Yoga

YOGA

Book Two

"A yogi, even after he attains the highest yogic state in his study, does not reach freedom, because there are still for him the sanskaras (meaning impressions) to finish up with.

"Sanskaras mean the impressions left behind when doing any good or bad action. Even a thought creates a sanskara. Talking, hearing, thinking, seeing, eating, sleeping, etc. - in fact, even Subtle movements - cause sanskaras or impressions, which have to be experienced without a single hitch, with a mechanical precision, unless removed away root and branch by a Master's grace or blessing.

"Our present existence and all the related experiences of pain and pleasure, virtue and sin about it, are the results of our past sanskaras, or amal, as termed by the Muslims.

"The very breath we breathe, the eyelid we twitch, the finger we lift, are all due to past impressions. Our present existence is the mere unfoldment of our past Subtle impressions in Gross form. And again, it is our present Gross actions that recreate impressions, and so on. A good word or a good action has its good result compressed in an impression - suppose in the form of a circle - and a bad word or action likewise stores up a bad result in a similar Subtle form.

"That is, good actions in this life necessitate acquiring a happier state in the next formation. And similarly, a bad action in the present life brings about a bad result in the same way. There is that tie, which has not been dispensed away in any case.

"Good actions bind a man with a golden chain, and bad actions with iron and spiked chains. But the chain is there in either case. The man has not been set free. Yoga or other studies are good actions, and they give the person a better chance in the next incarnation. But they do not set him free, or give Liberation. To have Liberation, one must neither have virtue nor vice on one's credit or debit side. But it should be a clean slate, to reach the state described in an Urdu couplet:

   'We shall not go either to heaven or hell;

   But on the day of final judgement

   we shall stand gazing at the face of Muhammad.'

"And this is impossible to reach without the grace of the Guru. For a Master, it is the work of a moment, though. The vast and almost infinite impressions of a person may be likened to a heap of dry grass, which it is impossible for the person to clean out. Even the process of cleaning out without a Master, that is, through yoga, etc., means contracting impressions again in different forms.

"But this heap of dry grass is a work of a moment for a lighted match, which only the Perfect Master possesses. The Perfect Master uses his matches, but mostly for the members of his Circle only, and thus at the right moment brings them to his own level in less than a second. But even those who have no direct connection with a Perfect Master can derive the greatest personal benefit merely through the contact and company of his personality:

   'One moment, half a moment,
   and even half of a half of a moment
   In contact with a Perfect Master,
   and ten million of your sins are washed away.'"

Meher Baba, 4 October 1922, Manzil-e-Meem,
Bombay, RD p70-80

Part of another version of the same explanation:

"No yogi can attain eternal freedom or emancipation, even though he might have reached the highest yogic state of samadhi through his practices, because sanskaras are still there, and all ties have not yet been snapped...

"Yoga and other practices are good, and merit an aspirant a good life in the next birth, but a man is never free from bondage or given Mukti (Liberation) as a result of them."

LM2 p418-419
Also see RD p103-104
and LM2 p438-439 and 720

"There was once a yogi who had the power to remove his intestines and wash them. One day he did this, and kept them in the sun to dry. A dog saw the organs and ran away with them. Terribly upset, the yogi ran after the dog.

"You may think that I am exaggerating, but it is a common feat among yogis. Such powers do not count along the Path. I am not going to give you such powers - otherwise you might have to chase after dogs."

Meher Baba, June 1928, Toka,
to his women Mandali, LM3 p1061

"The spiritual Path is not a bed of roses. After fourteen years of fasting, the great yogi Farid Shakkar Ganje had reached the fourth plane, but only knew how to kill sparrows. Once a Sadguru was sitting in the shade of a tree observing him. Seeing the birds, Farid said, 'Let all the sparrows drop dead.' Instantly all the sparrows were dead. Then Farid, by his command, made them come alive again. The Sadguru taunted him: 'That is nothing. Learn Fakiri - control over yourself.'

"Once Farid found an old woman lowering a bucket into a well, and drawing it back up again empty. This happened several times, and he expressed his surprise. The old woman, who was a saint on the fifth plane, replied, 'It is better than your commands of die and come alive.' Hearing this, Farid Ganje was awakened to the reality of his powers, and began searching for a Master. He found one, and by the Master's grace, became a Perfect Master himself."

10 December 1928, Meherabad, LM3 p1126

Nadine Tolstoy came to meet Meher Baba on his first trip to America. He told her, "You have been waiting for me a long time, and now I have come. I will help you... I know all. I will help you."

Nadine had been practising Kriya Yoga under Paramahansa Yogananda. Baba 'gave her a very serious look' and told her:

'It is not for the West - not for you.'

19 November 1931, Harmon, New York, LM4 p1483

All the meditations, yogas, concentrations do not teach what Baba teaches you through everyday living. That is, to be kind to those who ill-treat you, and to love those you dislike. This is the highest practice of yoga.

When Christ was mocked, spat upon and beaten, he did not use his powers, but he retaliated with love.

You should be glad of an opportunity to be mistreated by others. You should thank them for the opportunity of suffering and loving. The purpose of your being with Baba is to eliminate the ego.

1930s? T p94

Love is a mighty force. It not only enables one to put the ideal of selfless service into practice, but would transform one into God. With love, one can follow any of the yogas most suitable to his or her temperament. It will enable an aspirant to follow the rigid principles underlying the spiritual Path, and where and when necessary, make him turn his back to the worldly pleasures for the sake of union with the beloved.

February 1934, Madras, Me p6

"One yogi in Gwalior was very greedy. He was all the time thinking of money. But yoga taught him the trick of going into samadhi.

"One day he sat opposite the Raja's palace, and before going into samadhi, thought, 'I must have a thousand rupees from the Raja.' Then he went into samadhi.

"For seven days he was in this state. He took no food or drink, he just sat there. People thought he was a saint.

"The Raja came to know about him. He went near him, and just touched him on the back. That touch brought the yogi down from his samadhi, and as soon as he woke up, he asked for two thousand rupees."

23 April 1937, Nasik, Aw 16:2 p51
Another version: Di (7th ed.) p243-244

"In Rama's time a yogi once did penance for one hundred years. There was another man who loved the Master. He did no penance, no fasting. He only loved Rama.

"One day the Master went walking in the jungle. The yogi opened his eyes and said to him,

'O Rama, when will I see your formless face?'

"Rama replied, 'In fifty years.'

"The yogi was frightfully disappointed, and said 'I made penance for one hundred years, and I suffered much, and still fifty years to wait!'

"The next day the Master accosted the happy devotee, and this loving one asked, 'O Rama, when will I see your formless state?'

"Rama replied, 'After fifty more lives.'

"The devotee said, 'So soon!' And thereupon he got into such an ecstasy that he died. And as he was dying, he saw Rama's formless state."

Meher Baba, before February 1939
Tr p7, also MJ Feb. 1939

God manifests his presence when and where lust, greed, anger, jealousy, hatred, back-biting and selfish desires are totally absent. But, as they are the outcome of impressions (sanskaras) of past lives, and must necessarily be expressed, getting rid of them is ordinarily impossible. It would be like a rock trying to lift itself.

Nevertheless, past impressions must be expressed to be got rid of. But at the same time that these past impressions are being expressed and spent, new ones are forged, because of the presence and assertion of the lower self. If one is to be free of the endless chain of impressions, past and present, this assertive lower self must be abolished.

Only when one's assertive (lower) self is removed can the impressions be automatically spent without incurring the binding of fresh sanskaras. One who has achieved this can never be bound by, or held responsible any more, for his actions, good or bad, which are the expression of his past impressions of virtue, patience, lust, anger, etc. Thus, with the cessation of new sanskaras, all past impressions naturally unwind to the finish, and one is free of all impressions.

To follow the path of the true yogas - karma yoga, dnyan yoga, raj yoga, bhakti yoga - is the remedy for the uprooting of this heritage of evils derived from past impressions, expressed by constant actions, and sustained by the continual formation of new ones.

In karma yoga, one tries to lose one's self in selfless service for others. In dnyan yoga one tries to lose one's self in contemplation and meditation. In raj yoga one tries to lose one's identity with the individual self, and establish identity with the universal self by aiming, through constant mental poise and non-attachment, to be in the world and yet not of it. In bhakti yoga one tries to lose one's self in devotion to God. Even in these yogas, only when the zenith is reached can the individuality of the lower self be lost, yet consciousness remain.

But the easiest and safest way to lose one's self is by completely surrendering to the Perfect Master. Then the past, present and future of the one who has surrendered are drowned in the Master, and he is no longer either bound by, or responsible for, any of his actions, whether good or bad, expressed during his implicit obedience to the Master. Thus complete surrenderance to the Perfect Master is, in itself, freedom.

Meher Baba, February or March 1954, MD p9-10
Also Gl Feb. 1978 p24

"... Miracle-mongering by the average yogi is not only poles apart from the spiritual path, but is actually a hindrance to the individual's evolution towards spiritual progress. The following incident in the life of a Hindu Master shows the disregard in which it is held by Perfect Masters, who are Truth personified.

"The Master was one day by the river's edge, waiting for one of the little ferry boats that take passengers across the stream for the diminutive fare of one anna. A yogi, seeing him thus waiting, came up to him, literally walked across the river and back, and said, 'That was much easier, was it not?'

"The Master smilingly replied, 'Yes, and had less value than that of the boat fare - one anna.'"

c.1954? GS p72-73

"... Meher Baba directs me to send you his blessings and love, and to inform you that he is happy you have been remembering him in the course of your studies. Meher Baba wants you to study the book God Speaks, for it will help you to understand the mystery of life ephemeral and the truth of existence eternal. The book God Speaks is a very important textbook for all students who are keen to understand the fundamental purpose and mechanics of life and the universe. God Speaks reveals to us that all experiences, even of spiritual aspirants on the path to God-realisation 'gotten in the natural course of involution of consciousness' are of the domain of illusion.

"Therefore, how much more distracting are the experiences of a layman in a laboratory who experiments with drugs to induce experiences with the semblance of those of an aspirant on the spiritual path? Meher Baba has said that the one and true experience is the experience of Truth, the reality, for once the realisation of God is attained, it remains a continual and never-ending experience. The all-pervading effulgence of God the reality is experienced by an aspirant who keeps himself scrupulously above all illusory experimentations, and humbly takes refuge in the love of God...

"It is absolutely essential for a spiritual aspirant who genuinely longs for union with God, the reality, to shun false practices of yogic postures and exercises, meditation on other than God the beloved, experiments with certain drugs, and fads for types of food. These things do not uplift the aspirant, nor do they draw him out of the rut of illusion. Experiences born of these practices wear off no sooner than the aspirant withdraws from, or is thrown out of, the orbit of the effects produced by the technique employed.

"All so-called spiritual experiences generated by taking mind-changing drugs (such as LSD, mescaline and psilocybin mentioned in your letter) are superficial, and they add enormously to one's addiction to the deceptions of illusion, which is but the shadow of reality. The experience of a semblance of freedom that these drugs may temporarily give to one is in actuality a millstone round the aspirant's neck in his efforts towards emancipation from the rounds of birth and death.

"It is good to know that there are drugs that alleviate human sufferings, it is better to have a knowledge of a specific drug for a particular ailment, and it is best to put to use the specific drug for the benefit of a human body. But there is no drug that can promote the aspirant's progress, nor ever alleviate the suffering of separation from his beloved God. Love is the only propeller and the only remedy. The aspirant should love God with all his heart, until he forgets himself and recognises his beloved God in himself and others..."

Adi K. Irani, in a letter to Alan Cohen, 10 October 1964
LF p98-100, also The Glass Pearl

"Now I shall write to you what once I directly heard from Baba about the nature of experience one gets after taking drugs. To understand what Baba exactly said, I should first explain different aspects of consciousness.

"Normally a man experiences three aspects of consciousness: sound sleep, in which there is neither consciousness nor unconsciousness; dream state, which has dream-consciousness; and waking state, which has full Gross consciousness.

"An experience is valid when the one who experiences and the objects of experience both belong to the same plane of consciousness, as in the waking-state, in which both the subject and object belong to the Gross plane, and so the experience is valid.

"In a spiritually advanced state (not of a yogi) of a mast, the subject and object belong to one plane of consciousness, whether it is first, second or third and so on planes, and the experience is valid.

"In a dream one goes into a Subtle plane, but the objects that he experiences belong to the Gross plane, and so the experience is not valid, because the planes of the subject and object are not the same.

"Reverse is the case in a yoga-consciousness. A yogi experiences Subtle plane objects, but from the Gross plane, and so the experience is not valid.

"Now, what Baba said about drug experience is this: After taking a drug, one experiences shadow of the Subtle plane objects from the Gross plane, and so the experience is not only not valid, but full of grotesque sights and feelings much more unreal and confounding than fantasies, and so harmful spiritually, mentally and physically."

Adi K. Irani, 28 March 1973, unpublished letter

Index - Book Two