Ajna Chakra🔗

Ajna chakra is located between the eyebrows. In Sanskrit, Ajna means ‘will’ or ‘order’. The Ajna chakra is known as the Master Chakra.

This chakra is locked by seriousness and ego and it can be made to flower by innocence, simplicity and intelligence, and by shedding all forms of ego.

The Ajna chakra is known as the Chakra Raja – the Master of all the chakras.

This is such a significant chakra that there is no religion that has not worked on activating it. When the Ajna opens, the whole Being enters into a different realm. A whole layer of faculties opens up. That is why all the oriental gods are represented with a third eye in their forehead. The third eye is a symbol for the awakened Ajna.

There is an old saying, that if you die in Varanasi, a sacred city of India, you will automatically get liberated. Varanasi is not just the city as we know it. It is also the region where the vaarana that is the eyebrows meet the naasi, that is the nose, which is the exact location of the Ajna chakra. It symbolically represents the death of ego in the liberated or enlightened state.

The Ajna chakra is concerned with ego, with seriousness, with thinking too much about ourselves and therefore taking life too seriously.

Seriousness is nothing but paying undue importance to something, at the cost of everything else. It stems from the inability to see that all of life is just a drama that is unfolding every minute. Seriousness is the result of over-expectation from life.

Seriousness closes your mind to the openness and freedom of life. It makes you dull and dead. It curbs your thinking and makes you stick to the familiar patterns that you know all the time.

Science has proved that when you perform a task in a relaxed and light manner, your thinking and decision-making capacity is automatically enhanced. The same task when performed in a serious manner dulls your mind.

When you do something too seriously, when you are too concerned about the result, you are actually not allowing yourself to perform at the optimum level.

Of course, you need to make plans, you need to think ahead. But do it with sincerity, not with seriousness. Seriousness is not the same as sincerity. Sincerity is focusing on the task with enthusiasm and youthfulness. Sincerity is giving the task your best without worrying excessively about the result.

When you are serious, you don't enjoy, you don't laugh. How can you laugh when you are serious? They are mutually exclusive. Either you are serious or you are laughing; you can't be both at the same time because the very definition of seriousness is such.

But when you are sincere, you can be laughing and playful. You can continue to do the job on hand in a playful and creative way and the job will get done in a joyful fashion, and because you have finished the job, you have been sincere.

With sincerity, there is no worry, there is only enthusiasm.

One thing that really gets us serious is planning. There are two types of planning. Chronological planning is planning on a timescale. You decide: You will get up at such and such a time, finish your morning routine by a particular time, reach office at a particular time, and get certain tasks done that day at the office. This is alright. It is a practical way to organize your work in a way that can give the best results. This kind of planning with sincere action will take you from happiness to more happiness!

Psychological planning on the other hand, is planning in your head with no relevance to time or space. It is just a constant serious planning going on in your head, over and above the chronological planning. It keeps you thinking that you are serious and dutiful. It is actually nothing but complex negativity being applied to the chronological planning that has already been done. You keep analyzing your plan, and getting into a dull state because all your energy is going in analyzing the plan again and again.

I tell you: Psychological planning is actually a way of postponing happiness, postponing life, waiting for something particular to happen to start enjoying life.

We always think, If I get married, my life will be settled. So let me work towards getting married. If I have two children, my life will be fulfilled. Once I retire, I'll be peaceful.

It is the attitude - Now I'll be serious, later I'll be happy! In the end, you will be happy neither now nor then. You will lose your capacity to be happy at any time.

Don't harp too much on perfectionism. I tell you: Perfectionism can make you neurotic. Whatever you do, do it wholly, totally. Then automatically, whatever you do will be total and you don't have to worry about perfectionism at all.

Perfectionism never gives you joy, it only fulfills your ego. Even if you feel fulfilled at the end of it, it is only a fulfillment of your ego, never a fulfillment of your Being. Be very clear: Perfectionists are the biggest egoists. They miss the dimension of being total. And know one thing: Totality is possible when you enter into it deeply. Perfectionism is never possible because it is in your mind and your mind keeps changing its definition of perfection.

And one more thing: Have the courage to make mistakes. Serious people are always afraid to make mistakes. Actually I tell you, these people who are afraid of making small mistakes, end up making big blunders!

There is nothing wrong in making mistakes. In fact, by making a few mistakes, you come to know clearly how to avoid making mistakes, because you have experientially understood it. The more you learn from mistakes, the more you know about how not to make mistakes.

Knowing how not to make mistakes is a very important thing. Only then you have seen both sides of it; only then you have explored the two sides experientially. Else, there is always the danger of falling into the unknown side at a critical time when you really can't afford to.

Only one thing: Don't make the same mistake again! Your mind always repeats patterns. Don't do it with mistakes also. Make new mistakes! And move on to better and better understanding!

I am not saying to deliberately make mistakes. That is foolishness again. I am only saying, do things to the best of your intelligence and enthusiasm but without worrying about whether it might be a mistake. The moment you are worried that it might be a mistake, you are worried about your ego getting hurt.

People who are loaded with the past and the future are always worried about making mistakes. They don't know how to laugh spontaneously. They feel that it is their duty to shoulder the past and future and be immersed in it in all seriousness. This is a very highly egoistic attitude. They feel that if they don't do it, there is no one to do it for them.

First of all, there is no need to shoulder the past and future. Just be in the present, that is enough. These people are completely missing the present. They are completely missing the laughter in their lives.

Laughter is that which brings in a ray of Energy from your Being to your body. It totally rejuvenates your whole Self. It can heal like nothing else can. It gives you such wonderful glimpses of the present, which you try to achieve through other difficult meditation techniques. Laughter is the most powerful meditation technique.

You see, maturity does not have anything to do with excluding laughter. But somehow, we feel that when we are mature, we should automatically laugh less. Laughter is such strength because it brings in energy from your core to your periphery.

If you analyze why you laugh when a joke is cracked, you will understand: A set of logically connected statements is first told to you. When you are clinging on to the logic that has been created, the punch line is delivered and your logic is shattered! At that moment when your logic is shattered, your thinking, your mind is also shattered and you are in a state of no-mind or satori. You are Buddha!

When you are in no-mind, you are in the present. When you laugh, you are in the present because when you laugh there can be no thoughts. When you are thoughtless, you are in the present. When you are with thoughts, you are either in the past or in the future.

Laughter is total and it can simply heal and transform you. It is the best and easily available medicine for humanity.

We always think that we need a comedian or a joke to make us laugh. I tell you: When you start living in the present moment, your very existence will be beautiful and light. Your inhalation and exhalation of breath, the process of bread getting converted to blood in your body, the synchronous happenings of events in Existence, everything will be so beautiful. You will feel so much bliss and you will be ever smiling and laughing. Your whole Being will exude laughter and bliss.

Laughter is the highest spiritual quality. It can lead you to enlightenment! Laughing is a great healing energy. If you laugh at your sickness, you will become healthy. Laughter is a beautiful way of connecting with the Energy of Existence, which is pure healing Energy.

In our meditation programs, we always include laughter and dance. They are the easiest ways to becoming a Buddha! Dance can make you simple and light. Dance like laughter is another easy and enjoyable meditation. When you can dance without a care, you become the dance itself. Energy will then gush from you.

You can dance without a care only if you are free from all your pseudo identities. As long as you think you are someone, you can't dance in joy. Dance is an outward expression of inner joy. And I am not talking about programmed dance where you know which step is going to come next. I am talking about letting go of your so-called identities and feeling the oneness with Existence and dancing with that joy.

The self-conscious ones are the egoistic ones. They are so bothered about what others will say about their dance and so they sit quietly. Again, they are guarding their ego and they are missing the joy of life like anything.

Once in a while at least, in your home, play some music and dance. Simply decide to let go. It can become an intense meditation that can take you beyond your mind and transform you in a way that words can’t. Be natural. Be original. The people who comment on your dance are simply missing out on the joy of dance. Don’t bother about them. Just dissolve and become the dance itself. Laughter and dance are the easiest techniques to shed your ego and merge with Existence.

Simply put, when you no longer feel yourself as a separate entity, ego has dissolved. When you become enlightened, your ego has ripened and ruptured. When your ego drops, the barriers you posed earlier will disappear and Existence will simply flow through you freely.

When your ego dissolves, you cease to exist and you simply merge with Existence! This is the state of Enlightened Masters. You are a part of Existence, and whatever causes you to think otherwise, is ego. That’s all. It is like this: A fish, whether it likes it or not, whether it accepts it or not, whether it believes it or not, is a part of the ocean. It has two choices. It either lives happily in the ocean, or fights with the ocean and still continues to live in it, making its own life miserable.

If you flow with Existence, you will enjoy every moment of your life. You will become porous, sensitive, creative and fluid.

When you are full of wonder for Existence, you can create. On the other hand, when you are full of ego, you cannot create; and even if you create, your creation will be a dead creation. It will be like a plastic rose, which looks perfect but lacks the fragrance and life. When an artist creates out of love, he can give a certain special quality to the creation. If he creates out of ego, the creation is lifeless.

The problem is, we have distanced ourselves so much from Existence, from our source, which lies deep within us. So we need constant reminders about it. You can start shedding your ego by first admiring and appreciating the beauty surrounding you. That itself will start sowing the seed of transformation in you. It will cause you to understand that there is a Life Force mightier than your ego, which is conducting this Universe.

The more you lose yourself to Existence, the more egoless you become. The more egoless you become, the more you lose yourself to Existence.

The Master-disciple relationship is there only for you to lose your ego. When you are alone, you cannot lose your ego. The Master becomes the device, the support, for you to lose your ego. The more you dissolve into him, the more you will be ready to open up and lose your ego. When do you know that your ego is dissolving? When you start experiencing a certain joy that you have not experienced before.

Just look at young children. They are so enthusiastic towards life. They are so loving. Have you ever wondered why you are not so enthusiastic as them? You were like them once upon a time, is it not? Then, where have we lost this enthusiasm and innocence? Come on tell me. Where do you think we have lost this?

Let me tell you, in this whole process of shedding our ego, we are trying to rediscover the child in us. When we were young, we were closer to realizing God. As we grew and became so-called mature, our social conditionings simply marred the child in us.

Ego comes in two forms. The active ego is easy to recognize. People with active ego will behave in a highhanded fashion; they will claim self-importance openly; they will not bend down to people; they will be haughty. This ego is actually easy to deal with, for a Master. He just needs to bang on it a few times and it will break!

Active ego is very easy to recognize. A person with an active ego will not be willing to let go of it even if all his other defenses like money, wealth etc are taken away from him. Active ego can be easily pruned.

But passive ego, is very subtle and cunning. People who have passive ego will pose to be very humble, lacking courage to face people, shying away from taking credit etc. The worst part of this is, they think they are like this because they are not egoistic. The truth is, they are more egoistic than the other lot! They are so carefully guarding their ego from getting hurt by doing all these humble things.

So be very clear: Most often, people think that active ego is the only kind of ego ever present. No. There is something called passive ego, which is what we just discussed, and this is more difficult to deal with.

People with active ego are like a dried and hard twig. They can be broken easily. People with passive ego are like a fresh and green twig. Each time their ego is hit, they bend but don't break. Their ego is so well safeguarded that it becomes difficult to deal with it. Actually, they work very hard to safeguard it, but in a sweet and passive way. Passive ego is more dangerous than active ego.

Whenever you find time, just relax and be aware of everything around you. Listen with your heart to all the sounds happening around you. It may be the sounds of birds, the sound of the calendar in the breeze, the sound of the fan above you, the sound of people around you, or whatever. Just listen with an open heart. Mind you, they are all not distractions. You are flowing with them and so they are not distractions. When you flow with them, they cease to be distractions.

As you do this, you will realize that there is a certain silence, a composite core inside that is actually witnessing all this and you will become more and more aware of that silence inside you. You will get glimpses of that silence in you.

Slowly, you will lose consciousness of your body also. You will only have awareness. You will feel yourself only through your awareness, not through your body or through your mind. Your body will not be numb but you will not be able to feel it, that's all; only your awareness will remain. This can take you beyond your mind if done intensely.

When you break free from the rigid mechanism of the mind, you become fluid, flowing, like a river; then you are intelligent. When you are able to think laterally, you are intelligent. When you are spontaneous, you are intelligent. When it is difficult to challenge you, you are intelligent.

When you know that Life is a drama, you are intelligent. When you understand that Existence is the ultimate Life Force, you are intelligent. When you are aware and conscious of your inner silence, you are intelligent.

When you can smile and laugh spontaneously without applying your mind to it, you are intelligent. When you radiate energy by your mere presence, you are intelligent. When you are not stuck anywhere for a long time, and not easily challenged, you are intelligent. When you can feel your ego consciously, you are intelligent. When you know that you are rich not because of your riches but because of your Being, you are intelligent.

When you recognize a Master, you are intelligent. When you are ready to let go your ego to the Master, you are intelligent. When you play the game of life enjoying every moment of it, you are intelligent!

Sahasrara chakra is located on the crown of the head. In Sanskrit, Sahasrara means 'of thousand petals' - from the mystical experience of a lotus of thousand-petal blooming on the crown, when this chakra is activated.

This chakra is closed by discontentment and the attitude of taking life for granted and it can be made to flower by overflowing gratitude and contentment!

If you observe our prayers, you will realize that all of us are actually beggars. We simply ask, ask and ask. Our prayer is nothing but a begging bowl. We beg for material things, for smooth relationships, for power, for achieving our goals, for physical beauty, and what not.

We are all the time asking for something or the other continuously in our minds. In fact we are so much in tune with asking, that it has become an unconscious process within ourselves and we might not even accept that we are asking. We might argue that we are not asking, because we don't see it as asking. We see it as a natural way of life! We have become so involved in it and therefore unable to distance ourselves from it and see it with a fresh mind.

When you live with overwhelming gratitude in you, you have found a space wherein nothing else is needed. It means that you have fallen into meditation. Then, you will not worry about anything else. You are on the right track. Your mind is no longer a hindrance to your growth. Your mind has disappeared. The mind cannot step in because you are brimming from your heart. There is no space for your mind. When there is no space for your mind, where will discontentment come from? Discontentment cannot come from the heart. It is purely a product of the mind.

Instead of feeling gratitude towards everything around us, we are asking and questioning all the time. We need to get back this connection with Existence again. Gratitude can help bring back this lost connection. It can help you find your roots once again. It can help you commune with nature, with Existence.

Remember: Life itself is a gift to you! Have you worked hard to get it? Can any of you say that you have worked very hard to earn this life? No! That is why we don't realize its value! We simply take everything for granted – our bodies, our daily food, the beauty of nature – everything is taken for granted. We ask God for diamond rings – but do we thank him for giving us fingers to wear them? With time, even the diamond ring will lose its value to us!

Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi tells God: “I am so very intelligent. I gave you all that I had, all my life - full of suffering. You in your compassion gave me in return your presence of Bliss!”

We need to imbibe this sense of gratitude from great Masters. This is the only thing we need to imbibe from them, the rest will be taken care of automatically, because when you imbibe this, the power of coincidence will make things happen for you and Existence will simply shower upon you.

Whether you accept it or not, Existence is taking care of you and all you need to do is, place your faith in it and do your duty with gratitude. You will then be showered upon by Existence.

We are simply not ready to place our trust on Existence! The very quality of trusting the Universe in your Being will make you live like God on Earth! You are missing out on this wonderful opportunity due to your own ignorance and ego.

If we consciously feel a sense of continued gratitude towards the Cosmic Energy, we will be able to feel ourselves being taken care of in its very lap. We will feel ourselves being cradled by this Energy, like a child is by the Mother and whether you accept it or not, this is the Truth.

Gratitude is not any virtue. It has to be your very attitude. You need nothing more than this to feel yourself tuning in with Existence. When you feel only gratitude, you can tune yourself beautifully to Existence, and then Existence will reveal to you its magical splendor. All you need to do then is sit back and enjoy!

There are thousands of programs happening around us. Whatever we tune ourselves to, that we will experience. Now, tuning to any one program is purely our own choice; any one objecting to this? No. You have the freedom to choose the program you wish to listen to, am I right?

In the same way, if you choose to tune yourself with the chaos that is created around you by human minds, you will become chaotic. You will be caught in the never-ending whirlpool of worry, discontentment, dilemma and what not.

Whereas, when you choose to tune yourself with Existence, with the central chord that is running this whole show, you have caught the right thread in all the chaos that is around you and will be free from all these emotions. You will become a beautiful flower that blossoms with a fragrance.

With the earlier emotions, life will seem like an eternal state of discontentment. With the latter, life will become music - the very language of Existence, and you will only enjoy with gratitude all the time. The more you fine-tune yourself with Existence, the more ecstatic life will be.

Discontentment will pull you down, make you heavy and miserable. On the other hand, gratitude and the fulfillment that comes along with it, will make you light and blissful. We all feel discontented because we take things for granted. When you take things for granted, you miss a lot and nothing will make you happy or joyful. I tell you: Never take anything for granted.

When you enter into a space where gratitude becomes your meditation, contentment automatically happens. The normal contentment that we all know always comes with a reason. It is related to something that has happened in the outer world that has temporarily put your busy mind to rest, that’s all. When your mind is restful, you say you are contented. Real contentment is not this.

Real contentment is when you feel permanent gratitude towards the benevolence of Existence. Real contentment asks for nothing more. It simply enjoys everything without a reason; it needs no reason. When you reach this state, you will not know what discontentment is all about.

I tell you, just by feeling and radiating gratitude from your Being, you can change the face of planet Earth. All terrorism, wars, religious fanaticism, ill health, poverty etc. can be eradicated by just spreading awareness about the gratitude that needs to be brought out from each person.

When each one feels and radiates gratitude, there can be no war, no hate, no jealousy. All the possible roots for global negativity can be destroyed with just this one feeling, because the reasons for all negativity will simply dissolve with it. That is the beauty of gratitude!

Here we end the discussion about the chakras and now we will move into the structure of Yoga Sutras.

Structure of Yoga Sutras This meditative disciple of enlightenment or liberation is also called as Raja Yoga or Royal Yoga. It is called Royal because it is kept secretive from the masses as incorrect use of the techniques may have undesirable effects on an individual and also the society around him. As a side effect of these yogic techniques, a sadhaka also experiences supernatural powers. If these powers fall into the hands of a person who is not capable of handling them, then it might be detrimental to that person and also to the society.

In Patanjali's Yoga, according to me there are eight parts, though usually referred to as eight steps. You may also call it as eight limbs because you need to know all eight at a time; they are not sequential. Even the word ashtanga means eight parts and not eight steps of yoga. Really speaking, you can never do the eight steps sequentially. For example the first part, yama requires you to speak the truth. You can never be honest unless you experience the eighth part Samadhi. Till you experience Samadhi, whatever you say will be either a fact or a lie. A fact is not a truth. Truth as experienced with the senses is fact. Fact when experienced beyond the senses is truth. So really speaking, you can never speak the truth till you experience the eighth step Samadhi as only in Samadhi you get a glimpse of the truth. Now briefly we will introduce all the eight limbs of yoga.

Yama means restraint and five restraints are prescribed by Patanjali. We will go in detail over each of them once we start studying the sutras. Niyama means the observances or the rules to be followed and five Niyamas are prescribed. Asana's are a set of physical postures and exercises which would make the body more flexible and supple. Pranayama means the control of breath. The next part is Pratyahara which means sublimation of the senses. This is a very important stage where our senses which are normally directed outward are made to turn inwards. Once that is done, then comes the next stage of dharana or concentration. Where the mind is made to focus and concentrate on some object and when concentration becomes perfect the seeker enters into a stage called Dhyana or Meditation. In this stage the mind of the seeker remains fixed on the object without any deviation or distraction. In the last stage of Samadhi or total absorption, all duality is transcended. The seeker and the object merge and unity is experienced in the ocean of consciousness.

From the point of view of the structure of the text, the yoga sutras are divided into four parts or Padas.

In the first Pada, Patanjali blesses the seeker of the supreme to commence the study of the Yoga Sutras. Then he explains the concept of the mind, intelligence and ego and how one needs to go beyond these three in order to realize ones true self. He further gives a brief introduction to the other three padas.

In the second Pada, Patanjali explains the essentials required to gain yogic wisdom. He first explains the obstacles encountered in the practice. Then he touches upon the importance of nature and the help it provides for attaining self realization. Finally he introduces the reader to the first four limbs of yoga viz. Restraint, Observances, Postures and Breath Control.

In the third Pada, Patanjali explains how the three aspects viz. Meditation, Contemplation and Spiritual Absorbtion have to be integrated. As a result of these yogic practices, some supernatural powers start manifesting in the practioner. Patanjali explains each kind of supernatural power in this pada. Towards the end of this Pada, Patanjali warns the yogic practitioner against the danger of getting caught in the supernatural powers and they being a hindrance in the attainment of enlightenment or self realization.

In the last Pada, Patanjali first explains what is illumination and freedom. Further he discusses concepts like Karma, causation, time and object perception. Finally he concludes explaining how total liberation becomes possible when the Yogi transcends matter, time and all other illusions and reaches the state of Kaivalya (Supreme Aloneness) when nothing more needs to be done.

In this chapter we first understood what Yoga is and then why yoga is necessary. We discuss the nature of the mind and four states of consciousness. Later we analyze the seven main chakras in our body and how each chakra has an effect on our emotions. Towards the end of the chapter we briefly discuss the eight limbs and the four Padas into which the scripture has been divided. From the next chapter we will start looking into the sutras.

Sadhana Pada

अथ योगानुशासनम Atha Yogaanushaasanam

NOW (atha) THE DISCIPLINE (anushaasanam) OF YOGA (yoga)

One peculiarity of Patanjali as opposed to others like Krishna, Buddha, Christ is that Patanjali is not poetic. He is extremely terse and to the point. He does not beat around the bush. He is a scientist extraordinaire. In the very first sutra here Patanjali declares that now let us begin the discipline of Yoga. Though terse there is an impact created by every word in the sutra. The meaning comes straight and clear.

The word ‘Now’ signifies an important meaning in this context. It indicates a condition; a state which when reached the Yoga study can be commenced. Hence he says, ‘now the discipline of Yoga’. What is this condition?

It’s not a pre-requisite. It’s not something what you need to do. It’s not a homework, which you need to finish before you take up the study of Yoga Sutras. It is something, which needs to happen by itself. The seeking should have begun. The hankering for truth should have begun. Then you are truly eligible to receive in totality the great truth expounded in this scripture.

Let us understand what is this seeking. And seeking what? A very dear question confronted by every spiritual seeker. It’s a question, which 90% of the seekers find it difficult to answer. The common answers are enlightenment, liberation, to be one with God etc. But these are mere concepts or ideas created by the mind. If we probe deeper into the question what is enlightenment, again one might give different definitions, which are at the realm of the mind, another idea or concept created. So the question what am I seeking can never be answered satisfactorily. It can only be experienced. Actually the question cannot be answered because the thing, which is being sought, is not a thing. It’s not an object but the ultimate subject. And the subject can never be sought, it just is. An object can never seek the subject; but in spite of all this intellectual gymnastics, its our common experience that there is something called seeking that is happening within all of us all the time.

Then who is seeking? Isn’t it the subject who is seeking? Again the answer is yes and no. If it is the mind that is seeking the answer is no as the mind is just an object. An object cannot seek the subject. When the seeking happens without the interference of the mind then the real seeking starts. The seeking becomes permanent. This is the state when the subject seeks it self and mind is seen just as an obstacle that prevents this seeking. This is the state that Patanjali is talking about; the state when the subject seeks itself.

True seeking starts when the mind is not involved. When the mind is involved, the seeking is just a thought that appears and disappears. It is not permanent. And a thought cannot seek. Because it’s very life is limited by time. A thought stays for few seconds and disappears. Something transitory cannot seek the permanent. The seeking should begin from the being.

Ramakrishna used to give analogy of a toothache. An experience of toothache; the pain experienced during a toothache always remains in the background irrespective of what activity we are doing. The seeking should happen in a similar way. Irrespective of what external activity we are doing, our being should seek continuously. The intense longing for the truth or the absolute should always be there.

Once a disciple asks his Guru. “Why doesn’t God reveal himself to me? I have been meditating for years and reading scriptures and practicing all other disciplines.” The Guru takes the disciple to a nearby pond and holds his head and puts it in water. After sometime the disciple starts struggling for air. The guru still holds his head under water. Just before the disciple is going to die the Guru takes his head out of water and allows him to breath. The disciple is perplexed and is unable to comprehend the purpose of this sudden action by his Guru. Then the guru asks the disciple “What was the thing he longed for when he was just about to die”. The disciple says that of course he was gasping for air. In a similar way the Guru explains that longing to see God should be of equivalent intensity as his longing for air when he was about to die. If this longing has not developed then God will not reveal himself.

