There is a fourfold expression of the mind. First, it is expressed as rationality or the power of reasoning. Second, it is expressed as emotion or love. Third, it is expressed as activity or dynamism. And fourth, it is expressed as reflection or contemplativeness. All four aspects of the mental being have to be disciplined and trained to go inward so that your resources are completely channelled and directed towards the Great Goal—God.
The power of reasoning should not be dissipated in the panorama of appearances called the world. This power should generate within you an understanding of the Supreme Essence which lies within, the very source of all intelligence, the shining light which makes your own intelligence luminous. Without It, you can neither think nor know. There are many wonderful techniques in Yoga for the diversion of all your thoughts towards the Great Reality, of all your emotions towards God, of all your dynamism towards the Great Goal, of all your reasoning powers towards the Absolute Truth. The channelling of these fourfold trends of your mind and nature towards the One Supreme Goal leads you beyond all sorrow, and makes you free for ever from the thraldom of bondage to the mind and the senses, and bestows upon you the luminous experience of Self-realization. You are made deathless.
Yoga is the science of getting your mind absorbed in God. You direct all your love to the Supreme Source of your being. You dedicate all your activities to the Great Goal which is your ultimate destiny. You concentrate all your thoughts in such a way that they can be withdrawn from this multifarious universe and made to merge into that great and glorious thought of God.
Directing all your intellectual abilities towards the realization of the Truth is known as the Yoga of the Intellect. In this branch of Yoga, you practise a supreme exercise by trying to grasp the Reality intellectually, by actual rationality. Developing all your capacity to love God is known as the Yoga of Devotion or the Yoga of Love. Dedicating all your activities in life to God is yet another branch of the science of Yoga, in which you integrate, on an unselfish basis, all the various phases of your life’s activities. Lastly, in Raja Yoga, you are made more and more conscious of God as the centre of your being, and you are employed in a very special process in which your thought is made to merge in Him entirely. There are many heartening signs that this Yoga is being seriously considered by many seekers in the West as the most suitable method for them to solve the perplexing problems of their civilization.
Now you clearly see the relationship between Yoga and yourself. Yoga makes available to you the scientific method for approaching God. Actually, anything that you do in this approach is really Yoga, whether or not it is branded as such. There is a very surprising inference in this statement, for then, all the great Christian saints and mystics who have sincerely tried to love God and worship Him and contemplate upon Him and realize their oneness with Him would be Yogis. Saint Augustine was a great Bhakti Yogi and Jnana Yogi combined. Saint John of the Cross and Saint Teresa of Avila were both great Raja Yogis. They were contemplative mystics who attained the Knowledge of the Truth through concentration and meditation.
If all these people have followed Yoga, then what is the speciality or the peculiarity of Yoga as it is practised in India?
