Patanjali Yoga Sutras Lecture 049

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

OM YOGENA CHITASYA PADENA VACHAM MALAM SHARIRASYA CHAVAIDHYAKENA YOPAKAROTAM PRAVARAM MUNINAM PATANJALIM PRANJALI RANATOSME I bow to the eminent sage Patanjali, who removed the impurities of the mind through yoga, of speech through grammar, and of the body through medicine. We have entered into a most wonderful discussion of these Patanjali Yoga Sutras. The second chapter, it is called the Sadhana Pada, the chapter which deals with real practice. And the essence of any spiritual practice consists in three parts. The first is austerity, and the second is study of the scriptures, more important study of the one's own mind, and the last is surrender to God, Ishwara Pranidhana, Tapah Swadhyaya and Ishwara Pranidhana. From the Vedantic point of view, there are three steps for realization. In the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, Yajnavalkya teaches his student, who was his own wife in the former stage of life, PURVASHRAMA MAITREYI ATMAVA ARE DRASTAVYAHA My dear, this Atman has to be realized. Realization means to feel I am the Atman. How to do it? That is the goal. How to do it? ATMAVA ARE DRASTAVYAHA SHROTAVYAHA MANTAVYAHA NIDIDHYASITAVYAHA First, you have to know about the Atman. Otherwise, if you don't know about your goal of life, then you will never be able to fix it as your goal. You have to have a knowledge. That is the very first condition. This is called SHRAVANA. Hear it. So this is what to hear. As one of our Swamis used to tell so beautifully, You are here, but you do not hear. Our mind is elsewhere. So that's what happens most of the time. When we are reading, it is somewhere. When we are meditating, of course, we know where it is. Why we do not progress? Because we do not do what we are supposed to do. So preparation. In Patanjali's terminology, TAPAHA means to prepare our mind so that we are able to receive it. This is equivalent to preparation for SHRAVANA. And many of you know, if we want to really be Vedantins, first we must have acquired fourfold qualifications. We must have discrimination. We must have dispassion. We must have control over the body and mind. And finally, we must have intense longing for God-realization. Interestingly, scientists have these first three qualifications. They have discrimination. Means they know what is their goal. They have dispassion. That means they are disciplined. At the same time, they have also body-mind control. Their time, their energy, everything is absolutely segmented. At this time, this. At this time, this. At this time, the other thing. But they do not have the fourth qualification, intense yearning for self-knowledge. They do not have that. But they have intense yearning for discovering something, finding out some scientific truth. They want truth, but not spiritual truth, but scientific truth. So, they have acquired the qualification. TAPAHA. Austerity means what? We need to acquire those qualifications. Now TAPAHA, the word TAPAHA, for Hindus, they know it very well. What it means is, we have to go through lot of pain, suffering. But I mentioned in my last class, two conditions are necessary. What are those two conditions? Anything that we want to accomplish. Even if we undertake difficult things, they must have first qualification is, it must be voluntary. Somebody should not force us. It should come willingly from our own mind. Simplest example is, on 11th day, every fortnight, some people fast. Nobody forces them to do it. People do it because they believe some good comes out of it. The second thing, most important thing, point is, it must be done with awareness. If we do something unconsciously or unaware of it, for example, you know, if you are forced to sleep for some reason in an uncongenial place, so long as you are awake, you feel very bad. But once you fall asleep, what happens? You do not even notice you are in a dirty place, slum area, undesirable place, bad smells, bad company, fear, everything disappears. That is not called Tapasya. Tapasya means these two conditions. It must be voluntary. Second, it must be done with awareness. These two conditions must be fulfilled. Then the mind is prepared to listen to only good things. Then what is the second thing? Swadhyaya. Swadhyaya means, again, the word Swadhyaya means two parts. One is study of scriptures. What does study of scriptures mean? Meaning, we are unable to understand what we should do in life. Then we ask some people, what shall I do with my life? And that wise person will tell us what we should do with our life. It is very, very sad to see most of us don't have any goals in life. We just take our life as it comes every day. Okay, today morning I get up. Somehow I want to pass my time today. We will see tomorrow safer tomorrow. We do not have any specific goals. But those who are successful if you study their life, whether they want to be millionaires or whether they want to have some discovery, they have a definite goal to be achieved in their lives. So how do we get? What is our goal? Obviously, we wish to progress in spiritual life. And again, as I mentioned, what is spiritual life? It sounds very foreboding. Really speaking, it is a journey from a lower state of happiness to a higher state of happiness. Who doesn't want higher happiness? But the first condition is for a journey, you should not get stuck. You should not be standing there. You should be able to give it up, move on. But unfortunately, we do not wish to move also anytime. We get stuck there. Okay, so Swadhyaya means scriptures tell us the value of human life. Scriptures tell us that of all the creatures in this creation, only human beings could really complete awareness, focus on spiritual perfection. Only spiritual beings could do it. Every other animal, its nature is they go by instinct. What is instinct? Let me survive so long as possible. Let me be as happy as possible. So scriptures also mean, not books, but it could be some wise person. If you are listening to Sri Ramakrishna, he is telling nothing but scriptures. His words are scriptures. Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna is a scripture for us. So this is how scriptures help us to set our goal. Not only that, scripture also tells us what is the right path. Because there are so many paths. Which path is right for us? The scripture tells us what is the right path. Third thing, scripture also warns us, these are the obstacles in your spiritual path. The fourth thing, the scripture gives us, you know, we get easily discouraged. When we do not progress in spiritual life, one of the what is called ignorant people's condition is easily we get discouraged. Or even more dangerous, we fall into mindless routine. Every day we do the same things and we do not have, please close that window, we fall into mindless routine. There was a very interesting incident. Somebody asked Holy Mother Sharada Devi about the value of daily puja. You know we always do puja. And Holy Mother made a remarkable statement. She said it is better to make the young novices do the worship rather than the older seasoned monks. Is it not obvious? What happens when a person lives for a long time? He sees the same photo. He sees it is the same ritual. It is mechanical. He does everything maybe with perfection. Without referring to the book he does the puja. I have seen people, Durga puja, with closed eyes they do it. Everything perfect. Mantras. It has become bi-hearted. But do they get the same joy? Whereas a new person, his imagination is romantic imagination. You know like in marriage, when two people get married, in the beginning they are like super glued persons. They cannot live without each other. But slowly afterwards a man starts coming back at 6.30, 7 o'clock, 8 o'clock, 9 o'clock. So in spiritual life also we do japa, we do study. But somehow that initial spark seems to be lost. But what do the scriptures do? They inspire us every day. Every day you read and every day it gives sustenance for that day. Inspiring us, sustaining us. Another danger that happens, you know many many times I have encountered this problem. We suppose we are reading the gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. And then you say it is the same thing. Once I read, okay. Second time I read, it is the same thing. Third time I read, it is the same thing. It looks as though it is unnecessary. No. The answer for this objection is every day usually we eat the same food. In fact every morning what breakfast do we have? Same cereal every single day. Is it interesting? Not at all interesting. Then is it necessary? Absolutely necessary. That sustains us for the time being. So scriptural studies can never be neglected. Why? Because they are like our life, food, daily food. When can we give up scriptures? When we realize God like the man who throws away the letter. Then there is no need for the letter. Because now he knows what is written in the letter. So swadhyaya means study of the scriptures. Most important and last class I challenged you. You give up studying scriptures for one month. You will see where you find in spiritual life. Because every day we do japam. Every day we repeat God's name, prayers, worship, sit for meditation etc. Even though we may not feel we are going forward, we can definitely feel we are not going down. Our mind is not going down. This is the good side of doing even mechanically. Somehow it helps us. The second meaning of the word swadhyaya is study of the one's own mind. Most of the time we are not aware what we are doing. That is why one of the most important conditions of karma yoga is whatever you are doing pay attention to it by all means. So that is called swadhyaya, study. Am I happy? Am I unhappy? In this connection I can tell you that some spiritual aspirants, they genuinely want to progress in spiritual life. And they come and ask me, Swamiji I don't feel I am making any progress in spiritual life. So what do you want me to do? What advice do you want me to give you? The only advice I give you is go on doing it. But do it with complete awareness. But we are not progressing. The idea that when we are doing something some wonderful result must come. Who gave you that idea? Is it not the modern idea? Is it not the idea of utilitarian mind? Do you follow what I am talking about? We have been injected with this idea that if I do something I must get something out of it. Who told you that? You must do it. That is called duty. Whether you get it or you don't get it, do it. Simplest example would be supposing you buy a slave. What is the relationship between you and that person? He is your slave. You bought the slave, you know in the past people used to buy slaves. Americans, British people they used to buy slaves. Now the master gives some job to be done by the slave. The very purpose of buying a slave is to give him some work and instead of my doing it someone else will do it. Our car is a slave. Our house is a slave we have bought. Our refrigerator is a slave. Our mobile phone is a slave. But instead of treating them as slaves we become slaves to them. This is the tragedy. So suppose you bought a slave and you give him a job. Now what is his duty? To do whatever you ask him to do. Is it not? Now suppose he says I am not happy with this job. What the slave has got to do with happiness or unhappiness? If he is unhappy that is his own doing. If he is happy that is a bonus. What he is supposed to do? Just to do it. You will be pleased whether he is happy, unhappy has nothing to do with him. But what is important is that person must do what he or she is expected to do. What is spiritual life? Ishwara pranidhana, complete surrender to God. If it is complete surrender to God then what that has got to do with our spiritual practice? You are asked to do it, you just do it whether you like it or not. If you are happy it is a bonus. If you are not happy then it is your prarabdha. But you go on doing it because you are a slave. What is Ishwara pranidhana? Complete surrender to God. You are willingly, voluntarily offering yourself to God. If this is true what has it got to do with your happiness or unhappiness? Spiritual progress has nothing to do with happiness or unhappiness. If happiness comes, wonderful, that's good. But if it is not a happy thing you have nothing to worry because your goal is neither happiness nor unhappiness. What is your goal? To know the reality, to know who you are and that's all that really counts. So this is called Ishwara pranidhana. The second thing svadhyaya means find out your mind. Am I happy? Why am I not doing? Because I don't get any happiness. To hell with happiness. This is my duty and I will do it. You can take modern example. Suppose you join military and you are fighting and you say you are not happy. Has it got anything to do with your job? It is your job to do it, do it. If you don't do it you will be court-martialed. That is the attitude we must have. Should I not get joy? Yes, if God out of his infinite compassion gives you joy then that is very, very fine. In this connection I remember what Sri Ramakrishna had said something very remarkable. Once some Sikh devotees came to him and they loved Sri Ramakrishna and as you recollect they said God is compassionate. He said no, no, he is not. Why should you call him compassionate? And then sir, should we not call God compassionate? He said what do you mean by compassionate? God has created you. He is your father. He is your mother. If parents look after you then do you call it compassion? It is their bounden duty to look after you. Should we not be grateful? Yes, you be grateful. That is fine but to call a person compassionate, if a total stranger comes and unexpectedly helps you then be very grateful to him because it is not his duty to do that but anyway he has done it. But if your own mother is giving you food when you are a baby, oh mom I am so grateful to you. You are looking after me. What is the point? The point is it is your duty to think about God and if you are thinking of God you are not doing anything extraordinary. You are just doing your job and we are anyway doing it. We are anyway thinking about God. Only we don't use the name God. When you are seeking happiness what are you seeking? Nothing but God. Ananda Swarupa. When you want to have knowledge what are you seeking? God. What is the name? Chit. When you want to be healthy and happy and living what are you seeking? Why are you breathing? Because you want to be alive. When you say I want to be alive what are you doing? You are only seeking God. Nothing but God. We do not use the word God but it will be wonderful. I am living that means I want to live that means I want God. I want to have knowledge that means I want God. I want to be happy that means I want God. Who doesn't want God? Everyone wants God. So any spiritual practice, in any religion, in any part of yoga, it consists of three parts. What are those? Austerity, preparation, second is Swadhyaya, study of the scriptures and more importantly study of the mind and lastly God can be realized only when we surrender ourselves to God. Let me dwell upon this for a moment. What does it mean surrendering to God? Many times we mistake am I becoming a slave to God? Am I losing my individuality to God? Am I completely losing my freedom by offering myself to God? No, just to the contrary. You are small by surrendering to God you become big. You are ignorant by surrendering yourself to God you are becoming knowledgeable and you have very little happiness and by surrendering yourself to God what are you becoming? Infinite joy, eternal joy, a joy which knows no opposite, that's what we are doing. Surrender means always going from a lower state to a higher state. If we remember that then it will be wonderful. So an ignorant person surrenders to knowledge, an unhealthy person surrenders to health, an unhappy person surrenders to happiness. What a wonderful thing if we look like this. So what is spiritual practice? It is not something, some stupid superstitious belief in a God with a big beard sitting on the clouds. It is nothing but becoming what we are always seeking for. So every religion, any religion either in the past or that which is to come in the future, we are always seeking only to progress and that is inevitable, it is a teleological urge within us. You cannot suppress it and these are the three components. Austerity, study, self-surrender. Okay, now this was what we discussed in our last class. Let me add two words about this word austerity. Always austerity need not be unforeseen difficulties or going through hard time. Life provides enough opportunities to provide tapasya. I just recalled one very beautiful incident. In this center we had a very difficult member, even now we have, but we had a very difficult member. My predecessor Swami Bhaviyarandaji, he had lot of problems with this inmate. All the devotees would recall. My predecessor Swami Bhaviyarandaji once went to a Buddhistic monastery. There is a place called Amaravati. It is about one hour distance from here. A wise Buddhist monk was there. So Swami and that Buddhist monk were having a conversation. Swami asked, do you have problems like this? And the Buddhist monk made a very beautiful remark. He said, Swami, God out of his infinite compassion provides opportunities for practicing austerity. It is a wonderful thing. We may have to put up with partners or colleagues, even family members or neighbors. Everywhere it is not heaven. There is no heaven really. If you study Indian mythologies, you will get always Indra and others, they get dead drunk and they are quarreling with each other. Their jealousy is rampant there. Even in so-called, your so-called heaven, our concept of heaven. Where is the heaven really? It is within. The kingdom of heaven is within us. If we change our attitude, then that is beautiful heaven. If we do not, we cherish negative thoughts, then that is nothing but hell. Right now we can change it. We have to do it. That is called spiritual practice. To put up with unavoidable difficulties is one of the greatest tapasya or austerity. We do not need to go and seek elsewhere. We can get it right here and now. A second tapas is always a mental attitude. For example, Brihadaranyaka Upanishad gives us a beautiful hint. Says, you know, we can be sometimes having some problems with health, ill health, some diseases, maybe cold, maybe something serious, stomach ache. Anyway, we have to go through. What to do? The Upanishad crystal clearly says, take this opportunity and turn it into a tapasya. How do we do that? First of all, you say, voluntarily I am not doing anything, but at least God has given me an opportunity. Let me put up with it with a spiritual attitude. This sahana shakti, forbearance, putting up with it. This is called, there is a technical term for it in Sanskrit. What is it called? Titiksha. What is titiksha? Putting up with any difficulty. It could be disease. It could be other person's oppression with whatever it is. Without thinking of taking revenge, without going through depression, without getting frustrated, without being filled with negative thoughts or even to think, I will take revenge when I am free or my dad will lick your daddy. No, then what way it should be taken? Okay, God has given me this opportunity. If I believe in God, there is justice, then I will say, cheerfully I put it up with it, cheerfully with complete awareness. Still the difficulty will not disappear, but my attitude changes the whole thing. So this is called tapasya or austerity. Now we move on. What is the second verse we said? It's most wonderful thing. Why should we practice this yoga? For two reasons. Samadhi bhavanarthah klesha tanu karanarthasya. Samadhi bhavanarthah. What is our goal? To progress in spiritual life. That is called yoga. And what is the problem? There are certain obstacles are there. What is the greatest obstacle in spiritual life? Do you know what is the greatest obstacle? We say people, we say weather, we say my body, all these are not real obstacles. The real obstacle is to forget God is the greatest obstacle. This is called crime against one's own self. If I don't practice spiritual life, that is the greatest crime I am committing. Against whom? Against myself, even murderers, even those who oppress other people, their crimes are nothing compared to the crime I am committing myself against myself. This was the idea brought out in the Isavasya Upanishad that those who do not strive to progress towards spiritual life, they are called Atmajna. They are the killers of the self. In the truest sense of the term, there is no killing. There is no killing even of the body. Body is a material thing. It goes back into its constituent materials. Nobody can kill the real self, Atma. But we can be in this state of ignorance for a long, long, long time. So the greatest sin is not to strive to progress in spiritual life. This is according to Upanishad. That is the greatest obstacle. So what happens when we practice spiritual life? This obstacle becomes less and less and less. What is spiritual practice? Again, not to forget the main theme, Tapah, Swadhyaya, Eswarapnidhana. Austerity, study and surrendering oneself to God, offering oneself to God. These are the main constituent elements of spiritual practice. So what happens? Samadhi Bhavanartha. It helps us to move forward. That means it helps us to attain Samadhi. Klesha Tanukaranarthasya, it also removes the obstacle. As we move forward, our mind becomes more and more attracted. It is like seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. You know, if you have ever travelled, it will be very dark. Then after some minutes, slowly you see a faint light and then you know the end is very near. In Shri Ramakrishna's words, he says so beautifully, when you see the pinkishness in the eastern horizon, then you know soon there will be sunrise. So our joy will increase. As we progress in spiritual life, our joy will increase. But you should not take it too literally. In the beginning, it appears not only you do not have joy, but even the little joy that you had in the beginning, it has also been lost. Yeah, that is why many people get so much frustrated about it. They try to give, oh, in the beginning when I was doing Japam, I used to get a lot of happiness, joy. But now I do not get the joy. Is it a sign of progress or digression? It looks, it appears it is falling back. No. On the other hand, a wave that goes down, it is bound to come up if we are sincere. Of course, if we are doing it mechanically, naturally it is a cause for concern. But otherwise, it is the most wonderful thing we have to accept it. Samadhi Bhavanartha, second aphorism. In the second chapter of Patanjali Yoga Sutras, it is dealing with Sadhanapada. The second aphorism says we have to practice austerity, study and self-surrender for the sake of progressing in spiritual life, for the sake of attaining Samadhi, as well for the sake of removing the obstacle, which is the greatest obstacle. Not to feel the desire for spiritual life is the greatest obstacle in spiritual life. What are these obstacles? It is so beautifully it is presented here. The word used here is klesha. Klesha means afflictions. Affliction means anything that helps us go backward is an affliction. Klesha. How many kleshas are there? There are five kleshas are there. What are those five afflictions? Anything that diverts our progress, brings us backward is an affliction. And it is also called pain. So I used the word, what is spiritual life? It is a progress from a lower state of happiness to a higher state of happiness. And what is the opposite? Going down means what? From joy we are going back to unhappiness. So now you look how beautifully it is put. What is the klesha? That which brings us more pain, more affliction, more of an obstruction. That which helps us to slide back, that is a klesha. How many kleshas are there? Five. What are those? Avidya, Asmita, Raga, Dvesha and Abhinivesha. Very beautifully he defines it. Let us first. Avidya, Asmita, Raga, Dvesha, Abhinivesha, Klesha. These obstacles cause the causes of man's suffering. What are they? Avidya means ignorance, Asmita means egoism, Raga means attachment, Dvesha means aversion and Abhinivesha means intense clinging to life. These are the five, only five. What a beautiful analysis Patanjali makes. Of these, he says how many we said? Five. Of these five, he says one is the root cause, the others are the fruits. One root cause. What is that root cause? Avidya, ignorance. Agnana, ignorance. What is ignorance? Not to know what is truth, what is our real nature. This is called avidya. So avidya kshetram uttaresham prasupta tanu vichinna udarana. Ignorance creates all the other obstacles. They may exist either in a potential or a vestigial form or they may have been temporarily overcome or fully developed. This is a beautiful analysis. Avidya or ignorance is the mother of all our problems. But this avidya is like electricity. You can't see the electricity. You can infer there is electricity. How do I know now that there is electricity? You can see for two reasons. One is there is light here. Second is if you are not able to hear my words that means there is no electricity. If you are able to hear that means there is electricity. Avidya can never be directly experienced excepting through its effects. What are the effects? The effects of avidya are ignorance. What are the effects? First thing is egotism. Avidya, ignorance