Patanjali Yoga Sutras Lecture 033

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

I bow to the eminent sage Patanjali, who removed the impurities of the mind through Yoga. Last week we were discussing the summary of it was Asampragnatha Samadhi or the highest type of Samadhi, and Samadhi means self-knowledge, God-realization, etc., cannot be achieved through effort. We have to arrive at it. This is the point Shri Ramakrishna tells so beautifully, God cannot be realized excepting by His grace, and this is the conclusion Patanjali also comes to. Then how do we arrive at Asampragnatha Samadhi? Only through particular pathways, and this is what he said, there are two types of spiritual practitioners and in Sanskrit the name for spiritual practitioner is Yogi. So there are Yogis, two types of Yogis. One type of Yogi is one who had almost reached the destination but fell a prey to supernatural powers or to intense bliss. According to one great Yoga teacher, there are four obstructions to perfection or we can also understand it in an ordinary way. Why is it that we do not succeed, we wish to succeed, but why we do not succeed? One of the obstacles is sleep. A student wants to pass first class first, but the moment he opens the book, he attains to Laya Samadhi. Then somehow if he overcomes that, then the mind becomes restless. Somehow if he overcomes that, the study becomes like bitter medicine. Somehow if he can overcome that, then he derives tremendous joy and when a person experiences joy, he does not want to move forward, however pleasant the experience is, unless we go beyond it, we won't proceed further. So this is what we discussed, how to arrive at it, at this highest. So there is a right means and there is a wrong means and according to the right means, there are five steps and it is compared to a ladder, just as a lower step leads to the higher step and that leads to the still higher step, etc., five. And what are those five steps, Shraddha, Veriya, Smriti, Samadhi and Prajna. So we were discussing about Shraddha. I wanted to clarify certain points about it. Shraddha, the word Shraddha is taken as intense faith and we also discussed that what is the difference between belief and faith, what we think our faith and what the scriptures is telling us Shraddha, what is the difference. If we control our faith, that is called belief. What does that mean? It means it depends upon our mood, it could be another way, we are very nicely thinking about God, suddenly we meet somebody whom we hate, the whole mood has disappeared. Maybe we have to live, maybe at home, maybe at office and that also creates lot of problems. This is called belief. What is true Shraddha? Once we attain to that state and it comes only through God's grace, God's grace means God will not put any conditions upon his grace. This is one of the interesting questions that come throughout the life and we all suffer from it. Why is not God gracious to us? If we are happy, we say God is very gracious. The moment some problems come, why is not God gracious to us? Usually this problem plagues devotees because devotees have inside, unconscious some kind of pride that we have got a copyright over God. Why? Because I bow down to him, I pay my taxes regularly. Taxes means morning, evening I do my japa, meditation, etc. I go to the ashram and we are also very proud, I have taken initiation, I am a registered devotee etc. etc. From how many delusions we suffer, God alone knows. So why is it he is creating troubles? So in the Patanjali Yoga Sutras, there is a sub-commentary on these sutras, there this question was asked that if God is God, in his eyes we are all equal, we are all God. So why is it that he creates troubles for one and only one reason and that reason is so that we quickly develop detachment towards this world and rush to him. Whatever God does, it is for good. If he is creating favourable circumstances, it is for our good. If we think they are not favourable, that is also for our good only, just like mother sometimes spanks the baby, for whose good? For the baby's good. So what is true faith, Shraddha? Shraddha is that which really trusts God, yes I have faith in the existence of God and I know the nature of God, I have faith that he will never abandon me, even if I have to go through hell, that is also his will. We all sing, you know that beautiful song, Shokali, Tumari Ichcha, but when it comes to practice, we have big problem, we have not only ordinary problem, theological problem. How can God allow these things to happen? And especially we think that others may suffer, I don't mind, but if we are suffering, then God, why is not God deviating his attention to somebody else? Two things we suffer from, one thing is we should never suffer even if other people suffer, second is even if we don't enjoy things, may others never enjoy things, that would be even more intolerable, but the truth is, as Holy Mother said, misery is a gift of God and whatever God does is good for us, whatever nature does for us, that is also good for us, even