WE MUST HAVE SCIENTIFIC ATTITUDE IN ORDER TO BECOME SPIRITUAL
If you are a beginner and want to become spiritual then there is a big question comes in the mind- " from where and how to start"?
It is obvious, you need to start your spiritual journey at one point of life. Sometimes you want to start but have no idea from where and how and sometimes you have learnt something or heard something but confused how to proceed and many times many people enjoy reading the spiritual articles and experience happiness of mind by feeding it with spiritual stimulation.
But, is it enough?
Do you enjoy your vacations just watching your favorite place on YouTube. NO. Or in other words, you cannot feed yourself just by watching a picture of your favourite food. It means you have to visit the place to feel the experience of happiness and also you have to eat food to enjoy the taste of food.
The same is with spiritual journey. Just reading or listening to spiritual discourses will only give you virtual satisfaction. If you wish to achieve spiritual height then you have to tread its path practically. And for that Patanjali says ' Atha Yoganushasanam'- literally means 'Now the discipline of Yoga'. It means there something has been started before and the word "NOW" is introduced here to start with the discipline of Yoga. It means that there was some preliminaries before starting the discipline of Yoga.
Now here refers for a disciple [student] that he should first make up his mind to select the path of spiritual attainment. His first step is to prepare himself mentally , to memorize theory and perform some steps before to start with spiritual practice. To understand the mind of student Sage Patanjali divided them in five categories:
i) Kshipta - A student whose has completely distracted mind. His energy is not focused.
ii) Vikshipta - A student who has no control over his mind. His mind wavers. Concentration is missing . This type of student can learn, if he make effort. During this process, sometimes he may understand the things and sometimes not because he lacks attention. His mind wavers sometimes and so he is not able to understand. But this type of student is capable of being trained and accepted.
iii) Mudha- Clinically it means that the brain is not functioning well. It is a condition where mind is great dull or completely suspended sense of sensibility.
iv) Ekagra- refers to the mind of student whose mind is concentrated and is able to focus well.
v) Niruddha- is a student whose mind is completely under his control . His mind is well trained and use their mind according to their wish.
Sage Patanjali further says that a mentor - guru or teacher should assess the student by the way he walks. Teacher should be able to assess the mind of the student and decide whether he is able to learn this science or not.
Sage Patanjali started the enumeration by the word NOW- means there was something between the mentor and disciple that has been taught and then comes the word NOW. Means preliminaries to follow the Yoga Sutra were already given to disciple.
According to my point of view, a mentor teach some exercises to make the body flexible and mind relaxed.
These exercises are helpful in meditation as they stimulate the spinal cord and cerebellum which connects the spinal cord to the brain. It is also known as 'little brain' and medically its function is to maintain balance, posture and coordinates the messages of neurons to and from brain, eye movements and speech. It is further divided into three parts which receive information from the balance system of the inner ear, sensory nerves, and the auditory and visual systems. And all these are helpful in achieving higher realms of spirituality. These preliminaries activates and channelize the flow of energy within.
Further a mentor also make his student to learn about the theory of importance of human anatomy and how to prepare the body for quick responses to receive the stimulus during meditation.
Another preliminary knowledge that a mentor passes to his student is to understand about the kosha of body. These are five sheaths or energy layers that surrounds the soul.
This is another topic that will be covered in the coming articles.
So here it is focused on the word "Now" - means before starting spiritual practices - person should prepare himself with some preliminaries that supports him to follow meditation practices and opt for spiritual journey.
