Lectures on Raja Yoga

 

By

 

Sri Swami Chidananda

 

 

A DIVINE LIFE SOCIETY PUBLICATION

 

First Edition: 1976
Second Edition: 1991
(3,000 copies)

World Wide Web (WWW) Edition : 1999

WWW site: http://www.dlshq.org/

 

This WWW reprint is for free distribution

 

© The Divine Life Trust Society

 

ISBN 81-7052-081-9

 

Published By
THE DIVINE LIFE SOCIETY
P.O. Shivanandanagar—249 192
Distt. Tehri-Garhwal, Uttar Pradesh,
Himalayas, India.

Contents

PREFACE

Peace be unto all beings!

Adorations unto the Almighty Lord! Homage unto the great Sage Patanjali, the ancient expounder of the science of Raja Yoga! Salutations to Worshipful Master Gurudev Sivananda at whose Feet this book is offered in reverence and devotion!

I am happy to give this brief Preface to this little book on the subject of Raja Yoga edited by Sri Swami Vimalananda, who has been a devoted helper to me in innumerable ways over the past more than two decades. The matter in this book comprises a series of class lectures given in Beirut (Lebanon) at the Yoga Shanti Niketan where I had been invited by the Founder-Director, Mrs. Louisa Raaff, known to her student circles as Mother Shanta and Mother Swami Lalitanandaji, who generously helped towards this trip. I went to Beirut and stayed for six weeks in the spring of 1973 fulfilling a programme of a series of class lectures, Satsangas, meditation sessions and public engagements. Two other friends who took great interest in my visit and were very helpful to me are Sri Omar Mansaur and Jean Pierre Sara, both spiritual seekers taking keen interest in Yoga practice and meditation. To these wonderful persons I owe a debt of gratitude and take this opportunity of recording it here.

I must also mention the young student, Panos Tsakalian of the American University at Beirut who arranged lectures at the University.

These lectures have been given in very simple language avoiding technical terms as far as possible. They are easy to understand as they were originally addressed to a group of persons who were strangers to Indian philosophical thoughts and the subject of Yoga-Darshana. It was a new subject and the field was unfamiliar to their thought-form. As such, these talks were necessarily made simple for them to grasp. An orderly sequence was attempted at the time of their delivery. Therefore, this arrangement makes the present volume something in the nature of a primary text-book on Patanjali Yoga. Hence it is felt that it may be of some value to beginners and would help them to get a preliminary knowledge of Ashtanga Yoga.

Whatever is helpful and of any value in this volume belongs to Maharshi Patanjali, to whom I pay homage. Any discrepancies and shortcomings the reader may find belong to me. The entire project was undertaken in the spirit of Guru-Seva to Worshipful Master Swami Sivanandaji.

My many grateful thanks to each and everyone who has made this volume possible.

Swami Chidananda
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First Lecture

Raja Yoga Is A Universal Science

Beloved Immortal Souls! Radiant Children of Light! Greetings to you all in the name of Yoga. Yoga, the ancient science of India, is the common heritage of humanity, though evolved in the East, though practised and expounded in India. This science of attaining universal consciousness is the common wealth of mankind. It is a science that goes beyond the barrier of any particular faith or religion, system or theology, and takes on the nature of spiritual process that is capable of being worked out within the interior of human consciousness irrespective of the personality. This consciousness, shines as the universal common denominator, as the common factor in all life. It runs as a subtle invisible cosmic link in all life, just as a thread runs as the common inner support through a necklace of beads of variegated colours, shapes and appearances, holding them all together, unifying them into one object, a necklace. Here is this Sutra or a thread, a unity within diversity.

Consciousness or the spiritual essence is similarly the unifying factor that underlies all forms in this universe that are apparent as different objects to our superficial, physical gaze. All such objects hold, within their apparent diversity, this inner Unity of Consciousness. The spirit within is the universal common denominator underlying all forms of existence, but it has become involved in mental processes, and through them got caught up within the meshes of sensual and physical nature.

Yoga presents a system of liberating the spiritual essence from this involvement, this entanglement in mental and physical processes. It achieves the effect of restoring the spiritual consciousness to its pristine state, its untrammelled, pure original state. The thesis of Yoga based upon the direct experience of those who became its expounders, is that your true nature, your real and essential nature, is pure bliss. It is pure peace. It is Ananda and Santi. Not sorrow. Not misery. Not grief. Not restlessness. Not agitation. Not tears. But peace and joy. Thus Raja Yoga is a scientific method of liberating the consciousness from the bondage of mind, senses and matter. It does not come into clash with any set of dogma or any specific religious belief. For, in the ultimate context, if you try to analyse religion to its gross roots, you will discover that all religions have as their ultimate aim, showing to the individual the path beyond sorrow, the way to supreme blessedness. Call it divine felicity, call it eternal beatitude, call it salvation, emancipation, liberation—the term which you use does not matter; the aim or the ultimate objective of religion remains the same. If you try to grasp the central essence of religion, the central spirit behind all the elaborate rituals and ceremonials, you will find that it is to bring man to God. And this Reality or this Cosmic Being called God denotes a state of perfection that transcends the imperfect experiences of this finite earth-life, that transcends sorrow and suffering. It denotes a positive state of perfect joy and peace.

Yoga therefore is a system, a science, a practice. Though it had its origin in India, though it was systematised by a people who professed the Vedic religion which we call Hinduism, Yoga is beyond religion and occupies a place in the spiritual life of man which is the common meeting ground of all humanity and has come down to us in this 20th century as a part of the universal heritage of mankind.

The Nature Of The World

Yoga, by itself, is a term that implies the bringing to an end man’s involvement in sorrow and suffering. The life of man here in this universe is characterised by experiences which he does not like, experiences which are painful, experiences which he seeks to avoid but discovers by the time he approaches the end of his life that they are unavoidable. These are part and parcel of what we call earthly life here. Pain, sorrows and sufferings of various kinds seem inevitable and yet man all over the world tries to avoid suffering and sorrow, pain and misery, and tries to obtain, somehow or the other, a state of joy, of happiness. In this, man fails. He has failed in this ever since the dawn of creation. Not so much because this state of absolute transcending of sorrow and experience of absolute bliss does not exist, but merely because he searches for it in the wrong direction. He looks for it in the outer world, in objects. And no wonder he fails to find the perfect and absolute experience of joy there, because finite things, changeful things, perishable things, imperfect in their very nature, have a beginning and an end; they are conditioned in time and space. These things naturally cannot give perfect experience, because these things are fragmentary. Everything is relative. Everything is one of a pair of opposites. And our relationship, our contact, with all things is also short-lived. All coming together ends in going apart, and over and above this, that very instrument through which man has to relate himself to all things here is characterised by much imperfection.

What is that instrument through which man relates himself to this external world? The body with the five senses is that instrument. And that primary instrument through which the dweller within has to contact and perceive this phenomenal world is itself defective. It has a birth and ultimately goes to extermination in death; all the five senses through which it perceives the universe gradually fail when disease comes and gradually destroys them. If disease does not destroy them, the natural process in old age makes them weaker. Eye-sight weakens, hearing fails, limbs become feeble, and all the senses gradually grow cold. Thus the body suffers its natural characteristics of birth, growth, change, disease, old age, decay and death. Numerous other factors also torment this body—factors beyond the control of man—you have natural calamities like earthquakes epidemic and famine. Then war, revolution, wicked people, malarious mosquitoes, yellow fever, consumption, T.B., cancer, venereal disease, dysentery, cholera ad infinitum. Then there are natural calamities like the fury of the elements, cold wave, heat wave, drought, either too much rain or no rain, typhoons, hurricanes and blizzards.

Then there are those other afflictions which are man-made and also coming from various kinds of creatures and as though these miseries are not enough, from within one’s own nature there arise factors that torment and destroy the peace of the human individual. Anger, hatred, jealousy, envy, frustration, disappointment, failure to achieve one’s objective, fierce passion in the form of lust and greed—these fires in the human being inflame his mind, torment his heart and disturb his peace. How much of the ills of man come from his own inner psyche! The various agitating conditions upon which he has no control, the various cravings, desires, ambitions and urges which constantly keep the mind in a state of turmoil—a little of this inner inferno has been perceived and touched upon by Western psychologists.

So, elements beyond one’s control, other forms of life outside oneself and factors within oneself—all these afflict man in addition to the inevitable fate of the body. Thus, real happiness or joy seems to be an ever-receding horizon and its contrary seems to be an all-too-immediate ever-present reality; and thus, man’s quest for escaping, avoiding or overcoming pain and suffering and entering into a state of joy seems to be a wild-goose chase, seems to be a futile pursuit doomed to failure. And hopeless seems the quest of man for happiness. It is precisely in this area of man’s aspiration, in this area of life’s quest that the science of Yoga becomes relevant to all of us. It becomes very significant and meaningful and very important, for it emphatically declares that despite the deplorable fact that sorrow is the nature of this temporary earthly existence, the destiny of man is supreme joy. That is the thesis of Yoga. That is the emphatic declaration of Yoga. Man is made for the attainment of supreme joy and this supreme joy or perfect state of bliss is not to be a post-mortem attainment, is not to be an after-death state of being, but it is something that is capable of being attained here and now. And if man would claim his birth-right, it is within the reach of every human individual to attain to this perfect experience right here, even while dwelling in this body, in this very life.

The Purpose Of Yoga

The purpose of Yoga is to try to restore to man his pristine state of perfect bliss; and this it does by liberating the human individual from his involvement in body, senses and mind. This involvement itself is the prime cause for keeping him away from itself, is the greatest obstacle to his attainment of that experience which the Yoga science says lies right here, present at this moment. To become liberated from the bondage of pain, thus bringing to an end the union of man’s nature with pain, is Yoga. How is this cessation of pain brought about by uniting the consciousness with that which is of the nature of Bliss? And that factor which is of the nature of pure bliss is called the Self; is called Brahman; is called God; is called Allah; is called Isvara, the Thing-In-Itself, Ahuramazda. It is the Deity. It is the Universal Soul, the Cosmic Reality, the Eternal Divine Principle which is the Alpha and Omega of all beings, which is the origin and fulfilment of this and all that exist. To bring into a state of oneness with it, relate yourself to it and achieve a perfection of relationship with it, is Yoga. And to achieve this end, you will have to carefully withdraw your involvement in the passing, the finite, the limited, the non-eternal. This is a condition, is a prerequisite. Yoga teaches both—how to sever your connection to the non-eternal and how to enter into that connection to the eternal, the all-perfect, the infinite. Yoga teaches that both these aspects are two in one, that is, uniting yourself with the Divine and thus attaining the Bliss which you seek in vain in finite, earthly objects. That is Yoga. That is the purpose of Yoga. The process of Yoga is the turning away from that which is characterised by sorrow, by pain and which is perishable, destructible in its nature.

The Fourfold Path

This process of turning away from the finite, from the imperfect, the temporary, the passing and entering into a conscious connection with the Eternal, with the Divine, sums up the process of Yoga. How this can be done? Is there only one way or are there many ways? The answer to this is both. There is only one way, and there are many ways. And why this dual answer? There is only one way in the sense that all Yoga is movement towards the Divine, movement towards the Infinite, movement of the personal towards the Impersonal, of the individual towards the Universal, movement of man towards God. So, there is only one Yoga. But then, this movement can be accomplished through several levels of the human personality. This Godward movement, movement towards the Divine may be initiated and carried out through one of other, or, one or more of the powers, of the capacities, of the faculties that you possess. And depending upon which one of the faculty you make use of as a medium for bringing about Godward movement, movement towards the Reality, depending upon that faculty Yoga assumes a particular pattern and derives a particular name.

If you do this movement through philosophical speculation, you make use of your intellect and your power of reasoning as the medium of attaining the knowledge and experience of that Reality by diverting your consciousness as expressed through intelligence. Then you are a philosopher and the Yoga becomes what is known as Jnana Yoga, Jnana Yoga of the Vedanta Philosophy. And, instead of the intellect, if you make use of your feeling, your love potential, your ability to love, to exercise affection, devotion, sentimental and emotional aspect—this potential as your medium, then it becomes what is known as the Yoga of devotion or the path of love or Bhakti Yoga. And if you make use of the power of your thought, power of the mind, will to urge your entire inner being to resolutely move towards God or the Universal Consciousness, determined that you will not allow your mind to be divested or distracted in any way, then you become a Raja Yogin or the mystic who treads the path of contemplation, concentration and meditation. But in all these methods, though they make use of one or the other faculties that you are endowed with, they seek to work out the self-same process, the one identical movement. Therefore, Yoga is one in spite of being different according to the medium of your movement.

Why this movement? The single reason that God did not create man from the assembly line. God did not create him as a stereo-type. There are diverse temperaments. There is diverse nature, and also, some time diverse inclinations. One is inclined towards a particular path; even one’s nature has a balance of all these three ingredients in equal proportion, mind and will, intellect and rationality, devotion and love. Yet, by one’s inclination one may have a tendency towards one particular path. To suit all temperaments, all capacities and different tastes, diverse forms of a single, identical approach have been evolved in the ancient land of Yoga, without doing violence or altering the central fact of the spiritual essence, meeting needs arriving out of the diversity of human nature and taste. And among various paths, three main paths are just now mentioned. Approach through the intellect and rationality is Jnana Yoga, approach through devotion and love is Bhakti Yoga, and approach through mind and will is Raja Yoga.

In India, these different paths are based upon certain original source scriptures, certain definite authority, scriptures that were brought into being by those who had experienced the Reality. They were people who had not only experienced the Reality, but had become established in that Reality Consciousness permanently. So, they were adepts, they were perfect beings, the Masters of Wisdom. And they have left for the benefit of posterity, their Wisdom and hints about the methods in brief aphorisms. They are just hints and pointers. These aphoristic teachings have a certain logical unity. So, they formed one successive logical field of utterances making up one whole system. Therefore, they are called Sutras. Sutra is a thread that tied together, linked together. So they are not haphazard. These great Sutras are the Brahma Sutras, the most authoritative of all sources of aphorisms for the Vedantin or Jnana Yogin, the one who follows the path of knowledge; and the Bhakti Sutras of two great sages, Narada and Sandilya, the basic authority source for the expounding of the path of devotional philosophy.

The Nature Of The Mind

And then, the Yoga Sutras of the great sage Patanjali, which expound the system of mental discipline and the technique to turn the mind away from the passing phenomenon and to direct it towards the permanent reality. And it is these Yoga Sutras of Patanjali that we are concerned with. As I mentioned, the central thesis is the Yogic vision of man, Yogic knowledge of man’s reality. Though apparently a physical creature and a mental personality, man is in reality a spiritual entity. That spiritual entity is of the nature of Perfection and Peace. It is the mental personality that keeps depriving the individual of an experience of one’s real spiritual Reality. That spiritual Reality which is of the nature of pure Bliss is veiled over by the mind-stuff; and the mind-stuff being constantly in a state of unceasing activity, holds the consciousness of man in its grip. Thus, the human individual is ever conscious of himself as one or other of the moods of the mind and never conscious of himself as he always is apart from the mind, because of his constantly being involved in the ceaseless activity of the mind. So, the consciousness of human individual is either that ‘I am thinking’, ‘I am feeling’, ‘I am seeing’, ‘I am hearing’, ‘I am tasting’, ‘I am touching’, ‘I am smelling’, or ‘I am sleeping’, ‘I am remembering’, ‘I am disapproved’, or ‘I am dissatisfied’, ‘I am in need’, ‘I am hungry’, ‘I am humiliated’—in this way, one is always aware of oneself as being something or other in relation to the mind and never apart from this involvement in the mind. This is the problem. And the sage Patanjali shows the way up, tackling the mind successfully in the light of his deep knowledge of the mind.

Now, the European modern psychologists also have entered into the study of the mind. They also have discovered the vagaries of the mind, different states of the mind that give rise to lot of imbalance and disturbance and which make man miserable and ultimately even bring about physical symptoms, give rise to various physical struggling to prescribe various methods of trying to free himself from these conditions based upon their knowledge of this human interior mind and its vagaries; but with what results! More psychological tests, more psychologists, more psychoanalysts, more psychiatrists, but more psychoses and more complexes. These have not solved any problem, but have only expounded man’s knowledge of the problems. So everyone knows now that there is this complex, there is that complex, there is this obsession. Man is not anywhere near to a solution. What may be the reason for this? It is Patanjali who will tell you. Because, all those solutions that the psychologists are trying to formulate and find out, prescribe and work out, still lie within the realm of the mind. The main thing has not been achieved. If there are a hundred problems of a prisoner inside a jail, and the superintendent of a jail or the minister of prisoners or the jail-wardens thought out various solutions for the problems of the prisoner, but all are within the four walls of the jail. So, the prisoner is still a prisoner. He continues to be a prisoner. So you may just treat the trouble just like the modern medication. If there is an ear-trouble, he puts some antibiotics and suppresses it there. It is only shifting the pain or changing its outer shape and it only takes on a different appearance. In the same way, all essence of psychology to correct psychological ills within the framework of the mind, has its fate. Because, the prime cause of all these problems, of all these states, is the mind. Unless and until you formulate a method which will try to take you beyond the mind, as long as the mind and its limitation exist, mind-reactions exist. It will always manifest its nature. There is no stopping it.

The Psychology Of Yoga

The Yoga of Patanjali formulated a means by which the sum total of the very nature of the mind was checked. Mind in all its various manifestations was mastered through a set of disciplines, a system of disciplines by which he arrived at a state of mind-transcendence. He had the advantage over the Western psychologists. In the entire study of modern Western psychology, specially the modern psychology as started by recent psychologists, you will find that the genesis of this science is based upon the study and observation of an imbalanced mind. It was morbid psychology actually. The study itself arose from this morbid, abnormal mind. Whereas in the case of Patanjali and the ancient seers, they took for their study, not the abnormal mind, they took for their study not even the human mind, not even the mind which has already become individualised in the human personality, already become conditioned by the human personality and assumed a finite shape, but they made their study of the mind-principle as such, the original mind-principle, the cosmic mind-principle as such. So, they went into a study of the mind-stuff as it was. It is here that you have to go into the cosmology, coming into the projection of this manifest universe, evolved from the Unmanifest. So, among many things that were evolved, grosser things like the five elements—the earth, fire, air, water, ether—and the five different kinds of forces in nature took the form of the universe, and the mind-stuff, the universal mind-principle. As such, they entered into a study of mind in itself, the mind-principle as it was originally, not when it became a human mind, the finite mind, conditioned by personality. No. So they have this advantage—studying the mind as it was. They discovered certain basic features of the nature of the mind, and based upon this knowledge of the nature of mind, they formulated a system of overcoming it, mastering it. Basing the studies of this knowledge, they evolved a system of Yoga.

Firstly, that the mind-stuff by itself is centrifugal. It always goes out. Its tendency is extroverted, Bahirmukhatva. It is its first nature. Secondly, the inveterate nature of the mind-stuff is to get hold of name and form, of some objects. It cannot be by itself. It has always to assume the name and form of some object. This second inveterate nature of the mind is called objectification. They call it in Sanskrit as Vishayakara Vritti. It always takes the form or Akara of Vishaya or something. It has always to think of something. And the third inveterate tendency which Patanjali tells about the mind is that it does not stay content to assume the form of one thing and keep on to it. It has the inveterate tendency of constantly wanting to move from one thing to another. It cannot stick to one object, and so, Nanatva, multifariousness, the tendency of constantly jumping from one object to another. So, these are the three basic tendencies of the mind, outgoing tendencies of the mind. They are objectification, multiplicity and multifariousness. No wonder, endowed with these tendencies in the mind, you are totally deprived from the experience of the Self. Why? These three contradict the basic nature of your true reality, of the Self within. Because, the Self is the very innermost centre of your being from which the mind constantly draws the consciousness away, out.

Secondly, the Self is not an object of perception. It is the perceiver of all that is perceived. It is the Seer of all things that are seen. It is the Supreme Subject. It is that, that which is connoted by ‘I’, not of this or that, the very opposite of multifariousness. Mind, therefore, catching the consciousness of our human interior draws it forth outside. It revolves it in objects and scatters it among the many. Thus it effectively prevents the consciousness from moving within and resting in its original state as the unaffected, untouched, impartial Seer and finding its oneness, a total freedom and liberation from all distraction. So, this is the problem. Raja Yoga gives you this, stage by stage, methods of transforming the nature of the mind, and overcoming it. You see this duality. The Self is the innermost from within. The Self is the Supreme Subject and the Seer, and It is of the nature of non-dual consciousness. Mind is ever going outside, ever objectifying itself, thinking in terms of things and ever scattering itself amongst the countless objects of this universe. What are the disciplines and how Patanjali moves towards the successive solutions of these problems. It is a beautiful subject. We will take it up Monday night.

What are the various ways in which the mind manifests its activity of the outgoing nature? How to overcome them? What is the method or the discipline according to Patanjali? What are the obstacles to these methods? What are the different solutions to these obstacles? How to counter these obstacles and successfully enter into the state of Self-experience? That will be our subject of consideration for Monday evening.

Second Lecture

Value Of Raja Yoga

Beloved Immortal Soul! Radiant Atman! Greetings to you all again in the name of my holy Master Swami Sivananda. We had the first talk on Friday and this is the second talk. Before I make a review of what ground we covered on Friday, I would once again like to tell you that the specific motive with which I am speaking to you, the objective with which I give these classes, is not so much to provide you with an academic knowledge of the subject. That also, of course, you will acquire during the course of these talks. But, much more than that academic knowledge, you gain the greater purpose. The more important approach with which these talks are given, is that they may be able to help you fight now in overcoming some of the difficulties and problems you have in your life, in your own efforts to bring about a certain harmony and balance and equipoise within your own personality, in your efforts at acquiring certain degree of self-governance, certain degree of control over your own inner being, mind, its thoughts, its desires and its various tendencies, so that to that degree and extent to which you will apply the knowledge you will get during these talks, to that degree and extent, your life may become enriched, your life may gain something in terms of more clear understanding of what is going on within you. You may also be put into possession of certain fundamental truths, lacking the knowledge of which the individual is bound to come to grief again and again, is bound to be caught in the net of sorrow, suffering and grief, and gaining the knowledge of which one could definitely, to an appreciable degree, liberate oneself from avoidable suffering and grief. It won’t be either an exaggeration or a frivolous statement, if one said that to some extent, in some way, Raja Yoga enables the person to be one’s own psychiatrist, enables the person to one’s own psychological counsellor, so that he need not have to go to some one else to help him to overcome his problems. You become capable of helping yourself to overcome many of your problems. Because, the key of overcoming problems is understanding the problems. As long as you do not understand a problem in its proper light, you are confused. But once you understand, it becomes simple, it becomes clear. You are no longer confused. Your way is clear. You know what to do. This is the value of Raja Yoga. And more than anything else, the specific intention here is to put into your hands or into your possession certain facts, certain new information and basic knowledge about the inner dimension of your being. You can be helped here and now. It is pragmatic. It is practical.

The immediate intention of giving these talks is that you may be put into possession of a clear understanding of many of the new unclear areas of your own interior being, your mind and its activity. Therefore, I wish also that you will listen and try to attend to these talks in the same approach, looking it at the same angle—in what way it is going to help me? In what way I can make use of this knowledge? In what way I can apply it in my life immediately? Not merely have the satisfaction of feeling that now I know what Raja Yoga is, I have had an exposition of Patanjali’s Raja Yoga Sutras, and so, I have got some knowledge about the higher Yoga, not Hatha Yoga, but the inner Yoga. Now, it is not merely to give you this satisfaction, but more to provide you with a knowledge that can be applied immediately, and an understanding which will be of immense pragmatic value, and over and above that, to give you an academic knowledge of what this science tells you and what Yoga is. In this consideration, last time, we briefly touched upon some of the broad aspects of Yoga itself. What is the meaning of Yoga? What is the purpose of Yoga? What is the process of Yoga? How does it help man?

Yoga, The Essence Of World’s Religions

Yoga is the fundamental Universal essence of the world’s religions, isolated from its specific framework and presented in the most general terms so as to be acceptable to human beings all over the world, no matter what the religious belief or what particular faith one belongs to. Yoga does this by going to the innermost spiritual depth of man and by-passing the rituals and ceremonials, superstructure of practical religion. It has formulated and presented a method by which the spirit of the human individual can liberate itself from its involvement in matter and in the material world of sense-objects, its involvement in mind and the interplay of the mind-activities. The spirit is restored back to the pure experience of its Self in its positive, untouched state. We saw how the basic thesis of Yoga is that this innermost spiritual nature of yours is of the nature of Bliss, is of the nature of absolute, perfect joy. Once you are united into the pure experience of your pristine real nature, you are in a state of Bliss. All religions have as their ultimate aim, giving to man this highest experience of perfect Bliss. They call it beatitude, felicity; call it salvation, call it God-experience, call it heaven.

The aim of all religions is to show man the path beyond sorrow and pain, and to show him the way to Bliss, to show him the way to supreme Blessedness, a perfect experience of absolute joy. They are described variously in different theological terms and scriptural languages. But there is an essence of the aim of religion, and Yoga has merely done this great service to mankind and systematically taking him through certain definite processes. Whereas the religions have tried to give it in a generic way, Yoga has scientifically systematised these processes of going beyond sorrow and entering into a state of absolute perfection, Bliss. Yoga liberates our inner spiritual Consciousness from its bondage to the outer sense-world and restores it to its pristine state. This true Self-experience, Raja Yoga emphatically declares, based upon the personal experience of Seers. It emphatically declares that this Self is of the nature of absolute Bliss.

Yoga Is The Path To Bliss

Yoga is the path to Bliss. It is the essence of all religions, because the fundamental aim of all religions is to take man beyond sorrow to a state of supreme blessedness, of beatitude and perfection. Thus Yoga is a quest after the Eternal, the Permanent, the Infinite. That which hampers man’s effort to move towards this Bliss, is his involvement in the non-eternal, in the finite world of objects, in the impermanent, involvement in mind and body, in the way of experiencing Self-consciousness; and therefore, Yoga is the process of turning away from the non-eternal and diverting of the personality potential of consciousness towards the Eternal.

How Yoga does it? We saw that it takes the help of whatever powers that are available to you, the power to feel, the power to think and reason, and the power to concentrate or the power to fix your mind upon a particular object. When you invoke the power of reasoning and make that the channel of your movement towards the Eternal, then you are a Jnana Yogin, you are a philosopher, man of wisdom. When you make use of the power to feel and try to divert your consciousness through devotion, love for God, then you are a Bhakti Yogin or the follower of the path of devotion and love. When you invoke the power of the mind to think intensely, to focus itself steadily upon that one Reality and enter into a state of absorption in that continuous, unbroken, focusing your mind, fixing your mind there, then you become the follower of meditation. This is Raja Yoga.

Study Of The Human Mind

Western psychologists studied the human mind, the individualised mind of man. Whereas the formulators of Yoga Science based their science upon their knowledge of their mind as such, as one of the cosmic principle, mind as one of the factors that became manifested during the course of cosmic projection. When the Unmanifest becomes manifested, It assumed innumerable names and forms. One of the factors that came into manifestation is the mind-principle. That was the state in which it was studied, and based upon a knowledge of the mind-principle as such, we saw among other things, that the mind principle is characterised by the outgoing tendency, the objectifying tendency and multifariousness, constant fritting from one object to another. It never remains upon any single object. We saw how the inevitable tendency of the mind-stuff was the direct contradiction of the Self. Self is the innermost reality, whereas the mind is outgoing in its tendency.

The Task Before Yoga

The Self is of the nature of Supreme Bliss. It is not an object of conception. It is the Subject. Therefore, the constant objectifying tendency of the mind came in the way of the subject dwelling upon the Self—going back to its own inner pristine nature, original nature, original state of Consciousness, subjective state of Consciousness. The constant dispersal of the mind amongst the many, the multifarious objects, was the contradiction of Self-experience. Because, the Self is of the nature of non-dual Consciousness. It is one. It is the Universal Principle. It unifies all lives into one, homogeneous, non-dual oneness, unity. Fragmentation is the tendency of the mind. So, total reversal of the mind-nature in its constant manifestation in these activities, externalised modes of activities, constant objectification, constant assuming of names and forms, dwelling and acting in terms of names and forms, this oscillation and fickleness, has to be totally countered. They have to be overcome. They have to be blazed by the opposite. The mind has to be turned inward, and trained to remain as a subject, and also has to be made to focus itself upon one and not the many. This is the task before Yoga. As long as this state is not achieved, it is not possible to experience the Self. Because, when consciousness is involved in mental activity, it moves away from the Self, and consciousness involved in mental activity, itself becomes the basis of your earth-experience, your various mental states.

When the consciousness is thus involved in mental activities, you have joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain. Because, then you are caught in duality. The mind swings always from one object to the other. It is impossible to avoid it, as long as your consciousness is caught and held up within the mind-frame. Mind-activity and mind cannot be separated. Mind is what the mind does. When mind ceases to act, there is no mind. For, the entire range of human experiences is a question of activity of the mind. The moment the mental activity ceases, all activities come to an end. Therefore, they say there is no mind apart from thought. It is something which you have to reflect and try to grasp the subtle meaning of it. How do you know that when thoughts totally cease, there is no mind? Again, how do you know that when there is no mind, there is no experience?

Mind And Thought Are Inseparable

Both these questions are answered for you everyday, but you have not cared to perceive the answer. You have not cared to realise the significance of this answer. Is it possible for the mind to cease these activities, and if the activities cease, how do you know that all experiences also are put an end to? The answer to this comes to you not from outside but it springs up from within your own personal experience. This answer keeps on recurring to the human individual regularly, unfailingly in the cycle of 24 hours. And this deepest personal experience brings home to you the truth that mind is not apart from thought. There is no mind apart from thought. And by the cessation of thought for the time being, you overcome all experience, you cancel all experience. This experience is given to each human individual, every time during the total cessation of all his mental activity. You go into a state of deep sleep every night all the days of your life. When you enter into deep sleep, mental activity ceases so completely, to such an extent that even your self-awareness is no longer there. Your awareness of the universe, the world outside, is no longer there. You have no problems. You have no problems of either love or hatred. You have no problems either of anxiety or tension. You have no problems either of fear or worry. You have no problems either of bondage or any restrictions of your personal liberty. Because, the whole universe is cancelled, totally faded out of your experience, faded out of your consciousness, the moment you enter into deep sleep state. Because, that deep sleep state is characterised by the cessation of active thought.

The mind assumes the thought of nothingness. So the universe is annihilated and therefore, all experiences that come to the human being normally from the objects of the universe, from people, from sense-objects, are cancelled. Neither are you aware of yourself. You don’t know whether you are a man sleeping or a woman sleeping. You don’t know whether you are a child sleeping or an old person sleeping. You have no consciousness of human personality either; whether you are a god sleeping or a human being sleeping, you don’t know. There is a total silence. Is this condition consciously brought about? The unfortunate thing is that it is not consciously brought about. Some mysterious force pushes you into it, and the same mysterious force pushes you out of it again into the conflict of life.

The second defect in this wonderful state into which you go is that though it immediately liberates you from all worries, fear, anxiety, tension, love and hatred, passion and all these things, when you come out of this state the next day, you are no better than what you were before you went into it. You come back the same person with the same attitudes, with the same ignorance, with the same folly. You are no wiser, no better. Therefore, you are once again subjected to the same torments of all the past previous days and the future. That is the defect of this state. The science of yoga tells you clearly that this is also a mental condition.

The Value Of Sleep

Sleep also is a mental condition. Sleep also is one of the states of the mind, a state of entering into the holding on to the thought of nothingness. Otherwise, it would be perfect. If you are transformed into that condition, when you wake up, you wake up as a sage or a seer or a person of wisdom or illumination. Then it would be grand. But the value of this state is; that it answers your two questions. When thought ceases, mind is no longer present. Because, if the mind is present then you must be able to see the whole world. When the mind is active, it functions through the five senses. It hears, sees, tastes, touches and smells, and perceives the external universe. If the mind is active and present, you can say ‘I am’. In sleep you do not say ‘I am’. Even the awareness of one’s own self is annihilated. It is not there. Therefore, mind is absent when it ceases to function. When thoughts come to an end, mind is absent. It resurrects in the morning. But during the temporary state of sleep, there is a temporary annihilation of the mind. It sinks, it sets. There cannot be any mind apart from thought. There is no perception when thought-activity of the mind is annihilated or ceases to be. This is one answer you get and this answer gives you knowledge of your mind. And the second answer is that when thus with the cessation of thought, mind ceases to be, experience ceases, you are liberated from all experience. But that liberation is not permanent. That is the only flaw. But this valuable knowledge of the mind is gained, mind is not apart from thought. When thought ceases, all experiences are cancelled and this leaves the working ground for the practices of Yoga.

Mental Activity Hides Your Real Nature

If we can consciously overcome the activity of the mind and control it, master it and totally subdue it then we can rest in a permanent state where all experiences are overcome. They are negated, and in that state of a conscious cessation of mental processes, you can attain to a state of perfect peace, perfect rest, perfect silence. Thus when the state of absolute silence of the mind is attained, whatever is beyond the mind becomes manifest. It now prevails in a field of your experience. Consciousness becomes characterised not by the experience of mental state, but consciousness becomes characterised by the experience of the Self, your true Self. For, there is nothing to obstruct. There is nothing to bar it or prevent it. When consciousness is characterised by mental activity, this mental activity becomes, as it were, like a cloud in front of the sun. Sun is there. When the cloud comes in front of it, it cannot be seen. Light goes away. Shadow comes. Or, upon the surface of an absolutely placid lake, you can see the bottom, the pebbles at the bottom clearly. But, if the surface is agitated, if it is made into ripples, then you cannot perceive clearly the bed of the lake. In the same way, the inner basis of your being is your Self. That is the Reality. That is of the nature of peace and joy. But, if that which is covering it, if it is in a state of constant agitation, activity, the substratum cannot be seen clearly. It appears to be agitated also, because of its association with the covering medium, the mind. Mind is the agitator of the surface of the lake of human consciousness and this consciousness is a part of the Divine Consciousness and it is of the nature of Bliss. So, they entered into It through the study of different ways in which mind-activity is constantly kept up.

The Dynamics Of The Mind

What is this mind dynamism? They perceive that this mind dynamism, constantly characterised in the waking state of the human individual consciousness is basically, fundamentally fivefold. The moment you open your eyes, you see things. I put my hand; I immediately know cold or hot, whether it is soft or rough. The moment I open my eyes I see this wall whether it is grey, green, yellow, red or blue. The moment I listen, immediately I know, I begin to have knowledge whether I am hearing a motor car passing or a jet plane passing or some one speaking or a bird is cooing or leaves are shaking in the breeze. Mind is constantly, all the 24 hours, every moment of its waking consciousness, knowing things by seeing, by hearing, by tasting, by feeling and by smelling. So, this process of knowledge through perception is one of the inveterate continuous activities of the mind. This is simple. Later on, it is more complex also.

