Wake Up! – Part 2🔗

Living our life blissfully is the ultimate goal of our life

Next we shall get into the discussion on the eight steps. All these eight steps are the essence of Yoga (the technique for relaxing this restless mind). Let us begin the eight steps.

Yama Niyama Asana Pranayama Prathyahara Dharana Dhyana Samadhayo Vashtangani.

Beautiful Stotra (hymn). The meaning of the above stotra is ‘The eight parts of Yoga are: Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Prathyharam, Dharana, Dhyanam and Samadhi’.

We shall learn the meaning of the eight steps as we discuss each one in detail.

Five thousand years back Patanjali has described the way in which life has to be lived beautifully. As early as five thousand years, he has explained to live our life very clearly. This is the beauty of spirituality. Our enlightened Masters and sages have provided the solution for life for the forth coming generations as well. That is they have showed how to live life for the people who lived, who are living and people who are going to live. For all the three generations they provide life solutions very clearly.

Let us see the meaning of this hymn step by step.

We shall begin with the first step. Let us see the first step of the eight steps: Yama (discipline). Technique for this first step: Ahimsa, Satya, Asteya, Brahmacharya Parikrahayamaha.

Patanjali explains about the five characteristics. Patanjali was so far explaining that wisdom is required, clear knowledge is required. He explained that we ourselves should free ourselves from sorrow and misery and thus keep ourselves blissful. There is no treasure, which is equal to knowledge. The straight way to attain the goal is wisdom.

A small story.

There was a hunter and a king who were entering into a forest. On the way they saw the dart boards on which archers shoot their arrows for aiming, while practicing. These dart boards will have circles drawn on it. There will be a big circle and there will be smaller circles drawn inside it and then a smaller one inside it, until it reaches the smallest circle. The drawing will look like a spiral. The archers use these kinds of dart boards for practicing shooting and aiming.

The king and the hunter saw ten boards like those and on all the ten boards, exactly at the centre the arrow had been shot. Both the hunter and king were surprised to see this. They wondered how one could shoot the arrow at the center on all the boards. As huntsmen it was impossible for them to shoot it at the center on all the boards. They began to wonder: Who is the expert in archery here? Who is the soldier? Who is the expert whose aim is so perfect that he has shot all the arrows correctly at the centre. So thinking they start searching for the warrior. There was an archer who was shooting his arrows against the board. The king went to him and shook hands with him, saying, Oh warrior, nice meeting you. Please join my army. How were you able to correctly shoot all your arrows at the center on all the ten boards? I am sure you must be a great archer. Tell me how you learnt the archery so well. The archer replied: I first shoot the arrow and then accordingly I draw the center circle and other circles. That's all.

Even in our life, we search for the goal after living. If we had searched for the goal, before living, then that is different. But we start our search for a goal, only at the end of our life. That is like drawing the circles after shooting the arrows. That will not help in life. Before shooting the arrow, we should have drawn and observed the circle. Even before living our life we should know the goal clearly. The intelligence, wisdom and knowledge which shower the clarity on the goal. This will bring us out of the ignorance, worry and miseries in our life.

In the next Stotra through the words: Ahimsa Satya Asteya Brahmacharya Parikrahayamaha Patanjali explains beautifully the mode and the maturity of living. Firstly, he explained what Yoga is. Then next he explains the techniques to reach that. The ways to reach that are given in the eight steps. The techniques under the first of the eight steps are: Ahimsa Satya, Asteya, Brahmacharya, Parikrahayamaha.

The first step is a beautiful step. In which He explains five fundamental characteristics which are required for a man. To achieve anything these five characteristics are required. Here let us split the above verse for explaining them in detail one by one. They are: Ahimsa, Asteya, Satya, Aparigraha and Brahmacharya. He says all these five are required. Let us see every characteristic in detail.

Ahimsa means not causing trouble to others physically, mentally or consciously. It means not causing trouble to others and not putting others in sorrow. Ahimsa does not just mean not hurting anybody physically. But it also means, not hurting others through painful words. This is an important thing which we should understand. Ahimsa also includes not uttering words which will hurt someone.

One person asked me: Master, terrorism is at its peak, how we can eliminate terrorism? I answered him: Don't worry about the terrorism in the country. First handle the terrorism which happens at home. Let us worry about the terrorism in the country later. Let us see the violence in our own house. Look at the way we are hurting each other through our words. Look at the way we are causing pain and misery to each other through our own words. Nothing is going to happen if we talk about terrorism in the country. But there is every chance that we can eliminate the violence in our houses. But most of us have the habit of talking about something which we definitely cannot do. We never talk about something which can do.

One person told me: Master, I love the whole world. I told him: It is easy to love the whole world, but it is difficult to love your neighbor. Is there any difficulty in loving the whole world? No. It is actually very easy. However it is very difficult to love our neighbor. We can utter impractical words continuously. Some people come and tell me: Master, I have not caused any harm to others or even to small insects. It is very easy not to hurt any insects or ants, but it is difficult to be without hurting our spouse. Of course, we think we should not trouble the insects and ants, but only as long as those beings don't cause any trouble to us.

If we see in our lives, we will involve ourselves in talking and even in doing impractical things. From morning till evening we keep talking that the country has become bad and violence has increased in the country. We don't do anything which is possible for us to do. It makes sense to talk only if we can do something about it.

One of our devotees had come from America. When I went to visit a town, he accompanied me. That was his first visit to India. He was sitting in my car with me. We were crossing a few villages on the way. On the way in the corner of the road some people were sleeping. Seeing this he asked me: Master the time is 11 O'Clock in the morning and how come people are still sleeping? I told him: Don't worry about that. It is not a surprising thing in our country. After some distance we stopped for a break and we saw that there were about 20 people sitting in front of a tea shop and chatting for quite some time. He expressed his surprise to me saying: Why so many people are sitting here and chatting for a long time? Again I told him: This is quite common here.

In our lives we complain saying: The country has become bad and violence is too much in the country. We constantly worry about the country. But this is not in our hands. However, there is something which is in our hands and which is possible for us to do. And that is changing our own house. But we never do that. The moment we start reducing violence and terrorism in our homes, then automatically the country will change. There is no separate entity called country. All our houses put together form a country. Am I right? Country is a collection of all our houses. Only by bringing about change at home, we will be able to change the country. But without working to bring about change in the house, if we complain all the time, we cannot change the country. If any good has to happen, first we have to take the step towards it.

For example, if a village has to be cleaned, the first step most of us would take is going to the complaining mode and end up in blaming each and every official and authority. We always think of blaming others. We never think about what can be done by us. If we decide, we can actually clean one street at least. If we decide, may be at least we can keep one house clean or a garden clean. Without attempting to do something that is possible from our side, we blame as many people as possible. If we can usefully utilize that time which we spend from morning till evening for complaining on various things, that itself is enough, half of the problems in the country will disappear. Country will improve by fifty percent. Nothing else needs to be done. Instead of thrusting the responsibility on other people, let us bring the responsibility into our life.

Ahimsa means whether by words or actions or mentally protecting others by not causing any problems and sorrows to anybody. We may think: Okay we understand that not causing trouble to anybody is a good principle. But how is that going to make my life blissful? This question would have arisen in most of our minds.

Let me tell you a small incident, which happened in Paramahamsa Yogananda’s life (an enlightened Master). One day He noticed a rose plant in His garden. There were few roses in the plant and many thorns. He went near the plant and said: Oh Rose plant, why are you wasting your energy in generating so many thorns? Use your energy to generate flowers. Nobody will cut your flower or trouble you, I assure you, please don’t waste your energy in generating thorns. Like this he spoke to the rose plant for about five minutes. Some of us might think this is stupidity. We might wonder: How can someone talk to a plant? Is he mentally alright? Please be very clear, it has been proved scientifically that our feelings and thoughts are understood by plants and trees. Paramahamsa Yogananda is a great enlightened Master. He sat next to the plant and conversed with the plant for about five minutes. This incident truly happened. They have captured a picture of the plant. After ten days the thorns which were in the plant started falling. After two months the plant was completely decorated by flowers. There were no thorns. This has been captured in the scientific records. He did not do any black magic. He had a deep conversation with the plant and encouraged the plant by saying: Nobody will trouble you, this is a place of Ahimsa. The plant was inside his ashram. He just said: You don’t need your thorns, no one will trouble you. Use your energy to generate more flowers. Don’t generate so many thorns. Since the ashram was a place of Ahimsa and due to the effect of the good words and thoughts, without spending the energy on growing thorns, the rose plant spent the energy on growing flowers. If we could also generate good thoughts meaning generate Ahimsa in ourselves and not waste our energy on the thorns, that is on sorrows and chattering about the problems we face in our life then we can use our energy for creating a blissful flower. Thereby we can create a beautiful, blissful life.

