Bio-Psychology, Yoga Psychology and Yoga Sádhaná

Mind is a state in the process of Brahma Cakra. Being the result of changing positions, it is essentially a stage in the process of motion, and implies a momentum which it has to express. To find expression the mind adopts certain inter- and intra-ectoplasmic occupations. These occupations (love, hatred, fear, etc.) are known as vrttis. In other words, vrtti may be defined as “the way of expression of mind”. On the psychic level this occupation is called “expressed sentiment”.

Sentiments affecting subsidiary glands are known as “instincts”. Here the term “subsidiary gland” has been used for any gland other than the pineal and the pituitary. Some psychologists define “instinct” as “accumulated sentiment”. By this they imply that instincts are later stages of sentiments, that is, that instincts are created when sentiments get themselves habituated. This is a theoretical definition. A sádhaka, who is a practical psychologist, realizes that an instinct is a sentiment affecting the subsidiary glands.

These subsidiary glands are the sub-stations of organs whose main controlling station, as already discussed, is located in the brain. For the evolution of saḿkalpátmaka and vikalpátmaka mind (the mind is said to be saḿkalpátmaka when its internal occupations lead towards the Great, and vikalpátmaka when they lead towards the mundane or crude) and for the creation of external waves, the help of the organs has to be taken. This help is also essential for crude manifestation in the physical stratum and other multifarious activities. The subtle brain does not work directly. It requires cruder sub-stations under its control.

Waves have to be developed for other manifestations of the internal saḿskáras, and these waves have to be created in the nerves and in the blood. According to the sanguinary flow and strength of the nerves, sub-stations of the mind go on transmitting these waves.

The seed of every vrtti is in the brain, but the first expression occurs in a sub-station. Waves, after being created by the glands or sub-stations of the mind, are expressed outside through efferent nerves. The motor organs work with the help of efferent nerves, but the secret of the working lies with these mental sub-stations or glands.

The number of vrttis varies according to the complexity of the physical structure. The more complex the structure, the greater shall be the number of vrttis. The more-developed animals, therefore, possess more vrttis than the less-developed ones. Generally there are one thousand vrttis in the human structure. In their development and expression on the ordinary crude level they are fifty in number. The collective number being one thousand, the seeds of all those thousand vrttis are present in the brain. Because of the existence of these seeds of one thousand vrttis in the pineal gland, yogis named it the sahasrára cakra [sahasra means “thousand”]. The subsidiary glands control forty-eight vrttis and the pituitary controls two – saḿkalpátmaka, leading to parávidyá (knowledge of the Great), and vikalpátmaka, relating to aparávidyá (knowledge of the mundane). The pineal as a structure controls all these fifty vrttis taken internally and externally by all ten indriyas. 50 × 2 × 10 = 1000. Yogis having control over the sahasrára cakra attain nirvikalpa samádhi, a state where they are beyond the approach of all the vrttis. Within the scope of these vrttis lies the seed of saḿskára – good or bad. So the attainment of such a state means the end of all saḿskára,, exhaustion of all the previous momentum accumulated by the mind due to its previous journeys in Brahma cakra. This is what is called mokśa – union with the Transcendentality.

30 May 1959
from “Mind, Práńendriya and Vrtti”
Idea and Ideology

Apexed Psychology

When the movement of the human mind is not in many lateral directions – north, south, east and west – but towards the Supreme Entity, then the mind becomes apexed, pinnacled. This pointed mind either merges in the Macrocosm, or gives up its individual existence in the Supreme Cognitive Faculty.

In the time of Shiva yogis and bio-psychologists preferred cold climates. In those days they did all kinds of parapsychological research. Even now yogis run to the Himalayas for this purpose. Ananda Marga sádhaná is a bio-psychological practice.

If, in a particular life, one performs sádhaná but does not attain salvation, one will have to come back again. Under such circumstances one may or may not remember oneʼs past life – it depends on the pituitary gland. Then, in the latter part of oneʼs present life, say at the age of forty or later, if oneʼs mind reaches the pineal gland, one will attain salvation.

Preferably, one should start bio-psycho-spiritual practice as early as possible after the age of five.⁽¹⁾ If that is not possible, one should definitely start sádhaná by the age of thirteen, or after the sex glands develop and the sense of responsibility and dutifulness arises in the mind.

The pituitary plexus is very important in spiritual progress, especially the left side [from the viewpoint of the sádhaka]. If the left side of this plexus is developed and the right side is not, after death one is reborn with a human body and continues practising sádhaná. When a spiritual aspirant strikes the pineal gland, salvation is achieved. If both sides of the pituitary plexus are fully developed, one becomes self-knowing, if not all-knowing. (In Latin “all-knowing” is “omniscient”, and in Sanskrit it is trikáladarshii-sarvajiṋa .)⁽²⁾

In the case of Shiva, the pituitary gland is called Shivaʼs third eye, but it is actually His omniscience, through which He sees the three ages – past, present and future.

If one is unable to attain salvation in a particular life, one gets a human body in the next life and is guided by parapsychology. In the next life one remembers, up to the age of thirteen or fourteen, everything concerned with the past life, but as soon as the testes glands [or ovaries] start to function, one generally forgets the past. This is because as soon as the sex glands start functioning, one develops a special attraction for this earth. If one does not forget the past, one dies, usually at the age of thirteen, fourteen or fifteen, because one will not be able to adjust the past life with the present life. If one forgets the past, one will not die. Those who have attained salvation may or may not remember their past lives according to their own sweet will. This comes within the scope of parapsychology.

[1] When children are five years old and attain some awareness, the parents, brothers, sisters or any guardian may initiate them in Náma Mantra [the preliminary process of meditation]. They should be taught to sit in padmásana [lotus posture], but instead of interlocking the fingers, they may rest one palm upon the other; and keep the spine erect. They will then be instructed to feel or imagine that everything around them, and whatever they visualize, is Brahma.

After this, at the age of twelve, the child should take initiation from an ácárya/á in Sádhárańa Yoga, and at sixteen or afterwards, they should take initiation in Sahaja Yoga from the ácárya/á. If considered essential, ásanas may be taught before the age of sixteen. (Ananda Marga Caryácarya Part 1)

[2] In Ananda Marga sádhaná, apart from the lower cakras, the yoga practices related to apexed psychology are mostly concerned with the higher cakras, that is, from ájiṋá to sahasrára, including guru cakra. In fact, in order to get the highest fulfilment from this, the sádhaka is to reach different higher and higher strata of sahasrára. In the higher sádhaná of Ananda Marga all these processes are included. –Trans.

 

Published in: Yoga Sádhaná 

Shrii Shrii Anandamurti