(July 21,2014) Spiritual Message for the Day – In Tune with the Cosmic Vibration by Sri Swami Krishnananda

 In Tune with the Cosmic Vibration

Divine Life Society Publication: - Yoga as a Universal Science by Sri Swami Krishnananda

The Om that we speak of is not merely a sound in the ordinary sense. It is not some noise that we make. Om appears to be a sound only in its outermost expression, in its Vaikhari form, but in its internal structure, it has a deeper relationship with things. The whole universe is vibration ultimately, and not made up of objects, segregated from one another. Modern science tells us today that the whole universe is energy. There are no objects. There are no brick walls. There is not even the sun, moon and stars. There is only a continuum of equilibrated, spread-out energy everywhere, a four-dimensional continuum, they say. What is all this but a vibration that they are speaking of? 

The universe originated from a vibration, The terms Nada, Bindu and Kala which one hears of in Tantric and Hatha Yoga circles are only certain ways of mentioning the same process of the manifestation of this original impersonal vibration gradually solidifying itself, condensing more and more into concrete forms of visible objects, bodies and personalities. So, the universe is a vibration, and not a bundle of things, persons and objects. In the ultimate analysis, the universe does not exist at all as it appears to our eyes; because, ultimately, in the Samadhi state, it vanishes like a dream. And great scientists today have gone even to that farthest limit of saying that the world is only a thought. It is not even a vibration in any externalised manner. The vibrations are only mathematical concepts. A terrifying conclusion, indeed, for a person who cannot understand what all these mean! 

Om is cosmic essentially, and it is not merely a sound produced through the mouth. The so-called sound that the Yoga student manifests, through his vocal organs as the chant of Om, is only an attempt on his part to set himself in tune with the cosmic vibration that is already there, even before he was born into this world.

All Yoga is nothing but an endeavour, on our part, to set ourselves in tune with things as they really are. In, Yoga, we do not try to modify things, or change things, in any way whatsoever. Everything is perfect and all right in itself. The creation of God is complete in every minute detail. It does not require any change. But, the change is required on our side, because we are distracted individuals, completely severed from this harmony of the Whole; and, divinity, spirituality, religion, Yoga, whatever they may call it, is nothing but the art of our self-attunement with this universal set-up of things. By the chant of Om, we put forth an effort to subdue the distractions of our mind and nerves and our entire personality.

The whole personality of the individual normally tries to run away from Reality. We are every minute running away from God in our perceptions of things and in our desires especially. And this running away is visible in the interest that we take in the forms external, believing that everything is different from everything else, so that we have got particularised ideals and ideologies and interests in respect of different persons and things. This externalising habit of the mind is restrained gradually by various methods. And all these methods constitute Yoga. And one method, among the many, is the chanting of Om.

The universe includes us. We are not outside it. So, in our chant of Om, we try only to set up a vibration within ourselves, at the root of our personality, a vibration corresponding to that which is already there in the universe outside, so that in a very accurate pronunciation of Om, deeply conducted with profound feeling, we become one with all things for a second, as it were. That is why we feel such a joy. Joy is the outcome of unity with objects, and when we are outside them, we are in grief. So, we feel a sensation of identity of ourselves with the subliminal realities at the back of all things by this profound and feelingful chant of Om that we have to conduct everyday, for a protracted period, as a very regular Sadhana, as a very essential part of our Sadhana.

Tasya vuchakuh pranavah: This is a small Sutra of Patanjali. It means that the designation of God or Isvara is Pranava or Om. In another Sutra, Patanjali says: Tajjapas tad-artha-bhavanam. The contemplation of the meaning of Om is to follow the chant of Om. When we recite or chant Om, it does not mean that our mind will be remaining idle. No, it concentrates itself: it feels the presence of a harmony with the whole universe. One can do Japa of Om itself in any of the forms mentioned. It is the highest of Mantras, and all the Mantras are included in Om: all languages themselves are inside Om. So, in one place, the great author says that when we go deep, very deep into the structure of sound, we may be able to know every language in the world, even the languages of animals and birds. These are all very difficult to achieve, but not impossible, if we are persistent and are able to go beneath the level of our outer, physical and psychic personality.

