VEDA

Purpose

Before one embarks to practice and master yoga, one should always recall the purpose of one's life. Hindu scriptures state over and over again that liberation is possible only in the human life. In that aspect, humans are superior to angels. In the holy Quran the angels are requested to bow before the humans for this reason. A similar theme can be observed when the Lord of Death, Yama, 'confesses' to Nachiketa in Katha upanishhad (read the vedanta section in the Hinduism section) that even he has to let go of his reign (as the Lord of Death) and become a human being in order to attain Brahman. While Yoga scriptures believe in heaven and hell, they are quick to point out that these states are as impermanent as the human life and its possessions.

The purpose of human life is to attain liberation from the eternal cycle {called samsara}. All material happiness is impermanent, all attachments to human life are impermanent. Hence liberation through true selfless love for the Divine and all beings is the only path to eternal happiness. Hence, every moment which is not spent in the service, love, and contemplation of the Divine is wasted, in my humble opinion. An obvious win-win strategy is to choose the path of spiritualism and abandon materialism!! Always remember 'For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul ? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul' [Matthew 16,26].

Practice

Having realised that the purpose of living is to achieve the state of 'living in God', a right practice has to be adhered to. The practice which is outlined here takes years to perfect and practice at every moment of our life. The practice is usually likened to that of a calf, which tries to get up and falls, repeats the process again and again till it has enough strength to stand on its feet and becomes a cow. The key is to slowly absorb the truths, practice it sincerely, and the goal will be reached.

Hindu Scriptures describes three finite dimensional human qualities (Gunas) in every human being, though varying in proportion.

Sattvic : purity, knowledge and joy
Rajsic  : active, desire and restlessness.
Tamsic  : inaction, delusion and dullness

These three gunas are the basic constituents of Prakrti (nature). However the Self (Truth) is above these gunas. With rigorous practice, devotion, and determination, we can become maintain our sattvic nature all the time. A person through the sincere, dedicated practice of yoga can transcend these gunas and become a triguNaatiita to be freed from samsara.

Yoga is a philosophy which has to be practiced continuously, throughout the day, week, year, and life. The ability to be calm in midst of action, the ability to have a quiet mind in midst of a turmoil is the mark of a true yogi. A lotus (yogi) lives in the marsh (the material world) but is unaffected by it, but opens its beautiful petals (mind, heart and soul) to the loving grace of the Sun (God). The lotus has petals which are unaffected by water (sense desires), and marsh (evil) with its beautiful stem (good) indicating that both does co-exist in the material world but without the Sun (God), the lotus (yogi) will die.

Since yoga is a direct link with the Divine, there is no use in pretending. Aspirants need to be sincere, dedicated and devoted to the Divine. Devotion is meaningful only if one surrenders one's ego or at least makes an attempt to surrender it. It is wrong to judge other paths, or to advocate the philosophy you follow as the only right path because all paths lead to the Divine too. It hardly matters if one loves Jesus, Allah, or Krsna, or prefers to meditate on an impersonal form like Tao or Brahman. While a Bhakti yogi wishes to retain both his individuality and the personality of God (since he considers God as a Supreme person and not as an intangible Absolute), a Jnana yogi strives to transcend all the subject-object relationship. As Ramakrishna remarks 'When I think of the Supreme Being as inactive-neither creating or preserving nor destroying-, I call him Brahman, the impersonal God. When I think of Him as active-creating, preserving, and destroying-, I call him Sakti or Maya or Prakriti, the Personal God. But the distinction between them does not mean a difference. The personal and the Impersonal are the same thing, like milk and its whiteness...It is impossible to conceive of the one without the other. The Divine Mother and Brahman are one.'

Lessening of attachment to sense-desires and the ability to love unconditionally (by pure devotion to God) are very essential. The first concept can be illustrated by a simple story often told by Satya Sai Baba : (paraphrased)

'In India, the monkey-catcher places nuts in a pot with a narrow mouth. The monkey is attracted to these nuts and puts its hand inside the path and clenches its hands at the nuts. When the monkey-catcher comes to catch the monkey, the monkey desperately wants to run away but thinks that someone is holding its hand inside the pot. If it unclenches its hand and 'lets go', it is home free. The man is similar to the monkey, and once he lets go off his sense-desires (nuts), he is freed from the eternal cycle of birth and rebirth (pot), and is not worried about the monkey-catcher (death) anymore and is liberated. Hence, peace and bliss automatically descends on a being whose mind has no ego and is freed from wants, desires.' As Patanjali repeatedly points out, the liberation and bondage is from one's thoughts. The monkey mind however needs something. A monkey is often seen to climb up and down a pole just to keep itself busy. This pole can be a mantra which will give the mind something to chant.

Discrimination is the essence of non-attachment. To be discriminatory means to analyze each thought, action and enquire whether this leads us towards the Goal or farther from it. This simple technique makes one realize that most of our actions lead away from the goal of realizing the divine. While it is easy to discriminate during our calm moments, we should slowly cultivate the ability to discriminate all the time. The non-attachment occurs in three steps, in my opinion. First, you cultivate a love for God and an attachment to Him by examining and trying to model our lives like the many saints who have graced this earth. This is followed by devotion, leading to an understanding of the spirit within each person and finally, realizing and experiencing the spirit behind everyone.

The second concept of devotion can be illustrated by a simple story from the book titled Tibetan book of living and dying by Sogyal Rinpoche

'At the time of Buddha, there lived an old beggar woman called "Relying on Joy." She used to watch the kings, princes, and people making offerings to Buddha and his disciples, and there was nothing she would have liked more than to be able to do the same. So she went begging, but at the end of a whole day all she had was one small coin. She took it to the oil-merchant to try and buy some oil. He told her that she could not possibly buy anything with so little. But when he heard that she wanted it to make an offering to Buddha, he took pity on her and gave her the oil she wanted. She took it to the monastery, where she lit a lamp. She placed it before Buddha, and made this wish: "I have nothing to offer but this tiny lamp. But through this offering, in the future may I be blessed with the lamp of wisdom. May I free all beings from their darkness. May I purify all their obscurations, and lead them to enlightenment.” That night the oil in all the other lamps went out. But the beggar woman's lamp was still burning at dawn, when Buddha's disciple Maudgalyayana came to collect all the lamps. When he saw that one was still alight, full of oil and with a new wick, he thought, "There's no reason why this lamp should still be burning in the daytime," and he tried to blow it out. But it kept on burning. He tried to snuff it out with his fingers, but it stayed alight. He tried to smother it with his robe, but still it burned on. The Buddha had been watching all along, and said, "Maudgalyayana, do you want to put out that lamp? You cannot. You could not even move it let alone put it out. If you were to pour the water from all the oceans over this lamp, it still wouldn't go out. The water in all the rivers and lakes of the world could not extinguish it. Why not? Because this lamp was offered with devotion, and with purity of heart and mind. And that motivation has made it of tremendous benefit.' When Buddha had said this, the beggar woman approached him, and he made a prophecy that in the future she would become a perfect buddha, called "Light of the Lamp."

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