35. Part 2 - The Grinding

<< Previous - Part 1 - The Self-Dementia

Now, what is the solution for this dementia? What should the Sun do to know the truth? What should I do to know the truth? Several paths are preached. But eventually all have to culminate into one - Self-Enquiry, which is emphasized with utter simplicity by Ramana Maharshi.

In my childhood, I used to see my mother grinding rice using a heavy grinding stone using her own hands. In one hand she would be rotating the stone and in another hand she would be skillfully pushing the crushed rice paste again and again back into the center, because as the stone crushes the batter, most of it gets squeezed out. If not pushed back again, it will remain on the edges without being subject to further crushing. This way rotating the stone alone will not produce the smooth batter, the repeated act of pushing the squeezed-out portion is equally necessary. It has to be skillfully done because a small error would make the hand itself get crushed.

Similarly, Self-Enquiry is like the stone that crushes the wrong notions and wrong knowledge. But as we do this, so many wrong notions escape our attention and squeeze themselves out from the pressure spot. If unnoticed, they will remain happily stagnated on the edges without being crushed. They have to be repeatedly pushed back to the center so that they get crushed fully in the end. Contemplations subsidiary to the main enquiry are equally necessary, and they have to be repeatedly carried out, because notions do not change overnight. So, both the meanings of the word ‘grinding’ matches our purpose here 1) Crushing 2) Instill by persistent repetition. At the same time it has to be done skillfully, i.e. with sharp logic and reasoning. Else the contemplation may again lead to wrong notions and narrow-mindedness.

When I read Ramana, more than the explanation of Self-Enquiry, I saw that he corrects so many of the deep rooted wrong notions that we have about Self-Realization. And when they are gone, or even weakened, enquiry should become spontaneous. It is these wrong notions that block the most obvious question ‘Who Am I’ from springing up within me. It is these wrong notions that has made me act like a sheep instead of knowing that I am a Lion. This dementia is very strong. And hence, contemplation also has to be intense, regular and continuous if at all the dementia has to be eradicated. Along with the practice of actual Self-Enquiry, which we will see in the next post, contemplation to crush all the associated wrong notions greatly aids the enquiry. So we will see them first.

The biggest notion that has to be pounded repeatedly is – “I will attain something with Self-Realization”. I will not attain anything. I already am. But I am assigning the existence of ‘I’ to a very limited part of the dream, called a body. The Sun is assigning his existence to a very limited existence of the planets. So, the only thing to be done is to find out what I mean by ‘I’. This idea “I will not attain anything with realization, there is nothing to be attained” has to be intensely contemplated upon, with the reasoning that if something is attainable, then it can be lost as well. Such a temporary state cannot become the final goal. So, this cannot be something attainable. It should always be, here and now. But I may be ignoring what I am, like the Sun.

Somewhat related to the above is “I will become something after Self-Realization”. I will not become anything. I am already what I am. In fact it is now that I have virtually become a limited something – the body. So, in the real sense realization is un-becoming, un-becoming something limited. The original state always is, we cannot become what we already are. We only un-become what we are not. And that too is virtual, self-imposed, like the Sun’s self-imposed becoming.

“There will be light everywhere and I will hear OM Kara”. Hmm. This one is quite funny. Do you have to see light for you to be yourself? Do you have to hear OM Kara for you to be yourself? What do we want? Self-Realization or Light-Realization? If I am seeing light, that means I am still separate from light. Seer, seeing and seen still exist. How is this any better than seeing sunlight or tube-light? The seer should be realized, not some light or sound. All these are unnecessary attractions and distractions. So, let us not run after some dumb light or sound. Always remember the goal – (your) Self, and not any object ‘seen’ or ‘heard’ by the Self (you). If some light is indeed seen, then the question has to be “How is it that I am seeing? What Am I?”

“Self-Realization is very difficult. Krishna himself told in the Gita”. The same Krishna has told that it is ‘Susukham’, utterly easy, in the 9^th chapter. It is up to us which one we will hold on to. Negative mind only tries to find excuses, and ignores the inspirations. A positive mind only looks for boosts, and ignores negative statements. But in fact, Krishna never said directly that it is difficult. He says “Out of many, only few will try, and out of that few who try, again a very few will reach the goal”. Well, this is normal. It is up to us to decide whether we will yield and be a drop-out or persevere and be a winner. Moreover, you just look around you. How many are into spirituality? A very small percentage of the world’s population, isn’t it? And among the ones who are into spirituality, how many do you think are into genuine spirituality and how many into hocus-pocus spirituality? That answers your doubt! You are already among the very very few who are into genuine spirituality without any unnecessary distractions. That means, statistically speaking as per Krishna’s words, there is a very high scope for you and me! J

This one is a little subtle – “I feel very calm. Mind becomes so quiet and there are no thoughts”. Very good. But it is not over yet. Who is it that is witnessing calmness? The object of perception has become very subtle – blankness, silence. But the seer is still not realized. Instead the seer is occupied looking at the blankness and silence. The truth is beyond sound and silence. But since we cannot call it as sound, we attribute silence to it. The truth is beyond light and darkness. But since we cannot call it as darkness, we attribute light to it. The truth is beyond knowledge and ignorance. But since we cannot call it as ignorance, we associate knowledge with it. The truth is beyond freedom and bondage. But since we cannot call it as bondage, we attribute freedom to it. But all the while, the truth is beyond all dualities. And what is that truth? Something hidden in the skies? Absolutely not. It is the closest to you, nearest to you, dearest to you. It is YOU, Awareness.

“Aham Brahmasmi – I will realize that I am omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent”. If we analyze carefully, all these words are meaningless. Because first of all, is there really an ‘everywhere’? Dream explanation will help us understand this better. In my sleep, I create the dream, and actually I am the whole dream. So, I myself first create ‘everywhere’ and then I say ‘I am everywhere, I am omnipresent’. Why all this circus? In fact the ‘everywhere’ is within me. So, “I am everywhere” is the wrong way of saying it. Same is the case with omniscient and omnipotent. The truth is simply is, it is neither here, nor there. I simply am, neither here, nor there. Here-there are within me.

This way there are umpteen of them which come in the later stages – “I will become divine”, “I will become immortal”, “I will become a great spiritual saint, all will respect me”, “I will get special powers” etc. But the funny part is in all of these the ‘I’ again means the body. So, the enquirer is back at square one! The enquiry has stopped and the enquirer has again gone back to the notion ‘I am a body’, thereby creating a sense of separation from the rest of the dream. What is the use how great I become in my own dream? I may even become a superman flying around, but still I am stuck in the dream. Flying in the dream is as useless as walking in it. Prison is a prison, whether made of iron or diamonds.

The only thing to do is to relentlessly push all these escaped notions back to the hotspot – the original enquiry – “I will become great? Ok. Fine. But what is this I?”

Next post - The Self-Enquiry

34. Part 1 - The Self-Dementia

<< Previous - Vivekananda's Involution Theory

And we are back to business...

Whatever path is followed, eventually it has to culminate in Self-enquiry. That is certain. And this is told because of some simple common sense. The name given by the seers to the goal is Self-Realization, Atma-Sakshatkara. And our own Self, which we say we do not feel now (Weird! Who is saying it then?), should be findable only with a search, an enquiry. How can meditating on an object possibly let us see our Self? My mind may even merge with that object and attain Samadhi, but what is the use? Still I have not found out what I am. I am still separate from that object. There is still the question – what makes me perceive that object? What is the meaning of Awareness? What Am I?

Similarly, how can repeating a mantra possibly let us see our Self? How can regulating breathing possibly let us see our Self? They are all practices meant to calm the mind down, no doubt, but they have to be let go off eventually. They cannot show the end. The vehicle cannot go inside the building. Finally we have to walk and search. And at that stage nothing is required for it, no tool, except our own search, an enquiry. The Sun, does not require torchlight to search and realize himself!

