VEDANTA: DISCOVERY OF THE SELF

INWARD INTEGRATION

If the divine spark is the source and centre of life, the physical activities undertaken by the living being in any field are at the outer most circumference, the grossification of the same SPARK. Most of us live at this circumference, toil hard to maintain life and even identify ourselves with this grossest layer. Vedanta is a science prescribing practicable ways about the journey back to the source and educates us the art of inward integration.  

DIFFERENT YOGAS

In this retuning of the personalities, in the process of inward integration, we come across four basic Yogas. These yogas are designed to amplify the effectiveness at every level and redirect the same to make our life and living sublime. I am giving the out line of all these four yogas below but please remember this is only an out line. Each of these yogas encompasses volumes of literature explaining them, and demand intensive Abhyasa and Vairagya.

1.          Hath Yoga:- For retuning the physical personality we have Hath Yoga, which through outward adjustments (Vahirang Saadhana) tune up our Food Sheath and Vital Air Sheath. We have hundreds of Asanas and Pranayams to do that task. We also learn how to withdraw our minds from its attachments (Prtyahara) in the outer world and employ the same on subtle meditation (Dharana).

2.          Bhakti Yoga: - The next is Bhakti Yoga, which tunes up our emotional personality. We know that our mind is an extremely powerful function in all living beings and the whole of religious literature of the world, one way or other, teaches the ways how to deal with this mighty force. Bhakti means devotion, a faith in Supreme, a belief that detaches us from the world of bricks and stones, from toil and fatigue, from the tussles of individuality and leads to the Ultimate Planner of this total Jagata. Bhakti tams the power of mind and directs the same beautifully to the SOURCE.

3.          Gyan Yoga: -The third yoga is Gyan Yoga, the yoga of knowledge. This is designed to tune up our intellects. This is achieved by Swadhyay, (the study of scriptures and deep contemplation on the philosophical truths) and Abhyasa. Abhyasa is the regular practice of detaching ourselves from the lower and then attaching with higher realms of experiences and consciousness.

4.          Karma Yoga:- The fourth one is Karma Yoga, the Yoga of action, which in fact is the combination of all the three. At all the levels of our personality we are bound to perform some action. We cannot live without performing any action, whether that action is on physical level (the grossest action), on emotional level (in the form of feelings etc) or on intellectual level (in the form of ideas, ideals or ideologies etc). It is also discovered that whenever, any action is performed, it leaves some imprints on the mental zone. These imprints are popularly known as Vasanas in Vedanta. These vasanas become thicker and thicker with the increasing activities at these three levels of our lives,  and bind us just like the self-created shackles and make us into a limited and miserable egocentric being. It is also found out by the Vedanta that all the Dwandas (the pairs of opposites like victory-defeat, gain-loss, life-death, joy-sorrow etc) are the experiences at the grosser level and appear in the mind as per the designs made by the inherent vasanas, and are not the experiences of the real Self. Vedanta has discovered the secret way by which the actions leave no prints of vasanas on the mental zone and further to that it has also devised the technique of removing the existing, previously created-cum-accumulated vasanas. That technique is called Karma Yoga. The Blessed Lord asks Arjuna to become that Yogi (Tasmaat Yogi Bhavaarjuna).

SELF REALISATION

If an individual student is perfectly integrated inwardly and if he can continuously maintain his adventurous thirst to experience the Reality, then he, in his attempt of identify himself with the thought and the spirit of his teacher’s discourses, can ultimately come to revel in the experience of the very goal that is indicated by Vedanta. Self-realisation is instantaneous, during the study and understanding of scriptures, gained through the teacher-taught discussions.         

It is important that the mind is cleaned of the dirt and spots of vasanas it has accumulated in the course of living the life of of our lives, of our lives, DESIRES. Unless the mind is perfectly naked and pure as it is supposed to be, it has no entry into the Bliss of Truth.    

PRAKRITI AND PURUSH

The lower-nature (Prakriti) is, in its essential constitution, nothing other than the Higher (Purusha). The Higher, forgetting Its own divinity, identifies Itself with the lower and comes to the ego-centric sorrows and imperfections. The Higher seemingly suffers, at present, in Its own delusions, the sorrows of the lower, Its own rediscovery of Its native divine glory is the redemption of matter. The idea that the lower has arisen from the Higher is likened to the way in which pots of different shapes and colours have all arisen from the mud. Just as the mud is the truth in all the pots, the Higher is the essential Reality in all the objects of the sense-organs, mind and intellect which the lower procreates.