Patanjali Yoga Sutras Lecture 026

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. Until now we had discussed the two steps of the Sampragnatha Samadhi, the lower Samadhi. Now we are going to focus on the two next steps. Now before we go into the two next steps, the third step is, it is called Sananda Samadhi. Meditation on pure happiness or on the mind itself, the instrument. And the fourth step of the lower Samadhi is called Sa Asmita Samadhi, focusing on the ego, ahankara, I itself. Before we go into that, Patanjali he jumps this particular topic and then goes to the Sampragnatha Samadhi, briefly mentioning, then he goes into something else which is in a way related to this subject only. We will briefly discuss those things before coming back to the third step. Now when a yogi becomes an expert so that he could focus on any object in this world, whether it is gross, either conditioned or unconditioned or subtle, either conditioned or unconditioned, he acquires some powers and what is that power? First of all, he becomes a master, which means he can concentrate on any object, either the smallest or the biggest, either the grossest or the most subtlest, he is the master, he can do whatever he likes and as a result of it he also obtains all the powers any object can give. We will shortly discuss what it really means, a small hint is, it is like eating a piece of sugarcane. Now what happens? Why do we eat sugarcane? We chew it thoroughly and then what do we do? Throw it out. What is that process called? Absorbing the essence, rasha, because it is sweet. So we want to experience the sweetness. Does this not apply to every object in this world? Why do you prefer a sweet? Do you love the sweet for the sake of the sweet? No. You get something out of it. So when a person is a master, then he can get all the essence of any object in this world, gross or subtle, he does not need in other words any object, he is totally independent of every object and yet he gets the benefit of the essence of every object. And then another factor, when you are a master, what happens to you? You are not bound. By definition, a master means he is free and everything else is slave. So I also briefly mentioned, you know, the Romans used to consider themselves masters, but in reality they used to have a lot of slaves to do everything at their beck and call. Now who is the real master? Because if the servant does not come for a second, this fellow is, so there is a joke, you know, suppose this fellow accidentally fell into fire and he is calling to the servant, come and take me out of the fire and until the servant comes, he does not make an attempt even to get up, that is, is that called mastery or is that called slavery? So when a yogi through consistent spiritual practice becomes a master, then he becomes free from everything, then he owns, if he wants, he can have them, if he does not want, he need not have them. So that is what happens. Now let us briefly go through what Patanjali had to say in the first chapter called Samadhipada. We jump to the 40th aphorism, Sutra, it says Paramanu Parama Mahatvanto Asya Vashikaraha. The mind of a yogi can concentrate upon any object of any size from the atomic to the infinitely great and everything comes under his power. Then the next one is when a person has attained to that mastery of concentration, he chooses the subject. This is what I want to think about, focus my mind upon. Now this is the difference between a yogi and a non-yogi. Do you know who a non-yogi is? Even a scientist, we are not talking about ordinary persons, scientists are disciplined people. Scientists also have tremendous power of focus, concentration and may not for a day or two or a month or a year, sometimes they focus whole life. That is how great discoveries happen to come about. Now can we call them yogis? No. Why? Because only when a subject interests them, they have become capable of focusing upon them. We are also like that. If there is a book and you are absorbed in reading it, if someone asks what are you doing, I am focusing on this book, now are you focusing or the book is making you focus, anything like that. You know, I am enjoying this food, are you out of your own will power enjoying the food or is the food making you enjoy. I am very nice, I am a very beautiful sweet, come on, come on, enjoy me. Okay, since you say so. So this is called passive life, in as against active life. What is active life? I take charge, I become the master and I focus, whereas in passive life it appears as though I am doing it, we say I am doing it, but in reality who is doing, an object is my master and it is making me do it, this is the difference between a yogi and a non-yogi. Now there is a very interesting aphorism that is coming there, when a person, when a yogi through long practice, may be many, many lives, when he is capable of such kind of concentration, he can concentrate on any object, he chooses the object and then he gains knowledge of that object, there is an adage in English, knowledge is power, knowledge is power and power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. Now you have to understand, does it corrupt a yogi? Many times yes, that is how a spiritual aspirant, he really sincerely follows lot of things and he develops certain powers and that power is nothing but knowledge manifesting as power and that power brings name, fame, attraction, money, etc. and if he doesn't have, if that power is not accompanied by vairagya, that is dispassion as well as abhyasa, regular practice, then corruption takes place. So that is why in every spiritual discipline, the first thing is not thinking about God too much, but to acquire certain qualifications, guidance, you know, suppose a person has, through wealth, he can acquire Formula 1 car, but if he is not an expert driver, what happens? That is what happens to the so-called, they are not really yogis, they are sadhakas and definitely they have done some sadhana or spiritual discipline, how do we know? That power doesn't come by wishy-washy people, they must have paid the price for acquiring that, but since that acquisition was not accompanied by appropriate dispassion and regular spiritual practice, in course of time, the hidden impression, samskara we call it, comes to the fore and makes, not only that, there is another danger, the higher one climbs, the harder, when the fall comes, fall comes, if a baby falls, that is why you know, when a baby falls, most of the time, his cry is a false cry, so when he falls, his cry is a false cry, because he is, really it doesn't hurt him, but when an adult falls, then it really hurts, the older we grow and the harder we have to experience, getting up also becomes very hard for us, once we bend down, one of my devotees, you know, oh, I could hardly bend, he said, what is wanted is not bending, but mending, it is the transformation in character that is wanted, not merely just bowing down to the feet or anything, thereby we do not get much, okay, so what happens, this man's mind becomes like a blank crystal, the example given in this next aphorism 41 is, how do we get knowledge, how does a yogi get knowledge, what does he do, he focuses, focusing means emptying the mind of everything else, excepting one particular object, you know what happens then, the example given is, imagine there is a pure crystal, imagine there is a red flower or variegated coloured flower behind red crystal and you look at the crystal, what do you see, do you see the crystal or do you see the variegated flower, like that this yogi's mind, if he focuses his mind on any object, as though his mind had become one with that object and when that happens, all the knowledge that object is having, that knowledge becomes the possession of that particular yogi, this is the most important, so this is what the first, 41st aphorism says, just as a pure crystal takes colour from the object which is nearest to it, so the mind when it is clear of thought waves, achieves sameness or identity with the object of its concentration, this object may be either a gross object or the organ of perception or the sense of ego, this achievement of sameness or identity with the object of concentration is known as Samadhi, we discussed about this meaning of the word Samadhi, what is Samadhi? The mind becomes absolutely one with the object and that is called Samadhi, if it doesn't become one, it is called scattered, scattered, vikshita, this is what happens when ordinary people sit for meditation, it doesn't actually give, the mind is filled with various thoughts, that means what, the object wants to come, the man also wants to go to the object, but what happens in between, have you ever seen a Kumbh Mela crowds and you see a family members get separated and they want to come near, have you noticed what happens then, they want to come near, but because of the terrible crowd they are being distanced further and further away, that is a good example, we want to go to the object, the object also perhaps wants to come to us, I will give an illustration, so but what happens, so many unwanted thoughts that are the resultant of our past sanskaras keep on coming one after the other making us forget everything, so I made an interesting statement if you have noticed, suppose you are thinking, you would like to think of a say this table lamp, will the table lamp come to you? No, but suppose you want to think of Sri Ramakrishna, what do you think happens? You want to go nearer to Sri Ramakrishna and what do you think Sri Ramakrishna wants to come to you? He also wants to come to you, but neither he is able to come to us nor we are able to go to him because of so many of thoughts and every thought is like an object, every thought is nothing but an object, now this is what happens in the case of a Yogi, his mind becomes so focused he will not allow any thought to