87. Commitment means deciding for ever🔗

‘Committed and intense practice of unclutching establishes one firmly in a higher state of awareness.’ Committed – that is a beautiful word - deergha kalaha nairantariya. Deerga kalaha, the literal translation is ‘long time’. But Patanjali doesn’t mean to say that you should go on and on and on practicing. Sometimes people come and ask me, ‘The word “long practice” almost seems to be like a word used to cheat us!’ It is like giving a technique and telling him to practice it forever!’ Please understand, Patanjali is not interested in cheating you. When he uses the word ‘long time, he just wants you to be mentally strong, that’s all. He wants you to have the strength and readiness to give it all you have. Actually once you are ready to practice forever, suddenly you will see that intensity awakens you this very moment. There is a beautiful story about Buddha. Buddha was meditating for more than twelve years, every day, day in and day out, He used to sit from early morning till late night. Then he would sit the next morning till late night again. Day in and day out he was sitting, but nothing was happening. The story says that one day he just decided – ‘Idam asanam shusyhate shariram!’ ‘Let the body disappear, evaporate, dry up, in this posture. How many days, I don’t know. How long, I don’t know. I am going to sit till I achieve enlightenment. I am not going to be bothered about how much time it takes. I am ready to sit deergha kalaha.’ Please understand, the word deergha kalaha means not just ‘long time’. It means deciding for ever. Buddha decided, ‘I am going to sit forever.’ After all, time is psychological. The story says that the moment he decided to sit forever, that very night he became enlightened! Because all he needed was that intensity.

When Patanjali says deergha kalaha he does not mean time in a linear way, the horizontal way that we usually understand. You need to understand it vertically. Intensity just cuts through time. Usually, when you sit in meditation with the idea, 'I will get up after two hours', your mind will be just waiting for the two hours to end, that's all. You will not be meditating. You will not be in the present moment. If you have an idea, 'I will sit till tomorrow morning', your mind will be waiting for the next morning. It will not be in the present moment.

When Buddha decided that he was going to sit forever, his mind suddenly had no goal left! It had nowhere to go. When the mind had no goal, it just fell back into the present moment, and he became enlightened.

Patanjali knows our mind! That is why he says deergha kalaha, meaning, decide to do it forever. Then suddenly, you will see, you fall into the present moment.

Whatever the spiritual practice you choose, decide to do it forever.