#83. Awareness Is The Answer | Yoga Sutras Of Patanjali

A thousand problems and only one answer. Awareness. Sounds unreasonable, unbelievable at the face of it. Try it. Bring awareness to your life, to every aspect of your life and see whether this proposition of wisdom master is true for you or not.

Join me in a 30 min meditation session every day at 7 AM CET on my website and Insight Timer LIVE. Each session is unique, starts with a 15-minute discourse, followed by 15-minute guided meditation.

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. A master arrived in a village. He was known to have the solution for everything. In the past, His record was 100%. Wherever he went, Whosoever had a problem, Went to him for the solution, Found the solution. So when this master arrived in this village, Everyone gathered. Everyone has some or the other problem. So everyone gathered in the hope for a solution. And very early morning, A long queue was set up in front of this saint, In front of this master, To solve all of these problems. People came one by one. They approached the master in person. They whispered their problem. The master gave the solution. The first person came. He said to the master, You know, I am having a lot of pain in life. My life is full of pain all the time. What should I do? The master said, Be aware. Then the next person came. He said, I am unhappy. I have been always unhappy. There have been few moments here and there of happiness, But generally I have been unhappy. What should I do? The master said, Be aware. The third person came. He said, I just cannot sleep all night long. I'm having all these dreams. I'm having nightmares. I have to go to the doctor. I'm having nightmares. I am, For days, For months, For years, I have not been able to sleep. What should I do? The master again said, Be aware. The next person came. He said, I want this in life. I want that in life. How do I find my purpose in life? How do I understand life? The master again said, Be aware. And this long line, Hundreds of people, Thousands of people, Came and asked questions by questions by questions. Master said, Be aware. To all questions, He gave the same answer. Is the master mad? Is the master not having any other answer in his toolkit? Is the master incompetent that he cannot understand the problems of all these people? And keeps on giving one fit for all, One solution to all? Why is this so? Is the master mad? Or there is only one solution? The solution is to be aware. Why this awareness is the solution to everything has been not only recommended by this master, But all the masters in the past that have come, In all the wisdom traditions. If you pay attention to that, Why this awareness is so important? If you give time to explore what is this awareness? Why is this so important? How can this solve all the problems? Your mind may think it is not possible for all these problems to be solved by one solution, By one remedy. It cannot be the case. Your mind will not accept it. But if you are open, If you are open to allow this one formula, This one solution, Be aware in all what you are going through in life, In all your problems, In all your wishes, In all the unsolved aspects of your life, If you bring in this one solution, Be aware. See for yourself whether this is the one solution or not. I leave this up to you, This message from the master who gives this one solution, This message from all the masters, Including Patanjali, Who is giving this message through the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, And on this path of kevalya, On this path of the ultimate freedom, Of ultimate liberation, He is saying once again, Be aware. Because there is nothing else that you could do if you try to change your body, If you try to change your mind, If you try to change anything else other than your awareness, The results will be temporary. The results may solve one problem, But they will create another problem. So the only way to come out of this loop of problems is to be aware. Let us hear why this is the case, What is Patanjali saying on the path to ultimate freedom, To ultimate liberation, Moksha, Nirvana, Kevalya, On this path, How is awareness helping us? Patanjali says, Karma asulka aksharanam yogina trividham itaresham The actions of the yogi are neither good or bad, But the actions of others are of free kind, Good, Bad and mixed. We started to understand this in the yesterday session, Where we said, Every action that we do, Either it is in the light of awareness, Or in unawareness. When the action is in unawareness, It leads to impressions. Those impressions create desires, Those desires lead to more action. So yesterday we understood deeply, That there is this cycle of action and desires, That keep on going in unawareness. Only in awareness, You come out of this cycle of action, Impression, Desires. So here, Patanjali is elaborating the exact same fact, In more detail, Where he says, The action of the yogi, Meaning the action of the aware, He right now at the last stage of kevalya pad, He is expecting that yogi means awareness, Yogi means that he or she is fully aware. So he is saying, The action of the yogi, The action of the aware, Are neither good nor bad. Here he is saying, When you are doing what you are doing in full awareness, There is no good, There is no bad. What brings good, What brings bad, What brings this perspective of good and bad, This division of good and bad is the unawareness, Is the mind. In the unawareness, Something has to take over. Either your awareness is leading, And when your awareness is leading, There is no question of good and bad. But when your awareness is not there, When the light is not there, In darkness, There needs to be some substitute of awareness. That substitute of awareness is your own mind, Is the program which is programmed to put things into good, Into bad, To classify things in good and bad, And on a spectrum of good and bad, Do this