This is a beautiful analogy of how our seeking should be. At the instant of dying all he cared for was air to breath. Have we reached a stage where all we care for is union with the absolute or the truth? If yes, then we are perfect candidate to begin the discipline of Yoga. If not then the time has not yet come. We can just study theoretically but it may not bring about a transformation because we are not seeking any transformation.

That’s the reason patanjali uses the word Athatho. Most of the scriptures start with this word. For e.g. Brahma Sutra starts with Athatho Brahma Jigyasa. Narada Bhakti sutras also start with the word Athatho. What is the significance of this word “now”? For a new reader it might seem like a very abrupt start. He might feel that he has missed some previous book that he is supposed to read before starting this book. How can a scripture start with “Now”? This is a misconception, which a western mind has when it reads this word ‘now’. They think that some book, which was a pre-requisite to this book, got lost. The eastern mind falls into a different kind of trap. They feel that this book is for old people. They think that the word ‘now’ points towards age. Both the interpretations of the eastern mind as well as the western mind are incorrect. The truth is that this book is for mature people. It’s for people who are seeking the truth; who have understood the futility of mundane living; people who have a deep quest for the truth. Those are the people who will get maximum benefit from this book.

In our current state, the seeking for enlightenment is just one other desire along with other desires. We want our family, friends, job, parties, picnics and also enlightenment. Our seeking for enlightenment is one desire among many other desires we cater. It’s like a part time desire. We are always looking for security. We seek only as long as all things around us are perfectly secure. If not then let’s first make sure that we are safe from all aspects like money, name, fame etc. This is our attitude. We need to abandon such attitude because this prevents seeking from happening. It will just make you a professional seeker, not a true seeker. The energy, which is capable of holding the earth, sun, other planets, solar system and the galaxies in place, is very much capable of running our lives smoothly. Then why do we worry so much about trivial things? This intelligence should dawn and then the real seeking shall begin.

Seeking starts when we start realizing that no effort from our end can make things happen. As we think of ourselves now; we are just an object and we can never comprehend or understand the grand plan of the ultimate subject. It’s like a painter painting a picture. An object in the painted picture can never know what is in the mind of the painter. A sculpture can never know the mind of the sculptor. When this hopelessness begins then effortless seeking starts.

Hopelessness has to be understood in the correct light. Hopelessness does not mean absence of hope. Hopelessness is an understanding. Hopelessness is a deep understanding that I as an individual or an object cannot know the truth. When this happens, the individuality, the smaller self, the ego starts diminishing and the higher self, the real ‘I’ starts shinning forth. When hopelessness is seen as absence of hope then it just means that you are looking for some hope. There is still some hope to find hope. This is not hopelessness. Hopelessness is a state where you renounce hope. Even if there is hope you know the futility of running behind it.

When we reach the state of hopelessness, the seeker ego within us starts reducing. As long as you are seeking, the seeker ego remains and becomes the biggest hindrance in the seeking. That does not mean that there should be no seeking. The seeking should definitely be there, but there should be no seeker. This is a very subtle point I want you to understand. The absence of seeker in the seeking is the state we should be in. As long as there is a seeker, you will carry this ego that ‘I am seeking something’. Immediately you reduce the truth to an object of seeking. If the truth could have been sought then it should be an object. But truth is not an object, so it cannot be sought. Hence the seeker ego comes as the biggest difficulty in the path. This has to be relinquished first and then the effortless seeking will begin. Then you will just flow with existence.

A master used to live with many disciples in a monastery. Once the master called a disciple and told him that he has attained good spiritual wisdom and now he should go back home and report to him his progress every month by mail. The disciple obeys the master’s order and leaves the monastery. The first month the Master receives a letter from this disciple. The letter reads ‘Master, now I could experience the state of witness. I could see that I am different from the objects I see that the objects cannot really affect the subject which is me’. The master just crumples the letter and throws it in the bin. The other disciples are perplexed. The next month the second letter arrives and it reads ‘Now I can experience the state of supreme aloneness. The state where there are no objects. All I could see is myself'. After reading this letter, the master again crumples it and throws it in the bin. Again the third letter arrives the following month and it reads 'now I experience that the entire manifestation is nothing but me. My true nature is that of consciousness and so is the world. I and the world are non-different.' Again the master crumples the letter and throws it in the bin. Then the forth letter comes the following month and it reads that 'Now I have realized that there is nothing to be achieved. There is nothing to be done. All I need to do is relax into my own true state'. Once again the master crumples the letter and throws it in the bin. All other disciples are not able to decipher Masters intention. After the fourth month, several months pass without receiving any letter from the disciple. The master wonders about the disciple’s progress and so he writes back to the disciple enquiring about his progress and reminding him about his promise to write back every month. Immediately after few days, the master receives a letter. The master reads the letter – it has just 3 words and he laughs out loud. His other disciples are amazed to see this gesture. Then the master reads out the letter to them. The letter reads 'Enlightenment, Who Cares!'

This is a story with a beautiful moral. As long as the disciple thought that he is seeking and he is getting the experiences the master just tore the letter and threw it in the bin. Finally when the disciple realized that there is nobody who was seeking and wanting enlightenment, he reached the state when the seeker ego vanished and out of that ecstasy he exclaimed ‘Enlightenment how cares!’ This was the time when he really got enlightened.

Similarly I want all of you to reach the state when the yoga sutras can penetrate you and bring about a transformation. You will then be able to appreciate the sutras in totality. When the seeker ego disappears then automatically you start having patience. A deep waiting begins. What I mean by deep waiting is that the process of waiting goes unnoticed by the person who is waiting because the person who is waiting does not carry the load and the burden of the seeker in him. If the seeker ego is present, it’s like the monkey who is continuously digging the ground to see whether the seed is in perfect condition. How will then the tree grow? You need to give time for the seed to break and the tree to grow.

When you are going by a plane from India to US and you look outside the window when the plane has gained some height, you may not experience that the plane is moving. But when you reach US, then you know that the plane has reached. Similarly in spiritual seeking you may not be able to figure out whether you are progressing or not. But when you reach the destination; when you achieve the state of enlightenment, you will realize that all this while you were progressing. So patience is an essential quality for a spiritual seeker.

Once the great sage Narada was going to meet Lord Vishnu. On his way he saw a person doing intense penance. He was meditating for years and was covered by an anthill all over his body. Only his face could be seen. On seeing Narada, he asked him as to where he was going. Narada said that he is going to meet Lord Vishnu. The person meditating asked Narada to enquire with the Lord about his enlightenment and how long would it take for him to get enlightened. Narada obliged and said that he would certainly ask the lord. Narada then continued to walk and on his way he saw another person sitting under the tree and just relaxing. On seeing Narada this person asked him where he was going and then asked Narada to ask the same question to the lord i.e. how long would it take for him to get enlightened. Narada visited lord Vishnu and on his way back he first saw the man doing penance. This person was very anxious to hear the answer given by Lord Vishnu. Narada said that it would take around four lives for him to be enlightened. This man who was doing penance became very sad and morose. He started weeping and wailing that he has to do this penance for four more lives. Narada consoled him and started walking towards the person relaxing under the tree. On seeing Narada, this person asked him to sit and then started asking him about Lord Vishnu, his glories etc. After some time, Narada mentioned that Lord Vishnu thinks that it would take him as many lives as the number of leaves on the tree above to get enlightened. On hearing this, the person started dancing in ecstasy. Lord Vishnu suddenly appeared and said ‘Son, you will get enlightened right now’ and this person got enlightened.

This second person got enlightened, as he was extremely patient. The first person though was doing so much penance was not delighted to hear that he would get enlightened in four lives. He was thinking more about the goal rather than the path. He was finding the path very difficult and so he started weeping on hearing Lord Vishnu’s answer. On the other hand, the second person who was not doing any penance was elated to hear that he would get enlightened after many years. Because the very fact that he would get enlightened one day, brought a wave of bliss into his being and he started dancing in ecstasy. He did not care when it would happen. Just the assurance of it happening was enough to put him in bliss. And this in turn impressed Lord Vishnu and he granted him the fruit of enlightenment there and then.

There was a person who wanted to dig a well. He started at one point on the ground. He dug some 10 meters and water did not come out. So he started digging at some other point and dug 10 meters. Here too the water did not come out. Likewise he started digging 10 meters at different places but he could not find water anywhere. Finally he gave up the venture and left. This is what we do in our spiritual practice. Because of our impatience we keep changing our meditation techniques, and trying out new things. If we were to pursue just one technique sincerely and patiently we would reach the ultimate state, just as the person digging the well would have found water if he would have dug persistently at one place itself rather than changing the positions one after the other.

Amongst the spiritual seekers, there are the window shoppers! They go from Master to Master seeking. Going from Master to Master is not wrong, but not learning from any Master is what is wrong! I always tell people to go to as many gardens, pluck flowers and make a beautiful garland. Many people go to many gardens, but they don't pluck any flowers from any garden. They just want to satisfy themselves that they are seekers. They want to have spirituality as a showcase item in their homes.

As long as your questions have not become a quest and your urge has not become urgent, you cannot call yourself a seeker. Enlightenment should become a basic necessity in you; only then the real alchemy will start happening. In order to clear your doubts, a deep passive waiting without knowing what is going to happen is required. This is what is passive surrender - total surrender.

Two types of people come to me. The first category of people are those who have a problem and think they know the solution, but want my support and help to get the solution. The second category of people is the ones who have a problem, they don't know the solution and they request my help to get the solution. The former think that they have buddhi (intelligence) but not shakthi (powers). The latter understand that they have neither shakthi nor buddhi. The moment you think that God has powers but no intelligence, you start guiding him. When you guide, it only means that your ego is not mature enough to fully surrender. If you know the solutions for your problems, why are you still suffering? They tell me a problem and give the solution along with it! When you start believing that God has got powers, religion starts. When you start believing that He has got intelligence, spirituality starts. With the former, you do all the rituals to bribe Him to get His powers. With the latter, you try to link your individual consciousness with universal consciousness.

The moment you decide to wait forever, things will simply start happening. When you are in a hurry for the lotus to bloom, you open out its petals. Can this be called 'lotus flowering?' No! You need to give it some space and it will happen. You have to wait till you decide to wait! The moment you decide to wait, you don't have to wait anymore.

People ask me, "Swamiji, I decided to wait but it is not happening!" How can you say that you have decided to wait when you are already asking the second half of the statement! An utter, clear and total decision to wait is the basic necessity to become enlightened.

Either have the urgency or forget the urge itself. Don't play the in-between game. You will end up in depression. As long as the blood is hot, you will pull along; the moment the blood becomes cool, you will fall into depression, because all along you were playing the game of 'hide and seek', not real seeking. You were on a mud horse while entering the river. Be very clear - see if you are really seeking or playing the game of 'hide and seek'. The deep quest has to happen in you for it to become a tremendous waiting - for Enlightenment!

Now let us try to understand what we mean by the word discipline. Discipline has its roots in the word ‘disciple’ which means a student. A person who is capable of following the role of the disciple is said to exhibit the quality of discipline. Yoga is a discipline. It’s not a philosophical discussion or dialog between two people, but is a discipline which needs to be practiced. Upanishads contain dialogs and the declarations of the great rishi’s of yore who experienced the ultimate reality. But yoga is different from them. It directly aims at transforming an individual step by step in a scientific way. It does not give theories, but it gives a discipline, which needs to be practiced. It provides a foolproof mechanism for getting enlightened.

It requires certain qualifications to become a true disciple. There are so many so-called disciples but you will find very few true disciples. In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna says that out of thousand people one person is a seeker and out of thousand seekers one truly knows me. In a similar manner, a true disciple is very difficult to find.

One of the important qualifications of a disciple is an open mind. A closed mind cannot receive. However attentive the person may be, if his mind is closed then the master cannot penetrate. When you are in attention, you are at tension. When you are aware you are open. Awareness is the key to open the lock for the closed mind. Awareness puts you in a no-mind state and then the words of the Master directly touch your being. As long as you are listening with the mind, only the words which you want to hear touch your being. Only when you listen with no-mind the words start working on you. A transformation starts happening.

Some people ask, can an atheist be a student of yoga. I say neither an atheist nor a theist can be a student of yoga. Both these terms refer to a person who strongly believes in something. Atheist means that the person believes that there is no God whereas a theist believes that there is God. Both are not qualified to be a student of yoga. When you believe in something strongly you have closed your mind. You already believe in something. Nothing else can enter. If at all it has to enter, it has to comply with your beliefs; else it will be rejected. When you believe in something, your mind is closed. You are not fit then to receive Yoga. The right attitude for being a disciple is the attitude when you realize that you know nothing. Only when you realize that you don't know anything, then you can receive. When you understand that you don't know at least you know that you don't know. When you think that you know, you don't even know that you don't know. So the understanding of not knowing signifies knowledge whereas thinking that we know indicates ignorance. This is a very important and a subtle point to be understood. So just drop the mind and be ready to receive this priceless wisdom given by Patanjali

Knowledge comes from the being and not from the memory. The misconception that the mind is necessary for knowledge to dawn has to be removed. In fact mind is a hindrance to knowledge. That is the reason many pundits miss the reality. They know too much; they have read too much. So they are closed when they approach the master. They try to compare the Masters words with what they have read. The master is beyond the scriptures. He is the source of the scriptures. The scriptures were written because of the enlightenment expressed by the Masters. The master is the authority of the scriptures. He has the right to defy the scriptures if needed. Scriptures are like the finger pointing to the moon. They are not moon itself. Vedas are good till we meet the Master. They help us to meet the Master. But once you have met the Master then his very words are the Vedas.

Swami Vivekananda used to say that people know too much. So they are not able to imbibe anything; they are not able to digest anything. As a result when they get an opportunity they vomit their so-called knowledge on others. The knowledge has not helped them but its there with them. So the only way it can be expressed is by inflating their ego by proving their superiority in front of others. This is very dangerous. So it's good to know some five simple concepts and imbibing them completely rather than trying to know the entire book. In fact a single concept is good enough to bring about enlightenment. But the human mind is so fickle that it can never be satisfied with a simple concept. It always wants more. It wants to make things complicated. People come to me and ask me how to be blissful. I tell them just relax and rest in your being. Then they ask me how to relax. Relaxation does not need a technique. You just have to relax. There is no technique to relax. If there were a technique, then the very technique would be anti-relaxation. But people don't understand. They want a technique even for relaxation. They want to make simple things complicated because the ego gets satisfied, only by doing complicated things, not simple things. Actually truth is so simple that it's sometimes hard to believe. People ask, how can enlightenment be so simple. It cannot be so simple. I have to do intense meditation and in order to be enlightened. From my experience I am telling you. Enlightenment is very simple. You just have to drop all your fantasies about enlightenment. Your expectations and imaginations are the biggest block. All effort and sadhana is required to drop the expectations and imaginations. Once that happens enlightenment happens naturally.

Once a Zen Master was asked. How much time does it take for one to be enlightened. The Zen master said, it takes less than 1/1000ᵗʰ of the time taken for blinking the eye in order to be enlightened. I always tell people. I was searching one thousand keys outside to unlock the door but the real key, which was with me I never searched. After intense sadhana I found that key. Now I am here to tell you the source of that key. So there is no need for you to again search unnecessarily for the thousand keys when the Master is here to give you the right key.

Discipline is something, which every seeker needs to imbibe for him or her to be successful in the spiritual path. Actually the word discipline is sometimes misinterpreted. Discipline does not mean control or suppression or seriousness in character. Discipline means sincerity. If one is sincere then he has the right discipline and is qualified to commence the study of Yoga. With sincerity, discipline follows automatically. There are several seekers who have been seeking for years. Many people come to me and tell me that they have been seeking for twenty years; they have been seeking for thirty years. I ask them 'Are you sure that you were sincere in you seeking or it was just a slipshod effort'. Then these people keep quiet. Because they know that they were not sincere. According to me one year is more than enough to have a deep spiritual experience, if not enlightenment. In fact any meditation practiced for twenty-one days sincerely is bound to produce the desired results.

Most of the time our meditation becomes just a routine. Just the way we have our bath and other daily chores we do meditation. The juice in the activity is lost and it becomes boredom. This is because the sincerity is not there. If we are really sincere we can never get bored. The zeal to realize the self, the longing to realize the self will be so strong that boredom can never strike. The longing is what keeps the sincerity alive.

Sincerity is the straight way to liberation. This is the only thing we lack and we postpone our enlightenment. We are not persistent enough. If we were then the gates of enlightenment are already open, we just need to enter. With sincerity there is no chance of missing the truth. This is such a simple technique that it becomes too hard to believe and then we miss it. We go around reading and learning hundred things but lack the sincerity to follow even one thing. The problem is that we know too much. Instead of having a whole library in your head, just know five concepts in your heart.

Whatever you believe, even if it is atheism, if you add shraddha to that concept, you will achieve Enlightenment. Buddha, Krishnamurti and Gurdijeff, all never spoke of God, yet they are all great Enlightened Masters who have enlightened so many others. What you believe is not important. It is how intensely you believe that is essential.

Sincerity is experimenting, executing; not just knowing and hearing about spiritual Truths; it is having the courage to execute. Meditation and gambling both need courage. Meditation is the ultimate gamble. With meditation, you gamble with your whole Being, with your ego. It is the only game where losers win. When you put your ego at stake, you win it all. You give up the false to experience the real. We need courage to experiment with spiritual Truths

There are some books, which need to be more than just read. They need to be experimented with. The yoga sutra is one such book. Unless we have the sincerity and courage to experiment with these Truths, it is dangerous. We have all these Truths and we start hallucinating that we know. Knowing without knowing is dangerous. We don't even know that we don't know.

A small story: This story is from the life of Dakshinamurti Swamigal, who lived in Tamil Nadu. When he was alive, one poet was inspired by his presence to write a song called ‘Bharani’. This is normally written for someone who has killed one thousand elephants in war. This poet wrote one thousand songs in bharani style. The king of the city was also considered to be a bharani. Someone sang bharani on him too. His ego was deeply hurt and he said, “I am the only bharani in this kingdom. How could a beggar be a bharani?” He summoned the poet. The king ordered the poet to be killed, as that was the trend at that time. Of course, only unintelligent beings resort to violence, because they don't have the intelligence or clarity to consider, or be open to the truth. The poet said, “I have no problem with the death sentence; I am ready to die; I have experienced the truth. But you have to do this one thing: You have to go and see this bharani. You must experience him.”

The king thinks about this. He goes to see Dakshinamurthy Swamigal with his whole army. He finds him sitting under a banyan tree without even any clothes. The king has all his paraphernalia with him. Kings always need this; otherwise they lose their identity easily. Masters don't have any social identity to maintain, so there is no need for such things.

Swamigal just sits there totally lost in Existence, in that intense silence and peace that penetrates other beings. The king comes close to the Master. The Master doesn’t do anything. He simply opens his eyes and looks into the king’s eyes directly. It is the first time anyone has ever looked so directly into the king’s eyes. Normally the king will look into someone’s eyes and then they will look away. This time the king looks down. The Master doesn’t say anything, but with just an expression on his face he bids him to sit. The king simply sits. His entire army drops their weapons and sits.

They sit for one hour, then two, in complete silence; no words, no instructions. It becomes one day, then two. After the third day, the Master says, “You can go.” The king prostrated before him and left.

The king had killed ten thousand elephants. Killing ten thousand elephants is not a great accomplishment. Killing your mind is that that takes real courage.

Sincerity to one single truth is enough. You don't have to do big things. What we do is not important. It is how we do it that counts. One great saint would simply just pluck flowers for a garland every day to offer to Vishnu. He became Enlightened simply from doing just this.

A Buddhist Monk was secretly deeply devoted to Shiva. He would go every day to a small Shiva linga under a tree and throw a stone at the linga from a distance, pretending it is a flower. An old man happened to notice and asked what he was doing. The monk told him, he was just throwing stones at Shiva. The old man said, “Your devotion to Shiva is apparent. The way you throw the stones shows your devotion.” The monk confessed that he showed his devotion to Shiva every day in this way. The old man gave him darshan as Shiva, and the monk became Enlightened.

In Tamil, they have three words for the Truth: vaimai, unmai and maimai. The first means - speaking the Truth through the mouth. Most of us manage this one. The second, unmai, means - speaking the Truth through the mind and heart. The last, maimai - means living the truth though the body. We all miss the boat at this point. Honesty and sincerity in what we believe, is the ultimate step to Enlightenment.

Prakriti has three gunas; tamas, rajas and sattva. Tamas includes people who are negative and full of doubt, those who are prejudiced. Rajas includes those who believe but do not practice. And the third guna or virtue - Sattva includes those who believe and practice sincerely. Patanjali gives the technology of how to raise ourselves to the sattvic type of sincerity from wherever we are.

But somehow we always have this loophole of practicality. Yet, if we are not able to put whatever we believe as the truth into practice, we make it a lie. Whether it is a lie or truth is only decided based on your Consciousness. All you have to do is, take one concept and practice it for a few days; just live it sincerely. To just have the courage to experiment with it for two days and that is enough. Let these words penetrate you. Experiment with the truth.

Just take one single concept and imbibe it to the core. Let your whole being just vibrate with that one idea. You cannot lose from trying. If you practice it with sincerity and it doesn't work, then you can search somewhere else. If it works, then you are enlightened and blissful. All you need is courage to try. Be sure to understand the spirit of the words.

A small story: A monk was sent to Alaska to spread God's words. Before going, the father called him and said, "Your rosary and wine will take care of you." After a year, the father decides to go and see how the mission is coming on. The monk says, "You were so right. The rosary and the wine have kept me going. Otherwise I would have died a long time ago. Father, would you like a cup of wine?" He turns and calls into the kitchen, "Rosary, bring a cup of wine."

Words can be easily misunderstood. We don't have the mental setup of receiving the Truth and practicing it. We usually receive it, understand it intellectually and then don't have enough courage to practice it. Be very clear: if you aren't going to practice it, simply decide that it is not true and not for you.

Sincerity is a basic spiritual virtue. Scientists have the courage to go after outer truth. We have to be an inner scientist to have the courage to live the Truth.

One Enlightened Zen Master and his disciple go to the river. The disciple falls into the river and starts drowning. He calls to the Master to save him. The Master says, "You are atman, save yourself." The disciple says, "Save me first and then teach me your philosophy." The Master shouts, "Stand up and save yourself." The disciple cries, "Please save me!" The Master shouts, "Fool! Stand up! Save yourself!" The disciple is shaken and just stands up. The water is only up to his knees.

We just need the courage to stand up. Nothing can be lost. If practicing the Truth can lose something, then better to lose it now! Whatever can't stand let it be washed away. It is better for your Being that it be lost as early as possible. It is your sincerity that plays a role. If you are not sincere, even God cannot help you. God always responds in the way we need. Sometimes it is what we want, sometimes it is not. Making your dreams become reality is Shakti or power. Making you understand that reality is a dream itself is Buddhi or intelligence. Let us move from Shakti to Buddhi and realize the intelligence flowing within us.

With this background now let us begin the discipline of yoga. To prepare you for that let us now practice a small meditation technique.

योगश्चित्तवृत्तिनिरोध:

Yog Chitta Vritti Nirodaha

YOGA (yog) IS THE CESSATION (nirodaha) OF THOUGHT (vritti) WAVES IN THE MIND (chitta)

This is the definition of Yoga. Patanjali is terse and straight. He is not giving any elaborate definition. Simply in one sutra he defines yoga. He says; yoga is the cessation of the thought waves in the mind. In the first chapter we saw what is the mind diagram. Now let us try to analyze in greater detail what is mind, what are thoughts and what are the thought waves in the mind.

First thing to understand is that mind is not something substantial. Mind is not something concrete. You cannot say that this is my mind because you cannot point at it. You cannot demonstrate it. But still you feel that it is. Mind is just an activity. If you are walking and if I ask you what are you doing, you will say ‘I am walking’. Now if you sit and I ask you where is your walking gone, you would feel this is a funny question. You would feel that this question does not make any sense. Obviously you can get up and start walking again. But right now you are not walking. Just as walking was an activity, you were doing some time back, mind is also an activity.