Secondly, another activity of the mind is wrong knowledge, perverted knowledge. This is also a knowledge, but you see it in a wrong way. You mistake a friend for an enemy, or mistake an enemy for a friend. It gives rise to various things. It gives rise to fright and wrong reaction. You mistake this external universe for something very permanent. You mistake it to be a likely source of your happiness. ‘I will be happy if I get this object’. ‘O, I am alone’. ‘I am unmarried’. ‘I have no companion’. ‘If only I have a nice partner, if I fall in love and had a wife, if I fall in love and had a husband, then I will be happy’. So think man and woman. And then tries to get the happiness which is lacking by going after objects. But, ultimately fails. My thought was one thing, but the fact is another thing. So marriage ends in divorce. ‘I have no children. So I don’t have happiness. All have children’. You go after children. You want children. You try to go to a doctor, consult some one and try to get blessings of a saint. And when the children come, perhaps they become the cause of great unhappiness, great anxiety, great sorrow. This is the case with every object.

There is delusion. We mistake impermanent things for permanent ones and go after them, and then when they come to an end, we are plunged in sorrow. It is like children getting delighted when you go to a fair and you get them a big balloon. They laugh, they rejoice, and after some time, when the balloon bursts, they start weeping. In the same way, the impermanent and the transitory are taken to be permanent and vainly one hopes for happiness from the impermanent. When it is suddenly destroyed, then happiness turns into misery. Because, you made a primary error, and that primary error was a perverted knowledge, wrong knowledge. Perception was not correct, was wrong knowledge. So, taking the unreal for the reality, and making one’s life a complete quest for happiness, will end in unhappiness.

Pleasure Mistaken For Happiness

Delusion is also a process of the mind. And this delusion is very peculiar. Without using the intelligence, without stopping to enquire, investigate and analyse, we take for granted certain things and make it the basis of our activity, and then we find ourselves in a very pitiable situation. How? We mistake pain for pleasure. If you go deeply into an analysis of this universe, you will suddenly discover that there is not one vestige of happiness or pleasure in this universe. Not even as a mustard seed. This entire universe, this outer phenomenal world contains not one vestige of real happiness. Analysis makes this perfectly clear to you. Pleasure is one thing, and happiness or joy is totally a different thing. The human being concludes wrongly, through delusion, that pleasure is the same as happiness or joy, and tries to be happy by attaining pleasure, but finds that pleasure does not bring joy. After all, what is pleasure? Pleasure is enjoyment of sense-object through one of the five senses, and all such experience which covers the entire range of so-called human experience, will be discovered to be mere gross, physical, biological phenomenon, biological process. If you analyse all experiences of sense-objects, they are either coming into contact of the eye with an object of sight, or coming into contact of the ear with an object of sound, or coming into contact of the sense of touch with a physical object or coming into contact of tongue, the sense of taste, with an object of taste, or coming into contact of the nose with an object of smell.

These go to make up the sense-experience of the human individual in this universe. Analyse this. What is this? This coming into contact with one or another of your five senses with its respective object, is purely an animal process. It is something duplicated in the life of every animal. This coming into contact of your sense with its respective object—when it comes into contact what happens? A certain message is sent from the sensory organ of yours to that particular sensory field through one terminal of a nerve network system. When you touch an object, a tactile nerve works and that conveys from counter sensory nerve an impulse into its respective brain centre and in the brain centre a certain irritation is created, a certain stimulation is there; and you perceive that I have touched something. If that particular nerve network is not functioning, it will mean nothing to you. This irritation, this stimulation brought about in that particular brain centre is interpreted by the mind in a particular way. Why? Due to previous memory. These senses have gone through previously these sense-experiences and so, in your computer of the mind they live. When the mind says ‘yes’, we call it pleasure, a pleasant sensation. If the mind says ‘no’ and rejects it, it is a painful sensation. That is pain. So with everything. If your eyes come into contact with some shape, form or colour, light rays are reflected on the retina, and the ocular nerve, optic nerve takes it to the respective brain centre of sight and immediately that brain centre is stimulated or there is a certain irritation in the brain centre and the mind which is the feeler of all these various stimulations interprets it either positively or negatively, ‘yes’ or ‘no’, and these can change also.

If at a particular period in your life, you like something, mind always says ‘yes’ to it. When later on, due to some bitter experience, you saw the evil effects of that, and that which you liked one time, you began to like no longer. Then the pattern of the mind and reaction became different. That which said ‘yes’ formerly, now says ‘no’. That which was pleasurable before, now becomes painful. You don’t want it. You don’t want to accept it. So, it is all a question of how your mind is conditioned, and thus the sum total of all objective experience of man, when analysed is proved to be nothing but a pure biological process of conveying of some sense-contact through a particular network of nerves to a specific centre in the brain and creating in the brain centre a certain stimulation which is purely objective depending upon some object. It cannot be joy. It cannot be a conscious subjective experience. It is not a state of mind at all. It is only a certain reaction in the mind to a certain external stimulant. And, therefore, to call it joy is a delusion. Call it pleasure and not joy. Pleasure is not happiness. Pleasure is a mere biological process. It is a gross sense-experience. But, humanity has been under this delusion so long, that it has become part of its spontaneous nature, has become natural. Take for granted that you have many objects and you possess them. If you feel you are secure and think they can make you happy, there cannot be a greater mistake. But this mistake is universal. It is taken to be correct, and man still obstinately, blindly pursues sense-experience in his quest after happiness. And the result is, it is predestined to fail.

Because, joy or happiness is at a higher level of your being. It is a state of Consciousness. It is a state of the mind. It is not a biological or a physical process. It has nothing to do with the nervous system. It has nothing to do with the brain. On the contrary, if you go deeply into an analysis you will recognise that the moment you give up this sense-urge, this continuous hunting after sense-experience, you suddenly begin to find that you have that joy, that happiness which hitherto you never had. So, the very giving up of this feverish pursuit after sense-experience becomes the condition, the prerequisite for coming into a state of contentment, joy and happiness. Even this so-called deluded concept of pleasure, if it is further expounded, if you try to analyse this experience, it will become clear to you that even this temporary sensation that is labelled pleasant for the time being, which is bringing you to a state of so-called happiness, is really no positive experience at all. It is only a temporary cessation of some type of pain.

For example, a person goes into a restaurant and has his lunch. He enjoys the lunch. He enjoys the dishes. He says it is a wonderful lunch. It gave him pleasure. But what was the actual state? What is the actual structure or anatomy of this experience he just had? He was hungry. And this hunger bothered him. It was a demand of a physical nature for food and it made him restless. Hunger was an uncomfortable experience, and as it began to grow and continued, he became restless. So, he did not want to continue it, prolong it. He could not tolerate it, and therefore he wished to put an end to this painful condition of hunger and the taking of the lunch brought about a cessation of the pain. How long? Till hunger starts once again, may be in the evening. So, the interval between two states of painful experience, when filled by a temporary stoppage of that state by some process, you label that process pleasure.

You are shivering in the cold, you get caught in the rain. Then some one invites you, takes away your coat, puts your legs in the basin of hot water, and gives you a hot cup of coffee. Now you put yourself in a warm blanket and you think you are enjoying a very comfortable state. But it is only that painful condition in which you were a moment before that has been cancelled by this, and that cessation of pain you take for positive experience. It is not positive experience at all. So those who have entered into an analysis of all sense-experience reach this discovery that what man labels as pleasure is nothing but an interval between two states of painful experience, just an intrigue interval. This is delusion. But the mind is constantly in this delusion.

And the fourth activity of the mind is, as we have just now seen, in sleep. That is also an obstacle. Because in the state of sleep, there is a total extinction of consciousness temporarily, and the Self is not realised. You are not aware of the bliss and joy of the Self. That is its defect. Otherwise, it is a perfect experience. If you try to evaluate it in terms of waking consciousness, sleep is a wonderful state, because it liberates you from everything. A beggar also attains the same state as an emperor or a multimillionaire attains. One who is poor, a beggar, nothing to eat—if he goes into deep sleep state, he is no different in experience than a multimillionaire who has gone into deep sleep state. But here, there is no awareness of the Self. It is the fourth mood or it is the fourth state the mind-activities assume.

The fifth state is the most bothersome of all. The constant perception of things is the process of knowledge; perverted knowledge is mistaking things temporary for the permanent, etc.; delusion is mistaking pain for pleasure, and thinking that if I possess things, I will be satisfied; and then sleep—these are the four activities which we have already seen.

The last activity is memory. Impressions of past experience are constantly coming into your mind. You can never overcome the past. You can never master the past. Constantly come thoughts of the past memories of previous experiences, whose impressions have already found lodged in your mind. They are constantly coming into your mind. And this is the fifth activity. All these five activities have to be overcome. You must be able to master your memory. You must be able to overcome sleep. You must be able to remove delusion. You must be able to convert perverted knowledge into right knowledge and you must be able to check and get into your control the ceaseless activity of perception and knowledge in the mind. Why? Because, it is directed to external world, towards the many. Therefore, it becomes an obstacle to go inward and rest upon the One, wherein alone lies fullness, wherein alone lies true satisfaction, wherein alone lies true happiness, wherein alone lies true experience of Bliss, wherein alone lies the true peace and which is to be had within yourself and not outside. Therefore, to overcome these activities, we have to find out the practices.

Dispassion And Withdrawal

First of all, Patanjali gives the practice in two words briefly and then he goes on to elaborate their details. He says this overcoming can be done firstly by developing dispassion towards all things, seen or unseen, all experiences which you see before you, which you have already undergone and which you might not have experienced but you have heard about them from others. Give up completely craving, desire and thirst for all experiences, seen as well as heard. Then you must constantly practise driving the mind, taking the mind inward, turning it away from outer sense-perception, and making it fixed upon the one inner objective. Why is this? Why did not Patanjali say merely continuous application and practice, that is the way to overcome the mind. Why did he tag into it dispassion or ceasing to thirst or desire after sense-experience? Because this is something which does not appeal to men. They ask: can we not practise Yoga and at the same time have our dancing and drinking and other pleasures also?

It is simple. If something has caught fire, you call the Fire Brigade and they are doing everything to put the fire down by pouring water. Then, when they are trying to put the fire out, logically, you cannot expect them to succeed if you are putting some petrol, oil and other things back into the fire. You have to withdraw all combustible material nearby. You must try to take them away. The fuel has to be withdrawn and you must make an attempt to extinguish the fire. If you make the attempt to extinguish the fire, and at the same time, go on supplying fresh material for burning, then you are working against yourself. So, as you are trying to overcome the propensity of the mind sense-ward, towards pleasures, towards sense-experience, you will have to help this process by withdrawing the fuel, not go on adding to the fire of craving fresh and fresh sense-enjoyment. Because, unfortunately, the mind is such an intricate and mysterious thing, the moment you provide it with a sense-experience, immediately it makes a photographic impression of the sensation, a lightning impression of the sense-experience, and this immediate, instantaneous impression becomes the basis of a further movement towards the self-same experience, just as the grooves that are in a gramophone record or an invisible impression created in a tape. Every sound that has been put into it has the power and the capacity to recreate the same sound at given condition. In the same way, every impression that finds enlodgement within the mind has the power, just as a seed has a power to recreate the entire tree out of itself. These impressions are not merely inert or static. They are alive. They are dynamic. They create in the mind a tendency towards the self-same experience. Therein lies the need to be careful regarding them. If you go on continuing sense-experience, you go on putting new impressions and the mind will always be in a state of sense-oriented activity. Because, these impressions are constantly being freshly put in. So, while you are trying to annihilate the experience already created, you have to simultaneously put a stop for the inflow of fresh experiences, fresh impressions which are called ‘Samskaras’ in Sanskrit.

