YOGA—WHAT IT IS AND WHAT IT IS NOT- Last Part -7.

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Last Part-7.


In the third system, all phases of life's activities are dedicated to God.

On an unselfish basis, man's duties are thus integrated.

This is known as Karma Yoga or the Yoga of selfless service.

The prime and crucial act in this system is the shedding of the ego.

When the personal ego is completely abnegated, all creatures upon earth are clearly apprehended as visible manifestations of God, as moving temples in which the Divine is enshrined.

The service of others then becomes natural and easy, and every act is performed not as a secular act, but as an act of worship.

Engaged in the transmutation of dynamism into divine realisation, one may do his worship everywhere.

The teacher in the school, the doctor in the hospital, the farmer in the field, the businessman in the stock-exchange, everyone engaged in professional activity, can transmute his dynamism into pure devotion by adopting a humble and worshipful inner attitude.



In the fourth system, man is employed in a very special process in which all thought is made to merge in God.

One becomes more and more aware of God as the Centre of being.

This is a very beautiful path also. It is known as Raja Yoga or the Yoga of Concentration and Meditation.

Thought is movement of the mind-stuff. Movement of the mind-stuff is produced by motion of the vital-life, force within called Prana and by movement of the body.

Thus, thought, Prana and the body are all interconnected.

Total subdual and control of the body may be brought about by keeping it in a fixed and steady posture.

Subdual and control of the inner psychic energy may be obtained by practicing techniques of breath-control.

And ultimately, all the scattered rays of the mind may be withdrawn from the multifarious universe and made to concentrate solely upon the one idea of God.

In this culminating process, man is raised above the level of the mind, taken into a state of superconsciousness in which the experience of oneness with God is realised, and he is released forever from the bondage to the body and from death itself.

There are many heartening signs that this Yoga is being considered by many seekers in the West to be the most suitable method for the solution of the perplexing problems of their civilisation.


END.

SRI SWAMI CHIDANANDA

Next : Authentic Religion

To be continued  ...


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