by Gurani Anjali
When you open your eyes the first thing in the morning, what comes to mind? Do you know what comes to mind when you first open your eyes? Take note of that and see where your thought is directed the first thing in the morning when you wake up, when you open your eyes, or even before you open your eyes. Where were you? And when you do open your eyes, where do you look? Take note of that about 20 minutes to a half-hour after the whole affair. And then ask yourself what happened for the half-hour that you were awake. What is the first thing you look at? What is the thought prior to looking at the first thing? This is Yoga. Yoga is svadhyaya (self-study), to become conscious of everything you do. And where you are going.
So svadhyaya is a constant looking at what is happening in the moment. You have to be very conscious of that. What do you do before you open your eyes? What is happening before you open your eyes? Something happens to wake you up. When that something happens, then you get up. Something awakened you. Some thing, some power, some power awakened you and before you opened your eyes a lot of activity took place. Then you opened your eyes — what is the first thing you looked at? The beginning and the ending of each day is very important. Two important awakenings. The beginning and the ending. How do you end the day? What are the thoughts prior to closing the eyes? And what is the last thing you look at before closing your eyes? This is svadhyaya.
See what you are becoming every single moment of your life. You are always in the process of becoming. You are becoming. Don’t look just to be stifled and to fit into a certain box. You have to break out of all boxes. Break out of every box that you find yourself in. But how do you do that? Where do you go? What directions do you take? And how are you becoming? What is the nature of becoming? You want to be all that you can be. All powerful, a mighty force. You want to be in unison and harmony with the totality of life. But that totality is only made known and is known through small segments of daily affairs. Very tiny, microscopic segments of our life. Those little things must be witnessed, they must be known, they must be seen. And you must see yourself going and coming, coming and going, always in the nature of becoming like the Yin/Yang. The motion of prakriti/purusha: as one goes up, one goes down. It slows down and then it goes faster. All through the day you are doing that. But some know it and some don’t. So you must make yourself know it, let yourself know what is happening, let what is happening be known to you. And that takes just moment to moment watchfulness, careful watchfulness. But all of this cannot take place if there is no respect, honor and devotion. Without respect, without love, without devotion, these segments of daily life, remain forever closed. So when we approach these segments, these momentary passing of energies, if we don’t have the devotion, love and respect, unification is not possible. It is just not possible. You must have the magnetism that pulls. You must feel that pulling magnetism. And when that magnetism is felt, it becomes a living reality. To keep this going on a day to day basis, every minute, every second of existence, that takes careful attention. This is svadhyaya, self study. Om shanti.