So, this putting a stop to fresh experiences and impressions is called Vairagya or turning away from a passionate longing for sense-experience, a craving for sense-experience, a thirsting after sense experience, and it is called dispassion. So, simultaneously, there should be an effort and practice to concentrate, turn the mind inward, at the same time, withdraw the senses from the sense-objects, withdraw the mind from the senses and withdraw yourself even from the mind. There should be then three-way (triple) withdrawal. As far as possible, let not the senses go towards the sense-objects.

Secondly, even if the senses are amidst sense-objects, let not the mind go towards sense-objects in order to enjoy it or experience it. And even if sometimes, the mind through force of habit goes, you separate from it and say: “No, now I am in quest of something greater, something infinitely grand. So I will not go for the passing petty. I will not go for the little. I want that which is complete, the whole and that will give me eternal satisfaction. Therefore, I refuse to link myself with the mind and move towards the senses and go towards the objects.” You withdraw yourself from the mind and the senses.

In this way, Patanjali formulates a ceaseless turning away from desire, turning away from sense-objects and sense-experience. A ceaseless pursuit of practice with regularity, with persistence and with intensity is required. The means employed also should be intense. In this way, if you persist in this practice continuously, with keen interest, you will attain success.

You have to be interested in yourself. I cannot be interested and give you highest welfare. Someone else cannot be interested to give you highest joy. You have to be interested in yourself. Therefore, with keen interest, you persist in this effort and continuously carry on over a long period of time. Success is certain. That is the declaration of Yoga in and through Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras.

Today, in as much as last night, I conclude my talk. We will take up the different means suggested for succeeding in the attempt to overcome the mental activities in the form of right knowledge through perception, wrong knowledge or perverted knowledge, delusion about the real state of things, sleep and memory. In what way one can succeed through different practices, and one can attain a peaceful and serene state of mind? That we will take up next time.

Third Lecture

Mind And Its Activity

Radiant Immortal Atman! Beloved seekers after the Divine!

To refresh your memories, I shall just very briefly sum up in a very few sentences the ground covered last Monday. Continuing from the very first talk on Friday, the 13th April, we considered initially, the very basic nature of the mind-principle which was seen to be outgoing in its nature. We later observed that how this outward movement of the mind-stuff was responsible for man’s involvement in matter, soul’s involvement, enmeshing itself in fluctuating and unstable, universal process which we call the world.

After this, we saw how this involvement is phenomenal in the changeful, the passing and the perishable. This involvement has alienated the pure Consciousness from its original centre, or in other words from its pristine state of experience of peace and joy. We also saw how all human experience is due to this activity which on one side involved you in the phenomenon and simultaneously deprived you of self-experience. This mental activity was seen to be the very basic of all human experiences. We try to bring home, this central fact of philosophy, by drawing attention to the universally observed experience of the human being, each day, day after day, throughout life, namely, the disappearance of the world, disappearance of all things seen, with the cessation of mind-activity every night when you enter into deep sleep. So, this is a universally uncontradicted experience of human beings throughout their life.

But the deep significance of it has never been pondered. No one paid attention to it. No one pays attention to the sun. He rises every morning. One of the grandest, beautiful and sublime things, but no one has got an eye for it. Taking for granted, in the same way, this vital experience brings you this startling truth that the world-experience is no other than mental activity. It has no other basis than mental activity. If there is mental activity, world is before you. The moment mental activity ceases completely, world also disappears, your own body disappears, your identity also disappears. When you are in deep sleep, you don’t know whether you are a human being or an animal, male or female, old or young, rich or poor, learned or ignorant, Occidental or Oriental. All awareness of one’s own being in the relative sense of the term, is totally merged and drowned. The universe and yourself both disappear and you experience this annihilation of yourself and recognition. Simultaneously, you also experience that from that moment of your emerging into waking state, some faculty of your mind restarting again its activities, and from that moment the reality of the world stands before you. You also attain once again your self-awareness. So, with the mind, the world and your ego-consciousness rise and set. When the mind sinks in the oblivion of sleep, your own ego-consciousness also sinks and sets and the world also sinks.

And with the rising again of mental activity once again, the world emerges before you, stands before you. You perceive it. You are also aware of yourself. So, this very significant personality of being was pondered. Universal experience of all human beings throughout life vividly brings out before us the fact that the basis of all human experience, all phenomenal perceptions, is mental activity. And therefore, involvement in this experience, in this phenomenal perception, being the factors that deprived you of Self-realisation or Self-awareness, naturally mind-activity seems to be the basis of your involvement. In that basis of your involvement, or in other words, in the basis of your Samsara is the root-cause for the non-perception of the Self within. This activity manifests itself in the form of various perceptual processes; and the subdual of these perceptual processes was, therefore, defined as Yoga.

Chittavritti (mental modifications) manifests itself in the form of waves of perceptive processes. In our previous class, we saw how these perceptual processes take various forms. Every moment, we are gaining this knowledge, direct knowledge by seeing through the eyes, by smelling through the nose, by hearing through the ears, by tasting through the tongue and by touching through the hands. So in this way, we keep on gathering knowledge of the universe around us, direct knowledge through sense-perception.

Secondly, we have perverted, wrong perception also. What the eye sees is not always correct. We receive wrongly-perverted knowledge. Perverted knowledge is mistaking one thing for another thing, mistaking pleasure for happiness, mistaking the very source of pain, i.e., sense-objects which constantly keep the mind in agitation. We think, we will find pleasure in them. We think we will find happiness in them. So, our idea is that if we obtain things and possess them and experience them, we will be happy. Because, we don’t have things, we do not possess them and we cannot experience them, we are unhappy. This is the peculiar idea of the mind, wrong emotion of the mind. In the Bhagavad-Gita, the entire range of such experiences brought about by a particular sense-organ coming into contact with its respective sense-object, is depicted beautifully. All such experiences brought about by contact of the senses with sense-objects were characterised by Lord Krishna, the great teacher of Gita, as the source of pain.

“O Arjuna, all these experiences, pleasurable experiences brought about by the contact of the senses with their respective sense-objects—these experiences are the sources of pain. The wise do not take delight in such pleasurable experiences. Because, they know that in the beginning they give a little satisfaction, later on they bring about pain, they bring about sorrow, bring about misery. Therefore, the wise shun them. They recognise such experiences to be ultimately the cause of pain, sorrow and suffering. Therefore, they do not take delight in it.” Thus, Krishna characterised all pleasurable experiences brought about by contacting sense-objects as pain, not pleasure.

But yet, by and large, the vast majority of human beings have the idea that we shall be happy if we manage to obtain objects of our desire. So, this is perverted knowledge, contradicting all human experience. But man refuses to learn. Mind will not allow him to learn. Again and again, he is disillusioned and he thinks: “May be next time, I will obtain happiness.” Even when it is painful, he says always ‘next time’, and the Guru of Swami Vivekananda, the great sage of Dakshinesvar, Sri Ramakrishna has described this in a quaint village analogy.

The Parable Of A Camel

Even now, in certain parts of India, where the climate is not so cold, camels are used as draft animals. They draw carts, take loads and transport goods. May be not so prevalent as in Arabia, but still it is there. Observing their habits, Sri Ramakrishna said: “Such is the nature of the vast majority of human beings; again and again, they go towards sense-objects, expecting happiness and joy from them. Instead of happiness and joy, they only get pain and suffering. But still, such is the nature of man that in spite of being disillusioned again and again, he goes towards these objects.” And, he described: “In deserts these camels go and nibble thorny plants (in most of the deserts, the plants are thorny) and thorns prick their lips and even injure them, and they even cause bleeding but yet the camels do not leave these plants. Though bleeding, they still persist in eating these plants.” He says such is the nature of man. He gets suffering when he runs after perishable objects and yet he will persist in going after these. It is perverted knowledge. Delusion is taking appearances for reality, being unable to perceive reality behind appearances due to lack of discrimination, lack of proper enquiry. This is another mood in which the mind is constantly operating, expressing itself active.

The State Of Sleep

The fourth is sleep state. That is also a mood of the mind. It is a Vritti. When you are tired from all this continuous process of perceiving the world, coming into contact with it, moving with people, reacting to environment and situation, when you are tired, then a time comes when the mind does not want it and the mind wants to go into a state which is characterised by the absence of these perceptions. So, when there is in the mind the desire to be free from mental processes, it is said that the mind catches on to a desire or thought of nothing. So, this Vritti is the spontaneous, innate desire of the mind to hold on to nothingness, hold on to a thoughtless state. When the desire comes, the tired personality wants to sleep.

Memory

The fifth mood with which the mind operates, is the activity of the mind which expresses itself, manifests itself as your knowing in the form of memory, all past things inside. Specially, the memory troubles a great deal either when you are alone or not engaged, not actively occupied. When your mind is not directed and is doing nothing, then what happens is, you brood over the past. The past things start coming into the mind and they cause distraction. You have all heard the expression ‘wool-gathering’, and especially is this mentioned here. Quite apart from the universal habit of wool-gathering or brooding over the past, it is very very bad with you, because, it creates various moods in the mind. If you have been hurt by people or things, then resentment comes, or it takes you over things which have been painful to you, which have been sorrowful—partings, deaths, bereavements, failures—then you go into a sorrowful state. Even otherwise, you go into a state of dejection, when the mind dwells upon all that you desired but could not obtain. Your failures, your frustrations make your mind dejected. So, various mental moods are thrown up by unnecessary and avoidable memory.

Therefore, the masters always instruct or advise spiritual seekers never to be without some occupation. Therefore, keep yourself engaged. If you cannot meditate or study or worship, then do some physical exercise, gardening, service to the poor and the sick. Some sort of occupation should always be there. Mind should never be without occupation or activity. Otherwise, it falls back into unnecessary dwelling upon the past and then have all its negative reactions upon the mind. The specific period when memory becomes a most troublesome activity of the mind is, when you want to meditate, when you close the avenue of senses and sit at one place. Don’t go here and there, close your eyes and fix your mind on the object of your concentration. There is no distraction from the outer world because you have closed yourself from the outer world. But then, the submerged impressions of the previous experiences in the form of memory work great havoc in the mind. These are the five moods that Vrittis express themselves. That is, mind-modifications actively fill the mind and these, therefore, are the different moods and activities of the mind which you have to tackle, which you have to deal with. You have to try to bring it into your control, subdue and master. So, it is very much the area in which the student of Raja Yoga is concerned. For over coming these little modifications, success in concentration is very essential; and the means suggested by Patanjali Maharshi are twofold. Here, we have a very interesting, noteworthy parallel to the Gita. Identical words are used and they are ‘Abhyasa’ and ‘Vairagya’ (practice and dispassion).

Abhyasa And Vairagya (Practice And Dispassion)

In our previous lecture, we concluded briefly upon practice and dispassion. Practice, you all can understand. Nothing comes unless we practise. While in the process of subduing and effacing the mind-impressions which have already been gathered, if you are constantly running after sense-pleasures and putting into the mind more and more impressions, then it will be a never-ending process. Here you are trying to wipe them out, keeping up the perennial supply of new impressions to your mind. I gave you the analogy of how to put out a fire—while you are trying to put the fire out, at the same time you will have to withdraw the fuel. Instead of that, while you try to put out the fire, if you go on putting more combustible materials into the fire, then you are fighting against yourself. You will not be able to succeed in it. In the same way, if you want to put out the blaze of the constant mental activity and various modifications, while you are engaged in doing it, you must also wisely see that you don’t add fresh fuel to this mental activity. So, the need to support the practice by self-control, dispassion (non-attachment), turning away from cravings for the passing things. This is a twofold inseparable Sadhana, Vairagya and Abhyasa (non-attachment or dispassion and constant practice).

