“Today we’ll enter into the 8th sutra: Unclutching Science is explained…”

Today we’ll enter into the 8th sutra: Unclutching Science is explained in this one sutra. That is why this title became ‘Unclutch from the Mind Mess; De-stress Instantly’. This one sutra can completely turn the way in which you think, the way in which you act, the way in which you live. This one sutra can awaken new consciousness, new energy inside your being. Sometime people tell Me, “For each sutra you say the same thing: how to take it, Swami?” I tell them, “It is true for each sutra. For each sutra it is same.”

Pantanjali is such a great master. I know for sure he would have worked with millions of disciples, otherwise you cannot write such a… great, highly mystical… just, unimaginable work. Even to read this sutra, it’s such a wonderful experience.

(2:38) I’ll read the sutra: “viparyayah mithya jnanama atad rupa pratistham” “viparyayah mithya jnanama atad rupa pratistham”

Let me give you sutra for physical recording… If you don’t understand English, it’s okay, I’ll give the translation: ‘interpreting based on past conditioning leads to misconception or wrong understanding’ Let me repeat the translation: ‘interpreting based on past conditioning leads to misconception or wrong understanding’

(3:38) The Upanishads, Zen (3:42)cos, Sufi mystics, poems, everything, expressed by the Enlightened Masters are again and again repeating, “What is, is Reality.” (3:59)Isha Whatever is, is God. Again and again…even the Zen masters, they say before Enlightenment, “A mountain is a mountain; tree is a tree; river is a river”; after Enlightenment, “Mountain is a mountain; tree is a tree; river is a river”… Then what the hell are we doing? Sorry, no, what the heaven are we doing, working for Enlightenment? Again and again, masters say, “What is, is”. What a beautiful he says tathata: the word needs to be understood: the is-ness. Then what is the problem? Where problem starts? Problem starts with our wrong understanding; as Patanjali puts it here: ‘Viparyayah’; please understand, it’s a important word, I can say the key. The real essence of spiritual life is not even meditation; this one sutra: complete understanding, completely understanding, stopping the misunderstanding, is real meditation. Please understand, meditation is not just an activity you do for some ten minutes or fifteen minutes or half an hour per day, then you leave it; no, it’s a quality of life. In the initial level maybe it is necessary for you to create the concentration and center yourself, so half an hour sitting with closed eyes, okay, but that is not the end. Techniques are like boat, but this teaching, what Patanjali is giving in this sutra, is like a river. Boats are okay in the initial level but boat is not life; that is not life; life is river.

(6:22) Here, Patanjali is giving a very beautiful technique, amazing technique; I can say, the essence of spiritual life. When I read each sutra I feel like this is enough, nothing more is required. You don’t need anything else. Any single sutra, if you take up one sutra and contemplate, contemplate, contemplate on it, that’s enough, nothing else is required. Nothing else needs to be done. One sutra, if you can internalize, that seed is enough. It’ll bear its fruit; the fruit will be your Enlightenment. Sometime I feel you should not read more than one sutra per day, because if you read too many sutras you will just, your mind will skip from here to there, here to there, here to there, here to there, and you will not internalize. You will not meditate on them, but if you read only one sutra, your whole mind will be working on it or that sutra will be working on your consciousness. Your whole being will be filled with that one sutra. You will see that sutra starts expressing itself inside you. It starts expressing itself inside you.

