Patanjali Yoga Sutras Lecture 077

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

OM SAHANAVATU SAHANAVUBHUNAKTU SAHAVIRYAM KARAVAVAHE TEJASVINAVADHITAMASTUMAVIDVISHAVAHE OM SHANTI SHANTI SHANTIHI HARIHI OM OM YUGENA CHITTASYA PADENA VACHAM MALAM SHARIRASYA JAVAIDYA KENA YOPAKAROTAM PRAVARAM MUNINAM PATANJALIM PRAMJALI RANATHOSME I bow to the eminent sage Patanjali who removed the impurities of the mind through yoga, of speech through grammar and of the body through medicine. We have entered into a very interesting part of the Patanjali Yoga Sutras. The third chapter which is called Vibhuti Pada. Vibhuti means powers. When a person is able to focus his mind, concentrate, he can get extraordinary powers. Many holy people do really get these powers. But because of the impurities of the mind, very soon they not only lose the powers, they also unfortunately fall down. Because when the mind is not pure then it increases the egotism. That is why Patanjali at the very beginning he had warned us very sternly that if we whatever we think the ego identifies itself with it. But when we can suppress all thoughts then the ego remains pure and that is called the state of yoga. We have been discussing before entering into the actual types of powers a yogi can get. An extraordinary, difficult, deep discussion of what is concentration, what is meditation and what is Samadhi. In our last class we have been discussing about the definition of meditation. What is meditation? When a person attains to such a state of mind control, there would be one object in his mind again and again and again. The same thought repeats itself. How long? You know if somebody can concentrate his mind, focus his mind on any subject for 12 seconds, 12 seconds it is called concentration. If he can concentrate his mind on the same idea, not only on the same subject but on the same idea for 12 into 12, 144 seconds that is called meditation. And if the same person can become one with that object so that only the object shines for how much time? 144 seconds into 12 times, I don't know how much it would be, probably about 22 minutes, something like that, that is called Samadhi. Just 12 seconds focus, now go and try at home, try it here right now, try to listen what is this Swami telling, do not think of a monkey at that time. Let us briefly recollect what we have been discussing, what is the difference between concentration, meditation and then we will go to the lower type of Samadhi which is called Sampradnata Samadhi, lower type of meditation. First what is concentration? The ability to focus the mind on any subject. As an example, one is thinking of Krishna, Krishna's form, Krishna's name, where he was born, what are all the things he did, subject is one, ideas are many. But when a person advances, when he becomes a Yogi and when such a person focuses his mind on one, not only one subject but one idea, for example Krishna's feet, nothing else, Krishna's face, nothing else, that is called meditation. Now the difference between concentration and meditation is not only about the ideas, any scientist, any artist, anybody who focuses on any object that is called concentration. Meditation means only focus on divine, on spiritual ideas, not on a worldly ideas, otherwise a cat it is said would be the greatest meditator, when it sits outside the hole of a rat, seems that this is not a joking matter. If you watch some of the documentaries, for example David Attenborough, when a lion or a tiger is stalking an animal, it singles out a particular animal, there may be hundreds of those animals, but its attention is fixed on that one animal and it will not go. Even if another animal is passing by another two feet, it would not attempt, it is fixed, that is concentration, unfortunately we cannot call it meditation. In my last class, I have been dealing with that Tatra, Pratyaya Ekatanata, Pratyaya means one particular idea, Ekatanata, again and again and again, the same idea, it comes, it stands and then it disappears, again the same thing rises, same idea rises again and again and again and again. When this happens, for how long? 144 seconds, that is the minimum the person is qualified to be entitled, you are a meditator. So with regard to that subject also, we have been talking, one particular idea dominates the mind of the meditator, this is the greatness of these yogis, great people. Now I would like to give certain teachings and examples because unless we also have these examples, it is almost impossible to understand what is meditation, let alone meditation, even to understand what is concentration is so difficult for us. How do we know whether we have concentration? Forget about meditation, how do we know? The first thing is, suppose you are reading a book and at the end of reading the book, if you have concentrated, the main ideas would shine in your mind, you won't be able to forget them and you would not be aware of the passage of time, the place, the weather, even hunger, just an example I have, all of you have heard about Edison, the person who had invented this filament, he used to be so concentrated. His attendants used to bring food and leave at his table because he instructed them, leave the food here and