though it is not directly related to our subject. Just let me pass this thought to you, you know nature, how many calamities, tsunamis and these fires, earthquakes, volcanoes, where huge continents are destroyed, now the scientists are discovering, wherever there have been these catastrophic events, we see that the aftermath is very good, it gives life to a new kind of, new generation of animals or plants etc. From the evolution point of view also, nature creates, sometimes there is too much of water, rain, sometimes no rain at all for some time, famine, floods, what happens, some species completely are wiped out, when such a thing happens, according to Vedanta, does life become extinguished? No, they attain to higher forms of life, this has been accepted by evolutionists, but they have no explanation, is it the same creature which died which is evolving or is it some other creature? They can never tackle this problem, so we have to trust, let that be. Coming back, Shraddha, another problem that many times I have been questioned, this is the problem, there are fanatics, terrorists who are prepared to destroy others and at the same time, they are highly, highly, intensely religious, are they not having faith? And if that is called faith, then what they are doing is, after all, a very nice thing, after all it is the faith that is moving them, how can we blame them? The short answer to this problem is that Shraddha would always promote the goodness and the happiness of others, even at the cost of one's own suffering, but never it creates deliberate destruction or problem to others. So what does Shraddha mean? Intense faith, how do we know a person has got intense faith? I also mentioned a very important point, we divide faith into several departments, I have seen people and we all know, if we open our eyes, we can see, there is a person who is intensely devoted to God, religious, he goes to the shrines, he worships God, he meditates, he does regular japam, everything he does, but on the other hand, he is terribly miserly, he doesn't want to part even from an old thing which he can never use, we are all examples of that, only let us look into our attics, every time we want to sprinkle in, we take up a thing and say, this has been lying for so many years, it is completely useless, but who knows, it might come for use in future and we never give up, again put back there, every single object we do put back there. What is the point? The point is Shraddha means faith in future, is not God going to provide us? Let us recollect, Ramakrishna's beautiful example, Ramakrishna was telling the example of a monk and who never saw any woman, he was brought by some ascetics in the forest and one day, he came for the first time to beg food from a nearby village and he saw a young girl and he questioned, he saw a woman's breasts and he thought it was some disease, so he asked, why are you having this disease? So her mother came out, she understood the situation, said, my son, this is not a disease, this girl is going to have a child and God has provided food for that would-be-born child, this is the arrangement he made. The moment he heard this, he said, then why am I begging here? God is going to provide me and with that he went back, this is a wonderful parable. If God has provided even to people who are not even born, what to speak of a great soul who has been praying to God all the time, leading a spiritual life. So if we are having that kind of faith that God is going to look after us, then why should we become, why should not we become generous, unselfish? It is because that faith is lacking. You all know the familiar story of Naciketa, Naciketa's father claimed that he had faith in scriptures and the scriptures say, if you perform this kind of ritual, you will go attain to the highest heaven, not on this earth but on another location and he wanted that and he started doing it. Part of the condition of the ritual is that he should give away everything that he possesses. You have come to think of it, why is this condition imposed? Only because if the person is going to heaven, what is he going to do with these Indian cows? At least if he has got some, you know, these western cows, then they will at least give more milk. So why should he hold on to them? That means his faith is compartmentalized. Yes, I believe the scriptures but I don't believe in giving up things. So if we are in danger, is not there God to look after us? The brightest example of this is Prahlada. His own father tried to kill him in several different ways. He, as we all know, never succeeded. Every time his father put him to some kind of death punishment, all that Prahlada did, if you study his life, he never resisted. He never tried to escape, for example, his father gave him poison. He just offered it to God and happily drunk that poison and nothing happened because he had faith, if God wants me to die, it will happen, I should not resist. If God wants to live, who can kill me, is he saying, you know? If Rama wills me to die, who is there to save