George Ellis sums up this new dilemma of cutting-edge science; that of tackling untestable theories with their painful lack of evidence. There are new theories which cannot be experimentally verified, but are so compelling they have become main-stream science. On the one hand, they are tarnishing science’s reputation and on the other, are forcing scientists to rethink centuries old assumptions and methodological values.
The human condition is a panoply of breathtaking beauty and repulsive ugliness, an eclectic canvas of the loves and the hates, the blacks and the whites. Also of the greys, everything in between. The narrative of human existence, irrespective of its individuals, is an eventful ride of the highest highs and the lowest lows. With some calm plateaus in between.
What does the world understand as ‘Yoga’ today? Dominantly, sizably, as a system for exercise and fitness. The physical aspect of yoga has become so overpowering that an organisation called the International Yoga Asana Championship has been established, with the aim of taking ‘Yoga Sport’ to the Olympics. “I do not like this spirituality, enlightenment, out of the body type of thing.
Yoga means union in its most simple understanding. It is the union of our ordinary psyche-mind with a higher state. A post-human state, one that is hyper-cognitive and hyper-sensory. I know it sounds like claptrap, but just hold on. A state beyond the psyche, the mind, and the senses, above it all. One of pure bliss, uncaused and unbroken.
With the ‘Nature and Structure of Theories’, by C. U. Moulines as a framework, Yoga can be defined and outlined as a robust empirical scientific theory.
Samskaras are the foundation of one’s psychological, mental and physical construct. A whole collection of them. It is amusing that the term ‘samskaras’ has found colloquial usage in Indian society, with a meaning far removed from its original one. We seem to understand today that good ‘Samskara’ is essentially a good value system which we imbibe in our families.
Vrittis roughly translate as the fluctuations of our psyche-mind unit. We experience ‘vrittis’ consciously, we are aware of these fluctuations of our psyche-mind. We ‘know’ what we are thinking and conceiving. Or ideating, liking and rejecting, desiring and abhorring. This conscious psyche-mind unit is about as diverse as there are people on this planet.
The Ahamkara, or the “I am this____”, is one’s definition of oneself. It could be many things like “I am a generous person”, “I am great”, “I am a loser”, “I am intelligent” or every way we define ourselves. Ahamkara is many times misjudged as ‘egoism’ in colloquial Hindi. It is actually that sense of identification, that ‘arrogating’ of the traits of our pschye-mind, its ideas, cognitions, preferences or desires to oneself.
Samkaras evolve from exteriorisation to interiorization over the course of the Jiva’s life cycle. This does not mean one life, but as many lifetimes as a Jiva needs to exhaust and spend all its samskaric baggage. When the Jiva’s life cycle begins, old samskaras produce experiences which further produce new samskaras and this process goes on and on.
No, there are highest principles, the highest truths. Meanings may seem relative, but that is because all these are meanings at some intermediary levels, not the highest one. Relativity, of all kinds; moral, philosophical, or ideological, exists only at unevolved, lower mental planes. At the acme, at the consummation of human cognition, relativity is lost to give way to absolute laws. To the highest principles.