K.C.NARAYANA

Part I

The word Rajayoga is derived from the identifying the kingly thing in man. It is now well known that 'thought' is the kingly thing in man. But this simple fact was first realised by a saint who lived about 80 generations before King Dasaratha the father of the Avatar Sri Rama. This becomes necessary to identify this, mainly because man is essentially an animal as any other but with two well-developed faculties of thinking (reasoning) and capacity to express feelings. The word Yoga means union or rather feeling of union. Let us clearly understand that the root 'yuj' in Sanskrit means to unite. In Rajayoga the feeling of union is what is aimed at through the process of thought. All forms of Rajayoga are meant only for that. Yoga is union and we are trying to use thought forces.

Modern world has, apart from taking away all other things from us has also taken away the thought process. The thought process is getting annihilated. Somebody else is thinking all the time for us. Let us warn ourselves against this onslaught on thought process and allow it to be not a casualty. Because that is the kingly thing in man. That is the only distinguishing factor between animals and us. No other species has got this capacity. It is a special gift of God for us, a gift that we are now trying to squander away and allow somebody else to exploit it with whatever little mind he has got. He has got every right to say whatever he wants to say just as we have every right to say whatever we want to say but we are not here to get brainwashed.

There are two words in tradition, which I would like to use in this connection. A person who has got all other abharanas (ornaments) has got no great value, but a person who has got jnana and vairagya is considered to be possessing very precious jnanavairagya bhooshanam. Please note it. The most precious thing you can have is jnana, i.e. knowledge, and the greatest knowledge you can have is vairagya. Jnana does not mean ultimate or oneness with God etc; Jnana leads you to vairagya or a sense of detached functioning. Detached functioning and, not renunciation of the houses and running away. Modern management tells us that when we are detached and do not subject ourselves to task and when we look at its objectively our performance is at its best and it is no better wisdom than what our great rishis have already said. I am not going to say that the modern management is to be thrown away. It is absolutely essential that we should read that, follow that in order to be successful. The main point to stress is that it should be detached functioning.

Jnana and vairagya are possible only when we use the thought process. When we don't use our thought process neither jnana (knowledge and understanding) nor vairagya (due attachment to actions) is there. Jnana is lost and you come to the level of a stupid, vairagya is not there and we tend to get attached to every conceivable thing that is advertised.

Yoga is union, as a gross reflection of this concept of a union we started talking in terms of a family institution around 7 to 8 thousand years back. Family as an institution started a distinguishing feature between animal and man. Animals do not have families, we have. Because we used the thought process earlier and we have found that living for ourselves doesn't make sense. Sharing alone makes sense. It is on that principle of sharing; we started living with others for a lifetime. If we do not have a sharing principle and if marriage is only an institution for satisfying our physiological urges it is bound to fail. This is a development in our thinking from our egocentric selfish approach, which goes today by the name of independent approach, as against one of participation, co-operation, sacrifice and service. Family as an institution is capable of meeting that demand. We started families; families grew bigger, we still continued to work with the old parents. Great grandfathers lived with their great grand children, not because they could afford such a big family, but because they had broadness of heart, by which they could share whatever little they had. When we don't compromise on our basic animal needs, of either hunger or other basic physiological urges, we will not be in a position to live with others. When we sacrifice on these issues we will be in a position to live together.

This philosophy went further to accommodate the 'athithi' who comes to us without even informing and we are ordained to sacrifice everything we have got to him. This is said to be the basis of family. This is further elaborated in the concept 'athithi devo bhava' (treat the guest as God himself after having said that the mother, father and teacher are to be treated as Gods in the Vedas and Upanishads). Thus sacrifice and service have been upheld as the real values of life and this is due to the thinking process that churned out this truth by the Vedic times. This is why when they said this is the dharma of a grhasta; they were trying to tell you what is the basis of family. When they indicated the guest as the most important person, as the God they are sending you a message.

Basically the point we should remind ourselves in this present day polluted atmosphere, that is not restricted to physical and atmosphere, but to the very thought process, is that it is our dharma to share even at the point of our deprivation. Those of us who know the story of the mongoose often quoted by Swami Vivekananda, which exemplifies the glory of sacrifice of a poor teacher, will understand the glory of sacrifice and the duties to be performed when we are part of a family. Please note the extent to which we have been extorted by our tradition to live up to, and to what levels we have fallen. It is for us to decide.

There is no point in decrying our present condition but it is possible to live higher. In this land we are told what it is to share. It is this principle of sharing and sacrifice which has permitted us to allow every person to come and state whatever he wants to say. It has been our bitter experience that we have been fooled in this subject thanks to the modern times. We have come to a stage wherein we are getting exploited, families are getting ruined, joint family system is gone, small family systems are becoming important. Unfortunately even small families are also not continuing, the husband and wife have a difference and every alternative day they sue each other and they go for a divorce. A stage has come in the West wherein they have started thinking whether marriage is required at all. They developed a concept of staying together. The level to which we are sinking is the animal level. Thought process which is our basic character and which was allowing us to develop some sense as to how we can be happy has become a casualty. It should be understood that happiness would never be derived unless we cherish and practice sacrifice and opt to serve. We can have enormous amount of pleasure but not happiness. Please note that only when we give no importance to thought and give importance to our own existence all alternative arguments take hold. There are what are called permanent values and temporary values. Today we are getting succumbed to the temporary values, let us remind ourselves of the permanent values. Then yoga is possible viz., the union.

