I am increasingly getting convinced that nervousness, anxiety, restlessness and the like are to be dealt with by constancy of practice (of meditation, exercise, etc.). In other words, for some of us like myself, thought cannot create a solution by thinking and probing. Sometimes the thinking only complicates the problem by making one feel that the task is too difficult and involves all the problems of the world but more often, the mind just cannot find the time and energy to go into it all and find an analytical solution.
Instinct, however, throws up an age-old solution - where constancy is missing, create one for yourself! Think of it this way. If you found yourself in a state of mental flux where external things always looked uncertain/transient and therefore created anxiety and nervousness frequently, how would you find the peace of constancy of anything in life? If you got money but did not get respect, or got respect but just could not get money, how would you face the uncertainty given that the mind wants something it can hold on to? To the reader of Yoga philosophy, instinct throws up an age-old solution - maintain the sanctity of your practice and keep at it. It is like a rope you carry around with you which which you tie yourself to the centre (or creator) of the universe mentally, so that wherever you go, you know you have something permanent - the rope! As you slowly push yourself into the exercise room and begin shaking your hands and feet (or start your deep breathing), the mind gets diverted away from the thoughts of uncertaintly and brings in new chemicals which create the needed security. From here, even rational thinking and creating some rational solutions seems more do-able.
Patanjali mentions nine "antaraayas" or impediments to progress in yoga. Swami Vivekananda has translated the nine as - Disease, mental laziness, doubt, lack of enthusiasm, lethargy (I think physical), clinging to sense enjoyments, false perception, non-attaining concentration falling way from the (concentrated/meditative) state when obtained. The next sutra says that non-concentration is accompanied by grief, mental distress, shaking (tremor) of the body and irregular breathing. To get out of these antaraayas, Patanjali mentions several alternatives:
1. Focus on a single subject
2. Certain behaviours - like friendship towards the happy (sukha), mercy towards the unhappy (dukhi), gladness in the face of good (punnya) and indifference in the face of evil (apunnnya).
3. By proper exhalation and restraint of breath
4. Certain kinds of meditations like on the tip of the nose, etc., which bring perceptions of good smells and thereby console and focus the mind
5. By focusing on the great light in the heart
6. By meditating on a holy person who has given up all attachment and is therefore eternally peaceful
7. By meditating on the knowledge that comes in sleep
8. Or, by meditating on anything that appeals to one as good.
In all this, somehow Patanjali never speaks of getting together with people to create an even better world for yourself where these problems would not arise. The Gita and most yoga books do speak of finding a clean and peaceful environment with no major hazards where the yogi can meditate, but that's about it. Further and further improvements to the external ennvironments might be possible, but they are not the focus of the yogi. The yogi creates his permanancy for himself, by faith in his exercise routine. Then, as the books say, shraddha (faith) nurtures the yogi like a benevolent mother.
If you find time, read Yogananda's essays on Probing the Core of Nervousness and Ridding the Consciousness of Worry. And don't forget the advice from university days - "take the material seriously!" Peace be with you.
Sadanand Tutakne
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