Ah, why is this stupid Self-enquiry so difficult? Why don’t I feel anything special in the question ‘What Am I?’?

The sun is helplessly projecting out light rays. He is luminous, helplessly. He is brilliant, helplessly. And because of light, he gives meaning to ‘seeing’, helplessly. Light rays reflect back from some objects around him. And then he sees those objects around him, helplessly. He sees them continuously, for millions of years. He then thinks that the planets’ existence is his existence. “If all planets vanish, I will vanish” the Sun thinks “If all planets vanish, I am dead”. He effectively makes the solar system his body. The mighty sun, millions of time bigger than the puny planets, now thinks that his existence is that of few planets around him. The self-luminous majestic Sun, now thinks that his existence will cease to be if there is no planet to be seen around him. He is now afraid of that blankness. Because he strongly believes that the planets are the origin of light and seeing is possible only because of the planets. He wants some planet or the other to be around him. He wants something to hold onto and make that his existence (body). He is uncomfortable of the idea that he can be without a solar system. He thinks that is his annihilation. He is now afraid to be all by himself, because he doesn’t even think that it is possible. According to the Sun, ‘No planets’ = ‘No light’ = ‘No seeing’ = ‘Horrible Blankness and Darkness’ = ‘The End’ = ‘My death’. The focus, thus, upturns. The subject of seeing (Sun) thinks that objects of seeing are a must for seeing and its existence. He now believes that seeing is possible because of the planets, not because of himself. So, at any cost, he is ready to protect the planets. He cries if some planet is lost, and jumps in joy when a new planet is formed. The roaring lion, thus, becomes a meowing cat.

Now, I leave the job of convincing the truth to this stupid Sun to you. You try to decide what to tell this funny Sun, on how to realize his true identity. You tell him that he can very well exist without the planets; Seeing is because of him, not because of the objects seen; Light is from him, not the planets; He is self-luminous, he is so big and majestic, ever brilliant, giving light to everything.

The Sun, probably now bored of seeing the planets (I mean, bored of life, bored of ups and downs), carefully listens to you, and says “So wonderful! Sun-realization! Ah, so powerful I will become. Hmm.. Please guide me. How can achieve that state?”

You – “Arre idiot, what do you want to achieve? You are already that. You ARE the Sun. So, Sun-realization is nothing new for you. But you are ignoring that and acting funny. You just be. That is all.”

Sun – “Oh Ok” (what is this guy speaking? I am the Sun? I should just be? Am I not 'being' now? Must be a crackpot…)

This is the closet analogy we can think of for Self-Realization. It will not explain everything, of course nothing can, but will only make us think. If we apply the same argument for Self-Realization, the discussions will be slightly different, some of which we have already seen in some of the earlier posts.

I exist, helplessly. And more importantly, I am aware, helplessly. Because of the awareness, I give meaning to all sense perceptions, helplessly. I perceive objects with my awareness, helplessly. Slowly, objects start winning all my attention, including a body to be called my own. I do not see anything special in my own Awareness. I start taking ‘Awareness’ for granted. “What is so special about it?” I think, but ironically all the time using only that to know the entire world around me. The objects perceived because of the awareness start becoming near and dear, but not the source of awareness. Body and other objects start defining me. Without them I am pathetic. Without them, I think, I do not exist. How can I exist without an object (body) to be aware of? How can I exist as pure awareness without any object of perception? Impossible! I decide that my awareness is because of the functioning of the body (Sun – seeing is because of the planets reflection, not my light), not other way round! And if that object ceases to function, then I am dead.. Boo hoo… I die… because there won’t be anything to be aware of, and hence there cannot be awareness. And if there is no awareness, that means I die. (Sun – if all planets vanish, then it will be total darkness and nothing to see. No seeing = I die). I shall protect this body with utmost care. It is everything. I shall love it the most. It is my existence, the cause for my awareness, without which I become extinct.

Same as earlier, please convince me otherwise. I leave the job to you. I will only give a basic argument below, from Ramana Maharshi.

Was I extinct as I am arguing when I lost awareness of this body in dream sleep and deep sleep? Wasn’t I happily living with another body in dream? I am jumping from one object of awareness to another, but all the time the same me is aware. Source is the same, only the solar system changed. And in deep sleep? Didn’t I still exist without anything to hold on to? Was I miserable as I thought? No! I was so blissful! Sleep is so wonderful! That means, me, as the source of awareness, is a wonderful state, I love it!

Perhaps, the picture will now make me think in the right direction. “I Am This”, “I Am That” is all wrong. “This, That” are all objects made evident only because of my awareness. “I Am I Am” is the only meaningful sentence. Yes, “I Am I Am” – I am the subject, and I am the object. I am aware of my own existence. Existence, not of any object/body/thought, but simple existence that is aware of itself. I am aware of my Self. Existence-Awareness is one whole – Sat-Chit and the result is pure bliss – Ananda. Because I am complete, perfect, content. I do not need anything for me to be. I AM, always.

I Am That I Am

- Continued

33. Vivekananda's Involution Theory

<< Previous - Why So Serious?

More than a year ago, we were given an assignment in my M.Sc. class to prepare a presentation on Vivekananda’s Jnana Yoga. The presentation never happened. So I am putting it into some use here J

Modern Science – Statements

States laws of conservation – energy, momentum etc

For e.g. energy is dormant in A and B as potential energy, all of which is manifested as Kinetic energy when it comes to M. So, energy only transforms from one form to another – even a high-school kid knows this. So, changes occur from one form to another. Nothing can either be created or destroyed. Something cannot come out of nothing. (I was surprised to hear Stephen Hawking say “Universe created itself out of nothing”!)

The same modern science also declares that human beings have evolved from single cell organisms.

Objection

How can a highly developed intellect evolve from nothing?

How can a man like Buddha be a result of evolution from a snail?

Where has the law of conservation gone now? Is modern science contradicting itself? It may say that ego and intellect are not quantifiable entities, but it only means that we don’t know how to quantify them. Also, what is the need to quantify? What is sensible? Quantifying it or accepting our own common experience?

Answer – An Alternate Theory

The motion is in cycles. Every evolution presupposes an involution. The perfect man was involved in the snail.

- As per Hindu mythology and Spiritual texts

I could be Intellect in specific or Ego in general

Objection 1

How can both the extremes have I = 0? Then what is the point of growth and evolution?

Answer

Extremes have the same characteristics but they are NOT the same.

E.g. Light spectrum, Sound intensity

In point A, Ego and Intellect are absent (almost). In point C, Ego and Intellect are transcended. In the intermediate point B, ego and intellect manifest with full speed and is visible.

Objection 2

After reaching the final stage of Buddha (Nirvana) do we have to again start a fresh journey? What is the point of Moksha (Nirvana) then?

Answer

No, it is not a fresh journey. In one cycle that particular ‘I’ is dissolved. ‘You’ no more have an existence. What comes up again is a new bubble in the ocean of consciousness. Once a bubble has escaped, its journey is over, it feels one with the whole ocean. Another bubble, even if formed from the same molecules, is not the same bubble anymore. Following analogy of boiling-cooling water depicts this.

Water is constantly heated and cooled – a continuous process. So can we say that the bubbles formed are the same when the same water gets cooled and comes back to the jar? Water is same, jar is same, same heating, but the bubble is different. This is only an analogy – it cannot explain the whole universe! It is only to get an idea.

Objection 3

Does this mean that the cycle repeats in exactly the same way? For e.g. do we have the same Buddha in every cycle?

Answer

Consecutive cycles need not be identical. However, every type of cycle must repeat itself at some point or the other.

Thus, a particular combination must repeat itself at some point or the other. Similarly, the universe is a scatter of particles. Each possible arrangement of particles must repeat at some point or the other. So,

Infinite combinations – Infinite chances (cycles) – Infinite repetitions.

