#33 The Three Gunas - Movement, Interia And Stability | Yoga Sutras Of Patanjali

Do you remember Morpheus from the movie Matrix? Patanjali is the real Morpheus of all time. Instead of giving a pill, he takes you slowly from the illusion towards reality. Along the way, he describes the nature of this illusion. In this session, he talks about 3 Gunas (qualities) and the 4 states of illusion - The specific, the unspecific, the defined, and the un-defined.

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Transcript

Namaste and a very warm welcome to all of you in this daily life meditation with me Dehansi.

We're going through Yoga Sutras of Patanjali on the Sadhana Path and this phase of Yoga Sutras is very much like watching the movie Matrix.

You must have seen the movie where Morpheus is trying to explain to Neo the reality and offers the red pill and the blue pill.

You must have found it very entertaining very much opening up a new way of looking at things but must have left the movie as just a movie,

As just a figment of imagination,

As somebody just being creative and getting carried away explaining things.

But something in you might have also been touched to think maybe that is true.

Maybe what is shown in the movie there is some truth in it.

Patanjali is some sort of taking us on a similar path.

He is the Morpheus of the movie Matrix where he is not offering the pill.

He is saying look and systematically follow the Sutras,

Meditate over it and let your consciousness slowly open.

Not all of a sudden that you cannot believe what you see,

You cannot believe what you experience.

But he takes you very slowly,

Step by step,

Through a journey where he prepares first of all your perception so that you can make the right decision,

So that you can see things rightly.

And then he takes that prepared perception towards what you experience right now,

All the miseries that you are going through right now and he makes you think,

He makes you feel,

He makes you really sense from the entire organism that you are in to see that what you are all experiencing is full of misery.

So maybe we need to question the nature of reality that we are in.

So he is taking us through that sort of a journey.

If you are in for an entertainment,

Then this would remain entertainment for you.

But if you are in for really knowing the truth,

Really opening up your consciousness,

This journey is a chance where Patanjali is step by step,

Sutra by sutra,

Unfolding the knots in your mind,

Unfolding the knots in your consciousness.

So don't miss this chance once again,

Otherwise hundreds of years,

Thousands of years will pass by,

Another Patanjali will come,

Another explanation will come,

Another chance will come,

But for now sit down,

Meditate over these sutras together with me and unfold the truth in your life.

This is not just to know the nature of reality,

But to take us out of all the miseries that we are experiencing because of this nature of reality,

To bring wisdom,

To bring peace,

To bring bliss to our life,

Which is our true nature,

Which is what we deserve and not what we are experiencing right now or have been experiencing all throughout our life.

Yesterday while describing the nature of reality,

We had established and also in previous sessions this idea,

This framework of the seen,

The seer and the interaction of the seen with the seer.

So if you are new to what I am talking,

Just once again,

Whatever you are experiencing through your senses,

Through all this physical,

Psychological world that you are experiencing,

You can call it as the seen,

The experience and there is someone in you who is the seer,

Who is experiencing all this,

Who is seeing all this,

Who is in the experience of the entire perception of this entire reality,

The physical,

The psychological reality that we call as our world,

That we see when we have our eyes open,

When we are in the waking state,

We live in this reality and here we are talking about what is this reality,

What is the nature of this reality.

So yesterday Patanjali said there are three qualities to this illusion,

This projection that we call as reality.

So let us just call it as the projection and use one word for it,

The projection or the seen.

So this projection is having three different qualities,

It has the rajas in it,

Which is the movement in it,

It has the tamas in it,

Which has the inertia in it,

Which is opposite to the movement and it has the sattva in it,

Which is the stability,

Which is the balance,

Which is somewhere in the middle,

Which is not the rajas,

Which is not the movement,

Which is not the tamas,

Which is not the inertia,

But the stability in between.

He says these are the three qualities,

Three gunas of this projection that we are experiencing and if you want a scientific analogy to that,

Think of it as like the protons,

The electrons and the neutrons.

And if you were to think deeper,

You will see that we explain the reality that we live in,

Also the psychological reality always in three different categories,

The positive,

The negative and the neutral.

In our consciousness,

We cannot go any further than that,

But while meditating,

While contemplating through meditation and going through these sutras,

You will go even further than just the three.

But for now,

This nature of reality has three gunas,

Three qualities,

The positive,

The negative,

The neutral.

The movement that makes you move,

That makes the whole world move,

The inertia that makes things slow down,

That puts things into sleep and in the middle,

The balance,

The light,

Which brings stability,

Which holds these two together.

He says because of these three qualities,

The entire spectrum of this projection,

The scene can be divided into four bands,

Into four phases.

The sutra is vishesha avishesha linga,

Linga matra,

Alingani guna parvani.

Vishesha is specific,

Vishesha is non-specific,

Linga mark defined,

Matra only,

Alingani without mark,

So undefinable.

Una is qualities,

Parvani is stages.

So if you put them together,

What this means is,

This spectrum of the projection that we call as reality has four bands in it.

It starts with the very defined,

With the very solid,

That is the body.

