Patanjali Yoga Sutras Lecture 102

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

Yogena chittasya padena vacham Malam sharirasya javaidhyakena Yopakarottam pravaram muninam Patanjalim praanjali rana tosmi We have been discussing the Patanjali Yoga Sutras Very fortunate that we have been able to complete 3 chapters The first chapter defines what is Yoga What is the goal? Why it should be the goal? According to Patanjali's definition Yoga is chitta vritti nirodha Complete control of the mind Which means to make the mind completely pure When the mind becomes totally pure What happens? It becomes like a pure mirror Reflecting reality which is our own real nature or Atma Then alone we become totally free The second chapter which is called Sadhana Pada How to attain to that complete purity of the mind or Yoga And it deals with a graduated very scientifically built up 8 fold way Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana and Samadhi While practicing spiritual disciplines The mind can attain tremendous amount of powers Various types of powers It could be attracting other people It could be having complete control over other people It could be super sensory powers Like travelling in a sky Obtaining whatever one wants And trying to be very happy Or one can also do tremendous amount of harm to other people In the process of doing these things The third chapter called Vibhuti Pada Deals with various types of these powers Patanjali warns us that if a Yogi, a spiritual aspirant He deviates from his chosen path And tries to use these powers He will be deviating from his path He might even fall down And usually that is the case Why did he mention so many? Because these will come in the course of one's spiritual struggle One has to encounter some kind of power Will definitely come to every spiritual aspirant If someone is not experiencing this power Perhaps it could lead to two conclusions One is that he has not controlled his mind enough to get these powers Or he has attained such a state of perfection He doesn't care for using those powers But usually they come Why do they come? Because of the control of the mind The mind has extraordinary capacity Extraordinary powers Just to give you an instance We are not only talking about extraordinary powers In spiritual realm Like controlling other people The ability to obtain whatever one wants And the ability to move wherever we want At any speed we want But even great things like There will be a great scientist A great musician A great poet A great administrator A great statesman Even to be a great husband A great wife A great brother A great teacher A great disciple What is it we need? Control of the mind I will just dwell upon it for a second I am giving a talk The more I focus upon my subject Understand it in a better way And express it in an appropriate way So that I can convey it to you All this depends upon what? Not merely my desire But my ability to concentrate To focus my mind And concentration means control Focus means control If I am not able to concentrate my mind I will not be able to do anything I want Suppose one of you mothers Want to become a good cook What is the secret? Not that you learn various recipes From different people The ability to focus What you are doing And at what time You need to add certain things And how much to add And what not to add All this requires Just now you are sitting and listening And even to the extent you focus your mind You become aware And you will be able to grasp my words better And also retain better For a long time Understanding the capacity to receive To understand and to retain It all depends upon control of the mind How great the subject of control of the mind So greatness in any field Is the direct result of the control of the mind If the same mind control Can be directed towards God And spiritual life The greatest benefits will come Since we use the words Which sometimes I am afraid Does it make much meaning? But if we use the same words in a different way Then we can understand things better For example God For most of us It is so much used a word It really doesn't evoke that kind of sense Instead of using God If we can use the word Ananda So the more I progress towards joy The more I experience higher joy For a longer time And what is that called? Spiritual practice Anyone who experiences this great joy Through mind control That person will be great In any chosen field Again it is very interesting For example Einstein How did he become such a great soul? He controlled his mind Focused his mind Now what is he getting out of it? You know what he gets? The more he focuses his mind The more joy he gets Here is a hint If anyone doesn't enjoy his subject His job Then he is not able to control And he is not able to focus But if someone controls the mind And derives more joy He would be able to do the same job In a much much better way That is called yoga That is the benefit of spiritual practice Spirituality is not a separate field From secular life But it is something to do with mind control With attaining more and more joy Ananda So that we can direct it Towards any field that we like That is why Swami Vivekananda Had stated it so beautifully What does Vedanta do? Vedanta means spiritual life What does Vedanta do? A student becomes a better student A fisherman becomes a better fisherman A housewife becomes a better housewife If these ordinary people Could become better Through the usage of Vedanta And what to speak of people Whether in the field of science, literature, music Or any other field So the essence of what we are discussing is Mind control And getting higher joy And doing anything better Excelling in any field that we choose to do That is the essence of yoga That is also called Siddhi Perfection That is also called power Supernormal powers If you hear That here is a person who can fly Through the sky Then you call Oh, he has got miraculous powers But here is a person Who could cook excellently Anything that he chooses to do Oh, what is that? He is only cooking properly It is not a real power That is what our understanding is I think it is not a right understanding Mind control directed towards any field Just I will close this topic With one example Who could sleep better? A person who has restless mind Or who has a controlled mind That is yoga You can call it funnily Nidra yoga In this background The first chapter tells us What is yoga What is Samadhi What is the goal of life And why it should be the goal of life The second chapter How to attain And the third chapter What results would come The fourth chapter is called Kaivalya Pada The chapter dealing with How to remain How to know That we are the Atman And how we can remain In that knowledge It is literally translated The isolated being The chapter on complete total isolation Isolation from anything else Advaita Non-duality Means total isolation From any amount of duality So the fourth chapter Has got 34 Or aphorisms And it is the most wonderful Here is a person Who had controlled his mind And he is still living So what can his mind do And how that mind can function In various ways And in the context Patanjali also tells us That we all have to believe In the theory of reincarnation And how and why And what powers a man can attain And how they can distract or aid us This is being outlined In this fourth chapter We will take up the first aphorism Let us remember The third chapter is all about powers So he starts where he Closed it off The psychic powers may be obtained Either by birth Or by means of drugs Or by the power of words Or by the practice of austerities Or by concentration of the mind Now we can see When some people are born By very birth They exude a tremendous amount of charm Power They can attract people We can see some people As I go on I will give you certain examples also So by this Patanjali is also reaffirming Our ancient Vedantic theory Of the doctrine of reincarnation No child is born No baby is born With a blank mind Tabula rasa Behind him Millions of birth experiences Is compressed there And that's what makes the difference Between jati, aayu and bhoga Jati means In which species A being is born And how long That being is going to live And what is the amount of happiness Or unhappiness That person is to experience In any particular life In other words The results of our actions Done in our long past previous lives Are fructified In a particular life cycle Why do we say In a particular life cycle There are certain problems in understanding this Many people think That what we are today Is the result of our immediate past birth Last birth But Vedanta doesn't agree Maybe 5000 years back We have done something And that is going to be fructified here But the first point we have to note down is That this reaffirmation That this life is neither the first life And by implication Nor is it going to be the last life And what we are now Is the result of what we did in the past And what we are going to be in the future Is firmly in our hands That is the important point of the law of karma And belief in the law of reincarnation So here Patanjali is telling in his first aphorism Through very birth Some beings Some human beings Seem to have possessed a tremendous amount of powers They can charm They can control so many minds Even by very birth Naturally the question that comes is This fellow hasn't done anything Just now the baby is born How could he do that? And as the baby develops More and more powers are manifested in his life So how is it possible? And that is what being reaffirmed here It is not just muffat It is not falling from the sky The man had earned it He deserves it Because he had already paid the premium Now he is enjoying the results of what he did Not everything Only a little bit of it Only that which is suitable for this particular body In this particular environment Only that much Some are born with psychic powers As the result of their struggles in previous lives And not psychic powers merely But even real spiritual genius Such are those most mysterious of all human beings The natural saints Who are the natural saints? We see some babies from the very birth They are so spiritual There are some babies who sit there And what do they do? From the very beginning they hear God's name And immediately their attention Some babies when their mothers croon Some devotional songs or some bhajan They just become very calm And if they hear other kind of music They become very highly disturbed Some are absolutely so serene, so pure Whatever happens Their demeanour will not change But there are some people so restless Hyperactive, very troublesome They go on crying Unpredictable, emotional, terrible We see it all the time Maybe in the same family Maybe in the children of the same mother and father So there are some natural saints By birth they are spiritual How do they become? The explanation is, the only explanation is The previous births Some people may say Maybe it is due to environment So one of the biggest debates that goes on Is it nature or nurture? And Vedanta goes to say, yes both Nature and nurture What is the percentage? 95% nature, 5% nurture That is what it says In the Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna asks Suppose a man has faith But doesn't struggle hard enough His mind wanders away from the practice of yoga And he fails to reach perfection He dies before he attains perfection What will he become of him then? This was one of the beautiful questions Put by Arjuna to Bhagavan Krishna And then Krishna Bhagavan in the Bhagavad Gita Firmly affirms that No need to fear Because the problem comes here There are some religions Who do not believe in rebirth So here is a person Who tried, struggled very hard But yet could not reach What is going to happen? Is it all waste? No it is not waste We give an example Suppose you take up a book Read it Put a bookmark Go to sleep Next morning you get up And start reading Naturally we start reading Where we put the bookmark Exactly in the same way Where a person struggles to stop Because of the fall of the body When he gets a next body He will start his journey Exactly where he stopped last time That means what? No need to despair What is going to happen? He will attain He will continue his journey From where he left off This applies both to Not only the puru janma samskaras To our happiness To our unhappiness Why am I mentioning this? Supposing a person developed a habit of grumbling And he dies grumbling And he is reborn Do you know what happens? He is reborn grumbling And he continues his journey The grumbling becomes rumbling And ultimately He disturbs everybody And he dies That is why If you are not happy Make yourself happy If you have any problem Any habit Which you think is detrimental Struggle to overcome it right now Otherwise We will be born exactly with the same problem Like classroom If we fail in any particular class We have to start doing it again And this is very helpful to us Be positive all the time Sri Krishna answers this question of Arjuna Even if a man falls away from the practice of yoga He will still win the heaven of the doers of good deeds And dwell there many long years After that He will be reborn into the home of pure and prosperous parents He will then regain that spiritual discernment Which he acquired in his former body And so He will strive harder than ever for perfection Because of his practices in the previous life He will be driven on toward union with Brahman Even in spite of himself This is about how a person attains Siddhi Powers Greatness Etc In this life Because of the As the result of previous struggles In previous lives The only point We will again come during these talks Not immediate birth only Previous birth only It could be one lakh births before It could be It is possible Interestingly in this context you know A thought came to me just now Suppose a man is behaving like a dog But how did he come to behave like a dog? Instead of behaving like a human being What happened? At some point in the cycle of evolution He was born as a dog And he had strong impressions in his mind Even though after so many births also he struggled Somehow those samskaras seem to have gained upper hand And even though there is a physical body He seems to behave like a dog And if he continues Without breaking that habit I need not ask you the question What is he going to become in the next birth? What type of body is he going to have? The important point is Our fate is firmly in our hands That's important Now the next Certain drugs may produce visions You know Aushudhi In certain drugs There are certain What is called Consciousness altering drugs I would not use that word consciousness I would use the word mood altering drugs There is a huge difference between Consciousness altering and mood altering There are some people Stupid fellows Fools Who believe Just by swallowing some drugs They become very spiritual If I knew that was to be true I would have bought all the drugs here And in my first class itself I would have distributed to you all And I would be so free afterwards To do whatever I like But I am also going through the same struggle Because I don't believe that through drugs But having said that One thing can be understood Drugs taken in a controlled manner Can help us in certain things Two points to be noted in this context I will give first an example You know Sriram Krishna Had become a perfected master In tantric sadhana at Dakshineswar And it is written in his biography As soon as the master had attained perfection In any particular spiritual path Hundreds of genuine practitioners Of that particular path Used to somehow be attracted to Dakshineswar Unbeknownst Why they are going there And come into contact with Sriram Krishna And then get help, tips How to progress in spiritual life Get corrected, get better trips, tips etc And progress and then go away from there This happened in every path Now during the tantric practices A lot of people used to come And Sriram Krishna requested Madhur Babu Why don't you supply a little bit of wine To these great sadhakas And whatever Sriram Krishna says goes So what did Madhur Babu do? Supplied a large amount of wine Free wine Not to everybody mind you If you rush there you will not get it Because it is already over now Sriram Krishna himself stopped it But for those genuine sadhakas Then to his great horror Sriram Krishna had found out That most people had become drunkards But there were one or two people They used to drink a small quantity That quietens the mind And then whole night they would go on With their japa with greater devotion So certain types of things Can quieten our mind Help to calm our mind down Which again further helps us I will give you some examples also For example A person is very dull He wants to do japa And he wants sincerely But his body is very lethargic Do you know what you need to do at that time? You take a cup of tea Or coffee And then sit At least for half an hour or 45 minutes Your mind will become alert Active And help you to do japa Swami Brahmanandaji was asked I feel sleepy early in the morning He said You do japa while walking I do not know whether there is any great soul Who can also walk and sleep at the same time That is a very special case But usually when we are walking We become a little bit more alert So this is how this coffee Can help us in maintaining A little better japa etc So the second point Important point to understand Your body may have some kind of defects For example This thyroid I think hyperthyroid It produces more of that chemical Which makes a person more active Hyperactive In which case One can take some medicine Which will control that hyperactivity Bring it down to normal activity So that is also great help For a spiritual aspirant Who is born with this kind of bodily defect Medicines Aushadhi certain Can really help us Provided we know what we are doing But certainly Supernatural powers will come By just swallowing some medicines Or some plants etc Nobody believes it But in 1960s There were many people who believed in it They made experiments with chemicals Like LSD etc So then Aldous Huxley One of the great thinkers of the 20th century He also experimented And he discovered something extraordinary He said How much this drug alters one's mood One's mind Depends upon How the mind was prior to taking the drugs If a person is cherishing sad thoughts Before taking the drug His sadness enormously increases But if he is cherishing happy thoughts Then this LSD drug Enhances his happiness to a great extent So this is what people used to mistake As mind altering Consciousness altering drugs No If someone can obtain these great powers By just taking medication Then that is the easiest way We need not to do all those things And much less spiritual progress Now what happens Here is a very important point Supposing there is a mind altering drug And a person takes it In the hope of attaining to More spiritual progress What happens? He becomes more addicted to it He becomes more of a slave to it And what is spiritual life? Anything but slavery It is total independence Kaivalya means absolute independence Any type of dependence Upon anything in this world Including dependence upon God We should depend upon so called God Only until we reach God Once we reach God Then dependence upon God also Must be removed This is what happened in the case of Sri Ramakrishna Tathapuri came and said You are depending for your happiness On the Divine Mother Now go beyond it Go beyond it means you become totally independent Mother is independent And you are also independent That means what? You become exactly like the Divine Mother Any dependence on anything Is a bondage Naturally reason tells us That any dependence upon any drugs etc Is totally useless Now mantra The third one he says is mantra Mantra means the repetition of certain sacred words The repetition of sacred words or mantras Is as we have said An invaluable aid to spiritual progress There are also special mantras Which produce psychic powers I will give you certain illustrations Because many people They listen to these kind of talks They also read in books That mantras can produce powers They can of course help us to progress In spiritual life and attain God Holy Mother saying Often repeated saying Japat Siddhi Perfection can be attained through Japam What is Japam? Constant repetition of one's own chosen deity The name of one's chosen deity As given by a qualified guru And received in a proper manner That is called mantra And it is called deeksha Now mantras have tremendous powers So lest somebody thinks it is hyperbole It is just praise That is why I want to illustrate it With some things Here is the first example Swami Brahmananda Rakha He was at Dakshineswar Once a patient came to him and said Sir, I am suffering so greatly Can you not help me? Then Rakhal Maharaj was Yes, I will pray to the Divine Mother He was narrating his reminiscences I started repeating the Divine Mother's name And after some time A kind of tantra Means dozing A kind of semi-conscious state has come Suddenly I saw the Divine Mother's figure And I asked him Mother, will he be alright? And Mother said Yes, he will be alright Then Rakhal Maharaj After some time Came out of that state And he informed that gentleman Mother is gracious Yes, you will recover from your illness And very soon after that That man has totally recovered We also recollect That Shri Ramakrishna's favorite method Of arousing spiritual consciousness Is writing certain mantras On the tongues of people He could also transmit spirituality Through touching a person Even through willpower Even when the person is at a long distance These great souls can do it But here we are specifically Focusing upon the power of the mantras As we know, another incident comes to my mind Swami Turiyananda One of the disciples of Shri Ramakrishna Was in USA And at some point A lady started visiting him Attending his classes Very sincere lady But very weak person So one day She invited the Swami to her house And the Swami agreed And then he went And her husband Was extremely antagonistic to any type of Indian sadhus etc Clearly he didn't like his wife inviting So Swami Turiyananda entered And this lady was behaving like a zombie Swami Turiyananda was recollecting Instantaneously I understood This lady was hypnotized by her husband And she came to meet me I got hold of her hands for a few minutes And went on uttering Hari Om Hari Om Hari Om And instantaneously That power of the husband Had broken That instant The lady knew I am free from this man spell And the husband knew That he could no longer Hold his wife through that spell Now what is the lesson here? It is possible to hypnotize other people There are certain methods by which one can hypnotize And hold the other person down Through certain kind of mantras In tantric language This is very well known Vashikarana Controlling other people through mantras Uchyatana Marana Vashikarana etc So Vashikarana means controlling other people Marana means By mantras One can kill the other person Wherever the other person is Then Uchyatana Suppose one doesn't like a person And by these mantras The person can be made to Go a long distance from Where he presently is Anything is possible for mantras Why not? If a person can attain God By the power of mantras All these are absolutely What we call Patti These powers are nothing The greatest power is God Then the famous example Swami Vivekananda When he was in Madras Giving his wanderings One day he had a dream That his mother died Then he became very restless Because in those days The smart phones and telephones were not there Only telegraph was there So he wanted to know something happened Because he really loved his mother Someone told him There is a man here Who could read anybody's future So they all went there Presented him with a bottle of wine etc And then that man accurately predicted Swami Vivekananda's Present condition Past condition Future condition What is going to happen And he remarked This man is really blessed His guru is holding his hand He will attain to the greatest Name and fame He will go to foreign countries This was before Swami Vivekananda went to USA And attended the Parliament of Religions And he will come Crowned with tremendous glory And he will uplift our whole country That was his prediction In fact he did not even Allow Swamiji to come near him He said I cannot bear his presence It was the other people In whose presence He did not even ask Why did you come? He started writing it And every letter that he had written Had come absolutely True So this is one example Now you will see In the present day There are certain charismatic gurus I will not name them But at least 3-4 of them They could attract Literally thousands Of people Thousands of people to their fold And they became what is called World changing phenomena Meditation was not at all Popular before Mahesh Yogi Came here. That is the point How did they get This power of attracting People? They could simply Hypnotize through their talks Through their presence And it is not for one hour One day, one year Year after year Even they were misusing The people who were coming Near them, mistreating them And yet these people clung And you know the worst thing Or the best thing They were donating millions of dollars Just like that Here we are, Ramakrishna Mission, appeal after appeal Apply, apply And here are the people, all the celebrities They were all coming and donating Take our money, take our money There are instances Where somebody wanted to give half a million dollars Simply one of them said No, no, you keep your money We don't want your money Do you think that these things just come like that? They must have practiced Even today, there are three, four charismatic Gurus who are attracting Thousands and thousands of people How did they get that power? They did certain Tantric practices Which includes repetition Of the mantras and that is how They get. The fourth method Of getting these powers, austerities The practice of austerities Enormously strengthens The aspirant's will power Hence also The psychic powers may be obtained Patanjali Yogi Himself indicates to us How one can attain God Any type of austerity Gives some kind of power Just as a funny example maybe Here is a lady who thinks She is fat and then she does Tapasya. What is Tapasya? She doesn't touch anything fatty She only drinks all green foods Extracted from the smoothies And then within three months She is absolutely Slim and lean and thin Is it not The result of austerity? You do it. Then you will understand Try for one day. Then you will understand What is the austerity she was Drinking. So austerity Has its own power. But you know What is the greatest austerity? To put up with the Ups and downs of life Calm, serene Quiet and accepted I deserve it And this is the best for me It is God's grace That is why Holy Mother is saying Misery is the gift of God So through austerities One can get powers If one can get powers They can even reach God What to speak of this Small powers Then there is another Last Samadhi What is by God? Concentration and meditation It is surest of all the means of obtaining The psychic powers This has been thoroughly discussed In the previous chapter In the second chapter The whole second chapter is How to obtain concentration and meditation Dharana, Pratyahara Dharana, Jnana And last step is Samadhi. Of course if a person Attains Samadhi, he gets all the Powers because he is pure Consciousness. He can do Whatever he likes Then the next two aphorisms Very interesting The transformation of one species Into another is caused by The inflowing of nature I will come to that, what exactly It means. The next aphorism The transformation of one species Into another is caused by The inflow of nature Good or bad deeds are not the Direct causes of that transformation They only act As breakers of the obstacles To natural evolution Just as a farmer Breaks down the obstacles In a water course So that water flows through By its own nature Here is the To put it the meaning of this Very simple You know in the modern times We are all tremendously influenced By Charles Darwin's theory of Evolution. What is the evolution? That during the course of Life When a particular species Is about to die For certain reasons It changes its species One species It transforms itself into Another species Through certain deeds This is true. Vedanta Also accepts it. Life is A continuous evolution We are Like people sitting on an Escalator and nature Life is taking us Gradually to our home So before we discuss The theory of evolution Swami Vivekananda also Gives us, if we do not Understand its counterpart Which is called involution We won't be able to grasp The real meaning of evolution In these two verses Patanjali Totally differs from the Western idea of evolution And resorts to Indian Vedantic idea Of evolution What is evolution? What is involution? Involution is we have somehow Descended from God And we went to the lowest Slid to the lowest level That is possible which is Total inert things Which is called Inorganic Then slowly the journey Upward journey started This upward journey Is to reach our home From where we have come which is called God. Evolution attains Its highest when We reach God. That is the meaning of Evolution. That is why Swamiji Makes it extremely clear Each soul is potentially Divine. Everything Has got divinity. Not only Each soul means what? Not only the living Beings. This table, this carpet Everything in course of time It evolves. Inorganic Evolves into organic Organic from a small One celled organism It slowly develops Two cells, ten cells Then plants Then insects, then birds Then animals, then ultimately Into human beings Ultimately into superman Who is a realized God. Not this Comics superman Here superman means One who attains God. So this Is the inevitable result But why does it happen? Is it because of certain Actions? No Here Patanjali comes over and says Whatever we do Good or bad, they have An influence. What is the influence? They can either obstruct Our further evolution Or they can help Aid our further evolution But they are not Cause of the evolution What is the cause of the evolution? Prakruti. What is Prakruti? Our true nature. The divinity Wants to manifest itself Like a small seed You plant in the soil Instantaneously It will turn into a seedling Now the moment it Starts to become a seedling It is starting its Journey towards what? To manifest its full Potentiality of being a Tree and yielding Flowers, fruits, etc And its journey Is always outwards Nothing goes downwards Everything goes, that is why What we call heliocentric It goes towards the light We all are going towards The light. What is that light? Our original nature, divine nature Where is the difference? The western theory of evolution Is two pieces The sexual Selection and Struggle for Survival. Sexual selection Means what? Both species A strong male And a strong female If they come together And that is what happens in Animal life at least, not human life But animal life, then what There is a best chance For the offspring because they also Inherit the genes The characteristics of the parents So they have a better chance Is this the cause of evolution? That is what the western scientists Say. Is this the cause of evolution? Vedanta says no What is the cause of evolution? It is one's own Inherent nature. It is always Trying to come out But we can either aid Or we can hinder And through good deeds Good deeds are those which Help us to manifest Our divine nature And wrong deeds, evil deeds They are those deeds Which hinder Our progress and that is why No man remains Only good. No man remains Evil for all time Becoming evil or Becoming very good person Is not the goal of life But they are aids So here he gives an example Here is a farmer. He wants Water to his field and there is A huge lake but there is Obstruction between the lake and His field. What does he do? He takes a plough and then Goes on removing, makes a Channel. What is he doing? He is not producing water He is not bringing Water. He is merely Removing the obstruction The water flows by Its own nature into the Field and makes It cultivable and Fruitful. Through life what are We doing? Either we are doing Good deeds or Evil deeds. Through good deeds What are we doing? We are Merely removing the obstacles To the inflow Of our own divine Nature. And how do we know? We become healthy We become more knowledgeable And we attain more Happiness. Sat, chit And ananda. Through our Deeds. And this is the reason why Swami Vivekananda defined What is dharma And what is adharma. Dharma Is that type of action Which takes us Towards God. And adharma Is which takes us Away from God. What a beautiful Definition. But God is there We are here. These Deeds are not neither taking Us to God nor Taking us away from God. What does it do? The more Evil deeds, the more Obstruction we are putting between Us and God. And the good Deeds are those like This former removing the Obstruction between the water And his field. So what does this controversy really Mean to us in our practical life? It means that Today or tomorrow we are bound To be manifesting Our own true nature. There Is no choice. It is a Choiceless choice. We have to manifest Our true nature. There is absolutely No second question about it. But either we can help Or hinder Through our deeds. That is where Dharma can help us Adharma can hinder us. This is the essence of what we are talking Here. Good or bad Deeds are not the direct causes Of the transformation. They only Act as breakers of the obstacles To natural evolution. Evolution is very natural. Just as a Former breaks down the obstacles In a water course So that water flows through By its own nature. Here Patanjali explains the Hindu Theory of evolution of species By means of an illustration From agriculture. In those days, you know, agriculture Was the most common thing. That is why Everybody understands it. Even now We can understand it. The farmer Who irrigates one of his fields from a Reservoir does not have to fetch The water. The water is there Already. All the farmer Has to do is to open a sluice gate Or break down a dam And the water flows into the Field by the natural Force of gravity. The water Is the force of evolution. Which according to Patanjali Each one of us carries within Him. Only waiting to be released From the reservoir. By our Acts, we open the sluice gate The water runs down into the Field. What does it mean? Here is Swami Vivekananda's statement All progress and power Are already in every man Says Vivekananda. Perfection is in every man's Nature. Only It is boiled in and Prevented from taking its proper Course. If anyone can Take the bar off, in rushes One's own true nature Which is perfection, which Is divinity. So good And bad deeds, they are not Responsible for evolution For our progress in spiritual life They merely remove Or help, remove Obstacles through good deeds and Heap more obstacles through Bad deeds. Now Here is the rational Why we should never Do any bad Deeds. What happens when we do Any bad deeds? It Puts obstruction between Us and God. And the more We put obstruction between us and God is equivalent to Saying that we are away from The light of God. Or even more It is we are away From our natural Happiness. What does What does an evil deed do? It makes us unhappy. How does it do it? It doesn't Produce unhappiness. It Obstructs our natural Inner happiness. So that is why Two points to be noted here The first point is good and Evil deeds, they have Tremendous influence in Manifesting or obstructing Our true nature. The second point is no man No force in nature Can stop our progress In spiritual life. Every Person will be given a choice May not be in this life, may not be Next life, may not be in 5000 More births, but a day will Come, the person will have to Manifest. How does he do that? Here is the Vedantic explanation If we do anything wrong The rod will come down, the Axe will come down. What is that axe? In the form of suffering Whatever may be the circumstances Circumstances will differ But the End result is suffering And you know what is our nature? We never struggle Against happiness. What a wonderful Truth it is. If you are happy Do you struggle tremendously That I don't want this happiness But what is so wonderful The moment Unhappiness comes, even slightest Unhappiness comes Instantaneously we struggle To get out of it Why is it? Because To be healthy, to be Aware and to be happy Is our true nature So long as we Abide in our true nature There will be no struggle But the moment we fall Down from our nature Instantaneously struggle comes Good illustration will be During the course of this talk Shifting your position so many times Why do you do that? Simple explanation. One particular Position is very Uncomfortable. It may be Comfortable for a short period of Time. The moment it starts Creating discomfort Immediately you shift it Though we do it very Unconsciously So this is what Patanjali Is telling. This is what Vedanta Is asserting. This is what Shri Ramakrishna had come to tell us You better be spiritual Because you are by Nature a spiritual Being. What is it to Be spiritual? Not to have Death, not to have illness But to be perfectly Happy. Ananda Swarupa Until we attain that Life will not allow us to keep Quiet. So in these two Aphorisms, Patanjali Is telling us why we Should be spiritual, how we Can be spiritual and how we Can aid nature. How Our innate divine nature Will flow automatically That is called evolution What we can help or Hinder. That is what is called Spiritual struggle means The struggle to remove The obstacle. This is the Essence of what Patanjali Is trying to convey to us Through this we will discuss These beautiful poems in our Next class. Om Shanti Shanti Shanti Shanti