After so much of speaking I don’t know what lecture I have to give and from where do I start with.

Friends, when we were reciting these slokas we came across one of the Upanishadic stanzas, a small stanza ending with these three really important sentences, where a seeker, one who is really doing the sadhana, the one who really wants to know the core of reality asks the Lord to bless:

Asato mā sad gamayam –
tamaso mā jyotir gamayam –
mrtyor mā amrtam gamayam (1.)

Let us understand the meaning of it where a seeker is requesting, Guru and sisya both together are requesting:

Asato mā sad gamayam

From all this which is unreal, from this unreality lead us towards reality.

Tamaso mā jyotir gamayam

Lead us from this tamas, from this darkness to light, towards jyoti, towards luminosity, towards illumination. Tamas, the tamo guna, which signifies the darkness in which all of us are getting drawn into.

The third saying is:

Mrtyor mā amrtam gamayam.

Lead us from death to deathlessness.

All of us know: we are getting caught in the cycle of birth and death. And as we get caught in this cycle of birth and death, every time we’re carrying something or the other, so wherever there’s a birth, there’s a death. A moment a baby is born, even if we don’t want to utter it, it’s the fact that one day it’s going to die. So the disciple is asking: Lead us towards where there is no death. Where there is only pure existence:

Mrtyor mā amrtam gamayam!

In the Katha Upanishad the child Nachiketa asks his father, when he is performing the sacrifice (yajna), “To whom are you going to sacrifice me?” To whom are you going to give me? When the boy questions several times, the father gets annoyed and says, ”I am going to give you to the God of Death”.

As sometimes children, when they come to their parents and going on asking something or the other – in the same way Nachiketa kept on asking. “I will give you to the God of Death” (dana means giving). Being young, Nachiketa takes it as a reality and approaches himself to the God of Death. And here, in the Katha Upanishad, everything is explained as to how the God of Death brings the luminosity to Nachiketa.

We all are sailing in the same boat. In which way we are sailing? In which way we are going in the same boat? We are not as intelligent as Nachiketa was, as devoted as Nachiketa was, but this is what our tamas is, our ajnana is, our ignorance is, since we take it for granted that we are living forever. The truth of death is not acceptable for us since we think that our existence is permanent. Whatever is impermanent, we take it as permanent, which is called avidya.

But at least Nachiketa was so much honest that he wanted to find out, he wanted to know from the God of Death: what is life and what is death, and if he has to get rid of death, what else he has to do and that is how Yama, the God of Death, explains to him that how his approach has to be in life.

What are we really learning from this Upanishad? When we started this convention so many questions came in front of me, regarding health problems and I was forced since there was no time otherwise to answer so many questions, that we started the question-answer-session. I absolutely agree with those people who are suffering and having pain that they want some solace, want some answers. Of course we need a reply for those questions. Some of the questions I had to drop saying that it is an individual problem. Individual problematic diseases have to be dealt with practically. Of course, these answers seem to be straight forward. But not every problem of every human being can be dealt with by a human being.

I am also a human being as you are. That’s why, how much I struggle myself to answer each question, there are limitations. We normally take it for granted that yoga is something which gives us solutions to problems, or cures diseases. And with this frame of mind, we approach the very subject of yoga.

But there is something we have to know beyond that. Something that is not just a solution to a disease – although we have tried to find out an extracted something which is a kind of treatment to certain diseases. And there are quite a few who approach yoga towards the end of their life, knowing very well, that there is no more doubt about how long they will be in this world. And yet they start to do yoga towards the end of their life.

So this inner hidden desire, to be permanent in this world and therefore seeking the path of yoga, is one part and the second part is that yoga is something you will be benefitted if you continue to do. In which way benefitted might be a big problem, but otherwise this is the inner urge of us that we should do something. So, when I said that this feeling of permanency, when something is impermanent, that is called avidya. Though I appreciate those people who came and took to yoga towards the end of their life, still there was some inner zeal, that we may survive another few days.

That means the ray of hope always remains in us as far as the truth is concerned. The truth is that there is impermanency and we want permanency. That means in very avidya there is something hidden like vidya. We accept from inside that there is impermanency, noneternality and yet we want some eternality to search for. One of the Hindi poets says: Oh man, until when you are going to search, when you don’t know which is your real house, a real home. Because even a single hope, a single ray of hope is enough to take you away from that which is your real home. Why did he say that in this body, in our existence, there is a home, there is a receding place and that is the soul? Often we forget that soul. It might be that we are always seeking something, which is not the soul at all. That is called avidya. So what I’m pointing at is this: all these days where we dealt with the question-and-answer session or in the classes, when you wanted to know how to get rid of the pain problems, diseases, sorrows, there comes the path of yoga which is guiding us in a very different way: We have to know why we have the sufferings. It’s not that we invite the sufferings, but it is there already: pain, problems, sufferings, etc.

Kama – Vasana – Viveka – Karma

There were quite a few questions about karma, vasana, viveka. You know karma of course, you know the action. Somebody asked that question, “How to purify ourselves as we are caught in the karmas?” Karma is given the meaning destiny also, and here it is not wrong to call karma destiny. Whichever karmas we have already done, we have invited the destiny according to those karmas. We write our destiny, nobody writes destiny for us. Because it totally depends upon our karma. As a practitioner of yoga we have to accept certain elemental, fundamental truths. If we question ourselves, “Why are we like this?”, even if we think about some great principles, yet our cause of action pulls us in a different direction. Why does this cause of action pull us in a different direction? In the city the rules are made by the government. But we are the governors of ourselves and we create the path of ourselves and we will walk on that path. In other words: every individual is responsible for one’s own individual destiny.

