Yoga is the highest union, the highest that can ever be. Union with what, you may ask? Union with what we have always desired, without realizing. Imagine that you were standing under an exquisite, starry sky, but you didn’t know. You can’t see it. It is invisible because an ugly, thick ceiling blocks your view. You do not know the exquisite sky exists till you break away this ugly ceiling. While you break it, you realise with incredulity that this solid ceiling is a wispy layer of smoke. When this nebulous smoke lifts away, you are awe-struck by what you see. Unprecedented, unseen beauty. You finally unite with this stunningly beautiful sky; you feel and sense it. You own it now. You melt into it, as it melts into you, to never separate again. The re-union of long-lost lovers, who always belonged together but had to separate aeons ago. Imagine that bliss!
When we desire a thing, a person, an experience, we actually crave to achieve union with it. We crave to make it a part of ourselves, to dissolve the boundaries between it and us. The coveted job, the lover, that fancy car, that exotic vacation, don’t we want them to become a part of ourselves, forever? Unfortunately, a permanent union with them is not possible because these things are outside us. We grasp, we touch, we hold, but only for moments. Till they slip away. Have you tried holding water in your hands for a long time, or say sand? Doesn’t it elude you, slip between your fingers because of the gaps? Your hands are not designed to hold them.
Their natures are different, their properties are different.
They do not belong, your hands and water, your hands and sand. They are not meant to unite.
That seems to be the fate of our desires, the urge to posses what we are not really meant to, not really designed for.
Really, that is the problem.
That exactly is the source of our pain; loss and suffering from an inevitable separation. We suffer because we cannot posses these desires of ours forever, permanently. The truth is that they do not belong with us; they do not fit with us! You cannot drink soup with a fork, can you? Try. It will frustrate you until you realise your mistake and get a spoon. What if we are doing exactly that in life?
A fish could desire to walk on land, but what will come of that?
It is a fitment problem; you see.
Maybe some other desires fit us better!
I am hardly denying or negating desires here. Desire are our life, life is all about desires. In fact I wish the highest possible desires and union for you. Desire is the fuel of our human existence, you cannot avoid it, however much you try. I am championing the case for desiring a union which does not bring pain in its aftermath.
One which produces pleasure of unimagined magnitudes.
One which is our human imperative, a human match, its fit!
Pleasure of such an unprecedented quality you will desire for nothing more, ever again. You will have found the gold pot at the end of that rainbow, one which had always eluded you. One for which you crossed the seven seas, foraged the expanse of the deserts and the forests, and aced the highest, rockiest mountains. That.
There may be such a thing. The place where your desires finally rest.
That is the mechanism of Yoga.
In its bare essentials, Yoga is about to destroying all our samskaras. Wiping away the collection of impressions. To leave no residues of ordinary experiences. To make space and opportunity for having experiences worthy of us.
To realise our human imperative. Our specie imperative, of becoming supra-human.
Now destroying samskaras is not as direct as taking a gun and shooting them off, picking up an axe and hacking them to death. We could do so with the firepower of ‘samadhi’ but samadhi is not a tool accessible easily to most. It takes time, patience, focus and determination. All the hallmarks for achieving a difficult, yet worthy goal. Plus, it happens at the end-step, at the peak of the process. To get to your destination, you must get onto the road first.
Entasy or ‘samadhi’ is a high state of meditative absorption, which usually comes after long periods of meditation.
Meditation is one of the most essential tools for life, and no, not in the puny, devalued way you understand it. It is essential for striking down our samskaric gaoler, one who has us trapped for an infinitely long time. For many lives maybe. Meditation does not just increase our well- being, as it is being promoted today. No, the scope and function of meditation lies far, far beyond enhancing our lifestyles. It is heart-breaking to see the most important tool of life devalued and defaced in the way the modern world has. The modern world knows it as a stress-buster, a quick fix for feeling better. We often hear important, successful people declare with pride, “I meditate five minutes every morning, and it gives my day a great start!”
As if meditating were like instant coffee, or a fast acting headache pill!
It is the bane of our times, its unfortunate tragedy that the most important principles of human existence; yoga and meditation are being reduced to caricatures. Ludicrous shadows of their true selves. It is the bane of our modern world, of modern science. It is the dangerous bane of oversimplification.
Everything has to be fast and simple, a quick fix.
Everything apart from the business of making money and earning a livelihood. We are leading lives lead solely by economic determinism, but we are still only fighting to survive! The new race is for a luxurious survival, but it is still survival, don’t you see? Everything else takes second position, lower priority because we think our highest endeavour should be to survive more and more comfortably.
Meditation is probably the most important tool we humans need for actual progress, for true evolution. Sadly it is an exotic, amusing toy only some of us have bought. To play with sometimes, and then to fling into a closet somewhere and forget at all other times.
