Patanjali Yoga Sutras Lecture 042

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

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. In our last class, we discussed about the effects of pranayama. When the mind is restless, pranayama can help us quite a bit. But from the teachings of Sri Ramakrishna, we find that too much of pranayama is not advocated. Why? There are several reasons. One reason is it brings more body consciousness by focusing our mind on the prana. Second, even more deleterious is pranayama can bring certain powers. That is why so much of emphasis people make that they have to practice pranayama, not for God realization, but for the sake of some supernatural powers, and they can come. So in any case, it has to be practiced under an expert guru, and so many rules and regulations have to be followed. If they are not followed, there could be permanent damage. You know, we read scriptures, but we do not believe everything that it is said there. It is always said spiritual practice should never be undertaken by anyone without the help of a guru. Then what about Sri Ramakrishna himself in the beginning? Swami Sharadanandaji mentions this particular subject. Unless you are reading it thoroughly, you are likely to miss it. Sri Ramakrishna once felt from his own mind that I should do certain weird things like taking a coin and a clod of mud and then saying mud is like money. We never heard anybody doing that. Simply he felt like doing it and he did it. Then Swami Sharadananda was discussing this particular point and says, so can we also trust our mind? His advice is no, we should never trust our mind. Then how come Sri Ramakrishna had trusted his mind? He gave several reasons. One reason is, he says from the very beginning, from the mouth of Sri Ramakrishna, no untruth had ever escaped. He was an embodiment of truthfulness. His father was an embodiment of truthfulness. His mother was an embodiment of truthfulness. His father as you know, he was prepared to lose all his property for the sake of truth. What about Chandramani Devi? She gave birth to Sri Ramakrishna who we believe is an incarnation of truth. How can an untruthful person give birth to a truthful person is impossible and you can see how innocent and naive he was. Very great psychological point here. The point is if somebody is chalak, very clever, so we use two words, very naive, innocent and very very what is called clever, cleverness and intelligence by the way and I think you know that are diametrically opposed, intelligence and cleverness. We must all have intelligence. We have to pray for intelligence. In fact, every Hindu prays every day for intelligence. Gayatri mantra is nothing but a prayer for intelligence, right understanding and we all pray to God but we should pray also, let me not be clever. What is cleverness? Trying to deceive oneself. The idea given is cleverness means one deceives the others, foolishness personified. If I deceive you, whom am I deceiving? If I slap my own cheek, whom am I slapping? But not knowing, we think that we are slapping someone else. So it is like that, embodiment of truthfulness. So many examples are there, truthfulness. So whatever comes out of a truthful person can never prove to be untruthful. Untruthful means harmful, harmful means that which causes misery. See Ramakrishna from the very beginning, he fought his mother, his brothers, his everybody for the sake of truthfulness. He said I don't want to be invested with the sacred thread because the first thing you are asking me to do is break the truth and incidentally when a student is going home after completing his studies in a Gurukula, in the Taittiriya Upanishad, it is called Convocation Address. What is the first teaching the teacher gives? Satyam Vada, speak the truth. What is the meaning of speaking the truth? Dharmam Chara, satya and dharma, these are the two words. It is very nice to know what is the meaning of satya and dharma because we have different ideas. Dharma in theory is called satya, satya in practice is called dharma. To know what the scripture is telling us, what is the intention of the scripture, what is the essence of the scripture is called satya and to put that satya, that truth into day-to-day practice, that is called dharma. Forget about everything else and Swami Vivekananda's definition is even more practical. Whatever takes us to God, that is dharma. Whatever takes us away from God, that is its opposite. This is the simplest truth. Whatever thought arises in the minds of people like Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda, Sri Ramakrishna himself had given certificate, my Narayana, he will not do two things. He will never tell a lie. He will always speak truth and he will never be a slave to his senses and if you do, you visit public houses, you drink, you dance. If you can keep up these two, you will reach God. Interesting, we know the life of Girish Chandra Bose, we know he was a debauchee, we know he was a drunkard, but we also know he was a person who never spoke a lie in his life. He was not afraid to speak truth. He was a fearless man and that also tells us if we want to be truthful, we have