do not disturb me and after 4-5 hours, they used to come and see the food is exactly where it was kept. Jagadesh Chandra Bose, he was a great scientist in Bengal in the last century. Swami Bhuteshanandji Maharaj, he narrated a reminiscence about him. At that time, Swami Bhuteshanandji was a student and he heard about this great scientist and one day he wanted to have his darshan. You know, for Indians, any great person, seeing any great person is called darshan. Seeing God is called darshan because greatness and godliness are interconnected. So this Swami Bhuteshanandji and they went to his home and he was free with any visitor. So somebody directed them, this scientist is on the roof and you go and meet him and they went up and then they saw he was sitting in a chair with half-closed eyes. For 15 minutes, he did not even notice that some people had come. So deeply he was absorbed. After 15 minutes, as if he was just becoming conscious of them. This is a phenomena which we see in Sri Ramakrishna, in Holy Mother a little less, in Swami Vekananda, in other direct disciples very frequently because they were born dhyana siddhas. What did Sri Ramakrishna say about Narendranath? He was a dhyana siddha. I will give you some examples of that then we will come back to the subject. Sri Ramakrishna's teachings. During meditation, you should imagine as if you are tying your mind to the lotus feet of the deity with a silk thread so that it may not wander away from there. But why must the thread be silken? Since his lotus feet are too delicate, any other brand will give him pain. Deep meditation brings out the real nature of the object of meditation and infuses it into the soul of the meditator. This is a very significant teaching. Deep meditation brings out the real nature of the object of meditation and infuses it into the soul of the meditator. Let us meditate on this saying for a short while. Swami Vekananda used to say, anybody can reach God through any activity. Sincerely pursuing any activity can take one to God. For example, he says, let a chemist continue his research into chemistry and from the gross to the certain, from the effect to the cause, from that cause to its effect, from that cause to its effect. If one traces back, one reaches ultimately God. Why? Because the whole universe has come out of God. So any object in this world, every object in this world is a manifestation of God. So any object in this world can take one to God because every object is nothing but God. Supposing a person is meditating on a tree and then find out what is the origin and go back its constituents, let us say atoms, let us say particles, let us say energy and go back even from that point of energy. Ultimately where does he land in? He ends only in the divine. That is what Sri Ramakrishna tells. It does not matter what object it is. Here, just few minutes earlier, I have defined the difference between concentration and meditation. Concentration is focusing the mind on any object. Meditation is focusing the mind only on a divine subject. This is the distinction. But here, according to Patanjali, and it is wonderful, according to Patanjali, every object is belonging to Prakruti only. But according to Vedanta, every object, the whole nature, Prakruti belongs to whom? To God only. Nowadays, a peculiar argument is going round. We don't need God. Everything is done by nature. But we ask what is nature? If you ask what is nature, it is nothing but a manifestation of God only. This is Vedantic answer. We have no conflict at all. So who has created earthquakes? God? No, nature. But who created the nature? It is only God. Ultimately it is only God who creates earthquakes, floods, famines, everything, droughts, everything. But here, supposing a person is meditating on a bird or on a plant, on a rock, for example, ultimately that leads him to only God. So what happens? What is this wonderful phenomena? To meditate, what is the first requirement? What is the first requirement? Consciousness, not mind. If without consciousness, one doesn't even know that there is a mind to concentrate. One must be able to concentrate. Now what is the point here? Very interesting. You are trying to focus, concentrate. You can test your power of concentration right here in this class. At the end of the class, close your eyes for a minute and then find out what did the Swami talk about? Did I understand? What are all the points? And that shows if you have concentrated, you will understand better, you will relate to it better and you will retain them, your memory would become excellent. When a person is trying to meditate, first of all, what is the first requirement we said? Consciousness, awareness. What is the next thing? A pure mind. Pure mind means undistracted mind. I am not talking about purity in the sense of spiritual context. I am talking purity means undistracted, restful, focused mind. So here is consciousness and consciousness shines through the particular mind because the mind has to decide what subject should I concentrate upon? What should be the object of my meditation or concentration? It has to decide. Even to decide that, what is it that makes it possible? Only consciousness. This is called knowledge. So