On Om, Gunas & Sadhana (Satsang at Badrinath) - Sep 2003 by Sri M In sleep, you are not even aware of your own existence. If you are not aware of your own existence, then where is your problem ? The world may go upside down but you don’t care – that’s why everybody likes to sleep because it is the nearest state to the experience of the Self. Now I have to make a correction – I doesn’t mean that you can attain the self through sleeping! Since it is the nearest state – the best sadhana is to clear your eyes and sleep – that is not true! Now this is a very important thing – why I brought up this subject is because we all pass through this; we did not fall from heaven suddenly – realized ! As we go into sadhana, we realize how tricky the mind is. Every human being has three natural characteristics that make up his mind and body – these three attributes are called satva, rajas and tamas. Satva is the goodness which is in all of us – knowledge, goodness, peace, balance – all these things come under satva guna. Everybody has it to some extent – some may have more and some may have less. Valmiki was a dacoit who later became a saint. So satva guna is there – but it may be very deep in some and in some, it may be more evident, for various reasons – we need not go into that now. Then, the other guna is rajas. Rajas is the natural characteristic of the mind towards activity – that, people have in plenty ! There are some people who cannot sit without twiddling their fingers – ask them to sit down and their fingers will go as if on a drum. They call it nervousness, but even that nervousness is part of rajas – activity. So activity – rajas – is also an attribute of the body and mind. Then the third attribute is called tamo guna – tamas. Tamo guna means the quality of laziness, sloth – any base instincts like anger, jealousy – all these are included in tamo guna. There are some people who cannot say the truth – in psychology, it is called compulsive lying – they simply say something an enjoy it. But the most prominent characteristic of tamo guna is sloth, laziness, not wanting to do anything. Why I have brought up this subject is that very often, in sadhana, tamo guna or laziness sometimes poses as satva guna or quietude. The mind is very tricky. We think that we are in satva guna but we are actually enjoying the tamo guna which means, we think that, ‘Ah, now I am in satva guna.’, but actually we are in deep sleep..(laughs)…it happens ! And one of the ways it happens is when we sit down to mediate …these are practical things…Suppose I sit down to meditate and then I say, ‘Ah, today it is beautiful. I must sit and do meditation. It is wonderful and nice, quiet.’ Then I say, ‘It’s better to lie down and meditate’. And if it is especially cold, then I get into the quilt and meditate. Before you know it, in one second, we are meditating very deeply ! (laughs) Then snore – pranava sound begins to come ! And this happens to everyone very often. Sometimes we have an excuse for inactivity – ‘I don’t want to do anything because I am lazy’. But what do I think ? ‘ I am a great yogi who has transcended all activity.’ Therefore the great yogis have said, you have to move from the negative to the positive – as said in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali – Yoga derives a lot of its theoretical substance from sankhya philosophy – Trigunas come from Sankhya. A lot of understanding comes from the commentators especially. One of the best commentaries on the Raj Yoga Sutras which the Sringeri Math has published is called Yoga Sudhakara by Sadashiva Brahmendra, who was a great yogi. There are many stories about him. He used to a great yogi – he was also a great singer. He has written many lyrics in Sanskrit. Once it is said that while he was in trance – in samadhi state – he was walking about naked and by mistake he went into the zenana of a Moghul Chieftain. So the ladies over there made a big noise and the Nawab there came out, took his sword and chopped off the yogi’s arm. He was in a deep trance and was just going about like that – he was bleeding. After a while the Diwan came and he told the Nawab, ‘What have you done ? That is our great saint.’ Then the Nawab got a little concerned – everybody is afraid of the saint’s curse. So the story is that the Nawab took the Yogi’s arm and ran behind him and stopped him. He said, ‘ Your arm…’. The Yogi said, ‘Where?’ ‘ Its here’ ‘Oh, its here! I’ll put it back.’ So he put it back and tied a piece of cloth around his chest and just went off! It took many days for the wound to heal. He was not concerned about what would happen to him. Now, this is not tamo guna. Sadashiva Brahmendra has written a beautiful commentary on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. It is called Yoga Sudkara or Yoga Sudha in short. It is a very beautiful commentary because it tries to bring in elements of Vedanta into Yoga philosophy. Many people think that Yoga is distinct from Vedanta – as a philosophical system, it is. But, in practice, they are very close to each other because they are different paths to the same goal. There he points this out very, very carefully that you cannot jump from tamo guna or sloth and laziness directly to satva guna. And then, the ultimate end is to transcend the gunas. You go beyond satva, rajas and tamas to absolute quietude. But first, you have to move from tamo guna – negative to positive- and then let go beyond. So always activity – rajas – is in between; without action, you cannot jump from tamo guna to satva guna. And only if you touch satva guna is it possible to transcend satva guna. So one has to, in sadhana, in one’s daily life, watch carefully. ‘Am I doing good?’ or ‘Am I being lazy ?’ ‘I don’t want to do much work – why ? Because I am going to meditate.’ Actually, you should examine – is it because I want to meditate or is it because I am just feeling lazy?’…so we have to watch this.
Posted on: Sat, 13 Dec 2014 16:03:03 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015