Chapter 36 The Freedom We All Seek

"That which the yogis seek does not serve their own purpose.  In fact, as long as we have our own purpose, we cannot really be open to higher and sacred purposes.  The whole meaning of yoga can be understood as progressive freedom from the hindrances that impede our availability to the purpose of supra personal intelligence.  The major hindrance is what we usually call our ego or "self", as long as it serves its own ends, it cannot serve the ends of the real "Self".
Ravi Ravindra - "The Spiritual Roots of Yoga"

As I read Ravindra's book on "Yoga The Royal Path To Freedom", I am drawn to its truth, and how it personally speaks to me through my own experience of Yoga and the transforming power of Kundalini energy.  Although, through my Christian faith, I believe that Grace is necessary to make the necessary steps towards "dying" to self in order to enter the power and presence of Christ, we can facilitate the power of Grace through our practice of the eight limbs of Yoga. 

Kundalini, with its ecstatic blissful flow of exuberant energy, keeps us steadfast on the path, gives us the motivation for our journey, and fills us with God's delightful Presence.

All of this must never to done to serve our own purpose, because our own purpose accentuates the "ego" which then becomes the impediment to the whole process. 

What purpose must be always kept in the forefront? 


 As Ravindra points out: The end must be the holiness of the "Real Self", the Divine within.

St. Ignatius begins his spiritual exercises with the following

prayer which speaks of the same reality. He calls it "The First Principle And Foundation".
We are created to praise, reverence, and serve God our Lord, and by this means to save our souls.
The other things on the face of the earth are created to help us in attaining the end for which we were created.
Hence, we are to make use of them in as far as they help us in the attainment of this end, and must rid ourselves of them in as far as they prove a hindrance.

Therefore, we must make ourselves indifferent to all created things, as far as we are allowed free choice and are not, under any prohibition.  Consequently, as far as we are concerned, we should not prefer health to sickness, riches to poverty, honor to dishonor, a long life to a short life.  The same holds for all other things.
Our one desire and choice should be what is more conducive to the end for which we are created.

What St. Ignatius is saying in respect to his spiritual exercises is similar to what Ravindra is saying in respect to the Yogis and their spiritual practice.  As long as we are driven by our own purpose, that is the purpose of "ego", then the freedom that we seek will never be available to us.  The "ego" is the very cause of the slavery from which we are trying to escape. 

What does the "ego" seek?  Health versus sickness, riches versus poverty, honor versus dishonor, long life versus short life.  Ego is caught up in the world of those things we are attracted to or repulsed by, and as long as we are driven by our attractions and those things that repulse us, we remain caught in this web of our own purpose.  It is only in our "holy indifference" that we can escape this self-made prison and enter that reign where subject/object relatedness disappear.

Such a transition to this new reign is not possible through use of the "self".  In fact our "self" is a contradiction to the "selflessness" we seek because it continues to get into its own way.

Kundalini is the energy that breaks this attachment to the illusionary "self", cuts through years of conditioning, and allows us to enter into relatedness as "I AM". 



The Christian surrenders to Christ through Grace to experience this Oneness with His Spirit.  "I live now, not I, but Christ lives in me."