Patanjali Yoga Sutras Lecture 083

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

Om Sahanaavavatu Sahanaubhunaktu Saaveeryam Karavavahai Tejasvinavaditamastumavidvishavahai Om Shanti Shanti Shanti Hari Om Om Yogena Chittasya Padena Vacham Malam Sharirasya Javaidhyakeena Yopakarottam Pravaram Muninam Patanjalim Praanjali Rana Tosmi 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 are studying Sri Ramakrishna as a yogi, great yogi. Now look at the available photographs of Sri Ramakrishna, look at the statues of Lord Buddha, look at any great sage even if they seem to be completely merged in some external activity, in reality in which state they are, in the state of Samadhi only. We have got some notions about Samadhi. Samadhi means a peculiar bodily posture. Very usually we associate, suppose somebody is playing leapfrog, when you see Sri Ramakrishna leapfrogging, he is in a great state of Samadhi. We do not usually say that, but in what state is he really there? In the state of Samadhi only. We have to get rid of lot of notions. Why is it necessary? Because you see, universally we think, Sri Ramakrishna is always thinking about God, Samadhi. What was Swami Vivekananda doing when he was doing service to humanity? What do you think he was doing? Was he in Samadhi or was he not? We think he was not to be equated with Sri Ramakrishna. Swami Vivekananda's mind, sometimes it is in Samadhi and at other times it has come down, the mind has come down. What a wrong notion we have about this spiritual experience. So what is Samadhi? Samadhi is the state in which a man doesn't know anything excepting God. So when Sri Ramakrishna is looking, was looking at you, me or at a dog or at anything, what was he really looking at? Only God, Brahman. Wherever the eyes go, that is Brahman. It is only as an example. Whatever a person hears, it is nothing but Brahman, Shabda Brahman, nothing but Brahman. Because we do not understand, we bring them to our state. We have been trying to study Sri Ramakrishna from the teachings of Patanjali and comparing him. You know in my last talk, I have spoken about the last, the fifth condition of Niyama. What is that quality? Sharanagati. What is Sharanagati? One popular translation of Sharanagati is total self-surrender and it is right also, but perhaps it doesn't give that kind of meaning which should be given. What is the real meaning of Sharanagati? Becoming totally one with the deity. Simple example, suppose a drop of water falls into an ocean. Until it touched the ocean, if you ask what are you? Who are you? What do you think it will say? I am a drop of water. Suppose a bucket full of water you ask, who are you? What does it say? I am a bucket full of water. And what about your neighbor? One small drop of water. These are the distinctions, Upadi Veda. But the moment both of them fall into the ocean, what type of identity they have? Only one identity. What is it? I am the, once a person attains to this kind of identity with supreme reality, do you think there is a question of coming down from that state? We are ordinary people. Suppose you are asked, who are you? Say, I am so and so. Did at any time, did you forget who you are? In waking state, in dream state, I am so and so. You never forget it. From birth to death, we never forget who we are. Where is the question of a man who has identified himself with God? Where is the question of his forgetting? What is the essence of all this discussion? We have got lots of misunderstandings about Samadhi. So, say Ramakrishna, once he attained that state of Samadhi, ever afterwards, whatever states he be in, he will be only in that state of Samadhi. Now, interesting question comes. Suppose here is a man, he is not enlightened. Means what? He has not realized God. What is God realization? To feel absolute oneness with God. Not even to have a relationship. I am your servant. I am your devotee. Not even that. It is a great spiritual progress. But it is not spiritual realization. When a person says, I am the, you are me, that is total realization. Before a person attains to that realization, in how many states he could be? Three. Waking, dream and dreamless. After he realizes, how many states he would be in? You can't even say one. God doesn't have one or two. He is stateless. That's why nobody will issue visa to God. He is the ultimate terrorist in this whole world. God is the supreme terrorist. But you think that, oh Swami, you are making fun. I am not making fun. I am deadly serious. Another name for God is Shiva. Who is this Shiva? These chutka terrorists, they only destroy a few people. Shiva destroys the whole universe. Mahapralaya, Tandava Nritya, which becomes finished. That's why he is the supreme terrorist. What is the point? Sharanagati. What is Sharanagati? Total oneness with God. Last class also I discussed six characteristics of self-surrender. What are they? A person will never do anything that displeases God. He will always do what pleases God and he doesn't know anything except God. He puts all his responsibility upon God and he lives in greatest humility that you are so gracious. You have been able to take my part. This is before he realizes God. These are the practices. Once