Patanjali Yoga Sutras Lecture 041

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

Om Yogena Chittasyapadena Vacham Malam Sharirasya Chavaidhyakena Yopakarottam Pravaram Muninam Patanjalim Pranjali Rana Tosmi 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. Obstructions to spiritual progress are many. Of these, in our last classes we have seen, there were 13 like disease, doubt, the inability to concentrate, to keep the mind upon what we have gained etc. All these can be removed. An obstruction must be removed. How do we remove the obstruction? One, those who do not believe in God, they are left to their own devices. But there are devotees who do believe in God and all the devotees of Sri Ramakrishna, they believe that by the grace of God alone, God can be realized. So, Ishwara Pranidhana, Patanjali is bound to admit that one can take refuge in God and through his grace overcome. God's grace is there and we do overcome the obstacles. We can have realization. What are we supposed to do then? We also extend a hand to God. When one Swami asked a senior Swami, what is the way? And he said, both grace of God and self-effort. In fact, the grace of God comes in the form of a desire, clarity of the path, enthusiasm to hold on to the path, it means to put forth more effort and ultimately grace itself, reveals itself at the very end. The desire, the path, the effort and ultimately the revelation, all these are possible again by the grace of God alone. Then why is it that most of us face these obstacles? Because we have the ego. It doesn't allow us to extend our hand towards the God's grace. Shankaracharya in his Vivekshudamani starts brilliantly and says, oh man, do you not realize how gracious God is to you? In this whole universe, there are billions and billions of creatures, non-humans and how many are human beings? Only how many billions? So far they counted about 7 billion. What is 7 billion? How much bacteria is there? How much viruses are there? They are also creatures, do not forget. So, first thing is a human birth. Second thing is how many people have the desire to progress in spiritual life? And very few people. So, that is another grace of God, added grace of God. But there is a third grace which is even more important, potent and that is the grace, the opportunity of associating ourselves with the holy. Let us not interpret it in the way, oh, I have never come across a great saint. No, there is no need. Have you come across a scripture like the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna? I am only giving an example. It could be imitation of Christ. It could be practice of the presence of God. It could be any holy book. That we are all analyzing the Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. I am also fond of quoting and confusing you with Shankara's commentaries and all that. I like it. So, that is why I quote. Whatever comes out of the mouth of a man, you have to take for granted that that is what is going on in his brain also. What was the point? That holy company doesn't mean only personal association. It could be a book. It could be something you see on the internet. Nowadays, you know, you can hear anywhere, anyone who has got a broadband connection, they can have what I call digital satsanga, internet satsanga. And that was not available before. That's available now. That is also a grace of God. It's available. What is the grace of God? You have to exercise your discrimination and take the opportunity and say that which explanation or talk is going to appeal to me and you dwell upon it. Why is it so necessary? I will shortly come here in this future aphorisms we are going to discuss. So, these three, a human birth, a desire for spiritual progress and the association of anything that is holy. How do we know what is holy? Whatever helps us move forward towards God, that is holy. This is again very important to understand. There are people, very superstitious. Oh, here is a sadhu. Whatever he says, you close your eyes and believe it. That is stupidity at its worst. A sadhu has a right to tell you only what is spiritual. It has nothing to do with worldly things. You can seek his advice and he can give also his advice. Now, what is the point here? We have to exercise discrimination with regard to everything. God has given us that power to discriminate. So, how do we know who is a holy person? If a person or a book or a program or anything that is holy, it helps us move forward. By that you understand this is really holy or helpful. So, these three are by the grace of God. Now, these obstacles, disease, doubt, etc., they all come to us. It's not that there are some lucky souls who never have these kind of things. Disease itself is a part and parcel of the body and doubts come sometimes. How long? Until we realize God, there will be doubt. But how do we overcome it? All these things, what is the way? So, we discussed the details about what are the obstacles, what happens when the body starts shaking and there will be intense restlessness of the mind. A person becomes