Siva's Trident of Yoga Practice
It is a necessity for you to chalk out a daily program of actual practise, the conducting of your daily routine, whatever it be, in harmony with the ideals and objectives that have been taught to you during these sessions, as guidelines for the behaviour of your personality in this world, where you have to live. This world is something in which you have to live, whatever the nature of this world be. Sometimes it appears that the world is not a comfortable place for people to live in, and at other times it appears that it has an abundance of values which are going to contribute to your progress towards perfection.
There are adjustments and maladjustments which we make every day in our lives with whatever the world is made of. Firstly, we find it difficult to adjust ourselves harmoniously with nature, because we have no proper understanding of what nature is made of. Mostly our reactions to the world are emotional and utilitarian, and the concept of producing something, or acquiring or gaining something from the world outside decides our attitude and behaviour towards things. What do we gain by a particular attitude that we put on today? We cannot think of any activity unless it brings something to us: What does it bring? We think of the value it will bring to us as a consequence of a particular work.
These studies of ours will have to dispel this wrong notion that we usually entertain in our minds that our conduct in this world is supposed to bring some extraneous results. The profit-and-loss attitude of the commercial man is not a proper attitude at all, because one's attitude towards the world is not a matter of a give-and-take policy. Neither should we expect anything from the world, nor is it supposed to grant us anything. We cannot imagine how this could be. We think, “If nothing comes from my attitude, work and activity, what for is the work, activity and effort of mine?” This is a businessman's brain, and this calculation of the business type enters into the mind of every human being on account of a tremendous lacuna that one feels in one's own personality.
We feel every day there is something lacking in us; otherwise, we would not be busy, hurrying about here and there, searching for this thing or that thing. There is something wanting in us, and this want will be felt by us every day even if we live for a hundred years in this world. It does not mean that a person who has lived a long life in this world has got everything that he expected from the world. We will find that the world has given us nothing in the end, and in the hope of gaining something from the world, we sweat and toil, and rub our shoulders with nature and with people outside. But we will find that the next day we are in the same condition as we were before, the only satisfaction being that there is a hope that perhaps something will come from our efforts. We seem to be living on hope, and not because we have got anything from the world, because if the world had really granted us some abundance on account of the efforts that we have put forth in regard to it, tomorrow we would be better persons than today, happier persons, more relived persons, and filled much more than we are today.
But when today we plug one hole of our finitude with a particular kind of effort that we put forth in respect of a condition prevailing just now, tomorrow we find that another hole is open, and we have another problem of a different type. Types differ, but the problems are the same. It matters not whether the pot is leaking through this hole or that hole; it is, after all, leaking. Our whole life is spent in plugging holes, which demonstrates from moment to moment that we are placed disharmoniously in this world. Our entire life is a waste. In the end, after passing seventy, eighty, ninety years in this world, we will realise that we have wasted our life and have got nothing substantial. Promises have been made by the world, but they have never been kept. Gold was promised, but trash and ashes were given to us. We got ashes; that is all. Though we expected apples, the world had no apples to give us. It was a bundle of mud that was thrown into our mouth. That is why we are feeling insecure, unhappy and miserable, though this misery may not manifest itself in a poignant fashion every day on account of a particular illusion that some part of our lacuna has been fulfilled by the world.
As I mentioned, we have plugged one hole. We are intensely hungry, and food has been given to us. We think the world is very kind to us because it has been good enough to give us a meal today, but it has done something else also, at the same time. It has kept us under suspension, subjection. It has thrown the agony of hunger into our stomach. That is the tragedy which nature compels us to enter into, in spite of the fact that food is given. What is the use of giving food and then creating a burning hunger also, at the same time? This is what nature does to us. It compels us to be in a state of finitude, and then promises to grant something by which our finitude may be plastered over and we are made to feel a little bit secure. No plastering over this personality can make it secure. It will collapse one day or the other. The idea is, we cannot import any kind of thing from the world outside into our finitude and then make it look infinite. A lot of wealth, a lot of land and property, a lot of friends and large mansions are the so-called abundances that the world may promise to give us, to see that our finitude is made tolerable to some extent. But it is like a broken wall that is made to appear smooth by the plastering of cement and the whitewashing of lime. It may look okay, but inside it is rotting. The wall is about to collapse, and our whitewash is not going to help us. It only gives us an illusion of it being all right. This is the world in which we are living.
