Selfish or selfless

According to ancient scriptures and yoga, the human body is nothing but energy. Science tells us that the human body is nothing but compressed energy. We know it because we have studied it and heard about it, yet we identify not with energy, we identify with this matter which is the product of that energy. We are not identifying with the essence of life, but with something that is created from that essence, and which is material and gross. This has been the collective consciousness right from day one – the body, the senses! The mind simply enforces the needs of the body and senses and desire enforces the needs of the body and the senses.

This externalized awareness is what has made us deviate from our evolution and led us towards destruction.

The last chapter of the Ramayana describes very eloquently what is going to happen in Kali Yuga – fear, insecurity, disease, death, separation, isolation, violence, aggression. The worst of the human nature is coming out, so much that you won’t be able to face it, manage it or deal with it; it is going to destroy you. This is what the scriptures have said.

If we look at our own life, civilization and society, there is definitely a quest to seek happiness and pleasure, yet this drive is very much oriented to oneself only, ‘This is my demand, I seek this pleasure, I seek this happiness.’ When the same drive is not oriented towards oneself, and instead the same drive covers more people, more beings around you, then it becomes selfless. There are these two words: selfish, meaning self-oriented, and selfless meaning inclusive, where everyone is included in what I am having, experiencing and going through. Everyone is a part of that.

When I read Sri Swamiji’s statement that the practice of yoga will make people happy in Kali Yuga, I thought. ‘Yes, health is what we need and for that asana and pranayama are very good.’ Yoga has the only self-help tools in the world today, apart from the medical tools, which can give optimum health. No other exercises, gym or practices will give you total health, but the correct and right application of asana and pranayama will give you total health.
Now about mental happiness. If you are happy, you have peace and everything. Happiness is the next quality. Just as health is required for the body, happiness is required for the mind. If you follow the principles and lifestyle defined by yoga, then you are bound to experience happiness. The path is laid out, but we lack motivation and continuity.

YOGA MAGAZINE , May 2021,Ganga Darshan Munger, April 4, 2021 , Sw. Niranjanananda Saraswati