Transcription
Let's go ahead and age Maler for 1971. The philosophy of yoga is a philosophy of integrated integration. Integration means full coordination of body and mind. In this state, where the body is functioning in full potential, mind is functioning in full potential, environmental values are extremely useful. So, the coordination of mind and body extends to coordination of body and surroundings and the whole universe. So, one is able to reap maximum advantage of one's environment, one's body, one's mind. When one's self has been completely realized and has begun to be lived in daily life, living that unboundedness, one lives infinite purity in life. And in this state, body is fully useful, mind is fully useful, environment is fully useful. All this, and in order to reap fullest value from all these different aspects of life, inner and outer, in order to reap maximum value of life, the various aspects of life, inner and outer, we must have the knowledge of integration of all these in the structure of individuality. All the various aspects of life—universal, environmental, body, mental, spiritual—all these must be coordinated, brought together, where on the level of awareness, and this is integration, this is unity, this is yoga. So, philosophy of yoga demands unbounded awareness to be established in a permanent way, so that the individual and universality are brought to be lived, same, equally, at all times, whether the individuality is at rest or in activity. But universal value should not be lost. For this to happen, body must be extremely pure, nervous system must be functioning most normally, and mind in that state will naturally be fully expanded. Consciousness will be fully alive. Till that happens, ceaselessly and naturally, in that state, one would allot maximum value to the environment. Environment will respond to one in the most profitable way. So, this is called unity, yoga, integrated state of life. Now these are how many aspects—universal aspect, environmental aspect, body aspect, mind aspect, being aspect. All these different aspects are there, and they will have to be integrated; they will have to be brought to the level of living. No aspect of life should be out of living; each aspect of life should be incorporated in every phase of living, and that living will be integrated. Towards this achievement, yoga philosophy [music].
I'm now—I am living this full value of life—then how to go about that? The perfection of the teaching is such that one could start from anywhere and achieve this goal. No matter from where one starts, one would achieve this goal. It is for this reason that the teaching has to be from various angles, from various angles. And it is this need for the teaching to become perfect; it must pick up any phase of life, and manipulation of that area of life should purify the whole whole of life. It is this many directional approach to integration that presents to us many systems of yoga, many systems of gaining perfection; systems that evolve being, taking care of being only, and then see being in the—now, all feelings of life. Take care of body and see being, inner aspect of the body, and environmental and universal outer aspects of the body. Both are integrated in the body. We have all these muscular areas of the body; we have this breath, breath area of the body; we have so many senses, different senses, they're part of the body; we have mind; we have intellect; we have ego. So, are different aspects of body, senses, prana, they're—and therefore, if the teaching of yoga is to be perfect, then any of these could be picked up, and working on that aspect, whole life should be integrated. And teaching of yoga is to be perfect; one could start culturing the breath, and through the breath culture, the whole body could be purified. Pure consciousness could become an all-time reality. Response of the body to the surrounding, to the whole universe, could be ideally, perfect. Anything is easy. Take the mind, fine; we can take the mind and culture the mind and gain integration. Take the senses, culture the senses—sense of sight, sense of hearing, sense of smell, any sense—and refine the senses, and in the process of refining, body would automatically be refined. Mind will get to pure consciousness. Infinite being would be lived through all phases of activity. One would gain integration. One could take the environmental values and start to refine them, and by way of refining—prana, by refining being, would start to be lived in all phases of life. Universal and individual values will come to be together. So, these different values of life, one could pick up any and from there purify all of them. This is the perfection of the teaching of yoga. Body is only physical; mind is only abstract. Pick up the body, refine the body, and the mind would be refined. Pick up the mind, refine the mind, and the body would be refined, because, because life is never in isolation. This hand and this hand, they seem to be farther apart; hand is separate from the legs; leg is separate from the nose. But they are all so integrated in one with one another that the culture of the hand would culture the whole body. It is possible; refine meant on the part of the legs would refine the whole system. One is so intimately connected, even though they are different limbs of the body, but they are so intimately connected with one another that if we could handle the—the main switchboard, the connecting switchboard—we will be able to have all lines cleared, everywhere. Like that, all these different aspects of individual life—outer aspect, inner left aspect, inner most aspect, various aspects—any aspect could be taken up, and by that the whole thing can be refined. And it is this perfection of the teaching of yoga that presents to us various systems of [music].
