In the Yoga Sutras, there are Yama Niyamas, the rules and regulations for a yogi. Simply by saying, I’m going to sit and meditate and do my Kriya, nobody moves. Your character also has to change. Your outward behavior has to change. Then you do the Kriya practice consistently.
Consistent practice is very important, because you’re trying to change the pattern of your mind. And if you don’t do it consistently, it will fall back to the same pattern.
So, let the yogi, says
In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says to Arjuna, constantly practice spiritual communion by residing alone in a solitary spot.
At least, few days, or one day in a week, or two days in a week, go to a solitary place, if you can’t do it all the time. If you can do it all the time, you’re lucky.
But if you can’t, because we all have to do our work, we have to do. So, set apart some time for solitude, at least. Maybe one day in a week, go to a quiet place on a Sunday. Switch off your phones. Nothing is going to happen, believe me. Sit quietly and do your kriya or meditation.
Have simple food. Make yourself, because if you have one more person making food, that’s a problem.
Be alone in solitude. You can have company of trees, squirrels, birds. These are good companions. Stay quiet.
Don’t have any bad thought about anybody. At least for two days in a week. Or one day in a week on a Sunday.
Don’t let anybody disturb you. And then do your practice.
It helps. Occasional solitude is important, in the midst of this world we live in.
At least during that time, don’t think of any other activity. How much money you are going to add in your bank account etc
All that we can do later when we go.
Stay in solitude. Just think of meditation. Nothing else. Try to go within. Deeply.
Don’t carry too many possessions which you cannot protect. So, carry only what is necessary like a flask for drinking water, because we don’t carry Kamandalus nowadays. And some food which you can eat and relax. But it should not be so uncomfortable that you cannot meditate.
You have to imbibe discipline in body and mind. Develop the habit of going for a little walk, doing some asanas.
If nothing else, walk for some time, sit under the tree, listen to the birds.
You know the birds? They are constantly chanting something. Listen to them. We don’t know the language, but they are. Listen to the birds.
Or, chant Aum and listen to the sound.
So, at least in the beginning, solitude is essential for developing meditation. When you are an advanced person, then you can do it in the marketplace also, but not before.
What kind of place, where to sit, how to do?
Even if you have found a solitary place, it should be a clean spot, not a dirty spot. If it’s dirty, clean it.
Spot which is neither too high nor too low. If it is too high, you might meditate and lose your awareness and fall down. If it’s too low, then your mind also will start sinking. So, sit in a comfortable place. Neither too high, nor too low.
A seat should be made, how to make the seat on which you sit, that is also given, with kusha grass. Now, you don’t have kusha grass here, so don’t worry. I will meditate only if I have kusha grass.
A seat should be made. And firmly seated on it. Not allowing the body to move here and there. Firmly seated.
Yogi should practice spiritual communion with the mind concentrated and with the working of the imaginative faculty and senses under control for selfpurification. Now, two things. One is, when you sit for meditation, do not allow your senses to indulge.
Don’t allow your senses to look for something. Keep them under control at that point. Which means, eyes are also senses, right? They are always looking.
Close them. You cannot meditate because if you are distracted by all the things that are happening, close your eyes for some time. But there are people who get distracted only when they close their eyes.
Really, I come across such people. So I say, keep your eyes open. So, now the thing is senses and then the imaginative faculty.
Even if you close your eyes, the imagination is still working, right? All your senses are and imagination is still working. You can imagine all the damn cells from heaven. So, keep that also under control for a short period of time.
Because when you meditate without all this, you will see how peaceful and wonderful it is, then you will not allow this to happen. Keep your mind, imagination, everything under control. Believe me, it takes time.
It’s called Abhyasa Yoga. It’s not done in one day. It needs constant practice before you get there.
So, don’t stop meditating because one day I sat down, I could not control. No. So, then, yeah, now is the, now the seat is described, the state of mind is described, now the posture is described.
Holding the body head and neck erect. Why? Because in this particular meditation, also when we do Kriya, the main action is happening in the spine. The Sushumna, the central Nadi, the central, what is it called? What do you call for Nadi? The central Channel.
Channel. Yes. Is what we are dealing with.
So, it’s quite common sense that you keep your spine and everything erect, neck, head. So, keeping your body neck and head erect, motionless and firm. I know that when some people meditate, their head like this.
I see all kinds of people. And some are doing. So, the idea is to keep quiet and firm.
Imagine the Buddha sitting. So, sometimes this movement may happen naturally because the Nadis, the channels are getting opened and adjusted. The idea is stillness.
The body is still, the mind is still. Other way round also, the mind is still, the body is still. So, hold the body head and neck erect.
This is what the Gita is saying, not me, okay. What Krishna is telling Arjuna. So, I can give up the responsibility for it.
Holding the body head and neck erect, motionless and firm. Now, here is one way of meditation which you have not done, which is a little different. When we meditate and do our Kriya, we usually fix our attention here in the Bhrumadhya or in the heart center.
Here, Krishna seems to tell Arjuna, fix your attention on the tip of your nose. Now, when you fix your, you don’t have to do, this is in the Gita, when you fix your attention on the tip of the nose, what happens is, your mind automatically goes to the heart center, Anahata, that’s the reason. So, it’s not a physical fixing your, but the mind, it’s not the physical gaze, otherwise, if you meditate one month continuously like this, you will become crosseyed.
So, it’s the mind. Some people meditate here all the time and they are like this. After some time, you can’t get your eyes back.
So, it’s not the eye as an organ that has to go there, but the gaze, the mind has to go there, right? So, all this is being filmed, doesn’t matter. You should have taken a closeup when I did that. So, holding the body, the head and the neck erect, motionless and firm, firm, gazing at the tip of the, no, why they said this is also the next part of the sentence, not roundabout.
