Patanjali Yoga sutra 15

Let your dreams awaken you:

The next sutra is Swapnanidrajnanalambanam va meaning "the knowledge of dream or sleep can also awaken you". This is very interesting. You sleep all your life, but you have never met your sleep. It's like a person who has lived all his life with millions in his hands but never knew how to spend it. Or like a person who is sitting at the dining table with a delicious, elaborate meal, without knowing how to eat it.

It is the same with our life. Sleep is there but we do not know how to sleep! We dream everyday and we do not know what a dream is. When you sleep you let go of everything. If you hold on to anything, can you sleep? In sleep, your identity vanishes. You are neither male or female. There is no difference between a rich man's sleep and a poor man's sleep, between an intelligent man's sleep or a stupid man's sleep. Sleep is sleep. In sleep, what do you do? You let go of who you are, of your likes and dislikes. You cannot take anybody with you into your sleep. In your sleep you are devoid of your identity, your cravings, your aversions, your likes and dislikes.

This is exactly what meditation is, when you do not do anything. For God's sake, in meditation do not do anything. In meditation, do nothing and let go of everything, as you do during sleep. Patanjali says that the knowledge of sleep leads you to samadhi.

Next come dreams. Ignorant people make their dreams a reality and enlightened people see reality as a dream! Utter ignorance is trying to interpret dreams. Enlightenment means realising reality is a dream. Do you see the difference? If you go to an enlightened person and say this is my dream, he will say "Forget about it and wake up". When you go to a dream interpreter, they say, "Oh! this means that, that means this." Such ignorance!

There are five types of dreams. One is that which comes up in the form of cravings or your unfulfilled desires. They appear in dreams as fulfillment. Have you experienced this? Your latent desires always show up in your dreams. The second type of dream is stress release from the past. All you have experienced in life comes up as dreams. The third type of dream is an intuitive dream — where you think of what might happen in the future. The fourth type of dream has nothing to do with any of these. It is to do with the place where you are sleeping. For instance, if you are sleeping in a hotel in Italy, in your dream, you may experience Italian sounds and feelings. The fifth type of dream is a mixture of the four. You never know one from the other. So you cannot really distinguish a dream and say, "this is my intuitive dream". It could be, it need not be. A wise person would simply brush them aside.

Even this waking reality is a dream. Now you are sitting and reading, tomorrow you will be doing something else somewhere else and next week all this will be a dream. What you would do next week is a dream right now. Your mind dreams more when it is awake.

You have only two states of consciousness. One is deep sleep and the other is the dream state. Day-dreams or night dreams! Building castles in the air. The day-dreaming never ends. Then when you suddleny wake up to reality, that awakening is pragnya or samadhi.

Patanjali has done a marvellous thing by quoting this sutra. Knowledge of sleep awakens you. When a person is sleeping, he is not at all aware that he is sleeping. The moment he knew that he was sleeping or this is sleep, he is already awake. A person who is day-dreaming does not know he is day-dreaming. The moment he knows that he is day-dreaming, he awakes to the reality that very moment, instantly. Are you day-dreaming? Are you sleeping? There can be only two possibilities. There is no third possibility.

Patanjali Yoga sutra 14

Shaping your mind:

Be wary of what you let into your mind for it will determine who you are. The series on Patanjali's yogasutras continues

The next sutra is Vitaragavishayam va chittam meaning "the mind which is free from craving for objects blossoms fully". Water always assumes the shape of the cup it is poured into. In the same way, whatever thought you engage your mind with, your mind becomes like that. It develops the qualities of everything you put into it.Keep your mind engaged in the thoughts of the enlightened. Vitaraga means one who has gone beyond cravings or one who is liberated from cravings. If you think of such a person, then your mind also gets those qualities. It begins to feel the peace and quietness. You start assuming all those qualities and start developing those qualities in you. Our mind is like air which does not have a location. It is not fixed. Vitaraga is all permeating. So that air, that cool breeze, that energy enters in.The mind is also like ether which is all permeating. That is why people say

'Guru' means the enlightened one. Do not see them as human beings, as people with likes and dislikes. Otherwise your mind goes towards what they like and dislike. Likes, dislikes, cravings and aversion and anger, all these will come up. Instead you see the consciousness, as pure joy, as peace radiating. Even if any thoughts come, likes and dislikes come, again do not struggle. Just let go and relax. You begin to draw that energy and you assume that form.

You should try this on yourself as an experiment. Think of somebody who is very nasty and you start feeling all those nasty emotions inside. Have you experienced this? Think of somebody who is very jealous of you and then you will feel such uncomfortable sensations. Think of somebody who is into drugs and alcohol and who is very miserable and you will feel all those knots coming up in your body. Have you experienced this? Think of somebody who loves you very much and see how nice feelings come up in you, right? By putting your attention on the enlightened, your consciousness also becomes more and more alive and filled with more light.

So Jesus says, "If you have to go to my father, you have to go through me. There is no other way." It means that you have to go through a master because the Master is a solid example and that is why Master is the doorway. You have to pass through your mind and what can help you go through the mind is the doorway. That is how mind blossoms.

Patanjali Yoga sutra 13

Breaking the rhythm:
Only you have the power to free yourself of your sorrow. The series on Patanjali's yogasutras continues Sutra 34 says Prachchardana vidharanaabhyam va praanasya meaning 'by splitting and retention of breath in a special manner'.
Prachchardana pranasya means breaking the natural rhythms of breath and holding the breath. It means sustaining the breath in different rhythms. By modulating the prana, the mind becomes calm.

Sutra 35 says Vishayavati va pravruttirutpanna manasaha sthithinibandhini meaning "by that very activity in the mind, through those very objects of senses, the mind can be made steady, brought to a stand still". Through any one of the objects of the senses, the mind can be made still. By the same activity in your mind, that very activity through that very sense, mind can be brought to a stand-still..

Sutra 36 says Vishoka va jyotishmati meaning "get rid of unhappiness and at the same time know that your mind is bright". If you have observed that someone you know is unhappy and you sit with that person, you also start feeling depressed or sad. If someone is joyful, and you sit with them, you start laughing. This feeling of being happy or unhappy is the training we have given our minds. If you have made a habit of being unhappy, you do not special reason to feel unhappy, but it has become sort of a leech on you, to keep a long face and complain! Patanjali says the answer to this is vishoka, which means 'get rid of unhappiness'. The sadness is just your habit. It is all self-made. The moment you look at your mind, the self-made sadness will disappear. You become free of that sadness. It is just a concept like any other concept. Your comparisons can bring you sadness. Do not compare yourself with anybody. You can be more happy then. Make your mind free of sadness. That sadness comes out of concepts. Do you see this?

Jyothishmati pragnya means seeing your whole mind as a light, as a flame. Your consciousness is a flame; your mind is a flame. You forget this. Due to the presence of the mind as a flame in you, your entire body is functioning. Otherwise you will be like an unlit candle. What is the flame? How does that flame work? The flame lives on oxygen. What does it do? The flame uses some matter from the substance earth and then it uses oxygen and lights. What is life? Life is also the same. It uses oxygen and lives on some matter. Just like flames live on wax and the wick and uses oxygen, your life uses the body and the food in the body as wax and then the air is oxygen and exhibits activities in the body.. Like the flame exhibits itself, consciousness exhibits life. Life and light are very synonymous. They are very close. If you put a bottle above the candle, the candle will be put off in a few minutes.

The body, after certain years of burning, any amount of food you put into it will not sustain the body. The body does not hold on. This body is holding on to jyotishmati pragnya. Vishoka va jyothishmati - 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.

Patanjali Yoga sutra 12

How to make friends:
Sutra 33 says Maitrikaruna muditopekshanam sukhadukhapunyapunyavishayanam bhavanataschitta prasadanam, meaning that "by practising the habits of friendliness compassion, happiness and virtues and by being indifferent to misery and sinful vices, your mind is pleasant".

Patanjali categorises people into four types. One, those who are happy; two, people who are unhappy; three, people who are engaged in good or virtuous acts; and four, people who are engaged in not so good acts. So, the four categories of people are sinful, blessed, happy and unhappy. Now, how do you deal with them?

He says to have maitri — the act of being friendly with those who are happy. If you are not friends with people who are happy, you will feel jealous at the thought that someone is happier than you. But if you own them, if you feel they belong to you, then you will not be jealous of them. When they are happy it will no longer bother you.
Now what about unhappy people? If you are friendly with unhappy people, what happens? You also become unhappy. So just don't be friends with unhappy people, but be compassionate towards them.

The second bhava Patanjali has given is Karuna or compassion. Have sympathy or compassion for those who are suffering, but do not become friendly because they will drag you down too. If you have to share your unhappiness with your friends, then share it.

Most people do not know how to be with those who are suffering. We end up strengthening their belief that God is unjust. "Nature is so unkind to you. Why are you suffering? You poor thing", we keep telling them. We push them further in, instead of helping pull them out.

Do not pity the people who are suffering. There is a difference between compassion and pity. When you pity them, you are putting them down. They are already miserable and you go and make it worse when you tell them it should not have happened to them.

Patanjali says to feel happy with those who are doing a meritorious job. Become one with them and start feeling you are doing the same. Then you will stop finding fault with those who are doing good. People have this tendency to try and find fault with those who are doing a good job. Criticism usually comes from those who do not work. When you become one with those who are doing good acts, it will seem like you are doing them. Share in the happiness of others and feel happy.

Ignore (Upeksha) the people who are doing sinful acts. If someone says something which is not the truth, brush it off. It is not even worth thinking about. In the newspaper, you will read reports of people murdering and lying and cheating. If you see someone like that educate them and ignore them.. You educate them out of compassion and ignore them for your own sake. Otherwise you will take that to heart and start worrying. When you think someone is imperfect and keeping thinking that about them, then you become imperfect yourself. In this way, the chitta or your mind is pleasant.

Patanjali Yoga sutra 11

One body, one mind:

We discussed the nine types of obstacles in 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.

With a few words, he has said all that has to be said. Along with these nine obstacles, the five indications or signs of the disturbed mind. Which brings us to Sutra 31: Dukha dourmanasyangamejayatva shwasaprashwasa vikshepasahabhuvaha, which means "Sorrow, bitterness, body not listening to you, shaky and irregular inspiration and expiration are the companions of these distractions".

In the previous Sutra, we discussed the nine obstacles on the path. What come with these obstacles are dukha or sorrow and "Dourmanasya", which means bitterness of the mind. Angamejayatva means the body is not listening to you. It is like a man who has drunk too much wants to go left but starts moving to the right. He wants to walk straight but his body goes won't comply. Angamejayatva is the lack of co-ordination between the body and the mind where the body wins.

Shwasa prashwasa means irregular, shaky and uncomfortable breathing. If you have observed your breath, when you are happy or excited, the incoming breath is longer. You are more aware of the incoming breath in the state of excitement. When you are unhappy, your exhalation is longer and there is a total imbalance of breath. Have you noticed this? These are the vikshepas or distractions that come along with this obstructions. Question is, what do we do to rid ourselves of them?

The next sutra says Tatpratishedharthamekatattvabhyasaha, meaning "For their prevention, practice one principle". Patanjali says that the way to get rid of the obstacles is by doing one thing at a time. What does that mean? That way your attention is focussed on that one thing only. But what happens when you do just that one thing? There is boredom, restlessness. But it is that restlessness and boredom that will take you to the peak of clarity. This is the only way out.

The mind is always troubled because it dwells on duality. It has choice, so it is confused. The divided mind is a miserable mind.. Have you noticed that all the moments you have been happy, your mind was whole?
Duality causes fear and misery. It is not eka tattvabhyasa or one practice.
So what is the eka tattva? It means attending to one principle. That one principle can be God, it can be the Guru, it can be self. It can be anything but eka tattva abhyasa — practice one thing. It is the only way to overcome these obstacles.
All these nine obstacles can be gotten rid of only if there is certain amount of calmness in the mind. Holding on to one principle means seeing oneself or God or the Master in everybody. There is nothing other than this. Life is holding on to one principle and seeing that one principle in everything.
But our lives are lived in the realm of multiplicity. In the world you live with many people and not everybody is the same. So how can you see the same in everybody? It will be explained in the next sutra.

Patanjali Yoga sutra X

Hurdles of peace:

What are the obstacles on the path to discovery? They add up to nine — Vyadhistyanasamshaya pramadalasyavirati bhrantidarshanalabdha bhoomikatvanavasthitatvani chittavikshepaste antarayaha meaning "Illness, inability to comprehend; doubt, carelessness, laziness, non-attachment towards the senses, hallucination, and non-attainment of any state or instability are the distractions of the mind which cause obstacles in the path".
Vyadhi or illness in the body is the first obstacle. The second is styana or the illness in the mind that is either mentally challenged or is incapable of comprehension. For example, you will be perfectly alright but when you get to start meditating, sickness befalls you! If you are watching television, nothing happens, but if you sit down to meditate, the body grows restless. This is an obstacle in your path.
The third obstacle Samshaya or doubt. You first need to understand doubt. Your doubts are always about something that is good. You never doubt negativity. Instead, you always doubt positivity.. Has anyone ever doubted their depression? You never ask yourself, "Am I really depressed?", but if you are happy, you doubt yourself. You keep asking yourself if you are truly happy.
There are three kinds of doubts. The first is doubt about oneself. The second is doubt about the technique that you practice on the path and the third is doubt about the master or teacher.
Pramada means doing something wrong knowing that it is very wrong. You know that certain things are not good for you and knowing this too well, you do it. Or, knowing too well that you have to do something and not doing it is pramada. You know that if you do not do a certain job you will be in trouble but despite knowing that you will be in trouble, you get into trouble. This is pramada. Carelessness, not being alert and attentive is the fourth obstacle.
Alasya is laziness or heaviness of the body. You may do a lot of things, but when it comes to doing little asanas, postures or exercise, you simply don't. This laziness which can creep up in any aspect of life while doing anything is the fifth obstacle.
Avirati means being engaged in any one of the sense objects and not coming out of it. You can call it obsession. When you are hungry, you eat food. But after your stomach is full, then there is no point in thinking about food the whole day. All the organs of senses and their action is limited to some time and it should be over after that. But thinking about it 24 hours and being feverish about the whole thing all the time is avirati, is obsession. Do you see what I am saying? Is it clear?
It is the same reasoning for sex. Do not think about sex all day long. If you, then it is avirati. Incompletion of any sense creates attachment of that object. Avirati is a big obstruction in the path of yoga, for, it does not allow you to get centred.
Bhranti darshana or hallucination is the seventh obstacle. Many seekers practice something and get some vision and they get caught up in that vision because the visions are neither completely false nor completely true. They are a mix of both. So people try to hold on to it. Many cults have happened in this part of the word just because of this bhranti darshana. They have never understood these obstructions that can come in the path of yoga. This is called Yoga Maya. Yoga Maya means a vision would come and give you some message or it will be an intuitive message. You are sitting and meditating and a message will come, "Go and open the door; somebody is waiting for you" and you go and open the door and you find someone there and that gets you excited. But just because you had intuitive thoughts a few times, you get caught up in assuming all the thoughts that come to your mind always come true. But, many times residues or traces of your desires and hatred and fear will also come up. This is delusion or bhranti darshana.
The eighth obstacle is Alabdha bhumikatva.. This is when one feels completely stuck, when you get that feeling that you are not going anywhere. The eighth obstacle is non-attainment of any state or samadhi, any peace or tranquillity.
Then comes anavastitava or instability. Sometimes people say that while doing meditating they feel peaceful and experience bliss, but, after a few minutes the whole thing vanishes. This is another usual complaint that people come up with. This ninth obstacle is known as anavastitatva.

To Be Continued...

Patanjali Yoga sutra IX

Word Power:

What do you call the consciousness where the all-knowing seed is present? How do you address it? Patanjali says 'Om' is the nearest sound that it can be addressed with. When you say Om, the consciousness is complete.
Om is the combination of 'Aa', 'Oo' and 'Mm'. When you say 'Aa', the prana is in the lower portion of the body. When you say 'Oo', it is in the middle portion and when you say 'Mm', the prana moves to the upper portion. When you say Om, the prana is complete. Om is therefore the sound closest to complete consciousness.
All religions in the world have something very close to Om. Christianity has 'Amen' and Islam has 'Ameen'.
Tajjapastadartha bhavanam is the next sutra, meaning "When you remember the Divine by repeating the word, the word uttered gives you the feeling of the Divine".
This is an important sutra. Japa is basically a sound that can remind you of that state of feeling. For example, if you say mango, the word immediately conjures up the idea and the feeling of the fruit.
If you are fond of mango your mouth almost immediately starts watering. Say 'Diwali', don't you think of gifts and celebration?
Tajjapastadartha bhavanam means that when you say Om, you remember the totality of the being, which is free from misery and which is unconditional love. Om reminds you of the Lord of the creation.
Tataha pratyakchetanadhigamoapyantarayabhavascha is the next sutra and it means "When the understanding of the self happens, obstacles in your path will vanish".
What is the use of it? When this feeling of total consciousness enters your being, your mind is transformed. There is clarity in thought.
There is clarity in feeling. The whole body undergoes a transformation and you will find that you are full of prana and every obstacle in your path is removed. To Be Continued....

Patanjali Yoga sutra VIII

All seeing, all knowing:

The next sutra is Tatra niratishayam sarvagnabëjam (Sûtra 25) meaning "In Him exists the seed of all knowingness in a special manner."
The seed of knowing is present in God. But then people begin to ask questions — "Well, if Lord Krishna knew everything, why did he try to stop the war three times? He knew the war was going to happen anyway. He never told Arjuna that he was going to win the war. No. All He says is 'If you win the war, you will rule this world. If you lose the war, you will go to heaven'.'
He does not give the right answer, the right knowledge. He does not tell Arjuna what the result is going to be. The question is why.
This seed of 'all knowing' is present everywhere. For instance, when you have a dictionary at home, any moment, any word you want, you can just turn the page and pick it out. You do not need to know by heart every word present in the dictionary. Similarly, if you open yourself up to this highest form of your consciousness, this moment, all knowledge is present.
What does 'all knowledge' mean? This moment you know or feel all the beings in the world and what they are doing. How many millions of people are there in this planet? At this one moment, there are many people in the world who are snoring, similarly there are others who are fighting and many who are just eating. And this is just the people. Now take into account all living beings. So many eggs hatching, so many being chickens being killed. So many buffaloes wandering around; so many cows grazing; so many monkeys jumping from tree to tree; so many ants, cockroaches, flies, mosquitoes, amoebae… millions and millions of viruses and bacteria..
There is an enormous amount of activity this very moment. Among this enormous activity you pick up the one — what is so and so doing right now. This is a very difficult job, sometimes not worth the time, but it is possible. Sometimes people ask me how I know the most secret thing in their life, the thing they never told anyone about. I tell them I do not know, but I know it. On the other hand, sometimes I don't even know where I have placed my pen or comb.
This is most confusing to people who wonder how I search for my comb, yet know their deepest darkest secrets. That is the seed of 'all knowingness' present in the consciousness. Yes, it is indeed amazing.
The next Sutra is Sa esha purveshamapi guruhu kalenanavachchedat' meaning "He is the master of those who lived before too as he is not limited by time."
This consciousness is the Guru /guide even to those who were there before. There is no break in time as far as it is concerned. In the Bhagavad Gita, Lord Krishna tells Arjuna, that the knowledge he is giving him, he has taught to Ikshvâku and Manu before. When Arjuna asks how that is possible, Krishna says, "You do not know me. See, I have come so many times and you have come so many times. You have forgotten and I know it all. I have taught then, I am teaching now also. I will continue to teach in the future also."

Patanjali Yoga sutra VII

God is in you:

Eshwara pranidhanad va" (Sutra 23) meaning "Just by pointed devotion to God." Just by surrendering to the lord, you can achieve the fully blossomed state of consciousness. Now, what is the lord? Who is the lord? Where is he? It is easy to say surrender to God, but what is God? Where is God? Nobody has ever seen God. Then comes the next question. What is lordship? What is that which rules this world?
You find that it is love that rules the world. The core of the existence rules this universe. Like the Sun is the centre of the solar system and rules all the planets, the very core of your existence life is governed by love. That consciousness, that core of existence is responsible for this whole creation.
A bird feeds its young out of love. Ducks hatch eggs out of love. Cows take care of their calves out of love. Have you seen monkeys? How they care for their young ones! Love is in-built in this creation. That is how creation functions. That is why Jesus said, "Love is God and God is love."
Patanjali in the next sutra beautifully analyses this state of consciousness.
"Klesha karmavipakashayairaparamrushtaha purushavishesha ëshwaraha" (Sutra 24) meaning "God is that special self who is free from affliction, action, fruit of action, impression and untouched by events."
The core of consciousness is free from suffering. There are five types of suffering which are enunciated. One type of suffering is ignorance or avidya. When your consciousness is filled with ignorance, then there is restlessness, there is unhappiness and suffering. Misery is because of ignorance. Ignorance is giving importance to something not worth the importance. Ignorance is thinking something that is changing to be permanent or imagining something to be joyful which is not joyful. Do you see what I am saying? Just like, when someone passes a comment about you. It is just a word that came from the person's mouth and vanished. But thinking it is a permanent thing, keeping it in your mind is ignorance.
Asmita means "me, me, I, I" and is the second cause of suffering. What people think about me? What do I want from them? How do I take advantage of them? Do they think I am good or bad? All these things are asmita. They give nothing but misery. They give you misery because of not being one with existence. This asmita eats you up. That is the cause of your suffering. The third is raga or craving for anything, fourth is dwesha means aversion or hatred and fifth is abhinivesha or fear. These are the five sources of misery.
That consciousness deep down in you is devoid of these five factors. Though outwardly you are miserable, outside you are craving for something, 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 be hating somebody on the outside, but from the centre of your existence there is no hatred. There is fear only on the outside. There is ignorance only on the outside, but when you come to the core of your existence, there is no fear. There is no ignorance there. There is no 'you' there.
When these are eliminated even from the outer body, then whatever is in the centre becomes eminent, so obvious. The Lordship in you blossoms. God in you is manifested. So God is that purusha, that being which is devoid of sufferings or misery.

To Be Contimued.....