extremely depressed, unhappy. All these things can happen even to advanced spiritual people. During the course of my talks, I also mentioned, just to remind you, you know Girish Chandra Ghosh. He surrendered everything to Sri Ramakrishna and he was carefree. Sri Ramakrishna had taken my burden. I have nothing to worry. Such a kind of person. And a time came when he was deeply depressed. Then, you know, two incidents come to my mind. One was, Swami Niranjanananda and he told Girish Chandra, You see, let us go to Holy Mother, to Jairambati. And Girish Chandra Ghosh, he could criticize Sri Ramakrishna. He could abuse Sri Ramakrishna. That was his relationship. But towards the disciples of Sri Ramakrishna, he was all tenderness. He never used to criticize her. He respected them highly. Immediately, he went to Holy Mother. And first day, he went there. Of course, at Jairambati, as we know, Holy Mother was very free. She never used to veil her face. Anybody can see. Girish Chandra Ghosh went, bowed down and looked at her face. Mother, you are here. He had earlier experience. He had a terrible fever. He was burning. And one day, a very motherly looking woman came and started passing her hands all over his body. And he became absolutely alright. That face he could never forget. But he never knew who was that woman. Because he never saw Holy Mother's face at any time. But when he came to Jairambati, he saw Mother's face and instantaneously recognized. And he got tremendous amount of peace of mind there. So this is one instance. Why did he go? Even though he was a person who had 125% of faith according to Sri Ramakrishna. And he knew Sri Ramakrishna had taken over his burden. Nothing to worry about. And yet, it is the nature of the mind. Sometimes it happens, which is not a bad thing at all. It is a normal thing. So this is first instance. Second instance was, once his mind was deeply depressed, he felt that accepting suicide there is no other alternative. And so many brother disciples, that is Sri Ramakrishna's monastic disciples, devotees used to go to him to console him. And then they used to console him like we console each other. But it had no effect at all. One day, Swami Brahmanandaji went there. And Girish Chandra Ghosh, he again told his Mahabharata. You understand? Mahabharata means his problems. And Swami Brahmanandaji, instead of taking them seriously, he laughed and said, Oh, this is what you are suffering from. Don't worry. What do you mean by don't worry? I have been suffering from this depression. He says, when a wave goes down, what happens next? It has to rise up. Your mind has gone to the deepest part so that it can rise to the highest heights. Somehow, miraculously, the moment he heard that, his mind has gone, Oh, yes, there was nobody like Sri Ramakrishna. He is the greatest incarnation of God. Don't you know that? He started preaching again. That is what is my point. Until God is realized, doubts keep on coming. Another incident I remember, Sri Ramakrishna once asked Swami Abhedananda. But you have to know the background. Swami Abhedananda started having tremendous visions, visions of different gods and goddesses. And he used to come and report them to his guru, Sri Ramakrishna. And he used to tell, Yes, what you have seen is absolutely right. We need certificate from a guru. How do we know a person has real vision of God? Because it will leave a permanent impression upon the mind and that person's character will always be improving and will never go down. But if anybody claims, I have so many visions or visions of God or goddess and his behavior is worse than normal. All worldly people know for certain, it is a figment of his or her imagination. It has nothing to do with spiritual progress. Guru, Shastra and one's own experience. When these three tally together, then that vision is right vision. Correct. It is true. But the greatest test stone is the character, improvement in the character. Such a mind which had the vision of God, it will never go down. Let us come back to over. So by the grace of God, what happens? All these obstacles can go. But then what are we supposed to do? We also have to extend our hand. Now we will discuss something very important. The first chapter of this Patanjali Yoga Sutras is called Samadhipada. Samadhi means what is the goal of yoga and what happens when a person really practices this yoga. First he will attain to the, what is called Sampragnata Samadhi, lower type of Samadhi. And then he attains to the Asampragnata Samadhi. And during the course of this practice, there are two methods. One is pure self-effort because he doesn't have so much faith in a personal God. The alternative is surrender oneself to God. Ishwara pranidhana, surrender oneself to God. For most of the people, it is the second method which is advocated. Now what is important for us, even after we surrender, what do we do? Constantly we examine, go on examining and say, am I really doing the will of God? Am I avoiding the displeasure of God? So am I making all efforts to progress in spiritual life