108. Three dimensions of Experience🔗

Wherever I go, whenever I meet seekers, this is an 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 India, 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.

I have a story for you: 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!

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.

Choice is suffering, choicelessness is bliss!

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 too much!

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.

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?' Then how can you expect that a person who is himself alive and changing will give you a consistent experience?

Understand, we are all accountants, constantly trying to manipulate the reality with whichever judgment suits you.

So Patanjali says, live your life with this understanding:

Tatparam purushakyate guna vaitishrinyam

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.

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.

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!

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.

Understand, even an object that is consistent cannot create a consistent experience in you, because you are alive, changing, new every moment.

Today, be aware of the constant judgments you are passing on Life. Again and again, return to the space of variragya, choicelessness.

His Holiness Paramahamsa Nithyananda 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 international television channels and via video conferencing.

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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.

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Ebook ISBN: 979-8-88572-023-6

His Holiness Paramahamsa Nithyananda 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 international television channels and via video conferencing.

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