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THE YOGI CONCEPTION OF LIFE.

 

 THE YOGI CONCEPTION OF LIFE.

CHAPTER I.

  

IF we study the action of mind upon mind, of mind over matter, of mind over the human body, we may realize how "each man is a power in himself"--to use Mr. Randall's phrase in his beautiful book on psychology.

 

Life is demonstrative: it speaks with a million, million tongues. Life stands for Light and Love. Contemplation of Death, which is really a change, will not lead to Happiness.

 

All-stagnation is death. Humanity is a moving mass, and this is true of it as regards single units as well as of the collective whole.

 

Stop we cannot. We must go forwards, which is "God-wards" or there is the backward line of progress--which is IGNORANCE.

 

Spasms of activity catch hold of us and push us onward and, similarly, fear, weakness and worry, the triple weapons of our Old Friend, the Devil, catch us in their deadly grip and "crib, cabin and confine" us.

 

We all are preparing to live, day in and day out. Is it not so? The body ages; the soul is ever on the alert.

 

 

We all are trying to grasp life in its proper perspective, to get a clear view of the goal ahead.

 

Some say "I am for enjoying life;" some say, "It is a bad mixture of heaven and hell, for the most part, hell;" others stand on neutral ground and say, "Let us make the best of a bad bargain. Since we are here, it is no use grumbling. This world is for our education."

 

Right. Move we must. It may be progress forward or progress backwards.

 

Life is a series of awakenings. Ideas dawn upon the mind from time to time, are caught up by brain and body and find physical expression as acts. Our outward life with its environment is fitted to our inward development. Wealth, position, fame, power,--all these are the simple expressions of individual character. This is not a platitude. Look and see for yourself.

 

It is quite necessary that we should pass through certain experiences, that we rise from ideal to ideal. We create our own fate. Our sufferings, our joys, are so many projections from ourselves. We alone are responsible for them.

 

Like the silkworm we build a cocoon around the soul and then feeling "Cramped," we set to loosening the bonds.

 

Enjoyment is not, ought not to be the goal of life. Sense-enjoyments end in satiety and exhaustion. Power and self, riches and all that riches mean, may tie us down to a narrow sphere. But in the long run we do come to know that happiness is not in them. This is a tremendous truth, yet God mercifully screens it from us till we are prepared to receive it.

 

What remains then? Man wants happiness. He rushes from one thing to another to grasp it, only to find everything slipping through his fingers. Let none deny it. "The aim of philosophy is to put an end to pain." All pain is caused by IGNORANCE. Apply the saving remedy of KNOWLEDGE, and PAIN vanishes at once. This is a great fact and all young men ought to stamp it well upon their minds.

 

While we are upon this phase of our subject, it may be worth while to go farther into these important facts of life--PLEASURE and PAIN.

 

Our thoughts and actions are the forces we send out of ourselves. All life is expression. The soul of man is trying to see itself in everything. How did the different organs of the body come into existence? How did man get his eyes, his ears, his nose and so forth? How does the growth of things proceed on the subconscious plane of existence? The soul willed to see and it saw, willed to hear and it heard, willed to smell and it smelt. That is the right explanation.

 

Take a subject, throw him into a hypnotic trance, lead him into the deepest state possible, give him vigorous suggestions that a steady increase is taking place as to his physique, repeat the suggestions twice every day for a few months and you will have put pounds of flesh on his form. If you know anything of these things at all, you will be hardly astonished. A striking case once occurred: Some frivolous students of Aberdeen held a hypnotic seance. A friend of theirs was hypnotised and made to go through certain illusions. Then a wet towel was put upon his neck and it was suggested to him that a sharp knife had been drawn right across his neck to cut his throat and that he was dead. It was such fun! The students danced for joy. But what was their surprise when they found the man was stone dead. It taught the eternal truth--what man thinks that he is, that he shall be.

