Related LinksContents of BookChapters
by Swami Krishnananda
Then comes the devil's whisper. It comes in a very advanced stage. The devil does not speak to the student when he is in the beginning stage. The devil is just not bothered about the beginner. But, when there is a fear that the Yoga student is actually going to upset the plans of the lower nature, by his interference with its externalising activity, some reaction is set up. There is no such thing as the devil ultimately. It is only a common term used in theological texts. There is no man sitting somewhere as the devil. It is only a kind of automatic reaction that is set up from the lower nature, when the Yoga student attempts to go above it. To give an example: When a person tries to move with the current of the river, he does not feel any difficulty, because the current carries him easily and far. But, when the same person swims across or goes against the current, he experiences difficulty. The current then opposes him vehemently, or even tries to drown him, because he is trying to cross it, or go against its movement. The usual movement of nature is externality, outward contact with objects of sense, satisfaction of the instincts and urges by physical possessions and enjoyments of various types, including egoistic satisfactions. Now, inasmuch as there is a necessity to understand the great mistake involved in these sorts of satisfactions, and to rise up gradually to the level of a larger integration for a higher universal comprehension, any step that the Yoga student may take in this direction may look like a step against the ordinary laws of nature. Of course, it does not mean that the seeker is going to work against nature. But, it may appear as if he is interfering with nature, because of a little initial non-adjustment, resulting from extreme methods. Reactions from nature arise when the seeker resorts to extreme steps. It is not the fault of nature entirely. Even when the seeker has to overcome the instinctive urges of the personality which move in the direction of external objects, this has to be done with great caution, like a physician driving a needle into the flesh of the patient very gradually, slowly, so that the patient may not even know that an injection is being given. One does not thrust a knife into the flesh in the name of an injection.
The Yoga student should not be too wise. This is a very important thing to note. Also, he should exercise his wisdom in a wise manner. Unwisely applied wisdom ceases to be wisdom. So, wisdom has to be wisely applied. This is a specialisation in the art of Yoga practice, and falls within the area of responsibility of the Guru. The student cannot understand what this method means. When he has gone wrong, he will not know till he feels the pinch. Only when he gets a kick, he will know that something has gone wrong. Otherwise, he will not know what the mistake is that he has committed. The desires of the mind, and the urges of the personality in general, are the activities of the outward nature that compel our attention in Yoga. We can flow with this current of the outward nature or we can oppose the current. Yoga tells us to be very cautious and adopt a via media. It tells us that neither have we to flow with the current of nature entirely, nor oppose it directly. Both these extremes are unwarranted, because they will immediately make us a cynosure in the eyes of Prakriti. It is better to live unnoticed than become an object of attraction to everybody; because an object of attraction always gets into some trouble. Whereas, an unnoticed person somehow gets on happily in life. Therefore, even in the practice of Yoga, the student should live in the midst of Prakriti's activities in an unnoticed manner, and not make her suddenly conscious of his activities by shouting aloud, "I am a Yoga student!" Prakriti does not like shouts of this kind. The reactions of nature, if they are strong, may bring about a reversal of the practice. An internal desire may burn the senses. Desires, which the student tries to run away from in the name of Yoga, desires sensory as well as egoistic, violent urges, may press him forward in the reverse direction; and these reactionary urges may be stronger than the corresponding urges manifesting in a normal person in the usual course. Bottled-up energy is always stronger than the energy that is given a little bit of freedom. Let it be noted that Yoga is not bottling up of energy, but a wise utilisation of it. If water is allowed to build up in a dam without being released, the dam will burst. Dams are not built so that they may burst. They are built for optimum utilisation of the available water resources. But, if the waters are not so utilised, and are just allowed to build up inside the dam, the dam will burst, and the waters will ravage the land.
The activities of nature being external in space and time, and we being a part of nature, we are automatically involved in those activities, and we cannot easily curb our external urges. They have to be controlled only gradually. The stages of Yoga are therefore gradual ones in Patanjali's system. There are, in all, eight stages. The student can devise more stages as per his need, and in consultation with his Guru. He can have a hundred stages for his own practical purposes. Whenever a desire arises in the mind, we immediately throw a counter-bolt against it in the name of Yoga. We condemn it as an enemy. Generally, religions condemn all desires. Every religion is against normal human desires. This is a mistake if the attitude to desires is a total opposition. Even when we meet an enemy, directly opposing the enemy is not wisdom. To conquer the enemy, we need to manoeuvre in a highly dextrous, well thought-out manner, and in order that our manoeuvres may be successful, they have to be executed in a very imperceptible manner, very much like the moves of a political agent or an expert general in the army. Yoga is like the activity in a battlefield. And we do not go to the war field only to get defeated and killed. That is not the intention. The intention is to win victory in the war. We do not practise Yoga only to become shame-faced. That is not the intention. We go to achieve something, and unless we know all the minor details of the problems that would be set up by the agents of the opposite party, which in this case is Prakriti, and unless we know the wise methods to be adopted in adjusting ourselves to these tactics of nature, we will be a failure. So, it is better to take many days and many months in the preparation for the battle of Yoga or the practice of Yoga than suddenly jump into the meditation stage, which, at least according to Patanjali, is one of the last stages. Many a time we live under the impression that we are advanced students, and that the initial steps are not for us. This, again, is an overestimation of oneself. The world is too strong for everybody. We should not underestimate the strength of the world. We should know how large the world is, how powerful nature is, and what a tremendous energy the five elements called earth, water, fire, air and ether hold within themselves! Why, even the prejudices of human society are strong enough to oppose us, if we take an unwise step in Yoga.
Patanjali mentions another difficulty likely to be encountered by the student of Yoga. This is the perception of illusions. The practitioner of Yoga may be under the impression that he has had God-vision in his meditation, that he is seeing celestial light, that angels are speaking into his ears, and that he is smelling the Parijata flower of Indra's garden. All these ideas may be in his mind, and these are called illusions. These are illusions, because they are not divine visions and divine perceptions, though they may look like something unusual and super-normal. Most of the colours or sounds which people see or hear in intense concentration are the result of a pressure that is exerted upon the Prana, either by Pranayama or by concentration. If we press our eyes very hard, we will see in them colours. Even if somebody gives a blow on one's head, one will see some colours. We cannot call them divine colours. They are the result of some pressure exerted on the Prana. The pressure can be exerted either by a hit or a blow, or by stopping the breath in Kumbhaka, or even by a mere psychological effort of concentration of the mind on something. When such a thing happens, one immediately begins to see the colours of the Pranas, and sometimes hear a subtle vibration, which goes by the name of Anahata Nada. If these result from one's effort in concentration, to that extent, they are praiseworthy. But they are not to be taken for divine perceptions. So, Bhranti-Darsana or perception of illusions, and mistaking them for reality, also is a mistake that the seeker should guard himself against in Yoga Sadhana.
Now, there are other Bhrantis or illusions, which sometimes begin to take possession of the seeker. He begins to feel that he is an incarnation itself, and that his only duty is to save the world from hell. Many sincere seekers begin to feel that they are here in this world only to save mankind from perdition, and they leave their own Yoga practice. They have learnt the Upanishads, studied the Bhagavad Gita, practised Yoga. Everything is okay and nothing is left except the saviour's activity! So, they take up the responsibility of a prophet or an incarnation, and strive to save mankind from hell, and themselves enter into hell afterwards! The Yoga seeker intent on his success in Yoga should not succumb to such false notions about being here to save mankind. Nothing of the kind is his duty. And if that is his duty, he will know it as clearly as sunlight. There will be no doubts in the mind. Such a high clarity there will be, if God commissions a person to this great responsibility of saving mankind. Therefore, the ordinary Yoga seeker should not imagine that saving mankind is his duty. He is a very small weakling, a fly as it were. These misplaced ideas should not arise in his mind. The wrong egoistic feeling that one is a great master of Yoga, or a saviour of humanity, should be given up totally.
The next difficulty that Patanjali mentions is the incapacity of the mind to concentrate upon the ideal or the object chosen. However much one may try to concentrate, the mind will not stick to the object of concentration. It will think something else. Like a small ball of mercury which cannot be held in the hand, or something very fishy which cannot be grasped, which eludes the contact of the hand, the mind will slip out of control, and however much one may struggle, it will not concentrate. It is like a wild bull which will gore us to death, rather than accept our admonitions or teachings. The mind can become wild in such a way as to turn into an anti-social manifestation, outwardly as well as inwardly. A very terrible situation it is, when the mind becomes wild! It can make one go crazy. Many people actually become insane on the Yoga path, due to extreme pressure exerted upon themselves, either deliberately or by compulsion of outer circumstances. So, the Yoga student has to proceed very slowly and very cautiously.
The last difficulty that Patanjali mentions is this. Even if the Yoga student gets at the point of concentration, he cannot settle the mind on it for a long time. "Yes, I caught the point of concentration, but I cannot fix the mind on it for a long time!" – This is a common complaint. The mind immediately comes back. By gradual effort, a daily sitting, and various other methods, the mind will gradually gain the capacity to concentrate for increasingly longer periods.
Even if it takes ten births to reach God, it does not matter. The intelligent Yoga student should not retrace his steps and fall back. He should go slowly. There are secondary difficulties mentioned by Patanjali, other than the primary obstacles already referred to. A mood of despair is considered by the great Yoga teacher as a secondary effect produced by the practice, when that practice goes a little wrong somewhere. This melancholy mood or mood of despair can supervene even after years of practice, and not necessarily in the initial stages. "What is there? I have done enough. I am fed up with it." The mind will speak in these terms, perhaps after years of practice. "All the prayers have gone waste; meditations have been without any kind of benefit to me. I have lost this world and I have lost that also. What is the good of all this?" The mind will tell like this one day or the other, and the seeker will not speak, because of the grief in his heart that he has lost everything. This grief is an obstacle. This grief is a stage which every great master has passed through. We are told that even great thinkers and persistent students like Buddha were, at one stage, in a state of sorrow and grief that they had achieved nothing. We read in the biography of Buddha that even a day before the moment of illumination, he had no indication that anything would come about at all. He had decided that death was the only thing to embrace. The result of all this suffering in the name of Yoga is destruction and loss of everything. These moods may enter the mind – melancholy moods, dejectedness, and a sour Sunday face, a castor-oil face as Swami Sivanandaji Maharaj used to say. This is Duhkha and Daurmanasya – sorrow and dejection. Whenever such moods manifest, the earnest seeker should cautiously survive the moods, and not succumb to them.
The other secondary obstacles mentioned by Patanjali are of a different nature. He considers breathing itself as an obstacle. Ordinary students will not be able to understand what all this means. Why should breathing be a difficulty? We cannot live without it at all. But it must be noted, that Patanjali speaks of breathing as a difficulty, only in the case of the advanced Yoga student who is in a lofty state of perception. Patanjali regards the inhalation and exhalation process as an impediment in Yoga, because the alternate breathing causes a sympathetic reaction upon the breathing itself, resulting in oscillation of thought. One cannot consistently think one continuous thought like a flow, unremittingly, because of the alternate breathing. And, therefore, Pranayama is prescribed as a requisite of Yoga practice, Pranayama meaning suspension of the breath and a prevention of the normal alternate breathing. Suspension of the breath is supposed to lead directly to fixity of mind, concentration of consciousness, and freedom from the oscillation of thought, freedom from the movement of the mind towards objects of sense. One day or the other, as the result of persistent Yoga practice, this breathing process will get merged in the thought process, and the Yogi's vital energy will become one with his psychological being. All that is his personality will get concentrated in a centre of consciousness. There will be no alternate breathing at that time. That is called the Samadhi state, a state which is the final one.
Tremor of the body is also mentioned as a secondary obstacle by Patanjali. Perhaps, in intense concentration, this will be the first thing that the Yoga student will notice. The other obstacles may not be immediately experienced. The various difficulties mentioned in the Yoga Sastras will not be confronted at once. Within a few minutes of real concentration, the student will feel a jerk in his body. He will have a tremor, a tremor which is something akin to a little electric shock-like the sensation felt on contact with a mild live wire of low voltage. A similar sensation will be felt when the mind is really concentrated. The student will feel a shake-up of the system for a second, as if somebody has pushed him with a finger. This jerk is considered an obstacle only in a philosophical sense. Really, one need not bother about it, and it is not going to harm very much. It is only a suggestion, inwardly coming, that the mind is concentrated. Why should the jerk come? Why should the body have this tremor? Because the Prana is given a notice by the mind that it is going to adopt a new attitude altogether, quite different from the one which it used to adopt earlier. The mind tells the Prana. The moment this message from the mind reaches the Prana, a reaction is set up by the Prana in answer to the message of the mind, and that reaction is the jerk that the Yoga student feels. So, it is a good thing, because, at least the mind is speaking something worthwhile to the Prana.