The Essence of Yoga

It is a time to think of heroes – not sporting heroes but spiritual giants and leaders who by their lives exemplify the ultimate reason for our earthly life experience.

We all tend to have heroes and heroines we admire and select according to our birth sex.

Heroes of all kinds offer us an example of having achieved the goal.

Sporting heroes serve as a focus for general adulation as well as inspiring a few to become equally great. Not many can hold the vision and so, by comparison there are very few who become followers enough as to put effort into similar achievement.

Christmas time is the time for Christians to celebrate the birth of the Christ and to focus upon Him as their Guru. To many millions of people He is the epitome of human excellence, wisdom and spirituality.  But it is not sufficient to feel awed and inspired with devotion, we must if we are sincere, take seriously the role model we have before us and gradually seek to grow to become like Him.

The teacher or Guru represents by example the vision and goal to which we aspire.

We should not feel shy to acknowledge that the essence of the Guru’s teaching is to encourage us to become skilled in emulating those qualities that will result in our becoming to some degree a likeness.

So the Christian way is to gradually become Christlike.

The way of the Buddhist is to become Buddha-like as with other spiritual teachers.

Any spiritual devotee seeks to become greater in capacity to radiate life energies of the spirit and so grow in health, wisdom and understanding. Refreshment comes maintaining the concept of his spiritual teacher or Guru.

It is therefore appropriate that we refresh our concept and personal vision of the nature of Christ at this time.

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A talk delivered by renowned philosopher and teacher of Raja Yoga, Gerrit Janssen at the Naturopathic Convention 1967 Sydney NSW

I have been asked to say a few things about the training of the mind or Raja Yoga. It is known as the Royal Path because for its noble purpose in seeking to develop human excellence and apply self control in the most difficult area of self discipline- the personality.

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We all have times when we are happy to make decisions and feel very confident about ourselves and about our lives.  At other times we suffer from indecision or concern about the path we are taking in our lives or careers and would like to be able to refer to someone we highly regard, who will offer some wisdom in response to our queries or problems.

For many reasons, this is not always easy to do. One of the most common reasons is that we wish to be assured of utter confidentiality and impartiality. Another may be that we do not want anyone else to perceive our seeming inability to cope, or to appear weak. So somehow we seem to manage to find a way around most of the material problems that beset us.

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There have lived many great human beings who have arrived at life wisdom through experience. Some of them are still known to us and their teachings are preserved in the many cultures and religions as well as the legends that are retained.  Many have written their messages to convey to us the essence of the truths they have extracted and through this medium, many of us have benefited by studying their books.

They are the earth graduates, who have become more than human or greater human beings.  They are the wise ones who have found the answers to our common questions about ourselves, about life, the universe and about the Supreme Consciousness we call God.

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The Great Gurus or Mahatmas are the wise ones who have lived through unknown numbers of human existences to have experienced all that life on earth dictates and learned all that has been necessary to achieve human excellence. They are the earth graduates, who have become more than human, or greater human beings.  They are the wise ones who have found the answers to our common questions about ourselves, about life, the universe and about the Supreme Consciousness we call God.

Some of these wise ones remain with us as leaders, guides or teachers. Many have developed great insight into human nature in their particular line of teaching. Others reveal the potential for development and application of human talents. Some offer us a simple philosophy as a guiding light through our difficulties and pain. Others make us aware of the power of our spiritual self beyond our personality limitations. Each possesses an understanding of human nature, including our own.

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The desire to find a spiritual teacher or Guru is usually innate in the spiritual seeker who yearns not only for a mentor but for a spiritual ‘parent’ above and beyond all the skills and the limitations of physical parents, friends, guides and teachers.

Many of us are enriched through our education and our selected reading that encourages and inspires us to feel confident about living our lives. We are satisfied by making contact with other and sometimes similar people, philosophies and principles but rely upon our inner voice of intuition.

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