Few days ago one man asked me: Master, my mind is full of sorrows. How do I come out of this? I asked him: Did someone pass their sorrow to you? He replied: No master, I have created the confusion for myself. I asked him: Tell me the reason for that. He said: I am unable to find the reason. Some times my mind keeps oscillating.

The moment I got the confirmation from him that he is confused from his own mouth, I asked him: If you are confusing yourself, can’t you make it alright by yourself. He felt like he was given a shot and he said: That’s true Master. It is me who has put myself in confusion, so I can make it alright. Then I replied: Good then make it alright. That’s all. There is nothing else in life.

Please understand, the moment we get clarity that only we cause confusion then half of the problems will be over. Since we are unable to come to that clarity that we ourselves are the causes for our confusions, we are unable to arrive at the solutions.

A small story.

A King went to see Buddha. He sat before Buddha and he was shaking his legs. Some of us have the habit of shaking our legs. Understand when someone is shaking the legs, it means that the mind is oscillating. The restlessness which is inside is expressed out in this manner. Because the mind oscillates, the legs keep shaking. This is due to the inner restlessness.

Now let us come back to the story. During the conversation Buddha keenly focused on his legs. The moment the King understood that Buddha was observing him shaking his legs, he stopped shaking the legs. The legs that were shaking had stopped. After sometime the king asked Buddha: Oh Buddha, my mind keeps oscillating. It is always immersed in sorrow. Please tell me a way out. Buddha replied: Did you notice the incident which happened sometime back? You were shaking your legs. The moment you realized that I was observing you; you stopped shaking your legs. Similarly, if you come to the clarity that your mind is oscillating, the oscillation of the mind will stop.

The moment we come to the clarity, that we are immersing ourselves into confusion, the confusion stops. Only until we get the clarity, we will have the confusion. Once you have the clarity there will not be any confusion. In our lives, if we start using our energy towards clarity, there will not be any space for confusion. If we direct our energy towards Ahimsa, towards bliss, then we can avoid the generation of thorns of violence. Why am I stressing the need for Ahimsa? If we don’t direct our energy towards the path of Ahimsa, then the energy by itself will find its path through Himsa (Violence).

If our energy does not go through the good path, then it will take the bad path. One important thing which we all should understand is that Ahimsa is not a message, which is told for the well-being of others. It is actually told for the well-being of every one of us. Uttering good words towards others means is not just good for others, it is good for us also.

Let me explain the reason behind this. In Psychology an important message is said. We use the same words that we use on others when we are angry with them, on ourselfves when we are angry with ourselfves. This is a very important message from Psychology.

When we are angry and violent, if we use harsh words against someone, then we will be using the same words on ourselfves, when we are upset with ourselfves.

Be very clear, we don't have two minds, we just have one mind. So please understand that the words which we use on others are the same words that we use on ourselves. When we are angry, if we scold others with harsh and violent words, then be very clear, when we are guilty of some mistake, we will be using the same words over ourselves. If we see deeply, people who are short-tempered will have more guilt feeling. Just observe the people, who are very short-tempered, if we get to know about their personal life, we will know that they have more guilt feeling. They will have guilty feelings like: Oh, I have made a mistake. They are always hard on themselves. Whenever they are guilty of any mistakes, they constantly beat themselves through words.

