Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
“I know, O great hero, that there are many evils incident to living in the forest; but
they generally befall those men who have not their senses subdued.” (Sita Devi speaking
to Lord Rama, Valmiki Ramayana, Ayodhya Kand, Sec 27)
When Lord Krishna, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, descended to earth in the form
of Lord Rama, He was ordered to live in the forest for fourteen years by His father Maharaja
Dashratha. The Lord took birth as the eldest son of Dashratha, thus He was the rightful
heir to the throne based off birthright. However, Dashratha was forced to give the throne to
Rama’s younger brother Bharata because of a promise the king had made to his youngest
wife, Kaikeyi, who was also Bharata’s mother. Dashratha actually had granted two wishes
to Kaikeyi, with the second being Rama’s exile to the forest.
Lord Rama was God Himself, so renouncing the throne and luxuries of royal life were no
problem for Him. According to Vedic philosophy, God is defined as one who possesses all six
opulences of material life (fame, beauty, wealth, renunciation, power, and wisdom) at
the same time and to the fullest extent. Being the ultimate renunciate, Lord Rama gladly
accepted these two commands of His father; however He had to inform His wife, Sita Devi,
of the bad news. When God comes to earth, He usually brings His pleasure potency with
Him, who manifests either as His wife or His lover. Sita was the incarnation of the Lord’s
energy appearing as His wife, thus she was devoted to Rama from the very beginning of
her life. The idea of being separated from Rama was the equivalent of death to Sita,
so she was very aggrieved to hear the news of the exile. Rama pleaded with her to remain
in the kingdom, but Sita stubbornly rejected His proposal. Rama repeatedly explained to
her that forest life would be very dangerous, especially for one accustomed to the comforts
of royal life. Sita was born and raised in the kingdom of the pious king Janaka of Mithila,
and after marriage, she lived in the kingdom of Ayodhya. She always enjoyed the life of
a princess, so Rama was afraid she wouldn’t be able to handle living in the forest as
a recluse.
As part of her arguments in favor of going, Sita readily agreed that forest life was very
difficult and not meant for ordinary women. She made it a point to say that those who
didn’t have their senses under control would have a very difficult time living in the wilderness.
When referring to the senses, Sita was talking about the five gross senses of seeing, hearing,
feeling, smelling, and tasting, and the three subtle senses of mind, intelligence, and false
ego, as defined by the Vedas. According to Vedic philosophy, we living entities have
been placed in this material world and given suitable bodies in order to fulfill our desire
for sense enjoyment. Sense gratification is achieved by attempting to satisfy the aforementioned
senses. However through experience, we learn that the senses actually never get satisfied.
We are always hankering after something that we want, or lamenting after something that
we don’t have. This cycle repeats over and over again, and through our desires and actions,
we keep receiving new bodies after giving up our current ones at the time of death.
True spiritual advancement only comes when we are able to subdue our senses.
The only way to be successful in subduing our senses is through the practice of yoga.
In the modern world, the term yoga is generally associated with various gymnastics postures
and breathing exercises. That is actually not the true definition of yoga. Connecting
our minds with the Supreme Lord is the true meaning of yoga. By concentrating all of our
activities on God, and always thinking about Him, we gradually become immune to the desires
of our senses. If we are successful in yoga, we reach a stage called samadhi, wherein our
senses are completely under control. There are various methods for perfecting this practice,
and they represent the different types of yoga. The Bhagavad-gita, the famous scripture
of India spoken by Lord Krishna Himself, describes these various types of yoga. The system that
is most popular in the world today is hatha yoga. Hatha yoga involves putting the body
into various stretching positions, and practicing breathing exercises, such as pranayama. This
is all done as a preliminary means of concentrating the mind on the Supersoul within, known as
Paramatma. God is realized in three different forms, impersonal Brahman (the all-pervading
energy of this material world manifested as the Lord’s glaring effulgence), Paramatma
(the Lord’s expansion as the Supersoul situated in the hearts of all living entities), and
Bhagavan (the Supreme Personality of Godhead, in His original form). Hatha yoga is meant
to be a spiritual activity aimed at detaching one from their senses and connecting their
mind to God. Naturally, one who performs this activity nicely will also experience various
material benefits. When we are detached from our senses, we become very skilled in material
endeavors. The best athletes are the ones that can control their minds in the pressure-packed
moments. By freeing oneself from the pangs of nervousness and worries caused by the mind,
one can focus completely on the task at hand. Thus we see many yogis who gain great material
powers, such as increased health, the ability to survive on very little sleep or food, and
the ability to enjoy sex life for extended periods.
Sadly, today most people are taking up the process of hatha yoga simply to attain these
material powers and not to connect with God. They gladly recite the syllable of Om, taking
it to be a mundane sound vibration. Om is actually the sound vibration equated with
the Supreme, and it is for this reason that it was originally associated with yoga. Other
types of yoga are mentioned in the Bhagavad-gita, such as jnana yoga, which involves analytical
study of the soul and the mind, and karma yoga, which involves fruitive activity aimed
at providing spiritual advancement.
Lord Krishna describes very specifically how one is to practice hatha yoga. He told Arjuna,
“To practice yoga, one should go to a secluded place and should lay kusha-grass on the ground
and then cover it with a deerskin and a soft cloth. The seat should neither be too high
nor too low and should be situated in a sacred place. The yogi should then sit on it very
firmly and should practice yoga by controlling the mind and the senses, purifying the heart
and fixing the mind on one point.” (Bg. 6.10)
As one can see, these conditions are very difficult to meet in the present day and age.
It is for this reason that yoga has watered down into a mundane exercise system and has
completely lost its spiritual component. Of all the yoga systems, one is the highest,
and that is known as bhakti yoga. Bhakti means love, thus bhakti yoga, or devotional service,
is the process of dovetailing all of one’s activities with the Supreme Lord out of love
for Him. Instead of artificially trying to give up actions in order to control the senses,
one simply has to add God to all of one’s current activities. We may like to read, write,
watch movies, or listen to music. Bhakti yoga doesn’t require one to give up these activities,
but simply asks that we relate them with Krishna. If we read about Krishna, talk about Him,
write books about Him and His devotees, listen to music about Him, and chant His holy names,
then we are performing the best kind of yoga.
The activities of devotional service fall into nine separate categories or processes.
These are: hearing, chanting, remembering, worshipping, serving the lotus feet of the
Lord, offering prayers, carrying out the orders of the Lord, making friends with Him, and
surrendering everything to Him. Shrila Prabhupada, the great author and devotee of Lord Krishna,
described these processes in this way in his Bhagavad-gita As It Is book,
“One can engage in all nine devotional processes, or eight, or seven, or at least in one, and
that will surely make one perfect.” (Bg 11.55 Purport)