Yoga as an Evolutionary Force

It is trite to say that there is a past, there is a present, and there is a future. When we talk of the past, the present and the future, we talk of a flow or evolution in time, from the past to the future through the present. All life is in the process of evolution. We find that life forms have been evolving to the present state of the human form. All human life has been evolving from its ancient forms to the present form, the human form, which we consider to be perfect. Well, everything was perfect in its own time. When the dinosaurs were present on this earth, they were considered to be the most powerful, the strongest things living. They were certainly the strongest physical things ever present. But nature seems to have decided that physical perfection, or physical size or physical power is not enough for the final goal destined for evolution. This is the assumption of most scientists and philosophers who say that because man has been reduced to his present size, it reflects nature's decision that physical power and size is not enough to fulfil nature's aim for the final goal of evolution.

When we come to the human being, medical scientists tell us that after conception the human fetus in the first few weeks goes through all the evolutionary forms until it culminates in the present human form. What really happens is that life starts at the original level, and the entire course of evolution is compressed into a few weeks until the fetus assumes the human form. The same thing is reflected in education. When we educate our children we compress all the achievements of the past and feed it to the child, so that our children learn everything that we have learnt, but learn it at a much earlier age than we ever learnt it. So in a sense education is mental evolution of the human being.

When we come to the spiritual life of man, we again find that there have been systems developed to offer similar means of evolution of the human being to his goal. Now here comes the trouble or the problem. Where the physical and the mental planes are concerned, we are able to appreciate everything. Our intellect is sufficient to deal with those two spheres of existence. Even there we find that when we start with education, for example, it is the research scientist who represents the spearhead of evolution because where education is given and it stops at the general level already attained, then there is no further evolution. So, even in education we find that the bulk of humanity stops with the achievements of the past. If that is the case with such a mundane subject as education it is no surprise that in a highly abstract subject like spirituality there should be a lot of confusion, incomprehension, and even misunderstanding.

Evolution has two forces. This is generally not appreciated by most people. There is a push from the back and there is a pull from the front. Because if there is an evolutionary goal already laid down in the very far past when creation was brought into existence, then the very first organism which was created had only the pull of evolution, and there was nothing to push it from behind. But as life forms advanced on the evolutionary path, they managed to create a large past for themselves, a historical past, which is not so bad, but also a past of impressions or Samskaras in Sanskrit. Now it is precisely this past which, instead of pushing us from behind, manages to pull us back from behind. So the samskara is a very important thing because it acts in an anti-evolutionary way. Instead of having a push from the back and a pull from the front, we have a pull from the front and an opposing pull from the back so that we are held powerlessly in a situation, which we cannot overcome. This pull from the back is precisely what we have to overcome, because the pull from the front is always acting on us. If the pull from the back is removed by a Spiritual Master who can remove our impressions, then the attractive or the full power of the evolutionary goal already established acts on us without resistance from us. Therefore, the cleaning of the impressions of the past is of the highest importance in any system of yoga. When that is done all that is necessary is to just feel free to allow the forward pull from the front to take us with it. That represents what we call in the philosophy of yoga 'surrender'.

So, when we look at surrender in this way, we find that it is clear of all the metaphysical implications attached to that word. In metaphysics they say so many things about surrender, which frighten us. And unfortunately the use of the word surrender in other contexts, such as surrendering to the enemy in warfare, has given an unsavory meaning to this word. But really and truly speaking, surrender is only sitting in a boat and allowing the current to take us with it. Now anybody who has struggled against the current in a river knows how much effort is necessary and how little progress we really make. Whereas if you just sit back and allow the river to take you with it, it takes you to your destination, except of course in those unfortunate cases where our destination is backward in time, backward in evolution.

In the past, it was the custom to deliberately obscure certain high teachings with the idea that only the true seeker would look for them. In a sense they dealt with us like research scientists who put a rat into a cage with a number of mazes and with a bit of cheese at the end. In nature there is nothing secret. God is simple and any way of achieving Him must also be simple.

I have so far dealt with two aspects, and that is what governs material evolution or physical evolution. But when we come to spiritual evolution there is a third force which is that the goal of evolution comes to us instead of our going to it. So, instead of there being just a goal pulling us to itself, our craving for the goal pulls the goal towards us. As power can be transmitted, as thought can be transmitted, as speech can be transmitted, so also spirituality can be transmitted. This is something, which is unique in the discovery of spiritual research, and even in India, the home of yoga, we find virtually no reference to it in the past. Therefore, all past systems have tried to force the human being to conform to certain systems, and by the very nature of force there is always a reaction. That is a law of nature. But when something comes and puts itself into us, our attitude is to receive it and not to throw it back. So Pranhuti or transmission of Godly love that works without resistance because it is the power of love, if we may say that, which is reflected back in us as the power of love. So the only force in nature which, while obeying the law of nature, acts in our favor, is the power of love! In a sense all yoga is based on this creation of love, and this love manifests itself initially as a longing to reach our goal, or as a craving. So all that is necessary to begin the practice of yoga is to have this longing to reach our destination. Nothing more is necessary, just a willingness to practice to reach the perfection that is so rightfully ours.

In yoga there are two elements. There is the self and there is the goal. These two are absolutely essential because without us there is no goal and without the goal there is no need for yoga. The third thing which is necessary is a way to achieve our goal, is Meditation. Meditation means just to think constantly about something. Meditation is another word, which has been much abused by being considerably obscured but that has all been unnecessary, because meditation only means to think constantly about something. What we think about is what we want to achieve. That is the normal human way. So also in evolution, we have to think about what we are going to achieve. So it is only a small change from thinking of what we want, to thinking of what we have to become. This is the goal of evolution to the highest state of perfection.

Taken and lightly modified from an article originally written by Shri. P. Rajagopalachari, President of Shri Ram Chandra Mission. Published in "Principles of Sahaj Marg, Set I. Pages 68-73". For more information of the mission and Sahaj Marg system of Raja Yoga meditation, please visit www.srcm.org