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BY DR. SANAT TRIVEDI

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Dr. Sanat Trivedi

M.B.B.S. D.P.H. C.H.P.

Ex Director of Health and Medical Services Gujarat State INDIA

Adress : B/15 Pavan Apartment Nr. Judges bunglow Bodakdev Ahmedabad Gujarat India

Email : sanataditya@gmail.com

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Copyright 2005-2008. Yoga Road to Health and Happiness and all its contents, are strictly prohibited from copy or reproduction in any form without the express written consent of the author. All rights reserved world wide Dr. Sanat Trivedi

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My sincere thanks to Muni Shree Ved Vyas, Shrimad Shankaracharyaji, And Shree Patanjali Who has provided me abundance literature and knowledge on Core philosophy of Hinduism, Yoga Darshana, And human behaviour, through their Scriptures written for the welfare of Human-kind. Dr. Sanat Trivedi

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Preamble Indian Yoga is systematic and scientific technique for achieving health and happiness in the life. Before few decades it was only practiced in India by some yogis and Sanyasins. But now it has been adopted by number of people. Not only that but yoga has already crossed the border of India, and reached to many countries across the world. Groups of pe0ple have started taking interest in this ancient technique of Yoga. Considering the importance of this technique, 21st June was declared as international Yoga Day. Thousands of people have celebrated Yoga Day, in different parts of the world by practicing various postures and Asanas, prescribed by yoga. Shree Patanjali is the pioneer of this technique. He is considered as father of Indian Yoga. He invented this technique before 2500 years. The scriptures written by Shree Patanjali are known as Patanjalis Yoga Sutra. The Yoga prescribed by Shree Patanjali is helpful for maintaining perfect physical and mental health.

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Most of the schools which teach yoga, are mainly concentrating on various Asanas and Pranayama. These two steps are small part of whole yoga technique. Yoga is not mere exercise which can be performed for 30- 40 minutes every day. As such it is the way of life. It is the discipline in life, which should be adopted by the practitioners of yoga. It transforms human life. It helps in preventing many diseases. It is the road to achieve perfect health and happiness in the life. And ultimately it leads the practitioner to the ultimate goal of life. Ultimate goal of life is liberation from all the bondages and sufferings of human life. Dr. Sanat Trivedi.

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Main subjects discussed in this book

1] Yoga and way to holistic health

2] Core philosophy of Hinduism

3] Yoga means control of mental

turbulences

4] Chit Vikshep - Mental Distress

5] How to control mental turbulences

6] Basic nature of the human being

7] Chit-shuddhi

8] Ashtanga Yoga

9] Yama

10] Niyamas

11] Asana

12] Pranayama

13] Prana as vital force 14] Pranayama and vital energy 15] Philosophy of Pranayama 16] Different methods of Pranayama

17] Pratyahar

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18] Dharna

19] Meditation

20] Theory of Meditation

21] How meditation helps maximizing mental capacity? 22] Process of Meditation

23 ] Music and Meditation 24] Practice of meditation

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Yoga and way to holistic health

Need of Yoga:

Yoga is art and science of harmonizing physical and mental health. It is very ancient technique designed and architected by Shree Patanjali, for achieving ultimate goal of life , i.e. Moksha . As per Hindu philosophy the Moksha is liberation from material and worldly sorrows of life. Moksha is Sanskrit word. The exact meaning of the word is freedom. So Moksha means liberating the self from the worldly bondages, which are the root- cause of all the sorrows and unhappiness in life.

As per Hindu philosophy, the human life is full of problems and hurdles. As per Hindu philosophy there is also life after death. i.e. re-birth. The quality and nature of next birth is awarded to the person, as per his actions and activities during the previous birth. He gets better and higher quality of birth, if he had performed good and positive actions, and he gets lower and low quality of birth, if he had performed negative and wrong actions. This way the cycle of death and birth continues for thousands of births. Liberation from this cycle is called Moksha.

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Yoga is also helpful for maintaining better health. It is proved by number of medical surveys and research that most of the diseases are due to underlying mental turmoil and mental stress. Mental stress is one of the root causes for diabetes, high blood pressure, heart diseases, and group of psychosomatic diseases. Practice of yoga and meditation is very helpful for preventing and managing those diseases.

Mental peace and bliss is helpful for enjoying present life, for achieving higher spiritual goal and for the achievement of Moksha.

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Core philosophy of Hinduism

1] physical body and Atman are two separate entity.

2] Physical body is the residence of Atman.

3] physical body is made up of various organs, bones, muscles and skin.

4] Atman is I-consciousness.

5] Physical body is the tool of the Atman for the enjoyment of life, for getting all the sensual pleasures, for getting the knowledge and experience of the life.

6] Physical body is mortal while the Atman is immortal.

7] At the time of death atman leaves the physical body and enters in new physical body. This is known as re-birth. It is like person discarding his old and worn out clothes and takes new clothes.

8] Nature of re-birth is decided as per the actions performed and related subtle impressions created during previous life.

9] It is believed that the cycle of birth and death, continues till the Atman reaches to the highest level of spirituality.

10] When Atman reaches its peak level of spirituality and gets freedom from all the

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worldly desires and attachments, it transcends the cycle of birth and death. Then there is no re-birth. Then atman unites with supreme spirit. i.e. Paramatma. This is known as Moksha, or Nirvana.

11] Ultimate goal of life is Moksha, as per Hindu philosophy.

12] Different schools of thought, [Darshanas,] have their own techniques and theories for achieving the ultimate goal of life.

Six Darshanas

As per Hindu religious literature, there were six different schools of thoughts, describing and analyzing basic philosophy of life. They were known as Darshana. Each Darshana has its own theory regarding human life, creator of universe and life after death. They had also prescribed the various techniques for achieving ultimate goal of life.

These six Darshanas are

1] Sankhya, 2] Yoga,

3] Vedanta,

4] Nyaya

5] Mimansa,

6] Vaisesika.

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Those schools of thoughts were founded by various philosophical thinkers, they were known as Darshanik.

Sankhya was founded by Shree Kapil. Vedant was founded by Shree Vyas. Nyaya was founded by Shree Gautam. Vaisesika was founded by Kamal and Yoga was founded by Shree Patanjali.

These six schools of thoughts were differing in their basic philosophical theories regarding creator of the universe, his functions and his relationship with the human life. But all of them were having unique agreement regarding the ultimate goal of life.

Ultimate goal of life is liberation.

It was designated as Moksha by some, Kaivalya by others, and some called it Nirvana.

Yoga darshana

Yoga Darshana founded by Shree Patanjali, was also known as Patanjalis Yoga Darshana. Patanjalis Yoga darshana is the scientific and methodical technique for achieving highest goal of life. Highest goal of life is to reach to the peak level of spirituality. Yoga means union. It is the union of the self with universal self. It is the union of Atma with Paramatma, union of I-consciousness with universal consciousness. It is the liberation from the problems and

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hurdles of life; it is the liberation from the cycle of birth and death.

Achievement of mental and physical health is the by-product of the Patanjalis Yoga teachings. The person practicing the yoga technique prescribed by Shree Patanjali, the person traveling on the path of yoga will achieve total physical and mental health.

Shree Patanjali had realized that for ordinary man, it was not possible to achieve the final goal of liberation by following the paths prescribed by various schools of thoughts, and following the philosophy and commands prescribed in various religious books. So Patanjali formulated relatively easy and step by step procedures to achieve final goal of life. Those steps are known as Angas. There are such eight Angas, so Patanjalis yoga is also known as Ashtanga Yoga. i.e. eight steps of Yoga. The Sadhaka, the learner has to climb the ladder of these eight steps, to reach the final destination of Nirvana i.e. Moksha. It is the systemic and scientific procedure to train and to condition the body and mind for the tough journey leading to final destination.

It is the universal rule that no destination can be achieved without scientific, logical, stratified, well guided and continuous efforts. Success even in material achievement requires labor and hard work. Passing in the exam with

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higher rank requires efforts, becoming rich requires efforts, getting championship in the game requires efforts and getting success in any field of the life requires efforts. The degree of achievement is always in proportion to the degree of efforts made.

