In Today's post, we
start with the essence of the 2 path- Raja
Yoga and Jnana Yoga, as written
by Swami, covered in the previous post
Raja Yoga (Royal Path, as Swami puts
it)
• When the mental abilities are focused on one effort, knowledge can be acquired quicker and from a wider field. And that is the only way by which knowledge can be earned.
• Concentration will enable one, whoever one is, whatever the
activity engaged in, to finish it much better than otherwise.
• Whether in material assignments, ordinary day-to-day work, or
spiritual exercises (sadhana),
concentration of mental energies is a must if success is to be achieved. It is
the key that can open the treasure chest of wisdom (jnana). This is the most important aspect of royal yoga.
• Millions of unwelcome, unwanted, unnecessary, and even harmful
thoughts enter our minds and confound their activities. These have to be kept
out; the mind has to be guarded and controlled and kept under our rigorous
supervision. Royal yoga is the one refuge for persons endeavoring to win this
victory.
Swami Vivekananda, whose
writing, and teachings on “Raja Yoga”,
is one of the most authentic teachings on this Royal Yoga.
Glimpses from the
introductory chapter on Raja Yoga by
Swamiji is given below.
"Yoga is the
science which teaches us how to get these perceptions. It is not much use to
talk about religion until one has felt it. Why is there so much disturbance, so
much fighting and quarreling in the name of God?
There has been more
bloodshed in the name of God than for any other cause, because people never
went to the fountain-head; they were content only to give a mental assent to
the customs of their forefathers, and wanted others to do the same.
The science of Râja-Yoga
proposes to put before humanity a practical and scientifically worked out
method of reaching this truth. In the first place, every science must have its
own method of investigation.
If you want to become an
astronomer and sit down and cry "Astronomy! Astronomy!" it will never
come to you. The same with chemistry. A certain method must be followed. You
must go to a laboratory, take different substances, mix them up, compound them,
experiment with them, and out of that will come a knowledge of chemistry.
If you want to be an
astronomer, you must go to an observatory, take a telescope, study the stars
and planets, and then you will become an astronomer.
Each science must have
its own methods. I could preach you thousands of sermons, but they would not
make you religious, until you practiced the method.
The knowledge of the
mind, of the internal nature of man, of thought, can never be had until we have
first the power of observing the facts that are going on within. It is
comparatively easy to observe facts in the external world, for many instruments
have been invented for the purpose, but in the internal world we have no
instrument to help us.
The science of
Raja-Yoga, in the first place, proposes to give us such a means of observing
the internal states. The instrument is the mind itself. The power of attention,
when properly guided, and directed towards the internal world, will analyse the
mind, and illumine facts for us.
The powers of the mind
are like rays of light dissipated; when they are concentrated, they illumine.
This is our only means of knowledge.
Everyone is using it,
both in the external and the internal world; but, for the psychologist, the
same minute observation has to be directed to the internal world, which the
scientific man directs to the external; and this requires a great deal of
practice.
To turn the mind as it
were, inside, stop it from going outside, and then to concentrate all its
powers, and throw them upon the mind itself, in order that it may know its own
nature, analyse itself, is very hard work. Yet that is the only way to anything
which will be a scientific approach to the subject.
What is the use of such
knowledge? In the first place, knowledge itself is the highest reward of
knowledge, and secondly, there is also utility in it. It will take away all our
misery.
In the study of this Raja-Yoga no faith or belief is necessary. Believe nothing until you find it out for yourself; that is what it teaches us. Truth requires no prop to make it stand.
This study of Raja-Yoga
takes a long time and constant practice. A part of this practice is physical,
but in the main it is mental.
According to the
Raja-Yogi, the external world is but the gross form of the internal, or subtle.
The finer is always the cause, the grosser the effect. So the external world is
the effect, the internal the cause.
A Yogi must avoid the
two extremes of luxury and austerity. He must not fast, nor torture his flesh.
He who does so, says the Gita, cannot be a Yogi: He who fasts, he who keeps
awake, he who sleeps much, he who works too much, he who does no work, none of
these can be a Yogi (Gita, VI, 16).
In the next post, we
will take up Jnana yoga.
Love.
