Reference: Inner Engineering (Content)
This paper presents the summary of Part one, chapter 6, from the book, INNER ENGINEERING By Sadhguru. The contents are from the first edition (2016) of this book published in the United States by Spiegel & Grau, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC, New York.
The summary of the original material (in black) is accompanied by brief comments (in color) based on the present understanding.
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“. . . And Now, Yoga”
The fundamental desire within every human being is for boundless expansion. You arrive at yoga only when you realize that absolutely nothing else will settle you.
Yoga is neither contortions of the body, nor sitting effortlessly in a lotus position. Yoga is the science of being in perfect alignment, and in complete sync with existence. With the practice of yoga, your body and mind can be maintained at the highest possible level of capability and efficiency. You are essentially a morsel of energy that is part of the much larger energy system of the universe. Yoga is the technology of upgrading, activating, and refining these inner energies for the highest possibilities. The whole point of yoga is to bring you to an experience wherein, if you sit here, there is no such thing as “you” and “me.” It is all me—or all you! Yoga is a hundred percent empirical science.
Yoga tells us that we are actually composed of five layers of body. The first layer is annamayakosha (the physical layer). It is the product of all the nourishment you have ingested over the years. The second layer is manomayakosha (the mental layer). It is the intelligence of all the cells distributed throughout the physical body. The fluctuations in the mental and physical layers influence each other. The third layer is pranamayakosha (the energy layer). It energizes the mental and physical layers. When the energy layer is in full vibrancy and proper balance, chronic diseases cannot exist in the physical and mental layers. The physical, mental and energy layers can be sensed and experienced. The fourth layer is vignanamayakosha (the etheric layer). It is the layer of “qualified knowledge” that forms the bridge from physical to non-physical. When the etheric layer is integrated with the first three layers you become intuitively aware of the cosmic phenomena. The fifth layer is anandamayakosha (the bliss layer), which represents a non-physical dimension of the absolute. This dimension cannot be perceived, only experienced as an overwhelming experience of bliss. When the bliss layer is integrated you can fearlessly explore the beyond.
The aim of yoga is total integration of these layers. In the practice of karma yoga (yoga of duty), you approach this integration using your physical body. In gnana yoga (yoga of knowledge), you approach integration using your intelligence. In bhakti yoga (yoga of devotion), you approach integration using your emotions. And in kriya yoga (yoga of activity), you approach integration using your energies.
All four approaches lead to the same result—the integration of the five layers of body.
The aim of Yoga is the integration of the five layers of body that make up the self.
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Comments
Uniting the four types of yoga
It happened once. Four men were walking in the forest. The first was a gnana yogi, the second was a bhakti yogi, the third was a karma yogi, and the fourth was a kriya yogi.
Usually, these four people can never be together. The gnana yogi has total disdain for all other types of yoga. His is the yoga of intelligence, and normally, an intellectual has complete disdain for everyone else, particularly these bhakti types, who look upward and chant God’s name all the time. They look like a bunch of idiots to him.
But a bhakti yogi, a devotee, thinks all this gnana, karma and kriya yoga is a waste of time. He pities the others who don’t see that when God is here, all you need to do is hold His hand and walk. All this mind-splitting philosophy, this bone-bending yoga, is not needed; God is here, because God is everywhere.
Then there is the karma yogi, the man of action. He thinks all the other types of yogis, with their fancy philosophies, are just lazy.
But a kriya yogi is the most disdainful of all. He laughs at everyone. Don’t they know that all of existence is energy? If you don’t transform your energy, whether you long for God or you long for anything else, nothing is going to happen. There will be no transformation.
These four people customarily can’t get along. But today they happened to be walking together in the forest and a storm broke out. It grew very intense and began raining heavily. They started running, looking for shelter.
The bhakti yogi, the devotion man, said, “In this direction there is an ancient temple. Let’s go there.” He’s a devotee; he knows the geography of temples very well!
They all ran in that direction. They came to an ancient temple. All the walls had crumbled long ago; just the roof and four columns remained. They rushed into the temple; not out of love for God, but just to escape the rain.
There was a deity in the center. They ran towards it. The rain was lashing down from every direction. There was no other place to go, so they moved closer and closer. Finally, there was no alternative. They just hugged the deity and sat down.
The moment these four people hugged the idol, there was a huge fifth presence. Suddenly, God appeared.
In all their four minds the same question arose: Why now? They wondered, “We expounded so many philosophies, did so many poojas, served so many people, did so much body-breaking sadhana, but you didn’t come. Now when we’re just escaping the rain, you turn up. Why?”
God said, “At last you four idiots got together!”
If these dimensions don’t walk together, human beings will be one big mess. Right now, for most people, these dimensions are aligned in different directions. Your mind is thinking and feeling one way, your physical body is going another way, your energy another way. Yoga is simply the science of aligning these three dimensions.
Thank you for this lovely story from Sadhguru!