45. Are you a Sleepwalker?🔗

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 joy 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 vṛttihi 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 India 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.

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