The Practice of yoga
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Two
methods to overcome and transcend the mind - Yoga and Jnana
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The Atman is not seen through
the eyes, nor is it perceived through any of the other senses, as it never
becomes an object of itself. It is known only when the centre of personality is
dissolved through the absorption of the factors causing individuality, viz.,
the mind and the intellect, into the Atman. Equanimity of inner vision is the
same as spiritual knowledge, and it cannot be had as long as the mind and the
intellect function in their own fashion. The Atman cannot be sought in external
conditions, but it can be known and realized through a reverting from externals
to eternal being. It is this introversion that enables one to enter into the
very substance of being. This state of spiritual equilibrium is attained when
the five senses of knowledge rest together with the mind, and when the
intellect does not perform its functions of objective knowledge.
Yoga consists in the
withholding of all individual functions, beginning from the physical body and
ending in the intellect, and the directing of the whole energy to the
apperception of consciousness. It is, in other words, a steadying of the power
of consciousness and making it rest in itself, in the state of perfection and
motionlessness. Yoga and Jnana differ
from each other in the sense that the former is the negative process of the
annihilation of personal consciousness, whereas the latter is the positive
realisation and experience of infinite consciousness. In a general sense, Yoga
may include Jnana also, if Yoga is
taken to mean the method of the attainment of the
Brahman.
In the practice of Yoga, one
should become very vigilant, and not become proud or heedless. Yoga comes and
goes. It does not rest for long, unless great care is taken in the maintenance
of that consciousness of Oneness. Yoga is the separation from contact with
pain. In this state, the powers working through the external senses and the
internal senses are made to go back to their source, viz., the power of
Self-consciousness, where they rest in perfect peace. The noise of the senses
ceases, and, as a consequence of this, pain and sorrow also are negated.
Brahman should be conceived of
as existence, between the two logical conceptions of existence and
non-existence. Existence is the correlative of non-existence, and, hence, even
non-existence may appear to have as much validity as existence. But the
conception of non-existence, though logically deducible, is practically
impossible, as the conception of Brahman as non-existence involves the negation
of the consciousness of one's own existence, also. Therefore, Brahman should be
known as existence, though from the highest standpoint this, too, is a limited
conception. As far as the human being is concerned, the conception of existence
is not limited in the ordinary way, because, it is not possible to set
boundaries to existence. The idea of existence leads to the realisation of the
transcendental Truth which includes and goes beyond the ideas of existence and
non-existence.
When all the desires that are
lodged in the heart are cast off, the mortal experiences the Immortal, and one
becomes Brahman, here itself. Moksha
is the realisation of that which exists always and everywhere. Therefore, it
can be realised at any place, provided the obstructions to this realisation are
removed. These obstructions are desires for objective experience. Removal of
desires is the same as the destruction of mind. The realisation of the Self
does not involve a movement towards any external condition, but it is the
extinction and transcendence of personality in the Absolute. It is like a drop
dissolving in the ocean, or rather, the ocean itself becoming aware that it is
ocean.
The Yogavasishtha makes reference to two methods of overcoming and
transcending the mind, which is the stuff of individuality – Yoga and Jnana. Vasishtha defines Yoga as Vrittinirodha or inhibition of psychological functions, and Jnana
as Samyagavekshana or right
perception. Yoga is the process of the evolution of the finite to the Infinite,
consciously and deliberately systematized, and thus accelerated. Yoga is to
know the real relation which man bears to the universe as a whole, and to the
Divine Being which is his Higher Self. In other words, it is to be a friend and
citizen of the whole universe, to feel oneself in all beings, to absorb into
oneself the whole constitution of the universe, to be the Soul of the universe.
Jnana is Samyagavekshana,
or right vision of things. It is to behold the world as it is really, not
merely as it appears to the individual functions of knowledge. It is to fix the
consciousness on the Universal Substance, of which all things are made. Jnana
is the knowledge that the Self is the All, and that All is the Self. This Self
is not the individual subject of knowledge, but the Self of the whole universe,
the Consciousness to which the whole universe can be reduced. Jnana is to
experience nothing objective, nothing external to one's consciousness, and to
have the direct realisation of Eternity and Infinity.
Jnana is the constant awareness of the Immortal Brahman. This
awareness has an empirical as well as an absolute aspect. Empirically, it is
called Brahmabhavana or Brahmabhyasa, which consists in
ceaselessly thinking of and feeling the presence of Brahman, speaking of
Brahman, discoursing with one another on Brahman, and totally resting in the
consciousness of Brahman, in all activities of life. In its absolute aspect, it
is to be merged in Brahman, to be in the state of perpetual Samadhi or Kaivalya, to be perfectly free from the
consciousness of a second to oneself, to glory in the Absolute, and to be
supremely blessed. This latter stage follows the former logically, when all the
impressions of past actions are experienced and destroyed, when the body drops,
and the individual enters the Absolute, as a river enters the ocean. This
'entering the ocean' is, of course, an analogy from the human standpoint, for,
really, there was never a river, never is, and never will be. There was, is and
will be only the ocean, and the ocean has to know that it is. Only the Absolute
can be, and is, and liberation is the consciousness of the Absolute. Yoga and Jnana aim at this supreme beatitude.
Continue to read:
Kathopanishad:
The Practice of Yoga by Swami Krishnananda
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