Brussonetia papyrifera ( Paper Mulberry ) - Bangalore - Karnataka India

From @ Ranjini Kamath

🌹PATANJALI YOGA SUTRAS🌹

            

            🌀CHAPTER - 3🌀

                 ~ Samadhi ~

                🌀DAY - 15🌀

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The next sutra is:

" वितकॅविचारानन्दास्मितारूपानुगमात् सम्प्रज्ञातः "

Vitarka vichara aananda asmita roopa anugamat sampragyaatah 

          

What is the purpose of this sadhna? Vitarka - when your mind has a special logic to pursue in the world and to perceive the truth. Tarka means logic. Kutarka means wrong logic - when then intention is not right and the logic is applied only to find fault; when you know deep inside you that something is not right, but you still logically prove that it is right.

          

Vitarka is special logic. You may be talking about dispassion and logically you are understanding it, and this logical understanding, hearing or talking has a certain effect on your consciousness. It elevates your consciousness. You are in a different space. This is samadhi.

          

Samadhi means equanimity. "Dhi" is the intellect - the faculty that sustains you; faculty of consciousness. Now, we are in a state of Samadhi, because we are talking about the Self with a definite logic, an undeceivable logic. Logic can always change. You can put it on one side or you can put on the other. There is no loyalty. But Vitarka is a logic which cannot be condemned, which cannot be reversed. For example, if somebody is dead then it is obvious that he is dead. You know that the life that was there in the body is not there anymore. And that is the end. At that moment, your consciousness is in a different state. When you are not emotionally connected to anybody, what's happening to your consciousness? You feel that it is the end, for instance, when a movie is over, there is a feeling that all is over. When people walk out of the movie theatre, they are in a particular state of consciousness. They come out of a musical concert with a feeling that it is over. It is the same for a festival or for a course. When a course is over, the participants say that it has ended and they leave. The show is over. At that moment, there is a definite logic followed in the mind - irrefutable logic, irreversible logic that triggers your consciousness. It is so obvious.

          

Life is like this. It is so obvious. Everything is changing. They are bound to change;to dissolve and disappear. This vitarka elevates one's consciousness. One does not have to sit with the eyes closed or eyes open. The feeling of "I", the consciousness is all that is. Everything is empty. Everything is in a state of fluidity. The whole world is just a quantum mechanical field. This is Vitarka. The entire science is based on tarka, irrefutable tarka of it, the quantum physics or whatever you call it. That is Vitarka. वितकॅ अनुगम समाधि । This is Samadhi.

          Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji

PATANJALI YOGA SUTRAS

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🌹PATANJALI YOGA SUTRAS🌹

           

            🌀CHAPTER - 3🌀

                 ~ Samadhi ~

                🌀DAY - 14🌀

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There is a story about Diogenes of Greece. When Alexander the Great saw him, he was being carried out to be sold as a slave. The people who were taking him to be sold also looked like slaves. Diogenes announced that he was a slave and asked loudly who wanted to buy him. Because he was roaring like a lion, it was difficult for the people to make out who was the slave and who was selling the slave.

   

Before Alexander the Great came to India, people in his country had told him that if he found some sanyasi here he should bring them back with him; that, they were very precious and were there only in India. So, when he was in India he ordered that some sanyasis should come to him. But, nobody would come. He then sent a message threatening them. He said that if they did not come, he would chop off their heads. Even then, nobody came. So he said that he was going to take away their books - the four Vedas and some other scriptures, too. The pundits agreed and said that they would give him all their books the next day. Overnight, the pundits made their children memorize all the manuscripts. And then they gave them to Alexander. They told him that they did not need them any more. Alexander got the manuscripts but he wanted a sanyasi, and a sanyasi would not come. Finally, he had to go to one sanyasi and threaten him saying that he would chop off his head if he did not go with him. The sanyasi replied that Alexander could do is if he wanted. The mighty emperor could not even look into sanyasi's eyes. He could not stand the power of dispassion that he saw there. Here was a person who, for the first time, did not care for an emperor.