Ahimsa is not just told for others well-being, it is also told for our well-being. There are two words, sadist and masochist. Sadist is a person who finds pleasure in other's sorrows. A person who finds pleasure in other's sorrows will suppress himself also in sorrow. Why do you think we are causing problems for others? It is because of the pain inside us. We are trying to exhaust the pain in this manner.

Without any reason, one person was cursing spirituality, a devotee who was sitting next to that person complained to me: Master, he is disrespecting and insulting spirituality, I am sure he will go to hell. I replied to him: No, he will not go to hell, don't worry. Shockingly he asked me: How is that, Master? I answered him: He is already in hell.. He cannot go beyond that. Understand that the moment we insult others or put them in sorrow, then be very clear, that we are already in sorrow.

Only if we have something, we can give that to others. If we are giving sorrow to someone, it means that we ourselves are already immersed in sorrow. It means that we are already in hell. We need not have to go to hell separately. The mental setup that wants to immerse others in sorrow is by itself hell. That's what is meant by hell. There is no place such as hell. The anger, violence and pain that put others into sorrow is hell.

A small story.

A great warrior went to an enlightened Master. He asked Him: Master, What is hell? Without answering his question, he questioned the warrior: What is your profession? The warrior replied: I am a great warrior. Sarcastically the Master laughed and said: You? Are you a warrior? Who appointed you as a warrior? You don't seem like one. The warrior was mad in rage and pulled out his sword, and said: How dare you tease me? See what I will do to you in a minute. So saying he was about to seize the head of the Master. The enlightened Master laughed and said: Son, this is hell.

The moment the enlightened Master uttered these words, the warrior understood the message and felt bad for his action. So begging for His forgiveness he said: Master, please forgive me for my actions. Then immediately the Master said: Son now this is heaven.

Understand when anger and violent actions are at its peak, we get the mental setup of suppressing others in sorrow and putting others in misery. Only when pain and sorrows enter us, we suppress others in sorrow. If we are getting angry with someone then first understand clearly, that there is some problem or some mistake from our side.

For example, if someone blames us by saying that we have stolen 100 million from a bank, will any of us get angry? No. But when someone blames us that we are a short-tempered person and we are impatient, most of us do get angry. This means, when we were blamed for stealing 100 million, we didn’t get angry because we know that there is no truth in it. But when we are blamed for being short-tempered and impatient then we get angry. Then what does it mean? In the first statement there is no truth. But the second statement is true to an extent. That’s the reason we get angry. When we were blamed for a bigger cause, we didn’t get angry for that, because we ourselves know that it is a complete lie. But the second blame is based on minor reason, like being short-tempered and impatient. But the moment we were blamed, anger swells within us. The reason is that there is some amount of truth in the second blame.

If we get angry and we are taking a step towards putting others in sorrow or in misery, then please be very clear, that you are in hell. Without us entering into sorrow, we cannot pull someone else into sorrow. A man,.who is in bliss, cannot use harsh words on others and lead them to sorrow. He can never say that. Only when someone is in sorrow, he puts others also in sorrow. When someone is immersed in sorrow, then by nature he feels like suppressing others also in sorrow. He is called sadist meaning, putting others in sorrow and deriving pleasure out of it. Masochist means putting one self into sorrow and deriving pleasure out of that. We are not only immersing others into sorrow and misery, we are immersing ourselves as well in sorrow.

So please understand that Ahimsa is not a word which talks about the well-being of others from our point of view, but it also refers to the actions which we do towards ourselves. Do not put others in sorrow. We should not drown ourselves in sorrow. Not putting others in sorrow means not doing any action which immerses someone in sorrow, or the actions which insults someone, be it physically, mentally or consciously. Not drowning ourselves in sorrow means to maintain and run our body and mind in a proper way. We should not give sorrow to ourselves.

We should not always think about what others will think of us. Like for example: ‘What will he think about me?’ or ’Why was he gazing at me?’ or ‘What was he thinking about me?’ or ‘What would they have spoken about me?’ Some people will have spy armies to find out what others are thinking about them. They will send their spies to others to find out what he/she is thinking about them. It has become our job to worry about what others think about us. There is a beautiful proverb, which says: Don’t worry about what others are thinking about you, because they are worrying as to what you are thinking about them. This is truth in our lives. We are worried what someone is thinking about us. That particular someone is worried as to what we are thinking about him. Like this, we are constantly torturing ourselves in various ways. Stopping to torture ourselves and stopping to torture others, is called Ahimsa.

Next is Asteya. Asteya means non-stealing. Then you will ask me: Are you saying that we are stealing? The answer is ,’Yes’. Though not directly, indirectly we are all stealing. Let us understand this deeply to know how.

The moment we eat one spoon more than what is allotted to us, then it means that we are stealing from others food. When we eat beyond a limit, then it means that surely we are stealing someone else’s food. Mahavir (an enlightened Master from Jainism) says beautifully: Whatever things and materials are required for us to live in this world are also sent along with us when we are born. When someone hoards something too much then others are deprived of it.

Another beautiful proverb, There is enough on the planet earth to fulfill everybody’s needs, but whole planet earth cannot fulfill one person’s greed. Things are there in this earth to satisfy our requirements. All the things which are required to fulfill the need of millions of people are in this earth. But the whole world is not enough to fulfill one person’s greed. Assuming in this world six billion people are there. Then all the things which are required for them are definitely there in this planet earth. However we cannot satisfy the greed of a single man even by giving him the whole planet earth.

Need is different from want. God has given whatever is required for us, to satisfy our needs. But it is not enough to satisfy our wants too. Even if the whole earth is given to someone who is greedy, even then he will not be fulfilled. Need is different from want. When we live just with ‘need’, then it means we are non-stealers. However, when we go beyond the needs and start hoarding things, we start stealing though not directly.

Thus Patanjali gives a beautiful social philosophy. Our sages and enlightened Masters have given societal rules. We all should understand this. Our sages and enlightened Masters care greatly about the society. That’s the reason they have given so many societal guidelines, disciplines and truths.

When I was talking to one of our devotees I was telling him: All our youngsters will know the value of our country, only when they are sent to other countries and made to stay there for a year. They will realize the worthiness of our social philosophies. Like respecting elders, taking care of elders, taking care of parents. Some of us think, the moment the parents get old, they are a burden. But in foreign countries, people go into depression for not being able to live with their parents. Living as a joint family, taking care of elders, respecting elders, all these are ways through which we can avoid ourselves from falling into depression. Please don't think the elders are a burden.

Generally some of us think that our parents or elders are a burden. We will know when we go to other countries and live there. After becoming old and facing loneliness, they will begin to feel bad that they have not taken care of their parents. The social setup of those countries itself is different. Only when we go there and see the pain they are undergoing, we will know the value of our social setup. Immediately after getting married, leaving the parents behind is a horrible mental setup. Most of us will not know the impact of it now. In our old age, when the next generation does not take care of us, only then we will know the impact of it. The life style as designed by the sages and enlightened Masters is a beautiful way to live. This life style is designed based on the solid truth.

Now let us come back to Asteya. Just this one word, Asteya meaning non-stealing, is a social philosophy. Stealing does not just mean taking others things without awareness. Hoarding beyond our requirements is also stealing. Living with whatever we need is freedom. That is actually the biggest freedom in our life. This is a wonderful quotation by an enlightened Master which all of us should know. He says: If you have any thing in your house which you had not used in the last six months, then please donate it to some charitable institution. If you have not used it for six months then are we ever going to use it? That is true. We are not going to use it. But we fill our lofts with all the things.

Apart from this, going for shopping is a major disease. The moment their purse gets heavy some people cannot sit quietly. Actually it's really a disease. Only when they empty the purse, they feel satisfied. Buying something and stuffing the house. Actually if we see, to hide the insecurity which is inside us, we keep buying and stuffing the house. Psychological analysis has been done on this. Going for shopping is a major disease in foreign countries. Psychologists who have done the research on this say: To hide the insecure feeling which is inside us, we buy the things from outside and stuff our house. Buying things giving some reason like: When my daughter or son gets married, we need this. For an event which is not going to happen in the immediate future, hoarding and storing things much earlier in time, is an expression of the insecurity. The expression of insecurity is in the form of stuffing things, which are beyond the immediate requirement. Hoarding things beyond the requirement, is called Asteya. Patanjali says: Hoarding things beyond our requirement is a mistake not only at social level but it is a mistake at the mental and spiritual level also.

