Technology is a crucial aid in many aspects of our lives. But as we spend more and more time connected to our various digital devices, we often feel a growing disconnection from inner peace, simplicity, harmony, and a natural sense of awe.
Simply put, technology is just the use of a technique to reach more quickly a desired end. Ideally, its use should enhance our ability to achieve happiness, security, and a deeper understanding of ourselves in relation to the world in which we live.
Humanity’s most advanced technology can be found in the Raja Yoga system, in the use of the techniques of yoga meditation, specifically the techniques of Kriya Yoga.
In his Autobiography of a Yogi, in the chapter “The Science of Kriya Yoga,” Paramahansaji states: “Referring to the sure and methodical efficacy of yoga, Krishna praises the technological yogi in the following words: ‘The yogi is greater than body-disciplining ascetics, greater even than the followers of the path of wisdom (Jnana Yoga), or of the path of action (Karma Yoga); be thou, O disciple Arjuna, a yogi!’”
The “technological yogi”—that is, the truth-seeker who employs definite techniques to attain the goal of yoga—indeed follows a sure method, and one that does not sap the energy and joy out of life, but instead leads to the infinite replenishment and rejuvenation of body and mind through contact with the blissful immortal Self, or soul.
Like Arjuna, Lord Krishna’s ideal disciple in the Bhagavad Gita, we can reach a state of such balance and inner calmness by the use of the technology of Kriya Yoga that we gain the poise and discernment to know how to live in today’s technology-dependent world without losing our natural sense of wholeness and well-being.
The key lies in being, in Paramahansaji’s words, “calmly active and actively calm.” In order to be calmly active in our lives (online and off), we should first become “actively calm” in meditation—and win the wisdom needed to navigate the unpredictable challenges and accelerated pace of our contemporary world.
In Raja Yoga meditation techniques, such as those taught in the Self-Realization Fellowship Lessons, humanity has the most advanced technology in existence, and the way to live a truly victorious life, one filled with ever-new peace and joy, and attainment of our highest potentials.
“Open the door of your calmness and let the footsteps of silence gently enter the temple of all your activities. Perform all duties serenely, saturated with peace. Behind the throb of your heart, you shall feel the throb of God’s peace. Fill your heart with the peace of meditation.”