Patanjali Yoga Sutras Lecture 055

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

Om Sahana Vavatu Sahana Ubhunaktu Sahaveeryam Karavavahai Tejasvi Navaditamastu Mavidvishavahai Om Shanti Shanti Shanti Om Yogena Chittasyapadena Vacham Malam Sharirasya Chavai Dhyakena Upakarottam Pravaram Muninam Pratanjalim Pranjali Rana Tosmi Since it is quite some time, when we had our last class on Patanjali Yoga Sutras, let me summarize what we had discussed so far. We had started the second chapter, second pada, which is called Kriya Yoga also. It is known as the practice, yoga practice. The first chapter was mainly to explain what yoga is, what the goal of yoga is and what are the problems we could encounter and how to go about it. But here is the practice in the second chapter called also Kriya Yoga. Swadhyaya, austerity and study of the scriptures and all the allied practices, that is what constitutes the second pada. What is the problem to yoga? What is the main subject of the yoga? Chitta. Chitta means our own mind. Our own mind is the problem. What is the solution? Our own mind is the solution. You are the problem. So who is the solution? You are the solution. What do you mean by you? I. I is the problem. I is the solution. Which I are we talking about? There are two I's. One real I and another is false I, reflected I, limited I. The problem comes with the limited I. How to get rid of it? That is all yoga is about. That's why in Vedantic language we call yoga means vyoga. Union means disunion. Union has brought all these problems. What is the solution? Disunion. Separate. Then our problems will go away. So there are certain analysis to be done how this can be gotten rid of. What is the problem with having this limited I? After all it is an I. The problem is it brings terrible pain. Every birth is a pain. Every death is also a pain. The whole life is a pain. This is what Buddha's first teaching is life is full of suffering. Many people misunderstand Buddha. He is not talking about what we normally understand by unhappiness, suffering. It is true also we suffer but that's not what he is really referring to. If only we know what we really are, if only we can refine our mind to what great heights of happiness can we not reach? I will just give you an example of what I am talking about. We all want happiness and nobody wants suffering. And there are degrees of happiness and degrees of suffering. Let me talk about degrees of happiness. This means not 1% or 2%. It is incalculable. The lowest degree of happiness is what we can derive from our ordinary day-to-day objects eating, drinking, sex, etc. And this is common to everyone. People do not realize that rich people do not enjoy more than poor people. It's very, very common misperception that just because a man has got more money or even better food he enjoys more. That is a false perception. A hungry man with even the least bit of common food, bread or rice and a little bit of in India what they call chatu, a little bit. He derives 100,000 times more happiness than a rich man who doesn't have any appetite. Any type of sensual enjoyment that is available to all of us, it is exactly the same happiness or the same unhappiness depending on the conditions. The difference comes, a rich man can afford to have warm blankets, he earned it. So that is the difference. Far, far, far higher, incalculably higher happiness is what is called medhananda, intellectual happiness. A man, a scientist engaged in research sits down and absorbs whole life, a scientist or a poet, etc., all these people, how hard they work, intellectual, a historian, how much he works to study and collate and then take notes, arrange them, etc. Do you think he is not getting any happiness? He gets supremely greater happiness which we cannot imagine, an ordinary person cannot imagine. I can give you a small example. Even if you read a very well-written page-turner novel, mystery novel let us say, the hours and hours and hours together can enjoy a film, beautifully taken film, how much happiness it gives, which food or which sensual enjoyment lasts, this is the far higher happiness, far higher than that is the happiness of an artist called kalananda, kala means art, aesthetic pleasure. When a musician or a poet or a painter, they need not actually do anything, having that sense, aesthetic sense, how much tremendous joy, it is even called brahmananda, substitute for brahmananda in Vedantic language, how much happiness he is getting. Let me give you a small example. Say Ramakrishna as you all know, when he was a young boy, he was walking in the fields and he saw the whole sky covered with thick black clouds, against that background he also saw a flock of pure white cranes, what a tremendous sense of this aesthetic sense he developed, he fell down unconscious and then when he was asked, he said, I was enjoying tremendous bliss within, where are we? We can't even enjoy classical music, let alone this aesthetic pleasure. So far higher is the joy that they go mad, you know, a Van Gogh, a Monet, when they are absorbed whole life painting, it is said of Vincent Van Gogh, from in sunshine he used to watch a haystack from sunrise to sunset and people wondered what is this man looking at the haystack, later on he said that your eyes they cannot see because you are not trained, I see that every minute the color of the haystack changes and it gives me tremendous joy. So any artist who has a developed sense of aestheticism, beauty, what he enjoys in this world can never be compared to anything else, far higher than this, aesthetic pleasure is the joy of moral life, which Sri Ramakrishna used to call bhajanananda, I will come to that very shortly, it is also, we can also name it as dharmananda, living a righteous life, a truthful life, you know, when we read our mythologies, this Pandavas, how much they had to suffer and then this Satya Harishchandra, how much he had to suffer, so many kings because of their righteous life, they had to suffer terribly, indescribably terrible sorrow they had to go through, but they didn't give up, were they mad or were they getting something out of it, we think that they are stubbornly clinging to truthfulness, righteousness and that is why they could not give it up, but if only we know what tremendous bliss they derive from that kind of life, they can never give up, in fact there is a psychology there, once we get that joy, we would not like to look down upon anything else, we have no glimpse for us telling the truth, when it is convenient, it is very easy, the test of truth is when it can entail terrible amount of pain in our mind, then we don't give up, but the very leading of that life, following of truthfulness or dharma, not merely truthfulness, dharma means it is also a self-controlled life, we have very poor idea what this moral life is all about, a person who has no control over his mind can never lead a moral life, in the very first temptation he gives in, so the amount of joy they get can never be even imagined let alone experienced even by artists, now coming back, you see Ramakrishna used to divide happiness into three as we know, Vishayananda, Bhajananda and Brahmananda, Vishayananda we all understand, experience of the sensual pleasures, how many sense organs we have? Five sense organs, whichever type of joy we experience through these five sense organs is called sensual pleasures, cold when it is a warm room, it gives a pleasure and when we want to hear nice music, nice sounds, not only music, we want to hear very happy words, words of praise, even an ugly person, if you tell how beautiful you are, oh what joy it gives, what ananda is that? Ear ananda, which is joy of the ear, joy of the ear, then there is eye, we want to see best forms, beauty, beautiful forms, beautiful colours etc., then beautiful tastes and beautiful everything, smells, fragrances, it's a big, big business now, fragrance, this is what we understand by the meaning of sensual pleasures, enjoyment through the experiences of the sense organs. What does Ramakrishna mean? Bhajanananda, bhajana means in Sanskrit, all that we know, singing the names and glories of God, any fool can sing, any commercial artist, how wonderfully they sing, you know all these great singers, how wonderfully they sing, do they really enjoy this bhajanananda? Do you think they are enjoying? According to Ramakrishna, they should, isn't it? Bhajanananda means what? You sing or you hear beautiful hymns, beautiful devotional songs etc., and these musicians, their voices are so sweet and they know how to sing, how to play, how to enjoy also, but are they getting bhajanananda from that? Far, far from it, not at all. What do they get? Intellectual pleasure. What is real bhajanananda? A man who is devoted to God, who has perfect self-control, whose attention is only directed towards God and whose reality consists of only God. He alone enjoys this bhajanananda. What I mean to say, bhajanananda means first lead a moral life, a righteous life, otherwise you cannot be attracted to truth. Sri Ramakrishna's one of the sayings, cultivate holy company. In Sanskrit, it is called satsanga. Sat, the word sat has got four meanings. The first word sat means good, good, holy etc. The second meaning of it is truth, that which, whatever is truth, that alone is sat, not untruth at all. The third meaning of sat is that a person who adheres to this truthfulness and who becomes so pure that he cannot be satisfied excepting by God. That truth-seeking, truth must lead to truth-seeking. And seeking the truth means what? Only God. That is the third meaning. Fourth meaning of sat is God. Another name for God is sat, sat, chit and ananda. So these four meanings are there. So Sri Ramakrishna says cultivate holy company. Who can cultivate holy company? Only a person who wants to become holy. And who can cultivate holy company? An immoral person. We think even if he goes to Sri Ramakrishna, do you think he can stay? He may like, but he cannot stay, he cannot enjoy because they will be like fidgeting. Sri Ramakrishna used one word, if you take a worm born of filth and put it on a fragrant flower, what happens to the worm? It wriggles, either dies or if it is fortunate, it falls off into filth. He says, ah, wonderful. I think you do recollect about this fragrance. Fisherwoman's basket. What are we talking about? Bhajanananda. What is bhajanananda? The joy one derives from leading a righteous life. Only such people are attracted by God. Only such people feel the attraction