As you speak it is very easy to understand, but when practising I feel is that this reflective mind is like a grace, it comes and sometimes it doesn't come. When it doesn't come, it is a kind of struggle. How does one keep it coming?
Yes. Of course it is something that has to come. I have explained the mathematics of an effortless state, after which you qualify for reflection. Unless you reach an effortless state you don't qualify for reflection. Unless you reach an effortless state you can't get a reflective state; that is one thing that you must understand.
Unless the effort has ceased, the lake of mind is not still; if the lake is not still you can't get undistorted reflections. The water is disturbed constantly; therefore you can't get reflections. There is a simple illustration I have given several times in the class, e.g. Janu Sirsasana. As a sincere student you go all out, go to the maximum position with all your efforts. Then what are you supposed to do thereafter? Can I maintain the Janu Sirsasana by lessening the motor force of the biceps, triceps, and shoulders? Because Janu Sirsasana is not meant for biceps, triceps and deltoids. There are hundreds of poses if you want to develop deltoids, biceps and triceps. Janu Sirsasana is not meant for your biceps, but then when you are doing it, all of you are using the biceps, the triceps.
So measure what the effort is to get your "the best" Janu Sirsasana, at that point of time. Now can you lessen your efforts and still maintain Janu Sirsasana. Sometimes you'll be able to carry out the process; the effort is lessening, the voltage of the physical body is slowly dropping, but the pose is not lost. That happens only at a particular point of time. Then what happens is that your pose also starts receding. But don't stop there. Again you have to strike a bargain: I have lost 10% of effort but the pose is only lost by 8%; still you are in the plus. Again I am lessening another 10% of effort but I am losing only 7%; still you are striking a bargain. But when it happens that you lose 10% and the pose also goes by 10%, then stop there, don't withdraw the effort thereafter.
As you mature in the pose, you will be getting to the next hierarchy -you can still withdraw the effort yet not lose the pose. This is one way. So go all out and start withdrawing superfluous muscular forces - you might be using your jaws, your teeth, in several poses. Maybe there are superfluous efforts; you can do without jaws being clinched, without tensing the temples, hardening the temples. So learn to analyse, go all out, sincerely, and start withdrawal, that is one way.
The other way is to start the pose at the mildest level of Janu Sirsasana, and then watch. If I induct, say 10 units, whether my pose can go more than ten units? That is mathematics. So, like the lazy people or those who don't want to work try to avoid responsibilities, try to avoid work, escape from the work as far as possible. They put it to someone else or escape when they are expected to work. Similarly, you should see: "Can I be doing that? Can I reach a degree of Janu Sirsasana by using less effort that I have been using all these days?" That's also bargaining. Just as you bargain while shopping - not in your country perhaps, even in this country we have lost all those things, the labels are there and you can't bargain. But you do bargain. Anyway, the thing is that you can bargain, starting from a mild degree and slowly go towards a middle degree and conserve all the effort.
Sometimes, you have to do all your practice in that way. That is the way of consolidation: "Can I use less effort and improve the pose? Or can I, without using any effort, intensify the pose?" Sometimes it is possible.
You pull and push unnecessarily, where it is not required. Don't think that you are justified to go all out into the pose, because if you go all out in Janu Sirsasana, you can never justify difficult forward bends, because you have gone all out to Janu Sirsasana. And by going all out you have stuck the pose. If Paschimottanasana requires ten times more energy, you don't have it. You don't have it because you have used all your energy for Janu Sirsasana; that is your 100% energy. Now suppose Paschimottanasana requires twice or thrice the energy of Janu Sirsasana, you don't have the energy and you will never justify Paschimottanasana. You should know that maybe your concept that Janu Sirsasana requires 100% effort is wrong. It may not require so much. Don't think that this is sincerity, it is foolishness. Using all our energy for all the poses is not sincerity, because some poses are less complicated and some poses are more complicated. There is a big difference between the efforts required for Trikonasana, Utthita Parsvakonasana, Sirsasana, Parivrtta Parsvakonasana. So, if you go all out in Trikonasana, you can't go all out for Parivrtta Parsvakonasana. It is not sincerity to go all out in Trikonasana, because you should know how much is required for it; otherwise, everything else is going to be superfluous.
Suppose you want to go to the market and buy something, just ten, fifteen kilos of vegetables. Now are you wise in carrying a trailer truck to get just fifteen kilos of vegetables? Or are two hands enough? It is not wise to carry a trailer truck of ten, twenty or thirty wheelers to get only fifteen kilos. Why don't you ask in your practice whether I am carrying a trailer truck to carry something that is just ten, fifteen kilos? That is effort management, which is very, very much essential and that will help you to develop the cessation of efforts. Otherwise you will never attain the pose. When you are practicing, say for Janu Sirsasana, the way to learn is, "What is the effort I require? How much effort am I using? How much effort can be used?" When these propositions are ascertained, you should definitely opt for "How much effort should I use?" not "How much effort can I use?"
Let us imagine a weight lifter who lifts 300 kilos in the world championship and he's trying for 300 kilos. Now, if you give him only 5 kilos, will he lift the weights in the same manner? And if he lifts them in the same way, is he stupid or intelligent?!
That effort management has to be there. So find out how much a pose requires and if it is necessary to use superfluous force. Because if you are at the middle shin in Janu Sirsasana, by increasing the effort, you will not go beyond the foot! So why should you exercise so much? Why should you exert so much? That's why I say, "If you go all out, you're all out" which is not expected.
When you learn the mathematics involved, you definitely develop a reflective faculty, the mathematics being, "I don't require so much, this is available, this is required, this is applied" and "how much more can be applied, how much less can be applied, how can it be worked out?" The mathematics comes into your system itself, your body itself and then you realise: "I don't require so much effort., Am I applying it superfluously? Or am I deficiently using it?" You can't be making big progress at any given time,. You can't go improving Janu Sirsasana by leaps and bounds in one day - it takes maybe six months or one year. So why should you go on so much for one day? Learn to conserve the efforts.
Prayatna saithilyam is the principal of asana; you must try, at every level of your pose, "Can I lessen the effort?" That is the habit you have got to develop, in the practice of asana. That is the principal concept of Patanjali himself. And you have seen Guruji practising; he can stay for time, with ease. This comes by endeavouring to practice with lesser effort every time.
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