when a person imagines, he tries to focus. Here is a rock as a simple example. This is a rock, this is a rock, this is a rock. The point of concentration is not the object. The point of the concentration is, here is something very interesting I will tell you. You keep a rock in front of you and then you try to focus your mind. Now which one is likely to disappear? Is it the rock or is it your mind? So it is not even the mind. The rock is there steady, the mind is also there steady but your awareness has shifted. You have taken one idea to another idea to another idea. Here is a person and he is trying to focus his level best. First idea is I should not think anything other than the rock. Then what happens? Slowly the rock starts to move. It starts, it comes out alive. It comes out vibrating and all wonderful ideas about God will come flooding into the mind. But where is it happening? Is it because of the rock? The poor rock doesn't know what is happening in the mind of the concentrator. There is a point, oh this is a rock, this consists of these chemicals, these materials but soon he comes to a point, he says a consciousness enters into the rock as it were. As it were the meditators, the concentrators consciousness enters into the rock and the rock comes out alive. And that is the point when concentration transforms, matures itself into meditation. This is the secret of image worship. What am I talking about? Ramakrishna sat in front of a piece of rock, simple language. What is the rock? Basalt rock. What is the rock? It has a particular shape. What is that name? Kali. He went on meditating. For those who want to go into this psychological details, in the great master there is a beautiful description by Swami Sharada Ananda how a devotee of God following the path of this and this, not this, not this, following the path of this and this attains to that supreme realisation. It is a beautiful description is there. So what happens? This small piece of rock, of course, Sri Ramakrishna for example was already imbued with the idea this is not rock, this is Kali. We also have in a similar idea, you enter into the shrine room, what do you see? It is a piece of paper with some blobs of colour. When a worm looks at that picture of Sri Ramakrishna, what we call Sri Ramakrishna, what do you think it will see? A piece of paper with some blobs of colour. But when a devotee of Ramakrishna looks at the same picture, what does he see? He forgets the picture and only the idea of Ramakrishna shines. That's why we are prostrating, we are praying, we are weeping in front of that picture. So here is the person, soon his consciousness endows that piece of paper with consciousness and as the concentration meditation progresses, slowly that rock, so-called rock, it is only starter for starting the engine called expansion of consciousness, it disappears. What remains? A beautiful shining idea of God. This is what happens in our minds also. You close your eyes and in the beginning you are only thinking about Ramakrishna, a being with a form, with a name and the more you are going deep into that meditation, what happens? The name and the form slowly disappear. Then what comes inside? Only certain divine qualities, not ordinary qualities, divine qualities. What are the ordinary qualities? Here is a person who is fit, height and what is the age and what is the colour of the skin etc. These things slowly disappear and then qualities also, there are two types of negative qualities and positive qualities. Can you think of God with negative qualities? Never it is possible. That is why we have to learn so much. When we look at a tribal man worshipping a tribal God, oh this uneducated, uncultured, brute, worshipping all sorts of ugly figures like that. I heard like this, what about non-Hindus idea about Ganesha? What about their idea about that small rat carrying this huge man? But for the devotee, he forgets all these things. What does he see? Even the shining divinity only he sees. And you know what happened to Ramakrishna when Tautapuri came and wanted to instruct him that you should remove all thoughts from your mind. What is he talking about? You must become a Yogi. Yogaha chitta vritti nirodhara, remove all thoughts. And Sri Ramakrishna said, I could remove all thoughts excepting one. What is that thought? That is called Brahma kara vritti, here Kali kara vritti, one thought of his chosen deity, Divine Mother, I cannot remove. And even that is a thought, that is called a Pratyaya. That is a perfect illustration of what we are talking about in meditation. Pratyaya ekatanata dhyanam, only the thought of Divine Mother or shining, it is not a dead thought. This is the only object is the Divine Mother. Even he is not remembering, I is remembering only the Divine Mother. Samadhi, lower type of, sorry not meditation, lower type of Samadhi. Why am I talking about? Because what is the next state of experience Sri Ramakrishna had? What was that called? Nirvikalpa Samadhi. Before attaining Nirvikalpa Samadhi, what was the Samadhi he was having? Savikalpa Samadhi, you should not understand it even as meditation, it is far higher than meditation. Totapuri said, get rid of it and we know the story how Totapuri