Yoga philosophy Aur Navin Sadhana
Param Pujya Gurumaharaj
Pages 31 , 34,35
04/17/22
When we decide to orient our lives towards achieving oneness with the supreme, the forces that want our continued involvement in the physical world test our resolve, various difficulties and hurdles of life might challenge us, and different types of temptations might attempt to try and dissuade us. The attachment to the extraordinary ability and power ( sidhis) one acquires as part of one’s spiritual progress and the enhanced false ego associated with them is the final impediment one has to sidestep before one can achieve their goal on their yoga journey.
The Gurus of modern times have devised a new practice to prevent practitioners from getting distracted by the power and ability ( siddhis)one acquires as they progress on this path of spiritual upliftment. They do not let the practitioners know what level they have advanced to, what stage of yoga they are passing through, and whether they have made any progress whatsoever in their spiritual journey. The practitioners always keep feeling that they have not been able to achieve anything yet and that their stage is the same as it was when they started. In this way , blindfolding them to their progress, the Gurus guide the practitioners through their journey past the sphere of moon( chandra lok). Once past that , the practitioners will acquire the knowledge associated with the lower stages that they traversed unknowingly. Just like a person seated at the top of a mountain can see everything below them from their mountaintop vantage point, a person advanced to the higher realms of spiritual existence also acquires the ability to attain complete knowledge of lower realms.
Our Gurudev followed the same principle, and I also do the same. The benefits of this method are clearly evident and are mainly twofold. One is that the practitioner is saved from the vortex of developing powers and abilities (siddhis ), which can trap them, and secondly, one saves oneself from emboldening their ego ( ahankaar ) that invariably results from the rise of extraordinary ability and powers ( sidhis) . We embark on this Yoga journey to rid ourselves of this false ego, so how can we succeed if it gets further substantiated instead? Only this false ego keeps us from the state that we desire.
There are two methods of evolving spiritually. One is when a practitioner ascends step by step , resting at and experiencing all stops along the way, gradually progressing to the kingdom of truth and beyond. The second is that the powerful attraction of a Guru expeditiously pulls the practitioner to heights that are difficult to scale by traditional yoga techniques even after demanding practices spanning many, many years. The difference between these two methods is the same as the difference between accomplishing a journey from point A to point B on foot or a bicycle as opposed to using an express train or an airplane. The first method is similar to making the trip on foot or on a bike, whereas the second is similar to traveling on an express train or an airplane. There is no doubt that the freedom and independence one has while travelling on foot or on a bike is much greater than traveling on a train or an airplane. In the latter, one must rely only on the driver or the pilot to get us to where we want to reach. We can only sit on our seats while we entrust ourselves to the driver or the pilot till the journey is over. While we sacrifice some of our independence and become dependent on the driver or the pilot, in return, we set ourselves up for a comfortable and much quicker journey to our destination. The train or the plane also effortlessly carries us across many impediments and difficulties that a person on foot or a bike may face.
We did not have to make much effort, our journey was much shorter, and we safely reached our destination. These are the three benefits we get. But there is also one important thing that we miss out on when we take the train or the plane. We cannot visit or get to know any of the towns and cities that the train crosses or the airplane flies over, nor can we talk and get to know the people who live in the towns and cities we cross. Our train or plane transports us across all the intervening spots straight to our destination and leaves free to enjoy and experience the limitless joy of the place we had selected for ourselves.