2 The Universe \-- A Family

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‌CHAPTER 2

The Universe – A Family

17 October 1970 pm in Poona, India

[Note: This is a translation from the Hindi Neo-Yoga Sutras, which is in the process of being edited. It is for research only.]

Yoga has nothing to do with Islam, Hinduism, Jainism or any other religion. But Jesus or Mohammed or Zarathustra or Buddha or Mahavira or anyone who has realized the truth, has not realized it without passing through Yoga. Except for Yoga, there is no way for life to rise to the state of inner paradise. The so-called religions are nothing but belief systems. Yoga is a systematic methodology of scientific experiments done in the search for the truth of life, and not for belief systems.

Hence, the first thing that I would like to say to you is that Yoga is a science, not a belief. For experiencing Yoga, one need not have faith of any kind. To experiment with yoga, superstitious belief of any kind is not needed. An atheist can enter into its experiments as much as a theist can. Yoga does not bother whether you are an atheist or a theist.

Science does not depend on your concepts. On the contrary, you have to change your concepts because of science. Science does not expect you to have any kind of prior reasoning or any accepted beliefs, it only expects you to experiment. Science says, do and see. Because scientific truths are real truths, they do not need any faith whatsoever. Two and two make four, it is not an assumption. And if someone does not accept it, he will be in trouble himself – it is not that the truth of two and two making four will be in trouble.

Science does not begin with assumptions, it begins with investigation. In the same way, Yoga does not begin with assumptions, it begins with search, quest and investigation. Hence, all that is required

is the capability to experiment. Only the capacity to experiment is needed; only courage to search is needed, nothing else.

When I say Yoga is a science, I would like to talk to you about some sutras that are the fundamental basis for the science of Yoga. These sutras have nothing to do with any religion, because without them no religion can stay alive. These sutras do not need the support of any religion, but without their support religion cannot exist even for a moment.

The first sutra of Yoga is that life is energy.

For a long time science did not agree with this, but now it does. For a long time science used to think that the universe is matter. But those who declared thousands of years before the discoveries of science that matter is an untruth, a lie, an illusion – did not mean that it does not exist – by illusion they meant that it is not as it appears, or it does not appear to be what it is.

But in the last thirty years, science in its every single step has been in accord with Yoga. In the eighteenth century, the declaration of the scientists was that God is dead, soul has no existence, matter is all that there is. But in the past thirty years, the situation is reversed. Science has had to say that matter does not exist, it only appears to exist; energy alone is the truth. It is due to the fast movement of the energy that matter appears to be.

The walls are visible, and if someone tries to pass through them, his head will get broken – how to say then that the walls are illusions? They are clearly visible. There is ground underneath your feet. If there is not then how are you standing on it? No, science is not saying in this sense that matter does not exist. Science says so in the sense that things are not as they are appear to us. If we run an electric fan very fast, its three blades will stop appearing to be three because the blades will run so fast that the empty space between the blades will be filled before it can be noticed by our eyes. If the fan is run very fast, separate blades will not be seen, only a circle will be noticed that is revolving. You won’t be able to count and say how many blades there are. If the fan can be run even faster, you cannot throw a stone through the gaps. The stone will fall back on the thrower’s side. If the fan can be run even faster, as fast as atoms are moving, then you will be able to sit on the fan comfortably. Neither will you feel the gaps nor will you fall, nor will you notice that underneath you the blades are running. Because the time taken by the blade to fill the gap will be less than the time taken by your brain to register the gap. Before your feet can inform your brain that a blade has left a gap behind, the next blade comes and fills the gap. Thus if the gap can be bridged before it really exists for you, you can happily stand on it.

In the same way we are standing on surfaces. The electrons in the atoms are revolving at such tremendous speed that things seem to be static. But nothing in existence is static, the objects that seem to be static, are all moving. Had there been only objects moving, even then there would be no difficulty. But as science went on breaking things down, it came to know that after the atom there remains no matter – only energy particles, electric particles remain. Even to call them particles is not right, because particle again gives the idea of matter. Hence a new word ‘quanta’ had to be coined in the English language. Quanta means particles and no-particle at the same time – particle and a wave simultaneously. There can only be waves of electricity, not particles. Energy can have only waves, not particles. But because of our old language we go on calling them particles. There is nothing like a particle. In the eyes of science, the whole universe is an expansion of energy, electrical energy. And this is the first sutra of Yoga: Life is energy.

The second sutra of Yoga is: There are two dimensions of energy, one is existence, the other nonexistence.

Energy can be in existence as well as in nonexistence. When energy is in nonexistence, the universe turns into a void. When energy is in existence, the universe comes into creation. Yoga understands that anything that ‘is’, becomes ‘is not’. Whatsoever ‘is’, ends up as ‘is not’. Whatsoever has a birth, has a death. Whatsoever has existence, has nonexistence too. Whatsoever is seen can also become unseen. Yoga understands that in this universe everything has double dimensions. In this universe, nothing is uni-dimensional. We cannot say that a man was born and he did not die. Howsoever much we may prolong his life span, we will have to come back to the same question – he must have died at some point or he will die some time. It is impossible to even conceive that one pole of something is birth and the other pole would not be death. It may be far away, far far away, the distance may seem to be endless, but the other pole is a must. Every pole must have its opposite pole just as a coin must have two sides. It seems simply impossible that there can be a coin having only one side. It cannot be. The second side has to be, because for one side to be, the other side is absolutely a must.

The second sutra of the science of Yoga is: Everything is two-dimensional. One dimension is of existence, th e second dimension is of nonexistence. The universe is, it can also become ‘is-not’. We are, we can also become ‘are not’. All that is, can become ‘is-not’. By ‘is-not’ you do not take the meaning that it will exist in some other forms. No, it may simply become nonexistent. Existence is one side, nonexistence the other. It seems difficult to conceive how existence can come out of nonexistence. How can existence become nonexistence? But if we look at life all around us, we will realize that each moment what is not, will be, and what is – that will move into ‘is-not’.

Our sun is becoming colder and colder every day. Its rays are getting lost into the void. Scientists say that it can remain hot for four million years more. In four million years, all its rays will have dissipated into the endless space, then it will also become void. If the rays can disappear into the void, they must also be arising from the void, otherwise how will the void come into existence? Science says our sun is dying, but other suns are being born in some other place. From where are they being born? They are being born out of the void.

The Vedas talk about a time when there was nothing; Upanishads also say there was a time when nothing existed and the Bible also talks of the time when there was nothing. Out of that nothingness is born all isness and the isness goes on disappearing into nothingness each moment. If we take the whole existence as one, then too we will have to accept a nonexistence beneath it.

So, the second sutra of Yoga is: Every existence has its nonexistence attached to it.

Energy has two dimensions – existence and nonexistence. Energy can ‘be’ and it also can ‘not be’. Hence Yoga’s understanding is that creation is only one side, the other side is annihilation. It is not that all this will exist for ever! It will disappear, it will be destroyed. It will go on becoming again and again. For instance, if you break a seed and look into it, there is no trace of any tree there. No matter how much you search, you will not find any trace of a tree. But the tree certainly comes from this small seed. You have never thought about what is not found in the seed. Where does the tree come from then? And such a huge tree was hidden in such a small seed! And then after giving birth to seeds that tree dissolves. Exactly like this, the whole existence comes into being and then dissolves. Energy comes into existence and then merges into nonexistence.

It is very difficult to catch hold of nonexistence. Existence is of course visible to us. Hence, according to Yoga, those who accept only existence, those who understand that existence is all, are seeing only the play. And to know only the play is ignorance.

Ignorance does not mean that one does not know. Ignorance means, one knows only the play. Knowing as such is there. Even if one knows that he does not know, then too the knowing is there. So the knowing is in all of us. So, ignorance does not mean not knowing. The most ignorant of all also knows some things. The meaning of ignorance according to Yoga is to know only half.

And remember, half truth is worse than untruth. Because it is possible to be free of untruth, but to be free from half truth is very difficult. It appears to be the truth and it is not. If it is wholly the untruth, purely the untruth, then it won’t take time to be free from it. But if it is a half truth, it is very difficult to be free from it.

There is one more reason, a thing like truth cannot be divided into halves. In dividing it into halves it dies. Can you divide your love into half? Can you say “I love you half” to somebody? Either you love or you do not love, but half love is not possible. Can you say, “I do half stealing?” Maybe you steal half a rupee, but the stealing of half a rupee is also full stealing, and the stealing of half a paisa is also full stealing. Half stealing cannot be done. Half of a thing can be stolen but the stealing cannot be half.

The very meaning of half is that you are in illusion.

Yoga says that those who see only the existence are grasping only the half. And he who grasps only the half, lives in illusion, lives in ignorance. No, the other side is also there. A man who says, “I am born but don’t want to die,” is clinging to the half. He will suffer; he will live in ignorance. And no matter what he may do, death is bound to come because the other half cannot be parted with. If you have accepted birth, death is the other half of it, it is together. A man who says I will choose only pleasures, not the pains, is falling into a fallacy. Yoga says, the moment you choose only the half, you fall into error. Suffering is only the other side of pleasure, it is the half part. Hence, one who wants to be peaceful will have to be restless also. There is no way out.

Yoga says, to avoid one half is ignorance. They are together. But we do not see the whole. What is seen by us first, we hold on to it and go on denying the other side without understanding that when I have held onto half, the other half is waiting behind. It is just waiting for an opportunity. It will appear soon. Yoga says: Energy has two dimensions and one who understands both the dimensions, moves into Yoga. One who holds onto half, becomes a non-yogi, an indulger.

One who holds onto half, we call an indulger. One who holds the whole, we call a yogi.

Yoga means the whole. Yoga means addition, union. In the language of mathematics also, Yoga means total. In the language of spirituality also Yoga means integrated, the total, the whole, entire.

We don’t call one an indulger who is an enemy to Yoga. We call one an indulger who holds onto half, one who lives considering the half as the whole. A Yogi has come to know the whole, hence he holds onto nothing.

It is very interesting that the holders are always half-holders; one who has come to know the total, simply does not hold onto anything. One who has seen that birth and death are one, now why would he hold onto birth? And also why would he hold onto death, when he knows that death is part of birth. If you know that pleasure and pain are not separate, why hold onto pleasure? Why hold onto pain also when you know pain is associated with pleasure? In fact, the one who knows that pleasure and pain are two sides of the same coin, they are not two things, they are two dimensions of one thing, is a yogi. Hence a yogi goes beyond clinging.

It is useful to understand the second sutra rightly. Energy has two forms and we go on making efforts to cling to one form. Someone clings to youth and then suffers old age. He is not aware that the old age is the other part of youth. In fact, youth means a state that is growing old. Youth means a journey to old age. And remember, an old man does not become older so rapidly as a young man does.

Youth means energy to become old. Old means the spent out energy of youth, finished energy of youth. They are two sides of one coin. One is the front door of the house, the other is the back door.

Theists and atheists cling to half of all the dualities of life – birth and death, pleasure and pain, existence and nonexistence. Hence as Yoga sees it, both are ignorant. The theist says: God is. A theist cannot even think that God can also be nonexistent. But the theist is very weak because he is putting God outside the law. Laws are applicable to all alike. If there is God, his nonexistence will also be there. The atheist is clinging to its other part. He says God does not exist. But anything which is not, can also happen. And to deny it so strongly indicates the fear that maybe He is. Otherwise there is no need to deny. When a theist insists that God does exist and he is ready to fight for it, then he is also showing his fear that Gad may not exist. Otherwise why does it matter! If someone says there is no God, let him say it. A Theist is ready to fight because he is holding onto one part of God. It is one and the same thing whether you accept birth or you accept God’s existence but the other part is being denied. Yoga accepts both existence and nonexistence, that they are not separate.

Hence the yogi accepts atheists also because the latter has half the truth, accepts theists also because the theist also carries half the truth. And half truths are more dangerous than untruths. The second sutra is: Expansion of energy between the duality.

Between darkness and light there is expansion of only one thing, not two. But it seems to us as if there are two things. If you ask a scientist, he will deny the existence of two. What we call darkness, is nothing but less light. And what we call light, is nothing but less darkness. The difference is in the proportion. Hence there are birds that can see in the dark. For you, it is dark. For them, it is not dark. Why? Their eyes are capable of catching ever such faint light. And it is not only that it is difficult to catch faint light, your eyes are not capable of catching the light even when it is very bright. If very bright light is thrown onto your eyes, they will go blind instead of seeing. There is a range of seeing also. Below it, there is darkness, above it there is darkness because the range is small where we can see the light. But the darkness is also a proportion of light. The difference is not qualitative but quantitative. There is no difference in the quality, the difference is in quantity only.

Have you ever thought of heat and cold? We think they are two things. No, they are not two. It will be very easy to understand with heat and cold. But we will say they are two things; heat gives us heat

– then how can we accept that they are one? When we sit in the shade, how can we accept that the shade is the heat of the sun? No, I am not saying that you should accept that they are one and stop sitting in the shade. All I am saying is that what you call shade is nothing but a lesser amount of heat. And what you call blazing heat is nothing but a lesser amount of coolness.

Sometimes try an experiment, make one of your hands warm by keeping it near a stove and the other hand cold by keeping it on ice and then dip both the hands into a bucket full of water. Then you will be in a great difficulty to say whether the water in the bucket is hot or cold! One hand will say it is cold, the other hand will say it is hot. Water in the same bucket cannot have two temperatures. And your hands are giving two lots of information. The hand which is cold will feel the water to be hot and the hand which is hot will feel the water to be cold. Coolness and heat are relative.

The second sutra of Yoga is: Birth and death, existence and nonexistence, darkness and light, childhood and old age, pleasure and pain, cold and heat are all relative terms. They are two names of the one thing.

If you understand this second sutra well, then many things will become easy to understand. The other side of everything is always there. Whenever you choose one side of a thing, keep it in mind, you have also chosen its other side. When you say to someone with love, “Now I have met you and would not like to be separated from you ever,” then understand correctly that separation is already present in your meeting and it is going to happen. In fact, even at the time of meeting, lovers say, “I am very much afraid of losing you.” They are aware of the existence of the other side, otherwise right now when it is time to meet, where is the question of separation? When we are meeting, we are just meeting. But no, at the very time of meeting, separation is also present like a shadow. When you make someone a friend, understand that one more potential enemy is born. It is certain that unless you make someone a friend, he cannot be turned into an enemy. So far no way has been found to turn someone directly into an enemy. To become an enemy one has to go through the process of being a friend. Even to become an enemy, the route passes via being a friend. Yoga says, know that the enemy is standing behind like a shadow.

In every desire in life, if you keep remembrance of its opposite too, the clinging will disappear. If an enemy knocks at your door, you will be able to see also the friend that has come with him. It always does come. The friend is the shadow of the enemy. The enemy never comes without it.

So, for one who has entered into Yoga, if happiness comes, he simply allows it to come, he does not give it a big welcome, because he knows what it has brought hidden behind it. And when misery comes, then he welcomes that too because he knows what is coming next, behind it. He maintains his equilibrium and that is the understanding that everything is inevitably connected with its opposite. Nothing exists without its opposite. One has implanted the seeds of hatred in the same person one has loved. Whosoever we have met, we have met only to figure out ways to part. Whosoever we made ours, we only created means and facilities to become alien. In asking for renown, one only sows the seeds for his dishonour. In winning, one only invites the defeat.

Lao Tzu once told his friends that he could not be defeated by anyone in his life. Naturally his friends kept quiet. Then they asked him to tell the secret to them also why no one could defeat him because they also did not want to be defeated by anyone. But Lao Tzu started laughing loudly and he said, “I will not tell the sutra to wrong people.” They asked, “How are we wrong? You must tell us how we

too may not be defeated.” Lao Tzu said, “You are bound to be defeated because one who does not want to be defeated, has already invited defeat. This is my sutra that no one could ever defeat me, because I never wanted to win. One who wants to win, he will be defeated.”

Lao Tzu was passing through a forest, along with his disciples. The whole forest was being cut. Thousands of carpenters were cutting the trees but there was one tree that was standing. No one touched it. Lao Tzu said, “Go and ask that tree what is the secret of its being safe. Does it somehow know the sutra of Yoga? Does it know Tao? When the whole forest is being cut, then why is only this tree not cut?” Since Lao Tzu had told them to, the disciples went, but they were in a fix as to what to ask of a tree? They walked around the tree but how to ask the tree? It was true, not a single leaf was picked, not a single branch was cut. Its branches were spread to such a distance that one thousand bullock carts could halt beneath it. The shadow was too thick. Then they thought, why not ask these carpenters who are cutting so many trees. They asked the carpenters, “What is the secret of this tree’s being safe? Why are you not cutting it?” The carpenters told them that that tree was strange. Its wood was so cross-wise that it could not be made into furniture. The disciples of Lao Tzu said – “At least this tree can be used as fire-wood?” The carpenters said, “This tree is so strange, it emits so much smoke that it cannot be made into fire-wood.” They said, “This tree is useless. To cut it is a waste of energy.” The disciples returned and told Lao Tzu, “The secret is that the tree is useless. The wood is not straight and also it emits much smoke. Even the leaves are not useful as any medicine. Even animals do not eat these leaves. This tree is absolutely useless.” Lao Tzu told them, “Blessed is this tree. Its branches did not try to become straight and hence they are saved from being cut. The trees that are making efforts to become straight... can you see? They are being cut. The leaves of this tree have not tried to become something, did not try to become tasteful, and hence they are, and are in total bliss. Lao Tzu said,”This is my method too. No one could ever defeat me because I did not want to win. For ever and ever I am defeated and hence it is difficult to defeat me.

Once Lao Tzu said, “One man, hearing that Lao Tzu could not be defeated by anyone, challenged me in a village.” Lao Tzu was staying in the village. He must have said to someone that he could never be defeated by anyone. The news spread in the village. Some wrestler considered it to be a challenge! He came in front of Lao Tzu’s door and challenged him saying, “I will defeat you.” Lao Tzu said, “You cannot defeat me”. The wrestler said, “I will defeat you now.” A crowd gathered there. The wrestler put on his wrestling gear, remembered his deity and he came to fight. But Lao Tzu fell flat in front of him and said to him, “Come, sit on me.” The wrestler said, “What kind of man are you? The interest in defeating you is gone.” Lao Tzu said, “I had already said that no one could defeat me up till now because I have already accepted the defeat. I don’t want to win. Come and sit on my chest and make it public by beating a drum that you have defeated me. The wrestler said,”It is useless to sit on such a man.” The wrestler touched the feet of Lao Tzu and left for his home. He said fighting was useless.

Yoga says, it is futile to choose between the dualities.

Yoga says do not make a choice between what is always seen as two in life. They are one and the same. It is only a deception. Face value is one thing, at the back something else. Existence and nonexistence, birth and death, happiness and misery, good and bad, moral and immoral, monk and thief, religion and irreligion, are all the expansion of only one thing. Understand them but do not choose.

By understanding them, one transcends.

The second sutra of Yoga is: There is duality in energy – existence and nonexistence. And where peaks of energy rise, the valleys of energy also get created. Where existence gets created, nonexistence is also present. Where there is creation, there is destruction also.

Hence this country did not think of the concept of creation alone, but thought of destruction as part of it. Creation accompanied by destruction, existence accompanied by nonexistence. All things that exist, move to nonexistence. And that which has become nonexistence, is moving back to exist.

Have you seen waves on the ocean? The wave that has risen up, is on its way down. And the ebb that is formed next to it, is on the way up. Each moment, everything is entering into its opposite. All things are entering into their opposites. One who has seen this, his wishes, desires and his longings all simply disappear. He does not renounce the desires, they simply disappear because desire is nothing but a choice.

Yoga’s third sutra...

I told you that existence has two forms. Energy – the first sutra. Second – energy has two forms – non-existence and existence. And the third sutra – existence has two forms. One we call conscious, the other we call unconscious. But they are two forms, not two separate things. Those whom we call religious people, take it to be two things. They assume that consciousness is separate and unconsciousness is separate, body is separate and the soul is separate. But there is no such separateness. If you understand rightly, the part of soul that is within the grasp of the senses, is called the body and the part of body that is not in the grasp of the senses, is known as soul.

Consciousness and unconsciousness are two aspects of existence. A stone is lying there. It exists but it is unconscious. You are standing near it. You also exist. There is no difference in existence, both exist but one is conscious and the other is unconscious. But a stone can become conscious and you can become stone. They are convertible. That’s why you eat wheat and it becomes blood. That’s why iron goes into your body and becomes alive. If we take out all the material from the body of a man and put it on a table, then it is not going to cost more than five rupees. A little iron, aluminium, phosphorus, copper, will come out. The major part is water. Hardly five rupees worth of material can be found in man’s body. But within the body of the man, there is something more, things have become conscious. If your hand is hurt, it feels the pain and if the same hand had not been part of the body earlier, it would not have felt the pain. Tomorrow again it won’t be part of your body.

Under the place where you are sitting, at least ten people must have been buried. The people that have lived on the whole earth, are so many that wherever we are standing, on that small place of one square foot, at least ten people’s bodies have turned into dust. All the ten were alive at sometime – today they are lying like dust below your feet. Today you are alive, but for how long? Tomorrow, you will also lie like dust.

Consciousness and unconsciousness are two aspects of the existence. There are not two existences, but two forms of one existence. Hence they are convertible. Hence unconsciousness can come out of consciousness, unconscious can move into the conscious. It’s happening every

day. We are doing it every day. Every day we are eating unconscious material as our food and it goes on becoming conscious inside us and every day all kinds of excreta comes out of our bodies and goes on becoming part of the unconscious. So at the one end man is consciousness and at the other end he is unconsciousness. And as he takes the unconscious in, it turns into the conscious within.

Consciousness and unconsciousness are also not two things. There has been a great misunderstanding about it also. Atheists say that only unconsciousness exists, but they find great difficulty in explaining this. They feel difficulty because if there is only unconsciousness then from where does consciousness come? Then, an atheist like Marx has to say that it is a by-product. Consciousness is not any real thing. This has happened as a result of meeting and merging of the matter. It is not a thing, but an event. Charvak has to say that man’s consciousness is like a betel man who makes betel by mixing lime, catechu etc. on the betel leaf and when you chew it, red color is produced. That red color is neither in the lime, nor in catechu, nor in the betel leaf, but it is produced by mixing all the three. That is the result of the close contact of all, that is a by-product, that is a cumulative by-product. It is like a case of wine. If you take all the ingredients separately that constitute the wine, you won’t get intoxicated. But when we take them collectively as the wine, they intoxicate.

So, the language of an atheist, whether it is Charvak or Marx, is different. In fact their difficulty is that consciousness is visible but how to explain it? They have only one way. They say that unconscious things when mixed together, produce consciousness. But it is a very unscientific statement and does not feel right from the mouth of Marx who claims to be a scientist. Because anything which is born out of a thing, must be somewhere hidden in it, otherwise it cannot be born. If red color comes from betel, agreed, it was not in each thing separately but the red color was hidden in all of them, and it became apparent through them, but it was not visible separately. If we drink oxygen and hydrogen separately, the thirst cannot be quenched. Neither hydrogen contains water, nor does oxygen contain it but if both are mixed together, water will be formed and then the thirst will be quenched. From where does this water came? This water was within the oxygen and the hydrogen but could be apparent only when the two meet.

You are sitting alone in a room. I enter your room and we both start talking. Now this conversation does not descend from the sky, this was within me and within you. But if you talk alone in the room, people will think you to be mad. As I arrived, no one takes you to be mad; now it becomes convenient to express ourselves.

Anything that manifests, is hidden in the same thing from which it manifests. Hence the claims of atheists that consciousness is simply born out of matter, it does not exist, it did not exist, is extremely unscientific. Yoga is not ready to accept them. Theists talk just the opposite. Their difficulty is also the same, they are complimentaries to each other. They say matter does not exist, nothing is unconscious, all that is, is just God. The question arises that all that is seen all around, from where does it come? So, Shankara says it is illusion, it does not exist, it too is a phenomenon, a pseudo existence, it actually does not exist.

The difficulty is the same for a theist as well as for an atheist. The difficulty is how to explain the other part. Because the other part also exists. Hence the difficulty. Hence all kinds of arguments had to be invented. But they are never able to prove anything through their arguments.

Yoga says, both do exist. Hence Yoga does not involve itself in any round about logic. It says, both do exist. And it also says that both are not two, otherwise there will be trouble for the synthesis of the two. Both are two aspects of one thing, for instance, like my two hands, left and right. They appear as two, but for me they are not two. They appear two in you – they seem to be two. For me, only one energy is spread in both. It is interesting – if I want to I can make both hands fight! And both are only one energy.

Consciousness and unconsciousness are only one existence – they are two ends of only one existence. Consciousness can become unconscious, unconsciousness becomes the base for the conscious. This is the third sutra of Yoga.

It is essential to understand the sutras because it is on these sutras that the whole structure of all the practices of Yoga are based. The existence of the conscious and the unconscious is now accepted by science. Now science uses a new word: ‘psychosomatic’. Previously, it was thought that diseases were of two kinds, physical and mental. One disease is mental and one is physical, because mind is separate and body is separate. Now medical science uses a new term – psychosomatic or somatic- psychic. Now medical science says, no disease is purely mental, nor purely physical. Disease is psychosomatic. Both are the ends of the same.

If your mind becomes sick, your body also becomes sick. And if your body falls sick, your mind also becomes sick. When I make you drink wine, then I don’t make your mind drink. The wine goes in your stomach, it goes in your liver. The wine does not go in your mind. But as soon as wine goes into the body, mind starts talking nonsense. It should not, but it does. The wine has gone into the body but its effects reach the mind. And when the mind is sick, worried and depressed, the body immediately becomes sad and sick. If a disease is inserted in the mind, the body follows it.

About ten or twelve years ago, America had to make a law called the Anti-Hypnotic Act. A law had to be made against hypnotism, because a strange thing happened in the hostel of a small college. Four boys were reading a book on hypnotism in which it was written that whatever mind agrees to assume, it happens. The four decided to see it through experiment and they made their fifth associate lie down and as was described in the book, they gave suggestions to him to become unconscious. After switching off the light of the room, these four boys repeated loudly to the boy for ten minutes: You are becoming unconscious, you are becoming unconscious, you are becoming unconscious. That boy went into deep sleep within ten minutes and became unconscious. When they pierced a pin into his hand the same remained unnoticed and when they put clay in his mouth and told him that he was eating sweets he ate it tastefully like a sweet. Then they became more curious. They took the boy up and asked him to dance, telling him that he was a dancer and he started dancing. And they told him that he had become mad and he became mad. Then they asked him the last thing. They told the boy that he was dead, and he died! That is why a law had to be made that now nobody can hypnotize anyone without prior permission from the government except while doing research in the university or in some hospital or doing some experiment under a doctor’s supervision. It is not that anybody can hypnotize anybody. Now that boy did die. They told the boy repeatedly to become alive but there was no one to hear, he had already died.

This incident of 1952 surprised the whole world. When some astrologer tells you that you will die on a certain day, you may die. Not because the astrologer is saying the truth, no, it is not so. But if this thought settles down deep in the mind, then death can happen. By putting thought in the mind

all types of diseases can be created and if the thought can be put in the mind, all types of diseases can be cured.

One man’s house caught fire. He had been paralyzed for two years and could not get up. He was almost in delirium. When in the middle of the night the house caught fire, all the members of the family ran out. When they came out, they started to wonder what might have happened to the old man of the house because he was paralyzed and would not be able to come out. But at the same moment they saw that not only was the old man coming out but also he was carrying his little box with him. They were surprised because the man could not usually even get up. When he came and stood up amongst them, they asked, “You – and walked!” Then the man said, “How can I walk?” He fell down then and there. The paralysis returned. What happened? This man had no paralysis. This man had only mental paralysis. His mind had caught paralysis, the body was following it.

The opposite can also happen that someone’s body is really paralyzed. If his mind refuses, it will be difficult for the body to carry on the paralysis. Hence those who have strong will power can fight any kind of disease and those who have weak will power, can be troubled by any kind of disease.

Yoga says there are not two things in us like consciousness and unconsciousness. In us, there is only one existence and these are two polarities of it. Hence a man can be influenced from either pole.

In Tibet, there is an experiment known as Heat-Yoga. There are hundreds of monks who can remain sitting in the snow naked, snow is falling all around, snowy winds are blowing and their bodies sweat! What has happened to them?

These men are experimenting with the Yoga sutra. They have refused to accept in their minds that snow is falling. With eyes closed they are saying that snow is not falling. With their eyes closed, they are saying that the sun is burning and its heat is raining. And with eyes closed, they are saying “I am burning with the heat.” And their bodies are following it, they are sweating.

In South India, there used to be a yogi named Brahma Yogi. He showed some experiment in three universities, Calcutta University, Rangoon University and Oxford. He used to drink any kind of poison and within half an hour he would throw it all out through urination. No poison af any kind could get mixed with his blood. All kinds of x-ray examinations were taken but it was difficult to understand what the matter was. That man used to say only this much, that I only know that I say to my mind that I will not accept the poison. So, this is my whole secret. But in Rangoon University he died after the experiment; the poison entered the blood. His will power was working only upto half an hour. Hence it was essential that he urinated within half an hour. After half an hour, even he used to become suspicious that poison may enter the blood. For half an hour, he could keep his will power strong. After half an hour he used to become doubtful. Doubt is a very strange thing. It overpowers even such a man who keeps the poison away from the blood for half an hour. He left Rangoon University by car and wanted to reach where he was staying. But the car failed on the way and he could not reach his place in thirty minutes, he reached it in forty-five minutes but in an unconscious state. That fifteen minutes became the cause of his death.

There have been hundreds of yogis who declared their control over blood circulation. You may cut any vein, anywhere, but the blood will follow the Yogi’s orders to flow or stop flowing. It will be good

if you also do some small experiments. Count your pulse and wait for five minutes. Only you have to be thinking in your mind that your pulse is becoming faster and faster. And after five minutes you will see that the pulse rate has increased. If you experiment for a long time, the pulse can be stopped also, even the heartbeat, more subtle parts can also be stopped; the blood circulation can also be stopped.

Body and mind are not two things. Body and mind are the expansion of only one thing, different parts of only one thing. The conscious and the unconscious are the expansion of one and the same thing. All experiments of Yoga are based on this sutra. Hence Yoga accepts that it can be started from anywhere. The journey can be started from the body or from the mind. The disease, the health, the beauty, the energy, the age, everything is influenced by the body as well as by the mind.

Bernard Shaw had chosen a village twenty miles away from London, to make his grave. A few days before dying, he went to live in that village. His friends asked what was the reason for choosing that village. Bernard Shaw told them that the reason for choosing that village was very strange. “If I tell you,” he said, “you will laugh. But then there is no harm. Please do not laugh – I will tell you the reason. One day I came to this village, just for a casual visit. I went up to the cemetery of the village by way of wandering. There I saw a stone on a grave and because of that I decided to stay in this village. On that stone in the memory of a dead man was engraved: ‘This man was born in 1610 and died at an early age in 1710’.” So, Bernard Shaw said, if one wants to live long, it is good to stay in that village in which people consider one hunded years to be an early age to die. He told it by way of joke, but Bernard Shaw lived a long life. It is difficult to say if he lived long due to that village, but he chose it because of that stone. This choice of his mind was certainly part of his desire to live longer.

It is not right to think that in the countries where the average age is low, people die because they have less age to live. In these countries, because of the low average age, our expectations about the span of life become smaller. Whenever we start growing old, soon we start thinking of dying. Soon we decide that now the time has come. In the countries where expectations of age are more, people do not decide to die so soon because the time has not yet come. So, if the thought of dying enters early, its results start happening. This country has become ready for dying. If mind is not ready to die, age can be lengthened for a pretty long time.

The whole thing depends on the fact that there are two parts to our existence – conscious and unconscious. And the universe also has two parts – conscious and unconscious. What we call matter is the unconscious part of the universe; what we call life, is the conscious part of the universe. There is no contradiction between the conscious and the unconscious. Both are connected with each other.

I told you that if someone puts his hand on the pulse, its rate will differ. Even when a doctor checks your pulse, there is fluctuation. Hence no doctor can ever check your pulse correctly. When a doctor touches the pulse, it gives a different reading because your expectation differs immediately and if it is a lady doctor, then the difference will be more. Your expectations cause disorder. Your expectations, your mind will move the tissues. Hence an intelligent doctor would take the pulse rate to be a few numbers less than what it is reading, because you must have raised a few numbers right now, which were actually not there. Our pulse is connected with us and hence it is influenced. But I am saying that in the outer world, the unconscious matter is visible to us – that too is so much connected with our mind. The gardener who loves the flowers in his garden... can you think that his flowers will

become bigger? You may say it is madness to talk that way. But if only gardeners said it, we could have considered it as madness. There is a small laboratory in Oxford University. Many experiments have been done in it on flowers and the results are amazing. One Christian monk said, “If I bless a seed, it will bring bigger flowers.”

In that laboratory many experiments were conducted. From one and the same packet, some seeds were sown in one flowerpot and some were sown in another. One flowerpot was blessed by that monk. He stood in front of the flowerpot and said to God, “May its flowers be bigger, its seeds be larger, and may it sprout earlier.” He did not bless the other flowerpot. And the scientists made all efforts to make sure that both flowerpots got similar facilities, similar water, similar sun, similar manure. The results were surprising. The blessed flowerpot seeds did sprout earlier, brought more flowers, and the flowers lived longer. Had it not happened with a few flowerpots, one could take it to be some trick but the experiment was done on several flowerpots and every time the result was the same. What could be the cause? Does man’s mind influence the seeds also?

In fact, there is no wall between the conscious and unconscious.

And what is echoed in the heart, reaches all corners of the universe. And anything that echoes in any corner of the universe, reaches to the heart. We are all a togetherness.

Hence, the fourth sutra of Yoga... the rest of the sutras I will talk on tomorrow... the fourth sutra of Yoga says that in the universe nothing is unrelated. Everything is relative, the world is a family. Here all is joined together, here nothing is separate. Here man is related to stones, the moon and stars are related to the earth, our heartbeats are related to the moon and the stars, our thoughts are related to the waves of the ocean. The shining snow on the mountains is related to the dreams of our heart. Here nothing is separate. Here all is related, all is joined together. Here there is no way to be separate because there is no gap in between from where things can separate. To be separate is only an illusion.

Hence I tell you the fourth sutra of Yoga – energy is united, energy is one family. Neither consciousness is separate from unconsciousness, nor existence is separate from nonexistence, nor matter is separate from mind, nor body is separate from soul, nor God is separate from the earth, nor from nature. The very word, the very word separate is false. All is united, all is together. The words united and together give wrong connotations because we use these words for the things which are separate. They are only one, just as an ocean has infinite waves, each wave is connected with the other. That wave is connected to endless shores which are not even visible to you.

Here all is connected. The sun is at a distance of one hundred million miles from the earth. If the sun becomes cold, we all die. We will not be able to ask, “What concern do we have with the sun which is one hundred million miles away? Let it become cold.” We will not be able to burn the lamps of our houses. We will not be able to speak, even. All of us will be dead because you are getting all life energy from the sun. But this sun too is connected with other greater suns. Scientists say that they have counted about one hundred million suns up to now. And they are all connected together. This counting will never be complete because there are expanses beyond and beyond and beyond. It is endless. In this endless expanse, all is connected and joined together. A flower has blossomed and that too is connected to us. And there is a stone lying by the side of the road – that too is connected to us. Once you have understood the voice of togetherness, not only the pulse will be influenced, even those things may be influenced which are not in your imagination at all.

Do an experiment with a needle. Fill a small glass with water and spread some oily substance over it – a little purified butter or a little oil – and float a small pin in it. Then for two minutes sit down and gaze at the glass. For two minutes your eyes are not to blink. And then say to that pin, “Left turn.” You will be surprised that the needle will turn to the left. Say to it, “Right turn” and you will be surprised that the needle will turn to the right. And say, “Stop!” and it will stop and move to your suggestion.

I said ‘needle’ because you have little will power, otherwise even mountains can be moved. That’s why a needle. But if a needle moves, there is no problem why a mountain cannot move because what is really the difference between a needle and a mountain? There is difference in quantity but no difference in the principle.

Yoga says we are all joined. Yoga says that when one man thinks something bad, then the people of the surrounding area are also affected by it. There is no need to express that thought. When one man thinks something good, then in the surrounding area some waves of good thoughts start spreading. There is no need to express the good thought. Suddenly, standing in front of someone, you feel a kind of peace descending. Suddenly, standing in front of someone, you feel restlessness arising. You are passing through some place and you feel that the mind has become light. You are passing through some place and you feel that the mind has become heavy. You sit in some house and you feel caught by fear. You sit in some house and you feel that the heart is cheerful. These are the effects of the waves coming from all around. These waves are surrounding you from all sides, they have touched you. Not that only you are touching these waves. It is happening all the time.

In the midst of the expanse of the whole, we are also a pile of energy. And all around everything is energetically active. The destiny of the whole universe is our collective destiny. This fourth sutra of Yoga means that to see oneself as separate is madness; to understand oneself as separate is stupid. To live thinking oneself as separate, is to carry weight on the head on one’s own.

A short story and I complete my talk. Then I will talk to you tomorrow on the next sutras.

I have heard that a yogi boarded a train. He sat in a third class compartment. He put his box on his head and the bedding above the box and the umbrella above the bedding. And when neighboring passengers said, “What are you doing? Put your luggage down on the floor and sit comfortably.” The yogi answered, “I have purchased a ticket only for me, therefore I think that putting more weight on the train will be immoral Hence I keep the weight on my head.” They said,“Have you gone mad? Even if you keep the weight on your head, the weight will be on the train. So, why are you putting weight on your head unnecessarily? Keep it on the floor and sit comfortably. The train is bound to carry the weight whether you keep it on your head or keep it on the floor.” The yogi said, “I thought there are ignorant people in the train but I see that there are wise people here.” They said, “We do not understand.” Then the yogi said, “In life I have seen all people carrying the weight on their heads, the weight which could have been left on God. I have seen everyone carrying the burden of all the anxieties on one’s head; mountains and mountains of worries that can be left for the moon and the stars, which could be carried by the wind. The whole universe could have carried it. I thought that in this compartment you all may get angry so I kept the luggage on my head. But you are wise enough!” And he said, “We are wise only in this compartment and we all are riding on the train of our life. There we keep all the burden on our heads. We have to keep it on our heads because except for ours on whose head will we keep it?”

Yoga says that the burden is not to be kept on one’s head. Only those people’s heads become heavy who do not know the truth that life is a togetherness, a unity. Breathing depends on the air. The heat of life depends on the sun. Life depends on the order of the creation. Death is the other side of birth. All that is happening on its own. We lift it up and keep it on our heads unnecessarily.

Yoga says if only we could see that we are not more than a bird on a big aeroplane.

In a river, two straws were floating. The river’s flow was rapid and one straw was trying to fight against the river’s current. He was trying to make a dam in the river to stop it. It was not making any difference, he was being carried along. He was only a straw. The river had no information that some straw has thought of making a dam. The river had not even the knowledge that some straw was fighting. How could the river know? The river was running towards the ocean. That straw was being carried along and was fighting. He had another companion straw who had left himself straight in the river and who was thinking that he was helping the river. He was thinking that the river was flowing rapidly with his help. It made no difference. The river got no help. Both straws could not make any difference to the river, neither the one who was fighting, nor the one who was helping. But it was making a difference to the straws. The one who was fighting was dying unnecessarily; the one who was flowing was dancing on the stream. Both were flowing – one fighting, dying, distressed, and one rejoicing with delight.

But Yoga says, “Do not become either of the two straws because the illusion of each of them is connected with one side.” Just think, the river is flowing, neither do you have to make it flow, nor do you have to stop it. And become part of the river. Do not remain straws, become waves. Then you will become weightless. Then there will be no weight.

The whole universe is a family of energy. In that, we are not more than a wave. All is connected. Hence what happens here, spreads all over, and what happens all over, also reaches here.

In this universe, whatever is happening, we are all participants in it. Sannyasin and politician, they are not separate. If anyone is a thief, I am responsible. It must be that my evil may have helped him to become a thief. And if anyone is a murderer, I am responsible. If anyone is a saint, I am responsible. It means there is no question of any responsibility because whatever is happening anywhere, I am a participant in it. And then there is no evil, then we are not alone.

In the West there is a new word – ‘alienated’. Everyone is feeling that I am alone, with no companion. At one time wives were under the illusion that husbands were companions. Now all illusions are breaking. The wife in not certain that her husband is a companion. The husband is not certain that his wife is a companion. When the husband is making love, even then it is not certain that in his mind he is not filling out the form for divorce. Nothing is certain. The son is not certain of the father. The father is not certain that his sons will be in his company for long. Nothing is certain. All is uncertain and everyone has become alone. Hence there is so much anxiety and so much boredom in the West. And everyone is escaping to the mountains and everyone is becoming mad. Here also the same is happening.

Yoga says it is ignorance if you think you are alone; it is nonsense. Every single individual is connected. The day one understands that I am one with the whole, immediately all the burden of his worries simply disappear. This is the fourth sutra.

I will talk to you of some more similar sutras. In reference to this, if you have any questions, you should write and give them in tomorrow. Someone has asked a question about meditation. I will talk about it when we sit for meditation.

One more thing I should tell you again about meditation: Mind is there and you witness it.

The friends who want to participate in the morning meditation... and I would like everybody to come, because the sutras of Yoga which I am talking about are not for understanding through the intellect. We have to experiment with them. So, it is a must to come in the morning. In the evening I will talk to you and in the morning, we will experiment with the same thing. So, you listen in the evening and experiment in the morning, then the understanding will be complete. Otherwise understanding becomes half understanding and half understanding is worse than ignorance.

I feel grateful to you for listening to my talks with such love! Now I pay my respect to the divine sitting in each of you. Please accept my respect.

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