Handout 3: Yoga as an Evolutionary Force

(Taken from Yoga as an Evolutionary Force, Principles of Sahaj Marg Set I, Pages 68-73.)

From what my brother Don has just told you, we see 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. Now 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.

Now when we come to the human being, medical scientists tell us that after conception the human foetus 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 foetus 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.

Now 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 which Don has already told you we call samskaras. 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 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 unsavoury 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.

So far, I have tried to explain to you yoga in a very simple way, in an evolutionary way, so that the usual apprehensions associated with the word 'yoga' need not be felt by us.

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. But my Master says that in nature there is nothing secret. So anything which obscures is wrong and against human evolution. My Master repeatedly says God is simple and any way of achieving Him must also be simple. That can almost be taken as the platform on which Sahaj Marg stands.

In speaking of evolution, 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. That is achieved in Sahaj Marg by transmission, called pranahuti. This the Master achieves by pouring Himself into us and therefore we become like Him in essence. 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 the Master's transmission 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. Hate breeds hate. Similarly, when we are afraid we also breed fear in the other person. But when there is only love the reaction can only be love. So the only force in nature which, while obeying the law of nature, acts in our favour, 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. I say this because people often ask us whether they are fit for yoga at all. My Master says our willingness is our only fitness. Nothing more is necessary. You see, that again is an inheritance from the past-that we have to be fit, that we have to qualify ourselves, ideas like that.

We now come to the practice of our system of meditation. It is a very simple system, but like all simple systems, it has features of practice which are essential for success. If you put two things together and they create a third thing you have to have both, otherwise the third thing cannot be produced. But if there are twenty factors involved, perhaps one or two could be omitted without much risk of our losing our destination.

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. This is represented in our system by the Master and the disciple. The third thing which is necessary is a way to achieve our goal, and that is what the system offers. We sit in 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. My Master calls this "diverting the tendencies of the mind to the right direction." So, much effort is not necessary because the power of thought is already in us.

In our daily meditation we utilize the power of thought which is already in us, to think about the goal which the Master offers. This is the goal of evolution to the highest state of perfection. Now this abstract goal is difficult to meditate upon. It is like the number zero which has no value, but without zero there can be no mathematics. Similarly, we have a goal in our heart which it is difficult to imagine until we achieve it. To make this possible my Master gives us an object of meditation, though it is really not an object, and that is light inside the heart. We sit comfortably imagining the heart to be filled with this light, and if there are other thoughts which disturb us, we gently avoid or ignore those thoughts. We are told to ignore them because if we apply power to reject them then there is the reaction about which I spoke earlier, and that is the power of that thought to interfere in our meditation. So this is all that we do. The rest, as I have told you, is the third factor in evolution, the Master's transmission to us. That is his business and we leave it to him.

Even though in the past gurus tried to hold the power of yoga in their own hands, my Master says that no people should be dependent on a distant country or a distant guru for the attainment of their goal. My Master has been able to bring this system right to your doorstep by creating what we call preceptors who are ordinary people like you and me. Any one of us can be a preceptor. These preceptors are able to do this work for him, for the benefit of mankind in the various countries of the world. So it is no longer necessary, at least in this system, to read Sanskrit or to go to India to find a guru.

My Master has broken the past tradition of secrecy, by opening what he calls "the mysteries of nature" to the public mind, to the mind of humanity. This he has done because, as I said earlier, he says there is nothing secret in nature. Now these preceptors work in exactly the same way as he does, and we, wherever we may be, are offered his services to us without having to undertake expensive and difficult travel, as in the past. It is as if a shop was being thrown open and we are told to take as much as we can of what he offers! And it is not just one shop, it is shops all over the world which we are allowed, if I may use the word, to loot. This statement my Master is able to make because the power at his command is infinite. It has no limitation because anything in contact with the infinite must have the infinite as its resource.

I have tried to explain to you at some length some fundamentals about the system. Those who wish to know more about it are welcome to come and see Mr. Saravanamuttu or any of our preceptors in Rome. Master is here until the 10th of this month and we are all at your service to give you sittings, or transmission as we call it, or to answer questions, to discuss matters as you like. We generally have a transmission from the Master at the end of our talks. I hope you will all be willing to sit in meditation and receive it.