Patanjali Yoga Sutras Lecture 009

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

OM YOGENA CHITTASYA PADENA VACHAM MALAM SHARIRASYA CHAVAIDYA KENA YOPAKAROTTAVAM PRAVARAM MUNINAM PATANJALIM PRANJALI RANA TOSME I bow to the eminent sage Patanjali who removed the impurities of the mind through yoga of speech, through grammar and of the body through medicine. In this discussion of the Patanjali Yoga Sutra in total there are 195 or 196 aphorisms and these are divided into four chapters and the name of the first chapter is Samadhi Pada chapter dealing with the goal and nature and purpose of yoga. We have dealt with the first five aphorisms so far. Let us recollect what we had discussed so far. Yoga is to have such a control over the mind that it leads us to self-knowledge to know who we are. In technical language this state where we know ourselves is called Samadhi. To be more precise it is called Asampragnata Samadhi. At any given time either we know who we are that means we are in Samadhi or we do not know who we are that means we do not know what is our true nature. When we do not know who we are what is the state of our mind? What is the mind? The mind is nothing but a group of thoughts. Mind is nothing but thoughts. Is there something called a thoughtless mind? In reality it is not but Shri Ramakrishna refers it in a beautiful way. A pure mind and a pure Atman is exactly one and the same meaning a pure mind is no mind at all. If we are not in Samadhi if we do not know who we really are we do not have self-knowledge then definitely we are in a state of ignorance. Ignorance means identifying ourselves as somebody else. In plain language it is called madness. Yes, supposing somebody asks me who are you? I say I am not Swami Dayatmananda. If I tell you that what do you think in your mind? Politely you may not tell me you are forthright mad but in your mind says Swami is slipping away. Very politely. If it happens second time you consult with others what to do with this Swami. Third time it happens in the hospital. So when we are not in Samadhi always let us remember let not these words confuse us. Samadhi, self-knowledge are exactly one and the same things. So the goal is to attain to self-knowledge to know who we really are. According to Vedanta we are the divine beings. We will come to that point very soon. Now what is the mind? Mind is nothing but thoughts. So there is no mind which is thoughtless mind. Whenever we are thinking or doing something there are thoughts behind which impel us forward. So we identify ourselves with those thoughts. Now how many types of thoughts can be there in the mind? What a thorough analysis of the mind thousands of years back by this great sage. Do the modern psychologists know what exactly is the mind? I do not think they really know about it. But here is something. Mind is nothing but thoughts. There is no mind without thoughts. And all the thoughts that anybody had in the past at present and in the future all these thoughts can be subdivided into five classes due to five reasons our mind is filled with different types of thoughts. What those five classes are we will be discussing very shortly. But before that there is a very important point this sage praises. He says every thought can be divided into two classifications depending upon its effect. Remember, Sri Ramakrishna used to say there are two types of Maya. What are those two? Vidya Maya and Avidya Maya. That is to say a mind which is filled with that type of thought which leads us towards God which leads us out of this morass of ignorance or samsara and the other type is which takes us deep into bondage, ignorance, suffering, rebirth, etc. Sri Ramakrishna's division is a very novel type. It is a very rare type. I have not heard this anywhere. The idea was there. But his coin is Vidya and Avidya. What is Maya? Mind. Our goal is to go beyond mind. So our goal is to go beyond Maya. Means we want to go beyond the mind. Beyond the Maya. Any thought that occupies our mind we are identified with that thought at any given time and depending on the type of the thought we are either getting out of this ignorance or we are getting deep into the ignorance. Let us use the particular word. It is called vrittaya, panchataya, klishtaya, aklishtaya. This is for the benefit of people who know a bit of Sanskrit. Vrittis means modifications of the mind. Mental modifications. Panchataya of five types. Klishtaya, aklishtaya. Klishtaya means that pain producing. Aklishtaya means not pain producing. Let me dwell very briefly upon this. Pain producing means a thorn pricks us and it produces pain. That's not what is meant by pain here. Or we enjoy a beautiful sweet and we feel pleasure and that's not what is meant by not painful. Painful thought is that which leads to further ignorance and produces real pain. Not painful means that which is slowly leading us towards self-knowledge, towards samadhi, God realization, Satori, kingdom of heaven, whatever name you give. So what is klishtaya in Sri Ramakrishna's language? Avidya Maya. What is aklishtaya? Vidya Maya. First understanding is let us examine our thoughts