me? And if Rama decided to keep me, then who can kill me? This is the type of faith, real faith, uncompartmentalized faith that we should have. Then only we understand the meaning of the song, O mother, whatever happens is thy will only. Shraddha. Now, Shraddha means, another way of understanding is absolute knowledge, but indirect knowledge. We don't see God, we do not see afterlife, we do not see heaven and other worlds. Other worlds, afterlife, God, angels, devas, we do not see, but are they non-existent just because we do not see? The scriptures tell us that they all exist, I will give you two examples, though it is taking time, it is important for us to understand. The first example is Chandramani Devi, illiterate mother of Sri Ramakrishna, when she was carrying Sri Ramakrishna in her womb, she saw, she started seeing several gods and goddesses, you all know that. One day, a god came riding a swan, a small god, and she said, O god on the swan, why are you looking so tired, take some overnight's rice, your body will become cool. Was she having delusions or was that vision a real vision? Sri Ramakrishna's vision of Narendranath, in the path of Samadhi, his mind started ascending and he describes the existence of several other worlds. Now the point is, we say we believe in Sri Ramakrishna, we say we believe in Jesus Christ, we say we believe in Buddha, these are the people who are describing to us their various experiences about the other worlds, if that is true, then should we not be happy to give up everything in this world, because we are going to get far superior happiness than what we can even imagine on this earth, and yet we are not ready to give up. So what is the one meaning of this word Shraddha, Shraddha means absolute certainty that what I hear in the scriptures and what I hear from the mouth of my Guru is absolutely true, as if he knows, simplest example would be, you are seeing me, you are listening to me right now and if anyone, even if the whole world comes to you and say you are deluding yourself, would you believe anyone, what is the reason, you are seeing me directly, you are hearing me directly, in the same way if anyone has that kind of faith in God, in the scriptures, in the Guru, that is called Shraddha. What does this Shraddha lead to? That is most important, when a person is really possessed of Shraddha, because it is knowledge, knowledge must produce its appropriate effect. If you say I have knowledge, but it is not producing the appropriate effect, then you have not understood the meaning of knowledge, right or wrong knowledge, once you think there is knowledge, it must produce appropriate reaction. This is a very important point, before that let me recollect another story or example of Shri Ramakrishna. Shri Ramakrishna says, people say we believe in God, but most of them do not believe in God. Then he gives this story, supposing there is a thief, he is in a room and he comes to know that in the next room there is invaluable treasure and the partition between his room and the other room where the treasure lies is very, very thin, he can just give a push and he can enter into the other room, tell me could that thief sleep under those conditions? We have to meditate upon these parables of these great souls. Similarly, if we say we believe in God, what is there for us to worry about? So the point is, if we really believe in God, detachment to this world will come automatically. If we believe in God, where is God? He is here, right here. Even if we are dualists, even if we do not believe I am God, if we believe that there is a God, you cannot say God is somewhere. If he is somewhere, he is nowhere. If he is somewhere, he is everywhere. That is the true understanding of God. If God is here, does he not know? And if he knows, is it necessary for us to worry about anything? Is not God going to do something? We have yet to develop that kind of faith. That is a point which Patanjali specifically brings up. We will come to that. I am only discussing. If we have even a modicum of faith, then it must lead to the next, the lower step leads to the higher step. What is that higher step? Veria. Shraddha must lead to veria. Veria means, another point before I forget, it is a very important point. The answer to that question is terrorist faith, real faith or not. A real, what is the difference between real faith and assumed faith, brainwashed faith is brainwashed faith is inflexible. Once he believes, he says this is it, nothing, it cannot be anything else, whereas a true faith is always flexible. What does that mean? Does it mean to say that this faith that we have is going on, going, changes, yes it changes and it changes for the better. Knowledge is like that. Scientists, they know some things now this way and after 50 years, do you think that they will be having the same kind of beliefs and faiths, they go on changing, updating their knowledge. This is a very important point. What happens to a terrorist faith? He says this is it, that we have to kill everybody. Supposing there is a real, real