of God. But even a person may sing bhajans, but if he is not pure, his mind will be directed towards what? Towards worldly things. A simple example I am giving, a funny example. There is a song by Mirabai. Oh Lord, I cannot bear separation from you. And this man was singing. What was he thinking? He had one girlfriend. What is he singing? Oh Lord, I cannot bear separation from you. What was he thinking? Oh Mary, I cannot bear separation from you. This is what happens, not what comes, but the words that come out of ours. Or even what we do, because there are many priests who do a lot of rituals like worshipping God in temples, etc. Where is their mind? Either they are playing cards or they are carrying food to their mistresses, according to Shri Ramakrishna. So everyone who is worshipping God doesn't mean automatically their mind is tuned to God. Only a person who leads a righteous life, it becomes so pure that that mind automatically it realizes the greatness of God, the truthfulness of God, the truth of God. That's why truth is God. This is we are talking about only fourth level of this joy. There is the highest level. What is it? The joy that one derives from God. That is called Brahmananda. These are the different things. What is the connection with our subject? What is yoga? Chitta vritti nirodha. Completely controlling the mind, purifying it, reducing all the thoughts to the minimum, but directing it towards God. According to Patanjali you don't need to redirect. You just remove the thoughts, you become free because the mind belongs to non-Atman, Prakruti. According to Vedanta you direct it towards God. Then what happens? The mind reflects God and that mind which can reflect only God that is called pure mind by Shri Ramakrishna. Pure mind and pure Atman is one and the same. So what are the obstructions? Anything that doesn't allow us to realize our true nature that is an obstruction and in Sanskrit that is called Klesha. This is what we have been discussing. Kleshas are five types. Ignorance, egoism, attachment, aversion and intense desire to cling to life are the five kleshas and our life is filled with these five. Of these five the first one is the root. The other four are the offsprings. So we also have what is avidya or what is ignorance. All our life it is directed by four of these offsprings of ignorance. What is ignorance? Ignorance is 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. That means we are living in non-God. Not strictly true. We are living in God. Every second we are living in God. We cannot live in non-God because all that exists is only God. But then we do not realize it. That is what ignorance is not an objective fact. Ignorance is a state of the mind. For a simple example will be you may be sleeping in an air-conditioned room but you may be dreaming you are there in South India in summer, in midday and you are dragging a heavy cart filled with lot of weight. Just imagine that condition and there is no water anywhere and there is no road also. Just imagine what is that condition. You are, where are you lying down? Air-conditioned room. What is your dream? You are suffering. Are you suffering? When do you not suffer? When you come out of it, you know a great joy comes. What a relief! Or somebody is beating you black and blue in the dream and you are trying to run away and then suddenly you scream and then you wake up and you will say what a relief, what a horrible dream we said. So even though it is true that we are living in God but the ignorance, ignorance of the fact that we are not realizing God, not knowing that we are living in God, that itself is a terrible suffering. Many times I also mention to you when we use the word God it can lead to wrong understanding. Many times it happens and there are unfortunately so many unfortunate people in this world who caution us don't use the word God. Fools do not know what they are talking about. If we substitute the word God for some other words, nobody will have any problem. Use the word happiness instead of God. So if we do not know that how happy we are, what is our condition? If we do not know we are happy, what are we? Unhappy. Don't use the word ignorance, big big words. What is the opposite of happiness? Unhappiness, misery, suffering, that is what it is. So all the time we are living in happiness and we are suffering, what a condition it is. So that is called ignorance. What is ignorance? To mistake the unreal, the impermanent, the unhappy etc. as real, as permanent, as pure and as pleasant, this is called ignorance. We already discussed about it. Then he is also defining. From ignorance four things would spring. First thing is egoism, second thing is called happiness, third thing is called its opposite, hatred, attachment or hatred. Fourth is intense clinging to life. Life means what? This body. Life means what? This body, this mind. We don't want to give it up. Here comes a very interesting thing. How beautiful this psychology is. Supposing you see somebody who is very strong, much strong and much more wealthy, much more popular, much more intelligent, wise etc. of somebody else. What do you wish? Do you not wish that how wonderful it will be if I can have all those things, right? My question to you is would you like