By Dinesh Nath

Keep the faith:- Shraddhveerya smrutisamadhiprajnapurvaka itaresham (Sûtra 20) meaning "By faith, by vigour or courage, by memory of having experienced the self and through the deep state of equanimity, a state of heightened awareness is gained." This is a vital sûtra. Shraddha means faith. Faith makes your consciousness stable, steady and solid. Doubt in the consciousness makes you vulnerable, fearful and uncertain. Faith brings out the totality in you. It pulls together all loose ends of consciousness. It integrates your whole personality. Doubt scatters you. Doubt destroys you. Doubt disseminates you and your energy. Doubt is something that pulls you apart. Dissemination of energy is doubt. Consolidation of your energy is faith. Are you getting what I am saying? The very feeling of your having faith is a sort of consolidation. That is why Jesus always said that faith is your strength. They are synonymous — faith and strength. When you are strong and bold, you have faith. ...

In your mind's calm:- The four types of Samadhi that we discussed are 1. vitarknugama samadhi (the calm of mind that you get from special logic), 2. vichrnugama samadhi (equanimous state where you are aware of the thoughts, yet they are not disturbing you), 3. anandnugama samadhi (blissful state) and 4. asmitnugama samadhi (deep experience of meditation with just the awareness that you are). Now, how to achieve these states of Samadhi? The next sutra says it is very simple. Viramapratyabhyasapurvaha samskarasheshonyaha (Sutra 18) meaning the practice of deep rest consciously happens in some people naturally due to old impressions. Just by doing something, you cannot achieve this awareness. You cannot bring up the intelligence or alertness in you by effort. This happens without effort, by relaxation, by reposing in the self. Unconscious rest is sleep, which we are forced by the nature. You are not resting then, you are forced to rest. You are so tired and nature is pulli...

Free your mind:- Is practice alone enough? Patanjali says "No". There are two oxen, which pull a cart. The two wheels of this cart are abhyasa (practice) on one side and vairagya (dispassion) on the other. What is vairagya? Drishtanu shravikavishaya vitrush'asya vashikara sanjna vairagyam (Sutra 15) meaning "dispassion is that state of supremacy of consciousness in the one free from the thirst of the perceptible and celestial enjoyment". The mind gallops towards the world of passion. You just keep quiet, close your eyes or open your eyes or do anything.. Where does your mind go? It travels towards the sense of sight. You want to see something somewhere. Or the mind runs towards he sense of smell, taste, sound and touch. Do you see that? Or it gallops towards something it has heard. It has never seen but it has read some thoughts. This craving for any of these experiences in the mind can stop you from being in the present moment. Vairagya is that, when, for a f...

Discipline, identity and understanding:- Tado drashtuhu swarupe avasthanam (Sutra 3) meaning 'the seer then rests or remains in his/her own nature'. Discipline is to unite yourself, to unite all the loose ends of your existence. Vrutti sarupyamitaratra (Sutra 4) meaning 'You identify yourself with the modulations of the mind all the time'. What this means is that your mind is engaged in the outside world all the time. With eyes open in the waking state you are caught up in all that you see, smell, hear touch, taste. If not, you return to sleep or to the state of dreaming where you are completely shut off from the world. In the sleep and dreaming state, the same memories return but you are never to yourself, calm and quiet. You become the object of your perception. You know, if you see villagers or innocent people or children, when they are watching a movie, they are so totally involved in the movie and nobody exists for them at that time. It is just the movie that exi...

Are you really happy? Or is it all an illusion? A fortnight ago, we told you the story of how Patanjali came to be. We now begin the series on Patanjali's yogasutras Atha yoganushasanam (sutra 1), which means "now I will enunciate the discipline of Yoga". Shasana means rules someone imposes on you.. Anushasana is the rule you impose upon yourself. Do you see the difference? Now, why is yoga called a discipline? Where is the need for discipline? When does the need for discipline arise? When you are thirsty and want to drink water, you do not say "Oh! This is a rule, I must drink water".. When you are hungry you just eat. When it comes to the question of enjoying oneself, no discipline is necessary. Where does discipline come into the picture? Discipline arises when something is not very charming to begin with. Isn't it? When you are happy, when you are in peace or happiness, then you are already in yourself. There is no discipline there. But when the mind is...

Patanjali and the gift of knowledge:- We will begin with a story, the greatest and most effective way of conveying knowledge. Once upon a time, long ago, all the munis and rishis approached Lord Vishnu to tell him that even though He (incarnated as Lord Dhanvanthari) had given them the means to cure illnesses through Ayurveda, people still fell ill. They also wanted to know what to do when people got sick. Sometimes it is not just physical illness, but mental and emotional illness too that needs to be dealt with. Anger, lust, greed, jealousy etc. How does one get rid of all these impurities? What is the formula? Vishnu was lying on the bed of snakes — the serpent Adishésha with a 1,000 heads. When the Rishis approached Him, he gave them Adishésha, the symbol of awareness, who took birth in the world as Maharishi Patanjali. So Patanjali came to this earth to give this knowledge of yoga which came to be known as the yogasutras. Patanjali said he was not going to discuss the yogasutras ...