Unlock Your Energy With True Yoga

Feb 1, 2004, 08.48pm IST
Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev.

The term ‘yoga’, for many, means physical postures , and that too twisted, impossible ones. But that’s not what we’re referring to as yoga .

Yoga means to be in perfect tune . Your body, mind, spirit and existence are in absolute harmony . When you fine-tune yourself to such a point where everything functions beautifully within you, the best of your abilities will just flow out of you.

When you’re happy, your energies always function better. In fact, when you’re happy, you have endless energy. Even if you don’t eat or sleep, it doesn’t matter; you can go on and on. So just knowing a little happiness liberates you from your normal limitations of energy and capability.

Yoga is the science of activating your inner energies in such a way that your body, mind and emotions function at their highest peak. If I don’t sleep for two days, you won’t notice any difference in me. I can still have a full day of activity.

When your body and mind function in a completely different state of relaxation and a certain level of bliss, you can be released from most suffering. You come to your office, and you have a nagging headache.

Your headache isn’t a major illness, but it takes away your capability for that day. The throbbing pain takes away everything. But with the practice of yoga, your body and mind will be kept at their highest possible peak.

When you activate your energies, you can function in a different way. As you’re sitting, you consider yourself to be a person. You’re identified with many things, but what you call as “myself” is just a certain amount of energy.

Modern science tells you that the whole of existence is just energy manifesting itself in different ways. It follows then that you’re also just a little bit of energy functioning in a particular way. In science, this same energy which you call as ‘myself’ can be here as a rock, lie there as mud, stand up as a tree, bark as a dog, or sit here as you. Everything is the same energy, but functioning at different levels of capabi-lity. Though all of us are made of the same energy, we don’t function at the same level of capability. What you call capability, talent, ability or creativity, these are just a particular way in which your energy functions.

The same energy, in one plant, creates rose flowers; in another, it creates jasmine. By gaining a bit of mastery over your own energies, you will see things that you never imagined possible, you will do them simply and naturally.

The same mud with which we construct huge buildings, is also used to build little huts. What you call a computer is dug out of the earth. We thought we could only dig mud and make pots or bricks out of it. Now we dig the earth and make computers, cars, and even spacecraft out of it. It’s the same energy; we have just started using it for higher possibilities. Our inner energies, too, are like that.

There is a whole techno-logy of applying this energy for higher possibilities. Each one of us must explore and know this. Otherwise, life becomes limited and accidental; you get to do only what you’re exposed to. Once you start activating your inner energies, your capabilities happen in a different sphere altogether. Yoga is a tool to find ultimate expression to life.

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Sky nature of mind

Jul 31, 2010, 12.00am IST
GIRISH DESHPANDE.

In every sentient being the buddha mind is omnipresent. We don't have to go looking for it. We don't have to strive to perfect it. It has been with us since birth and it is always perfect! Just as the sky. This is the nature of our mind. Who would want to strive to perfect a cloudless sky?

All of us want to be happy at all times. So why do our actions of body, speech and mind work often in contradiction to what we really want, bringing suffering in its wake? The reason is simple; it's because we allow them to. We could correct this; we can attempt to clear the clouds that obscure the beautiful sky.

What is holding us back from exploring the brilliance of the sky? The four faults, as enumerated below:

Too close: Have you ever tried to see your face without something that could reflect it? Not possible. Similarly, the nature of the mind is so close to our mind that it finds it difficult to see it.

Too profound: How often have you waded into unknown waters? You take a few steps and the fear of the unknown stops you. Similarly, we have no idea how deep the nature of mind would be. We cannot fathom its depth. So we don't make an attempt.

Too easy: It is often that we have not attempted something simply because it was too easy. So it is with the nature of mind. Something that has always been with us, always perfect, gets a priority that is low amongst other worldly distractions & attractions.

Too wondrous: How many times have we left something untried because we see it as an immense task? We just don't believe that we can actually attain enlightenment which is the essential nature of our minds.

The Tibetan word for 'Buddhist' is nangpa, which means `insider', that is, alluding to the fact that one has to learn of living and dying not from external sources but from knowing the nature of mind. However, people fear to look within themselves, not knowing what they will find. Whether they will be able to face what they will find. They are afraid that they will be treated like social outcasts amongst friends, left alone to live life in solitude. And this conceptualised, misplaced approach plays perfectly into the ploy of the wily ego that could have asked for nothing more than this.

The answers you genuinely seek will come to you only from within, from the nature of your mind and not the nurtured mind. Even if you get the most accomplished teacher, his only responsibility will be to guide you through unknown pathways with the help of teachings and practices, cutting through obscuration of a contrived mind and make you discover the true nature of your mind. And in doing so, help you dispel the fears of sickness, old age and death and understand better the prospect of life, death and afterlife.

It needs endeavour. Let the winds of awakening blow away the clouds from the sky nature of your mind. Introduce yourself to the perfect sky that is your very own and has always been with you. This is the only happy way out from here! Buddha hood to you!

(The writer is a Pune-based dharma practitioner.)

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Spiritual love as a natural progression

Feb 19, 2010, 12.00am IST
SWAMI KRIYANANDA.

Life is a thrilling drama. Typical of the spectacle—perhaps its greatest highlight—is that oldest of stories: Two young people, a man and a woman, meet. Both are in radiant health; they are beautiful, happy, and magnetic. They are instantly attracted to each other.

Certainly the attraction is deeper than physical. Each senses in the other a quality that satisfies a deep need. Yearning, they reach out as if to absorb a fulfillment long and ardently awaited.

Can their hopes ever be fulfilled? The attraction they feel is indefinable, elusive and evanescent. They long to draw from each other something very special. What is that something?

It is all a play of consciousness—ripples rising in expectation, cresting, then scattering in foam -- thoughts and emotions that flicker in the sunlight on life’s sea; wavelets that long to merge their separate identities in a larger wave. Waves themselves, however, are ephemeral. Moods pass. The starlight and the dancing, that gentle, sweet touch, those brief glimpses of beautiful, far-off scenes filled with love and happiness: All these change, and soon disappear. Is it all a mirage?

Can God have so arranged human existence that it is based eternally on false hopes? The loving embrace, then its sequel: children, each with its own interests and self-created destiny...Has that ardent coming together had no other purpose than to perpetuate the species?

Sexual union brings fleeting pleasure at first, then exhilaration—followed by physical and emotional depletion, and, if over-indulged, by satiety and disgust. What is the purpose?

The expression: “falling in love,” is a curious one. The experience is indeed a fall from high expectations, a crash downward into brambles of disappointment, suffering, and maybe, compromise. Will it ever be possible to become fully absorbed in that sweet smile, that loving look, that radiance in the eyes? Never! Such is the tragedy of human love.

Love has, in fact, a reality far more spiritual than material. The physical body is only a container for its animating spirit, to which one’s feelings truly belong. The less spiritual the feelings, however, the less also they qualify as love at all.

Every human desire, ambition, and aspiration is destined for ultimate disappointment, unless it transcends its human limitations. Life is a drama, a dramatic dream, with innumerable plots and subplots, all leading toward a wonderful ending.

Consider the basic structure within which the universe was manifested: dvaita or duality. The one vast Consciousness moved Itself in opposite directions from its state of rest at the centre. Waves appeared on the surface of the great Ocean of Consciousness. With each wave there came a corresponding trough; the over-all ocean level could never change.

All this movement exists in thought only. Spirit alone is Absolute; movement is relative. There are degrees of height and depth, which, for simplicity, were divided in scriptures as the three qualities of satva, rajas and tamas.

We can never find fulfillment anywhere except in the inner Self, yet we do absorb qualities from one another through emulation. We need to shed every human trait, including the most satvic; for as long as we identify it as a quality possessed by the ego, even satvic qualities suggest that in delusion itself lays the key to enlightenment.

Yet without human friendships we might never get a hint of God’s infinitely greater friendship. Moreover, although human love is “the greatest delusion,” without it we might never feel inspired to seek its true fulfillment, that is, union with God.

Excerpt from Swami’s recent book, Religion in the New Age. http://www.anandaindia.org/.

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Generosity: A two-way street

Apr 9, 2010, 12.00am IST
MARGUERITE THEOPHIL.

Most of us were taught that generosity is about giving freely, and putting others' needs before our own. While there is nothing wrong with this definition, it remains somewhat incomplete. To think of generosity only in terms of giving can limit us.

Being truly generous is as much about being open to receiving graciously from others. Allowing the other to 'give' to us whether it be a compliment, an act of kindness, emotional support or even material help in times of need is, interestingly, as much of an act of kindness as extending ourselves to give to others.

Correspondingly, we need to be aware of a possible 'greed of giving' that can sometimes be a thinly disguised power trip! It's time we began to understand generosity as a kind of two-way street.

With all the talk about how "selfish" we are today, it's pretty amazing to see how many people have real difficulty being able to receive.

There may be at least four reasons why people have trouble receiving. Maybe they simply haven't learned how to graciously receive a gift or assistance from another. Or it could be that they don't want to feel under obligation to the giver. It's also possible they consider receiving a weakness, and want to always come across as the strong or defining part of a relationship; to receive, for some, is to acknowledge that they have needs, or are vulnerable, and they find this very hard. Or perhaps, most sadly, they don't feel they deserve what they receive.

Unfortunately, all of these reasons quite self-centredly put the focus on the receiver, rather than on the joy of the person giving the gift. It helps to recall the joy we feel when we ourselves give ^ and to allow others opportunities for experiencing the same joy.

Ultimately it is about finding that sacred balance between not wanting too much either to only give, or to only receive.

Teachers from various Traditions have spoken of the art of receiving; that learning to receive is an important step in connecting to our Higher Self. It may not be only working hard or being a more deserving person that draws good things towards us, rather, it begins with the process of 'allowing'. Perhaps we could reflect on the strange possibility that we may be allowing into our lives less than 2 per cent of the good things that Higher Self offers.

A sermon i once heard from a Christian pastor suggested that when Jesus called us to 'become as little children' to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, he meant that we should learn to receive as they do. "Children can teach us a thing or two about simple, joyful receiving," she said. "They hardly ever feel they have to earn the gift or are obliged to pay you back. They just accept. It's a form of surrender. That's how one enters the kingdom."

A Buddhist teacher in Thailand invited us to consider that in order to have a great life, you not only have to discern your needs from your greeds, but you also have to be humble enough to ask for what you need, and more importantly you also need to understand that the way you habitually receive often determines what you will receive in the future.

There's a danger of getting caught up in our own ideas of what it means to be generous and so losing sight of what this principle of generosity is really about ^ which is experiencing our interconnectedness in both the outgoing and inflowing energy of genuine reciprocity.

(The writer is a Mumbai-based consultant, personal growth coach and workshop leader.)

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A Guru Can Help Us Get Connected

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Why we lose our selves in a sea of identities

Sep 2, 2009, 12.00am IST
ACHARYA MAHAPRAJNA.

In order to understand society, we must first understand the individual. He who knows one, knows all; and he who knows all, alone knows one, Mahavira would say.

Complete knowledge of an atom is not possible without understanding it in the context of other things. That is why, when analysing an atom, one comes to know the countless laws of the universe.

The individual faces three types of problems: Physical, social and spiritual. To cater to ones physical needs, economic power is required. To regulate these matters of commerce, trade, money and distribution -- the state is required. Administrative machinery run by the state becomes necessary when the needs of the people have to be taken care of. Hence multiple identities evolve out of various functions and responsibilities. However, the power-centres created for solving individual problems have often themselves turned into problems.

There is a story in the puranas of a mouse that performed penance to earn the blessings of Lord Shiva and the mouse turned into a cat. As a cat, the mouse no longer feared other cats. But still the fear of dogs continued. Through successive courses of penance he kept changing from cat to dog to leopard to tiger and finally to man. One day Shiva asked him, "Are you now free from all fears?" He replied, "Even by becoming man my problems are not over, for I am suffering from fear of death. I may, therefore, be favoured and turned into a mouse again." Lord Shiva once again blessed him and he returned to the original form of a mouse.

Money was invented to enable us to share goods and services in an equitable manner. Today, however, it poses major problems. There is the rich-poor divide. From being created as a means to fulfill needs, money has come to be flaunted as a status symbol. Money, because of its purchasing power, is a much sought-after commodity. Its scarcity among some gives rise to theft and corruption. Enforcing law and order is also therefore a duty of the state.

State power lacks discipline. Religion faces its own set of problems. In some instances it is used as an instrument of state power. This is because religion has been reduced to mere ritual. True religion has no need of state power.

True religion stands for the experience of unity and harmony. There are some who say that religion has failed to solve human problems. But that is because religion is being used to accumulate wealth, cure disease and win legal suits. More importance is being given to name and form. Religion is not meant for these things; it is meant to elevate your consciousness on the spiritual plane.

So-called religious wars were caused not by religion but by its form and name. The soul of religion is unity. No war can be fought without destroying the spirit of religion. Vedanta propounds the principle that all sentient beings originate from the same source. Jain philosophy also asserts that all sentient beings are alike. Could human beings have fought each other, if people had practised the above feeling of unity and harmony? Could one individual have exploited another individual? Could one man have hated another?

Feeling unity and harmony with everyone is the spirit of religion. The greater the identity one feels with others, the more the religiosity one imbibes. Thinking along these lines convinces me that we have merely touched the veneer of religion but have never felt its inner core. What we have seen are the outer garments.

As told to Lalit Garg.

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Plants: Borderline beings in Indian traditions

Jun 13, 2009, 08.00am IST
Ellison Banks Findly.

Classical admonitions to "do no harm" lead us to early Jain renunciates who must refuse foods that contain living seeds, sprouts, or mildews.

They also lead us to Buddhist monks who must refrain from walking in the rainy season so as not harm living beings in the soil underfoot. And they lead us, finally, to Hindu requests for forgiveness from trees about to be cut, hoping that the injury may be minimal...

In a world view shared by all three traditions, plants are seen as full participants in the ongoing flux of life, of enlivened energy and matter that includes animals and humans. This world view is uniform across traditions, and posits five elements for including plants in the living matrix of the cosmos.

Plants are "living" because they grow, because they are involved in the cosmic cycle of moving water, and because they breathe. Plants are "sentient", having only the one sense of touch the base for all other senses and the sense that does not die with the physical body but continues unbroken with karmic consciousness through rebirth.

Plants are "stable", enduring an anchored, rooted life unlike their mobile sentient colleagues. Plants feel "pleasure and pain" just as humans do, and show their experience of pleasure by turning towards the sun and flourishing, and their experience of pain by withering when cut and eventually dying.

Finally, plants are "karmic", enmeshed in the process of rebirth and conditioned therefore by the three gunas. Being one-sensed and the lowest of living beings, plants are classified as tamasic, indicated by laziness, inertia, inattention, dullness and delusion. Although tamasic at one extreme, plants also appear as "borderline beings" at the other extreme. As models for ascetic behaviour, plants are guides for the highest realm of sattvic life. Ascetics are admonished to be stable in body and mind; full of equanimity and tranquillity; flexible like trees in the wind; undistracted by annoying pests; and ready with compassionate service for humans, providing shade, lodging and food.

Jainism was the earliest to focus on ahimsa, and has the fullest application of non-violence to daily life... Renunciates, for example, cannot accept food that might still be living, and contemporary lay Jains are precluded from eating vegetables taken from the earth like potatoes, onion and carrots, that may have vegetation hidden in the folds of flowering tops like broccoli and cauliflower, or that may contain living beings (like honey).

In Hinduism, the practice of plant ahimsa extends into public spaces, with instruction on treating plant diseases, directions for planting trees and injunctions for rituals to ensure both the internal and external flourishing of plants...

In Buddhism, an interesting conundrum occurs. Early on, lay donors wanted to give only to ascetics of the very highest behaviour, that is, to those who practised full non-violence to animals, humans and plants. In time, when Buddhist donors themselves wanted to practise non-violence, they were stymied because, as lay people, they needed to cut plants for housing, transportation and eating purposes. In order to alleviate this dilemma, plants were determined to be non-living, thus allowing lay people to follow ahimsa.

The fullness of plant life puts plants in reciprocal relationship with humans. According to Hindu folklore, humans and plants can converse and marry. These possibilities bestow on humans the unique responsibility for nurturing and protecting plants; a responsibility that ensures that plant life remains a diverse, healthy and flourishing component of the world's harmonious balance.

Extracted from the writer's Plant Lives: Borderline Beings in Indian Traditions.

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