Desirelessness/Non-attachment - Osho

Pathanjali's Yoga Sutras: Samadhi Pada

Sutra 15: 'Drushtanu shravi vishaya vithrushnasya vasheekara sangna vairagyam'

Non-attachment (Vairagya) is self-mastery; it is freedom from desire for what is seen and heard.

Sutra 16: 'Tath param purusha khyatheh guna vaithushnyam'

When, through knowledge of the Atman, one ceases to desire any manifestation of Nature, then that it is the highest kind of

non-attachment.

Comentary by Osho

Patanjali is not interestedin giving you rules. Whatsoever he is going to say are simple directions – not to be followed, but to

be understood. The following will come out of that understanding. And the reverse cannot happen

– if you follow the rules, understanding will not come, if you understand the rules, the following will

come automatically, as a shadow.

Desirelessness is a direction. If you follow it as a rule, then you will start killing your desires.

Many have done that, millions have done that. They start killing their desires. Then you will be without desires.

But you will be also dead. You have followed the rule exactly, but if you kill all desires you are killing

yourself, you are committing suicide-because desires are not only desires, they are the flow of life

energy. Desirelessness is to be achieved without killing anything. Desirelessness is to be achieved

with more life, with more energy – not less.

For example, you can kill sex easily if you starve the body, because sex and food are deeply related.

Food is needed for your survival, for the survival of the individual, and sex is needed for the survival

of the race, of the species. So if you starve your body, if you give so little food to your body that the energy created by it is

exhausted in day-to-day routine work – your walking, sitting, sleeping – no extra energy accumulates,

then sex will disappear because sex can be there only when the individual is gathering extra energy,

more than he needs for his survival.

Hence, so much attraction for fasting, because if you fast, sex disappears – but this is not

desirelessness. This is just becoming more and more dead, less and less alive.

Then you become habitual for the starvation. And continuously if you do it for years, you will simply

forget that sex exists. No energy is created; no energy moves to the sex center. There is no energy

to move! The person exists just as a dead being. There is no sex.

But this is not what Patanjali means. This is not a desireless state. It is simply an impotent state;

energy is not there. If you give food to the body... You may have starved the body for thirty or forty years

– give right food to the body and sex reappears immediately. You are not changed. The sex is just

hidden there waiting for energy to flow. Whenever energy flows, it will become again alive.

So what is the criterion? The criterion has to be remembered. Be more alive, be more filled with

energy, vital, and become desireless. Only then, if your desirelessness makes you more alive, then

you have followed the right direction. If it makes you simply a dead person, you have followed the

rule. It is easy to follow the rule because no intelligence is required. It is easy to follow the rule

because simple tricks can do it. Fasting is a simple trick. Nothing much is implied in it; no wisdom is

going to come out of it. If you are on fast you will be less angry, and if you become habitual to fasting,

then many things from your life will simply drop

because the base has dropped: food is the base.

When you have more energy, you move in more dimensions. When you are filled with overflowing

energy, your overflowing energy leads you in many, many desires. Desires are nothing but outlets

for energy. So two ways are possible. One is: your desire changes; the energy remains, or energy

is removed, desire remains. Energy can be removed very easily. You can simply be operated,

castrated, and then sex disappears. Some hormones can be removed from your body. And that’s

what fasting is doing – some hormones disappear; then you can become sexless.

But this is not the goal of Patanjali. Patanjali says that energy should remain and the desire

disappears. Only when desire disappears and you are filled with energy you can achieve that blissful

state that yoga aims at. A dead person cannot reach to the divine. The divine can be attained only

through overflowing energy, abundant energy, an ocean of energy.

So this is the second thing to remember continuously – don’t destroy energy, destroy desire. It will

be difficult. It is going to be hard, arduous, because it needs a total transformation of your being.

But Patanjali is for it. So he divides his vairagya, his desirelessness, in two steps. We will enter the

sutra.

THE FIRST STATE OF VAIRAGYA – DESIRELESSNESS: CESSATION FROM SELFINDULGENCE

IN THE THIRST FOR SENSUOUS PLEASURES, WITH CONSCIOUS EFFORT.

Many things are implied and have to be understood. One, the indulgence in sensuous pleasures.

Why you ask for sensuous pleasures? Why the mind constantly thinks about indulgence? Why you

move again and again in the same pattern of indulgences?

For Patanjali and for all those who have known, the reason is that you are not blissful inwardly;

hence, the desire for pleasure. The pleasure-oriented mind means that as you are, in yourself, you

are unhappy. That’s why you go on seeking happiness somewhere else. A person who is unhappy is

bound to move into desires. Desires are the way of the unhappy mind to seek happiness. Of course,

nowhere this mind can find happiness. At the most he can find few glimpses. Those glimpses

appear as pleasure. Pleasure means glimpses of happiness. And the fallacy is that this pleasureseeking

mind thinks that these glimpses and pleasure is coming from somewhere else. It always

comes from within.