to be very courageous person. I may lose my job, in fact an example comes to my mind. You know M, he left his job, a very nice paying job and he came and told Sri Ramakrishna, I lost my job and he didn't have stable income. His family was there, children were there. Sri Ramakrishna said, you have done well, you have done the right thing. God will provide you. He did not say anything, God will provide you. And then within 2-3 days, he got a better job than the last job and what happened to Kshudira? Don't think that, oh, if this is true, if I tell truth and for the sake of truth lose some job. A better job is waiting for me. Not always true. What about Kshudira? He left his, he lost his whole property, everything in the court and afterwards did he win a lottery ticket? He had to go through, but for a different purpose. The purpose is, these are all preparations for the incarnation to be born. Swami Shardanandji again raises this point and says, why did all these things happen? Because his father was in a very comfortable position before he was born and he gives the hint. He says, if Sri Ramakrishna became Sri Ramakrishna and he gives the teaching, but he has got lot of land at home and all that, he says, sir, you are living a comfortable life and you are asking us to renounce. Such a person who has been devoted to truthfulness, whatever comes in his mind will only be true, will only be beneficial, will only lead one to God. But in our case, we should never do that. Then what shall we do? We have to take the recourse to a Guru in whom we have faith. Even if the Guru turns out to be bad, it doesn't matter because we are praying to God. It is God who brings the Guru. Therefore, it is God's responsibility to guide us aright. Pranayama, we never advocate and if anybody is doing pranayama all by himself, then it can lead to undesirable consequences. But as I said, Swami Yudhishthira used to insist that you practice rhythmic breathing before meditation. You can even practice rhythmic breathing before you undertake a serious study. You know you are reading a scripture or a serious textbook, you practice for a few minutes. That makes the mind calm and quiet, stable and it is possible, it helps you in absorbing the subject much better. The next is very, very interesting, 35th aphorism, विषयवतिवा प्रवृत्ति उत्पन्न मनसह स्थिति निबन्धिनी Those forms of concentration which result in extraordinary perceptions encourage perseverance of the mind because most of us are naturally skeptical despite our affirmed beliefs. We need to be reassured that the powers of mind over matter really exist. We are speaking of supernatural powers. Are there such powers? Yes. How do we know? Because the scriptures say. But scriptures are telling many things. Is it true? How do we know it is true? God exists. Who is telling? Scripture is telling. Is it true? Is it true? We don't know. Until we see God for ourselves, always doubt will be there. That is why the Mundaka Upanishad, there is one mantra which says, भिद्यते रिदयग्रंधे चिद्यन्ते सर्वसंशयाः ख्षीयन्ते च अस्यकर्माणि तस्मिन् द्रिष्टे परावरे Until one has realization of the highest truth, the knots of the heart will not be cut asunder. Doubts will not vanish. The results of our karma will not come to an end. That means until we realize God, there is always room for doubt. This is a simple rational explanation. Somebody tells you something. How do you know it is true? Because somebody told. So that somebody may be telling you a lie or he is not a liar but he may be telling you something which he mistook. How do you know it is true? Until you experience. That is why if you recall when Narendranath asked Sri Ramakrishna, have you seen God? He gave two sentences. One he said yes. What is the next one? That I can also show you because yes, yes I have seen God but okay now I believe. But the moment you cross the door, doubts will come. Is he a madcap? He says he has seen God. In fact, it is very interesting, Swami Vivekananda had Nirvikalpa Samadhi before Sri Ramakrishna passed away. Long before Sri Ramakrishna passed away, he had Nirvikalpa Samadhi. Now what happened? Look, just two, three days before Sri Ramakrishna's passing away, Narendranath saw Sri Ramakrishna unable to move. Then a doubt came. Is this man really an incarnation of God? If you doubt an incarnation of God, you are also doubting God. How do you know that you are an incarnation of God? Here is an incarnation of God. You must first know God. Then only his incarnations will come. I know the father of so and so. How do you know he is the son? Because I know the father. Something you have to know. You have to have, if you have faith in one, you have faith in the other. So this doubt did not go. You know what happened, gathering all his strength, Sri Ramakrishna said, Oh Naren, even now you doubt. He who was Rama, he who was Krishna, he who was, he did not add, in brackets you can add, he who was Buddha, he who was Jesus Christ, in this age, he is reincarnated in the form of Ramakrishna. And then he adds, not in your Vedantic sense. Now it is very interesting because though it is not directly connected, I want to clarify one point which