Yoga - Beyond The Body And Mind
Times Of India

Yog means union. Union with a supreme power which is the source of creation, perfection and destruction. Union with the supreme intellect and the guiding force behind the perfect mechanism of the universe. Yoga is merging oneself with this force that guides the human being to a state of total bliss. A human being is a small universe in itself. When the consciousness of this small universe unites with the energy prevailing in the vast canopy of the universe the union is complete and the light of wisdom starts flowing in the human body. The light contains everything a human needs to evolve. A human is a part of nature and constantly striving for perfection. This is the natural course of evolution because god is the personification of ultimate perfection.

Evolving by flowing along with the universal force or balancing with Nature reveals the truth automatically. Balance is the key to the powers of nature. There should be a balance between two extremes because the Universe is balancing all extremely contradictory forces, day-night, sun-moon, man-woman, God—Satan. No hectic or tortuous way can lead to the truth. Balancing the body and mind and attuning both to Nature is certainly a step towards realization. Nobody can put down any syllabus or a short cut for self-realization. Yog, Jap, Tap , penance and many more so-called ways can help to control and develop self-discipline but certainly not guarantee the ultimate union.

The basic requirement for attaining realization is Truth i.e. to be truthful on the three planes of Mansa, Vacha, Karmana (thought, word and deed). A person who is truthful on these three planes naturally gets guidance from the Supreme. It just flows spontaneously to the person who is balanced in emotions, tolerant, patient, humble, fearless, confident, satisfied, spreads happiness always, has speech full of love and compassion. Such a person becomes a perfect channel for cosmic energy that symbolizes the cosmic Mother. That is why Nature is called Mother Nature. She is the best guru . She just gives and shares her bounties without any commercial calculation. The human body has built-in remote controls for all mental and physical ailments. We only need to know how to operate these. Eighty percent of all diseases are the outcome of mental and physical abuse. Ill- balanced and unnatural ways of life cause the malfunctioning of hormonal glands. Hormonal secretions are the regulators of the body and mind.

These regulators operate properly only if we are tuned to Nature. When we strain our relations with Nature by living an artificial life, there is an imbalance which causes the accumulation of toxins in the body. These toxins are to be removed from the body by thorough cleansing. Yoga helps to detoxify our body and regulate hormonal secretions, thus channelling our life force towards spirituality. Yoga is thus just not twisting the body to perform certain asanas or postures but balancing the mind and body, making it more receptive to the universal life force pouring from the Supreme Self. Hence, be truthful, do your duty and love all, along with a few asanas daily to keep yourself on the path of evolution.

Remember always whatever we send forth on the waves of thought and deed in the universe will definitely boomerang. Our miseries, sorrows and diseases are all the results of our deeds. Our world is the creation of our thoughts. We tend to blame others or circumstances for our failures and miseries. Our mind - a product of our environment and worldly education - wonderfully advocates for all our sins and wrong deeds. The interference of the so-called knowledge stops the natural flow of consciousness, which is ever truthful.

miseries are Tap, granted to us by the Supreme for our evolution. We should be grateful for these because they provide us an opportunity for penance without leaving our homes. There is no need to go to the jungles for tap, these sorrows are forms of tapasya , we should bear them like truthful warriors and we will come out victorious as good individuals. The Supreme intelligence wants us to evolve naturally by acquiring perfection.

Yogeshwar Shri Krishna teaches us everything in the Geeta. The Geeta is not just another granth. It is a Mahamantra for attaining the status of God . Krishna has shown various paths for achieving this and Yoga is one of them, but along with this other natural qualities are to be practised also. The ultimate condition for attaining realization is total surrender. Oh! What bliss this total surrender is. The Supreme has its own mechanism, which organizes everything for a truthful yogi in such a manner that it strengthens the vertical path of the final union. This intelligence knows what we deserve. It is only interference of our so-called educated mind that creates further problems for ourselves. We get what we are capable of through the channels chosen by the Supreme.

We should learn yoga from a guru who is leading a Yogic life and not from a person who himself is leading an untruthful life and teaching yoga for the sake of teaching! Everyone has his own pace of evolution depending on his conscious awareness. Practising yoga and simultaneously correcting a commercial, calculative and artificial lifestyle can help us accomplish the aim of human life. It can evoke tremendous strength. It can develop mind power to the extent that one starts getting direct signals and instructions from the cosmic energy. One then becomes a medium to carry on the task assigned by the Supreme. There are no coincidences in life. All is predestined and definitely has a message. Once we start communicating with the reality of the universal life force we can channelise our life force for spreading love, truth and light. The world seems to be a beautiful place to live in. Everything starts falling into place. The heart is filled with the truth that the whole world is a family. We are all from one source, sparks of the same light. Vasudhaiv Kutumbkam becomes a reality. The joy of being a human being is realized. A feeling of abundance and gratitude oozes from the aura affecting the surroundings.

Enough work has been done on Yoga and the other paths of enlightenment. The human race already has had an overdose of knowledge. Volumes have been written by so many learned people, the libraries are full of them.

Now the wheel of time is turning and all we need is Wisdom. The wisdom which has no label of religion. That which will prepare us for a new age. Only consciously aware people will evolve towards success, perfection and total bliss for mankind. This is the truth.

Yoga has eight steps for self-realization. Of these two are most important. These need to be mastered before heading towards the other six because without these the asanas will end up being just mere exercises to keep the body fit.

The first two steps are called Yam and Niyam . These need to be followed internally for preparing oneself for the higher consciousness.

Yam contains five disciplines:

Ahimsa — means not giving pain to anyone through speech, deed and mind
Satya — to be always truthful
Asteya — not to get attracted by the wealth of others, or get affected by what others have
Aparigraha — unnecessary collection of luxuries or attachment to collections

Brahmacharya — natural discipline of the body

Niyam also dictates five disciplines
Sauch - cleanliness of the body, mind and soul
Santosh — or contentment in every aspect of life
Tap — to bear all pains and hurts bravely and be unaffected by them, which means, bearing everything with peace

Swadhayay — constant learning by self meditation

Samarpan — total surrender but not complacency. Doing everything that comes our way with all our mental and physical capacities i.e. living the moment to perfection.

These are the prerequisites for yoga and are to be mastered to attain the next step. The other six steps of yoga are: Asanas, Pranayam, Pratihaar, Dhayan, Dharana, Samadhi.

Yoga - Beyond The Body And Mind
Times Of India