          

When Alexander was in India, some people presented him some golden bread in a plate. And he said that he was hungry and wanted some real bread. They replied that he was an emperor, and how could he eat mere wheat bread. So, they had prepared golden bread for him. Alexander said that they were making fun of him and he was starving and wanted real bread. Hearing this, the people got some real bread. They asked him whether such bread was not available in his country. And why had he conquered so many places? Was it to get bread and if he too ate the same bread that was eaten in India? This shook Alexander for a moment. He felt that it was the truth. What was the point of conquering country after country. All that he needed was to live peacefully and happily. When he did not have the happiness and peace, and when he didn't have that care and concern for his people, putting his stamps on all the villages and towns had no meaning.

          

So it seems Alexander said that, when he died, his hands should be kept open. He wanted the people to know that, though he conquered so many countries, Alexander the Great was going with empty hands. That he could not take a thing from this earth.

          

Dispassion is the strength in you. Even if the Lord of the Wealth comes, you do not need to take anything from Him. That is the strength of dispassion. It is not arrogance. It is centeredness. If you are so centered and calm, then you can understand that everyone who has come to this world has come to give something and not to take anything from here. A very different shift takes place.

          Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji

PATANJALI YOGA SUTRAS

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🌹PATANJALI YOGA SUTRAS🌹

            

            🌀CHAPTER - 3🌀

                 ~ Samadhi ~

                🌀DAY - 13🌀

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Question : Dear Guruji, is it possible to get stuck in achieving a mood of dispassion, turning one's attention to the separation between self and thoughts, emotions and sensory data, and is it possible to see more clearly who you are? But if a habit is developed of separating oneself from everything in an artificial way, you will lose spontaneity, attunement with nature and will not fully engage in life by giving it your one hundred percent. How do you walk this tightrope, and how do you know if you are too far on one side or the other? Thank you, Jai Guru Dev.

          

Guruji : Dispassion does not divide you. In fact, it connects you. It connects you to the present moment so totally that you can be one hundred percent in anything that you are doing. When you are not dispassionate, then what happens? You are linked to the past or future. You are not one hundred percent connected to the present and are more divided. So when your mind is hoping for something in future or regretting the past, it is not hundred percent with the moment - that means it is divided already.

          

When you are fully centered while doing anything in the world, you are hundred percent with every moment. You may be eating, and you are eating hundred percent. You enjoy every bit of it. You can feel every sip of the soup that you are having. Every bite of the food tastes great. Every sight is fresh and new. So your love is like the first love every moment. When you look at anybody or anything, they are all charming to the core; as if you are seeing for the first time.

          

Dispassion doesn't take away the joy from you. Dispassion gives the joy which nothing else can give. There is a verse in Shankaracharya that says, "Kasya sukham na karoti viraagaha." What pleasure can dispassion not give? It gives all the pleasures because you are so totally in the moment. It puts you hundred percent in the moment. Every moment is a peak experience.

          

The so-called dispassion in the world seems so dry. People who think they are very dispassionate are melancholy. They are sad. They run away from the world and then they call it dispassion. Then, they say that they have renounced the world. This is no renunciation or dispassion. People who escape because of failure, misery, sorrow, or apathy feel that they have dispassion. Dispassion is something more precious, more refined, and more valuable in life. If you are dispassionate, you are always centered - full of joy and contentment. Anybody would like to be like that.

          Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji

PATANJALI YOGA SUTRAS

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🌹PATANJALI YOGA SUTRAS🌹

            🌀CHAPTER - 2🌀

     ~ Honouring The Practice ~

                 🌀DAY - 12🌀

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Buddhists have got their own method of determining who is enlightened and who is not. Somebody who sings, dances, and enjoys living in the world is not enlightened. Somebody who mingles with their family members is not enlightened. The enlightened have to renounce their family. I have seen many of these so-called sanyasis. They are so afraid of meeting their own family. They fear that they could develop attachment for them again.

          

I remember in one of the ashrams, an intimate, a so-called sanyasi and renunciate, would not meet his mother, an old lady who was nearly seventy years old, whe. she would go there to meet him. He would meet everybody else. What had this poor old lady done that he would not even meet her? She would cry. Many of the renunciates - the so-called nuns, brothers and fathers are very cruel to their own family people because that is their idea of renunciation. Why can't the close relatives be loved when everybody else can be? Why can't you see them with the same eye? This is a concept. Many sanyasis go through this difficulty about their family members.

          

Amidst all concepts about enlightenment, we forget the essence - dispassion and being centered. Being centered despite everything and living in the world. It is the second essential principle in Yoga. Abhyasa and Vairagya.

          

Three gunas come in cycles in our life - sattva, rajas, tamas. When sattva comes, there is alertness, knowledge, interest, joy and happiness. When rajo guna comes, there are more desires, feverishness, restlessness, sadness, etc. When tamo guna comes, there is delusion, attaching, lack of knowledge, lethargy, etc. There three phase come in life in cycles. But one who is centered will watch, witness and just move through them, very naturally and easily, without being averse to any.

          

What happens when there is aversion? You promote it. You stay with whatever you are averse to. You continue to crave for whatever it is that you want. You allow the craving to continue. Therefore, moving through the guna without craving or aversion is a real skill. And that is Yoga. Yoga karmasu kaushalam - the skill in action is Yoga. The word Yoga means skill - skill to live your life, to manage your mind, to deal with your emotions, to be with people, to be in love and not let that love turn into hatred. In this world everyone loves but that love doesn't stay the same for long. Soon, it turns into hatred;sometimes almost immediately. But Yoga is that skill, that preservative, that maintains love as love all the time.

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji

PATANJALI YOGA SUTRAS

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Examine your friendships, they are often for a cause. There are several reasons for your friendships:

👉You make friendships because you have common enemies. Fear and threat to survival can bring people together.

👉You make friendships because you have a common problem. You talk about your problems and become friends. For example, sickness, job dissatisfaction, etc.

👉People get together because they have common interests. For example, through business or a profession (doctors, architects, social workers, etc.)

👉You make friends because you have common tastes. You have similar tastes in sports, movies, entertainment, music, hobbies, etc.

👉People become friends because of compassion and service. Out of compassion and pity for someone, you become friends with them.

👉People become friends merely because of long-term acquaintance.

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Brave are those who nurture friendships for only friendship’s sake. Such friendships will never die nor become soured for it is born out of one’s friendly nature. Only through wisdom can one become friendly by nature.

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A real friend is one whose company uplifts us; an untrue friend is one whose company brings us down.

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Friendship based just on needs doesn't last long. However, when it comes from a space of sharing, the whole world will befriend you.

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When you go to a friend with a problem and if you walk away from them feeling lighter, then they are a good friend.

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Tell your friends, ‘I am here for you I don’t want anything from you other than friendship’. That will make your friendship long-lasting.

From @ Akshay Prakash Jangam

From @ Akshay Prakash Jangam

From @ Akshay Prakash Jangam

From @ Akshay Prakash Jangam

From @ Akshay Prakash Jangam

From @ Akshay Prakash Jangam

From @ Akshay Prakash Jangam

From @ Akshay Prakash Jangam

From @ Akshay Prakash Jangam

From @ Akshay Prakash Jangam

From @ Akshay Prakash Jangam

From @ Akshay Prakash Jangam

From @ Akshay Prakash Jangam

From @ Akshay Prakash Jangam

From @ Akshay Prakash Jangam

From @ Akshay Prakash Jangam

From @ Akshay Prakash Jangam

Maharashtra

India

From @ Akshay Prakash Jangam

Dr.Kripa Thomas, a 2nd year PG Scholar, Department of PG studies in Panchakarma, Sri Sri college of Ayurvedic Science and Research, 

Bangalore was selected as the best paper presentation on "Role of Triyopasthambha in preventing Female Infertility" at "Saaphalya 2022"- A state level seminar on Infertility conducted on 27th July 2022 at DGM Ayurvedic Medical college and hospital, Gadag.

From @ Akshay Prakash Jangam

From @ Akshay Prakash Jangam

From @ Akshay Prakash Jangam

From @ Akshay Prakash Jangam

From @ Akshay Prakash Jangam

From @ Akshay Prakash Jangam

From @ Akshay Prakash Jangam

🌹PATANJALI YOGA SUTRAS🌹

            🌀CHAPTER - 2🌀

     ~ Honouring The Practice ~

                  🌀DAY - 11🌀

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" तत्परं पुरूषख्यातेगुॅणवैतृष्ण्यम् "

          

Once you know the nature of your being - total bliss and total pleasure - even the fear about the gunas and the fear about the world will disappear. It is like diabetic patients being afraid of sweets. The sight of sweets frightens them because they are forbidden. But the one who has sweetness in him doesn't mind if there are sweets near them.

          

This is parama vairagya - supreme dispassion, ie., not being scared or running away from the world but being in it; completely centered.

          

People have very peculiar ideas about enlightenment. Every culture and religion has got its own ideas about it. In the Christian religion a rich man cannot be enlightened. It is impossible. You have to be poor to be enlightened. Form the Christian point of view, Rama could not be enlightened. He ws a king. How could a King be enlightened? Even if a camel could go through the eye of a needle ; a rich man could not be enlightened. 

          

Once, I was traveling from Bangalore to Delhi. I met a gentleman at the airport. He was a Christian priest. He looked at me and smiled. I smiled back and he came over to talk to me. Addressing me as his dear brother, he said that he felt like talking to me. Being encouraged by me to do so, he said that I seemed to be a very nice person. Then, he asked me if I believed in Jesus. I replied that I did. He was a little stunned. He asked me again if I really believed in Jesus. When I reaffirmed that I did, he asked me if I wasn't a Hindu. I replied that perhaps I was . Then, he pointed out that I believed in Krishna. I said that I believed in Krishna, too. He asked me how Krishna could be God. Be was a butter thief. He was married. How could somebody who stole butter and who ws married be God? Continuing, the priest said that Krishna could not give me salvation and Jesus was the only way. He said that he was also a Hindu at one time but he has converted to Christianity later. He said that from the time that he had become a Christian everything had begun happening. Jesus was taking care of him. Then, the priest advised me to convert to Christianity, too. And he was so sincere in telling this and in trying to convert me!

          

Jains do not consider Krishna to be enlightened because he had started the war. Arjuna had decided to renounce the world and take sanyas. But Krishna had brainwashed him and had made him fight in the war. Since Krishna was responsible for the big war, how could he be enlightened? Then, again he had been stealing butter and had so many wives. It was impossible that he was enlightened.

          

Jains don't think that an enlightened person, a sadhu, should ever wear clothes. They think that such persons should always be naked. One who is not so, is not enlightened. How will it be known whether they are free from lust or not? What will be the proof? Jain sadhus are nude and they are considered enlightened. This is their idea of enlightenment. They don't consider anybody who eats and enjoys two meals a day to be enlightened. If a saint eats chocolate, he is not considered a saint at all.

To be continued.... 

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji

Patanjali Yog Sutras

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🌹PATANJALI YOGA SUTRAS🌹

            🌀CHAPTER - 2🌀

     ~ Honouring The Practice ~

                 🌀DAY - 10🌀

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वितृष्णस्य वशीकार - the craving for any of the sense objects or celestial heavenly places that the mind gallops towards is an obstruction. Any expectation in meditation is an obstruction. You may have heard that someone had seen a light or somebody coming from heaven and taking them by hand. So, you sit with your eyes closed and wait for an angel to come or to have a light shine on you and then to burst into million stars. All these ideas and thoughts become an obstruction.

          

If you have dispassion, you will feel that you are not giving up anything for nay of these pleasures. Your desire for pleasure or happiness will make you unhappy. If you examine yourself whenever you are miserable or unhappy, you will find that your misery is due to your desire to be happy. Craving for happiness brings misery. If you don't even crave for happiness, you are happy. You crave for happiness and you invite misery. When you don't care for happiness, you are liberated and when you do not even care for liberation, you are liberated and when you do not even care for liberation, you attain love. This is param vairagya. But that is the second step. The first step is when you do not care for happiness. Then you are free. You are liberated. 

          

Happiness is a mere idea in your mind. You think if you have something, you will be happy. If you have whatever you want, are you happy? Then, you will think it was not the way that you had thought it would be.

          

Vairagya is putting a stop to the craving for happiness.

