15. Understand Right and Wrong Knowledge🔗

Let us go to the next sutra. Pramāṇa viparyaya vikalpa nidrā smṛtayaḥ ||1.6||

In the sixth sutra, Patanjali is expanding on the five modifications of the mind. The translation is: right knowledge, wrong knowledge, imagination, sleep and memory - these are the five modifications which may lead to suffering or joy, anguish or non-anguish. Patanjali is a real Master. He is not losing his Truth. He might have used the sugar- coat, 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 suffering 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 Sri Ramakrishna. 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.'

In this story, the three thieves represent the three gunas 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 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 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!