Divine Life
Society Publication: The Eye Of The
Hurricane by Swami Chidananda
If you want to bring about a
state of inward spiritual health leading to illumination, bliss and peace,
there is no option but to bring about a total transformation of your psyche.
The psyche must change its nature. Its entire behavior pattern must be replaced
by a fresh and a new behavior pattern—one which will become the antidote for
the spiritual ignorance within, one which will become the therapy and the cure
for the spiritual disease of non-awareness. The wonderful science that our
ancients evolved to bring about this inner transformation of the psyche is the
Science of Yoga. It is the science of restoration of the spiritual health of
man. By a series of graded steps marvelously
conceived, the human being gradually succeeds in changing the entire nature of
the mind, making the outgoing mind go inward. This is done through philosophy,
through right inquiry, through recognizing the hollowness of objects and realizing
the folly of clinging to them.
The mind begins to say, “No, I
will no longer continue to be a fool. I will come into my own. Quietly I shall
move among these objects of this universe as a master, in a state of
detachment. I have now known the real nature of things; I shall no longer be
fooled by them”. Thus, through discrimination, through observation, through the
experiences of others, and sometimes through one’s own bitter experiences, the
mind gives up its folly and gradually consents to go inward. But then, the
restless nature of the mind is constantly there. How is this tackled?
Now, there is close
inter-relationship of the physical body, the breath of the nostrils, the inner
Prana and the mind. Knowing this inner relationship, the system of Yoga was
evolved. By imposing certain principles of conduct upon the seeking soul,
gradually the outer behavior of the body was transformed, changed; negative
patterns gave place to positive behavior by the adoption of certain principles
of conduct in the first two stages of Yoga. The discipline of making the body
absolutely steady and rock-like was the practice of the third stage. After
this, one went deeper into the inner man.
The biological, the vital
aspect of man is called the Pranamaya Kosha or the sheath of Prana. A
regulation of this sheath was brought about, and through it, the mind was
reached. So by steadying the body and harmonizing the Prana, gradually the
restless nature of the mind was mastered, overcome and subdued completely. In
that state of subdued mind, indrawn mind, the third obstacle of objectification
was overcome and transcended by presenting before the mind a specific focal
point or a concept of the eternal or a great ideal. The genius of the Indian
sages was that they recognized the limitations of the normal human individual,
even of those upon the path questing for Reality. So they said, “Yes, in the
beginning you may have as your focal point a personal conception of the
Impersonal Reality. You can meditate upon God as a person, as a being endowed
with love, grace, compassion, kindness, forgiveness, beauty, etc.”
They gave what is known as the
Sakara Saguna Brahman, the personified aspect of the impersonal Divine. This
now became the object, the inner object. By training the mind to focus upon
such an object, its inveterate tendency of objectification upon earthly things
was overcome and then the mind became unified. It became completely divinized,
because the focal point, the object upon which the mind was focused, was a
divine object.
So there came about this
transformation of the entire psyche from outward to inward, from restlessness
to serenity, from a state of dispersal and constant oscillation to
concentration upon one thing, and, from the objectification of earthly objects
to the objectification of the Divine Reality or the Ideal or the Beloved of
your heart. It is this discipline that, ultimately carried to its logical
conclusion, became deep and intensified. In that state of total absorption,
absolute, one-pointed concentration of the mind, the supreme mystical state
comes. When the mind disappears, the mind becomes no mind.
If the scientist were to
succeed in taking away from fire its burning property, then could you call it
fire? You see, it is a fire that is no fire. So, by this total transformation
of the mind-principle, the mind becomes no mind. It becomes to you the royal
road for ascent into super-consciousness, the state where the mind ceases to
exist. There it is that the inner being becomes freed completely from its disease
of non-awareness, its disease of self-forgetfulness, its spiritual slumber of
ignorance and nescience. Then it comes into its own with the rising of the sun
of Reality, with the glorious dawn of the light of Divine Wisdom and the mortal
becomes immortal here and now. That is the Great Goal. We have within our grasp
the ability to attain it.
Yoga which was the common
property of humanity was taken, hidden away, monopolized and secretly guarded.
Now a new era is dawning, an age is come when man is being awakened into a
state of spiritual awareness. It is an age of wakefulness, an age of spiritual
awareness. We are now moving towards a state of spiritual health. Yoga is the
inner therapy where a total transformation of the inner psychical nature, the
mind nature, is brought about in a systematic and a scientific way. The mind
loses its nature and thus becomes no mind. They say that mind absorbed in the Reality
is itself liberation. Mind turned towards the Eternal and absorbed in It is
liberation.
Excerpts from:
How To Transform The Nature Of The Psyche: The Eye Of The
Hurricane by Swami ChidanandaArchives - Blog
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