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The next is an excerpt from the ebook “Om Yoga: Its Concept and
Observe.”
Om is the Supreme Brahman. (Svetasvatara Upanishad 1:7)He who utters Om with the intention ‘I shall attain Brahman’ does verily attain
Brahman. (Taittiriya Upanishad 1.8.1)The Self is of the character of the Syllable Om. (Mandukya Upanishad 1.8.12)
Meditate on Om because the Self. (Mundaka Upanishad 2.2.3)
Liberation-Freedom
Yoga is all about freedom. Solely a fraction of the earth’s inhabitants is formally
imprisoned, however all the human race is imprisoned within the earth itself. None are
free from the inevitability of illness, age, and demise, nevertheless freed from them they
could also be in the meanwhile. The human situation is topic to innumerable limitations.
Who actually controls his life totally, attains all his targets, and is aware of no setbacks of any
form? Nobody. Om Yoga is the best way to freedom from struggling and limitation.
Concerning Om, the Yoga Sutras (1) merely say: “Its repetition and meditation is
the best way(Yoga Sutras 1:28). Even a superficial perusal of the Upanishads
reveals that the meditation follow recognized and really helpful by the Vedic Rishis
(2), and later Patanjali and Krishna, (3)A Divine Incarnation (avatar) born in India
about three thousand years in the past, Whose teachings to His disciple Arjuna on the eve
of the Nice India (Mahabharata) Struggle comprise the Bhagavad Gita.) was primarily based on
Om, the sacred syllable that each symbolizes and embodies Brahman, the Absolute
Actuality.
It’s my hope that you’ll take a look at for your self the religious alchemy of Om Yoga that’s
set forth right here. In case your follow is precisely as outlined and of ample period, your
expertise would be the proof of its validity and its efficacy.
“That is the bridge to immortality. Might you achieve success in crossing over to the
farther shore of darkness.” (Mundaka Upanishad 2.2.6)
Why Yoga?
For the reason that spirit is at all times free, and nothing can change it-nor does it ever want any
changing-the query naturally arises: “Why trouble with yoga in any respect? If our actual self
is ever excellent and free, what must be executed? What can be executed?”
It’s true; the spirit is ever-free, however it has forgotten that and identifies with
its expertise of bondage and consequently (seemingly) suffers. Our scenario is like
somebody who’s asleep and dreaming that he’s being tortured and crushed. In actuality
he’s not being touched in any respect; but he’s experiencing ache and worry. He needn’t
placate, overpower, or escape his torturers. He wants no extra dream exercise! He
wants solely to get up. Yoga is the process of self-awakening.
In his commentary on the Yoga Sutras Shankara (The good reformer and re-
establisher of Vedic Faith in India round 300 B.C.) has an “opponent” say: “How
can there be a way to acquire liberation? Liberation shouldn’t be a factor which could be
obtained, for it’s merely cessation of bondage.” And Shankara replies: “You might be
flawed. For ignorance [bondage] to stop, one thing needs to be executed, with effort, as
within the breaking of a fetter. Although liberation shouldn’t be a ‘factor,’ inasmuch as it’s
cessation of ignorance within the presence of proper information it’s figuratively spoken of
as one thing to be obtained.” And he concludes: “The aim of Yoga is the
information of Actuality.”
What’s Yoga?
“Yoga” is a Sanskrit phrase which means “to affix.” Yoga, then, is union and the best way to
union. What will we be part of by way of yoga?
First, we be part of our consciousness to our personal important being: spirit that’s consciousness.
In yoga philosophy this is named the atman or self. Subsequent we be part of our finite
consciousness to the Infinite Consciousness: God, the Supreme Self (Paramatman).
In essence they’re eternally one, and in keeping with yogic philosophy all
spirits initially dwelt in consciousness of that oneness. However within the descent into the
materials world for the aim of evolving and lengthening its scope of
consciousness, the person spirit has misplaced its consciousness of that everlasting union, and
subsequently los the capability to reside in and manifest the union on a sensible degree.
Via yoga the misplaced consciousness could be regained and actualized within the
particular person’s sensible life sphere. So profound and so crucial is yoga to the
evolving consciousness, there isn’t any extra necessary topic on this planet.
Concerning this, a yogi-adept of the 20 th century, Dr. I. Ok. Taimni, remarked in
his ebook The Science of Yoga: “Based on the yogic philosophy it’s
potential to rise fully above the illusions and miseries of life and to achieve
infinite information, bliss, and energy by way of enlightenment right here and now
whereas we’re nonetheless dwelling within the bodily physique. And if we don’t attain this
enlightenment whereas we’re nonetheless alive we must come again time and again
into this world till we’ve got achieved this appointed job. So it isn’t a
query of selecting the trail of yoga or rejecting it. It’s a query of selecting it
now or in some future life. It’s a query of gaining enlightenment as quickly as
potential and avoiding the struggling sooner or later or suspending the hassle and going
by way of additional struggling which is pointless and avoidable. That is the that means
of Yoga Sutra 2:16: ‘The distress which isn’t but come can and is to be averted.’ No
obscure promise of an unsure postmortem happiness this, however a particular scientific
assertion of a truth verified by the expertise of innumerable yogis, saints, and sages
who’ve trodden the trail of yoga all through the ages.”
Yoga philosophy
Yoga should be approached initially as a philosophy-but a philosophy which by its
very nature stimulates its investigators to interact in sensible functions by way of
which they are going to experience-and demonstrate-its reality and value. That which begins
as principle develops into follow which culminates in realization. Yoga is thus a
philosophy, a self-discipline, and an expertise. It’s a revelation of consciousness. And
since rational thought at all times precedes rational motion, we should always start with the
philosophical aspect of Yoga.
Then and now
Within the second chapter of the Bhagavad Gita Krishna tells Arjuna: “There was by no means a
time when I didn’t exist, nor you, nor any of those kings. Neither is there any future in
which we will stop to be.”(Bhagavad Gita 2:12) That’s, we’re everlasting beings,
with out starting and with out finish. Initially we have been factors of acutely aware mild in
the infinite Ocean of Acutely aware Mild that’s God. We have been gods inside God. And so
we nonetheless are, for it isn’t potential to be exterior of Infinity Itself. But we’re additionally right here
on this ever-changing world-a place that fully overwhelms the reality of our
immortal life inside God. For numerous life-cycles we’ve got discovered ourselves
embodied in materials circumstances, little body-prisons throughout the better jail of the
cosmos. And that’s the place we’re proper now.
There’s a legislation that governs the place and type of our embodiment. That legislation is
karma, the precept of actual and inevitable response to our personal actions and psychological
states, leading to a seemingly countless domino impact of continuous beginning and demise.
Yoga presents us the potential of ending this chain of embodiments by awakening
and transformation from time and mortality into eternity and immortality.
God and gods
We’re gods inside God, finite spirits throughout the Infinite Spirit. However what’s “spirit”?
Yoga tells us that spirit is consciousness, therefore we’re everlasting
consciousnesses, every of us particular person and distinct. (“Neither is there any
future by which we will stop to be….”) But we’re extra. For we would not have an
existence unbiased of each other or unbiased of God. Reasonably, we take our
being from God because the waves take their existence from the ocean, sharing it with all
the opposite waves.
God is the everlasting Root or Floor of our being, our better Self. We aren’t God,
however in some ineffable method God is us-the Self of our self, the Spirit of our spirit.
God is all, and we’re the parts-each of us possessing an everlasting and irrevocable
distinction. That’s the reason, as already quoted, Krishna advised Arjuna: “There was by no means a
time when I didn’t exist, nor you, nor any of these kings.
Neither is there any future by which we shall stop to be.” It’s incalculably
necessary to understand this earlier than we will have any viable understanding of or
strategy to ourselves, to our lives, to others, and even to God. The excellence
between God, us, and each other is actual and everlasting; but so is our unity.
In God there’s unity; in us there’s range. These two seemingly contradictory
states coexist in perfection. Due to this we’ve got the time period advaita which
doesn’t imply “one,” however merely “not two.” Actuality is neither One nor Two. It’s a
unity that possesses range. It’s a thriller, however it may be realized by direct
expertise, and yoga is the means to that have.
God and creation
God, the infinite Spirit, is pure consciousness, but-as we’re experiencing even
now-He has prolonged or emanated Himself because the cosmos: bodily, astral, and
causal. This seemingly twin nature of God as Mild and Energy, as Consciousness and
Matter, has puzzled the minds of even the sensible.
God, the Authentic Being, initiatives Himself because the ever-changing dance of creation, as
the evolving mild that’s the cosmos. God initiatives the creation, evolves it, and
withdraws it again into Himself in a perpetual cycle. Thus the creation could be
regarded as God’s body-that God turns into incarnate in creation time and again.
And as elements or reflections of God we do precisely the identical by way of reincarnation.
And us…
All acutely aware beings have existed eternally throughout the Being of God-living throughout the
coronary heart of God, one with Him, distinct although not separate. Having their being rooted
within the infinity of God, the person consciousnesses have inside them a pure
impulse to transcend their finitude and attain the boundlessness of their Origin.
This, in fact, is inconceivable, because the important, everlasting nature of a being can not
be altered. Being rooted in God, and subsequently in a way part of God, all beings
are as immutable as God-the solely infinite Being. But the urge for transcendence is
a part of their nature.
The answer to this dilemma is definitely fairly easy: the person consciousnesses
can not alter their pure state of finitude however they will come to share and
take part within the infinite Consciousness of God. As Sri Ma Anandamayi
stated: “The soul can turn into godlike, however it can not turn into God.” That’s, they can’t
turn into infinite themselves, however they will expertise the infinity of one other: their
divine Supply. Simply as a psychically delicate individual can expertise the ideas
and emotions of one other however doesn’t turn into that different individual, so the person
consciousness can come to expertise the Consciousness of God whereas remaining in
its restricted native state.
It’s crucial, then, for the person spirit to develop the capability for such a state
of consciousness. And that is executed by studying to completely expertise the state of existence
of a being fully totally different from oneself-to enter into an altogether alien mode
of being whereas retaining the notice of 1’s true identification. In different phrases, the
particular person spirit should be taught to placed on the “costume” of a consciousness completely
totally different from its personal and turn into in a position not simply to completely expertise that
different mode of consciousness, but in addition to develop the flexibility to operate as
that different type of being.
Evolutionary creation
To allow the spirits to enter into this course of, God breathes forth or emanates His
personal Self because the Energy from which is manifested all of the realms of relative existence,
from probably the most refined worlds of nearly-perfected beings to probably the most goal
worlds of atomic matter. The spirits then enter into relative existence by taking over
coverings, or “our bodies,” (There are 5 such concentric sheaths or our bodies: the
sheaths of bliss, mind, thoughts, life-force and the bodily body-the anandamaya,
jnanamaya, manomaya, pranamaya and annamaya our bodies (koshas) respectively.) of
various grades and patterns of vibratory energies and descending into this materials
world. Right here they start working their method again up the ladder of ever-evolving varieties,
starting with varieties whose scope of consciousness is lesser than theirs and
working their method upward, getting into into increased and better ranges of consciousness till
they will surpass their unique breadth of consciousness and start to partake of a
lifetime of consciousness a lot past their very own.
Moreover, within the intervals between embodiments the spirit spends time within the
astral areas the place awakening and development additionally happen. (That is finest defined
within the forty-third chapter of Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramhansa
Yogananda.) Upward and upward they evolve till their capability for consciousness is
developed to such an ideal state that they will truly expertise the Being of God
in full participation in God’s all-embracing Consciousness, thenceforth to reside in His
infinity.
The grasp yogi, Dr. I. Ok. Taimni, in The Final Actuality and Realization,
says this: “It’s only when the belief of being a pure spirit or atma has been
attained that it’s potential to attain the ultimate objective of union of the atma with the
Paramatma, the Supreme Spirit which exists eternally past the manifested
universe and from which the manifested universe is derived. When this last
realization has been attained and union of atma with Paramatma has been introduced
about there’s not solely a whole sharing of consciousness between the 2 however
additionally of the infinite Energy which is inherent within the Common Consciousness….It’s
crucial to tell apart between the powers that are acquired on the belief
that he’s a pure spirit or atma and people that are attained when he is ready to
destroy the final vestige of egoism and his consciousness turns into united with that
of Paramatma. The previous, although large in some respects, are nonetheless restricted,
whereas the latter that are actually the Powers of the Supreme Spirit are infinite and may
manifest by way of the middle of consciousness of a self-realized particular person as a result of
there’s fusion of the person consciousness with the Supreme Consciousness and
the channel between the 2 is open.”
We don’t turn into God the Absolute, however we enter into that Absolute Life and are
one with it. As Shankara explains in his Yoga Sutra commentary: “When the sunshine of
a number of lamps seems concurrently, it can’t be made out which is the sunshine of
which.” Consequently we expertise the infinite Being of God-infinite
Consciousness-as our personal being. Krishna has described it thusly: “When you’ve got
reached enlightenment, ignorance will delude you now not. Within the mild of that
information you will note all the creation inside your individual atman and in
me.” (Bhagavad Gita 4:35) Buddha referred to as this “seeing with the Divine Eye.” After we
are unshakably established in that Consciousness the objective has been attained.
As Shakespeare wrote, “all of the world’s a stage” with the person spirits carrying
their costumes and enjoying their elements. Simply as actors start with small elements and
progress to greater roles by demonstrating their ability in these smaller elements, so additionally
do the spirits advance to increased and extra advanced types of existence and
consciousness, eventually returning house to God. The Sufi poet, Rumi, wrote:
A stone I died and rose once more a plant.A plant I died and rose an animal;
I died an animal and was born a person.
Why ought to I worry? What have I misplaced by demise?
As man, demise sweeps me from this world of males
That I’ll put on an angel’s wings in heaven;
But e’en as angel might I not abide,
For nought abideth save the face of God.
Thus o’er the angels’ world I wing my method
Onwards and upwards, unto boundless lights;
Then let me be as nought, for in my coronary heart
Rings as a harp-song that we should return to Him.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, one among many nice People whose perception in reincarnation
is ignored, wrote in his poem,
The Chambered Nautilus:
Construct thee extra stately mansions, O my soul!Because the swift seasons roll!
Go away thy low-vaulted previous!
Let every new temple, nobler than the final,
Shut thee from heaven with a dome extra huge,
Until thou at size artwork free,
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life’s unresting sea!
That’s the goal of this creation and our place in it by way of a seemingly countless
chain of births on this and the upper worlds: to evolve past all worlds by
increasing our consciousness by way of kind after kind, finally reuniting
ourselves consciously with God, leaving many “outgrown shells by life’s unresting
sea.” For lengthy ages past calculation this development has occurred robotically,
spontaneously, with no thought or intention on our half. However the time is available in our
evolutionary situation when comprehension dawns and we perceive that we should
take our personal evolution in hand from that point forth. That is crucial for the
growth of our increased potential. As God controls and directs the macrocosm,
we should now start doing the identical with the microcosm that’s “us.” And yoga is the
technique of our self-evolution that results in our self-mastery and excellent union with
the Supreme Self: God. Yoga is each the information of cosmic and human make-up
and the important thing to unlock them and ascend to freedom in spirit. Yoga is the means by
which we reply for ourselves the prayer:
Lead me from the unreal to the Actual.Lead me from darkness to the Mild.
Lead me from demise to Immortality.
———-
Footnotes:
(1) The oldest recognized writing as regards to yoga, written by the sage Patanjali, a
yogi of historic India, and thought of probably the most authoritative textual content on yoga.
(2) Seers of the Fact, to whom the Vedas, the oldest scriptures of India, thought-about
the oldest scriptures of the world, have been revealed in meditation.
(3) A Divine Incarnation (avatar) born in India about three thousand years in the past,
Whose teachings to His disciple Arjuna on the eve of the Nice India (Mahabharata)
Struggle comprise the Bhagavad Gita.
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