judgment all the time. In unawareness, Your mind is putting every action that you do in good, Bad or somewhere in between in this mixed state. In awareness, Every action is above good, Bad, And the spectrum of good and bad. There is no good, There is no bad, There is only spontaneous, Pure action in full awareness. Further, Patanjali says, Tastadu vipaka anugananam eva abhivyaktivasananam Desires arise from threefold actions, When circumstances are favourable for their fulfilment. So, From the unawareness, From the unaware action, There are impressions that are created in you, In your consciousness, In your subconscious mind, There are impressions that are created. These impressions are retrieved as memories, As you recall some of these impressions, They arise as memories, But they further settle down and create desires in you. And this creation of desires remains as a latency, As a latent energy in you, As a latent motivation in you, And when the time is right, When the fulfilment is near of these desires, They suddenly rise up again to the surface. If these desires know that there is no possibility of fulfilling these desires, They remain an undercurrent in you. They remain creating the restlessness in you, They remain in a shape, In a form, Where you do not recognise what is creating this restlessness. When the situation is near, When this desire will be fulfilled, At that time, Suddenly the desire comes to the surface, And you want the name, You want the fame, You want all what you want in your life, Only in the moment where you see it is possible to fulfil it. If it is not possible to fulfil it, You also somehow know that it is not possible, So you leave it in the subconscious, And that desire does not rise up. There is one more aspect which Patanjali brings into this detail. He says, Jati, Disha, Kala, Evahitanam, Api, Anantarayam, Smriti, Samskara, O eva, Rupavat. Although desires are separated from their fulfilment by class, Space and time, They have an uninterrupted relationship, Because of the impressions and memories of them are identical. What that means is that these desires that remain latent in you, They remain latent across time, Across space, Across class, Meaning across different lifetimes, They remain latent in you. So here, Patanjali is once again saying that these desires, Once they are formed in you, Through the actions, Through the impressions, Once the desires are formed in you, They remain latent in you for a very very long time. Something that you did in your childhood, Some action that you did in your childhood, In unconsciousness, Led to an impression, Led to a desire, Which now, After 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, 50 years, Is somehow rising in you. And the psychologist tells you that you have some sort of disorder because of a childhood memory. It's the same here Patanjali is saying that the desire that you had created at some point of time, Very latent in you all throughout these years, Now suddenly rises up, Makes you do this, Makes you do that. What is the solution? To be aware so that you not only not create new desires, New impressions, But also you come out of this cycle of action and desires. In the light of awareness, You come out of the cycle of action and desires. Let us meditate over this in our silence, In meditation for the next minutes, Before we move on on this path of Kevalyam. Please close your eyes. Take a posture that is easy for you. With your head, Neck and back straight, Face relaxed, Shoulders down, And a nice deep breath in, Inhale from the nose, And exhale from the nose, Allowing your body to rest, Allowing your mind to settle throughout the next minutes. Remember, For every problem, There is only one solution. Be aware. Whatever arises in your consciousness in the next minutes, You simply remain aware. Starting with being aware of your body, Give yourself these moments to feel the sensations of your body, To whatever arises in your body, Movements, Sensations, Feelings. Give yourself these moments to be aware. No concentration needed. No focus needed. A restful awareness of your body. And whatever arises, Acknowledge that, See that, Be aware. Silently witnessing, Observing, Watching, Watching your own body, The sensations in your body, The movements in your body. Watching the body as if you are not the body. You are the body. You are the body. Feel the aliveness of your body. And as you observe, The body settles. It falls into rest on its own. Don't try to change anything, Or force anything. Allow it to happen on its own. And you remain a watcher, An observer, A witness. You remain a watcher, An observer, An observer, An observer, An observer, An observer, An observer, An observer, An observer, An observer, You are not the body. You're observing the body. As the body settles, Becomes still, Shift the awareness to your mind, And simply watch what is going on in your mind. At all times, Remain aware. Observing your thoughts, Anything that arises in your mind, In your inner space, In your consciousness, Simply observe from a distance. You are not the mind. You're observing the mind. The emphasis is on being aware. If nothing arises in your consciousness, Remain aware. Don't try to stop anything. Thoughts may come, May pass by. Let them be. You simply remain aware. Let go of all effort, All kinds of effort. What remains is silence. What remains is awareness. What remains is silence. This silence of awareness is the solution. Stay in it. And very gently and slowly, You may open your eyes. Without breaking this awareness, Silence and stillness that has arisen in you, In taking this in every aspect of your life, In every situation of your life, Being aware all throughout your life. Thank you very much. Namaste.

Reviews

Thank you for these teachings, Dhyanse. This series on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali is so rich and informative.

Thank you 🙏🏽

Really enjoyed thanks

Fantastic thanks 🙏🏻

Excellent