Sublime

The physical practices become our means of watching the process of our own natural intelligence interfacing with reality; it drifts off one way before spiraling back and curling the other way, always orbiting, circling, coming closer and closer to the ideal of uniting opposite patterns within the field of our awareness.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar has spent much of his life teaching yoga-based breathing practices around the world through his organization the Art of Living Foundation.

Verse 29: Investigating by an inward sinking mind where one rises as ‘I’ alone is the path of jñāna, whereas thinking ‘I am not this, I am that’ is an aid but not vicāra.

By intense dedication and service to a yogī with a pure sāttvic mind, one’s own mind can become fixed and free from personal desires. Many Hindu spiritual traditions promote surrender and service to the guru as the highest form of meditation,224 and this type of focus seems reflected in this sūtra.

While Śrīvidyā is the name of a particular path, it also refers to the central mantra of the tradition as well as its ultimate goal—svatantra or absolute freedom through the realization of auspicious wisdom.

Bhagavan has charted out two paths, namely (1) self-investigation (ātma-vicāra), that is, knowing oneself (one’s real nature) through the investigation who am I, and (2) self-surrender (ātma-samarpanam), that is, surrendering ego entirely to God.