and find out what is the type of the thought that we have. It may be pleasurable from our viewpoint. It may be painful from our viewpoint. But what are the consequences of cherishing this particular type of thought? Just to put it in a lighter vein, in winter season to get up at three o'clock, throw off the blanket and sit for meditation. Even the very thought is not a very pleasant, it is a painful thought. But if Sri Ramakrishna comes and says I will give you holiday. You do not need to think of me now. Oh, what a joy it is. You know, we all have this something wonderful. It is found out by some psychologists. They are always taking statistics. You know, when is a man's blood pressure very high? Do you know which day of the week? Monday morning. And when his blood pressure is at the lowest? I am talking about normal people, not those who are suffering from BP. Friday afternoon, even after lunch, slowly the BP starts coming down because Friday afternoon, Saturday, Sunday, it is a beautiful... the very thought produces so much of joy. This is the first thing we have to know that any type of thought, even if that thought is associated with a high subject, let me illustrate it. Suppose there is a student of Indian philosophy and he is studying and he has to appear in the examinations. He is studying philosophy. Is it a painful thought or pleasurable thought before examination? I am sure he will have a lot of BP rising just before the examination. Why? Even though the thought is a very good thought, but he is not doing perhaps for the sake of God-realization. He wants to pass the exams and then he wants to seek some job. This is one example. Another example is a priest doing, worshipping God whole day practically in India. Every early morning they have to get up and then go and do this puja and all those things. You think he must be a very spiritual person. Those thoughts of puja, doing, worshipping God and thinking of God, collecting flowers and all that, all those associated thoughts must be akalistaha, vidyamaya. Now, maybe he is doing it as a profession. He is only thinking of his monthly salary. Given a choice, perhaps he would not do it. This is a very interesting thought, you know. Suppose you are asked to worship God and you are paid some money and you have no choice because you are not getting any other job. Supposing somebody comes and says you do not need to do it. We will pay you the salary anyway. Now, what is the interesting thought? If all your bosses in your offices tell you that we will pay you your monthly salary without your going to work, how many of you would go to the offices? Definitely a few of you go, at least now and then, you know. Not because you are interested in work, because you get bored at home. So, there are five classes of modifications, mental modifications, vrittis. Some painful, others not painful. Painful means, that which leads to further ignorance and bondage and suffering and samsara, rebirth. And not painful means, that which leads us slowly out of this morass of ignorance. Important point we have to note down is, whenever we are thinking about the mind, the mind is filled with thoughts. What a depth analysis! You may ask, what about when I am in deep sleep? Is there a thought in the mind? Usually our answer would be, no, there is no thought. But according to Patanjali, that is also a vritti. This is the first point. What is the first point? If unless we know who we are, we are realized souls, that means we are associated, identified with any thought that arising in the mind. Mind means only thought and these thoughts can be either leading out of ignorance or leading further deeper into ignorance. So, there are five causes leading to the arising of the thoughts. There are five causes leading to the arising of the thoughts. That's what he is going to tell us in this sixth aphorism. Pramana, Viparyaya, Vikalpa, Nidra, Smritayaha These are, that means these five causes of thoughts are first, right knowledge, second, indiscrimination, third, verbal delusion, fourth, sleep and the fifth is memory. Right knowledge, indiscrimination, verbal delusion, sleep and memory. Now, he is going to elaborate what these five really mean. Seventh aphorism, Pratyaksha, Anumana, Agamaha, Pramanane Direct perception, inference and competent evidence are proofs. What is the first cause of any thought that arises in our mind? It is the first thing is called Pratyaksha, Anumana, Agamaha. Right knowledge, that means any thought that arises in our mind due to these three causes must be right knowledge. It cannot be wrong knowledge. It must be right knowledge. Of these three, what is the first one? Pratyaksha means direct experience. Now, in Vedantic terminology or Yoga terminology we have to be very clear what is meant by direct experience or indirect experience. Now, a thought cannot arise unless we have an experience. A thought cannot arise unless there is an experience. An experience always takes place when the mind encounters certain objects which we call or events only when mind encounters. As an example, you are walking in a forest suddenly you see a strange