Taking up sadhana in the initial days is bitter. But when you establish yourself in sadhana-life, it starts giving you a sweet feeling. Eating neem leaves is bitter; but after you eat, the taste it leaves is really worth experimenting. Initially sitting still is difficult, going inside our mind and emotions is difficult. Even if you go inside, it would irritate a lot, initially. Once you learn to withstand irritation, the sadhana will ultimately give you only nectar, amrita.
There are two types of knowledge working with us—inner and outside. The knowledge related to the outside world, its memory, its reactions, are all stored in the chitta. You would be able to tap the inner light only when you learn to empty what is stored in the chitta. In order to clear up the chitta, we need to understand how it got filled up with so many things. Chitta is a store house of mental impressions. As I have told you earlier, there is light within us but the only difficulty with us is we are not able to experience it, because the contents of the chitta are covering that light, and hence the emphasis on clearing the contents of the chitta. That is why we must move on from impulsive behaviour to intelligent behaviour. As you practice this shift from impulsive behaviour to intelligent behaviour, your very mastery over intelligent behaviour would automatically open the door of intuitive realm of your personality. Impulse, or the hurried action, relates to animal instinct. The intelligence relates to human, and intuition relates to the beyond. Whatever contains in the chitta relates to the external world. You can’t enter intuitive world directly; you must bring down the speed of your mind intelligently. Handle your affairs intelligently. Deliberately, try to act slowly and intelligently. When someone says something, don’t react immediately. Wait a while. This way, you develop a space in your mind, for you to relax, to see, to feel and to act intelligently. Even in day-to-day life, learn to listen silently, see silently without commenting, act silently without complaining. As you spend your time silently, you are introduced to the way of your speech, action and thought. Then whatever you do, they all will have to have your approval first and then they would be executed. That way, every action of yours would become responsible and intelligent action. Then, a question comes, what type of things were filled into it?
pramaana-viparyaya-vikalpa-nidraa-smritayah
The chitta operates from the above five vrittis. Pramaana means proof and it is the first vritti. Again, proof has three constituents:
pratyaksha-anumaana-aagamaah pramaanaani
The chitta wants some proof to defend itself and it employs the proof of the things seen. The eyes, ears, tongue, touch, and nose, collect things from the world and transmit it inside. The moment an impression goes inside, immediately, reactions would crop up from inside, it is called chitta vritti. Here, yoga asks you to restrain yourself from reacting though you might have seen/ heard/tasted/touched things directly. It asks you to pause for a while and then act intelligently.
An example. You are sitting in a room and outside you hear a comment on you—you don’t know in what context somebody made a comment on you—but you go and take that person to task. You react violently. This proof is called pratyaksha. The other type of proof is anumaana, inference. Suppose, a smell of garam masaala comes from the kitchen of a pious family. If you had experienced such smell from a non-vegetarian family, immediately you infer that that family is also cooking a non-vegetarian dish. The next proof is aagama, words of the trusted people. You might have seen it with your children. Even if you say the correct spelling of a word, the child would defend only the teacher. The child trusts the teacher more than you. In such beliefs, we strengthen the chitta. We don’t ponder whether our beliefs are right or wrong. Yoga asks you, though you believe the people, yet you test what they say. If you find them at fault, don’t even neglect them. Even if the Lord or Guru says something, without judging, find out for yourself what is right. Viparyaya is explained as - viparyayo mithyaajnaanam atadroopam apratishttham
Viparyaya means false knowledge, no truth, and it means labelling something which is not. In other words, the image which your mind is seeing is not there. But the mind projects something else over there. Sage Patanjali says, see rope as a rope, not as a snake. When you have related chitta vrittis, the rope is seen as a snake. The defect is in the mind. If you have a lot of fear inside, your dealings with the outside world will add up to the fear. The third vritti is vikalpa.
shabda-jnaana-anupaatee vastu-shoonyo vikalpah
Based only on the word-meaning, we go on building castles; it is also called day-dreaming or fantasizing. There is no object, yet we dream about it. The day-dream may be a dream of fear or of pleasure. The fourth vritti is sleep.
abhaava-pratyaya-aalambana-vrittih-nidraah
Patanjali says even sleep is a vritti. Atman doesn’t need sleep. Chitta needs it to get ready for the next day’s ordeal. Since chitta is engaged all through the day, it needs rest. When there is no experience, that state is known as sleep. The thoughts, emotions, imaginations are all pratyaya, contents. The absence of contents, or the absence of transactions in chitta, is called sleep. The mind doesn’t want to do anything for sometime, and it depends on no-action, and that is sleep. To cite an example, the engine of a car is on but is not moving. The biological activity is on, but chitta is resting. Only during sleep the growth and rejuvenation of body happens. That is why it is said that one should not disturb the sleeping child/man. How much we sleep is not important but how qualitatively we sleep is important. The fifth vritti is memory, smriti.
It means, an event has happened, I have experienced that; yet, I have not forgotten it. That unforgotten impression is memory, smriti. The characteristics of the memory is, one memory will give rise to so many other memories. Memory gives rise to aversion, sadness, frustration, fear.... Psychologically, we should try to erase all memories. We should not remember even what we have eaten in the afternoon. That would allow me to stay in the present. When one is in the present, the next meal would be really an enjoyable one. There are two types of memories, objective and subjective. For example, when I see you, I must remember your face. That is necessary. But I should not remember the subjective memories. Subjective memory means, when I met you, you might have said something which left a deep scar on my being. That I should not remember. Normally the mind doesn’t remember that which ended in happiness. But it remembers vividly that which ended in pain. That is why our Gurudev, Swami Rama says, “If you want to progress in sadhana, forget and forgive.” It is enough to say that the memory is the greatest impediment in one’s experience of pure consciousness.