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In Tune with the Cosmic Vibration – Yoga as a Universal Science by Sri Swami Krishnananda

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(Feb 11,2014) Spiritual Message for the Day – The Yamas-Our Attitude to the People Around US by Swami Krishnananda

The Yamas – Our Attitude to the People Around Us

Divine Life Society Publication: Yoga as a Universal Science by Sri Swami Krishnananda

The Yamas and the Niyamas are regarded as the foundation of Yoga. Our attitude to the people around us is the principal theme, or the principal subject, of the Yamas.

Ahimsa-satya-asteya-brahmacharya-aparigraha yamah: The Sutra which describes the process of self-restraint, known as the Yamas, touches upon five items of self-control. One of the stages of self-control or Yoga is the practice of the Yamas.

The Love-Hate Relationships

The principal urges in man are mostly the deciding factors of the various types of attitude that he develops towards people. The major urge in us is love or hatred. Principally The desire to exploit is natural as an instinct in every person. We wish to exploit the world in some way or the other. Exploitation means utilization of something for our purpose.

The Deeper Philosophical Meaning of Ahimsa

We should not injure. But, why should we not injure? One does not hurt or injure impersonally. Hurting is the outcome of a personal attitude. Ahimsa or non-injury, which we are thinking of, is not a physical action. It is an attitude of the mind. What is the difference between a surgeon and an assassin? The difference is only in the intention, and not in the outer act. Unless a person has a desire to exploit, he will not have a desire to injure anybody. So, the desire to exploit goes together with the desire to injure. Exploitation itself is an injury. It is perhaps the major injury that we inflict upon people, in the form of hurting, either verbally psychologically or physically.

Overcoming the Desire to Exploit

Asteya and Aparigraha, touch upon this problem of exploitation. One cannot appropriate anything which does not really belong to him. Asteya is non-stealing. A thief is one who has the intention of using somebody for his purpose at the cost of the latter person. Even if one entertains this intention in the mind, it is a theft. If a person possesses more than what he is expected to possess, under the circumstances in which he is placed, that becomes theft. The attitude of exploitation is nothing but the expression of this inherent selfishness in man.

Striking a Balance between Outward Conduct and Inward Intention

The nature of the Purusha is such that it cannot permit attitudes of exploitation, even attitudes of love and hatred, because these are the outward manifestations of consciousness in the direction of its own bondage.

In our practice of the Yamas, we have to develop a double attitude of outward control as well as inward understanding. When we try to discipline ourselves inwardly, psychologically or philosophically, we should also adopt an external measure of self-control. That is why usually a student of Yoga resorts to places and atmospheres, where he would not be compelled to break these disciplines.

Even then, outward practice will not be highly or wholly successful if the mind is not agreeable to the practice. The inward understanding and the outward disciplines, both go together and should be carried on simultaneously almost. Vigilance is Yoga. A balance has to be struck between our outward conduct and our inward intention. The doing outside should have some meaning in connection with the intention that is in the mind. So, it becomes a little difficult for a beginner in the earlier stages to understand how he can live in this world at all.

Every mind resents advice from other people, for reasons which are personal, social, and also philosophical. But, it is different in the case of a person who has awakened himself to the need of listening to advice coming from higher realms, such as the advice coming from a master or a Guru.

Respecting the Laws of Nature

Every person in the world is as valuable as everyone else. No man is a servant of another man. One appears to obey the dictates of another person under the pressure of circumstances, but that obedience does not emanate from the bottom of his heart. Everyone loves oneself and no one is prepared to bow down to the orders of another person, unless this order comes from a higher source. Nature reacts to any interference with its balance of laws and the man who exploits and injures will be paid back in his own coin. "Harm not any creature" is another way of saying, "Break not the laws of nature".

