Patanjali Yoga Sutras Lecture 001

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

Om Sahana Bhavatu Sahana Bhunatu Sahaveeryam Karavavahai Tejasvi Navadhi Tamastu Mavidvishavahai Om Shanti Shanti Shanti Om May Brahman protect us both May Brahman bestow upon us both the fruit of knowledge May we both obtain the energy to acquire knowledge May what we both study reveal the truth May we cherish no ill feeling toward each other Om Peace Peace Peace be unto all From today onwards we are starting a new subject Raja Yoga It is one of the most important subjects in this world Of all the paths of spiritual practice Raja Yoga for a good reason has become the most popular If you were to ask which is the book which is sold through our book stores The most number of copies sold Do you know what that book is? How to know God? Raja Yoga as translated by Swami Prabhavananda Why is it that it is so popular? There are many reasons One reason is whichever path of spiritual practice we follow The heart, the central part of that practice is concentration and meditation And that is called Raja Yoga It is also very wonderful because we are all followers of Vedanta And yet our practice is through concentration and meditation And there is another part to this yoga which is called We are living in this world What is the problem with the world? Why do we want to be spiritual? There is a problem If there is no problem then we would not seek the solution So what is the nature of this world? Where from did it come? How did it come? Why did it come? And when will it go away from us? These are some of the interesting questions Of these questions from the Vedantic point of view We temporarily presume there is a world As you know according to Vedanta the world as such doesn't exist There is no permanent reality to this world It is unreal It is real It is also unreal But for us it is both real and unreal Real because we are experiencing it Unreal because everything is slipping through our hands Very slippery world Another name for this slipperiness is called time Time means what? Slips away Last second before I started this sentence that is passed away Gone, you can't get it Time is the greatest factor It remains only as memory Only the present moment Where is the present moment? Logic is relentless Logic is very interesting The past is dead The future is a speculation Where there is no past and future Can you logically presume there is a present? It is not possible Though it gives an illusion it is not possible Anyway our point is this world is unreal in the sense Extremely temporary Things can change within the twinkling of a second One small accident One slip of a word Lifelong relationships could be cut down Either by death or by enmity, hatred etc So our problem is we want to somehow stick Somehow to make this world permanent We would like to see the impermanent world as permanent How is it possible? Can you stop time? It is not possible And yet hoping against hope This is what we are all trying to do Now this presumed existence of this universe The model of this cosmology is primarily taken From one of the philosophical systems Now I will very briefly come to that point This Raja Yoga is one of the systems of philosophy Perhaps you only know that it is a practical book How to concentrate, how to meditate But what you have to know It is not only a practical guide But it is a practical system of philosophy The word, English word philosophy Is a very misleading word So as somebody said Philosophy starts in wondering Not wondering, wondering Where from have I come? What is this universe? Why is this colour? This may be good enough for a rich person Who has every convenience at his hand After a nice breakfast He will sit in an easy chair This bird, where from has it come? Indian philosophy doesn't take that view Philosophy starts from being roasted We are constantly being roasted From three sides This is called Tapatraya Now when we utter a peace chant You know, before any talk is given We utter a peace chant And at the end, if you had noticed We say peace, peace, peace, peace three times Why do we say three times? There is a reason It is not a repetition There is a reason And that reason is We suffer from three types of miseries Three fold miseries So each peace utterance is meant to quell To extinguish one fire I use the word roasting Tapa means roasting Tapana is the name for the sun And what comes from the sun? Sun's rays What happens? It literally burns So whichever creature is born Whichever is born It has to go through these three fold miseries What are those miseries? What are the sources of the miseries? Adhyatmika, Adhidaivika and Adhibhautika That is, one interpretation is We have a physical body As we say, you know If you have a head You are sure to have a headache If you have tooth You are sure to have a toothache If you have a stomach You are sure to have a stomachache sooner or later So if there is a body, gross body Or any body That body will have its problems Both It also is an instrument for pleasure, happiness It is also an instrument for the opposite There is a theory Especially propagated falsely in the West That way the things are getting better and better Improving, progressing A time will come When this very earth will become a paradise But Vedanta philosophy Christian religion or any religion Never accepts this view How do we know? Because the very idea That a Christian devotee would go to the kingdom of heaven The idea that a Muslim, good Muslim Would always go to paradise What does it indicate? It indicates this world is at best What is called polar world Imperfect world And no one wants imperfection So if we go to other place Whatever it be It is a place perfect Paradise, kingdom of heaven Or Brahmaloka All that it means perfect Perfect means You will have nothing to desire There would be no more desirable object So that is the hope Why do we cherish that hope? And also If we look from a practical point of view How many of us live in the present moment? All of us are looking Always we are looking forward A boy says That I will grow up And I will get this job And then I will be very happy I will get married Then I will be very happy A young man A married man if you ask Let me accumulate some money And when I retire I will have all the time in the world I will have sufficient money And I will enjoy If you ask an old man I am waiting to go to Svargaloka Heaven And there I will have perfect happiness Always looking forward Nobody Or very hardly Anybody says I am very happy now And this is the time I am enjoying How do we know we are looking forward? Because Is what is called hope When you live in the present You become hopeless Not in the negative sense of the term You will have no more hopes Because if you are very happy here Why do you want to look forward? Realistically also Future is completely uncertain We do not know Maybe we can be happier Maybe We may die Maybe The more miseries will come in future Than now And generally it is true The older we become The more we have to give up hopes All the romantic pains Blood pressure Diabetes All these come in older age It is not a very desirable state But what we are seeking Is an eternal present So if there is a body There will be a problem To expect that there would be a body But not a problem Is illogical And a hopeless proposition It will not happen What is the first one? If there is a physical body There is a physical problem Both from the body side Also from circumstances Bad weather Bad food Bad people Enemies Where is peace in this world? Really speaking Everywhere there is terrible conflict You have to notice It seems to be on the increase Not on the decrease Now the second type of misery Is we have a mind According to Vedanta philosophy The mind is a subtle body A body will have its problems Therefore a subtle body will have Subtler problems And being subtler problems They will be more difficult Both to diagnose And also cure For example you know If you have got a toothache You can go to a dentist However painful it is The painfulness is in the imagination You know You are a hero Before going to the dentist But he makes you lie down And makes you say aah And then puts The drill is coming I am sure almost all of us Have gone through it He puts in between the tooth And the tender part He inserts mercilessly At that time you can also Remember God In a better way But unfortunately I have never heard any God Coming to the rescue When the dentist is drilling Subtle body means One obsessive thought It could be worry It could be a negative thought You know people go mad By obsessive thoughts And then frustrations Anger Lust Greed Pride And delusion All these mental problems Nowadays people suffer More from mental problems Than even physical problems And 1 in 4 in Europe Suffers from a mental problem We have to be happier Because in USA it is 1 in 3 But we are going to beat them out We would not be any less than them In India also Mental hospitals Psychiatry They are all growing very much Uncontrollable mind Inefficiency Wrong understanding Misunderstanding All those problems Belong to the mind So in one way of interpretation This is Adi Bhautika In a way of speaking And there is another We are also spiritual beings There is a deep longing Within each one of us The very longing That I want to have perfect happiness Perfect peace That belongs to which realm? Not to the mind It belongs to the spirit Why? Because perfection and infinity Are related And infinity Is the very nature of the soul We are not aware of it But there is a vague remembrance Once I was perfect Or to put it in a better way Vedantic way Vedanta never uses the gold past tense Once upon a time I was very happy Old and golden period Now Says you are Brahman It doesn't say you were Brahman It doesn't say you will be Brahman It will say you are Brahman You are right now But because of ignorance But we do not know it We are not aware of it But there is a terrible longing for it If given If we have to take a poll and say Ultimately what is it you wish? You may express it in a different words Different language In the sense I want to have perfect happiness But if you think about What is perfect happiness? You will see perfect happiness is that state Which is beyond all the limitedness Infinity Two words Summarize Word of perfection Infinity means everything Eternity means for all times We want to attain to that state Why is there that longing? In fact one of our Swamis From Ashokananda Who gives such a brilliant talks He says Why is the mind so restless? If you are asked Then you will say I am hungry I am restless That person criticizes me I am restless I want to get there I am restless No These are all answers from the state of ignorance The real answer would be I want to be myself I want to be God I want to be perfect That is the answer But knowingly or unknowingly Not only we are longing for it We are also travelling towards it Just for a moment I want to speak up this subject We are all travelling Because Vedanta's main tenet Philosophy is That we are all potentially divine Potentially doesn't mean Like a seed Again And interestingly Swami Vivekananda had formulated Or summarized The essence of Vedanta Do you know where? When he started the classes on Raja Yoga He gave these talks in New York And there before starting In the Raja Yoga book You will get Because each soul is Potentially divine The goal is to manifest this divinity within By controlling nature External and internal It is a very important sentence Thirdly Do this Means attain this freedom Manifest your divinity Either through work or worship Or psychic control Or philosophy By one or more Or all of these And be free Capital letters F R double E Free And that means Be yourself This is the whole of religion Doctrines Dogmas Books Churches Temples All these are Secondary details In these four sentences Swami Vivekananda Had Really summarized Not only the essence of Vedanta But the essence of all scriptures That were in the past That are present now That would be in future What do you mean by present scriptures? You know Before Sri Ramakrishna was born Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna didn't exist Before Krishna was born Bhagavad Gita didn't exist So before Jesus Christ came The New Testament didn't exist Before Buddha came The Three Pitakas didn't exist And you know Hindu philosophy God will be reborn again And the scriptures will come Better scriptures I won't say better I mean more scriptures will come And when they come What would be the essence? What is the essence of all scriptures? Only one You don't need to hear Thousands of lectures Only once you need to hear this And why do you need to attend Thousands of talks and lectures? To fix that idea So that we never forget that idea It is a repetition It is a manana All these talks There is a funny incident Swami Vivekananda was Having a private retreat In Thousand Island Park With some 12 or 15 disciples There was one doctor Old man, a doctor And somehow he also came to know He was also attending the talks And Swami Vivekananda Whatever subject it is Even if it is Whether it is marriage Whether it is a war Whether it is production of vegetables Or how to catch fish Ultimately he will come to that one point Brahman alone is real Everything is unreal So this doctor will go on At the end of Swami's talk One and half hours So Swami It all comes to this Brahman alone is real Yes, yes Swami will say Yes, yes He will say that And from that time onwards When the doctor That man Usually comes to the class A little bit late After everybody had sat down He will come Oh, Swami Stop and say Here comes Brahman Just to make fun This is true You squeeze the gospel of Ramakrishna What is the essence? That you are divine And realize Manifest Your divinity Realize and manifest Manifest and realize What is the difference between these two? As we go on practicing spiritual disciplines As we approach nearer and nearer To the goal Our day to day conduct Will manifest Better and better way That is what is called Becoming more saintly As our knowledge of ourselves Becomes better Our conduct Our outlook Our attitude Our behavior Everything also Correspondingly changes better And as our character improves As our behavior improves Our knowledge also Becomes more and more Uncovered Not discovered But uncovered Not invented Not discovered But uncovered Manifest So this is the goal Any scripture So you have heard everything That is enough If you have understood it You do not need to attend One single class But that unperfect Unforgettable understanding comes In the state Only in the state of Intuition Direct experience Until you developed that intuition You have to be in tuition This is the tuition Or at home You study And you meditate Studying Meditating Thinking All these things are Processes Not the ends Be very careful about it You may be practicing Spiritual disciplines Whole life But what is the criteria? The criteria Whether you are progressing Is Whether you know Who you are Until that time Even one millisecond Until you really know Who you are By direct experience Your knowledge is only Bookish knowledge That is the most important thing Vedanta teaches us This is called Anubhuti Pratyaksha Direct experience Intuition means There is no Media By which we get It is direct perception So this is the second And third First is Physical body Troubles coming from physical body The second is Troubles pertaining to the mind The third is That our problems stem From not being spiritual Let me also put it this way Supposing you have Two hands and two legs You exercise only Two hands Or you exercise One hand and one leg Or you exercise Two legs and one hand Will your health be alright? You have to exercise All the limbs In unison In a similar way If you grow physically That is alright That is fine You are healthy physically That is fine But that will not solve the problem You may have perfect body And imperfect mind You know that is why you see Very often Mad cats Their health is perfect You know why? They never worry They have given it Surrendered it to others Just for others to worry Especially the UK government is excellent It worries for everybody's problems Those who are healthy It doesn't worry They have to worry Those who are unhealthy In every way Government worries for them Right So this is the first If there is a mind Until the mind also Is made healthy And as far as possible It could be made healthy That should also be exercised Exercise or health Is mainly Because of two things What is it? Proper diet And proper exercise Diet and exercise You know If you get any physical sickness If you go to doctor You only say two things Then there is If we do not become spiritual Then the other two are also Equally affected Very few people realise Most of our problems Are because we do not exercise Spiritual disciplines You know There are people Whose physical health is fine Whose mind also is intelligent Sharp And they have enough Material wealth And yet They are terribly unhappy They do not have peace of mind You ask them What is it? Many people would like to be In your shoes You have everything Everybody can possibly desire And yet you are not happy If you ask them They say Oh this person is troubling me That person is I am worried about this These are all Silly type of reasons What is the real reason? That God has provided you With two perfect instruments But there is something else You are not really doing it What is it? Spiritual practice Through faith Through exercise Now There is A book has come You must have heard a book Emotional Intelligence By Goldman And following that Another book had appeared Spiritual Intelligence So I have gone through that book In the very first paragraph He traces People are very obese People are very obese Because of what? You follow? You know Usually if you ask Why are Americans obese? Because they eat lot of food They eat fat They eat Coca-Cola And chips All these things No that is not the real reason The real reason is Lack of spiritual life Because it percolates throughout our life And it destroys mental peace It destroys physical health You know nowadays Physicians are very well aware Most of the diseases And for most of the time 90% of the reason Is not physical But mental Psychosomatic effect Psycho means mind Somatic means body The effect of the uncontrolled Dissatisfactory Worrying mind Over the body How What a tremendous effect The mind has upon the body It is unimaginable If you want to know On any day when you are not You are trying to sleep You are tired You are trying to sleep But you are unable to sleep Just think over it and say Why am I not able to sleep? Everything is perfect There is nothing really to worry about And yet you are not able to sleep You know the power of the mind Mind is very very restless And that is affecting The sleep and everything Sometimes there are other things I would not like to go into These vast details But too much of energy in the body Can also affect the mind Too much of food also can affect Many many things can affect But the effect of the mind Both upon the physical body And upon spiritual life Is tremendous So according to Vedanta philosophy It is the main culprit Is the mind And with our happiness Lies in our mind Our unhappiness lies in our mind Bondage lies in the mind Liberation also lies in the mind Sri Ramakrishna dwells in many places In his Gospel of Ramakrishna On this particular subject The problem of the mind And Raja Yoga Every Yoga, Raja Yoga Especially concentrated How to tackle the mind How to control the mind And in another way of speaking If we have to control something Then we have to knowledge of What that something is If we do not know what the mind is If we do not know what is the nature of the mind If we do not know all these things We will never know how to control it Controlling means knowledge That is why there is a beautiful English saying Knowledge is power If you do not have knowledge However power you have is completely useless So in our Indian language We give a beautiful example An elephant is such a huge animal And on that elephant Is sitting one tiny Indian You know like Indian cow Indian body is very small Some blackish fellow, smallish fellow And he is controlling the elephant How is he able to do that? Because his knowledge is Much much vaster Than the elephant So we all suffer from three fold misery This is one interpretation The other interpretation is We have a body And this body depends upon many things First dependence is upon food Water, weather, temperature Everything The second is outside people You know suppose there are enemies There are people who do not like you They are waiting for you to die Or there could be floods There could be famines Many things you know Many of us UK people, UK citizens We do not realize Somewhere in Malaysia or somewhere One bird has got some disease And it comes by jet aeroplane The faster we travel The faster also it travels And then it comes here We have no defense against it That is why the government you know They give vaccines and other things And we do not even know It might have originated only day before yesterday But somehow it affects us Somewhere There is some politician is dethroned Our stock market has gone down You understand Stock market has gone Unknown things affect us This is called Adi Bhautika Adhyatmika means problems of the body Adi Bhautika Bhautika means that which is physically Other elements, other people Other minds And other politics that is going on Everything happens Then Hindus Especially believe that there is a third Adi Daivika Daiva means divine being So this is not very important For this subject But it is good to know the background Hindus believe there are other worlds We have to believe We cannot demonstrate anything other than this sense knowledge We can never demonstrate Whether there is a god, whether there is a devil Whether there is life after death Whether there is another world We have to take on faith So Hindus believe there are other regions Much better regions Much worse regions These are called 14 regions We call it you know Brahmaloka is the highest Then also pathala is the lowest 7 upper worlds, 7 lower worlds Is it true? If you challenge me I will say I believe it is true But I can never convince you Unless you have faith Every loka there are some beings living Now those beings For some peculiar reason They are not perfect beings Mind you, there is not god, there are not many gods Only one god But these are evolved beings And those beings, they would not like us to become spiritual They would not like us to be happy Because what is the nature of happiness? There is a saying When you are suffering You remember god When you are happy, you do not remember god So if you are happy You will not remember them You won't go to the temples You won't come to hear my lectures Because that is why I wish you fervently You suffer and then And find out Where can I get some relief Ok, swami is giving a nice lecture For 45 minutes relief you will get The gods do not wish us To be happier Or they think sometimes That what offerings we make to them They are not adequate So they can cause problems to us Let me give an example In case you are thinking the swami is spinning all these things I am not spinning One example, especially devotees of Thakur Who have read the biographies More or less Swami Yogananda was travelling with Holy Mother in Jaipur region And they were travelling by train At night Suddenly Swami Yogananda Had a terrible nightmarish dream There a ferocious goddess Appeared And said that I would like to finish you But Paramahamsa, meaning Ramakrishna Had prevented me from doing it You offer worship to me Why she became angry I don't know Swami Yogananda as far as I know Is the mildest, most inoffensive person This earth can know But why that goddess suddenly became angry Only she knows Anyway The next day they reached the place They were going around And suddenly Swami Yogananda saw One small image of a goddess And said mother this is that goddess Who appeared to me in my dream Immediately mother offered So many things are there But why did Sri Ramakrishna's father Go to Gaya, visit Gaya Because some spirit Started giving trouble to Sudhiram's daughter And Sri Ramakrishna went to Gaya and he had a vision of the God. So there are beings Who give trouble to us Like, just like other human beings For no reason They give trouble to us. Any thief that comes Into your house and steals something He does that. Anybody who steals Your car, that's what he does And anybody internet he steals your Facebook identity Do you know them? Do they know you? But somehow Their mal contents are there Very malicious people are There are elements here. They are worse than Bad spirits. So they Can torture you. Hitler's time You know, how many Jews were Mercilessly extinguished These are all, so many examples Are there. Bad people are there Like that, there are also Even though higher elements There are bad Gods or goddesses are there. For some reason One of the other reasons is One of the Upanishads Describes it. Suppose you have A cow. It is giving Nice milk. And you have some chickens They are giving nice eggs. So Would you like your chicken to run away? We had a wonderful experience In Bangalore. Our neighbours Were keeping some chickens. Ours is A vast land. So the chickens Would come, graze whole day, lay The legs here and at night Go back. And those Owners are left wondering What happened to their Eggs. Some cows And they go to the neighbouring houses Eat all their garden produce And come on home and deliver milk So like that, you know We do not like to lose a cow, a chicken Animals, servants Who are useful to us. In a similar way Gods think we are animals Because we take Offerings to them. We give them Pooja and we praise them They are also thinking Who is the person who likes us, who praises us You are Indra, you are Chandra So if we turn to God That means we are neglecting them They do not like it. They say You fellow, all this time You are offering nice pooja and I was having a very comfortable life All of a sudden you Go and strike. That we do not Like. So I will have some Obstacles in your life. What obstacles? If your servant says I will go to your neighbour and Work there. Why do you want to work there? Or if you are a company, Microsoft Hires people from other companies All the talented Why do they do it? Because They give. Why do they want to go? They are getting something Extra. What is that extra Money? Creature comforts So that is what the Devas will say What is it you want? If it is a man You want to enjoy a woman We will send Rambha, Avarvasi, Tilottama and other people So like that They put temptations in the path of a Spiritual person. Sometimes But really speaking, if we are Sincere, they cannot do anything Because God is our greatest protection But God sometimes Himself sends these as tests To test our spirituality There is nothing called He shares spirituality And after nice breakfast, I sit there and Repeat God's name for 10 times And then I am a great spiritual Person. That is not going to Work out. If we want to be spiritual We have to behave In a particular way. What is that particular Way? If there is happiness Do not be disturbed. If there is Unhappiness, pain, misery Do not be disturbed. If somebody Wants to kill you, let him kill But after all he is dirty to you. After all he can only kill His body, not the spirit If somebody wants to take away your products Let him take away. A spiritual Person has to react in a Totally different way. That is why most of us Do not wish. We would Like to be spiritual without Practicing spiritual disciplines How wonderful it will be We would live full To the life, enjoying everything And last second after dessert And everything is finished, then God Will come and say, I am transporting You to the seventh heaven. How wonderful It would be. But that is Not going to be. So God himself Sends some test. So three types of Obstacles will come. There is no Remedy until we gain Liberation. Until we realize God. That is why The name of Philosophy in Vedanta It is not philosophy as I said. It is Called Darshana Hindus understand the word. Darshana means what? Seeing God Face to face. Seeing a Holy person face to face This is called Darshana So one has to realize God Face to face. As though I am seeing You, you are seeing me. And if Someone comes and says, no no you are not Seeing anybody here. It is your delusion Does it disturb me? Because I am Seeing in front of my eyes Like that if anyone can see God, no one else can Disturb that person. In the West The word philosophy Has become synonymous with Speculation. That means intellectually You will sit and think. That is Not going to work. Because There are certain truths Which can only be experienced Beyond the sense organs God, other world, Afterlife, how are you going to find out Do they exist? You can never Say yes, you cannot say no At best you can say, I believe Until you see them. That is why Sri Ramakrishna When Swami Vivekananda asked him Have you seen God? What was his reply? He said, not only I have seen God But I will Show him to you. Because if you don't See God, how will you know I have seen God? That is not possible. So Darshana. What is the Purpose of Darshana? What does it say? Darshana means that Direct intuitive experience Of a reality which Certain sages, saints Have directly experienced Know the truth And then they come and tell in Human language that formulation Of the experiences Of sages in possible Limited human language Is called Darshana But there are two points To be noted down here First of all, until we realize We have to have tremendous Faith in the people Who propagate this. Be it scriptures Be it persons with whom We are getting associated And second point, even more Important point, our whole life Has to be oriented Towards that. Here There is no man's land Between reality And unreality. You know there is no man's land India and Pakistan UK and France are between Any given two countries But between reality and Unreality, there is No man's land. Between waking State and dream state Do you have no man's land? There is no man's land. Either you are In the waking state or you are in the Dream state. You cannot say I am half dreamy and half awake That doesn't work. If you are Awake, you are awake. Even little. If you are Dreaming, you are dreaming. So between Reality and unreality There is no man's land Therefore, if you think I will have both reality and Unreality, it's not going to work That's why our whole Orientation should be We are still struggling. We are still in the realm Of unreality. But struggling We have faith and we are struggling But one day we will wake up From this. That is why it is said Realization, how much time does it Take to realize truth, reality? How much time? You know, even The word quick is in the realm Of time. Half a second And one billionth of a millisecond Is all in the realm of time But what is God? What is reality? Beyond time Timelessness. In timelessness You can't claim, I realized God At such and such a time. It never happens In fact, not only realization Even sleep. One of our Swamis Used to say, simplest experiment Every day you go to sleep Take a time piece And keep note When exactly you fell asleep Can you do that? Because if you are keeping note Go to sleep And if you have fallen asleep You have gone out of time. It is not possible It is like that. It is Eternity. It is the nature Of reality. Now, we are talking about Darshan. In India This problem has come. The first thing people Realized is that Life is full of miseries The difference is, somebody Has led virtuous life or in the previous Past birth. You know, Hindus believe in Past life and future life Even some people What is called? Troubles Are a bit less. It is one of our Swamis. Again, very very Beautifully he puts it. What is the difference Between a rich man and a poor man? A poor man will be worrying In a dilapidated cottage A rich man will be worrying in an air Conditioned room. On a done up Dreams. Dreams matters Worrying is common How? In what condition? You know, air conditioned Worrying and non air conditioned Worrying. This is the only difference So, we can never escape these three Is it possible to escape in future? No. Is it possible to escape In next life? No. What is the way to Escape? Only by Retaining to that only reality Which is called God, which is called Brahman By whatever name you call it That is the only way. Go beyond The ideas of these Three bodies. Gross, subtle and Causal. This is the only way This is the first point. So, second Even more important point Darshana, as I said you know What is the meaning of Darshana? Having seen reality directly Without the medium Of body and mind What is the point? Point is There are people who have Seen. Seen means if you have To see something. What does it mean? There must be something Existing. Let us say If somebody says I have seen God That means what? There is a God And that person had Seen. How can