The agony of creation, its origin and death. Part 2

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In the previous article, we examined the main axiomatic statements in Yoga regarding creativity, its nature and the necessary components for the emergence of our creative inspiration. In this article we will analyze in more detail the questions: what inspiration is, why it is so ephemeral and why it disappears as suddenly as it appears. We will try to understand what brings us to “the agony of creation” and how we can work with it.

The state of supreme inspiration in Yoga is called bhava!

Whether we have bhava or not is directly related to the level of our prana. Since we do not fully realize ourselves and do not control the flow of prana, our state of bhava is unstable and can be as easily lost as it appeared. It’s like some sort of an instant flash — it dawned on us and immediately scattered! If during this period we did not have time to realize our brilliant idea, to give the idea a form, then it can rest in the “standby” mode for quite a while until the next insight.

This is the reason why many works of art over the years remain unfinished, manuscripts are set on fire, and some scientific discoveries are even “frozen” for decades.

“Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent sweat.” Thomas Edison, American inventor and entrepreneur

Be creative regardless of obstacles!

It is when we, despite a lack of bhava, try to force ourselves to complete what we have started or to accomplish the idea, we burn in “the agony of creation”. We strain our internal structures, activate the mind, concentrate to the utmost trying to find a solution to the task. At the same time, it might seem that our mind goes round in circles, overthinking and not progressing to the next stage. This is not always the case! Our mind and all our internal structures seem to switch to the “backup power supply” mode.

“The word ‘difficulty’ absolutely should not exist for the creative mind.” Georg Christoph Lichtenberg, German physicist

The difficulties that we experience at this moment, snap us out of stupor. We begin to intensively use our will and, thus, firstly, we attract a new flow of prana from our Higher Self, and secondly, we withdraw the flows of that prana that we already have at our disposal from minor matters. Thus, we increase the flow of prana that is flowing through all our internal structures, which is a powerful yoga practice itself. However, things are not so easy, and we should not expect an instant result. The “agony of creation” does not simply recede.

The key to overcoming the “agony of creation” is cleansing our internal structures!

The thing is that, if our internal structures were cleansed — through extensive regular practice of Yoga, through meditation, through constant self-improvement to realize our Higher Self — then prana would flow through them unhindered, in large volumes and on an ongoing basis. In this case, we would never have come across the throes of creation in the first place, because we would experience a continuous state of bhava. To create would be as natural as to breathe, we wouldn’t even think about it.

Since we are still far from the ideal of Yoga, and our channels and centers are pretty much clogged, the prana flowing through them stalls, creating tension in our bodies and mind. The more prana is directed into our unclean structures, the more we “overheat”, and our “agony of creation” only increases, and instead of the expected illumination, we feel depleted and are overwhelmed by stress and nervous strain. History knows many cases when writers or composers, agonizing in the throes of composing, tried to anchor themselves through alcohol consumption, relieving the tension in this way.

It’s simple: the cleaner our channels are, the less resistance they create when prana moves through them, and the less tension is created as a result!

It’s funny how accurately this scheme can be explained if we apply it to the formula of Ohm’s law (a famous German physicist): I=U/R, where:

I is the current intensity through the conductor

R is the resistance of the conductor 

U is the voltage measured across the conductor

If, by analogy, we consider our prana to be the current intensity (I), then resistance (R) is the resistance created by our unclean structures (channels and centers), and the voltage (U) is exactly our “agony of creation”, which we experience through the “friction” of our prana and these unclean structures.

The difference is that in physics, Ohm’s law is used to extract the voltage from the available current intensity by increasing the resistance of the material of the conductor. Whereas in yoga, on the contrary, the goal is to reduce tension in the structures of our bodies, through their purification with a consistently high flow of prana.

Yoga is an extremely logical teaching. And even at first glance, incomprehensible, transcendental statements can be explained by applying clearly defined logical laws to them. Therefore, we don’t have to look for explanations of our creative successes or failures in certain mystical factors. All the answers are inside us. 

All what we need is to systematically work on ourselves daily, practice different types of yoga, train our mind and its ability to concentrate. Practicing Yoga will help us purify our internal structures and attract larger volumes of prana into them, while the developed mind will become a repeater capable of focusing and directing prana into the right creative course!

Creativity is our natural ability, which we own “by default” from the moment of our own creation. The extent to which we successfully use this ability and how often we experience the “agony of creation” is defined only by the state of our self-awareness. By doing yoga, we gradually become more aware of our original nature and we comprehend our mightiness and willpower. By cleansing our internal structures through yoga practice and attracting more and more prana from our Higher Self, we are able to overcome any obstacles in our journey to creativity!

“Creativity is contagious. Pass it on.”

Albert Einstein

Authors: Olga Belous

Editors: Anna Prema, Eva Rati, Maria Gayatri, Alla Taruna, Evgenia Agni, Alla Taruna 

Chief editor: Mirra

Project curator: Kerigona

Translators: Nat Satcitananda, Teya Sweet, Alexander Vijaya

To read the first part: The agony of creation, its origin and death Part 1

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