How Raj Yoga Helps Our Mind And Body| Raj Yoga means Royal Yoga. It is the type of
Yoga taught in the Bhagavad Gita (Hindu holy book, is a 700-verse Hindu
scripture that is part of the epic Mahabharata). It teaches control of life, disease, and
death. It teaches the conquest of mind and matter. As the body can be trained
to a high state of efficiency, so mind cab becomes a powerful instrument of
supernatural forces such as enabled Lord Krishna to destroy the millions of
Kauravas in the Battle of Mahabharata singlehanded, being along on the side of
the Pandavas.
Mind
and body
“The immediate purpose of physical Yoga”,
says Yogi William Zoran in True Yoga “is a healthy disciplined body. Its
ultimate aim is to prepare the mind for mental Yoga. Therefore, if you want to
become a master over your mind, you will find great help from the practice of
physical Yoga. The Yoga of action is also a preparation of mental Yoga.
“The mind can only be trained with
perseverance and patience. Once the mind is under control, there are no
obstacles that cannot be overcome. All problems are man-made and in our own
minds.”
“Before we can control our minds, we must
first establish self-control (i.e. Dama, Dama means control over senses or
sense organ). This is the mastery over selfishness, anger, and fear. These
characteristics are obstacles to further development and their subduing
increases the will-power and prepare the mind for concentration.”
“A strong desire to progress and the practice
of austerities are necessary for
establishing self-control.”
“He who desires to know his real self while
fully attached to material things is as a man who prepares to cross a river on
the back of a crocodile, mistaking it for a piece of wood.”
“Desire breeds desire. No matter what man
gets, he wishes more. Desire is insatiable as a flame of fire, whole
civilization has been destroyed in the pursuit of material wealth and power.
The overcoming of selfishness is a great inner victory, greater and more
lasting than success in business and the gaining of material wealth.”
Give Up
Luxuries
If you look for Raj Yoga, give up your love
for luxuries and creature comforts. These lead you but to perdition. For
penance as a Royal Yogi, it is not necessary to retire into a cave. “The
achievement can be even greater when accomplished while surrounded by
temptations.”
Live on the barest minimum and discard all
superfluous things. Become master over everything you feel has an undesired
hold over you. Self-control comes easy to him who Masters his craving for food.
Learn to fast unto life. There is no need to fast unto death.
Control
Sexual Passions
“Our interests in sex is basic. Too much
preoccupation with sex, however, disturbs the peace of mind. To prevent this,
and in order to become master over himself, the student should learn to control
his sexual feelings. This can be achieved by observing a period of complete
abstention (Brahmacharya i.e total abstinence from sex) or by the suppression of one or more stages
of erotic action. The eight stages of erotic action are to think about it, to
joke about it, to praise it, to look with desire, to discuss in private, to
decide to do it, to attempt to do it, and the actual act. To suppress the
different stages, the last stage with ‘vajroli mudra’ provides an opportunity
for practicing self-control.”
Rise
Above Opposites
Rise above the pair of opposites, such as
pleasure and pain, success and failure, victory and defeat, heat and cold,
darkness and light, even ignorance and knowledge.
Attachments develop from an impression caused
by a pleasant experience and aversion develops from an impression caused by a
painful experience. Both developments are a result of our will-to-live. The
latter is an expression of the life force (i.e. Sanskrit word praṇa) which is
present in all things.
The mind is a gigantic storehouse full of
impressions and reactions, likes and dislikes. Raj Yoga is achieved when the
mind is made still as a mountain lake.
“The untrained mind can be compared to a
maddened monkey because it appears to jump from one object to the next. It
often seems as if the mind is a whirlpool or unrelated thoughts.”
Undesirable thoughts can be suppressed by the
constant pondering over the opposites. Hate is suppressed by thoughts of love,
unhappy thoughts by thinking about happiness, selfish desires by
non-attachment.
Rhythmic
Concentration
Royal or Raj Yoga can be achieved by
concentrating the mind on the easy flow of your breath, harmoniously flowing in
and out of your nose. The concentration on this natural rhythm has a wonderful
soothing effect on the nerves and a spiritual uplift on the mind.
The word “Om” can be joined to the inflowing
and the outflowing breath, being mentally drawn out so as to make it exactly as
long as each inhalation and each exhalation.
There is no fanaticism about the word “Om”.
You can choose a different word if you like; say “Rose”, “Love”, or the name of
someone you are deeply in love with.
The inflowing breath sounds as “Sa” and the
outflowing breath as “Ha”. ‘Sa’ indicates “That” the One, and ‘Ha’ means “I
AM”. Man consciously or unconsciously repeats this affirmation “Sa Ha” complete
meaning is “That I am” (So ham) 21,600 times every twenty-four hours, thus
constantly proclaiming his divine nature.
Gyan
Yoga
The contemplation and practice of Yoga is
called Gyan Yoga, which means Yoga of Knowledge.
“As the experienced traveler prepares himself
for a long journey, so the Gyan Yoga student should come well prepared in order
to find and grasp the answers to mankind’s greatest questions. Mere intellectual
understanding is not sufficient. Truth must be experienced as a reality.
“Realizing truth means obtaining the highest
Good qualities in life.”
True Yoga is not for the weak or those who
are a slave to the words. It comes to the student who would “refuse gold,
elephants, beautiful woman, or a kingdom if he could instead know Truth.”
Shankaracharya was an Indian Hindu philosopher and theologian in the early 8th
century who consolidated the doctrine of Advaita Vedanta. He has given us the
prayer for true seekers of knowledge:
Asat oma sadgamaya
Tamaso ma jyotirangamaya
Mrityor mamritam gamaya
Lead us from the Unreal to the Real!
Lead us from darkness to Light!
Lead us from death to Immortality!
Final words: We hope that this article will help you to know How Raj Yoga Helps Our Mind And Body.
Final words: We hope that this article will help you to know How Raj Yoga Helps Our Mind And Body.