anybody see God If God doesn't exist? Is it possible? So, this is the most important point Darshana means first there is A reality. Call it God Call it reality Kingdom of heaven, whatever name you like Second, that is Our nature. What is it? It is not God is sitting Somewhere. We are sitting here What is the relationship between God And us? Am I God? Or am I We belong to the world. Am I the body? Am I the mind? Am I the causal body? What is it? Darshana means 100% forcible Assertion that you are In fact that God But you have forgotten. Then what about this body And other things? At present though we are thinking This is me. But in reality It is a complete misunderstanding This is a Total misunderstanding It is why it is called unreality Now, this word unreality Has many connotations I will only go into one connotation Usually when we say the world is unreal What I am experiencing Is unreal. You are unreal The chair is unreal. That's not what Vedanta philosophy means Vedanta philosophy, what it means By unreality is To think that I am this body And mind, that is unreality So where is the unreality? The world is not unreal The world is nothing but God But my way of looking at the world My idea of the world My understanding of the world That is unreal This is brought out beautifully In that illustration The rope and the snake You know the famous example, classical example The rope and the snake What is outside? Rope But what are you seeing? Snake So where is the rope? Outside Where is the snake? Is it outside or inside? Yes, I am seeing it outside But where is it really? Here. How do we know? Because you know, how do you know? You take a stick and go on beating That snake. Will it ever die? No. But if the same Stick somebody, guru takes and then Gives a blow, instantaneously There is an illumination. The snake Disappears. Have you noticed? So, this is the important point Vedanta never tells That outside there is a world And that world is unreal That never says. Apparently It says, but really doesn't say Really what it says is The idea that what I am seeing Is a world and it is an Unreal world. It is that Unreality is within the mind Fortunately for us This mind also is part Of that world. Therefore The only way I can assert My reality is to separate From both my body And mind. This famous method is Called Neti Neti I am not the body. I am not The mind. I am not the ego Part of it. Now, by definition We are going to study Yoga philosophy. But before We go into this. This introduction I am giving Because I want to get rid of certain Preconceived misunderstandings Usually the word yoga Is understood in the sense You go and mix with Something. Become united You know the English word yoke Is a Sanskrit word which came From Vidha to Yuji. Yuji Means to unite. From the Yuji has become in English language by corruption The word yoke. Yoke you know A bullock Ploughing material or a horse To its carriage. You yoke Yoga means to Join. But really Speaking. Whether you are speaking of Bhakti Yoga Karma Yoga or Jnana Yoga or of course Raja Yoga. That is A misnomer. Yoga Means V-Yoga Non-Yogi. What is it? We are already mixed Up with body and mind So intimately Even though we know our body is Different from us. Yet we Say I am the body That may be difficult subject to understand But in course of talk We develop that subject. But to give an Example. Are you your hair If I come and pull your hair you know What you will do to me. But you Pay money to get rid of this very Same hair. Paying highly money You know what does a hairdresser do The more you know popular The hairdresser. The more he will charge What for? Is it not? If there is some tumor growing You go to the surgeon. What does he do? He will remove it. You are healthy Only when that is removed From you. What is yoga? If body and mind are Tumors from the yogic point of view If these are completely removed Then what remains? I remain Because I always remain myself But what I falsely thought to me All that goes away This is called V-Yoga. Bhagavad Gita Also supports this Dukkha, Swayoga V-Yoga. One of the Definitions of Yoga. There are In Bhagavad Gita. Yoga has got three Definitions. The first definition is Yoga Karmasu Koushalam. Yoga is Dexterity in action But it is the same meaning. What does it mean? You do a work So skillfully that The sooner you finish That work, the sooner you become Free. Second Definition of Yoga. According to Bhagavad Gita Samatvam yoga uchyate Samatvam means your mind Is never disturbed Never agitated. Never goes Into that virile pool and identifies Itself with whatever thought comes in the mind Whatever be the situation Absolutely you will be calm and Quiet. That state of the Mind is called Yoga Third definition Dukkha swayoga vyogam Yoga uchyate. What is that? Dukkha means misery, suffering Pain. Even under the Most difficult Circumstances. When the misery Or suffering or pain is the greatest Dukkha swayoga Swayoga means joining with suffering But you will be Completely free from that Vyoga. Dukkha swayoga Vyogam yoga. Yoga Is that skill by which Even when under the most Trying circumstances You feel as free as we Say in the world. Why is it? How is it? How is it? Because If I think this is the body Even if a pin pricks I suffer. Supposing A knife is pierced through your body How do I feel? Do I feel Anything? When a person achieves That state of mind where Even though what we call or he used To call formerly is my body Even if that body is cut Even if that mind is hurt Through ideas, words Behaviour. He says It has nothing to do with me because the body is I am not the body. I am not the mind Just to be an example Once a devotee went to Mahakosha Maharaj And Maharaj asked how old are you? He said what do you mean by how old are you? I was never born. No no I am asking about this. Oh you are asking About the body. Yes it was born 70 years ago and are you Suffering much? He says no I am not suffering Body is suffering. Is it words? Or is it a fact of His realisation? He says I see The body. Clearly That it is suffering. It is old It is one of the natural States of changes that Take place. You know according to Vedanta six changes Take place. Most Of us are in the fifth state But longingly Looking back at the third State. However much we colour Our hair and put lipstick And then put artificial teeth We are not going to go to the It is like marriage you know marriage One man went to a doctor And said doctor I want to live a long Time. Can you suggest something? Doctor said go and get Married. The man said so Does it make me live long? The doctor said no. You would not wish To live long. The thought of living long will not Come to your mind. So A person who is completely Free from the idea I am the body I am the mind and that is the State of yoga. That person will not feel Anything. That is called Dukha Sanyoga Yoga. This is called yoga And this yoga This state of mind where We know who we are This is called practice Of yoga. There is a method But in summary what we Have discussed so far. Darshana means It tells you are divine. You have Forgotten and you are longing for it You are not longing for anything. This is Another point. Important point What is it? If you say I want What do you want? I want money. What do you want? I want to get married. What do you want? I want to have a car. Innumerable These desires. Is that what we really Want? No. What is it You want? I want to be free. If you have a desire it can be fulfilled But it will produce another Desire because if you buy a car Previously only you were taking bath Now you have also to bathe Your car. You don't have a dog You buy a dog. Previously You were only bathing once Now you have to bathe As many times as the dog Asks you to bathe. So What is the point? The point is Whatever Desires we may have We are mistaking those desires. If I get That I will be happy. No. You will be happy Only under one condition. What is that condition? When you know Who you really are That is what the darshana or yoga Philosophy tells. Yoga is one of the Darshanas. So In India, Vedanta We have six schools of philosophy These are called Purva Mimamsa Uttara Mimamsa Nyaya, Vaiseshika And Sankhya and Yoga These are again classified into Three. Purva Mimamsa Uttara Mimamsa. They are closely Allied. One is the theory. Another is The practice. So Sankhya and Yoga of which we have Prajna Yoga belongs to the Yoga Why I have given such a long Introduction is. One of the reasons is It is not only. Merely we know Yoga means you have to sit. You have to do Pranayama. You have to do some Concentration. Some exercises There is a deep philosophy Behind it. That philosophical Part of Yoga is called Sankhya And Vedanta borrows heavily From that. Especially The model of what is called the Universe. Creation. And the Yoga is the central hub Whichever path you are following. If you are a devotee You must have focus If you are an ignani You must have focus. If you are a Karma Yogi you must have Tremendous focus. What is the focus In Karma Yoga? There are two One point is that you Must always focus on How skillfully How concentratedly you are doing Your work. But even more Important in Karma Yoga is what You should watch yourself To see am I getting attached Am I desiring the result Why am I doing this. You have to be very careful Do I want name and fame Or others observing how well I am doing All these ideas you must be Keeping a constant watch Then only it is possible. That watch in part That concentration part Is called Yoga. By definition This word Yoga is marvelous Finally this is only just As a way of introduction. Even though there are So many psychologists I will elaborate this point in my next talk But most important is This is the first systematic Exposition of psychology Depth psychology Nearly 2700 or 3000 Years back that had taken place Even today The psychologists, Euro Centred psychologists especially Have not recognized that There is a system Of psychology where all The intricacies Of the mind, why the mind Behaves, why it goes wrong And what is the nature of happiness How can the mind attain happiness All these things are thoroughly Discussed 3000 years back Most of them Are not even aware of that But here is a book which tells us What is the nature of the mind And why is it important to control the mind And in what way to control the mind What is the benefit of controlling the mind Both, not only in spiritual sense But also in monetary sense If you want money Then if you are intelligent, if you are focused You will get more money If you want to enjoy anything You will enjoy more if you have focus So in every way it works These ideas have been thoroughly Beautifully discussed What we call threadbare discussion Has come, but we will discuss These things from our next class Onwards, my methodology Would be, I would not confuse With too many Sanskrit terminology But I will first of all Try to expose as Clearly as possible Second, as practically As possible with innumerable Examples, so that We can all get benefit from it Om Shanti Shanti Shanti