Yoga
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Sadhana
The Realisation of Life
By Rabindranath Tagore
An Introduction
to Yoga
by Annie Besant
- The Unfolding of Consciousness
- The Oneness of the Self
- The Quickening of the Process of Self-Unfoldment
- Yoga is a Science
- Man a Duality
- States of Mind
- Samadhi
- Some Definitions
- God Without and God Within
- Changes of Consciousness and Vibrations of Matter
- Stages of Mind
- Inward and Outward-turned Consciousness
- The Cloud
- Mind
- The Mental Body
- Methods of Yoga
- To the Self by the Self
- To the Self through the Not-Self
- Yoga and Morality
- Composition of States of the Mind
- Inhibition of States of Mind
- Meditation with and without Seed
- The Use of Mantras
- Obstacles to Yoga
- Capacities for Yoga
- Forthgoing and Returning
- Purification of Bodies
- Dwellers on the Threshold
- Preparation for Yoga
- The End
The Doctrine and Practice of Yoga
by Swami Mukerji
Jogi of the South India Order
Patanjali's
Yoga Sutras
Lessons in Gnani and Raja Yoga
The Yoga of Wisdom
by Yogi Ramacharaka
Acupressure
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Lessons in Gnani and Raja Yoga
The Yoga of Wisdom
by Yogi Ramacharaka
THE FOURTH LESSON
THE UNITY OF LIFE
In our First Lesson of this series we spoke of the One Reality
underlying all Life. This One Reality was stated to be higher than mind
or matter, the nearest term that can be applied to it being "Spirit."
We told you that it was impossible to explain just what "Spirit" is,
for we have nothing else with which to compare or describe it, and it
can be expressed only in its own terms, and not in the terms applicable
to its emanations or manifestations. But, as we said in our First
Lesson, we may think of "Spirit" as meaning the "essence" of Life and
Being--the Reality underlying Universal Life, and from which the latter
emanates.
In the Second Lesson we stated that this "Spirit," which we called "The
Absolute," expressed itself in the Universal Life, which Universal Life
manifested itself in countless forms of life and activity. In the same
lesson we showed you that the Universe is alive--that there is not a
single dead thing in it--that there can be no such thing as a dead
object in the Universe, else the theory and truth of the One underlying
Life must fall and be rejected. In that lesson we also showed you that
even in the world of inorganic things there was ever manifest life--in
every atom and particle of inorganic matter there is the universal life
energy manifesting itself, and in constant activity.
In the Third Lesson, we went still further into this phase of the
general subject, and showed you that the Creative Will--that active
principle of the Universal Life--was ever at work, building up new
forms, shapes and combinations, and then tearing them down for the
purpose of rebuilding the material into new forms, shapes, and
combinations. The Creative Will is ever at work in its threefold
function of creating, preserving and destroying forms--the change,
however, being merely in the shape and form or combination, the real
substance remaining unchanged in its inner aspect, notwithstanding the
countless apparent changes in its objective forms. Like the great ocean
the depths of which remain calm and undisturbed, and the real nature of
which is unchanged in spite of the waves, and billows of surface
manifestation, so does the great ocean of the Universal Life remain
unchanged and unaltered in spite of the constant play of the Creative
Will upon the surface. In the same lesson we gave you many examples of
the Will in action--of its wondrous workings in the various forms of
life and activity--all of which went to show you that the One Power was
at work everywhere and at all times.
In our next lesson--the Fifth Lesson--we shall endeavor to make plain
to you the highest teachings of the Yogi Philosophy regarding the One
Reality and the Many Manifestations--the One and the Many--how the One
apparently becomes Many--that great question and problem which lies at
the bottom of the well of truth. In that lesson we shall present for
your consideration some fundamental and startling truths, but before we
reach that point in our teachings, we must fasten upon your mind the
basic truth that all the various manifestations of Life that we see on
all hands in the Universe are but forms of manifestation of One
Universal Life which is itself an emanation of the Absolute.