As Vivekananda puts it in his lecture "We must have had this same lecture before, in an earlier cycle"! Remember that it was 1893 and not sure how many in the hall understood what he was saying!

32. Why So Serious?

<< Previous - ...And Obviously, Self-Curing

Have you ever wondered why Bhagavadgita is not read by majority of the population even after being accepted to be the most sacred, most important scripture? No Hindu would deny the importance of this text, but strangely he does not open this book and read the contents. He will get upset and defend if someone talks lightly about Gita, but he has no idea what is in the book. Weird! We are possessive and protective about something without knowing what is in it. “It does not matter to me what is in the book, but I shall fight against anyone who talks bad about it. After all Krishna preached it and Krishna is God”. Can we call this as unconditional faith and surrender? Nah! This is laziness and slumber. Extremes look similar – we already saw several times. We only want to use the Gita to quench our thirst of quarrel. Religion has only become a pretext for us to hate someone, not expand the feeling of love and devotion.

But then again, many do try to read. They read a few pages perhaps, and then give up. It seems boring. All big big words. If the scriptures are so important, then they should be interesting. Why are they so dull and colorless? There may be several reasons for this.

First of all, we picture it artificially. Because of that, we have lost sight of the reality of that great event. For example, just look at the following goof. There is this question “How could Krishna preach Bhagavadgita in the battlefield? Was there enough time to preach so much?” And the wise men give so many explanations. Some say “Krishna only preached a little, Vyasa wrote it in detail”. And some even go to the extent of saying “Time stopped when Krishna preached the Gita. Everything became still”. Wah! How intelligent, but how absurd! And by telling all this cock and bull stories we have pushed Gita away from reality and thus from our hearts.

Ok then what could be the answer to this? Well, it is simple common sense. Suppose you go to a hotel with your friends. How long do you think you will take to settle down and place the order? 15 minutes at a minimum, isn’t it? So, if 5 people take so much time to settle down for a simple activity of having food, how much time do you think two huge armies (of millions) will take to settle down on the battle field and arrange themselves in formations? And that too on the first day of the battle? Won’t it require at least a few hours? Do you think all soldiers came and stood in a line like zombies holding a sword in their hands at sharp 7 AM in the morning? (this is how they show in the TV serials) Just imagine the reality of the situation! Thousands of soldiers, chariots, horses, elephants were being managed and arranged. How much time would both the armies require to settle down? 2-3 hours at least?

And how much time is required to cover 700 shlokas of the Gita? Krishna didn’t sing the shlokas, he was talking. He didn’t go “Laa la laaa laaa” like a rhyme (like how we chant today). If we do “Laa la laaa laaa” and chant, still we can easily chant 40-50 shlokas in 15 minutes i.e. around 200 in one hour. So, Krishna, with normal talking, in one hour would have easily covered the contents of 350-400 shlokas. So, the entire event of Gita can comfortably take place within 2 hours time, at the most. Isn’t this simple common sense? Do we require the time to stop for such a silly thing!

So, even for the incidence of the event of the Gita, we have such irrational explanations. Then how can we possibly see rationale in the content of it?!

Secondly, we do not identify ourselves with Arjuna (he is actually our representative). We do not become one with the reality of the situation that he was in. So, the first chapter itself becomes boring. It is not just about understanding “Oh, he saw Bhishma, Drona in enemy’s side, so he went into despondency”. But it is about realizing that we undergo this type of despondency several times in our lives, even for simple things.

Remember your school-day function. It is a big function and suppose you have accepted the duty of giving a small speech (say, welcome address). You yourself accepted the duty and you know that thousands will be watching you. But now you are trembling with stage-fear. Before your speech, every moment you are spending restlessly. You probably look at the illiterate sweeper woman who is peacefully sitting behind the stage and munching some snack, least bothered about the seriousness of the function. ‘So nice it would have been to be in her position, without any worries’ you think ‘Oh, who needs this school day function? It would have been so nice to just stay at home and watch some movie peacefully’. These types of thoughts go on and on in your mind. And finally the program begins, and you go to the stage to give the welcome address. Once you start speaking, you start feeling a little comfortable. With little nervousness and little excitement, somehow you finish the job and then leave the stage. PHEW. What a relief. And now, school-day suddenly transforms into a fun-filled function for you. You watch and enjoy the various events, receive a prize or two, get praised by some for your welcome address and so on. You no more think of school-day as a miserable activity. You no more think about being in the position of that sweeper lady. Where has your Vairagya gone now?

Well, this is very similar to what Arjuna went through. He knows all the facts beforehand. He knows that it is fight for justice and that he has accepted to fight voluntarily. He is a Kshatriya and he knows that fighting is in his blood. He also knows, well before the war, that Bhishma, Drona would be on the enemy’s side. But in that last moment, a fake despondency. ‘Oh how nice it would be to just sit in a forest and meditate? Who wants all this tedious fighting business?’. He says ‘It would be better to beg instead of fighting’! Just like our school-day despondency, this is very transient and it will not stay for long. If someone had told us ‘Ok, give me the speech, I will deliver it, you do not worry’, do you think we will be happy later for doing that? We will go into more despondency! Similarly, Arjuna would have only become more dejected later if he had gone back because of this last moment weakness.

‘Oh, who wants these family problems. It would have been so nice to be a bachelor’, ‘Oh, I have a presentation in front of the clients. It would have been so nice to be just a simple programmer instead of a project leader’ – we will have some or the other type of ‘escapist’ thoughts coming to us very regularly. And they are all fake – because if you follow them, you will go into more dejection. And secondly, once you taste success, all such thoughts are no more. So, they come only when you have to face a challenge, but totally vanish when all is well. It is not genuine Vairagya (detachment). It is Tamasik, not Sattvik. Symptoms are same, but reasons are a world apart. Genuine Vairagya will remain, irrespective of whether you are in problems or comfort. So, Arjuna had gone into a fake Vairagya when he said ‘I will go to a forest and meditate’. If he did go to a forest, all the while he would have only been thinking about Kurukshetra, not God. Same as how, if we, by chance, follow our escapist thoughts, will only be restless thinking about the job that we left incomplete, rather than being peaceful.

Thirdly, we forget the context of the Gita. It becomes evident from Arjuna’s questions and Krishna’s answers that during the time of the Mahabharata, the essence of Yoga and Spirituality were totally lost. Arjuna repeatedly says ‘You are confusing me. You say Jnana is great, but at the same time you are asking me to perform this horrible activity of war’. He, like most of us, thinks that Jnana marga means simply sitting and not doing anything. He thinks it has nothing to do with our day to day life. He seems to believe that Jnana = ‘no activity’ and Karma = ‘activity’. That’s why he asks ‘If Jnana is great, why should I follow Karma’! Because, he is desperately trying to follow his version of Jnana Yoga – running away and sitting in a forest. Same as how some of us may think. Arjuna was a highly qualified King and he does not have a clear picture of spirituality! Then what to speak of the common man of those times? This situation is also very similar today. There are scholars, no doubt, but how many have realization of the truths of the scriptures? Most of them are only busy arguing over Samskrita grammar.

The first time when Arjuna asks (beginning of 3^rd chapter) this question, Krishna says there are two approaches – Saankhya and Karma – both of which lead to the same goal. And since Arjuna’s need was Karma, he explains from the perspective of Karma. And Krishna’s answer is such a common reply – “If you just withhold activities of your limbs and sit still, you will not become a Jnana Yogi. You will continue to munch inside your mind and you will become a hypocrite”. Is there anything mysterious in this answer? Perhaps, even we would have given this reply to Arjuna! After that, Krishna goes on praising ‘Jnana’ and it goes on till the end of 4^th chapter.

In the beginning of 5^th chapter, Arjuna is back at square one (again, like us) – “If you praise Karma Sanyasa, why are making me perform Karma?” (again trying to runaway in the name of Sanyasa). He again fails to see that ‘Jnana’, ‘Sanyasa’ is a common backdrop for both paths. Once there is detachment, it does not matter what path we are in – active in the world, or contemplating in the forest. It depends on individual person’s Swadharma. So, Krishna clearly says “Only fools think that Saankhya and Karma are different paths. But both lead to the same end”. And since Arjuna was demanding a clear cut answer as to which one is better for him, Krishna says ‘Karma Yoga’ is better for Arjuna. Although Krishna answers this way, all the while he emphasizes the basis for both the paths - Jnana. Since, Arjuna’s definition of activity and non-activity was very narrow, Krishna makes phrases like “Action in non-action and non-action in action”. That means, a Jnani seemingly not doing anything is actually running the whole show of the dream, whereas a seemingly active person in Ajnana is actually only a puppet and is not doing anything.

In the beginning of 8^th chapter, Arjuna’s question is highly shocking. A King, a well educated man of the times asks “What is Brahma? What is Adhyatma? What is Karma? What is Adhi-Daiva and Adhi-Bhuta?” If Krishna was in front of us today, won’t we ask these question as well? Doesn’t it become clear that Arjuna is just our representative?

The second chapter of the Gita, which is the longest of all except for the concluding chapter, is supposed to be the end of the Gita. Krishna briefly covers everything – like a synopsis – in the chapter. But since Arjuna goes on getting confused, Krishna goes on clarifying in detail in the later chapters. In second chapter, we can notice one funny thing about Arjuna. While explaining Saankhya yoga, Krishna mentions ‘Sthitaprajna’ (Jnani). And then, Arjuna asks Krishna “What are the characteristics of a Sthistaprajna? How does he talk and interact?”. Oh my God! Throughout his life he has been with Krishna, a perfect Jnani, and Arjuna asks Krishna himself this question! Idiot! Isn’t it? He is again simply meant to represent us. We, being the perfect consciousness of the Self, want to ‘know’ the characteristics of consciousness! And we want to make it a subject of learning.

This way, the whole of Gita is just a simple philosophical conversation. Not some drama scene with a serious background music. God alone knows how many soldiers, horses and elephants were running around their chariot when they were discussing. If you had a serious spiritual discussion with a friend in a bus-stop, the scene is serious only for you. Not others. Others will not say “Oh he is discussing something spiritual, let me not go near”. Who will care? Everything around you will go on normally.

Perhaps, we can read Gita much peacefully and with a sense of reality, if we read it with this attitude. Then we will be able to read it with more of common sense than with prejudice and artificial seriousness. It will then become close to our heart, our true Self.

After all, Krishna begins the teachings with a mocking smile! (Gita – 2.10) So, why so Serious?

31. ...And Obviously, Self-Curing

<< Previous - Self-Realization v/s Self-Cheating

Yoga therapy is not my interest, and I know that nor is it yours. This blog is meant for spiritual discussions. But then, there is a basic question that links spirituality and therapy – “What is meant by good health?”. Health is a state of physical, mental and social well being, and not mere absence of disease (as per World Health Organization). Having no disease is not the end of the game, it is not a perfect state of health. It automatically indicates the possibility of positive health. A person, physically very strong, mentally in balance and intellectually very sharp can still be miserable inside. He may still feel an unknown void of some sort.  Is there a limit for positive health then?

Just look at the word for 'healthy' in Samskrita. "Swasthah" = Swa + Sthah. Established in the Self. Self-Realized! It is amazing how health was inseparable from spirituality in ancient India. So, basically we are all Aswastha (away from the Self) until we reach that oneness with our own Self. Thus, there IS an upper limit for positive health: Self-Realization J Modern medicine only cures diseases, but Yoga therapy can treat us even if we are supposedly healthy – towards positive health. Perhaps that’s what we have been focusing at in the last 30 posts in this blog! And also, Yoga Vasishtha (Sage Vasishta’s teachings to Sri Rama) clearly says that, there is a deep rooted imbalance in all of us – Sara Adhi – which gets cured only with Self-Realization.

“I have diabetes. What Asana or Pranayama should I perform to cure this?” a patient asks. Well, the question itself is wrong. Because he is still in the modern medicinal mindset – he has just replaced tablets with Yogic techniques. He is still thinking about one to one relation between a disease and a remedy. And that is against the concept of Yoga therapy. It is a holistic system. It will not just look at your pancreas if you have diabetes. If you do that, then it is better to go to modern medicine. It is better to follow modern medicine correctly rather than following Yoga therapy wrongly. For Yoga therapy, we have to change the approach to the disease itself, instead of bringing Yoga therapy down to the level of constricted modern medicinal approach.

Yoga Therapy is not just about Asana, Pranayama or Kriyas. But as usual, we have a tendency to attach ourselves strongly to physical techniques. For the above question about Diabetes, the answer could be “There is no single technique like that. We do not give remedy like how they give tablets in Allopath. Yoga therapy is a combination of several practices at various levels. And asana/pranayama is just one small part. At that level Ardha Matsyendrasana and Surya Anuloma Viloma Pranayama are the prescribed practices. But they alone independently will not help very much.” The previous posts about the basic pathogenesis of diseases as per Yoga therapy would make it clear that the root causes of the disease are certainly not at physical level. Physical level just has the symptoms. So, along with treating the symptoms, we will have to simultaneously look at uprooting the tree totally.

The fact is that, unintentionally we have already looked at so many crucial aspects of Yoga therapy by now – Jnana Yoga (notional correction, building positivity, eradicating self-cheating etc) and Karma Yoga (effortless work of Swadharma, reason for giving charity etc). So while we are at it, in this one post let us look at physical level of well-being as well.

As we saw in the earlier posts, constant mental unrest and wrong life style results in imbalance in the nervous system. This imbalance gives rise to an unnecessary accumulation of voltage in the nervous system which finally shows up as some error in some organ of the body. But before it comes down to the level of the body, it would have passed through several stages, an important one being the manifestation as the irregularity in breathing.

All take the process of breathing for granted. It happens on its own, and we least bother about it. And so, no one notices when it is impaired. But just as how input/output has to be regulated very carefully for an engine to work efficiently, regulation of breathing is a very crucial aspect to maintain good health. If mind is not restless, then automatically breathing will be well-regulated and it does not require special attention. But when there is mental restlessness, the imbalance in the nervous system first shows up as imbalance in the breathing process. Breathing gets impaired in various ways – fast breathing, arrhythmic breathing and imbalance between left and right nostril breathing. And the breathing practices that are part of Pranayama are prescribed to bring it back to normalcy.

The importance of slow and rhythmic breathing is worth explaining, not just for therapy, but for calming down the mind for Self-Enquiry or meditation. Consider a piece of plastic pipe as below. Water is constantly flowing through this pipe. The wall of the pipe would be facing a pressure from inside due to water flow. Now with the condition that the flow of water cannot be stopped, how can we give rest to the pipe?

The first obvious answer is to reduce the flow to the minimum possible level. But there is another important way – stabilizing the flow. If the flow fluctuates, the pipe wall faces fluctuating pressure and that causes more harm than just constant high pressure. Because variation means repeatedly reducing the pressure and then hitting it with a higher pressure.

Now let us apply this to breathing. When we breathe we intake oxygen (whatever is available amidst dust and smoke!). This oxygen is absorbed by blood in the lungs and circulated throughout the body. Blood is circulated because of the pumping of the heart. Heart requires energy for pumping blood. As we know, all energy production in the body is due to burning of Glucose in the presence of Oxygen. So, eventually even heart requires oxygen that lungs supply. Thus, there is a closed loop.

So, what should happen if we sit relaxed and try to regulate breathing for few minutes? Firstly our breathing rate reduces. Secondly breathing rate becomes rhythmic. Because of that, heart rate becomes rhythmic. Because of that, blood circulation becomes rhythmic. That means, blood is now flowing throughout the body very smoothly without much fluctuation in pressure and also at a very low pressure. And so, all the arteries and veins in the body are now enjoying a relaxed state – because of lack of fluctuation in pressure and a low pressure. And this way, if this is happening throughout the body, won’t we feel much relaxed and happy? When the body is thus relaxed throughout, automatically healing expedites within the body. Thus, breathing regulation (part of Pranayama) this is a common treatment for all NCDs.

But for us spiritually thirsty people, the story isn’t over yet. If blood circulation has become rhythmic, obviously the blood supply to brain also gets well regulated. Looked from the physical side, thoughts are nothing but some kind of electrical activity among neurons. Each type of thought has different level of energy requirements. Now if the energy supply to the brain has become low and rhythmic, then that means the electrical activity in the brain has also become low and rhythmic. That means, mind is easily able to retain softer thoughts (requiring a low energy). So, mind is calm and also easily concentrating on one chain of thoughts. Very conducive for meditation on an object. But if someone is already strongly into Self-Enquiry, whenever he does intense enquiry within, automatically breath slows down drastically. There breathing regulation happens as a result, not cause. You control any one, mind or the breath, and the other gets controlled automatically. Hatha Yoga approaches from the breath side of it, and Vichara (Jnana Marga) approaches directly from the mind.

Although breathing is a major input/output process, it is not the only thing that has to be regulated. As we saw in ‘The Numb Limb’ Pranayama would have to mean regulation of all activities of the body – food, sleep, speech etc. When Adhi (mental unrest) flows down to the level of body and becomes Vyadhi, digestion is another thing that gets impaired on the way. Food intake, digestion and excretion start getting slightly or moderately irregular and remains so for a long time – which we usually ignore as it does not pose a big threat in day-to-day activities. So, food regulation is another major part of Pranayama. If a person like Ramana who does not speak anything apart from Advaita says that food regulation is the greatest of all supplementary practices, then we can imagine the importance of it. When we begin to have simple Sattvik food at regular timings 3 times every day, without any munching in between, it beings the digestive system of the body to a wonderful rhythm. This important system of the body becomes rid of fluctuations and the need to adjust with varying quantity/quality of food and saves the body a lot of effort.

Secondly fasting regularly is also prescribed. Digestive system works continuously from the moment we are born till we die. It hardly gets any rest. Digestion process itself takes around 25% of the energy liberated from digestion! The engine of the car is much heavier than you are. The petrol that engine uses is mostly to carry the engine itself! So when we fast once in a month or a fortnight, the necessary rest is given to the digestive system. And just like how we perform household activities on weekends when we are free from office work, the body redirects all its energy (spared from digestive activity) on repair, healing works in our system. So, a person who fasts systematically, becomes more energetic, not weak. I hear that fasting has now been found to regenerate immune system in Cancer patients who have undergone Chemo-therapy. When you catch cold, or a have stomach upset, just fast, and you will recover much faster. Or if you fast regularly, you will not catch cold so easily.

We will have a brief look at Asana also. When mind is busy thinking intensely, it shows up in some muscle of the body as stiffness. Eyebrows, fingers, toes, shoulders – somewhere a slight but unnecessary tension can be seen. But when this happens throughout the day, it is a sign of booking of some NCD for the future (just like flat booking!). Because it means that mind has gone into a constant high-voltage mode. So, for treating NCD, this also needs to be reversed. Asanas, relaxation techniques developed by various institutes are finally meant to relax the whole body from head to toe. Asana is not meant just for improving the flexibility, but to tense just one part of the body and thereby relax all the remaining limbs of the body totally. Also, the part that is tensed would receive a gush of energy when we are in a posture. And when we release the posture and relax, energy would again diffuse throughout the body. So, this flushing action on specific parts of the body helps remove any Pranic blocks in that part. This when repeated several times for long periods of time, brings physical distribution of energy in the body to normalcy.

This post was meant to only touch some of the aspects of Yoga therapy. SVYASA has pioneered in treating diseases with Yoga and more details can be obtained from them. Yoga therapy is mostly self-practice and Self-curing the disease from the roots, rather than a doctor pushing a tablet into your mouth and curing you of the symptoms. A patient who has really tasted all the aspects of Yoga therapy (Jnana Yoga, Karma Yoga, Raja Yoga and Bhakti Yoga) will certainly not limit Yoga to his treatment after that. He cannot be without seeing the whole movie once he gets to see the trailer of it in the name of therapy.

Among different streams of Yoga, perhaps Bhakti Yoga is the only one that isn’t covered yet in this blog and we shall do that soon!

30. Self-Realization V/S Self-Cheating

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Before we go into the reversibility of the NCDs, I wanted to share and explain a medical fact in terms of Yoga and philosophy. We looked at Self-cheating with philosophical perspective in Hide and Seek. Now let us look at it with medical and health perspective. When modern medicine cannot find the root cause of a disease, it simply calls the disease as ‘Idiopathic’ (their way of saying ‘I do not know the cause’). And most of the NCDs are idiopathic (if not all)! Somewhere or the other you will see a sentence in modern medical textbooks ‘However, details about the cause of the disease remain unknown’. Then without understanding it fully, what are they treating? They are treating the symptoms of the disease, and not the disease itself. No doubt, modern medicine has contributed a lot by providing immediate relief for all sorts of diseases, but they have certainly not found a holistic solution in many cases.

We have a military system in our body – White Blood Cells (WBC). They are very small in number compared to Red Blood cells, same as how the military strength of a country would just be a very small percentage of its total population. Different types of WBCs constitute the Immune system of our body. For this military system to function properly, the first and foremost requirement is that the WBCs should be able to clearly discriminate between Self and non-Self cells. Our body has thousands of types of cells of its own, and WBCs should have acquaintance with all of them. In a healthy body this is what happens, same as how military functions in a healthy country. Hence, when a foreign bacteria enters the system, the WBC immediately identify it to be foreign, investigates it, and if necessary kills it. This may seem like a simple thing, but we have to actually wonder about the intelligence of the WBCs in discriminating self and non-self cells. But as is the case with most things, until it functions properly, we do not bother about it!

But it has already begun to fail. WBCs are already going crazy. Just as how in a politically unrest country military takes over and tortures its own people, our system has gone into a social crisis. Our own military, our own WBCs have lost discrimination. They have begun attacking our own cells. They kill our own Insulin cells (partial cause of Diabetes), they kill our own bone cells (Rheumatoid Arthritis), they kill our own colon lining (Colitis), they unnecessarily wage war against harmless foreign cells (Allergies, partial cause of Asthma). Why? What has gone wrong? Why our own cells are killing our own cells? Why this Self-cheating? (Modern medicine calls this Self-cheating as Autoimmunity)

It is worth explaining a little more about diabetes. As seen above, deactivation of insulin is one reason of diabetes. There is yet another interesting reason. Sometimes, even if there is sufficient quantity of insulin in the body, glucose distribution may not be efficient. Insulin in our body is just like the vehicle for the VIPs. It transports Glucose to all the cells of the body. All the cells of the body, from brain to toe, finally require glucose for energy production. It is their common fuel. And Insulin is their transporter. All the cells of the body are well protected with cell walls – not everyone can enter it freely. The gates will open only for designated VIPs, like Insulin. The security system of the body cells recognizes the vehicle Insulin, not the passenger glucose. The security guard recognizes manager’s car, not the manager. In a healthy body this system works well without problems. But in a diabetic body, the security does not open the gate even for Insulin! Security does not identify the manger’s car. Confusion! Body cell is actually depleted of Glucose, Insulin has come with glucose, but the security says ‘I don’t know who you are’. The cell wall is not opening the gates to allow Insulin inside. How can confusion reach such micro levels? Cheating at such infinitesimal level in the whole body! Corruption at such depths! Who is cheating who? WBC, Insulin, Body cells – don’t they belong to the same Self?

