A Pause

Today I am taking a pause between posts of the Yoga Sutra Book Two to acknowledge the Presidential Inauguration 2009. In a way, I see many similarities to this scriptural study of the Yoga Sutra.

I have been contemplating why so many people, myself included, are so moved by President Barack Obama. One of the answers I have received was reading a post from the site http://adapt2whatis.blogspot.com/2009/01/out-box.html which spoke about being out of the box. I suggest you read it. It's a great article.

The other answer came from the review of the post on January 16, 2009 Yoga Sutra I- 26- SA PURVESAM API GURUH KALENAANAVACCHEDAT- Unconditioned by time, He is the teacher of even the most ancient teachers.

Here Swami Satchidananda says "Although all knowledge is within you and you need not get it from the outside, somebody is still necessary to help you understand your own knowledge." This is why we need a teacher or guru to help us to go within and understand ourselves. From the Wikipedia - A guru (Sanskrit: गुरु, Hindi: गुरु, Bengali: গুরু) is a person who is regarded as having great knowledge, wisdom and authority in a certain area, and who uses it to guide others.

The fact that President Obama carries himself as a confident, level - headed person and who appears to be one pointed on the goal of change and hope, kind of fits him in the above role of a "guru" or "teacher". He has touched many of us to get in contact with a deeper part of ourselves. To stimulate people to want to help in the new energy of change is like being a guide, a teacher, a guru. And he hasn't even been in office for a whole day yet! If nothing else comes from this historical moment, at least people are noticing the effect this event has on them.

This I view as a positive stimulus for growth, hope and change and a pause to make this acknowledgment.

Omniscience YS I -25; The Guru YS I-26

Yoga Sutra I-25- TATRA NIRATISAYAM SARVAJNA BIJAM - In Him complete manifestation of the seed of omniscience.

Swami Satchidananda uses the word omniscience in his translation of the the word sarvajna. From the Wikipedia omniscience is defined as "the capacity to know everything infinitely, or at least everything that can be known about a character including thoughts, feelings, life and the universe, etc. In monotheism, this ability is typically attributed to God".

Swami Satchidananda commented "He" is all-knowing and knowledge itself. "The cosmic knowledge is called the supreme soul, or Purusha". Then he asks us how we can imagine this. He gives the example of a circle stating that the space within the circle is finite and the space outside it is infinite. "If you accept the existence of a finite space, automatically you have to accept an infinite one. Without infinite there can be no finite." If we feel we are limited and finite (our minds and knowledge), then there must be a source of infinite knowledge beyond.

Yoga Sutra I- 26- SA PURVESAM API GURUH KALENAANAVACCHEDAT- Unconditioned by time, He is the teacher of even the most ancient teachers.

Here Swami Satchidananda says "Although all knowledge is within you and you need not get it from the outside, somebody is still necessary to help you understand your own knowledge." This is why we need a teacher or guru to help us to go within and understand ourselves. From the Wikipedia - A guru (Sanskrit: गुरु, Hindi: गुरु, Bengali: গুরু) is a person who is regarded as having great knowledge, wisdom and authority in a certain area, and who uses it to guide others.

Swami Satchidananda asks "where did your guru get that knowledge?" "Then who is the first guru?" He speaks about there being a reservoir of knowledge from which all knowledge comes from and "That's why Patanjali says the supreme Purusha, or Isvara, is the Guru of the gurus." And devotion to the all knowing Isvara is another method for obtaining samadhi. This devotion is an emotional path and is a method easier than the others mentioned to attain the different levels of samadhi. Surrendering to"Him" and "The moment you have resigned yourself completely, you have transcended your own ego."

Satchidananda speaks about how we try to practice yoga with our egos, saying "I" can., for example, empty the mind. It is when we realize that it is not "I", but "You, Lord" (that is doing the action), then we have risen above nature. The bottom line is that nobody can obtain eternal peace by doing something with the mind, which is a part of nature. The supreme joy we seek can only be acquired by rising above nature by complete surrender.

To go to the sutra you can check with the post for December 16, 2008. This post wraps up book I of the Yoga Sutras. I will periodically come back and revisit this section.