1. The Yoga Sutras of Pantanjali Ravi Shankar .epub

THE YOGA SUTRAS OF PATANJALI

HIS HOLINESS SRI SRI RAVI SHANKAR

The Yoga Sutras

Table of contents

Maharishi Patanjali 7

The Discipline of Yoga 11 Honouring the Practice 23 Samadhi 35 Who is God? 49 Overcoming Obstacles 65 Steadiness and Samadhi 85 Kriya Yoga 101 Three Types of Tapas 105 Veils of Misery 117 Eliminating the Cause of Pain 133 The Eight Limbs of Yoga 143

H.H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar 168 The Art of Living Foundation 169 Shankara Europe 174

7

Maharishi Patanjali

We will begin with a story, the greatest and most effective way of conveying knowledge. Once upon a time, long ago, all the munis and rishis approached Lord Vishnu to tell him that even though He (incarnated as Lord Dhanvanthari) had given them the means to cure illnesses through Ayurveda, people still fell ill. They also wanted to know what to do when people got sick.

Sometimes it is not just physical illness, but mental and emotional illness too that needs to be dealt with. Anger, lust, greed, jealousy etc. How does one get rid of all these impurities? What is the formula?

Vishnu was lying on the bed of snakes - the serpant Adishesha with one thousand heads - when the rishis approached him. He gave them Adishesha, the symbol of awareness, who took birth in the world as Maharishi Patanjali.

So Patanjali came to this earth to give this knowledge of yoga which came to be known as the Yoga Sutras. Patanjali said he was not going to discuss the Yoga Sutras unless one thousand people got together. So one thousand people gathered south of Vindhya Mountains to listen to him.

Patanjali had another condition - he would put a screen between him and his students and told them that nobody was to lift the screen or leave. Everybody had to stay in the hall till he finished. So Patanjali stayed behind the curtain and he transmitted his knowledge to the one thousand gathered. Each of them absorbed this knowledge. It was an amazing phenomenon and even the students could not believe how they were getting this knowledge, how the master was making each of them understand without uttering words from behind the curtain.

Everybody was amazed. Each one of them experienced such a blast of energy, such a blast of enthusiasm, that they could not even contain it. But they still had to maintain the discipline.

But one little boy had to go out to attend nature's call. So he left the room. He thought to himself that he would go quietly and return quietly. Another person became curious. "What is the Master doing behind the curtain? I want to see." He got so curious that he lifted the curtain to see the Master. But just as he did so, all nine hundred and ninety nine disciples were burnt to ashes. Now, Patanjali became very sad. There he was, ready to impart knowledge to the whole world and all of his disciples were burnt.

At this moment, that one little boy returned. Patanjali asked him where he had gone. The boy explained and asked his forgiveness. Patanjali was compassionate and felt that at least one of his disciples was saved.

Maharishi Patanjali 9

So he gave him the rest of the sutras, the rest of the knowledge. But the student had violated the law and Patanjali was not willing to forget that. So he said, "Since you have violated the law, you will become a Brahmarakshasa, a ghost and hang on the tree." And the only way he could liberate himself from the curse is to teach one student. Saying this Patanjali disappeared.

Now Brahmarakshasa, hanging on a tree, would ask everyone who passed by one question and when they could not answer he would eat them. He had no choice and for a few thousand years this was the story. He could not find a single person to whom he could teach the Yoga Sutras. So he remained in the tree as a brahmarakshasa. The lesson here is that the state of brahmarakshasa will come to one who has great knowledge and does something wrong. An intelligent person becoming a criminal becomes more dangerous than an innocent person becoming a criminal. If a person who knows all the knowledge turns into a criminal, it is much more dangerous. So the

brahmarakshasa was hanging there, waiting for relief.

Then out of compassion, Patanjali himself became a disciple and came as a student to Brahmarakshasa who told him all the sutras, which Patanjali wrote on the palm leaf. The story goes that to redeem one disciple, the Master became the disciple of a disciple.

Patanjali wrote the sutras sitting on the top of the tree as that was where the Brahmarakshasa sat. Also, Brahmarakshasa worked only in the night. So he dictated the sutras at night and Patanjali wrote them on the leaves. He plucked all the leaves and made a small scratch, drew blood and wrote. This went on for seven days. At the end of it, Patanjali was tired and put everything he had written on a piece of cloth and set it down and went to bathe. But when Patanjali returned, he found that a goat had eaten most of the leaves. Patanjali then took the cloth bag and the rest of the leaves and walked away.

11

The Discipline of Yoga

Patanjali's yoga sutra begins, Atha yoganushasanam. Now, we will look into the discipline of Yoga. Now, I will enunciate the discipline of Yoga.

Shasana means rules someone else imposes on you. Anushasana means rules you impose on yourself. Do you see the difference? Shasana are rules and regulations that the king or society impose on you. Anushasana are rules you make or impose on yourself. Why is yoga called a discipline? When does the need for discipline arise?

When you're thirsty and want to drink water, you don't say, "Oh, this is a rule, I must drink water." When you are hungry, you eat. You don't say, "I have a discipline of eating when I am hungry." Do you see what I'm saying? You don't even say I have a discipline of enjoying nature. When it comes to the question of enjoyment, no discipline is necessary.

Where does discipline come into the picture? Where it is not enjoyable at the very first step. A child never says, "I have a discipline of running to my mother when I look at her." Discipline arises when something is not very charming to begin with. Isn't it? When you know something will give very good and enjoyable fruit, but to begin with, the seed is not that enjoyable. When you're abiding in yourself,

when you are in joy, when you're in peace or happiness, truth, then you're already in yourself. Then there is no discipline.

But, when that is not so and the mind is wagging it's tail all the time, then discipline is essential so that the mind can calm down and come back to itself. The fruit of which is eventually, blissful and joyful. Like the diabetic patient says, "I have discipline not to eat sugar." Or someone with cholesterol says, "I have to be disciplined, I shouldn't eat too many fats." Fats are very nice to eat at that moment, but afterwards give complicated results [fruits] which are not so pleasurable.

Pleasure which comes after a certain discipline is really sattvik pleasure, long-lasting pleasure. Pleasure which is pleasurable to begin with but ends in misery is no pleasure at all. So, discipline is necessary to have authentic sattvik pleasure which comes after certain discipline.

Discipline is not torturing oneself for nothing. That is no discipline. The purpose of discipline is to attain joy. Do you see the difference? At certain times, people impose discipline on themselves but it doesn't give them (or anybody else) joy at any time. This is tamasic.

There are three types of happiness. One type is sattvik happiness, where to begin with it is not so pleasurable or nice, but in the end always leads to joy. This is sattvik happiness. Rajasic happiness is when the beginning appears very good but ends in misery and suffering. This is rajasic happiness. Tamasic happiness is where there is no happiness, it only appears to be happiness, but is misery from beginning to end. No discipline is essential for tamasic happiness. Discipline is not there. Lack of discipline is tamasic. Wrong discipline or lack of discipline is rajasic happiness. Discipline is for sattvik happiness, that is where it is essential to begin with. To bear that which is uncomfortable is discipline. It need not be uncomfortable all the time. But if it is uncomfortable, to be able to bear and move through it, you need discipline. That is why Patanjali begins it with "now", when things are not clear, when your heart is not in the right place.

Yoganushasanam, now I will announce the Yoga.

Let us look into the rules of yoga. Not exactly rules, the discipline, of yoga. It is nobody's imposition, it is self-imposed. Look at everything you have imposed on yourself. In the morning you wake up, brush

your teeth and before going to bed, you brush your teeth. This is your discipline, self-imposed from childhood. Maybe when you were a child, your mother had to impose it on you, but once it became a habit, you understood it was good for you and then it was no longer mother's rule, it was now your rule. Isn't it? Like that, keeping yourself clean (hygiene), exercising, meditating, being kind, considerate, not being rude ... All these rules you've imposed on yourself are disciplines. Isn't it? What does discipline do? Discipline unites yourself and all the loose ends of your existence.

Atha yoganushasanam. It puts you onto yourself. [The seer then rests or remains in his/ her own nature]. Otherwise what happens? Vrutti sarupyamitaratra. Your mind is engaged, caught up in the outside world all the time. Eyes open, you are caught up in all that you see, smell, hear, taste. When in the waking state you constantly engage in activities of the senses, or else you go back to sleep (dreaming) state where you completely shut off. In sleep (dreams) the same memories come. But you are never yourself. Calm, quiet and uniting all the loose ends of your existence. You become the object of your perception.

When villagers, very innocent people - even children - watch a movie, they are so totally involved in the movie. Isn't it? Nobody exists! In that moment, just the movie exists. If you are simply sitting without doing anything, you may have back-ache or pain. Your legs or back will hurt. Something happens. But if you are engaged in watching a movie then you don't feel pain or anything. You don't feel your body at all. You don't even know you are sitting, that's the movie's interest. What happened? Your consciousness assumed the form of that movie, of that vrutti. Are you getting what I'm saying?

Once in a village, people were watching a movie. They saw the hero being tortured by the villain. The people stood up [really!] with sticks and stones and said: "Come on, I'm going to hit you!" They rushed toward the stage!

It's said a great reformist was watching a drama in India. The drama was so good, very well acted by the villain, this gentleman threw his chappel [shoe], his slippers, at him because he was so mad at the villain of the drama! How could he be like that? The villain really took this as a sign of honour. He said, "That means I could entrance you. My acting was so good, you threw your chappels [shoes] at me!" Our consciousness assumes the form otherwise.

The whole purpose of yoga is to be one with the self, to bring an integrity in you, to make you a whole. Yoga is making you whole.

This is drashtuhu swarupe avasthanam. Yoga is in the form of the seer abiding there. Abiding in the form, in the nature of the seer, is yoga. Whenever you experience joy, ecstasy, bliss, happiness in life - knowingly or unknowingly - you are abiding in the form of the seer. In the nature of the seer. At other times you are with the different activities of the mind. You become one with the different activities of the mind. Vrutti sarupyamitaratra. You assume the form of the mind at other times.

What are the activities of the mind? Vruttayaha panchatayyaha klishtaklishtaha. The modulations of the mind are five-fold, painful or not painful. There are certain vruttis of the mind which are problematic and cause trouble, difficulty. And certain others do not cause any difficulty. Pleasurable and unpleasurable vruttis.

What are these five? Pramanaviparyayavikalpanidra-smrutayaha. Five modes of consciousness arise in the self, in the mind. We call mind or consciousness, chitta. It's all the same.

What are the different modes of consciousness? Pramana. The mind is engaged in wanting proof. Are you in Switzerland right now? You say yes because you have proof in the mind. "Yes, I see the Swiss Alps, the mountains, the water." Whatever you see now, is proof. Are you cold? "Yes, I am." Nobody needs to tell you. This is pratyaksha. There are three types of pramana:

Pratyakshanumanagamaha pramanani. Pratyaksha means obvious, experiential. Our mind constantly wants solid, experiential proof. This is one mode of activity of the mind. Another is anumana which means it's not so obvious, but you guess and whatever you guess, you believe in. The guessing of the mind is called anumana. And then agamaha is the proof the mind takes from scriptures - you believe in it because it is written in black and white. These are the three types of proof you look for.

Even today, in certain remote villages in third world countries, anything that is printed is biblical for them. It's the gospel truth. "See, it's in print, it is written, many people follow it, so it must be truth." If many people say something then that must be right. You can fool one or two percent but you can't fool thousands of people. "If they are

fools, then I can also be a fool." The mind goes that way. Proof that the mind takes from scriptures or from groups is agamaha pramana.

You constantly look for proof of something or anything. This is one mode of activity. Yoga is when you drop this, then alone you can abide in the self. Do you see what I'm saying? Relieving the mind from this activity of wanting proof, is release from the vrutti back to the Self.

You need proof of whether or not you are in Switzerland because your senses will tell you. But you don't need proof of whether you are here or not through your senses. Are you getting this point? It's very delicate. You could be taken to Austria or Canada, and see the same snow mountains, the same lake. You may think "Oh this is Switzerland", but it may not be Switzerland, your senses may fool you.

Beyond proof is your feeling of "I am, I exist". Abiding in the Self does not need proof. Do you get this point? Truth cannot be understood through proof. Anything that can be proven can also be disproven. Truth is beyond proof or disproof. Are you getting this point? God is beyond proof. You cannot prove God. Nor can you disprove God. Proof is connected to logic and logic is very limited in it's purview. Same with enlightenment. Same with love. Love cannot be proved or disproved.

Someone's actions and behaviour are not proof of love. In a movie, actors or actresses exhibit lots of love and romance in the movie. But not a drop of that romance or love would be there, inside. It need not be there, they can just show it. Isn't it? One can enact love very well, without feeling or living it. Self is beyond all this proof. Proof is one of the main activities of the mind. Proof is one of the main things of the world you are stuck in. You want proof of everything. You want proof of whether someone loves you or not. How? By your actions, your behaviour, by this, by that ... isn't it? You constantly want proof for everything and approval from everybody. This is not in the realm of the seer. The seer is beyond pramana [first modulation or activity of the mind].

Patanjali very beautifully describes each modulation. Viparyayo ithyajnanamatadrupa pratishtam. Pramana is the knowledge that the mind is constantly engaged in arguments or proof. In knowledge, analysing or wrong knowledge, wrong understanding. This moment you could be arguing or looking for proof. There could be logic in your mind or you

will have a wrong understanding and will think things are the way they are not. Do you see what I'm saying?

Most of the time you impose your own views, ideas and feelings on others and you think that is how they are. This activity of the mind is called viparyaya. You may have an inferiority complex and suddenly see someone else's behaviour as being very arrogant. They are not arrogant. You are not being ill-treated by them, but you suddenly feel you have been ill-treated, you have not been respected. Because you don't respect yourself enough you think others don't respect you. This tendency of the mind is viparyaya.

Others will be shocked by your behaviour. They'll wonder what happened to this person they were all right 'til now? They suddenly started behaving funnily. Have you noticed this? A very good friend of yours, suddenly starts behaving very rudely, funnily and you wonder what happened? What did I ever do to this person? You don't understand they are cooking in their own mind, their own soup. Why? Not because they are bad or anything. It is just that the activity of the chitta [mind] is coming up, is predominant. That is viparyaya.

People suddenly feel they are not being loved. Many parents have this problem. Their children suddenly feel their parents don't love them. They are so perplexed, don't know what to do or how to show them, because proof doesn't stand once viparyaya comes. Pramana does not stand. Logic fails because the mind is now more active on the second modulation or vrutti i.e. viparyaya. All logic fails. What stands is wrong knowledge. Do you see what I'm saying? Somewhere inside, their own minds will bring up the logic but it goes to the background again and again the wrong knowledge stands up front. This is viparyaya.

The third vrutti is vikalpaha. Vikalpaha is a sort of hallucination. Nothing of the sort exists, just mere words hovering in the mind. This is called vikalpaha e.g. people imagine Russians have planted microphones in their ears - paranoia. All these fears are unfounded and baseless. Mere sounds that do not carry much meaning. Such thoughts or ideas are called vikalpaha. Fantasies. The mind either goes to proof or wrong knowledge, misconception, fantasy. Fantasies are vikalpaha. Do you see this?

You sit and fantasize. Already you are forty, fifty, sixty, yet you sit and fantasize: "How will it be if I were sixteen again? Maybe I'll go somewhere, get a big haul of gold, suddenly become rich, and then I'll have my own helicopter to fly in." It's not just children who fantasize.

I tell you, adults also get into their own fantasies. This fantasy is called vikalpaha, the third modulation of chitta.

There are two types of vikalpaha: one could be joyful, pleasurable fantasy and another could be baseless fears. Do you see what I'm saying? Even fear is a vikalpaha. "What will happen if I die tomorrow? An accident may happen and I will become disabled." These are all simply sounds that have no value, baseless fears in the mind. Fantasies are called vikalpaha.

The fourth one is nidra or sleep. If the mind is not in any one of these three, the fourth place it goes to, is to sleep. And the fifth activity of the mind is smriti - remembering past experiences.

Now see, are you in any of these four modulations when you are awake? Then that is not meditation, that is not yoga. Are you looking for proof? Are you debating in yourself? Are you hanging on to wrong knowledge or concepts about how things are? You do not know how things are because the whole world is fluid. Nothing is solid here. Nobody is solid. Nobody's mind is solid, no thoughts are solid. The whole world is fluid, even the air I tell you! Go one step further and you could say it's all airyfairy or wishy-washy.

Anything can change at any time, in any manner. The whole world is a field of all probabilities, all possibilities. But your mind fixes things, people, ideas and places into definite items and quantities, quantifying them. Set ideas of yours. Using proof, wrong knowledge, vikalpaha [fantasies or fears], or dwelling in past experiences. The four modulations of the mind plus sleep (the fifth modulation) are the five different vruttis of the mind.

Abhyasavairagyabhyam tannirodhaha. How do we get over the overpowering nature of these vruttis? Through abhyasaha and vairagya, practice and detachment or centeredness.

Tatra sthithou yatnobhyasaha. Among that. In that to be. That which you do to be is called abhyasa or practice. To be there, abiding in the seer is abhyasa. That which you do to be here in this moment is abhyasa. If you could relieve yourself from the five modulations and just be here ... now, now, now! A little effort is needed to bring the mind to the present, not dwelling on past memories, and that effort is called abhyasa.

And being here totally, this moment is abhyasa. The mind might try to go to the past in smriti, it may try to go off to sleep, it might try to bring some logic and justification or some knowledge or fantasy. Just knowing that it is getting into the five vruttis again, and without aversion or craving coming back to the centre - to the seer - this moment again and again is abhyasa.

23

Honouring the Practice

In the next sutra, Patanjali says: Sa tu dirgha kala nairantarya satkara asevito drdha bhumih. This effort to be still, the effort to be steady, is practice. For a moment you realise, this is this moment and then that vanishes from your sight. You say, "Now", but the moment you've said it, you have again lost the now. It's not right to say you have lost, but in some sense, you feel you are not in the now. This is an effort to be established steadily in the now, because the now is not just linear, the now is very deep and vast. "Now!" The present moment is not just a point, a dot, it's infinity in all dimensions, from all sides. That is now.

Practice is the stability in that moment. That is the purpose of practice. And how is that arranged or achieved? Sa tu dirgha kala. It takes a long time. Nairantarya. Without a gap. Satkara asevita. Receiving it with honour and respect. Practising it with honour, with respect. Drdha bhumih. Then it becomes firmly established. Anything in life of some value, takes some time to culture. To master an art, whether cooking, playing a guitar, sitar, or a flute. It takes some time, doesn't it? It takes time. Although the fingers are the same, you have to use those fingers for a while for the flute. You cannot say you'll learn the flute in one day, it's not possible. It takes quite a while to learn an instrument, and even more to master it, let alone the music.

A game - a football game - needs a coach. If you want to be a sportsman, you need a coach and you need practice.If you go to the gymnasium, you'll need a coach there. Bodybuilding doesn't happen overnight. The muscles won't grow. The body has its own requirement of time for its growth. It takes quite a long time. Similarly, the mind needs even more time for its growth. To memorise something takes some time. In the same way, any practice takes some time. It need not be too long, but sufficiently long time, without a gap.

What do we usually do? We learn something, leave it for some time and then again start doing it. If you just go according to the fantasies of your mind, if you feel like doing something, you do. Then we feel a little lazy and we don't do it. Then the connection is broken, it doesn't happen. Without a gap! Constant reminder and constant practise is essential. Nothing will happen if you go to the gymnasium for a couple of days, leave it and go again next month for a couple of days. You learn to play music or the piano, and for two days you play but then leave it for two months and then start playing again. Then there is no consistency or a lack of consistency and you do not learn any art.

Sa tu dirgha kala. A longer time without a gap. Satkara asevita. You know, this is another important thing - with honour and respect. If you say, "Oh, I have to do it" while grumbling and griping, doing something unenthusiastically, it is of no use. That is not abhyasa. Abhyasa is something done with gratitude, gratefulness, honour and respect.

This is something we lack in our life. We don't do anything with honour or respect. Even if you do something with honour and respect, it lasts for a very short period. If you have to do something for a longer period of time, you tend to lose that honour and respect. Do you see, what I'm saying? If it's a new thing that you have to arrange the stage here for the first time, the first day you do it with all honour and respect. With so much attention, so much love, so much heart and awareness in it. But if you have to do it over and over again, every day for the coming five or six months, you will just do it. You don't do it with the same spirit you did it with on the first day. As time goes by, you seem to lose that alertness, attention, attentiveness, honour.

The first day you sit for meditation, you feel wonderful because you are there taking it with all honour. But later, you simply sit, saying, "Oh, I have to meditate" and you sit and close your eyes. It does not have the same effectiveness. Do you see what I am saying? If your meditation, Kriya or anything is a little low or not that charming on a day, it is because you have lost respect for it. Not in the sense you disrespected it but that attentiveness, alertness towards it is reduced. That's why from time to time, when you come together in a course, your meditation goes deeper. You are receiving it with honour here. You are honouring that knowledge. You are honouring your Self.

What is honour? Have you ever thought about it? Honour is total attentiveness to the present moment with a tinge of gratefulness. You honour the mountain here. That means you are looking at the mountain with all your heart, all your mind, without questioning or

debating within yourself. Just honouring, being grateful and happy for what the mountain is, isn't it? You honour some Nobel scientist, what does that mean? When the Nobel scientist is there, you are completely in the moment being with that with all your heart. Respecting, honouring. Like that respect and honour every moment in your life. That then is practice.

Respecting your own body is practise. Those are asanas [postures]. Asanas are consciously respecting your own body every moment. Pranayama is respecting and honouring your breath, and keeping that up over a period of time. This is just like the dimensions in Kriya and what is needed there? You have to do the Kriya, be with the rhythm, have your attention there, with honour and respect, for a period of time.

Any practice is a practice when it is over a period of time, without a gap. By respectfully honouring the practice every day, every moment, it becomes firmly established. Do you get this point? It's a vital thing. Notice, on any day, if your meditation has become dull or not to your satisfaction ... "Have I kept the continuity of the practice? Yes, I have been doing it every day but still it is not good, what is the problem? I have not honoured the mantra. I have not honoured this time of sitting with myself. I'm not honouring the life in me, so my meditation is going half way, so then let me honour."

All these events are secondary. Honour this moment, it is very precious, however this moment is. This is very precious. Honour this word. This master has given me this word - this is so precious. Honouring the master is honouring the master's word. In one sentence, they simply said, "If you do not have honour or respect for the master, your meditation will not work." Why? Because honour and respect brings up the consciousness or awareness in you, that helps you focus so totally on the moment. If you don't honour the master, the master will not lose anything. It is your own mind that is at loss because it is unable to be totally in the moment and dive deeply into the source. Satkara asevita. Honouring the source of knowledge, honouring the master, honouring the knowledge, honouring the receiver. This is practice. Get it? Simple clues, you know, just the definition of a practice.

A good musician will honour the music and the one who has taught him, the composer, the one who composed the song. His full attention is there. Do you see that? It is the same with a good sportsman. He will honour his coach. If he doesn't honour his coach, he will not progress. Because of his attentiveness, the honour that he has for his

coach, he is able to move ahead in his sports. Otherwise if he keeps judging: "Oh, coach says something, let me do what I want to do ... " What is the need of having a coach? Then it is broken there, right? This is abhyasa.

Now comes vairagya. Is this practice alone enough? Patanjali says no. Two oxen are needed to pull this cart: one is abhyasa and the other is vairagya. The two wheels of this cart on either side are: abhyasa and vairagya.

What is vairagya? Drishtanu shravikavishaya vitrush'asya vashikara sanjna vairagyam.

The mind gallops towards the world of five senses. If you sit quietly, close or open your eyes, do anything - where does your mind go? Your mind goes towards the sense of sight. It just runs towards that. You want to see something or somebody. Or to the sense of smell, taste, sound or touch. Do you see that? Or it gallops towards something it has heard, it has never seen but it has read some thoughts. The craving for any of these experiences in the mind can stop you from being in the present moment. What is vairagya? For a few moments you say: "How ever beautiful the scene, I am not interested in seeing it right now. How ever great this food, this isn't the time, I'm not interested in tasting it now. However melodious the music, I don't mind not listening to it right now. How ever beautiful it is to touch something, I'm not interested in feeling it now." Do you see that? For even a few moments, retrieving our senses from the craving or thirst for objects, back to the source, is vairagya. Are you getting it?

This is another basic requirement for meditation. Whenever you want to sit for deep meditation, dispassion has to arise in your mind. Without dispassion your meditation is no good, it's useless. Do you see what I am saying? It cannot provide you with the rest you are longing for. Your mind is tired and burned down from galloping after desires. It's so tired.

Turn back and see all the desires you have achieved ... Have they given you rest? No, they only created a few more desires in you. And the few more desires? You are onto them. Have they given you fulfilment? No. They only gave you more hope of achieving more - that you can have more - and that has put you on another trip. So you are on a merry-go-round. It's not even merry, you just go around! The merry- go-round has these horses you sit on, that don't go anywhere. They just go round the same place but give you an illusion of travelling for miles and miles, reaching nowhere.

Life has been such a journey, where you galloped and galloped and reached nowhere. This is what desire does to you. The mind is so obsessed with desire that it cannot meditate. Are you getting what I'm saying? There are two types of attitude. And some people say, "Mind should not have desires, so I should not have any desires." This becomes another desire. Destroy the desire. Some people are on a trip to destroy their desires. They are beating around the bush, nothing happens. Understand this principle very well.

Vitrushnasya vashikara sanjna vairagyam. Craving for any of the sense objects, heard of celestial or heavenly places that the mind gallops to, is an obstruction. An expectation in meditation is an obstruction. You've heard someone had an experience of light coming, somebody coming from heaven and taking them by the hand ... and then you sit with your eyes closed thinking. "Oh, I want this angel to come, that light to dawn on me, and then I'll burst into a million stars ... " All these ideas become an obstruction.

Dispassion. "Never mind, I'm not giving up for any of these pleasures." Your desire for pleasure or happiness makes you unhappy. Examine, whenever you are miserable or unhappy, behind this misery, is you wanting to be happy. Get it? Craving for happiness brings misery. If you don't crave for happiness, you are happy! When you crave happiness, you invite misery. When you don't care for happiness, you are liberated, and when you don't even care for liberation, you attain love. This is param vairagya. When you don't even care for liberation ... but that is the second step. The first step is not caring for happiness, then you are free, you are liberated. Happiness is just an idea in your mind. You think if you have this you will be happy. If you have whatever you wanted, are you happy then? Vairagya is putting a stop to the craving for happiness. Do you get it?

That doesn't mean you have to be miserable. It doesn't mean that you shouldn't enjoy. But if you retrieve your mind from craving for joy, you can meditate. Then, you can still all five modulations, and yoga happens. Get it? All your dreams and fantasies are shattered then, offer them into the fire and burn them down. What great happiness do you want to have and how long you can have it? You are going to be finished and underneath this mud! For sure, isn't it? It is all going to end. Before the earth eats you up, become free from this feverishness that is gripping your mind, free from this craving for happiness. What great happiness do you have? Objects of pleasure you've experienced become like styrofoam (packing material) don't they? What taste does it have if you eat it?

Look closely and carefully into every craving you have and remember you are going to die. You crave sweets, sugar, food. Okay eat tons of them, have it and see. Consciously see what is in this. Nothing! What else do you crave, beautiful scenery? Keep on looking at scenes, how long can you look? You'll forget the best of the places. You can see for a few moments, that's it. Your eyes get tired, you close them. What other craving can come up in you? Sex! How much sex can you have? Have it, finish it! You will see there's nothing in it. How long? A few moments and that body which was so attractive, looks like styrofoam. What other things? All objects of the senses have limitations. Your mind is not ready for limitations, it wants unlimited joy and pleasure, which the five senses cannot give you. It's impossible. It simply gets burned down going over and over the same thing. Without blame, honouring all objects of the senses, skillfully come to the Self. This is dispassion, viaragya. People who think they have dispassion often keep blaming the world, blaming the objects of their senses, and run away from them, afraid. They think it's a big temptation - something to temp them. How can something tempt you? Fear of temptation is worse. Do you see what I am saying? "Oh something can tempt me ... " How can something tempt you?

This is the second sutra: Tatparam purusharakhyaterguna vaitrushunyam. Once you know the nature of your being is total bliss, total pleasure, even fear about the gunas and the world disappears. Do you see what I am saying? Like a diabetic patient being afraid of sweets. "Oh, what will happen if I eat it?" Even looking at the sweet, he is frightened, it's forbidden for him. But one who has sweetness in himself, never minds if sweet is there or not. This is param vairagya, the supreme type of dispassion. Not being scared or running away from the world but being in the world and completely detached, centred. Don't even say the word detached because it has been distorted so much, use the word "centred".

People have very funny ideas about enlightenment. Every culture, every religion has its own idea about enlightenment. In Christian culture, a rich man cannot be enlightened. It's impossible! You have to be in poverty to be enlightened. From the Christian point of view Rama cannot be enlightened, he was a king. How can a king be enlightened? A camel can even go through a needle, but not a rich man. Once I was travelling in India, from Bangalore to Delhi, and I met a gentleman in the airport. He was a Christian priest, a Father. He looked at me and smiled. I smiled back and he came to talk to me. He

said, "I feel like talking to you, my dear brother." I said I'll talk to him. "You are a very nice person it seems, do you believe in Jesus?" he asked me. I said yes. He was a little stunned and asked me again. Again I said yes. "But aren't you a Hindu?" he asked and I replied perhaps. "But you believe in Krishna?" I said yes I also believed in Krishna. He replied, "How can Krishna be God? He was a butter thief and married. How can somebody be married, steal butter and be God? He is not the one who can give you salvation. Jesus is the only way. I was also a Hindu before, now I have become a Christian. From the time I became a Christian, everything is happening, Jesus is taking care of me. I tell you - advise you - to become a Christian." He was so sincere telling me this whole thing, trying to convert me.

How can Krishna be enlightened? Jains don't think Krishna could be enlightened, he created the war. Arjuna was going to go away, take sanyas and renounce the world. Krishna brainwashed him, made him fight. Krishna was responsible for this huge war that happened, so how could he be enlightened? Stealing butter and having so many wives. Impossible!

Jains don't think an enlightened person - sadhu - should even wear clothes. Their idea of an enlightened person is one who walks nude. One who is not nude is a little less great. Who knows what will happen, what desires could come up in them? Are they free from lust or not. How will you know? Where is the proof? Jain sadhus don't wear any clothes, they walk nude. This is their idea of enlightenment. They simply don't consider somebody who eats and enjoys two square meals a day to be enlightened. Finished! They are not at all enlightened. How can a saint eat chocolate? Not a saint at all!

Buddhists have their own scale of measuring who is and isn't enlightened. Somebody who sings, dances, looks at the whole world, lives in the world, cannot be enlightened. Someone who meets and sits with their family members is definitely not enlightened. You have to renounce the family. I see many of the socalled sanyasis, so afraid of their own families. They can't meet their family for fear that maybe attachment will happen to them. They run away from their family for if they see them again, attachment may come up at any time. They are so scared.

I remember in one of the ashrams, a so-called sanyasi or renunciate, would not meet his mother. The seventy year old lady would come and he would meet with everybody else. What had this poor lady done? He would not even meet her. She would cry. Many of the renunciates - so-called nuns, brothers and fathers - are very cruel to

their own family, because this is the idea they have. Do you see what I am saying? When you can love everybody, what sin have those poor people who gave birth to you or who are born with you (your family members) done? Why can't you see them with the same eyes? This is a concept many sanyasis go through. This difficulty in their heads, that they shouldn't see their families. Do you see what I am saying? These are all concepts about enlightenment that one is stuck with.

The main essence forgotten is dispassion, centredness. Being centred despite all, moving in the world, is the second essential principle in Yoga - vairagya. The three gunas [qualities] happen: sattva, rajas and tamas. These three gunas come in cycles into our life. When sattva comes, there is alertness, knowledge, interest, joy, happiness - everything comes. When rajo guna comes there is more desire, feverishness, restlessness, and sadness. When tamo guna comes delusion, attachment, lack of knowledge, lethargy - all these come.

These three things come in life, by turn. One who is centred will watch, witness, and move through them very naturally and easily without being averse to it. What happens when aversion comes? You promote it. Do you see what I am saying? Whatever you are averse to stays with you. And whatever you crave for, you continue craving it, you allow the craving to continue. Moving through the gunas without craving or aversion is a real skill. That is yoga.

Yogaha karmasu kaushalam. The skill in your action is yoga. Yoga itself means skill: skill to live your life, to manage your mind, to deal with your emotions, to be with people, to be in love and not let that love turn into hatred. Everyone loves in this world - everything loves - but that love doesn't stay as love for too long. It almost immediately becomes hatred. Yoga is such a skill, a preservative that maintains love as love throughout.

35

Samadhi

Dispassion does not divide you, in fact, it connects you. It connects you to the present moment so totally, you can be one hundred percent in anything you do. Actually, what happens when you are not dispassionate? You are linked to the past or the future. So, you are not one hundred percent connected to the present, you are more divided. Do you get it? When your mind is hoping for something in the future

or regretting the past, it is not hundred percent with the moment. That means it is already divided.

When you're fully centred, doing anything in the world, then you are one hundred percent every moment. When you eat, eat one hundred percent, enjoy every bit of it. You can feel every sip of the soup you're having, every bite of the food tastes great. And every look, every sight, is fresh and new. Your love is like first love every moment. You look at anybody or anything and it's all charming to the core, as though it is a very new sight. Dispassion does not take joy away from you. Dispassion gives joy which nothing else can give. There is a verse in a Shankaracharya composition:

Bhaja Govindam, Kasya sukham na karoti viragaha? What pleasure is there that dispassion cannot give? It gives all pleasure because you are so totally in the moment. It puts you one hundred percent into the moment. Every moment is a peak experience.

The so-called dispassion in the world seems so dry. People who think they are very dispassionate are melancholic. They are sad. They run away from the world, and then say, "Oh, this is dispassion, I have renounced the world." This is no renunciation, no dispassion. Do you see what I'm saying? People escape out of failure, misery, sorrow, or apathy, and say they have dispassion towards the world. Dispassion is something more precious, more refined, and more valuable in life. If you are dispassionate, you're so centred, so full of joy and contentment. Anybody would like to be that way.

There is a story about Diogenes. When Alexander saw him, he was being carried out, taken to be sold as a slave. The people taking him to be sold looked like the slaves. Diogenes said, "Here is a slave, who wants to buy him?" He was roaring like a lion. It was difficult for people to see who was a slave and who was selling the slave.

When Alexander the Great came to India, people told him that if he found a sanyasi or saint there, to catch hold of them and bring them back with him as they are very precious in India. So Alexander sent word but nobody would come. Then he sent a threatening message to the pundits saying, "If you don't come, I'm going to sever (chop off) your head." Still the people did not agree to come. He said, "Okay, I'm going to take your books. All four Vedas will be taken away from you, including some scriptures." They said, "Okay, you can take them by tomorrow evening. We'll give you all our books."

What did this pundits do? He called all his children and made them

memorize the whole scripture by heart, overnight. Then he took the manuscripts, he said, "Okay, you can take the manuscript, we don't need it now." He caught hold of the manuscripts when he wanted to catch hold of a sanyasi! The sanyasi wouldn't come. Finally, he had to go to him and say, "Are you coming or not? Else I'm going to chop off your head." He said, "Fine, chop my head off. I'll also see." Alexander could not look into his eyes. He could not tolerate the power of dispassion. Here, for the first time was a person who did not care for an emperor.

When Alexander entered India, people presented him with golden bread on a plate. Alexander said, "I'm hungry, give me bread, I want to eat bread!" They said, "Oh, you are an emperor, how can you eat wheat bread? We prepared golden bread for you." He said, "No, you are making fun of me at this time. I am starving? I am dying, now give me bread!" They brought him bread and said, "Don't you get bread in your country? Why did you have to conquer the whole world (all these places) to get bread? You eat the same bread that we eat here." This shook Alexander for a moment. This was true, what was the point in conquering country after country? All that you need is to live peacefully and happily. And when you don't have that happiness and peace, care and concern for people, then putting your stamp on all the villages and towns, has no meaning. So it seems he said, "When I die, my hand should be kept open. Let people know that Alexander the Great is going with empty hands although he conquered. He could not take a thing from this earth." Dispassion is this strength in you. Our Guru Dev used to say that even if the Creator offered him knowledge, he would say no. We don't need to take anything from them, not even from the Lord of wealth or the angels! That is the strength of dispassion. I mean, it is not arrogance, it is centredness. When you're so centred, so calm, then you can understand that everyone who has come to this world has come to give something. There is nothing to take from here. Do you see? A shift happens and you come from a very different context all together.

The next sutra goes: Vitarka vicharanandasmitaroopanugamatsampragnataha What is the purpose of sadhana? Vitarka. Where your mind has special logic to pursue in the world and perceive the truth. Tarka means logic and kutarka means wrong logic. What is the word for it?

Audience: Illogical? Illogical, where the intention is not right and the logic is applied only to find fault - what do you call it - ill-intended logic.

Audience: Ulterior motive?

Yes, with a motive you add logic. One knows deep inside this is not right, but logically you still prove it is right. Illogical, you can say; logical.

Audience: Fallacy? Misleading?

Wrong logic or vitarka [special logic]. We are talking about dispassion. What is happening? Logically we understand something, right? This logical understanding - even hearing, talking - has a certain effect on our consciousness. Have you noticed this? It elevates your consciousness. You are in a different space. Do you see this? This is samadhi.

What does samadhi mean? "Sam" means equanimous. "Dhi" is the intellect or the faculty that sustains you, that faculty of consciousness. We are in a state of samadhi now because we are talking about the Self with a definite logic, undeceivable logic. Logic can always change; you know how it can change. You can put it on this side or that side. It has no loyalty. But, vitarka is a logic which cannot be condemned, cannot be reversed.

For example, if you are standing there and somebody is obviously dead [there is no more life], this is the final ... At that moment your consciousness is in a different state. Do you see what I'm saying? When you are not emotionally connected to them, what happens? Your consciousness says: "Oh, this is the final." Like when a movie is over there is a feeling of it being over. When people walk out of a movie theatre, you see them walking out in a particular state of consciousness. They come out of a musical concert with a feeling of, "Oh, it is all finished!", or when a festival is over, or when a course is over ... The show is over!

At that moment, there is a definite logic in the mind. Irrefutable or irreversible logic, triggers in your consciousness. It's so obvious! Life is like this. Everything is changing and bound to change, dissolve and disappear. This is obvious.

Vitarka elevates one's consciousness. One doesn't have to sit with eyes closed. With eyes open, the feeling of "I" - the consciousness - is all that is. Everything is empty. Everything is in a state of fluidity. The whole world is a quantum mechanical field. This is vitarka. The entire science is based on tarka [logic], the irrefutable tarka of it [quantum physics]. Vitarkânugama samâdhi, this is a type of samadhi.

Vichârânugama . All experiences come in vichara: smell, sight, visions, taste or sounds. All you hear as an experience when meditating is called Vichârânugama samadhi. Do you see what I'm saying? All experiences and thoughts (observing the thoughts come and go), are two states of mind that come in you often. One is thoughts which disturb you and another is thoughts which don't disturb you, but simply hover around in your consciousness, and you are aware of them. You are in samadhi, in an equanimous state - equanimous mind - and at the same time thoughts are hovering. It's part of meditation. Some thoughts come ... Thoughts exist, experiences exist. This is the second type of samadhi or awareness.

The third is anandânugama samadhi. Ananda means the blissful state. Have you noticed that you are in a different space after doing kriya? When you sing bhajans [chanting] you are in a different space of samadhi. The mind is still elevated, the consciousness is still elevated - equanimous - but it is in ecstasy. Samadhi in ecstasy is anandânugama samadhi. Do you see what I'm saying? This is also a meditative state. It is a meditative state in which you are in ecstasy. There is a meditative state in which you are with experiences, thoughts, ideas, or fleeting feelings hovering around. And there is a meditative state with irrefutable logical understanding of creation. So there are three states.

The fourth state is asmitânugama samadhi. This is the really deep experience of meditation, wherein you do not know anything, just the awareness you "are". You just know you "are" but you don't know where you are, what you are, or who you are. Nothing else is known just "I am". Asmita. I am present. This experience is the fourth state of samadhi or meditative experience, state. All four are called: sampragnâtha which means there is consciousness in all, there is in a flowing of awareness throughout.

How do we achieve them? The next sutra says it's very simple: viramapratyabhyasapurvaha.

You cannot experience or achieve this awareness by doing something. You cannot bring up the intelligence and alertness in you with effort. Without effort - relaxation - hold onto the relaxation. By relaxing or reposing in the Self. Viramapratya - resting. Bhyasapurvaha - by the practice of resting. Conscious relaxation. Conscious rest. Unconscious rest is sleep we are forced into by nature. If you are not resting, you are forced to rest. Do you see what I'm saying? When you are so tired, it's like nature pulling you down, forcing you, beating you up, and

making you rest. You are not resting when you say: "I am resting - really!" That is only meditation, because you are consciously resting. Otherwise, rest is galloping, swallowing you. Here, you allow the rest to happen. Do you see the difference? Sleep is putting you to rest and meditation is you resting on your own. This is abhyasa, this is practice, conscious practice of deep rest.

Viramapratyabhyasapurvaha.

Then comes: samskara sheshonyaha. For some people, this comes through old samskaras [impressions]. Some people have to do a lot of practice in order to be calm and equanimous, in order to bring up more awareness in them. For some people, it is by old impressions of some lifetime. Past lives or births ... it just happens. Sometimes right from birth or at a particular period in life they start opening up. Samskara sheshonyaha. Have you noticed this?

There are some people, after sometime, twenty, thirty, forty years, suddenly one day they open up to a spiritual experience. Then they have more awareness. But unfortunately, most of these people get misguided. A little experience and they go off on all these prophecies (e.g. the world is going to end) and what happens? They read these prophecies somewhere in the Bible and suddenly in an experience it becomes so real to them. They see a vision, and declare it to the people because they have no understanding of this root of yoga. "The world is going to end on the twentieth of September, everybody gather." Someone who knows the root knows all of these experiences. Suddenly a white light comes down. "Oh, something has come down, something is happening." People are misled by such experiences (evangelic experiences). You should know that all these evangelic experiences are from Samskara sheshonyaha, from past samskaras. That is a different type of samadhi.

Bhavapratyayo videhaprakrutilayanam. Samadhi is not only the property of this level of existence. It surpasses this level and goes into other worlds. People who do not have bodies can also be affected by the meditation. When you meditate, you are not only bringing about harmony within yourself, but you are also influencing the subtle layers of creation, the subtle bodies of all different levels of existence in the creation. So your meditation also influences the consciousness and minds of those people who lived a hundred years ago. So too, the minds and consciousness of people who will live in the future. Do you get what I'm saying? Because, life is

infinite - though life is in every moment, it is also infinite. Your life has been here for thousands of years, centuries, and your life will continue to be here for centuries.

There are different types of yogis. One type is Videha [one who does not have a body]. You walk feeling as though you have no body, and the mind is in such a state of equanimity. Those who do not have bodies are also influenced, effected by yoga. It is the same with Prakruti laya [those who are completely submerged in the nature]. They also attain the same state of equanimity.

Either you are so much away from the material existence, completely unaware of the material, the Videha, complete nonawareness of the body, of the surroundings, of the situation. So much immersed in the Self or completely immersed in the objects of the world. Either close your eyes totally, immersed (then you are also in samadhi, the state of meditation) or looking at a mountain or sunset prakruti laya happens. You are merging with nature at that moment. You are looking at the sunset, at the sun setting. There is you, the sun, and the vision you are having about the sun. In awhile, you are not aware of yourself, you are only aware of the sun. Have you had this experience sometime? You watch a mountain and completely forget yourself. What are you with? Just that mountain, snow peaks or lake, water ... You observe the water, only the waves in the water, that's all. No thought, no mind, no body, no awareness. Have you had this experience? This is prakruti laya samadhi.

When doing that, the mind comes, "Oh, this is water. What am I doing? Am I not a stupid person looking at the water? I should make better use of my time and do something else." Somebody or something else comes in the mind, and you are no longer dissolving in nature. This is again another big practice, prakruti laya. For hours, years together, people sit in solitude, just watching until all thoughts disappear and they are left with emptiness.

You can do this as an experiment when you are very worried or tense. Sit by a flowing river or gushing water, and just keep looking at the water. Within a few moments you feel a magnetic pull. Your mind is being pulled in the direction of the water flow. Then turn around and sit on the other side or bank and watch. You will see your mind is being pulled in the other direction. Have you experienced this? How many of you have experimented with this when you sit by flowing water? Many people who want to jump into the water and commit suicide find when they go near the water - look at the water - something happens, a shift happens and they cannot commit suicide in

the water. Watching the water changes the whole vibration of the mind, the prana in the system, and in a short while all that anguish and delusion [whatever you had], flows away into the flowing water. You become fresh.

It is the same thing with the ocean. Why do people love the ocean? There's more prana there, more ozone. You sit and go on looking at the waves. It washes off and lifts something away from you. This is prakruti laya meditation, where you dissolve yourself into nature.

And videha means knowing that I am not the body. I have a body. This is my body. I am not the body. This is videha. This sutra has been wrongly interpreted over the centuries. People have wrongly understood again and again. But again, here Patanjali says, "These things will suit certain people at certain times." You know, it's not like a practice you do every day - everyone sitting at the mountain - certain times, certain people, can create that samadhi.

Then comes: Shraddhveerya smrutisamadhiprajnapurvaka itaresham. This is the most vital sutra. Shraddha means faith. Faith creates such a quality in your consciousness, making your consciousness so stable, steady and solid. Doubt in consciousness makes you very vulnerable, fearful, uncertain and fluid. But faith makes you solid. Do you see that? Faith brings totality in you, pulling together all the loose ends of your consciousness and integrating your whole personality. Doubt scatters and destroys you. Doubt disseminates you and your energy. Doubt is something that pulls you apart. The dissemination of energy is doubt.

The consolidation of your energy is faith. Are you getting what I'm saying? The very feeling when you're having faith is a sort of consolidation, strength. That's why Jesus also said that faith is your strength. Faith and strength are synonymous. When you're strong and bold, you have faith. When you're weak and feeble, you have doubts. Doubt is a sign of a weakness. Uncertainty is a sign of weakness. Faith is strength. When there is faith, samadhi is also achieved. Equanimity, mind and meditation, happens out of faith.

Veerya is one hundred percent vigor or courage. Force. Courage. Vitality. The total courage in you, the total force (with which army personnel goes). What do you call it?

Audience: Authority. Conviction. Valor. Valor! That's the right word, valor. The valor with which you say, "Okay, come on let's fight for our

country." What happens? All the energy in the system is coming up together. We fight for our country, my country ... "My country is in danger, my religion is in danger." That's it. See how valor rises in people. The whole world is in valor, into fighting. Do you think they simply do it without getting any joy out of it? That moment of valor - extreme sense of patriotism or valor - gives such tremendous joy That's why this world faces wars again and again. If people would completely condemn war (nobody likes war) then war cannot happen. But in the process of war, though the result of war is not palatable (nobody likes the result of the war), the process of war is very thrilling.

Why do people like thriller movies? A thrill is a sense of veerya or valor, in the entire body. Every cell in our body becomes united. The whole consciousness becomes one and the defence system gets awakened in you. That again is a strength; a defence against fear. That defence system comes to its peak and is joyful because there is also that equanimity there. There is a sense of gratefulness, gratitude. There is a sense of patriotism, devotion. Do you see what I'm saying? That sense of patriotism, valor or vigor also takes you to a state of meditation.

Shraddhveerya smruti. Smruti means the memory of it. Once you have had a very peaceful, beautiful state of mind experience, the very memory of it will produce it again, make you relive it. The memory of samadhi produces, or reproduces the memory of one's being, the memory of the Self. The memory of freedom, devotion, surrender, love and joy, brings you back to your Self. We don't often remember nice things. We keep remembering bad things, the not-so-nice things. We don't remember compliments. We remember somebody's insults more. Yoga is turning the wheel around. Remember those wonderful moments you've had. Sit and be with them. In that very memory, your entire being gets back to that state.

Smrutisamadhiprajnapurvaka. Awareness is also gained through samadhi, deep meditation and a deep equanimous mind. Pragna is the result of samadhi. An equanimous mind gives rise to heightened awareness. These many avenues are there through heightened awareness. These are the many ways you can blossom in life, other ways of being aware of the Self.

And the next sutra: Teevra samvegânâm âsannaha. Often we give third, fourth, or fifth preference to our practice.

First preference goes to worldly things [our survival, everything] and the last preference to anything spiritual. Then it will go slowly. Patanjali says, "Teevra samvegânâm âsannaha." When you give first preference to your spiritual practice, then it is easier. The central focus of your life is spiritual growth and peace. Then all other things will evolve around that. Your first and foremost commitment in life is to be with the truth, to evolve in truth. Then your work, social obligations, everything comes second, third and fourth in the list of preferences. Then it is very easy for you. Teevra samvegânâm âsannaha. It is very easy for one who gives it first preference, for one whose mind really wants to move in this direction.

Even then, even there, there are three types and specialities. Patanjali says, "Mrudu madhya adhimatratvat tato'pi visheshah." Mrudu means little slow, medium and fast. There also three cycles for people: "Okay, let me do it", "No, no, I have to do it", and then, "No, I cannot do without it." Do you see that? Someone who is really one hundred percent into it, someone who is a little mild about it and one who says, "Okay, let me do this. I have to do it." The first, second and third grade, three different grades are also there.

And then the next sutra says, Eshwara pranidhanad va. It is also possible by one-pointed devotion to God.

49

Who is God?

Surrendering to the Lord, you can achieve the fullest state of consciousness, fully blossomed state of consciousness. Now, what is the Lord? Who is the Lord? Where is He? It's easy to say surrender to God but what is God? Where is God? Nobody has ever seen God. This becomes the next question. Where is God? Who is Lord? Who is Lord of this creation? What is lordship?

What rules this world? You'll find love rules the world. The centre core of existence rules this whole universe. Like the sun is the centre of the solar system and rules all the planets. Like that, the very centre core of your life is ruled by love. Beyond your changing body, your changing thoughts, your changing feelings ... the very centre core of your existence is very subtle, very delicate. You can call it love or anything. That consciousness - the core of existence - is responsible

for this whole creation. There is the lordship. Do you see what I'm saying?

A bird feeds its young one because of love. A flower blossoms because of love. Ducks hatch eggs because of love. Cows take care of their calves because of love. Kittens are taken care of by cats because of love. Have you seen how monkeys care for their young ones? Love is in-built in creation. That's how the whole of creation functions. And that - "in-built" - is the core of consciousness. That's why Jesus said, "Love is God. God is love." Synonymous!

In the next sutra, Patanjali very beautifully analyses what that state of consciousness is. Who is Lord, that consciousness that is free from misery or suffering? What is the suffering? Patanjali says,

Klesha karmavipakashayairaparamrushtaha purushavishesha eshwaraha. The core of consciousness that is free from suffering. They enunciate five type of suffering.

One type of suffering is ignorance - avidya. When your consciousness is filled with ignorance, there is restlessness, unhappiness and suffering. You are unhappy and miserable. Misery is due to ignorance. And what is ignorance? Ignorance is giving importance to something not worth that importance. Thinking something that is changing to be permanent and imagining something to be joyful which is not joyful. Considering something impure to be pure, considering something that is temporary to be permanent. Just like someone speaks some words to you. It is just a word that came from somebody's mouth and vanished. But thinking it to be a permanent thing - keeping it in your mind - is ignorance. Someone's comment is a fleeting veil of thought or energy which came and went. They won't even have that opinion later on! But you keep it in your mind, "Oh, this is the opinion so-and- so has about me all the time." It is not true. This is one example of ignorance. The consciousness which is devoid of ignorance, that is free from misery. Asmita means, "me, me, I, I" and this feeling is the second cause of suffering. That's why we do "hollow and empty". When we do "hollow and empty" there is no "I". You exist as though you are not. You exist like a flower. You exist like a cloud. You exist like space. You are free and "hollow and empty", rather than as if somebody's there i.e. "I, I, me, me". What do people think about me? What do I want from them? How do I take advantage of them? Do they consider me to be good or bad? All these things are called asmita. This gives you misery. Nothing else can or need give you misery other than your own ideas in the

mind of "me, me, mine, mine". Not being one with the existence, having a separate feeling, a separate identity: "I am different from everybody. All are fools; I am the only intelligent person!" In fact, people who consider everybody else to be fools and think only they are intelligent, deep down they know they are really the big fool! To avoid looking at their foolishness, they consider everybody else to be crazy or foolish. This asmita eats you up. That is the cause of your suffering. This "I and me" can hook into anything (any subject, any topic).

Raga is that strong craving for anything inside. Dwesha means aversion, hatred. And abhinivesha is fear. Craving, aversion, fear, "me and I", that separate entity or "I-ness" and ignorance. These are the five sources or causes of misery. The Lord is devoid of these five miseries.

That consciousness, deep down in you, is devoid of these five. I tell you, although you are miserable or craving for something outside, if you really go to the core of your existence - deep down in the very centre point of you - you are free from it. You may hate somebody on the circumference, but in the centre of your existence, there is no hatred. Fear is only on the circumference. Ignorance is only on the circumference. When you come to the core of existence, there is no fear, there is no ignorance, there is no 'you' there.

When these five kleshas are eliminated - even from the circumference - then whatever is in the centre becomes so eminent, so obvious. The lordship in you blossoms. God in you is manifest. So God is that Purusha, Being, or Lord which is devoid of these five kleshas, suffering or miseries.

And he is also devoid of karma. There are four types of karma. One type of karma gives merits and another type of action gives you de- merits. If you do something good for somebody, and they feel very good about it and thank you very much from their heart, that brings good merit karma. Or you do something to somebody and they feel suffocated, suffer, cry, yell and are miserable, that brings karma of de- merit. Then there is certain karma which is both, merit and de-merit combined. A mixture of merit and de-merit is the third type of karma. The fourth type of karma is devoid of both merit and de-merit e.g. you go for a walk in the evening. That has no merit or de-merit, it is an action.

Certain actions have no merit or de-merit. Vacuum-cleaning the hall has no merit nor de-merit. But if you are doing it for somebody else

(e.g. you are helping someone in the kitchen) then that's an action of merit. Cutting vegetables and cooking food for everybody, is an action of merit. So merit action, demerit action, mixed action which gives mixed results, and action which has no results at all, neutral results. These are the four types of karma. This very core of your existence - being - is free from all this karma, has no karma. Whatever action that comes forth from the Lord is not attached to any karma. Good, bad, right wrong, nothing is there.

Vipaka is the fruit or result of that action. Enjoying or suffering the fruit of action is not there, it does not touch that very sensitive, purest core of your being, of your existence, which is the Lord of creation. Do you see what I'm saying? That consciousness that is free from this.

And ashayair means latent desires, impressions, opinions, or seeds. So when this consciousness or that Being is free from: klesha [misery], karma [actions], vipaka [the fruit of action], ashayair [impressions of action] - that special Being is eshwaraha or Lord.

And where is this special Being or Lord? Not hanging somewhere in the sky, but in your heart. It is in every Being's heart. Do you get it? Whatever action you do and whatever events happen around you, it doesn't touch the central point of your life. That central core of your life remains a virgin. "Jesus was born to a virgin" means that Jesus, the Lord is born to this virgin area deep inside you which is untouched by any events or happening in life. Do you get it?

Purushavishesha, that special Being is the Lord. And when your mind (the external mind) is worshipping your core of the Being ... All worship is always the mind to its Being. It's like the circumference collapsing into the centre. A boundary, a circumference that is outside, collapses to the centre. What happens when a boundary collapses into the centre? It becomes infinite and limitless. When our little chattering mind prays, it prays to the infinite Being that you are. That is prayer. Do you get it? For that you can say, "Lord, my Lord, help!" "Whomsoever you pray to, whatever, wherever and whenever you pray outside, it all reaches me and me alone." This is what Krishna said. "Whomsoever you pray to, everything comes to me alone, because I am the core of existence." You may worship that, you may worship this or you may worship something else ... What does it mean? Wherever you worship, it is just an act of dissolving. A sugar doll (a candy) getting into water, whichever point it gets into the water doesn't matter. It is going to mix and become one with the water. Like that, worship is the act of dissolving the mind into its Being. When

you keep that type of Being in mind (free from klesha, karma, ashayair and vipaka), your mind starts dissolving almost instantaneously, immediately.

That's why there is no difference between God, Guru and your Self.

Eshwaro gurorâtmêti mûrti bheda vibhâginê. It is a matter of words. Whatever the master is, it is nothing but the core of your being, and it is the same as the divine that rules this entire creation.

Sa esha purveshamapi guruhu kalenanavachchedat. This being, this consciousness is Guru [the guide] even to ones who were before, because there is no breakage of time as far as it is concerned. I think there is something in bible? What was that? "I was before Abraham. I taught people who were before me." Krishna also, said the same thing, "I have taught to Ikshwaku and Manu." Arjuna said, "Come on, don't tell me that! They were born long ago, and you are with me now, a contemporary! How could you have taught those people?" Arjuna said, "I am already terribly confused. Don't tell me that you were guru to somebody who was thousands of years before you! How is it possible?" Then Krishna said, "Come on, look! You do not know me. I have come so many times and you have come so many times. You have forgotten, but I know it all. I have taught then, I am also teaching now and I'll continue to teach in the future."

That "I" is the same, the guru principle is the same because there is no breakage of time. It continues. Jesus is continuing throughout. It's not that he stopped, broken somewhere. So people think, "Oh, he's going to come sometime in the future." Purveshamapi guruhu is also the master of the ones before because there was no breakage of time.

Tatra niratishayam sarvagna bejam. One sutra before this says in this state of consciousness is the seed of all knowingness. This is very important. Tatra niratishayam sarvagna bejam. The seed of all-knowingness is present there in a very special manner. Here people get into trouble. They say, "Well, if Lord Krishna knew everything, why did he go to pacify and stop the war?" Three times he attempted to stop the war. If he already knew, why did he go and do it? He knew the war was going to happen anyway, but he never told Arjuna that the war was going to happen and he would win the war. No, he said, "If you win the war, you will rule this world. If you lose the war, you will go to heaven anyway." He didn't give the right answer, the right knowledge, the right instruction. He didn't say the result was going to be there. So they say, "Oh, that Krishna, if he

was Lord, he knew it. Why didn't he say so?" This is the second question that comes. Tatra niratishayam sarvagna bejam. The seed of all knowing is present there.

You have a dictionary in your home. At any moment, you can turn the page and pick out any word you want, right? But you don't need to memorize every word in the dictionary by heart. Nor do you need to know all the words in the dictionary, all the time. For example, you open yourself up to the highest form of your consciousness in this moment. All knowledge is present. What does all knowledge mean? This moment you can know, see and feel all the beings that are in the world and what they are doing. How many millions of people there are, some are waking up from their beds, some are going to their beds, some are taking a bath in their bathroom, some are in their motor car. And you see what is happening this moment, this one moment. There are many people who are snoring. And there are many people who are fighting, who are eating and who are doing different activities, right this moment! And this is just the people!

Take into account of all the beings! How many living beings there are: so many chickens hatching, so many being chopped off, so many buffalo wandering around, so many cows licking, so many monkeys jumping from tree to tree, so many lizards baffled going here and there, not knowing what they are doing! So many ants, so many cockroaches, so many flies, so many mosquitoes, amoebas and millions of viruses and bacteria. Many are dying, many are being born, many are hatching and many are growing. There is enormous activity this very moment! Among this enormous activity, you pick up what so and so is doing. What David is doing now; what Linda is doing now. This is so much of a job, and it is not worth it. But it is possible.

Sometimes people ask me, "Guruji, how come you know the biggest secret in my life? I haven't told anybody but you know; how is it you know?" I say, "I don't know ... " But I know it and sometimes I search for my own keys that I have kept somewhere. This is more confusing! "Guruji, how come you are searching for your comb and key? You don't know where you kept it but you seem to know something that I never told anybody. Nobody knew, except me! How is it possible?" It is possible.

Just like you know how many hairs are on your head. Do you all know how many hairs you have? You don't know, but you know you have hairs, right? You know you have hairs but you don't know how many are on your head. So knowledge and ignorance co-exist. Even if

you pull one hair, you know that a particular hair is being pulled.

That is why, tatra niratishayam sarvagna bejam. This "all-knowing" seed of "all-knowingness" is present in that consciousness. It's amazing! How is it amazing? It is amazing, it is present there. Tatra niratishayam. In the Lordship - in that state of consciousness - the seed of "all-knowing" is present.

Purveshamapi guruhu kalenanavachchedat. This consciousness is master even to those who lived before.

How do you address it? Patanjali says, "Say Aum," that is addressing it. Aum is the nearest sound it could be addressed with, because when you say Aum, the prana, the consciousness is total. When you say "Ah", the prana is in the lower portion of the body; "u" is in the middle portion and "Mm" is in the top portion. When we say Aum, the prana is total, complete. You have done that, haven't you, you've seen this? Have you experimented with Aum on your body to see where the sound comes from? Aum is the sound which is so special, the nearest sound that could be used to address this totality of consciousness. A distorted form of Aum is Amen [in Christianity] or Amin [in Islam]. Let's say Aum is the one sound which is accepted by all religions in the world: Buddhism, Jainism, Sikkhism ... Whatever religions are in the world, all of them have a word which is Aum or very close to it. So, Aum is the one sound which comes very close to this totality of consciousness. All other names are just the periphery.

Tajjapastadartha bhavan. This is another important sutra. Japa means a sound that can remind you of that state of feeling. For example, if you say "mango", the word mango immediately gives you that idea and that feeling. And if you are fond of mango, your tongue and mouth start watering. There is an immediate reaction. That feeling comes. You say "Christmas", and the word Christmas immediately generates a feeling of gifts and celebration, it's associated with gifts. Christmas. Gifts. Celebration.

So, Tajjapastadartha bhavan means you remember the totality of Being when you say Aum. That Being is the very core of this existence, that life which is free from misery and which is all love, unconditional love. The sound Aum reminds you of the Lord of the creation.

Tataha pratyakchetanadhigamoapyantarayabhavascha. What's the use of it? Witness consciousness comes to you when this feeling of elevation - totality of consciousness coming to the core of your

existence - comes to you. Pratyakchetana. A different form of consciousness happens in you and your mind gets totally transformed. Clarity begins in your thinking. Clarity begins in your feeling. The whole body undergoes a transformation, so alive and full of prana. And all obstacles get removed from your way. Just the memory of the Lordship, of the Divine, can remove obstacles from your way. What are the obstacles? They count nine obstacles:

Vyadhistyanasamshaya pramadalasyavirati bhrantidarshanalabdha bhoomikatvanavasthitatvani chittavikshepaste antarayaha.

What are these nine obstacles? The first one is vyadhi or illness in the body. Illness in the body is one obstacle. And illness in the mind, satyana (mentally retarded), an inability to comprehend, to listen, understand, to follow, to practice, do anything ... This is satyana, the second type of obstruction.

Many of you will be all right, but sometimes, when you get to the course you get sick. Do you know why? As soon as you come on a course or start doing some practice, meditation, then sickness comes. The body pains here and there. If you are watching television, nothing happens! But when you sit for meditation your body gets so restless, it pains here and there. This is the sort of obstruction that comes, obstacles in the path of yoga.

And then samshaya is doubt. The mind is bogged by doubt. There are three types of doubt. Doubt about one self, "Am I good enough? I don't think I can do it." You see everyone else meditating and very happy, sitting in a pleasant mood. "Oh, they are all enjoying it, blissful. It's only me who is suffering. I am no good. I don't think I can ever make it." So doubt about yourself. And then doubt about the technique: "Is this all right? Will this technique do me any good? I don't think. Maybe I should do some other technique. It's not for me." Or doubt about the teacher. "What is he up to? What does he want?" These three types of doubt can hamper progress. It begins with doubt about your self, that's an obstruction. Understand doubt properly and see that your doubt is always about something good. You never doubt negativity, you always doubt positivity! You never doubt your depression. You never ask, "Am I really depressed?" But you doubt being happy, "Am I really happy? Is this what I want? I'm not sure," you say. Doubt is the third obstruction.

Next is pramada, this means doing something wrong - knowing it is very wrong - with an intention. You know that certain things are not

good for you, yet knowing too well, doing it. Or knowing too well that you have to do something and not doing it. This is pramada. Do you see? You know very well you have to pay tax and don't pay it. That is pramada. You know if you don't do a certain job, you will be in trouble. Knowing you will be in trouble and getting into trouble, is pramada. Suppose you are sick and know when you are sick you shouldn't eat ice cream [or whatever] or overeat. And you know you have a problem with sugar and shouldn't eat much sugar but knowingly, you go on eating that sugar, chocolate or whatever. This is pramada. Carelessness - not being alert and attentive - is another obstacle. Pramada.

And then alasya is laziness or heaviness in the body. You may do a lot of things, but when it comes to doing a few asanas [postures] or exercise, "Oh, come on!" you say. And if you have to do pranayama, you say, "Oh, pranayama, I'm busy enough!" Feeling too lazy to do something - it's that laziness. It can creep up in any aspect of life, in doing anything. One is intentionally not doing, another is heaviness or laziness in the body that overcomes you and takes you over. Avirati means being engaged in any one of the sense objects and not coming out of it. You can call it obsession. You are hungry so you eat food. But after eating when your tummy is full, then there is no point in thinking about food the whole day. Same thing! You want to see a nice, beautiful, scenic place. You see it, then that's it, finished! Don't go on thinking about seeing something nice and beautiful all the time. Do you see what I am saying? All the sense organs act but their action is limited to some time and should be over after that. But to carry on thinking about it for 24 hours - being feverish about the whole thing all the time - is avirati or obsession. Do you see what I am saying? Is it clear?

So eat, and after eating you shouldn't think about eating. It is the same thing with sex. You have sex, finished. Afterwards, don't carry sex in your head for twenty-four hours. That is then avirati or non- detachment. People go to blue movies and sit watching movies day and night. Their head gets so hot. The body is incapable of functioning, but the mind is obsessed with thoughts of sex. Even old people get into this problem, seventy, eighty, ninety years old, but they think about it.

It is said Mullah Nasrudin had a birthday, his seventy fifth birthday. And someone asked him, "What do you think about girlfriends?" Mullah said, "Don't ask me that question! Only three days ago I stopped thinking about girlfriends!"

Incompletion of any sense experience creates an avirati or attachment to that sense object i.e. lack of non-attachment to the sense object. Avirati is a big obstruction on the path of yoga, because it does not allow you to get centred. It pulls you and keeps you there. Do you see what I am saying? Avirati. Bhranti darshana is hallucination. You imagine you are somebody very special. Suddenly you imagine you are a superstar or whatever. This is a problem with many people. Many seekers practice something, get visions and then get so caught up in that vision! Because those visions are not completely false and not completely true. They are a mixture of some truth and some false hope. People try to hold onto this. Many cults have happened in this part of the world because of bhranti darshana. They never understood the obstructions or obstacles that would come on the path of yoga.

This is called yoga maya. Yoga maya is when a vision comes and gives you a message (it will be intuitive message). You sit meditating and a message comes, "Yes, go and open the door, somebody is waiting for you." You go and see somebody really was waiting! So you get all excited - an inside voice came! "Jesus told me do this and okay I did it." And the next day it will happen ... third time, fourth time, fifth time. But because you are not completely hollow and empty (there is residue or traces of your desires, hatreds and fears) they will come up in that form "through Jesus", "through Punditji", or through somebody else. It will give you ideas in the mind and then you suffer. Do you see what I'm saying?

It happened to one of our devotees. That person had visions, and almost every vision was right! Once a vision came, "Don't take your husband to a doctor. He'll be cured without going to a doctor." And she simply said alright (she was already afraid of going to a doctor and was averse to allopathic medicine) and in the meditation she found all these things coming up. So she said, "No, I am not going to a doctor." His sugar went up and up and he lost both his eyes. This person became so angry, "Why did my inner voice deceive me and say this?" It was not proper understanding, lack of understanding. Eighty percent of things were right, because there was eighty percent more purity, but there was also their own fear and craving. Those were still there and when they came as that thought (intuitive thought) they went on it, and it didn't give a very pleasant result. This is an obstruction. Don't gallop on these horses of delusion. Bhranti darshana. Many people get caught up in that.

And alabdha bhumikatva. Sometimes people say, "Guruji, I have been doing these practices for eight or ten years but I don't seem to get

anywhere. I simply sit there. Nothing happens, only thoughts come and I have not reached or attained any state." Non-attainment to any state or samadhi, any peace or tranquillity is another obstruction, the eighth obstruction. Here one feels completely stuck, "I am going nowhere", but at the same time, not letting go of the practice. They continue the practice but feel stuck. No progress, nothing is happening.

And then anavastitava means instability. Okay, you've had good experiences, "I feel very calm, wonderful but it doesn't stay long." This is another complaint, the ninth obstacle. "I feel all this bliss, but it goes away! I feel very peaceful, but in moments it all goes. Just a few moments and everything vanished. I have all this alertness, awareness and good intentions, but I come out and start doing something and in ten-fifteen minutes, it's all gone. For a few days I feel I have this wonderful state of awareness, alertness, and then very soon it is all gone. It doesn't stay." This is another usual complaint people come up with. This is the ninth obstacle called anavastitava. Not getting stabilized in any state. Duhkha or sorrow comes along with these obstructions or obstacles. Dourmanasya is bitterness in the mind. You feel bitter inside. Duhkha is sadness and then bitterness which is dourmanasya. You don't feel good with anybody. And when you see or meet anyone (some people) there is a bitterness; there is bitterness with oneself.

Angame jayatva means your body is not listening to you. Like a drunkard [one who has drunk too much] wants to go left but he will start moving to the right. His body takes him to the right. He wants to walk straight but his body goes haphazardly, isn't it? He tries to grab the glass and puts his hand on the table away from the glass, trying to hold the glass. There is a lack of coordination between body and mind - angame jayatva. The body wins, it doesn't listen to you. You want to walk, but the body isn't getting up.

Duhkha , dourmanasya, angamejayatva, Shwasa prashwasa and vikshepas. These are the five signs of the obstacles overtaking you. We'll once again go over the five signs or side effects that are obviously seen when any one of these obstacles has overtaken you. What are they? Duhkha [sadness]; dourmanasya [bitterness]; angamejayatva [lack of coordination in the body, the body is not listening to you]; shwasa prashwasa [irregular breathing in and out, shaky and uncomfortable breathingl; the vikshepas [distractions] that come along with the obstructions.

65

Overcoming Obstacles

Yesterday, we considered the nine possible obstacles on the path of yoga. There is no tenth obstacle. Every possible obstacle has been counted and included in these nine categories. Patanjali is such a scientist. In very few words, he has said very concisely all that is to be said, all that was needed to be said.

Along with the nine obstacles, five indications or signs of a disturbed mind were mentioned. They are: duhkha [sadness]; dourmanasya [bitterness]; angame jayatva [restlessness in the body or lack of coordination from the body, and irregular breathing]. If you have observed your breath, when happy or excited, the incoming breath is longer. You're more aware of the incoming breath in a state of excitement. And when you're unhappy, the outgoing breath is more prominent, you observe it. A total imbalance of the breath happens. Have you noticed this? A big sigh when you're unhappy, heavy, or sad. When joyful, you only breathe in and don't know when you are breathing out. You're not conscious of the out breath. There is an imbalance of breath, incoming and outgoing breath. These are the five signs or side effects along with the obstacles. Now, how do you get rid of these obstacles? The next sutra goes,

Eka tattvabhyasa tatpratishedharthamekatattvabhyasaha. To get rid of them, just do one thing. Beat the bush, and go on beating it! Do just one thing. One-pointed attention on one thing. What happens when you keep on doing one thing? Boredom comes. Restlessness will surface. Restlessness and boredom take you to a peak that brings clarity. This is the only way out.

Our mind is troubled because it is dwelling on duality. It has choices, so it is more confused. "Should I do this or not? Should I do that?" And then it [the mind] jumps all around the place. This, that, this, that ... and the mind is further divided. A divided mind is misery; and a one-pointed mind is joy. All those moments you were very happy - if you have noticed what happiness is - was the mind becoming one whole. Becoming so total, so much together. Then you have experienced joy in life, peace in life, bliss in life. Then you have experienced life itself totally. Duality or a divided mind is the cause of fear and misery. There also, if you keep doing two things or too many things, it's not eka tattvabhyasa, it's not one practice.

So what is eka tattva? Attending to one principle and that one

principle could be God, it could be matter, it could be Guru, it could be Self, it could be anything. But, eka tattvabhyasa - practice one thing. Then you get over all these other obstacles, all nine can be gotten rid of. We can only do one-pointed if there is a certain amount of calmness or subtleness in the mind, otherwise, even that doesn't seem to be possible. Isn't it? We can only be one-pointed, if there is a certain degree of calmness in the mind.

You see that one principle in everybody. It's one Self. My Self is present everywhere. It's my Master who is present everywhere. There is nobody other than my Master. He is everything to me. Or, God is everything to me. It's all only me. There is nothing other than. Like this, holding onto one principle, and seeing that one principle in everything. This is the skill in life. Our life has to be lived in the realm of multiplicity. In the world, you live with many people. Not everybody is the same. But how can you see the same thing in everybody? Nothing appears to be the same. No two people appear to be same. But here we are saying, see one thing in everyone. Look at or focus on the one principle. How is it possible? Then Patanjali says, "Okay, I'll give you one more sutra."

The next sutra says: Maitri karuna mudita upekshanam sukha dukha punya punya vishayanam bhavanataschitta prasadanam.

Patanjali categorizes. There can only be four types of people in the world: people who are happy, people who are unhappy, people who are engaged in good, meritorious acts and people who are engaged in not-so-good or demonic acts. Sinful people, merited or blessed people, happy people and unhappy people - four categories.

How do you deal with them? Maitri or friendliness with all those who are happy. Be friendly with people who are happy. If you are not friendly with them, you feel jealousy. Your jealousy is because someone is happier than you. But if you own them, if you feel that they belong to you ... You are not jealous about someone very dear to you. Somebody very close to you who is very happy, doesn't bother you. It doesn't bring jealousy in you. When you think so-and-so is very happy and they are not totally connected to you, then jealousy comes. Then he says, have friendship with them, maitri have a feeling of friendliness with them, for them. You can see the same Self in everybody, but the feelings will not be the same. It can differ for a beginner. One doesn't feel the same with everybody. Though intellectually you may say, "Oh, it's only my self there", but you are feeling. Since it's not fully cultured or established in the Self, it still

has preferences, its ways. So then, which preference will you take? Have friendliness with those who are happy.

What about unhappy people? If you are friendly with unhappy people, what happens? You also become unhappy. So he says, don't be friendly with unhappy people, but be compassionate to them. He gave a second bhava: karuna. Have sympathy and compassion for people who are suffering, but don't hook onto their friendliness, because it'll drag you down into also being unhappy. When you are unhappy and they are unhappy, you'll be of no use to them, to help them out. Do you see what I'm saying? If you think you should share the unhappiness with your friend, okay, share it. Will you be able to share your happiness with them? Not possible. So, don't be friendly with unhappy people, be compassionate to them. There's a difference here. Do you get these points? Karuna [compassion]. Be compassionate to them. Don't say, "Oh, poor thing, this shouldn't have happened to you." You know, we do not know how to deal with people who are suffering. We go and make their beliefs stronger by saying, "God is so unjust with you. God or nature is so unkind to you, you are suffering, you poor thing!" We push them even further down the drain. We are trying to pull them out of the drain, but we are trying to push them down. Unconsciously we do this because we think, "Oh, they are my great friends. What do I do?" No.

Do not pity people who are suffering. There is a difference between pity and compassion. By pitying them, you are not pulling them up. You are making them even more down. Most people do this. They make a suffering person's belief about their sorrow more concrete in whatever limited logic of relative existence. Are you getting what I'm saying? If someone thinks, "Oh, a great injustice has been done to me", and they are miserable (on a self-pity trip) and you go and say, "Oh, you poor thing, you are so miserable, it shouldn't have happened to you." That person thinks, "Oh yes, see, I am worse off." You will not help them wake up to the truth in any way. This is nothing, many people are suffering even more! Do you see that? I'm not telling you don't go, or tell them, "What you're suffering is nothing. Many people are suffering more." You can kindle anger in them! But have compassion for people who are suffering, and not friendliness.

People who are doing a good job, who are meritorious and have lots of merit, who are blessed, feel happy with them. Feel happy, become one with them. Feel as though you are doing that job with them, then the sense of competition disappears and jealousy subsides. Then finding fault with people who are doing good things will go away.

People have this tendency. If someone is good, very blessed or meritorious - doing a meritorious job, some good work - people try to find faults in them. Trying to find fault in people who are doing good jobs and telling them, "They should have done that better, they should have ... " At least they have done whatever they have done. You didn't even do that! And you say they should have done better, they should organize better, they should ...

Criticism comes mostly from people who do not work, have you noticed this? Those who don't do anything, criticize others. "Oh, that person didn't do well, this person ... " Don't find faults with people who are doing a good job. When won't you do this? When you feel happy about this thing happening. Someone is doing great service, feel happy about it. Don't say, "Oh, that person should do more service, should have done better, and he has this flaw in that organization, and that flaw in this organization." Well, this organization can have so many flaws. So what! But this organization is doing such a good job uplifting people. Why don't you put your attention there instead of on this? "Oh, the organization is strict, that person said this, this person said that." One can get caught up in fault finding trips. Don't find faults, feel happy for those people who are doing a good job. When will you do that? When you become one with them!

It's like, if you feel the right hand is doing a good job, the left hand will appreciate it. "Oh, my right hand could write this beautiful poem!" Although the left hand doesn't write, it should not stop the right hand from writing! So it feels it is part of the other hand. "Well, this hand can do something else. It can hold the table and the paper. This other hand can hold the pen, and it can write well." Like that, they feel part of you and that you are doing a good job. Feel happy about it. Mudita means happiness about people who are doing a wonderful job. Share the happiness of others. Feel happy with them.

Ignore people who are doing sinful jobs or acts - upeksha. Just ignore them in your mind. If somebody says something which is not true, brush it off. "Oh, it's not worth even thinking about or considering them." But we do the reverse. We don't think too much about people who are doing meritorious acts, but we keep thinking about people who do sinful things, and don't just ignore them. We chew on them in the mind. Newspapers report, big reports of people who murdered, or of this or that heinous crime or criminal acts. The whole story and their picture will appear in the papers. Of course, now people are awakening, waking up and writing something positive about nice stories or nice things that are happening to people, but it is comparatively very little.

Isn't it?

So, when you see people doing sinful things, educate and ignore them. Not just ignore but educate. You educate out of compassion and then ignore. Otherwise you take it into your mind and get started on it. If you keep thinking somebody is imperfect all the time, you become imperfect! You are no less than them. You are equally imperfect, even worse than the other person! You think that person is wrong and you are very right. Just look into it. You do even much more crime.

When you show somebody, "You made a mistake", always remember three fingers are pointing back towards you: one, two, three. You have three times more responsibility - you! But if you stop saying you and me, if you turn inward, it's all Him [Sri Sri indicates to the sky]. This whole lecture could just be in hand motions [Sri Sri shows hand motions.] That is yoga, uniting all this. A silent lecture.

Maitri karuna mudita upekshanam sukha dukha punya punya vishayanam bhavanataschitta prasadanam. Having these type of feelings. Because Patanjali knew the human mind very well, he knew all it's tricks - all the bumps it has. Patanjali knew the mind cannot have the same feeling towards everybody all the time. Feelings keep changing, and feelings can be developed. So he said to have these feelings: friendliness, compassion, joy, happiness, and "ignore" [Upeksha]. Be indifferent to sinful things. If you do this, your chitta [your mind] becomes pleasant. Chitta prasadanam, the mind becomes graceful, gracious. Then, in that gracious, graceful mind, one-pointedness becomes very much easier, very simple.

Practice one thing, devotion to one thing or one aspect. Okay, now when that becomes difficult, he says okay, I'll give you one more.

Prachchardana vidharanaabhyam va pranasya. Breaking the rhythms of the breath, the natural rhythms of the breath, and holding the breath, sustaining the breath in different rhythms.

If someone asks you where Patanjali has spoken about Kriya (Patanjali has not mentioned Sudarshan Kriya directly), there is a clue in this one sentence. You can have a trace of our practices to that one sutra because it is the same thing we are doing - the rhythms. We are not just breathing however the breath goes, we are consciously breathing in a definite, particular rhythm. That is prachchardana, splitting whatever rhythm the breath is coming through in. Splitting and dividing it, having or holding onto it in different rhythms, that is what

we are doing. Prachchardana vidharanaabhyam va praanasya. Modulating the prana and the breath in a special manner. By this your mind also becomes calm and one-pointed, one-focused.

Now another sutra, vishayavati va pravruttirutpanna manasaha sthithinibandhini.

Suppose this doesn't work - it does work, but if you feel that a little incompletion is still there - then vishayavati. This means the mind can be stilled through any one object of the senses. You are gazing. What is happening in gazing? You are looking at somebody and for a few moments, you gaze from all your heart. Then what happens? Your mind at that time is not running here and there, by gazing. Then you sit, eyes closed, the mind is completely settled or we do the kirtan [singing]. After singing [bhajans] - we sit in quiet meditation. The mind has come to that standstill. Isn't it? We do this and we do the grape process on the basic course. You have all done the grape process. What did we do? We take the food and are totally with the food.

Vishayavati va pravruttirutpanna manasaha sthithinibandhini. It's good that everybody participates totally in all the processes, because you don't know in which corner your mind is stuck. Maybe you find this process is so silly. "Why do I want to do this?" Never mind. Do it and see, afterwards something happened because your mind was so childish and stuck up in small little things. Through these small, little processes, it could be released. Pravruttirutpanna manas, in which some activities in your mind (through that very activity, that very sense) can be brought to a standstill.

The next sutra, Vishoka va jyotishmati. If you have observed a very unhappy and sad person, and you go and sit with them for a few moments, you also start feeling depressed and sad. How many of you have experienced this, that if somebody is unhappy and you simply you go and sit with them, you start feeling unhappy? If someone is very joyful, bubbling with joy and enthusiasm, and you go and sit with them, you start laughing and start feeling that way. This being happy or unhappy, is again training that we have given to our mind. If you've made a habit of being unhappy, you don't especially feel unhappy, but it has sort of become your second nature.

Keeping a long face and complaining, you feel at home. You see this with very old people, in all senior citizen homes. Because they've made a big, long habit out of complaining, they just go on complaining, and there is nothing to complain about. They keep a long face and remain sad even though you feel, "Why are they so unhappy, they could as well be very happy?" Haven't you experienced this? Don't you feel this? You wonder why this aged person (he or she) can't be happy. They have everything, they have done everything they needed to do, everything they wanted to do. They have everything they need and they still keep a long face! You wonder, "Why, what is the need?"

Many people are unhappy because they are unable to work. That is the body's nature! You know, when you are 80 years old and unhappy because you could not run as much or as long as you could when you were 30 years old, this is ignorance, foolishness! The other day an elderly, senior citizen, came to see me and I asked him, "How are you doing? Are you happy?" He said, "I used to run so many miles a day and I used to work so much. I used to work for 16 hours a day and now I am unhappy because I cannot work so much. Now, after four hours, I feel tired. After one kilometre, I feel tired. How can I gain back my strength so I can walk four miles a day?" I said, "What do you want to walking four miles a day for?" Inside one feels, "I need to be fit" but the body is not listening. Inside the mind says, "I should be working, before I used to work. How come I am not working? I am growing old." This idea that "I'm growing old" makes a person very sad and unhappy. And nobody can take such unhappiness out of them, because it's self-imposed unhappiness. And with this unhappy mind that person gets jittery, angry and tense. All other things (negativity) come to them, they get soaked in negativity and die like that. Do you see this happening?

Patanjali gives this idea, vishoka, which means to get rid of the unhappiness. The sadness is just your habit. Look into your mind and see, "Oh, this is sadness, it's simply unfounded, it's self-made." The moment you look at your mind, the self-made sadness will disappear. You become free of that sadness. It's just a concept.

Like another concept could be, "Oh, people don't respect me". This is baseless! "Nobody respects me. I'm not smart enough." All ideas about oneself that one imposes on oneself, makes one very unhappy. "Nobody cares for me." Who doesn't care? Anybody will care for you! Why you think nobody cares for you? "I am so stupid." Who said you are stupid? Stupidity is only a comparison. You are wise to somebody

stupider than you! There is a scale for stupidity. You get people who are even stupider than you. Look down and feel you are wise. Your comparison can make all the sadness and disturbances in your mind. Don't compare yourself with somebody, you can be happier. Vishoka. Make your mind free of sadness [the sadness that comes out of concepts]. Do you see?

Jyothishmati pragnya means to see your whole mind as light, as a flame. Your consciousness is a flame. Your mind is a flame. You forget this! Your entire body is functioning because of this presence of the mind as a flame in you. Otherwise, you'll be like an unlit candle. What is a flame? How does a flame work? A flame lives on oxygen, doesn't it? What does it do? A flame uses some matter from the substance earth, and it uses oxygen and lives. And what is life? Life is also the same! It uses oxygen and lives on some matter. Just like a flame lives from the wax and wick, and uses oxygen, so too, your life, the mind, uses the body and food in the body as wax, and the air as oxygen. And it exhibits activities in the body like the flame (consciousness) exhibits life.

Life and light are synonymous, they are very close. If you take this candle and put a bottle above it, the candle will be put out in a few minutes. The same thing happens if you are locked in a room without any windows. You'll only live for so many hours - eight hours. The candle may burn for eight minutes. So, if you are locked in the room, you'll be there for few hours, and then you will also die. Very similar, isn't it? If you do to your body whatever you do to the candle, the same reaction will come. So if you pour more wax into this, it will burn. So you put food into the body, and the body lives longer. If the wick becomes very charred and burned out, any amount of wax you add to it, it will still be put out. The wick has its own limitations. Similarly, the body. After certain years of burning, any amount of food you add won't sustain it, it doesn't hold on. The body functions just like a wick. Just like the oxygen, the flame comes up. This body is holding onto the Jyothishmati pragnya. Vishoka va jyotishmati. Get rid of unhappiness and be happy, and at the same time know that your mind is made up of light, it is not matter. Your mind is energy. You are energy. Jyothishmati.

And then the next sutra: Vitaragavishayam va chittam. Keep your mind engaged in the thoughts of the enlightened. Your mind is like water. I said your mind is like a flame, now I tell you, your mind is also like water. Whichever cup you put water in, the water assumes the shape of that cup. In the same way, whatever

thought you engage your mind in, your mind becomes like that, it develops all the qualities of wherever you put it.

So in the next sutra Patanjali says, Vitaragavishayam va chittam. Vita raga is one who has gone beyond the cravings (one who is liberated from cravings). If you think of such a person (him or her), your mind also gets those qualities. It starts feeling that peace, feeling that quietness, it starts assuming and developing those qualities within you. More simple! Vitaragavishayam va chittam. You get it?

Because the mind is like air, its energy is all-pervading. Air does not have a location, it does not just fix somewhere. The Vitaraga chitta is all-permeating. So that air, that cool breeze, that energy, enters into your system, because the mind is also like ether. Your consciousness is ether, it is all-pervading. Vitaragavishayam va chittam. But instead, if you do raga dresh, even there ... That's why it's said, don't see the Guru or enlightened person as a human being, as a person with likes and dislikes. Otherwise your mind ... "Oh, what will they like, what doesn't he like, what if this happens, that happens ... " You go over all these on a big trip into your own mind with likes and dislikes, cravings and aversions. Anger and all these things come. Instead, see that consciousness as pure consciousness - vitaragavishayam va chittam - as peace, as joy. These radiances start. Even if any thoughts come (likes and dislikes) again, don't struggle with them. "Oh, I shouldn't think like that, I shouldn't have this, I shouldn't do that." Just let go, relax. Vitaragavishayam va chittam. It's very simple, then you are immediately drawing that energy, assuming that form. You should see this, try it on your own - experiment. Think of somebody who is very nasty, and you will start feeling all those nasty emotions inside you. Have you experienced this? Think of somebody who is very jealous of you, and you will feel such uncomfortable sensations. Think of somebody who is doing all sorts (who is into drugs and alcohol) and is very miserable, and you will feel knots coming up in your body, in your system. Have you experienced this? Think of somebody whom you love very much, and see what nice feelings or sensations arise in you. Isn't it?

So, vitaragavishayam va chittam, putting your attention or mind on the enlightened. Your consciousness becomes more and more alive, more filled with light. That's why Jesus also said, "There is no other way, if you have to go to my Father, you have to go through me. There is no other way." What does that mean? We have to go through the Master because the Master is a solid example. You have to pass, go

through your mind. And what can help your mind is the doorway, the door. In those vibrations, those sensations. Those vibrations, sensations manifest in that body where the chitta [mind] is vita raga or blossoming fully (is fully blossomed) without any hindrances. Vitaragavishayam va chittam.

Then Patanjali says, Swapna nidra jnana alambanam va. This means knowledge of sleep and dreams. It is very interesting. You sleep all your life but have never met your sleep. This is the irony. It is like a person living all his life with millions in his hands, but does not know how to spend them and lives very poorly. It's like a person sitting at the dining table with a delicious, elaborate meal, but he does not know that it is a meal, or how to eat it, and he is starving to death. It is the same with our life. We sleep every day, but we don't know what sleep is. We dream every day and don't know what dreams are. We have not understood what dreams are.

What happens when you sleep? You let go of everything. That is what sleep is. If you hold onto any one thing, can you sleep? Your identity disappears. In sleep you are not male nor are you female. There is nothing called "male sleep" or "female sleep". There is nothing called "rich man's sleep" and "poor man's sleep". There is nothing called "intelligent person's sleep" and "stupid man's sleep". Sleep is sleep. What do you do in sleep? You let go of all identity of who you are. You let go all your likes. You are not holding onto whatever you like in sleep. Thank God, it's one time you don't hold onto any like! You cannot carry anybody into your sleep, can you? However dear somebody is, they cannot go into your sleep. In your sleep, you are devoid of all identity of who you are. Your cravings, aversions, likes and dislikes. Isn't it? You let them all go and what do you do? You simply rest. You don't actually do anything. And this is exactly like meditation - where you don't do anything. For God's sake in meditation - don't you do anything! For your own sake, don't do anything. Do nothing, and let go of all that, like you do in sleep. Knowledge of sleep that leads to samadhi.

And then, knowledge of dreams. Ignorant people make dreams a reality, and enlightened people see this reality as a dream. Utter ignorance is trying to interpret dreams and enlightenment is realizing this reality itself is a dream. Do you see the difference? If you go to any enlightened person and tell them your dream, they'll say, "Oh, forget about it. Wake up!" And if you go to somebody and they say, "Oh, dream interpretation - this means that and this ... ", they are

putting more ideas in your head. Trying to interpret dreams is such ignorance.

Knowledge of dreams. There are five types of dreams. One type is that which comes from all your cravings and desires. Unfulfilled desires come up in dreams as being fulfilled. Have you experienced this? You wanted to drink water but you didn't. You wanted to have ice cream, but you said not today. You wanted to have pizza but said not today. And then when you go to bed, in your dream you are munching, eating pizza and having a big scoop of ice cream, right? You wanted to go for a walk with somebody (your boyfriend or girlfriend) and you couldn't do it. In the dream you find yourself going on a walk, going on a boat and skiing in the mountains. All these things come. Your latent desires come up in dreams. This is one type of dream. Desires and fears that come up as dreams.

The second type of dream is stress release from the past. Past experiences come up. All that you have experienced in life comes up as a dream. The second type of dream.

The third type of dream is an intuitive dream, what might happen in the future. You get an intuition, an intuitive dream.

And the fourth type of dream is a mixture of all these. The fifth type of dream has nothing to do with you, it has to do with the place where you are sleeping. You sleep in a hotel in Italy, and in your dream you experience Italian sounds and those strange languages. How many of you have experienced this? So you hear those people's dialogues. It's in a completely different language and you have no idea what it is. But you still see all these things happening. This has to do with the place there, the space there. So these five types of dreams can occur. And the thing is you do not know which one is which. Usually it's the fourth type of dream which is a mixture of all five. So you cannot really distinguish and say, "This is my intuitive dream." It could be but it need not be. So, a wise person simply just brushes them all off. Anyway it is of no use. A dream is a dream. Even this waking reality is a dream. Now you are sitting here, tomorrow you will be somewhere else. Next week this will all be a dream! And what you will do next week is a dream right now.

Your mind is more on dreams than it is awake. You have only two states of consciousness: deep sleep or dreaming. Day-dream or night dream! The whole day sitting and dreaming, "Oh, what will happen to me? Next week I'll do that. Another week I'll do this." Building castles

in the air - what do you call it - castles in the sky. This day-dreaming goes on in the mind all the time. And once you know this is a dream, that you are day-dreaming, that very moment a gush of energy comes into you. Alertness comes in you. And that alertness wakes you up to the reality. You are awakened. That awakening is pragya, is samadhi.

That moment alone, you are fully alive. Only in that moment are you fully alive and awake to the truth of what is. For the rest of the time it's in sleep. So, even knowing wakes you up: "Oh, I have been in a great sleep. I have been in slumber, I have been dreaming." Patanjali has done a marvellous thing just quoting this one sutra. Knowledge of sleep awakens you. Because when a person is sleeping, he has no idea. He is not at all aware that he's asleep. The moment he knows he is sleeping - "Oh, this is sleep" - he is already awake. And a person who is day-dreaming does not know he is day-dreaming. And the moment he knows he is day-dreaming; he awakens to the reality that very moment, instantaneously. Even when you are doing Kriya and pranayama and nothing is happening - come on, are you not day-dreaming or sleeping? There can only be two possibilities, there is no third possibility. Are you day- dreaming? If you are day-dreaming, no amount of pranayama, no amount of anything can help you. Because the mind is galloping on a dream: "Oh, I will be the president of Germany," or something. You don't know how much of a headache it is being the president of Germany! But the mind goes on such a race. It's so difficult for politicians to get into any sadhana, because their minds are in a constant state of daydream. The pity is they do not know they are day- dreaming, and that their dream is worth nothing. It's really worth nothing!

Swapna nidra jnana alambanam va. Knowledge of dreams or sleep can also awaken you to the truth.

Then Patanjali says, Yathabhimata Dhyanadhwa. There are many different ways of meditation. You can be awakened in any one of those many meditation methods. Take one, whichever suits you, whichever you like. Not that you do one meditation today, then another and another. No. Take one meditation and stick with it, go with it, stay. Take one path and go into one path. Not that you are in with one Master today, and the next day you go to another Master, and the third day you read another book ... you get so confused and messed up. All ways are good, but it says take one way and go deep into it without criticizing others. Then you'll be building up in that one

thing. Yathabhimata Dhyanadhwa, in various ways or different methods of meditation. What is the sign of progress in this? Paramanu Parama mahatvanthayoranyah. Smaller than the smallest to bigger than the biggest, comes within his purview of operation. The nature loves and starts supporting you. From the atom (smaller than the smallest) to bigger than the biggest, comes within your purview of operation or life.

85

Steadiness and Samadhi

When the earth shakes for few seconds, you know how much disaster happens. You can exist on this planet because the earth is steady. Once in awhile the earth shakes, throwing you off your place. A few seconds are good enough to bring life to a standstill for many days. There is a natural calamity (flood or torrential rain comes, scorching heat appears) and it disturbs life. You can be at peace when nature is at peace. When nature is steady and doesn't behave in funny manner.

A couple of years ago, it appeared in the newspaper that there was snowfall in the middle of summer, in the Sahara Desert! Many of you would have read this. There was snowfall in the Sahara Desert! And in the same year, you also read in the papers (and many of you experienced) that it was so hot in England! The winter months and days became so hot! It was never heard of before, first time in the century. Once in awhile nature shakes, but your senses shake every day.

When the senses are shaky, they are unable to behold or hold the Lord within. It disturbs the peace within. Like when nature is steady, there is peace. When your senses are steady, there is peace. Meditation can happen when there is harmony in nature and in your senses. Your eyes are fixed. If your eyes are going all over the place, then the mind is not in a meditative state. It's the one thing for you to observe. When you sit for meditation, are your eyes steady? Is your breath steady? Is the prana haphazard? Is it smooth and normal or is it going haphazardly? When the senses are steady, the soul also becomes peaceful. Your Being, your spirit inside you becomes steady.

When do our senses get shaken? When the senses see joy (which is the nature of the Self) in outside objects. Senses are the bridge, the middle. One side is the object; another side is the Self. When senses think pleasure is coming to them from the objects or that more pleasure will come from the object, they shake. Even when the senses shake for a few minutes, they become tired. They become unable to enjoy, to perceive and experience the joy. Are you getting what I'm saying?

Recently I visited a blind school in India with 175 children who are blind. They sang bhajans for half an hour. We all went (I think we went in two buses) and the way they were singing the bhajans, with all their heart in it, was amazing. Our devotees said, "We have never

experienced a bhajan or singing session like that, it was so powerful!" Because there was no distraction for them, they didn't have to look here and there. It was as though they were singing from a very deep meditative state. Their whole Being was in that bhajan, in the song, because the mind, the eyes were already steady. There was no way for the eyes to move here and there.

These same eyes, which you think guide and bring you light, also shake you and bring you darkness. Because these eyes bring all sorts of temptation, imagining this is better, that is better, that must be more beautiful. That must be great. The mind would be far more peaceful without the eyes. The greatest distraction of the steadiness in the Self is the eyes. Evil does not tempt you, your eyes are good enough. Someone said, "God, don't give me any temptation, I'll find my own temptation." The eyes find their own temptation.

It is the same thing with the ears. Sometimes people switch on the radio, and go on moving the dial every five minutes. They keep tuning into different stations. I knew one such person who would switch on the radio (that's even before television came to India) and would not let anybody listen completely to one song or fully to one program. Every few seconds he'll turn to what would be there on the other station. He was curious. In a few minutes he would turn it again and turn it again ... The whole time will be spent in tuning. A little bit from here, a little bit from there. Maybe a better song would come on that station, so he'll change the band and go there. It used to feel very strange, but that is how the mind works.

The same could be true for some people with smell. You put this perfume on and then the other. And then use another perfume. Or taste. Or sense of touch.

When the senses get steady, the prana which is shaking inside you also becomes straight. You would have noticed when you're doing pranayam how shaky your prana is. The prana becomes steady. All those moments when you are feeling not so good, not so great (down, unhappy, or afraid, fear is there) observe the prana. It's nothing but the prana shaking. Samadhi is steadiness in prana. Now, don't worry because the prana is shaking. "Oh, the prana is shaking!" No, don't shake with the prana. Just know, observe and be with it. In a few moments, the prana becomes steady. That is centredness. And that brings you to a space where you're completely hollow and empty.

In this sutra Patanjali says that you become like a crystal. A crystal

exists, but it still makes the light pass totally through it. Though you exist with a body, in the state of samadhi, you are not there at all. In other words you can say, "Live as though you don't exist." This is samadhi.

When you are with the Self, you are just with the Self. Steady, blissful, joyful. When you are with the senses, you are so totally in the senses. And when you are with the objects of the senses, you become the objects of the senses. How? Like a crystal. You can keep any colour light behind a crystal, and without any obstruction, the crystal assumes that colour and light. In the same way, when you look at the mountain, you become one with the mountain. That is samadhi.

Patanjali describes two types of samadhi here: one samadhi is what you experience during activity [sabheej samadhi]. As a child, you would have done this. Have you noticed a child? Their eyes don't flitter around, here and there. They are very steady. A child stares at things. There is depth in the eyes of a child. It indicates the soul, how steady and stable the soul is. The eyes are the window for you to see the world and the world to see your soul and how steady it is.

If someone is too ambitious or greedy, their eyes will indicate this to you. Look at this person, he is so selfish, greedy and ambitious. If a person is kind and compassionate, the eyes will reflect that. Eyes mean the face, the senses, the behaviour, everything - not just the physical eyes. Your appearance, your walk, your behaviour, your words, your entire life reflects what you are deep inside. This is the job of the senses. It gives knowledge of the world to you, and it gives knowledge of you to the world. When we polish this, making it hollow and empty, it becomes like a crystal. The soul in you reflects the dignity, the Lord. The senses in you reflect that soul, that Lordship in you.

When you look at a flower, you are not just looking at the flower. You are touching the flower, you're feeling the flower and listening to the flower. All your senses become totally active. Like the crystal which reflects the purusha inside you - the Being in you - the senses and the object of the senses reflect one Divinity. This is sabheej samadhi.

Are you getting what I'm saying? When you look at a mountain, the mountain reminds you of the Self, of consciousness. You look at a flower and the flower reminds you of consciousness. You look at the sun, moon, water ... Just stare at the water, ocean, waves, and that gives you the idea of the un-manifest, the formless energy, the Self, by which all this has come up. At that very moment, samadhi is

happening to you. You are in samadhi. You are looking at a sunset and you are in samadhi, because the mind is steady, the senses are steady. Steadiness is dignity. Steadiness is strength. And steadiness is dispassion.

You can experiment with this. For a few moments, keep your body and eyes steady, and you will see the mind almost immediately becomes steady, stands still. The mind will come to a stand still. And the breath will come to a stand still. This is when time stops, death stops, immortality begins. Before time swallows you, before this earth gulps you; wake up and you swallow time. That is samadhi. Got it?

Samadhi is the state where you feel you can stay like that for a million years. Samadhi is a state where the mind freezes (like the vegetables and things you put in the fridge to freeze that stay fresh forever). Samadhi is the refrigeration of your life, the secret of youthfulness, the secret of bubbling enthusiasm, the secret of the renewal of life! Samadhi - steadiness.

But we all have a wrong understanding and concept of samadhi, we think samadhi is just going underground and not breathing. People become very skinny and have ashes all over their body ... Very funny ideas about samadhi!

Every experience of your senses - what you see becomes very bright, colourful and complete. Keenness of observation. What usually happens? When we are happy, we feel expanded. Have you observed how you feel when you're happy? When you're happy, what happens? You feel you are bloating, that something in you is expanding. You don't feel the body, but you feel an expansion. And what happens when you feel sad, uptight and sorrowful? Contraction. Tightness. Reduction. Isn't it?

Also, when we feel expanded (our awareness is expanding) we tend to fall asleep. And when we want to have a keenness of awareness, we seem to be more uptight and are not relaxed. To have a thread go through a needle, takes really good alertness. Right? A half-sleepy person (somebody who is drowsy) or a drunkard cannot do it. If they have to string very small, tiny pearls - they cannot do it. Do you see what I'm saying? To do something minute, needs keenness of awareness. There are many people doing such skillful jobs: knitting and what-not, making jewellery out of tiny little pearls. There is a lot of sharpness, of awareness. They can carve on one grain of rice, and do small little work on one grain of rice. At the same time, when the awareness is

expanded, there is no keenness of awareness. Where there is keenness of awareness, there is no relaxation, there is no expansion of awareness. The combination of both these, where you are totally relaxed, happy, and expanded, and at the same time have that sharpness of awareness, sharpness of intelligence, that is sabheej samadhi.

Your senses become so clear, they can perceive better, see better, think better, hear better. Ninety-five percent of the world's population doesn't hear properly. You tell people something and then ask them to repeat it. You can bet they won't repeat the same thing! And if you talk to them for fifteen minutes and ask them to say whatever you said in those fifteen minutes, they can hardly repeat what you said for fifteen seconds or one minute at the most. Fourteen seconds! Whatever you spoke has simply escaped in the wind, in the space. People have not heard it. Many people who do the basic course, after four or five times, say, "Oh, this was not told in the first place." Many teachers would have experienced this. "I don't remember having done this before."

It is the same thing with seeing. People don't see. You can have many instances and do many experiments to prove the fact that people don't see things as they are. We are insensitive to people. This is another thing. Because we don't see, we don't hear properly and are totally insensitive to people's feelings. Samadhi is sensitivity to others' feelings, too. When you become sensitive and this instrument here becomes sensitive, then the world and nature, becomes sensitive to you. Nature listens to you. How can this happen? What is the condition? Kshenavrutter. When all five activities [vruttis] that we have dealt with before, are subdued. Subdue these activities.

Kshenavrutterbhijatasyeva manergrahetrugrahana grahyeshutatsthatadanjanata samapathihi. The consciousness which grabs or holds, the object it holds, and the senses through which it holds, when all three are in harmony that is samadhi. Do you get this point?

One who is seeing, the mind, the Self which is seeing is in harmony. The senses are in harmony. The eyes are the instrument through which you hold seeing. Ears are the instrument through which you hold sound. So your ear, sound, and from where it is coming - whoever is speaking - all three are connected. They all become keen and crystal clear. This can happen when your mind, is not going on its own trip of regret, anger, anticipation and all that. The five vruttis: proof, wrong knowledge, fantasy, sleep, and memory.

When you look at a mountain, you don't just look at the mountain. "Oh, this is a beautiful mountain!" Immediately the mind says, "Oh, this is beautiful!" And then it doesn't even stop there. "This is beautiful, oh, it is like Canada", or "It is like the Himalayas." Immediately, something is added to it. You are not seeing things as they are, but you are seeing through memory, through comparison. That is no samadhi.

There is an old story from India. It is said a king heard about a garden that a person had made with sunflowers. A beautiful sunflower garden in the middle of the desert (Rajasthan is all desert). Amidst the desert, a man had cultivated, toiled and made a beautiful sunflower field or garden. The king heard about it and everybody said, "It's very beautiful. You should go and see it." So he decided to go there. When he went, he saw only one flower. The man who was cultivating it had removed all the other flowers but that one. The king said, "What! I heard a lot about your garden." He said, "Here is the flower for you to see. When there were so many, you would compare and just to make it easier for you to look at a flower, I removed everything else." Your calculating mind will start, "Which is bigger? This is bigger, that is bigger, that is nice, this is blossoming and that is not blossoming." Now he has no choice! There is only one flower to look at.

Graheetru grahana grahyeshu. Grahetr, that which holds. What holds? The mind, the soul, holds the sight, the sound, the taste and the memory. That and through which it holds the senses and the object, all three are in harmony. That is samapattihi.

Tadastha tadanjaata . Though you are engaged in the activities of the senses, there is no feverishness. There is a steadiness. Do you see what I'm saying? You are eating food. You taste every bit of it and it moves gracefully through your throat. Otherwise, you stuff the food inside. It's like a stampede. The more anxious you are, the more nervous, the shakier you are, the faster you stuff the food. Have you noticed this? That is no samadhi. Eat food thoroughly. Sixty percent of the food gets digested by the saliva in the mouth itself (forty to sixty percent). Steadiness, in spite of being in any one of the senses or sensory activities.

And then he goes to explain a few more things, very subtle modifications of the senses. Okay, you are experiencing. In this also the mind comes up with knowledge about it. "Oh, this is an apple I am eating. This is a rose I am seeing. This is so-and-so I am with." There is a subtle discussion or awareness about the knowledge, the past, and

the future. That he calls savitarka. There is a little debate. A few thoughts are going on there, but still those thoughts have not disturbed the harmony. There are certain thoughts that don't disturb the harmony. Certain thoughts just throw you off balance. There are certain thoughts which help promote you to come to the steady, calm state of awareness. He says this is savitarka samadhi, where there are also some thoughts, discussions or an argument. It's not an argument actually, more like a discussion ...

Smrutiparishuddhau swaroopashoonyevarthamatranirbhasa nirvitarka. And there is another type of samadhi wherein you are not aware of anything, you just know you are. That's it. This is an eyesclosed meditation. When your eyes are closed, you simply know you are, but you don't know where you are, what you are, who you are. As though you are not there at all, just there is a pause, a feeling that you are nothing more than the feeling, "I am". This he calls nirvichara samadhi.

Finer aspects of this are there, other types of samadhi, he says. With all this: nirvichara vaisharadye'adhyatma prasadah. More and more experience of the thoughtless state of mind brings adhyatma prasada, grace of the Divine in life. Grace of the soul gets manifested. Adhyatma prasada. Spiritual awakening, spiritual blossoming happens, with being more and more hollow and empty. More hollow, more empty, spiritually awake. Nirvichara vaisharadye, mastery over hollow and emptiness. Nirvichara. That's hollow and empty, really. Adhyatma prasada, grace of the Being, the innermost comes forth and blossoms. Ritambharatatra pragya.

This awareness is with special knowledge. Ritambhara is intuitive knowledge, flawless knowledge. Beyond time, steady, and benevolent. Ritambhara - full of truth. Truth state of consciousness, that's what Ritambharatatra pragya is.

And it is different from the shruta anumana pragyabhyam anya vishaya vishesha arthatvat. This is different from the one you have heard or you have guessed. The knowledge which comes from the depth of the Being is different from the one you read about, heard about, or which you guess through the intellect and, shruta anumana pragyaybhyam anya vishaya vishesha arthatvat. It's different and very special. Taj jah samskaro'nya samskara pratibandhi. The impression of that state of consciousness can wipe out all other impressions in the mind which are useless and not necessary for life. To some degree, this keeps happening to you all (maybe five, ten, fifteen, twenty, fifty

or eighty per cent) from the very first sitting of meditation when you started. Today it is something of the past. And the deeper you go, the more hollow and empty, you'll feel a new person, a different person. Many people come up with this experience, "Oh, I feel totally different, changed. I'm not the old person." What has happened? It has removed, erased the other samskaras [other impressions] from the mind. It has made you new. It renews you again and again.

Often you've experienced when remembering the past that you are not the same person, or that was not you. As though you are not connected at all to those events and the person who did those jobs. How many of you feel this way? Whatever you did fifteen or twenty years ago, turn back now and see. You will wonder, "Am I that same person? I didn't do it. Somebody else did it." Why? This samskara of pure consciousness, erased those things from your past and made you a new person every time, every day. This is pure knowledge. If someone holds you to something you did in the past, just laugh at them, because you are not the same person now. See it as though somebody else did it.

Have you heard that story from Buddha's life? I have told it before! Buddha was in an assembly, a gentleman came, he was furious. He thought Buddha was doing something wrong. He was pulling all the people away, and everybody was meditating now. The people were very calm and quiet, and he was a restless businessman. He found his children going to sit with Buddha and meditating for two hours every day. And he thought that if his children were engaged in business, they could make more money and be better off. What will they get, going and spending two hours with somebody, sitting with their eyes closed? So the father of that family was very upset, and he said, "I am going to teach this man a lesson!"

So he came and looked at Buddha with furiousness. He walked straight to Buddha, because he was a very well-known businessman of that locality. As soon as he came near Buddha, all his other thoughts disappeared, but his anger was still there. He was shaking, so he could not speak. No words would come out of his mouth, but he spat on Buddha's face. Buddha simply smiled. All the other disciples around, were gripped with anger. They were all so angry, but they couldn't react because Buddha was there. So everybody was holding their lips and fists tight. How dare he do this? But they couldn't say anything. And this man could not stay longer. He spat and a few moments later, he thought, "If I stay longer, I will burst out." So he ran and went away. When Buddha did not react or say anything, and just smiled, this man could not sleep the whole night. It was the first time in his

life he met somebody who would just smile when he spat in his face. That man could not sleep. His whole body underwent such a transformation. He was shivering, shaking - I don't know - he had an earthquake. The whole world was turned upside down.

The next day he came and fell at Buddha's feet and said, "Please pardon me, I don't know what I did." Buddha said, "I cannot excuse you." Now the disciples were shocked! Buddha was so compassionate, he always excused everybody. Now he said he cannot excuse him? Not possible! Buddha had to explain, because everybody was in a state of shock! He said, "Well, why? You didn't do anything so how can I excuse you? What did you do? What wrong you have done?" He said, "Yesterday, I spat in your face. I am the same person." Buddha said, "That person is not there now. If I ever meet that person on whom you spat, I will tell him to excuse you. So to me right now, to this person who is here, you are wonderful. You have never done anything wrong."

That is compassion. Compassion is not saying, "Make somebody a culprit!" and then saying, "Okay, I forgive you." That's no compassion. Your forgiveness should be such that the person who is being forgiven does not even know that you are forgiving them. They shouldn't even feel guilty for a mistake. That is the right type of forgiveness. If you make someone feel guilty about their mistake, then you have not forgiven them. That guilt itself is a punishment. It's good enough.

Guilt is good enough to eat you, swallow you. Knowledge takes you away from guilt, puts you on a pedestal where you don't see the world at all. Not that you don't see the world, but the world in the sense you don't see the complicated chit-chat of the small mind. It all appears insignificant.

He says, Tasya api nirodhe sarva nirodhan narbijah samadhih. So another kind of samadhi where even that (the feeling of some impressions) is not there and there is no end to this. There are many different types or states of awareness, types of samadhi being described.

The path is long and every step is complete in itself. It's not that you are aiming at a goal after some time. The goal is in every moment. Yet the path is long. Do you get it? The path is very long, yet the goal is at every moment. The goal is where you are at and that patience. It's not hurrying, saying, "Okay, I want samadhi today!" Yes, there should be enthusiasm but at the same time with enthusiasm, patience. Do you

see? This is a very interesting thing. Those who are very enthusiastic, have no patience. People who have patience are very lethargic. Okay, maybe we will do it next lifetime. Others are restless. I want to have right now! You can see this at every step.

See everyone everywhere, either they are of this extreme or that extreme. It's like you can have sleep but you cannot have a quick sleep. Hurried sleep is not possible. You cannot say, "I'm in a hurry, I should quickly sleep and go!" Okay, try to sleep quickly. Ten minutes of short rest. Quick! Hurry! Not possible. Do you see that? In the same way, you cannot remember, hurriedly. Okay, let me remember, quick, quick, quick! The hurry in remembering, delays the remembering. When you want to remember something, the more hurried or restless you are to remember it, the longer it takes to remember. Doesn't it? It is the same with sleep, the same with meditation. You cannot say, "I'm going to have a quick meditation and then I'm done. I have no time. I have to have a quick meditation." Not possible.

So this path is a middle path, a golden path, where you are enthusiastic and in a hurry, yet at the same time you are patient. You are patient and at the same time you are not lethargic or postponing things.

Often when people have to do something good, for their personal development, they say, "Oh, if God willing I will do it. If God willing it will come to me." They leave it to God when it comes to their practices of development. But if they have to do something in the world, they don't say: "If Gods willing I will become ... I will build a house. I will have a relationship." You don't do that. You look for a relationship, for a house, for a job, for money, you put your hundred percent into that. But if you have to do something for your growth, you say, "If God willing it will happen." Many people say that (at least in India)! I think it's the same everywhere, isn't it? If God wills, then I will do it. It should be the other way around. So, patience, dynamism, and enthusiasm are the golden rules.

101

Kriya Yoga

When someone is anxious, they are very aware of time, of every passing moment. Isn't it? Now. Now. Now. But their whole focus is on the event, on a happening, rather than just on the time. Suppose someone is waiting for a train, bus or boat to come. And they go on

saying, "Is the boat coming? Is the train coming?" The whole focus is on that object, rather than just on the time. If just a little shift is done, a tilt ... Rather than waiting for the doctor, for the boat, or for something else, just wait for the moment. This moment. Now. Now. Now. Do you get what I'm saying? That is uniting with time. That is yoga. The mind is in the moment waiting for nothing, but it is waiting. Are you getting this? It's a different quality. It adds a different quality to the consciousness. This aspect sharpens the intellect and softens the mind, the heart. This is called the yoga of action.

This is the next sutra in the second chapter of Patanjali. Sadhana Pada is practices on the path. Tapah svadhyaya eshwara pranidhanani kriya yogah. Tapah svadhyaya eshwara pranidhanani. This is kriya yoga, yoga of action. Action is part and parcel of this creation. There is activity in everything in creation. Right from an atom to the sun, moon and stars, there is activity. The entire creation is activity. There is nothing stable or immobile in this creation, everything is busy, active. The Brahman, the Infinity, is filled with infinite activity.

There is absolutely no silence at all! Even in sleep, there is activity. You think you are sleeping (there appears to be no activity or silence in sleep), but tremendous activity goes on. Your body grows more in sleep than awake. Did you know that? That's why a growing child sleeps longer. A youth sleeps more than an aged person, because there's a lot of metabolic activity going on. The body is being built up. In a child, the whole, every cell is multiplying. In sleep, cells multiply more. If you deprive somebody of sleep, you will see their growth gets stunted. A lot of activity happens in sleep. Even in silence, there is activity. At the same time, in every activity, there is a corner that is very silent.

Somewhere Krishna asks Arjuna, "Arjuna, do you know who is really intelligent and clever?" Arjuna said no. "One who sees silence in activity and activity in silence, is the intelligent person." How do you see silence in activity or activity in silence? It needs sharpness of awareness, alertness, and keenness. And the keenness can come when there is skill in your activity. And the skill in activity is yoga.

What is kriya yoga [yoga of action]? It comprises three parts. Tapah is endurance, acceptance. Say you are coming in on a long distance flight, you sit and your legs get numb. You feel tired, but you keep sitting. You feel heavy but still you keep sitting. You don't say, "No, I

can't sit now, I'm going to get off the plane." No way! If the plane is delayed, if it's held up in the air, you have to

Kriya Yoga 103

be there. There is no choice for you. If you had had a choice, you wouldn't sit like that (for eight hours in one place at home). No way! You wouldn't sit for eight hours. But on the plane, you sit acceptingly, willingly, without grumbling. This is tapah, willingly experiencing the opposite values without grumbling. Do you get what I'm saying?

What could be a better example? Okay, you are driving somewhere and are feeling sleepy (its sleep time). But you say, never mind, it doesn't matter. "I will drive another two, three hours and reach my home." You don't say, "Oh, it's already ten o'clock, it's my sleep time. I'm going to sleep now." You don't park the car somewhere and go to sleep, unless it is absolutely unbearable, right? In the same way, if you are hungry and say, "No, I am fasting. I want to have a cleansing diet, or I want to cleanse my body. Today I am going to fast only on juice or water." You decide on your own to do an action which is not usual. That is tapah. Are you getting what I'm saying? Do you know its benefit? The result of this action is very good, it will be very beneficial, I want to do it. Just like doing exercise. People go to gymnasiums, to do weight lifting. It's not a joke, doing it is not giving them any big pleasure. Lifting weights is not a pleasurable job, or bicycling. But one does it. You know why? They know that it is good for your system and this endurance is called tapah, tapas.

Svadhyaya , being alert, self-study, observing the breath, observing the emotions, however emotions or thoughts come. All that happens inside you, observing and studying yourself. Svadhyaya. Eshwara pranidhana devotion to the Divine, love to the Divine.

These three things together make kriya yoga. What do they do to you? Klesha tanu karana. They reduce suffering and misery in life and give rise to samadhi [equanimity]. Samadhi bhavana arthah. Do you get what I'm saying?

There are certain people who walk in very hot weather without wearing shoes. Sometimes it looks like self-torture and you wonder why this person is torturing himself? But if you actually talk to them, they are so used to it. Their body is much stronger and can bear that heat, that weather. But for someone else it is so unbearable. So, tapah makes you strong somewhere.

Say, you have come from California to Switzerland. You'll need one

sweater over the other and then a big coat. You have to put on a lot of things. But if you come from Northwest Province, Quebec or above that, then this cold is nothing. You even walk around without a sweater, because your body is used to greater, harsher weather. Do you see what I'm saying? Willingly going through that which is not very easy is tapas and this strengthens you. Some people can stretch it to that extent. You know? They can become masochistic and torture themselves.

And here also are three types of tapas: for the body, words (speech) and mind. 105

Three Types of Tapas

Fire sustains life. There are five type of fire. One is bhutaagni, the fire which heats your home and keeps the warmth in yourself. It sustains life, the physical fire. This is very obvious. Isn't it? It may not be so obvious in tropical countries where they don't give much value to fire, but you know how important it is in cold countries. Without the physical fire, life extinguishes, and this physical fire is to some extent, present in the body.

And then there is a second type of fire called karmaagni, the fire of desire. When the fire of desire comes, it gulps you. The fire of desire, lust or passion, whatever you call it - karmaagni. It is because of this fire of passion that life continues on this planet. The fire of passion is present in all species of creation.

The third type of fire is called jatharaagni, the fire of hunger or digestion. This is one of the important principles in Ayurveda - jatharaagni. If the fire of digestion is less or more, it affects your health and your balance. The third type of fire. Do you know why you get fever? We simply treat the symptoms and do not understand the principle. When a foreign body enters your body, your whole body turns up the heat and fever comes. In fever, your body is developing a defence mechanism. It is burning out all the foreign particles or enemies that have entered your body. As soon as this foreign bacteria or virus goes out of the body, your fever comes down. Fever purifies the system. The purpose of fever is to purify your body, to get rid of the virus or foreign particle, whichever it is. Jatharaagni, fire of digestion.

Bhardabagni , the fire of criticism. What happens when people

criticize you? The fire awakens in your system. What happens when you stand in front of a big crowd? Something happens. You feel hot. You feel shivery. The fear of criticism, fear of the opinions of people. This is a fire.

And then, there is the fire of knowledge or love, premaagni or gyanaagni.

When life moves through all these fires, it comes out as gold. Unfortunately, we have not understood this principle. We do not even allow the fire to come up. The moment fever comes we take paracetymol to put the fever and the symptoms down. Our immune system goes down. It's not that you shouldn't take medicines, take it the natural way. Attend to the root cause of the problem (eliminate the bacteria), rather than just eliminating the symptom or the fire in the system. Naturopathy and Ayurveda deal on this principle, keeping the bhutaagni alive.

Your body develops its own air conditioning. If you put the air conditioner on all the time, then we are destroying that selfmodulating system of the body. Especially in hot and tropical countries, we keep the air conditioner on all the time. Day and night. No prana or freshness comes in the environment. Have you noticed this? Our body brings out sweat and cools. It's like when the breeze comes, the body becomes cool. It has its own air conditioning system. But we need to get used to this from a young age. Unfortunately, we are used to air conditioning from childhood and to suddenly make a shift becomes a little difficult. Nevertheless, you can look into this aspect. I have nothing against using air conditioners, but make sure that fresh prana comes. Your body temperature agreeing with the environment will make a difference. Then you gain the ability to walk in a cold place without having to wear too much, or to be in a hot place without feeling suffocated.

Then comes kaamaagni, the fire of passion. We do not even allow the fire of passion to come up and rise up in us. The moment a desire comes, we fulfil it immediately. Then it doesn't stay in you and burn you up. People who are very promiscuous, have zero karmaagni because they do not even allow the fire to come up, burn and bake them a little bit. The moment desire for sex comes, they finish it. Then the karmaagni does not get awakened in them.

Other than eating, sex is one of the oldest samskaras. In all lifetimes, you have done two things for sure: eating and sex. As a cow, monkey, donkey, horse, ox, whatever it was, these two acts have been there,

passing through all these bodies. When this passion arises, observe it. It is in every cell of your body. It engulfs you totally, so fully, it burns and moves on. It shifts. One hundred percent totality of alertness or awareness gets developed through karmaagni. If you do not allow that to come up, and when a little desire comes, you immediately cool it down, then the power [shakti] in you, the potentiality in you goes down and becomes dormant. You become more inert. Less sensitivity comes and more inertia develops. There is no vigor, valor, joy or enthusiasm in any activity one does. That's why those who are very promiscuous do not have that enthusiasm. They do not have the force, will or strength to do any action. Have you noticed this? Yes or no? Karmaagni.

The same thing with hunger, jatharaagni. You don't even allow hunger to come into you. Even before you feel hungry, you keep stuffing things into you. Stuffing and stuffing the food ... More toxins and more of a toxic effect on the body. Many people who get diseases are dying not out of hunger, but out of over-eating because we have not allowed that fire of hunger to come up. We have never kindled that.

This is the principle of fasting. When you fast, every cell of your body becomes alive. Fasting is very good therapy. It can cleanse your system. The jatharaagni can cleanse you of all toxins. When your head is clogged with worry, tension, unpleasant thoughts and nightmares; fasting would be a very great help. There is great deal of research on fasting. Just a water or juice fast. Allow this fire to come up in you, jatharaagni. It can purify your blood. It can remove the toxins from the body. It can make your feelings better. In Christianity, Jainism, Islam and almost all religions of the world, fasting and prayer are linked. Fasting touches the deepest samskara or impression in you from ages, to eat and eat ...

Again, there are some people who simply go on fasting without knowing. Too much fire also can burn you down. It should be done with an understanding. There are people who go to extremes. People either overeat or fast too much. That is not good either! Fasting can cleanse your system and bring balance but again with moderation, with guidance. And then bhardabagni or the fear of social criticism. Man is a social animal. Since humans live in society, they have to follow certain rules. They cannot just go ahead as they wish. They cannot say, "I am free, I can do whatever I want to." You cannot do whatever you want to. The moment you get into the street, you have to drive on the right side, you have to walk where you should walk, you have to stop where you

should stop. You have to follow certain codes and conduct. When you have to follow certain codes and conduct in the world, naturally the fear of criticism, of getting a ticket, of being punished - all come up in you. Abiding by certain laws bring up certain concerns for keeping those laws.

Now here again, if you are so concerned about criticism of what people will think or say about you, you are missing the boat. The fire of criticism keeps the morals in you. If it goes out of control, out of limits, the same fire of criticism can shut down your freedom. Your sense of openness, your sense of centredness and freedom. Do you get what I am saying? If the fire of criticism is too much, then you are tense and worried over nothing. Isn't it? So what! Pass through the fear of criticism, it doesn't matter what people say. So what! Their opinions change and you know in your consciousness, you are not doing harm to anybody. You move on to the fire of love.

Love creates such a fire in you. The fire of love can really take you up from the fear of criticism. You don't mind what people say. The fire of love is so strong, it takes you totally. The fire of knowledge or the fire of love, is the same, it's synonymous. Either you call it the fire of knowledge or the fire of love. The fire of love begins with the longing, an intense longing. It's just not known ever before. It feels so new, so it can feel so uncomfortable. Only in human life, in human birth can this fire be experienced. The fire of love or fire of knowledge creates unpleasantness or a sense of longing in the beginning, but it moves on to the blossoming of bliss, the blossoming of fullness.

These are the five fires in life, panchaagni. Tapah actually means being fried or baked. You would have read about the khumba mela in magazines; somebody standing on one leg with ashes all over the body or having a pot of fire on their head and putting fire all around. This is such a misinterpretation of panchagni. One who has gone through the five fires has been purified, has crossed to the other side. This is what they said. But the scriptures have been wrongly understood. People thought they should put five fires around, because one who has passed through five fires ... So, they put fire all around and above the head. Fire underneath, fire walking ... People do all these things to torture their body. This is called rakshasii tapas.

In tapas there are also three types: sattvik, rajasic, and tamasic. Tamasic is the demonic tapas wherein one tortures oneself. One cannot torture others but you can torture yourself. Nobody will ask why you are torturing yourself. Certain people punish themselves. This is tamasic. Putting nails all over the body and walking on fire.

And then there are other types of people who do practices with the desire of achieving something - "I have to achieve something" - which has mixed effect. There is always some motive behind it. Even though they are doing service, there is a motive behind the service. "I should get something." This is rajasic tapas, the tapas one does to show off. One fasts and tells everybody, the whole world, "Oh, I am fasting for so many days. I am meditating. I am doing this. I am being very good, enlightened. I can sing better, I'll sing, I'll dance, I'll do this, I'll do my great service ... " So tapas done with show and 'I-ness' is rajasic tapas. "I. I. I am doing."

Sattvik tapas is that which you do not even feel you are doing. You are just part of the phenomenon. The world today is a phenomenon. The world 1995 is a phenomenon, and you are just part of that phenomenon. Where do you exist? There are so many tiny waves in the lake. But if each wave thinks, "I exist as a wave", it is being foolish. One wind blows and so many waves arise, all subsiding a little later. Time is like this in the ocean of consciousness, a wave. There was a current of time and so many waves had arisen. One wave calls itself Jyothi, another Michelle, another David, and Dave, and Lydia. All these different names have been given to these limited waves. And, in a few days, a few years, these waves will all subside and new waves arise. Knowing this, with this awareness, one goes through this fire of life. That is sattvik tapas.

Even in this there are three other sections: the bodily tapas, the tapas of speech, and tapas of the mind. What are they?

What is bodily tapas? Keeping physical hygiene, keeping lethargy out, having a say over all five senses. You don't want to watch television, so don't watch it. You don't want to eat, just don't eat. Keeping personal hygiene and continence. Remaining in Self and having control over the senses and the body is called physical tapas.

And then, tapas of speech, speaking words which don't excite people in a wrong sense. Speaking the truth, speaking the pleasant truth. Anudhvegakaram vaakyam satyam priyam vitam chyatam.

Notice what you tell people when you sit with them. What do you talk about to them? Do you excite their mind? Do they go away from you feeling relief and peace, or do they go away with anger, jealousy, greed, frustration, or depression? Often, when you keep your lips tight, you are a better person. You are more charming. You are a more wanted person, more palatable. The moment you open your mouth, you don't know what will come out. You have no control over what

you say. Words simply come shooting out of your mouth, and you don't even look into what their effects are. How words can be like a dagger on somebody else's mind. Your words can become a flower or they can become a knife.

What is vaamaya tapah? Anudhvegakaram vaakyam, words that don't create ruffles in the calm, quiet minds of people. If you intentionally want to create, that's a different story. But you often speak unintentionally from your side, creating disturbance in others' minds. This is vaamaya tapas. Anudhvegakaram vaakyam satyam. Truth. There is a way to tell the truth. When you ask those who speak very harshly, they'll say, "I am speaking the truth, why go around it?" Patanjali says, "There's no need to go around it, it's truth all right, but it can be a pleasant expression of truth." Do you see what I'm saying?

An example in Sanskrit is often given. If you meet someone who is blind, you can say, "Oh blind man, come here." This is one way you can address a blind person, it's not untruth. You are calling a blind man a blind man. But saying this to someone can hurt them. Instead, he says, "Oh, pragyaachakshu ... " which means his eye is his consciousness. In Sanskrit this is often used as an example of how to speak sweetly. Say, "Come, man of consciousness" or, "Come, blind man." It is said the blind man sees through his third eye or consciousness, intuitive-eyed one. This is vaamaya tapas.

Vaamaya tapas is important. Why? Because as and when you grow on this path of yoga, your words become more and more powerful. And if you call someone a fool, then even if they are not a fool, they will become a fool! There are all possibilities! You call someone stupid, and even if they are not stupid, there is a 99% possibility they'll become stupid! So your words have the power to bless and your words have the power to curse. Vaamaya tapas purifies you because otherwise these things rebound back to you (if you speak harshly). I don't mean that you should always be wishy-washy, speaking only goodie-goodie and sweetie-sweetie. That is also self-deception. You don't have to be so wiggly. "Oh, everything is nice-nice." Some people make a big mood out of it. They say that everything is nice-nice but inside they are so frustrated. In their minds they are blaming, only smiling on the outside. You don't have to be a split person like that, but at the same time you don't need to be harsh in the expression of truth. This is vaamaya tapas.

And then, manomayatapas or tapas of the mind. Manaprasadasaumyatvam maunamatma vinigraha. Four things are said. Manaprasada means pleasantness in the mind. Maintaining

pleasantness in the mind is a big tapas. You feel pleasant, but very soon you drop all that pleasantness of the mind; maintaining the pleasantness and contentment in the mind. Manaprasada.

Saumyatvam . Saumya means calm and composed. Calm, cool and composed. Pleasantness, you can feel pleasant but excited. That is it no? Some people feel very pleasant, but they need not feel calm. The pleasantness can make them feel and act crazily and excited, but along with that, composed. Saumyatvam. Happy people create trouble for others, because they are not aware. They say things in their excitement and happiness. They are not at all aware what they are saying or doing, and how it can affect others. But if a person is composed and calm, he is more aware. Awareness comes in a composed mind. You are sensitive to the feelings of others and how it affects others, you are sensitive to your surroundings. So a pleasant and composed mind [manaprasadasaumya]. Maunam, silent mind not the chattering mind. Silence is tapas of the mind. Maunam, again, here is the scattered mind. Bringing it all together, and tying the loose ends of the mind together, is silence, maunam. Then atma vinegraha, remaining in the Self. Back to the Self. This is tapas of the mind. The mind goes out again and again. Bring it back effortlessly and easily to remind the Self, and see the Self in everybody. That is also the meaning. That is also "my Self".

Normally we think our mind is in the body, but it is not so. The body is inside the mind. We have discussed this already haven't we? Ten times bigger than your physical body is your body of prana, your energy. Bio-energy is ten times bigger than the physical body. Ten times bigger than the pranic body is your mind body, your thought body. Ten times bigger than that is your intuitive body and ten times bigger than that is the blissful body. Ten times, infinite times and boundless is our blissful body. That's why when you feel blissful and happy, you don't feel the boundary. You don't feel your limit. You feel expanded.

And when you feel sad or unhappy, you feel crushed, because then your prana is getting smaller than your real body. That's exactly the mechanism of unhappiness. It's like you are trying to put your body through a ventilator. Your body cannot fit. Then you feel suffocated. That's why you feel so unhappy. When you try to crush your prana which is so big, into something small, you feel unhappy and unpleasant. When you walk through the door, your body can go through it. Whenever you are unhappy in life, know that you have put your love into a small channel. Your love is so great and big, it needs a royal door to walk through. But you have stuck that big elephant's

body of your love into a small chimney or ventilator. It can neither go out nor come in. This is entanglement. That's why love seems to bring you problems. You do not understand its magnitude. This is tapas. Manomayatapas atma vinigraha. Coming back to the Self and gripping the centredness in you.

117

Veils of Misery

We were talking about tapas. What does tapas do, why should we undergo tapas? It purifies and strengthens our system. Strength and purity are the purpose of tapas. Get it?

But tapas can bring big ego in a person. Unfortunately, people think doing great tapas means they become very great. If someone has to fast for long periods of time, that means he must have had a lot of impurities! Out of proportion, glorifying tapas simply leads to ego. "I have done a lot of prayer and lots of meditation." This type of understanding about oneself brings ego. That is why the next thing he says immediately after tapas, is svadhyaya. Svadhyaya means self- study. Why are you fasting? Is it just to show off or be in competition with somebody?

There is a story. Two gentlemen (neighbours) were sitting meditating, doing some tapas. God came to one of them and asked, "What do you want?" The man asked Him, "Are You also going to visit my neighbour?" God said, "Yes, of course. He is also doing tapas, you both started on the same day. You started an hour earlier, so I came to you first. What do you want?" He asked, "Can't you somehow avoid going to the other man?" God said, "No, it will become injustice and that's not good. I have to go and see him but tell me what it is you want?" He said, "Okay, whatever you give to the other person, give me twice as much."

So God went to the other man and asked him, "What do you want?" He said, "Wait a minute. Are you coming from the neighbour?" God said yes. "What did you give him?" God was silent. "Come on tell me, what did he ask for?" God hesitated for a minute, and then said, "Well, he asked to be given twice as much whatever you ask for." This man said, "Yeah? Is that what he wanted? Okay, take away one of my eyes and one of my ears. I'll teach him a lesson! He's always in competition with me, now let him have twice as much as what I have!"

This sort of tapas without self-study leads to ego. So immediately, almost simultaneously in the same sutra, Patanjali says, Svadhyaya, self-study. Look into the motives behind your actions. Often you don't go for things that you really want. You go to things because others would want you to, or because of what others would say, think or do about it. Many times you are not clear about what you want, because you have never looked into yourself. You are swayed away by fleeting thoughts, emotions and desires. Your desire is not even your desire. You went and ate something somewhere (wrong food or whatever it was), and all that food, those events, situations, company, everything brought up a storm inside you. You started believing that storm to be your very self. That's why you are often not happy when your desires are fulfilled, or they do not stay charming too long. Within weeks they break down and you wonder, "Why did I get into this?" Or you start believing you really wanted it, that's why it happened. Self-study. Observing the self. What is your self? Who are you? You have purified the body, but are you the body? You have made your mind light. Are you the mind? Are you your thoughts? Are you your emotions? Who are you? This selfstudy leads you upward to the universe that is unknown to us. Self-study takes you a step further and eliminates misery and suffering of the mind. Buddha said this so beautifully. Kaayaanupaschana that is tapas. Observe the body. Vedanaanupaschana, observe the sensations in the body. Citaanupaschana, observe the mind. The impressions, thoughts and feelings in the mind. Dhamaanupaschana, observe your very nature. Observe the dharma, the nature that you are. Buddha spoke about four steps and Patanjali said the same thing,

Tapah svadhyaya ishvara pranidhanani.

Svadhyaya can eliminate all mental and emotional impurities, uncertainties, fears, anxieties. And ishvara pranidhana, love of god, surrender to the Lord, will complete the process. Without love, self- study becomes more dry stuff. Without surrender, self-study is not charming. Do you see what I'm saying? Without devotion, without love, the spiritual path becomes very dry like styrofoam. It's like a cake without sweets, pudding without sweet, or sugar. Bread without salt or taste.

Eshwara pranidhana . How can love for the Lord happen or blossom in us? The first step is to see the Lord as different from you. Lord and me. Two are needed to surrender. The Lord of all virtues, I am nobody. In this nobody-ness, union happens. Then the realization comes, it's all You. From, "it's all You" to "it's all me, I". This body, this universe is Yours oh Lord; this whole universe is Yours. This body

is Yours. This mind is Yours. The mind with all its conflict is also Yours. The mind with all its beauty is Yours. This offering itself is a technique which brings you back home.

Eshwara pranidhana brings about samadhi or ecstasy in that meditation. Offering candles, incense or flowers is not great. Offer every part of your body. Offer every moment of life. Offer every breath. Offer every thought: good, bad, pleasant, unpleasant, anything. Offer all those vasanas or things you consider to be your negative points. Offer all the negativity, offer all the positivity. By offering all the negativity, you become free. By offering all the positive virtues you think you possess, you become free. You will not become arrogant. Virtues make you arrogant. Virtues make you believe and behave as though you are special. Demerits or your drawbacks pull you down and make you feel bad about yourself. And if you start feeling bad about yourself (unconnected to the Divine), there's nothing that can make you feel connected. Do you see what I'm saying?

It's up to you to feel close to the Divine. It's up to you to feel close to anybody for that matter. Even if they don't feel close to you, you should start feeling close to them. It doesn't matter if they don't feel that you are close to them. How do you know? You don't know. Just by their behaviour? That's not the right way to judge because nothing else can convince you. You are dear to the Divine, other than your own mind, your own self. Stop comparing. It is the same thing with the Master. You say, "Oh, so-and-so may be closer to Guruji than me because he talks to them more or smiles more often at them. He doesn't talk to me or smile at me." This is your illusion. Talking or not talking does not matter. You start feeling as though you are the only one, you are the closest. Then you will see what will start happening, what will start blossoming. Whatever seed you sow, will grow. If you sow the seed, "I am hopeless, I am no good, I am no good," that no-good seed will grow. Often useless things - weeds - grow without any cultivation. You don't need to cultivate weeds. That's why they're called weeds, they just grow. But a useful plant needs some attention that weeds do not need. In your field many weeds are coming up every day; useless, unwanted, unnecessary doubts, thoughts. You don't need to sow them. They just come on by themselves. By svadhyaya, by attending to them, you can weed them out and maintain only those which are essential in life.

Tapah svadhyaya eshwara pranidhanani kriya yogah. This is the yoga of action. And see, even doing that you are not doing it. It's silent ... Be

a silent witness. There is a depth in you, a silent corner in you that is the seer. And that is true. This whole space is so silent. In the silent space, the entire activity is happening. Every atom is revolving around the nucleus. All the planets are moving around, yet it is all very silent.

The purpose of this is klesha tanu karana, to reduce the suffering or misery in life. Samadhi bhavana arthas cha, and to bring about samadhi, harmony, equanimity in life.

What are the root causes of misery in life? Avidya, asmita, raga, dweha, abhinivesha, pancha kleshah. Ignorance is the root cause of suffering. And what is ignorance? Thinking that which is not permanent, is permanent. To think or understand that which is not changing as changing, that which is changing as not changing. That which is not joy as joy, that which is not Self as Self. I am not the body, but I think I am the body. I am not my thoughts or emotion, but I think I am my thoughts, my emotions. And seeing this body as non-changing, but you see the body is changing all the time! Your body is changing every day! Every twenty-four hours, the blood changes, every five days your stomach lining changes. Doctors say, that in a whole month, your skin changes, in one year every cell in the body changes. But you have never thought (or understood) that our body is like a river. It's undergoing change all the time. Your body has completely different cells in one year. In three years time, all the old cells are dead and gone. New cells are there, your body is new, your mind is new. As you are awakened to this truth, you will see that you don't identify with your old fears and thoughts about yourself.

Ignorance is holding on to those things of the past, this and that; having an idea of who you are. People think it's very complimentary to know who you are, to have an idea about who you are. I tell you, if you have an idea of who you are, you are gone, finished! Because you are stuck! You don't know who you are. That should be the right attitude. The right attitude because you are changing every moment and have kept the possibility of change. A fixed idea about who you are, destroys you totally. It stops your growth and brings a limit to your possibilities.

Asmita is oneness of our intellect and our Self. Have you noticed in meetings, people say a point and stick to that point? They are actually stuck with that point. Most of the people go on arguing meaninglessly, senselessly. These senseless arguments come because they are so stuck thinking that is their intellect. Intellect as themselves. Thoughts as themselves, "my thought, my position, my, me, me". Inability to see

the Self and the buddhi (or the intellect) and the power of the instruments of perception as separate, is asmita.

Raga , craving. Craving comes with a pleasant experience. You have a pleasant experience and that creates a craving in you. This craving makes you miserable. This is beautiful! Patanjali said there are only five sources of misery. There is no sixth source of misery. Ignorance or thinking that which is changing to be nonchanging. We try to control others' mind, saying, "You should be this way, should be that way." How is it possible? Someone may have loved you yesterday, but they need not today or tomorrow. Who knows? They themselves do not know. See that?

We expect enlightened behaviour from everybody around us. Then we become unhappy. You are not behaving in an enlightened way, but you expect everyone around you to be enlightened, to have unconditional love. You will get one in a million, who can be unconditional love. When you expect that from all the people around you, you become unhappy. Knowingly, unknowingly, consciously, unconsciously, this is what everybody is doing. Everybody is expecting unconditional love from people they meet, and they don't even know what they're expecting! But their expectation is something very big, they are seeking God in everybody. And they are seeking God without seeing that God could behave in any manner He wants! They are looking for a saintly God in everybody around them. How things should be make you more miserable. Do you see what I'm saying?

Avidya , asmita, raga. Dweha, hatred. Hatred and aversion comes with an unpleasant experience. Aversion brings the same misery as happiness brings. Craving and aversion are both sources of misery.

Abhinivesha fear, an unknown fear. Though intellectually you know everything, even in great scholars a little amount of abhinivesha [fear] exists. It has been seen as such. Nature has imposed all five things in everybody. How thin this can get or how thick it will remain, makes you either evolved or un-evolved. These miseries have got four stages. One is when they are asleep in you. The next sutra is,

Prasupta avasyast. These miseries can be: prasupta [sleepy, dormant], tanu [they are little, very feeble, as though they are not at all there, very feeble], vicchinna [when one of them becomes dormant, the others will go into the background]. When craving is there, aversion is in the background, fear is in the background, everything goes to the background among these five. When ignorance is there, you are not

even aware of these two things in you. What the perception, my intellect, my mind is saying. I and my mind, the difference is not there. You are so totally caught up in a situation. When you're conscious, aware then you know, "Oh, this is what my mind is saying, this is what I want. This is what is happening." You see the difference within you. Sometimes you say, "Oh, what has happened to my head." You know? A person who is conscious and aware, would say, "What has happened to me? Am I going crazy?" But a person who has really become crazy will not even think that he has become crazy, because this faculty has become so one together, that it's unable to find the distinction. Do you see what I'm saying?

Sometimes you get angry and don't express the anger. You know you are angry, and it's, "Oh, I'm angry! Why am I getting angry?" Or you become lustful and aware, "Oh, I am getting excited or lustful, full of passion." A person who loses his temper, is not aware that he is getting angry. He becomes the anger. Do you see what I'm saying?

So, sadhana makes these kleshas, or the five sources of misery as thin as possible, as the day goes. Before you were on the spiritual path, you got angry and you may get also get angry now, but there is a big difference in the quality of anger. Do you get what I'm saying? There is a shift. Here it has become tanu or thinned down. The curtain has become more and more transparent. Vicchinna means that one is dominant and the others have all gone to sleep.

And udara, when they are very generous, when they are all fully active. This you can find in the whole worlds society. People who are not even doing any practice or meditation, have all these miseries in their generous form. It's so nice of Patanjali to call them "generous form"! They are very generous and are found everywhere. There has been no lack of frustrated and miserable people throughout the ages. Udara their fully active form.

Fear - people are afraid, so what! A little fear is kept in the body, so the body can be maintained. Do you see what I'm saying? But it should be just as much as salt (less than the salt). A minute amount of fear remains in the body. That's why it's called vidusho'pi. Though the knower of a lot of scriptures and knowledge; even in them, it is found in small amounts. It should not be even called fear. It can be called alertness. Fear takes a different meaning altogether, an alertness or a carefulness. Do you see what I'm saying? There is a similar quality between carefulness and fear. That's why here he has used the word abhinivesha and not bhaya. Bhaya means fear while abhinivesha is ... there is no word for it in English. So when abhinivesha, is in its

thickest form it is fear. In its thinnest (diluted) form, it is the care. Are you getting what I'm saying?

You are walking on the edge of the lake. As you are walking, you step carefully so that you don't fall in the water. If this care is not there for the body, the body could just vanish, disappear or fall in the water. I mean, when I am not the body, I don't attend to the body at all, I cannot have the body to speak for longer, or to do anything. So to maintain the body, a certain amount of care is essential. Is this clear? When this care becomes a little more than what is really needed, it becomes insecurity. If it becomes a little more, it becomes fear. A little bit more, and it becomes paranoia! It's just like, if salt becomes a little more in the food, it becomes impossible to eat. But here, one cannot justify that it should be there, so let it be. A little ignorance can be there, so what! No, no, no. Tanu karana. Thin it down and reduce it to its minimum.

Avidya, asmita, raga, dweha, abhinivesha, pancha klesha. These are the five kleshas or sources of misery. Te pratiprasava heyah sukshmah. When you make them subtler and subtler, they let you come back to your Self. They bring the mind back to the source. When these miseries are very thick, it bothers you and captivates your mind. The moment they become thinner and thinner, they let your mind free and get it back to itself, the source. When you are craving a lot for somebody (say a teenager or a youth is craving for a girlfriend or a boyfriend), the mind is not settled. He or she is unable to sit and meditate. Once the craving gets eliminated, they are able to take a deep sigh, sit and go deep inside. Do you see what I'm saying? The grip of feverishness is loosened. As soon as that gets loosened, the feverishness [klesha] gets reduced and it allows the mind to get back to the source.

Now, what is the way to get rid of these miseries in life? The next sutra is:

Dhyana heyas tad vrittaya. These five vruttis can be eliminated through meditation. Misery can be overcome through meditation and it must be done. He emphasizes, you have to get rid of them through meditation only. What will happen if you don't?

Klesha mulah karma ashayo drishta adrishta janma vedaniyah. If you don't cleanse your consciousness of these five miseries, impurities, or sources of misery, then you will have to suffer in this life and the next. Drishta adrishta janma vedaniyah. There

is no way you will have to suffer only in this life. You have to undergo this suffering, this misery in this life and in the coming life also, because they form as karma asheyo, a bank of karma. They get into your reserve bank, as a karma tank. And through meditation, this karma can be washed out and eliminated right now, here. Before the body drops you, get rid of the karma and lessen the sheaths of ignorance over you. Otherwise, there is no escape for you from these. Drishta adrishta janma vedaniyah.

Some will give fruit in this life itself. Some will stay back with you to give fruit in the next life. Now, some people argue and say: "If you put your finger in the fire, will it burn today, tomorrow, next year, or next lifetime? There is nothing, karma and everything! Of course, every fruit, every action has its repercussions, but you have to do it immediately. It doesn't come with you for the next life or next year or anything like that." Some people have this argument but it's not the right analogy.

You sow some seeds and some will sprout in two days. Alfalfa, sprouts in three days. Peanuts, may sprout in four or five days. And if you want to sprout a coconut, it may take several months. If you plant lettuce, it will give you fruit in three months. If you plant a mango, it will give you fruit in ten years. If you plant an avocado tree, it may take four, five or seven years. And you plant a jack fruit only the next generation will enjoy the fruit! Different seeds have different timings.

So, similarly, different karma will give fruit at different time. Many times people ask this question: "We are so good, so why do bad things happen to good people?" Bad things never happen to good people. Even if it seems to be happening, they were bad at some time! Now they may be good. They have done something bad, so the bad thing is happening now. They have sewn those seeds - some neem seeds - long ago and now they are reaping the bitter fruit of the neem tree. Now they may be sowing mangoes; that too they will reap. As you sow, so shall you reap. So. Drishta adrishta janma vedaniyah.

Sati mule tad vipako jaty ayur bhogah. He explains a little more about the genesis in us and how we gain our birth. As long as this root exists, its fruit comes again and again. How does it come? Jatyayur bhogah. Jaty means the body you come in and where you are born i.e. if you are born as a chicken, a monkey, a human, as a male or a female. Your birth is determined. The length of your life is determined. What you will get in your life, your enjoyment or suffering is also determined. Why is someone born in Ethiopia and someone else in Switzerland? Is there any explanation? Patanjali had

insight into this phenomenon. This is the question usually asked: "Why so-and-so is born there and so-and-so is born somewhere else? Why is so-and-so miserable? And why is so-and-so innocent yet still suffering?" This is a big question. No logic can give you any understanding or explanation. Patanjali says it is because of your past karma. Jatyayur bhogah comes to you again and again in different forms. How does it come? When a person is dying with memories of chicken and chicken ... His consciousness, the strongest impression at the moment of death, was chicken. So he gets into the poultry form. His mind, soul get into that. Whatever the strongest impression in the mind, persists. It's simple, very simple.

You can try this at night. At night, just before going to bed, have a thought. Just think very strongly about something. And as soon as you wake up in the morning, that will be your first thought. And at night, the same thought will come up in your dreams. If you practice this for some time (two, three, or six months) I tell you, you'll assume all those qualities in you.

If as soon as you wake up, you think about something, "Okay, as soon as I wake up, I should shake my head like my dog." And you do it every day, in six months you'll see it will become out of your control! You'll get up and shake like that! If you say, "I should kick my leg like a dog" and you just do it. In six months you will see, it becomes almost impossible for you not to do it! It gains such a pattern inside you, because that karma, that impression has become so strong! Or stick your tongue out or make like a dog ... And if you keep watching a dog, when these samskaras or that image comes into your mind all the time, again and again, over and over, when you die, your mind, your consciousness gets sucked into that type of body.

So it is said, the last days of life are much more important than the whole of life. In India, there are many, many stories to emphasize this. You know, an old man on his deathbed is so usually so attached to his children, that's why they name their children in the name of God. There's a story about a king, Ajamila. Have you heard it? Ajamila was a king and an atheist up until his death. He could not be anything after death! If that was possible, he would have been an atheist even after death, but that was not possible! So he was an atheist until death. When he was dying, at the last moment, he called his son, "Narayan, Narayan." His son's name was Narayan and he was thinking about him. "Narayan, Narayan." It seems God thought He was being called, so Narayan came and liberated him. This is a story, saying that on his deathbed Ajamila called God by mistake (took the name of

God) and so he became liberated. It's an extreme way to say that the last impression carries much more weight than whatever one does in your whole life.

He said the same thing about a saint. A very enlightened saint - a rishi - was on the bank of a river meditating, and he saw a young deer (a small baby deer) in the water, in the flood. So he jumped in and saved the deer. Like any human would, he bandaged the little deer as it had hurt its leg, and he cared for it. He became so attached, looking into the eyes of the deer, when he died he became a deer. This is the only instance where an enlightened person reverted back into an animal body (it's almost impossible for a liberated man)! It's one of the impossibilities. And Jatabarat has quoted this example throughout, just to tell you that the last impression is the most important. Even he became a deer. Same thing when you go to sleep. If children see horror movies and go to bed at night, they'll have nightmares. They cry, shout and do all those things. Isn't it?

How do you get rid of this? Te hlada paritapa phalah punya apunya hetutvat. When these impressions are good impressions, they bring you more joy and more happiness. If these impressions are not good impressions, they bring you suffering. It depends on the merit and demerit that you have done. If you have been good to people, that good karma accumulates and brings you more joy. Anybody is happy because they have done something good in the past. If anybody is miserable, they have done something miserable in the past. So here, he connects every happiness and misery to some action of the past or that is in your karma tank.

So, meditation is the way. We are just washing all that out, becoming so light, hollow and empty. All the karma is vanishing. Singing, dancing and doing all this, is to thin down this veil that is on the Self. Hmm, so very precious! Though you sometimes sit, feeling bored, never mind. Know that you are burning some old seeds of boredom. If you are averse to boredom, it will never leave you. If you are bored being with yourself, how much boring will you be for somebody else! So never mind, even if it is boring. This makes you more and more sensitive. Know that you are burning something.

Tapas , say this is tapas and willingly do a penance. Just take a step. Okay, I'm going to do this willingly. However boring this is, I will do it. Let me see, how can something put me off? Take a challenge, you know? You often take challenges. Here, take a challenge: "Let me see this!" The way to get over your boredom is to kindle the challenge in

you. "I won't lose!" Challenge. All this can just help you.

133

Eliminating the Cause of Pain

If you look into all the pleasures or joy you get in life from the world (from anything), they all come with a tax. You have to pay tax for them, and this tax is sorrow.

In this sutra, Patanjali says: Parinama tapasamskaraduhkhairgunavrittivirodhacchaduhkham eva sarvam vivekinah.

Every event causes some pain, however pleasant an event is, because an event finishes, it ends. So the ending of an event, however pleasurable or joyful it has been, comes to you with a little pinch. Pain comes. The greater the joy, the greater the pain also, isn't it?

Parinama duhkha . Parinama is the effect or result of an event leaving you in pain. Tapa duhkha, longing for an event, waiting for a pleasurable or pleasant event is again pain. Samskara duhkha, the impressions or memories of pleasure, also bring pain. Before you want something, that wanting, that feverishness to achieve what you want is all painful. When you have it, the fear of losing it is painful. When it is gone, the memory of its joy is painful. So the whole thing is all pain! It is said, for a vivekin [an intelligent person], for one whose wisdom has awakened, he sees the whole thing as pain. So there is nothing that is not pain. Sarvam evam duhkham vivekinam. Everything is painful. He said, love is so beautiful, but love is also painful. How much closer you can get? Bodies can get closer, but still they are not satisfied. Each one wants to get into or enter into the other body. How can it enter? How much can it enter? Not possible, you could get frustrated. Often a male takes a female body and female takes a male body in the next life, because that is the more prominent craving or longing in the mind. That's why in every male you'll also find a female, and in every female you'll also find a male. Because there is an impression from the last, running through.

The soul is not satisfied with the physical body coming closer. It wants something more. It wants to merge. It wants to vanish and disappear. This is what we call love. In love there are two expressions. One is, "I want to disappear into you," or "I want to eat you and you disappear."

These are the two expressions that lovers say to each other. They don't know why they are saying it. The say, "Oh, you are so sweet, I want to eat you up!" Carnivore - what you call it, cannibalism? Love takes you to cannibalism. Really! If that were possible, each one would literally do that (reduce their boyfriend or girlfriend into a small toy and then gulp through it). So there is no more worry. Who are they looking into? What are they seeing? Where are they going? Otherwise, your mind is constantly engaged in looking at where your friend is, what they are doing, whom they are looking at. Lovers become watchdogs after awhile. Often when they come to the course, they don't meditate. They open their eyes. "Is my girlfriend meditating? How is she doing? Is she enjoying the course? I forced her to come to the course. Is she having good experiences?" Many times we have to tell them to keep their eyes shut, go deep and meditate. Don't worry about their girlfriend, we'll take care of it.

If it was really possible, people would do that. They would swallow or gulp their boyfriend or girlfriend through their throat and keep them safe. I keep you in my heart. Physically they would do it (keep them safely in the heart or tummy), then they couldn't look at anybody or do anything without one's permission. They can't leave you and go.

Love also creates a tremendous amount of pain. Separation creates pain, a tremendous amount of pain. A want, a wish creates a tremendous amount of pain, or pressure on the mind. And then, trying to please one, creates pain. And to know whether they are pleased or not, creates pain. You want to know the mind of the other person totally. How is it you don't know your own mind, yet you want to know someone else's mind? It's impossible to know anybody's mind just by their words or their lips, the movement of their lips and tongue. It's said the tongue has no bone, so it can move anyway it wants! It has no value. It has no loyalty. The tongue has no bone, it's not steady. It says something today, tomorrow it says something else. You cannot trust your tongue. You can trust anything in the world. Doing what somebody else wishes, sitting on it is painful. You experience some good feelings, love, wonderful joy, all those things, then suddenly it's not there the next moment. Even that's painful.

Doing spiritual practices, needs effort and that is painful. If you don't do it, not doing it creates more pain. It's even more painful. "Oh, I did not meditate. I don't feel good at all. I meditated. Oh, it's finishing, I've not done enough. No, it's not happening." Something to complain about! Sarvam evam duhkham vivekinam.

If you really look from the eyes of wisdom, there is not a bit in this creation that is devoid of pain. Pain is the tale of everything in the world. It comes along with anything! Take it and get a free coupon with it - pain! Buy anything and you'll get double, with a double- your-pain coupon.

Then the next sutra, what do you do then? When you realize that everything is pain, how do you go ahead? What do you do? You have to do something to stop this pain, how will you do it? Heyam duhkham anagatam. We need to eliminate the root cause of pain. Pain which has not yet come in life (sorrow which has not yet sprouted), should be nipped off right at the beginning. How do we do that?

Drashtridurshyayoho samyogo heyahetuhu. Forgetfulness of oneself as separate from one's environment is the main cause of pain; the self, the seer and the seen. The self and the objects all around the self. Lack of perception of this and that, me and this. You think that this is me, and then the problems begin. Usually we keep our life somewhere else. We don't keep our life in us.

You know, there used to be stories in the olden days ... There used to be many islands. There used to be a small island. There used to be a fort on that small island. And on that island, in the fort, is a palace. In the palace, is a house. In the house, is somebody. Have you heard this story? Do you know which one it is it? The life of a king is in a parrot in some other place. So if this parrot is killed, the king will die there. Have you heard about this type of story?

These are all stories in India that appear in magazines. I think you also have this type of story in China. When a king's life is not in the king, the king will not die. If anybody does anything to him, he's like Superman. If you have to kill the king, you have to go to that particular island. And it's very hard to get into that fort. And then as with all adventures, some Superman will get into the fort. And then there is a palace. And the palace is full of cobras and whatnot. He has to get past all that. It's all a great thrill, you know! Then he gets underground, suddenly a door opens, and he gets in there and ... Some such story! It gets more and more interesting! Then there is a cage, and in the cage is a parrot. The cage is unapproachable, you cannot touch it, because if you touch it you may burn down. You have to kill the parrot without touching the cage. Then you kill the parrot and the king somewhere else or whatever, some such story ...

It means life is not in one Self. Life is somewhere else, in the bank account. We have not just deposited money into the bank, but along

with the money, one's life also. If the bank closes or something happens when he goes, then he has heart failure. Do you see what I'm saying?

Whatever you think, you give more importance to. You give more importance to any matter or material thing, than to life. That becomes the cause of samyogo heyahetuhu. So, when you see the difference, that the seer (the life) is separate from the surroundings. I am not the body. And through meditation, you can do this, experience it.

Prakashakriyasthitishilam bhutaindriyaatmakam bhogaapavargaartham drshyam. That doesn't mean you have to run away from this world. This world is here for your enjoyment. Patanjali is very clear on this. This beautiful scenery is here for you to look at. Great food is here for you to eat and enjoy. The whole world is here for you to enjoy. But don't forget yourself while enjoying. You are separate from that. This is viveka. Do you see that?

Prakashakriyasthitishilam bhutaindriyaatmakam bhogaapavargaartham drshyam. This seen world is illuminated. Each thing gives (conveys) a message and gives you an idea of how great the consciousness is. Every aspect in this world is an expression of consciousness. Everything is active.

Prakasha means manifested. Everything is manifested from the consciousness. Things manifest, flowers come up. Kriya. Everything in this universe is dynamic, not static. There's nothing that is static. Even though the mountains appear to be static they're not. They're all dynamic. Every atom is dynamic in this universe.

Sthiti means they all undergo certain stages of evolution. Everything has a stage (a state) and everything is governed by certain principles or qualities. Bhutaindriyaatmakam. The entire creation is made up of five elements and five sense organs. Five organs of perception and five organs of action, ten organs. The entire creation is endowed with these ten plus the mind (you also take the mind as one of the organs).

Bhoga apavarga artham. This entire creation is there to give you pleasure and relief. Whatever gives you pleasure should also give you relief. Do you see what I'm saying? Otherwise, the very pleasure becomes pain. It's like, say you like apple pie. You love one, two, three apple pies! You would do anything to have an apple pie or whatever thing, gulab jamuns,

something. Okay, you have it. But one, two, three, four, and by the fifth one, it already becomes a little too much. And then another seven, eight, ten, twelve, thirteen. Now the same thing that gave you pleasure is making you suffer. If you are forced to eat twenty apple pies, you'll hold your head and say, "Oh, my God, I want relief from this. I want to get away from this thing. Enough is enough. I cannot hold any more."

It is the same thing with music. Okay, so you like beautiful music but how long can you enjoy music for? One, two, three hours? If someone puts music on for twenty-four hours for seven days, you'll say, "Oh please, can you shut this off!" If that wonderful music which gave you so much pleasure, is overdone, it will bring you pain. So that has to also give you relief. Do you see that? So, the entire creation gives you enjoyment and liberation, it relieves you. Apavarga, liberation. You have to liberate yourself from all of these at some time or other. Otherwise, that pleasure will become pain.

So then he goes on describing how there are grades in this. Certain things are sattvik, certain things are rajasic and certain things are tamasic. Tamasic things bring more damage. Rajasic things bring more activity. Sattvik objects or things bring more light and freedom. If you take food - apple pie - it's good for your health and gives you pleasure but if you go into drugs, it entraps you and doesn't seem to give pleasure to begin with, only giving you pain and suffering and it's hard to get out of it. So that's an example of a tamasic thing. So the three grades; sattvik, tamasic, and rajasic. And the whole creation is made up of these three gunas or natures. Certain food you take makes you duller, certain food makes you more agitated and certain food like this activity ... Everything is from these three different gunas, there are some specialities, all the details are there. The creation is made up of so many details. And he says,

Drashta drshi matrah shuddho'pi pratyaya anupashya. The Self, though it is ever pure, untainted, is just a witness. But when it becomes one with the buddhi [the intellect], then it gets coloured. It appears as though coloured. Somebody stuck in their intellect, sticks to their thoughts and ideas as though they are their own, and they suffer a lot. The Self is the centre of the whole creation.

The next sutra is, Tad artha eva drshyasya atma. Though this world does not exist for one who is realized, enlightened, in the way it exists for one who is not enlightened,

the world continues to exist with its opposites. For one who has awakened in knowledge, there is no more suffering. The world appears completely different. For you, every inch of this creation is filled with bliss, or part of the Self. But for the others, it exists as the seed. So, though you have realized and are not seeing this world as separate from yourself - part of yourself - it doesn't exist for you. But for others it exists. It's like you have come out of the air plane or bus, the journey is over. But the air plane keeps moving, the bus keeps going. The bus still goes because it is taking somebody else. But for you, the journey is over. But the bus does not stop just because your journey is over, the bus continues. Is that clear?

Krita artham prati nashtam apy anashtam tad anya sadha ranatvat. Sva svami shaktyoh sva rupa upalabdhi hetuh samyogah.

He says, "There is a power of nature." We should really go into this sutra. Your body is made up of the three gunas: sattva, rajas, and tamas and they act accordingly. Accordingly, thoughts come and behaviours pattern. Many things happen in the body and accordingly, attract events, situations, and circumstances around you. When tamasic guna is dominant, it creates more dullness, sleep, lethargy. When rajasic guna dominates, you may be in a different atmosphere, but wherever you are, your mind is restless, full of desires and that anguish. It gallops on that horse. If the mind is dominated by sattva, then it is very alert, sharp, joyful, and enthusiastic. All these qualities come up.

When these three gunas act in your body according to their nature, time, place ... many reasons. Identifying yourself as this - "I am this, a dull person, a lethargic person, I am this, I am that." - is again ignorance. Are you getting what I am saying? Good. Observe the tendencies that come up in you and don't think you are those tendencies. Because the guna, the nature, will work with its nature.

There is another story. There was a great monk who lived in the Himalayas. He had free access anywhere he went, because people loved and welcomed him. This monk used to go to the king's palace and have his lunch there every day. The queen would serve him lunch in a golden plate and cup, all that. He would go, eat and then walk out. This was the routine. And once, what happened? After his meal, he grabbed a silver glass and a golden spoon, took it with him and went. He didn't even tell anybody that he was taking it, that he wanted it or anything. People in the palace noticed. The queen

noticed. He would never take anything at any time, what happened today? He took these things with him, without telling anybody! He just put it into his bag and left. Three days later, he brought back the cup and spoon and left it there. This was even more puzzling. Before they thought maybe he needed it, so he took it. Now he came and put it back. It was more puzzling! So the king called all the wise people and enquired as to why this happened. Why did he take it and then bring it back? They found all the wise people and pundits, who said, "Find out what you fed him the previous day or two." So they went and found out all that information. They found, they had fed him food they confiscated from some robbers (some Dacoits). They had found and arrested a few Dacoits a couple of days ago, and they confiscated a lot of grains and foodstuff (everything from them). That was then cooked and served to the saint, and made him rob the things from the palace.

In ancient days, people used to look into all these things. If somebody did something very unusual, they went into the root cause of it. Why? Instead of accusing this monk who started stealing ... what made the monk steal? The food! Who cooked the food, what was done in the food and what happened? They went into that detail and found the root. This is the cause and that is why it happened.

Tasya heturavidya . It is ignorance to think these vruttis are doers. And the way to come out of the ignorance, is definite understanding, definite knowledge in the mind that my body and the world is undergoing change all the time. The entire universe is in the form of fluids, in the state of fluidity. And it is all full of change, going on its own, according to its nature. This definite knowledge: "I am not the body. I am the Self. I am the space. I am the imperishable, untouched, untainted by the prakriti, by this world around me. This body is all hollow and empty. And every particle in this body is changing and changing. The mind is changing and changing." This definite knowledge is the way out of the cycle.

143

The Eight Limbs of Yoga

Human consciousness is like a seed. A seed has the possibility of a tree, of leaves, of branches, of fruits, of flowers, of multiplication. So also is the human mind. A seed needs proper ground, proper conditions (sunlight, water, proper soil) for it to sprout and blossom into its possibility. Isn't it?

It is the same case with human consciousness, the human mind. The seed can either be dormant for years together, keeping its possibility within itself, or start blossoming, start sprouting. The sprouting of the seed of human consciousness is viveka, discrimination, wisdom. Freedom comes with viveka or discrimination. All other species in this creation are governed totally by nature. They don't need discrimination nor do they have freedom. So, they never break the laws of nature. Human consciousness, human mind, has this possibility of freedom, has been given freedom, so it is also given discrimination. It is through this viveka [wisdom, discrimination] that the human mind, human consciousness, can be governed to progress or to remain where it is.

You will not generally find any animal over-eating. If they are sick or perverted, they may do anything. But normally animals eat or mate, just in time. They eat in time. They rest in time. They have no choice. But human beings have the freedom to eat whenever they want and do whatever they want. This freedom is given along with discrimination and wisdom. Along with the consequences of action and knowledge of the consequences of action, so that a human can choose and live life with wisdom. Are you getting what I'm saying?

The speciality of human life is that it is governed by viveka [wisdom, discrimination]. And how should this come up? How did this have to be enhanced? How to make the seed sprout? How to make the sapling? Once the sapling comes, you need to keep watering it again and again. And one day it grows. A seed has the possibility, but if it isn't watered, then the possibility remains a possibility and it doesn't manifest.

Patanjali steps in here, and says, " yogaanushthanad". By practicing and observing the limbs of yoga, through yoga [ashuddhi- kshaye], the impurities get eliminated. A-viveka-khyateh, the viveka, the wisdom shines forth. The husk is gone, the sprout moves through its membrane and comes up.

What are the limbs of yoga? There are eight limbs of yoga, and they are: Yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dhyana, dharana, samadhi. Now he goes into the detail of each limb and what result you can expect from each one. Yoga has eight limbs. Like a chair has four legs, yoga has got eight legs or limbs. Each one is connected to the whole. So if you pull one, everything else will come. If you pull one leg of the chair, the whole chair comes.

When a body develops, the whole body develops together. All the limbs develop together, isn't it? It's not that first the nose develops and then the ear. All aspects, all the limbs of the body develop simultaneously. That's why Patanjali says that these are all limbs of yoga. Unfortunately, people think these are all stages we have to achieve one after the other. This is where wrong understanding or misconception has crept into yoga.

Of the eight limbs of yoga, yama is the first limb. The yamas are: ahimsa [nonviolence], satya [truth], asteya [non-stealing], brahmacharya [moving in Brahman, in the Bigness] and aparigraha [non-accumulation].

Jati desha kala samaya anavacchinnah sarva bhauma maha vratam. These are the greatest vows, because they are applicable at all times, in all places, for all people throughout, without an exception. There are certain laws which are not universal and can apply only to certain people, at certain places, at certain times. But these five principles are universal.

An animal does not become violent for no reason. Animals hunt but even wild animals only hunt when they are hungry and want to eat. They don't just go and hunt or bite anybody out of pleasure. But human beings do. They go hunting for no reason. A python eats one rat a month, and that's it. It sleeps for the rest of the month. Just one rat a month is good enough. Though it's scary and dangerous, if it swallows a goat or eats something bigger, it can stay for several months doing nothing, and it'll not harm or kill any other animal. But human beings, in the name of God, in name of love, kill each other. Mindless violence is prevalent in the world. In the name of country, in the name of religion, in the name of what not ... race. This is absolute nonsense! This is total lack of viveka, total lack of wisdom. A violent man cannot hear anybody. His ears are gone, sealed off.

And why does violence come? How does it come? Due to frustration. The mind gets more and more frustrated, and the frustration builds. A big question mark comes up and that very question turns into violence. Why? Why? Why? It catches on to the surroundings. A crowd commits violence. Individually a person may not be able to do that same violent act, but when a man is in a crowd ... he joins hands. Viveka can dawn when a person takes this vow of non-violence. "I will not consciously kill any animal, any life on this planet. Consciously I will not do that." Already without your knowledge, you are destroying many creatures. You walk and many ants die underneath your feet. You're not doing so you're not killing them, it is happening. But an

intention to destroy something, the intention to be violent, can cut your very basis, your own root. Dropping this intention for violence is ahimsa.

And then satya is to be with what is right now. To be with something that is non-changing. To know that something deep within you is non- changing. Satya does not just mean speaking truth. Satya is total commitment for truth, it's not just words. Unfortunately, people mistake satya to be just speaking words, speaking things with bluntness. Many people consider being blunt the same as being truthful. Do you hear what I'm saying?

What is the effect of ahimsa? Ahimsa pratishthayam tat samnidhau vaira tyagah. If you are established in non-violence, violence will be dropped by other creatures in your very presence. If someone comes to attack you, as soon as they come near you, because your vibration is totally non- violent, they'll back down and stop being violent.

A contemporary of Buddha (maybe you have not heard his name very much in the West) was Maharvira, he was the promoter of the Jain religion. Jainism is another religion. His emphasis was more on ahimsa. And he said that wherever he walked, up to 20 kilometres around, all people would drop their violence. And the stories go to the extent that even the thorns would not prick anybody. The thorns would become soft and all lie down. Ahimsa pratishthayam tat samnidhau vaira tyagah. Established in non-violence, violence will be dropped by other creatures in your presence.

Satya pratishthayam kriya phala ashrayatvam. Established in truth, your actions will become fruitful. Any act you do will be fruitful. Many people do actions, but their action don't bring about results. There is no truth consciousness inside. When there is truth consciousness inside (established in truth) then the fruit of action will immediately follow the action. Kriya phala ashrayatvam, success in action comes. And truth is not just words. Again, it is a quality of consciousness, of straight forwardness.

Even if you are telling a lie and are bold enough to say, "I am telling a lie right now" you are speaking truth. When you tell a lie, your consciousness is not solid. It's not straight-forward, it's all wishy- washy. There is no strength behind it. Isn't it? Satya pratishthayam kriya phala ashrayatvam. A person committed to truth, committed to what is - this presence of Being - for him, success comes easily, it follows. Not that he will not encounter failures. He may encounter

failures, but he will act again. Satyam eva jayate is a slogan like, "We trust in God" (what is written on American dollars). In India, the slogan is: "The truth alone triumphs." The truth will definitely be, though intermittently it may not appear to be beneath.

There is a story. India is a collection of many small states, so there was an Emperor (or king) of Delhi. The Emperor of Delhi had a wise minister called Birbal, who was also like a clown. Once the emperor himself was a clown. He used to make funny laws and rules. Once he ordered, "In this country, anybody who tells a lie will be hanged." This was the law and going to be implemented because kings could make their own laws. It was all up to their fancy, there was no Parliament or congressman to sit to debate and pass a law. It was a monarchy. So he made a rule, "From tomorrow, anybody who speaks a lie ... " He had heard a big talk, a lecture on truth, and was all enthusiastic. "Okay, I am going to make everybody speak the truth."

So when he announced this law, there was a big commotion in the marketplace. What was the commotion? All the lawyers gathered together and said, "What is this stupid law? It will just flatten our whole business! Our whole profession will be finished! This is an insult to the Supreme Court! If he makes this law, where is the question of debate? All lawyers will be out of jobs!" The Bar Association met and said, "We have to do something! This cannot go on like this!"

In another corner, all the merchants gathered together and the salesmen said, "What is happening? Our king is selling our country. This is disastrous! How can we sell anything? We know our product is not the best, but we claim this is the best product. We buy things for three pennies and sell it for thirteen pennies, and we say we are just making margin, no profit. We are actually giving you all free. Take it." All these business gimmicks would fall flat. They said, "This is outrageous! We cannot go, do something!"

All the astrologers gathered together, and they said, "We are finished! No more clients for us." All the priests gathered and it was the same story. The doctors gathered and said, "Oh, we have to migrate to some other country. This law is too dangerous!" Because doctors promise their patients, "Don't worry! I'll cure this one, you will be fine tomorrow. I am here. You won't die." They assure their patients.

So they all approached the vice-minister in the king's court - Birbal - and said, "Come on Birbal, you have to do something! What has happened to our king? He needs psychiatric treatment. He says that

anybody who speaks a lie or doesn't speak the truth will be hanged. This is outrageous!"

Birbal said, "Okay, I'll do something." So the next day, as Birbal [the minister] was trying to enter the king's bedroom, two guards stopped him and said, "Where are you going? You cannot go in." Birbal said, "I am going to get hanged." Now that was a lie because that's not the place (the kings bedroom) he would be hanged. So they said, "Oh, he has spoken a lie, take him." He was brought in front of the king.

If he is really hanged then he didn't speak a lie and whatever he said was true. Then you are punishing an innocent man for nothing and this is a big crime. If you don't hang him, then the law becomes obsolete. What to do? All the pundits and ministers were called and there was a big debate. Now what is true? What to do? Should we hang him or not hang him? If you hang him, you will violate a law. If you don't hang him, you violate a law. The King was in a fix. Everybody was in greater fix. They asked Birbal, "You yourself said this. What do we do?" Then Birbal said, "Truth is not what is spoken."

Anything you speak becomes a lie. The moment you open your mouth, you are distorting what is. And what is, is truth. To be with what is, is to be truthful in one's life, one's presence, one's mind, one's heart. That is following satya and not the words. Is your intention truthful? Is your intention straight forward? Is your intention clear? Or is there something else behind that? There are other hooks you keep in, that indicate the truth. The second principle - truth. And the clarity in your intention, the straight forwardness in your approach to truth, is the second vrata, the second yama.

The third one is asteya or non-stealing. You look at somebody and think "Oh, how nice if I had a voice like them". You have already stolen their voice. You look at someone looking beautiful and think "Oh, how nice if I looked like that". You have stolen. Do you see what I'm saying? This creates jealousy. Why do people steal? Mine. Mine. I want to possess it! Asteya eliminates jealousy, non-stealing.

People steal many things. People steal someone else's poem, someone else's things, and someone else's techniques. These things don't work. People who steal remain poor. The effect of non-stealing means if you're committed to sincerity, nonstealing, sarva ratna upasthanam, all wealth comes to you, effortlessly. All wealth comes to you. A little intention to steal can keep you poor. Do you see what I'm saying? Most of the time poverty is self-made. If a person wants to be sneaky, trying to get, grabbing as much as he can, then that is where his luck

goes down the drain. Non-stealing brings all the wealth.

Brahmacharya pratishthayam virya labhah. Brahmacharya is usually said of celibacy. Celibacy brings you strength, a lot of strength. But brahmacharya has a deeper or bigger meaning than just celibacy. Brahma means the infinity. Charya means moving in the infinity. Knowing your vast nature and not thinking you're just the body, but walking like you are a glow of light. You move in the world as though you are space. This is where celibacy naturally happens. See what I'm saying?

When you are sitting in deep meditation, you don't feel you are a body, that you're lump of heavy weight: eighty, ninety or a twohundred pound body. You don't feel that you are a solid sixty kilos sitting there. You feel so light, like a feather. Isn't it? How do you feel when you walk? You don't feel the weight of your body. You feel you are more space. The more joyful you are, the less you feel the body. The more you are in infinite consciousness, the less you feel the tension, physical bodily weight or presence. That is brahmacharya, our consciousness expands to the infinite.

Moving in the infinity, in our true nature (the nature that is space) brings a lot of vigor, valor and strength in us. A person who is always small-minded and looking at who is good-looking, with whom they can have sex; has such low and dull energy. Nobody goes near that sort of person. A person obsessed with sex is so unattractive. Isn't it? It creates such a thick, dull vibration around him or her that there isn't strength. There is no vigor, there is no commitment. Nothing comes out of them. Have you noticed this? If you have not noticed, look in all the places where such people gather e.g. bars. You can find them here and there in one of the streets. Such thick, lust-loaded minds, and they have no strength at all. They just go anywhere, go behind anybody, without even knowing where they are going.

There's a story about Mullah Nasrudin. Mullah Nasrudin was watching a dance on a movie screen. As the actress was dancing, Mullah was watching the dance, waiting ... Suddenly Mullah went down flat on the floor. His wife asked, "What is this? What are you looking at?" He said, "I want to see this ladies dance more closely. I'm waiting for when she sits down."

The mind goes into such a craze that there is no strength left behind, it's limited. Then all the jealously, anger, agitation, frustration, everything comes. And when this storm of negativity has come in a mind, I tell you, that is the weakest and poorest mind. All the truth,

all about existence, everything disappears. When your mind is obsessed with such a load of negativity about any person, you cannot even observe the beautiful nature you are in. Isn't it?

Brahmacharya pratishthayam virya labhah . Great strength comes when brahmacharya is established in you. That is when you are seeing yourself more than the body. You see yourself as consciousness, as Brahman.

Aparigraha sthairye janma kathamta sambodhah. When you do not accumulate, you get the knowledge of previous births, knowledge of different species. The communication in you improves. Do you see what I'm saying? When a person thinks "More for me! Me, just me!" he is obsessed with fear. One does not know the eternal value of life. Life has been there from ages and will continue for ages to come. Non- accumulation simply means confidence in one's existence, in one's ability, knowledge of one's Self. Do you see what I'm saying?

You know how to make bread and you know you can earn your bread. You will not make bread for a week or a whole year and store it in your room. You know it will become stale, that things go stale. There is a proverb in Chinese, "What you give, you gain more of. Whatever you scatter, you have it all. And hold onto what you have, or you'll lose that also." When you scatter, it all comes to you. Everything is yours. You are all over. Who is very stingy? He who is so afraid of himself, and has no idea of his strength. A person who is very selfish and stingy, stores and stores, selfishly accumulating.

I think there are many such stories ... A very wealthy gentleman was dying, on his deathbed. But he was on the phone, looking at the share market and at how much he'll make. He was going to die at any moment, but he was concerned about what the share prices were. How much he was gaining, how much he was losing. What was he going to do? It is inevitable, you have to leave everything here and go. If money transfer was possible, people would transfer their bank balance up there before going! Lawyers would be free from writing wills. They would transfer all their property up and take it with them. Fortunately, or unfortunately, it's not possible. People accumulate, accumulate, and then they die. This does not mean you shouldn't save money. But he says, what is the effect of it? Janma kathamta sambodhah. When you give things to people, it brings something back to you, good vibrations and that makes you happy. If you are very unhappy and that day you give something away (give some gifts to somebody who is needy) you will see your consciousness will change, shift. Have you experienced this?

And sometimes when you accept things from someone, when you accept certain gifts or certain things, you feel unpleasant, unhappy.

In ancient days they knew this science very well. When someone accepts a gift, the giver should be thankful. The giver is always thankful, "Oh, I'm so thankful to you, because you accepted what I gave." So that is called dakshina. They used to call wise people to their homes or their places (dwellings) and give them food. And when they accepted, to show their thankfulness to them for accepted their offering, they give one more offering. That is called dakshina. The giver is thankful, because it's not just taking something, they are giving back their mind, taking away certain impressions or karma of the past from them.

Non-acceptance or non-accumulation of objects or things from people is aparigraha. Parigraha means always receiving. What will this person give, what will so-and-so give? This is parigraha, receiving gifts. You can try this as an experiment, okay? For some days, for one month, don't accept anything from anybody. You will see you'll feel differently. I mean, in the world it's practically not possible. You cannot say, "I won't accept any ... " There are people who practice this to the extreme. You don't have to go to the extreme, but being aware of this fact is useful.

These five are maha vrata, the great rules or vows. To whatever extent you practice, to that extent they yield these set results.

Vitarka badhane pratipaksha bhavanam. Suppose your mind says, "I don't care about these rules now. I want to do what I want to do. If I want to be violent, I want to be violent." Then what to do? For that he says, prakshiva. Then you pratiprakshiva [take the opposite side of it]. Before mentioning this, he also mentions the niyamas. There are five yamas and five niyamas.

The niyamas are: Shaucha santosha tapah svadhyaya ishvara pranidhanani niyamah.

Shaucha . Purity - physical purity - keeping oneself clean. Not bathing for several days and just putting perfume on, is not cleanliness. Water should run through this body, both inside and outside. You have to drink enough water and let water run through the system. Water is the greatest purifier of this physical body. Cleanliness in the atmosphere and in the environment.

If you are used to being unclean, you don't feel that it is unclean. You

can see that in third world countries. People in the slums don't feel anything extraordinary. They feel it's all perfectly okay, because they're so used to being unclean, with cow dung here and there and garbage around. It simply doesn't register in their consciousness. They get used to it.

In the same way, you get used to being unclean, keeping your room unclean, yourself unclean. And this is how it starts, "Oh, I'll wear the same clothes tomorrow. It doesn't matter today if I don't bathe tomorrow." Something or another ... You are busy, keeping yourself engaged, and for two or three days you don't take a bath. You don't notice how foul you smell but somebody else gets so bothered by your being there. And worse, you use perfume over it, so you don't even notice that smell! Bathing and keeping personal hygiene is very essential. Shaucha. And the mind also clean. Antashaucha, bahya abhyantara shaucha. Outer cleanliness, inner cleanliness and the mind being free from tension.

Santosha , contentment, happiness. Again, happiness is an attitude. If you are used to being unhappy, in the best of situations, you'll still grumble and be unhappy. Nothing can make you happy in the world. Do you see what I'm saying? We did an exercise this morning, keeping a smile and breathing. Just enjoying your breath. Did you notice what happens when you are happy? When you smile, what's happening? There is so much relaxation in the face, in the muscles of the face and the head, everywhere. There is freedom. There is joy. There is relaxation. If you train your muscles and your nerve system into being unhappy, the same thing continues i.e. the knots and stress in your face, stiffness in your head, stiffness in your body. And you remain unhappy, irrespective of situations, surroundings, whatever.

Santosha is a practice. Being happy is a practice. To be unconditionally happy is a practice. "Come what may, today I'm going to smile." Anyway everything is going to die! Everything is going to vanish and disappear! So what, who cares! Let me at least be happy and smile this moment, enjoying my very breath if nothing else. If somebody else is upset and something else is wrong, never mind. At least you can breathe happily. Nobody is going to hold your nose. You are free there.

You sell your happiness for peanuts! You sell your smile for pence! I tell you, it's not worth it. The entire world is not worth your smile. Even if you are made the king of or the emperor of the world, it's not worth giving away your smile. These are the niyamas, the rules, conditions for yoga. One of the limbs is santosha, being happy.

What is there to be unhappy about? Huh? You are losing millions of dollars? That's what makes you unhappy? So what! You are going to lose this body which is going to enjoy those millions of dollars! It's good. So many people had millions of dollars. They all died! What you are unhappy about, your friend leaving you? Your own body is going to desert you! Why you are so worried about your friend deserting you? Good. One thing gone, finished! Stage-by-stage. Sometimes people lose things one-by-one and sometimes they lose everything together. This is the only choice. Either you lose everything at one time or you keep losing them one-by-one. So, when you lose a friend, think, "Okay, I lost one. The body is anyway going to be lost after some time. It doesn't matter, I'm in the second category, losing oneby- one." Isn't it? You are not going to die along with your friend, you're not going to take them to heaven, even if they don't want to come. Everyone has their own ticket, their own time, their own place booked. There you cannot say, "I want to sit next to so-and-so." You cannot demand your roommates there. Why not be happy now?

The strength of your happiness is measured by the adverse situations you are in. If everything is smooth, then you giving a big smile is nothing! That smile is worth nothing! But, if you can smile through any situation, through any event! "So what, I'll keep a big smile and let the world die and disappear. I am not going to sell my smile. I'm not going be unhappy." This strength in you, santosha, is an attitude you develop. Again, another Mullah Nasrudin story ... Mullah Nasrudin used to grumble all the time. He was a farmer, so he would grumble, "Oh, there is no rain." There was no rain in California for so many years. He'd say, "Oh, there is no rain, no crops are coming, it's so difficult and ... " He was grumbling. And that year, there was very good rainfall, and he had great crops in his fields. People thought, this year Nasrudin will not grumble, because his crops have come on so nicely, so good, and so high. There's no problem. They said, "He must at least be happy." So people went to greet him, "Oh, Mullah, how are you? You seem to be doing very well, lots of crops. Your field is simply flourishing and so attractive." But Mullah had the same long face. He said, "Yes, now we have so much work to do. All these years I didn't have to do anything, with no crops. But now so many crops and I have to do this, go to market and sell them. It's a big headache!" He was still grumbling. Whether there were crops or not, his grumbling continued.

It is the same way in your life. You are unhappy about things you have and you are unhappy about things you don't have. Isn't it? Someone who doesn't have a car is unhappy, because he doesn't have

a car. Someone who has a car is unhappy, because he has to maintain that car and it is such a big headache: pay the tax, do this, maybe get a ticket ... I could simply take public transport and go as before. Now I have to do the cars service and keep it somewhere when I get out. If the battery goes down, do something about it. A hundred and one things!

Santosha . Develop the habit of being happy. You have to do it. Nothing else can give you that. Nobody else can do it. If anybody else or anything else does it, it will only be very temporary. You take a step! Santosha is my rule. Cleanliness and happiness. Tapah. Tapah svadhyaya eshwara pranidhanani. As we discussed yesterday, a little tapas [endurance, patience], svadhyaya, selfstudy and devotion to God, to the Lord, devotion to Lord.

These are the five rules. Vitarka badhane pratipaksha bhavanam. When the opposite of this bothers you - when your mind rebels against these principal rules - then bring up the feeling which is the opposite of it. And what is that?

He says, Vitarka himsa adayah krita karita anumodita lobha krodha moha purvaka mridu madhya adhimatra duhkha agyana ananta phala iti pratipaksha bhavanam.

Violence, untruth, and all this. The opposite values, whether done by ourselves, whether we make someone else do it, or we agree with somebody who did it. Three types. Either you directly indulge in violence, or you have someone else do the job, because you don't want to do it, or when someone does it, you agree with them, or approve of that action.

These three come from lobha [greed], krodha [anger] and moha [delusion]. When you are greedy, you make someone else do the action you wanted to do. It's out of greed, violence or untruth (all these negative principles), pride. When a person is greedy, he doesn't see things as they are. Also, when a person is angry, obsessed with anger, their discrimination, their mind gets clouded. Discrimination disappears. He doesn't know what he is doing. So, when you are acting or approving some action, see behind that. "Is it not the anger in me making me do this job? Or is it not my attachment, my entanglement, my delusion, that's stimulating this action for me?" Reflect on this. This could be mild, medium, or excessive. And what do they give? They bring duhkha [sorrow] and agyana [ignorance], a

chain of sorrow and ignorance. This is what the opposite will bring. When you know this is only going to cause me more pain and more suffering, you will shrink or shy away from these acts. You will adhere to your rules.

There are millions engaged in violent activity out there in the world. Why? They don't even know those activities are going to bring them more pain and suffering. They are ignorant of the pain. They are ignorant of suffering. Because suffering is not palatable or pleasing to anybody in the world. Not even an ant or a cockroach likes suffering. No human being wants to suffer. So why are there so many people engaged in criminal activity? Because they are not aware that it is only going to bring them more suffering, pain and ignorance. Isn't it? See this, wake up! That's what he says. That is hundred percent true.

Shauchat sva anga jugupsa parair asamsargah. Personal hygiene and cleanliness. Your attachment to the physical body is lifted up with this. You become more aware of your inner self, inner body, the light body that you are. Sva anga jugupsa. Craving for the different parts of the physical body. The craving for certain parts of the body begins in our mind, because one does not totally understand this body. Underneath the skin is flesh, bone, and nerves. Lack of total understanding of the body brings different forms of obsessions and maniacs. Those people cannot be satisfied by anything. Different obsessions take them over and they become violent. That's why there are many crimes happening in the world that related to the body. People kill each other just for fun. So many sex crimes happen, because of the lack of understanding of one's own body. What does Shaucha or cleanliness establish? Sattva shuddhi. The mind becomes sattvik and the brain, the buddhi [intellect] gets purified. Saumanasya, the mind becomes even and harmonious. Eka agrya [one-pointedness], indriya jaya atma [a say over one's sense organs], and atma darshana yogyatvani [the ability to realize one's Self comes to you by purity].

You can try all of these. When you are very unhappy or depressed for some time, not being in contact with anybody, is a very natural, inbuilt thing in our system. When you feel very unpleasant and depressed, you want to shut yourself away from everybody and just remain with yourself. Isn't it? It's a very natural thing. No contact with anyone else can bring a certain amount of purity in you. Do you see what I'm saying? No contact of any sort, even mental, can bring up the ability to realize one's Self, can make your brain, your mind, more one-pointed and can bring clarity in thinking. That's why most of the great works in the world have come in solitude. Do you see

that? When a great poem has to come, the person has to sit alone. Then he can write a great poem. A great painter wants to be by himself when he wants to paint something. Here, also people can use it for extremity. No contact means, "Oh, don't touch me!" People shy away. People take this to the extreme and distort them. This is what has happened. These signs have been misused in various ways. But this is a truth. Don't touch anybody or be in a contact with anybody for a day or two and you'll see your mind will get back to its shape. These are the effects of shaucha.

Santoshad anuttamah sukha labhah . Santosha, happiness and contentment. Contentment gives great joy. Anuttamah, the greatest happiness will come. It will be. Just cultivating this habit, this attitude of being happy, will in turn, not give you misery. It's not just mood- making, an attitude, "Okay. I will be happy. I'll move through this." Then that brings you the greatest happiness, uncomparable happiness in life. It cannot be compared to anything.

Kaya indriya siddhir ashuddhi kshyat tapasah. The body and the senses become strong through tapas. You are not pleasing God by fasting, nor will you go to heaven or get enlightened. What happens by fasting or by doing all these different practices? Your body becomes strong, you can withstand heat and cold, and resistance power increases. All this happens. The effect of tapas is that the body and senses become strong. Ashuddhi kshyat means the impurities are eliminated, they reduce.

Svadhyayad ishta devata samprayogah. By self-study, svadhyayad, the devas [the divine presences] are felt or experienced. By self-study, by observing, by being hollow and empty, you become a channel. You become part of the Divine. You are able to feel the presence of the Divinity. All the different angels and devas; all these different forms of our consciousness start blossoming.

Samadhi siddhir ishvara pranidhanat. By one-pointed devotion to the Divine, samadhi comes about. Sthira sukham asanam. Now, we have spoken about all the yamas and niyamas.

What is asana? Sthira sukham asanam. That which is steady and comfortable is the asana. So when we are comfortable, we are not steady. We are not sitting erect but when we are erect, we are so stiff. We are not comfortable. But asana is when both are together. Do you get it? You are erect and steady, and at the

same time comfortable. Sthira sukham asanam.

And what is the effect of asana? Prayatna shaithilya ananta samapattibhyam. Prayatna shaithilya, letting go the effort is the main point. Feeling the body, letting go of effort and experiencing infinity, harmonizing oneself with the infinity. We all do that anyway in the asana, right? Have you noticed how it feels when you do asanas with full awareness? Totally spaced out and spacey. Prayatna shaithilya, let go of the effort and sit in a comfortable posture. And happily, sukham asanam, pleasurably. Feel as though it's a pleasure just to be, to just sit. That is sukha. Sukha means pleasure. How do you approach a pleasure? "Oh, great! Oh, wonderful!" Have you ever sat steadily, saying, "Oh, it's wonderful just to be, just to sit?" If you do that once, you'll see how it feels. Prayatna shaithilya, letting go of all effort and feeling infinity.

What is the effect of it? What does it do? Tato dvandva anabhighatah. It hits the duality or conflicts in you. It roots out the conflicts in you. Dvandva anabhighatah. Anytime you are confused or your mind is in conflict, do asanas. Sit in an asana and you'll see right away, clarity comes. The effect of asana is clearing out all conflicts, duality.

Tasmin sati shvasa prashvasayor gati vicchedah pranayamah. In that or any state of asana, obstructing the flow of breath that is natural. Here he says, "Obstructing the natural flow, because your flow is not natural at all." We have made our breath so unnatural by being unnatural, so now whatever is natural is not natural! We have to revert back, and how do you revert back? Not just by accepting what is, however the breath is going - I accept it - no! Gati vicchedaha, break its movement, break the movement of breath, by consciously breathing deep, long and subtle, with counts and having attention at different places. That is the next sutra.

Bahya abhyantara stambha vrittir desha kala samkhyabhih paridrishto dirgha-sukshmah. In that one sutra, all the pranayamas are described. Just one sutra. Breathe in, hold, and breathe out, and hold, and with different counts, having attention at different parts of body, finished. One sentence, one sutra, all pranayamas have come (most of them).

Bahya abhyantara vishaya akshepi chaturthah . He says there is one

more pranayama that happens automatically when all the thoughts, ideas and objects from the mind are clear, then there is a natural pranayama that starts. It throws out all the impurities from the mind. That's the fourth pranayama. Bahya abhyantara vishaya akshepi chaturthah. Again he says that pranayama should be learnt with proper guidance. Don't just do it on your own - anywhere, here and there - proper guidance! The pranayama which happens all by itself, without any effort, is the fourth pranayama. When you go deep, the pranayama starts happening, breath starts happening. It breaks that routine way of breathing. It assumes or forms its own different rhythm. There's a fourth type of pranayama. And what is the effect of pranayama?

Tatah kshiyate prakasha avaranam. They thin down the curtain around the light. You are the light, but you do not know, because there is a thick iron curtain around. This thins down that iron curtain, making it more transparent, so that you are able to see you are light. Tatah kshiyate prakasha-avaranam. The benefit of pranayama.

And then another benefit, Dharanasu cha yogyata manasah. The mind gets this ability to stay at any one point in the body, to stay on any one thing. It gains the ability to intend. Until now there was no intention. You are moving like a crowd. There was no "you" inside. You had no intention at all. Now, with pranayama, clarity comes. Then you are able to have an intention, a direction. That's why you have noticed after good pranayama, you sit and your mind is clearer, steadier, and calmer. You are able to feel your body. You are even able to meditate, isn't it?

Svavishaya asamprayoge chittasya svarupa anukara iva indriyanam pratyaharah. The mind is used to clinging onto objects of the senses. That's what different guided meditations are for, giving the mind some other object to cling to. That is called pratyahara which means a substitute food for the mind. A substitution for the mind to coax it to come inside. See, you danced, it was substitution. And after dancing, you said, "See how wonderful it was!" So, these are called pratyahara, a food substitute for the mind to dive inside.

Tatah parama vashyata indriyanam. This brings all our senses, our body, everything together as one whole. You feel you are one whole. You have felt that after a good meditation and good sitting, haven't you? "Oh, I am whole; I am total." That's

what Jesus said, "I have come to make men whole. My purpose here is to make you whole, a complete person." That's what you feel when you do kriya and satsang [sing], your energy becomes complete. You feel total. You become whole. Tatah parama vashyata indriyanam. Then all your senses listen to you and you don't have to listen to them. Parama vashyata, with such contentment, such peace, such joy, such elevation, and such completeness. This is the effect of pratyahara.

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H.H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar & The Art of Living Foundation

His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is a renowned saint from an ancient lineage of masters of Southern India. In 1982, Sri Sri began to teach the Sudarshan Kriya, a powerful breathing technique that eliminates stress and brings one completely into the present moment. Today this is part of the popular Art of Living Course taught around the world. People have found powerful, long-lasting relief from the stresses and strains of their lives and have gained an unshakable sense of balance and joy.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is the founder of the Art of Living Foundation, a United Nations Non-Governmental Organization, and is the founder or inspiration behind numerous other charitable activities for service and the promotion of human values. As Sri Sri has said, "Service is the expression of joy and love. Ask yourself, 'How can I be useful to those around me and to the whole world?' Then your heart starts to blossom and a completely new level begins ... "

Each year Sri Sri travels around the world, invited to speak at large and small institutions reminding us that the great spiritual traditions have common goals and values, and that we are here to enjoy, to grow and to contribute. Sri Sri is certainly the epitome of these human qualities, these human values.

For more information visit www.srisrir.org

The Art of Living Foundation is an international nonprofit educational and humanitarian organization that offers workshops for self-development and spiritual growth that allow busy people to take advantage of Sri Sri's multidimensional teachings. The Art of Living

Foundation is a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) with the United Nations and sponsors service projects worldwide, including programs for people living with HIV, cancer, and depression, rehabilitative training for prisoners and vocational training for rural people in Asia.

For more information visit www.artofliving.org

The International Association for Human Values (IAHV) provides humanitarian service projects. 5H - Health, Homes, Hygiene, Human Values, and Harmony in Diversity - is the primary service arm of IAHV. 5H provides tools and resources to address not only basic human needs but also to foster individual empowerment and harmony in communities. The unique approach for 5H begins with its innovative Youth Training Program (YTP) which trains young people to become 5H community service leaders with a special emphasis on human values and sensitivity to cultural diversity and traditions. IAHV's Homes for Changes program - an element of 5H - is building homes, wells, and septic systems for poor families in India.

For more information visit www.iahv.org

Care for Children provides children with food, clothing and education. It is also building new schools in areas where they are needed and rebuilding schools in Gujarat, India after the 2001 earthquake. It began as the Dollar-a-Day program supporting a rural school in Bangalore, India, the only school of its kind in the area and grew to house and serve boys and girls from 50 surrounding villages. The approach used for this first school is expanding to other areas of India. All services are administered at no charge to each child.

For more information visit www.careforchildren.org

The Art of Living Course Part 1 is the ideal introduction to Sri Sri's wisdom. This 16-18 hour program over 6 days has uplifted the lives of many people worldwide. Breath contains the secret of life. Breath is linked to the vital life energy in us, or prana. Low prana translates into depression, lethargy, dullness and poor enthusiasm. When the mind and body are charged with prana, we feel alert, energetic and joyful. Specific breathing techniques revitalize and invigorate our physical and emotional well-being. You learn several powerful breathing practices, including Sudarshan Kriya, a unique process that fully oxygenates the cells, recharging them with new energy and life. Negative emotions stored as toxins in the body are naturally flushed out. Tension, anger, anxiety, depression and lethargy are released and

forgotten. The mind is left calm and centred, with a clearer vision of the world, our relationships and ourselves. The workshop also includes processes and deep insights into the nature of life and how to live happily and artfully.

The Art of Living Course part 2 and 3 are for those who have completed the Art of Living Course. These retreats spent in silence provide a profound opportunity to explore the depths of your own inner silence through deep meditation, seva and special processes. Each evening ends with a celebration of singing, dancing and wisdom. You leave feeling renewed and elevated, with a dynamism for greater success in all your activities. Some Advanced Courses are offered in Sri Sri's presence - meeting the master personally is a profound experience.

Sahaj Samadhi Meditation Not one of us lacks spiritual depth. The peace and happiness we seek in the world are already contained within us, covered only by clouds of stress and strain. These clouds are lifted with Sahaj Samadhi Meditation, a gift from Sri Sri. Sahaj Samadhi Meditation provides a rest much deeper than sleep. Like awakening renewed on a sunny morning, your outlook on life becomes more positive. Stress drops off, the chattering mind becomes serene and creative, aging slows and you rediscover the unshakable contentment of your inner Self. Sahaj Samadhi Meditation is easy to learn and practice. With simple guidance, anyone can meditate. Personal instruction is offered at Art of Living Centres worldwide.

For more information visit www.artofliving.org

Achieving Personal Excellence (APEX) We live in a world where executives and employees are under an ever- increasing amount of pressure to boost productivity while managing personal stress. For many, it's a formidable challenge. Fortunately, a revolutionary technique addresses this challenge and with startling and well-documented results.

The APEX Course is a practical training program that has been shown not only to reduce workplace stress and burnout but to increase mental clarity, creativity, awareness, and overall happiness. Participants have reported that the techniques and processes of the APEX Course naturally improve work/life balance, foster greater ethics and integrity, boost morale and team building, and promote a positive attitude that supports change management. Independent studies that have been done on the core APEX Course techniques

found significant increases in health, energy, well-being, depression relief, and an increased ability to be both relaxed and focus.

The APEX Course is a program of the International Association for Human Values, a nonprofit educational and humanitarian organization. IAHV is an international NGO in special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.

For more information visit www.apexcourse.org

Prison SMART (Stress Management and Rehabilitative Training) Foundation, Inc. is an innovative program licensed to teach a variation of the Art of Living Course in correctional facilities and juvenile detention centres in the United States.

ART Excel (All 'Round Training for Excellence) is a course for children and teens, providing practical techniques that enable young people to handle negative emotions such as fear, anger and frustration in positive ways. Taught on the ART Excel Course are vital non- academic skills such as the art of making friends, the secret of popularity, and the value of service to others - all in a supportive, yet challenging and fun atmosphere. Our toughest critics - the kids themselves - give this program rave reviews.

YES (Youth Empowerment Seminar) is designed for young people aged 14 to 18. The knowledge and abilities gained on the course help participating students to control their emotions, fulfil their true potential, acquire leadership skills and the ability to work in a team and in society in general. The students will learn how to avoid negative influences in the environment and how to free themselves from difficulties and tension. The seminar also strengthens self-confidence and selfawareness.

The Youth Empowerment Seminar enriches all areas of your life, immediately impacting your studies and preparing you for the challenges in the future, in your work, as well as in private life. When you fully develop your ability to learn, recognize your true potential and strengthen your ability to adopt to change, you will automatically have a successful and fulfilling life. This is what the Student Empowerment Seminar offers you!

For more information visit www.artoflivingyouth.net

SES (Student Empowerment Seminar) The purpose of the Art of Living University Program is to strengthen your potential as a student. The program increases your learning

ability, focus, and energy, and thus makes you ready for life's challenges. As you get stronger and more balanced through our program, you improve in all areas of study and personal life, such as your capacity to learn, to take initiative, to communicate and cooperate, to guide and coach others, to handle conflicts, in teamwork, and all this happens as you naturally allow yourself and others to grow.

For more information visit www.aoluniversity.org Shankara Europe Books, Audio CD's and DVD's of H.H. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar are available to order through the 'Shankara Europe' web shop: www.shankaraeu.com

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