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Real Understanding

Swami Akhandananda Saraswati

Few know the meaning of 'understanding' in the deepest sense, which goes beyond the word and the concept. Once you have understood in this deep sense, then there will be no problem. The fundamental principle of kriya yoga leads you to the real experience of understanding. When you have this experience, you will fully understand yourself. This real understanding is known in yoga as self-realization or the awakening of kundalini. Kundalini is the universal power which is lying dormant in the lower plane of consciousness of each individual. The sleeping kundalini, symbolised by a serpent, lies coiled in the mooladhara chakra. In our psychic body, there are six important centres called chakras, which are responsible for the various stages of real understanding, mooladhara being the lowest of these. By practicing kriya yoga, which involves concentrating on these centres, the student awakens his inner capacity for deeper understanding.

The mind has three principal states: conscious, subconscious and unconscious, beyond which is the super-conscious state. Kriya yoga develops our awareness of all these states of mind, first the conscious state, then the subconscious and then the unconscious. Finally, when awareness is developed in the unconscious, it is suddenly and spontaneously transformed into super consciousness - completely expanded consciousness. The yogi first experiences super-consciousness in introspection, and eventually it manifests in all his activity, both internal and external. This heightened awareness is not something you can obtain as you buy groceries. It is a potential lying dormant in each individual which must be patiently developed. Thus kriya yoga can be defined as a method by which you can expand every level of your consciousness and every aspect of your daily life.

Most people's self awareness is very poor. For example, you may be reading this article with one level of your mind, the conscious level, but you don't know what the other levels of your mind are doing. Your subconscious mind may be driving into the city or wandering along the beach, similarly with the unconscious. It is through this unawareness of the activity in the different levels of the mind that all of our problems develop - we lose our ability to concentrate, to understand, to relax and be free from all the usual kinds of day to day tensions and frustrations.

Of course, we want to be free of these problems and to have control over our minds. We have always been trying, whether we realised it or not, to gain this self control, perhaps as long as we have been aware of our own existence as human beings with a body and a mind. But we just get more and more frustrated because we never find real success or satisfaction. Still we try, more or less without knowing what we are doing or where we are going. Of course, it's not our fault that we haven't found the answers; we shouldn't blame ourselves or anybody else. Although we have been trying to learn the answers from people who claimed to know them, whether they be psychologists or philosophers, we should bear in mind that perhaps they have been just as ignorant about themselves as we are about ourselves. The blind often lead the blind, especially in the west.

People are trying too hard to control the mind. That is why they feel restless, angry and frustrated with life. The mind is very sensitive and fickle. It can be likened to an untrained, restless little monkey. If you want to tame the monkey, you should relax, take your time and approach it slowly. Otherwise the monkey will just run away; you will chase it, and because it is so agile you will only end up exhausted. This is what has happened to so many of us; we have become exhausted trying to force our minds into submission. Now we must realise that if we really want to make something of life and develop our awareness, we mustn't use force. Even those who practice yoga make this very mistake.

Many people find that when they try to meditate, they cannot control the mind; they cannot even remain aware of what they are doing. Often they are trying too hard to concentrate the mind, trying to force it into one-pointedness. They are following a method which is not suited to their stage of development, for true concentration is a very advanced and difficult yogic practice. In kriya yoga, on the other hand, you allow the mind to do what it wants, and simply remain aware of its activity as it exhausts its restless tendencies. You do not even have to sit in a classical yogic posture (such as the lotus pose) to do the practices. The relaxed approach of kriya yoga enables us to understand and make friends with our own mind.

Let us discuss kriya yoga in relation to physical and mental health. People in this society suffer from a host of physical ailments ranging from coronary heart disease to constipation. Millions desperately need and want solutions to these diseases, but so many, even if they can obtain medical treatment, cannot find a cure. The practice of kriya yoga is a safe, natural, drugless method which, with time and patience and when taught and practiced correctly, can eliminate virtually any physical, mental or psychosomatic illness.

Instead of just suppressing the obvious and unpleasant symptoms of disease, it directly attacks the basic problems which cause them. Of course there are very many highly effective yogic practices which work directly on the body and can correct diseases on the physical level. More often than not, however, these physical problems are ultimately caused by hidden disturbances in the subconscious mind. By developing awareness in the deeper levels of the mind, you can overcome the problems and conflicts which are stored there.

By the same principle, kriya yoga also eliminates all kinds of mental disease, from mild depression to severe forms of psychosis. Conventional methods of mental treatment in our society generally try to alleviate the immediate complaint with drugs. The depression, phobia or whatever the complaint, even if it goes away, is probably just a symptom of the real problem, which remains unresolved at the subconscious level, and simply manifests again in different symptoms. Thus, thousands of people are habituated or addicted to taking pills for depression, tension, insomnia, migraine and a host of psychosomatic illnesses. These people have not found a real solution to their problems, because they are not eradicating the deep-seated impressions in the mind which caused them.

Take a typical situation; perhaps you are feeling depressed. You might go to a chemist and buy a prescription of Valium. The drug suppresses the influence of the hidden problem which is causing the depression, but without letting it out. You temporarily become unconscious, unaware of the problem, but the problem is still there. When the influence of the chemical is finished, the problem manifests again in new symptoms. This is why people continue to suffer from chronic mental problems, no matter what drugs they use.

If you practice kriya yoga, you can find real solutions to your problems without using drugs. Let me illustrate with a real situation. A lady who came to the ashram had so many problems that to escape from them she was taking many different drugs. I knew the real cause of her problems and asked her to come and live for some time at the ashram. When she arrived she was told not to take any pills. She refused, saying that otherwise she would get depressed. I replied, 'No, you will not get depressed without the pills. I am just asking you to give them up for today.' The next morning I asked her how she felt and she said 'I feel fantastic' I asked her if she had taken the pills and she said, 'No'. Ever since then she has been able to sleep well without her pills. In the beginning she constantly went out, bought anything which caught her fancy and brought it back to the ashram. I made no comment because I was aware of the reasons for her behaviour. A few days later she said to me, 'I have realised that I shouldn't purchase anything which I don't need. Now I understand what I really do need.' This development in her own self awareness, her understanding of herself, took place spontaneously through ashram life and the practices of kriya yoga. Actually I didn't expect such a rapid improvement in her condition when I first met her. Now she is happy, calm and healthy, and is starting to gain a real understanding of her own mind.

This is just a brief glimpse of kriya yoga, but you can only understand so much through the intellectual mind. Beyond that, the only way to understand more, to really understand yourself and your own life, is to practice.

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