“Beauty in Words”

Glossary of Raja Yoga Concepts

How may a word-definition (itself written in words!) allow for the weak capability of language to address The Transcendental. Yet, until our intuitive channels are perfectly open, we shall communicate best we can: employing words. Remembering their limitations; remembering that their significance in spiritual pursuits will not necessarily follow Webster’s definitions for societal commerce.
PS: Some items below are admittedly evolving into more discussions than definitions.

Inconceivability ...and Desire: The promises of illumined beings down through the millennia - and the documented evidence supporting the promises of the Raja Yoga methods for joining their ranks - must be inconceivable to 99.99% of us religious or spiritual persons. The proof? Look at our behavior. We really cannot conceive that we dare aspire to such heights.; Yogananda told how he once delivered a lecture on the topic, “You can reach God in this life.” At one point he paused and ask, “Who is the oldest person in this room?” The audience looked around. “Is anyone 90 years old?” Silence. “Is anyone 80?” A pause. One woman raised raised her hand. “Please stand up. You’re eighty?” “Eighty-two,” she replied. Another pause. Yogananda aimed his finder pointedly at her and said, “You can find God in this life.” He went on to explain that he followed her study and practice in the coming years. “And she did,” he testified.
I will not deny that it would give anyone a sizeable ‘leg-up’ in their spiritual work to have a yoga master point directly at them and offer such a declaration. But the example of her success was not meant for her alone: we are each meant to admit in that same potential within our Selves, to cultivate the burning desire that motivates the necessary dedication, and to refuse to doubt our Selves.
This leads to the first of our alphabetically listed priorities:
A for Effort: The way I was raised, I was sure it stood for “Achievement.” Even an “A for actualization” gained only a toehold in my early life visions - and that not until college. I have friends who have studied Raja Yoga for a while - and friends who’ve practiced it sporadically - folks who never quite “got around to” being regular about it. As a result they have nearly no experience with the benefits of carving out even a minimal time for regularity and consistency of practice.
The point is not that you should be pessimistic or let yourself be overwhelmed as a beginner. The point is that studying Yoga is about as transformative as studying aerobics.
Suppose genetics predispose you to cancer or heart disease, and your doctor urges regular exercise as a key element in preventive health. Do you do what is necessary to protect your future happiness? “Just sayin’!”; I have had hundreds of people attend meditation workshops with me over the decades. A sadly small percentage persisted long enough to realize the transformation that patience and persistence would have brought.
So that’s why you’ll keep hearing from me about tools and strategies for “just doing it.” The outside world will not support your efforts toward Soul-Realization. So together let‘s build that support, right?
About Love: Valid, thoughtful explications of Raja Yoga describe the systematic, validated results of its meditative practices for finding your way back Home.; But that’s not the whole story. Yes, the Raja meditation and yoga techniques work to redirect your life-energy inward (“And where your energy is, there is your consciousness”) to the spiritual centers of your spine and brain. But, as the saying goes, it is literally, “for the love of God.”; Whether it’s Jesus or Hillel or Krishna, the Great Lights at the core of the universal religions say unequivocally that the greatest ‘commandment’ (more on defining that later) is, “Love the Source of all else that you love.” Without yoga we are never told how in the world to do that - to love someOne/someThing we cannot see, we cannot hear, we cannot feel. Raja Yoga precise purpose is stated as “taking you inside” - where you shall know that Light, hear that Aum, feel that “Peace passing all understanding.”
Age: My teacher was asked about his age: “In the Scottish Rite Auditorium in San Francisco, before an audience of thousands, the question arose as to my age. The lowest I got was 25. The highest was 700. I replied, “I never tell my age.” They screamed! - roared almost! How can I tell my age? You are asking the age of my house. My age is 1. Infinite.”
Application: It is so limiting to identify with the vehicle in which you travel. We may easily chuckle at the fellow who obsessively cleans and adorns his car or home while neglecting his body.; In parallel, those who become consciously aware of their identities as eternal souls probably chuckle at us when we invest primarily in our body-vehicles. Of course if you’re already awakening to spiritual goals, you readily admit that we “can’t take it with us.” The next step is to strive always to remember that You are a body of consciousness - in whose well-being you can eternally invest. This is called “divine selfishness” - acting toward and feeling for the Divine (and other Children of the Divine) beautifully merges altruism and True Selfishness. Win-win-win.
Art: Born without skill in visual arts, unable to make music from western musical notation, writing with the arthritic ‘hand’ of a recovering academic, I am thankful if an occasional exclamations of a candor-starved heart reaches the page. I fret that they may be too personal, not worth imposing upon a disinterested universe. Yet I placate my conscience and commmit spontaneity, comforted that Carl Rogers found “what is most personal is most universal.”
Attachment: ...and the perils thereof...
I can testify from experience - just this little piece: that’s a course of study all in itself.
Plus: it helps a bunch to laught at self (lovingly).
See also: surrender.
Devil: In his youth one swami found his attempts to meditate repeatedly foiled because his mind habitually returned to focus on his intellectual doubts - doubts about the teachings, doubts about his teacher, doubts of his own worthiness, and so on. He was ashamed to approach his teacher with these banal struggles, so he suffered in silence for months.
One day he chanced to be out on the ashrama grounds with ony his guru in the vicinity. The yoga master sauntered over to him and paused. The swami later related, “He looked at me penetratingly, pronounced ‘The Devil be out of you!’, and walked off. Thereafter I never again had a spell of doubting. Guruji often referred to bad habits (including mental habits) as ‘the Devil’.”