to become like him or would you like to keep your mind, present mind and acquire all those qualities? Which person wants to exchange his own life to anybody? Is there anyone of you who would like to exchange your present body and mind to somebody's body? Other person? There is nobody if you think about it. What you want is the best things from everybody else I should have to this particular body-mind complex only. Why? Because we have got that strong sense of egoism. Egoism means what? To completely identify oneself with our body and with every thought of our mind that is called egoism. How this egoism affects us? When I say I am young, what do you mean by young? My body is young. When I say I am a doctor, what do you mean? What do I mean? My qualification. When I say I am a musician, what do you mean? You know music. So whatever be the thought, we are identifying ourselves with that particular thought and say this is me. Is there anything wrong with that? Terribly wrong because this body is always changing. Who wants to be old? Everyone wants to be between 18 and 25. I would say rather funnily we would like to be 13 between 13 and 23. Why 13? Because any problem comes we can blame others. 23 is whatever enjoyable thing is there, I would be the first to go there. So whatever is convenient I want it. Whatever is inconvenient let others have it. That's why I said 13 and 23. After 23 what happens? Would you like to be more than the 23? Absolutely no. What are we talking about? Egoism. What is egoism? Identifying with the body and mind. Unfortunately what happens? Whether we are 24 or 54 or 74 or 94, we have no option but to identify ourselves whatever our body. Whatever body gives us, disease, it could be cancer, it could be heart problem, it could be any problem. What about the mind? The mind also, when you are happy, when some happy event takes place, happy thought comes, then that's quite okay, I am happy. But that gives rise also to the other possibilities. When some unhappy thought comes then what about that? That is also unhappy thought. What are we discussing? Egoism. Egoism means what? Whatever our body, our mind's condition, we identify ourselves with it and a time will come when this body has to go and we say oh I have to die. What a painful thought it is. So many things are there. This is called egoism. Then we come to Sukhanushai Raghaha. Attachment is that which dwells upon pleasure. What happens? We have a pleasant experience. The moment that pleasure comes, our mind becomes attached to that object. Here is some secret. What did I say? Whenever we have any pleasant experience, our mind becomes attached to that object. Attachment comes. We do not first get attached and then derive happiness. That comes later on. First time we have to experience that object. Then it gives us what we call pleasure. It relieves us of stress, natural stress and then we say oh this is wonderful. What is attachment? I would like to have it again and again and again. That is called attachment. So this attachment, we are unable to give up. What is the problem? Attachment is good because it gives us pleasure, isn't it? There is a problem. The problem is the same object which can give pleasure at one time under one set of circumstances, the same object can give us right the opposite. We feel like blasting those people. We say that this person showed so much of love and then this person is not giving me any more pleasure. So this is attachment. Strange. What is the opposite of attachment? Not detachment. Hatred. Hatred means what? The opposite of attachment. What is detachment? Be clear about it. Detachment is the ability to separate ourselves from everything. Something is giving me joy so I don't want it. I want to think about something else, God for example. This is giving me unhappiness. I don't care. I can put my mind on God. Let it be there. What does it really matter? That ability to separate ourselves is called detachment. No, no. The opposite of attachment is hatred. Raga and dvesha. Raga and dvesha. These are the beautiful words. So it is just the opposite. Aversion or hatred is that which dwells upon pain. So what happens? First time we do not know an object gives us pain and then ever since that experience, every time we see that object, no, no, no. This gives me suffering. This gives me so much of pain. I do not wish this. So these are the two again the problems of the mind. What is that? Egoism and then attachment and then aversion. These three. There is another way will come. Before that I want to tell, mention something very important. Both what we call pleasure and pain, both of them have their effect. What is the effect? One brings us attachment, the other brings us aversion and both these are attachments only. Why are these called attachments? Both these are attachments because they influence our mind. Simple example I will give you. Suppose you enjoyed some object, maybe a sweet, maybe a book and again and again I would like to read that kind of book. I would like to, that's why you know, when you enjoy the fiction novel of a particular author, then you say this author writes very beautifully. When is the next book coming from this author? It is a common experience. Then something else happens, you get pain from some object and then we develop that aversion. Whenever we think of that object, aversion comes. Example, suppose somebody criticised you, somebody gave you pain, after that what would you do? The first thing is, this person is a very bad person, he gave me so much of pain. If it stops with that, there is not much problem but you know what happens? The mind goes on dwelling. Whenever you see that person, whenever you see that person's dog, whenever you see that person's child, immediately all these associations will come and make us extremely unhappy. Now what is attachment? You dwell on a particular object again and again and again, that's called attachment. So when you hate something, are you dwelling? Do you stop thinking about it? That's why Yathishan Maharaj used to say, hating somebody is worse than even getting attached because at least attachment you can forget for some time but this hatred, this aversion you can rarely forget. There is a difference between aversion and also hatred. Aversion usually comes for any object, it could be human being, it could be non-human being, a book, a food, a particular place, a type of temperature, everything. But hatred, it comes only for human beings, human beings only. I hate that person, this is what we say and that is worse really speaking. You know you don't say, I hate a cockroach, you don't say, I don't like cockroaches, I hate mice, do you? You don't really hate but you don't like them, that's fine. But a human being, I hate this fellow, this person, etc., this comes. So what is the point we are talking about? These are bonds. Why these are bonds? They do not allow our mind to think of higher things. They just pull us. You think of us, both these pull. That's why both are called strong bonds of the avidya, ignorance. Then the last one. What is the last one? Intense clinging to life, however painful it is. How many of us go through these things? It's not worth but yet what happens to our mind? Do we want to die? Now this fear of death, it is common for everybody. Even ignorant people, they are fearing this natural. What about learned people? What about these scholars who go on giving talks on Vedanta and I am the Atman and all those things? But when the very idea of death comes, oh I have to go. When do you get liberated? When you go. When the I dies, I become liberated. Sri Ramakrishna says, pun on words, when do I realize God? When you die, you realize God. I am talking about realization of God and you are talking about death. What is he talking about? Egoism. Death of egoism is the root cause of all our bondage. When it dies, what happens? The real I ever remains. This is so natural. Everybody, even an insect, just born insect, try to put your foot, what does it do? It wriggles. Why? Do not kill me. Hindus derive a corollary from this. Says, this one is just born. It doesn't know anything about death. But why is it so much fear in death? That means it must have experienced death many times in the past. This is a wonderful thing. I have already gone through it in my past classes. But every creature always has this craving, let me never be non-existent, let me be alive. That is a beautiful translation. Death means what? Non-existence. For whom? For us. That is ignorance. Death is not non-existence. What is death? Going back into the natural constituents. A mud pot. A mud pot. When it is broken, where does it go? This cloth is made up of what? Threads. And when it is torn, where does it go? To threads. Isn't it? But we do not understand. We think, I am going to be non-existent. That is also ignorance. So this abhinivesha means intense clinging to life. Not only, even when a person is suffering terribly, this person will be clinging to life. Suppose a doctor comes and says, do you want to die now or after two minutes? What do you think he will do? Yeah, you know, I made it too close. Supposing a doctor says, without operation you will die in two days. With operation you will live for a month. What do you think the person will do? So these are the effects of ignorance. Ignorance gives birth to egoism. And egoism manifests in these four forms. What are those four forms? Egoism is first manifestation, attachment to pleasant things is second, and aversion to anything that gives pain is the third, and intense clinging to live even though life is a suffering. This is what happens. Until now we have discussed here. Then last class, what did we discuss? Avidya Kshetram, Uttaresham, Prasupta, Tanu, Vichinna, Udharanam. All these five, ignorance, egoism, attachment, aversion and clinging to life. These are called Klesha. Klesha means pain bearing, let us say, thoughts. All these pain bearing thoughts. Let me add a note here. We said one of them. What is that? Attachment. Attachment to what? Pleasure. We will never get attached unless something gives us pleasure. Is pleasure? Pleasure also falls under pain? Yes. Why? For several reasons. The first reason is that if we want pleasure we have to pay the price. Simple example is supposing you like some sweet and you want to get pleasure out of it. What do you need first to do? You have to earn. You have to work hard then you can buy with it. After that what do you do? You have to eat it. Eating is a pleasure or a