We are a walk from Consciousness—a process toward the Divine that drifts away in order to return to the place, which it never really left—which forgot what it never knew...

You are an adventure that begins and ends in you...

The human being is much more than a body and a soul; he is an infinite number of different aspects, which, when disharmonized, confront each other and create inevitable conflicts.

In an integrative process, these different aspects become harmonized simultaneously in the plane of action with karma—yoga, at the level of feelings with bhakti—yoga, in the mental aspect with rāja—yoga, and, last but not least, with the observation and self—inquiry that jnana—yoga offers.

 The human being can be viewed as a musical instrument, if one of its strings are out of tune no melody will sound right, even if it the most beautiful sonata played by the most virtuoso musician. By incorporating yoga into our lives, actually, we are undertaking a process of "self—tuning". We can describe it as an integral awakening, which is to say, it is happening in all aspects of the human being, in each level of his reality.

It is not a matter of striving to get the Sun inside our dark chamber, or fighting against obscurity, but in opening innumerable windows toward the infinite and allowing the golden rays of the Sun to enter.

In many cases, our imbalance is due to a neglect of one of our aspects, just as a bird requires her wings to be in perfect harmony to fly. Harmonization of all our aspects and overcoming physical, mental, emotional, and intellectual blocks and repressions is essential if we wish to create a situation in which yoga can occur. Unfortunately, most of the people in our modern society pay no heed to and ignore many of these factors.

This message can be defined as sākṣi—pūrṇa—yoga, or "the integral yoga of observation". In Hinduism's glorious past, great spiritual masters and acaryas, such as His Divine Grace Sri Aurubindo or His Divine Grace Sri Swami Sivananda, presented their own realizations under the title "integral yoga"; however, one of the great differences between these marvelous visions and this message is that sakshi—purna—yoga does not intend to be one and the same for all, for it addresses the individual rather than the mass.

It is essential that each disciple adopt an personal sādhanā containing the appropriate amount of each of the different yogas, according to his specific needs. Ideally, the best situation is to have the spiritual master create a specially designed sādhanā for each disciple, which is one of the main reasons why an authentic guru is necessary. Sadhana to the disciple should be as medicine to the patient, and the master is the authentic, duly trained, medical expert.

The person is the ego, a product of society, it originates from others; it is mechanical, while individuality organically blossoms from life itself, from the depths of existence—the difference is a radical one.

Religion and society are incompatible things. The individual level is real, unlike the public, which is composed of persons, an assembly of egos. Enlightenment happens on the individual level; the mass only reacts, organizationally, toward this individual awakening as an act of self—protection.

Religion as a collective phenomenon, "churchood", "templehood", or "blind religiosity" is but the collective reaction to the authentic phenomenon of religion, which manifests in the heart of the enlightened.

    

Hinduism is composed of an infinite number of Iṣṭa—devatās, which are different aspects of the Divinity: Śiva, Viṣṇu, Kṛṣṇa, Gaṇeśa, Durgā, and Kālī and different approaches, Vaiṣṇavism, Śaivism, Śāktism, and Smārtism. An infinite number of windows open to the same skies. Because, as individuals, we are not all the same; we are life, and life is not repetitive. We are diverse flowers within the same garden; a diversity of branches, leaves, and flowers of the same tree—plurality in unity, because creativity is existence's motto.

If we observe ourselves across an interval of several hours, we will realize that we do not stay the same. In the morning, we are one way, in the afternoon, another, and by nightfall, we are totally different.... Our predisposition will not be the same in public or in private. By observing yourself you will discover the variety in you...

A person can allow himself to develop his devotion toward Vishnu, Krishna, Siva, or the Divine Mother, without ceasing to profess Hinduism. This is only possible in a religion of an inclusive character; its pluralism, breadth and acceptance offer marvelous possibilities; we can pray and chant in public according to vaishnavism, at the same time to worship as an authentic saiva with our closest friends, and unimpeded by this, to meditate in our privacy and perceive the Divine Mother according to saktism.

 

Imbalanced Development

The world of the primitive man was nothing more than a cave with forests and rivers at its limits. Today, society is modern and advanced, in its great efforts to conquer and dominate nature and all of creation, had expanded its frontiers up to the stars. Unfortunately, together with technological development, man became distanced from his essence and forgot its own nature.  Man has advanced to undreamed—of heights in the scientific aspect, yet in terms of his spirituality, he has become blocked. Thus, humanity's development is completely out of balance.