according to the directions of the scriptures or Guru? This should be our constant effort. I will give you just one example. There was a woman devotee of Sri Ramakrishna called Gopala's mother. And she attained to the highest. She started seeing Krishna, Krishna everywhere. Now something very important we have to understand. What does it mean to see Krishna everywhere? To see Krishna in a temple, you see that three times bent with a flute and all that. But if you are seeing Krishna in the table, in the floor, in the sky, in the tree, in everybody that we meet, does that mean that form? It means the spirit behind, the consciousness behind. That's why there is a very beautiful story, a Ramayana. At the end of the incarnation of Rama, he was asked to go back to Vaikuntha or his own place. And then he told Lakshmana, first you go and then I will follow. Why Rama said to Lakshmana? Lakshmana was considered as the Vasuki of Lord Vishnu where he sleeps upon. That means where he will go and have rest. So if Lakshmana goes beforehand, he will be preparing everything for Sri Rama. Anyway, that's not the story. It's only beginning of the story. Rama declared to everybody in Ayodhya that all of you come with me. We will all go together to my abode Vaikuntha. And they all followed. Then Sri Rama called Hanuman, hey Hanuman come with me. He came, bowed down and said come with me. No sir. What? I am asking you to come with me. He bowed down again and said no sir. Sri Ramachandra asked why? Why don't you want to come? And you see, if I come to Vaikuntha, you become Paravasudeva. You become formless. You become tasteless. Become soundless. Become touchless. I don't see anything. But here, I want always to keep in my mind that Sita, Rama, Lakshmana, Sahita with all bow, arrows and all that. Kodanda Pani. This is what I want to see. I don't want to see you that useless type of form etc. So Rama looked at him. You are sure? He said I am 100% sure. You go. Then Rama blessed him and said you will be as long as this Yuga lasts. Then you will be a Chiranjeevi, Hanuman. Why did Hanuman ask such a thing? Not only because he can think of God anywhere, even in Vaikuntha also. But he wants to help every devotee, spiritual aspirant to progress in spiritual life. It is a wonderful subject. I won't go into that. These great souls like Swami Vaikunanda. He was Hanuman. Swami Vaikunanda was an incarnation of Hanuman. He said I will be in my subtle body helping everybody until they reach God. He said that's my mission in life. What is the point here? We also have to extend our hand whole life. So this Gopala's mother, she asked Sri Ramakrishna, have I reached the highest? Yes. Have I reached the highest? Yes. Have I reached the highest? Yes. She had no doubt. There is nothing, no more spiritual practice to be done. But she is living. What to do? Then she said I will do Japam from now onwards for the good of Gopala. So the statement she gave for the welfare of my Gopala. Who was that Gopala? What an answer. Does Thakur need her Japam? Otherwise he will go to the other place. That means every devotee of God is her. Do not forget when Sri Ramakrishna said she reached the highest, that means she is seeing Gopala in everybody, not only in Sri Ramakrishna. That was only in the beginning. She was seeing Sri Ramakrishna, Gopala in everybody. If you recollect a few months after that she went to Panihatti Chariot Festival and that day she had universal vision of the Lord Gopala. She saw everything, the chariot, the devotees, the priests, the images in the chariot, everything she saw as Gopala. And that day her spiritual practice was complete. This is Vedantic definition of spiritual perfection. To see the same Brahman everywhere. Sarvam Kalvidam Brahma. That is the goal. Whatever helps us to reach towards that goal, that is holy, that is real, that is helpful. So self-effort and the grace of God must go hand in hand together. Grace of God is there. Now we have to extend our hand deliberately which means we have to avoid things which are not good, which we deliberately do things which are good. Okay, so Patanjali is advocating in the 32nd aphorism. These obstacles for yoga can be removed by the practice of concentration upon a single truth. There is only one truth. How many truths are there? How many truths are there? Truth is only one and that truth, another name for that truth is God, Brahman. There is nothing else. So, what it means is meditate, concentrate upon God. In what way? We come to this for the next seven aphorisms. He gives various methods how to overcome these obstacles and some of them are most marvelous. They are all highly practical. Let us never forget whatever Patanjali advocates is very practical. That theoretical portion was over in Sankhya. This is a practical part. So, ekatattva abhyasaha, that is to say concentrate upon the truth of God's existence. God has many aspects and so there are innumerable approaches to Him. Undisturbed calmness of mind is attained by cultivating friendliness towards the happy, compassion for the unhappy, delight in the virtuous and indifference towards the wicked. So, concentrate on God. That is it in so many ways. Okay, I concentrate upon God. What else? What else? In this world, there are so many human beings and according to Patanjali, all the human beings are divided into four categories. Those who are happy, those who are miserable and suffering, those who are good and those who are wicked. Happy, unhappy, good and wicked. Let us briefly discuss what does that mean. There are people, unhappy people for example. All of us will become unhappy at some point or the other. The thing is some people are unhappy for a long time in most intense form. Why is it so? Because of our own past evil deeds. We will come to this point later on. Patanjali talks very briefly about God but he talks much more about the law of karma like Buddha. He says that our birth, how long we live on this earth, what type of experiences we go through. Jati, Aayu, Bhoga are due to our past karmas. So nobody should be blamed. Nobody else causes our happiness. Nobody else causes our unhappiness. Nobody else causes if I die very early, it is not because of somebody else. If I live for a long time after taking medicines, that is not because of the medicines. Because the time has not come for me, the call has not come. When the expiry date is over, God's barcode passes through automatically and we are pulled out. This is the simple truth whether you believe it or not. That's why young, old, any condition, anywhere, anytime people can die or we expect some people to die but they go on and on and on. How long we live on this earth doesn't depend upon the food we eat, the situation we have or the medicines, the doctors. No, it all depends upon the past karma. And if we have done something good, we enjoy happiness. If we didn't, then we also suffer. So even a spiritual aspirant has to go through all those things. If you study the lives of Holy Mother, direct disciples or any other devotees, have you come across a single person who did not go through suffering, who had a wonderful death, he had a nice dinner. When we are going through suffering, what do we do? We have to surrender ourselves to God, pray to God. So earlier we have seen in Patanjali telling us, what happens if we surrender ourselves to God, two results will come. What is that? The first result is we realize our own inner self and all the obstacles also will be removed. Now what is the point we are discussing here? That if we can pray to God, all these obstacles can be removed. Why? The obstacles come because of our own past deeds. And now we have not much to do because we have already done these deeds. And we have to go through this result of karma. How can we counteract this karma? There is only one. If the grace of God is there, He can remove the suffering. He can remove the doubts. He can do so many things. He can simply advance us fast track. Self-surrender means what? Fast track. The normal practice of spiritual life is what? Go through the immigration. Every officer will be going on looking into the photo, into your eyes, into the photo. Then he puts your fingerprints and all those things. After that, with resignation, he sends you in. But if it is grace of God, simply one fellow will come, put you in the wheelchair and straight you take away to the Pushpaka Vimana and then you go ahead. That is the grace of God. This is what he is telling. Tat pratisheyatartham eka tattva abhyasaha. For destroying all these obstacles, surrender yourself to God. What is the way? Focus upon God. Concentrate upon God. What does that mean? That means you surrender yourself to God. And then you can think of God in any way you like. And by his grace, all these obstacles can be removed. But at the same time, we have to go through life until we die. What are we going to do? We have to encounter in day to day situations. We have to encounter the situations. People and people are divided into how many categories? Four categories. All these categories come because of the past karmas. Those who are happy, those who are miserable, those who are good and those who are wicked. There will be wicked people. There will not come a time when the world will be rid of wicked people. This is one of the mistaken beliefs in the West that we go on improving, progressing. A day will come when there will be no wickedness left, no misery left, no problems. Then that day we have to commit suicide because life will be so boring. Wherever you see, there is only a friend. How boring it is. Have you ever thought about it? Think about it. All friendly, oh good morning, I love you, I love you, I love you. After some time you feel bored of, is there someone who hates me? You go on looking because you know the contrast is the spice of life, drama. So surrender yourself to God. Then he says, Maitri, Karuna, Mudita, Upekshanam, Sukha, Dukha, Punya, Apunya, Vishayanam, Bhavana, Atah, Chitta, Prasadanam, Friendship towards all, Mercy, Gladness and Indifference. These are the four reactions we should develop. Each spiritual aspirant must develop in regard to people who are happy, unhappy, good and evil respectively. If we can do that, then our mind becomes absolutely calm and quiet. A calm mind is necessary for the practice of yoga. Let us briefly discuss these things. First of all, we must have friendship to all, irrespective of what they are. Friendship. What does it mean? It means we don't judge them. This person is good, this person is very good, this person is wonderful, this person is wicked. If you judge like that, your reaction will not be the same. Then what is the way? Atma upamyena sarvatra. Samam pashyati yo arjuna. One who sees everything else like one's own self. Sayogi paramo mataha. That yogi, according to my opinion, is the greatest yogi. Who can see that? Only when you are able to see God in everybody, the self in everything, then only you can have this attitude. Otherwise discrimination comes. This is beautiful, this is ugly, this is tasty, this is not tasty, this is good, this is evil. That is what we all suffer from. That is the highest attitude we must develop. Then we must be merciful towards those that are in misery. Now, why this particular point? According to Hindus, Hinduism says, Hindus are those who believe in teachings of Hinduism, that if somebody is suffering, that is due to what? His own evil karma. So let him suffer. So many people came to Swami Vivekananda and said that. Swami Vivekananda replied, if they are suffering because of their bad karma, you will acquire good karma by helping them. Not by merely saying that they are suffering because of their own karma. Because how do you get merit, punya? Only by helping them. If they are suffering because of that, then you progress in your own life by helping them. And helping them, not out of compassion. How should we help others? Shiva Jnane Jiva Shiva and that is how we progress. Otherwise, merit will come. You help, it's a good action, you will be happy for some time proportionately, but that doesn't help too much. So we must have, merciful means not taking a high attitude. But what is called sympathy? Sympathy means what? Always trying to help is called sympathy. Simply say, I can't bear to see. I saw one cartoon, one very rich woman coming out of a 70-star hotel with fur coat and jewelry on that. She saw a tramp and tears started coming. I can't bear this misery. And then she jumped into her Cadillac car and ran away. Okay, you can't see her misery, this fellow's misery. Why don't you give a little bit of money? Why don't you help him a little? No, sympathy is there, but purse will not open. That's why there are some people, they have got purse in the pocket and they have got the mouth also. So we must be having sympathy means helpful attitude. We must help in some way. When people are happy, we ought to be happy. Whenever we see people who are happy, we have to be very happy with them. Why? There is a reason. The reason is, what is the greatest mental disease we all suffer from? Even including advanced spiritual aspirants. There is one disease, mental disease, which irrespective even gods suffer from that. That's why your Puranas, your mythologies, go on meaning. Just to mention you, there was one great lady who was the most chaste lady. In the whole three worlds, she was famed as the most chaste lady, Anasuya. What is her name? Anasuya. What does Anasuya mean? Asuya na Asuya. One who does not have jealousy. What a beautiful name. So this Narada, Narada one great personality, he went to Lakshmi, Saraswati, Parvati. He started praising these ladies. He did not say anything. You know human nature? Suppose a mother brings two children and both of them bow down to the Swami. Then the Swami looks at them and says, mother, your younger son is very intelligent. Canker starts in the eldest son's mind. The Swami did not say you are not intelligent. What did he say? The younger one is intelligent and the elder one understands. What starts? Jealousy starts. This jealousy among the children, jealousy among brothers and sisters, jealousy among neighbours, jealousy. This is the most common thing. Though we should not criticise great people, but just as an example, you know, even Bhairavi Brahmani felt jealousy towards Sri Ramakrishna, her own son in Kamarthapur. And Sri Ramakrishna understood. But she was a great lady. She progressed. She had so many visions. She saw Sri Ramakrishna as Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, Nithyananda. She saw Sri Ramakrishna as the incarnation of Sri Rama. She had so many visions. And yet, when she went to Kamarthapur, she could not but have this feeling. And she committed a lot of mistakes. I am not telling this to point out who are we. She was in such a faraway state. But telling how cautious we have to be. Ramakrishna blessed her and she came to know and she accepted freely and she corrected herself. This is such a great disease. This is jealousy among devotees. It is a very common thing among monks. Among the nuns, it is a very common thing. See how this Mahamaya binds us, quarrels between monks, between nuns, between devotees. Not to speak of worldly people, this jealousy. So what is the way out? Here is Patanjali telling us, when people are happy, we ought to be happy. Be very happy. Oh Lord, how wonderful is your grace. You made this person happy. I am so very happy about this person. So what happens? If we develop, cultivate that attitude towards those who are happy, not only we become happy, we overcome that most difficult of all the diseases to overcome, which is called jealousy. Because jealousy comes when somebody is more happy because they are richer. Somebody is happy because that person has got better job. Is happy because person has got better children. Happy because that person has got better house, etc. There must be some cause for happiness. Whatever be the cause, if a spiritual aspirant says, I am so happy that you are happy, then why these two birds with one shot? One is, the jealousy is removed. And the second is, Sarvatra Samabuddhi, equal-sightedness. Therefore, not only that, if you are happy, I am very happy. If you are happy, then I am happy. Then you see so many happy people. When do you become unhappy then? If you cultivate that attitude of being happy with happy people, when is the time for you to become unhappy? All the time you will be happier. Somebody won a lottery ticket and you are very happy. And somebody has been promoted. You are very happy. That's why, be happy with the happy people. And what happens to those, there are wicked people. What should we do? First thing is, you must never take revenge. Because the law of karma. If somebody is doing something bad to me, who is doing it? Is that person? No. My own karma, the result of my own karma. And for good, it is correction. It is removing the result of my past deeds. Not only that, we can learn a lot of lessons from it. And then, we must be friendly, especially with people who are spiritual aspirants. Wherever you see a genuine spiritual aspirant, you become very happy with that person. Be very friendly. Go out of your way to help that person progress towards God. Because if you help anybody progress towards God, you yourself will be progressing more towards God. So these are the attitudes. This is called spiritual attitude. We have to develop towards any person, towards any situation in life. Let me also mention in this connection, not only people, but even situations. So let me quote an incident from the life of Nag Mahasaya. One day, he was lying on his cot. And suddenly, a vicious cat jumped onto him, gouged one of his eyes and ran away. What should be one's reaction if such an event takes place? What was his reaction? He said, Ramakrishna, Thakur, you have done well. And some people went and said, oh, this cat, no, cat has not done. Who has done? I must have done something wrong. That's why Sriram Krishna is removing that evil action through this. What a way to look at him. His life is extraordinary. But it is a good incident for us to remember. Then, are there other ways? Whenever these obstacles come, what happens? Our mind becomes disturbed. What is the way to get rid of the disturbance? There is another way. And most likely, this is the only aphorism he mentions about pranayama. Asana, pranayama, very rarely he mentions. This is one of them. Prachartana, Vidharana, Abhyamva, Pranasya. By throwing out and restraining the breath. You know, pranayama doesn't mean breath control. Pranayama means controlling prana, which controls the movement of the breath. Movement of the lungs. By controlling the movements of the lungs, we catch hold of the prana. And prana functions in the body, in the mind, in the body through the sense organs, in the mind through all thoughts, etc. Every thought requires energy. Every thought is an expenditure of energy. If it is negative thought, tremendous energy is gone. If it is positive thought, then it brings calmness, peacefulness. Manah chitta prasadana. This is what happens. Patanjali doesn't go into details. But what he says is, practice any type of breath control. Through that practice of breath control, it is possible to make the mind temporarily calm. There are people who go to the other extreme and say, through pranayama you can attain God realization. No, God realization cannot be attained through any sadhana. It can be attained only by the grace of God. But pranayama can help us a lot. Very briefly, let me dwell upon it. In the Ramakrishna order, we don't place much emphasis upon pranayama. In most other places, pranayama, kriya yoga, what is pranayama? Asana, pranayama. You do certain postures and you go on breathing in and out. Does it help? Certainly it helps. Swami Yudhishthiraji, he used to teach every spiritual aspirant, before meditation, at least a few minutes, he must practice rhythmic breathing. Because it helps to calm, quieten the mind. Breathing has a lot to do with our day-to-day activity. You know, what does pranayama do? It brings rhythm. When we breathe rhythmically, the mind becomes rhythmic. That means it doesn't go up and down. It becomes very even. Let me give you an instance. Why the military always march left, right, left, right? What is the purpose? Rhythm. And when the physical body acts in a rhythmic manner, automatically it controls the breath. You sit and go on doing pranayama, rhythmic breathing, that affects the movements of the body. Or you do things rhythmically and it controls the breath. That is why the military people, they always say left, right, left, right, so that there is a unity is achieved in the whole unit, in the whole army. Throughout the world, it is practiced. Second example is music. Good music always quietens our mind. Do you know why? What is the secret? Rhythm. Because the beat, you know, even if we don't hear it, we hear it too much nowadays. Even if someone is singing nicely, there is a rhythm in singing. There is a rhythm. When you hear some people singing, your mind becomes automatically very, very quiet. But if the same person is singing unrhythmatically, there is a rhythm of the way to sing. There is a rhythm in the very voice itself. That is why, because of cold or some other problem, when a person's voice is broken, the rhythm is broken, and you don't enjoy, however much he may be knowledgeable about music. That's why if you observe carefully, you listen to some singers, and your mind becomes very quiet. How to determine? I am giving you a practical hint. Supposing you want to go to bed. Then you listen to some music. Some music disturbs you. Some music helps you go into peaceful sleep. If you can notice that, you will know which music is helpful and which is not helpful. They have found out that some types of music like rock music, it profoundly disturbs the mind, whereas usually the classical music, it helps. And they have done a lot of research on this. Mozart's certain symphonies, they help even the students who do not have that attention. What is that? Attention Deficit Syndrome. They can get back, they can get concentration, etc. And mentally ill patients, they can also be helped. There is indirect mention that when Krishna used to play music, all the trees used to bear sweeter fruits, all the cows used to give more amount of milk. That is because even the animals, the plants, everything is moved by this wonderful rhythm. Anyway, just to make this illustration, they wanted to find out what is the effect of music upon certain plants. And there are certain types of plants which grow very fast. In a day, you can see clearly how much they have grown. What these experimenters did, they put two speakers. In between, they put this fast growing creeper. One, rock music, metal music. The other, Ravishankar's classical sitar. And they started playing so that the sound is so much that they don't collide with each other. And then they started observing what happened. The creeper slowly started going away and away from the rock music speaker and lovingly entwined themselves around the speaker where the Ravishankar's music was coming. These plants, they did that kind of thing. Plants could be affected. Even rocks could be affected. You know, Totapuri, the guru of Sri Ramakrishna, and then he did not know Bengali language excepting few common words. And Sri Ramakrishna was a marvellous singer. He used to awaken everybody's kundalini even by singing. And when he used to sing to Totapuri, he used to shed tears. Even though he did not understand the language, what is the meaning, such was the power of music. Why? Because Sri Ramakrishna had a wonderful sense of rhythm. Rhythm is one of the hearts, the prana as we call, of music. And you must also have heard that if Sri Ramakrishna is in Samadhi and some fellow is singing unrhythmatically, he will come down from his Samadhi and say, Hey, you stop singing, you are disturbing my Samadhi. There were instances. And then last thing I want to remind you, when Narendra Nath used to sing, it used to send Sri Ramakrishna into ecstasy. Why? Sri Ramakrishna himself said, when Narendra starts singing, the snake inside me, it unfurls its hood and sways to the music and I cannot help myself but go into Samadhi. Now all this topic, what is the point we are discussing? What is the soul of music? Rhythm. What is the point of pranayama? Rhythm. When that rhythm happens, prana comes under our control. Prana is that energy which influences both the body and also the mind. And when this prana is controlled, our thoughts, our mind itself is controlled. What is yoga? Chitta vritti nirodha. How does pranayama help? Because when we become masters of our prana and since prana influences our body and mind, if we can control the prana, and the prana in its turn makes the body also healthy, makes the mind also absolutely tranquil, calm and quiet, in that body and mind instrument, spiritual practice or yoga is made that much easier. So this is one of the aphorisms he says. You can overcome these obstacles through pranayama also. He also mentions, in fact he mentions seven methods and we only started it. This is the second method that we have but we will discuss about the other six in our future classes. Om Shanti Shanti Shanti