Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Five types of living, five types of personalities, five attitudes towards life

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I sometimes re-read what I have read and have a strange sense that I do not know that I wrote it. I mean that... memory failure I guess, or just bad karma, that makes me forgot these labels. Then, I am somewhat happy since if I remember all this gyan, than maybe I will be proud yoga teacher who knows it all, and not this person who feels that there is so much to learn and why I teach, when being student is so much better:) 

Below the five types of attitudes that Patanjali's Yoga Sutra's talk of. Actually, though these describe personalites, and states of living, you realise that while we may have one state in a certain aspect of our lives, we may display another in yet another aspect of it. So, there seems to be so many combinations of how we may knot ourselves. 

Below, a snapshot of what yoga seeks to cleanse! 

The first state in which most of us run around our life is called Mudha (stupefied). This includes even great achievers who achieve so only in a driven manner, as if they are out-of-control clock-work toys, set permanently to behave in a certain fashion. This explains why some achievers can be mono-dimensional, almost seeming to lack basic human concerns.
The second stage is called Kshipta, meaning overwrought. Again, several of us can be ranked under this label. This must include those of us dashing through the breathless rat race of life. The third stage is Viksipta, which again is a state of restlessness. Again, this is a common state for most humanity. But it is slightly better than the first stage of stupefaction. Slowly, as we evolve we get away from these common states in which most life-forms, including humanity, are  caught. Then we move towards the fourth stage, called Ekagrata.  All of us also occasionally touch base with this state when we have consuming passions or ambitions.  But in yogatrue Ekagrata is when it is linked to a spiritual temper, the intense longing to break free from the trappings of human life and its karmic circles or samskaras. The final state,  in which we see hardly find a handful of people, is called  Niruddha.  In this state one is completely self-seated or  in a state of perfect self-control.

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