Patanjali Yoga Sutras Lecture 107

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

Om Sahanaavavatu Sahanaubhunaktu Saaveeryam Karavavahai Tejasvi Navadhi Tamastumavidvishavahai Om Shanti Shanti Shanti Hari Om Om Yogena Chittasya Padena Vacham Malam Sharirasya Javaidya Kena 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. Patanjali is dealing with the most important subject which is the nature of the mind, what is the relationship between the mind and the Purusha, the pure consciousness, while defining what yoga is. Patanjali has clarified to us yoga is to be totally separated from the mind. Mind belongs to Prakruti. Prakruti and Purusha are two eternally separated objects. There is no relationship between these two and yet they are eternal. That's what Patanjali wants to tell. What is the cause of all our misery? We forget who we are and identify ourselves with everything else and this identifying ourselves with everything else happens through the mind. So here is the consciousness, here is the mind and here is an object. The problem is not with consciousness, the problem is not with the object, the problem is with the mind. So that is why Chitta Nirodaha. Yogaha Chittasya Nirodaha. So what does Nirodha mean? In our last aphorism what we discussed is extraordinarily important and we have to keep that in mind all the time. Nothing is destroyed. There is nothing called destruction. Either from the scientific viewpoint there is no destruction, from the Vedantic point there is no destruction, from the Sankhya viewpoint there is no destruction, from Patanjali's yoga system point of view there is no destruction. We discussed in our last class a very important aphorism. That aphorism is this that here is a person, he is striving to be spiritual and he reads books and there it is said you kill your thoughts then what happens? Thoughts will get destroyed. No, Patanjali says nothing is destroyed. Why? Because the mind, the thoughts, the objects, everything belongs to Prakruti. I am forced to use that word Prakruti because that is the best thing. So you can translate roughly consciousness and anything else that exists as non-consciousness, jada, inert. So everything belongs to Prakruti. Purusha is pure consciousness. What is bondage? These two coming together and one identifying with the other. The Prakruti thinks I am conscious and the consciousness thinks I am Prakruti. What does that mean? A thinks is B and B thinks is A. Consciousness, non-conscious thinks I am conscious B. And the consciousness what does it think? I am what else? What other choice it has got? I am non-conscious. It says I am non-conscious means whenever we say I am the body we are asserting that I am not a conscious being. I am an inert being. What does that mean? These words can lead to a lot of confusion unless we understand them in the right way. What does it mean to say I am not non-conscious? In our experience non-conscious means what? When a person is in a fit or he is in deep sleep, he is not aware who or she is. That is what we call non-conscious. But according to Patanjali that is not that. I am fully conscious now. I am talking with you. You are also conscious that you are listening to my talks. But are you really a conscious being? No, you are not a conscious being. What is the definition? Anything that changes is a non-conscious thing because your mind is changing, our body is changing, every object in this world is changing all the time. That is called non-conscious principle. So what is the problem? Okay, everything is changing. So I think myself I am also changing being. What is the problem? The problem is all the living creatures have got one peculiar tendency which is common to everybody. What is it? May I always be happy. May I never be unhappy. Now you see what is happening? Everything is changing. Means what? Here is happiness. What does it change into? Unhappiness. Here is unhappiness. What does it change into? Happiness. But is there something which will never change but always happy? Yes, that is called pure consciousness. How does it work? Because whatever depends upon something for its existence, that is changeable, that is inert and that creates bondage. Let me repeat, whatever is experienced, perceived by something else and that is unreliable totally. So everything in this world is what we call asvatantriya, totally dependent. Our body is dependent upon what? If you don't have breakfast, 50% of your voice is gone. If I don't have lunch, 75% of my voice is gone. And if I fast for one day, next day you won't hear me. I am only telling to myself but I mean all of us. So this is the condition. We are all totally dependent and then we are also dependent upon a lot of bacteria, virus. So there are some good viruses. Do you know what is a good virus and what is a bad virus? That which doesn't affect me is a good virus and that which affects me and makes me ill person, sick person, that is a bad virus. Every millisecond we are dependent upon so many things. First thing, so we are dependent upon this air. If I don't breathe for a short time, that is the chanting that would be taken up. All living creatures. So then we are dependent upon water, then we are dependent upon food, then we are dependent upon heat, then we are dependent upon space. We are totally dependent from birth to death. We are dependent upon everything. And what is bondage? Dependence is bondage. And Prakruti is equivalent to that which depends because it is non-conscious. A non-conscious object needs to depend upon some other thing which is conscious even for its very existence. Now where is this discussion leading? Discussion leading is the famous Vedantic statement, bondage is also in the mind, liberation is also in the mind. So what is bondage? To identify myself with something other than me, that is bondage. What is liberation? Not to identify with anything else but to totally identify myself with my own self, that is called liberation. How is it possible? Through yoga. What does yoga do? It totally controls the mind. What does controlling the mind mean? Controlling the mind and identifying with the mind are two totally opposed things. Only I can control if I am separate from it. If I am one with it, I cannot control myself. Simple example, you are tied to your chair and you feel like getting out of control that chair. Can you do that? You can never do that. What do you need to do? You separate yourself from the chair. That means either yourself or through somebody, help of somebody, you get out of, you separate totally, even one billy billy meter separation from you is total independence and then you can control it. What does Patanjali mean? Controlling the mind, separate yourself from the mind. What does the mind do? It produces so many pictures because it is contacting the objects and whichever object the mind or chitta is presenting to us in the form of memory, we are identifying with it. That is called bondage. What is the way out? Just witness. Do not identify. Separate yourself. That is the only way. Good happens, good picture, okay, enjoy it. Bad picture, enjoy it. That is called yoga. Yoga chitta vritti nirodha. Why am I mentioning this again and again? Because chitta nirodha, the moment we hear those two words, it means I must control the, control somebody. Don't we see in our normal day-to-day experience, the more you control somebody, that person will hate you, will be the cause of your bondage. Somebody who is in India, whom I don't know and he doesn't know me, he doesn't cause me any problem. But the fellow whom I know, either through happiness or through unhappiness, through both, he is controlling me. He is affecting me. My mind is becoming colored by that. We will very soon come to that aphorism. So what did we discuss? This particular fact, according to Vedanta, according to science, according to Sankhya Yoga, in this world nothing is destructible. But what Vedanta says is, I don't agree with Sankhya Yoga. In Sankhya Yoga there are two principles. One is consciousness, another is non-consciousness. Vedanta says that is a misunderstanding. Consciousness, looked at particular way, appears to be unconscious. In other words, Prakruti and Purusha are not two separate entities. They are same entity, looked at from two different viewpoints. And Sri Ramakrishna re-emphasizes it. Let us connect it. How? He says Brahma and Shakti are one and the same. They are opposite and reverse of the same coin. Then he explained beautifully. He says when Brahman is understood as Nishkriya, non-active, then that is one aspect of it called Nirguna Brahman. But when the same Brahman is looked at from the viewpoint of activity, what is that activity? Creation, sustenance and dissolution. Then you call it Shakti. Why Shakti? Shakti means energy. Energy is needed even to criticize somebody. So for creating this world we need tremendous amount of energy. This is what Patanjali had asked us to think over it. What does it mean? It is such a fascinating aphorism that here is a person and he is trying to control his mind and you think I have destroyed this memory, I have destroyed this mind, I have destroyed this body. Patanjali says no destruction. Everything is eternal. So what happens to your memories? They go back to their parents. Who are the parents of let us say this body and you burn this body. Where does this go? Will it get destroyed or will it go back into its elements? It goes back into it. So we understand this. What about the mind? Because memories, resolutions, doubts, certainties, all these things belong to whom? To the mind only. What happens? The mind itself is a by-product. Ahamkara. Ahamkara itself is the by-product of Mahatattva. Mahatattva is the by-product of Prakruti and Prakruti is the by-product of Purusha according to Vedanta. So what happens to your mind? It doesn't affect you. That's all. What does a Yogi do? Through this practice he says I witness you but I know I am not you and Prakruti says oh so long we have been friends now you have given me talak. Okay I am also giving you talak. Now I will go and marry somebody else. That is how the Sankhya Yoga beautifully tells if we pray to the Divine Mother what does she do? She compassionate out of infinite compassion takes us by our hand and slowly leads us through good and evil, happy, unhappy experiences, ultimately takes us to the borderland and then it says my child I have accomplished my mission. My mission is to take you to your own home. There is your home. Then we are likely to say in the words of Sri Ramakrishna oh you are such a good robber. You have saved my life. Why don't you come to my home? I will honor you. He says there police will not allow me because the moment I step out police will catch me. The whole essence of what we discussed so far is that the mind can never be destroyed. Why Patanjali is so insistent upon saying this? Because there are some people who believe really they can kill the mind. They can kill the memories. They can kill the samskaras. No you cannot kill. You can separate and they will go the same samskaras is occupying some other people also. Now what he wants to say to reinforce that idea what is yoga? It is to know your own nature. He is going to elaborate certain aphorisms which are most marvelous. The next vastu samye chitta vedat tayor vibhaktaha panthaha. Let me first give you a simple English translation and then we'll come to a simple explanation. The same object is perceived in different ways by different minds. Therefore the mind must be other than the object. Let me repeat. Object being the same, the experience of the object is not the same. Simple example Shri Ramakrishna gives. Here is a young woman. She is walking and one small child runs and says mama and hugs her and another young man is going that way says my sister how are you? Another old man is going he says my daughter I have not seen you for a long time and another man says my wife how are you? Four different people same object. What is the point of this mentioning? Why is Patanjali mentioning? He is mentioning because if we have the right type of mind through the practice of yoga we get to the real vision of an object. As I mentioned earlier in my classes I am not going strictly according to the Sankhya philosophy. I am going to combine Vedanta as taught in the light of Shri Ramakrishna's life. So this whole universe is nothing but Brahman. How many Brahmans are there? Only one. Therefore this table, this chair, this carpet, this microphone everything must be different so-called manifestations of Brahman only. What is our problem? So long we see differentiation even if we see one other object other than us that is called bondage that brings unhappiness or happiness because it depends upon same object can bring happiness at some point and same object can give also profound unhappiness at some other time depending upon the circumstances. For example I gave the example you know hot water is very pleasant in winter season but the same hot water may not give any pleasure in hot season. Similarly cold drink is extremely pleasure giving in hot season but in cold season but of course this is one point of view. The point is the same object. Object being the same how we perceive that object that gives us either happiness or unhappiness or even to go further by the type of perception we develop either it binds us or it liberates us. An example Shri Ramakrishna was one day returning from Calcutta to Dakshineswar. On the way he saw a public woman waiting for customer. Whose view is that? Not Shri Ramakrishna's view that is our view. We look down upon upon her very peculiar you know it is so fascinating even to think about the subject. So when we are in public so we go on condemning oh she is a worthless woman immoral woman she should not be even looked at but if we are alone with her it is a totally different issue. Yeah what how what a change it comes and who made her a public woman? Somebody else from heaven it is we people. That's why you remember Jesus Christ the story there was a public woman and she was caught with adultery. How can she commit adultery unless there is somebody else and the law is she must be stoned to death and everybody was ready with big big stones. Cruel world. Then Jesus Christ just came at the right time to her great good fortune and he said yes yes you stone her. He didn't prevent you you also all of you you are but let the man who never committed adultery in his mind let him be the first person. You know what happened all of them threw away the stones and returned. What does that mean? All of them were adulterous either publicly or privately. We are all in that condition. Sri Ram Krishna was returning he saw this lady and everyone will condemn her even though they desire her. Many of them desire her but what did Sri Ram Krishna say? It is mother Sita waiting for whom? For Rama. Now who can have that kind of vision? Is that a liberating vision or binding vision? It's a liberating vision because that very vision can come only to a mind who can see divinity in everywhere. When a mind reaches that state where it can perceive divinity in everything that mind is already a liberated mind. It is only waiting for this body to fall down. The mind is already free. This is called jivanmukta state. So what Patanjali wants to say? The object being the same because of the different types of minds. What is different types of minds? Different ways of perception. The same object is experienced in different ways. Pantha means ways, different ways. This is important. Either leading to bondage or leading to more bondage or leading to total liberation. Patanjali wanted us to teach a lesson. So the world is not because of your bondage. Who is the cause? Not even your mind because the mind looks at a particular object in a particular way because of what? Because of a particular type of life we live, particular type of habits we develop, particular ways of looking at things we develop. So we have to change ourselves. We have to develop certain new habits. We have to develop ways of looking at everything only in one particular light. That's important point. You look at millions of objects. All the objects must be looked upon as only in one way. What is it? What is the table? Table is God. What is the microphone? That is also God. What is the carpet? That is also God. Who is a man? He is also God. Who is a woman? She is also God. Who is a friend? He is also God. Who is an enemy? He is also God. What a vision! This is what Bhagavad Gita teaches us. You know, an elephant, a dog etc. Panditah samdarshinah. Panditas, a pandit, a true learned man is he who looks upon everything as Atman and as nothing else. Is it a fact? It is a fact. Then why we are not able to see? Because of this reason. We have developed certain filters. Those filters through many many lives we ourselves created. From another angle, this can be also explained. You see, according to Vedanta, the Atman is encased in two ways, through one way, through three casements. Gross body, subtle body and causal body. When we are identified with the gross body, everything appears to be gross. When we are identified with subtle body, everything appears to be subtle. When we are identified with causal body, everything appears to be causal. You know what is causal? Cause means only one cause. That is why in deep sleep, how many things do you perceive? Only one thing you perceive. You know what is it? It is called ignorance. Ignorance in general without any division is called deep sleep. When that ignorance assumes, degenerates into different forms, this is called subtle world. And when that ignorance further degenerates, appears to be very concrete, that is called the gross world. Only one object, ignorance, which is called here Prakruti. And this consciousness illumines this ignorance. And when it is perceived not as manifest but totally unmanifest in the causal form, then there is only one object. That is why you can't describe anything about it because description requires at least two things. Minimum two things you need. If there is only one thing, there is no need to describe to anybody else. So what Patanjali wants to say, change the way you look at things. Change your outlook and that is it. As Swami Chinmayananda, he says, you know, you set up things in one way and if they don't go in your expected way, you get upset. So if you want not to be upset, what do you need to do? Don't set up anything. If you expect, then you may be disappointed. If you don't want disappointment, don't make any appointments with anything. Yes, very very practical thing. If it happens, fine. If it doesn't happen, fine. I don't depend upon it. Now the thing is, now we depend upon both. There are certain things, certain objects, certain timings, certain people, certain events, certain experiences we expect and if they do not fulfill our picture, then we become disappointed and there are certain things we don't want but if they happen to happen, we become unhappy. Both ways we are unhappy. Sometimes happy, sometimes unhappy. But suppose you say, I don't care. I don't depend upon anything. I'm always happy whatever happens. Such a person, whatever happens to his body, to the circumstances, he doesn't care at all. He is a liberated soul. So what Patanjali in essence wants to say is, control your mind so that it will have only unitary vision. I see only Brahman consciousness and nothing else and whatever needs to bring this mind to that state of single perception, that is called yoga. This is what we discussed. The object cannot be said to be dependent on the perception of a single mind. For this were the case, the object would be said to be non-existent when that single mind was not perceiving it. This particular aphorism is in refutation of a particular school of Buddhism called Vijnanavada or even Kshanikavada. What is Vijnanavada? There are different philosophical outlooks. Buddhism has got several different outlooks. I want to give a very brief outline. It is this. Is there really a world outside or is the world totally the creation of our mind? The people who say irrespective of whether you perceive it or not, there is a world independent of your thinking, your perception, your experience. These are called realists. It is called realism. What is real? The world is real. It doesn't depend upon you. But there are people who have a different philosophical outlook. That is called idealism. What is idealism? Everything you experience is an idea in your mind. So if it is an idea in your mind, we ask that fellow, if it is only an idea in your mind, why do you complain that you are unhappy? After all, it is your creation, your imagination. So why don't you change it and say, I am a happy person. Even if somebody comes and slaps you, say I am very happy. If you can come to that state, then you are a real idealist. But only in school rooms you go on arguing. In forums, in debates, that everything is. India, they have got this saying, you know, in North India, if you go, this world doesn't exist in three times. You know what is three times? Past, present and future. These are called idealists. What Vedanta says, is it realism or is it an idealism? No. We accept there is one reality. There is no inside, outside. The mind also is the same and the external world is also the same. It is called Brahman. Only one object is there or subject is there, whatever you call it. One reality is there. That is called Brahman. Depending upon your perception, that means what? You are separating yourself from that Brahman. If you have to perceive that Brahman, experience that Brahman, you are separate from it. That is why there is no Brahman experience. And don't get disappointed because after hearing all my talks, say if I don't experience Brahman, then my listening to your talks is totally useless. So you are expecting coming to your talks because you will tell us some way how I can experience Brahman. What we say is you don't experience Brahman because you are already Brahman. You are experiencing Brahman every millisecond. Even if you say I am not, it is possible only through Brahman. What is Brahman here? Consciousness. If you are not conscious, you are not there and so the problem also is not there. The problem comes when you are conscious and without that consciousness you can't function. And that consciousness is called Brahman. You don't need to experience Brahman because it is ever experienced. Then what is spiritual practice? It is to realize that I am myself all the time without my realizing that I am. Various examples are given. The famous example is a musk deer. Very fragrant smell is coming from its navel and it is mesmerized by that smell. Like a mad bull, it is running all over to find out where from it is coming, not realizing that it is coming from its own self. Swami Vivekananda has written a beautiful poem. He says, I went up and down the hill and the dale in search of you and I was despaired of. I am never ever going to realize God. Then he says, suddenly he says, my friend, I am all the time with you. Where are you searching for me? The searcher himself is the searched one. I am you, you are me. That is the ultimate realization. Whether you are Christian or non-Christian, Hindu, non-Hindu, Vedanti, non-Vedanti, it doesn't really matter. But this is a most ennobling idea, inspiring idea that we are already what we are searching for. All the happiness is within ourselves. This particular is a refutation, as I said, of the Buddhistic idea that if your mind doesn't think of an object, that object doesn't exist. You know, in a funny way, what Vedantin tells, when the fellow is thinking of something else, I go behind that fellow and give him a hard slap. He should not ask, why did you slap me? Because he was not thinking of it. Therefore, it doesn't exist. The world, is it there? Yes, it is there. So is it inside or outside? It is inside as well as outside. There must be something outside. Is the world there, outside? Yes, it is there. But do I see it as it is? No, I don't see it. What this aphorism wants to say is, the perceiving mind is separate, the perceived object is also separate. It is not the same. It is a refutation of this school of Buddhistic Vedanta, which says Buddhistic ways of thinking, that there is no external, outside world, is whatever I think, that becomes. What is the example? Dream. In dream, there is no external world. You think of a line, the line is immediately present. You think of India, you are in India. You think of the moon, you are in the moon. This is the example they say to show, you are able to perceive, and then it exists. That means it depends totally upon you. Vedanta tells, refutes it and says no. So what is the argument? What is the answer? How to refute them? This is the way. Suppose there is the same object, one object, here is a sweet and there are two people. One person likes it, one person doesn't like it. Same object but different perceptions. How is it possible? If it is the same object and it is creation of your mind, then the moment you forget about it, the object must disappear. But no, when I close my eyes, you see everything as it is. That is the proof that it is not mere imagination of a particular mind but there is an objective reality is there. Vedanta doesn't deny it. It is not denying the object but it is denying everyone's perception of that object. What Vedanta tells is, let us say here is a wooden chair. You see it as a wooden chair. A woodworm sees it as a food. Two different things. Are they wrong? Both of them are partially right because that is not the complete truth. What is the truth? Yes, the woodworm is seeing food, that is Brahman. The man is seeing it is a table chair, that is also Brahman. It is Brahman. As Brahman, it is real. But as particular perception, it is not correct view. So the problem is not with the object. The problem is again with the mind. Refine your mind. Remove all filters. Another way, I mentioned this one, another way Vedanta presents is, we are all or the Atman encased in five sheaths. Most fascinating subject. When a person is identified with the grossest sheath, which is called Annamaya Kosha, food sheath, then everything is food only. Even a chair also is food only. Wooden chair is also food. Yes, everything is food only because everything that is, that comes into manifestation and changes and disappears is food. Food somebody. Food in the sense, always don't identify food means that which I eat. Food means that which I experience. So if I call any one of you, you are food, you might get angry. But let a tiger look at you. What is it looking? Like that Madagascar story, the lion is looking at the zebra. What is it seeing? Floating stacks. So everything is food for something in this world. So long as we are identified with Annamaya Kosha, with the sheath called food, the moment we get elevated to Pranamaya Kosha, the whole universe, whatever we see, every object as prana, a tremendous change takes place in the man's behavior. Even a small insect is there, is the divine mother crawling about in the form of prana and that person doesn't like to hurt it. When we are using the word ahimsa, very important. Who can really, really practice ahimsa? When a person identifies himself, I am the prana and then he sees everything as in the form of prana. These are tremendous truths you have to keep in mind. Everything is prana. That person voluntarily, consciously, willingly, schemingly, he will never be able to hurt anything. Why? Because you know, if I am prana, just imagine, do I take a knife and stab my own hand? What happens if I stab my own hand? I feel pain. Why? Because my right hand is also identified as prana, my left hand also is identified as prana. So one prana, aspect of prana cannot hurt the other aspect of prana. True ahimsa, non-injury, can be practiced, is possible to practice only when a person reaches that inner subtle sheath called pranamaya kosha. What is the next kosha? It is the made up of the mind, manomaya kosha. When a man enters into manomaya kosha, in fact, when we are dreaming, which kosha we are entering? Only manomaya kosha. At that time, everything appears to be real, like physical world, but everything is made up of ideas. There are people, they say some chemicals make some persons think that every object that person perceives through that chemical, this thing, is nothing but an idea in the mind. What a beautiful experience. When a person progresses still further, then he enters into what is called vijnanamaya kosha, very subtle form. What is that? Everything is me. What is vijnanamaya kosha? To feel I am everything. And when he goes beyond that, he reaches the last sheath, anandamaya kosha. Then he sees the whole universe is a blissful play of the divine. These are experiences anybody can experience if we raise our mind to that level. During one of my talks, I also mentioned briefly from another viewpoint of view, this bliss has got five levels of experience. So gross objects, vishayananda, then intellectual happiness, medhananda, aesthetic happiness, kalananda, moral happiness, dharmananda or bhajanananda and the bliss of brahman called brahmananda. So they correspond roughly to this idea of pancha koshas. Now what Patanjali is trying to tell us that if an object depends upon your mind and if you don't think of that object, it disappears. That is totally false view. An object exists independent of any one of our thinking. What is the proof? The proof is if one person stops thinking, that object must disappear along with that thought. But that is not so. Even when a person is deeply asleep, then the whole world exists even though he is not thinking. Even if the whole world also is in deep sleep, still the world exists. But only thing is experience is not there. But existence has not disappeared. The next aphorism is even more beautiful. Every object has got the power to attract our mind. What does it mean? Every object has got an influence upon our mind. Whether you like it, you don't like it. So we give a beautiful example. Suppose you are walking in a busy street and you see a bus is going from your side to the other side on the road. So what do you do? You don't do anything because you take note of it and you say it is not harmful. It is just going in its own way. That bus is influencing you. Suppose you look back and the bus driver is weaving in and out and he is coming near you. Then what will be your reaction? You try to run away and be somewhere where you will not be hurt or harmed. So that bus, bus means I mean bus driver has got, he is influencing your mind. But there is somebody else who is on the top of a building. He is looking at it. Is he worried about it? He is not worried. The same event. So you see every object in this world is influencing us but in three different ways. Positively, negatively, neutrally. So again I will give that example. So you are walking and a person who had taken a vow that the next time he sees you, he will kill you. And he is coming there. You saw him first. He did not see you yet. What will you do? You duck into a safe place. This is what reaction is it? Negative reaction. Then you are walking. You see somebody who loves you most and he has not seen you. You have seen that person. What would be your reaction? Before he disappears, you are running towards him to catch up with him. And there are thousands of people walking against you, with you, backwards and everywhere. And you are in no way neither positively affected nor negatively affected. The point is even if it is a neutral attitude, it is an effect because it is not positive. It is not negative. Therefore I am safe. I can carry on as I am doing it. So what is Patanjali telling us through this? He is telling us every single object in this world can affect our mind. How does it help us in our spiritual practice? That's why seek only depending upon your goal in life. If you want to realize God, if you want to progress in spiritual life, what should you do? What needs to be done? You seek those objects which influence you in such a way that your devotion towards God will increase, your joy in spiritual practice will increase, your faith in God also will increase. There is a beautiful incident in the life of Sriram Krishna. Narendranath came and met him and then he was suitably impressed. Though you know this story is very interesting story. He observed. Narendranath also a great observer and he observed suddenly and came to the conclusion Sriram Krishna was a monomaniac. You know who is a monomaniac? Normal 99% of the percent. But in one way, some way he is madcap. He is not normal. That was his observation about Sriram Krishna. What was his observation about us? Only in one way, 1% we are normal. 99% we are all mad. What does it mean? Means we exist that is the 1% positive view. 99 point of the rest of our life is we are going running away from God. We need to avoid certain objects which distract us from our cherished goal. We need to cultivate that company which will help us to go forward in life. That is the practical aspect of this particular aphorism. The word Uparagam is you know colored. Every object colors us either positively, negatively or neutrally. If we want to progress in life, we have to choose that which colors us and in this respect this Sriram Krishna gives a very very beautiful example in this respect. So there was a man who dyes cloths. What is called dyer. So people used to take their different cloths. Okay dye it as green. He'll put in the same tub and out come green cloths. I want reddish color. Okay reddish color comes out. One intelligent person was watching it. You know what he said? You dye my cloths in that dye with which you are able to dye everybody else's cloths in different ways. That means what? That dye which is not of any color. Then there is only one object. What is that object? Brahman. So we are all influenced by objects. If we are discriminative, intelligent, we seek only the company of those objects. Objects means you know not only objects. Times, events, places, books, people, everything comes under that category of objects which will further our goal in life and assiduously, consciously avoid the opposite. That is what Sriram Krishna called Satsanga. When he says cultivate holy company, the bracket, what is the meaning? Cultivate holy company and uncultivate unholy company. We have to see it. Now another aphorism. Because the Atman, the lord of the mind is unchangeable, the mind's fluctuations are always known to him. Here is a most beautiful Vedantic principle. The mind is unconscious. But what is our understanding? The mind is the knower. So if I don't have mind, I cannot know. If I don't have mind, I cannot see you. You know what is not having mind means what? If the mind is distracted or it is because of tamoguna, it is sleeping. I do not know what I am talking. I do not know to whom I am talking and so many things will happen. But does that mean the mind has consciousness as its nature? No. Why? This aphorism tells us there is somebody else who knows what the mind is doing. See, it is as simple as that. I am witnessing you. If I am witnessing you, is me and you same or separate? They are separate. So not only they are separate, if I am witnessing you, you are non-conscious, I am conscious. This is a most beautiful principle to observe changes and as we mentioned earlier, everything in this world is changing. Our problem is we want to cling to that idea, nothing is changing. Its implications are very dramatic, very deep. A man thinks this woman loves me and she will never change her love for me. How many times she is changing her mind depending upon what you are doing to her, depending on circumstances, depending upon weather, depending upon so many other factors. Everything is changing. To think that nothing is going to change is one of the characteristics of avidya. You know we discussed what is avidya? That which is impure to consider it as pure. That which is ephemeral to consider it as eternal. That which gives unhappiness to consider it as a source of happiness. That which is non-atman, non-conscious to consider it as atman. This is called avidya. In fact, the Sanskrit name for the world you know, jagat. Jagat means what? That which is constantly changing is called this world. But if something is changing, how do we know that it is changing? It is a law, scientific law. To know changes, there must be something which is unchanging. Therefore, this proves that there is something else besides the mind. Mind is the by-product of prakriti and prakriti is always non-conscious and changing and therefore the mind is also changing. Therefore, to witness what is the mind, the mind is changing, there must be something separate besides it which never changes and which always can witness the other one. That proves there is something called consciousness and that consciousness never changes. It cannot change because if consciousness changes, it is a changeable entity. If it is a changeable entity, you have to posit another unchangeable entity to witness the changing entity called consciousness. So, if you go on doing it, ultimately we end up in what is called infinite regress. That is illogical, unscientific, what is meant. The proof that we are all Atman is this, that we are able to witness the changes in the body, changes in the mind. That conclusively proves we are separate both from the body and mind and we are opposite in nature and when two things are opposite in nature, they can never become one. That means I am not prakriti. If I am not prakriti, I am not unconscious. If I am not unconscious, I am nothing but pure consciousness. This aphorism wants to tell that there is a mind, there are objects, they belong to separately but you are not that. We will discuss these beautiful points even from a logical point of view in our future class. Om Shanti Shanti Shanti