Cognition.

Cognition, is the seventh niyama. Cognition means understanding; but deeper than understanding, it is seeing through to the other side of the results that a thought, a word or an action would have in the future, before the thought, word or action has culminated. cognition is the development of a spiritual will and intellect through the grace of an enlightened master. cognition can only come this way. It is a transference of divine energies from the enlightened Master to the disciple, building a purified intellect honed down by the Master for the disciple, and a spiritual will developed by the disciple by following the religious sadhanas the Master has laid down until the desired results are attained to the Master's satisfaction. Sadhana is always done under a Master's direction. This is the worthy sadhana that bears fruit.

Cognition, on a higher level is the awakening of the third eye, looking out through the heart chakra, seeing through the illusion, the interacting creation, preservation and dissolution of the molecules of matter. Cognition is all this and more, for within each one who is guided by the Master's presence lies the ability to see not only with the two eyes but with all three simultaneously. The spiritual intellect described herein is none other than wisdom, or a "wise dome," if you will. Wisdom is the timely application of knowledge, not merely the opinions of others, but knowledge gained through deep observation.

The Master's guidance is supreme in the life of the dedicated devotee who is open for training. The verbal lineages of the many sampradayas have withstood the tests of time, turmoil, decay and ravage of external hostility. The sampradayas that have sustained man and lifted him above the substratum of ignorance are actually great nerve currents within the sushumna of the awakened Master himself. To go further on the path of yoga, one will encounter within his own sushumna current--within one of the fourteen nadis within it--an enlightened Master who preaches Truth. He will meet this Master in a dream or in his physical body, and through the Master's grace and guidance will be allowed to continue the upward climb. These fourteen currents, at every point in time on the surface of the Earth, have an enlightened Master attached to them, ready and waiting to open the portals of the beyond into the higher chakras, the throat, the third eye and the cranium.

To say, "I have awakened my throat chakra," "I now live in my third eye" or "I am developing my sahasrara chakra," without being able to admit to being under a Master who knows and is personally directing the devotee, is foolishness, a matter of imagination. It is in the heart chakra, the chakra of cognition, that seekers see through the veils of ignorance, illusion, maya's interacting preservation, creation and destruction, and gain a unity with and love for the universe--all those within it, creatures, peoples and all the various forms--feeling themselves a part of it.

Here, on this threshold of the anahata chakra, there are two choices. One is following the sampradaya of a Master for the next upward climb into the vishuddha, ajna and sahasrara. The other is remaining Master-less, becoming one's own Master, and possibly delving into various forms of psychism, astrology, some forms of modern science, psychic crime-detection, tarot cards, pendulums, crystal gazing, psychic healing, past-life reading or fortunetelling. These psychic abilities, when developed, can be an impediment, a deterrent, a barrier, a Berlin Wall to future spiritual development. They develop the anava, the ego, and are the first renunciations the Master would ask a devotee to make prior to being accepted.

Coming under a Master, one performs according to the Master's direction with full faith and confidence. This is why scriptures say a Master must be carefully chosen, and when one is found, to follow him with all your heart, to obey and fulfill his every instruction better than he would have expected you to, and most importantly, even better than you would have expected of yourself.

Psychic abilities are not in themselves deterrents on the path. They are permitted to develop later, after Parasiva, nirvikalpa samadhi, has been attained and fully established within the individual. But this, too, would be under the Master's grace and guidance, for these abilities are looked at as tools to fulfill certain works assigned by the Master to the devotee to fulfill until the end of the life of the physical body.

It is the personal ego, the anava, that is developed through the practice of palmistry, astrology, tarot cards, fortunetelling, past-life reading, crystal gazing, crystal healing, prana transference, etc., etc.,.This personal ego enhancement is a gift from those who are healed, who are helped, who are encouraged and who are in awe of the psychic power awakened in the heart chakra of this most perfect person of the higher consciousness who doesn't anger, display fear or exhibit any lower qualities.

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