The Cave of the Heart: Shiva Sutra 3.34

3.34. tadvi-muktastu kevalī // “Separated from pleasure and pain, the yogi is established in real seclusion.”

Over the past couple of years, we have all had different doses and experiences of this aspect of reality. When you think of a yogi, you might think of them in a cave, secluded from the world in order to find their true nature. But as we know in our tradition, that kind of external seclusion must eventually come to an end when they test their attainment by returning back to reality. Can the yogi maintain that inner connection amidst a world that draws them always out? What is your perception of seclusion? [Full Text Below]

Seclusion in this sutra doesn’t necessarily mean being apart from people, although it could take that form— more importantly it means being apart from your attachments and aversions. What’s more, this type of ‘real seclusion’ as the Sutra calls it, is not a feeling of isolation but rather a feeling of wholeness, oneness. In fact, the very word ‘oneness’ expresses the paradox at the heart of this Sutra, and the experience of meditation in general— Oneness meaning the individual and the whole wrapped up in one singular experience.

As Patanjali teaches in his Yoga Sutras, “The seed of attachment is pleasure. The seed of aversion is pain,” meaning that our pleasures and pains are the seeds of illusion that can all too quickly grow into a weed patch that overtakes our reality. According to this Sutra, though, these seeds of pleasure and pain are all an illusion— albeit an incredibly real one, but nonetheless, they are all a part of the grand illusion of duality. It’s as if we are trapped in a VR headset, pushing and pulling against a reality that doesn’t even exist in our dimension— and when we take off the headset, all of our energy naturally begins to grow the fruit of our practice.

“In Kālikākrama, it is said:

All those states, like the perception of pleasure and pain and the thoughts associated with them, have arisen by imagination. That differentiation is actually the great illusion of duality. Herein one distinguishes between two opposites, such as the differentiation between pleasure and pain, thinking pleasure is welcome and pain is to be avoided. The yogī who has destroyed this kind of illusion actually attains the real fruit of yoga. (Kālikākrama Stotra)”

This is why being busy doesn’t necessarily help you feel fulfilled— your life is ‘full’,too full in fact, but you may feel empty. The pushing and pulling of a busy-body lifestyle all takes place in the mind, according to the yogic tradition, sucking up all of one’s energy and leaving the fruits of our practice dry. As we remove the illusion of our attachments and aversions, our energy naturally begins to funnel itself into our heart, which yields the fruit of our practice, as the Sutra teaches.

Yogic Seclusion is nothing to fear, its not a lonely state. Its the thoughts of our mind that create a sense of isolation, according to the Sutra. Because when we follow our thoughts, they lead us down a spiraling path away from the present and our vital life force. Have you ever tried to speak to someone who is lost in a thought? They don’t hear you, they aren’t even there. As I have been meditating these past weeks, and considering this Sutra’s teachings, I have felt this in myself— when my mind drifts into a thought, I lose the vitality of the present. Eventually, these thoughts lead us away from our center, towards an uneasy state as the Sutra goes on to teach. Even Deities, it seems, can fall prey to this illusion.

“It is rightly said in Upaniṣads:

In the beginning, there was only one Lord, and because he was only one, there being no other, he became afraid.” The Upaniṣads is telling us that this is the reason why those who are alone become afraid. They become frightened because in that state of being alone, this-ness is excluded. This is the state of divtīya brahma. When this-ness is not excluded, then you are only one and there is nothing to fear. That is what is delineated by the word “seclusion” (kevalī). This is the state of seclusion (kevalī bhāva)….In the present sūtra the word tu is not meant to indicate separation, but to indicate supremacy, to indicate that the yogi is above the state of individuality.”

As we can see from the Sutra, it’s not being alone that leads to fear, it’s being without your practice. I know that Swami Lakshmanjoo’s concept of “this consciousness” is not something that comes up in our lineage, but based on the previous sutras, and my interpretations of this sutra, ‘this-consciousness’ refers to our ability to maintain separation from our pleasures and pains. As we recall from the last sutra, the ability to ‘name your emotion’ was likened to the ability to say ‘this is a pot, this is a lamp, this is anger, this is sadness’. The concept of ‘this-consciousness’ refers to our ability to apply our practice to our pleasures and pains in order to remain surrendered and separate from them— not pushing or pulling, but surrendering, which as we know is a concept that is beyond the 1’s and 0’s of the mind to comprehend, it’s the middle path, a state of being in the flow. And, as this Sutra teaches, a ‘real state of seclusion’ which yields an infinitely inclusive state of being.

So reflect for a moment on your experience of ‘seclusion’— how have you experience unity in seclusion? How does this relate to the concept of maintaining ‘this-consciousness’, ie. Maintaining a state of objectivity with your internal and external circumstances?