By Gurudevi Nirmalananda
Then your mind is inclined
towards discernment and
is heading toward liberation.
Tadaa viveka-nimna.m kaivalya-
praagbhaara.m cittam.
— Yoga Sutras 4.26
This sutra is near the end of his text, meaning you’ve done the deep spiritual work he describes. Then, having trained your mind for a while, it becomes inclined towards two things: discernment and liberation. Discernment means you easily distinguish between what uplifts you compared to what tears you down, and that you make intelligent choices. Liberation means you become free from the cycle of reincarnation, thus this is your last lifetime.
There’s a hitch. First you have to train your mind for a while. How long? Well, just like training your dog to sit, it depends on how much time you put into it every day. If you make a stab at it once a week for 10 minutes, it will take much longer than if you spend an hour on it daily. You choose, basing your choice on what’s important to you. If you want to get enlightened, you like to put time and energy into it, just like with anything else for which you might aspire.
A research study proves that Patanjali’s promise is valid. When you put some time and energy into upliftment, you get uplifted.
Burton & King1 asked participants to write about IPEs (intensely positive experiences) for 20 minutes daily for three days. The members of their control group wrote about different topics.
They were all evaluated for mood and health at the beginning and three months later. Those who wrote about IPEs for 3 days had enhanced positive mood scores compared to the control group. They also had significantly fewer medical visits for illness in the three months.
Do you want to improve your mood and be healthier? Write about the happiest moments of your life for three days, 20 minutes a day. Amazingly easy! And the effects will last at least three months. If you want them to last longer, you may have to continue your writing assignment or redo it.
Do you want to get enlightened? It will take more than three days. But it’s worth it because enlightenment is so much greater than mere mood management. Enlightenment is about shining with the light of your own Beingness all the time.
This light is already there within you, but covered over by things that weigh you down and tear you up. Yoga’s meditative practices lighten your load and reweave the fragmented parts of your being back into wholeness.
In ancient India, yoga was not an athletic endeavor. In the 1900s, one yoga teacher mixed British calisthenics into his classes. He became famous, starting a trend that continues today, with athletic yoga, aerobic yoga and even gymnastic and aerial yoga. But for thousands of years prior to that, yoga was always a meditative process.
I call it “slow yoga.” That’s what we do – slow you down so you can go through three reliable stages:
1, Healing – both body and mind need some TLC. Slow yoga gives you the recovery time and deep reconditioning you need.
2. Transformation – the upliftment of your mind brings your emotions along. It starts with inner peace, gradually expanding into happiness, generosity and bliss.
3. Illumination – enlightenment is within your reach as your mind becomes naturally inclined toward discernment and liberation, just as the sage describes. He calls it “svaroopa,” which names your own Divine Essence. That’s why our yoga is named Svaroopa® yoga.
However, you don’t actually “reach” for enlightenment. You settle into it. That’s because Divine Light, as in the word en-lighten-ment, is already within. You are an incarnation of Divine Light. You merely need to look within in order to find it. That’s called meditation.
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