70. Intensity is the Master Key🔗

Whether you are practiVing karma yoga, gnana yoga, bhakti yoga or whatever yoga may be, whatever yoga you may be practiCing, all you need is intensity, all you need is intensity, all the obstructions are removed. I can say that is the connecting thread between all forms of spiritual practice.

This is the ultimate sutra for the whole of yoga. Whether you are facing difficulties with niyama (social discipline) or niyama, (personal discipline) or asanas (physical postures) or pranayama (breathing practices) or pratyahara (mental set up) or dhaarana (emotional balancing) or dhyaana (restful awareness in your inner space) or samadhi, enlightenment itself, the one and only solution, the ultimate key, is this one sutra: abhyasa vairagyabhyam tannirodhaha - relaxing from these patterns through constant and intensive practice of unclutching.

Patanjali explained in the last few sutras about the five different modifications of the mind - pramaana, right knowledge; viparyaya - wrong knowledge; vikalpa – imagination;, nidra – sleep; smrti - memory. Now, he is saying that if you unclutch from this five modifications through constant, intense practice, you will become enlightened.

I can say, the five modifications are responsible for all your problems. So, wherever you are stuck, the master key, the master solution, is this: intensity. Intensity by itself can lead you to the ultimate enlightenment without any technique, without any other support, without anything from the outer world. It is a self-sufficient tool for the ultimate experience, kaivalya gnana, living enlightenment.

I don't want to add more ideas. If I add more ideas, sometimes you miss the essence. That's the reason I always work with one idea, again and again till it completely fills your being and you are internalizing this one truth. Otherwise we miss the truth.

We are waiting to miss the truth. That's the big problem. We are waiting to miss the truth!

A small story:

Once, in a village, a preacher was narrating the story of Harishchandra.

King Harishchandra lived his whole life based on truthfulness and being in integrity with his word. The story of Harishchandra says that at one point he even sold his wife and children in order not to compromise his integrity.

After the narration he asked a man, 'What did you learn from this story?' The man replied, 'I learnt that I should always be truthful, no matter what price I have to pay for it.' The preacher was happy. Then he asked another man, 'What did you learn?'

The second man said, 'I learnt that in an emergency, you can even sell your wife, nothing wrong!'

Sometimes we miss the truth if too many things are added!

So, intranalyze this one truth, understand this one truth, try, try to experiment with this one truth. When you wake up in the morning, be intense about any one idea. Try it for ten days. Just be intense about that one idea. Suddenly you will see that all the things and all the people related to that one idea will start coming towards your life. You will start attracting all the things needed to live that idea in your life - people, materials, situations.

You can see in your life - only if you are hungry, you will even see the McDonalds tower on the road! In the same way, when you start seeking, you will suddenly start seeing that your house is filled with yoga journals, meditation videos, spiritual websites

When you feel connected to something, not only mind, even your body will fall in tune with that one idea. Even your body structure will change according as per that idea. Experiment with this truth; you will see the power of intensity. You will see power of intensity. Pick up any idea and intensely internalize it through constant remembrance. When you fall asleep, be filled with that idea. When you wake up, be filled with that idea. You will see, in ten days, your mind gets tuned to that idea, your thinking gets tuned to that idea. You will attract the right kind of people, situations, everything, around you.

ACTIVITY

Pick up any one idea and intensely internalize it through constant remembrance. In ten days, your will attract the right kind of people, situations, everything, around you.

SUTRA 13

The effort to remain constantly in that elevated state of awareness is abhyasa.