What’s in the Name or the Attire?
Just like a thief does not become a policeman by wearing a police dress. So a person does not become a yogi by wearing orange clothes.
Many people make a grave mistake of recognizing a ‘Yogi’ from his/her attire.
They assume that if somebody is wearing orange clothes, they must be a Yogi or if somebody keeps their name as ‘Yogi’, they are a Yogi.
This amuses me really!
Have you ever played the game of ‘chor-police’ (police & thief) in your childhood?
Did you really become a policeman when you wore that police dress?
Well, funnily some of us took that game very seriously.
In our real lives too, we started thinking that if someone wears the dress of a Yogi or a Guru, they are actually one.
Some people also start considering a person as Sadhu, Guru, Master or Yogi just because their name contains the word ‘Sadhu/Guru/ Master or Yogi’.
Still don’t believe it?
Well, let’s experiment something!
Table of Contents
Put on orange attire on yourself and try prefixing the word ‘Yogi’ to your name and then observe yourself for a month and tell me if you actually become a yogi with this attire and name change?
A Yogi is a True Yogi by his “expanded consciousness (chetna)” and mere clothes can never tell us about a person’s chetna.
– Kashish Gambhir
It is impossible to recognize a person by the clothes that he/she is wearing.
Let me give you an example:
Once when I was traveling back from Madhya Pradesh. While waiting on a bus station, me and my friends came across 4 sadhus who were begging and asking for money and food.
Two of us figured out that something was not right about them. They were only dressed like sadhus.
My other friends did not believe us and of course nobody would, ‘coz they looked soo really genuine!
Two of us placed a bet with the other friends.
And that is exactly how it turned out to be.
Soon after police came searching for the thieves and we saw those so-called sadhus running from the police.
Lesson:
Never judge a book by its cover.
Whether somebody dresses extravagantly or simply, can never tell you about who they really are!
Also read : Spirituality vs Religion : understand the difference
The Secret : Fake Yogi vs Authentic Yogi
A Yogi can take you only as far in the spiritual journey as he himself has reached.
And if a ‘so-called Yogi’ himself is worldly and is interested to hold positions in politics or entertainment, then that’s what you would become eventually.
Don’t fool yourself into thinking that a man sitting inside the jail can help you achieve freedom from this cycle of birth & death.
In today’s world, when most books and video content is copied from one ‘Imposter- yogi’ to another, it is very hard to find an authentic yogi.
(2) And if you do find the authentic one, how would you know if that Yogi would be able to help you achieve your spiritual goals?
Now don’t tell me that spirituality means that ‘I have no desire or goals‘…
well, that’s the absolute last stage of the journey (that comes wayyy after enlightenment) but the journey always starts from desire.
Because even the desire to realize the Lord or to achieve enlightenment is also a desire. And without the desire, we won’t even sustain on our spiritual journeys for long.
One thing you can surely look out for: is the desire of the yogi that you’re following. But you won’t get the real answer by asking them (thieves don’t say they are thieves, right?).
Instead, you get the real answer by looking at their actions.
Where are they spending their most time at?
Have they been involved in any criminal cases ?
Are they more interested in politics or entertainment industry than in doing sadhna (meditation)?
[ NO- don’t listen to their words-look at their actions for the truth]
Coming back to finding an authentic teacher…
To find an authentic yogi, we first need to understand ‘what Yog is’.
What Is Yog/ Yoga?
‘Yog/ Yoga’ means the Union – Union of the soul to the supreme soul.
Therefore, a perfect yogi must be the one who has achieved that union of his soul to the supreme soul.
And hence, reached a point where he/she has no desires, whatsoever.
Don’t even bother about hose with political motives or any other motives whatsoever.
Can Yoga Change Your Life and Help Achieve Enlightenment?
Physical Yoga can indeed improve our health & can make our bodies healthy, if done properly and consistently (take advise of your doctor before pursuing).
But can the physical yogic exercises help achieve enlightenment?
In Kalyug (today’s age), as the Vedas & holy scriptures have stated and as you and I can also substantiate with our own personal experiences by practising physical yogic exercises…
the outer yoga-asanas cannot really lead us to the union with the Lord, not anymore…not in Kalyug…
because in this age we humans are more focused on the wordly pursuits. Even if we don’t want to, we still have to be involved in the world to fulfill our basic necessities and to fulfill our Dharma as a family member.
At most the physical yoga, can only take our soul up to the astral level of consciousness but not beyond that.
Meeting the True Yogi or A Perfect Spiritual Teacher
It is a famous saying that ‘when the disciple is ready, the Guru appears’.
A Perfect Yogi is actually the Perfect Spiritual Teacher.
[refer: the meaning of ‘yog’ above]
But the question is, which Guru? Who is a Guru? Is a Guru even a Human Being? What do the Vedas and other holy scriptures teach us about who a Guru is?
and why do different people reach different stages of progress on their spiritual journeys in the same period of time?
Well, the answer goes much deeper than what our souls could possibly imagine.
Maybe we do not know the relevance and the importance of understanding ‘Who a Guru Is’.
This understanding is actually the focal point and the entire foundation of ‘one’s ENTIRE spiritual journey’. If this goes wrong, your entire spiritual journey of 30 years may only help you progress from Point A to Point B.
But if this understanding goes right, your spiritual journey can take you from Point A to exiting the concepts of alphabets altogether.
This one thing requires the most attention and the most point on one’s spiritual path.
Wonder why is that?
Well, if you make an imposter your teacher, then all he can pass on to you is the bookish knowledge – not the wisdom. Well, even Google and AI can do that. Rather make them your teachers than the imposters!
If you make a Primary class spiritual teacher your guide on spiritual journey, then you will be able to reach only up to the primary level yourself because a teacher can only take you as far as he/her himself has reached.
On the contrary, if your Spiritual Teacher is the Principal on the Spiritual path, then the chances of you becoming the Principal would also get much higher.
In other words, if your teacher has 100$, he can at most give you 100$,
not 1000.
Most of us do not really care about choosing our Spiritual Teacher or the Perfect Yogi from the plethora of teachers that we are listening to on the internet everyday.
We somehow tend to accept what the fate brings us. But, what if the fate brought us an imposter. Of course, the imposter won’t reveal to us that he is an imposter, right?
Such a one would look like a Real Spiritual Guru to you. That’s what imposters do- they look real. You would know only after 10 years when you realize that you hadn’t achieved or progressed much on your spiritual path.
But are we ready to waste that sort of a time?
All in all, the most important thing on one’s spiritual journey is –
1) understanding who a Guru is (not a Human Being) (read more)
2) finding a guide who can show us how to connect to the Real Guru
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Namaste & love!
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