there is also the positive aspect.
One should do as much as one can to promote real happiness in one’s neighbours. Giving solace to the afflicted and serving the sick, etc., constitute some of the positive aspects of one’s duty. Now it may be asked why one should help another. The answer is that one has already received help from many others from childhood and that at least for the purpose of returning the obligation one should help the others as much as one can.
Obligations
The obligation which he has already received is a debt which has to be discharged. Beyond the help received from the neighbours, or human beings, there is the help received from nature itself.
In our scriptures they speak about the Devas, or the gods, that are responsible for the benefits conferred upon man in the form of rains, etc. Therefore, it is said in the Bhagavad Gita that if one does not discharge one’s duties to the Devas but lives only for himself, he is like a thief, because he gets something for which he does not pay anything at all.
Discrimination
We are often in a condition in which different duties come into conflict. This refers obviously to our duty to the world. The conflict really arises because one sometimes is unable to find out which duty is to be emphasised more than the other.
For instance, to take an ordinary example, we speak of Ahimsa or non-injury. Suppose a tiger is attacking a man. Is it the duty of an onlooker to kill the tiger, or to let the tiger attack the man? The principle of Ahimsa might be interpreted to mean Ahimsa or non-injury to the tiger as well. In that case the man would die. If he kills the tiger and saves the man, he will be saving one soul at the expense of another. Can he be sure that the soul of a man is superior to the soul of a tiger? In such cases what is the answer to be given? The answer must come from within oneself. If according to the best of the onlooker’s intelligence, as it has been given to him, he thinks that saving the soul of a man at the expense of the soul of a tiger is better, he must save the man. It is therefore, ultimately a solution reached by himself.
There are in the world innumerable instances of conflicts of duties, all of which can be solved only by the exercise of one’s own intellect. He is saved from the liability of sin if his conscience is clear, and if he has made a genuine effort. God will approve of every solution coming from any individual, provided there has been a genuine, sincere effort made by him, without any selfish motive, for the purpose of being helpful to another. Thus, ultimately, it is the conscience that decides in each case the duty that one has to perform.
Cosmic Will
God’s Will is Cosmic Will. Otherwise, since cosmos is only a practically dead thing without intelligence in it, it will be difficult to understand how it can have a will of its own. Without belief in God, belief in Cosmic Will or Cosmic Momentum becomes superfluous. One can be in harmony with God’s Will only if one knows what it is. The question, therefore, arises whether it is possible at all to know the Will of God.
To know anything we must have some kind of relationship between the object and ourselves; especially in the case of God’s Will or the mind there must be a kind of sameness between our will or mind and God’s Will or God’s Mind. Is there anything like that? The Upanishads declare that we are only part and parcel of the Ultimate Reality, or God. That is the reason why it is possible for us to have some kind of conception relating to what God wills.
The question arises only when situations arise requiring us to decide what we should do and what we should not do. Till then we act more or less like automatons as impulses guide us. But during critical periods we are not quite clear what should be done and what should not. We have no clear means to know what we can do to understand the Will of God. It is possible to get the right solution by a careful examination of ourselves.
Aspects of Mind
We will notice that anything that we do has to be previously thought about. Thinking is the function of the mind. In the mind arise ideas. Ideas express either something relating to knowledge, or to feeling, or to willpower. Every one of us is guided by one’s feeling. The feeling might be good or bad. The man who wants to avoid the bad and allow only good ideas to arise in his mind exercises that part of his mind which is called intellect. He decides by right thinking that bad feeling should not be allowed to predominate and that only good feelings ought to be allowed to rule over oneself.
Even after this, man finds it necessary to exercise his will, which is another aspect of his mind, to act according to the decision arrived at by the intellectual aspect of his mind. When he does that he may be said to have used all the powers of his mind for doing any particular act. There is no further responsibility for him. He has done his best because he has exercised both his intellect and his will for the avoidance of the evil thought and the promotion of the good thought. Ultimately, therefore, it is the feeling aspect of the mind that has to undergo proper scrutiny.
When we examine the feeling, as and when it arises in the mind, we get the clue to what we have been accustomed for a very long time to do, either in our past life or in this life itself. Suppose a person finds a 100-rupee note lying on the road without anybody apparently observing it, what will be the reaction in his mind? If he has been accustomed to grab things, with or without any justification, his mind will first tell him, “Take the money for yourself.” But if his mind has been trained in the past lives, or in this life itself, not to grab things which are not his, he will go away without caring for the money that lies on the road, or hand it over to the nearest police station. It does not belong to him, and he does not want it.
It is on such an occasion that he has to examine the reaction, and, from the reaction, judge about his past life. If the reaction is to grab, he can come to the conclusion that he has been a greedy person in his previous life, and it is this tendency to be greedy that shows itself in the present life also. It becomes all the more necessary, therefore, for him to see that he does not allow this impulse to predominate, and he should make the best effort he can by the exercise of his intellect and will-power to wipe out that tendency to be greedy. If he does that, he acts in such a way as would give the greatest satisfaction to God. That is God’s Will, and that is the way in which he can perform a duty which is in harmony with God’s Will. Therefore, the solution to the question of knowing God’s Will consists in this. Analyse your own impulses. If they happen to be bad impulses, involving injury to others, untruthfulness, incontinence, avarice and dishonesty, avoid all these; they are not God’s Will. If contrary, they are the Will of God, which have to be judged by a motiveless, pure conscience. This is the fundamental duty that everyone has to keep before one’s mind for all time.
Excerpts from:
Duty and Cosmic Will by Swami Sadananda
If you would like to purchase the print edition, visit:
The Divine Life Society E-Bookstore
If you would like to contribute to the dissemination of spiritual knowledge please contact the General Secretary at:
generalsecretary@sivanandaonline.org
SEND FEED BACK ON THIS ARTICLE \\ Email to BT Digest Editor(dlsusa.org@gmail.com)
The Ashramas (Stages of Life)
| **Baba Times Digest© | 19 June 2014 17:31 EST | New York Edition** |
The Ashramas (Stages of Life)
Divine Life Society Publication: The Laws and the Stages of Life in Hinduism by Swami Krishnananda
The grouping of life into the pursuit of the four Purusharthas is the basis of the ancient ethics of India. The ethical system in India is connected with the mode of life to be lived by one as a Brahmacharin, Grihastha, Vanaprastha or Sannyasin, which are the four orders (Asramas) or stages of life.
Brahmacharya is the first stage of life, which is lived in the observance of the vow of perfect continence and celibacy under the guidance of a preceptor and dedicated especially to the study of the Vedas and other scriptures. It is a life of probation and strict discipline. The Brahmacharin is an adherent to the principle of non-violence (Ahimsa), Truthfulness (Satya), self-restraint (Brahmacharya), non-covetousness (Asteya), non-acceptance of gifts (Aparigraha), purity and cleanliness (Saucha), contentment (Santosha) , austerity (Tapas), sacred study (Svadhyaya), and service of the preceptor (Guru Seva). These are the constituent factors in the life of a Brahmacharin. He shines with spiritual splendour (Brahmavarchas), which he earns by way of self-control, and on account of this glowing nature of his personality he is termed a fire-lad (Agni-Marmaka).
While the stage of the Brahmacharin is particularly devoted to the accumulation of Dharma, the life of the householder is for the preservation of Dharma, the earning of Artha and the fulfilment of Kama. He puts into practice the knowledge gained during the period of Brahmacharya. Artha and Kama should be directed by Dharma. This rule is a great scientific prescription for sublimation of desire, as different from its suppression, regression or substitution. The householder is regarded as the hub of the wheel of life, round whom the welfare of the society revolves. His is a life of a balance of forces – social duty, personal desire and spiritual aspiration. This is the general rule for a householder belonging to the Brahmana class in society.
The Kshatriya has the special duty of subscribing to the administration of the country by military service and the governmental system. The Vaisyas, or the trading community, and the Sudras, or the serving class, have their duties of providing for the economic harmony and needs of the country and the labour that is required for the sustenance of society. The classification of society into four castes is not to be taken in the sense of a rigid mechanical isolation of groups by virtue of birth and heredity alone, but a logically developed co-operative system of living instituted for the preservation and prosperity of the whole society through division of labour based on the quality of persons and the proportion of the contribution that people can make for its solidarity in accordance with their aptitude, knowledge and capacity. Svabhava (one’s inherent nature) determines Svadharma (one’s duty as an individual in society).
The third stage of life is of the Vanaprastha and is devoted to the duty of disentangling oneself from the attractions of the world. Artha and Kama do not any more interest the mind which seeks only the final blossoming of Dharma into the flower of Moksha through austerity (Tapas) and inward worship (Manasika-Upasana). The consummation of this discipline is in Sannyasa, or complete renunciation of worldly duty and desire, and living a life devoted to the highest meditations on the Absolute described in the Upanishads.
Though, originally, the order of Sannyasa as envisaged in Manu Smriti and the Mahabharata constituted a purely spiritual condition into which the Vanaprastha entered, and it had no linkage with any special tradition, the order of the monk gradually developed into a system (Sampradaya) by which the renunciates in different groups were related to one another by the allegiance they owed to their own particular orders, and thus formed a section of society devoted to a voluntary discharge of the obligation of the dissemination of knowledge, in addition to the individual duty of spiritual meditation.
In its true spirit, Sannyasa is a spiritual state, and not a social classification, in which established one learns the art of depending on the Supreme Being by withdrawal of interest from the particular sources of support in the world. This condition is, however, not suddenly reached, and four stages even in the order of Sannyasa are recognised. In the first three stages, called the Kutichaka, Bahudaka and Hamsa, the Sannyasin lives in fixed residences – but in an increasing degree of freedom from the need for comfort – and the stages are distinguished by the increasing intensity of restrictions, in an ascending order, which the Sannyasin imposes on himself. The fourth stage is of the Paramahamsa, who is absolutely free from all the wants of a personal life and lives mostly a life of absolute self-dependence devoted to pure meditation. There are said to be two other stages, called the Turiyatita and Avadhuta, wherein fixed one does not pay attention to creature comforts and is satisfied with anything that comes to him of its own accord and remains mostly in a state of consciousness lifted above the body and its surroundings.
Sannyasa is also said to originate from four causes. A Vairagya-Sannyasin is one who enters the order being prompted by the latent impressions (Samskaras) which direct him to take such a step. A Jnana-Sannyasin is one who takes to the order due to his grasp of the import of the scriptures, after a deep study of them, and being convinced thereby of the existence of the spiritual ideal. A Jnana-Vairagya-Sannyasin is one who resorts to Sannyasa after deep learning and also having seen the normal enjoyments of life. A Karma-Sannyasin is one who embraces the order having passed through the stages of the Brahmacharin, Grihastha and Vanaprastha, gradually. But he who takes to Sannyasa directly from the stage of Brahmacharya is called a Vairagya-Sannyasin. One who takes to it for acquiring spiritual knowledge is a Vividisha-Sannyasin. One who embraces Sannyasa being compelled by impending death is an Atura-Sannyasin. One who takes to Sannyasa with a feeling that there is nothing except the Absolute is an Animitta-Sartnyasin.
