Are we really contented ?

The second of the Niyamas is Santosha or Contentment. Though many of us use the term in our daily life, let us pause for a moment to know its meaning. Contented means, feeling or showing satisfaction with one's possessions, status, or situation.

Being students of spirituality, let us try to explore contentment from three different perspectives, the physical layer, the mental layer and the intellectual layer. At the physical layer, most of us have ever increasing needs for flashy products and gadgets. We want the latest smart phone, the latest car model, the best designer shoes and what not. Are we ever contented with what we have? At the mental layer, comes the emotions of love, affection etc. Can anyone truthfully say, they are fully content with the love and affection they receive ? Can I say with all gratitude that I am content with the attention and love given to me my by own spouse, child etc? At the intellectual level, am I contented with the title I have at work? If we reflect on the three layers truthfully, it is obvious that our life is full of discontent. 

Let us also understand what are the different types of contentment. Let us say I am a lazy person who just likes to curl up in bed and be happy with the morsels of food given to be my some kind soul. If someone comes and tells me that there are some boxes I need to move and I will get paid in the form of a sumptuous meal, I may say that I am very contented with the morsels of food I get and do not want the sumptuous meal. Is this real contentment? I am only saying I am contented because I am lazy and do not want to work. I would call this as lazy contentment or Tamasic contentment. Next, take the case of a sales person who is going all out to win an order. He is trying very hard. But, unfortunately the order goes to someone else. He claims he is contented with whatever business he has, by telling that the order was not worth it. It was a loss making proposition or that the client was bad etc. In this case, the sales person is using " the grapes are sour" explanation for his contentment. I would label this as the "sour grapes" contentment or Rajasic contentment. 

Are the above real contentment? Obviously, they are not. If contentment is driven by sloth or laziness as in the first case or by just giving a rational explanation for not getting the order as in the second case, it is not contentment. In both cases, the burning is there in the individual to get the object, either the sumptuous food or the order. However, they are telling the world that they are contented. 

One may ask, if contentment is good, would an individual or society progress? If I join a job as a clerk and say I am contented and not work hard to progress up the corporate ladder, is that not a bad thing? If a scientist were to say, he is contented with the progress he has made with new drugs and does not want to do anything more, is that right? The obvious answer is no. 

As students of  spirituality, we know that we are not the body, mind and intellect. Since discontent impacts at the physical, mental and intellectual level, when I realize I am above these three levels, there cannot be any discontentment at all. Again, we know that for each of us, action is a must. Any action done with a motive of self aggrandizement , by assuming that we are the body/mind/intellect complex is bound to cause discontentment. So, how do we achieve the goal of ensuring societal progress and at the same time remain contented? The only way is to act with the principle of Karmayoga. When I do any act focusing only on the act and not its results, whatever be the result, there will be contentment. As an individual, if I work hard keeping in mind that is my duty at office, I may or may not get rewarded with more money/promotions etc. But since my focus is on my duty alone, there is no discontent. Similarly, any societal activity done with the aim of doing good, but just focusing on the activity and not on the fruits like a recognition, a Nobel prize etc, there will never be discontentment.

This ability to be in this world, do activities and still stay contented is what is essential for spiritual progress.

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Please buy and read any of these books:


My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality

Attain Infinite Bliss - A Spiritual Guide

The Spirit of Spirituality

Niyamas - Are we really clean?

So far, in our discussion of the Astanga Sadhana, I have focused on the "Yamas". To recapitulate,Yama, deals with one's ethical standards and sense of integrity, focusing on our behavior and how we conduct ourselves in life. We talked about the following items:

• Truthfulness
• Non-Violence
• Brahmacharya
• Non-stealing
• Non-possessiveness

Whereas the yamas present guidelines for how we should treat others, the niyamas tell us how to treat ourselves, moving us ever so slightly deeper along the path towards enlightenment. I will start my discussion of the second limb which is Niyama. Niyama, the second limb, has to do with self-discipline and spiritual observances. 

Niyama consists of the following items:

• Shaucha: Cleanliness/Purity
• Santosha: Contentment
• Tapas: Discipline
• Svadhyaya: Study of the self
• Ishvara Pranidhana: Devotion to God

Today I will discuss the first one, Shaucha or cleanliness. When I say cleanliness, I can almost hear everybody saying, not an issue at all, we are all clean. Please follow my flow of thoughts and make your own judgement.

I would like to look at cleanliness from 3 perspectives, that of the gross body, second the subtle body and finally the causal body. When we talk of gross body and its cleanliness, I mean the physical aspect of cleanliness. Here again, there are three layers of cleanliness. The first layer is personal cleanliness.  Most of my readers i am sure maintain personal cleanliness. The next layer is cleanliness of surroundings, in my room, in my closet, my house, my office desk etc. I am sure many of us maintaining personal cleanliness show some slack when it comes to cleanliness of the surroundings. The next layer of gross body cleanliness is the environmental cleanliness. Are we polluting the environment ? Are we keeping picnic spots clean? Are we cleaning up our beer bottles from the beach? I am pretty sure at this layer, many of us tend to further slack off in cleanliness. Let us take a wild guess. If we randomly select hundred people and rate them on the three aspects of gross body cleanliness, what percentage would pass all three levels? I bet it will not be more than fifty percent.

