This, again, is a mystery which the human mind cannot understand. We are under the impression that each one independently goes to God, and others go to hell. This is not the case. But any amount of explanation of this mystery is not going to be a real explanation, because man is not supposed to enter into discussion of divine mysteries of this kind.

As the objective universe and the subjective individuality are correlated in every level of manifestation, every step in the advance made by the spirit in the direction of God-realisation is a parallel movement subjectively and objectively, so that when we reach God, the whole universe is absorbed into us—or, conversely, we are absorbed into the whole cosmos. Therefore, the world does not exist after we become one with the Universal Being. We will be terribly upset even to listen to this predicament. How is it possible? What happens to the world? What happens to other people? These atrocious doubts persist at the intellectual level when we are mere academicians, only professors of knowledge, but have not actually experienced anything. But these doubts get hushed in one second when we receive the touch of God, even in a little modicum, if we drink even a drop of this nectar of divine experience. Further discussion on this matter is futile. We must stop, and inquire into these mysteries further on.

However, what I wish to point out is that the world is a great mystery, and it is not as the materialists speak about it, or even as the scientists describe it. It is more grand and magnificent in its internal constitution than any human mind can understand, even with the farthest stretch of imagination. So is the mystery of each one of us. The whole heaven is moving with us, wherever we go. “The kingdom of heaven is within you,” is a great declaration. How can a kingdom be within a finite being? How can we carry a whole country in our hearts? But, this we do. And if there is any sense in this declaration that the kingdom of heaven is within, well, the whole cosmos is in every speck of space.

The Yoga Vasishtha dilates upon this theme in an infinite variety of ways by saying that the whole space is filled with universes. Every atom is a universe by itself, and this universe is, also, an atom. And, the Puranas say that there are many brahmandas, many universes, and it is not that God can create only one pattern of the universe. Every pattern of the will of God is one universe. There are infinite patterns of His thinking and, therefore, infinite brahmandas, or universes, are possible. In Indian parlance, God is called ananta koti brahmanda nayaka—the Lord of an infinite number of universes. So, it is not that only one world has been created by God.

Who can go into these mysteries? Our little knowledge of the world through this epistemological operation sensorially, mentally, intellectually is a poor, poor apology for what is possible as a potentiality within us. The yoga techniques bring these potentialities out and make them part of our conscious experience. We live in heaven, and not merely think and talk about it. This is the objective of yoga, the aim of every form of yoga—karma yoga, bhakti yoga, raja yoga, jnana yoga, whatever it be.

Whatever we have been considering till this moment is a sort of philosophical analysis of deep mystical secrets, but philosophical analysis alone is not sufficient. This analysis is essential to convince the mind that there are such great things as man cannot even dream of. But, these mysteries have to become part of one’s direct experience, or shatkara. The aim of yoga is to bring about this direct intuition into these mysteries of the universe—direct union with the Absolute itself, finally. Yoga is union with Reality—Reality in every level of its manifestation, in every degree of its expression. Even in the lowest degree of its manifestation, we have to be in communion with it. We have to be friendly with every level of expression of Reality, in harmony with every form of the atmosphere in which we are placed—physically, socially, politically, psychologically, astrally, or in any sense of the term. Whatever be the environment in which we are living, with that environment we have to be in communion. This is yoga.

Yoga is union with God, the Almighty. Yes, it is true; this is yoga in the end, but it also means yoga is every stage of the ascent of the spirit in the direction of this supreme attainment. Though there may be millions of steps to be taken in the direction of God-realisation, each step is, also, yoga. Though we may require fifty morsels of food to appease our hunger completely, each morsel is a satisfaction by itself. Each grain of food that goes into the stomach appeases it in some measure, though the complete satisfaction comes only when the meal is over.

Hence, yoga is also a great social science. It is not merely metaphysics or mysticism. A yogi is a good man, a friendly person, a philanthropic individual, and an ideal citizen even of his country, and of the world. A yogi is not an other-worldly dreamer, but a matter-of-fact individual who is an expert in dextrous execution of any duty that can be entrusted to him, even if it be washing the vessel or sweeping the ground. A yogi will sweep, clean the ground better than an ordinary person. He can clean vessels better than a servant would. In any position in which he is, he is the best exemplar in that particular place.

A yogi is in union with whatever is around him—whether people, or things, or anything whatsoever. This removes conflict at every level; and, yoga is the solution of conflicts of personality with the environment outside. Yoga resolves the conflicts within the individual psychically, psycho-pathologically, psychoanalytically or psychologically, and resolves the conflict between one individual and another—socially and politically, and even astronomically.

Thus, yoga is a universal science. It is not a religion of a particular creed, cult, or nationality. It is a science of living; the way in which we have to rightly live in this world is yoga. So, it does not belong to the East or the West, to the white or the black, to the man or the woman, or to any class of people. It is for creation as a whole.