Let us take the example of Everest expedition. One can not reach to the top of Mount Everest just by getting the knowledge of various paths leading towards the peak and then casually walking toward the peak. One has to work very hard. In the beginning one has to get detail knowledge regarding the various paths, the height to be climbed, all probable hurdles, and knowledge regarding the climate. Then one has to work hard to prepare his body to withstand the hardship on the way. One has to learn and practice the art of mountaineering. In addition one should have enough and reliable equipments to facilitate the project of expedition. In the initial stage one has to master the technique of climbing to the lower heights. After all these preparations one can take last step of climbing the highest peak.

Take the example of becoming the doctor. One can not directly start studying the art of medicine. One has to pass number of basic school and college examinations before starting the study of medicine. Final stage of passing and graduating the field of medicine requires lots of efforts and hard labor.

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Same way for achieving the final goal of life, one has to work hard, has to prepare the body and mind to face the hurdles, one has to train and to condition the self. One has to systematically and scientifically master himself in the various techniques. After such basic preparation, one can move step by step toward the final goal.

Goal of spiritual achievement and liberation is more strenuous than becoming rich, or passing tough examination. For spiritual achievement one requires certain basic qualities. Those who possess those qualities are qualified to start walking on the path leading to liberation. These fundamental characters are known as Sadhan Chatushtaya, four basic characters.

Sadhan Chatushthaya: [four tools]

1] Vivek, means discriminatory power.

2] Vairagya means total detachment from material world.

3] Shata- sampati, means six basic mental qualities. These six qualities are shama, Dama, Uparati, Titixa, Shradhdha, Samadhan

4] Mumuxutvam, means strong desire to achieve liberation.

Six qualities described in third character are

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Shama, means total self control over mind,

Dama, means self control over sensual desires.

Uparati, means satisfaction.

Titixa, means power of endurance.

Shradhha, means trust in God,

Samadhan, means power of compromise with odd circumstances.

As such it is quite difficult for the ordinary person to achieve those fundamental characters. Considering that factor, Patanjali had design some more easy step to step technique for the persons, desiring to travel to on the path of liberation.

Patanjali had prescribed eight steps. These steps are,

1] yama, means basic characters.

2] Niyama, means rules to be observed in the life.

3] Asana, easy body positions.

4] Pranayama, means technique of control over breathing.

5] Pratyahar, means withdrawing of the sensual desires.

6] Dharana, means Concentration.

7] Dhyana, means meditation.

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8] Samadhi, means liberation

The learner or the practitioner of the yoga has to move step by step to achieve his final goal. He is supposed to learn his lessons systematically by achieving control over his body and mind. First four steps are for training the body, and last four steps are for training the mind.

Patanjalis book on yoga is known as Yoga Sutra. It is divided in four sections for the convenience of understanding. His preaching is in Sanskrit language. He has preached his model of Yoga by small and short sentences. Those short sentences are called Sutras.

The first section is known as Samadhi Pad. That section deals with logical and theoretical explanation of his technique. It contains 49 sutras. Second section deals with procedure. It is known as SadhanPad. It contains 55 sutras. The third section deals with resultant accomplishment, advantage and results. In Sanskrit it is known as Sidhhi. The section is known as Vibhuti pad. It contains 55 sutras. The fourth and final section deals with the description of ultimate goal. i.e. Moksha. That section is known as Kaivalya Pad. It contains 34 sutras.

In most of the western countries Indian yoga has become popular in last decades. Number of people has realized that yoga is most

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effective tool for maintaining physical fitness and health. Those who are conscious of maintaining good health have started regularly practicing Indian yoga. Most of the yoga centers are engaged in teaching Asanas and pranayama. Asanas help for maintaining physical health and Pranayama helps balancing and regulating breathing process.

As such the ultimate goal of yoga is to achieve higher level of spirituality and ultimately to attain Moksha. i.e. liberation. Asanas and Pranayama help to maintain physical health but it can not take the practitioner to the ultimate goal of liberation.

Initial two steps of the Patanjalis yoga is Yama and Niyama. Control and mastery in these two steps will help the practitioner to strengthen his character and integrity. The person without wholesome character and integrity can not climb the steps of spirituality. Immoral and non- integrated person, who is engaged in the business of fraud and cheating, can not even dream to achieve higher stages of spirituality even though he might have practiced Asanas and Pranayam for life time. So systematic training and step by step practice in all the eight steps of yoga technique, is obligatory for the practitioner, who aims to attain and achieve higher goals in life.

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Deh- Shuddhi:

Deh-Shuddhi means purity of physical body. And Chit-shuddhi means purity of mind. Purity of body and mind are initial and important steps, mandatory for each practitioner of yoga. The person having various diseases of body and mind are not fit for carrying out journey on the path of yoga. His body and mind must be fit to withstand hardship, hurdles and obstacles, on the path of yoga.

There are three basic steps to keep body fit and disease free.

1] Samyak Ahar, right food

2] Samyak vihar, right exercise

3] samyak vichar. Right thinking

Samyak is the Sanskrit word, it means appropriate, right or suitable, so right food, right exercise and right thinking process, is essential for keeping body fit and disease free.

Samyak Ahar, - Right food.

The food should be balanced and fit for the body. The quality and quantity of the food must be maintained as per the need of the body. The food should contain enough calories, proteins, carbohydrates, fats, minerals and vitamins. Over eating or under eating is not advisable.

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Samyak Vihar Right exercise.

One should have regular and right exercise. Heavy exercise meant for body-building is not recommended. Light and right exercise is useful for keeping body fit and disease free.

Samyak Vichar Right thinking.

Mind controls the body. Healthy mind keeps body healthy. Mental stress is responsible for number of physical and mental disorders. Unwanted mental stress should be avoided. One should have the habit of positive thinking. Negative thinking pollutes the mind.

Chit Shuddhi.

Chit Shuddhi means purity of mind. Yoga-Siddhi, success in yoga is not possible without purity of mind. Mind plays major role in Patanjalis yoga. The mind should be free from stress and mental conflicts. It should be free from prejudices and pre-conditioning.

As per medical terminology, yoga is nothing but de-conditioning and re-conditioning. Our body and mind is conditioned to behave and react in some specific way, because of conditioning. Simplest example is the food. Those who are condition to take vegetarian food will be having negative and dreadful reaction seeing non-vegetarian food. But same food will bring sense of joy for those who are condition to rake non-vegetarian food.

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Wrong conditioning, unwanted prejudices lead to wrong concept and decision. It is not possible to write on the unclean paper. Same way it is not possible to write any thing on the mental screen when it is already having various writings, pictures and wrong messages. Re- conditioning is only possible when mind is clean. New ideas, creativities and new practice can be only possible, when mind is clean. In Sanskrit language the human mind is known as Chit. And cleaning means Shuddhi. So cleaning of the mind is known as Chit-Shuddhi.

Chit-Shuddhi is not only mandatory but it is core idea of Patanjalis Yoga philosophy.

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Yoga means control of mental turbulences

Patanjali starts his commentary with the first sentence, yoga means cessation of mental turbulences. And then he says that

At that time mind rests and restores in its original form.

Human mind is quiet and peaceful by nature. But because of repeated positive and negative stimuli, it looses its serenity and peaceful nature.

One can compare human mind with the pure and quiet water of the lake. The water of the lake is always quiet and pure. The purity of the water is such one can clearly see all the objects lying at the bottom of the lake. But when stone mud or any object is thrown in the water of the lake, it looses its purity, and quietude. The water gets polluted. Not only that but it starts producing circular turbulences. If the process of throwing objects in the water is continued for the longer period, then it goes on producing turbulences, disturbing quietude of the water.

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Same way the human mind is quiet and peaceful by nature. But when stones in the form of various stimuli are thrown on the surface of the mind, it gets corrupt and agitated. Corrupt and agitated mind looses its serenity and quietude. It also looses its ability to grasp and understand higher knowledge. It looses its capacity of new creation. Such mind is unable to achieve higher goals of spirituality.

So as per the opinion of Shree Patanjali, pure, quiet and peaceful mind is mandatory for those who desires to progress on the path of Yoga.

Mental turbulences can be either positive or negative. Positive feelings can give the sense of joy and happiness. While negative feelings can create the sense of sorrow, unhappiness and depression. The mind without any turbulence, is balanced and neutral mind, it is neither deviated towards positive side nor towards negative side. The positive feelings are sense of joy, sense of happiness, sense of satisfaction, love , compassion etc. the negative feelings are sorrow, unhappiness, greed, anger, fear, delusion, sense of revenge, sense of jealousy, egotism etc.

As per the opinion of Patanjali, the mind should be devoid of both the types of feelings, positive or negative. The mind should be in

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balanced state. It should neither deviate on the positive side nor on the negative side.

On analyzing the source of all this feelings, he says that the feelings can be generated from five types of sources.

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There are five different sources from where various feelings are generated.

These sources are 1] Direct perception from five sensory organs 2] Imagination or deduction

3] Knowledge based on incorrect information

4] From the past memory

5] From the dreams.

Direct Perception:

Human mind receives its most of the information regarding out side world, through its five sensory organs. The information received through sensory organs, is analyzed by the mind. This information plays the roll of stimuli, and creates turbulences in the mind. Good information may create the feeling of happiness, while bad information may create the feeling of unhappiness. Seeing dirty and bad smelling sight can create the feeling of

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negative response. Seeing cruelty on the road can create feeling of fear, seeing beggar begging on the road, can create the feeling of compassion.

Indirect perception:

Indirect information is through some person, friend, relative, or acquaintance. It can be also through books, literature, cinema, news paper, TY shows or through some other media. Such information also acts as stimuli and can create reactionary turbulences in the mind. Good and positive information can create positive reaction, while bad and negative information can create negative reactions in the mind.

Wrong Information:

Wrong information can be through defective perception or the non- authenticated information provided by other sources. Defective perception can lead to wrong conception and leading to wrong judgment. A person entering in the semi-dark room may see long object lying on the floor. Considering it to be snake, he gets frightened. Feeling of fear is created in his mind. On switching on the light, he will realize his mistake and the negative feeling of fear disappears. Tired and thirsty traveler moving in the desert may see big collection of water. He gets feeling of hope and happiness. But as soon as he realizes that it was not the collection of water but it was

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mirage, the feeling of happiness disappears. His happiness turns out in great disappointment.

The lady was waiting in the airport lounge. As she was hungry, she purchased packet of popcorn to eat while on the plain. After some time one fellow came and sit near by her seat. He took out the packet of popcorn and started eating. The lady was very angry. She thought that how the person can start eating her popcorn. Then that fellow offered her the same popcorn. The lady was furious. She thought that the other person is totally shameless. He is not only eating the popcorn without her permission, but is shamelessly offering the same to her. At the time of departure of the plain, the other person left. After some time when the lady lifted her bag to go to the terminal, she saw her packet of popcorn lying on the bag. Now she realized that the person, who was eating and was offering the popcorn, was eating popcorn from his own package. Because of wrong perception and judgment the lady lost her balance of mind.

Same way wrong information either from the person, or from the news paper, or from other media can create waves of disturbances in the mind. One patient went to the doctor to get his blood report. By mistake the doctor gave him the report of some other patient. [report having the same name] the blood report showed high

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increase of WBC, positive sign of leukemia. The patient was shocked to know that he was suffering from leukemia. He lost interest in the life. He thought of ending his life. Fortunately after some time the doctor realized his mistake. He immediately contacted the patient, and informed him that the report he received was wrong. As such his blood report was absolutely normal. Wrong report had created very high negative turbulences in the mind of the patient.

Memory:

Memory can be of happy incidences or of unhappy incidences. The memory of the incidence when the person had enjoined those movements and had a good time will create sense of happiness in his mind, and the memories of unexpected, unwarranted, and miserable incidences, will create the sense of unhappiness in the mind of individual. If the person is insulted in past by his relative, friend or foe, the memory of that insult will always create the sense of sorrow and revenge in the mind of the person. The memory of getting honor and reward during the school days is always positive and creates the sense of joy in the mind of the person.

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Dreams:

During sleep human mind is busy creating various dreams. The mechanism of dream creation is never completely understood, even by researchers and scientist. But it is the fact that the good dreams create positive turbulences in the mind, and bad and negative dreams creates negative turbulences in the mind of the dreamer.

As per the opinion of Shree patanjali neither negative nor positive waves are desirable for the serenity of the human mind. For the traveler of the yoga path, tranquility and quietude of the mind is mandatory.

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Chit Vikshep - Mental Distress

Sushrut is the very ancient book, which has prescribed basic principles and philosophy for the health. It has also discussed in detail, prime reasons for various diseases. As per the opinion of the book, most of the diseases physical as well as mental are due to Chit- Vikshep. Chit-vikshep means disorder of mental stability and peace.

There are three main reasons for mental distress.

) -' Aadhi-Daivik

) - Aadhi-Bhautik

) - Aadhi-Aatmik Aadhi-Daivik

Aadhi Daivik means the disturbances and disorders caused by natural and uncontrollable forces. These forces are natural calamities like earth quake, flood, famine, sudden fire, cyclone etc. such calamities can be unforeseen accidents or catastrophes. The causes of such catastrophes are natural and it can not be prevented. The person has to face same. The person has to learn to live with the same. If person gets hurt and disabled due to accident, he has to learn to live with disabled organ. If the person loses his property and

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shelter due to earthquake, he has to bear the consequences.

Aadhi-Bhautik

Aadhi- Bhautic means the causes which are partly due to misfortune and partly due to mistake or negligence of the person. The diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure and heart diseases, partly due to faulty life style and partly due to inherited hypersensitivity. [Familial tendency]. There is some chance to prevent those diseases by improving the life style.

Aadhi-Aatmic

Aadhi-Aatmic means self-created. Most of the mental disturbances are related with personal ego and pride. Because of some reason, persons ego is hurt and he looses his mental peace and stability. The person might be expecting appreciation of his work, instead he gets criticism, is ego is hurt. He may be neglected by his family or friends. He might be expecting promotion in his office; instead his junior may get promotion. His abilities and efficiencies may not be recognized by his fellow workers. Feeling of inferiority or superiority complex is the best example of self inflicted mental disturbances. It is observed that those persons who are hyper sensitive and highly emotional, and those who are very conscious regarding their self image in the society, are

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more prone to get hurt. They are more prone to loose their mental stability and peace of mind.

It is observed that more than 90 % of the cases of mental disturbances are due to egotism.

Patanjali says that there are five reasons for creating mental distress.

', , . ! He says that there are five types of Kleshas.

They are 1] Avidya, it means wrong or delusory

knowledge. 2] Asmita, it means the strong sense of I-ness.

[Egotism] 3] Raga, it means strong attachment or strong

liking. 4] Dwesha, it means strong sense of disliking

or hatred. 5] Abhinivesha, it means strong desire to live

or strong fear of death.

It is very common observation that the knowledge, memory, characters or emotions which are capable of creating agony or stress in the mind, are difficult to remove. These

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kleshas are capable of creating not only disturbances in the mind, but they are very painful. These are the negative agents, which constantly creates sense of suffering. They are not only painful but they can create various diseases in the body and in the mind.

Avidya :

It means either erroneous knowledge or delusory knowledge. In the Hindu philosophical literature it is defined as absence of knowledge or wrong knowledge regarding spiritual or theological concept. The person might be highly educated and may be having university degrees, but if he is not having the deeper knowledge regarding spirituality then it is considered that he is having no correct knowledge, i.e. Avidya. The person might be very successful in his material world, but if he is ignorant of the basic philosophy of the spiritual life, then he will not be able to reach to the final goal of Moksha.

Those material successes are very temporary and not eternal. That worldly knowledge can give him success in the material world, but it can not give him peace and bliss of the mind.

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Asmita:

Second Klesha is the Asmita, it is the sense of or constant feeling of I-ness. This feeling is present in each living being. Strong feeling of survival and reproduction is attached with I. Strong feeling of I-nss generates feeling of selfishness. For the protection of the self, for fulfilling the desire of the self, the person spends all his energy and time. Failure in fulfilling the desire leads to disappointment, dissatisfaction and unhappiness.

The strong sense of I-ness, is known as Ego in Latin language. As such ego is the mental image of the self, created by the self, on mental screen.

It is believed that ego is the root cause for majority of mental disturbances and mental stress. The man is all the time conscious regarding protecting and promoting his ego. i.e. his self image. Most of the human activities are performed for the sake of protecting and promoting self image. Better designation, richness, power, prestige and social status are the various tools, which leads to enhancement of personal ego. Failure to protect or promote personal ego leads to sorrow, unhappiness and mental stress.

The most harmful negative human character is ego. Ego is harmful to the mind directly by creating mental stress and turmoil, as well as

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indirectly by generating other negative feelings like irrational expectations, over attachments, jealousy and anger.

Ego is a Latin word; the exact meaning of ego is the sense of I-ness. It is the subjective sense of self. It is the image of the self, created by the mind. This image depicts partly physical body but mainly mental image of all virtues, vices and characters of the self. The mind does not like ugly, unattractive and distorted picture of the self because it is repulsive. The picture of self created by the mind may or may not be as beautiful and strong as per own expectations. The virtues and good characters can make the picture beautiful while vices and bad characters can make it ugly. Now nobody likes an ugly picture of the self. With the result, either he has to remove the ugliness from the picture or make efforts to hide this ugliness from others. In most of the cases the mind chooses the second alternative. It tries to hide its own ugly image from the outside world. This can be done by hiding ones vices and negative characters, and at the same time, glorifying ones virtues and positive characters. The person desires to impress others by showing them this glorified and created beautiful picture of self. For this purpose his mind prepares another picture of self. This picture is not real picture, but it is modified picture. It is

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made more beautiful by adding different shades of colors. This is known as modified ego or the falsely created image of I-ness. It is not the real picture of the self.

Now the mind carries two pictures of self on its mental screen. The first picture is the true and the faithful reflection of self and second picture is the altered, modified, beautified and colored image of self. The first picture is kept hidden; it is never shown to anybody. The second picture is for showing to the outside world. With the help of second picture human mind tries to impress others and tries to prove its own superiority over others.

The pure, pristine, unadulterated and the real sense of I-ness is the pure ego which is not harmful but the unreal sense of I-ness or the modified ego is harmful to the mind. Most of the activities and actions of the person, performed during ones life time are to protect and maintain this unreal modified ego. The person spends most of the time and his energy to exhibit this modified ego. Mind has created a second false image of self which is modified and made colorful to suit ones own expectations. Gradually the person becomes so much used and conditioned to the second modified image, that he not only forgets but actually deletes the real image of self from the mental screen, and starts firmly believing that second modified image is actual image of self.

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Basically he not only desires to preserve this modified created image of self, but he expects others to believe and recognize this second false image. All his efforts are directed to protect and maintain the second modified image of self. His efforts are to show himself as a superior person, And to project himself as the owner of characters of this second image. Whenever one gets success in proving himself as a superior person, one gets deep satisfaction, at the same time if one fails to prove ones superiority then there is dissatisfaction. Whenever somebody tries to contradict this created version of self image, one feels unhappy, let down and insulted.

For example, one person is basically dishonest and of doubtful integrity. But he has created his mental picture that he is very honest. He starts firmly believing that he is honest. Now at any moment, if some other person criticizes his honesty he will not like it. He will consider it as his personal insult; this is because honesty is not his basic character. Basically he is dishonest. Honesty is the outer artificial mask to protect and hide his dishonesty. He is all the time afraid that somebody will discover his true character. With the result he will be very much conscious regarding any remark or criticism regarding dishonesty.

Basically it is the innermost instinct of the mind, to prove ones superiority over others.

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Different people employ different methods to prove their own superiority in the society. There are two categories of people. The first category of people, actually work hard to achieve success in life, because they strongly wish to prove their superiority, by showing their success to others. The second category of people, are hypocrites. They are inefficient and incapable of achieving any success in life. They are aware of their incapacities and inabilities. These people reroute and invest all their energies, for making false show.

The people of first category, are sincere workers. They work hard to gain material success like money, prestige, social status, power, etc. Their strong urge of getting success in life is generated from their ego. Their ego can only be satisfied when their success is known and appreciated by the society. Their basic purpose of achieving success is to impress others. For showing their richness, they build big houses, purchase number of costly jewelries, costly clothes, keep number of cars, etc. This is done to create impression on others by showing their own richness. Such people give donation for various social causes, but their donations are mainly for getting prestige. They are very particular to see that the act of their donation should be acknowledged and appreciated by others.

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In the same way, some people gain knowledge of various subjects. The act of gaining knowledge is not generated out of their inner yearning or curiosity for knowing more but it is generated out of a desire to impress others by their own knowledge. Their desire can only be satisfied when they get a platform to give lectures to other people on the subject of their knowledge. In all fields of life people are trying hard to achieve certain goals, reach certain heights of success, but they are not satisfied unless, it is properly recognized and appreciated by the society.

The people of second category are incapable of getting spectacular success in life. They are inefficient, in spite of their inefficiency; they do possess the same instinct of proving their superiority. So they adopt wrong methods to impress others. Even though they are not rich, they borrow money from others and then try to show their false richness. Such persons may not have enough money to feed their families but whatever little money they possess they will spend for showing others. People purchase costly cloths, jewelries, cars etc, even though they can not afford it. Their main aim is to make a false show. A person, who has little knowledge of the subject, will try to impress others by showing that he is the master of the subject.

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Both these categories of people live a stressful life. The first category is trying hard for their entire life, to get success for the mere purpose of impressing others and the second category spend their whole life for making false show. Both the categories can not get real peace of mind and pure joy of life.

There is also a third category of people, who are not inclined to impress others by proving their superiority. Such people never create a second false image of self in their mind. They recognize their pure image of self and joyfully accept it. They never try to modify and to make a more colorful picture of self. They accept their self image as it is. Such people are not dependent on the opinions of others for themselves. So with the effect there is no need to impress others. These types of people are the real saints. They live with happiness and peace in their minds. They gain the knowledge, for the sake of gaining knowledge and not to impress other people. They achieve mastery in art, not to impress others, but to get deep joy out of it.

Shree Hariprasad was the teacher of a great musician Tansen. He was a great singer, but he never sang for others, he sang for himself and for Almighty. He never cared to get appreciation either from the King or from people. A Rishi known as Astavakra was having a disfigured body, he was very ugly in

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his outward appearance. But he never cared to impress others by trying to remove his ugliness but he accepted his physical ugliness. He was a great scholar and wrote a great literature known as Astavkara Gita which has thrown new light on the Indian philosophy.

So ego is a negative character which reduces and deteriorates mental capacity. Ego exhibits itself in different forms. The first form of ego is possession. The greater the number of possessions more is the satisfaction of ego. A person considers his wife as a type of his personal possession. Hence he tends to select outwardly good looking wife so that her beauty can be appreciated among his friends and own circle, such appreciation will satisfy his ego. Other possessions are a persons friends and relatives. A person is more and more satisfied with bigger and bigger circle of his contacts. This type of possessions creates a feeling of my-ness. So now I-ness is attached with my-ness. Formerly he was worried about satisfying self but now he has to worry to satisfy those who are in the circle of his my-ness. With the result his activities are increased. This feeling of my-ness is called attachments. As per Hindu philosophy these attachments are known as Asakti. Asakti is nothing but extended ego. Over a period of time a person becomes attached to the people and objects within his circle of my-ness with

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invisible threads of bondages which in turn creates a spider like web around him from which he is unable to free himself.

Ego can be surfaced in the form of jealousy also. As such jealousy is the modified form of ego. The basic instinct of showing superiority over others is the root cause for jealousy. Jealousy is created by the act of comparing the self with others. If other person is obviously more superior to self, then it creates the feeling of jealousy. Person cannot be jealous of the person who is inferior to him. As such whenever a person comes in contact with another person who is inferior to him, he gets pleasure because his inner personal ego is satisfied. Jealousy can be exhibited in many forms. Some people would like to increase their own capacities and possessions to show their superiority. If neighbor has brought a beautiful car, then he would like to have a car costlier than that of his neighbor. If friend has a big house, then he would like to have a house bigger than that of his friend. If a person is not capable of reaching the materialistic heights as that of his friends then he will try some other means of proving his superiority.

The easiest way of proving ones superiority over others, is to criticize them, to find out some defect or fault, and inflate that defect, and show it to the society. In this negative

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way, one can show other fellows inferiority and self superiority. If the other person is richer and the first person can not reach to that level of richness; then he will try to find out some defect for criticism. The most commonly criticized character is morality. So he may say that the other person may be rich, but his method of achieving money is not righteous.

Ego is harmful and injurious for healthy development of the mind. It creates stress, strain and mental turmoil. Such people are incapable of creating or achieving higher planes of creativity and spirituality in life.

The easiest way to remove ego is to know the inner-self, to know real I and to draw the real picture of self and then to accept this picture. This can be done with help of meditation or total surrender to God.

Raga:

The third Klesha is Raga. Raga is the feeling of strong attachment with the objects and subjects. It is the character of the mind that it created strong bond with the object or subject which are capable of giving him the sense of joy or happiness. Raga can be with person or can be with money, prestige or power. When the bond or attachment is severed because of certain reasons, it gives the sense of loss.

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Sense of loss creates mental distress and agony.

Emotional attachment can be with living or can be with non living possessions. It is the emotional bond which creates bilateral relationship. Human-ego or I-ness, is extended as feeling of my-ness. I can not live without my. When child is born he is not aware of the feeling of I or my. Gradually with the development of mind, he starts getting the sense of I. As the child grows he becomes aware of his image of I. Then he starts becoming aware of his circle of my-ness which first starts with his mother and over a period of time extends to his father, brother, sister, friends, toys; etc. The same sense of my-ness remains in his mind, through out his life time. In the childhood he was possessive of his toys, now the toys are replaced by his property, money, cars etc. The same my-ness extends to friends, relatives, wife, in-laws, subordinates, followers etc. The feeling of my-ness is very common. It creates an emotional bond. As far as it is an emotional link, it is not harmful. But when it becomes bondage, it is harmful. One can have emotional attachment with another person. Inter personal relationship can not be developed without emotional attachment, but this attachment should not be so strong that the person can not live without that specific object of

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attachment. It is observed that in the beginning the attachment is not strong but gradually it becomes stronger. After some time a person becomes so much attached to another person, or object, that he becomes totally dependent on that person or object for his happiness. The object of dependence can be his friend, his wife, his mother, father or anybody. It can be an image of God or it can be a non-living article. In such cases, person is totally dependent and so much attached that he can not live without his object of attachment. Most of his activities rotate around this pivot of attachment without which he cannot live his life. He becomes totally dependent and a slave of this object of attachment. This is called as bondage. This can be named as Raga in the Hindu philosophy. Raga means deep and strong attachment. The opposite of Raga is Dwesha. Raga is the positive attachment and Dwesha is the negative attachment. Both are harmful. Such attachments create mental turbulences. Mind is occupied with the thoughts of maintaining and nurturing those attachments, and keeping those possessions. Mind is afraid to lose these possessions. If by chance these attachments are broken, then the person gets emotional trauma. His internal ego is hurt. So for the maintenance of peace and tranquility of mind, it is better to be free from all such bondages.

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This bondage is known as Asakti. Ego is called Aham and Aham along with Asakti creates Maya. Maya in turn creates Bandhan. Bandhan means loss of freedom. Loss of freedom creates slavery and slavery can not give happiness or quietude.

Dwesha:

The fourth Klesha is Dwesha. It is the negative feeling created towards the objects or subjects. This feeling is created because those objects or subjects are the root cause of creating sorrow or unhappiness in the life. The feeling of Dwesha may lead to constant feeling of hatred and revenge. Such feelings are the root cause of creating mental distress.

Revenge is the negative feeling which causes maximum and long lasting distress to the human mind, Which ultimately leads to damage to physical and mental health. The person, who carries vengeance towards some one, is never at calm and peaceful state of mind. His mind is like boiling water. It is always hot and emitting stream of negative feelings. His mind is all the time occupied with negative thoughts of taking revenge. Some time feeling of revenge is so strong that person sacrifices his health, wealth, and internal balance for the sake of taking revenge.

Sense of revenge is deep rooted strong and negative feeling. Most of the time it is

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generated from hurt and wounded ego. It is the bitter memory of the past incidence. Someones past performance had created damage to either his property, to health, to the family member or prestige. That past action of someone had created deep and non-reparable damage to his personal ego. That wound bleeds till the time he hit back to make equal damage to that person. Sense of revenge causes severe mental stress, which ultimately leads to loss of peace of mind.

Abhinivesha:

Abhinivesh is the fifth klesha. It is the strong desire to live or very strong fear of death. All the living beings are afraid of death. Almost all are aware that the death is inevitable and imminent. In spite of that there is great fear of death. For the purpose of surviving, the living being can do any thing. Constant fear of death can lead to mental stress and loss of peace and bliss of the mind.

By the process of meditation and mental awareness the effect of those Kleshas can be removed or reduced.

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How to control mental turbulences

Mental turbulences can create mental turmoil, which ultimately leads to loss of peace of mind. So naturally one should know the technique of controlling the same.

Patanjali says ;

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The control of mental turmoil can be achieved through goal oriented steady practice and severing emotional attachments from all the subjects and objects.

Abhyas is Sanskrit word. Exact meaning of the word is learning the technique and practicing the same to achieve desired goal

Vairagya is also Sanskrit word. It means detachment. Detachment denotes non-attachment or breaking attachment.

Raga is Sanskrit word. Raga means emotional attachment. Emotional attachment can be with the objects or can be with subjects. Emotional attachments can be with money, property, power, status, or with hobbies, dress fashions etc. Subjective emotional attachments can be with friends, family members, relatives, or can be with co-workers.

Emotional attachments can be positive or can be negative. Positive attachments give joy and

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pleasure. Person likes his friends, family members and relatives whose presence can give him pleasure and happiness. He likes certain hobbies or sports, because that can give him sense of joy and pleasure. These are the examples of positive attachments. He may not like his enemy, who has insulted him or harm him in the past. With the effect he carries feeling of vengeance for his enemy. This is the example of negative attachment. Positive attachment can generate feeling of joy, pleasure and happiness. While negative attachment can generate the feelings of hatred, greed, jealousy, anger and antagonism.

Patanjali says that both the types of the attachments should be avoided, because either of them can create mental turbulences in the mind. And mental turbulences are not desirable for the student of yoga. Mental turbulences either good or bad, either happiness generating or unhappiness generating, are the cause of disturbing mental peace and serenity.

As per the philosophy of Hinduism, atman is immortal and physical body is mortal Atman is the vital force with the feeling of I-ness. Each person is born with the basic and strong feeling of I-ness. The sense of I-ness is known as atman. It is also believed that the Atman and physical body are two separate entities. I-ness is Atman and Atmans nearest

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and dearest instrument for enjoying the life is physical body.

I is the center of wheel of life. That central point is connected with the outer border of wheel, by number of spokes. These spokes are the attachments.

Human atman is attached with surrounding subjects and objects by number of invisible spokes.

Atman is I and rest of the worldly attachments is popularly known as my. Atman is connected with numerous mys. examples are my body, my son, my wife, my property, my prestige, my name, my designation etc. The list of Mys is very long. These mys are also responsible for creating mental disturbances. For example, sickness of the son will definitely disturb the mental peace of the father. But sickness of son of the servant will not disturb his mental peace. This is because in the first instance, the person is emotionally attached with his son, so he is worried and disturbed, while in the second instance, he is not attached so he is not disturbed.

One person was happily living the life. He had good property, good family and friends. Once by accident there was great fire in his factory. Whole factory was on fire. By the time, one can take any action to stop the fire, most of the

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machinery and building of the factory was destroyed by the fire. The person was very unhappy, and was literally crying for the loss of his valuable property. By the time one of his son, came from out side, and inform the father dont worry; we have already sold our factory day before yesterday. The father was relieved of his misery and unhappiness. But again at night when they went to home, and were discussing the incidence, second son of the person informed the father that of course they have sold the factory, but the legal procedure has not been completed, so still legally the factory belongs to them only. The father was again in great shock. Here in the first instance, it was my factory. So the loss created feeling of sorrow and unhappiness. In the second phase, when the person knew that the factory was sold, my- attachment has gone. Now it was not my factory. So the loss has not created any disturbance in the mind. The feeling of unhappiness and sorrow has disappeared. But again in the third phase it was informed to him that the legal procedure has not completed, it means still, the factory is my factory. So again he was unhappy.

It shows that when my-tag is attached to any subject or object, that my-tag is capable of creating disturbance and turbulences in the mind.

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Mental disturbances are directly proportional to the number of attachments, number of my attached to I. The chances of getting the mental disturbances are minimum, when there is no emotional attachment. The person living with the self can not be disturbed.

Sanyasin:

Sanyas is the Sanskrit word. Sanyas means act of leaving. Those who are desirous to achieve highest goal of life, and highest peak in the field of yoga, adopt sanyas-hood. The person voluntarily leaves is family, his friends, his contacts, his property, his prestige, and his social status. He starts living in some isolated and solitary place. And he spends his whole life for achieving higher spiritual goal.

Sanyasin or monk or recluse, leaves all his property, friends and family, and lives in the secluded place. So his mind has no chance to be disturbed by the loss of property, or death of relative. In this case there exists only I. There are no positive or negative, subjective or objective, attachments, to disturb his peace of mind.

Strongest attachment:

Strongest attachment of I, Atman is with his physical body, because physical body is the device for the atman to enjoy the life. All the personal desires, ambitions and aspirations can be fulfilled through the medium and by

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the help of physical body. With the effect physical body is nearest and dearest to the Atman. Atman can sacrifice every thing, including property, prestige, friend or relative, to save his nearest and dearest physical body.

Fear of loosing physical body is highest in the human mind. Fear of death is greatest. This is the strongest attachment. If this attachment is broken or severed, then the atman will be totally free of all the worries, anxieties, disturbances, and turbulences of the mind. There will be no joy, no happiness, no sorrow, no unhappiness, no fear, no anger, no vengeance, no greed, and no jealousy. This is the total freedom.

This total freedom is known as MOksha, or Kevalya, as per Hindu philosophy. This is the transformation from slavery to the freedom.

As per the opinion of Shree Pstanjali all the mental disturbances and turbulences can be controlled by regular practice and by totally severing all the emotional attachments.

Correct knowledge is essential for achieving any goal in life. For the traveler on the path of Yoga, right knowledge of Atman, i.e. self, knowledge of God and exact knowledge of the Goal to be achieved is very essential. When he starts thinking and meditating on the subject, his mind passes through four different stages.

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I-ness is the central point. Whole life moves around that central point. I-nee is the axle around which all the activities of life revolves. Axle is always steady and stable; there is no movement at the point of axle.

Knowing Atman means moving towards the centre of the circle.

For that shree Patanjali says that

'3 ' 45:

45: means total and exact knowledge. Here Patanjali says that total and exact knowledge of the self is preceded by four stages, i.e. by raising doubts, by deep thinking, joy and sense of mere I-ness. The person traveling on the path of Yoga, thinks regarding the ultimate goal to be achieved by vigorous training. In the beginning his mind, being rational, raises several doubts and questions. He is not certain regarding the achievable goal. His logical and rational mind is not ready to believe all the promises and Sidhis, prescribed by the author. He has doubts regarding the existence of the Atman, inner-self. He has also the doubts regarding the philosophy that pure self, i.e. atman and physical body is separate, and atman is immortal and physical body is mortal. This principle can not be digested by logical and rational thinker, because since birth, he has

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carried the sense of I-ness with the physical body. But when he thinks and meditates on the self, gradually all his doubts get dissolved in the new light of self knowledge. He realizes that the self, the Atman is not the physical body. Physical body is mere instrument for the self, to enjoy various faculties of life. He realizes that the physical body is the valuable property of the self. That is why one says that this is my hand, my leg, my heart, my head or my body. Pure self is the manager and master, while the physical body is the equipment, to relish various faculties of life.

The knowledge and understanding of pure self, gives him deep rooted feeling of joy, because now there is no fear of loosing anything. Atman being immutable, immortal and eternal, there is no fear of loosing it, or deforming it.

With the passage of time, the process of meditation takes him to deeper and deeper level of consciousness. His mind travels through the level of memories, his desires, and his attachments. Now he reaches to the deepest level of consciousness. Now there is no doubts, no desires, no attachments, and no feelings. Every thing is left behind. Now there is only the sense of I-ness. Now he reaches to the centre of the wheal. At the center of his meditation, there is only sense of I-ness. That sense of mere I-ness is described as Asmita.

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It is the journey of the mind, which starts with first stage of doubts, regarding the ultimate goal of life. The mind was not totally convinced regarding the existence of Atman. The mind was not convinced that ultimate goal of life is the transformation from material to spiritual life. The mind was not convinced regarding total liberation from unhappiness, liberation from unhappiness due to diseases and old age. The mind was not convinced regarding existence of total peace and bliss. But gradually with long thinking process and introspection it realizes the absolute truth. The internal travel of the mind stops at the center point. That point is mere feeling of I-ness. It is the blissful feeling of self, the self without any designation, self without any relations, self without any status, self without any artificial covers or mask. After this long journey meditation he attains true knowledge of the self.

It is said that the area beyond this point is unknown, and indescribable. Journey beyond this point is final journey towards ultimate goal of Moksha.

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Basic nature of the human being

There are numerous experts in the subject of psychology, who have tried to analyze human mind and psychological behavior of the man. But none of the psychological theory can totally and accurately analyze human behavior. As per the Hindu philosophy fundamental human nature i.e. Mula Prakruti, can be of three basic natures.

1] Satva

2] Rajas

3] Tamas

Satva

Satva means Gyan, knowledge. In this type of the human nature knowledge is the fundamental base of the nature. These types of personalities are having affinity for getting more and more knowledge. They like to get knowledge and also like to disperse the same to other people. Learning and teaching are their fundamental nature. All the great teachers, researchers, scientist, saints and writers are basically Satvic in nature.

Rajas

Rajas means action, activity or karma. Fundamental mature of these types of personalities are to perform various actions to achieve certain desired goal. Most of the times

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such type of people are busy, achieving material success in the life. All the traders, businessman, professionals, farmers and skilled workers are having rajasic nature. For spiritual achievement also they like to prefer some activity or action instead of pure knowledge. They like to follow some well planned step by step, well planned and scientific action to achieve the final goal of Moksha.

Tamas

Tamas means no action or no knowledge. They are basically followers. They prefer total devotion to the higher personality like leader, saint or God.

There are three different paths prescribed for these three types of personalities for achieving spiritual heights. For those who are Satvic, for them Gyan-Yoga is prescribed. The gyan-Yoga is also known as Sankhya-Yoga by Hindu philosophical literature. Pure knowledge of the purpose of life, nature of death, mortal nature of the physical body, immortal nature of the Atman and discriminating wisdom [Vivek] leads them to final goal of liberation.

For Rajasic people, who believe in pure action, Patanjali has prescribed Karma-yoga. Karma-yoga is step by step action-path for achieving final goal i.e. control of mental turbulences. [ Chitvriti nirodh ]

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So shree patanjali told in the beginning that

Yoga means control of mental turbulences. For achieving that goal he prescribed scientific method.

He added that control of mental turbulences can be achieved by

/1/ : |

i.e. Mental turbulences can e controlled by regular and constant practice and by withdrawing the self from material attachments and by controlling the desires.

Now for those who are not Rajasic or not Satvic, those who can not follow step by step action, he prescribes alternative path.

He says,

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One can achieve the stage of mental peace and bliss by complete and total devotional to God. It should be total dedication. All the activities the person does should be dedicated to almighty. The activities performed by the individual should not be for gaining personal benefits, but it should be for pleasing the god.

It means Total surrender to Ishwar, God.

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The method of total and complete surrender to God, leads to the stage of egolessness. The stage of egolessness automatically removes all the feelings, desires, and attachments from the mind.

Individual and personal ego i.e. the sense of I-ness, is dissolved and merged with universal power. i.e. Paramatma. Formerly there were so many messages, figures, pictures, designs and various color shades o the mental screen. After long meditation and yogic practice, there remains only one small dot. That dot is the sense of I-ness. In the last stage that dot is also removed from the screen. Now no My , no I, only clean, transparent and colorless screen. This is ideal stage of Chit-Shiddhi.

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Chit-shuddhi Chit-shuddhi means cleaning of the mind. Human mind can be compared with most efficient and advanced computer. Basically the computer has two main components. One of the components is utilized as store house of the data. Second component is composed of various soft-wares, which are meant for performing various tasks. There is limited space in the computer for storing data and for the use of soft-ware. If the space is fully occupied by the data, then there will be shortage of the space for various soft-wares to perform their task. With the result the computer will loose its efficiency and competency.

Same rule applies to human mind. The mind, if is filled with unwanted, non-useful, and disturbing memories, it will negatively affect functioning of the mind. It will reduce intelligence, creativity, and decision making capacity. For imbibing good and useful knowledge, for having creative and positive ideas, for the positive progress of the mind, the mind should be clean.

The cleaning process of the mind is called Chit-Shuddhi.

Most of the people store abundant unwanted and unnecessary data in their minds. Their memory section of the mind is full of vast and

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varied data. Most of this data is not useful and not required. This data not only occupies a big section of the memory space in the mind but it also pollutes the mind. This space can be utilized for storing more useful and valuable data.

Since the date of birth, the mind starts collecting information and starts storing that information in the memory box. All the past actions and events are stored as memory. Also the mind has a tendency to stamp each event in the memory, as either good or bad. This is true for all the memory files. For example if the person had a bad experience from his neighbor in the past, his mind will stamp the whole class of neighbors as bad neighbors. If somebody has been cheated by a gold-smith, he will carry the impression that all the gold-smiths are dishonest. Such an impression creates wrong prejudices towards certain persons, castes, religions or objects. And hence such prejudices will affect adversely the judicial thinking of a person. A prejudiced mind will lose the capacity for right perception. A wrong perception will create a wrong concept which ultimately leads to wrong judgment and wrong decisions.

In yogic terms, it is presumed that such a collection of data of past events is stored in Karmashaya. It is also presumed that the result of each action or Karma is the resultant

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outcome of the nature of past action. Hence each person gets the rewards as per his actions. Bad action brings bad results and good action brings good results. All the future actions of the person are guided by this Karmashaya, that is, by his previous actions. The person, who does not trust his friends, will never get a trustworthy friend in his life time. The person who is in the habit of cheating others will always be surrounded by people who shall cheat him. At the same time the person who is honest, will be always surrounded by honest people. He will be respected in the society for his honesty.

So the first step in the process of mental growth is to clean the unwanted garbage from the mind. In order to throw all this undesirable trash from the mind, one should remove all the prejudices from the mind. This cleaning process is called as chit-suddhi. The process of chit-sudhi will wipe out all the prejudices and misconceptions from the mind. The mind will become more receptive and open. Only a pure and an uncontaminated mind can easily grasp and comprehend new ideas and knowledge.

Positive characters are useful soft-ware of the mind. Integrity, compassion, non-violence, non-attachment for the worldly objects and subjects, egolessness, and truthfulness are the positive characters, which are like vitamins, it

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enhances the competency and efficiency of the mind. But the negative characters like, ego, greed, anger, jealousy, delusion, attachments and negative thinking are like computer-viruses, which hamper the smooth running of the human mind. With the result, either it reduces the efficiencies of the mind, or some time it causes mal-function in the performance of the human mind. With the result, the person starts taking wrong and harmful decisions, which ultimately results in loss of peace and bliss of the mind.

Clean and blissful mind is the mandatory condition for the traveler on the spiritual path of life.

Procedure for Chit-shuddhi:

Clean and blissful mind is the mandatory condition for the traveler on the spiritual path of life, but how to do it? In the computer the non-wanted data can be deleted by the click of the mouse. But unwanted and harmful memory of the mind can not be removed so easily. There is no hidden switch in the mind, which on clicking can remove the memory not required by the person. It requires constant and tireless efforts to remove the memory from the mind.

Following steps can be helpful.

1] Do not try to memorize everything.

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There are people, who try to keep numerous data in their memory section. They will try to remember, phone numbers of all their friends and contacts, addresses of their relatives, names, relations, and number of other facts. As such now there are numerous equipments available, which can store all your valuable data. Data can be available either in the book or computer so whenever it is required, it can be available, so no need to remember it. With the effect one will have more space in the memory section of the mind, for storing more valuable data.

2] There is no need to remember all the past events and incidences, which are capable of creating mental stress.

For example, somebody had insulted you in the past; there is no need to remember it. Forget it. Forget and forgive is the best policy for keeping the mind clean and peaceful. The events and incidences which have created feeling of unhappiness and mental stress in the past are capable of creating same emotional reactions, if remembered again. So as far as possible, dont allow such memories to enter in to the conscious level of the mind.

In the computer there is facility to keep unwanted data in to the dust-bin. Once the data is kept in the dust-bin, it will not interfere with the normal process of the computer. It

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will not affect on the efficiency of the working of the soft-ware. Same data can be restored if it is required in the future. Same way memories of the past incidences and events, [which are not required, which are harmful and stressful] can be stored in the sub-conscious mind. With the effect it will not affect the efficiency of the human mind.

3] Ego is the mother of most of the negative feelings, like anger, greed, jealousy, pride, vengeance, and hypocrisy.

Gyan, awareness towards personal ego can be helpful to eradicate all such negative emotional reactions. Introspection is very helpful to create awareness towards negative emotional reactions. If you are angry try to analyze the reasons for being angry. On thorough analysis, one may realize that the anger was not the solution for that specific incidence. Same way all the negative emotional reactions of the mind should be thoroughly analyzed by self. Self analysis should be neutral and critical. With the passage of the time, the person will realize that all the negative feelings were not required, and were harmful to self. Negative feelings are responsible for loosing the peace and bliss of the mind.

4] Easiest way to control over self-ego is Ishwar-pranidhanam, devotion and total surrender to almighty.

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Total and complete surrender to God, will wipe out ego from the mind. Regular prayer and devotion to God will help removing ego from the mind. These will lead to peace and bliss of the mind.

Introspection :

Introspection literally means inspecting inside. It is the method of rationally, neutrally and critically inspecting and analyzing the self. It is the method of diving in the ocean of mental store house, and analyzing each element with microscope. Human mind is full of data [memory of past events and experiences]. Those data is capable of producing either good or bad, either desirable or non-desirable reactions. Those reactions are in the form of various feelings and emotions. The data is stored in the separate section of the mind, with specific tag on it. Human mind divides the data in to good, or bad, desirable or not desirable, joyful or sorrowful.

The stored data i.e. the memory is capable of creating prejudices and conditional reflexes and reactions.

The prejudices can be for the specific objects or for specific subjects. For example one person had served in the company, where company executives were vary strict and harsh. They were all the time in the habit of criticizing and harassing the employees for

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their incapability and inefficiency. With the effect the person had developed strong prejudice for the entire company executive in the world. His mind had created some ugly image of the executives. For him all the executives in the world are harsh, selfish and cruel. As such all the executives are not bad. Now a day in most of the terrorist attacks, people find involvement of some specific religious follower. So it is likely that most of the people develop prejudice against the people of that religion. But in fact all the followers of that religion are not cruel. Prejudice can be for specific food, cloths, and house or even for specific region. Prejudice leads to wrong perception, which leads to wrong concept, which leads to wrong judgment and wrong decision. Wrong decisions are harmful; it creates problems in the smooth running of the life. Deep rooted prejudice also creates negative conditioning of the human mind. With the result the mind will react negatively in certain specific conditions. For example the person, who had been repeatedly beaten by the dog, in the childhood, will be having strong negative feeling towards all the dogs. So in future whenever he will see any dog, his mind will react with the feeling of fear and hatred.

Deep rooted prejudice corrupts the mind. Such minds are not capable of taking right decisions at right time. It generates unwanted negative

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feelings which ultimately lead to loss of peace of mind. Prejudice not only affects the judgment of the person, but it negatively affects on the behavior of the person. So prejudice should be removed from the mind.

For removing prejudice and negative feelings from the mind, the best way is to have thorough introspection. Introspection is the process of intelligently, neutrally, and critically analyzing each of the prejudice and negative feeling.

Sit quietly in the room and meditate on one of the prejudice or negative feeling. Try to find out deep rooted source for that specific prejudice or emotional reactions. Cross examine your own mind as the person is cross examined in the court. For example if you are susceptible to feeling of anger then try to find out the source of anger. Why your mind reacts with anger in some specific situation. Was it necessary to be angry? Was it possible to solve the problem with some alternative peaceful solution? Was your anger proportionate with the stimulus, or you had over reacted with the anger? Repeated introspection and meditation will be helpful for removing the prejudice or negative feelings from the mind. At the end of thorough introspection, the person will realize that the sudden reaction, or outburst of feelings were not required. He will also realize that such negative feelings are harmful to him.

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He will create awareness, Gyan for his negative emotions and feelings. Once your mind becomes aware towards your negative feelings, once your mind realizes that your emotional reactions were unwanted and harmful, the negative feelings and prejudices will automatically disappear. This is very long and time taking process. One can not get the results with only one attempt of introspection.

