Raja Yoga
Friday December 24 2004 08:37
By Karmayogi
Life exists in several
grades. There are endless varieties in each grade. It is true of food, dress,
town, instruments, people, culture and everything. So also, yoga differs
vastly. Its goal of moksha too differs and is found in endless varieties. In
the preliminary stages, where yoga does not mature, other mental capacities
accrue.
Most common among them is Memory. A photographic memory develops. Will becomes
powerful and unfailing. Mind develops the capacity to cure the diseases of
one's own body, sometimes others. The spoken word becomes true. It is
seen by people as a symptom of saintliness.
In moksha itself, there are endless grades. Three of them stand out. The first
is one from which the soul is capable of returning. The second stage is one
only great souls can return from. The third stage is pure Silence reaching
which the Soul dissolves and cannot return to its original status.
The last stage is called Nirvikalpa Samadhi. Raja yoga can confer that on the
yogi.
Vivekananda was an unusual disciple of Ramakrishna. He was not cast into the
mould of discipline or implicit faith in the Guru. Ramakrishna was postponing
the occasion of initiating his truant disciple into the arts of Nirvikalpa
Samadhi. Finally, the secret was taught by the Master on condition that Naren –
Vivekananda – would practise it only in the presence of the Guru. Naren had a
different impulse.
He straightaway went into the garden and tried it sitting on a bench. Ramakrishna
felt it, ran to him and called him back to waking consciousness. The Soul that
enters into the bliss of dissolution is lost forever. Creation in the cosmos is
in the shape of Form and Force, swarupa, swabhava. The Force takes the Form.
When the Form dissolves, the Force rejoins its original consciousness.
Raja yoga employs the entire mental forces to do yoga. It is the yoga of the
complete Mind. It is the acme of Jnana yoga. To do so, it has to address the
basic restlessness of the body. It achieves that end by asanas. The vital is
more restless than the body and is capable of making the body more restless.
To quieten the vital, Raja yoga employs pranayama. Pranayama brings the
universal energy into our nervous system. It enormously enriches the health of
the body and powers of the mind. Done systematically for five years, Pranayama
gives one the power to cure any disease in himself and others.
When a soul is ripe, mature, saturated with burning aspiration, one is capable
of taking to Raja yoga. It is meant for the rare soul. Lord Krishna was
desirous of relieving such aspiring yogis of the resort to asanas and pranayamas,
which are physical methods.
So, in The Gita Krishna offers to the ripe soul a more psychological method. It
is a method of Jivatma surrendering to Paramatma. It is accomplished by
renouncing desire, ego and belief in Dharmas.