intervene because he has become a master Yogi, he simply says no other thought, but I would like to think about this particular thought and that particular thought only will come. Let us recall when Dutta Puri asked Sri Ramakrishna, make your mind completely blank, Sri Ramakrishna said I can make my mind blank of every other object in this universe excepting one, that is my Divine Mother, she doesn't want to go and I also don't want her to go, who is the problem? Is it the Divine Mother or Sri Ramakrishna's mind? It is Sri Ramakrishna's mind because he is enjoying so much of happiness out of this, that is called Sananda Samadhi, but Dutta Puri said Sananda Samadhi is a lower Samadhi, you have to get higher Samadhi, what is lower Samadhi? Sri Ramakrishna's words are full of deep meaning, he says there are two types of people, one type of person says that I want to enjoy sugar, the other type of person says I want to become sugar, now what Sri Ramakrishna was telling, I want to enjoy my Divine Mother, Dutta Puri is telling that is a lower type, you must achieve a higher type, there is a much higher type of happiness, what is the other higher happiness? If you are enjoying sugar, every time you have to borrow it, either buy it, borrow it or steal it, but if you become sugar, then 24 hours for eternity it is yours, so this is what Dutta Puri wanted him to do, so as you know this story, it took some struggle on the part of Sri Ramakrishna to become what Dutta Puri wanted him to become. So the next aphorism says, these few aphorisms we are going to discuss, we will discuss again in course of time, but these are just a little elaborations of what we already discussed. When the mind achieves identity with a gross object of concentration, mixed with awareness of name, quality and knowledge, this is called Savitarka Samadhi, smruti parishuddhau, svaropashurnyeva artha matra nirdhasa nirvitarka, when the mind achieves identity with the gross object of the concentration, unmixed with name, quality and knowledge, so that the object alone remains, this is called nirvitarka samadhi, etayeva savichara nirvicharacha sokshma vishaya yakhyataha. When the object of concentration is a subtle object, two kinds of samadhi called savichara and nirvichara may be distinguished in the same manner, sokshma vishayatvamcha alinga pariyavasanam, behind all subtle objects is prakriti, the primal cause, tayeva sabhija nirvichara samadhi, these kinds of samadhi are said to be with the seed. Now the next few aphorisms we had already discussed in our last class, what happens to a person who becomes a master of the second step which is called nirvichara samadhi, what happens? nirvichara vaisaradye adhyatma prasadaha, when a person becomes a master of this nirvichara samadhi, his mind becomes absolutely pure, ritambhara tatra prajna, then what is the result of it? When the mind becomes like a crystal, whatever object is near it, that crystal becomes as it were that object and all the knowledge of that object becomes absolutely his, that is why it is a ritambhara tatra prajna, the knowledge of such a yogi is truth filled, it is not mixed with any false concept but exactly what is the nature of an object, that knowledge he will get crystal clearly, shruta, anumana, prajna, dhyana, anya vishaya, vishayasya artha tva, the knowledge which is gained from inference and the study of scriptures is knowledge of one kind but the knowledge which is gained from samadhi is of a much higher order, it goes beyond inference and scriptures. Now Swami Vivekananda, he approached Sri Ramakrishna, he challenged him in a way, have you seen God, what was Sri Ramakrishna's answer, I have seen God and if you ask, tell, describe how you have seen, now when you see an object, suppose you have seen at this table, you want to describe it to somebody, how are you going to convey that object, you give some description, is it not, now if anyone has seen God, first of all is God an object, if he is not an object then what kind of description will you give to him, so these are the two points let us keep in mind, the first point is God is not an object, God is a, in this world there are only two objects, one is the world, another is God, Purusha and Prakruti, only two, so if God is not Prakruti, what is he, what is left out, Purusha means pure consciousness alone, now how do you describe pure consciousness, how do you describe pure electricity, how do you describe pure love, let us forget about consciousness and all those, how do you describe pure love, have you seen pure love, you have never seen pure love, it is not possible, you can only see what is called much, much watered down love, what is it? We have seen, how do we know? Because directly you cannot see love, directly you cannot see electricity, you can only experience electricity through some effect, a light bulb or what is called magnetism or a moving object like a car or heater which is giving heat