Yoga Lessons for Developing Spiritual Consciousness

CHARACTER-BUILDING.

INTRODUCTION

Verily, in whom unwisdom is destroyed by the wisdom of the Self, in them, Wisdom, shining as the Sun, reveals the Supreme.—Bhagavad Gita.

Yoga is a subject which has enthralled the attention of the world from time out of mind. No one has hitherto done justice to such a grand system though there have been, now and then, innumerable attempts.

The present author, my esteemed friend, Swami Mukerji, a Yogi who comes out of a successive generation of Yogis, is a fit and proper instrument to handle the subject. He, in these lessons prepares the layman for an understanding of the Yoga and, through a series of wise and masterful sayings, impresses on the mind of the reader the necessity for rising above materialism, nay, solves the very problem What am I?

Every line is pregnant with mature thoughts and rivets one's attention, and makes him think, think, think.

This is not a work for which an introduction, briefly setting forth the contents, could be written.

I can but ask you to read, digest and improve.

CHAPTER I. THE YOGI CONCEPTION OF LIFE.

IF we study the action of mind upon mind, of mind over matter, of mind over the human body, we may realize how each man is a power in himself—to use Mr. Randall's phrase in his beautiful book on psychology.

Life is demonstrative: it speaks with a million, million tongues. Life stands for Light and Love. Contemplation of Death, which is really a change, will not lead to Happiness.

All-stagnation is death. Humanity is a moving mass, and this is true of it as regards single units as well as of the collective whole.

Stop we cannot. We must go forwards, which is God-wards or there is the backward line of progress—which is IGNORANCE.

Spasms of activity catch hold of us and push us onward and, similarly, fear, weakness and worry, the triple weapons of our Old Friend, the Devil, catch us in their deadly grip and crib, cabin and confine us.

We all are preparing to live, day in and day out. Is it not so? The body ages; the soul is ever on the alert.

We all are trying to grasp life in its proper perspective, to get a clear view of the goal ahead.

Some say I am for enjoying life; some say, It is a bad mixture of heaven and hell, for the most part, hell; others stand on neutral ground and say, Let us make the best of a bad bargain. Since we are here, it is no use grumbling. This world is for our education.

Right. Move we must. It may be progress forward or progress backwards.

Life is a series of awakenings. Ideas dawn upon the mind from time to time, are caught up by brain and body and find physical expression as acts. Our outward life with its environment is fitted to our inward development. Wealth, position, fame, power,—all these are the simple expressions of individual character. This is not a platitude. Look and see for yourself.

It is quite necessary that we should pass through certain experiences, that we rise from ideal to ideal. We create our own fate. Our sufferings, our joys, are so many projections from ourselves. We alone are responsible for them.

Like the silkworm we build a cocoon around the soul and then feeling Cramped, we set to loosening the bonds.

Enjoyment is not, ought not to be the goal of life. Sense-enjoyments end in satiety and exhaustion. Power and self, riches and all that riches mean, may tie us down to a narrow sphere. But in the long run we do come to know that happiness is not in them. This is a tremendous truth, yet God mercifully screens it from us till we are prepared to receive it.

What remains then? Man wants happiness. He rushes from one thing to another to grasp it, only to find everything slipping through his fingers. Let none deny it. The aim of philosophy is to put an end to pain. All pain is caused by IGNORANCE. Apply the saving remedy of KNOWLEDGE, and PAIN vanishes at once. This is a great fact and all young men ought to stamp it well upon their minds.

While we are upon this phase of our subject, it may be worth while to go farther into these important facts of life—PLEASURE and PAIN.

Our thoughts and actions are the forces we send out of ourselves. All life is expression. The soul of man is trying to see itself in everything. How did the different organs of the body come into existence? How did man get his eyes, his ears, his nose and so forth? How does the growth of things proceed on the subconscious plane of existence? The soul willed to see and it saw, willed to hear and it heard, willed to smell and it smelt. That is the right explanation.

Take a subject, throw him into a hypnotic trance, lead him into the deepest state possible, give him vigorous suggestions that a steady increase is taking place as to his physique, repeat the suggestions twice every day for a few months and you will have put pounds of flesh on his form. If you know anything of these things at all, you will be hardly astonished. A striking case once occurred: Some frivolous students of Aberdeen held a hypnotic seance. A friend of theirs was hypnotised and made to go through certain illusions. Then a wet towel was put upon his neck and it was suggested to him that a sharp knife had been drawn right across his neck to cut his throat and that he was dead. It was such fun! The students danced for joy. But what was their surprise when they found the man was stone dead. It taught the eternal truth—what man thinks that he is, that he shall be.

Now, man is trying to express himself on the different planes of his being by appropriating to himself different vehicles of expression. When he meets with opposition, an obstacle, he chafes like a caged lion. Load the limbs of a man with fetters of iron and see the result. It is really this—when we can push forward without opposition, it causes pleasure, a sense of happiness; when we are held back it causes pain. Place good food before a healthy man. See how he likes it. It is because he knows that he is making an addition to himself. It brings on a sense of MORE-NESS and pleasure follows. Of course there are higher grades of this sense of MORE-NESS. Some ancient doctors defined passion as an accession of strength due to the surcharge of arterial blood in the veins. All pleasure is from STRENGTH, all pain from WEAKNESS. There can be no question as to this fact.

There is a fire burning. Heap coals. The more coals, the brighter and steadier the flame. All obstacles are really coal feeding the flame of the spirit. They spur a man on. The vibrations of pain are often blessings in disguise. They drive the lesson home. The effect is not different from the cause. Both are the obverse and reverse of the same coin. Painful results grow out of deeds that clash with the interests of the DIVINITY WITHIN—which is for FREEDOM.

Lord, I want nothing—neither health, nor beauty nor power. Give me FREEDOM and I am content. This is Jivan mukti. This is the highest ideal of life. Thinking of the little pleasures of the senses has brought us to this: to dance, to laugh, to weep, and before the tears are gone, to begin over again. Look at my condition. Slave of the flesh, slave of the mind, wanting to have this, that and what not. DARKNESS BEHIND—DARKNESS AHEAD. Such is the wail of IGNORANCE.

Get rid of it, O! My Friend. It is your greatest, direst enemy. Let the LIGHT of KNOWLEDGE dissipate this DARKNESS of IGNORANCE. The Lord above is our refuge. He alone is STRENGTH. In Him we live and have our being. Where seek you for your ideals. Here it is. FREEDOM—You are rushing to it, and so am I. Welcome everything that helps you, yea, compels you, to strike one more blow in the noble cause of EMANCIPATION. Can a marble figure brook the blow that an iron mass can bear.

Know, slave is slave, caressed or whipped. . . . Fetters, though of gold are not less strong to bind.

Thus, let us work it out. Let us cut short this show of five minutes with death and decay as its sequel. We shall go beyond this to the ONE SOURCE, GOD; and there is PEACE.

CHAPTER II. THE IDEAL AND THE PRACTICAL.

HERE are two words—IMAGINATION and FANCY. What is the distinction between the two? Well, the one is closely related to the positive and the conscious side of our character; the other can claim kinship with the negative and the receptive side only. Take a youth starting in life. He has not been born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He is poor and has absolutely none to look to for help of any sort whatsoever.

Now, suppose he has spirit, and instead of sitting down and bewailing his lot, he forms a definite plan of conduct, throws his mind forward into the future, and decides to reach a certain state of development. He pictures to himself that state in its perfection, plans out the methods whereby he is to achieve it, takes in the difficulties to be met with and conquered, and by an effort of common sense reasoning sees the actual amount of good accruing to humanity and to all of God's creatures in general. He has had to think hard in order to construct the whole picture. He has had to breathe life upon it by repeating the images in connection with the whole picture. He has had to acquire knowledge, seek the advice of men more experienced than himself, and all the while he has had to keep up a brave and hopeful attitude of mind. And, mark you, he scorns to think of failure. It is for him to try his level best. It is for nature, which is a hard though a just pay-mistress, to bring him his reward in its due season.

The above is a fair example of the exercise of Imagination.

Fancy plays us tricks. It is not the man who pulls the strings this time. He simply yields himself to the influence of all sorts of impossible day-dreams. His mind is a sieve for thoughts to pass in and out. It is an aimless, idle, wandering, and brings ready victims for the pitch-and-toss game of men whose principle is to do others before the latter can have a turn at them.

A man is what his ideals are. If one man with an ideal makes fifty mistakes in a day, the man without an ideal is sure to commit many more. This is a simple truth, yet it will bear repetition here. All muscular actions, whether mental or physical, are simply fragments from the ideal.

The life of the ideal is in the practical; it is the ideal that has penetrated the whole of our life, whether we philosophise or perform the hard, everyday duties of life. . . . It is the ideal that has made us what we are and will make us what we are to be. . . . The principle is seldom expressed in the practical, yet the ideal is never lost sight of—(Pavhari Baba by Vivekananda).

The very fact of the ideal being present in your mind foreshadows its fulfilment.

Our thoughts set up a magnetic centre within us. Like attracts like. Good thoughts draw to themselves corresponding thoughts. This fact is very emphatic. Each tree brings forth fruits of its kind. If we think well, we cannot act ill. The greatness of a man must find its measure in the greatness of his thoughts, and not in the amount of money in his pocket or the bluster on his tongue.

Our ideal is the hinge upon which our future turns. We create our own fate.

The first essential is to pitch our aims high. Let us look upward and upward alone. Let us pray to God for strength by all means, but let us be prepared to deserve His grace by walking a straight path.

If we weave our thoughts around a grand purpose in life the ideal so formed may take material form any day. Its impulsion may stir up concretions of gross physical matter into activity and may clap spurs to the feet of even a lazy hack. So much for the ideal.

If the ideal is to be cherished, it must also be nourished. If you simply sit down and desire to get a thing, you will never get it and it is good for you that you should not. For the practical side of things must never be neglected. Practice makes perfect. Having set currents of holy desire in motion, we