Questioner. Gururaj, could you please tell us about the mechanics of Raja Yoga?
Gururaj. (Gururaj laughs) Yes sir. The mechanics of Raja Yoga – I wonder if it means if all mechanics should practise Raja Yoga? We are all really mechanics. We are the mechanics of our lives. We can tighten screws and loosen them, and of course the most important screws to be tightened are somewhere up there.
Raja Yoga, as you would know, Raja means royal, the Royal Yoga, the Royal Path to Divine Union, where the individual self merges with the Universal Self, where man finds union with God. That is Yoga.
In the world today the word ‘Yoga’ has been so misunderstood. It has only been understood in the terms of all those fancy poses, all the Assanas, as they are known.
Although Assanas have great value, but that does not constitute the entirety of Raja Yoga. It is a part of Raja Yoga, known as Hatha Yoga. Hatha means ‘To be very adamant on one particular aspect’, that is Hatha. Fine. So that is a section of Raja Yoga.
Now many times you find teachers teaching Raja Yoga, but only a particular aspect of Raja Yoga. They tell you about meditation. Now there are various forms of meditation. There was a question this morning about thoughts and meditation, which I did not want to answer fully because as I said we are going to talk about Raja Yoga and I can cover that point.
You have some teachers that tell you, meditate so many minutes in the morning and so many minutes in the evening, and bob’s my uncle. Now that is not true. That is not true. If you meditate so many minutes in the morning and so many minutes at night and everything comes right, it is not true.
It is a fallacy; it is a gimmick, given to a susceptible, gullible public who wants everything just instantly – instant coffee, instant pudding, instant self-realisation
Now the path of Yoga is not as simple as it seems. The path of Yoga, as it has been said by Vivekananda, is the path of the heroes, the path of warriors.
There has to be determination. Krishna has said;‘There are few types of people that want to reach me: the one that is in distress, the one that wants worldly gain, the one that is a seeker and, last but not least, the one that has real spiritual knowledge and want to remain for ever in touch with his Maker. He wants to be at home all the time, and not stray away’.
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