etc., we can only experience electricity through some medium, so have you ever directly seen love, you have never seen love, you cannot see love because love is purely subjective, but it can be experienced through an object, it could be our mother, it could be our friend, our family, something like that, you know we know what is love, how do we know, because we have seen our mother, now tell me, describe someone who never knows what is love, just tell me what happens to your mother and when she loves you, come on, you can never describe, now she cooks for me, my mother also cooks for me, she looks at me, my mother also looks at me, she embraces me, my dog also embraces me, how do you find a difference, there is something within us, when a mother is looking at a baby, then the baby knows intuitively how the mother is looking at him, not at anybody else, suppose there are two babies, one is the mother's own child, another is a neighbour who stole it and she is looking at both of them, does the other baby understand how the mother is looking with love, does he understand, only her own child understands, is it not, it is impossible, if you cannot express what is called our normal day to day experience, how are you going to describe God, experience of God, that is why when Narendra Nath asked Sri Ram Krishna, have you seen God, he said yes, and can you tell me anything about him, no, it cannot be described at all, you all know it, but let me repeat it for our better understanding, Sri Ram Krishna himself gives quite a number of examples, one example is you know a person lives in a remote village and the ocean is quite a distance away and one man went to the ocean and comes back and the villagers asked him, describe about the ocean, he says, oh, ah, what waves, this fellow has no idea excepting he has seen some small dirty pond nearby, he had never any idea about the ocean, in fact we also don't have experience of many things like that, you know for example, those who live in the Rajasthan deserts etc., mirage is a common experience, we heard so many times in the scriptures about mirage, have you ever seen mirage, I have never seen a mirage, excepting in cinemas, I can see in cinemas you know, they show it, because it can be filmed, but until you see one, you can never know about it, what is the point where this can be, what is the way then, another example Sri Ram Krishna gives, there were two girls, one was married, the other was very small, 3-4 years, so one day this small girl asked her eldest sister, what type of happiness do you get from your husband, how could the eldest sister, how could she describe, all that she could say is, you grow up and get married, then you will understand, this is exactly what Sri Ram Krishna had said to Narendra Nath, I will show you, only then you can understand, did he understand, because Sri Ram Krishna, what did he do, touched Narendra Nath and what was the reaction of Narendra Nath, what are you doing to me, means my parents are at home, so you see he wanted to experience, Sri Ram Krishna wanted to give, that is to say Narendra Nath wanted to go to the object called God, God also wanted to come to him, but like a crowd of people, his parents and all those people came in between, so this is what happens, but when a yogi, when he wants to know something, he just focuses on the object, he removes all the crowd from his mind, clears his mind as it were, like magic, just go away and then that object comes nearest to him, that is why it is called yoga, yoga means union and immediately that object becomes his, as though he became the object, then he knows what it is, in our day to day life also, this is what happens. Now supposing somebody comes and says I am going through a great period of suffering, my son died or my husband died or I am suffering from cancer and naturally you feel like showing sympathy, now tell me who could show the greatest sympathy, only a person, another person who has gone through the same experience and he knows exactly what the other person is feeling, if that person says something, it will acquire a value, now interesting examples are there, just for us to understand these points, you know Holy Mother was there in Jairamvati and there was an old woman who used to come and one day she came and she started bawling, Holy Mother asked my child what is the matter and she said Mother, as you know, I know I have only one son, he is 25 years old and he died, just imagine only one son, 25 years old and this old lady brought him up with the greatest suffering and she was hoping that he will soon get married or take up a job and give her some relief in her life and suddenly this son had died, can you imagine what type of grief this person is going through and what consolation can really give relief to her, you know what Holy Mother did, she started crying and hearing Holy Mother's cry, that other lady's, that damned grief as it was, it burst and then