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Tell me something more about
Yoga...
- In ancient times there used to be a number
of true Yogis who used to spend their entire lifetime in Yoga Sadhana in the caves of the
Himalayas to achieve perfection.
- The foundation of all major religions of the
world is in fact the Yogic experience of the founder or the prophet of each religion.
Hinduism is based on the transcendental experiences of its Rishis and seers; Buddhism on
the experience of Gautama Buddha; Christianity on the experience of Jesus and Islam on the
knowledge transmitted to the prophet Mohammed.
- Yoga differs from the traditional religions
in that Yoga does not accept any external authority but relies solely on one's own
experiences. Yoga, like science, being free from dogmas, has been an ever-growing
discipline. It is the only discipline that harmoniously unites the physical, mental and
spiritual development of man, while other disciplines concern themselves with only one of
these, to the neglect of the other two.
- In the last few decades we have been looking
far out into the cosmos, to the utter neglect of the world within us. Yogic practice has a
balanced approach. It looks within to explore the immense wealth of our psyche and
establishes harmony between the internal and external worlds of man. The balanced approach
offers the right attitude to life and a world view that enables man to pass through the
trials and tribulations of life with as much ease and equanimity as through joys and
happiness.
You mentioned the Tantra
Shastras?...
Indeed. Long before you and I were born, it
was stated in the Kularnava Tantra...
- There is One Real, One without a second,
Self-luminous, without beginning or end, without attribute, without change, beyond the
highest. He is the Sachchidananda.
- The human birth is the the most important
for it is then that one becomes awake, aware of one's state of bondage and the necessity
of release and is in a position to take steps towards one's liberation from its hold.
- Beings higher than man envy his birth,
because it is only human life on this earth, which is a field of evolution, that holds the
possibility of change, progress and release. In no other birth can the soul acquire the
knowledge of Truth. Human birth is the stepping stone to the path of Liberation. But rare
are the meritorious who come by it.
- The Truth is to be realized here in this
life. It is vain to expect that things will change and improve after death in worlds that
are happier than ours. The change or improvement cannot come from outside of yourself. It
has to be worked out by yourself from within yourself. The world you reach after the body
is shed is determined by the level of consciousness reached while in the body.
- Verbal knowledge is of no avail for the
destruction of the delusion of the world. Let no blind men be led by the blind. It is
wisdom to go straight to the essence of the scriptures, like the swan sipping milk out of
water. Study them, know their essential truth and then leave them aside like husk after
collecting the grain.
- Remember, the body does not last for ever.
Age prowls like a leopard, diseases strike like an enemy. It is a wonder how men can be so
complacent and unmindful when everywhere there is thunder of crash. Time flies without
your knowing. Prosperity is like a dream, youth like a blossom, life-span momentary like
lightning. Even a hundred years is too little, for half the life is spent in sleep and the
other half is made infructuous by infancy, disease, misery, age and what not. Deluded by
ignorance (avidya), man looks not at what he sees, grasps not what he hears, follows not
what he reads. He fails to see that with every moment that passes his body decays. The
Wolf of Time rushes upon him when he is still prattling of my children, my
wife, my wealth, my relations. Death swallows him when he is still
thinking of what is done, what is yet to be done and what is half-done. Therefore do today
what is required to be ready tomorrow, do in the forenoon what is meant for the afternoon.
Death waits not to see what is done or not done.
- Helplessly man swings from birth to death
and again from death to birth. He goes from here to there as from house to house. What is
sown here is reaped elsewhere. Of a tree that is watered at the roots, the fruits are seen
on the branches above. Freedom from desire, non-attachment is the only way to Liberation.
All evils are born of attachment.
- If you cannot do it in your weakness, resort
to the company of the good. Holy company acts as medicine.
- Only he who has knowledge, is a man. There
can be no Moksha or Liberation without Diksha or Initiation. Beware, however, of the
ignorant, pseudo-gurus. Intent on amassing wealth, showily, attired in disguise, they
wander everywhere on this globe and throw others in delusion. They are to be shunned.
"Kularnava Tantra", M.P.
Pandit, Ganesh & Company, Madras, 1973.
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