May you succeed in your Sadhana
Sri Pattabhiram
There are two types of knowledge working with us—inner and outside. The knowledge related to the outside world, its memory, its reactions, are all stored in the chitta. You would be able to tap the inner light only when you learn to empty what is stored in the chitta. In order to clear up the chitta, we need to understand how it got filled up with so many things. Chitta is a store house of mental impressions. As I have told you earlier, there is light within us but the only difficulty with us is we are not able to experience it, because the contents of the chitta are covering that light, and hence the emphasis on clearing the contents of the chitta. That is why we must move on from impulsive behaviour to intelligent behaviour. As you practice this shift from impulsive behaviour to intelligent behaviour, your very mastery over intelligent behaviour would automatically open the door of intuitive realm of your personality. Impulse, or the hurried action, relates to animal instinct. The intelligence relates to human, and intuition relates to the beyond. Whatever contains in the chitta relates to the external world. You can’t enter intuitive world directly; you must bring down the speed of your mind intelligently. Handle your affairs intelligently. Deliberately, try to act slowly and intelligently. When someone says something, don’t react immediately. Wait a while. This way, you develop a space in your mind, for you to relax, to see, to feel and to act intelligently. Even in day-to-day life, learn to listen silently, see silently without commenting, act silently without complaining. As you spend your time silently, you are introduced to the way of your speech, action and thought. Then whatever you do, they all will have to have your approval first and then they would be executed. That way, every action of yours would become responsible and intelligent action. Then, a question comes, what type of things were filled into it?
pramaana-viparyaya-vikalpa-nidraa-smritayah
The chitta operates from the above five vrittis. Pramaana means proof and it is the first vritti. Again, proof has three constituents:
pratyaksha-anumaana-aagamaah pramaanaani
The chitta wants some proof to defend itself and it employs the proof of the things seen. The eyes, ears, tongue, touch, and nose, collect things from the world and transmit it inside. The moment an impression goes inside, immediately, reactions would crop up from inside, it is called chitta vritti. Here, yoga asks you to restrain yourself from reacting though you might have seen/ heard/tasted/touched things directly. It asks you to pause for a while and then act intelligently.
An example. You are sitting in a room and outside you hear a comment on you—you don’t know in what context somebody made a comment on you—but you go and take that person to task. You react violently. This proof is called pratyaksha. The other type of proof is anumaana, inference. Suppose, a smell of garam masaala comes from the kitchen of a pious family. If you had experienced such smell from a non-vegetarian family, immediately you infer that that family is also cooking a non-vegetarian dish. The next proof is aagama, words of the trusted people. You might have seen it with your children. Even if you say the correct spelling of a word, the child would defend only the teacher. The child trusts the teacher more than you. In such beliefs, we strengthen the chitta. We don’t ponder whether our beliefs are right or wrong. Yoga asks you, though you believe the people, yet you test what they say. If you find them at fault, don’t even neglect them. Even if the Lord or Guru says something, without judging, find out for yourself what is right. Viparyaya is explained as - viparyayo mithyaajnaanam atadroopam apratishttham
Viparyaya means false knowledge, no truth, and it means labelling something which is not. In other words, the image which your mind is seeing is not there. But the mind projects something else over there. Sage Patanjali says, see rope as a rope, not as a snake. When you have related chitta vrittis, the rope is seen as a snake. The defect is in the mind. If you have a lot of fear inside, your dealings with the outside world will add up to the fear. The third vritti is vikalpa.
shabda-jnaana-anupaatee vastu-shoonyo vikalpah
Based only on the word-meaning, we go on building castles; it is also called day-dreaming or fantasizing. There is no object, yet we dream about it. The day-dream may be a dream of fear or of pleasure. The fourth vritti is sleep.
abhaava-pratyaya-aalambana-vrittih-nidraah
Patanjali says even sleep is a vritti. Atman doesn’t need sleep. Chitta needs it to get ready for the next day’s ordeal. Since chitta is engaged all through the day, it needs rest. When there is no experience, that state is known as sleep. The thoughts, emotions, imaginations are all pratyaya, contents. The absence of contents, or the absence of transactions in chitta, is called sleep. The mind doesn’t want to do anything for sometime, and it depends on no-action, and that is sleep. To cite an example, the engine of a car is on but is not moving. The biological activity is on, but chitta is resting. Only during sleep the growth and rejuvenation of body happens. That is why it is said that one should not disturb the sleeping child/man. How much we sleep is not important but how qualitatively we sleep is important. The fifth vritti is memory, smriti.
It means, an event has happened, I have experienced that; yet, I have not forgotten it. That unforgotten impression is memory, smriti. The characteristics of the memory is, one memory will give rise to so many other memories. Memory gives rise to aversion, sadness, frustration, fear.... Psychologically, we should try to erase all memories. We should not remember even what we have eaten in the afternoon. That would allow me to stay in the present. When one is in the present, the next meal would be really an enjoyable one. There are two types of memories, objective and subjective. For example, when I see you, I must remember your face. That is necessary. But I should not remember the subjective memories. Subjective memory means, when I met you, you might have said something which left a deep scar on my being. That I should not remember. Normally the mind doesn’t remember that which ended in happiness. But it remembers vividly that which ended in pain. That is why our Gurudev, Swami Rama says, “If you want to progress in sadhana, forget and forgive.” It is enough to say that the memory is the greatest impediment in one’s experience of pure consciousness.
May you succeed in your Sadhana
Sri Pattabhiram
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