Vedantham : ( 07/11/2012. )

Chapter-8 : Control of the Instruments of Knowledge.3. Is the world – or the universe, so to say – an object of the senses? Is it an object at all in any sense of the term? The structure of the universe as a completeness in itself, permitting no externality whatsoever, would not permit us to wrench ourselves from any kind of vital relationship with it and look at it as if it is a stranger in front of us. What we call earthly, worldly involvement, which is often called the bondage of samsara – this earth earthy existence, this turmoil and sorrow of life – is said to be ultimately traceable to the event of the inward segregation of the perceiving, knowing subject from that which it considers as its object. For us, the world is the object, and every object is part of the world; and, in a way, we may say there is only one object in front of us – namely, the world – whatever be the variety that it contains. Swami Krishnananda   To be continued ....

Chapter-8 : Control of the Instruments of Knowledge.2. Now we are being told the opposite, as if we are not to exist at all in the world, when it is said that the senses are to be restrained. The restraint of the senses would imply the diminution of all happiness in life, inasmuch as for us there is no happiness minus sense activity. This is a problem of the common man, and man in general. The necessity to restrain the senses arises due to a fundamental feature which is characteristic of the universe as a whole. We have heard again and again that, finally, it is impossible to consider the universe as an object of the senses. The world around us is not really ‘around’ us. The world that we see is really not something that is ‘seen’, but is a little different from what it appears to us. The world is not an object of the senses; and if the world is not an object of the senses, and if the senses cannot think of the world except as an object, there is something seriously wrong wi...

Chapter-8 : Control of the Instruments of Knowledge.1. Now we are on the border of certain vital issues in the practice of yoga, and everything that we have considered up to this time is a sort of preparation for the quintessential essence of the whole matter. The control of the senses is the principal issue involved here. It is said everywhere, in practically all the religions in the world, that the senses have to be restrained, and should not be given a long rope. They should not be permitted to act wildly, according to their own whims and fancies. Why should the senses be controlled? What is wrong with them? We know very well that the senses are our great friends that bring us immense satisfaction in the form of enjoyments of every kind. All our joys are sensory, sensuous. If life is a happiness, for all practical purposes it appears that this happiness comes through the sense organs. Thus, life would be meaningless if the senses were not to be operative in their own fashio...

Chapter 7: Yoga Discipline-26. Remember that discipline is something that you voluntarily accept upon yourself, and even when a law seems to be operating outside and you may mistake it for an action imposed upon you by people around you, it is not something that is acting from outside; it is a pressure that is exerted upon you by your own larger reality. And your reality extends beyond your physical reality. Reality is more profound and active in its operation and insistence upon you as it expands more and more, even externally. You cannot consider the discipline that you have to maintain as a member of the family to be a pain that is inflicted upon you, because you know the well-being of your family is your well-being, and vice versa. Likewise is the discipline that you are expected to maintain in the society in which you are living, in the country of which you are citizen – or rather, as a unit of humanity itself. But as long as you limit your concept of reality to fami...