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Yoga and the Mystic Each Yoga Master re-invents the meaning of the master/disciple relationship for his time and age Yoga is very popular today, and many people are unclear whether it is an exercise or spiritual experience, a path to enlightenment. Yoga is neither an exercise nor an experience. It is a certain state. The word yoga means “union.” When you experience everything as one in your consciousness, then you are “in yoga.” Now when you are in yoga, whatever you may say about your body not being of any importance to you, you still have to attend to it. Can you deny it? You can talk God, you can talk religion, you can talk philosophy, but when your body gets hungry, you forget about God, you forget about philosophy. The first thing you want is food. Even if you pray, you will say, “Dear God, give me food.” So, your body is an undeniable reality for you. It is there with you all the time. Similarly with your mind. Wherever you go, whether to a temple, or a church, or somewhere else, your mind comes with you. Even if you go to the mountain caves and sit and think it is peaceful, your mind will go on with its own nonsense. So your mind also is an undeniable reality. And you may think you are controlling your emotions, but they are always there. You can hide them for some time, but at the right moment, they come out. And to make all these happen, your energy is there. If you want to transform yourself, you should not deny any of these four things. That is why there is a physical action yoga, an emotion yoga, a mental yoga, and an energy yoga. You have to accept all these four types of yoga and work on all four levels. If there is a live Guru, he knows and understands what is required. He looks at the combination that works for each person, and he mixes the right combination. For different people, different types of meditation and different levels of practices are given, depending upon their nature. A common prescription will not work because people will only get suppressed. There will be no enlightenment. Suppression has happened in the name of spirituality everywhere in the world. Mostly, ninety percent of it is suppression. This is simply because, without any understanding, you want to go head-on against your own nature. It is not going to work. You don’t have to become slaves of your nature. You have to transcend your nature. You have to approach it with understanding and awareness. To experience yoga, or unity within you, there are many ways. Hatha yoga means to start with the body. Apart from your mind, do you see your body has its own ego? It has its own attitudes. You say, “From tomorrow, I want to get up at five in the morning and walk on the beach.” You set the alarm; the alarm rings. You want to get up, but your body says, “Shut up and sleep.” It has its own way. So in yoga we start with Hatha yoga as a way of working with the body, disciplining the body, purifying the body, preparing the body for higher levels of energy. All of us are alive, but all of us do not experience life to the same intensity, because our energy levels are not the same. Our vital energies, or prana, are not the same, so likewise is our intensity and experience of life. The whole process of yoga is to take you from something that you know and then take the next step into the unknown. If you talk about something that you do not know, either you have to believe it or disbelieve it. Suppose I start talking about God. You either have to believe my God or disbelieve my God, but either will only take you into flights of imagination, not into growth. So, now I begin to talk about the body. This is something that you know—you know you have a body. Now you take the body to its peak. Now I talk about the mind. That is also something that you know. Take it to its peak, and then take the next step. Realizing where you are right now and taking the next step is growth. So yoga starts like this—with the body, then the breath, and then the mind. Now we have made this yogic science (Isha Yoga) almost like a physical science. Suppose you put two parts of hydrogen with one part of oxygen—water will come. Whether a great scientist puts it together, or an idiot puts it together, only water will come. Similarly in yoga, whether a great yogi does it or an ignorant person does it, it doesn’t matter. If he does those things properly, the result is there to be seen. Then the next steps are pranayama and meditation. Some think that pranayama is simply a “breathing practice.” But to describe the “pranayama” as a “breathing practice,” is lowering it to a different level. “Prana” means vital energy. “Yama” means to gain control over. So though we’re employing the breath, it is not limited to the breath. It’s a way of gaining control over your energy. Today, modern science says that the whole of existence is just energy, vibrating in so many different ways. There is no such thing as matter. It’s true. Definitely, having a mastery over your energies can lead whichever way you want. You can take yourself to the highest peak. It’s entirely possible ... the practices are not something that are being invented by somebody and being imposed on the system. They are something that has been discovered by observing the system. It’s gleaned from the system by a deep observation. So, definitely, it will accelerate one’s progress on the spiritual path. There are eight limbs of yoga. The first three limbs are called the “fire” aspect of yoga. The last five limbs are called the “light” aspect of yoga. Pranayama is called a path of fire and light. The reason this is so is because fire signifies purification; light signifies enlightenment. Pranayama is both purifying and enlightening—which we have found is more suitable for the present age, because people are not willing to go through three stages of purification and then go through the five other stages. That much time is not there for most people, so we find that pranayama is the most suitable path for most people. People are seeking well-being, people want health, people want to be peaceful, but they have a confused mind. How will health happen? How will peace happen? How will happiness happen to them? They think they can buy it from the outside; this is a very wrong notion. If you’re really seeking well-being, whether peace or happiness or health, you need to dig into yourself, to go deeper into yourself, which is a spiritual process. Now, this question of how these things will happen comes up because there is so much misconception about what is spiritual. We are thinking “spirituality” versus “a materialistic way of life.” There is no such distinction. If you are living here, you are in your body, which is material; and who you are within you, is a spirit. So, you cannot separate these two things in living. You have to live here as body-spirit. So there is no such distinction as to this is spirituality; this is materialistic. Isha Yoga focuses on health, well-being, natural living, and all these things. But, if a person can be truly peaceful and happy in this world, irrespective of what’s happening around him, I consider that person a spiritual person. How deep he’s gotten may be questionable, but he’s started being spiritual, because he’s happy by his own nature. But if you’re enslaved to a materialistic way of life, then we will say, to find a little release from it, you can focus on the inward. But without genuinely focusing on the inward, on the inner situation, there is no well-being in life. It’s only a struggle. Sadhguru will be speaking in the Chicago area at Transitions Bookplace on July 14, 2004, at 7pm. For more information, call Transitions at 312-951-7323 or email info@transitionsbookplace.com. A 7-day program will be held at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, IL from July 21 to 27, weekdays 6:30-10pm, weekend all day; call 630-357-8846 and leave your number for a call back. See website at www.ishafoundation.org. |
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