Not that you will achieve Nirvana by reading this blog or the subsequent ones.

B
ut yes you might just be able to take a skimpy view of things which are concerne
d with this serious term Nirvana . As soon as you hear Nirvana , you may either imagin
e a once famous rock-band or bedraggled monks with glassy eyes smoking up. Whate
ver it is, the feeling that this term generally evokes isnirvana that of freedom w
hich we all aspire for, all the time, yet may not be able to specifically identi
fy it. But during our most trying times we want this most dearly. Well, though t
his is a Sanskrit term it has been amply used by both English and other language
s in India. In Sanskrit (??????? = Niravana) Nirvanaliterally means blown out . So
your imagination of a smoking up Sadhu really makes sense, doesn t it? But here, bl
own out may apply to death (as in extinguishing of the flame of life) or apply t
o some kind of hallucinogenic effect that blows your mind completely. Whatever i
t is, it doesn t seem to be this worldly. Now, this forms the purport of this blog
. This post and the one s to follow will take you on a journey of things that have
very little to do with materialistic concerns, which is the actual chase of the
outer world. We will hitchhike into a world that is internal and subtle. And the
more you travel there the more you will experience the frustrating chase coming
to an end. That may in some way give you a sense of freedom from chasing your ow
n tail (which at times you feel is going nowhere).
Understanding the fabric of freedom:
Freedom! We all want it but we are unsure of its true meaning. Is death freedom
? No, death is not the answer, otherwise we wouldn t be aspiring for it so much. T
herefore, the meaning goes beyond death. But before pondering on the meaning, on
e should understand from where does this aspiration or craving stem?
It is only with the understanding of the root cause, we will be able to understa
nd what we are seeking in the first place (mind you this is a Hitchhiker s Guide and
we will not dive deep).
Freedom is always associated with the word from . A prisoner wants freedom from his
hell, prison! A married man wants freedom from his family (mostly they do!). An
employee wants freedom from his work. A woman wants freedom from being subjected
to a weaker sex syndrome. The LGBT drive asks freedom from sexual prejudices. A
community wants freedom from its religious dogmas.
It s always freedom from something, a subject or an object. And why is it like thi
s? Because the current set-up is not comfortable. The prisoner is not comfortabl
e in his cell, he wants to go out and he doesn t want to be caged. The married man
is not comfortable with pressing responsibilities of his family, and needs a me t
ime. The lesbians and gays are not comfortable being treated with disrespect, wh
ile a community may not be comfortable with the regressive traditions of a parti
cular religion.
Discomfort is a sign of disharmony and being in discomfort means being in dishar
mony. If we are all in harmony with our respective current scenarios then defini
tely we will be at ease. There will be no freedom to seek. Isn t it? Now sometimes,
the most comfortable situations after a while give us complacency and we go on t
o seek freedom from that too!
It s a mirage that we seem to be chasing and it s eternal. There seems to be a disco
nnect between the outer world where we seek our freedom and leaving one form of
freedom to another. One who experiences all of these remains permanently dissati
sfied. This is actually a disharmony between the outer and the inner, the experi
ences and the experience-r .
YOGA the Harmony:
How do we create the harmony? Yoga (minus the a in pronunciation) is a Sanskrit te
rm with the literal meaning to be yoking together . In other words it means union or
harmony between the one who experiences and the experience. This is a practice w
hich when set in a routine discipline, achieves a large degree (at times rather
permanent one) of harmony between what we seek outside to what we actually want
inside. And with this practice there is a balance that we create between our imp
ulses that chases external satisfaction to our intellect that harnesses these im
pulses from going a-frenzy.
In Vedic Sanskrit , the more commonly used meanings are to add , to join , to unite ,
ch which takes on broader meanings as to employ , to use or to apply . In that sense

to
Yo

s also a practical application of certain practices that strive to achieve the u

nion.
The various Yogic practices:
The origin of Yoga is not known. It perhaps was born way back into antiquity. Bu
t surely it was born in this part of the subcontinent (as discovered from variou
s seals of the Indus Valley civilization). Lord Shiva has been given the mantle
of being the founder of Yoga (and thereby almost all the ancient schools of thou
ght in Hinduism), considering that we are extremely devoted to the concept of Go
dImage being the creator of everything and Shiva is considered as a Yogi (earlie
r depiction of this God has been in the image of being in certain yogic postures
). Without delving too much into its historical significance, let s touch upon the
aspects of Yoga that are practiced today and are widely applied to achieve a se
mblance of order/balance between your mind and body the internal and the external
.