Patanjali Yoga Sutras Lecture 020

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

OM YOGENA CHITTASYA PADENA VACHAM MALAM SHARIRASYA CHAVAIDHYAKENA YOPAKAROTAM PRAVARAM MUNINAM PATANJALIM PRANJALI RANATHOSME 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. OM Peace, Peace, Peace be unto all. Let us first recall what we discussed in our last class. The first thing that we remember, purity is the very nature of the mind. The mind, before it becomes contaminated with rajas and tamas, is in a state of sattva. Sattva means purity. Purity means knowledge. So it always reflects whatever is in front of it. And before this world came, what was there in front of the mind? Only the Purusha or the Self. So it reflects and it is in a state of bliss. And what is yoga? Yoga is to get back, get back our forgotten purity, so that we know what is the truth, what is the reality. All of us remain in samadhi, but because of some ignorance, we do not recollect. At least two times on every single day, we are in samadhi. We means, let us remember, the mind is in samadhi. When first in between two thoughts, when we say that my mind is having a lot of thoughts, we do recognize that there are lots of thoughts. And how do we recognize? Because one thought comes to an end and then the next thought starts. When the first thought comes to an end and before the second thought begins, in between there is a definite gap and that is the time when the mind is absolutely still in its original nature and at that time it reflects clearly the pure consciousness. This is one time. Second time, when we go into Sushupti, the state of deep sleep, these two times we are in samadhi. But why is it that we do not feel enlightened? When somebody asked Swami Vivekananda, what is the difference between Sushupti and samadhi? And he said, if a fool goes into Sushupti and comes out, he still remains the same fool. But if the same fool goes into samadhi, he goes in as a fool. But when he comes out, he becomes a fully enlightened sage. Now why is it that when we go into Sushupti and every single day and maybe several times a day we go into that state, but why is it that we are not enlightened? There is a reason. What is that reason? Our mind is full of samskaras or deep impressions. So what happens when we come back, these impressions are waiting like Ramakrishna's analogy of when a sinner goes into the Ganges, then the sins cannot enter into the Ganges, but they will be waiting on the branches. The moment he comes out of the Ganges, they spring back. This is what happens. Every single day we wake up and oh this is my house, this is my husband and my wife, children, work, property etc. etc. That is how these samskaras have not been eliminated. But what happens to a yogi? Before he enters into samadhi, he tries his level best to whittle down, to eliminate the samskaras and that is why yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, all these seven steps are to be practiced. It is to get rid of the samskaras. Now in our last class also we discussed that what are the two important preparations before we can even attempt at samadhi. What are those? Abhyasa and Vairagya, repeated practice and dispassion, intense dispassion. So what do these two things do? They whittle down or they make these samskaras less and less and still less effective until only one samskara remains. Now that's a point I would like to discuss. So what is the practice of yoga? Yoga is to develop what is called concentration and in order to be able to develop this concentration we should practice lot of other things like doing certain things and avoiding certain things. This is what is called abhyasa and vairagya. So what is concentration? We use this word concentration so many times. What does it mean? So at any given time in our mind there are lots and lots of thoughts. They are called vrittis. Remember the definition of yoga, yogah, chitta, vritti, nirudha. Lots and lots but there is one important point here. At any given time there can only be one thought in the mind. It's not possible to have more than one thought. I also mentioned by the way modern discovery that multitasking is a myth. It's impossible for anyone to have multitasking. You know what is multitasking? At the same time doing lots of things. Doing lots of things at the same time. That is not possible. Then what do we use this word multitasking means? We do something, one thing and very fast we switch on to another thing and still faster we switch on to another thing. It appears as though at the same second we are attending to so many things. No, at any given time only our mind can only go one way. You see simplest illustration is you take a torch light into a big dark room, big dark room and then when you focus on one side what happens to the other side? Is it illumined? So if you want to illumine the other side you have to again direct it. So if you direct it towards the right the left remains dark. If you direct the light towards the left then the right side remains dark. The mind works like that. So what is concentration? It is to reduce the number of thoughts so that ultimately there would be only one thought, one vritti. Now I have to add something here for clarification. Vritti means thought, mental modification and every particular thought is associated invariably with a particular knowledge. Simplest example, I am thinking of this clip so there is a thought of this clip in my mind but at the same time there is a knowledge of the clip also is there. So vritti and pratyaya. I am giving Sanskrit for those who are interested. Vritti means a thought. Pratyaya means knowledge. Thought and knowledge are invariably associated. Now with this background I will give a better example. We as devotees of Sri Ramakrishna sit down for meditation and then we try to focus on Sri Ramakrishna. When do we say that we are really able to concentrate on Sri Ramakrishna when no other thought comes excepting that of Sri Ramakrishna. So the thought comes, Sri Ramakrishna, my chosen deity, he was a great saint then it dies down and again the same thought comes, not any other thought not even Swami Vivekananda, not even Holy Mother but only about Sri Ramakrishna. Again and again and again the same thought repeats and the same knowledge also repeats. This process when the mind becomes capable of preventing every other vritti or thought and retaining only one particular thought with associated knowledge that is called concentration. Concentration. What is the Sanskrit equivalent? Dharana. What is the Sanskrit equivalent? Dharana. Dharana means concentration. Now I did not say anything about meditation. Let us understand now what is meditation. Definition of meditation. What is meditation? When we are practicing concentration we put forth tremendous amount of effort. Without effort there is no concentration. Another thought is trying to come in between. We say no. Another thought is trying to come up. No. Still another thought is trying to come in. No. So we go on saying no, no, no. Now I want you to pay attention to what I am saying. We are trying to think of Sri Ramakrishna as an example and the thought of Holy Mother is trying to come up because you know it is the nature of thought when we are trying to focus on one thought many things are associated with that thought and those thoughts try to enter inside. So if we are thinking about Sri Ramakrishna very natural that thought of Holy Mother would come. I am not saying there is anything wrong with that thought. I am talking about the nature of concentration. Let us remember that. If you want to think about Holy Mother think of it but don't allow Sri Ramakrishna to enter in or anybody else. What do you say? One part of the mind says no. That means we divided our mind into two. One part is trying to think of a particular thought and the other part is keeping like a watchman and saying no. This understanding is very important for what we are about to discuss. One samskara wants to think about Sri Ramakrishna. Another samskara says no to any other thought. That is called Nirodha samskara. One is called Vyadhana samskara. Another is called Nirodha samskara. Do not worry about Sanskrit terminology. I will explain to you. One is positive thinking. Another is not negative thinking. Another is that which prevents negative thoughts, other thoughts. Any other thought is a negative thought. So these two thoughts are one I want to think what I would like to think. Second is I do not wish to think what I would not like to think. So there must be a watchman and say no this is not what I want to think. So that also becomes a samskara. Keep that in mind because this will come to very much in usefulness when we discuss Asampragnatha Samadhi. What is concentration? One thought but it's not a continuous thought. It is a thought repeating. Same vritti repeats. It dies down. Again the same thing comes, rises up. Then it goes down. Then again same thing comes up through practice, through a long practice. So that is called Dharana concentration. What is meditation? So what is concentration? That we have to make tremendous effort to see that no other thought comes excepting the thought we would like to think about and tremendous self-effort is there and still break is there in between. When the thought says no no no don't think of something else now think of this. You are forgetting what you are sitting for. But by practice, repeated practice and also through tremendous non-interest. Another way of defining dispassion. What is it? Non-interest. You know very dispassion means we say oh he is renounced. Renunciation. Dispassion is the word. That's a beautiful word. There is no passion. It is dispassion. Not interested at all. You know we don't want to think something in which we are not interested. So even the highest enjoyment the yogi is not interested in at all. When we are not interested it doesn't need a lot of effort to get rid of it. The problem comes we are interested very much and at the same time we know that we should not be interested in. This complex fight between the unconscious wanting and the conscious not wanting is what is called effort. Self-effort. Now in meditation what happens two points. It has become so natural that this particular thought is going on and on and on without much effort. First