The Inner Rhythm of Life

What is Yoga?The common understanding is of breathing in a certain way and doing certain Asanas, the body postures etc. This is beneficial on a superficial level, the physical level. that’s why it has a mass appeal all over the world. The world at large is only interested in physical fitness. nothing wrong in it. But Yoga is not merely this–it is much deeper. It is to have total harmony with existence on all levels. In the words of Osho, It is the music of your very existence, of your being; it is the music of your inner harmony, it is the music of your inner rhythm.

Talking about the songs of mystic Kabir, He says SUNTA NAHIN DHUN KI KHABAR… Why don’t you listen to the inner rhythm of your being? Where do you go on rushing to? And you are searching for this inner rhythm — sometimes in money, sometimes in power, sometimes in prestige, sometimes in so many kinds of relationships. You go on begging. You want to know something of the transcendental, you are thirsty for the transcendental.

And once in a while, even in ordinary life, it happens. You how those few moments when suddenly one day you wake up in the morning and everything seems to fit perfectly. The birds are singing, the air is fragrant, the sun is rising, and suddenly you feel that all is quiet. You are no longer separate for a moment… you feel a great joy arising in you for no reason at all. You suddenly feel vibrant, utterly rejuvenated, at home. Maybe the night’s deep sleep and rest,  maybe the beautiful morning, the song of the birds, the fresh air, the dewdrops on the grass leaves shining in the early sun — all this created the context. Not by your effort, but just by accident. you fell in harmony with yourself and with existence. And remember, it happens always together: whenever you fall in harmony with yourself, you fall in harmony with existence too.

Harmony has two sides: the individual and the universal. If the individual is in harmony, then there is no reason why he should not be in harmony with the whole. If inside you all conflict has disappeared, even for a single moment, in that moment you are part of the whole, you are no more an island, you are no more separate. All walls have suddenly disappeared; you are no more imprisoned. In that moment, you know the glory, the splendour, that life is. That splendour is God, that feel is God. That experience of harmony is God. God is not a person but the presence that is felt when you are in harmony and you are also in harmony with existence — that accord. That accord is called DHUN.

SUNTA NAHIN DHUN KI KHABAR… Listen to that accord! which is available every moment of your life. It happens only accidentally, because you have not prepared yourself for it, to receive it consciously. So it happens only once in a while.

Once Leo Tolstoy was asked, “How many experiences did you have of divine ecstasy in your life?” He started crying,great tears started rolling down from his eyes. He said, Not more than seven in my life of seventy years, but I am grateful for those seven moments. I am miserable also, because in those moments it was so self-evident that is could be the flavour of my whole life. In those moments I was so certain that this could be my experience day in, day out, year in, year out — this could spread over my whole life, this could become my flavour. But it didn’t happen. Those moments came on their own and they went on their own. But I am still grateful to God that even without any conscious effort on my part, once in a while he has been knocking at my doors.”

Osho explains: This happens to everybody — it happens in spite of you. If you look back you can remember a few moments…. and those  will be the moments when you were relaxed, those will be the moments when there was no particular desire in your mind, when you were not worried, when you were not tense, when somehow you simply were. Watch these sudden accidental moments minutely, because there is the secret key. That’s how the fundamentals of religion have been discovered: watching these sudden moments which come and go, and one never knows why they come and why they go, watching the context, the space in which they happen, people started trying to create that context. If it happens in a relaxed state, when you are very loose, non-tense, then you can create the context! You can relax. If it happens to you while swimming, then you can swim and create the context. If it happens to you while running… and it happens to different people in different ways. Many runners know it, that beyond a certain limit if you go on running,go on running, go on running, suddenly it happens — because man’s energies have three layers.

The first layer is only for day-to-day activities; it is a very thin layer. It is enough for your office, wife, children — the ordinary life. The second layer is for emergencies: your house is on fire; you may have been feeling very tired after the whole day’s work and you were coming home and hoping to have a good rest, and suddenly when you come home your house is on fire. Immediately, all fatigue disappears — you are no more tired. You have forgotten all about rest, and the whole night you try to put the fire out. And even after the whole night’s work, you are not tired. It was not the ordinary level of energy that worked — that was exhausted — the emergency layer started working. And the third layer is deeper than that. If you go on and on….

For example, if for one day, two days, three days, you go on working, then the emergency level will also be finished – – and then you come in contact with the cosmic layer. And that is the source of life, and that is inexhaustible. And whenever you are in contact with it, tremendous joy starts overflowing you. It happens to joggers, to runners, to swimmers sometimes. The first layer finished, then the second layer, and if you go on running the second is also finished — and the moment you are in contact with the third, tremendous ecstasy happens for no reason at all. It may happen to you while making love. It may happen to you while listening to music. It may happen to you while simply lying in your bed doing nothing. It may happen to you while painting, absorbed, utterly absorbed in it. Or it may happen in a thousand and one ways. But watch: whenever it happens, whenever that tremendous blissful moment comes to you, when God knocks on your door, watch in what context it is happening. Be alert!

Look around — in what space it is happening. And then you have the key. Whenever you will be able to create that context, that space, the moment will come again. You cannot make it happen, but you can make yourself available for it to happen. You cannot force it to happen, but you can create all that is necessary for it to happen. It is not a doing on your part: it is a happening. But, still, you can play a great role. That’s how all techniques of meditation have been developed. That’s how Yoga came into existence.