Faith: This term troubled me for decades. It did not help that it has often been co-opted by the unknowing: for example, using ‘the faithful’ to mean ‘those who believe as I do.’ Or including under the umbrella ‘faith-based’ a variety of practices that are arguably uncaring or even unChristian.; When I discovered that Raja Yoga explained ‘faith’ as ‘knowing which is born out of the all-knowing faculty of the soul,’ I could see the power and beauty of real faith. I could understand how that sort of faith could “make thee whole.” Or as Yogananda expressed its promise:; Although I’ve been unsure how best to develop that level of faith, in the last couple years I’ve done my best, calling upon what inner guidance I could hear. The blessings from even my fledgling efforts have been great enough to spur me to greater efforts.; Add to those blessings my discovery of some words from Yogananda’s guru: Swami Sri Yukteswar was not inclined to make dramatic declarations or to offer blanket promises about spiritual phenomena. Yet hear what the taciturn, under-promising Sri Yukteswar declares about the returns of cultivating one’s power of faith:; I conclude that I am a fool if I do not strive daily to cultivate such faith.
Guru: In keeping with the Western presumption that nothing is too sacred to be commercialized, Americans use this term casually: at worst, to mean little more than ‘hotshot’ - at best: ‘teacher.’ Let us examine its Sanskrit roots: gu (darkness) and ru (that which dispels). Rest assured that the ‘darkness’ referred to is not the type to be dispelled by mere electricity. Nor is true guru merely self-proclaimed, nor one who merely speaks eloquently about spiritual mastery. S/he is one who has mastered the limits of human materialism and egoism and achieved realization and expression of soul and Spirit.; “...the distinguishing qualifications of a master are not physical but spiritual. ...Proof that one is a master is supplied only by the ability to enter at will the breathless state (sabikalpa samadhi) and by attainment of immutable bliss (nirbikalpa samadhi)”
Hell: A skeptical Christian once asked the yoga master, “Is there such a place as “Hell”?”
His guru chuckled, and returned his own question, “And just where, exactly, do you think you are now?”
Ishta: The aspect of Divinity which is a person’s favored way of conceiving of the Divine: perhaps a role, a person, a symbol, or a phenomena. For example, to Jesus it was appealing to speak of God as ‘Father;’ in India is more likely ‘Divine Mother’ (or ‘Kali’); or a human of exalted spiritual stature (Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, Rama) - particularly one believed to be an avatar (fully enlightened soul who has incarnated out of no compulsion but purely to serve seekers), or one’s guru, or more of an abstraction such as Divine Light.
This Sanskrit word translates to something like ‘favorite’ or ‘cherished.’
Referring to an target for one’s devotion, ‘ishta’ is paired with ‘deva’ to become ‘ishta-deva’ - cherished divinity.
-ji: A suffix conveying respect or reverence. Pronounced: ‘gee.’
You may recall that in the movie Gandhi, when he was imprisoned, his followers marched under his banner to the chant of “Long live... Gandhi-ji.”
I attended a yoga workshop in which the reverential Indian instructor eschewed calling anyone by name, but addressed each as ‘Ji.’
Similarly, Indian students are likely to address their guru as “Guruji.”
Master: Note first that in yoga the word has no gender implications. ‘Master’ refers solely to a person’s achieving ‘mastery’ - mastery over petty human weaknesses and mortal limitations. Especially: mastery of the yogic methods for lifting consciousness into oneness with omnipresent Bliss.
Meditation: Turning the consciousness within - with the intent to perceive... to experience... to merge our consciousness with... (first:)the eternal spark of divinity that is the soul... (and ultimately:)the omnipresent Ultimate Divine.; Francis of Assisi, though having no word yoga, explained simply the yogic approach when he said: “I pray in order to talk to the Divine; I meditate to listen to the Divine.”
Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras’ (The Eightfold Path): “The Yoga system of Patanjali is known as the Eightfold Path.9 The first steps are (1) yama (moral conduct), and (2) niyama (religious observances). Yama is fulfilled by noninjury to others, truthfulness, nonstealing, continence, and noncovetousness. The niyama prescripts are purity of body and mind, contentment in all circumstances, self-discipline, self-study (contemplation), and devotion to God and guru. The next steps are (3) asana (right posture); the spinal column must be held straight, and the body firm in a comfortable position for meditation; (4) pranayama (control of prana, subtle life currents); and (5) pratyahara (withdrawal of the senses from external objects). The last steps are forms of yoga proper: (6) dharana (concentration), holding the mind to one thought; (7) dhyana (meditation); and (8) samadhi (superconscious experience). This Eightfold Path of Yoga leads to the final goal of Kaivalya (Absoluteness), in which the yogi realizes the Truth beyond all intellectual apprehension.”
Samadhi, Nirbikalpa: Full Cosmic Consciousness - Full experience of Spirit, both transcendent (beyond Creation) and materialized (everywhere permeating Creation).
See a straightforward descript of the experience and its impact in Chapter 14 of Autobiography of a Yogi.
Samadhi, Sabikalpa: Aka “the breathless state,” transcending material consciousness, locked in motionlessness, experiencing the the Bliss of Spirit out of which our material reality was born.
Surrender: Note: this is not the opposite of ‘conquer.’
In the Raja Yoga usage, it should be taken to mean “Surrender to Divine Will.” And, when you think about it, do you really want to do battle with Divine Will? Do you really believe that your will is wiser in reaching your joyful goals?
Truly, genuine surrender is the surest way to conquer all ignorance and woes.
Yoga: The yoking together (union) of the mind with Spirit. Or: the practice of scientific (reproducible) methods to take one to that oneness.

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“Beauty in Words”

Glossary of Raja Yoga Concepts

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