Patanjali Yoga Sutras Lecture 052

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

We had elaborate discussion about the very purpose of yoga which is the removal of egotism. Egotism is born out of mind and it is this mind which is the root cause of all our problems. Yoga is the complete removal of not ego but egotism. Egotism is that which identifies itself with everything else excepting the pure consciousness, Purusha. Patanjali is now giving us a very wonderful analysis here. What is this ignorance? Ignorance is that which makes us feel, identify ourselves with everything else excepting our own true nature. But we can never find what is ignorance directly, avidya. It manifests through four things, asmita, raga, dvesha and abhinivesha. Asmita means egotism, raga means attachment and dvesha means that which is opposite to that and finally intense clinging to life. What does that mean? Means whenever we see any attachment, whenever we see any hatred or likes and dislikes, whenever we see that we feel intensely attached to our body that means terrible fear of death. All these are the manifestations of avidya. There is no doubt about it. Now I only dealt with the manifestations of egotism the last two classes. Why? Because this ego is egotism and intense attachment, intense hatred and intense clinging to life are four manifestations of avidya. Of these four, the attachment, its opposite and clinging to life is the manifestation of egotism, a pure ego. For example, see Ramakrishna's words, he says a devotee feels I am a devotee or I am a child of God. He has no attachment, he has no aversion, neither he has any fear of death. I'll just bring to your mind a well-known incident. You can just imagine, you know Rashik, Pratap Chandrahajira. Let us take Pratap Chandrahajira's case. He lived with Sri Ramakrishna and Sri Ramakrishna declared him that he is anything but a devotee of God and yet because of one particular raga he obtained salvation. He had intense attachment to whom? Not to Sri Ramakrishna but to another great soul, Swami Vivekananda. Swami Vivekananda held on to Sri Ramakrishna and said that you have to do something for him. Why did he say that? If you just think over, you think that there must be a reason. What is the reason? This man in every sense of the word he would not qualify himself as a spiritual aspirant but he loved Swamiji. He respected Swamiji, not Sri Ramakrishna so much but Swamiji and as a result of that he crossed over the ocean of samsara. Now the point we are going to deal with is he had intense faith in the words of Sri Ramakrishna that at the last moment he would come and he had a vision, he came. When he was about to die, the previous day he told his wife who was the last person to believe him, go and tell everybody tomorrow I am going to pass away and she frankly declined to tell because she knew better than anybody else his words are not reliable but he insisted. So she told some people and they all came. Next day exactly at the professed time Sri Ramakrishna came. What is the point I want to draw your attention is was he frightened of death? He was totally joyful and said Paramahamsa Deva had come, I am going. Everyone was sad but he was joyful. What made him joyful? Because fear of death comes when we think the whole reality is only this body. This body is the only root cause of problems and nothing else. This is the simple truth. Let us deal briefly with these few things. First of all what is Asmita? Asmita means egotism. Egotism, attachment, hatred or aversion, abhorrence many words are there and intense clinging to life. Definitions, precise definitions are given by Patanjali Rishi here. First of all he gives the definition of what is Avidya. Avidya means ignorance. What is Avidya? What a beautiful definition he gives. We hear this word so many times, we read it so many times, we use and talk about it so many times and yet this is the most wonderful definition that we come across. One of the Advaitic ways of definition is you don't know who you are, you think you are anything but the Atma. But here he puts it in such precise terms. To regard the non-eternal as eternal, the impure as pure, the painful as pleasant and the non-Atman as the Atman, this is ignorance. Let us take, he further explains, of these four symptoms of Avidya, the sense of permanence in transient things is the cheap one in this kind of klesha called Abhinimesha or fear of death. Why does fear of death so much afflicts us, so much troubles us? Every one of us are terribly frightened of death. If it comes to a question of suffering or death, if I ask anyone, do you want to live and suffer or you want to die and be free from suffering, which one do you think people prefer? Most often we only prefer to live. If it is of course unbearable suffering, yes, then