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More than 15,000 odd years ago, when Adiyogi first began the transmission of yogic sciences to his seven disciples – the Saptarishis – he begins with expounding many incredible things about the entire mechanics and dynamics of human existence.  At one point in time, he comes to a dimension known as Kaivalyapada – where he offers 112 different ways through which a human being may attain his fullest potential.  The seven disciples were enrapt, absorbing all that he was giving.  But Parvati, his wife, was a bit more casual about the whole thing.  She asks him, ‘Why only 112? Maybe there are more that you do not know about?’   Well, Adiyogi was in that kind of mood which made him just brush her aside.  He wasn’t sitting there as a man, or as her husband, he was sitting there as a Guru, so when such interference came, he just ignored them.

Parvati’s feminine ego flares up and she insists:  ‘There must be more ways. And I am going to find them.’  Adiyogi just says, ‘By all means do go and try if you want to.  But using the human system, there can be but 112 ways – because there are only 112 doorways for this body through which it can attain such’.  So, if you wish to do something, you can do that only with what resources and infrastructure you have at your disposal. You cannot work with what is not on your hands.  So he just dismisses her.  Furious, she leaves and performs severe austerities for a long period of time exploring other ways.  She does intense sadhana and puts in much effort, but could find nothing else.  She returns upon realising this failure.

Adiyogi’s exposition was still underway.  This is a dialectical culture where things are expressed in very subtle ways, so she did not come and say anything.  Being his wife, she could sit beside him, but she sits a step below him, to indicate that she has failed.  But she did not want these seven people to know.  Adiyogi looks at her … and then he explodes into a state of energy where these 112 ways found physical manifestation around him, and this was the grandest moment that she had ever witnessed.

Of these 112, largely 84 of them are purely kriya.  Fundamentally, “kriya” means “internal action.”  When you do inner action, it does not involve the body and mind as both the body and mind are still external to you.  When you have a certain mastery to do action with your energy, then it is a kriya. But in today’s world, most human beings do not have the necessary physical body to do kriya yoga in its entirety. It will just burn you down if you don’t have the right kind of body.  So, a combination that involves other aspects of you – body, mind and emotion – works best.   The reason 84 are purely kriya yoga is because the creation we are in right now is considered the 84th cycle of creation.  This is why there are 84 basic asanas. Every asana is a kriya by itself if you do it properly.  If you are simply doing it like an exercise with music and whatever else, that’s different. That’s not hatha yoga. But if you do a proper asana, every asana is a kriya by itself because there is an inward movement involved.

So, 84 of the 112 ways are pure kriya. All the others also have aspects of kriya because Adiyogi does not look at life through the intellect. He has a great disdain for intellect. He thinks human intellect is worth nothing. That’s his opinion and I agree with him because in the larger context of existence, the human intellect is really nothing. Amongst ourselves, it is a lot of drama – with our intellect and smart talk we can create little things, but in the larger existence, it doesn’t mean anything.

Let me tell you a story. It happened one day in the year 2075, a bunch of scientists decided to take an appointment with God. They went and said, “Hey old man, you’ve done pretty good with creation so far. But now, we can do everything that you can.” God said, “Oh, is that so? What is it that you can do?” They said, “Well, we can create life.” God said, “Give me a demo.”  So they took some soil.  Boom, boom, boom, they did something and made a baby out of it, and the baby cried. God said, “Well, that’s quite impressive but first get your own soil.”

Before you and me, something created all this. You can call it God, Shiva or whatever you want, but you didn’t make it. If you look at any aspect of creation, one thing that it smacks of is intelligence – intelligence beyond your imagination. Intelligence and intellect are different things. For example, the body is an immensely complex chemical factory. There is a certain intelligence managing and conducting this. Do you believe that you could intellectually, logically conduct this whole factory? You would not be able to manage a single cell if you tried.

What you call “intelligence” and what you refer to as “creator” are not different. Creator is pure intelligence – intelligence beyond logic. If you operate only within the limitations and framework of your intellect, you will never know that which we refer to as the creator. You will just do the circus of life. Life is a circus when your intellect and body alone are involved.  It becomes a magical dance when the intelligence begins to play its role.

[box type=”custom” color=”#000000″ bg=”#e8dfa7″ radius=”15″ border=”#000000″]On the 24th of February this year, on Maha Shivaratri day, the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi travelled to Velliangiri to unveil the 112 feet high visage Adiyogi – the Source of Yoga. Designed and consecrated by Sadhguru, founder of the Isha Foundation, this powerful sanctum at the Isha Yoga Centre in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu State, has since been dedicated to humanity. (carry accompanying picture as well!)[/box]

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