Further because this—this aspect of the path of integration demands that the body should be purified firstly—what you eat and secondly what you make out of what you eat—digestive system. So, Hatha Yoga prescribes so many methods, devices in order to purify the system and drain out the impurities. There are two things in Hatha Yoga—make the body flexible and take out the impurity. They drink lots of water and take out the water; and they drink lots of air and take out the air—all kind of purifying system, now, physical level, pure physical. And as the system becomes purified through all these rigorous disciplines on the physical, then one starts to feel lighter, free from diseases, stresses go out; pure consciousness starts to be lived. But because it is the rigorous discipline to bend the body, how much it is difficult, everyone could imagine, in comparison to bending the mind. Mind you can bend any time, unlike body—very difficult. Sometimes you're sucked in by all systems are based on one—one reality of life that no aspect of life is dissociated with any other aspect. The table is there; you pull one leg of the table, and all the three legs are coming to you without being pulled, just because all the four are put together; they are together, and there is enough to draw one and all the three will come. A perfect sense of hearing will keep on purifying all other senses because in though each sense has its own characteristic feature, but no sense is completely isolated rather, it—they're connected with everyone. So, one system, any system—whether system of purifying the—end the—off will cup in the other phase of life and will puff all phases. This is one reality of the perfect teaching. Another, you can combine two systems—maybe something of Hatha Yoga, something of—or breathing, or something of breathing, something of mind, something of body, something of mind. Any two can be taken, or any of the three can be taken, any of the four can be taken; all the aspects can be taken together. All these aspects attended together can produce the same kind of—of result. Life will be established in the integrated state, and that's the purpose of yoga. Now, aiming—transcendental meditation. In this context, we find even though it handles one thing which is most flexible—there is nothing more flexible than the mind—up and down and anyway without any—without any pinch whatsoever. That being the nature of the mind, we like to go by that. Transcendental meditation handles the mind and handles the mind on the basis of its own natural tendency. And therefore, just because the mind is permeating all aspects of one's life—outer, inner, everything—mind is all permeating. But because that all permeating value of the mind is not in our conscious awareness, and only some small individual aspect of the mind is in our conscious awareness, so we have only to expand our awareness till the all permeating value of the mind becomes open to us, and then the whole range of life is spanned, seamlessly, integrated. Such a simple procedure of integrating the whole universal life with this minute individuality. The very fact that the mental aspect of life, the mind, is permeating in and out and everywhere, it is underlying values, all phases of life. Though we want to integrate, though we want all the different phases of life, we want to integrate, there is one thing that is present through all, and that is being, or the—the most refined value of the mind. And therefore, once we bring our awareness to that most refined value of the mind, to the field of the being, we have as if reached every home. We want to put together all the different areas of life; we want to integrate. We have that value of the mind underlying them. And once we have taken our awareness to that level of the mind, all these areas are inline from inside. And this is what integration means. Nothing more than that done for integration of life. That is we assume this state of integration, the state of yoga, the state of putting together all aspects of life or the state of aligning all aspects of life and bringing everything to our awareness by opening our awareness, our individual awareness to that level of universal awareness. And this is assumed in such a beautiful, natural way. There can be anything else which could challenge this natural procedure because firstly it is most stainless and natural. Secondly, it is envious because the reality of life that all inner and outer are already connected to individual life. They are different aspects of individual life and being. So, we should not take anything other than natural situation to start living them all together. This being the natural, natural structure of life, the path of integrating them, opening our individual awareness to that unbounded awareness. Both of these levels of awareness are different levels of one mind—mind active, mind silent. That's all. What does it take to—to take the active mind to become silent? Mind could be active, could be silent more easily for an active mind to be silent. What does it take? Just start resting, and rest. This is wonderful central point of all the teachings of innumerable systems of yoga. Just this active mind starts to rest, and it rests. In resting, it opens itself to unbounded awareness. In so doing, all the phases of life which were not open to our awareness become inline; they open to our awareness. All values of life begin to be lived in every stroke of activity. The purpose of yoga is assumed in any other system of culturing the body or mind or prana or the behavior or the outer values of life. In culturing the mind, there should be so much of energy wasted, whereas in this automatic procedure, the culturing of all these values takes place silently, completely silently. Now, in principle, yoga philosophy, yoga philosophy, philosophy of integration. You've heard of Patanjali. Patanjali. How many of you have heard of Patanjali? Eightfold path of Patanjali. Patanjali's philosophy—the whole principle of integration of life. He is not advocating any one system. Systems are taught by other—other—see, other seers. Patanjali has only philosophy. Wrong interpretation of Patanjali. If we seek practices for culturing the body, for culturing the senses, for culturing the mind, for culturing the prana, if we seek practices from the