Surrender to “God”! Let’s go with this popular translation first.

So, if surrender-to-god is a Niyama, an internal discipline, then Yoga is meant for believers only? How about atheists? Who should atheists surrender to, for this niyama?

Long story short, no, we can all be assured that yoga is for everyone – believers, non-believers and everyone in between. Yogis do not follow a subscription model, nor do they believe in proselytisation. Yogis truly couldn’t care less if we followed their methods or not, and do not care how big a following they have.  They actually used that as a requirement –  this method of yoga has to work for everyone.  Yoga is an option for everyone, because it is basically a set of tools to become what we individually want to become (“asi” in Tat Twam asi and “art” in Thou art that). Some may want to experience “Tat”, some may want to go to Mars, and some may just be doing it out of curiosity…

Going back to the last blurb, in that story, Bhrigu kicked Vishnu the God in his chest – doesn’t that story kinda sound odd? We all agree there, right?   Then why did it sound okay to an accomplished rishi like Bhrigu? On top of that, Krishna (Vishnu-incarnate) himself declares that “he is Bhrigu among accomplished rishis” (Gita 10.25).  

Yogis don’t stop there, they tell us story after story where some vehemently hated “God”, but in the end came face-to-face with the same God, and merged with God! On the other hand, we have Arjuna who, when he’s finally granted the vision of Krishna’s Universal form, requests Krishna to go back to his human form after a little while. Why’s that? We will go through yogic thoughts on all these teachings, in segments. But the key idea is: we put God outside of us, where as Yogis’ concept is more holographic.  So, if Vishnu-God is within Bhrigu (also), then who exactly did he kick?  We will pick up on the holographic aspect some other time…

Needless to say that this niyama is a complex one with several layers. We will break this up, where we will first explore the concept of “Iswara” the personal God-part,  and then the “Pranidhana” part. The complexity comes from our individual definitions of “God”, and what Patanjali meant by “Ishwara”.

The topic of “God” can be a controversial and even politically incorrect topic for general discussion, but not to yogis… It’s integral to their methods. That’s because their approach to it: every individual, whether s/he accepts or denies the existence of god, has a concept of god. Even to deny the existence of god, s/he needs to have a concept of god to negate, right? That’s all really matters, and with that we are all on equal footing – we all have a starting point for our research.

The meaning of this phrase, “Ishwara Pranidhana” changes from “Twam” end to the “Tat” end, just like how that mattered while deciphering the Tapas-Dhyana pair. Twam-end tends to be more external world focused, and so let’s look at this from that viewpoint first.

Our starting point is neurobiology again – that’s the most verifiable evidence we can get, right? Neurobiologists claim that they can make us feel super-religious by simulating certain parts of our brains! They can even make us feel like we are in the presence of “God”! Here’s an excerpt from VS Ramachandran’s book “Phantoms in the Brain”.

(pg 180-182: Paul’s story) But when Paul, the thirty -two-year-old assistant manager of a local Goodwill store, walked into our lab not long ago, I felt that he had strolled straight out of Brain’s Textbook of Neurology – the Bible of all practicing neurologists… There is a soft armchair in our laboratory, but Paul seemed unwilling to relax. Many patients I interview are initially uneasy, but Paul was not nervous in that sense- rather, he seemed to see himself as an expert witness called offer testimony about himself and his relationship with God. He was intense and self-absorbed and had the arrogance of a believer but none of the humility of the deeply religious. With every little prompting, he launched into his tale.

“I had my first seizure when I was eight years old,” he began. “I remember seeing a bright light before I fell on the ground and wondering where it came from.” A few years later , he had several additional seizures and transformed his hole life. “Suddenly, it was all crystal clear to me, doctor,” he continued. “There was no longer any doubt anymore.” He experienced a rapture beside which everything else paled. In the rapture was a clarity, an apprehension of the divine – no categories, no boundaries, just a Oneness with the Creator. All of this he recounted in elaborate detail and with great persistence, apparently determined to leave nothing out. [remember the highlighted key features; we will pick them up in the next two posts].

…. Paul said “there’s one thing I should mention,” he said. “I have these amazing flashbacks.” (he seems to think that his recollection leaves no detail out!). Once when Paul was reminiscing about his flashbacks, I interjected, “Paul, do you believe in God?” He looked puzzled. “But, what else is there?” he asked. 

When we hear of the word “epilepsy”, we usually think of someone having fits or a seizure – the powerful involuntary contraction of all muscles of the body- and falling to the ground (grand mal seizure)… But seizures can also be “focal”; that is, the can remain confined largely to a single small patch of the brain. If such focal seizures are mainly in the motor cortex, the result is a sequential march of muscle twitching – or the so called Jacksonian seizures. But if they happened to be in the limbic system, then the most striking symptoms are emotional. Patients say that their “feeling are on fire”, ranging from intense ecstasy to profound despair, a sense of impending doom or even fits of extreme rage or terror. .. But most remarkable of all are those patients who have deeply moving spiritual experiences, including a feeling of divine presence and the sense that they are in direct communication with God. Everything around them is imbued with cosmic significance. Or finally “I have insight into the true nature of the cosmos”. I find it ironic that this sense of enlightenment, this absolute conviction that Truth is revealed at last, should drive from limbic structures concerned with emotions rather than the thinking, rational parts of the brain that take so much pride in their ability to discern truth and falsehood.

God has vouchsafed for us “normal” people only occasional glimpses of a deeper truth, but these patients enjoy the unique privilege of gazing directly into God’s eyes every time they have a seizure. Who is to say such experiences are “genuine” or “pathological”?

There are also ways to stimulate specific parts of the brain electromagnetically to deliver such spiritual experiences in normal people apparently. In “God part of the Brain” book, Matthew Alper discusses such techniques in details, including our evolutionary reasons for becoming spiritual.

So, is Patanjali asking us to surrender to certain constructs of the limbic or the emotional part of our brains? Also, was Bhrigu just having temporal lobe epileptic seizures, like Paul? Was sage Suka just having flashbacks, like Paul? Hmm…

Let’s get the most obvious difference out of the way: control. Paul did not necessarily demonstrate any form of control on going into different states of awareness, where as yogis insist on this quality.

Under the umbrella of Svadhyaya, the previous niyama, we must consider that possibility though. There were instances where people mistook people with neurological disorders for god-men. Again Svadhyaya (self study) is our shield. But when it comes to yogis as a group, the richness and breadth of insights they passed-on is way beyond something coming out of people with just neurological disorders – entire yoga method is a shining example, and we can list other things like their insights into bliss, mantra, sex, sleep… (covered in various blog posts).

Before we leave this topic, according to neurologists’ accounts, the secret to “God” experience is in the limbic or the middle part of the brain. Yogis picture extends this a little bit: the frontal and top layers of the brain that give us what we call conscious experience is the first level for them, which is the least secretive of the three – Brahma rules this part. The mid-brain (centered around heart-center) controls the emotions, same as the new science, but the most difficult to get to and a treasure trove of secrets according to yogis is the unconscious, and Siva is associated with this section. Unconscious is uncouth and raw, and hence Siva’s is typically depicted as a heretic, unpolished, and as a mendicant, etc.

Brahma is the most polished of the three, from a human point-of-view, while Vishnu, through emotions interacts with the external world the most, and the king of all drama.  Therefore, only Vishnu incarnates while Brahma and Siva do not.  Because it is the emotional brain that engages with the external world the most. 

Yogis say that we will get a complete controlled awakening only when we pierce through the three parts and transcend that final Unconscious frontier also, for a full Kundalini Experience.  That takes a strong driving force.  Think of Arjuna, feeling all that pressure, and confusion.  How would you feel in that situation?  Or even better, if that states will lead to Kundalini awakening (next blurb), how would you create such a situation for yourself?

Now, the experiences of some neurological states may have some commonalities with unitive experiences and even kundalini awakening. That’s not a surprise because everything that we feel and do is mediated by the nervous system. But, when the energy flows predominantly through the central channel of the spine, brahma nadi of the “Sushumna”, we experience Kundalini Awakening. We will collect yogic thoughts on what happens on Kunadlini Awakening next.