97. Even one wrong understanding is too much🔗

In the next sutra, Patanjali beautifully reveals a deeper layer of the same understanding. The next sutra is about vairagya, conscious withdrawal. He beautifully describes the deeper layer of this technique - the conscious withdrawal from the objects of the senses, of the body, mind and spirit. He explains about the conscious withdrawal, the eternal unclutching. If this one truth clicks with you, you will live a liberated being, you will live as a free being from this moment, from today. It is a very powerful truth about vairagya.

Let me read the sutra: Drstā nuśravikaviṣayavitṛṣṇasya vaśīkārasañjñā vairāgyam I know you may not understand the words, but I wanted you to hear the original words directly from Patanjali. We will do the translation, but the words directly from Patanjali have their own sanctity.

An amazing thing about the Vedic tradition is that thousands of masters happened, and they wrote commentaries on the sutras, but they never touched the original sutras. It is sacred! Even if there is a so-called grammatical error in the original sutra, it is called aarshya prayoga, the literary license of the enlightened sage! An enlightened sage is not bound by grammar; whatever he uses is grammar. Because he is trying to express that which is inexpressible, inexplicable, the very grammar of the language bends for him. Whatever He says becomes a new rule in the language. Whatever he gives as the meaning is the meaning! That is why our original truths are preserved as they are.

Drstā nuśravikaviṣayavitṛṣṇasya vaśīkārasañjñā vairāgyam The conscious withdrawal from the objects of the senses at the levels of body, mind and being leads one to a state of awareness which is called vairagya.

Actually I am not translating in a literal way. I am translating from all possible dimensions, that is why I am adding a few words. In Sanskrit, each word has four or five meanings, so if you do a literal translation, it looks very sterile! The whole life is lost.

So the key word, the master key word, is vairagya. Understand this word. You can say this is the most misunderstood word in all spiritual traditions, all religions, all spiritual groups, all spiritual literature, is this one word vairagya

I have a joke for you about how we have misunderstood the word 'vairadya'. This tory may be true or not, but you can understand the extreme of the misunderstanding from it. In the ancient days there was no printing press, so in all monasteries, all the copies of a book were produced by copying out the whole book by hand. In a monastery, the original Bible had been preserved secretly. They had made a copy from the original Bible and preserved the original without touching it, because of the fear of damaging it. From that copy they had made thousands of copies for hundreds of years. For hundreds of years, they had not even touched the original. Suddenly, one day, the elderly Father Superior was found crying, weeping, wailing. All the junior monks rushed to him and asked, 'Oh, what happened, why are you crying like this?' The Father Superior said, 'Today I happened to see the original Bible. There has been a mistake while copying from the original, one letter has been missed while copying, and we have been circulating thousands of copies with this mistake, for hundreds of years! The junior monks said, 'Oh, you are truly blessed to feel so strongly about that one mistake, but it is only a single letter, it's okay, we can always correct it in the next edition.' Hearing this, the Father Superior wailing even more loudly. He said, 'No, this one letter would have changed many people's lives, especially ours!' The junior monks asked, 'Really? What letter is that?' The Father Superior said, 'The original Bible says, 'Celebrate', but while copying, somebody missed the letter 'R'! That one letter 'R' was too important!' Of course, this is just a joke, but you can see how one misunderstood word can change the whole tradition, the whole purpose, the energy, the direction of your very life. Please understand, I am talking from my own experience. For nine years, I lived in all kinds of different monasteries belonging to different religions and different traditions, including Buddhist, Jain and Christian monasteries. And within Hinduism, I experiences all kinds of different traditions - Naga, aghori, Saiva, Vedanta, shaakta - everything! So I am an insider. From my experience I tell you, the misunderstanding of this one word has changed the whole direction in which the energies are spent in spiritual practice. The misunderstanding of this one word is responsible for so many millions of people dedicating their lives to seeking and still not becoming enlightened.

So let us look into this word without any chance of misunderstanding.

CONTEMPLATION

Vairagya is the conscious withdrawal from the objects of the senses, of the body, mind and spirit.