she started sobbing, both of them were sobbing loudly, everybody came up running and they saw these two, they were stunned, they did not know what to do, they did not know what to do and this is what happened, but after some time the crying of the Holy Mother relieved that old woman, then she wiped her tears, she got a bath, she got a sari, she got some food and she went away much lighter than when she came through, so this is what is called putting oneself in the shoes of the other person, this is what we are also supposed to acquire, what happens in the case of a Yogi, whatever be the object, he removes from his mind every obstructing thought, he becomes one, in practice what it means is, when a grief stricken person goes to a Yogi and he wants to show sympathy, what happens, he becomes as it were the other person, then he experiences exactly what he feels like. To my mind another example comes, remember there is one, I think Brahmo called Mani something and his only son who was 20-25 years old died and he comes to see Ramakrishna and everybody was trying to console, but he could not be consoled, Ramakrishna was simply keeping quiet, then suddenly he went into Samadhi and when he came out, he started with a song, Jeep Shah Josh Omare, O man be ready for battle, because death has declared war against you, when he sang that song with all its pathos, then this Mani, he had become completely relieved of his sorrow, he got peace of mind, then he said, Sir, that is why I have come running to you, I know nobody else could give this peace of mind to me excepting you, that's why I came straight from the crematorium, after cremating my son, I ran to you. Now interesting point, we all read this, when Srinam Krishna heard the news, what happened to him, he went into Samadhi, ecstatic state, what does it mean, what did he do? You can say he became indifferent, what happened, he became one with the devotee who was experiencing that grief, that's why his words could console the other person, give him advice, not only that peace, consolation for what had happened, but he is also giving a great piece of knowledge, so that if similar experiences happen to come by in the future, that medicine is ready, he says, be always ready for battle, accept death, once you accept disease, death, grief, separation etc., then you will never ever suffer in future, or the suffering will be very very less, because now you have become a person of knowledge, this is what happens. Now we will step into the third stage of the Sampragnatha Samadhi, which is called meditation on the Ananda, it is called Sa-Ananda Samadhi, Sa-Ananda Samadhi, focusing on the very bliss and strangely, as I mentioned in my previous class, what it really means is, focus on the mind, now previously you were focusing on an object, now I also said, whenever we experience anything, three things are necessary, what are the things, the experiencer and an object and that which connects the subject with the object, which is the mind, three, let us always keep this in mind, now the object is not there, because he has become a master of the object, now what are remaining now, the subject and the mind, this focusing of the mind, of the object, concentrating on the instrument itself, in other words, is known as Sa-Ananda Samadhi, Ananda means bliss, let us also know, what is the difference between Sukha and Ananda, Sukha means happiness, roughly joy, happiness, pleasure, different degrees, I am sure you know about it, pleasure is the lowest degree of Ananda, joy is a higher degree of happiness, lasting spontaneously and for some time, but happiness is a still higher degree of happiness, but one defect is there, every happiness comes with a crown of misery on its head, sooner or later that happiness will disappear, because it is caused by three conditions, time, space and causation, now what is Ananda, Ananda is that experience of happiness beyond time, space and causation, therefore it doesn't have its opposite, Sukha has its opposite, what is it called, happiness its opposite, unhappiness, joy has its opposite, what is it called, grief, pleasure has its opposite, what is it called, pain, what is the opposite of Ananda, there is no opposite, because Ananda, bliss can come only through the experience of not duality, but non-duality, non-duality means there is no time, there is no space and there is no causation, so every experience of ours, I said before consists of three parts, the experiencer, mind and object, these three in Sanskrit or Vedanta is called Triputi, triad, triad means they always go together, if there is a subject, there is an object, if there is a subject and object, there is also the mind, the mind, every experience is there, now I am coming to a very very important point, so you have to pay lot of attention, what is the point, what is this third step called Sananda Samadhi, now Sananda Samadhi in other words is also concentration on the mind, so what is the relationship between mind and Ananda, either you say it is concentration on the mind or say concentration on Ananda, but why do you call the concentration on the mind as Ananda Samadhi, why do you call, this is the point we have to discuss, now we first point, we experience every object external or internal, only inside the mind as ideas, thoughts, now you are looking at me, where are you experiencing me, outside or inside, inside your mind as what, as a thought called Chitta Vritti, this is keep in mind, external means a table, man, cow, bird, every object, internal means thoughts, ideas, imaginations, hopes, fear, happiness, unhappiness, etc., you know when your happiness, love, service, friendliness, enmity, all these are ideas, whereas when we look at a table lamp, the picture of the form of the table lamp flashes in your mind, even though it is a thought, but when you are thinking about this person is hopeless, what is the form of hopelessness, what is the form of a hope, love, service, these are but ideas, whereas this idea has a name and form, whereas the real ideas, pure ideas, abstract ideas, so that is why we say concrete ideas and abstract ideas, the idea of a table lamp is concrete, the idea of love, service, etc., motherliness, all these are called abstract ideas, so these are called also conceptions, perceptions and concepts, perceptions are what we see, what we experience outside, conceptions is pure abstract ideas, but whether they are internal or external, where are they experienced, within the mind, let us keep in mind. Second, the container wherein we experience all these is called mind or chitta, where do we experience them? Within the mind, that container where we experience is called mind, every experience that we experience is called a vritti in the chitta, chitta means mind, but everything that we experience, how do we experience? In the form of a vritti, vritti means a thought, an idea, so what is the point here? Every experience is only mental, every experience is only mental. Now an interesting question, I am posing to you, very interesting, very important for our understanding of Yoga Sutras, let me give an example, suppose you are very fond of ice cream and you are hungry, you are healthy and you get a very good quality ice cream and you eat it, as a result of eating it you get some amount of good happiness, is it it? Right, now imagine you go to sleep, in the sleep exactly the same condition, you are healthy and you are very hungry and you are very fond of ice cream and in the dream you get an ice cream and you eat it, you enjoy, now my question to you is, is there any difference between the happiness you experience in what we call waking state and in the experience you have in the dream state? Absolutely no difference, you know why? You all know it, I am only putting it in words in your mouth, the difference is that what we call this present state now, Jagra Davastha, waking state, now when we are talking about dream state, when we actually go into a dream state, means dreaming, do we call it a dream state or waking state? Therefore that is also a waking state in that state, this is also waking state in this state, therefore the experience whether it is in this so called waking state or in that so called waking state is absolutely the same, now this understanding leads to our next point which we are going to discuss, what is the point? The point is, I am seeing this ice cream, where is it? Is it inside or outside? Apparently outside, really we are, but we are only experiencing it within us, so when some experience gives you happiness, where are you experiencing it? Inside, when an unhappy experience comes through an external, so called external object, where are we experiencing it? Inside, that means whether an experience is happiness or unhappiness, good or evil, we are all experiencing only within our mind, therefore where is happiness and unhappiness now? This is the truth, now I will also elaborate it further, now this is the, I gave you this example, eating a piece of cake or ice cream it doesn't matter, any experience, now the third point, every object we experience whether external or internal just is, I repeat it, every object we experience external or internal is just is, it is there, don't say anything further, the table lamp is, the book is, the weather is, the person is, husband is, wife is, period. The next point we will have to understand is happiness or unhappiness etc. are not the intrinsic qualities of any object, happiness or unhappiness are not the intrinsic qualities, they are not qualities of any object, an object is just is, whether it gives us happiness or unhappiness doesn't depend upon the object but upon how we experience, this is a very important point. These, when we say this is a happy experience, when we say this is an unhappy experience, there is a special name for it, technical name, this is called judgmental value, not incidental value but judgmental value, means whether we get happiness or unhappiness depends upon our judgment, upon, oh this gives me happiness, that is a judgment, this is good, that is a judgment, this person is good, this is a judgment, this person is evil, that is a judgment. Incidentally I don't want to go into too much of this thing but it is so interesting when you start to think, he is a judge, judgmental or non-judgmental, supposed to be, tell me, non-judgmental, that is why he is called a judge, that is he doesn't have any his own type of ideas but based on the evidence presented to him, he is supposed to give the proper reasonable rational judgment, is it not? Now supposing there is a clever lawyer who is defending the criminal or whatever and he is so clever that he says this evidence is nonsense and he makes the witnesses or whatever it is, completely unreliable evidence, what will the judge do now? Can he persecute? It is impossible to do that, even a judge also has to depend on external evidence, if it is presented in such a way, that is how millions of rightful cases are lost because the clever lawyers, they can do anything they like, that is their cleverness. Anyway, coming back to our subject that no object contains happiness or unhappiness as its intrinsic qualities but when we experience that is because of our judgment, we judge it and this is the difference between an idea and how we perceive it, we always must be very careful, whenever we look at the object, our sense organs give correct idea about the object but how we perceive the object depends upon our mind, so there is a difference between an idea and knowledge, difference between an idea and knowledge, an idea is what the good light and good eyes, good ears etc. present to our mind about an object that is an idea, a table lamp looks like this but if I say it is an ugly table lamp, then that is a judgmental value, that does not belong to the table lamp, it belongs to our mind because what is the function of a table lamp? To give light, where is the light? It is beautiful, ugly, what is the relationship between these 2? Similarly, food is tasty or untasty, where is the relationship between food and taste and untaste? Taste and untaste are our judgments, food value belongs to the object, food, so nutritional value belongs to the food. Now, this difference between an idea and this knowledge or how we perceive it, that is called knowledge, that is why Sanskrit, precise technical word Shabdha, that one is called Shabdha means name, Artha means idea, Jnana means knowledge, every object comes mixed with Shabdha, Artha and Jnana, intelligence or yoga is to separate these 3 and say okay this is the name for this object, this is the idea, a table lamp is a table lamp is a table lamp, but whether it is good or bad, beautiful or ugly, that is called knowledge and that depends upon our habit and how do we bring about this knowledge? In my last class, I mentioned, I have not even stepped into this class, what did I say? Our judgment depends upon 3 factors, what are they? Past habits, social environment and past experience, our habits, you know, let me illustrate it briefly, if I like, if I happen to like South Indian food and say this food is good, first of all past habits, from the childhood I have been accustomed to eat this kind of food, secondly environment, everybody says this is good, this is not good, so I am influenced by it, right, for example, Americans say President Bush is good, what do the Saddam Hussein's followers say, Saddam Hussein's followers, what do they say about Saddam Hussein, good, what does President Bush say about Saddam Hussein or Osama Bin Laden, yeah, Osama Bin Laden is considered as a saint and he is a Pir and then, not Pir, Pir, Pir means Muslim saint, now there may be people, for miracles and they go and pray to him and miracles can happen also through faith, yeah, Hindus include everybody, you know, in case he may help me, why exclude him, who knows, okay, so you see the point, so it is through social environment and then past experience, this is not our first birth and most likely it is also not our last birth, so therefore we are coming through thousands and thousands, as we say Churasi lakhs, 64 lakhs or 80, 82 lakhs or something like 84 lakhs, something like that, so we are not just, no baby comes innocent, you know in the English language we say Tabula Rasa, that is every baby is born with a blank mind, so our past experience and the present social environment in which we are born, we are living and also our personal habits, all these things, what is called influence our mind, shape our mind, the way we look at, we put on a glasses it work as a result of all these three, let us keep that in mind, habit, environment and past experience, so what is the point? The point is perception or interpretation is different from an idea, each one of us interpret every object in a unique way, this interpretation can be changed, what is the real point? With this interpretation can be changed, in fact what is spiritual life? Change the worldly interpretation into a spiritual interpretation and even at the risk of repeating, I am repeating one example, very, very commonly I give this example, here is a table, you have not seen, it is a wooden table and if you ask a woodworm what is this object, what would it say? It is food, if you ask a human being, he says this is a wooden object, if you ask a physicist with an electronic microscope, he would say it is matter or energy and if you ask Ramakrishna what is it, then he will say it is divine, now there cannot be four truths, truth is always only one, therefore what is the truth? That which never changes or that which is not upgradable, that is the truth, so this woodworm's opinion about this object, when the woodworm becomes a human being, it will upgrade its knowledge of this object and when the man becomes a physicist, he upgrades his knowledge about this same object and when this physicist becomes a saint, then he upgrades his knowledge, he sees only God, but after that will there be any upgradation? After becoming God, there is no upgrading at all, that is called truth, this is what is called spiritual life or yoga is gradually upgrading our knowledge, so how do we upgrade? The object is the same, how do we upgrade? Not by changing the object, but by changing our own way of interpretation, that is to say when the mind becomes purer and purer, our interpretation also becomes better and clearer and ultimately when the mind becomes totally pure, it just reflects what is in front of it and this is called perfection in yoga or Samadhi, this is really called Samadhi. Coming back to our subject now, we are discussing about Sananda Samadhi, any other way of interpretation results in either happiness or sorrow, when we succeed in interpreting every object as divine, we experience only Ananda and any other interpretation, sometimes it gives happiness and sometimes it doesn't give any happiness, so what is the point here? The point is by concentrating upon the instrument of perception, which is called the mind, by making it so pure, it becomes like a pure mirror and what is reflected outside it, it becomes only the truth, the real knowledge and what does the mind become when it becomes pure? What does it become? It becomes pure Prakriti, Prakriti means purest form of Prakriti, Prakriti is always pure, it is only when it degenerates, it becomes a mind, Chitta and Ahamaya, egotism etc. etc. Now how many objects are there according to Sankhya? Only two, Purusha and Prakriti, now Prakriti becomes through purity a reflecting medium and what is in front of it? Only Purusha and Purusha, what is the nature of the Purusha? Ananda. Therefore, when a person's mind becomes purer and purer, when he experiences more and more happiness and then when it becomes absolutely pure, so that there is no more becoming still purer, purest when it becomes, it only experiences what? Only bliss and bliss and bliss, this is one way of understanding. I am not done with it completely, very briefly in this class I will give you the hint and close it because already one hour is over, it is like this, every object in this world is a modification of Prakriti, here is Purusha and everything else other than the Purusha is Prakriti, every object is a modification of Prakriti and that modification takes place in the form of three Unas, Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. So when a person experiences as an object through the lens of Tamas, he gets only Saho, suffering, heaviness, burden, incomplete knowledge, impurity, etc. When his mind becomes imbued with Rajoguna, he becomes a better lens through which he experiences both happiness and unhappiness, when that mind becomes Sattva, then how does he experience any object, as Sattvi, so let me also rephrase it, a Tamasika mind sees everything as full of Tamas, a Rajasika mind looks at every object as Rajas and a Sattvika mind looks at every object as Sattvika, what is the nature of Sattva, Rajas, Tamas, very briefly Tamas brings dullness, impurity, heaviness, darkness, misunderstanding, Rajas brings restlessness and increased activity, Sattva results in only two, we will discuss this in our next class, Sattva results in two, what are those two, first it produces knowledge, second it produces happiness, Sattvam Sukhe Sanjayate, Sattva brings knowledge and knowledge transforms into happiness, knowledge is happiness, happiness is knowledge, now you see when the mind becomes so pure, then it only experiences the whole universe as what, as full of Sattva, Sattva means full of happiness, full of divinity, these are all synonymous terms, this is how when a person focuses on the pure mind, then he experiences pure Ananda, we will discuss this point in our next class. Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti.