Talk: 2017. Just Sit Quietly.

The following comes from a series of phone calls with Swami Maheshananda about why people practice yoga, and how the reasoning behind their practice will provide them with different results. It then branches into the practice of Kriya Yoga as taught by Swami Digambarji and how the practice of Kriya Yoga is a way to ease our suffering.

You can sit in Asana, but do you meditate? You can enrol in a meditation class and you can follow the guided meditation, obeying the orders and guidance given by the teacher, and get a good response. But are you meditating?

What made you enrol in the class?

Your decision is based on your reasoning. Depending upon your reasoning, it will give you a different response to any other person with their personal logic and reasoning. And your decision always leads to action.

A student may be open to following all the instructions and guidelines given by the teacher. And at the end of the course, they will give their feedback. They might give positive feedback to fulfill the niceties of society, but they will not repeat the program because they didn’t get any satisfaction.

Why didn’t they feel satisfied? The answer is because they weren’t sure what they were looking for. Their belief comes from the available information, the information given to them via pamphlets, or other people – from outside of them. Then they decide to join the meditation “experiment” to see what happens. But, they didn’t have internal motivation.

Today, in the world everyone asks “What is yoga?” and they answer with the second sutra:

Yogaścittavṛttinirodhaḥ.
Yoga is stilling the thoughts.

So, they eat the same old chewing gum.

Here we ask “What is Yoga for?” We want to evaluate the food: find out what it is. Does it nourish us?

For this we use Kriya Yoga, the Kriya Yoga of Patañjali.

There are the Niyama: śaucha (purification), santoṣa (contentment), tapas (discipline), svādhyāya (study of the Self) and Iśvara praṇidhāna (surrender to a higher power). Then there is Kriya Yoga: tapas, svādhyāya and Iśvara praṇidhāna. These last three are the same, but in Kriya Yoga they are locked together. With this binding and blending some taste will emerge.

This has nothing to do with any religion or God because it is by the Self, for the Self, and through the Self. If you believe in God. OK. If you don’t believe in God, that’s OK too.

Kriya Yoga helps with suffering. It will reduce the kleshas (afflictions) and so reduce dukkha (suffering).

English has so many ways to describe this suffering. It is both physical and psychological. But no one asks whether suffering exists or not. We all believe it to be true.

Each of us have enough kleshas to create dukkha to keep us busy all this life, and the next. And the next. Kriya Yoga helps us realise – on our own – the cause of our own suffering. It gets us to jump out and realise.

In this goal oriented modern life, we put the carrot in front of ourselves. We continually place a fresh carrot out there. Telling ourselves that, if we achieve this, then we will be released from our dukkha. Then we will be happy. We push, push, push for achievement. All our life.

Yes, it has affected our standard of living. Look how it grows. On the other side, see how the books on lifestyle disorders and ways to try and cure yourself also grow.

There is another way: stop the pushing and accept.

In Kriya Yoga from Swami Digambarji he says, “just sit quietly”.

“Sit Quietly” is very useful for the believer and the non-believer: both can use it.

And, there is another interpretation: NOT to do.

Imagine a cat sitting just outside the entrance to a rat’s home. Watching, waiting for the rat. The rat must come out. And it must come out far enough for the cat to catch it.

Sitting quietly gives the confidence to the rat to put it’s head out. Then the cat and the rat see each other, but the cat does not respond to the rat. So, the rat gets enough confidence to come out. Swiftly the rat’s fear of survival is relinquished, and the cat can catch the rat. It is the “hunter’s principle”.

How should we go hunting?

In “sit quietly” we are able to observe so many things, but we are not in a state of hunting. Things will come out and be exposed: you can see yourself, how you are, what you are and who you are.

And then the mind, the intellect will start processing automatically. And we say, “my mind is disturbing me”. When sitting quietly we dissociate from the mind, but otherwise, in daily life, there is no difference between “the mind” and “me”.

So, who is disturbing whom?

We can shut out the outside noise and the senses, but then what? We think the mind is under control – we say “I can control my mind”. But is it?

How do we change the mind from the inside? It must be according to the likes and wants of the individual. Provide yourself the opportunity to sit quietly.

Sitting quietly places a restriction. See what happen with this restriction. If you want to go out, then go. Do whatever you want.

Here in India, we have the custom of the Ganga bath. Sometimes for two or three minutes they duck their head under the water. Other times 30 seconds. How do they know how long to be under the water? From inside the message comes, “that is enough”. They feel that it is time: time to come up and leave the Ganga bath.

This is the same for meditation: we like to have a good experience. But for how long?

And are we ready to change our habits and come out of our comfort zone, or not?

Ramana Maharshi was once asked how to treat others. His response was: “there is no other”. Ask anyone else this question and how will they answer? But if we respond like Ramana there is no question of how to treat anyone outside.

“Love thy neighbour” and “Charity begins at home”. How should we understand these phrases? We don’t want to look at our own house: inside ourselves.

Kriya Yoga helps a person travel inside. From the periphery – from the outer world – to the centre of the body. This is the longest journey. From the centre to the outside is short, it is measurable.

When you begin at the outside you can plan to reach your destination in the centre, but once inside who chooses the destination? The Self. And where do you start, where is the map, the location and direction? What are the route options?

Outside there are books and teachers but once you dive inside who will you follow?

“Sit quietly”, is the first step. To work with your own urges, and to feel how things are going on: to observe how does this happen, why does this happen, to go on or not, is it comfortable or not, is it harmful or not?

We must catch and store the effect of tapas and svādhyāya by sitting quietly. This after effect must be caught.

But why “sit quietly?”

Take for example “Sit and contemplate”.

In the mind “contemplation” becomes the focus. But, sit quietly gives the person a blank canvas: they can do whatever they want, just don’t create a disturbance in others or yourself.

It provides a different interpretation for the mind. There is great sense behind the “sit quietly” from Swami Digambarji.

If a person is a “doer” it gives them irritation – they can realise they are not able to “sit quietly”. It is easier to remain disturbed, for undisturbed is near quiet.

You can remain undisturbed. Or, you can have the disturbance back again. The impact and the effect must be felt by the self, for the self to understand who they are, what they are and how they are.

The quieter the inside, the more stillness increases on the outside. Learn to experience stillness.

Kriya Yoga awakens the healer within – little by little it helps to reduce the kleshas, our dukkha. The Self must be in the role of the healer, then automatically correction takes place from inside.

You wake up and pick up the broom and begin to sweep your house. You become a sweeper. A person is sleeping until they wake up inside. When you wake up and see, then you begin.

Then you become, from your beingness, you become a cleaner. The moment you choose to be in a role not waiting for instructions this will give the interpersonal harmony in the family. It will give peace. There will be no talk of rights – this shows disharmony. You accept your duty.

This will give satisfaction to the Self, and therefore there is flow of energy in the right way. In this flow the transformation takes place.

Your body is your house, create the flow of energy within it. Otherwise, the body can wait for the cleaner – the doctor – to heal it. Why? Because the person is not ready to play the role of the cleaner.

It is your duty to “clean”.