And doesn’t this ‘self-cheating’ sound familiar? Isn’t this how we are living on the outside? In the name of being diplomatic, in the name of being smart, in the name of being modern, are we not cheating and lying to ourselves so casually? (Hide and Seek explains this in detail) While we lie to others, while we engage in dummy arguments with others, are we not suppressing our own inner voice of truth? Are we not ourselves splitting ourselves into two and creating a battle? “यथा राजा तथा प्रजा” – Subjects follow their King. We are corrupted to the core, and hence our obedient citizens (cells of the body) too. We cheat ourselves so generously, and hence our subjects cheat among themselves. Who is to be blamed?

So, is this the only reason for diabetes and autoimmunity? Well, may not be. Lifestyle and wrong regulation of day-to-day activities also play a major role. So, increased sympathetic arousal (stress – as explained in the previous post), wrong life style, wrong habits and finally Self-cheating have all come together to establish an evil empire. All villains have joined hands so efficiently in the 21^st century and grown strong roots of corruption. But who is the Godfather of all these villains? Us! And finally who are these villains harming? Us! India is racing ahead to become the Diabetic capital of the world! What an achievement!

Then comes the excuse of hereditary. Well, just one question. How many generations back can we trace this to? 2,3,4? Somewhere someone should have given a beginning, isn’t it? Somebody in our ancestry did some or all the mistakes as above and became a prey of some disease. And along with their wealth, their diseases also flowed to us. If they had the power to begin, why don’t we have the power to stop?

Secondly, every person’s body will have some weak point or the other. Some or the other organ will be comparatively weaker than the others. That is ‘hereditary’. But that itself is not enough to make that organ break down. Suppose you have 5 fans in your house. You may have one defective fan (of some local brand) among 4 good branded fans. If you overuse all the 5 fans, for 6 months, the defective fan will fail first. So, can the local brand alone be blamed fully? Who over-used it? If it was used moderately, it would have come for 3 years perhaps. Same is the case with hereditary disorders. The vulnerability is already there. But how fast it will manifest into a problem will entirely depend upon us. Probably we can even nullify the hidden vulnerability by leading a life free of all the above evils. Diabetes/Hypertension were seen only in old age in earlier generations. But today they manifest by 40 itself. So, if it can be accelerated, why not look at the possibility of decelerating it and nullifying it? So clearly, ‘It is hereditary, I can’t do anything’, is an excuse of the weak, lazy and escapist.

Ok, what we have to do? Accept the mistakes. Stop blaming others and the world, stop giving silly excuses for our problems. Lead a moderated life. Do not cheat ourselves. Be straightforward to ourselves. Be content with whatever money we get. Be simple outside and strong inside rather than being decorative outside and empty inside. Don’t go on a mad rush after wealth. Don’t lose our health for the sake of wealth, only to spend the same wealth on repairing health one day! Etc etc. Well, there will be a plenty of such morals and values. We may find them in the dusty books of forgotten libraries! Changing the attitude, is without doubt, the most necessary and efficient thing to fight against these modern diseases. It is part of the Yoga Therapy as well. Other aspects of the therapy, which is mostly common sense, we shall see briefly in the next post.

So, whether Self-Realization is achievable or not, we have successfully achieved Self-Cheating and percolated it into every cell, every corner of our body. So, with logic then, Self-Realization must also be as easy as getting diabetes! ;)

Note - This and the previous posts give only the basics of Pathogenesis of diseases as per Yoga therapy. How stress can be correlated to each disease individually can be found in detail in books published by SVYASA (Yoga for Back Pain, Yoga for Asthma etc).

29. Rampage of Rajas

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This post, may not directly be related to Self-Enquiry or spirituality. But I thought of writing what I have learnt from my Yoga college (SVYASA) about Psycho-Somatic Diseases. I was amazed with the simplicity of fact, and how much we have complicated the simple truths in the name of modernization and logic. In the last post we saw the necessity of moving towards Sattva from a spiritual perspective. This post and the next one will show how essential it is to cross Rajas and move to Sattva, even for the sake of enjoying good health.

The modern era is that of internet, technology and cell phones. But it is also the era of nuclear weapons and NCDs – Non-Communicable Diseases. In the previous centuries, it was the epidemics that were on rampage (plague, cholera etc), whereas now contagious diseases cause very few deaths around the globe (e.g. H1N1). In the current century, a new crisis has risen, that of NCDs. Everyday, slowly but definitely, the whole world is moving towards increased incidences of Hypertension, Diabetes, Asthma, Ulcer, Depression, Anxiety, Arthritis, Back-pain, Obesity and a host of other diseases. In the earlier centuries, these common ailments were mostly prevalent only in the old age, perhaps after 60 or 70 years. But today, these have become a common feature in the middle aged. If a person is over 40 years and if he is free of all the NCDs (most common ones are Hypertension and Diabetes), then people have started treating him like a hero of the society! “Do you know? That uncle is 45 but he does not have high B.P. or Diabetes” – what a compliment! And we, the proud city-dwellers, laugh at an innocent villager who looks at an A.C. bus in amazement. In fact, that villager has the right to laugh at us for looking at ‘No-Diabetes’ with awe! Which one is better? Not being aware of A.C. buses, or not being aware of a disease called Diabetes or Hypertension?

All the activities of the body are being controlled by the brain. Brain is the exchange center for all the to-fro signals. These signals travel throughout the body through the nervous system. The signals are very mild electrical signals with intensity in the order of micro-volts. The basic details about the nervous system is shown in the figure below.

So, in case of Voluntary systems, both work and rest are in our control. We regulate the work-rest cycle as we require. We carry a load for sometime, hands and legs pain, so we keep it down to relax for a while. After some rest we resume the activity again.

But in case of Involuntary systems, the work-rest cycle is mostly controlled by external stimulus. Eating the food is in our control, no doubt, but once we have swallowed, digestion is beyond our control. Acid and bile secretion happen on their own as soon as we eat food. And they automatically stop when digestion process is complete.

On-Off is shown only for the sake of simplicity. It does not mean that heart switches off literally! It only indicates that 'On' is an excited state and 'Off' is a relaxed state. Also, in case of digestive and excretory system, sympathetic-parasympathetic do the opposite. When Sympathetic system is active, digestive system is less active and when Parasympathetic system is active, digestive system is excited. Details are shown in the table below:

Organ/Activity	Sympathetic	Parasympathetic
Heart beat rate	High	Low
Blood Pressure	High	Low
Breathing Rate	High	Low
Muscle stiffness	High	Low
Heat Generation - Sweating	High	Low
Digestion	Less Active	Normally Active
Excretion	Less Active	Normally Active
Eyes	More Active	Normally Active

This is only a very basic list showing some simple aspects. Medical science will talk about plenty of these things in terms of hormone secretion, chemical release etc.

How external situation controls the Involuntary N.S. can be understood with a simple example. If a snake enters the room in which you are in now, you jump up in fright and sympathetic system switches on in your body. Without your explicit permission, heart rate increases, B.P. rises etc as indicated in the table above. This has been designed as an emergency system for the sake of the survival of the body. When situation is against us, automatically the sympathetic system takes over and does the necessary changes in the body. For both flight and fight, body requires more energy, briskness than usual. And hence body adapts with all the changes listed. Since all the energy is directed towards external muscles, digestion process becomes sluggish. Once the snake moves out or is caught and taken, mind calms down and Parasympathetic system becomes active. And automatically, all the changes that took place earlier get reversed and come back to normalcy. In the example of the snake, body undergoes a big stimulus and intense excitement in the sympathetic system. And after the snake is caught, there is an equally big sigh of relief. But in day-to-day life there are hundreds of smaller stimuli and relaxations which we usually do not notice. For e.g. when a young boy speaks about a cricket match he is a little more excited than usual. And after the discussion is over, his system relaxes for a while. This way, a living entity is constantly under work-rest cycles, cycles varying in degree and intensity.

Till now there is no problem. This is how a living being is supposed to be. But problems appear when the spring is pressed more and more but not allowed to relax equally. System begins to show errors when the balance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems are disturbed. But then, why does this imbalance occur?

The snake example is too simple for us to see the complications involved. Suppose while working in office, you did a big blunder, unintentionally. Manager comes running to your place and yells at you so loud that the entire floor stops working and looks at you. Now you may be either angry or afraid. But in either case the sympathetic system has switched on. You say ‘Sorry’ and after shouting for 3-4 minutes the manager returns to his place. And now begins the problem. Instead of switching off the sympathetic system and relaxing, you mind goes on replaying the same scene again and again. In the next half an hour the 3 minute scene would have rewound and replayed 10 times. Every time you modify the scene a little and think about it repeatedly. “I should have replied like this, I should have pointed out this” etc. Then you go to your close friends and put forth all the arguments justifying your mistake – another hour gone. You again discuss it throughout while having lunch with colleagues. When you return home you describe the entire history of today’s event to husband/wife/mother/father at least 3 times. And probably that day in your dream, you will become a super-hero character boss-buster and punish all the managers with rage. Even the next day when you see that manager your anger is on the verge of bursting. Well, days pass and slowly you begin to forget (not fully). After a few days when you remember this incident, you do not get as angry as you did on the first day.

So, a 3 minute incident kept the sympathetic switch on for several hours in effect. And each time you replayed the incident in the mind, the same sympathetic arousal took place in the body, which is actually totally needless. Unnecessarily the B.P. raised, heart rate raised, breathing got impaired, digestion process got inhibited etc. You may say, well that is fine, only few hours, so no harm done. But wait! With our current lifestyle, our days are filled with such incidents! If not so bad as to make the manager yell everyday, some excitement, some trouble or the other keep coming every day. Office related, money related, family related, property related etc.

And yes, we will not see any problems in the body in few days or few months. A young body tries to adapt. So, we do not consider these little stressful incidents that dangerous. But our youth, especially between 25-35 is filled with such incidents. Small or big, stressful incidents bombard the nervous system so much in these 10 years, that along with accumulating money, we would have accumulated some unnecessary voltage in our nervous system. The body tries and tries hard to bring back normalcy during the limited resting hours, but alas, sleep hours alone are insufficient to bring about sufficient rest to the system. Dreams are also exciting the sympathetic system by showing agitating scenes. We charge the battery only 70-80% but try to extract 100% or even more of charge from it. This repeats for years, and finally one day the system fails, at some part of the body.

In the electrical circuit of your house, suppose there is a leakage and no one notices. A constant low voltage is continuously flowing through all the electrical apparatuses of your house. It is so low, that even when you notice probably you ignore it. But after several months, probably a fan or a bulb burns. Although very faint, when left alone for a long time, it could burn some part of the circuit. Similarly, mind thinks and thinks, and sends continuous signals through the nervous system in microvolts. The intensity of the thoughts have rapidly increased in 21^st century and hence the voltage of the signals as well. All have forgotten how to switch off this voltage, and have left it freely flowing, even during dream-sleep. Over the years it accumulates, finally to break down some organ in our system.

So, we are irreversibly rich by 40, and also irreversibly sick by 40. In today’s generation, it is our own mad rush after money, it is the demands of our own beloved family, it is our own desires for accumulating property that gives us these little little stressful incidents constantly to finally give us some NCD. Well, you may say little worries are part of the family life. Yes, true, but that ‘little worries’ have probably crossed a certain limit. Consequences and statistics are in front of us. Our earlier generations also had worries, no doubt, but perhaps they didn’t live as lavishly as we are living today. They did not make fuss about taste of the food, size of the bed or the color of the paint of the house. They certainly did not worry themselves as much as we are worrying today. Today we are lavish and confident on the outside but growing empty and insecure inside.

And by the way, ‘irreversibly sick by 40’ – is only according to modern medicine. As per Yoga therapy NCDs are reversible, fully or partially. We shall look at it briefly in the next post.

28. तमसोमा ज्योतिर्गमय

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Ramakrishna Paramahamsa lived in Dakshineshwar, few miles away from Calcutta. People coming from Calcutta had to cross the river Ganga by boat to reach Dakshnieshwar. Once, one of the devotees came to visit Sri Ramakrishna in Dakshineshwar. He reported to Ramakrishna that in the boat a person was talking too lightly about the master. That person had talked ill of Ramakrishna, but the devotee had kept quiet. Hearing this, Ramakrishna told that devotee “It was wrong that you kept quiet. You should have opposed.” Many devotees were present there when he made this statement.

After a few days, a similar incident repeated. Another devotee told Ramakrishna that a person was talking ill of the master in the boat. But now, this devotee had thrashed the person for doing that. He reported the incident and the ‘punishment’ he gave to that person proudly to Ramakrishna. But surprisingly Ramakrishna now scolded this devotee for engaging in violence. The devotee said “But on that day, to that devotee, you told that it was wrong to have kept quiet. Remembering that I punished him for his mistake”. For this Ramakrishna just replied “That instruction was meant for him alone. It was correct for him to oppose and fight. But it is not correct for you to do the same. You should have kept quiet and controlled your rage.”

This incident looks peculiar, and may seem illogical. Was Sri Ramakrishna himself confused? Was he speaking irrationally just for bossing over his devotees? If we look at Vivekananda’s works carefully, the reason behind the above incident becomes evident. We may have to refer back to the post ‘The Story of Mastery’. The same concept of the Gunas will be elaborated here.

There is a tendency in the world to look at only two aspects – work and laziness, doing and not doing. When someone irritates us, we usually do one of the two – get angry but keep quiet, or burst out and fight against it. But if we notice carefully, we often kept quiet out of fear, not due to inclination for peace. We kept quiet because the opponent was too strong. We opted out of the battle because we were scared of loss. But then we try to decorate it with forgiveness “Ahh, let him do whatever he wants, poor man”. That means there is a third possibility – keeping quiet out of choice – real forgiveness – which has the same symptoms of fear and not acting. But only we will know whether our inactivity was out of fear or out of love/forgiveness. Our real colors will come out when the opponent is weaker than us. We will then see ourselves pouncing on the opponent and fighting for an easy victory! Where has our forgiveness gone now? When we know that we can easily punish, all our punishing attitude comes out in full force. Real forgiveness has to be shown when we have the courage and capacity to punish. That is the real test. When opponent is weaker or in a lower position than us (our children, our subordinates in office etc), we always punish. And when the opponent is stronger or superior (boss in office, an aggressive neighbor etc), we always do not punish and crib inside. In the latter situations we sometimes hide our inability with the mask of forgiveness. We hide one extreme (fear) with the other extreme (forgiveness) because both have similar symptoms and no one else will know.

Extremes often have similar symptoms (Swami Vivekananda). Radio waves and Gamma rays – both are invisible. But are they similar? Infrasound and Ultrasound – both are not audible. But are they similar? They are the extremes of the their spectrums. Radio waves are least energetic whereas Gamma rays are highly intense. Visibility comes only in an intermediate range of VIBGYOR light. Infrasound is least energetic and Ultrasound is very intense. Audibility comes only in an intermediate range of normal sound. Invisibility and inaudibility were common symptoms of both the extremes.

