Sunday, April 21, 2013

The wrong type of focus or ekagraha:yogic thought

I was trying to jot down some points on eka graha and found this interesting tidbit which confirms what I have suspected for long, that some aspects of yoga when done without awareness can actually make you quite a monster (see how many of the top gurus fall, sticky clay at their feet),

Ekagraha can actually make you very arrogant ("I have reached" or "I have control" sense of overweening pride). I see that in students too, who grow in a weird way, backwards.  The more asanas they learn the more arrogant they get.. instead of using the poses to break a dominant pattern, they use them to reinforce them. It disturbs me, to see yoga used in this fashion and also, I am afraid, promoted in this fashion, including by established institutes.

Here is what Patanjali himself warns, about the wrong type of focus..


Rishi Patanjali describes the dangers of wrong type of concentration, which lacks the purity of a spiritual temper: " When such concentration is not accompanied by non-attachment, ignorance remains. The aspirant will reach the state of discarnate gods or become merged in the forces of nature."




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