The art of Self-Realization
My Grand Master Sri Yukteswar ji would always say, “Learn to behave.” Three simple words are these, but a vast spectrum of meaning, as we can see. Let us understand.The world is our extended Self. If I want to get along with others, I must first learn to get along with myself. Now, to get along with myself, I have to know myself – or shall we say, I must know my Self? Most of us are ’strangers’ unto ourselves – how can one get along
with a ’stranger’?
In the scriptures of my motherland, India, we compare human beings with a chariot with 5 horses. The 5 sense-faculties (seeing, tasting, hearing, smelling and touching) are the 5 steeds, wayward and unruly, running amuck towards the sense-objects. To control them, we have a rein, which is our sensory mind. It is called the lower mind (manas) because its domain is just two-fold, “I like it” and “I don’t like it.” It is pleasure-driven, being sense-enslaved.
The rein is necessary but not enough. There must be an able charioteer to hold fast the reins. He is our higher mind – the reason, the discerning or discriminating faculty. It is called buddhi in Sanskrit. Its domain extends to deciding whether what is pleasant is also good, and whether the unpleasant things the lower (sensory) mind is rejecting could actually be good for us.
The creamy cake may look temptingly pleasant to the diabetic, but reason tells him it is bad. Early morning walks look so unpleasant, so unthinkable, but if you make it, you are empowered by discriminating reason, that which eventually benefits you. When anger comes on, you want to slap the other person, but reason tells you to hold.
Let us see what right behavior means at various levels of our being – physical, mental, emotional, intellectual & spiritual, etc.
Right behaviour for your body
Your body is not you. You have it, but you are not the body. Treat it like a good employer would treat his employee, giving it its rightful dues, but not pampering it. For example, when you want to eat, find out whether it’s your body’s genuine need (appetite) or your mind’s endless greed (desire). When the body feels tired, find out if it is actually fatigued from overwork or just being lazy, and so on. A Christian saint called his body ‘brother donkey.’ Indeed, the body is the animal in us, our dear beast of burden. Since our aim is to love all, we cannot ignore the body – especially since it is the soul’s vehicle. But we have to remember to treat it wisely – without cruelty, without indulgence.
Right behaviour for the mind
The mind indeed is a drunken, drugged and devil-possessed monkey, unless we learn to control it. The body is much simpler in comparison. We can dominate the body through will. But managing the mind monkey is not a game of just willpower. We need wisdom – a wisdom-guided will. For example, if you order the mind not to think any more a particular thought that it has been chattering about, it is unlikely to obey unless you know the subtle rules.
Why is it so difficult to control the mind? If you know the reason, you will know the cure. The reason is, the sensory mind has excess prana or life-force; it is hyperactive and restless by nature. The mind’s restless habits of thought and action get programmed or hard-wired in the brain, which is the seat of energy or life-force. The brain then drives further habit-driven or reactive actions.
My master, Paramahansa Yogananda, author of ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’ (www.yogananda.org) explains that the energy in the brain is spent in various bodily functions like blood circulation, breathing (movements of diaphragm), digestion, chemicalization, excretion etc., but that most of its energy is wasted in processing our useless or misguided thoughts, feelings and emotions that our big brother mind indulges in.
If somehow the mind’s excessive energy (energy is where the consciousness is), routed through the brain, can be regulated and harnessed, not only will the monkey-mind get quieter, there will be energy available for so many worthy tasks. So we have an energy crisis at micro-level too!
This taming of energy or life-force (prana) is called pranayama in yoga, which is a marvellous super-science for body-mind-soul harmony, but many in the West think yoga is just about some postures for bodily cure. Yoga is about mind technology, which then permits tapping the soul-resources.
We must raise our self-awareness that gives us valuable feedback about our conduct. We can then learn to be, as my master taught me, “calmly active & actively calm.” We can then work smart, not just hard, which even donkeys can do.
Emotions are ego in motion. They are not our highest faculty; even animals have emotions, but they have no guiding reason, no self-awareness and hence no self-control. They have no wisdom, which is much higher than reason.
The world is God’s materialized thought and we are made in His image, so our thoughts also have tremendous creative power. Thoughts shape our destiny, it is they that eventually become things. They create our outer and inner conditions. By yogic mind management, we can choose right thoughts and thereby create right conditions. The presently-popular law of attraction is based on this spiritual truth. Of course, past karma will remain a factor.
Questions are welcome from readers. It is a vast and interesting subject, that has power to transform humans, and through their optimization, it can optimize workplaces. Stephen Covey rightly says that the way we look at the problems IS the problem. We need to have holistic perceptions. Life’s highest truths are the simplest. There is too much of intellectual jargon in modern management. We need wisdom, we need values and we need self-management. You don’t need to manage people, just empower them to manage themselves.
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Hans is a chemical engineer who worked in sales/marketing for 28 years. Thereafter, for the last 8 years, he has been a motivational speaker, yoga coach and corporate trainer. In his personal life, he has been practicing yoga-meditation for close to 25 years.
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Sir,
Could you please suggest books or courses for Kriya yoga?
Regards
Hi Ashima,
When you have read ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’, you can write to
Yogoda Satsanga Society of India, Paramhansa Yogananda Path, Ranchi 834001 and seek a form for applying for Yogoda Lessons in Kriya Yoga ;
it is a step by step guided help through home-study (lessons come by post, about four lessons a month, but formal Kriya initiation is given by a monk afdter a certain degree of progress / practice). You learn many incredibly good exercises / techniques for mind-body wellness, concentration and eventually meditation, very scientifically and do-ably.
You can also get the application form for the lessons from one of the various centres in India (visit http://www.yssofindia.org)
Hope to have been of some help, do feel welcome to ask for more.
Regards,
Hans
The world is God’s materialized thought and we are made in His image, so our thoughts also have tremendous creative power. Thoughts shape our destiny, it is they that eventually become things.