Chapter 3

3, 1 : desa bandhas cittasya dharana

When the attention of the mind-stuff is directed in a single stream to a chosen field, without being dissipated and thus distracted that is concentration.

Now we are ready to enter into the inner chamber' of yoga. The sixth step or limb is dharana, which is focusing the mind. If you hold a magnifying glass above a piece of paper and move it up and down, you will see that, when it is either very close to the paper or very far away, it becomes transparent - which means it behaves like ordinary glass, and the light which passes through that glass is spread out. In our case the mind functions like that - the attention is dissipated, spread out. But when you hold the magnifying glass in such a way that the light is concentrated and there is a pin point of light on the paper under the glass, you find that there is tremendous light at one point, and all around it is dark. That is what Patanjali refers to as dharana. The space around is completely dark - which means that the attention is not dissipated.

This is something with which we are familiar. For instance, if in a lecture you pay complete attention to what the speaker is saying, you probably will not hear the sound of the traffic; when you hear that, what the speaker is saying becomes unclear. The same thing happens with sight. If you are keenly observing a particular object, everything else goes out of focus, and is not clear.

Thought plays a vital role in concentration. There is one-pointedness of thinking. The mind is focused upon the thought of the one object of concentration. Thinking, if it is constant and deep, vitalises the object of thought. If, for instance, you think of the happiness of others, it will be promoted - and happiness will grow in you, too. If you think of other people's evil, it will grow - and in you also.

So, we are not unfamiliar with concentration - one-pointedness of mind. In our case, the concentration is brought about by external circumstances - attraction or repulsion. For instance, when you see something in a shop which attracts your attention, you look, forgetting everything else at that moment. Your concentration is triggered by that external object and therefore the switch is not within you - you do not know how to concentrate. The yogi merely wants to make sure that the switch is with him, so that he can avoid the distractions. Therefore, though we are familiar with concentration in our daily lives, we practise it as an exercise in order to know how it works.

There are a number of 'methods of concentration' and a number of 'objects to concentrate the mind on'. There are two broad divisions. You can concentrate the mind either on an object outside yourself - e.g. a picture in front of you, a dot on the wall, a lighted candle or oil lamp, or within oneself - e.g. an image of God visualised in the heart or at the centre between the eyebrows, one of the six psychic centres related to the kundalini sakti, or certain vital parts or glands of the physical system.

The mind will hardly remain steady for a few minutes. It has its own subtle ways of slipping from your grip. A positive help in holding the mind is to fix it on an image of God. Even here, for the purpose of concentration, the mind should not be allowed to think various thoughts even concerning the image of God. That can come later, after you have learnt the technique of concentration. Here, again, a mantra is invaluable. Repeat the mantra and visualise the image of God in your heart or between the eyebrows; fix the mind there.

Evolve your own method to effect a conditional reflex with which to train the mind - take a few deep breaths, look at a holy picture, sing a hymn, recite a mantra - first audibly and then mentally. All or any one of these must be done and persistently associated with the concentration practice, so that, once the signal is given, the mind begins to get into the meditative mood.

Watching the breath or listening to your own breathing is one of the most powerful ways of steadying the mind. Start with this: first, watch the flow of the breath in and out. Mentally follow the breath right from the tip of the nose to the edge of the lungs. Become one with the breath, as it were. Then detach yourself from it and stand as a witness of this flow. Listen to the sound of soundless breathing. Slip the mantra into the breath now, and let the mind repeat the mantra along with the breath, rhythmically. One part of the mind repeats the mantra and the other listens to it. The sound must be clearly heard within. Now visualise the image of God or some such focal point within. Let this be radiant. Try to fix the mind there. If it wants to run away, do not encourage it or resist it. Gently and firmly bring it back to the object of meditation. Wrestling with the mind will only succeed in driving it farther away. Go on with watching or listening to the breath and visualising the focal point. How long will the mind wander? It will eventually come under your control.

There is need for intense concentration. In order to bring about that concentration, there is need for tremendous energy. Where there is such energy, there is also concentration. These two - concentration and energy - feed upon one another. Intense attention is not possible if the rays of the mind and the inner energy are dissipated. Let us go back to the analogy of holding a magnifying glass in the sun. When the solar energy is concentrated, it becomes powerful, the energy is released and the paper is burnt. When the mind is concentrating on something very seriously, the energy that is functioning through the other sense organs is temporarily withdrawn from them, so that the whole of the energy may be available to that one faculty which deals with the particular problem of the moment. By the practice of pranayama, asana, etc., the attention is focused, and dissipation of energy is prevented.

Once again you see that concentration applies to yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratytihara - in fact to everything. It is not as though it is something which has to be practised after pranayama. It is necessary right throughout our whole practice.

If the yoga asanas are performed with tremendous attention to what is happening - where some pain or discomfort is - then the asana becomes efficient. In the same way, if you concentrate on pranayama as you do it, this pranayama becomes something cosmic. You are no longer concerned about the little wind pipe and the two small lungs, but it is as if the whole universe is inhaling and exhaling.

One mysterious element is really needed in this practise - interest, affection, love. Probably the ancient yogi introduced the element of God into it in order to inspire that love. If that love and affection is not there, the focusing of one's attention may not be so easy. You can violently coerce your attention to be focused on something, but then it is rearing to jump off at a tangent.

When you practise dharana, you will understand others. When you realise God, you will understand Him also. You will not want to play miracles, because you will understand why God wills that these things should happen. You will do nothing which is not God's Will.

Dharana is the preliminary for dhyana, meditation. Though we can practise concentration, meditation cannot be practised. It has to happen. If we prevent the distractions from arising, we have created the atmosphere conducive to meditation. In that favourable atmosphere it is possible that it can happen.

See also appendix.

3, 2 : tatra pratyayai katanata dhyanam

When the cognition is entirely concentrated in that field thus becoming its own field of observation - that is, when the observer is observed - it is meditation.

Dhyana or meditation is the most discussed topic among spiritual aspirants. It is often made to sound extremely simple. People believe, without the least reservation, that they 'enjoyed a good meditation this morning'. They seldom realise what true meditation is, and how rare it is in the life of the average spiritual aspirant. I do not say this to discourage, but to prevent self-deception. Yet, meditation is possible. By the Grace of God and Guru, all of us might one day enjoy real, deep meditation. It is through that door that all of us have to pass from earthly body-consciousness - sooner or later! It is the goal of all yoga, whatever be the actual path chosen.

Meditation is indescribable. The risk in description is that the description becomes a reality. Then, either you get frustrated because it does not become your experience, or - which is a greater danger - you imagine that you are experiencing it. Where there is no sincerity, there is always misunderstanding.

One question can be disposed of here. Is meditation like self-hypnosis? The yogi says 'no'. In this ocean of one cosmic being, the wave has already hypnotised itself into an independent entity. You are the cosmic being, but you have hypnotised yourself already into a self-limited personality. Therefore, the yoga of meditation is not self-hypnotisation, but self-dehypnotisation.

Men of great achievement in any walk of life have experienced moments of deep meditation. Scientists, artists, mystics, devotees and others have 'lost themselves in their ideal'. It is like the tranquillity of a baby playing with an interesting new toy. The yogi wants to achieve this mind-control and tranquillity by a deliberate and conscious effort and direction.

Meditation will happen if the ground is ready and the distractions do not arise. ln the initial stages, you are battling with these distractions all the time. At one point, you realise that the battling itself keeps the distractions going. Then you abandon your attention to these distractions, and focus it on the mantra or the object of meditation. That is all you can do. The rest of it has to happen by God's Grace.

The moment you introduce an aim or a goal to meditation, meditation does not happen. Yet, without introducing that, there is no trigger. The problem with the idea of a goal is that we are concentrating on that, rather than on what we are supposed to be concentrating on. For instance, if our goal is to be more relaxed, we are sitting tensely, waiting for relaxation to happen. It does not.

There is a very simple way to illustrate this. Laughing means that the face assumes a certain shape, but if I want to make you laugh, I do not pull your cheeks, I tickle your foot. Freedom from tension is not achieved by trying to work on the tension itself, you will become more tense; concentration of mind is not achieved by concentrating the mind, but by doing something completely different. This seems to be the fundamental secret to meditation. That is what the great masters of yoga suggested when they said to sit down and repeat your mantra. While you pay attention to the mantra - which is totally unrelated and unconnected with the problem - the problem gets dissolved.

The most important thing in meditation is not to try to solve the outside problem, but to taste the present mood of peace, joy, and happiness that is flowing inside you.

The mind is one substance which seems to assume several successively different disguises. At any one time, the mind can only be in a certain mood, it cannot be in two moods together. The master, by suggesting that you sit down and repeat your mantra, has made you temporarily forget your problem. A problem that is forgotten does not exist. Suddenly you discover that the unhappiness is not there anymore. You realise that something in you is totally independent of the happiness or unhappiness that the environment imposes upon you. That is beautiful.

So, meditation is a very simple way of getting rid of the problems that we create for ourselves. It is not as if the problems that face us every day can ever be removed, but the inner attitude can be radically and instantly changed. Meditation makes that possible by turning the attention to something completely different, which happens to be the source of all our problems, not by dealing with the problem head on.

Can you live in such a way that it does not create any problems for you or for anybody else? That is possible by the constant and diligent cultivation of this awareness. In the beginning, it looks as though it takes a lot of effort. For every step you go forward, you seem to slip two behind. Practised with intelligence, even the failures become successes.

There is no failure and no obstacles to the yogi, because if he falls asleep in meditation or reacts if he is insulted, he is going to contemplate that. That also becomes a starting point for meditation. So, whatever happens in life becomes a starting point for meditation. In fact, therefore, there are no obstacles to real yoga practice. Whatever happens, pleasurable or painful, the self-awareness continues. The only failure is failure to be aware of this.

In meditation or outside meditation, in life or outside life, there is no attempt to 'get rid' of thought. Getting rid of thought is like sweeping all the waves away from the ocean. Half the problem connected with meditation springs from thinking about it. Meditation is not the thoughts that one may have about meditation. It is possible to think about it, it is possible to talk about it, and it is even possible to 'do' it; but none of these is meditation. Like sleep, it is something which has to happen. One does not know when it is happening, but in retrospect one realises that something has happened. For instance, when you sleep, you do not know you are sleeping; if you know, you are not sleeping. On waking up the next morning, you realise that you must have been sleeping. Even then you do not know you were sleeping, you only think you must have been.

What is it that puts an end to meditation? Strangely enough, the desire to experience meditation. It is just like what puts an end to sleep. In sleep one is at peace within oneself, there is great inner calm, happiness, and joy. Somehow there is a desire to experience that joy, and peace - and that is when you wake up.

We are trapped in a strange and delightful problem. You need to meditate, but you cannot will yourself into meditation. Meditation is vitally important, not only to those of you who might be what you call 'spiritual seekers', but to those who want to become more alert in mind and intellect. Meditation is probably very important even to people who pursue what they call 'material goals'. If meditation is a state in which there is no mental confusion, but inner harmony and peace, then it is of vital importance to everybody. Whatever be your aspirations - spiritual, intellectual, mental or material - one who knows what it is to meditate - or what it is to surrender oneself to meditation, realises that the key to any achievement lies there. But fortunately, or unfortunately, it is not possible to do it.

To begin with, it is extremely fortunate that this thing cannot be made to happen for the simple reason that, if it could, it would be liable to be marketed, as we have already seen it being done, and, what is worse, it could be misused and abused. It is unfortunate that, though we aspire for this state called meditation, it seems to elude us, and we are groping all the time.

Patanjali gives us complete freedom of choice of the object of meditation.

It is usual for the yogi to use a mantra. Many recommend the mantra soham. Soham is not a thing you repeat with your mind. If you listen to your breathing, you hear it repeating soham already. Here I would like to introduce one thought: it is not that the mind or the attention is constantly repeating soham, but you are listening to the breath saying soham - 'so' when you inhale, and 'ham' when you exhale. Japa - repetition of a mantra itself will lead you to meditation. It brings God's Grace down upon you. Without His Grace, no meditation is possible.

Before meditation can happen, the mind has to be concentrated. In the beginning, the attention needs to be brought within the body. It is possible while sitting on a chair to wonder if the chair is soft or hard. The moment you think this, you find your attention sinking into your bottom. You suddenly begin to feel - for the first time perhaps - that there is a bottom on which you sit, and the bottom sits on something else. Immediately you find the attention gathering itself within you. Why should we do that? Why not think of the other side of the moon, for example? For the simple reason that if the attention is focused on a small area it may be more manageable. It is as simple as that. The attention is brought within the body, and once that attention is narrowed down, you realise that only one thing is happening - you are breathing.

Then, sitting very comfortably, you become aware of the body, of the seat and the cushion, of the sensation of the hands on the knees. When you do that, the attention returns to the body. That is the first step.

Now that the body has been taken care of, what does the mind do? Here is a simple basic technique:

The first and most intriguing discovery that you make when you sit down for your meditation is that the body is here, but the mind is elsewhere. How do we bring the attention back to where we are, here and now? The body can only be here and now, it cannot be elsewhere. How does one gather the attention and bring it into a certain field where it can be attentive?

Second step; you are breathing. Can you become more aware of it? In order to do this, you must literally follow the breath from the time it touches the nostrils and enters into the lungs, until it flows out again. You can also visualise the lungs getting filled and getting emptied. Then the attention becomes even more sharply focused within yourself.

As you go on listening to the breath, if you have a mantra, like Om, you hear that sound within yourself. Become more and more deeply aware of this sound. Listen to it with all your heart, with all your attention. As you do so, if there are other thoughts intruding, you can almost see them. Ignore them, continue paying attention to the mantra. Even here you will find that if there is an intruding thought you cannot fight it. So, carry on with the mantra and the intruding thought will go.

You are watching the breath, listening to it with wonder. The spirit of wonder is the very essence of mysticism. The mind which says 'I know' is far away from all this - the arrogance of knowledge is the complete block to mysticism. The mind that begins to wonder can graduate from wonder to surrender, and reach somewhere.

As the yogi listens to the breathing with wonder, he merely hears a mantra, a word. Now, there is a very serious problem. Sound is always produced by two things coming into contact, even if it is the air and something else - air and the vocal cords or the surface of a pipe. That is what sound means. When you hear a mantra within you, what is that sound made of?

If you are not interested in yoga theories, even when you are talking to yourself mentally, there is a sound. You hear those words. What is that sound made of? You can have your theories, but theories are not knowledge. The only honest answer to this question is 'I don't know.'

The yogi merely suggests that you do not try any more. Surrender yourself to that sound in total wonderment. At that moment, the mental chattering comes to an end in wonderment and total surrender, and meditation happens.

Meditation is not thinking or contemplation, but enabling awareness to function within the object of concentration. It is the flow of the mind-stuff towards the object of meditation. You know the popular expression: 'Meditate upon a rose.' You can sit upon a rose if you are a bee, but you cannot meditate upon a rose. Such expressions are used, however. What Patanjali demands is that you should meditate yourself into a rose. There is no effort or exercise of the individual will, but complete and total surrender to the Divine. Meditation is offering oneself to the Divine. Samadhi is His gift, the fruit of His Grace.

It is important to surrender, neither to conceptualise this thing called meditation, nor to make it into a state or a dualistic experience. You hear the mantra. If you are repeating the mantra mentally, how is it that you are able to listen to it? Is there a split personality? How can you listen to something that you are saying yourself? When you are speaking aloud, the sound vibrations come out of your mouth and enter into the ears, but when the whole thing is happening within you, how is there a space or division within you?

