The Process of Yoga : 3-9. Swami Krishnananda.

Chinmaya Mission :

The 15th Chinmaya Inspirational Yatra traveled from Niagara to India with 35 yatris for 15 days. For some participants, it was their first visit to their motherland. The yatra was meticulously organized by Vijay and Vivek from  London - Canada. The yatris visited Shri Krishna's holy cities of Vrindavan, Mathura, and Gokul, with the last stop being Govardhan parikrama, which was done via e-Rickshaw. The yatris were then hosted by Chinmaya Mission Prayagraj Ashram, where Swami Gangeshananda imparted the everlasting knowledge of purushartha as a true bhakta from Bhagwatam. Brni. Shashwati Chaitanya also delivered discourses on Bharat's devotion to Lord Rama in Ayodhakanda (Ramcharitramanas). Immersed in Bhakti marg, the yatris then experienced miracles of Guru Kripa.

The yatra concluded with a visit to Kashi Vishwanath temple and Ganga aarti. The members were fortunate to be part of this yatra and express their sincere gratitude to the Guru-shishya-parampara.

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Wednesday, April 12, 2023. 06:00. 

Chapter 3: Recognising the Independent Status of Things-9.

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The objects and the persons in the world have a capacity to feel in the subliminal level. There is a level of our personality which is deeper than the conscious level, and we begin to feel, unconsciously though, the presence of a factor that is deeper than the conscious level. Often we are automatically attracted or repelled even without our conscious mind functioning. There is hatred at first sight, just as there is love at first sight. Suddenly we are repelled by a person or an object, without knowing the cause thereof. The reason is that there is a prehensive or subtle faculty of feeling in ourselves which is deeper and more profound than our conscious level, and that is the factor of unity in us overcoming the pressure of the surface activity of the conscious mind.

All this is very difficult to understand, and more difficult to practise. Yoga is not a joke. No one has succeeded in it. It is very difficult to succeed, and we cannot see God-realised souls in large numbers because self-control is the hardest of things to achieve. No one can be a master of oneself and, therefore, no one can be a master of others. Unless we have subdued ourselves, we cannot subdue other people and other things. We want mastery over everything, while we are slaves of our own passions and prejudices. Kama, krodha, lobha, the erroneous ways of judging things, psychological entanglements and tensions, all harass us so much from within that we are far from the demand or the requirement of the yogic practice. The practice of yoga is a sacrifice of the whole life. It is not a hobby that we have in our life, for a few hours of the day. It is a total dedication of our personality right from the beginning, from top to bottom, and there is nothing else for us to do. And when this is undergone as a process of discipline, we become different persons altogether, even in our social life.

At this level of profundity of knowledge, the Guru's instructions are very essential and, I have to reiterate, in matters super-sensible we should not take the law in our own hands. In many matters which are not amenable even to logical understanding, the scripture is the guide; the masters and the adepts who have trodden the path are guides, because at this present moment we cannot see the dangers that are ahead of us. There are pitfalls and hazards that we have to face on the path of yoga. Because yoga is a process of self-control, a withdrawal of the social relationship that we establish in an empirical manner, and the assertion of the original scientific, philosophical and spiritual status of things, we have to undergo a process of dying altogether. Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj used to say, “Yoga is dying to live.” To live in Eternity, we have to die to the temporal process. Thus, we have to become very strict in controlling and subduing ourselves in thinking and understanding the objects of the world in their proper perspective, and never mistake things for what they are not.

The process of yoga is also the process of spirituality. It is to recognise the spirit in things, as I said on the very first day. To recognise the spirit or the Atman in things, the Selfhood in things, the scientific status in things, is also to recognise the highest reality, not only in ourselves but in all creation. For this, the first and foremost thing that we have to do is to employ every method possible to subdue the passions within us. The Rakshasa vrittis, or the Asuric, demoniacal features within us, have to be put down by the force of self-discipline, by the means of japa, concentration, meditation, self-analysis or vichara, study of scriptures, service of the Guru, and beyond everything, an ardent longing for the liberation of the spirit. Unless we actually manifest in ourselves an honest yearning for freedom or moksha, the power to subdue ourselves, the power of self-discipline, cannot come to us.

The most difficult of things is self-discipline. We can discipline others but we cannot discipline ourselves because there is no means of controlling ourselves, while there are methods of controlling others. We have laws and regulations to subdue other people, but what is the law and regulation that we have to employ in controlling or subduing ourselves? Nothing. There is no instrument conceivable. The mind itself is the master and the slave. It has to control itself by methods employed by itself, varying in different proportions at different times in the process of its evolution.

Ultimately, we have no other duty in the world than to subdue ourselves for the sake of mastery. The highest achievement, the greatest fulfilment in life is the consequence or the result of the greatest relinquishment, the greatest renunciation. The more we renounce, the more we practice self-abnegation, the more we practice austerity or tapas, the greater is our power and the more is the control that we can exert on things. And finally, to the extent we have achieved mastery over ourselves, we have achieved mastery over the world also. The highest yoga is supreme mastery – supreme Self-mastery – and in this mastery of the Self, we have at once also mastered the whole world. This is because, as I said, the world and the Self are two emanations from the same source. When one is subdued, the other is automatically subdued. They are parallel lines of movement. When there is Self-control, there is also world-control. When there is Self-knowledge, there is also world-knowledge. When there is Self-realisation, there is also world-realisation. All these things take place simultaneously; they are not two different things.

To be continued

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