Riffin' on the Yogic Situation (The Irrefutable and Psychologically-Engrained God-Complex)

“The yogic situation is that of detachment from all sensual engagements. Closing all the doors of the senses and fixing the mind on the heart and the life air at the top of the head, one establishes himself in yoga.” 8.12 Bhagavad Gita Attaining the Supreme

I’ve heard yoga simultaneously defined as the “intentional stopping of the spontaneous mind-flow state” as well as simply “discipline” in the most general sense of it. It’s certainly a motion towards a deliberate life…a life in which your actions flow with purpose and the culmination of your Being tells the story of your choosing, concisely…masterfully, with all of the conventions of the standard of the day. It’s also, for all intensive purposes, an utter surrendering of self-will, and it’s from this fact that Oriental traditions are known for taking positions of “no self”… ironically, for them, self-actualization of the individual’s ego is only effectively possible after said individual surrenders all notions of meaningful self-will (without losing a sense that their spontaneous desires are sacred/unique to them, parts of a larger universal/sacred feedback loop, and, as such, are deeply special). Through a path of effective “no Self” (the most thorough/accurate interpretation of which is simply transcendental communion…simply there being no small self meaningfully separate from the Universe/Universal Singularity/Oversoul)… we come to the boundlessness of Self. We self-actualize/come into ourselves.

Yoga is that effective surrendering of will taken to physical extremes, as we can see in today’s passage. The “yogic situation” calls for “detachment from all sensual engagements”…which sounds like strawberries and cream, but Krishman moreso is alluding to sights and scents and sounds in general…in perceptions, in general. The “yogic situation” calls for a turning away from the world at hand…for quiet places and dimly lit spaces… a turn inwards. “Closing all the doors of the senses and fixing the mind on the heart and the life air at the top of the head, one” positions themselves to quickly rediscover that the physical feedback loops operate on concepts of singularity, not just concepts about enlightenment and the path to it. It becomes easy to see that breath is the singularity somehow delivering continued life into the physical form…you’re breathing God in and out at all moments, and this is effectively what all of your actions are doing.

They are engaging the Eternal, and then consequences are produced and somehow both direct wisdom is imparted, as well as life-forced is delivered into the various quadrants of the body, in addition to creation continued…

You realize that whether it’s breathing or whether it’s thinking or whether it’s acting from a place of love socially when you realize someone is in need…it’s all the same action being performed at some deep, deep level. You’re just engaging the Singularity…and the rest is feedback loops intersecting the destinies of individuals.

What can really change at this moment of re-orientation…of outright surrender of one’s will for that which the Universe wills… is that you can become reliably self-driven as a creature. It’s one thing to have the deep realization that the various phenomena the senses encounter must be meaningfully about creating a link (“religio”) with Source, it’s another to be being assaulted by sensory data and be capable of taking charge in the moment in such a fashion that draws the true intended meaning of the moment at hand to the surface level experience all encountering it are having …to put words to the why of any particular moment in anybody’s lives with a sense of definitiveness reserved for the Universe itself… and induce a sense of grounded peace within people through perspective alone.

To be able to cut through the bullshit and find truth in a way that is liberating or which empowers those in the vicinity…

To be able to do so reliably, day in and day out, I truly do believe takes a conviction that only spiritual-philosophical curriculums/truths can deliver. You need to have a deep, deep sense just what this thing we call life is about being able to stare bewilderment in the face and whittle it down righteously, into understanding, as one ought to, in service of the larger purposes of Love.

Krishna suggests shutting off the senses and turning inwards. Focus on the heart within, or the air at the tip of your tongue, and understanding will come. Remember the world again, comprehensively, in terms of understanding rather than taking a position of not having life comprehensively figured out (seriously). This is how we stop the spontaneity of the conditions of the larger world conditioning us towards what our wits have forgotten….and instead become goal-driven creatures passing through linear time who can make the most of the challenges of life and the gifts of our body (our strength, our intellect, our emotions, etc.).

To do as much is the great meaning of life. You can sort of see it as a wash too easily, in my opinion…if you have a sense that the world is deeply intelligent and loving, it’s easy to overlook that it’s deeply engrained in our behaviors as humans to attempt to perfect the curriculum of the universe so that we can direct the forces of the cosmos with our will, rather than perpetually being students of life. We are hardwired to crave becoming masters…

And most of the things that deeply satisfy individuals across time and go on to become described as the most meaningful aspects of the lives of individuals… arise from this phase in the lives of individuals… when they hit that level of personal maturity in which the modality of their day to day lives can be described as them being “masters” of what they are up to with their time.