Once again, one thinks of sleep. In sleep, no one says, 'I am sleeping. No one experiences sleep in a dualistic way. It is when that dualistic experience is abandoned - or drops away - that this homogeneous experience of sleep takes place. That must happen in meditation. Whether you are using a mantra or merely listening to the breathing, whatever be the method you use, the division between the experiencer and the experience must completely disappear. When that happens, there is meditation. At that point, even the seeker must disappear, must surrender himself to that which is being sought. Hence the tremendous insistence upon surrender. See also Sutras II.1 and II.32

He who learns this simple lesson from any type of practice of meditation, learns also that such surrender is the essence of peace, harmony, joy, happiness, efficiency, and bliss in life itself. Once this has happened, it is possible that this spirit of meditation continues throughout the day, and the whole life becomes meditation. This means that, while you are sitting and practising this as an exercise, the mantra, or the form of God, is the object of meditation. When you come out of your meditation room, whatever you do at the moment becomes the object of your meditation. Even what you and I may practise while being seated is meant as a help.

While talking, one should observe the arising of the 'I'. While eating and seeing, where does the feeling or thought, 'I am seeing him, I am talking here', arise? This is supposed to be done continually. We are assured by masters - again this can be a danger - that if you continually observe the arising of the 'I' during the waking hours - whatever you are doing - then it is possible to extend this consciousness through dreams. I am dreaming: to whom is the dream occurring? Who is dreaming? Then it is possible to extend this consciousness eventually even through sleep. That continuous self-consciousness is called samadhi.

So, meditation is not to be confined to a certain time of the day or to a certain part of the house. Meditation is where you learn the simple art of how to live totally. That spirit continues throughout the day. Later you will be able to meditate while talking, and even then the intensity of concentration will be experienced so that the attention is completely and totally focused upon your meditation subject. The attention may shift from one object to another, but every time there is total attention to that particular thing. Then one leads a divine life.

Useful Hints

It is possible to give a few hints which can leave the door open for meditation to come in. Even these are like preparing the bed as an invitation to sleep. You cannot 'go to sleep'. It is an expression - inadequate and erroneous - as all expressions are. Sleep has to come; you can only go to bed.

It is very necessary to have good posture - an upright posture, but not as 'stiff as a ramrod'. The yogi wants you to keep the back straight. All sorts of interesting reasons have been given, and one might be of interest to you. If the small of the back is held in, your back is naturally straighter than before, and it seems to promote alertness of the mind. The moment you slouch, the small of the back shoots backward, the spine curves forward, and your alertness is gone. As long as the small of the back is moving forward, your mind is alert - whether you are sitting or standing. The small of the back holds the key. Therefore the yogi says to sit erect.

Always try to meditate at the same time of day, at the same place, and wearing the same clothes, so that the mind quickly enters into the meditative mood.

There are innumerable techniques, suggestions, and hints. These are all necessary because each person has a different outlook and problem. What I say may be irrelevant to you, and you may have to evolve your own technique, knowing that these are all just techniques.

See Appendix for more meditation techniques.

3, 3 : tad eva rthamatranirbhasam svarupa sunyam iva samadhih

When the field of observation and the observing intelligence merge as if their own form is abolished and the total intelligence shines as the sole substance or reality, there is pure choiceless awareness without the divided identity of the observer and the observed - that is illumination.

Concentration - dharana is described as narrowness - it is a tying of ithe mind to a limited field. Meditation - dhyana is getting into it, becoming saturated with it, ensuring that only one thought, concept, or just this 'I' feeling, prevails in that small area. In samadhi - super-consciousness, this narrowness, or limitation, is suddenly destroyed.

Here are three illustrations which show the difference between concentration, meditation, and samadhi:

1. A king who is drunk, and so has forgotten that he is the king, stands in front of his palace, not knowing what it is. Admiration compels his attention, and he gazes fixedly at it. This is concentration where he forgets himself and everything else. Then he enters the palace and roams about within it. This can be compared to meditation. Note the difference between this and thinking: the meditator is within the object of meditation, as it were, and not standing outside thinking about it. He goes into the throne room. By now the effect of the alcohol is

finished. Suddenly he remembers 'Oh, I am the king', and realises that he himself is the owner of the palace. This can be compared to samadhi or superconscious experience of the reality.

2. Suppose a man is standing in front of his burning house. He will be looking at it with intense concentration. No distracting thought will be in his mind. This is concentration. Then he remembers that something important is in the house, so he runs into the fire. Now he is surrounded by the fire and is intensely conscious of the fire. He is not only thinking of the fire, but he is thinking in the fire. This is like meditation. Finally, his clothes catch on fire, his body is burning and becomes part of the fire. It is fire. This is like samddhi.

3. When you are looking at that which you call a tape recorder, when your consciousness or attention is focused entirely upon that, its field is restricted to the tape recorder and nothing else. There is concentration. When there is movement of consciousness within it, when your whole mind or citta takes the shape of that tape recorder, there is meditation. When even the 'I' has disappeared and only the tape recorder exists, that does not call itself a tape recorder. You are the tape recorder, everyone is the tape recorder, everything is the tape recorder; then the tape recorderness of the tape recorder is gone.

When 'I' does not exist, where is identification? Svarupa sanyam iva - as if the 'I' does not exist; where what was earlier on regarded as an object alone exists - that is, where you do not exist and I do not exist, your identity is gone and my identity is gone, there is samadhi.

It is not as though the object alone exists. Objects cannot exist without a subject. What was earlier on regarded as an object alone exists. Therefore, even the objectness of the object has gone - it does not have its own form and its own identity; I do not have my form and my identity. 'I' is no longer I, and 'you' is no longer you. The two ends of the same handkerchief are seen to be nothing more than handkerchief. When there is neither this end nor that end, only the handkerchief, then there is samadhi.

Samadhi has been variously translated as contemplation, deep meditation, super- consciousness, enlightenment, trance, ecstasy, imperturbableness, total calmness, the peace that passeth understanding, or where movement of thought completely ceases. It is where consciousness, we do not call it the mind at all, becomes directly aware of the mind - citta, which merely receives these impressions. And therefore the knowledge is pure, undiluted, unpolluted, undistorted. That samadhi looks carefully at what makes this impression or impact on the citta, and there is instantaneous knowledge; because, when there is no movement or thought within, whatever impression is brought into the mind by the senses, is looked at, and is understood directly, without the intervention of memory, prejudice or value judgement.

There is intelligence in every cell of your body and in every cell of your brain. Intelligence fills your whole being - body, mind, and soul - and is capable of looking after the body, the mind, and the world and all its affairs - from moment to moment, from day to day - without all these calculations, worries, anxieties, and fears. But now we are not aware of this intelligence. We are only aware of what is called egotism - 'I'. 'I' can do this. The 'I' depends upon the memory bank and the buddhi or adjudicator. When the latter is dispensed with, there is instinctive, blind action, which leads to endless regret and remorse. If all these things are seen for what they are, then they come to an end. The inner intelligence or atma, or whatever you wish to call it, shines within itself without any interference by the citta or the ego. From moment to moment, it acts spontaneously. Such action is pure, beautiful, wonderful, loving.

Usually that is called the purest form of love. If you have ever experienced such pure love, perhaps as an after-thought, you realised that for those moments neither 'I' nor the other person existed, there was only love. We have all experienced this, only we have passed through all these experiences without becoming aware of them. The yogi merely asks us to become aware of them. When you are aware of this - the one thing that created endless problems in your life - the ego-sense, 'I', 'mine' - disappears, but nothing else disappears. That is the end of the yogi's practice.

A funny story is told. It is pure fantasy, but it has a lesson. A young village boy went to a great yogi, who was meditating. The boy sat in front of him and thought, 'What peace and joy radiates from this man's face. I must also have that peace.' When the yogi opened his eyes, the boy took hold of his feet and said, 'I will not let you go until you teach me how to meditate.' The yogi agreed, and took the young man into a room where he taught him the mantra Om namo bhagavate vasudevaya. The boy sat down and started to repeat the mantra. After a few minutes he asked, 'Then what must I do?' 'Mentally visualise Krsna as you repeat the mantra.' An hour later the yogi called, 'What are you doing there?' 'I cannot concentrate.' 'When you close your eyes, repeat a mantra and think of Krsna, what happens to you?' 'I am a cow herd. We have a buffalo at home, with lovely horns. I grew up with it, and whenever I close my eyes it is all I can think about.'

'Very good. Now repeat the mantra and meditate on the buffalo.' In a split second this boy entered into samadhi, because the buffalo was the form that his entire being loved. 'Thou shalt love the Lord with all thy heart, with all thy mind and with all thy being.' That happened in his relationship with the buffalo. The father came and said that the boy was needed to do work in the cow shed. So the yogi called the boy; but there was no response at all, because the boy had gone into a deep trance. Then the yogi disturbed this by some kind of trick, and told him to come out.

The boy said, 'Sorry master, the door is too narrow and my horns are so large.

How can I come out?' The moral of this story is that he had lost his individuality or personality, as it were - svarupa sunyam iva.

Samadhi may or may not need one to sit with closed eyes in a dark room, because it is supposed to be practised throughout one's daily life, whatever one is doing. It is possible that the mind functions, the senses still continue to receive impressions, the citta is calm and still, so it does not interfere at all, and the innermost consciousness becomes immediately aware of every experience - the truth as it is - independent of previous experience, prejudice and bias. It is simple if one approaches the whole thing without getting bamboozled and dazzled by the word samadhi.

When samadhi is perpetual, it keeps you constant company all the time, so that, whatever happens, you begin to see the truth - not opinions concerning it. For instance, you repeat a mantra; you hear the sound. You hear the sound? You are repeating the mantra and you are hearing the sound - it is absurd. The 'I' has gone; the mantra alone remains. You are in samadhi. Again, as you read a Scripture, the words enter your brain, and suddenly you discover that you are interpreting that Scripture in your own way, in terms of past memory. You smile at it, you laugh at it - and in a moment you are back in samadhi again.

So, in that intensity of attention, only that exists which you have chosen to observe, as if even 'I' does not exist. When the object alone exists, it is obviously the subject, isn't it? What do we mean by 'the object alone exists'? It is like the example of the handkerchief again: that end is you, this end is me. When that end is gone and this end alone exists, what exists in reality is the middle, the handkerchief. The 'I' is assimilated in 'you', and 'you' is absorbed in 'me'. What remains is what is - and that is samadhi.

What happens now? The 'object of meditation' shines, independent of the subject-object relationship. In other words, the distorting media of desire, fear, hatred, and delusion are removed, and there is 'knowledge' of That. Knowledge is rather an inefficient word to use here because, in our mind, knowledge signifies a bridge that links the knower with the object of knowledge. In samadhi only one exists. You are welcome to assert that the subject has merged with the object of meditation or that the object has become one with the subject, or that both the subject and the object have been dissolved into knowledge or, as the philosopher designates it - Consciousness.

All superimposition of percepts and concepts on what is, are removed, and That alone exists. Even the word 'knowledge' or its philosophical term 'Consciousness' is used only to prevent sleep being mistaken for samadhi. In sleep, there is absence of any knowledge. In samadhi there is consciousness alone, free from all limiting perceptual or conceptual thinking.

3, 4 : trayam ekatra samyamah

When these three happen together there is perfect inner discipline. This can happen during what is commonly known as the practice of meditation, and during any other form of physical or mental activity.

Concentration of mind is the indispensable preliminary to meditation. Concentration and meditation together form the steps leading to the ultimate in yoga - samadhi or superconscious state of awareness. These three are really not three different stages - for example, as asana and pranayama are completely different and independent, but three parts of one whole.It is true that one can concentrate without proceeding to meditation; but meditation is not possible without concentration. Similarly, it is possible to stop with meditation without ever reaching samadhi; but the latter is not possible without meditation.

These three - concentration, meditation, and samadhi - together are called samyama. Samyama means 'thoroughly restrained'. We saw in Chapter Two that yama is self-discipline. The prefix 'sara' invariably means something that is well done, that is proper and perfect. So here samyama means that the yama becomes 'well done', proper and perfect.

The spiritual aspirant who commenced his spiritual journey with a zealous attempt at self-control, reaches perfection in that control when he practises samyama. Lord Krshna declares in the Bhagavad Gita: 'The objects of the world do not worry the man who has starved the senses; but the taste of enjoyment remains. This taste is destroyed only after experience of the vision of the Supreme.' So long as the taste remains, so long the control is not complete or perfect. Only in samyama is the control complete.

3, 5 : taj jayat prajna lokah

When such inner discipline is mastered, there arises the vision that is wisdom.

When concentration, meditation, and samadhi, are practised simultaneously, there is illumination, inner awareness, inner enlightenment. Knowledge being one, it is always gained where there is total oneness.

Meditation does not necessarily mean closing one's eyes and sitting up straight. It is the cultivation of an inner awareness every moment of your existence. If from moment to moment, whatever you are doing, this light of self-awareness shines in you - revealing to you what your mind is doing, how your emotions are disturbing your attitude to life and to your neighbours, etc. - then you are in a perpetual state of meditation; and yours is an enlightened life. The enlightened life will be characterised by all the virtues that are described in the yoga texts. Such a life is truly blessed.

3, 6 : tasya bhumisu viniyogah

This vision - or the eye of intuition, or the eye of wisdom, or the inner light - can be directed to many fields of observation.

Once you have acquired this mastery over samyama, and the whole matter of attention has been thoroughly disciplined, then that disciplined attention can be directed, not so much applied, to any branch of knowledge. Through that you can gain all kinds of insights.

Samyama can be directed to anything you like, and will produce results. If you are practising this, since your attention is focused in one direction on one particular object, and since your whole consciousness is filled with this object to such an extent that you do not exist - the object alone exists - you will know that object intimately, immediately, in its very essence.

As a matter of scientific interest, later in the Third Chapter, Patanjali details a few such fields in which such a disciplined attention can be used. Two or three of what Hatha Yoga describes as 'psychic centres' are mentioned.

3, 7 : trayam antarangam purvebhyah

These three are inner spiritual practices compared to the other five already described viz., discipline, observances, posture, exercise of the life-force, and introversion of attention.

With samyama we enter into the inner chamber of yoga. These three practices are not external as are the other five: moral disciplines - yama, ethics - niyama, postures - asana, control of breath - pranayama, and sense-control - pratyahara. All these greatly help concentration - dharana, though practices like asana and pranayama are not always indispensable.

3, 8 : tad api bahirangam nirbijasya

But even these three are external to that enlightenment in which the very seed of duality ceases to exist.

3, 9 : vyutthana nirodha samskarayor abhibhava pradurbhavau nirodha ksana cittanvayo nirodha parinamah

Here, again, it is possible to conceive of three stages, though such sequence is not inevitable. At first there is the effortless, though not mechanical, habit of shutting out an undesirable or disturbing thought. This ability arises when there is direct awareness of the moment of the rise of the movement of restraint and the cessation of the movement of thought, and thus there is the understanding of the dynamics of thought. This understanding itself is the formation of the faculty of restraint of undesired thoughts.

The method suggested is this: the noise of the traffic outside is annoying you. That it is annoying you, means that it is a samskara. Compare I:18. A samskara is something which is part of your nature. It is not a revived memory or a thought which you can observe; it is built into you. You begin to see it, and then it slowly fades away. It faded away because you began to observe it.

The yogis realised that you cannot possibly get rid of all samskaras, so they said, 'Create the opposite samskara. Train yourself to be watchful.' You have created the impression of annoyance that has now become aggressiveness. By repeatedly trying, acquire the samskara of being peaceful, cheerful and loving, so that every time this aggressive samskara comes up, the other one begins to work.

3, 10 : tasya prasantavahita samskarat

Though at first this may seem to involve effort, struggle and striving, when the habit of restraint is formed, there is effortless, tranquil and spontaneous flow of the movement of restraint, and the prevention of the undesired movement of thought.

If you think of a see-saw, you might discover the meaning of this Sutra. It is like a see-saw. As the aggressive samskara comes up, the love samskara goes down; the love samskara comes up, the aggressive samskara goes down.

You have created these two samskaras and you are playing with them. You still have no control over them, otherwise you would remain with love on top all the time. That is not possible, because the other one comes up when you are non- vigilant. Tragedy strikes one's life when one least expects it, and one gets involved in accidents when one least expects them. If you are expecting accidents, and therefore driving carefully and vigilantly all the time, you will probably never get involved in an accident; when one is non-vigilant there is tragedy.

As these two ends of the see-saw, move slowly up and down. Can you see that moment when both of these are on an equal footing? No. But, if you are extremely cautious and vigilant, you can detect the moment at which one end goes up and the other comes down. That is all you can do. When you have learned to observe the samskara of aggression, and the samskara which restrains this aggression, and are able to detect the precise moment when the latter comes up, you have taken the first step towards dealing with the samskara - though not controlling it.

Now, for the moment you have cultivated this vigilance, and that vigilance in itself is very calm and peaceful - the observer is extremely calm and peaceful. This is not part of your samskara, it is a different intelligence - it is neither the love that observes the aggressiveness nor the aggressiveness that observes the love. It is completely aloof from all this. Therefore, when those two samskaras keep playing like cat and mouse, there is a sense of tranquillity.

Again, if your love samskara is stronger, it is able to keep the aggressive samskara in abeyance, and therefore there is inner peace. You think you have mastered the technique. If you are very vigilant, you may even keep it down for some time. But the mind is still scattered with so many distractions. When the mind is distracted, the aggressiveness suddenly jumps up again.

3, 11 : sarvarthatai kagratayoh ksayo dayau cittasya samadhi parinamah

The second stage is the non-arising of distractions on account of the weakening of the numerous distracting thoughts, and the effortless and natural unidirectional flow of the mind-stuff. At this state, the mind-stuff is favorably disposed towards illumination as the obstacles to such illumination are rendered inoperative.

You must learn the difference between scattered thinking and one-pointed attention. Because, only when the mind is one-pointed and concentrated can you learn to observe the samskara itself - not merely take a fling, blindly hoping to hit it. Raising the love samskara to counteract the samskara of aggression is blind flinging, a 'hoping to hit it'. You have still not come to grips with the samskara itself. In order to do this, you must know how to concentrate the mind, how to prevent it from being distracted. Watch very carefully to see when the mind is scattered, and when all its energies are one pointed. Then you learn what it is to contemplate.

To me, the word 'contemplate' sounds very much like being in a temple: con- templ-ate. You must build this temple of contemplation and get into it - not stand outside and look at it. There you are whole, and the whole of your being is in this observation of the samskara.

This process is nearly endless, whatever you do, because you have not come face to face with the samskara itself. You are only dealing with its different manifestations, with the superficial impressions. How does one clean the mind- stuff, so that there is no conditioning, no samskara at all?

 3, 12 : santo ditau tulya pratyayau cittasyai kagrata parinamah

When the two movements of thought-arising and thought-subsiding, the movements of distraction and of restraint, are of equal force, the mind-stuff is in a perfectly balanced state, which is one of non-division or no-polarity. There is neither - volitional - thinking nor suppression of thought, and the intelligence has its natural, effortless unidirectional movement which is in fact no-movement.

That door is open to you when you are able to observe and discover for yourself the moment at which these two samskaras come to exactly the same level, when they are of exactly the same strength, perfectly balanced. Then the mind is neither distracted by the samskara of aggression - the active samskara, nor the counter samskara. It is in an absolutely quiet, peaceful state, and there is total vigilance - not only concerning the samskara which you wish to avoid or overcome, but in regard to even the samskara you had planted deliberately to deal with the other one.

You are free - the criminal and the policeman are both thrown out of your house. When you have a thief in your house and you call the police, you are not going to suggest that the policeman should kick the thief out and make himself at home in the house. You have the thief with you; get the policeman also and very carefully shove both of them out at the same time - not one after the other. Then you are free.

It is an interesting technique. If you create a mental picture of it, and work with that mental picture, it is no more valid than any other piece of memory. It is junk, useless.

Is it possible to change what you have accepted as your nature - i.e. violence, aggression or intolerance, easily being offended or easily offending others? Can you observe this? As soon as you observe it stirring within you, can you plant a restraining power, a restraining habit?

If you are intolerant and aggressive, it is often very difficult for you to deal with this straight away. But again, if you watch your behaviour fairly closely, you might discover that that intolerance also shows in some petty mannerisms - like biting your fingernails, for instance. So, in order to develop this habit of vigilance, tell yourself, 'I am not going to bite my fingernails any more.' You may think that it is easy, but it is not. First, you will not know when you are doing it, but remind yourself after the event; and then gradually, by constantly reminding yourself after the event, it should be possible to remind yourself during the event, perhaps; and then, after some time, just before.

When you learn to restrain it by habitually repeating this method of restraint, you become friendly with restraint, and therefore there is greater peace of mind. You become less and less intolerant, less and less critical, less and less offensive, and therefore more peaceful. But that is nothing, because the samskara is still there. So, you learn to not let your mind be distracted and to keep a rigorous watch on this samskara. Then you get into the state of samadhi - samadhi in the waking state, samadhi in life. You watch and see that there is this pendulum swinging all the time. You have brought about a complete change in your nature.

3, 13 : etena bhute ndriyesu dharma laksana vastha parinama vyakhyatah

Thus - that is, by explaining the dynamics of thought - the nature, characteristics and changes in the states relating to all the cognitive faculties and their objects have been explained; for they are closely related to and are essentially non-different from the movement of thought in the mind-stuff.

3, 14 : santo dita vyapadesya dharma nupati dharmi

For, a substance itself is put together and recognized as such by, and is non-different from, a particular characteristic which may be in a dormant state, in an emerging state or in an uncertain or potential state.

3, 15 : kramanyatvam parinamanyatve hetuh

Surely, it is because of the existence of such a clear distinction of character of substances and of the order in the sequence of the changes, that there is predictability of the transformation.

3, 16 : parinama traya samyamad atita nagata jnanam

Therefore, knowledge of the past and of the future - and such knowledge as not already possessed - follows the practice of the three-fold inner discipline - concentration, meditation, and illumination together - in relation to the fundamental principle of the three stages of the movement of thought - the movement of restraint, the non-arising of distractions, and the perfectly balanced state.

3, 17 : sabda rtha pratyayanam itare tara dhyasat samskaras tat pravibhaga samyamat

Language, meaning and conceptualization are always superimposed on one another, causing habit-patterns in communication. By the practice of the threefold inner discipline on their differences there arises an understanding of the sounds uttered by all beings.

 3, 18 : samskara saksatkaranat purva jati jnanam

By the practice of the threefold discipline on the inherent tendencies, and by the direct perception of such tendencies, knowledge of previous existence arises.

3, 19 : pratyayasya para citta jnanam

In an intimate knowledge of the ground of the mind, there is what at first sight appears to be a supernatural knowledge of 'other' minds, too, because in fact the intelligence that is misunderstood as the mind is indivisible.

When the citta is made calm and peaceful and the prana is concentrated, the prana acts upon the citta, and you get subtle vision. If you practise pranayama and meditation every day, you will get this very soon. If you watch yourself when you talk to other people, your citta will be clean and crystal-like and also extremely subtle. Because it is like a crystal, it will reflect whatever object comes near it. You may develop powers of thought-reading, because, when someone comes near you, you may reflect his thoughts. Therefore, because the mind is like crystal, at that stage it is very necessary that you select your company. The thoughts and desires and motives of your friends will be reflected in your own mind.

You will spontaneously be able to love and to understand everybody. Understanding is looking at the other man as he looks at himself. The result is that you will always be peaceful, you will not be upset by anybody. If a man comes and scolds you, you know why he does it. You look at it not as someone else looks at it, but as he looks at it himself. Only the yogi who has reached the stage of true dharana will be able to understand everybody and love everybody. That is what we are all interested in, though Patanjali extends it to other objects.

Any power that you get or use will take you away from God. Therefore, turn the whole practice towards God.

3, 20 : na ca tat ca lambanam tasya visayibhutatvat

This, however, does not imply particularized knowledge of the other personalities, e.g., the motivations, the conditioning or the background of the 'other' minds - for knowledge of the 'other' mind is impersonal and devoid of images and details.

3, 21 : kaya rupa samyamat tad grahya saktti stambhe caksuh prakasa samprayoge ntardhanam

By the practice of the threefold inner discipline on the form and the substantiality of the body, one can comprehend directly the energy that makes it possible to 'grasp' it with the eyes and so forth - for the flow of light waves is the form; and when this energy-function is suspended, the dynamics of perception is made inoperative, the link between the perceiving eye and light is severed as it were and invisibility occurs.

 3, 22 : sopakramam nirupakramam ca karma tat samyamad aparanta jnanam aristebhyo va

Action performed here yields results either immediately - if the action is of great intensity - or in course of time - if it lacks intensity. By the practice of the threefold inner discipline on the intensity or on the chain of action-reaction or the law of cause and effect, there comes knowledge of death - though not knowledge of the ultimate extinction of the ego-sense or liberation. This knowledge can also be gained by such discipline directed towards omens and portents.

 3, 23 : maitryadisu balani

By the practice of the threefold discipline on qualities like friendship one becomes an embodiment of such qualities naturally, and thus one gains great moral, psychic and spiritual strength.

3, 24 : belasu hasti baladini

By the practice of the threefold discipline on various kinds of strength - physical, mental, moral, psychic and spiritual - one grows to be as strong as, say, an elephant.

 3, 25 : pravrtty aloka nyasat suksma vyavahita viprakrsta jnanam

By correctly directing and focussing the light of perception in which the senses and their objects - the whole of nature - function, knowledge can be gained of the subtle, the hidden, and even the remote objects or phenomena.

 3, 26 : bhuvana jnanam surye samyamat

By the practice of the threefold discipline on the sun a knowledge of the physical universe is gained.

When this samyama is directed towards the sun, one's consciousness becomes one with the sun. The universe and the composition of the solar system - and therefore the entire universe - is known. For instance, if you direct your meditation at the tape recorder, you will know exactly how this tape recorder works, how it is assembled.

Now, here comes the mischief. Patanjali himself says, 'Please do not do this. I have described it to you in order to be truthful and scientific, but these are distractions.'

3, 27 : candre tara vyuha jnanam

By the practice of the threefold discipline on the moon, there arises a knowledge of the stellar system.

3, 28 : dhruve tad gati jnanam

By the practice of the threefold discipline on the pole star, there comes a knowledge of its movement - or the movement of the stars.

3, 29 : nabhi cakre kaya vyuha jnanam

By the practice of the threefold inner discipline at the psychic center at the navel - the manipura cakra - the knowledge of the physiology of the body is gained

 3, 30 : kanthakupe ksut pipasa nivrttih

By the practice of the threefold discipline at the pit of the throat - or, the psychic center known as the vishuddha cakra - freedom from hunger and thirst is gained.

 3, 31 : kurma nadyam sthairyam

By the practice of the threefold discipline on the kurma-nadi, steadiness of the body and the mind is gained.

 3, 32 : murdha jyotisi siddah darsanam

By the practice of the threefold discipline on the light that appears in the crown of the head during meditation, one has the vision of sages who have attained perfection.

When you are proficient in samyama and direct this to the light in the crown of the head - which means, after the kundalini has awakened and is taken cakra by cakra to the sahasrara - the topmost centre of your consciousness, then you will have a vision of the siddhas, sages, enlightened ones. You can see Jesus Christ, Buddha, Krshna, or whoever you want. You can also have a vision of the object of your meditation. This can be a guide, a lamp unto your feet.

This one Sutra in this section dealing with psychic accomplishments is sensible. But, in a way, Patanjali regards even that as a sort of distraction.

The accomplishments listed in the other Sutras can happen spontaneously. But if you are going to struggle hard to attain perfection in concentration, meditation and samadhi, why must you waste all that talent to get knowledge of the stellar system, for example, or the ability to read other's thoughts? What for?

 3, 33 : pratibhad va sarvam

All these can also be gained by direct intuitive perception or, by the practice of the threefold discipline on the inner light, all knowledge is gained.

 3, 34 : hrdaye citta samvit

By the practice of the threefold discipline on the spiritual heart - or the psychic heart center anahata - there arises knowledge concerning the mind-stuff or the undivided intelligence.

3, 35 : sattva purusayor atyanta samkirnayoh pratyaya viseso bhogah pararthatvat svartha samyamat purusa jnanam

The external object is totally distinct and different from what the experiencing personality thinks it is. When, in a state of ignorance, the personality forgets this, and as the object is imagined to be external for the enjoyment of another - which is the enjoyer, he experiences pain and pleasure. When the threefold discipline is directed towards the substance of this self or personality - or, towards the selfishness, there arises the knowledge of the indwelling intelligence, with its conditioning which is the ignorance.

3, 36 : tatah pratibha sravana vedana darsa svada varta jayante

Thereupon - since knowledge of ignorance is the dispelling of ignorance, and the intelligence that comprehends the mental conditioning is unconditioned - there come into being enlightened hearing, feeling, seeing, tasting and smelling - free from the perversions, limitations and distortions born of ignorance.

 3, 37 : te samadhav upasarga vyutthane siddhayah

But, even such excellent sensations and feelings and the psychic powers described thus far, which on the surface appear to be desirable and encouraging aspects of perfection are in fact impediments to enlightenment as they, too, distract and externalise the attention.

Distractions are lovely! There was an extraordinary incident in the ashram in Rishikesh when my master, Swami Sivananda, was alive.

One day, a young man approached Him and said, 'Swami, in the legends and myths of India, there are stories of great men who meditated for a thousand years. It is described in these legends that even the gods were worried about this, so they wanted to disturb their meditation. They sent a beautiful, young celestial nymph there to disturb their meditation. Does it happen even now?'

The master, very lovingly, turned towards him and asked, 'Why are you asking the question?'

The young man said, 'If that is true, I would also like to meditate.'

Those great yogis meditated on God, and the celestial nymphs came as obstacles; but this man wanted to meditate in order to get the obstacles.The obstacles themselves seem to be so tempting that we are satisfied with the obstacles. The famous prayer, 'Lead me not into temptation,' means, 'I am so fond of being tempted, that only You can prevent me from being tempted. If You leave me alone, I am tempted all the time.' I am not making fun of this. Also, there is a hidden meaning in it - that the next time you are tempted, you will blame God. 'I prayed: lead me not into temptation,' and now You have led me into temptation. It is Your fault.'

Because these results are promised for a serious practice of meditation, we get caught in the snare of result-hunting. Why is it so? There is a basic insincerity. If this basic insincerity is not there, then the whole of yoga is easy. If the basic insincerity is there, then the life of that person is full of obstacles.

 3, 38 : bandha karana saithilyat pracara samvedanac ca cittasya para sarira vesah

When there is loosening of the bondage of the consciousness to the body, as also an understanding of the proper channel of the consciousness's entry into and its withdrawal from the body, the mind acquires the ability to enter another body.

3, 39 : udana jayaj jala parika kantakadisv asanga utkrantis ca

When the anti-gravitational vital force that has an ascending flow is directly understood there follow powers of levitation, and passage over water, mud, thorny bush, etc., without coming into contact with them.

3, 40 : samana jayaj jvalanam

When the vital force which maintains equilibrium and which fills the entire body with light, life and power, is directly perceived and understood, there is effulgence and radiance of one's personality.

 3, 41 : srotra kasayoh sambandha samyamad divyam srotram

By the practice of the threefold discipline on the relation between space, as the medium of sound, and the sense of hearing, supernatural hearing is gained - since the flow of sound-waves is identical with ether or space.

3, 42 : kaya kasayoh sambandha samyamal laghu tula samapattes ca kasa gamanam

When the threefold inner discipline is directed towards the relationship between the body and the space in which it moves, and when there is contemplation of the weightlessness of cotton, the body acquires the quality of weightlessness and moves in space with ease.

 3, 43 : bahir akalpita vrttir maha videha tatah prakasa varana ksayah

Beyond all these is the state of consciousness, which is not the product of thought; and that is the cosmic intelligence, which is independent of the body - or bodies - physical, astral and causal. By the practice of the threefold discipline upon that, the veil that covers that light of cosmic intelligence is removed.

 3, 44 : sthula svarupa suksma nvayarthavattva samyamad bhuta jayah

By the practice of the threefold discipline on the gross - tangible, with form - and the subtle - intangible, formless, and their conjunction, and the direct perception of their apparently substantial nature, there arises the perfect understanding of the elements that constitute that existence.

 3, 45 : tato nimadi pradur bhavah kaya sampat tad dharma nabhighatas ca

Thence follow psychic powers like the ability to reduce the body to the size of an atom, etc., and perfection of body and its immunity from the ravages of the elements of nature.

 3, 46 : rupa lavanya bala vajrasamhananatvani kaya sampat

What constitutes perfection of the body? Beauty, grace, strength, and adamantine firmness.

 3, 47 : grahana svarupa smita nvayarthavattva samyamad indriya jayah

By the practice of the threefold discipline on the sense-functions - their action, their characteristics, their fragmentary nature, their mutual relationship, and their substance or their meaningfulness in relation to the indwelling intelligence on account of which alone they are able to function - comes their total understanding and true mastery over them.

The basic problem of yoga is indriya - the senses. Indriya are the senses, not the organs of sense - the eyes, ears, tongue, and so on, or the organs of action. The senses are not just the gross organs, either of action or cognition. The senses are those organs with which you function when you are dreaming. With closed eyes, when you dream, you see. With what do you see? With the indriya. That is the sense of sight, the indriya. The eye is the fleshy, gross physical organ. Similarly, when you hear someone, you dream about talking to you in your dream, that is the sense of hearing.

The problem that the yogi faces is psychological distraction and psychological distress. These two disturb the mental equilibrium and keep you from self- knowledge. How do you deal with it? Shall you suppress? Suppress what?It is no use closing your eyes when you do not want to see someone. You can still see - better perhaps. The distraction is there, not in the person standing in front of you. If you poke your eyes out, you will still dream about what you saw years ago. If you puncture your eardrums, you will still hear some kind of noise in your brain. If you are a compulsive alcoholic, you can tie your legs to the bed, because you know you walk in your sleep, and you might go into the pub; but you may become more alcoholic in your bed, thinking and dreaming of alcohol, craving for it. Or, if you think that you just need one glass and then the craving will go, you will find that not only does it not go, but it is strengthened and comes back a little later. So, neither suppression nor expression work.

So, yoga is neither a science of suppression nor of expression, neither a puritanical thing nor license - neither/nor. There is a third thing - jaya. Jaya is victory. This Sutra suggests that you can achieve victory in the sense of understanding. Jaya could mean winning over, not merely gaining victory. The feeling 'I am a victor' is not there - but you can come to terms with the indriya, the senses. So, indriya jaya means to come to terms, with the senses and sense organs, so that they neither form a distraction or disturbance, nor create psychological distress.

The yogi says, 'Why do you not try to understand what is happening to you?' When the senses are unruly, they distract and disturb you, they leap to some kind of psychological distress. This is the active part of it. When it comes to the receiving end, once again there is pain and suffering. As you try to push this pain away, to suppress and overcome this suffering, you only aggravate it. Pain becomes more and more painful as you push it away. It is a vicious circle. For instance, if someone pokes a needle towards you and you hit it back, that is when it punctures. In pain and in panic, when you push it away from you, it is then that it hurts. Rejection is pain - pain is rejection.

So, both what is called sin and what is called suffering are based upon the senses - not just a physical partof the sense organ, but the inner senses, indriya. That is the source of all one's troubles and difficulties, of sin and suffering.

Grahana is action. What is the function or the action of the senses - not the sense organs? What is their essential nature - svarupa? What is the sense? What is sight, what is hearing, what is the sense of touch? And what are their functions? We have never asked these questions.

How is it that, when sight sees, there is a feeling 'I' see - asmita? How is it that when the sense of hearing hears, there is a feeling 'I' hear? Therefore, at what stage and on account of what does the ego-sense - asmita - arise? We think that at least we know all the other senses, but what is this ego-sense? How does that come up?

There is a strange paradox related to the sense organs. From one point of view, it looks as though they perceive objects outside; on the other hand, they themselves seem to be an object. For instance, with your ears you listen to some words; or, the ears listen to those words. You are not even aware that there is a thing called 'ear' 'which enables you to hear.

If something goes wrong with your eardrum, then you hear the ear itself. People who have a punctured eardrum hear all sorts of things. Now the ears are not hearing the external objects, the eardrum itself has become the object of hearing. If you ask a physiologist to explain all this to you, will you really know that way? No! So, the yogi tries to find an answer to these questions.

'What is the nature of these senses, what is their function? How does the ego- sense arise, and how does it play a dual role of being both subject and object?'

When samyama is directed towards the senses - not only their function, their knowledge, and how this stupid confusion that what the senses do, 'I' do, arises, it is not possible for the answer to these question to be transferred from one to the other. You have to find them for yourself. Therefore, only the questions, 'What are the senses, what is their function, what is this ego-sense that seems to link itself with these senses, and what is the meaning of sense experience? How is it that the senses regard the outside world as their objects and they themselves become the objects of my understanding?' are asked. The answers are not given.

When you hear somebody provide an answer to these questions, you may think you know, but it is not right to say then, 'I think I know'. The correct way to put it'is, 'I think he knows,' because you are merely listening to him; you know nothing.

The word samyama - dharana, dhyana and samadhi - concentration, meditation and knowledge - can be looked at in a different way in this context. When you are listening to somebody else, at that stage you can only say, 'I think he knows.' So, you are still ignorant. When you practise concentration, you realise, 'I think I know'. When you enter into the state of meditation, it is 'I know I think'. Then, when you are in the third stage of knowledge - samadhi, it is, 'I know'.

When the answer to these questions is found, then there is indriya jaya - mastery in the sense of understanding.

3, 48 : tato manojavitvam vikaranabhavah pradhana jayas ca

When such understanding has been gained, the senses function with the speed of the mind, and there is direct perception without the need of intermediary instruments - even the sense organs - and the realisation of oneness with the entire cosmic nature.

If you understand your own senses, you understand the whole universe. If your own senses are under your control, the whole universe is under your control. Then the senses function with lightning speed - spontaneously - without suppression, craving, or value judgement. That is what is called 'God's Will', which is without any personal motivation whatsoever - tato manojavitvam vikarana bhavah. Then they are absolutely perfect, uncorrupted instruments - pradhana jayas ca.

The whole world is conquered, or won over. The whole universe is understoed. It is said in the Yoga Vasistha: 'To one whose feet are shod, the whole world is covered with leather.' You do not have to go on covering the whole world. If you cover your own feet with shoes, you can walk wherever you like. That is the yogi's attitude.

