Patanjali Yoga Sutras Lecture 104

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

OM SAHANAVATO SAHANAVUNATO SAHAVIRYAM KARAVAVAHE TEJASVINAVADHITAMASTUMA VIDVISHAVAHE OM SHANTI SHANTI SHANTIH OM YOGENACHITASYA PADENA VACHAM MALAM SHARIRASYA CHAVAIDYA KENA 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 are entering into one of the most fascinating subjects of the relationship between yoga and karma. We are all the results of what we have done in the past. However great a yogi may be, even his body, his mind is also the results of his past actions. We had already discussed in the seventh aphorism about the effect of this karma. In the eighth one we are entering into TATA TAD VIPAKA ANUGUNANAM EVA ABHIVYAKTIH VASANANAM Of the tendencies produced by these three kinds of karma only those are manifested for which the conditions are favorable. In the last aphorism what we discussed was accepting for a realized soul who is not at all affected by any type of karma. All of us are affected by the effects of karma and karma is of three types Shukla, Krishna and a mixture of both. Black, white and a mixture. What is white? Pure actions, dharmic actions which produce only the best happy results and what is black actions? Vices, PAPA what we call and the result is terrible suffering. So to experience the results of these things our scriptures posit that there are heavenly worlds where people go and experience these things and then there are also worlds of intense suffering. This is in Sanskrit called SWARGA and NARAKA. So these two places only for those who have done extremely good or extremely wicked evil deeds but all of us we are the results of a mixture of both good as well as evil and for those who are the results of good and evil this world what we call the earthly world. The rest go either higher up or go down. Now that was what we had discussed. Even yogis even they also in their lives also we see that there is sometimes suffering and sometimes they are also very happy. Take the example of Sri Ramakrishna himself how much he enjoyed his life. There were many devotees who used to take care of him supply him his needs and in the end as we know he also suffered terribly. Now the point is it may not be his karma but the effect of karma had come and the devotees also will know quite a number of holy people where people sadhus, holy people suffer very much. Those who are great sadhus they suffer very much or many sadhus suffer somewhat. It may not be intense but definitely they suffer. Is it any different from any one of the ordinary person's either enjoyment or suffering? Not really. So what is the explanation? Each person's karma, even incarnations Bhagavan Krishna had to die, had to be killed. This is one of the interesting points. From the devotee's point of view oh he voluntarily he allowed himself to be killed. That's not the point. From a human point of view he also had to go through the karma. As you know the karma, the story that some of these Krishna's relatives they made fun of some rishis, holy people. They dressed a young man as a pregnant woman and then wanted to tease these holy people. Can you predict who is going to be the child? A boy or a girl? And the rishi got very annoyed and he cursed. He is going to give birth to one iron puzzle because of that the entire Yadu race will come to an end. And Shri Krishna belonged to that case. Of course you may say we all believe it that it was his will actually and because of that it happened. That's a different type of explanation. But what we are interested is even holy people, great people they also have to suffer the results of karma and that is inevitable. This leads us to a very profound discussion. Later on we will come to that. But what we are interested in this particular this particular aphorism, eighth aphorism, is a most interesting aphorism. As we all know Hindus believe in past births any number of past births and any number of future births until one attains perfection. Now it so happens in our observation there are people who are so good and for many many many years and it is very difficult to say that there is going to be a fall in their lives. You just have to open your eyes and see so many holy people. They get power. They attract people. They become very popular and then suddenly you hear they have fallen. On the other side also we hear that there are people who are leading a very sinful type of life and if we are asked to predict about their future we'll be predicting that they are going to become worse and worse and all of a sudden you see that they have tremendous conversion had taken place. A great sinner has become a great saint. In fact devotees of Sri Ramakrishna would recall that how many people would have predicted about Girish Chandra Ghosh earlier times that he would have become one of the greatest saints, saintly life, spiritual persons. How many of us would have predicted if we had come into contact with him earlier times. So some of the things I'm going to discuss. Why such sudden changes take place in our lives and how sinners suddenly they have a conversion somehow and their life takes an upward change and they end up being great saints, very great saints and similarly there are so many holy people and it is very difficult even to imagine they are going to fall down. So why do these things happen really? This is the question Patanjali takes up in this aphorism. So he gives very reasonable argument. Of course whatever arguments these great people give us we must first start with the foundation of firm faith. The faith is each soul is potentially divine. Second is until we reach that goal of manifesting our divinity there would be lives. It is not one life but as we say in local Indian language you know, Churashi lak janam. Millions of, millions of births which Jalaluddin Rumi had written in the form of a poem. I was a mineral and I became an insect. I became an, I was an insect then I became a beast. I was a beast then I became a man. I was a man then I became a saint. Like that he has beautifully poetry he has expressed. But this is what Hindus believe and this is the root cause of evolution which I will just touch here. What this aphorism wants to tell us that why suddenly certain tendencies which are not at all even imagined to express, express themselves in the lives of people even people like us also to a small extent but in some people extraordinary expression and a tremendous change takes place in their lives. The point is such changes do take place in our lives. When such changes do take place in our lives why these sudden changes? It looks as though a person is leading certain type of life with certain type of habits and life is more or less set and where from these sudden changes take place and why? For that the background faith that we are all really divine and life is meant to manifest this divinity within and for that we may have to take even millions of births and every time every life is only helping us to progress towards our goal which is manifestation of the divinity these are commonly held beliefs by the devotees of Vedanta, Hinduism. But what is interesting here the point we have to underline that here are people suddenly changes take place we never would have imagined such changes take place and all of a sudden why this change take place? This is where Patanjali gives us during our course of evolution maybe million births back as an example he doesn't give the example we are adding those examples a person had taken the birth of a dog and he lives the life of a dog he acquires the tendencies of a dog and those tendencies they remain with him strong tendencies and after million births he becomes a human being and maybe he turns to spiritual life and he is leading a predictable spiritual life and all of a sudden those dog tendencies start expressing themselves. Only those who believe in what I said they find some type of explanation but don't ask for proof because this depends totally upon our faith only and if you talk these things to modern scientists they will never accept it. So why suddenly these tendencies acquired so long back why do they manifest in this life when life is going on predictably for good or for bad whatever it is but Patanjali has to explain because this is a phenomena we see it so here is here comes the explanation I'll first read the explanation then we will go into the discussion of the tendencies produced by these three kinds of karma only those are manifested for which the conditions are favorable in any particular incarnation a man's condition is determined by the balance of his karmas suppose that balance is very favorable and he is born to become a monk and a spiritual teacher he will still have some bad karmas which under less favorable conditions would produce bad tendencies but because he has to live up to his vocation and set a good example to his pupils these tendencies will be kept in abeyance and his good tendencies will become manifest but this aphorism stresses the great importance of right environment association with those who are spiritually minded if you are born as a dog you may still have tendencies but they will be greatly restricted by your dog condition you have to act in accordance with your animal nature this is the general explanation of this aphorism so what it really means is that all the tendencies we have created through our action called vasanas they are stored up nothing is wasted what it means is that in spiritual life we have to counter if they are unspiritual tendency and if we do not counter they're waiting to pounce upon us like tigers from behind the bush Shri Ramakrishna used often to warn his devotees those who read the gospel of Shri Ramakrishna and was remarking after hearing Shri Ramakrishna's warning to I think Bhavnath, Shri Ramakrishna says Bhavnath has advanced in spiritual life so much and why is he still warning such advanced spiritual people my understanding is twofold it is a general advice meant not only for Bhavnath but for all of us but there is a caveat there according to my understanding the caveat is how do we know that negative unspiritual tendencies were not hiding behind that devotee's mind if he is not warned then he can fall in fact something's happened I do not know about Bhavnath's life but Shri Ramakrishna had predicted about one devotee be careful if you behave like this you will fall down almost after about 25 or 30 years when this man was in his late 50s or so he had fallen down and this was the warning given by Shri Ramakrishna when he was a young man now specifically I wanted to discuss certain points you know nowadays we come across cases gender changes take place man is born but he feels very uncomfortable in the body of a man and he later on now of course you know science has advanced so much it is possible to change the gender now this is a very beautiful illustration because the person's external body is not suitable to express that person's tendencies so also we come to know there are some who are born as female and they also changed into a male gender because