sincere person who at first believes that what he has been brainwashed into by mullahs or priests or his understanding, we have to kill every non-Muslim. Suppose he thinks, but he is at the same time a person of faith. You know what happens? Very soon it makes him think, how can God be so cruel, after all the other person, even if he is not following my religion, God must have created a religion for him also. Very soon the grace of God in the form of faith, his faith becomes updated and very soon he understands the real truth, that is the nature of real faith. It is always flexible. Why do I say it is flexible? Because faith is like a muscle. You have a weak muscle and you want to make it strong, what will you do? You go to a gymnasium, take some courses, exercise courses and as you go on doing your exercises, your muscles gain more and still more and still more strength. In the same way, as we are going on doing spiritual exercises, our understanding becomes deeper, our reason also becomes crystal clear. We approach truth. That's why Swami Vivekananda made a marvellous statement, which many people never understood. He said, God grows as man grows. Does God grow? We think that God is inflexible. He must be exactly like, no, God really does not grow. He cannot grow for geographical reasons also, because if he oversteps into Russian soil, then he will be shot dead. What does it mean? It means, as man's understanding grows, his faith, his understanding, his knowledge about God also grows, accordingly his character also changes. So knowledge, what is faith? Indirect knowledge. Now, knowledge has got several components, it is very important to understand. I made a statement at the beginning of this talk, any knowledge, right or wrong, must produce its appropriate reactions. If a man really believes in God, then his reaction to this world, to his life, everything is different. If a person doesn't believe in God, that will be again different. As we go on growing in our faith, which means as our knowledge grows, it becomes more and more clear, our behaviour also becomes better and better and better. Now here is a vicious circle in a way of speaking, but is it the knowledge which changes our behaviour or is it our behaviour which influences our knowledge? Yes, it is both ways. We start with some amount of faith, then appropriately go on doing some spiritual exercises and as we sincerely practice those spiritual exercises, our faith becomes much more clear, our knowledge becomes even better and our behaviour becomes even better. This mutual assistance to each other, ultimately our knowledge, our behaviour becomes absolutely one and the same. This is called Shraddha. What does Shraddha do? It produces intense faith, intense faith, Shraddha, intense faith. What does that lead to? Virya. Virya means, there are many, several meanings, virya means energy, virya means strength, virya means commitment, above all the best meaning of the word virya is valuation. Now this is a very wonderful idea. In this world, every millisecond we are valuing things. Simple to give a simple example, supposing three, four speakers are giving speeches one after the other and there would be differences between one speaker and the other speaker and the audience is reacting. They think that oh, this person's speech is more valuable than the other person's speech. So respect may be the same but valuation is totally different. So according to valuation, whichever we value more, we pay more attention to that, we want to acquire that. Suppose next time in four rooms, these four speakers are giving at the same time four separate talks and but you have tested their talks, then which one would you choose? Either you choose according to the topic that interests you or you value or according to the, your evaluation of the speaker and this is what we do every day, even whenever you meet two people, you want to ask something, you always make a beeline to that person who you think in your eyes is much more valuable or honest or you feel closeness, rapport, whatever name you call it. Same thing with books, same thing with food, same thing with weather, same thing with everything in this world. So what is the point? Knowledge always must produce appropriate reaction. As we grow in faith, our valuation also increases. Here we are talking about not ordinary faith, we are talking about faith in God, faith in our own nature. This is another most important point. When we are talking about God, when we are thinking about God, actually what are we thinking about? Are we thinking about God or are we thinking about our own self? Now let me elaborate slightly. We think that we understand God, we read the scriptures. If ten of us read the same scripture, all ten of us understand the same scripture in ten different ways. How come, because it is according to our capacity of understanding. The point, most important point here is, if we have some idea about God, that is the idea we have about ourselves, may not be of our present self but of our future self. Let me explain what it is. Supposing I know that I am not that generous a person. But in my imagination, I can imagine God absolutely generous, very, very, very generous. Whenever I think of God, I think of him as a most generous person. Do you know that that's what we all do? Even the most miserly person, when he goes to God and bows down and prays to God, his idea is, I may be miserable, miserly, but you, O God, most wonderfully generous, unlimited generosity. What is the important point here? That if I can imagine God as unlimited generous person, what am I really imagining of my own future development? This is a most wonderful point. Therefore, if someone says, why should I think of God? This is a beautiful answer. You are not thinking really about God. You are only thinking about your future potentiality. You think of good things, then you become that much good because by thinking of anything, we become that. So viriya means commitment. The more a thing we value, the more we commit to that thing helplessly because there is a law. What is it that we value most? If I were to ask that question either to myself or to others, the simplest answer is that which leads to my greatest happiness, that's what I judge to be the most valuable. I may be right. I may be wrong. It's not the point. The point is even if I am wrong, in my understanding, I always judge what is valuable only by one criteria. What is that criteria? It must give me greater happiness. Happiness is the only measuring rod, nothing else. And as I also mentioned, if you want to be happy, two other things follow automatically. What is it? I must be alive. If I have to be happy, I must be alive. Even if I am alive, I should not be sleeping. I should be aware that I am a happy person. We are all running after this simple knowledge, how to make ourselves, how to feel I am a happy person. I am a happier person. I am the happiest person, not only for now, but for all times. That is called spiritual perfection. Now as we value a thing, our commitment to it grows because it's a natural automatic law. If I know this thing gives me happiness, my mind willy-nilly runs only towards that object. That is called very tremendous enthusiasm comes. I gave you several illustrations during my past talks, but it bears repetition. Supposing there is one of you and you love, say let us say, cricket game and one day you return home from the office dead tired. All that you want to do is somehow to eat some food and rush to the bed. Imagine one such day you come home dead tired and you eat something and then you say, I have not watched news today, let me watch. And as you open the radio or TV, suddenly you see a great cricket match is about to start or started. What happens to your tiredness, it vanishes like magic. If you are really a lover of cricket, it vanishes like magic. Is it not a fact? Now the same law can be applied here also. When an aspirant believes that the greatest, unimaginably greatest happiness becomes mine, if only I think of God, it will produce tremendous happiness and he is prepared to proportionately to renounce everything. So this is one character. What is it? Tremendous energy, tremendous enthusiasm, tremendous joy, tremendous commitment, all because of that wonderful evaluation, God is the most valuable object in this world. I am only talking about the ideal, we are far away from it. That is why you know, the moment I am talking, already the first obstacle to yoga has started. Somehow if you work up, you are looking here and there. But the moment suppose I announce, I have observed it several times in big meetings, a speaker was going on, droning on and on and on, endlessly, suddenly the microphone failed. What a great relief it was. And then after some time they restore it again and then say, now there is going to be beautiful singing by your favorite singer. You come to life immediately, all your tiredness vanishes. Is it not a common experience of ours? Tremendous commitment, tremendous energy, enthusiasm to whichever we evaluate, all these ideas are compressed into that word Vira and incidentally this word Vira has degenerated into the English word Hero, the word Hero from Vira, tremendous, that is why Hero is one. Have you ever seen a hero, no enthusiasm at all, like a cloud of earth, do you think he becomes a hero, he becomes a zero. So Vira, and when there is that kind of tremendous enthusiasm, it leads to the next step, automatically, naturally and that step is called Smriti, Smriti means remembrance, memory. We are all advised Japa, do Japa, remember God all the time, we do Japa, but that is not remembrance, that is called repetition, parrot like repetition, while repeating we are thinking something else, we are remembering something else. I remember seeing a beautiful cartoon and that cartoon runs in three strips, one man was meditating under a tree, sitting in meditation posture, another man was walking up and down and this man who was walking asks the man, what are you doing, the man under the tree trying to meditate replies without opening his eyes, I am going to God, then this man in the last strip he says, on the way if you meet my uncle, convey my good wishes to him, what does this mean, it means if your thoughts are wandering, if you happen to think of my uncle during your so-called meditation, then you remember what I asked you to do, that is we have all experienced distractions, distraction means forgetting what we are supposed to keep in memory and why do we forget, because there is no enthusiasm there, there is no commitment there, why is there no commitment, because there is no valuation there, why is there not valuation, because our knowledge is inadequate knowledge, our faith is inadequate faith, so virya leads to the most wonderful thing that is called memory and this memory of God, this is most for most of us, this is what we are supposed to do, meditation is far away from thing, please let us have concentration. In this connection, let me also clarify at once, which will help our future talks, what is the difference between concentration and meditation, many of us are I think confused about this subject, after all the purpose of yoga is not mere concentration, it is a very lower step, not very lower step, but quite a lower step, if you know the 8-fold steps, ashtanga yoga, where does the concentration step lie, that is the 6th step, dharana, next step is higher step is meditation, dhyana and that culminates in the highest step which is called samadhi, we are talking about samadhi, so in ordinary terminology, what is the difference between concentration and meditation, why is it important, because we have not even acquired that power of concentration, for example, since you sat here to hear my talk, how many of you are hearing with both ears, my answer is all of you, what it means is, my talk is entering through one ear, going through the other ear, how many of you are able to pay attention in this connection, you know, wonderful thoughts are coming, when Swami Vivekananda was alive, during his very last days, months, they bought the latest edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica and the Saracandra Chakravarti, he was telling about Swamiji, Swamiji, you bought this Encyclopedia Britannica, even in those days, it must have been 12-15 volumes, I do not know and each volume is a huge volume, it is not enough even for a lifetime to complete by reading, Swamiji said, why, I have already completed 10 volumes, the disciples flabbergasted, what, you mean, really, yes, you bring, you test me, no, this happened second time, first time it happened in Meerut, second time it happened with Saracandra Chakravarti, the volumes were brought, he was not a disciple, this is something very interesting, you have to know, Saracandra Chakravarti was not a goody-goody disciple, he had tremendous devotion to his guru but he did not hesitate or fear to question his guru if it is necessary, that is why the talks with Swami Vivekananda is so valuable a book, you get wonderful insights into the Vedanta and several other subjects, so Swamiji said, you bring any volume you like and ask me any question in those volumes and the disciple did not hesitate, he brought the volumes and at random opened, questioned Swamiji, not only had Swamiji conveyed the exact sense which was given, that means the meaning, the idea but many places verbatim he had reproduced what he had read and the disciple after that he said, it is not possible for a human being, Swamiji waxed eloquent and said, no, no, if you observe Brahmacharya, it is quite possible, disciple said, I don't believe in it, the trouble with our devotees is they do not believe us, I told you, you know, one man came and asked me, did you realise God, I said, if I answer truthfully, you won't believe, he said, no, no, I believe whatever you say, I said, I did not realise God, he said, I do not believe you. So what is the point we are discussing here, if we are committed, we know this is the highest thing and if it is highest thing, we have no way, no choice but to follow it and that produced tremendously, again and again that memory comes, when am I going to attain it, how soon am I going to attain it because that is so valuable, though the comparison is not very elegant, I can compare it, you know, a young man falls in love with a young woman and he thinks the world of her, beautiful expression, she is the most beautiful woman in this world, that is why love is called blind, Miss Universe, she is the only Miss Universe and what do you think his psychology, do you think he forgets her, whether he is, whatever he may be doing, he will be only remembering her. Another example that is given is a mother has given birth to a baby, whatever she may be doing, what do you think the mother is thinking about, the welfare of the baby. Now in this respect, see Ramakrishna was asked a question, when does a man realise God, he gave a most marvellous reply, wonderful reply, he said if any person can combine three types of love and direct it towards God, he will realise God instantaneously, immediately. What are those three types? The love of a chaste wife towards her husband, the love of a mother towards her only child and the love of a worldly person towards his worldly possessions, most marvellous thing. Why is it called, why do I say it is so marvellous because we do not see chaste wives anymore, there are few but if there is a chaste, the very meaning of chastity is she is only thinking of her husband and nothing else in this world, that is meaning of chastity, wherever she may be, she will be thinking of only her husband and as we know our mothers, we are so fortunate even the whole world may desert us but our own mother would never desert us, at least that is most of our experience, most of us. So the mother has given birth to a baby, only child for her, he is the world, he or she is the world. Is it not a fact? Now when does she forget him, her? Do you think the mother ever forgets? Not only she does not forget, she is even thinking the future, when does my child eat, what does the child eat and where is he going to sleep? Because she is forced to sleep on a thorny road, what do you think she will do? She will take up her baby on her own chest, protecting the baby. If somebody is going to shoot, what do you think she will do? She will put the baby behind her and take the bullet in her own body, this is the true motherly love God has given. Human beings are worse but you go approach to an animal, a dog or a tiger, you will see what happens. How much love they possess, that is why the Chendi says, या देवी सर्वभूतेशो मात्रु रूपेशन सम्स। This is wonderful. Now if you can imagine this in holy mother, I say imagination because it is very difficult to understand, she looks like that but her love for us is she can never forget us. Is it a fact? It is a fact. Then why do I suffer? Because she caused that suffering for our own good, that is why she said misery is a gift of God. What is the third love? The love a worldly person possesses towards his worldly possessions, worldly man possesses towards the worldly objects, do you think he can ever forget? He can give, there are people who give up their lives just to save a few pennies. If we can combine these three loves and direct it towards one object which is God, then no doubt that is the peak of human endeavour and we will certainly realise God. Another factor that is there, most wonderful factor as I go on meditating upon these parables is, these three are the three human areas and all our potential love must express itself in one or other of these three areas, either it is what we love or it is what we think is our very own or what we possess and the whole life we are only trying to develop this love. This is not directly again related to our topic but why did God create this world? I am not giving theological answer, I am giving rational answer. The rational answer is this is a Kshetra, a field so that we can develop two things, two factors. The first factor is how to love unselfishly, anybody can love selfishly, if someone is loving me, it is natural I react to that person with love only, that is even animals do that but if I can love something in spite of other people's non-love or even destruction, then I am growing, flexing my love muscles, this is so that we can grow. That means the more we can love in spite of opposition, the more we become independent masters and say I know how to love, is the first. Second factor even more important, there is a teleological urge within each one of us. All this schooling in the growth of love has only one aim, one goal and that is once we grow, start growing in this love, then you direct that love towards God and that is when the idea of Vairagya gels in. What does it mean? I have developed sufficient love for this world, interestingly who can really love God? Only a person who has loved something in this world with all intensity. There is a very funny incident, Ramakrishna once asked one of his devotees and he said do you love anybody in this world and that man thought if I tell I love my aunt or my dog or a cow or something, Ramakrishna may criticize me. So he said no sir, I don't love anybody and he thought Ramakrishna would give him a certificate, you are a wonderful man. On the contrary, Ramakrishna's reaction was you are a hopeless dry man, you are never ever going to go anywhere near God because who can go to God when he has got tremendous attachment. What is then detachment? Detachment is not a negative idea, it is redirecting our greatest attachment towards God. This is called Vairagya. Vairagya is not a negative idea, it is a most positive idea, I want something which is most wonderful, most valuable and upon which I can rely that this is going to be with me all the time. So if I am trying to realize God, if I have these two steps, climbed these two steps Shraddha and Vairagya, Smriti, memory becomes so strong, I want, I want, I want, I can never forget God and that is most wonderful step. This constant memory, when memory becomes constant uninterrupted, what does it become? It is called Samadhi. What is Samadhi? Intense concentration, that becomes concentration and this Samadhi, when a person attains to this Samadhi, then he progresses in such a way, automatically Viveka Jnana will come. The knowledge that I am not Prakruti, I am not unconscious material, I am consciousness, pure consciousness, he knows automatically. Let me conclude this beautiful talk, again taking up, which I interrupted, the difference between concentration and meditation. Now concentration, first of all, anyone can concentrate, it is not necessary only devotee or spiritual person concentrates, a scientist can concentrate, even a cat concentrates. In fact, one of the wonderful examples given of a yogi's power of concentration, like a cat which sits outside a rat hole, you know, unblinkingly it is watching, because the rat also knows, in the moment one second's deviation of attention, inattention, immediately it wants to run to a safe place, the cat will never, even they say, it bites its own paw if it makes a noise, sits. So scientist, a housewife, a student, a sportsman, anybody can develop concentration of mind and the biggest, you know, biggest concentration. Funny, but true, a pickpocket, how much he concentrates on the pockets, you will not know what happened to your pocket. A thief, how much he can concentrate, because they are motivated, that is also their motive, if I can do this, I get a lot of things, but the first difference is that anybody can concentrate, but who can concentrate on God, only a spiritual person can concentrate on God. That is called meditation. What is the difference? Focusing the mind upon any object where there is no idea of God, that is called concentration, but focusing the mind with the idea of God, that is called meditation. This is the first difference. Second difference is, concentration is like a platform from which we take off towards meditation, without concentration there can be no meditation, but concentration is not meditation. Concentration can lead to more attachment into this world, but whereas meditation leads us gradually, surely towards God. Third difference is, concentration is always attended with effort. The object is there, I am trying to concentrate, I am different from the object and I am putting forth my utmost effort to see that my mind doesn't think of anything else, whereas in meditation automatically the mind is pulled as it were. Ramakrishna's beautiful example is, when an iron filing approaches a big magnet, what happens, does it make an effort to go towards the magnet or is it automatically pulled in? That is what happens in meditation. And the final difference is, concentration leads to improvements, expansion of this world, whereas meditation leads only to one object which is God. Concentrated in this is, concentration leads to variety, whereas meditation leads to destroys variety and makes us see only one thing in everything, which is, this is the difference. Our aim is to attain to this Samadhi, the step below Samadhi is meditation, the step below meditation is concentration, but of this in the next chapter, which we will come in our future classes. So today what did we discuss, that Asampragnata Samadhi cannot be attained by effort, it has to come by itself and how does it come, by adopting the proper means and before we can adopt the proper means, we must be equipped with five types of steps, each step leading to its higher step. First is Shraddha, intense faith, which means the indirect knowledge, absolute conviction, it means valuation, it means commitment and this Shraddha leads to tremendous energy, tremendous effort, patience, perseverance and this energy takes us to the next step which is unbroken remembrance, which is called memory and unbroken memory is called Samadhi and when a person attains to this Samadhi, his eye of knowledge opens Gnana Chakshu and then he knows, I am that. So there are two types of yogis, some yogis, they get stuck in their spiritual progress because they enjoy things and that enjoyment is so great, we cannot compare it with any worldly enjoyment and yet it falls far short of God realization, self-realization. The other type of yogi, he adopts deliberately, consciously, it is called Upaya Pratyaya, a right means and he knows, he is also guided by a Guru and the Guru warns, do not be stuck with this happiness, that is fine as far as it is possible but once you taste it, that's fine, leave it there and go forward and then the man goes forward and depending upon intensity of our faith and the intensity of our energy, our memory, then the result also varies. In the next few aphorisms, we are going to discuss the differentiation between one practitioner and the other and then comes a most wonderful thing, says we can also give up all these practices provided we can surrender ourselves to God, Ishwara Pranidhanatva or a yogi can attain to this highest Asampragnata Samadhi by the grace of Ishwara and what that Ishwara is and how it differs from Vedantic concept of Ishwara or God, these are the points we will discuss in our next class.