pain? You like. Like belongs to the mind. Suppose just now one tooth has come loose and it is touching the gums and it is very painful. What does your mind say? I want to eat sweet. What does your mouth say? It is very painful. This is first thing. Suppose everything is okay. You eat this sweet. Who is going to digest it? You or somebody else? You have to digest it and then after digestion also there are other things I would not mention. You have to do that. This is one. Another problem that comes is okay this time I got this sweet. Next time where am I going to get this sweet? Yeah this is a problem. Sweet. Do we get sweet in the future? Maybe I will not get. Maybe where I am going they are not available. That very thought I may not be able to enjoy in so many ways. That gives us pain. Then also if I am attached to a sweet then my mind doesn't want to move forward. We just at the beginning of this talk I discussed about the categories of happiness. What is the rule? If we want higher happiness we will have to give up however pleasant it is the lower type of happiness. If we do not there is no way we are going to above. Sacrificing, complete annihilation of the lower happiness is the price we have to pay to go to higher degree of happiness. Now what happens this example I am giving this sweet. It produces attachment. Do you know what is attachment? Another way of attachment. I don't want to move from here. I want to remain here only. That is called attachment. So that itself becomes an obstruction for further progress. So many implications are there. That is why we are not able to move forward towards in any field of life let alone God even intellectually. Give a book of philosophy it really gives tremendous amount of happiness but you have to pay the price. What is the price? You should give up all trash. Trashy magazines, trashy newspapers, trashy conversations. The point is attachment means we do not wish to sacrifice what we definitely know to be pleasure giving. We do not wish to give them up. What a terrible thing it is. Any saint what does he say? He says the price we have to pay to higher levels of existence is to give up the lower things. It doesn't work like credit card. First I enjoy, later on I pay. God is most strict businessman. First to pay and then enjoy. There is no other way. So this is what we have to remember attachment. Even pleasure is a pain for a yogi because it is this pleasures actually which stand in our way and according to this Gaudapada the last obstruction in self-knowledge is called Ananda. We discussed also you know Laya, Vikshepa, Kashaya and Ananda. Four terrible obstructions. Laya means sleep. When you want to think about God that is the time when our mind tells you know enough thinking about God and now you go to sleep. This is the first one. What is the second one? You know what is the second one? Vikshepa. If somehow we don't go to sleep our mind becomes terribly scattered, restless. Somehow if we overcome it then this Maya comes and then what does he say? Kashaya. Kashaya means very bitter Ayurvedic medicine. It says what is this monk? Look everybody is so happy, so enjoying. Everybody is enjoying. The problem with this concept is everybody is telling to himself, look everybody is happy. Why are you miserable? How are you? How are you? Oh wonderful, marvelous. Point is any type of pleasure that we are getting stands at a terrible impediment in spiritual progress and if we wish genuinely to progress in any field of life not only in spiritual field whether we would like to become musicians or become scientists or anything higher field even in intellectual field we have to sacrifice our sleep, sacrifice our time, sacrifice our energy. Greatness doesn't come just like that. That is why it is said you know who is a genius? What is a genius? 99% perspiration. Only 1% inspiration. That is all. We forget great men do not become great by just lazying. We have to pay the price. Sooner or later we learn that lesson. All these five kleshas they may be very very active, they may be hidden for some reason or they may be replaced by something else or they may have become extremely thin so that little snap like that and they break. This was what we discussed in my last class. Full one class I have spent. I gave several examples also. Let me briefly recollect. The first that is what we call Udara. In this here Udara comes as the last in this order but I am taking Udara means what? We are creatures of our passions. They are fully there. Whenever you look at somebody, study yourself. Suppose you meet five people. You are happy, glad to meet one person and you are not so happy to meet the other person instantaneously. All the five people are almost there at the same time. Why is it? Because one person is friendly and he likes you and most likely he praised you last time. Oh your sari looks very nice or your singing is very beautiful or your curry you made is very nice etc. etc. and that person is all my friend. He likes me. Whom do we like? Those who like us. Feathers of the same word. I am using it in both words. Who are like us and who also like us. Whom do we hate? Those whom we do not like and those also who do not like us. You know we exchange views. We are subject. We are puppets in the form of our own likes and dislikes and all these things which we just now discussed. Fully organized. This is called Udara. Then Prasupta. Sometimes some of them may be sleeping but ready to awaken at the slightest touch. I gave you the example of a great saint Vishwamitra. He did so many years of austerity. The moment a dancer came, a woman came, immediately fell like a pack of cards. So we believe oh this woman, they are objects of temptation. They destroy men. What nonsense? How can anybody destroy anybody unless the fellow has sent an open invitation. I am open to destruction. Not only we are open, we send notice to everybody. If we are not prone to temptation, if we are not pre-programmed ourselves to temptation, no temptation can ever tempt us. I gave the example. This saint Vishwamitra, he fell like a pack of cards. Supposing this woman had come most beautifully dressed and there is a child of three years, a boy of three years. Would he be tempted? He would be looking at her. What do you think he is looking at her? He is looking at her all over her. He is looking and looking all over her. What is he looking? Can't you tell? Looking. Has she got at least one chocolate? I don't see. Did she put it in her purse? Is it hidden in her bag, handbag? Do you think the lady is thinking, oh I am so beautiful, this boy is looking at me. What is the boy thinking? Where could this lady have hidden my beautiful chocolate? Unless we are prone to temptation, we cannot be tempted. Even the most tempting objects come in front. Supposing, another example I give, a man is suffering from intense stomach ache and somebody brings the most tempting food which he likes very much, he or she likes very much. Do you think that that person will be tempted at that moment? So, whenever we fall, let us never blame anyone else. Let us blame our own selves. This is called Prasukta. Then Vichchina. Vichchina means what? One emotion temporarily covered up by another emotion. I give the example, a mother is extremely enraged with somebody. That is, her anger had possessed her. When she was about to burst into some violent action, suddenly her baby comes running and hugs her. What happens? Instantaneously she covers her baby, hugs her baby, she has forgotten. What happened? In this case, the love for her baby had totally destroyed her anger. Perhaps this example is a bit difficult. But supposing, Swami Vivekananda gives this example. A mother, she is going alone in the street. Suddenly a tiger comes. What would be her natural reaction? She runs, tries to run away. But supposing next day, she is with her child and then the tiger jumps. Where would her place be now? In front of the tiger. What happened in this case? The fear of the tiger had become totally covered up by her love for her child or protecting her child. This is called Vichchina. One emotion, one type of pleasure, pain bearing thought covered up temporarily by another thought. But the fourth one is called Tanu. Tanu means what? Through persistent spiritual practice, a man had reduced them from a large size to a very thin, very thin, just like a small plant of a big tree. The seed of a big tree, very big tree, like a banyan. It is just sprouted. How easy it would be to destroy that plant? Just with your nail, you flip it and then it is gone forever. But if it grows up, it is impossible even for an elephant to uproot it. This is called the state of thinness or Tanu. Prasukta, Tanu, Vichchina, Udharana. What is the ultimate point we are discussing? That this avidya or ignorance in the form of these manifestations, egoism, attachment, aversion and intense clinging to life, all these can be in any one of these four states. They may be fully operational or they are temporarily covered with something else or they might be sleeping. They may come next birth, next birth, next birth. What a terrible thing it is. Or they might have become so thin. All that is needed is a small effort so that they can be completely destroyed once for all. When a yogi attains that capability to destroy, then let there be a billion such thoughts in his mind and that is called the fifth state. It is not mentioned directly, it is called the fifth state. They are called Dagda Bija Vat, like burnt seeds. Ramakrishna tells you know, this popcorn, once you fry them, can you sprout them? It is impossible. So the purpose of yoga or sadhanapada is somehow to slowly reduce them to a small state and then completely burn them so that they can never again sprout. What happens? When the seeds may be there, they appear like seeds, very good seeds, but they have lost the power of sprouting. That means there is not going to be a future birth. By the way, we have to always remember, according to Vedanta, according to yoga, according to Indian system of thought or philosophy, it is taken for granted. We are all the creatures of our past lives and we are going to have future lives too. Until when? Until we reach home. What is our home? God. That is called real yoga. We will expound these things. Since the first chapter, I have taken quite a long time because it is most necessary to have good understanding and in our future classes, we will move quite fast in fact. Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti.