One goal that many Yoga enthusiasts have is to enjoy health. To achieve that goal, they ‘twist and turn’ their bodies with the hope of making the body stronger and resistant to illnesses.
They may practice breathing exercises of Yoga to minimize their stress. Since stress is linked to our proneness to illness, they hope to achieve healthy life using these techniques.
There are others who may long for the bliss experienced by meditation. They indulge in regular meditation and enjoy the bliss that results from a tranquil mind.
There may be some advanced Yoga practitioners who aim at realizing the ultimate truth. That realization may bestow them eternal peace.
A Buddhist may slog to free himself from the endless cycle of births and deaths. Prolonged meditation may enable him to achieve that.
But have you observed something common in all these goals?
‘I‘ want to be healthy, ‘I’ want to be free from stress, ‘I’ want to be happy, ‘I’ want to have eternal peace, ‘I’ want to be liberated from the tangles of the world. ‘I’ want to be free… and so on.
Clearly, all these goals are individual centered. It is true that all our efforts are ultimately aimed at our own benefit.
But is there something more than that?
It is our routine experience that our happiness and sorrow are intertwined with that of others around us. In the long run, whatever happens, happens to all of ‘us’. And this ’us’ is not restricted to our family and friends. It encompasses all living beings and nonliving things as well. If ‘I’ have to be happy then all of ‘us’ have to be happy. It is the totality that ultimately decides what happens to the individual.
As long as we restrict ourselves to thinking about our individual existences, we can’t think of totality. Over emphasis on individual existence is bound to create conflict of interests.
But when we develop a wider, all-encompassing view, we will be free in the true sense. We are no longer restricted to our narrow self. We become one with the entire existence. That is universalization.
Merely saying that we are one does not take us there. That feeling has to be deeply ingrained in us. That feeling should surpass all our preset notions that tie us to a limited existence.
That is what Yoga enables us to attain. In the ultimate stage of Yoga, one gets the universalization experience. Repeated and prolonged meditation strengthens this experience. And this experience persists even after one comes out of meditation.
It does not really matter whether this realization of universal identity is true or just an illusion. It does not matter whether this world really ensued from a single source or not. It does not matter whether this world is real or just a mirage.
As long as we perceive our individual existence, existence of others is also real. So also, their miseries. The ultimate destination of Yoga frees us from our limited existences. It prompts us to embrace the entire world. Not for the sake of ‘me’, but for the sake of ‘us’. That is the universalization that Yoga leads us to.
Buddha did not stop after attaining realization. He went all the way to embrace the whole world. He lent a helping hand to all those in misery. So did Jesus Christ. He shed tears at the agony of the helpless masses. His realization did not make him runaway from the world. He wanted to wipe the tears off other faces. He was not content with what he attained. He wanted to share it with others.
Even if we cannot reach such a universalization, practice of Yoga can at least minimize our differences and bring us closer. That I consider as the real benefit of Yoga. This end result of Yoga is what is in dire need these days when there are multiple forces that divide us from one another.
Instead of dividing ourselves as races, nationality, religious groups, let us progress together. It hardly matters if this world is just a dream as Gaudapada says, or a mere illusion as Sankara says, or there is no experiencer as the Buddhists say. We need to come together.
With such a universalized frame of mind let us pray
Sarve Bhavantu Sukhinah
Sarve Santu Niraamayaah |
Sarve Bhadraanni Pashyantu
Maa Kashcid-Duhkha-Bhaag-Bhavet |
Om Shaantih Shaantih Shaantih ||
Let there be happiness everywhere
Let there be wellbeing everywhere
Let us see good everywhere
Let there be no suffering anywhere
Let there be peace, peace and just peace
A series revolving around Mind – Science of Mind, Philosophy of Mind, Notions of reality, Mind modulation, Domains beyond Mind, and so on. © Dr. King, Swami Satyapriya 2019-2020
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