yoga obstacles (30)

identity and avoidance

By Kulamarva Balakrishna

Vienna,Wednesday,March 12,2008: By reciting
`aum´ first the student internalizes his mind.This
helps him avoid distraction. In the second part,
the recitation keeps him away for obstacles.
That means the student is not weaned away by
routine things that divert the attention.The sutra
goes ´tatah pratyak chetananugamo antaraya
abhvahscha´,meaning the reitation guides the
mind inwards and shields it from obstacles.

What are the obstacles? How many are they?
The obstacles are nineThey are 1.illness,2.apathy,
3.doubt,4.carelessness,5.laziness,6.inability to
withdraw mind from superficial interests,7.
misconceptions 8.inability to cover ground, and
9.instability of the mind. These are distractions
of the mind.These are thus obstacles. In sanskrit
these are called ´vyadhi´,´styana´,´samshaya´,
´pramada´,´alasya´,´avirati´,´bhranti darshana´,
´alabdha bhumika´, and ´anavasthitatva´, known
as ´chitta vikshepas´ and are obstacles.

Vyasa describes,the illness in ayurvedic termes
as loss of balance of humours and secretions.
Apathy makes mind ineffective.Doubt makes
unable to choose.Careless is described as
lack of devotion.Laziness is inertia.The mind had
experiences to get attached to them. It is the
inability to withdraw from this attachment that
is called ´avirati´.Then misconception. Lack of
progress towards samadhi and instability is
when progress is made but it remains unstable.
These distractions are against samadhi therefore
obstacles.

These are associated with fiver group of tendencies
of the mind, beginning with knowledge,false knowledge,
imagination,sleep and memories,hold back mind
from progress.´Dukkha` unhappiness,´daurmanasya´
frustration,´angamejayatva´ uncontrolled movements
of the body, breathing imbalance accompany distractions,
as ´vikshepa sahabhuvah´ are the symptoms.These
prevented by pratcing on a single principle.`tat
pratishedhartham eka tattva abhyasah´. That is
sticking on the practice of the truth.(end)
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