Patanjali has a word to say about how practice shall be, if it should be successful. The practice should be over a long period of time, carried on continuously in an unbroken way, with keen interest in it. You must evince keen interest. You should not do Sadhana (practice) by fits. You start vigorous Sadhana for a few weeks, but afterwards something happens; for two or three days no Sadhana, you could not do anything and then you give it up for two or three months, then nothing. Then, you read some magazine or listen to some inspired talk; again take up, barely for some time. This kind of Sadhana is no good. Even if you do little, do it continuously, without break. Unfailing regularity is important. Patanjali Yoga Sutras say that practice becomes steady and successful, if it is over a long period of time, continuously. The practice should be unbroken and carried on for a long period of time. You should have a keen interest and your Sadhana should be supported by Vairagya (dispassion). Then alone you will attain success.

This was a method also suggested by Lord Krishna in the Gita, when He instructed Arjuna, on the process of Yoga, in the sixth chapter. After listening to the Sadhana or spiritual practice outlined by Lord Krishna, Arjuna says: “It is very nice for you to describe it, but I think it is of no use to me, because I believe that the mind is so absolutely uncontrollable, so completely full of Rajas that one may very well be able to control the wind, the waves of the sea, but not the mind. It is impossible. So, what is the use of describing Yoga to me!” When Arjuna responds in this way, in a very negative way to Lord Krishna’s description of Yoga, Krishna gives a very significant reply. He does not contradict Arjuna. He doesn’t say mind is very easy to control.

We have many teachers who say this. They may be shrewd psychologists, I admit. May be, they don’t want to frighten people, likely seekers, saying that the mind is very, very difficult to control, right from the beginning. So, if you say it is very easy, at least man starts. But overdoing this also is unfair. Because, with much eagerness and with much expectation, some of the seekers will come, they will do the techniques for some time, after some time they get spectacular effect to some extent, and afterwards there they get stuck. Nothing further comes out of it. They lose all faith. They will never afterwards take it up. They will say: “We have only been duped, nothing can come out of it.” So, via media is better. Be realistic. The mind is very difficult to control. It is not an easy joke. At the same time, it is possible if you regularly practise. Don’t be discouraged. It is possible. Many have succeeded. Go on practising without giving it up. And one day you will reach the Goal. In this way, it is better not to conceal the fact. But do not give frightening exaggeration. If you hear the statements of some masters of Yoga in India about the mind, you will never practise Yoga. You will give it up.

It is easier to drink the ocean in the palm of your hand, it is easier to fly in the air, it is easier to pierce a diamond with a filament of a flower, it is easy to catch hold and restrain a mad elephant with a spider’s web it is easier to make the fire burn downward, it is easier to catch hold of a lion or a tiger and milk it, but it is not easy to control the mind. All these can be done. But it is not an easy task to bring the mind under your control. Such are the ways or words in which they describe the super-human task of controlling the mind, but yet at the same time, they never said it is impossible—precisely as the great Master Krishna says. He agrees with Arjuna: “Yes, Arjuna! You are right. Difficult it is to control the mind. I agree, but you are wrong when you say that it is impossible to control the mind. I firmly assure you, and emphatically declare that it is possible for you to control the mind.” And uses precisely the same words of Patanjali.

The Different Grades Of Concentration

He says: ‘By regular practice and through dispassion.’ How practice has to be? How dispassion has to be? It should be based upon discrimination, not merely an emotional upsurge, not merely a sentiment. By hearing some fiery sermon, immediately you conceive dispassion—‘No, I will give up everything, I will shave off my hair.’ You go to extremes, just upon an emotional upsurge. Seeing the cinema of the life of St. Francis of Assisi or some other saint, immediately next day, you start wanting to give up everything. Extremes should not be done. All extremes should be avoided. Dispassion becomes the outcome of reflecting upon the real nature of the world or enquiring the real nature of things and by association with the seekers and Sadhakas, and your own gradual understanding. Then, that dispassion becomes real. Now, the result of such concentration will ultimately be the study of the mind, having known its nature, having known the connection between world-experience and mental activity. Thus understanding the basis of Yoga, launch yourself upon the practice with dispassion and continued practice and concentration in the mind, subduing all the mental activities. If through such application, you succeed in attaining progressive states of concentration, what happens to you. What all the different states of concentration you reach? And what is the consequence of it? What experience you gain?—become the subject of Patanjali.

In the next few Sutras Patanjali says that these states of inner concentration which the seeker obtains are supported by dispassion, when he carries on his practice vigorously with keen interest. The states are classified into varieties and he commences by giving us the description of one variety of this intense inner concentration, a state which he characterises or terms as Samadhi—trance. And one kind of this type of intense, inner concentration, trance, is what is known as the Cognitive Trance. It is by concentrating on one object, cognising one object and concentrating upon it, various inner experiences are brought about. You reach various states of inner concentration. One state is when you concentrate upon the object as it appears to you. So it can be upon any object. You concentrate inwards, a consideration as the object presents itself to your mind through the different senses. For instance, the table, I can see it, at the same time I can touch it. Two senses are involved in my perception of a table. More than two senses also can be involved, three or four senses also can be involved. When a person eats a thing, it comes into contact with the lips, tongue and palate. So there is a contact and at the same time, you taste it and the aroma of it also is experienced. In this way, as an object presents itself to your mind, you concentrate upon it and gain an intense state of unified thought focused upon that object. All other thoughts are kept away. So, you get absorbed in the focusing and that intense state of absorption in concentrating upon an object as it presents itself to you, is the first state where you try to gain knowledge of all aspects of that thing. What it is to you? How it presents itself? How it appears to you? So, it is accompanied by a philosophical enquiry, or an examination of that object from all angles, from all aspects.

Then, this same concentration can now switch on into another dimension. Start focusing upon the inner implications of that object, the very essence of the object, instead of the object as it presents itself to you to the senses, the object as you are understanding. You go deeper into the very essence, the very nature of the object. What it is useful for? How it came into being? What is its place in the universe, in what way you are related to it and in what way it is related to you—concentration on an object in depth, the subtler and inner aspect of it, the essence of the thing, not in its appearance. Here, there is discrimination between the outer appearance of the object and the subtle inner nature of the object. This concentration, this state is accompanied by discrimination, Vichara. Vichara is subtler and inner. It is more meditative in its nature.

Thirdly, the concentration which you thus carry on, may move now from the object to the very process of perceiving and concentrating upon the object. So, now the concentration actually moves into the area of the mind itself. Who is doing this perception? Who is doing this focusing? Who is doing this concentration or examination of the object? The mind. So, this mind-process, perceptual process of the mind, becomes now the object of your concentration. And as you were absorbed in the object, you now begin to focus the attention upon the process of being focused upon the object, upon the process of being absorbed in the object. So the mental process becomes the object of your concentration. More subtle, more inward, and gradually turning towards the subject, in its depth. Concentration is much deeper and your being is freed from the bondage of the object. Now, this concentration frees you from the impact of the object or your reaction to it, your feelings towards it. Therefore, this sense of being forced from the objective world to the Cognitive Perception gives you a sense of elation, a sense of joy. Every kind of freedom, every step you move towards a liberated state, is always characterised by enhanced joy. So, in this state of concentration where the mind is taken away from the shackles of an object for its support and moves into the area of activity itself, the object of attention, it is accompanied by a subtler feeling of joy. This concentration is accompanied not by examination of the details of an object, not even by an entering into discrimination or enquiry into the real nature of an object, but by a feeling of joy.

The fourth form of the intense inner concentration takes you inward from even the observation of the mental perception, and focuses your attention on yourself, as distinct from the mental perceptional process, from the inner essence of the object to which it was directed to, and even from the appearance of the object itself. So, the object is given up and even the essential nature, subtle nature of the object is given up and even the concentration or focusing yourself upon the perceptual process is given up. You focus your attention merely upon you who are the seer of those things, you who are the subject, who are carrying on this process. You remain aware as the subject, as distinct from even the perceptual process and the object originally concentrated upon. Here, it is the innermost state, you are aware of yourself only as the seeing subject, the meditator, but then this ‘I’ upon which the mind is now focused, is not yet the universal Consciousness. It is not the pure Consciousness. Yet it is the individualised consciousness. These are the four ways or the four aspects which concentration upon an object can take. Intensified state of consciousness is a distinct progress in the practice of Yoga. It is a great deal of progress in concentration. It is successful concentration.

Now apart from this, there is another state of deep, intense concentration inward, where no object is your focal point. The focal point is entirely inside. The mind is completely tuned within and there is an absence of any object in the focal point of your attention and thought-flow. The mind contact in its inner submerged state, that alone is there in the field of your attention. That is the Chitta, the subconscious. The various Samskaras alone remain. There is no outer object as a focal point, but only the inner content of the mind. This is much more subtle, much more inner. When the mind is absorbed into itself, it is called the higher process. The other state of concentration is far more subtler, inward and subjective and has nothing as its objective, rather has the inner mind content only, by keeping out all objective thoughts through the checking of thought-waves by continuous non-attachment or dispassion in the true spiritual aspirant. How this inner state of intense concentration is achieved? How does one achieve progress in two types of concentration upon an object, in its four aspects, and concentration upon no object but upon the mind, upon the inner content of the mind itself? By faith.

Faith Brings Progress

First of all, the aspirant must have intense faith in the Yoga he practises and the goal to which he is moving, and in the validity of the process which he is adapting. Faith grows and develops by associating with similar seekers. If we associate with people of other types, hedonists, materialists, people who have no faith in the higher life or anything, whatever little faith you have, you would lose it. Therefore, you must carefully protect this spiritual Samskara. It becomes necessary to avoid the company of those who scoff at these things or make fun of these things. For, they have no belief in these. Therefore, the spiritual aspirant has to be selective. He should mix only with seekers. A spiritual aspirant has to be selective in choosing his company. He must try to move among such company who have similar ideal and aspiration, who are also moving towards the self-same experience, believing in the goal which he believes in and who have faith in the higher values of life. The more faith you have, the greater energy you get in your pursuit and your practice is backed up by energy. If you want to do vigorous practice, then have intense faith. The degree of faith decides the intensity of your practice.

You must read books which bring out the experiences of other seekers who have trodden the path, covered this area and attained the goal. And this testimony increases your faith. Company of holy people, meeting saints actually, reading the lives of saints, Yogic Masters who have trodden the path and attained illumination. There you find the sublime character of their personal life and their experiences. At the same time, if you can get the opportunity of coming into direct contact with people who are rooted in that experience, that is of course, the best of all things. The company of seekers of your own sort and your energetic practices with faith will gradually bring about certain stability in your mind. Gradually the dissipated and distracted mind which was scattered among multifarious things, begins to get ingathered. So, gradually the mind now gets the tendency of not wanting to get distracted, it would give attention only to things which are necessary and not to unnecessary things.

Miscellaneous thoughts now gradually become distasteful to the mind. So the mind gets collected. It is called recollectedness. When you reach the state of recollectedness of the mind, naturally the tendency of the mind becomes more and more absorbed in the object of concentration. It becomes spontaneous inclination of the mind to get absorbed and through this absorption you attain illumination. So, success in concentration in the true spiritual aspirant comes as a result of faith. The energy gained through such faith, the recollectedness results from such energetic practice and the absorption to which one is led by such recollectedness, takes one ultimately to illumination.

These then are the factors that go to bring about successful concentration in a true spiritual aspirant. Sage Patanjali uses the words ‘true spiritual aspirant’, because people may approach Yoga ostensibly for realisation, but their real quest may be for the wonderful powers that are described in the books on Yoga. You can do this, you can do that. Many people attracted by these great powers, may take to the practice of Yoga and get the powers, but they will not get illumination. So, Patanjali makes a distinction between people who take to Yoga for lesser ends and the true spiritual aspirant who is the seeker after God-experience or Illumination. In him, naturally, there will be all these five factors. Faith is the bliss. Faith, energy, recollectedness, absorption—all these factors lead to Illumination.