(7:47) ‘Interpreting based on past conditioning leads to misconception or wrong understanding’ The whole thing, whatever problem you have, can be solved with this one key, because your whole thing, whatever problem you have, everything is just because of one reason: that interpreting based on past conditioning leads to misconception or wrong understanding. Please understand: all your fear, all your greed, all the things which you think as your identity, all your worries, whatever you think as disturbance, misfortune in your life, can be sorted out with this one understanding. If you look with a little sympathy, little compassion, little sympathy and compassion towards this moment will completely open a new door. You will have a new understanding. When you don’t have compassion to this moment you always judge this moment with your past experience. Please understand, I am giving you a new key: have compassion towards this moment. Have compassion towards sympa-, towards present moment. We never have compassion towards present moment. We are always violent with the present moment; that is why we kill it with the past. We kill the present moment with the past; we are constantly waiting for present moment to come so that we can kill it with your past. You can destroy it with your past. You can abuse it with your past. (9:43) Abusing the present with the past is what I call Hell. Continuously we torture, we disturb the existence by killing the present moment. Please understand, the eternity comes in front of you, presents itself to you in the present moment. You can touch the eternity only through, by touching the present moment. I can see very clearly you can’t touch the past, you can’t touch the future, you can touch the eternity only by touching the present moment. The present moment is the only way you can connect with the eternity. But when you don’t connect with the present moment, if you are constantly torturing it with your past, you are creating misconception, wrong understanding. Sometime you are strongly stuck with the wrong understanding, with the wrong…concepts. For example, if you are hurt in the past by somebody who is wearing a white dress, whenever you see a man with white dress you will always have that fear, that (11:03) sankata; means, discomfort. You will always carry that. That man and this man is no way related, they are no way connected, no way, no way even know each other, but you carry that. You pass a judgement. You carry your past. With that past you try to constantly judge the present, with the past conditioning. When you try to judge, that leads to misconception; please understand, that leads to misconception.

The judgements we are passing about a particular race, the judgements we are passing about a particular religion, the judgement we are passing about particular state; the prejudice, bias, we carry: all are related to this ‘wrong knowledge’. We have our own prejudice about particular race. Many time people come and tell me, especially when they come to Bharat and see, “Swamiji, we thought whole Bharat will be always meditating; we don’t think, we don’t see it like that”. They think that whole Bharat, will be Bharatns will be always constantly sitting with the closed eyes silently, politely, and be meditating. If you repeat some words again and again, you will start believing it, so be aware of the words you are repeating.

(12:30) Please understand, the other day I was reading Autobiography of a Yogi, Paramahamsa Yogananda’s autobiography. He says very beautifully the power of words. The first few chapters he describes a few incidents where he uses particular words with a strong concentration, just that words come true. He says he was having a conversation with his sister. Suddenly for some reason he said… the sister was trying to apply some medicine on her body. Yogananda commented, “That medicine will not work. You will have the boil twice tomorrow.” She was trying to apply some medicine for a boil. He says, “You will have medicine. You will have the boil two size, double size tomorrow” and he says, “I will also have boil in my hand.” His sister says, “What are you talking? Why will you have? You don’t have any problem, why do you say this words?” And he just makes this statement and tomorrow it is there. He had the boil and the sister had double size. He says, “I was shocked! Just the mere word, the power of mere word.” (13:55) You have so many opinions, so many ideas, so many concepts you carry, and you suffer joy or pain based on this concepts. I have seen people sitting in front of TV and crying for no reason, no way they are affected. The news which is told, no way they are affected. Either they cry or jump. Means excess anger, excess greed, unnecessary anger, unnecessary greed: all these things are based on this ‘wrong knowledge’, what Patanjali says, the wrong knowledge; interpretations, interpreting, based on past conditioning, leads to misconception. I can say this one sutra of Patanjali, if this one teaching of Patanjali is propagated to all over the world, there won’t be any wars. There won’t be any wars. The world will become peaceful, blissful place. So much of peace will land on this world. The big problem is, you pass comments easy, you pass comment easily. Not only that, after two, three times, if you pass the comment, you start believing it, you start internalizing it. We need to understand an important truth: we are not that intelligent not to believe the lies which we are promoting. In the initial you may start promoting some lies knowing that it is lies. After a few days, you yourself will forget it’s a lie, so be very clear: do not start a lie, do not start a rumour. You will be suffering with it, you’ll be suffering with it.

A small story I read somewhere in a book: one journalist who writes all tabloids, he goes on… actually, lies can be sold, rumours can be sold much easily. Negative news can be sold very easily. It sells like a hot cake, negativity sells like a hot cake. Just write some ten positive thing, things: “One Enlightened Master came; he did so many good things and he was doing so much service”: who will read? No. But write some news about the drugs or some news about the murder, some news about some criminal activities: paper will sell. Negative things can always be sold. So this guy who lived his whole life by creating and maintaining rumours, creating and sustaining rumours; this guy dies and goes to the, going for judgement, the upper court. There, unh, St. Peter is standing. He says, “Oh, tabloid journalist: no, no, no, no, no, we don’t let you inside Heaven. Go to Hell.” That guy says, “No, no, no, give me just one day. I’ll go around and come back. I’ll just see the heaven only once.” This guy says, “No, you have no work here. You have no business here. Here no news comes. All saints are happily sitting in the cloud and singing hallelujah. There is no news. Everybody is completely settled. Here nothing happens. Go to Hell: you will have lot of news, all cameras people are there. You’ll have enough news.” This guy says, “No, no, no, no, I wanted to just see one day.” St. Peter says, “It’s impossible. We can’t allow you inside.” And this guy tempts St. Peter. This guy’s an intelligent guy. He says, “Give me 24 hour time. If I can convince any one of your journalists to go to Hell, will you let me stay here?” St. Peter says, “It is too much. How can you do that?” He says, “Not at all, don’t ask! If I can convince any one of your journalists to go to Hell, will you let me stay here?” He says, “All right, I can try. Okay, deal. Come inside.” This guy goes…the heaven, they had only ten journalists, because nothing much happens. God comes and sits in the court in the morning, and judgements are given. Evening he goes back. Nothing much is happening. All the saints are there, enjoying. What is there? The same routine. And this guy…they have only ten journalists. This guy goes to the heaven, goes around. By the end of the day, evening, he comes back to the pearly gates. St. Peter says, “No, now you cannot go back, you have to be here.” This guy says, “What happened? No, I have to go to the hell.” St. Peter asks, “Why? Why do you want to go?” What this guy did, this guy created a rumour, that in the hell they are starting a new magazine; they want editor. He spread out news, and all the fellows fled, because how many days, especially journalists, you can’t be sitting without news. It’s really boring. Even in the heaven, they want some news, and without news even Heaven looks like Hell for them. So they thought, better let us go to…Hell. They all ran away to Hell, and this guy is also running, this guy who created the rumour, this guy is also running. St. Peter stopped and said, “What happened? You only created the rumour. All of them are already in the Hell. Now you are the only journalist we have. We can’t afford to lose you also. You have to be here.” This guy says, “No, no, I only started the news, that is true; if so many people are believing, there must be some truth in it. If so many people are believing, there must be some truth in it!”

(20:26) Understand, don’t start rumours; don’t start rumours, even in a jovial way. You will be caught by your own rumours. You will be caught by your own words, the words which you create. I’ve seen many times, people casually create simple words in their relationships. They very casually create simple words: “He is bad, he is torturing me.” Very simple words, for no reason, for very simple incidents. But those words gets imbibed, engraved, and you start thinking that’s the truth. Please understand: words can just stop your thinking. Words can just stop your perception. Words can just stop your conscious flow. For example, if you are in particular situation, if you are open, fresh, alive, without the past conditioning words, you can handle that situation directly. You can live that situation directly. You can experiment with that situation directly. You can experience it directly. You don’t do. You have some idea. You have some idea. You think, “No, I know. I know; this is what is going to happen. I know. You see, I was telling you all the other day: this guy is like this only.” Your mind comes to a confirmation, and immediately you jump and start taking actions.

(22:03) Look into yourself. All your suffering, I can say capital letter A-L-L, all your suffering is just with this one problem, carrying…interpreting based on the past conditioning leads to misconception or wrong understanding. ‘Wrong understanding’ means wrong decisions, suffering. You can see in your life, you don’t wait till the situation comes in front of you. You take your own decisions, your own ideas. Mind becomes chaos; mind becomes chaos, completely confused with the past engrams. You go on and on and on interpreting, create problems. Actually many time you can see… by the time you create a whole problem in your imagination and be ready with all the weapons to attack the other person. He comes, when he starts talking to you, suddenly you realize, “Oh, god, there is no problem at all. He did not even think about it as a problem.” Here you are waiting with a high BP, with all the weapons: “If he utters that word, I’ll utter this word; if he talks that word, I’ll talk this word; if he says that word, I’ll say this word. If he brings up that argument, I’ll bring this argument.” You are ready with all the arguments, weapons, that guy makes the whole thing simple. Suddenly you feel empty and now you feel, “What is this? How can this be? I prepared so much! All this preparation has become waste.” You start up a fight, because you don’t want to feel that you wasted so much time preparing for the fight!

(24:03) You can see this many times in your life. With your spouse you can see. You can see, by the time she comes, she or he, comes back from the office, you are ready with all your arguments. Sometime you even start taking notes on the fridge, refrigerator; there will be white paper and this guys take all the notes not to miss the points. You are ready with all the arguments, but then the other person comes back, he doesn’t even remember the whole fight, doesn’t even remember the subject. But what to do now; it is too much for you. You cannot leave what you prepared; now what all you prepared, you have to express it. You start. That’s the way life goes on. Understand, our judgement based on generalization; you need to understand an important truth: we think in a generalized way but we live in a localized way. Our day to day life is dealing with one person, one situation, but your mind always generalizes, always generalizes. I’ve seen many time, people have their own weird ideas, weird opinions, weird concepts; it’s just impossible.

(25:30) Small story: one guy goes to the psychiatrist. Psychiatrist sees his behaviour and all those things. He says, “I’ll surely try to help you. I think you have a problem that you are thinking you are a dog.” That guy says, “Yes, yes, small dog with a black and brown patches; don’t you see me?” Doctor says, “Don’t worry, I’ll try to help you. Can you first lie down first on that couch? I’ll see and try to find out the root cause of the problem.” That guy says, “No, I cannot do that.” Doctor asks, “Why?” “No, I am not allowed up to the furnitures.”

(26:19) Understand, if you are convinced about something, you are too strong! Instead of going to the roots of the problem, you go on, hold on, to the surface. You hold on to the surface. You know if you go to the root, the problem may disappear, and the problem is your companion. You may feel lonely; if you don’t have anything to worry, suddenly just think, suddenly if all the worry from you is taken away, what will happen to your life? You will feel empty, alone, lonely. I think that will become a big worry. That will become a big worry. So you don’t want to look into the roots of the problem.

(27:04) Here Patanjali is analyzing very beautifully. With this one sutra, he describes all our problems. Many time we suffer with condition, not with situation. Please understand, 99.9% of our sufferings are not related to situation. It is related to condition. The .01% suffering is not a suffering at all. All our sufferings are related to conditioning, not related to situation. You have an idea, your mind is programmed; your bio-computer is programmed from the young age: what is desire, what is joy, what is pain, what is fear. You are programmed. You live based on the programs. You take decisions based on the programs. You walk based on the programs. You talk based on the programming. You do everything based on the programming. This is what Patanjali calls ‘wrong knowledge’. He says Viparyaya; Viparyaya is the word; you can’t translate in English. ‘Wrong knowledge’ is also not the right word. Viparyaya means: everything is wrong. I can say: wrong cognition. The very intake is wrong. The way in which you process the data is wrong. The way in which you output, deliver your result is wrong. The word ‘wrong knowledge’ does not give the right meaning of Viparyaya. Viparyaya means, every step is wrong, how you receive the data, how you internalize the data and how you process it, how you take a decision: whole thing is wrong. Please understand: again and again, Upanishads are declaring, again and again, all Enlightened Masters are declaring: whatever is, is Divine, God. If you see anything other than the Divine, any other experience other than Bliss, in the life, you are having this problem. You have this problem. You need this sutra.

(29:55) TECHNIQUE: Do this as a exercise, homework. Just sit for, for an hour in the house today. Write at least ten incident; you can surely write ten incident; I can say, ten, I am not even saying from your whole life; from in, from morning till today, you can write ten incident; ten incident where you did the same mistake of interpreting with the past conditioning, bringing wrong understanding because of past conditioning. Just write ten incident: see how your mind is behaving, how your life is happening. You don’t even have to bother or struggle to correct yourself. The big problem is, before even you understand the depth of the problem you start correcting; that is where the problem starts. The problem never ends. Just understand the depth of the problem, that’s enough. Suddenly you will see the transformation. Depth of the problem. Just today sit, work for half an hour, one hour. Write ten incidents where you came to the wrong conclusion by the past, because of the past conditioning, and understood when you looked into the whole thing with the restful awareness. This is the ‘wrong knowledge’.