Yoga and Youth

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Dear friends,

I reproduce below an article on Yoga and Youth from Dynamic Youth magazine (www.dynamicyouth.org) for the benefit of the learned members.

With kind regards,

K S Venkataraman

Dynamic Youth – November 2008 – Self Development – Yoga and Youth

Yoga and Youth

K S VENKATARAMAN

Dharana – Working of Mind

Swami Vivekananda likens human mind to a mad monkey! This is only to inform us how careful we should be in taking up mental exercises and to use a strong mind towards spiritual progress. We should not mistake that human mind is an inimical stuff and that it has to be subdued, enslaved and destroyed.

With the help of music mind can be softened, and work peacefully. Any fine art is capable of detaching mind from all other attachments; so, when we associate art forms like music and dance in our prayer or yoga sadhana, we find that the cooperation of the mind becomes easily attainable. The mind gets elevated and willingly moves towards higher and nobler concepts. But we should not lose ourselves in the enjoyment of the art forms and forget our main aim.

Our spiritual development should be in the light of better and better understandings of various aspects of life. It is not merely emotional hop, step and jump. Such emotional jumps would surely lift us up; but it alone cannot sustain us at spiritual peaks for long. In the absence of enough chit Shakti that is generated by a happy blend of emotional and intellectual efforts we are likely to find ourselves coming down soon.

We should never let our consciousness weaken or become inactive. The idea is not just somehow to forget the world. In the absence of watchful consciousness, the mind would plunge into emotional flows; it would provide us with a number of imaginary experiences and our dharana will not be successful.

Mind becomes strong not by imagination; it becomes strong when it is functioning in the company of superior intellect; when it gets proof of real achievements and gains more and more confidence.

Only a yogi who makes full use of his mind, a thinking machine, without becoming apart from his sense of logic, without neglecting his intellect and without any need for blind approach, passes successfully the step of Dharana. A blind faith is not shraddha that would lead us to meaningful activity. Only a confidence gained by logical appraisal of our own plans and actions, would develop shraddha in us. Such a shraddha-enabled concentration is what we want; we do not need a concentration based on blind belief or superstition.

Vague and nebulous mental activities, even if they are supported by the application of fine arts, would not lead us to successful Dharana. We should only make use of fine arts; we should not become overwhelmed by any emotional upheaval because of them to the detriment of steady, decisive, conscious concentration of mind.