          

This does not mean you have to be miserable. It does not say you should not enjoy. But if you can retrieve your mind from the craving for joy, you can meditate. Then, you can still all the five modulations, and Yoga happens.

          

You need to shatter all your dreams and fantasies. Offer them to the fire. Burn them down. What great happiness do you want? How long can you have it? You are going to leave this life at some time or the other. This is certain. It is all going to end. Before this earth eats you up, become free. Free yourself from feverishness that is gripping your mind. What great happiness are you having? Every object of pleasure that you have experienced will become like Styrofoam, the packing material - absolutely tasteless!

          

You should study every craving that you have and remember that you are going to die. You may have a craving for sweets, sugar, food, etc. Have the craving and check consciously what is in it. You will find that there is nothing. You may crave for beautiful scenes. Keep looking at them. How long can you look? Your eyes will get tired of even the most beautiful place. Then, you will close them. You will forget the scenes. What other craving can come up in you - sex? How much sex can you have? Have it and finish it. You will see there is nothing in it. A few moments of it and that body, which was so attractive, looks like Styrofoam.

          

All these objects that titillate the scenes have their limitations. But your mind is not ready to accept these limitations. It wants unlimited joy and pleasure which the five senses cannot give you. You simply get burnt down going over and over the same thing.

          

Vairagya is skillfully coming on to the Self by honouring all the objects of senses and not blaming them. This is dispassion - Vairagya. Often, people who think that they have dispassion keep blaming the world and the objects of sensnes. They are afraid of objects of senses and try to run away from them. They think that they are big temptations. The fear of temptations is worse. How can something tempt you?

          

This is the second sutra-

To be continued....

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🌹PATANJALI YOGA SUTRAS🌹

            🌀CHAPTER - 2🌀

     ~ Honouring The Practice ~

                  🌀DAY - 9🌀

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"दृष्टानुश्रविकविषयवितृष्णस्य वशीकारसंज्ञा वैराग्यम्"

          

दृष्टा अनुश्रविक विषय - the mind gallops towards the world of five senses. If you just be quiet, close your eyes, or open ur eyes, or do anything, where does your mind go? It goes towards the sensne of sight. It is the same for the sense the smell, taste, sound, touch. And this craving for any of these experiences in the mind can prevent you from being in the present moment.

          

Vairagya is retrieving your senses from the craving or from the thirst for something back to its source for a few moments. Then, you will feel that however beautiful a scene is you are not interested in looking at it. However great the food,you feel that it is not the time for it; that you are not interested in tasting it then. However melodious the music maybe, you do not want to listen to it at that time. It may be wonderful to touch something but then you are not interested in touching it or feeling it at that time. Vairagya may be present for even a few moments. This is a another basic requirement for meditation. This dispassion has to arise in your mind whenever you what to do meditation - a deep meditation. Without dispassion, your meditation is no good. It is of no use. It cannot provide you the rest that you are longing for.

          

Your mind is tired and burnt out because of its galloping on towards desires after desires. Just look back and check all the desires that you have achieved. Have they given you rest? They have not. They have just created a few more desires in you. Have they given you any fulfilment? They have not. They have just given you a greater hope that you can achieve more; that you can have more. And that has sent you on another pointless trip. You are in a merry-go-round. It's not even a merry-go-round. A merry-go-round has dummy horses which you sit on. The horses do not go anywhere. They just go round and round in the same place, but give you an illusion that you have travelled miles and miles - an illusion because you have reached nowhere. Life has been such a journey where you are galloping, galloping and galloping and reaching nowhere. This is what desires do for you. The mind which is obsessed with desires cannot meditate.

          

There are two types of attitudes. Some people feel that the mind should not have any desires and this becomes another desire. Destroy the desires. Some people are in this trip to destroy their desires. They are beating around the bush. Nothing happens to them. This principle should be very well understood.

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🌹PATANJALI YOGA SUTRAS🌹

            🌀CHAPTER - 2🌀

     ~ Honouring The Practice ~

 

                  🌀DAY - 8🌀

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Therefore, स तु दीघॅकाल - a long time without a gap. सत्कारासेवितो - this is another important point - with honour and respect. Sometimes, we grumble when we do something. It is no use of doing something unenthusiastically. That is not abhyasa. Abhyasa is something done with gratitude, gratefulness, honour and with respect. This is something we lack in our life. We should do everything in life with honour and respect. Even if you do something with honour and respect, it lasts a very short period. And, if you have to do something over a period of time, you tend to lose that honour and respect. If you have to arrange a stage and, if you're doing it for the first time, you will do it with all honour and respect. You will put in so much attention, so much love, so much heart and awareness. But if you have to do it everyday for the next five to six months, you will just do it without the spirit with which you did on the first day. As time goes on, you seem to lose that alertness, attention, attention, attentiveness, and honour. You feel wonderful the first day when you sit for meditation because you are doing it with all honour. But after some sessions you will feel bored by it. You will just sit and close your eyes. It does not have the same effect.

          

If any day, your meditation or Kriya is a little low, it is because you have lost respect for it; not that you disrespect it, but the attentiveness and alertness towards it is reduced. When you come together in a course, periodically, your meditation is deeper because you are receiving it with honour. You are honouring that knowledge. You are honouring yourself.

          

What is honour and honouring? Have you ever thought about it? Honour is totally attentiveness to the present moment, with a tinge of gratefulness. If you honour a mountain, it means that you are seeing the mountain with all your heart and mind - without questioning or without debating within yourself. You are just honouring, being happy and grateful for what the mountain is. You honour some Nobel scientist. What does this mean? When the Nobel scientist is there, you are completely in the moment, being with that moment with all your heart - respecting and honouring.

          

Respect and honour every moment of your life. Then that becomes a practice. You respect your own body. That is practice; the asanas. What is Asanas? Asanas are respecting your own body consciously every moment. Respecting and honouring your breath and keeping it up over a period of time is pranayam. This is just like Kriya and the dimensions in Kriya. What is needed here is that you have to do the Kriya with the rhythm. Any practice is a practice only of it is down over a period is time- respectfully and without a gap. It is a practice only if you honour it every day and every moment. Then it becomes firmly established. This is very vital!

         

Any day when you feel that your meditation has becomes dull, check if you have kept up the continuity of the practice. If you feel that you have, then check if you have been honouring the mantra and the chanting time;if you have been honouring the life in you. If any of these is not being followed, then your meditation will do haywire. So, determine to honour. Consider, all the other events to be trivial. Just honour the moment. It is very precious. However the moment may be, it is very precious.

          

Honour the word. A master has given you the word. It is precious. Honouring The Master is honouring the Master's word. If you don't have honour or respect for the Master, your meditation will not work. This is because that honour and the respect awakens the consciousness and raises awareness in you. It helps you to focus on the moment totally. If you do not honour the Master, the Master will not lose anything. Your own mind will lose it because it 'll be unable to be in the moment totally and dive deep into the Source.

          

सत्कारा सेवितो - honouring; honouring the source of knowledge, honouring the Master, honouring the knowledge, honouring the receiver.

          

A good musician will honour the music, and the one who has taught him and the one who composed it. His full attention is there. It is the same with a good sportsman. He will honour his coach. If he doesn't honour his coach, he will not progress. Due to his attentiveness and the honour that he has for the coach, he is able to move ahead in his sports . Otherwise, if he keeps judging his coach and does what he wants to, then what is the need for a coach? This is abhyasa,the practice.

          

Is this enough? Is just the Abhyasa, the practice? No, it is not. There are two oxen that are needed to pull this cart. One is abhyasa and the other is vairagya. 

          

What is Vairagya?

To be continued.....

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🌹PATANJALI YOGA SUTRAS🌹

            🌀CHAPTER - 2🌀

     ~ Honouring The Practice ~

                   🌀DAY - 7🌀

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Never mind. The mind can never go where you are. A wave can never go to the depth of the ocean. By the time the waves go to the depth, it ceases to be a wave. So the mind can never come to you. The mind can never be you. That is why never mind! You are never the mind. It's superficial. The moment that mind starts coming towards you, it is not a mind. That's why it's said, "Never Mind." You are accepted there;never the mind. Your mind can never go there.

          

You know you have had this experience often. The mind keeps on asking questions, "Why,why,why,why?" You feel that something is bothering you is your mind's stuff! At that moment there is alertness, and an awareness dawns. And then there is a relief in the mind. And the more you feel that your questions are just "mind's stuff!", more and more you are aware. And then, the questions just vanish. This is Abhyasa, this is practice.

          

In the next sutra, Patanjali says,

" स तु दीघॅकालनैरन्तयॅसत्कारासेवितो द्रृढभूमिः "

      

The effort to be still and steady comes with practice. At some time you may realize that it is the moment. And then it vanishes. You feel that the moment had come and you lost it. You say, "Now," and then "Now" is lost. It may not be right to say you have lost it but, in some sense, you feel you are not in the "Now." But, this effort is not just linear - this effort to be steadily established in the "Now" because of it. The "Now" is not linear. The "Now" is very deep and vast. The "Now", the present moment, is not just a point; not just a dot. It is infinity. It is "Now" in all dimensions and from all sides. Practice gives stability in that moment - that is the purpose of practice. And how can that be arranged? How can that be achieved?

          

स तु दीघॅकाल - it takes a long time. नैरन्तयॅ means without a gap. सत्कारासेवितो means with honour and respect - receiving it and practising it with honour and respect. द्रुढभूमिः - then it becomes firmly established. Anything of value in life take some time to culture. To master an art - cooking, playing a guitar, sitar, or a flute - takes some time. You cannot learn to play the flute in a day. It is not possible. To learn to play an instrument takes quite a while, and to master it even more. A coach is needed to teach how to play football. If you want to be a sportsman, you need a coach and you need practice. You need a coach in a gymnasium. You cannot make your body muscular overnight. It takes quite a long time. The body has its own requirement of time for its growth. Similarly, the mind takes even longer for its growth. It takes some time to memorize something. In the same way, any practice takes some time. It need not be too long but sufficiently long and without interruption. We usually learn something for a time and then stop. We will start again after some time. If we feel like doing it , we do, and don't do it if we do not want to; when we feel a little lazy. Then, the connection is broken, and what we want doesn't happen. Constant practice without a gap is essential. If you go to the gymnasium for a couple of days and stop and then go again after some time, you will not achieve anything. You may practice on the piano for two days and lay off for two days and nothing is gained. Lack of consistency prevents you from learning any art. 

To be continued.... 

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🌹PATANJALI YOGA SUTRAS🌹

            🌀CHAPTER - 1🌀

        ~ Discipline Of Yoga ~

                  🌀DAY - 6🌀

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" अभ्यासवैराग्याभ्यां तन्निरोधः "

          

How will you get over the empowering nature of these vrittis?

          

It is through abhyasa and vairagya - practice and detachment.

" तत्र स्थितौ यत्नौऽभ्यासः "

          

That which you do to 'be' is called abhyasa or practice. Abiding in the seer is abhyasa. That which you do to be there, now, here or in this moment is abhyasa. An effort is needed for you to relieve yourself from five modulations and just be here - now,now,now; to bring the mind to the present and not dwell on past memories. This effort is called abhyasa.

          

You can start by being determined that you are not going to dwell on any logic. You are free from pramaana. You are not going to be interested in any proof. If the mind is asking for proof, just know it. Know it, observe it and relax. You are not interested in any wrong knowledge or right knowledge. Often when the mind is on wrong knowledge, it thinks it is on the right one. So, it is not even interested in knowing anything. Retrieve the mind from knowing, and from knowledge. There is no anxiety to see, smell, touch, feel or understand anything. Let things be the way they are. Do not care. Do not pass judgements of right or wrong. Free yourself form viparyaya, vikalpa. Check if the mind is on some imagination or some fantasy. By just knowing that it is imagining or fantasizing, it drops off. It is just like the time you know that you are dreaming - the dream vanishes. Knowing you are on a Vikalpa, or a fantasy, it just drops off, thereby freeing you. This moment is so new, so fresh and so total. Abhyasa is just recognizing the moment when you are free, fresh, full and totally in the present moment. Here your mind might try to go into the past. You know that the mind is getting into the five vrittis without any aversion or craving. This is coming back to the centre, to the seer.

         

This moment, again and again and again, is Abhyasa.

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🌹PATANJALI YOGA SUTRAS🌹

            🌀CHAPTER - 1🌀

        ~ Discipline Of Yoga ~

                  🌀DAY - 5🌀

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          The third vritti is Vikalpa. 

          

Vikalpa is a sort of hallucination. There may be some thought. But, it is not true. However, something hovers in the mind. This is called Vikalpa. People become paranoid. All such unfolded and baseless fears do not mean anything. Such thoughts and ideas are called Vikalpas - fantasies. The mind either gets stuck in proof or in wrong knowledge, misconception or fantasies. Fantasies are Vikalpas. You may be already forty, fifty or sixty years old, and you fantasize what it would be like if you were sixteen again. Then, you go on and think that you would go somewhere and get a big haul of gold and that, then, you would become rich. Then, you would have your own helicopter to fly in. It is not just the children who fantasize. Adults also get into their own fantasies. This fantasy is called Vikalpa,the third modulation of Chitta.

          

Vikalpa, could be of two types. One could be of a joyful and pleasurable fantasy, and the other could be baseless fears. Even fear is a Vikalpa. You may be apprehensive about what will happen if you die the next day. You may meet with an accident. You may become disabled. These are all just sounds that have no value. Baseless fears in the mind or fantasies are called Vikalpa. The fourth one is Nindra or sleep. If the mind is not in anyone of the three vikalpas, then it is asleep.

          

The fifth activity of the mind is smriti - remembering the experiences it has had. When you are awake, are you in any of these four states of modulations? Then, that is not meditation. That is not Yoga.

          

Are you looking for some proof? Are you debating with yourself? Are you hanging on to the wrong knowledge or concepts about how things are? You don't know how things are because the whole world is fluid. There is nothing solid here. No thoughts are solid. Nobody is solid. Nobody's mind is solid. No thoughts are solid. The whole world is fluid or even airy. Go one step further, and you can say it is all airy-fairy! Anything can change at anytime and in any manner. The whole world is full of probabilities and possibilities. But your mind gets fixed on things, people, ideas, places, etc. It categorizes them into definite items, quantities, etc. This is how it is - set ideas, using the proof of the wrong information or the Vikalpa, fantasizing and dwelling in the past experiences. The four modulations of mind plus the sleep, the fifth modulation, are the five different vrittis of the mind.

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🌹PATANJALI YOGA SUTRAS🌹

            🌀CHAPTER - 1🌀

        ~ Discipline Of Yoga ~

  

                  🌀DAY - 4🌀

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" विपयॅयो मिथ्याज्ञानमतद्रूपप्रतिष्ठम् "

       

Pramaana is the knowledge that the mind is constantly engaged in arguments, in proofs, in knowledge, in analysing, or in wrong knowledge, wrong understanding, etc. You could be arguing and being logical. You could be looking for proof, or you will have wrong understanding. You will think that things are the way that they are not. Most of the time you impose your own views, ideas, and feelings on others. You think that this is how the things are. This activity of mind is called Viparyaya. You may have an inferiority complex and, thereby, consider someone's behavior very arrogant. Actually, they are not arrogant, and you are not being ill-treated by them. But, you feel that you are being ill-treated. You feel that you have not been respected. It is because you don't respect yourself enough that you think that the others do not respect you. This tendency of your mind is Viparyaya.

          

Others will be shocked by the change in your behavior. They will wonder what has happened to you.

          

A very good friend of your suddenly starts being very rude to you and you wonder what has happened to him. You wonder what is that you have done to cause this. You don't understand that they are imagining thinsgs about you in their minds. It is not becaue they are bad or anything. It is this activity of the Chitta, of the mind becoming predominant.

         

Suddenly,people may feel that they are not being loved. Many parents have this problem with their children. They go so perplexed. They don't know what to do and how to prove their love to their children. Proof is of no importance once Viparyaya dominates. The Pramaana doesn't survive, and logic fails because the mind is now more active on the second modulation, the second Vritti, that is, Viparyaya. Only incorrect information sticks on. The correct knowledge appears briefly somewhere in their minds but returns to the background again, and the wrong information sticks on.

          

मिथ्याज्ञानमतद्रूपप्रतिष्ठम् - This is Viparyaya.

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