Let us try to understand. You are in love with a person. You move into sex. Sex gives you a glimpse

of pleasure; it gives you a glimpse of happiness. For a single moment you feel at ease. All the

miseries have disappeared; all the mental agony is no more. For a single moment you are here and

now, you have forgotten all. For a single moment there is no past and no future. Because of this –

there is no past and no future, and for a single moment you are here and now-from within you the

energy flows. Your inner self flows in this moment, and you have a glimpse of happiness.

But you think that the glimpse is coming from the partner, from the woman or from the man. It is not

coming from the man or from the woman. It is coming from you! The other has simply helped you to

fall into the present, to fall out of future and past. The other has simply helped you, to bring you to

the nowness of this moment.

If you can come to this nowness without sex, sex, by and by will become useless, it will disappear. It

will not be a desire then. If you want to move in it you can move into it as a fun, but not as a desire.

Then there is no obsession in it because you are not dependent on it.

For the modern man even this has become possible – that while making love he can think of other

things. And once you become so capable that while making love you go on thinking of something –

of your accounts in the bank, or you go on talking with a friend, or you go on being somewhere else

while making love here – sex will also be finished. Then it will just be boring, frustrating, because

sex was not the thing. The thing was only this – that because sexual energy moving so fast, your

mind comes to a stop; the sex takes over. The energy flows so fast, so vitally, that your ordinary

patterns of thinking stop.

A constant chattering mind does not

allow any happiness, any possibility of happiness, because only a silent mind can look within, only

a silent mind can hear the silence, the happiness, that is always bubbling there. But it is so subtle

that with the noise of the mind you cannot hear it.

Anything has appeal if it can give you a glimpse. The glimpse may appear to be coming from the

outside; it always comes from within. The outside can only be just a mirror. When happiness flowing

from within is reflected from the outside, it is called pleasure. This is the definition of Patanjali’s –

happiness flowing from within reflected from somewhere in the outside, the outside functioning as a

mirror. And if you think that this happiness is coming from the outside, it is called pleasure. We are

in search of happiness, not in search of pleasure. So unless you can have glimpses of happiness,

you cannot stop your pleasure-seeking efforts. Indulgence means search for pleasure.

A conscious effort is needed. For two things. One: Whenever you feel a moment of pleasure is

there, transform it into a meditative situation. Whenever you feel you are feeling pleasure, happy,

joyful, close your eyes and look within, and see from where it is coming. Don’t lose this moment;

this is precious. If you are not conscious you may continue thinking that it comes from without, and

that’s the fallacy of the world.

If you are conscious, meditative, if you search for the real source, sooner or later you will come to

know it is flowing from within. Once you know that it always flows from within, it is something that

you have already got, indulgence will drop, and this will be the first step of desirelessness. Then

you are not seeking, not hankering. You are not killing desires, you are not fighting with desires, you

have simply found something greater. Desires don’t look so important now. They wither away.

Remember this: they are not to be killed and destroyed; they wither away. Simply you neglect them

because you have a greater source. You are magnetically attracted towards it. Now your whole

energy is moving inwards. The desires are simply neglected.

You are not fighting them. If you fight with them you will never win.

Desires must lose their meaning. If you fight, the meaning is not lost. Or even, on the contrary,

just through fight you may give them more meaning. Then they become more important. This is

happening. Those who fight with any desire, that desire becomes their center of the mind. If you

fight sex, sex becomes the center. Then, continuously, you are engaged in it, occupied with it. It

becomes like a wound. And wherever you look, that wound immediately projects, and whatsoever

you see becomes sexual.

Mind has a mechanism, an old survival mechanism, of fight or flight. Two are the ways of the mind:

either you can fight with something or you can escape from it. If you are strong, then you fight. If you

are weak, then you take flight, then you simply escape. But in both the ways the other is important,

the other is the center. You can fight or you can escape from the world – from the world where

desires are possible; you can go to the Himalayas. That too is a fight, the fight of the weak.

If you are strong, then you are ready to fight. If you are weak, then you are ready to fly, to take

flight. But in both the cases, you are not becoming stronger. In both cases the other has become

the center of your mind. These are the two attitudes fight or flight – and both are wrong because

through both the mind is strengthened.

Patanjali says there is a third possibility: don’t fight and don’t escape. Just be alert. Just be

conscious. Whatsoever is the case, just be a witness. Conscious effort means, one: searching

for the inner source of happiness, and, second: witnessing the old pattern of habits – not fighting it,

just witnessing it.

”Conscious effort” is the key word. Consciousness is needed, and effort is also needed. And the

effort should be conscious because there can be unconscious efforts. You can be trained in such a

way that you can drop certain desires without knowing that you have dropped them.

For example, if you are born in a vegetarian home you will be eating vegetarian food. Non-vegetarian

food is simply not the question. You never dropped it consciously. You have been brought up in such

a way that unconsciously it has dropped by itself. But this is not going to give you some integrity;

this is not going to give you some spiritual strength. Unless you do something consciously, it is not

gained. And consciousness can be gained through effort. If without effort something is conditioned on you,

it is not a gain at all.