Many questions came about how you have this pain, whether you should do this asana, what has to be added, what has to be omitted, what has to be adopted etc. Because we fail to understand ourselves, that’s why we want the ready-made answer, whether we can have some solution.

Patanjali says: Klesamulah karmasayah drsta adrsta janma vedaniyah (2.12) (2.)

This is the sutra that we have to always remember. Though you may approach your teacher with your problems, your pains. But this is the answer whether it’s a question of your familiar, financial or physical problem, disease, pain, sorrows, whatever you are suffering from. We only take it out, saying that, “oh…this is my suffering, is there any answer for it?” But as students of yoga you have to remember this sutra in your mind: Klesamulah karmasayah drsta adrsta janma vedaniyah (2.12) At least this birth is known to us since we are living just now and watching our own life. It is a known birth, a known life to us, but there are unknown lives in the past, and unknown lives in the future as well, drsta and adrsta. Seen lives and unseen lives, seen experiences, unseen experiences. And that’s why life is a continuous process. Every life of ours is a continuous process in which death is a kind of full stop, ending with this sentence of life. As I give a lecture and talk to you, after every sentence there is a full stop. And when the full  top comes, the next sentence begins. In the same manner our life is a single flow, that is the second part we are supposed to remember, that the full stops come after the sentences end. But that full stop is not a permanent full stop. As the sentence ends a new sentence begins, a life ends, and a new life begins. And this truth, if we keep it in our mind with that firmness, gives us a great hope and on this we can build up our own future, having known this reality.

So what is Patanjali exactly indicating? He says that as we keep on doing the karmas, every karma will be having its fruit. So, you sow the seed, the tree comes up and it will give some kind of fruit. Could be a flower or a tree, giving a good fragrance, a flower giving a bad fragrance, or a tree, giving a good fruit or another tree giving a bad fruit. So for every karma there is fructification which gives the fruit to us. This is the next truth to know, we understand how yoga practice has to be. Since every karma is going to give the fruit as we say, if we put a good tree in the garden, it will definitely give us a good fruit, and that’s why we’re going to buy that kind of seed, a seed which has got a definite answer to say that this will be giving you a good tree.

So, the seed of our next life is also in our hand. So first of all you should know that when you are practicing yoga, you should not all the time question, “How am I going to get rid of the problems, pains, muscle pull, in this part and that part of the body?” You have to search definitely the real fact: where are you going wrong, doing wrong, where you need to be correct, etc. However, the ready-made answers that we want to seek will be a wrong approach. You have to keep on practicing, refining, so that this kind of problem does not arise. And that is called karma-shuddhi.

The base for all this to correct ourselves, to bring the purification in the action is asthanga yoga, the eight aspects of yoga: yama-niyama-asana-pranayama-pratyahara-dharanadhyana and samadhi. It becomes necessary for us to adopt all the eight aspects as Patanjali has explained it:

Yoganganusthanat asuddhiksaye jnanadiptih avivekakhyateh (3.)

It’s the second sutra we have to consider. However, remember the first sutra:

Klesamulah karmasayah drsta adrsta janma vedaniyah (2.12).

What is the answer, what is the reply for that sutra?

Yoganganusthanat asuddhiksaye jnanadiptih avivekakhyateh (2.28)

These two sutras give answers that when we suffer, when we have problems, pains, what has to be done: You have to do asthanga-yoga. I’m not talking about asthanga-yoga which is used as a proper noun in these days. But any yoga is asthanga-yoga. First of all, remember that. There cannot be yoga without these eight aspects. Somebody does karma-yoga, somebody does jnana-yoga and somebody does bhakti-yoga. Those names were given by us, but it is not so. Every human being, whether one is a karmayogi, jnana-yogi or bhaktan. It is us who give the names. But the base, are these eight aspects. So, when Patanjali explains the Yoga Sutras, it is important to understand that he is talking about the universal truth!

Whether you are going to become a jnana-yogi, a bhaktan or a karma-yogi – that is not the question – even if you have to become a doctor, an engineer, a school teacher, a college professor: it’s not the human being in the real sense. You have to adopt asthanga-yoga, the eight aspects.

If the food is kept in front of us with varieties, we can only take as much as we are hungry, as much as our system requires. And the whole food also cannot be kept on the dining table, because there is a limitation. In Germany you might be having different varieties of food and if you keep it all in front of me saying all this are German specialities, yet I won’t be able to eat it, because that cannot be taken or eaten in one day. I may have to say that I will taste later but not in one day. In similar manner we have to understand asthanga-yoga: though it is not possible to adopt at once, eat at once everything possible, we are supposed to take it parcel by parcel, little by little, spoon by spoon as we require and as our system can take it, otherwise digestion is not possible.

And knowing this very well, please understand, that everything from yama to samadhi, all these eight aspects, one has to really take it as far as our digestion-capacity is. If the digestion-capacity is less, you cannot eat more than that. Then you will be diseased, you will get diarrhoea. So, what energy you have got, that energy will be also thrown away as you are overeating the eight aspects. So eating too little or overeating the eight aspects, both will be causing problems. If you understand this example, you will know what I’m talking about.

Basically and primarily the major disease every living being has is called vasana, a deep desire, what we call in dharma, artha, kama, moksha (4.), a kind of karma which is deeply existing in every living being, not only in human beings. These are the elemental truths, we need to know. Since vasana is deeper inside, deeply penetrated inside, our karmas also take birth from those vasanas.