eightfold path of Patanjali, we will be in a soup. And this has happened. Interpreters of Patanjali are found in the values of practices, but Patanjali would be feeling sorry for his advocates. Interpretations of Patanjali have misled the whole world. The purpose of Patanjali is not to promote or bring to light any practices; he just explains the principle. What happens in the state of yoga, or on the path to yoga, on the path to integration? What happens? What happens? He counts eight aspects, and are eight aspects. Count—yama, niyama. The word yama means—it's a beautiful word that Patanjali uses for his first step—administrator. Yama is administrator. And what is the administrator? What is administrator of life? Being becomes living reality; being becomes reality, and that's the state of yoga. He counts five yamas, five administrators—satya, ahimsa, asteya, brahmacharya, aparigraha. Satya—that which never changes. Satyam, ahimsa, non-violence. I'd like to go deep into it, and it will be very beautiful. But, but don't blame it, you don't find anything in—imp—the books are highly misleading from there. We start—satya is that which never changes; truth, truth, truth, truth, that which never changes. From where you start the philosophy of yoga, in before this, in before starting into details, let's see the name of Patanjali Yoga. The name is Ashtanga Yoga. Ashta means eight; sen 6, se 8. Ashta is eight; anga, anga means limbs—hands, feet, these, these limbs. Eight limbs, Patanjali writes to eight limbs of yoga, eight limbs of the body of yoga. This is Ashtanga Yoga. Yoga has eight limbs, means the state of integration of life has eight aspects to it; eight [music] limbs. The misinterpretation starts right from here, and this basic value of the misinterpretation of the name has made the whole philosophy completely muddled. This has been interpreted as eight steps to yoga. Ashtanga Yoga, this name has been interpreted as bringing to light the eight steps to yoga, eight steps. Now, you can imagine limbs and steps are not the same thing. Now, the limbs develop, they develop simultaneously. Not first the hand is made, and then the leg is made, and then the nose is built. All of the limbs in the body develop simultaneously. But in the case of steps, they are one after the other; they are built one after the other, and they are used one after the other. And this is what has made a big difference. Philosophy of Patanjali is the philosophy bringing to light the eight aspects of the state of union or integration. And if it is interpreted in terms of the eight steps, then we don't know where the confusion will end. Patanjali does not denote that eight—yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara, dharana, dhyana, samadhi. These eight names that he counts, he does not mean that are the eight steps to yoga. And samadhi is the last step, starting from yama, niyama, asana, pranayama, pratyahara. All that is not right. Otherwise, if these were so, samadhi will never be reached because steps will never be—the very first step demands achievement of that which never changes—satya. Satya is one of the five yamas. Yama is the first which Patanjali deals, and five yamas are there. And out of the first is satyam. Satyam is truth, just truth, simple truth. The truth is what that which never changes. What is that which never changes? Being alone is that which never changes; being is samadhi. Samadhi, Patanjali puts as a limb of the body of yoga, but satyam, being, he puts right in the beginning. This means the state of yoga is being at its beginning and being at its [music] end. Being is permanent, and this is state of yoga, state of union. Just a moment ago, we said mind is all pervasive, and opening that all pervasive value of mind to our awareness, aligning all values of—of life, and this yoga. Truth from beginning, yoga, the truth in the end of yoga. This state of yoga, if the truth so begins to be open to our awareness, the practice of yoga has started. And if truth so becomes permanently established in our awareness, the state of yoga is established. This is the beginning and end of yoga. Integration, transcendental meditation, assumes this state right from the beginning of the practice. This unboundedness, transcendental awareness, opens to our individual awareness, and opening our awareness to that unbounded awareness gets established, and this is the state of yoga, union. Now, when we say yoga, then we say that state. From here, from—from the state of being, the philosophy of yoga starts, and being can be underrated for anything less than being. Now, generally, the practice of the satyam, satya, the truth, generally it is advocated that first you practice speaking truth. Now, you see the—how what a damaging level has been brought to such a beautiful state of achievement. Being, realization of being is taught in terms of realization of the habit of speaking truth. So crude. So, this is what the commentators of Patanjali have done to Patanjali. The practice of speaking truth, such a ridiculous thing. Speaking truth can be practice. What can be practice is development of the level of consciousness which will always speak truth. So, speaking truth, if it has to be practice, it has to be practiced in living value of pure consciousness. If that level of consciousness is not there, one can't speak truth. There would be some—some lag to truth. So, the achievement of truth is not in trying to keep awake in order to speak through. It would be such strain, and then one would speak out something. Later on, one remembers, "Oh, I should not have spoken this." This. So, truth—value of truth is in developing pure consciousness. Spans easily, comfortably, living life where it is. There—the teaching of satyam as one of the teachings of yama is not limited to practicing speaking truth or seeing truth or whatever, whatever, but it is meant to be the state of awareness, and that is in the state of yoga, such a natural situation in that state of integrated life. Not only you speak truth, but you smell truth and you touch truth, and you—when the conscious awareness is open to that pure consciousness of being, anything that you do, you do as a wave of truth, and that is living the truth. Second is ahimsa. Ahimsa is non-violence. Non-violence—quite a lot the word is being heard. The