If we can implement this message in our life to an extent, may not be at a bigger level, then our life and social setup will also change. But most of us don't think that this is possible. Even before beginning to do something, we ourselves decide that it is not possible to do it. We ourselves decide that all those are difficult things to be achieved. Please understand that possessing things beyond our requirements will remove the bliss and joy from our lives. It will make our lives dull. If we see, a person who lives with too many comforts, a person who brings plenty of comforts into his life, he loses the nature and sensitivity to enjoy the comforts.

Initially when we are using a two-wheeler, we will dream about a Maruti car. After buying a Maruti car, we dream about a Maruti esteem car. If we buy the Maruti Esteem, then we dream about a Qualis car. If we have bought the Qualis, the moment we sit in the car, we dream about a Benz. The mental setup which asks: What next? what next? will make us insensitive to enjoy these things which we already possess. It will make us insensitive to enjoy the things which we already possess.

A small story.

A person is highly absent-minded and is very forgetful. He was reminding himself that moment he reaches home, he has to do three things. He tied three knots in his dhoti (a traditional dress worn by Indian men), so that he will remember to do these three things. Once he reached home, he could remember only two of the chores. After doing the two jobs promptly, he removed the two knots. But he was unable to remember the third job. He kept thinking as to what it was. He thought: Oh God, I was able to carry out the first two jobs, but I am unable to remember the third one, what it could be? Like this he was thinking about it the whole night. Ultimately the next day morning at 4 o'clock, he was reminded of it. The first point which he wanted to do was to go home and eat well. Second thing was to settle the accounts of the house and the third point was that he has to sleep well. He had done the first two jobs. He had taken his food and tallied the accounts also. Only in the early morning he was reminded that he wanted to sleep peacefully. Thinking that he may forget to sleep, he had tied the knot, finally he had lost his sleep.

In our lives also, we spend our life and ultimately lose our life. Trying to buy a big mattresses, we forget to sleep. We sell our eyes to buy an art. We sell our legs to learn how to dance. We sell our sleep to buy a mattress. Most of us are doing this in our lives. Immediately after getting something, we run to get the next thing. Therefore the thing which was got first is not experienced and enjoyed. If we have an ordinary chair, we never sit and relax on it. The moment we sit on it, we dream about a sofa set. Then is it possible to sit peacefully on this chair? Not possible. If someone cannot sleep peacefully on a mat, then he cannot sleep peacefully on a mattress. Please be very clear about it. The quality of sleep does not depend based on the mat or mattress. It depends on our mental maturity. Most often, some of us lose our sleep in the process of trying to buy a mattress. We begin to spend our whole life trying to buy things beyond our requirements and ultimately end up losing our lives. We lose the sensitivity to enjoy things. When we add more and more comforts, both the mind and the body lose the sensitivity to enjoy the comforts.

If we see there are people in the rural areas or people who live in huts and in the cities. People live in the river banks amongst the mosquito bites or amongst other bacteria. We don't even have 1% of the resistance power that they have. When we become more and more comfort driven, more and more dependent on comforts, both the mind and the body become weak. We don't have the mental energy and physical energy as much as those people in the huts. We don't have the maturity to live life as much as they have. We don't have the ability, the confidence and the solidity to experience the life, which they have.

The reason is as the number of material things or the quantity of the things increases, the quality of life decreases. In our lives as and when the number of comforts increases, the quality of such a life decreases. A man, who lives a simple life, lives his life completely and thus he is fulfilled.

We shall end with these two techniques, Ahimsa and Asteya in this part and we shall see the rest of the techniques and other steps subsequently. May these messages deeply immerse in you, may these messages act in you, and grant the eternal bliss to you and I pray that you may attain the eternal blissful state, the Nithya Ananda state. Thank you. Be Blissful.