What is the deeper import of Ahimsa? One has to be a friend of all. This is the meaning, the purport, of Ahimsa – Sarva bhuta hite ratah, in the language of the Bhagavad Gita. A friend of all can hurt nobody, when he is intent on the welfare of all beings. Truthfulness is very simple and very easy to understand, because untruth is nothing but exploitation. One would not utter a lie, unless one wishes to exploit somebody

Curbing the Tendency to Grab

Asteya and Aparigraha, means, non-stealing and non-acceptance of articles or possessions which are not necessary for one's existence. Because, while we have the sanction to exist in this world by the orders of nature, we do not have the sanction to accumulate goods which are not necessary for our sensible existence in this world. We cannot exploit individuals. And we cannot exploit the world also. We should not exploit God Himself finally. Many a time our prayers to God assume the nature of exploitations only whenever we try to grab something from God. We should not grab anything from anybody, and we cannot expect from this world anything more than what we have given to the world as our share of service. One has to learn to co-operate with the world in every one of its stages of manifestation – socially, physically, psychologically, rationally, politically and spiritually – because, Yoga is a total union of oneself with the totality of things.

Self control, as mentioned earlier, is Yoga. And some of its features are set out in the canons known as the Yamas. It is almost impossible to practise Ahimsa, or Satya, or Asteya, or Aparigraha, under normal circumstances, unless one strains oneself hard with some effort, especially in the earlier stages.

Yoga Is Not Renunciation

Yoga is a gradual ascent. Nature evolves and does not set up a revolution at any time. The growth of a tree is gradual, evolutionary and not revolutionary. Yoga is a gradual growth and maturing of one's personality by a systematic adjustment of oneself through every stage of its progress. Yoga does not mean renunciation, if by this is meant a relinquishment of the duties of the world and the ways of life as they are normally lived.

Yoga Is Not Religion

Yoga is not religion. Yoga is not abandonment of anything. It is a positive tuning up of oneself with the realities of all things. Though Yoga practice is not an abandonment of anything, but only a union with all things, it may appear that this union with things calls for a kind of abandonment, a certain introduction of a new type or aspect of practice which will harass the mind oftentimes.

The canons of the Yamas include another very poignant instruction 'Brahmacharya'. Yoga is not a social practice. We are not going to please people by our Yoga. It is an inward discipline, which is required of us under the system of nature as a whole, and we are to obey a law that is operating everywhere. Continence is a very cautious project of the individual in the direction of Yoga.  

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The Yamas-Our Attitude to the People Around Us – Yoga as a Universal Science by Sri Swami Krishnananda

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(Jan 26,2014) Spiritual Message for the Day – Encountering The Powers of Nature by Swami Krishnananda

Encountering The Powers of Nature

Divine Life Society Publication: Yoga as a Universal Science by Swami Krishnananda

The powers of nature are too incomprehensible and too incredibly large for the little individual to encounter them, to face them. To succeed in such an encounter with Nature, one has to develop strength equal to the powers of Nature, which is not an ordinary job. So, we may have to apply various methods in trying to restrain the mind and should not rest content with applying only one method or technique.

Just as nature works in many ways, just as we take different types of diet on different days, it is necessary that the student of Yoga should also apply the techniques of restraint of the mind in as many ways as possible. We do not eat the same food everyday, though we eat everyday. Somehow we have to transform this process of the practice of Yoga into a happy and joyous undertaking, rather than imagine that it is painful work imposed upon us as in a prison-house. We do not try to practice Yoga as if we are captives in a concentration camp and as if Yoga is a punishment meted out to us. No. It is something that we have undertaken of our own accord with wide open eyes, with a knowledge of what it is, and how essential it is for our life.

The mind refuses to concentrate on any particular object, because it has not been convinced that the object chosen for the purpose of concentration is capable of bestowing upon it all the boons that it seeks. We have only heard people say that concentration is good. We have read this in many books. We have been hammering on this matter. But, our heart has a reason which reason does not know. The heart cannot always agree with the reason's judgment, because we are oftentimes, more hearts than reasons. Our feelings gain the upper hand and put down the opinions of the reasons.

Who can be really convinced at the bottom of one's heart that all that the world can give to a person is also there in the object of concentrations? How can one force oneself or persuade oneself to believe that all the wealth and the riches of creation can be acquired merely by an act of concentration on a dot on the wall, or on the flame of a candle, or a flower that is rosy, or any imagery that is conceivable?

Though there is a kind of rationale behind this argument, and intellectually perhaps we are capable of being convinced that there is a point in this type of concentration that we are required to practice, yet, there is a dissatisfaction at the core of the heart--the world is so rich, so beautiful, grand and perfect. There are many things in this world which are exceedingly beautiful and worth possessing, having and enjoying. What good is this concentration? "I have been doing this concentration for years. I have been a fool, a wool-gathering individual. I have lost this world, I have lost the other world, and am in a helpless condition."--So saying, the mind weeps. We begin to cry inwardly that we have been befooled, as it were, by the so-called advice to concentrate the mind on some point. There is a revolt and a rebellion from inside, and nothing can be worse than psychological revolution.

This may happen to any person. Because Yoga is a terror, though it is also a mother and a father. Nothing can be so beneficial as Yoga is, and nothing can be so terrific and frightening as Yoga is. This is the irony of the whole matter. It is not easy for a person to feel in one's own heart that a concentration on a form, whatever that form may be, inward or outward, is capable of bestowing the abundance of the riches of the world.

Who does not wish to become a king, if it could be possible? Who does not wish to possess the whole world, if it were practicable? We know that it is not possible. So, like the fox in the story rejecting the sour grapes, we are likely to reject the world as not worth having, because we cannot have it. We all know this very well. We are not fit and we have not got the capacity to possess the treasures of the universe; we have not got the means to acquire the powers by which we can be the masters of the universe, of the world. We are defeatists, poor nothings trying to practise Yoga, for an end which also appears to be nothing. These difficulties will have to be faced one day or the other. In facing them, many have failed, have had a fall. They would have been better without Yoga than with it. This is a sorry state of affairs. If it has come about in the lives of some, it can come about in the lives of others also.

So, it is necessary once again to bring back to our own memory the necessity to go slowly, and see that we are really convinced in our hearts that what we are doing is hundred per cent correct, and that we are on the right path. "Absolutely I have no doubt in my mind, and my practice is the one that I am expected to perform. I am treading the correct way, and the fact that I do not see any light in the horizon, the fact that I have no experience whatsoever even after years of practice, is not going to deter me from continuing the practice, because I already know that I have to pass through all these stages of oblivion, darkness and helplessness."--Such should be the firm conviction of every Yoga student.

Even when we are utterly helpless and seem to be failing down, we must be convinced that the so-called fall is only a part of the process of rising up. But, who can be convinced like this when one is actually falling? So, God save us and the Guru bless us! These are some of the cautions that have to be administered to the mind of a student of Yoga, if he is going to be sincere when he takes to its practice.

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Encountering The Powers of Nature - Yoga as a Universal Science by Swami Krishnananda

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(Oct 13,2013) Spiritual Message for the Day –The Triad of Adhyatma, Adhibhuta and Adhidaiva

The Triad of Adhyatma, Adhibhuta and Adhidaiva

Divine Life Society Publication: Chapter 2 – Yoga as a Universal Science by Swami Krishnananda

 

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 Yoga texts tell us that our experience, as constituted of the seer and the seen, is what can be called in Sanskrit Vyavaharika Satta. It means empirical experience. It is empirical, Vyavaharik or of practical utility, because, though it is workable and seems to be the only reality available to us, it is not the whole of reality. The aspect of the seer and the aspect of the seen, the consciousness aspect and the object aspect, the Purusha aspect and the Prakriti aspect, are often designated in the ancient texts as the Adhyatma and the Adhibhuta.

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.  And a third principle which may be called the Adhidaiva or the superintending Divinity, transcending the subject and the object, Purusha and Prakriti. Because, the connection between the seer and the seen cannot be explained merely by the two isolated realities, seer and the seen. Two demarcated principles cannot come in contact with each other and cannot know each other. The possibility of the perception or awareness of something as an object outside by the consciousness within can be accounted for only by the presence of something that is there as a connecting link between the subject and the object. This is invisible to the limited eyes. But, logical deduction requires or demands the presence of such a principle, without which it is not possible to explain how we are aware of the existence of the world.

How can anyone know that there is something outside, something that is totally cut off from the one that beholds that thing? That things are not entirely severed from the seer of the things implies again that there is a link between the seer and the seen, which is something transcending both the seer and the seen. 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 no internal transformation of the Supreme Being into the world. If that had taken place really, there would be no possibility of the world returning to God, in the same way as there is no chance of curd returning to milk. Such a transformation has not taken place in God, and it cannot take place, inasmuch as the Supreme Being is indivisible, and indivisibility cannot undergo transformation of any kind. Thus, the unitary aspect of the Supreme Being is maintained in spite of its apparent division into the seer and the seen, the subject and the object. Thus, behind the diversity of experience, there is the unity of a transcendental principle which persists in spite of the multiplicity and the duality of existence. So, there is a tripartite creation, we may say, over and above the dual concept of creation.

On the one side we have the universe which is the Adhibhuta, on the other side there is the Adhyatma, the viewer, the beholder of the whole universe, and above these two, we have the connecting link, the transcendental. We may call it the Divinity, we may call it the Devata, we may call it God, we may call it the Angel or the Spirit of the Cosmos. Plato, for instance, speaks about there being a superintending archetype as he calls it, transcending the world of opinion, sensory perception and mental cognition. Two things cannot relate to each other, unless a third thing is there. This third thing was called by Plato as metaphysical principle. And, in Indian philosophical parlance, we generally designate this third principle as the Devata or the Divinity.

Generally, people think that in the religions of India there are many gods, resulting in a sort of polytheism. This is a thorough misconception of the philosophical foundation of India. There are not many gods. The many gods are the manifold levels through which the one Supreme Being manifests Itself by different densities of descent, becoming grosser and grosser, coming further and further down, for the purpose of maintaining the relationship between the subject and the object. As there are several levels of descent, it appears as if there are many gods, but they all are but different levels of the one supreme connecting Principle. Several levels of manifestation of one and the same thing cannot be regarded as many things; so, there are not many gods. This wrong idea of many gods should be brushed aside from the mind. 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.

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The Triad of  Adhyatma, Adhibhuta and Adhidaiva: Chapter 2 – Yoga as a Universal Science by Swami Krishnananda

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(June 7,2013) The Glory of Contentment

The Glory of Contentment

Divine Life Society Publication:  “Yoga as a Universal Science” by Swami Krishnananda

When one is pure in mind, pure in speech and pure in body, there is a contentment arising from oneself. There is Santosha. It is very essential that one should be happy under any circumstance. This is very important. If a person is weighed down heavily with some grief or sorrow, and he becomes melancholy and moody, and gets into a state of weeping and crying, and is not able to sleep because of the sorrow that is eating into his vitals, how could he do any meditation? How is it possible for him to practise Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara? Though it is well said and easily said that one has to be happy, it is not easy for people to be always happy. But, there is a way whereby we can keep ourselves happy. That way is to keep the goal before our eyes. Finally, in the end, in the last resort, we shall succeed. We may now appear to be suffering, sorrow-ridden, and feeling helpless in every manner, but a day must come in the life of every one of us when we must succeed. Failure is not the goal of any person. The ultimate goal of life is success only. The whole universe is moving towards a great Cosmic Success. Any individual is a part of this cosmos, and therefore, he is also moving towards the achievement of a success par excellence, though it may appear that he may have to bear the brunt of tentatively confronting sorrows, and those sorrows have to be taken in their true spirit and judged against their true worth.

There is a story recounted by Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa in a humorous way. Narada was passing one day by the side of a garden, and the gardener asked the sage Narada: "Master, where are you going?" The great sage said, "I am going to Vaikuntha, the Lord's Heaven, to have His Darshan". "Oh! You are going to have Darshan of the Lord! Please ask Him when I shall attain liberation." He was a gardener planting various fruit trees. Narada said, "I shall certainly ask the Lord, and when I come back, I shall let you know what His answer is". So, Narada proceeded further and on the way, he met a farmer. The farmer put the same question: "Lord, O great sage, master, where are you going?" The sage said, "I am going to Vaikuntha, the Lord's abode". And the farmer also made a request similar to the gardener's: "Please ask the Lord when I shall attain liberation". Narada gave the same reply as before: "Yes. I shall come back to you with the Lord's answer". So, after several days or so Narada returned from Vaikuntha and he met this farmer. Immediately, the farmer asked very eagerly. "Did you meet the Lord?" "Yes, I met the Lord" replied Narada. "Did you ask Him about my liberation?" "Yes, I asked." "Did He give you the reply?" "Yes, He gave the reply." "What was the reply?" "You will take another fifty years to attain liberation." The farmer was very sorry to hear this. "I have been chanting God's Name, I have been doing prayer, I have been meditating, I have been practising Yoga, day and night I am absorbed in God's thought. Still I have to wait for fifty years! What a wretched thing!" He cursed himself. Narada passed on and met the gardener. The gardener asked, "What is the reply from the Lord?" "You will take as many thousands of years to reach God as there are leaves in this tree." And Narada pointed to a nearby tree. The gardener's joy knew no bounds. He was so happy. He jumped in ecstasy. "So, after all, I am fit!" His way of thinking was quite different from that of the farmer's. The farmer cried because he had to wait for fifty years more, and this gardener was in joy, in ecstasy, was bursting with the love of God, because he got the reply from the great Master, the Supreme Being, that he was after all fit to gain salvation even if that salvation was to come after as many thousands of years as there were leaves in the nearby tree. The story goes that his ecstasy of joy was such that it burnt all his sins in an instant, and he had divine vision at that very moment, whereas that poor farmer with fifty years' sorrows had no experience of the kind.

This is just an illustration given by Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa to explain the human situation in general in regard to the love of God, practice of Yoga, and the way in which one can be contented even under conditions which may appear to be very poor, unsatisfying and terrific. Truth triumphs – Satyameva jayate. And if we tread the path of truth even in a minute measure, to the extent that we do so, we are bound to succeed in this world. And if there be anyone who has a little bit of honest devotion directed to God-realisation, and the practice of Yoga in its essentiality, surely he is treading the path of truth, and therefore, he is bound to succeed to that extent. Nobody is destined to go to hell for ever and ever. Everybody is destined to reach the Supreme Absolute finally. The little sorrows, the pin-pricks, the skirmishes through which we pass in life, are the effects of our previous actions. We have done something in the past, and the reactions come as thorns under our feet when we walk on the ground today. So, we should not be unnecessarily worrying over the little difficulties that we have in our life. They shall pass away, because they are reactions to our own actions. And when they exhaust themselves in their momentum, we will be free. So, we have reason to be happy, to be content, to be satisfied. Yadrischa-labha-santushtah, as the Bhagavad Gita puts it. Let us be satisfied with whatever circumstances we are in. Let us be happy under any condition. Otherwise, we will be brooding over unnecessary things; the mind will be distracted, and we cannot concentrate. Yoga will not be for us afterwards. Inasmuch as one is a student of Yoga, contentment is necessary; one must be satisfied inside and one should not be a complaint-master. The Yoga student must not complain about anything. This is another Niyama or discipline, an observance which is enjoined upon all students of Yoga, by Patanjali in his system.

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Yoga as a Universal Science by Swami Krishnananda

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(March 19,2013)“Man’s separation from God” by Swami Krishnananda

Man's Separation from God

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.

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“Man’s separation from God” by Swami Krishnananda

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