CHAPTER ONEYoga: An Introduction All the great teachers of humanity, at all
times and in all climes – the vedic Rishis, Zoroaster, Mahavir, Buddha, Christ,
Mohammed, Nanak, Kabir, Baba Farid, Hazrat Bahu, Shamas Tabrez, Maulana Rumi,
Tulsi Sahib, Swamiji and many others – gave to the world but one sadhna or
spiritual discipline. As God in one, the God-way too cannot but be one. The
true religion or the way back to God is of God’s own making and hence it is the
most ancient as well as the most natural way, with no artifice or artificiality
about it. In it's practical working,
the system needs the guidance of an adept or a teacher well versed in the
theory and practice of Para Vidya, the science of the Beyond, as it is called,
for it lies Beyond the grasp of the mind and of the sense-faculties. Where the
worlds philosophies end, there the true religion starts. The scriptures texts
gives us, at best some account of the path so far as it can be put into
imperfect words, but cannot take us to the path nor can they guide us on the
path. The spiritual Path is essentially a practical
Path. It is only the spirit – disencumbered and depersonalized – that can
undertake the spiritual journey. The inner man, the soul in man, has to rise
above body-consciousness before it can traverse into higher consciousness or
the consciousness of the cosmos and of the Beyond. All this and more becomes
possible through the Surat Shabd Yoga or the union of “self” in man (surat or
consciousness) with the Shabd or Sound
Principle, through the grace of some Master-soul. In order to have a clear idea of the teaching of the Master's from the hoary past right to the present time, it would be worth our while to study the Nature and extent of the Surat Shabd Yoga and it's teachings in relation to the various yogic systems as taught by the ancients, and also the principles of Advaitism as propounded by Shankaracharya. The term yoga is derived from the Sanskrit root yuj which means meeting, union, communion consummation, abstraction, realization, absorption or metaphysical philosophizing of the highest type, that promise to bring close proximity between the soul and the Oversoul (Jiva-atma and Parmatma or Brahman). Patanjali, the reputed Father of the yoga system, after the fashion of his progenitor Gaudapada defines yoga as elimination of the vritis or modulations that always keep surging in the mind-stuff or chit in the form of ripples. He calls it chit vriti nirodha or the suppression of the vritis, i.e., clearing the mind of the mental oscillations. According to Yajnavalkya, yoga means to effect, or to bring about, at-one-ment of the individual soul with Ishwar or Brahman. The yogins generally define it as the enshrouding sheaths in which it is enveloped in it's physical existence. Sant Mat or the Path of the Master, far from denying any of these objectives of yoga, accept and endorses in full all that is said above and in some measure, agrees to the aims and ends thereof, but regards them at best as mere pointers to the goal. It does not rest there, however, but goes Beyond and tells us of the “Way In” to the heavenly Home of the Father, the spiritual journey that the spirit has to undertake from death to life immortal (Fana to Baqa), by rising above self-analysis and withdrawal of the spirit current from the body and concentrating them at the seat of the soul (Tisra Til), and then generally passing through the intermediary centers Beyond Bunk-naal, the inverted, tube-like passage, until it reaches the final stage of consummation and attains at-one-ment with it's source. Here one might ask the question as to the need for union between the soul and the oversoul, When the two are essentially the same and are already embedded one in the other. Theoretically speaking, this is correct, but how many of us are consciously aware of this and work practically in the light and life and of this knowledge and awareness? On the other hand, the soul is always following the lead of the mind, the mind that of the senses, and the senses that of the sense-objects, with the result that the soul, by constant association with the mind and the senses for ages upon ages, has completely lost it's own individual (undivided) identify and has for all practical purpose become identified with the mind. It is this veil of ignorance which has come in between the soul and the Oversoul that has to be removed to enable the soul to come into own, to realize it's inherent Nature and then to seek it's real home and gain life eternal. All religions were originally designed by man solely with this end in view but unfortunately in the course of time man gradually drifts away from reality and becomes the slave of his own handicrafts and religions, as religions deteriorate into institutionalized churches and temples, rigid codes of moral and social conduct, lacking the living touch and the pulsating life-impulse of their founders. “I know no disease of the soul but ignorance,” says Ben Jonson. How to remove the veil of ignorance is the problem of problems. We have allowed it to grow into an impervious rock too hard to be blasted. Still, the sages have provided various means to rend the otherwise impenetrable veil, such as Jnana Yoga, Bhakti yoga and Karma Yoga and other methods. The Light of true knowledge, as visualized by Jnana Yoga, may be able to dispel the darkness of ignorance, just as a lighted candle may dispel darkness from a dark room. By Bhakti Yoga one may be able to change the course of hatred, separateness. And duality into that of love for all, at-one-ment and oneness with all living creatures and thereby be established in the all embracing love for all. Finally, by means of Karma Yoga one may be able to root out feelings of selfishness, egocentricity, self-aggrandizement and self-love and engage in charitable deeds of philanthropy and similar activities, which may be beneficial to mankind in general, and acquire fellow feelings and love for all, see the reflex of the universe within his own self and that of his self in all others, and realize ultimately the principle of the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. These are, in the main, the three paths or rather three aspects of an integrated path of head, heart and hand, whereby one may achieve the desired end, the union of the soul with the Over soul. They may for convenience be briefly termed the process of self-mastery, self-sublimation and self-sacrifice, leading ultimately to “Cosmic consciousness,” or awareness of the all-pervading Reality as the basis of all that exists. The objective in each case is the same
and each aims at the same target, though in the initial elementary stages each
of them starts from dualistic consideration. It is from dualism that one
starts, and in non dualism (advaitism) that one ends; and for this one may take
to the path of divine knowledge, of universal love and devotion or of selfless
service of humanity. The target ever remains the
same, though the archers aiming at it be so many. -RAJEB In Jnana Yoga, for instance, one has through to
develop the faculty of discrimination, so as to be able to distinguish between a
gyani and gyan, i.e., ignorance and true knowledge, the illusory
character of Maya and the reality of Brahman. When he is convinced of the
latter he gets glimpses of nothing but Brahman pervading everywhere in it's limitless essence, immanent in all
forms and colors which take their design and hue from that essence alone. this
perception is the dawning of true knowledge and divine wisdom. In bhakti yoga, like wise, we begin with the
twin principles of bhagat and bhagwant, or the devotee and the deity, and the
devotee gradually loses his little self and sees his deity all pervading, and
his own self expands so as to embrace the totality as does his own isht-deva.
“whoever enters a salt mine, tends to become salt.” As you think, so you
become. Again, in karma yoga, one may enter the karma
kshetra or the field of actions, under some impelling force to begin with, but
in course of time he learns the value of selfless karma. Larmas when performed
for their own sake without any attachment to the fruit therefore, cease to be
binding, and by force of habit one gradually becomes neh karma (actionless in
action), or a still point in the ever revolving wheel of life. in this way,
when one from the circumstances of his being reaches the center of his being,
he acquires inaction in action and is freed from the binding effect of karmas. |