While yoga is union, we have to be cautious in establishing this union through every link in the chain of the development of our movement towards the ultimate ideal. We should not jump into God at one stroke, under the impression that it is so easy an affair. Even in good things we should not be over-enthusiastic, because a good thing done in a bad manner ceases to be a good thing. We must know our strengths and our possibilities, but also our weaknesses. We have great abilities within us, no doubt. We can enter into God Himself; such strength and potentiality we have got. But, at the same time, we have small weaknesses and vulnerable points in our bodies and in our minds. We should be very honest to ourselves. To thine own self be true. There should be no deception of one’s own self while we are encountering the face of God in the forms of creation. Who can be deceptive before God? And, anything that we encounter in our life is a face of God. So, deception is a misnomer, a falsity of approach, futile in the end, and it may lead to a total ruin of personality.

We hide our own secrets even to our own minds, which is a malady to be gotten over. This requires leisurely hours of thinking and dispassionate analysis of one’s own desires, frustrations, feelings, emotions, and even past memories which harass us sometimes. The past memories are terrible things; they will not leave us easily. That is why Patanjali, in one of his sutras, says that memory is an obstacle in yoga. Memory is a good thing; people would not like to lose their memories. They take tonics and elixirs to improve memory. It is a very good thing, indeed, but it is also an undesirable thing when we go on remembering some unpleasant experiences of the past that we would not like to remember. But, these unpleasant things that are within us, the impulses which speak in an unethical manner, should be converted into the great ethicalness of spirituality.

Spirituality is above ethics and morals. It is not limited to the dos and don’ts of religion. Inasmuch as we are living in a human society, these do’s and don’ts persist; and we cannot get over them, because we have to adjust and adapt ourselves with other people around us, and several other things around us, in such a way that the dos and don’ts cannot be escaped. They are there. They persist so long as we are not in a position to resolve the conflict that is there between us and others on account of the cutting off of our personality from the being of other people. Morality and ethics are absolutely unavoidable as long as we are conditioned by a separative existence of isolated individualities. The more we get united in spirit, the lesser is the need for these dos and don’ts. We become our own law, and nobody else need inject law into our veins.

Spirituality is above the laws and disciplines of human society. It is an acquiescence in the will of God in an integral manner, an art which has to be learned from a competent teacher because we are unacquainted with these difficulties. Every one of us has desires of one type or the other. Everyone has frustrated memories, unfulfilled ambitions, which have been thrown into the limbo of the unconscious due to unfavourable circumstances for fructifying these desires. And, many a time, we substitute these unfulfilled desires with other activities like cricket, football games, clubs, newspapers, cinemas, and even drinking liquor. These are substitutes for emotional disturbances within the individual—emotions which have not been fulfilled, and which cannot be fulfilled under the existing conditions of human society.

But, throwing them into the limbo is not an explanation. These devils within us demand an explanation. The immoral devil within us has to be brought to the surface and encountered as he is, and transformed into the angel that we are expected to become, finally. We cannot keep the devil there, chained in a prison, and then go to God, individually. This is not possible. The devil ceases to be there when we are transformed into the angel that we are. So, again the point comes that the movement towards God is a parallel movement, inwardly and outwardly. It is not that we are angels and others are devils, or that the world will go to the dogs and we will be enjoying the paradise of God’s being; such a thing is not yoga.

These are super-individual, super-logical difficulties. Ancient masters insisted on less and less study but more and more service of the Guru and the master, which enabled the student to wipe off these old memories—samskaras, vasanas—impressions of past experience. Studies will not be sufficient. Any amount of physical exercise, also, is not adequate. It requires a scrubbing of the whole personality by unselfish service and worship, adoration, by which the emotions get sublimated, as detailed especially in one of the systems of yoga called bhakti yoga. Love of God is the process of the transmutation of every affection with which man is acquainted.

The greatest mystery in life is love. The intellect is not our problem; our emotions are our difficulties. Where there is love, there is also hatred. We cannot love everything. Love is possible only for certain individuals or certain items, or even groups of individuals or items. That which is excluded become the objects of hatred. So, love and hatred are two sides of the same coin. They persist and trouble us because we do not know how to reconcile these two sides.

Yoga is not merely an intellectual exercise. It is not merely a philosophical discipline. It is a spiritual transmutation of our whole being, which includes the sublimation of love, and emotions of every type, positive or negative, together with the activities of the reason. In this process, intellect and feeling join together in a fraternal embrace. When understanding and feeling work conjointly in the knowledge of anything, we are said to have intuition of that thing. God-realisation is the intuition of the Ultimate Reality, which is the aim of the practice of yoga.