生 活 的 藝 術 之 南 境 知 識 棧

December 25, 1994              Weggis, Switzerland

Patanjali yoga sutras begin. 

atha yoganusasanam   1.1

        Now we will look into the discipline of yoga. Now I will enunciate discipline of yoga. Sasanam means rules that somebody else puts on you. Anusasanam is the rules that you put on yourself, impose on yourself. Do you see the difference?  Sasanam is the rule and regulation that king or society imposes on you. Anusasanam is the rule that you make on yourself, impose on yourself. Now, why Yoga is called a discipline? Where is the need for discipline? When does the need for discipline arise?

        See, when you are thirsty, you want to drink water, you don’t say this is the rule you must drink water. You have taken a discipline to drink water. When you are hungry and you eat. You don’t say I have a discipline to eat when I have hunger. Do you see what I’m saying? Or, I don’t even say that I have a discipline of enjoying the nature. When it comes to the question of enjoyment, no discipline is necessary. Where does discipline come? Not somewhere where it is enjoyable at the very first step. A child never says I have a discipline of running to my mother when I look at her. Discipline arises where something is not very charming to begin with, isn’t it? When you know something would give a fruit which is very good, enjoyable but the seed to begin with is not that enjoyable.

        When you are abiding in your Self, when you are in joy, when you are in peace or happiness, true happiness then you are already in your Self. There is no discipline there. But when that is not so, the mind in wagging its tail all the time, then a discipline is essential so that it could calm down, it could come back to its Self, the fruit of which is eventually blissful, joyful. Are you getting what I am saying? Like the diabetes patient says, I have a discipline not to eat sugar. Or someone with cholesterol says I have to be discipline, should not take too much fat because fat is very nice to eat at that moment and then later on gives complicated result, fruits which is not so pleasurable. That pleasure which comes after a certain discipline is really sattvic pleasure, long lasting pleasure. That pleasure which is pleasurable to begin with but end with misery is not pleasure at all. So discipline is necessary to have this authentic sattvic pleasure which comes after certain discipline. Discipline is not torturing oneself for nothing, that’s no discipline.

        Purpose of discipline is to attain joy. Do you see the difference? So certain time people impose discipline on themselves, it does not give joy to themselves or any joy to anybody else at anytime. This is tamasic. There are 3 types of happiness. One is the sattvic happiness that is to begin with it is not so pleasurable, not so nice but the end is always.., it leads to joy. This is sattvic happiness. Rajasic happiness is the beginning appears very good but ends up with misery and suffering. This is rajasic happiness. Tamasic, there is no happiness but it appears to be happy but it is misery from beginning to the end. No discipline is essential for tamasic happiness. Discipline is not there, lack of discipline is tamasic happiness. And wrong discipline is rajasic happiness or lack of discipline you can say. And then discipline for sattvic happiness. That is why it is essential to begin with. To bear that this uncomfortable is discipline. It needs not be uncomfortable all the time but if it is uncomfortable to be able to bear and move through it, you need a discipline. That is why Patanjali begins says now, when? Now! When things are not clear. When your heart is not in the right place. Now, yoga-anusasanam. I will enunciate yoga.

        Now let’s look into the rules of yoga. Not exactly rules. The discipline of Yoga. It is nobody’s imposition but it is self imposed. See, what’re those that you have imposed on yourself? In the morning you wake up & brush your tooth. Before going to bed you brush your tooth. This is your discipline. This has been your self-imposed from childhood. May be when you were a kid, mother had to impose it on you. Once it became a habit and when you understood it is good for you and then it is no more mother’s rule. It’s now your rule. Isn’t it? Like that keeping yourself clean, hygiene, exercising, meditating, being kind considering, not being rude, all these rules you have imposed on yourself are all disciplines. Isn’t it?

        Now, what does this discipline do? Discipline to unite yourself, unite all the loose ends of you existence.

tada drastuh svarupe vasthanam   1.3

It puts you on to your Self. Otherwise what is being happening?

vrtti sarupyam itaratra   1.4

Your mind is engaged, caught up in outside world all the time. Eyes open, you are caught up in all that you see, you smell, you hear, you touch, you taste. And when you are in waking state, you are constantly engaging in the activities of the senses. Or else you go back to sleep or to dreaming state where you are completely shut off.  In sleep and dreaming, same memories come but you are never to your Self calm, quiet, uniting all the loose ends of you existence. You become the object of your perception.

        You know, have you seen villagers, or very innocent people or children when they watch a movie, so totally involved in the movie. Isn’t it? Nobody exists just the movie is existing that moment. So if you are simply sitting without doing anything, you may have backache, pain, legs will hurt, back will hurt or something happens. But if you are engaged in watching a movie then you don’t feel any pain or do not feel your body at all. You don’t even know you are sitting. That is the movie that is interesting, right? What has happened? Your consciousness assumes that form of the movie, of the vritti. Are you getting what I’m saying? You know once in a village somebody was watching a movie, people saw that a hero was being tortured by villain, and people stood up really with their sticks and stones, come on! I’m going to hit you now and rushed towards the stage. It said a great reformist in India, he was watching a drama and the drama was so good, very well acted by the villain. And the gentleman just took his chapper, slipper and threw it on. He was so mad with the villain of the drama. How could it be so... And the villain really took that his slippers as a sign of honor. He said it meant I could entrance you like that. My acting was so good that you could throw your shoe, chapper on me.

        Our consciousness assumes the form otherwise. Whole purpose of yoga is to be onto oneself, to bring an integrity in you, to make you a whole. Yoga is to make you whole. Now, you are looking at me. Become aware of your eyes that are looking at me, the pair of eyes that are looking at me right now. Are you aware of your eyes right now? And become aware of the mind that through those eyes are looking at me. Are you? Now for a moment close your eyes. Squeeze your eyes, feel your eyes and take your attention from the eyes to the mind that’s all over your head. Now become aware of your whole body, your heart and the very center, core of your existence. The eye that is you. And rest and relax there, right there. This moment you are not interested in seeing anything, smelling anything, hearing anything or tasting anything or feeling or touching anything. Retrieve your mind from all the five senses to the core of your heart of your existence.  This is drastuh sva-rupe vasthanam. In the form of the seer abiding there is Yoga. Abiding in the form, in the nature of the seer, is Yoga.

        Whenever you experience joy, ecstasy, bliss, happiness in life, knowingly or unknowingly you are abiding in the form of the seer, in the nature of the seer. Otherwise, at other times you are with different activities of the mind, you become one with different activities of the mind, vrtti-saupyam-itaratra. You assume the form of the mind at other times, activities of the mind. What are the activities?

vrttayah pancatayyah klistaklistah   1.5

The modulations of the mind are of five forms. Vrttayah panca-tayyah klista-aklista.   Difficult, some are problematic and some are non-problematic. There are certain vrtti of the mind which are problematic, which causes trouble, difficulty; certain others do not cause any difficulty, pleasant or unpleasant vrtti. What are those five?

pramana viparyaya vikalpa nidra smrtayah   1.6

Five modes of consciousness arise in your Self. Five modes in the mind. You call mind or consciousness, chitta is all the same, different mode of the consciousness. What are they?

        Pramana, first activity of the mind.  Your mind is engaged in wanting a proof. Are you in Switzerland? Right now? You say yes. How? You have a proof in the mind. Ya, I see this alps, mountains, water all these. Whatever you see now, these are the proof. Are you cold? Yes, I’m. Nobody needs to tell me. This is Pratyaksa.

Pratyaksa anumana agamah pramanani   1.7

Three types of Pramana: Pratyaksa-anumana agamah pramanani.

Pratyaksa means obvious, experiential. Our mind constantly wants to have some obvious, solid, experiential proof. This is one mode of activity of the mind. Another is anumana.  It’s not so obvious, but you guess, and whatever you guess you believe in it. The guessing of the mind, that is anumana.  Agamah pramana is the scriptures. Because it is written in black and white, believing in it. These are 3 type of proof you look for.

        Even today in certain remote villages, in the third world countries, anything that is printed is biblical for them, is a gospel truth. “See, it’s print, written.”“Many people follow it, so it must be truth. Many people say something, then that must be right. You can fool one or two person but you can’t fool thousand of people. Thousand are not fool to follow. If they are all fools, then I can also be a fool.” Mind goes that way. The proof mind takes from scriptures or from groups. Agamah pramanani,  constantly you are looking for proof of something or anything. This is one mode of activity. Yoga is when you drop these, then alone you can abide in the Self. Do you see what I’m saying?

        Retrieving from these activities of mind from wanting proof is releasing from that one vritti, activity of the mind back to the Self. You need proof of whether you are in Switzerland or not because your senses will tell you. But you don’t need a proof of whether you are here or not through your senses. Are you getting this point? It is very delicate. You could be taken to Austria or even somewhere in Canada and you can see the same snow mountain or same lake, you may think this is Switzerland, it may not be Switzerland. Your senses may fool you. But beyond proof is you feeling of I am. I exist. Abiding in the Self does not need a proof. Do you get this point?

        Truth cannot be understood through proof. Anything that could be proven can be disproven also. Truth is beyond proof or disproof. Are you getting this point? God is beyond proof. You can not prove god, nor can you disprove God. Proof is connected to logic and logic is very limited in its purview. Same with enlightenment, same with love. Love cannot be proved or disproved. Someone’s action and behaviors is not a proof for love. Many movie actors & actresses, they all exhibit lots of love, romance in the movie but not a drop of romance or that love would be there inside, need not be there. They can just show it. Isn’t it? One can act love very well without feeling it, without living it. Self is beyond all proof. Proof is one of the main activity of the mind. Proof is one of the main thing in the world that you are stuck on to it. You want proof of everything whether someone loves you or not, you want a proof about it. Proven me how? By you action, by your behaviors, by this, by that. Isn’t it? You want constantly proof for everything, approval by everybody. This is not in the realm of the seer. Seer is beyond proof. Pramana, the first modulation, or activity of the mind.

        And then Viparyaya. Patanjali very beautifully described each of these modulations of the mind. 

viparyaya mithyajnanam atad rupa pratistham   1.8

Pramana is the knowledge that the mind is constantly engaged in arguments, in proofs, in knowledge, analyzing or wrong knowledge, wrong understanding. This moment you could be arguing, proving. There could be logic in your mind, looking for a proof or it will have a wrong understanding. You will think things the way they are not. Do you see what I am saying?

        Most of the time you impose your own views and ideas and feelings on others when you think that is how they are. This activity of mind is called viparyaya. You have an inferiority complex and you suddenly see someone else behavior very arrogant. They are not arrogant; you are not been ill treated by them. You feel suddenly you have been ill-treated. You have not been respected because you do not respect yourself enough. You think other do not respect you. This tendency of your mind is called viparyaya. Others would be shocked by your behavior. They’ll think what happened to this person. They were alright till now and suddenly they start behaving very funny. Have you noticed this? A very good friend of you suddenly starts behaving very rude and very funny and you wonder what has happened, what did I ever do to this person? You do not understand that they are cooking in their own mind, their own (whatever) soup. Why? Not because they are bad or anything just because of the activity of the chita, of mind is coming up, is predominant.

        What is that? viparyaya. Suddenly people feel, they are not being loved, many parents have this problem. The children suddenly feel that the parents don’t love them and they are so perplexed, they do not know what to do, how to show them, how to prove them because proof does not stand when viparyaya comes. The pramana does not stand, the logic fails because the mind is now more active on the second modulation, the second vritti, that’s viparyaya. All logic fails, what stands is the wrong knowledge. Do you see what I am saying? Somewhere inside in their own mind will bring up some logic but that goes to the background again. Again the wrong knowledge stands. Viparyaya mithya jnanam atad rupa pratisham.  This is Viparyaya.

        Vikalpa.  It is sort of hallucination. Nothing of that sort exists. Just mere words hover in the mind. This is called vikalpa. Like people sit and imagine some microphone has planted in their ears, paranoia. All these fears, all these unfounded, baseless mere sounds which do not carry much meaning, such thoughts, such ideas are called vikalpa - fantasies. Mind either goes on proof or it goes on wrong knowledge, misconception or fantasies. Fantasies are vikalpa. Do you see this? You sit and fantasize.

        Oh! You are already 40, 50, 60 years old, you sit and fantasize if I would be 16 again suddenly, how would it be? Maybe I will go somewhere and get a big hall of gold and suddenly become rich; then I will have my own helicopter to fly. It’s not just children will fantasize, I tell you, adult will also get into their own fantasies. This fantasy is called vikalpa. The third modulation of chitta. Vikalpa could be of two types, one could be of joyful, pleasurable fantasies, and another could be of baseless fears. Do you see what I am saying? Even fear is a vikalpa. “Oh! What will happen if I die tomorrow?”“An accident may happen to me. I may become disabled.” There are all just simply sounds that have no value. Baseless fears in the mind or fantasies are called Vikalpa.

        Nidra, sleeps.  When the mind is not in any one of these three, the fourth it does, the fourth place it goes is, it goes to sleep.

        Smriti, memory, the fifth activity of this mind. That is remembering the experiences it has had. Remembering the past experiences that is smriti. Now see, when you are awake, are you in any of these four states of modulations. Then that is no meditation. That is not yoga.

        Are you looking for some proof? Are you debating in yourself? Are you hanging on to wrong knowledge or concepts about how things are? You do not know how things are because the whole world is fluid, it’s, nothing is solid here. Nobody is solid, nobody’s mind is solid. No thoughts are solid. The whole world is fluid. Even air I tell you. Go one step further you’ll tell airy-fairy, wishy-washy whatever it is. Anything can change anytime in any manner. The whole world is a field of all probabilities, possibilities, but your mind fixes things, and people, and ideas, and places, everything into definite items, quantity, quantify them, this is how it is; set ideas, using the proof or the wrong knowledge or the vikalpas, fantasy, fear or dwelling in the past experiences. The fourth modulations of mind plus the sleep, it is another modulation of mind - fifth modulation of mind, are the five different vrttis of the mind.

abhyasa vairagyabhyam tan-nirodha   1.12