Now, Patanjali brings us to a consideration of some very practical things. When one launches forth into such seeking, in spite of all equipments such as sincerity, earnestness and all that, obstacles come on the way to progress. Obstacles are numerous. They may differ from person to person. But some of the general obstacles are likely to come to most persons. Because, they are common to man as an embodied being with a mind and its mischief. He lists a certain number of obstacles and gives us very practical methods of dealing with them successfully and overcoming them. The basic obstacle is sickness. Sickness comes through lack of self-control and self-control can come only by discipline.

The Importance Of Hatha Yoga

If there is no discipline in life, one cannot have self-control and it is in this connection that Hatha Yoga becomes very relevant, of very great importance to all people who wish to enter into the inner Yoga, Raja Yoga and meditation. Hatha Yoga has a direct effect in giving you an increased state of health. It is because of these reasons that Hatha Yoga gained much importance. As you know, each particular Asana in Hatha Yoga has an effect on some particular part of your inner machinery, inner mechanism. Some have beneficial effect on the heart. Some have beneficial effect on the lungs, beneficial effect on the brain, beneficial effect on the nervous system and some have beneficial effect upon the autonomous nervous system kept along the spinal column. Some have beneficial effect upon liver, spleen and pancreas. In this way, the respiratory system, the circulatory system, the digestive system, etc., stand to gain positive, immediate and direct benefit by different Asanas of Hatha Yoga. So, real health comes due to a regular practice of Hatha Yoga in the spiritual path. Secondly, Hatha Yogic exercises like Asanas, Mudras, Bandhas, have a special connection with relation to the three Gunas in the human system, physical and mental.

So, Hatha Yoga has the unfailing effect as no other system of psycho-physical culture in the world has. It has the unfailing effect of gradually eliminating Tamas from the human system, human nature, and effectively controlling, giving you control over the Rajas and increasing Sattva. There is no known means of increasing Sattva and eliminating Tamas as effective as Hatha Yoga. Of course diet-control, Sattvic diet, keeping company with Sattvic people, no doubt, will bring you certain amount of Sattva but Hatha Yoga is an effective unfailing technique. It is scientific. Hatha Yoga helps you gradually putting Tamas under your control and increasing Sattva steadily and progressively, and through this comes self-control. It is a marvel. It is a state of discipline.

Hatha Yoga is the system of discipline or training. If the senses are not coming under your control, if they are turbulent, uncontrollable, then you put yourself through a period of Hatha Yogic training, you will begin to find that you are able to control the senses.

Obstacles In The Path Of Yoga

What is the secret? The senses are turbulent because of too much of Rajo Guna, and you are unable to control because you are too much Tamasic. Tamas makes your will weak. You cannot control it. If Sattva increases will power increases. Simultaneously, when Rajo-Guna also is subdued then you are able to control the senses. So, here sickness can be overcome by Hatha Yoga. Moderation in diet, regularity in habits, eating, drinking, sleeping, going to bed, regularity of life, all these will help you to overcome sickness. Then indolence is another obstacle. Mental indolence, postponing habits, unwillingness to do things immediately when it is to be done—all these obstacles hamper one’s progress in the path of Yoga.

In this context, we have to warn all young people of this age, this unfortunate generation, that one of the greatest dangers is getting addicted. All drugs will completely bring about a breakdown in the vigour of the mind and the will-power. Any narcotic has a befiddling effect on the mind and makes one lazy. The will to do a thing immediately goes away. One becomes indifferent. That is the great danger of all the narcotics that befiddle the alertness of the mind, not knowing the connection between will and drugs. You see vast majority of unfortunate young people of this generation are putting themselves to a position of danger which will retard evolution in every way, under any direction.

Vigorous habits are to be trained. These obstacles have to be overcome. Indolence and half-heartedness have to be overcome by faith. You do meditation for little time, some technique you practise, afterwards you reach a state of mindlessness, or you begin to feel some sort of an inner silence. You think, ‘I have attained Samadhi,’ and then, afterwards you don’t want to listen to anyone at all. This is a wrong notion. Already you think that you have attained something, but you are nowhere near it. This false notion is a very terrible obstacle in the path of Sadhana. Despair by failure to succeed in concentration, is another obstacle. You go on trying and you don’t succeed; and afterwards what happens is that you become hopeless and think that in this life you will not succeed. This is a very great obstacle.

These are all things which bring about a state of dejection. How to overcome these? You may have all these obstacles. You may have one, or you may have some. How to overcome them? There is only one way. You must understand here, all these obstacles are put up before you by the mind. Indolence, despair, half-heartedness, dejection—they are all moods of the mind, the mind again playing its game. Therefore, you must be alert. You have understood that entire world-experience is based upon mind-activity. Even all these obstacles now put into your way—they are also parts of the mind only. Therefore, there is only one way of overcoming them. Take up some particular object and stick to it with leach-like tenacity and don’t give it up. It may bring about dejection, hopelessness and procrastination. Don’t listen to it. Be at it vigorously, stick to one thing. Stick to it with leach-like tenacity and go on practising: Come what may ‘Men may come and men may go but I go on for ever’—in this way, stick to it. Don’t leave it. This is called Ekatattva Abhyasa—taking up one thing and sticking to it like a leech.

Secondly, transform mental attitudes. These various things are brought about by our association in this world. Many a time, mind is upset and perturbed by our association with people and our daily dealing with people and our environment. Have a transformed attitude. Keep the mind always pleased. Keep the mind always calm and always peaceful. This is the secret of overcoming obstacles of the mind. Patanjali says: ‘Be always cheerful’.

How To Overcome Obstacles

Don’t be dejected yourself. Whenever you see anyone happy you also rejoice. Be joyful at the happiness of others. And be moved with sympathy and compassion at the pain and suffering of others. Be elated when you see goodness and virtue in others, instead of being upset. ‘What a wonderful person he is! I will also be able to attain that state.’ See when you compare with someone very very good, very very noble, you feel how unworthy you are. This is another way of overcoming the obstacles and having a fresh vigour and interest in your Sadhana.

Trataka is gazing upon a candle-flame or gazing upon a spot. This is one type of concentration which very easily brings you some spiritual experience within a short time, even after a month of concentration you begin to see lights. You gaze at it for some time, afterwards you would be able to visualise it in the sky, much expanded in form. Or, close your eyes and you can see it even with closed eyes. In this way, it suddenly thrills you with the ability to do things which you never thought you are capable of doing, something unusual, something novel, and this is also an encouragement.

Suppose you are concentrating on the tip of the nose. If your concentration is very regular, what will happen within a short time, in a couple of months? You begin to smell some wonderful fragrance. So, there are some special types of concentration which bring about immediate result and this novel experience becomes a food to the aspirant. It is very encouraging. You may also meditate upon inner lights. Feel that the Light of lights, the supreme light of God, the ray of Divine Light is here in this heart-shrine, and meditation upon that Light becomes a very elevating process. Or, you may take for your object of meditation, some illumined master, great saints, souls who have already reached perfection. Meditating upon them inspires you. It gives you great uplift in the heart and also some progress comes. You become filled with keen sense of elation and you want to become like them.

The fourth very important result of this meditation is, the more you meditate upon these ideal beings, some of their qualities begin to flow into your nature. It may be the form of a deity; it may the form of some great saint. You can also meditate upon the dream or sleep experience. If you meditate upon your being, gradually you will see the dream-like nature of the outer world. Outer world ceases to trouble you. As you meditate upon the dream and sleep states, you begin to find out why I call this dream state and sleep state as false and unreal. Why? Just because upon waking up, they become contradicted. Therefore, I say, they are not real. But is it not the same about the waking state? When I am in the dream state or in the state of deep sleep, the waking universe is not, and experiences are contradicted. So, the mere basis of one state being contradicted by another state is sufficient to dub it as unreal and false, why not apply the same rule to the other states also? The moment you go to sleep, the waking state is contradicted. When I am in dream state, the waking state is contradicted. So, why should I not say that the waking state is false, is unreal? Be fair. Apply the same criterion, the same standard for both. If you say that the waking state is real and the other two states unreal, the waking state disappears in the other two states, and I therefore say that the waking state is also unreal. Because, when I go into deep sleep state, the waking and dream states disappear: Why this double standards?

In this way, meditating upon sleep and dream states gradually frees you from the bondage of waking state experience of names and forms. And many of the obstacles based upon the outer waking world—those obstacles are to be overcome. Patanjali is so universal, that he says, ultimately, you may successfully meditate upon any object or any form which is very pleasing to you and which attracts the mind spontaneously. The mind is willing and happy to fix it upon itself. These are the various ways to overcome the obstacles and achieve a state of intense inward concentration. I close by mentioning one more very important thing.

Patanjali says that by devotion to God, all the obstacles to concentration can be overcome. And also, one can succeed in attaining inner concentration, by devotion to God. And who is that God? Patanjali says, He is the Supreme Being, who is beyond the bondage of the world-processes, who is characterised by Wisdom and Knowledge, who has no ignorance, no imperfection in Him. He is not bound by any law and is the all-perfect Being, infinite in His Wisdom and the Original Master of all masters, the great Universal Master beyond all masters. If you have devotion to Him, you will succeed in Yoga. How to express and practise that devotion to Him? It is by taking His Name and simultaneously meditating upon the meaning of the Name, or anything that pleases your mind most.

Om is the symbol. So, here Patanjali does not concern himself with any of those various aspects of Hindu Pantheon. He does not say Rama, Siva, Brahma or Vishnu or any other name. He takes the Universal Being, the Almighty. His Name is one, and the repetition of Divine sound-symbol ‘OM’ with meditation simultaneously upon its meaning or thinking upon its meaning, is one of the unfailing methods of overcoming all obstacles and attaining success in concentration and Superconsciousness—meditation and Samadhi. This is today’s talk.

Fourth Lecture

Right Application In Yoga Brings Success

Glorious Immortal Atman! Blessed children of Light! Seekers upon the path to perfection! Greetings to you all for today’s fellowship. Very briefly we shall go over the main points of yesterday’s talk and its preceding consideration, and then continue the subject.

At the very first talk, at the very outset, we touched upon the study of the Yoga philosophy regarding the nature of the mind and its successful control. It is the mind that draws the consciousness outside through the senses and gets involved in the appearance of the changeful world-process, names and forms. And we also saw how it was the mind’s activity that was the basis or the root-cause of the entire gamut of human experiences. Within this world-process, whatever we experience is totally the product of our mind-activity. We try to understand this by a consideration of the daily experience of every human being, in each cycle of 24 hours, when he passes through the distinct states of consciousness, the waking consciousness, the dream consciousness and the sleep consciousness. We saw how sleep consciousness again and again brings home to us the fact that with the cessation of the mind-activity, experience of the world-process disappears, experience of even our own existence disappears. With the recommencement of mind-activity in the morning upon waking once again, our consciousness of our individual being once again rises up and with it our experience of the world-process once again begins. We saw how it was important to ponder this psychic experience of every human individual, upon which observation was based this thesis that the world-process and the experience by the individual, cannot be considered apart from his mind-activity. Upon this thesis, Patanjali formulated science by which the transcending of the mind-activity becomes the method or the means of attaining the pristine state—Self-realisation or pure Consciousness of Being. Yoga Sutras have described this in its fivefold moods of mind-activities, viz, perception, perversion, delusion, sleep and memory.

And we briefly touched upon Vairagya and Abhyasa. Yesterday, we considered the necessity of both being simultaneous and interdependent. One without the other, will not be giving us the desired result and we also answered the question, how success can be attained in this ceaseless effort. Sage Patanjali has said: ‘Success comes to one who makes efforts energetically.’ The success varies according to the means adopted, whether it is a mild practice, medium practice or intense practice. Intense practice will bring the highest success, medium practice will bring little success and if your practice is mild, then success may not come for a long time and it may not be the fullest kind of success. So, he has given two Sutras to answer the question. How can one succeed? Upon what does success depend in a true aspirant, or a true spiritual seeker? Because, you must never forget that Yoga is a science that aims at giving to the practitioner Divine experience. If you are approaching Yoga seeking Divine experience as your ultimate goal, then that is the classical approach and your Yoga will be authentic; but if that Divine experience is not your confirmed goal, then your Yoga might give you other experiences, other results. But then, you will still be shifting yourself from or closing yourself to the true goal and ultimate objective of Yoga in its classical sense.

Success comes to the true spiritual aspirant who has Divine experience as the ultimate goal, first and foremost, through faith that there exists that transcendental experience, there is a fulfilment of all life. There does exist an unwavering faith in the existence of that ultimate experience which is the goal. The greater the degree of faith, the more he is released into an unwavering and intense practice. Where there is doubt, the practice would be woolgathering. There is always wavering in one who knows that he is going to a wild-goose chase. ‘Really is there anything to obtain?’ ‘Am I making a great mistake?’ If there are these doubts, then the entire energy, all power that is released in the effort, will be dispersed by wavering and hesitation. I practise Yoga, may be, but, I also keep some other little objective in the world. If I don’t get at the final goal, at least I will have the latter. This should not be the attitude. With a high degree of true faith, there comes greater energy in the practice; and when one practises energetically with firm faith, the entire personality potency of the being comes ingathered, collected and centralised. There is recollectedness. There is lesser room for the possibility of dispersal of one’s energy in the practice. One’s personality is not scattered. All faculties become centered to this one effort, this one goal. And with ingatheredness brought about by faith and energy more and more, comes deeper and deeper absorption, and this leads to illumination. In this way if the aspirant proceeds, then he gradually begins to reach a deep state of concentration where he is totally absorbed within.

Different states of the concentration are listed as the stages where one is absorbed upon an object. First is concentrating upon the object as it presents itself through one’s consciousness. In the second stage, one goes beyond the mere appearance of the object goes deeper into the consideration of the very essence of the object. Then one goes beyond the name and form of the object and the whole concentration goes upon the perceptual process of the mind itself. Concentration shifts from the object to the area of the mind. Ultimately, even this is left behind and concentration becomes involved in the subject who is doing these processes. So, one concentrates upon the mere fact of one’s being. That is awareness of oneself. These are the four stages of the one aspect of absorption. In the second stage there is no object at all. So the external world is no longer the field of focus of the mind of the yogi, but the internal world, that which is groundwork of dreams is in focus. So, the concentration takes place only upon the submerged impressions of previous experiences. This is a very subtle state of concentration. This is the second type of inner state of concentration, the same concentration but without object. Another means to succeed in such concentration, was also mentioned here. This shows how Yoga is very much involved in religions. Yoga, though it transcends any specific religion, is the most universal and in the basic sense of the term, Yoga is very much involved in religion. It concerns itself with the spirit of true religion. What is that spirit of universal religion? Individuals journey back into the universal. It is the quest of the human towards the Divine, or the finite moving towards its merger into Infinite, man to God. This is the essence of all religions. The universal essence, the basic process of religion, is to take the individual back into his eternal relatedness to the universal. Theologically, it is said that it is the great quest for God. And thus here, this aspect of Yoga is brought out very clearly, when Patanjali said that the success in such concentration may also be brought about by devotion to God and that devotion to God can lead you to Samadhi. Here, he devotes a Sutra to define what the concept of God is.

God is the Supreme Being who transcends this world-process, who is not caught and enmeshed, an ever-liberated Supreme Principle that transcends the world-process, independent, beyond all possibilities of ignorance. It is the nature of pure Jnana or Knowledge. It is all the contrary to our present consciousness. Our consciousness is limited by the finite objects of a temporary nature. Our consciousness is coloured by ignorance, false perception. This Being is of the very nature of pure Jnana or Knowledge, whereas man also has knowledge, but he has got only limited knowledge. Patanjali says that God is unlimited, infinite Being characterised by infinite wisdom, transcending the world-process, a Being in a state of absolute independence, a liberated Being. That is his definition of Isvara, God.

Through devotion to God, Samadhi can be attained. How to practise this devotion? What is this means? The best way of this devotion is used as a means of attaining success. The best practice is constant repetition of the name that symbolises Him, name that indicates Him, with contemplation upon its meaning, contemplation upon its implication. This name that symbolises the universal Deity, not the God of any specific religion, but the God of universal religion, the God beyond all religions, he gave as ‘OM’. And Om is the symbol of the Supreme Being and the repetition of Om with the meaning, is the sure means of attaining success in concentration and overcoming obstacles, which destroys all obstacles. It invokes a special prayer to the Infinite, which is an effective means to overcome the obstacles enumerated. Then, specific types of concentration to overcome these obstacles were also suggested.

You turn away from gross, sensual pursuits. But what happens, the habit is there. You will have to make special efforts to eliminate them. Then alone you would be able to turn away from those gross, sensual pursuits. If you relax a little bit, once again the mind goes back into its own ruts, old sensual habits. This is another obstacle. Due to this tug-of-war, seesaw of your struggle with your inner nature, despair comes. Because you fail many a time, you become hopeless. Never despair. Always one should have hope—‘I will overcome them, come what may.’ You may get nervous. Nervous condition may come to the practitioner; trembling and even irregularity of breathing. And to overcome all these things, without being a psychiatrist, Patanjali has got different methods of concentration. This is his prescription.

One is, of course, to make up his mind—‘No matter what comes, I am not going to leave this quest which I have taken up.’ So, Patanjali prescribes Ekatattva-Abhyasa—catching hold of some one type of practice and clinging tenaciously to it and never letting it go, come what may. Ultimately, this overcomes all the obstacles. It is an exercise of the power of one’s determination, inner will, and invoking a positive state of mind, always keeping the mind in a cheerful and positive state.

So, he prescribes four patterns of reacting to the outer world. Kumbhaka or retention of the breath is one of the important methods to overcome the obstacles. And no one method alone is supposed to be used. Selected, judicious combination of more than one method may be suitable to you. As a result of study of your own nature, special exercises which bring about some immediate result may act as good encouragement. Meditation upon the inner light of the Atman and meditating upon, contemplating upon the Masters, saints, sages, Yogins and Gurus, give fresh enthusiasm to the mind and fill you with the spirit of elation, and they become, as it were, inspirers. They give you a new spirit on the path. By contemplation upon deep sleep and dream state you become aware of the dream-like nature of the outward phenomenon. And finally, you can meditate upon anything that attracts your mind, anything that is specially pleasing to you, any symbol or any form. This practice will ultimately lead on gradually and progressively to the state of highest transcendental superconsciousness, highest state of non-dual Samadhi which is beyond the earlier stages described by Patanjali.

Kriya Yoga

Now, Patanjali moves on to the practical aspects of Yoga. Having described most of the earlier concepts of Yoga—trance, concentration, mind-activities, etc.,—he now goes to Sadhana.

Sadhana means any practice as such. Many of you may be aware of the name Ashtanga Yoga, the Yoga of eight limbs. You will be surprised that the Sage does not straightaway launch into consideration of Sadhana in the serial order, i.e., starting from the first stage, going into second and third etc. He does not do it. He first gives the description of what he calls preparation of the ground. Preparation of the ground is positive and negative. It prepares your mind and at the same time, takes away the obstacles to it. Then, he goes on to describe the actual Ashtanga Yoga. In between these, there are a number of Sutras dealing generally with different concepts of the philosophical background of Yoga. We will not directly concern ourselves with them in the present talk. The preparation, he says, is most important and he calls it Kriya Yoga.

This is the working method that leads to the actual Yoga. Tradition has it, that actual Yoga commences, some say, from the fifth and some say from the sixth limb of Yoga. It is rational to keep it as the fifth. The first four are called the outer Yoga and the last four are called the inner Yoga. The outer Yoga is regarded by some as the preliminary preparations for the actual inner Yoga proper. But in the Sutras of Patanjali, he himself mentions the preparations as the second stage of Yoga. So the second chapter of the Yoga Sutras is captioned the ‘Sadhana Chapter’. It starts with the aphorisms on: Tapas, Svadhyaya and Isvarapranidhana (austerity, study and dedication to God, respectively). They comprise Kriya Yoga. They comprise the preparatory practices. It is worthwhile considering here, what these three imply, and how exactly and why they are said to be the preparatory practices. Patanjali’s Kriya Yoga is austerity, study and dedication to God.

Tapas (Austerity)

What is Tapas? The word Tapas has no exact translation in English language. Though there are many words which may be regarded as giving a partial meaning, yet none of them brings out or connotes the full meaning of this word Tapas. Tapas means generation of heat. Tapas is heat, intensity of heat actually. In Western language, we may say, it means penance, mortification or discipline. Tapas is penance, but penance is not all Tapas. Tapas is mortification, but mortification is not all Tapas. Tapas is austere way of living, but austerity itself is not the goal of Tapas. Tapas means restraint of the senses, control of desires and the diversion of the energy thus conserved towards the subtle process of intense meditation. The energy that is necessary for intense concentration and meditation is to be got by conservation of the same which is otherwise frittered away in diverse directions in various sense-pursuits. Energy is not to be allowed to fritter away. The senses are determinedly held in check. There is a restraint over the desire-nature. This conserved energy is channelled and diverted into the higher, subtle and intense process of concentration and meditation. In this act, a twofold result can be obtained. One is conservation of energy and the second is the purification of the nature of the individual. Because, he puts a stop to gross pursuits, activities of the senses, his nature becomes purified. There is a certain refinement brought about in the nature of the individual. So, it is a purificatory process, just as anything put into fire becomes purified. And this self-restraint by the seeker, naturally creates a tension within him. This energy conserved, you try to leash it and try to give it another direction. So, there is a confrontation between the power of will of the individual and the natural tendency of the urges in man, and this tension brought about with these two aspects of your personality, naturally creates a sort of fiery state. There is heat. Therefore, we have the significant term Tapas.

Svadhyaya (Study)

Svadhyaya is study. It means spiritual study, study of spiritual books, which include philosophical works, the stories of saints, as well as teachings of illumined sages and spiritual teachers. Now, there is in vogue a practice among all major religions, viz., routine reading of scriptures. It is there in Eastern as well as Western religions. There are people, who devotedly, every day, have a routine reading of the Bible. There is a big Bible and they read half an hour every day and then the book-mark is shifted to the latest position, and the book is closed and kept. Next day, some other persons open it and again read a little and the book-mark is shifted. But Svadhyaya is not mere reading. Svadhyaya is a deliberate study, with attention to the meaning, of what one is studying, so that one is actually absorbed in what is being studied. Therefore, there is every day a fresh intake of spiritual ideas into the mind, into the consciousness. These spiritual ideas are not only informative but also inspirational, as well as of a transforming nature in their effect upon the mind. There is another specific purpose behind the study—we will come to it presently. Svadhyaya means the study with attention on the meaning with the specific purpose of taking in and absorbing it.

Isvarapranidhana (Dedication To God)

It is a term in Sanskrit which literally means placing oneself in God, keeping oneself with constant awareness of the presence of God here and now. It also means the awareness that I dwell in Him, because He is the infinite, the all-pervading One and He dwells in me because He is the indwelling Consciousness of my being as well. Naturally, this implies an unbroken remembrance of the Divine. Elaborating upon the meaning of Isvarapranidhana, Patanjali also goes on to say, how it also implies living for Him, a living for God. That means, you have the conviction that whatever you are doing here, you are not doing for the world; whatever you do, even your secular activity, even duty to your beloved ones, you do it for the love of God and to please Him. Because He has placed you in the particular circumstance, He has put before you the duties. Whatever you are doing is because He has put you in this particular position now, and so it is His Will. Therefore, in fulfilment of His Will you have the ful