So in India there are many vegetarians. Jains, Brahmins, many people are vegetarians. Nothing is

gained because just by being born in a Jain family, being a vegetarian means nothing. It is not a

conscious effort; you have not done anything about it. If you were born into a non-vegetarian family,

you would have taken to non-vegetarian food similarly.

Unless some conscious effort is done, your crystallization never happens. You have to do something

on your own. When you do something on your own, you gain something. Nothing is gained without

consciousness, remember it. It is one of the ultimates. Nothing is gained without consciousness!

You may become a perfect saint, but if you have not become through consciousness, it is futile,

useless. You must struggle inch by inch because through struggle more consciousness will be

needed. And the more consciousness you practice, the more conscious you become. And a moment

comes when you become pure consciousness.

The first step is:

CESSATION FROM SELF-INDULGENCE IN THE THIRST FOR SENSUOUS PLEASURES, WITH

CONSCIOUS EFFORT.

What to do? Whenever you are in any state of pleasure – sex, food, money, power, anything that

gives you pleasure – meditate on it. Just try to find it, from where it is coming. You are the source,

or the source is somewhere else? If the source is somewhere else, then there is no possibility of

any transformation because you will remain dependent to the source.

But, fortunately, the source is not anywhere else, it is within you. If you meditate, you will find it. It

is knocking every moment from within, that ”I am here!” Once you have the feeling that it is there

knocking every moment – and you were creating only situations outside in which it was happening

– it can happen without situations. Then you need not depend on anybody, on food, on sex, on

power, anything. You are enough unto yourself. Once you have come to this feeling, the feeling of

enoughness, indulgence – the mind to indulge, the indulgent mind – disappears.

That doesn’t mean you will not enjoy food. You will enjoy more. But now food is not the source of

your happiness, you are the source. You are not dependent on food, you are not addicted to it.

That doesn’t mean you will not enjoy sex. You can enjoy more, but now it is fun, play; it is just a

celebration. But you are not dependent on it, it is not the source. And once two persons, two lovers,

can find this – that the other is not the source of their pleasure – they stop fighting with the other.

They start loving the other for the first time.

Otherwise you cannot love a person upon whom you are dependent in any way. You will hate,

because he is your dependence. Without him you cannot be happy. So he has the key, and a

person who has the key of your happiness is your jailer. Lovers fight because they look that the

other has the key and, ”He can make me happy or unhappy.” Once you come to know that you are

the source and the other is the source of his own happiness, you can share your happiness; that’s

another thing, but you are not dependent. You can share. You can celebrate together. That’s what

love means: celebrating together, sharing together – not driving from each other, not exploiting each

other.

Because exploitation cannot be love. Then you are using the other as a means, and whomsoever

you use as a means, he will hate you. Lovers hate each other because they are using, exploiting

each other, and love – which should be the deepest ecstasy – becomes the ugliest hell. But once

you know that you are the source of your happiness, no one else is the source, you can share it

freely. Then the other is not your enemy, not even an intimate enemy. For the first time friendship

arises, you can enjoy anything.

And you will be able to enjoy only when you are free. Only an independent person can enjoy. A

person who is mad and obsessed with food cannot enjoy. He may fill his belly, but cannot enjoy.

This is the first step, with effort. Consciousness and effort, you achieve desirelessness. Patanjali

says this is the first because even effort, even consciousness, is not good, because it means that

some struggle, some hidden struggle, is on still.

The second and last step of vairagya, the last state of desirelessness:

CESSATION OF ALL DESIRING BY KNOWING THE INNERMOST NATURE OF PURUSHA, THE

SUPREME SELF.

First you have to know that you are the source of all happiness that happens to you. Second, you

have to know the total nature of your inner self. First, you are the source. Second, ”What is this

source?” First, just this much is enough, that you are the source of your happiness. And second,

what this source is in its totality, this purusha, inner self is: ”Who am ’I’?” in its totality.

Once you know this source in its totality, you have known all. Then the whole universe is within, not

only happiness. Then all that exists, exists within – not only happiness. Then God is not somewhere

sitting in the clouds, he exists within. Then you are the source, the root source of all. Then you are

the center.

And once you become the center of existence, once you know that you are the center of existence, all

misery has disappeared. Now desirelessness becomes spontaneous, SAHAJ. No effort, no striving,

no maintaining is needed. It is so; it has become natural. You are not pulling it or pushing it. Now

there is no ”I” who can pull and push.

Remember this: struggle creates ego. If you struggle in the world, it creates a gross ego: ”I am

someone with money, with prestige, with power.” If you struggle within, it creates a subtle ego: ”I am

pure; I am a saint, I am a sage,” but ”I” remains with struggle. So there are pious egoists who have a

very subtle ego. They may not be worldly people. They are not; they are otherworldly. But struggle

is there. They have achieved something. That achievement still carries the last shadow of ”I”.

The second step and the final step of desirelessness for Patanjali is total disappearance of the ego.

