During the proces of jnana, karma and bhakti yoga we clean ourselves from negative energy that came into our own energy with for example past events. In my own case I have been maltreated by men in the past, many times, taking advantage of my goodness and pureness. I only see love. Sometimes, when someone else isn’t, you can get hurt badly. Though I now know that you can only be harmed unless you let the other person harm you. When you are even minded, anything can happen to you, but it will never be able to disturb your inner state of bliss. If I choose not to get hurt, I will never get hurt.
Therefor we need to learn how to forgive. Anything happens for a reason, even the bad stuff that is happening to us. It is to make us strong; life is bootcamp. So when someone hurts me, I thank him for the training of my heart to stay calm, happy and even minded. What really works is to think: ‘he has his karma, I have mine’.
A friend of mine was talking about taking back (yes, revenge) on a man who was unfaithful to her and actually treaded her badly. I felt sorry for her, because that will also harm her own karma. Harming another, is harming yourself. So when he harmed her, he actually already harmed himself and will receive the fruits of the seeds that he planted one day or another. The higher energy will set that right, that is not up to us.
Anyway, why is forgiving so important? When I do the self reflection of jnana yoga (wisdom of Self) -diving into my own energy and character- I found out that my self worthiness was very low, my self esteem was damaged because of things happened to me in my life with men (yes, even violence). So I got back to that pain and sorrow, this way I could actually feel it, almost touching it… and let if flow off with pranayama (strong breathing) into the earth (Mother Earth will be able to turn this into beautiful energy again). It felt as a relief.
Before I would have been in this space of blaming the person: ‘because of him, I have lost faith in myself and could not shine in the outside world’. And yes, it gave me a lot of damage in life. I made the wrong choices because I was thinking low of myself. But was this because of him? Or did he get into my life, because I had this low self esteem already inside of me? What is on the inside, you attract on the outside… he was only there to show me I was treating myself low. Demons come to show us a lesson. And another interesting question is: do wrong choices exist? Every step on the path is needed to teach you the lessons you need to learn. Everything is placed carefully by the higher energy, to train you to be able to climb to higher dimensions (and merge with Him).
Now this proces is digging deep into your Self. And best is to keep it with your own proces. What he did is not very interesting actually. He has his karma, right? So digging deeper I found out that even years later, until recently, I was not really able to get rid of all this energy, until I decided to forgive. Every time I got back this mirror of treating myself ill, thinking low of myself. Meeting people who were treating me badly. This happened because I was not able to forgive. Forgiving is letting go. He was renting space in my heart and head when I was still angry at him. Now I can let go and dark energy is gone. Forgiving sets free.
From this moment I can consider the situation from a space which is called love. I feel this deep love and a super shining light like a sun, inside of me radiating. That is only because I replaced this darker energy of grief and anger, for love and forgiveness. That is jnana yoga and the proces of inner cleaning. From that space of love you only want to help others and spread more love (which is karma yoga). Becoming love, prepares you to merge with the higher energy of love. And this is only possible with tests. Sathya Sai Baba says: you always have to welcome tests and don’t be afraid of it. Now I understand why. It makes me a stronger light, it forms my character. Tests are to sharpen a rough diamond into something beautiful and shiny.
Autumn is coming… it’s getting colder, summer is definitely over. Different times are ahead of us. Nature is giving her last fruits before she will rest and retire. You can use this time to turn inwards and feel deep down what next subject of self reflection you would like to work on. Life is all about improving yourself and refine your character. Everything can be changed. This time is a beautiful opportunity to reflect and practice jnana, karma and bhakti yoga. Which pattern would you like to break? What habit would you like to change? Which feelings would you like to acknowledge better? Take a break, breathe deeply, take your time and feel deeply. Just sit there with a cup of tea and a warm blanket on your sofa, just doing nothing, reflect, breathe, be at peace. Cleaning up your inner world gives inner peace. Inner peace brings bliss and happiness.
Just always remember that when you are working on yourself like this, the higher energy is showering you with bits of love and bliss, it will always help you, because it is bringing you to the higher light, this is it’s fuel: your proces of becoming love! And although I am living brahmacharya for ten years now and only focussed on merging with the higher energy of Love, it is still possible in this era of Kaliyug to get hurt by persons around you, especially when you are heading towards the light, darkness will try to pull you back. But always remember to forgive and let go, so that this negative energy has no spot to cling to. When you are light, when you act out of love, when you think with love, you will be surrounded by the divine energy of light, bliss and love. Remember that you see the world with the amount of love in your heart.
And then, from this space of love, it is easy to access any type of negative energy that came to you in the past and let it flow off into the earth with any type of yoga exercise like pranayama, meditation or asana. Let go, it will set you free!
Become love… and the rest will follow 😉
YOGA LIFESTYLE 