Exploring Yoga Sutras : Grosser to Subtler or Vice Versa ?
In RajaYoga, Vivekananda dismisses some ideal goals of an average human in 2020. Most of us make statements that health comes first or family comes first, only then money and career matters. For Yogis reaching Seedless Samadhi(Deepest State of Meditation) is the goal, through which you can control the entire Universe. For one to be able to reach Samadhi, you should be able to maintain certain postures for extended periods of time, having a good health is a means of reaching Samadhi. But health cannot be end goal, if health were the end, we would be like animals; animals rarely become unhealthy.
Quick Crash Course — Entire Universe is made of omni-present material Akasha and infinite manifesting power Prana. At the end of every cycle of universe, all the material becomes Akasha and all the energy resolve down as Prana. At the beginning of each cycle, Prana manifests itself into everything we know as magnetism , gravitation , nerve currents in the body as though force. If a man understood Prana well, they would be able to move the Stars and Planets out of their place. This should be the goal of a Yogi, to control the Prana , hence control the Universe, no lesser goal is acceptable like good health, ruling a part of the world etc
Prana is too subtle to perceive, our body can perceive gravitation when trying to jump, can perceive the flow of air while breathing, but the idea is to use these gross experiences to move towards the subtler ones. This succinct story will help understand the big idea
There was once a minister to a great king. He fell into disgrace. The king, as a punishment, ordered him to be shut up in the top of a very high tower. This was done, and the minister was left there to perish. He had a faithful wife, however, who came to the tower at night and called to her husband at the top to know what she could do to help him. He told her to return to the tower the following night and bring with her a long rope, some stout twine, pack thread, silken thread, a beetle, and a little honey. Wondering much, the good wife obeyed her husband, and brought him the desired articles. The husband directed her to attach the silken thread firmly to the beetle, then to smear its horns with a drop of honey, and to set it free on the wall of the tower, with its head pointing upwards. She obeyed all these instructions, and the beetle started on its long journey. Smelling the honey ahead it slowly crept onwards, in the hope of reaching the honey, until at last it reached the top of the tower, when the minister grasped the beetle, and got possession of the silken thread. He told his wife to tie the other end to the pack thread, and after he had drawn up the pack thread, he repeated the process with the stout twine, and lastly with the rope. Then the rest was easy. The minister descended from the tower by means of the rope, and made his escape. In this body of ours the breath motion is the “silken thread”; by laying hold of and learning to control it we grasp the pack thread of the nerve currents, and from these the stout twine of our thoughts, and lastly the rope of Prana, controlling we reach freedom.
We(TRI3D) are building a Website for one of our clients. Its a month long project. Even the way we work is also from Grosser to Subtler. The big arcs like architecture, database schema are decided first. Then we work on the functionality. Then we work on the UI/UX stuff.
Reminds me of the rock, pebble, sand, water jar story
There once was a philosophy professor who was giving a lecture. In front of him, he had a big glass jar, a pile of rocks, a bag of small pebbles, a tub of sand and a bottle of water.
He started off by filling up the jar with the big rocks and when they reached the rim of the jar he held it up to the students and asked them if the jar was full. They all agreed, there was no more room to put the rocks in, it was full.
“Is it full?” he asked.
He then picked up the bag of small pebbles and poured these in jar. He shook the jar so that the pebbles filled the space around the big rocks. “Is the jar full now?” he asked. The group of students all looked at each other and agreed that the jar was now completely full.
“Is it really full?” he asked.
The professor then picked up the tub of sand. He poured the sand in between the pebbles and the rocks and once again he held up the jar to his class and asked if it was full. Once again the students agreed that the jar was full.
“Are you sure it’s full?” he asked.
He finally picked up a bottle of water and tipped the water into the jar until it soaked up in all the remaining space in the sand. The students laughed.
The professor went on to explain that the jar of rocks, pebbles, sand and water represents everything that is in one’s life.
You move from Rocks to Water & not Water to Rocks :P
On Nov30th 2011, one day before our final year placements, to attend pre-interview examination, I jumped out of a running bus inside our campus, fell flat on the ground and slid on the tar road for about 15–20m. I was taken to campus hospital and got three stitches right next to chin.
First thought, when I fell down, that came to my mind was if I can think well for tomorrow’s interviews. I tested my mind by asking a quick calculation and had a sense of relief that I could do that calculation. I was more worried about testing my mental faculties, but people who came running towards me, did the opposite , they asked me shake my hands , walk around and talk. While I was testing internal/subtler stuff first. I remember that very moment after sliding 15–20m very clearly trying to test my mind with my mind(or there is something more?). It felt like there is something beyond body and mind.
I am not the body. I am not even the mind
Ramakrishna Paramahamsa’s salt doll reference is interesting, to find the depth of an Ocean , the salt doll starts it journey at the surface and slowly gets merged into the ocean and becomes the ocean. In the same way, at the time of attaining Samadhi, the meditator realises that there is no him and the Universe, the meditator becomes the meditated.
P.S : There is no one common point to this blog, they are just vague connections that I felt like putting together.
After reading about Prana, how many of you thought about that funny pranic healer ?
