Nav Raj Pokharel
Journalist
This world has fallen apart in to two pieces. It is not due to different political ideologies of communism and democracy or geographical distance between the West and the East or by the rich and the poor, or the culture. It is by the people themselves. Some of the people are happy and many unhappy. Everybody seeks happiness in life but only few have achieved it. The quest for happiness was from ancient time and is until now. The happy people are regarded as blessed ones. Sad are cursed. They, however, are not cursed by the Creator, but by their own thoughts. Our thought is what we are. God created us and we have created everything except happiness around us and within us. Human being is the citizen of two worlds-the world within and the world outside. Failure to strike a balance between the two worlds creates sadness. People are unhappy who have amassed wealth and prosperity in the world outside and people are equally unhappy who have renounced the world outside and dwelt in the world inside only. Even the renowned people from of all walks of life- businessmen to monks, writers to educators, and politicians to professionals of all kinds are unhappy. Only one thing missing in them is contentment. The great ancient masters have found out the actuality of human unhappiness. They understood the root cause and handed over the knowledge to us. They argue, human being is neither body nor mind alone. Rather, he is the combination of the both. Thousand years of research and experiments led them to conclude that body, breath and mind belong to the mortal parts of us and the consciousness alone is immortal. When human being realises the truth of his own conscious self, he always becomes happy, as he knows he is immortal. He even goes to the deathbed happily as if he is shifting from old house to the new. However, the path of happiness cannot be achieved overnight as sometimes possible in amassing the wealth and reputation. Adept masters who spent lives finding out the truth and methodologies of internal journey have prescribed systematic approach applicable only to the interested human being.
When Patanjali codified, or compiled the Yoga Sutras, it was not that a new system was created, but rather, the ancient practices were summarized in an extremely organized and terse way. Yoga means union of the parts of us, which were never divided in the first place. Yoga is the control (nirodhah, regulation, channelling, mastery, integration, coordination, stilling, quieting, setting aside) of the modifications (gross and subtle thought patterns) of the mind field. A seeker, after some practice in yoga and meditation will start feeling those gross and subtle thought patterns (vrittis) that fall into five varieties, of which some are colored (klishta) and others are uncolored (aklishta). And when mind is trained to calm down and remain in the state of tranquil, a seeker’s mind loses desire even for objects; it acquires a state of utter (vashikara) desirelessness that is called nonattachment (vairagya). If we like to live a joyful life based on traditional practices, we need to follow the seven steps. First step to mastering the joyful life begins by practising Yama or, self-realisation. Yama means, “Live and let live”. Second step is Niyama or self-discipline, which further consists of five components- cleanliness, contentment, austerity and self-study. The third step is the practice of asana or posture of our sitting. The adept yogis have devised 84 traditional Asan. The physical postures have direct impact on restoring physical health and indirect impact on cultivating a joyful mind. And meditation, or Meditative postures, on the other hand, has direct impact on cultivating a joyful mind and an indirect impact on restoring physical health. The forth step is pranayam. It means exercise of life force that infuses in our body and mind with vital energy- breath. Breathing exercises are more subtle but effective. It needs percussion. Then comes fifth step, which is known as pratyabara. It means to disentangle ourselves wisely and skilfully from unwanted sorts of cravings, desires.
To pull one from undesirable point and unite with desirable. The practice of the fifth step of yoga is a natural evolution in the soul’s journey. The sixth step is Dharana, or concentration. At this point, we learn to gather all the forces and the faculties of the mind, focusing them on one chosen object, image, colour, or anything we like. At this stage, we start realizing qualitative changes in life and thought patterns. The seventh step is higher level of Dharana, which is known as dhyana or meditation, which is simply an advance stage of concentration as it makes the mind one-pointed and steady. At this stage, the practitioner starts seeing glimpses of a higher level of reality and yet he is aware of the lower level of reality. At this divine peace and tranquil stage, we are perfectly established in supreme consciousness, which is the objective of internal journey. This stage gives realisation to our soul by uniting it with supreme source of energy where you and the whole world and space become one. You in the space and space in you. We attain the incredible bliss that cannot be compared with anything on the world. At the stage our all desires and craves are washed away at once, what remains is contentment. Therefore, the happiness is within us. We need to see it and awaken. When we learn to quieten our mind, it gradually unfolds the unlimited potential of our unconscious mind. Mind is a powerhouse. We have body in our mind but there is no mind in our body. Ponder it over.
