Creation and spiritual journey
Bhavana is the word in Sanskrit that can be looked at loosely as emotions. In the practice of Yoga and dealing with Yoga as a therapy too, this Bhavana doesn’t find its appropriate place. Even in the Panchakosa model which is quite popular among Yoga practitioners of today, there is no place for Bhavana. Using the intellect as an instrument in Jnana yoga, and prana as an instrument in Raja Yoga, when it comes to Bhavana, it is indeed Bhakti. This seems to be sidelined in the world of Yoga today.
Unmanifest absolute consciousness manifests itself and this is how the process of creation begins. This universal consciousness called Brahman becomes the individual consciousness called Jivatma. This is the first development of a boundary from the boundless state of consciousness. Boundless refers to absolute freedom. Paramatma is this freedom that we call Mukhti or Moksha. That Paramatma at the individual level as Jivatma experiences within a boundary. Yes, the boundless consciousness at its will gives up its freedom until the level of the gross body. We are this Jivatma, though in essence the universal consciousness, yet identified at the gross body level as body and mind.
There is a step-by-step loss of freedom of consciousness from Bhavana to mind to prana and body. This is the journey from the subtlest to the grossest. In dissolution, just the reverse happens. There is freedom from the gross boundary until the subtlest consciousness.
Universal consciousness desiring to be many, forms itself into individual consciousnesses. These are called Jivatma having the same nature as the universal consciousness called Paramatma. In order to transact, this Jivatma further becomes mind stuff, which is known as Chitta. This has various internal functions and according to their function, they are named Manas, Buddhi, Chitta and Ahamkara. Roughly Manas is the central platform on which all sensory inputs are collected and it brings this together with the information already stored in memory. Buddhi is the one which analyses and puts into various categories good, bad, right and wrong, young and old etc. Chitta is the name given to the functioning of memory and recollection. One who does all these activities is the Ahamkara, the ego. The functioning activity is made possible by prana the vital force. This prana though is one and the same working throughout, the functions are given different names, called prana, apana, vyana, samana and udana. From the prana, the final level of grossification happens which is the physical body. Human being is a complex personality with the body as the grossest level to the consciousness at the subtest which is like the universal consciousness limited within the individual. This can be interpreted as the sky, which is infinite where we see the sky through our own window but it is limited by the window frame. This is also similar to the idea that outside the air is infinite, but we consume a very minute portion of it into our lungs which we call breath.
Unfortunately, we have forgotten our Nature that is deep inside which is the consciousness and we identify ourselves with the body or sometimes even the matter outside. Materialist is one who identifies with matter outside and forgets that he is the consciousness within. A spiritualist on the other hand is one who identifies with consciousness all the time and comes to the body only where it is absolutely necessary.
Prana is the bridge between the body and mind. Whenever the mind has to execute any activity through any organ of the body, it takes the help of prana.Similarly, Bhavana bridges the consciousness and mind stuff. This bhavana is present in a child much before the intellect is born. and before all the faculties of mind stuff are evolved. This bhavana or the emotion is primarily love or prema. A simple sign of love is to have a smile on your face. You can notice. Within one week after the birth of the child, the child looks at your face and smiles! In the scriptures of this land, they say that this feeling of love is almost merging into consciousness. [adoora kevali bhava].
Bhavana belongs to consciousness whereas intellect and mind belong to the outside world. You will find that every content of the intellect and mind has nothing but to do with the outside world alone. Bhavana on the other hand is from within. It is inner satisfaction. It does not depend on the outside. We can easily handle anything out of love, even for that matter any object can be approached with love! It expresses itself in various forms based on the situation.These emotions are called soft emotions that we are born with. You not only see them in children but if you have a pet animal you can see the same thing expressed in them when it is triggered by a situation. What is the intellect they have? Nothing!
Consciousness is fullness, a sense of satisfaction. Consciousness is bliss and it is freedom. Consciousness is the healer within us. Consciousness is the life aspect within us. It is the consciousness which is experienced using this instrument called the body-mind complex. Since bhavana is so much close to consciousness which is life, our bhavana fills life in inanimate things. A love letter written by somebody very dear to you, which triggers immense love in you has life! This is the power of love, that a paper with something written about someone you love, becomes a living entity! It is the same thing with the other forms of Bhavana as well. Whether it is love, compassion, the sense of wonder, or shraddha, all these bring about life in an inanimate object.
There is an incident that happened in the life of Swami Vivekananda.
""When he visited a King from Kerala and had discussions with him, the King was impressed by Swamiji's knowledge, particularly about the Indian vedanta philosophy. He said “Swamiji, I am fascinated by whatever that you have said about the Nirguna Brahman, Unmanifest Brahman, but I don't know why people behave in such an ignorant way that they pray the river as God and Mountain as God and plant as God. Is it not stupidity?
Swamiji realised that the King was questioning the very Bhavana or the feeling of the people towards God that comes out of deep inner respect. But how to communicate this to the king? In response to this, Swamiji wanted to demonstrate the power of emotion - Bhavana to the king. He looked around and there was a painting of the king hanging on the wall. Swamiji asked the people to bring that picture down. Bringing the picture of the king or the image of the king is like insulting the king himself. So they were a little hesitant. One prime minister brings the king's picture down and then Swamiji asks the minister to spit on the picture. The minister stood shocked and everyone around was perplexed. The minister said to Swamiji, "Swamiji are you aware of what you are asking me to do?" Swamiji replied, “I know very well. I am asking you to spit on the oil painting of the king, I never asked to spit on the king”. Swamiji further added "I know that you do not like insulting the king by spitting at the painting. Because you see the king in this painting.Here at least the painting is different from the king, but in the case of God, he's not separate from the creation, but he is the creation. You are fortunate to have People who can see the king not only in the painting but also in every object in this kingdom. They don't disrespect any object belonging to the king and the kingdom. ""
Similarly, some people have such wonderful Bhavana, that they see God, in his creation, like in a river or a tree or in a flower. We are unfortunate that we are unable to see God in his creation. Let us at least have respect for the people who can see God in the creation out of love, devotion and shraddha. This way of seeing God in his creation out of love is bhakti. This is possible out of Bhavana or emotion alone. No amount of intellect or physical discipline can bring about this perception of seeing God everywhere. When one immerses himself in God, such a person will be immensely satisfied, fully blissful, and be a personification of harmony. This is the goal of yoga which is called Kaivalya. This very Kaivalya has the quality to heal at every level of personality.
When we don't consider Bhavana or emotion, the highest component of our experience, then intellect becomes the supreme power within us. In today’s gadget world, we all know that a computer can do the work of the intellect much better than an individual. If human beings also focus on the intellect competing with the computers and do not give any importance to the Bhavana then they will be reduced to matter. The intellect stays and the human element gets lost. Love, compassion, respect for fellow beings and other such soft emotions take a back seat and may even disappear from mankind. A tinge of this is seen even today and the result of which is seen as wars, pandemics, killing in the name of religion, poor family ties and failing relationships. Institutions like marriage gradually become unpopular and live-in relationships are becoming the order of the day. All these lead to selfish and self-centred behavior in society. We see that the population is increasing but the human being is diminishing because Humanity is shrinking!!
Emotional practices, which are part of our culture, such as festivals, ceremonies, and rituals become unimportant because you are losing the importance of the emotional component in life. In the table above, intellect and down to the body, it's all mechanical. Only the Bhavana and consciousness are the non-mechanical and spiritual components of human beings!
Bhavana is the bridge between the mind and the consciousness. In other words, it is the bridge between the matter and the divine. It is also the connection between human beings and God. Bhavana expresses itself in the form of love, compassion and a sense of wonder. We immediately feel elevated. Sri Krishna calls these divine qualities as “ Daivi Sampath '' in Bhagavad Gita. We lose touch with this Bhavana when the intellect is given superiority and Bhavana is condemned. Bhavana is the bridge that takes humans to the Divine, as the ego is dissolved in Bhavana. When Ego is dissolved, only universal consciousness is present. There is no individual identity. This is Bhakti, where there is only divinity, the free consciousness!
N.V.RAGHURAM
2023