Newsletter Jan 3, 2007

Synopsis of Last Week Classes

Friday - Raja Yoga Class - Dec 29

Aphorisms 3:51-56
One who dispassionately rejects even the highest of the material powers, (like being master of the whole universe with all the eight siddhis at his command), gets to the goal of life - THE FREEDOM. The Yogi has to stand firm against the temptations of these powers and also against the tempting and compelling invitations of the celestial gods, to join in their merry-making. Samyama on the passing of moments one by one - which essentially means understanding the flow of time and thereby the illusoriness of all forms - brings the 'knowledge born out of discrimination'. The eternally free and Pure Purusha who is distinctly separate from matter, thus 'achieves' freedom as the result of this knowledge. Vivekananda comments here that the misery we suffer is from ignorance, from non-discrimination between the real and the unreal. The knowledge that saves us (taraka) covers all the objects; applies to the whole experience. Then the mind (sattva) and the Purusha attain to the same pristine purity and separation; this IS liberation.

Sunday - Learning to Remember, Learning to Forget - Swami Yogatmananda - Dec 31
Life is meaningful only when we learn. We receive lot of information through our sense organs. Learning to remember the required information to achieve the goals and rejecting trash is very important to make our life organized and efficient. The storage in memory must be done by conserving the space and convenience of storing and retrieval. According to Vedanta, the storage in memory is not just limited to brain but goes much deeper where the information survives the loss of brain and from birth to birth gets loaded on different brains/ nervous systems.
The techniques developed by Patanjali's Raja Yoga and Buddhist Systems teach us how to remember certain things and forget unwanted things. Be mindful and live in the moment. Fix the goal of life and after establishing the connection between the means and the goal, follow the means assiduously, keeping the goal in the background. Patanjali tells us how to train the mind in the most common situations: 1) when you see happiness around, have the feeling of friendship. 2) When you see suffering, be compassionate. 3) When good work is being done, feel happy about it. 4) When there are evil happenings around, do whatever you can to change the situation; but if it is beyond your power and control, be indifferent about it.
The ultimate goal of life is to manifest the innate divinity. One has to connect all the intermediate goals of life with this ultimate goal. Swami Akhilananda in his books on psychology mentions the integration of personality based on emotional stability and harmony. With the attitude that 'I' am divine and the same 'I' is everywhere, one can control lower emotions and manifest the divinity.
For progressing in spiritual life, forget two things: 1) what good you did to somebody 2) what bad others have done to you. Remember two things: 1) Life is evanescent and everything with name and form is going to vanish. 2) Our very Self, the God within us, is the only permanent thing. Hold on to it to go forward.