What they are saying is fix your attention in one, not, so, when you do that, then your eyes are not roving here and there, in one place. When the eye stops in one place, the mind stops in one place. You know why? Because we probably don’t realize this, the eye can see only one thing at a time.
You say, no, no, you can see the whole, yes, you can see the whole room because you have a lens in your eye which like the camera is reflecting the light and coming, the images are all coming, but suppose I am looking at Leena, everything else is blurred, I can see only one thing at a time, then I shift to him. Others are there, they are blurred, they exist, but I can see only you when I fix here. Now here, now here, now I can see in the border, there are other people sitting, but my eye is seeing you, one thing at a time.
You get what I am trying to say? Now, when you fix your attention on one thing, your mind also gets fixed on one thing, then it’s not one. Suppose I look at everyone like this, how is the mind going to stop? So this, fix your attention here or here, whichever, but one direction. When you do that, your mind is also in one direction.
This is why the suggestion that you fix attention of the eye on one point. Through fixing the eye’s attention on one point, the mind also becomes onepointed. So when you close your eyes, how will you do that? So just they are saying, imagine that you are fixing your attention.
All the thoughts in mind, everything. Suppose I sit down to meditate, first when I close my eyes, I fix my attention here, then here, then here, then here. You cannot, the mind doesn’t become steady, so what? Restrained in mind, so restraining your mind through fixing your gaze on one object internally here or here.
The person should sit in spiritual communion. Here Krishna says with me, what he means is with the universal self. Me doesn’t mean the person.
Here Krishna is speaking as a manifestation of the divine. So here me means the supreme and looking upon me as the highest and the most precious end. The only aim of the meditation should be to find the self, higher your self.
There are other forms of meditation like if you keep meditating on golden colour, gold and so on, then you may become wealthy. But here that is not what they are asking for. They are asking for deep inner meditation.
There are other forms of meditation you will find in the internet. There is so much meditation on how to become rich, how to make money. There are books also which say if you imagine you will get it.
True. But here we are looking at the inner not the outer. Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.
The funny thing was when I was a young man and I was not interested in all these things, I was going to see yogis and running away to the Himalayas. My grandfather, my mother’s father was a very worldly and practical man, gave me a copy of Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. I didn’t read it of course but he gave it to me.
And several years later I was curious what is this about. By then Napoleon Hill had written another book also before he died. So I said let me read the second book first before reading the first book because now it will be coming out of experience so many years after writing the first book.
So I read it and it is interesting. It said that the greatest wealth is to find happiness itself. So if my grandfather was alive I would have told him that’s exactly what I’m doing.
He was no more, he’s gone. So, okay. With the mind restrained from going outward to objects and always uniting with the inner self in spirit and communion the yogi attains to peace which is supreme salvation and enduring establishment in my state.
Means when you do that regularly in a quiet place in solitude without allowing the mind to go to outward objects uniting with the inner self which is a spark of the divine and spiritual communion yogi then attains to peace which is supreme salvation and enduring always remaining establishment in my state. My state here Krishna again is speaking as manifestation of the divine not as the human as the body but as the inner self. The here in this case in Krishna for instance is something which is timeless which has come into time.
I mean I don’t know how to explain this. Something which cannot be measured which is also our true inner self. Something which is neither born nor dies.
Body does. It is born and it dies. The inner self which is our true essence is something which is never born therefore it cannot die.
Anything that is born has to die. Therefore it is called timeless. In the Punjab the Sikhs, you know the religion of the Sikhs.
Have you seen a Sikh? Not a Sikh person. They had a great teacher called Guru Nanak. Nanak.
And he always referred to the Supreme Being as Akal which means timeless. One who is existing forever. So even their greeting is Shashri Akal which means the truth, the great timeless one.
I bow down. This is their greeting. So this timelessness is the real characteristic of our inner self.
The body has time of course. It comes and it goes. So when okay, so the yogi attains establishment in my timeless state.
Actually in deep meditation, when you have touched your inner core of your being, there is no time. Then you come out of it and then you begin to reckon time. There is no time.
And then you say, oh, it’s time. So now here is something very interesting. Oh Arjuna, says Krishna to his friend or disciple, here now disciple.
Now this is interesting. A good disciple is a good friend. Like Arjuna is a great friend of Krishna but he is also now in this context he is his disciple.
Oh Arjuna, says Krishna, success in yoga, which was described, yoga meaning trying to reach the inner core of one’s being, success in yoga is not for one who eats too much, coming down to the practicals from there. Yoga is not for him who eats too much nor who eats too little. Moderation is required in all physical This is just a metaphor saying that moderation is required.
This yoga is not for him who eats too much or eats too little. Because yogis don’t starve themselves. They eat food enough and nutritious for the body’s existence but they don’t overeat and they don’t starve.
Occasional fasting may be good for the body. What is that? There is something in fashion now, intermittent fasting, something like that. I’ve never tried it of course but that’s alright.
But for the yogi, eating too much is not a good idea. You know what will happen? You’ll sleep or your senses will become so turbulent. Starving is no good because if you don’t eat food for four days together, if you can, you cannot even think.
Brain stops thinking and we are not trying to stop the brain from thinking. We are trying to stop the mind from disturbing. These are two things.
If you want the brain to stop thinking, go ahead, don’t eat for some time. Then the mind will start troubling you. Eat, eat.
So, a yogi, the moderation is the key. Neither too much nor too little. You can have entertainment, but not all the time entertainment.
All the night if you watch TV, that’s not a yogi or anything else for that matter. So, Arjuna, therefore, why people don’t succeed in yoga is because of these factors. Success in yoga is not for those who eat too much, no,
