Real Yoga

When you think of the most basic aspects on the road to uniting with Self, one could go immediately to Patantali's Aphorism, Chitta Vritti nirodha or for that matter to Ramana Maharshi's Sadhana, Who am I. Nothing more is needed... that is if one truly understood the implications involved. Both involve Gnana Yoga and Viveka (spiritual discernment).

Many students seem to have difficulty relating what happens in this so–called real world, to the fact that it is NOT happening at all — except within our own head. This mass–generated collective hallucination seems difficult for most to grasp.

It's not uncommon for a student to ask something like or similar to... Do you mean to say that the Hitler who killed millions of people is the same as the Christ? That they are one and no different in the eyes of God? That they will both achieve the same mergence into the Fourth State of Turiya at death? That there is no guilt and no punishment or reward?

I found it strange that after so much detailed description on how one can only attain mergence into the Fourth State of Consciousness through the early Samadhis and remain there while still encased in this shadow form body, only after attaining Sahaja Nirvikalpa Samadhi.

Also it was strange it is not understood that in order to attain even the First Stage of Samadhi one must eradicate all attributable forms of consciousness — even if it is only for a minute, or a few seconds, as that after all is what a First Samadhi experience will be.

To carry with you this Blissful State into longer periods, one must release all attachments to ideals, likes and dislikes, passions, loves and hates, concepts of religions and spirituality and in other words to empty the mind so it becomes a Self–Willed vacuum for Pure Consciousness to be experienced as Satchitananda.

By this standard there must be, at least in the beginning, two levels of intellect at work. One on the higher road of abstractual thought and the other on the lower road of inductive and deductive reasoning. At some point, the lower road will cross over into the higher highway of thought causing some confusion. You must remember, it is your lower reasoning which is used just as a springboard to catapult you to the higher intuitive and gnosis type of knowledge.

So when I suggest that the balance in life is absolutely perfect, and that the Law of Duality sees to that, it takes small reflection to realize something like a fulcrum scale with a 1 pound weight of apples on one end and a 1 pound weight of oranges on the other. The apples and the oranges are different fruits yet the fulcrum weight stays in a horizontal plane to the earth, in perfect balance.

For people not to be able to reconcile a Hitler with a Christ — a Mother Teresa with a serial killer as a form of balance is turning a blind–eye to the beauty of a racing cheetah pulling down its prey to feed its young. In the eyes of the prey, the cheetah is a horror on four legs, while the prey to the cheetah is its means of survival. If there weren't enough cheetahs to do their job, the prey would become over abundant for the amount of food available and thus starve to death. A balance will be struck no matter which way it goes.

Survival seems to be the operative word here, and for most people who are sane, the idea of survival for Hitler and his purity ideal of the Super Race, was to eradicate those he conceived, in his madness, to be rivals to his survival.

Some individual murderers feel they must eradicate an enemy in order to survive themselves. At least to survive with a measure of peace and happiness. Humans, being so complex are at all times seeking pleasure and evading pain.

When we try and compare humans to the rest of nature we find it is more difficult because of that complexity. For instance, in nature an animal kills to eat. We do that also, but we also kill because of some passion that explodes in violence, or some distorted paranoid fear which drives us to protect ourselves from a ghost which has been haunting us. That ghost we may see in some one else.

The balance is ever present in the good being done, and always throughout history, no matter who the villain was, righteousness has always prevailed, after much destruction that is true, nonetheless the weigh scale strikes its balance, and like apples and oranges, good and evil can never be equated as being the same, yet those two disparate fruits have allowed life on this planet to flourish (good and evil).

In our Western religions Satan and the Christ are the two sons of the Godhead which through the mythical tales of the New Testament represent the Law of Duality of good and evil, darkness and light. The same dual representatives can be found in all religions.

So first, one has to intellectually arrive at a point where they can see with clarity that this world (kosha) and all the other imaginable worlds are shadow plays, and that which gives a sense of reality to the original CAUSE of Shakti or Energy, is Prakriti, or Matter. These dual forms which express none other than Pure Consciousness WITH ATTRIBUTES were born out of Pure consciousness WITHOUT ATTRIBUTES. This is something which the present day scientists want to call the BIG BANG. Even here, the arguments as to how something can be born out of nothing is causing them a bit of trouble.

In Real Yoga, it is not born out of nothing, as Pure Consciousness is NOT nothing. Nirguna has been despoiled throughout this modern day and age by stating it means nothing. It, along with Satori and Samadhi belong to the Fouth State of Pure Consciousness — Turiya. And Turiya is the embodiment oF absolute Pure Consciousness, which is experienced as Stachitananda.

It would be a lovely thing, if one could tap one on the chest and give them the experience they think they are looking for in this quest for the absolute, but it just does not happen like that. It can only happen by first being able to see with clarity that you are living in a dream, created by your Ego, which (the dream) is called Maya.

Once this is seen clearly, it becomes easier to give up that which you have long been attached to. These attachments are easy to give up on the physical side of this dream state, but when it comes to the thought patterns, and how we have been conditioned to think, that becomes really difficult.

So many people actually believe that what they think are their own thoughts created by them. Not so. Even what you are reading here are not my thoughts. They were taught to me, and like a good recording machine I am placing the record of The Law of Duality on the turntable. I have no thoughts. I have no mind. Neither do you if you could but see that.

With this in mind, begin today to WATCH as you speak. Watch what record you are going to play. How many times have you played that record before. What people you meet push the right button to elicit the same record from you. Begin to keep track. Look for your filing system.

When you arrive at a place where you can see yourself placing these records on the changer, you will then begin to know the beginnings of the no–mind state. When you become immersed in that even while the record is playing you will begin to understand what Krishnamurthi means when he says chuck it out and be choicelessly aware.

You really are already walking around in a state of Turiya — Pure Consciousness, but cannot experience that because you think you are your thoughts. Hidden deep within your filing system is a record which sings out one unending tune — I AM. Play it.

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

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