came to my mind. Not in your Vedantic sense means, Vedanta means Advaita Vedanta, not any other Vedanta. Advaita Vedanta, according to that, the only truth is Brahman. What about this world, Jagat, Mithya, it is not real. If the whole world itself is unreal, where is the question of an incarnation in this world being real? I will give you an example. You have a dream. In this dream, you have won a million pounds lottery ticket and then you wake up. The whole dream is unreal, excepting you are winning one million pounds. If you say this to somebody, what does he think about you? When the whole dream itself is, when it is a dream, in the dream you are winning is also Mithya only. So when this world itself is not existing, where is the question of an incarnation in this world? That is why God and world, they go together. They come together, they go together. They come together, they go together. When you wake up from sleep, the world is real, God also is real. When you go into deep sleep, the world also goes, along with that God also disappears. Our idea of God, not real God. Wonderful point, doubts will come until the very end. An important point he says, a liberated soul, a realized soul is not affected by karma. We all talk about Prarabdha Karma. Ramakrishna had suffered from this cancer, throat cancer. Why? Because he has taken up the sense of, is it true or is it not true? This has nothing to do with our class. I am just, because it makes you think. Is it true or is it not true? What is the answer? That is not the correct answer. Either or. It is not a correct answer. If you think it is true, it is true. If you don't think it is true, it is not true. How? Ramakrishna was suffering and you know, so many doctors were called, medicine was given and for a few days he also felt better. This is all real. That's why every year we are celebrating 1st January. That is all true. It is true because you believe it is true and in that condition, one day, Swami Turiyananda came. Ramakrishna was complaining, see how much I am suffering. He said, no, no, no, you are not suffering. I find you are in the ocean of bliss, Suchidharanda. Immediately Sri Ramakrishna said, this rascal found me out. From one point of view, when there is no body, where is the suffering? Anyway, this is not a very useful subject in one way, but for your time pass, I can give you. You know, suppose you are suffering from severe headache or any other ache, so long as you are aware of your body, that ache is absolutely real. When you go into deep sleep, what happens? Somebody died and then the relative's mother, father or brother or whatever it is in deep shock and then you know what happens? That person goes into deep sleep. Now is that person suffering? Why he is not suffering? Because the cause of suffering has been removed for the time being. When there is no cause, there is also no effect. The person doesn't know that somebody died. In fact, our love is like that. Oh, as soon as a man gets up, I love you, I love you. But what happened for eight hours? What happened to your love? Om Patvaah. Because the person himself doesn't, the beloved doesn't exist. Therefore, where is the question of loving or hating, love, hatred, good, evil, happiness, unhappiness, life and death, everything disappears during deep sleep. Let us come back. We all have doubts and when we have doubts, we do not feel like progressing in spiritual life because our whole spiritual life or even this worldly life depends upon our faith that something exists. If I don't believe this world exists, I will never strive for anything. That is why when we become depressed, then we don't feel like doing anything. So many obstacles come in spiritual life. In doing anything good, so many obstacles come and mind doesn't remain in the same state. So many times doubts come. If anybody dares to say, I never lose my faith, then he or she is the greatest liar in this world. They say that I try to maintain faith. That is why one of the prayers is, O Mother, grant me Shraddha. Shraddha means that God exists and that is the truth. Grant me that doubtless affirmation. But in spite of that, we happen to lose. And sometimes after years of struggle, nothing seems to happen. And then we become either slack, either our practice becomes mechanical. Most of the time this is what happens. Very interesting. Holy Mother says an old monk should not be given a job of worshipping God. An older devotee should not be given. Only younger monk should be given because a young monk is like a young man, full of romantic happiness, you know. After marriage, romance doesn't exist. Before marriage, only romance exists. So before joining, he has planned that Swami has Samadhi, this person had a vision of God with ten hands and he saw dhoom like that, some brilliant light and this and that, so many things. But years and years and years of spiritual practice, as one of our Swamis says, I have not even seen even the white hair of the beard of Sri Ramakrishna. When such doubts come, man cannot continue. So what to do? Here Patanjali comes to our aid and I can tell you absolutely it is practical and true. What is this? Those forms of concentration which result in extraordinary perceptions encourage perseverance of the mind and they also remove the doubts. So what are those things? Patanjali recommends that we shall try to develop some extraordinary perceptions for ourselves. Let us experience some kind of extraordinary thing and once we have such an experience, then we will not doubt other things. Funnily, Swami Vivekananda used to say, even a man who has seen a ghost has progressed in spiritual life far better than a person who has not seen anything because if a person has seen a ghost, that means a ghost is something which is not available for our sense perception. When a person has that, oh there is something is there even after death, so it could be even much better than seeing a ghost. That faith can pull us through. So Patanjali says, there are certain hints he gives that if a man concentrates his mind on the tip of his nose, he will smell wonderful perfumes. If concentration is fixed on the tip of the tongue, a supernormal sense of taste will result. If concentration is on the palate, a supernormal sense of colour is seen. If on the middle of the tongue, a supernormal sense of touch. If on the root of the tongue, a supernormal sense of hearing. You know, I have to tell you something very, very interesting. Even the most extraordinary experiences we have in this world, you have eaten a most tasty dish, you have had the smell of a fragrance, extraordinary fragrance. Such kind of experiences are absolutely nothing if we have some extrasensory perceptions. But until one has that, it is impossible to even understand what things can exist. If any one of us have that kind of experiences, our faith in God will become that much stronger, no doubt about it. Let me also narrate the incident, Swami Turiyananda, he went to Puri, a holy place and then he was about to enter and an extraordinary smell, divine smell, fragrance was coming. So he looked around and he saw there were no flowers or anything. He was wondering what happened and then suddenly he saw Ramakrishna coming out and then naturally Ramakrishna knew, so he explained, you know, Gods visit the Lord in this temple and from the bodies of these Gods and Goddesses, this extraordinary fragrance comes out. And I think you also remember, I mentioned this to an incident that happened in the life of Swami Sivananda, Mahapurush Maharaj. You know, in those days, at night around 8 o'clock, between 8 and 8.30, food is offered to Sri Ramakrishna and at that time, the sadhus, brahmacharis, they gather below the Swamiji's room, you know, as a visitor's room and there they sing and one night as soon as the offering was given, at that time they were singing, Oh Mother, you are what a wondrous sport, divine sport you are conducting in the forest of lotuses, is a mystical song. Now that day, the song was perfect in every way, the rhythm was perfect, the instruments were perfect, the singing was perfect, Mahapurush Maharaj was in his room upstairs and it was wonderful. People enjoyed the song, they went away, next morning, early morning after meditation, that was the custom, they would come and bow down to the President and that day Mahapurush Maharaj said, yesterday night your song came out extraordinarily well, have you experienced anything? Everybody said, no, we never experienced anything, but you are asking Maharaj, have you experienced anything? He said, yes. They were singing, absorbed, I saw Mother Kali coming from Dakshineshwar over the Ganges running, came to the room, stood outside, held the window iron bars and she put her ear towards the sound and she was listening and after the song was over, she disappeared, I saw and then the monks came out after that, encouraged, said we did not see anything, but we felt that the room was full of thousands of lotuses, you know, a very mild fragrance comes, full of this lotus fragrance and yet there was not a single lotus flower. Now when a person has this kind of experiences, his faith in the truth of God's existence or life after death, it becomes very firm. That is why Patanjali gives these simple things, either on the tip of the tongue, at the base of the tongue, etc., then extraordinary things will come. Within a short time, one can have these experiences. You try it, then you have these experiences, then your faith in spiritual life becomes stronger. So that is why he says, vishaya vateva pravrutti utpanna manasa sthiti nivandhini, mind becomes stable and the faith becomes firm when one has some type of extraordinary experiences. Interestingly, when these would-be monks, disciples used to come to Sri Ramakrishna and he used to pray, Sri Ramakrishna used to pray to the Divine Mother, Oh Mother, give them something, otherwise how can they continue their spiritual life? And they used to get extraordinary experiences. Every one of them had extraordinary experience and it is a day-to-day phenomena. They even forgot it could be a miracle. But I have to tell you one incident. Swami Advaitananda, who was serving Sri Ramakrishna, you know how much he loved his Guru, Sri Ramakrishna. He never wanted to be away even for a minute, Swami Advaitananda, not tomorrow. A day