Yog is being in union with yourself. Verbally, I cannot explain, you need to go through certain experiences, which will make you come face to face with what is called aatma saakshaatkaar, your true self. Once you come face to face with your true self, you are in yog, and once you are in yog with yourself, you are a yogi. Yog can be of several kinds; you might choose to be in yog with fashion, with beauty, with sport. A practitioner of yog, is in yog with himself or herself…that’s a yogi, where yog is for evolution, the rest are all bhogis, i.e. yog is for bhog.
A raakshas undergoes enormous tap (penance) to impress God. When God finally appears before him to grant the desired boon, what does the raakshas ask for? Immortality. Riches. Pleasures. Why? Kyonki woh apni yoni se bandha hua hai, he is limited by his karmas, so he cannot ask for anything beyond that. He cannot understand a world beyond that, so he cannot ask for more than that. He is bound with his desires, he needs that experience, so he asks for that.
It’s a wrong perception to think that the spiritual is divorced from the material. Your senses have bound you to the physical, so you cannot comprehend anything beyond that. So even when you go to God, you ask him for something that has to do with physical world, the five senses, the intellect. Because you cannot ask for something you don’t understand, right? And if you’re bound by your physical and intellectual self, how will you go beyond? Somebody has to take you, no?
We know the law of karma; everyone learns it, it’s in every religion, but how many practice it? Why not give everything that is there in your pocket to the next beggar you see on the road? You’re earning good karma, and you know it, but you won’t do it! Intellectual understanding is not enough, we need a Guru to really explain it. And if a Guru tells you to do something, you will, because the Guru will ensure that you have the gyan to do it, he will ensure that you have gone beyond the five senses. Guru is not an empty talker, he shows you the light, it needn’t be described to you anymore.
If I say to you, “Assess that door”, you’ll say ‘it’s reddish brown, it’s got a knob, a handle, a bolt, it’s used to come and go’, etc. Now if you don’t understand wood, if your five senses for some reason have never been exposed to wood, you’ll never understand that it’s made of something that was living once. To know and understand wood, you can’t just look at a tree and come to know the quality of the wood or even that it is wood, you definitely cannot guess that a tree is life. You need someone like a botanist who knows and understands wood, the texture, the properties, the qualities…that person who tells you this is your Guru because he’s told you something that you can’t understand intellectually, he has made you experience what a tree is. You could read everything there is about wood, but you still won’t know it. You need this expert to tell you, the Guru, who takes you outside the limitations of your five senses and shows you what is beyond this, what are the origins. Once you understand the tree, your curiosity grows further, where does the tree come from? The specialist will then tell you about the seed, and how it grows into a tree. Now you will wonder where the seed comes from, does the plant come from the seed or the seed from the plant, where does all this originate? A Yog Guru is the person who shows you where it all originates…
A radio transmitter simply emits certain frequencies. Can the transmitter decide what radio set it is going to go into? I am a simple transmitter, chosen by the Divine force. If you have the right capacity, are in harmony, and your frequency level is accurate for the reception of the waves, you will receive the signals. I don’t do anything in this; it is not mine to lay claim to. It is the Divine force choosing to do this and I am just the medium. I am only imparting what belongs to the Divine.
Why do we need a channel? Bhagwan kan kan me hai (Divine is in every spec), then why? That is the crux of it. The force is like icy cold water and we are all like pieces of red hot stones. If that cold water is poured on us, we will crack, our bodies will break. That is the meaning of Kundalini awakening. That is the job of the Guru, to hold the icy cold water and bring it to the temperature of the sadhak, because the Guru’s temperature is closer to the force. The Guru then pours the warmed water drop by drop on the shishya, who cools off gradually. Ultimately, the shishya becomes…the Divine. So hum.