it is not because we love death but just to escape unbearable suffering. People commit suicide, etc. So this is to see, to think any impermanent thing as permanent. That is one of the characteristics of Avidya and this is most manifest in intense clinging to the life. Don't we know that this body is impermanent? Don't we see in front of our eyes what is happening? I just now remembered the Mahabharata story. Pancha Pandavas were in the forest and they were thirsty one day and Yudhishthira sends his brothers one by one and they do not return. Finally, Yudhishthira himself goes and finds them dead and then there was an aksha, you know this story. He puts some questions. Of these questions, one question, two questions rather, the most important question is what is austerium? What is the most wonderful thing in this world? And he says, the plain answer he gives, every single day we see millions of creatures dying and going to the abode of death but those who are not dead, they think death is never going to come. Lest you may think it is a rhetoric. We are all sitting here. We know intellectually death can come this very moment. The roof may fall down or a terrorist may do something and many things could be done. Anything can happen. Every day we hear these things and yet we are quite happy to sit here and enjoy this talk. So if someone tells you that you have only another 10 minutes, my question is would you enjoy my talk? Would you at all be here? If at all you are here, what would be your thoughts? Would you be thinking what is next? What is Swamiji going to tell? Will that be your last thought? No, you will be thinking anything, that which you fear most, that is what you would be thinking. Or to put it even more precisely, what we have been thinking whole life, that's what we will be thinking during our last moments. So this is called the most wonderful thing in the Mahabharata, Ekshaprasna. The second one equally, more or less same meaning, it is Ka Varta, what is the news? And then Yudhishthira answers, this whole universe is a cooking pot. Every living creature is vegetable in this pot and the sun and the moon are the firewood and day and night are ladles. Kala or time is cooking every creature in this tremendous pot, you know. This is the pressure cooker. But this is an intelligent, smart pressure cooker. As someone is cooked, out pops. But the rest, until they are cooked, will be there in the pot. And ultimately, smart pot. God has made this smart pot called this world and he has put a timer. And that timer, intelligent, smart timer is called time, Kala. That is what Mahakali, she represents time. That is why creation, preservation as well as dissolution or death is the chief characteristics, four hands. Right hand, that is creation as well as maintenance and left hand, dissolution. This cycle is going on and she sits or stands on Mahakala, eternity. Time is always eternal until you experience it. If you don't experience it, it is eternal. The moment you say, I know, you fall in time. In deep sleep, you never say, I know. Only in waking state. In dream state, we say, we know. And that is when, that is why the waking state comes to an end and the dream state also comes to an end. This is the symbolism. So, next is in attachment, the chief one is a sense of purity. In impure things, everything in this world is impure. There is not one single thing which is pure. Simple logic. You know what is simple logic? Suppose there is something very pure. For it to retain its purity, do you know what is its first and last condition? It should be outside time. What is time? Do you get my idea? Anything, you know, you cooked some first class food. Keep it for one day or two days. In India, one day. What happens next day? Becomes impure. Anything, however pure it is, it is not its fault because it is done in time. It doesn't exist. Only that which never changes is ever pure. And anything that comes into existence, that remains for some time and then goes out of existence, Srishti Stithilaya, by its very nature, it is impure. Even Shri Ramakrishna puts it in his own way. Even Brahma, Vishnu and Maheshwara, when they fall into the net of the five elements, he says so beautifully, then they weep. Weeping is done only in time, that which changes. What is to fall into the five elements? Time. So, to consider anything that is impure and what we are dealing is really impure things, as pure and to love it and that is one of the manifestations of avidya. Then, feeling pleasure in affliction. What a beautiful commentary Vyasadev Patanjali Rishi is telling. When we hate somebody, do we get pleasure or not? The very thought of hating somebody. Hating means what? You feel some evil should befall to that person. If really it happens, we are overjoyed. But even if it doesn't happen, but the very imagination that if this thing happens to that person, how wonderful it will be. We feel rejoiced. There is a great pleasure. So, one psychologist was telling, so many patients come to me and they are full of anger and hatred to other people. They cannot bear anybody's presence. They have nothing to say good about it and at the same time, they won't give it up. They say your whole problem is because of this attitude. Give up this attitude. You will be much better person. They won't give up. Why? They must be getting some juice out of it. It's a negative juice, but they are getting juice out of it. This is the most wonderful thing. We may not observe it all the time. If something is genuinely giving us unhappiness, we would definitely give it up. But if something is there, which seems to give us pleasure, but really very bad thing, because that seemingly getting pleasure, that is the cheap obstacle, which will not allow us to give up. Simplest example, a person doesn't quit smoking. Why? Because he gets some pleasure out of it. Person doesn't quit drink, drug, etc. or eat fat foods, you know, telebhaja. Why? He doesn't give up. Because without tele, bhaja is no bhaja at all, fried things. How much pleasure they give us. Even though we know they are not good for us, we cannot give it up. It is because of this. So there are so many examples like that. But the greatest good example would be Ravanasura. He hated Rama so much. Hiranyakashipu hated Narayana so much. And why did they not give up? They know that they should give up. Why did they not give up? After all, who suffers when you are hating somebody? Whom does it affect first? Us. When we are angry with somebody, as you know, it can create heart attack, it can create a stroke, it can create many things. In anger, a person can die and yet we do not give up. What is that? This is a negative example. But Hiranyakashipu, Ravanasura, this is a very positive example. Why did they hate? Their unconscious knows the eternal joy, liberation is available to me through this. That is a method well recognized in Bhagavatam. What is the point here? The point is, if you want to hate, hate God. You will get liberation. Because if you embrace fire, what do you become? And if you embrace God, what do you become? But you are embracing through the doorway of hatred, anger, fear, etc. There are also pathways, great pathways. Why are they called great? Because any path which leads us to God, that is great. Anything that takes us away from God and that is bad for us. Swami Vivekananda defines what is dharma. Any action that takes us towards God is dharma. And any action that takes us away from God, that is adharma. Now, here is the most wonderful thing. Ravanasura had taken away Sita. Was he dharmic or adharmic? Most of the devotees will say, he is the most adharmic person on earth. But those who know, they say definitely without doubt, he is the most dharmic person. I won't go into that, that's not our subject. But I will just give you a small hint. Ravanasura was the greatest devotee of God. I am not saying this, the Puranas are telling that. And he deliberately kidnapped Sita because, kidnapped because, Oh mother, if you don't give me liberation in a nice manner, I know how to get liberation through a wrong manner. I also told you, my funny interpretation of Ramayana. Ravanasura wanted to obtain Rama. He was praying, but he was not getting Rama. Rama was not responding at all. Then he came to the president of the Ramakrishna order. And he said, how can I get Rama? He said, go and read the gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. And he read and there it is written, Sri Ramakrishna advises, you don't go on fooling your time, wasting your time here and there. Go and catch hold of Gopal, a mistress. Immediately you will get the job. And then he said, yes. Why only go and catch, I will take her to my place until Rama comes to me and offers liberation. This is only my funny interpretation, this is only. But the real point here is, Rama had to be taken to that place in order to give liberation to thousands of people. Not merely Ravanasura. Now here I can ask you one question. It was Rama and Lakshmana who killed all the 14,000 demons. Do you believe that those who have been killed by Rama, would they get liberation or not? Have you ever thought about it? What happened to those 14,000 Rakshasas who have been personally selected and killed by Rama and Gopal? If you are a devotee and if you say no, they were bad people and they went. The answer comes in the Chandi. It is one of the stuthis, hymns. The devatas are telling, Oh mother, with your very wish you could have destroyed all these demons. Why did you, personally why did you come and step into the battlefield? Then the answer given by the questioner himself