he realizes God, then there is no practice there. There is only Siddha. He becomes Siddha. We call it perfect. That means what? He never feels as we never feel I am God. He never feels I am a limited being. He always feels I am God. This is human description. In fact, he doesn't feel because even feeling is before realization. After that is complete oneness. Does God have any feeling? Forget about it because he has no mind. When there is no mind, where is the question of feeling? Either good or bad. It is only Saguna Brahma that has feeling and feels compassionate. He is omniscient. He is omnipotent. He is everywhere and all those things we attribute to him which is absolutely true. But after realization, it is to understand. When Sri Ramakrishna entered into Nirvikalpa Samadhi, is there time-space causation? There is nothing. So there is question of feeling doesn't arise. Another name for mind is time-space and causation. He goes beyond the mind because mind is a limiting factor, Upadhi. Coming back, Sri Ramakrishna's whole life is nothing but a complete self-surrender. That is why when we study the life of Sri Ramakrishna, especially the spiritual practice of Sri Ramakrishna, we can see, we can divide Sri Ramakrishna's spiritual practice into two parts. Before the gurus came and after the gurus came. So before the gurus came, what did he do? He prayed to the mother, mother I am a fool, I do not know anything, you please guide me and he surrendered totally to the divine mother and divine mother as it were got things done through him. That is called complete Sharanagaja. Now unless we understand Sri Ramakrishna in this mood, then we won't be able to make much meaning of many of the incidents in the life of Sri Ramakrishna. I will give you one such incident. All of us who have read the life of Sri Ramakrishna, we know that he was married, we know how sweet and wonderful holy mother was, but we also notice he never called her. Even after she grew up, he never called her to Dakshineshwar. He knew that he had a great mission, that he had to train her. In fact, it is wonderful to understand that Sri Ramakrishna's main activity after he realized, after he completed all his spiritual practices was to train holy mother because he wanted to bestow his grace through the medium of holy mother. The ministering period of Sri Ramakrishna was only just few years, but how many years holy mother had to cater for our good and who was acting through holy mother? It was only Sri Ramakrishna. We also know that he worshipped holy mother and surrendered all his, everything that he obtained at her feet and the same power also worked through. Now very interesting because even though it has not much to do with our direct topic today, but I want to stimulate your brains a little bit. How many times would you surrender? How many times do you need to surrender to God? Only once. After that you don't have anything because you yourself will not be there. You say, oh Lord, I belong to you. Thereafter nothing is there. So when Sri Ramakrishna worshipped the holy mother as divine mother, he offered everything at her feet. Did he retain anything after that? Okay, before his passing away, he told to Swami Vivekananda Narendranath, oh Naren, today I have given everything to you and I have become a fakir. Did you ever think where from did he get? Once he offered, I remember of worship, after worshipping holy mother, where from did he get afterwards his powers? Where from did he get? You cannot solve that puzzle. Only in one way we can solve that puzzle. You know what is that way? It was not Sri Ramakrishna who spoke, who was it who spoke? It was the divine mother who spoke. Whatever he did, it was divine mother. Coming back, why did he not call holy mother and say, now you are grown up, you come here, I have a big mission for you, I want to train you and keep you in this world so that you can continue my mission. He did not call. Swami Sharadananda, that's why he studied the great master, he points out and says that even though she was grown, you know how much she was suffering and do you think Sri Ramakrishna knew she was suffering or not? He knew what was the purpose of her life, what was the mission she had to accomplish in future. He knew everything and yet he did not take any action. She herself came to Dakshineshwar telling her father, I want to go for Ganges etc. He understood and then this question came, why did not Sri Ramakrishna call her? The answer that was supplied was Sri Ramakrishna would not do anything. He allows everything to happen by the will of the divine mother. Now even after reading this, this is a bigger incident but there are so many smaller incidents and if you don't understand the Sharanagati Bhava of Sri Ramakrishna, we won't be able to interpret it properly. Just one such incident, I would say, I will give two incidents, not one. Once holy mother came and then before 2-3 days before that Sri Ramakrishna had broken his left arm. Even now it is, you can see the broken arm, defective arm. Even today you can see left hand of Sri Ramakrishna and then as soon as she came, what was the first question? He asked her, when did you start? Poor lady, he said Thursday