12. Suffering can never touch You🔗

Let us enter into today's sutra: Vṛtti 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 Patanjali, 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, no, it is there! 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.