1. 108 Truths of the Yoga of Enlightenment - Talks on Patanjali Yoga Sutras

Talking on the Yoga Sutras is an intense experience not only for all of you; it is an intense experience even for me. Because this is the one book I have heard and studied directly from a master. I have spoken on many scriptures - Bhagavad Gita, Brahma Sutras, the Upanishads, Shiva Sutras, so many books! But this book, I have studied directly from a great master, at his feet.

So many beautiful memories and beautiful experiences that I had with him are filling my inner spacel Before entering into the sutra, let me narrate one incident that happened with the master who taught me these Yoga Sutras.

The first sutra is a beautiful sutra - atha yaganushaasanam, which means "Now begins the experience of Yoga'.

My teacher's spiritual name was Yogi Yogananda Puri, and people used to call him Raghupati Yogi. You would have read and seen his name in my biography. One morning during yoga practice, he suddenly told me - JUST SIT!

And he told me 'Don't move till I say." And I sat.

I thought he would make me sit for five minutes, ten minutes, preparing my body and mind for initiation. So I sat. Ten minutes went by, half an hour went by, one hour went by, and I was still sitting.

I was a small boy, maybe five or six years old; not more than five or six. After some time, he just walked out. He went away somewhere.

I was sitting there. I was just sitting.

After ten hours, sometime in the evening, he came back. And he started the first sutra - atho yoganushasanam. Now the instruction on Yoga starts. Now the experience of Yoga starts.

I asked him "What do you mean by this?"

He said 'Qualification! You need a certain qualification to enter into Yoga'.

I asked him what the qualifications were. He said, 'Do not worry. I have already tested you. I have already tested you. From morning till now, I asked you to sit and you just sat. That is the qualification. You do not have to bother about qualification'.

He started with this word - atha yoganushasanam. Each master has his own way of translating this sutra, but the exact translation is 'Now begins the experience of Yoga'. Let us understand this word, because Patanjali wants to make it very clear.

The sage Patanjali is the Master of these Yoga Sutras. He wants to make everything very clear - what he is going to teach, whom he is going to teach, who this book is going to work for, for whom this science is expressed. With this one word 'now', he means a lot. He is conveying many, many, many things.

Unless you understand this 'now', experiencing Yoga may not happen. You may have an intellectual idea, but the experience may not happen. For the experience to happen, you need to understand this word 'now'.

First, you need to come to this moment, 'now'. Second, you need to understand the depth of yoga science. Yoga is not just an ordinary therapy. It is not just to heal your knee pain or back pain. It heals, that is true, but that does not mean yoga is only for the purpose of therapy.

Yogo really transforms your life. When your life is transformed, you escape from everything negative, whether it is poverty or abusive relationships or disease or whatever. You escape from it or move beyond it. But that does not mean yoga is just for this. Yoga has a much deeper meaning, a deeper experience. Understanding that yoga has depth is a basic requirement to enter into this experience.

There are many different ways in which books start. In Bharat, there is one more book called Brahma Sutra - a book of aphorisms, the philosophy of superconsciousness. This book starts with the words, athaato brahma jijnaasaa. It means "Now let us enquire into Brahman. Now let us enquire into Existence'.

But here Pataniali is not saying 'Let us enquire into yoga.' No! He says, atha yoganushasanam. 'Now let us experience Yoga.' So, the moment you open this book, he conveys, 'I take it for granted that you are a sincere seeker. Let us start the work. I am not interested in wasting your time or my time."

Patanjali is very straightforward. He is putting things across directly. He is not interested in wasting time. Straightaway, he says, 'Now I know that you are Interested sincerely in experiencing the Yoga. So let us enter into Yoga'. It is a wonderful moment. With devotion, every sutra becomes a click!

Let us take a few moments to remember and pay our respects to all the great masters - Sadashiva and Patanjali and all the great masters who did research and development, and expressed this great voga philosophy. I remember all of them with reverence before entering into these great sutras.

Many times people ask me, 'Why should we have so much respect or devotion before entering into these kinds of scriptures?' You can enter into this book in many ways. You can just enter into this book as a casual reader, or you can enter into this book with intellectual curiosity. There are many ways you can enter. But if you enter with deep devotion and surrender, every sutra will become a click in you. It will suddenly click.

I have seen in my life that if you approach these great scriptures with deep devotion and respect, suddenly every word clicks inside you. You know it is true, and you will experience it, you will live it.

Atha yogaanushaasanam (1.1) Now, let us enter into Yoga.

Patanjali starts the Yoga Sutras with this aphorism-'Atha Yogaanus haasanam.' The exact translation of the sutra is: 'Here, now, begins the instruction on Yoga.' I can say, 'Now, let us enter into Yoga.'

Patanjali is a great Master who does not use unnecessary words. What does he mean when he says, 'Now, let us enter into Yoga'? Please understand, to enter into the zone of yoga, to enter into the teachings of yoga, you need to be in this moment - NOW.

Usually, if your body is here, know for sure that you are not here! That is the state of mind we are living in! In the morning, the moment you get out of bed and put your toothbrush into your mouth, you are already at office: you are already thinking about office. When you are sitting in the office and working, you are already on the beach in the evening! In the evening, when you are sitting on the beach and enjoying the breeze, you are already back home. And when you are at home, you are already thinking of the next day at office.

If your body is here, you are not here.

That is why Patanjali says, 'No! Come down. Come back to the present moment. Be here and now."

When you move into the zone of NOW, Yoga starts happening to you. Patanjali says, 'Come down from your illusions, come down from your fantasies; come straight to this moment. Yoga will start happening in you.'

Yoga is not just moving your body. Yoga is not just focusing your mind. Yoga is the ultimate Happening.

You first need to understand what yoga is NOT. Especially in the west, there is a lot of misconception about voga.

In the West, yoga is often reduced to physical or mental exercises. Yoga has therapeutic effects, no doubt, but that does not mean that yoga is just a therapy. It has a spiritual depth and sacredness. Yoga is a conscious uniting experience.

We are living continuously in illusions, dreams and hopes. We cannot live without them. That is why, even when we do not have anything to do, we are constantly chewing on our dreams. We are constantly chewing on our illusions. We are constantly chewing on our fantasies. That is what I call

Maya. Ya ma saa maya - Maya is that which is not there, but which we continuously feel is there. We feel as if it is there and live with it. That is what is Maya.

See your life - it is full of hopes, fantasies, illusions, dreams! None of them are actually there in the present moment. But you are constantly creating and living with that which is not there. This is Maya.

That is why Patanjali is saying - come down,

relax from your fantasies. Please understand, he is not asking you to be hopeless! He is not telling you to be depressed. No! Depression is nothing but negative hope. Positive hope is desire; negative hope is fear or depression. So is not asking you to be depressed. All he is saying is, 'Come to this moment, and Yoga starts.'

I don't want to add any more words. If I add any more words, you may forget Patanjali's words! So please understand this one message. The essence of Yoga is in this one message: whenever you are in the present moment, Yoga is happening in you. You do not have to bend your body or stand upside down to be a Yogi. If you want to be a yogi, be in this moment: atha yogaanushaasanam. If you can remember and master this one truth, you don't need a second truth. You don't need to go to the next sutra. Some of you may be feeling, 'Oh, today Swamiji has only introduced this book ... there are so many hundreds of sutras, but I cannot listen to all the other sutras, because he will leave for Bharat soon.' Don't bother about that - this one sutra is enough to make you a yogi. You will see new doors to higher

consciousness open inside you.

Actually, even the idea, 'You will become a yogi' can create one more fantasy in you. No! You ARE a Yogi. Come to this moment; you are a yogi already.

Sometimes people ask me, "How can such a small technique do so much?' When you apply it, you will understand. It takes only a small key to open a six-foot door! When you apply this small key of being in this moment,

it opens the greatest doors of your life - the doors to Consciousness.

Let you all experience the higher consciousness, the state of jeevanmukti, Living Enlightenment.

We are constantly chewing on our illusions. We are constantly chewing on our fantasies. That is what I call Maya - that which is not there. but which we continuously feel is there.

What is the NOW, the present moment that is constantly escaping me? How can I bring myself back to the present moment again today?

A few days ago, a devotee brought her child with her to Kalpataru Darshan. Kalpataru Darshan is the time when people can speak to THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM and directly ask for whatever they need, and their desires or wishes will be fulfilled through meditation and the energy of the Divine.

So, when this child came for Kalpataru darshan, I asked her, "What do you want?

She did not know what to ask for. Suddenly she saw the basket of chocolates next to me and asked, 'I want chocolates.'

I said, 'Alright, have it!' and filled her hands with chocolates.

Then she said, 'I want chocolates every day!'

I just laughed and blessed her, 'Alright! You will have chocolates every day.' She said, 'How will you give me chocolates every day?'

I said, "I am there in your home. Don't you know?'

She said, 'Yes, yes, you are there in our home. We have your photograph, a big photograph."

I said, I will give you chocolates every day through that photograph.'

And from that day onwards, every day this child goes and stands in front of the photograph in her home, and she just asks the photograph for chocolates and gets chocolates in her hands!

I know it is difficult to believe! Not only for you; it was difficult even for the child's own mother to believe. She thought the child is stealing chocolates from somewhere. So she wanted to test the child. She called her to the photograph and asked the child to show her what was happening. In front of the mother, the child asked for a chocolate, and it immediately materialized

Please understand, it has not happened just once or twice; she has

materialized seventeen objects out of my photograph. She asked for earrings; they were there! She asked for anklets; they were there! She asked for a chocolate, it was there!

Yesterday, when her mother came and reported this to me, another devotee who was also present there asked me, 'Swamiji, are you not surprised?' I said, 'No. It is not a miracle. I know the science."

The child has experienced what Patanjali says

• atha yogaanushaasanam. She is in the zone of NOW. When you are in that zone, the connection between you and the Master happens straightaway. It is direct. It is straight.

Another funny thing happened. The mother thought to herself, "I want a cellphone. My child is getting all these things, why not me?' So she asked my photograph for money to buy a cellphone. Nothing happened!

Then she told her child, 'Please ask for money for a cellphone. I need to have the money.' When the child asked, it immediately happened.

You may ask why the child was able to get what she wanted, and why the mother wasn't.

Listen: the child does not have the doubt that the Master may tell a lie. She does not even know that people can tell lies! She just knows very clearly, 'He is an enlightened Master. If

He says, it will become reality!' That's all! She is not believing for any reason. She is just naturally in the space of Advaita with the Master. So she has created the space for miracles to happen in her life.

Today, create the space of Yoga. Drop your self-doubt. Drop your doubts about life. Just trust the possibility for miracles to happen in your life.

When you are in the zone of NOW,

the connection between you

and the Master happens straightaway.

Most of the time, we have a hidden motive for our beliefs.

If we have a disease and we decide to take spiritual healing for it, we tell ourselves, 'Only if I believe in spiritual healing, I will get healed; so, let me believe.' But if what we want does not happen, then we tell ourselves, 'I think I should not have believed!' Even our faith is business.

That is why Patanjali is not asking you to believe. He is very straight.

If it is a straight truth, it cannot even be called a belief. Anything can be called a belief only if you have a doubt in one corner of your mind! If there is no doubt, it cannot even be called a belief; it is the straight truth, a straight experience.

After hearing about the child who was receiving chocolates from my photograph, someone asked me, 'Swamiji, why did you not give the mother what she wanted?'

Please understand, it is not that I decided not to give her. It is because she could not connect.

Please understand, for a miracle to happen, you need a beautiful space to be created. You need a strong feeling-connection, only then the miracle can happen.

If there is a strong feeling-connection between two persons, new spaces will be awakened in both their consciousness. For example, when you fall in love with somebody, suddenly a different dimension of you, which was unknown to you, will be awakened. You will start sacrificing more. You will start becoming more joyful. You will start becoming more sensitive. Many unknown dimensions of your own being will be awakened by the other

person. The same way, you will also awaken many new dimensions in the other person.

When the feeling-connection happens between two ordinary human beings and unknown dimensions are awakened in both, it is called love. Beloved is a person

who awakens you to the dimensions of Love which are inside you, but unknown to you. Same way, Master is a person who awakens the unknown dimension of Enlightenment in you, which was inside you, but unknown to you.

In that small child, the feeling-connection has straightaway happened. She is in the level of Being. She is neither struggling with her intellect nor with her

emotions. She is straight. She is connected, and the connection has happened at the Being level. So miracles are automatically happening in her life. They are not even being done by me.

Anything done is work; not a miracle! Anything that happens is a miracle. What you are calling a miracle just happened, because she is also in the space of NOW and I am also in the space of NOW.

Understand, only when you come to the space of NOW, Yoga can happen inside vou.

I am already in the space of NOW. If you can come to the space of NOW, Yoga can happen in you this very moment.

Patanjali says, 'Here, Now, begins Yoga.' You need to come to this moment. Man lives on dreams. Nietzsche says beautifully - man cannot live with the

truth. He needs dreams, fantasies, hopes, to live his life. He cannot bear the present moment as it is; it is too much. So he needs hopes. He needs illusions. He needs stories. He needs fantasies. He cannot be with the reality. But kids are not in that zone. They can experience the NOW. They can have that connection if they are not yet spoilt. With the child, that is what has happened. She did not ask a second question, nor did she have a second thought. It is not that she had a doubt and suppressed it. No! The moment you have a doubt and suppress it, the whole thing is over. Every time, she knows it will happen and straightaway connects - and it just happens. Till today, every day she continues to get whatever she asks for.

You may think, 'How is this possible?' One the one hand, you are not able

to believe it. On the other hand, you can see that I am authentic. What to do?

I know what is happening in your mind! Some people are thinking, 'It is just a story!' Some people are thinking, 'No, I know him; he will not tell a lie. I may not be able to accept it, but he cannot be lying. So how can this be?' And there are some people who are thinking, 'Okay, so such things happen sometimes. Why should we bother about it too much?'

Please understand, whether that child gets chocolates or not is not the issue. I am using that story to make you understand this truth: even our faith is a business. But in the case of the child, she is not manipulating her faith. She is straight and simple. So she is naturally is in the space of miracles.

Anything can be called a belief only if you have a doubt in one corner of your mind!

Today, explore this truth honestly - All my beliefs carry a little doubt, in one corner of my mind. So what is that I really believe in?

Yogaha chitta vritti nirodhaha||1.2|| Withdrawal from mental patterns is Yoga.

Let us enter into the second sutra: | | Yogaha chitta vritti nirodhaha | | 1.2 | | The translation is: 'Withdrawal from mental patterns is Yoga.'

Many times, when these truths are expressed, a sudden click happens to people who come with deep devotion and respect. I keep expressing the same truth in the same words to different people. But when they receive it with deep devotion, suddenly the click happens. Suddenly the connection happens.

This is my favorite sutra. In this one sutra, Patanjali has covered everything. If you understand this one sutra, you don't need to go further. Nothing else is needed!

The simple, straight understanding I want to give you all is this: Mind is not an object; mind is not a thing. It is an action!

People always ask me, 'How to stop the mind?' or 'How to go beyond the mind'? Wherever I go, almost every day, somebody puts this question to me. You can say that this is the most frequently asked question!

/ tell them that mind is not a thing to struggle with; mind is not a thing to suppress; mind is not a thing to destroy. It is an action. It is an action!

Suppose you are walking. If you don't want to walk, what do you do? You just sit down, right? Or, you are talking. If you don't want to talk, what do you do? You just be in silence! In the same way, mind is an action. If you don't

want to do it, you can stop it. That's all!

But we say, 'No, no, no! I have already tried this in many ways. I have tried so many times!' Especially the 'professional seekers' - they come and tell me, 'I have seen, I have tried. It doesn't work'!

I sympathize with your trying. I sympathize with your practice. But please understand, it is a simple action. It is a subtle action. You are doing it. Is there anybody else doing it inside you? No! If somebody else is doing it inside you, then not just me, even God can't help you!

It is you who is doing it! Mind is a simple action. Whenever you do not want it, just stop it - that's all!

If you say, 'No, no, I have tried, but after some time it comes back,' then be very clear - it came back because you wanted it to come back! Now, at this very moment, if you really don't want it, you can just stop it. After a few moments, if it is starting again, it is because you want it to come back. Whenever you don't want it, switch it off; when you want, start it again!

But you forget that it is you who have started it again.

If you understand that you are starting it, at least you will have respect for your decision, for your will. You will not feel powerless in front of your mind. Hove this simple clarity. Look inside and understand, 'When I want the mind, I am starting it. When I don't want it, I am relaxing from it!' For now, don't bring in all the philosophies and ideas you have about the mind - 'My mind is filled with thoughts and engrams, they are continuously erupting out, my mind is so negative, it can't be controlled ... '!

We are fed with so many poisonous thoughts about the mind. Now, relax from everything. Understand this simple thing - mind is an action. Just like walking is your action, talking is your action, your mind is also your action. When you can stop walking, stop talking, why not stop thinking? It is your

action. Decide this moment - it is my action. Let me stop it. That's all! But you say, 'No, no, no! It is not that simple, I have tried for many years. See, even now I am trying to stop it, but it is not stopping.' Do not create that statement within you. If it is not stopping, it simply means you are not stopping it, that's all! You may want to say something or do something. That is why it is starting again. If it is starting again, it means you are starting it. If you approach this sutra with a little devotion, with a little openness, you will have that click. Just bring a little shift in the approach, in the attitude, in the understanding. Please understand, it is we who are stealing our own

things from ourselves. Nobody else is stealing anything from us. It is simple. Let us take the whole responsibility on ourselves. If you want, you can think; if you want, you can stop thinking. That is what is the essence of this whole Yoga.

The essence of this whole Yoga is only this one sutra - yogaha chitta vritti nirodhaha. Yoga is Cessation of Mind. Yoga is withdrawal from mental patterns.

Mind is not a thing, it is an Action! It is an

action which is in your hands. When you are sitting down, do you ever ask yourself, "What happened to my walking? I was walking just ten minutes ago! How did it stop?' You don't ask that, because you know that you stopped your walking yourself by sitting down.

Whenever you are silent, you don't think, "Where did my talking go? I was talking just five minutes ago!' You just know that you were talking earlier and now you decided to be silent, that's all.

Same way, you can use your mind when needed, and you can switch if off when not needed. And you can start again when needed! Just knowing this makes you feels powerful enough to handle your mind intelligently and effortlessly.

Today, contemplate on this: Mind is an Action - like any other action. If I don't want to do it, I can stop it. That's all!

I want you all to know an important truth, which my yoga guru, Yogi Yogananda Puri, once told me.

Listen: you always think that mind is bigger than brain. That is what you think.

My yoga guru gave me a very deep insight into this subject. He told me beautifully, 'The mind is just one action of the brain.'

I was shocked!

Understand, you can perform many actions with your legs. Walking is one such action. You can also kick or run or play using your legs. So many other things can also be done with the legs. Walking is just one action. Same way, with the hand, eating is one action. So many other things can also be done with the hand. Same way, he said very beautifully, 'Mind is only one action of your brain!"

We always think that brain is just physical; mind is subtle. Because of that, we think that the mind is more powerful than the brain, and the mind is everything. When I started experimenting with what my master told me, I understood that it is true! What you think of as mind, what you experience as mind, is only one action of your brain.

If I realize that moving is only one action of my hand, I can relax. If I want, I can move it, if I don't want, I can relax. Same way, thinking is only one action of my brain. I can start it when I want, I can relax when I don't want. Understand this one truth. Thinking is one action of your brain - if you want, you can relax from it, you can rest from it.

When I looked into this truth with deep respect and started analyzing it, I

realized that it is true! When I learnt how to be silent, I understood.

Listen: even when you are mentally silent, or even when you are in deep sleep, your whole body is functioning. It means, your mind is only one part of your brain. Even without your mind, your brain is able to operate your day-to-day life, your brain is able to live your life.

Living your life without what you call 'mind' is what I call Living Enlightenment! That is the essence.

Realizing that your mind is only one part of your brain, and living independent of that part, is Living Enlightenment. When you want, you can switch it on and use it; when you don't want, you can switch it off and relax. Living independent of that part is what I call Living Enlightenment.

lf you have the courage and clarity to switch off your mind when needed, it is your slave; it is under your control. If not, please understand that you are a slave to it! These are some of the important truths, the essence of what Patanjali is expressing.

Patanjali is not wasting time by giving examples. He is delivering the truth straightaway. In the very first sutra, he has delivered the whole book! Now, whatever he says further are only going to be different methods to experience the same space.

If you understand this one sutra, if a click happens with this one sutra, you don't need to go further. You don't need anything else. Just this one sutra is enough.

Now, sit with yourself and contemplate on this - 'Mind is action. It is my own action. I can stop it."

(Silent contemplation for a few minutes)

Alright. If you can have this awareness, nothing else is needed! Understand: Whenever action is performed, you wanted it. Whenever you want, silence

can be created. If this one understanding

clicks with you, you don't need anything further. You are qualified for Yoga. But if you have objections like, 'I have tried many methods, I know it is not that easy', 'My mind is filled with negativity, your mind is different Swamiji' and so on - then you need to read further. You need to read further.

What I experience as mind is only one action of my brain!

is what I call Living Enlightenment!

Living your life without

what you call 'mind'

Internalize this one idea continuously: Mind is an Action; if I want, I can stop it; if I am acting, it is because I want to act. Who is responsible for your actions? Only you! If you are walking, you want it. If you are talking, you want it. Same way, if you are 'mind'ing, you want it! If you are thinking, you want it. You are responsible for your action called mind. Let this shift happen in your consciousness.

Please understand, Patanjali is not putting the responsibility on anybody else. He is not even putting the responsibility on God! In all these 196 sutras, he speaks about God in only one sutra, and even there, he is not describing the nature of God. He is only saying, ishwara pranidhaanaani surrendering everything unto God. It is described as a spiritual quality. He is not even bothered about God; he is bothered about the spiritual quality called surrender. He says you can use God as a tool to surrender, as an object of surrender - that's all. He takes complete responsibility. So take complete responsibility even in your surrendering.

Understand, surrender with responsibility is Living Enlightenment. Responsible surrender is Living Enlightenment.

/ have seen some people surrendering, or claiming that they have surrendered. Oh God! Even if you are caught by your enemies, you will not be tortured as much as you are tortured by these pseudo-surrendering people. They claim that they have surrendered to you. So whatever good happens in their life after that is because of their great surrender, and whatever bad happens is because of you!

Many people come and tell me, 'Swamiji, I have surrendered to you; I will

do whatever you say. Please give me a solution.' But the moment I tell something, they start saying, 'No, no, no, I have this difficulty, that difficultv. that problem, this problem.' They have 1001 conditions, 1001 preferences, 1001 other priorities. Then I tell them. 'Tell me all your conditions first; then I will tell you the solution.'

So. Patanjali says very beautifully: Take the responsibility completely on

your shoulders. A responsible person, when he surrenders, will be so graceful, so beautiful. An irresponsible person, even if he tries to surrender, will be only cunning and blaming - his surrender will never be complete. So the first thing you need is to be responsible.

In this sutra, Patanjali teaches us this basic truth: 'Be Responsible.' The moment you feel you are responsible for your thinking, you know very clearly

that you can stop it. Only when you don't want to take the responsibility, you go on postponing, postponing, blaming others or blaming Life.

Understand this very important truth: we always feel that responsibility is a burden.

No! It is a POWER!

When you feel that you are not responsible for an event happening in your life, you become powerless to change it. When you understand that you are responsible, you will suddenly realize that you have the power to change it also.

The essence of this whole sutra is this: take responsibility for your subtle. action, which I call Mind. When you take the responsibility, you know how to

stop it whenever you want, and fall back into your natural space of completion.

See, mind is not only thinking. There are so many other mental patterns: regulation, channeling, mastery, integration, coordination, quieting - all these are the modifications of the mind. Relaxing from all this is what Patanjali calls chitta vritti nirodhaha, cessation of mind or withdrawal from mental patterns. Yoga means, being able to play with your mind - like in a circus or gymnasium - being able to do whatever you want with your mind or completely rest without it. Nirodha not only means controlling or dropping, it means relaxing from all the modifications of the mind.

So. I want all of you to contemplate on this today.

My mind is my responsibility. Taking responsibility for my mind makes me powerful!

There are three kinds of people in the world.

Whenever a truth is uttered, 33% of people straightaway catch it; they straightaway have a 'click.' Another 33% need a little help, a little convincing, a technique to help them understand. The last 33% will never get it! / am telling you this from my experience of traveling all over the world and working with all kinds of people.

The first 33% - they need to be told, that's all. They are ready, with openness, with devotion, with deep restful awareness. They just get it. Something clicks inside them - 'Yes, what he says is right'! So, for that 33%, your Yoga Sutra session is over! Relax. Your session is over. Now you need to live it, that's all! Just remember this one click - Mind is not a thing, it is an action, a subtle action. It is your own very subtle action. When you want you can do it, when you don't want you can stop it. That's all. You don't need anything more.

If you are in the second 33%, you need a little logical support, you need some techniques. The following sutras are for you.

If you are in the third category, I don't know what to do! But Patanjali Yoga Sutras is such an amazing book. Patanjali has a solution even for the last 33%. Very beautifully, he takes you to the deeper and deeper layers. I can say, he is the ultimate Master. He will do anything to make you experience the Truth.

A man was traveling on his donkey. His goat was tied to the tail of the donkey,

and was following them.

Three thieves saw this scene. The first thief said, 'I will steal the goat from him.' The second thief said, 'I will steal the very donkey on which he is sitting!' The third thief said, 'I will steal the very clothes he is wearing!'

So the first thief slowly started walking behind the donkey. On the goat's neck, there was a bell ringing continuously. The thief slowly removed the bell from the goat's neck and tied it to the donkey's tail. Now the man doesn't know it is only the donkey ringing the bell, not the goat! The thief took the goat and ran away.

The second thief was continuously walking behind the man. After some time,

the man stopped and turned back. He saw that the

goat was missing. He asked the second thief, 'What happened to my goat?' The second thief said, 'Oh, is that your goat? Just now, somebody took it and ran away in that direction. Run, go and get your goat back!"

The man said, 'Alright, please take care of my donkey, I will go and bring back my goat.' He ran to get the goat, and the second thief ran with away the donkey.

The third thief was also following the man. When

he could not find the goat, he returned and saw that he had lost his donkey also.

He was completely depressed and tired. Walking slowly, he reached a well. The third thief was sitting near the well with a long face.

The man asked, 'What happened to you? Why are you sitting there with a long face? Did you also lose your goat and donkey?'

The third thief said, 'No, no! My treasure is lost in this well. I don't know how to swim. If you can get in and take it out, we can split it fifty-fifty.'

The man thought, 'Great! This is my chance to make up for my lost goat and donkey.' He said to the third thief, 'Please watch my clothes, I will jump in and bring the treasure out.' He jumped into the well, and the third thief ran away with his clothes!

Patanjali is the third thief! He can really do his job. He can teach even the third 33% of people. Step by step, he is teaching. He is not just a scholar, he is. a great Master. He can take away everything from you. He will go to the core and leave you in nirvana, utter nakedness, the ultimate freedom.

Please understand, the thief who steals your goat is only teaching you renunciation. He is taking away only your property. The thief who takes away your donkey is taking away your prestige, your power and position. He is taking away your ego, your outer image, your ahankara. Only the thief who can steal your clothes can take away your mamakaro, your inner image,

the very root of your ego. Patanjali is that kind of a teacher. He can take away anything, any ignorance you have.

Actually, if you lose to Patanjali, you will gain the Ultimate.

There is a beautiful stotra by Ramana Maharshi, a great enlightened master from my home town, Tiruvannamalai in south Bharat. He sings the glory of Shiva and says, "I lost me in you and gained you in me - so who is the real winner? You gained only

me, but I gained you! Who is the real winner?' So if you lose to Patanjali, you will lose you, but you will get the Ultimate. So, get ready to lose yourself in Patanjali.

I can say this book is a manual for miracles. There are some books which create philosophers, there are some books which create kings, there are some books which create businesspeople. This is the book which can create Masters who will create religions. This is the book which can create masters who will create religions! In this book, Patanjali explains and expresses the inner science or secrets of miracles and spiritual experiences.

This sutra, yogaha chitta vritti nirodhaha, "Withdrawal from mental patterns is Yoga', needs to be understood in another dimension.

Truth itself cannot be reduced to the one idea of not having thoughts. When the chitta vrittis - the mental patterns - are stopped, suddenly you enter into a different zone. It is as if all the threads that are tying a balloon are cut; suddenly the balloon flies to a different space. Same way, if all the thoughts, which are pulling you down, are cut, your consciousness soars to a different height. It reaches a different zone. It stays in a different zone.

When you look through the window, you see the sky, you experience the sky. But the sky itself cannot be reduced to the size of the window. Same way, when the thoughts disappear, you experience the ultimate Truth. But the Truth itself cannot be reduced to the one idea of not having thoughts! Please understand: when you don't have thoughts, you will experience the Truth, but the Truth itself cannot be defined as not having thoughts. Not having thoughts may be one of the qualities of Truth, but that itself is not the Ultimate.

In the same way, not having thoughts leads to Yoga, but that itself is not Yoga. Sometimes, people think this verse means that not having thoughts itself is Yoga! In the deep sleep, you don't have thoughts! But that is not Yoga! Not having thoughts, with awareness, is Yoga. Thought-free awareness leads you to Yoga. If the different formations taken by the mind are not happening, then Yoga is happening inside you. Yoga is happening inside you.

Today, whenever you remember, fall back again and again into the space of thought-free awareness.

Tadā drau svarūpe'vasthānam ||1.3||

This results in relaxation into one's true nature of limitlessness and total understanding.

Let us enter into the next sutra. The next sutra throws light on another truth.

Tadā drastuh svarūpe'vasthānam | | 1.3 | | This is another beautiful sutra. Let me give you the translation. Here Patarijali says, 'This results in relaxation into one's true nature of limitlessness and total understanding.

Listen: When the thoughts disappear, when the cessation happens, when the chitta-vrittis are no more, when the mental actions are no more, it results in relaxation into one's own true nature.

Please understand: anything you can experience again and again is a pattern. Any expenence you can enter into and come out of is just a mental pattern. By this definition, even your sleep is a pattern. Even your sleep is a pattern. You go in and come out, you go in and come out; it is a pattern. When you really relax from everything, you are established in your own true self.

Whatever you see and experience is because of your thought patterns. Whatever you see in the outer world - whether it is your body, mind, world, relationships - everything is because of your thought patterns. Everything is your thought pattern. Your thought patterns create the life that you experience.

A small story about how our life experiences are changed just by our thought patterns:

Once an old villager traveled to a nearby village for some work.

He started calling out to all the gods ... in Bharat that is the only 911!

On his way back, from a distance he saw that his house was on fire. He started rolling on the ground and crying, 'My house is gone, my house is gone!"

Hearing the noise, his first son came running to him and said, 'Father, don't worry. Don't you remember, you sold that house just two days back?

The villager suddenly sat up and wiped his tears, saying, 'Oh, yes! I remember.' He was completely relaxed.

Suddenly his second son came up and said, 'Father, it is true we sold the house, but we have not yet got the payment!'

Again the villager dropped down and started rolling on the ground and wailing, 'Oh, my house is on fire, is there nobody to save it?

Any experience you can enter into and come out of is just a mental pattern. Within a few minutes, his third son arrived, saying, 'Don't worry father, just this morning I received the payment and deposited it in the bank. The others don't know about it yet. So it is not our house anymore.' Then immediately the villager sat up again, smiling, 'Thank God, everything is okay! Everything is okay.'

Please understand: The same situation, same person - one moment he is feeling the deep suffering, but the next moment, he is

completely relaxed. Just see how your thought patterns can influence your response even to critical situations! Without your knowledge, your life is being run by your thought patterns.

Write down 3 situations in your life, where you felt pained or hurt. Now, write down the fact as it happened, without bringing your perception into it. Compare the differences between the perceived situation and the actual fact.

People ask me, 'Swamiji, do you mean to say we should not cry in the critical situations of our life? What about the death of our near and dear ones? How can we be insensitive even in such situations?'

There is a very subtle truth you need to understand.

Accepting the situation is one thing. The other thing is, accepting the response happening in your inner space.

There is a beautiful story in the Zen tradition. It is a very subtle truth, which will help you understand this sutra in a deeper way.

Once there was a great Zen master. His disciple was also an enlightened master known as Suzuki.

When Suzuki's master passed away, he started crying, weeping, rolling on the ground.

His disciples asked, 'Master, what is this? You are an enlightened being, how can you cry like this?"

Suzuki said, 'If an enlightened person should not cry, I am not interested in your enlightenment! I can't be so insensitive to this situation. He can never leave me or I can never leave him, because he became me and I became him. That is different. But I miss his physical presence. I miss his graceful actions and his beautiful conscious leela, conscious play. That is why I am crying.' The disciples are shocked! One of them asks, 'Then what about the teachings which you were giving us all these years: "Accept whatever is happening tathaata, tathaata!" What has happened to the teachings? Did you teach us

without experiencing it yourself?' Then Suzuki beautifully explains: There are two levels of acceptance.

The first level of acceptance is, accepting the outer situation, surrendering to the moment, surrendering to tathaata, surrendering to what IS; surrendering to the NOW.

But this does not mean you will become insensitive! When you surrender to the moment, it can create strong emotions in you.

The next level of acceptance is, accepting whatever is happening inside you also.

It is a very beautiful truth. Just understanding this can give you a very strong click.

What do you usually do? You try to accept

the situation in the outer world. Then immediately you think - if I accept this situation in the outer world, I should be behaving in this way in the inner world. You have a scale - if I accept this situation, I should be peaceful, collective, calm, restful inside. So you accept the external situation, but you don't have the same acceptance for the emotions that are happening in your inner world!

Just external acceptance is very easy, because you have to accept anyway. It

is taught as a moral value to all of us from the beginning. So we try to do that. But internal acceptance is not needed. And you can hide it! You can plav this game with others, 'See how calm I am in every situation!' But only when you accept internally also, the unclutching happens, the completion happens. Here, Suzuki is throwing new light on tathaata, completion.

Surrendering to the NOW means accepting the outer world as well as the response which is happening in the inner world. He says, "I have accepted that the master has left the body. Same way, I have also accepted the response that is happening in me; the pain, the suffering, the feeling of separation. I have accepted that also.' This is the complete completion. This is what Patanjali describes as yogaha chitta vritti nirodhaha.

When you are in complete completion, there is no chitta vritti and there is no action. The thought patterns disappear. When you accept both, suddenly you will see that you are established in your svarupa, your true nature. Patanjali says, 'This results in relaxation into one's true nature of limitlessness and total understanding."

It is a very beautiful sutra, an amazing truth.

Today, I want you all to internalize this one sutra, this one truth.

Surrendering to the NOW

means accepting the outer world

as well as the response

which is happening

in the inner world.

Write down 5 incidents in your life where you accepted the outer situation, but could not accept the inner emotions. Now, complete with those incidents by accepting the inner emotions also.

Tadā drastuh svarūpe'vasthānam | | 1.3 | |

It means, when withdrawal from mental patterns happens, when you take the responsibility for your mind, suddenly you will see that you are able to have your mind under your control. Having that freedom, having that liberation, is what Patanjali calls svarūpe'vasthānam, being established in your own nature.

We need to understand the word 'nature.' It is an important understanding. Usually what we call our nature is our usual state, which is confused, deluded and depressed. What we call 'normal' is this state! This is because we are using the standard given to us by people like Sigmund Freud, who only worked with mentally ill patients as his specimens - never the beings who live in completion, never with enlightened masters! So we use that standard and think that this is our normal state! No! When Patanjali says svarūpe, 'in your own nature', he means - complete, settled, pure Consciousness, which is actually your true nature. When chitta vritti nirodhaha happens, when the state where there are no thoughts happens, that is what is our natural state.

When you look at these sutras superficially, Patanjali looks like a scientist - straight to the point. He is not lost in poetry. For an enlightened master, talking in simple straight prose is very difficult, because in enlightenment, you are lost in ecstasy. You are lost in ecstasy! Talking in plain prose seems abnormal, too rude, too violent. But here, if you look a little deep, you will understand the deep compassion of Patanjali in the very stand he takes. He

The state where

no thoughts happen

is our natural state!

is not interested in agreeing with what you call as you nature, with what you call as standard. From the very first step, he is very clear about what our nature is.

Through these first three sutras, he is trying to give that straight click to the first 33%- to the people who are waiting for the truth, who are just waiting for

the click to happen. He is giving them a chance. So in these three sutras, he gives the essence of whatever he wants to say. All you need to understand is this: you can stop the mind, because it is an action. This one understanding is enough, nothing else is needed. You are a yogi now. You ARE a Yogi.

But when you don't understand, you think, 'No, it is not that easy! Yoga cannot be that simple. If it was,

why does Swamiji have such a big book in front of him? And why do people study for so many years, so many hours, bending this way, that way, standing upside down and all kinds of things'?

When you have any of these questions, you belong to the second 33%. Now, Patanjali is talking to you. He is taking the next step. He has started using the regular words of a teacher. The first three sutras are spoken like a master, a straight Zen master. Now he is going to the second tone. He starts explaining,

one by one. He is using more words. I can say, he is compassionate; he does not want to give up on us.

Later in this book, he starts handling the third category. He is slowly touching each category, one by one, with tremendous patience!

Actually, when I first read the Yoga Sutras, I thought, 'How can an enlightened master be so dry?', because he is not making any jokes, no stories or poetry.

Nothing! He is talking like an angry husband - not a single extra word!

Now I understand. First, he is talking to the people who are ready to receive yoga; who are in this moment, who are ready to explode. He can't make them wait. So he straightaway delivers the truth to them.

Once he is finished with them, he goes to the second

33%, and here he is a little more relaxed. He is using extra words, because they need to be convinced.

And when he is touching the third 33%, you will see he is very poetic, very tempting - using all possible words, methods, techniques to give extraordinary powers - giving all possible bonuses. He has all kinds of big sale boards when he is working with the third 33%.

Patanjali is not ready to give up on a single seeker - that is his greatness.

CONTEMPLATION

Today, contemplate again on this. What is my true nature, which has been described as 'imiflessness and total understanding?

The other day, I had the opportunity to sit with a great scholar who is doing some research on the ancient civilization which existed in Bharat. The Hindu civilization is the world's oldest living civilization.

As we spoke, I was amazed to see the way in which this civilization has expressed its intelligence! Not just in the enlightenment sciences; in aviation, architecture, civil engineering! This scholar was saying very clearly that the river Ganga is man-made. Nearly ten thousand years ago, this river was created, and man-made bridges were built on the ocean. The understanding and clarity thev experienced and expressed! I was amazed. How could they do so much, not just in the inner world, but in the outer world as well?

Then I understood: when you dive deep into yoga, into this consciousness, when there is no thought, when you are established in your true nature, you have limitless energy and true understanding about everything. In whichever direction you turn your consciousness, you will have complete clarity in that dimension, about that truth. It will be waiting to reveal all its mysteries to you. All you need is to just look into it. You will be able to connect with it and receive all the information and secrets and mysteries. You can just download all the information you need. This is what Patanjali means when he says 'limitlessness and total understanding.'

If you are a yogi, if you are in a thoughtless zone, you can just direct your restful awareness in any direction, and you will know it completely. This is the space of sammyama or complete completion that Patanjali describes.

/ have seen Hindu yogis do this during my days of spiritual wandering. I had the fortune of studying with many Hindu yogis. They can just master anything using the power of complete completion.

I once saw a yogi whose devotee brought him an electronic gadget: I think it

was a CD player or some such thing. He did not even know English to read the signs on the buttons, but I could see very clearly that the moment he picked up the gadget, he started handling it perfectly, as if he had been living with it! I asked him, "How can this be, Swami? How did you learn how to handle this gadget?' He said, 'I may not know this particular machine, but I know how the whole system works; how the whole thing functions."

In your true nature, you have limitless energy and true understanding about everything.

guru, could do anything just by creating a powerful sound wave! For example, if he wanted to throw a stone on a tree to make the fruits fall, he would just create a powerful sound, and the sound wave would hit the tree and the fruit would fall. If he wanted to break a stone, he would take the stone in

the hand and create a sound wave as if it has been hit by a hammer. That sound wave would be so strong that the stone would break into pieces! Sometimes he would create a sound like a dog, and forty or fifty dogs from two or three kilometers around would come running towards him.

Different yogis master different powers. They live in a different zone. They express different kinds of energy. When you are established in complete completion, svarūpe'vasthānam, total understanding

It is very difficult for us to understand. I have seen yogis playing with the power of the mind, with the power of energy. Yogi Yogananda Puri, my yoga

and limitlessness happen naturally.

When you are trying to learn or understand some first relax, fall into the space of restful awareness and then four will see how much more effortless it has become!

Vtti sārūpyam itaratra||1.4|| Till that state is reached, there is clutching and identification with thought patterns.

Letus enter into today's sutra:

Vrtti sārūpyam itaratra | | 1.4| |

Let me give the translation: Till that state is reached, there is clutching and identification with thought patterns.

Till you reach the state of yoga, there is clutching and identification with thought patterns.

Now Patanjali is talking to the second 33% who say, 'No, no, yoga is not that easy. I know how difficult it is. I have been practicing for the past twenty years and I know!'

When you insist, then Patanjali also says, "Alright, it is not that easy."

If you have already got the click, if you are still here just for the joy of listening to Patariali, it is perfectly alright. But if you are here because you have not yet been able to connect, if you have been unable to have that first click, at least join the second group. So Patanjali says, "Till that state is reached, there is clutching and identification with thought patterns.'

I can see a BIG sigh on Patanjali's face! I can see very clearly what he would have felt when he uttered this fourth sutra: 'Alright! These guys are not getting it. Let me talk to them in their language.' That is what he means when he says, 'till that state is reached."

Listen: there is no such thing as a special state; it is simple straight clarity. When you are not interested in moving with the Master when he is holding your hand and taking you, if you are saying, No, no, no, no, no. All this is not for me, it is for you', when you create all kinds of reasons, when you throw tantrums, then

Patanjali says, 'Alright, I will wait for you.' That is what he really means when he uses the words, Till that state is reached, there is clutching and identification with thought patterns."

We again and again come back to our old thought patterns. When I see people clutched to their thought patterns, I feel so bad. Unnecessary suffering! See, all the ideas you carry - if you have suppressed something, you have to release it, or if you were abused, you have to heal that wound through past life regression - all these are just nonsensical ideas.

Please understand: There is nothing like suffering, there is nothing like healing. But when I say this, people are shocked! They say, 'No, no, it is therel We feel it so strongly! Then I say, 'Alright! It is there. Now practice completion and heal it.' What to do? Somewhere, either you have to come to my level or I have

to come to your level.

If you have no problem, you try to create something. I have seen, the moment people hear about the symptoms of any disease or mental disorder, they start mentally verifying whether they have those symptoms! And the psychiatric symptoms are also written in a very technical way. You may have had some signs of irritation at least three times during the last six months." Who is sitting and noting all these dates in a diary? So even if you have experienced it once or twice, you sit and recall, 'Yes, yes,

yes. I remember I had an outburst more than three times in the last six months.' And you have created a disorder for yourself, that's all.

Recall any one incident from your past that you believe has a strong influence over your present. Now, relive the same incident with the understanding that it has no control over your inner space. It can never touch you again.

There is no such thing

as suffering,

and there is no such thing

as healing!

In a small Hindu village hospital, a doctor is diagnosing a patient. He says, 'This man is dead."

But the patient wakes up and says, "No, no, I am not dead! I am alive." The doctor says, 'Sshhh! I have become a doctor after studying MBBS and spending so much money! So do I know better or you?'

In the same way, the psychiatrists have got their degrees after spending so much money. So they naturally ask, 'Do I know better about your mind or you?' They might have studied spending millions of dollars. But that does not mean they will know what you carry. They may not even know what they are carrying!

Earlier, priests used to exploit society using guilt, saying, 'You have committed a sin, you are a sinner, you have to confess, you have to do this, you have to do that.' Now, psychiatrists are exploiting society by saying that you are carrying something called an unconscious mind!

Understand, it is just a game. You are very strongly made to believe - by society, by politicians, by educationists, by everyone - that you have an unconscious mind, you have a subconscious mind and what not. That is the worst part of the whole game.

I am not being insensitive when I say, 'There is no such thing as suffering, there is no such thing as healing, and there is nothing to be healed.' I am stating the simple truth straightaway. I am seeing all the possible nonsense you create out of your past! You don't understand - it actually does not have ony control over your inner space. Any mental pattern, any incompletion, any memory you are carrying from the past, cannot touch your inner space. This is the Truth!

You are constantly made to believe that your past has a very strong connection

with your present. You are constantly taught the idea that you are carrying an unconscious mind. You are taught that you carry so many engraved memories, you are taught that you have committed sins, and you have so much karma - everything is a pure lie.

Sometimes people ask me, 'Swamiji, how can I heal my past life wounds?' I think, 'Oh God!' Now I don't know how to help these people. At least if you talk about this life's wounds, I can tell you that I will

heal you. But now I have to go into past life regression with you, ten or twelve lives, and release those karmas! Now the madness has gone to the extreme. Nothing can be done! But if I talk in my own language, then the disconnection happens, and I can't help them. So I have to come down. That is what Patanjali is doing.

First he says, 'Just stop your action called Mind and relax into your true nature.'

Actually, he wants to complete with this and get up and leave. He wants to say, "Yoga Sutras are over. You enjoy life and let me also have a vacation."

But these guys are not able to relate with that! The second 33% is sitting with a long face. The third 33% is making fun of the whole thing, 'See, I

told you, don't go there. He doesn't know anything. The moment I saw his photograph, looking so young, I knew he doesn't know much. And you are going there and sitting in front of him, wasting your time.' The second 33% is just sitting, unable to connect. The third 33% is making fun. Now Patanjali comes down and says, 'At least let the connection with the Master not be disturbed."

You believe that your past has a very strong connection with your present. It is a pure lie!

Please understand: this is the ultimate thing a man can have - feeling connected to a living Master. Anything can be sacrificed for that, but that should not be sacrificed for anything. I always tell people, 'Actually I am an uncompromising Master. Any decision I take, I don't compromise. There is only one spot where you can bend me - that is, when you send me a signal that if I stick to my own stand, the feelingconnection may be lost.' Nothing else can bend me. If

you want to bend the masters, this is the only thing you can do. You can't use anything else. This is the only point where you can blackmail them, because they cannot afford to let you lose the seeking.

So Patanjali is bending here. The moment he says, "Till that state is reached", he has compromised. He has compromised, because there is no such thing as, Till that state is reached.' It is a pure lie, because you are in that state NOW. Nothing else is required.

But now, the second 33% feels very comfortable, and they say, 'Yes, yes, ves!' They are able to connect.

The following sutras are for them.

Recall any one incident from your past that you believe has a strong influence over your present. Now, relive the same incident with the understanding that it has no control over your inner space. It can never touch you again.

Vttaya pañcatayya kliā akliā ||1.5|| The modifications of your mind are five. They can be the source of anguish or of nonanguish.

In the last sutra, Patanjali says, 'Till that state is reached, there is clutching and identification with thought patterns. '

Now he is telling us, 'Let us start; let us find out how to clean that state, how to remove the identification with your thought patterns."

Now start all the theories, philosophies, different ideas, different techniques.

Vrttayah pañcatayyah klistā aklistāh | | 1.5 | |

Let me translate: 'The modifications of your mind are five. They can be the source of anquish or of non-anguish."

He says, 'The mental patterns are five-fold. They result in the alternation of anguish and non-anguish, suffering and peace.'

The most difficult thing on the spiritual path is making people trust that they are qualified for enlightenment! Nothing else is so difficult. Making them renounce their wealth, renounce their name and fame, renounce their power and prestige - all these things are not a big job at all. The most difficult thing to make them renounce is their self-doubt, their self-hatred, their selfdenial. The most difficult thing is making them understand that they are qualified for the experience, qualified for the Truth.

You are constantly creating struggle and suffering for yourself with your ideas about your past, about your sins, about your karma. So Patanjali says, 'Alright. At least let me try to take care that the feeling-connection with the

Master is not dropped. As long as the feeling-connection is there, at least tomorrow he can be lifted up.' It is like this - I throw a rope for you to climb up; if you don't come up, at least I can come down holding onto the rope, waiting for you. Pataniali is doing that job now.

We don't really want the truth. We don't want a straight solution for our suffering; we want support, we want sympathy. Here Patanjali is trying to give his support. It is like diluting the medicine for kids. I have seen in Hindu villages, mothers feeding bitter neem paste to their kids as a medicine. When

the kids refuse to take it, they make the paste into a ball and coat it with sugar and feed it to the kids. This is exactly what Patanjali is doing. He is sugar-coating the truth and sharing it, so that people will receive it.

When Patanjali says, 'The five-fold thought patterns result in the alternation of suffering and joy', you immediately accept it. Yes, he knows about my suffering. I can relate with him.' Please understand, we don't really want the best things. We want things

with which we can relate, that's all. To have the best things, you may have to move out of your comfort zone. But you don't want that. So you choose only those things which you can relate to, which you are mentally comfortable with.

If you want only the best things, the moment you see the Master, you will naturally drop everything and follow him. On one side, you have the desire to follow him, but then you say, 'No, no, no. Let me have the things with which I can relate, which I can fight or I can resist or I can love or I can play. Master is too big a thing. I know he is the ultimate thing to have in life, but I cannot play with it. I cannot relate with it. I cannot fight with it. I cannot have it. When I can never possess it, why go after it?'

Please understand, the mass is always mediocre. They can't straightaway catch the truth. They need more words, words. If the book is very big, they think it is very valuable. When you have a lot of material, your ego feels satisfied and you feel you have achieved something, you got something. worthy for your money.

There is a beautiful story about Bernard Shaw. He once wrote a book of a hundred pages. Somebody asked him, 'What happened? Just a hundred pages!' Bernard Shaw replied, 'I didn't have enough time. If I had some more

time, I would have written only forty pages!' Please understand the paradox - if I had some more time, I would have reduced it more, refined it more. But we always want more words, more theories, more answers.

Let me tell you an honest truth: All answers only divert you from the question, including the answers I give - because there is no question that can be answered.

For example, you ask, What is worry?' I say, The continuous inner chatter which goes on inside you is worry.' What have you understood?? I can say I have not understood anything! But when you are given more and more words, you are too tired to think further, so you relax!

Actually, any answer will only create ten further questions. Any answer will create more questions in you. That is the nature of words. But when familiar words are uttered to explain unfamiliar words, we understand that as an answer, that's all! You act as if you are asking, I act as if I am answering; both are games. When you realize this, you don't need this game. You start sitting in silence, just in the Presence.

All answers only divert you from the question.

Today, contemplate on this, even if it is a hard truth!

'I don't really want a straight solution for my suffering. What I really want is support and sympathy.'

Part 2: 108 Truths of the Yoga of Enlightenment - Talks on Patanjali Yoga Sutras_English_part_2.md

Sutra 6 Pramāa viparyaya vikalpa nidrā smtaya || 1.6||

Letus go to the next sutra. Pramana viparyaya vikalpa nidrā smītayah | | 1.6 | |

In the sixth sutra, Patanjali is expanding on the five modifications of the mind. The translation is: right lenowledge, wrong lenowledge, imagination, sleep and memory these are the five modifications which may lead to suffering or joy, anguish or non-anguish.

Patanjali's a real Master. He is not losing his Truth. He might have used the sugarcoat, but he is not reducing the strength of his medicine! That is the mastery you need. What needs to be transmitted should continue to happen. Let us understand one by one.

Right knowledge. The first thing which can lead to suffening or joy is - right knowledge. Even right knowledge is bondage. Even though it is right knowledge, it is the mind. Going beyond both, right knowledge and wrong knowledge, is living enlightenment.

There is a beautiful story by the great saint Sn Ramaknshna.

It is also a story about three thieves!

A man is caught by three thieves in the forest. They rob him completely. Then the first thief says, "Why should we leave him? Let us kill him." The second thief says, 'What is the need to kill him? Let us tie him to that tree and go away."

So they do that.

The third thief waits. After the other two leave, he releases the man and says, "Come, I will show you the way to the nearest village."

The man asks, 'Even though you are a thief, you are a good man; you helped me. Why don't you drop this lifestyle and come with me? You can earn an honest living."

The thief says, 'No. After all, I am a thief. I can only help you this much. Now, I will go on my own path, and you go on your path."

moods, are all are based on your liver function. Anything which is based on just your liver function is wrong knowledge! Being influenced by your liver function is nothing better than being influenced by your drinking habit. It is. just another kind of addiction.

A small story:

A father is teaching his son how to drink moderately.

He thinks, 'If I don't teach him, his friends will teach him. If I teach him, at

In this story, the three thieves represent the three qunas or energies that we possess. The first thief who said, 'Let us kill him', is tamas, the energy of inertia, the energy of depression. The second thief who said, 'No, we don't have to kill. Let us just tie him', is rajas, the energy of restlessness. The third thief who freed the man and took him to the nearest highway is sattva, the energy of intelligence, right knowledge. Even though right knowledge can lead you to the space of freedom, it is still a thief! That is

why Patanjali calls even right knowledge a modification of your mind.

Second thing: Wrong knowledge. Wrong knowledge, all of us know! It is whatever we have. Whatever we have! It is a simple straight statement. Whatever we have is nothing but wrong knowledge. Whatever name you may give it, it is wrong knowledge.

Listen: even your emotions, even your mood swings, are based on just your liver function. That is why your mood keeps changing during the day: it is different in the morning, at noon and at night. Your thought patterns, your

Going beyond both, right knowledge and wrong knowledge, is living enlightenment, least I can tell him when to stop! At least he will be in control.'

After some time the son asks, 'Father, how will I know when to stop?'

The father says, 'Do you see that table there, where four people are sitting? When you start seeing them as eight people, it is the sign that you should stop drinking.'

The son says, 'But Father! There are only two people at that table!"

So anything based on your pitta, your liver function, is wrong knowledge. That is why, when you are hungry, your idea about food is different; after you finish eating, suddenly your idea about food is different! Same way with lust: when you want the experience, your idea about the other person, your idea about beauty, your idea about the act, everything is different. When you are finished, suddenly, everything is different.

Any knowledge based on your senses, your hormones, which changes from time to time, is wrong knowledge.

My emotions, my mood swings, my thought patterns – all are based on just my liver function!

Someone asked me, 'Swamiji, when people know that something is wrong, why do they choose it?'

It is a right question. Many times, people enjoy wrong knowledge. They choose wrong knowledge. They don't want right knowledge, because right knowledge sometimes hurts you. It is constantly reminding you to get enlightened. It is like a constant nagging, 'Get enlightened. Get enlightened. Get enlightened.' You just want to switch it off.

Understand, that is why there is so much of alcohol everywhere! Alcohol dulls your mind; it makes you insensitive, lethargic. It makes sure that right knowledge doesn't enter into you - because right knowledge awakens spiritual seeking in you, which is very costly! Your whole life will be different. You have to enter into a new zone, a new space which is risky, unknown. So you want to remain in your old, cozy zone. You say, 'No! Forget about it. This house is enough; this wife is enough; this car is enough; this office is enough; this life is enough.'

You are afraid to enter the zone of seeking, because seeking is such that it will just take away your whole life. It is an internal tsunami. It just changes you. Nothing else is required. You are new. You are washed. You are fresh. Whatever needs to be taken away from you leaves you. Only whatever needs to be left is left. It is a very powerful internal tsunami.

In the world, there are only two categories of people: seekers and addicts. That's all. You can't be in-between. Either you are a seeker, or you have to be addicted, because you have to escape from right knowledge. You have to switch it off. You have to divert yourself, because right knowledge constantly

asks you to seek further, seek further, seek further. It doesn't let you rest. It doesn't say, 'It's okay, you can sleep, I will come back tomorrow.' No! It is like a credit card company - constantly calling you, constantly calling you. Seeking does not let you rest. Why do you think, all over the world, in all cultures, alcohol is such a powerful habit? Alcohol is the most consumed product next to food, because man wants to be in wrong knowledge. He wants to be in delusion, because he cannot handle Reality.

Almost all countries have laws about alcohol, but no country is able to ban

You are afraid to enter into seeking, because seeking will take away your whole life.

alcohol. The moment they ban it by law, even more alcohol is consumed illegally, and that becomes a big problem! It becomes a big headache for

the government, the police, the law enforcement departments. Nothing can be done. So they lift the ban.

And it is not just alcohol. Food has also become an addiction; sex has also become an addiction; relationships have also become an addiction; money has also become an addiction; entertainment has also become an addiction. Anything that can make men insensitive to Reality has become an addiction

• because they are terrified of Reality, they cannot

handle the demands of Reality.

What addiction am I using to escape Reality?

There is only one thing which can liberate human beings from addiction, and that is, encouraging spiritual seeking.

Just like so many other insurances we have, we should create one more insurance. If you are alive, practical and spiritually seeking, you can be insured. If a civilization can give the assurance that you will not lose anything by seeking, more people will turn to seeking. In Bharat, our society was set up in that way. In Bharat they tried, and the experiment was really successful.

In my case, during the cream of my life, between seventeen to twenty-five, I neither studied, nor worked for society. I was a wandering spiritual seeker. In any other country, I would have been put into a shelter for the homeless, or a mental asylum! They would have put me through all kinds of therapies and de-programming sessions. They would have put all possible medicines into me.

But the great Hindu civilization, the Hindu society, did not do that to me. When I was on my own, when I started my journey of seeking, it had reverence, it had respect, it had encouragement for me. It gave me food, shelter, clothes, everything - with respect! Not with the idea of maintaining a useless guy; not in the way homeless people are treated in the so-called developed countries.

Whoever gave me food would also touch my feet and offer their respects, because they had the opportunity to serve a sannyasi, a monk! And that is the way I lived. Can you imagine?

When I travel all over the world, I understand that this civilization was built for enlightenment. It was built to create enlightened beings.

Many times people ask me. Why are there so many enlightened masters only in Bharat? Why are they not spread all over the world? God should have sent them everywhere!'

Please understand, it is not an accident. It is an incident. The civilization itself is created, trained, prepared for enlightened masters. It doesn't have many things which developed countries have, but it has some things which no other civilization can produce. It has insurance for seekers. The whole society is an insurance for seekers. The whole civilization is an insurance for seekers.

Billions and billions of rupees are spent on creating infrastructure to meet the basic needs of seekers who

wander all over the country. The primary philanthropic activity in Bharat is not creating education infrastructure or medical infrastructure. Infrastructure for seekers - that is the first priority. In the developed countries, if any rich man is fed up with money, he will do charity. Only when he is fed up with the money, he will do charity. He may create a hospital or a school. But in Bharat, if a rich man is fed up with money, the first thing he will do is build a monastery or a temple - infrastructure for seekers. The whole civilization is directed towards seeking, towards enlightenment. In Hindu villages, even the entertainment is connected to seeking. The entertainment is - going to temples! That has become their lifestyle. Till recently, there were no theme parks, there was no TV, there were no malls. Everything was rooted in seeking, in the search for enlightenment.

If a civilization wants liberation from addiction of alcohol, if it wants to save its citizens from alcohol, the one and only way is encourage seeking. Encourage right knowledge. Lead people towards enlightenment. Lead them towards conscious growth. Lead them towards superconsciousness. That is the only way to liberate them from alcohol. Till then, alcohol will continue to rule; addictions will continue to be there; drug abuse will continue to exist,

either directly or indirectly, legally or illegally, openly or under cover. It will continue to exist - because man cannot live without right knowledge or wrong knowledge. Right knowledge always leads to seeking, and if that is not encouraged by society, he has no option but to pursue wrong knowledge.

In Bharat, as a wandering seeker, I have seen that every thirty miles you have a place for food and rest. I have walked the length and breadth of Bharat, walking

thirty miles every day. Whenever | wanted to rest, I always found a temple or a monastery where I could eat or rest - without paying any money, of course. You will be surprised - even on trains, when the ticket checkers see a swami, one who is wearing this (ochre) cloth, they will ask you only one thing, "Baba. have you eaten? Father, are you comfortable?' All this, just because I was a seeker. No other qualification, no other ID card is required.

Please understand, in Bharat there is no social security number. There is no way to for anyone to get information about you. The only social security number is this (ochre robe)! That's all. Even if you are a householder, as a seeker, you have a special position and special respect in society. It is in their blood. Respect for the seeker, respect for enlightenment, is in the blood of the Hindu civilization.

Respect for the seeker is in the blood of the Hindu civilization.

Today, drop one wrong knowledge and choose one right knowledge for yourself.

Today's subject is: 'Illumine your Comprehension.'

/can say, this is the whole subject of Patanjali. This is the subject which Patanjali is expressing through all these sutras. "Illumining your Comprehension' means seeing things in the proper light, with awakened vision.

Your mind leads you to bondage, your mind leads you to freedom; your mind can make anything out of anything. Any situation can be experienced in any way. Mind can enjoy a certain happening or suffer due to it. It can experience joy or suffering in the same situation; it can comprehend pleasure or pain in the same situation. It can make you experience anything out of anything.

/ have seen that the people who come to me for healing are of two types. After two days of healing, one type of people come back with so much of joy, saying, 'Oh God, THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM, 50% of the disease has disappeared! I'm surprised how can this happen just with a touch!' They are in ecstasy. And there are a few people who come back and say with long faces, '50% of the disease is still not healed, Swamijii!'

They don't even understand that a disease which has been there for twenty years has melted down 50% in just two days! This is called wrong comprehension - unable to see what is happening. See, both are helped equally, but one guy is in ecstasy while the other guy is not even able to feel or enjoy the miracle of healing. Mind can make anything out of anything. Here Patanjali says, 'These five modifications - right knowledge, wrong knowledge, imagination, sleep and memory - these five can be the reasons for

your pleasure or pain, for your anguish or joy, for your peace or restlessness.' You can use these five modifications towards anything.

Sometimes, people ask me, 'How can right knowledge be the reason for suffering, Swamiji? Why will we use right knowledge for suffering?'

Please understand, many times I have seen people creating guilt out of right knowledge!

In the small story about Suzuki and his Master's death, the disciples had an idea that an enlightened person should not cry; he is supposed to be balanced. This is a kind of right knowledge. But when you misunderstand and apply it in the wrong way, or

when you misuse it, you can create agony, guilt and doubt inside you and other people. In the hands of the wrong person, even right knowledge can create suffering.

People ask me one more question: 'How can wrong knowledge create joy?' Wrong knowledge can lead to joy for a short period, but it is not permanent joy. It is joy that leads to bondage, to suffering. So even if it gives temporary

Actually, what really needs to happen inside us is the COGNITIVE SHIFT, which means that your comprehension should be illumined. You should be able to straightaway relate with the truth, without difficulties or complications, without torturing yourself; the straight ability to relate with the truth. In my experience, people can neither resist the joy, the ecstasy of being in my presence, nor drop their arrogance and come out of their ego! So they

jov, wrong knowledge is still wrong knowledge!

continue to come, and then find fault with something, criticize something! They can neither keep themselves away, nor completely surrender and relax. Means, they are struggling with wrong comprehension. The cognitive shift has not happened. Here, Patanjali emphasizes on cognitive shift.

Today, contemplate on this: Wrong knowledge can lead me to joy for a short period, but it is not permanent joy. It is joy that leads to bondage, to suffering.

Your mind leads you to bondage, and your mind leads you to freedom.

Let us look at these five modifications again: right knowledge, wrong knowledge, imagination, sleep and memory.

Yesterday, we understood right knowledge and wrong knowledge. Today we will enter into imagination.

Imagination can also lead you to joy or to pain, to suffering or to ecstasy. Understand, almost all meditation techniques are based on imagination. Except the initiations which are directly received from the Master, all other techniques use imagination.

The science of unclutching, the first technique which Patanjali spoke about, is a straight initiation. 'Your mind is not a thing; it is an action, stop it. ' This is not something you need to do by using your imagination. It is a straight click. Other than a few techniques like this, all other techniques use imagination. When imagination is used to lead you to pleasure, to make you experience ecstasy, it is called meditation. When the same imagination is used to lead you to suffering, it is called mind!

There are only two things your mind can do: it can either continuously condition you or it can continuously liberate you. Your imagination can either go this way or that way; it cannot stand still. It cannot stand still. We need to understand this one fact. We always think, 'I may not be progressing spiritually, but I am better off than when I started, it is just that I am stuck somewhere.' Please be very clear, there is no such thing as being stuck. Either you progress or you are going down. There is no such thing as stuck.

Either you are going up or going down, like skiing. There is no such thing as stop, stand or stuck! No. It doesn't happen in the inner field.

If your imagination is used by you to liberate yourself, to de-condition yourself, it is called meditation. If your imagination is used by you to bind you more and more, to create more and more bondage for you, it is called mind, conditioning.

I have seen people using even the great knowledge about yoga to create one more conditioning! I have seen people reading the Yoga Sutras and getting

abuse it, they misinterpret it; they start imagining whatever they want using this knowledge. That is why these great truths should be heard directly from an enlightened being. The enlightened being knows how to interpret Patanjali. He knows where Patanjali put a comma, where Patanjali gave a strong emphasis, where Patanjali gave a gap. He knows. The other day I was reading a beautiful line - 'God is nowherel'; somebody had put a comma next to 'w',

depressed, because they misuse this knowledge, they

so that it read as, 'God is now, here!' Sometimes, you need an enlightened person to put the comma, to create the gap, in the right place.

Anotherslogan I read was, There is only one God.' Someone had put a comma next to 'one', so it read, 'There is only one, God'! The first line - 'There is only one God' - is more like a moral science, uniting all the religions, creating peace. The second line - There is only one, God' - is a spiritual experience, a spiritual truth. These two statements may look similar, but their significance is totally different.

There is only one God' can be uttered by anybody. Everybody utters the same thing, but they say at the end: there is only one God, and that is my God, not your God! That is where the problem starts. Everybody accepts that there is only one God, but everybody says that that God is my God, not your God, and my path to God is the only path, not your path. That is where the

problem starts.

So, if you put one comma, There is only One, God' - then it is a spiritual experience. This statement means there is only ONE thing, nothing else. So. when you listen to these great truths from an enlightened Master, you know where to put the comma, you know where Patanjali gave the gap, you know where he emphasized, you know where he is connecting or disconnecting words.

Imagination can either lead you to hell or heaven. Imagination is like a drug,

like LSD. Many people experience ecstasy when they take a drug. Many people experience suffocation and suffering also. If you are accustomed to nightmares, when you take LSD you will have a feeling of suffocation; your LSD experience will be nightmarish. If you are accustomed to sweet dreams, if you take LSD, you will feel you are in heaven, that is all. The drug experience is nothing but the intensification of your imagination. Your imagination can move either in this direction or in that direction.

I can give you thousands of examples, thousands of stories, because I am constantly working with people's imagination! It's my life. I am working with the imaginations of millions of people, directly and indirectly, trying to remove their imagination, or alter their imagination, or redirect their imagination! Many times, the imagination becomes so strong, they can either move completely away from the spiritual path or completely get enlightened.

Just today one of my disciples was telling me that whenever she used to come to the ashram, her daughter would object, asking her, Why are you going there? You don't care about us, you don't care about the family!' Recently her daughter attended a meditation program. Now she says, 'How could you come back from the ashram? How were you able to come back home at all?' Both are her imagination! When she had the wrong imagination, she was

When imagination is used to make you experience ecstasy, it is called meditation.

fighting with her mother asking, "Why are you going?' Now, when she has the right imagination, she is fighting with her saying, 'How could you come back?' That is the mind! Both are imagination.

People sometimes ask me, "How can imagination lead to enlightenment? After all, it is a mental activity. How can it lead to enlightenment, which is

beyond the mind?' Understand, it is just like somebody taking poison. Taking poison is an action, but that can lead them to death, which is beyond all actions! If the right imagination is taken, it will lead you beyond the mind. You will be beyond mind, you will experience the no-mind state of ecstasy.

There is no such thing as being stuck in the same place. If I am not progressing, it means I am going down.

The next modification of the mind: Sleep.

Patanjali says, sleep can lead you to joy or suffering, anguish or non-anguish. Almost one-third of your life is spent in sleeping. So, if you understand the right technique for sleeping, you can spend one third of your life in samadhi! See, the only difference between your sleep state and samadhi state, the ultimate enlightened state, is this: samadhi minus awareness is your sleep; your sleep plus awareness is samadhi. Enlightenment is nothing but being aware when you are asleep, that's all. When you are in deep sleep, there are no samskaras, engrams, which are active; there are no memories which are active; you are completely silent, relaxed, settled. You are in the state of samadhi, but with one difference - you are not aware.

See, in the deep sleep, you are entering into the same state in which Buddha is living, in which Sri Ramakrishna is living, in which Mira is dancing, in which Chaitanya is singing! You are entering into the same space in which they are all living. Only one difference: you are not aware. Patanjali is aware, Chaitanya is aware, Krishna is aware, Buddha is aware, Mira is aware. They are alive.

In that space, if you know how to be alive, if you learn how to be aware, you have done everything. Nothing else needs to be done. All you need to do is learn how to be alive when you are asleep, learn how to be aware when you are asleep. But now, our problem is: forget about how to be aware when we are asleep, how to be aware when we are awake? How to be alive when we

Today, we will practice a technique to convert your sleep into samadhi. Please understand, when I say, "being aware during your sleep', I don't mean 'sleeplessness.' I am not telling you to be sleepless; no. That is sleep disorder. That is a disease. I'm not talking about being sleepless or having a sleep disorder. You will be sleeping, but your whole awareness will be alive means, there will be no engrams, there will be no thoughts, there will be no memories, but the pure "I" will be alive. That will be radiating. That will exist. There is a very powerful technique called yoga nidra - falling asleep consciously, falling into the deep sleep state with awareness. If you can

drop into that state with awareness and come back, suddenly your whole system will be new, your whole system will be different, your whole system will respond to the world in a completely different way.

Listen: if you sleep very deeply, if you have a good sleep and come out, your system will be fresh, it will respond to the world in a different way. If you are stuck in the dream state and come out, your system will be different, and it will not respond properly to

life, to the day. If you fall into samadhi and come out, if you fall into the state deeper than deep sleep and come out, you will eternally respond to the world only through joy, only through bliss. That is why we call that state as eternal bliss. If you experience that state and come out, you will see that you are radiating eternal bliss, eternal joy.

Usually you don't sleep for more than twenty or twenty-five minutes continuously. Then you come back, continue to dream, play in the dream world, then fall asleep again; after twenty or twenty-five minutes, you

fall asleep! That is why, when you wake up in the morning, you don't feel as if you had a good rest - because you never rested; you were continuously playing the game. Your body might have been resting, your body might have been relaxing, but you were not in a relaxed mood, you were not aware, you were not in peace.

come back and move in the dream state, have some dreams, then again

Sleep can be used for suffering or joy. This state can be manipulated to reach samadhi state, or to be in the suffering. Human being is the only animal who is tired after resting! Any other animal, when he wakes up in the morning, will be fresh, jumping, active, very alive. Human being is the only animal, when

he wakes up in the morning, just rolls over and pulls the blanket over himself; he is tired of resting! I have seen people using sleep to lead to suffering. Either they oversleep or they continue to suffer without sleep. Sleeplessness or oversleeping. If they don't sleep in the night, the chronic fatigue will be there in their body. It will continue to disturb their creativity. The whole day, they will be constantly disturbed; creativity will not express in them. Or, if they sleep the whole day, there is no time for creativity, there

is no possibility for creativity. Sometimes, people wake up only when the sun comes in through the window - unfortunately, it is the window which is facing west!

So much can be said about sleep! Today, let us have the technique at the end of the session. A very powerful technique: how to relax with awareness, how to go into the deepest states of sleep with awareness.

(Yoga Nidra meditation follows)

Enlightenment is nothing But being aware when you are asleep.

Tonight, try to be aware as you fall asleep.

The fifth modification of the mind is Memory. Memory is a very powerful thing!

Memory means, the ideas, thoughts, imagination, visualization, which you have collected, and which are still alive inside your system.

Please understand: memory is what I call 'pain body'.

Memory is more powerful than the other modifications. With right knowledge, your connection with it can create suffering or joy only with your action. Right knowledge can give you suffering or joy only if you act upon it. With wrong knowledge, only your response to it can create joy or pain. With imagination, only your supporting the imagination can create joy or pain. With sleep, only when you support sleep, only when you are a part of it, you will have joy or pain. But with memory, you don't need to do anything. Your memories are independent of you; they don't need your support or cooperation to put you into joy or anguish.

Memory is such a powerful thing; it can come up by itself and put you in joy or suffering, put you in anguish or peace, put you in bliss or suffering. It can lead you to anything on its own. By its own right, it doesn't need cooperation from your side. Right knowledge, wrong knowledge, imagination and sleep need co-operation from your body and mind. But memory can just erupt and you can't even question it, but you are in suffering or joy. Suddenly a memory comes up, occupies your whole inner space and puts you in suffering or joy for no reason. You can't say, "Why did you come?" Memories are uninvited guests. Why that memory came so strongly, you can neither question nor understand. Sometimes, suddenly you know the memory of the Master is inside you, and for ten minutes, you are in ecstasy, you are in joy. Just soaked in his memory, being in his presence! You can't ask your mind, 'How did this memory come?' Same way, some memories which you don't want to cherish may arise, and your whole day is gone. Just one wrong memory awakening; your whole day will be in depression, in a low mood. That is the power of memory.

One important thing you need to understand about memory: if your memory is complete, it won't lead you to suffering, it will lead you only to joy. And, if your memory of your past is complete, you will have the knowledge of your future!

I am not giving you a false promise; I am stating the simple straight truth. If your memory of the past is clean and pure and complete, you will have a clear idea about your future, because your future is nothing

but the reproduction of the past in a different dimension. Some of the quantities may be different, but the basic structure will be the reproduction of your past. You might have had one car in the past, you may have a few cars in the future, but the future is going to be the reproduction of the past.

But the big problem is that we don't even have the right idea about our past! We remember our past only after editing it!

If you think that your whole life is suffering, as we usually think, you edit

If your memory of the past is complete, it will lead you only to joy.

and connect only all the past incidents where you had suffering, and think that your whole past life was suffering. You create a 'pain shaft' and connect. all your memories of suffering on that one shaft, like flowers strung on a garland. Just that idea is enough to feel, to think, to imagine, to visualize, that your whole life was suffering. This is not a right memory, it is a wrong memory.

Same way, if you think that your whole life is joy, again you will edit, cut, fix, paste and see your whole life as joy. You will connect only all the joyful incidents and memories, and start feeling that your whole past life was joy.

We never comprehend reality as it is, we don't have the complete memory in our control, we don't look at the past as it happened.

If you have a simple, straight, clear idea about the past, you will have a simple, straight, clear idea about the future. Your miscomprehension, your wrong idea about the past, is responsible for the wrong idea about the future. If you think you are not able to plan your future, be very clear: you don't have a clear

vision about the past. Any incident that happened in the past adds some juice to your being, some understanding to your being, some awareness to your being, some knowledge to your being, some experience to your being. So, if you are aware of all your memories, that knowledge, that essence, is added to your Being. It will continue to guide you in the future. But when you forget those incidents, when memory loss happens, when selective memory happens - which is happening in all of us - the juice of that experience, the knowledge born of that experience, will not express itself in the future.

Look into your life and see how you have connected only the painful incidents and decided that life is suffering. Now, consciously let go of that incomplete perception.

Sutra 7 Pratyakṣa anumāna āgamā pramāṇāni ||1.7||

Direct perception, inference and competent evidence constitute right knowledge.

Right knowledge, wrong knowledge, imagination, sleep and memory - these are the five modifications that lead you to suffering or non-anguish. Realize all these five can either be used or abused. Just this knowledge, this understanding that it can be used or abused, that it can lead to either joy or suffering, is enough - you will start using them rightly.

Whenever any of these five is leading you to suffering, realize that you are abusing it, you are misusing it. Whenever it is leading you to joy, you are using it properly. Whenever you are in suffering, understand that one of these five is being misused by you. So, decide that you will use it properly. Whenever you are in joy, understand that any or all of these five are being used by you in the right way.

Let us enter into the next sutra. Pratyakṣa anumāna āgamāḥ pramāṇāni

It's a beautiful sutra. Here Patanjali is describing each of the five definitions in a deeper way - what is right knowledge, what is wrong knowledge, what is imagination, what is sleep, what is memory.

People ask me, Yes Swamiji, we know that all these five can lead to suffering or joy, but how to use them to lead to joy?'

Here Patanjali is giving us the key to use these mental modifications towards joy. Please understand, all these five can be used to increase your energy or reduce your energy. They can either bring you miraculous powers and extraordinary energies or they can make you more and more dull, dead, depressed.

Nowadays scientists are saying that if you constantly tell your kids, You are dull, you are dull, you are dull', they will become dull. If you constantly praise them,

saying, You are bright, you are bright, you are bright', they will become bright!

There is a beautiful incident in Sri Ramakrishna's life. When his young disciple Vivekananda used to visit him, Sri Ramakrishna would constantly repeat to him, You are the incarnation of Shiva and Vishnu, you are the incarnation of Nara-Narayana, you are the incarnation of God.' The other disciples used to ask him, What is this, he is just a young boy, a college student, and you are saying he is the incarnation of God! How can it be?'

Sri Ramakrishna would say, 'Don't bother about that; just by my word, he will become that! He will achieve that state. He will start living that state."

Whoever you strongly believe, whatever they say will mold your personality, it will mold your personality. That is why I always tell people, "Catch the right Guru; he will constantly remind that you are the Ultimate, you are God, you are living in the eternal energy. He will constantly remind you about your original state."

Carrying the right idea about you is a twenty-four hour meditation!

There are two states in you: one is the original state, the divine state; the other one is the cloud of ignorance that covers you. If you catch the right Guru, he will constantly tell you that you are divine, because he is in the divine state. If you

catch the wrong guru, he will constantly tell you that you are covered by a cloud of ignorance, because he is covered by that cloud! So, catch the right person. Catching the right guru does almost 80% of your job. I can't say just 80%, I think 90% ... no, not even 90%, 100%! If you catch the right Guru, and if he also catches you, nothing else is needed. Your work is done, because he will constantly kindle your right imagination; he will constantly make you understand the truth.

When you use your power of imagination in the right way, you don't need a separate time for meditation; all twenty-four hours, you are in meditation! Carrying the right idea about you is a twenty-four-hour meditation. Twenty-four hours, that imagination gets strengthened in you; twenty-four hours, you are meditating, twenty-four hours, you are going towards the higher consciousness.

Internalize this one truth today: whatever the Guru is doing, he is constantly reminding me about my original state.

There are two kinds of teachings.

One kind teaches you that you are a beggar, and only by begging every day you can become a millionaire. That means, every day, you should do one hour of yoga and three hours of pranayama, and you can hope to get enlightened at some time in the future !

Listen: your one hour of yoga or three hours of pranayama is nothing but begging. Have you ever seen a person begging, penny by penny, dollar by dollar, and becoming a millionaire? No, it can never happen, because he has to spend whatever he makes every day for his survival.

So, this is one kind of spiritual practice, one kind of sadhana, practiced by the people who are taught that they are beggars. If you look at them, you will see that they are very serious. The whole day, they will be closing their nose and blowing in and blowing out and standing upside down, doing all kinds of asanas, pranayama. They won't waste even ten minutes. Even when they talk, they use measured words. When they get some time, they close their eyes and sit. Even those few minutes, they cannot afford to waste, because they feel they are beggars trying to become millionaires; it is not an easy job! / have seen such foolish ideas being taught to seekers: 'The more you keep your eyes open, the more energy you will lose.' Hahaha!

And these poor guys, whenever they get two or three minutes' break, they close their eyes and sit with a morose, long face.

Wrong imagination! This is nothing but using the imagination to create more and more bondage.

On the other hand, the right Guru teaches you that you are already

enlightened; nothing else needs to be done. The moment this thought is strongly put inside a person, he starts behaving like that, he starts living like that, he starts experiencing that courage, he starts experiencing that confidence. Even the few problems that come in his way, he handles with that confidence, with that courage, with that brightness, with that knowledge, with that energy, with that enthusiasm - and he lives enlightened.

Listen! You are already a millionaire! Not just a millionaire, you are a billionaire, trillionaire and what not! All you need is, remembering, reclaiming, living.

Remembering, reclaiming, living is all you need. You are already complete! That is why, the more and more you are connected, the more and more you feel connected, the less sadhana you need, the less spiritual practices you need. Because I am using your very imagination, I am making your twenty-four hours into practice; you don't need a separate practice.

The right Guru teaches you that you are already enlightened.

Recall an incident where you used imagination to create bondage for yourself. Now, complete with that incident and be free of the bondage.

Now Patanjali expands beautifully on the three sources of right knowledge. Understand what is right knowledge: Pratyaksa anumāna āgamāh pramānāni Direct perception, inference and competent evidence constitute right knowledge.

It means: perceptions received through the senses, conclusions arrived at through the cognition, and the words of an enlightened Master - these are the three ways to gain right knowledge.

Direct perception, inference, and competent evidence constitute right knowledge.

Please understand: whatever is grasped with fresh, alive, pure senses, can itself be a proof. But your senses should be pure and fresh, not perverted. If your senses are tired, overworked, overwhelmed, they cannot give you the right perception. If your senses are tired, the moment somebody enters the room, you will feel he is going to fight with you. If you are tired, you will always be expecting enemies. If you are alive, fresh, even your enemies will look like challenges to you. They won't look like enemies; you will feel it is just life, let us live it! If you are tired, if you are feeling dull, even your friend will look like an enemy; even if your friend enters your room, you will be wondering how to get rid of him quickly!

The second way to gain right knowledge is - by the cognition that happens through the senses. It is a very tricky thing. When you perceive through the senses, you analyze the data internally and come to a conclusion. That is what we call cognition. Receiving the information, processing it, coming to a conclusion and taking a decision is cognition. Cognition can be a scale to measure whether what you have is right knowledge or wrong knowledge. For example, if you are seeing me here - seeing is one proof; receiving this information and internally coming to the conclusion, 'Yes, I know him, I have heard him, I have experienced him' - this is another proof; it is also a source of right knowledge.

The third way to gain right knowledge, Patanjali says, are the words of an enlightened Master. They are the third source of right knowledge. Means, all the words of an enlightened Master - whether you perceive it with your senses or not, whether you cognize it through your mind or not - are right knowledge. It is a very powerful Truth. I can say, the whole tradition of guru-shisya parampara, the master-disciple relationship, is built on this one sutra. We will look at it more deeply.

The words that come out of an enlightened Master are straight, complete, right knowledge.

In the modern day, people can understand that perception through the senses is right knowledge, they can understand that the cognition arrived at through the senses is right knowledge, but they can't understand that the words of an enlightened master can be a source of right knowledge ! They always demand proof! But please understand, all the traditions which accepted the words of an enlightened master as a source of right knowledge lived ecstatically; they radiated enlightenment.

In mathematics, you start with a hypothesis and work on a problem, and when you get the expected solution, you know that your original hypothesis was right. But until you get to the solution, you need to have the patience to trust your hypothesis, to trust your assumption. When your teacher says, 'Let us assume x is equal to 2, if you start asking - Why not 3? Why not 1? Why should it be 2?', then you start fighting with the teacher, and you don't give him a chance to take you through the steps to prove what he is saying. The same way with the Master - you need to have patience till he concludes, till he proves what he is saying. Instead, the moment he starts the teaching, if you start fighting with him, if you think that he is cheating you, mesmerizing. you, brainwashing you, then who will be the loser? Only you - because he already knows that x is equal to 2! He has already come to the conclusion. He is trying to teach you in the language in which you will understand, so he has to say a few things like 'Let us assume', in the initial level. And if you say, 'No, no, I cannot assume; come on, prove it, only then I will let you go to the next step' - you are like the foolish person who protests when the math teacher says, 'Let us assume x is equal to 2'!

Transfer of knowledge, transfer of Truth, can never happen if you don't have the patience to wait till he comes to the conclusion, till he gives you the experience. Till you experience it, you need to have a little patience. That patience is what we call faith. Not even belief, just the simple faith that the Master has no vested interest in lying to you. But if you say that he has to prove every statement immediately before he can go further, is there any possibility? There is no way he can prove that statement immediately. You need to have patience till he comes to the third statement and the fourth statement and reached the conclusion.

So here, when Patanjali says, The words of an enlightened Master are a way to gain right knowledge', he means, 'Relax. Till you experience, respect his words; go with them; they will become your experience.'

The words that come out of an enlightened Master are straight, complete, right knowledge.

What is stopping from accepting the words of the enlightened Master as the straight, simple truth?

The only difference between atheists and theists is this: both agree that perception through the senses, and conclusions arrived at through the cognition, can be sources of right knowledge, but atheists cannot accept the third source - the words of the enlightened Master! The third source is accepted only by the people who are really interested in experiencing the Truth.

The other day someone asked me, 'Swamiji, tell me what to do with my life.' / asked him, 'What do you want to do?' He said, 'Oh, I want to be a sannyasi with you.' I said, 'Then what is stopping you? 'No, no, I want to be a grihi also, a householder also.' So I told him, 'At least take a decision, only then I can support you.' 'I feel that I should become a householder, but I want to be around you also!'

When you are in such a mood, in such a situation, if your heart believes that the words of an enlightened Master is the way to right knowledge, then there is a possibility for you to be guided, there is a possibility for you to reach the truth, there is a possibility for you to experience the higher consciousness. But without that, if you believe only the perception through the senses and the conclusion arrived at through the cognition, then you are in a dilemma.

Dilemma is the ultimate punishment given to people who don't have the maturity to handle life!

Whenever people are not interested in listening to me. all I do is just give them freedom. That is the ultimate punishment! They will die just because of the dilemma - what to do, what to do, what to do?

See, when you have freedom without maturity, without enlightenment, that is the ultimate suffering - because you do not know what to do, you will keep oscillating. You will keep postponing making a decision, or repent any decision you make. You know only two spaces: postponing or repenting. You either continue to postpone due to the fear of taking a decision, or you take a decision and repent it, thinking that you have made the wrong decision - whatever the decision may be! This side or that side, you will be repenting. So, freedom without enlightenment is the ultimate punishment.

Very rarely, a very few intelligent people have respect for this third statement: the words of an enlightened Master is one of the three ways to gain correct knowledge.

Remember this one truth; this one sutra is enough - you will have straight, right knowledge about your life, about the purpose of your life, about everything. What to do, what needs to be done, what is the ultimate - all this knowledge can be gained just from the words of an enlightened Master. Respect for an enlightened master's words will straightaway lead you to enlightenment - because he is constantly reminding you that you are enlightened! Please understand, either you must be correct or I must be correct - and you know who will be correct! So just tell yourself, 'His words can never be a lie. He has no reason to tell a lie, he doesn't have to. I may not believe, I may not understand, but if he says something, it must be true. It is not as if all the things I believe are right, and it is not as if all the things I don't understand are wrong!'

Just with this one authority, again and again remember, 'If he says something, it must be true. Let me remember, let me live, let me understand, let me internalize. At least let me try to understand why he is saying that.'

This can become a technique to constantly remind you that you are enlightened, to constantly awaken your imagination to the truth that you are enlightened, to constantly lead you to the right knowledge that you are enlightened, and ultimately, to lead you to the very enlightenment itself.

What is stopping from accepting the words of the enlightened Master as the straight, simple truth?

Freedom without

Enlightenment is the

ultimate punishment.

Patanjali beautifully describes the different levels of right knowledge. Perception through the senses, conclusions arrived at through the cognition, the words of an enlightened Master - these are the first, second and third levels of knowledge. As you evolve, you will start connecting with the subtler and subtler levels of knowledge.

There is a beautiful story in Vivekananda's life. When Ramakrishna gave the experience of the Truth to Vivekananda that whatever exists is Divine, Vivekananda went and started hitting his head on an iron rod to test whether that iron rod is also divine! It is a right knowledge, but wrongly understood! Please understand, the iron rod is a different level of knowledge, and the truth that whatever exists is Divine is a different level of knowledge. You need to understand that there are different levels of knowledge.

The society that has only the first-level knowledge is a primitive society they don't know anything except what they perceive through their senses. They either eat or are eaten. If you are living at that level, even if you live with all the wealth, name and fame, power, prestige, everything - you will be depressed, because you are running your life through one channel.

The other day I was reading a beautiful story:

A great king, who has practically conquered the whole world, is searching for immortality.

Seeking immortality is also just one more game.

He goes to an enlightened master and asks, "Tell me a way to become immortal.'

The master says, 'Why do you want to become immortal? Understand that life and death are changing nature."

The king says, 'I am not here to listen to your teachings. I am asking for a solution; can you give it or not?'

The master says, 'If you insist, I can tell you. It is your misfortune that you are asking for this! Anyhow, do you see that cave in the distance? There is a stream running through that cave; go inside and drink that water, you will become immortal."

This king is so elated that he does not even bother to ask the master, 'If you know the technique to become immortal, how come you did not drink that water yourself?

He rushes to the cave, but just as he is about to drink the water, a crow which is sitting in the cave starts shouting, 'Stop, stop! Don't drink that water!' The king is surprised. 'Who are you, and why are you stopping me from gaining immortality ?'

The crow says, 'I drank this water unknowingly, and I am sitting here for the last three thousand years. I can neither die nor live! I have seen everything that the world can offer, I have done everything that the world can offer. All the people whom I knew are dead. I am utterly depressed, but I can't even commit suicide! So I decided that I will sit here and tell my story to whoever comes here to drink the water and warn them. Now, if you want, you can drink the water.'

The king is shocked. He realizes that he has been saved from the worst hell. He just does one big namaskar to the crow. thanks it, and escapes from the cave; he just runs away from that cave!

Please understand, seeking immortality is also just one more game. Even if you become immortal. if you are living just through the perception of the senses, you will be dead and depressed. It is like having a TV with only one channel! I have seen people who have everything, but they are living in deep depression, because they do not know how to switch on the next channel; they do not know how to open up the next level of knowledge.

Living just through the perception of the senses is like running my life through one channel!

Understand, life is knowledge. Expansion of knowledge is Life.

Unable to expand in knowledge after a certain level is depression; it is death. When you are unable to expand further, it is depression; you are dead. There is nothing else to be done.

Many times, people who are very successful in the outer world come to me and ask, We don't know what to do with our life Swamiji. It has become a big burden. We are just dragging our life! We neither have the courage to die, nor the energy to live; we are just dragging, dragging, dragging. This means you have opened only one channel - perception through the senses.

Very rarely, people open the second channel. They are the people who become scientists, thinkers, artists. They open up the next level of understanding. For example, if there is a stone, and you perceive it only through the senses, you will see it as a stone, that's all. But if you can start inferring, 'If I remove this part, if I remove that part, if I remove that part, it can become a sculpturel', that is the next level of knowledge. Inference is nothing but coming to a conclusion through cognition. Great artists, great creators, great sculptors, great poets, all of them have entered the second level of knowledge.

The third level of knowledge is very rare. Only very intelligent civilizations accept, internalize and experience the third level of knowledge - the words of the awakened ones, the words of the enlightened ones.

Please understand, if you accept only the first level of knowledge, pratyaksa, whatever is perceived through the senses, only the first thirty-three years of your life will be joyful. There are many countries, many cultures, where you can spend only the first thirty-three years of your life! They are not useful, they are not worthy, for the second thirty-three years. The second thirty-three years you will be bored, depressed, empty, in that civilization, because it has nothing to offer you after that. All your life, you have to accept the lifestyle, the entertainment, which has been designed for the kids and youth - you have to go to the same theme park which has been designed for them, you have to enjoy the same music and dance and food which has been created for them.

Rarely some countries offer opportunities for the second thirty-three years, which means, opportunities for science, opportunities for art, opportunities for creativity, opportunities for exploring the inference dimension, the anumana dimension. They can offer life material for you, entertainment for you, till you are sixty-six, ready to retire from your profession. After that, there is nothing for you in those countries, in those cultures. That is why, all over the world, there is such a high suicide rate among the senior citizens. No media talks about it, because these people are not directly useful to society. But all over the world it is happening. The other day I read a news report which said that the Swiss government is allotting a caregiver to every senior citizen. They will take complete care of you, entertain you, so whatever you want - but please don't commit suicide, that's all they are asking!

Very rarely, very rarely, a few civilizations give you the opportunity to experience the third level of knowledge - the agama, the words of the awakened ones, the words of the enlightened ones. Please understand, as the civilization evolves to higher and higher levels, it starts accepting and encouraging the higher kinds of knowledge. Only when it moves to the very subtle, very intelligent level, it starts accepting agama, the words of an enlightened Master. I can say that only the civilizations which produced great people like Patanjali can offer entertainment for you till you are a hundred. When I say 'civilization', I don't just mean India. I mean Bharat. Bharat is a not a geographical location; it is a spiritual distinction. Wherever the science of Living Enlightenment is practiced, wherever the spiritual knowledge is kept alive, all those places are Bharat. Only such a civilization keeps on offering you something new for your entire life.

Living just through the perception of the senses is like running my life through one channel!

If you move naturally from level to level in your life, you are a complete human being, you will live as a fulfilled being. It is called ageing gracefully. If the third part has not happened in your life - feeling connected to the words of the enlightened ones - the higher level of the knowledge has not opened up in your consciousness. Please be very clear, if this has not happened in you, you will be in depression in the third part of your life. That is the worst thing can happen to a human being!

When you are completely tired of both the lower levels of knowledge, but have not found a way to open yourself to the third level, your life becomes a living hell.

The Vedic civilization has done a great service to humanity by awakening the highest level of knowledge in every human being. The Vedic civilization is structured in such way that if you go through the first and second levels, the third level of knowledge will be automatically awakened in you. This happens because the pratyaksa and the anumana are both related to agama. the words of the enlightened Master, so there is no conflict anywhere. By the time you cross sixty-six, you don't have a problem sitting in meditation, in contemplation, because you have been prepared for it during the first and second parts of your life.

The first-level knowledge and second-level knowledge are constantly guiding you to the third-level knowledge, so you live gracefully and you age gracefully.

If we want to avoid this serious problem of the elderly committing suicide, the one and only way is awaken the third channel. This is the greatest service you will do to yourself and to the world.

Somebody once asked me, 'Please teach me some technique to stay healthy and live for a hundred years."

Please understand, you need to first prepare your Being to live for a hundred years, then you can worry about your body! Otherwise, you will be living like the immortal crow in the story!

Awaken the feeling-connection to the knowledge of the enlightened ones; otherwise, your last years will be hell for you.

/ can say, this is the best retirement plan. This is the ultimate retirement plan! Now you can relax. If you have not done this, no matter what retirement plans you create, you may end up seeing those beautiful retirement scenes only in advertisements.

/ am seeing in this country (USA), all the retirement advertisements! 'See how ten million people are traveling towards safe retirement." They show a photograph of a beach home and an elderly couple just relaxing and talking to each other. Please understand, only in photographs it will be great. Only in photographs it will be great. You may have money, you may have food, you may have health, you may have relationships, but what will you do? You will have nothing to do. You will not have expansion. You are not entertained, you are not engaged - what will you do ? Then you will start brooding over your first thirty-three years. The first thirty-three years are all about fantasy, but now, even if your mind is ready, your body cannot cooperate. What do vou do?

Only if you open the third dimension, the most subtle dimension of your

being, you will have something to do. You will have more than just something to do; you will have 'you' for you.

lf you have not prepared yourself, you will live in hell before you enter the next birth. So, prepare yourself - this is the ultimate retirement plan which you can give yourself. Share this knowledge with your kids. This is the best,

ultimate gift you can give your kids - preparing them to consciously move away from wrong knowledge and receive right knowledge.

Today, contemplate this deeply:

Unless I awaken the feeling-connection to the knowledge of the enlightened ones, my last years will be hell for me.

Only if you open the third dimension, you will have 'you' for you.

Viparyayo mithyājñānam atad rūpapratiham||1.8|| Interpreting based on past conditioning leads to misconception or wrong understanding.

Today's subject is, 'Unclutch from the mind maze and de-stress instantly!' Today, we will enter into the eighth sutra of the Samadhi Pada. Patanjali has given us 196 beautiful sutras, describing the whole science of Yoga, the whole science of uniting the individual consciousness with the universal consciousness, and making yourself falling in tune with the Ultimate.

The entire science of unclutching is explained in this one sutra. Patanjali is such a great Master; I know for sure he would have worked with millions of disciples, otherwise he cannot write such a highly mystical, unimaginable work! He is so sure, he is putting everything into just a few words.

Viparyayo mithyajñānamatad rūpapratistham | | 1.8 | | Interpreting based on past conditioning leads to missonception or wrong understanding.

The Upanishads, the Zen koans, the poems of the Sufi mystics - everything expressed by enlightened Masters is nothing but again and again repeating: whatever IS, is Reality!

The Isha Vasya Upanishad begins with the words, 'Isa vasyam idagm sarvam' - 'Whatever Is, is God.'

The Zen Masters say, 'Before enlightenment, mountain is a mountain, tree is a tree, river is a river. After enlightenment, mountain is a mountain, tree is a tree, river is a river.' Then what in heaven are we doing, working for enlightenment?

Buddha says beautifully, tathaata. The word needs to be understood. It means, IS-ness. If whatever IS is God, then what is the problem? Where does

the problem start?

The problem starts with our wrong understanding. As Patanjali puts it here, viparyaya. Please understand, it is an important word; I can say it is the key.

Just today morning, during a the press meet, one of the journalists asked me, 'Swamiji, you speak about meditation. What are we supposed to do? Should we close our eyes and sit and meditate?' I replied to him,

'Only in the initial level you need a technique, you

may need to close your eyes and sit for half an hour or forty five minutes, you may need to do something. But actually, the real essence of spiritual life is not even meditation!' This one sutra gives the complete understanding:

Today, make every moment into meditation. Let meditation be the quality of your life.

putting an end to the misunderstanding is real meditation. You can say that it is the essence of spiritual life!

Putting an end to the misunderstanding is real meditation.

Understand, meditation is not just an activity you do for half an hour or forty-five minutes a day and then forget about for the rest of the day. No! It is a quality of life. In the initial level it may be necessary for you to create a concentration and center yourself, so half an hour of sitting with closed eyes is okay. But that is not the end. Techniques are like a boat. But this teaching that Patanjali is giving is like a river. Life is not the boat; Life

is the river!

In the eighth sutra, Patanjali says, 'Interpreting based on past incompletions leads to misconception or wrong understanding.'

Whatever problem you have can be solved with this one key, because all the problems you are suffering with are just because of one incompletion from the past - one interpretation based on past conditioning - which leads to misconception or wrong understanding.

Please understand, all your fear, all your greed, all your worries, whatever you think of as a misfortune in your life, all the things which you think of as your identity, can be sorted out with this one understanding:

if you look towards the present moment with a little sympathy and compassion, it will completely open a new door; you will have a new understanding. When you don't have compassion towards the present moment, you always judge this moment with your past experience.

Please understand, I am giving you a new key: have compassion towards the present moment.

We never have compassion towards present moment; we are always violent the present moment, that is why we kill it with the past. We kill the with present moment with the past. We are constantly waiting to destroy the present moment with the incompletions carried forward from our past.

Abusing the present moment with the incompletions from the past is what I call hell.

Please understand, Eternity presents itself to you in the present moment. You can touch Eternity only by touching the present moment. You can't directly touch the past, you can't directly touch the future; the present moment is

the only way you can directly connect with Eternity.

In the seventh sutra, Patanjali talks about the three sources of right knowledge - pratyakṣa, anumāna and agama. In the eighth sutra, he speaks about wrong knowledge. In the seventh sutra, he talks about what should be done; in the eighth sutra, he talks about what should NOT be done.

If you don't connect directly with the present moment, if you are constantly torturing it with your past, you are creating incompletion, misconception, wrong understanding. For example, if you have been hurt in the past by somebody who was wearing a white dress, whenever you see a person in a white dress, you will always have that fear, that sankata, that discomfort, without knowing why! That man and this man are in no way related, no way connected, but you carry that. That memory becomes a root pattern in you; you will always carry that. You carry that incompletion from your past, and try to constantly judge the present using that past.

Today, constantly remember to bring awareness to your thoughts.

Whenever you catch yourself with a negative feeling about a particular situation - pause.

Look in and see - what is the incompletion or wrong understanding from the post, which you are bringing into the present situation? Can you complete with that past happening and let it leave your life?

Putting an end to the misunderstanding is real meditation.

Look into yourself. Look into all your suffering.

/ can say, all your suffering, ALL your suffering, is just with this one problem: carrying the past into the present, leading to wrong understanding. You go on and on and on interpreting life based on the past and creating problems for yourself. Your mind becomes chaotic, completely confused with the past engrams. This is how wrong understanding leads to wrong decisions, which leads to suffering.

In any situation, if you are open, fresh, alive, without the past conditioning and words, you can handle the situation directly. You can live that situation directly, you can experiment with that situation directly, you can experience it directly. But when you carry a preconceived idea about that situation, you never directly face that situation; you jump to a certain conclusion and start taking actions based on that.

In your own life you can see, how many times you create a whole problem in your imagination and are ready with all the weapons to attack the other person. But when he comes before you, when he starts talking to you, you suddenly realize that he is not carrying any problem with you in his mind! Then you realize, 'Oh God, there's no problem at all!'

He did not even think about it as a problem, and here you are waiting with high BP, with all the weapons, thinking, "If he utters that word I will utter this word; if he talks that way, I will talk this way; if he brings that argument I will bring this argument.' You are ready with all the arguments, all the weapons. That guy makes the whole thing simple, and suddenly you feel empty! Now you feel, 'What is this! How can this be? I prepared so much, but all this preparation has become a waste."

You start the fight simply because you don't want to feel that you wasted so much time preparing for the fight and it did not happen !

You need to understand an important truth: we live in a localized way, but we think in a generalized way.

That is why your mind always carries the incompletions from one situation, from one experience, and extends it to all people, all situations and all experiences.

Each situation is different, but your mind always generalizes, always generalizes!

Recall any situation where you judged another person based on a past experience, but lot the person was not carrying that in his/her mind of all. Now, would you like to complete with that person, either in your mind or by directly speaking to them? Remember, completion is not just apologizing; it is correcting the wrong understanding and allowing life to flow again.

We live in a localized way, but we think in a generalized way!

The more judgments you carry about life, the more you will suffer with unnecessary violence, unnecessary anger. The big problem is, you are so. quick to pass judgment on a particular person, based on one experience, or even on a particular race, based on one person! You are just waiting, you are just waiting!

And the worst part is, not only do we throw these emotions on others, in a few days we start internalizing them also. This is what I call suffering with unnecessary emotions.

I have seen so many people suffering with unnecessary emotions. Because I am travelling all over the world, I am seeing different races, different communities, different cultures, different religions, different nationalities, different backgrounds, different kinds of people suffering with these unnecessary incompletions about life.

The judgments you pass about a particular race, the judgments you pass about a particular religion, the judgment you pass about a particular state, the prejudices and biases you carry, are all related to this wrong knowledge. Many times people tell me, especially when they come to Bharat, 'Swamiji, we thought the whole of Bharat will be always only meditating! But we don't see that!' They think all Hindus are constantly sitting with closed eyes, silently meditating! Sometimes we pass judgment on an entire country, an entire religion, an entire culture, based on our experience with one person or a few people from that country, that religion, that culture. We use the past experience to judge the present situation.

I always tell people, 'The worst crime you can commit against yourself is

suffering with unnecessary emotions.'

/ am not asking you not to have emotions. For example, you can keep the anger which you need to display in your day-to-day life, that is okay. But unnecessary anger is going to only destroy you. Unnecessary anger means,

the anger which is in no way going to help you, or the anger which you can in no way exhibit or use in vour life.

For example, you read some news about some country's President, and you say, "This guy is killing the citizens of his country!' So you carry a strong anger against him. But will you be able to do anything against him? No! You can't. You can't directly interfere in his life. You have neither right,

nor power, nor anything!

So you will be just sitting with that anger.

And later, if you hear that some misfortune has happened to that person, you are happy, because your anger is fulfilled, your violence is fulfilled. This is what I call excess anger, unnecessary anger - carrying the anger which

The worst crime you can commit against yourself is suffering with unnecessary emotions.

is in no way directly related to your life. It is just a judgment you are carrying about life.

Same way with pain.

/ have seen people sitting in front of the TV and crying for no reason, crying because of some stupid soap opera or some news from another country, by which they are no way affected.

You have so many opinions, so many ideas, so many concepts you carry, and you suffer joy or pain based on those concepts.

Listen: I am not asking you to be insensitive to others, insensitive to life. What I am saying is, don't carry

strong words or judgments about life based on your narrow logic, based on your past conditioning. All these things are based on wrong knowledge. I can say that if this one sutra of Patanjali is reached to people all over the

world, there won't be any wars, there won't be any wars! So much of peace will land on this world. The world will become a peaceful, blissful place.

Look back on your thoughts today.

What are the judgments you have passed by applying a localized idea or understanding in a generalized way? Bring awareness to these judgments.

How does interpreting the present moment based on past incompletions lead us to misconception or wrong understanding?

Understand: we carry two kinds of logic in us - experiential logic and exponential logic.

The logic that tries to interpretthe whole of Life based on a few past experiences is called exponential logic. When we get one kind of understanding, one kind of perception, in a certain situation, we keep multiplying it and applying it to all situations! 'Interpreting based on past conditioning' is nothing but trying to understand Life using your exponential logic.

Listen: Life is never the same - because it is alive! Whatever is alive will be continuously changing, continuously growing, continuously evolving. We cannot grasp Life with our exponential logic. Life can only be understood through experiential logic.

In your life, so many times, you play with exponential logic, instead of looking at experiential logic. The unfortunate things is, whenever you have pain and suffering, you always feel that your whole life is going to be like that. Because, with the pain and suffering, exponential logic works more, that gets more strengthened. With joy, experiential logic gets more strengthened. Understand?

The more you use exponential logic, the more you carry the conditioning from the past, the more you are stuck in wrong knowledge.

Now, I want you to look in and do an acid wash of your belief system, whatever belief system you carry about you. For example, you think, "I cannot wake up at 4 am I for yoga; I will be too sleepy and tired the whole day if I do that.' Even if this was your experience for only one day, you make that into exponential logic and start living that forever! Even if your body is ready to wake up, you tell it, 'No, no, remember one day, six months ago, I woke up early for yoga and felt sleep and tired the whole day afterwards?' This is the way you create conditioning and limitations for yourself using your exponential logic!

Sometimes, you stick to exponential logic and miss even the Guru standing and pointing experiential. logic to you. Again and again, the Guru comes and points out experiential logic, but you go on holding on to your exponential logic and argue with him!

Measuring your life with exponential logic is what I call 'illusion.' Thinking that just because you didn't experience bliss yesterday, you may not experience

it tomorrow also, is illusion. Yesterday does not make tomorrow. Only today makes tomorrow!

Those who believe that yesterday makes tomorrow are not living; only those who understand that today makes tomorrow are living. Fools are those who believe that yesterday makes tomorrow. Blessed are those who believe,

cognize, realize, that today makes tomorrow.

Let experiential logic, not exponential logic, be more and more alive in you for running your life. Move life in the space of experiential logic, not in the space of exponential logic.

Maybe, in the outer world, exponential logic will be useful for something, in certain situations. But that does not mean that it is the complete life solution. Brick is good for making buildings, but not for breakfast!

With experiential logic, you always remember the possibility; you give space for more and more possibility. Keeping the possibility alive is what I call being a 'seeker.'

When you don't keep the possibility alive, when you don't keep that opening for life to happen, you burn the whole land with exponential logic. So, the possibility never gets a chance to grow.

When a land is burnt, unless it is ploughed again, no seed will grow, because the surface has become hard like brick. On that brick, nothing will grow unless it is ploughed again, or it rains, and the soil becomes loose. When you burn your future with your exponential logic, the possibility-seed never grows, the enlightenment-fruit never happens.

Recollect any recent situation where you have applied exponential logic. Now relook at that same situation, applying experiention of the same situation of the same situation will be different.

Keeping the possibility alive is what I call being a seeker.

When you continuously apply the same logic to your life. when you use the same words to yourself again and again, that becomes a reality for you! Paramahamsa Yogananda describes very beautifully about the power of words in his book, 'Autobiography of a Yogi.' He describes an incident where he uses a particular word with a strong concentration, and the words simply come true! He says that he was having a conversation with his sister. His sister was trying to apply some medicine on her body to heal a boil. THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM said something like, 'That medicine will not work, tomorrow that boil will be twice as big!' He also says, '1 will also have a boil in my hand tomorrow.' His sister says, 'What are you talking, you don't have any problem, why do you say such things? And the next day, it happened exactly as he said! He says that he was shocked by the power of a mere word.

Please understand, never utter negative words, violent words, to yourself or others. The more you utter them, the more you will start believing the same words, the more you will start strongly feeling the same words, the more they will become reality in your life.

A yellow journalist who lived his whole life by creating and sustaining rumors dies and goes to the court of judgment. St. Peter is standing there. When he sees this guy's credentials, he says, 'Oh, a tabloid journalist! No, no, no, we can't allow you inside heaven, you have to go to hell."

The journalist says, 'Give me just one day, I will go around heaven and come back, I want to see heaven just once.'

St. Peter says, 'No, you have no business here, because nothing newsworthy

happens here! All you will see are the saints happily sitting on the clouds singing hallelujah. Go to hell, you will find a lot of news there; all the famous people are there. You will have enough news there!'

This journalist is a very intelligent guy. He says, 'Give me twenty-four hours' time. If I can convince any one of your journalists here to go to hell instead, will you let me stay here in their place?'

St. Peter says, 'Okay, come in.' So this guy enters heaven.

In heaven there are only ten journalists, because nothing much happens. God comes and sits in the court in the morning and judgments are given. In the evening He goes back, that's all. All the saints are there, it's the same routine. And they have only ten journalists.

This guy goes around heaven and starts a rumor that

in hell, they are starting a new magazine and they need an Editor. He speaks separately to each of the ten journalists, and tells them, 'Being a journalist, how can you just sit around without news the whole day? Have you ever visited hell? I tell you, hell is a happening place! After all, so many celebrities are there, and almost all politicians are there!

The journalists are shocked! They are already too bored in heaven. Without news, even heaven is like hell to them. So each of them thinks, 'Let me go to hell right away. Hell is the place for me, and there is a vacancy for an Editor also! But I need to get there before the others come to know about it!' So

each of them secretly escapes from heaven and runs away to hell. At the end of the day, the journalist comes running to the pearly gates. He tells St. Peter, 'Let me out! I want to go to hell!'

St. Peter asks, 'Why? Why do you want to go to hell? Just this morning you were beaging to be here in heaven!"

The journalist says, 'No, no! Now I want to go to hell!'

St. Peter says, 'No, now you cannot go back. You have to be here, because you are our only journalist. All the other quys ran away, believing your rumor about hell.'

The journalist says, 'I started the rumor, that is true. But if so many people are believing it, there must be some truth in it! There must be something happening in hell; I also want to go to hell and see!'

So, understand, don't use the wrong words even in a jovial way - you will be caught by your own words. I have seen many times, people casually create the wrong words in their relationships: 'He is bad', 'She is torturing me', 'They are cheating me' - very simple words, based on one or two incidents; but those words become a deep pattern inside them, and they start thinking that it is the truth.

Don't think that your words are working only on others - they are working on you also. With every word you utter, you are creating a new reality for vourself.

What are some of the negative words, about yourself and others, that yourself uttering? Bring your awareness to such words, and consciously drop them.

With every word you utter, you are creating a new reality for yourself.

Part 3: 108 Truths of the Yoga of Enlightenment - Talks on Patanjali Yoga Sutras_English_part_3.md

A small story:

A guy goes to the psychiatrist and shares that he has a strange problem - he thinks that he is a dog!"

The psychiatrist says, 'I will surely try to help you. What kind of dog do you think you are?'

The guy says, 'I think I am a small dog with black and brown patches - don't you see me?'

The doctor says, 'Don't worry, I will try to help you. Can you first lie down on that couch? I will try to find out the root cause of the problem.' The quy says, 'Oh no, I cannot do that!' The doctor asks, "Why?"

The guy says, 'Because I am not allowed up on the furniture.'

Understand, if you are convinced about some problem, it just becomes your reality, and you become completely powerless before it. Instead of going to the root of the problem and solving it, completing it, you go on holding onto the surface.

Sometimes, you are afraid that if you go to the root of the problem, it may disappear! By now, you are so comfortable with problems that you are afraid to come out of your comfort zone and live without any problems! Your problems are your companions. You just love them. If you don't have anything to worry about, you feel lonely, confused! So you don't want to look into the root of the problem.

વેરે

Viparyayo mithyajñanam ... in this one sutra, Patanjali very beautifully analyzes and describes ALL our problems.

Please understand, most of the time we suffer only with our conditioning, not with the situation itself! 99.9% of the sufferings we have are not related to the external situation, they are related to our internal conditioning. This is a real incident which happened in our sangha:

One of our brahmacharis, who has been trained in all our traditional puja and other spiritual practices, was invited to conduct a spiritual program in another state of Bharat. When he conducted the program, he was pronouncing the Sanskrit mantras so beautifully that the local temple priests they thought that he is a Brahmin, an upper class boy. They saw the way he sat, and his body language was so graceful when he was chanting the mantras, that they thought he was a Brahmin; they paid their respects and touched his feet and did namaskar.

Later, after he left, they found out that he is not a Brahmin. That's all!

Till the previous evening, the temple priest was honoring the brahmachari, feeling blessed that he is able to receive him and touch his feet. Now, suddenly this priest is in depression! He is in depression; he is continuously taking a bath for three days ... three days he is taking a bath! And, for three days he did not enter the temple, for three days he is performing all the rites to clean himself, because he touched the feet of a non-Brahmin!

I was shocked. If any inauspiciousness is supposed to happen by touching that non-Brahmin, it should have happened when you touched him - not when you heard the news! When you touched his feet, you felt blessed, auspicious, blissful; but when you hear the news, suddenly the same blissful experience becomes inauspicious! It is nothing but the past conditioning. Almost all your sufferings are related to your internal conditioning, not to the external situation. Your mind is programmed, your bio-computer is programmed, at a young age. You live based on your programs, you take decisions based on those programs, you walk and talk based on your programming. You do everything based on the programming, yet you don't realize that you are programmed!

This is what Patanjali calls wrong knowledge. It is not just wrong knowledge: the very cognition, the very input, the way in which you receive life, is distorted - because it is based on past conditioning and incompletions. And naturally, when the way in which you input and process the data is wrong, the way in which you make a decision, the way in which you deliver your output, will also be wrong! This is viparyayo mithyajñanam.

Do this as an exercise, as homework.

Sit down for an hour and write at least ten incidents where you made the same mistake of interpreting your present moment using the past conditioning. You will see how your mind is behaving, how your life is happening. You don't even have to bother or struggle to correct yourself.

The big problem is, before you even understand the depth of the problem, you start trying to correct it!

Then the problem can never end! Just understand the depth of the problem, that's enough. Suddenly you will see the transformation inside you. Just by your understanding the depth of the problem, the transformation starts happening.

Please understand, again and again the Upanishads declare, all the enlightened Masters declare - Whatever IS, is Divine; it IS God. If you see anything other than the Divine, if you have any other experience other than bliss in life, you have this problem; you need this sutra!

Contemplate on this sutra. You don't need to repeat it; just internalize it. Constantly contemplate on this sutra, on this idea: interpreting based on past conditioning leads to misconception or wrong understanding.

Almost all your sufferings are related to your internal conditioning, not to the external situation.

Write ten incidents where you came to the past conditioning, and understood the whole incident differently when you looked into the same incident with restful awareness, without carrying your past incompletions into it.

Imagination, as opposed to reality, which is the result of mere words - this is known as vikalpa or fantasy.

Let us enter into the ninth sutra: Śabda jñāna anupātī vastu śūnyo vikalpaḥ Imagination, as opposed to reality, which is the result of mere words - this is known as vikalpa or fantasy.

Yesterday I was talking about viparyaya, wrong knowledge. Today, I will explain about vikalpa, imagination.

What is the difference between wrong knowledge and imagination? Superficially, both look the same. But are they the same? No!

Let us look into the subtle differences between wrong knowledge and imagination.

Please understand: when the mind brings wrong ideas or misconceptions in front of your consciousness, it is called 'wrong knowledge.'

For wrong knowledge to happen, your consciousness needs to be present and your mind needs to do something. But for imagination to happen, for vikalpa to happen, nothing needs to be done. Anything experienced by you, other than your pure consciousness, is vikalpa. Anything experienced, is imagination. That is why we call samadhi state 'nirvikalpa' - imagination-free space. Patanjali is taking us to a very subtle plane.

Sometimes, you may not have wrong knowledge, but you will have imagination. A small story.

A guy walked into the bar and sat next to a man who was sitting with a dog at his feet.

The guy asked the man, 'Does your dog bite?' The man said, 'No.' The guy bent and petted the dog. Suddenly, the dog bit him! The guy shouted, "You said your dog doesn't bite?! But he has bitten me!" The man said, "Yes, my dog doesn't bite - but this not my dog."

You may not have wrong knowledge, but you have your own imagination. Understand ?

Many a time, imagination brings more suffering than wrong knowledge. Today I have a lot of stories on imagination! Imagination is my favorite subject. because so much of suffering can be avoided if you understand imagination. Even viparyaya is not that deep. If your mind can relax from constant movement in the conscious layer, you can come out of viparyaya. But vikalpa - even your sleep is vikalpa!

Please understand: Viparyaya can happen only in your waking state or dream state, but vikalpa can happen even in the deep sleep state. Deep sleep is vikalpa. Viparyaya can touch only your conscious mind and subconscious mind. Wrong knowledge can touch you, disturb you, only in the waking state and dream state. But vikalpa, imagination, can disturb you even in the deep sleep state; it can disturb you in all three states.

Another small story:

A guy goes to Africa and sends a letter to his mother saving. 'Dear Mother, I am sending some pills which a witch doctor gave me. If you take one, it will take years off your life."

After a month, when the guy comes back home, he sees a beautiful woman sitting outside his house with a baby.

The guy asks her, "Where is my mother?" She says, 'Don't be silly! I am your mother. And those pills are marvelous." The guy says, 'Oh God! I can't imagine! Only one pill and you are able to have a baby?" She says, 'Are you crazy? That is not my baby. That's

If you take viparyaya and vikalpa both, just see the chaos that can happen! Imagination can touch deeper zones than wrong knowledge. Wrong knowledge is more like wrong logic. When you have wrong logic, it is wrong knowledge. But imagination is much deeper than wrong knowledge.

your father. He took two!'

Patanjali says, "Imagination as opposed to reality, which is the result of mere words - this is known as 'vikalpa' or fantasy.'

Every word of Patanjali brings so much clarity, so much depth. He is saying, imagination is that which is created merely by words, merely by words!

Write ten incidents where you canclusion because of the past conditioning, and understood the whole incident differently when you looked into the same incident with restful awareness, without carrying your past incompletions into it.

Imagination is that which is created merely by words!

Listen: Your mind and body come in contact with each other at seven points in your body. These are what are known as the seven energy centers or chakras. Yoga tradition describes these points as chit-jado-granthi - the points where matter and consciousness meet each other.

Please understand, the imagination you carry can corrupt these energy centers and disturb their functioning. This is a very important truth.

Each energy center gets corrupted when your imagination is added to it:

• If your imagination touches your muladhara chakra, your root center, it is called fantasy. You are caught in fantasies about others and yourself.

• If your imagination touches your swadhishtana chakra or being center, it is called fear. You experience fear of others and fear of yourself.

• If your imagination touches the manipuraka chakra, the navel center, it is called worry. You start worrying about others and worrying about yourself.

• If your imagination touches your anahata chakra, your heart center, it is called attention-need. You suffer from continuous attention-need from others and from yourself.

• If your imagination touches your vishuddhi chakra or throat center, it is called constant comparison. You start comparing with others and comparing with yourself.

• If your imagination touches your ajna chakra, your brow center, it is called ego. You start suffering from ego with others and with yourself.

• If your imagination touches your sahasrara chakra or crown center, it is called discontentment. You suffer from discontentment with others and discontentment with yourself.

Many times, you put up with abusive relationships just because of your attention-need. Because you cannot respect yourself unless other people give a certificate to you, you start asking things from everybody. Either you are demanding, or nagging, or begging others for their attention. Because of your constant self-doubt, you cannot understand, experience, enjoy aloneness. You do not understand that you can be a source of love; you need not be a beggar for love and attention.

Sometime, you suffer with attention-need not only from others, but even from yourself! You need to continuously pep yourself up using positive words.

Similarly, sometimes you start suffering by comparing with yourself: 'Yesterday I was able to do yoga for two hours without feeling tired. Today I don't know what has happened to me !'

You may ask, 'How can I express my ego with myself?' Many times, you judge yourself, regret your own words and actions, or you are angry with yourself for something, and you think, 'I should have treated myself like that. I should have spoken in that way. I should have expressed myself like this. But I did not do it. What to do?' When you are carrying too many judgments about life, about others and yourself, it means that imagination is corrupting your brow center.

When your imagination moves through the different energy centers and corrupts them, you will see the results in the form of different kinds of suffering in your life, due to the inability to handle the realities of life.

Just by working on dropping imagination, I can be free of so many negative emotions!

The imagination you carry can corrupt your energy centers and disturb their functioning

The first energy center is the root center or muladhara chakra. If your imagination is added to it, it results in a distortion of your basic perception of reality. You start seeing everything as larger than life. You start expecting the things which can never happen.

Projecting your magnified expectation on reality is called fantasy. For example, in a relationship, you will always feel that the other is not fulfilling you. You start imagining things, you start projecting things, you start creating things, and when you see that it is not happening through the other person, you start blaming the other person. That is why you constantly feel the other person is cheating you, depriving you. Please understand, it is your fantasy which is creating the expectation of things which can never happen or which never happened.

If your imagination is added to greed, even simple things feel like heaven. Many people come and tell me their experiences about their vacation and show me the photographs. They post all those vacation photographs on the refrigerator, and they again and again look at them and remember the vacation in a way much bigger than it really happened! They forget that even their smile was a posed smile!

/ can't connect with the idea of vacation at all. What is vacation? Wherever you go, you are going to carry the same mind, the same wife, the same life. If you are sitting and worrying in the house, it is called housework; if you are sitting and worrying in the office, it is called business; if you are sitting and worrying on the beach, it is called a vacation, that's all! But when your imagination is added to your greed, things look much greener and more joyful than they actually were when you experienced them.

Even a small action, even a simple rose, starts looking like a symbol of eternal love, You see ? She loves me! I love her! We will love each other for ever and ever!'

A man is watching his wife arrange her favorite pieces of modern art around their new home.

"I hate this modern art', he says, "What a piece of junk that is! Don't you have better taste than this?' His wife says, 'How can you say that! That is a Picasso.'

What about this one, with all the crazy lines? You like that?'

She says, 'Of course! That is a Kandinsky.'

This quy says, 'Come on! Just look at this one - a quy with a pencil neck, a blob of a nose and squinty eyes! You call that great art?' 'No', says his wife, 'That is a mirror.'

When you are caught in greed, if you are fantasizing about everything, you will not have the awareness to see your own reality.

When you are caught in greed, not only will you suffer with the other person, you will suffer with yourself also.

You will never face reality.

Please understand, if you are fantasizing about somebody else, you will have to wake up sometime, because fulfilling your fantasy continuously will be a big headache for the other person, and they are going to drop it sometime. At some point, you will realize that your fantasy is just your fantasy. But if you create a fantasy about yourself and torture yourself, you will never be

Projecting your magnified expectation on reality is called fantasy.

able to come out of it.

That is what almost all the people who misunderstand yoga start doing! I have seen many people who think they are yogis, who torture their bodies in the name of yoga.

Once, during my spiritual wandering, I saw a guy who had been standing on one leg for twelve years! I offered my respects to him and asked, What is the purpose of your tapas, your spiritual practice?'

The man did not answer immediately. After the crowd around him left and we were alone, he said, 'Baba, initially I started doing it just as an exercise. When so many people started giving me attention and respect, I started

enjoying it, and finally it became my lifestyle. Now, after being worshipped by so many thousands of people all these years, I cannot tolerate going back to being an ordinary man!"

Please understand, he is torturing himself just to fulfill his fantasy of greatness. He is just a crippled man, because his unused leg is practically dead after all these years. He has sacrificed his leg to fulfill his fantasyl

Sometimes, even too many unfulfilled fantasies about life can make you renounce everything. There are some people who go on fantasizing about having billions of dollars and living a wealthy life with all luxuries. But in their life, they are able to make only very little. Because of their fantasy about wealth, they are not able to tolerate the reality of their life. After many failures, they decide, 'I am not interested in this anymore.' This is not out of the right understanding about their fantasy; it is just frustration. Renunciation out of frustration is not renunciation!

Vikalpa needs to be understood in a very deep sense. Not only imagination related to others, even imagination related to yourself and life, will bring endless suffering to you.

Recall any three incidents where you projected your magnified expectation on someone else, causing suffering for them and for you. Now, complete with those incidents and move on.

The second energy center is the Being center or swadishthana chakra. If your imagination is added to it, it results is a distortion of your fears about life.

Listen: when imagination is added to your greed, it becomes fantasy. When imagination is added to your fear, it becomes phobia.

When your swadishthana chakra is corrupted by your imagination, you start constantly feeling frightened for no reason.

If your imagination takes the form of fear, you will be living in fear of others and sometimes, even yourself. If you have fear about others, at least you will be free whenever the other person is not there. You will not have that fear. If you start creating fear about yourself, you can never escape from that. You can never relax.

When imagination is added to your greed, you start having too much of expectation from the other person. You see him as something much beyond what he really is. When imagination is added to your fear, you start living in fear of the other person. But the other person is the same! The other person is same here also, but you see him as something much worse than what he really is!

When imagination is added to your greed, everything looks sweet. Everything looks fantastic. You feel the other person is an angel. But when a shift happens in the energy center, when the same imagination rises two inches above to the swadhishtana chakra, the same person suddenly starts looking like a devil!

Listen: whether we see the other person as an angel or devil, we are suffering

with vikalpa, imagination. The reality of the other person is neither angel nor devil; he's a man, she's a woman, that's all! If you are seeing anything other than reality, you are suffering with vikalpa.

An enlightened master and his young disciple were walking near a small stream which was flowing fast.

They saw a young girl standing near the stream and looking at the water anxiously.

When they came near, the girl asked the master, "Can you please help me cross this stream? It is not very deep, but I am afraid of the current."

The master said, 'No problem.' He just carried the girl and waded through the water, left her on the other bank and came back.

His young disciple could not tolerate this! How could

the master, being a monk, touch a young woman? How could he lift her and carry her across the river so casually?

He was not able to tolerate this, but somehow he kept guiet out of respect for the master.

When they reached the monastery, he finally could not hold it any longer. He asked the master, 'Master, being a monk, how can you touch that young woman and carry her across the river? Is it not wrong?'

The master was surprised. He smiled at the disciple and said, 'I left her on the opposite bank long ago. Are you still carrying her?'

In the same way, the enlightened master Sri Ramakrishna lived with his wife Sarada Devi until the end. They lived such a wonderfull life. The relationship between them was indescribable; a real yogi relationship. Sri Ramakrishna

was criticized by many people for living with Sarada Devi in the temple. He always used to respond to them that they are afraid of themselves, and that is why they are afraid of the person outside.

Sometimes these so-called yogis criticize me, "What is this Swamiji? Being a sannyasi, you are sitting on such a big throne and so many disciples are serving you.' I tell them, 'I don't have the fear that I will get attached to these things. You have that fear - that is

why you are afraid to have them in your life!'

When you are not afraid of renouncing, you will not be afraid of having.

/f you are afraid of the other, at least when the other person is not there, you will not have the fear. If you are afraid of yourself, of your own patterns and emotions, it is like the fear of a ghost, it will continue to haunt you, shake you, frighten you. This is what Patanjali calls vastu shunyo - the imagination for which there is no corresponding object in reality.

Recall an incident where you projected your magnified fear on someone else, seeing them as much worse than they really are. Complete with that incidents and move beyond the fear.

When imagination is added to vour greed, it becomes fantasy. When imagination is added to your fear, it becomes phobia.

Listen: Renouncing out of fantasy or fear is not renunciation. Many times, people practice renunciation just because they don't know how to handle the responsibilities of life.

/ have seen in the Himalayas, some so-called yogis who leave behind everything and come and settle down in a small temple and live on bhiksha, begging alms for food. It looks like a life of true renunciation. Each of them has their own corner in the temple, their own 'spot' where they sit and beg alms. But the funny thing is - they become attached to that spot! Nobody else can sit in their spot. They starting fighting for that spot; they never allow anyone else to sit in that spot.

These people have left behind their wealth, their property, their house, their family - everything. But now they are fighting for 2'x2' spot! What does this show? They did not renounce the worldly things because they didn't want them; they renounced them out of the fear of responsibility.

Same way, I remember a sadhu called 'Kamandalu Baba' who had renounced everything and come away to the Himalayas with just one copper kamandalu (water pot). But then he got so attached to that water pot! He would wash, wash, wash the water pot the whole day and keep it shining. The kamandalu had become his brand.

This is perverted ownership and perverted renunciation - owning without taking ownership and renouncing without practicing renunciation.

There are two kinds of fear which lead to renunciation: one, you are afraid

that if you have something you need to maintain it; second, you are afraid that you may get attached to it and start suffering if you lose it someday. Renouncing for both reasons is not renunciation.

/ have one more story for you about this kind of renunciation:

A quy qoes into a bar and orders three separate shot glasses of Irish whisky.

He places the glasses side by side on the counter and drinks all three himself.

He does this day after day after day.

One day the bartender finally says, 'You know, I can put all three of those shots into one glass for you."

The guy says, 'No. I prefer it this way. See, I have two brothers abroad whom I love very much. The other two glasses here makes me feel that I am drinking one for each of them. I feel all three of us are sitting here together.'

And the guy continues to come in day after day, and he does the same thing. The bartender also continues to set up three glasses for him.

One day, the guy comes with a long face and says, 'Give me just two shots

today.'

Renouncing out of

fantasy or fear

is not renunciation.

The bartender is shocked. He thinks something bad has happened.

He asks, 'What happened? Did something happen to one of your brothers?'

'Oh, no, no', the quy says, 'They are okay. It is just that I decided to quit drinking."

Understand, all our renunciation is more or less like this!

If you renounce something for the wrong reason, please be very clear that you will surely be enjoying it

in some other way. That is what Sri Krishna calls beautifully calls mithyacharya - the hypocrisy of renouncing something physically but enjoying the same thing in some other form.

Please understand, renunciation that has happened because of vikalpa is not yoga. Even though they live as if they are yogis, such people never achieve yoga.

What desires have I given up because I felt I did not know how to handle the fulfillment of the desire?

If you are renouncing because of fear of attachment or fear of maintenance. it is better you drop the renunciation and enjoy your life, because you are not yet ripe for renunciation. Don't take that big step. Don't be so arrogant as to renounce. Don't renounce out of arrogance!

A new disciple entered a monastery.

He found that humbleness was highly valued in the monastery, so he started acting very humble.

One day his guru asked him to massage his feet. The disciple immediately said, 'No, no, no! I am a fool. I am a sinner. How can I touch your feet?' Another day, a devotee brought some fruits as an offering for the guru. The guru just touched it as a blessing. Immediately, the disciple ate the whole thing.

The guru asked, "What happened?"

The disciple answered, 'You touched the fruits, so they became sacred, they became prasad. How can such sacred fruits go to waste? Somebody has to eat them, so I ate them!'

Then the guru said beautifully, 'Relax! There is no need to behave so humbly. You have not yet become so great as to be humble!'

Even humbleness needs to happen with the right understanding, for the right reason. Without the right context, even your humility is arrogance, even your renunciation is arrogance.

The real renunciation is not renunciation because of fantasy or fear; it is the renunciation of the fantasy and fear itself. Only the renunciation of the

imagination in all seven chakras can be called true renunciation.

Make a list of 5 desires that you have renouncing (eg, a lucrative job, a material possession, a relationship, a vacation plan, etc.) Contemplate: Did you renounce the desire because of fantasy or fear?

Without the right context, even your renunciation is arrogance.

Many times, we feel that we are not getting what we want from life. We want wealth, but we are forced to live with poverty. Or we want to renounce, but we have too many bonds, too many obstacles on the path.

But if you look a little a little deeply into your life, you will understand that whatever you have in your life is exactly what you asked for. Because you are not aware of your true desires, you carry the imagination that life has cheated you. But Life is nothing but a big tathaastu! Life is always saying, 'So be it! So be it!' You don't take responsibility for whatever is happening in your life, because you are not aware that it is a result of your own decisions, your own choices.

A small story about decisions and consequences:

Bod and Tony are out on a morning run.

Suddenly Tony asks Bob, 'Hey Bob, remember when you and I went fishing up north nine months ago? And the car broke down in the thunderstorm and we ended up spending the night at that farm owned by that gorgeous widow. You remember?'

Bob says, "Yes, yes, Tony, I remember that."

Tony says, 'You remember we met that widow?'

Bob says, "Yes, of course I remember her."

Tony says, 'She had that big fabulous house, and we slept in the guest wing, and she was over in her wing. And the next morning we got in our car and headed north, we went fishing. Do you remember?'

Bob says, 'Yes, yes, I remember everything.'

Tony says, "Well, today I got a letter from her attorney."

Bob is shaken. "Why ... what happened?' he asks.

Tony asks, 'Did you happen to get up in the middle of the night and go pay the widow a visit?'

Bob slowly says, 'Yes I did ... '

'And did you happen to use my name instead of telling her your name?' asks Tony.

Bob puts his head down and says, 'I am sorry, I did. Now what to do? Why

do you ask?"

Tony says, "Well, she just died and left me everything in her will."

When you know that you are responsible for the happenings in your life, you will spontaneously renounce the imagination that life has cheated you.

Do I carry the imagination that life has cheated me? Could this be because I am not aware of my true desires?

Whatever you have in your life is exactly what you asked for.

Vikalpa is the ultimate suffering, relaxing from vikalpa is the ultimate relaxation. Sometimes people ask me, 'Swamiji, I can relax from vikalpa consciously, but what about the unconscious and subconscious vikalpa?

I give you one important secret, a secret I learnt from my teacher. When I asked him this same question, he told me, 'If you continuously contemplate on an idea for eleven days, it will sink into your subconscious mind. 'If you continuously contemplate on it for twenty-one days, it will simply sink into your unconscious.' So don't worry about how you can get out of vikalpa. Don't fight with it. Don't ask for a technique.

For eleven days, just remember this idea, contemplate on it, intranalyze it. Let it sink inside you.

Whenever you are consciously entertaining imagination, just remember: imagination will lead to suffering. Just remember and relax from it, that's all.

Do this for eleven days. Suddenly, you will see that even in your dream, you remember the same idea.

If you constantly remember some idea strongly in the waking state, in the dream also you will remember the same idea strongly.

For example, suppose you have a fear of ghosts, and you decide that whenever the fear happens, you will remember God or Guru and pray to them.

If you remember this continuously in the waking state, after eleven days, even if you have a dream of a ghost, you will remember God or Guru in your dream! How many of you have experienced this - the ideas that you carry in your waking state penetrating your dream state? It happens if you constantly remember it for more than eleven days.

So don't even have the fear, How will I purify my unconscious or subconscious?'

Just remember - śabda jñāna anupātī vastu śūnyo vikalpah. Imagination brings

My yoga master's name is Yogiraj Yogananda Puri. While introducing me, he said,

suffering. Imagination as opposed to the reality is the result of mere words. This is known as vikalpa or fantasy. Letthis sink inside you. It will penetrate your dream state and your deep sleep state, and you will be out of vikalpa. If you are out of vikalpa, you are in nirvikalpa - what we call 'enlightenment.' So, by understanding vikalpa, you can achieve nirvikalpa. Let you all experience nirvikalpa.

I wanted to share with you all one more important

thing: this is the first subject I spoke on, in this incamation on planet earth! At the age of eleven, after my yoga master taught me the Yoga Sutra thoroughly, he called a huge gathering of all his disciples and followers, and asked me to speak to the gathering. I can say this was my first public lecture!

If you continuously contemplate on an idea for eleven days, it will sink into your subconscious mind.

In the future, he will express thousands of concepts, and millions of people will listen to him. But I want to have the joy of being the first to put him on a public stage and be listening to him.'

That is why Patanjali is very dear to me, very near to me. He is the first that I learnt, experimented, experienced and expressed. I remember Yogiraj Yogananda Puri with deep respect and reverence and joy for his foresight in bringing this knowledge to the whole world by sharing

this knowledge with me. I offer and dedicate this whole Yoga Sutra series, and especially today's discourse, and the whole knowledge which I am shaning with you, at his feet, with my reverence and respect.

Let you all expenence nirvikalpa by his grace and by Patanjali's grace! I bless you all - let you all experience nirvikalpa state, living enlightenment.

Continuously contemplate on this idea for eleven days.

It will penetrate your dream state and your deep state, and you will be out of vikalpa.

Patanjali is taking us beautifully, step by step, to the deeper and deeper sources - or forces - which are inside us, which can lead us to either jov or pain, to anguish or non-anguish. He is describing the subtler and subtler modifications of the mind one by one. The purpose of the description is: how to use each modification to lead us to joy, to lead us to bliss. I can say it can lead only to joy - then bliss suddenly happens.

He is beautifully guiding us, step by step. First, he described right knowledge; second, wrong knowledge; third, vikalpa, imagination; fourth, he is now talking about sleep. Deeper than imagination, there is something. That is what is sleep.

Sleep! If you understand the word 'sleep' in an ordinary way, what you understand as sleep, you may ask, 'How can sleep lead to pain ? Sleep always leads only to peace. How can it lead to pain?"

So, 'sleep' should not be understood as we understand, in a very normal way. Let us understand what Patanjali has to say about sleep.

Abhāva pratyaya ālambanā vrttihi nidrā The subtle state where thoughts are not visualized is sleep or nidra.

One important thing: there is no being which does not spend part of its life in sleep. You can be without right knowledge, without wrong knowledge, without imagination, but you can never be without sleep. You may be able to avoid those three, but you can never avoid sleep. It is almost like your

breathing; it is your life. One-third of your life is spent in sleeping. If you understand Patanjali's views about sleeping, and use that knowledge in your day-to-day life, I can say the whole quality of your life can be transformed. Every single sutra in these Yoga Sutras is a complete technique by itself! I can say every single sutra can create one religion. It has created! There are some religions which work only on sleep. One sect of Buddhism, they don't teach you anything else except the ideas and concepts about sleep. They help you work on sleep, that's all. In the daytime, you can do whatever you want.

They do all the spiritual practices and exercises for spiritual growth during sleep, and use the daytime for some other purpose!

I saw an advertisement the other day - 'Earn more and more money during your sleep, and keep your days to spend with your loved ones!' A financial firm's advertisement! This practice is like that! This Buddhist tradition helps you with ONLY how to work

on your consciousness during sleep. Of course, the source of this technique is the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.

No wonder Patanjali is still such an inspiration to millions! You can imagine how great his Chidambaram would have been! Chidambaram is the place in southern Bharat where he was born, lived, taught and ran his university. He established a great traditional university and founded a community called 'Dikshitars'. That community is still alive; a few thousand families are there in Chidambaram. Patanjali is their guru. They still don't take initiation from anybody else; only Patanjali's teachings are still repeated and remembered.

And one important thing I want you all to know: in that community, no

one crosses the border of that town! You will be shocked! It is just a ten kilometer area. They take birth, they live, they marry, they give birth to kids, they die - all inside that town of Chidambaram. They don't move out of that town. They have a strong commitment to Patanjali and to Nataraja (Shiva), the presiding deity of Chidambaram's temple. Patanjali became enlightened through the darshan of Shiva. This community has committed itself to hold and spread this knowledge. Whoever comes to their place, they teach them, they share this knowledge, they make this knowledge available, they run the

temple, and they have taken the vow they will not cross the boundary of the town.

Sometime I feel surprised - even in this time and age! Can you imagine - education is available to them, wealth and success in the outer world are available to them; everything is available to them! But they have decided to spend their life there - imagine the dedication, the sacrifice!

There are very few, I can say 0.1%, who have come

out for some purpose. And even they go out only to run Nataraja temples in other places! I asked some youngsters from that community 'Don't you guys feel any desire to move out of this town?' They said, 'No! Nataraja is enough for us.' They feel that he is the father of the whole community, and when the father is here, what is the need to go anywhere else? There is such a strong feeling-connection, such a deep commitment. It is they who preserved this whole knowledge.

There are so many scriptures which suffered interpolations, but I can assure you, guarantee you - this book is pure, because this community took care of that. I can say it is their sacrifice which has kept this knowledge alive and unpolluted for us.

If you transform your sleep, your whole life can be transformed.

What is the greatest act of sacrifice I have done, and what is the joy I really got from it?

Abhāva pratyaya ālambanā vrttihi nidrā The subtle state where thoughts are not visualized is sleep or nidra

/n this sutra, Patanjali is not talking only about the sleep which you experience at night - you lie down, there is no dream, there is no thought, and you wake up in the morning. You know only that sleep. You remember only that sleep. That is also one kind of sleep you go through. But you go through two other sleeps also.

You go through three kinds of sleep: the sleep which you experience during the waking state, the sleep which you experience during the dream state and the sleep which you experience during deep state. You go through three kinds of sleep - waking-sleep, dream-sleep, sleep-sleep.

Understand, we experience sleep during the waking state also! You would have experienced this many times in your life - you would have started the car and driven to office for half an hour, but only when you park your car at the office and get out, you will suddenly remember that you have driven for half an hour! You drove for half an hour, turned right, turned left, stopped at a signal, stopped for a cop - you did so many things. You did so many things! But you don't remember. Means, you were sleeping even when you were awake.

/am not talking only about the people who have disorders, like sleepwalkers.

I am saying, the whole of humanity is sleepwalking! Except a man who is awakened, enlightened, the whole of humanity is sleepwalking. Sometimes, my disciples and the people who live around me can find that clear difference - they are not able to keep pace with my clarity, with my awareness. I tell them so many things - 'This this this this' - and they can't grasp everything together! Sometimes I struggle with them. Then suddenly I remember this

sutra! Till you are enlightened, there is really no other way - you will go through part of your waking state, sleeping!

What we call 'absentmindedness' is one side-effect or by-product of this sleep - which Patanjali calls nidra. Please understand: not being alive in the state in which you are, is what I call sleep. Not being available in the state which you are, is what I call sleep. If you can just be available in the state in which

you are, you will have solutions for all the problems you face. I really mean this: there is no problem which can't be solved! Only one thing - you need to be available there. All problems are created when you are not available. When you are not available, you mess up the whole thing.

Many times you can see - especially when you are watching TV, or when you are reading a book - suddenly, for a few minutes - a gap. Suddenly there is a few minutes' gap; it is as if a 'pause' has happened! At least, with a book, you can wake up and go back! That is why, still, no other medium is able to outdate books. So many modern media have come, where you need

lesser effort than reading a book - like TV. But you can't outdate a book, because people know that in between, they will have a pause! If it is a book, they can go back. That is why people rely on books more than any other source.

/ can say even 'absentmindedness' is a very superficial word. Even that can't be the right description. You are there, but you are not there; you are there, but

you are not there. Your body is moving, you are walking, you are talking, you are doing things ... you are showing all the clinical symptoms of being awake - but you are asleep! You are not there! The reflection of Consciousness is not there!

If I can just be available in the state in which I am, I will have solutions for all the problems I face.

You go through three kinds of sleep: waking-sleep, dream-sleep and sleep-sleep.

Listen: the human body is the only mirror which has ability to reflect the superconscious state. Superconsciousness is the Sun. The human body is the only body which is polished and directed towards that Sun. The reflection of Superconsciousness on the body is what we call soul, individual soul. All other bodies may be alive, but they are not that polished, they are not that sophisticated, that they can reflect that pure Consciousness, the Sun. The reflection of the Sun itself cannot happen on them. That is why the human body is so highly respected in the Vedic tradition.

Even if the devas, the angels or the demi-gods, want enlightenment, they have to take a human body. Please understand, you are in a blessed zone, because the possibility is there for you. If someone dies after having a human body without becoming enlightened, that is the ultimate stupidity he can commit! Sorry for the strong words! But I am not saying this - the great Hindu incarnation Adi Shankara is saying this. In Vivekachudamani, he says that after having these three qualifications. 'Manushyatva, mumukshatva. mahapurusha samsayah', if you still decide to waste time, it is the ultimate stupidity.

Manushyatva - means, being human. He does not even mean having a human body; he means humanness! There is a big difference. He is not saying, manushya shareera (human body); he is saying manushyatva (humanness). Mumukshatva - means, seeking beyond, seeking the truth, seeking the ultimate.

Mahapurusha samsayah - means, the nearness of an enlightened being, the nearness of a person who has achieved.

Please understand, all of you have all these three qualifications, that is why you are here!

will be six o'clock and you can come to the satsang, be very clear, you have

strong mumukshatva; nothing else is needed.

Manushyatva - no doubt about it, all of you have it! Mumukshatva - The moment you decided to get into your car and travel here, drive in this LA traffic and sit here, be clear that you have mumukshatva! You have mumukshatva! The moment you decide to come here, what is the pull? That is mumukshatva. From the moment you wake up in the morning, if you are spending the whole day thinking about when it

OUOTE Even if the devas or the demi-gods want enlightenment, they have to take a human body.

Mahapurusha samsayah - you have the nearness of an enlightened being!

Beautifully Shankara says, 'Even after having all these three, if you still waste time, it is utter stupidity.'

The whole thing boils down to this one sutra: be available.

Don't be in nidra.

Don't allow absentmindedness.

Avoid nidra at least when you are with the master.

If someone dies after having a human body without becoming enlightened, that is the ultimate stupidity he can commit!

Because of absentmindedness, people miss many things - relationships, decisions, life itself.

When you are absentminded in your outer activities, you may lose the things of the outer world, like success and wealth. But if you are absentminded during your inner planning, inner visualization, inner thinking - you will miss the links in your life! That is the worst thing.

For example, you may be thinking, 'I should start seeking sincerely, I should read this book ... ' - and suddenly, there will be a pause! And after a few minutes, you will be thinking 'I think I should watch this TV show!' The flow which was happening inside you is missing! It is gone!

Please understand, the nidra which is happening in your internal flow of consciousness, flow of thoughts, is worse than the nidra which is happening in your outer activities. If you are absentmindedness in the outer world, you may have only a few problems in the outer world. / have a story about that! I will read it out.

An absentminded professor was moving to a new house further along the same street. His wife knew that he was prone to forgetting things, so she wrote down the new address on a piece of paper. Before he went to college, she handed him the paper and the key to the new house, and reminded him not to go back to the same old address.

That morning, one of his students asked him a complex question, and the professor wrote the answer down on the back of the slip of that same paper. The student asked if he could keep the paper. Forgetting what was on the other side, professor said, "Certainly."

In the evening he returned out of habit to the old house, tried the key and could not get in.

Realizing his mistake, he searched in his pockets for the slip of paper with the new address. But of course, there was no sign of it.

So he wandered along that street and stopped the first personable-looking lad whom he saw.

He asked the lad, 'Excuse me, I am Professor Galbright. You would not happen to know where I live, would you?'

The lad replied, 'Sure Dad, I know.'

This is too much! But even with absentmindedness

in the outer world, you lose only the things of the outer world. Forgetting to take your handbag, forgetting to take your glasses - these are simple mistakes. You lose only simple things. But forgetting to keep the things which. you really need in your life - that is where you lose too many big things. Forgetting to keep the seeking alive is one of them.

Many times I have seen, whenever I come here to the USA, a big group gathers, and they all get terribly inspired about seeking. They pick up all the DVDs, all the books, everything. And then what? They will be lying in the cupboard till I come back again! It really happens. It is like how, when people read some book about fitness, or when they watch some show on TV, or

when the doctor says they have to exercise, they go and buy all kinds of gym equipment and all kinds of books, and everything will be lying in the garage for the next six months - till they see the doctor again, and he says they have to exercise! This means, there is absentmindedness in your very thinking, in your very planning for your life.

Please understand, whenever I put a fire inside you, you decide, 'Yes! From

today I am going to live what Swamiji says. I think I already wasted too much of time.' You take all possible vows! But by the time you are back home, that mental setup slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly ... it's not there! Nidra has happened in your energy flow, in your thought flow. You can see very clearly, how many times you take vows - what happens to all that? After all, it is your mind, you took the vow! Then what happens to your integrity?

The other day somebody told me, 'Swamiji, in the last six months, I quit smoking twenty times.' It means that nineteen times you started again! It is not that you want to break the vow. If you want to break it, perfectly alright; you have the freedom. It is your choice! But here, something else is happening. A kind of a sleep is happening in your thought flow, which does not allow you to keep the passion alive, to keeping the vow alive.

The sleep which you experience during the thought flow or the action flow is what leads you to anguish. If you experience sleep during the action flow, you will miss the things of the outer world. If you experience the sleep during the thought flow, you will miss too many things of the inner world.

OUOTE When nidra happens in your thought flow, it kills your passion for life.

How many vows have you taken and broken in the last one year? Can you trace the absentmindedness which led to breaking each vow?

Listen: the sleep which you experience at night is in no way going to lead you to anguish or pain.

I can say it is a power, it is an energy. You go back to the source from which vou created this body.

See, this body was created when your mother was fast asleep. That is why, in Bharat there is a tradition - if a pregnant lady is sleeping, she will not be disturbed under any circumstances. They say that Brahma is creating the baby's body while she is sleeping.

The energy which was there inside your mother's womb when she was fast asleep - in that womb, in that space, you were created.

Every night, you go back to that same energy. Your bed, your pillow, the dark room - all this is nothing but trying to create the same energy, the same space, the same mood, of the womb. Everything is trying to recreate the same ambience, the same experience, which you had in the womb. You can see that even your sleeping posture will be just like how a baby is in the womb. Just go back to that same posture; you will fall asleep within a few seconds!

When you sleep, you go back to the same energy, and recreate your body and come back to live the next day.

That sleep will in no way lead you to pain or anguish.

There are two kinds of 'repair work' that happen in your system. Every night, when you fall asleep, so much repair work happens inside your system. It gets rejuvenated. That is one kind of repair. The other kind of repair has

to be done when you are awake. It cannot be done when you are sleeping. Physical repair can happen by making you sleep. For example, tiredness - if you are tired, you can be made to sleep and the tiredness will go away; the repair can be done.

Phvsical repair is like an auto-mechanic repairing a car; he will simply turn off the engine and then repair it. But the other kind of repair - the conscious repair - is like a doctor doing a bypass surgery. You can't be put to sleep! You can't stop the heart and perform the surgery! The repair work has to happen when you are alive.

Conscious repair is what I call meditation.

Sleep and meditation are both almost the same, but not the same! The difference between them is like the difference between the work done by an auto-mechanic and a surgeon. A surgeon always gets paid more than an auto-mechanic, because he has to do the repair work while the machine is running. Understand, you need to repair while the inner chatter is happening, while the very thought flow is happening.

Sometimes people ask me how to repair this breaking of the thought flow. I tell you, the awareness itself will heal half of the problems. One big

The moment you know you are sleeping, you will be out of sleep.

important thing you need to know: the moment you know you are sleeping, you will be out of sleep. This is the truth. The moment you know that vour thought flow is breaking, you will start connecting it again. If you know that

you are breaking it, you will start repairing it! It is an automatic process.

Sometimes people say, 'Swamiji, how much ever I try the technique of unclutching, my mind sometimes wanders here and there; I am not able to unclutch!' I tell them, 'The moment you remember, come back again, unclutch again, that's enough! Don't bother about few moments which you lost. When you come

back again and again without creating guilt, the moments which are lost will be drastically reduced.'

But if you miss the awareness two or three times, you lose confidence in yourself. No need! As Patanjali says beautifully, you slip even while you are awake; you slip even in the conscious flow. It not only happens during sleepsleep, it happens during waking-sleep also. Be aware of the different kinds of sleep, that's enough; then you can start being awake, then you can start being alive.

Today, try to catch yourself every time there is a break in your thought flow. Come back again and again.

/ have one more story for you about absentmindedness.

It is my favorite subject, because I suffer with this problem with all my disciples! I can say that this is one of the obvious, visible gaps between the disciple and the master. I don't mean it only in the spiritual sense; it defines the gap between a follower and a leader in any field.

Please understand: anybody can do 80% of the work. Only the person who is aware enough to do the last 20% without absentmindedness becomes a leader.

/ am defining a leader! Anyone can run 80% of the race.

The one who stretches and runs the last 20% is the leader.

So I have a story about absentmindedness:

An elderly widow and a widower had been dating for five years. He finally asked her to marry him."

/ must stop right here to tell you - I pick up all these jokes from the American books when I come here, because Hindus can't relate with many of the jokes I tell here. Even the last joke about the professor missing his house - nobody will understand it in Bharat, because in Bharat, if you miss your house, anybody on the street will tell you where you are living! The whole street knows who are all living on that street! It is like all the people on that street are cousins. and practically the whole village are relatives, directly or indirectly. Kids will go into any house and eat anywhere and sleep anywhere. Once in a week, on Friday, when they are all supposed to go to the temple, they take attendance and find out who is where, that's all!

So, in Bharat, they cannot relate to jokes like the professor missing his house on the same street.

Even in this joke - the moment I say, 'elderly widow and widower, dating for five years' - they can't understand! This itself will be a joke for them! They don't need any other punchline! In Bharat, only in modern times they even think of remarriage - and that too only if they are below forty!

Anyhow, here is the story!

An elderly widow and a widower had been dating for five years.

He finally asked her to marry him, and she immediately said yes, but the next

morning, he could not remember what her answer had been!

In desperation, he decided to call her.

He said, This is really embarrassing, but when I asked you to marry me yesterday - well, this morning, I just could not remember what your answer was."

She suddenly said, 'Oh, I am so glad you called !! I remembered saying yes to someone, but I could not remember who it was!"

/ think that would have been the ultimate marriage! Different levels of absent-mindedness!

When you are absentminded internally, you are caught in addiction. I don't mean only the addiction to alcohol or drugs or smoking. Any action performed repeatedly without awareness is an addiction, even if it is not a visibly dangerous addiction. For example, you can see in your whole life, you walk in the same way inside your house! You sit on the same sofa every day. When you come downstairs, you come in the same way. Sometimes, maybe for six months, you don't even use many parts of your house! If you try to live for a few days with awareness, you will notice this.

The spiritual term aparigraha means, living with minimum things. Whatever you have not used for the last six months, donating it to some charity; giving it away - this is apariaraha.

In that case, you will have to give many parts of your house! It means, absentmindedness about your surroundings.

Forget about parts of your house, you may even need to give away parts of your body .. ! No, really! Most of the time, you don't feel that you are alive inside your complete body. It is all just lying there because you cannot disconnect it! Because it is already connected, it is coming with you wherever you go! Otherwise you yourself are not aware. Many times, you are not aware of your hands. You are not aware of your legs. It is there because it is

there, that's all.

Your breathing - you are not aware! Your digestion you are not aware.

Many times, people come and ask me to give them suggestions for their diet. I tell them, 'YOU are eating, YOU are digesting; you are asking about ME about your diet? What is going on?!' I can't understand the concept of asking somebody else about YOUR diet. It means that you are not even aware of your digestion!

Be aware! For the next ten days, whenever you eat, be aware of how you feel in the stomach, how you feel with the whole process of digestion and cleaning. Just be aware of your whole digestion system. You can very clearly understand what makes you feel uncomfortable and what makes you feel relaxed. Suddenly your body will tell you the right quantity, right quality, everything. Just create your diet based on that. That's all!

That is why Patanjali never speaks about a particular diet. He only gives you simple suggestions to bring more awareness to what is happening inside you. Unfortunately, now, the moment you are done with your meal, you are disconnected. You forget all about what is happening inside your stomach till the next meal. You are completely unaware of what is happening inside you. Yoga is nothing but the process of bringing your awareness to You.

Of course, sometimes people cannot even practice yoga because they are

Any action performed repeatedly without awareness is an addiction!

too unaware! A person once came and told me, 'Swamiji, I can't practice yoga. Can you suggest something else?' I said, 'Why?' He said, 'They say, to practice yoga, there should be a gap of three hours after the last meal!' We have become so insensitive, so disconnected!

/ want you to remember this - 'nidra' means 'disconnect'.

There are so many definitions of nidra. Today, carry this one definition with you. Just internalize this one idea, let this one idea ring inside you. Internalize, internalize, internalize, till you come back tomorrow.

For the next ten days, whenever you eat, be aware of how you feel with the whole process of digestion and cleaning. Just be aware of your whole digestion system.

As I said earlier, absentmindedness in the outer world is responsible for your planning not becoming reality. Absentmindedness is the inner world is responsible for all addictions. But both are connected!

Many times, you decide something, but you don't execute it. It means that the vow, the sankalpa, which has happened in your system, is disconnected before even it spreads through your whole body!

For example, you decide, 'Let me stop smoking.' That sankalpa, that strong resolution, travels through your nervous system. But even before even it occupies your whole body and brings it under your control and becomes an action, it is broken! Nidra has happened. The pause has happened. Your system has gone into power-saver mode. Even before it penetrates your whole system, you have gone into 'pause' mode.

This is responsible for addiction, indecision and the inability to keep the intensity alive in your life.

Whenever the pause is happening, remember and try to be more aware that's enough! Just be little more intelligent! This is the essence of what I am saving, nothing else.

Patanjali is also saying the same thing in deeper and deeper ways.

First he expressed about right knowledge. With right knowledge, nothing much needs to be changed. You don't have to work so much on right knowledge. It is practically not a problem at all. Then, wrong knowledge. You need to work on it a little, correct it, correct the direction.

Then comes vikalpa, imagination. Here, not only do you need to correct the

direction, the very CONTENT has to be changed. With wrong knowledge, it is only the direction that is wrong. With imagination, the very vehicle in which

you are sitting is wrong! With wrong knowledge, you only need right navigation. With imagination, the very vehicle is wrong.

/ have a story about imagination:

A guy brings his brother to the hospital and says, 'Sir, he has a problem. He thinks he is a lawnmower."

The doctor asks, 'How long has he had this problem?'

The guy says, 'For the last eight months.'

The doctor is shocked. He says, "Then what were you doing all this time? Why

didn't you bring him here earlier?' The guys says, "I would have, but my neighbor had borrowed him and returned

Nidra is responsible for addiction, indecision and the inability to keep the intensity alive.

him only yesterday !'

With imagination, the very content needs to be changed, not just the direction.

Subtler than imagination is the next level - sleep. Here, the very road needs to be changed! That is nidra.

These are the subtler and subtler modifications of the mind on which you need to work.

When you take a resolution, be aware. Don't let the nidra happen in your system!

So far we looked at the first level of nidra, waking-sleep. The second-level nidra is dream-sleep.

Please understand, in the dream state, you experience completely confused identities. It is not chronologically clear. For example, you may have a dream that you are going to school with your wife! Means, the mixed identity, the confused identity. In the same way, you may mix two incidents, which happened when you were twenty years old and fifty years old, and see them together in your dream. It shows that in the dream-sleep also, you miss the continuity.

If you are able to be aware even while the dream continues, you will use your dream to enrich your life. Please understand: if you can master this art, your whole life will be totally different! You can straightaway achieve whatever you want. Mastering your dream means being aware even while you are dreaming, not letting the disconnection or the pause happen while you dream.

There is a great spiritual tradition in Bharat which works only on dreams. Just on dreams! One tradition of Vedanta - they are called Aghoris. They master dreams. They use the dream state to solve all their problems, to find out the mysteries of the planet Earth and the universe. There is also a branch of Tibetan Buddhism which works on dreams. They call it dream creation. Of course, Buddhism itself is a branch of Hinduism.

'Aghori' means 'compassionate, soft'. 'Ghora' means 'wild, violent'. 'We have a wrong understanding about Aghoris. We think 'Aghori' means 'violent, wild'. No! 'Aghori' means 'soft, compassionate'.

In Madhya Pradesh in Bharat, there is a village which belongs to the Aghori sampradaya, the Aghori tradition. The Aghori monks and householders live there. They have a tradition – if they have a dream in which they have disrespected somebody, or abused somebody, in the daytime they will go to that person's house and ask forgiveness! Even if they disrespect somebody

in their dream, they go and apologize to that person.

They believe that dreams are an extension of the waking state.

The great mathematician Ramanujam from South Bharat had mastery over dreams. Any mathematical problem he was unable to solve, he would just contemplate on it in the night and fall asleep, and he would have the solution in the dream. The next morning, he would just repeat the solution. But he

wouldn't know the steps! He wouldn't know the method, but he would know the result. He was a great devotee of the deity Solingapuram Mahalakshmi. So if somebody asked him, 'How did you arrive at this answer?', he would just say, 'Solingapuram Mahalakshmi told me, that's all!' That's why some people started suspecting that he may be stealing the answers from others!

Listen: if you are not daydreaming or falling asleep during your waking

hours, your dreams and your sleep will also be continuous. If you are able to maintain the continuous flow of awareness during the waking state, you will be able to maintain that continuity in the dream state also.

You may ask, 'How to master dreams?'

There is a beautiful technique, a very powerful technique from Tantra, which Pataniali speaks about in Sadhana Pada and Vibhooti Pada in this book:

"Whatever makes you feel very pleasant - something, some person - just remember that, alive, inside, while you fall asleep."

If you feel very pleasant by remembering your master, or by remembering your beloved, or by remembering some scene like a beach, just remember that when you lie down in your bed - alive, vivid, visually, in multi-color, four-dimension - remember it and continue to be with it till you fall asleep.

Try this just for ten days. You will see that that vivid

picture, that vivid visualization, that vivid experience, will penetrate your dream state within ten days, and will continue to be there throughout your dream. It means that you have mastered that dream.

You may think, 'How can this happen in just ten days?' Try it and you will see! But only on one condition - you have to choose something which really makes you feel pleasant.

If you master this technique, you will not have dream-sleep.

For the next ten days, try this technique:

'Whatever makes you feel very pleasant - some person - just remember that, alive, inside, while you fall asleep.'

Mastery over dreams means being aware even while you are dreaming

Even in the dream-sleep, there are two subtle categories. Just like there are two kinds of sleep in the waking state, there are two kinds of sleep in the dream state also. In the waking state, you have two kinds of sleep sleeping during thinking, and sleeping during action. In the same way, in the dream state also, you have two kinds of sleep - sleeping during thinking, and sleeping during dreaming. When you are dreaming, there is a discontinuity which happens in the dream, and there is a discontinuity which happens inside your dream.

Please understand, Patanjali is talking about many mystical things in order to awaken those mystical dimensions in you. Life is not just all about having what you call a good life. Just a few cars, a few houses, and a family - maybe a few wives! Patanjali gives all these methods and techniques to awaken the higher energies inside you. He is not interested in stopping with what you call a good life - family, house and money and health. He says, 'No! Life is not just about all that!' There are so many other things which you can experience when you have a human body.

You know what you call a good life? It is like this: you go to Hawaii, and you know all the most frequented places, you stay there for a few days and you see only those few places which your tourist guide has been paid to show you, and you come back. That may be equated to a good life. But seeing every place, experiencing everything, is what I call a complete life, a yogic life. That is what Patanjali wants you to live.

lt is the same thing that most of us do on planet Earth. When you come here, you see the tourist guidebook which your parents are carrying, and you say, 'Ah, one marriage, one house, two-three cars, a little bank balance - that is what is the good life! That is all there is to see, that is all there is to experience

Life is not just about having what you call a good life

in this life!' And you do that and go back!

Understand, there are so many things which are hidden; deep secrets and experiences which need to be lived. Awaken those energies, awaken those possibilities. If you can stop the dream-sleep, so many wonderful things can happen in you.

What is really my idea about a good life?

The next kind of sleep is is sleep-sleep.

This is the ultimate sleep.

You may think, "What can we do about sleep-sleep?"

Understand, if you work on the dream state and go deeper and deeper, gradually you will master sleep-sleep also.

Every day I am talking about the techniques which Pataniali is expressing. If you can, work on each technique on that same day. If you can't, at least play with one or two techniques. You will see new doors open in you.

If you are interested in working on the sleep state, take up the powerful technique which I gave you to master dream-sleep and take it to the next level, the deeper level.

When you start working on the dream-state, as I told you, take up a pleasant object or a thing. If it is a person, it will be really nice, because you can easily meditate on him, connect with him, feel him. Feel him inside your inner space visually, alive. Just fall asleep with that one intense visualization. In ten days you will see, he is there continuously; you will see his form in the dream, clearly, in multicolor. Means, you have mastered the dream, you have created a continuity in the dream. Now you have mastered the knowledge of how to avoid dream-sleep.

Now, if you continue the same technique for around three months, you will start experiencing his presence in the deep state. You will experience his energy, but not his form. If you have been contemplating on your Master, the moment you wake up, you will know you have been with your Master throughout, even though you do not remember his form, the color of his dress and all that. You know for sure that you were with him; you have been with him the whole night.

Please understand, this is what is the real Shivaratri! Lord Sri Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita, 'A Yogi is a person who does not sleep when everybody sleeps.' This is what he means! You are awake throughout! Your consciousness is awake throughout!

Try this technique; step, by step, you will master waking-sleep, dream-sleep and sleep-sleep. You will have that continuity in all three states - waking, dream and sleep. That is what we call turiya, the fourth state. If you are

continuous, unbroken, conscious, in all the three states, what you experience is called the fourth state, turiya.

Try to be continuous throughout the nidra which is happening in all the three states, so that it can lead you to joy. If you do not maintain that continuity, if you are falling asleep - day-sleep, dream-sleep, deepsleep - it will lead you to more and more anguish and

pain, which is happening in all of us, which is happening in our lives. So try to create and maintain the continuity.

People ask me, 'If I am continuously present, continuously aware, in all three states, then how will I rest?'

Relax! Understand, that continuity itself will be such a deep restful awareness that you don't need any separate rest. It will not be restless awareness. Don't think it will be a load on you. Sometimes, if you don't sleep well at night, you feel tired in the morning. This state will not be like that! During that time, you may not have slept, but you were continuously thinking. All broken ideas! It is like a garage sale inside your head! You would have collected all the things,

and become completely confused with your possessions - how to organize, how to market, how to price them, how to get rid of them - and you would be suffering with them. Please understand, if you haven't slept well at night, and you are tired in the morning, understand that you have been doing a garage sale the whole night! The whole night you have been doing a garage sale with your thoughts, nothing else! I am not talking about that state!

If you maintain the continuity, that very continuity will be a deep restful awareness. I can say that is the ultimate break you can give yourself. Now, you don't have a break, because the brakes are not under your control! The continuity is the ultimate brake. It looks like a paradox! Right now, you think you have a break - sleeping, dream, waking - but that is not the real break. Even though there is a brake, you don't know when it will break! Having

mastery over the over the brakes is the real break.

I have a story for you about brake:

A huge fire broke out near a farm. The county fire department were called out, but the blaze was too big for them to tackle, so a call for additional assistance was made to a part-time volunteer force.

The volunteer brigade turned up in a dilapidated old truck which spluttered along the track leading to the

fire.

The county fire chief was about to apologize to the farmer for the embarrassment the volunteer force was causina, when to his amazement. the volunteer truck fearlessly drove into the very heart of the fire. Within minutes, the center of the fire was extinquished, breaking the blaze into two controllable sections. An hour later, the entire fire was out.

The farmer was so impressed that he immediately presented the captain of the volunteer force a check for a thousand dollars.

The local newspaperman asked the captain what he was going to spend it on.

The captain said, 'I am going to get the brakes on the damn truck fixed.'

If you are conscious in all the three states, you experience the fourth state, turiya.

If you can brake your break, only then it is a break! Otherwise it can't be called a break. If you catch that continuity, you can brake at any time; you can brake at any time. The brake is under your control, so the break is also under your control.

So, let us have a break now! Understand these great ideas from Patanjali, experience these meditations and catch that continuity - the fourth state. Living in the fourth state is what I call Living Enlightenment – jivanmukti. Let you all achieve and radiate the Living Enlightenment state, jivanmukti.

Deepen your practice to master dreams by gradually moving to the subtler levels of this technique.

SUTRA 11 Anubhūtaviayāsampramoa smti (1.11) Recalling of mental impressions of past events from the subconscious mind is memory.

Today we will be working on the eleventh sutra.

Patanjali talks about the five different modifications of the mind which can lead either to pain or joy inside us: right knowledge, wrong knowledge, imagination or fantasy, sleep and memory.

He is taking us step by step to the deeper zones, to the subtler and subtler zones.

Today we will look at the fifth modification: memory.

Let us enter into the sutra:

Anubhūtavisayāsampramosah smrtih

Recalling of mental impressions of past events from the subconscious mind is memory.

Memory can lead to either suffering or joy in our day-to-day life, depending on how we use it, how we relate with it, how we connect with it, how we respond to it.

I can say, memory is responsible for anything that is available to you in the outer world. Whether it is science or education or medicine or the R&D done in any field of the outer world, memory is responsible for them.

In the same way, memory is responsible for all sufferings, for all psychological disorders, including the disease of birth itself.

In Sanskrit we have a beautiful word, bhavaroga, meaning the disease of birth; birth itself is seen as a disease because it separates you from your Source.

Memory is responsible for everything you enjoy in the outer world, as well as all the sufferings you go through in the inner world.

When I say that memory is responsible, I need to tell you that memory pays a different role in the outer world and in the inner world.

Listen! In the outer world, using memory brings comforts, luxury, all the things you need. Not using memory brings suffering, absentmindedness, disturbance.

In the inner world, using memory brings all kinds of problems and suffering. All the

disturbances you go through are because of the constant using of memory. Not using memory, relaxing from memory, brings tremendous inner joy and peace. It is a paradox! I will explain this more deeply in the further sessions.

Memory is responsible for anything I experience in my inner world and outer world.

Memory can lead to either suffering or joy in our day-to-day life.

In Sanskrit we have a beautiful word, 'tirobhaava'. It means hiding, casting a veil, making you forget .

This is described as one of the actions of God. Making you forget is supposed to be one of the actions of God!

The Divine is responsible for five actions: creating, sustaining, destroying, making you forget and giving you enlightenment.

You may think, "Why does God make me forget things? Why should he take away memory from me?'

Let me share an incident:

The other day a man came to me during the Kalpataru program and asked, 'Swamiji, please give me a technique to remember all my past lives!' Kalpataru is a program where people ask for and receive whatever they desire to experience, but still I wanted to warn him!

l asked, 'Do you know the side-effects or after-effects of what you are asking?' He said, "Whatever it is, I want to know all about my past births Swamiji. I want to know who I was, where I was, what I was doing - everything." I asked him, "Why did you come for this meditation program?"

He said, 'To find peace.'

I asked him, "What is your age?"

He said, 'Forty-two, Swamiji.'

Then I told him, 'The memories of just these last forty-two years are not letting you remain in peace! You are not able to handle just forty-two years' memories! If the memories of all your past lives are suddenly awakened

inside you, what do you think will happen! You will go mad!"

This is the reason we have an automatic mechanism inside for forgetting the past. After a limit, the memory automatically unclutches itself from you; it. disconnects itself and goes and sits in your archives. It is not available to you directly.

You have three levels of memories, and each of your memories is stored at one of these three levels, depending on how often you use it. We can compare these memories to files that you use in your office. The first-level memories are like the files which you have right on your table, which you need to handle every day - the relationships which you maintain, the place where you live, the actions you repeat every

day-these are files which are directly connected to your day-to-day routine. The second-level memories are like the files which are inside your cupboard in your office. You are not using them every day, but you can retrieve them whenever you want. The memories of you carry of people and happenings from a few years ago are in this category - like the friends with whom you spent your time ten years ago, or the vacation which you went on five years ago. These files may not be continuously available on your table, but you

can bring them to the table if you want, because they are right there in your cupboard.

The third-level memories are like files which are in the office archives or storage room, which you cannot access directly; it requires a special key which is not with you. Past-life memories are in this category. The special key to open the archives are the meditation techniques or initiation by an

enlightened master.

Once the load becomes too much on the table. there is an automatic system to move the files to the cupboard. In the same way, once the load becomes too much in the cupboard, there is an automatic system to move the files to the archives. That is what we call tirobhaava - reducing the load on your consciousness.

Please understand, modern-day psychology and psychotherapy are too small in front of Patanjali's depth, clarity and vision. Thousands of years ago, he has penetrated the depths of the modern mind and given precise solutions for all our modern-day problems. That is why the techniques given by Patanjali are being used successfully even today to solve our day-to-day problems.

We have an automatic mechanism inside for forgetting the past.

Forgetting is also an action of God, to reduce the load on my consciousness.

Part 4: 108 Truths of the Yoga of Enlightenment - Talks on Patanjali Yoga Sutras

Listen: psychological problems are a luxury that only a sophisticated civilization can afford !

Only when a society or civilization reaches a certain level of sophistication do people start facing psychological problems. If the civilization has not evolved to that level, they will be stuck with the physiological problems, the basic necessities for survival. That is why it is the evolved or developed civilizations that are suffering from psychological problems today.

When you don't have food for your family, where is the time and energy to go and sit and brood about psychological problems?

I am surprised that, five thousand years ago, Patanjali was able to look into the problems of developed civilizations. I don't think Bharat had all these problems five thousand years ago, even though it was a developed civilization in a different way. But he was able to penetrate the human consciousness and see the possible problems of the future. I can say, this is the most ancient scripture which is still relevant to the largest number of modern men on the planet Earth. Please understand, this is the oldest book which is relevant to the largest number of people in the civilized world.

The other day I was reading a Time magazine report which says that 25% of Americans practice some form of yoga, directly or indirectly. Of course, we have thousands of forms of yoga now: power yoga, five-minute yoga, superdeluxe kundalini yoga! So many varieties of yoga, so many brands of yoga. Anyhow, Patanjali is the father of all these brands. But fortunately, he is not seeing all these brands!

The most practiced spiritual master is Patanjali! There are many religious leaders and spiritual masters on the planet Earth. People read about them, listen about them, but never practice what they say. But Patanjali is the most followed, most practiced, spiritual master on the planet Earth, because

he is very straight, very practical very scientific, and he can solve modern men's problems. He is the right master for the sophisticated civilizations and complex minds of today.

Psychological problems are a luxury that only a sophisticated civilization can afford.

Five thousand years ago, Patanjali was able to look into the problems of developed civilizations.

In the earlier sessions, we looked at Patanjali's definition of memory. / can say, memory is the source of all good things and bad things! All scientific research can happen only based on memory. You need a memory to do all the analysis and achieve results and do further R&D based on the results. Whether in the medical field, or in the field of construction, or in the field of aviation, or in the field of administration, or in the field of execution, memory is the base.

Smrti or memory is responsible for what you are, how you talk, how you behave, the way you live.

The difference between you and another person, the difference between a doctor and a lawyer, a lawyer and an engineer, an engineer and an accountant, is only memory, nothing else. Who you are, what you are, why you are, is all because of memory. I can say memory is responsible for both, remembering and forgetting.

Sometimes, people have a large quantity of memory, but they can't retrieve it with a sharp quality. Sometimes, people have a sharp quality of retrieving memory, but they don't have access to a large quantity of memory. When you are able to access a large storehouse of memory and retrieve precisely what you need, you are a leader. A leader is a person who can a handle a large quantity of memory with a very sharp quality of remembrance.

If it is used properly, if it is retrieved properly, if it is lived properly, memory brings so much of joy and comfort. If it not used properly, it can become the

source of the greatest suffering for you.

A small story about how to use memory:

Three accountants and two engineers are traveling on a train.

The accountants start talking about how the train tickets are very expensive. The engineers say, 'Because the tickets are too expensive and we always

travel on this train, we buy only one ticket and all of us share it.'

The accountants, being accountants, ask, 'How do you manage when the ticket-checker comes? What do you do?'

The engineers just wink and say. "Wait and watch!" When the ticket-checker comes, all the engineers get into the restroom.

The ticket-checker goes over to the restroom and knocks on the door, saying 'Ticket, please!"

One hand comes out of the door and gives the ticket, and the ticket-checker takes it and moves on.

The two accountants are very impressed by the whole scene.

The next day, they also decide to do the same thing.

They buy only one ticket and wait for the ticket-checker to come.

Then they find that the three engineers have not even bought one ticket! The accountants warn them, 'Hey, not having even one ticket is dangerous. How are you going to manage?'

The engineers again just wink and say. "Wait and watch!"

When the ticket-checker comes, both the accountants run into the restroom. The engineers wait for a few seconds. Then one engineer goes and knocks on the door, saying 'Ticket, please!"

One hand comes out of the door and gives the ticket to the engineer.

Now you know the rest of the story!

Smrti is not just remembrance; it is the ability to handle the memory to arrive at a solution. Solutions can never be memorized and repeated; they have to be spontaneous. Many times, people get into trouble by trying to repeat or re-enact others' solutions.

In the outer world, the best way to use memory is to use it more and more and more. In the inner world, the best way to use memory is to unclutch from it more and more and more! This is the sutra, this is the thumb rule for using memory.

In the outer world, when you handle more and more memories, intelligence and power will start happening in you. In the inner world, when you relax from memories, the tremendous energy of spontaneity will start happening in vou.

Today, take the first step to live free of memory in the inner world.

Whenever you find that your mind is caught in a memory, just unclutch with awareness, disconnect, relox from it.

A leader can handle

a large quantity of memory

with a very sharp quality

of remembrance

n Sanskrit there is a beautiful word called mahima.

Mahima means grace.

Mahima happens to you when you have unclutched from memory. When you unclutch from memory, wherever you go, whatever you do, a tremendous feeling of security starts happening inside you and radiating around you.

Please understand, only a person who feels completely secure can unclutch. from his memory! Only a person who can unclutch from his memory can feel completely secure.

/ am continuously giving discourses all over the world. If you see our website, you will find that I am speaking every day, somewhere or other - and all I have in front of me is this book of sutras, nothing else!

The other day a university professor told me, 'Swamiji, it takes me three hours to prepare a forty-five minute lecture, and even after that I am always stressed when I am presenting the lecture to my students. I keep wondering whether I have remembered all the points or not. How do you speak continuously, without any preparation or reference material or notes?" All I said to him is this: 'Fortunately, I have learned how to unclutch from

memories, so I can simply be spontaneous!'

/ have a story for you:

A popular speaker gives a long public discourse at an event. When he returns home, his wife asks him, 'How was the discourse? How did vou feel?'

The speaker replies, 'Which discourse are you talking about?' His wife is surprised. 'What do vou mean? You gave only one discourse!' The speaker replies, 'No, there are three discourses-the one which I prepared, the one which I delivered, and the one I was thinking I should have delivered.'

Being too dependent on memory makes you sterile, dead. Life is lost, Our regular colleges and universities teach you how to gather more and more memory, but they don't teach you how to unclutch from it when you don't need it, and how to handle it correctly when you really need it. That

Understand, when you are not able to unclutch from memory, you will be constantly suffering with these three problems. Not only in your public discourses, but even when you relate with your friends, you will be preparing your speech !

Even if they are close friends, while you are driving to go and meet them, you start preparing your lecture; what you should say, and if the other person responds in this way, how you should respond to that, and if

she talks in that way, what you should say in response! You have prepared some thirty statements with the right response, but when you meet her, she just changes her third statement, and you are at a loss! You expected the conversation to happen in a different direction, but she is taking the whole conversation in a different direction. Now you are at a loss.

TE Only a person who feels completely secure can unclutch from his memory!

knowledge is never delivered to you.

Please understand, that is the worst thing done to you. It is like this: you are taught how to eat, but you are not taught how to clean your stomach, or how to be away from food whenever needed. So much of memory is put inside your system; it is like slow poison. Sometimes you can't retrieve the information when you want it, and sometimes you are overcrowded by it when you don't want it! I

feel so fortunate I did not go to a proper school; I could retain my natural intelligence!

I can say, learning to handle memory in the correct way is the formula for a successful inner-world and outer-world life.

How often do you use memory to make up for a lack of spontaneity? Become aware.

All your diseases all your disturbances, whatever you think of as problems in your life, have their source in memory. This includes your physical problems, because most of your physical disorders are from psychosomatic problems. Even the se happen because you are unable to handle memory.

Constantly, we are struggling with memory; we are suffering with memory. When it comes to the outer world, you need to know how to handle more memory. When it comes to the inner world, you need to know how to unclutch more and more from memory!

You need to understand the deeper truths of memory, because, being unable to handle memory not only creates problems in your young age, it creates very complicated problems in your old age ! In your old age, you are filled with too many memories. That is why, whenever you sit with an elderly person, he starts, 'In 1962, when I was in the army ... ' He can't help it, because he is loaded with memories; his inner space is filled with them, and they is overflowing. What else he can do? Unfortunately, nobody is there to listen. Nobody is there to listen. You don't know how to handle whatever is going on inside you; you don't even know what is going on inside you!

Another important thing you need to understand: when certain memories come up, the hurt or the pain or the suffering is so much that you strongly subconsciously decide not to remember those incidents. When you subconsciously decide again and again to forget things, you land up with Alzheimer's disease. Please understand, Alzheimer's is very closely connected with your strong subconscious decision to forget things

Memory is a very complicated phenomenon. That is why Patanjali goes on speaking about it in various sutras. Memory can be used either to liberate you from all suffering, or to put you into all kinds of difficulties! For example, if you were hurt in the past in a particular place by somebody wearing a black dress, you will remember the same pain whenever you cross that place, even though you know that person is not there. Or whenever you see a person in a black dress, you will have that same pain inside you, even though you know that it is not the same person. Many times, when you don't want to remember them, memories come up. Many times, when you want to remember them, memories do not come up. All of us are suffering with excess memory, but we always feel that we don't have enough memory to

When you learn the technique of unclutching, the quantity of memory available to you, and the capacity to retrieve them - both just explode a few hundred times. If you understand this science, you will understand much deeply what I am trying to express.

What are the painful memories you have subconsciously decided to forget? Would you like to become aware of them now, and complete with the pain?

Whatever you think of as problems in your life, have their source in memory.

/ can say this from my own experience: the more you unclutch, the more memories will become available to you, without disturbing you.

Let me give you an example: in your computer, if you store a large number of high resolution pictures, you can store only a few pictures. Retrieving them also takes too much of time - you will have to be sitting and watching the hourglass symbol and waiting! But if you store only Word documents on your hard disc, you can store a lot more files, and retrieving them will also be very easy.

How to make your high resolution pictures into Word documents - that is the whole technique!

What are the high-resolution pictures inside your hard disc? The pictures which are affecting you too much, which are disturbing you emotionally, which are stored inside you with a lot of emotional connections and emotional charge - those are high-resolution pictures. High-resolution pictures take too much of your inner space. For example, your relationships - even by just remembering once a person with whom you have a strong emotional connection of love or hatred, so much of your inner space is occupied by that person's picture. The moment you remember the person, you can see that a thousand thoughts about that person will come up, whether love or hatred. If a thousand thoughts come up, it means that it is a heavy file you are carrying about the person - like a high-resolution picture.

If you can store files without emotional attachment, the ability to store and the ability to retrieve are both tremendously increased. If you are constantly clutched to your memories, even Word documents become high-resolution pictures. Your hard disc is full with just a few files. Even a little memory is enough to bring pain, suffering, torture, into your life. If you constantly

unclutch from memories, your high-resolution pictures will be automatically converted into Word documents!

A normal person gets tired just by handling ten or twelve relationships. You can see, at nine o'clock you go and sit in your office; by eleven o'clock you are stressed out just by interacting with ten or twelve people! Moreover, we carry all these negative words

inside us as strong high-resolution pictures, 'I am burnt out, I have too much on my plate, I can't do anything more!' I feel blessed that I was born and brought up in a Hindu village; I did not learn all these words! Once such words pop up in you, your whole day is gone.

The more you unclutch, the more memories will become available to you.

The question is: how to convert the high-resolution pictures into Word documents? The secret is to unclutch! Whenever high-resolution pictures

are getting downloaded into you and flooding your system, use those moments of stress to unclutch again and again. Whenever the pain or pleasures related to memories is happening inside you, unclutch, unclutch, unclutch.

The first few times you may find it a little difficult, you may be lost, it will really take some effort. You may say, 'It is not happening! '

Relax.

Keep on unclutching. It is possible and it will happen!

Today, pick any five 'high-resolution' memories and unclutch from them with awareness.

Abhyāsavairāgyābhyāṁ tannirodha||12|| Relaxing from these thought patterns through constant and intensive practice of unclutching.

The next sutra is very powerful sutra.

Here Patanjali gives the solution - relaxing from these thought patterns through constant and intensive practice of unclutching.

Sometimes people ask me. 'If we don't remember anything in the inner world, how are we going to maintain our relationships, how are we going to live our life? If we don't remember our past mistakes, how are we going to develop ourselves?'

Please understand, if you actually unclutch more and more from the memories inside, the essence or juice of those memories will become part of you. By constantly remembering your past mistakes, you will only create guilt; you will not develop yourself. By unclutching from your past memories, you will assimilate the essence, the experience gained from those mistakes. Experience is not about the number of incidents you go through in your life; it is about the number of lessons you learned from those incidents! That learning, that assimilation, happens only when you unclutch from the emotions connected with that experience. Otherwise you will be only carrying self-doubt from that experience; you are only going to lose trust in yourself because of your past mistakes.

That juice which you need to learn from that incident is digested, it becomes part of your life, by unclutching. You don't have to remember the incident itself, the only thing that needs to happen is updating yourself using those lessons, upgrading yourself using those lessons, and that happens only if you can look into the memory face to face.

Many a time you don't want to look into a past incident or mistake because

A small story:

A guy calls the mental hospital and asks, 'Hello, is this the State Mental Hospital?'

The telephone operator answers, "Yes it is."

The guy asks, 'Can I speak to Mr. Joseph in Room 727?'

The operator says, 'One moment, I will connect you.' There is a pause, and then she says, 'I am sorry, Mr. Joseph is not answering.

The quy says, 'Great! That means I must have really escaped!'

A person who struggles with his memory is a split personality.

it creates so much of pain. You try to remember the incident so that you will not make the same mistake again, but unconsciously you are trying to forget the same incident, because it is too painful for you. It is a struggle, it is a struggle. A person who is caught in this struggle with his memory is a split personality.

When you remember the incident with joy or pain, you cannot learn from it. You will just be lost in the

fantasy or the pain associated with the incident. When you unclutch from the emotional charge associated with each memory, when you relax from it, what needs to happen automatically happens inside you.

Many times, I don't want to look into a past incident or mistake because it creates so much of pain.

A small story which I told many times, but which I am always happy to repeat! This happened when I was young boy in my native place., I was born and brought up in a very small but spiritual town; which is less than a hundred thousand population in those days, in Bharat hundred thousand population means it's nothing but a small village, a little bigger village that's all. Hundred thousand population is a bigger village, there'll be usually in Bharat uh villages or cities or towns, in the center there will be huge temple. Around the temple there will be few streets of houses, that's all. That's a typical village or city in Bharat, especially South Bharat. All, almost all I can say ninety nine percent of the South Hindu villages and towns are built around the temple. That was our university, that was the university of our culture and our tradition. All the knowledge, life science, everything is protected, preserved, promoted and spread from that universities. The Hindu communities, Hindu civilization, is basically temple-based community, temple-based community, that is why wherever they go, first thing they do is the temple, first thing they do is the temple.

Bharat is temple-based community. I was also born and brought up in a templebased community and every year they will have one ceremony of repeating Mahabharata, if you know the Mahabharata story you can understand this story, otherwise you may feel little difficult to relate with the story, sorry for it. Mahabharata, they will repeat morning they will repeat verbally, evening they will enact as a drama, small group of old people. Not professional artists, small group of old people. Some old men and one or two small tables, they will get into the stage and shout, there will be no microphone, there will not be any microphones. They will shout and it's, uh, sometime they will not get female artists so male they themselves will have the female dress and make-up and everything, and they will act. That day the story was Draupadi was Travagana, means uh they pulled the cloth of Draupadi in the court to abuse her, disrespect her. That's a story, as per the story, the man was dressed as a Draupadi, wearing seven saris, very thin saris, in Bharat you will get saris which you can fold it and keep it inside a matchbox; not Americansized matchbox, Hindu-sized matchbox. You can keep it inside matchbox; that kind of sari. This guy will be wearing seven saris and the Dushasana the

character, the villain character, who is supposed to pull the saris; by the time he pulls the sixth sari, he should act as if he's tired. And the Draupadi she was supposed to shout 'Krishna come' then behind the screen the Krishna will jump into the stage and say 'I have come, what do you want?' And, the villain is supposed to fall, saying that 'Oh I am too tired, too much of cloth is coming.' By the Krishna's grace, this was the whole scene supposed to be. If you know

the story, you know the scene. That day, the story started, this old man was decorated as a Draupadi. He came, the story went on. The guy, the villain was pulling the saris, suddenly he forgot the count. (Laughter) Suddenly he forgot the count. This guy is wearing seven saris, he is supposed to pull only sixth, six. This fellow forgot the count, and he is pulling the seventh sari also. That Draupadi, she also lost the coolness, she was supposed to shout "Krishna" and Krishna is supposed to come from behind the scene. She started shouting to that villain 'Hey leave me, hey leave me!' And I was sitting there I couldn't understand what is going on. Morning the story they told something else and now something else is happening. And slowly

the backside, Krishna is slowly looking through the screen and waiting 'Why still I am not called,' smoking his bidi. Smoking his bidi, he is just looking through the screen. "Why still I am not called, what happened?" And this Draupadi also got little messed up, she is shouting 'Hey leave me, hey leave me!' and she started fighting with the villain. And the whole mess finally, this villain fellow, the Dushasana pulled the sari. Now in the stage, Draupadi is standing above the hip all female dressed; below the hip with the trouser, male dressed. (Laughter) Above the hip all the female dress, below it all the

male dress is standing in the stage, the whole crowd is laughing. The whole crowd is laughing but this guy is so spontaneous, he is not operating from memory. He's a village guy, beautifully managed the scene, 'Oh Krishna, because you are not able to come, you changed me from female to male and saved my pride!'

He is not operating from memory, he is operating from spontaneity. An educated man can never do this, because our university will not teach you this. Our universities, colleges, the education system, everything, teaches you only how to add memory. Please understand, till human beings are taught how to unclutch from memory when needed, psychosomatic problems and psychiatric disorders are not going to leave planet Earth. The Vedic education system starts with a beautiful concept - the Gayatri initiation - where the first thing you are taught is unclutching. At the age of seven you are not taught how to acquire more and more memories. First awaken your super-consciousness, and then you are ready to start acquiring more and more memories.

A person who struggles with his memory is a split personality.

When Alexander came to invade Bharat, he was told by his teacher, 'When you come back, please bring the Vedas from Bharat."

So when Alexander came to Bharat, he started collecting, collecting, collecting all the Vedas he could find.

After filling more than two hundred ships, he came to know that he has finished collecting only one tenth of the Vedas!

A Brahmin priest who saw his started laughing and said, 'Fool, you should have told me that you need to take back the Vedas! I would have just sent two of my disciples with you; they would have repeated the whole thing for your teacher!'

That is the power of the Vedic education system.

Because of the modern 'memory collection' education system, people are becoming more and more specialized in every profession, because they are afraid that they cannot handle a large amount of information; a large number of memories. Specialization is nothing but limiting the information you need to handle.

I have started sharing this Vedic technology with the children studying in our gurukul. You will be surprised at the memory power of the kids! All I tell them is "Unclutch after studying." It looks paradoxical!

People think, 'If I unclutch after studying, won't I forget whatever I studied? No, you won't.

When you study, when you collect memory, it is like a high-resolution picture, because your memories, your emotions, are attached to them. When you unclutch from it, it gets compressed and becomes like a Word document and goes into your system.

Not only that, the mind available to you to retrieve the memory will also be very sharp.

It is like applying oil on your hands before cutting open a jackfruit! If you don't apply the oil, the gum from the jackfruit is going to stick to your whole hand, and you will not be able to retrieve exactly what you want to retrieve! Your chitta, your memory file, is like the jackfruit - no, it is like a Pandora's box; when you open it, you don't know what will come out! You open it for some purpose, and something else comes out, and you are caught with that!

When you will apply the oil of consciousness, you will not be stuck; you will retrieve the right file, rightly, without getting affected by it, without getting attached to it, without bringing suffering with it.

When it comes to the external world, memory is perfectly alright; it pays your bills, it brings you your paycheck, it makes you productive, it makes you part of civilization, it makes you feel comfortable with the outer world. But when it comes to the inner world, constantly try to unclutch. Try to be in the zone beyond memory.

Please understand: I am not asking you to be absentminded, I am not asking you to go to the level below memory. Being absentminded is not unclutching! Unclutching will put you above the mind.

Experiment with this idea for the next eleven days: constantly try to unclutch. Unclutching means, not connecting with your memory. Whenever thoughts rise, remember to unclutch and relax. After some time, your mind will naturally say, 'I am unclutching, unclutching, unclutching.' Unclutch from that idea also and relax. You may say, 'Then what should I do?' Unclutch from that idea also. You may feel bored; unclutch from that also!

Again and again, come back to that silence which is inside you. The first time you unclutch, you will be silent for two seconds, and then again a thought will raise. Just unclutch again.

As you practice unclutching, the gap between your thoughts will increase to ten or twenty seconds. Relaxing into that gap is what I call Living Enlightenment.

Living Enlightenment means resting into that gap, living inside that gap; not being affected by memory; not being disturbed with the good news and the bad news which are brought into your inner space.

Your life is nothing but a chain of good news and bad news that you receive from your memory. So unclutch from the good news and bad news which constantly come up in you.

/ have a story about this good news and bad news. An artist gets a call from the gallery that is exhibiting his work.

The gallery owner says, I have some good news and some bad news." The painter says, 'First tell me the good news.'

The gallery owner says, 'A fellow came in this morning and asked if your work is the kind that would increase in value after the artist's death. I said 'Yes' and that guy bought all fifteen of your paintings.' The painter asks, That's great news! What is the bad news?' The gallery owner says, The quy is your doctor."

Constantly, good news and bad news are given to you by your memory. For the next eleven days, unclutch from both; you will see the ultimate intelligence gets awakened in your system. The ultimate pure energy starts flowing inside your inner consciousness.

This sutra gives you the essence of whatever I have expressed.

Specialization is nothing but limiting the information you need to handle.

For the next eleven days, through unclutching, again and again come back to that silence which is inside you.

I welcome you all with my love and respects. Today I will continue to expand on the 12th sutra: Abhyāsavairāgyābhyām tannirodhah Relax from these patterns through constant and intensive practice of unclutching.

Pataniali expressed this whole book in such a way that even if everything is lost, even if you get one sutra, you can become enlightened. Each sutra is self-sufficient and independently capable of leading you to the ultimate truth.

The moment I translate it, I feel that only one part has been expressed. You can't express the complete dimensions of the sutra. When the sutra is experienced inside me, it is a fourdimensional experience. But words can create only a two dimensional experience in you. It can create only a picture.

Please understand, orating is an art which can create the same picture which is in the mind of the orator in the mind of the person who is hearing it. So orating can reproduce only the picture. It can never reproduce the experience.

It is like this: a guy goes to the beach and sees the ocean for the first time. When he come s back, he is forced to de scribe what he has seen. He goes on trying to de scribe, 'Have you seen the ocean? It is water, water, a lot of water, a LOT of water!'

How much ever he says that, can you understand the ocean? No! It is impossible.

Four blind people were asked to study an elephant and give a report. One guy goes and touches the trunk of the elephant, another guy goes and touches the tail, another guy goes and touches the leg and the last guy touches the ear.

The fellow who touched the leg comes back and savs. 'Elephant is a pillar!' The quy who touched the tail says, 'Elephant is a broomstick!' The quy who touched the tusk says, "Elephant is a big spoon!" The quy who touched the ear says, 'Elephant is a big fan!'

Each person can only give the picture of your experience. The experience is like a huge godown of cotton, while the expression is like a small thread being woven out of that cotton. The thread that is coming out can never do justice to the amount of cotton available inside.

You can see in your own life: even an ordinary experience like love loses its power when it is verbalized. Then how can spiritual experiences and truths be verbalized?

The multiple dimensions of the truth can never be expressed in words. That is why techniques are needed. Only techniques can reproduce the experiences which are happening in our inner space and transmit it to you.

When you know the truth, you can't possess the truth; the truth will possess you. It will be oozing out - not just through your words; your very body language will radiate that grace.

A disciple asked a Zen master, 'Does an enlightened master speak?'

The master said, 'No, an enlightened person never speaks. Only a person who doesn't know enlightenment speaks."

Then the disciple asked, 'So does an enlightened master keep quiet?' The master said, 'No, an enlightened master never keeps quiet. If he keeps

The multiple dimensions of the truth can never be expressed in words.

quiet, he is not enlightened."

The disciple was puzzled. He asked, You say he neither speaks nor keeps quiet. What does he do?'

The master replied, 'He sings! His being sings. He neither speaks, nor keeps quiet. His very being sings."

I always tell people, The words which I am expressing are only one dimension of that experience. But the courage, confidence and energy which I am expressing are the complete 360 degree picture of that experience'.

Fortunately, Patanjali is blessed with one thousand hoods. Patanjali is supposed to be the incarnation of the snake Adisesha, with one thousand hoods. If I explain it mystically, it means that he had one thousand dedicated disciples who are strongly connected with his inner space, who can just pen down what he is expressing, each in their dimension. Each disciple had imbibed and represents one dimension of the master.

Patanjali just goes into the high ecstasy and connects with all the thousand people. No words are shared, no teachings are given. He just puts the whole room in high energy. All the thousand start downloading and transcribing! It is practically like lightning landing on a body and getting transcribed through the hands into words!

The literature which has been produced by Patanjali in this extraordinary way is called Yoga Sutras.

Each sutra is independently intelligent to lead you to enlightenment, to lead you to completion.

Even an ordinary experience like lover when it is verbalized. Then how can spiritual experiences and truths be verbalized?

This sutra was the favourite sutra of my own teacher, Yogi Yogananda Puri. He would continuously repeat this one sutra. For anybody who comes with any problem, from knee pain to some experiences of Samadhi, he had a standard answer. He would say, abhyāsavairāgyābhyām tannirodhah. Sometimes they would talk about the problem and say, "We know your answer; you don't have to answer, we just want to tell you our problem, that's all!'

Means, this sutra is the ultimate solution for all the problems and obstacles you face on the path of Yoga.

It is very easy to start the path of Yoga, because it is very inviting. But when you start working on your inner space, you will face so many enemies. So many enemies! I am not talking about the enemies of the outer world. I am talking about the enemies of the inner world.

Pataniali goes to the extreme of saying that even extraordinary powers are obstacles on the path. He explains the whole science. I myself have seen my teacher, Yogi Yogananda Puri, expressing different kinds of powers. As I told you, just through sound, he would play in whatever way he wanted. He also knew how to create a kind of a sound which would get converted into a smell! Just through sound, he would create a smell, and all the snakes in that area will start crawling around him.

He had extraordinary powers, but he lived a very ordinary life as a householder, with fourteen kids, like a typical Hindu villager of those times!

Sometimes, I used to ask him, when I saw him expressing these kinds of powers, 'Why don't you express these powers in front of more people? You will have a big following.'

He would just laugh and say, The biggest miracle is producing a few enlightened people! If I do that job, I am done; not with these small miracles and small powers."

In the same way, Patanjali explains all the powers beautifully, but he says very clearly that even these things are obstacles, even these things are obstacles.

We will continue with the 12th sutra:

Abhyaasa vairaaqyaabhyaam tannirodhaha

Relax from these patterns through constant and intensive practice of unclutching.

What is 'intensive practice of unclutching'? What is intensity of practice ? / have a small story about intensity:

A man was trying for twelve years to find a master.

Finally, he was depressed; completely discouraged. He sat on a path in a forest road and decided, 'I will accept the first person who comes on my way as my Guru and do whatever he says!' He was very strong in his decision. Just then, a thief came running on the path. He had robbed something from the palace and was trying to escape.

This man caught hold of the feet of the thief and he said, 'O My master, bless me. Give me liberation, enlighten me."

The thief cried, 'Arrey! I am a thief! Leave me. Don't you see? Just now I have robbed the palace and the royal police are chasing me. Let go of me!'

This man said, 'I don't care about all that. You are my master. Teach me something and then go."

The thief said, I don't have a weapon, otherwise I would have killed you. Don't you understand? Leave me."

But the man was not ready to listen.

Finally the thief sais, 'Okay, you say I am your Guru.'

The man sais, "Yes, you are my Guru. I will do whatever you say."

The thief said, 'Alright, then do what I say. Just sit here and close your eyes. Don't open your eyes till I tell you to."

The man sat and closed his eyes, and the thief escaped from there! The man went on sitting, sitting, sitting, sitting, sitting.

His intensity was such that he just sat, that's all. He thought, 'I have chosen somebody as a master; I will do whatever he says."

When Shiva saw the man's intensity, he appeared and blessed him with enlightenment !

I can say, intensity has independent intelligence. I can vouch for this story.

Intelligence means that which can guide you and lead you to the ultimate. Intensity itself is independently intelligent enough to lead you to the ultimate irrespective of any techniques you practice or don't practice.

/ am just liberating you from all techniques. I am liberating you from all confusions related to techniques. It may be little strong, but, I tell you: this is the essence of all spiritual teachings.

I have chosen somebody as a master; I will do whatever he says.

Intelligence means that which can guide you and lead you to the ultimate.

There is one more story about the power of intensity.

It is a very beautiful story from the life of a saint called Ramdas.

Ramdas was a great sadhu who lived in Varanasi a few hundred years ago. He belonged to the suppressed class of society - the so-called 'low caste'. He wanted to take deeksha (spiritual initiation) and practice spirituality. But the local Guru who was supposed to initiate him said, 'No, I will not initiate you, because then all the low-class people will want the initiation and will make it impure."

So Ramdas went to another guru and asked him for deeksha. This guru said, 'I am not qualified to initiate you, but I will tell you one trick. This Guru goes to the river Ganga every morning before dawn. If you lie down quietly on the riverbank steps before dawn, he will surely step on you by mistake in the dark. Being a pious man, when he steps on you, he will surely call out God's name - Rama, Rama or Shiva Shiva! Take that as your mantra, and his touch on your head as the initiation!"

So Ramdas went, and the whole thing was executed exactly as planned. But the Guru was not filled with God's name. To chant God's name at the moment of crisis, you should be filled with God's name. So the moment he slipped and saw Ramdas he said, 'You buffalo! You are here!'

But Ramdas was very sincere. He thought, 'Whatever word came from my Guru's lips is my mantra!' So he took 'buffalo' as his mantra! He sat in one corner and started meditating on 'buffalo' !

The story goes on to say that his intensity and sincerity was so deep, that Shiva appeared in front of him in the form of a huge golden buffalo and blessed him!

How did it happen?

One day there was a festival in the local Shiva temple. The deity of Shiva was being brought out of the temple door for the procession. Suddenly, the deity was stuck at the door and not coming out! The priests who are carrying the deity don't know what to do. They can't understand why the deity was not moving past the doors, even though the doors were wide open.

Ramdas was sitting outside and watching the whole scene. To him the deity appeared in the form of a huge golden buffalo. He saw that it was stuck in

the door because its big horns were coming in the way!

So he told the people, 'Just bend the deity, it will come out.' They don't understand what he is saying, but they bend the deity, and it comes out!

Then Shiva appeared and gave darshan to all the people. Shiva wanted to show the whole world that he has accepted Ramdas' devotion.

Later on he became enlightened, lived in Varanasi and left the body.

Understand: youdon't have to bother about what technique you are following, who is your master, who is your teacher, whether he is enlightened - nothing is needed. All you need is this one thing: abhyaasa vairaagyaabhyaam tannirodhaha - intense, constant practice.

If you read about the life of the sixty-three main Shaiva saints, the Nayanmars,

Today, in whatever you do, remember this: All I need is this one thing - intense, constant practice. you will see that it is not that as if have done some great topas, meditating eighteen hours per day, doing this pranayama, doing that hatha yoga ... they have not done all these things. Some of them are such simple people! All they did was just pluck flowers from the garden, make a garland and offer it to Shiva's deity, that's all! Just the intensity of the practice - nothing else was needed!

Abhyasa and vairaqya, intense practice. Everything else will fall in place. There is a beautiful story of a Shaiva saint called Sakhya Nayanar - the Buddhist

Shaiva saint! He was forcibly converted to Buddhism at a young age, but he felt strongly connected to Shiva. As a Buddhist, he could not worship Shiva. What to do ? So he kept a Shivalinga in a corner in of his Buddhist monastery. Every morning, he would come to the Shivalinga with a stone. Visualizing the stone to be a flower, he would throw the stone at the Shivalinga. If anybody questioned him, he would say, 'I am throwing a stone at Shiva because we should

not worship these deities!'

And the story says, just by throwing stones, this saint pleased Shiva and Shiva appeared and gave him darshan and enlightenment!

Many times, we forget the power of intensity - abhyasa and vairagya.

Whatever may be the obstacle you are facing in your spiritual journey, all you need is this one truth.

I tell you: with intensity and constant practice, you will be guided to the right master, right teaching, right technique and right enlightenment experience.

Abhyasa and vairagya, intense practice. Everything else will fall in place.

In my young age, in the temple where my yoga teacher Yogiraj Yogananda Puri would teach me yoga, there were twenty to thirty pillars. He would make me climb every stone pillar and come down. And I had to use only one hand to climb the pillars and come down! I had to do this from sunrise to sunset! One day I asked him why he was making me climb all these pillars, because I couldn't find any books or any sutras saying that climbing pillars was a part of yoga !

He said beautifully, 'Any movement you make with intensity and intention becomes part of your bio-memory. For whatever purpose you bend your body or move your body, that memory and idea will become completely recorded in your body and mind. That samskara will start expressing in your body.'

This was a strong click. With a strong intensity, any movement done is Yoga. / can say, this is the basis of our Nithya Yoga. Nithya Yoga is not about adding more movements to your life; it is adding more life to your movements.

Without intensity, even if you do so-called yogasanas, it will be more or less like an exercise, not yoga.

My yoga teacher said, 'When you bend your body with intensity for some purpose, that purpose becomes part of your prarabdha."

Understand: Prarabdha is the energy with which you create your body every day out of hiranyagarbha. Hiranyagarbha is the space where you rest every night. Every night, you fall asleep into hiranyagarbha. It is the darkness which you experience in the deep sleep; it is the womb of the cosmos. It is the place all memories are available, like a cosmic archives. If you want to become a

football champion, whatever is needed for that - health, intelligence - will be available to you. If you want to become a rich man, all those memories are available to you.

Listen: every night is your death; every morning is your birth.

Every morning when you take your body, based on the thought which

inspires you to take your body, you bring those kind of memories out of hiranyagarbha. If you think, 'I should get up so that I can go to work', then you bring with you whatever you need to do for making that happen. That kind of memory will be inserted, downloaded into your system, which you need to lead your life.

That is why, in the Vedictradition, the first thought you have in the morning is given so much of importance.

The moment you get up, you are expected to bring divine energies, divine mantras, divine chants and divine feelings into your being, so that you bring that kind of prarabdha for yourself.

/ can say that short death is sleep, long sleep is death! So, every morning when you get up, all the prarabdha is available for you. You can do anything, you can exchange anything.

You may be thinking, it is too much, it looks like a too big thing! It can't be

possible !

/t is! Please understand, out of habit, you keep bringing back the same set of samskaras. If you decide to change from today, you CAN change! If you want to be a different person, if you strongly create a new thought every morning, you will see that you are expressing that kind of memory, that

kind of prarabdha, that kind of energy, those kind of samskaras; you will start radiating that, you will start living that.

Patanjali says that any thought which you put inside you strongly, intensely, becomes your bio-memory, When you fall asleep with a certain thought, the next morning when you wake up, you will pick up that kind of prarabdha and come out and live it. You can try this yourself if you want!

Understand: Anything you do with intensity becomes yoga. If you carry intensity always, all your movements will become yoga. Patanjali beautifully describes in this one sutra that all you need is abhyasa and vairagya. In the further sutras, we will look more deeply at abhyasa and vairagya.

Fall asleep with the thought of what you want day. The next norning you will pick up that kind of prarabilia and come out and live it.

Any movement you make with intensity and intention becomes part of your bio-memory.

Whether you are practiVing karma yoga, gnana yoga, bhakti yoga or whatever yoga may be, whatever yoga you may be practiCing, all you need is intensity, all you need is intensity, all the obstructions are removed. I can say that is the connecting thread between all forms of spiritual practice.

This is the ultimate sutro for the whole of yoga. Whether you are facing difficulties with niyama (social discipline) or niyama, (personal discipline) or asanas (physical postures) or pranayama (breathing practices) or pratyahara (mental set up) or dhaarana (emotional balancing) or dhyaana (restful awareness in your inner space) or samadhi, enlightenment itself, the one and only solution, the ultimate key, is this one sutra: abhyasa vairagyabhyam tannirodhaha - relaxing from these patterns through constant and intensive practice of unclutching.

Patanjali explained in the last few sutras about the five different modifications of the mind - pramaana, right knowledge; viparyaya - wrong knowledge; vikaloa - imagination:, nidra - sleep; smrti - memory. Now, he is saying that if you unclutch from this five modifications through constant, intense practice, you will become enlightened.

I can say, the five modifications are responsible for all your problems. So, wherever you are stuck, the master key, the master solution, is this: intensity. Intensity by itself can lead you to the ultimate enlightenment without any technique, without any other support, without anything from the outer world. It is a self-sufficient tool for the ultimate experience, kaivalya gnana, living enlightenment.

/ don't want to add more ideas. If I add more ideas, sometimes you miss the essence. That's the reason I always work with one idea, again and again till it completely fills your being and you are internalizing this one truth. Otherwise we miss the truth.

We are waiting to miss the truth. That's the big problem. We are waiting to miss the truth!

A small story:

Once, in a village, a preacher was narrating the story of Harishchandra.

King Harishchandra lived his whole life based on truthfulness and being in integrity with his word. The story of Harishchandra says that at one point he even sold his wife and children in order not to compromise his integrity.

After the narration he asked a man, "What did you learn from this story?" The man replied, 'I learnt that I should always be truthful, no matter what price I have to pay for it.' The preacher was happy. Then he asked another man, 'What did you learn?'

The second man said, 4 learnt that in an emergency, you can even sell your wife, nothing wrong!"

Sometimes we miss the truth if too many things are added! So. intranalyze this one truth, understand this one truth, try, try to experiment

start coming towards your life. You will start attracting all the things needed to live that idea in your life - people, materials, situations.

Intensity by itself

can lead you to the

ultimate enlightenment

without any technique.

You can see in your life - only if you are hungry, you will even see the McDonalds tower on the road ! In the same way, when you start seeking, you will suddenly start seeing that your house is filled with yoga journals, meditation videos, spiritual websites - all these things start happening! It feels like a new door has opened.

When you feel connected to something, not only mind, even your body will fall in tune with that

one idea. Even your body structure will change according as per that idea. Experiment with this truth; you will see the power of intensity. You will see power of intensity. Pick up any idea and intensely internalize it through constant remembrance. When you fall asleep, be filled with that idea. When you wake up, be filled with that idea. You will see, in ten days, your mind gets tuned to that idea, your thinking gets tuned to that idea. You will attract the right kind of people, situations, everything, around you.

with this one truth. When you wake up in the morning, be intense about any

one idea. Try it for ten days. Just be intense about that one idea. Suddenly

you will see that all the things and all the people related to that one idea will

Pick up any one idea and internalize it through constant remembrance. In ten days, your will attract the right kind of people, situations, everything, around you.

Tatra sthitau yatno'bhyāsa The effort to remain constantly in that elevated state of awareness is abhyasa.

/ welcome you all with my love and respects. Today's we are entering into the thirteenth sutra: Tatra sthitau yatno bhyāsaḥ The effort to remain constantly in that elevated state of awareness is abhyasa.

As I said, abhyasa can be loosely translated as 'practice.' Practice is too small a word, but there is no other word! Abhyasa is the most important key for whole of humanity. Through this, Patanjali is giving us one more chance. He is explaining abhyasa in a very deep way.

This one word is the key word for the whole civilization.

Please understand: from animals evolving as human beings, and in the human level, expressing various qualities - the whole thing happens with abhyasa.

Where it is success in the outer world or success in the inner world, R&D in the outer world or R&D in the inner world - anything to be achieved needs abhyasa.

Each sutra is a seed out of which a whole tree can be created. Or I can say, Patanjali reduces a whole tree into a seed and offers it to us!

Abhyasa means again and again bringing yourself back to the center, elevating yourself to that high state of consciousness, centering yourself in that truth.

Please under stand: your mind in not logical.

Every moment, your idea about pain, your idea about pleasure, your idea about joy, your idea about love is changing.

if a new wave comes, you don't know what changes it will make inside you.

A month ago, a devotee requested me for some guidance. His problem was that he was in love with somebody, but that person was not bothered about him. So it was torturing him. He was walking to the temple with me. I could see very clearly what was going on inside his inner space; the suffocation which he was having.

Just a few minutes later, he received a call from his home. His house was going to be taken away by the bank for some reason. Suddenly I saw, his mind started fighting with that problem! Till, then he was fighting with the problem that the other person was not responding to him; suddenly this conflict took over. I could see very clearly how the whole game of mind is happening. House is a bigger problem, a survival issue, and I saw that he completely forgot about his love - everything is forgotten!

He asked me, 'Swamiji, how to solve this issue?'

I said, 'Don't worry, things will be settled.'

After an hour, he received a call that the problem got sorted out.

Suddenly when he came out the complicated problem, I saw he was completely relieved not only from this problem, from the earlier problem also! He is completely clear.

if you look inside, you can also see that what I am saying would have happened many times

in your life also.

Please understand, your mind in not a logical thing. If it was logical, after the second problem got solved, you should have started thinking about first problem. The big difficulty is - you always think mind is logical. Mind is not like a solid ground, it is like an ocean. One wave, when it comes, can dear some ten problems which were there. Problems can dissolve problems. Waves can move waves. Problems can wash away problems.

All vour ideas about problems do not have a base. All your ideas about problems do not have a base; they are just floating. Your idea about love, your idea about pain, your idea about attention, your idea about fear, your idea about worry, your idea about greed - all these ideas are just floating, they are not clearly rooted or grounded. One wave is enough; suddenly you will see that so many things which you were thinking can never be removed just disappear!

For this devotee, when it came to his house, his survival, the big wave started to happen in his inner space. Suddenly, all the small waves, all the small problems, just disappeared. Understand what I said now: this one big problem rising and suddenly all these small problems disappearing. When the big problem is solved, you are completely in peace, and even the small problems are not there anymore, even though you have not solved them.

CONTEMPLATION

My mind in not logical as I think. Every moment, my idea about pleasure, my idea about joy, my idea about love, is changing,

One more important secret you should know: whenever you go through the basic survival-related fears, huge energy gets released from your Swadhishthana chakra. There is an automatic mechanism inside you to bring you out of the fear.

There is an automatic anesthetic to protect you from pain - beyond a certain limit, it just puts you into the unconscious layer and you won't feel the pain. Same way, if the fear is too much, there will be a huge energy rush inside you. That energy rush is intelligent enough to push out all other pains, all other suffering, all other thoughts all other problems.

This understanding will completely liberate you; your respect for mind will be lost. Your respect for your problems will disappear.

Someone asked me, 'Swamiji, you mean to say my problems are not big?' /told him. 'Sorry to tell the truth. but first of all you are not big!' Forget about your problems; even you are not big!' But it really hurts; somebody saying you are not big! It is too much, but what to do? When your problems are big, you feel you are big.

Many times I have seen - if I ask people to spend some time in the ashram, they will start creating all problems in their mind - "No, no, no! I have to go to work. I cannot meditate. I am too lazy.' They have all kinds of reasons. So I started creating reverse problems. I tell them, 'No, no. You can't stay here. There is no place here. Go back."

Then suddenly they will have the opposite problems - 'No no no! We want

to be around you. You are not letting us stay. You are not giving us enough attention. You are too busy with too many things!'

Your problems are neither permanent nor impermanent as you think. If you

See: mind, either this way or this way, constantly create waves; it constantly create waves. Mind is wavering; it is an action; mind is a verb. That is why Patanjali says very beautifully, 'Mind is an action. Just remember it is an action and stop it; nothing else needs to be done."

When your problems are big, you feel you are big.

think they are impermanent, they are not impermanent as you think. If you

think they are permanent, they are not permanent as you think.

Sometimes, even a very simple problem can occupy your whole inner space. You will forget about the important problems. You will be settling small things without bothering about the big things happening in your life.

means, understanding your Abhyasa that understanding about your problems is not right!

ACTIVITY

Note down 5 situations in your life where you created problems for yourself. Bring awareness to these situations and complete with them.

We saw that the first step of abhyasa is, understanding that your problems are neither permanent nor impermanent as you think.

The second step of abhyasa is, coming back to your center again and again and again.

For enlightenment, you need only three things: abhyasa, abhyasa and abhyasa!

Forget about enlightenment; even for living an integrated life, all you need is abhyasa.

Abhyasa can be understood from in two ways:

• By constantly coming back to the center, letting everything else melt.

• By constantly melting, not letting samskaras (incompletions) gather around you.

Relaxing from wrong abhyasas and resting in the right truths.

Whatever you repeat consciously becomes unconscious. It enters deep into your unconscious layers.

Out of that is created your body.

One thing, not letting any abhyasa means practice happening inside you. Not allowing any practice. See: all your sufferings are because of your practices. Man is not just a conscious being. His unconscious layer is nine times bigger than his conscious layer, and his body is completely unconscious.

Body is created out of involuntary habits which have become part of your unconscious. Whatever you consciously do again and again, that becomes unconscious and becomes your body.

For example, driving: in the beginning you need to put in so much of effort;

for each decision, the brain has to give the command and it has to pass through the hand and it should be executed. But after some time, you just sit in your car and reach your office, and only when you park your car and come out you even remember, 'Oh God, for the last one hour I was driving.' You took so many decisions - right turn, left turn, stopping at the signal,

so many decisions - but you are not even aware,

because it has become an involuntary action; part of your unconscious.

Listen: your abhyasa is directly connected to your muscles. Whatever you do again and again directly impacts your muscles. Anything you consciously

If you don't allow any abhyasa to settle in you, you are liberated.

do again and again and again strengthens your muscles. So the more you

age, more strong you should become! With more experience in your body, more experience with your mind, naturally you should become more strong and intelligent! Of course, it sounds paradoxical.

But something goes wrong in the whole cycle when you start encouraging negative abhyasas. Negative ideas, unconscious ideas, start getting stronger and stronger in your inner space and weaken your

If you understand abhyasa in this way, if you don't allow any abhyasa to settle in you, you are liberated, you are enlightened. It means that every moment you will be fresh, alive; your muscles will be so strong and alive.

Whatever I repeat consciously enters deep into my unconscious layers.

Your being, by its nature, wants to be in restful awareness always. This needs a certain training, which is not provided to you by modern civilization or society or education.

People come and tell me, 'I'm too lazy to meditate, Swamiji.' / tell them, 'Just be too lazy to think also - that is all. That is meditation. Just

be too lazy to think - you are in meditation !'

There are two ways of being in restful awareness - consciously and unconsciously.

This second process is taught to you by your schools, colleges and universities! These poor guys are made to sit, room is locked windows are locked, and the teacher goes on talking, talking, talking. Poor guy, he has also been talking about the same subject for twenty-five years! In Bharat I have seen, by the time a person finishes his education and comes out, he has mastered the art of sleeping with open eyes. Somewhere I was never able to do that. That is why I never sat in any classes!

You do not feel interested because you do not know the direct result, you don't know whether it is going to be helpful for you in life or not.

Secondly, the teachers themselves are not convinced of what they are teaching! Naturally that expresses in their method of teaching. There is such a gap between the person who is designing the system and the person who is going through the system that the transmission of intensity and enthusiasm

You are never taught how to be in the restful awareness consciously. You are always taught that restful awareness means unconscious. Switch off! Only then you can be in restful awareness. When this happens, all your unconscious samskaras get strengthened. If there is no enthusiasm, naturally you will master the art of disconnecting even with your eyes and senses are open. The consciousness never gets involved with life.

Understand: abhyasa happens in you more strongly at the unconscious level. Things which are not going to be directly helpful for you are strengthened

by the wrong abhyasa. Anything which makes you unconscious, you make that a habit very quickly! Drinking, smoking, drugs, TV - you need so much of entertainment! Why? Because you can't be alone with yourself. You can't be with yourself. When you are watching TV, you do not have to think about you.

In Bharat the other day, they requested me to come and inaugurate a theme park.

/ said, 'No!'

They asked me, 'What is this Swamiji? There is nothing wrong with a theme park."

I said, "I am feeling so bad that this country needs a theme park to entertain people. It means that the depression rate is getting high. Now we need to invent more and more and more entertainment, different kinds of entertainment."

In the Vedic civilization, even their entertainment was consciousness-based

Anything which makes you unconscious, you make that a habit very quickly!

• prayer, meditation, visiting temples, traveling to different energy fields. Now I am that seeing even entertainment needs to be adrenaline based. Adrenaline-based means, moving your body fast, giving you a kind of a shock - roller coasters and all that. This is the entertainment which put you in the unconscious zone.

See, when the adrenaline rush happens you feel like a hero, but it is literally like a dog eating its own leg! It enjoys the blood, but it does not know the after-effect; it does not know it is eating itself, it is killing itself. You do not know - the adrenaline release entertains you for five minutes, you feel high for five minutes, but you are entering into unconscious enjoyment,

unconscious entertainment, unconscious abhyasas.

The same with fear: you know that after you watch a horror movie, for two days you can't relax even in your bedroom! Even then, you again sit in front of the same movie. It is a kind of unconscious abhyasa or entertainment; putting yourself in the unconscious layer again and again and again.

Unconsciously falling in tune is very easy. Consciously falling into restful awareness means that you need to practice a little, you need to meditate. You need to practice, and you were never taught from the young age that it is easy. You were never taught meditation is easy. When I look back, I feel so blessed that I was born and grew up in a holy town where meditation is a lifestyle !

I need so much of entertainment because I can't be alone with myself.

As a teenager, especially during my college days, I just used to sit in meditation for six or seven hours. I would wake up in the morning around three o'clock and just sit till nine o'clock. My roommates were not ready to believe that I was meditating! Anyhow, they were frightened just seeing me every day, sitting continuously for so many hours without moving the body. That itself was too much for them!

They asked me once, 'How do you sit for so many hours just like that?' Actually, they were not able to relate with that. And the same way, I was not able to relate with them!

/ told them, 'Why not? It is MY body, MY mind, I want to sit, I am sitting that's all!'

Understand - it is YOUR body, YOUR mind; if you can't sit with them, what is going on? What is happening? It is time, reclaim your freedom. Reclaim your body. Reclaim your mind. Reclaim your inner space !

There was a lion who kept a huge flock of sheep. Every day he would kill one sheep and eat it.

Another lion who saw the flock was shocked. He asked, 'How do you manage to keep all these sheep with you? Are they not afraid of you? Don't they run away when they see you?'

This lion said, 'No! I first hypnotized all of them, and told them they were all lions! They simply believed me. So they don't get afraid or run away when they see me. They are all there; I just need to go every day and pick up one

This is how exactly your mind makes you believe that you are in control, you

You may think, 'If I work for five days, I will have the freedom to go on a

are free, you are powerful!

Understand: the freedom given by the mind is not freedom. The ultimate freedom - the only freedom -- is pratyahara, the ability to be in your center. All other freedom is just an idea taught to you. All the freedom you think you have - social freedom, economical freedom, religious freedom - all are only

ideas given to you. Other than the ability you have to remain centered, free of the demands of your body and mind, there is no other freedom; there is

Only if you can reclaim your inner space, can you even taste freedom.

vacation for two days.' But try to go for vacation, and will see that you are carrying all your files inside you! You will be lying down on the beach in Hawaii and worrying about your work - nothing else. Worrying at your office desk is job, worrying on the beach is vacation! That is the only difference.

Only if you know how to get back to your center, only

if you can reclaim your inner space, can you even taste freedom.

Today, spend at least 11 minutes alone with yourself, in silence, internally and externally.

When you live in the cycle of negative abhyasa, unconscious ideas start attracting you more and more; unconscious actions become your practice. This becomes a vicious cycle in society. Understand: your parents don't have hatred towards you; your teachers don't have hatred towards you; society doesn't have hatred towards you They themselves are acting unconsciously, so they don't know that conscious abyasa can be taught.

/ can clearly describe how the negative abyasa gets settled inside your system. You may think that negative abhyasa is very easy to pick up, while positive abhyasa is difficult to pick up. No! Your system always has a resistance to move into something new, something unknown. It doesn't know the difference between smoking and meditation. First time you smoke and first time you meditate, both times you will face difficulty!

Listen: how difficult you find it when you first start meditating, you will find the same difficulty when you start drinking or smoking also. Your system will go through the same resistance. The only difference is that when you start smoking or drinking, you have so many enthusiastic friends and companions to encourage you and guide you! You are surrounded by 'nonenlightened masters' who will help you overcome the initial difficulties and become an expert! But when you start meditating, very rarely you will find an enlightened master to take you beyond the initial struggles. That is the difference,

Actually I cannot imagine - how can you put something inside your system

which will make you dull, dumb, paralyzed, idiotic? Your system will naturally resist it! But you have many people around you with that bio-memory,

whom you are already in tune with. Their presence influences you.

/ can say that negative abhyasa is the ultimate conspiracy done against you; it is the ultimate crime done against your consciousness, against your being.

When I travel and take the classes, I can see that people find it difficult even to close their eyes

for a few minutes! Forget about meditation; even to close eyes they feel frightened.

A person wrote me a letter just a few days ago, after attending a weekend meditation camp. He said, 'Swamiji, for the first time in my life, two days have gone by happily without watching TV!'

/just said, 'Oh, God.'

Negative abhyasa

is the

ultimate conspiracy

done against you.

But the good news about abhyasa is this: if you manage to remain aware at

the moment when the abhyasa is rising in you, it will start melting down! It will just start melting down.

Do not allow unconscious abhyasa to happen to you. Be aware! More and more, be aware! Whenever suffering comes, do not allow the suffering to stay inside you. Just decide to entertain yourself with something else. Not with TV, of course; not with any

other suffering! I'm not asking you to shift from one suffering to another suffering. No. I'm asking you to change the very energy of suffering that you are carrying.

Today, try to be aware at the moments when a negative abhyasa is rising in you, and see it start melting down.

Somebody told me recently, 'Swamiji, in your temple I saw that some festival goes on every day!"

In Bharat, in our ashram temple, we have Nithyotsav, which means Eternal festival. Every day you will see, the temple flag will be flying. Some utsav will be going on, something will be happening. The purpose is to constantly remain you of some positive ideas and engraving positive abhyasa.

/ asked him, 'When pubs and bars can be opened every day, why not temples? All the places where negative abhyasa is happening are open twenty-four hours, negative abhyasa is continuously available and being encouraged, so why not the place where positive abhyasa is happening?

If you drink and dance, it is negative abhyasa; if you sing and dance, it is positive abhyasa! I have to equate.'

In the pubs and bars, when you drink and dance, you are creating a strong negative abhyasa. When you sing kirtan, the name of the Lord, and dance in that ecstasy of devotion, you are creating strong positive abhyasa.

The big problem is, if you drink and dance, it is seen as fashionable, but if you sing and dance, you are seen as old-fashioned, outdated. See the human mind! If you drink and dance you are modern, but if you just sing the divine name or the guru's name and dance in that ecstasy and joy, they say, 'Ah, immature fellows, immature fellows'!

Actually, when celebration is removed from the spiritual tradition, be very clear, the positive abhyasa will never happen. Many people start drinking for company, for friendship, to feel free of their stress, to expand their identity. Many incentives, many other things, are associated with drinking. I tell them, 'Bring all those benefits, all that celebration and joy, into spirituality, into mediation. Create positive abhyasa for yourself and others!

Yesterday I told you an important secret: any idea you strongly remember and move your body, that idea will get engraved into your bio-memory. If you have that strong conviction that by bending up and down ten times your stomach will become healthy, you don't have to do anything else;

In the initial level, you need to go to a spiritual place. I can say this is a positive pub where you see the body language of the people who drink the Divine, who are enjoying the Divine, who are radiating it, who are dancing with it, who are living it. You need to see their body language for you to be in that space, you need to be encouraged, you need that positive abhyasa.

I tell you, when you sing and dance consciously, with awareness, if you just sing and dance without drinking, remembering and celebrating the great truths or God or guru, those great truths and bio-memory will simply get engraved inside your system.

If you drink and dance, it is negative abhyasa; if you sing and dance, it is positive abhyasa!

nothing else is needed. Just the idea that you should become healthy, up and down, up and down, up and down - you will become healthy! That is the whole science. I'm giving the whole secret to you. With any strong idea inside, any way you move the body, makes that idea becomes part of your bio-memory and brings the result, that's all!

It is the same science that is being applied when you remember the divine and move the body. That is why the whole day Mira was singing and dancing; that is why Ramakrishna was singing and dancing. Mira says, 'When I am singing his name and dancing, I can see that Krishna himself is moving inside my body. His very presence inside is moving my body.' That high concept with which you move the body gets engraved inside you and the positive abhyasa starts happening.

Any idea I strongly remember and move my body, that idea will get engraved into my bio-memory.

Listen: basically, by nature you are liguid. You are like a liquid; you take the shape of the vessel in which you are kept, that's all! That is why I insist that you create a positive, blissful community around you; only then you can continue to be blissful and positive forever. It can never happen just by you alone being positive.

In Bharat there is a story: even if you struggle and climb up, there will be people just to pull you down. They will just be waiting to pull you down! It is true! Just go home from this satsang with a smiling, joyful face, and see how many minutes you can last! Fortunately, if your spouse is also here, then you are safe. Otherwise, if you are in ecstasy independent of him, that is are big problem! See, if you are in ecstasy without depending on him or her, it is too much to bear. Naturally, it will express in your body language; you are saying that you don't need him or her to be happy. That hurts his ego. At the most you are allowed to be happy with the other person's support; nothing else can be tolerated.

Put a little energy, a little time, into creating a beautiful community around you, or spend a little time where the positive abhyasa is happening. You will see so many wonderful things expressing inside you.

Especially with spiritual activities, you don't have your community supporting you, society supporting you. One day if you sit for meditation and you have a little knee pain, and if you happen to tell your spouse about it, they are only going to ask, "Who asked you to do all these things?' There is no support. So naturally, what you will do? You will decide, "Why all these unnecessary risks? Who knows what will be the outcome, and what can be the side-effect.'

That is the reason Buddha says, "The sangha or spiritual community is as

important as Buddha or dhamma, the Master or the scriptures.' See, Buddha can initiate you, dhamma can inspire you, but only sangha can bring only abhyasa to you. Only sangha can help you establishing yourself into that same state again and again and again.

Sangha is a powerful influence on your life. Even without knowing, you start imitating the mood

of your sangha - whether it is your family, friends, co-workers or spiritual community. Many times you can see, the moment you remember the people whom you are going meet in the bar, you are already headed towards the bar! You don't even consciously think and decide; their very company gives you the courage.

Even if your doctors advise you, 'No no no! Your life will be reduced, you will have the risk of cancer, you will have the risk of liver failure', you say to

them.

By nature you are liquid.

You take the shape

of the vessel

in which you are kept!

'But I know a guy who was drinking and smoking for ninety-five years, and he was alright!"

You don't understand that he's an exception, not the rule! But somehow,

just the two or three people who are going to give you company in the bar have so much strength, so much influence on you, that you don't even logically think about what your doctor said or you said; you are already in the car and you are done.

In the same way, many times, if you are feeling depressed, low, suddenly you will remember the temple, and the all people you will meet, or the

deities, and all the joyful times you have spent in the temple, and you are already in the car and headed towards the temple. The moment you remember all these things, you will be here, and the positive abhyasa can happen. That is why so much of energy, intelligence, time, money, is put into the sangha.

Put a little energy, a little time, into creating a beather many around you, or spend a little time where the positive ablyasa is happening. You will see so many wonderful things expressing inside you.

The other day someone was asking me, "Why do you put so much of silk and iewels on these deities? Why is so much of decoration done for the deities, and even for the seat on which THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM is sitting? After all you teaching the ultimate enlightenment, so why don't you keep your temple empty, formless?"

In the bar, people want all the decoration necessary to create negative abhyasa, but in the temple, they want everything to be empty. What kind of a mental set up is that? Unfortunately, the whole of modern civilization is based on negative Understand what kind of mental setup?

Forget about spirituality - even to integrate yourself as a man, you need abhyasa. Without abhyasa, you are just a liguid. Any thought can come and overpower you at any time. In the morning you think of something as your life purpose and start walking towards it. By evening, some other thought, some other situation, will come, and all your ideas of life and pain and jov disappear, and you are entangled in something else.

So never miss a chance to be around the Buddha, to be around the sangha. Never miss a chance! I can say, that is the ultimate thing that can happen in you. So many negative abhyasas inside you which you may not even know about will disappear.

People come and tell me, 'Swamiji, I just come and stayed here for a few days and did volunteer work and went back home. I don't know how, but my life is transformed after that! I did not work directly on solving my problems, but suddenly I am out of so many problems, so many struggles, so many

Part 5: 108 Truths of the Yoga of Enlightenment - Talks on Patanjali Yoga Sutras

disturbances - even in crisis situations! If the same situation had happened a few years earlier in my life, I would have been shaken. Now I'm so strong. How come? How is it happening?'

Understand, the sangha it drills the positive abhyasa into your deeper layers. See, your conscious mind is just one layer; your unconscious mind is nine layers! Below your mind is your body, which is completely unconscious. Anything done continuously bv the conscious part of you gets engraved in your

unconscious. Same way, anything continuously repeated unconsciously gets inside your body and becomes a physical habit.

You need to understand the word 'habit'. H-A-B-I-T. If you remove H, still A BIT will be there! If you remove A also, still BIT will be there. If you remove B also, still IT will be there. Only when you remove the I, the identity, it will die. If you understand and practice it consciously, positive abhaya will also go

into unconscious. If you live around the people who are practicing this truth, who are living this truth, suddenly you will see that your bio-memory is picking up the truth.

Now don't start thinking and doubting, 'Oh, who knows if it will happen? I can believe that I will pick up unconscious abhyasa, but who knows if I will pick up positive abhyasa even if I spend time around the master and sangha?' Understand, you are not that

three ideas you may question it; after a few days you will pick up the roots from them directly.

intelligent as to question every idea! First two or

That is why I tell people, in the initial level, have patience. Give yourself a chance to enter into the virtuous cycle of positive abhyasa. Give yourself the time you need for this. You will see the results.

When I live around people who are practicing the truth, my bio-memory will pick up the truth.

Even to

integrate yourself

as a man,

vou need abhyasa.

Sri Ramakrishna says very beautifully, 'If you drink one liter of alcohol, you need to drink at least a quarter liter of rice water to get out of the effect and become sober again."

Same way, we have accumulated so much of negative abhyasa in our life, we have spent so many hours in negative abhyasa, that it is essential to at least spend few hours in positive abhyasa just to get out of that effect! Spiritual practice is no longer a luxury in modern life; it is a critical necessity!

When you spend time in a place here the positive abhyasa is continuously happening, the great truth enter inside you even without you knowing. That is why, when someone comes to me for healing, I tell them to spend some time in the ashram also. Because this is the place where, constantly, Truth is spoken. Truth is lived. Truth is radiating in various ways, again and again and again. These will resonate in your being; even if you don't want, you have to listen! In a few days, you will see the tremendous transformation, the positive abhyasa happening inside you.

That is why Buddha says, 'I've created the sangha so that these truths will be kept alive continuously and transmitted to the next generation.' When you are starting your spiritual practice - or even till the end of your spiritual practice! - you need a space that supports you, takes care of you when you face some impossibility, aligns you back to the goal.

Many people come and tell me, 'Swamiji, please tell me what meditation I should do. I'll do it at home."

/ tell them, 'At home, you will never start!' At home, there will always be something else as the first priority; something else will be more important for you. But if you learn at a meditation workshop, when you are doing as part of the whole group, naturally you will do it! Even if your mind tells you that you are tired, even if you have knee pain, even if you are feeling lazy - nothing can be done! You have to do it. So doing the meditation in a group helps you come out of the initial struggles you will have with your mind.

Have you noticed fitness instructors? They don't bother, they don't even look at your face when you express your tiredness. They just say, "Up down, up down, up down! Do one-two-three, thirty second, thirty second, thirty second!'

Only at the end they ask, "Are you alright?"

/ also do the same thing! Only at the end I ask, 'Did you enjoy?' The whole day, I know I have to create the positive abhyasa in you; I cannot listen to your laziness talking, I cannot listen to your boredom talking; I cannot stop the process for which you have come.

Abhyasa is nothing but continuously and consciously creating positive habits inside you so that it can go from your conscious to your unconscious mind, and from your unconscious mind to your body.

Spiritual practice is no longer a luxury in modern life: it is a critical necessity!

Many times, when you listen to all this words, you get completely inspired. You will buy all possible books, CDs, DVDs, and all kinds of things. Everything is ready - except you. Except you.

The big problem is, your body is completely unconscious; it has learnt so many unconscious habits for so many years. So even when you suddenly glimpse the Truth or have a strong spiritual experience, your brain grooves are not habituated to hold on to that experience, to hold on to that high state of consciousness. Your brain grooves are created only in the usual unconscious way.

So what happens? Because you came down, I came down!

It is my job to see that you are continuously moved out of negative abhyasa into positive abhyasa. Making all the good things as part of your life is what l call abhyasa.

CONTEMPLATION

We have acumulated so much of negative ablyasa in our life that it is essential to at least spend few hours in positive ablyasa just to get out of that effect!

/ want to share an important understanding from my own life.

Listen: when I had my enlightenment at the age of twelve, the experience did not stay with me permanently. I was not in that same state permanently; in three days the experience disappeared.

After that it was such a big missing, unimaginable missing. Understand: unimaginable missing! Till yesterday, you know you are God, and suddenly now you are back. How?

During my enlightenment, I had the strong experience that everything was me. Understand: just feeling that you are alive inside one body, your own body, gives you so much of joy. During the experience, I started feeling that I am alive in everything - the tree, the plant, the stone, the hill, the temple, everything; in the air, in the sky. How strongly you feel you are alive inside your skin. I started feeling equally alive in everything! It was such a joy, ecstasy, liberation; there was no fear; there was nothing to gain, nothing to lose. Two and half days I had 'bliss fever'! And when I went back to what you call the 'normal' state, I was pouring tears all the time.

See, if you don't know you are God, if you don't know you are Consciousness, if you don't know you are an enlightened soul, you at least know that you have to just put up with life, live with it, nothing can be done about it. But when you know it, and suddenly your body is not ready to leave it, that is the worst missing that can happen.

Just before I left for the USA, one of my new brahmacharis, a boy who recently came to the ashram for sannyas training, asked me a funny question. I was giving a little extra attention to him every day and teaching him or at least spending a few minutes with him, asking him, 'How are you? Are you feeling comfortable? Are you well settled here?' and all those things. So when I was leaving the ashram to come to the USA, he came to me and asked me, 'Swamiji, when you go to America, will you forget me?'

I just laughed and said, 'Relax! I never remembered you, so forget about forgetting you!

Understand: there is no favorite, there is no favorite. There can be n favorite for me, because I know that just as I am alive inside this body, I am alive inside that body, and inside all the bodies, inside everything. So where is the question of having a 'favorite'?

If I am giving attention to somebody, it is because the possibility for spiritual growth is there in that being, that's all. The possibility for the spiritual explosion is there. Sometimes, people are stuck in some places. They have a very strong spiritual pull, but they will not even know it is a spiritual pull.

They only know that they keep me inside their heart and enjoy my presence, in the waking state or in the dream state or in the deep sleep state; when they remember me there is a twinkle in the corner of the eyes; it is just such a pleasant feeling.

At that same time, in another part of the same person's mind, the accumulated negative abhyasa

will be creating all kinds of fears and questions and apprehensions - either judging me or judging the community around me or some situation they see around me!

I have seen people suffering with the negative abhyasa, negative conditioning. It is so powerful that it can show anything as negative; it can create a problem out of any situation.

Some people, if you give invite them to spend time in the ashram, start saying, 'No no no! I am not doing anything here, how can I just stay here for free?'

Then if you tell them, 'Alright, then take up some seva, so some volunteering', they feel, 'No, no, you are taking too much work out of me. Maybe the work is the only reason you are asking me to stay here.' Mind can play any game! The negative abhyasa can play any game.

So, on one side the beautiful feeling-connection is there, but on the other side the negative abhyasa and apprehensions are also there. Sometimes, when people are stuck in that level, I give them a little attention, so that they can come out of the negative apprehension, negative abhyasa; it can be broken.

The master's love is such an amazing energy that nothing needs to be done. One smile, one word, is enough; it will just work deep inside you. The negative abhyasa will simply lose its power over you.

This fight between the negative abhyasa and the feeling-connection with the master is the worst thing; or I can say that in a way it is the best thing! Sometimes the negative abhyasa wins and you escape. What can be done? Maybe few years will be wasted, or in some cases, a few lives will be wasted. When they come again after a few years, or after a few lives, either I may not be there or they may not

be in a position to be around me. Or I may be there, and they may be there, but that click may not happen again.

That is why I always tell people: don't miss! Don't become powerless in front of your patterns! Many times I have seen people missing in the initial level for small reasons, simple reasons. If there is no arrangement for hot water

The master's love is such

an amazing energy that

negative abhyasa will simply

lose its power over you.

in the ashram, they say. "I can't stay now. After you have hot water and all the comforts here, we will come back and stay at that time.' And they go.

But it will never happen again! Over! Just because there is no hot water, they escape - to their own hell! What to do? Nothing can be done.

Note down 3 situations where you missed something because you became powerless in front of your patterns. Bring your awareness to the patterns that caused this. How you would handle the same situations in future?

Constantly, so many cyclones are happening inside of you. Actually, just like a CNN weather channel, you need an internal weather channell 'Today, there may be three tornados, two tsunamis and ten earthquakes.' That is what is happening inside you. Look in - how many tsunamis, how many earthquakes, how many Katrinas happen inside you every day? You need constant positive abhvasa to handle even this weather. Positive abhyasas is the safe shelter where you are neither touched nor affected by the tornados, the tsunamis, the outer disturbances. You need to know: positive abhyasa is the ultimate shelter, ultimate resort you can create for yourself. Only then the ultimate Truth can happen to you.

Negative abhyasa is so powerful that it can shake any positive glimpse, it will shake. Let me share my experience but my own negative abhyasa. I think that will give you an opening.

When I had the enlightenment experience which I mentioned, it completely shook me; all my ideas about enlightenment disappeared - just like how, when you meet me, all your ideas about an enlightened master will disappear! If you are fortunate, you see me in a class and go away. No, really! If you spend a little time around me, all your ideas about an enlightened master will disappear. So alive, so spontaneous, unimaginable, mind-boggling, impossible to comprehend, impossible to put inside your frame! Naturally, you will feel shaken.

All my ideas about enlightenment disappeared. And I was there in that field, maybe it took two and a half days. But it looked like two and a half hours, or two and a half years! Chronologically, we cannot count days during such an experience. When I started settling down, the first thing that happened to me was - I thought some ghost had possessed me! I thought some ghost

had possessed me, because I never knew about enlightenment, so I never knew that enlightenment would be like this!

Because the mental groove was not able to hold that experience, because the mind was not mature enough to hold that experience, negative abhyasa started taking over. One part of my mind started

telling me, 'Don't go to that place again!' I started thinking that the place where I had the experience was haunted by some ghost! I decided that I should never go to that place again. That is the way I am supposed to take to my school - but I decided that will never go that way.

/went back and spoke to my mentor Mataji Vibhootananda Puri, the elderly lady who was teaching me Vedanta. I asked her, 'Am I possessed by a ghost?'

She just laughed and said, 'No! You are possessed by God.' Then she told me, 'Just be around me for few days; nothing else is required. I will cook and give you the right food that you should eat at this time.'

But just eating that food and being around her, suddenly, I saw that my body was picking up the courage to live that enlightenment. My brain was

creating the new grooves needed to live that enlightenment. My system was falling in tune to live that enlightenment, to live that joy, to radiate that joy.

Negative abhyasa is so powerful that it can shake any positive glimpse.

Positive abhyasa is the ultimate shelter you can create for yourself.

People sometimes come to me and ask, 'Swamiji, please give me a technique to practice."

/ tell them, 'There is no technique; only intensity.' All technique are for nothing but creating the positive abhyasa in you, directly or indirectly. But then they ask me, 'How to keep the intensity alive Swamiji? Give us some technique for that.' And I give them some technique for that, then they say, 'Swamiji, how to continuously practice this technique? Please give us some intensity for that!"

Understand: intensity and abhyasa are the same and only technique. All techniques are different kinds of abhyasa, that's all. Whatever establishes you in the higher state of consciousness and conflict-free space, joy and ecstasy, do that again and again. Come back to the state of consciousness through all possible ways and methods, again and again and again. That is the sense of abhyasa.

After my enlightenment experience, once my mentor Mataji Vibhootananda Puri gave me the courage, the fear of the ghost went away after a few days. But now the greed started, 'Oh God, it went away! How can I have it back?' / rushed to a great swami called Annamalai Swami, an enlightened disciple of Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi who used to teach in Tiruvanamalai. Annamalai Swami told me only one word, which is the essence of this sutra - abhyasa. He said, 'Bring yourself back to the same space again and again and again; let your body be soaked by the consciousness, let your body be processed by the consciousness, let you be cooked by the consciousness.'

How to come back to the same space again and again ?

Come back by listening or by remembering or by meditating on that

experience or the situation in which it happened. Sometimes, just the photograph of the master is enough; you are in tears, you don't know why, but you are just completely relaxed, you are in ecstasy. Sometimes, by talking to a brother disciple, or talking to somebody else who had the same experience; sometimes by reading the right books. Use any or all of these, and raise yourself again and again and again to that same state.

You may fall, you may slip; it's okay, come back again. Let you not be tired of falling. Let you not give up on yourself. If you are tired of falling, it means that the negative abhyasa have won over you. If you have the courage to keep standing up again, it means that your positive practice is winning. So

Intensity and abhyasa are the same and only technique. either you win over your negative abhyasa or they win over you, that's all. There is no compromising. Here Patanjali says, 'Tatra sthitau yatno abhyasa. The effort to remain constantly in that elevated state of awareness is abhyasa.

As long as you see the world, which creates fear and greed inside you, you need abhyasa. Come back, come back, come back. Unclutch, unclutch, unclutch

There will be one point where the unclutcher will disappear into the unclutching. Till then, unclutch. That is the only way.

As long as I see the world, which creates fear and greed inside me, I need abhyasa. Come back, come back, come back. Unclutch, unclutch, unclutch.

You may feel that I am repeating the same Truth again and again. I have to - because Truth has to be repeated till you listen. It is challenge between your unconscious part and me. It is a fight between your unconscious part and me. Your conscious part actually wants to be around me, it feels connected. But your unconsciousness, your negative abhyasa, creates all kinds of apprehensions. So it is a big game between me and your negative abhyasa. Till the positive abhyasa, spiritual seeking, spiritual intensity, gets drilled into your body, I have to play this game, I have to play this game.

See. when you don't eat, your feel hungry. Your body gives you the signal. It is completely natural. Same way, if you move out of the jeevanmukti state, the state of living enlightenment, your body should feel, "I want to come back.' It should become that physical. It should become part of your biomemory. Till then, you need abhyasa. Till then, I'll continue to be with you. I'll have to continue to be with you, playing the game through my presence or my absence, through my presence or my absence.

People sometimes tell me, 'Swamiji, bless me that you will not leave me, even if I leave you!"

Many times you would have seen this - if someone wants to move out the spiritual path, I send a message to them, directly or indirectly. 'Have a little patience to go through the process, try to be around me, it will do so many good things to you.' It means that that person would have prayed at some time of his or her life, it may be in this janma or in some earlier janma. "Even if I try to leave you, please don't leave me, hold on to me.' That intensity, that prayer, is what I answer when I extend my hand.

When you relax, be around me and sangha, it will do a big job inside you. I can say it is a 'conscious cyclone'; whatever you think of as a big problem will just disappear into it. You will see that you are fresh, alive; your whole life is new in front of you. You have the guts, courage, energy, and a completely fresh being to live. You are ready for jeevanmukta life.

This mala, this bangle - all these things are for abhyasa only, so that you are constantly reminded to come back. It is not for fashion, it is not just one more ornament. If you are wearing the mala, remember that this body is supposed to live jeevanmukti. If you are wearing the bangle, remember that you have to constantly come back to the unclutched state. If you are wearing the bracelet with 'Nithyanandam' written on it, it means you have taken a vow that you will live in Nithyananda, in Eternal Bliss.

Abhvasa is the Truth you carry even after enlightenment.

In Bharat, earlier, nobody would wear the mala because everybody would ask, "What is this? Have you become a swami?" Now it is a prestige! Now

everyone is wearing them, because of prestige. Earlier, people were caught in fear, now caught in greed. Don't wear it because of greed or fear. Wear it with the understanding that is useful for your life.

/ have taken so much time to explain this one concept, so you should understand the importance of this one

Truth. Whatever maybe your problem, this is the one solution, one master key - abhyasa.

Understand: abhyasa is the Truth you carry even after enlightenment. After enlightenment, abhyasa will be your breathing; your very inhaling and exhaling will be abhyasa. After enlightenment you don't need to practice abhyasa; abhyasa will happen by itself. Till abhyasa happens by itself, keep practicing it. Keep practicing it till it happens!

Till the positive abhyasa, spiritual intensity, gets drilled into my body, the Master has to play the game.

It is a news report about an accident.

'Alabama's worst air disaster occurred early this morning when a small two-seater plane crashed into a cemetery. Search and rescue workers have recovered 1826 bodies so far and we expect the number to climb as the evening continues.'

Understand, there is no connection between the cause and the effect! If you are laughing at this joke, understand: this is the same level of chaos with which you are running your life !

If you see, your life is nothing but chaos, because you are not aware of the connection between the cause and the effect. Please understand, I am not talking philosophy. As long as you are not awakened to the truth of your existence, and the truth of the existence of the world and the truth of the connection between your existence and existence of the world, your life will be chaos, because you are running your life without knowing the purpose of your life.

First you need to understand why you exist, why this cosmos exists, and what is the connection between your existence and the cosmos' existence. If you understand these three things, suddenly you will be aligned to the cosmos, and the cosmos will express its truths through you, the cosmos will express its purpose through you, the cosmos will live through you.

People ask me, 'How did you create such a big sangha, such a big spiritual community, in so little time?'

/ tell them, 'I did not DO anything; I did not create anything. I only awakened to my own existence, cosmos' existence and the connection between the two. After that, the cosmos is doing whatever it wants to do through me, that's all. It is happening through this body because I am awakened to these three truths."

to that higher state. Break the negative abhyasa of your SDHD - your selfdoubt, your self-hatred, your self-denial. Come back to the positive abhyasa. Be centered on positive abhyasa. Bring yourself back to the center again and again.

The more times you come back to the Truth, the more your negative abhyasa loses its power. When your negative bio-memory loses its power, the strong

Please understand: I also went through whatever you are going through! Paramahamsa means, a man who has consciously undergone all possible situations, so that can he can help others handle those situations in their lives. So I am not giving you any false hopes. You don't even have to think about how long you should do abhyasa. Relax from all those ideas. Do abhyasa now, and you will see you are in the Truth

right now. After some time, you will see, you will forget the moments when you are not in abhyasa. You'll remember only the moments when you are in abhyasa !

The biggest enemies of abhyasa are your self-doubt, your guilt, your selfcondemnation. Don't allow that. Otherwise you have to spend more time and energy just to come out of the self-doubt and guilt and start your practice again! Use the same time and energy to unclutch and come back

The biggest enemies of abhyasa are your self-doubt, your guilt, your self-condemnation. positive abhyasa explodes inside you and you start residing in the same state. You start living that experience. That is what I call jeevanmukti.

People ask me, 'You are an incarnation; how can negative abhyasa happen to you?'

Please understand: you can't make jewelry out of pure gold. So you need to add a little copper while

making the jewelry. Then you have to put the jewelry into the acid and take away the copper, and make it pure gold again. That is the process.

Same way, you can't create a body out of pure consciousness or pure sattva, so a little negative abhyasa (tamas and rajas) are added to it to create the body. After the body is created, it needs to be burnt to remove the negative abhyasa, that is the rajas and the tamas. That burning is the process of tapas, spiritual practice. After tapas, now you have a body which is pure consciousness, like jewelry which is pure twenty-four carat gold.

Today, Break the negative abhyasa of your SDHD - your self-hatred, your self-hatred, your self-denial. Come back to the positive abhyasa. Bring yourself back to the center again and again. The more times you come back to the Truth, the more your negative abhyasa loses its power.

Sa tu dīrghakālanairantaryasatkārāsevito drdhabhūmih Committed and intense practice of unclutching makes one firmly established in a higher state of awareness.

/ welcome you all with my love and respects. As you all may be aware, we are dedicating this whole year to jeevanmukti, living enlightenment. And I am dedicating this whole North America tour to this great book - Patanjali Yoga Sutras.

Today we will be entering into the fourteenth sutra, the fourteenth aphorism. I will first read the sutra, give you the translation, and then add what needs to be added.

Let's enter into the fourteenth sutra.

Sa tu deergha kala nairantarya satkarasevito dridha bhumihi.

Committed and intense practice of unclutching makes one firmly established in a higher state of awareness.

As I said, each sutra in this book can create a religion. Each sutra is independently intelligent to lead a person to enlightenment; to the space of Advaita or non-duality.

Please understand, the word 'yoga' means uniting with the Ultimate. In Bhagavad Gita, each chapter is called 'yoga'. It means that each chapter can independently lead you to enlightenment. So, Bhagavan Krishna talks about eighteen different paths to enlightenment. Whatever major paths were available for enlightenment when Krishna delivered Bhagavad Gita, he has compiled everything and presented it in one book.

In this book, I can say each sutra is a yoga, an independent path to

enlightenment.

From time immemorial, all the masters have been talking, writing producing spiritual literature. Buddha was teaching and preaching every day for forty years. By the time Adi Shankara was thirty-two, he finished establishing strong four monasteries and writing around two hundred volumes of spiritual literature!

If I look inside and find out the reason why I am talking and writing, I can very clearly tell you that the only reason all the masters go on writing and talking is to constantly make you practice. Krishna says beautifully in the Bhagavad Gita that by their nature, the senses are created to looking in the direction

of the outer world. So turning you in, turning you towards enlightenment, turning you towards your source, is not that easy. Every moment, you are again out! If you read a spiritual book, or listen to a spiritual discourse or satsang, you turn inside for a few minutes. But by the time the satsang is over, you are already out! By the time the ideas leave your mind, you are already out.

Constantly, you need to be inspired to turn in, to go inside. That is why the masters go on talking and writing. In the last six years, I have spoken more than five thousand hours, and I am adding material every day. Continuously, human beings need to be told, 'Look in!' Human beings need to be reminded to turn in, to live enlightenment.

The largest spiritual literature in the planet Earth exists in Sanskrit language. I don't know how many libraries you can make out of those collections!

It is nothing but the continuous expressions and discourses of the masters who lived in the body, who were teaching the world. This sutra is all about constantly inspiring you to constantly practice.

Somebody asked Buddha, "You are saying the same thing for the last forty years.' He says, 'If you had listened the first time, I would never have said it

again!' The truth is only one thing; the essence of all masters' teachings is the same. But it is constantly told in different ways so that you listen and understand. The reason for repetition is we forget, we forget.

In this one sutra, Patanjali says very clearly why the truth should be repeated. After that he says, 'I respect your intelligence, so I am not going to repeat it anymore.'

The truth is constantly told in different ways so that I listen and understand.

The senses naturally look in the direction of the outer world.

'Committed and intense practice of unclutching establishes one firmly in a higher state of awareness."

Committed - that is a beautiful word - deergha kalaha nairantariya.

Deerga kalaha, the literal translation is 'long time'. But Patanjali doesn't mean to say that you should go on and on and on practicing. Sometimes people come and ask me, 'The word "long practice" almost seems to be like a word used to cheat us!' It is like giving a technique and telling him to practice it forever!"

Please understand, Patanjali is not interested in cheating you. When he uses the word 'long time, he just wants you to be mentally strong, that's all. He wants you to have the strength and readiness to give it all you have. Actually once you are ready to practice forever, suddenly you will see that intensity awakens you this very moment.

There is a beautiful story about Buddha.

Buddha was meditating for more than twelve years, every day, day in and day out. He used to sit from early morning till late night. Then he would sit the next morning till late night again. Day in and day out he was sitting, but nothing was happening.

The story says that one day he just decided - "Idam asanam shusyhate shariram!' 'Let the body disappear, evaporate, dry up, in this posture. How many days, I don't know. How long, I don't know. I am going to sit till I achieve enlightenment. I am not going to be bothered about how much time it takes. I am ready to sit deergha kalaha."

Please understand, the word deergha kalaha means not just "long time". It means deciding for ever. Buddha decided, 'I am going to sit forever.' After

all, time is psychological. The story says that the moment he decided to sit forever, that very night he became enlightened! Because all he needed was that intensity.

When Patanjali says deergha kalaha he does not mean time in a linear way, the horizontal way that we usually understand. You need to understand it vertically. Intensity just cuts through time. Usually, when you sit in meditation with the idea, 'I will get up after two hours', your mind will be just waiting for the two hours to end, that's all. You will not be meditating. You will not be in the present moment. If you have an idea, 'I will sit till tomorrow morning', your mind will be waiting for the next morning. It will not be in the present moment.

When Buddha decided that he was going to sit forever, his mind suddenly had no goal left! It had nowhere to go. When the mind had no goal, it just fell back into the present moment, and he became enlightened.

Patanjali knows our mind! That is why he says deergha kalaha, meaning, decide to do it forever. Then suddenly, you will see, you fall into the present moment.

Whatever the spiritual practice you choose, decide to do it forever.

When the mind has no goal, it just falls back into the present moment

When you hear this title, you may be thinking, What kind of a question is this? How can the present moment be far away?"

But if you look deeply, you will see that it depends on how long it takes you to get to the present moment. If it takes you twelve years, like it took Buddha, then the present moment is very far away! Please understand: I am not saying that Buddha was not a good seeker. In fact, he was an extraordinary seeker. That is why it took him twelve vears to exhaust his energy; to exhaust his self-effort and fall into the experience.

All the meditation techniques, all the rituals, everything I give you are nothing but different ways to exhaust your self-effort. When these techniques are done in the right spirit, the right understanding, they will take you closer to the experience. But if you are just following some rituals and techniques, doing some idol worship, without understanding the true spirit, without understanding the true purpose, without understanding the truth behind, you can be just stuck for lifetimes. Very beautifully Shankara says, 'kalpakala paryantam' - you can be stuck for ages.

Even a strong being like Buddha got caught in this. Buddha was not an ordinary man. He was a prince. He had a kingdom under his control. He had a loving wife, a son, a palace where all the possible luxuries were available. It is not easy to renounce all this and become a monk. But Buddha did it.

It is very easy to talk and think about enlightenment, not to do what is needed for it! Sometimes people ask me, 'Swamiji, can I remain at home and still get enlightened?' I cannot tell straightaway, 'No, give up everything, go to the Himalayas and meditate.' It will be too much for them! Even when I tell people to drop smoking, they usually drop me! It is not easy for people to give up everything.

But Buddha was a being who would not compromise with the truth. He was all out. He knew that this has to be achieved, this has to be done, and he left everything. It was not only his first priority, it was his only priority. But even a man like Buddha wasted twelve years in this deergha kalaha.

One day suddenly he started thinking deeply. "What am I missing? Day in and day out I am sitting, sitting, sitting, and meditating, but nothing is happening. What am I missing?' Actually, if you are a professional seeker, you can understand what I am saying! This sutra is for the highly evolved seekers.

Buddha started looking inside, "What is going on? I am meditating whole day. How is my mind still alive? How is it surviving?' That is when he suddenly realized the game that his mind was playing with him; the hope that the practice will end at some time. The hope of change was keeping his mind alive.

Buddha understood, 'This one idea is responsible for my continuous struggle.' Then he decided, 'No more. No more change. No question of long time. I am going to do this forever. The pressure of this practice is going to be on me forever. This is going to be my life.' That is where the real deerhga kala happened in him. Oh God! Especially a person like Buddha - when he decides, he just decides. He is not going to play games. He means it.

Suddenly his mind got completely frightened, 'Oh God, what happened? Now he says forever! So he is going to do it forever. So there is no hope, there is no change. There is no possibility for the future. This pressure of meditation is going to be there on me forever."

So, naturally it just came back to the present moment, because there is nothing to search for in the future. It just came back to the present moment, and the practice ended, the practice ended.

Anybody wants to end your spiritual practice, all you need to do is decide strongly that you are going to practice forever, that's all. It looks very paradoxical. Decide you are going to do it forever. There is no change. There is no gap. There is no getting up. There is no break. This is going to be your life. Suddenly, the practice will end. It will end. This is the one and only way if you want to end your practice. Till you decide you are going to be doing this forever, you can never end the practice.

All the meditation techniques, all the rituals, everything is nothing but different ways to exhaust my self-effort.

It is the hope of change that keeps the mind alive.

Many times people ask me. 'Swamiji. what is the beginning of spiritual practice, and what is the end of the spiritual practice?' I tell them, 'There is no such thing as beginning or end. Beginning and end are both the same, which is NOW. All you need to have is intensity."

When intensity happens, suddenly you will not bother about the end. You will be in the end now! You will be in the present moment.

Meditation is all about penetrating the mind and going beyond it. As long as you have an idea about the future, as long as you have an idea called future, your mind will continue to survive; it will continue to be alive. It will continue to postpone the happening. It will play all possible games.

Same way with the past. Sometimes I hear people saying, 'Do you know? I have been meditating for the last twelve years. I have been a seeker for last thirty-five years.' Actually, there is nothing to brag about it in that. It is not a matter of pride. It's a shame! Please understand, this is the way your mind cheats you. As long as there is a beginning or an end, as long as there is a boundary, be very clear, you are bound.

As I said, your mind always wants some change. As long as there is some hope for change, your mind will continue to survive. It will say, 'Twelve years; after that I can relax. I will be enlightened or I will be whatever, and I can relax.' It will wait, wait. Every day it will push, 'Oh, one day is over. Two days are over.' That very hope keeps it alive.

When you decide to meditate forever, the mind understands, "Anyhow, I have to meditate forever. Then why not do it now, intensely? That is what happened for Buddha. One day Buddha understood this game of the mind. And the click happened, and he feel into the present moment and was enlightened.

As long as I have an idea about the future, my mind will continue to survive.

When intensity happens, suddenly you will not bother about the end.

Human beings live by psychological time, not by chronological time. That is why, in the Vedic tradition, more importance was given to psychological time than to chronological time. Time was calculated based on a unit called kshana. kshana, which is the gap between one thought and the next thought. If you are a meditator, a person living in high awareness or high frequency, one kshana for you can be even one hour, or two hours, or one day! If you are living with a restless, agitated, irritated mind, one kshana can even be micro-millisecond for you, because you are filled with thoughts.

/ have a story for you. A man goes to the doctor. The doctor says. It am sorry, you have only six months to live." She is shocked and cries, 'Oh God. Can anything be done?" The doctor says, 'Well, you could marry an accountant." She asks, 'What?! Will that cure me?' The doctor says, 'No, but those six months will seem too long!'

You can see in your own life - if you are sitting with somebody with whom you feel connected, for whom you feel love or reverence, you don't even know how time flies. Suddenly you realize that a few hours have gone by. If you are sitting with somebody boring, every two or three minutes will keep looking at your watch and wondering why the time is not moving! I have seen some people, when they sit for meditation, when they are left alone in the company of their own mind, that half an hour will look like ten days to them! So time is psychological.

If you are in a high frequency, like the devatas, the Vedic gods, one year will look like just one day to you. I am not talking about people who have the problem of forgetting things! That is a lower level of consciousness. I am talking about the people who are in a heightened level of awareness. For them, one year will be just one day, because the gap between one thought and the next thought is so very long. So, our chronological time does not match with theirs.

That is why, in the Vedic tradition, the calendar of the divine beings is different from the calendar of human beings. Our one year is one day for them. That is way, in the Nataraja temple created by Patanjali at Chidambaram in south Bharat, they perform all the services only six times a year. In normal temples, services are performed six times a day. But this temple follows the calendar

Human beings live by psychological time, not by chronological time

of the gods! So all the daily rituals, like the holy bath, worship, etc. are done only six times a year. This shows actually the time-space in which Patanjali was living.

When a person gets enlightened, he breaks through Time completely. He breaks the linear movement of Time. He just penetrates the Time shaft which stretches from past into future. When he breaks that shaft, he simply falls into the present moment.

Today, bring awareness to how your mind perceives time differently under different conditions.

Today I will share the story of how this dissolution of the mind happened in me.

During my days of spiritual wandering, I was traveling continuously all over Bharat, meditating, meditating, meditating. Usually I would stay in the cremation grounds and sit and meditate. In Bharat, the cremation grounds are open places, not fenced off or maintained. People would ask me, "Why do you choose to stay in cremation grounds?' I would say, 'Because I don't need to reserve a place there! Nobody will come there and disturb me.' Please understand, dead people never disturb others. Only living human beings disturb others!

Actually, the Vedic scriptures say that if you sit and meditate in the cremation ground, you will constantly remember and meditate on death. Going through your own psychological death at least once is the only way to transformation and enlightenment.

Anyhow, I was trying for years. Every day I would sit with the idea, "I will sit the whole night. Tomorrow morning, I will go out for food, come back and sit again.' It was the same mistake I was making!

One day I was sitting in Manikarnika Ghat in Varanasi. It is the place where hundreds of dead bodies are burned every day. Hindu scriptures reveal that dying in Varanasi leads you to enlightenment. So Varanasi has a retirement community, filled with old people waiting to die and achieve liberation! Manikarnika Ghat is called mahasmashana, the ultimate cremation ground.

It just goes on and on and on. The fire never goes out in Manikarnika Ghat. From one body, they light the fire on the next body, continuously. Whether it rains or shines, it is an eternal fire.

/ was sitting Manikarnika Ghat, watching the dead bodies being burned. Slowly I got the understanding, 'God, just like all these bodies are being burned, this body also will be burned one day. That's all! It is such a simple thing. There is nothing big in it. No need to make such a big fuss about death, life and all these foolish things. It is just dust to dust, nothing else."

Actually, when you keep seeing the bodies being burnt, you will lose the respect and fear you carry for death. If you are a sincere seeker, if you really want to know the secrets of death and life, you should go to Manikarnika Ghat in Varanasi and sit and meditate there at least for a few days.

Then I thought, 'Every day I am meditating on death, but why am I still not able to experience psychological death?' Psychological death is different from physical death. It is the experience of death while your physical body is still alive. If you experience psychological death, suddenly you will see you are enlightened.

One day, I got tired of practicing, I got tired of everything, I just decided, 'Either this body should die and I should experience death, or I should have the death-experience by meditation. I will sit and meditate on death till I have the death-experience. If I don't have that experience, I will continue sitting till my physical death, that's all."

In the beginning, even my own mind did not believe me! See, the mind knows all your games. It knows how many times you cheated. It knows how many times you dropped from your own decisions. It knows how many times you changed, you altered, you corrected, you found the fine print.'

So even I did not believe me. But somehow, the will was very strong. No food, no sleep, no toilet break, nothing, Just sitting,

One day was over.

Then the second day was also over.

The third day, the whole body was practically frozen because of pain. This body wanted to move, but I said, 'No, nothing doing! No question of moving.' Suddenly, my whole being realized that I am really serious about my will! Suddenly my whole being realized I am going to do it. I was convinced about my own will power. I realized, 'I am really going to sit.'

When I first sat, my mind did not believe it and said, 'Alright, let's see.

Mind and Time are made of the same stuff.

Struggle as much as you can. After all, you are a good guy, struggling for the last ten years. Try once more, nothing wrong!"

The next morning it felt a little sympathetic. This fellow is really trying, struggling hard."

By the third noon, it was completely convinced. The power which was resisting had lost its hold on the consciousness. The constant doubt which was there saying, 'No, no, no, once he is tired he will come out. Once he is hungry he will get up and go to eat. Relax. Once he feels the hunger, everything will become alright' - that part had died.

Suddenly, my own being felt so strongly convinced that I am going to sit. I still remember very clearly one thought, one clear thought, 'I am going to sit eternally.' Deergha kalaha, forever.

Understand: mind and time are made of the same stuff. It is like this - you create a track out of steel and create a train out of the same steel. The steel train moves on the steel track. Same way, one part of mind is time. Mind. moves in time. The moment you created time, now the mind can be alive forever.

Spiritual practice is the reverse journey. The moment you get ready to practice forever, you break through the idea of time. When you break through time, naturally the mind cannot be alive. The dissolution of the mind happens in you.

Going through my own psychological death at least once is the only way to transformation and enlightenment.

Mind is built on time. Mind moves in time.

As long as you allow the concept of time in your spiritual practice, even if it is ten years or twenty years, it will continue to retain its identity, because it know that after ten years or twenty years, it can come back and play its game. Your mind will tolerate anything if it knows that it is going to come to an end. It has the ability to tolerate anything and survive anything, if it knows that it is going to come to an end at some time.

That is why, in the Vedic tradition, all the big decisions of your life are taken with the vow of 'forever'. Once you get married, it is forever. Once you take sannyas (monkhood), it is forever. Only then will the mind stop playing its games.

Listen: the moment you have the freedom to change something tomorrow, you are going to think, "Why not do it today?" Even if you have a small misunderstanding with your spouse, your mind will immediately think, 'Anyhow I have the option of divorcing this person at any time. So why should I put up with them? Why wait? Let me do it today.' The moment you know you have the freedom, you always think, Why tomorrow? Why tolerate this? Let me do it now.'

But if you know that you are going to be married to the same person for seven janmas, seven births, immediately you think, 'This is going to be my lifetime relationship for seven births! So let me make it work.' So, your idea about future plays a major role on your life and actions in the present.

The vows of the Vedic marriage say, 'We will be together till the (digestive) fire is there in our stomach.' It means, you will be together as long as you are both alive. Not only that, you are going to have the same life-partner for the next seven births also! So naturally you try your best to adjust to the other person. Your mind starts getting settled. From the very beginning you know, 'I cannot unnecessarily create conflict. I can't afford it. I have to be careful. I have to start genuinely connecting to the other person. I have to start healing. I have to be respectful. I have to be loving." So you learn to train your mind, master your mind.

Sometimes people ask me, 'Swamiji, is divorce not a big freedom?' / am not judging whether divorce is a freedom or it is right or wrong. All I am saying is, the idea which you carry about yourself, your mind, your life, is very, very important. That is going to decide about your action. The idea which you have about your body and your mind can be your best friend or your worst enemy. If you have the right idea about your body and mind, that will be your best friend. If you have the wrong idea about your body and mind, that will be your worst enemy.

/ have seen all types of cultures, all types of civilizations. The kids who are given the right understanding about their body and mind not only live long, they live happily. Happiness, bliss, joy, health - all these things are nothing but ideas which you carry about your body and mind from the young age. Your idea about future can create miracles even in your physical body. When you train your body and mind with these ideas, you will live a longer, healthier, happier, conflict-free life.

Going through my own psychological death at least once is the only way to transformation and enlightenment.

Mind and Time

are made of

the same stuff.

Let me come back to my experience.

The moment I was able to convince myself that I am going to sit, I could see very clearly, from the root of the spine, a powerful pain started spreading all over the body. This excruciating pain was requesting me, 'Please move the body a little bit and adjust your position!'

My body was begging me, 'Just move your legs a little bit, so that the blood flow will become a little easy. At least adjust your hand. Let me check whether I am alive or not.' It was literally begging me, but I could see very clearly my sankalpa, my will, saying, 'I am going to sit. There is no question of moving.'

The yogi from whom I first studied yoga, Yogi Yogananda Puri, used to display all kinds of extraordinary powers. He achieved these powers because he used to be very clear that till he achieves them, he is going to be practicing forever!

Listen: your mind is intelligent, it can express any power. But it tries to play with you, trying to break your practice without giving you the powers. But if you give a strong message to your mind that you are going to practice until it gives you the power, suddenly it gets frightened!

When you decide to practice till you achieve, your mind immediately decides, 'Oh God, this fellow is going to torture me with his spiritual practices till I reveal those powers to him. I had better give them to him now itself!'

/ had been sitting for two-and-a-half days with no food or water, and I did not even know that two-and-a-half days had passed. I had just decided, "Who cares about time! I am going to sit, that's all." I was able to feel every joint, very nerve.

Then slowly, the whole body just started disappearing.

The moment it learned that the practice is going to be eternal, deergha kalaha, the mind started withdrawing.

It decided, 'Now I cannot survive. Now I cannot stand.'

Suddenly it came back to the present moment and said, 'Alright, I cooperate with you.'

And it simply dissolved.

The mind simply dissolved.

/ no longer experienced either body or mind.

/ had both, but I was neither.

The strong internal death experience happened in me.

The moment it learns that the practice is going to be eternal, the mind starts withdrawing,

Your mind tries to break your practice without giving you the powers.

Your mind thrives on change.

That is why so much of desire for entertainment.

The truth is, you think of even enlightenment as a change! That is why you want it. Even in your spiritual practice, you are constantly looking for change. People go on trying to find some entertainment in their lives, because it's a change. Even within type of entertainment, you want something different, different, different! Every three minutes you change the TV channel; in fifteen minutes you go one full round and come back - because mind thrives on change.

That is why, when the mind knows there is no possibility for change, suddenly you will see, it just dies, it disappears, it leaves. When you decide that there is going to be no change, suddenly, in an unexpected way, mind is killed. In a very unexpected way, mind will disappear.

/ have a story for you:

A man goes into a bar and admires the stuffed lion's head mounted on the wall.

'What a great trophy!' says the man to the bartender.

The bartender says, 'I would not call it great. The damn lion killed my wife.' This guy asks, 'Really? You were on a safari in Africa when it happened?' Bartender says, 'No, right here in this bar. It fell on her head and killed her.

Understand: most of the time, death comes in an unexpected way! If you decide that you are going to be drop the idea of change, when you decide

to unclutch forever, the death of the mind comes in an unexpected way, at the very moment. Suddenly the mind settles all the accounts. It surrenders its credit card.

/ have one more story.

Two accountants are in a bar when armed robbers burst in. The robbers line the customers up against a wall and proceed to take their wallets, watches, etc. The first account slips something into the second accountant's hand and whispers. 'Here is the fifty dollars I owe you."

When you know it is going to be taken away, you settle the accounts by yourself. This is the story of your mind! As long as it has the hope that it can flow, it flows. When there is no hope, it just settles. So, all you need to understand is this one truth, only this one truth.

• There are different kinds of knowledge in the world.

• There are certain kinds of knowledge, just by listening about it once and

Today, commit yourself intensely to a practice of your choice.

understanding it, you will have the benefit of that knowledge.

• There are certain kinds of knowledge, if you have access to it whenever you need, you will have the benefit of that knowledge. So you need to work with it again and again. You need access to that knowledge to have the benefit.

• There are certain kinds of knowledge, only when you practice it you will have the benefit.

Spiritual knowledge is the third type. You need to practice it, live it -there is no other way. People come and ask me, 'Is there any shortcut to enlightenment, Swamiji?' I tell them, 'The one and only shortcut is practice, practice, practice!' The shortest distance

between two points is a straight line. The shortest way is being straight. Practice, nothing else.

If you want transformation, practice is the only way. However much you hear, however much you talk, however much you discuss, nothing can be done. Practice without the desire for change is the only way.

You think of

even enlightenment

as a change!

What is the practice which you need to do without the desire for change, without the desire for it to come to an end ?

/ can say unclutching is the essence of all practices. Whatever spiritual practice you may be doing, it is a direct or indirect technique for unclutching.

'Committed and intense practice of unclutching establishes one firmly in a higher state of awareness.'

Decide today - whether I am walking or talking or sitting, or whatever I may be doing, I am going to unclutch from whatever is happening inside me.

The five modifications of the mind - right knowledge, wrong knowledge, and imagination, sleep, memory - are constantly happening in you. So decide, 'Whatever modification may happen inside me, I am going to unclutch.' If you bring in that clarity, that understanding, suddenly you will see all your negativity loses its power over you.

Listen: your depression can make you powerless only as long as you believe it can happen again and again to you. If you strongly decide, 'No matter how many times it happens, I am going to unclutch from it!' - then suddenly it loses its grip over you. It loses its grip over you.

Only when the depression knows it can really put you in depression, it repeats again and again. If it knows you are going to unclutch again and again, no matter how many times it tries, it will simply stop trying. Nobody wants to fight a losing war, including your depression!

Your whole life is nothing but a war between you and your mind. The moment you are aware, you are awakened to this truth. Deergha kala nairantarya - committed and intense practice of unclutching. This very decision will unclutch you.

The moment you take this decision, you mind will start moving, saying, 'No, if that that depression comes, you can't unclutch from it! If this fear comes, you can't unclutch from it! If this desire comes, you won't be able to unclutch from it!' Your mind will tease you. Then it will create the fear of death, 'What will happen if you die, do you think you will unclutch? Who will pay your bills? Who will pay your insurance? Who will pay this, who will pay that?" If you bring in the firm understanding, 'No, whatever it may be, I am going to unclutch!' - with that one strong will, one strong decision, suddenly the mind unclutches.

Today, let you be filled with this one understanding, Decide that only the committed and intense practice of unclutching makes one firmly established in a higher state of consciousness. Only that establishes you in a higher state of consciousness.

Many people think they are professional seekers;

they don't need to practice. They say, 'I have practiced all kinds of techniques for ten years, twenty years. Nowadays I don't practice anything. I just read and go around and listen to some talks, that's all."

Understand, just because you are a senior, don't think that anything can happen without practice. Maybe in the outer world it is possible. If you are a senior lawyer, you don't have to do anything - just have a few juniors, they will do everything! If you are a senior accountant, you don't have to do anything; your juniors will do everything. It may work in the outer world, not in the inner world.

I have a story for you.

Your whole life is nothing but a war between you and your mind.

I'll read it out for you. I don't want to miss a word. An accountant goes into a pet store to buy a parrot. The store owner shows him three identical parrots on a perch. The parrot on the left costs five hundred dollar,' says the owner. 'Why does it cost so much?' asks the accountant. 'It knows how to do complex audits,' says the store owner. The accountant is surprised. 'Really? And how much does that middle parrot cost?" he asks. That one costs thousand dollars,' the owner replies. 'It can do everything the first one can, plus it knows how to prepare financial forecasts." The accountant is overjoyed. Then he asks about the third parrot. 'It costs four thousand dollars,' says the store owner. The accountant asks, 'So what else can that one do?'

The store owner says, To be honest, I have never seen him do anything, but

the other two parrots call him a senior partner."

Maybe, in the outer world, if you are a senior you don't need to do anything, but in the inner world, you need to continue to practice, practice, practice. The 'senior' status works only in the outer world, not in the inner world. So, whoever you may be, practice has to become eternal. Actually, when you decide

the practice is eternal, suddenly the whole thing gets unclutched and the practice ends there.

Listen: when the practice ends, there will be nobody to practice. As long as there is somebody inside you to practice - practice. As long as there is somebody inside, something going inside, unclutch. Only if there is nothing, then there is no unclutching. When the unclutcher disappears into the unloutching, unclutching ends.

So, continue your unclutching till the unclutcher disappears into the unclutching.

Only when the depression knows it can really put me in depression, it repeats again and again.

/ want to stop here to say something about the subtle truths which are being revealed here.

Listen: these are the thoughts, the ideas, the truths expressed by human beings when they first started thinking, when they first started visualizing, when first they started experiencing. This is the fresh, alive, truth as it is, not altered for the sake of the vested interests of the outer world, or for the sake of marketing, or for the sake of an organization.

Please understand, if any organization is funding R&D in a particular area, naturally the organization will have some benefit out of it. So the direction in which the R&D goes, and even the results, are bound to be influenced by that organization which is funding it.

In the same way, even with the inner sciences, if the religious R&D is being funded by some organization, naturally it cannot be pure; it will not be completely based on truth. The, the group which is standing, The influence or shadow of the organization which is funding it will continue to be there on it.

Fortunately, these truths were revealed at a time when there was no organization to fund the R&D, when there was no organization to threaten, when human beings were doing this conscious R&D completely independent of organizational structures. It was a pure research which happened in the universities located in the deep forests.

Bharat's first university R&D is Naimisharanya, the sacred forest where the seer Veda Vyasa taught the Vedas and Puranas to his disciples. It was a forest.

The Registrar of the University, Vaishampayana, has recorded whatever was happening there. There were thousands of professors, scientists, research scholars, and millions of students from all over the world. Our great scriptures are the result of the R&D which happened there. And as I said, a similar university was there in Chidambaram also, where Patanjali created a forest community to keep these

The Cosmos is not a thing, it is a continuous happening

God as a dancing Shiva, dancing auspiciousness. The way he experienced, he visualized Shiva and created a temple and a community.

So understand that you are learning these truths straight from the Source. It is the original truths in its purest form Neither fear nor greed existed in Patanjali's inner space when he was doing this R&D and revealing these great secrets. . There was no need for any alteration, manipulation or interpolation. Since they came out of that pure inner space, these

sutras are leading us to that same pure inner space.

I don't even want to say that these truths are only for spiritual life. If they are understood and internalized, any life will become juicy. These truths can add juice to any kind of life.

truths alive and spread them to the whole world. He created a beautiful temple which expressed the way in which he experienced the cosmos.

The Cosmos is not a thing, it is a continuous happening, an intense happening, an intense explosion, an intense expansion. That is why Patanjali describes

Since they came out of a pure inner space, these sutras can lead me to that same pure inner space.

Dānuśravikaviayavitasya vaśīkārasañjñā vairāgyam | 15|| The conscious withdrawal from the objects of the senses at the levels of body, mind and being leads one to a state of awareness which is called vairagya.

In the next sutra, Patanjali beautifully reveals a deeper layer of the same understanding.

The next sutra is about vairagya, conscious withdrawal. He beautifully describes the deeper layer of this technique - the conscious withdrawal from the objects of the senses, of the body, mind and spirit.

He explains about the conscious withdrawal, the eternal unclutching. If this one truth clicks with you, you will live a liberated being, you will live as a free being from this moment, from today. It is a very powerful truth about vairaqya.

Drstān ušravika visa vitrsna sva vašīkāra sa niñā vairāg yam

/ know you may not understand the words, but I wanted you to hear the original words directly from Pataniali. We will do the translation, but the words directly from Patanjali have their own sanctity.

An amazing thing about the Vedic tradition is that thousands of masters happened, and they wrote commentaries on the sutras, but they never touched the original sutras. It is sacred! Even if there is a so-called grammatical error in the original sutra, it is called aarshya prayoga, the literary license of the enlightened sage! An enlightened sage is not bound by grammar; whatever he uses is grammar.

Because he is trying to express that which is inexpressible, inexplicable, the very grammar of the language bends for him. Whatever He says becomes a new rule in the language. Whatever he gives as the meaning is the meaning! That is why our original truths are preserved as they are.

The conscious withdrawal from the objects of the senses at the levels of body, mind and being leads one to a state of awareness which is called vairagya.

Actually I am not translating in a literal way. I am translating from all possible dimensions, that is why I am adding a few words. In Sanskrit, each word has four or five meanings, so if you do a literal translation, it looks very sterile! The whole life is lost.

So the key word, the master key word, is vairagya. Understand this word. You can say this is the most misunderstood word in all spiritual traditions, all religions, all spiritual groups, all spiritual literature, is this one word vairagya

/ have a joke for you about how we have misunderstood the word 'vairadya'. This tory may be true or not, but

you can understand the extreme of the misunderstanding from it.

In the ancient days there was no printing press, so in all monasteries, all the copies of a book were produced by copying out the whole book by hand. In a monastery, the original Bible had been preserved secretly. They had made a copy from the original Bible and preserved the original without touching it, because of the fear of damaging it.

From that copy they had made thousands of copies for hundreds of years. For hundreds of years, they had not even touched the original.

Suddenly, one day, the elderly Father Superior was found crying, weeping, wailing. All the junior monks rushed to him and asked. 'Oh, what happened. why are you crying like this?'

The Father Superior said, 'Today I happened to see the original Bible. There has been a mistake while copying from the original, one letter has been

missed while copying, and we have been circulating thousands of copies with this mistake, for hundreds of years!

The junior monks said, 'Oh, you are truly blessed to feel so strongly about that one mistake, but it is only a single letter, it's okay, we can always correct

it in the next edition.'

Hearing this, the Father Superior wailing even more loudly. He said. 'No. this one letter would have changed many people's lives, especially ours!'

The junior monks asked, 'Really? What letter is that?' The Father Superior said, 'The original Bible says, 'Celebrate', but while copying, somebody missed the letter 'R' ! That one letter 'R' was too important!' Of course, this is just a joke, but you can see how one

misunderstood word can change the whole tradition, the whole purpose, the energy, the direction of your very life. Please understand, I am talking from my own experience. For nine years, I lived in all kinds of different monasteries belonging to different religions and different traditions, including Buddhist, Jain and Christian monasteries. And within Hinduism, I experiences all kinds of different traditions - Naga, aghori, Saiva, Vedanta, shaakta - everything! So I am an insider. From my experience I tell you, the misunderstanding of this one word has changed the whole direction in which the energies are spent in spiritual practice. The misunderstanding of this one word is responsible for so many millions of people dedicating their lives to seeking and still not becoming enlightened.

So let us look into this word without any chance of misunderstanding.

Vairagya is the conscious withdrawal from the objects of the body, mind and spirit.

An enlightened sage is not bound by grammar; whatever he uses is grammar.

Just yesterday, during a press meet a journalist asked me, 'Swamiji, when I see your discourses, when I read your books, you make the whole thing so simple, so straight, that I feel enlightenment is here and now. Then why are people not getting enlightened?'

Understand: millions of people are dedicating their lives to spirituality. In Bharat, we have ten million people who have dedicated their lives only to practicing and spreading spirituality. You will be shocked! Our population is only 120 crores, just 1.2 billion, but one crore or ten million people, almost one percent of the population, has dedicated its life to practicing and spreading spirituality. We have registered fulltime sannyasis, sadhus and acharyas, monks, saints, Brahmin priests and preachers who have dedicated their lives to this. And this is only the known number. A very large population of the Himalayan yogis and sadhus who live in the forests and mountain of Bharat are still unknown; they have not been registered anywhere.

The question is right, why then are people not becoming enlightened? The misunderstanding of this one word has changed the whole direction of the energy. I have seen how inspired people are when they take up sannyas life. I have seen so many youngsters who are highly intelligent, educated; when they study about brahmacharya, sannyas and all the truth of enlightenment, they are simply inspired, thoroughly inspired. They take up this life and start living it.

But suddenly, somehow, the direction gets changed due to some

misunderstanding or lack of understanding or unawareness. The goal slowly turns away from becoming enlightened to becoming unattached.

Please understand, this word vairagya needs to be understood.

All the problems you go through in the outer world - fear, greed, the constant irritation, the constant suffering, the internal torture - is just because you do not understand this word. In the same way, all the problems which these so-called 'spiritual seekers' go

through are also because this word is not properly understood !

/ have seen these people; they take up sanyas life for the sake of enlightenment. But by and by, they forget that enlightenment is the goal and put all their energies only into vairagya, or I can say, their misunderstood

idea of vairaqya. They spend their whole life in detachment, detachment, detachment, instead of understanding the right meaning of vairagya. They start using this idea to postpone even enlightenment.

Please understand, 'raga' means attachment, 'araqa' means detachment and 'viraga' means, beyond attachment or detachment.

But unfortunately, 'viraga' or 'vairagya' is always understood as a detachment. The moment people hear the word detachment, they say, 'Oh! Then we should throw away all our wealth.' Please understand, just like how choosing wealth is wrong,

when you give up the wealth you are choosing poverty, which is also wrong. Vairagya means choicelessness; being in the choiceless state. We always miss this understanding.

Vairagya is the conscious withdrawal from the objects of the body, mind and spirit.

An enlightened sage

is not bound by grammar;

whatever he uses

is grammar.

Vairagya is not choosing poverty, it is not dumping your car, dumping your house, dumping your relationships, dumping your bank balance, dumping your wife. That is not a big thing! It is very easy to dump things. Actually, it is very easy to dump your wife because you know it is so much responsibility! This is the stupid thing that people do. Earlier they were running behind wealth, and now, when the energy shifts, they start chasing poverty! They start practicing extreme renunciation.

Buddha describes this problem beautifully.

A king once comes to him and says that he wants to become a monk. Buddha says. 'I will take one year to initiate you as a monk. Because you have come from this extreme, you will naturally go to the opposite extreme, and then come back to the middle. Only after seeing this, I will initiate you."

The king says, "What do you mean? I want to renounce everything, that is why I have come to you."

Buddha says, 'I know but your idea about renunciation is not real renunciation.' And it exactly happened as Buddha predicted.

When he joined the community, the king started moving to the opposite extreme. As a king, he had spent the whole day eating, sleeping, enjoying. The story describes, that even on his staircase there used to be no railing; instead, there were women standing next to him, just to hold him! That is the way he had lived. So now, he was going to the opposite extreme - no food, no water, just torturing his body. He was literally taking revenge on himself.

Understand, if you need jeevanmukti, enlightenment, what needs to be experienced is choicelessness. But the problem is that people either choose wealth or choose poverty - they choose any one extreme; they just cannot be in the middle. They cannot live their life with simple awareness, because living with awareness is too much. That means you have to be alive, be spontaneous, flow with life every moment. That is too much! So they say,

'Just give us a set of rules; Swamiji, you just tell us what to do and we will follow it."

It cannot happen in that way. I cannot tell you what you should do. I can only say what space you should be in. Here, when Patanjali says vairagya, he means the space in which he wants you to be, not the actions which he wants you to be doing.

The one word misunderstood creates the whole confusion.

I have seen monks who leave their homes, leave everything, for the sake of enlightenment. They take up the path with so much enthusiasm, intensity and courage, but because of just this one misunderstanding, they not only miss enlightenment, but live such a depressed life, such a depressed life. After some time their own internal struggle has been reduced to nothing

but to maintain their detachment, how to be in poverty. They are constantly struggling and training their body to maintain that detachment. Their whole energy is spent in that; their whole internal struggle is redirected towards poverty instead of enlightenment.

Around the age of forty or fifty, they come to the conclusion, 'Enlightenment

The internal struggle is reduced to how to maintain the detachment!

is not possible; at least let me live a sannyas life, with poverty, chastity and purity.' And when I ask them, "What is your main struggle ?, they say, 'Maintaining sannyas life.' This is the worst thing that can happen to a human being. You renounce everything for some purpose, and that idea also is misunderstood. Unimaginable, unimaginable!

In the Upanishads and Puranas, there are some descriptions about different sins. One is, telling a lie to a soldier and asking him to give up his life; sending soldiers to a war by telling a lie. This is almost the same thing! Sanyas life is literally like an internal war, and if you have not understood the truth for which you are waging the war, then it is the worst sin; it is the worst crime committed against you.

Today, consciously practice choicelessness in your actions and thinking.

Please understand, vairagya does not mean giving up all the wealth. It is neither about running behind the wealth, nor about giving up all the wealth. It is about living a liberated life.

How to live a liberated life - that is a big question! When I say this, people tell me, 'Swamiji, we understand that we have to work and make wealth and enjoy it, and we also understand that we must give up everything, renounce and live in poverty. We understand both. But what do you mean by a liberated life?'

Please understand, as long as we feel insecure, we go on accumulating, accumulating, accumulating. As long as we feel that matter can add value to us, we go on accumulating.

Suddenly, one day, we feel tired of the effort which we are putting into. accumulation. Actually, most of the time people choose poverty not because they have started hating wealth, but because they have become tired of the effort to create and maintain wealth! It is unconscious laziness. They no longer want to take the responsibility of acquiring and maintaining wealth. and all the other responsibilities that come with it. So they suddenly decide, 'Let me renounce!'

Understand, just like the fear of insecurity makes you create more and more wealth, the fear of responsibility makes you renounce it, that's all!

Sri Ramakrishna tells a beautiful story. Sri Ramakrishna is a great enlightened master, the architect of modern-day Hinduisma, a very powerful master. He tells a story about an eagle that caught a fish. He was flying with that fish in his beak. Hundreds of crows started chasing him. Seeing this, the eagle felt that he could not fight all these crows, so he just threw away the fish. The crows stopped chasing him and started fighting for the fish instead, and the eagle relaxed.

Understand: the eagle did not throw away the fish because he had stopped enjoying fish, or because he had suddenly become a vegetarian! No! He was not able to withstand the fight of the crows, and defend himself against the crows encroaching into his space, and take the responsibility of maintaining his position and his possessions - that is why he let it go.

and problems are created by them. They are free to have a cup of coffee or milk in any chai shop, that will be a lot more easy, but they have their own ideas, 'No, no, no, that is very costly milk or rich milk; I will have only simple cow's milk.' So naturally, a cow has to be taken everywhere with them in a separate vehicle! Nothing can be done about it! Many times, this misunderstood vairagya, this so-called simplicity, costs more to society than normal living. Just to maintain their poverty, society has to spend so much money on them.

Sometimes, people renounce even for the sake of name and fame. I have seen people giving donations in temples just for name and fame. Especially

The same thing happens in your life. You try t have the maximum security for your possessions - fire alarm, this alarm, that alarm, this insurance, that insurance. It goes on and on and on and on and on. And one day there is a flood, and when you go to claim the insurance, they show you the fine print which says that the insurance does not cover floods.

Anyhow, when the responsibility of maintaining it

all becomes too much, suddenly you decide to choose poverty. You choose poverty not because you don't enjoy wealth, or you don't want wealth, or you don't want the comforts and luxuries added to your life by wealth. You don't want the responsibilities, stress and tension added to your life by wealth! That is the truth.

When you renounce wealth, you go to the other extreme; you choose poverty. I have seen, sometimes people spend more money to be in poverty. The so-called vairagis or renunciants - I can say that almost all complications

As long as we feel insecure, we go on accumulating. temples - they suffer with the smell of money, the smell of rich people. These people donate some board toin the temple with the deity's name printed on it. But the deity's name is only six inches wide and the donor's name is twelve inches wide, and finally you don't know whether the shrine is the deity's or the donor's! Or they donate a tubelight to the temple, and on the tubelight, in black paint, they would have

written their name, their father's name, their grandfather's name, their grandmother's name, the names of all the people in whose memory they have donated the tubelight, and their son's and daughter's name will be there, and finally when the light is switched on. only the black shadow of the painted names will be seen on the wall!

Please understand, giving up for any reason is not vairagya. No! Please understand, giving up for any reason is araga or detachment. Only giving up for no reason is vairagya, the space that is beyond attachment or detachment.

Only giving up for no reason is vairagya, the space that is beyond attachment or detachment.

Patanjali does not promote detachment. He promotes going beyond attachment or detachment.

How can that happen?

How, that understanding happened in me, how that click happened in me, let me describe here.

/ am sharing some of the deep mystical experiences which may not be commonly understood by logic. But just because common logic does not understand it, do not think that it does not exist at all. All the scientific discoveries which are your everyday life today were unknown a hundred years ago, or even thirty years ago. Just thirty years ago, nobody would have imagined that the cellphone can become a reality, but now it is part of your everyday life. Just thirty years ago, nobody would have imagined that just by pressing a button, the whole ocean of knowledge called the internet will open in front of you, but now it is true. The things that you could not comprehend with your logic just thirty years ago have happened today. So just because you cannot comprehend something, don't think that it is not possible.

/ am trying to share some of the mystical experiences, mystical truths. I am giving you the legal opinion of the cosmos - how the cosmos functions. Understand, the law of the cosmos is what we call dharma in Sanskrit. The great thing in the Vedic tradition is that the whole country's constitution was the constitution of the cosmos! We never had constitution written by human beings. Maybe after Independence, Bharat had its own constitution,

Part 6: 108 Truths of the Yoga of Enlightenment - Talks on Patanjali Yoga Sutras_English_part_6.md

written by human beings. But originally, our civilization had only constitutions written by the Masters who experienced the constitution of the cosmos. Our rishis and smritikaras, the seers and visionaries of our civilization, were people who had experienced the laws of the cosmos.

If you understand the laws of the cosmos, you can understand vairagya. The real vairagya can be understood if you know how the cosmos functions. You may not be able to connect with what I am saying, but I want to confirm and assure you that whatever I am sharing is the simple truth, which is my

own experience. I experienced this truth in my own life in thousands of ways. Please understand, I am responsible and I feel responsible for the people who are following my ideas and using them in their lives.

Internalize this truth: whatever you are worthy of can never be taken away from you, and whatever you are not worthy of can never be added to you.

Whatever wealth you are worthy of and the

responsibility you take for it, the love you are worthy of and the commitments you are making in return, the relationships you are worthy of and the connections you retain - they are always in balance. Please understand, for wealth you need to take responsibility, for love you need to make commitments, for relationships you need to feel connected. For each thing which you need in your life, whatever you are worthy of can never be taken away from you. When I say it, I really mean it.

For example, if somebody dies at this moment due to an accident or some other reason, he immediately take another body, and whatever intelligence, wealth, love, life, relationships he had in his previous life are carried forward

to his new life also. The moment he dies, he takes another body; he just appears as a bubble somewhere else, with the same wealth, love, life, understanding and intelligence.

Nothing is ever taken away from you. This may be new, surprising, shocking. for you. You may think, 'No, no, in my life I constantly feel that I have to cling onto whatever I have; if I relax even one finger, something is taken away!' You constantly feel as if you are in the middle of a flood and you have to hold on tight to whatever you can, because everything else is being taken

away, everything else is slipping away in the flood. It is not! It is not the truth. But somehow, the idea of insecurity which is put inside you in childhood you is responsible for the breathless feeling you constantly carry - the feeling that you are constantly supposed to swim against the current, holding on to your wife, kids, house, car, everything with one hand, and always in the fear that the moment you are a little relaxed or weak or tired, that will also be taken away,

by the flood.

Real vairagya

can be understood

if you know how

the cosmos functions.

Please internalize this one truth. What do I mean by the word 'internalizing' ? In your life, take up this one truth which I am sharing: whatever you are worthy of can never be taken away from you; whatever you are not worthy of, even if you try to accumulate it, it will never stay with you, you will never be able to live it, enjoy it. Analyze every incident in your life with this one understanding; you will start internalizing this truth. Approach this truth with friendliness and openness; suddenly you will see that so many wonderful new secrets will be revealed to you about your life.

Whatever I am worthy of can never be taken away from me.

Each one of us carries a clear blueprint about our life inside us. It is that blueprint which expands into our life! If you go on changing the inner blueprint, naturally your life will also change. Please understand, any change you make in the outer world without changing the blueprint will never stay with you. I have seen many people - if their blueprint is for richness, even if they choose poverty, they will end up possessing poverty. Possessing poverty is equivalent to possessing richness.

/ have seen many people, they renounce their home, their wealth, their farms, hundreds of acres of agricultural land, everything, and run away to the Himalayas, or to some holy town like Rishikesh, Kedarnath or Badri. They sit outside some temple there and beg for their food and live their life. But if you go closer, you will find out that they are fighting with one another for the place where they sit every day. Each one has his own 'begging spot', and they fight for their spot with one another!

I was an insider, so I tell you from my experience! They have renounced hundreds of acres of land back home to come to Haridwar or Rishikesh and become sadhus, seekers. They come here and sit in the same place outside the temple begging for their food. And after a few days they get attached to that place! What does that mean? It is equivalent to the attachment to a few hundred acres.

And I have seen people, they give up everything and have only one possession, a kamandalu, a water pot, but they get so attached to that kamandalu that they do nothing but wash, wash, wash it the whole day! I have seen a sadhu,

he was called kamandalu baba, water-pot baba, because his whole life was centered on his kamandalu. From morning till night, he would just keep washing and polishing that pot. The kids living around the temple would throw a little cow dung on the kamandalu, just to tease him - and after that

he would be seen sprinkling water on it and trying to purify it for the next three hours!

Understand: these people have not changed the blueprint, so it is not renunciation. So naturally, the level of attachment, the level of suffering, remains the same. They feel the same level of security with the kamandalu as they used to fee with the hundreds of acres of land earlier. They feel very safe when

the kamandalu is shining and fresh. And they go through the same level of insecurity if there is a small scratch on their kamandalu.

Vairagya can happen only with this one understanding: whatever you are worthy of, whatever responsibility you take, whatever commitment you

Possessing poverty is equivalent to possessing richness.

make, whatever you are able to handle, will never leave you. Even death cannot separate that from you. And in the same way, whatever you are not worthy of, even if you think you have it legally, you will not be living it, you will not be enjoying it, you will not be having it. You may think that you

have a beach-house, a club-house, a chain of resorts here and there and everywhere, but finally, only your watchmen and security guards will be enjoying those places, not you. Legally they may be yours, but they only will be enjoying them.

And even if you go there, you will not be in the right mood to enjoy them.

This understanding is not just necessary for those who want to renounce; it is for everyone! This one clear

understanding can simply remove all your insecurity, all your attachment, all your possessiveness, all your fear and craving and suffering.

Bring to mind any one area of your life where you are not as successful as you would like to be. Can you identify the inner blueprint which is causing this?

Listen: possessing something and enjoying it are not the same.

As we saw, many times, you many possess something, but you may not be able to enjoy it. In the same way, I have seen many people all over the world who cannot enjoy something unless it is legally theirs!

These guys go to Miami, Hawaii, Ooty, Kodaikanal, Himalayas; they go and see such wonderful scenes, but they cannot enjoy them. The first thing they plan is, how to own an apartment in that resort or hill-station. They start calculating, 'I think I should have an apartment here, then I can come and stay every year for a vacation.'

/ have seen people who go on buying apartments and beach houses in every vacation spot, but they are never able to have a vacation. They can never have a vacation, because they are too busy looking for another vacation home to buy somewhere else, and this guy who is just the watchman is just enjoying all the vacation homes.

This is what I call Kubera's wealth. In the Vedic tradition, there are two types of wealth, Kubera's wealth and Lakshmi's wealth. Kubera is a yaksha, a demigod. He just goes on accumulating, accumulating, accumulating wealth. He neither enjoys it himself, nor allow others to enjoy it.

You can say that it is almost like Wall Street! Just go on accumulating, accumulating, numbers, numbers, numbers - and suddenly the number falls, and nobody knows why. Fictions being sold in fractions! Fictitious properties and fictious ideas and fictitious things being constantly sold in fractions that is Kubera's wealth. Nobody knows why it gets accumulated, nobody can enjoy it, nobody can live it, nobody knows what is going to be done with it. It is there for the future and when that future is going to come, nobody knows.

Kubera's wealth is wealth accumulated out of insecurity. Please understand, even though you set aside that wealth for difficult times, when you are really

in need, it will never be useful to you - because when the need comes, you think, 'No, no, no, who knows, maybe even worse times are going to come, I need to save this wealth for those times!' This is Kubera's wealth!

Lakshmi's wealth is circulating wealth; she is wealthy, but constantly showering wealth on everyone who is worthy of it. Lakshmi is always described as a deity,

a goddess who showers wealth. She is wealthy and she makes others also wealthy; she keeps the wealth is circulation. Lakshmi's wealth is always flowing, enriching everybody.

In Bharat, they have this habit of saving wealth for future generations. In the name of saving, these old guys sit on the whole wealth, crores' worth of property. They won't have even the basic comforts for themselves, and they won't let their kids enjoy anything either. Our civilization is such that only after the father's death, the wealth can come to you. So the next generation will be sitting and praying every day - and you know what they must be praying for !

I have spent years walking throughout Bharat, studying the culture and doing R&D and meditating and living and spending my time in different villages of Bharat. When you go to a place, you see the casinos or beaches or restaurants, but when I go to a place I see the people. They talk to me, I talk to them. They share their problems, and I understand the culture and the people. From that experience I tell you, when people are so possessive about their property and wealth, even after they die their spirit becomes like a vaksha and continues to sit on the property. It will be stuck in some litigation and no one can enjoy the property. It will be lying there for years unused, because the original owner is not willing to let go of it even after his death! Kubera's wealth is never useful, because nobody can use it!

I have some kids who neither play with their toys nor share them with their friends. They don't know the purpose of the toy. The purpose of the toy is to play and enjoy and break it, over! Same way, may people don't know the purpose of wealth. Kubera's wealth is not wealth; it is just a sheer load on you, just sheer stress on your body, your mind and your whole system. Understand, if you are caught in that insecurity, all the wealth which you create is just

Kubera's wealth, and you are only a yaksha - neither are you enjoying the wealth, nor are you allowing others to enjoy it.

If people can understand these secrets of wealth, the whole problem of the recession will be solved. The basic problem arises not from the GDP, it arises from the wrong understanding of the decision-makers. The basic problem is this wrong understanding. Kubera's wealth should be shown to the public as a security, but there is no need to keep it! If this science is applied, it can become applied vedic economy science.

Many people cannot enjoy something unless it is legally theirs!

Am I a Kubera or a Lakshmi?

There is a deep understanding which we need to have about wealth. Wealth that is created and maintained out of insecurity brings more and more bondage and fear. Wealth that is created out of overflowing energy and intelligence and clarity brings more and more freedom. So the basic attitude with which you start functioning is going to play decide whether you are going to be Kubera or Lakshmi.

The freedom and tremendous relaxation comes out of this one understanding: whatever I am worthy of will never be taken away from me, and whatever I am not worthy of, I will never be able to enjoy or live.

7his one understanding suddenly liberates you. Please understand, even if death comes, it cannot take away anything that you are worthy of. With this trust, the fear of death will simply disappear. What is fear of death? You are afraid that you have to leave behind whatever you have made for the last sixty- seventy years and go and start making it newly. That is the whole fear.

All your current relationships - you are comfortable with them, because at least they are known devil! Now you have to leave them and go and start afresh, and you are wondering, 'Who knows where I will be, and from where l have to start, and what kind of parents I will have, and what kind of wife I will have, and what kind of children I will have, and what kind of relationships I will attract!"

Relax! The cosmos runs based on Dharma. You are not an accident, you are

a conscious incident. Whatever you carry - the intelligence, the energy, the relationships, the love, the wealth, the awareness, everything - stays with you even if you die. It is like one big bubble. You drop dead here and appear. somewhere else, that's all.

If you are able to internalize this one truth, you will be liberated from the fear of death this very moment. There is nothing to lose. There is no need to worry about the fear of the unknown. There is nothing unknown!

If you understand this one truth, you will really start working to alter your

inner blueprint. Altering your inner blueprint is what I call 'unclutching' or spiritual practice or living enlightenment. This is what I call abhyosa, spiritual practice. Suddenly you know that altering your inner blueprint is much more important than anything else. That becomes your first priority. Because, if your blueprint is altered, you will start attracting the right things in this life, and even if you leave this life, in the next life you will constantly attract the right things to yourself.

Nowadays, wherever I go I am asked one question, 'What can be done to clear up the slums, Swamiji? How to eradicate poverty?'

I tell them, The first thing that needs to be done is educating the people and clearing their inner blueprint of poverty. Unless the blueprint is cleared, even if they are given their homes or houses are built for them, they will end up renting or selling them and come back to their slum.'

Unless conscious clarity starts happening, even if the wealth comes, you will not be happy or comfortable with it.

Please understand, you are carrying constant fear, constant insecurity. Wherever you are, you are carrying your hell within you. It is like carrying

your own canopy with you when you go for a picnic. Wherever you decide, you stop and set up your canopy and sit inside it. Of course, you don't even have to set up your hell; it is already there! The constant fear and insecurity you carry can be healed this very moment if you internalize this one truth.

When you are marketing a product to others, it will usually be a mix of 80% marketing and 20% truth. If you are sharing it with your own family, it will be 80% truth and 20% marketing. If you are telling yourself, it will be 100% truth. This truth which I am sharing with you is the medicine I am swallowing.

myself! This is the truth I live.

In the Vedic tradition, one of the scales to find out whether something is the truth or not is this: if the person who is talking to you is a jnana purusha, an avatara purusha, who doesn't have any vested interest, whatever he says is accepted as truth. There are three scales to measure the truth: direct perception, inference and the words of an enlightened master, who doesn't have a vested

interest to promote anything as the truth. When some truth comes out of such a person, it is called agamo in our tradition.

Please understand, he may not have the logic or the right words to make you understand. Even for whatever I am saying, I don't have scientific data to prove that it is the truth. But just because I don't have scientific data, or just because it is beyond your logic, it does not mean it is not true. I have no vested interest in convincing you. No company is funding me and giving me a percentage on each person I liberate - a million dollars per liberated person!

So, from the state of agama I tell you - whatever you are worthy of can never be taken away from you, even by death.

You are not an accident, you are a conscious incident.

An enlightened master doesn't have a vested interest to promote anything as the truth.

In some countries, employment is guaranteed for all citizens. In the same way, in the cosmos, the Truth is guaranteed for everyone! The cosmos is run by a compassionate, honest, intelligent energy. The whole cosmos is not an accident, it is an order. It is auspiciousness.

The person who believes that the whole thing is run by intelligence is a theist, and the person who believes that the whole thing is a chaos is an atheist, that's all. Be very clear, atheism or theism are not based on the person or the ideas you believe in. If you believe the whole thing is an auspicious order, you are a theist. If you believe the whole thing is disorder, chaos, an accident, you are a foolish atheist.

Naturally, if you believe that the whole thing is chaos, depression is inevitable, because every step you take, you are in fear; you don't know what to do, there is no direction, there is no direction. When you understand that the cosmos moves in an order, your whole being will move in an order. When I understood that the cosmos moves in an order, suddenly I realized that my being is moving in an order.

Understand, understanding the purpose of cosmos and the purpose of your existence, and understanding the connection between the two, is what I call inner awakening, awakening to the truth, awakening to enlightenment.

Many people ask me, 'Swamiji, how did you create such a big mission in such a short time, with millions of followers? How did it happen?' Understand, I have not done anything! I awakened to the purpose of the whole cosmos, and the purpose of me, and the connection between the two,

that's all. So now the cosmos is living through me. I have the deep security that nothing for which I am qualified will be taken away from me. When that security lands on you, what you experience is vairagya.

Listen: only a person who is a theist can experience real vairagya. Until that happens, you will always feel that something is wrong with the world, and you are being cheated, you are being exploited, you are not being given your worth.

When you are moving in the wrong direction, it looks as if everything is in moving in the wrong direction, and you go on complaining about everybody.

Understand, whenever you complain, you are in the wrong lane!

/ have a story for you:

An old man is driving on the freeway when his car phone rings. It is his wife.

'Herman,' she cries, 'I just heard on the news that there's a car going the

wrong way on 280. Please be careful."

This old man peers out onto the freeway and says, 'Oh God, it's not just one car, there are hundreds of them!"

So whenever you think that the whole world is chaos, understand that you are in chaos! The atheist continues to suffer because he is driving in the wrong lane. He is bound to be depressed, because he thinks the whole thing is chaos, the whole thing is inauspiciousness. He thinks life is a curse, existence is a curse, he is here to be punished.

If you think you are here to be punished, you are already in hell. If you think that you are here to be fulfilled, you are in heaven, that's all. Hell and heaven are not geographical places; they are psychological spaces. So be very clear: it is you who is going to choose. If you understand that the whole thing is an order, it simply liberates you from insecurity. You are attached nor detached; you are in vairagya.

Only a person who is a theist can experience real vairagya.

Hell and heaven are not geographical places; they are psychological spaces.

Living in vairagya means living in tune with the cosmos.

When you know that you are responsible for your current situation, you also know that you have the power to change it. You know you have the power to expand and attract better and better things, people and situations into your life. Your whole focus on expanding your intelligence and your life. The energy shift will happen in you. This one understanding will lead you to vairagya, and vairaqya is living enlightenment.

Many times, because we don't understand life, we go on suffering from insecurity and wasting our time in changing the small-small spare parts of our life, instead of changing the big things that we really need to change. / have one more story for you:

A man calls his mechanic and yells, 'You said that this is the last battery I need to change for my car. In six months the battery is dead.'

The mechanic replies, 'Is it so Sir? Sorry, I did not think your car will last for six months.'

If you are too busy changing your spare parts of your life, you will miss looking into the condition of the engine! If you are too busy changing your house, changing your car, changing your relationships, changing your outerworld things, you will miss looking into what really needs to be changed in the inner world.

Vairagya means turning your attention to the blueprint which you are carrying, and working on the blueprint, and letting the external things change as the blueprint changes. Live with this one understanding of altering. the blueprint and letting things happen as the result.

Sometimes, people are not able to grasp even this simple understanding. They ask, 'how do you know that whatever you are worthy of can never be taken away from you?'

Understand, the person who is talking to you is very clear. Even if you don't know, he knows what he is talking about!

I have a story for you about 'How do you know':

A wife calls her husband on the phone and cries, 'I took the car out this morning, and wanted to go for a drive, but after just a few minutes it refused to move any further. I think there is water in the carburetor.'

The husband says, 'How do you know there is water in the carburetor? You don't even know what the carburetor is!'

'I am telling you,' repeats the wife, 'I am sure there is water in the carburetor."

'We will see,' says the husband. 'Let me check it out when I come back. Where is the car now?

The wife says, 'Right next to the garage, in our new swimming pool!'

If you ask me, 'How do you know that whatever you are worthy of will not be taken away?, this will be my answer: you are in the pool of consciousness, you are in the dharma pool, so there can be no doubt about it!

People tell me, 'But, Swamiji, this is Kaliyuga! In those days, once upon a time, long long ago, Krishna was there, Rama was there, Buddha was there. Now it is Kaliyuga, and people have no one to guide them to the Truth.'

Please understand, the Iron Age will end when you become aware. Kaliyuga will end when you become conscious - nothing else!

Buddhas continue to walk on planet Earth. Krishnas continue to dance on planet earth. Ramas are still living on planet Earth. Ramakrishnas are again and again walking on planet Earth. Mira are still singing on planet Earth. Dharma is still alive, cosmos is still in order, truth is always prevalent; it is we who never get awakened. It is we who never look into the truth.

Look inside, awaken to this one truth; your whole life will get reorganized. Your whole inner mental set up will get reorganized. Your whole inner space will get rearranged. The Truth will be established in you. Your whole life will fall in tune with the Truth.

I want to repeat this sutra of Patanjali.

The conscious withdrawal from the objects of the senses at the body, mind and spirit level, leads one to a state of awareness which is called vairagya.

With this one understanding, live with your house, live with your car, live with your bank balance, live with your relationships, live with your love; you will be living like God on planet Earth. You will be living with such tremendous freedom, such tremendous joy, you will live like God on the planet Earth.

Living like God on planet Earth is what I call living enlightenment, jeevanmukti. If this one idea is understood, you will see that your whole life is new, illumined.

Suddenly you will see that you are rearranging, reorganizing, all your major decisions. Your idea about wealth will change, your idea about security will change, your idea about love will change, your idea about relationship will change, your idea about life will change, your idea about everything will change.

If this one idea is not understood, we are in darkness. If this one idea is understood, we are in light.

Living in vairagya means living in tune with the cosmos.

If I am responsible for my current situation, it also means that I have the power to change it!

Tatparain puruṣakhyāterguṇavaitrṣṇyam Withdrawing from the desires through the conscious visualization of one's inner space is the higher state of awareness.

Let us enter in to today's sutra, the 16th sutra.

/ will read the sutra, then give you the translation, then enter in to the commentary.

Tatparam purusakhyātergunavaitrsnyam

In the last sutra, Patanjali spoke about the renunciation of the outer-world things. In this shloka, Patanjali speaks about the vairagya related to the inner world. He is taking us to the deeper level of vairagya. I can say that the vairagya related to the inner world is more important and needs to be more carefully understood than the vairagya related to the outer world.

Here. Patanjali is giving us a beautiful technique to live vairagya, not just with the outer-world things, even from the inner-world characteristics, the gunas. Gunas are not even characteristics; they are the inner world smells which you experience-dullness, restlessness, inertness or restful awareness. If vairagya happens even with them, enlightenment happens.

There is a terrible accident at a railway crossing when a train smashes into a car. No one is killed, but the car's driver takes the train company to court. At the trial, the railway engineer insists that he had given the driver ample warning by waving his lantern back and forth for nearly a minute. The court believes his story and the suit is dismissed.

'Congratulations!', says the defense lawyer to the engineer, "You did superbly under cross-examination."

Thanks,' replies the engineer. Then he adds, 'But the prosecuting attorney sure had me worried."

'How is that?' the lawyer asks.

The engineer replies, 'At one point I was afraid he may ask me if the lantern was lit!'

Understand, the biggest accidents in your life happen because the lantern was not lit; the word vairagyo was not understood. Even the suffering which comes to you when you are trying to accumulating wealth will disappear when you understand that all you need to do is raise your responsibility, and the wealth will come. There is no need to carry the constant insecurity during the process.

In the same way, in the spiritual life, you don't have to continuously struggle to renounce and choose poverty; you don't need to constantly torture yourself in the name of renunciation. You don't need to on abusing yourself and create guilt if you miss one or two things in renunciation. The suffering in the outer world and the suffering in the inner world both get completely heal with the understanding of this one word vairagya.

I can say that the ideas that Patanjali is sharing with us now are the Vedic solution for the economy crisis. If this one concept of vairagya is understood properly, we will neither have the problems created by extreme materialism nor the problems created inside us by these so-called spiritual ideas. This understanding is necessary for the people who live in the world as well as the people who work towards the spiritual enlightenment.

The word vairagya has to be translated as 'transcending attachment', not as 'detachment'. The moment you use the word 'detachment', people are afraid, they don't want to listen to what you are talking! They either walk

Whoever reads these sutras understands them according to his own level of maturity.

away, or mentally they are shut. Patanjali gives us a universal solution. Understanding of this one word can create the cognitive shift in us, in the way in which we observe things, the way in which we think, the way in which we express ourselves.

Listen: at the age of five, you used to play with your toys, and you felt those toys were your life. If someone took those toys away from you, you felt as if your life was being taken away! As you grow up, you come out of that attachment naturally, spontaneously, without any suffering. At the age of 40 or 50, do you feel that you have renounced your childhood toys with great difficulty? Do you have a hangover about your toys? No! You have

simply transcended that attachment; you are beyond it, that's all. This is what I call vairagya - just elevating your consciousness to the level where you don't feel either attached to or detached from anything.

Tatparam purusakhyatergunavaitrsnyam There are many translations of this sutra.

Vivekananda translates this sutra as That is extreme

non-attachment which gives up even the thirst for the gunas.'

He says, even the thirst for these three gunas should be renounced, which can happen only when we understand the supreme self.

Sont Jnaneshwar translates this sutra in this way: 'Indifference to the subtlest elements, constituent principles are qualities themselves achieved through knowledge consciousness of nature of pure consciousness is called supreme non-attachment."

We can see how two different masters view this sutra in different ways. Now I will try to give my translation.

Tatparam purusakhyatergunavaitrsnyam

Withdrawing from the desires through the conscious visualization of one's inner space is the higher state of awareness.

The beauty of Sanskrit is that you can get different-different meanings depending on where you break the flow of the words! So you can understand the same sutra in many ways. If you read the whole sutra as a single word, it gives you one meaning. If you break it into smaller words, it gives you a different meaning. If you break the words differently, you get a different meaning.

The sutrakaras who write the sutras, they play with language. They have kept

all the secret spiritual keys in the sutras. So whoever reads them understands them according to his own level of maturity. If an initial-level seeker opens up this book, he will have the inspiration he needs to work on this sutra; is a long-term seeker opens up the book and reads it, he will have the inspiration to go to the next level; if a seeker who is almost done with everything and is on the verge of enlightenment reads it, he will get the last push, the final jump into enlightenment.

Vairagya is elevating my consciousness to the level where I don't feel either attached from anything.

The single most important understanding that Pataniali wants us to have about vairagya is this: choice is suffering, choicelessness is bliss.

When you come to the understanding of choicelessness, you will suddenly start radiating so much of energy, so much of awareness, and you will be attracting so much wealth towards you, but you will not be bound by it at all.

/ want you to understand this word, 'gunavaitrsnyam' - free from qualities. How are we caught in the qualities, and how can we liberate ourselves from the qualities?

If you just look a little deeply, you will see that your attachments and suffering are not caused just by the objects themselves. The quality of the mood which you experience through the object is what causes the suffering. If you believe that a certain mood is created by a particular object, and you enjoy that mood, you are going to keep trying to have that same object again and again in your life.

For example, you want money not just for the sake of money. You want money because you believe that money expands your freedom and gives you more choices in life. If you don't have money, all you can do is lie down on the couch in your home and worry. If you have money, you have more choices - so you can lie down in Hawaii beach and worry, or you can lie down in Miami beach and worry, or you can lie down in a Hindu hill-station and worry! Of course, till you change your inner blueprint, these are the only choices you will have !

Choice

is suffering,

choicelessness

is bliss!

Similarly, if you feel that an object or situation creates an unpleasant mood I you. you are naturally going to reiectit. So everything boils down to the guna. the quality which you experience through a person or object or situation.

Three things need to be understood here:

• The object or person or money or home or . car or bank balance or relationship or situation in the outer world
• The experience which you go through because of that object or person or situation, which creates a certain emotion, a certain quality of experience in your inner space
• The connection between the two - the external object and the internal experience

In Vedanta, we have a word called triputi bheda. It means object- subjectexperience. For example, a sweet may create joy in you, so the experiencer experiences the joy. After some time, maybe after eating four or five sweets, the same sweet may create a very different experience in the experiencer! He may even experience disgust with that sweet. Please understand, here

the object is also the same, the person who is experiencing is also the same, but the experience itself will suddenly be different.

All we need to understand is, the experience and the experienced (the object) are independent of each other, they cannot be logically connected.

You can see in your life - when you are in love, how connected you feel with the other person, how you always wanted to spend time with that person, and suddenly when that love disappears, the whole thing is topsy- turvy, the whole thing is different. Now you just want to escape from that person! The person who is experiencing is the same, the person who is giving the experience is same, but suddenly the experience becomes different.

All the three are constantly changing independent of one another, but you go on believing that they are permanent, and their relationship will always be the same. The very root idea with which we function is this. This gap between our understanding and the reality is responsible for all our suffering, both in the outer world and in spiritual practice.

The experience and the experienced (the object) are independent of each other!

Wherever I go, whenever I meet seekers, this is a FAQ, a frequently asked question, 'Swamiji. how can I have a balance between my material life and spiritual life?'

Listen: there is no such thing as two lives - material and spiritual. It is just a foolish idea that we carry about life.

Especially in Bharat, they think that spirituality is only for our old age. I have seen in my programs, the youngsters say, 'Oh, meditation! We can do all that when we grow old, there is enough time, no need to practice it now. And the old people say, 'All these things should have been done in youth, when we were strong and healthy. Now it is too late!'

This one understanding can solve the whole problem completely, here and now. Trying to link an object to an expected experience is the root cause of all your problems.

The owner of a hardware store is dismayed when a huge new hardware store opens up next door, erecting a large sign saying, BEST DEALS. He is even more horrified when a huge new hardware stores opens up on the other side of his door, putting up an even larger sign saying, LOWER PRICES. The shopkeeper panics, but then he has a bright idea. He puts up a large sign over his own store saying, MAIN ENTRANCE.

Understand, one idea solved the whole problem! Many of your problems are from the object. You suffer because the object does not give you the quality of experience you expect from it. You think money will do something for you, you think money will give you happiness. but you find that it is not happening through money. So you are disappointed with money, disillusioned with money. You think your car will add something to you, your house will add something to you, but whatever you expect is not happening through these objects.

Understand, car is useful to drive, home is useful to stay, refrigerator is useful to keep your food. But you have a wrong idea that all these things put together will give fulfillment to you. When you have the wrong expectation from an object, and the object naturally does not meet your expectation,

you go through suffering. This is a preliminary level problem.

The next-level problem happens when the experience itself disappears, even though you have the same object around you. The same object is no longer giving you that same experience which you enjoyed; this is the second-level, subtle-level problem.

The third-level problem happens when the object not only stops giving you the same joyful experience, but starts giving you a negative experience!

Patanjali beautifully solves all these three problems with this one sutra. Internalize this one sutra, meditate on this one sutra, change your understanding based on this one sutra, and the whole thing will be solved. All you need to understand is this: the object (the experienced), the subject the experiencer), and the experience happening between the two, are not logically connected. They do not function based on any particular logic. Today a person may create a particular emotion in you; tomorrow, the same person may create a different emotion in you. It is nothing but an idea that you create based on some expected experience which happened or did not happen in you through that object or person.

Understand, the moment you create an idea about another person, you have created a prison for yourself; after that; you will never be able to cross that word and have a direct connection with him. When you start creating the idea, it may be very casual, but afterwards you will see, you will be bound by that idea, and you will go on building up that idea. You are all almost accountants in your life! First you create an account for the other person and start calculating - What is the profit or loss I experience from his presence in my life, ?' After that, your whole life, you work only with that idea, that's all. Before you even get to know the person properly, you have already made the judgment. And once you come to the conclusion, even if the situation changes, you go on working with the same idea.

Not being continuously open is the major problem we face in our life. Here Patanjali solves that one problem very beautifully. He says, do not be attached to the experience that happens in your being due to a particular person or object.

But living without judgments is too difficult for you, because it means that you have to be fresh, spontaneous, aware, alive, at every moment. That is

Choice is suffering,

choicelessness is bliss!

I have one more story for you.

A company director is interviewing candidates for an important position and decides to select the individual who can answer the question, 'How much is 2 + 2 ?!

The first candidate is an engineer. He pulls out a slide rule and says, 'Oh, the answer is 4.'

The second candidate is a lawyer. He states that, in case of Jones Pior, 2 +2 was proven to be 4, so here also it is 4.

The final candidate is an accountant. When asked what is 2 + 2, the accountant slips out of his chair, checks to see if anyone is listening at the door, then whispers, 'Did you have a particular number in mind?'

Understand, we are all accountants, constantly trying to manipulate the reality with whichever judgment suits you.

If you are attached to a person, you go on, adding, adding, adding, all the positive things about that person. You feel your whole life is heaven because of that person. Even if there are some problems, you rationalize them you discount them, you discount them, you create reasons for them - because your logic does not know how to see both sides. You have already come to the conclusion and now you don't want to see the other side. And gradually, when that love is lost, when that connection is lost, you start building your arguments on the opposite side! You already have all the readymade words inside you. All you need to do is just tip the scale from this side to that side; all the opposite words are waiting.

And at that time, even if you remember any of the pleasant aspects of that person, your logic is not ready to accept them, because you have already come to the conclusion!

Understand, even an object that is consistent cannot create a consistent experience in you, because you are alive, changing, new every moment.

Then how can you expect that a person who is himself alive and changing will give you a consistent experience?

So Patanjali says, live your life with this understanding:

Tatparam purushakyate quṇa vaitishrinyam

Neither by person nor object nor by situations can the same experience can be created in you. There is no continuous logical connection between the experiencer, the experienced and the experience. I am cutting the very root of the illusion. This is the real understanding of vairagya.

Drill this one idea into you, because this one idea can liberate you. Apply this idea with money, with relationships, with whatever you think is important in your life. 5000 years ago, Patanjali has clearly said, this is the nature of things. When you understand that this is the nature, you will have the knowledge of Self.

This is the knowledge of Self.

Today, be aware of the constant judgments you are passing on Life. Again and again, return to the space of variragya, choicelessness.

His Holiness THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM is recognized today as a clear, legitimate, apolitical voice of Sanatana Hindu Dharma, and revered as a living incarnation of superconsciousness by millions worldwide. He is a Mahamandaleshwar (spiritual head) of Mahanirvani Peeth, the world's most ancient apex body of Hinduism. He is the most watched spiritual teacher on YouTube.com with over 19 million views, and the author of more than 300 books published in over 20 languages. His lectures are watched live every day on http://www.nithyananda. tv, as well as on multiple Hindu television channels and via video conferencing.

THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM is considered the foremost authority in the field of Consciousness and Kundalini awakening, who has successfully demystified yogic sciences like spiritual healing, levitation, teleportation, materialization, anti-ageing and going beyond the need for food.

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Patanjali Yoga Sutras is an extraordinary scripture written thousands of years ago by the enlightened yogi Patanjali, who is the Father of Yoga.

In this book, His Holiness THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM reveals the depths of Patanjali's wisdom with characteristic lucidity and ease. Speaking straight from the Source, he brings back to life the ancient techniques of yoga, and opens the doors to Superconsciousness for millions today.