Dear Friends,
Namaste!
Let’s now get down to the business of implementing the principles we have discussed in our tete-a-tete in our daily routine. Because unused principles are like money in the bank. They give us a feeling of wealth but how often have we seen people live poor to die rich?
So, onto the “Yogic Routine” that will propel us towards our destination as well as all the intermediate milestones!
And we will take first things first. The most important part of our routine that is. So what, pray, is the most important part?
Routine is a set of activities that we do day in and day out. Some of them are repetitive (at some frequency) while others are one-off. But essentially these are tasks that we perform using our “Gyan Indriya” (five senses, viz., eyes, nose, ears, skin and tongue) and “Karma Indriya” (five tools, viz., hands, legs, anus, reproductive organ and the faculty of speech). And guess what is the trigger for all these activities? Our thoughts!
Therefore our routine consists of thinking (”Vichaar”) as inevitably as it consists of acting (”Achaar”) and speaking (“Uchchaar”). We interact with our environment essentially through acting and speaking. This is the action we perform on our surroundings and receive an equal and opposite reaction to each one of our actions. This, as we have seen before, is the Law of Karma.
Results we experience are the effect of our actions and speech. But actions and speech are caused, in turn, by our (conscious or sometimes indeed sub-conscious) thoughts! Thus it is obvious that what we experience in life has a direct correlation with what we think from moment to moment. We literally ‘build’ our own destiny using our own thoughts – one brick at a time, one thought at a time.
Therefore, the most important part of Yogic Routine is that we must always think ‘positive’ thoughts, ‘happy’ thoughts, ‘right’ thoughts. These alone, over a period of time (and not immediately because of the complex laws of Karma - “Karmano Gahana Gatih”), will give us desired results and help us reach milestones as well as the destination.
But before moving on to how to ensure that we maximize occurrence of ‘right’ thoughts in the millions of thoughts that zip through our brains on a daily basis, it will be worth sorting out what thoughts can be deemed as ‘right’ in the first place.
While discussing the basic principles of “Karma Yoga”, we have seen how to analyse and conclude whether a thought is ‘right’ or “Dharmic”. We saw what “Dharma” is all about. What are its different types. Why we should stick to our “Swa-Dharma”. What IS our “Swa-Dharma” etc. But these principles and analysis, while extremely useful for resolving conflicts and answering complex questions without a trace of ambiguity, cannot be practically applied to all the million thoughts that keep passing through our minds moment in and moment out. We need something quick and almost as infallible as the more elaborate analysis proposed under “Karma Yoga”.
Fortunately for us, such a litmus test is available within Yoga-Shastra. And it is propounded by none other than Lord Krishna. That too, on the battleground of Kurukshetra while counselling Arjuna. The story goes like this...
When Lord Krishna saw the great warrior Arjuna completely non-plussed on the battleground of Kurukshetra, his immediate reaction was to tell him, “You are thinking thoughts that are not worthy to be thought. What is more, you think those thoughts are perfectly logical, there can be no superior thoughts and secretly you are patting yourself on the back for thinking correctly.
“Nothing is farther from the truth! You must immediately stop this thought train and correct your line of thinking. For, that alone will show you what is good for you and your dependents.”
“Then please tell me, O Lord,” wailed poor Arjuna, “what indeed can be deemed as the correct thoughts in this situation and in all situations.”
“Look at your state right now. You are confused. You are sweating, shivering and lamenting. You cannot even stand up on your own legs, leave alone fight the war. Any thoughts that cause such negative effects cannot be righteous or correct.
“When I will counsel you, you can apply the same test to know whether I have given you the right advice. If my advice clears your thinking, removes confusion and illusion, shows you the way and returns your strength, valour, enthusiasm – then you can deem it as the correct advice.”
In the end, Arjuna did confess in as many words that his confusion was cleared as a result of which he was raring to fight the war!
We can therefore conclude that a thought that has positive effect on mind and body is ‘right’, otherwise it’s ‘wrong’!
Alvida...
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