Real Yoga

In this article the Swami mentions the Srimad Bhagavatam.

The Srimad Bhagavatam is also known as Bhagavata Purana, Srimad Bhagavata Mahapurana or simply Bhagavata.

The Bhagavata is one of Hinduism's eighteen major popular Puranas.

Puranas are ancient Indian texts that encompass a wide range of topics, including myths, legends, cosmology, and religious practices. Like other Puranas, it discusses a wide range of topics including cosmology, astronomy, genealogy, geography, legend, music, dance, yoga and culture.

To explain Consciousness is a bit presumptuous. It is the most difficult thing for a non–Yogi to get a handle on, let alone for it to be explained intellectually. The following may clarify.

Think of your brain as a sponge, dried out and shrunken, and on being born, this tightly compacted little ball of brain–sponge is thrown into an Ocean of Consciousness, the very thing we are trying to discover, but like fish swimming in the ocean, saying to one another, What is this thing called water I hear about?, Consciousness must be discovered by backtracking. Slowly as the Consciousness of things enters this new sponge, it begins to expand and thus it begins its journey of unfolding.

There is not one iota of Objective Consciousness in the child at first. In this great scheme of things the birth brain was parentally endowed with Instinctive Consciousness (or the sleeping I) and a whole set of genetic and chromosomic strings. With this very simple beginning, the basic brain computer was ready to receive its input, and once again the unfolding began its imperceptible journey of growth and Self Awareness.

The ancient Seers long ago realized that what we know has mostly been conditioned in us, much like we feed data into a computer. Yet miraculous inventions and ideas seem to come out of thin air and with the advent of these new ideas we have the opening of new times and eras in man's history.

In my Father's house are many mansions. This saying from the New Testament indicates that there are far greater areas of the brain which can be opened, and like some miraculous adventure, the opening of these small brain nodules (another mansion) give an awareness of things undreamt of just a few years prior. Science is now discovering all sorts of these nodules, and not only that, but the varying aspects of Consciousness and other worlds that are opened up with the excretion of certain hormones.

This does not explain Consciousness yet, because Pure Consciousness is the absence of things and thoughts and here we are talking about adding conditioning to the brain. All the time adding to and unfolding. Well we will get to Pure Consciousness later.

At some time in our early history, some 50,000 years ago, our non–intellectual brain could conceivably decipher through our other heightened senses, and decide what roots, leaves and berries were good for us and which were not, while at the same time reason simplistically that Thunder was the voice of some distant Power, and Lightening was perhaps his consort. To appease these frightening forces, small shaped beliefs began, which culminated in the cutting out of Incan hearts and the throwing of young Mayan virgins into flaming volcanoes.

One would have thought it would have ceased there, yet the sponge was not fully opened to its own powers yet, and the need to cling to belief and superstition would still persist.

What thoughts are really yours and which ones belong to someone else?

When you think about it You realize, that unless You are an inventor and have had that superlative experience of entering another mansion in the brain, to bring out of it some new idea, then I am afraid to say there is not much of your thinking which You can call your own. Not a nice thought, but for those that are eager to find the truth about this Consciousness conundrum, they will persevere.

Ideas and thoughts which have been fed into us do quite amazing things. For instance: Because the Christian believes that the bread taken at Mass is the body of Christ and that the wine is his blood, Hindus, from that mostly vegetarian country, quite rightly see us as cannibals, while we on the other hand see them prostrating themselves in front of the Lingam and see them as evil and heathenistic.

Both religions believe in God and the brotherhood of man, yet bloodshed in the name of their respective Religions abounds throughout our histories.

Why should the word God in different languages cause such discord. Whether it is Dieu, Allah, God, Siva or Brahma, like water in their respective languages, it remains the same and quenches our thirst.

When you think about it, we should become aware of our conditioning. When we find that a Belief or even an Ideal is worth more than another man's life, we should chuck it out. But no, think how empty you would be without all your Philosophies and Ideals and Religions and Superstitions.

As Krishnamurti says, to become choicelessly aware of your conditioning causes a transformation to happen. What is the transformation? It will be different with everyone, but it will lead to an investigatory process that will amaze you and free you.

Do you remember when you were a young child and had that honey throated laughter bubbling up inside you? Those days were happy times. Those happy times are your birthright. The Seeds of Conditioning and Beliefs steal it away from You. Retracing your steps to those joyful times is an admirable way to begin. That is the real meaning of Repent — to return — to revisit. If a person repents anything, in the modern sense of repentance, it should be the shame of his Attachment to what he has allowed other's conditioning to have made him become.

Mind as time. According to Einstein's Theory of Relativity of Space and Time, a space traveller speeding along at the near speed of light will have all his physical functions slowed down so that even the need of food on a long 40 year trip to some distance star would be totally unnecessary. On his return to earth he would have found everyone else aged 80 years, while he would have remained only minutes older.