is, because you have taken pity upon these children of yours and you personally wanted to liberate them. That's why you personally destroyed the Ravidhya. You get the point. When the sun comes, what does he destroy? Darkness. When God comes, what do you think he destroys? These are the secrets of reading the Puranas. But you say, but he doesn't come to everyone. No. If you don't want God and if you commit something wrong, then also God comes but in an indirect form. Then he comes in the form of suffering, misery, wretchedness and these will take you up. It's a wonderful subject by itself. I won't go into it. But here what is important, whenever we are hating somebody, definitely we are getting pleasure out of it. This is one simple example given. What is not pleasant, to see pleasant in it is a manifestation of ignorance. That is why hatred is so bad. That is why aversion is bad. That is why abhorrence is bad. You look down upon something. That is why Holy Mother says, even don't look down even upon a worm because there also the Divine Mother is manifest. Bhagavad Gita, how many parallels I can tell you. The very first, it says, Vidya Vinaya Sampanne Brahmane Gavi Hastini Shuni Chaiva Swapake Chai Panditaha Samadarshinaha Who is a Samadarshi? A realized soul. What means? He looks upon everything as equal. Equal what? As equal what? Equal means what? He sees only God in everyone of them. What are those things? Says, most learned, devoted Brahmana. Vidya Vinaya Sampanne Brahmane Gavi, in a cow. Hastini, in an elephant. Shuni Chaiva, in a dog. Swapake, one who eats the flesh of a dog. Whatever he looks at, he will only see that this truth was so beautifully brought home to Swami Vivekananda as it were. Even though he knew it by a notch girl. Prabhu Mere Avaguna Chitana Dharo What a wonderful things. So to see what is not really pleasant, to see that there is pleasure in it, there is joy in it, there is happiness in it, that is a manifestation of ignorance. Then to think that this is me in anything that is not Atman, that is Atmakhyati. That is one of the manifestations. What is it? This, I am this body. I am this mind. Here also a simple truth is there. In this whole world, there are only two objects. In this whole world, there are only two objects. Not three, not four, only two. You know what are those two? I and everything else. I and everything else. And you cannot identify with anything other than yourself. That is why you use my, my friend, my enemy, my country, my religion, not my religion. Only I plus everything else. And to forget what one is and to consider everything else excepting the Atman as myself, that is a manifestation of Vidya. We will come to a little more discussion about it. What is Asmita? Egotism. To think that I am what I am experiencing. Now this is a profound Vedantic truth. The seer and the seen, the experiencer and the experience can never be the same. The subject and the object, eternally they run parallel. They can never be one. The moment you say I, that is fine. The moment you say my, that is also fine. But if you mix up I and mine, that is the height of ignorance. Asmita, egotism. So who are you? What is your CV? Say I am the body. I am so and so. I am an Indian. I am a Hindu. I am this. I am that. Are you that? So what is the way to know? What is the test to know what I am and what I am not? Vedanta makes it very simple. Simplest way. Whatever remains eternally with you, that is you. And whatever comes and goes, that's not you. Now find out one object in this world which remains with you forever and which comes and goes. This body. Was it with you before your birth? Will it be with you after your death? And even during lifetime will it be with you? Every single second it is changing. That is why the great Shankara talks about two types of death. The visible death. The invisible death. What is the visible death? You know when a person dies, that is visible death. Everyone recognizes this person, this object, this creature is dead. Not only living things. There was a funny incident you know. Somebody presented Swami Vivekananda a most beautiful pen knife. And one day Swami Turiyananda was handling it and he broke it. And first of all he felt very sad because it was very nice to look at. And secondly he felt even more bad because it belonged to Swami Vivekananda. It makes a lot of difference. If a plate belonging to Swami Dayatmananda, if you break, you won't feel so bad. But if a plate belonging to President Maharaj, then you feel very bad. So Swami Turiyananda felt very bad. In front of Swamiji that happened. And Swamiji looked at him, laughed and said, Hari bhai, pens do not die of old age or cholera. This is how they die. And that made Swami Turiyananda very happy. Because instead of, he was expecting some sharp scolding from