| Author | Vadim Zaporozhtsev Anandaswami Tradition Yoga School |
| Place of lecture delivering | Cultural Center “Enlightenment”. |
| Date | May 31, 2008 |
| Yoga school address | International Open Yoga University, Yoga School of Anadasvami tradition. Cultural Center “Enlightenment” Dolgorukovskaya str. # 29, Novoslobodskaya metro station, Moscow, Russia. Tel.: 8(495)251-2108, 8(495)251-3367. E-mail: HappYoga@mail.ru. Sites: www.openyoga.ru, www.yogacenter.ru, www.happyoga.narod.ru. |
| Licence | Creative Commons. You may copy, duplicate and spread this lecture. It’s desirable to give a reference to our site www.openyoga.ru. |
| Typed and edited by | Elena Zvereva |
| Translated by | Anna Polyakova |
| Overview | Before working out our own lifestyle we are curious at least to inquire how people who preserved the higher knowledge lived. This is not because we should blindly copy their lifestyle. That time (virtually feudal time) has passed. Everything has changed in the world and in people’s relationships from that time. But though certain moments remained we should give some thought to them. Thus we avoid mistakes made for thousands years. Let me tell you that when you start practicing yoga you will have an emergency to stay alone from time to time. If you don’t do it then you will get problems that won’t be evident sometimes. And if you don’t stick to the principle of non-injuring any live being therewith then you may be carried away. |
«What to do?» (continuation)
Once again I call you upon not to injure any live being without emergency and not to waste your life in vain. I.e. these are two basic principles for practicing yoga regardless of what kind of yoga you practice. It is extremely desirable for you to remember them.
Finally I remind you that we start to place into internet all our chanceries. There you may be self-educated in yoga. If you feel that teaching yoga is the sense of your life then it makes sense to know more about our instructors’ courses. For this you may visit our sites.
We consider a global theme: “Way of living of Yogins and Yoginis handed us down the ancient yoga knowledge”. It is obviously that this theme is necessary now by a number of reasons.
The first reason of giving these lectures is to help us better look into ancient heritage of yoga teaching. It has come to us nevertheless though in grains. This knowledge disappeared, disappears now and it must keep disappearing within some time. To decipher this knowledge we have to know certain context and living conditions of people who worked out and practiced this knowledge. Without this it would be very difficult to understand what the matter is. So the first reason is necessity of looking into yoga to avoid appearances of numerous myths and pseudo-teachings built on wrong translation or misunderstanding of one or another yoga issue. Today this is more often than not in yoga.
Secondly why it is rather important now to learn their way of living? That’s because western civilization is at the crossroads now: where to go? what road to choose? roughly speaking what values people should have? This is very serious and open question. It’s a pity but now we observe a sheer crisis of western civilization. But it is not as obvious as miseries that were in the old days. Here I mean starvation, wars, epidemics and so on. I.e. though the science has overcome all these miseries but people didn’t become happier then before. More over certain moments are frightening and alerting.
Today European countries, America and Russia sharply face the same problem – search of lifestyle. Here in Russia this problem is not so sharp because we are rather poor country by living standard. In a few time Russia will become very reach and prosperous country. It seems we should be glad but more terrible problems will come to us from this welfare and good living conditions: “How to live further actually? What should we aspire for and what shouldn’t?” If we don’t solve these problems then we will face wave of mass suicides, marginal displays and so on.
Before working out your own way of living be curios at least about lifestyle of people preserved this greatest knowledge. This is not because we should blindly copy it. That time has passed. Everything has changed in the world and in people’s relationships from that time. But certain moments remained. It makes sense to give some thought to them. Thus we avoid mistakes made for thousands years.
I hope very much that we won’t make these mistakes and our country won’t make them. I hope very much that the entire world will very soon realize hopelessness of spiritually deprived development way when the science became the new god. If religion was the god in the past then now the science becomes this god. Here I speak about all the numerous nanotechnologies, all the numerous flirtations with biological experiments for new live creatures’ creation, with cloning and etc. Without certain spiritual pivot this path is wrong. As the science doesn’t presuppose any spiritual pivot the danger grows up in proportion to science power. I.e. as a matter of fact there is powerful instrument in hands of people too little different from wild people. Or how the evil tongues say this is like “a monkey with a grenade in paws”: where will it throw it? at whom will it throw it? So the crisis is observed everywhere and just by this reason we touch this topic.
We have already briefly examined four factors determining way of living of Yogins and Yoginis handed us down the higher yoga knowledge. We stopped at the fifth point called “what to do?” We already began to examine it. And I will quickly refresh your memory about four factors that we have already examined.
Thus there were the next factors generally determined way of living of ancient Yogins and Yoginis:
1. The purpose: as their purpose they meant cognition of the Higher, cognition of higher spiritual laws. We can differently reformulate this slogan either as cognition of themselves or cognition of their nature or cognition of what a person is. This was their purpose with all the ensuing consequences.
2. The means: this is self-denial; this is renunciation of sufferings, renunciation of ignorance, and renunciation of illusion. I.e. a person made a decision not to get caught by dodges of illusion any more. A person usually agrees by himself / herself to deceive himself. He / she agrees by himself / herself to leave some questions until later: “Now live as your life is treating and then we will sort everything out”. But it turns out that we are not successful in such living. Sufferings are logical continuation of such approach. That’s why the second point – the means – is renunciation of ignorance, renunciation of sufferings. This is certain self-denial of sufferings. Until a person doesn’t accept it there is no question of any spiritual development. Concerning yoga it would be only flirtation with conceptions or with certain practices.
3. The method: non-injuring any live being and non-wasting your life on trifles. We can live our lives quite differently without observance of these principles at all. More over there are people who say that they aspire for something spiritual, for something higher but who are unscrupulous in their methods.
4. To pay sacred debt: this is rather serious and quite unobvious question of family continuation, i.e. this is an issue of children. And we came to a fact that more a person get involved into spiritual practices more seriously he approach the question of family continuation. But very horrible disbalances happen sometimes when a person comes to an extreme of his super responsibility and doesn’t want to have children at all. More over he takes refuge in some “commanding respect” pretexts. Another moment is mentioned here: everything concerning children was sacred in Yogins and Yoginis’ environment. This was so regardless of your attaining the higher goal in this life or your intention to be born millions of times. This was so regardless of whether these were your own children or children your friends, acquaintance or relatives. We remember that there were no somebody else’s children in this sense for Yogins and Yoginis. All children were their own. The children are sacred just by themselves.
5. And at last we came close to the fifth point called “What to do?”
«What to do?» in the way of living of Yogins and Yoginis handed us down the highest yoga knowledge (continuation)
How yoga schools differ from each other and what they have in common?
The first four principles are more or less observed. The fifth point “What to do?” is especially interesting. That’s because the first four principles are common for different yoga schools, for different teachings, for different currents in yoga and Tantra. But as regards the fifth principle there are very different methods, very different practices here. The whole rainbow of methods appears here.
These yogas came from common source. But one yoga schools laid special stress on certain practices and other schools laid stress on other practices. So there is a certain difference here though in general this is a single tradition and it was passed on by a single way. But from any moment each school assumed its own colour. They lay stress on certain methods in one school – for example breathing and they begin with intensified pranayamas. Other schools on the contrary believe that we don’t need to hasten with pranayama and they begin with other practices. In third group of yoga schools they lay stress on moral perfection. In fourth group of schools they lay greater stress on the intellect. In fifth they lay stress on feelings, on sensory cognition of the Universe. In sixth they lay stress on karma, i.e. working with your own karma, cognition and overcoming of this mechanism. That’s why the last point of our lectures is very complicated. We can hardly mark out common views in yogas schools. They laid stress on different things in every school. And we stopped at the statement that there are so many methods in yoga as displays of human life.
What unite all these schools?
Yoga schools have several common points. The first one is: don’t waste your lifetime in vain but use every second on your self- improvement. I.e. don’t spend two hours every day on yoga and take the rest of time laissez-faire. They called upon to use each activity for the good of yoga whether it was work or rest, whether it was sleep (where they called upon to use Yoga of Dreams) or having sex (where they called upon to use numerous practices working with sexual energy) and so on. More over they used even the moment of death. If you didn’t have time to do something in your life then you can use great energy being available when your rough, subtle and casual bodies wreck in the moment of death. And on this last wave of energy you can do maximum from what you wanted but didn’t have time to realize when you stayed alive. There are such practices. We just spoke about them.
Different yoga schools had a little bit different views on a way of living. Some followers of yoga tradition chose one methods and some followers chose other methods. So yoga called us upon two things: firstly don’t loose any second and secondly try as many methods as possible to select methods suitable just for you from “the piggy bank” of yogic methods.
That’s why they laid stress on asceticism in one yoga schools: keep yourself in check in every possible way, control yourself. Other yoga schools on the contrary called upon using methods of perceptional cognition. As regards Tantra Yoga one schools called upon negotiation of sex (for a certain period in any case) and other schools said that there was no sense in continence and people should have used their sexual energy but only if competently. Some schools established priorities for teaching yoga (for example firstly went Mantra Yoga and all the other yogas were taught only after it). As a result shaped ways of living were a little bit different in different schools. But in any case they tried to cover each human display. If though one or another display remains uncovered then problems will come to your life through this uncovered display.
In this sense our maya, our ignorance, our suffering would have their own intellect in some way. It wants to enter a fortress through its weak place without guarding, without gate, without understanding. The same thing happens in our life: if we don’t pay attention to one or another aspect of our life then our problems get in through it. And all yoga schools called upon knowledge of each yoga at least even if you aren’t going to practice them. Even if aren’t going to practice Nada Yoga or Yoga of Dream for example you have to learn at least to practice them. We need it for to “put them into piggy bank” and take these methods from it in case of need and try to use them for your problems solving.
Traps on yoga road
Stern traps wait us on our spiritual road. Nobody evil thank up these traps. They are dialectical result. They are result of struggle of opposite tendencies each of which is disastrous. But nature created human body very adroitly. These mutually exclusive extremes are so adroitly interwoven that they don’t let us to disappear; they don’t let us to perish. At the same time starting to untwine this tangle we face problems. At first glance these problems seem to be solved very easily. But as we work with such problems it becomes clear that we make just no headway. We don’t even realize what the matter is. That’s why there are warnings about the traps on yoga road. They are known more or less.
1. Health. The first thing that every person faces is health problems. These may also be conditioned by shortage of energy in physical body. These problems seem to have an obvious origin. So practicing yoga a person solves these problems rather quickly and universally. In this sense yoga is beautiful and universal science. I don’t want to say that yoga is cure-all but it is rather powerful means indeed.
2. Sex. As a person solved his / her physical problems he / she gets energy and forces surplus. The second trap appears immediately – everything relating to sex. Our bodies’ organization was forming throughout numerous generations while we passed from one life to another. Very resourceful mechanisms implicitly justified our behavior operated to let us to survive as live creatures. Surviving of each individual is the main point for nature. The next thing that nature takes care about is family continuation. And every encroachment on possibility of family continuation by a person is punished in the strictest way.
How it is punished? The point is that mechanisms of sexual attraction and sexual energy are like certain layer running through everything. The most interesting thing is that this layer is situated in deeper levels than the layer of what we call our mind and our ability to think over. As soon as a person faces these problems (using of sexual energy) and begins to suppress them mother-nature interprets this suppression as an attempt of putting an end to the human race. And immediately very subtle, very insidious and very severe mechanisms go on and they simply switch off our mind. As soon as nature feels threat to human race continuation (when children won’t be born) very adroit mechanisms go on despite of your views on sex (whether you think that having sex is good thing or bad). Some of these mechanisms are so adroit and subtle that even contemporary biochemists and biophysicists (I don’t know who are now busy with issues of human’s body organization) lift their hands in dismay here. I don’t want to touch science. This is a separate theme because yoga is separated from science: yoga doesn’t abolish science but supplements it.
Though some unidentified hormones appear and disappear in your blood (and their lifetime may be limited by minutes) and you simply don’t have time even to detect them. Or some nerve impulses fly… I.e. this is very deep reciprocal reaction.
So the next trap on your road is sex questions. And it is very dangerous illusion if you decided that practicing yoga and going about your spiritual self-development you can avoid sexual issues. It is dangerous illusion if you think that you perfectly control yourself and you have no time for sex issues. This is only a question of time when nature suspects that something is wrong here and begins to do obscenities with you: i.e. it will simply switch off your mind and you will get carried away. We are made so. Some people begin to say with horror that these are some powers of darkness that seize our nature and govern us. But these aren’t darkness’ powers. These powers are powers of light. Without these powers we would have died many times as a race because of some stern living conditions or some philosophical currents and teaching suppressing sexual aspect one way or another.
That’s why the very first criteria of your success in common yoga will be certain order and fullness of energy in terms of sex. If you don’t feel enough sexual energy then it means that a lot of faults have been accumulated there and your time will come later. Be sure that this time will come because we organized like this. And for that moment when it comes it will be very advisable to be ready. Otherwise in one nice moment nature will switch off your mind and you will get carried away. That’s why yoga recommends us to study all the sections of Sexual Alliance Yoga, Tantra Yoga and Amorousness Yoga because they directly touch the family continuation protection mechanism. Sexual practices are our tribute to nature which gave us birth and keep helping us. All attempts to suppress sexuality are insult to mother-nature. They deny life. They deny life continuation.
But now you learnt how to deal with these problems. You understood what mother-nature wants from you. You sort more or less this theme and go further being so glad but the next trap lies in wait for you.
3. Power. The next trap on your road is power. When a person practices yoga he acquires intellectual and physical abilities. I won’t even now tell about superabilities as this topic is quite uninteresting for me. Superabilities lead you towards nothing good. Our world isn’t aimed for superabilities. Time for superabilities being at every corner hasn’t come yet. On the contrary the world suppresses them because time for them hasn’t still come. There are so many softheads in the streets and we speak about superabilities…
I will tell though about common abilities. So you became proficient in yoga then your abilities (physical, intellectual and whatever else) are perfected, they become quite irreproachable. You become to dominate. You better deal with the problems and tasks that life sets you. But now you run against problems of interpersonal attitudes and sexual issues. If you are honest with yourself, if you are responsible and pure yogin or yogini, if you boldly approach these questions then some time or other you will also solve these problems relating to sexual energy. And then the next trap appears and it is power. If you simply practiced yoga and mastered it then you got certain abilities. But when you take control on your sexual energy then abilities (including superabilities) simply fall thick and fast on you. Superabilities properly show only of that person who took control on his / her sexual sphere. I.e. this person doesn’t forbid sex for him / her and doesn’t plunge into sexual raging but he / she can really use this energy.
Not without reason they called upon correct continence during a long time in numerous yogic practices. Thus certain energy is produced inside person and this energy opens his / her abilities and superabilities very naturally, quickly and easily. This energy makes personality “magnetic” as they would have said in XVIII century or “charismatic” as we say today. As a rule such personality stands out against a background of others, i.e. such personality becomes dominating.
And it seems that we should be glad but another temptation appears here and it is power. It will seem to you that only incompetent governors – the powers that be – are all round you. And they behave sometimes very dully indeed. You will have temptation to seize power. Since you will get all abilities by that time. Since then it won’t took you a lot of effort to break out to the top level and turn situation in any different way. You will have opportunity to turn situation where you need. But the temptation of power is the strongest. It will seem to you that the mankind is suffering and governors do nothing. It will seem to you that the next revolution is needed, that they should remove Lyapkin-Tyapkin [*] and appoint Tyapkin- Lyapkin on his position. And you may be thrilled, turned your head and carried away to any political party, to any movement for or against something, for example “for good old motherland and against bad influences” or on the contrary “for the new and bright and against old obscurantism”. There is no difference here indeed. And before one could bat an eye he has got carried away having a lot of energy from yoga, from Tantra yoga. This is a very serious temptation that can stop our development. And if therewith you forgot about the methods: non-injuring any live being without emergency and non-wasting life on trifles then power is the next thing that will thrill you and carry away. And before you can bat an eye you will die and will be born again. And this is unreasonable from yoga point of view.
4. There are more other obstacles on yoga road but this is not the goal of this lecture to consider them. As regards these obstacles one obstacle there is more subtle and hardly recognizing than another and so on.
All obstacles are well described in yoga. It would seem: “Well if they are described then we know them, everything is ok because we are well trained”. But things are not so easy. The deepest motivations of our behavior are touched here. Do you understand what the issue is? Sometimes you will have to show power and introduce proper order with a rod of iron if it is your duty. But it is very difficult to discern how you have to act in every situation. The same thing is in questions of sex: when you should keep continence and so called “vow of chastity” and when you should completely examine this question.
So generally everything is not so simple on the way of yoga. That’s why different emphases on further lifestyle were made in groups of Yogins and Yoginis where yoga remained till now. I.e. for example if you belonged to ruler’s caste there was no getting away for you from power. You had to apply it and the only one question was “how?” So these emphases were made in a way that the lifestyles of different people may have been different a little bit according to their occupation and social status.
Yoga schools seem to be quite different but they all came from the common source. Disbalances.
It seems to us sometimes that there are several yoga schools, several currents of Tantra. But with deeper examining it appears that they all came from the common source. There were many disbalances. As you remember Yogins and Yoginis lived very nonpublic life but they influences greatly the mentality of countries where they lived. They might influence obviously or indirectly. Obviously or not common people (as people said in the past times) began to copy their lifestyle. Obviously or not this helped someone and someone made a disbalance the next time. I remember you that there is no equality in this sense. Though all people are alike they are all different. They are different not by principal distinctions but by their self-consciousness degree, by their responsibility degree, by degree of people’ consciousness of their I and their place in the Universe. There are people more alike to an animal than to a human. Turn on TV with any criminal chronicles and look on their characters. It seems sometimes that everybody there are animals simply knowing how to speak because even dogs have sometimes more intellect and love of fellow men than these people. We are all different but it doesn’t matter that someone is better or worse in potential. As they say: “Each saint has the past and each sinner has the future”.
When yogic lifestyle penetrated to different environments they began changing and sometimes this took quite ugly shapes. For example there was a yoga school of mass tradition. Yogins and Yoginis there believed that their goal was to serve the mankind. This was like one of the Karma Yoga variants. And so called “shrine priestesses” might yield to whoever they liked, to each sufferer. I.e. each wayfarer might come and pass time having sex with this shrine priestess. This is rather strange view on the first glance. But on the other hand these were women which served by everything they had, even by their bodies. They had such a vow. Such a yoga school it was. And how do you think what it turned into? This turned into prostitution. I.e. though at the beginning this was disinterested but then it turned into prostitution and it received the next continuation today. I have been shocked. Earlier these were “girls on demand” but now they are “priestesses of love letting you into great spiritual practices sacraments” and for money of course. I.e. once again, my friends, this is weak point of all higher yogas: as soon as these yogas fall into dirty hands even the highest ideas are perverted.
And there were absolutely no maniacs because of these priestesses yielded to each wayfarer. There were absolutely no sexual assaults. Why to rape anybody when you can go to a temple and have a woman there? At first glance it would seem: why a woman behaves in this way? But digging deeper you begin to comprehend the higher sense. And just imagine in what measure this woman had to be devoted to the Higher to serve people by everything including her body. But the smallest change and we receive prostitution. Everything is slightly perverted. So before to judge one or another historical phenomenon in other people life we have to look into their living conditions very good. Otherwise it is very easy to shoot from the hip: “Oh, they were all fools and perverts”. But starting digging and knowing how they lived indeed you stop blame people for anything without grounds.
There were other yoga schools also where followers complied with the stern brahmachari. In these schools they took control on all their sexual displays. But here I must add one more thing: they complied with it very competently. We have family continuation protection mechanism inside us. God forbid you from this mechanism realizing that you come out against mankind. Then it simply will wipe you off the face of the earth. More precisely put it will switch off your mind and you will get carried away. This mechanism was forming during many thousands years. From generation to generation those people survived genetically who had this mechanism at a level of their bodies’ subtle structures. We renew these structures at every birth. The world is very complicated. It is very diverse. And in those schools they lived quite different life when sex was regulated in every possible way, when it was minimized.
But both first and second yoga schools came from the common source. They rely on the same facts and lead to the one and the same goal. There is certain difficulty here. The same thing touches all other displays of human’s life. In this sense we have difficulties in determining lifestyle. One million different scenarios may be here: begging with one scenario and ending with its exact opposite.
Question: “How to tell “honest” sexual desire suppression (when you can restrain yourself) from dishonest one?”
Vadim Zaporozhtsev: “Owing to sex each of us came to the Earth. They didn’t grow us in test tube. And even if they do it then all the same impulses engendering the channel through which our souls come to this world have sexual nature. These themes of Tantra Yoga are closed from the profanes. And I don’t want to touch them without the context. If yoga goes correctly with you then the first thing that you will meet will be the sex. If you haven’t met it yet then it means that you still tidy up karma relating to your physical body. As soon as excess of energy and prana appears and direct physical death doesn’t threaten you the next theme to which the Universe calls you is family continuation. In this sense issue of birth, issue of sex are higher (in good sense of the word) than every philosophies. And only philosophy considering these questions from positive stand is really just. All misanthropic philosophies, psychologies and teachings coming out against sex disappear in two ways. The first way is natural, i.e. they say “No” and philosophy disappears. The second way rely on deep mechanisms of the causal body. Have you heard about automatic pilot? They say there is such automatic pilot in planes: when everything is ok a pilot drives a plane. But as he begins to do some wrong maneuver the system (computer) takes control over by itself. And a pilot does some movements, pulls by levers but nothing depends on him any more. An autopilot already guides a plane. Especially it touches parts of second when a man isn’t able to grasp what lever he has to pull by. Autopilot system quickly takes control over and thus saves a plane from catastrophe and a pilot from death.
Drawing an analogy our inner organization is nearly like that. The same autopilot is built into us at a level of causal body. If begin to come out against sex then it takes control over from you. And before you can bet an eye you will be carried away in search of adventures or you will have perverted deviations. Everything that nature can’t receive directly is got through some mediated moments. This is very dangerous internal game.
What do you think: how maniacs appear in this world? Do they fall out of the skies? This is very dangerous thing and the nature guards us. Everything relating to sex is sacred as Tantra Yoga teaches us. If you believe that sex is dirty then you have nothing to do with Tantra Yoga. On the other hand we wouldn’t speak about any yoga here without sexual energy. We haven’t just been born”.
Question: “The nature of sex is causal body?”
Vadim Zaporozhtsev: “Nature of sex and causal body are two different categories in description of our being organization. Speaking in simple words about the nature of sexual energy it appears that this is the clearest and the most creative energy of our being. And if you like yogic analogies: we have basic energy of our body and it is called Kundalini energy”
Question: “What energy is?”
Vadim Zaporozhtsev: “Energy is a part of initial vibration that engendered the Universe. This initial vibration engendered the Universe is Kundalini energy in its pure form. Energy of sex is Kundalini energy. This is very subtle energy and the first thing into which it transforms is sexual energy. That’s why nature of sex is one kind of Kundalini energy. This is just yoga axiomatics. I realize that you simply don’t know it. Nobody knows it because everyone thinks that yoga is only standing on the head and so on. But yoga is deep philosophy. For example as regards to standing on the head: they nearly executed people standing on the head in China. They alleged that such people broke the order of things but everything should had been like “similar in similar”.
Causal body is analog of rough physical body made of rough energy and rough substance. Causal body is the same body as our physical one but it is made of super-subtle energy and substance. Our scientists fortunately haven’t still learnt to detect. If they learnt to detect it then they would do something terrible: astral weapon or psychotropic weapon – I read from time to time such horrors. But our science is initially spiritually deprived. I.e. notion of spirituality, notion of responsibility aren’t a part of science. You only have to struggle for result in science. There are laws of nature and you have to discover them. And it doesn’t matter for you who will use them and how they will use them. Scientists say that these aren’t their problems. I.e. whether any discovering falls into hands of maniac or mankind saviour scientists say: “I don’t care about it. Only good science interests me”.
I don’t know whether you know or not that grandfather of atomic bomb was one of the most goody-goody people as they say. He was Albert Einstein. He urged people on this bomb creation. And then when people understood what they did he clutched his head. Causal matter is the most subtle matter”.
Question: “Whether nature of love is Kundalini nature or nature of our I?”
Vadim Zaporozhtsev: “This is already question of Amorousness Yoga. Nature of love, nature of amorousness is a gift. This is the state nearest to the Enlightenment. It is given in advance to us just for several seconds. This state is given to us from the higher spheres to let us know for what to aspire. Nature of amorousness and love comes neither to energy nor even to consciousness. It comes in all its displays (whether it is the roughest energy or the most subtle energy at causal body level) neither to Kundalini energy nor to sexual energy. It doesn’t come to consciousness or to subconsciousness and so on. Notions of “energy” and “consciousness” have nothing to do with notions “amorousness” and “love”. They are other-worldly things.
I tell you a little bit about Amorousness Yoga. There are no conditions and factors in our Universe to make somebody fall in love. There are simply no such things. It’s possible to do any combination of energy and consciousness and thus give birth to every subject of phenomenon in the Universe: supernova, every emotion (fear, envy, jealousy and so on). We can do everything instead of amorousness. Amorousness is an exception here because amorousness isn’t a feeling but natural state of our higher I. More precisely put amorousness is the nearest state to it. That’s because the natural state of our I is inexpressible, there are no words to describe it. That’s why “energies”, “subtle structures”, “chakras” and so on have nothing to do with amorousness though amorousness may show through different structures including chakras”.
Solitude periods necessity
Yogins and Yoginis’ ways of living might be different in the last point “What to do?”. For example a yogini might be a shrine priestess yielded to anybody and everybody. Or this yogini might lead quite closed ascetic life as well as yogin might practice brahmachari all his life. This might be a person held a high post or absolutely inconspicuous person. Many-many different states of affairs may be in general. Though there was one common factor.
We remember that out consideration began from the purpose and it was cognition of the Higher. And they called upon to cognize the Higher through everything that the Universe brought to us. I.e. we shouldn’t wait until the Higher opens to us somewhere on Himalayas’ peaks. The Higher is already around us as it is. But we don’t see and feel it. The methods go further.
Telling about way of living I will certainly get off the point and tell you willy-nilly about the methods. But there’s no getting away from it because these factors well determine Yogins and Yoginis’ lifestyle. They explain us something and something we even can borrow.
The first point: Yogins and Yoginis had to stay alone from time to time regardless of what yoga they practiced. Each person had his own periods of solitude: sometimes these might be long and rare periods, sometimes these might be short but often periods. But in any case periods of solitude are absolutely needed. And they said directly or not about it in different yogic treatises. They always call upon yoga follower to build his refuge. This may be any cabin where he would live from time to time or while yoga practice. It is good for warm parts of the world: you just have to saw bamboo sticks, cover them with palm leaves – and now your home is ready. It is certainly difficult for us to do the same. But though it is considered that every yogin or yogini has to stay alone from time to time regardless of what yoga they practice.
I.e. you were sure to have periods when you stayed in private with the Universe. You should have had these periods of solitude either after interaction with society if you practiced Karma Yoga or after government period if you practiced Rajah Yoga or after communication with your girlfriend if you practiced Tantra Yoga or Yoga of Alliance.
Why do we need periods of solitude?
This is pure technical moment. You will feel absence of these moments very well. In “Yoga Sutras” of Patañjali the very beautiful comparison is given: a body of ordinary people is ordinary but a yogin’s body is ultrasensitive. They gave a comparison that a speck of dust getting into your eye provokes sharp pain and your sharp reaction. But if it touches your hand then you won’t feel anything bad. The same thing happens with body of yogin strenuously practicing yoga: he becomes very vulnerable and excitable and his perception becomes more sensitive. That’s why yogin aspire for seclusion in natural way. Numerous disbalances saying that yogins live only in solitude come from this point.