came when he could not tolerate the presence of his Guru, Sri Ramakrishna, because his mind constantly it was repeating by itself the name of God. He was enjoying an unbroken bliss and he has to do Saru Sri Ramakrishna and Sri Ramakrishna, whatever incarnation of God, he was a real taskmaster. He was what you call, you know, a slave master. He would make you slog before he gives a few drops. So Swami Advaitananda felt it is a distraction, if I could go to some place and spend a few days only thinking about God, it would be wonderful. Sri Ramakrishna was a clever person. So he understood, he himself arranged, go to Antapur to Baburao Maharaj's house because she will give good food and takes care of her yearly. And then he went and next day he said, no, I want to go back. And Baburao Maharaj's mother said, you only came yesterday and you want to go back, why? No, no, I can't stay without him, I will go back and she had no option but to send him back. Later on, he was telling why because he said, I thought I could repeat the name of God all by myself, foolish that I was. I didn't understand at that time, it was the presence of Sri Ramakrishna which made me think of God constantly. I thought I was doing it all by myself. But as soon as I went away, you know, like vegetables which become cold, as long as fire is there, they will be jumping up and down, oh wonderful, we can dance, we can do anything. But the moment you remove the fire, everything becomes cold. So he realized and then he came back. After that, he never again went back, he said, I will not leave the presence of this. Not only that, Swami Turiyananda, later on he was telling, you know, the bliss that we used to get by visiting Sri Ramakrishna once, now even through days and days of meditation we can't get it. Just imagine the bliss one obtains in the presence of an incarnation of God, oh what a marvellous thing. I said that one great devotee was telling about every dust particle of Vrindavan is so sacred because it is associated with the presence of Sri Krishna. It is a description which I won't go inside, even though my mind is longing to tell it, I won't tell it. But one thing I want to tell, we have a belief that many, many trees that were in Dakshineshwar was great Rishis who were born deliberately as trees for witnessing the divine sport of an incarnation of God. Anyway, coming back, the mental strength gained through these exercises in concentration can be used for progressing in spiritual life, for uniting ourselves with the Atman. In this connection also, just a thought came to my mind that, you know, many times we bypass this experience of ours, we are just ordinary people, sometimes we have some pressing doubt, we want an answer, we are searching for something and we do not seem to get the answer. When you pray to God, curiously within a short time, you will get an answer, either through somebody's mouth, somebody is talking to somebody, we get the answer, you are reading a book, you get an answer, somehow the answer seemed to come. But the irony of it is, we do not recognize the value of that answer and say, why did this answer come to me, because sincerely I have been praying to God and God answers my prayers by giving this answer, you know, within a short time. If we can focus upon that and say, oh, I have been searching for it and I didn't get the answer but after praying to God, I got this answer. So keeper, that means our faith in God would become even more strong, even more strong. But then we are wretched human beings, oh, it just happened, I just happened to search and I just happened to get the answer, it is nothing extraordinary. We are missing something very, very important. Whenever such a thing happens, always be grateful, oh, God has answered my prayer. This is a miracle, we take it as a very ordinary thing like that. There is this person, as an example, and he is desperately trying to pass an examination and the person is a devotee of God, he prays to God, Holy Mother, etc., etc. and then he passes the examination. Of course, the person also studies seriously and also prays to God, passes the examination. Now the passing of this exam, is it due to God's grace because of his prayer or is it because the person really worked hard? You think about it, because you don't know, maybe you have studied hard, maybe you could have passed, no, you could never have passed. Why you could not have passed? Because God's grace comes in the form of many things. First of all, a desire to study well, secondly, there would be no obstacle for your study, thirdly, what you have studied, you happen to remember when you go to the examination hall, whose grace is that? We forget it and say, all I have done by myself and we become ungrateful, the result is we have to learn the same lesson over, all over again and that is how we are such foolish people. There are so many miracles happen. Swami Prabhudanandji told me something, nearly more than 15 years back, he told me something which I will never forget in my life, he said, every day millions of devotees of God are travelling from place to place by car, by train etc. and they are devotees of God, so they pray, oh