Throughout history, kings and emperors have come and gone, and they have eaten dust. Though they sat on golden thrones and drank milk and honey, later on dust was thrown into their mouths. The result is the same whatever the person be, whoever he be, saint or sinner, king or beggar. Why does this happen?
This is the question that the Sankhya and the Yoga, in their analysis of the predicament of human nature, delve into. There is a maladjustment of our personality with the natural conditions prevailing outside, call it the world of nature, or of human beings or the society of living beings, as the case may be. We are not to expect anything from the world. The Bhagavadgita dins into our mind again and again, in all its verses practically, that we should not expect anything from this world as a fruit thereof, as a fruit of our work, because the world is incapable of offering us anything. One of the reasons for this is that we do not stand outside nature. The idea that we are outside nature, outside people, outside society, outside everything, and that we stand independent by ourselves, is the reason why we cannot be in a state of harmony with nature, and with our neighbours. We are always at loggerheads with that which is just near us. We cannot reconcile ourselves with it. There is some irksome feeling when everything is outside us. When we see something, we feel disturbed because it is a contending factor in the security of our finitude.
The Yoga, the Sankhya, the Vedanta, whatever we call it, is the science of delving deep into this predicament of human nature in this world of nature and society, which tells us where we stand. Wisdom has to dawn in our mind. The greatest wisdom is to know what kind of person we are, and where we are actually placed in this world. To be foolhardy and to work like a little innocent and ignorant child will not bring us anything. There is a law operating in this cosmos, and if we are unaware of this law, totally ignorant of its operations, we cannot go scot-free. Have you not heard that ignorance of the law is no excuse? If you do not know the law, now you must know it by actually passing through its consequences.
So in the early morning when you get up from your bed—I am suggesting to you some practical techniques—do not jump up into some activity which is your official career, your family business, your trade, or whatever it is. After all, are you not more important than what you possess in this world? Put a question to yourself: “Am I inferior to the land and property that I own? Am I an inferior entity compared to the bank balance that I have got so that I may think only of the land and the money, and I should not have to think about myself? Am I pouring myself, from morning to evening, on things which I am not? Am I so paltry, so good for nothing, that every day I have to think only of what I am not—the building, the land, the money and the people? Or am I also worth something? Have I a value? Am I a human being with some worth, or is my worth only imported from the properties that appear to belong to me? Are the land and the field, and the building and the money all my worth, or minus these am I also something? Have I an intrinsic value?”
You may have an authority as a large official, but when you retire from your office, you look like a nobody. Nobody wants to look at your face. You become very small the moment you retire from a powerful office. That is to say, the power that you seemed to have was foisted upon you like whitewash on a rotting wall, and without it you look like a nobody. Intrinsic worth is lacking. The strength of an elephant is an intrinsic strength; it cannot be taken away by retirement. But a retired officer's strength is nil, because it was foisted strength.
Have you an intrinsic worth? Are you something important in this world, or are you nothing? Are you rich, and therefore important? Put these questions to yourself in the early morning. Know that you are also an important entity in this world. One day you will have to leave this world, and when you go, what do you take with you—land, property, money, bank balance and buildings? Even a piece of grass or a broken needle will not follow you, and you go before the Justice of the Cosmos literally stripped of all associations. That day may come to you tomorrow, or even after a few minutes. What do you take when you go from this world? You take yourself. Do you take anything that belongs to you? No. Your belongings are nothing. Actually, nothing belongs to you. You have only an ideological association with things which appear to be belonging to you, and ideological associations are not real associations. They are conceptualisations. They are like building castles in the air, as it is said. Nothing is yours. The land was there even before you were born into this world. Now you say it is your land, but how does it belong to you? It will be there as it was. Nobody held it, nobody grabbed it, nobody ate it. You carry only yourself, and you stand before the Justice of the Cosmos alone. You are face to face with the cosmos. None of your bag and baggage will come with you, and you do not carry appurtenances when you stand before the Justice of the Cosmos. When you stand before the Justice of the Cosmos as a literally stripped individual, what is your answer to the great query which life poses before you?