state of non-violence is a level of consciousness in which one always produces life supporting influence; a state of life in which life damaging influence can simply not be. That is—that state in cosmic consciousness, where awareness is unbounded and one is just a witness to everything. One's whole aspiration of life, one's whole impulse of life is conducted by cosmic intelligence, and then every step of action is for evolution, evolution, evolution, evolution, because under the spell of cosmic intelligence, everything is evolving all the time. So, once that is taken over by the individual intelligence, anything that one could think or do will always be in the direction of evolution, evolution, spans seamlessly. And in this state of life, where one always produces life supporting influence, non-violence living reality. Only in that state non-violence living arises. If man is capable of producing life damaging influence in whatever small or big measure, then the violence is enabled—knowingly or unknowingly, latter. If I have hurt man either through stick or through negative thought for him, he has been hurt, and not only he has been hurt, the entire creation has been hurt, and this is violence. So, when one is not capable of hurting anything in creation, then non-violence living reality. This is the quality of the level of consciousness which we say pure consciousness or pure intelligence or cosmic intelligence, which is only life supporting. And this is the state of integrated life. Only in this state of integrated life one would not be damaging in so many aspects of life. So, non-violence means making permanent pure consciousness, gaining cosmic consciousness. Same thing is meant by satyam, truth, living truth in life, making truth a living reality of day-to-day life, means gaining cosmic consciousness, gaining pure consciousness. Asteya—asteya means non-covetousness, non-stealing. You don't steal. As long as one is captivated by every object of perception, so long stealing is very clear. Everyone is a thief. If one owns something, that—what has done—belong to him? What is the reality of belonging? Infinite value of the self alone belongs to one. And if one is not living the infinite value and is captivated by this—or those—that one experiences overshadowing being, then one is—one is bringing to one possession which doesn't belong to one. What belongs to one's status of life is self, unbounded being, infinity, immotality, being, that being, one's home. If something else enters one's home, then one is stealing. Other thing, this state of life is only in cosmic consciousness, where one is only witness to everything; one doesn't own anything, and non-owning is it. Aparigraha—aparigraha, non-acceptance. You don't accept; you don't—you don't own somebody's property. Everything else in creation belongs to relativity, change, and one is non-changing self. And if one uses the value of change, then one has stolen that which doesn't belong to one, and this is aparigraha. There, in the—in the real sense of the word, in the true sense of the word, one is thief as long as one is not risen to cosmic consciousness because bringing to his home property belonging to something else—self and non-self, some—owning something in this sense. Patanjali says non-covetousness is the quality of the state of life in yoga, in state of unity. One is fully self-satisfied and doesn't possess anything. Anything. The—it is not because in that state, in that state of unity, anything is not out of one's own being. Everything in terms of being, everything in terms of the self. In this state, everything, whatever it may be, is no more different from oneself. And therefore, having everything all to oneself is a reality in the state of yoga. And this is a state where one has gone beyond the boundary of covetousness. One has started to own everything in its reality. This is unity consciousness; nothing is out of myself. And in this state alone, where there is nothing out of myself, where my self is everything, in that state alone one has risen above that value of covetousness. Otherwise, if my self is infinite and something is finite, and I possess it, then it is—it is possessing something which doesn't belong to oneself. Property belongs to the three gunas, to the field of change, and I start to possess it, and therefore I am not living that value of aparigraha, non-covetousness. This vision of Patanjali—state of yoga where one has possessed everything, and therefore one has risen above the possibility of covetousness. One is living non-covetousness in that state of fulfillment, where everything belongs to one. As long as that state has not come, integration not—ample—has not amplified, all these values—satya, ahimsa, asteya—all these values are the values of integrated life. And if one starts to practice non-covetousness, it will be surprise to a modern man. If he's given the teaching to not steal, I am—I'm not—I'm not a thief; how much more I can practice this non-stealing. Nothing to practice about. It is not a thief anyway. So, what is there to practice, and whole thing becomes a—a—society? One has to be taught he has not to steal. Nobody steals anyway by nature—non-stealing. So, if the philosophy of Patanjali describing that non-covetousness is taken to be the need of practicing non-stealing, it just be an absurd thing for any civilized man. Every one of these phases, I think we will take them, they're so interesting. Should go deep into it, and then yoga will become so clear. And all these innumerable systems of self-evolution or gaining integration found in the market, they will all fit in some category pertaining to body, pertaining to senses, pertaining to behavior, pertaining to this and this and this. And once we have the overall vision of the whole yoga philosophy, we can sort them out very easily, put them aside. And when we compare it with transcendental meditation, we don't find them any worth whatsoever. So, we will be clear about what yoga is and what that philosophy chases and how much misinterpretation has gone in this field. And it is the interpretation of this yoga philosophy which is the basis of all suffering in life. Man being is mortal, infinite, unbounded being. Suffering now—the small, small area here and there. One doesn't deserve that. So, let's make it clear.