But Sannyasa is, in the end, as observed above, not one of the modes or orders of social life but a condition of consciousness in which it realises its spiritual absoluteness. Man becomes one with creation, being freed from the bondage of attachment, convention and anxiety. The soul fixes itself in the Infinite and knows nothing other than it. The duties of the Brahmacharin, Grihastha and Vanaprastha are progressive stages of self-sublimation and self-transcendence which reach their fulfilment in Sannyasa.
The plan of life arranged into the four stages is a systematic endeavour for the conservation and transformation of the vital, intellectual, moral and spiritual aspects of human nature towards the purpose of the attainment of Moksha, or liberation in the Absolute. It is the process of integration not only of the individual but of the family, community, nation and the world at large, through the expression of the great preservative force tending to universal solidarity – Dharma. The great hymn of the Veda, the Purusha-Sukta, makes the four aspects of the caste system limbs of the Supreme Being, thus teaching that the organic structure of society is knit into a single fabric with the threads of diversified personalities.
Here is the philosophical background of the ethics of co-operation by which the Universe is maintained. The four Varnas (castes) and the four Asramas (orders) are classifications based on the three properties (Gunas) of Prakriti – Sattva (equilibrium), Rajas (distraction), and Tamas (inertia) in their different permutations and combinations. The four Asramas are the stages of the progressive overcoming of matter by spirit, externality by universality.
Excerpts from:
The Ashramas (Stages of Life) - The Laws and the Stages of Life in Hinduism by Swami Krishnananda
If you would like to purchase the print edition, visit:
The Divine Life Society E-Bookstore
If you would like to contribute to the dissemination of spiritual knowledge please contact the General Secretary at:
generalsecretary@sivanandaonline.org
SEND FEED BACK ON THIS ARTICLE \\ Email to BT Digest Editor(dlsusa.org@gmail.com)
Samadhi or Super-Consciousness
| **Baba Times Digest© | 8 June 2014 19:08 EST | New York Edition** |
Samadhi or Super-Consciousness
Divine Life Society Publication: Chapter 13 - The Yoga System by Swami Krishnananda
Though the higher reaches of meditation are inseparable from what are known as samapattis or samadhis in the language of Patanjali, a logical distinction can be made between the two in the sense that dhyana or meditation is constituted of the threefold process mentioned, and in samadhi the whole process gets united with the object, comparable in some way to the entry of a river into the ocean, in which condition the river ceases to be what it was and becomes the ocean itself. Here Patanjali has an interesting thing to tell us, viz., that in this condition the percipient, the object and the medium or the process of perception stand parallel to one another, on an equal status, as if three lakes or tanks of water merge into one another, mingling one with the other, with water in every one filled to the same level on the surface. The three have become one, and one cannot know which is the subject, which the object and which the process of knowing.
The act of meditation leads to the attainments known as samapattis. While the object chosen for purpose of meditation can be any particular unit or entity, whether perceptual or conceptual, the final requirement is an absorption of consciousness in the structure of the cosmos itself, which is constituted of the five great elements or mahabhutas,-earth, water, fire, air and ether.
Patanjali speaks of vitarka, vichara, ananda and asmita stages in these attainments, which are again sub-divided into the stages known as savitarka, nirvitarka, savichara, nirvichara, sananda and sasmita. These samapattis are the graduated attunements of the meditating consciousness with the cosmological categories enumerated in the Samkhya philosophy. The lowest forms of the manifestation of prakriti are the five elements mentioned, which in their gross form enter into every minor form of the world, constituting the diversity of the objects of sense perception and mental cognition.
Patanjali has a specific recipe to enable the mind to contemplate upon the object as such in its pure form, divested of the phenomenal associations it is involved in as an object of sensory perception. When we speak of an object, for instance, we mean thereby a blend of an idea and a descriptive characteristic going together with the thing-in-itself, which cannot be known except as clothed in the idea of it and the form in which it is perceived. Here we are reminded of a similar enunciation by the German philosopher Immanuel Kant who ruled out the possibility of knowing things-in-themselves apart from phenomena conditioned by space, time and what he called the categories of the understanding, such as quantity, quality, relation and modality. This is the reason, perhaps, why he did not conceive of it being practicable even to have a metaphysic of reality, because all knowledge is phenomenal, limited to space, time and the categories.
Kant held that the ideas of God, freedom and immortality act merely as regulative principles working through the reason but cannot become objects of the reason since its operations are limited to phenomena. Here the Indian sage scores a mark which the philosopher of the Critique could not envisage, viz., that it is possible, nay, it is necessary, that the thing-in-itself has to be known, not merely by actual contact in a process of knowledge, but in union with it, which is yoga proper.
The words which Patanjali uses to designate the phenomenal categories are sabda and jnana, and the thing-in-itself is artha. The aim of yoga is to unite consciousness with the thing-in-itself, i.e., with artha. Though, under normal conditions, it is not possible to contact the object as such because of the interference of space and time and the logical categories of the mind, there is a way unknown to logical philosophy, by which the subject and the object can become one, attain yoga or union, which is the perfection of experience.
In the savitarka samapatti the object or artha is contemplated upon as involved in sabda and jnana, its name and idea. But this is a different kind of awareness from that which obtains in ordinary perception of things, for, in a samapatti there is an absorption of consciousness in the contemplated object, and the form does not any more remain as an external object to be contacted by sensory activity even in this state of a threefold involvement. In the higher stage known as nirvitarka samapatti, the physical form of the object, independent of sabda and jnana, is the object of absorption. Here the object may be taken as the whole physical universe of five elements, or any particular object chosen for the purpose of meditation.
In the cosmological enumeration of the categories of the Samkhya, the evolutes which are higher than the five physical elements are the five tanmatras, or subtle potentials of these elements, known as sabda, sparsa, rupa, rasa and gandha, which mean respectively sound, touch, form, taste, and smell, as the objects of experience. When these tanmatras become the objects of meditation, or rather, absorption, as envisaged in terms of space and time, the attainment is known as savichara samapatti. When the same become objects of absorption independent of and transcendent to space and time, the experience is called nirvichara samapatti.
By the time this stage is reached by the yogin, a complete mastery is attained over the elements and the forces of Nature, and a perfection ensues which brings immense joy, not born of contact with anything, but following as a result of the attainment of freedom by union with the Cosmic ahamkara, and mahat, which are the omniscient and omnipresent Ground of the whole universe. This joy is an attainment know as sananda samapatti, when the experience reaches its heights and the entire universe is known as One’s own Body and not as an object of perception any more, when there is no such thing as a universe, but a pure Cosmic Experience-Whole in which the Cosmic Subject is in union with the Cosmic Object. There is a realization of the Absolute-‘I’. This Universal Self-Experience is known as sasmita samapatti.
All the six stages of samapatti stated above come under what is known as sabija samadhi or union with the remnant of a seed of Self-Consciousness though of a Universal Nature. When even this Self-Consciousness is transcended and only the Absolute reigns supreme in experience par excellence, there is nirbija samadhi, or the seedless attainment of Supreme Independence. The Final Attainment thus experienced is kaivalya moksha, or utter Freedom in the Absolute Reality.
Excerpts from:
Samadhi or Super-Consciousness - Chapter 13 - The Yoga System by Swami Krishnananda
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The Recession of Effects to Causes
| **Baba Times Digest© | 6 June 2014 18:03 EST | New York Edition** |
The Recession of Effects to Causes
Divine Life Society Publication: Chapter 35- Essays in Life and Eternity by Swami Krishnananda
A method of meditation prescribed in the Yoga-Vasishtha is in terms of the resolving of effects into their causes. The mind restrained, the senses subdued, settled in one’s emotions, and away from the distractions of life, having had enough of the satisfaction obtainable through the senses, mind and intellect, one should seat oneself in a comfortable posture and chant the Mantra of universal vibration, OM, or Pranava. The recitation of OM in proper intonation should continue so long as the mind attains to inner peace. A few rounds of deep inhalation and exhalation of the breath for some time will assist in the settling of the mind in itself.
An attempt should be made to withdraw the senses from their respective objects and place them in communion with their divinities – the ears as the hearing organ in the vast reverberation of Space, the sense of touch in the all-pervading Air, the eyes as the senses of vision in the divinity of the Sun, the sense of taste in the deity Varuna, the sense of smell in the principle of the Earth, the organ of speech in Agni, the grasping power of the hands in Indra, the locomotion of the feet in Vishnu; the mind in the Moon, the subconscious and memory in Vishnu, the ego in Rudra, and the intellect in Brahma.
One should deeply feel that the physical body constituted of earth, water, fire, air and ether, is dissolved in the original elements. Thus, the total individuality of the person should be set in tune with the Virat, the animating Intelligence of the Cosmos. The Virat-consciousness should then be dissolved in the universal subtle body, namely, Hiranyagarbha, or Sutratman. Hiranyagarbha, then, should be dissolved in Ishvara, the Universal Causal Principle, in which the entire creation remains in an unmanifested state, which again, should be dissolved in Brahman, the Pure Absolute.
It should be borne in mind that the attachment of the seer for the seen is the real bondage. The distinction drawn between ‘I’ and ‘you’ in common parlance is a false proposition. Wisdom consists in the abolition of the very consciousness of the externality of things. The mind gets fattened with its egoism by the acquisition of desirable objects, by affection and attachment. When the mind is freed from contact in any form of externality, it merges into the General Consciousness (Satta-Samanya). All this world of objects, inanimate as well as animate, is a manifestation of the One Universal Self.
The mind is controlled either by the restraint of its functions, or by the perception of the One Reality everywhere. The first method is called Yoga and the second is known as Jnana. The regulation of the breath, the restraint of the functions of the mind, and the constant dwelling on the consciousness of the Universal Brahman, are the ways to the attainment of spiritual perfection. Constantly brooding over Brahman, speaking always about Brahman, awakening one another mutually on the nature of Brahman, and entirely depending on Brahman alone for one’s very existence, is the highest method of meditation known as Brahman-Abhyasa.
The Katha Upanishad suggests a similar method. The consciousness of objects operating through the sense-organs should be united with the Cosmic Reason, the Omniscient to settle in the mind which is the source and impulsion behind the operation of the senses. The mind should be withdrawn into the intellect or reason. The reason should be united with the Cosmic Reason, the Omniscient Mahat. The Universal Reason should be merged in the Unmanifest Potential of creation, called Avyakta. This last condition should be identified with the Absolute Brahman.
The Manusmriti also suggests the method of the merging of effects in their causes – Earth in Water, Water in Fire, Fire in Air, Air in Space, and Space in the Universal Being. The Samkhya, the Yoga and the Vedanta do all have a system of tracing back all the effects in creation to their causes, in the manner indicated above, until the great Cause of all causes, the Causeless Cause, is reached and consciousness is fixed on it in a state of identity.
The Mandukya Upanishad is a standard statement on the method of realizing the unity of the waking consciousness with the Virat-consciousness, the dream-consciousness with the Hiranyagarbha-consciousness, the causal state of sleep with the universal creative potential, Ishvara, and the fundamental Atman-consciousness with Brahman, the Absolute.
The meditations of consciousness gradually get inwardised, from the physical to the vital, from the vital to the mental, from the mental to the intellectual, from the intellectual to the causal, and from the causal to the universal, as described in the Taittiriya-Upanishad, in the manner carried on by the Sage Bhrigu under the instruction of his father Varuna. So also is the way of the cosmology of the Aitareya Upanishad.
The gradual ascent of consciousness through various stages until the attainment of Bhuma, the Plenum of Being, as taught by Sage Sanatkumara to Narada, recorded in the Chhandogya Upanishad is also a way of the dissolution of the lower in the higher, the effect in the cause.
The Anu-Gita of the Mahabharata goes into details as to the dissolution of the effects in their cosmological causes. The Second Book of the Srimad Bhagavata delineates the systematic ascent of the aspiring consciousness from the lowest physical level up to the highest state of the ultimate cause, Vishnu, or Virat. These suggestions in meditation are some of the most easy-to-understand techniques, since the method followed is from the known to the unknown in an evolutionary procedure of identity with the Ultimate Godhead.
Excerpts from:
The Recession of Effects to Causes - Chapter 35- Essays in Life and Eternity by Swami Krishnananda
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Verses from The Bhagavadgita
| **Baba Times Digest© | 5 June 2014 17:28 EST | New York Edition** |
Verses from The Bhagavadgita
Divine Life Society Publication: - The Canons of a Perfect Life by Swami Krishnananda
(Comprehensive Selections from the Bhagavadgita – Chapters 1-6)
Be Bold and Not Cowardly. The Blessed Lord said:
Yield not to impotence, O Arjuna, son of Pritha. It does not befit thee. Cast off this mean weakness of the heart! Stand Up, O scorcher of the foes! (II.3)
Life and Death Mean the Same Thing
Thou hast grieved for those that should not be grieved for, yet thou speakest words of wisdom. The wise grieve neither for the living nor for the dead. (II.11)
The Soul Is Deathless
Nor at any time indeed was I not, nor thou, nor these rulers of men, nor verily shall we ever cease to be hereafter. (II.12)
Know That to be Indestructible, by Which all this is pervaded. None can cause the destruction of That, the Imperishable. (II.17)
This Self cannot be cut, burnt, wetted, nor dried up. It is eternal, all-pervading, stable, immovable and ancient. (II.24)
Bear Pain with Courage
The contacts of the senses with the objects, O son of Kunti, which cause heat and cold, pleasure and pain, have a beginning and an end; they are impermanent; endure them bravely, O Arjuna. (II.14)
Grieve Not for Anyone
This, the Indweller in the body of everyone, is ever indestructible, O Arjuna; therefore, thou shouldst not grieve for any creature. (II.30)
Treat Pleasure and Pain As Equal
Having made pleasure and pain, gain and loss, victory and defeat the same, engage thou in battle (for the sake of duty); thus thou shalt not incur sin. (II.38)
Duty Is Not to Be Confused with Personal Benefit
Thy right is to work only, but never with its fruits; let not the fruits of the action be thy motive, nor let thy attachment be to inaction. (II.47)
A Balanced Outlook Is Called Yoga
Perform action, O Arjuna, being steadfast in Yoga, abandoning attachment and balanced in success and failure. Evenness of mind is called Yoga. (II.48)
Yoga Is Dexterity in the Performance of Work
Endowed with wisdom (evenness of mind), one casts off in this life both good and evil deeds; therefore, devote thyself to Yoga; Yoga is skill in action. (II.50)
Contentment Is the Mark of Greatness and Genius
When a man completely casts off, O Arjuna, all the desires of the mind and is satisfied in the Self by the Self, then he is said to be of steady wisdom. (II.55)
Inaction Is Contrary to Nature
Verily, none can ever remain for even a moment without performing action; for everyone is made to act helplessly indeed by the qualities born of Nature. (III.5)
Action Not Involving Self-sacrifice Is Binding
The world is bound by actions other than those performed for the sake of sacrifice; do thou, therefore; O son of Kunti (Arjuna), perform action for that sake (for sacrifice alone), free from attachment. (III.9)
Set an Ideal Example to Others
Whatsoever a great man does, that other men also do; whatever he sets up as the standard, that the world follows. (III.21)
Do Not Disturb the Faith of Others
Let no wise one unsettle the mind of ignorant people who are attached to action; he should engage them in all actions, himself fulfilling them with devotion. (III.26)
You Are Not the Doer of Deeds, But Nature Is the Real Doer
All actions are wrought in all cases by the qualities of Nature only. He whose mind is deluded by egoism thinks, “I am the doer.” (II.27)
Offer Your Performances As a Dedication to God
Renouncing all actions in Me, with the mind centered in the Self, free from expectation and egoism and (mental) agony, do thou fight. (III.30)
Doing One’s Own Duty Is Better than Dabbling in Others’, for Which One Is Not Meant
Better is one’s own duty, though devoid of merit, than the duty of another well discharged. Better is death in one’s own duty; the duty of another is fraught with fear. (III.35)
Selfish Impulses Can Be Overcome by Resort to the Supreme Being
For the protection of the good, for the destruction of the wicked, and for the establishment of righteousness, I manifest Myself in every age. (IV.8)
Sankhya and Yoga
He who has renounced the sense of doership by means of Yoga, who has destroyed all doubts by knowledge, who is established in the Self, him actions do not bind, O Dhananjaya. (IV.41)
Children, not wise ones, regard Sankhya and Yoga as different from each other; (in fact) one who is established in one obtains the results of both. (V.4)
Without Yoga (of non-attachment) establishment in Sannyasa (relinquishment of action) is hard to attain; the sage established in Yoga quickly reaches Brahman. (V.6)
One who is harmonized in Yoga, of purified self, self-controlled, of subdued senses, whose self has become the Self of all beings, although acting, is not tainted (or affected in any way). (V.7)
With understanding fixed in That, self-absorbed in That, rooted (entirely) in That, seeking That alone - they go whence there is no return (to mortal life), having cleansed themselves with wisdom (of Truth). (V.17)
Shutting off all external contacts (through the senses), with gaze fixed between the eyebrows, equalizing the ingoing and outgoing breaths within the nostrils, with senses, mind and intellect firmly restrained, the sage, intent on the final liberation alone, casting off all impulses of desire, fear and anger, is, verily, liberated at all times. (V.27, 28)
Knowing Me as the enjoyer of the fruits of all sacrifices and austerities, the Mighty Lord of all the worlds, Friend of all beings, one attains to Peace. (V.29)
Renunciation and Work Are Identical
Do thou, O Arjuna, know Yoga (detached work) to be the same as that which they call renunciation; no one verily becomes a Yogi who has not renounced creative willing. (VI.2)
Self-help Is the Road to Achievement
One should raise oneself by one’s Self alone; let not one lower oneself; for the Self alone is the friend of oneself, and the Self alone is the enemy of oneself. (VI.5)
The Self is the friend of the self of him by whom the self has been conquered by the Self; but to the unsubdued self the Self will act as a hostile enemy. (VI.6)
Moderation in Life Is Yoga
Verily, Yoga is not possible for him who eats too much, nor for him who does not eat at all; nor for him who sleeps too much, nor for him who is (always) awake, O Arjuna. (VI.16)
Yoga becomes the destroyer of pain for him who is moderate in eating and recreation, who is moderate in exertion in actions, who is moderate in sleep and wakefulness. (VI.17)
Surrender to God and Faith in His Omnipresence Is the Primary Principle of All-round Attainment in Life
One who is harmonized in Yoga sees the Self as abiding in all beings and all beings in the Self, beholding the same everywhere. (VI.29)
He who sees Me everywhere and sees everything in Me, from him I never get separated, nor does he become separated from Me. (VI.30)
He who, being established in unity, worships Me Who dwell in all beings, that Yogi abides in Me, whatever may be his mode of living. (VI.31)
He who, beholding identity everywhere with the Self, O Arjuna, sees equality everywhere, be it pleasure or pain, he is regarded as the highest Yogi. (VI.32)
No Perfection Possible Without Control of Mind
I think Yoga is hard to be attained by one of uncontrolled self, but the self-controlled and striving one can attain to it by adopting proper means. (VI.36)
Excerpts from:
Verses from The Bhagavadgita (Chapters 1-6) - The Canons of a Perfect Life by Swami Krishnananda
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Thought Power for God-Realization
| **Baba Times Digest© | 4 June 2014 17:57 EST | New York Edition** |
Thought Power for God-Realization
Divine Life Society Publication: Chapter 11 Thought Power by Sri Swami Sivananda
(Dictated on October 18,1998)
Life—An Interplay of Thoughts
The thought that you hold, will manifest in your life. If you are courageous, cheerful, compassionate, tolerant and kind then these qualities will manifest in your physical life. The only impurity of the mind is base thought and desire.
Guard your good thoughts as an alert watchman guards the treasury. When there is not the ‘I’-thought then there will be no other thought.
Life is an interplay of thoughts. Duality ceases when the mind stops its function. Thinking is bound by the time-factor. Thinking must cease. Then alone you will attain the Timeless. Be still.
Let all the waves of thought subside. In that stillness, when the mind melts, there shines the self-effulgent Atman, the pure Consciousness. Watch the mind. Watch the thoughts. Pursue serenity. Make your heart a fitting abode for the Lord.
Thought Results in Spiritual Experience
The molten gold, which is poured into a crucible assumes the shape of the crucible. Even so, the mind assumes the form of the object which it pervades. The mind assumes the shape of any object it intensely thinks upon. If it thinks of an orange, it assumes the shape of an orange.
If it thinks of Lord Krishna, it assumes the form of Lord Krishna. You must train the mind properly, and give it proper Sattvic food for assimilation. Have a Sattvic background of thought or mental image.
The same thoughts which are entertained by the man during the day, occupy his mind during dream also. If you have purity and concentration, you can make the mind assume any Bhava you like. If you think of mercy, your whole being will be saturated with mercy. If you think of peace, the whole being will be pervaded with peace.
It is the mental Bhava or attitude that determines the nature of an action and brings its fruits. Watch your Bhavana, ideas and feelings always. Your Bhavana should always be Sattvic. You should always entertain Brahma-Bhavana. Watch the Bhavana during the meditation. You need not watch the breath.
The thoughts you create in your mind and the images you form in your daily life will help you in making what you are or what you want to become. If you constantly think of Lord Krishna, you will become identical with the Lord. You will abide in Him for ever.
Thoughts of God
Your mind must be empty of all worldly thoughts. It must be filled with thoughts of God and with nothing else. Keep your mind filled with good, divine, sublime lofty thoughts, so that there will be no room for evil thoughts. Never speak any unnecessary word. Never allow any unnecessary or vain thought to occupy your mind.
Divine Thoughts for Freedom from Diseases
The best medicine or panacea for all diseases and for keeping good health, is the entertaining of divine thoughts. The waves released by divine thoughts, by Kirtan, Japa and regular meditation, will electrify, rejuvenate, vivify, energise the cells, tissues, nerves.
Another cheap and potent drug is to keep oneself always joyful and cheerful. Study Gita daily, one or two chapters with meaning. Keep yourself fully occupied which is a remedy to keep off thoughts of worldliness.
Fill the mind with Sattva and enjoy wonderful health and peace. Obtain an association with the wise, cultivate faith, serenity, truthfulness, courage, mercy, devotion, love, cheerfulness, confidence, divine thought and divine virtues.
Allow the mind to run in the spiritual direction, in divine grooves; your mind will be peaceful and generate harmonious vibrations. You will enjoy excellent mental health and have no physical disease.
Thought-culture by Knowledge and Devotion
Sit in a solitary place and watch your thoughts carefully. Allow the monkey mind to jump in its own way for some time. After some time it will climb down. It will become quiet. Be a Sakshi or witness of the menagerie of various thoughts in the eternal circus or show. Do not identify with the thoughts. Take an indifferent attitude. All thoughts will die by themselves one by one.
Repeat mentally, “Om I am Sakshi. Who am I? I am thoughtless Atman. I have nothing to do with these false mental pictures and thoughts. Let them roll on. I have no concern with them.” All thoughts will perish. The mind will perish like the gheeless lamp.
Fix the mind on the form of Lord Hari or Lord Siva or Lord Krishna or your Guru or any saint like Lord Buddha or Lord Jesus. Again and again try to call this mental image of the picture. All thoughts will die. This is the method of Bhaktas.
Thoughts and Yoga Practice of Mental Quietude
Sit peacefully. Discriminate. Dissociate yourself from thoughts and the mind which is the thinking principle or entity. Identify yourself with the innermost Self and stand as a silent witness or Sakshi. Gradually all thoughts will die by themselves. You will become one with the supreme Self or Para Brahman. Continue the practice of mental quietude. It does require, doubtless a direct effort to annihilate the mind.
You should annihilate the Vasanas first. Then alone you will be able to do the Sadhana of mental quiet vigorously. Without producing Vasana-Kshaya, no mental quiet or annihilation of the mind is possible.
Winning Friends by Practice of Yoga
“Win friends and influence people”: This Dale Carnagie principle is but a leaf out of the ancient Indian volume on psycho-spiritual science. Practice Yoga; the entire world will worship you. You will unconsciously attract to yourself every living being; even gods will be at your beck and call. Even among wild beasts and bloody brutes you will “win friends.” Serve all; love all. Unfold your inner powers through the practice of Raja Yoga, through the control and conquest of thought power.
Through the practice of Yoga, you can make the whole humanity and all living beings members of your own family. Through the practice of Yoga you can overcome all difficulties and can eradicate all weaknesses.
Through the practice of Yoga pain can be transmuted into bliss, death into immortality, sorrow into joy, failure into success and sickness into perfect health. Therefore, practice Yoga diligently.
The Yogic State of Thoughtlessness
Generally there is no genuine spiritual awakening in students. There is mere curiosity for getting some psychic or Yogic powers. That student is far from God as long as he retains some hidden desires for Siddhis. Strictly observe the ethical rules.
Transform the worldly nature first. If you become absolutely desireless, absolutely thoughtless, absolutely Vrittiless, if the mental Vrittis are destroyed in toto, Kundalini will ascend by itself, without effort, through the force of purity. Remove the dross of mind. You will yourself get help and answer from within.
Yogi of the Developed Thought Power
The Yogi who has developed his powers of thoughts, has a magnetic and charming personality. Those who come in contact with him are much influenced by his sweet voice, powerful speech, lustrous eyes, brilliant complexion, strong healthy body, good behavior, virtuous qualities and Divine Nature.
People derive joy, peace and strength from him. They are inspired by his speech and get elevation of mind by mere contact with him.
Thought moves. Thought is a great force. A Yogi or sage can purify the whole world with his powerful thoughts though he remains in a solitary cave in the Himalayas.
It is not necessary that he should appear on the platform and deliver lectures and discourses to help the people. Sattva is intense activity. The wheel that revolves very rapidly appears to be at rest. So is Sattva. So is a Sattvic man.
Thought-boats to Infinite Strength
Life is a journey from impurity to purity, from hatred to cosmic love, from death to immortality, from imperfection to perfection, from slavery to freedom, from diversity to unity, from ignorance to eternal wisdom, from pain to eternal bliss, from weakness to infinite strength.
Let every thought take you nearer the Lord, every thought further your evolution.
Excerpts from:
Thought Power for God-Realization - Chapter 11 Thought Power by Sri Swami Sivananda
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Freedom From Experiences
| **Baba Times Digest© | 3 June 2014 17:54 EST | New York Edition** |
Freedom from Experiences
Divine Life Society Publication: Early Morning Meditation Talk by Swami Atmaswarupananda
As human beings, and especially as seekers, each day we go through a great variety of experiences. If nothing else we go through the experience of waking, dreaming and deep sleep. We know hunger, we know weariness, we know desires, and hopefully there is some contentment, perhaps exaltation. All these we can experience during the course of a day. But who is it that experiences all these things? It is “I”. “I” am the experiencer.
When we realize that “I” is the experiencer, then we have a certain distance from the experience, freedom from the experience. We are not so concerned about the quality of the experience, whether it is pleasant or unpleasant. But if we identify with the experience, then naturally we want the experiences to be pleasant. Indeed, we will try to manipulate our life and the lives of others so that we get more pleasant experiences. We will try to manipulate our life and the lives of others to avoid unpleasant experiences. We become convinced that the experiences are who we are. If we have unpleasant experiences, we feel depressed. If we have pleasant experiences, we feel exalted. In other words, we are controlled by our experience. And that is bondage.
Freedom is to know that we are the witness of all experience, pleasant and unpleasant. Sadhana is the practice of freeing ourselves from experience. It is not that the experience disappears, but we no longer identify with it in the same way—because we recognize that no matter how the experience may change, we are always that which is aware of the experience, that which never changes.
This then is the essence of all our spiritual practices—a detachment from experience and attachment to that which knows the experience. “Detach, attach,” Gurudev said. Lord Krishna said that the solution to the control of the mind is dispassion and practice—dispassion for all our experience, pleasant or unpleasant, and the practice of being that which is aware of all experience. Japa too puts our mind on God; when we are repeating God’s name, we get a sense of space and detachment from our normal experience. Worship, study, enquiry all serve the same purpose—to give us a sense of the reality of that which we can never grasp with the mind and a dispassion for the contents of our mind.
We can never solve our problems within the mind. It is dispassion for the mind and its experiences, be they pleasant or unpleasant, that is the key. They say, “Let go. Let God. Surrender and trust.” And Gurudev put it so well, “Surrender everything to the Lord. Place your ego at His feet and be at ease.”
Excerpts from:
See God in All - Early Morning Meditation Talk by Swami Atmaswarupananda
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Foundation of Yoga
| **Baba Times Digest© | 2 June 2014 17:42 EST | New York Edition** |
Foundation of Yoga
Divine Life Society Publication: Foundation of Yoga by Sri Swami Sivananda
Develop virtues like generosity, forgiveness and love. Mere Yogic Kriyas alone will not help you much. Do self-analysis daily and eradicate your faults and evil, slavish habits. Rectify your defects such as selfishness, pride, jealousy and hatred. You must cultivate a compassionate and loving heart first. At all times you must share what you have with others and practice selfless service. Then only will you get purity of heart.
Yoga is unity, identity, homogeneity, oneness and sameness with God.
Many aspirants neglect these preliminaries and jump, out of curiosity, to Yogic Kriyas for getting psychic powers. It is really a serious blunder. They will have a hopeless downfall. Therefore, be careful. Mere Yogic Kriyas cannot bring about the desired results. The purification of the heart is of paramount importance. The aspirant must free himself from lust, anger, greed, jealousy, hatred, egoism, vanity, attachment, pride and delusion. This is more difficult than control of breath or the practice of Yoga Asanas.
Virtuous qualities such as mercy, tolerance, adaptability, courage, patience, balance state of mind and cosmic love should be assiduously cultivated. Sages have always laid great stress on selfless service, generous charity, purity and simple living.
With firm faith, application, perseverance, careful attention to even small details, and fortitude in trials, you must set foot and proceed on the path of Sadhana.
Yoga is not hidden in caves, not sequestered in thick Himalayan forests. It is not in taking mountain herbs. God is not a coward to run away from towns, cities and villages. Practice Yoga in your own home. When the desire to practice Yoga comes, it means that liberation is near at hand. Now, take the plunge.
It is a blessing to be a Yogi. Practice Yoga and preach. Hatha Yoga ensures good physical and mental health. You must utilize this to the best advantage by deep meditation on the Atman or inner Self. Self-realization should be your goal. This should be achieved by the constant remembrance of God, by righteousness, by a life of virtue and by the practice of Yoga.
Becoming a Yogi does not involve the abandonment of anyone or neglect of any duties. It means switching over from a life of purpose-lessness to the path of God. It entails a change of your attitude towards life and in the methods pursued for liberating yourself. True and lasting renunciation is, after all, a matter of the attitude of the mind.
There is only one institution for you which can train you to evolve into a full-bloom Yogi, and that is where Providence has placed you-your own home. Mind is indeed the cause of bondage and liberation; a restless mind will find rest nowhere except in its own annihilation. The mind should be attacked on all sides with every possible type of weapon-with the repetition of God’s Name, study of religious scriptures, devotion, practice of silence, service. Pranayama, Japa, prayer, Kirtan and meditation. All these should be combined.
Do not look upon Yoga as something beyond you or as calling for any extraordinary efforts. You can remain in your station of life, carry on your work and at the same time embark on the Yogic path. Do Japa, prayer, Kirtan, meditation and Asanas regularly.
Any effort in the direction of Yoga never goes in vain. You will realize thereby the fruits of even a little Yogic practice.
Yes, there is a popular notion that Yoga is only for the intelligentsia. It is not so. Yoga is for all. Everyone can and should practice Yoga from his own station in life.
I can impart to your noble self training in one of the most ancient Hindu medicine - the great miracle panacea for all ills-Yoga. Become a Yogi from this moment.
The aim and end of Yoga is Self-realization. Yogic methods should not be applied for mere material gains.
Yoga does not consist in just reading books and discussion at a club table. It consists in practicing what you already know.
Every activity - from the rearing of children to the management of the home - can be readily converted into Yoga. Kindly study the first six chapters of the Gita again and again. Merely running away from crowds is not a sign of Yoga. The performance of all actions as an instrument in His hands, and with the consciousness that this world is pervaded by Him, the Supreme Spirit, is called Yoga.
Excerpts from:
Foundation of Yoga by Sri Swami Sivananda
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