Had the word ‘Mind’ not been coined, life would have been much simpler. Mind is just an imaginary entity, which is not there really, but it gives you the feeling as if it is there. In Sanskrit we use the term ‘Maya’. Maya is defined as Yama Iti Maya which means Maya is something which is not there but gives you an illusion as if it is there. Mind is also a result of Maya. Let us understand in detail what exactly is the mind.

Very often we use the phrase ‘my mind’. This is one of the biggest blunder and the reason for the sorrow. Whenever we say, my mind we think that the mind is some kind of possession. We think it’s our property. Just the way we own house, car and other possessions we think that we own our mind. And then we try to chisel with our mind to make it all right. Our own experience has proved that controlling the mind is impossible. Many people sit for meditation and try to be thoughtless. In the very process of trying to become thoughtless, innumerable thoughts arise. Whenever you try not to do something, you will end up doing that thing.

Once a person went to a great yogi and asked for spiritual powers. The yogi told him that he should not ask for spiritual powers, rather he should try to know the self and get enlightened. The man was persistent and wanted nothing else other than spiritual powers. He told the yogi that if he cannot give him spiritual powers he should just admit it and not give him any other suggestion. Finally the yogi agreed to give him some spiritual powers and gave this person some medicine and asked him to have it after his bath. But he also enforced one condition. While having the medicine, the person should not think of a monkey. This person was very happy and thought that why would he think of a monkey while having the medicine. He thought that he does not even have a pet monkey nor does he have any fascination for monkeys. So there is a very little chance that he would randomly think of a monkey before having the medicine. The man readily agreed. He was just about to leave but then a thought struck him. What if I think about the monkey? He asked the yogi the remedy; what he needs to do just in case he thinks about the monkey before having the medicine. The yogi said that in that case he would have to take bath again and then have the medicine. This person obliged and went back home and took bath and was ready to take the medicine. Just then a thought came in his mind 'I was not supposed to think about something before taking the medicine. Oh it was the monkey'. The moment this thought came he had thought of the monkey. So he again went for his bath. After coming out when he was going to take the medicine the thought of the monkey again appeared in his mind and so he went back to take bath. This process continued for around 9-10 times and he was not able to have the medicine. Finally he ran to the Yogi who had given him this medicine and fell at his feet. He requested him to take the medicine back and said that he was not interested in spiritual powers any more. All he wanted him was to remove the thought of the monkey from his mind. Thought of the monkey had become his greatest nightmare. Actually the yogi did a great favor to this person by now allowing him to have the medicine. Because once a person gets entangled in the snares of powers or siddhis it becomes very difficult to get him out. But now the person could not stop thinking of the monkey because the idea that he should not be thinking of the monkey had been fed into his mind. So not thinking is not the solution. It's not even in your control. You cannot just stop thinking because you don't know the source of your thoughts. We know that the water comes from the tap and so we can simply close the tap and make sure that flow of water stops. But we don't know the source of out thoughts. We don't have access to the tap through which the thoughts come. Then how can we control their flow? Some great power or a force beyond the mind is required to calm the mind. The mind cannot control itself because mind is nothing but sequence of thoughts. Thoughts come in succession one after the other and their very coming and going gives us the illusion of the mind. Then another thought arises which says that we need to control the mind. How can a thought control its very coming? Or how can a thought prevent another thought from coming? This has to be clearly understood. There is nothing like the mind. It's just the thoughts. Mind is not separate from the thoughts. In fact it's this collection of thoughts, which we call the mind. Out of ignorance we say that my mind has a lot of thoughts. It's not the mind that has thoughts. The mind is because the thoughts are. Mind is not something separate from the thoughts.

So stopping the mind by the mind becomes impossible. It's like water flowing out from the tap trying to stop the further flow of water. It obviously cannot. One needs someone else to come and stop the tap. Similarly mind cannot stop itself. But the mind can train itself to put an end to it. Great patience and perseverance is called for. Some of the great mystics of the past have demonstrated techniques to silence the mind. It may appear very funny but the techniques are very effective.

There was a great saint called Swaminarayan. He had lot of followers in Gujarat though he himself hailed from Uttar Pradesh. He was once walking on the road when he saw a group of people trying to milk a cow. Cow was very violent and was kicking every individual who was trying to go near. All the people were trying out different techniques to get the cow under control. When Swaminarayan saw this he decided to get the cow under control. He asked those people to give him a day and assured that he would get the cow under control. People readily agreed as it had been a long time they were trying to control the cow. Swaminarayan then sat at a distance from the cow with a stick. He touched the cow’s leg with the stick. Immediately the cow kicked. Again he repeated the same action. The cow kicked again. This process continued from morning till evening. The intensity of the cows kicking was becoming slower and slower as the day progressed. Finally the cow stopped kicking by evening. Then Swaminarayan went near and started milking the cow.

This is an example of how our mind needs to be handled. We need patience, perseverance and little intelligence to deal with the mind. Just as the saint treated the cow with patience, the mind has to be treated in a similar way. We need to give some time. We need to have some patience for the alchemy to happen. Rome was not built in a day. Impatience is the nature of the mind. It needs quick results because it always thinks about the result. It does not care about the path. It does not realize that the path itself can be blissful. There is no separate bliss to be achieved. The path itself is bliss. This understanding has to be clear.

Once a bull was creating havoc on the road. People were not able to control the bull. Anybody who tried to give it some grass it kicked the person. It was becoming very difficult to control the bull. Finally one man took up the task of pacifying the bull. First he built a fence around the bull. Now he had defined a radius for the bull beyond which it could not operate. The bull tried all its acrobats within the fence. Slowly the next day this person decreased the radius of the fence. He repeated this, and day-by-day he kept decreasing the radius of the fence finally making it as less as the size of the bull. The bull could barely stand within the fence. It could not move. With this continuous effort the bull automatically slowed down. Finally this person went close to the bull and offered it some grass to eat. The bull obeyed him without any problem.

Stories of this kind indicate to us that mind has to be handled very carefully. Mind is like a mad monkey jumping from tree to tree. This monkey has to be silenced. It has to be silenced to such an extent that it stops existing. Mind has to be annihilated. Right now the mind has a survival instinct. It tries its best to survive. You might have observed that you become restless when there is nothing to do. When you don't have any responsibility you feel very restless. The reason is that mind starts losing its identity. As long as there is something to do, the mind is happy. When there is nothing to do then it becomes a problem. People worry because they don't have anything to worry. This survival instinct of the mind should die. The very instinct to survive is the greatest killer. As long as the survival instinct is there you would be dying every moment. Every moment the fear of death would be there. If the survival instinct is not there then the fear won't be there.

Mind is nothing but collection of thoughts. One thought after the other coming in succession. By our very nature our thoughts are unconnected. They are like bubbles in a fish tank. The bubbles in the fish tank are not connected. They are distinctly separate. But they just appear to be connected. In a similar manner our thoughts are not connected though they appear to be connected. You can do a small exercise. Write down all your thoughts as and when they come. Sit for ten minutes silently and simply start recording your thoughts. Don't try to control or stop thinking. Just be silent and witness the thoughts coming. The moment a thought comes quickly write it down on paper. Do this for ten minutes. At the end of ten minutes read out whatever is written. You will see that it's a mad man's diary. There is utter chaos. There is no connection between the previous thought and the next thought. All the thoughts are un-clutched and unconnected. Only when you write down your thoughts you come to know that the thoughts have no real connection. You may be thinking about having a cup of tea and the next moment you may think about some office work, which is pending. There is no real connection between having a cup of tea and the office work. Both are independent events. Even if there are two consecutive thoughts about the same event the thoughts are unconnected as there is no continuity. There is always a gap between these thoughts. There is a time of silence between the thoughts. The thoughts by their very nature are un-clutched.

The problem happens when we connect these thoughts. We connect these unconnected thoughts and suffer. For example; you might have eaten ice cream ten years ago, you might have eaten ice cream seven years ago, you might have eaten ice cream two years ago and you might have eaten ice cream yesterday. All these experiences might have been very pleasurable for you. You might have enjoyed the ice cream every time you ate. The trouble is that you connect these experiences and create an imaginary shaft or an understanding that eating ice cream makes you happy. So you try to repeat this experience in the future. You always connect similar thoughts and create a shaft. It might be your experience that sometimes you don't enjoy the ice cream as much as you enjoyed it some days ago or a year ago. Even if you don't enjoy the ice cream you will make yourself believe that you like the ice cream. Because you have got into the habit of connecting the thoughts, you unconsciously start accepting that you enjoy ice cream.

Similar is the case with painful experiences. The pain which you experienced ten years ago, the pain which you experiences seven years ago, the pain which you experienced three years ago and the pain which you experienced yesterday are independent events. There is no connection between these events. But you create this imaginary shaft and start thinking that my life is a pain. If you had many pleasurable experiences in your life you say that my life is pleasure. But actually neither of it is true. Your life is neither pleasure nor pain because the very process of connecting these events is a mistake. The idea that the thoughts are connected is a misconception. And that too we don’t connect all the thoughts. We connect only those thoughts that we remember and create the shaft. Just as from a bunch of flowers you pick up few flowers and create a garland, from millions of thoughts we have, we connect few thoughts that we remember and create a shaft. Creation of the shaft is the original sin. When we create the shaft we suffer.

If you have created a shaft of pleasure then you try to extend the shaft because you want to experience the same pleasure again. If you have created a shaft of pain then you try to break the shaft because you want to avoid the pain again. You can neither extend the shaft nor break the shaft because the shaft does not exist. The shaft itself is the myth. The creation of the shaft has become one more shaft for you. All your experiences are independent experiences. The moment you have connected these experiences you have create a shaft. You have created suffering. Now you will understand why suffering is also imaginary. It is based on something imaginary. It is based on something unreal. It's just an appearance. The shaft is unreal; it does not exist. So the suffering that is created due to the shaft is also unreal. Once you realize this you are liberated.

Each thought carries within itself the energy to create the shaft. Our thoughts are very powerful. We misunderstand the power of thoughts. Thought directly impact the events, which are happening around you. Not only your thoughts, everybody else's thoughts. It's a collective consciousness that operates. There was a research by a scientist in Japan on how thoughts affect water crystals. He has published a book called 'Messages from Water'. He took river water and subjected it to different thought waves. He divided the water into different samples and he created different types of thought waves for each sample. For one sample he used words of love, for some others he used words of hate. For some he used to recite some holy quotes from scriptures and for others he just abused. Later he crystallized these water samples and photographed them. He was amazed to see the results. The water samples for which he had used loving thoughts were crystallized into a beautiful looking crystal. Water sample, which he had subjected to thoughts of hate, had a very disoriented and unpleasant crystal pattern. He was amazed by his discovery that thoughts can do so much to water. Just imagine what our thoughts must be doing to us, as 90% of our body is nothing but water.

Because our thoughts are so powerful, they have the capacity to clutch with other thoughts and create an imaginary shaft. This process of creating the imaginary shaft is the function of the ego. Ego is nothing separate from the thoughts. Instead it's characteristic of the thoughts to create a shaft. So really speaking the ego does not exist because the shaft does not exist. The shaft is imaginary. Ego is just a name we give to this process of creating a shaft. A sense of continuity is created because of this shaft. This gives us the illusion of the ego. Since right now all our thoughts clutch we think that we have an ego. But all our thoughts by their very nature are independent so the idea of the ego is also imaginary as there cannot be anything connecting these thoughts. So by our very nature we are un-clutched. We are enlightened and just we have to realize it.

Once a disciple goes to a Zen master and asks him ‘how can I become Buddha’. The master gives him a tight slap on his face and says that you are already a Buddha. If Buddha comes and asks you that how should he become Buddha what would be your reaction? Same is the reaction of the Zen master. So we are un-clutched by our very nature. Just this needs to be understood.

People come and ask me ‘Should I renounce for being enlightened’. I say you don’t need to renounce what you have; you just need to renounce what you don’t have. You need to renounce your fantasies, your expectations, your imaginations etc. People think that they have to go to some forest for enlightenment. The place does not matter, the space matters. What I mean by space is your inner space, your consciousness. People say that I have renounced the world. I have renounced everything. Standing on the very earth they say that I have renounced the world. You cannot renounce anything unless you renounce yourself first. You need to renounce your ego first. You need to renounce this habit of creating a shaft. Only then the real renunciation will happen. So just renounce what you don’t have; that’s enough. You don’t need to renounce what you have. Renunciation has to be understood at a different dimension. When you renounce what you don’t have automatically you stop creating the shaft. You start living in the present moment. You drop all expectations or fantasies. You accept the reality as it is. Automatically your ego diminishes.

Renunciation is our very nature. We are renouncing all the time. When we have decided to have a cup of coffee we have renounced the previous thought of watching the TV. There is no need to go to forests for renunciation to happen. Renunciation can happen right here if the right understanding is achieved. You may go to a forest where there is complete solitude but if you are still connecting your thoughts then you have not renounced whereas you can be completely renouncing in a busy market place.

Once a spiritual aspirant goes to an enlightened master for advice. He starts talking about his renunciation. He tells the enlightened master about all the things he has renounced. He says that he has renounced his family, his wealth, his fame, his home and everything associated with him. He has cut all family bonds and has been wandering without any social attachments. He has renounced everything what was associated with him in the past. But he is still not enlightened. Then the enlightened master asks the aspirant. Has he really renounced everything? The spiritual aspirant was surprised. He had just mentioned what all he had renounced. He once again started talking about all the things he had renounced. The enlightened master stopped him abruptly and asked ‘Have you renounced yourself’. Unless one renounces his own self he cannot renounce anything else. First the self has to be renounced for the renunciation to be complete. Enlightenment is not liberation from the senses or any other thing, it’s the liberation from our very self.1 Let us analyze what do we mean by the renunciation of the self.

The self we are trying to renounce here is the smaller self. What is this smaller self? It’s the imaginary self we have created because of connecting our thoughts. What happens is that when we connect our thoughts we start believing that it was the same person who was suffering or enjoying all this while. If you have suffered due to some illness two years ago and the same illness manifests a month ago we think that it was the same person who suffered. Because of this apparent continuity of identity that we create we start believing that we are suffering or enjoying. But the truth is that our thoughts are un-clutched and there is no connection between these two events. Because of our ignorance we have connected these two events and have started believing that we are suffering. We need to renounce this false identity. Once we have renounced this identity then our renunciation is complete. External renunciation has no significance unless the self is renounced. Once the self is renounced it does not matter whether we renounce externally or not.

One day a sage comes to Janaka's court and Janaka very respectfully and warmly receives him. Janaka is a maharaja, and the sage is a poor ascetic Brahmin, both were however co-students of the same guru. The sage scolds Janaka for forgetting what all that their Guru has taught and admonishes him for leading a life of pleasures. Janaka expresses his helplessness and blames it on the circumstances. But the sage insists that he is just giving excuses to enjoy. Janaka then says that he is willing to do anything what the sage advises. The sage then asks Janaka to come with him to the forest and lead an austere life. Janaka follows without raising a question, without even formal delegation of authority or bidding farewell to family. The sage is rather surprised at the sincerity of Janaka. Throughout their long walk through the terrain, fields, thorns etc, he notices that Janaka is suffering, and bleeding but is coming with him, without complaining. After some walk, the sage feels sympathy for Janaka and asks him to take rest under a tree, while he goes out for fetching water from a nearby lake.

Meanwhile, a provincial king (a king of a neighboring kingdom who recognizes Janaka as emperor) happens to come over that way with all his paraphernalia. Another neighbor was planning to wage a war against this small king, and he was coming to Janaka to ask for assurance of his support in any eventuality of war. He was pleasantly surprised to see Janaka under the tree, even before reaching his kingdom! His entourage makes a temporary but elaborate tent and Janaka is offered the main seat, and the king sits down near him, explaining the situation. In the meanwhile the sage comes back with water, and to his amazement he finds all military activities etc, but Janaka is not to be seen under the tree. He enquires about Janaka and comes to know he is in the tent. He tries to go in but the gatekeeper does not allow the sage to go in. A messenger informs Janaka and Janaka comes out and receives sage.

The sage is shocked to see the incident. Then Janaka explained to the sage that the sage had misinterpreted their Guru’s teachings. The Guru had asked them to live a life of detachment; he had not asked them to live a hard life full of pains and suffering. Janaka said that even pleasure could haunt you if you are attached to it. So you have to be detached from pleasure too. Substituting pleasure by pain is not the way to get detached from pleasure because pleasure can follow you even in pain if you are destined to enjoy the pleasure. The real trick lies in not falling into its snares and enjoying the pleasure unconsciously. If you experience pleasure with complete awareness then the pleasure cannot touch you. You don’t create one more shaft of pleasure. Janaka tells the sage to look at his state. He was in the forest experiencing hardships but was now trapped in this condition inside the tent with the other king even though he wanted to leave everything and lead an ascetic life. So we can’t even run away from our pleasures.

A person based on one’s destiny experiences pleasure and pain. You don’t have a choice. You cannot choose either pleasure or pain. But you have the choice of not connecting these experiences and creating imaginary shafts. Just as Janaka, who was staying amidst luxuries and riches, was untouched by it we can also be untouched by the things outside of us. Being untouched means not creating a shaft. You are attached to a person or a thing because you create shafts. The relationship, which you experienced three years ago, the relationship, which you experienced a year ago and the relationship which you are experiencing now are independent events. The moment you connect these events then you are trying to extend or break the shaft. If the relationship is a pleasurable relationship you expect the relationship to be pleasurable even in the future. If the relationship is a painful relationship you try to break the relationship or you create an idea that the relationship is not good for you. But you don’t realize that at each instant you are experiencing a new relationship. Because at each instant two new people are associating as by our very nature we are un-clutched. The real problem is not caused because of pleasure or pain. The real problem is caused due to our incorrect understanding of both and eventually the creation of imaginary shafts. In the case of a sage, if there is pleasure he will enjoy the pleasure and forget it. If there is pain, he will suffer the pain and forget it. He does not carry these experiences in horizontal time. The moment we carry an experience in horizontal time we suffer.

We can experience life living in this world and still be centered in peace and harmony. There is no need to renounce anything external. The smaller self has to be renounced. Once we stop creating the shaft we will realize that the identity, which we were trying to hold on to, was the very reason for suffering. The moment we drop that identity, we enter into bliss. Then the outer incidents won’t affect you because you have given up the habit of connecting these incidents. So every incident is a new incident for you. You start seeing life in a much more beautiful way. Everything seems joyful and blissful. You stop taking things for granted.

There lived an enlightened master in north India. He used to eat the same kind of food everyday. His disciple used to cook the same vegetables and the same kind of salad and serve him. After many years the disciple asked the master ‘I feel bored cooking the same food everyday, don’t you feel bored eating the same food everyday’. The master replied that he is not eating the same food everyday. How can he eat the same food everyday? Once he eats some food he cannot eat the same food again. Yes, he is eating the same kind of food but not same food. Then the disciple understood what the master was pointing at. Because the master was unconnected with the past experiences he was enjoying the same kind of food daily without any complains. It was not that he was eating the food with dispassion. He was enjoying the food daily because the hangover from the previous experience was not there. If you understand that you are un-clutched boredom can never strike you. A person feels bored because he creates continuity in time. He starts connecting all the moments in time and creates an imaginary shaft of boredom. Then he tries to break that shaft. You can neither break this shaft nor extend this shaft because the shaft does not exist.

Once you start accepting life from moment to moment, bliss happens to you naturally. External circumstances can impact you only if you allow them to. Nobody can disturb you without your silent permission. People complain that we may live our life in the moment but if others around don’t, then they will exploit us. Be very clear, nobody can exploit you or disturb you without your silent permission. Once you understand that you are un-clutched then bliss naturally follows.

Once a Zen master Hakuin was praised by his neighbors for living a pure life. A beautiful Japanese girl whose parents owned a food store lived near him. Suddenly, without any warning, her parents discovered she was pregnant. This made her parents very angry. She would not confess who the man was, but after much harassment at last she named Hakuin.

In great anger the parents went to the master. "Is that so?" was all he would say. After the child was born it was brought to Hakuin. By this time he had lost his reputation, which did not trouble him, but he took very good care of the child. He obtained milk from his neighbors and everything else the little one needed.

A year later the girl-mother could stand it no longer. She told her parents the truth that the real father of the child was a young man who worked in the fish market. The mother and father of the girl at once went to Hakuin to ask his forgiveness, to apologize at length, and to get the child back. Hakuin was willing. In yielding the child, all he said was: "Is that so?"

This is the state of the enlightened master. He is unconcerned. It does not mean that he is not caring, compassionate. In fact he is the very embodiment of compassion because the person who is selfless loves the world. But he is unconcerned about the events happening around and is always centered in bliss.

Currently we are not able to control the thoughts because all our thoughts are clutched. They create a way for further thoughts. Thoughts are powerful enough to clutch and create a shaft. And because they clutch more thoughts are created to extend the shaft or break the shaft. The moment we stop creating shafts automatically the thoughts starts dying down. When you are completely un-clutched you reach the stage of chitta vritti nirodaha. Then the chiita becomes free from any vrittis, thought waves. Then you start living in spontaneity. You don't need thoughts to exist. You just act out of intuition. An intelligence, which is beyond thoughts, dawns in you and guides you at each moment in your life. Then you reach the stage of Yoga where the thought waves have stopped appearing in your consciousness.

You may wonder how can a person live without thoughts. Or how can he act without thoughts. Do you need thoughts to breath? Do you need thoughts for your heart to beat? In a similar way your entire life will go on without thoughts. You will just witness the scene without any judgments. The very act of witnessing takes you beyond the mind. Witnessing is anti-mind.

Once a king went to Buddha and said that his mind is very uneasy. Then Buddha advised him to come the next day at 4am in the morning and he would treat his mind. He also asked him to get his mind along with him. The king was perplexed. He had no idea what Buddha was saying. How could he get his mind along with him? All this while he had the notion that if he is here his mind is here. But still he decided to follow Buddha’s words. Next day morning at 4am the king visited Buddha. Buddha asked him; have you brought your mind. The king said, I don’t understand what you mean by bringing my mind. If I am here, my mind is here. It’s with me all the time. So Buddha asked the king to show him his mind and once he does that he assured that he would put it at peace. The king closed his eyes and started searching for the mind. After some time he realized that it was not there. He told Buddha that he could not find the mind. Buddha immediately exclaimed that ‘Look I have put it at peace’.

Just as you first learn driving and then you drive without thoughts in a similar way you can live your life without the mind. When you know the turn you are going to take on the road, do you think about how you should take a turn? You simply take the turn. Similarly you will simply cruise through your entire life blissfully without getting affected by its ups and downs. The idea that leading life needs a mind has to be abandoned. You can lead your life perfectly well without the mind. In fact you will excel in your life tremendously if you start living without the mind. Mind is the load you have been carrying all your life. The time has come to drop it. Drop the mind and you will see the bliss flowering in your being.

Hogen, a Chinese Zen teacher, lived alone in a small temple in the country. One day four traveling monks appeared and asked if they might make a fire in his yard to warm them. While they were building the fire, Hogen heard them arguing about subjectivity and objectivity. He joined them and said: "There is a big stone. Do you consider it to be inside or outside your mind?" One of the monks replied: "From the Buddhist viewpoint everything is an objectification of mind, so I would say that the stone is inside my mind.” Hogen said "Your head must feel very heavy if you are carrying around a stone like that in your mind."

We have been carrying a load in our consciousness by clutching on to our thoughts. Once we become free from our thoughts then our consciousness becomes like a clear lake. If a stone is thrown in a lake it creates ripples. Similarly when a thought appears in the mind it creates ripples and creates more thoughts. Without thoughts the consciousness becomes free from ripples and the true self manifests itself. If there are ripples on the lake you cannot clearly see what is at the bottom of the lake. You just see the surface. So as long as the consciousness is not clear we just live on the surface. We don’t experience life fully. When the consciousness becomes clear we explode in all directions.

People often ask me whether I should lead a material life or a spiritual life. The moment you make a choice you end in suffering. If you choose material life you will miss the spiritual life. If you choose spiritual life you will miss material life. Only when you are un-clutched then you go beyond the so-called material life and spiritual life and you explode in all directions. Whenever you encounter opposites be very sure that you are away from truth. Being spiritual is just a way of not being material. It has nothing to do with enlightenment. People are advised to be spiritual because they have been material all this while. For the pendulum to settle down at the center it is necessary for it to go towards the other end. Only then it will come to the center. So people are advised to meditate and go inwards.

Sankara says in Nirvanashatkam ‘Sada me Samatvam Na Muktir Na Bandhah, Chidananda Roopa Shivoham Shivoham” I am neither in bondage nor liberated, I am always in the state of equilibrium. I am of the nature of pure auspiciousness, the energy of shiva. Both bondage and liberation are concepts created by the mind. Liberation exists as long as there is bondage. But if there is no bondage, liberation will also loose its meaning. That is was Sanakara is referring to.

If you are trying to go inward or outward as long as you are going somewhere you are missing the truth. The very process of traveling or going takes you away from the truth. Truth is here and now. There is no need to go anywhere. No need to travel anywhere. Again the very process of traveling shows that we have created a shaft. We are seeing some progress. There cannot be any progress, because there is nobody who is progressing. The individual is dying at every instant. Then who will progress? When you are un-clutched automatically you will explode in 360°. Then the question of being material or being spiritual won't arise.

Our self can never be improved. Some people work on self-development. What self will you develop? Is there a self to be developed in the first place? A sequence of un-clutched thoughts is all what you are. If you try to develop the self all you would end up doing is to create a shaft of the idea that my self is developed. It will give you a feel good feeling. There might be one thought that thinks that the self is developed. But it's merely a feel good feeling. Really speaking the self cannot be developed, the imaginary self can only be eliminated. As long as you are trying to develop the self, you are creating a shaft. So be un-clutched and realize the potential and the meaning of this powerful sutra given by Patanjali.

तदा द्रष्टुः स्वरूपेऽवस्थानम्

Tadaa drastuh svaruupe vasthaanam

AT THAT TIME (tadaa) THE SEER (drastuh) RESTS (avasthaanam) IN ITS OWN UNMODIFIED STATE (svaruupe)

Once yoga has happened (the mind is no more) the seer rests in its own unmodified state

We have to understand this sutra very carefully. It's a continuation from the previous sutra. The previous sutra is a pre-requisite for this sutra. The yoga should have happened and then the seer will rest in its own unmodified state.

When the mind is devoid of any thoughts the seer will rest in its own unmodified state. The mind being devoid of any thoughts is important. Once that happens then everything is done. Nothing more needs to be done. Thoughts are like the ripples on the surface of the lake. When the ripples calm down and die, the bottom of the lake is seen clearly. Similarly when the thought waves die, the self dwells in its state of radiance.

Patanjali is extremely careful with his words. He does not say that the self sees its own nature. He says that the self rests in its own nature. The reason being that the self cannot see itself though it is commonly referred to that way. The self rests in its own nature. There is no seeing involved. When all that remains is the self who will see whom? You cannot even say that self is seeing the self. All you can say is that the self rests in its own nature.

Once a salt doll that was living in the interiors of the land was told that there is something like the sea. The salt doll found it difficult to believe. It asked ‘Is it as large as a well?’. The person laughed and said that it is much larger than the well. Then it enquired ‘Is it as large as a river’. The person said that you can see the other bank of the river but you cannot see the other bank of the sea. It’s much larger than the river. Then the salt doll became very curious and wanted to find out for itself. So it started traveling towards the sea. As it was coming nearer it was able to hear the roaring of the sea waves. Finally it reached the seashore and for the first time it saw such a huge mass of water. It could not see the other end of the sea. The salt doll thought that if it could not see the other end, at least it could try to find the depth. So if not the horizontal direction it can try to explore the vertical direction. So the salt doll jumped into the see and tried to go to the bottom of the seabed. But because it was salt as it started going down it dissolved and disappeared and there was no longer any salt doll to know the sea. Then all that remained was the sea. In the Upanishads it is said ‘Brahmaveda Brahmaiva Bhavati” the knower of the Brahman becomes the Brahman. Let me explain this story in the context of this sutra.

The salt doll represents the thoughts. It represents the mind. Which is trying to know the self. Sea in the story denotes the self. When the mind tries to know the self, the mind dissolves and disappears and all that remains is the self. Then there is no mind to know the self. In the very process of knowing the self, the mind dissolves. Actually speaking there is nothing like knowing the self. As for knowing to happen the knower has to be there. But when the self is known there is no knower. So self cannot be known. Only the mind can die. Only the thoughts can cease to come. Then the self will rest in its own unmodified state.

The self is always there. Just as the clouds, which have been formed because of the sun due to the evaporation of water, cover the sun and prevent the sun from being seen, the self remains hidden because of the mind. When the clouds disappear, the sun shines in its own glory. Similarly when the mind dissolves, the self shines in its own glory. But that does not mean that the self is not present otherwise. It is present. But remains concealed. It remains hidden. It gets blocked because of the mind, which again was created because of the self. Just as the clouds, which were created because of the sun, themselves blocked the sun, the mind blocks the self. For the self to reveal you have to become nobody. The very identity needs to die.

Once a wandering mendicant who was dressed like a beggar runs up the throne of the king and sits there. All the people in the kings court run towards him and ask him ‘How can you sit here, you don’t even look like the chief minister’. The mendicant replies ‘Chief Minister! I am much more than that’. The people are perplexed. They say ‘Are you then the Prime Minister’. The mendicant exclaims ‘Prime Minister! I am much more than that’. ‘More than the Prime Minister is the king’ say the people. The mendicants laughs and says ‘King! I am much more than the King’. By this time people are very angry. They say that more than King is God, do you mean to say that you are God. The mendicant again laughs and says that he is more than God too. People say that more than God is nobody. The mendicant exclaims ‘Exactly I am nobody’.

Only when you become nobody the true self shines forth. One person asked an enlightened master ‘what is the difference between you and me’. The enlightened master replied that there is no difference apart from the fact that you are somebody and I am nobody. The ego is this somebody. The ego is the shaft, which we have created. When the ego dies then we become nobody. Then there is nobody as our inner space is filled with silence. Then our emptiness will be full, our silence will sing. It’s rather a difficult state to put in words. Because words cannot reach it, the senses cannot reach it and nor the mind can reach it. It’s the mahakash, the state of pure being.

In this context I would like to explain the role of the witness. Often as a spiritual practice you are asked to witness. They say that witness the thoughts, witness the feelings, and witness the actions. Really speaking witnessing cannot be done. If witnessing is done as an act then it cannot exist simultaneously with some other thought, action or feeling. Witnessing can happen but it can never be done as an activity. If it is done as an activity then you wont be really witnessing though it may appear that way. If you do witnessing as an act then you will create one more shaft. You would be just deceiving yourself. Witnessing will become one more shaft.

Once you just relax in your inner space the witnessing will happen by itself. Relaxation is important. The mental relaxation; not the physical relaxation. Then the thought waves die and self remains alone. Somehow due to our ignorance we have associated ourselves with the thoughts. We create the shaft and are now clinging to this shaft. One jolt is enough to wake us up. The guru is this jolt. The guru is the lion in the dream that can wake you up from the dream.

Once a pregnant lioness attacks a herd of sheep. It leaps to kill the sheep but the jump is too much for the lioness. She is not able to sustain the shock of the jump as a result the lioness dies and delivers a cub at the time of its death. The herd of sheep, which was there, saw the small newborn cub. Then went around it and started playing with it. They felt that they should take care of the cub. They were ignorant of the fact that it was a lion. Now this cub is brought up amongst the sheep. As the cub is amongst the sheep it starts learning the ways of the sheep. He starts eating grass, drinks goat milk and bleats like other sheep. He has all sheep friends and sheep acquaintances. His entire life revolves around the sheep.

Suddenly after few days when the cub grew older the problems started. The mother started receiving complains from other sheep that the cub is very arrogant. He does not play the games properly and so naturally the cub was ostracized from the sheep community. As a result the cub starts feeling depressed and dull. He no longer finds any juice in living the mundane life. The cub is not satisfied with the way things are going and is trying solutions to improve the quality of his life. He is not able to enjoy the company of sheep and their talks don't entertain him any more. Then this sheep-lion (lion who thinks that he is a sheep) starts contemplating about life. He thinks that there is no purpose living the same dull life with other sheep eating grass and making some bleating sounds. Every time this sheep-lion looks at the forest from a distance he always feels like exploring the forest. But he is reluctant to do so as his mother has strictly warned him against it. The mother sheep is also under the illusion that the sheep-lion is a sheep and does not want the sheep-lion to enter the forest and get eaten by other wild animals. So the sheep-lion does not enter the forest because of the fear of lions as warned by his mother. Somehow he suppresses his desire to enter the forest. Every time he expresses his desire to enter the forest the mother sheep would start weeping and wailing and somehow she managed to prevent him from entering the forest. Finally she gets the sheep-lion married.

Few years after enjoying the married life again the low mood starts entering in this sheep-lions life. He felt that he has got whatever any successful sheep can get but still he is feeling extremely empty; some kind of a void within his heart. Again the sheep-lion starts seeking for solutions to get out of this emptiness. This is a phase called mid-life crisis which most of the men experience around the age of 40-45. They have got everything, wife and kids, house, car and all other material comforts. Still they are not happy. Some intelligent people start seeking at such a juncture. Some others get addicted to something either work or alcohol or smoking while some others involve themselves in some activity to get over this feeling of emptiness. Only the intelligent few start asking transcendental questions and try to find the nature of the self and the ultimate reality.

Then suddenly one day another lion attacks the herd of sheep while the sheep-lion is out grazing in the meadow. When the lion attacks the herd, all the sheep run away. This sheep-lion neither felt like running away nor it had the courage to stand and face the lion. The lion that is trying to attack is looking so graceful that the sheep-lion was awe-struck, as he had never seen such a graceful animal before. So slowly somehow unconsciously this sheep-lion feels attracted to the lion. Because of this attraction neither he runs away nor he has the courage to stand because he thinks he is a sheep. So he slowly starts walking away looking at the lion. The lion straight away comes near him and catches him. The sheep-lion starts bleating and says “Oh don’t kill me. Leave me” The lion says, “Fool, I have not come to kill you. You are a lion. Why are you shouting?” This is the first time the sheep-lion hears that he is a lion. He is not able to believe it. He thinks how can he be a lion and immediately a doubt rises in his mind that this lion is trying to cheat him. He thinks that the lion wants to take him to the forest and eat him. Again he gets frightened and begs the lion to leave him. The lion shouts at this sheep-lion and tells him that he is a lion and there is no reason for him to be afraid. He says that why would one lion kill another lion? Still this sheep-lion is not ready to believe and somehow he manages to escape and run away.

Even though this sheep-lion escaped and ran away he is not able to forget the lion. After one week again he feels like meeting the lion. For one week he was fear-struck but slowly the fear subsides and he starts thinking that he should meet that lion once more. This is like getting a first glimpse as described in the Bhagavad Gita. When Arjuna saw the Vishwaroopa he was afraid. His whole body started trembling and he asked Krishna to assume his human form back. Similarly after seeing the lion for the first time this sheep-lion was in fright. One part of the mind was refusing to meet the lion because of the fear of getting killed but other part of the mind is saying that it was such a fantastic experience meeting the lion and he should see him again. An important thing to realize here is that unless you have enlightenment within yourself you will not feel attracted towards an enlightened person. If you feel attached or connected with an enlightened person, you have enlightenment within you already. If you don’t have the enlightenment within you, you will not even feel connected. You need immense maturity to feel attracted towards an enlightened person. Unless you realize that everything you do in this world is ultimately purposeless your seeking won't begin. That is the reason this sheep-lion remembers the lion and feels the pang of meeting the lion once more as his being was mature.

So this sheep-lion waits for the lion at the edge of the meadow everyday to catch the glimpse of the lion. After two-three months, once more the lion appears. But the moment this sheep-lion sees the lion he is caught in fear. He is waiting to see the lion since months but the moment he sees him he gets afraid. This time the lion comes near and says, "How are you?" Again this sheep-lion starts bleating "Please don't eat me. Leave me". This time he does not run away but he is not able to face the lion. The lion asks this sheep-lion not to worry, as he won't kill him because he is a lion. Lion says that if the sheep-lion is uncomfortable in his presence he will go away. The lion says that he is not benefited in any way by being with the sheep-lion so he has no reason to be with him unless the sheep-lion desires so. So the lion starts walking towards the forest. The moment the lion starts walking back to the forest the sheep-lion pleads the lion to be with him and requests him to spend some time with him. The sheep-lion requests the lion to stand at a distance and talk. This is the next phase in the Guru-Disciple relationship when the disciple neither wants to forget the Guru nor he wants to go near him.

Again the lion starts' lecturing this sheep-lion that he should understand that he is a lion. Unnecessarily he has been living with sheep and has made all sheep friends. He tells this sheep-lion to realize his true identity and stop living foolishly like a sheep. By now the doubt that the lion wants to eat him has disappeared in the mind of the sheep-lion. Now the sheep-lion is confident that lion has no vested interest in telling him that he is a lion nor does he have anything precious to offer to the lion that lion desires. So he is sure of one fact that lion is not cheating him in anyway. Only when the disciple understands that he is not benefiting the Guru in any way and that Guru has no vested interest in talking to him, he starts trusting the Guru. Only then the real Guru-Disciple relationship starts happening and the disciple starts trusting the Guru's words. Then the disciple starts experimenting with Guru's words. This is the time when the disciple understands that the

Guru is sharing because he is overflowing. He is sharing not because he wants something but he is sharing because that's his very nature. So now the sheep-lion has started trusting the lion. If the lion wanted to kill the sheep-lion, long before he could have done it. But he is unable to comprehend lion's persistence in saying that he is a lion.

Since this sheep-lion has now started trusting the lion he starts contemplating on what lion is saying. Sheep-lion thinks that this lion looks so courageous, bold, graceful and confident and does not look like he is telling a lie. One can figure out whether a person is telling the truth or a lie just by looking into the other person's eyes. You don't need a lie detector. Just looking into the eyes of the other person will give you the information if the person is lying or speaking the truth. Since the lion has no reason to lie the sheep-lion is baffled when he hears repeatedly that he is a lion. He knows that he is a sheep. There is no doubt about it in his mind. All his lifetime he has been living a life of a sheep. So he is not ready to believe that he is a lion. Finally the lion tells this sheep-lion that if he is not ready to listen to him he is going. He does not want to waste his time telling the same thing again and again. Anyways his all words are in vain and are having no impact on this sheep-lion. But this sheep-lion begs for one more meeting with the lion. The lion enquires the reason for another meeting because he has said all he has to say. He does not have anything else other than telling him that he is a lion. The sheep-lion says that he would like to have some more time to think about what he has been told and would like to come later and put his doubts and arguments. The lion obliges and agrees to meet the sheep-lion after a month.

Then the sheep-lion starts contemplating on how he can be a lion. He knows for sure he is a sheep. He eats grass, and bleats like the sheep and also goes around with the sheep. Then how can he be a lion? He gathers all great philosophical questions, refers to sheep Gita, sheep Upanishads and other sheep scriptures. All the questions, which were not answered by his parents or friends, he gathers and decides to ask the lion in his next meeting. One important thing is that this sheep-lion has not told his mother that he has met the lion because if she knows she will stop him and prevent him from going to the edge of the meadow. The parents of all young children are afraid to send their children to Swami’s. They have no problem in their children visiting a temple but never to a spiritual master. Vivekananda is great as long as he is born in the neighbor’s house but not in our house.

Finally after one month the appointment day came and this sheep lion collected the best grass and the best sweets available to offer to the lion. Seeing the love of the sheep-lion the lion acts as if he is enjoying what is being offered. Just to please the sheep-lion and to make it feel connected the lion eats with this sheep lion. This way he zeros down the distance between him and the sheep lion. Only when the real connection and trust happens between the Guru and the disciple the real transformation can take place. Only then the transmission of knowledge from Guru to the disciple can happen. So for the alchemy to happen in this sheep-lion and for him to realize that he is a lion first the trust in this sheep-lion has to be developed. So the lion even compliments this sheep-lion that he has cooked really well and he liked his food a lot. Now the sheep-lion is extremely happy and blissful and is ready to receive the knowledge from the lion.

Lion again reiterates that the sheep-lion is a lion and it’s his foolishness and ignorance in thinking that he is a sheep. By now the sheep-lion has understood that he is not what he had imagined himself to be. He has realized that he is not a sheep. But he is finding hard to understand how he can be a lion. Looking at his characteristics like color etc. he has come to the conclusion that he is not a sheep. At this stage the disciple realizes that he is not the body; he is not the mind but is not able to comprehend how he can be the Atman or how he can be God. The disciple applies logic and reason to understand what he is not but fails to realize what he really is. So the sheep-lion knows for sure that he is not a sheep but is unable to grasp and experience that he is a lion.

Now the lion suggests that both of them should go on a picnic. The sheep-lion is now comfortable with the lion and so he readily agrees. When both of them visit a lake suddenly the lion catches the neck of the sheep-lion and drags him near the water and shows him his reflection in the water. The sheep-lion looks inside and sees his reflection. He first thinks that there is another young lion with them but there is no such lion. He is seeing two reflections in the water; one of the lion and his. Then the lion moves away from this sheep-lion and asks him to see his own reflection in the water. The sheep-lion sees his reflection and for the first time he gets a glimpse of his true nature. Again fear develops in him and he runs away from that place. He is completely shaken when he sees that he is a lion. He starts thinking that if he were a lion then he would have to renounce everything. He would have to start living in the forest. What would happen to his sheep world, his sheep family and sheep friends? He is so comfortable and well settled in the sheep world. How can he suddenly switch to the world of lions and start roaming in the forest? How can he handle so much responsibility? Such questions cloud the mind of the sheep-lion. He feels as if the very earth beneath him has shaken. He has just experienced a glimpse of his true nature. This happens to a disciple when while meditating he experiences his true nature once or falls into Samadhi momentarily through Guru’s grace.

Now comes the time when the lion comes in search of this sheep-lion. He has brought a gift for this sheep-lion. When the lion confronts this sheep-lion, both look at each other. There is no exchange of words this time. No dialog, no intellectual discussions and no philosophy. The lion has brought flesh with him from the forest. He simply grabs this sheep-lion and pushes the flesh into his mouth. Finally the sheep-lion chews this flesh for the first time, swallows it and roars. Now he realizes completely that he is a lion. It was his ignorance in thinking that he was a sheep. Never was he a sheep. From day one he was a lion and his true nature was to eat flesh and roar. Somehow he had fallen into the company of sheep and was eating grass and bleating like them. But now the sheep-lion has experienced and tasted the bliss of being a lion and has no doubts whatsoever. This is the way a Guru finally blesses the disciple with the ultimate experience of enlightenment and makes him realize that it was his foolishness in thinking that he is a man. Guru invokes the latent divinity hidden within the disciple and makes him taste the eternal bliss (Nithyananda), which is his true nature.

This is a beautiful story about how seeking begins in an individual and how he meets his Guru and then how it culminates in the beautiful experience of enlightenment. The lion in this story that guides the cub is the Guru. We are the cubs. We have somehow lost our true identity. We can never answer why we lost it or how. We just lost it; just as the cub right from its birth was oblivious of its true nature. That is the reason it is said that Maya as well as Brahman is Anandi. Anadi means something, which does not have a start. It was always there. But Brahman is anant where as Maya is sant. Anant means never ending or endless and sant means something, which has an end. Maya ends when the identity with Brahman is realized, but both are beginningless. So the question, when the world came into existence can never be answered. Because it's like asking when did ignorance come into existence? We don't know when it came into existence but we know that we can go beyond it through knowledge of the self. Buddha said that there are ten questions we need not ask when we are seeking. Questions like ‘Who was I before my birth’, ‘Is there rebirth’, ‘Where did I come from’ etc. The reasons being that these questions don’t lead us to the truth. They give rise to more questions. He gives an analogy. If an arrow hits a person who is walking in the jungle and his friends come to him for help, won’t he ask them to simply remove the arrow? Wouldn’t it be foolish to ask questions like ‘where did the arrow come from’, ‘who hit it’, ‘what is the exact direction’ etc. So Buddha says that since we are in deep ignorance lets work towards removing this ignorance rather that asking questions about how it came and why it came. These very questions are a product of our ignorance.

So in the story the cub when confronts the lion for the first time is afraid. Just as we are afraid of spiritual masters; we think they are here to deceive us, or fool us. But then when the lion starts making the cub feel comfortable the cub develops a trust in the lion. Similarly the Guru starts behaving the way we want him to behave and then we start developing trust in the Guru. Once the deep trust has been developed then the Guru one day just says Tat Tvam Asi (You are that). This is analogous to the lion showing the cub its reflection in the water. The Guru shows us our true nature and then finally shows us that our true nature was bliss. Unnecessarily we had associated ourselves with objects and were thinking that objects are the source of bliss. Guru shows us that our true nature is to fly. He gives us the taste of the nectar of immortality just as the lion in the story makes the cub eat meat and tells him that his true nature is not to eat grass.

Guru is like this lion in our dream. He is here to wake us up from the dream. If you just follow his teachings you will wake up. But if you run away from him then you are in trouble. Guru is the master surgeon and once you are on his operation bed you are sure to be cured. But just have some patience. Don't get up in middle of the operation. You will miss a golden opportunity. I always tell people; do all your testing, checking out before coming close to me. Don’t leave once I start my work. It will be dangerous for you. Just imagine if the patient gets up when the doctor is in the middle of the operation. In a same way, have some patience, just cooperate for some time and let the Master do his surgery: the divine surgery.

When I say relax often it is misunderstood as doing nothing. Relaxation does not mean physical relaxation. It means mental relaxation. Put your mind to rest. But this does not sink in so easily. When I ask people to relax they question ‘How will I do my job then?’ This question itself proves that you hate your job. You don’t enjoy your job. If you had really enjoyed your job you would not have considered your job as anti relaxation. Right now the pendulum is at its extreme end, means that you have been continuously running behind things. Because of this habit whenever I say relax you try to go to the other end of the extreme. But you can be in the middle of a intense physical activity but still you can be relaxed. If the thought waves die then automatically you will experience the peace within. Then the external act won’t impact your inner space.

Actually speaking hard work is a big myth. Continuously you are repeating to yourself that I am doing hard work. This becomes too ingrained in your system and then you start believing that you are doing hard work. This automatically impacts your performance and you feel fatigued, tired. The body getting tired is a different thing and the mind getting tired is different. The body becoming tired can be avoided if the mind is perfectly under control. The movement of the mind makes the mind tired. This can be definitely avoided. When yoga happens the movement of the mind will stop. The mind will become like a clear lake. And mind and the body are tightly coupled. Once the mind is fresh, it will infuse more and more energy for the body to function.

When the engraved memories become zero, the mind becomes like a clear lake. The unconscious space in the mind is then filled with silence. Intuition starts happening in us. We experience the immense flow of existential energy within us. The seer is then not disturbed by the seen. The seen is nothing but the image of the seer. When thought waves die this realization dawns and all that remains is the self. How can the self be jealous of itself? How can the self compare against itself? How can the self be discontented with itself? When everywhere what is perceived is the self alone? In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna says that I alone exist. Nobody exists other than me. Here he is referring to the self. He has become one with that self. Whenever an enlightened person refers to I he always means the self. When we say I, we mean the shaft we have created by connecting our thoughts. When this false ego dies and we stop creating the shaft the true 'I' emerges forth. This true 'I' is the supreme self, the universal consciousness, God or whatever term you may like to use.

Then the triputi will dissolve. We need to understand what is triputi. Triputi means a triad. There exists a triad in everything we do. Say we are reading a book. Then there exist three things. The reader i.e. you, the object of reading i.e. the book and the process of reading itself. In any experience there exists an experiencer, experienced and the experience. We are always caught in this triad. The seer, seen and seeing triad exists almost everywhere. This sutra says that when yoga happens the seer rests in its own unmodified state. Let us understand how?

When the seer stops associating itself with the seen, then automatically it starts to witness its thoughts, actions, feelings and perceptions. Right now the seer becomes the seen when it is in contact with the seen. For e.g. when we are sometimes working intensely, we become the work itself. We lose ourselves into the work. Or we are eating an ice cream, we forget ourselves and become one with that ice cream. Slowly when the seer separates itself from the seen the act of witnessing starts to happen. This is the first step. Here the seer sees itself totally separate from the seen. Then a stage comes when the seer realizes that the seen has emerged out of him only. He realizes that the seen is made of the same stuff as he is made of. All the differences then vanish. The seer, seeing and the seen become one. The triputi (triad) is then transcended and then the self alone rests. The normal activities may still go on but the self remains un-perturbed. It’s like a screen on which the movie of the world is going on. How does it matter to the screen whether somebody dies or takes birth in the movie? Also without the screen the movie cannot run. The self is that screen. It’s beyond the triputi. The triputi exists as long as you associate yourself with some character in the movie. The moment you realize that you are not the character in the movie, but the very potentiality due to which the movie runs, you transcend the triad. You become one with the supreme self.

Just as the spider weaves his web from the material he has produced and retracts the web after sometime into himself, in the similar way we have woven this web of the world around us. This world is not separate from us. It is made up of the same stuff. This world is made up of the same material of which our thoughts are made of.

Ramakrishna used to give an example of man trying to go to the terrace. He can take any route, like elevator, stairs, ladder etc. Once he reaches the terrace he realizes that all that was below is made of the same material as that of the terrace. Similarly when you realize that you are the screen of consciousness on which the movie of the world is running, you understand that the world is nothing but your own reflection. It’s non-different from you. The fear disappears. You will fear something only when something is separate from you and you anticipate that it can harm you. When all that remains is the self, fear automatically dissolves. That’s what Adi-Sankara says in his Nirvana Shatkam.

Aham Bhojanam Naiva Bhojam na Bhokta, Chidananda Roppa Shivoham Shivoham

I am neither the person who is eating nor the food what is being eaten and also not the process of eating but I am that supreme consciousness whose nature is auspiciousness. Why does he say auspiciousness? Because when you realize this you enter into bliss. Bliss becomes your nature. You become one with Sat-Chit-Ananda. Sat means existence. Chit means consciousness and Ananda means bliss. The bliss that you experience as of now is muddled because of the layer of ignorance you have been carrying with yourself.

And again it is an experience. The triad is still there. But when the thought waves die, you become bliss. You enter into bliss. Experiencing bliss is different and becoming bliss is different. The experience can be lost but one's true nature cannot be lost. When you realize that your nature itself is bliss, you rest in your own unmodified state.

वृत्तिसारूप्यमितरत्र

Vrittisaaruupyamitaratra

IN OTHER STATES (itaratra) THERE IS IDENTIFICATION (saaruupyam) WITH THE MODIFICATIONS OF THE MIND (vritti)

As long as the mind is present the identification with the unreal continues. Sankara says that “Brahma Satya Jagat Mithya, Jivo Brahmaiva na aparah” which means that Brahman is real, the world is unreal and the individual soul is non-different from Brahman. What he means here is that only when the mind ceases to exist the Brahman shines forth. The reality shines in its own glory. As long as there is mind, there are thoughts. Thoughts always hover in the past or the future. There can never be a thought about the present. In the present there can only be consciousness. So as long as thoughts are present we will continue to create shafts. We will connect these thoughts and create imaginary shafts of either pleasure or pain. The moment a shaft is created there is identification with the unreal. The reason is that we connect these unconnected thoughts. The very process of connecting thoughts is reason for misery in this samsara sagara (world). Because we connect thoughts the imaginary identity (which Sankara calls as Jiva) comes into existence. When the Jiva appears the world of mithya (made of unreal) appears. When we un-clutch automatically the false identity disappears and the Brahman consciousness is revealed. Then the jivahood merges in to Brahmanhood.

We have two types of identities. One is the identity that we show to the outer world and other is the identity that we show to the inner world. The identity that we show to the outer world is called as ahankar. The identity, which we show to the inner world, is called as mamakar. Both these identities are in constant conflict with each other. For e.g. outwardly we may project that we are such and such person but inwardly we know that we are lacking in someway or the other. There is always a discrepancy between these two identities. The identity, which we project to the outer world, is always more than what we actually are. A person always tries to prove superior in front of others. Identity, which we project to ourselves, is always less than what we actually are. You might have observed that we are never satisfied with our own selves. Constantly we are trying to improve ourselves in some way or the other. Either we are dissatisfied spiritually or we are dissatisfied materially. This inner identity that we carry always lacks something and the outer identity that we carry always exceeds the normal. Hence both these identities are always in conflict. That is the reason we have to be very careful when we talk because we rarely talk what we think. If we start directly reproducing our thoughts into words people around us will start running away from us. Ramakrishna used to say that bringing your thoughts and words together is true spirituality. That is when we go beyond these two identities.

Both these identities are false identities. These identities are a result of the shaft we create. They don’t exist in reality. As long as we are associating with these identities we are caught up in Samsara. Once we go beyond these two identities, we become enlightened. All the time we are creating, sustaining and destroying thoughts. The process of creation (brahma), sustenance (Vishnu) and destruction (Mahesh) is constantly going on. When we stop creating, sustaining and destroying we go beyond all three and reach the state of parabrahman.

Let us analyze how does identification take place. Suppose you are feeling hungry immediately you get a thought saying I am hungry. The moment this thought appears you have identified the hunger with yourself. You feel that you are hungry. It is not that an enlightened person does not feel hunger or thirst. Just that he does not commit the mistake of identifying that hunger with himself. He just realizes that the body is hungry.

Once an enlightened master was suffering from pain and he was moaning. One of his disciples asked “Master, are you in pain?” The master replied that the pain is there, but he is not in pain. An enlightened one never identifies him with the modifications of the mind. Hence though the pain was present he did not identify with that pain. So he did not suffer.

If somebody blames us we immediately revolt. Why does this happen? Lets analyze. When someone makes a comment against us we receive this input through the senses and this information is passed on in the brain. As a result a thought wave is created and there are modifications in the mind. We immediately identify ourselves with these modifications and start thinking that we have been blamed or we have been criticized. Because of this modification and then identification a reaction is produced in the form of either revolt or suppression.

When we get up from bed we immediately feel that we got up. We identify ourselves with this waking state and so the world. With this identification follows the conclusion that for the last eight hours we were sleeping. We always identify with these states of waking, dreaming and deep sleep. But our true self is always beyond these three states. It is at the background of these three states. It is present in all the three states but always distinct from the three. This fourth state is called as Turiya. Our identification with these three states creates this world of illusion. The moment we realize that we are not these three states but the witness of that, we go beyond this world of mithya (unreal) and enter into the world of nithya (real). It takes a small error to go from nithya to mithya. That error is identification with the modifications of the mind.

Once a zen master gets up from the bed and starts crying. His disciples ask him the reason for his crying. The zen master says that last night he dreamt that he had become a butterfly and that is the reason he is crying. His disciples asked the zen master as to how can this be a reason for crying. Everybody dreams and this is one another dream. The zen master says that he is crying because he is unable to understand whether he is a person who dreamt that he had become a butterfly or he is a butterfly who is dreaming right now that it has become a person. This way the zen master taught the disciples that whenever there is identification with any of these states there is suffering.

Similarly there is identification with the three bodies viz. the physical body, the subtle body and the causal body and also the five koshas (sheaths) viz. annomaya kosha (physical sheath), pranomaya kosha (breath sheath), manomaya kosha (mind sheath), vijnyanomaya kosha (intellect sheath) and anandamaya kosha (bliss sheath). That is the reason the Upanishads describe the ultimate reality as sharira traivalaxana panchakosha teeth avastha trai sakshi (witness of the three bodies, beyond the five sheaths and the witness of the three states)

Whatever we feel, experience we identify ourselves with that. We immediately come to the conclusion that it's us who are doing, feeling or experiencing such a thing. If we pause for a moment and witness the whole event without bias we would realize that we are totally different from these modifications, we are the ultimate witness. Unnecessarily we had been identifying ourselves with the events happening around us and suffering. But we are much more than what we think of ourselves to be. We are that ultimate potentiality on which these modifications take place. We are not these modifications. We are the purusha (witness) on which the modifications of the prakriti (creation, preservation and destruction) happen. It is like a colorless crystal and a red rose. When the rose is brought in vicinity of a colorless crystal the colorless crystal appears red. Now this crystal starts thinking that it is red. But in reality it’s colorless. The presence or the absence of the rose does not change the essential nature of the crystal that is colorless. Similarly even if the modifications of the mind are present we are still that ultimate witness, untouched, unfettered, always free and pure. The moment we realize this, the modifications stop and we rest in our true self. As long as we involve ourselves with the modifications, the modifications get energy to function. We provide them that energy. The moment we detach, the modifications cannot exist independently. They die down automatically. Nothing can exist without our silent permission. It’s us who provides the necessary energy for these modifications to function in our mind.

It is a vicious cycle. As long as there are modifications in the mind, there would be identification. When there is identification it will create more modifications and this will continue. When there is no identification the modifications cease to be. It is this identification, which causes them to function. Identification gives us the illusion of doership. When there is doership, there comes misery.

Doership creates a reaction to any event. Since we think that we are the doer we also feel the need to react. If we write an examination and we pass with excellent score we immediately think that we wrote the examination and because of our effort and hard work we scored so well in the exam. Because of the doership in this act of giving the examination, it created the reaction of pride. If there was no doership, there wouldn't be any pride involved. How can one be proud about something that he has not done? But because we think that we did something we always claim the merit or de-merit resulting from that action. This produces further reaction and the cycle continues. Identification is the biggest sin; there is no other sin other than identification with the actions. It is this identification, which is the cause of all the trouble.

You might ask, if we don't identify with our actions we might misuse this freedom and start doing whatever we want to do. The world would become a madhouse in that place. I don't know how the world would be if there is no identification, but certainly I can see the state of the world now with identification. Another thing to understand is that when the identification with your actions is absent a tremendous intelligence will dawn in you. You cannot do anything that is harmful to the society or nature. All your actions would be divine actions. You would then be enlightened.

There is a big difference between a madman and a sage. Though the external manifestation may be the same in some cases, there is a big difference in their inner space. Both of them have gone beyond the mind but for an enlightened person the mind has disappeared. For a mad man the mind is divided, distorted and multiplied. Mind can become both a friend as well as an enemy. If used as a friend it disappears, if used as an enemy it multiplies. The former is the case of an enlightened one, the later being the madman. Mind can be either the source of bondage or the source of freedom. It depends upon how we use it.

If the mind is worked upon carefully it vanishes. It depends upon how much power we give to the mind. If we feed the mind finally the mind will overpower us. Then we wont have any say. Only the mind will rule. That happens in the case of the madman. Where only the mind remains. The controller is absent. The controller has gone beyond the mind but in that process he himself has disappeared. The mind becomes the master. It does whatever it wants to. Mind is like a mad monkey; imagine a mad monkey with nobody to control it. Won't it go berserk? That's what happens in the case of a madman. He has surrendered to his mind so much that he himself has disappeared and what remains is total chaos. Something totally opposite happens in the case of an enlightened one.

In the case of an enlightened one, the mind disappears and only he remains. Then he is the master and the mind the slave. In his case the mind has surrendered to him. The mind has no say, so power. It becomes a faithful servant. In both the enlightened person and the madman you can find totality. For the madman, the mind has become total, for an enlightened one, he has become total. When one becomes total, the other vanishes. When the mind becomes the slave, we say that is has disappeared. In the case of a Buddha the mind has disappeared completely. He calls the mind only when it's required. It is just an utility.

When you call any sage by his name, he responds to you. For that he needs his mind. But he has used it only for that purpose. Once the need is absent, it is discarded. Then there is total silence. He does not cling on to it. Just the way once we climb the ladder we let go of the ladder, similarly an enlightened on lets go of his mind. You cannot be grateful to the ladder and cling on to it just because it helped you to climb. You have to go ahead.

But as we know there are not just two classes of people. There are an intermediate few. The people, who are not enlightened, and are not completely mad. These are the people who have surrendered partially to the mind and partially to the self. They feed both the mind as well as the self. It depends upon whom they feed more. But as long as the mind has not disappeared completely, they are still ignorant. The mind is still the master in their case. If they tell the mind to stop, the mind won't listen. It will keep on running. When people worry, they are asked not to worry. How much ever they try to stop worrying they are not successful because the mind has stopped listening to them. It's beyond their control.

There are no degrees of enlightenment. Either a person is enlightened or he is not. There are just two boats, one of the enlightened ones and other of the unenlightened ones. But few from the second boat know about the first boat and are trying to get into the first boat. These are the people who are seekers. Others are busy enjoying in their own boat. They are completely oblivious about the presence of the second boat. These are the materialists who are still finding juice in worldly life. They have surrendered to their mind.

The seekers are trying to detach from their mind. They are waging a war against their mind. This war has to be a peaceful one. May sound ironical. But if this war is violent then the mind becomes more powerful. Then it is very difficult to go beyond the mind. It has to be tackled very intelligently. In Ramayana there was a character called Vali. He had a peculiar strength or a quality. If you fight with him face to face, he takes half of your strength away. So obviously Vali used to defeat any enemy who fought with him face to face. He was invincible It was very difficult to defeat him. Because the moment the fight began, the offender would lose half of his strength to Vali. So for that reason, Ram had to attack Vali from behind his back. Even an incarnation like Ram had to use tactics to defeat Vali. This story has great significance in our context.

Vali is our mind and Ram is the self. If we have to defeat the mind, we cannot fight it face to face. It will take away half of our strength. We have to deal with it intelligently. Only then it can be over-powered. As long as the identification with the mind and its modifications is present we are face to face with the mind. Only when we start witnessing these modifications without identification we are going beyond the mind. The very act of witnessing is no-mind. When we witness, its like Ram attacking Vali behind the back. Then stealthily the modifications start dying down and the identification ceases.

वृत्तयः पञ्चतय्यः क्लिष्टा अक्लिष्टाः

Vrittayah pancatayyah klistaa aklistaah

In this sutra Patanjali just says that there are five classes of modifications. Some of the modifications are painful while some are not. What does he mean here by painful and not painful. We might be under the impression that all modifications are painful. How can there be non-painful modifications. An important point to understand here is that irrespective of the nature of modifications, the presence of modifications itself denotes misery. Even though the modifications are not painful, still they are modifications and when the mind moves there can be no silence. Also painful or not painful are relative terms. Something that is painful to you may not be painful for somebody else. Similarly something that is pleasurable to you may not be pleasurable for somebody else. The movement of the mind itself is the root cause of all trouble. But some modifications may help you to go beyond the mind.

The whole science of yoga is to go beyond the mind. Hence a deep clarity of what mind really is, is required. That is the reason Patanjali discusses as length then nature of the mind, what kind of modifications it has and other details. And remember that you don't have any tool with you right now except the mind. If rightly used you can go beyond it, if not it will take over. We know that because of the mind we are in misery. Now we have to find a way to go beyond this mind of misery. But how can we go beyond the mind. Isn't the very process of going beyond the mind, involve the mind? Won't it be a paradox? Though logically it sounds like a paradox, that's our only choice. We have no other option. We have to use the route of the mind but intelligently.

Mind is not something, which is different from the body. That is the reason it's called as the subtle body. It is closely tied with the body. Both are inseparable. A human being is not just physical; he is also psychophysical. His mind is deeply tied to the body. Both the body as well as the mind affects each other. For e.g. medical science is now proving that 90% of our diseases are psychosomatic. So when there is a malfunction in the mind automatically it impacts the body. That is the reason heart patients are advised not to get angry else the blood pressure increases and finally impacts their physical health. It is also said that a person who is paralyzed can walk when he is under hypnosis. Now the body, which was paralyzed, is able to obey the orders of the mind if it is hypnotized. Similarly a healthy body may act paralyzed when the mind is hypnotized to believe that it is paralyzed.

The body has direct relationship with the mind too. When a person drinks alcohol or takes any narcotic substance his mind gets affected. He gets tipsy and starts blabbering. So intake of something physical inside the body directly impacts the mind. Similar is the case with depression pills or anxiety pills. By taking the pills, some enzymes are released which in turn affects the mind. So both the body and the mind are directly related to each other.

Body is something gross and the mind is subtler than the body. The soul is subtler than the mind. It's the subtlest of the subtle. Everything we know right now is with the mind. There is no other kind of knowing. The very act of knowing involves the mind. So the mind stands as a bridge between the body and the soul. The body is insentient by itself and so it does not have the capacity to know. The mind as it its subtler than the body, so it can know the body. But it cannot know the soul, because the soul is the subtlest. The subtle cannot know the subtler but the subtle can know the gross. That is the reason the mind can know the body but fails to know the soul.

Body is like solid, mind like a liquid and soul like vapor. As the body is solid it is bound in space and time. It can be located in space and time. You can say for sure that the body is present at a particular latitude and longitude on earth. But things get tricky when we try to locate the mind. Mind is like a liquid; it flows. You cannot give its exact location. It's very difficult to find the location of the mind. Mind moves constantly, between the past and the present. It does not stop. It moves in space too. You can think of the sun, your house and some other place with the help of your mind. By the process of thinking the mind has reached there. The body is still here but the mind is there. I always tell people, if your body is here one thing is sure that you are not here. By you, I mean your mind. Sometimes people ask me, you heal the body through meditation; can you heal my mind of my worries. I always tell them, healing the body is easy as it is here. If you physically come in my presence, the healing can happen through meditation. Healing the mind is a problem because the mind is never here. When you visit the Ashram, you may be thinking about tomorrow’s job. When you are in the job place, you might be thinking of the beach. When you are at the beach, you might be thinking of some meeting. So your mind is never there, where you physically are. It’s hovering all over the place. The mind and the body are never spatially and temporally together.

Mind is less bound, but it cannot be confined to one particular place. Only place where it cannot reach is the soul. It’s like a mad dog that is unchained. If the mind were bound within some territory, things would have been simpler. But you cannot bind the mind, as its very nature is to flow like a liquid. In Mahabharata Yudhisthira is asked a question ‘What is faster than the wind?’ and Yudhistira answers Mind. Mind is faster than anything, even light. Even before the light from the sun has reached the andromeda galaxy, the mind has reached there. It does not even require a fraction of a second for the mind to reach anywhere. But there is one place where the mind cannot reach. That place is the soul. When the mind will try to reach the soul, it will disappear. It’s like an object that is trying to reach the sun. What will happen when it goes near the sun? The object will burn to ashes as it approaches the sun. Similarly the mind disappears when it travels towards the soul. It just vanishes. And yoga is all about going from mind to no-mind. It’s a process of transformation and a progress from the subtler to the subtlest.

Soul is the subtlest. It is beyond space and time. It is like vapor. Vapor cannot be located at a particular point in space and time. It pervades both. So does the soul. In the Upanishads they give the analogy of two birds sitting on a tree. One bird is sitting high on a branch, motionless, calm and serene. It never eats anything, nor does it drink or talk or move. The second bird on the contrary sits on a lower branch and is involved in day-to-day life. Its takes care of its nest, children. Goes all around the place in search of food and water. It is affected by all emotions like worry and fear and sways like a pendulum between the thresholds of happiness and sorrow. One day this bird looks up and sees this first bird sitting on the higher branch, calm and serene. It’s amazed to see its tranquility and serenity. So it starts flying towards this bird and when it reaches its branch it realizes that it becomes one with that bird.

Soul is like this bird sitting motionless, high up on the branch and the mind is like the bird that was moving on a lower branch. As the mind starts moving towards the soul, it disappears and becomes one with the soul.

But still the mind is bound by space and time. It can spread across all space and time but can never transcend them. It can never go beyond them. If it tries, it disappears. As a result of this property of the mind, it is still finite and hence can never reach the infinite. Soul is the infinite ocean of consciousness and the mind is like a ripple on that ocean. Imagine a ripple trying to know the ocean. It cannot. Only thing it can do is to calm down and disappear. But the mind presents before us a big contradiction. The very nature of the mind is finite, but it is made up of infinite desires. When it tries to fulfill all its desires, new desires spring up. Trying to fulfill the desires is like pouring fuel over fire. The fire grows in intensity, so does the mind if one tries to fulfill its desires. Suppressing the desires again leads to trouble. It's like pressing a spring down with full force. One day the spring is going to recoil back with full force. So neither suppression nor indulgence is going to annihilate the mind. We just have one choice, witnessing the mind with awareness. Knowing its nature, its modification and its properties. Then we are in a position to handle it. Many a time, because of our ignorance about it's functioning, the mind deceives us. We think that by fulfilling its desires, it will keep quiet. The result is contrary to our conclusion. The mind never dies down by fruition of its desires. But when we are aware of the nature of the mind, then there is some hope. There is a way to go beyond it. However strong the enemy may be, if you know the Achilles' heel then you are stronger than him. So Patanjali has done tremendous research in studying the mind, its modifications etc. and is placing his findings before us, which will enable us to ultimate transcend the mind.

प्रमाणविपर्ययविकल्पनिद्रास्मृतयः

pramaanaviparyayavikalpanidraasmritayah

THEY ARE RIGHT KNOWLEDGE (pramaana), WRONG KNOWLEDGE (viparyaya), IMAGINATION (vikalpa), SLEEP (nidra) AND MEMORY (smritayah)

These five modifications of the mind, this totality of the mind, can lead you into deep anguish, in dukkha, in misery. Or, if you rightly use these, it’s functioning, it can lead you into non-misery.

That word "non-misery" is very significant. Patanjali doesn't say that it will lead you into ananda, in bliss, no. The mind can lead you into misery if you wrongly use it, if you become a slave to it. If you become the master, the mind can lead you into non-misery -- not into bliss, because bliss is your nature; the mind cannot lead you to it. But if you are in non-misery, the inner bliss starts flowing.

The bliss is always there inside; it is your intrinsic nature. It is nothing to be achieved and earned; it is nothing to be reached somewhere. You are born with it; you have it already. That's why Patanjali doesn't say that the mind can lead you into bliss -- no! He is very scientific, very accurate. He will not use even a single word that can give you any untrue information. He simply says either misery or non-misery.

Buddha also says many times, whenever seekers will come to him -- and seekers are after bliss, so they will ask Buddha, "How can we reach to the bliss, the ultimate bliss?" He will say, "I don't know. I can show you the path that leads to non-misery, just the absence of misery. I don't say anything about the positive bliss, just the negative. I can show you how to move into the world of non-misery."

That's all that methods can do. Once you are in the state of non-misery, the inner bliss starts flowing. But that doesn't come from the mind; that comes from your inner being. So mind has nothing to do with it; mind cannot create it. If mind is in misery then mind becomes a hindrance. If mind is in non-misery, then mind becomes an opening. But it is not creative; it is not doing anything.

You open the windows and the rays of the sun enter. By opening the windows you are not creating the sun. The sun was already there. If it were not there, then just by opening the windows, rays wouldn't enter. Your window can become a hindrance -- the sunrays may be outside and the window is closed. The window can hinder or it can give way. It can become a passage, but it cannot be creative. It cannot create the rays; the rays are there.

Your mind, if it is in misery, becomes closed. Remember, one of the characteristics of misery is closed ness. Whenever you are in misery, you become closed. Observe-whenever you feel some anguish; you are closed to the world. Even to your dearest friend you are closed. Even to your wife, your children, your beloved, you are closed when you are in misery, because misery gives you a shrinking inside. You shrink. From everywhere you have closed your doors.

That's why in misery people start thinking of suicide. Suicide means total closure -- no possibility of any communication, no possibility of any door. Even a closed door is dangerous. Someone can open it, so destroy the door, and destroy all possibilities. Suicide means, "Now I am going to destroy all possibility of any opening. Now I am closing myself totally."

Whenever you are in misery you start thinking of suicide. Whenever you are happy you cannot think of suicide; you cannot imagine. You cannot even think that "Why people commit suicide? Life is such joy, life is such a deep music, why people destroy life." It appears impossible.

Why, when you are happy, it looks impossible because you are open; life is flowing in you. When you are happy your being expands. When you are unhappy your being shrinks.

When someone is unhappy, touch him; take his hand into your hand. You will feel that his hand is dead. Nothing is flowing through it -- no love, no warmth. It is just cold, as if it belonged to a corpse. When someone is happy, touch his hand, there is communication, energy is flowing. His hand is not just a dead hand; his hand has become a bridge. Through his hand something comes to you, communicates, relates. A warmth flows. He reaches to you. He makes every effort to flow in you and he allows you also to flow within him.

When two persons are happy, they become one. That's why in love oneness happens and lovers start feeling that they are not two. They are two, but they start feeling they are not two because in love they are so happy that a melting happens. They melt into each other; they flow into each other. Boundaries dissolve, definitions are blurred, and they don't know who is who. In that moment they become one. When the ras leela was going on, it was difficult to differentiate between Krishna and Gopikas. All boundaries were lost. Krishna became the Gopikas and the Gopikas became Krishna.

When you are happy, you can flow into others and you can allow others to flow in you: this is what celebration means. When you allow everybody to flow in and you flow into everybody, you are celebrating life. And celebration is the greatest prayer, the highest peak of meditation.

In misery you start thinking of committing suicide; in misery, you start thinking of destruction. In misery, you are just on the opposite pole of celebration. You blame. You cannot celebrate. You have grudge against everything. Everything is wrong and you are negative, and you cannot flow, and you cannot relate, and you cannot allow anybody to flow into you. You have become an island -- closed completely. This is a living death. Life is only when you are open and flowing, when you are unafraid, fearless, open, vulnerable, celebrating.

Patanjali says mind can do two things. It can create misery. You can use it in such a way that you can become miserable, and you have used it. You are past masters of it. There is no need to talk much about it; you know it already. You know the art, how to create misery. You may not be aware, but that is what you are doing, continuously. Whatsoever you touch becomes a source of misery. I say whatsoever!

I see poor men. They are miserable, obviously. They are poor; basic needs of life are not fulfilled. But then I see rich men, they are also miserable. And they think, these rich men, they think that wealth leads nowhere. That is not right. Wealth can lead to celebration, but you don't have the mind to celebrate. So if you are poor you are miserable; if you become rich you are more miserable. The moment you touch the riches, you have destroyed them.

You have heard the Greek story of the king Midas? Whatsoever he will touch it will turn into gold. You touch gold, immediately it becomes mud. It is turned into dust, and then you think that there is nothing in this world, even riches are useless. They are not. But your mind cannot celebrate; your mind cannot participate in any non-misery. If you are invited in the heaven, you will not find heaven there, you will create a hell. As you are, wherever you go you will take your hell with you.

There is one Arabic proverb, that hell and heaven are not geographical places, they are psychological tendencies. And no one enters heaven or hell; everybody enters with heaven or hell. Wherever you go you have your hell projection or the heaven projection with you. You have a projector inside. Immediately you project.

But Patanjali is careful. He says misery or non-misery -- positive misery or negative misery -- but not bliss. Mind cannot give you bliss; no one can give. It is hidden in you, and when mind is in a non-miserable state that bliss starts flowing. It is not coming from the mind; it is coming from beyond. That's why he says they can be either a source of anguish or of non-anguish.

Now let us discuss in detail each of the five modifications. The first modification mentioned by Patanjali is Praman. Praman can be loosely translated in English as right knowledge. Let us understand this term correctly. What do we mean by right knowledge? Does it mean intellectual knowledge? Actually it does not mean any kind of knowledge; what he means by right knowledge is an aspect of the mind. It’s a capacity of the mind to act in a particular manner. Mind has a capacity to act with wisdom and maturity. Then the mind functions with more awareness. When a person meditates the modification of praman happens in the mind.

Praman is the aspect of the mind when mind ceases to be. It might sound contradictory, but praman is the knowledge that liberates. This is the knowledge of the mind, which can take you beyond the mind. Its like a flame that burns the oil and then itself extinguishes. Right knowledge has the ability to liberate you. It works at the realm of the mind but then annihilates the mind.

But we have never really experienced this right knowledge. This center has remained unused in majority of people. It’s like you being in a dark room. When the room is dark you are bound to fall, you are bound to trip or stumble against something on the way. But if you have a torch with you then you can just direct the torch wherever you want and that area gets lit up for you. Then you can move without hassle. The moving become simple, it becomes effortless. All that you needed was just the torch. This torch is praman. If you have it, living becomes simple. If you don’t have it, you end in suffering. It is only with the help of the torch that you can move. However much you try to move without the torch, you may practice a lot but still you are bound to stumble because the scope of life is infinite. Its not a small room that with practice you come to know the location of different objects within the room. Life is like an infinite expanse of ocean, where there are infinite potentialities. Only if you have the torch of praman, then you can cross this ocean with ease.

When right knowledge happens to you, then you start knowing things spontaneously. You don’t need logic or reason. We go behind logic and reason because we are not able to see things as they are. So we like to complicate matters by giving logic and reason. This gives rise to different schools of thoughts. One school of thought says that God is without attributes; whereas some other school of thought says that God is with attributes. Both give enough logic and reason to prove their philosophy. Philosophies are good in the initial stage but you cannot hold on to them. You need to transcend it. It’s like a ladder that helps you to climb. But then you have to leave the ladder and walk ahead. You cannot hold on to the ladder and be grateful to it for helping you the climb. When right knowledge happens, you will simply know. You don’t need logic and reason. Just the way you know right now that you exist; if some one asks the proof for your experience of existence, will you be able to provide any proof? At the most you can show him your pulse, but can you prove your experience of existence. Your experience is your personal experience and nobody apart from yourself knows it. And you cannot prove it, it just is. Similar is the case with praman. You just know things spontaneously. So when Ramanuja said that God had attributes, he just saw God with attributes. Then for the sake of the disciples he supported his conclusion with logic. Similarly Sankara experienced God without attributes and then he provided logic to support his view. Both Ramanuja and Sankara were talking from praman, but their followers started fighting, trying to hold each other’s philosophy as superior.

Vivekananda asked Ramakrishna whether he had seen God, Ramakrishna replied that he has seen God more intensely than he was seeing Vivekananda at that instant. Vivekananda was shocked; first time he was seeing a person talking with such audacity that too about God. Then he had the courage to ask Ramakrishna if he could show him God. Ramakrishna just touched Vivekananda on his chest and blessed him with an experience of Nirvikalpa Samadhi. Ramakrishna could transmit the experience to Vivekananda because Vivekananda was present there to receive it. When I say Vivekananda was present, I mean his mind. When you go to a Master, your body may be present but your mind is not. Your mind is somewhere else. The master has a torch ready with him; you just need to bring your mind there to see the light. But your mind is never there. Your mind is all over the place. So even a master cannot help you, because you are not present there to be helped. But Vivekananda was present there in totality. His quest was total; he was burning with the desire to see God. So Ramakrishna was able to bless him with that experience. Spontaneity is the nature of a person who has praman. He just declares his experiences.

In Vedanta there are two types of knowledge that are mentioned. One is paroksha jnana (indirect knowledge) and the other is aparoksha jnana (direct knowledge). Paroksha Jnana is purely intellectual; it is at the level of the mind. But aparoksha jnana is direct knowledge; it's an experience beyond the mind. Only aparoksha jnana is right knowledge because it is based on experience. No bookish knowledge is going to help you to transcend sorrow. It is only through the right knowledge that you can transcend sorrow.

Once there was a learned pundit going with a group of people in a boat. The pundit was very proud of his knowledge. He asked one person on the boat "have you read the Upanishads?".This person was an innocent villager and had not read the Upanishads. The pundit rebuked that if he has not read the Upanishads, one quarter of his life is wasted. Then he asked this same person if he had read the yoga sutras. The person replied no. Then the pundit said that half of his life was waste. Then this pundit asked this person if he had read the Sankhya philosophy. The person said no. The pundit just laughed and said that three quarters of his life is waste. Suddenly the river current became wild and the boat started rocking a lot. Because of the sudden rough water, people started falling into the water. Then this person asked this pundit 'Do you know swimming'. The pundit replied no. This person said that whole of his life is a waste now. Intellectual knowledge cannot help you to transcend sorrow, only experiential knowledge can show you the torch.

Paroksha jnana is just skin-deep. It is just intellectual, not experiential. But aparoksha jnana is right knowledge; it is praman. It's a pure experience and pure knowledge without any filtering. It's like seeing things without any conditioning whatsoever. We never see things the way they really are. We see things based on our idea or judgment about that thing. One person replaced all the windows in his house thinking that they were cracked but later realized that his glasses were cracked. We are like this man. We see things only through our limited glasses; through our judgments and opinions of the things. But once we have the torch of praman, then its like seeing things without any bias. Because now we know the things as they are. The illusion is transcended.

Praman is the aspect of the mind where intuition happens. There is no thinking involved. When there are thoughts, there cannot be intuition. People come to me and ask many questions and all their questions are answered. Someone asked me one day. Swamiji, you are so young, when did you read so much. I tell them, I don't have to read to answer any question. I just have to throw light on the question and the answer is revealed. Even when you don't ask the question, I know the answer. I know how to answer the questioner. I never answer your questions because that gives rise to more questions. I always answer the questioner. Only when the questioner is answered, he will see an end to all his questions. The point here is that when Praman happens to you, all your actions and words are divine. You start exuding divinity from the very core of your being. All the things you speak or do are right, because they come from praman.

Meditation gives you praman. It helps you develop this center of the mind where the right knowledge happens. That is the reason all the religions of the world emphasize on meditation. Meditation does not mean closing your eyes and sitting crossed legged. Meditation means the state of pure, unmodified, unfiltered awareness. When you rest in pure awareness, the right knowledge happens. When the right knowledge dawns, morality starts happening automatically. If all the people in the society are endowed with praman, there won't be any crime. All things would happen smoothly. Morality is something, which cannot be forced; it has to happen and praman can make it happen. Your very presence would be soothing to the surrounding.

Right knowledge is that which differentiates between a sage and an ordinary person. Sage is a person who completely works on intuition. He is in choiceless awareness. He never makes any decision, but all his actions are impersonal movements in consciousness. When the ego is absent, impersonal non-doership can happen and all the actions are divine actions. They are a result of praman. A sage never chooses. He accepts life from moment to moment. If there is pain he suffers the pain and forgets it. If there is pleasure, he enjoys the pleasure and forgets it. He does not carry the memory of these experiences in horizontal time.

Sage is like a sunflower. Sunflower always moves in the direction of the sun. It never chooses to move in that direction, it is just the characteristic and property of the sunflower to move in the direction of the sun. Similarly it's the characteristic of the sage to do the good. The sunflower does not apply logic or do math to calculate its angle of turning or any such thing; it just moves with the sun. So because of praman, it's the characteristic of the sage to do good as all his actions are divine actions. Then his words become mantra, all his actions become tantra and all his creations become yantra. He becomes a divine being. He does not falter in any situation because his very personality is transformed; there is no contradiction.

A scorpion falls into a river, and a sage who spots him, scoops him out in the palm of his hand. Once out, the scorpion stings him. The sage winces in pain, and ends up dropping him into the water. Again, seeing the scorpion struggle for survival, the sage helps him out of the river. Yet again the scorpion stings the sage. Still, a third time, the sage rescues the scorpion from death. This time the scorpion asks the sage why he keeps rescuing the scorpion, knowing that he will be stung. The sage replies, "It is your nature to sting. And it is my nature to help you." If you are not leaving your inherent nature, how can I leave mine.

Sanathana dharma has a concept of Arsha Prayogaha. Which means that whatever an enlightened person says is correct. Even if he makes any mistake in grammar or pronunciation, it is considered correct. There is no modification made to his text or scripture. The disciples have to follow the scripture as it is. Sometimes people judge sages when they speak something unconventional. People are conditioned by the society and expect the sage to follow the norms of the society. But the sage is unconcerned. He just talks from praman. You cannot expect a sage to follow the ethics of the society. It's like asking a lion to follow the rules of the sheep. Once a person is living with no-mind, he is beyond all morality. When the praman happens in a person everything starts happening right with him. He then becomes a sage.

Patanjali says that mind has a capacity of wrong knowledge or viparyaya. When we fall in the clutches of wrong knowledge everything we do ends up in misery. This happens because we are wrongly centered. Our very center has been shaken.

Once Krishna asked Dooryodhana to go and find a good man in the world. Dooryodhana searched for many days but was not able to find a single good person. He then told Krishna that every person he met had at least one deficiency. No person was a good person from Dooryodhana's point of view. Then Krishna asked Dharmaraja (Yudhisthira) to find one bad person in the world. Dharmaraja searched for many days but could not find a single bad person in the world. He said that every person had at least one good quality. No person was completely bad.

Viparyaya is like mithya (unreal). It is like seeing things that are not actually there. You start seeing the whole world through tainted glasses. Sankara says that Brahman alone is real and the world is unreal. And the individual soul is non-different from Brahman.

We currently don't see the jagat (world) as mithya (unreal) because our mind is deluded into wrong knowledge. We find pleasure in enjoying the sense world. There are two possibilities. Either we are the master and the senses our slave or the senses are the master and we are slave. In the later case the mind is centered in wrong knowledge and in the former case the mind is centered in right knowledge. We lack awareness and insight into things. We lead most of our lives unconsciously, taking things for granted. We don't allow the mind to move from the center of wrong knowledge as once we are in this center the movement becomes difficult. It is like asking a blind person to find his way from some unknown place to some other place. When the disease becomes the very essence of the person, its very difficult to realize that the person has some disease.

You might have heard the word maya multiple times when spirituality is discussed. People loosely say everything is Maya and unreal but have they experienced this unreality they are talking about. Why do they still keep running behind their senses? To tell you honestly maya is an escape mechanism. If you commit a mistake you have to find some scapegoat. You cannot blame God because you revere him and of course you cannot blame yourself as your self is most dear to you so you put the blame on maya. All happened because of maya; this is a standard statement. But let me tell you the real meaning of maya. Definition of maya is yama iti maya; which means something that does not exist but appears as if it exists is maya. So maya is something that does not exist but once any person gets caught in wrong knowledge he is trapped in the snares of maya. Then escaping becomes difficult.

Once someone asked me “What is real”. I said, “What is, is real”. What I mean by that is that whatever exists really is real, else it’s your own creation. It’s rather a deep concept but let me explain by telling you a story. Once mulla nasaruddin was teaching his son the art of drinking alcohol. After drinking for sometime, his son asked mulla nasaruddin “Dad you have taught me how to drink, but you have not taught me when to stop”. Mulla Nasarrudin says “Son, do you see these four people sitting on the table there. When you start seeing them as eight, you should stop”. Then the son says “Dad, but there are just two people sitting”. Apply this analogy to our day-to-day life. We are like Mulla Nasaruddin; we are all drunk with wrong knowledge and so all we see is unreal.

This center of the mind gets specifically affected when we are under the influence of alcohol or a drug. What happens when you drink alcohol? The mind starts losing its balance. Then everything appears hazy. You are not able to see anything right. Sometimes you even say things, which you would have never imagined to say in your aware state. You end up in an absolute lack of awareness.

After a certain phase in your life, you enter into a phase called mid-life crisis. At that time you either resort to alcohol or some other addiction. Sometimes even work becomes an addiction. Emptiness is the best thing that can happen to a person. It gives an impetus to probe within. But many times, people miss this chance and start going behind addictions. Some people change things around them so that their mind can be involved for some time. But again when there interest in that object subsides they try something else and the process continues.

Both alcohol and meditation can take you beyond the mind. But there is a big difference; difference is between praman and viparyaya. Difference lies in awareness. Meditation floods your being with awareness and alcohol deprives your being from awareness. In both the states mind is not involved but absence of awareness gives rise to insanity whereas presence of awareness gives rise to divinity. In the former though the world considers you insane you are unaware of that. That is the reason why an alcoholic starts blabbering and thinks that the whole world around him is wrong. In his state of unconsciousness he becomes oblivious of his insanity. If all people in the world were alcoholics then how would you differentiate between normal state and intoxicated state? Or if just few of them were not consuming alcohol and rest all were under the influence of alcohol then obviously the state of the majority would be considered normal.

This is exactly the state of the world today. Majority is caught in wrong knowledge and few enlightened ones are centered in right knowledge. So the state of the majority is considered normal and the state of enlightened few is considered super-normal. That's the reason even the term for enlightened state is super-conscious. I say that there is no such thing as super-conscious. It's either conscious or unconscious. Enlightened ones are conscious and rests all are unconscious. But the problem is that we are not even totally unconscious; we sway between these two states very rapidly. Hence we are confused. We devise terms like super-conscious to explain the state of enlightened ones.

The moment we devise such terms, we think we are far from it. Hence I always tell people, don't use words like Brahman, Atman, God, Super-Conscious, Samadhi etc. The moment you utter these words, you mean something. You have already created a concept. The moment you make a concept you have missed the truth. Concept cannot be truth as a concept is at the realm of the mind. Only when the mind is not, the truth shines.

When you are established in the wrong center whatever you do, your perspective about all things would be wrong. It is said that the devil quotes the bible to support his actions. You can read anything; Geeta, Upanishads or any other scripture but as long as the wrong center is functioning the right meaning will never be revealed to you. You will start picking just few verses which support your wrong actions. You will not try to understand the exact true meaning.

People sometimes say that Krishna was a flirt. They ask why did he go around with so many Gopis. These are the people who are centered in wrong knowledge. They are not in a position to understand the beauty of relationship between Krishna and Gopis. They always see it in wrong light. They will quote Krishna to support their actions of flirting. Very proudly they will say that if God can flirt why cant we. They have never made an attempt to read the Bhagavatam and understand the divine relationship between Krishna and Gopis. They just picked up one line. In the Rasa Lila (Krishna's dance with the Gopis) never think that both Krishna and Gopis were present. All the Gopis had an experience of Saharara and had merged with Krishna. Only Krishna was present in Rasa Lila. Then with what audacity do people quote Krishna to support their act of flirting? If you can flirt, then you should flirt like Krishna; only then it's incredible. Can you give your friends the experience of Sahasrara as Krishna did? So never say that you are flirting because Krishna flirted.

People sometimes make up outrageous meanings from the scriptures to support their actions. They are centered in viparyaya. Krishna gets shocked sometimes reading your interpretation of Geeta. But nothing can be done when you are caught in wrong knowledge.

People sometimes judge masters. They go from master to master and keep judging and comparing them. They never stick to one Master. I always tell my disciples that you can go to as many masters as you want but never come empty handed. Learn something from every master and transform yourself. I tell them that pick a flower from all the gardens you visit and make a beautiful garland for yourself. But people not only judge masters but also malign them. They sometimes cannot even recognize a master. Even if Buddha comes in front of them he will go unnoticed because their vision is blocked, and filtered. They cannot see the Buddha hood in anybody. Only a person who is centered in right knowledge can recognize others who are centered in right knowledge. If you miss a Buddha, you have missed the greatest thing in life. Then nobody can save you.

A psycho killer says that he is not responsible for his actions because every action is God’s actions. He says that God is committing the sin through him. He argues as to why he is being punished if his action is not really his action but its God’s action. A very logical argument indeed! But he does not understand that if he argues like this, we can also argue that he is not punished but God is punished through him. He won’t accept this argument. He will stick to the first argument as that suits him. The second one is scary. Which indeed is the truth. If you are not the doer, then you are also not the sufferer. He does not like this. This is what happens if one is centered in wrong knowledge.

The third modification of the mind is imagination or . Mind has a faculty to imagine. This is one of the most important faculties of the mind. If used rightly it can take you beyond, if done wrongly it can give you madness. Let us discuss how imagination can help us.

All art like poetry, dance, painting, music comes out of imagination. Its due to the imagination of Leonardo Vinci that Monalisa was painted. It was imagination, which resulted in the excellent works of Shakespeare. Imagination gave rise to the graceful dances and melodious music by the artists. All these things take you beyond the mind. When you listen to enchanting music, or see some gorgeous dance, or read a beautiful poetry or see a beautiful painting your mind stops for a moment. You enter into no mind at once. Imagination can actually help you to enter into meditation.

Some people use imagination as a jump start for meditation. They imagine a form of a deity or some beautiful flower or light or something similar. When their imagination becomes firm and solid they enter into that experience. For e.g. in the Udhava Geeta

Krishna asks Udhava to imagine a two petal lotus in his heart. Then he asks Udhava to imagine his form within that lotus. When the imagination becomes solid the next step is to go beyond the imagination and merge with the absolute. So imagination helps you to get rid of all other thoughts and just hold on to one thought. Then finally this thought is also transcended. In India for burning bodies after death they use a bamboo stick to light the fire. Towards the end this bamboo is also thrown into the fire. Similarly imagination is used as a mechanism to eliminate other thoughts. Once the initial purpose is achieved then the imagination is also dropped.

Sometimes people get caught in their imaginations. They start thinking that the imagination is real. While mediating they start seeing some deity or some vision. They get lost in it. Some people see Krishna dancing with the Gopis. It is nice to have such visions. They are good indicators on your spiritual path. But certainly they are not ultimate. They are still a product of your imagination.

When you travel from Delhi to Bangalore some people like to keep the window open. So they see some good scenery on the way. These scenes are like visions, like light, sound or some deity. But they are certainly not Bangalore. They are good entertainment. You will feel nice during the journey. But sometimes there is a great danger. Some people get down seeing these scenes thinking that it's Bangalore. They take their imagination to be real. There is another set of people who keep their windows closed in the train. They don't see any visions nor they have any experiences. But they will surely reach Bangalore and good thing is that they won't be misled by visions. But again there is danger involved in this path also. They might get bored and de-motivated and might get down in between thinking that Bangalore never comes.

Most of the creations are due to imaginations. When a plan for a structure to be built is made first it needs the imagination of the architect. Once the imagination is ready all further steps are chalked out. Taj Mahal, the Great China wall and all other man made monuments in the world were a result of imagination.

Likewise imagination has a tremendous capability to produce miracles. Emile Coue was a French psychologist who used to cure diseases through autosuggestion and imagination. His mantra was ‘Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better’. He made his patients repeat this mantra and he saw phenomenal results. Even fatal incurable diseases were cured with this approach. Just by the power of imagination you can create wonders.

What you imagine you create a potentiality for that imagination to come true. You immediately create such a possibility. If a woman starts imagining that she is beautiful, a certain type pf beauty starts happening in her. Similarly when someone starts imagining that he is dull and tired, he looks dull and tired. People sometimes do brain-storming when they want to resolve some complex problem. All they are doing is giving vent to their imagination.

Few centuries ago man would have never thought that he would be able to fly. If you would have told man two hundred years ago that one day he would fly in air planes he would have called it science fiction. It was just through imagination that two extraordinary scientists came up with this concept of a plane. Now we see that it has become the fastest mode of transport with thousands of people flying every day from different corners of the globe.

Patanjali says that imagination if wrongly used can lead you to destruction. We have ample examples in this world to prove this. Alexander had an imagination that he would become the emperor of the whole world. So he started conquering countries and annihilating people who don’t accept him as their King. Similarly Hitler had an imagination to win the world. He tried to do it and in effect many people lost their lives. Imagination is a power that lies hidden in you. It can be used discretely for creativity, betterment and more development. But it can also be misused.

In the Vishnu Puran, it talks about a king by the name Hiranyakashapu. He had a fantastic imagination to win the whole universe. So both he and his brother started looting every place they knew off. He had an imagination that they he would be ruling the entire cosmos. To supplement this imagination he declared that he is God and made every person accept by force that he is God. He had become mad with his imagination. But his son was intelligent. He opposed his father and refused to accept him as God. The imagination had entered into Hiranyakashapu so much that he even made attempts to kill his own son. His family held no importance to him any more because he was mad with his imagination. He went overboard to make his imagination come true. But finally Vishnu killed him. This is the fate of a person who goes wild with his destructive imaginations.

It is said that man cannot live without imagining. He has to imagine something. Even in a marriage relationship there are not two people who are together. It's a group of four people. One is the husband, other is the wife, third being the husbands imagination about the wife and finally the wife's imagination about the husband. When we relate to any person we always relate to an imagination. We never relate to the real person outside because there is no real person outside. The vedantist's claim that the whole world is your imagination. They call is Maya. They say that the world is a product of your mind. If you are not there the world is not there. World exists only as long as you imagine it to be. A very intriguing concept indeed!

Too much imaginations causes a person to miss the current moment. He lives too much in the future. He loses track of the blissful now. He foresees bliss through his imagination, but never experiences it now. He daydreams. Actually all your dreams are a result of imagination. It's due to either excessive imagination or suppressed imagination. So many times the things you did not want to think about in the waking state come as a nightmare to you when you sleep. You see a horror movie. You don't want to think about it anymore because it troubles you. But still your imaginative faculty will make those thoughts about the horror movie repeat in your dreams.

Sometimes people start talking to imaginary people. You might think that the person does not exist but for them the person is real. He is not imaginary. If he were imaginary, they would not have talked in the first place. They go one talking to a person as if he is real.

That is the power of imagination. All of you must have heard the story of John Nash. He started relating with imaginary people. But for him, they were real.

Imagination can be a gateway to both heaven and hell. It can drive you completely insane or it can be a stepping-stone to bliss. It’s up to an individual to use the faculty of imagination properly. If an imagination leads to lack of awareness it can destroy you. If an imagination helps you to become more aware it can help you.

The forth modification is sleep or nidra. Sleep is a state of complete oblivion. We have discussed in the introduction the four states of consciousness. One is the waking state where awareness and thoughts function together. In the dream state there is no awareness but there are thoughts. In deep sleep we lack awareness as well as thoughts. Finally in Samadhi or super-conscious state we are fully aware without thoughts.

