Patanjali Yoga Sutra: Day 05

DAY 05: OVERCOMING OBSTACLES

1. To get rid of the obstacles, just do one thing - one pointed attention in one thing.
2. When we do only one thing, boredom and restlessness will surface. This will take us to peak and which will then bring the clarity. Otherwise our mind is divided between various things and that is the symbol of fear and misery. This one thing can be any thing, anybody - divine, guru, self…anything. Look at and focus on one principle.


3. But in a world of multiplicity how is it possible? Here Patanjali reveals another sutra.
There are only four types of people:
1. Happy
2. Unhappy
3. Engaged in good acts
4. Engaged in demonic acts
• Friendliness with all people who are happy otherwise you feel jealous.
• Don't be friendly with unhappy people but be compassionate with them. Don't even pity them. Difference between pity and compassion is that in pity you make people feel more low rather than uplifting them. With pity you make the belief of suffering person more concrete on his/her sorrow.
• Feel happy with and for people who are engaged in good jobs. Feel one with them (feel as if you yourself are doing that thing), this will remove the sense of competition and the tendency of finding fault. Criticism usually comes mostly from people of who don’t do anything.
• Ignore people who are engaged in demonic or sinful deeds. Educate and ignore such people.
4. Having such feelings for respective type of people will help your mind becoming calm, one pointed and graceful.


5. If all this is difficult, here is another thing:
Breaking the rhythm of breath and holding on to different rhythms. This will make your mind calm and one pointed.
6. This one sentence has clue to Sudarshan Kriya.


7. Suppose even if this doesn't work (though this does work … still) then we can achieve the same through the process of being totally with one object of any of the senses. This will bring our mind to stand still. e.g. eye gazing and then keeping our eyes closed brings our mind to stand still; similarly singing bhajanas or the grape process.


8. Being happy and sad is a training that we give to other mind. Get rid of the sadness. The sadness is just a habit.
9. Unhappiness is self imposed. And with this kind of unhappiness all the negative things come to people. It is simply your own habit; it is self made. Don't compare yourself with anybody who is more happy. You will be better than many-many other people. This is the baseless concept of being sad. Make your mind free of sadness which comes out of your concepts.


10. Consider your mind as a light, as a flame. Your consciousness is flame. You may forget this but your whole body is functioning because of the presence of the mind as a flame in you. Otherwise, you will be like an unlit candle. Candle and our life is very similar. Like candle use oxygen we use oxygen. This body is like wick and the food that we eat is similar to wax in a candle. Once body is old (or wick is burnt out) no amount of food (wax) helps. Life and light are synonymous. Mind is energy, you are energy.


11. Keep you mind engaged in the thoughts of the Enlightened. In whichever way you engage your mind, your mind becomes the same. Thinking of one who had gone beyond cravings, your mind also start assuming and developing the same things.
12. Don't see guru or enlightened people as people instead see them as the forms of highest consciousness. This will help mind staying away from comparison and hence away from creating raga, dvesha and other object of negativities. Just see your Guru as a pure consciousness.


13. Knowledge of sleep and dreams: You sleep all your life but have never met your sleep. You sleep everyday but you don't know what sleep is, what dream is. Why to know about sleep? Because when you sleep you let go of all your identities, you don’t carry your likes-dislikes, you don't carry anybody to your sleep. You are devoid of everything in sleep. Knowledge of sleep awakens you.
14. Ignorant people make dream a reality and enlightened people see this reality as a dream. Trying to interpret dreams is utter ignorance.
15. Five types of dreams:
1. Unfulfilled dreams/cravings - latent desires comes in dreams
2. Stress release from past
3. Intuitive dream - what might happen in future
4. Mixture of all above three types
5. Depends on the place where you sleep
A wise person just brush aside all these.
16. The knowledge of dream and sleep can also awaken you to the truth.
17. Most of us are in these two forms of consciousness throughout: day dream and sleep. While doing mediation or pranayam, you begin to day dream. No pranayam can help if you are day-dreaming. Once you know that you are day dreaming, there is a gush of energy in you. You become alert. This alertness wakes you the reality. You are awakened. This awakening is pragya; it is samadhi.


18. There are many different methods of meditation. You can be awakened by any one of methods. Take one way and go deep into that.


19. What is the sign of progress in this? Smaller than the smallest and bigger than the biggest comes in the purview of operation or life. The nature will love and start supporting you.