as it were, it branches out like a seed you know. In a seed, huge banyan tree is there. Have you ever seen banyan seed? Very very small. So you take the most powerful microscope, put that seed. Can you see the banyan tree, the banyan fruits, the banyan leaves? You will never be able to see. Like that ignorance cannot be directly experienced but indirectly we are all the time experiencing it. Avidya gives birth to, what is the first thing it gives birth to? Asmita, I am. Asmita means I am. Okay, you are. Wonderful. What are you? I am man. I am 70 years old. I am a swami. What are you doing? I am giving a lecture. All this belongs to whom? Egotism. All this completely egotism. Why it is egotism? Let me give you briefly. It applies to you also. Who am I? I am a devotee. Who are you? I am a woman. I am 40 years old and I am sitting there and I am this, I am that. Is that your CV? Is that yours? Whose CV you are giving? You are giving somebody else's CV and you are thinking that I am giving my CV. Whenever you apply for a job, you can give this CV because the person under whom you are going to work, his CV also is false CV. So it doesn't matter that you give a false CV to a false employer, that is absolutely acceptable. But if you give this CV to God, then it will be wrong. Just I am recollecting, you know, somebody asked Mahapurush Maharaj, he was about 70 years old and he was suffering. So he just went, Maharaj, I believe you have been suffering. Who told you that? I never had any suffering. Maharaj, how old are you? I was not even born. You are asking about my age. No, no, no, no. I am asking about this body. Oh, body's age. Yes, it is about 70 years old. But I believe you are not keeping well. Oh, I am keeping well. The body is not keeping well. They had that knowledge. I can also tell that. But it will be a false thing. But if Mahapurush Maharaj says, Shri Ramakrishna says, then it is absolutely right thing. I think you will recollect when Shri Ramakrishna was at Kasipur and he was suffering from this throat cancer, intense pain, intense suffering, so much suffering that Shri Ramakrishna himself expressed like you put a sharp pen knife and put in one's throat. Even if you touch with the softest of the cotton wicks, he was feeling that intense pain. So in that state, one day Harimaras came, Swami Turiyananda and Shri Ramakrishna said, look, I am suffering so much. He said, no, sir, I see you. You are swimming in the ocean of Satchidananda. Then Shri Ramakrishna laughed and said, this rascal had found me out, Sala Dhuricherry. What a beautiful story. Can we understand? You are looking at it and his body is emaciated and he has been suffering like that. And then at the same time he says that, this person says, he is floating in the ocean of Satchidananda. How is it possible? From whose point of view? Ramana Maharshi. He was suffering. And they went and said, sir, are you suffering? He said, who told you I am suffering? There is no suffering. Are you enjoying? Who told you I am enjoying? I am neither enjoying nor suffering. I am the self. I don't have a body. What a marvellous thing it is. We cannot understand it. So that is their CV. Our CV is this miserable idea of our CV. Yeah. So this asmita is the first fruit or degeneration of avidya. I am this. What is the opposite? What is the opposite of avidya or ignorance? Knowledge. What is the knowledge? I am not this body. Asmita. Then from this egotism, from this attachment to something which is not the self comes two things come. What is the first thing? Raga. He will define later on. I am just giving a background. Raga means attachment. Will you be attached to something which gives you unhappiness? Never. Even your devotion to God flies away if he gives you unhappiness. Yeah. I have seen so many people, you know. This is some prasada. Prasada means a food offered to God and that offering to God is supposed to be once it is offered even if it is poison. Very interesting question. You know we are all devotees. Supposed to be. Suppose by mistake somebody offers poison to Sri Ramakrishna and gives it to you. What will you do? I know what is the answer. Suppose this is given to Nag Mahasaya. What will he do? Not only eat it. Eat it with the greatest joy. And has this kind of things have been happened? All the time. But the famous example is Vishapayala ne Rana ne bheja. This Meera's husband had sent a file of a cup of poison. What did he say? That person who brought this has been offered to Lord Krishna. It's prasada. What did she do? Simply she was in ecstatic state and then she drank. Was she fool? Was she thinking that this is poison? It will kill me. Was she ignorant of the fact? She was very aware of that fact. But for her anything that is offered to Lord Krishna that's absolutely fine. That is called true devotion. Devotion and faith are opposite. Both sides of the same coin. Gladly she drank. Fortunately nothing happened. But some swamis have been killed. I don't know. I heard that Swami Dayananda Saraswati. Not this present Dayananda Saraswati. Arya Samaj. The founder of the Arya Samaj. He was poisoned because he was speaking against the corruption of some powerful people. He was poisoned and he died of the poison. So this Raga attachment comes. Attachment always comes only when there is egotism. But a devotee will not have egotism. His ego is merged in God's ego. He doesn't say this is my ego. That is why he will have neither attachment nor aversion. So the first thing is attachment called Raga. The word beautiful Raga. You know Sanskrit the meaning of the word Raga. Raga means color. Colored. Our mind is colored by a particular thought, feeling, memory. The second is called Dvesha. Whatever is opposite to this. Whatever brings us trouble, suffering, misery, failure, frustration etc. That brings us hatred. All because of egotism. If we do not have egotism then we will not have this. For example, simple examples I am giving you. Jesus Christ was crucified. Did it provoke any hatred in him about the people who were instrumental in crucifying him? On the contrary, what was his prayer? Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing. Out of ignorance they are doing it. Had they known that it was their own self that they are crucifying then they would not have done it. Nobody would ever cause self-affliction knowingly, willingly. We always want to promote our self-happiness. So there is no hatred at all. What about Shri Ramakrishna? How did he get cancer? Because of what? Very interesting. Because of, according to our understanding and faith, because he allowed himself to be touched by so-called sinful people. Simple. Now if I put you this question, did he allow himself to be touched voluntarily or involuntarily? He came for that. How do I know? Swami, you are misinterpreting. Means I missed the interpretation. Who told that? Holy Mother said. You know what she said when she was suffering? Mother, don't allow anybody to touch you. What was her reply? Amara roshogolla khete ashi nahi. Shri Ramakrishna did not come for eating roshogolla, sweets. He has voluntarily come for this purpose, to be touched. Yeah. And then, you know, there are so many things. I don't want to go into details. But just now this beautiful thought had come. You know Shri Krishna killed so many of these demons, Putana, etc. Now you just understand that this Putana, etc., were they his devotees or were they his enemies? Is Putana, for example, a most fortunate woman or a most unfortunate woman? Did Krishna allow her to come voluntarily even though it is poisonous milk? Did he allow it voluntarily? Did it happen without his knowledge or with his knowledge? And why did he allow? Because he wanted to give liberation to his devotees. This is so difficult for us to understand the nature of God. God enjoys himself in different ways. Not always through his most devotees adoring him and then praising him and then making prostrations. He also enjoys, you know, a little bit like eating bitter gold before we attack the roshogollas and other things. He has his own way of doing it. Voluntarily he gave to all those people all the troubles that he gave to himself and to his devotees. Is it voluntary or involuntary? If you accept him as God, you can never say it is involuntary. If you accept him as a human being, of course involuntary. In fact, even we do not say that the troubles we get is involuntary. What do we say? If I am going through some hardships, what is it due to? The result of my past karma. So if this is the result of my past karma, is it voluntary or involuntary? Try to really think about it. So attachment, raga and its opposite, aversion. I don't want it. I want to run away from this because it gives me unhappiness, suffering, pleasure. All because of what? Egotism. If a person doesn't have egotism, it doesn't make any difference. Let me also add an example. You know, Brother Lawrence, whose famous book is The Practice of the Presence of God. He was treated as one of the lowliest kitchen assistants. He was given jobs for which even physically he was not equipped. But how did he take? He simply said in his autobiography, so beautiful. If you go through, he says, Lord, if you have given me this one, then it must be good because you know that I cannot do it. Simplest example, he says, I'm a fool. I can't do good shopping because everywhere people will cheat. So his superior gave him, go and buy these things and come. He said, Lord, you know, I'm a very bad shopper. I don't know what to buy, how much to buy, whether he's cheating me or not. I leave it to you. You make use of me. And he said, as a result, he became the best shopper in the world. Everybody was very glad to give him even more. Yeah, you see, that total absence of egotism made him one of the best people in the world. Whatever be the difficulties, another difficulty, another example I'm giving, Pralada. You know, the famous story of devotee Pralada, how much his father tortured him. How much his father tortured him. Who is saying that his father tortured him? Was Pralada saying or are we saying? Did Pralada ever, did these words ever escape the mouth of Pralada? That, oh Lord, my father is doing all these things, giving me trouble. Have you ever read these words anywhere? On the contrary, what was his attitude? Total surrender to Lord Narayana and says, Lord, whatever you do is absolutely fine for me. If this is your wish, then it's absolutely fine for me. That is called real devotion. So how is that he is unable to find fault or to hate? Was there any hatred in the heart of Pralada towards his father? Never. On the contrary, tremendous devotion. He is my father, whatever he does is absolutely fine. What is the cause of this attitude? What we have been discussing? What is absence of egotism? He never felt this is me, I am Pralada, I am an individual. No, he says, I am a slave, a servant of God, Narayana. Let Narayana do whatever he wants with me, that is fine. And that's why he was saved. That's why he was saved. Suppose he was not saved, his father killed him, what would Pralada, what would he have said about that? Would he have said, this damned God, I have depended upon him so much and then he betrayed me in the end. Would he have said that? He would have said, happily he would have said. There is also an example, you know, just now I remembered. Sri Ramakrishna mentions this in his gospel. There was a devotee called Raghunath Das. He was a soldier and somebody stabbed him. And soon after people came, he was still alive. And somebody asked him, tell us who stabbed you? What was his reply? It was Rama who killed him. And what about that famous story of the weaver, Rameshwara weaver. When he was put in the jail, whom did he blame? He did not blame anybody. He said Rama's will. And when he was brought before the magistrate, he said, this is also Rama's will. Very interesting. Do not mind my dwelling on this because it is so beautiful. When this man was sitting and taking God's name, robbery has taken place. What did he say? These damned robbers had come and robbed some households in the village. Did he say that? What did he say? That robbery took place by whose will? Rama's will. And then when they forced him to carry, whose will was that? Rama's will. And when he was put in the jail, police came and put him in the jail, whose will? Rama's will. And when he was brought in front of the magistrate, whose will? Rama's will. Suppose the magistrate said, the modern magistrates would say, I do not understand. You have been caught red-handed so many years in the jail. What would he have said? That is most important for us to understand because we are always thinking, ah, ultimately God exists, justice is there because of his devotion, he has been released, so that is the justice we seek unconsciously. No. Whatever be the result, he would have said Rama's will. Now, would he have been happy or unhappy? In the jail, would he have been happy or unhappy? He would have been most happy even in the jail. He would have said this is Rama's will. So all problems come, attachment, aversion, both are bondages, kleshas. They obstruct our spiritual progress. They are due to, because of what? Because of egotism. And egotism is because of what? Ignorance, avidya. The last fruit of this ignorance is abhinivesha. Abhinivesha means intense clinging to this body, to life. We want to keep. Why? Because this is the only instrument through which we either enjoy or suffer. We know the world but we think that there is no other instrument accepting this body. We do not know that there is even a higher type of body or even a lower type of body. That's why the only body we have is this. Unfortunately, you can't exchange it. Whether good or bad, well or ill, rich or poor, we have to accept this body. A short man can never be a longer, taller person. A ugly person, even for him, the body is the most precious thing in this world. That's why the only thing, this is the only thing we are identified with. That's why we cling with intensity, we do not wish to live without clinging to this body. We do not wish to leave this body. This is called abhinivesha. Not only ignorant people, so-called pundits. Ramakrishna gives a beautiful saying. The pundits are like vultures. They are soaring so high, that means they are talking so high. Where is their sight? Where is their sight? On rotting corpses, isn't it? What is the picture that comes into our mind when you read this one? There is some kite or vulture. It is flying in the air and it is looking at a rotting corpse, carcass and then it is, what is it about whom he is talking? What is that rotting carcass? What is that? Our body is a rotting carcass. How many things are there? Intense attachment or identity with this most dirtiest, filthiest body. This is called abhinivesha. Why? Because we do not know anything else. So these are the four fruits. What are the kleshas? Klesha means affliction. Affliction means that which keeps us away from our true nature and it all stems from one root cause and that is called ignorance. And this ignorance gives birth to another four which is called egotism, attachment, aversion and intense clinging to this life or this body. Life means this body. How these must be reduced? All these points, beautiful points we will discuss in our next class.