afternoon and Sri Ramakrishna, he said, that's why I broke my hand and then said go back and then come back again, go back. How many miles? Not much, about 60-70 miles on foot in those days and then she had to, poor thing had to go. Now many times in my mind also that doubt came, what is this stupid superstition, Thursday afternoon superstition? Could he not have said, all right, you just go outside Dakshineshwar and then come back again. A little bit, not 100% acceptable, a little bit accept. Why did he do that? Did he do that? Who did that? Because when a person surrenders himself to the divine mother, then whatever actions are done through him, do you think who will do, Sri Ramakrishna? Whatever thoughts arise in that mind, that mind belongs to whom? We have to think like that and we understand in our own extremely limited way, we have certain problems. So, we don't openly express them. Second example, I'll give you, Sri Ramakrishna wanted Swami Vivekananda to go to the West. Now whenever we speak Sri Ramakrishna, we have to keep in mind, it was not Sri Ramakrishna. Who was that? It was the divine mother. Who wanted Swami Vivekananda to go to the West? It was the divine mother. The funny thing is, he simply said, come like that. Anyway, Swami Vivekananda went. What was the funny part, did Sri Ramakrishna know that the Parliament of Religions is going to be postponed for two months? Only after Swami Vivekananda reached Chicago, he came to know that the Parliament of Religions was not going to take place in that month, but two months later on. What kind of Sarvajna he is? What kind of divine mother is it? She doesn't even know the address of anybody and she didn't give proper address of the Parliament of Religions. He had to go through all those things. Was it really that she did not know? What was it? That is what she wanted. This is how the drama would play out. Even though the divine is omnipotent, the divine can do whatever it wants to do. Then why Krishna had to go through so many years of, you know, attempts were made to kill him. He had to be literally transported to Gokula and so many other things. I am just telling. It is not directly related to us, but these things make us think Rama's life. You know Rama was supposed to be an incarnation of God and he had to go to the forest and then to kill Ravanasura and for that his wife had to be taken up because she will suffer and he will get the glory. That is called imbalance, you know, always it is the women who have to suffer and then men get the glory. You know what has happened that Dasharatha announced that tomorrow morning you are going to be coronated and did Rama know that he was being coronated? So, he accepted it, everything, only few hours before, even Kaikeyi did not know, Manthara did not know. Manthara, you know, that maid servant, she came to know why celebrations are going on. Oh! This tomorrow, don't you know, Rama is going to be coronated tomorrow morning and within few hours the whole Ramayana started. Before that Ramayana didn't start, do you know? Suppose Rama was coronated, would there be Ramayana? It is only all this, but poor Rama did not know, poor Dasharatha of course did not know, poor Kaikeyi did not know. Who got all the blame? It was God's will that he had to go with his wife and he allowed his wife to be kidnapped and then he had to go and kill Ramanasura and all. Who got the blame? Kaikeyi got the blame for all that. Why could you not say, say I have to go to the forest, did he not know about it? If you don't understand this concept of Sharanagati, then you are always interpreting any event from a human point of view and it will be defective, this is the point. So whenever we study, whether it is Ramakrishna's will, Holy Mother's actions or Swami Vivekananda's actions, everything that happens in their life, we have to understand it is the divine who is working through their minds. Coming back to our topic, Ramakrishna's whole life is nothing but complete self-surrender to the divine, God. And that's why whatever he uttered, who uttered? Who said that? Ramakrishna's gospel of Ramakrishna, who wrote that? Who wrote the gospel of Ramakrishna? Was it him? It was the divine mother because Ramakrishna told that the divine mother will keep some pundits and she will make him do all those things. Of course, he was an instrument. So also, Ramakrishna's words, who was giving? Is this interpretation correct? How do you know? How do we know it is correct? Because you read Ramakrishna's gospel, there it is there. Did you get authorization from God? He was asking pundit Sheshadra Tarkachudamani. If anybody gets authorization from God, Ramakrishna explains, he will never lack for ideas. As though somebody is measuring a heap of rice and somebody is paddy, somebody is measuring out, somebody is pushing so that that quantity of that paddy will never come to an end. What was Ramakrishna telling? That whatever a great, an authorized person speaks, it all belongs to whom? To the divine mother. But to be authorized by the divine mother, one condition has to be fulfilled. What is that condition? You remove your ego totally, merge your will in the divine will. That is the condition. So Sri Ramakrishna's entire life is nothing but an act of total self-surrender and that is his message also. How do we know? Pranarpana jagatatharana. Pranarpana. He had surrendered his life, for whose sake? For the upliftment of the whole world. How do we know that he had really surrendered himself to God? You know, when things are going on well, we can always say, oh, it is all God's grace. We say it is all God's grace, you know, every devotee. But to let something go wrong, it is devil's will. Sri Ramakrishna suffered the greatest, you know, towards the end, unbearable suffering because of the throat cancer. There are several incidents, but the essence of what we are going to discuss is, somebody told him that you pray to the Divine Mother. What was Sri Ramakrishna's reply? Do I have a will of my own so that I can pray to her? I have offered my thanu, mana, dhana, everything at the feet of the Divine Mother long back. Do you mean to say I have to take it back and then pray? It was a clear statement is there. And then you also know, Holy Mother had a vision. What was the vision? She saw Mother Kali with a bent neck. Even Sri Ramakrishna had that vision. He asked Mother, why is your neck bent like this? And she said, it is because of your throat cancer. So if Sri Ramakrishna had throat cancer, who has the throat cancer? Divine Mother. If Divine Mother has throat cancer, who has throat cancer? Sri Ramakrishna. Whoever. The point is, it is again very interesting, you know, I am a little bit advising. That is why all this maja is there. Will Divine Mother get throat cancer? Does God get throat cancer or all this stomach cancer and all those things? Finally, Swami Shardhanandaji has a wonderful discussion. He says, who is a guru? Who is a true guru? A true guru is one whose will has become totally merged in the will of the Divine Mother. That is why whatever he says, whatever a guru comes out of his mouth or her mouth, it is all direct words of the Divine Mother. I want to add a footnote to this because it is most important. We know that there are so many gurus who are good people trying to lead a pure life but they are not advanced spiritual aspirant and they feel like taking initiation and they get initiation. Now, who gives the initiation? Is it this non-advanced guru who gives initiation or is it the Divine Mother or God who gives initiation? What do you think? It is the Divine Mother who gives initiation. In fact, it is very interesting even to think about it. I am not a realized soul. Can I recognize my guru as a realized soul? Is it possible? Never possible. Until I realize God, I cannot recognize who is a realized soul. But my egotism is so much, if anybody says your guru is not a realized soul, do you know what will happen to my blood pressure and your blood? So it is not easy to surrender oneself to God but there are certain tests. What is the test? Whatever happens in one's life, whether it is happiness or unhappiness, good or evil, one accepts it with great joy, not simply okay what can I do? This is called resigned way of resigning, designer resignation. Now you have to accept it gladly because if it is God's will, it must be really good. We have to practice it in our day-to-day life slowly. So Sri Ramakrishna fulfilled this condition 150% in his life. Now with this idea, you read, study the life of Sri Ramakrishna. It will be wonderful. We proceed further. This is Yama and Niyama is over. What is the next one? Asana. What is Asana? According to Patanjali, sthiram, sukham, asanam, seat. What is a seat? It must be pleasant and it must be very steady. That means you should not create any restlessness in one's mind etc. Now here is something very important for us. How do we know we have got really reasonable amount of asana siddhi? The first thing that comes is we can sit certain amount of time without feeling at all uncomfortable. There will be no discomfort. On the contrary, it gives us a kind of happiness. This is one. This is called sukham. But the most important point of asana is we won't be reminded of our body. That is the real test. You know supposing you bend like this and sit. What happens after few seconds? Our neck starts, that means we become conscious of the body. But if the asana is proper asana, what happens is it removes our awareness of the body to that extent. That is one test. That means what? This much of consciousness is free to think about something else which is good. God or anything spiritual, it is good to think about. So that is called asana. And one Sri Ramakrishna's life when we study, how long do you think he sits totally oblivious of his body? I will give you 2-3 incidents. I did all the homework for you. First, he could sit whole night without being aware that he was sitting. When he was doing puja, hours and hours and hours have passed and he was not aware of it. He must have been like that for many, many, many times like that. We come to when Sri Ramakrishna was initiated into Advaita Vedanta sadhana by Totapuri and you know he instructed, meditate like that and after that he left him. Now you meditate. What was Totapuri expecting that Sri Ramakrishna like himself will have to struggle for how many days? Do you know how many days? How many years Totapuri had taken to attain perfection? 40 years. Okay, even if you are extraordinarily talented young man, then you might have to take at least 20 years, 50% concession. How many and then what was Totapuri's shock? He left him like that and he knew that Sri Ramakrishna was perfect in dhyana. He was sitting there. We are talking about asana. We will come to that later on and what happens? One day passed. Totapuri was keeping a tab. So he used to go and see whether a man has got enough meditation. Now I am hungry. I want to eat some. No conscience. Second day, no conscience. Third day, no conscience. At the end of the third day, he went and examined, is this man really having meditation or is he having some kind of you know unconsciousness, stupor or whatever it is? Because one can be, if one is a comatic state, he can be in that state for days, months together and Totapuri was an expert in studying the physiognomy. So he can understand who is really in samadhi by observing the bodily lakshanas and he examined, he found out he was in real samadhi. Now this is a subject which we are not at all familiar because there is something very interesting. Whenever there is a great change in the mind, correspondingly there would be a change also in the body formation. That's why there are people who could look at some people and very accurately estimate their character. This is called the science of physiognomy. Sri Ramakrishna was an expert in it. Totapuri, he knew how to know who is a Paramahamsa, who is not and who is in samadhi and who is not. He can very easily, he knows. He examined and he was shocked and then you know involuntarily the words that came out ek ya daivi maya hai, is it a divine maya? Because he was comparing, I took 40 years and this man enters into this state. How many days? How many days he took? Maybe 15 minutes, 20 minutes, half an hour, I guess instantaneously. You know why? Because Totapuri did not see Sri Ramakrishna enter into samadhi after 3 hours. He was found remaining in samadhi immediately after he instructed him. Now you close your eyes and then enter into samadhi. But you also recall that that event happened before you withdraw, you remove all every thought from your mind and Sri Ramakrishna said no, I am unable to do that. I can remove every thought excepting the thought of the Divine Mother and you know he gave a special remedy, piercing his forehead with a broken piece of glass and then Sri Ramakrishna's mind became free. Next time when the Divine Mother's form appeared, he made it formless. You see what did he do? Form appeared and what did he do? He made it formless by cutting, he has employed his own peculiar language. I took the sword of discrimination and cut the form of the Divine Mother. In the case of Sri Ramakrishna, it is bhavana, it is a mental attitude. So as soon as that impediment was over, as soon as that conversation between Totapuri and Sri Ramakrishna was over, immediately Totapuri found Sri Ramakrishna's mind became merged in the Parabrahma and then after that now and then Totapuri was going to check up when is my disciple going to come out of that state, but he found even after three days, his mind was not coming. How did, what happened, you know that? He started uttering Hari Om, Hari Om and Sri Ramakrishna heard it and then slowly he came down. We know that for two, you can't sit even half an hour to one hour comfortably unless you have got some, a little part of the body is moving. Sri Ramakrishna's body was perfectly motionless. This is only one instance. After Totapuri had left, how long was Sri Ramakrishna in that condition? For six months and that too by the will of the Divine Mother, one sadhu came from nowhere, from somewhere and fed him forcibly little bit now and then. At the end of six months, he received a command from the Divine Mother. What command was that? To remain in Bhavamukha, what is the point we are discussing? For Sri Ramakrishna, body consciousness had fled long back. He could sit in any asana for days, months, years, for whole life he can sit. That he came to this body consciousness not because he had to come, because of our sake. That is the most important point. There are many examples are there. I will give you only two examples, Shankaracharya went in search of his guru. You know he found him on the banks of Narmada. What was his name? Govinda Bhagwat. And he saw this Govinda Bhagwat Pada was in deep state of Samadhi, he was totally unconscious. Now what happened once, the Narmada river, there were flash floods and the water level started rising and then it was coming and it could have flooded the cave in which Govinda Bhagwat Pada was there, Shankaracharya it is said, he had prevented that water going inside by his yogic power. And after sometime, Govinda Bhagwat Pada came to consciousness and he said, who are you? He asked, who are you? And you know what was Shankara's reply? There is a hymn called Manisha Panchakam, five verses of what a realized soul is. He said, I am that and he got back full from his disciple. Shankaracharya was wandering, once he entered into a village. In that village, there was a boy who was I think around 14-15 years old and from the birth a single word has not come. We have a peculiar name for that, once an idiot, mentally defective, but you know parents being parents, any monk going there, so will my son become, will be restored. So when Shankaracharya happened to be in that village, the parents brought this boy and then Swami, ever since birth he is in this state, you please bless him that he will be a normal person. But of course Shankaracharya instantaneously recognized, he is not a normal boy, he was an abnormal, abnormal not in our sense, he is from a spiritual, he asked, who are you? Kastvam, instantaneously, instead of saying I am you know so and so, he started a stotra, I am not the body, I am not the mind, I am not the soul, like that he went on saying, this is known as Hastamalakastotram, Hastamalakiyam, one of the profound Advaitic teaching in the form of this, that means he was already a realized soul. People were astonished that this boy who didn't speak for 50 since birth, suddenly he flew in Sanskrit, he is replying to his guru, I am so and so, his parents of course were very happy because it proved that the boy was very intelligent, not only intelligent, very talented. Then Shankaracharya, this boy is absolutely useless for you, you give him to me as my disciple and the parents were very glad, there are these wonderful great souls are there. Govinda Bhagavathpada and another example that comes to me, Sadashiva Brahmendra, sometime I have narrated his story, I won't go today into the details but what is important for us, for years together, he could be in this perfect state of what is called body consciousness. Once it so happened, there is a story which goes, we have to believe it because it is a miraculous story, he fell into a big hole and he lost, probably he was in Samadhi and people didn't see, the earth etc. fell down and for one whole year he was like that, nobody knew that he was like that, everybody they used to see and they did not see, they thought he might have gone away somewhere, one day the farmer, he started his ploughing and somehow blood started coming up and they were surprised, blood coming means there must be living creature, so they dug and saw this man buried neck deep, head deep in this and they brought him out, what did he do, just he did like that and walked off, what a state of not having body consciousness. Another story, as I said you might believe it is not important, once he was walking totally naked and he entered into a Nawab's camp where there were lot of women, Harim you call it you know and many wives of the Nawab and he didn't like, especially a Hindu and especially a naked man entering, you know they are very particular about it, so this man ran with a sword and cut off one of the hands and he did not know his hand was cut off, he was walking nonchalantly and the Nawab was shocked and said this is not an ordinary man, so he started following him, after a long time he saw the Sadashiva Brahmendra coming to consciousness and then he fell at his feet, please pardon me, he said what happened, he said I cut off your hand, oh is it like that, he looked at it, did that, a new hand had come, Yogis can do it, this is called they can produce any number of bodies and experience their Karmaphala in one go, anyway that's not important, what is important here, there are people who could remain in that state without getting disturbed for years together, Ramana Maharshi is a great example, he said months and years passed, I was sitting there, other mosquitoes were there, snakes were there, scorpions were there, I was not at all conscious of how days passed and night passed, this was the state of Ramakrishna, so what is the point, point is there are people who have become Asana Siddhas, so they can sit in the same posture for any length of time that they choose, it is possible, what is important for us, we also have to practice one particular Asana, where we can sit at least for half an hour to one hour without becoming too conscious of the body and think about God, okay, what is the next one, Pranayama, Asana and Pranayama, what is Pranayama, Pranayama means control of the Prana, the very word Prana, Ayama, a control of the Prana, why because if we can control the Prana, we can control our thoughts, we can control our sense organs, we can control our Buddhi, finally we can also control our Ahamkara, because to be egotistic, to feel identity, we need energy because to feel I am so and so is a thought and every single thought needs energy, if there is no energy, nothing is possible, so the purpose of Pranayama is slowly to control the breath and through the process of breath, control the Prana and when Prana is controlled, the person can control anything in his mind, Chittavruti Nirodha will happen, so it happens in both ways, you see, like a thread, a thread will have two ends, so if you catch hold of this end, the other end also we can pull, if you catch hold of the other end, you can pull this end of it, Pranayama is like that, if you have mind control, then you can control your breath everything, if you have got breath control, you can also control the mind, means Prana, so the purpose of Pranayama is to control the Prana and direct it, so that it will take us to God, as simple as that and it is very useful in our day-to-day life because Swami Yudhishthira Maharaj used to say, every devotee should practice at least a few minutes of rhythmic breathing, Pranayama, it calms the mind and helps us in thinking about God. Now Sri Ramakrishna's life, there is no detail but at some point of time, he practiced Hatha Yoga, this falls under the category of Hatha Yoga and he practiced it, how do we know? There was an incident, one day suddenly Ramakrishna's mind was ascending and the blood was going up, blood was going up because whatever he used to practice, he used to practice with 100% sincerity and with 100% fulfilling all the conditions, who was his teacher? We do not know but he did practice, we know that and he was about to enter into Jada Samadhi, you know the incident, blood started coming out of the mouth, then one sadhu was there, he saw it and then he said, had this blood gone to the brain, he would have been dead but Divine Mother has some other purpose, it is also coagulated blood, not falling down, hanging like a piece of flesh like that, by that we know Sri Ramakrishna had also practiced Pranayama and other Hatha Yoga, Asana etc., we know, though he never advocated it but we can do it a little bit to help our mind. The next one is called Pratyahara, what is the Pratyahara? Prati-aharana means what you withdrawing your mind from whatever object is, what a wonderful thing it is, supposing you are worried, you know what is the nature of worry? One single thought goes round and round like a broken gramophone record and the more you try to stop it, the stronger it becomes, that is its nature but if we can, you know something is worrying but we need to do something else, if we can withdraw our mind and say okay let us think of it later on, let us worry about it later on, let us pay attention to this then what a blessing it would be, you know you want to meditate, Pratyahara is very necessary, you want to read something, Pratyahara is necessary, you want to hear something, Pratyahara is very necessary, you know during my talk, how many times you went home and then came back again, not only your home, you must have gone many homes, even India, Australia, America, God knows in how many places you went and came back, okay what is the point here? Point is Pratyahara and what is the next stage? Dharana. What is Dharana? Pratyahara means the ability to withdraw our mind from any particular object and Dharana is the ability to fix our mind on any particular object. Often and not often, invariably they go together, that is why we always have to think, you cannot simply say I will withdraw, the best way to withdraw is to divert this thought to something else, that is why whenever you say I don't want to think this thought, it won't go, it is like thinking when somebody instructs you, don't think about a monkey, you will be thinking only about monkey, so instead of saying I won't be thinking about a monkey, see I don't want to think about a monkey, is it thinking about monkey or not? It is thinking only about monkey only, the other way is I want to think about something else, this is called Pratipaksha Bhavana, you divert your mind to something else, it is very, very important practice and we have to understand this. If any adverse thought is coming, don't go after it and say I don't want to think this thought, okay I want to think something else which is much more interesting, much more joyful and much more useful and that would be much more useful than trying to fight the more you fight, simple example is you want to fall asleep, the more you struggle, I want to be asleep, the more you become awake, so Pratyahara was Ramakrishna, what is the Pratyahara? He can withdraw his mind from anything, I will give you simple examples, first I will give you example about holy mother, you know how much holy mother was devoted to Radhu and without Radhu, holy mother's mind would not have stayed in this world, it would have fled away like a bird long back, we have to be very thankful to her. Now what happened? When the time came, her mission was accomplished, she decided it is time to make things proper and simply one day Radhu's son was trying to climb on to the cot where holy mother was there, simply said take this fellow away, I have withdrawn my mind. She had that, people thought holy mother would not be able to live without Radhu or her child. In our case, it is the thoughts which enslave us, attachments which enslave us. In her case, she deliberately kept the attachment for accomplishing her mission in life. So when the mission is over, Ramakrishna must have told her, now it is the time for you to come back and immediately she said I have withdrawn my mind and afterwards they tried but it never came back. Did she have that power before or only at the end she got that power? She had that power all the time. Now see Ramakrishna, many times you see, he was joking, he was doing it. Very often you get this description. He was telling a humorous story and uproarious laughter, next second you find him in deep Samadhi. How can a person enter into deep Samadhi? You hear a joke or you tell a joke, afterwards try to bring your mind to normal, even read a book or spell or whatever, see what happens. But see Ramakrishna, done, let me think about God, finished, automatically it will go. What is this ability? It is called Pratyahara and also Dharana. These are also considered until Dharana, it is considered, these are external limbs to Yoga. All these five, Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama and Pratyahara. Then Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi, these are called inner limbs of Yoga. Should we need to describe about the meditation of say Ramakrishna? He was a master and yet I will give you some example. From the very beginning, he used to forget his body, the world, everything and incidentally what is the best way to forget the world? You know, our body and the world are intimately related. If you want to forget the world, you have to forget your body and say Ramakrishna, from the very beginning, you know even when he was a boy, when he used to sing, he used to be absorbed. When he used to paint, he used to be absorbed. When he used to think about God or Goddess, he used to be absorbed. That was very natural for his pure mind. Later on, he started doing all these sadhanas, Dhyana, he was a Dhyana Siddha, Swamiji was a perfect in meditation. If Swamiji was perfect in meditation, what about say Ramakrishna, was he perfect in meditation or not? He was a naturally perfect man. I will not discuss further, I will only come to this last point, what is the next to Dhyana, Samadhi. Yes, you know, there are two Samadhi. One is called Sampragnatha Samadhi, another is called Asampragnatha Samadhi. In simple words, Savikalpa Samadhi and Nirvikalpa Samadhi. We will talk about Nirvikalpa Samadhi later on. First of all, we want to talk about Savikalpa Samadhi. What is Savikalpa Samadhi? The meditator has a feeling, I am the meditator and there is an object of which he is intensely aware. So, I will give you three examples and we will close this talk. First example is, there are so many examples like that, but we will take only three. First, Ramakrishna wanted to have the vision of Rama. Upon whom did he meditate? Upon Hanuman and he became Hanuman not only mentally, but even physically he became like Hanuman. He said my eyes became like monkey's eyes, restless and I used to jump and walk etc. Now, this is an example of Asampragnatha Samadhi and this leads to later on how his mind became one-pointed. What is Asampragnatha Samadhi? The meditator and the object of meditation, nothing else is there, only these two are there. That is why very soon as soon as he started thinking I am Hanuman and in Hanuman's mind what is there? Only Rama and this is a perfect example of Asampragnatha Samadhi. Similarly, when he wanted to have the vision of Krishna, so whom did he meditate upon? Radha and he became perfectly one with Radha. Even physiological changes have come in his body. We discussed many times, even monthly periods like women's periods have come. Most modern people do not believe it and he became one with Radha. As soon as he became one with Radha, he had the vision of Shri Krishna. Third example, just now we discussed, before entering into Nirvikalpa Samadhi, what was his state of mind? Brahmakaravrtti. What is Brahmakaravrtti? Kalika Aakaravrtti, he and mother, nobody else and Totapuri said this is also a mental thought. It is a highest mental thought but it is a mental thought, vritti, therefore you have to remove that. Every vritti incidentally is a form, you have to destroy it and he helped him to destroy it. The moment he destroyed it, he became one with the Divine Mother and which Divine Mother? Until he entered into Nirvikalpa Samadhi, the Divine Mother was a what you call personal God but the moment he became one with the personal God, then personal God no longer remains a personal God, becomes totally impersonal. Why? Because this is me and this is you, that feeling was totally destroyed, eliminated. These are the three examples of this one. Just I wanted to add a footnote. The footnote is, we have observed, I think it was 1st chapter, 19th or 18th, I think 18th, 18th aphorism. One who is trying to attain to this Samadhi, it goes through four stages, that is that Savitarka, Savichara, Ananda and Asmita. Asmita means I, Ananda means joy, Asmita means I. What is that? That is the last stage. It is Sampragnatha Samadhi, means I and my God or my Goddess, whatever it is, excepting this two, nothing else. So he attained this Sampragnatha Samadhi and what is the next stage, Asampragnatha Samadhi. Means even this division between me and the deity had to be totally eliminated. That's what had happened to Sri Ramakrishna. So now you see, study Sri Ramakrishna's life in the light of Patanjali's eight steps, you will see that he was a perfect master. With this background, we will go back, we will discuss how he was prepared. Until a person becomes a master of Savikalpa Samadhi, there is no question of entering into Nirvikalpa Samadhi. With this background, we will be able to understand the last three aphorisms of Patanjali very well, which we will be discussing in our next class. Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti.