Upasana Yoga (Vedanta Pt-6)
The shastras (scriptures) provide a pathway for vaidikas to achieve the 4 purusharthas or milestones of life. This has been elaborately discussed in the previous segments of the series.
There are three main schools of discipline which one must follow to attain spiritual enlightenment, which are karma yoga, upasana yoga and gnana yoga. These yogas direct an individual toward the ultimate spiritual goal for a follower of the Sanatana Dharma, which is moksha, or freedom from the mortal cycle.
This article will focus on the 2nd school of discipline, upasana yoga.
Upasana yoga, also called the yoga of worship, has been described by Adi Shankaracharya as Samadhi yoga, or the path to attaining eternal bliss.
Upasana yoga makes our personality fit for the accomplishment of the purusharthas (purushartha yogyatha sampadhanaartham), just like how cars have to be made roadworthy, ships to be made seaworthy, and planes to be made airworthy.
Life on Bhooloka has been compared to a journey, and to survive this arduous ordeal, one has to keep in mind his goals, which the scriptures prescribe to be moksha.
Upasana yoga can be compared to a personality conditioning program, similar to athletes and sportspersons who undergo training to be better adapted to their sport. Similarly, Upasana yoga is a form of training that allows us to be better adapted to life.
In the Kathopanishad, the personality of a person is compared to a vehicle. It should be able to travel properly, and it should be able to reach its destination safely. There is an entire section dedicated to the conditioning of personality, which is beyond the scope of introductory teachings.
For ease of classification, the human personality is divided into three strata. This is done because the human psyche is very complex, and cannot be dealt with unless some suitable classification has been made. This classification is often compared to the panchakoshas or the shariratrayam which deal with the human being and the atman.
For discussion in this article, the personality is divided into three parts — each of which has to be carefully conditioned. This classification is popular in the Shastras, and is considered to be important.
The first part is the physical body — also called the Kaayikamsha. This surrounds bodily health and its significance in life’s journey to achieve the purusharthas.
The second part is language — called the Vaachikamsha. It concerns itself with language and speech, which are direct indications and influences of the personality. It is akin to both the cause and effect of personality.
The third part is the mind — called the Maanasamshah. It is in regards to the psychological aspects of a human being. It is the most important, most subtle, and the most difficult part to handle out of all three.
Upasana yoga accounts for these three parts and prescribes programs to condition ourselves in the above parts for attaining the ultimate spiritual goal.
1. The physical body is a vital tool through which every goal in life is pursued. The shastras advise us to never neglect body and health. A portion of our daily prayers and a part of our teachings are dedicated to the attainment of bodily health (‘a-roga — dhrudagaathra-sampaadhyartham’). Maintenance and sustenance of health are considered to be of utmost importance in this regard.
They (the scriptures) also advise us never to take health for granted. Preservation of a healthy state is easier than trying to recover lost health. It is the least expensive and time-consuming of any other pursuit which one may undertake. As wise and learned men of yore once said, ‘One who cannot give time to health voluntarily will have to give time forcibly to disease’.
Diet and exercise regimens have also been prescribed by the scriptures, but those are beyond the scope of this article because modern medicine has already discussed their importance at length.
The pursuit of health toward unworthy goals is considered to be deviant and destructive. Health is an end in itself, and it should not be put to other notorious uses. It should be used in the improvement and the forwarding of one’s own spiritual undertaking. This is discussed in the 6th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita as well.
2. The verbal/language part of the personality, also called the vaachika-amshah, plays a role in development as well. It needs to be refined, trained, and conditioned for optimization. Such conditioning is called vaak-tapas. As Shankaracharya notes in the Viveka Choodamani, ‘yogasya prathamam dwaaram vaak nirodho parigrahah’, the first step of spiritual pursuit is to discipline one’s speech.
This has been discussed in detail in the 17th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita as ‘anudvegakaram vakyam satyam Priya-hitam’
a. Anudvega-karam — usage of pleasant and likable speech which does not hurt anyone. The key to such conditioning often lies within introspection. If one looks within himself, he can recognize which words hurt him, and he can avoid said words when speaking to others.
This is akin to practicing ahimsa at the level of speech. Abuse, criticism, blaming, denigration, and argument, which are forms of himsa, are to be avoided at all costs.
If one is to be found in a situation where some amount of hurt must be done, then it must be ensured that said hurt is minimised or neutralized. This is equivalent to surgeons anesthetizing patients such that they do not feel the pain of the incision.
b. Satyam or truth is a major stepping stone to Brahman. It is a discipline that is absolutely necessary to achieve anything in life.
‘Satyameva satyam jayate’ — Absolute truth can be achieved only by the practice of empirical truth. Every lie will remove a person from God. Thus, one of our daily prayers is ‘Asatoma sad gamaya’ — take me away from falsehood, for falsehood takes me away from god.
One must be sensitized to lies so that each lie becomes a deep and powerful dissonance within his mind, which causes him to minimize the benefits of the lies to an insignificant degree.
Even unavoidable lies are avoidable in circumstances. If lies have to be spoken, then they have to be repented for in prayaschitta.
c. Priyam — one’s speech must be soothing to hear, in volume, pitch, pace, tone and diction. To ensure this, one must imagine that he is being recorded each time he speaks.
d. Hitam — one must always speak words that are in the interests of the listener. It is one of the greatest forms of himsa if one continues to speak to someone who does not want to listen to them. It is always advised that one must choose their audiences carefully.
3.The third part of a personality to be conditioned is the mind, also called the maanasamshah.
Upasana yoga provides forms of meditation for mental conditioning. It has 2 meanings — primarily mental discipline, and secondarily, bodily and verbal discipline.
Since the mind cannot be handled without conditioning of body and speech, health and proper vocation assume utmost importance.
Emotion and speech have always been connected, and mental condition and body are linked intrinsically, so a viable approach to the mind through the body.
Meditation is of four types and is based on the aspect of the mind to be handled
- Relaxation meditation –for the mind in particular, and body/speech is general has increased relevance in current times due to the increased pace of urban life. It can also be called de-stressing meditation as it curbs restlessness.
- Focusing/concentration meditation — it is a form of training to improve attention span. It should be performed irrespective of the goal of meditation. For such meditation, maanasa pooja/maanasa parayana/maanasa japa is advised.
- Expansion meditation — it is done to visualize the totality of creation and to know our relative significance in the universe. It helps in the correction of one’s perspective towards the world. It is also called ‘vishwaroopa dhyaanam’.
- Transformative meditation — it is done to change one’s thought patterns.Thoughts are subtle and fleeting and its pattern determines one’s destiny. As a wise man once said, ‘watch your thoughts, they become your words, watch your words, they become your actions, watch your actions they become your habits, watch your character, they become your destiny — as you think, so you become’.It is denoted in the vedas — yad bhaavam tad bhavati — as you think so you become.
There are two types of behavior — daivi sampad & asuri sampad (as mentioned in the 16th Bhagavad Gita).Jealousy, depression, impatience , irritation are signs of asuri sampad, which lead one astray from spiritual awakening. Hence, one must always strive to maintain a positive and healthy mindset.
Thoughts are like bricks which determine the shape of buildings. It is akin to ragas in Carnatic music. If one has to obtain a different raga, one has to change its building blocks, i.e. swaras.
The human mind has the capacity to change itself . This is called sankalpa shakti. Once one is convinced of his goal, he can surely achieve it through rigorous training and conditioning.
Body, mind and speech should function in unison for holistic development of the individual. If this teamwork cannot be achieved, then the said individual cannot attain the purusharthas.
One such method for integration of all the three parts of personality is through the practice of punctuality or aarjavam. If one is punctual, then one is physically present, verbally present, and mentally conditioned.
