Kaivalya

Kaivalya

The last 34 verses of the Yoga Sutras talk about this state, which is a continuous state of Samadhi; one that is beyond being on the mat and finding that moment of inner peace after a practice, or meditation.

This concept talks about how a person in Kaivalya can keep this state without the mind swinging back and forth from one force of accumulated conditioning to a force of new behavior and clarity towards the world.

How will I as a yogi achieve this state is not a means of having specific recipe but it is something I am aware of and something I can see happening even if it is just for a brief moment.

Training the mind and controlling the prana (energy force) inside my body is one way to the path of Kaivalya. Of course you may wonder, how could you ever, as a normal person living in a world of chaos reach this state without swinging back to a denser way of being. It is a question I have asked myself ever since I felt this brief moment of utter oneness with all there is.

One thing I know is that these waves of clarity, of non-attachment or identification with the material world are becoming longer and stronger. And knowing that when I drift off, back to identifying myself to my body, to my current situation or to the feelings I am having at a moment in time I can be aware enough of what is happening and remind myself to let go of this identification. It is by observation that I can at least show myself back to that state no matter how long it takes. Feeling what we feel is only part of the process, we are not supposed to suppress our feelings, instead we should ride them like a wave only to let them go eventually.

The promise land of yoga is a state of utter stillness and of completely freeing oneself from the burden of the world. But it is something that can only happen gradually with practice, with self-observation and especially by living a normal life, without isolation.

It is when you can see the world as it is and not be influenced by it or be subject to any of its effects, it is by Identifying external forces as they are and putting everything in its right place that you can keep the inner world intact.

It is not that life is happening to you or against you, it is life that is happening within you and being projected outwardly.

It is all a matter of perspective.