Chapter 11 - Complete Happiness
Day 59
Your goal is not somewhere outside of you. Do not sit looking at the sky thinking that Shiva will descend with a trident and say, "Child, I am happy with you. Tell me what you would like."
Shiva only appears like this in the movies or on stage. People hold onto these illusions. They look at the sky, and if the sky is bright one day and many meditators are looking at it, they get delusions.
This is called bhranti darshana,
deluded visions. This is one problem in yoga. There will be some truth to it, so you cannot brush it aside as completely false.
It is a combination of both true and false. That is why it is called bhranti, meaning a mixture of both. We are surrounded by not one, not two but many delusions in life - it results in confusion.
Those who are immersed in their own minds, in their self, enter into their peaceful nature. You can find peace only when you enter into your own mind. You find peace only when you are absorbed.
In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says, "Na cha bhava yatan shantirashantasya kutah sukham". How can a person who has no feeling find peace? Through feeling, you get absorbed.
Anger is a type of feeling. It is possible to get absorbed in anger. Even if a person feels tremendous anger, strength, courage or devotion, if his mind is fully absorbed in the feeling, it will be steady and peaceful.
Inspite of listening to so much knowledge and doing so many practices, if the mind is still not peaceful and you are not able to enter into your self, it is because you have not been absorbed, you have not sunk - here, whoever wants to float must first sink.
Only then can you float. Those who sink will be saved, and those who want to float are swept away. Life flows this way. In whatever work you do, learn to immerse yourself in it. "You do not accept sandal and rice offerings from anyone whose heart and mind do not melt."
To be absorbed is to let the heart and mind melt - then you can enter into vour own sell. What disturbs your mind? What is your mind? It is part of consciousness, and the energy that comes in the form of consciousness gets propelled out of the mind as thought, and this energy is lost.
A person who is absorbed and peaceful does not worry or think too much. You may have observed that the face of a peaceful person is full of consciousness and enthusiasm.
If the same person starts worrying, the worry will show. On his face, wrinkles will appear and he will grow pale. Although work might make you tired, a person withers because of worry, not because of work, is it not?
So learn to be absorbed. Only when you are absorbed can you enter your mind. Look at it both ways - enter your mind through meditation, and then you will immediately get absorbed.
When you are meditating, do not desire to see this or that. You do not need to see anything or to know where you are. This is how to be absorbed in oneself, to forget oneself and let the mind dissolve. Then the result will come naturally.
Or immerse yourself in feeling. Even then you will enter your mind. See it both ways. What an important sutra. Suppose you are listening to some divine music, immerse yourself in the music. When you are absorbed, an extraordinary feeling and joy will come.
You can practice this now. Sit
comfortably, relax and listen to a beautiful song or a bhajan full of devotion. Do not open your eyes or move your fingers as though you are playing the drums. As the music ends, your consciousness will be meditative.
People who are absorbed in their consciousness will enter their own mind. Repeat this sutra and the others one by one. When you look into the prana, you will be equanimous.
If someone cannot absorb himself in the mind, is extremely upset, and asks what to do now. Thus observe the prana, the subtle life-force. That is why it is said to chant, "Sohum, Sohum."
Even if someone feels anxious, sad or miserable, after doing Sudarshan Kriya for some time, the mind becomes light. After doing Sudarshan Kriya, it feels like the mind has arrived home from a far-away place and fund a new life.
Thousands of people have experienced this. That is why the sutra says to raise the prana. Raise the level of prana in your body through pranayama. The flow of prana should be steady.
Actually, when you are unhappy you take short breaths in and long breaths out. However, when you feel happy, the inhalation is longer, and you may not even notice when you breathe out.
Have you observed this? When you are happy, you smell a flower with a long, deep breath to appreciate the fragrance. Your inhalation is longer while the out-breath is hardly noticeable, it is less.
When we feel depressed, the out breath is longer and more emphasised. What is happening? The flow of prana when you are excited or distressed is not even. Let the prana flow steadily.
Prana should flow evenly through the body. Prana moves in five ways. Compare a child's breathing to your own breathing. There is a big difference. When a child inhales, the stomach goes inside, and when we breathe it is the opposite.
If you feel fear, doubt, or anxiety it can be seen when you breathe. A quiver appears in the breath. The quiver can be felt in the in-coming breath as well as in the out-going breath.
If the breath is shaking, how will life be steady? Life will shake, the mind will shake and consciousness will also shake. Life longs for equanimity, happiness and peace.
A river cannot rest until it reaches a lake or the sea. It has to flow. If a river stops flowing, it is no longer a river. It becomes a lake. Similarly, to have peace in your consciousness. When you observe your prana, you will be equanimous.
