from Chapter 2 -“Yoga as a universal
science” by Swami Krishnananda
The stages of Yoga,
as a practice, are actually in direct correspondence with the stages marked by
the descent of the soul from God, which now become, in the reverse direction,
the stages of the ascent of the soul to God or the Supreme Reality.
The whole of our
experience in this universe is made up of two aspects, namely, Purusha and
Prakriti, consciousness and matter, the seer and what is seen. The Adhyatma is
the inward perceiving, seeing consciousness; lodged with the individuality of
the seer. The Adhibhuta is the universe of objects, or what appears as the
material expanse before us.
So, beyond the
Adhyatma and the Adhibhuta, there is the Adhidaiva. The one infinite Being or
the Adhidaiva appears as the two, namely, Purusha and Prakriti, or the Adhyatma
and the Adhibhuta, the subject and the object. But it remains yet as a unity. There
is only one God and this superintending Principle is the Adhi Devata, the very,
very essential Reality without which no experience can be accounted for.
Now, normally, when
a member of a family is away from home, he does not cease to be a human being.
He is still the same, though he is not in the family. But, here, we have ceased
to be, in quality, the thing that we were originally. Otherwise, we would be
thinking like God in our little fractional bodies.
So, on the one hand,
there is a total forgetfulness of our relationship to the Whole. This is Avarana.
On the other hand, there is what is called Vikshepa
or the distractedness of consciousness, which projects itself vehemently
outward in space and time, and sees Reality as if it is outside consciousness. This
reversal can be described as something similar to the reversal that we see in
the reflection of our own body in a mirror. There, our right appears as the
left, and our left appears as the right. Similarly, because of the reversal
that has taken place on our separation from the Supreme, what is inside appears
as being outside. The universe, the world, is not outside us; it is impossible
that the nature of things can be external to consciousness.
Any consciousness of
one's being separate from what one sees is called the individual sense or
Asmita or self-sense. Grossly put, it is what we know as Ahamkara or egoism.
The isolation from the Supreme is accompanied simultaneously with the reversal
of perception, which means to say, that the universe appears as an outside
object; and the universe appears as an object which is material, that is,
bereft of consciousness. The truth is that the world is not outside us. This
circumstance of the universe being outside us, or our being outside the
universe, is a false situation. The desire to possess is a desire to unite.
But, because of the reversal that has taken place, this union is not possible.
The reflection cannot unite itself with the original, because the two are
basically, qualitatively, different.
Yoga tells us that
to know a thing, one has to be the thing, and
not merely look at the thing. Yoga is not a contact physically with anything.
It is a union of being with Being.
We rotate through
the three experiences of sleeping, dreaming and waking. These three states are
the modified conditions of the individual consciousness. They are capable of a
further division into what are usually known as the sheaths, or the
Koshas.
This is the descent
that has taken place. We have come to the body. We look at the body as a very
hard and solid substance. We have come down lower and lower; firstly separating
ourselves, then looking outside, then manufacturing the three states of
consciousness, then the five sheaths or the
Koshas. Down further still, is the urge to connect with the other
individuals (social life).
Yoga does not
require one to renounce realities, but to transcend lower realities for the
purpose of gaining the higher. It is attachment to things that is to be
renounced, and not the things as such. But, basically, it is an absence of
taste for things, which is called renunciation, and not an absence of the
physical proximity of objects. If taste remains, true renunciation has not
taken place, even if the objects are left physically far behind. Here, the
problem is a problem of consciousness. The whole of Yoga or philosophy is a
study of consciousness ultimately.
==
Continue to read
“Man’s separation from
God” by Swami Krishnananda
“20
Spiritual Instructions” by Swami Sivananda from DLSUSA.blogspot.com
“Freeing
ourselves from entanglements” by Swami Krishnananda
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