01 Mar 2025
O Learned and Devoted Servants of God
[Prof. JSR Prasad asked:- Sāṣṭāṅga Namaskāram Swami.]
Swami replied:- The first five steps of Yoga (Yama, Niyama, Āsana, Prānāyāma and Pratyāhāra) are related to the development of physical and mental health. After attaining this health perfectly through these preliminary five steps, the 6th step is called ‘Dhārāṇā’, which means catching the relevant form of God. The energetic being shall catch the energetic incarnation of God and the human being shall catch the human incarnation of God. The 7th step is ‘Dhyāna’, which is related to mind or emotional devotion. In this 7th stage, the faith that the incarnation is God will be having ups and downs because the mind is always of dual nature, swinging between belief (Samkalpa) and disbelief (Vikalpa). In this step, the mind develops concentration on the incarnation. The final 8th step is ‘Samādhi’, which is related to the intelligence. In this stage, the intelligence does a lot of logical analysis giving the conclusion that the incarnation is God. This 8th stage is again of two types, which are the initial ‘Savikalpa Samādhi’ (in which the faith is strong, but, it is breaking now and then) and the final ‘Nirvikalpa Samādhi’ in which the faith becomes solidified without any alteration. The best examples for Nirvikalpa Samādhi are Hanuman and the successfully passed twelve Gopikas.
After the 5th step, there are two side lines on both sides giving the form of ‘Y’ junction. The right side line containing the final three steps are towards God, whereas, the same final three final steps form a left side line, which lead the soul towards worldly bonds. This means that the health achieved by following the preliminary five steps can be used in the service of worldly bonds or can be used in the service of the incarnation of God. The preliminary five steps can be called as part of Yoga provided the soul turns to God (right side line) because the word ‘Yoga’ is fixed (Rūḍhi) in the meaning of union with God only. If the soul turns towards worldly bonds (left side line), the preliminary five steps cannot be called as the part of Yoga. The conclusion is that the health achieved by following the preliminary five steps can be used either in the service of God or in the service of the worldly bonds. You cannot travel in both the side lines simultaneously because those two side lines are almost opposite to each other. People practicing the first five steps say that they are practicing Yoga. Such usage of the word Yoga is wrong because they have not yet decided whether they go towards God or towards worldly bonds. Hanuman practiced the first five steps of Yoga to build good physical and mental health and He can be told that He was in the path of Yoga since He decided to go in the service of God (Rama, the human incarnation). You can also take Swami Vivekananda as the latest example, who developed good mental and physical health for the service of God. The most important point in this topic is that Yoga means only the union with God and every activity related to this path becomes part of Yoga (Aṅga of Yoga or Yogāṅga).
Kundalini means the mind of the devotee. The cakras mean the various hurdles, which are the worldly bonds that obstruct the devotee’s mind trying to reach God in its upward journey to Sahasrāra or the top of head (brain or intelligence) that does a lot of logical analysis to arrive at the correct conclusion. The Kundalini represents awareness or nervous energy travelling in the form of waves or the movement of a serpent. This individual soul crosses the ‘Ājñā’ cakra that exists between the two eye-brows standing for names and forms of the world. After crossing this, the Kundalini representing the individual soul goes to Sahasrāra and merges with God Shiva getting the ultimate bliss. Here, God Shiva also has name and form. Name and form of the world are to be crossed whereas the name and form of God are to be achieved finally.
There is no difference between the mediated unimaginable God and the non-mediated unimaginable God, just like there is no difference between the clothed person, who came out of bathroom seen by all and the same naked person taking bath previously in the bathroom unseen by anybody. Similarly, there is no difference between God Shiva, who is mediated with divine name and form and Parabrahman, the unmediated unimaginable God. This logic is given by Sahasrāra, which is the place of intelligence that makes perfect logical analysis. The ‘Iḍā’ nerve represents moon or devotional mind. The ‘Piṅgalā’ nerve denotes the Sun, who is the bright intelligence giving logical analysis to establish the oneness of mediated unimaginable God and unmediated unimaginable God. With the help of this devotion and spiritual knowledge, the soul enters the central ‘Suṣumnā’ nerve and becomes a very close associate of God Datta (God Datta is the above said God Shiva), the first energetic incarnation of the unmediated unimaginable God, called Parabrahman. All this is pictorial representation of the concept only and one should not be trapped by the illusion that this concept exists in the human head in physical sense. The physical significance is adopted only to give a more clear understanding of the concept.
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