As you progress on the path of yoga, in the abode of Shiv, the first encounter is with pret. Prets are among the ganas of Shiv, and by their very nature they try to prevent you from moving further in. They distract you and attempt to put you off the path.
Those of you, who are sadhaks, must have heard from people around you that you should not do dhyan. Often there is a hue and cry in the house when a family member wants to go for a dhyan session. The path of yoga or dhyan is the path of few, who want to access the real, that which does not change and that which is eternal. The majority spend their life chasing the unreal—collecting the temporary aspects of physical life. All those who prevent you from walking this path of reality are pret only, after leaving the body, they will be found in pret yoni.
Let me give you an example of a husband and wife who practise Sanatan Kriya at Dhyan Foundation. Both are extremely dedicated sadhaks. The husband had been keeping ill, but after starting the practices, his health improved tremendously and he started glowing. At a recent havan at Dhyan Ashram, he reported having darshans of certain devs and devis. A non-believer, he was surprised at what was happening and how things were suddenly falling in place for both. But shortly afterwards, he told his wife to stop coming for the sessions. The wife was shocked and told me about it. I asked if there had been any uncanny occurrences in their house. She said, “Yes, at night sometimes the doors start banging on their own…” The growth of the couple was vertical, within a short period they had traversed the journey from here to there… and so the first encounter was with a pret.
It is the nature of prets. They will not let you enter for their thought pattern is, ‘Shiv is ours.’ They will lure you and also threaten you; they will poison your mind. Whenever you face a resistance from those near you or there is a disturbance, you can be sure you are walking the right path and you have entered the territory of prets. One should not give in to the attempts of the prets. After sometime, the prets will go away.
Yoga is not about talking big, it is the path of experience. When you experience it, the glow is evident in you. If even after that, you choose to tread the path of maya (unreality), there is no bigger fool than you. It is the pret influencing your buddhi. In my initial years of practising yoga, when I would sit in dhyan, friends/neighbours would start playing music or banging doors. In social gatherings, they would make fun of me and try to dissuade me. I bore such distractions for over 10 years. It is the prets at work. I had had the experience, and after that experience I could not disrespect those shaktis by changing my path.
The prets may trouble you in any form—your friends, relatives, parents, children, siblings, spouse or your own thoughts. Therefore, before listening to anyone, discretion should be exercised. Shastras say listen to parents, but shastras also narrate the stories of Prahlad and Hiranyakashyap. If Prahlad had listened to his father, what would have become of Creation? Meghnad listened to his father, and so despite being powerful enough to captivate all three—Ram, Lakshman and Hanuman—he was slain. Both Prahlad and Meghnad got moksha, but Meghnad experienced downfall in physical life. Before giving in to your parents or spouse or relatives, you need to see what your role in Creation is. Meghnad had no role, there was no requirement for the phenomenal shakti he had, so he went back. Prahlad, on the other hand, had to carry forward the message of Vishnu. So despite resistance he continued on his path.
Yogi Ashwini is the spiritual head of Dhyan Ashram. Email: dhyan@dhyanfoundation.c
Shiv is the doer and may be likened to a vehicle. If you remove ‘i’ from Shiv, it becomes ‘shav’ (corpse). The ‘i’ represents Shakti, which is the fuel that energises this vehicle to perform action. Shakti is the force of the physical world. Shivratri is the night of merger of Shiv and Shakti making a complete whole. Shiv and Shakti pertain to manifest creation and arise from the unmanifest. The journey back to the unmanifest can be carved only through their complete merger which is the ultimate purpose of yoga and Sanatan Kriya . A practical example of merger of Shiv and Shakti is the institution of marriage where the merger of male and female leads to manifestation of a new life. If there is a mismatch in this merger of male and female, or Shiv and Shakti, the marriage remains incomplete. This imbalance is evident in the progeny who will exhibit anti-social and undesirable behaviour and traits. The rishis of yesteryear explained how incompleteness sets into the child in t...
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Excellent article. Indeed very true what yogi Ji has written.
ReplyDeleteInformative article by Yogiji in very understanble form for all.
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