they were not at all comfortable mind you these people are not just changing for the sake of fancy or fashion they really feel terribly uncomfortable like you know if you are moving in Madras with heavy clothing how do you experience or if you are moving with very little clothing in arctic areas how do you experience these people mentally really they understand that my mind and my body are going in opposite direction I am not at all comfortable now this point is very important for us because if the body and mind are not in unison in harmony it can bring about terrible suffering and just well only for a short time upon this our bodies have got particular tendencies so according to our Hindu understanding what is a body it's nothing but a concrete manifestation of our previous tendency if somebody is a glutton his body would be different if somebody has got some other deep desire his body is shaped by that so the physical body and the mind are not that different nowadays even psychologists doctors recognize called psychosomatic relationship if anybody wants to lead a spiritual life and if that person's body doesn't cooperate in fact there is an incident that comes to my mind if these two do not cooperate then there would not be spiritual progress an incident comes to my mind a devotee used to come to Shri Ramakrishna and Shri Ramakrishna looked at him and he passed a remark the remark was this person's body he is a very weak person and he's not going to make progress in spiritual life what Shri Ramakrishna really meant I do not know but this devotee is certainly not going to progress in spiritual life this devotee heard it got so annoyed that I will disprove Shri Ramakrishna so he went and started exercising became very strong and came to Shri Ramakrishna perhaps I don't know and then said look I have become very strong maybe Shri Ramakrishna would have said now you are going to make progress in spiritual life so any kind of weakness in the body is not conducive to spiritual progress excepting those who are exceptionally already advanced in spiritual life for them it doesn't really matter because their minds are too strong to be restrained by the body but for most of us our bodies are nothing but our mind in action our samskaras our vasanas when we take birth we come along with them we take a body appropriate to the expression of our samskaras which are immediately to become fruitful that is why we have to be extremely careful and each individual is different from the other individual but there must be a wonderful harmony between the body and the mind I just gave an example some people are born with a samskara but their body is totally different it is not suitable for them they understand there is a terrible conflict between the body and the mind and so with the help of the modern science they try to change their gender but my problem still remains does that really solve the problem because you cannot simply change a natural body into an unnatural body you might attempt a little bit of difference but probably it is not possible maybe a little bit psychologically they become a little bit happier but does it really serve the purpose which they wanted to serve we do not know that is quite a part then we see why these sudden changes take place here is the lesson we are all storing long past strong vasanas in a particular location which Patanjali or yogis term as karma asaya asaya means a storehouse karma's storehouse karma asaya where it is we do not know and according to the life some of these tendencies only some of them which are appropriate for that particular life generally they come forward but in between suddenly some seeds whether they slip by mistake or deliberately god slips into our lives we do not know and that is how whether it is holy mother or Shri Ram Krishna they are able to predict about some people and say see you have to be careful about this but even though they are warning but that warning doesn't seem really to work in at least in many cases but some cases when there is faith it seems to work i'll give an example there were two young men and they used to they were disciples of holy mother they used to come to holy mother both of both were unmarried and one was serving in a school and this young man who was serving as headmaster of a school he came to holy mother and said mother i have a strong desire to get married so i want your permission she laughed out and then said no my child it is not necessary these are all just few days fancies you'll be totally all right you just bear patiently for a short time he had faith in holy mother and he did that and after little time those troubling desires samskaras have vanished totally from his mind there was another young man and he came and said mother i feel a strong desire to become a monk i am restless please give me permission today itself i want to become a monk and mother laughed and said you know you know my child god has created two eyes two ears two hands two feet everything in a pair so also he created man and woman you better get married and he did not agree with holy mother but anyway he went and got married much later they recalled that holy mother was absolutely right the person who wanted to get married that desire had disappeared from his mind and the people the person who wanted to become a monk after some time he realized he would have fallen from his ideal had he not got married sometimes these great souls can save now we will take a few examples of how sudden changes can come Girish Chandra Bose himself is a great example and we know Bilwa Mangala is one example Tulasi Dasa was one example and saint augustine was another example when people observed their lives who would have predicted that one day they are going to be the greatest saints in the in the world how how these people who are leading a worldly life how suddenly the tendencies have come here is Patanjali's explanation in each one of our lives karma is shukla as well as krishna white as well as black virtue as well as vice maybe the what we call unspiritual tendencies had their power and they led this man for some time and through experience maybe the person was ready for the other seeds to grow up and all of a sudden a casual word or some small experience some small incident somebody's words i think you remember the story of lala baba just hearing one young girl's words already so much time had passed baba father when are you going to wash the cloths very innocent words addressed to her father to a washerman and this man was passing by he heard it what was the result all of a sudden a tremendous conversion took place he renounced the world became one of the greatest holy person and his name is well known in bengal and other places so how do these how do these things happen because there we are all a mixture of spiritual and unspiritual tendencies the point is when we see these sudden changes in the lives of people good people slipping down and evil people suddenly changing their lives we need not get surprised we need not get shocked because of the past tendencies and the whole point is that one life's tendencies alone cannot bring this change about there may be long born maybe millions of births back that is also a caution for us we are all human beings and if we behave like dogs animals it is very likely in the next birth we will also get animal bodies the whole essence of this aphorism is that our habits tendencies are the raw material out of which our future births are determined and these raw material which is our tendencies if they are good our life will be good if they are evil then there would be suffering but usually they are a mixture but sometimes very strong tendencies of either good or i would put spiritual or unspiritual can bring about a sudden transformation so the whole point is if an evil person becomes suddenly a saint that's absolutely fine it is a joyous news but a holy man suddenly he falls it is no good now in this connection i just remembered something very interesting one day one man had spoken very harsh words to somebody one of our monks and later on he apologized he said i did not mean it i don't know why i spoke like that i apologize and the other monk also he said okay that's okay but what the other monk later on told me how stupid of people do you think anything comes out suddenly in psychology those who have read a little bit of psychology we call it Freud and sleep Freud one of the fathers of the modern psychology he says that nothing comes up there is nothing called sudden this is what Sri Ramakrishna is deep meaning statements if somebody had eaten garlic when he belches what comes out garlic smell so if you smell garlic smell from somebody's mouth do you think that suddenly it has come out he must have inhabited to eat these things so also there is nothing called sudden suddenly without meaning it comes out what they mean by without meaning is i never wanted to express it i am keeping it in my mind i didn't want to express it but suddenly without my control it came out you can just observe is a human behavior is an extraordinary eye-opener for all of us you observe anybody and you will get an encyclopedia of knowledge about people's behavior so also our behavior it is not to observe other people's behavior it is not important but how we can correct our own behavior if i have become suddenly angry if some negative tendency seem to have come suddenly all of a sudden if i do something wrong all of a sudden you may think i know this person and i i did not expect this person to react like this never never ever think it is a temporary slip it is a definite result of what is being stored what is being hidden deep in our minds the only thing modern psychologists cannot fathom is because they don't accept previous births much less future births all their explanation is confined only to this life whereas Patanjali in any every hindu believes in many many births therefore the tendencies of any past birth provided they are sufficiently strong they can come forward and that is why sri ramakrishna says sadho sabdhan and this leads us to the next aphorism which is so wonderful before that i would like to mention we know you know that our ramakrishna order brings out monthly magazines in english there are three vedanta kesari, prabuddha bharata and the bulletin from the ramakrishna institute of culture in vedanta kesari 1960-61 issues there is a series of issues probably in the month of may sudden conversion of saints a whole special issue has been brought out now take note of the title sudden conversion hundreds of sadhus have gone they have chosen some particular sadhus and the people were leading normal life suddenly they seem to have become converted to spiritual life but this is where patanjali helps us it is not sudden it is not unintentional it is absolutely like a script written in a drama it comes out at a particular time when the opportune moment desha kala and environment becomes time space environment become favorable these tendencies would come out the essence of what we are discussing here is we have to be extremely careful and that's why in north india sadhu circle there is a saying never tell about any holy man any sadhu he is a good sadhu you can only tell here is a good sadhu after he is dead and after his body is burnt and his ashes are scattered to the four winds then you heave a sign of relief and say yes he was a good sadhu until that time don't say anything it is not that i am not saying that it happens in everybody's life but the point is it can happen that's why sri ram krishna used it to warn people like that the ninth aphorism says because of our memory of past tendencies the chain of cause and effect is not broken by change of species space or time this is related to the aphorism which we discussed earlier what it means is million years back million births back a person had acquired a being had acquired certain tendencies and now maybe at that time he was an animal now he has become a human being maybe a holy man maybe he's leading a good life but all those tendencies there is no bar there is no restriction they are all waiting is what he says because of the our memory of past tendency the chain of cause and effect hinduism always believes in the doctrine of cause and effect this is the third fundamental doctrine of vedanta if you remember what is it the third one the law of fourth one sorry not third fourth one the law of karma what is the law of karma cause and effect but the only problem is immediately one cause turns into an appropriate effect not necessary sometimes yes sometimes no here is a cause and it might happen after 20 years after 50 years in a village there was a boy and he was ridiculed because he was weak and some stronger boy elder boy he had bet him and that time passed this man grew up he joined the military and the first opportunity he got he took his gun and he went home killed that fellow and promptly handed over himself to the police and the police asked him why because they don't see any immediate cause and effect then that fellow said this fellow had injured me when i was a small boy the other fellow totally forgot about it probably but this fellow had never forgotten so much of time had passed but what an effect that was the cause and here the man had to lose his life here only Patanjali doesn't stop only with this life he tells that even a million births back whatever happens it can come into our lives it might enhance our lives it might wreck our lives the whole point is let us be careful about it so this is where Patanjali is telling Smriti samskara yo eka roopata there is absolutely the species the time the time of the birth all these things cannot act as a barrier between the law of cause and effect if there is a cause it must bear its fruits a good example also suddenly came to my mind you know Shri Ramakrishna had a devotee called Gopala Irma this Gopala Irma was a very poor lady and she started coming to Shri Ramakrishna and Shri Ramakrishna started feeding her with the best food material food offerings brought to Shri Ramakrishna by rich people and he would not give these offerings to anybody excepting to two people you know that who are the Gopala Irma and Narendranath now Shri Ramakrishna used to feed this lady even though she was only bringing very very ordinary things very poor things Shri Ramakrishna loved what she brought because what he was proving patram pushpam phalam toyam yome bhaktya prayachati tadaham bhaktya pahrutam ashname prayatatmanah Bhagwan Krishna tells to Arjuna let a person be endowed with deep devotion and with deep love if even if he was a leaf a flower or even simple water I accept that with the greatest delight here was a lady who was coming to Shri Ramakrishna and Shri Ramakrishna was eating whatever she brings with the greatest delight he would ask for it and he was enjoying it really he was enjoying it but he was also used to feed then she asked Gopala why are you feeding me so much Shri Ramakrishna's reply I don't know whether you remember that's because you fed me previously sumptuously and she never remembered this was the first time she was coming and meeting Shri Ramakrishna when did she feed Shri Ramakrishna many births back maybe in the form of Shri Krishna you know many gopis it is my belief our belief all these great souls that came yogin ma, golap ma and gopal air ma and gauri ma it's my belief that they were all gopis who were related to Shri Ramakrishna in the form of Shri Krishna at that time do you think any ordinary tom dick and harry is born there with such a great devotion it is not possible so in the maybe some gopi had fed Shri Krishna with the best of things and that's what Shri Ramakrishna was referring and saying you fed when did I when did I feed you oh you fed me in the past he did not elaborate it but we have to accept it because in this life even now what was she feeding very simple things very poor things in comparison with what it was this is also law of karma what is it you brought to me something now I am returning back with compound interest best thing is the law of karma anyway there is no nothing can put a barrier between the cause and effect even after millions of years the cause is still there and until it bears fruit it is not going to come to an end so what what does what is the lesson that we have to learn the lesson is even if you take God's name once even if you have taken for a short time even if you have done a little good deed it is a good karma and it must yield its fruit sometime or the other a funny story also comes to my mind you know Rupati was being disrobed and she wanted she prayed to Krishna come and help me and Shri Krishna it seems is one version don't worry about where it is just take the lesson and Shri Krishna came and asked did you donate any cloths to anybody and then she said yes once I was taking bath and another old brahmin was also taking bath in a river and he had only a small piece of cloth which was taken away by the current of the river and he was feeling ashamed to come I noticed him then I tore my sari into two and I wore one half and I threw the other piece to him and he put it on and Shri Krishna said that will do you will be saved what am I talking about the law of karma so grace also works through the law of karma this is a different subject altogether I'm going to give a hint if we are praying for the grace of God we must deserve it and how do we deserve it God's grace is not conditional but our receiving God's grace is conditional so through our karma we become fit or not fit to receive the grace of God this is what Patanjali is telling here first point is there is no break between cause and effect and what is the cause he is referring to here samskara vasana we might have accumulated some vasana or desire many many aeons back and how do we develop them through our actions karma produces cause that is how it comes now let me read the commentary by memory Patanjali doesn't mean conscious remembering but unconscious coordination of the impressions received in past lives with the actions and thoughts of our present life karma the chain of cause and effect is absolutely continuous if in the course of many incarnations we change our species evolving from animal into man or from man into some non-human type of being our karma will still continue to operate however as noted in the preceding aphorism only those tendencies appropriate to our species and condition will be manifested in any one life the rest will be held in abeyance until we reincarnate into another species and condition appropriate to them we move on to the 10th aphorism tasam anaditvam ca asishah nityatvat since the desire to exist has always been present our tendencies cannot have had any beginning now this verse brings us into deep philosophical debate one of the debates only if we believe hindu theory of karma law of cause and effect so what is the theory of cause and effect i am what i am now because of what i did in the past and what i was in the past was the result of what i did in the life before and what i did in that order third life before was the result of what i did in the past life so first point is where did it start this chain of karma where did it start so there is no real answer the only answer vedanta gives is it is anadi anadi means beginningless beginningless means two meanings one meaning is maybe it is really beginningless the other meaning is we do not know where it starts if you go on tracing also you know here people they go on tracing my great grandfather is this his father his great grandfather's father and his great great great grandfather was so this is called family tree even some software to trace one 10 centuries back but according to hindu this thing you cannot trace back at all so how did the first karma start and then the second point that comes is karma is possible when there is a body and body is possible only when there is karma so which is first egg or chicken seed or tree which is first which comes first or is it simultaneous these are interesting argument useless in a way of speaking useless but the only usefulness is that we have to believe that long past back we have been having bodies and bodies came because of karma and every body is the result of our past karmas etc now the point here is why is there a body because of karma what is karma desire and what is this desire one of the related subjects is when we want to focus our mind concentrate our mind meditate what is it that is problem our mind our minds become very restless restlessness of the minds mean only one thing the mind is running here and there the running of the mind here and there means only one thing there are lots of unfulfilled desires in the mind so what is the philosophy of this desire why are those desires and is there any way to make bring an end to those desires that is one of the most interesting topics in every religion every spiritual aspirant has to face that so the answer Vedanta gives is so why is the mind restless because of desires and how many desires are there only one according to Vedanta there is only one desire what is that desire i want to become god i want to become i want to become immortal i want to be always happy sat chit and ananda somehow that what i am really that memory is lingering deep in our personality and it will not allow us to stop until we reach that goal very briefly that is the explanation of evolution evolution not because a species wants to survive evolution not because they want to compete with each other evolution has only one meaning according to Vedanta according to biologists science the meaning of evolution is a creature wants to live and it wants to propagate it why does it want to live there is no explanation but here is the explanation what is why do we want to live first of all we want to live secondly we don't want simply to live we want to be happy all the time if we analyze our life only two things drive our life we are running towards what gives us sense of happiness and fulfillment and we are running away making all efforts to escape suffering unhappiness we don't want so this is called raga and dvesha raga means we are attached to things which give us happiness dvesha means we hate things which make us uncomfortable unhappy etc whole life is but what is the root cause what brings these two effects what drives the only one explanation each soul is potentially divine somehow unconsciously we remember that that i am divine but my present state is anything but divine so this restlessness is how can i become divine how can i be escape death how can i be happy all the time it is this remembrance unconscious though of one's true nature that is what makes the mind restless all the restlessness of the mind it is nothing it has nothing to do with any object in this world it has nothing to do let me be born again and again it has nothing to do with any birth nothing to do with any body the only these are all instruments which help me to move forward in spiritual life until i know i am divine then evolution comes to an end this is the vedantic explanation so why is the mind so restless because of desires and why is the mind having desires because of only one desire it is not desires even a billion desires can be condensed to one desire what is the desire may i not die and may i always be happy that is the only desire and why is this desire because that is our true nature though we do not know definitely about it this is what the scripture is telling this is what our reason tells us this is what our day-to-day experience tells us this is being discussed here tāsāṁ anāditvam ca āśiṣo nityatvā since the desire to exist has always been present our tendencies cannot have had any beginning this is the answer when did your life start we do not know but life starts only when there is a desire and interestingly there is a parallel to this in the Upanishads the Upanishads tell us that God was alone Brahman was alone and then suddenly so akāmāyatā he desired what is it bahusyām may i become many this has nothing to do from the Vedantic point of view with what we are discussing really it is i'm only giving a parallel what is the parallelity here our our tendency since that time is God desire was one and desired to be many and we have we we are in the case of being many and we our only desire is to become absolutely one we this is called evolution we are going back so what this aphorism wants to tell us what Patanjali wants to convey to us the desire to be divine has always been present our tendencies cannot have had any beginning our tendencies come because of desires desires produce action so that is how we fall into this trap this is called brahma chakra it is a cycle what is that cycle here is according to Shankaracharya here it is avidya i will come to the explanation avidya produces kāma kāma produces karma karma is of two types dharma and adharma dharma produces punya punya produces sukha adharma produces papa papa produces dukkha and that which is sukha brings within us raga means attachment and that which is gives us unhappiness produces in us aversion and we want to run away from it and because of this raga and dvesha this whole samsara of birth after birth is the cause these are the seven wheeled chakra that is going on now i will give you very brief explanation we are all really potentially divine but we do not remember it why do we not remember it because of a covering of our knowledge called avidya what is avidya it is so beautiful Patanjali himself has defined what is avidya if you remember anitya asuchi dukkha anatmasu nitya shuchi sukha ātma khyāti avidya in the second chapter this comes what is it what is ignorance that which is impure and that which is temporal or non-eternal that which is full of unhappiness suffering and that which is not the self to mistake these four that that which is unreal to consider it as real that which is impure to consider it as pure that which is a cause of suffering to consider it is as a cause of happiness that which is non-self to consider it as the self that is called ignorance and this called avidya and as i said ignorance produces desire comma desire produces two types of activities what are they virtuous actions dharma virtuous actions and adharma evil deeds good deeds and evil deeds good deeds produce what is called virtue punya and evil deeds produce what is called papa or vice the virtue produces happiness leads to happiness and its opposite produces to unhappiness and happiness produces attachment unhappiness produces aversion and we are running towards that which gives us happiness running away from which leads us to unhappiness and our actions follow this is then because of these actions we are fallen into this circle of transmigration and again and again this wheel is going round and round and round and round and round that is our present condition and at the same time there is a deep desire i want to get out of this place because we are potentially divine and that produces real desire all the other desires are only to lead us out of this circle of samsara this is what patanjali wants to convey to us through this there is no beginning for this desire the desire came because of avidya and it will disappear only with one condition when one condition is fulfilled what is that when we realize god when we know who really are when we know that we are the real self atmans then this cycle comes to an end then there is no desire no actions no happiness unhappiness and the person becomes totally free and this is what the patanjali wants to impress upon us so much it we will discuss the further things in our future class om shanti shanti shanti