Meditation styles and Yoga practice

Guru Patanjali Preaching in Sadhana Yoga

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Part 16
Translation: -
Pain, sorrow and distress not yet come is avoidable and is to be prevented.

Pain, sadness, grief, anguish, unhappiness, misery, distress, trouble and sorrow that are in seed form in mind and that have not so far arrived, which have not so far reached the field of the experience of an individual human being, are to be warded off and avoided. They are not to be accepted consciously in thoughts. They are not allowed to touch thoughts of unconscious mind. Temporary joy giving thoughts not yet fallen may also be avoided consciously by avoiding psychic contact with them. The meditation of pain and sorrow for the future is not to be entertained in the thoughts of unconscious mind. On the contrary, the distressful tendencies of such pains and sorrows are to be eliminated from the unconscious mind.

The Great Sage Patanjali says that the desires for the enjoyment of fruits of karma action and the desires for the enjoyment of sensual and sensate pleasure in the mind of a living being, flows in the form of affection, enmity and fear. This desire is due to the presence of lack of spiritual knowledge. Lack of spiritual knowledge is the root cause of harboring thoughts of desires craving in the unconscious mind. Such a desire keeps on occurring in the form of seeds karma action in the thoughts of the unconscious mind. Such a craving is the cause of the emergence of lingering past subliminal karma impressions in the future lives. Such a craving is to be destroyed consciously. Such a craving is to be stopped from over powering the mind consciously.

The main cause of the distress is the desire for undergoing the fruits of karma actions. Such a desire is to be undergone as lingering past subliminal karma impressions in the present or in the life to come. At the time of undergoing the fruits of karma actions, the seeds of craving and the seeds of action get born. The ball of lingering past subliminal impressions and cravings along with the ball of thought and the ball of seeds of karma actions keeps on giving birth to pleasure and pain in a human being. It gives birth to the seed of action, the seed of pleasure and the seed of pain. It gives birth to the seed of pleasure in the seed of pain. It also gives birth to the seed of pain in the seed of pleasure. Seeds of action and the seeds of pleasure and pain get born in the thoughts of the unconscious mind by remaining alive in the form of craving.

These seeds by remaining alive in the characteristics and qualities of subtlest nature essence that are harmonious, passionate and slothful and by remaining alive in the living body also get sown. A person endowed with super-consciousness and a person endowed with discrimination, experiences a mixture of all these pleasures and pains in the form of pain only. He gets a tasteless taste out of even the pleasure. A human being of discrimination undergoes the consequences of his karma actions in a spirit of renunciation. He does so by crossing beyond pleasure and pain. In this way the undergoing of the fruits of karma actions, which is according to the lingering past subliminal impressions, becomes fruit free. It becomes free from the seeds of karma actions. Salvation is not possible without undergoing the fruits of karma actions, which the definite characteristics and qualities of subtlest nature have created. As such, a human being of discrimination regards them as grace of God and undergoes them in obedience to God’s command.

The memory of undergoing the fruit of action, which is moving in the form of desires in the unconscious mind, is itself a pain. It should be destroyed before the birth of the future lingering past subliminal impressions of the living being. It is the spiritual knowledge of their lack of spiritual knowledge, which helps in destroying it. The spiritual knowledge helps in stopping the formation of future lingering past subliminal impressions. Self-discipline, meditation and surrender to God are achieved through the eight limbs of non-preparatory yogic discipline. Even though subliminal impressions have not been yet formed, pain and pleasure, merit and demerit, thoughts of righteousness and non-righteousness appear in the form of cravings.

These thoughts are to be consciously stopped. These thoughts are to be restrained with the help of the eight-fold path of yogic discipline. It is by restraining the pain and pleasure provoking thoughts that the self-realization gets attained. It is then that liberation from the cycle of life and death gets attained. Salvation is not attained by merely purifying the thoughts or by merely performing righteous deeds. Purification of thoughts and performance of righteous deeds leads to the attainment of super supreme life but does not lead to salvation.

The Great Sage Patanjali preaches that desires abound in all the thoughts of the unconscious mind. The seeds of sorrow also abound in all the thoughts of the unconscious mind. The thought of attaining God realization is also experienced as a seed of sorrow by a human being of discrimination. This is because it makes the next life supremely super but it also does not lead to liberation from the cycle of life and death. It is through the sustained meditation practice of the eight fold-path of yogic discipline that thoughts and cravings which are in the seed form of action and are embedded in the subliminal impressions of the next life, are to be destroyed. Firstly, the argumentative thoughts and desires, which are in the form of affection in the conscious mind, are to be destroyed. They are to be nullified. There after, the subtle thoughts and cravings which are in the conscious mind and which are in the form of fear are to be destroyed and nullified. Lastly, the very subtle thoughts and cravings, which are in the inner core of conscious mind in the form of lack of spiritual knowledge, are to be destroyed and nullified.

It is on the destruction of lack of spiritual knowledge that awareness of spiritual knowledge, automatically gets attained. This is because spiritual knowledge lies hidden in lack of spiritual knowledge. Lack of spiritual knowledge is the cause of distress. When a living being consciously becomes aware of lack of spiritual knowledge, he attains spiritual knowledge. It is with the attainment of the spiritual knowledge that distress gets eradicated. Distress provoking thoughts also get eradicated. Thoughts, which get embedded in the subliminal impressions and have come in the stranglehold of subtlest nature essence, can only be destroyed after undergoing the fruits of karma actions. The undergoing of the fruits of karma actions is only to be undertaken as obedience to the command of God.

Destruction of distress provoking thoughts, destruction of the seeds of distress, is to be achieved during seeded spiritual union. This is possible only when self-ego or sense of egoism is not allowed to raise its ugly head in thoughts of unconscious mind. This is possible only when self- ego seed is eradicated from the conscious mind also.

Yoga Tip: - Select any one spiritual form & remain above any blind worship or superstition attached to it. Meditate on it with devotion regularly and consciously. Here is offered an icon of spiritual image of Goddess Laxmi Devi. Hindu’s considers Goddess Laxmi Devi as the Goddess of Abundance and Prosperity. Goddess Laxmi Devi carries a coffer and gold coins shower from her hand, and she represents the supreme divine principle of subtlest nature essence that pervades all creation of human life with vitality and consciousness. Actively adored by most of Hindus, Goddess Laxmi Devi is the modern face of the ancient Great Mother Goddess in temples of India. Lakshmi Devi is the goddess of wealth and is worshiped by Hindu people for the health and welfare of their families. Hindu business men and women offer her prayers to ensure the success of their endeavors. Lakshmi Goddess is frequently shown standing in her lotus throne and holding lotus buds, which are symbols of beauty and fertility. Lakshmi Devi, a goddess in her own right, is also the wife of the God Vishnu and as Vishnu has nine reincarnations, so does Lakshmi Goddess. The two most popular forms of God Vishnu and Goddess Lakshmi's reincarnations are Lord Rama and Sita Devi of Ramayana and Lord Krishna . Hindu’s considers Goddess Laxmi in prayer as the Goddess of Abundance and Prosperity. Depicted seated upon the lotus, Goddess Laxmi in prayer is icon of spiritual purity, fertility and vegetative growth. Goddess Laxmi in prayer is adored, like Ganesh, for her auspicious nature. Goddess Laxmi in prayer carries a coffer and gold coins shower from her hand, and she represents the supreme divine principle of true nature essence that pervades all creation of human life with vitality and consciousness. Goddess Laxmi in prayer is actively adored by most of Hindus temples.