Episode 243, The Path of Inner Balance, Awareness & Liberation (Teachings from King Janaka, Sage Narada, and Maharshi Patanjali)

Paramshanti (supreme peace) is not merely an idea or emotion—it is the natural state of the awakened soul. This discourse welcomes all awakened, seeking, and divine souls into a journey of self-awareness, balance, and liberation. Through a beautiful spiritual narrative involving King Janaka and Sage Narada, and a deep exploration of Maharshi Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, this teaching explains how attention governs energy, how the mind creates bondage, and how liberation (Kaivalya) is attainable while living.

King Janaka: The God-Realized Householder King : King Janaka was not a renunciate living in forests; he was a god-realized king, an enlightened ruler, and a master of inner detachment.

The Story of the Bowl of Milk: Sage Narada once asked King Janaka: “You live in the world, surrounded by luxury and responsibility. How can you still be called Videhi (one who is bodiless, unattached)?” King Janaka replied with a simple experiment. He asked Narada to walk with him through the palace while holding a bowl filled to the brim with milk, instructing him: “Not a single drop should fall.” Narada followed carefully, focusing completely on the bowl. After a long walk, exhausted, Narada admitted: “I saw nothing—no palace, no beauty, no people—only the milk.” King Janaka smiled and said: “That is how I live in this world. My attention is always on my inner awareness, just as yours was on the milk.”

The Teaching

• Where attention goes, energy flows

• Detachment is not running away from life

• Detachment is not letting the mind spill outward

• True renunciation is inner balance amidst activity

Like a lotus growing in mud yet untouched by it, the awakened soul lives alert, pure, and steady.

Attention, Mind, and Inner Discipline

The real challenge of spiritual life is not the world—it is the mind.

• The mind constantly moves toward objects, people, emotions, and desires

• Without awareness, it spills like milk from a shaking bowl

• Awareness means witnessing without falling

Daily life requires us to:

• Perform duties

• Interact with people

• Face challenges

Yet remain anchored in soul-consciousness, not body-consciousness.

Maharshi Patanjali and the Science of Yoga

To understand the mechanics of the mind, this discourse turns to Maharshi Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras, one of the most precise spiritual sciences ever written.

Definition of Yoga: Yoga chitta-vṛtti-nirodhaḥ Yoga is the cessation of the fluctuations of the mind. When mental waves stop, the soul rests in its own nature.

The Five Modifications of the Mind (Chitta Vrittis)

Patanjali explains that the mind operates through five patterns:

1. Pramana – Right knowledge

2. Viparyaya – Wrong knowledge

3. Vikalpa – Imagination

4. Nidra – Sleep

5. Smriti – Memory

These can be:-----Beneficial or harmful-----Liberating or binding

To calm them, only two tools are needed:

• Abhyasa (practice)  >>>>>>>>>Vairagya (detachment)

Vairagya: Freedom from Attachment

Vairagya does not mean hatred of the world.

It means:-------Freedom from obsession--------Freedom from craving------Freedom from illusion (Maya)

When attachment dissolves, meditation deepens naturally.

The Four Chapters of the Yoga Sutras

1. Samadhi Pada – The Chapter of Absorption

Focuses on meditation, concentration, and inner stillness. From sustained practice arise four divine qualities:

• Maitri (Friendliness)

• Karuna (Compassion)

• Mudita (Joy in others’ happiness)

• Upeksha (Equanimity)

2. Sadhana Pada – The Chapter of Practice

Introduces Ashtanga Yoga (Eightfold Path):

1. Yama – Ethical restraints

2. Niyama – Observances

3. Asana – Posture

4. Pranayama – Breath regulation

5. Pratyahara – Withdrawal of senses

6. Dharana – Concentration

7. Dhyana – Meditation

8. Samadhi – Absorption

These practices remove the five Kleshas (afflictions):

• Avidya – Ignorance

• Asmita – Ego

• Raga – Attachment

• Dvesha – Aversion

• Abhinivesha – Fear of death

3. Vibhuti Pada – The Chapter of Powers

This chapter explains Siddhis (spiritual powers) such as:

• Anima (becoming subtle)

• Mahima (expansion)

• Laghima (lightness)

• Garima (heaviness)

• Prapti, Prakamya, Ishitva, Vashitva

⚠️ Warning:
Patanjali strictly cautions seekers not to get trapped by these powers. They inflate ego and lead back into bondage.

4. Kaivalya Pada – The Chapter of Liberation

Kaivalya means:

• Absolute freedom

• Liberation from birth and death

• Freedom from reactions

• End of mental turbulence

This is living liberation (Jivanmukti). The Ultimate Key: Surrender

No matter how disciplined one becomes, ego blocks liberation. True freedom arises only through complete surrender to the Supreme. Just as a child experiences bliss only when fully surrendered to its parents, the soul experiences Paramananda (supreme bliss) only when surrendered to the Supreme Light.

Surrender dissolves:

• “I”

• “Mine”

• “Doership”

Meditation and Reprogramming the Mind

The discourse concludes with a guided soul-conscious meditation, emphasizing:

• Seeing oneself as a point of divine light

• Releasing desires, anger, fear, and impressions

• Filling the subtle, causal, and physical bodies with pure white light

• Radiating Paramshanti vibrations to the world

When the mind is protected like a turtle withdrawing into its shell, negativity cannot enter.

Final Vision: World Transformation through Self-Transformation

• When individuals purify their mind, the world purifies itself

• When souls awaken, the elements heal

• When Paramshanti spreads, pollution dissolves—internally and externally

Self-transformation is the only path to world transformation.

Conclusion

Human life is temporary. The soul is eternal light. Yoga is not escape—it is mastery.
Liberation is not after death—it is now.

Let every soul:

• Remain alert like Narada with the bowl

• Live balanced like King Janaka

• Practice discipline as taught by Patanjali

• Surrender fully to the Supreme Light

And thus radiate Paramshanti (supreme peace) to all beings