animal. You have never seen that animal. First time you have seen. Immediately you say, Oh, it looks like my cow at home. Normal example given is there are buffalos and cows. Do you know the difference between buffalos and cows? Practically they look alike. Suppose you have a cow at home and you have never seen a buffalo. First time you are looking at this animal. But you guess how the mind works. What is this? It is moving, not by wind. Branches of a tree move by the force of wind. You don't call it living. Here it is an animal. It is moving. It has four legs. It has two horns. So it is an animal. What type of animal? Millions of varieties of animals are there. How does it look? Does it look like something that I have seen? Yes, my cow at home looks like this. This is one proof how we get knowledge. I am just giving an example before we go further. So you have experienced this animal. You decided it looks like my cow. So it must be something like a cow. And that experience produced the thought and that thought remains in our memory and that whenever you see next time a similar animal, you bring down that memory and say okay, this looks like that animal I have seen. This is how 24 hours a day, every single time, whenever we see somebody, it is weak with the sense organs take the impression inside and they compare it like you know America. When you enter, they ask you to put your fingers and you think, am I so great that he needs my four fingers, both hands? What is he doing inside? The computer is comparing millions and millions of criminal records whether you have got these impressions or identified with something. So each time, this is what we forget, every time, even if I have seen you a billion times, the next time I see, immediately the sense organ says, do I know this person? Yes, this is the person I know. How do I know? Because already the memory, the impression is there in the memory. It is not one time affair, every time. In fact, we only live in memories. Interesting. Supposing somebody, a very skillful actor or actress dresses exactly like a person you know very familiarly, including the voice etc. What would be your knowledge? Or the other way round, suppose a person whom you know so intimately dresses in such a way that you cannot recognize, then what happens? Can you recognize? I don't know this person. That is how the actors, brilliant actors do that. What is the point you are making? Thought is always produced by an experience and these experiences or thought producing causes can be five. Of these, the first one is right knowledge. It is called Pramana. Prama means right knowledge. Pramana means the instrument through which we get right knowledge. What is right knowledge? The first of this right knowledge and right knowledge is produced through three instruments. The first of this is called Pratyaksha, direct perception. I am seeing you, you are seeing me. Now I made a distinction. If you still remember, what was the distinction? According to our normal life, I am seeing you, you are seeing me. So this is right knowledge. According to yogic or Vedantic classification, this is not Pratyaksha, this is not direct. I am seeing you through the filters of my body and my mind and I am seeing you through the filters of your body and your mind. Not only my body and my mind. Supposing, I know you very well. You put on two layers of dress which covers you totally or makes you incognitable. Can I recognize you? No, I will not be able to. I think I will mistake you for somebody else. But what is right knowledge? To recognize you exactly as you are. The point is that from our ordinary point of view, the knowledge that we get, I am seeing you and you are seeing me, is absolutely correct at this point of time. But from the yogic point of view, neither I know who you really are nor do I know who I am. Because I am also perceiving myself through the filters of my own body and mind. And I am also perceiving the rest of the world through the filters there. In fact, even to say two filters, according to Vedanta, how many filters? Five filters. Pancha Kosha, five coverings. Body and mind, two filters, right? For our ordinary purpose, when we experience something directly, from our normal point of view, that is called Pratyaksha, direct perception. And how do we know that this direct perception is right knowledge? Swami Vivekananda gives a beautiful summary. When an experience, when a knowledge we get is not contradicted later on, that is right knowledge. When the knowledge we get is not contradicted by something else. Suppose I see you, there is a possibility I have got cataract and I can mistake you or one day you didn't shave, I think you will resemble somebody else. Later on I come to know that you are not whom I thought you are, but you are somebody else. This is contradicted. But that knowledge which cannot be contradicted either now or later, that knowledge by definition is called right knowledge. This is called direct perception, Pratyaksha. Second is called Anumana or inference. All the time we are using inference. Let me start with giving an example. You know I have slippers, very special slippers. After long time somebody had thought about it really and presented me with those very colourful slippers. Suppose you see this, you know that inside the house I always wear these slippers. And suppose one day you just come out from outside, you see the slippers outside the room which is immediately to your left, entry room. What would be your inference? Swami is in here. Usually this is what happens. Or when you come inside the compound, you see somebody's car whom you know. One car is there, you know to whom that car belongs. Then what is your guess? The person who owns this car is inside this building. See how much we are, all the time we are using this inference. Now direct perception, Pratyaksha and Anumana, this is also direct perception only. This is not different from direct perception. Why? When two things are completely associated, invariably associated together, you cannot separate one thing from the other. But by seeing one thing, you guess the other thing. That type of knowledge is called knowledge derived from inference. The classic example given is fire and smoke are always associated together. Now one day you see smoke rising from behind a hillock. What would be, or you see some, you can't see any house, but smoke is rising. Big, big amount of smoke. Then what would be your inference? That a house is probably on fire. Either a house or something else. But fire is there definitely because can there be smoke without fire? That is not possible. Even the inference is always based upon something observed for a long time where two things are associated invariably and they can never be separated. My slippers, you know, suppose I donated my slippers to somebody, you see those slippers outside that room and your inference will be right or not, it will be wrong inference. But the association between fire and smoke, it is invariable in the past, in the present, in the future. Most of the time, when we get to work or wherever we are, we are using unconsciously this inferential knowledge to go on doing our activities. Inference also produces right type of knowledge. When we see smoke, we rightly infer there is fire. This is absolutely right knowledge. This direct perception and this inference are good enough provided of course our sense organs are fine, the circumstances are fine, there is enough light etc. and we can infer, we can experience directly. But there are certain truths of which we ourselves have no way to know and yet they belong to the right knowledge. For example, is there God? Is there afterlife? Is there another world? And if we do something wrong, will it bring some evil consequences? If we do some virtuous actions, will it give me what we call virtue and a life of happiness in future? etc. etc. For these type of things, we have no competence to have right knowledge and yet billions of us go by this knowledge. Sometimes wrongly also, but go by this knowledge. What am I talking about? All the followers of any religion, whether they are Muslims or Christians or Hindus or Buddhists, what are they living by? There is a knowledge that there is a state far higher than the state we know and we have faith and it is right. How do we know it is right? That third type of right knowledge of which we cannot have either direct perception or inference that can only be got through one source and that source is called Agama. The word Agama, for the benefit of those who know a bit of Sanskrit, Agama means one who has arrived. Arrival is called Agama. You know arrival and departure. Agama and Nirgama. Agama means arrival. Agama means in Sanskrit, a person who had directly experienced God, the after world, afterlife and existence of ghosts etc. and the invariable effect of the result of our karmas etc. they are called God-realized souls, saints or people of self-knowledge, whatever name you give. Now out of compassion for us, they tell us their experiences and we have no option but to believe. We have no option but to believe. So first, what is Agama? Agama means it is a scripture. What is a scripture? It is the teaching, it is the experience of a realized soul. That is called Agama. And how do we know that it is right knowledge? Directly we do not know it is right knowledge. But indirectly we know it is right knowledge. How do we know that it is indirectly right knowledge? Because the person who is teaching it, first of all that person is truthful. We never see that person telling anything untruth. Secondly, there may be truthful people but there may be selfish people. So this person is seen to be totally unselfish that he will never do anything for his own benefit. He will always do it for the benefit of the other person. The third quality is that person is anxious for our improvement. He is not bothered, he goes to any length of trouble so that we may get some benefit. Such persons are called Agama Purushas. Agama means scripture they are teaching. Swami Vivekananda has something to say about this. I am going to read a little bit about it. This is what Swami Vivekananda says. Third, Shabda or Aptavakya, a direct evidence of the yogis, of those who have seen the truth. We are all of us struggling towards knowledge but you and I have to struggle hard and come to knowledge through a long, tedious process of reasoning. But the yogi, the pure one has gone beyond all this. Before his mind, the past, the present and the future are alike, one book for him to read. He doesn't require to go through the tedious processes for knowledge, we have to. His words are proof because he sees knowledge in himself. These for example are the authors of the sacred scriptures. Therefore the scriptures are proof. If any such persons are living now, their words will be proof. The proof is their direct perception. Important for us, they are not reading books and telling us. They have directly experienced God and telling us. Now the point I raised is, how do we know that what they have seen is correct? How do we know that we have to believe what these people have got to say? Swami Vivekananda comes to this. The proof is their direct perception because whatever I see is proof and whatever you see is proof if it doesn't contradict any past knowledge. There is knowledge beyond the senses and whenever that knowledge does not contradict reason and past human experience, that knowledge is proof. Any madman may come into this room and say he sees angels around him. That would not be a proof. Let me dwell a moment upon this. The teaching of these great souls is a proof first of all because as we see each other, they have seen God directly, not seeing God. Seeing God is very interesting, this topic. Seeing God means what? There are so many madcap fellows who say we see God, we hear God. God told me to go and give a slap to somebody else. So many psychologists have got these problems. All the time they deal with these problems. How do we know? Anybody can claim that this knowledge is true. First of all, that knowledge is never ever contradicted in the past. It doesn't contradict reason and not only that, Swami Vivekananda says, I am only briefly giving, if anyone has had any experience any time in the past, anyone else can have the same experience at any time, if anybody says only I alone had this experience, nobody else can have this experience, immediately you can conclude there is something wrong with his experience because there is something wrong with his brain. So what is the proof? If something is true, it must be experienceable by anybody at any given time given the proper conditions. So any madman may come and say he sees angels around him but he will give the explanation. In the first place, it must be true knowledge and secondly, it must not contradict past knowledge and thirdly, it must depend upon the character of the man who gives it out. So what is most important? The character of the person who says. I hear it said that the character of the man is not of so much importance as what he may say. We must first hear what he says. This may be true in other things. A man may be wicked and yet make an astronomical discovery but in religion it is different because no impure man will ever have the power to reach the truths of religion. Therefore, first of all, to see that the man who declares himself to be a realized soul, an Apta, is a perfectly unselfish and holy person. Secondly, that he has reached beyond the senses because anybody who says I am a saint and tries to give us the sun rises in the east every morning. A saint, Kamsa Ramakrishna, comes and tells us do you know, I am going to give you a secret knowledge only to you, nobody else. Don't tell it to anybody. Do you know what is the secret? The sun rises every day morning in the east. Discount him because he is a madcap. Why? Because first of all, I don't need. Everybody's experience is the sun is rising every day in the east. So, the knowledge which comes through our five sense organs, we don't need that knowledge to be given by a saint. A scientist can give. But a scientist also can be a madcap or he can be also what is called a selfish person, a wicked person and all those things. And in case you are wondering, I am tempted to give you some examples. A person, a scientist could be a madcap. Is there a scientist? Do you recall any scientist who became mad? I mean, not completely mad, in a way mad. There is a beautiful film had come. What is the name of that beautiful? Beautiful Mind. He knew. He was deluding himself. He was seeing things. Have you read the book? One of the most wonderful books. Film is very, very nice. Such a great genius can have this kind of delusions. What to speak? We are all having delusions. No doubt about it. I am also having delusions about you. You are also having delusions about me. There is no doubt about it. Secondly, he can be a wicked person. See, if atom bomb had been discovered by Germans before Americans discovered, tell me, what would have been the consequence? And even today, so many people are discovering through their intellectual power so many wonderful things, but they all want to copyright them and use them for selfish purpose, for gaining money, name and fame and all those things. Their knowledge is alright, but their character is not alright. In this connection, as I don't know whether how many of you have heard, one George Washington Carver, if you are eating peanut butter, you can attribute that discovery was not made by him, but his discoveries led to the invention of peanut butter and he discovered thousands of things and he never patented them. So many business people asked him, why don't you patent it so that we can also gain money. He said, no, this knowledge belongs to God. He had out of his grace bestowed that knowledge to me. I have no right to patent that knowledge. Just as God has given me free, so I also have to give it to the world, to him in the form of the world freely. A person who gives us knowledge belonging to the senses, five senses, that knowledge is of no good to us. A saint need not give that knowledge. Only the knowledge which is not available to us and which is beyond the sense knowledge. Then, fourthly, that truth must have a possibility of verification. If a man says, I have seen a vision and tells me that I have no right to see it, I believe him not. Everyone must have the power to see it for himself. No one who sells his knowledge is an Apta or a saint. All these conditions must be fulfilled. You must first see that the man is pure and that he has no selfish motive, that he has no thirst for gain or fame. Secondly, he must show that he is super conscious. He must give us something that we cannot get from our senses and which is for the benefit of the world. Thirdly, we must see that it doesn't contradict other truths. If it contradicts other scientific truths, reject it at once. Let me again dwell on this. Suppose, Sri Ram Krishna comes and says, Do you know, I discovered something extraordinary. What did you discover, sir? That the sun doesn't rise in the east, he sits in the east. Is it contradicting our day-to-day experience? So, reject it like poison. No Apta or saint would ever give. Whatever knowledge he gives, it is beyond reason but does not contradict reason. Whatever we know through reason, it always confirms to that reasonable truth. Fourthly, the man should never be singular. He should only represent what all men can attain. That means, if Sri Ram Krishna says, God, I have seen God, that experience of his must be reproducible by anybody fulfilling those conditions necessary for seeing God. That is why, you know, it is a wonderful event. Swami Vivekananda, Narayana Narada, he went, he was asking so many people, Sir, have you seen God? Nobody had ever replied in positive way. He went to Sri Ram Krishna. He asked him, you know what happened? What was his reply? He said, I have seen God. That part we all know. What is the next part? How do you know that I have seen God? You know, you come and ask somebody, Sir, have you seen God? Maybe this person is leading a very good life. Extraordinarily good life. And you ask this person, Sir, have you seen God? Maybe he has seen God. He says, No, I have not seen God. Do you have any way to find out why he is telling truth or not? Suppose he hasn't seen God, but he tells you he has seen God. Have you got any way to disprove whether he has seen God or not? This is the most important Vedantic truth. What is it? Do not believe anything by faith. Even if God himself comes and stands before you and says, I am God. Until you know he is God, his saying, I am God, is of no use. It is you, it is I, each one of us who have to say, Yes, I know God. Then the question comes again. So many foolish doubts, foolish questions come. How do I know I am right? How do I know I am right? What is the proof? The proof of the experience of truth doesn't require another experience to prove it. Otherwise, it ends in infinite regress. That's why the answer given is, when you look at the sun, you do not need another light to say, Okay, is this the sun? Let me bring a torch light and see whether this is the sun now. How do we know that it is the sun? Because the fact that you are able to see is the sun. This is the point. Let me put it in a different way. You went to bed and you get up. It is midnight and there is no light at all. What do you see? You see darkness. What do you mean by seeing darkness? Can you describe what is darkness? Can any one of you describe what is darkness? It is to say, I do not see any object. You don't see darkness. What do you mean to say? The inability to see anything is called darkness. But then, you go to bed. After some time, you get up. You open your eyes and you see everything. All the objects in your room, etc., etc., you will see. Then, do I see the light? Is there light? Do you question whether there is light? Because the ability to see anything itself is the light. Anybody who says, I have seen God and if that person is a great saint, his teachings are there not 100% proof that it is the truth. It may be the truth, but it is to inspire us to say that we ourselves have to experience. This is what our Vedantic scriptures categorically, emphatically tell us again and again. Pratyaksha Anubhuti. Direct perception. It is also called Sakshatkara. Direct experience is the only proof. If Sri Ramakrishna has seen God, the proof that he has seen God is the proof that I have to see God. When I see God, then I know Sri Ramakrishna has seen God. And if I have not seen God, then what about Sri Ramakrishna's teaching? Do you know what it is called? It is not called proof. What is it called? Faith. You have faith because you see the man is absolutely spotless character, pure. He will never tell something, a lie. His life itself is a proof that he has seen God. Usually we use the expression man of God. When we use the word he is a man of God, he is a saint, what do we mean precisely? We mean that his behaviour, his character is something extraordinary. We don't know what his knowledge is, but we know the effect of that knowledge. Just to elaborate slightly about this subject. There is a sick person and he goes to a doctor and the doctor diagnoses and then prescribes medication. How do we know that the doctor is good, the medication is effective? How do we know? What is the proof? The proof is the person must be free from that sickness. That is the only proof. If anybody says, claims I have seen God, the proof is he is the healthiest, maturest person in this world. He is unselfish, he is truthful, he is loving, he is anxious, not for himself. He will never be anxious for himself. Seeing God means he has gone beyond all anxiety. If he has gone beyond anxiety, still he is anxious. For whom can he be anxious? There is only one choice, not for himself, but for others. This is the proof. That is why even scriptural words, even Sri Ram Krishna or any God, Jesus Christ or anybody, do not ever say that what Prophet Muhammad said, what Jesus Christ said, what Vedas say and they are the truths, so I know they are the truths. No. Until you have direct experience, you don't know the truth. Then what are you doing? I have faith. I believe in it. 100%. And even believing 100% will change your character. If you say, I believe in God and yet pay insurance, that is no proof that you have really faith in God. So this is what Swami Vivekananda is telling. The man should never be singular. He should only represent what all man can attain. The three sorts of proof are then direct perception, inference and the words of an Apta. These are what is called produced, these three produce right knowledge. This is only one cause of our thoughts. We are talking about five causes. This is only one of them. And this one is divided into three categories. That is direct perception, inference and the experiences of a realized soul. These are right knowledge. And any right knowledge, whether it is right or wrong, it doesn't matter. That right knowledge will produce a thought. I am seeing you and it produces a thought in me. You know funny thoughts. I am trying to tell you a joke but you are listening seriously. Not even a flicker of smile. I am thinking what type of person is this not able to respond to my jokes. This is my thought about you after seeing you. It is a thought. It is a right thought. But it is a thought. And it affects me. Every thought affects. This is the point let us dwell for a moment. Just as any object we experience affects us. The proof you know you are sitting there and I want to go to that corner. I want to go to that corner. Now can I just walk through like this? You know I cannot walk. Why? Because there are chairs. There are people sitting there. Unless I am a ghost I cannot go through that. But you know come tomorrow morning I can straight walk. Why? Because all the chairs have been removed and kept there in one place. So every object affects us some way or the other. Now the point I wanted to draw your attention is every thought is an object. Just as a physical object affects us a thought also invariably affects us. This is a good object. This is a good person. This is a bad person. This is a harmless person. This is a saint. This is a wicked person. A trustworthy person. Untrustworthy. Beautiful person. Ugly person. Young person. Old person. Everything affects us and mostly unconsciously depending upon what we are seeking. There is this beautiful example. You know there was a person character called Astavakra. He was one of the greatest Advaitic sages who had in whose name a book a text book goes Astavakra Gita. Now this person once he entered into the court of a king for some reason and all the courtiers laughed. Why? Because Astavakra means eight times bent. So it immediately seeing him the thought came oh they are seeing this person is eight times bent. That thought affected them. They burst into uncontrollable laughter. Then he looked at them and he looked at the king and he said oh king why are you entertaining so many cobblers in your court? A cobbler who makes shoes shoemakers. In India they are called cobblers. And suppose a cow is passing by and suppose a person who is wanting in search of a cow for milk he is looking at this cow then what does he say? How much milk is this cow capable of giving? By seeing the cow that would be his thought. But when a cobbler looks at the same cow what is his thought? How much skin I can get from this cow? Even if it is a young cow beautiful cow milk cow even then his thoughts would be because he is not interested in the milk he is interested only what about all this you know all these farmers who raise these beautiful cows and all those things what are they looking at? How are they judging? Which is the best best cow? Which gives how many kilograms of beef it is able to produce? And then they have further classifications whether it is fatty useless cow or solid proteinous cow so many classifications now they are breeding cows with less fat and more of what you call red meat or whatever you call it so many they are breeding cows for that very purpose we are using it the point I am trying to make is every thought affects us in some way or other depending upon our interest that we already have in mind even the thoughts that come out of right knowledge also impact us let me give one illustration before we close this topic it is such an interesting topic it will take little time in fact the sutras need a lot of time to understand supposing a worldly person goes and meets Sri Ramakrishna you know the examples devotees used to go sometimes they used to take with them people who are what Sri Ramakrishna used to call worldly people are they looking at Sri Ramakrishna is that right knowledge are they having right knowledge that this is Sri Ramakrishna that is the point that thought this is a saint doesn't interest them because their interests are totally different they want a worldly object they want some worldly happiness worldly something to be more specific one young man used to visit Sri Ramakrishna and very devotedly makes pranams and all that with devotion Sri Ramakrishna asked him why do you visit me he would not have gone to Sri Ram had he seen me he would not have come to me because he knows that instead of he is getting money from me I am after him to get money from him but he knows if Sri Ramakrishna blesses him he will get plenty of money he knew it because Sri Ramakrishna is a saint in India most of the people go to saints for what purpose do you know do you think they are going to bless you for your spiritual progress there was a funny incident Swami Vivekananda was in East Bengal and two public women approached him one of them was suffering from asthma they prostrated before this is one good thing about these Hindus is whether they have liking for you or not they prostrate no doubt about it they prostrated and then they said I am suffering from asthma can you help us to get relief from it immediately Swamiji said look here mother I myself suffering from severe asthma so if I knew some way then I would have told you but unfortunately I do not know these worldly people approach Sri Ramakrishna or any saint but there they think if that person is capable of doing miracles through miracles curing disease procuring a job getting money etc then they will be interested otherwise no what is the point we are making even if what we have is right knowledge and every experience must produce thought this thought is of the category of right knowledge but every thought like any physical object so long as we are affected by it either it leads us into further ignorance or it takes us out of ignorance so what is the final point we are discussing the mind means full of thoughts all thoughts can be categorized into five modifications and whatever be the modification every thought has the character of either taking us towards God or self-knowledge or taking us away from self-knowledge or ignorance and there are five means or instruments through which thoughts are produced thoughts are produced through experience and experience comes through five venues what are those five venues right knowledge wrong knowledge and imagination sleep and finally memory we have only discussed the first of these five means which is right knowledge so right knowledge has three categories direct perception and as I mentioned from the worldly point of view worldly experience right knowledge about worldly objects is direct perception or it could be through inference but regarding spiritual truths there can be only one source of right knowledge and that is called shabda or agama or scriptures or the teachings of great souls even the thoughts that are the outcome of right knowledge are thoughts but because they are right thoughts they can affect us they would affect us and that is what we desire but we not desire I already illustrated right knowledge not necessarily lead us to only God or self realization for a worldly person even right knowledge in fact most of the time when worldly people approach a temple or a famous temple in India or here or anywhere for example Lourdes only they want to get relief from their suffering they want to be in this world for a long time enjoy the world for a long time get deeper into this world for a long time so even thoughts that are the outcome of right knowledge they have an effect it could be either klistha or aklistha either avidya or vidya the mind means the thoughts then how to control them so that we can gain self knowledge which give us permanent relief from all sorts of sufferings so we will discuss about the other four in our future classes Om Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti