Adiyogi

Probably about 40,000 years ago…

Vashishtha’s eyes were closed. He sat in a cross-legged posture, with his left heel gently pushing his perineum, the soft tissue just above his anal outlet. His right leg lay relaxed next to his left. His back was comfortably erect. His body was in complete rest. His breath moved in a rhythm that was slow & deliberate - about 3 cycles per minute, much lower that than the 12-15 cycles normal to a human at rest. His mind was calm, yet alert, supremely focused, but with no unconscious thought of its own. His energies were in complete sync with those of the cosmos & the elements of nature. His lips didn’t move. But vibrations of A-U-M reverberated from his being. His entire being was motionless, yet completely & utterly in union with all aspects of life within & outside him. He was in pure, unadultered bliss. Vashishtha was in Samadhi : Sam+Adi - Return to Origin – a state beyond space-time where he was in touch with the source of creation within himself.

For the millionth time, he bowed down to that being, perhaps an alien, who taught him, and six other fellow men, now called the Saptarishis, how to access the source of creation within themselves, how to touch that dimension within themselves called Consciousness. They called him Adiyogi.

Adiyogi happened a long long time ago, though to Vashishtha, it seemed just like yesterday.

It was the time when mankind was just getting out of the nomadic, forest-dweller, hunter-gatherer mode and beginning to form small groups of organized living, called Gramas, primarily in valleys near hills or on the banks of rivers. It was a time when mankind was moving from Nature – Prakriti, where survival of the fittest was the rule, to Culture – Sanskriti, where basic, rudimentary organization was getting established, enabling the weak & infirm to co-exist with and under the protection of the strong & able.

To young Vashishtha, life was an enigma. Existence was misery. Confusion reigned. Doubts persisted. What is the meaning of life? Why go through such misery? What is to be gained from all this strife? Like all of mankind, he had his own laundry list of nerve-wracking, painful doubts. And no-one seemed to have any iota of answers.

One day, a being appeared on the peaks of the mountain close by. Where he came from, no one knew. Who his antecedents were, no one knew. Why he came, no idea. But he came.

He looked like them – though much taller, muscular, well-proportioned, physically at his peak, the alfa-male. May be he wanted to be their king. May be he wanted to lead them. But it was quickly evident that he wanted none of that. He was different. All he did was sit. He sat and sat and sat, in a strange position – legs folded, back erect, head slightly upturned - for days together at a stretch. And while he sat, he cried! Tears flowed down his cheeks. Not tears of pain, or misery. Some other deep, mysterious emotion reflected in his tears. They were tears of bliss, tears of ecstasy!

After days, weeks, sometimes months of stillness, he would get up one day. And not go to the loo! He would dance. And dance and dance and dance! Full, emotive moves, from the head to the toe! Sometimes wild, sometimes graceful! And again tears would flow down. The same kind - of ecstasy!

But naturally, a crowd gathered to see him, hoping for a miracle, expecting him to share his bliss with their miserable beings and alleviate them from their suffering. After the first few days, they trickled away. They had seen enough of this crazy loon. Only seven people hung back. Vashishtha was one of them.

These seven people realized that what was happening in front of their eyes was itself a miracle. This man had clearly transcended his physicality. He needed no food, no water, had no bodily requirements. And, he was obviously experiencing something that they could not even imagine. These seven men decided to hang on. They waited till he opened his eyes again, bowed to him and requested him to share with them what he knew.

The crazy loon dismissed them with disdain. “This stuff is not for casual onlookers,” he said.

It took these seven men all their persuasive powers to convince him that they were serious. “Ok, lets see”, he said at length. And he showed them what he called a few preparatory steps.

At first these seven young men thought they were being taken for a ride. He gave them a short demo of a few ways to sit, a few ways to stand, a complex way of breathing, showed them a few strange postures and a few strange sounds that sounded like one was gargling. They looked at each other and then they looked at him. “Shall I continue, or have you had enough?” he sniggered. “Please continue,” said one of them, while the others looked on doubtfully. He continued. “Spend as much time with your eyes closed as possible. I will return in 84 years.” he thundered. And left!

“84 years?” stammered Vashishtha. One of them was rolling on the ground with laughter. “At least, this guy has a sense of humour,” he said in a deep voice. “I am Agastya, by the way”, he said. “Jamadagni”, said another. Atri, Bharadwaja, Gautama & Pulastya introduced themselves & greetings followed.

Once the ridiculousness of the situation lessened a little, the young man named Agastya asked, “Now what? Do we follow his instructions? Or do we move on in life?”

The one called Gautama replied, “Do you have anything else worthwhile to do in your life? Because I don’t.” “Same here,” said Vashishtha. Every one nodded. “Let’s give it a shot”, they decided and got on with it.

For 84 years! It was unbelievable. While people around them - their mates, kith, kin, co-village dwellers - had all grown old, infirm or had died, the 84 extra years sat very lightly on these seven men. Their bodies were perfectly toned. They looked younger. They felt stronger. Neither disease nor weakness touched them. Their breath became slow and regulated. They always felt at the peak of their energies. Their minds were calmer, yet sharper. Their demeanor was calm. Gone was their diffident look. They felt 100% in control of their lives. Miracles happened around them. They knew something had transformed within them – they just did not know what.

Just as promised, the alfa male came back 84 years later. He looked at the seven men in surprise. They had become shining receptacles. They were ready. They shone with hunger. They had transformed beyond recognition.

The seven men bowed to the alien. And begged him to take them all the way! Vashistha implored, “Please be our Guru - O! dispeller of darkness!” Since he was the first Guru to mankind, he was called Adiguru!

Adiguru smiled for the first time. It was the most magnificent smile they had seen in their lives. Some strange emotion pervaded them. It was sweet, but it wrung their hearts. These were tough men, wizened by years of hard existence in nature, but tears flowed down their cheeks, all by themselves. They touched his feet in instinctive reverence.

And so it came to pass that seven men and one alien accepted each other as teacher and disciples.

Adiguru beckoned to his disciples to follow him. He took them to a secluded area – besides a huge pristine lake at the foothills of a giant, seemingly inaccessible landscape of snow-capped mountains as its backdrop. The set-up was breath-taking. Today, that lake is called Mansarovar and the inaccessible mountain landscape is called Kailash!

Adiguru looked up to the sky. The sun had just changed its direction with respect to the earth. It had started its southern journey. He sat facing the south and started his lessons that changed mankind. Overwhelmed by the setup, Jamadagni folded his hands and coined another name for his teacher – Dakshinamurthy!

The world’s first Satsang…

The lessons began.

Adiguru started by making a stunning proclamation – that the human being is the most advanced piece of technology on the planet! It took creation millions of years of creative genius to arrive at this peak of evolution.

He looked towards his sceptic audience and smiled. Gautama aired the objection that had sprung in each of their minds. “How can we believe that, sire? Every creature – from a worm to a plant, from a mosquito to an elephant, from a fox to a tiger - seems more potent and powerful than man in some or the other way. Then how can man be the most evolved creature in the cosmos?”

The alien explained. Creation had provided every creature with traits necessary for its survival. An owl could see at night, a snake had poison & fangs, an elephant had brute strength, a fox had cunning, an eagle could see afar, a cheetah had speed and so on. But all of them used these traits for survival. And survival alone!

Survival had two components – food & mate. Food was necessary to survive today. Mate was necessary for survival of its race. That’s it. All life on earth, other than humans, had just one purpose in life – survival. That meant that stomach empty – just one problem – food, stomach full – just one more problem – mate. Food taken, mating done – all problems solved. Life has no further purpose. This is true for all life on earth, except humans.

Gautama nodded. What Adiguru said conformed to his own observations. “With man though, stomach full, mating done – a thousand problems”, he quipped. Adiguru joined the ripples of laughter in the group.

He continued. “Once you are born as a human, survival is not enough. There is another dimension in humans that wants to expand. What you have is not enough. You want more. You get it, you are ok for some time, but you yearn for more.”

Vashishtha agreed with his guru on the mooted point, but felt that this was exactly why humans suffered more than any other life form. He thought aloud, “That is what dooms humanity to constant yearning or suffering, isn’t it, sire?”

“Hold it,” remonstrated Adiguru. “Don’t doom humanity yet. First, acknowledge the fact and realize its significance. Every creature on earth, other than man, has defined boundaries of experiencing life. Be it bacterial life, plant life or animal life, whether they are hungry or horny, there are fixed boundaries. Nature’s endowments to them are as per their respective limits. However, man has no such boundaries for experiencing life. His experience of life can be unlimited, infinite.”

Agreed, concurred his disciples. But…

“But… human beings do not realize its significance”, Adiguru pointed out with emphasis.

“Every other day, you can see some or the other person doing or achieving something that seems super-human, isn’t it?” The seven disciples reflected. It was true. They could think of scores of examples. Vashishtha’s tribal chief seemed to have superhuman strength. When the woman in Jamadagni’s village sang, she could make clouds appear & rains fall. A few of the warriors in Atri’s tribe could throw their spears in the dark just by following the sound of animals’ hooves, so on and so on.

“The problem is that these few and far-in-between examples are of people who enhanced their experience of life either unconsciously or accidentally. But the beauty of it is – all humans can access this dimension consciously, all the time”, Adiguru proclaimed.

“That is what a human is capable of. To do things consciously! That is what no other creature on earth is capable of. They are all driven by instinct - instinct propelled by their nature. Only man has the ability to consciously transcend his nature. Once he transcends his nature, he is not driven by instinct any more. Once he is not driven by instinct, all boundaries created by Nature – of course for man’s survival – melt down. Such a man seems to others like a superman. Only that man realizes that being human itself is super!”

Without waiting to see his audience’s reaction, Adiguru pulled out a chillum from his back pocket and took a long drag from it. A big, satisfied smile erupted on his handsome face. He picked up something that looked like a toy, called it a damaru, and shook it a few times. The entire valley reverberated. He stood, eyes still closed and started to dance. Goosebumps erupted on the seven men. Pulastya also stood full height, folded his hands and said, “Hail, O! Natarajamurthy!”

Later, the class dispersed for the day. A few of the pupils were beginning to understand the enormity of what was being said. It was just a possibility at this point in time. But the mere possibility gave them tremendous hope and inspiration.

Next morning, pupils and teacher re-assembled for the next chapter.

“The biggest myth that humans suffer is that life happens outside their being,” Adiguru stated.

The seven men looked at each other with blank faces. Of course, life happens outside – at least most of it. What happens within them just happened, didn’t it. And they had very little control over it. What every human was struggling with was to control what happened outside him.

Unperturbed by their confusion, Adiguru continued with his position.

“Tell me. Where do you see me?”

“There.” Atri pointed at Adiguru tentatively, wondering if it was a trick question.

“Think again. Light falls on me, gets reflected into your eyes, creates an image of me within you and you see me. Right? So now again, where do you see me?”

Pin drop silence for a few seconds. “Within myself?” someone whispered!

“Correct! Now, where do you hear me? Follow the same logic. Sound falls on your ear drums, creates a vibration and you hear me. Right? So, where do you hear me? Within you, right? Similarly, where do you feel hot or cold? Outside you or within you?”

“Within myself!” “Where do you feel taste?” “Within myself!” “Where do you sense smell?” “Within myself!”

“What you think is outside you just creates impulses. These impulses are received by your sense organs. Humans have five sets of them, right? Your eyes, ears, nose, skin & tongue, right? Rest of creation has its own set of sense organs, right?”

Seven heads nodded.

“This is true for all life on earth, until this point. Beyond this point, each life differs. Each life perceives these impulses differently.”

What is day for you is night for an owl! A snake can and does sense vibrations in the environments that humans cannot and perceives them as hostile or neutral. Migratory birds can and do sense changes in forthcoming climate and make flight plans accordingly.

“So, the difference is in perception?” The seven disciples were still cloudy in their heads.

Absolutely! For plants, microbes and animals, nature has hard-coded their perception of external impulses, based on their survival instincts. Every species on earth perceives and reacts to external stimuli in a defined manner. Plants have to gravitate towards sunlight for growth. Else they perish! Only to humans, nature has given an individual experience of life.

Humans can perceive life as per their choice.

That means that happiness & sorrow, pleasure & pain, bliss & misery, all happen within man & not to him. Man can choose how he perceives life! How he experiences life!

In other words, Man is a conscious being!

The story of evolution of man from the primordial microbe is not a story of physical evolution – though physically, life evolved magnanimously. It is not even a story of evolution of the mind – though the brain and its derivative – the mind - evolved by leaps and bounds across life forms, including the various species of man. The real story of the evolution that man has missed is the evolution of man’s consciousness!

The silence was deafening. Each man seemed lost in contemplating what he had just heard. Agastya had a strange feeling in his gut. It was like – he was getting the point, but was stuck somewhere. He tentatively muttered.

“Yet…humans suffer a lot!”

Adiguru sighed! Such immense potential, yet such colossal ignorance! Instantly, the seven disciples could sense deep compassion in his tone.

All human suffering is because man is quite ignorant of the immensity of being human.

You are not aware of what a powerful machine your body is. You are not aware of how it works, what it can do for you, what inputs it needs, how to maintain it, how to use it and most importantly, how not to use it. So, half the time it is screwed up and works at sub-par efficiency. And you suffer.

You are not aware of what a sophisticated gadget your mind is. You have no idea what all you can manifest in your life, what a wonderful world you can create for yourself, if you learn to use it properly. Instead, you guys suffer sadness, misery and depression.

You are not even aware that you have an energy body.

You suffer because you don’t know how capable you are and you don’t know how to use your capabilities. In other words, again, you suffer because you are not conscious.

All creatures eat food, but only humans need to go on a diet. All creatures feel pain, but only humans suffer. They don’t get it that pain is physical, necessary for survival. Suffering is psychological, a drama created by the human mind. Humans haven’t come to terms with their immense capabilities.

Either they are stuck in their survival process or accidentally jump into that other dimension from time to time. When they do, they acts and feel like heroes. The rest of the time, they find themselves stuck in their compulsive instincts that make them feel inferior to their lesser evolved co-creations.

So saying, Adiguru closed his eyes, signaling the end of that period.

Day three began next morning in earnest - Seven men and one alien-guru.

“Yatha Pinde, Tatha Brahmande!” he boomed.

The human body is a microcosm of the entire universe!

The seven followers sat stunned. Adiguru smiled at their innocent ignorance and explained.

The entire cosmos has the same geometry as that of its minutest atom. It is just larger in scale, complexity and sophistication. An amoeba multiplied a few trillion times in complexity and sophistication will have the same nature as that of the galaxy in which it inhabits. The geometry of a human being, in a certain alignment, is the same as that of the entire universe. It is just miniature in scale & complexity.

The only difference is – an amoeba cannot access its geometry consciously. It doesn’t need to. All it needs is to survive. This is true for all life on earth. Nature has given them access only to that dimension that enables them to survive. A human being, on the other hand, can choose to transcend survival and consciously touch that dimension within his own self that will give him access to the whole of universe.

“So, I repeat,” he concluded. The human being is the most advanced piece of technology on this planet!

Vashishtha and others were lost in contemplating what they heard. Their teacher waited. He knew that each one would find his way back. And when he was back, each one would be transformed – not completely, not yet, but significantly.

And now, Yoga…

“What you heard so far is not a philosophy – it is the science of existence! This science is useless to you if it is just an intellectual understanding. The real deal is when you experience yourself as a conscious being.”

“How? Will you show us?” asked Agastya.

“Of course!” Adiguru said as a matter of fact. “That’s why I came back. I could have given you all this gyan when we first met 84 years back. But it would be useless. You would take it back and impress your mates with your knowledge – maybe even write books about it. But nothing would be in your experience.”

I am a powerful transmitter. I can and I do transmit all I have to offer 24 x 7. But for you to access my frequency, you will have to be an equally powerful receiver. That’s what you are now. 84 years of preparation had turned all of you into fine-tuned receivers.

You see, there are 112 ways in which man can experience his pinnacle of existence. Together, these 112 methods are called Yoga – the technologies to become one with cosmic consciousness. Since you are seven of you, I will transmit 16 to each of you.

So saying, Adiyogi closed his eyes. The air crackled with revved up energy and Adiyogi transformed seven men to Rishis. These seven rishis – Saptarishis - became seers of “The Ultimate Truth” (Sat), “The Supreme Consciousness (Chit)” and “The Eternal Bliss” (Ananda). They were never the same again.

Humbled with untold gratitude, they gave him yet another name, Adiyogi – the original Yogi!

As the first ever yoga class came to an end, Adiyogi looked at the seven yogis and asked with a naughty smile, “Hey big guys! What about my Gurudakshina? And listen, I have had enough of these names and epithets. They don’t mean much to me anyways.”

The seven yogis were stumped! What did they, who had dedicated the prime of their lives - 84 years - to exotic postures and discourses, have to offer to this person who now meant to them more than their own selves? What would be most apt?

Saptarishi Agastya said with genuine fondness for his Guru, “Hey Adiyogi! Hey Adiguru! For the past 84 years, you have been not just a guru to us, but you have been our father, mother, brother, best friend and companion. All that we have become today is because of you. So we wish to offer you something that is dearest to our hearts. Something that we value the most in our lives! The 16 technologies of Yoga that we each received from you are everything we have. We offer you back these life-transforming practices. Please accept them.” Six other yogis happily nodded in acquiescence.

“Good”, said Adiyogi with pride in his voice for his seven disciples.

“A human being is at his best when he is giving! Since you have so selflessly offered back Every-Thing, you are now – No-Thing. That is - you guys have consciously transcended all physicality. You are, like me, Shi-va –That which is not! And so, you now have access to not just the 16 technologies that I transmitted to each of you earlier, but to all 112 of them. Go forth and inspire humanity to find their true potential.”