God is not somewhere else to be found. You are He. It is the manifestation of God which is here, call him God, call him Energy, call him Base or by any other name, because God has neither a name nor a form. Because if He was only one, which everyone agrees, so many people would not have described him in so many ways. There cannot be a Hindu God, Muslim God, and Christian God etc., as Rev. Babuji jocularly remarked in one of His conversations with some aspirants from the West. There is only one God who expresses Himself. We experience Him in so many ways because of the uniqueness of the union we have. In sadhana every one feels Him in a unique way and so naturally He was expressed in so many ways. But everyone who has had experience of the union knows that it is the only thing. Everyone sticks on to his own experience, because that is his experience, but he also knows that others can have the experience in their own way.

Each one of us is an expression of the Divine. This is the fundamental point of the system. If you kindly recall the basic roots (the Vedas), which is also common for others the Purusha sacrificed himself, the Purusha medha is what the Purusha suktha talks about. The Purusha sacrificed himself and he became many, ekoham bahushyam, which is what has happened, so one has multiplied into many. This was done by a process of sacrifice.

Sacrifice is the principle of life, that is the main point for our living together, for our family systems. If you strike at the point of that sacrifice then you are talking against the fundamental principles of manifestation, the roots of existence is questioned. The present day enthusiasts advocating the concept of independency and capacity to stand on one's own may well remember this. If energy remained what it was and did not explode either through a big bang or through any theory explaining creation or evolution or any other theory any one of us might have, there would have been no Universe and naturally we would be not here. But every one of these ideas could have actually happened and each one is possible, because none of us know what happened. Which is why practical people do not talk about this. The richness of your life is not dependent upon the abstract theories of big bang, Samkhya, Bergson's theory of creative evolution or any other theories. These will not give you any solution; they will give you only information, at best.

Please note that there is lot of difference between information and jnana. Incidentally I will take a small digression. There is something called information. Processed information becomes knowledge. But knowledge doesn't become understanding. This can be otherwise called in the ancient term wisdom. Up to the point of knowledge it is covered by the process of cognition. The second part i.e. called understanding is connected with conation or feeling. Everybody knows that it is necessary to understand that we are brothers and sisters but none of us feel it. Knowledge regarding the same has been given but due to lack of feeling there is no understanding. Without feeling no understanding is possible. The above comes only by experience. Psychology as is presently known is nothing but animal psychology, which has undergone a transition over a period of time. The present day psychology is without feeling it talks about ways of knowing and not ways of understanding. Yoga is a way of understanding, not a way of knowing. This is the fundamental difference. Why I would like to stress this is most of us who have meditated or trying to meditate now will have our own experience, will see something, will hear something and then we will comment that this is our experience. The point here is that we are literally trying to molest our feeling to fit into a language of knowledge. We are not happy with our understanding and are trying to bring it down to the level of knowledge even if necessary by sacrificing certain details and then start saying we are not satisfied with it as it does not correspond with what someone else has stated. Language of feeling is what we will have to learn in order to feel the Union. Everybody knows that we are expression of the Divine. Without energy we are not here. Without energy there is no solar system, without solar system we do not have planets and correspondingly no life. Each one of us has got information that Sun is the source and Earth is the base. But we do not feel this, earlier people felt it but did not have the knowledge, nowadays people have the knowledge but lack the capacity to feel. The union cannot be understood unless we learn to feel. The language of feeling has to be learnt. Don't try to bring in whatever little experience during your meditation to fit into our knowledge process but try to understand it as it is. Try to appreciate a flower as it is. By trying to separate the petals and analysing it we may gain botanical knowledge but that will not give us understanding. The beauty of a flower lies in the way it is. The beauty of existence lies in the way we are. Don't try to feel ashamed in front of somebody else, because God has created each one of us and He is in each one of us. When we know the purpose of the sacrifice He has done, the happiness He wanted us to have then we understand the 'Sun' that shines everyday. That is the nature of life. The nature of life is sacrifice and through sacrifice be happy. "Ishavasyamidham sarvam yat kincha jagatyam jagat: tena tyaktena bhunjeetha ma grdah kasya sviddhanam" so says Isa Upanishad. This means that the entire Universe is His, therefore getting detached, be happy. Covet not somebody else's. This is the only mantra that is repeated in all the four Vedas and finds place in the Upanishads. The main point to note is everywhere there is God therefore do not try to possess anything. Possessing not, enjoy and be happy.

What is it that has made us come to this level of not understanding this fundamental? What is the problem with us? The problem was identified even in the mantra with the word "tenatyaktena", which means don't own anything. That is there is a tendency to own up everything and cling to it as if it were our own. The truth, nothing is ours and everything belongs to God who pervades everything in the Universe. But we have started owning up things and people as if they are ours forever. In the language of Rev. Babuji there is undue attachment with us for everything or person that we consider our own. While due attachment is necessary to perform our duty efficiently, undue attachment leads to generation of bondage or fetters. We came here as an expression of the Divine but we started thinking that everything is due to our action. We started feeling that we are the doers and it is we who are doing good or bad to others. Neither are we the persons to do good nor are we the persons to kill. That is the solution in the Bhagavadgita. The greatest message, which is given in the Gita, is that we are not the doers. Lord Krishna says to Arjuna, "I am the doer, and you are only the means or the instrument". That Arjuna has to be only as 'nimmitta matram' (being just nominally present). For just His purposes as 'nimmitta matram' He goes on sending streams of individuals into the world in various lines. Because the very nature of life is that it will decay and perish. To keep going His creation He sends somebody else to replace. There is perenniality of flow, which again is subject to the principle of procreation. The maintaining job of creation is only through procreation but meaningful procreation, meaningful tradition, and a meaningful principle that is transmitted is the divine light. When we try to possess something and say it is our own, we are forming an impression in us which may