Normally when we sleep at night, most of the time we spend in dreaming. Hardly do we touch the state of deep sleep. Lack of mental activity is extremely soothing to us. And that is the reason when we get up in the morning we feel rejuvenated and energetic; ready to start the next day. But we have lost the ability to even sleep peacefully. We go on dreaming all night. Sometimes even after a long sleep we feel tired when we get up. We experience headache. This happens as a result of continuous dreaming. We might feel that we have slept a lot but mentally we have no slept. Though the body was at rest the mind was moving continuously. You might have observed that even a short sleep for few hours makes you feel refreshed and energetic. Sleep is extremely energizing and healing. Medicine says that body heals itself during sleep. But it’s not the quantity that matters but the quality.

When we are clogged with thoughts throughout the day, we continue this process even when we lie down at night. Our mental state during the day largely affects how we sleep. If we are blissful and more aware in our waking state automatically our sleep will be blissful. We will continue our state of mind when we lie down. But if our mind is chaotic during the day it will continue its chaotic nature even at night. Sometimes people resort to sleeping pills because they cannot sleep. They suffer from insomnia. But sleeping pills is a very superficial solution. It will help you to forget yourself and sleep but then you become addicted to that. You cannot sleep without that. Sleep is a natural state that should happen to us. If you are suffering from insomnia, we have to cure this problem at the root. If we fix the root then we have solved the problem permanently. If we just try to fix it superficially its just a temporary adjustment. If you have problems sleeping, I suggest that you should work on your waking state. Meditate and you will see the difference. Mediation will infuse so much awareness that automatically this energy will help you to sleep blissfully. Meditation is the ultimate solution for all sleep problems. It is like working on the root. Meditation will help you to get over the constant irritation.

I have been asked on multiple occasions; what is the difference between sleep and Samadhi. The difference lies in awareness. In sleep there is a complete absence of awareness where as in Samadhi there is full awareness. If a fool sleeps he wakes up as a fool but if a fool enters into Samadhi he comes out wise. That is the difference. In Taitriya Upanishad it talks about the five sheaths (pancha koshas). The fifth sheath is the anandamaya kosha (bliss sheath). We rest in this sheath in deep sleep. Our nature is bliss when we sleep. That is the exact reason why we feel so fresh after we get up. We say that we had a blissful sleep. But this statement is followed by another statement, which says that I knew nothing. I was in total ignorance about myself and also about my surrounding. We come to the conclusion that we did not exist when we were sleeping. We could not experience our existence. But I ask you a question. Can you talk of your non-existence as an actual experience? How can you say that you did not exist unless there was someone experiencing your non-existence? This leads us to the conclusion that even in sleep you are fully present resting in your own swarupa (true nature). But since the mind was absent the faculty of memory was also absent. When there is no memory there are no objects. And since we are so used to associating with objects we fall into the habit of asserting our existence only in the presence of objects. In deep sleep there are no objects and so we lose the awareness of ourselves. We start feeling that we did not exist as we rely on memory for our existence. Memory is a very unreliable thing to assert our existence. It is not permanent. We exist irrespective of the memory. Memory creates an illusion of imaginary identity, which we call as I and since we are hooked onto this small I, we disappear in deep sleep when the memory snaps. Discontinuity in memory is related to the discontinuity in existence. This wrong notion has to be abolished.

If we are able to accept this fundamental concept from our heart then we can have an experience of jagrat shushupti (aware sleep). You will be perfectly aware in your sleep. This state is also called as yoga nidra. Normally what happens is that we never enter into sleep directly. We always pass through the dream state before entering into sleep. We lose our awareness in dream and this continues when we sleep. If we directly enter from waking state to deep sleep the awareness will continue and we can have a conscious sleep experience. From the point of view of charkas, when we are in the waking state the consciousness resides in the ajna chakra. In the dream state it slips to vishuddhi and in deep sleep the consciousness resides in anahata. When we sleep our consciousness gets stuck in vishudhi and then it falls into anahata. That is the reason we always dream before entering into sleep. But if the consciousness slips from ajna to anahata directly without staying in vishudhi, we will enter into a conscious sleep experience. There is a very simple yet powerful meditation technique to experience jagrat shushupti. We should try to meditate on darkness and eventually fall asleep in the sitting position with the neck straight. If our neck is bent then the meditation is not complete. Only if we are able to sleep with our neck straight, the consciousness will fall from the ajna chakra to the sahasrara chakra and we would have a conscious sleep experience. This experience is so soothing and refreshing that after such an experience, you won't be able to sleep for the next couple of hours due to high energy and bliss. You wont be able to fall into the unaware state immediately after touching the ocean of awareness.

When you are in deep sleep, bliss is your nature. You are not even a witness. You are bliss itself. Sleep is not an object but it's the subject. Our mistake is that we think of sleep as an object and so we lose the awareness. Because there is nothing there; it's completely objectless. Only you are there. In sleep you are in the same state in which Krishna or Buddha existed. Only if you become aware of this, the experience can become Samadhi. Then you will experience the Krishna consciousness or the Buddha hood.

The last modification is memory or smruti. Memory is a function of the mind. Its an undeniable experience to man. We remember certain things from the past and that’s what we call as memory. For e.g. you might have attended a music opera few days ago, and you remember that incident very clearly. The reason is that incident was special for you. You were looking forward to it or you really enjoyed it or even disliked it. If I asked you what were you doing three days ago at 3pm, you may not able to answer. Even if you think hard you may find it difficult to recollect your state three days ago. Again the reason being that nothing special happened. Nothing worth remembering happened that time. You did not care to mark that time as special. The point that I am trying to make here is that you remember only certain things. You don’t even know you past properly. You know just the things that you want to know. If you see the past clearly as it is you will not repeat the mistakes you committed in the past. You will keep progressing all the time. But that does not happen because we remember just some pleasant or unpleasant things in the past and we color our future with that. We edit our past and make the future. If every moment in our life becomes a learning experience we would have become enlightened long before.

Memory plays an important role in creating this illusion of the world. Memory gives us the sense of continuity, which is the root cause of ego. Memory gives rise to the sense of doer ship. We think that we did something, we felt something, and we experienced something. All this happens because of memory. We connect these events and create bondage. In reality you are never the same person. You are changing all the time. Even biologically you change. The body cells are replaced after every few months or years. Similarly your mind changes all the time. We have discussed that mind is collection of unconnected and un-clutched thoughts. Our body and mind are constantly changing. In reality there is no person. It’s just a bundle of thoughts. But because of memory these thoughts clutch with past thoughts and create bondage.

Memory if rightly used can help you go beyond the mind. You can even access your past lives with right memory: memory that is devoid of fear and greed. If you see your past as it is without any modification of your own, the past can teach you how to live you present and then shape your future. For you the past is always beautiful or horrible. And based on these two experiences you are trying to make your future beautiful. We can never have a beautiful and blissful future based on fear and greed. Only when you live your present in complete awareness the future will be beautiful. The current moment is the mother of the next moment. If the current moment is bliss automatically the next moment becomes bliss. But if the current moment is sorrow, the next moment can never be bliss.

Knowledge of objects is also based on memory. When do you say that you know? Only when you remember things for e.g. if you were asked if you know Heisenberg's uncertainty principle you would say yes or no based on the memory of this principle or theorem. Unless you don't have the memory you cannot positively say you know. This is our common experience. But when the object of the knowledge is removed and just knowing remains devoid of any memory, ones true nature is realized. As long as there is something known, it would be based on memory. When the known merges into knowing, then the pure knowledge or the pure consciousness shines without any object. Knowing has no connection with the object. It is pure knowledge alone. Memory plays an important role in making you believe what you are not because it's the sole reason for objectification. When there are objects there is association with the objects and this leads the bondage.

Sankara says that memory becomes the reason for maya, the illusion of the world in his commentary on Brahma Sutra the first section of Adhyasa (superimposition).

smriti-rupah paratrapurvadrstavabhasah

Where memory appears it forms a show of something seen before – something in the past and not now and here

Memory creates judgments and opinions based on past events. It superimposes the past on the present. We are not able to see the present in its true light. It creates an illusion of the past on the present. We start associating because of memory and the present is lost in that process. When we see a rose, immediately the act of being gifted a rose or we gifting a rose or some other memory springs up in the mind. Then the mind moves to the details of the person whom you gifted or you were gifted by. In this process the beauty of the present moment, the rose itself is lost.

When you get up from bed you remember your dreams. You know very well that the subject (you) and the objects in the dream both are unreal. Even if you were hurt in the dream or had suffered in the dream, you don't really care about it once you get up. Because you know that it was unreal. But how did you remember the dream? It was because of memory. So memory here proved unreliable in the case of dreams. Extrapolating this to the waking state we can say that memory by itself is illusory and deceptive. It is the last link of bondage left in a human being. Memory is a cheat outright as it makes you believe that something that never happened, happened.

In the case of a sage memory is always object driven. The subject is not tied with the experience. So a sage is able to live any experience fully without any baggage from the past. The sage uses memory as a tool. It is never a source of bondage for him. If you go and meet a sage yesterday and you go again today he will remember you. Its not that he won't recognize you. But the difference is in the seer. For a sage the subject was not there as he is devoid of any ego. When you met him yesterday, for him you met nobody. When you meet him today, again you have met nobody. For him memory is always the memory of objects and never the subject. As there is no subject in his case. Really speaking even objects are absent for a sage as both the knower and the known merge into pure knowing consciousness. This is an extremely subtle point you need to understand and only experience can be the best testimony.

प्रत्यक्षानुमानागमाः प्रमाणानि

Pratyaksaanumaanaagamaah pramaanaani

RIGHT KNOWLEDGE HAS THREE SOURCES (pramaanaani): DIRECT COGNITION (pratyaksa), INFERENCE (anumaana) AND WORDS OF ENLIGHTENED ONE'S (aagamaah)

In this sutra Patanjali describes the source of right knowledge. How does right knowledge happen in a person? What are the methods or techniques, which can make right knowledge, happen in a person? Very clearly Patanjali describes three sources of praman or right knowledge. The first source is direct cognition or pratyaksha. We need to understand this very carefully as this is the most misunderstood one. Generally direct cognition is understood as something, which is directly cognized through the senses. So if we see a thing in front of our eyes or we hear some music we think it is direct cognition. But we forget the fact that here senses are the medium. We are not cognizing it directly, rather we are just trusting the report given by our senses. Whatever our senses report, we have to accept. We have no other choice. But this is not direct cognition. Direct cognition happens when there is no bridge between the knower and the known. It is a state of union when the knower becomes the known and dissolves into pure knowledge. The knower is not separate from the known.

Report of the senses is deceptive. We cannot trust our senses for knowledge. Because the information provided by the senses is limited to the capability of that sense organ. For e.g. a dog has much keener sense of smell than humans. Because their sense organs are more developed. Owls can detect sound waves which human ears cannot detect. So a sense organ is limited by its functionality. So obviously what our senses report cannot be fully trusted. The information gets filtered through the very process of its passing through the senses. Even in scientific experiments, however powerful microscope you may use, still the information cognized is limited to the perception capability of the human senses. You can see only those things which you know. You cannot see unknown things. Idea precedes the object. Unless you know what is a building you wont be able make any sense of a structure called building. It is said that when Columbus’s ships came to America for the first time the red Indians could not see the ships for a long time. Only after continuous gazing they could see the ships. The reason was that they had never seen any large object floating on the surface of water. They had no idea that ships existed. So all they saw were just ripples on the surface of water. So unless you have an idea, you cannot see.

In the night we dream. And when we are in the dream we don’t realize that this is unreal. Only after we wake up from the dream can we know that this is unreal. Inside the dream we go through all kinds of emotions. We use our senses to touch, smell and see within our dream. But after waking up you realize that all that the senses reported was unreal. You don’t cry over any loss that happened to you in your dream. You just discard it saying that it was just a dream. So extrapolating this to our waking state, it is also possible that whatever we see, know is a dream and after waking up we may realize this. This is always a possibility, which cannot be rejected or dismissed. Just the way you know that the senses in your dream reported something imaginary and unreal, you may know that the senses in the waking state may also be reporting something imaginary and unreal.

So senses can report to you wrongly. It’s the sense mind interaction, which causes the distortion of any object. We see everything though the glasses of our imagination. If you are in love with someone you will start seeing every thing beautiful about that person. Even if some woman is ordinary in looks you will see her as beautiful. That is the reason it is said that beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. Similarly if you hate somebody you will start finding faults in every action of that person. Whatever he or she does you will condemn it. Because you have already created your judgment and opinion and you are just collecting arguments to support your judgment. These are two things: either you collect arguments and then make a judgment or you just collect arguments to support your judgment. The later is dangerous and should be avoided.

If your mind becomes pure then the senses can also become pure. You can purify your senses. Once that happens you get the divya chakshu the divine eye. You see things as they are. You start cognizing things directly. It’s our judgments and opinions, which dilutes the information. For e.g. a camera can see much more through its lens than what you see through your eyes. The reason is that the camera does not have any judgment. It does not favor one object more than some other object in the room. It sees all objects with an equal vision. It’s the tendency of humans to discriminate and differentiate. Which is the root cause of all trouble. It is said that world is a dream and it is nothing wrong in enjoying the dream. But problem happens when we start liking one part of the dream as opposed to the other. When you start differentiating within the dream you start treating the dream as real. You end up in bondage.

Sankara describes a phenomenon called rajju – sarpa (rope – snake). When you are walking in dark and you see a rope lying on the ground you scream thinking that it was a snake. For a moment you feel that it is a snake. After realizing that it is a rope you come back to normal. This is how we are seeing the world through our senses. We are caught up in fear and greed because we see it like a snake. Only when we realize that it is not a snake and it is a rope, we drop our imaginations and fantasies and start living naturally spontaneously without the burden of fear and greed. Seeing a rope as a snake is not pratyaksha. Seeing the rope as a rope is pratyaksha.

Patanjali is not concerned with Charvakas philosophy. Charvaka was an atheistic philosopher who also used this word pratyaksha to describe his philosophy. He only accepted the report of the senses as real. For him there was no other reality. He did not accept the existence of a soul or God because they cannot be seen through these physical eyes. He rejected everything that he could not see with his eyes. He did not accept the panchabhutas (the five elements) and instead accepted just four, as ether the fifth element cannot be seen. To support his philosophy he even gave a sutra that said: -

As long as you live, live happily. If you don't have enough money, borrow from others and just enjoy. Once the body is destroyed to ashes, where is the question of coming back?

Charvaka did not trust anything other than the senses. He said that whatever is pratyaksha is real. But his understanding of pratyaksha is totally different from Patanjali's. His understanding was not based on direct cognition but was based on the report of the senses. Patanjali is not interested in this materialistic philosophy. He is only interested in striking the core. He is interested in sharing his deep understanding scientifically and methodically so that all of you can reach his state.

In direct cognition there is no mediator. The knower and the known are face to face. In fact the knower and the known have merged. Direct cognition happens only in deep meditation. A Buddha does not have to uses his senses in order to know. He knows instantly. Even before you know what is in your mind, Buddha has known. When people come to me, I ask them their problem. They say that you know it Swamiji there is no need for me to tell. But I tell them that I know your problem but the problem is that you don't know it correctly. So I ask them to repeat the problem and verbalize it. Many a times it happens that they are not able to put the problem into words. Because there never really was a problem in the first place. They were just afraid to face it and see. This is what happens in most of the cases. We turn our back towards any situation and call it a problem. We think we are in trouble. The only trouble here is thinking that we are in trouble. There is no other trouble. The trick is not in solving the problem but the trick is to realize that there is no problem.

As long as you don't know yourself correctly you can never know anything outside. How can you take the world as real when the self who is cognizing it is intangible? So the self has to be known first. Only then other things can be known. The self has to be cognized first. That is the reason we are always confused about what we want. Whenever we are presented with a goal, the mind immediately feels attracted towards that goal and once the goal is achieved we start running behind other goals. If you are placed a question

"What do you want finally?" you can never satisfactorily answer this question. If you attempt to answer, a hotchpotch kind of response will be delivered. Because unless the self is known, you can never answer any question satisfactorily.

Similar thing happened to one of the great sage Narada when he confronted Sanatkumara; the first born of Brahma the creator. Narada prostrated before Sanatkumara and said that he has no peace of mind. Sanatkumara asked Narada to tell him what he knew already so that he gets some history about Narada before he gives Narada some solution. Then Narada opened his book of knowledge. He narrated the list of sciences and arts in which he was proficient. He said that he knew every science and art under the sun. He knew physics, chemistry, biology, metaphysics, theory of knowledge, astronomy, aesthetics, ethics, sociology, political science, culture, religion, philosophy and many more things. But he said that he had no peace of mind. Then Sanatkumara told Narada that he was in great danger of the egoism of his learning. He says that whatever he knows is nothing but a bundle of words with no content inside. He has smeared his personality with a veneer of apparent knowledge but he is quite different from that knowledge. He finally tells Narada that he needs to know himself first before knowing anything else. Unless you don't know yourself, whatever you learn or do in your life is ultimately futile. Once the self is known then automatically everything else is known, as it's the self that shines through every cell and particle observed in nature.

Knowing the self is like knowing the electricity within the working of electrical appliances. You may know how fan works, or how grinder works but till you are oblivious of the working of electricity within these appliances you have not known anything because electricity is the substratum; the source. The appliance is useless if the electric current is not flowing. But if you know the source, you know how everything works. Similarly if you know the self, if you have experienced the self you have known everything. And knowing the self is direct cognition. That is the reason whatever an enlightened one does is tantra, his very form is yantra and his words are mantra. He is the very embodiment of the self; He is one with that supreme self which shines within every living being and slumbers in every stone. He is also called as jeevan mukta, a free soul who walks on planet earth like God himself. You can never deceive him. If you think you have deceived him then you are at terrible loss. He might give you an impression that he was deceived but then the loss is yours. How can you deceive a person who is the very embodiment of the self? That is the reason an enlightened person never dreams. He cannot be even deceived in a dream. He sleeps a totally conscious sleep. He is alert in his sleep. He just rests in Samadhi when he is sleeping that's all. There is no element of unconscious in him.

For knowing the self no external object is required. All you need is yourself. You may be in a dark cave. You cannot see anything else. But still you are there. The self can be known, as your presence is the only prerequisite. Once Ramana Maharshi was asked. What is the qualification to practice spirituality? Ramana asked "Do you breathe? Are you alive?". So to know the self your presence alone is enough. There are examples of freedom fighter saints who realized the self when they were in prison. They had nothing to do for many years. Suddenly the mind turned inwards and they realized the self. So nothing external is required for cognizing the self. In fact anything external is a hindrance in realizing the self.

The second source of right knowledge according to Patanjali is anuman (inference). The first source is direct whereas this one is indirect. Patanjali is so intelligent that he is talking at all levels; for all types of sadhakas (spiritual aspirants). There are several spiritual scriptures by great-enlightened masters, which talk about the ultimate reality, but very few really talk from the level where you are. Patanjali is not just talking from where he is; he is also talking from where you are. You cannot stand on the tenth floor and start shouting "come up". You have to show the stairs or the elevators. Only few advanced spiritual seekers can understand the direct message. But most of the disciples have to be taken from where they are step by step. Patanjali is giving here a secondary source of right knowledge called anuman.

What exactly is inference? We can infer or deduce logically, intellectually about the existence of the supreme self or the atman or God. Right now you may not be at a level where you can cognize the self directly or even get a glimpse of it in deep meditation. But certainly you have been blessed with a mind to think logically step-by-step and infer. Patanjali says that this ability to infer is an important tool, which can be used to have right knowledge. You can use your mind and philosophically try to come to certain conclusions that ascertain the existence of the ultimate reality. This is a very nice method especially for the scientifically minded modern man.

But people don’t want to think on these lines. They are afraid that such thinking may transform them. They are afraid of transformation and so they don’t even want to think on these lines. Have you ever seen in party’s people discussing about God? Or people discussing about death. You will never see such conversations because people want to run away from it. They will always live under the fear of death but never talk about it. It is suppression that leads to fear and greed. If there is no suppression, then you will get over fear and greed. That’s exactly what has happened with sex and death. Both these ideas are suppressed in the society. We see that all the crimes in the society are linked to these two things. Greed and fear runs through the veins of the society. So if every man sits with himself and learns to infer correctly he will come closer to reality. All you need is some time for yourself. We give appointment to all others in this world but hardly do we give appointment to your own self. I always tell people; you don’t even need to meditate with your eyes closed. Just sit with yourself doing nothing for twenty minutes in a day. Just watch your thoughts without creating any opinions or judgments. If there is irritation just witness it. But people don’t like this advice. They are happy if I tell them some formal worship to be done. They always want to do something or the other. If I tell them that they have to get up early morning and worship some image or idol, they are happy. They will do it and it is nothing wrong. Worship is beautiful; it’s nothing wrong. But it’s the quality that matters. Somebody asked me once "Swamiji, can I skip mediation and just do puja (worship)". I asked her whether she feels blissful while doing the puja, if yes then her worship itself is a meditation. If she does not feel blissful then she needs to meditate. But most of the time people are not able to do the worship in a meditative manner. While doing japa (chanting of holy name), they are counting the remaining beads to see how much more is remaining. They are doing it just for the sake of doing it. If you worship like Ramakrishna there is no need to meditate. But are you at the same stage as Ramakrishna? So I always tell people, instead of upasana do vipassana.

So sit with yourself everyday for twenty minutes and do some contemplation. Your conclusion is not very important. The clarity is what that matters. You should be clear about what you do. Even if you come to the conclusion that there is no God, or no self, let this be backed up with proper logic and reason. The moment there is clarity automatically bliss follows. When you have knowledge of something, you are not bound by it. Its ignorance that binds and knowledge liberates. As I mentioned earlier Charvaka came to totally different conclusions. He gave his disciples a totally different direction, but if you think carefully Charvaka was happy. He was happy with his conclusions. His inference may have been distorted. He may not have thought deep enough but he at least thought something. If not today certainly he might reach to better conclusions; just that his mind should be open. But people don't even think like Charvaka. They live like Charvaka but don't dare to think like him. It needs courage to be a perfect atheist. Vivekananda used to say that I am yet to meet a perfect atheist; someone who can logically debate and defend his conclusions.

There is a nice story from the Upanishads. Ten disciples are crossing a river. After crossing the river they are counting the number to make sure that all have reached safely to the other side. One person starts counting others and counts till nine. He forgets to count himself. Since he has counted just nine people he is afraid that one of them has drowned. He counts once again but still he is only able to count till nine. Then all start counting and nobody is able to count till ten as all are forgetting to count themselves. So they start weeping and wailing, thinking that one of their dear friends has drowned. A sage who is passing nearby sees this commotion. He gently asks one of the disciples to explain the predicament. The disciple tells the sage that they have lost one of their friends in the lake and that is the reason everyone is weeping. He tells him that they were ten who were crossing the lake and after reaching the other end of the lake they could count just nine. Now the sage is puzzled because he is able to see all ten of them. He asks this disciple to count once again. Then the disciple counts till nine. The sage then understands the trouble. He exclaims to this disciple "Fool, you are the tenth". This comes to the disciple as a bolt. He is shocked. He had forgotten to count himself. When he realizes this, suddenly his grief disappears. He understands that he is the tenth disciple which he was forgetting to count and was ignorantly thinking that one person has drowned.

This is what we do. We never contemplate on the self. We are always outward in our activities. The self is always forgotten. Even bliss we try to seek outside when our very nature is bliss. Very rarely when you get some free time, you immediately try to occupy yourself in something. Weekends are also jammed packed with hectic schedules. Then what is the difference between a weekday and a weekend? But people when they find some free time, immediately take the television remote and start scrolling through the channels. If nothing else is there, they will read some novel. Nobody wants to face the self. They are running away from the self. But how long will you run? One day you have to return to the source. You are trying to know everything except yourself. How will you know? It's impossible.

There are several ways you can try to infer about the truth. One of the things that appeal to a human being is the vastness of the universe. So many planets, stars and galaxies, everything moving in perfect equilibrium. Looking at this magnanimity of the universe, one starts thinking about the grand design. And whenever a design is thought of, the designer cannot be ignored. The designer becomes an integral part of the design. So when the universe is comprehended, obviously the designer of the universe is thought off. This was one of the important reasons why philosophies and theories of creation were made.

There was a philosopher called Descartes. He started his philosophical quest through doubt. He decided to reject anything, which is not indubitable. So he denied even God because God can be doubted. Anything that can be perceived, he used to reject because anything conceivable can be doubted. This was a very courageous step. It needs courage to progress on this path. Because before you see the rose you have to encounter innumerable thorns. This quest is like that. Everything will seem distasteful. You won't find interest in anything, as you doubt everything. But one day when Descartes was contemplating, it suddenly dawned on him that he could not doubt himself because even to doubt, he is required. He could not deny his existence because even for the denial he is required. You cannot even say “I don’t exist”. Your saying proves that you are. Even to doubt you are needed. So this way Descartes finally inferred about the existence of one permanent entity.

Out of the six systems of Indian philosophy, Nyaya philosophy is entirely based on logic and reason. It shows you a path which involves just inference.

Inference then leads to the thirst to have direct cognition. And this thirst is what propels you to progress and realize the self. Inference should lead to your growth. It should not de-motivate you. Inference should give you the strength and the energy to progress and realize the self. If inference leads you to a void then the inference was skewed. It was not right inference. Inference should not make you lose interest in life. Instead life should become more enthusiastic and beautiful. Another danger is that inference should not be left half way. It should go on till the end. How would you know if the inference was completed or not? If it leads you the bliss, then it was right. It was done till the end. But if inference leads to a void and restlessness, then it was dropped in the middle. You need to carry on. You need to investigate more.

Another problem with inference is that people sometimes get stuck with their conclusions. I am not saying that one needs to vacillate from one conclusion to another but the mind should be open to accept other ideas. You should be able to test your conclusions against all logic and reason. Only then your inference is flawless. The moment your mind becomes closed to others ideas and inferences, it’s your fear that is reflected. You have not probed deep enough or you feel that there is some loophole and are scared that somebody might point it out.

Sometimes inferences can be wrong also. If the mind is established in viparyaya, the inference is totally fuzzy. It is sometimes funny also. Once three people were interviewing for a position of the detective. The first person was asked, “Who killed Jesus". He said the Romans. He was admitted in the academy of detectives. The second person was asked the same question and he too answered correctly. He was also admitted in the academy. Then the third person was asked the same question. He did not know the answer. He started thinking. Finally he gave up. The inspector, who was questioning him, gave him one day to think and answer. That night when this third person came home, his wife was anxious to know the result of the interview. This person said that the academy was so much interested withs him that the very first day they gave him a very complex case to analyze.

Inference and logic can sometimes be really funny. Once a person was explaining to his neighbor, how logic works. He asked him whether he had a fish tank. The neighbor says yes. So he asked him if there were fish in that fish talk. The neighbor says yes. Then he asked him who feeds the fish. The neighbor says his wife. So this person explains to his neighbor that he has inferred from this conversation that he is married. Just from the initially link he logically derived that he has a wife and he is married. The neighbor is impressed with this logically analysis. So this neighbor goes to meet one of his friends and asks him if he had a fish tank. His friend says no. So this neighbor concludes that he is not married. Sometimes due to foolishness we might come to such silly conclusions.

There was a philosopher who denied he existence of God. He said that the world cannot have a creator because a person can never be perfect. The universe works in perfect harmony with all elements abiding to their natural laws. He said that such a perfect design is not possible for any being. He has to commit few mistakes. He argued that why doesn't a single law provide an exception. Why do all laws always work? Once in a while it's fair enough for something to fail. So he inferred that the existence of a creator is impossible because of this apparent perfection in the universe. His inference is right to a degree but again he had not probed deep enough. He was just looking at the perfection in the universe but to a large extent it is chaos also. So I say universe is chaos in order and order in chaos.

There was another philosopher in the past; he kicked a brick and said that it hurts. So he inferred that the world is real and a rock solid block outside of him. But again what he felt was just an experience. It was purely an experience and that does not testify the existence of the world outside. You do experience many things in your dream but then you know that the dream was unreal after waking up. Similarly there is every possibility that you are a part of a dream now, which you will know as unreal after getting enlightened.

But inference is not which everyone likes to do. There are disciples who don’t like intellectual gymnastics. They are just not made for it. But there are some disciples who are highly intellectual. If I tell some disciple that God exists he will accept it without any logic or reason. But another disciple may ask me to prove it to him. He might put forth several questions. And only when his intellectual thirst is quenched he may start believing in what I say. But sometimes this becomes a vicious cycle. Once a disciple asked me whether a soul exists. I asked him to meditate and said that he would come to know. But then he was not ready to meditate because he thought that if the soul did not exist, his meditation would be in vain. He would be wasting his time in that case. The only way to experience the atman is through meditation. You cannot know the atman and then start meditation. If you have known the atman then you don’t need to meditate. But he was not convinced. He said show me the Atman, give me a glimpse and only then I will meditate. Vivekananda could be given a glimpse by a mere touch because Vivekananda was ready. Not everybody is ready and so meditation is the stepping-stone. But why would you even start meditation if you have not seen or experienced the object of meditation. But certainly you can base your meditation on certain inferences, which you believe are true. Isn’t science too made up of assumptions? Don’t they assume certain things and then prove that their assumption is correct. If you are asked the value of x in the equation x + 2 = 4, what would you do? You will assume x = 2 and then replace x by 2 and see that 2 + 2 is indeed 4. So you then conclude that your assumption was correct. But what if you start arguing even before trying. Why should I assume x as 2, why cant I assume it as 10. Would that help? So inference if done rightly can take you closer to right knowledge.

The third source of right knowledge according to Patanjali is the words of enlightened ones or agama. There are few things that you cannot infer. Your intellect will work up to a certain level. After that the intellect cannot proceed. Things start getting really fuzzy. At this stage the third source comes to your rescue. This is a very reliable source as it is the truth itself. There is no gap between the words of an enlightened one and his enlightenment. Both are one and the same. The vaak (speech) of an enlightened one is pure. There is no gap or filter between his thoughts and words. He is absolutely spontaneous and alive as his thinking and talking is happening simultaneously. As of now a man thinks, edits and then speaks. But an enlightened one thinks and speaks simultaneously. His words are mantras. Just by listening to an enlightened one you can acquire right knowledge. As when you are listening to him, you are listening to right knowledge itself.

As of now you have innumerable thoughts. All thoughts are not coherent but they are contradictory. So you experience success and failures in life. You might ask why your desires are not getting fulfilled? The reason is that your desire is not strong enough. Or it is self-contradicting. You have a desire to eat delicious food and simultaneously you also cater a desire for good health. You eat all junk and then suffer when your body revolts. Your desires are self-contradictory. Also you entertain so many desires that only few are accomplished. Most of your desires are not worth asking. But in the case of an enlightened one, his words carry the power to materialize and execute. They carry the energy for execution. Hence people take blessings from enlightened ones. When they say anything, their words create a positive vibration.

Enlightened ones work intuitively. They see what you don’t see. There was a householder in Maharashtra in the twelfth century. He ran away from his house leaving his wife alone and took sanyas. Few years later his Guru advised him to go back to worldly life. Since he was a perfect disciple, he obeyed his Guru’s orders and went back to his wife. Later he had four kids and all four of them became enlightened. This insight, this vision only the enlightened ones can have. That is the reason his Guru told him to give up sanyas. From a societal perspective such kind of an action especially in that age was a dogma. And this saint along with his wife and kids were treated badly by the society. So much so that the saint was forced to give up his life because giving up sanyas was an unpardonable sin that time. But he gave birth to four enlightened children who became icons of spirituality in Maharashtra.

No statement made by an enlightened one is casual. Sometimes I casually tell many things. Disciples don't pay much heed thinking that it was just a casual statement. Later I ask them about what I spoke. They are shocked. They ask how did you remember. The reason is that no statement comes from an enlightened person without awareness. So every word from him carries the energy, carries the force. Even when the enlightened one forgets something, it is for a reason. Many times when I want to meet with my disciples I call few people by their names. I don't call few names, which I would normally call. People think that I forgot to call their names. But in reality that lapse of memory is for a reason. No action is casual.

Though this is the most reliable source of right knowledge it is the most difficult. What an enlightened person says may not seem logical to you. He sometimes may even sound crazy. Once a student goes to a Zen master. He requests the Zen Master to accept him as his disciple. The Zen master asks the disciple to dig a well at a certain spot. The disciple is happy and starts the job early morning. By evening he has finished digging the well. In the evening the master says that he does not like the well at that particular spot and would like him to dig at some other spot. The disciple gets frustrated. He thinks why did the master ask him to dig at the wrong place. He could have directly asked him to dig at the right place. So he was not able to logically comprehend the Masters behavior. He left the Master. The zen master laughed and said that he is not the perfect disciple because he did not have trust in the Master. He started doubting Masters actions. So how can the Master work on him. Only when pure trust develops between the Master and the disciple, the real work can happen. Masters often test the students in the initial stages. Once they are sure that a student is an eligible candidate to receive the truth, they accept them as their disciples.

You might ask how do we trust if a person is enlightened or not. What is the proof of his enlightenment? A valid question indeed! I would say there is no way for you to figure out whether a person is enlightened because a person in darkness cannot see light. So you cannot figure out somebody's enlightenment. But if you fall in tune with someone, if you can relate with someone from your heart then you can start following him. Many people come and ask me if they should accept me as their Guru. I tell them that this very question shows that the connection has not yet happened. If the real connection has happened this question would not have arose. You will simply start relating to me. The guru disciple relationship will start happening.

These days there are so many masters that often disciples get confused as to whom to follow. That's what I say jokingly that previously it was a sellers market, now it's a buyers market. You may think that if you follow someone and if that someone turns out to be a fraud after two years then you have wasted your two years. You would feel cheated. But you have no other choice. If you don't follow a master you have anyways wasted your two years. By following a master at least you have created a possibility to grow. Risk is always there but life itself is a risk. Your very next moment is unpredictable. When you desire something as ultimate as enlightenment, obviously the risks will be more. That's why it is said that spirituality is like walking on a razors edge. And you can always learn from any experience. Even if someone deceives you, you have learnt something. Now no one else will be able to deceive you so easily. So it's worth taking the risk. And it is always a risk because there is no guarantee. It entirely depends on your trust.

But let me tell you this. If you have really trusted this person then even if he turns out to be a fraud you won't feel cheated. The trust carries so much energy that it will transform you. It will make you grow spiritually. Even if he was not enlightened you will get enlightened if the real trust happens. On the other hand if you don't trust completely a real enlightened master, then even he cannot help you. During Krishna's time there were so many people around him who were oblivious about his divinity. Even Balaram, his cousin was not aware of his divinity. When the Masters are in their body, it is very difficult to believe them. Only when they have left the body we start accepting their divinity. I always say that when the grandfather is old he lives in the outhouse, when he passes away his photo comes in the drawing room. It’s very easy to follow the teachings of a dead master. Because a dead master does not interfere with your life. You can live any way you want. And spirituality can become a part time affair for you. But in the case of a living master he becomes a nightmare for you. He is the simha swapna:- the lion in your dream that will wake you up from this sleep. Only thing what you need to do is trust him completely. Nothing more is expected from you.

Masters trust the disciples. But the disciples can never believe that they can be trusted. We never believe that we can be trusted because we ourselves don’t trust anybody. If someone smiles at us we think that he has some vested interest. We can never trust anyone completely. In all our relationships we mean business. It’s like a business bargain going on. We never live any relationship completely. We always play a safe game. If you play a safe game in your relationship, you will be safe but it will be graveyard security. In a graveyard you are perfectly safe but you are dead.

Once a person went to Ramana Maharshi and asked him what spiritual practice he should do. Ramana Maharshi asked him to do Atma Vichara:- self enquiry. After a month he came back and said that self-enquiry is very difficult can he do meditation? Ramana Maharshi said all right. Again after a month this person came back and said that meditation is very difficult can he do some japa:- chanting of a mantra. Ramana Maharshi said all right. Again after a month he came back and said that japa is very difficult, can he do just pooja:- rituals. Ramana Maharshi said all right. Again after a month he came back and said that Pooja is very difficult, can he just visit a temple. Ramana Maharshi said all right.

Masters give freedom to their disciples because they trust the disciples. The disciple needs to have the same trust towards the master. Then the real alchemy can happen. The words of enlightened ones are like the torch in darkness and will take you towards light.

In Vedanta there are three recognized steps on the path to self-realization viz. Shravana, manana and nididhyanasana. Shravana means listening to the enlightened master. Listening to the truths. Then comes manana where you contemplate on his words. Finally the next step nididhyasana, which means entering into meditation and realizing the truth. The first step is most important. Just listening. That will liberate you. We have lost the art of listening. We never listen. Even when we are talking to our friends we don't listen. Even when we listen, we allow them to talk so that we can start talking soon. But we don't have any interest in listening.

Listening is an art. It's a spiritual quality. Listening automatically puts you in silence. And silence then starts working on you. Only when you listen with awareness, the words can have any effect on you. Else the words won't have any impact. When disciples sit with me, I talk so that they don't talk. Else everybody is ever ready to blow his/her own trumpet. So I keep talking. But finally you have to go beyond words and enter into silence. Then the real work can happen. If I am talking to you, understand that no real work is happening. If I stop talking then I am working on you. For work to happen your mind should be present here. But with words you keep wandering here and there. But master uses his words like a healing stick for your mind. He helps you mind to calm down. Not everybody is capable and eligible to enter into silence directly. So the master showers some words on you. These words are powerful enough to make a transformation. The only expectation from you is the listen with utmost trust. That is the reason patanjali is giving this third source as the ultimate technique to realize the truth.

viparyayo mithyaajnaanamatadruupapratistham

WRONG KNOWLEDGE (viparyaya) IS FALSE (mithyaa) CONCEPTION (jnaanam) OF REALITY, NOT CORRESPONDING (pratistham) TO THE THING AS IT IS (atadruupa)

First let us understand what a thing is. Normally we think of a thing as an object outside of us. This is our normal perception. We are hypnotized in believing that the world is outside of us. Hence we keep running behind the world. We keep running behind things. We want to possess them. Really speaking a thing by itself has no independent existence. Perception of a thing always presupposes perceiver.

We always have the wrong understanding that a thing exists without our contribution. That is the reason we take the world for granted. Also this becomes the root cause of ignorance. Ignorance leads to confusion and confusion leads to misery. When there is clarity, there cannot be any suffering. Just analyze what happens to you when you are in pain. Say some part of your body is paining. In which case you don’t really realize what is happening there. There is complete ignorance about that part of the body. Really speaking pain is nothing but a state of ignorance about what is happening. Pain is just a label we give to that incident or an event. We are programmed to do so from our birth. Only with awareness you can transcend pain. You can try this experiment. Touch a green chilly to one end of the tongue and a candy to other end of the tongue. Just be aware of both the experiences, you will realize that they are the same. There is no difference. Its just your stamp, your opinion, your judgment that makes a chilly hot and a candy sweet. An experience is always attributeless. It’s the experiencer who attaches attributes to the experience. In reality the experiencer is also one more attribute. The experience alone is pure. And when the experiencer and the experienced dissolve into this pure experience, the experience transcends itself and what remains is pure awareness, the mahakash, that supreme space in which the triad, experiencer, experience and the experienced come and go.

An object does not have independent existence. Existence of an object is always in relation to some other object. That some other object may be you. Say for example you are seeing a table. That table has no independent existence. The existence of the table is in relation with several other objects surrounding that table and ultimately the entire universe. Assume that there is no object in this whole world except you and the table. Still you cannot call a table as a table unless there is empty space surrounding that table. That table has to be compared with the empty space surrounding it, to carry its independent identification as a table. All objects have only comparative reality and not independent reality. But who really makes this comparison? Who does the differentiation? Would it be possible to penetrate through the object and see it as it is and not in relation with something else. If that could happen then the object would disappear into the subject as pure consciousness. This is a very subtle point. An object carries its own identity as long as it is compared with some external frame of reference. It’s our ideas, concept and thoughts that make the object appear the way we think it to be. But if we look at an object without any preconceived idea or a thought the object would be seen as it is. Which means that you would see yourself, the subject in that object. This is when the matter dissolves into consciousness. Right now we differentiate between consciousness and matter. But when the object is seen as it is, the matter disappears. That’s why Sankara says Brahma Satya Jagat Mithya. The world is unreal, which means that the world made of matter is your imagination, your perception. It is not real. In reality the matter becomes energy. The matter becomes pure consciousness. The object dissolves in the subject. You will then understand that the world is made of the same stuff with which your thoughts are made of. In the Bhagawad Gita, Sri Krishna says that

Exercising the power of yoga, see the self abiding in all beings and all beings in the self. See everything the same everywhere.

As of now we see the world as diverse objects. Certainly the world is made of diverse objects. But the substratum, the base of all the objects is unknown to us. This substratum is the very self which is within us. That is what Krishna is pointing out in this verse.

Through yoga, one can see the very self in all beings and all beings in the self. Once the base is known then you have known everything.

As of now, we just see the pearls and never the thread, which runs through the pearls. The pearls may keep falling off and new pearls may be added. But the thread is the constant binding factor. Once we know this thread then we have known everything. Wrong knowledge is like knowing the pearls without knowing the thread. Ramakrishna used to give an example of a lake, which is covered by moss. What we see is just the moss and not the clear water below. Once you remove the moss with self-effort the water will reveal itself.

Again and again we fall into the trap of making judgments and opinions. The moment we see anything we have a judgment ready. And this judgment is based on some previous experiences. It happens so unconsciously that we don't even realize that we have made such a judgment. We almost take it for granted. You might have seen this in daily life. Say when a Hindu meets the Muslim, immediately he has formed some kind of opinion about him. Similarly when a Muslim meets a Hindu he has also formed the opinion. We have got into this habit of generalization. We relate to a person only by his caste, his sect and never the way he really is. Not all the Hindus are good or bad; similarly not all Muslims are good or bad.

When seekers come to meet me, they come with some expectations about how of swami should be. They have an idea in their mind about how swami should behave. May be, they expect him to have a long beard and a serious face. But when they see me they see a young man laughing under the Banyan tree. They see me joking with by disciples and having a nice time. This really beats their expectations and some people run away thinking that I don't know much. They think that because I'm not serious, I may not know much about spirituality. Some how spirituality got associated with seriousness. In fact in Zen laughter is considered a meditation.

Likewise when modern seekers come to see me they expect me to behave like a new age Guru. Firstly they see me wearing Saffron and wearing the Rudraksha beads. Then they see me bathing the idols and doing ritualistic worship. Again I don't meet their expectations. They go away thinking that I am too traditional. In both the cases, they have missed the master. You can never expect a master to satisfy all your conditions because the master is beyond all conditions. He doesn't even need to practice what he preaches because he is not the same person to whom he preaches. I keep telling my disciples to do everything with awareness but when they see me eating my food they are astonished to observe that I eat with complete unawareness. I may be reading a book or talking to a few people while I'm eating. I tell people not to watch TV while having food and to just be aware of the eating process. But I myself will watch the TV while I'm eating. One disciple asked me how is this possible? The truth is that a master needs to de-meditate to feel the body. If I eat with awareness I cannot feed the body much because the hunger and survival instinct won't be there. So for the body to get the proper nourishment I need to de-meditate and push some food inside. Any attempt at awareness will put me in Samadhi. So I have to add some amount of unconsciousness for the body to eat some food. When Ramakrishna used to come down from samadhi, he always used to ask for jilebi (a Bengali sweet). People use to think whether he was meditating on God or on the jilebi. In order to regain body consciousness, Masters have to do such things. A mad elephant cannot be tied inside a small hut. The elephant has to be first pacified for it to remain inside a small hut. Similarly for the experience of enlightenment to stay in the body, little amount of unconsciousness has to be injected to keep the body functioning and alive.

Once one disciple asked me that she has a fear of dying when she meditates. When she starts going into deeper levels and starts losing body consciousness, a sudden fear rises in her, which prevents her from entering into meditation. As long as the world interests you, you don't need to worry about giving up the body while in meditation. Your desires will pull you back automatically. I jokingly told her to keep one of her favorite dishes near her while she meditates. This will make sure that she comes back. Even enlightened Masters come back, when they have some work to be done on planet earth.

Everybody has opinions and judgments about things that prevent an individual to see the things as they are. People think that knowledge makes a person intelligent. But let me be very clear that the so-called knowledge, which you read in the books makes you dull. You lose the ability to see things with a fresh eye. You take things for granted because of the words you have associated with those things. The moment you see a rose, the word rose comes to your mind. Immediately you have stopped relating to the real rose. Now you're just relating to the concept or the knowledge that you have about a rose. The more you get caught in words you miss the reality.

People come and ask me that they don't know Tamil but can they attend my meditation programs, which I deliver in Tamil. I tell them that they are the most qualified to attend my Tamil workshops. If you get caught in words, you miss the truth behind those words. Words can be very dangerous if understood improperly. For example say 200 years later if people ask, "what is the essence of Nithyananda’s teachings?" someone might say that Nithyananda used to ask people to be un-clutched which probably meant that we should not drive anything that clutches. So we should avoid using cars that have a clutch. This is the central theme of Nithyananda's teachings. It might sound funny but this is what happens. If you just go behind the words without knowing the body language and also the intent you might end up totally misinterpreting the master's teachings.

Socrates used to say that he is the wisest person in the world because he knows that he does not know. When you know that you don't know at least you know that you don't know. But if you think that you know then you don't even know that you don't know. It takes great courage to say that I don't know. Sometimes when people ask me some question, I purposely say that I don't know. They are shocked. They asked me, how could an enlightened person not know. He is supposed to be all knowing, he is supposed to know about everything.

Sometimes Master has to pretend as if he is ignorant, else disciples will start taking him for granted. A Master knows everything but still he will act sometimes as if he is totally ignorant. But any such action by the Master is always for the good of the disciple. Once an enlightened Master was asked by one aggressive person “what if I come tomorrow with a dagger and hit you, what would you do?" The Master replied calmly "I don't know". This person was shocked. He was expecting some positive answer. Master was teaching a very important lesson, when he said that. You cannot talk anything concrete about the future, which is unpredictable and unknown. All you can say is I don't know. The very next moment is a miracle so how can you talk something positively about an event or incident that is going to happen the next day.

People come and ask me "Swamiji, how should we bring up our kids?" All the time we ask our kids to be mature, as if we are mature. We give them rules and ask them to behave like grown-up individuals. We are doing them great harm when we try to teach them maturity. We are breaking their innocence into pieces and are building a conditioned individual, full of problems and complexities. A small child, who is not conditioned, sees things with more awareness than a conditioned adult. When a child looks at a rose, he does not bring the word rose into his mind. He looks at that rose with his whole being. We always look at things through association. We match patterns in our memory and create a concept or an idea about anything.

Any idea material or spiritual exists at the realm of the mind. Even the idea of God is based on whatever we have heard or read about God. God exists independent of our concept or idea that we hold about him. Just ask yourself a question, how the idea of God came into existence. It may have so happened that our ancestors were trying to find the source behind the different happenings and incidences in this world. But when they could not find any concrete source they created this idea or concept of God as someone supernatural, otherworldly and all-powerful. Thus the religions came into being, trying to promote different philosophies and doctrines. Really speaking if you contemplate on this, it's very easy to understand that whatever you think of God is nothing but an idea about God but not God.

As long as you have not had the ultimate experience you will always be caught up in wrong knowledge. This knowledge may be material or so-called spiritual.

Wrong knowledge is merely because of a lack of awareness. If we can flood our being with awareness automatically we will start seeing things as they are. We miss things easily because our attention is somewhere else. Just if you learn to bring your mind to the present moment automatically things will look fresh and beautiful. Right now the world appears dull because we don't look at it with a fresh eye.

Let me tell you a small story: once a disciple goes to visit a Zen master on a rainy day. When he walks in the master asks him a question: Did you leave the umbrella near the shoe rack? Yes says the disciple. Then the master asks whether he left the umbrella to the left of the shoe rack or to the right of the shoe rack? The disciple is not able to answer this question. Immediately he realizes what the master is hinting at. Due to the lack of awareness, he was not able to recollect where he kept the umbrella.

Every moment of ours has to be filled with awareness. But for that we need to clean all the dirt that we have accumulated since several years and lives. It does not take a long time if we do it sincerely. But we have got into the habit of living unconsciously so much that we are not able to break free from this habit. So many lives we have been living in an unaware way. So we have a tendency to repeat the same mistake.

With great discipline and perseverance we need to remind ourselves to be aware, the moment we slip. There is no other way. The dirt has to be cleaned every moment. If you miss one moment you have accumulated more dirt.

Sincerity is the key to enlightenment. Even one experience of thoughtless awareness is enough to break you out of this past conditioning. If a room is in darkness for 10,000 years how much time does it take to bring light to that room? All you need to do is to light a bulb in that room. Then automatically the room gets lit. Similarly one experience of thoughtless awareness of Samadhi helps you to break free from the repetitive pattern of unaware living. Only with awareness we can start seeing things the way they really are and move away from the center of wrong knowledge.