#91. 4 Phases Of Meditation Towards Kaivalyam | Yoga Sutras Of Patanjali

On the path of Kaivalyam, you will experience these 4 phases. First, awareness rising: During your daily life, you will be more aware and for the first time you will see everything with a different set of eyes. Second, intelligence functioning in light of awareness. Third, the gravity of emptiness. And lastly, effortless movement.

Transcript

Namaste and a very warm welcome to all of you in this daily live meditation session with me the answer we are meditating on yoga sutras of Patanjali this path to Kevalim to absolute nothingness to emptiness it seems arduous it requires effort and it it appears as if you will have to give up you will have to move towards something where you will have to make an effort but let me tell you the more closer you come to Kevalim the more closer you come to nothingness there is a gravitation there is a pull of nothingness which pulls you towards it in the beginning there might be a push required from from you to wake up to break your sleep and move towards this Kevalim take the first step but as you proceed on this journey you will feel a very strong pull to Kevalim to nothingness to this emptiness and once you come into this pull into the stream which takes you along with its own flow its own energy towards Kevalim then all you have to do is let go until that point there is some effort that has to be done so along this journey from wherever you are to this absolute nothingness to emptiness to Kevalim you can divide this journey in four phases the first phase is when you for the very first time start to have awareness in you for the very first time the sleep is broken for the very first time there is the beginning of that awakening where you are once again aware you are in your daily life once again aware you're walking you're eating you're doing things and there is this light of awareness this inner sense of awareness about yourself for the very first time so this is the phase one where based on your practices on all the effort that you have made in your meditation the awareness it spills over it overflows from your meditation sessions to your daily life and in that overflow in that spill over of this awareness in your lifestyle for the very first time you see everything new you see once again the same mundane the same routine becomes new this is the phase one there is still you still have to continue making effort you still have to put a practice in place to continue moving in this journey towards Kevalim then comes the second phase in this awareness that you see everything for the very first time there is confusion there is conflict because what you see with your awareness and what you see with your mind it starts to conflict so your intelligence for the very first time it starts functioning in the light of awareness so far the intelligence was functioning without the awareness you were almost functioning like a very intelligent robot you were continuously doing what you were supposed to do but there was no awareness everything was there in life but there was no awareness and in the second phase once the awareness has brightened you for the very first time intelligence starts functioning in this phase in this light of awareness and that creates a conflict that creates confusion because so far what you were doing all in a robotic way has come to light but you still have to continue making an effort you still have to go through this confusion to carry what the intelligence is doing what the awareness is showing you'll have to go through that that much discomfort you'll have to pass through that phase this shall pass by and your awareness as it grows you will leave this behind then you move to the third phase in this third phase starts the pole starts because you start to have the glimpses of nothingness in your meditation in your silence it goes so deep that you don't want to come out of the silence in the silence you clearly see that your body your mind is not yourself so you clearly develop this distinction the intelligence it starts obeying the awareness it starts functioning in the light of awareness but it starts to see now clearly that your body that your mind your energies how they are organized and you start to see a clear distinction between the mind and the self this is happening in the third phase and the moment it starts to happen then you have to pull from this nothingness because you have tasted nothingness you've tasted emptiness you've tasted this space this limitless space of kevalium and this takes you to the stage four with a phase four where you don't have to do anything that is completely effortless in that phase there is no effort that is required from you all you have to do is let go and be with the flow of kevalium be in the gravitation of kevalium be in the pull in the stream of kevalium let us go through the sutras of Patanjali what he has to say on this last phase on this last message to clearly put things in its right place on these four phases that you will go through and you can identify yourself your practice of meditation where you are on this journey towards kevalium and what you need to do further to move further in this journey towards kevalium Patanjali says vishesha darshin atma bhava bhavana vini vritti to the one who sees the distinction between the mind and Atman thoughts of mind as the Atman sees forever here Patanjali is talking about moving from phase two to phase three from the stage two to stage three when you see the distinction between the mind and the Atman when in your life in your meditation in your awareness you start to clearly see that your mind all your thoughts all these patterns these mind patterns are different from yourself are different from your being and you make a choice to follow your heart to follow your being not necessarily your mind and your mind either it comes along or it has to listen to your heart it has to listen to your spirit it has to listen to yourself once you are at that stage he says thoughts of the mind as Atman sees forever meaning that you are in this you're moving from stage two to stage three where you are having the pull from the emptiness you clearly see the distinction between the mind and the self.

Tarahi viveka nimnam kevalia pragabharam chittam then the mind stuff is inclined towards discrimination and gravitates towards absoluteness when you move into this stage three where the distinction is very clear and you are in the pull of absoluteness you have the taste of nothingness in the taste then the mind follows along this is the stage where all your energies are getting pulled towards absoluteness towards nothingness and your mind it follows along it goes along with the flow of energies no more it shows you anything any different no more it has the weight no more it has the authority over you to take you away from this journey to take you away from this gravitation.

Taru chitra chitreshu pratyaya antarani samskarabhaya in between distracting thoughts may arise due to past impressions here Patanjali is saying in this phase three the mind is still there it is following along your being your emptiness your taste your silence your awareness but it is still there so in between meaning in this still phase this third phase where the journey is still not complete he says distracting thoughts may arise due to past impressions you're carrying all this load of past impressions so many years so many lifetimes so many experiences so many impressions that you're carrying on you so they come in between as distractions your meditation your silence your awareness is not perfect it has those moments of distractions where your mind immediately pulls out a memory a past impression or a thought or a worry or a desire they are there but your awareness still has the flow has the energy to move towards absoluteness and all you have to do is ignore these thoughts ignore these impressions let the mind be there even more for a while but it does not have the energy to overpower you anymore and lastly he says Prasamkhane aapih akusidasya sarvatha viveka khyate dharma megh samadhi one who is able to maintain a constant state of desirelessness even towards the most exalted states of enlightenment is able to exercise the highest kind of discrimination enters the state known as the cloud which showers virtue what that means is when you are in this third stage when you are closer to emptiness when you are closer to nothingness the desire for the state starts to arise you have the pull but you also have the desire suddenly all those desires which were otherwise there for other things in life have now become the desires for this ultimate state the desire for the ultimate freedom the desire for the limitless awareness consciousness this desire becomes a barrier so he's saying that if you can maintain this desirelessness in stage three while the pull is there your awareness is becoming brighter your silence is becoming deeper the mind is losing grip over you when in the stage you can maintain desirelessness the the ultimate desirelessness to not even desire for the freedom for the nirvana for the moksha when that happens then you move to stage four if you can maintain that discipline you move to stage four where you don't have to do anything you are in an effortless state you are pulled towards absoluteness towards emptiness nothingness all by itself all you have to do is flow with let go of everything in it let us practice this this movement towards kevalim and we'll go through all these four stages in the meditation by making sure that there are these two pulls one is the pull of the body and the mind and the other is the pull of emptiness to start separating these two and move towards kevalim move towards emptiness I will guide you through this separation between these two gravitations of your body mind and of the gravitation of your emptiness the pull towards emptiness as we sit in silence so please close your eyes take a posture that is comfortable for you with your head relaxed shoulders down and your back straight hands in your lap or on your thighs you take a nice deep breath inhale from the nose and exhale from the nose allowing your body to rest at its own weight with every exhalation your body relaxing more settling on its own weight you with every breath,

With every exhalation,

Body settling more and more,

Finding its balance,

Finding its rest.

You as your body settles shift your awareness to your third eye center,

To the region in between your eyebrows.

Body settling resting and your awareness rising to your third eye center.

You and as your body settles your mind also settles as if your thoughts have weight and they settle on their own weight,

They rest on their own weight.

Your awareness rises your thoughts settle.

You you you you you you allow this process of body settling mind settling in awareness rising awareness rising and to your third eye center focusing on the third eye center the region in between your eyebrows you you and the awareness rising further up above your head shift your awareness above your head few inches above your head you you you the body is below mind is also below your awareness above your head you you and let go of all effort you you you you allowing your energies to reorganize as you simply stay in silence in awareness you you no effort you no moment you Let it all go in this emptiness.

In this silence.

And bring your awareness back to your breath.

Flowing gently in and out.

Awareness back to your body.

To your mind.

Very gently and slowly you may open your eyes.

Maintaining the taste of awareness,

Of silence,

Of moving towards emptiness and taking this into your daily life.

Thank you very much.

Namaste.

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