A spiritual journey is like climbing a mountain. That sounds like a cliche. I agree, it is one. However the metaphor works and i hope in what is written below you will see some differences and indeed some sense.
The first 20, 30, 40 even 50 years are spent frolicking in the valley. The valley is rich and beautiful. It is green and lush. Time passes quickly in the valley. There is work to be done. Houses are to be built to secure one's place in the valley. Some houses at the top of the valley are coveted by those below and everyone is wondering how they can move up the valley. Sometimes the river comes into spate and the houses are destroyed along with everything else. Man spends his time looking up at the beautiful mountains around this valley, which is his safe home, but they are too high to climb. They require a lifetime of doing nothing else but climbing, he exclaims and goes back to his work in the valley. The mountains are indeed high and forbidding. But they beckon. Man cannot resist them. One day he starts the climb, saying, i'll just see what lies beyond and i'll be back by the evening.
Indeed he comes back but he has seen a new valley - one that lies a few reaches above. His heart wants that valley now. But there are no houses there. He cannot move to that valley for good. there are only temporary shelters and the man must move on after a while. There was still a way back from this valley, but as he goes further the path may become narrow and lead only upwards. The man is scared and he thinks about it for a while. Then he starts the climb again one day. He uses his body to climb the first part. He exerts himself to his physical limits and drops down exhausted at the end of the first climb. The view is beautiful but the tired man is nursing his body which is all but broken. This is physical or 'power' yoga. When we do yoga for fitness or toning of our bodies.
Then the man chances upon an ancient secret. The wind whispers in his ear - use me. And the man starts to use his breath. He breathes deeply as he climbs. He breathes rhythmically. He makes sure inhalation and exhalation are deep and nourish the body. Thus by concentrating on his breath, he stops straining his body in the climb. The body acquires a suppleness born of its natural instincts. It is no longer pushed and pulled by him and his will. It flows with a will of it's own and of the elements which it now loves. This is Pranayam
The man looks back and sees his valley, for it is still visible. He sees the fires raging there and he closes his eyes and prays. He first thanks God for himself and then prays for those others.
The next climb is steep. It looks hard and even working with the breath does not make it any easier. The man despairs. This is when his mind finally comes to his rescue. The mind now begins to co-operate with the man. He uses his innate intelligence and deep concentration to find a way around the climb. With the mind fully engaged no climb is too hard for the man. He climbs rapidly and quickly. But the mind is fickle. It deserts him at a critical juncture. It wanders off on it's own leaving the man with nothing but his body and breath to help him. And now that is not enough. The man has climbed higher and he cannot be abandoned by his mind thus. He slips back. He rolls all the way down again. Sometimes he rolls back to the previous valley and sometimes even all the way back to the bottom where his mates still live. The mind is an unreliable friend. It tells you it is your friend, because it thinks for you, but indeed it can be treacherous. The way to tame this friend that becomes a foe, is meditation. Meditation brings the mind under control. It ensures it never strays, never gets lost. With meditation to calm our minds we do yoga practice with our body, breath and mind.
Now the scenery becomes even more beautiful. There is calm all around. The senses experience unheard and unseen beauty. The man is happy and in the best physical and mental shape he has ever been. but the next phase of climbing is a sheer rock face. there is nothing but a sheet of rock before his eyes. he controls his emotions, stills his breath and closes his eyes. He calls upon all his energy held in the seven energy centres in the body. He knows this is a task beyond human strength and mind. He has to call upon his chakras to release and unblock all the energy they hold within. With this strength the man is able to surpass this difficult phase. This is yoga with body, breath and mind, all concentrating on unblocking the charkas and feeling the subtle parts of our inner and universal selves.
Having climbed thus far, there can still be setbacks. No climb upto now is without reversals. The man knows and he has had experiences. A single person or persons, episode or episodes, experience or experiences, thought or thoughts from his life in the valley still has the ability to pull him down. Just thinking about those makes his breath shallow, his heart beat faster. All the emotions swept aside during the climb come rushing back and swamp the man when this happens. He may become weak in body as wel. He may over-exert and hurt himself. Or he may discover an unstrengthened muscle, an unconquered desire. All these are roadblocks in the man's journey and he tries to circumvent them. All usual the things that come to his aid are those that may have caused his downfall in the first place - his body, breath and mind. He learns that he needs to work positively through these and only these to achieve his ends.
After this final climb, there are no further inclines. (all the climbing is within). The summit is a mere stone's throw away and the path is simple. The man is within reach of it. it looks beautiful and inviting. the man knows he can walk to it and stand atop it any time he pleases. But he also has the subtle knowledge that it is not that simple. He has to be fully ready to reach that summit. Does he even want to go there? This station that he has reached is already so beautiful. Should he not just stay here and spend the rest of his days in joys and happiness. In fact being more learned than others he is in a position of great strength. He can help those in their upward journey. He can go back down to help those struggling below and up again, for he knows how to. He does not even need to climb down sometimes, the ones below can hear him, he speaks with such authority and clarity. He can surely be very happy in this place of comforts and live with utmost respect from others around him.
But the man knows that bliss, which is one step beyond happiness and joy, lies in the summit. He meditates upon the summit to fully understand it before he tries to go to it. He searches deep within himself. He seeks answers to questions that troubled him in the past. He looks for the Truth. He uncovers the dark layer of his subtle body by constant search and questioning. It is the layer of indecision. The man is thrown in a quandry whether to proceed further and pass on or stay in this state. It is the hardest layer, he realises, harder than all the previous ones though he had thought those to be hard when he was passing through them. It is the hardest because the struggle is within himself, against himself. In a sense, the struggle is against an unknown.
If and only if he passes through this meditation, the man achieves uncovering of another layer of himself and is now confronted with the penultimate layer or the penultimate step in climbing Mt. Spiritual. This layer is very strong. It is full of currents that push and pull the man this way and that. He experiences several joys, having left sorrows behind and is pinned down by those. He wants to stay with the joys - they are so beautiful. But these joys will keep him away from the summit. When he realises this he strikes out towards the summit once again. The joys pull him back and this time he tries to fight them away. What enables him to fight back is the knowledge that the joys are related to something. If the conditions are lifted, the joys will go away. With this true realisation, he shakes away this layer of entrapment and enters the ultimate layer or the last camp before his summit ascent.
This is the path of salvation. Having uprooted all his samskaras from this and previous lives, the man moves freely on this path. He reaches the top and he finds someone else sitting there. The summit is taken. Someone sits on the pinnacle. He looks at him and shedding the last coat finally smiles a knowing smile. He recognises the other. For it is no other. it is himself - the I - the universal I that is inside all the layers and unless the mirror of spirtaulity is held up, he would never see that I.
At the summit of Mt. Spiritual, man merges with the I, and they both achieve the ultimate.
(this interpratation is an understanding, based on the teachings of Swami Nithyananda as taught in a spiritual practices course called the NSP held at his ashram in Bidadi, Bangalore, and on the commentaries of my yoga guru, Prasad Rangnekar)
