The Yoga of The Infinite
“By
God’s grace alone is the tendency towards the Absolute explicable.”
The grand destination, this
wondrous structure of the Universe, the goal of life is not easy of an approach.
Do not be under the notion that you can get this blissful experience in a
trice. Awake! Arise! Stop not till the goal is reached! Seek refuge with men of
wisdom. Know it then, by surrender to them.
Subtle is this path, difficult
is this way. It is invisible, and hence hard in every sense of the term. You
cannot see the track of birds in the sky nor can you see the track of fish in
water. So is the path of knowledge. It cannot be seen, though it is there. Inasmuch
as there is no reaching or attaining to it in the physical
sense, there is also no movement towards it; therefore there is no path leading
to it. Thus, the whole of the difficulty is placed before us. When there is no
way to it, how will we attain it?
By intellect or mere
intelligence this goal cannot be reached. By mere human effort it is not to be
attained. Sometimes it looks that the whole thing is absolutely impossible. “How
does this knowledge arise in the Jiva?” The great Acharya Shankara merely said,
“It is Ishvara’s Sankalpa—grace of
God.”
Any disturbance of any kind in
any part of the personality of an individual will be a disqualification for
this path. Any type of agitation is to be avoided. We have agitations of
various kinds in our personality. There is bodily disturbance, pranic disturbance, sensory, mental
and intellectual disturbance. All these urges have to be subdued. This is
described in a single word, 'self-control'.
The disturbances within our
personalities are mostly due to our disagreement with the circumstances
outside. This resentment is sometimes expressed in speech and action, but
oftentimes it is hidden in the mind itself. We are always in a state of
resentment. We put on what Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj used to call a castor oil
face, always. We are not pleased.
The assumptions of our
personality may be regarded as the main obstacle to yoga. Our whole life is one
of pre-conceived ideas. We are not and we cannot be free from these weaknesses because
this defect is ingrained in the very root of our personality. We are born with
it. Misconception, wrong understanding, not knowing the truth of things before
us is designated as ajnana, which is
supposed to breed aviveka or the
mistaking of one thing for another thing. Aviveka gives
rise to ahamkara or egoism, the sense of
importance of one’s own self. Due to ahamkara there is
the rise of raga and dvesha, or love and hatred. This
pair, love and hate, like and dislike, breeds action, karma, of a selfish character, to
gain what is wanted and to avoid what is not wanted. This karma, this selfish action, gives
rise to future births and deaths in a series of transmigratory lives. This is
the sorrow of life. This is called the chain or the linkage of the bondage of
the individual.
The subdual of these impulses
from within, leading us the wrong way, is called self-control. Our soul within
may be compared to the Lord seated in a chariot. This body of ours, this
individuality, this personality, may be regarded as a chariot in which is
seated the soul- consciousness. The chariot is driven by a charioteer, a
driver. The intellect in us is the charioteer. The reins are the operations of
the mind. The horses which pull or drag this chariot are the senses—the eyes,
ears, etc. The roads along which this chariot is driven by the charioteer with
the help of the horses are the objects of the senses. All this is made possible
by a joint activity of the Atman, the senses and the mind. This is a very
concise and beautiful description, symbolic, dramatic, full of meaning and
profundity given in the Katha Upanishad. This chariot is to be driven right to
the Abode of Vishnu—tad vishnoh paramam padam.
So, the charioteer, the
intellect, the understanding, the rationality in us is the primeval faculty
which determines the extent of our progress in this effort, called the practice
of yoga. What is required of a seeker is the strength of integrity and
character. Strength of the body is the capacity to endure hardship—that is
called strength. To what extent can you bear the pairs of opposites? From that
you can know the strength of your personality. Now, the personality is not
merely the body, but the entire vesture of the personality, the pancha-koshas—annamaya, pranamaya, manomaya,
vijnanamaya, and anandamaya. The
chariot should be systematically built, harmoniously constructed, strong in its
make and fit to bear the wear and tear of the motion towards the ultimate goal
of life. For this purpose, we have to observe what we call the golden mean of conduct, which is
beautifully described in the sixth chapter of the Bhagavadgita. Moderation in
our conduct, balance in our behavior, harmony in our activity, is a
pre-condition to yoga.
The objects of sense appear as
impediments on account of our wrong approach to them. They become friends when
our understanding of them is perfect. Even snakes are charmed and controlled by
snake-charmers. Even lions are tamed. What to say of other objects in the
world!
The Atman is your friend. The
Atman also is your enemy. How could Atman be an enemy? All law is a terror when
we do not want to obey it. But law is a protector when we participate in its
requirements. The world is the law of God. God speaks to us through the various
things of the world. When we gaze, we gaze at the face of God. There are no
objects of sense. They do not exist. The objects are nothing but Spirit,
projected in space and time. God sensualized is the world. The Absolute specialized
and temporalized is this creation. There is no separate world. There is no
separate creation. There are no separate objects of sense. The world should
neither tempt us nor reject us.
Many of us, seekers,
aspirants, have not the goal of our life clearly pictured before our minds. We
do not know whether we have to realize God first, or serve the world first.
Many seekers think that service of humanity is to come first, and realization
of God afterwards. Sometimes we think that mankind itself is God, and service
of man is service of God, and so we begin to identify the goal of our life with
the activities of our daily life. We appear to be pursuing the goal while we
are actually pursuing what is pleasant to the deeper needs of this bodily and
ego-ridden personality. It is impossible to truly aspire for God from the
entirety of our being. But to understand what God is and what love of God is,
God’s grace alone is necessary. The Guru has to bless you. It requires much
effort.
The concept of God, the notion
of the goal of life before us, is the ultimate determining factor in the
success of our practice of yoga, and the Kathopanishad, in this passage on
self-control—atmanam rathinam viddhi, etc.—makes
it clear that this chariot of the body can go hither and thither if the
charioteer lets loose the reins and allows the horses to move according to
their whims and fancies. Our intellect can be blurred and clouded by the force
exerted upon it by the senses. The senses are very powerful and their power is
such that their activities can produce an impact on the mind and the intellect
to such an extent that the mind can think and the intellect can understand
things only in terms of the senses. The Upanishad warns us against this fall.
The Atman, the mind and the senses should be in unison— atmendriyamanoyukta. They should
not work in their own way, independently. That is, the activity of the senses,
the thoughts of the mind and the needs of the Spirit should be in conformity
with one another. They should not be at variance with each other.
The Atman wants nothing. It
has known everything. Therefore to desire anything through our actions will be
contrary to the requirements of the Atman. Though the actions are directed
outwardly, their aim is the inward realization of the Atman. The movement is
outward through action, but the goal is inward which is the Self. The Atman
has, really, no within and without. When you move to the Infinite outwardly,
you reach also the Infinite which is inward. This yoga of the Katha Upanishad
is not jnana yoga, bhakti yoga or karma yoga. It is the yoga of the
Infinite.
Excerpts from:
The Yoga of The Infinite - The Secret of The
Katha Upanishad by Swami Krishnananda
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