Patanjali Yoga Sutras Lecture 105

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

Om Sahanaavavatu Sahanaubhunakthu Saaveeryam Karavavahai Tejasvinavaditamastumavidvishavahai Om Shanti Shanti Shanti Hari Om Om Yogena Chittasyapadena Vacham Malam Sharirasya Javaidhyakena 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. In this fourth chapter called Kaivalya Pada, Patanjali Rishi is giving us the most important hints how to conquer the mind, how to bring it under control. In our last class what we discussed was 10th aphorism. Since the desire to exist has always been present, our tendencies cannot have had any beginning. The essence of what we spoke in our last class was that why is the mind so restless? Why are there so many desires? Can't we be free from these desires? Yes, there is a reason why the mind is restless. When we analyze our mind, normal mind, I want to eat, I want to drink, all these desires, infinite number of desires that we have can be reduced to five desires. I want to see, I want to hear, I want to smell, I want to taste, I want to touch. No other desires. You analyze, millions and millions of desires, all of them fall into these five. We had a very great Swami, Swami Premesanandaji. He used to tell that every Jeeva, bound soul wants to enjoy only five dishes. Five dishes means the objects, sense objects which give us pleasure through these five sense organs, nothing else. But if you still want to reduce them further, what is the goal of any desire? I want to be happy. And if you still further reduce, why do you want to be happy? Because I feel I lack something. I am an incomplete person. Unless this desire is fulfilled, I won't become Purna, what we call full, perfect. No, that's not going to happen. Every desire that is enjoyed produces further bondage. The bondage becomes only strong. So what is the ultimate meaning of having the desire? We have only one desire. Let me be myself. I want to be myself. And what is it to be myself? Every scripture tells in different ways. If you ask the non-dual philosophy, it says you are Brahman. If you ask a dualistic religion and it tells you only one thing. Go nearer to God. And what happens when you go nearer to God? What happens to you when you approach raising fire? You become fire. When you approach God, do you think that God will allow you to stay separately? He will not tolerate anybody. No second. So He will consume you. He becomes you. You become Him. He only likes to be one. That is the answer given by Vedanta that every desire is only one desire. I want to be God. Why? Because I am God. And why do I have the desire? Because I forgot that I am God. And what is the desire? Let me remember that I am God. That is what Patanjali was telling us. The desire has no beginning. Why? Because our nature has no beginning. You cannot talk about God. God has been born at a particular time and there is a law. Whatever comes into existence in time also goes out of existence in time. You will not find any exception to this. And that is why Vedanta, Patanjali, all religions, they say God is eternal and this world is created out of an image of God. And what is the purpose? So that this world goes back to God and knows I am divine. I am God. That's what was being hinted at by Patanjali Rishi. Now what is the problem? Why is it that we have fallen into this wheel? And we discussed there are seven fold, what we call degenerations. What are they? First, there is ignorance. Ignorance produces desire. Desire produces action. Action produces results. Results produce attachment or aversion. And we are running towards that which gives us happiness and running away from that which gives us unhappiness. And it is again this cycle that again and again and again like a wheel. In the Shweta Shwetra Upanishad, this is called Brahma Chakra. It looks as though seemingly unending. We are whirling round and round and round. But no, there will come a time every person will awake and then he says this is not right. Something is radically wrong. All the time we are evolving and there will come a time when deep desire for spirituality arises. What is desire for spirituality? The desire I don't want to be stuck in this wheel of changefulness. I want to be totally changeless. And when that desire becomes prominent, when that desire is aided by favourable circumstances and when that desire is further lifted up by the grace of God in the form of holy company, then true spiritual progress begins at that time. And he seeks a teacher and he gets the instruction. He practices what the teacher tells him to do and a time will come when he will reach the goal. Let me repeat what we discussed in Sanskrit terms. Avidya, ignorance, produces karma. Karma means desire. Karma produces karma. Karma means action. Action is of two types, dharma and adharma. Righteous action, unrighteous action. Righteous actions always produce happiness. Unrighteous actions always produce unhappiness. There is no exception to this rule. Many people think we are so clever that police will not catch hold of us. But there is an inner police who is always taking CCTV. God has implanted a CCTV, very intelligent CCTV. It is 24 hours. It is taking pictures of what we think, what we are doing, what we are talking. And God has also given it the authority. You grant the appropriate rewards, either reward or punishment. And that is how dharma and adharma, righteous and unrighteous actions, they impel us either in happiness or in grief, suffering. Now what does this happiness do? It produces attachment. Whichever object gives us happiness, we are attracted to it. And whichever object repels us, gives us unhappiness, it throws us out literally. As if we are slaves, sukha attracts us, binds us. And dukkha, unhappiness, it repels us. Not that we are running away from it. It kicks us out. But we are thinking I am running away. I deliberately choose happiness. No, I don't choose. I am a helpless slave in the hands of this pleasure and also pain. Then what does this do? Happiness makes us repeat those actions which take us or which make us believe that we are going to be more happy. And we develop hatred, aversion to actions which we should do certain things but we do not do because they do not give us happiness and therefore we neglect them. It is good not to do certain things. Evil things, for example, it's very good. If we have aversion to evil things, it is wonderful. If we have attachment to righteous things, that is also very good. The problem is not in doing things. The problem is in becoming a helpless slave. We are as it were lost our mastery and we become helpless slaves and that is how we are whirled round and round and round. And these righteousness and unrighteousness, they direct our actions and those actions again cover our real nature. So it is a cycle and then again ignorance, then desire, then actions, then righteous and unrighteous, attachment and aversion, then we running towards happiness, running away from unhappiness and again these actions cover our knowledge. This endless cycle is going on. So what to do? That is where the scriptures come to our aid. The very name Hindu scripture, we have a very significant name. It is called Shastra. Shastra means Shastra. It commands and commands what? Two things only. Do's and don'ts. You know the Christian Bible tells us ten commandments. All the ten commandments can be divided into two parts. Do and don't do. Do's and don't. No choice like your traffic lights in the motorway. When the green light comes, it is not your choice. I think and I will do what I think best and when the red light comes, I will do what suits me. No, it is a commandment. You proceed when the green light comes, stop when the red light comes. That is where safety, security lies. That is what is a Shastra, a scripture is telling us. So this was what we discussed in our last class. Then naturally the question that comes to us is this endless cycle, how is it to be brought to an end? Is there any way out? Yes, study the nature of this cycle. There are weaknesses, there are weak links. Start with the weakest link. They are fed by certain things and they are repulsed by certain things. This cycle can be broken. It is not an eternal cycle. How to break it? Study its nature. What is it that sustains this? That is being discussed in the eleventh aphorism. Our subconscious tendencies depend upon cause and effect. They have their basis in the mind and they are stimulated by the sense objects. If these foundations, causes are removed, the tendencies are also destroyed. I am giving you simple examples. I feel like eating a sweet. Why do I feel like eating a sweet? Here is the thing. First thing is Vasana, Hetu. What is Hetu? My ignorance. What is ignorance? This too much of eating of sweet is not good. Under certain circumstances, even eating a sweet at any time is not good at all. For example, if somebody has got diabetes, it is completely forbidden. Okay, if a person doesn't have diabetes, then he can eat this sweet but in a particular way. And you know what is the particular way? Three conditions are imposed. How to even enjoy objects of the world? The first condition is you must obtain that object not by hook or crook but by righteous earning of your money, righteous labor. It must be the result of righteous life. That means a person works honestly and then he earns. So much of our unhappiness is the cause of our wrongdoings. A person may have money, wealth, power, riches but he may not enjoy. This is the first point we have to understand that having lot of wealth etc. and being happy, these are totally two separate things. A rich man may be very unhappy. A poor man who has hardly anything may be extremely happy. In fact, all saints, they fast and they practice simplicity and they live very simple life and yet you will not find another person who is as happy as they. Why? Because having things and being happy or unhappy has no co-relationship at all. These are two separate things. So the first thing is Hetu. What is the Hetu? Avidya. What is Avidya? I am unhappy. I do not know I am. My very nature is happiness. I am a blissful person. I am divine. I am God. I have forgotten that. Forgotten means what? I have forgotten that I am the nature of happiness. I don't need to go anywhere. I don't need any object by myself. I am quite happy. Not knowing this is called Avidya, the main reason. Then Phala. Because of this ignorance, I do some things right, some things wrong and they are called Phala. Phala means what? The resultant of ignorance is always Dharma and Adharma. As just now we discussed, Dharma produces happiness and Adharma produces unhappiness. Therefore, I become a slave to this. This Phala is second reason why we are bound in this cycle of transmigration. The third is called Ashraya. What is the support, the basis? Where is this ignorance? Where are this happiness and unhappiness felt? Surprisingly, it is the psychology which gives us the answer. But here is Vedanta which gives answer. You know what it is? All the support is in memory. I'll give a small example. Suppose there is a person who is very fond of sweet and he's always hankering for sweets and he gets a sweet. Whenever he eats a sweet, he is very happy. Imagine the person is there and the sweet is there but his memory is lost. Even though everything is there, he cannot be happy because that connection, this is a sweet and by the experience of this sweet, I can become very happy that memory is lost. What a marvellous thing it is. So for righteous things, wrong things, memory is the cause. Why does a person behave? We all know we shouldn't get angry but when the occasion comes, we become very angry. We lose our temper. Why is it? Lack of memory. Then we insult people. You know when a person is overwhelmed by a wrong emotion, many wrong things the person can do. In anger, a child can kill its parents. Parents can kill their children. These are not imaginary things but day-to-day experiences. It is all in the memory and if the memory is right, everything will be right. If the memory is wrong, everything would be wrong. That's why which is the support of both righteous and unrighteous actions? It is the memory. That is why the most important thing in every human life is memory. Even animals, as many of you are aware, scientists are studying and shaping the animals in different ways. They call it conditioning. So when the scientists condition an animal and when they are trained properly and when they are given certain opportunity, they stimulate, they press the right type of switch or open the right type of door. They know how to reach a desirable object but all this depends upon one factor. That is called memory. If they lose that memory, then all the training goes completely waste. Just imagine a person as Amnesia. He is one of the greatest scientists in the world and Amnesia takes place and he is as ignorant as anybody else in this world. Even though he had that knowledge, even for us, you know, it's a wonderful thing. I'm telling you something very interesting. I come prepared for this class, studying so many things but you know during the course of my talk, I happen to forget a lot of things. The moment I go out, I should have told that incident. I should have remembered that but you know, like students, until they reach the examination hall, they know everything. But when they enter into the examination hall, they all kept all the memory outside hanging on the trees and when they come out after this, not answering anything, everything comes out back to them. Is it not a common experience? But why am I bringing this up? Because the same phenomena happens in spiritual life. What is the purpose of spiritual practice? It is to bring back our original memory. I repeat it. The purpose or goal of spiritual practice is to bring back our original memory. What is our original memory? It is to know I am divine. That's why in the Bhagavad Gita, you know, Shri Krishna gave such a detailed wonderful instruction for nearly 18 chapters and at the end of the 18th chapter, Shri Krishna asks, as I have quoted many times, Oh Arjuna, did you listen to my instructions carefully? If you had listened, then something should have happened to you. What is that? You know what is it? Your delusion should have been destroyed. What is the delusion? Delusion is wrong memory. So Arjuna also categorically replies, Nashto Mohaha Smritihi Labdha. That word Smriti, the most marvellous word in the whole world in life. Smriti means memory. Ramana Maharshi used to tell us a beautiful example. In a village, there were two widows and each one, both of them had one son and the names of these two women is same and unfortunately, the names of the children are also the exactly same name and these two were childhood friends. They joined military. They were sent to fight a war and during the war, one of them was killed. The military authorities, they sent one telegram to this village addressed to, they know the name of this woman and they know the name of the person who died also and the postman came. Now, same name and the son's name also is the same. So he delivered the message to the wrong woman. So the wrong woman was weeping, my son is dead and the right woman, right woman means the person who is supposed to weep because she is the right person, she is very happy but she went to console the other lady and said, oh I am so sorry, your son is dead. The fact is quite otherwise. She who is supposed to be happy is totally unhappy and she who is supposed to be unhappy is totally happy. One is grieving, should not grieve, another is this. What is the moral of this incident? It is all mistaken memory. What is the memory now? We are thinking, we are human beings, we are bodies, we are minds and we are so and so, this is our present CV. What is the purpose of spiritual practice? The first thing tells us no, you are not the body, you are not the mind, you are Brahman, you are the divine. That is the truth and it's unbelievable. What? I know for so many lives, I am a limited being, I have so many bodies, you know, memories, animal memories, insect memories, plant memories and then even in this human birth, how many human births we had? I had a mother, I had a father, how many times I was born, how many times I died? How do we know that we had so many births? Patanjali gives, though it is not strong reasoning but he gives. Even a child is frightened of death. A child is frightened of death. How does the child know? This is the first time, if this is the first time he is born, then he doesn't know what is death. He doesn't know even the death of, at least to see somebody die and so there is, he knows what is death and so that memory can, oh I am frightened, I may, I am going to die. This child is afraid. Even an insect is afraid. Swamiji gives that example. You put your foot on an insect and it wriggles, it bites if possible, otherwise it wriggles. What is the wriggling? Wriggling is insect's language saying, I don't want to die, please get out of my way. That's its way of saying it. Where from this memory of death comes? Only one possible explanation. Many times we were born, many times we died and death is always an unpleasant experience and that is we don't want to have a repetition of that we want to get out. Whole life is a practice how to get rid of death but the truth is so long we are limited beings, there is, so long there is a body and so long there is a mind, it is not possible to get rid of death. If there is a birth, there will be growth, there will be old age, there will be disease, there will be death. This is what in Vedanta we call Shad Vikara, six-fold changes that occur. It is impossible, no scientist can alter that truth. Nowadays you know many scientists are trying to study old age, how to avoid old age. These people do not know, unintelligent people I call them, they do not know old age belongs to old age, it belongs to the body and more than the body, it belongs to the mind. This is a very important point we have to remember. Old age comes to a baby maybe after so many years but old age of mind can come almost immediately. What is that immediate old age of the mind? Do you know what it is? To think in the same rut, to move in the same rut, to desire the same things, not to have any desire to improve oneself and to go round and round and round in the same old known ways, that is worse than death. This is called old age. In common language what we call you know uncreative, non-creative. We always want to be creative, innovate many methods. Even if I want to eat the same thing, I want to eat in a different way but you know there are people who settle down, who will take so much trouble. So what is old age? The inability to grow and worse than that, the inability even to desire, I want to grow. This is called tamas. That is why Swami Vivekananda had to call arise and awake. What is the support of this ignorance as well as these desires? It is called memory. Our whole life depends upon this memory and it's a false memory but let there be a million false memories as a support, as a background, as a foundation. There is one memory which never goes and it is this which is impelling evolution, which is unstoppable. So you know what that memory is? I want deathlessness, I want pure bliss and I want to be aware that I am and I am blissful. I don't need to depend upon anything else. It is this un-understanding type of deep desire that is driving the whole evolution and it comes to an end only when we achieve that state. Achievement means not gaining anything, just to know I am already that and then evolution comes to a stop. This is what Patanjali Rishi, in the very third aphorism he says, when the mind is totally controlled, man abides in his own nature and until that time man abides in various changing desires, moods, then Alambana, most wonderful thing. Alambana means so long as there is an object of temptation, so long as we are in contact with the object of temptation, there is no question of stopping this cycle. This cycle has to be stopped, can be stopped only when we are away from the objects of temptation. That is what is called renunciation. What is renunciation? To be away from objects of temptation. Now here is a beautiful point, when we are talking about objects of temptation, are the objects really temptation? Do they contain the power of temptation? Do they have the power of making us, enslaving us? Unfortunately no, no object has any power to tempt us. Until we have become conditioned ourselves, until we allow ourselves and say, oh object I am very temptable, please tempt me. That's why I gave so many examples during the course of these talks. You have a child, three years old child and you want to present a Rolls Royce car to him. What do you think? You go and tell, I love you my baby, I am presenting you the costliest Rolls Royce car, Mercedes or Formula A car. What do you think? Do you think the baby will tell you thanks? If possible, it will give you a slap and say, you stupid fellow, you want to present me this one? You give me a small toy car, very expensive toy car. I will be very happy. You know why? Because he is ready only to derive enjoyment from the toy car and not from the real Rolls Royce car. Even we are not ready, I am sorry to tell that. Even you are not ready. That's why never buy any Rolls Royce cars or any costly car because the moment you buy a costly car, even before buying itself you are worried, how much money am I losing? After buying, somebody will steal it and somebody will scratch it and how much it costs to repair this thing? All these worries will be there and you will be the cause of jealousy of your neighbors and so many other people. So let's live a simple life if you want to be happy and we can be very happy with simple life also. What is the point I am making here? Here is a chain of transmigration, the steps of the chain. Ignorance produces desire. Desire is retained in the form of memory and memory is reinforced whenever we come into contact with objects which we experienced and which tempt us. If you have never experienced any object, you can't be tempted because you don't know what is the experience you are going to have. At least once you must experience it. So what is the first step? The weakest point, easiest point, be away if possible from objects which tempt you. Second, tackle the memory. What is the memory now we have? This object is very enjoyable object. Now there is something very interesting for us all to know. Whenever we experience something, invariably there are always two types of experiences. Here is happiness and here is also unhappiness and what maya or ignorance does to us is it makes us remember the happy part of it and makes us forget the unhappy part of it. If only we can reverse this process, always remember the unhappy part and forget the happy part, we can easily get out of it. But maya, Hindus call it maya. Maya means oh how happy I was eating sweet but you have forgotten first of all after eating three hours after eating sweet you had to run to the toilet 20 times that you have forgotten and how much it costs that you have forgotten how much you worked hard for that that you have forgotten and how much it is binding you that you have forgotten. Every object gives simultaneously both happy and unhappy experience but what does ignorance do? It separates the unhappy experiences, pushes them under the carpet and makes us oh that's wonderful let me have it again. That's why what is the next thing we have to deal that somehow bring back that opposite memory. What is the first step towards that? Remember both. Yes, it has given me happiness but along with that it also is has given one is giving lot of unhappiness to remember it. Am I telling something imaginative or is it a fact of life? Yes, it's a fact of life. Whenever you have something it comes with both happiness and unhappiness. Supposing you buy a car, so what is the thing? The first of all you have to be a good driver, secondly you have to maintain the car, thirdly always that possibility somebody may steal your car or somebody may damage your car, accidents can happen, anything can happen. At the background of our mind it is always there though we suppress it. When you are driving is it only happy driving? How many times other people just whoosh like that in front of you just for one second there might have been serious accident. Have you never experienced it? But we ignore it. Oh that happened only that time. It is not going to happen in future and of all the things what Vedanta asks us to remember is death is always hovering behind us. Not only death, old age is running after us, disease is running after us. I know a case, a person is quite happy and in fact it is an eye-opener for us. You know people say that if you exercise properly and every day you do jogging and this and that you will remain very healthy. By and large it is true but that doesn't, let us not forget it doesn't prevent us from disease, terrible disease and other accidents also can happen. Here was a jogger and he was jogging happily on the way he had his cardiac arrest and he died on the spot. Now you may say oh there is an exceptional case but the point is Ramakrishna points out one exceptional case proves that anything is possible. I am not telling that you should remember all negative things only. What I am telling is or what Patanjali is telling us, what Vedanta is telling us. Remember complete story not only half the story. If there is happiness, happiness is followed by unhappiness. Happiness is preceded by unhappiness and unhappiness is preceded again by happiness and succeeded also by happiness. Things are changing all the time. That is why you say I am very happy. Whenever any person says I am happy, what does that mean? I was not happy, now I am happy. What does that mean? In future I will not be happy, definite, guaranteed. But we forget, no no you are pessimistic. No we are not pessimistic. Vedanta is neither pessimistic nor negative. It is realistic. That is what Patanjali is telling. Deal with the memory. What is the first step? Remember both. Yes there is happiness and there is also lot of worries, responsibilities, obligations, unhappiness. So many things are there. Remember and then what is the third step? Find out that there is some other memory also. It is possible to change this balance more of happiness and less of unhappiness. How is it possible? This is called dependence upon God. You depend more upon God then you are very happy without any object. Accepting the only object is God and God is very reliable. Do you know why God is reliable? The only object who is reliable in this whole world is only God. Why? Because God is the only object who never changes. Unchangeable nature is the nature of God. That is why you can love God. He will never change. You love anything else and you change, the object also changes. Everything is changing but God never changes. So bring more and more thought of God and the last step is remember your true nature. That is the peak of spiritual perfection. What is it? To remember I am divine. What is the meaning of I am divine? I am Sachidananda. I am Sat, I am Chit and I am Ananda. I am of the nature of bliss and is it something to be attained? No. It is something you are already that but there is an obstruction. You are not able to experience it. Through spiritual practice you experience it. That is the step. Now coming back, let me first read the commentary then I will conclude. Our subconscious tendencies depend upon cause and effect. They have their basis in the mind which I call Chitta or memory and they are stimulated by the sense objects and if this platform of these four things is removed, the object falls down. That means the desires will, tendencies, samskaras, vasanas will disappear because there is no basis for them to exist. Karma can only operate and produce tendencies as long as certain causes are present. These causes are ignorance, egoism, attachment, aversion and the desire to cling to life. The causes of samsara, earlier we discussed it where it is in the second chapter, third aphorism, avidya, asmita, raga, dvesha, abhinivesha. These are the causes. Avidya is the root cause and the others are derived causes. Five and these are the causes which is the first support of our tendencies or desires. The effects of these causes. If there is a cause, they must produce effect because you can't use the word cause unless it is related to an effect. What is a cause? Unmanifested effect is a cause. Manifested cause is called effect. This is the causal relationship. If this be the cause, what are the effects? The effects are jyati, ayu and bhoga. Jyati means in which species we are born and how long we are going to have keep this particular body and what type of fate, what type of happiness, how much happiness, how much unhappiness is stole for us in this life. This is a very marvelous theory. I say theory because you can't really prove it in any scientist's laboratory. The theory is we are born because of our past karmas, because of some cause and we are going to die in spite of whatever we do. There is a fixed time, manufacturing date and expiry date. If you go to a supermarket, you will see both these things. Shelf life is there and our life, each of our life is controlled by this manufacturing birth date and death date. This is absolutely certain. You say what about science? Can it prolong life? No, it cannot prolong life. So if you take some medicine and it seems to be prolonging your life and you have any number of hopes that you are going to live another hundred years, at least the other people will never wish you to live another hundred years. You will not also not wish to live. I tell you, you will understand it when you become old. You want to kick this bucket as soon as possible. Even though you don't want to die, common sense dictates to you this is the best way to be happier. Okay, so the birth date and the death date according to Vedanta's belief is a fact. It cannot be proved though that it is fixed and how much happiness or unhappiness we have to experience during this period is also fixed. We give this example, a man had discharged an arrow. Now the arrow is already out of his control. Where it will fall and what damage it could do or not do, everything is already out of your hands. So our present life is like a past life. We have discharged the arrow, now we are helpless. Not totally helpless on the way the arrow can start thinking. What is the way for the arrow to start thinking? Attend my classes. That is the best way you start with. But during the time you can prepare the ground for the future life. That is what are the effects, rebirth, a long or a short life and the experiences of pleasure and pain. Basically karma is rooted in the ignorance of the Atman. So the way to remove this karma is to remove this ignorance. Remove the ignorance, you destroy the karma. This is the ultimate solution. There is no other way. Why do you act like this? Because of ignorance. Why do you act anyway? Because of ignorance. Do you really need to act? No, you don't really need to act and here is something wonderful. If there is a body, it has to act. If there is a mind, it has to act. But the Atman is neither the body nor the mind. So long as we are identified with body and mind, we have to act willy-nilly. There is no way. But how we act, what actions we do, that depends upon our past knowledge, experience etc. That is what life is about. But we have no choice but to act. And so long as we act, produces happiness and unhappiness. And so long as there is happiness and unhappiness, there is attachment and aversion. And so long as there is aversion, then the ignorance perpetuates. What is the way to get out of this? Identify yourself. Separate yourself from the body and mind. There is no other way. Achieve this. Destroy this ignorance. Achieve this goal through any of the four yogas. It could be through self-effort. It could be through God's grace. Doesn't matter. But you have to know, I am not the body-mind. The moment you say that, no karma. No action. Because action is needed only for an incomplete person. A person who feels I lack something. Action is always out of desire. If there is no desire, there is no action. If there is no action, that means I am perfect. I am infinite. That is the thing. And so this fact is beautifully described in the Upanishad. This vast universe is a wheel. Says, Shweta Shwetara Upanishad. Upon it are all creatures that are subject to birth, death and rebirth. Round and round and round and round it turns and never stops. This is called Brahma Chakra. Somebody funnily said, you know, Brahma Chakra. Brahman falling into this wheel is called Brahma Chakra. Brahman forgetting its real nature is called Brahma. Brahma Chakra. We are going round and round and round. It is the wheel of Brahman. As long as the individual self thinks, it is separate from Brahman. Brahman means reality. It revolves upon the wheel. But when through the grace of Brahman, it realizes its identity with him, it revolves upon the wheel no longer. It achieves immortality. And that is the only way that we can really achieve. So what is the essence of this beautiful aphorism? This wheel of Samsara depends upon four factors. First is ignorance. Second is desires. Third is memory. Fourth is objects. So be away from objects. And here also, Shri Ramakrishna's words are so pithy and so appropriate. Sadhu Savdhan. He did not say Sanyasi Savdhan. Sanyasi means a monk. He says, oh monk, be careful. He did not say. What did he say? Sadhu Savdhan. But who is a Sadhu? Any spiritual aspirant. The name for such a spiritual aspirant in Sanskrit is called Sadhu. A good person. A spiritual person. And incidentally, you can't call anybody good unless he is spiritual. Because spirituality and goodness, they always go together. Here is a man. Here is a woman. Very good person. Very good man. Very good woman. Should they have friendship? No. Says you should not. You should be very careful. Why? Because Maya is so powerful. When two things come together, which is the products of Maya, two products of Maya, when they join, they produce much more Maya than anything else. In this connection, I remember a most beautiful anecdote. There was a Christian monastery and the rule was no monk of that monastery should ever see a woman and talk with her and if the person had to talk because he may be a childhood friend, he may be sister, mother, then there would be a kind of grilled gate and the monk will be inside, the woman will be outside. The same rule for nuns also. So one day, a young monk was seen through the grill, he extended his hands and shaking hands with another woman and this was seen and instantaneously reported to the father superior. And after this was over, the superior called the monk and said, you have broken the rule. The monk tried to justify it and said, I have no wrong motive. We grew up together. She is like my sister and she came. I never stepped outside and it was our custom to shake hands and I just extended. Then the monk, he taught an important lesson. My son, rainwater is very pure and the earth is also very pure. Water also is pure. Earth also is pure. But when both of them come together, the result is not so good. What is it called? Muddy water. For some of us, this teaching may look like an extremism. Oh, in this world, how to avoid? Let me tell you something. If you are a spiritual aspirant, whether you are inside the monastery or inside the world, it makes no difference unless you are away from objects of temptation until your mind becomes pure. Then maya or what we call ignorance can overwhelm us at any time. It happened many times. It is happening now and it is going to happen in future too. So Patanjali is giving us very explicit instructions that first of all be away from objects of temptation as much as possible. Secondly, deal with the memory. What is the memory? First be aware that there is only one side of the memory and there is other side also. Now bring both of them together. Remember both. Yes, this gave me happiness, this gave me unhappiness. Third, you will have to deal with the kamas. What is the? It is the avidya. And what is the way to get rid of avidya? Bring the memory of God into the mind. That's why we are asked to do japa, we are asked to meditate and if we can do this strictly according to the instructions of our own gurus, then slowly what happens? Temptations become less, memory becomes purified, the support for these things becomes less, God becomes our support and ultimately as a result of these three avidya or ignorance, it vanishes by the grace of God. In this 11th aphorism, Patanjali is emphasizing, emphatically telling us the most marvelous way and this is what Bhagavad Gita tells us. This is what Sri Ramakrishna also tells us, satsanga. Now and then go to a solitary place, solitude. You know the word we use solitude. Solitude means what? Where there is no object which can bring us, make us recollect certain things which we are accustomed to enjoy. We should not depend upon anything. We should depend only upon, purely upon God, upon nothing else. If we can depend upon God, upon nothing else, if we can derive our existence, our happiness, our memory, everything only in God, then we are out of need. Here is a most practical way how to progress in spiritual life. Still further hints are given how to deal with these old samskaras. According to Hindu belief, these samskaras have not one birth, two births but millions and millions of births. That's why we say millions of births we had as a mineral, as a insect, as a plant, as an insect, as a bird, as an animal, as a human being. After so many births we have come here and still we are continuing the same old way. There is a way out and that's where great souls like Sri Ramakrishna come to our aid. Say supposing there is a room which is in darkness for 1000 years, maybe a million years. How much time does it take for the darkness to vanish? Do you see? Does it take million years? No. You just light one match. Instantaneously all the darkness vanishes. Why is it? Because darkness is insubstantial. Another way of putting, very beautiful wisdom sayings in Sanskrit. There may be a mountain heap of cotton. To destroy that mountain heap, what is needed? One match. Just light a little bit and it will consume itself. If we can obtain the grace of God, one ray of the grace of God can destroy millions and millions births of ignorance and instantaneously restore us to our original nature through the bringing up of that original memory which is called I am Brahman. This is the essence of this. Om Shanti Shanti Shanti