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Why Yoga?
A talk by Swami Anubhavanandaji, July 2005, UK
Most of us live our life by 'Default settings'. Once we have set our PC to a certain setting, when we switch it on, all those settings manifest and there is nothing new. Living like this, makes life after some time boring, it's a struggle, we feel weighed down - life lost its quality of celebration. The reason is our mechanical life-style. To get out of this mechanical existence different ways have been suggested by many great Masters.
The way I like most is: "looking within". To 'look within' means evaluate and analyse your own experience. When we do that, we are able to see what exactly is happening in our life.
For example: we all have been attracted to something or other when we were young. We were so crazy for this item, that we asked ourselves: "how can I live without it?".
Time has passed. Looking back, we realise that although we thought, we can't live without that thing - we neither have the thing, nor are we dead! Evaluating and analysing our past, we realise that our existence is independent from the things around us. This independence is freedom. Let's look behind the scene.
Normally we imagine that this waking world is the only playing-field of our existence, which in turn is reflected as our personality: Hence we deduce: I am beautiful - I am ugly, I am educated - I am stupid, I am rich - I was poor. so "Mrs. Waker" is created.
But think, we also go through experiences in the dream state and then there is the deep sleep, but we don't make a personality out of these. Out of the "waking-state " we make a personality, out of the dreams we don't.
Isn't that odd? Either we should make a personality also out of the dream experience, or not make one out of the waking state! Reflecting on this idiosyncrasy, analysing this mistake - will change our life. We make both, waking and dream experience, through the mind. Yet one - the dream we write of as illusion, - the other we consider real and hold on to it. It's crazy!
See: I see you with my open eyes, and my mind is behind the eyes to interpret what I see. Yet sometimes I sleep or stare - with open eyes if you then come in front of me - I don't see you, why? Because the mind is not involved, is not engaged behind the eyes.
Let's look behind this phenomena.
For each of us, the world is images; we see it, but how do we see something? Our eyes are a lens, the object is inverted, an image is formed on the retina and that image is interpreted and comprehended by the mind. So what I am seeing of you, is not you - but only the image of you on my retina.
How is that? Imagine I sit in a dark room you come into the dark room and look at me ï but guess what? You don't see me at all. What you normally see is the light falling on me and bouncing off on to your retina; what we call seeing is light making images on our retina for the mind to interpret. So the mind is the interpreter of what our senses receive! How?
Think of looking at a mirror and the mirror is full of dust - what will the reflection be like? If the mirror is not just dusty but also shaking, what is the Quality of the reflection like? Similarly, if our mind is full of the dust of this world and it is constantly moving, i.e. extremely agitated then what will be the image of the world on the mind? The image will never be correct, because the reflecting medium is unsteady and dirty! Therefore what we see in this world is not what the world is - but, what my mind interprets, depending on its own quality.
Suppose you have a very nice meal in front of you and you are hungry. At that very moment you get the news of somebody close to you having died. Will you enjoy the beautiful meal? No! Because the joy has gone, you lost your appetite! That's why every religion has a practise of how to make the mind a fit instrument. So that we are able to see the divinity abundantly present in this world. See the beauty, which is always there - beyond ugliness; see life - more than death; see the positive, thriving in any phenomena - more than the negative and painful.
But we don't see this, why ?
This mind through which we come in contact with the world is never taken care of. Have you ever asked in your prayer, for a clear, pure mind, a mind that can see the beauty of the Lord in all of creation or simply see the world as it is? Instead we pray with a big list of wants connected to our 'dust-coloured imagination', we pray for a new car, a new house, an new husband.God becomes the means and the world becomes the goal; it should be the other way round, the world is the means - to attain Him, Reality.
To work on this process of purifying our mind, we need a healthy body as an instrument. But how much energy do we spend on maintaining the physical body and yet we spent none on mental health.
We need to pay attention to the quality of mind! Purify the mind so that we can see the Divine Presence in the Reality of Life; this is the ultimate goal of man, there is nothing else to attain! Left to itself the mind will only produce confusion, misunderstanding and eventually depression, dejection, helplessness, illness, loneliness and to drown it out, we choose all sort of distractions, i.e. noise; constantly surrounding ourselves with loud, blaring music - keeping the mind agitated; distorting rather than - purifying.
The moment we expose ourselves to the silence, we start to feel fear. We come across this problem in Meditation classes.As we touch silence, fear rises; then out of fear - we tighten up, create knee pains, back pains, click fingers etc.
Instead of becoming the master of the mind, the mind becomes our master and we remain its slave, mistaking its machinations for freedom.
The common phrase "I can do what I like" can be rephrased : "I follow the command of my distorted mind". This is not freedom!
For example: A father scolds his daughter because she wants to party, instead of doing homework. Immediately the mind of the daughter creates a horrible picture, where her father and all men are bad, oppressing women.just like men have throughout the ages. She sees Father behave like caveman! She won't listen and does "what I like"!
Dancing to the tricks of the mind rather than seeing the reality of the need to study for the immanent exam. To know that alcohol or drugs destroys us, we only need to observe others, we do not need to conduct the experience ourselves; others have already been the guinea-pigs, we just need to take the data and learn from it! But we feel: freedom is doing what I like doing; No! that is being en-slaved by the mind. And this is why Yoga does not start with Asanas! Unfortunately in this part of the world, Yoga means primarily either energetic exercises or putting your body into some unnatural posture; neither is Yoga!!!
In Yoga, first we have Yama and Niyama then we have asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana and samadhi. one by one, we have to take care of all, we cannot pick out one item! That is like saying: my hunger is satiated by eating the 9th. slice of bread. Can I eat only the 9th slice of bread? No! All of the 8 limbs of Yoga are meant for one thing only: correcting the abnormality in the mind's conditions. If we are not taking care of the mind we are our own worst enemy. At the latest when we get old, we will realise our mistakes; when our minds will not co-operate and we feel depressed and disillusioned and desolate.
There is only one remedy, to become aware of - and train our mind.
When I look at Martin, do I really see him? Am I aware that what I see is my projection on him? My perception of his form is immediately followed by mental projections and this projection of my mind is what creates most problems in human interaction. We have to recognise this, and learn from it!
Those who live in awareness, alone can grow on the spiritual path. What is required is self-discipline, when discipline is imposed by ourselves - it's freedom; if we are doing something out of our own free will, we will enjoy it (if it is imposed by others we don't). Living a spiritual life really begins when we live in awareness! The first step to that is Yama-sadhana where we become aware of our interaction with the world.
This interaction is of two types. First: we get lost in worldly temptations and eventually become a miserable character because we can never have all we want! It is living like an indulging beggar; yes someone who constantly takes! We take with all "five begging-bowls" i.e. all five senses...taking and wanting constantly what we see, touch, taste, hear and smell. We beg for ever higher stimulus. Such a beggar can never be happy!
The second interaction is one of giving! Let's give, always the best we have if we live from that our mind becomes purer and purer. The Bhagavad Gita says: He who is not a burden for the world and for whom the world is not a burden is my real devotee. Such a one doesn't want, he only gives and who can do that? Only one who has! The most important we can give? AAh, happiness!
We look down on this simple gift, yet it's the biggest thing anyone can give. Be happy. Then there are no complaints! Normally we have lot of complaints because we have lots of expectation! We start every day with expectations; calculating what somebody else can give to me, do for me etc. Understand that the first step to living happily and cheerfully is to not expect anything from others! It doesn't mean walking around with a constant silly smile on your face that is just looking pathetic, even dumb but not happy.
No, give up expectations and discover the real joy of life; it comes from having zero expectations, not dependent on anyone our mind will stop reacting with fear, jealousy, depression etc. once it stops reacting we can take the second step!
The second problem is: we ourselves for ourselves.
We have these opinions of who we are, which eventually lead to see that we are quiet unimportant; life went on before us and will continue after us. At that point we become depressed (even suicidal); feel lonely and thus seek recognition. We do anything to get recognition from others for fear of facing ourselves, of being alone! The Way out?
Stop talking to yourself - when you are alone, instead observe your own mind! Yes, stop talking and simply observe what is going on in your mind. Once we become aware - we can change. Living in Awareness becomes a life-style!
When we start living in Awareness and see how we obsessively follow certain set patterns, our Default settings can be changed. Aware of our attachment to something, how we react unnecessarily, get involved in others unwanted, how we keep judging or evaluate people - we can correct these mental modifications. We learn to keep our mouth shut; aware of the machinations and quality of our mind, it itself becomes stiller.
Once we are aware of how we interact with the world, and how our mind is conditioned, we come to the third step asana. Asana is not simply 'posture' it refers to blissful stability of existence! Happiness not because of anything or anybody (any achievements, or the wife or husband)but simply by being, without effort! Yes, once we can exist effortless, we become happy or rather blissful. And when we are stable and effortless in this blissful state of being and can practice this again and again, we practise asana i.e. we sit easy and happy in one posture for a long period of time. Why is this necessary? Patanjali tells us "remain sitting blissful" so you can progress to the higher practices, and return to your original nature.
Many Yoga practitioners and teachers can't sit in one posture for more than five minutes without moving - forget even sitting cheerfully and happy. They move constantly from one posture to the next - and call that asana, this is not asana! Asana is being cheerful and still so that our prana-shakti (breath/life-force) automatically is calm and quiet, only then a quiet mind will follow and with that the divinity and beauty behind all the names of forms in this world can be reflected on it. He who can perceive divinity in this world, will never have any complaints, life is fulfilled.
When mind is slowly purified it does not move anymore to the whims and projections, fantasies and conjectures; the mind is no more a slave of its imagination but becomes a controlled instrument to work with, a pure mind. Pure mind is that mind, where the inquiry is kindled of who we are, to find our correct identity. Without establishing that, we can never have peace; we will go wondering: are we the body, the mind, the prana who is this ego-self? Who am I? In other words, when the mind has investigated the outer world, and the modifications and illusions of its own creation - the inquiry turns to evaluated the mind itself - and turns to discover who is working through this mind.
Until then all we do is being occupied with past impressions, past events - old files stored in the memory. We think of ourselves as the son of 'so-and-so', from this or that country, who went to school her and there, met 'so- and- so' who did this and that to me etc. etc. The past is dead, it stinks, it rots what ever your glorious life! Your personality is totally dominated by the past, your mind preoccupied with its imprints from where it projects the future, by passing the present! Yet you can only life in the Present! In the NOW, in the absolute presence there is only pure consciousness.
Consciousness with the impurity of past is called mind. Man with the impurity of the past is the husband, with the impurity of the future is the father; in the absolute presence there neither husband nor father, these are conditioned expression of pure consciousness. Living in pure consciousness, in absolute presence for long periods of time, opens a total new faculty: intuitive understanding.
When this faculty is inaugurated, we start living in that eternal conscious existence and discover, that I am not in the body, body is the contents - the prana is the container; furthermore the body and the prana are the contents, the mind is the container; then? Further even the body, the prana the mind are the content - consciousness is the container. This consciousness is functioning in and through everybody. When that consciousness is able to express through anybody as mind that body becomes enlivened, just like electricity expressing through a light-bulb becomes light. This consciousness expresses through every living being, man, rats and butterflies. But as mind it expresses through a human body, however the moment consciousness fails to express through this mind the body is dead.
Conscious reality is the essence of our existence, he who has discovered this, can not be the victim of relative existence, the world and its problem.
In consciousness there is no trace of relativity - in the mind there is nothing but relativity. Once this is understood, we recognise this One, non-dual, undivided conscious existence as the essence in which there is no I, thus also no I versus You !
Thus 'awakened' we are not touched by the joys and sorrows of this world - just like the gains and the loss of the dream experience does not influence the 'Waker'. Who lives in this Awareness, lives the fulfillment of existence.
This is available to all of us, through body-dis-identification, breath control, a mind that is perceiving but not reacting, a mind that is simply aware! The experience of homogeneous, undivided, conscious existence is the Truth! It is free from the fear of Death, the load of guilt and the torture of fear. Thus awakened, aware we don't have to change anything around us, a teacher effortless becomes an extraordinary teacher, a husband an extraordinary husband, a wife and extraordinary wife, a child an extraordinary child.
Living in this Awareness is Yoga, is Spiritual Life, whether you walk, talk, sit, stand - or do anything. It's not changing external, but growing within, growing beyond relativity and remaining as the Absolute.
This is the purpose of Yoga, Meditation or Spiritual life.
Hari Ohm Tat Sat.
H.H. Swami Anubhavananda is one of India's foremost Acharyas (teachers). He teaches worldwide on Yoga and Vedanta. If he is not traveling, his base is Kaivalyadham (Institute for the science of Yoga, Lonavala, India; www.kdham.com). Swamiji as he is affectionately called has workshops in the UK every summer which are listed in the Events section.
For books and CD's of more of Swamiji's teachings, please visit: www.thebehappystore.co.uk. For more about Swamiji and his events, please visit: http://www.behappyinc.org.
