28/03/2020
Yogaschittavruttinirodhah ||PYS 2.1||
'Chitta', the core of yoga to be understood clearly, to restrain the vruttis. This is very simple but, we modern people always want logic to suffice our limited knowledge. What is that, I repeatedly refer to as limited knowledge ? For instance, school going children have knowledge. Teenagers think they know everything. College students know that they know everything in the world because they have the power of Google. Few years later, you start doubting Google is a bundle of information, and you don't get everything you want to know. Why, How, When & For what reason this virus has come and What is the medicine for a simple very tiny virus ? Our knowledge is limited. Therefore, only we understand that many decades of medical science research are limited. Not only science but in all the fields of what we are into, our knowledge is limited. It is also true with individuals. Each individual's size of their information bundle varies. Hence, we have to agree that with our limited knowledge we can't deny or discard the shastras which have been surviving since ageless times. Now, the theorem is proved, therefore we conclude that we need to believe in scriptures only.
My most time is going in convincing you guys to believe in scriptures, otherwise, it is easy to understand everything.
Chitta is the total sum of samskaras from many past lives. We can not attend chitta directly, therefore, we need to attend kleshas. Kleshas are the results of samskaras and the results of kleshas build more samskaras for future. Kleshas are easily understandable as it is happening in the present life. Example, you may dislike someone for no reason (you may also find some reasons for saying sake) you may like some people as soon as you see them. You may want to hate some, love some people. You may be afraid of a person or adore a person. All these are kleshas. Your samskara from past many lives make you hate or love, adore or ignore, loyal or disloyal ! (This is difficult to agree for modern brainz) But, the results of kleshas build samskara for next life, which we need to restrict. This is what is in our hands now, at present.
'Where are the Kleshas, I will set them fire to' you may say so. These can't be seen, results can be experienced. In texts, it is written that the seat of tamas (kleshas) is mooladhara chakra. We, in Iyengar Yoga, don't use this word 'chakra' because it is the most misinterpreted word along with the word kriyayoga. This gives the imagination of 'chakra uddeepane', which is not our marga. We are into society, we need to do all our duties. We reach the goal in satvik marga. Hence we don't try anything with chakra. There is a popular story, one yogi had a siddhi of walking on water, which he aquiers with his lifetime practise. Ramakrishna Paramshamsa with a big laughter tells, 'nakaNe kotre teppadonu karkondu hogtaane' (with just a quarter rupee a sailor takes you that side)
We will come back to our subject of kleshas and samskaras.
You do a asana and stretch everywhere. You will notice under stretch, overstretch, pain, stretch in the skin, muscle, blood flow etc, but it is difficult to perceive lower of the lower abdomen, which is tamas. There the kleshas hidden and difficult to perceive. Now, Iyengar's instructions come to your rescue ! Those instructions are the real pelvis (eye!) openers. Only with that kind of asana practise you address kleshas. Now, your chitta is clearing. But, you only understand that the mind is light and your responses & reactions to people & situations are better. With Practise over time, you get clarity about kleshas and you have changed the results of them, which builds good samskara and destroys bad ones. This will lead you further. When a yogi comes to the highest level of asana practise, where kumbhaka happens, chitta vrutti nirodha happens for that amount of time. Hence he needs to practise the same throughout his lifetime to be in that state as long as possible. This clears chitta for the next life or he may attain kaivalya with God's grace in that life.
This is the right practise of yoga. Unless we attend kleshas and understand the results to restrain them, it is dangerous to go further, in a hurry to reach the final state. It will destroy the practitioner if forcefully practised anything. Have purity, clarity from within oneself. Focus to build qualities of a yogi. Learn to recognize ego and ways of thinning it. Become god to see the God.
This can only be done if you practise Iyengar Yoga, in this era of modernization and confusions. Other styles of practitioners interested in dropping back (to urdhva dhanurasana), not lifting up !
(My teacher Arathi KN explains this, when I could not understand how turning out feet in prasarita podottasana opens the pelvis. Logically, backbends open pelvis. She says, all the asanas will do the same if you practise with appropriate Iyengar Yoga instructions. Opening pelvis is not opening it out, it opens for you to understand your own kleshas. Therefore, it can be opened in front bends like Pashchimottanasana ! I hope, I learn them as they are, to understand kleshas)