Awareness, Not Achievement🔗

15.11 The serious practitioner of yoga, with an understanding of his Self, can see all this clearly.

But those who do not have an understanding of the Self, however much they try, cannot see.

15.12 The light of the Sun, the light of the Moon and the light of fire, all their radiance is also from Me.

15.13 Entering into earth, I support all beings with My energy; becoming the watery Moon, I nourish all plant life.

15.14 I am the fire of digestion in every living body and I am the breath of life, exhaled and inhaled, with which I digest the four-fold food.

Krishna uses the word ‘yoginaḥ’ in this verse. It is important to understand what He means by this. Yoga has become a buzzword; a trendy, fashionable word for cool people. I recently read an advertisement offering super-deluxe Kundalini Yoga that provides instant liberation!

I have never read about super-deluxe yogic practices in the scriptures. There is no instant liberation yoga mentioned in the scriptures.

Yoga is the link, the union, between the individual self, ātman, and universal Self, cosmic consciousness, Brahman. Awareness of this link, awareness that the self is the same as the Self, leads to liberation. The understanding happens in an instant; however, the practice leading to it requires a disciplined approach.

Patanjali, the great scientist sage of ancient India, describes the yogic path in his Yoga Sutra. Patanjali lays down eight paths to this union, the liberation, the awareness that we are divine. These eight paths, the Ashtanga Yoga paths, are not eight sequential steps. These are eight parts, not eight steps.

The first path is yama, the spiritual laws of conduct. These are five: satya, truth in thought, word and action; ahiṁsā: nonviolence in thought, word and action; āsteya: not coveting what does not belong to oneself; aparigraha: living a simple life and brahmacarya: living in Reality.

In the Hindu tradition, when an ascetic is ordained in a particular lineage, he must take these five vows of spirituality and follow them rigorously.

In fact, each year I go with devotees on a Himalayan pilgrimage to spiritual centers known as the cār dhām. At the starting point in Rishikesh, on the banks of the holy river Ganga, each of them takes these five vows. For the duration of the journey, they are yogic practitioners, ascetics engaged in a sincere spiritual journey.

The second path is niyama, a set of day-to-day practices to keep one physically, mentally and spiritually clean and pure.

The third path is āsana, or body postures to facilitate meditation; today these have become synonymous with yoga. Āsana, also referred to as Hatha Yoga, is one of the eight paths of Patanjali's Ashtanga Yoga.

The fourth path is prāṇāyāma, control of breath or the life force. Again this focuses the body-mind upon the inner self. The fifth path is pratyāhāra, disconnecting from the senses, sense objects and sensory pleasures; again this enables focus on the inner self.

The sixth path is dhāraṇa, complete focus on a chosen object, to control the mind. Once someone can concentrate the mind on one object, the mind becomes laser sharp and can shift attention to any other object.

The seventh path is dhyāna, meditation upon the inner self.

The eighth and final path is samādhi; this is when awareness happens and union is complete. Through a sustained and serious application of these methods of yoga, a practitioner, a yogi, reaches the awareness that he is one with the universe. There are highly evolved beings who reach samādhi without any intervening process; these are rare cases.

In today's world, my opinion is that dhyāna, meditation, is best suited for spiritual progress and for the realization that one's self is part of that cosmic Self.

Krishna says that until that awareness happens, however much one may strive, one will not reach Him.

Understand, here we are talking about awareness, not achievement. The truth is that our individual self is an integral part of the universal consciousness, the Self. This truth is not something that we need to work towards. It exists. It is. We are blinded by individual ego, māyā, the illusion of our individual identity, in forgetting that we are part of the collective consciousness.

Yogis, sincere spiritual practitioners, lift this veil of māyā, destroy the illusion, to see beyond into the truth of their oneness with the Divine. Meditation is the path and technique to lift this veil. Meditation enables the practitioner to go deeper and deeper into himself. Meditation brings about awareness of what is.

Light is awareness. Light is the sustainer of life. The Bible says, ‘God said, Let there be light and there was light.’ Light is one of the first manifestations of the Divine in creation. Without light and heat from the sun, life as we know it would be impossible. Everything in this world revolves around energy received from the sun in the form of light and heat.

The sun is also the dispeller of darkness. Not only does Krishna establish that He is the creator of this universe - the solar system, sun, moon and the fire which sustain our lives, but He also tells us that He is the Dispeller of darkness.

Krishna, as the master, as the guru, is the Dispeller of darkness. Guru means one who dispels darkness. As the sun, moon and the fire, Krishna is the ultimate master who leads us into awareness.

Krishna is the destroyer of our saṁskāras. Saṁskāras are products of darkness, our unconscious. Darkness is not a positive entity. It cannot be shifted from point to point. However, it can be destroyed by light. The presence of light dissolves darkness. The presence of awareness destroys saṁskāras. Darkness has no existence of its own. It only exists when there is no light. We cannot create darkness. It is the absence of something.

When someone cannot see, he is not bothered by darkness. He is not afraid of darkness. To a blind man, darkness is his nature. A blind man will not say that he sees ghosts and spirits in darkness. Darkness is the state that he exists in.

A truly courageous man is also not disturbed by darkness. Someone who is not afraid of anything does not fear the loss of ego, loss of identity and death. To him, darkness poses no fear as well. He can equally handle darkness and light, without fear or attraction.

Other than these two classes of people, darkness poses problems and presents fears for everyone else. In the Ananda Spurana or Life Bliss Program, as well as in our Nithyananda Spurana Program, we have sessions where participants meditate upon darkness. This is a highly energizing meditation. It may seem surprising, but darkness is energy.

People have powerful experiences when they go into this meditation with deep awareness. One gradually loses the ability to sense: one loses all one's sensory powers, those of sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste. One loses awareness of one's boundaries of the body. Effectively the body disappears. Then thoughts stop and the mind comes to rest.

Focusing and meditating upon darkness can enable one to reach a state of awareness where the spirit is perceived. One realizes that body and mind as well as the senses can be lost, yet the spirit remains.

Some people, especially those who have lived in countries where darkness is more common than light during certain periods of the year, do not even see the darkness when they go into this meditation. People living near the Arctic or Antarctic regions, where there is no sun during winter, become accustomed to this darkness and have no fear. Such people, when asked to meditate upon darkness as a means to eliminate fears associated with darkness, do not perceive darkness as something to be afraid of.

In this sense, Krishna is not only the Lord of light, but of darkness as well.

Krishna further expands on His pervasiveness. In the form of light and heat, He is the Sustainer of all beings within this universe. He, as we have seen, is the dispeller of darkness, the dissolver of saṁskāras.

He says that He is the energy of the watery moon and through this energy He is the life energy within plant life.

The Taittreya Upanishad says:

'Those who realize Brahman, the cosmic consciousness, as the ultimate Truth, see the Divine in their hearts. They are granted all the blessings of life. From this ultimate Truth, the etheric space materialized. From etheric space, air emerged. From air, came fire. From fire, came water. From water, earth emerged. And from the earth, plants were produced. The plants gave food. From food was created the human body, head, arms, legs and heart.'

Krishna affirms that He is Brahman and through His manifestation of the various natural elements of space, air, fire, water and earth, He is responsible for plant life and therefore for food and human beings.

Without plant life, there is no food. Without food, there is no body and mind. Body and mind become food for others after death. Food is an expression of divinity. The energy behind food is both the creator and destroyer of saṁskāras.

Most of us treat food as a basic necessity or an object of sensual pleasure. We ignore it or become addicted to it. We need to be aware of what we eat.

A disciple asked a Zen master, ‘Master, what changed in you when you became enlightened?’

The master said, ‘Now that I have become enlightened, I eat when I eat and sleep when I sleep.’

This may sound confusing. How many of us eat when we eat? How many of us focus on the food that we eat? While eating, we focus on everything except food. We talk, dream, read, watch television, fight and do everything except be aware of the food.

We treat food as garbage and it turns into garbage inside us. Once we treat food as energy, the life energy that it is, we experience a transformation inside us. Saying grace before meals as Christians do is a wonderful custom.

Before eating, offer gratitude to the universe for what you have received and meditate upon the food. Traditionally Hindus offer oblations to the Divine and chant prayers before eating. Major changes happen when you follow these customs with awareness.

To focus on what we eat while we eat is to be in the present moment. In the present moment, everything happens for the first time, afresh.

A master was instructed by his physician to eat bland food. The master’s cook became fed up after a while and complained, ‘I don’t know how you can eat the same food everyday without complaining. I am bored cooking the same food everyday.’

The master said, ‘It is not the same food. What I ate yesterday is different from what I am eating now. What I am eating now is not the same food that I shall eat tomorrow.’

A person who can be so settled in the present is one who is aware. He is one with Krishna.

The role of the sun as the giver of light and heat energies is obvious. It is also obvious that without the sun, all life forms will cease to exist. However, the fact that the moon is a nourishing energy providing life energy to plants and therefore to humans is not that well appreciated.

The moon controls our behavior, moods and minds. Soma, the name for the moon, refers to its fluidity and the transient nature of waxing and waning.

Krishna then talks about vaiśvānara, prāṇa and apāna.

The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says:

'This fire that is within the human being and which digests the food that he eats is vaiśvānara. The sound of this fire vaiśvānara is that which one hears by closing the ears. When death nears and the spirit is about to leave the body, he no longer hears this sound.'

This Upaniṣad goes on to say that neither āhāra (food), nor prāṇa (breath), can function alone, one without the other. Food will decay without breath and breath will dry up without food. Together, when the awareness of their union happens, true consciousness results.

Food is classified into four parts: Food that is chewed and eaten as with solids, food that is swallowed straightaway as with air, food that is sucked and consumed as liquids, and food that is licked and consumed. Food is also related to the four elements other than space: air, fire, water and earth.

The ancient Hindu traditional medicine system Ayurveda, works on this principle of vaiśvānara. The quality of this inner fire determines our state of hunger or lack of hunger as well as the state of health.

What Krishna implies here as well is that food is divine since it has His imprint on it. We tend to take food for granted. Only when food is scarce, is it appreciated and enjoyed.

Look around us; look at yourselves. How often do we value the food that we consume? A poor man eats his meager meal with great relish and awareness. The wealthier we become, the less aware and caring we are of what we eat. The underlying cause of most illnesses can be traced to this disrespect for food.

In traditional homes in rural India, even today, some food is offered to a crow or animal before the household eats. Often the household will not eat till a wandering mendicant or ascetic is fed. Offering food to others, other living beings, has been considered a form of worship in Hindu tradition. Food has always been considered the repository of the Divine.

A small story:

A teacher was teaching a little boy good habits at nursery school: how to sit properly at the table, fold the napkin on his lap, pick up the fork and spoon and so on.

As the boy was about to gulp down what was set in front of him, she asked, ‘Haven’t we forgotten something?’

The boy replied, ‘What now?’

The teacher said, ‘Don’t you pray before you start eating?’

‘No,’ said the boy. ‘My mom’s a good cook!’

Q: Swamiji, you talked about yoga. Modern people practice yoga as a form of exercise for wellness. Is this wrong?

If someone wants to ‘work up a sweat,’ yoga is not the way. Yoga was not meant to produce a sweat or to be practiced in a hot and humid room. These are perversions.

Yoga trains the body so that the body and mind can unite at the being level. That is the only purpose of yoga. Yoga means ‘uniting’. It is not even union. Yoga is a verb that signifies action and the process. It is not a noun referring to a goal or end result.

The physical part of yoga is one of the eight paths that help in this process. I was trained by a great yoga master starting from the age of three for several years. He was an instrument to prepare my body to hold the energy of enlightenment. It prepared my body for the rigors that I chose to subject it to in my spiritual quest.

People casually do prāṇāyāma, breath control. They play with it as if it is some bodily exercise. It is highly dangerous. Prāṇa is life energy. Improperly used, it can cause death. Properly used, it can prolong life. Prāṇāyāma can help you live without food and water or air. All this requires understanding, guidance and practice.

Our teachers teach Nithya yoga, a system of yoga developed based on the body language of Patanjali, the Father of yoga. Nithya Yoga is meditation-based and incorporates other aspects of Ashtanga Yoga, the yoga of eight paths, in a holistic manner.

Nithya Yoga is not about how well you perform a posture. It is about the intent with which you get into and out of the posture. The intent and the visualization of that intent translate into action. Your body moves with that intent. You need to make no effort. Nithya Yoga is about adding life to your movements; it has nothing to do with adding movements to your life.

Sixty and seventy-year-olds who never dreamed of practicing yoga, imagining themselves to be inflexible, practice Nithya Yoga. They find their body moving effortlessly; they are amazed.

In this cyber age, we suffer from cerebral pollution. The only solution to cerebral pollution is meditation. Nithya Yoga is built around meditation. This is the safest and most effective form of yoga that I know.