point. Second is there is very very little gap. Now the example given is, it's a beautiful example. You try to pour water from one vessel to another vessel. It's a good example. What happens? In between there is always a gap. But try to pour oil from one vessel to another. In Sanskrit we call it Thailadharavat, like the flow of oil. You cannot see any gap. So when the mind becomes capable of retaining one particular vritti or thought with its associated pratyaya or knowledge like the flow of oil from one vessel to another vessel. So what are the two points? One point is there is very little gap between one the same thought arising of the same thought and the second is it is with almost without effort like we say you know like flow of water from a high ground to a low ground because there is no resistance at all. These two points. When our mind becomes capable of thinking of say Sri Ramakrishna so that continuously the thought of Sri Ramakrishna is repeating itself without the least effort effortlessly that is called meditation. So now you see the difference between concentration is attended with lot of self-effort and there is a more gap between the same thought but arising again and again. Whereas in meditation it's a very smooth effortless flow. This is meditation. But let us also, I didn't want to talk but let me also get rid of it or repeat it so for future. What is Samadhi then? What is Samadhi? Now when a person is meditating he is there, his mind is there and the object is there. Say I am meditating on Sri Ramakrishna. I am there, Sri Ramakrishna is there and this continuous effort of the mind to keep Sri Ramakrishna in my mind is also there. Three are there. A knower, object of the knowledge and also the process of knowing. I am the thinker, Sri Ramakrishna is the object of my thinking and my thinking instrument. Three are there. Keep that in mind. What is Samadhi? The thinker, the thought and the instrument and process of thinking they all become absolutely one. That is called Samadhi. Now coming back whenever we experience any object, whenever we experience any object, these three are necessary. What is this? The person who is experiencing called the knower or experiencer and there is an object which he wants to know or experience and there must be an instrument. Let me illustrate. Here is a clip. I want to think about this clip. So I am there, the clip is there. How many are there? Two. But the process is not complete. I will not have any knowledge about this clip. I am also there, clip also is there but there will be no knowledge. There must be something necessary. What is that something? There must be something which connects us both. Like you know there are two persons, they want to talk to each other but there is needed something to connect these two persons. Let us say a telephone. Same way here also here is a clip, I am also there but I will not even know about the clip. It's the most wonderful thing. It may be right in front of my eyes but I will know nothing about it until there must be something which connects. What is that thing that connects me with this object? That is called you can say mind but mind by itself doesn't connect. Mind is only part of the connector. There is another thing also there. What is it? Sense organs. So I, the mind called antahkarana and also the sense organs, the eye, the ear etc and the object but for sake of clarity we take I am the knower. This is the object which I would like to know and that which connects me with this object is the third one. That is called the instrument of knowledge. For the sake of simplicity let us keep things like that. This always let us remember whether it is you you want to think about God, you want to think about devil, you want to think about whatever object, these three must be there. The knower, the object of knowledge and the instrument. So when these three are connected something happens because this interaction brings about something happens. What is that something? The person gets knowledge. That's why before I knew this clip am I a knower or am I ignorant person? But when the moment my mind works properly immediately I become oh I now know about this clip. I have become a knower and once I become a knower something else happens. What is that something else? Some reaction comes in my mind. I am happy or let me put it in this way I like this clip and if I like this clip then I am a happy person and if I don't like this clip I am an unhappy person. So some reaction is coming. These five factors let us keep. Whenever we experience something five factors are what are that? First I, second the object, third that which connects the knower with the object and the result if the mind of the person or the instrument of the person is proper if the object also fulfills certain conditions like proper light etc then their results. What is the fourth thing that results? Knowledge. Knowledge comes but knowledge is not mere knowledge. I know this clip that is knowledge but does it stop there? The fifth factor comes. What is it? It is nice. It is not nice. I like it. I want it. I like means what? I want it. I want more. So these five factors