#69. A New Body, A New Mind | Yoga Sutras Of Patanjali

This session is very beneficial for those who are stuck in pain and misery in life. Whatever they do somehow brings them back into pain and misery. Yoga has a way out of it. Patanjali says if you create a distance from your embodiments of the body, mind, and energies, there is a chance to enter into the new.

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Transcript

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

Dehansi.

We are meditating on Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.

While we are meditating on this path of yoga or we take the path of Tantra or we take the path of Zen or we take any other spiritual path.

What is very important to remember all along on this path is that this path is not important.

What is important is the journey.

What is important is the destination.

But the path is not important.

The shape of this path,

Whether it is a rope or a ladder,

It does not matter.

And one should not get stuck in the shape,

In the form,

In the details of the path.

The path can be very exciting,

Can be very intriguing.

The path can be very captivating.

The path can be very indulging.

But you have to always remember the path is not important.

The journey that you take,

The unfoldment that happens within you and the destination where all of these paths are going is important.

So along the path,

Don't get stuck in the details.

Even while elaborating the path,

Patanjali,

He himself says it.

He himself wants the meditator,

Wants the yogi.

He is so compassionate to the yogi that while giving vivid details,

While showing the nuances of the path,

While laying down the path step by step,

He is still saying,

Yogi,

Meditator,

Do not be attached to the path.

See where the path is leading.

See whether you are taking a journey or not.

See whether the unfoldment in you is happening or not.

On the third pillar,

Which is Vibhuti Pada,

Where Patanjali has been exploring,

Has been explaining different powers,

Different accomplishments that come along on this path of yoga,

He warns,

He says,

Don't get caught up in these accomplishments.

Keep your eye on the goal.

Keep your eye on liberation,

On inner peace,

On silence.

In his own words,

Let us hear what Patanjali says on that.

He says,

Te samadhau upasarga dithanai siddhiya.

These super powers,

These accomplishments that come along the way,

Are obstacles to samadhi,

But are siddhis in the worldly pursuits.

He says these,

He is referring to all these accomplishments,

All these powers,

Abilities,

These subtle perceptions that develop when the awareness brightens in the meditator.

He says these are obstacles to samadhi.

How much more clear can Patanjali be?

He clearly says,

While you are on this path,

These accomplishments that you see right,

Left,

That you see in front of you,

These are obstacles.

You have to even overcome them.

You were overcoming many other things on this path,

Many other things on this journey.

Those were still mundane,

Those were still of the world,

But now when you are on this spiritual path,

The obstacles are even far greater because you can leave something that you do not consider valuable,

But what about leaving something that excites you,

That gives you a sense of accomplishment,

Of value.

How do you leave that?

To leave that is another training,

Is another unfoldment that has to happen where you see something in front of you,

Very tempting,

And you are able to let go of it.

Something that is not tempting,

Something that is ugly,

Anyone can leave that.

There is no greatness,

There is no unfoldment of consciousness,

There is no development in that.

But if something is presented to you with all its temptation,

How do you put that aside and how do you overcome that,

How do you move on,

Is the art that has to be learned.

And this does not mean that everything that is beautiful,

Everything that is tempting,

Everything that is value,

That is powerful,

That is a subtle perception,

Awareness that leads to valuable things has to be discarded.

Once again,

Discrimination is required,

What is it that I carry in me that is going to take me further on my journey or what is it that has become the burden on this journey.

So while you come across all these accomplishments,

These abilities,

These powers,

These superpowers,

You have to judge,

You have to discriminate what is it that will take you further,

What is it that you need to drop now,

What is it that you need to drop once it has served its purpose,

And then you drop and then you move on.

At all times,

The eye on the goal,

The eye on liberation,

The eye on inner peace,

The eye on moksha.

At the end of the journey,

You will have to leave all.

It does not matter what you have kept in your hands,

What you have kept in your pocket along this journey,

All has to be discarded.

But along the journey,

You take something as long as it serves you,

You drop it when you see that this is very tempting but it doesn't serve you.

That is the crux of the sutra that these are obstacles to samadhi but sit these in the worldly pursuits.

In the worldly sense,

They appear to have a lot of sense,

They appear to have a lot of value but you must drop them and move on.

The next sutra is even more interesting where Patanjali says,

Bandhakarna shathilyat prachara samvedanat cha chitasya para sharira avesha.

By loosening of the cause and by the knowledge of the mind stuff,

Entering another's body is accomplished.

Very bizarre,

Very interesting,

Very fascinating.

Two meanings.

Let me repeat the sutra first.

By loosening of the cause of bondage and by the knowledge of the mind stuff,

Entering another's body is accomplished.

Let me explain the esoteric meaning first and get over with it and then we will get into the meaning that is far more relevant,

Far more powerful for our practice.

So in the esoteric sense,

Which a lot of yogis have also previously interpreted,

Is that if you loosen the bondage to your body,

If you loosen the bondage to your mind,

If you have the understanding of the mind,

If you have the knowledge of inner channels where how the energies function,

You can leave your body and enter somebody else's body.

Now this is something that is so esoteric that has no place in our life.

It is something that is so specific that has a certain purpose.

The purpose of all this dimension where you would dedicate all your energy,

All your life's practice into accomplishing this one ability where you can collect all your energies,

Where you collect your spirit and you move out of your body and move in someone else's body.

This could have been useful if this was for the purpose of healing the other person,

If this was for the purpose of doing something for the other person which the other person himself cannot.

So in these very ancient practices,

There were these yogis,

There were these masters who had purified themselves to that extent that they had no ego,

They had no reason to harm anybody else and they could collect the spirit of their own spirit and enter into another person's body in order to heal that person.

Just like the medicine enters in your body,

Heals your body and leaves your body,

It's the same these people used to do that.

We are not living in that era,

We are not living in that age.

We don't need to go that far where somebody needs to practice,

Train their entire lifetimes to learn to come out of their body and enter someone else's body.

What is much more relevant to understand from this Siddhi,

From this Sutra of Patanjali is that we are also living in a certain body,

In a certain embodiment of physical,

Of this physical body,

Of this mental body and of this body of habits,

Of this body of conditioning that we have constantly built over years and years of going through the same mundane routines we have created this body for us.

And by doing Samyama,

By doing meditation,

By loosening the cause of the bondage which is identification to this embodiment that we have given to us,

Not just the physical body,

Not just the mind,

But this embodiment of who am I,

Of what all describes me,

What all I like,

What all I dislike,

How I think,

How I function,

All this that we have created for ourselves,

This picture,

This conditioning which is not just on the level of the body,

Not just on the level of the mind,

But also on the level of energies.

This embodiment,

If you learn to break the bondage,

If you learn to know how the mind stuff,

The chitta works,

Then you can come out of this embodiment and the value of coming out of this embodiment is that it gives you a complete fresh start in life.

So if you feel stuck in life,

If you feel that you need to press a refresh button in life somewhere,

This is what you need to practice,

To break free from the embodiments that you have carried,

That you have built,

And you have been carrying along this all your life.

This could be that you are stuck in the embodiment of pain,

That you for some reason are stuck in the embodiment of misery,

Where for whatever reason you constantly find yourself in negativity,

In misery,

In pain,

No matter what you do.

This means you have created for yourself an embodiment,

An invisible body,

An invisible cage,

An invisible bondage that you have created for yourself and you must break out of it.

And this is when you understand that bondage is identification.

This bondage to this embodiment is this identification with the physical body,

With the mental body,

With the energy body,

With your sense of who you really are.

As an example,

When you get up in the morning,

Let's say you wake up at 6 o'clock in the morning,

At 6 o'clock without the alarm you wake up,

Exactly at that moment when you wake up,

When that first ray of awareness that rises in you,

When you are still laying on the bed,

Your body is still rested,

Your mind has not yet switched on,

Your memory has not yet switched on,

All your plans,

All your ideas have not yet switched on.

In that first millisecond where the awareness rises first,

Where you become aware that you are awake,

There is a gap,

The gap between that moment where you just wake up and where all these bodies start triggering,

Where your physical body reminds you,

Hey you are in this physical body,

Your mind,

Your mental body reminds you,

You are this and this person,

Your name is this and this,

You are going to do this and this today,

Your plans,

Your ideas,

All what you had left before you went to sleep,

All starts pouring back in,

The past starts pouring back in,

The future,

All what you had collected,

Your ideas about the future,

They start pouring in and all of them once again remind you,

Starts conditioning you of your name,

Of your descriptions,

Of all this embodiment that you had carried.

So you have to learn to raise your awareness in that first millisecond,

Not only in that morning millisecond but also in meditation,

A similar phenomena happens where once again you create a gap between your pure awareness and this embodiment of all these ideas,

All these conditionings,

All this from the past,

From the future,

The mental,

The physical,

All this,

You create a certain distance,

You create a certain gap and through this gap you can come out of this embodiment,

Through this gap you come out into an empowerment,

Into a space where you can once again create,

You can create a positive embodiment for yourself,

You can break out of the negative embodiments and create a positive embodiment and that is how you can heal yourself as well,

You don't need someone else to enter your body,

Influence you in a certain way,

Any external medicine to come and influence you in a certain way for a behavioral change,

For a change in conditioning and so on.

You can do this by yourself by creating the gap by breaking this bondage,

This identification with the embodiments.

Let us meditate over this,

Let us bring this into our own experience of recognizing these embodiments and creating a gap between our awareness,

Between our true self and these beliefs,

Please close your eyes.

Take a posture that is allowing you to rest,

Allowing your physical embodiment to rest.

For your awareness to take a distance from your body by letting your body be at rest,

In a Six honorable Give yourself these moments to settle.

All that is physical should settle first.

Your body,

Your breath.

As your breath quietens,

Flows silently,

Your body also rests.

And awareness rises,

Awareness brightens within.

All that is physical should settle first.

Awareness on your mind.

And for the next minutes,

Simply observe your thoughts,

Ideas,

Images,

And thoughts.

Whatever arises in your mind.

And see,

It has a certain embodiment.

All these thoughts,

Ideas,

Images,

They are all happening in a space which has like a body distinct shape,

Boundaries,

Presence.

All of these thoughts,

Ideas,

And thoughts.

And as you become aware and silent,

Let go of these mental bodies.

All of these thoughts,

Ideas,

And thoughts.

Just like in the very first second of the morning when you wake up,

Remain aware and at a distance from the body,

From the mind.

The body is at rest.

Don't touch the body.

The mind is at rest.

In your inner space,

You feel certain sensations,

Certain flow of energy.

It is also an embodiment.

Let go of it.

Let it be at rest.

Let go of it.

Anything that arises in your consciousness,

Let it be at rest.

Drop it and let your awareness be at a distance.

Don't touch anything,

Not your body,

Not your mind,

Not your energies.

Only awareness.

Awareness flowing freely.

Inside,

Outside,

Without any body,

Without any mind.

Without any embodiment,

Any bondage.

Let go of it.

In this pure awareness,

Let go of all your past.

Don't hold even a trace of it.

And simply stay in this silent awareness.

And very gently and slowly,

You may open your eyes.

As the body rushes back into your awareness,

As the mind comes back into your awareness,

See that something shifted.

Some of the past is dropped,

Something new has arisen in your consciousness.

Stay with the new.

Stay in this dis-identified pure awareness space that you achieve in meditation.

Thank you very much.

Namaste.

Reviews

Thank you so much, Dhyanse. This series on the yoga sutras is changing my life.

Amazing

Beautiful words followed by a very immersive meditation. Thank you for your wisdom. 🙏🏼