Yoga Sutra
Notes from Sri RaviShankar's talk on Patanjali YogaSutras
On this page I plan to write excerpts from series of talks by Sri Sri Ravishankar on Patanjali Yogasutras. I had glad opportunity to listen to these videos at (fellow artist of living) Aditi's house, and was mesmerized by simplicity and clarity of explanations. These are based on from quick notes, many a times incomplete, which I am taking while watching. So they suffer from incompleteness, summarization, interpolation, addition and sometimes inaccuracy. But I hope to write a coherent writeup, mainly for my reference.
All online references Patanjali's yogasutra are available at http://hrih.net/patanjali/archive/
Part 1: Samadhi
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First talk 17 April 2006
Yoga means union, harmony in our living and actions.
Patanjali says, Yoga is control of various activities of mind, so that the seer finds stability/rest in his or her own nature. Otherwise, mind is led along by activities, with no stability.
These activities or thought patterns can be of five kinds. Some of which cause pleasure/pain, while others do not. These are
1. Pramana: knowing correctly. In this activity, we constantly seek proofs to build correct map/ knowledge of the world. e.g. what day is today, where am I, what is right thing to do. all logic, all sciences fall under this activity.
2. Viparyay: wrong knowledge. Believing something to be other than what it really is. In some cases, all logic fails, and wrong belief keeps on getting stronger. e.g. you dont respect yourself, and expect others to respect you. In this case, the belief that others dont respect you keeps on getting stronger, irrationally.
3. Vikalp: Imaginating something which does not exist. Hallucinations, baseless fears or joyful fantasies.
4. Nidra: deep dreamless sleep, which is marked by absense of feeling
5. Smriti: memory, remembering impressions of past experiances without any distortion
Of these five, There are 3 ways of getting correct knowledge, Pramana.
1. Pratyaksh: direct perception, first hand knowledge.
2. Anumana: by inference, reasoning, logic, deduction
3. Agamah: by authority (scriptures), testimony (verbal knowledge passed down through generations)
These thought patterns can be controlled by practice and nonattachment
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nirodhah: control
avasthanam: stability or rest
seer: observer/ practioner of yoga
praman: proof
vishayah: objects of experiance, impressions
pratyayah: feeling, cognition
abhyas: practice
vairagya: non attachment
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Second talk 24 April 2006
Abhyasa or practice means persistent efforts to aquire tranquil state of mind.
Such practice takes long time, efforts without a gap and with honour and respect, to become firmly rooted. What is honor? it is total attentiveness to present moment with a tinge of gratefullness. e.g. during asanas, we honor body; during pranayam, we honor breath. One can not excel in sport/study, without honoring coach/teacher. Thus honor is a necessity for learning.
Is practice enough? no!
what else is needed? Vairagya. Mind gallops to sight, smell, touch, hearing, thoughts. Such craving can stop your mind from being in present. Even craving for dispassion is harmfull :-) thus, there should be no expectation in meditation.
When mind loses all desires for objects sensed or described in scriptures, mind attains state of desirelessness called vairagya. Thus, when you dont care for happiness, you are liberated. When you dont care for liberation, you attain love (paravairagya). In paravairagya, there is no fear of temptation. Remember every craving, and remember you will die :-) for sure! Then craving for pleasure will subside. And once you become aware of your own nature, fear of gunas/ world will subside, and what remains is total bliss. Then you will be in this world and centered. You will be detached without running away :-)
People have funny ideas about enlightened people: Once I met a priest on an airplane. He gently asked me, do you believe in Jesus, I said I do. Surprised, he asked if I believe in Krishna, I answered I do. Now taken aback he asked how can Krishna be enlightened? as he was a butter thief, and had many wives. Same with Rama. How can a king be enlightened? He thought enlightened person should shun wealth and live in poverty.
Three Gunas, satva, rajas, tamas affect all our activities. One who is centered will watch, witness, and move forward through Gunas. There is no escaping Gunas. So whatever combination of Gunas you are on average, stay that way.
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Gunas: are as follows with samkhya, and classical yoga interpretations.
from http://www.kheper.net/topics/Samkhya/gunas.htm
1.sattva
samkhya: accounts for thought, intelligibility.
experienced as pleasure, thinking, clarity, understanding, detachment.
classical yoga: consciousness manifests as Prakhya. vivacity, illumination, mental clarity, serenity
2.rajas
samkhya: accounts for motion, energy, activity.
experienced as suffering, craving, attachment
classical yoga: consciousness manifests as Pravitti. active, energetic, tense, willful
3.tamas
samkhya: accounts for restraint, inertia, sleep
experienced as delusion, depression, dullness, clouded reasoning
classical yoga: consciousness manifests as Sthiti: inert, into state of rest,lethargy
sthiti: tranquil state of mind
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Third Talk
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Answering to a Q: Dispassion connects you to present moment. gives joy. what pleasure dispassion cant give! every mom's peak experiance. Dispassion is not melancholy/sadness.
*Vitark, Vichar, Anand, Asmita
logic: to perceive truth, Kutark: illintended logic, Vitark: is special logic (elevates consciousness) (Samadhi: equanimous intellect/ consciousness)
when somebody is dead, show is over feeling --> irrefutable, irreversible, 100% cetian logic (something is obvious) that is Vitarknugama samadhi.
Vichar: experiences, meditation. (thoughts, experiances exist, hover around)
Anandanagama samadhi: still equanimous, but ecstasic
Asmitanugama samadhi: not aware of anything, just 'I am' awareness.
Samprajnyata: there is floating of awareness in this.
How to achieve them?
You cant do it by efforts. but by rest/ relaxing/ by practice of resting. (sleep-unconscious rest)
Samadhi is not just property of this level of existence, people without body can also get affected by meditation.
Different kind of yogis
Videh: without body (i have a body, i am not body)
prakrutilay: submerged in nature (sunset, emptiness)
*Shradhha Veerya Smriti Samadhi poorvak
shradhha: makes consciousness stable, solid, puts together all loose ends. Doubt scatters energy (weak, feeble), faith consolidates energy, stregth.
Veerya: force, courage, valor, equanimity, patriotism, devotion
Smriti: memory of pleasurable experiances, freedom devotion, surrender, love, joy
Samadhi:
Pradnya: is result of samadhi, heightened awareness, these are many ways to blossom in life
Teevra Samveganam Asana
*Comitments in life: first survival, last spritual,
different kind of people pursue at different rates: Mrudu madhyapi matra (slow: ok, let me do it) (medium) (fast: cant live without doing it)
Ishwarpranita prdnya makes sprirituality first priority: being one with god, not easy,only by devotion to God.
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Fourth talk
Mind blossoms fully when we surrender to love.
who is lord? who rules the world? love.
beyond your thoughts, experiances lies the core of existence, which is responsible for whole cration, there lies the lordship.
Bird feeds young due to love. Cow suckles the calves due to love.
Love is inbuilt in creation. Love is god, god is love - Jesus
Attributes of such lord
that consciousness is free from suffering/ misery
-->klesh karma vipak ashaya aparimishta purushvivek ishwar
5 types of suffering:
*ignorance : avidya, giving importance to something that is not worth, thinking something changing as permenent, imgaining something not joyful as joyful
*asmita: me, me, me. i,i.what people think about me. how can I get advantage of people. having seperate identity. I am only intelligent, all others are fools.
*craving:
*abhinivesh: fear.
**Lord is devoid of these 5 miseries:
fear, hatred only in circumference, not in core.
**lord is also devoid of karma
types of karma
meritorious: useful to others
demeritorous: harmful to others
both merit & demerit
devoid of both merit & demerit: go for walk in evening
Vipak: fruit of action in absent
Ashaya: latent desires, impressions of action
free from all these
where is it? in every beings heart!
Prayer: to ifinite being, core which we are. Worship is act of dissolving, mind starts disolving. No distinction between god, guru & you. It is same as divine ruling entire universe. This consciousness is guru even to ones who were before. (poorveshamapi Guru)
In such conscousness is seed of all knowing.
Just like disctionary.we can search any words, we can know all enormous activity (monkeys, people, amoebas) experiance: How can you know something I have never told anybody.
*How to address it.
Om, is sound nearest to address totality of consciousness.
Japa: sound that reminds you of that state of feeling. (Om:
Different consciousness dawns, clarity, obstacles removed from your way.
*Which obstacles
vyadhi: illness in body
sthyana: illness in mind
samshay: am I good enough, doubt about teacher (people always doubt in +ve things)
pramad: doing something wrong, knowing it is wrong, knowing something very well, not doing it, carelessness
aalasya: laziness
avikruti:being engaged in any sense objects, not coming out of it, obsession, sex, blue films
Bhrantidarshan, Yogmaya: hallucination, obstruction in path of yoga. (e.g. a devotee who did not take her husband to doctor)
Alabdhabhumikatva: nonattainment of any samadhi, getting stuck, going nowhere. Feeling blissful in moments, everything vanishes
Signs that obstacles are overtaking you: Dukh(sorrow), daurmanasya(bitterness, dont feel good with anybosy, depression), angamejanatva(body is not listening to you), shwas prashwas (irregular breathing)
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Fifth lecture
How to overcome obstacles?
*Ektatvabhyasa: keep doing just one thing till you get past point of boredom
Divided mind is misery, focussed mind is joy.
*Deal with following kind of people thus
Happy: be friends with them
Unhappy: be compassionate. (dont be friends)
Meritorious: feel one with them
Demeritorious: educate & ignore
*Breath control: control mind by controling rhythm of breath
*no compare, no stupid:
some dukha
Mind like
light: body is like a wick of candle, feeding on wax (food) and air. But mind is the flame, light.
water : takes shape of vessel
air: all pervading.
veetraga: imbibe yourselves with thoughts of enlightened people
Vishoka: loose the habit of being unhappy. Sometimes sadness is nothing more than a bad habit.
Understand art of Sleep & dream
*sleep is letting go off everything. Identity, likes, dislikes. meditation is doing nothing
*kind of dreams
abt unfulfilled desires
abt future
abt past memories
all of above mixed up
abt place
hence dont try to interprete dream
When you realize that you are in sleep / dream, that thought itself awakens you. Gush of energy come through. This is waking state. Reality is dream too.
*Symptoms that progress is happening
nature starts supporting
small & big things appear same
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Sixth Lecture
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Seventh Lecture
Tapas. activity in silenec and silence in activity. What does it mean? Fires 5 kinds. Bhutagni (Outside temperature), Kamagni, Jatharagni, Badawagni, Jnyanagni or Premagni. 3 kinds, physical, in speech and in mind.