Life is fun with a big goal ahead of us. We all have some goals, but may not know really what to do to fulfil them. Well, if your goal is genuine and gives happiness to you and your loved ones, benefits the world too, without harming anyone, then you are good to go.
What gives me the strength to work hard for the goal? Physical fitness, mental training and intellectual clarity of course. There is, however, that extra factor in our life that infuses spirit and adds josh. The Patanjali Yoga Sutra gives us this process. Yoga is union. A goal too is a union of yourself with a hitherto inexperienced state of mind. To achieve this, there are two ways. The first is working on your own strength with faith that you can achieve it, with the required strength, with constant memory of the goal and keeping the mind absorbed in that state of joy that can happen when the goal is achieved.
If this is a tall order, which is highly possible for most of us, the other is to place the goal which is our desire at a higher altar of devotion and constantly pray for its fulfilment. That can also bring success and victory our way.
For this prayer to be effective, we must seek a mentor who can guide us towards the goal and fine-tune the mind to make it conducive for that state of success.
What is the power of prayer? Prayer trains the mind inward and keeps it concentrated and single-pointed. It also removes many distractions—13 to be specific—as mentioned in the Yoga Sutra.
When the humours of the body are imbalanced, it results in disease. Obsatcles are when the mind becomes dull and inactive, when there is a thousand doubts and the mind cannot settle down on the goal, lack of attention in practising yoga sadhanas, inertia caused by heaviness of the body and mind, constant craving for sense pleasures is a distraction, delusory thinking happens when there is the knowledge of permanence on a thing that is actually impermanent, when the state of absorption of mind does not happen on any account and inability to remain there even if it happened.
The restless of the mind is caused by sorrow. This sorrow is of three types—caused by one’s thoughts and actions, caused by beings around us and coming from unknown causes. Bad mood is caused when a craving for sense pleasures is not fulfilled. Restlessness of the body and rapid expulsion of breath also accompany a restless mind.
All these obstacles can be removed through practice of concentration on one uplifting goal or thought. So why wait when the ways and means are known?
Brahmacharini Sharanya Chaitanya
(www.sharanyachaitanya.blogspot.in)