55. Secrets of 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:

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 plays 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.