“Yoga a conscious process of home coming”
This is a statement I heard in one of the online sessions by Raghuram ji and was my introduction to Yoga Bharti as well. It has stayed with me since then and this report is a reflection on similar lines.
Yoga is a word so overly and narrowly used in today's time that it limits itself to the gross existence of our being and for a common man restricts itself to the goal of a healthy body often synonymous to the idea of fitness. But as we widen our experience and become more aware of the process we can see the mind - body connection and how working on the body calms the mind and as we become aware of the most important thing that connects the mind and body i.e., our breath, it widens our idea and experience of Yoga and becomes a window to pause and reflect on our own life processes and gives us a chance to look within and become aware of our own inner landscape. And as this process unfolds for us, the physical aspect becomes a means and not the end in the larger understanding of the term yoga. This in fact defines the very purpose of the word YOGA, which comes from the root word -yuj - Union. We begin with uniting our own inner and outer being which then becomes our tool to unite with the one absolute, this union is the ultimate goal of human life; becoming one with the Divine.
Process of uniting the inner and outer being
In this process of union, we adopt the “near to the far approach” and move from our grosser to subtle existence slowly and steadily. Disciplining the physical aspect through asana, balancing the subtle channels through pranayama and calming the mind through meditation practices and chanting are a means to become aware of more than what meets the eye. These experiences help us connect to a deeper and wider element in us and with constant abhyasa and vairagya we get a sense of the divine spark seated within us and as we progress in our journey, this spark begins to guide and govern our everyday living and makes YOGA a continuous conscious process of living a life and not restricting itself to the mat.
And as we begin to walk with awareness on this path of union, our mind slowly starts to align with our greater purpose and the practices on the way enables us to reduce the modifications of our minds as Sage Patanjali has defined योग: चित्तवृत्ति निरोध: |
Mind seems to occupy a key role on the path of yoga and it is good to briefly reflect on its role before we move to our understanding of the Pancha Kosha Viveka . Looking at our existence from an evolutionary lens, there is a biological evolution which has helped life to develop from a single cell amoeba to the complex human beings we are today – progressing from Matter to Life and then to Mind (where we stand currently) and then there is evolution of our consciousness across lifetimes where the tiny Divine spark within us develops more and more and increases its influence and guidance. A true Integral development and the goal of Yoga is achieved when these two come together and our outer tools (mind-emotions-body) become ready enough to express the inner movements (Divine spark within).
Here is a quick glance at how I see mind as an acronym and a work in progress in this journey of Yoga.
Till then, all are preparatory steps and in this process of preparation we identify ourselves as mental beings, it is this mind that becomes the central point for the Yogic practices, in a way the middle point, where from below the emotions and physical exert their pressure for executing their instincts and desires and from above mind becomes the channel for higher to manifest in the lower. Thus, once the mind is silent and stable, the higher can be heard and the lower can be controlled and purified (senses, actions). This process of preparing the mind to hear the truth in the silence becomes the central point of exploration for the path of Jnana Yoga. For the other two paths as stated in the Bhagavad Gita, heart (Bhakti) and hand (Karma) become the reference point. For the scope of this report, we will explore the route through head (mind) in detail while briefly stating the importance of heart and the hand.
And now let's dive into the Pancha Kosha Viveka
The Vedic age was an age of intuitive insights where the rishis were called seers as their wisdom came from intuitive insights therefore, we find Vedas to be highly symbolic in nature with one word having multiple meanings. Next source of our ancient wisdom comes from the Upanishads which marked the shift from intuitive insights to higher spiritual thoughts and are mostly exchanges between a Guru and disciple addressing the fundamental questions of existence. One such exchange is in the Tattiriya Upanishad addresses the question “who am I” through the Pancha Kosha Viveka; various sheaths of human personality.
The Upanishad mentions “the knower of Brahman attains the highest” and speaks of knowing this Brahman in the hidden secret space of the cave. Now this cave is symbolically understood as the human existence and the journey of knowing is not limited to space and time, but leads one from ignorance to knowledge. Again, being true to its near to the far approach, Upanishad begins to unlock the mystery of cave from the part which we are aware of, the frontal cave – that we identify with; our physical body and slowly and systematically keeps asking questions and adopting the neti neti approach finally takes us to our bliss body and make us aware of our existence beyond.
Human existence is multi-layered. From the lens of Yoga, one way of looking at this is as layers or sheaths of existence starting from the grosser element and moving towards the more subtle aspects of our being. The ancient Indian thinkers followed the idea of “You are your own laboratory” and undertook long psychological experiments that resulted into profound internal experiences and formed the bases of their theories. Discovery of Gunas is another example of the inner experiments by them. Their deep contemplation included the man- nature relationship and understanding of the mechanics of nature and its impact on the human body. It is from this exploration we come to the understanding of our body as Panchbhoota’s; the elements in nature that makes our physical body which we sustain and maintain from the food that nature provides us.
Based on these experiments of our great seers and sages, they discovered the multiplicity present in our personality which does not limit itself to our physical existence but moves beyond to the different sheaths(koshas) of our existence.
Annamaya kosha is our physical layer made up of food and sustained by food. It is a structure that comes alive by the Pranamaya kosha, the energy sheath that surrounds it. It is important to note that all these sheaths are interrelated and interdependent and as a whole make the human existence complete. Different yogic practices cater to different sheaths as a start point on the outside but in reality, all are affected by all. That is that is meant by Mind – body connection through Prana in our experience of yogic practices. Covering the Annamaya kosha and Pranamaya kosha is our psychological existence, the Manomaya kosha that enables us to start thinking and making sense of the world and make us a human being. As we move beyond the basic functioning of mind to the higher functioning of the intellect- ability to ask fundamental existential questions and develop ability to see beyond our individual existence – it is the Vijnana maya kosha and it enables to move beyond the individual identity and help us realise our universal existence, the cosmic aspect of Ananda – the Anandmaya kosha – our bliss body which is a sheath not bound by small egoistic play of personality and becomes our doorway to the one absolute beyond.
Our modern day understanding of personality limits itself to our outer nature and the why of our behaviour. But if we really look beyond our behaviour, it is the intention behind the action that determines our experience. And it is this intention which needs to be understood through self-reflection and undertaking the journey of self-exploration which makes the premise of refining our perception of who we are and what the world around us is. Yoga psychology precisely deals with methods that can help us on this journey and as mentioned earlier, uses the near to the far approach and provides different methods to deal with different aspects of our existence.
By,
Aditi Kaul
Yogabharati Teachers training batch student of 2021