Speaking generally, we would say to you that the emanation of the
Absolute is in the form of a grand manifestation of One Universal Life,
in which the various apparent separate forms of Life are but centers of
Energy or Consciousness, the separation being more apparent than real,
there being a bond of unity and connection underlying all the
apparently separated forms. Unless the student gets this idea firmly
fixed in his mind and consciousness, he will find it difficult to grasp
the higher truths of the Yogi Philosophy. That all Life is One, at the
last,--that all forms of manifestation of Life are in harmonious Unity,
underlying--is one of the great basic truths of the Yogi Teaching, and
all the students of that philosophy must make this basic truth their
own before they may progress further. This grasping of the truth is
more than a mere matter of intellectual conception, for the intellect
reports that all forms of Life are separate and distinct from each
other, and that there can be no unity amidst such diversity. But from
the higher parts of the mind comes the message of an underlying Unity,
in spite of all apparent diversity, and if one will meditate upon this
idea he will soon begin to realize the truth, and will feel that he,
himself, is but a center of consciousness in a great ocean of
Life--that he and all other centers are connected by countless
spiritual and mental filaments--and that all emerge from the One. He
will find that the illusion of separateness is but "a working fiction
of the Universe," as one writer has so aptly described it--and that All
is One, at the last, and underlying all is One.
Some of our students may feel that we are taking too long a path to
lead up to the great basic truths of our philosophy, but we who have
traveled The Path, and know its rocky places and its sharp turns, feel
justified in insisting that the student be led to the truth gradually
and surely, instead of attempting to make short cuts across dangerous
ravines and canyons. We must insist upon presenting our teachings in
our own way--for this way has been tested and found good. We know that
every student will come to realize that our plan is a wise one, and
that he will thank us for giving him this gradual and easy approach to
the wondrous and awful truth which is before us. By this gradual
process, the mind becomes accustomed to the line of thought and the
underlying principles, and also gradually discards wornout mental
sheaths which have served their purposes, and which must be discarded
because they begin to weigh heavily upon the mind as it reaches the
higher altitudes of The Path of Attainment. Therefore, we must ask you
to consider with us, in this lesson, some further teachings regarding
the Unity of Life.
All the schools of the higher Oriental thought, as well as many of the
great philosophical minds of the Western world, have agreed upon the
conception of the Unity of Life--the Oneness of All Life. The Western
thinkers, and many of the Eastern philosophers arrived at this
conclusion by means of their Intellectual powers, greatly heightened
and stimulated by concentration and meditation, which latter process
liberated the faculties of the Spiritual Mind so that it passed down
knowledge to the Intellect, which then seized upon the higher knowledge
which it found within itself, and amplified and theorized upon the
same. But among the Eastern Masters there are other sources of
information open, and from these sources come the same report--the
Oneness and Unity of Universal Life. These higher sources of
information to which we have alluded, consist of the knowledge coming
from those Beings who have passed on to higher planes of Life than
ours, and whose awakened spiritual faculties and senses enable them to
see things quite plainly which are quite dark to us. And from these
sources, also, comes the message of the Oneness of Life--of the
existence of a wonderful Universal Life including all forms of life as
we know it, and many forms and phases unknown to us--many centers in
the great Ocean of Life. No matter how high the source of inquiry, the
answer is the same--"All Life is One." And this One Life includes
Beings as much higher than ourselves, as we are higher than the
creatures in the slime of the ocean-bed. Included in it are beings who
would seem as archangels or gods to us, and they inform that beyond
them are still higher and more radiant creatures, and so on to infinity
of infinities. And yet all are but centers of Being in the One
Life--all but a part of the great Universal Life, which itself is but
an emanation of The Absolute.
The mind of man shrinks back appalled from the contemplation of such
wonders, and yet there are men who dare to attempt to speak
authoritatively of the attributes and qualities of "God," as if He, the
Absolute, were but a magnified man. Verily, indeed, "fools rush in
where angels fear to tread," as the poet hath said.
Those who will read our next lesson and thus gain an idea of the
sublime conception of the Absolute held by the Yogi teachers may
shudder at the presumption of those mortals who dare to think of the
Absolute as possessing "attributes" and "qualities" like unto the
meanest of things in this his emanated Universe. But even these
spiritual infants are doing well--that is, they are beginning to
think, and when man begins to think and question, he begins to
progress. It is not the fact of these people's immature ideas that has
caused these remarks on our part, but rather their tendency to set up
their puny conceptions as the absolute truth, and then insisting upon
forcing these views upon the outer world of men, whom they consider
"poor ignorant heathen." Permit each man to think according to his
light--and help him by offering to share with him the best that you
possess--but do not attempt to force upon him your own views as
absolute truth to be swallowed by him under threat of damnation or
eternal punishment. Who are you that dares to speak of punishment and
damnation, when the smell of the smoke of the hell of materialism is
still upon your robes. When you realize just what spiritual infants you
still are--the best of you--you will blush at these things. Hold fast
to the best that you know--be generous to others who seem to wish to
share your knowledge--but give without blame or feeling of
superiority--for those whom you teach today may be your teachers
tomorrow--there are many surprises of this kind along The Path. Be
brave and confident, but when you begin to feel puffed up by your
acquirement of some new bit of knowledge, let your prayer--our
prayer, for we too are infants--be, "Lord, be merciful unto me, a
fool!"
The above words are for us, the students of the Yogi Philosophy--the
teachers of the same--for human nature is the same in spite of names,
and we must avoid the "vanity of vanities"--Spiritual Pride and
Arrogance--that fault which has sent many a soul tumbling headlong from
a high position on The Path, and compelled it to again begin the
journey, chastened and bruised. The fall of Lucifer has many
correspondences upon the occult plane, and is, indeed, in itself an
allegorical illustration of just this law. Remember, always, that you
are but a Centre in the Ocean of Life, and that all others are Centres
in the same ocean, and that underlying both and all of you is the same
calm bed of Life and Knowledge, the property of all. The highest and
the lowest are part of the same One Life--each of you has the same life
blood flowing through your veins--you are connected with every other
form of life, high or low, with invisible bonds, and none is separate
from another. We are speaking, of course, to the personalities of the
various students who are reading these words. The Real Self of each is
above the need of such advice and caution, and those who are able to
reach the Real Self in consciousness have no need for these words, for
they have outlived this stage of error. To many, the consciousness of
the One Life--the Universal Life--in which all are centres of
consciousness and being--has come gradually as a final step of a long
series of thought and reasoning, aided by flashes of truth from the
higher regions of the mind. To others it has come as a great
illumination, or flash of Truth, in which all things are seen in their
proper relations and positions to each other, and all as phases of
being in the One. The term "Cosmic Consciousness," which has been used
in the previous series of these lessons, and by other writers, means
this sudden flash of "knowing" in which all the illusionary dividing
lines between persons and things are broken down and the Universal Life
is seen to be actually existent as One Life. To those who have reached
this consciousness by either route just mentioned--or by other
routes--there is no sense of loss of individuality or power or
strength. On the contrary there is always a new sense of increased
power and strength and knowing--instead of losing Individuality, there
is a sense of having found it. One feels that he has the whole Universe
at his back, or within him, rather than that he has lost his identity
in the great Ocean of Life.
While we are speaking of this phase of the subject, we should like to
ask you if you have ever investigated and inquired into the real
meaning of the much-used word "Individuality?" Have you ever looked up
its origin and real meaning, as given by the standard authorities? We
are sure that many of you have no real idea of the actual meaning of
the term, as strange as this statement may appear to you at first
glance. Stop now, and define the word to yourself, as you have been
accustomed to think of it. Ninety-five people of a hundred will tell
you that it means something like "a strong personality." Let us see
about this.
Webster defines the word "Individual" as follows: "Not divided, or not
to be divided; existing as one distinct being or object; single; one."
The same authority informs us that the word arises from the Latin word
individuus, meaning "indivisible; not divisible." Does not this help
you to gain a clearer idea of the Individuality that knows itself to be
a Centre of Consciousness in the One Life, rather than a separate,
puny, insignificant thing apart from all other centres or forms of
Life, or the source of Life? We think it will help to clear your mind
of some of the fog that has not as yet lifted itself.
And while we are on the subject of definitions, let us take a little
look at the word "Personality," that is generally believed to be a
synonym of "Individuality," and is often so used. Webster tells us that
the word "Person" originated from the Latin word persona, meaning "a
mask used by actors," which word in turn arose from two other words,
per, meaning "through," and sonare, meaning "to sound," the two
combined words meaning "to sound through." The same authority informs
us that the archaic meaning of the word was "a character or part, as in
a play; an assumed character." If you will think of Personality as "a
mask used by an actor," or as "a part in a play," or as something used
to "sound through" or to speak through, by the real Individual behind
the mask of Personality, then perhaps you will see a little further
into the Mystery of Personality and Individuality.
Oh, dear students, be not deceived by the mask of Personality which you
may happen to be wearing at this moment, or by the masks which are worn
by those around you. Realize that back of your mask is the great
Individual--the Indivisible--the Universal Life, in which you are a
centre of consciousness and activity. This does not wipe out your
identity--instead it gives you a greater and grander identity. Instead
of your sinking into a Nirvana of extinction of consciousness, your
consciousness so enlarges as you unfold, that you will in the end feel
your identity to be the identity of the Universe. Instead of your
gaining Nothingness, you gain Allness. All spiritual growth and
unfoldment gives you a constantly increasing sense of relationship
with, and agreement with, the All. You grow into Allness as you unfold.
Be not deceived by this chatter about Nothingness, and loss of
Individuality, in the Oriental thought, although some of the
presentations of its teachings may so seem to mean at first reading.
Remember always that Personality is the mask, and Individuality the
Real One.
You have often heard persons, claiming to be acquainted with the
teachings of Theosophy and other expositions of the Oriental Wisdom
Religion (including our own presentation), asserting that the Oriental
mind was ever bent upon attaining a final stage of Nothingness or
Extinction in Nirvana. In addition to what we have said, and to what we
shall say on this subject, let us quote from the inspired writer of the
"Secret Doctrine" (a standard Theosophical work) when she says, in
that work on page 286, Vol. I: "Is this annihilation, as some think?
... To see in Nirvana annihilation, amounts to saying of a man plunged
in a sound, dreamless sleep--one that leaves no impression on the
physical memory and brain, because the sleeper's Higher Self is in its
original state of absolute consciousness during these hours--that he
too is annihilated. The latter simile answers only to one side of the
question--the most material; since reabsorption is by no means such a
dreamless sleep, but, on the contrary, absolute existence, an
unconditional unity, or a state, to describe which human language is
absolutely and hopelessly inadequate... Nor is the individuality--nor
even the essence of the personality, if any be left behind--lost
because re-absorbed." As J. Wm. Lloyd says, in connection with the
above quotation, "This seems conclusive proof that Theosophy does not
regard Nirvana as annihilation, but as an infinite enlargement of
consciousness." And we would add that this is true not only as regards
the Nirvana of the Theosophist, but also of the consciousness of the
Unity of Life--the Universal Life. This too is not annihilation of
individual consciousness, but an "infinite enlargement of
consciousness" as this Western writer Lloyd has so well expressed it.
The very consciousness of Life that every man feels within him, comes
not from something belonging exclusively to himself as a separate or
personal thing. On the contrary, it belongs to his Individuality, not
to his Personality, and is a phase of his consciousness or "awareness"
of his relation to the One Universal Life which underlies his
existence, and in which he is a center of consciousness. Do you grasp
this idea? If not, meditate and concentrate upon it, for it is
important. You must learn to feel the Life within you, and to know
that it is the Life of the great Ocean of Universal Life upon the bosom
of which you are borne as a centre of consciousness and energy. In this
thought there is Power, Strength, Calm, Peace, and Wisdom. Acquire it,
if you are wise. It is indeed a Gift from the Gods.
In this lesson we are not attempting to build up your idea of the Unity
of Life by a series of arguments taken from a world of phenomena in
which separateness and non-Unity is apparent. No such arguments would
suffice, for it would be like trying to prove the existence and laws of
color to a man born blind, by arguments taken from his world of
darkness. On the contrary we are appealing to that region of the mind
in which is stored the capacity for intuitively apprehending truth. We
are endeavoring to speak in tones which will awaken a similar vibration
in that part of your mentality, and if these vibrations be started into
being, then will you be able to feel and know the truth, and then
will your Intellect eagerly seize upon the new idea that it finds
within itself, and will proceed to apply the same to the various
problems that have been bothering you in the past.
This consciousness of Unity must come from the higher regions of the
mind, for the Intellect alone knows it not,--it is out of its field.
Just as one may not know that the earth is round by means of his senses
which report quite the contrary, but may and does know this truth by
abstract reasoning and higher intellectual effort; so may one know the
truth that All Life is indeed One, at the last, and underlying, by the
higher faculties of the mind, although his senses and ordinary
intellectual processes fail to so inform him. The senses cannot inform
man that the earth is round, because they cannot see it as a whole,
but only in part--whi