 3, 49 : sattva purusa nyata khyatimatrasya sarva bhava dhisthatrtvam sarva jnatrtvam ca

The direct realisation of the independence of the indwelling intelligence from the mind, that is from the conditions to which the psychic and the physical nature is subject, brings with it superintendence over all states of being, an omniscience.

This is the stage of, 'I know'. The yogi knows the senses, the answers to these questions of what the senses are, what their functions are, how the ego-sense arises, what the world is. There is also the feeling at that point that therefore one is neither dependent upon, nor a slave to, the outside world, and need not suffer or behave foolishly as ignorant pepple behave. One is the master of one's mind and destiny, because the body, mind, etc, are all under one's perfect control - which implies a division within oneself - a dualism.

It is one of the extraordinary features of yoga philosophy that even the dualism of 'I know' - 'I' as the subject and all the rest as the object - is not frowned upon or ridiculed. If one is at the stage where he has the answer to all these questions we have just asked, it merely means that he knows all the factors concerning himself - how his mind and organs function, all his tendencies - samskaras, past

impressions, and so on. He knows everything concerning himself; and, by extension, he also knows how an enlightened person, a stupid fool, a yogi, and an aspirant function, and what the possible difficulties and problems of others are - not because he is able to read other's minds, but because he knows how the mind itself functions. He has the key - sarva bhava 'dhisthatrvam.

One of the characteristics of a yogi is that he is the master of his own thoughts, feelings, and emotions. To be a master of one's emotions does not mean that he is totally free from all emotions. Emotions come when he invites them, and they leave when he lets them go. The switch is in his hand, not in somebody else's. He is able to know all. To 'know all' does not mean fortune reading or where to find a lost key, etc. and all that sort of thing. That is a ridiculous pastime in which the true yogi does not indulge. See I: 25

Here, there is clear knowledge or understanding of the distracting influences, of the sources of psychological distress. The yogi knows how the latent tendencies function, and how craving arise within himself; and he knows how these things happen in others. Then there is clear perception that this is how the senses function, how the ego-sense arises, how the mind functions - throwing up cravings and desires, good desires, bad desires, etc. He begins to feel that these are all functions of the senses, the ego-sense and the mind - not me. 'I' am free from all of this.

'I' - the observer, not the ego-sense, the undivided intelligence which is able to observe this - temporarily frees itself from all these distracting influences, and says, 'I am not involved in all this. I am independent and I am free'.

Here, it is 'freedom from'. Let us go back to the example of the river. It is like the man who, when he realises he is drowning, wants to free himself from this drowning, and so swims out of the river. The intelligence isolates itself - that is also a form of independence, of freedom.

It is possible for a person at that stage of development to say as he is drowning, 'Well it is only the body that dies - I am independent of the body.' But still the individuality is there; so, there is a division. As long as this individuality continues, it is possible for a being - who has achieved independence or freedom in that way - to be caught once again. Just as, having saved yourself from drowning and reached the shore, on finding your friend in difficulty, you go back into the river again.

 3, 50 : tad vairagyad api dosa bija ksaye kaivalyam

When there is no craving or attraction even for such supremacy and for such omniscience, all of which suggest a division in consciousness, and when the sense of duality which is the seed for imperfection, impurity, or conditioned existence ceases, there is total freedom and a direct realization of the indivisibility and hence the in- dependence of intelligence.

Vairagya is dispassion - disinterestedness. The yogi has now arrived at the point where he is neither distracted nor subject to psychological distress, because he has the feeling - or realisation - that he is beyond their reach. He is therefore able to know all these things and superintend all these situations. He suddenly realises, 'I am aware of this, I am alert, and therefore I think I am free from all that. If that is so, if this is freedom, how did I lose it in the first place? As long as this dualism exists, the possibility of my falling into this trap also exists. But as long as I am alert, I am all right. If I lose that for one minute, I sm going to be lost.

He enters into another state in which he sees the danger of the two vital statements contained in the previous Sutra: I must be the master of my mind and the senses, and I must know all about myself. Even that division - I know myself - is dangerous, because that is the cause of the chain reaction of mischief. Even the desire to experience self-knowledge as if it were outside of yourself - an object of your own knowledge and understanding - is risky. So, he says, 'I do not want even the feeling that I am the master of my mind and senses, or that I know myself. I do not want that experience as a divided experience.' Then, once again, the great surrender happens.

The word vairagya here means 'I am not interested in this. I am not even interested in being a great yogi.' But the yogi says this at that point; not where we are. Most people are not interested in becoming a great yogi; so, this feeling should not arise at our stage. It arises only at that stage where one is able to say, 'Everything is under my control, and I know everything. At that point, even the seed of defect is destroyed. Dosa bija ksaye. Dosa is defect, bija is the seed, ksaye is destruction.

You do not say, 'I have given up all my bad habits.' You may have given up your bad habits, but the seed is still there and therefore it can sprout again and come up. The seed of defect is the craving for what is called a divine experience - mastery of one's own mind and senses, the craving for the experience 'I know all about my mind and senses', and all that stuff and nonsense. Even that is gone. Then there is kaivalya - freedom. Total freedom, not from anything. Freedom, period! There is freedom, and the freedom 'is'. That is very much like, back to the river again, when the man who is drowning suddenly feels 'I am not drowning at all. I am the river, I am the body, I am the all.'

There are two ways of asserting that you are not drowning. One is to say, 'I am the spirit, I am not the body. I am not drowning. The body drowns and I will go up to heaven.' That is one way. That was the state described in the previous Sutra.

The other way is to say, 'I am the river, I am the body.' If I am the river, and I am also this body, who is drowning where? You do not say that the whale is drowning in the ocean. It is there, it is part of the ocean, it is the ocean. So, when you become both the river and this drowning body, there is no drowning at all - you are free. You are not free from anything, just free. In that freedom life goes on and all actions continue.

The actions are spontaneous, without the interference of ego-sense, motivation, sense craving, or repulsion. The senses function spontaneously. Such actions are pure. Such actions are called God's Will. There is complete understanding and coming to terms with the mind and feelings. Since they are also freed from motivation, feelings, emotions, attraction, and repulsion, etc., such feelings are pure. We may call it pure love. Why must we call it 'pure' love? Because we call something else love.

Such a person's feelings are always love. His actions are always pure and divine. Such a life itself is divine.

3, 51 : sthany upanimantrane sanga smaya karanam punar anista prasangat

Invitations that involve the demonstration of such powers or of the characteristics of enlightenment, even when extended by those in authority whether on earth or in heaven are summarily rejected without being swayed by attachment or even curiosity. Otherwise, undesirable consequences may arise again, by the revival of duality, superiority, hope and despair, etc

 3, 52 : ksana tat kramayoh samyamad vivekajam jnanam

Undistracted by these, one should proceed to transcend time. By the practice of the three-fold discipline in relation to the truth of the moment, without the interference of thought which creates the false sequence of time, there arises understanding which is born of the faculty to perceive the false as false and hence truth as truth.

 3, 53 : jati laksana desair anyata navacchedat tulyayos tatah pratipattih

From such understanding flows knowledge or the natural ability to distinguish between reality and appearance, even where they do not have other obvious distinguishing marks related to their species, characteristics and location and hence seem to be similar. The possibility of confusion is thus completely overcome.

3, 54 : tarakam sarva visayam sarvatha visayam akramam ce ti vivekajam jnanam

Such wisdom born of intuitive and immediate understanding is the sole redeemer. It is everything. It has everything. It encompasses everything. It is the unconditioned and undivided intelligence spontaneously functioning from moment to moment in the eternal now, without sequential relationship.

 3, 55 : sattva purusayoh suddhisamye kaivalyam

When there is pure equilibrium which is non-division between the indwelling consciousness and all - objective - existence, between the non-moving intelligence and the ever-moving phenomena, between the unconditioned awareness and the rise and fall of the 'the thousand thoughts' - there is freedom and independence of the infinite.