Solitude is necessary constituent part of Yogins and Yoginis’ way of living. Otherwise they would simply go mad. They clean their channels, centers by methods of yoga, their feeling become more acute to the highest degree. And touching them with a plumelet are felt by them as if you hit them by bludgeon. This happens especially if they practice powerful yogas such as Pranayama Yoga for example. That’s why every Yogin or Yogini had a place of his / her own where he / she went to stay in private with a certain periodicity.
It’s a big mistake if you don’t do it – you are simply overexposed to heat. You “dig” out your causal body. It gives powerful reaction and you begin to do obscenities. Now you may watch such a situation: when they gather a ship’s crew or submariners’ detachment. The greatest problem is crew compatibility. They seem to be all so goody-goody. Everything seems to be remarkable. But it takes only to put people together in limited space as they begin to silently hate each other in two or three weeks. Numerous psychologists, scientists and whoever else struggle with this problem. And there is no way they can understand a thing that is natural in yoga.
The point is that being very close with other people you interact with each other at causal body level. Metaphorically speaking you begin to invisibly rub against each other and excitement arises. You are excited and your inner structures strain. A person in such situation stands firm for one day, for another day, for one – two – three weeks – but during fourth week they kill each other in knife-fight. These situations when people living in limited space begin to do obscenities because of incompatibility are more often than not. Nobodies understand why. The secret conceals itself somewhere very deep. It conceals itself at a level of causal body. In this sense the problem can’t be solved just by selection of psychologically compatible people. Different frictions will be all the same.
The situations like this happen in overblown form when you start practicing yoga and they become very difficult. If you live in limited space then even your neighbour annoys you. Even your family and friends, your parents and acquaintances begin to annoy you. And the most unpleasant thing is when your loved one begins to annoy you. This is so because you are always with these people but you need time to stay alone and settle down.
For example clench your hands and keep them in this state for one day. The pain will be terrible. But we understand that we clenched our hands and if we relax them then the pain will go away. But when something inside us is clenched or strained we don’t even understand what is clenched and why. This is causal level and this level is very insidious because we don’t realize and track it. We are unwell and why do we feel so? God knows why.
“I’m incompatible with this person…” No, you may be compatible with him. You just got into such conditions where he strains your causal level and you strain his causal level. And the question of compatibility is just to find the gentleman’s agreement not to catch on each other.
That’s why they say that yogin is such a person who can live with everyone. I.e. he always adapts to every state of affairs. But we are already far from being like these yogins. Before to become such yogins having no conflicts in their life we have to know how to work with our causal body but it is very-very deep.
Lonely place became necessary part of Yogins and Yoginis way of living. More intensively you do powerful yoga practices more attention you have to pay to you “den” where you will “lick your causal wounds”. Without this den you will have a lot of conflicts and clashes. Do you understand that this mechanism is very deep? It is laid in our behavior model by nature. Nature also doesn’t like overcrowding. There are different hypostases here. Some people believe that epidemic outbreaks arise because of overcrowding. I.e. this is our heritage from those times when plague mowed half population clean. People lived in density in the Middle Ages. And they have natural habit, natural wish to keep their distance because it was more safe.
So you should know that when you seriously begin to practice yoga you will have sharp necessity to stay alone from time to time. If you don’t do it then you will get problems sometimes very latent. And if you don’t follow the principle of non-doing harm to any live being then you may get carried away in such situations. You may begin to make rows for example or to do something like this.
This is good on the one hand because rubbing so you touch causal level. And without this you may need many lives to live until you attain causal body level. At this level the greatest Yogins and Yoginis live. This is superlevel. It is but a step from causal level to the enlightenment. Just by this reason there is a statement in yoga that you should choose your husband or wife to be: a) father or mother of your children and b) your partner in asceticism (we considered this point when spoke about paying of the sacred debt). Average family comes to this as a rule. Spouses begin to rub against each other at a level of causal body. On the one hand thus they clean each other very quickly and strongly. Do you know such an expression “You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours”? But on the other hand it is very painful as if they pour sand into your eyes. And to know how to live family life at least pretty well you have to stay in private with the Universe from time to time. If you don’t do it then one fine morning your tension will attain any critical point and your mind will be switched off and you will be carried away.
Dwelling
Why causal body is bad? Causal body is deeper level than level of mind. You may visit psychological trainings so many times as you like: “Oh, I am goody-goody. I touch nobody. Peace, friendship and chewing gum! Let all the live beings be happy”. But then something will cut you to the quick and you will forget everything. You will forget all such views and be spoiling for a fight with your offender. Here is a great danger. And it was very serious point for ancient Yogins and Yoginis. But speaking about it I just rub salt into your wounds.