Klesamulah karmasayah drsta adrsta janma vedaniyah (2.12), the five klesas, the five afflictions, which Patanjali puts verbally in a correct way to say that how we have to understand this theory.

The pancaklesas like avidya, lack of knowledge, asmita, the wrong identification with ourselves, with something which we are not – our very existence is quite different. Then raga, attachment, and dvesa, aversion. We have attachment to certain things, aversions to certain things. We don’t question why there is attachment to certain things and why aversion towards other things. Can’t we have the same nature so that there is no attachment, there is no raga, there is no aversion, there is no dvesa? At last abhinivesa, clinging to life, having that ignorance to believe that what is impermanent is permanent. And as a consequence to believe that we have to exist permanently. Whereas the disciple of yoga is asking: Mrtyor mā amrtam gamayam! Lead me from death towards eternity which is the real eternal truth.

So vasana is the root cause. Many times the word has been used in the same manner, take an English meaning, just desire, our desire towards sweet, pure desire to learn yoga is one thing, but root-desire is something in which all the branches of the root cause of our existence meet in that vasana. Only when vasana ends, there is amrtamagamayam – then it is possible to go towards that truth, where there will be eternity. No question of death and birth.

And it was only a person like Nachiketa, just a ten-year-old child who faces that real truth when his father – he doesn’t even curse, he just shouts at him, “I am going to give you to the God of Death!” But he takes this seriously and thinks very seriously about this. “He is going to give me to the God of Death. Why should I not approach myself and find out?” This should be the inner inquisitiveness, a very intense inquisitiveness, which we need to have, which existed in Nachiketa, a ten-year-old child. We become that ten-year-old child only when we say towards the death, “Is there anything I can do against death?” However, Nachiketa has the courage to go and directly face the God of Death. So since the klesas are based on vasana, desire, the desire to live, the desire to get indulged in worldly happiness, worldly enjoyment, whatever is there, is all sort of conceptualized in the word vasana.

One of the Acharyas is Ramanujacharya. In India we call them Acharyas, because they established certain paths to follow, as we know e.g. Shankaracharya. Ramanujacharya is the second following Shankaracharya, who brought the philosophy further to the surface. He says between these four aims of human being which you have read are dharma, artha, kama, moksha . Guruji has spoken of them in “Astadala Yogamala”, in “Light on Life” and “Light on Yoga Sutras of Patanjali”. If you read all these books of Guruji, you will understand. So, dharma, artha, kama and moksha (4.) are in short in English:

Dharma is duty. Artha is the means of life in every human being, the means to live the life, having the property, having the money for the living-set. Kama is the desires that we have, like having a family, like having children, these kind of achievements we think of in life when we grow up; like my son is working here in such a place in a big firm etc, this all means kama. Moksha means emancipation.

But Ramanujacharya has given the meaning for kama in a very different way. Because there can be a kama which is called sexual desire, sensual desire, what is very common in every human being, what we call desire. This kama – understand this Sanskrit word – it is known in the human being that we have all these desires in us, a vasana (subliminal tendencies) also. If we had to put it in usual words, since it is given by God, it is something that has a value. He says, “If this is the elemental thing we need, why not have that desire, that kind of desire in which we are able to see the God?” So, let’s have a desire to go towards the feet of the Lord! It is the same desire-word, isn’t it, when we say, let us go to the temple and pray, a church and pray. It’s a kind of inner desire.

But there is a difference between this desire and other desire like sexual desire. So Ramanujacharya says, “The same vasana, the same desire – why not take it to the higher standard, where we have this vasana to reach the God, to be at the feet of the Lord!” This is what the Acharya is saying: Convert every other desire of yours – you want to have a good dress, you want to have a beautiful dress to wear? Okay!! Give that dress to the Lord, let the Lord have that beautiful dress and by seeing it we can feel happy.

You know, in 2002, when I had been to Poland, we visited one church, Saint Mary, we were shown the dresses, different very gorgeous dresses, which they offered to Lord Mary on different occasions. And I was surprised to see those things: gold, brocades, diamonds etc. on it. Further, this is what our Acharya has said; that if you want to have a beautiful dress first offer it to the Lord. Beautify that Lord, because the beauty of that dress is somewhere hidden, the desire is hidden inside – we decorate with flowers, as we offer the flowers to Lord Patanjali we like the flowers, we like the smell of the flowers, then same: why not offer to the Lord. It’s a kind of sacrifice over there. So, every hidden vasana in us we have to see that we bring divinity to it, so we reach to the Lord.

So knowing very well that karmasayah, the storage of karma, is based on this klesa, knowing that vasana is based in that klesa we have to convert completely to that where it leads us towards eternality. So, in Yoga Sutra 2.28, yoganganusthanat asuddhiksaye jnanadiptih avivekakhyateh, Patanjali says that everything is in a pure state in our divine existence.

Everybody has some divinity in himself, but in that divinity, there are some impurities mixed. If we take out all those impurities we know where the light is! And that’s why the eight aspects of yoga have to be done, practiced, adopted. So, when we talk about karma-shuddhi, the purifications of the karmas, every action of ours has to be purified. Whether you do asana or pranayama, every breath that you take has to be capsuled in that divinity. Every asana that we do, why we have to keep on correcting, adjusting, equally distributing the energy, generating the energy? When a wrong pose is attempted, the energy will be gone. Dissipation of energy will take place. So we have to culture that asana in such a way that dissipation does not occur. As the dissipation is stopped that divinity will express. So, when you come to the asana and pranayama, where we want to correct ourselves, doing in the right manner, or in your language: remove the pains, problems, etc. – that itself means karma-shuddhi. And it has to occur in every karma.

And that’s why Patanjali puts yama and niyama in a beautiful way which is applicable to one and all, to whichever country you belong to, whichever culture you belong to, whichever religion you belong to, this is all universal.

If you say I belong to such or such religion, it is your ego; when I say I belong to such religion, it is my ego, my ahamkara, but otherwise religion is the same in that sense. Because no religion has said: create violence, himsa, be untruthful and talk always falsehood, no: always satya. So knowing this: ahimsa, satya, asteya, that is a main thing, which is very important!

Asteya

Normally we think that we are coming from a good civilized society, so it is not possible for us to steal anything as we are no robbers. There are, however, professional robbers, they may steal, we are normal human being, so we don’t steal. So why Patanjali has to say asteya – do not steal – non-stealing? Then in which way do we steal? And a robber, for what reason does he come to steal? He wants food, whatever he gets he takes; money, he wants to live better than you and that’s why whatever he wants he just robs and takes it. That’s what he wants, isn’t it? So, what he needs, he robs. It‘ s another profession.

We also sometimes do that, we have some profession in which we can steal, without informing, without telling we steal. It´s inborne in nature, that what others have we also want to have. We are never satisfied with what we have, and that dissatisfaction makes us to rob something. Even the professionials sometimes rob. If your neighbour is a yoga teacher, you want also to become a yoga teacher, even when you don’t know the ABC of it, you rob it. Your friend is a yoga teacher, you want to become a yoga teacher and even if you don’t know anything about it. So, you steal the knowledge here and there. You understand? This is the meaning behind stealing. Non-stealing is a principle according to Patanjali where we should try to find out our real truthful nature from inside so that our approach is not towards that stealing but rather non-stealing. So, if you analyse that you will know how the psychology is built up on this kind of nature. So, don’t think from the higher society nobody steals. Everybody has that inborne nature to steal. If I see something you have: Oh, it’s a wonderful thing and I like it very much! And then you say, “Oh, you like this very much, okay…take it!” You might have given it to me out of love, because that what you have is very good and give it to me, but for me it’s a stealing. I should not even say that yes, I like it, that’s very nice, give it to me, because that nature is inside, hidden, oh let me have it! You understand the deep psychology behind non-stealing. Otherwise coming from a good family, we don’t say that we are stealers, we can’t steal, and we don’t steal is also fact. No policeman will come to catch us because we don’t steal. But still we have this nature hidden in us – asteya.

Brahmacarya

Similary brahmacharya. That’s why its meaning is very meaningful. To have a complete moral control on oneself, is called brahmacharya. And again, the meaning is not just celibacy.

You translate it in English as celibacy, but the real meaning is to have our mind all the time going on that part which will lead us towards luminosity, towards God: Tamaso mā jyotir gamayam – reaching the Brahma, to go with the Brahma, all the time finding out the eternal truth which exists. So, in search of philosophy, that is what every philosopher has done to find out where the truth is, where the reality is. But that brahmacharya will lack, and we come to the sensual pleasure where we may lose totally ourselves without having any judgement. And that’s why the meaning of brahmacharya is from one end to the other end – like a vast ocean.

Aparigraha

Last one is aparigraha, not holding of anything, not to hold anything. We want to always keep. Even, you know in houses, when we are cleaning, there will be a few things, we get puzzled. Should I throw this or keep it, some old clothes will be there, some old things will be there, they might be giving us good memory, some also bad memory, everything will be there: should I keep it or throw it? Even to throw something we are not really sure: Should I throw this or keep it? Let us see afterwards what we have to do! So, this kind of aparigraha, holding something, will be always there. This is called covetousness.

So these are very hidden basic natures, which later you express as a disease. Then we think it’s just a physical disease. We name it a physical disease, but they are not just physical diseases, they are mental diseases as well. One has to find out the root cause of every physical disease, where at the root cause mental disease occur: ashuddhikshaya.

You remember this word: kshaya means diminishing, lessening and finally disappearing. Ashuddhi means impure. Whatever impurities are there they have to disappear, they should vanish, they should slowly diminish. And if that has to happen, all the eight aspects of yoga have to be adopted. And then only jnana will come to surface.

Mantras

Similarly somebody has questioned, “What about the mantras, should we introduce in our practice the mantras?” Mantra is not something which has to be introduced. I’m not going to introduce the mantras because by introducing the mantras you cannot adopt anything. Simple thing, when the book has been given to you for recitation, let us say the 108 names of Patanjali. Some of the verses from the Upanishads in that book you have got. If these things have to be recited, you need of  course the meter of recitation, which has been taught by me yesterday. When you go and you will do it, there will be a core of truth, go to that very core of that inner truth and that comes in the form of mantra.

Fulcrum – sthira bindu

Yesterday I used the word fulcrum. The question was, „ What do you mean by fulcrum?“ Fulcrum is something a kind of stable point, on which everything will rotate. The stable point will remain absolutely firm. In Sanskrit it is called as sthira bindu; sthira is stable and bindu means point.

On that stable point other things may happen. Our life has to be like that, our thinking process has to be done in that manner, our way of behaviour, our way of building up our character, has to be all the time standing and balancing on this fulcrum – sthira bindu. Just a point of stability.

And that point of stability is the Lord. And that is a mantra. In asana I might have said which is the fulcrum. And you will be all the time calculating, “Oh Madame, you said in Trikonasana – the buttock region is the stable part, is like a fulcrum. Tell us in Mandalasana, Viparita Dandasana, Viparita Chakrasana – what is the stable point there?” Of course, I can say, I know which has to be fulcrum in Viparita Chakrasana. But that is not the way to acquire the knowledge, that is desire, that is pure desire. “Oh, you mentioned that Viparita Chakrasana, can you just tell me?” As if it would be a secret. You have to find out that fulcrum, you have to search for that fulcrum. It is not about Geeta telling you which is the fulcrum in Viparita Chakrasana. So, knowing all these things, on which we have to know which is the fulcrum of our life, in which way we are balancing our life and death and that fulcrum is the Lord.

So as there has to be karma-shuddhi, it is not the question of mantras how they have to be brought into the practice. This is another philosophical question. Guruji has written in the book, he has not kept anything secret. If you read “Light on Pranayama”, he has explained in “Chapter XVII. Bija Pranayama” all about mantras and how to use them in the pranayama: the nirbija mantras, sabija mantras, and the bija mantras, where the power of AUM is distributed on more syllables. He explains how the breath has to be done. Some mantras are sabija, where you recite the mantras and then hold that much of breath, inhale and exhale that much of breath. He mentions three mantras for pranayama practice:

Aum namo narayanaya
Aum namah shivaya
Aum namo bhagavate vasudevaya.

Whether it is one or the other, it is the same, that is sthira bindu, stable point, around which we have our rotation of our life. So it is not something which has to be taught. The mantra has to come from inside. Even for rishis these mantras came as an inner vibration, inner voice, inner nada, antar-nada. Nada means sound, nada means vibration.

So for rishis also these mantras which are available now in a literate form, in an alphabetic form, they are not simply words. To receive also those mantras, we have to uplift ourselves to that level, so that we can receive those mantras. Until that, like tapas, you can recite those mantras, you can recite all, that has been given in that. The whole thing, if you have to recite sitting here it will definitely take one and a half hours to understand properly along with its meaning:

Tajjapah tadarthabhavanam (1.28) (5.)

In the Yoga Sutra Patanjali says: japa and then arthabavanam. You have to do the japa and get the meaning which is flowing inside. Everytime that meaning which is not a boring thing. People call it boring: “Oh, we have to recite so much! This is boring!” Nothing should be boring to you. A yoga practitioner never should say it is boring. The more the boredom, the more you have to penetrate inside. Boredom has come, because you did not penetrate. If you penetrate you won’t use this word boredom, bore, alasya or laziness. Because when you have to repeat again and again some things. What is abhyasa according to Patanjali ? Tatra sthitau yatnah abhyasah (1.13 ) (6.). Everytime putting that effort to bring that stillness to the mind where all the vrittis will diminish, that is abhyasa, again and again practicing. So, every asana that you do, you have to see that you put yourself into that asana in such a way that no thought is arising. There is completely restraint. And again, that abhyasa is yatnah abhyasah. It is not practicing mechanically. Anybody can practice ten times to remove this glass, put it here, then there, and back here again. I can continue with that with all these efforts ten times. But sthitau, with that stability inside, having that firm feeling inside what you are doing, and that will lead towards restraint.

I hope you understand. Because these are the Yoga Sutras from Patanjali and I’m asking you to look into your practice in that manner, not just remaining at the diseased level, that this is paining, let me not do and this is not paining, so let me do. It’s a constant search from inside and that is called: tatra sthitau yatnah abhyasah.

That should be the practice, that is how one has to practice. So, remember that sutra, whenever you are practising. Am I just doing it or in my doing-process am I also watching this: Tatra sthitau yatnah abhyasah (1.13)

Again this has to do with the sutra: Sa tu dirghakala nairantarya satkara asevitah drdhabhumih (1.14) (7.) Not just one day practicing and tomorrow forgetting, it’s just too much, too strong for me, let me not do it – Then you are going against that flow of sutra. Patanjali is asking in 1.14 dirghakala, not laghukala, not a small time.

In 24 hours you practice maybe one or one and a half hours, and you say you are a big yogi. That’s not possible! So, a sadhaka has to be constantly having in the mind what he is supposed to do. And regarding the mantra, Patanjali said by himself: AUM is that mantra, pranava is that mantra which you have to go on saying. That means every time, every action that you do, whatever action you do for your devotion, like offering the flowers or putting the candles over there, whatever you do – that much worship is also enough – just offering the flowers or keeping the candles or doing just Namaskar and bowing your head towards the Lord – that is enough! But everytime, everyday it has to be done with that freshness of the mind, not just a mere duty. So, only duties are also not sufficient, in that ritual, whatever is hidden inside, it has to be carried on as a devotion. That is why tajjapah tadarthabhavanam (1.28). And that’s why he explains what Lord is.

How the Lord is in that seed form in everyone, we have the divinity in that seed form. And in that seed of Lord everything is there, it is a sarvajnabijam (8.), a seed for all which is known, which has to be known, which is behind the curtain for us to know, HE is the seed of that. So, if that much is remembered, the devotion comes. That is why there has to be all the time that continuity, and that is coming in that eight aspects of yoga. Don’t think that first chapter is telling something which is not in that ashtanga-yoga. That’s why ahstanga-yoga, the eight aspects of yoga, has come in the centre of the “Yoga Sutra of Patanjali” to inform us that these are the eight aspects which are most important. Based on that you can flourish yourself to any amount. As we say, if we have a capital, we would do a good business and we can become as rich as we want to. Don’t we say that? Oh, if capital is available I can be as rich as any rich man is. I will build up a business just like that and have the richness. We have been given this property, we have the richness, and that are the eight aspects of yoga.

And those aspects if we practice them, we are as rich as anybody, but that is a spiritual richness. So the question is whether we want a spiritual richness or we want worldly richness, having plenty of money – many a time how that plenty of money has to be spent, has not been understood and that is why we may go an unethical road, an unethical path whereas the ashtanga-yoga is such that it takes us on an ethical practice.

Samskara

Then there was a question about samskara. It is our duty to do this samskara on us. In rituals there are quite a few samskaras done from outside. And we do that. To bring up your own children, you give them good samskaras, you send them to school, you educate them, you want them to go on the right path, that is a samskara you are creating. At least you tell as a parent this is the right way of behaving, this is the wrong way of behaving, so you behave rightly. And divert children from the wrong path and take them on the right path, that is a samskara. A parent can do the samskara on the child, but what’s about the samskaras on us?

Many times when I said in the class that what you did, was the technical side of it, the process of it. I gave you the processing process. Processing is also a samskara. The asana how it has to be done, pranayama how it has to be done, all these are processes, techniques, and there is also a process of processing. That is how you have to convert certain things, though you have an action, you have to convert them into that state where you begin to experience something and that is called samskara. So we need to remove those samskaras which are taking us towards bhoga and bring those samskaras towards apavarga, which is called as yoga samskara. (9.)

Bhoga-samskara and yoga-samskara. Bhoga-Samskara is using the same elements of yoga or the part of practice of yoga into something else. As sometimes people do ask these questions: “Our skin has to improve, what kind of practice do we have to do, if we want to look beautiful, what has to be done. If I want to become younger, how can I become younger, what has to be done? But how can I look younger?” The age is declared. Declaration is done by my father only from the beginning, first child on the 7th of December 1944 – so what shall I hide away age? No question of becoming younger, no question of hiding the age!

There is one of my friends who stays in the USA, she never discloses me her age. I only know, that she has birthday in the month of April, so I wish her well…but she does not tell me her age. She telephones me on 7th of December and returns the whishes of the day. So, where is the question of hiding the age? Yoga cannot be practiced just to look young. Whatever you are, you will be looking, but there is a samskara through practice of yoga.

There are some few samskaras which have to be taken, which are making us to go on the right path, which are making us to be a little bit different from, where others are indulging in something and we, being practitioners of yoga, are not indulging and coming away from it and these are called samskaras.

Everyday read that sloka which has been given to you in a booklet – that is a good job, that has been done by this committee of the convention that they have presented to you. You can use it for everyday reading, continuing to read it to get that artha. But from that artha you need to develop the bhavana. Bhavana has to come from your side. That bhavana cannot be created by someone, that is called samskara.

I can discipline you, saying get up in the morning, have your bath etc.: then start practicing, after practicing you can read this, before the practice you can read this – whatever timetable I can give you. But by merely following the timetable it doesn’t occur, doesn’t happen anything.

The samskara has to go deep in. So, read and read that again and again, repeat it again and again: abhyasatatra sthitau yatnah abhyasah (10.). Continue to do it, with that respect towards the subject, respect towards the recitation.

Sa tu dirghakala nairantarya satkara asevitah drdhabhumih (11.).

Then you will find something is changing in you and that is called samskara. So the process is to do the karma without thinking of its fruits. Why you should not think of the fruits or give those fruits to the Lord or dedicate the fruits to the Lord? Because you should not get caught in that cycle of births and deaths, which is klesa mulaha. If the klesas have to go, the five afflictions have to go. Avidya, asmita, raga, dvesha, abhinivesha – they have to vanish, it is the only way to do it! And there has to happen vasana kshaya, the unwanted desires have to be thrown. Then we find single-wanted desire that is to reach the highest supreme and not just the Hindu God, the Muslim God, the Christian God. Patanjali is not concerned about it. You have to be on the right path. That’s all. For him all the Gods are one and the same. So that vasana kshaya has to happen, diminishing and finally destroying. And if that vasana kshaya has to happen all your practice has to be encapsuled in that spirituality, so that is no question of mantra. You can decide, it doesn’t matter, get the meaning of it, do it! So through this samskara the mantra will come as for rishis those mantras came. Seers created their own mantras which could be in English and in Sanskrit also. Every philosopher you read has some fulcrum on which that philosophy develops. And it is for us to find out how far it is right, how far it is correct and what he or she means by it. That is how one has to proceed.

Viveka – Kundalini – Prakriti

And then somebody asked about viveka, the fourth element. What is right and what is wrong? What is correct and what is incorrect? What is righteousness and what unrighteousness? What is truth, what is untruth? All these things when you begin to verify that itself means there is different intelligence which has come from inside and that is called viveka and that is what Patanjali says:

Yoganganusthanat asuddhiksaye jnanadiptih avivekakhyateh (2.28) (12.):

Until the viveka-khyati comes, we have the conscience, we say, “Oh, it’s guilt conscience in me; oh my conscience pricks if I do like this” – You understand? Somewhere when our conscience pricks, we have that element of conscience inside which pricks us and says: you are wrong, I should not have done this. And really my conscience would have pricked me, if I hadn’t finished my Q &A session. Because the questions have come from you. I can understand the innocent mind behind it when you were putting these questions. And that’s why I was not rude on the first day to say: why are you doing yoga? Is this yoga meant for these simple questions: how the legs should be, how the arms should be. I did answer with patience but then you have to come to the fulcrum-point, the sthira bindu, on which the whole
practice of yoga has to be rotating.

So if viveka has to come to jagratavastha (wakeful state) – you all say kundalini awakening – this is a very known word to you: “Oh my kundalini is awakened or is not awakened.” Somebody is going to awaken the kundalini – these are the words you use. They are doing Kundalini Yoga to awaken their kundalini. Okay, it goes in this ear and it goes out from that ear. I know how much foolishness is in this world. These words should not be used to say that: kundalini awakening etc.

Again I come back to Guruji’s books in which he has said, how prakrti-shakti is a kundalini-shakti and it is a fact that kundalini-shakti itself is a prakrti-shakti, a shakti, a power of the prakrti which comes to the surface to such an extent, that it is equal to the purusha. Sattva, the clear crystal like purity which exists in the prakrti. That is sattva: Sattva purusayoh suddhi samye kaivalyam (3.56) (13.). This is the last sutra of the third chapter. Remember this! Don’t use the word kundalini like this. There are people who say, „So I left Iyengar-Yoga and I want to go to Kundalini-Yoga“. Go to the hell, I don’t mind. Because this is your differentiation. Whether it is Iyengar-Yoga, Kundalini-Yoga or something else-Yoga: on the right divine path, it has to raise the kundalini. Because Patanjali already declared in Yoga Sutra, 3.56: Sattva purusayoh suddhi samye kaivalyam.

That sattva itself is kundalini. When you are purifying your prakrti, when you have cleansed your prakrti, then the prakrti doesn’t come in between to give you any kind or create any kind of problem, it doesn’t stay as an obstacle – the fourth chapter. The prakrti, when you are making it to move on the right path, it won’t come in between to hinder your evolution.

The prakrti-energy will be just flowing, as a gardener or a farmer creates the path for the water to go, so the water goes exactly to those trees where the water has to reach. That water will not be wasted here and there. The energy of the water will also not be wasted, it will be taken exactly to that where it has to reach and water that area. As the watering is done to that area, then a further path is created for that water to flow, so the next tree gets the water. That’s what the fourth chapter says and as Patanjali puts it in question-answer-manner, that is the prakrti how it will flow and that prakrti will be of the kind which is sattva, which is pure, which is clear.

That’s why we need more training for the body, body is the first layer, outer layer seen as the prakrti. As we say there is a pollution in the nature we should keep all these jungles intact, because you can’t cut the trees from the jungle and make it a barren. We have to protect the trees, the mountains, pollution should not occur in such areas, we should not go to the moon and pollute that moon. It’s all wrong.

Just because we have a demoniac energy, there might be a science in an improved state, but it should not be used for the demoniac energy state that tomorrow a few people from the European countries will go on the moon, stay there for a month with their oxygen, etc., and enjoy it over there. “We had a convention on the moon!” It would be wrong! That would be clear and clean pollution. That is not the way. Whatever is the best you take it. Leave the moon there only, leave the sun there only, moon is the best thing which is cooling us, the earth has to be to cooled down. That’s why moon signifies the mind of ours. Our mind has to be clean and cool, our mind should never be hot. The mind and the moon always are considered to be very close to each other!

And that’s why we find many times irritation etc. increases. Madness increases, when we proceed towards the full moon day and from full moon day when we come to new moon day, you find there is a diminishing of those bad elements of the mind. Many a time you might have read in those books, when they talk about full moon day and new moon day, the 15 days from full moon day to new moon day, how the mind descends, diminishes gradually. So these are all needed things. Sometimes you have to be quiet, calm, passive and when the tejas (fire) of the mind has to come up. That’s why Guruji gives the element of fire to the moon for this purpose. The moon has to be fiery, having the fire element, when you have to do sadhana.

Suppose this morning you have done pranayama class, tomorrow there is no pranayama class from Geeta Iyengar, you are on your own, so your mind requires the fire to do those cycles of breath. You need some decision, some determination for it. Otherwise tomorrow will go, the day after tomorrow will go, finally you will say, I went to the convention, I couldn’t practice for the last 15 days and now I start to have my practice… that will be wrong! Some practice has to be done to keep that tejas of the mind up. That tejas itself will lead you towards sattva. The prakrti will become completely sattvic in you, pure in you. Your prakrti has to go to that pure state, and if that has to go to that pure state you need that viveka: avivekakhyateh (14.). Your practice has to go up to that level where that viveka comes to the surface and no more a-viveka remains. That means when a-viveka is said – You have to know, that you have to open your mouth to say: a-vivekakhyateh – so in this manner the “a” becomes broad, you need to open your mouth fully, you need to understand how to pronounce that “a”. That is the thing: a- vivekakhyateh! That is how the eight aspects of yoga have to open in that manner, so viveka comes, the sound is produced, the right mantra is produced from that a-vivekakhyateh. That means until the viveka comes you have to go on!

Preaching and Teaching

You ask: How long do we have to practice? You ask whether I can give you some ready-made answers: two hours a day of yoga to become a yogi and be very happy? Ten years you have to practice, ten years practicing everyday, two hours a day for ten years and then I give you a title and then you are a yogi. Like 10th level standards, the end of the high school and then we enter into the college, finishing the college-portion, you enter into university, so like that, if some program is given to you, then you will be very happy. But that is not the thing!

Patanjali doesn’t create any school, any university, any PHD, any doctor grade, etc. etc. He says: practice until that viveka comes to you. And from that viveka, he says, that viveka jam jnanam (3.53 and 3.55) has to come. That means, when the conscience has reached that purity which Guruji called dharmendriyas. Dharma means the righteousness. Understanding the correct duty that you have to do, understanding the correct characteristic of ours which is brought to the level where we can see the pure soul. If up to that, you have to go, you have to see that your viveka comes to that level and from that vivekaeam jnanam ksana tatkramayoh samyamat vivekaeam jnanam (3.53) (15.) and tarakam sarvavisayam sarvathavisayam akramam ca iti vivekajam jnanam (3.55) (16.), from that the knowledge has to come, which is essential for us, which is essentially needed. Not the knowledge of this whole world, what you are watching around you but the knowledge of ourselves, the knowledge of the Self itself. If it has to come, your practice has to continue and that is called viveka.

How do you start with? Whether your asana is correct or incorrect, whether you kept your legs straight or not, did you do align it with whatever I pointed out to you. Did you find the fulcrum in that asana? Did you just do the asana or your eyes, ears, tongue, everything went in or did it come out?

All these are simple questions which I have put in this five days of convention, you will know that these are the questions: Could you awaken that viveka? Viveka which means conscience. The conscience which cannot commit anything wrong. You may say with the mouth something, but the conscience inside will prick. I may say something from my mouth but my conscience, if it’s not elevated to that level, will say: Oh, what is this, what am I telling to my people. I myself am a fool, I’m not doing anything, and I’m asking them to do. That is what the conscience pricks. You understand what I say? Guruji said: You can be a preacher, but you cannot be a teacher. Because the teacher is in direct contact with the pupil. If you ask me to come and preach yoga for you, is a very simple thing for me, because I can preach yoga. If I know the subject of yoga I can preach you. Then I may do this just to tell you and then I go away, whether you did it, whether you followed, whether you correctly understood it, this is not my problem as a preacher. That kind of preacher will always be  dangerous as a teacher.

But a teacher cannot be a preacher, since the teacher wants to know, whether you did it, whether you understood it. That level is different totally – did you understand? If you don’t understand, I won’t proceed, let me just see, whether what I have said, you understand! If I’m a preacher, it doesn’t matter, and you didn’t understand, you are a fool, I will go ahead – then I’m a preacher! Understand? That kind of preacher will be always dangerous as a creature. So know these things.

Samadhi and Buddhi

So what was the subject matter? The matter was how to practice, how to create the purity in the karma. All these eight aspects of  yoga as you begin to adopt yourself on different levels. You don’t reach the samadhi-state straight away. At least if you sit straight for a while in that meditative state, concentrating on the prayers which are throwing the meaning regarding the God, existence etc., etc., you find that you are somewhere, at least you are buddhi.

Samadhi conveys sometimes that meaning also as ´samadhi meaning buddhi‚. The buddhi is at the even state, so it doesn’t change its balance, even if you understand that much you will find it is very meaningful. And from that, viveka has to come. If viveka has to come, you have to practice. If you keep on doing the sadhana, the karma which, being full of vices, will go and which will be having virtuosity.

The karma has to continue with the virtuosity. It comes to that virtuosity, when you find, because of that faith inside somewhere, every other thing will reflect in the form of mantra. So if that happens, everything becomes so much meaningful to you. Even the simple words become meaningful to you, as the fulcrum made meaningful statement over there today, also I used the word as sthira bindu – stable point. Saying that you are going to be on the path of yoga for the Self-realisation: atman-darsana.

If that atman-darsana has to happen the fulcrum should beatman-darsana and around that anything you do, your Trikonasana, Parshvakonasana, Ardha Chandrasana, Virabhadrasana, Supta Virasana – everything will be meaningful.

So whether you do an advanced or a simple asana that’s not the thing, every simple or advanced asana has to have that stable point to go towards atman-darsana. So even if there are several questions arising regarding helps, it doesn’t matter. But sthira-bindu should be atman-darsana and not just to get rid of your problems. You can tell others that your sciatica pain has gone. You do yoga and then your sciatica pain also will go, but that is not the way to propagate yoga. Then again it is a preaching of yoga, propagating and preaching go together. A teacher cannot propagate, a teacher cannot advertise, for a teacher knows the responsibility. If I advertise and thousands of people come to me, it is a headache to me and I may feel at once: Oh what a sin have I created! Better 1000 people not to come to me, I will teach only few who come in front of me.

That is why Christ at the end had only a few disciples, chosen disciples. All did not come with Christ. And nobody will come with the saints like that. You don’t find a saint having 1000 and 1000 people around him, then he can’t be a saint. He knows this very well, he says, let people be out, so I can be a saint. A yogi says: let people be out then I can be a yogi!! Because yogi and saints they are not different in that sense! But when the yogi says: I want people around me more then you know what he is – this yogi is a bhogi. There are also many people who want to serve me: Okay, come and press my feet, come and press my shoulders, I want milk, bring my milk for me, today I want fruit, bring the fruit for me. That is the end of it. That is no more a yogi. That yogi is a bhogi. You understand?

So if you begin to understand this you will know how the classes will build up, those who have put the questions, will know the answer, regarding samskara, karma, vasana, yoga, devotion and mantras, etc. And if that is given it’s a one single flow. We also came on that day in that boat right to Cologne and we got down here. Different stations came every time, the boat was turning, people getting off, people boarding, the boat travelled downstream, going proceeding further, again the boat took a turn, again a station came, it stopped and collected some people and it proceeded and that is the job of the boat sailing in the river.

So we have to know all these obstacles, they will come in the way as visitors. You have to see that you face them and that you proceed! Some have to get in, some have to get out and then you proceed. And that is how the approach has to be, so don’t go with the question wise approaching. In the flow of the practice, mantras will come, karma will come along with you, your prarabhda karma (17.) , that means to which you have to pay, to that faith, you have to pay as a destiny, for that destiny you have to pay and proceed further. Not to worry about it! And you go ahead. Then you will be reaching towards that end, towards that aim.

I hope you understood. Thank you very much. God bless!