Yoga and Evolution of Consciousness

Yoga is a way of Life. Yoga is a process of becoming Union with the SELF. India is the land of  Spirituality and has rich Spiritual Tradition. We are all divine Consciousness who have emerged  from the Source/God/All-That-Is. It’s a fact that we’re all the same beings in different disguises.

We came forth from the Source, so that Source could experience itself through human nervous system. Through Yogic practices and by living the level of the Soul we experience Life in fullness  and will experience higher states of Consciousness. When we take birth into this physical reality we go through many experiences through different stages like Mineral Kingdom, Plant Kingdom, Animal Kingdom and Human Kingdom.

Each time we come to earth to learn and we evolve through various experiences. After taking many incarnations as human beings, our knowledge matures through spiritual enquiry into “Who Am I?” Spirituality is a journey into Self-Awareness. In fact, our whole life is a continuum of choices, so the more conscious we are, the greater our life will be. When we are with higher Consciousness, we experience Compassion, equanimity, truth, goodness, beauty, and harmony. And at the core of this are three words: Sat, Chit, Ananda. Sat means “the Truth.”

Chit means “Consciousness” and Ananda means “joy.” So if you are connected to truth and consciousness and joy, you’re all set. The Self is beyond the sway of death. The Self is deathless and immortal. All names and forms must merge in the Self, just as waves merge in the Ocean. In our Soul journey we go through different states of Consciousness.

Physical Reality is not fixed. It changes in different states of Consciousness.

Knowledge is different in different states of Consciousness.

Perception is different in different states of Consciousness.

Cognition is different in different states of Consciousness.

Biology is different in different states of Consciousness.

Therefore Reality is different in different states of Consciousness. Our Consciousness changes  from one state to other state. There are seven states of Consciousness.

• Deep Sleep: It’s the state of Consciousness where you are in deep sleep.
• Dream State: It’s a state where your consciousness projects itself in various dreams. In this state you experience the hidden parts of your psyche.
• Waking State of Consciousness: It’s a state where you perform all your daily routine activities throughout the day.
• Transcendental Consciousness: This is called Turiya state or Soul Consciousness. When we are in deep meditation or in deep silence we experience altered states of Consciousness. Here we touch the core of our Being. During our initial sadhana, we get glimpses of our core Being. We are not who we think we are but we are much more than that. We are the ever witnessing PRESENCE in the body.
• Cosmic Consciousness: It’s the Consciousness that allows you to look at objects in their local
• and in their non-local Aspects. It is literally, to see the cosmos in every space-time event.
• Divine Consciousness is where you see that the observer within you is the same as the observer within the other.
• Unity Consciousness or Enlightenment: There is no differentiation, I see the observer within me is the same as the observer within you that then they merge as an experience.

Experientially and then ‘I’ realize that there is only one observer and the whole Universe is the  manifestation of that one observer and I AM that observer.

We can reach the higher states of Consciousness with the below processes:

Witnessing sleep, witnessing dreams and recapitulation of sleep and dreams.

Witnessing yourself in sleeping, dreaming and waking state. Awareness of the Awareness in waking, dreaming and sleeping.

Our state of mind goes through different emotions based on our Awareness levels.

Who Am I? What is the Purpose of my Life? Who Creates my Reality? What happens after Death? What is the nature of the Universe? Ask yourself the above questions everyday and meditate on these questions and then see how Consciousness reveals its secrets and mysteries to you.

When a Yogi becomes free of identification with the senses and the mind, he discovers this fact: “I am different from the mind, senses, and body. I am Pure Consciousness, unchangeable and homogeneous.” The soul is the core of your being. Your body is in your soul. Your mind is in your soul. The whole universe is in your soul, and your soul is part of the universal consciousness. The ultimate goal of all goals is Enlightenment. In this state we see ourselves as Pure Consciousness and we become one with the Universe.

The Vedas say, know that one thing by knowing which everything else can be known. Deep inside each of us is a God in embryo it has only one desire, it wants to be born.

G Lokanath Reddy is a student at Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana