A great sage once said to a student: “People in general are more fond of Jala Yoga (union with food) than of Dhyana Yoga (union with God).”
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What I took for normal as a kid was how intentionally structured our school system really is. Questioning authority at such a young age did not come naturally to my grade school self. Now, I’m able to read books written by people born on the other side of the world. This, coming from a kid who didn’t read the assigned novels in a Jesuit high school, is a true coming of age story.
Consider this, there are thriving school systems in modern-day India that teach their youth in outdoor classrooms. How revolutionary is this? Well, it isn’t, really. The school founders took their ideas from ancient times, when constructing a building to conduct organized education couldn’t have even been a thought. Education was simpler back then. No college degrees; imagine that. “To love and be loved,” are what some parents are putting as the only two syllabus topics of their children’s lifelong curriculum. The rest will take care of itself.
Don’t believe me? Then you’ve probably never really tried to clear your mind. And if this is you, there’s no shame. Help yourself to this, from one of the great saints of South India:
You may control a mad elephant;
You may shut the mouth of the bear and the tiger;
Ride the lion and play with the cobra;
By alchemy you may earn your livelihood;
You may wander through the universe incognito;
Make vassals of the gods; be ever youthful;
You may walk on water and live in fire:
But control of the mind is better and more difficult.
Read it as many times as you need to. Why has society made it less and less attractive to sit still? My answer: the value of energy. Energy directed outwards (often into the abyss) leaves less of it for ourselves. By “into the abyss” I mean YouTube Shorts, TikTok videos, and Instagram Reels – not inherently bad things. It is useful to distract the mind from negative emotions every once in a while. And who doesn’t like to indulge in some mindless free time? But when time, and more importantly, your awareness, slip away from you through the back door: why not take note of who (or what) is in control? Is it really you? Or are you now riding the wave of the mind’s conditioned patterns? It takes a certain level of self-honesty to acknowledge the difference between the two.
Yoga helps. What are its origins? Check it: yoga is the science of all sciences. North Americans think it is akin to physical exercise. It isn’t. Though breathwork and yoga postures do help with mindfulness (and there’s no understating that), yoga actually means ‘union’. Easterners know this. Yoga, in the East, is the purest of all sciences: the science of God realization. What society has convinced us is that spirituality and science are mutually exclusive. They are, in fact, one.
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Thought is human consciousness in vibration. Human consciousness is confined and condensed God-consciousness in vibration. In the process of thought, man’s consciousness vibrates. Through psychophysical techniques of yoga, one can regain mastery of his mind, stilling the restless thought vibrations of human consciousness, thereby transcending the five senses (AKA “the matrix”), and peering into the ecstasy of God-consciousness. “Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalms 46:10). In this sense, the only way out of the matrix, is in.
The science of mind control tasks you to find the ‘off’ switch in a yet unexplored room filled with darkness. You’ll know you’re onto to something when, with eyes closed, your inner Eye shows you more and more Light (Matthew 6:22). The Greek word for Christ means ‘oil’. The Greek word for crucify means ‘to enclose’ or ‘to palisade’. The Greek word for Calvary means ‘skull’. If we connect the metaphysical dots, Christ being crucified in Calvary is code for ‘oil enclosed in your skull’. The story of Jesus Christ is the story and potential of all men and women. All four Gospels agree that Jesus was crucified at ‘the place of the Skull’. Connect that with Genesis 32:31 – “Jacob named the place Peniel, “Because I have seen God face to face,” he said, “and I have survived.”” Peniel translates to ‘face of God’ and is the place where the visible Jacob meets the Invisible Self (or God). If we keep connecting the dots, that ‘oil enclosed in your skull’ is DMT secreted in the pineal gland. It is the transcendence of human identity into a Divine identity, from bodily identification to a spiritual one. This is where, at Peniel, God changes Jacob’s name to Israel.
Is it for you?
“Like any other science, yoga is applicable by people of every clime and time.” Paramahansa Yogananda continues by saying, “Yoga is a method for restraining the natural turbulence of thoughts, which otherwise impartially prevents all men, of all lands, from glimpsing their true nature of Spirit. Like the healing light of the sun, yoga is beneficial equally to men of the East and to the men of the West. The thoughts of most persons are restless and capricious; a manifest need exists for yoga: the science of mind control.” The ancient rishi Patanjali defines yoga as “neutralization of the alternating waves in consciousness.” Sounds like taming of the monkey mind, to me.
Bhaduri Mahasaya, nicknamed “The Levitating Saint”, commented on people interested in yoga in America as “discovering India anew, with a better sense of direction than Columbus!”. “A knowledge of yoga,” he continues, “like the daylight, is free to all who will receive it.”
“What rishis perceived as essential for human salvation need not be diluted for the West. Alike in soul though diverse in outer experience, neither West nor East will flourish if some form of disciplinary yoga be not practiced.”
What is the cost of restlessness?
“Restlessness, the outgoing dissipation of the soul’s attention, is the most disabling weapon employed by the Evil Perpetuator of changeful delusion. A restless body and mind are the playground of Satan, who loves to perform there his wily dance of distraction to divert man’s consciousness from the Immutable Spirit and Its calm reflection in the depths of the soul. But one who regularly and deeply interiorizes the mind through devotional meditation is aided by the uplifting vibrations of the Holy Ghost and finds himself immersed in God all the time – in the redemptive grace of divine peace, love, and joy.”
“Unwillingness to meditate should be recognized as among the foremost enemies of man’s physical, mental, and spiritual well-being; that “blasphemy” against the inner magnetic pull of the Holy Ghost should be consciously excised from the mind. One who never meditates rejects the prime means of attuning his life with the saving Christ Consciousness inherent in the Cosmic Aum Vibration. By deliberate deeper acts of meditation each seeker must remove his restlessness in order to regain bliss consciousness through vibratory contact of God as Holy Ghost, his introduction to the Infinite Christ and the cosmic consciousness of Spirit.”
One who knows how to use mind power can do anything.
Even reach the end of this article.