Patanjali Yoga Sutra VI

Keep the faith:-

Shraddhveerya smrutisamadhiprajnapurvaka itaresham (Sûtra 20) meaning "By faith, by vigour or courage, by memory of having experienced the self and through the deep state of equanimity, a state of heightened awareness is gained."

This is a vital sûtra. Shraddha means faith. Faith makes your consciousness stable, steady and solid. Doubt in the consciousness makes you vulnerable, fearful and uncertain. Faith brings out the totality in you. It pulls together all loose ends of consciousness. It integrates your whole personality. Doubt scatters you. Doubt destroys you. Doubt disseminates you and your energy. Doubt is something that pulls you apart. Dissemination of energy is doubt. Consolidation of your energy is faith. Are you getting what I am saying? The very feeling of your having faith is a sort of consolidation.

That is why Jesus always said that faith is your strength. They are synonymous — faith and strength. When you are strong and bold, you have faith. When you are weak and feeble you have doubts. Doubt is a sign of weakness. When there is faith, then samâdhi (Equanimity or meditative ness) is also achieved.

Veerya is vigour or valour. For example, the force with which a soldier marches on is Veerya. Have you not noticed how valour rises in people when they say, "We fight for our country, my country. My country is in danger, my religion is in danger." You think they simply do it without getting any joy out of it? In that moment of valour or extreme sense of patriotism, they get such a tremendous joy. That is why this world is facing wars again and again. If people would completely condemn war, if nobody liked war, then war cannot and would not happen.

Though the result of war is not palatable, the process of war is very thrilling for people. Every cell of your body becomes united and the whole defense system in you gets awakened. That is again strength. When defense against fear comes to its peak, it is joyful because there is also equanimity there. There is a sense of gratitude. So, a sense of patriotism or valour or vigour also takes you to the state of meditation.

Smruti is the memory of it.

Once you have had a very peaceful, beautiful state of mind, the very memory of it will come back again and again and make you relive the moment. Memory of samâdhi reproduces memory of one's being. It brings the memory of self, memory of freedom and memory of devotion. Memory of surrender, memory of love, memory of joy brings you back to yourself. Often, we do not remember nice things. What we keep remembering is bad things. We do not remember compliments but we remember somebody's insults.

But yoga is turning the wheel full circle. Remember those wonderful moments you have had. Sit and be with that very memory. Your entire being gets back to the state. Then through samâdhi, through deep meditation, through deep equanimous mind, awareness is gained. Pragna or heightened awareness is the result of samâdhi. So these many ways, these many avenues are there so that you can blossom in life.

And that beings us to the next sutra — Teevrasamvëganamasannaha meaning "The spiritual path is very easy for one who gives first preference to it, who gives it supremacy over all other things."

What do we often do? We give priority to worldly things or survival and anything spiritual features last in our list. Patanjali says, Teevra samvegânâm âsannaha. When you give first preference to your spiritual practice, then it is easier. If the focus of your life is spiritual growth, then all other things will be around that. Your first and foremost commitment in life is to be with the truth, to evolve in truth. So, it is very easy for one who gives first preference to it, for one whose mind really wants to move in this direction.

To Be Continued......

Patanjali Yoga Sutra V

In your mind's calm:-

The four types of Samadhi that we discussed are

1. vitarknugama samadhi (the calm of mind that you get from special logic),

2. vichrnugama samadhi (equanimous state where you are aware of the thoughts, yet they are not disturbing you),

3. anandnugama samadhi (blissful state) and

4. asmitnugama samadhi (deep experience of meditation with just the awareness that you are).

Now, how to achieve these states of Samadhi? The next sutra says it is very simple.

Viramapratyabhyasapurvaha samskarasheshonyaha (Sutra 18) meaning the practice of deep rest consciously happens in some people naturally due to old impressions. Just by doing something, you cannot achieve this awareness. You cannot bring up the intelligence or alertness in you by effort. This happens without effort, by relaxation, by reposing in the self.