Lord, please protect me, you know, Durga Durga we call it and other devotees remember God in other ways, it is happening and our normal day to day life is going on. He says, do you know how many times God has saved these devotees from serious accidents and other things? Because it did not happen, we take it for granted, nothing happened, we are foolish people you know and suddenly a car has come, it is almost about to hit us, by one second we have escaped, that is miracle. But what about this God protecting us in so many other ways? Because whatever we do not experience, we do not take it as a miracle of God's grace. What is important is, whether you experience or not, your life is guided by God. If you have faith, if you pray, it happens. So like a mother looking after the baby, is the baby aware all the time that somebody is keeping an eye upon the baby and doing it? No. This is why faith is such an important fact and that faith can be enhanced through certain deliberate practices, that is what is being mentioned in this aphorism that you practice concentration on the tip of the tongue or on the middle of the tongue palate or at the beginning of the throat, then you will have certain experiences, thereby you will be convinced yes, if I can have this, probably meditation on God also will be very very fruitful. This is how we go. 36th aphorism says, Vishokava Jyotishmati, concentration may also be attained by fixing the mind upon the inner light which is beyond sorrow. Let me read out something wonderful. The ancient yogis believed that there was an actual center of spiritual consciousness called the lotus of the heart and when we meditate upon God, we always invoke this lotus. Hridaya Kamalamadhye Rajitam Nirvikalpam Sada Sada Khila Bheda Adheda Mekaswaroopam. Meditation on Sri Ramakrishna, Hridaya Kamalamadhye, there is a lotus and the whole Indian philosophy is concerned with the lotuses only. Oh mother, you are playing day and night in a forest of lotuses. What are those lotuses? What are those lotuses? We believe in our psychic center, there are seven such lotuses from Muladhara to Sahasrara, Kamal, everything is a lotus. Sri Ramakrishna tells in the gospel, I saw that all the lotuses were drooping like buds and slowly a yogi, a young sanyasi was going up and then he licks the drooping lotus. Slowly it stands erect and with full bloom like that he is transcending one after the other and he has different experiences. What is he talking about? Different states of consciousness, Hridaya Kamalamadhye. So this is the lotus of the heart situated between the abdomen and the thorax which could be revealed in deep meditation. They claim that it had the form of a lotus and that it shone with an inner light. It was said to be beyond sorrow, Vishoka, since those who saw it were filled with an extraordinary sense of peace and joy. From the very earliest times, the masters of yoga emphasized the importance of meditating upon this lotus. In the Chandogya Upanishad we read, within the city of Brahma, which is the body, there is the heart and within the heart there is a little house. This house has the shape of a lotus and within it dwells that which is to be sought after, enquired about and realized. What then is that which dwells within this little house, this lotus of the heart, even so large as the universe outside, is the universe within the lotus of the heart. Within it are heaven and earth, the sun, the moon, the lightning and all the stars. Whatever is in the microcosm is in this microcosm also. All things that exist, all beings, all desires are in this city of Brahman called Brahmapuri, the lotus of the heart where Brahman resides in all his glory. That and not the body is the true city of Brahman. Brahman dwelling therein is untouched by any deed, ageless, deathless, free from grief, free from hunger, free from thirst. His desires are right desires and his desires are fulfilled. And in another Upanishad called Mundaka Upanishad, within the lotus of the heart he dwells. Meditate upon him as Om and you easily cross the ocean of darkness. In the effulgent lotus of the heart dwells Brahman, passionless and indivisible. He is pure, he is the light of all lights, the knowers of Brahman attain him. So this is another way to make the mind steady. Meditate on the inner light. What is light? Actually light means that which gives us knowledge and there is an inner lotus, within that lotus there is a light and that light is free from all grief, sorrow because it is changeless, it is partless, it is infinite, it is self-effulgent. There is no need to show something else. It is by that light everything becomes lighted up. Tasyabhasa Sarvam Hidam Vibhati. These profound truths. We are asked to sing and meditate every single day. Where are we singing? Namo Namo Prabhu Vakyamana Ateetha, Mana Vachana Eka Aadhaar. Jyoti Rajyoti Ujjvala Hridikandhar Tumi Tama Bhanjana Haara. O Lord let me meditate upon you, you are beyond mind and speech and yet without you the mind doesn't think, tongue also cannot speak, we cannot speak, we cannot think without you and then Jyoti Rajyoti, it is that light which is the light of everything, it is very interesting you know. What is this light? How am I able to see this paper? Because of this light. But this is a secondary light, this is not the primary light. What is the primary light? My consciousness because if I am not conscious, can I see this even if light is there? If I am not conscious, can I hear? If I am not conscious, can I remember? Think of it. He is the light of the lights, that consciousness which witnesses everything and meditate upon it. Let me dwell just a moment because it is such a deep subject. You know what am I doing? I am speaking, I am sitting, I am speaking. What are you doing? You are sitting and you are listening. You are sitting. What are you doing? You are sitting. What are you doing? You are listening. What are you doing? You are breathing. What are you doing? You are thinking something else. Who is it behind you? I am sitting, I am listening, I am thinking, I am doing all these things, so many activities. How many eyes? How many eyes you are there? One is sitting, another is thinking, another is listening. How many eyes are doing things? Only one single eye. And that eye which does all these things, it must be unchangeable because the sitting eye is different, the thinking eye is different, the listening eye is different, the sleeping eye is different. That is the egotism. But behind there is one eye which never changes and that is not affected. That is called Vishokava Jyotishmati. I can only give you a hint. You will have to think for yourself. There is an eye within each one of us which is not affected by whatever happens outside. Imagine you are eating something very tasty. What do you say? I am a very happy person. Suddenly you eat something very unpleasant. Then you are an unpleasant. When you are eating nice thing, you are a happy person. When you are eating something unpleasant, you are an unhappy person. Sometimes you are happy person, sometimes you are unhappy person. But there is one eye behind which says, oh, now I am eating happy things. Now I am a happy person. Now I am an unhappy person. So that eye which says I am a happy person, I am an unhappy person is different from the eye which says I am witnessing that eye which says I am happy and I am unhappy. 24 hours this is going on. Like you know, in which state are you now? Waking state. In which state you will be after some time? Dreaming state. In which state will you be after some time? Deep sleep. So waking state is separate, dream state is separate and sleeping state is separate. That's why they are called the waker, the dreamer and the sleeper. And yet who is experiencing or witnessing without undergoing any change? I was awake, I was dreaming, I was asleep, you are able to say that? That eye is not affected. What is affected is the small eye which is experiencing this. There is an experiencer of everything and there is a witness of this experiencer eye which is changing. That which is unchanging and witnesses everything, it is not affected. That which is experiencing is affected. That which is witnessing is not affected. And that unaffected, witnessing, unchanging, that eye is called Vishokava Jyotishmati. Meditate upon it. Is it so easy? It's not easy. Then Patanjali says, there are other ways, always he says, either this or go to something else. What is the other thing? 38 aphorism, Swapna Nidra Jnana Alambanamva or by fixing the mind upon a dream experience or the experience of deep sleep. By a dream experience, Patanjali means a dream about a holy personality or a divine symbol. In the literature of Indian spirituality, we find many instances of devotees who dreamed that they received a mantra from some great teacher. Such a dream mantra is regarded as being just as sacred as one which is given in the waking state and the devotee who receives it will continue to use it and meditate upon it throughout the rest of his life. This is one. The second is, another method of calming the mind is to concentrate upon that sense of peaceful happiness with which we awake from deep dreamless sleep. Let me dwell a little bit upon it, in dreams we can have extraordinary experiences. Suppose you have dreamt of Sri Ramakrishna, don't forget it, meditate upon it. Let me again tell you my experience because it has left such a deep impression upon me. When I was a young man, I was reading Bhagavatam day and night, especially the story of Prahlad. Then one night, I was sleeping, I had a dream, I had dreamt that I have seen Lord Narayana because Prahlad always talks about Narayana with four hands, smiling. He came and asked, what do you want? I was a young boy, I had no idea absolutely about spiritual life. Then suddenly came, what did Prahlad ask? Prahlad asked for liberation. So I said, Lord give me liberation, blessed and said you will have liberation. Even today I remember. Now if you tell this to a psychologist, he will tell you read the book, that's why you had this dream. But you know, the events that took place subsequently prove at least to me, whether you believe it or not, you know I have become a monk and I joined the Ramakrishna order, I have come to this right place. Do you think that is it because of that dream or because just it happened, accidentally it happened, accidentally you read the book, accidentally you had a dream, accidentally you came to the ashrama, do you think it's all happened like that? I believe it's all because of those blessings. Remember all of us I am sure have wonderful dreams about divine personalities. You don't want to tell them to other people but when such things take place, you meditate upon them. Then your mind will become, first it becomes very happy, second becomes more concentrated, your devotion will increase, don't think they are dreams like this foolish psychologist tell you. They are not your thoughts. Even if they are thoughts, they are extraordinary thoughts. Is the dream true or is it false? Even now this uproarious argument is going on. Is a dream just merely your imagination? The shortest, direct, unambiguous answer to this doubt is, I always remember one devotee asked Ramana Maharshi, Bhagawan people talk about heaven and other worlds, are they true? And in his most characteristic, marvellous way he gave such an answer which solves all problems. He says if you think this world is real, they are also real. If you think this world is real but they are imaginary, then you are a fool. That's why this biggest controversy, I will close my talk with that because what Sri Ramakrishna had done for spirituality is immeasurable. Here is Advaita Vedanta which says Jagat is Mithya. There is a devotee who says Vaikuntha is real, kingdom of heaven is real, Kailasa is real, Devi Loka is real. There are experiences, you know when Madhur Babu died, Sri Ramakrishna says he went to Devi Loka and when Gopalarma was having all those visions, did Sri Ramakrishna dismiss and say that these are nonsensical things? He said she is now dwelling in Goloka. And the humorous sequel to this is Swami Vaikunanda just at that time was furiously levelling Sri Ramakrishna as an unrealistic dreamer, all his experiences were hallucinations and when Sri Ramakrishna was trying to convince him, no, no sir, no, no my boy, these are all real and this Gopala's mother happened to walk by. Sri Ramakrishna was very clever. He said you talk to this lady and that lady, you know she had immense faith in Sri Ramakrishna. She simply took Narendra's hand and Baba, I want to tell you about my experiences and she told how she was meditating early in the morning and then immediately Gopala came and after that what was happening and then she was weeping because she was remembering and she was asking Baba, do you think these are hallucinations of my mind and now this fellow, he was furiously arguing with Sri Ramakrishna, all your these things, now he could not say because he saw what effect they were having upon her. Then he was forced to admit and say, no mother, whatever you had experienced is absolutely real. After that there was no talk with Sri Ramakrishna because a person who accepted one person's visions as real, how could he say that your visions are not real? So Sri Ramakrishna solved this problem. He said, that is why he said that the true Vedanta is everything is real. He gives the example of that bell, you know, what is what we want in a mango or in an apple, the pulp, that is the essential thing. The seed is not essential but the seed is without the seed, can the pulp come? Will it stand? Will the pulp stand? Nice mango juice is just floating by on the branches of the tree. It needs to be developed. So he says from the ultimate point of view, everything, this world is real, all the states are real, Brahman also is real. Brahman has two aspects, the aspect of the impersonal, the aspect of the personal. Brahma and Shakti are two sides of the same coin. He solved this most marvellous thing, don't ever open your mouth and prove that you are a fool. If someone calls you a fool, don't open your mouth and prove it. Don't open your mouth and say either Advaita is real or Dvaita alone is real. What Sri Ramakrishna tells is, whatever we experience, that is real at that time. Actually there is no unreality, everything is God only, waking state also is God, dream state is also God, dreamless state is also God and that which is beyond the dream, all these three states which is called Turiya, that is also true. Then what is the real truth? The real truth is whatever you experience at any given moment until you transcend that, that is absolute reality. In fact, you cannot escape that. This is the most marvellous solution Sri Ramakrishna had given us. When we have some wonderful experiences of seeing great people, divine personalities, their extraordinary experiences, don't dismiss them as unreal, meditate upon them and that will make the mind more and more calm. And another way of producing these experiences, I will expand it later on in my next class, is called Leela Dhyana. Meditate upon the divine sports of either Krishna, that is how Gopalasma, that is how she attained to that state. What do you think she was doing for 30 years? She was dwelling on the divine sports of God in a particular form and how it can help us in our spiritual life is slowly we will discuss in our future class. Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti.