OMM Namo Bhagavate

While practicing the yoga of ceaseless union with the Self, one should avoid crowded places and try to live within, banishing all ideas of material possession.  One should also remain free from desire and control the senses. 

Srimad Bhagavad Gita, Verse 243

Remaining alone, the yogi should always strive to be linked with the Self.  To do this, certain conditions need to be fulfilled.  First is to remain in a state of not consciously activating any desire.  Desire-prompted actions must be minimized day-by-day. If you are creating or responding to desire-prompted action, you can never enter into the Being.

There was a time I was dead against carrying food with me. I would prefer to remain hungry rather than carry food.  I was always saying, a sick man carries medicine wherever he goes and an indulgent man carries food wherever he goes, but a yogi carries nothing.  Whatever is available he will eat.

I realized this at a young age because when I was a child and staying in the school hostel, every time I visited home my mother would make a huge variety of cakes and treats and fill a whole box for me.  Until that box was finished my mind would never stay in the class.  I would be in the classroom, but thinking of the sweets and biscuits, because children love food.

One time when there was recess, I came running to the hostel to eat a particular item I had hidden under the bed because there were two boys that were determined to eat all my food.  As I was eating it, one of my friends came and tried to snatch it from me and it fell on the floor.  Neither of us got it.  That made me angry and we quarreled, and I forgot about my next class.  By the time I came running, three-fourths of the class was over.  My teacher was very strict.  When he learned of the situation, he told the other boys to write a big sign that said, “I am greedy, I can compromise everything for food,” and he hung it on me, with instructions not to remove it until the end of the school day.  I was constantly crying, because other children were laughing, and that was very big insult.

I learnt the lesson that I must not carry food with me.  I made a promise.  But my mother would not listen to the promise, and kept giving me food, and I did not want to hurt her feelings.  So as I walked to the bus stand, I would distribute the food to whoever was walking on the road.  I was so determined that this practice remained right up to the end of my student life and beyond.

I share this because these small examples from my life will show you how even as a child I was conscious of sadhana.  I am not telling this to just make you feel that I was a very great yogi, but to inform you that these are all natural tendencies, and if you will be determined you can overcome them.  These took me many years to overcome because I was a child, but you are not a child.  You are an adult and a consciously striving yogi, so if you will apply your willpower you can definitely overcome these tendencies.

Any object that can activate your senses or fuel your desire for enjoyment should not be kept with a yogi.  A yogi must go through that stage when he is not keeping with him anything that is considered unnecessary for yogic life.  This is the reason when I was in this stage I took away my mattress and made the body sleep on a wooden plank.  I pledged that if I am hungry, food must be available wherever I am, because it is prakriti who is creating hunger, not me, so she must make food available.  If not available, let me die.  That was the intense feeling with which I was following my path.

Now if you go to my room you will see in my cupboard two dozen sets of clothing, but right up to my marriage I had only two sets.  I did not have a third set, although I could have afforded fifty.  I was so determined.  Two pants and two shirts—that’s all.  Each night I would wash and dry one set.  My entire student life I was never wearing cloth that was pressed or cleaned by someone else.  I had money, but it was a question of self-reliance, not of money.  My principle was not to unnecessarily take help from others.

The determination must be there, and as per Gita, all this is the preparation for Self-realization.  Without Self-realization you cannot go towards merger, without merger you cannot go towards gunatit stage, and without gunatit state you can never manifest Divine.

These are the conditions.  First, you are living within: surrounded by all, but identified with none.  You are alone, because you have to transcend this world of mind and senses.  Second, you are consciously restraining the senses from their natural flow towards the object.  Senses, mind and the vital will run on their natural way, but you consciously restrain them.

When you practice this type of sadhana you will experience five stages.  First is the unstable state of the mind.  In this state, the moment you want to focus, and take the mind away from something, the mind will run towards that.  If you are not consciously making this attempt the mind is silent.  But the moment you focus to take it away from something, the moment you want to tame it, the mind will become more turbulent.  That’s the first stage of mind control.

Both determination and discrimination are necessary.  You have to apply your buddhi yoga to find out how your mind will be less powerful than you.  Mind gets more powerful when all the senses are active, which means the mind is using all these five senses to smash you.  Try to neutralize the senses one by one.  Begin with the weakest and go to the strongest.  You may say, “My sense of smell is not troubling me.”  It may not be, but it has the strength to create nuisance in you.  So you have to tame it.  Just because it does not seem to be troubling you, don’t take it for granted.  When it will join with the other senses it will really contribute in its own way to destabilize you.