 

Now, man is trying to express himself on the different planes of his being by appropriating to himself different vehicles of expression. When he meets with opposition, an obstacle, he chafes like a caged lion. Load the limbs of a man with fetters of iron and see the result. It is really this--when we can push forward without opposition, it causes pleasure, a sense of happiness; when we are held back it causes pain. Place good food before a healthy man. See how he likes it. It is because he knows that he is making an addition to himself. It brings on a sense of "MORE-NESS" and pleasure follows. Of course there are higher grades of this sense of "MORE-NESS." Some ancient doctors defined passion as an accession of strength due to the surcharge of arterial blood in the veins. All pleasure is from STRENGTH, all pain from WEAKNESS. There can be no question as to this fact.

There is a fire burning. Heap coals. The more coals, the brighter and steadier the flame. All obstacles are really "coal" feeding the "flame" of the spirit. They spur a man on. The vibrations of pain are often blessings in disguise. They drive the lesson home. The effect is not different from the cause. Both are the obverse and reverse of the same coin. Painful results grow out of deeds that clash with the interests of the DIVINITY WITHIN--which is for FREEDOM.

 योग और ब्रह्मचर्य

प्राचीन आर्य और ब्रह्मचर्य

 

HOW TO LIVE

THE GOAL OF THE YOGI AND LEVITATION

SURAGHO-THE LONG-LIVED YOGI THE SECRET OF HIS LONGEVITY

THE GREAT EGOIST--BALI

QUEEN CHUNDALAI, THE GREAT YOGIN

CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE

THE WAY TO BLESSED LIBERATION

MUDRAS MOVE THE KUNDALINI

LOCATION OF KUNDALINI

SAMADHI YOGA

THE POWER OF DHARANA, DHIYANA, AND SAMYAMA YOGA.

THE POWER OF THE PRANAYAMA YOGA.

INTRODUCTION

KUNDALINI, THE MOTHER OF THE UNIVERSE.

TO THE KUNDALINI—THE MOTHER OF THE UNIVERSE.

Yoga Vashist part-1 -or- Heaven Found   by   Rishi Singh Gherwal   

Shakti and Shâkta -by Arthur Avalon (Sir John Woodroffe),

Mahanirvana Tantra- All- Chapter  -1 Questions relating to the Liberation of Beings

Mahanirvana Tantra

Tantra of the Great Liberation

Translated by Arthur Avalon

(Sir John Woodroffe)

Introduction and Preface

CONCLUSION.

THE VAMPIRE'S ELEVENTH STORY.

THE VAMPIRE'S TENTH STORY.

THE VAMPIRE'S NINTH STORY.

THE VAMPIRE'S EIGHTH STORY.

THE VAMPIRE'S SEVENTH STORY.

THE VAMPIRE'S SIXTH STORY.

THE VAMPIRE'S FIFTH STORY.

THE VAMPIRE'S FOURTH STORY.

THE VAMPIRE'S THIRD STORY.

THE VAMPIRE'S SECOND STORY.

THE VAMPIRE'S FIRST STORY.

श्वेतकेतु और उद्दालक, उपनिषद की कहानी, छान्द्योग्यापनिषद, GVB THE UNIVERSITY OF VEDA

यजुर्वेद मंत्रा हिन्दी व्याख्या सहित, प्रथम अध्याय 1-10, GVB THE UIVERSITY OF VEDA

उषस्ति की कठिनाई, उपनिषद की कहानी, आपदकालेमर्यादानास्ति, _4 -GVB the uiversity of veda

वैराग्यशतकम्, योगी भर्तृहरिकृत, संस्कृत काव्य, हिन्दी व्याख्या, भाग-1, gvb the university of Veda