The scriptures, the epics, the Puranas, have a dramatic way of presenting this condition by saying that you will be asked a question: “What have you done there?” It does not mean that the Cosmos will speak to you with its tongue. The Cosmos has its own tongue, which is the language of Eternity. Eternity will question the time process. The Absolute will question the individual, and the question will be communicated to you in a language which is not of this world, because when you go from this world, you will not go as a man of this world. You will leave this world as a spirit, and your spirit will be encountered by the Universal Spirit. What have you done here? Answer this question to your own self.
I have mentioned to you sometime back Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj's prescription for this purpose, which is a method of daily self-checking, the maintenance of a spiritual diary. Question yourself: “In the morning I woke up, and now it is evening; the day has passed. I have taken my breakfast, I have taken my lunch, I have gone to my office and have finished my paperwork. On this particular day, have I done anything worthwhile to make me a better individual?” What else have you done for your spirit's growth, for the satisfaction of your inner true being, which is expecting an answer from you from moment to moment? Would you give it a slap on its face and say “cry not”, as unwise parents treat children who cry, not knowing why they cry?
The soul is crying from inside, and will you say, “No, don't cry? I will give you office work, I will give you a trade, I will make you a partner”? Would you say this to the soul? “I care a fig for you,” the soul will say. “I do not want to be a partner in business. I want nothing that you can offer to me in this way. I have asked for sugar candy, and you give me a toy. No.” The soul has been crying for ages and ages. Through all the incarnations which you have passed, the soul has been crying. You have never been able to satisfy it, and have never put a question to it as to what it is crying for. The soul is crying for the infinitude of its existence. It is not asking for any paltry gifts that you may offer to it. Remember, this world is not what the soul wants. Nothing in this world can satisfy your spirit. Here is history before you as a demonstration of the futility of human endeavour in respect of pure material goods.
Yoga practice, which has been your occupation as a study during this time, might have enlightened you to the fact that you are seeking an eternal treasure which cannot be eaten by the moths of time. It is for the purpose of this great adventure of the spirit of eternity that is in you to unite itself with the eternity that is in the Absolute, that you are girding up your loins for the practice of yoga.
In the early morning, wake up and sit on your bed for a few minutes. Do not run about. If you want to take a bath, take a bath. After your daily ablutions, sit for a few minutes. Tell yourself: “I am important. I am an ambassador of God in this world, deputed to fulfil certain duties entrusted to me—to work for the glory of God, to see His majesty in this world, and to return filled with His grace.” What is the technique that you would adopt at this moment, when you are seated on your bed or on your meditation seat?
We have in India a stereotyped technique of doing some japa of a mantra. The first and foremost thing is that. Different methods of the carrying on of this japa process have been mentioned in different circles, and it is up to you to choose a particular formula to invoke the Almighty's grace upon yourself. It is not a routine of just doing something because it has to be done: “I have been told by a Guru to chant a mantra, so I am doing it.” This is not the point. The point is that it is a medium of expression of your soul itself in order that you may invoke God's presence into yourself. Japa is not merely a recitation of a formula, a mantra or a word; it is actually a prayer, the prayer of your soul before the great Almighty for the purpose of the descent of His grace into your heart. You stand face to face with God in your prayers. Prayer is actually an encounter with God. If this feeling is absent, the prayer is null and void, and the mantra will be an empty recitation. Let the heart move.
But you should not do japa if after half an hour you have to catch a train. What kind of japa can you do at that time? In that case, it is better to go to the train and sit there, and do japa. Inside the train you can do japa so that the disturbing idea of catching the train may not be there. Some hurry, some work, or a sudden, urgent situation arising may not permit you to sit for japa at that time. If there is something about to happen—catching a train or a bus or going somewhere, or some kind of urgency of a social character—go and sit there, and then do the japa.