When you consciously control the senses one by one, you will notice that you are entering to the second stage of mind control.  From the unstable state the mind will come to the delusion state. When you want to sit and meditate, you will experience that drowsiness comes, and that will push you to the sleep stage.  Your mind will not listen.  Sleep and sloth will come.  In your day-to-day activities, work will pile up, and although you will feel to do something, you do not find time.  That’s the second stage.  You have to overcome this.

When I was in this stage I would write down a list of works on a piece of paper and keep it in my pocket.  There might be twenty tasks to be done, but I will write the five or ten most important works for each day. I was not always able to successfully complete them all—like if I noted down five tasks, I might be able to do only three—but the very fact that I was noting them down and keeping a record, that showed me the track, and I could clearly see that I was making progress, and see my path.  First it was zigzag, then it became linear, and finally it turned upward and ascending.

I have never done yoga theoretically.  I have done it practically, and these are my experiences.  Write down the tasks.  In the beginning stage don’t mention at what time you will do each one, because you have not come to that stage that you will be definitely able to stick to the time.  But mention the work.  Until you have mastered your mind, and have control over your time, don’t give a specific time.  Rather, tell others to give you a time, and ask for a range, like, “Between eight and ten o’clock.”

Next comes the third stage of the mind, the disturbed state.  In this state you are able to focus and concentrate, but something happens to divert your attention and after that you are not able to regain your concentration. From this you go to the fourth stage of the mind, the concentration state.  Now, even if a distraction comes while you are focused on something, you are able to again concentrate without much difficulty.

Then comes the still and stable state, which is the final stage.   Here your mind will be always linked with the Self within, but your outer activities will continue.  Mind has two layers, the surface and the inner.  Surface mind is the monkey.  Inner mind is the elephant, very stable.  The inner layer, or the inner mind, is linked with the Being, and is stable and silent, while the outer mind is discharging the activities.  If you minutely examine you will see that ninety percent of the work can be done with your surface mind.  The inner mind is used when you sit quietly and try to contemplate. Then your inner mind is getting linked with the outer problem and when that happens the solution will become visible.

When one is doing yoga he should minimize the activation of the surface mind. This is the reason we go to stay in ashrams.  The surface mind is activated when you are engaged in surface conversation, so yogis should not engage in unnecessary discussion with fellow yogis.  When we talk, we share our physical, mental and vital experiences, our ideas, opinions and thoughts.  Rarely people share their realization or their sadhana experience.

Here in this verse the Lord is advising how a seeker should proceed towards Self-realization, and what are the necessary preparations.  First is, remain within yourself.  You may be in an ashram, where twenty-five people are staying, but be within.  Live within.  Avoid socialization and gossip.

Always consciously strive to control your mind and your vital.  Of these five stages, find out at what stage is your mind.  If you are in the stable and still state, you will notice that those who are in an unstable state won’t feel the pull towards you.  They will have either fear or reverence, because you will radiate a certain vibration that will repel other energies.

Put conscious effort to control your mind and your vital.  Don’t activate your desire force, and don’t keep unnecessary things with you, especially if you are in a state where you are entering into the Being.  The outer world is a world of excitement only.  The inner world is the world of bliss.  Once you experience the bliss of the Being, outer excitement will not pull you.  That is what Krishna says, that senses will always run towards the object, and how far will outer denial take you, Arjuna?  If you can experience the Being within, the senses will turn away automatically.  This is the advice that was given in the second chapter.  And in the sixth chapter the sadhana procedure is explained step-by-step.

Once you enter into the Being you experience the Being, and that is nectar.  Once you experience that you will be pulled towards it again and again.

A yogi should always consciously strive to be linked with, and enter into, the Self.  For that the yogi should follow four conditions:

1. Live within, by yourself
2. Consciously put effort to control the mind and the vital
3. Do not activate the surface desire mind
4. Do not keep unnecessary objects with you.

If these four are followed then entering into the Being and remaining with the Being will be easier.

[From a February 2012 Interaction at Satyachetana Ashram, Tiruvannamalai, India.]