Thursday, July 31, 2014

The Essence of all the four yogas

Matkarmakrit Matparamo Matbhaktaha Sangavarjitaha
Nirvairaha Sarvabhooteshu Yah Sa Maameti Paandavah

Matkarmakrit

'Work for My sake.' We should do such a work which would be admired by God. Doing the work as an offering to God implies that good deeds have to be performed selflessly. Whatever work you do selflessly is God's work only. You work with your hands and remember God with your mind. You will get the clarity of mind only through selfless work. If you don’t perform good deeds you will not even find the path towards the spiritual Heart. If you perform the acts as prescribed by God and refrain from doing the acts as forbidden by God, it is equivalent to doing God's work. Whatever you do , you should remember that God exists in the form of society. You should not possess independent intellect (buddhi) ie your thinking should not be based on egosense. God has prescribed the dos and don’ts.You should not question as to why a particular act has been forbidden. God has mentioned it only in your welfare. But you are not concerned about your shreyas (welfare). You are concerned only about your preyas (that which you Love).We always like them who praise us and not the one who tell us Truth. Adi Shankara has said: 'If you do good deeds selflessly, it will purify your mind ie your intellect (buddhi) will get purified. Once it is purified, you will become fit to attain Self Knowledge. You will not attain Self Knowledge by merely doing a good work. The secret here is if you perform the deeds not as per your liking (preyas) but as per God's liking (shreyas), He will bestow you with such intellect (buddhi) by which you can know Him.' Lord Krishna said: "You have come here to fight. It is in your body's destiny. If there is no destiny, you will not even get the body. If you work with a desire, your destiny is formed and when the destiny is formed, it is inevitable that you will get a body. As per your body's destiny, you have to fight. Whether you like it or not, the battle will be fought through your body.If you fight willingly, this destiny will not repeat again in the future births. Work is unavoidable. If you work unwillingly,you will be chased by the same destiny even in future births. This is the secret of Bhagavad Gita." Hence Matkarmakrit refers to the Karma Yoga

Mat paramaha

'Make Me only as your goal.' The Lord implied: ‘Whatever may be your work, whatever may be your nature, always keep Me as your goal. You have to attain Me only in your life. Therefore make effort to reach Me.'

Matbhaktaha:

Become My devotee. By being My devotee, you will get purity of thought. By getting purity of thought you will attain purity of mind. You will attain Liberation only through the gate of 'Purity of mind' but not through any other gate. Once we start loving God, we will lose all the unnecessary thoughts and the body consciousness gets reduced. The Lord said: "Whether the circumstances are favourable or not, you should not lose your faith in Me. Be my devotee. Possess love, devotion and faith in Me. You must chant my name and meditate upon My form. I assure you that if you perform good deeds, there is no distressing state." It does not matter even if you lose your breath but do not lose your faith in God. Though Vibhishana was a demon, he abandoned his brother for the sake of virtue. He left everything for the sake of Rama ie for the sake of God and took His shelter. This is the sign of a devotee. It is complete surrender. It is enough if you have the living faith in the existence of God. Your mind will become conditioned and you will get reformed. Hence Matbhakataha refers to the path of devotion

Sangavarjitaha:

This is Jnana Yoga. You should not possess any passion towards any object in the world or towards your body. Whatever thought comes to you arises out of the thought 'I am the body' ie ego. All the thoughts are based upon this single thought of 'I am the body'. As long as this ego (the thought of I am the body) exists, the other thoughts keep arising and cannot be avoided. From where does this ego arise? Is it from inside or from outside? It comes from within only. If you are able to catch hold of the source of ego, then it vanishes and you are caught by another 'I' which is Brahman. Even Brahman is revealed to you as 'I'. But it is not limited to a body or an object or the world. It is complete and perfect. It is the embodiment of Bliss, Truth and knowledge. It is only Existence.

Jesus said: "There is a Truth within your Heart. As the sun is not aware of darkness, even the Self within your Heart is not aware of either birth or death. It is not dependent but it is independent. If you want to achieve permanent abode or the other world or the endless peace or the endless bliss or independent happiness, You must know the Truth ie you must experience the Truth. Till then you will not have either freedom or happiness or bliss."

Nirvairaha sarva bhuteshu:

You should possess Love and Compassion towards all beings without possessing any hatred. We develop enmity towards those who harm us. Though there is a sufficient cause for developing enmity, possess Love only and not any hatred. If you have enmity, you will develop hatred. Then inspite of doing pranayama or yoga, your mind will always travel towards them whomever you hate. Likes and dislikes are the only cause for the extroversion of the mind. If you develop enmity or hatred, your mind gets polluted. Therefore possess Love for everyone. God exists in the hearts of all as the indweller. He is the enjoyer. If you give food to anyone, you may think that so and so person ate the food. But it is not they who eat it. It is God only who enjoys inside.

The goal of Karma Yoga is to control and reform the senses. The goal of Bhakti yoga is to identify and eliminate the weaknesses and sorrows within us. The goal of Jnana yoga is to attain the subtle intellect (discrimination) to understand the words of God in true sense.

1 comment:

  1. Bhakti Yoga, Pray throughout the day, especially prayers of gratitude. Be thankful for the difficult aspects of your life as well as the pleasant ones.

    ReplyDelete