Mystic Mantra: Be patient, be alert

What is yoga? The common understanding is: controlled breathing, asanas, etc. This is beneficial on a superficial level — the physical level. That’s why it has a mass appeal all over the world. The world is only interested in physical fitness. There’s nothing wrong in that, but yoga is much deeper. It is to have total harmony. In the words of Osho, “It is the music of your very existence, of your being; it is the music of your inner harmony, it is the music of your inner rhythm.” Deep within, we all are in search of this inner rhythm of life.

Talking about the songs of Kabir, he asks: “Why don’t you listen to the inner rhythm of your being? Where do you go rushing? And you are searching for this inner rhythm — sometimes in money, in power, in prestige and in so many kinds of relationships. And if we meditate deeply in silence, it is possible to listen to this inner rhythm, though once in a while, even in ordinary life, it happens.

Osho says: “You know those few moments when suddenly one day you wake up in the morning and everything seems to fit perfectly. The birds are singing, the air is fragrant, the sun is rising, and suddenly you feel that all is quiet. You are no longer separate for a moment... you feel a great joy arising in you for no reason at all. You feel vibrant, utterly rejuvenated, at home. Maybe the night’s sleep and rest, the beautiful morning, the song of birds, the fresh air, dew drops on grass, leaves shining in the early sun — all this created the context. Not by your effort, but just by accident. You fell in harmony with yourself and with existence. Remember, it always happens together: when you fall in harmony with yourself and with existence.”

“Harmony has two sides: the individual and the universal. If the individual is in harmony, then there is no reason why he should not be in harmony with everything. If all the conflict inside you has disappeared, even for a single moment, in that moment you are part of everything, you are no more an island, you are no more separate. All walls have suddenly disappeared; you are no more imprisoned. In that moment, you know the glory, splendour that life is. That splendour is God, that feeling is God. That experience of harmony is God. God is not a person but the presence that is felt when you are in harmony and you are also in harmony with existence — that accord. It happens only accidentally because you have not prepared yourself for it, to receive it consciously.”

To attune to such moments and enjoy such an exalted space, Osho gives the master key: It may happen to you while listening to music. It may happen to you while lying on your bed doing nothing. It may happen to you while painting. Or it may happen in a thousand and one ways. But watch: whenever it happens, whenever that tremendous blissful moment comes to you, when God knocks on your door, watch in what context it is happening. Be alert!

Look around — in what space it is happening. And then you have the key. Whenever you will be able to create that context, that space, the moment will come again. You cannot make it happen, but you can make yourself available for it to happen. You cannot force it to happen, but you can create all that is necessary for it to happen. It is not a doing on your part: it just happens. But, still, you can play a role. That’s how all techniques of meditation have been developed. That’s how yoga came into existence.