Resolution - Measure of Progress

What is yoga? The root of the word yoga is yuj or to join, joining the various aspects of our personality into a cohesive whole so that the person is able to live a wholesome life. Raja Yoga is considered to be the Raja (king) among Yoga Shastras (a text of experience) because the king works at a material level and this form of yoga is more attuned to normal living and does not require one to go deep into spiritual life. By design, it has two levels- a beginner’s level for self-improvement in daily life (Kriya Yoga) and an advanced level (Samyama Yoga) for one who wishes to delve deep into the esoteric.

The world has become smaller and success lies in our ability to handle rapid change. This change could range from diversity issues in the form cultural, racial or sexual biases to assimilation of technical and business information; or issues as mundane as handling jet lag and cross cultural food.

The process of confronting, accepting, assimilating and responding to reality is not easy, especially when each experience is new and traditional/ “ready recipe” responses are inappropriate/ inadequate. This continuous need for “ground up” response tests our entire value and belief system and stresses us.

We live in an objective world. Everything we do and are conditioned to be is a product of the objective world. We constantly think and work with metrics, whereas nature works on different rules, sometimes in conflict with our own.

Example: Consider time. We constantly plan our lives to the clock, but does the Sun care? Do the winds and tides plan? Does the typhoon that ravages the coast announce its intention? What happens when we are engrossed with something we like? We forget time which for us, becomes the gap between when we remember starting the activity to the moment we became conscious of ourselves again. When we say that we lost ourselves, what does that actually mean? We had channalised our energies is an activity that so engrossed us that our consciousness was completely merged with the subject, achieved the state of Yoga. Therefore, time can only be defined as “the gap between two states of consciousness”. That is the time when we are completely aware of ourselves.

Therefore, if we could keep ourselves engrossed in the present moment, we would be able to operate in any situation with clarity and balance and with far lesser confusion or passion. This will increase our level of consciousness or awareness and allow us to realize our full potential. This is Situational Awareness.

Measure of Progress

How do we know that we are succeeding in our efforts? From first principles, we know that stress occurs when we get tipped off our internal balance (feeling of peace) or perceive a lack of congruence with our value system, Dharma. As we progress along the path of Situational Awareness, we will notice many changes occurring within us. Mainly, there will be an increased sense of peace as we begin to understand how to deal with change and with that which is not aligned with our Dharma. This will result in a feeling of peace that covers us, our family, neighbours and those that interact with us. As this feeling of peace increases, we will get greater confidence in our ability to manage our lives.

There are four distinct levels of development in the road to the feeling of peace. They are Jagrat (Wakeful state); Swapna (Dream State); Sushupti (Awareness State) and Turiya (Superconscious State). Clearly, the turiya state is meant for mystics and not for daily application. However, the other states can be used as metrics for judging progress.

How do we judge these states? Jagrat (Wafeful State) is when we are conscious of what is going on around us. Swapna (Dream State) is when we see images and intentions, not activity. Sushupti (Awareness State) is when we are conscious of an awareness that goes beyond the material level. The three states will manifest as shown in the matrix below. These are nine combinations that the practitioner can experience in the path of Situational Awareness. Situational Awareness is highest when, in any of the nine combinations, one experiences a sense of peace. This sense of peace means that the gunas and energy centres are in balance.

The first name decides which level predominates. The ability to remain in the level appropriate to the situation is the key to measuring progress.

Example: Creativity would rise from a Swapna row matrix.

Example: Driving requires one to be in the Jagrat state. Here, a person must be aware of what is in front, back and beside him. If the person were to be in Swapna state, then obviously chaos would result. Sushupti state is also not advisable as in this state, the person is focused inwards and the muscles are in a state of rest. So, in Sushupti state, the person would drive with high level of awareness, but at a very low speed.