Just nature flowing. No ”I”, no conscious effort. That doesn’t mean you will not be conscious, you

will be perfect consciousness – but no effort implied of being conscious. There will be no selfconsciousness

– pure consciousness. You have accepted yourself and existence as it is.A total acceptance.

the river flowing toward the sea. It is not making

any effort; it is not in any hurry to reach the sea. Even if it doesn’t reach, it will not get frustrated.

Even if it reaches in millions of years, everything is okay. The river is simply flowing because flowing

is its nature. No effort is there. It will go on flowing.

When desires for the first time are noted and observed effort arises, a subtle effort. Even the first

step is a subtle effort. You start trying to be aware, ”From where my happiness is coming?” You

have to do something, and that doing will create the ego. That’s why Patanjali says that is only

the beginning, and you must remember that is not the end. In the end, not only have desires

disappeared, you also have disappeared. Only the inner being has remained in its flow.

This spontaneous flow is the supreme ecstasy because no misery is possible for it. Misery comes

through expectation, demand. There is no one to expect, to demand, so whatsoever happens, it is

good. Whatsoever happens, it is a blessing. You cannot compare with anything else, it is the case.

And because there is no comparing with the past and with the future – there is no one to compare –

you cannot look at anything as misery, as pain. Even if pain happens in that situation, it will not be

painful. Try to understand this. This is difficult. Pain is there, but he cannot suffer.

This may look mysterious, but this is not; this is simple. Pain is

there. suffering means resistance. You must resist something, only then

you can suffer. Try it.

You have a pain in the leg or in the head you have headache. You may not have observed the

mechanism of it. You have headache, and you constantly struggle and resist. You don’t want it. You

are against it, you divide. You are somewhere standing within the head and the headache is there.

You are separate and the headache is separate, and you insist that it should not be so. This is the

real problem.

You try once not to fight. Flow with the headache; become the headache. And say, ”This is the

case. This is how my head is at this moment, and at this moment nothing is possible. It may go in

future, but in this moment headache is there.” Don’t resist. Allow it to happen; become one with it.

Don’t pull yourself separate, flow into it. And then there will be a sudden upsurge of a new type of

happiness you have not known. When there is no one to resist, even headache is not painful. The

fight creates the pain. The pain means always fighting against the pain – that’s the real pain.

This is the destiny. This is what in the

East they have always called fate, bhagya, the kismat. So there is no point in arguing with your fate,

there is no point in fighting it. You cannot do anything; it is happening. Only one thing is possible for

you – you can flow with it or you can fight with it. If you fight, it becomes more agony. If you flow with

it, the agony is less. And if you can flow totally, agony has disappeared. You have become the flow.

Try it when you have a headache, try it when you have an ill body, try it when you have some pain –

just flow with it. And once, if you can allow, you will have come to one of the most deepest secrets

of life-that pain disappears if you flow with it. And if you can flow totally, pain becomes happiness.

But this is not something logical to be understood. You can comprehend it intellectually, but that

won’t do. Try it existentially. There are everyday situations. Every moment something is wrong.

Flow with it, and see how you transform the whole situation. And through that transformation you

transcend it.

A Buddha can never be in pain; that is impossible. Only an ego can be in pain. Ego is a must to

be in pain. And if the ego is there you can transform your pleasures also into pain; if the ego is not

there you can transform your pains into pleasures. The secret lies with the ego.

THE LAST STATE OF VAIRAGYA, DESIRELESSNESS: CESSATION OF ALL DESIRING BY

KNOWING THE INNERMOST NATURE OF PURUSHA, THE SUPREME SELF.

How it happens? Just by knowing the innermost core of yourself, the purusha, the dweller within.

Just by knowing it! Patanjali says, Buddha says, Lao Tzu says, just by knowing it all desires

disappear.

This is mysterious, and the logical mind is bound to ask how it can happen just by knowing

themselves all desires disappear. It happens because now knowing themselves all desires have

arisen. Desires are simply the ignorance of the self. Why? All that you are seeking through desires

is there, hidden in the self. If you know the self, desires will disappear.

For example, you are asking for power. Everybody is asking for power. Power creates madness in

everybody. It seems to be just human society has existed in such a way that everybody is poweraddicted.

The child is born; the child is helpless. This is the first feeling you all carry always with you. The

child is born, he is helpless, and a helpless child wants power. That’s natural because everybody is

more powerful than him. The mother is powerful, the father is powerful, the brothers are powerful,

everybody is powerful, and the child is absolutely helpless. Of course, the first desire that arises is

to have power – how to grow powerful how to be dominating. And the child starts being political from

that very moment. He starts learning tricks how to dominate.

If he cries too much, he comes to know that he can dominate through crying. He can dominate

the whole house just by crying. He learns crying. And women continue it even when they are not

children. They have learned the secret, and they continue it. And they have to continue it because

they remain helpless. That’s power politics.

He knows a trick, and he can create disturbance. And he can create such a disturbance that you

have to accept and compromise with him. And every moment he feels deeply that the only thing

that is needed is power, more power. He will learn, he will go to school, he will grow he will love, but

behind everything – his education love, play – he will be finding how to get more power. Through

education he will want to dominate, how to come first in the class so he can be dominating, how to

get more money so he can be dominating, how to go on growing the influence and the territory of

domination. The whole life he will be after power.

Many lives are simply wasted. And even if you get power, what you are going to do? Simply a

childish wish is fulfilled. So when you become a Napoleon or a Hitler, suddenly you become aware

that the whole effort has been useless, futile. Just a childish wish has been fulfilled, that’s all. Now

what to do? What to do with this power? If the wish is fulfilled you are frustrated. If the wish is not

fulfilled you are frustrated, and it cannot be fulfilled absolutely, because no one can be so powerful

that he can feel, ”Now it is enough” – no one! The world is so complex that even a Hitler feels

powerless in moments, even a Napoleon will feel powerless in moments. Nobody can feel absolute

power, and nothing can satisfy you.

But when somebody comes to know one’s self, one comes to know the source of absolute power.

Then the desire for power disappears because you were already a king and you were only thinking

that you were a beggar. And you were struggling to be a bigger beggar, a greater beggar, and

you were already the king. Suddenly you come to realize that you don’t lack anything. You are not

helpless. You are the source of all energies, you are the very source of life. That childhood feeling of

powerlessness was created by others. And it is a vicious circle they created in you because it was

created in them by their parents, and so on and so forth.

Your parents are creating the feeling in you that you are powerless. Why? Because only through this

they can feel they are powerful. You may be thinking that you love children very much. That doesn’t

seem to be the case. You love power, and when you get children, when you become mothers and

fathers, you are powerful. Nobody may be listening to you; you may be nothing in the world, but at

least in the boundaries of your home you are powerful. You can at least torture small children.

And look at fathers and mothers: they torture! And they torture in such a loving way that you cannot

even say to them that ”You are torturing.” They are torturing for ”their own good”, for the children’s

own good! They are helping them to grow. They feel powerful. Psychologists say that many people

go to the teaching profession just to feel powerful, because thirty children at your disposal, you are

just a king.

Look! Go into a school! The teacher sitting on his chair-and absolute power, just the master of

everything that is happening there. People want children not because they love, because if they

love, really, the world will be totally different. If you love your child the world will be totally different.

You will not help him to be helpless, to feel helpless, you will give him so much love that he would

feel he is powerful. If you give love, then he will never be asking for power.

He will not try to accumulate money and go mad after it,

because he knows it is useless – he is already powerful; love is enough.

But nobody is giving love, then he will create substitutes. All your desires, whether of power, of

money, prestige, they all show that something had been taught to you in your childhood, something

has been conditioned in your bio-computer and you are following that conditioning without looking

inside, that whatsoever you are asking is already there.

Patanjali’s whole effort is to put your bio-computer in silence so that it doesn’t interfere. This is what

meditation is. It is putting your bio-computer, for certain moments, into silence, into a non-chattering

state, so that you can look within and hear your deepest nature. Just a glimpse will change you

because then this biocomputer cannot deceive you. This bio-computer goes on saying that, ”Do

this, do that!” It goes on continuously manipulating you, that ”You must have more power; otherwise

you are nobody.”

If you look within, there is no need to be anybody; there is no need to be somebody. You are already

accepted as you are. The whole existence accepts you, is happy about you. You are a flowering

– an individual flowering, different from any other, unique, and God welcomes you; otherwise you

could not be here. You are here only because you are accepted. You are here only because God

loves you or the universe loves you or the existence needs you. You are needed.

Once you know your innermost nature, what Patanjali calls the purusha – the purusha means the

inner dweller... The body is just a house. The inner dweller, the inner-dwelling consciousness, is

purusha. Once you know this inner-dwelling consciousness, nothing is needed. You are enough,

more than enough. You are perfect as you are. You are absolutely accepted, welcomed. The

existence becomes a blessing. Desires disappear; they were part of self-ignorance. With selfknowledge,

they disappear, they evaporate.

Abhyasa, constant inner practice, conscious effort to be more and more alert, to be more and more

master of oneself, to be less and less dominated by habits, by mechanical, robot-like mechanisms –

and vairagya, desirelessness: these two attained one becomes a yogi; these two attained one has

attained the goal.

I will repeat: but don’t create a fight. Allow all this happening to be more and more spontaneous.

Don’t fight with the negative. Rather, create the positive. Don’t fight with sex, with food, with anything.

Rather, find out what it is that gives you happiness, from where it comes – move in that direction.

Desires, by and by, go on disappearing.

And second: be more and more conscious. Whatsoever is happening, be more and more conscious.

And remain in that moment, and accept that moment. Don’t ask for something else. You will not be

creating misery then. If pain is there, let it be there. Remain in it and flow in it. The only condition is,

remain alert. Knowingly, watchfully, move into it, flow into it. Don’t resist!

When pain disappears, the desire for pleasure also disappears. When you are not in anguish, you

don’t ask for indulgence. When anguish is not there, indulgence becomes meaningless. And more

and more you go on falling into the inner abyss. And it is so blissful, it is such a deep ecstasy, that

even a glimpse of it and the whole world becomes meaningless. Then all that this world can give to

you is of no use.

And this should not become a fighting attitude – you should not become a warrior, you should

become a meditator. If you are meditating, spontaneously things will happen to you which will go on

transforming and changing you.

Remember, if you are miserable, you have created all this. Let it penetrate deep in your heart

that you have created your sufferings because this is going to be the formula, the key. If you have

created your sufferings, only then can you destroy it. If someone else has created them, you are

helpless. You have created your miseries, you can destroy them. You have created them through

wrong habits, wrong attitudes, addictions, desires.

Drop this pattern! Look fresh! And this very life is the ultimate joy that is possible to human

consciousness.

Practice and Non-attachment

Pathanjali's Yoga Sutras, Samadhi pada

We have seen all five types of thoughts of our mind. Now we will find out how can these thought-waves can be controlled. One main thing to remember: controlling should not be done forceably. If it is forceably suppressed, it will pop-out with more and more energy and increased in number and gives more torture to the mind. So here Pathanjali is giving following solutions for this.

Sutra 12: 'Abhyasa vairagyabhyam tath nirodhah'

They(thought-waves) are controlled by means of practice and non-attachment.

Sutra 13: 'Tatra sthithou yathno abhyasah'

Practice is the repeated effort to follow the disciplines which give permanent control of the thought-waves of the mind.

Sutra 14: 'Sa thu Dheerga kala nairantharya satkara sevitho drudabhoommmih'

Practice becomes firmly grounded when it has been cultivated for a long time, uninterruptedly, with earnest devotion.

Sutra 15: 'Drushtanushravika vishayavitrushnasya vasheekaara sanjna vairagyam'

Non-attachment is self-mastery; it is freedom from desire for what is seen or heard.

Explanations:

The waves of the mind can be made to flow in two opposite directions- either toward the objective world ("the will to desire") or toward true self knowledge("the will to liberation"). Therefore for the beginners of Yoga/Meditation, both Practice and Non-attachment are necessary. In Bhagavadgita, when Arjuna asked this same question, 'How to control the thought-waves of the mind?' Krishna gives the same answer that, "only through Practice and non-attachment". Thus the solution is the universal one.

Only we need to involved in practice and non-attachment, with awareness. This is the key point.

The spiritual disciplines which are to practice will be discussed in next chapter. They are known as the eight "limbs" of Yoga (Ashtanga Yoga: Yama, Niyama, Pranayama etc).

Non-attachment is the exercise of discrimination. We gradually gain control of the 'painful' or impure thought-waves by asking ourselves: "Why do I really desire that object? What permanent advantages should I gain by possessing it? In what way would its possession help me toward greater knowledge and freedom?" The answers to these questions are always disconcerting. They show us that the desired object is not only useless as a means to liberation but potentially harmful as a means to ignorance and bondage; and further, that our desire is not really desire for the object-in-itself at all, but only a desire to desire something, a mere restlessness in the mind. It is fairly easy to reason all this out in a calm moment.

The practice of non-attachment gives value and significance to even the most ordinary incidents of the dullest day. It eliminates boredom from our lives. And as we progress and gain increasing self-mastery, we shall see that we are renouncing nothing that we really need or want; we are only freeing ourselves from imaginary needs and desires.

Thankful to Existence,

Savita

Thought waves of the mind

Pathanjali had mentioned totally five types of thought-waves, through following Sutras.

Sutra 6: 'Pramana viparyaya vikalpa nidra smruthayah'

These five kinds of thought-waves are:

1) Right knowledge

2) Wrong knowledge

3) Verbal delusion

4) Sleep

5) Memory

Sutra 7: 'Prathyaksha anumaanaagamaah pramanani'

The right kinds of knowledge are, direct perception, inference and scriptural testimony.

Whatever our senses perceive is right knowledge, provided that there has been no element of delusion. whatever we infer from our direct perception is also right knowledge, provided that our reasoning is correct. The scriptures are based upon the super conscious knowledge obtained by great spiritual teachers while in the state of perfect yoga. Therefore they are also right knowledge. They represent a kind of direct perception far more immediate than the perception of the senses.

Sutra 8: 'Viparyayo mithyajnanam athadrupa prathishtam'

Wrong knowledge is knowledge which is false and not based upon the true nature of its object. The classical example given in yoga literature is that of a piece of rope which is mistaken for a snake. In this case, wrong knowledge will cause us to fear the rope and avoid it or try to kill it. Thus wrong knowledge is far away from the truth.

Sutra 9: 'Shabdhajnanaanupathi vasthushoonyo vikalpah'

Verbal delusion arises when words do not correspond to the reality.

A common form of verbal delusion is jumping to conclusions. We hear somebody speaking and form a hasty and inaccurate picture of his meaning. In political speeches one often finds a double verbal delusion: the speaker believes that his words correspond to one reality, the audience attaches them to another - and both are wrong. These verbal delusions are empty words and descriptions, imaginations, hallucinatory expressions, which have no corresponding reality. But they may appear realistic or inspiring or satisfying. Actually they are far from the reality, hence they are least trustworthy.

Sutra 10: 'Abhava prathyayaalambana vritti nidra'

Sleep is a wave of thought about nothingness. That is to say, a dreamless sleep is not an absence of thoughts, but a positive experience of nothingness. It cannot be confused with the wave less state of yoga. If there were no thought-waves in the mind during sleep, we should not wake remembering that we knew nothing. Such continuity of thoughtless experience makes it necessary for us to admit a permanent Self underlying all contents of consciousness.

Sutra 11: 'Anubhutha vishyaa sampramoshah smruthih'

Memory is when perceived objects are not forgotten, but come back to consciousness.

Memory is a kind of secondary thought-wave. A wave of direct perception causes a smaller ripple or series of ripples. The thought-wave of sleep also causes smaller ripples, which we call dreams. Dreaming is nothing but remembering in your sleep. So memory gives the same impact on the mind, as at the time of the original experience, but with or without the original details and emotional responses.

Try to understand these Sutras, if you find difficulty in understanding, please reply to this post.

From next few Sutras, we will come to know how to attain thoughtless state.

Its enough for today.

bye now.

Painful and Not painful thoughts

I thought of posting only one Sutra at a time. The whole chapter contains all related Sutras of Samadhi only. But we will go one by one. But sometimes two or more sutras are inter-related.

Thats why I need to give whole idea by mentioning all related Sutras. So here I am giving the meaning of 2 Sutras.

Sutra 4: "Vritti sarupyamitartra"

At other times, when he is not in the state of Yoga, man remains identified with the thought-waves in the mind. He thinks that he is this body, mind, senses and thoughts. So he is ignorant and not in Yoga.

Sutra 5: "Vrittayah panchatayyah klishtaaklishtah"

There are five kinds of thought waves - some are painful, others are not painful.

When a person identify himself with his mind, it is painful. Here Pathanjali is saying that sorrowful thought waves are not necessarily "painful"; But the thought wave which brings with it an increased degree of ignorance, addiction and bondage. Similarly, a wave which seems painful at first may actually belong to the category of those which are "not painful", provided that it impels the mind towards greater freedom and knowledge. For example, Pathanjali would describe a lustful thought-wave as "painful", because lust, even after satisfied, causes addiction, bondage, jealousy to the person desired. A wave of pity, on the other hand, would be described as "not painful", because pity is an unselfish emotion which loosens the bonds of our own egotism. We may suffer deeply when we see others suffering, but out pity wil teach us understanding and hence, freedom.

This distinction between the thought waves is very important when we come to actual practice of yoga. The thought-waves are cannot all be controlled at once. We just need to observe and let go; but not to attach with it. First, we have to overcome the "painful" thought-waves by raising waves which are "not painful". To our thoughts of anger,desire, and delusion we must oppose thoughts of love, generosity and truth.

The idea that we should ultimately have to overcome even those thought-waves which are good, pure and truthful by observing in us. Because these thoughts still having ego-sense behind them. Thus the idea is to have the thought-less state. The mind of the truly illuminated man is calm- not because he is selfishly indiffrent to the needs of others, but because he knows the peace of the Atman within all things, even within the appearance of misery,disease.strife and want.

Now we need to go step by step as described in these Sutras.

Sutra 3 of Samadhi Pada

Sutra 3: "Tadha drushtuh swarupe avasthanam"

The meaning of this Sutra is 'Then man abides in his real nature.'

When the lake of the mind becomes clear and still, man knows himself as he really is, always was and always will be. He knows that he is the Atman. His personality, his mistaken belief in himself as separate, unique individual, disappears. His body is only a outer covering, a coat or a mask, which he can assume or lay aside as he chooses. Such a man is known as a free, illuminated soul.

For all these things to happen, first thing needed is Yoga of getting Sadguru and Satsanga. Then by doing Sadhana and Seva, one can attain Moksha. If we observe our thought-wave consciously, that disappears automatically. Then there will be silence in the mind. Thats is the state of bliss and awareness. With the knowledge of seer and seen, we can understand the Atman in each and every living beings. Then this mind becomes only slave for that Atman. We can use whenever we want and keep aside when it is not needed. Now mind identifies with the Atman rather than this body. When this happens, for whom and where there is a bondage? so we are liberated.

So be watchful with awareness, of your thoughts. Be aware of your vasanas. Know that which is real and unreal. Then starts the real life.

Sutra 2 of Samadhi Pada

Now we will go the next Sutra 2.

Sutra 2: "Yaga chitta Vrutti Norodhah"

This is the famous sutra of Pathanjali. When the mind is silent, when there is no flow of thoughts, yoga happens. Thus yoga means controlling the movements of thoughts, then automatically mind is peaceful. All creatures in the world struggles to get peace and happiness.

They does not even know that they have mind, which is full of thoughts. That is the misery of their life.

So Pathanjali gives finest sutra for all beings is controlling the thought flow of mind. According to him, Chitta(mind) is made up of three components, manas, buddhi and ahamkara. These four constitute the Anthahkarana, which is the centre point of all living beings. Manas is the recording faculty, which receives impressions gathered by the senses from the outside world. Buddhi is the discriminative faculty, which classifies these impressions and reacts to them. Ahamkara is the ego-sense which claims these impressions for its own and stores them up as individual knowledge. For Ex: Manas reports: 'There is one object to see'. Buddhi decides: 'That is a beautiful flower. That is rose.' Ahamkara tells: 'I should take this flower. I look beautiful'.

The mind seems to be intelligent and conscious. Yoga philosophy teaches that it is not. It has only borrowed intelligence. The Atman is intelligence itself, is pure consciousness. The mind reflects that consciousness and so appears to be conscious.

Knowledge or perception is a thought wave (vritti) in the mind (chitta). All knowledge is therefore objective. Every perception arouses the ego-sense, which says: 'I know this'. But this is the ego speaking, not the Atman, the real Self. As the electric current is present in the light bulb, the Atman is in all things, everywhere.

When an event or object in the external world is recorded by the senses, a thought-wave is raised in the mind. The ego-sense identifies itself with this wave. If the thought wave is pleasant, the ego-sense feels, "I am happy", if the the wave is unpleasant, " I am unhappy". This false identification is the cause of all our misery. For even the sensation of happiness brings anxiety, a desire to cling to the object of pleasure, and this prepares future possibilities of becoming unhappy. The real Self, the Atman, remains forever outside the power of thought-waves. it is eternally pure, free, the only true, unchanging happiness.

In order to become enlightened we must bring thought waves under control, so that this false identification may cease. If the surface of lake is lashed into waves, the watter becomes muddy and the bottom cannot be seen. Here, the lake represents the mind and the bottom of the lake the Atman.

With this Pathanjali concludes that the controlling of the thought waves in the mind, itself is Yoga.

Yoga and Its Aims

Guruji told me to take this topic, when I got bore of writing Bhagavadgita. So I started reading the Yoga Sutras online, but I could understand upto 15 sutras. After I felt my mind is empty, not able to make any meanings to other sutras. Now I have inspired by guruji , I have created this new blog for posting Yoga Sutras of Pathanjali one by one. I pray to God to give me Jnana to understand the these pearls of wisdom given by Pathanjali. I am going to refer 'Pathanjali Yoga Sutras' book written by Swami Prabhavananda.

The simplest meaning of word Sutra is 'thread' of an exposition, the absolute minimum that is necessary to hold it together, unadorned by a single bead of elaboration. Only essential words are used. The entire work had to be memorized, and so it had to be expressed as tersely as possible.

Tha Sutras are built on a foundation of Samkya philosophy and also exhibit the influence of Upanishadic, Buddhist and Jain thought. The five yamas or the constraints of the yoga sutras Pathanjali bear resemblance to the five major vows of Jainism, indicating influences of Jainism. And also the division into the Eight Limbs of Yoga (Second Chapter, Ashtanga yoga) is reminiscent of Buddha's Noble Eightfold Path. This shows Buddhism's influence on parts of the Sutras (aphorisms).

Pathanjali divided his sutras into 4 chapetrs(or Pada).

1) Samadhi Pada (on Conteplation)

Samadhi refers to a blissful state where Yogi is absorbed into one.

2) Sadhana Pada (on Spiritual practices)

Sadhana is the Sanskrit word for 'Practice' or 'discipline'. Here the author outlines two forms of Yoga: Kriya (Action)Yoga and Ashtanga (Eightfold or Eight limbed) Yoga.

3) Vibhuti Pada (on Divine Powers)

Vibhuti is the Sanskrit word for 'Power' or 'manifestation'. Super normal powers are acquired by the practice of Yoga, but the temptation of these powers should be avoided and the attention should be fixed only on liberation.

4) Kaivalya Pada (on Realization or liberation)

Kaivalya literally means 'isolation', but as used in the Sutras stands for liberation or moksha, which is the goal of Yoga.

Let us start with the Samadhi pada.

Sutra 1: " Athah Yoganushasanam"

Basically Yoga means 'Union'. A yoga is a method by which an individual may become united with Godhood, the existence, the Reality which underlies this apparent, ephemeral universe. To achieve such a union is to reach the state of perfect Yoga. and one who practices yoga is called a yogi.

My meaning:

The yoga is having the right time to get united with the existence. That is getting the Sadguru at the right time itself is union with the existence. After getting Sadguru there is no time to get united. He will take care of you. Until then one has to come again and again in many lives. Thus one should show gratitude towards existence if he given Sadguru, by the existence in this birth only. This appearance of Sadguru is what we call grace of God.