from head to heart...: Patanjali Yoga Sutra: Day 08

DAY 08: THE VEILS OF MISERY

Tapa purifies and strengthens our system. But tapa can also bring ego. Out of proportion glorifying tapa can lead to ego. That is why after 'Tapas' we require 'Swadhyay' (self study). Studying your self and look into the motives behind your actions. What you want? Why you want?
Self study leads you upward to the universe that is unknown.
Fulfillment of desires doesn't maintain its charm for too long. It either leads to more desires or soon gives you an impression that probably you had wrong desire.
Self study: Who are you? Are you body? Are you emotion? Self study takes you a step forward and it eliminates the misery and suffering from the mind.
Budha has said:

Surrender to the God and offer every thing to God. Surrender completes the process. Without surrender self study is not charming. Without love/devotion journey on the spiritual path becomes very dry.

To see lord separate from you.
Lord is all. I am no body. In this 'nobody-ness' union happens. Offer everything to divine. This universe is YOURS (God's). This mind is YOURS. This mind with all its conflicts is YOURS. This mind with all its beauty is YOURS. This offering itself is a technique which brings you back to the source. This itself brings samadhi. Offer every part of your body. Offer every moment of your life. Offer every breath. Offer all negativities (you become free from misery, you don’t feel bad about yourself), offer all virtues (you become free from ego and arrogance). Feel close to divine. Stop comparing. It is up to you to feel close to divine or for that matter to anybody. You start feeling that you are close to the master and the same will start happening. Whatever seed you sow, that will grow. Whatever you think, that will start growing. Do not grow weeds (unnecessary thoughts, doubts etc).
'Swadhyay' removes the weeds, which grow on their own.
The purpose of this is to remove the suffering from life and bring samadhi in life.

Avidya (ignorance): Ignorance is the root cause of suffering. Ignorance is thinking that something that is not permanent as permanent, to think that is changing as non-changing, to think that something that is not joy as joy, to think body as the self.

Awake to the truth that everything is changing.
Ignorance is having an idea about who you are. You are someone or something that you are not. The fixed idea of who you are stops you growth, it limits your possibilities.

Ashmita ('I'): is oneness of our intellect and ourselves. 'I', 'Me', 'My' - you get stuck to your point and senseless argument. Inability to see the self and the intellect (thoughts) as different is Ashmita.
Raga (craving): It comes with pleasant experiences. We expect enlightened behavior, unconditional love from everyone around us that is very rare and we don't even know what we are expecting. We expect everyone around to be divine (we expect unconditional love from everyone). 'How things should be' this makes us more miserable.

People seek God without knowing that God could behave in any manner :)

Dvesha (aversion): This comes with unpleasant experience. Aversion also brings the same misery as craving brings.
Abhinivesha (fear): How so ever great scholar of scriptures you are, you have some amount of this.

Nature has put these five things in every body; how thin it can get or how thick it remains, makes you evolved or unevolved.

Becoming aware of negativities (angers/passion/lust) is the key. But a person who is not aware becomes the anger itself.
Sadhana makes these miseries 'tanu' (very thin). Even after sadhana you can become angry but there is difference in the quality of anger. There is a shift.

Prachana (One is dominant while others go to the background)
Udara (All miseries are fully active; all miseries are present in generous way…:))

Fear should be there but should be like salt. Then it is alertness or carefulness. Between fearfulness and alertness there is a similarity. 'Fear' is actually not a correct translation for 'Abhinivesha'. It is not 'Bhaya'. Thickest form of it is fear and in its thinnest form it is care. A little care is required but if it is a little more it becomes insecurity; a little more and it becomes fear; a little more and it becomes paranoia.
The moment these becomes thinner, your mind becomes free. And allows the mind to get back to the source.

Meditation is the key.

These five 'vrities' can be eliminated through meditation. Misery can be eliminated through meditation.
If you don’t cleanse your consciousness from these five miseries, impurities then you will have to suffer in this life and in next life as well. They form the reserve of your karma. And that can only be cleared through meditation. So before this body drops you, you should get rid of Karma. Otherwise there is no way out.
Like different seeds give different fruits at different times, our Karmas yield at different times.
Bad things never happen to good people. If something bad is happening to someone, he/she must be bad somewhere, sometimes.
How Karmas are paid off:

Jaati: Which body, where you are born (human - male/female/animal/ rat/horse).
Aayu: Age - length of your life.
Bhoga: What you will get in the life. It also decide how much someone has to suffer.

Strongest impression persists across life times. Consciousness takes the form in terms of your strongest thought. Last impression carry much more weight than anything any else in his whole life. When last impressions are good, they bring more joy; if last impressions are bad, they bring misery.

How to get rid of this? Meditation is the way to clear all this. Mediation will make you 'Hollow and Empty'.

Even if sometimes it is boring, just do it. Understand that some latent seeds of boredom are getting burnt. You willingly do it. Take a challenge - 'Ok, let me see it. Let me do it.'

from head to heart...