Unconscious rest is sleep, which we are forced by the nature. You are not resting then, you are forced to rest. You are so tired and nature is pulling you down and forcing you and making you rest. Real rest happens only in deep meditation because you are consciously resting then. You allow yourself to rest. Do you see the difference? Sleep is putting you to rest but meditation makes you rest on your own. Practice deep rest consciously.

Some people have to practice this in order to be equanimous and bring up more awareness in them. For some people it is by old impressions (samskaras) of some lives, past lives, births, it just happens. Sometimes right from the birth or sometimes at some particular period in life they start opening up. This is Samskara Sheshonya. Have you noticed this? Some people, after 30-40 years, suddenly open up to some spiritual experience. They have more awareness but unfortunately, most people are misguided. This is because there is no root of understanding of yoga. At that stage instead of being misled by such experiences, such evangelic experiences, they should know that they are all from samskjra shesha (old impressions). That is a different type of samadhi.

Bhavapratyayo videhaprakrutilayanam (Sutra 19) meaning that which is caused by this existence (i.e., you meditating in this level of existence) also influences those who do not have a body and those who have merged with nature. Samadhi is not the property of just this level of existence. It surpasses this level. It goes into the other worlds too. People who do not have a body, they too can get affected by meditation. When you meditate you are not just bringing a harmony within yourself, but you are influencing the subtle layers of the creation and the subtle bodies of all the different levels of existence in the creation.. So your meditation influences those people who lived 100 years before you.. Their consciousness and their mind are affected. And also it affects the minds /consciousness of people who would live in the future. This is because life is infinite. Though life is in every moment, it is also infinite. Your life has been here from thousands of years, from centuries and your life will continue to be here for centuries.

Videha means one who does not have a body. You can walk feeling as though you do not have a body and the mind is in such a state of equanimity. Those who do not have a body are also coming under the effect of yoga with Prakruti laya, which means completely submerged in the nature. They also attain the same stage of equanimity. Either you are so much away from material existence, completely not aware of the material world and the body or completely immersed in the object of the world. You can do it either with your eyes closed or looking and observing nature. This is Prakruti laya Samadhi — merging with the nature at that moment. Have you ever had this experience? No thoughts, no mind, no body, no awareness when you stare at nature? This is prakruti laya samadhi.

Prakruti Laya is very difficult but there are some people who practice it — sitting for hours together, in solitude, just observing till all thoughts disappear. All that they are left with is emptiness. You can do this as an experiment when you are worried. Just sit by a flowing river and keep looking at the water. Within a few minutes you feel as though a magnet is drawing you in. Your mind is being pulled in the direction of water flow. Knowing you are not the body but you just have a body is videha.

To Be Continued...

Patanjali Yoga Sutra IV

Free your mind:-

Is practice alone enough? Patanjali says "No". There are two oxen, which pull a cart. The two wheels of this cart
are abhyasa (practice) on one side and vairagya (dispassion) on the other.

What is vairagya?

Drishtanu shravikavishaya vitrush'asya vashikara sanjna vairagyam (Sutra 15) meaning "dispassion is that state of supremacy of consciousness in the one free from the thirst of the perceptible and celestial enjoyment".

The mind gallops towards the world of passion. You just keep quiet, close your eyes or open your eyes or do anything.. Where does your mind go? It travels towards the sense of sight. You want to see something somewhere.

Or the mind runs towards he sense of smell, taste, sound and touch. Do you see that? Or it gallops towards something it has heard. It has never seen but it has read some thoughts. This craving for any of these experiences in the mind can stop you from being in the present moment.

Vairagya is that, when, for a few moments, however beautiful a scenery is, you say: "I am not interested at looking at it right now". However good the food is, you say, "This is not the time. I am not interested in it".

Even a few moments of retrieving our senses, the craving or thirst for objects and going back to the source is vairagya. Are you getting this? This is another basic requirement for meditation. Whenever you want to meditate, your mind should be in dispassion. Without dispassion your meditation is no good and cannot provide you the rest that you are longing for.

Your mind is tired and bogged down by galloping through desires. It is so tired. Just turn back and see all the desires you have had. Have they given you rest? No. They have only created a few more desires and the few more desires, which come, have they given you rest? No. They have given you more, for you to achieve more and have another trip on the merry-go-round. You are not just here, you just go round. You know, the merry-go-round has horses, which do not go anywhere. They just go round in the same place.

Stuck in this illusion, you travel miles and miles but go nowhere. This is what desire does to you.

There are two types of arguments even in this. "The sage has said that you should not have desires;
so I will not desire anything" is one argument. Now, saying "I do not want any desire" becomes another desire. Some people do this and that is beating around the bush. Some people are on a trip to destroy their desires.

Vitrushnasya vashikara sanjna vairagyam. The mind that gallops is an obstruction. An expectation in meditation is an obstruction. You have heard somebody's experience of light coming and somebody coming from heaven and taking them by hand and you see it with your eyes close. All these ideas are the construction of fiction.

Your desire for pleasure or happiness makes you unhappy. You examine whenever you are unhappy or miserable. Behind that is your wanting to be happy. You got it? Craving for happiness brings misery. If you do not even crave for happiness, then you are happy. You crave for happiness and you invite misery. When you do not care for happiness, you are liberated and when you do not even care for liberation, you attain love. The first step is when you do not care for happiness. The second step is param vairagya or supreme dispassion when you do not even care for liberation. Then you are free. You are liberated.

Happiness is just a mere idea in the mind. You think that if you have this you are happy. If you have whatever you wanted, then are you happy? Vairagya is putting a stop to craving for happiness. That does not mean you must be miserable. It is not that. It does not mean you should not enjoy yourself, but the craving for joy, only when you retrieve your mind from it, only then can you meditate. Then yoga happens.

Your dreams and fantasies, just shatter them. All your dreams and fantasies, offer them to the fire. Burn them. What great happiness do you want to have? How long can you have it? You are going to be finished. It is all going to end. Before this earth eats you up, become free.

Free yourself from this feverishness that is gripping your mind.

Free yourself from this craving for happiness.

Look into every craving you have closely and remember you are going to die. Your craving for sweets, sugar, food. Ask yourself if you want to keep eating them. Ok, eat for as long as you like. See consciously, what can they do? Nothing. What else do you crave for? Beautiful views? Keep on looking at the view. How long you can go on looking?

Sex. How much sex can you have? Then you will see that there is nothing in it. How long? Few moments later, the body looks like styrofoam, that which was so attractive before.

What other thing? All these substances you see have limitations, but your mind is not ready for limitations. It wants unlimited pleasure, which the five senses cannot give you. It is impossible. You simply get burnt down, over and over again.

Skillfully handling the objects of senses and bringing it to the self is dispassion or vairagya.

The enlightened one:-

Often people who have dispassion keep blaming the world. They are afraid of the objects of senses and keep running away from them. They think it is a big temptation. How can something tempt you if you are not under its control? The fear of temptation is worse.

The next sutra is Tatparam purusharakhyaterguna vaitrushunyam (Sutra 16) meaning "Due to the knowledge of the self, the person is in a higher state, being indifferent to the qualities".

Once you know the nature of your being as total bliss, total pleasure, even the fear of the gunas, fear of the world, fear of the senses vanish. It is like a diabetic patient being afraid of sweets. Even looking at the sweet frightens them. It is forbidden, but one who has found sweetness in oneself, whether sweets are there are not there in front of such a person, it does not make any difference. This is paramavairagya or supreme type of dispassion where one is not scared or running away from the world, but being in the world is completely detached and centered.

People have very funny ideas about enlightenment. Every culture, every religion has got their own ideas about it. In Christian culture, a rich man cannot be enlightened. It is impossible. You have got to be in poverty to be enlightened. From the Christian point of view, Rama cannot be enlightened! Even a camel can go through a needle, but not a rich man!

Many years ago, once I was traveling from Bangalore to Delhi . I met a Christian priest in the airport. He just looked at me and I smiled back. He came to talk to me and said, "I feel like talking to you my dear brother. You seem to be a nice person." He asked me if I believed in Jesus and I said yes. He was a little stunned. He asked me the question again and I said yes again. Then he asked if I was a Hindu. And I said "perhaps". He then asked if I believed in Krishna and I said yes. He then said: "But how can Krishna be God? He is a butter thief. He was married. How can somebody be married and steal butter and all and be God? He is not the one who can give salvation. You know, Jesus is the only way. I was also a Hindu before and now I have become a Christian. From the time I have become a Christian everything is happening. Jesus is taking care of me. I tell you, you better become a Christian."

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

Jains do not think that an enlightened person, sadhu, should ever 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 would come up in him? Whether they are free from lust or not, how would you know? What is the proof? Jain sadhus are nude. They do not wear any clothes. They are considered enlightened. This is their idea of enlightenment. They simply do not consider those as enlightened who eat two square meals a day. That too one who enjoys a meal is not at all enlightened. Can a saint eat chocolate? He is not a saint then!

Buddhists have got their own idea of who is and who is not enlightened. Somebody who sings, dances, looks at the whole world, pleasing the world is not enlightened. Someone who meets their family and sits with their family is definitely not enlightened. I have seen many of these so-called sanyasis. They are so afraid that they cannot meet their families. May be attachment will happen. They have run away from the family and fear that attachment for the family can come up anytime.

I know of a so-called sanyasi who would not meet his mother. He would meet everybody else but not the poor old lady who is his mother! What had she done? He would not meet her. She was 70 years old and would cry and cry. So-called sanyasis, nuns, brothers, fathers behave like this because that is the idea they have. See, when you can love everybody, why can't you see your family members in the same light? Many sanyasis go through this difficulty in their heads about not seeing their family. These are all just concepts about enlightenment. The main essence forgotten is dispassion or centeredness. Being centered in spite of everything is the second essential principle in yoga. This is vairagya.

As you all know, there are three gunas or qualities. They are sattva, rajas and tamas. Three gunas come into our life in cycles. When Sattva comes, there is alertness, knowledge, interest, and joy in everything. When Rajo guna comes, more desires, selfishness, restlessness and sadness arise in us. When Tamo guna comes, delusion, attachment, lack of knowledge, lethargy, all this comes. These three come in life turn by turn. But one who is centered will watch, witness and just move through that very naturally, innocently, without being averse to it.

It is said: Yogaha karmasu kaushalam - the skill in action is yoga. Yoga itself means skill. Yoga is the skill to live life, skill to manage your mind, skill to deal with your emotions, skill to be with people, skill to be in love and not let love turn into hatred.

To Be Continued.......

Patanjali Yoga Sutra

Discipline, identity and understanding:-

Tado drashtuhu swarupe avasthanam (Sutra 3) meaning 'the seer then rests or remains in his/her own nature'.

Discipline is to unite yourself, to unite all the loose ends of your existence.

Vrutti sarupyamitaratra (Sutra 4) meaning 'You identify yourself with the modulations of the mind all the time'.

What this means is that your mind is engaged in the outside world all the time. With eyes open in the waking state you are caught up in all that you see, smell, hear touch, taste. If not, you return to sleep or to the state of dreaming where you are completely shut off from the world.

In the sleep and dreaming state, the same memories return but you are never to yourself, calm and quiet. You become the object of your perception. You know, if you see villagers or innocent people or children, when they are watching a movie, they are so totally involved in the movie and nobody exists for them at that time. It is just the movie that exists at that moment. They wouldn't even know if their legs were hurting or if they had a back ache. They do not feel pain. They do not feel their body at all.

What has happened? Your consciousness assumed the form of that movie, of that vrutti. You know, once in a village, somebody was watching a movie and the people saw that the hero was being tortured by the villain, people stood up really with sticks and stones and said, "Come on. I am going to hit you" and rushed towards the stage.. Our consciousness assumes the form otherwise.

The whole purpose of yoga is to be one with the self, to bring integrity and make you whole. 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 or in the nature of the seer. Otherwise, at other times you are with the different activities of the mind. You become one with the different activities. The modulations of the mind are of five forms.

Vruttayaha panchatayyaha klishtaklishtaha (Sutra 5)

Meaning 'the modulations of the mind are five-fold, painful or not painful'.
There are certain vruttis or modulations of the mind, which are problematic.
Now, what are those?

Pramanaviparyayavikalpanidra-smrutayaha (Sutra 6)

Meaning 'wanting proof, wrong understanding, imagination, sleep and memory'.
Five modes of consciousness arises in your self. What are they?

Pratyakshanumanagamaha pramanani (Sutra 7)
Meaning 'the different kinds of proof the mind requires are the obvious, experiential proof, inferential proof and scriptural proof'.

Pratyaksha means obvious, experiential. Our mind constantly wants to have an obvious, solid experiential proof. This is one mode of activity of the mind. Another is anumana, which means, it is not so obvious, but you infer and whatever you infer, you believe.

Agamaha is the proof the mind takes from scriptures or from books. Because it is written. Even today in certain remote villages, anything printed is the gospel truth. Many people say that since something is written it must be right. We are constantly looking for proof of something or anything.

Yoga is when you drop this search and then abide in the self. Abiding in the self does not need proof. Truth cannot be understood through proof. God is beyond proof. You cannot prove God, nor can you disprove God.

Proof is connected to logic and logic is very limited in its preview. This is the same with enlightenment, same with love. Love can never be proved or disproved. This is not in the realm of the seer. The seer is beyond proof.

Viparyayo mithyajnanamatadrupa pratishtam (Sutra 8)

Meaning 'wrong understanding is knowing of the unreal in a form that is not its own'.
Most of the time you impose your own ideas and views and feeling on others and you think that is how they are. This is called viparyaya. You have an inferiority complex or you suddenly see someone else behaving very arrogantly. They might not be arrogant and you are not being ill-treated by them. But you suddenly feel that you are being ill-treated. You are not respected because you do not respect yourself. You think that others do not respect you. This tendency of your mind is viparyaya. Suddenly people feel that they are not being loved.

Shabdajnananupati vastushunyo vikalpaha (Sutra 9)

It is a sort of hallucination followed in sequence by mere words or knowledge and which in reality is devoid of truth.

Vikalpa is sort of a hallucination. Nothing of that sort exists, just mere words which do not carry much meaning hover in the mind. This fantasy is called vikalpa, the third modulation of mind or chitta.

Vikalpa can be of two types. One could be a joyful pleasurable fantasy and the other could be baseless fears. "What will happen if I die tomorrow? What if I have an accident?" These are all just simply sounds which have no value. Baseless fears in the mind or fantasies.

Abhavapratyayalambana vruttirnidra (Sutra 10)

Meaning 'sleep is that modulation of the mind which has for its objective substratum, the cause of non-existence'.

If the mind is not in any one of the above mentioned three modulations, then in the fourth place it goes to sleep. The fifth activity of the mind is smruti, which is remembering the experiences it had.

Anubhuta vishaya sampramoshaha smrutihi (Sutra 11)

Meaning 'remembering the past experiences'.

To be continued…

Patanjali Yoga Sutra Part-II

Are you really happy? Or is it all an illusion?

A fortnight ago, we told you the story of how Patanjali came to be. We now begin the series on Patanjali's yogasutras

Atha yoganushasanam (sutra 1), which means "now I will enunciate the discipline of Yoga".

Shasana means rules someone imposes on you.. Anushasana is the rule you impose upon yourself. Do you see the difference? Now, why is yoga called a discipline? Where is the need for discipline? When does the need for discipline arise?

When you are thirsty and want to drink water, you do not say "Oh! This is a rule, I must drink water".. When you are hungry you just eat. When it comes to the question of enjoying oneself, no discipline is necessary. Where does discipline come into the picture?

