Meditation styles and Yoga practice

Guru Patanjali Preaching in Sadhana Yoga

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Part 24
Translation: -
lack of spiritual knowledge and illusion are the causes leading to lack of spiritual knowledge of the spiritual truth or inner formless God essence.

Both lack of spiritual knowledge and illusion thoughts are the factors, which create lack of spiritual knowledge in respect of the fragmentation of the subject and object into two different entities. The cause of the fictitious separation of the possessor from the possessed and of the owner from the owned is due to the preponderance and prevalence of lack of spiritual knowledge in mind that is subtlest nature essence. It is lack of spiritual knowledge, which is also the cause of merger of the self conscious of soul that is witnessing power with the seen power that is subtlest nature essence. It is the merger, which is felt by the embodied conscious mind.

The cause of lack of spiritual knowledge of the seer power or the witnessed power that lies in subtlest nature’s essence is felt by the embodied living being . The self-conscious of soul’s essence resides inside true nature’s essence . God’s essence resides in the self-conscious of soul’s essence . God’s essence is the seed of supreme knowledge. This seed knowledge is forever a supreme spiritual knowledge whose flow is being received by nature essence through the self-conscious of soul essence and its endless flowing in endless living being in universe. When the self-conscious of soul gets diverted from the supreme spiritual knowledge and gets focused in nature essence that is its servant, it is then that knowledge of lack of spiritual knowledge of nature’s essence comes in the grasp of conscious mind .

When the conscious mind is focused on nature’s essence , it is then that it gets focused on lack of spiritual knowledge. The craving of nature’s essence , its desire, its thoughts of distress, its seed of action and the lingering past subliminal karma impressions, is a mixture of pain and pleasure which lies in the subtle and matter of nature’s essence . The self-conscious of soul witnesses this mixture with a passing vision or glance. The self-conscious of soul witnesses the shadowy vision of nature essence through the embodied conscious mind of endless living being in universe while remaining in the clutches of subtlest nature essence. What the conscious mind sees is an impure sight or delusion or illusion or vision. It sees such an impure sight on account of thoughts of lack of spiritual knowledge flowing in conscious and un conscious mind of living being that is inner most part of nature essence.

When concentration of the embodied being is focused on the inner self-conscious of soul essence beyond conscious mind of nature essence, it is then that the self-conscious of soul essence directly tries to see or realize or insight vision of its own true form .It tries to get insight vision of its true formless essence. It is at this time that the self-conscious of soul visions its formless form without the help of nature’s inner core of conscious mind. This is because the self-conscious of soul does not have a separate independent and distinct form and shape of its own. It is formless. It is without form and shape. Hence the embodied being by focusing his concentration on his own inner self-conscious of soul essence beyond conscious mind gets a vision of the knowledge of the self-conscious of soul. In the process, he attains self-realization. The sight, which the embodied self-conscious of soul sees, is the sight of the spiritual knowledge of nature’s lack of spiritual knowledge.

When this lack of spiritual knowledge gets dispelled, connection of nature’s essence with the self-conscious of soul automatically gets disconnected and finally broken. This connection gets disconnected and broken during seeded spiritual union. The connection, however, continues to remain intact in seed form during seeded spiritual union. The sight that the self-conscious of soul essence sees is not that of any subject or object of outer matter world of surrounding universe but only of the formless inner conscious mind. It is the sight of the lack of spiritual knowledge of nature’s essence . It is a sight of the lack of spiritual knowledge of the self-ego or egoism of the embodied being.

The Guru says that the self-conscious of soul’s realization cannot be attained without the attainment of the spiritual knowledge of lack of spiritual knowledge. The spiritual knowledge of lack of spiritual knowledge cannot be attained without continuously fixing the conscious mind concentration on the inner self-conscious of soul essence itself. The fixing of concentration has to be in a sustained manner. Such a concentration is not possible without first entering into the seeded spiritual union. All that the disciple is to do during the seeded spiritual union is to still the movements of sense organs of body and thoughts of his unconscious mind which keep on flowing due to lack of spiritual knowledge in the shape of lingering past subliminal impressions. After he stills the movements of body and thoughts of his mind, the disciple is to look beyond the inner barrier of these thoughts. Before reaching this state the disciple is also to subjugate all the five kinds of thoughts, which keep on undulating in his unconscious mind.

To enable the disciple to overpower the thoughts of his unconscious mind, all the five kinds of thoughts are to be made craving free, affection free and enmity free. This task is to be done by stilling the thoughts of the unconscious mind. It is, however, essential to make the thoughts distress free in order to make them thought free. As such performance of karma actions of body of human being are to be consciously and carefully undertaken. Accepting the distress provoking thoughts in their stride, formless God’s command is to be obeyed. Accepting the pleasure provoking lingering past subliminal impressions as pain giving, karma actions of body are to be performed. The undergoing of the pain or pleasure of the lingering past subliminal impressions is not to be stopped. They are to be accepted. The thought of pain and pleasure is to be made meaningless by getting into a state of silence and stillness and with resolve and determination. Such a process is to be undertaken during the state of spiritual union. By converting lack of spiritual knowledge into spiritual knowledge, the thought of knowledge are also to be made meaningless by elimination of lack of spiritual knowledge and thoughts of distress and thoughts of cravings, thoughts of fruits of action and thoughts of seeds of action and the lingering past subliminal impressions. It is then that the connection of the conscious mind, which is nature’s essence , automatically gets broken from the embodied self-conscious of soul. The connection gets broken on the attainment of spiritual knowledge of lack of spiritual knowledge.

The Great Sage Patanjali says that thoughts of unconscious mind that are of five kinds are the cause of distress of all living beings. These thoughts are felt on account of five reasons. They are lack of spiritual knowledge, self-ego, affection, enmity and fear of death. In fact the very seed and existence of affection, enmity and fear of death lies in self-ego of human being. It is self-ego of human being that gets born in the concentration of the unconscious mind due to preponderance of lack of spiritual knowledge. It is lack of spiritual knowledge, which is the cause of the thoughts of the unconscious mind and its resultant distress. Attainment of the spiritual knowledge of these aspects leads to salvation. The conjunction between nature’s essence and the embodied self-conscious of soul is due to the lack of spiritual knowledge of the embodied living being.

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 pious form of Shiva God , the DAKSHINA-MURTI. This form of SHIVA God is the embodiment of wisdom. The Shiva God with 1008 names is sitting under the banyan tree, teaching the sages divine wisdom and also representing symbol of pure knowledge.

With his right foot SHIVA God is controlling the dwarfish demon of forgetfulness that is a symbol of life's blindness and human beings lack of spiritual knowledge. Conquest of this demon lies in the attainment of true wisdom.