On December 16th,
2011, the editor of this e-newsletter had the good fortune to spend several hours
with P. P. Kaka Maharaj at his home
in Nashik, India and to engage him in a
discussion on Maha Yoga. We were joined
by P. P. Prabhune Maharaj and Shri Nikhil Prabhune, both from Nashik, India. Despite his advancing age, P. P. Kaka Maharaj continues to remain as enthusiastic as
ever about communicating with Sadhaks and in spreading the message of Maha Yoga
to everyone on this earth. Following is the first part of the translated and edited excerpts from that discussion.
Editor: Thank you Dear Gurudev for this opportunity
to talk to you about Maha Yoga on behalf of the readers of Self Awakening, our
quarterly e-newsletter. We have now had
similar discussions three times before in which you spoke about your own life
experiences, your advice to Sadhaks on Maha Yoga, Shaktipat Deeksha and Sadhan,
and how Sadhaks can better integrate Maha Yoga in their day-to-day lives. Those discussions were very well received by
readers of the e-newsletter who found inspiration and guidance from you on many
of the questions they have on those topics. This time I would like to talk to you about
your aspiration to make Maha Yoga relevant not just to individuals but also to families,
communities, nations and to the entire world.
Gurudev: I am glad that the discussions thus far have
been helpful to Sadhaks. The topic you
are suggesting, which is to make Maha Yoga relevant on a global scale is one
which I have been interested in for a very long time. And it is particularly timely, given the
Mahayoga Global Meet we have planned for May 1st to 3rd
of 2012 to be held in Pune,
India. Dr.
Vijay Bhatkar, a Maha Yoga Sadhak who is also an eminent computer scientist and
founder and Executive Director of the Center for Development of Advanced
Computing (CDAC) in India,
has kindly agreed to lead the Global Meet.
(Editor: CDAC is the force behind the PARAM family of supercomputers in India). So we are indeed fortunate to have such an
eminent person be in charge of leading this effort. I hope Sadhaks from all over the world will
attend.
Editor: I hope so as well. But I was wondering what prompted you to
convene such a Global Meet in the first place.
Gurudev: Well, ever since I began the study of
Maha Yoga many, many years ago, I have been influenced by the writings of Dnyaneshwar
Maharaj (13th century Yogi) who wanted to bring the science of Maha
Yoga to everyone, including the common man.
For a long time, however, Maha Yoga was introduced only to people who
were considered to be “deserving”, i.e. righteous, knowledgeable about the
scriptures, wise, etc. But, what about
the common man, doesn’t he deserve to be informed about Maha Yoga as well? What I found was that it did not matter much whether
I thought a person was “deserving”, whether he was knowledgeable about the
scriptures, what religion or caste he belonged to or anything else. The key question to me was whether or not
Maha Yoga practice worked for everyone regardless of gender, age, caste, creed,
religion, race, status in life, education, etc.
And I found that it worked just fine for everyone, regardless of any of
the apparent differences that we humans tend to focus on so much. So, I have been working on, for quite some
time now, to introduce Maha Yoga to the entire world.
Editor: I suppose that is what prompted you to go on
a tour of the UK and the US in 2007.
Gurudev: Yes, but I began this effort in my own small
way over 25 – 30 years ago. I think it
was in the early 1980s that I sent out a letter to the heads of state of 80
nations of the world, briefly introducing them to Maha Yoga and urging them to
take it to their citizens. It was
somewhat crazy in retrospect, since I did not get a response from anyone, but I
felt it was my duty to try regardless.
Editor: Well, it seems like you have been motivated
to make Maha Yoga global for a very long time.
Gurudev: Yes, what has motivated me is the fact that
Maha Yoga is extremely simple, even a little child can understand it and
experience it and so can an elderly person.
Anyone can practice it because the basis of Maha Yoga is the Prana
Shakti, the Universal Life Energy, which pervades us all. The air we all breathe
is a gross manifestation of this very same Prana Shakti. Nobody can deny the fact that we all need
air, and the air we breathe is the same for each and every one of us,
regardless of where we live. As
Dnyaneshwar Maharaj said, “He Vishvachi maze ghar”, or “This
world is my home”, and we are all members of one family. That is what I believe, and that is what Dr.
Bhatkar has emphasized in his invitation to all seekers around the world in the
invitation announcing the first Mahayoga Global Meet.
Editor: I was wondering what your intent is behind
making Maha Yoga global. Is it to make
the world a better place?
Gurudev: I don’t really have such grand
aspirations. All I am concerned about is
the fact that since each and everyone on this earth is eligible to practice Maha
Yoga; I simply want them all to become aware that this treasure is available to
all of them. I can inform everyone what
Maha Yoga is all about and the peace and happiness it can bring to all, and I
can request everyone to practice it. It
is up to them to practice it or not, but all I can do is to just inform them
about it. So that is what I have been
doing all these years, and now there are thousands of people all over the world
who have practiced it and have actually experienced the sense of oneness, the
calm and bliss it creates within the Sadhak (aspirant).
Whenever I get an
opportunity to be with people interested in seeking peace of mind, I don’t like
to give them long talks on Maha Yoga.
Instead, I just ask them to sit in a relaxed posture, close their eyes
and observe their breath. When they do
that, Maha Yoga simply “happens”. It
does not get “done”. As soon as they
close their eyes, the Prana Shakti within them automatically begins to rise and
go towards the top of their heads. They
actually begin to experience the Prana Shakti that pervades us all.
And the second
thing is that since we all depend on the air around us, which is a gross
manifestation of the Prana Shakti, we can think of it as if it were our common
Mother. The air all over the world is
the same; there are no national boundaries that separate the air in one country
from another. We breathe in and out the
very same molecules that others all over the world breathe. So it is with the Prana Shakti that pervades
us all. She is the one Mother of us
all. So, if all of us around the world
have the same Mother, we are all brothers and sisters. That is why the invitation to the Mahayoga
Global Meet emphasizes that we are all members of one family. And that is why I want everyone on this earth
to realize that we are children of the same mother, the Chaitanya Shakti, or
the Universal Life Energy which brings us all into existence.
So after closing
their eyes, I tell Sadhaks to observe their breath and surrender to the Prana
Shakti within them, which their breath represents. This is not surrendering to some stranger,
but it is the same as surrendering to one’s own mother, the Mother Energy which
keeps us all alive. And which person on
this earth will not want to surrender to his/her mother and have her lead him? We know our mothers always have our interest
at heart; therefore we trust them and are willing to do anything for them. Sometimes our earthly mothers may not be
aware of what is best for us, but Mother Prana Shakti is in fact one
better. She knows exactly what we need
for spiritual progress. So I tell
Sadhaks that after they close their eyes and begin to observe their breath,
they should surrender everything to the Mother Prana Shakti, their bodies and
their minds. I tell them to surrender
their bodies by being as relaxed as possible; to surrender their breath by
letting the Mother Prana Shakti control the inhalation and exhalation of
breath; and all their thoughts, so the mind begins to calm down. When a Sadhak has such an attitude of
surrender to the Prana Shakti, Sadhan “happens”! It is not “done” by the Sadhak.
People all over the
world are entirely capable of experiencing this type of Sadhan. Therefore, I think if we can make people
around the world become aware of Maha Yoga, I am convinced that the entire
world will want to embrace it. Of course
people will continue to have differences among themselves related to material
issues and will likely continue to fight with each other. But I think such discord is similar to the
fights that children have within families.
Two children of the same Mother might fight with each other but the
Mother will love them both. And because
of the love they get from their Mother they will eventually realize that such
fights are meaningless. Better to live
in peace and harmony with each other.
Editor: That
is correct; if everyone realizes that they are the children of the same Mother
Energy, Prana Shakti, the world would be better off. But how can we get people from different
nations, sometimes from nations that are at war with each other, to realize
this important truth?
Gurudev: Well,
we have to ask people whether or not it is possible for them to live without
air; the air we all share, the air that is a gross form of the Universal Life
Energy which keeps us all alive. Can
anyone claim they can survive without air; can they even utter a single word
without using the air which is common to us all? That’s it!
Editor: But we find that some people of different
nationalities and religions are often not quite open to even listening to what
we have to say about Maha Yoga and its implications for universal
brotherhood. What can we do in such
situations?
Gurudev: Maha Yoga is not at all about
religion. It does not matter what
religion one was brought up in or what one follows, everyone can practice Maha
Yoga. And they can do so without
changing their religious beliefs.
Of course, if
someone does not even want to listen to what Maha Yoga is all about, then there
is nothing we can do. We cannot force
people to listen to us. All we can do is
to try to make those who are interested in spiritual progress and are not closed-minded,
become aware that this very easy and straightforward path exists and is
available to all.
And if they are
open to sit quietly for a short time, say ten minutes, and follow the simple
instructions I outlined earlier, they will be able to actually experience Maha
Yoga Sadhan. It does not matter what
nationality they are or what religion they follow. They will all be able to experience it. They do not have to do anything other than to
sit quietly, close their eyes, observe their breathing, surrender to the Mother
Energy, and simply observe what happens.
Once they become aware of Maha Yoga and have experienced it, it is
entirely up to them to practice it or to ignore it. All we can do is to try to make them aware
that such a miraculous path exists and that we are all capable of experiencing
its benefits.
(Editor’s note: At
this point, P. P. Prabhune Maharaj joined the conversation.)
Editor: Welcome to the conversation, Prabhune
Maharaj. We have been talking about how
important it is to make the world aware of Maha Yoga, but sometimes we
encounter people with closed minds who are not even willing to listen to what
we have to say. We have been discussing
what can be done in such situations.
Gurudev: As I said earlier, if people don’t even want
to listen to us, there is nothing we can do.
We must try to bring this great gift to everyone, but if some people do
not want to receive it we have to leave it at that. It will take time. As some people become open to actually trying
Maha Yoga, the word about the actual experiences of Sadhaks might spread and
gradually, even those who are currently unwilling to listen might become open
to listening, and perhaps even trying it out.
Prabhune Maharaj:
What he (the editor) says
is right. A couple of days ago when I had
gone to give a talk on Maha Yoga at the Engineering College
here in Nashik, I met a professor there.
He had come to the talk somewhat intrigued by my engineering
background. After my talk he came to me
and said that designing software and teaching his students software design and
the mathematics that underlies it, is his meditation and he doesn’t need to sit
for any other type of meditation. He
asked me what I thought of his situation.
I told him that he should keep doing what he enjoys and if he thinks
that sitting for Maha Yoga meditation is a waste of his time he should not
bother with it.
There are many
people in this world with closed minds, so there is nothing we can do about
that. Maha Yoga meditation does not
happen unless one has an open mind. We
cannot force closed minds to open.
Gurudev: That is correct. All we can do is inform those who are willing
to listen to us that such an easy and effective path to inner peace and joy is
available to them at no cost. It is up
to them to try it and actually experience it.
This path is not an intellectual exercise; it has to be actually
experienced. Without that internal experience,
it is not possible to understand it on a purely intellectual level.
No comments:
Post a Comment