G.V.B. THE UNIVERSITY OF VEDA ON YOU TUBE

इसे भी पढ़े- इन्द्र औ वृत्त युद्ध- भिष्म का युधिष्ठिर को उपदेश

इसे भी पढ़े - भाग- ब्रह्मचर्य वैभव

Read Also Next Article- A Harmony of Faiths and Religions

इसे भी पढ़े- भाग -2, ब्रह्मचर्य की प्राचीनता

जीवन बदलने की अद्भुत कहानियां

भारत का प्राचीन स्वरुप

वैदिक इतिहास संक्षीप्त रामायण की कहानीः-

वैदिक ऋषियों का सामान्य परिचय-1

वैदिक इतिहास महाभारत की सुक्ष्म कथाः-

वैदिक ऋषियों का सामान्य परिचय-2 –वैदिक ऋषि अंगिरस

वैदिक विद्वान वैज्ञानिक विश्वामित्र के द्वारा अन्तरिक्ष में स्वर्ग की स्थापना

राजकुमार और उसके पुत्र के बलिदान की कहानीः-

कहानी ब्रह्मचर्य महिमा

पंचतन्त्र की कहानी पिग्लक

पुरुषार्थ और विद्या- ब्रह्मज्ञान

संस्कृत के अद्भुत सार गर्भित विद्या श्लोक हिन्दी अर्थ सहित

पंचतन्त्र कि कहानी मित्र लाभ

श्रेष्ट मनुष्य समझ बूझकर चलता है"

पंचतंत्र- कहानि क्षुद्रवुद्धि गिदण की

दयालु हृदय रुरु कथा

कनफ्यूशियस के शिष्‍य चीनी विद्वान के शब्‍द। लियोटालस्टा

तीन भिक्षु - लियोटलस्टाय

कहानी माधो चमार की-लियोटलस्टाय

पर्मार्थ कि यात्रा के सुक्ष्म सोपान

शब्द ब्रह्म- आचार्य मनोज

जीवन संग्राम -1, मिर्जापुर का परिचय

एक मैं हूं दूसरा कोई नहीं

संघर्ष ही जीवन है-

 

"Lord, I want nothing--neither health, nor beauty nor power. Give me FREEDOM and I am content." This is Jivan mukti. This is the highest ideal of life. Thinking of the little pleasures of the senses has brought us to this: to dance, to laugh, to weep, and before the tears are gone, to begin over again. Look at my condition. Slave of the flesh, slave of the mind, wanting to have this, that and what not. DARKNESS BEHIND--DARKNESS AHEAD. Such is the wail of IGNORANCE.

 

Get rid of it, O! My Friend. It is your greatest, direst enemy. Let the LIGHT of KNOWLEDGE dissipate this DARKNESS of IGNORANCE. The Lord above is our refuge. He alone is STRENGTH. "In Him we live and have our being." Where seek you for your ideals. Here it is. FREEDOM--You are rushing to it, and so am I. Welcome everything that helps you, yea, compels you, to strike one more blow in the noble cause of EMANCIPATION. "Can a marble figure brook the blow that an iron mass can bear."

 

"Know, slave is slave, caressed or whipped. Fetters, though of gold are not less strong to bind."

 

Thus, let us work it out. Let us cut short this show of five minutes with death and decay as its sequel. We shall go beyond this to the ONE SOURCE, GOD; and there is PEACE.

 

 

CHAPTER II.

 

 

 

THE IDEAL AND THE PRACTICAL.

 

HERE are two words--IMAGINATION and FANCY. What is the distinction between the two? Well, the one is closely related to the positive and the conscious side of our character; the other can claim kinship with the negative and the receptive side only. Take a youth starting in life. He has not been born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He is poor and has absolutely none to look to for help of any sort whatsoever.

 

Now, suppose he has spirit, and instead of sitting down and bewailing his lot, he forms a definite plan of conduct, throws his mind forward into the future, and decides to reach a certain state of development. He pictures to himself that state in its perfection, plans out the methods whereby he is to achieve it, takes in the difficulties to be met with and conquered, and by an effort of common sense reasoning sees the actual amount of good accruing to humanity and to all of God's creatures in general. He has had to think hard in order to construct the whole picture. He has had to breathe life upon it by repeating the images in connection with the whole picture. He has had to acquire knowledge, seek the advice of men more experienced than himself, and all the while he has had to keep up a brave and hopeful attitude of mind. And, mark you, he scorns to think of failure. It is for him to try his level best. It is for nature, which is a hard though a just pay-mistress, to bring him his reward in its due season.

 

The above is a fair example of the exercise of Imagination.

 

Fancy plays us tricks. It is not the man who pulls the strings this time. He simply yields himself to the influence of all sorts of impossible day-dreams. His mind is a sieve for thoughts to pass in and out. It is an aimless, idle, wandering, and brings ready victims for the "pitch-and-toss" game of men whose principle is to "do" others before the latter can have a turn at them.

 

A man is what his ideals are. If one man with an ideal makes fifty mistakes in a day, the man without an ideal is sure to commit many more. This is a simple truth, yet it will bear repetition here. All muscular actions, whether mental or physical, are simply fragments from the ideal.

 

"The life of the ideal is in the practical; it is the ideal that has penetrated the whole of our life, whether we philosophise or perform the hard, everyday duties of life. . . . It is the ideal that has made us what we are and will make us what we are to be. . . . The principle is seldom expressed in the practical, yet the ideal is never lost sight of"--("Pavhari Baba" by Vivekananda).

 

The very fact of the ideal being present in your mind foreshadows its fulfilment.

 

Our thoughts set up a magnetic centre within us. Like attracts like. Good thoughts draw to themselves corresponding thoughts. This fact is very emphatic. Each tree brings forth fruits of its kind. If we think well, we cannot act ill. The greatness of a man must find its measure in the greatness of his thoughts, and not in the amount of money in his pocket or the bluster on his tongue.

 

Our ideal is the hinge upon which our future turns. We create our own fate.

 

The first essential is to pitch our aims high. Let us look upward and upward alone. Let us pray to God for strength by all means, but let us be prepared to deserve His grace by walking a straight path.

 

If we weave our thoughts around a grand purpose in life the ideal so formed may take material form any day. Its impulsion may stir up concretions of gross physical matter into activity and may clap spurs to the feet of even a lazy hack. So much for the ideal.

 

If the ideal is to be cherished, it must also be nourished. If you simply sit down and desire to get a thing, you will never get it and it is good for you that you should not. For the practical side of things must never be neglected. "Practice makes perfect." Having set currents of holy desire in motion, we must set to deepen them in intensity and volume.

 

"Great actions are only transformed great concentrations."

 

Desire expands the will; action clinches it into strength. Each act in the right direction goes to establish us in our ideal. Action gives us training. Education is for self-discipline. Force of character is what we want; money, fame, praise and blame may well take care of themselves.

 

What matters it what the world thinks of me so long as I can think well of myself? Have I a clear conscience? Is my body under my control? Is my mind pure? Do I love main? Do I dare to look others straight in the eye? Do I fear anything?

 

The answer to such questions will go to make up the sum of our happiness or misery.

 

A strong will; a steady pulse; a pure mind; these are what we want.

 

But nought comes from nought--Ex nihilo nihil fit. Nothing will drop from the skies. See here, my brother, do you want a thing? Is it a good thing? Then take it. Let us deserve what we desire. That is the energetic way of setting about things.

 

Action, right action, unselfish action; these alone can give us strength. To think is to act. To act is to live. To live is to love. "Love, Love; that is the sole resource."

 

Therefore, O Thou Soul!, pray to thy primal source, God, for the power to make others happy.

 

Disease may come; limb after limb may be lopped off; sorrow may strike thee to the core; yet cease not to desire nobly, and to bear thyself in action yet more nobly.

 

 

The privacy of your own room, aye, of your own mind is the place where you must play the man.

 

We have long lived under the influence of fear--the firstborn of Ignorance. Let knowledge come and with it its power--Courage.

 

This is the supreme lesson we have to learn--Fear leads us from death to death; courage opens the gate into Life, Serenity, and Joy.

 

 

CHAPTER III.

 

 

 

READ AND REFLECT.

 

"WHATEVER is worth doing is worth doing well;"--an age-worn saying but one which cannot be rung too often on human ears. We are mostly selfish--and all blame to us!--and this because the Light of the Lord within us is so bedimmed by the darkness of the lower nature.

 

Our deeds are accomplished best when we put heart in them; when we see some gain accruing to us. Need I prove this?

 

What is the Central pivot we turn upon? Attraction;--and its opposite, Repulsion. We take an interest in certain things. The former gives us a touch of pleasure, the latter causes pain. Both act diametrically; and the will, unable to assert itself, is unable to draw to itself the happiness-giving objects. Pain racks the soul.

 

The aim of philosophy is to put an end to pain. It does not bring down upon us the gloom of despair, but the sunshine of Cheerfulness. Applying this to our actions we see how philosophy, in the positive sense, is a true helper. It hands us a weapon which cuts through difficulties. The weapon is Wisdom.

 

By Wisdom I mean a light which is self-luminous. Man has an infinite field of Consciousness. This sphere, as it widens out, realises for us all that we want rightly. Our actions become linked together symmetrically and at the end of the chain of wise activity is the desired object.

 

It is hence wise to acquire wisdom. How to do it? By unfolding the consciousness. How to unfold? Well, there are many methods, most difficult; but I am going to give you a very easy one, applying which, success is as sure as that morning follows night.

 

In the ordinary course of things we walk at a snail's pace, and progress is woefully slow. But we can quicken the pace and climb swiftly by taking ourselves in hand, by training the mind.

 

The mind is a queer storehouse. The school-boy bakes his brain on a dry course of lessons daily. Why? To train the mind. That is education: Controlling the well-nigh uncontrollable: the ever-moving, ever-vibrating mind.

 

We read a good deal and all to no purpose. Dry learning never brings peace of mind. It never gives control over the mind. It never develops the will, nor does it unfold the consciousness. It simply leads to brain-fag; mental cramp.

 

Diffusion of thoughts leads to confusion of results. Now suppose the brain to be a road filled with mud. A carriage rolls down the road. The wheels have left a deep, straight track right along the road. Another carriage passes on and deepens the track. It is exactly so with the brain. One thought passes through it and a track is made through the grey matter. The intensity of the thought will determine the depth of the track.

 

As we think, nerve-tracks are created and the repetition of the same thought deepens that nerve-track. New sets of atoms start into activity. Brain-cells are multiplied, and fresh layers of matter cover up these tracks. A similar thought gives them a blow and they are shaken up, as it were, into new life.

 

Reading conveys suggestions to the brain and induces certain trains of thought. The human will, if it presses a thought with vigor, increases in force and mental electricity is thus generated. This is "thought-force" in a nutshell.

 

Now far greater pressure is exerted if we think by ourselves. The fine nerves of the brain put themselves in a state of tension, more life flows into them, and, as this goes on, the inner powers of consciousness, of which the brain is only an instrument, are called forth from their potential into an active, vigorous condition.

 

We should read only those books which yield us fresh strong thoughts, in a line with our own aims and aspirations in life. People take up a book and start reading page after page with the speed of an express train. The mind is in a state of utter confusion and but faint impressions are being made. This is most foolish. Haste makes waste, remember!

 

Books contain thoughts. If these thoughts are clean, pure, uplifting, stimulating, and instructive in nature, we should pause upon them and suck all the life out of them.

 

Let a student sit down to read. Let him read a sentence slowly; then let him try to grasp the thought, and think it over intently. One thought suggests other thoughts. Thus let him think; stretch his imagination in connection with that thought as far as possible, and drop it only when he has found a clear-cut, distinct conclusion. Let him thus continue for fifteen teen minutes. He will possibly feel quite tired at the end. But as he continues the practice of deliberate thinking, he will feel a new assurance of power awakening in his mind. "Read for five minutes; think for ten"--there you have the whole secret.

 

The above practice is very easy, yet most valuable. It will expand your brain and unfold your Higher Consciousness.

 

The fact is there is too little manhood in men. Earnestness of the right sort is conspicuous by its absence. Such things as spiritual Unfoldment--the conquest of self, are striven after by but few men. Hence when they resolve upon achieving these, the initial difficulties quench their ardour.

 

First of all we must idealise these Higher Teachings, if we have not done so in the past. We must love them as the only things worthy of achievement. It is not the passion of selfish growth that should grip us, but the clear, cheerful atmosphere of purity that should be our guide.

 

Then when the thoughts of mind are strung up to action we should find nothing difficult of achievement.

 

Come day, go day, we must stick to our resolve like grim death. Nothing can crush the spirit, when it has learned to recognise itself.

 

Hence let us cherish, nourish, and embellish our Higher Nature by taking upon our shoulder a little of the heavy Karma of the world. Let us do all that we can for our growth, but let us remember that selfishness when it develops is "like a serpent that warms to life by the heat of our hands." Do not then nurse this viper in your bosom. Be as helpful as you can.

 

 

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