Swamiji. But instead of that, he, because he knew. This is the truth. You know anything precious, your computers can go off. These three addictions. If Shri Ramakrishna had been today, he would have said, Maya is manifest in three forms. Do you know that? One is kama, lust. Another is kanchana, money. You know what is the third? Computer. Ka, ka, ka. Trika, trika. What is asmita? I am. Is to mistake myself with anything that I am experiencing. Simple explanation is, I am experiencing the whole world, isn't it? I see billions of things in this world. But are there, all these billions of things are experienced through what? Through what? Through fire? Sense organs. Only you are seeing, you are hearing, you are smelling, you are touching, and you are tasting. Shabda, sparsha, rupa, rasa, gandha. So the whole, all the objects in this world can be classified only five. Forms, sounds, tastes, smells, and touches. And all these are experienced through one body, one mind. So that is all, whatever you are experiencing. Now you are experiencing a beautiful tree. If you say, this is me, that would be asmita. But we are very clear, we don't say, I am the tree. Fortunately, very fortunately, there is a house. What is that? This is me. You have a house. You don't say, fortunately, this is me. You have a car. You don't say, fortunately, this is me. You have a donkey. Fortunately, you don't say, this is me. But with regard to two factors, even though we are experiencing, we identify totally with them. You know that. The body, interchanging. Sometimes we use the word, I. Other times we use the word, my. So this is the, what is called asmita. Asmi means, I am. This is, I am. That's fine. But we don't stop with, I am. We go on saying, I am. So and so. I am the body. What is the CV we give to anybody? It is only of the body, of the mind. Certain qualifications. I am qualified. I am an engineer. I am a doctor. I am this. I am that. Etc. Etc. But that is wrong because, all these things will say, bid goodbye, farewell to us. The body itself, how far does it accompany us? Do you know how far it accompanies us? Until crematory. That's all. After the crematory, it will say bye-bye. And then, the mind goes. But there will come a time, the mind also will say talak. You know, it's most wonderful thing. Let me tell you, just now the thought came. Talak. You know talak? We are saying, oh I will give talak to you. Do you ever say talak to the body? You never say that. But the body says talak. Yeah. It doesn't care for you. Because it says, I have nothing to do with you. This is me. For some time, I liked you. But bye. Talak means bye. So, with this death of this body, it is telling talak. I am not saying, I still want, don't go. I want you to be here. But the body says bye-bye. I have got other works to do. And then, what about the mind? When the time of liberation comes, who gives talak to whom? The mind gives talak. So long I thought, you are my most beloved pet. Whatever I am saying, you are listening. When does it start giving hints of talak? Do you know? The moment you start spiritual practice, that very moment, it says, Oh, so long you have been listening to whatever I say. And now, you have become very clever. Now, you don't want to listen to me. Yeah. The mind also will say talak to us when the time of liberation comes. But it also tells us temporary talak. Do you know that? When we go into deep sleep, it says, Bye. You go inside. I won't come with you. And you be there. When you come out, then I will again remarry you. This game is going on. Every single day, this game is going on. So, Drik darshana shakti ho. The seer, Drik. Darshana means that which he is seeing. The experiencer. Whenever he identifies with the experience, and that's what we are doing. Our experience. You say, I am hungry. Who is hungry? Are you hungry? Or the body is hungry? It's the body. You are tired. The body is tired. The body is tired. Suppose you say something makes you happy. I'm using the word. I should not use that word. Something makes you happy. What do I mean by you? Not you. The mind. The mind becomes happy. And then you say, What do you say? I am. The mind becomes unhappy. What do you say? I am unhappy. You are getting sleep. What do you say? I am sleepy. And you don't get sleep. What do you say? I am not sleepy. Yeah. What sleep has got to do with us? It has got to do with the body, with the mind. It has nothing to do with us. And yet that is what happens. So, to identify Purusha or consciousness with that which merely reflects consciousness, this is egoism. And this is one of the cheap things that we need to get rid of. Then, this is the avidya manifest in the form of four. Egotism, attachment, aversion, and intense clinging to life. What is the first thing? That is the first offspring of avidya, egotism. What are, who are the children of egotism? Attachment, raga, pressure. Its opposite, hatred, aversion, and intense clinging to life. Yes, all. If you are not identified with body and mind, then you will have no clinging at all. I am not worried about someone else's death. Are we ever feeling sad if someone else dies? Do I say, oh, I am dying. You may feel bad because you love somebody, but you don't feel frightened of death. Have you noticed it? You feel unhappy, but you don't feel frightened. But a person who is going to die, he feels frightened. The most wonderful thing. So, what is the definition of raga? Sukha, anushayi, ragaha. What a beautiful analysis Patanjali makes. Sukha never comes, the attachment never comes directly. Let me give you an illustration. It will be better. Supposing, you come across for the first time, a sweet, say, rasagulla. Before that, you have never tasted rasagulla. You might have heard about it. You might have even, myself might have even seen it. But you will never ever know what it is. But taste once. And after you tasted once, you know what happens? You become, it is very pleasant. And that sense of pleasantness, remains in our mind, in the form of memory. Smriti. So, what is memory? To experience something, without coming into directly, into contact with an object. That is called memory. And then, as soon as this memory is, embedded inside us, immediately tells us, that is, that was very nice. I would like to have it again. So, it is Sukha, anushayi, ragaha. Sukha means pleasure. Anushayi means that which follows. Ragaha. Raga means intense attachment. And here also, this pure psychology. We are never attached to pain. We are never attached to anything, that gives us misery, unhappiness. Always we are attached only to pleasure. Even when we are having negative, attached to negative things, that attachment is only because of the, the pleasure, feeling of pleasure we get. Simple example is, a person smokes. Smoking itself is never pleasurable. But the after effects of smoking is, pleasurable. Drinking alcohol, is never a pleasurable experience. But you know, the effect that comes, that is what we are after. Nobody is after alcohol. Everybody is after the, effect of the alcohol. If I put you a single question, as you know, you know alcohol is not, not only the only way, to become you know, to get that effect. Even suppose a small homeopathic pill, it will give you the same effect, as drinking a huge bottle of whiskey, or vodka or whatever it is. Will there be anybody, who would like to buy drinks and have it? Can, if I ask you that question, can you answer? Suppose the same effect comes, by taking just a homeopathic pill. Do you think anybody would do that? Nobody would drink alcohol, because we are not after alcohol. For that matter of fact, the opposite is also very true. You know what is the opposite? Supposing a person gets intense joy, by eating a rasagulla. Suppose somebody makes, a homeopathic, small homeopathic pill, by eating which, he will get the same amount of joy, through that pill. Will anyone go and purchase, KC Das Rasagulla? You imagine, exactly same effect it will give you. We, you know, I know, because you don't believe, it is only a hypothetical case. But if you do that, if the same effect we, the point I am making is, if we are not after these objects, we are after the effects of these objects. For ordinary human beings, the greatest pleasure they get, is sex pleasure. Supposing, scientists have discovered, some way, they can rig some electrodes into the brain, and they can give same amount, I am not even telling more, same amount of pleasure. Would anybody go for normal marrying, and all those connections? What would be your answer? The simplest answer is no. How do I know? Because I know there is, scientists have made an experiment with mice. There are certain, they say, I don't know how far it is, I can only tell you what I have read about. There are certain parts of the brain, which are called pleasure points. They discovered, you know, in the brain, there are so many points, sleep, sleeping, memory, etc, etc. They mapped out the brain. So what the scientists have done, they have implanted certain electrodes, which they planted into the young, beautiful, very strong, male, only male mice. And then they taught the mice, how to stimulate them. So there are certain points, where they go and touch, these electrodes become electricity flows, and they stimulate that pleasure points, and they get equivalent pleasure. Then they waited to see what happens. So what they did, in the same case, some young, strong, very healthy male mice, and at the same time, plenty of beautiful, don't ask me, female mice, very delectable to the mice, and the best food the mice likes, plenty of it, they can have it, they put. And they were watching, what would happen now. You know what is the result? The male mice started dying, within a few days, because every few seconds, they would go and touch the electricity, because they are stimulating themselves, again and again, and they are getting that pleasure. They did not even look at any single woman. They were completely free from three causes. You see, and then they stopped this, because if this is the simplest truth is, this is what Upanishad is telling. We also know through reason, we are never after any object of pleasure. We love an object, not because of the object, but because of the expected, expected pleasure from that object. That is why Agnivalikya teaches Maitreyi, my dear, no wife loves her husband, for the sake of the husband, but for the sake of the self. Self means what here? Satchitananda. Satchitananda. That is why the same couple, who are so much in love with each other, they are not in love with each other. They are in love of joy, happiness, and the moment any one of them, simply is incapable of providing the expected stimulation, then very often that conflict will come, then it may end in divorce, or death, or murder, or anything. We see so many things. The same thing, with any object it is the same thing, and yet are we aware of it? We always think, this is why we do not have any substitute, by which we can get the same amount of joy. Now look at Sri Ramakrishna's division of joy, Ananda, Vishayananda, Bhajanananda, and Brahmananda. Now when a person starts getting Bhajanananda, do you think he will care for Vishayananda? And when a person gets Brahmananda, do you think he will be doing bhajans? The simple truth, we are not after any object. You know why? Because every object is impure, it is ephemeral, it is unpleasant, and it is also non-Atman. It will go away. This is what we just now, we had discussed about it, which object to young couple, I am bringing this subject again and again, because this is what we understand. So food or sex or sleep, these are the three venues of pleasure, or any living creature gets, they die for that. So a couple, they love each other, but you know, how long can they love each other? The body, supposing the husband becomes, what is that? Leprosy, he gets leprosy. What happens to the love of the wife? Suppose he becomes drunkard or whatever, smelly, how many factors are there? So long as we are at a distance. Candle dinner, why candle dinner? Because you can't see each other properly. That's why your imagination works very, very fine. But the moment you put bright light, all that imaginary factor disappears. And after that, Swamiji was right. Yeah, this is the fact. But if any couple are really loving towards each other, you know, they transcend the objective love and they see something much more permanent. What is that? God, self, themselves. That is true love. And that is our ultimate goal. Anyway, the point we are discussing here, what is Raga? How do we develop attachment? Attachment always follows Whenever we experience anything which gives us pleasure, that memory remains and we are haunted by that memory. I want that experience again and again and again. Why do we want? Because no one ever wants to be even one millisecond away from, that is the truth. So the opposite also is absolutely true. What is this opposite of Sukha, Dukha? Here we use Raga and Dvesha. And Dvesha is So when we experience some intense unpleasantness, suffering, and that also remains in our brains in the form of memory. That's why if anybody had given you some tremendous unhappiness and the moment that memory comes, your whole face becomes unhappy face. When you look at that person, when you come into contact with that person, your whole being rebels. Exactly same mechanism. That is why Hiram Krishna says one has to become Dvandvatita. Dvandvatita means what, Dukheshu Anudvigna Manah Sukheshu Vigatas Prihah Vita Raga Bhaya Krodhah Sthita Dhehi Munihi Vichitah Second chapter of the Bhagavad Gita, Sthita Prajnal characteristics of a man of steady wisdom, it is said. So the last one is, that also we know. What is the last one? Abhinivesha means what? Intense clinging to body. What is Abhinivesha? Here Patanjali gives, First of all, Abhinivesha means intense clinging to life, to this body. Means it is like a stream, very powerful stream. You are not controlling it. It is controlling us. You are not fearing death. The fear itself is controlling us. Vidushthatha Aarudhah Well entrenched, deeply entrenched. For whom? For ignorant people? No. Even for most learned people. Even those who are practicing spiritual practice for maybe years together. When death comes, we do not want to die. I will close this talk. We will have enough to talk about this because these are most marvelous things. Even to deeply think about them. Several examples will come in the future classes. But I will end it with a beautiful example of even those who are extremely well-learned and well-behaved people, very very great people, not only ignorant people, even in them, this intense clinging is, as it were, it is deep-rooted and the cause of it is not the person but the fear of death itself is like a powerful current which is carrying us helplessly along. Swami Akhandanandaji was in one village and he went and stayed in a house. Very nice devotees. Then what happened? One what you call Bhagavata Pandit, a Pandit who recites these religious stories and entertains people. Very nice person. Swami Akhandanandaji heard that there was a program in that village and that person was to come and stay in this house where Swami Akhandanandaji was living. This Brahmin Pandit, in those days mostly Brahmins, he came and then straight he went to perform his yatra or whatever you call it and he finished his job and then he came back at night around 10 o'clock or 10.30 and then he was provided some food. Both of them were staying in a small outer room and within half an hour the man went out for answering the calls of nature. Then after a little bit time again he came back. After five minutes again he ran. After five minutes again he ran. Every few minutes he was running out and this was going on. Swami Akhandanandaji, he suspected something. So he said, how is the stools? He said it is very very thin like water. I'm passing water and by the minute that man was becoming. Now what the funny thing that happened was this man had expounded in his gatha how life is like a drop of water on the leaf of a lotus. Nalini dhalagatha jalavat taralam. So this was Shankaracharya's one of the sentences. It is a well-known sentence. So that was one of the things he expounded to the whole people and after that this effect had taken place. Then this Swamiji could not. He was a very kind-hearted person. He woke up the owner of that house. He explained this is what is happening cholera and then he told him see that some medicine is given. So he reluctantly he brought some homeopathic medicine and said this is nothing. It is just he was tired etc. You give this medicine he would be all right and then he closed. Afterwards he never opened his door and by morning he was on death bed. Then this Brahmin was telling Swamiji please send a telegram to my family. I do not think I will survive this night and within half an hour he passed away in front of Swami Akhandanandaji. So then he was remarking. Did he know he expounded so beautifully that life is like a drop of water on a lotus leaf and did he expect that that is going to come true in his own life. It is all right to expound it. I can also do it. Any one of you can do it but when it comes to actually feeling that well the body has come the body will go then it will be wonderful. But most of us are victims of avidya means intense clinging. This is me. I am going to be non-existent. Death means non-existent. That is why Swami Vivekananda used to say even if a person had seen a ghost he is blessed indeed because he won't be frightened of death because that means there is life after death. If somebody had a vision of a God or Goddess what to speak? He will not have any fear at all. Now let me again tell you Swami Duryodhana was lying in Puri and clearly he was telling one midnight suddenly some power came something has come from outside and it was trying to take away my prana and he was telling I was witnessing this struggle that is going on between my life and this something outside which is trying to pull me out. He said this struggle went on for some time. Two three times it happened in his life but at that time he said when I was thinking my life is about to depart then Swami Vivekananda appeared and said Hari bhai you have some work to do. You can't go now. And then as soon as Swami said this the other got defeated and then it left and then he said by morning I slowly recovered from my life. He was witnessing. Do you think he was frightened? He was never frightened because he knew what was beyond death. That is why Nachiketa asks death. He goes and says some people say there is life after death. Some people say death is the end of everything. Is there something beyond life and death? You tell me about it and then ultimately that's the whole message of Kathopanishad is you don't need to be afraid because death is one of the stages that the soul passes through in its evolutionary journey. So these are the points which again there are these are appears to be negative points but there are very positive aspects of Raga, positive aspects of Ahankara, positive aspects of Dvesha, positive aspects of Abhinimesha also but we will discuss about them in my next class. Om Shanti Shanti Shanti