Yogasara Upanishad
Commentary by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
Vol. 1 – 1st Day
What do you want to hear? Hmm… (Upanishad) What is Upanishad? Upanishad means sitting close, we are all sitting very close physically, mentally. Upanishad means what? Sitting close to the master. Not just physically sitting close to the master but also mentally. Mentally sitting close to the master means what? (Understanding) Right. It means understanding the words of the master. Something cannot be said fully in words but only an indication could be made. Deeper the subject, lesser the words can be reached. Whatever you can describe is gross. If you can describe something totally, it is very gross. Subtler you go, it becomes difficult to express, more difficult to describe, do you see what I am saying? You can experience pain, but it is difficult to describe the pain totally. You can experience an emotion but it’s totally impossible to describe it. Let alone make someone experience it. You experience love but you cannot describe it or express it totally. That is why lovers are in sort of restlessness. One wants to express but they cannot find words, cannot find any expression capable of totally expressing what they feel. But sitting close to the master, that is Upanishad, you catch on many things, you catch on the inexpressible, you catch on the something that you indescribable. Here words are simply a vehicle. But in between the words, a lot of flow is there, energy moves, grace moves, joy moves, that transforms the life. So Upanishad begins with a prayer. There is an innate tendency to unite because love is to unite. Love means what? A tendency to unite, to become one, to become one with what? what is this tendency to unite? This entire creation, there is a tendency to become one, to get back to one. Because the two is painful. From 2 to go to 1 is the purpose of creation. Everything wants to merge into something. What is that? We call love and Rishis called it yoga. Yoga means what? Union, uniting. Uniting what? That is what we will see in Yogasara Upanishad, protractions to para Brahman, Shri Ganesha, saras watidevi, all Rishis and Yogis.
( prayer…)
To him who ordains brahman in the beginning and who delivers to him the knowledge, the Vedas, to that God. Who is lightened by his own intelligence, do I eager for liberation, resort for refuge. Om peace, peace, peace.
To gain any knowledge, first these need to be peace. Now I am speaking and if you are not peaceful, you cannot be attentive. If you are not having some degree on peace in your mind, in the environment and in your soul, you cannot even hear the voice what I am saying. You cannot listen to what I am saying. First and foremost is what? Have peace. If this atmosphere is disturbed, suppose there is a fire in the atmosphere or if it is too cold here or too hot, I am sure you will not be able to sit, you will run away. First of all you need a peaceful atmosphere around you. Isn’t it? And then your mind needs to be here. If your mind is in your shop, in your business, or in your car, or at your home, then also you will not be able to hear me totally. Then no pointing sitting close to me having your mind somewhere. So you need peace in your mind, in your environment and in your soul. That of course you all have. The soul is totally restless, it cannot even come near the knowledge. Till that time it gains a little peace in it. In the realm of mind, light attracts light, if the soul is peaceful, then it attracts peaceful environment around it and people around it.
Three types of peace. How this peace can come? What is the way? Adoring the divine, recognizing the divine. To that divine which has no beginning, no end, to that divine from which all the knowledge is coming up. In one mind, the thought of computer chip’s came, making TV sets came, making rockets sending them to moon came, from where did this thought come? It came and expressed through a brain but from where? What is the source of it? See, that is the consciousness, that is imperishable, all pervading consciousness which is responsible for all knowledge, all technology, all science, all arts, all poetry to come. That consciousness, that divinity, that infinity, that is Brahman, that is responsible for the creativity, for the maintenance, for the transformation of the world, of the universe, to that I adore and I bow down.
Usually children ask a question if God created us, who created God? This is a puzzle because you always see some beginning to something and end to something. So God must have born sometime and must die sometime, or must be somebody, somewhere sitting high up in the heaven. This is clear in the very first sentence. No, its self luminant. like sun illuminates and because there is sun, you are able to see everything in the world, everything goes around the sun. Who illuminates the sun? nobody. It’s self affluent. From the torch you see everything else but you don’t need something else to see torch which is lit. In the same way, you are here and you don’t need any other proof to tell you, you are here. You are a proof, good enough to say that you are here. If someone asks what is the proof you are here, tell me! You say I’m here, (No ) what is the proof? Do you need some other proof to say you are? No, you don’t. You are self affluent. Your being, presence is good enough. Certain things cannot be proved. If they are proved, they will be false. The proof itself will be false. Do you see what I’m saying? So if someone tries to prove there is God, they are doing a big mistake because the means by which you prove God itself is wrong. Because whatever which can be proved can be disproved also. The Divine is beyond proof. ( Sanskrit … )
How does freedom come? If you are carrying a load on your head, there cannot be freedom. This is irony, big irony. Freedom and surrender, they go hand in hand. ( Sanskrit … ) One who is anxiously wanting to have freedom says ( Sanskrit … ) “I am surrendering because I want freedom”. In the west, the concept of surrender is totally different. They think surrender means bondage, surrender means getting stuck, surrender means having no power, surrender means defeat or bondage but the whole concept of Rishis of surrender is totally different. Says “I want freedom so I am surrendering”. There is no freedom at all without surrender and when I surrender I get infinite freedom. Greater my surrender is, greater my freedom is. That much the load is taken off from me. The more free I am, the more powerful I am, there is no other power on earth. Greatest power is in surrender, surrender to the Divine. It’s like a drop owning the ocean. The drop if it remains separate, it will perish but when it becomes the ocean, it’s eternal, it remains forever. Surrender brings that dignity to life. I tell you have no power to lose. What can a drop lose by getting into the ocean? It’s illusion that it is big. A drop thinks I am great, I am so big. Will I vanish? You will vanish if you do not unite with the ocean. You have nothing to lose, all that you can lose is your tensions, your worry, your little mindedness, fear and anxiety. And the fear, anxiety, tension, worry, in the small little mind will keep the mind from being free, will keep the mind from experiencing infinite potential, will keep the mind from becoming more powerful on this planet. ( Sanskrit … ) I surrender, as I am desirous of freedom. I want freedom. Om shanti, shanti, shanti. 3 times it said let them be peace.
Om is the peace, Om shanti, shanty, shanti. Om means that divinity, infinity, inexpressible existence is peace. The moment there is surrender, there is peace, that very second there is peace. ( Sanskrit … )
Now let us explain what is yoga? It cannot be explained still an effort could be made. What is this union? Union between what? The drop and the ocean, the mind and the soul, the small mind and the big mind, an individual with the infinity. What is yoga? What is it? Body, mind and being. If you are the ocean, where is the point of uniting? What is there to unite? It all that is only you, then what is yoga? Says now we will look into it, we will look into all this confusions. Many words have been said about it. Many concepts are floating in the air. Many opinion are there. It all appears to be different. Someone says devotion is yoga, someone says knowledge, awareness is yoga, someone says asanas is yoga, what is yoga? Each one has its own point of view and understanding. ( Sanskrit … ) Now we will explain what is yoga. First what? Have peace, surrender and peace. And now we can sit closer, sit together and see what is yoga?
( Sanskrit … )
Yoga is the restraint of thought waves. Mind is pouring in a lot of thoughts continuously. You are sleeping, dreams are coming and when you are awake, some thoughts or other goes on in your mind. Some thoughts you like and some you don’t like. The more you resist some thought, the more they bombard your mind. Then all these thoughts are hovering around in the mind with such speed and with such intensity and with such amount, quantity, there cannot be any union, there cannot be yoga. What to do now? The vritis（thoughts）, the modulations, functions of the mind need to be looked into. Then he says “yoga chita vriti nirodue”. Subsiding the vritis, or waves that are arising in the mind is yoga. You don’t notice when you are very peaceful, mind is calm, there are fewer thoughts or no thought. When you are listening to music and feel so pleasant inside, you only feel some sensations, there are no thoughts. If you are looking at a mountain or a sunrise, or a moon, what’s happening in your mind? Are there too many thoughts? Are you bombarded with many thoughts? No, there is only a pleasant wave, a cool breeze, beautiful sensations. Just remember all those moments in your life when you have been extremely happy or grateful or full of love or peace, you would have had very few thoughts or no thoughts. You all agree? And just remember or think about those moments in your life when you are very tensed, anxious or afraid, worried, a million thoughts would have poured in few seconds? You get it? Isn’t it? Those moments of celebration of joy or peace, of love, of calmness, your chita vriti has become minimum in control, have become very few thoughts. You feel like floating, lifted away. Those are the moments when you were uniting into one. Sign of uniting or sign of yoga is coming to your self, your mind setting into your being, your source, with your original nature.
3rd Mantra.
Then there is communion with the lord, with the Divine, with the infinity, communion, connection, merging into that principle, the divine principle deep inside. ( Sanskrit … ) Then, when thoughts are constrained, your mind is settled down, peacefully in that meditative state, you have become one with the divinity, divine. You are no more your small little individual self, but you are one with the cosmic life, cosmic being, one with god.
4th Mantra.
Learn the yoga under a guru. Many people have a question. What is a need of a guru? You can learn it with books. You can study, listen to the tapes, do something, what is the need of a master? In the Upanishad, rishis says, no! you have to study under a master. You may have been a student of anatomy, you may be a doctor yourself, but you cannot conduct surgery on your own body. You may be a massager, but you cannot have your own back massage by yourself. Even though you are a doctor, you need a doctor, need a surgeon. It’s not possible to treat yourself. You are a patient. When such a gross thing likes learning to drive a car, or taking care of your body, you need the help of someone. To walk in some area that is totally unknown, completely new, you don’t know nothing about consciousness, do you think you can do all by yourself, all by oneself. Not possible. If you want to drive a car in a new city, you need some map, some guidance, you’ll stop at petrol station several times to ask someone how to move there. You need loving guidance step by step. A lit candle can light a million more candles. It’s no problem. But just a match stick which is not lit cannot light a single candle. It has the potential, the matchbox has the potential to light, you can say everything that is needed is here but if it is not stroked and lit. Match stick has to be stoked and lit only then it can light other candles. Do you see what I’m saying? The guru itself means big, it’s not small. Guru word is Sanskrit means that which is enormously big, of which you cannot have any judgment, any concept, any ideas, cannot formulate and say this is what this is. Which is immeasurable, beyond comprehension that is guru, but still tangible, available. Infinity is available but not tangible but guru is both infinity and tangible. The divine is impersonal. Guru is both personal and divine. The impersonal personified, for your benefit because you know to relate only to that which is personified. Love is there in the whole creation. Everything is love but you have never related in your life other than name and forms. You could not have something which has no name and no form. Do you see what I’m saying? The guru embodies, Buddha embodies, Jesus embodies, that infinite love, yet with name and form. ( Sanskrit … ) Under the guidance of guru, near the guru, you have to practice the yoga.