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Next: Chapter 13: The Truth About Yoga, 7.Spiritual Research of the Indian Sages
Energy Enhancement Enlightened Texts Sri Swami Sivananda The Path Beyond Sorrow
Chapter 13
- Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 13: The Truth About Yoga
Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 13: The Truth About Yoga, This is a world of passing names and forms. In it all things change and soon reach their dissolution. One Thing, however, abides changelessly amidst all change. It is the Great Reality, the imperishable, the indestructible, changeless Being whom you call God. This Great Being, this Universal Spirit, is the eternal source, substratum and the goal ultimate of all existence. He is existence eternal, knowledge absolute, infinite bliss, immeasurable and perennial peace. To attain Him is to become fearless and free and immortal. By attaining Him you transcend death; you pass beyond all sorrow, pain and suffering. You reach a state of indescribable joy, ineffable peace and a supreme exalted consciousness of bliss and beatitude. This is as tangibly and substantially possible as plucking a ripe fruit and tasting and enjoying it at energyenhancement.org
- Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 13: The Truth About Yoga, 1.The Wisdom of the East
Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 13: The Truth About Yoga, 1.The Wisdom of the East, At the present juncture in this momentous Twentieth Century, the concept of one world is gaining ground in the minds of all thoughtful men. The necessity for the exchange and interchange of cultural values and scientific knowledge, and many other aspects of human life, is being felt more and more. The achievements of the different human races and nations are becoming the common property of the whole world. People everywhere are becoming more and more conscious of the oneness of humanity at energyenhancement.org
- Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 13: The Truth About Yoga, 2.What Yoga Is Not
Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 13: The Truth About Yoga, 2.What Yoga Is Not, First and foremost, Yoga is not mere acrobatics. There are some peculiar notions about Yoga, as though it were primarily concerned with the manipulation of the body into various queer positions: standing on the head, twisting the spine, or assuming of the odd poses demonstrated in the illustrated texts on Yoga. These techniques are employed for one type of Yoga practice, but they do not form an integral part of the most essential type. It is possible that without hearing of these physical poses, or knowing anything about them, one could yet be a perfect Yogi. The practice of the poses is not an indispensable part of Yoga. At best, the poses serve as an auxiliary or a minor aid to Yoga proper at energyenhancement.org
- Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 13: The Truth About Yoga, 3.Sorrow and SufferingThe Genesis of Yoga
Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 13: The Truth About Yoga, 3.Sorrow and SufferingThe Genesis of Yoga, Now having tried to tell you what Yoga is notnot acrobatics, not magic, not torture, not weird rites or ceremonials, not hedonism or paganism, not occultism or mystery-mongering, not auto-hypnosis or LSD and mescalin experiencesI shall tell you what Yoga is. Yoga is essentially a spiritual matter concerning a spiritual method. It is an intensely practical approach towards the realization of the Supreme Reality, the very Centre of your livesGod. Yoga is the heritage of all humanity. Briefly, I shall now touch upon the genesis of Yoga. Observing mans life on earth, you will have to admit that life is not all ice-cream and chocolate milk-shakes and drive-ins. It is birth, growth, pain, suffering, sorrow, loss and gain, honour and dishonour, fulfilment and disappointment, straggle, affliction, disease and, ultimately, decay of the human frame and death of the body. These things are absolutely inexorable and inevitable at energyenhancement.org
- Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 13: The Truth About Yoga, 4.A Science Built upon Practical Experience
Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 13: The Truth About Yoga, 4.A Science Built upon Practical Experience, What Divinity is, that, essentially, man also is. Man partakes of the same nature, and is enabled to regain his awareness of that divine nature by subjecting himself to the process of Yoga. By availing himself of certain well-tried practical techniques, one is raised in consciousness from the physical level to the vast transcendental spiritual level. This higher level becomes one with the Consciousness of God. It is Divine Consciousness, God Consciousness, Cosmic Consciousness. This is the attainment that is bestowed upon the Yogis who have tried again and again, a hundred thousand times, the various practical methods which culminate in this glorious experience. Seers and mystics throughout the centuries have proved the validity of these techniques right to the very last factor. The science does not depend merely upon belief, but upon experience gained from the practical application of its principles. The actual living realization has been attained and the glorious experience declared with the authority of many who have mastered themselves. Such masters there are, even today, in all parts of India at energyenhancement.org
- Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 13: The Truth About Yoga, 5.A Universal Technique for All Time
Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 13: The Truth About Yoga, 5.A Universal Technique for All Time, While this science was being evolved, the great seers were not so much concerned with the requirements of particular groups such as the Hindus or the Easterners; rather, they undertook a consideration of man on earth as he was constituted. It was apparent to them that the physical body and the mind served certain purposes: the body as an instrument of the mind and the mind as a channel for the expression of the soul. They observed that most unfortunately man was enslaved by the body, gripped by the senses, and caught up and tyrannized by the cravings of the mind. This was the picture of the earthly mansense-bound and desire-ridden, the glory of his spirit entirely eclipsedand this picture they sought to change by their practice of Yoga at energyenhancement.org
- Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 13: The Truth About Yoga, 6.Training of the Mind in Yoga
Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 13: The Truth About Yoga, 6.Training of the Mind in Yoga, There is a fourfold expression of the mind. First, it is expressed as rationality or the power of reasoning. Second, it is expressed as emotion or love. Third, it is expressed as activity or dynamism. And fourth, it is expressed as reflection or contemplativeness. All four aspects of the mental being have to be disciplined and trained to go inward so that your resources are completely channelled and directed towards the Great GoalGod at energyenhancement.org
- Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 13: The Truth About Yoga, 7.Spiritual Research of the Indian Sages
Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 13: The Truth About Yoga, 7.Spiritual Research of the Indian Sages, First, as to the peculiarity of Yoga, there is none as it is practised in India. The same techniques are practised there as elsewhere. However, as to the speciality of Yoga, there is thisin India is to be found the clearest conception of the process involved in concentration and meditation. The Indian sages made deep and thorough spiritual research to learn all that was involved in the process that takes man from his lower condition to the ultimate glorious condition that he is to attain. They made it their special concern to study the process in such detail that every bit of the human anatomy was revealed to them on the ascent unto Divinity. Every bit was perfectly analysed and known. From their study they found what obstacles were present in the way of the practical seeker. They discovered why these obstacles came and which factors inherent in human nature were the source of these obstacles; and they found out the way to remove these obstacles at their very source. For this purpose they formulated wonderful techniques, tried them out and proved them effective. They explained how these techniques worked and how they were to be applied. Their knowledge of the internal mechanism was amazing. Their knowledge of the structure of the human being was unparalleled. This, then, is the speciality of Yoga in India at energyenhancement.org
- Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 13: The Truth About Yoga, 8.The Over-all Pattern of Yoga Life
Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 13: The Truth About Yoga, 8.The Over-all Pattern of Yoga Life, I shall now sum up briefly the over-all pattern of Yoga life. First of all, Yoga recognizes the true purpose of human life. It gives you the answer to the question: Why have I come here and what is my task in life? Then it opens your eyes to the true nature of the universe. It tells you not to be deluded by these passing objects which are perishable and therefore temporary. Objects do not give an unalloyed experience of pleasure or bliss. Yoga shows you the objects of this world as they really are, not as they appear to be, and warns you not to be duped and deceived by their external glamour, not to be thus lured and enslaved by them. It advises you to develop dispassion, for if you are passionately attached to objects, sorrow will be the harvest which you will have to reap at energyenhancement.org
- Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 13: The Truth About Yoga, 9.The Different Yoga Systems
Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 13: The Truth About Yoga, 9.The Different Yoga Systems, There are various systems of Yoga which I will very briefly describe. In the intellectual system, one gets an understanding of God by listening to the exposition of the nature of Reality, by reflecting upon It again and again, and through the power of reasoning and the intellect ultimately penetrating into It in the depths of meditation at energyenhancement.org
- Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 13: The Truth About Yoga, 10.Puritythe All-important Foundation
Sri Swami Sivananda, The Path Beyond Sorrow Chapter 13: The Truth About Yoga, 10.Puritythe All-important Foundation, All the techniques of Yoga require perfect ethical and moral purity. Purity is the foundation of Yogic life. One cannot be a bad man and then try to practise Yoga. One cannot allow himself to be impure, insincere, untruthful, deceitful, and harmful to others and, at the same time, try to practise Yoga. There cannot be any spiritual realization when interior circumstances are imperfect. There cannot be any religious practice or true interior life when moral goodness is not deeply implanted in the being. One has to be rooted in goodness, in purity, in truth and in selflessness. Half of the process of Yoga is in thus getting perfectly established in ideal moral conduct. When this basis has been established, then the application of the techniques of Yoga is like the striking of a dry match upon the match-boximmediately there is a flame. Without the basis, it is like trying to ignite a wet match by striking it upon a cake of soapnothing happens at energyenhancement.org
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