If we experience this very much solidity in the body,

The physical reality,

The matter that you can hold on to,

That you can touch and say,

Yes,

This is real.

But even that matter is just your projection,

But it is defined,

It is so solid,

It is so defined,

It is so specific that you can hold on to it,

You can see it,

You can feel it.

So it is one end of the spectrum.

And then when you move,

He says,

From specific to the non-specific,

Then you move towards the other side of the spectrum,

You move from the very specific,

The very solid,

To the non-specific,

Which is our mind.

If you see,

Our mind is non-specific,

You cannot pinpoint anywhere and say,

This is my mind,

You cannot pinpoint anywhere and say,

This is your mind.

It is there,

It is there in our projection,

It is a part of our projection,

But it is non-specific.

So anything in the projection,

In this projection that we call as reality,

In the experience that we go through in our daily life,

Anything that is non-specific is the second part of the band.

The first part is specific,

Solid matter.

Then non-specific,

Like the mind,

That you have it,

I have it,

And it is somewhat non-specific,

We have an agreement that it exists,

But there is no solidity to it.

Then is the third,

Which is the defined.

Patanjali calls it defined.

A better way to call it is confined like the self.

Like we are confining the consciousness into an individuality.

We are experiencing that I exist.

If you bring your awareness inwards and try to validate,

You will always say,

Yes,

There is something like I.

So that definition of I,

That sense,

That feeling of I is coming because there is this third band of the projection that we are experiencing and that third band is of the defined,

Which is that you feel it.

It is not solid,

It is not also non-specific like the mind,

But there is a defined sense of it where you have one and the other also has one and both you and somebody else have their own specific,

Defined sense of I.

And the last one,

Which is the undefined,

The unmanifested.

So if you see the spectrum from the specific,

From matter to all the way to unmanifestation,

To unmanifested realm,

Which is where there is no sense of I,

The non-self,

Where there is just pure unmanifested formless,

You may call it energy,

You may call it just the projection,

The formless projection.

Somebody here is saying that all these four bands on the spectrum of the projection,

They are all impacted by the gunas,

By the three qualities of motion,

Of the inertia and of the balance.

So you may experience this in your daily life while you are going through experiences,

You can now analyse your experience on this band,

On this spectrum of from matter to non-matter,

From these three gunas and categorise them and experience and validate what Patanjali is saying.

Why is he telling all that?

He is expounding on this nature of seen once you understand,

Once you grasp this nature of seen,

Then he will take you to who is the seer and so on.

So he is really step by step unfolding and opening these little details of your experience of life.

Let us meditate,

Let us move into silence and absorb what we have come across from this Yoga Sutra of Patanjali where this projection of the seen is from matter to the unmanifested energy and these all are impacted by the three gunas.

We will translate this into our meditation,

Into our experience through the body which is the specific,

The side of the matter to our mind which is the non-specific to ourself which is the defined and something in between the emptiness,

The experience of emptiness as the unmanifested.

Let us close our eyes.

Take a posture that is comfortable.

Bringing awareness to the body.

Notice all the physical sensations in your body that form the experience of your body from your legs all the way to the top of your head.

In these sensations of your physical body,

Notice there is always some movement.

There is also always some inertia meaning opposite of movement trying to slow everything down.

And there is stability in your body.

Your body can be stable on its own when there is balance.

Balance between the movement and the inertia.

Allow this balance to arise knowing this matter,

This physical sensation is also projection.

To know the reality move towards the subtle.

From the physical to then your mind.

Shift your awareness to your mind.

Notice the movement,

The inertia.

Inertia and the stability in your mind.

The sensations that move your mind.

The sensations that bring inertia,

That slow your mind down.

And the balance that brings stillness,

Stability and peace.

Remember,

The mind is always there.

Mind is also a projection.

Is also not the truth.

Therefore,

Move deeper towards yourself.

Focus on your self.

The sense of I exist,

I am.

Notice the movement,

The inertia and the stability of your body.

Of self.

Remain aware of the self.

Settling,

Becoming still.

Balance between the movement and the inertia.

The self is also not the truth.

Into a space that is empty.

There is no form,

There is no shape.

There is no space that is undefined.

Yet,

You can experience it.

Even this empty space is movement,

Is inertia and stability.

The sense of I exist,

I am.

To be in this space is full of peace,

Bliss and happiness.

Light.

This is also not the truth.

Let go of all experiences,

All projections.

Let go of all experiences,

All predictions.

Don't question anything.

Let yourself go,

Flow,

Expand,

Remain silent in allowing it to happen.

You may continue in this state on your own.

And whenever you're ready,

Whenever you feel like,

You may open your eyes.

Namaste.

Reviews

Your explanation of the 3 guns within the the four stages of prakriti is very clear. 🙏 Very helpful. I’m supplementing your sessions with Rev Jaganath Carrerra’s book on the sutras. Highly recommended for those exploring these beautiful teachings.

Very buggy. Couldn’t get through to the end.

Beautiful meditation and so apposite for our times.