The Essence of Yoga

Union with the Divine !   Our concepts of God and our relationship with the Divine are not all identical. However, we all tend to share an essential idea that to raise our consciousness and contact with some greater life and light will help us experience greater spiritual Consciousness and through that contact become ourselves transformed and magnified in understanding.

If we entertain strong spiritual faith, it is natural to long for a heightened experience of consciousness in realisation and confirmation of our beliefs.  If we are exploring, without any preconceptions, in order to discover spiritual realities, both inside ourselves and outside in the greater world, we look forward to every new sense of awareness of the subtleties of life that our developing sensitivity will permit.

It is an integral part of human nature to aspire to understand and to establish a conscious link with our Source. Some have experienced a supreme spiritual experience spontaneously, often in difficulties and often without any apparent stimulus. However, it is by use of our free will and by direct personal willingness in our attitude towards spiritual expansion that we can consciously direct our being toward the Power and Universal Intelligence of our Maker.

Some of us see the Divine as the Great Creative Fire, and consider ourselves as little sparks of that same element…. and are likely to experience accordingly….

 “As from a glowing fire, kindred sparkles come forth thousand-fold,

So from the Eternal, manifold beings are born and return also.”  Manduka Upanishad

Others conceive God as the Divine Ocean of Life and themselves as a mere droplet of that same element of water, affirming the beautiful merging with that great element….

 “The dewdrop slips into the shining sea….”  Light of Asia – Sir Edwin Arnold

Some people consider themselves as part of all life which is manifest. To live in perfect harmony in the outwardly manifested natural world is their wish.

Others cherish the thought of spiritual brotherhood with all other human beings and long to experience unity of spirit in a sense of associated group identity.

Those who believe that the Divine is Supreme Love may yearn to identify themselves with this Greater love.  In devotion they may seek to free themselves from the limitations of personal emotion to find a new identity as part of the eternal heartbeat of Divine and Infinite Love pervading all natural life.

We must give to others what we claim for ourselves – respect for spiritual matters and the essential privacy that is attendant to an individual’s approach to this most important and sacred relationship with our Creator.  We may differ in our chosen manner of spiritual communing, whether we choose to meditate alone or in group meditation, prayer, church service, or in religious rituals.

By whatever way we choose, meditation and prayer are inherent, helping us to arrive at a state of stillness and receptivity of both the body and the mind when we will be reminded that it is by an expansion of our Love that allows us to experience union of any kind, whether with fellow humans, with nature around us, or with the Divine.

The vision of a life goal and purpose differs with each of us, regarding our personalities with their complexities.  A vision held by each soul is more private but there are also important features which are generally shared regarding happiness, peace, love and work satisfaction. But when we speak of a vision of spiritual purpose there are not always a great number who have seriously contemplated their subtle future. We tend to be vague when questioned about our spiritual knowledge of life everlasting.  Many are even embarrassed to realise they have relied upon religious tenets and not applied their own concentrated thought to the subject.

However, at some time we are all called upon to face our own values and thoughts about the deeper meaning and purposes of our own lives, as well as human life in general.

If spiritual understanding is born of our own soul and intuition, and our spiritual future is determined by our individual efforts in our lives, then it is important that we each hold a vision of what our life goal is regarding our ultimate fate. This may only be certain in the material sense, to the extent that we know that our mortal self as we know it, will die and return to its home in the realms of spirit. But what do we know of our immortal spirit?

On such a search we recall the way of the Buddha and must seek for direct knowledge bearing in mind the classical directives ‘Know Thyself”, “The Kingdom of God is within you” etc. of those who have discovered more than we about the spiritual realities which are often belied by material values and conditions … and recall the simple Vedic prayer …

“From the unreal, lead me to the Real

From darkness, lead me into Light

From death lead me to Immortality.’

In speaking of Samadhi we are referring to the supreme states of human consciousness when, beyond the petty ego, an individual occasionally is released into the universal consciousness beyond, to taste the Reality which exists in the patterned beauty of the infinite life in which we are a part and to which we are usually blind.

These expansions of consciousness are rare but well known enough by account, to allow us to accept that we also have a potential to experience the same.

To help us realise these ecstatic states beyond the normal range of human thought and emotion, the system of Yoga has been designed. But it is not only for the individual’s experience alone, as it must be translated into some expression which allows others to share, if only a droplet, or for a moment, that reflected experience of spiritual Realization when all sense of separation vanishes, and life seems as One.

It must be remembered that knowing something with the mind and realizing it are two different experiences. Any form of realization can be compared with a little light going on in one’s consciousness. This occurs together with new comprehension and insight. So realization on any level is a very special state and may occur infrequently, but when it comes, makes a lasting impression.

Spiritual Realization is similar but magnified many times, as anticipated when the focus is upon God, and it produces an inner excitement of one’s being. One feels to have suddenly known the Reality of the Universe and of the part each life plays in the great drama of the Cosmos. It represents the climax in the inner meditative and expansive experiencing of the yogi.

Samadhi is the experiencing of the heavenly states, beyond normal range of human life and results in keener perceptions, fresh perspectives or a greater comprehension that requires old conclusions to be reviewed and seen in a new light.

It is through human realizations that entirely new discoveries are made and it is through spiritual realizations that the truths of the spiritual Realities become known.

All who experience it are left with a memory of having tasted a rare and supreme joy beyond previously known conditions of human happiness – a tantalizing taste of heaven!

What heights of experience have you known in your life?

The beliefs of all philosophers, now confirmed by science, acknowledge that all forms of varying grades of matter, from the gross material to the subtlest, are animated by natural energies and intelligence – from the most infinitesimal to the astronomical magnitudes of the cosmos.

 If we would open our minds to the existence of an unseen order of spiritual intelligence in beings animating all nature and its forms, we would begin to know the life within the form, just as the astronomer or scientist aspires to seek an understanding of the universal intelligence and power that directs the cosmos.

Although using our own eyes, we may not be able to see stars that are millions of light years distant, nor have keenness of sight to observe tiny bacterial life at work, we trust in the technological means man has developed to demonstrate for us the reality of life forms that exist, but that are not yet capable of being perceived by the normal human faculties.

There are uniquely different individuals who have sighted ethereal ghosts, nature spirits, received visions of spiritual teachers and are familiar with the angelic beings who inhabit what is sometimes referred to as the ‘parallel world’ of subtle intelligences that exist in spheres that interpenetrate the material world we know.

 Some clairvoyants can see energy radiation from flowers and observe the tiny intelligences we call fairies, elves, sprites and so on. Most cultures have traditional terms and language that describes them. Others using extended sight see sparks of energy generated by cats, or the astral forms of the deceased that we call the ghosts.

Clairvoyants with well developed psychic senses see the light and colours emanating from a living human being and with experience and training become skilled in interpreting the qualities and characteristics of an individual.

 It may be that all forms have an indwelling life intelligence or soul. To be comfortable with this idea requires an imagination beyond the familiar observations of the material scientist.  However, it is the world of reality to the metaphysical scientist where soul and spirit represent higher and finer energies that are just as real as those observed in the material sense.

These invisible energy worlds are not new in human experience or cognition and in our historical reference, and artistic depictions. They survive in the substance and stories of traditional legend. Here, ghosts are accepted as the disembodied energies of a human intelligence; saints are depicted as radiating light or spiritual power; devils are depicted as malefic forms and influences of darkness. Angels are conceived as beings of light, colour and beneficence and in Asian lore are known as Devas.

Devas are our invisible companions. Until we can see them with our own eyes, we must rely upon our senses that tell us sometimes of an unseen presence. Sometimes this happens spontaneously but we can also extend our awareness of them deliberately. We can best do this in solitude or in nature but also in our own place of peace.

It can be that we feel conscious of a loved one who is not physically present, or feel that we are uplifted into a tranquil mood. If we are to become more aware of these benign angelic beings who exist to carry out the divinely directed natural processes. If we wish to know more about them, we need to open our consciousness to consider the possibility that we are not alone and that angelic beings are always with us.

All material forms are ensouled by natural intelligences, from mineral life, plant life, animal and human that we are all capable of sensing but rarely privileged to see.