Can yogic philosophy teach us how to lead a stress-free life? (Chitta Prasadanam)
We live in a socially-connected world. A world where we spend most of our time interacting with people in different spheres of our life. Social relationships are indispensable: we need to interact with other people for food, work, recreation, and just any other thing we can imagine. This power of homo sapiens to socially interact and collaboratively work towards a directed goal has led our ascent to the top of the species chart. However, a careful look on the flip side will make us realize that this social web is also one of the major reasons for the pandemic of mental health issues the world is enduring. Facing and dealing with people (parents, children, managers, friends, life partner) causes or exacerbates our stress, anxiety, depression, and other related synonyms. 7/10 deaths in the world are caused by Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) [1] — diseases mainly attributed to lifestyle disorders with their root cause lying in mental ineptness.
Yoga
The common perception of yoga is limited to body postures or asanas. However, Patanjali Yoga Sutras (PYS), one of the first systematic written compilation of yogic philosophy conceived by sage Patanjali more than 2000 years ago, has only 3 out of 195 sutras dedicated to asanas. Even in those three sutras, sage Patanjali explains the meaning, importance, and methodology to achieve perfection of asanas and purposely refrains from mentioning even a single asana name! Patanjali defines yoga as Chitta Vritti Nirodha — yoga is restraining (Nirodha) the fluctuations (Vritti) of the mind (Chitta). This concise definition conveys that asanas are just the tip of the iceberg and yoga has more to do with the mind. Does yogic philosophy have a solution to better deal with stress and mental agitation caused by our interaction with people? Can it help mitigate our miseries? In this article, we will be discussing the below enlightening sutra that can effortlessly guide us through the healing path:
मैत्री करुणा मुदितोपेक्षाणांसुखदुःख पुण्यापुण्यविषयाणां भावनातः चित्तप्रसादनम् ॥३३॥
maitrī karuṇā mudito-pekṣāṇāṁ-sukha-duḥkha puṇya-apuṇya-viṣayāṇāṁ bhāvanātaḥ chitta-prasādanam ॥33॥
Definitions
maitrī — friendliness; karuṇā — empathy, compassion; mudita —cheerfulness, convivial; upekṣana — indifference, disregard
sukha — happiness; duḥkha — pain, suffering; puṇya — virtue, accomplished; apuṇya — vicious, wicked
bhāvanātaḥ — attitude; chitta — mind; prasādanam — peaceful, purification, calm, tranquility
Stress mainly spins out as a result of our interaction with four kinds of people: sukha (happy), duhkha (sad), punya (virtuous), and apunya (wicked). It is important to note that none is carved out of these qualities inherently and distinctively, rather, each one of us exhibits each of these behaviours on different occasions. Trying to avoid such encounters is futile, though, a change in thought process can be rewarding. The sutra discusses the correct approach to be developed with these different kinds of people:
1. Sukha (Happy) → Maitri (Friendship)
A common human nature is to be envious of people who tend to be happy. We question their happiness and feel the same void in our life. It does nothing but disturbs the equanimity of our mind. Patanjali says to develop friendship with the happy people — not only four own mental equipoise but also to enjoy the happiness of those happy. And maitri is not just friendship — it’s the feeling of oneness. A yogi enjoys the success of his peers, friends, and family members as his own and let’s go all malice. With such an attitude, one can turn all enemies into friends and enjoy life to the fullest.
2. Duḥkha (Sad) → Karuṇā (Empathy)
We tend to show sympathy and pity to those unhappy or undergoing difficult circumstances. This feeling of superiority brings ephemeral mental comfort. Such an impurity of the mind is dreadful for oneself and society. And karuna is not only about showing compassion, empathy, or shedding tears on the plight of others — it should be coupled with a thoughtful action. A true yogi will help those in distress to the best of his physical, social, emotional, and financial capacity to uplift the sorrow of the affected. Develop a selfless attitude to strengthen the weak until they can stand on their own.
3. Puṇya (Virtuous) → Mudita (Delight)
Virtuous people are those who have high moral standards and perform selfless acts for society. In this fabricated and inordinate pessimism in the world, we overlook such kind and courageous humans. There still are abundant people who support the elderly, who respect women, sacrifice their life for others and who despite themselves being in penury, devote their life for the underprivileged. Such people and their acts should be celebrated, discussed, and disseminated. Patanjali says that we need to enjoy and celebrate the success even of our adversaries, thus preventing the heart-burning feeling caused by jealousy, hatred, and envy. Such an equanimous heart brings peace to the mind.
4. Apuṇya (Wicked) → Upekṣana (Indifference)
We all tend to have people around us who are wicked, have purposely wrong intentions, or their actions cause us unintended physical, mental, or emotional harm. Their presence itself cause disturbances in our subconscious mind. There is a two-stage process to deal with such groups of people: the first is indifference and the second is contemplation. We ought to first learn to ignore and develop an indifferent attitude towards such seemingly vicious people. Such disregard for their acts and avoiding the feeling of antipathy will lead to our peace of mind. Thereafter, a true yogi tries to understand the circumstances which would have led the unfortunate person into such conduct and the extent to which he is responsible. He shifts his perspective, reference point, and self-examines his own actions in those circumstances. This self-study and contemplation teach us to be charitable to all.
Practising the above four attitudes (bhavanatah) will lead to Chitta Prasadanam — the mind (Chitta) becomes quiet, calm, tranquil and achieves a state of bliss (Prasadanam).
Abhyasa and Vairagya
Philosophy always sounds convincing in theory but usually, its principles are hard to experience and appreciate in practical life. Fortunately, sage Patanjali gives a two-fold path for stopping the fluctuations of the mind — abhyasa (practice) and vairagya (non-attachment). Consider Chitta Prasadanam as a journey to be endured in life through repeated practice and not a pole to be accomplished. When a yogi encounters the aforementioned situations, he observes his emotions, thoughts, and reactions. He retrospects and improves his actions the next time.
Vairagya is an intense concept and is a lot more than its literal meaning. I leave its discussion for another article.
[1] https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/noncommunicable-diseases
Note
In many lines, I have referred to a yogi as ‘he’. I must clarify that yoga is fortunately free from religion, faith, age and gender. Yoga is itself a philosophical principle to be followed. I have just used a male reference for ease of writing aesthetics and nothing more. Any other gender is equally likely to be a yogi.
Acknowledgement
The yoga illustration is taken from freepik. The explanation of the sutra takes inspiration from my readings of Four Chapters on Freedom (by Swami Satyananda Saraswati), Light on Yoga (by BKS Iyengar), attending lectures of my instructor Mr. Srinivas Pulluri and my personal life experiences. A few lines have been directly borrowed from Light on Yoga. Thanks to TCS Yoga Council members and TQ Cert faculty without whom my yoga journey wouldn’t have started.
Thank you so much for reading! The views are personally mine and not of the organization I am associated with. If you have suggestions, feedback or want to just casually chat, please leave a comment or do contact me at: adijain0707@gmail.com. I would love to hear!
