—Śuddhacitt & Āsana—
—Swami Lakshamanjoo—
∫Sunday, May 4, 1980∫
Purity of mind is the first requisite for spiritual practice. If the mind is free from attachment and detachment, love and hatred, praise and blame, it can remain stable; and then it is termed a clean mind. You must be able to cultivate equality in spirit. Then only will spiritual practice become successful. Otherwise all goes vain and nothing is achieved. The first and foremost condition for spiritual practice is the adoption of a steady posture.
Whichever recognized pose you adopt for yourself or is advised by your master, you must stick to it and you must be able to remain in it for long at least two hours and without the slightest movement or distraction. There should be no cause for making any movement. You should not yawn, nor look sideways, you should not stretch your muscles. There should be no bending position. You must be able to sit straight with your spinal column erect. You must sit like a rock. Then by mere sitting thus and even without doing any spiritual practice, your mind will become steady, serene and purified. This is called the “conquest of posture” — āsanajaya. By this the spiritual practice easily gains strength. You can see this for yourselves. Even one hour’s sitting without any movement, will give your mind steadiness. You will feel peace.
Then you will feel no necessity of practising the conquest of mind according to this sloka of the Bhagavad Gitā:—
यतो यतो निश्चरति मनश्चञ्चलमस्थिरम् ।
ततस्ततो नियम्यैतदात्मन्येव शमं नयेत् ॥
— Gītā VI.26
Meaning:
Restraining the restless and unsteady mind from all those objects after which it runs, one should concentrate it on Self.
There is no need of following this practice. By conquering the posture the mind automatically becomes stable. This is stated in the Gitā:—
समं कायशिरोग्रीवं धारयन्नचलं स्थिरः ।
सम्प्रेक्ष्य नासिकाग्रं स्वं दिशश्चानवलोकयन् ॥
रशान्तात्मा विगतभीर्ब्रह्मचारिव्रते स्थितः ।
मनः संयम्य मच्चित्तो युक्त आसीत मत्परः ॥
—Gītā VI.13-14.
Meaning:
With body, head and neck upright and steady, eyes turned to the point of the nose and gaze not wandering; maintaining internal calm, fearless, determined on the vow of brahmacaryaṁ and with the mind well governed, he should sit harmoniously absorbed in Self.
“समं कायशिरोग्रीवं” (Samaṁ kāyaśirōgrīvaṁ) — That means that body, mind, neck and head should remain straight during the whole time of spiritual practice. That is the true posture. That should be acalaṁ—without any movement, and then the practiser's mind should be sthīraḥ—one-pointed, fixed on one object. All the formalities and preliminary duties should have been fulfilled, even the obligations pertaining to bodily needs. There should be no kind of distraction, i.e. clothes must have been washed and vegetables etc. purchased.
Then sit in your posture for spiritual practice. Where? Which is the place for that?
“संपश्यन्नासिकाग्रं स्वं” (Saṁpaśyaṇnāsikāgraṁ svaṁ) — At the end of the twelve unit measure of your breath i.e. at dvādaśānta. You must seat yourself at the point of concentration as taught to you by your master. Exactly with the same zeal and in the same way as at the beginning should you mentally sit at the point of concentration.
What else is to follow?
“दिशचानवलोकयन्” (Diśaścanavalokayaṇ) — You should carry no load of unnecessary thinking with you, no worry, and no care.
“प्रशान्तात्मा” (Praśaṇtātmā) — You must not have to think: “I shall be late for office, I have to see such and such a person, I have to attend this business or that. Now I should run through my practice and leave early.” No, forget all this first and then take to spiritual practice.
“विगतभीः” (Vigatabhīḥ) — You should not have this fear in mind that you have left that piece of work half-done and that you will have to face a loss. In this context you may think, “this is a more important piece of work to attend, this is duty. So I shall leave this spiritual practice half-way or I shall resume it later.” This must not be done.
“ब्रह्मचारिव्रते स्थितः” (Brahmacārivratē sthitaḥ) — You must remain in continued concentration on the real nature of Parabhairava, which is Supreme Consciousness. That is the vow of brahmacaryaṁ. A brahmacārī is not only one who has a big tilaka (a colour sign besmeared) on his forehead or who only attends to his long matted hair hanging from the top of his head, or who displays a big rosary round his neck or any other sign of the sort. Maintaining Supreme Consciousness alone, constant and continued, is brahmacarya.
So far I have talked to you about the conquest of posture—āsanajaya in the process of purifying the mind. ∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
— The Awareness Of The Supreme Consciousness; Revealed by Īśvarasvarupa Swāmī Lakṣamaṇajū.