Patanjali Yoga Sutras Lecture 008

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

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 discussing the Patanjali Yoga Sutras. I think it is quite some time since we had this talk, and just to remind ourselves of what we had so far discussed. Prajna Yoga is one of the four yogas whose ultimate goal is to give us self-knowledge and liberation. Even if we discount liberation, and most of us are not in a hurry to get self-knowledge or liberation, but certainly we do need happiness in this world. Even those who seek happiness in this world, those who seek peace in society, even for them the most important thing is to examine our mind, our life, and try to have some amount of control over it. As we all know, how much misery we go through needlessly, how much we could become more creative if only we know how to control our mind. According to Raja Yoga, everything depends upon our mind, bondage and liberation, happiness or unhappiness, good or evil, peace or restlessness, everything depends upon our mind. Believe me, even sleep depends upon our mind. Even sleep, appetite depends upon our mind, friendship depends upon our mind. Raja Yoga is all about control, control, control, control what? We are all trying to control something else, somebody else. But we do not understand, it is the nature of this world that there will be elements which would not be favorable to us, either it is cold or heat or friends or enemies or whatever. Is it possible to have peace, happiness, creativity, goodness, yes, depends upon our mind. Raja Yoga is all about that. The whole thing depends upon our mind and what is mind? This is the subject matter which our ancient sages have analyzed so deeply, every saint, no matter which religion or country a person belongs, a saint, a sage, a realized soul, a man of God, they all have one thing in common and that common thing is they are masters of their mind, masters of psychology. Why is it? Because even to be a wicked person, one has to be knowing about one's own mind, what do I want and how do I go about it? Suppose there is a thief, what type of thief are we talking about? There are petty thieves, there are master thieves, are they same? The master thieves are a billion times great men, how did they come to be master thieves and not remain petty thieves? Whether it is in learning, in ruling, in being even a good cook, you know, I give these illustrations so that we can remember these things. Even as simple as cook rice, make bread, is it that everyone makes the same kind of rice? What a difference when some people make it is like heavenly, what is the difference? The difference is in our mind, how much control, self-control we have. So Raja Yoga, there are certain specialities which we discussed. The first speciality is Raja Yoga is that science which tells us how to go about life so that we can be happy here and also forever happy after death by attaining self-knowledge which is realization. Another difference is Raja Yoga doesn't talk anything about God excepting a casual mention about it. There is no need to think about God and it appeals to many people. As we can see, so many people are interested in meditation, does it lead to the highest good? Yes, provided it is pursued seriously, it would lead. One need not believe in God but one should have a concept of God. Do we make a difference between believing in God and believing in a concept of God? We usually take God as an object like any other objects, a human being, an exalted human being, an exalted emperor, a rich person, a powerful person, that's not a correct idea of God but a concept of God because anything that our mind thinks is a concept including that of God, that's a very interesting thought, idea which we will pursue later on. So anyone who wants to attain to the highest, that person need not believe in God but he must have a good concept of God. I want to be very happy, what is that concept? I want to be God. I want to overcome the fear of death, what is it? Concept of God. I want to know everything, I want to control everything, what is this concept? I want to be God. Though we are not taking the name of God, that's what we really mean when we express our desires in this way. So Raja Yoga doesn't say you necessarily you have to believe in God. It doesn't deny the fact of God but it says merely he is the first come first served person, a Purusha, a divine soul but all the knowledge comes from him, no more than that. He is not cause of the creation, he is not the cause of maintenance or destruction, it is Prakriti, a different element, eternal element, co-living with God, co-reality with God. Another difference is all the good or evil, happiness, unhappiness, everything lies in our mind. Control the mind. Is it possible to control the mind? If the nature of the mind is uncontrollable then it is never possible. This is a very important point, these ideas, fundamental ideas have to go deep into us. Suppose there is an apple seed, what is its nature? To produce an apple tree and apple fruit, it will never produce mango fruit. A mango seed would produce only a mango fruit, not an apple fruit. If the nature of the mind is uncontrollable, is it not obvious that it can never be controlled however much we try for it but the whole Raja Yoga will fall apart if that concept is accepted. What does Raja Yoga say? Raja Yoga first it says our life is nothing but our mind. Our mind is nothing but our thoughts. This mind which is nothing but a complete, a whole addition of these thoughts and nothing else. If there are no thoughts, really there is no mind. All this what we call this mind in its real nature, it is pure. The mind in its real nature is pure like the space but it comes into contact with various experiences and it becomes distorted, a distorted mind is not the original mind, a distorted mind is a distorted mind. We are in that state of distortion. We are in the state of distortion through five causes, five states of distortion. I will shortly recollect it. The point I wanted to make is, according to our ancient sages who discovered this particular path, the mind is absolutely pure in its nature. Even if you do not believe these sages, take a simple example, take a small child. How pure the child is, it doesn't know what is lying, what is cheating, what is hypocrisy. It lives what we call nowadays authentic life, feels like crying, it cries, feels like laughing, it laughs. It has that wonderful nature, innocent nature, pure nature but as it grows, it goes on looking at its parents, peers, society, schools, colleges, education, businesses, government and then it becomes distorted, it becomes, the innocence is lost. In fact, if you read the biblical story of Genesis, how did the creation start? Adam and Eve were with God, they were walking in the paradise, the garden of Eden. Eden is a state of pure innocence and then they forgot about that. That's why it is called knowledge, knowledge not in the Vedantic sense but knowledge in the sense if there is knowledge there is also ignorance. In that sense, this Adam and Eve lost their innocence and that is how the fall has come and the fall is still going on and the fall will continue until each one of us would go back through self-knowledge to that state of innocence. When Narendra Nath, later Swami Vivekananda, met Sri Ramakrishna, he sang two beautiful songs. One of them is Manu Chalo Nijaya, Niketani, O mind, go back, let us go back to our own home. What is our home? Which is free from this duality of good and evil, it's beyond good and evil, it is a state of homogeneous reality, there is no division there at all, man, woman, good or evil, life or death, happiness, unhappiness, it's beyond all these states. Every religion only is a path which is trying to show us the way to go beyond good and evil but that state should not be misunderstood, only after death it is achievable. If it is not achievable when we are living, it is not at all achievable after death. In fact, there is no proof after death what you are going to have, better to have here. One fellow was trying to fast and then he is starving already and he got little food and he was trying to fast because he believed fasting is good but his friend who didn't believe in that, he came and told him, you are about to die, why don't you eat, he says, no, no, I am a religious person, I believe in God and by fasting I will get lot of feasting later on. A fellow said, foolish fellow, there is no such guarantee, better when you are alive you eat. So if any person doesn't progress in any field of life, not only in spiritual field, even in the most what we call secular field of life, there is no guarantee that after death he will wake up, an all-knowing person, that is never going to happen. According to Hindus, there is reincarnation. According to the theory of reincarnation, whatever knowledge or experience or samskara we call them, character we have, right now after death we start from there. So better to have this realization right now. So Raja Yoga emphasizes that this mind is pure and their way of expressing, technically expressing this concept is the mind by its nature is always in Samadhi. Samadhi is in other words, it reveals the truth about ourselves like a pure mirror. The function of the mind is to give us true knowledge about our own self. So this is the main secret of Raja Yoga. You do not need to believe in anything but you must believe it is possible to evolve and to evolve there is only one method and that method is controlling the mind. Controlling the mind means controlling the thoughts. Controlling the thoughts means, as some people mistakenly understand, not suppressing the thoughts, not trying to get rid of the thoughts but to have complete detachment over the thoughts. What do we do? We experience, the moment a thought comes, we become one with that thought. If it is a happy thought, we do not say we are having a happy thought. What do we say? We are, if it is an unhappy thought, we say we are unhappy. Imagine just the fun of it, even the language betrays us. You meet somebody and you don't like the person, you say I hate this person. Now if you analyze who has become the hated person, let me elaborate it. You see a person whom you hate and he is passing and by one look at him and the thought of hatred arises in him. I hate that person, this thought comes. Then you become the hater and then who becomes the hated? You become the hated. The other fellow is completely innocent, he doesn't know what you are thinking. So if you are hated person, what is the result? Who will suffer? If you are angry with someone who suffers stroke or ulcers or stress, all these things, we only become. So Raja Yoga says that you can have any thought you like, there is nothing wrong. As even God, Shri Krishna can sit so calmly, quietly in that vast, terrible battlefield and yet remain absolutely peaceful. How could he do that? Is not someone going to hurt him? He says no, no one can hurt me because I do not have a body. No one can hurt me because I do not have a mind. I am not the body, I am not the mind, I don't have a body or mind, who am I? I am that eternal Atman. But there is a body and that's what you are looking at, not that is what I am looking at. No realized soul will ever say I have a body or mind, only when we are doing spiritual practice, the first step is not to say I am the body or the mind, but I have a body and mind. But later on, you should never have. An interesting thought in Vedanta, this is a bit more technical, but some of you definitely know about it. Among the Vedantins, we know about Jeevanmukti and Videhamukti, two types of liberation. If a person has knowledge, realized God, then while still if there is a body living, it is called Jeevanmukti, living free, while the body is still alive, it is called Jeevanmukti. The other is Videhamukti, Videhamukti means the same person, when this body is gone, then it is called Videhamukti. Now who is talking about living free and freedom after death? Is the realized soul talking about it or are we talking about it? This question was raised and answered very effectively. What is the answer? For a realized soul, there is neither living nor dead, because this living and dead, from which standpoint living and dead? From the standpoint of the body, when the body itself is not there, when the mind itself is absent, where is the question of saying that while living, while the body is alive or after the body is dead? It's not a reality. This is something very technical, we won't go into it. So this is what we have been discussing, yoga is all about mind control. Control of the mind means, it's not that like your boss trying to control you, what it really means is that we will have so much self-mastery and self-mastery means if you want to be controlling something or master something, the first thing you have to realize is that you are different from that which you are trying to control. Suppose you want to control this table, one beautiful illustration, you are sitting in a very comfortable sofa and you need to move from that place to some other place. What do you need to do? You are sitting very cosily, comfortably in a soft sofa. The softer it is, the harder it is to get up, you must always realize. So if you want to change the position of the sofa, then what do you need to do? First get out of the sofa, means separate yourself from the sofa, then you are different, sofa is different. Then there is a chance that you can pull it by hook or crook or whatever it is. Similarly, if we want to control the body, we must be separate from the body. If we want to control the mind or thoughts, then we have to be separate. This is what Raja Yoga is all about and says, you are separate from your thoughts. You can have any number of thoughts, there is no harm so long as you control them, but they do not control you. So how to control this mind, that is all about Raja Yoga. To control the mind, as I mentioned just now, the mind's nature should be controllable nature and that controllable nature is called pure nature. That pure nature is technically termed as Samadhi. Now this mind, at any given time, it would be in one of the five states. These states are called, we had already discussed these things, these are called Mudha, Kshiptha, Vikshiptha, Ekagra and Niruddha. Mudha means completely stupefied, Kshiptha means a little bit completely scattered, completely restless. Vikshiptha means sometimes it is controlled, sometimes it is not under our control. Ekagra means you can focus the mind, but it takes a long time, but when you progress in spiritual practice according to Raja Yoga, you attain to that state which is called Niruddha, totally controlled by you, that is called the state of Samadhi. How to attain that Samadhi? So what happens, when we can control our mind in such a way that it becomes completely controllable, pure state of Samadhi, then the mind becomes like a pure, clean mirror. It just reflects what is in front of it and what is in front of it, when our mind is not controlled, what is in front of it, a billion, billion, billion things, is what we call thoughts. But when the mind is completely in a state of Samadhi or purity, there is only one, the one who says, I am standing in front of you. Who is that? Purusha or the Atman, the Self, pure Self, capital S, capital S. And the moment the Self looks into that pure mind, it says, oh, I used to think I was so and so, I was like that, happy and happy, now I know who I am. Once we have that knowledge about ourselves, that knowledge is not upgradable knowledge. So two types of knowledge, upgradable knowledge and non-upgradable knowledge. What are we talking about? All the knowledge we have in this world in the form of our thoughts is upgradable. That means as time goes, as understanding becomes deeper, then we understand the same thing in a different way, better way, deeper way. So constantly going on upgrading our knowledge. Then comes a time when it is completely non-upgradable because there is nothing, it cannot be changed. That is its true nature. So what is non-upgradable knowledge? That which is the true nature of anything is non-upgradable. Until we attain to that state, we have to go on evolving. That is the meaning of evolution. Look at it in this classical example, Vedanta gives a classical example. What is it? The rope and the snake. First you go and say, oh, this is a snake. Then you say, no, it looks like a snake and it may not be a snake, upgraded. So a little bit fear goes and then you go very near and then you say, no, I am not sure. But definitely it is not a snake. Then you go very near and then you see it is rope. Once we have the knowledge of the rope, will that knowledge change ever? Because that is a rope, it will always be knowledge of a rope only. That is called upgradable knowledge. So according to Vedanta, what is the real nature of anything, real nature of this table, real nature of a plant, an insect, an animal, however degraded, a human being. What is this? What is the real nature? These are the two important points. First of all, the real nature of anything in this world is only one. It is not many. Even from a scientific point of view, man, woman, tree, bird, plant is all matter, is it not? From the physical point of view, matter. And when you come to that state of matter, can you distinguish anything as anything else? It is only in its manifested state, matter as manifested, we can distinguish. But matter as unmanifested, we can never distinguish. Like when the water breaks into waves, we can distinguish, small wave, big wave, sweet wave, bitter wave, likable wave, unlikable wave. What is likable wave? When you do not know how to swim nicely, you enter into it, very gentle waves, very likable wave. But when you enter and a huge tsunami is coming. What is it? Unlikable wave. All these differentiations. But when there is no wave, it is nothing but pure water. So there is the nature of anything in this universe is only one. And that is indistinguishable oneness of nature. And what is that nature? That is the pure consciousness, divine consciousness. We will discuss these points as we go on. So what is yoga? Yoga is complete control of all the mental modifications that come. Yoga chittavruti nirudha, we have discussed. Why is this so important? The next verse that comes is, the third verse that says, When the mind doesn't break into waves, when it becomes pure mind, when the mind attains its true nature, which is purity, which is free from distortion and that state is called what I said Samadhi. Let me repeat it. The state of Samadhi is not concerned with the Self, the state of Samadhi has nothing to do with the Self, Atma. It has something to do only with the mind. Why? Because the Self, being the Self has never become anything other than the Self. There is no such thing called, you see at this time the Self is impure and at this time the Self has become pure. It doesn't happen. But to the mind, its true nature is purity. But because of some contamination, certain experiences which we are going to discuss so interestingly, now what happens? The mind becomes impure and to remove that impurity is spiritual practice according to Raja Yoga. The important point we have to discuss, it is all through spiritual practice, is not to change the Self, it is to change the mind only. So when the mind becomes pure, it doesn't stand as an obstruction to self-revelation, self-knowledge. So nothing new is gained. The Self is ever pure, it never becomes impure at any time. It is impossible to make the Self impure. We have got a saying just to illustrate. Can anybody make the space dirty, impure, a funny way of putting it, you know, you spit into this space, sky, where will it fall, you turn your head, where is the sky, above. This is another misnomer we all keep, where is the sky, up above, is it not? So where are you, there, where is there, where I am not, that is where there is and where am I, from your point of view, there, from my point of view, you are there, from your point of view, I am there. So what is here and there? So the Self never becomes contaminated at all, the mind becomes contaminated and it is in these five states, deeply or stupefied and very restless, sometimes restless, sometimes not so restless and completely focused and absolutely pure, these are the five states. At any given time, our mind would be in one of these five states. Now what is spiritual progress? From stupefied state, you enter into very restless state, from very restless state, you enter into sometimes restless, sometimes not restless, you are gaining more control and from that sometimes restless state to the ability to focus at your will, the ability to focus at our will because focusing is possible without our will. In fact, most of the time that is what happens. When we are watching a nice movie and you say, you are absorbed in it and if someone asks what is happening, I am concentrating, do not disturb me now, you try to disturb your children while they are playing the games, you will get, you will understand what I am talking about. So do not disturb me. Are they having the mind control to focus? No. Ask them to focus on their homework? Some of them do not, then you will have rebellion on your hands. It is self-control means we are the masters and there comes a time when we become completely master. We can put the mind anytime, anywhere or anything we like and not be affected at all by what happens. At any given time, our mind is in one of those states and depending upon where our mind habitually is, we have to take it up and up and up. That is called spiritual progress. When we can take the mind, come towards niruddha state, that is called yoga. A person becomes a yogi when he has the mind in that state of niruddha means samadhi state, complete control state because he knows what he is and he will never again deviate. What is the meaning of this aphorism which says tada means when the mind is in that state of complete niruddha, samadhi state, drashtu swaroope, drashtu means the seer, the knower, the self abides in his own nature. By implication what does it mean? In samadhi state, the self, the atman, the purusha knows I am the self. What is the implication now? If the mind is not in the state of samadhi, what is the implication? vritti swaroopyam itaratra. Itaratra means at other times, other than when the mind happens to be in the state of samadhi or purity, itaratra, vritti means mental modifications, swaroopyam. The self becomes completely identified with that thought. We are all victims of this identification with the thoughts. We are all of us are victims until we realize who we really are. So what do we think? The self forgets I am the self and thinks I am whatever thought is passing through my mind. What is the most important thought that comes 24 hours within our mind? Do you know? What is the first thought? That I am the body. What is the second thought? I am the mind. I am the body, I am the mind. I am the body, I am the mind. We are jumping from one of these identifications to the other 24 hours. So Venanta analyzes it. A whole of man's experience from birth to death can be divided into three states, waking, dreaming and sleeping, waking, dreaming and sleeping. When a man is in the waking state, he is called the waker. When he is dreaming, he is called the dreamer. When he is sleeping, he is called the sleeper. Now do you understand what we are talking about? The self, when the body-mind is in the waking state, what does it say? It doesn't say I am the self. What does it say? I am the waker. When the same self is dreaming, what does it say? I am the dreamer. And when the same self is in deep sleep, what does it say? I am the sleeper. When does it say? Did you ever hear any sleeping man saying that I am the sleeper? Did you ever hear a dreamer saying, what are you doing? I am now dreaming. Did you ever hear? No. Look at a baby. Have you looked? Look at a baby. Every mother can do that. Sometimes you find them smiling broadly. Have you noticed? What do you think? He is sleeping. But what do you think? A beautiful dream is going on. What is the dream? If a six months old baby, my mother has taken me in her lap and she is playing with me. And if he is two years or three years old, and then if it is just the night before Christmas, I am going to get tomorrow morning a beautiful present. When the mind is filled with any type of thought, good thought, bad thought, happy thought, unhappy thought, negative thought, positive thought, then the Purusha or the Self becomes identified with that. Our problem is this identification. Right now, you are all listening to me. What is your identification? You are the listeners and it doesn't end there. What is your identification about the Swami? Swami is talking blah blah, going on and on and on. He is a good speaker. Now he stopped telling so many jokes. Every thought that comes in our minds at any given time, I am also judging you. Don't forget that. Who is looking at me and who is slowly the eyes are going into Samadhi state, I am also observing you. So each one of us are identified, at that time we forget. This every thought makes us forget. Even good thoughts make us forget. So when the mind is absolutely in a state of Samadhi, the Purusha or the Self knows I am the Self because there is no distortion. There is no distortion. Why? Because when you look, when you stand in front of a clean mirror, what do you see? Imagine there is nobody. You are the only one. You are standing in front of a mirror. What do you see? Your own Self. Then you know, this is what I am. Even then, this is only an illustration. Do not take it as a final truth because if you are a very worried, unhappy person, stand in front of the mirror, what do you see? I am a worried person. Not that that knowledge has come after looking into the mirror. The mirror is only revealing the fact to yourself. That's all. If you are a happy person, smiling person, then you will be a smiling person. But is that the truth? No, that's not the truth. It is right knowledge from a secular point of view. It is completely wrong knowledge from a spiritual point of view. From the spiritual point of view, the only reality is you are the Self. So that which strips us of our both body and mind and that mirror which is the pure mind, that alone is capable of establishing us in our own true nature. We are already established. The mind is not making us established. But we are at the moment, we are in a state of ignorance, ignorant of our own true nature. Not only ignorant of our own true nature, we are also ignorant of the true nature of everything else. There are two ideas contained in this statement. When we are ignorant of ourselves, at the same time we are ignorant of everything else. There are two meanings to this statement. What is the first thing is, when we realize our true nature, will there be something called everything else? You know the law, if I am a thief, then I would consider everybody else as a thief. Unconsciously we are all like that, the moment we know what is called thieving. How did you know that somebody else is a thief? It is a very interesting thought. Swami Vivekananda illustrates it beautifully. Supposing at midnight, some stranger or some person, unknown person enters your house through the window. You happen to look at that person. What do you call him? A thief. But what does a baby call him? A stranger. It also cries. It doesn't say because it doesn't know what is called thieving. What is the point I am leading to? That what we are, that is what our world is. What we are, that is what our world is because everything depends upon our mind. So we all know what a thief is. Is it not? How do we know? That means at some point we also have done thievery either in our own home or somewhere else. The only thing is we do it unconsciously, we are not aware. There is something called thieving innocently, very, very interesting concept. There is a joke, Indian joke, you know, beautiful jokes, even jokes, Indian jokes are beautiful. There was one fellow, he had a son, put the son in the school and the son was studying in a classroom and one day this father received a letter that your son had stolen a pencil from his fellow student and the report hurt this man. He called his son, gave him a big slap and he said, you rascal, why did you steal? You brought bad name to me. Why did you not tell me that you needed pencils? I would have brought a dozen from the office. Unconsciously, if we know a wicked person, we are also, we know what is wickedness. We can only know what is wickedness only through experience. We have to think about this subject. What is the point we are talking about? The moment we see many, that itself is a state of ignorance. So the moment we see many, if I want to see only one, then first I must know I am the only one. I am the divine. If I am divine, then what do you think I would see in everything? Only divinity. Not only that. When I see, is there any distinction in divinity, man, woman, you know, short, tall and thin and all these things, distinctions will be there, a king, a pauper, a scholar, an illiterate fellow, a bird, a plant, an insect, a piece of rock. What a wonderful lesson Bhagavad Gita is telling. Vidya avinaya sampanne, brahmane, gavi hastine, shunicheiva shvapakecha, panditaha samdarshinaha. A realised soul is called a pandita. In Sanskrit pandita means scholar. A real scholar is one who has self-knowledge. He knows about himself. And if a person knows himself, then what happens? He sees only self in everything, whether it is a dog, an elephant, an eater of a dog or anything. There was an interesting incident in the life of Sri Ramakrishna. One day, Ramakrishna was reminiscing later on and he was telling that does the divine mother pervade everything? Of course, he knew by his realisation, still as a human being and he had this doubt. He says, if my realisations are true, then there was a big stone, let this stone jump. And Sri Ramakrishna says, I have seen this stone jump three times, is one incident. Maybe same, maybe something else in a different way. He said, one day I was going and suddenly I saw something moving by my side. And then he said, what is moving? There was a big stone. There was nobody else. How is this stone moving? So he stood and looked at it, this stone was unmoving. As soon as he started moving, this stone also started following him, jumping, jumping, jumping. He said, I couldn't believe it, but I looked at it, when I look at it, it behaves like a stone. But when I start walking and immediately it starts following me. Where do you put a line and say, this is an object with consciousness, this is without consciousness? For a divine person, everything is only pure consciousness. But until we reach that state, we are always identified with whatever thought that comes into this mind. And the mind is nothing but a conglomeration of thoughts, full of thoughts. And all the thoughts that any human being can have or had when the creation started, now and until the end of creation, they can all be classified into five types. We will come to that in our future talks. But the first point, the Patanjali Rishi says, Patanjali is telling us, any thought that arises in our mind is having two effects, either it is a pleasant thought or it is an unpleasant thought. Klistaha, aklistaha, rittaya, panchataya. Mental modifications are of five types. And these five types of mental modifications can be further classified into klistaha means painful, aklistaha means not painful, pleasant. This is a very, very interesting subject. Very briefly, what it means is, any thought that is pleasant to us, any thought that is painful to us, need not be really bad or good. A painful thought may be a most beneficial thought and a most pleasant thought could be a most unbeneficial, that which produces. What is the definition? The definition is, that thought, whether it is painful or not painful, that thought which leads us to self-realization is a pleasant thought. And that thought, whether it is pleasant or unpleasant, which leads to further ignorance, further bondage, further misery and suffering, that thought is a painful thought. But usually what happens to us, we divide our experiences into painful, pleasurable, we are running after so-called pleasurable, that is why we do not make any progress, not only in spiritual life, even in secular field also. How this is, we will discuss. But I want just to close this talk with one example. This example is given, not by Patanjali, but by his commentators. A pleasant thought, lustful thought, now if you think properly, a lustful thought is always a pleasant thought. Can you think of a lustful thought which is very painful, always it fills us with pleasure. But what does it lead us to? Into further ignorance and bondage. Meaning one day you hear somebody is having a cancer or lot of suffering, is not having food and your mind is filled with a painful thought out of pity or compassion, it is giving you suffering. Is it a thought which would be beneficial, which would lead you to further spiritual progress or is it that which leads you to further bondage and ignorance? So you see, this is just a sample I am giving, we will discuss these things in our future classes and if we can really understand our own mind, one immediate benefit would be, we do not need to go to Harvest Street and pay 100 pounds per hour and babble to some fellow. As I told you, you know, all the psychiatry and psychology, there is not much difference in the outcome. The only difference is in the income. We will discuss these beautiful points in our future lessons. Whatever path of spiritual practice we take, Karma Yoga or Bhakti Yoga or Jnana Yoga, the most important point is what is the instrument we have, whichever yoga we may take to, what is the instrument? Only mind. And if that mind is not understood, analysed and controlled, undirected, we are not going to go anywhere. That is why Raja Yoga is implicit in every other yoga, whether we know it or not, understand it or not. Let us try to understand, even if you don't want spiritual progress, you will be a happier person if we can really understand the workings of the mind, as we will discuss in our future class. Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti.