Today we are talking about Raga.
Dhaga which is one of the five glaciers.
The five glaciers being Avidya which is misperception or ignorance,
Asmita which is ego identity.
Raga which is attachment,
Dvesha which is aversion and Abhinivesha which is fear of loss or fear of death.
And today we are talking about the glacier of Raga.
Which is attachment.
And let me begin with something very simple.
Have you ever found yourself waiting?
You're waiting for something.
A message or a result or a moment.
And somewhere in the background,
There's that quiet belief.
When this happens,
Then I'll feel OK.
Maybe it is when they reply.
Or when I get this,
Or when I reach that.
And in that waiting,
There's a subtle tension.
A leaning forward into the future.
And then that thing that you're waiting for,
It happens.
You get the message.
You reach the goal.
You experience the moment.
And for the while,
It feels good.
There's the leaf.
Maybe there's even joy.
And you think This is it.
This is it.
But then,
Something very subtle begins to shift.
That feeling it softens.
The intensity it fades.
And almost without noticing the mind moves again.
The mind moves looking for the next thing.
Looking for the next shiny object.
And now the same voice returns.
Maybe this next thing,
That will be it.
That will be what satisfies me.
And just like that,
The cycle begins again.
In yoga.
This movement.
This subtle leaning into what's next?
It's called Raga.
In the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali There is a sentence,
It goes,
And what that translates to is ignorance,
Egoism,
Attachment,
Aversion and fear of death.
These are the five kleshas,
The five afflictions,
The root causes of suffering.
A few sutras later he defines Raga.
He says,
Suka Anusai Daga.
Which translates to Raga is the attachment Do Pleasure.
Something feels good.
And the body registers it.
The mind remembers it.
And then the mind says,
I want more of that.
And at first,
This feels natural.
It even feels harmless.
But slowly it shifts.
It shifts from I enjoyed that Do I need that?
And that's shift.
From I enjoyed that to I need that.
That is where Raga begins.
Raga shows up in very ordinary ways.
You take your phone.
Not because you need to.
But because you want something to be there.
Yudhichagol And instead of resting,
You immediately move to the next one.
You experience a beautiful moment.
But instead of fully being in it,
You start thinking.
How do I keep this?
How do I get to experience this again?
Even in relationships.
You don't just enjoy the connection.
You begin to depend on it.
Depend on it to feel a certain way.
And here's the subtle thing.
Raga is not loud.
And it doesn't always feel like craving.
Sometimes.
It feels like preference.
All excitement.
Or even motivation.
But underneath.
There is a quiet attachment.
Underneath there is a belief that says,
This is what gives me what I need.
This is what gives me what I need.
And this is where the teaching becomes very clear.
Pleasure is not the problem.
Experience is not the problem.
Even desire.
Is not the problem.
The problem begins when the mind says,
I need this to feel complete.
Because now,
Your state depends on something that's outside of you.
Raga is not enjoyment.
Raga is clinging.
And what's more interesting is that the more we chase,
The less we actually feel.
Because when we are chasing,
We are not here.
We are in the next moment,
We are anticipating,
We are waiting,
We are leaning forward.
And when we finally get what we want.
We don't stay with it.
Because the mind has already moved.
It's already moved to the next thing.
So instead of it.
Experiencing life We are constantly moving ourselves through it.
We are trying to capture something.
That simply cannot be held.
Bye now.
Right now if you bring to mind something that you've been wanting.
Bring to mind something that you've been wanting.
As you bring it to mind,
Notice what happens in the body.
There is a slight contraction.
There is a slight leaning forward.
This is Laga.
This is Daga experienced in real time.
And this is important because we are not trying to remove desire.
Desire is part of being human.
The Invitation is not suppression.
The invitation is to have freedom within experience.
Thank you for listening.