Sakshibhava

The greatest disturbance in the process of mental development is mental turmoil and turbulences. Human mind is never quiet and peaceful. It gets agitated by various factors like injury to personal ego, unmet expectations, and unfulfilled desires. It can also get disturbed by the uncontrolled emotional outbursts of the mind. Emotions like love, hatred, fear, jealousy, anger, greed, etc can disturb the tranquility of the mind. An agitated mind can not meditate properly, so one has to learn to control his emotions. This can be achieved through awareness towards the self. One has to learn how to disassociate the mind from such events. In yogic term it is called Sakshibhava. Sakshibhava is to be the witness of ones own life events without being emotionally involved with it. One has to be a neutral spectator of each event. One has to look towards the life as a neutral and an unattached onlooker. The person watching the

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drama never gets emotionally upset by the misery of the hero because he is aware that this is the drama and he is not the part of drama but he is only spectator of the drama. In the same way, as per Hindu philosophy, one has to develop Sakshibhava towards all the events of life. One should not emotionally attach himself with any event.

This practice of Sakshibhava is very difficult to put into practice. But awareness towards the self and deep understanding of the futility of various emotional attachments can gradually bring that feeling of Sakshibhava

Once the prejudices and negative feelings are removed from the mind, the mind, or Chit will be capable of progressing further on the path of Yoga.

As such Yoga is de-conditioning and reconditioning of the mind. it is not possible to write on dirty letter, or on the letter full of non- required messages. One should have clean paper, if he intends to write new messages.

Advantage of Chit-Shuddhi

There are two objectives of Patanjali Yoga. First and main objective is to attain liberation. And second is to achieve and maintain normal health. The universal accepted definition of the health is it is the state of well being and not merely the absence of disease. Well being

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means physical, mental, social and spiritual well being.

As such the physical body is the very important equipment for attaining happiness and spiritual growth. So it is mandatory for the yogi to maintain utmost physical health.

Human body is very complicated, complex, efficient and automatically operated equipment created by the almighty. All the internal organs and systems are fully automatic and well coordinated. Each system and organs are assigned specific task to perform. For example the heart is supposed to supply blood to all the organs. Through blood all the organs are getting enough nutrition and energy, which is required for its efficient functioning. Stomach and intestines are supposed to digest all the food and to convert it into blood. Kidneys are meant for removing waste products from the body. All the organs are governed by very efficient hormonal system. Hormones are produced by ductless glands.

Pituitary gland is the executive manager of entire hormonal system. Pituitary gland is governed by medulla oblongata, which in turn governed by cerebrum. Cerebrum is the top and outer layer of the brain. Cerebrum is the center for thinking, center for intelligence, and center for creativity. Thinking, intelligence, emotions and creativity are the main factions,

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which play important role in making and shaping of the life. In non-medical terminology human brain is known as mind, so ultimately human mind is responsible for all the internal and external functions of the human body.

In healthy body there is utmost balance and coordination between all the organs and various systems in the body. When this balance or coordination is disturbed, it distorts and affects functions of the organs, which ultimately leads to various diseases. Most of the diseases [except diseases due to injury] are the result of internal imbalance.

It is also observed that those persons, who are under constant mental stress, are more prone to get various diseases.

Regular practice of Yoga creates such a strong and stable internal environment, that internal balance and coordination can not be disturbed, easily. With the result such persons remain healthy for long time. Regular practice of Yoga, gives mental peace and stability of the mind. As it is already mentioned, the mind is the supreme executive manager, which controls all the internal organs and systems. Stressful mind looses its managerial capabilities to maintain internal balance and coordination, which ultimately leads to diseases.

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Yoga removes mental stress, and mental turmoil. It gives eternal peace and bliss. With the result such person are less liable to get diseases.

Patanjali says that

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It means that when all the mental vritis [mental turbulences] get very subtle, i.e. negligible, the chit, the mind becomes like very clear and pure crystal. Pure crystal when placed on any colored surface, it takes up the color of that surface. Same way pure and clean mind is capable of grasping new knowledge. Clean mind is capable of imbibing and digesting knowledge of higher spirituality.

Progress of Chit-Shuddhi :

Total Process of chit-shuddhi is known as Samapati in yogic terminology.

Chit-shuddhi is very important and mandatory. Because higher knowledge can not be perceived and understand without chit-shuddhi. One can not write anything on the unclean slate.

Chit-shuddhi is very gradual process. It can be attained by deep meditation. One has to go to the level of sub-conscious mind, find out unwanted data and remove it. One has to

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meditate on the data, feeling, emotions or event lying in the memory section of the brain, and delete it.

There are four stages of the process of chit-shuddhi.

In the beginning negative emotions, emotional injuries, doubts, delusions, and wrong prejudices, surfaced to the conscious level. Each of the items has to be properly identified and analyzed. Mind has to be aware of negativity and negative effect of such data. Once the mind is convinced that that specific data is harmful and not required, it will be automatically deleted. Process of removing negativity, prejudices and doubts fro the mind is known as Savitarks samapati.

Once the vitarka i.e. doubts are removed from the memory section it becomes Nirvirtaka Samapati.

Now the person has removed the unwanted, negative, harmful and injurious data from the mind. Now whatever is left are positive emotions, good thoughts, memory of happy experiences. As per the opinion of the patanjali those data should also be removed form the mind. The memories and emotions which are joyful and pleasant to-day may turn stressful in future. For example the person had done very hard work to establish and create centre for the disables. He carries good and positive

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feeling for the same. But it may happen that with the passage of time the management of that centre may go in the hand of some shrewd people, which ruins the basic and good motive of the center. The person who has created the center will be very unhappy. In the path of the yoga, it will create problem.

Now in the second stage, one has to cleanse the mind from all type of thinking, because the motive is to achieve the stage of thoughtlessness. Once the people starts deep and sustain meditation, he automatically reaches the level of thoughtlessness.

This is known as Nirvichar Samapati.

It is presumed by Patanjali, that it is very difficult to achieve total and complete state of thoughtlessness. In spite of all the efforts a small seed of thought remains in the store of memory department. It is the common knowledge that seed can grow if it gets suitable environment. A seed of wheat may not grow, for number of years, if it is kept in the store house. But the same seed will start growing, if it is sawn in the field, with enough water and environment.

Same way there can be small seed of the thought or idea lying in the memory box of the mind. The person may think that he has over come the desires, has broken the attachment, controlled all the emotions. But those mental

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turbulences, or mental deviations has not been totally wiped out, but they have become so small and subtle that the person thinks that he has controlled it. But those dormant emotions and thoughts can start growing in the future, when there is suitable environment. The Sanskrit name of the seed is Bij, so this stage of the cleansing process is known as Sabija Samadhi.

Repeated efforts and continuous deep meditation will help to remove those seeds from the mind. Once those seeds of the thoughts, desires, and attachments are removed from the mind, one achieves total and complete cleaning, total and complete Chit- Shuddhi. This is also known as Nirbija Samadhi.

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When yogi reaches to the level of complete and absolute chit-shuddhi, a state of absolute thoughtlessness, when all the stored data from the memory store house is removed, the mental screen will be spotless. With the effect all the prejudices and pre-conditioning of the mind generated because of past knowledge and experiences, will be also removed. Now the mind with no prejudices and no pre-conditioning will be capable of knowing, understanding and analyzing absolute reality.

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This is known as Rutambhara pragna, special and super intelligence to understand the absolute reality.

Now the mind is capable of knowing, understanding and imbibing basic philosophy of the life. Now the mind will be capable of understanding spirituality, now the mind will be capable of understanding interrelationship between human being and the creator of this universe.

Now with this super intelligence the traveler on the path of yoga, will be in better position to visualize his ultimate goal of life.

In Nirbija Samadhi, there is no desire to achieve anything, there is no emotional attachments which can create the problem, there is no thoughts, there is no ego. This is the stage of thoughtlessness, egolessness, and timelessness. Now there is no happiness and unhappiness but there remains pure joy of life. Now the mind enters in the region of Anand, pure joy. It is the area of divine bliss. Ananda.

Now all the connections between I and my are severed. Now there is no my-ness but simple and pure I-ness persists. This is known as Asmita-matra. Now the person lives normal life. He performs all the normal functions of the life. But he is so much detached from all the subjects and objects,

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that ups and downs of the life, success and failure of the life, so called problems of the life, could not disturb his mental peace and bliss.

Now the mind has reached to the center of the circle.

Human life is full of activities. It is like big revolving wheel. All the persons who are sitting on the periphery of the wheel of the life, have to move with the movement of the