A Study of the Bhagavadgita : 8 - 8. Swami Krishnananda.

 =======================================================================

======================================================================

Tuesday, December 14, 2021.6:00. PM.
A Study of the Bhagavadgita : 8-8. 
Chapter 8 : The Stages of Yoga -8.

=====================================================================

There will be a flash of consciousness in the beginning. You will see lightning flashing. As if lightning strikes in the sky, your mind will experience a kind of delightful lightning flash. It will come and go. Yoga does not come always, all twenty-four hours of the day. There will be a flash, as if you are seeing something which is not of this world. A vision, a sound, a taste, an odour, some music or a touch which is celestial in its nature will be your casual experience occasionally. This is the effect of one kind of communion which your mind establishes with the higher levels.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After some time the communion will intensify itself, and you will feel a sense of belonging to this light that is in front of you. You will not merely see or hear or touch or smell these experiences as if they come from outside, as if they are the music of the spheres; you will feel that you are somehow connected to these operations and you are a part of this orchestra of this celestial being. You are not merely the listener of the music; you are participating in it in some way or the other, and you will feel an ecstasy, as if you want to dance. This will be another communion that will intensify itself a little further on.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Yoga Vasishtha says the experience will intensity itself further, and you will see lightning flashes everywhere in the sky – not only one strip in one place. It will be a floodlit sky, and you will also be a part of that experience. You will see radiance in your own personality, and one flame will not be able to distinguish itself from the larger flame which is like a conflagration in the whole sky. 

Then the light alone will be there. These are the communions. 

"Brahmarpanam brahma havir brahmagnau brahmana hutam, brahmaiva tena gantavyam brahmakarmasamadhina."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All this experience should not be expected to come like a windfall, though sometimes it can be a windfall. There are miracles possible in this world. Sudden experiences are also practicable due to the maturity of some of the karmas of your past lives, but usually it is an exercise that is expected on your part through the Yoga process, as is very systematically described for instance in the Sutras of Patanjali – Ashtanga Yoga, the eight stages.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The process of this practice of Yoga is again briefly described in the Fifth Chapter, which is the cue, as it were, to the further exposition in the Sixth Chapter. 

Sparsan krtva bahir bahyams caksus caivantare bhruvoh, pranapanau samau krtva nasabhyantaracarinau (Gita 5.27); 

yatendriyamanobuddhirmunir moksaparayanah, vigatecchabhayakrodho yah sada mukta eva sah (Gita 5.28).

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Two slokams will tell you briefly what Yoga is. First of all, you have to shut out all the entry of external consciousness into your meditational mood. This is done by what is called pratyahara technique. The contacts of the senses with externality have to gradually be diminished in their intensity, which you should do by diligent practice.

To be continued ....

========================================================================