Non-Spiritual Images - Atma Shuddha Yoga (Purity Yoga)

Meditationtime Forum Post

Date:  Posted 5 years before Mar 28, 2018

Alfredo 5 years ago

Allow me to entertain an important topic that has been expanded upon by Acharya Ji in this forum, personally to me, and in his writings.

It is the topic of images, what one allows to enter the mind.

This topic is related to austerities (Tapasya), and proper discernment (Vairagya).

It comes down to "yoga chitta vritti nirodhah" (Patanjali). Anything that we allow to enter the mind that enervates it, is potentially troublesome. But specifically problematic are non-spiritual images and ideas because they prevent us from realizing spiritual truth by taking us centripetally to the periphery, away from the core-self.

Mahatma Gandhi once, while engaged in a dialogue with a Christian friend in a sea voyage, threw out to the sea his most prized possession.

Can we do that?

Can we, really, isolate, and throw away, those most prized possessions that prevent us from being spiritually focused?

Can you stop watching TV? News?

Can you donate away your prized DVD collection of movies? Your collection of detective stories?

Is music outside this discussion? It is not.

Is the "spiritual aspirant" who listens to Kirtan, Bhajans, mantras, exempted from Patanjali?

No, perhaps not?

A final quote from Swami Shriyukteshwar's "Kaivalyam Darsanam", "The Gospel", Sutra 17:

"What is needed is a Guru, a Savior, who will awaken us to Bhakti (devotion) and to perception of Truth".

Neo_Yogi 5 years ago

Hola Alfredo,

I think this comes with time; along the path one sees what's beneficial and what's not; what makes us advance and what hinders us. In the end one understands the need to retire to a cave where one can strive for the final steps. We just have to be observant.