The next layer of cleanliness, that of the subtle body includes cleanliness of the mind and the intellect. What is the dirt in the mind? Obviously, jealousy, anger, greed, hatred are the components of dirt in the mind. The intellect has its own dirt consisting of a sense of superiority by color, country, position etc; Dirt consisting of over blown ego of one's own importance etc. As readers are aware, this dirt is more subtle, more difficult to remove and actually more harmful than physical dirt in the pursuit of spiritual growth.So assuming we continue the above exercise, of the fifty who maybe physically clean, not more than twenty may be clean at the subtle body level. So, almost eighty percent of our sample is eliminated from the path of cleanliness which is one of the requirements of Astanga sadhana. 

Coming to the third layer, that of the causal body. This has vasanas or unfulfilled desires from several births as the dirt to be cleaned. Readers of my blogs are aware that the only reason for our taking births and deaths in a never ending cycle is because of our vasanas. Whereas cleaning the earlier two - gross body and subtle body were relatively easier, how do we clean the causal body? For one thing, we do not even know what all we have accumulated in our causal body. The only way we can remove the "dirt" in our causal body is by exhausting the dirt and by not adding additional dirt. Let me give a simple illustration. Assume we have fifty units of vasanas or desires in my causal body and in each birth , ten desires are fulfilled. So, I need a minimum of five births to exhaust and clean out my vasanas. But wait a minute, it is not so simple. In each birth that I take, most of us typically add new desires and when they are not fulfilled, they go back to the causal body and keep on putting us on a cycle of birth and death. So, the key step in cleaning the causal body is to not add new desires. Of course, this is easier said than done. However the first step is knowing the impact of desires and once we know it, making a conscious effort to refrain from new desires. This will hopefully reduce the causal body dirt to nil over a period of time. 

What do we get when all the three layers or bodies are cleaned? Beyond the three bodies is the Supreme Soul which is timeless, the very embodiment of Awareness, Truth and in essence the same as the Universal Brahman. If we plot the cleanliness on the X axis, starting with the gross body cleanliness, followed by subtle body and finally the causal body, and level of spiritual growth on the Y axis, I suspect we will get a hyperbolic curves. As we improve in cleanliness at the gross body level, there is an improvement in spiritual growth level, but at a very low rate. As we improve cleanliness at the subtle body layer, the spiritual growth shows an increased rate of growth and finally as we progress over multiple births on the cleanliness of the causal layer, the spiritual growth shows a sharp uptrend and we are finally on the cusp of achieving Divinity. When that final vasana is exhausted, we merge with the Supreme and then it is only Bliss.

Let us take the step to understand the dimensions of cleanliness and walk towards achieving our spiritual growth.

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Please buy and read any of these books:

My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality

Attain Infinite Bliss - A Spiritual Guide

The Spirit of Spirituality

The Futility Of Stealing

I  have covered 3 aspects of Yama in my earlier posts - Satya or truthfulness, Ahimsa or Non violence and Brahmacharya - the awareness of higher reality. Today, I take up another aspect of Yama - Astheya or non-stealing.

Though many of us know what stealing means, we generally tend to look at stealing as taking someone's object only.  Let's expand the definition to include not just physical objects, but also time, thoughts, energy, emotions and ideas. How many of us have not forcibly taken someone's time, ideas emotions etc.? So most of us are thieves of something or the other, however harmless it may seem. Just because a cop will not arrest me for stealing someone's time, does not mean that I am not a thief. We read an article of value, but do not think to thank the author, we go to a place of worship and partake of the food and do not give anything back in return, we bug someone to help us with ideas and when that idea clicks, we do not remember the person. We depend on someone to solve our emotional or loneliness issues, but ignore them when we are fine. All these are examples, where we have taken something of value from someone and did not pay for it. So, from a spiritual standpoint, it is an act of stealing.

Why should one not steal? Well, from the grossest perspective, it is illegal and can land one in jail. From a slightly higher perspective, the moral perspective, as taught in almost all religions, one should not take someone else's property, whatever be it. Since we are all spiritual students, let's explore this from a higher plane.  Why does one steal? Obviously, it is to get something which I cannot normally get. But, at a more basic level, why is there a need for an object? It is to fill a void in our life and we hope that the object we are seeking will fill that void. Next, why the void at all? We are in reality the Supreme Bliss and still are seeking a measly object to be happy? That's because we are overcome by ignorance about our true self and by identifying ourselves with the puny body/mind/intellect, we try to be happy by finding different objects. When one object does not satisfy us, we move to the next object. When we want an object and cannot get it by normal means, either we become frustrated or in extreme situations indulge in stealing that object. 

