#74. How To Just Be | Yoga Sutras Of Patanjali

By meditating upon the power of the five senses (seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, and touching), their true nature and their relation to the ego-ness (the AMness), the illusion of the world is dropped and there is a possibility to just be. That is the core message of Patanjali in this session. Tune in, and be.

======

Join me in a 30 min meditation session every day at 7 AM CET on my website or on Insight Timer.

Transcript

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

Dhyansa.

We are meditating upon yoga sutras of Patanjali.

196 sutras,

Each sutra from Patanjali is so potent,

Is like a seed which when sprouts,

It results in a full tree of wisdom.

196 sutras of wisdom.

These are laid down by Patanjali,

Hoping that you will catch at least one of these seeds.

Even one of these seeds,

Even one of these sutras out of 196 have the potential to transform your entire life.

Have the potency to open up a new door in your life,

To open up a new opening in your heart,

A new opening in your being through which you can move closer to the truth,

Closer to the reality.

We have been on this journey of 196 sutras since past three months,

In the hope that you catch at least one of these sutras.

And when these sutras are opened up,

When we go one by one in these sessions,

In these sutras,

It is less about what the sutra intellectually refers to,

What information the sutra carries is lesser of importance.

But what is more significant is when it lands in your heart.

When that sutra straight away lands in your heart and goes deep down in your being,

How does it unfold in your consciousness?

How it bypasses your intellectual barriers,

Your inferences,

Your past references to what you already know.

It bypasses all that knowledge and straight away goes to your heart,

Stirs your heart once again,

Makes it alive again,

It goes deep down in your being where it lays,

Holds its grounds and the tree of wisdom once again rises and shines in your life.

So take these sutras,

196 sutras,

As 196 opportunities.

Each opportunity is the doorway to your transformation.

You just need one,

But we will open up all of them and for you to see which ones of them you can pick up and take it in your heart,

Take it in your being and let it grow,

Let it sprout its wisdom in your life.

Let us hear what Patanjali has to say for today before we sit in meditation,

Before we sit in silence.

Patanjali says,

Grahanasvarupa asmita anvaya arthvatva samyamat indriya jaye What that means is,

Attaining mastery over the senses by performing samyama on their powers of cognition,

Real nature,

Sense of egoism,

All pervasiveness and purposefulness.

Sounds like a collection of words,

What do they mean?

What is Patanjali trying to say in these sutras?

For today's session,

For today's sutra,

Patanjali is saying,

Pay attention to your senses.

These five senses,

The sense of seeing,

The sense of hearing,

The sense of tasting,

The sense of smelling and the sense of touch.

He says,

Pay attention to these five senses.

By doing that,

By paying attention to these five senses,

A new wisdom is revealed to you.

You realize that this whole world that is there in front of you,

This physical world which you call as reality,

It is just a play,

Just an illusion,

Just a combination of these five senses.

Imagine you did not have these five senses.

Just for a moment,

Just for the sake of realizing what Patanjali is trying to say,

Imagine that you cannot see anymore.

Imagine that you cannot hear anymore.

Imagine that you cannot taste anymore.

No smell,

No touch.

If all the five senses shut down,

What does this world mean to you?

What is this world to you?

Does this world really exist for you if these five senses are completely shut down?

This is not just a thought experiment.

This is something that has deep wisdom,

Deep revelation in it to see that the world that you crave for,

The world that you are playing in is just a creation of your own senses.

It is not even a creation by somebody else.

It is your own creation.

You are the God of your own world.

You are the creator of your own world.

What that means is that these senses,

These five senses that you have,

If they do not function,

The world does not exist for you.

So pay attention to these senses,

How these senses translate what is out there to what you perceive as within.

So he wants you to pay attention to this entire process and not leave it just for the scientists,

Just for the psychologists to do their experiments on how we perceive the world,

On how this world of senses reveal in our world.

Patanjali says,

Bring it in your own awareness,

Bring it in your own attention and it is possible.

All you need is to become aware.

All you need is carefully pay attention to this process that what you perceive and through these senses,

How the perception is created,

How the cognition works,

What does it mean and what does this lead to.

So here he points out to a few things in this awareness of the senses which we will practice as our meditation in a few minutes.

He says,

Samyama on the power of cognition.

So he is saying on the power of senses,

How to do that?

We have these five sense organs,

The eyes as an example with what you see.

For this meditation,

For this sutra from Patanjali,

He is saying don't worry about the organ of perception,

Don't worry about the eyes but pay attention to the power of cognition,

The power of perception,

Of the power of the sense.

And if you are careful enough,

If you are observant enough,

There is a difference.

There is a difference between the eyes and the power of seeing.

Take a moment to reflect on that,

Take a moment to absorb that.

What is this power of seeing that you have?

Which is operated by the organ of seeing?

And so on,

If you take this to all your senses and instead of paying attention to the eyes or the ears or the nose or the tongue or the skin,

You pay attention to the power of seeing,

You pay attention to the power of smelling,

You pay attention to the power of hearing,

You pay attention to the power of tasting and the power of touching,

Sensing.

