00:00Pranam Acharya ji, I am reading the Ashta Vakar Gita, please throw some light on these.
00:18So she has shared a couple of excerpts, the excerpt comes from the book Commentaries on
00:46Ashta Vakar Gita by this speaker and she is quoting from chapter 5 titled The Real Meaning
00:58of Meditation.
01:06Practice of meditation means acquired knowledge about meditation, it will not help because
01:13the acquirer of that knowledge itself is the bondage.
01:19Then another quote, it requires something beyond words, maybe a particular presence
01:26for the words to have an effect, they are mere words, things, methods expressed in words,
01:39the touch of the special is missing, the liveness is missing.
01:49Related to this she asks, what is the relevance of Ashtang Yoga in general and specifically
01:55Asana, Kriyas, Pranayama, Dharana, what is your opinion on Hatha Yoga and the thought
02:05that Hatha Yoga prepares one for Raja Yoga?
02:14The mind, the body, their relation and their effect upon each other.
02:44In general, the mind has an effect on the state of the body.
03:14If man were perfect and were living perfectly, then the source, the mind and the body would
03:36have been in perfect alignment and agreement with each other.
03:49Life activity and existence would have proceeded seamlessly from the source to the mind and
03:57from the mind to the body, from the heart to the mind, the mind to the limbs.
04:17After all, the mind is nothing but the source expressing itself subtly and the body is
04:30nothing but the mind expressing itself grossly.
04:40So in a perfect sense, these three should be one.
04:49But they are not, there is nothing ideal, there is nothing perfect in this world, in
05:02the perceiver of the world.
05:08So the mind affects the body.
05:18Working on the mind, observing directly the movements, patterns, inclinations, compulsions
05:37and tendencies of the mind has an effect on one's life, action and behavior.
06:00That is the path of realization.
06:17But that is a slightly difficult path.
06:22Not many have the insight to look directly at their thoughts and tendencies.
06:40Though if practiced, it would be the shortest path.
06:52Look at thought itself and actions, behavior and life would change.
07:03Many of us, most of us live at a gross level of existence.
07:19Our minds have lost the reflective capacity to look at themselves.
07:27So the mind keeps looking outwards at gross objects.
07:32That's the situation with most people.
07:34Their mind is busy looking outwards at gross objects.
07:39It cannot look at itself.
07:40When it cannot look at itself, how will it know what's going on within it?
07:53So the mind looks outwards at things, objects, worlds and gets affected by them.
08:00We begin with saying that the body should operate as per the mind and it does.
08:14But in most people, there is traffic the other way as well.
08:21The mind operates as per the body and the world.
08:24The mind operates as per gross objects.
08:27Body too is a gross object.
08:33This is called conditioning of the mind.
08:35So mind is looking at the conditions prevailing in the world and operating as per them.
08:41That is conditioning.
08:43You look at how the world is and what you look at changes you.
08:50You become conditioned.
08:53The condition outside becomes your state.
08:57And when I say outside, that includes gross objects including the body.
09:02So the condition of the mind in most people gets affected a lot by the condition of their
09:07body.
09:08This is called conditioning.
09:10So the people who are prone to conditioning, victims of conditioning, remain highly dependent
09:19on the condition of their body.
09:24If you are prone to conditioning, you will remain dependent on conditions.
09:31You will remain dependent on conditions.
09:33And all external conditions are perceived by your body.
09:38So when we say you are dependent on conditions, let us say you are dependent on the temperature
09:43outside.
09:44Now you do not know what the temperature outside is.
09:47You actually only know the temperature of your own skin.
09:51Even to know the temperature of the air outside, you depend on your own skin.
09:57So fundamentally the conditioned mind is depending on the condition of his own body.
10:05When I say body, I also mean the stuff that the body absorbs through the senses, through
10:13the eyes, through the ears, all kinds of inputs.
10:20So what is the state of the conditioned mind?
10:24It becomes highly dependent on the body.
10:28The state of the body conditions it.
10:33Is that clear?
10:41Hathayog makes use of this phenomena.
10:48Hathayog says, now I know that this mind gets heavily affected by the condition of the body
10:55because this mind is prone to conditioning.
10:59So Hathayog says, fine, you do get conditioned, so I will change the conditions.
11:06After all, you do get conditioned.
11:08So what will I do?
11:11As a method to liberate you from the conditions, I will begin with the conditions.
11:17I will change the conditions.
11:19Hathayog uses a change in conditions as a liberator from the conditions, as a method
11:28to liberate you from the conditions.
11:32So Hathayog says, fine, let's change the conditions.
11:35Let's change the body.
11:40The mind has become rigid and stubborn.
11:44Let's turn the body flexible.
11:46If you turn the body flexible, then because the mind is dependent on the body, the mind
11:51too will become a little flexible, a little receptive.
11:56The body has become fat.
11:58It has accumulated a lot of unnecessary mass.
12:04So let's reduce the mass from the body.
12:06The mind is dependent on the body.
12:09The mind too will lose its unnecessary mass.
12:12What is the unnecessary mass of the mind?
12:14Old habits, memories, patterns.
12:21The body has become lazy.
12:23So the mind too has become lazy.
12:25What is the laziness of mind called?
12:28Tamsa.
12:29Let's reduce the laziness of the body.
12:32Let's get things moving.
12:37If the laziness of the body goes, the laziness of the mind too reduces.
12:44When the mind is agitated, the breath too gets agitated.
12:56Let's normalize the breath.
13:00Let's give some depth to breathing.
13:04And because the mind depends on the body, when the breath gets all right, the mind also
13:08tends to get all right.
13:10That is the principle on which all Hatha Yoga operates and even techniques like Pranayama
13:15etc. from Ashtanga Yoga.
13:19Getting it?
13:24So far so good.
13:25Now comes the catch.
13:32Hatha Yoga says because the mind gets affected by the body, so let's change the body and
13:41cleans the mind.
13:46For Hatha Yoga to succeed, the mind must remain dependent on the body, which means the mind
13:54must remain prone to conditioning.
13:58Now that's a problem.
14:03For Hatha Yoga to be useful, the principle that the mind gets conditioned by the world
14:09must hold true.
14:11Are you getting it?
14:19But what is the objective of Hatha Yoga?
14:22To bring the mind to a point where it is no longer prone to conditioning.
14:32So Hatha Yoga can succeed only till a point.
14:35Please get the point.
14:39Hatha Yoga proceeds by making use of the vulnerability of the mind towards the body, bodily conditions.
14:52The objective of Hatha Yoga is to reduce the vulnerability of the mind towards the
14:56bodily conditions and it makes use of the body to reduce that vulnerability.
15:03But if the vulnerability is actually reducing, then Hatha Yoga will fail because then change
15:08in body will not affect the mind.
15:11Are you getting it?
15:14So Hatha Yoga, as you keep practicing it, will give you great returns till a point and
15:26then will become incrementally useless for you.
15:34Because it can succeed only as long as you are prone to conditioning and if you are still
15:41prone to conditioning, has your practice of Yoga succeeded?
15:44No, it has failed.
15:49Who is the real Yogi whose mind is no longer dependent on external conditions?
15:55If your mind is still dependent on how your body is doing, then are you a Yogi?
16:03So Hatha Yoga is wonderful as something to start with.
16:06But it cannot take you to the destination because it makes use of the same thing that
16:15it seeks to eliminate.
16:17What does it make use of?
16:19Your corruptibility.
16:22It makes use of your vulnerability.
16:25It makes use of exactly the same thing that it seeks to eliminate.
16:31So either it will keep succeeding and not succeed or if it is failing, then no point
16:42continuing with it.
16:45If Hatha Yoga is working wonders on you, it means you are still vulnerable towards the
16:51body.
16:52Do you see this?
16:53It means you are doing stuff with your body and that is calming down your mind.
16:59Good that you are doing stuff with your body and that is calming down the mind and bad
17:03because it means that your mind is dependent on the body.
17:10And if your mind actually starts gaining freedom from the body, then Hatha Yoga will start
17:13failing.
17:16That is the limitation with Hatha Yoga.
17:18And that is why it has been rightly said that Hatha Yoga is just a preparatory step for
17:26real Yoga.
17:29You cannot use it as a lifelong thing.
17:33You cannot use it as the real thing.
17:37It is just an external preparation for the real inner work.
17:43It is in that sense not real Yoga.
17:48In fact if you go to the central text of Hatha Yoga, Hatha Yoga Pradipika, it says right
17:56at the outset that Hatha Yoga is for beginners who later on want to enter into advanced Yoga.
18:12If you have no intention to have real Yoga, which is real mystical union with the Self,
18:25then Hatha Yoga would at most give you some bodily gains and yes, possibly and probably
18:32some calmness of the mind that comes with the bodily gains.
18:39Not much beyond that.
