Yoga Maya

Chapter 4 - Who Is God 

Day 30

Bhrantidarshan is hallucination. You imagine that you are somebody special. Suddenly you think that you are a superstar. This is a problem with many people. Many seekers practice something and they get some visions. 

They get caught up in that vision because that vision is neither completely false, not completely true. It is a mixture of some truth, and some falsehood. So people try to hold on to it. Many cults have been formed because of this. 

They have never really understood the obstacles that can come up in the path of Yoga. This is called Yoga Maya. Yoga Maya is a vision that brings a message, an intuitive message. You may be meditating and you will get an intuition to open the door because somebody is waiting for you. And when you do that, you really find that person waiting outside. 

And you will get very excited. You will think that God had told you about it. And this will happen again and again. This is because you are not completely hollow and empty. There are residues or traces of your desires, hatreds, and fears. These ideas will come from the form in which you see God or your Guru or through someone else. 

And it will give you ideas which will make you suffer. This happened to one of our devotees. She had various visions and most of them happened. She had one vision which indicated that she should not take her husband to the doctor, that, he would be cured without a doctor. She was already apprehensive of going to a doctor and averse to allopathic medicine. 

And when she had her vision, she became quite determined not to go to a doctor. Then, her husband's blood sugar level shot up and he was not treated for it. This resulted in his losing eyesight. The devotee became very angry, feeling that her inner voice had deceived her. This really happened because of lack of proper understanding. 

Most of the factors were alright, there was no impurity in them. But then her own fears and cravings influenced her intuitive thoughts with unpleasant results. This is an obstruction. That is why we should not gallop on the horses of delusions. Many people get trapped in it. 

It is the non-attainment of any state of samadhi, any peace, or tranquility. Sometimes, people feel that they have been doing various practices for many years but do not seem to be getting anywhere. They feel that they are just sitting and nothing happens. Just thoughts come and they have not attained any state. 

Non-attainment of any state or samadhi, any peace, or any tranquility is another obstruction - the 18th obstruction. This is where one feels completely stuck and thinks that they are getting nowhere. But, despite these thoughts, they do not give up the practice. However, they feel stuck without any progress.

Then, which means instability. You may get some good experiences. You may feel very calm and wonderful. But the feeling doesn't linger. It evaporates quickly. This is another complaint.

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji 

PATANJALI YOGA SUTRAS