Monday, March 18, 2013

(March 18,2013) Freeing Ourselves from Entanglements by Swami Krishnananda


When we are walking in a thick jungle, it is possible that our clothes may get caught in a thorny bush, and many thorns may be pulling us from different directions. What do we do then? We stop and very slowly try to remove the thorns, one by one. We do not pull our clothes by force, lest they should tear. Perhaps we will remove the smaller thorns first, because their prick is mild; and we will try to remove the bigger thorns that have gone deep later on, gradually, stage by stage. This is exactly what to do in the practice of yoga.

Our entanglements are manifold. Our consciousness that has lodged itself in this body is entangled in many types of relationship – some mild, some intense, some proximate, some remote, some visible, some invisible, and so on. Every step that we take in yoga is a very cautious step, and the step should be taken in such a way that it need not be retraced. Also, we will not be successful if we are in a great hurry, because hurry is caused by a lack of proper understanding of the prevailing conditions.

Viveka is proper knowledge of the entire conditions and circumstances of the case. Just as in a medical examination or a legal procedure all the circumstances of the case have to be known thoroughly before any step is taken in rectifying the issue, so is the case with yoga.

When a person is angry, he becomes an embodiment of anger. Therefore, there is no question of investigating into the causes of anger when we are already in a fit of rage. We do not examine the conditions of anger, and then get angry. Therefore, disentanglement of ourselves from that condition becomes a practical impossibility. That is why the practice of yoga is so difficult.

No step in the practice of yoga can be regarded as unimportant, just as in a ladder no rung can be regarded as unnecessary. The lowest rung in a ladder is as important as the highest, because we have to climb on every rung of the ladder.

So, it is necessary to start with the outermost entanglement of our nature, and gradually go into the internal steps – as has been suggested by masters like Sage Patanjali. Our outermost entanglement is social, and then comes the personal entanglements; higher than that is entanglement with the physical nature; lastly, there are entanglements which are transempirical, which are supernatural. Everything in nature grows gradually. The tree grows gradually from a seed. Food is digested in the stomach gradually, slowly, systematically, methodically. Everything takes its own time, and there is a meaning in the time anything takes for working out its purpose. So, the outermost of our entanglements is the first consideration. Many a time, as I mentioned, we cannot know what our entanglements are.

Hence, to repeat again, there should be no haste in the practice of yoga. There should be a very cautious movement in the proper direction under the guidance of an expert (Guru). The involvements have to be gradually undone without forcing ourselves to do anything against our will, because anything that is done against one’s will may, one day or the other, become a source of revolt from one’s own self.

So before we try to do what we are supposed to do in a state of health, we try to diagnose our illness and remove it. That is the ethical discipline of the yamas, or the moral culture that it involves. The whole building is resting upon it, and we cannot have a beautiful structure on a shaky foundation. About this we have to think more deeply.

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