Patanjali Yoga Sutras Lecture 057

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

Om Sahana Bhavatu Sahana Bhunaktu Sahaveeryam Karavavahai Tejasvinavaditamastumavidvishavahai Om Shanti Shanti Shanti Om Yogena Chittasyapadena Vacham Malam Sharirasya Chavai Dhyakena Upakarottam Pravaram Muninam Patanjalim Pranjali Rana Tos 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 have entered into one of the most interesting phases of this Patanjali Yoga Sutras. One of the most important doctrines of Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism is the belief in the law of karma. What it means, what we are now is the result of the past. This is accepted even by Christianity etc. But the difference is what is the meaning of the past? Does it mean only this life or any number of lives in the past? According to Vedanta which means Hinduism including Buddhism and Jainism that we are the results of maybe millions and millions of births. So first let me read the aphorism and then we will discuss it. Klesha Moolaha Karmashayo Drishta Adrishta Janma Vedaniyaha. Life consists of five modifications. We are always going through these five pain bearing modifications. These are called Kleshas. Klesha means pain bearing. So we have discussed what were they? Ignorance, egotism, attachment, hatred and intense clinging to life. No one is free from these five afflictions. Our whole life from birth to death, from morning to early evening we are puppets in the hands of these five. They are whirling us as it were round and round and round and round. Sometimes we are happy, sometimes we are unhappy. We also discussed unhappiness caused by hatred. That is fine but what about happiness? How can happiness be unhappiness? For a discriminating person happiness is also intense unhappiness for many reasons. I told you about three reasons. The first reason is every happiness that we experience is limited. Second, every happiness instantaneously follows by unhappiness. Third, every happiness it produces a strong seed, Samskara. Since I like this I would like to have this again. So because of these five modifications we go on acting. These acts, every single act and how many types of actions are there? Three types of actions are there. Physically what we do is one type. When we speak with somebody including speaking with ourselves and when whatever we think. These are the three causes of any action in this world. That is why we say you know Tano, Mana, Vachika, Kaika, Manasika. Every action and these three types of actions are controlled by the five kleshas. Pain bearing, affliction bearing, Samskaras and we do actions. Every action in its turn produces a seed like a tree and these trees brings the seeds and the seeds again become the trees and the trees again become the seeds goes on and on and on endlessly. That is why it is called Anadi. It is beginningless but it is not Ananta. It is not endless. It can be brought to an end by everybody and in fact this whole world is working for it. Now in this class we are going to discuss one of the most important things. The belief, the law of cause of cause and effect. Karma Siddhanta. It is the one of the most pivotal doctrines of Hinduism. This also explains why so much of variation is there. Not only any between any given in two individuals but within the same individual himself. Maybe we were very happy when we were young. Maybe we are not very happy now. Maybe we may become very happy later on and we may become very very miserable later on. Where do we find unbroken happiness in this world? This is the experience of whether we are wise people or otherwise wise people. According to Vedanta or Patanjali Yoga Shastra, all the people in this world can be classified into two. Viveki and aviveki. Discriminating and non-discriminating. That is as simple as that. Lord Krishna was a little more generous. He classifies a little bit further by giving an analogy. Supposing a fisherman goes to fish in a tank and there will be four types of fishes in the pond water. One type of fish are so clever, so intelligent, they anticipate the fisherman and take long before he comes, they take care. How to escape? These are called, they are never caught in the net. They are called Nitya Siddhas. Then the other is, other end of this spectrum is those who are so tamasic, so lazy, even after being caught in the net, they will never attempt, they will just go deep inside the net, thinking that we are safe. Then there are two types of fish, total four classifications of fish. Some are caught, but they are struggling. Even though they are struggling, they will not be afraid. But there are a few, after struggling, they will be afraid. What are those? Let us recollect now. Those who never even think of struggling, but go deeper into the net and remain there until they are killed. Second, there are type of fish which realize we are caught and we are going to suffer. So let us struggle. They struggle. Third, among those who are struggling, some perchance become free. One or two become free. Sri Ramakrishna was such a great observer, he used to observe all those things and he used to give these illustrations. When such a fish somehow gets out of the fisherman's net and all the fishermen, oh there goes with a big splash, a big one with a regret. This is the third type. The struggling and among those struggling, those who become free by the grace of God and the fourth one, those who are never ever caught in the net at all. Now let us forget about those who are completely free. Among those to which category do we belong? Are we people who are just quite happy to be caught in the net? Those who understand we are caught and struggle and those who by the grace of God get out. Now we are talking here all about karma. How is this example related to the topic we are discussing called karma? It is all because of karma. So these five afflictions we said, avidya means ignorance. Ignorance manifests mainly in the form of egotism and egotism produces three effects. What are they? Attachment, aversion and intense clinging to life. Now these five always go together and when they go together they create what we call the samsara, this life of transmigration. It is created and all these five afflictions they are controlled by three mechanisms called by nature. What are they? They are called gunas. How many gunas? Sattva guna, rajo guna and tamo guna. Do not get confused. Really it is very simple. The whole world is nothing but consisting of three gunas. Sattva, rajas and tamas. These three produce every object in this world and influence every moment we are under the influence of these three gunas. These three gunas together produce what is called ignorance, what is called egotism, what is called attachment, aversion and intense clinging to life. But even though these three gunas create all these five suffering bearing afflictions, but there is a difference. If we are predominantly sattvic our avidya is very thin, our happiness is more, our unhappiness is less. If we are controlled by rajas then our happiness is great, our unhappiness is equally great. If we are controlled by tamas our avidya is too deep and our vidya practically doesn't exist. It does exist as though practically it's not there. How does it apply to this analogy we have given? Those who are eternally free we should not talk about them because they belong to a very special category of beings like Narada, like Prahlada according to Sri Ramakrishna and Sri Ramakrishna himself. Some of the disciples of Sri Ramakrishna like Swami Vekananda, Swami Brahmananda whom he used to call as what? Ishwara Koti Nitya Siddha. Let us not talk about them. There are the other three types of fish. Now those who never even realize they are being caught and they will be killed and they will be cooked and they will be eaten. Which guna is dominant in them? Samoguna. And those who are struggling a little bit which guna is prominent in them? Rajoguna. And among those one or two people become freed and which guna do you think is very prominent in them? Satvaguna. So ultimately these are the gunas which create either bondage or liberation depending upon how we develop them. Now the important point is one observation I made. The whole world is controlled by these three gunas. If we are totally controlled by these gunas where is freedom then? How do we become spiritual aspirants? How do we even realize that we are bound? Because only when Satvaguna comes that understanding comes that we are bound we will have to get out. So there is an amount of freedom is there always and that is what the root cause of these karmas. What is the relationship between these three gunas? This analogy I gave and as well as just now I am talking about three gunas. They are all so beautifully meshed together. We are controlled by the gunas. Gunas produce our personality. Our personality produces our understanding. Our understanding results in our actions. Our actions result in the samskaras. The samskaras again influence the gunas. This is how the whole samsara chakra, the wheel of samsara goes on. Where can we attempt to break? There must be one weak point, easy point where we have to break in and that's where karma is the place where we can break in. Let me first give an illustration. Supposing there is a tamasic person. By some good grace of God somehow this person comes to know I am tamasic. I would like to become sattvic. That understanding came. What does he do? He slowly changes his karma. What does he do? He will go out and attend my class and he makes it a habit, not a floating population. He comes and says it's a good thing. If I am all by myself I'll be doing something counterproductive. Let me go to the Vedanta center. Let me sit in the shrine. Let me read good books. Let me attend a talk etc. etc. Anything that's good, not only here, anything anywhere that leads one to God. So these slowly bring about samskara and that samskara produces the desire, strengthens the desire to become sattvic. But he has to pass through rajas. Then he says I have to act. I have to be active. I have to do something about it. And slowly through repeated practice this tamoguna samskara transforms itself into rajoguna samskara. And rajoguna samskara transforms itself into sattva guna samskara. This is how the progress is achieved. Bhagavad Gita gives another type of very beautiful classification. According to Bhagavad Gita there are four types of what is called three steps which leads to the fourth ultimate state. Bhagavan Krishna calls it bhakti, devotion. What bhakti? Artha bhakti, Artharthi bhakti, then Jignasu bhakti and Jnani bhakti. What a beautiful thing. Let me briefly explain it. Artha bhakti means a person, even a worldly person, he even has to go through accidents, through diseases, through so many things. And he applies the remedies which are available. But you know sometimes these remedies do not really help. So we have a saying, sankatakale venkatanamana. When there is no other pathi, you try allopathy, try homeopathy, you do naturopathy and ultimately you have to come to Sripati. There is no other way. Sripati means God. Sripati means God. You have to come to God. So somehow, imagine this person is in distress and he tries to apply all remedies and nothing is helping, then he wholeheartedly, prayer comes, spontaneous prayer comes. You know why? Because if no one was, none of us want unhappiness, none of us want to die, none of us want to be ignorant, none of us want to be unhappy. That's our very nature, to be immortal, to be all-knowing and to be all-blissful. So anything that militates against, even one billionth, we struggle to get out of it. So he prays to God and then perhaps the help comes. His faith becomes, oh I prayed to God and God helped me. That is the beautiful first step. Then next time whenever he is in difficulty, he has already proved that God's prayer to God helps him. Then he goes into the second step. What is the second step? He is not in distress but he wants, many unfulfilled desires are there. He wants to fulfill those desires. Again what does he do? He does all sorts of hanky-panky things, thinking is very clever, but in the end he suffers. In the end he suffers. He understands, unless I behave dharmically, righteously, it is not possible for me to be happy. In fact, many times these terms, you know, we use Sanskrit terms, dharma and dharma, and we do not understand what it means. I have discovered something very very beautiful. Dharma means happiness. Simplest translation. Dharma means happiness. Adharma means unhappiness. So why should you be righteous? Righteousness means happiness. Unrighteousness means what? Unhappiness. And nobody wants to be unhappy. Everyone instinctively wants to be happy and that's why there is no choice but to become a righteous person. So this person wants to fulfill his desires in a legitimate way, righteous way. That is called praying to God. You have to be very very discriminative to understand this word that if an unrighteous fellow, even if he prays to God, his prayers will not be answered. Why? God means what? Righteousness. Righteousness is God and he is praying to righteousness, I don't want to be righteous, please bless me. How can he be happy person? Praying to God means behaving according to God's wishes, we say that. But God is, another name for God is dharma. Therefore dharma means to live a dharmic life, righteous life. That is called praying to God, that is called having faith in God. When a person tries that and immediately his desires will be fulfilled. His desires will be fulfilled. What are we talking about? The law of karma. If a person had behaved righteously according to the law of cause and effect, will he not get the results? And what is the result? Happiness. Then his faith in righteousness becomes established and then he becomes a great devotee of God. That's why these terms, faith in God and disbelief in God, we have to understand it properly. Why am I talking about these things again and again? Because so much misunderstanding comes. A rogue, he goes regularly to the temple, to the church, to mosque, he is ready to cut the throats of anybody and if anybody says I do not believe in God, he will cut that fellow's throat. So many religions are there. If you don't believe in what I believe, I am going to cut your throat. These are called, what you call terrorists, etc. Fanatics, they are there. But who is a real believer in God? Even if a person says I do not believe in God, but if he is behaving righteously, he is a true believer in God. And even if a person goes on 100,000 japam he does and he exhibits all the signs of a believer in God and yet behaves most unrighteously, can we call him as a believer in God? So always this terminology, belief in God means belief in righteousness. So when a person truly understands this and then behaves righteously and why pray? Praying to God means it is taking a vow, it is also, it is strengthening our will power. Swami Vivekananda, he defined prayer. What is the definition he gave of prayer, do you know? Prayer is strengthening of our will. When we pray sincerely, our own potentialities become as if as if we are condensed and focused. That is why even if one doesn't believe in God, if he prays sincerely, then his own potentialities will become manifest. Have you noticed when you pray to God, your faith in God also becomes strengthened? It is called sankalpa. In Sanskrit we call it sankalpa. When we pray, our power of will grows. Sankalpa means willpower. It is just the power of determination. It just grows and grows and grows. So when a man says, I want, I have a lot of unfulfilled desires. I want, I want, oh Lord, your grace. Please grant me. What do you think God will do to him? If the prayer is sincere, he will be answered. How does he give things to him? He gives that understanding, my fellow, if you want to obtain these things, you will have to do some righteous actions. And through that understanding, he does the righteous actions. Invariably, whatever action we do, we reap the result. That is called the faith in karma of Allah. Now Lord Krishna also talks about another type of devotee, bhakta, is called jignasu bhakta. When a devotee's all desires have been fulfilled, after enjoying these desires, there arises an inquiry into the heart of the devotee. I had enjoyed all these things, but I was never satisfied. I am still craving. This is not the way to live the life. Let me now find out what is the meaning of the purpose of, goal of life. That is called jignasa, inquiry into the higher values of life. And that is how the devotee now gives up all desires. He develops a dispassion for all the worldly desires. And now he turns his attention towards God, towards spiritual progress. Then he strives to progress in spiritual life. And by the grace of Guru, by the grace of God, he at last realizes God, maybe in many lives. And then he becomes the fourth type of devotee or bhakta, whom Shri Krishna calls him as jnani bhakta, a devotee who had obtained self-realization. So these are the four types. Now let us take this analogy of Ramakrishna's that three types of fish, let us discuss with them. So everything is God. Those who are heavily overpowered by tamas, they do not even understand. Let us not discuss about that. But those who are struggling, they have the grace of God. And because of that struggling is a karma. And it produces the result. Sometimes it may not be sufficient struggle. And there is also two types of struggles. Intelligent struggle and unintelligent struggle. Like a donkey works very hard. That is, what is that called? Unintelligent struggle. Whereas a cat or a dog, pet cat or dog, what does it do? Very intelligent struggle. It looks at you in such a way, your heart just melts and then you have no option but to take it into your lap and all that. Have you seen? Those who struggle intelligently and that intelligence belongs to whom? Intelligence belongs to whom? To God. That is called the grace of God. That is why the Lord says in the Gita, I enliven, inspire their intellect. He gives right understanding, He gives right inspiration and He gives right environment for our struggles to fructify. That is how the grace of God comes. With this background, let us come to this aphorism. I mentioned at the beginning of my talk, the belief in the law of karma is one of the four pivotal doctrines of Hinduism. Hinduism has got four doctrines. I know you heard from me so many times. What are those four? There is one reality and that is called Brahman. And we are all potentially divine. Therefore, what is our goal? To manifest our potential divinity by overcoming maya or avidya in terms of Patanjali's definition, avidya, ignorance. And how do we overcome? By struggle. What is that struggle? That struggle is called doing action, right action. That is the third. What is that? The faith in the law of karma. Faith in the law of karma. Everything in this world is bound by karma. That is why we are all sitting here. None of us are equal with anybody else. Each one of us are unique. We have our own bodies, our own minds, our own intelligence, our own power of concentration, our own health, our own happiness, our own unhappiness. None of us can be compared. What is the reason? Sometimes we wonder, I am a good person. I am not doing anything wrong. And here is another person. He is only doing all wicked things. He seems to be prosperous, forging in life, getting power, better jobs, more money, prosperity. Everything is there. Why is it? It is all due to law of karma. What does that mean? Law of karma determines every millisecond of our life, every part of our life. Swami Vivekananda beautifully discusses this subject while commenting upon this. He says who creates the body? Who created your body? You. Who created your intelligence? You. Who created your fate? You. You are the forger. You are the maker of your own destiny. Now what we are is the result of what we did in the past. What is the implication of this statement? The statement is there are three types of karmas. Three types of the result of karmas. We use the word karma loosely. Here what we mean is three types of results of karma. One is called prarabdha. Prarabdha means what? Already it started fructifying. Our very birth. We have not controlled our birth. We are just born in a particular family. We grew up in a particular social environment and that determines basically so our field of action. But even within that we have some freedom. You see all of us have come here to discuss something very nicely. Even though I am giving the talk, I am no different from you because we are all spiritual aspirants. We have come to understand better. That is all. No one is superior. No one is inferior here. It is only God who can decide who is superior and who is inferior. There is no superiority or inferiority even in God's eyes. But there is seniority and juniority in God's eyes. Who is a senior? Not a person who is meditating for 50 years and then who meditates every day 15 hours. He is not a senior. He who is nearest to God is senior and he who is furthest from God he is the junior. In that sense even an amoeba is only a junior. Do not forget. And who is junior today may become senior tomorrow. Whatever we had done in the past, some of the result of that karma has already started to fructify in the form of our birth, our circumstances, our happiness. Even while we are living in this life we are already accumulating lot of karmas. This is called agami karma. That which is going to be fructified. We have no control over prarabdha because already it started. But we have control over sanchita and agami. Sanchita means accumulated but which is going to be fructified in future. We have some amount of control. An analogy is given. There was a hunter. He has got three arrows in his bag. So he discharged one arrow and another arrow he just put in the bow about to drop and another arrow is still remaining in the bag. This is the analogy. The arrow which has been discharged is prarabdha karma. Already started to fructify. He has absolutely no control over it excepting to put up, to bear with it. But there is also room for improvement even there also. The arrow he has already drawn from the bow but he has some control over it because he has not yet discharged. He can change his aim or he can say I do not wish to do it. One arrow is already there. If he becomes a saint suddenly, what do you think he will do? He will throw away all these two. Whatever has been done he has no control. But over the other two he has the control. These are the three and the results of actions have been classified by Vedanta into these three types. What is the point of this is at any given time even while we are experiencing already the fruition of our past karmas, we have some amount of control over it. Not much. We can't change our bodies. Do you see what is the most wonderful thing here? Everybody wants, you know, if only I had the other person's nose, nobody is perfect. But perfection is found in many people. This person's hair is very beautiful, that person's nose is very beautiful, the other person's legs are very wonderful, the other person's chest is wonderful, etc., etc. So we want the best of everybody. So we have that longing for that. What freedom we have? First freedom that we have is, okay, this is the result of what we have done, what I have done in the past. Let me put up with it cheerfully because this is my own doing. This is a beautiful Bengali song. Doshkaro Naigoma Ami Shakhata Sholile Dube Mori Shama. Oh mother, it is no one's fault. I am drowning in the very well dug with my own hands. This is not a cry of despair but it is a statement of fact. So we accept it, okay, this is what I am, let me accept it. Second, what best can I do with this body? What is possible for me? This is a point which I like very much. Do you know what is this point? What are we talking about? We are always wasting our time comparing ourselves with so many other people and saying that person can meditate so much, that person can understand things better, that person can remember things. Forget about it. How many wonderful things you can do even with your given situation, with your body, with your intelligence, with your time, with your mind. So many wonderful things we can do. Focus on that and very soon you will also progress in life. With regard to the results which are to come, if I can change my mind now, if I can live spiritually, if I can pray to God, it is quite possible to overcome those at least to a great extent. This is what holy mother tells, if someone is fated that a ploughshare goes through him but by God's grace with a pin brick he will escape. Now this is a thing we also have to discuss. So a person has done something very very wicked and he knows that I have to go through this and he genuinely repents and he becomes repentant and then prays to God and by God's grace he can go through a pin brick. The point is what is the whole point of our going through all this unhappiness? Is it because God wants us to go through happiness and unhappiness or is it to learn some lesson? Let me give a small example. Supposing there is a student and always he wasted his time, he never paid attention, many times he failed and everyone was very unhappy with him. Suddenly by fluke or God's grace the understanding comes, I have to become a brilliant student otherwise I am wasting my time. Maybe he will put so much of focus in it that with one go he clears all his exams and he might become a best student in the world. So this is the point. The point is not to make him fail. The point is not to criticize him. The point is not to make him unnecessarily suffer. Even the teachers may beat that student but what is the point of beating? Why does a teacher beat you? Because he is angry with you. Why is he angry with you? Because you are not studying. But if you realize that my teacher is not an enemy of mine, he wants my good, so let me become a good student. The moment he becomes good, all those criticisms, everything will disappear. This is called God's grace. What is really God's grace? Our minds are very shallow. So we think this person had to go through a great suffering and God suddenly lifted him and threw him out of that suffering. That's not the correct understanding. What is the correct understanding? God gives him that understanding that all this suffering I am going through is the result of what bad things, wicked things I did and then he says oh God, I will never again do these things. And the moment he resolves not to repeat those wicked actions and he also accepts since I have done already, I have to go through. Even the burden of that suffering becomes so light. Even if there be suffering, he will not feel it because of his changed attitude of mind. So God's grace is not there to lift us from the unhappiness merely. He gives us right understanding. That's important for us to understand. If we get right understanding then we get out of this rigmarole, this bondage of karma itself. Our life in this world is not meant to go through happiness and unhappiness. The purpose of the law of karma is not to make us just righteous so that we go on enjoying life birth after birth. The purpose is to make us get out of this samsara chakra itself. Once we understand that, it doesn't matter whether we are here. For a person who is living in God, this is a very beautiful topic. A person who is living in God and a person in whom God is living, where is he living? Is he living in this world? Does anything called samsara exist? This is another point we have to understand. God is not living in a new separate geographical location. What is the point? This world is a mental state. If we change our mental state, if we become spiritually enlivened, inspired, living a spiritual life, where are we living? In heaven, in God, not in samsara. A person, say Ramakrishna for example, where was he living? At Dakshineshwar. Was he living at Dakshineshwar? Who was living at Dakshineshwar? His body was living at Dakshineshwar. Where was he living? He was living in Brahman, God. That's what we have to understand. Every saint, he is not living in this world. But we see because we are, our senses can only see this world and that is what we call samsara. Example, once a devotee came to Dakshineshwar. Just at that time, this Gopala's mother was there and Sri Ramakrishna was remarking, this Gopala's mother was totally unconscious of what was happening around her. She was only thinking about Sri Krishna, child Krishna, Gopala. Sri Ramakrishna remarked to this devotee, her mind has gone to Goloka. She is living in Goloka. But if you look at her, where is she living? In Calcutta, Dakshineshwar, in Calcutta, in West Bengal, in India. Whereas according to Sri Ramakrishna, where is she living now? She was totally unconscious of the body. The worldly life and spiritual life are not two geographical locations but two different states of mind. In Tantric language, this is so beautifully described. A person who lives in the three lower chakras, he is living in the world. And a person who is living in the Sahasrara chakra, where is he living? In God. It is not the body. We see the body. It is the state of the mind. That is the most important point. I will not dwell in it. So this aphorism says, a man's latent tendencies have been created by his past thoughts and actions. These tendencies will bear fruits both in this life as well as in lives to come. Every individual carries a receptacle called karmashaya through its subtle body. At the root of the karmashaya are kleshas. These karmas have to be experienced either in this or next life. To summarize, what is the plain meaning of this aphorism is, I have already mentioned, we are all controlled by three gunas. Three gunas, what do they produce? Through their interaction they produce five types of mentalities. What are they? Ignorance, egotism and attachment, aversion and intense clinging to life. And these in their terms, they affect our actions, our desires. These desires affect our actions. Actions produce the results as well as samskaras. This is how the whole cycle, circle, chakra is going on. And so long as we are ignorant, all the other five will be there, four will be there, so long as it is there, we are bound to reap the results of our karmas because we go on doing those karmas, actions. And the results of these actions should fructify either in this life or in the future lives. Satimole tat nipako jati ayurbhoga, second chapter, thirteenth aphorism. So long as the root cause exists, it will bear fruits such as rebirth, a long or a short life and the experiences of pleasure and pain. This is part of the law of karma. What are the three results are there? Jati, ayurbhoga and bhoga. Let us examine. It is very practical. In each one of our lives, when are we born, how long are we going to live, in which species we are born and what is the quantum, both qualitative and quantitative quantum of our happiness and unhappiness. Is that point very clear? Each one of us, a child may die or a person may live 120 years, there is no guarantee. So first thing is species. According to Patanjali, which means Hinduism, which means Vedanta, it is the past actions which determine in which species we are going to live. But an aside point is this law doesn't apply to animals. It applies only to intelligent agents of action who are human beings. That is why you know even a child if he kills, it is an accidental killing. A child doesn't plan and kill, that's why he is not arrested. He is kept safely away. A madcap also is not punished. You know why? There is no agency there. There is no thinking power there. So only a person who has intelligence, who has an intention and he determines I will do this and only for such person the consequences of karma apply. So these results of these karmas fall into these three categories. Jati, Ayu and Bhoga. Jati means what? In which species we are born. It is interesting. Which species means we can be human beings, we can be gods, we can be also non-human beings, we can be born as a tree, we can be born as an insect, we can be born as dogs. I still remember once we went to atom college with my predecessor Swami Bhavyananda. He gave a beautiful talk and somebody who did not understand the law of karma very well, he asked, is it possible Swami that a person can become a dog or a donkey? Because this is not accepted in scientific circles. Always life is going you know from lower species to higher species. Many people do not wish also to accept it. Swami said if an intelligent being having got this beautiful human life and opportunity, if he behaves like a dog or a donkey, next birth what do you think he will become? Yeah. He gave a beautiful illustration. Suppose somebody wants to go swimming. He is a big officer. He puts on all this you know special coat and boot and all. Do you think that he will go into the swimming pool and dives there? What does he do? It is most convenient for him. Swimming dress is convenient for swimming. Table tennis dress is convenient for playing table tennis and what you call fancy dress is convenient for showing off your you know dance in front of children. Children will highly hugely enjoy that. So for every purpose there is a type of convenient dress. So if a man behaves like a dog, that means he wants to be a dog. A man who wants to be a dog, what is the most convenient dress for him? A dog's dress or a donkey's dress. This is Hindu's belief. If a man misbehaves like a dog he will go. He will become next birth a dog. Yeah. That is our belief. Hindu's belief. Here also we can extend this understanding. Jati means not merely non-human we are talking about. Within human beings which is Jati? Are you born in a Brahmana family or a Kshatriya family, Vaishya family or Shudra family? Are you born in New York? Are you born in India? Different purposes. If you are a spiritual person you most likely will be born in India. If you want to enjoy life because this is called bhoga bhoomi what is called the plane of enjoyment, abode of enjoyment. Really speaking nobody can enjoy such beautiful climate, beautiful conveniences, everything is absolutely no doubt. If you want to enjoy yogurt, how many varieties of yogurt you know. My god 150 varieties of Greek yogurt, fruit yogurt, mango yogurt. Oh my god it is. So in this birth itself, in this human life itself there are infinite variations are there. And how we are born is determined by our past karma. Second, how long are we going to live? Hinduism firmly believes in it. Just as when you go to a supermarket you want to buy some food material there is an expiry date on it. Shelf life and we are also shelf life. We do not understand that we think we are human beings. Who are you? I am a human being. Suppose you ask a hungry tiger who is this person? What do you think? Yeah a city for a tiger a city is a supermarket. And it can choose whom it wants. We are nothing but food, our body is nothing but food. Food for even mosquitoes, food for bacteria, food for virus, food for everybody who wants to look at us. Yes this is the truth. We also come with an expiry date. That is called aayuhu, jati aayuhu. Then third is how much enjoyment is in our quota. We all come with an amount of quota. Indian rations you know they issue you with so much of rice, so much of dal, so much oil, so much kerosene oil like that. So God gives, he looks at our credit card and then debit card and then says so much of happiness is in your fate and so much of unhappiness is in your fate. Somehow or other we have to experience it. You may think you will escape, you are so clever. No you are not clever, you cannot escape because there is an inescapable CCTV is there and it will determine our happiness or unhappiness. That's why even a very rich man can be a worried man, unhappy man. How many rich people commit suicide? You know better than me but still just to remind, how many so-called celebrities who are so rich they take to, they commit suicide and they take to drugs, they take to drugs, they behave all sorts of way. Why do you think they do that? Because they are not happy. They want to forget about these things and why are they not happy? Because no one else has given them unhappiness or happiness. It is the result of their own actions. So this 13th aphorism says Sati Mole. Sati Mole means so long as the root cause exists. What is the root cause? Our past karmas and our past karmas are kept in a particular bag called karma asaya, karma bag. Ramakrishna gives a beautiful example. A grandma, what does she do? You know in the village they go on cultivating some goats, vegetables etc. and some of those fruits they keep for next sowing of seeds. She puts it in a bag and when the rainy season comes again she sows them. So this is the idea. Each one of us carry a bag called karma bag, karma asaya, which is the result of our past life and in this life that karma asaya works and in this life again we gather some seeds, put them again in the bag, that goes on carrying on. 14th aphorism tells us Te halada paritapa phalaha punya apunya hetutvaat. Experiences of pleasure and pain are the fruits of merit and demerit respectively. The word used is punya and apunya. Earlier I told you that what is the best word for translating the word dharma? Happiness. What is the translation of adharma? Unhappiness. So what happens? Righteous actions give us the result called punya or merit and unrighteous actions give us the results called papa, sin. Why? So these two are the causes of our present happiness and unhappiness. Therefore what is the lesson? Let us never first of all blame anybody. If I am happy who is to be given credit? Me. If I am unhappy who is to be blamed? It is me. That is the first. Secondly I am the architect of my own happiness and unhappiness. So it is in my hands. In future I cannot do anything now for what has happened but I can do a lot to alter my future. Just a simple example, real incident that happened. One devotee came to Sri Ramakrishna at Dakshineswar and this man had some defect. He was weak. Sri Ramakrishna looked at him and said this man is not going to progress in spiritual life because he is too weak. Now Sri Ramakrishna's words have deep impact upon people. So his words could have created a kind of frustration in him. Oh even Sri Ramakrishna tells me there is no chance for me to progress in spiritual life. Why attempt when such a great saint is telling me? But Sri Ramakrishna intended his words not to bring disaffect but to rouse his will power. So that man heard what? I am weak. You tell me I am weak. I am going to prove to you that I am not weak. He started going to gymnasium and developed muscles and he came to Sri Ramakrishna. He said yes you have hope. You can progress in spiritual life. You know we should not take their words in a very casual way or superficial way. What effects they have on other people only those people know. We are only just intellectually mulling over these things. Experience of pleasure and pain are the fruits of merit and demerit respectively. What is the lesson? We are solely responsible for our happiness and unhappiness. But that is the least important point. The most important point is for us here now we are responsible for our spiritual progress or non-progress. It depends upon what we do. The 15th verse says For the man of spiritual discrimination any type of experience whether it's pleasurable or painful is equally painful. For even the enjoyment of present pleasure is painful since we already fear its loss. Past pleasure is painful because renewed cravings arise from the impressions it has left upon the mind and how can any happiness be lasting if it depends only upon our moods. For these moods are constantly changing as one or another of the ever-varying gunas seizes control of the mind. Here Patanjali gives a most wonderful thing. For a discriminating person every experience in this world is painful. In today's class I very briefly I will discuss this point and I will elaborate it in my next class. The point is this. Suppose there is a person, spiritual person and he is enjoying. Everything is wonderful. For whom is it wonderful? Not for him because what is his goal? He wants to progress in spiritual life. Now I will ask you one question. I expect an intelligent answer. Here is a spiritual, a person who wants to progress spiritually and God has blessed him with plenty of happiness and or God has blessed him with plenty of suffering. Now which experience is going to help him progress in spiritual life? It is the suffering. It is the suffering. It is rarely that we think on this subject. That is why Holy Mother said misery is the gift of God. Now let me conclude discussing that point a little. Because many people misunderstand how can God give misery when a wicked person gives us misery and we are really, it is a painful experience, we do not like it at all. But God is our most beloved person. He loves us as his own self. How can he give us, go through, make us go through this misery? Why does he give misery? Because his purpose must be that he wants us, that is called quickly as to come to him and the only quickest way of going is through suffering. But he also gives sufficient amount of discrimination for the devotee to understand this misery came to me by the special grace of God. The point I wanted to tell you, God really doesn't give his special misery to everybody. He gives, if somebody, if a person is non-spiritual, he will give what he wants to. He will give happiness, he will give prosperity, he will give conveniences, he will give so many things. Because that is what he wants. But for a spiritual person, God blesses him with special type of misery. And that misery given by God invariably takes us quicker to God. This is the point we have to understand. When God bestows misery upon us, we invariably progress in spiritual life. So here is the conclusion. If there is misery and I am going through so much of unhappiness and I am not progressing, even though I go through this unhappiness, that misery is caused by whom? By my own actions. But I have not caused anything, I didn't do anything wrong and yet I am going through this misery. But that misery makes me quickly advance in my spiritual life and that misery is caused by whom? By God. That is the meaning of the Holy Mother's statement. Misery is the gift of God. Coming back, the essence of this 15th aphorism is for a discriminating person. And who is a discriminating person? Who has got discrimination? How did he get discrimination? By the grace of God. And when a person has this discrimination, every type of happiness is nothing but dukkham. Dukkham means what? Bondage. Now again, this word sukham and dukkham, happiness and unhappiness, they are good translations, but not accurate translation from a spiritual point of view. Sukham means that which releases us from bondage. Dukkham means that which binds us into the maya more and more. That is the way we have to understand. So from a spiritual point of view, for a discriminating person, every experience, whether it be of happiness or unhappiness, is an experience of unhappiness only, bondage only. And he wants to get out of it. Why this discussion? To make awakeners say that when you are unhappy, it is natural that you are unhappy. When you are happy, what does Patanjali expect you to be? Unhappy. Because you are thinking that this is making me more and more bound. These beautiful ideas we will discuss in our next class. Om Shanti Shanti Shanti.