Focus on Divine Consciousness

 

Photo Credit: SF Yoga Mag

Focus on Divine Consciousness

All great saints have told us that we are divine, we are all made in the image of God. We must not desecrate that image with negative emotions like fear, anger, jealousy, hatred, impatience and so on. When this happens are mind gets disturbed and we involuntarily dislodge ourselves from our innate divine state. Learning to live in this world without disturbing or giving up the divine image of calmness and joy in which God has created us – that is the art we need to learn and thus solve the mystery of life. Ashtanga yoga teaches us exactly that. Samarpan meditation is a step forward – it takes us directly to the final two steps – dhyan and samadhi.

Yoga helps us stabilise and calm the body whereas dhyan helps us stabilise and quieten the mind, samadhi unites us with the divine and duality disappears into the union of perpetual bliss.

Even though God has surrounded us with all kinds of limitations everywhere, still the mind can be free. Lots of freedom fighters have smilingly faced death for their nation. That is the state of mind that is absolutely free – where no sorrow, no pleasure, no ups and downs of life, can disturb you.

The Masters have advised us to try and remedy the cause of suffering, and yet be undaunted by it. Don’t be disturbed by life’s sufferings. When there is any external disturbance, we try to remedy it, find a solution for it and yet remain undisturbed within. Once we manage to attain this state of remaining calm and stable within regardless of external disturbances, then we have mastered the yogic virtue of titiksha or divine patience.

By remaining unceasingly even-minded we neutralise and ultimately defeat the effects of cosmic delusion or maya. We should strengthen our mind through meditation so that we don’t get hurt. We don’t know what beauty and freedom lies veiled behind the surface of life. Meditate! Make the mind so strong that we can rise above everything – so that no physical or mental pain arising out of living our life can really affect us. To become the ruler of our own consciousness that is true kingship. Like Swamiji says in his story, “I have become a king, I have become a king”.

It is the greatest ignorance to think that we are the body, because we are not! That is nothing but just our delusive attachment to the body that has been cultivated by us since birth. Through regular meditation our body consciousness reduces and soul consciousness increases, and a point is reached where we perceive ourselves as separate from the body, that is we realise that we are a soul – that is when we will see that the mystery of life has been solved!