by Sri Bmal Mohanty
VOL No. 9
 March 2001

CHAPTER TEN – HOW WE MAKE OUR TASK EASIER ?

"Based on lectures by Sri Bimal Mohanty"

    How to achieve our objective easily and quickly is of course what Yogasadhana is all about. All paths of Yoga, as shown to us by Siddha Purushas or persons who have achieved perfection are the many ways, derived from their knowledge and personal experiences, various paths leading towards the same single objective. There is ofcourse no such thing which one is better than the other. The one that suits Sri Chaitanya is not the one for Ramana Maharshi. What Sri Aurobindo advocated was not the one for Swami Vivekananda. Each one is according to his or her spiritual bent of mind. Each one has his own perception and understanding and follows according to his conviction. Yat Yat Sraddha sah eva ca. Where one feels comfortable that particular path becomes his practice. It is futile to argue one in favour of the other.

However, the broad margas or the paths having been generally agreed, many great seers have made many simple suggestions that might help. If this can help any of us then why not?

To begin with, before we talk of the remedy, let us see what the malady is? Why in the first place we deviate from the path of righteousness. The Shastras say that we are all offsprings of the immortal – amrtasya putrah. We are derived from the pure Bramhan itself. Then why did we not remain on the right path all the time?

This phenomenon of degradation from the original purity works this way.

All activities of the creation – and by all we mean each and everything – are dictated by qualities of nature- prakrtijaih guneih. Every one is driven by the Prakrti. As we all know the activities of Prakriti are three types- the Satva or pure, desireless activity, Rajas or objective-driven activity dictated by material achievement and Tamas - purposeless activity. Sometimes one or the other is predominant and overpowering. Satva frees you from the knots of Karma – thus leaving no chance for committing mistakes. Rajas drives us more and more into activity and fruits there of. Attachment to fruits of labour is a potential danger for committing mistakes. Tamas ofcourse being totally short sighted and desire driven forces us to practice adharma

What is then expected of us? It is expected that through knowledge we should understand this nature of Prakrti, be on our guard and remain in the path of Satva which is the path of Dharma.

To do this we must differentiate between Preyas which is temporary pleasure giving and Shreyas which is permanently good and desirable.

Our ego-self which is always body conscious and sense conscious invariably goes for Preyas. On the other hand, the Supreme –self (superior to our ego-self in knowledge), the Paramatma, discards preyas and leads us to Shreyas.

When ego-self is in charge we make mistakes. When Supreme self is in charge, we walk the path of righteousness, the path of Dharma, or righteousness.

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