The Process of Yoga : 1.7. Swami Krishnananda.

 

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Tuesday, November  10, 2020. 06:01. AM.

Chapter 1: The Spirit of Life - 7..

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The right manner of action is the technique of action; and the technique of action is to be known. If that is not known, even though our action might be continued for years and years and even aeons, we will find ourselves in almost the same condition, stagnating. Why? Really it is true that we have done many things in our life. We have passed through various incarnations. Can we say that we have not done anything? Every one of us has done much, not merely in this life but in many lives that we have lived. But where are we today in spite of all that we have done? We are nowhere better. We all have a common complaint. My complaints are your complaints also. Whatever is my difficulty, essentially, is your difficulty also. Ultimately, it is all universal suffering and disappointment in spite of everyone having done one's best through ages and ages of incarnations.

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This is all because of the fact that this immense amount or quantity of activity has been channelled in a wrong direction. Knowledge was lacking, while effort was plenty. It is like a large engineering feat of building a bridge a few miles long across a wild river. What can a child do, though it may put forth years of efforts to build a bridge across the wild Godavari, Narmada or the Ganges? The child is very honest about it. It wants to build a bridge, and is working for days and days. But it will not succeed in spite of the fact that it has worked hard for days, for months, for years. Nothing will be achieved, because knowledge is lacking. The necessary engineering knowledge is lacking in a child or in a person not trained in that technique. So there is no use merely saying we have worked hard. We must also work hard qualitatively, and not merely quantitatively. Rather, the quality is more important than the quantity. In everything in life, quality supersedes quantity. In the life spiritual, in the life of sadhana, in the life of spiritual effort – more prominently, we should say – quality comes first and quantity afterwards. Quality is the knowledge; quantity is the effort.

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Now, what is the knowledge that we are required to possess? Let us enter into this question. The knowledge that we are to attain is the knowledge of the structure of life. What is life made of? How is it constituted, and how is it that we go on repeating the word ‘life’ without appearing to know anything about it? Who goads us to this fulfilment of the urge to live, though our knowledge of life is next to nothing, almost a nil or a zero? The structure of life, if known, will give us an idea as to the spirit of life and why and how we should live it. And when this is known, we would have known what spirituality is and whether spirituality is to be lived at all – whether it has to become a part of our life at all.

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The structure of life is the crux of the matter. What is life made of? It is made up of many things. We open our eyes and cast a wide glance over the ten directions, and see what life is made of. We look up and see the Sun, the Solar System. We look around and see the horizon, the mountains and the rivers and the cities. And we cast a glance nearer and see our people, our family relations, our society, our government, etc. This is life. Things as they themselves are in their own individual status do not constitute life. Life is the relationship that is there among things. Mr. so and so, Mrs. so and so, that particular thing, this object, taken by itself, himself, herself, is not life. That would be the existence aspect of objects, persons, things, etc. But what matters most is the relationship among things. I suffer or enjoy life in accordance with the qualitative character of my relationship with persons and things. People allow me the advantages of the joys of life or inflict pain on me exactly in accordance with what sort of relationship I have with them or they have with me. So for practical purposes, we should say that life is a sort of relationship rather than the existence as such of persons or things. If everyone and everything is to be merely without any kind of internal relationship, life would be a different thing altogether. But that state of affairs is unthinkable. We have never seen a state of life where relationships are absent. We cannot just be, without establishing some sort of a vital contact with other persons and things.

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To be continued ...

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