Quietening our body and mind alone takes us very near to the truth we were restlessly looking for with our clamouring conscious mind. Not only in oriental spiritual philosophy but also in the Bible, the western scholars have succinctly written,” Be still and know that I am God” The modern people have secretly convinced themselves that modern science and technology can change our life. True. It can mesmerise us and convince that it can change our life of the outside world, not the world of inside. Nevertheless, the teaching of Yoga at this time has become a joke to the adept ones although it has been attracting many naïves. It has become something of network business of some cult. Most of the teachers of commercial yoga programs available to every nook and corner in the country teach few copycat poses, some twists in body this way and that way, inhale and exhale of breath as pranayama and mugged up some mantras in Sanskrit. The essence of hatayoga, mudra and mantras along with other important essence of yoga has lost its impact as it has been distorted in the hand of the naïve yoga teachers. No mantras, boon or curse reveals any supernatural effect these days. We hardly find yoga teachers who have true faith in yoga. They have not tested the impact of meditation, yoga, kriya, mudra, mantra on them, instead brag rhetoric on the subject when even they find audiences. I have personally inquired with many of those self-esteemed yoga teachers who claim that they have been practicing it for years. And yet, they are at their wits end when asked for their achievements of spiritual realisations. What ever our arguments about the evolution of life, existence of supreme consciousness and the enlightenment possible with or without God, one thing is untenable that unless we learn to heed the voice of our heart, we can not know who we are. Thus, we cannot be happy not knowing at the first place who we are. All the wisdom in the world becomes useless to us if we fail to heed to the voice of our soul. Our heart is our only true teacher, our mind is the powerhouse for supreme and divine knowledge, our both best friend and enemy is our-selves. Right and wrong are imposed notions taught to us. With long practice on these notions, we feel comfortable to “right” notion and uncomfortable with the “wrong” ones. We are taught everything, black and white, write and wrong, good and bad from the moment we were in the mother’s womb. Human has created this problem. They prefer to see things in black and white. They divide the whole world into good and bad categories and put all actions into two categories- right and wrong. This tendency had led them to judgemental and their labelling becomes the ground for conflict, dispute, differences and war. What we need to realise is that things are not always black and white. There are numberless grades, shapes and sizes, colours, smells and tastes. So is the case of right and wrong, good and bad. As soon as we rise above the narrow confines of our preconceived notions , we begin to see that neither the objects of the world not the people are good or bad , rather it is our understanding that makes them right and wrong and good and bad. However, this much-imposed notion makes our life miserable and we can never live a happy and joyful life. It will get changed the next moment when we dare to change our deep-rooted perspective to look at the things.
Let me give you a real example. As the saying goes, the boss is always right (a preoccupied notion). I used to face crooked eyes of my boss in the office I work that annoyed and saddened me through out the day, weeks and months. The difference germinated due to difference of notions we stuck by. I know he wants to dictate and guide my mind with his preoccupied notions, manoeuvre, glib tongue and punitive departmental actions only to satiate his unquenchable thirst for self-importance (ego) at the first place. His prompt response to questions, query, and average answers to resolve the problems facing the workflow and unmanaged human resources and unmanaged working environment for past many years makes him suspect of hiding the truth, further revealing his ignorance and incompetence on the issues. My heart used to feel uncomfortable and unconvincing to the illogical and contradicting arguments every time he made before his subordinates like me. His ignoring attitudes towards many of us, who pointed out his faulty schemes, are considered and treated as mutiny in his barrack. That used to hurt me, making me sad and unhappy for the wrong notions he holds for many of us. I pondered over the reason behind and realised that why I should feel hurt for his immature decision or criticism. Why should I let my heart feel hurt for his flawed working style and self-centred attitudes? I started fortifying myself against his prejudices towards me. I trained myself in resisting from his perspectives of right and wrong, good, and bad and contaminating my mind and heart from his preoccupied notions. Now I am not sad. I have realised this and telling you that my happiness is my creation. You too can create it. The way my boss wanted to create unhappiness to me, I channeled the energy and redirected it towards him. Now he should take care of it. I feel liberated and happy at the office throughout the day, weeks and months.
Happy life, indeed, is an art of living. This art of joyful living can be created in or outside our homes, in any clime and country and in any adverse situation, with little focus and efforts. Yoga and meditation is only a catalyst agent.
2010-08-03 20:08:42
