NIRODHA - Swami Sivananda Saraswati

NIRODHA

Mind and breath are like milk and water. Raja yoga is control of the mind. He who wants to become a perfect yogi and wants to experience wonderful samadhi (super-conscious state), must control mind and breath. He must continuously practise yoga and observe the rules. He must thoroughly overcome the five tatvas (elements).

Restraint of the mind (nirodha) leads to jnana. Nirodha is the culmination of yoga and sankhya (two paths to liberation). It is nirodha which underlies all sadhana (spiritual practice). Restraint of the mind is the essence of all worship. This is jnana (wisdom) and dhyana (meditation). The highest is attained by the restraint of the mind. The mind should be completely restrained from objects until it attains dissolution in the heart.

Atman or Brahman is your immortal self. It is the only blazing reality. Only if you know this Atman can you attain perfection. Perfection can be yours in this very life. Atman is to be recognised as your innermost being, through samadhi.

If you know the Atman, which is the ultimate reality, which is perfection, then only your life becomes useful and a real existence. The knower of the Atman, the inner perfection, crosses all sorrows and becomes free. If you do not know this Atman then there is great loss for you.

Samadhi is not a mere emotional enthusiasm or an exhilaration of feeling, it is the direct, unique, intuitive experience of truth or absolute consciousness or the ultimate reality. It is beyond all feeling, throbbing and thrill. The aspirant rests in his centre now - the goal of his search - and realises the absolute freedom, independence and perfection.

The aspirant should have a burning desire to free himself from the fire of samsara (worldly life). Then only he will be able to enter into deep meditation and samadhi. The mind becomes that very Brahman when it is purified and brought into the samadhi state. In samadhi there is no perception of duality, the cause of fear. Avidya (ignorance) is entirely absent in this state.

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To attain supreme bliss, you must have patience, perseverance, diligence, serenity, purity, one-pointed mind and burning aspiration. He who does not strive for realisation lives in vain - though he is a man in appearance, he is in fact a beast.

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