These,

Once you set your awareness on these five senses,

It reveals you already the truth that whatever is in your physical reality is your own creation.

So already the truth starts to reveal if you just pay attention to this power of cognition,

Power of senses.

Then he says,

Then once you have paid attention to the power,

Then you pay attention to its real nature.

What is this?

What is this sense?

What is this ability that I carry in me?

What is behind that ability?

What is this energy that drives me to see?

What is the real nature?

Is this an illusion?

Is this just a desire?

Or is this something very innate,

Very much rooted in the truth of myself?

So Patanjali here is saying meditate over it,

See it in your own awareness.

What is the real nature of this sense of seeing,

Sense of smelling and touch and so on?

Then the third aspect which he brings here is far more valuable.

He says,

So samyama on the power of cognition,

Samyama on the power of real nature and the samyama on the sense of egoism.

So when you put all of these five senses together,

They give you a sense of I am,

They give you a sense of amness,

They give you a sense of presence,

They give you a sense of existence that you exist.

But what if there are no these senses,

All these senses do not work,

Do you still exist?

Is the sense of I am more precisely,

Is the sense of amness,

Does that still exist?

He wants you to explore in your meditation,

He wants you to understand this because that takes you from your mind to straight away to your being,

From the I which is created in the mind,

All the ego of the mind to the amness,

To the presence that is there in your being and further explores it,

Further makes it more clear and allows this clarity to show you the truth of your own self.

And lastly he says all pervasiveness and functions or purposefulness of these senses.

Here he just wants you to reflect on,

See what is the purpose of all these senses when you project them outwards into the world,

What all purpose do they serve.

This is the contemplative part of the sutra.

We will focus on the meditative part of the sutra which is on the senses,

The power of the senses,

What is the true nature of the senses and the ego,

The sense of I am,

The sense of amness that it creates.

One more thing he says regarding the five senses which we will very briefly go through before we sit in meditation.

He says,

Tatmana javitvam vikarna bhava pradhana jayecha.

From this,

From all this meditative effort on the five senses,

What happens is instantaneous cognition without the use of body happens and a complete mastery over prakriti.

Another big piece of wisdom which we cannot cover just in few minutes here,

But the core of it,

But the message,

The essence of it is that you come to realize when you meditate on your five senses,

You come to realize that beyond just the body,

Beyond these organs of senses,

There is something more alive in you.

There is a sense which can directly perceive.

There is this ability of cognition which can directly grasp the knowledge,

Which means this world of illusion,

It falls apart and you see the truth.

Through the senses is the world of illusion,

Through this direct cognition is the truth.

And this direct cognition in very very very simple words is consciousness,

Is awareness.

So from all directions,

Patanjali is pulling you from your senses and saying go within towards this awareness,

Towards this consciousness.

Full process,

Let us take this into our meditation,

Let us practice this in silence for today's session.

Please close your eyes.

And take a posture that is comfortable for you.

It can be sitting on a chair,

Or on the floor,

Or on a cushion,

Whatever is comfortable for you,

Allowing your body to rest.

With your head,

Neck and spine aligned,

Erect,

Relaxed.

Take a nice deep breath in,

Inhale from the nose,

And also exhale from the nose,

Allowing your body to rest.

Allowing your body to give away the way to your awareness.

Allowing your mind to calm down.

Your awareness becoming brighter in your inner space.

As this awareness settles,

Frees up from the body and mind,

Shift this awareness on the power of seeing in front of your closed eyes.

What is this seeing?

Not what you see,

But the ability of seeing.

Let's take a deep breath in,

And exhale from the nose.

All your awareness on the power of seeing.

Silently observing,

Becoming aware of this power of seeing.

Eyes relaxed,

And focused.

And allowing this ability to rest.

This power of seeing to rest.

The sense of seeing to rest.

Shifting awareness to hearing.

Not what you hear,

But that you hear.

On this power of hearing.

And allowing it to rest.

Shifting awareness to the power of smelling.

Not what you smell,

Not with what you smell.

Not the nose,

Not the object.

But the ability of smelling.

The sense,

The power of smelling.

Become aware,

And simply observe.

Youronderous experience of being aware.

Allowing this sense to rest and shifting awareness to the sense of taste.

You allowing the sense of taste to rest and shifting awareness to the sense of touch you allowing the sensation to also rest in all your attention awareness on the presence on the sense of emness I am the presence from all directions from all senses all energy towards the presence the emness the sense deep in your being with every breath go deeper the sense of emness I am and let go of all effort wherever you are simply remain aware and silent for the next minutes everything else disappears settles only silence and awareness silence and very gently and slowly you may open your eyes maintaining the silence this awareness and once again moving the energy back into the senses recognizing what you see recognizing what you hear what you smell what you taste and what you feel

Reviews

🙏

Excellent

Interesting, lots of explanation before the “silent” meditation and then a little guided encouragement during the “silence” Thank you for sharing! 😊