Yoga: The way for pure spiritual consciousness
Ranjit Kakoti
(ranjitkakotinlp@gmail.com)
Without doubt, the mind is restless and difficult to control, but through practise and renunciation, it may be governed.
The world comes together on June 21 every year to celebrate International Yoga Day. The day aims to spread awareness about the benefits of the spiritual and physical practice that first started in ancient India. This year, International Yoga Day will be celebrated under the theme ‘Yoga for Humanity’. This theme has been chosen to reflect the great role played by yoga during the COVID-19 pandemic. During COVID-19, yoga helped people not only maintain their sanity but also alleviate their suffering.
Yoga, no doubt, has universal appeal as a profound way of life. Yoga is a philosophy wherein the art and the science meet and evolve a way of life to be practised to live a happy and fruitful life. It is also considered a disciplined action to achieve and attain the final emancipation, the total freedom from terrestrial existence while living among them. With its 5000-year history in Indian philosophy, yoga is an art of living, the practical system of self-culture. It is an exact science that aims at the harmonious growth and development of the body, mind, and soul.
The Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, while delivering his maiden lecture in the 69th session of the United Nations’ General Assembly (UNGA) and appealing to the world community to adopt International Yoga Day, stated, “Yoga is an invaluable gift of India’s ancient tradition. It embodies unity of mind and body, thought and action, restraint and fulfilment, harmony between man and nature, and a holistic approach to health and well-being. It is not about exercise but about discovering a sense of oneness with ourselves, the world, and nature. By changing our lifestyle and creating consciousness, it can help us in our well-being”.
Maharishi Patanjali is credited with collating and writing down the Yoga Sutras, 196 aphorisms, over 2000 years ago. He systematised the practise of yoga, elevating it to a philosophical ideology. Patanjali defines yoga as ‘’yoga chitta vritti nirodhah”—”mastery over the modification of mind”, Swami Vivekananda translates the sutra as “Yoga is the restraining of the mind stuff (chitta) from taking various forms (vritti),” while IK Tamini translates it as “Yoga is the inhibition (nirodha) of the modification (vritti) of the minds (chittta).
There are a number of taxes in India that highlight the definition of yoga.
There are also many other references in the yoga text, such as the Shvetashvetara Upanishad, the Kath Upanishad, the Gheranda Samhita, the Bhagavad Gita, and so on, where highly developed masters of yoga are mentioned. The Bhagavat Gita, which appears as a true management science rather than a religious scripture and is the most authoritative treatise on yoga, extends three definitions of yoga. In the first definition, the Gita says “Samattvam Yogah Uchyate”—”the evenness of mind is yoga”. It signifies that yoga is not a religion but a way of life. The scientific methodology of yoga makes it possible for one to live in a constant state of happiness, harmony, and fulfilment.
The Gita, in its second definition, says that “Yogah Karmasu Kausalam”—”yoga is the dexterity of action”. This definition of yoga signifies that the practitioners of yoga attain the capacity to work for the good of humanity without desiring a result.
In its third definition, the Gita says that a practitioner of yoga can remain undisturbed even in the wake of the severest misery. The verses of the scripture, from 21 to 23 of its sixth chapter, define yoga as a “state of separation from sorrow”. These verses explain, “When the mind, absolutely restrained by the practise of concentration, attains quietude, one is satisfied with his own self; when he feels that infinite bliss, which is perceived by the purified intellect and which transcends the senses and is established wherein he never departs from his real state, and having obtained which, he is not moved even by heavy sorrow, let that be known as the state, called by the name of Yoga—a state of severance from the contact of pain. This yoga should be practised with perseverance, undisturbed by the depression of the heart”.
From this explanation, it is clear that yoga paves a way for one to be light unto oneself and for pure spiritual consciousness, or self-realisation.
Generally, spirituality is an internal process of seeking personal authenticity, genuineness, and wholeness as an aspect of identity development. It is the process of continually transcending one’s current locus of centricity. It is also the development of a greater connectedness to self and others through relationships and union with the community. It is the process of deriving meaning, purpose, and direction in one’s life. It involves an increasing openness to exploring a relationship with an intangible and pervasive power, essence, or centre of value that exists beyond human existence and rational human knowing. Spirituality connotes an experience of connection to something larger than oneself and living everyday life in a reverent and sacred manner. It is the aspect of humanity that refers to the way individuals seek and express meaning and purpose and the way they experience their connectedness to the moment, to themselves, to others, to nature, and to the significant or sacred. In a state of pure spiritual consciousness, humanity gets the ultimate answers to life and the universe. This perennial knowledge constitutes the answers to what are often called the soul questions: Who am I? What do I want? What is my purpose? What is the meaning of life? Spirituality is more often based on the practical application of the founder’s teachings.
Now, the question is, “How is yoga paving a way to attain the state of separation from sorrow, the way for the spiritual consciousness, which is the sole answer to all psychosomatic problems and social evils, and the way for one to be the light unto oneself?”
In answer to this question, it can be undoubtedly said that yoga is helpful for the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health of mankind. It is an internal science that provides equanimity and tranquilly to the mind in the present agitated and suffering world. Yoga can be of the utmost utility to an individual whose mind, torn as it is between conflicting desires for peace and happiness, It is looked upon as a panacea for human misery and sorrow. Peace within and about oneself has been the greatest mark of yoga.
According to Mahatma Gandhi, “The yoking of all the powers of body, mind, and soul to God means disciplining the intellect, mind, emotions, and will that yoga presupposes; it means a poise of the soul that enables one to look at life in all its aspects evenly.” Further, Yogi BKS Lyengar, in his book Illustrated Light on Yoga, writes: “Yoga systematically teaches man to search for the divinity within himself with thoroughness and efficiency. He unravels himself from the external body to the self within. He proceeds from the body to the nerves, and from the nerves to the senses. From the senses, he enters the mind, which controls emotions. From the mind, he penetrates into the intellect, which guides reason. From the intellect, his path leads to the will, and thence to chitta, or consciousness. The last stage is from consciousness to his self, the atma, the very being. Thus, yoga leads the practitioner from ignorance to knowledge, knowledge to wisdom, from darkness to light, and from death to immortality.”
It is already mentioned above that Maharshi Patanjali defines yoga as the inhibition (nirodha) of the modification (vritti) of the mind (chitta) or mind-stuff. Consciousness is the state or ability of the mind to be aware, and this state of mind is actually called chitta. It is made up of mind (Manas), the determinative faculty or intelligence (Buddhi), and egoism (Ahamkara), together with the bodily organs (Indriyas). Vrttis are the fluctuations in consciousness, or thought waves, that constantly disturb the mind. Fluctuations of consciousness (vrttis) are the constant thought waves, either negative or positive, that keep minds constantly busy as chaotic driving forces. Fluctuations are often reactions to life circumstances. Yoga is the restraint of the fluctuations of consciousness, or the restraint of fluctuating thoughts. According to Swami Vivekanand, Chitta manifests itself in different forms: scattering, darkening, weakening, and concentrating. These are the four states in which the mind’s stuff (fluctuations of mind) manifests itself.
The sincere, dedicated practise of yoga inhibits modifications or fluctuations of the mind. Yoga has given us the methods for understanding the mind and helps to quieten it to generate pure consciousness about ourselves and the world around us.
Yoga is based on two concepts: abhyasa and vairagya. Abhyasa is defined as the practise and repetition of practise. According to BKS Iyengar, “Abhyas is the art of learning that which has to be learned through the cultivation of disciplined action. This involves a long, zealous, calm, and persevering effort.” On the other hand, vairagya is renunciation, detachment, or dispassion. It is the art of avoiding what should be avoided. Only through Vairagya can one succeed in getting rid of the tendency of the mind to run after various objects of undue enjoyment. Such a man can be made steady. Abhyas is the process of steadying the mind.
Yoga is the cessation of the movements of consciousness. Consciousness (citta) is our ability to be aware and is made up of mind, intelligence, and ego. Vrttis are the fluctuations in the mind or thought waves that constantly disturb our minds. Yoga is the restraint of fluctuations, or the restraint of fluctuating thought. Yoga gives us methods for understanding the mind and helps to quiet it. In the Yoga Sutras (Sutra 1.12), Patanjali states abhyasa vairagyabhyam tannirodhah, which means practise and detachment are the means to still the movements of consciousness. The fluctuations of consciousness are to be controlled through practise (Abhyasa).
In Sutra 1.15, Patanjali defines vairagya (detachment) as “drsta anusravika visaya vitrsnasya vasikarasamjna vairagyam” to mean that renunciation is the practise of detachment from desires.
Vairagya provides for energy withdrawal inward. The first stage of Vairagya paves the way to learning to observe oneself. Yoga is the study of oneself, and self-study begins with self-observation. Praying Vairagya allows for a culturing process and the refinement of bodies and minds. With this process, the mind becomes quiet but sharp. Vairagya (renunciation) does not mean the action or process of withdrawing from involvement in an activity or situation in the world, or the process of separating and releasing or of becoming separated and released. Vairagya allows one to perceive the reality of situations clearly and to make choices or take action based on correct knowledge achieved through a sharpened sense of perception.
With such sincere, dedicated, devotional, and steadfast practise of yoga, the practitioner (according to the Yogasutra “seer”) can inhibit the modifications of the mind. At that time of concentration, the seer rests in his unmodified state (tada drashtuh svaroope avasthanam). So, with the mind, when it is calm, we see what our own nature is; we do not mix ourselves but remain our own selves. At other times, other than that of concentration, the seer is identified with the modifications (vritti saroopam itaratta). For instance, if the seer is in sorrow, someone blames him; this is a modification, and he identifies himself with it, and the result is misery.
With sincere yogic practise in progress, the concentration, without reasoning, is purified, and the mind (chitta) becomes firmly fixed. This state of mind leads the seer to a purified state. The intellect in that state is called “filled with truth” (Ritambhara tatra pragya), the state of pure spiritual consciousness. It is also a state of pure happiness and bliss. The Gita declares that when that state is achieved, the greatest misery can never disturb that state of the seer.