helped Sri Ramakrishna get rid of that last thought. When that last thought disappeared, what remained? Only his own pure consciousness and that is called Nirvikalpa Samadhi. In brief, what did we discuss now? A person starts meditation on an object, it doesn't matter what object it is, because according to Vedanta, every object is nothing but God with name and form. So there is absolutely no difference between the highest saint and the lowest rock at all, provided we have that consciousness to recognize it as such. So that is what Sri Ramakrishna is telling, deep meditation brings out the real nature of the object of meditation and infuses it into the soul of the meditator. There comes deep concentration in meditation, when nothing else can be seen or heard, even perceptions and feelings disappear. A snake may crawl over the body, but one doesn't feel it. Neither the person meditating nor the snake feels it. What a wonderful thing, snakes used to crawl all over Sri Ramakrishna's body. Birds used to peck for food on his head, unkempt hair. The point is, neither Sri Ramakrishna was aware that there is a snake, nor the snake is aware that I am crawling on a living being. He, who at the time of contemplation becomes so unconscious of everything outside that, he would not know if birds were to nest in his hair. Man has really acquired the perfection of meditative power, is what we just now discussed. In deep meditation, all the functions of the senses are inhibited. The outward flow of the mind comes to a dead stop, as if the door of the outer apartment is closed. All the five objects of the senses, light, sound, taste, touch and smell, remain outside, unperceived. At first, visions of sense objects appear before the mind during meditation, but when it becomes deep, they never rise at all. They just stay outside, depart. This is another important point here. If our concentration develops without purity of mind, during that concentration, in the beginning, we may be focusing on the object, a divine object, but if our mind contains impure desires, soon the desires will come out in glorious forms. One example of it, I won't go into the details right now. Saint Anthony the Great, supposed to be one of the first Desert Fathers, he went into the desert and for 40 years he struggled. The whole day he used to meditate upon God and he must have acquired this power of meditation because as soon as the sun sets, glorious woman, most alluring, beautiful woman, used to appear in front of his eyes, tempting him. But he was a sincere soul and he used to pray to God, please save me and soon this woman turned into demons and tortured him. If you ask a psychologist, where from these women were coming or demons were coming? You know what would be the explanation? That it is all imaginations. But what imaginations? Realistic imaginations. Just imagine our state, you can't even dream properly, you know. The moment you are very hungry and you are dreaming of good food, before your hand touches, already somebody had snatched it. What type of dream it is? But here, because of the power of concentration, these impure samskaras take concrete forms. This is how Buddha's life, if you remember, before attaining illumination, said Mara, Mara appeared before him tempting in the form of his mother, in the form of his wife and Mara means demon, devil or what you call worldliness. But Buddha said, I don't care for all those things, remained quiet. What can Mara do? He soon disappeared forever, never again to return. This is what Sri Ramakrishna is telling that at first if the person is not pure, certain sensory impressions could come. There is a great danger. I have warned about it many times. If a person with anger develops the power of concentration, what do you think happens to him? Anger will overpower him. That's why you see the outburst, what? After so many years of austerity and spiritual life, you have completely lost control. Similarly, lust, similarly jealousy, similarly egotism. That is why I think Shri Ramakrishna used to warn people, before you attempt at deeper sincere concentration, at least acquire some amount of control over your impurities. Get rid of the impurities. Otherwise, it is positively harmful and hurtful. That is why Shri Ramakrishna says it is so difficult to progress in spiritual life unless a person is very humble, surrenders himself to God. Because what happens? Even if we are weak, if we surrender ourselves to God, God will stand by our side and fight our fight with the objects of temptation. Just to give an example, you know the story of Vishwamitra. He did 1000 years of hard, severest austerity. What happened? At the end of it, some woman appeared. I will add my own, Masha Allah. Most ravishing, beautiful, desirable woman. And what happened to him? He fell like a pack of cards, just absolutely fell. And then he lived a life of sensuality. And the result was a daughter was born to him. What is my Masha Allah? Masha Allah, were they really beautiful? Or were they appearing beautiful for him at that state of his mind? Why was he tempted? He was tempted because he had those worldly tendencies. He did not conquer them. But on the contrary, he developed 1000 years of intense