#47. Are We Aliens? | Yoga Sutras Of Patanjali

Going back to the elemental construct of life (Earth, Water, Air, Fire, Space) makes you question what is native and what is alien. It also allows you a chance to purify oneself on the elemental level. As purification happens, there is the cheerfulness of mind, one-pointedness of its execution, and preparedness for self-realization.

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Transcript

Namaste and a very warm welcome to all of you in this daily live meditation session with me the Anse,

Where we are going through yoga sutras of Patanjali of Ashtanga yoga.

Consider this science fiction,

A scientist,

A mad chemistry scientist,

He looks at his body,

At his mind and he sees what an incapable instrument the body getting sick all the time it requires so much time to train and come to a point where you can do something with the body and then very soon it dies.

What a useless piece of creation,

What an incompetent piece of creation.

He looks at his mind and he sees once again it takes so much time for it to learn something,

For it to operate in a certain way it takes 10 years,

20 years of training what incapable mind it is,

What insignificant piece of creation.

So he does his research,

He does his experiments,

Sees why is this body and mind which he has is so incapable,

Is not giving him the experience that he wants to have.

So he does his entire analysis,

He says,

Hmm,

According to my analysis,

This body,

This mind,

The way I am is all carbon based,

Is based on the element carbon.

So he says we should move towards silicon.

He makes a theory and he starts working to shift the entire construct of body and mind from carbon to silicon.

It takes him hundreds of years to develop the technologies starting from the very basic,

From building the building blocks with which you could communicate between those two units made from silicon.

Then he puts them together,

Build more complex systems of communication.

He then looks for how he can put this communication system into a physical construct.

So he builds the physical construct also out of something that is more stronger,

More robust than carbon.

He builds that out of silicon.

So he does this whole effort for hundreds and two hundreds of years,

Builds sophisticated technology.

He even tries to convince the society,

The people,

Other people's mind,

Other people's consciousness,

That carbon is not good for you.

What you breathe out as carbon dioxide is killing the environment.

You need to protect the environment.

You need to protect yourself from everybody else.

So go and interact with what I've created for you,

The silicon-based intelligence that I have created for you.

Go interact.

Teach it as much as you can so that you can transfer this consciousness that you call as me to something in which you are much more capable of.

You can live forever,

The body that you will get once you are transferred from you as consciousness in the carbon-based system.

The silicon-based system will be forever.

It will last forever.

What you can do with your mind will be far,

Hundred times,

Thousand times more powerful than what you can do with your mind right now.

He did.

He is doing all that.

He is almost about to press the button where the entire humanity is transferred from the carbon-based life as we know to a life based on silicon which is supposedly far more powerful.

Patanjali arrives.

Patanjali says,

Hey madman,

The basis of your understanding of the body,

Your understanding of the mind,

Your understanding of yourself is flawed.

You are not an individual.

You are not a consciousness that is just bounded by this body and mind and is just an individual.

So how does it matter even if you take a stronger body?

How does it matter if you take a stronger mind?

Look at yourself.

You are not an individual.

You are consciousness that is everyone else as well.

So what is the point of working towards a stronger body,

A stronger mind?

Work towards knowing yourself.

Work towards consciousness.

And from there on,

Whatever arises,

Let that be.

Patanjali arrives and gives this madman this lesson.

And here in these Yoga Sutras,

He is trying to do the same where he comes in with his Yoga Sutras to tell us to put the body in its right place,

To put the mind in its right place,

To not be disgusted by one's own body,

One's own mind and trying to fight the body,

Trying to fight the mind,

Trying to have a super body or a super mind but rather focus on what is more important.

Focus on the more fundamental,

On the more essential which is we are consciousness,

Not individual consciousness.

That individuality that we have,

That manifestation that we have has its own experience.

It is worth experiencing even if it is temporary.

But what is higher as an experience is to rise above the body,

Rise above the mind,

Realize a true nature which is consciousness.

Related to that,

The Sutras in Ashtanga Yoga of Patanjali is where he is setting the rules.

The first rule that he is setting is purification.

In the past sessions,

We had talked about the values that he had set and now he starts talking about rules.

The first rule he says is purification.

And when that purification happens,

What that leads to in Patanjali's words is by purification arises the indifference for one's own body and for contact with other bodies.

Meaning that when purification in your body,

In your mind arises that your body and mind allows your consciousness to detangle itself.

Even if it is for a moment,

Even if it is for that small fraction of time which is not even in time,

Which is an experience that you know that you are not the body,

You are not the mind,

Is the moment that arrives you reach to a certain indifference towards your body,

Indifference towards your mind and also for everybody else.

It doesn't mean that you don't appreciate the body,

You don't appreciate the mind,

You don't appreciate other people,

But you start seeing through the body.

Not only your body,

You start seeing through other people as well.

What that means is when you see other people,

You see them also as consciousness.

You can sense,

You can feel what they are going through and you sense that others are also you,

You are also them.

There is no real separation except for the body and for the mind.

That is why you lose that significance of the body,

Of the mind,

For others and for yourself.

And this purification is purification not only in physical sense,

Not only in mental sense to have the right thoughts,

In physical sense to not have the body constantly being stimulated by this or that,

But it goes far deeper on the elemental level which is to have the purification on the elemental level,

The five elements that we are composed of,

The earth,

The fire,

The water,

The air and space.

We also ask ourselves this question,

Are we aliens or are we humans or are we a hybrid of aliens and humans?

I am sure some or the other time you might have this crazy thought to ask yourself who are we and if there is something like aliens or not.

If you look at the construct of these five elements that we are,

We are earth,

Fire,

Water,

Air,

Space.

These are not just belonging to here what we call as earth.

Earth is the matter.

Think of the element fire,

What is this element fire?

The closest we can imagine is the fire of the sun.

So is that sun alien or is that sun,

We are sun or is that sun something alien?

If sun is alien,

Then we are also alien.

Think of water.

What element is that water?

It is covering 70% of the earth.

What is this element?

Is this something that belongs to earth or is this something that belongs to something bigger?

Think of the air,

The air that blows all around earth.

How much alive that air is?

How much if that same air that blows all around the earth is what is in us as well.

That movement of the air is making everything possible,

The breathing,

The flow of blood and everything else in this organism that we call as a human body.

If this is not alien,

Then what is alien?

Think of space.

Does that space belong to just earth or that space belongs to the entire universe?

Is there any boundary to that?

So when we call ourselves as humans and not aliens,

If the space is not alien,

Then what is alien?

In that sense,

If we are also not this boundless alien,

Then what is alien?

My point of this whole talk is to draw your attention to you as the fundamental elements and towards the purification of these fundamental elements.

If you acknowledge yourself as earth,

Water,

Air,

Fire and space,

These five elements and work towards purification,

Your entire body,

Your mind,

Your consciousness,

Everything starts to fall in its right place.

And that is what is known as enlightenment,

That is what is known as unfoldment of intelligence,

Of consciousness,

Of this body,

This mind,

This consciousness reaching to its highest potential.

One more related sutra which Patanjali gives in this Ashtanga yoga,

He says,

Remember,

One gains purity of sattva,

Cheerfulness of mind,

One-pointedness,

Mastery over the senses and fitness for self-realization.

He's basically summarizing when this purity arises,

When this energy of sattva that comes into play.

I will explain this,

Tamas,

Rajas and sattva in another context,

But for now,

Let's say when the purity,

When the elemental purity arises in oneself,

Then cheerfulness of mind,

Meaning the mind is always in a cheerful state.

It does not need something external to be in a happy state.

You don't have to pursue happiness in any other action.

You have to purify yourself so that your mind is put back in its cheerful state,

In its happy state,

Which is its true nature.

One-pointedness arises,

The concentration that you have so that you can know,

So that you can learn is improved.

Mastery over the senses,

What you experience through your five senses is tremendously improved.

You have mastery over it so that what you receive from the senses is not just perception,

Is not just an illusion,

But through those senses that experience that is created also has truthfulness in it,

Also is showing you reality and not just the illusion.

And fitness for self-realization,

Then only you are eligible for self-realization.

So the purification,

The elemental purification of these five elements,

Earth,

Air,

Water,

Fire and space is a prerequisite,

Is a must for any kind of self-realization.

So let us take these moments to move in meditation,

In acknowledging oneself as these five elements,

In this acknowledgement,

In this awareness towards oneself as five elements,

There is the beginning of purification.

Please close your eyes and take a posture that is comfortable,

Allowing you to settle in this moment,

Your body,

Your mind to calm down.

Your breath to flow naturally.

Allowing your awareness to turn inwards,

To focus on oneself,

To feel one's own construct.

For the next minutes,

Body and mind as one unit.

And in this oneness of body and mind,

Acknowledge the five elements,

Starting with the earth,

Meaning this matter which forms the weight of what you call as yourself,

Your body,

Your mind.

Become aware of the earth.

All what you feel as solidity.

What you call as yourself,

Your body,

Your mind.

Acknowledge,

Feel,

Become aware of that.

And the second element,

Water.

Turn the solid to the liquid,

To water.

Focus,

Feel,

Become aware of all that is water in you.

Flexibility of your body,

The fluidity of your mind,

The entire construct.

What keeps you calm.

And the third element,

Fire.

Lift your awareness to the heat,

To the fire in your body and mind.

Fire burning all impurities.

Fire giving you energy to your body,

To your mind,

To you.

Acknowledge the fire in yourself.

Fire burning all impurities.

And the fourth element,

Air.

Become aware of the subtle flow in you.

Making it possible for the blood to flow,

For the entire movement in your body,

In your mind.

Feel the air,

Acknowledge the air in your being.

And let that be in balance,

In harmony with all other elements.

And the last element,

Space.

Vast empty space in you.

Shift your awareness to that empty space.

That is there,

Yet has nothing in it.

And now,

Remain aware of the space.

Allowing your awareness to expand in that space.

In all directions,

Unconcerned with the body,

Unconcerned with the mind.

In that space,

Allow the awareness to become brighter.

Expand.

In this expansion of awareness,

Of consciousness,

There is peace,

There is happiness,

There is bliss.

Begin this silent awareness of space and very gently open your eyes.

And notice the space that is created in front of you,

Beyond the body,

Beyond the mind.

Please pass on this message of yoga,

Meditation from Patanjali to your friends and family.

Thank you very much.

Namaste.

Reviews

I found it relaxing and clarifying to reflect on each element in my body. It helped me to see my body as a vessel of clay. The clay itself is made of earth and water. It takes its shape through life, which itself is made possible by air, ever changing, and is continually fired and refired. Between its microscopic elements, its atoms, are vast swaths of space. Purity of all these elements is what releases deep wisdom, transformation, and enlightenment. It’s a beautiful and useful metaphor. 🙏

Perfect

thank you dear Soul, your clarity of explanation is a deeply appreciated boon💖