When a person is called a yogi? Lord Krishna answers it in verse 6.18 in Gita:
Yadā viniyataṁ chittam ātmanyevāvatiṣhṭhate
niḥspṛihaḥ sarva-kāmebhyo yukta ityuchyate tadā
When the mastered mind, withdrawn from all worldly desires and cravings, is seated
only in the self, then such person is called a yogi.
Viniyatam chittam means one who has mastered his mind, not controlled, nor
suppressed but mastered. Mind is flow of thoughts including the thoughts of desires
and cravings. Vritti pravah iti manah. A desire is our wish to experience something
which we have not done so far whereas the craving is our intention to repeat the
experience.
Mastering the mind is ‘not to associate with the flow of thoughts’. Thoughts survive
when you identify with them and support. For example, identifying with thought is to
say that I am angry instead of saying that I watch the anger on the screen of my
mind. When you watch you separate the thought or emotion from self, leaving it
impotent without affecting self.
When you are master of your mind, it can’t use you, instead it now has become a
beautiful servant. When you need it to interact with outside world, use it otherwise
put it aside and be with the Self.
Witness your thoughts as witnessing would create a gap between you and your
thought or desire. Watch your mind with no labelling or evaluating your thoughts. It
helps you not to identify with your desires or thoughts. You neither accepts nor
condemns your desires. By and by your mind becomes a pure sky with no clouds of
desires or cravings. Now your mind is not in demanding mode and you are at peace
with yourself. Your present moment is joyous, celebrative as all the desires or
cravings have dropped away. You thus become niḥspṛihaḥ.
Here Lord Krishna talks of two characteristics of a Yogi. A yogi is master of mind and
free from all worldly desires.
It is said that desires trigger desires and propels our mind to engage our sense
organs into action to fulfil it. Thus mind remains constantly agitated. That’s why
Buddha said that desires can never be satisfied or fulfilled as it keeps creating
vicious circle.
In order to assuage mind, you have to free it from sensual pleasures and desires.
Look at the structure of desire or craving. Fulfilling of desire implies future tense.
You then sacrifice blissful present for achieving something in future. If desire is
unfulfilled, you are frustrated and feel dejected. If desire is fulfilled, you feel elated
but it turns out momentary after a while. You realise that you were running after
shadow. You start running after something else. You feel that if you become rich,
you will be happy. After becoming rich, you find that there is no happiness in money
or things.
You have to understand that happiness is not in the objects, but in that how you
approach life. You can’t kill desire because it is energy. Hunger creates desire which
we have just to satisfy. Desire is the sign of aliveness, so don’t create enmity with it.
Desire is not in the way of your becoming yogi but the longing for it and getting
attached to it is. If you have mastered your mind, you will have desire but wouldn’t
be attached to it. With this understanding, you need to renounce not the desire but
the longing for it. Desires are to be fulfilled as need not as greed.
A yogi masters over his mind by getting it cleansed of longings for desires by
practice, then he is able to stay in ‘self’ which means ātmanyevāvatiṣhṭhate.
NEWS4EXCHANGE.COM 