Vibhu

Swami Niranjanananda Saraswati

In vedic terminology, there comes a word which is ‘vibhu’. Vibhu means interconnected. Nothing is isolated, everything is interconnected. Just as everything in your body is interconnected, so is the nature and the universe, and not only the universe also the multiverses. In order to understand the idea of connection, think that when a mosquito bites your little toe, where do you feel the pain? Do you feel the pain in your little toe, or do you feel the pain in your brain? Where do you feel the pain? You will discover that the experience of pain of the mosquito bite is a physical experience. Whether it is in the toe or in the brain, the knowledge of pain, the understanding of pain is the same. What is different then?

Inflammation is in the little toe, that is the reaction. The itchiness and redness is in the little toe, that is the reaction, yet the knowledge of the pain is cerebral. With the knowledge of the pain, the instruction goes ‘scratch or swat’, and kill the mosquito. Either you swat away the mosquito or you kill the mosquito or you scratch the affected part. Your response is the reaction to the itch, the inflammation and the redness, with recognition of pain in the brain.

Just as every part of the body is connected to the brain, so every kind of life form, every form of nature is connected to the elements. I am not saying God, I am using the word ‘element’ because that is the first gross manifestation in the cosmic dimension – earth, water, fire, air and space.

More formal from the stage

Informally I started to talk about interconnectedness and now I will formalize it by talking about it from the stage. The thought came that we are all living that experience, and it is very simple, natural, spontaneous.

Munger has been the witness of the Munger Yoga Symposium. People from almost 40 countries and 20 states of India who are totally committed and experienced yoga teachers and who have been instrumental in the propagation of yoga around the world since the 1970s and who have taken yoga to the fields of education, science, health, and spirituality are present here. All are here with the same conviction, belief and understanding that now it is the time to practise yoga ‘from moment to moment’ and make yoga into a lifestyle and not keep it confined to a classroom practice.

That is the second chapter of the Bihar School of Yoga for the cultivation of samskara and sanskriti, for the correct living of life, for the supportive living so that we can make our community, our society a happier one, a healthier one. Apart from our own aspirations to experience peace and the possible understanding of illumination, whatever it may mean to all of us individually, we are also connected in the idea of seva. We are also connected with the idea of making ourselves, our environment better, purer, cleaner and more luminous. If we are able to do that and fulfil this aspiration, then we shall be able to live the mandate of the seers of our human civilization who stated Atmodeepobhava or ‘Know Thyself’. By that you will know the universe and attain balance and peace. You will become happy and cooperate in the plan of nature and the divine.

Although I have stated a few sentiments in abstract language, the effort that has been made over the last four days and the understanding that we have received of the yoga chakra over the last eight days has been the factor which has inspired us to take the teachings of the yogic parampara to another dimension.

During this symposium, the unveiling of the Satyam Yoga Prasad happened which is the virtual yoga library or the virtual Bihar School of Yoga in cyberspace. Also the announcement of the creation of Bihar Yoga wiki was made.

In this manner, all the people who are here today are connected with the goodness of their heart to bring about a change in their own life, in the life of the people they interact with and inspire each one to tread the path of dharma, the righteousness and correctness. That is the idea of ‘vibhu’ that I was talking about.

I see the fulfilment and culmination of the idea of vibhu here this evening. I believe this is the outcome of the Munger Yoga Symposium that the world, the global community has become a stronger community in the yogic and spiritual dimension. This is due to your belief and understanding of yoga and spiritual life, that you have come here and shared a vision. Thank you.

28 October 2018, Munger Yoga Symposium