TO KNOW UPASANA AS IT IS

Upasana is being in the company of God. Meditation as it is called in English cannot be done without following Yam and Niyam as propounded by Maharishi Patanjali in his eight steps of yog. While in meditation, one considers the practitioner to have gone in perfect communion with God, that is, state of samaadhi, which is the eighth step of yog but before reaching Samaadhi, one has to cross the other seven steps of yog. Yam and Niyam are the first two steps of yog. Out of the twenty four hours of a day, a normal person can meditate, that is, think of God only for 1-3 hours. Leaving the period of sleep and other necessary acts for maintenance of body, for rest of the 13-15 hours one needs to follow yam and niyam to go further in his journey towards Samaadhi, where he enjoys unhindered bliss of God. Now, the question arises as to what are yam and niyam. We give below the brief description of these.

Yam

Yam has further been divided into following parts:

  1. Ahinsa or non-voilence- We can define Hinsa as bringing pain to others without any justifiable reason and Ahinsa as bringing pain to others with justifiable reason.
  2. Satya or truth-It means speaking and acting in accordance with one’s aatma or soul and after verification by the pramaanaas or proofs. God has developed liking for truthfulness in our soul. When a man tells a thing without hurting his ‘Aatma’ and with pleasure and confidence, he speaks the truth.  Man can tell a lie only after killing his ‘Aatma’
  3. Astey or non-stealing- It refers to non-stealing by actions, words or thoughts.
  4. Brahamcharya is saving or protecting all sorts of capabilities of body by having control over our senses. Acharya Charak says-‘‘Semen is the crux of whatever we eat. If you really want to get ‘Amrit’, then save semen. If you let it go waste because of non-control of your sexual desire, then it is guaranteed that diseases of all sorts will come to you’’. As such, do not let it go waste in any circumstances.
  5. अपरिग्रह- Not to pile up things through mind, words or body is called अपरिग्रह.

Niyam

Like Yam, Niyam too has further been divided into following parts:

  1. Shouch- Cleanliness of ‘Man’ and body is called Shouch.

  2. Santosh- To be happy with the fruits of exertions made with the available means (knowledge, power et cetra) is Santosh. Not to wish more than what is available or is received in a particular condition is not Santosh.

  3. Tap or austerity- To accept or bear loss- benefit, pain-pleasure, hunger-thirst, cold-heat, honour-dishonour et cetra coming on the path of righteousness with peace and patience is Tap.
  4. Swadhayay- To possess both physical-knowledge and spiritual-knowledge through study is called Swadhayay. One cannot attain purpose of his life by following only one of them. As such, there need be a co-ordination between physical-knowledge and spiritual-knowledge.
  5. Ishwar Pranidhaan means total surrender to the will of the Supreme Being.

Bhakti=Surrender=Following Commands

Difference between Yam and Niyam– While Yam controls our behaviour with others, Niyam regulates our behavior with ourselves.

For detailed knowledge about different parts of yog, visit the respective question on Yog in ‘Basic Knowledge’.

Some people complain that because of their wavering mind, they are not able to concentrate fully on the thought of God and have uninterrupted flow of bliss of God. Before saying anything on this issue, we would like to cite an example. Say, A student is studying a chapter of physics. After he studies a page of the book, his mind wanders over certain other issues. After coming to know that he is no more studying, this fellow brings back his mind and tries to concentrate on the book. After he studies two more pages of the book, again his mind wanders over other issues. After coming to know of it, the person again brings back his mind and tries to concentrate it on the book. In this way, by again and again bringing his mind back to the book, he is able to study only ten pages of the book. It is very much true that had mind of this student remained focused on the book for the whole period of study, he would have understood the concepts taught in the book better and he might have studied a lot more pages of the book. Nevertheless, reading of ten pages of the book by his wavering mind cannot be said to be meaningless and without bearing any fruit. In the same way, while doing upasana, we need to bring our mind to the thought of God over and over again till we are able to fully concentrate our mind over the thought of God for the whole period of our sitting in upasana. Initially, when we are not able to concentrate fully on God, we will enjoy bliss of God in proportion to our being successful in bringing our mind to the thought of God and this practice of ours of bringing mind back to the thought of God again and again will definitely yield its result and because of this practice, we will be able to concentrate better on the thought of God.