5th Mantra.
What are the thoughts? What are the vritis? The modes, moods, they are like a whirlpool in the lake, that is mind. It is the same substance in you, same energy, you can spend the whole life worrying, grumbling, brooding over things and being miserable or the same energy can be used to uplift you to unimaginable heights. It is one energy, one wave, that is your mind. Like the whirlpool, the waves arise within the water. The same water is made into wave. Thoughts are not some external force coming into you and attacking you. It is part of the consciousness. How to move about with it? It’s we will see tomorrow.
Vol 1 – 2nd Day
Dear Panditji,
Your commentary of Upanishad stimulated me very much. And the following questions come to me. Knowing that Upanishad means sitting close to the master both physically and mentally. How does it apply in your teaching? Can every single person here claim that you are his/her master? How does a guru-disciple relationship arise? Does a disciple choose the master or the master chooses the disciple? Or is there a spontaneous recognition from both side? In some tradition, people say that initiation comes from within and establish a inner connection between the master and disciple. In other tradition, initiation occurs only from the embodied master. Could you comment? Is the physical proximity of master requires for the unfoldment of the disciple?
Guruji answered…
A master is like an ocean. Ocean is there readily available. It doesn’t reject anybody. What you want to take from the ocean, it is there to offer you. You can just put your feet in there and go back, that much you get. Some go with a surfing boat and surf, that’s fine, some go suba diving, some go to take oil out of it, some go and take precious stones, pearls, coral from the ocean, some are happy making salt out of the ocean. The ocean is there offering everything that you need. Some go for fishing there. So it’s up to you and your capacity, how much you take, how much you can digest, how much you can hold on. You don’t have to worry much about it. Should I be initiated or not initiated. The moment you feel the connection from your side, just know you’re already been connected. Otherwise you will not come anywhere near this knowledge, this path. So we said yesterday in the sutra learn yoga under the master under the guru, learn the union, learn the knowledge under a master.
And we saw what is this mind? What is consciousness? This consciousness is like a lake and the inner faculties of a mind are like a whirlpool in them. It’s one consciousness which has become the body, become the mind, the intellect, emotions, ego, self, everything that you have in you is made up of one consciousness like every wave in the water is made up of the water and the water itself and nothing other than water. Are you getting what I’m saying? ( Sanskrit … )
Consciousness has got four inner modes of operation or functions. What are they? 1) mind; 2) intellect; 3) chita—memory; 4) ego. It has been one consciousness in a fetus and because the consciousness is present, the fetus is growing, the cell got multiplied, one cell became the eyes, the same cell at certain other point became the legs, became the heart, it all happened by one single cell. Isn’t it? A simple cell knew where to become what, that much intelligence it had and the same cell changes its structure, texture to become eyes somewhere, become tongue somewhere else, and it becomes legs and bones somewhere else, blood somewhere else. One single cell became all the organs of senses and perception and action. In the same manner one consciousness became mind, became intellect, became the ego, became the chita —the memory. It is all different manifestation of one consciousness. What are the four different inner aspects?
The next sutra says ( Sanskrit … )
This consciousness which has become the brain, which has become the inner faculties or organs is of immense power. One thought came in mind to make a TV and the thought manifested as TV. All possible advancement in any field, either science or art today you see originates as a thought, originates in that ocean of intelligence. People talk about science meeting spirituality or spirituality coming together to science. This is such a immature childish statement. Spiritual knowledge is science and science can never be away from spiritual knowledge because spirit alone can bring the science up. They are two sides of the same coin. Even to say this is not appropriate – it’s one and the same. One consciousness through the senses perceives, goes out and perceives, experiences, that is MIND. The same consciousness whatever it has perceived retains the impressions, that is CHITA. Then the same consciousness, there acts and judges, I want this, I don’t want this, I like this, I don’t like this, that is BUDDHI – the INTELLECT and the same consciousness says I, I, I, I, I, me, me, me, that is EGO. When you sleep, your ego is dissolved, your mind is at rest, your intellect is at rest, only chita is functioning, that is when dreams simply hover around, some memory hover around, come and go. Dream is just the function of chita, the rest three is resting – ego is at rest. In deep sleep even chita is at rest, ego is totally at rest. In waking state all the four are functioning. In meditation, all the four: chita is awake, mind is subdued, intellect is awake, ego is inhibited. The I is expanded or dissolved. ( Sanskrit … )
This consciousness makes the body, you think body makes the consciousness? No. Consciousness has made the body. If the consciousness was not present in the fetus, the fetus would never grow. The planets move around the sun, just mere presence of sun makes the planet go around it. In the same way, presence of consciousness though it is not involved directly, it mere presence makes the body grow and your body is nothing but chita – memory – your brain is nothing but manifestation of consciousness. Your body is nothing but manifestation of consciousness. Intelligence, wherever you say in the world is the manifestation of the consciousness. ( Sanskrit … )
It has so much power, that it can counter the nature. Your mind has so much power that it can counter the nature – it has done it. Nature is cold, but your mind has so much power, it created heating system. Just imagine the original man how he would have lived. What made the original man, to think how to grow wheat, how to grow paddy and how to make the paddy into rice, how to cook it, how to find the fire, how to look at the cotton, take the cotton, make thread and weave it into clothes and put on the clothes, can you imagine? Can you look into the process? How from the beginning an Adam and Eve could have evolved this whole paraphernalia that we find around us today. Build a home, leaking system, electricity, telephone. It is ( Sanskrit … ) A power to withstand, a power which is unparallel, a power which is so dynamic. Yoga is to realize that your mind is dynamic, your life is dynamic. Depression is a sign of static understanding about life, when you feel everything in life is dead, static, there is nothing more, nowhere to go, that is when one gets depressed, no hope, no future, nothing to happen. This is all that is, this is all there is. This static understanding about life, about the world, about consciousness is responsible for ignorance, is responsible for depression and all miseries. Just knowing your mind, your consciousness is fill with all possibilities, is dynamic force, anything is possible and many things are possible. 2000 years ago, people were told there will be these cars and there will be the vehicle with lights. They will have light in them and they will move on the roads by themselves, people would not understand. They would question how will this tin box move, will you put some horse inside it or cattle inside them? 2000 years ago, movement means some living being, living animals and no idea of whatsoever a motor engine could be invented. They would not even believe that these tin sheets would emit light, this tin boxes could have light, can move on their own, without any animal. 200 ~ 300 years ago, people could not believe about TV, you can sit somewhere else and watch somebody else speaking somewhere else. Few decades ago, radio station, people thought someone was sitting inside the radio speaking. Children would ask them is there someone sitting inside there and singing. Do you think like that when you were a child? You are very curious to open the big box and see who is sitting there inside. Parents would not allow the children to touch the box. They know they are very experimental minded. In India, at home they will keep their radio station so far above, high in some level, children can not reach them. Because mind is very curious want to reach the speakers and see inside what is there. This consciousness is dynamic, life is dynamic, ( Sanskrit … ) it has so much power to move and counter, do you get what I’m saying? The world is not a dead place, the creation is not a dead place. It is solidified consciousness and it is dynamic and it is new, every moment it is new.
In the future there will be chains, you will simply have to dial the some numbers and your chair will take off and reach you the place where you want to go. Just the phone, you have to dial along the chair. Homes will have landing place for the chairs. There will be very heavy air traffic. Flying chairs. Flying sources have been a story, imagination sometime ago but it will be in the future. All possibilities are open. ( Sanskrit … )
When mind and memory get excited, then vritis arise in you. This is an interesting sutra.
How a thought arises? ( Sanskrit … )
Mechanism of thought. How thought arises? This is never been said anywhere by anybody before. To understand how a thought arises needs such an amount of established consciousness, silence in you. You are silent, your mind is calm, unexcited, your memory is subdued, there is no thought arises there. When mind is excited and memory is stimulated, the chita, your recording apparatus is stimulated, then they jointly produce an impulse, of energy, that is a thought, that is a vriti, that is a tendency. ( Sanskrit … ) That’s why to silence the mind, if you have to experience some silence, you say ok, close your eyes and be in a silent place and let go of your worries and dissolve. Say let go. Relax. Relax. When you rest, when the excitement in the mind is calm down, then the mind becomes silent, the vritis become silent, the whirlpool is calm. When the waves are calm, you are able to see the depth of the water, depth of the ocean. And in your depth, you are divine, you are god. Uniting with the depth, the wave uniting with its depth, that is yoga. Though wave can never be away from the ocean but it cannot also enjoy the dignity of the ocean, the depth of the ocean if it is too turbulent. Do you see what I’m saying?
( Sanskrit … )
The translation here is wrong. Say the chitta is the mind stuff from which the buddhi arises. Another wrong translation.
8th Mantra
Mind in conjunction of the intellect through the senses experience the sense object. Here the translation is “Perception comes only when the mind is connected with the center and the external instrument.” ( Sanskrit … ) The mind when it is connected with the intellect, that is the center, the understanding, faculty that understands, judges, discriminates, it is all again one consciousness. One consciousness in the center has become the intellect, in the middle the mind, in the end the senses and then experiences the object of the senses. First of all, bring the mind away from the objects of the senses, experience the senses. From the senses again bring your mind back to itself, to the intellect, what the intellect is saying, what thoughts are arising, what ideas are coming and just observing them, letting them go, you go to your depth. Just the chita, just the energy, the basic substratum of consciousness, that is yoga. In each of these mantras or sutras a technique is also given to you. In the first sutra itself it is said this whole world is all of consciousness, it’s filled with life. The moment you can feel that, you open your eyes, keep your eyes open, ears open, all senses open, you experience the whole creation as vibrant, lively consciousness, not dead objects around you, you have already united yourself with the entire creation, union has happened.
Well this is all consciousness and that consciousness is not only outside or somewhere else or something different from you, it is your very mind, your intellect, your memory, your ego, your very self. ( Sanskrit … ) This mind is experiencing the world. Who is miserable? You say I’m so miserable. Find out who is miserable? Who is hot? Who is cold? Who is experiencing the pain? Who is experiencing pleasure? Who is happy? Who is unhappy? Who feel who is intelligent? Who is dumb, stupid? Who is this? Who is feeling all this? Who is experiencing this? Just saying oh! I am experiencing is not enough, you can say to someone that I am experiencing it. You find out who is this, who is experiencing it? This question cannot be answered. You can not answer to someone else I am experiencing pain and pleasure. No. If you say that you are experiencing pain or pleasure, it’s wrong. Answer to this question cannot be given. It only has to be found out and you have to find this out yourself. There is no proxy for it. Who is experiencing this pain? This very question takes you into meditation. This very question is the door for meditation. Any pain can lead you into meditation, any misery will lead you into meditation, any pleasure or joy will lead you into this door, into this meditation. Who is the one who is experiencing this? That is all that you have to ask. You ask and then we will see next tomorrow.
Vol 2 – 3rd Day
Dearest Guruji,
Thank you for your beautiful lecture on Upanishad. The explanation, how thought arises was very interesting. But knowledge also has some purpose. I know you won’t stuff our head with mere intellect knowledge only applied knowledge is useful. All knowledge of yoga won’t help a person if he doesn’t practice it. Can this knowledge - how thoughts arise make a distinguish to which thoughts do you like to allow to come out and to which not? And no. 2, stop the unnecessary thoughts from arising. Sometime I was in a state where I could distinguish and stop thoughts from arising, but I don’t remember how I did it. Is there some technique from this sutra? Jai Guru Dev.
Guruji answers…
Thoughts come and you will recognize as they come. You don’t recognize a thought before they come. It is impossible to know a thought before it comes. You know them as they come. And if they are stupid, you’ll simply smile at them, laugh at them and they will move away. Sometimes you are amazed about them. Oh! Such a stupid thought is coming in my mind. When you wonder from where it has come. And if it is a genius thought, you wonder them also. Wow! What a great thought has come. That is excellent. It’s a great idea. Ha! When your inner faculties are strong, powerful, you will let go the stupid thoughts don’t act on them and you will act on those thoughts which you find will be beneficial. Thought anyway arises, but you choose to act or not to act, this is what awareness brings in you. If you are not aware, you simply act on the strongest impulse or strongest thought. But when you are alert, then you choose to act. It’s like person who is walking in sleep has no control over where he is walking, what he is doing, simply walks. Do you see what I’m saying? A sleeping walker just walks, he doesn’t even know where he is walking, what he is doing? But the moment you are aware, you are walking, you choose to walk left, right, this way, or that way. This is all the different. Mostly today, everyone is a sleep walker, very few are aware and act. Today most of the actions are like sleep walking. Not aware, simply acting on the strongest impulse. If you are aware and acting, that is the right action.
( Prayer…)
We are born into this world and slowly, slowly you start enjoying this world through the five senses. A new born child is neither rejoicing nor rejecting the five senses of the world. It does not even recognize the mother for couple of weeks. It is in itself. Even if it looks at somebody, it doesn’t look at anyone. But gradually and gradually, the child starts enjoying the world. First it looks around, gets a custom to seeing and then hearing and smelling, tasting and then when it grows even older, touching. Is it the child no joyful even before experiencing the world through the five senses? Just observe. The child is joyful, is experiencing joy even before it comes into contact with the world of five senses. Do you see what I’m saying? What is the joy that you find in the world? Are they in the object or are they in your senses? Where is the joy? Most of the people think it is in the object. They do not realize it is in your senses. In the capacity to relate with the self, that much you experience the joy. And the peak of any sensory or sensual experience takes you inward. If you look at a beautiful scenery, you’ll say, Ah! Beautiful, wow! You close your eyes immediately. ( laughter..) If you’re smelling something very good, you take a deep breath and you stop the breath there. Ah… Very nice. Taste anything very good, you taste it and you say ah!
Each of the senses leads you to a point deep inside you that is the fountain of joy. Whether touch, sex, sight or music or smell or taste, the joy that is coming to you is coming from a source deep within and if you don’t move within to that point, the center from where you exist, the joy is short lived. Then again you change the object and if you are just clinging on to the object outside, it no more gives you joy or pleasure but the same thing that seemed to give joy or pleasure start giving you pain, suffering, misery and you become miserable. This is what we see in the world today. Everyone is moving toward joy but people are not joyful but they are miserable because we are clinging on to the sense object rather than the source of joy. Do you see what I’m saying? The world is a beautiful package, the world is not bad. It’s a wrapping paper to you. A beautiful gift is given to you with a wonderful wrapping paper around it, but if you are stuck with the wrapping paper, the package of the gift you will not even open it, you will not see the gift that has been given inside that packet to you. This is what most people do. They hold on to the wrapper outside, maybe inside there may be good cookies, it smells also very good but the papers don’t taste. We attribute the fragrance to the paper because we have not gone pass the wrapping paper. One who could see beyond the wrapping paper, could go over the wrapping paper sees joy is there, yes! No doubt. It’s beyond the wrapper, beyond the package. No doubt there is joy is every sensory experience, beautiful scenery you see, oh! This is really good. It is triggering something beautiful in you. If you see a beautiful person, it triggers something beautiful inside you, love inside you. You smell some good cookies or cake, it brings water in your month. It stimulates you somewhere, no doubt, but still there is no joy in it. It’s just like, no doubt the wrapped gift does smell but it is not because of the wrapping paper but something deep inside it. Someone who has saturated with sweet does not feel for a sweet. Someone who is hungry. Someone who is fond of sweet, if they look at the sweet, the craving starts.
Next sutra goes ( Sanskrit … )…
As long as you hold to the wrappers., you can’t get pass them. If you are holding on stones in your hands, your hands will not be free to take over the diamonds, gold, because your hands are full with rocks, you have to drop the rocks in orders to pluck the flowers. ( Sanskrit … )
If your senses are engaged entangled outwardly, it’s stops moving to the center because there is no end moving outward, there is no end from moving from scene to scene, from person to person, from thing to thing, whole life could be spent doing that, can spend the whole life, if you think joy is there. Do you see what I’m saying? Then uniting cannot happen. You cannot bring all the strings of your self together. Our senses have limited capacity to enjoy but the desire to enjoy in the mind is infinite. This is where obsession begins. Mind wants to enjoy but your body is tried to enjoy, how many have experience this? Your mind wants to enjoy but your body and your nervous system is tired, it cannot enjoy. What causes this imbalance? Understanding. It is quite but nature. Your mind is not satisfied with limited joy, it wants unlimited joy. The desire of every mind is bringing to the source, where it is unlimited joy. What is the way? And it looks in infinite possible manner, in infinite source here, there, there, there for that joy, for that pleasure and it gets caught up very badly. It weakens, the senses, it weakens the nervous system and mind gets into a total roller coaster, unending vicious circle of roller coasters, emotional, thought, doubts, blames, guilt, all these things and waste days and months and years on it. Sometime a little Viveke, discrimination comes in the mind and tells oh! What are you doing? This is stupid but that voice of discrimination or wisdom is so feeble, it gets blown away, again by the same habitual storm in the mind.
Next sutra ( Sanskrit … )…
If your mind is not getting to the center, it is because it is jumping from object to object, thing to thing, outside thinking, that is responsible for the sensation in the system. The rishis says no – understand this, whichever object is giving you pleasure, the same object will give you misery. Like apple pie is giving you joy, you go on eating apple pie, it will cause your stomach ache and what not. The same apple pie which was joyful to begin and later on gave you misery. ( Sanskrit … ) The joy which is through any of the five senses must be understood. Like intense sensation they are as good as misery, we want to enjoy, but we do not know, how to enjoy. This is the whole problem. There is a way to enjoy also. The rishis are not against anyone living in the world. Living in the world means through five senses contact. ( Sanskrit … ) Don’t cling on them, just aware them and enjoy. Let go. you are the source of joy. Do you see what I’m saying? ( Sanskrit … )
Like sorrow you want to away, it is not desirable, if you think the sensory pleasures are not the way to get to center, knowing the center is joy. Retire your senses from the object to its source, then the union happen, then yoga happens. You look something beautiful, Ya! Now take your attention from something to the feeling of beauty that is arising in you. Do you see what I’m saying? You are touching something very nice, what is happening? A sensory is arising in your body, now put your attention on the sensation and move on to center. From every object, like you move from sorrow you move away from the object and move on to the center. That is you. Like you discard sorrow in life, misery in life, because it’s not pleasurable to anybody, nobody likes to be miserable, you want to get away from misery. In the same way from the object move on to the center, move on to the experiencer of that pleasure. This is the way of having a continued experience, continued joy in life. That is meditation. Do you see what I’m saying? Why? Because…..
( Sanskrit … ) Next sutra is…
The Prakriti, the nature is of three gunas: sattvaic, rajasic, and tamasic, and these gunas are contradictory and they change all the time. Do you see what I’m saying?
Sattvaic guna - that brings joy.
Rajasic brings up more desires, more craving, restlessness, activity.
Tamasic brings sorrow, lethargy, sleep.
If your attention is just on the object or the senses even, it will go through the cycle of three gunas, sometimes you feel very bright, pleasant, joyful and that pleasantness turns into feverishness, anger, jealousy, greed, Rajas guna will come. And the same situation turns into dullness, sleep, rejection, dejection, sorrow, and then in a little while later, the cycle repeats, oh! Something is very charming, beautiful, that is when sattva comes, things are charming, they are beautiful, attractive, knowledge comes, awareness comes, wisdom comes, love comes. When rajas guna comes, anger comes, activity comes, restlessness comes, blame comes, and tamas guna comes, dullness, sleep, lethargy, dejection, all this comes. Like this, when the prakriti moves through the three gunas, they come after one another, so if you are caught up in this, you can never enter into the center. That’s why knowing both the senses and the sense object which you enjoy are always of the three gunas, when move to the center, to the witness, to the one who is experiencing this rather than becoming the experience itself. Do you see what I’m saying? Is it clear? Does it ring a bell? (Laughter…)
( Sanskrit … )
The wise knows the difference between wrapping paper and the substance inside it. The whole world is a wrapping paper and the essence of the world , but something which is in the wrapper is so sweet, so beautiful. Instead if you stuff in your mouth the chocolate which is unwrapped, you’ll get stuck. Living in this beautiful creation, still people are miserable because they do not know the source of joy. Though everything has come out of joy and is sustained by joy and with the hope of joy everybody is living in the world, still why misery? Because they are holding on ( Sanskrit … ) the joy that comes only out of the senses. Seeing it comes only out of the senses. There is a beautiful word in Gita also, Krishna says to Arjuna “see, that pleasure which in the beginning is very pleasurable and ends is misery is rajasic pleasure, and that pleasure, that happiness in the beginning may not appear to be very pleasant, but turns out to be very pleasant is sattavic pleasure”. ( Sanskrit … )
The intelligent ones, the wise ones does not get lost in the pleasure that come out of the contact of senses and its object, they are not carried away by the pleasure of the senses and its objects, they know this pleasure is momentary, this pleasure has a beginning and an end and it is nothing to do with me. Knowing this, they abide in the self, which is the source of joy. ( Sanskrit … )
Unless you get this maturity, you cannot move into your center. It needs some maturity from the world, some amount of saturation, some amount of getting beaten up by situation in life so that it pushes you to the center. If you are too ambitious all the time thinking about this and this and this, your mind is hovering around the world, it can never get into the center. That’s why either a person is very saturated can go very deep in meditation or a person who has suffered in life can go into meditation. Do you see what I’m saying? They know what is sorrow and they can drop things like sorrow or they know what is sorrow and they can take things like sorrow. In Buddha’s time 10,000 people could sit and meditate and said 10,000 people got enlightened, tens of thousand of people that was what it said. Ten of thousand of people got enlightened. Why? Because people are saturated from all the sensory pleasures and they have known that this is not leading us anywhere. See, what is not available to you, you think your joy may be in that. A rich man knows that riches doesn’t give him joy or peace but for a poor man he thinks from riches he will gain joy and peace. So he goes on in that trip. Someone who is famous knows that just becoming famous doesn’t give him anything but the one who wants to become famous, they go on in the whole life for that trip. Same thing, someone who has seen the relationship doesn’t see in relationship there is nothing in it. Person who is single thinks if I have a perfect soul mate, a partner, ideal life partner, they may be some joy will come out of it, isn’t it? Isn’t this strange? See, you have a limited body, it can not have a unlimited experience. Shake up, wake up and look around and see the experience of 1,000 people around you, make it all your own experience, only then you can move ahead, do you see what I’m saying? There are certain experiences which you have to have it by your self, it is very necessary; certain other experiences, you don’t have to go through by your own body, you can just look into the experience of so many others and learn from that. ( Sanskrit … ) Simple sutras, one sentence but says a lot.
Next sutra ( Sanskrit … )
Dharana or concentration is fixing your mind on an ideal or a point or object either internal or external. Okay, you may say, well, it is easy said and done but it’s very difficult to do it practically in life, what do I do? The ancient rishis were very intelligent and full of compassion, they knew from where you come, they know where a student stands. They simply don’t give sermon which you cannot do. If they tell you something to do, they also give you method how to do it, see what I’m saying? You say, no, I cannot leave any pleasure in the world or any sensory object, they say no, never mind.
Next sutra ( Sanskrit … )
Any one sense object, you take it. Either internal or external, ( Sanskrit … ) thoroughly steady become one with that, know it totally, then your mind gets one pointed. Make your mind so one pointed on it. It’s very interesting. ( Sanskrit … ) Either internally or externally, put your mind in that object, either sit with your eyes closed and meditated on that object which appeals to you, which is so attractive to you. You know in India has different deti. They are decorated with all sort of ornament, beautiful jewelery and all that. Anything that attracts a person sense, beauty, that beauty you visualize, you see inside you, in your heart. Whether taste, smell, touch, sight or color, any object or any part of the body. If some part of the body is your obsession, is compelling you, is attracting you too much, then. Sit and meditate on that part of the body. Feel you have become that part of the body. In ancient temple in India, as you go around, the outer corridor of the temple is with all beautiful figure, some even naked figure, some dance posts all attractive figure are kept. A person will go around first, if any particular figure or posture or anything is attracting, they will just stay there, stand there and meditate for few minutes. Only then they will get enter to the main corridor. The outermost corridor is with these. Also some very demonic, fearful, frightening figure. It is not necessarily that your mind is attracted to beautiful thing. Sometime your mind is attracted with ugly thing also. See the toys these day that children have. The shape of the toys are so ugly, isn’t it? All that fantom and all that bad man, dinosaur all that different type of male whatever human skull, and horn comes from human head, horrible figure could those are the thing that is unusual that attracts the mind. And ancient Rishi knew it. They made certain figure like these almost like dinosaur, lion head for a horse body. Figures like that. frightening demon. Dragon, if you have seen the Chinese temple dragon. All ancient temples have all these demons at the outer wall. Any fear in you or if your mind is fixed on it or attracted by it, ok be there, get rid of it. Look into them. When all the forms and names do not bother you, do not hold your mind up, it is then your mind flows as meditation, your mind blossoms in light, in wisdom, in joy.
So Dharana is not concentration, it is focus or an awareness or attention. Have your attention or awareness on any object external or internal and be with it for a while, then your mind gets focused, becomes powerful like a beam.
(end of vol 2 side A)
( Sanskrit … )
Meditation or Dhyana is the keeping up of the flow of one idea like a flow of an oil. Like flow of oil. A faint idea when persists in the consciousness and takes your mind to subtler and subtler and more clearer, and clearer avenues, then meditation has begun to happen. When you fix your mind on an object external or internal, there is a little effort. Though it appears to be no effort because your mind is naturally going towards that object, but to hold it there is a little effort, when you loosen your hold, to hold that object which you like also, then meditation has started happening. When your mind is focused, now you are focusing your mind, you are listening to what I am saying, when you relax in this state and let go, and just be with the flow then your meditation has begun to happen. That is when even the sounds, in the words I am saying does not give you much meaning or does not give you much attention in you, but rather takes you to a very subtle and subtle and subtle state of silence. You have had this experience either while you are listening to some knowledge, talk or listening to bhajan or song and slowly slowly sound fades away, everything fades and you get into a deeper silence and when you come out of it, you feel really very good, you have had this experience. Whole body feels very fresh, new and alive then the meditation has happened. Like an oil drop, a drop of an oil in the beginning you know when the oil drops its thicker and then it flows like a strain stream. The viscus flow means there is a continuation in the flow. Hmmm. ( Sanskrit … ) It’s we will look tomorrow. What is Samadhi?
We saw what is Dharana? Fixing the mind one pointed, focused and then from there letting go, letting go and relaxing. There are two types of letting go. One letting go is you just doze off, sleep, when you totally sleep like though there is nothing continued that is going on inside you and the other hand you let go with a faint feeling, an idea that is continuing somewhere deep inside you,. That is meditation is happening, dhyana. ( Sanskrit … ) We will see what Samadhi is tomorrow. Jai Guru Dev.
Vol 2, 4th Day
( Prayer…)
Human nervous system is so designed that it can exhibit the totally of consciousness. Living in a finite body and expressing infinity is a possibility of human life. What is the higher blossoming of consciousness? That consciousness which is neither in the past nor in the future, nor in the present but is a witness to all three. Or you can say, that consciousness which contains the infinite past, the infinite future and totally available in the present moment. Like a telescope. Let’s take this example. A telescope can catch and bring in to your vision something which naked eye cannot perceive. Through telescope you can see the far away stars, and the planets, their movements so much more clearly. What it does? It just magnifies the rays that are anyway coming in and make you aware of it. In the same way though the infinite divine consciousness is present everything, its telescopic vision is an altered state of consciousness, that is what is called samadhi. The final blossoming of consciousness – samadhi.
The next sutra says ( Sanskrit … )…
Knowledge is present in the consciousness and different types of knowledge arises at different levels of consciousness. When it comes to samadhi, even there, there is not only one samadhi, there are many different types of samadhi. A balanced equanimous intellect, calm, serene mind, unfocused but alert mind, a mind which is aware of everything, aware of the infinity or a mind which is not at all aware of anything, which is not even asleep. This could be many different descriptions of samadhi-- a blissful state totally blissful completely forgetful of everything or totally blissful state where knowledge is fully available. Because there are so many different types of samadhi which could be classified mainly as two:
1). Sampragyate- Where is consciousness of the outside world.
2). Asampragyate- Where there is no awareness of the surrounding the outside world.
3). Another Samadhi calls … is Dharana Mega Samadhi, when your whole consciousness, you feel like being in a cloud of Dharana, of righteousness, or bliss as though you have become a cloud, the mind appears like a cloud of bliss.
Sabhees samadhi and many many difference names are mentioned because at every state of consciousness something unique is exhibited, something beautiful is exhibited.
Ritambara pragya samadhi – where the consciousness is alive with the knowledge of the truth, so you ask someone a question and whatever the answer they give, you can know whatever they are saying is right or wrong, truth or lie. When you ask a question, your mind itself will give you the answer, because the answer follows the question, you only have to see whether the other is tallying with it or not.
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