Nidra from Patanjali
Meditationtime Forum Post
Date: Posted 3 years before May 09, 2016
MiBeloved 3 years ago
This is something I wrote on Linked In to an inquiry about nidra which is sleep, which Patanjali condemned:
Bidhya,
Nidra can be controlled by dominance over kundalini, otherwise kundalini runs its own show.
On this side of existence, from the causal place down, there has to be nidra because that is the nature of the material energy, where Sri Krishna said in Gita that the prakriti is endlessly mutable. It is restless and something that is like that intrinsically will have to rest on one side now and then switch over and rest on the other side. Like when a man is sleeping on the street corner. We find that he sleeps on one side and then even while sleeping he turns to another side and it keeps going like that.
On this side of the existential divide nidra cannot be eliminated but a yogi has to take it in hand and stop the kundalini from operating it at its will. This will bring a more efficient nidra and that will cause the yogi to have enough time and enough insight to deserve getting the big guns like Krishna, Shiva and Brahma to pull the yogi out of the material world (including its subtle environments).
Below Swarga Paradise world (Indraloka), nidra is the mode of ignorance more or less. But that is for the convenience of kundalini so that it can maintain the subtle body because we are pleasure crazy and we wear down the system too much. Above Swarga nidra is just a kind of stillness in of two grades, one is a bliss aspect and the other is an existence aspect with neutrality. There is no ignorance there only sattva guna energy because the raja guna aspect is missing there. Kundalini has no jurisdiction there.
From where we are right now the only way we could comply with Patanjali about the nidra vrittis is to take control of the shakti power in the subtle body from kundalini. So long as kundalini is regulating that, we cannot master it.
In Srimad Bhagavatam, there is a hint about this in Canto 4 where Narada explained to King Prachinabarhi about Puranjana. The guy was enjoying life with his woman and all the while kundalini in the form of a serpent was managing everything. Puranjana was living like a king and did not have to lift a finger. But due to that in the end he had to crawl out through the base chakra after kundalini. So that is it. If we feel that we can enjoy this life and we will attain perfection that will never be. Kundalini will mislead us in the end.
The whole thing, our situation, our dishonesty in spiritual practice, our laziness and finding easy path, is really sick. We all need to see some psychiatrist.