are there. This is what keeps us in samsara. But whereas in samadhi what happens? These five become completely one. That is called proper samadhi. But before samadhi one must become expert in meditation. Before one becomes expert in meditation one must become expert in ekagrata dharana. This step by step we will discuss all those things. This is only theoretical because the first chapter of Patanjali Yoga Sutras is called samadhipada. That is what is your goal. It is called to attain samadhi and what is the nature of this goal and what happens if you attain to this goal. It is a explanation of all these things. But actually how do I attain samadhi comes in the second chapter called Kriya Yoga. Practical thing. But we are only discussing about this. Before I proceed further I also would like to mention what is the usefulness of concentration. What is the power of concentration? Why do we need? You know Swami Vekananda. If you squeeze his talks in India, elsewhere too, but in India, he emphasized so much on one factor. What is that? He did not talk about Vedanta much. He did talk but not much. What did he talk about? Education and what is the essence of education? How to develop the power of concentration? You teach a child how to concentrate and then afterwards you give him any subject. He will just be like that. Swami Vekananda himself was an example. Sri Ramakrishna was an example. That's why Sri Ramakrishna did not have academic qualifications. Yoga means that first to develop the power of concentration. Focus. What is this power of concentration? We have got three factors. What is the first factor? It is a tremendous amount of self-control. No person without self-control is ever going to attain the power of concentration. It's impossible. So if anybody wants to, has the power of concentration, that means he has already attained to some degree of self-control. The third, the second factor is what is it that brings about knowledge? What is it that brings about a knowledge? If I am looking at this clip for one minute in a very normal way, I have some knowledge. Remember what I said before, every thought is invariably associated with particular knowledge. So I am looking at this. There is a thought in my mind. What is the thought? This is a clip. What do I mean by this is a clip? I mean I have a knowledge of this clip. But how much knowledge I have? Only I see few things, how it looks, what size it is, what color it is and that is all that knowledge I have. It has some usefulness. But beyond that I don't know anything about it. So if a person can focus 100% on this clip, what happens to him? All the knowledge about this clip becomes revealed to him. How did Sri Ramakrishna get the knowledge of God or Divine Mother? Through the power of concentration. We call it, you know, you never forget, concentration is the lowest step of Samadhi. Meditation is the next higher step of Samadhi and Samadhi is the highest step of concentration. They are all invariably associated. And just to give you the third chapter of this Yoga Sutras is called Vibhuti Pada that is supernormal powers. How do we get supernormal powers? It is all about concentration. You focus on it totally and it yields to the extent of our focus to that extent you will come. I'll give a small analogy. You know there are so many places where there is water underground. You just dig a few feet, what comes out? Nothing but gravel, stones, mud but you dig deeper. The deeper you dig the more water is uncovering. This is called uncovering. So that's the secret. Sri Ramakrishna whatever sadhana he plunged in, as you know, that is a wonderful word but if Sri Ramakrishna with all his capacity and his capacity of mind was tremendous, he used to plunge. And when he used to plunge, how many, how much time did it take for him to attain Siddhi or perfection in that particular discipline? You know, Sri Ramashradananda discusses these things so beautifully. He is a Totapuri attained Samadhi. How many years did he take? 40 years. How many days did Sri Ramakrishna take? Just three days. I think it is not even three days. It was almost within, he said you now you sit in meditation. He left and Totapuri did not know when he attained that state. So after one hour he came because that's what he used to do. After one hour he used to open and say where am I? So he thought Sri Ramakrishna's power of meditation is maybe limited for one hour. He was exactly in the same place. After several hours he came. At the end of the day he came. Next day he came. How many days passed? Three days passed. At the end of third day he was astonished. What? What is this divine maya? To attain to this state I had taken 40 years and this child he had only taken just few hours. Is it possible? Then he was an expert in what you call examining whether a person has really attained Samadhi or not. We cannot do that. He went and examined. There are certain characteristics. He found this man was totally devoid of body consciousness. How did he get it? What was the secret? Because whatever Sri Ramakrishna did, he did it with all the force of his mind, power of his mind. What is that power simply put? Power of concentration. So that's what Swami Vivekananda. Power of concentration. He was reading a book. You know what happened? Paul Deussen invited him and then Swamiji went there and meanwhile Paul Deussen had to go out. They were having a nice talk. He had to go out and Swamiji he saw some new book and Paul Deussen came and wanted to resume the conversation and he called Swamiji two three times. There was no response. He felt offended. Then after some time Swamiji came back to normal consciousness and he understood what happened. He apologised. He said whatever I do I get absorbed in it and then Paul Deussen didn't believe. Swamiji said I was so absorbed in reading this book. Already he had finished a large part of that book and that was a new book. Paul Deussen questioned him on that book. Swamiji not only quoted verbatim what he read, he explained what he understood and he has what is called memorised his memory several pages of what he had already read and Paul Deussen could not controvert because that was a new book first time Swami Vivekananda came across. That was the power of concentration. American father he was called William James, father of American psychology. He became practically he used to call Swami Vivekananda as my master and he was astonished at the power of Swami Vivekananda's meditation or concentration. He will sit and he forgets the time space causation. So this is the difference between one person of knowledge, another person of knowledge. A person may achieve wealth through by hook or crook but he cannot achieve knowledge because knowledge is always associated with thought and focused thought, concentrated thought is that knowledge. What is the second thing that happens? First thing self-control. Second thing commensurate with the power of concentration. The knowledge also will be that much. If our power of concentration is this much our knowledge also will be that much. What is the third thing? As a result of achieving this power of concentration the mind becomes immensely happier. Let me just dwell on this because it's so very important. Many times we are very fortunate to have objects of enjoyment. Many times you know you have some for example nice book maybe nice film maybe nice food whatever it doesn't matter nice piece of music it doesn't matter whatever it is we are fortunate to have that. Many people do not have that opportunity that's fine. How much joy do we derive by experiencing that object? Just now we discussed. Suppose all of us are listening to one song. Let us say a devotee is singing a beautiful song. Let us also imagine Sriram Krishna is also sitting along with us. You know you can read gospel and imagine you are one of them and Sriram Krishna is listening a devotional song. We are also listening. Now who derives the greatest joy? Who derives? Why? Because he becomes so focused he becomes so concentrated he becomes one with the sound. So what is the third benefit? To the extent that our power of concentration increases to that extent we also experience tremendous joy. Let me also explain why why we do that. The real explanation I will come later on. This is only a little bit brief explanation. What is concentration? What is concentration? Concentration means only one thought remains in the mind. Now we come across a nice beautiful piece of music and what happens we focus on that and if we are capable of focusing on listening to that song and experiencing that song what happens during that period? No other thought intrudes and we get tremendous joy. But all of us do not get that kind of joy because our powers of concentration are varied from minus zero degrees to plus something else. So what happens? What happens in our case? This is a beautiful piece of music. Yesterday that fellow scolded me. Why is that dog barking at this time? Do you see the point? Every second the mind is running and that interferes in my experience of this joy. I am just extolling the virtues of power of concentration. So all of us want to be happier, isn't it? Who doesn't want to be happy? And if we want to be happy, what is the way? Why is Ramakrishna always used to be in Samadhi? Because he wants to enjoy. This is also an important point. Not only when he closes his eyes and his body becomes distorted, we have peculiar ideas about Samadhi. Very peculiar ideas. Only when a person's hands go like this, he is in a state of Samadhi. But suppose he is cutting a joke. Now who enjoys when Ramakrishna used to cut a joke? Who used to enjoy more? He himself. Why? Because his mind is not thinking anything else. It is only thinking about... whatever he is doing, he disciplined himself to do only that. There is a religious sect called Zen Buddhism. A disciple asked a Zen master, Master, what is the cause of your happiness? You seem to be always happy. What is the reason? And the Zen master's famous reply is, when I eat, I eat. When I sleep, I sleep. The disciple was a little bit what is called argumentative type. So he asked, but I also eat, I also sleep. He said, when you are eating, a hundred thoughts are running right in your brain. And when you are sleeping, how many dreams? Millions of dreams. But when I eat, I don't think anything else but eating. And when I sleep, I only have no dreams at all. Because I focus fully on sleep. And what is that sleep without dreams? What is it called? And when do we get the greatest rest? And rest itself is happiness. When is it? In this state of Sushupti. Now you see, there's a wonderful word we use. I don't know, nowadays they don't use it. In the past, when cinemas used to go, long cinemas, three and a half hours, four hours, in between there is an interval. Do you know what they used to call it? Vishranti. Shranta means effort, labor. Vishranti means no labor at all. Relax, period of relaxation. What does it mean? The rest is period of labor. So Vishranti. What is Sushupti state? Vishranti. What does Vishranti mean? The mind doesn't function at all. So when the mind doesn't function, that is what is called Samadhi. When there is no vritti in the mind, that is called Samadhi. And Samadhi gives the highest type of happiness. That's why Ramakrishna was always happy, supremely happy. Sometimes he's worried also, but not about himself. He's worried about whom? For his devotees. He'll be thinking, he never used to think about God. Ramakrishna never used to think about God after he became perfect. Why? Because he himself has become God, but still his mind was there. So whom was he thinking about? His devotees. How to advance them in spiritual life and what are the obstacles that are preventing each devotee progressing further in spiritual life and how to help him. This was his thought. There was nothing. What was holy mother thinking? Whole night she used to be sleepless. Why was she still sleepless? Because she said, you know, remember, so many pester me and take initiation and then afterwards they don't do anything at all. Whenever we experience an object, these five factors take place. What are they? First I am there, then the object is there, then there is something which connects me with the object and if this connection is established properly and rightly, then there results fourth thing. What is it called? Knowledge. And when I get knowledge as a result of that knowledge, that modifies my mind and results in appropriate Ananda. Let us keep this in mind and if my mind becomes perfectly concentrated, focused, then what happens? I get complete knowledge of that particular object. Let us keep this in mind. Then this is what we discussed in brief in my last class. Then I said Samadhi. What is the goal of Yogi? Samadhi. Samadhi is of how many types? Two types. First of all lower Samadhi called Sampragnatha and higher Samadhi called Asampragnatha Samadhi. These are the two. Then again Sampragnatha Samadhi is divided into four factors. Savitarka, then Savichara, Sananda, Sasmita. I will explain, do not worry. Asampragnatha Samadhi, how many types? Only one type really speaking, only one. And these four again, Savitarka is divided into Savitarka and Nirvitarka. Vichara is divided into Savichara, Nirvichara. So in total we get seven types of Samadhi. Seven types. Let us recall before we go. Proceed further. Savitarka one, Nirvitarka two, Savichara three, Nirvichara four, Sananda five, Sasmita six, Asampragnatha seven. This is what we discussed last class. Now let us discuss. What is the first step? Step is Savitarka Samadhi. Sampragnatha Samadhi. It is still Sampragnatha. What does Sampragnatha mean? Concentration with the help of an object. Objective meditation is called Sampragnatha Samadhi. Objectless meditation is called Asampragnatha. Let us say it is like a seven-stepped process. What is the first step, lowest step? It is called Vitarka. What is Vitarka? These are technical terms but what it really means, you to focus all of our disciplined mind to concentrate on a gross object. To focus on a gross object. But before I go deep into it, let me also introduce you to three types of meditations. This is related with the Sampragnatha Samadhi. Three-stepped, three-processed meditation before we go further. The first is, I am there, object is there. This is called meditation, concentration on an object. Here is a clip. I am trying to concentrate on this object called a clip. I will come to the details later on. I am only giving the very brief introduction. The second is, recall whenever I want to know about this, three things are necessary. What is it? I must be there, the object must be there. What is the second thing? There must be something to connect. What is that connecting thing called? It is called Antahkarana. Antahkarana means the inner organ called mind. The mind must be there. What connects me with this object is called mind. So if mind is absent, then I will never be able to recognize. So what is the first process of meditation? I meditate on a gross object. What is the second process of meditation? I meditate not on an object but on the instrument of knowledge. That means I meditate upon the mind itself. You see the difference? First an object, second on the instrument which connects me with the object. And what is the last one? I meditate upon this or the mind, the I meditates upon itself. But this I is not the real self. Now let me clarify it. I said it is the nature of the mind always to be in the Samadhi. So it loses its capacity to be in Samadhi because it becomes contaminated because of its association with Rajas and Tamas. Now what is Yoga? To wash away the dross of Rajas and Tamas and to remain in the highest quality called Sattva. Now here is an important point. What is it that attains Samadhi? Not the soul, it is only the mind. What is it that doesn't remain in Samadhi? It is the mind. What is it that doesn't have concentration? It is the mind. What is it that feels unhappy? It is the mind. What is it that feels happy? It is the mind. What is it that through long practice attains Samadhi and says oh now I am in Samadhi? What is that? Which is that which says that? It is only the mind. Let us keep always. It is not the Purusha because the Purusha has never become lost to its nature. It is only that all the changes are taking place only in the mind. It is a journey from the lowest type of mind to the highest type of mind and that is all it is happening. Nothing is happening to the real self at all. Both Yoga philosophers, Vedanta philosophers are one with regard to this. Let us keep in mind. Let me deal with the lowest step of this Samadhi. What is it called first? Pitarka. Pitarka means meditation or concentration and meditation on a gross object. On a gross object. I wished I brought a flower that would have been a very nice example but let me you can all imagine. Here is a rose flower. Imagine rose flower. I ask you focus your mind on this flower. You are there. The flower is there and if you focus your mind what happens? What happens when you focus your mind? You are focusing on the object called rose. That is not real focus. What is real focus? In our ignorance what is this object? It is a rose but if you focus it removes its veils. It removes its veils. What is this object called rose? There is a form, color, there is a smell, there is a sound, there is a touch and there is a taste. So what is this all this? It is a mixture of five things. A mixture of five things. In our ignorance, oh this is a rose. We are thinking it is one single object but actually it is a mixture of five objects. So in the beginning you only focus on that. So it is a beautiful rose, wonderful rose. Only the thought of rose comes. But as you go on focusing what happens? Imperceptibly without our own knowledge the mind starts breaking down the flower. Okay this is a color, this is nothing to do with flower because this color can be found in other, in a sari it is there, on the wall it is there, it is everywhere. In the sky it is there. Is it not? It's a red color. In a hundred thousand things you can get red color. What about that particular shape? Is the rose the only object which has that particular shape? Again there are billion objects which have the same shape. And is the sound is the only sound? Every other object also has the same, some kind of sound. Is it smelling exactly the same? Smell, tasting the same thing? For the touch it will be like that. There are billions of other objects. What happens when we focus on that object called rose? As if, as if you take a knife and cut that rose into five. This is color, this is sound, this is smell, this is taste, this is touch. What happens now? First you are thinking I am focusing on a rose. Now what happens next step? Because your power of concentration is such, then it penetrates, clarifies and says let me focus on color itself. Let me focus on color itself. Please listen carefully. Let me focus on color, let us say pink color. You focus on the pink color. The moment you focus on the pink color, that which was previously associated with the rose now loses that particular association because pink can be associated with anything in this world. That means from a particular position you have arrived at the broadest generalization. Your mind expands how this really helps us in our day-to-day life. Let me give an illustration and stop the class here because this is such a deep subject, interesting subject. We will continue in our future classes. Suppose I come across two persons. One person I like, another person I don't like. Why? Because I am particularizing this particular, this is different person, this is different person. Then let us say do I like this person? Why do I don't like this person? That this person's voice is very sweet, this person's voice is very harsh. Listen carefully. Then what happens? I start, I am a yogi, trying to be a yogi. I focus. What do I focus upon? Let me meditate upon this person, this person. I separate the voice, the sound. The moment I separate the sound, I separate also the sound from the person whom I don't like. It becomes a generalized sound. Now, is there something wrong with the sound of the other person? No. What is wrong? The instrument through which that sound is passing, do you understand? The sound itself, you see, it is the same air that is coming from both of them. It is the same sound which goes through a drum. It is the same sound which goes through a woman. It is the same air which comes out of a man, a donkey. It makes no difference. But we are associating with the effects, not the sound itself. But if we concentrate on the sound, isolate, what is the difference between this man and that man? Absolutely no difference. Or let me put it this way, that I do not see this person as an individual. I see him as a human being. Here is a white human being, here is a black human being, here is a brown human being, here is a yellow human being. I don't concentrate on black, white. I only concentrate on a human being. The moment I concentrate on the human, I don't see any difference between this person. The color is different. But I should not base my discrimination on the color or sound or anything. I should only base on humanity. The moment your concentration improves, this is what happens automatically. You don't need to put forth any effort. Your penetrating power of concentration, it breaks down that which is called ignorance or the differentiation, makes it a unity is established. Then I look upon both human beings, both people as human beings, human being. Here is a human being, another is another human being. Then my likes, what happens as a result? My likes and dislikes both disappear. Now let me give an illustration. We will discuss these points elaborately in my next classes. Ramakrishna said, once I had a desire to eat a nice sweet called sandesh. And of course the moment the desire came, he requested Madhur Babu that provide me. And in those days pure sandesh is available. And immediately the sandesh came. You remember what happened? Ramakrishna said, this is the best sandesh available. I put it in my mouth. Then I went on shifting it from one side of the mouth to the other side and then discriminate. Oh mind! This is what is called sandesh. People go mad after it. But after all this is also made out of the five elements only. Whether it is sandesh or an ordinary piece of jaggery or a cloud of earth, they are all made up of what? The same five elements. The moment he focused, he was not saying. That saying is for our benefit. But his power of concentration has divided behind what is that sweetmeat, five elements. And what is this whole universe consisting of? Only those five elements. The moment he focused upon that, the discrimination between one and the other totally disappeared. The moment it disappeared, then he will have no likes and dislikes. Now important point. There is no difference between an extraordinary sandesh, ordinary sandesh, a piece of jaggery or any type of food. But that's not. When we sleep also, we have this kind of experience. Because if somebody puts a piece of mud in our mouth and you are dreaming that you are eating sandesh, somebody is feeding sandesh, somebody is actually putting some piece of mud in your mouth. Will it taste like sweet sandesh or not? The point I wanted to make is that discrimination is one side of the experience. But the other side is the moment he went to that, all the wonderful sweet taste he could get from any object he will get. Do you see the point? Why? Because he went to the very root cause of if a sandesh can give so much of sweetness and joy, the mother of the sandesh, how much greater happiness it is capable of giving? It is because he gets that happiness, he doesn't care for the piece of sandesh. It is not merely saying this and this are same. What he is really saying is that both are of equal value, means all of them are of the highest value without the least bit of discrimination. Because I am looking at them from their original point of view, not from our ordinary point of view. That is the power of discrimination. So the lowest type of concentration which is called vitarka samadhi, which we will discuss in our future classes, is to focus on any gross object. And if you focus enough with all your power of concentration, it breaks down the constituent elements and we will discover that we are gradually going to concentrate on the constituent elements themselves. How many elements are there? All this gross world is consisting of five elements. But all those five elements ultimately merge into one element. What is that element? Space. And if you concentrate on this space, space is nothing but another sheath, another veil beneath that veil called space. What is there? Atman. Behind the annamaya kosha what is there? Pranamaya kosha. Behind the pranamaya kosha what is there? Manomaya kosha. Behind manomaya kosha what is there? Vijnanamaya kosha. Behind vijnanamaya kosha what is there? Anandamaya kosha. Behind anandamaya kosha what is there? But the pure self only. Behind the gross body what is there? Subtle body. Behind the subtle body what is there? Causal body. Behind the causal body what is there? Pure consciousness alone. So our concentration itself as though it like a laser beam, it penetrates, it cuts down the outer layers, one feels of the outer layers and ultimately the truth stands revealed. This is the power of concentration. Even on the grossest object, take any gross object, ultimately it will take you to that five gross elements, merging them but they are also only the outer manifestation. There is something behind the five gross elements, five subtle elements. We will come to that in our future classes. Om Shanti Shanti Shanti