The Yogi and the Bhogi

If they emerge A hermit sat in meditation, still, with eyes closed. A beautiful nymph appeared before him and began to dance. This is a recurring theme in Hindu mythology: the confrontation between the tapasvin and the apsara.

 Sometimes, the hermit wins and the nymph leaves disheartened. Sometimes, the nymph wins and the hermit falls into her arms. The tapasvin who does not succumb is called a yogi while the one who does is called a bhogi.

The hermit and the nymph are metaphors.

The hermit is our mind and the nymph is the world around us, seducing us repeatedly. When the mind is controlled by the world, we are bhogis. When the mind is in control of itself, unmindful of the world, we are yogis.

Patanjali was a serpent who sat coiled around Shiva's neck and learnt from Shiva the eight steps to move out of bhoga into yoga.

In samadhi, we see the nymph for who she is, a product of our own imagination, our own fears and insecurities and inadequacies, seducing us by making us restless, jealous, ambitious, lustful and greedy.

We see the truth about the world, and understand it, rather than try and control or discipline it as a bhogi does.

TheYogi and the Bhogi

Somehow I remembered the discrimination between a Yogi and a Bhogi and found that article about it in the Internet. In that light it seems quite simple.

If we are in the mind we are a Bhogi, if we are in the self we are a Yogi, but there are all possibilities in between.

The yogi gets aware of more subtle levels in detaching the higher self from the object of outer perception.

The leader in the TM movement, even though, called a leader, was nothing else but a Bhogi and neither meditation, nor sutras, nor the Yogi himself could change that, he got a replacement partner on the spot when I left. He proved that he was a Bhogi and not a Yogi and that is why the Maharishi got sad, it was as criminal in the air and had nothing anymore to do with yoga. But he never got aware of it, and also not that it was all his own doing and his own ego mind game.

With TM they didn’t get aware of anything, it is just stress release their meditation. As a Bhogi he is in the outer fields and in a power struggle and I endangered his position in going to another master.

That is the right conclusion, the Bhogi, the ego and power game hidden behind nice words of enlightening the world. There was a real bad struggle between the higher self and the ego, felt also like war.

Follow the master. Fight to the end and finish the game, means telling him that he is a Bhogi and not a Yogi as finally conclusion.

They meditate and use the sutras to get worldly benefit, they claim to be yogis, but in reality they are Bhogis.

She wrote quite often, read my book and mentioned the outer state and it was felt as duality. There were two and if aware it would be okay. But taking the state and feel like being one with it that is mind.
And she cannot set limitations anymore and there are wrong conclusions. I have never seen anyone saying always 'yes' like her. But afterwards she gave it up again, after some time. Some took advantage of it and on the spot. There are some like that asking impossible questions constantly on the phone, and it was not her business. No discrimination and I wondered why. Feels like getting lost in a mind game. And she wants to keep that state undisturbed and calls mantras crutches to get there. It feels all upside down, the mantra is the divine name in is is the divine form and we don't see him as crutches. In fact the mantra is real and the divine form is in it and the mind is not real. It feels all upside down.
There was also co-dependency in the air. I think I should tell her somehow that we all have to get detached to not waste our life.
Because that is a great answer and always true. The question is just how, but probably we will know when we have to.

Whatever I said till now, always the same conclusion.  

No limits, all yes and after giving it all up again, why we are not surprised? 

Not so great seeing it as a mirror. She just wants to be nice and avoids conflicts with others. God has to match, avoiding conflicts, God has to make it possible. She should just do the opposite to get out of the pattern.