CHAPTER 7: Yoga leads to Liberation
Yoga is Union with the Divine. It is a state of being liberated while alive. One who lives with Yoga experiences a calm, a Peace that makes one Blissful. The ultimate goal of Yoga, however, is Moksha or liberation.
What does Yoga do? It makes us conscious of our Divine self. It connects the embodied Soul to the Cosmic Divine. There are many benefits of Yoga.
Yoga helps us to transcend the ego, mind, and body, making us realize that we are the Divine Soul. Doing so, it liberates us from all pain and suffering of the body and stress and anxiety of the mind. A person who practices Yoga is alive within the body. The body may suffer, but the Yogi doesn’t. The Yogi may experience the pain of the body, but being in Yoga transcends it.
Yoga makes us overcome all kinds of fear. One who is in Divine Union is unaffected by the trials and tribulations of life in this world. Being in Yoga, the Yogi is able to kill the mind before the mind kills him. Negative thoughts from the mind, targeted at a Yogi, return as if they are hitting at a bullet proof surface. Eventually, Yoga tames the mind to become silent. Thereafter, one experiences a Yogic Peace that becomes a fountain of Joy.
Yoga also transcends the Ego which otherwise constantly causes suffering. A Yogi transcends arrogance, living with humility, realizing that we are all nothing. We are just a manifestation of the Divine. Yoga makes us live as the Soul, not as the body-mind that we seem to be.
As Yoga unites us with the Divine, it also triggers our superconscious – a state of consciousness that communicates with the Universal Consciousness. A trigged superconscious acts as a tele-receiver, transmitting and receiving messages which are Divine and beyond. The superconscious is capable of creativity, sixth sense, intuition, hunches, and telepathy, unknown to the common man. However, a true Yogi uses his superconscious power not to perform supernatural acts but to move towards the ultimate goal of Liberation.
When we are in Yoga, we live with the realization of the Truth. This can be considered as the primary benefit of being in Yoga. As a realized Soul, we experience the Divine everywhere. We experience the Divine manifesting as the beautiful sunrise or sunset, as the clouds in the sky, the enchanting birds, the exotic fish and beautiful flowers. Yoga makes us realize that all this is a manifestation of the Divine. Even the people who we love are seen as Divine Souls. If the Divine departs from all these beautiful manifestations, there is no beauty left. It is the Divine that creates the beauty. Yoga makes us experience this.
Therefore, a Yogi lives in Peace and Joy, without being affected by anything or anybody. He views this world to be nothing more than a cosmic drama and he lives doing the Divine Will, till he is finally liberated and unified with the Divine. He doesn’t see himself to be a wave separate from the ocean of existence. Yoga makes him experience oneness with the ocean. It makes him realize that he comes from it and goes into it. Yoga makes the Yogi an observer of this Life drama. With Yoga, one doesn’t internalize tragedies and hurts, just as one doesn’t get over-excited with what is happening on the earth stage. Although we are all actors in the drama called Life, Yoga makes us observers with the realization that nothing is permanent. We all come and go, and soon, it will be the end of the show. While normal people will continue to come back as actors show after show, one who lives in Yoga, realizing the truth, is liberated after the current episode on earth is over. Even though he is an actor on the stage, he has transcended his ego and doesn’t consider the actions to be his actions but rather an act which is a part of the Universal storyboard that is unfolding.
Nothing matters to a Yogi except being in union with the Divine. Living as a Yogi, the ultimate goal is liberation from this world, from the possible rebirth due to Karmas. We create Karma as the ego, mind, and body. Everything good or bad that we do is recorded in our account and we are returned good for good and evil for evil. Even after death, our karmic account is said to continue, and when we leave one body, the mind, and ego is reborn in another body. Yoga, however, liberates us from such rebirth. A true Yogi doesn’t take ownership of any action. He Surrenders every action to the Divine, living as an instrument, doing nothing by himself or for himself. Therefore, a true Yogi doesn’t create any Karmas. Since he has realized that he is not the Ego, mind and body, all his past and carried forward Karma drop like rock salt in the ocean to get dissolved.
A Yogi lives a life dedicated to the Divine, doing the Divine will. Although embodied in a body-mind complex, he is actually liberated in all senses. Whatever the Yogi does, he offers and Surrenders it to the Divine. The Yogi lives a life that comprises Yoga of Action, Yoga of Devotion, Yoga of Education and Yoga of Meditation, till he is ultimately Liberated to be unified with the Divine when he reaches the moment of death of his physical body.
Let us discover the 4 ways of a Yogic Life.
Yoga leads to Liberation,
It frees us from Ego, body and mind,
As we live united with the Divine,
Peace, Joy and Bliss we will find.