Dear Friends,
Namaste!
We dabbled with the first four limbs of the eight-limbed Yoga system last week. We saw how value system, discipline, postures performed with awareness and breath control help us to conquer the gross elements and undertake the quest for mastering the subtle.
Let’s cover the remaining four limbs now.
Limb 5 - Sense Control (‘Pratyahara’)
Our senses are doors through which we connect with our environment. External stimuli can be quite distracting and a major hindrance in controlling the mind. The mind - because of its subtle/fickle nature - continuously associates with one stimulus or the other and gets drawn away.
Sense control teaches us to regulate this traffic so that we neither allow our mind to go completely berserk nor do we get totally “shut off” from the world.
Often the example cited is that of a tortoise going into its shell upon experiencing negative stimuli. It exercises shrewd choice as to when the situation is ripe to come out and when it is time to protect itself by drawing all its limbs and head into the shell. This is the best example of how ‘Pratyahara’ should be practised.
By not allowing the senses to be drawn to external objects, we are also preventing our mind from getting attached to these external objects. For, our mind needs our senses to get attached to the objects, to go out through these ‘doors’. In ‘Pratyahara’, we are locking these doors shut so that the mind remains ‘inside’ and becomes steady.
Limb 6 - Concentration (‘Dharana’)
Once the mind becomes steady, the intellect gets focused. This increases the power of our intellect tremendously. For example, when sunrays are spread all over, not much heat gets created. However, when we bring these rays together through a magnifying glass, they get concentrated at a single point and generate tremendous heat!
‘Dharana ‘ enables us to bring together our scattered consciousness and focus it on the subject matter. As a result, the grasping power of our intellect goes up multi-fold and acquiring knowledge becomes a cakewalk!
However, the main advantage of concentration is total absorption in whatever we are concentrating on. We have discussed before that this total absorption, this “becoming one with”, is nothing but Yoga itself!
Concentration (limb 6) helps us “become one with”, meditation (limb 7) helps us stay that way with consistent effort and ‘Samadhi’ (limb 8) always keeps us in that state effortlessly!
Limb 7 - Meditation (‘Dhyan’)
Once we are able to make our attention one-pointed, the next challenge is to keep it that way. This is anything but easy because we should have achieved body control, breath control, sense control etc. well before we even attempt meditation.
However, the good news is, with determination, right guidance, consistent effort and sublimation of our ego (by keeping a very open mind), it is certainly achievable.
Remember those days when we were struggling to pick up anything new, like car-driving for example. Remembering and following traffic rules, keeping an eye on the traffic, keeping an eye on the road ahead, manipulating the steering wheel, clutch, brakes, gears, accelerator, wipers, lights, horn etc. all at the same time did appear to be almost impossible and unachievable by a human being!
However, it all happened! Today we can drive in the most difficult of conditions without batting an eyelid!! What’s more, we do sometimes engage in animated conversations with passengers as if someone else were driving!!!
How did this become possible? As stated before - with determination, right guidance, consistent effort and sublimation of our ego!
Limb 8 – Blissful Existence (‘Samadhi’)
One of the greatest characteristics of what we know as our ‘mind’ is, it can get trained in any which way we wish. And once trained in a particular manner, it *automatically*follows that path again and again and again. We have seen before how we can make habits work for us. We have seen how we can succeed – not in spite of, but because of – our inertia!
Consider an electric fan. When we switch it on, the torque required to set it in motion is more than that required to keep it spinning. Similarly, the torque required to stop the fan is more too! This is because of inertia. Likewise, the effort required to develop a good habit is more initially. But once accomplished, it becomes actually quite difficult not to follow it. So much of a *natural* do we become at it.
Once we learn to meditate and make it a habit, it becomes unthinkable for us to be in any state other than this meditative state, the state of “blissful existence”. Meditation starts happening!
Indeed, the main difference between limb 7 and limb 8 is – meditation is done and ‘Samadhi’ happens!
Phir milenge…
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