In the Srimad Bhagavatam, one of the Hindu Holy Scriptures, there is an account of a King who travelled with his daughter to the Brahmaloka (The Consciousness of Brahma) to seek the name of a suitable suiter for his daughter. Brahma explained to him that although he had been only a few moments there, when he returned to earth, that a few thousand years would have passed. The story ends with him supplying the right name, and the King finding the right person for his daughter.

Even in those days, thousands of years ago, the Sages and Writers of the scriptures knew about other worlds and time travel — even the knowledge of the ages, creation and dissolution of the Universes.

Once again, in the Srimad Bhagavatam one can read about the divisions of time beginning with the smallest material substance known which can't be divided, which hasn't evolved and which can't be mixed with any other particle, and known by the name of Paramanu, all the way through to the Anu or Atom, and on to the traseraNu which constitutes the size of a particle, which then indicates the time it takes for light to traverse it. Fascinating stuff when you think when it was written. Where did all that knowledge come from? Nothing new under the Sun?

Srimad Bhagavatam purports a very complicated system which gives precise times in our earth years in relationship to Celestial time as we know it.

Along comes the modern physicist who presents to the modern world what has already been known for thousands of years.

Mind being the creator of time, it falls subject to its own Concomitant Law. In such things as every day events, when one is happy, time flies, and when sad, it drags. The Yogi in raising his Consciousness to other levels, other mansions, speeds up his Mind to such a degree that he can enter and express himself in other mental planes other than the ones we know as the Dream State Plane, and the Objective Reality Plane.

These other planes have a different vibratory rate and their own set of Concomitant Laws. We experience these different vibrational rates in our own Dream State, where flying or floating is common. Feet being glued to the ground while an assailant pursues us is also common to one and all. It is because of these Concomitant Laws of the Dream State (that we all experience them) that the dream, while dreaming, appears real to us, yet when we awaken, we know it as an Illusion — a Mind Construct.

Descending into the Dream Conscious State is one thing, but most of us in a small way, have raised our minds into the Supraconscious State and driven quite safely many blocks while not being aware of time, speed, or of being there. We didn't have to be. The light of Consciousness illuminated our way.

When Consciousness is raised and enters into one of The 9 Mansions, other worlds are visited. Are these hallucinations? Is the Objective World we view as Reality an Illusion also? Some modern physicists say it is.

We will now investigate what Pure and Impure Consciousness is, as we have traversed a couple of states of mind–time and space, that is the subconscious world of dreams, the Objective World of reality as we know it, but we yet haven't looked at the Deep Dleep State.

The first personal pronoun, the I, sees the world around itself as the Objective World with all its Concomitant Laws. In the state of dreaming that same I also visualizes the Dream World with its Concomitant Laws, but when the I is dissolved into Deep Sleep, not only does it cease to exist, but so do all the Known Worlds.

This is a nightly occurrence, yet we just take it for granted that the World exists while we are sleeping. What makes the dream appear to be real while we are dreaming? The Concomitant Laws of that realm. In the Dream State it is quite natural to talk to a dead member of the family, or to float above the ocean, or to not even think about time, as there is no virtual time in the Dream State. The apparent reality is that we have become attached to the Concomitant Laws which have made it appear real to us while we dream.

When we awaken into Objective Reality, we know then it was only a dream, an illusion. Some people can awaken enough in their dream to realize they are dreaming, and actually change the outcome of it. With Objective Reality and all its Concomitant Laws, it is harder to realize that this also is an Illusion. The Concomitant Laws of Objective Reality trap us far more easily and firmly, but as I shall show you, there are some who have awakened in another state and can actually change this Objective Reality at will as well as you may be able to change the outcome of your dream.

When You are in deep sleep, the I, the Dream World and the Objective World have ceased for You. You are now residing in the True SELF. It is here You are revitalized, renewed and United with TRUE SELF, but it is without conscious awareness.

Others may say to you, but while you were in deep sleep, the world existed. It sounds reassuring, except, those that are giving testimony of the worlds existence to you while you slept, are they themselves caught up in their own illusory world of the Concomitant Laws of Objective Reality. Having the testimony of others who are dreaming their world is no comfort for a questing ego seeking after Ultimate Truth.

Sitting in a movie theatre and finally being caught up in the action of the shadow pictures on the white screen, one can actually see how a shadow illusion can make one jump or scream when the villain pops out from behind a curtain.

One may say that the movies themselves have their own Concomitant Laws, made up of film, light, the theatre darkness, the white screen to project the film on. One is never taken in by either the light, or the camera or the screen itself, but we are always fooled into believing that the shadow picture itself is real.

When the first personal pronoun, the I, awakens from a deep sleep it becomes the camera which allows the light of Consciousness to Illuminate illusory memory patterns onto the screen of Pure Consciousness. Here, the analogy of the projector is the illuminating quality of Pure Consciousness, the light itself is the illumination, and the screen is the Ego Consciousness which holds onto the shadow forms. Turn off the projector and nothing exists.

Everything on the screen of Consciousness is an Illusion. The only reality is Pure Consciousness itself. Ahh but what about the pictures? Where do they come from? The Objective Reality we see on awakening is nothing more than conditioned memory of the small ego I, the first personal pronoun, which has been built into it ever since the child began his voyage into developing a personality.

There is a Fourth State, one beyond Deep Sleep, one in which when You awaken in to it, You realize the Objective World is equally as much of a dream as is the Dream State. This state is called Turiya, the waking sleep state. Not the sleep walkers state, but that is a good analogy to use, as the sleep walker, totally unaware of his actions, performs them just the same. The problem here is, the sleepwalker experiences nothing.

I will now try and explain to you how a Yogi under the loving disciplines he has performed during his lifetime can be awake in the deepest of sleep states, thus able to realize that all externalized forms of Objective, Subjective and Supraconscious states are nothing more than an Illusion and NOT REAL.

In Yoga, as in everything else, one has to begin somewhere and one begins with Dharana or Concentration exercises. The Yogi develops the ability to Restrain (Abhyasa) the Mind by centering his attention on one thing alone.

This is no easy task as most people in the world today can focus no longer than ten seconds.

Before the Yogi can hold onto his concentration for longer periods he must enter into what is called Dhyana or Contemplation, where he now extends his concentration for very long periods. One would think that would be enough, but there are many more stages of this to perform before awakening into the Fourth State of Consciousness (Ultimate), Turiya.

Next he must hold that form of Dhyana until he actually unites and becomes ONE with the Object (Nirodha). This is Samadhi. It is also called Satori by the Zen Buddhist and can be a flash of enlightenment, or developed, can be sustained for short periods. The next stage is called Savikalpa Samadhi, where one Unites with the Ultimate Consciousness for longer periods of 2 hours or so.

Next one enters Nirvikalpa Samadhi which is a state held for whole days at a time while one moves and acts, yet it incorporates two other states within it, Samprajnata Samadhi and Asamprajnata Samadhi. These are qualified by the coming in and going out of Nirvikalpa (the transistion periods). Lastly, the final state of the Samadhis is Sahaja Nirvikalpa Samadhi, where one is at all times, whether waking or sleeping or whether acting in anyway at all, united with the Infinite and ONE Pure Consciousness. Some call this God Union.

I and the Father are One as Jesus said in the New Testament.

So? So what? What does it all mean? Why try and attain these states at all? You still live in the world like the rest of us.

When man has a true experience, a really true experience, neither influenced by fright, nor logic nor any other quality, but a true experience where he has lost his own identity into the thing experienced. It cannot be remembered and explained. It does though want to be repeated. I can give you one good example and that is when a man loves a woman, and in his heightened state of love making, at the moment of climax, he loses his own sense of I, his own identity, and merges with her, it is ecstasy. It is bliss. He cannot explain it, but he wants to repeat it. And so he does. Well in attaining any of the Samadhis, one experiences much more than that, and it has been explained as Sat Chit Ananda. What does that mean? In the context I am speaking of, Sat means BEING EVER EXISTENT, Chit means BEING EVER CONSCIOUS, and Ananda means BEING EVER BLISSFUL.

Just a few moments given to thinking about what that means and you may get a hint of what Patanjali best describes as Sat Chit Ananda.

So a Sahaj, who has attained the highest state is walking among You, probably unknown, experiencing at all times the highest states of Consciousness, Consciousness without form. Consciousness as sheer Bliss. The One state without a second (without external qualities), and yet behaving in a perfectly normal manner.

I have always enjoyed the Hindu Philosophy that says to treat every stranger that comes to your door as God as you never know who may be there. So whats a few beatings or robberies if you make a mistake now and then but finally, one day, open the door and offer a meal to God himself in the guise of a stranger?

There was one Sahaj, who was in the world the earlier part of the 20th century, and that was Ramana Maharshi. He was quite ordinary in that he behaved like you or I. He taught in Silence, left a few writings but having Darshan from him changed millions of people's lives. After all, all the great religious teachers are only prescriptive in their teachings, so as to make their fellow man's lives happier.

It was Ramana's look that was intuitively prescriptive. There are and have been many great Yogic Masters who have, when necessary and through the force of their own Will, changed the outcome of this so called Objective Reality.

Do you have any reason to be witness to their control of the concommitantly natural law of this objective world? Some friends have said to me, Show me someone who can produce a living object out of thin air or stop a bullet speeding towards them, and I might sit up and listen. Doubters are necessary, as the fact they doubt so vehemently shows at least, lying beneath the surface, a desire to find the Truth also.

God as a Guest

In Hindu philosophy, God as a Guest refers to a concept whereby a stranger knocking at your door could be God himself. Thus treating others with respect and kindness is paramount. You don't want to be a jerk to God, do you?

Open the door to the divine.

Articles by Swami Harinanda and Yogi Karmananda are © 2026 and are licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

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