In this creation of God, the nature of the fish is the swim in water, and the fish swims in the water. The nature of the bird is to fly in the air; birds fly in the air. The nature of a rose plant is to grow a rose flower; the nature of the water is to flow downwards. Every other creature exists according to its nature. In these millions of species, it is the human being who is not in his natural state. Ask anybody, ‘Are you happy?’ His/her reply would be, ‘Well I will be once I get this promotion.’ Or ‘ I will be happy once I go on vacation.” It is always, when something happens, then we will be happy. How is it that we are so far from our inherent nature? At every personality level from the physical personality level right up to intellectual level (vijnanamaya kosa), man is always away from his nature. It is the external influence which takes man away from his nature. The following table outlines our nature at every personality level and how we deviate from it.
A child is in the natural state, excepting some deep rooted disturbances which come from the previous life. But the same child as he grows up, becomes distant from his nature. The child walks relaxed, runs relaxed and even falls relaxed. As a child grows into an adulthood, each activity is full of tension. The child is slow and natural at the prana level . This can be easily observed in his eating. He eats slowly, never in a hurry. Mother keeps a morsel of food in his mouth; he goes playing around for ten minutes and comes back to the mother. She says open the mouth and the food is still sitting in his mouth. Now she shouts at him to eat faster. So this is how we gradually introduce speed. Once we grow up we don’t eat slowly any more. We eat in a hurry, as if somebody is driving behind us. Why eat fast? We don’t know, but it is now a cultivated habit against our natural state.
Likewise, at a child level, the mind is calm. But we are constantly worried. Necessary or unnecessary we continue to worry. If we don’t have anything to worry about, we start worrying about not having anything to worry about! To worry has become our second nature. We are also caught up in wrong notions and emotional disturbances. As a result of all of this, we have lost our inner harmony.
Another vital question that comes up is why does a child loose his nature as he grows up?
Though we were as children, slow, relaxed and in harmony, we didn’t know this is our nature. In other words we were not aware. We were ignorant. Though we were blissful as children, we didn’t know that being blissful was our nature. We did not earn it. We got it by birth. We have not put effort into it. What we get by birth, we do not recognize the value of. For example it is common that wealthy parents’ children are said to not know the value of money, because the children are born with money. The same way, we do not know the value of our nature, because we are born with it.
Mullah Nasuruddin was going in the forest when a robber stopped him and threatened him with a dagger, “Give me all your money and jewelry, otherwise, I will take your life.” Mullah replied, “Don’t touch my money and jewelry, they are hard earned! Take my life, I got it free of charge.”
We let go what we get ‘free of charge.’ In the same way the calmness and bliss we are endowed with when we are born is let go because we don’t know the value of them. We let go because we are not conscious of them. Yoga is a conscious process of going back to our nature, namely relaxation at the physical level, slowness at prana level, calmness at mental level, wisdom at intellectual level, and ultimately harmony within.
-to be continued...
love,
Raghuram
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