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

 

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