The mind should not be diverted from the attention that is required for the purpose of this invocation. Are you to have a divided mind when you place yourself before God? All the external encumbrances should be set aside, and they must be fulfilled. If they are unimportant occupations, they can be postponed for tomorrow because now you are busy with prayer: “I want to do the prayer today, and the work that I have to do is not so important. I can postpone it till tonight or tomorrow, but now I can sit for meditation.” But if the work is very urgent and has to be done now, then do not do the japa. After all, it is better not to do anything at all than do something half-heartedly, mechanically, with no result following.
Japa of whatever mantra you would like to have is your sadhana in the early morning. Sri Gurudev Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj used to have a potent recipe for bringing the mind to the point of concentration in the early morning so that you may not become bored by having only one particular method. After half an hour of japa, the mind will feel fatigued, so knowing the psychology of the human mind, Gurudev Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj used to say that you should stop the japa after half an hour. Do not go on doing it for two hours, three hours, and brooding and finding it very hard to entertain. Stop the japa. When the mind is not concentrating, it is better to stop it. Stand up. Walk about on the veranda. Splash cold water on your face. You can even take a cup of tea, if you like, and then again sit for japa, so that the mind may not be harassed by the so-called routine of your practice, because spiritual sadhana is a happy, joyous process. It is not a compulsion imposed upon you by anybody else, not even by a Guru. So in order that this humdrum feeling may not attend upon your japa sadhana, when you feel tired, stop it, and take to study of a scripture—the New Testament, the Sermon on the Mount, the Dharmapada of Buddha, the Bhagavadgita, passages from the Upanishads or recitation of Veda mantras, whatever you like—so that there is a little diversion for you after the concentration on japa.
Svadhyaya is the term that is used for sacred study. It is up to you to choose the book. Svadhyaya does not mean reading library books. Going to the library and picking up anything, and going on browsing through huge tomes, does not mean svadhyaya. Svadhyaya is studying the holy text which you consider as indispensable for you, a mini edition of which you always carry in your pocket. All of you should carry a mini edition of the Bible or the Bhagavadgita, or whatever you like—The Imitation of Christ by Thomas à Kempis, and so on. A mini scripture must be in your pocket. A japa mala and a mini edition of a scripture are your vade mecum, your companions which are always with you. Thus, study of a scripture, even if it be only a few words of it or a few passages, would be a diversion, apart from the continuance of japa sadhana of a mantra.
The third item is direct meditation. Many people go to meditation directly and do not consider japa as important at all, under the impression that they are very advanced. Very good; it is fine to feel that one is advanced. Why should you depress yourself? Raise yourself up, and feel you are confident and on the path. Yet, one has to be guarded not to overestimate oneself, because the quality of your meditation will tell you the extent you have succeeded in your practice. Japa is, of course, confined to a particular form of mantra or formula which is easily done. Svadhyaya is also easily done because it is of a book readily available, and you can read passages and concentrate your mind on the gospel of that particular text. But meditation is more difficult, because what is it that you are meditating upon? After having done so much study and listening to lectures, you will find, finally, that the object of concentration is not coming forth clearly to your mind.
So to repeat what I have been telling you earlier, your meditation may start with the easiest of concepts which you may like to have in your mind. Everybody has a god before them. If there is no god at all, if you have no concept of it, then my suggestion is to chant Om. Om is the god. There are people who cannot conceive anything at all as a deity or a personality of the Absolute; okay, forget it. Chant Om continuously for fifteen minutes. Aaaauuummm aaaauuuummmm aaaaauuuuuummmmm aaaaauuuuummmmmmmmm. There should be a continuity of this recitation of Om so that there is no break between one chant and another. When the first chant tapers off and becomes practically inaudible, the next chant starts. You should feel the rising of this intonation almost from the naval, as the scriptures tell us. The naval itself starts vibrating. It is not merely the throat that is active, but the naval, the heart, the throat all act simultaneously when the whole personality is involved in the chant. The chant is not done merely by the throat or the tongue. The entire being has risen up to the action of this particular word. Om is a vibration which will fill your entire personality so that you feel a tingling sensation, a vibration of an integrating character, a sensation of satisfaction. You feel pleasure. In the beginning, you will feel as if some ants are crawling through your nerves. You will feel some unexpected satisfaction, some joy which cannot be explained now, and when you chant the mantra Om in this manner, not merely as a sound that you produce but as a vibration that you are generating within yourself, try to feel that this is an eddy, a wave, a part and parcel of the cosmic vibration, the cosmic Omkara.
The origin of the universe was itself an omkara-nada, a bindu, a cosmic point, a cosmic centre of a circle which we call this whole creation, and that centre began to vibrate and gradually expand its dimension. As ripples in a body of water increase the dimension of the circle, especially when you touch a part of water or throw a stone into it, in a similar manner you feel that you are a centre here, generating a vibration through the chant of Omkara, which gradually expands itself and increases its dimension in a circular fashion, touching the cosmic horizon itself. This kind of practice can be attempted.
Otherwise, have a concept of God. Most people have a concept of God. Very few people are unable to conceive God in some way. As I mentioned in an earlier session, the concept of God is nothing but the concept of that ideal which you consider as the most attractive thing in the world. There is nothing very attractive in this world. The most attractive things are not in the world, because they are all comparatively attractive. Superlatively attractive things cannot be found in the world. So what do you do in meditation? You create a picture of perfection in yourself. All the characteristics of the Supreme Being—omniscience, omnipotence and omnipresence—are seen in this concept of your ideal which is the object of your meditation. You create your own god, as it were; and, as the saying goes, whatever you deeply affirm in your mind, that will materialise itself concretely.
Your conceptions are not empty thoughts. They are actually a summons issued to the cosmic abundance, and your call will be rewarded, provided that you are able to communicate this demand of yours from the deepest recesses of your being, because if your demand is only from the surface, the deepest recesses of the cosmos will not be able to receive it. The world is very deep and profound, and your depth should rise up to the surface of action in order that the deepest abundances of the cosmos may feel your demand. Ask, and it shall be given, is an ancient saying of a master, but how will you ask? “God, give me such and such a thing.” If you just utter that feeling of yours in a few words, it will not suffice. Your heart should well up into action.
Actually, this asking is the asking from the heart, from your feeling. Your heart has to throb with the feeling of this asking. If it is impossible for you to exist without this being granted, it shall be granted to you. In circumstances of utter poignancy, in distress, in agony intolerable, in suffering which cannot be expressed in words, if at that time you ask, it shall be given, because if you cry from the bottom of your spirit while in utter distress—when the earth is shaking under your feet, when you cannot feel secure anywhere, when from all directions everything is going—the universe will respond to you. But when you feel everything is okay here and you have got all the things that you want from the world—you are a king, as it were, you have all securities which are materially constituted—then your prayers will not be answered. If you go into seclusion with a determination to see God after deep meditation, but have money in your pocket because if God does not come at least you can purchase some food, this dubious attitude will not bring anything to you.
The prayer session need not be for a lengthened period of hours. You should not be under the impression that sadhana means sitting for hours and hours. It is nothing of the kind. Even one second of intense feeling is sufficient. It is like a spark of fire. A spark of fire looks very small, it is not large in dimension, but a spark can burn mountains of straw, such power it has got. Intense feelingful expression of your wanting it is what is known as mumukshutva, and no other qualification is necessary from you. All other austerities, tapasyas and disciplines come under the category of the most principle of all your sadhanas: wanting it. That is the meaning of asking. If you sincerely and adequately want a thing, it shall come to you. Your wanting should not be inadequate. Really it must be wanted, and it has to be impossible for you to exist without it. Then it shall be poured upon you.
The meditation technique is the third of the three items mentioned. Japa sadhana on the one hand, svadhyaya of a scripture on the other hand, and meditation, become the crowning feature of spiritual practice. These are the three prongs of the trident, as it were, of spiritual practice—the trident of Lord Siva, it is called.
In addition to this self check-up that you carry on daily through a spiritual diary, you also may resolve to do what should be done, and not to do what is not to be done. Do not keep unnecessary friends and go on chatting with people. Time is very short; life is fleeting. Have only good friends who will benefit you with their company, and if you cannot find such friends, have no friends. Be alone to yourself. Limit your activity to the required circumference.
Coming to the point, we have these three facets of spiritual practice: japa sadhana, svadhyaya of scripture, and meditation. In this attempt at meditation, you will be guided by the particular type of yoga that you are accustomed to. There are some who practise Vipassana meditation and have gone to sessions of Vipassana. There are others who are devotees of Lord Krishna and want only to take his name, or they are devoted to Rama. Or there are those who take to Bhagwat Katha and go on reading the Srimad Bhagavata; every seven days they complete one round. Or there is the Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas, etc. Whatever be your technique, it is perfectly all right. Your method should need not change, but continuity is important. The sutra of Patanjali regarding this is abhyāsa vairāgyābhyāṁ tannirodhaḥ (Y.S. 1.12): “Practise makes perfect.” The saying of Bhagavan Sri Krishna in the Bhagavadgita is abhyāsena tu kaunteya vairāgyeṇa ca gṛhyate (B.G. 6.35): “Practise makes perfect.” Every day continue the practice of being seated in the posture of meditation, and whatever be the success, it does not matter. Just sit. When you sit in the dining hall, the hunger will slowly manifest itself by seeing the food. In a similar manner, by the sitting posture itself you will feel an inclination to conduct some kind of meditation.
Do not go to extremes in your practice by taking to such methods which you do not find very convenient or practicable to you. Also, when you go deep into meditation, be a little conscious about your inner desires. Have you unfulfilled desires, tensions or feelings? Any tensions of an emotional or social nature have to be taken care of. You cannot keep a disease unattended to and then imagine that you are robust in health. There are various factors in the world which keep you restless. Financially poor people are restless because they have no meal for the day. Or in a family if there is some kind of disagreement—the father and mother, brother and sister, son and daughter have no agreement of purpose or policy—they keep themselves in tension. If there is some disagreement, it has to be settled in a harmonious manner without causing further tension. Sometimes in your attempt to clear up tensions, you bargain so badly that another tension starts. Wisdom, caution, slow progress, leisure, all these are necessary factors before you take adequate measures to free yourself from tension of any kind.
Anything that the feelings desire should be taken care of. Sometimes the desires are reasonable, and sometimes the desires are unreasonable—imaginary asking for the ego; and there are also necessary requirements of the personality. Fulfil them. Not all desires are bad. It does not mean that every desire is an evil. There are constructive desires and destructive desires, anabolic desires and catabolic desires. Catabolic desires, which are destructive in nature, which deplete your energy, which make you weak biologically and psychologically, must be shunted out by very careful methods. You will not be able to easily make a distinction between permissible desires and non-permissible ones. Here you require the guidance of a Guru or a teacher.
Always have a good guide because, after all, you are novitiates; you are just beginning the practice, and a guide is important. All questions cannot be answered by books, and your little personal problems cannot be tackled by any kind of scripture, because the scripture cannot answer every kind of question which everyone in the world will raise. So each person should have a superior, as far as is practicable, and difficult questions which arise in the feelings or the emotions, which cannot be handled satisfactorily by one's own self, may be presented before a superior.
Therefore, whether you take to the raja yoga method of eight limbs—yamas, niyamas, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana and samadhi—or the bhakti yoga method of sravanam, kirtanam, visnoh smaranam, pada-sevanam, arcanam, vandanam, dasyam, sakhyam, atma-nivedanam, or you take to the karma yoga method of unselfish activity for the welfare of people, or only mantra sadhana, japa, is your method, that is also fine. Take to these methods, be diligent in your practice, and trust in God.