Similarly, keeping quiet and inactivity are the symptoms – but it may belong to either of the extreme – fear/escapism or love/forgiveness. Only we will know where we actually are. Reacting to the situation and fighting back is the intermediate and visible range. The lower extreme is Tamas (inertia), intermediate range is Rajas (dynamism) and the upper extreme is Sattva (controlled activity). Tamas and Sattva, superficially, have similar symptoms. But they are opposite extremes of the spectrum. It is better to be in Rajas than Tamas. It is better to hit back instead of keeping quiet out of fear and inability. But it is still better to forgive than hit back. Sattva is better than Rajas. But a person in Tamas often portrays that he is in Sattva. He often tries to mask his inability with fake forgiveness/disinterest. That is why Swami Vivekananda proclaimed “I respect a wretched sinner who is strong rather than a seemingly virtuous person who is weak.” We can earn the quality of forgiveness only if we first earn the courage to punish. Else it is only a dummy forgiveness driven by fear. We can ensure that we are in Sattva only if we have crossed Rajas. All Vivekananda’s exhortations are to provoke Rajas, because he noticed that India had moved into a state of slumber in the name of Religion and spirituality. All were acting to be Sattvik although in reality all were in Tamas.

Now we may understand the incident quoted in the beginning. The first devotee, probably kept quiet out of fear and inability to argue back. So for him Rajas was the need, he had to develop courage and come out of Tamas. He kept quiet only out of fear, but he was all the time burning inside. So it was hypocrisy. A real forgiver will not burn inside. It is better to react instead of constantly burning inside. So the first devotee has to shatter his Tamas. Whereas the second devotee very well had the mental and physical strength to fight back. So, it was an opportunity for him to develop an even better quality – forgiveness. Since he is sure that he is in Rajas and capable of acting, he should use opportunities to invoke forgiveness rather than boost Rajas further. Once Tamas is shattered, the next step is to control and moderate Rajas and promote Sattva. This is the simple message of the Gita as well.

Arjuna was about to flee from battle out of depression, not out of any love or compassion. He was in Tamas not Sattva. He saw Bhishma and Drona among the opponents and went into depression. But the same Arjuna would have jumped up and commenced the fight if Krishna had stopped the chariot in front of Duryodhana or Karna. His Rajas would have immediately burst up. If he was so forgiving and compassionate, he would have done it long ago and not even come for battle. So followed Krishna’s teachings shattering Arjuna’s Tamas and making him what is right, to fight, instead of taking shelter under fake Sattva.

Vivekananda met one tribal man in a forest once. The man asked Vivekananda about attaining God. Vivekananda asked him “Do you know to lie?” for which he said ‘No’. Vivekananda then said “You first learn how to lie. Only then you can become eligible for Self-Realization”. A stone is a stone and it cannot think. But a Yogi in meditation does not think out of choice and freewill, not compelled as in the case of a stone. There is a world of a difference.

In today’s world there is a big addiction to Rajas. It is obviously better than Tamas, but certainly not the end. That is why Sanyasis and saints have been misunderstood as lazy beggars. Many of them may really be hiding their laziness under saffron robes. But Sanyasa itself is not laziness. Physics cannot become bad just because of a few bad physicists. True Sanyasa is the other extreme of the spectrum. They have the capacity for any dynamic activity, but they have found a better state – Sattva. Controlling a mad horse requires more effort than getting tossed on its back and lying “I am controlling this horse.” Rajas, at some point or the other, makes us its slave. We lose control of the acceleration and we forget how to put breaks. Mind thinks and thinks, but we do not know how to switch it off. Getting a hold of the mad horse (mind) is Sattva. So, Sattva is intense activity, even more than Rajas. But superficial symptoms make it looks like the lower extreme of Tamas. A controlled horse looks very peaceful and stationary. But only the rider knows how much effort he has put to tame it.

Buddha shook the whole world with Sattva. He did that which even emperors could not achieve. If he had continued his life as the King, he could probably have conquered 2-3 kingdoms, with violence. But now, he has won over the hearts of billions, without a single drop of blood being spilled. In Autobiography of a Yogi, Paramahamsa Yogananda praises his Guru Yukteshwara Giri – “My Guru could have easily become an emperor or a warrior and shaken the world with his valor. But he chose to take up the tougher job – fighting and slaying the ego”

So, in summary, when we choose inactivity/forgiveness/disinterest etc, we have to be sure that it is out of Sattva and not Tamas. Only we will know what it really is. Everyday, we get plenty of opportunities to either shatter Tamas or control Rajas. Whenever you see a mistake from somebody, and you know that you can freely react and easily get away with it, then that is the time to practice control. That does not mean you keep quiet and not utter a word. That person should be made aware of his mistake clearly. That person should know that you have noticed his mistake but still are choosing not to scold him. This, when repeated several times, changes people. Their own guilt transforms them.

Similarly, whenever you see a mistake from somebody, and you know that you cannot get away easily with revolting, but still you know for sure that the person is wrong, then it is the time to practice Rajas. It is better to revolt and point out the mistakes bravely, no matter who it is, rather than seeing wrong in front our face and keeping quiet out of fear or out of some linked desires (e.g. If I talk against the boss, he may get bad impression on me) in the name of being diplomatic. If mistakes are pointed out with logic, fearlessness and smartness, it again transforms people. Even if it does not, what is the use of the material benefit which is gained by losing our own true Self? As we saw in ‘Hide and Seek’, we lose our own true Self to gain a material benefit, which is in turn meant to bring pleasure to the Self? Isn’t this a paradox?

This way, when practiced with many small incidents over a long time, mind moves towards calmness and positivity. Later, when really a powerful opponent does a mistake, you will be keeping quiet out of real forgiveness, not out of fear. The final state is same as the initial state. Some years back you might have kept quiet out of fear. Even now you are keeping quiet. But now the attitude is in the other extreme of the spectrum. From fear it has moved to compassion. This is a strength and freedom like no other. You will now be free, not bound to react and fight. There is nothing irritating you from within. You really and truly forgive, forget and the move on. And this state is very conducive to Self-Enquiry. Nothing from outside bothers you like before. So, you now have nothing to think about apart from wondering about ‘Who Am I’!

If we do not cross Rajas, and give up activity, there will be a guilt bugging from within. “Am I doing it out of laziness? What will others think about me?”. If there is guilt, then it automatically means than Rajas is not yet crossed fully. An inactive person in Sattva does not feel slightest of the guilt nor does he care for others comments. Because he is dead sure that his inactivity is not out of laziness. He knows the intense activity that is going on within him. He does not require certification from the world that he is not lazy. Self-certification is the only certificate that has to be attained.

We sometimes think that it is easy to just sit and eat whole day. But is it really? Even a retired old man cannot sit idly. Although the entire family asks him to just relax, he wants to be doing something or the other. He may say “Why to sit idle? Let me do some useful work” – this is just a dialogue hiding his inability to control the mind. He also wants the world to think that “Even at this age he does something”. Finally it is slavery to action and recognition that is making him act, not choice. If there is no work possible by him, he will only begin to feel depressed and useless. Because from within he has not moved to Sattva, mind is still accelerating like a car with no brakes. Even when there is absolutely no need to act, he cannot keep quiet. And world says spiritual practice is for old age?! If anything is for old age, it is everything except spirituality!

Shattering of Tamas and overcoming of Rajas can only be done in young age. You will get thousands of opportunities to shatter Tamas and control Rajas only in your youth. And after continuous battling, you can be sure that you are keeping quiet out of choice and not compulsion only in your young age, when you really have the capacity to act vigorously. Only then, in your old age, you will be free of any kind of depression. You will then really relax your retirement, in Self-enquiry and spiritual contemplation. Because you no more think that ‘action’ (Rajas) is the greatest thing. You have really controlled the mad horse and it is tamed. You have tasted Sattva. You know the difference between sleeping and meditation, which superficially look similar to onlookers. You know the intense enquiry that is going on within. You no more look for certification from the world “He works even at his old age”. You are no more guilty for sitting and contemplating whole day. Because you have that one certification which matters – Self-Certification.