Today we have reached such a level of development that a man can reach the moon, but we cannot make that man happy....

For example, let us imagine a scientist who last touched the Bible at his first communion, or the bar—mitzvah. He studied and then was trained at a university for many years until he became a physician or a chemist. As a scientist, he amassed many years of knowledge, but in the spiritual aspect he remained a child. Such imbalanced development is the cause that ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads, chemical and biological weapons, reach the hands of internally underdeveloped men, who are completely immature regarding the soul and lack compassion and love. These men, who in the Stone Age would have used a stone or a spear, are now capable of exterminating hundreds of thousands of people with the push of a button. An electric handsaw can be the expression of a wonderful advancement, yet in the hands of a monkey, it is hazardous. The marvelous outcome of scientific progress can be dangerous if humanity remains deep in ignorance and does not mature to the level of consciousness.

 

Yoga is Coherence

The meaning of the word yoga is "union". We, as an ego, belong to the relative duality; we are a division, a disharmony between the act, the thought, and the feeling. whereas, Totality is harmony, it is complementary...  

 

The sacred Ṛg Veda (10.191.2) advises coherence, both on the individual and the universal levels.

saṁ  gacchadhvaṁ  saṁ  vadadhvaṁ 

saṁ  vo manāmsi jānatām

devā  bhāgaṁ  yathā pūrve

sañjānānā upāsate

"May we walk together, talk together and understand one another. As the wise ones unite in correct thought, let us share our reward."

And later in the same Ṛg Veda (10.191.4):

 

samānī va ākūtiḥ

samānā hṛdayāni vaḥ

samānam astu vo mano

yathā vaḥ susahāsati

"May our actions be consistent. May our hearts be harmonious, and may our opinions be similar. In this way we shall prosper and be truly blissful." 

Though we live in the attempt to satisfy innumerable desires, we get nothing but loneliness, pain, misery and discomfort; we feel that things are not going in our lives as they should.

We live with the pain created by the conflict; our egoistic desires divide us. We become such beings who object to bullfights and the mistreatment of animals but who consume meat. We are pacifists and oppose the war, but at the same time fight with our neighbors. We act very differently from the way we feel. We feel very differently from the way we think, and we think differently from the way we behave.... In other words, we live in a totally incoherent manner....

 

Yoga is integral in the sense that it searches for harmony. For example, we should not try to understand the yamas, or restrictions and niyamas, or observances, with a calculative approach, viewing them as a group of laws, such that, by disobeying them, we are irrevocably condemned to an eternal purgatory while their fulfillment makes us worthy of reward in the form of a private spot in paradise. Such an attitude will lead us to that commercialized air of the misunderstood religion, or religiosity, of trying to buy God with a currency of "good deeds", which is a symptom of humanity's infantile stagnation. Yamas and niyamas should be incorporated within the call for coherence of our emotions, thoughts and actions....

 

In order to understand yoga, it is important to follow the meaning of this word, union....  yoga is allowing existence to penetrate us, to deluge us so that life touches the most intimate in us. Then we shall realize the true communion with the flowers, the Sun, the Moon; the union with the rain, the trees, and the clouds... we shall discover the true flavor of life, its magic and its nectar... while there is still an infinitesimal distance between you and life, you cannot say that you have really lived....

 

Yoga is to tear down walls, to cut fences, to eliminate everything that isolates us from existence. It is to unite, to harmonize, to get in—tune; it is the communion with the Whole. It is the communion with God... ātmavat sarva—bhūteṣu...

You shall recognize eternity in every moment, the Whole in every place; you will see behind every name and form the same existence, consciousness and bliss that beats in the deepest of you. You will love and server everyone and be taken by tremendous joy...

 

 

Question:

"Can you clearly say what is obtained by the practice of yoga?"

Answer:

I can tell you, with all honesty, nothing....  Yoga is not a method to obtain or reach something; it is not intended to add something to your personality that you did not have before.... When we talk about yoga, we are talking about a certain cleansing, a process of purification, a movement of getting rid of something and not of acquiring more....

True religion does not try to reach where we are not or to be what yet we have become. Better said, it attempts to be that which we can only truly be. The true spiritual process consists in being conscious that for happiness, nothing is needed, and the only problem is that which is in excess...