Let us explore another concept of spirituality to nail the futility of stealing. The other day, as I was browsing, I got a strange message asking me to click on a site. I clicked and it took me to Bank of X site and strangely, I was in somebody's account. Seeing a huge balance, I was tempted to move some money from here to my personal bank account. Telling myself it was not right, but still overcome by momentary greed, I moved some money into my account and exited. I went into my account and noticed the large amount credited and was happy. I was so happy that I started laughing and shouting. That's when my wife tapped me and told me to wake up!!

Now, in the dream, who was the person browsing? it was Me. Who created the message about the bank account? Me !. Whose account was I into ? An account I had created in my mind! Whose account did I transfer from and into? I transferred money from an account in my mind to another account in my mind. So, who stole what from whom?? As ludicrous as this seems, when one steals, this is exactly what happens. As mentioned earlier, the only reality is Brahman. This means there is no second at all and any multiplicity we see is only due to ignorance. When the only reality is Brahman, what am I stealing and what from whom?  

I will let readers mull over this !


Please buy and read any of these books:


My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality

Attain Infinite Bliss - A Spiritual Guide

The Spirit of Spirituality

The 8 Step Path To Eternal Happiness - Ashtanga Yoga

Let me start this post with defining the purpose of human life. Is it just to acquire wealth, procreate, gain position, own big houses, cars, yachts etc ? One may say yes to all of above. But if we take a step  further and ask ourselves why we need all above. The answer would be , I need them because they make me happy. If we go further, do we need happiness for one hour, day, week etc, the obvious answer is we need eternal happiness. For most of my readers, the source of eternal happiness is known to be internal since we are the very embodiment of Peace and Happiness. However, by our wrong identification with our body, mind and intellect, the Divine Soul within which is pure and forever happy associates itself with feelings of sadness, pain etc and appears to be seemingly sad. So, the route to eternal bliss is not some far fetched road, but a road within our own hearts to discover our true self.  All this sounds good in an intellectual discussion, but is of no practical use to a seeker of the Infinite happiness. 

I can tell a budding boy the greatness of being a top seed tennis player and show him all the dreams. But that is just a pie in the sky. If I am serious about guiding him, I should show him the path to become a top seed player. I have to tell the boy about nutrition, about the type of bats, the techniques to play, the type of mental determination needed, the type of exercise needed etc. I also have to tell him how to progress from junior league to state league  to national to international league. 

In exactly, the same way, a seeker of Infinite Bliss needs instructions on how to prepare for the journey and how to progress on the journey. Many spiritual leaders have suggested their own paths for their followers. One such path which is very methodical and logical is Patanjali's Ashtanga Yoga. Patanjali, the great ancient exponent of Raja Yoga, wrote that the path to enlightenment embraces eight stages. This eight-limbed approach, known as Ashtanga Yoga is not to be mistaken as a step-by-step approach but a multidimensional approach in which all eight limbs are practiced simultaneously. 

The 8 fold path consist of the following:

1. Yama
2. Niyama
3. Asana
4. Pranayama
5. Pratyahara
6. Dharana
7. Dhyana
8. Samadhi

The 8 fold path is actually broadly categorized under two major headings:

• Refining our personalities, gaining mastery over the body, and developing an energetic awareness of ourselves

• The first 4 stages fall under this category

• Controlling the senses, the mind, and attaining a higher state of consciousness.

• The last 4 stages fall under this category

In this article, I am covering what each of the 8 stages mean. 

1. Yama, deals with one's ethical standards and sense of integrity, focusing on our behavior and how we conduct ourselves in life. 
2. Niyama, the second limb, has to do with self-discipline and spiritual observances. 
3. Asanas, the postures practiced in yoga, comprise the third limb. 
4. Pranayama consists of techniques designed to gain mastery over the respiratory process while recognizing the connection between the breath, the mind, and the emotions
5. Pratyahara,  the fifth limb, means withdrawal or sensory transcendence. It is during this stage that we make the conscious effort to draw our awareness away from the external world and outside stimuli.
6. Dharana, or concentration is the process to slow down the thinking process by concentrating on a single mental object: a specific energetic center in the body, an image of a deity, or the silent repetition of a sound.
7. Meditation or contemplation is the stage where the mind has been quieted, and in the stillness it produces few or no thoughts at all.
8. Samadhi, is a state of ecstasy when the practitioner has reached his ultimate goal and realized ultimate bliss.  

 In subsequent posts, I will go deeper into them.

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Please buy and read any of these books which are available on Amazon.com.


My Humble Understanding Of Spirituality

Attain Infinite Bliss - A Spiritual Guide

The Spirit of Spirituality