Discipline arises when something is not very charming to begin with. Isn't it? When you are happy, when you are in peace or happiness, then you are already in yourself. There is no discipline there. But when the mind is wagging its tail all the time, then discipline is essential to calm it down. The fruit of it is eventually blissful, joyful. Like a diabetic saying, "I have the discipline not to eat sugar".

There are three types of happiness. One is Sattvik — happiness which is not pleasurable to begin with, but ends in joy; Rajasic — happiness that seems to begin well but ends in misery; and Tamasic — there appears to be happiness but in reality there is only misery from beginning to end.

No discipline is necessary for tamasic happiness. Wrong discipline results in rajasic happiness. For sattvik happiness, discipline is essential to begin with. It need not be uncomfortable all the time. But if it is uncomfortable, then you should be able to bear with it. You need discipline. That is why Patanjali begins with the present, when things are not clear and when your heart is not in the right place. Now let us look into the discipline of yoga.

It is nobody's imposition, it is self-imposed. There is a lot we impose on ourselves — every morning we wake up and brush our teeth, we then brush them again before going to bed. This is your discipline. But these have been self-imposed from childhood. Haven't they?

When you were a child, your mother had to impose the discipline on you. But then, once it became a habit, you understood it was for your own good. And then you found it was no longer your mother's rule but your own.

In the same way, keeping yourself clean, hygienic, exercising, meditating, being kind, considerate etc. All these rules you have imposed on yourself are all discipline. Isn't it?

Yoga means uniting with your source. When does that happen? This happens when the mind, which is chattering all the time, suddenly becomes silent.

So what is yoga? It is chitta vrutti nirodaha, our second sutra.

Yoga is the act of restraining or freeing the mind from the clutches of the modulations of the mind. There are five types of modulations of the mind — wanting proof for everything; lack of comprehension; imagination; sleep; and memory.

All through the day, your mind is in one these modulations. But, if there are those moments when you are not sleeping, not remembering old things, not imagining, or looking for proof, then that moment yoga has happened.

At that moment what is happening? You are just by yourself in the journey of your own self, which is the source of joy or source of love or source of peace and knowledge.

There are two types of thinking — occidental and oriental. In the oriental way of thinking, it said that there ia an ultimate and in the ultimate everything happens. In the occidental way of thinking you are always looking for an ultimate. In either of the approaches yoga is what happens when you are in the moment so totally at ease and peace.

So ,when does this happen? Whenever you are watching the sunset or when you experience beauty in your life or when you experience lot of energy in the body. This also happens after pranayama (breathing techniques) or during meditation. The mind is then free from all these five modulations. That is why when you do yogasanas you put the body, mind and breath, all in one rhythm. That is when real yoga is happening and you are with yourself.

To Be Continued...

Patanjali Yoga Sutra Part-I

Patanjali and the gift of knowledge:-

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 serpent Adishésha with a 1,000 heads. When the Rishis approached Him, he gave them Adishésha, 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 yogasutras. Patanjali said he was not going to discuss the yogasutras unless 1,000 people got together. So 1,000 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 1,000 gathered. Each of them absorbed this knowledge. It was an amazing phenomenon and even amongst the students, they 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 999 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.

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 yogasutras. So he remained in the tree as a Brahmarakshasa (the lesson here being that for the one who has great knowledge, and who does something wrong, the state of Brahmarakshasa will come. An intelligent person becoming a criminal becomes more dangerous than an innocent person becoming a criminal. If a person, who knows all knowledge and then turns a criminal, it is much more dangerous). So the Brahmarakshasa was hanging there and waiting for relief.

Then out of compassion, Patanjali himself becomes a disciple and comes 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 pf 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.

In this story, there is a lot of depth. The puranas do not give any explanation. They just give a story and it is for us to unlock the meaning. So what is that you all have to find out?

(1) How did the master convey the knowledge to everybody without uttering a word?

(2) What was the significance of the veil and when it was lifted why did everybody burn down?

(3) Why was the one boy forgiven?

(4) What is the significance of the goat?

(5) What is the significance of this story? You should think about all this and come up with your own answers.