The point is that housing problem is one of the most terrible in Russia. We pay with our dwelling for the victory in The Second World War and for entering the space. This is the very burning issue for us. And it would be just like a mockery if I tell you: “You need separate room for this or that practice. It would be better to have separate house somewhere in close to nature and not in the city”. So speaking about it I rub salt into your wounds but I can’t not to say you about it because otherwise the process won’t go. If you begin practicing yoga then you will need place for being alone.
Yogins and Yoginis needed a place to stay alone as well. It was simpler for them: it is hot in India and there was enough no man’s land. And as regards to our country: though Russia has the biggest area but try to buy a lot somewhere in vicinities of Moscow – the land here is unrealistically expensive. There is such a disbalance. So they say: “Housing problem. Housing problem”. But this is not just housing problem – this is our bad karma. And your karma will become aggravated as you practice yoga. It will simply drive you mad.
The only one solution is there: to live like in America where everyone has his own small house. It is desirable that this was not a closet in ghetto-anthill but some house with a garden and so on. But once again telling you this means to jeer at you. At the same time pay your attention how America lives. Central business district is small and there are one-storeyed houses and cottages around it at radius of fifty kilometers. I hope we will also come to it. That’s why if you have money to buy several hundreds square metres land in vicinities of Moscow then buy it. This land will only go up in price and more and more people will practice yoga and supply will fall short of demand. Of course it’s a joke but though you have to think about it. Otherwise you will overheat your structures because of so futile trifle.
I remember when we have first computers all specialists clutched at their heads: “Ouch! Ouch! Cooling system. Cooling system”. I put on my thinking cap and thank that it was very difficult to make any super-super processor doing milliards operations per second. But cooling is so simple – just put some fan whirling and thus cooling – and that’s all. Nearly the same situation happens in yoga. It would seem that we have to learn any practice to the smallest detail. But where will we do it? Where will we have a rest? And so on. It would seem that this is the last thing to worry about. But indeed this is like computer: it begins to malfunction when it overheats. We overheat with yoga just as computers and we need a place to get cold.
The Universe wasn’t stern and gave us one way out. Many of us can avail ourselves of it. It is so called “six hundreds square metres”. These are dachas’ lots that were given to many people in the Soviet years. And if you have at least any plot of land at rather responsible distance from your city then there is sense to re-equip it to be a place for yoga practices. If living conditions there are more than Spartan even then six hundreds square metres is just the necessary size – neither more nor less than you need. If it is less than this size then it will be not enough place for you: here is a fence and your neighbour is somewhere near. But if this lot is big then you will hardly be able to look after it and you won’t have enough time for yoga practice. But the fact is that “summer resident’s problem” is strategically spiritual problem. This is problem of surviving (including yoga surviving).
It’s enough to make a cat laugh at first glance. But on the other hand it’s like a person who prepared for a journey, who absolutely got ready for it but suddenly trod upon a nail. His leg aches. It would seem that he should go further but he can’t because of this wretched nail. In yoga there is nearly the same situation. It would seem to be a trifle that place where you may stay alone – what’s the difference whether it is dacha (summer cottage) or your apartment? It would seem to be a trifle from the stand of global enlightenment attaining, Kundalini raising or opening of the third eye. It even sounds very trivially and ordinary. But it may become that nail tread upon which you will pierce your “spiritual foot” through and will be unable to go further. More precisely put you will be able to go but it will be very poignant for you.
That’s why if you have an opportunity to improve your living conditions then improve them. But this is karmic question. This is not because our parents didn’t make the most of good times and not because our country is so bad. This is only the question of our karma. This is atonement: we owed and now we have to pay. Or if the worst comes to the worst find a place empty of people somewhere in a park or somewhere else and practice there. You will frighten away maniacs because they are afraid of such deals. Just imagine you practice pranayama and begin to hiss. Maniacs simply scatter. This must be the most terrible thing they have ever faced.
And in the end: strange as it may seem many everyday problems (conflicts between spouses and so on) can be settled by housing problem solving. As far as until you stay together you hate each other but as you move into separate homes you become very nice persons. And the problem here is deeper than it seems at first glance.
Everything touching sex is very serious. It is the subject of yoga triad: Yoga of Alliance (Sexual Yoga), Tantra Yoga and Amorousness Yoga. All sexual questions are well considered there. It is difficult to briefly answer these questions. Before answering you have to learn all yoga up to the end. That’s why your wish for having sex may be necessary for you or in different cases it may a chance to practice asceticism. More over it may be different with one and the same person in different periods of his / her life. And there are many other different “but” here because everything touching sex is extremely complicated.
[*] Lyapkin-Tyapkin is a character of Nikolai Gogol’s comedy The Government Inspector (Revizor), a judge.