austerity. Means focusing the mind, concentration. The greater the concentration, the greater the imagination. That's why you know creative artists? You know a person has artistic mind. It is called aesthetic sense. And added, we all have aesthetic sense. All of us have aesthetic sense. But some of us do not develop it. These great artists, they may be writers, sculptors, poets, musicians, whatever. They develop it. Painters, they develop it. Now what happens? It is the focusing of the concentration. And the imagination becomes extraordinary. And that concentration takes them to the very height of their imaginations. And that expresses itself in the form of poetry or sculpture, painting, etc. This is the greatness of concentration. But it also can work in the opposite way. If we have impure ideas, these impure ideas can become very very strong. And when the mind is imbued with these impure thoughts, etc. Do you know what happens? The object corresponding to those emotions appear to be extraordinarily attractive and irresistible. And after the temptation is over, what a fool I was. Why did I fall to this? But it is too late at that time. Okay, this is what Shri Ramakrishna is telling. In the beginning, this imagery might come. Don't go after it. Be very careful. Beware of it. There must be a discrimination even during meditation. This is not what I want to pursue. Otherwise the mind will simply follow those thoughts. Shri Ramakrishna is describing his earlier days. Describing the days he passed in intense yearning for God, the Master said, As I was perfectly unmindful of cleaning the body at that time, the hairs grew long and got matted of themselves, being smeared with dirt and dust. When I used to sit in meditation, the body used to become stiff and motionless like a stalk through intense concentration of mind and birds, taking it to be an inert substance, came freely, perched on the head, and pecked into the matted hair in such a foot. Sometimes I used to feel so intensely the pangs of separation from God that in great bitterness I rubbed my face on earth. Often it used to get lacerated and bleed. And in meditation, prayer and other devotional practices, the day used to fly away so quickly that I was not conscious of it. At dusk, when the approach of night was announced by the ringing of bells and the blowing of conches from the temple, I used to be reminded that the day had passed and the night had set in. With this consciousness, a frenzy of despair would seize my soul, and I would throw myself on the ground and rub my face on it, crying loudly, Mother, a day has passed, still thou hast not appeared before me. A gnawing anguish used to torment my soul, and those who saw me like that, writhing in agony, thought that I was suffering from colic pain. This was Sri Ramakrishna's one of these few of these experiences. There are so many, I would not like to dwell. Those who want, read the biography of Sri Ramakrishna and his divine play. Now we will come to the end of this particular topic with the recollection of one particular event. Swami Vivekananda used to be absorbed in meditation and he did not know anything. So one day he thought he would like to test his power of meditation. You know the famous incident that had taken place, it was I think Shivaratri night and Swami Avedananda, Kali Maharaj and Swami Vivekananda, at that time they were not Swamis, Narendra and Kali. They were meditating side by side and Swamiji instructed Swami Avedananda, I will tell you and when I tell you, you touch my body, just to touch my body. And then Swami Vivekananda felt he was entering into very deep meditation and then he gave the sign for Swami Avedananda to touch and the moment Avedananda touched his right leg for a few seconds, that's all. Then Swamiji was absorbed in his meditation. Now follows the scene, such a fantastic scene. Swami Avedananda, he described later on, I could not hold on touching. I felt as though an electric shock was passing through me as though if you touch a live wire, can you touch it? You cannot do that because you start getting shock. I was trying to hold Swamiji's leg but I could not do it. That event passed away. Swamiji became absorbed in meditation and what happened? Swami Avedananda plunged into the deepest meditation. Swami Sharadanandaji was describing, nobody had ever seen Swami Avedananda entering into such a deep state of meditation. Just imagine the power of touching another great soul, the person who could never meditate so deeply, entered into that state of meditation so easily just by the act of touching another meditator like that. These are a few descriptions. I will also tell you one interesting example. What happens when we can meditate upon so many things? I mean concentration. We can concentrate and if we can concentrate then we feel oneness with that object. We feel we are that object. The example is Swami Brahmanandaji, one summer day and it was very hot. He was sitting, there was a brahmachari. He was trying to fan the Swami and Swami Brahmananda said it is intolerable. Let us do one thing. Let us meditate on Himalayas and then Swami Brahmananda plunged himself into that focusing on Himalayas. This brahmachari of course few seconds he tried but nothing because that intense heat will bring even a deeply absorbed samadhi man into outside. So then after few minutes Swami Brahmananda turned to the brahmachari and said touch my body. And of course there were no cloths because you know nobody can put on cloths in summer season in Bengal. And when this brahmachari touched the body of Swami Brahmananda, he felt he was touching a block of ice. Like that so many incidents are there. I will not go into that. But coming back to our subject. So what is meditation? Meditation is pratyatra in that state of spiritual concentration. Pratyaya ekatanata. One single idea continues but it comes, it stays, it disappears, again it comes, it stays, it disappears. This process of coming up and going back, coming up and going back continues. How much time? For 144 seconds that is called one unit of meditation. Just imagine. Then we also discussed very briefly about samadhi. What is this? Tat eva adhyamatra nirbhasa svarupa shonyam eva samadhihi. This is we are talking about in samadhi there are two types lower and higher. Lower samadhi is called sampragnata samadhi. Higher samadhi is called asampragnata samadhi. Another name for it is savikalpa samadhi and nirvikalpa samadhi. When a person really enters into that state of samadhi what happens? Artha matra nirbhasa. Only the idea shines, nothing else shines. In our last class we discussed quite a bit about it. So please go back to it. I am not going to go into details about it. When a person enters into the lower state of samadhi he forgets I am the meditator. He forgets I am trying to meditate. Only the object shines. And how does the object shine? Artha matra, only the idea. Suppose a person starts with a table and soon the table loses its name and form. And when you remove name and form from any object what do you think remains? Only pure awareness. When such a state is attained that is called the lower samadhi. When a person attains this lower samadhi then he is ready for the next last final highest step which is called asampragnata samadhi. Before we go to that Patanjali brings us back and gives a few definitions. The fourth aphorism in the third chapter of Patanjali Yoga Sutras called Vibhuti Pada is telling Trayam ekatra sanyamaha. He uses a particular word sanyama. Sanyama means complete concentration, focus on three. What is that? Concentration, meditation and lower samadhi. When these three really come together and if he can use this state of concentration depending upon what subject he is using he can get extraordinary powers. That is the subject matter here. But we are not going to dwell long upon it. We will come to that this kind of how to acquire powers etc. later on. But what is important is these three concentration, meditation and lower samadhi when practiced in regard to one object is defined as sanyama. When a man can direct his mind to any particular object and fix it there and then keep it there for a long time. Separating the object from the internal part, this is sanyama or dharana, dhyana and samadhi, one following the other and making one. The form of the thing has vanished and only its meaning remains in the mind. Why does Patanjali want us to understand this concept of sanyama? Why? Because tat jayat prajnalokah, this is the fifth aphorism. He says tat jayat. When a person attains to this state of sanyama then what happens? Wisdom or illumination flashes. He becomes a wise person. When we attain to that state we become wise persons. Prajnalokah, this word prajna is a most wonderful word. What does that mean? In brief what it means is when a person had attained concentration, meditation and a lower state of samadhi, he conquers everything in this world. Let us dwell a moment upon this idea conquers. What does it mean? Say here is a chemist. If he can really get into this state and chemistry will reveal its secrets. That is called jaya, victory. His knowledge just flashes. All that he needs to think is about this and then immediately the object yields all its results. Suppose somebody focuses on atom and the atom reveals all its secrets. Nuclear fission. Here is an interesting subject. It is said in our scriptures in Vaira Brahman is all-knowing, omniscient. So somebody asked can Sri Ramakrishna know the secret of nuclear fission? Swami Sharada Anandaji, he was explaining it. He said if Sri Ramakrishna focuses his mind, he can unravel any secrets. But the point is why does he want to do it? His mind will not even come to that. There was an incident. Sri Ramakrishna was curious like a small boy and he heard about a microscope. He felt very curious. I want to see a microscope. I want to see a microscope. And there was one devotee who used to work in a laboratory and he had a microscope and he brought the microscope. Everything is set up and then Sri Ramakrishna was asked. Now you look into it. You know what happened? He refused to look into it. Then he said my mind is so high it doesn't want to look into these small things. It doesn't want to become small. When a person attains this particular concept called Sanyama, I am not deliberately using English word because first of all there is no equivalent English word. The nearest English word is complete absorption in an object. But that doesn't mean much. Sanyama means concentration, meditation and lower samadhi. All three clubbed together is called Sanyama. Then such a yogi whatever he wants to know he can know and that is how powers also do come. Here the commentators raise a very valid rational objection. He says when a person attains lower samadhi, already he has attained concentration, he has attained meditation. Why do you want to have all these three? The answer given is, two answers are given. The first answer given is the Sanyama always starts with concentration, advances into meditation and finally reaches lower state of samadhi. This is the first answer. Always it happens like that. Suppose you are sitting to read a book, tough book. First you make yourself comfortable and focus on the subject. Soon you become absorbed. After some time only the meaning of the book is shining and nothing else. You have forgotten time, space, causation, everything you have forgotten. This is the first answer. The second answer that is given is, this is a chapter dealing with powers. And if we want to acquire certain types of powers, then we don't need highest type of samadhi. We need only a little bit of concentration. So different powers need different degrees of Sanyama. That is why it is mentioned here. Anyway, it is not an important thing for us for two reasons. One reason is, we are certainly not interested in the powers. We are only interested in spiritual progress. The second reason is, even if you are interested, curious about it, forget about it. Because you are not going to get it. When one has succeeded in making this Sanyama, all powers come under his control. This is the great instrument of the Yogi. A mind which has attained to that state of Sanyama is the greatest instrument of any person. But any person who has attained to that state, he is not called a person. He is called a Yogi. The objects of knowledge are infinite. And they are divided into the gross, grosser, grossest and the fine, finer, finest and so on. So this Sanyama should be first applied to gross things. Then when you begin to get knowledge of the gross, slowly, by stages, it should be brought to finer things. The idea is here. Theoretically, we are discussing about these things. It is wonderful. But practically speaking, we have to go step by step by step. For how long? It may take many lives. Who says? Shri Krishna Bhagawan says. He says, Bahunam janmanam ante, jnanavanmam prapadyate. A man of knowledge. When does he become a man of knowledge? Bahunam janmanam ante. After many, many, many lives. The sixth aphorism says, Tasyabhumisu viniyogaha. That technique of Sanyama should be reached and employed in stages. This is a note of warning not to attempt to go too fast. It is very important for us. We all want to become overnight great yogis. You can't even sleep properly and you want to become great yogis. How is it possible? A yogi can sleep at any time he wants. You know, Sri Ramakrishna, he used to sleep very little. You know, only sometimes one hour, one and a half hours. That is it. But how was he getting sleep? From two factors. When he used to sleep, he really used to sleep. Second factor is, when he used to go into Samadhi, he used to get intense rest. Here is a warning that slowly, step by step, until we master the lower step, do not even attempt at a higher step. Because our imagination tells, it would be nice if I am in that state. That is not going to happen and one must have infinite patience. One of the greatest virtues of spiritual progress is infinite patience. Do not become impatient because when we do the things rightly, everything happens in the right time. We forget it. By becoming restless, one is not going to attain anything. The seventh aphorism says, Trayam antarangam purve bhyah. These three, concentration, meditation and dharana, dhyana and lower samadhi. These are the inner parts of yoga. The all others, how many steps according to Patanjali? Eight steps. Of these eight steps, Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara. These five are external things to yoga. But dharana, dhyana, samadhi. Concentration, meditation and lower samadhi, they form the inner parts of this particular yoga. Why he is telling? Because unless we attain to this sixth state, we have not even reached that state of yoga. They are all, you can say in a way, getting rid of the obstructions in a way of speaking. So now, we are coming to a very, very wonderful aphorism. So everything else is unimportant for us. What do I mean? Many you know, many person is doing lot of meditation, lot of japa, lot of so-called spiritual practices. But they do not bear any fruit unless the mind attains to certain state. And what is that state? Vyutthana, Nirodha. What is Vyutthana? So many adverse thoughts are arising in the mind. What is Nirodha? Adverse thoughts to adverse thoughts. That means the thoughts which kill, these distracting thoughts are also, they are very positive in getting rid of the negative thoughts. But they are very negative for us in attaining the state of samadhi. And that is a very tough aphorism. I will try my level best. We will discuss it in our next class. Om Shanti Shanti Shanti