 Hello everybody! Happy Wednesday! Welcome back to the channel and our continued reading into the Yoga Sutras of Patanjalin. If you're new to this channel, first of all, welcome. And second of all, if you are new to this channel on Wednesdays, what we typically do is we recap the information that we read through on the dark outpost the day before on Tuesday. So on Tuesdays, I am on David Zublik's platform, the dark outpost. There's a link down in the description box below. We used to record live from 1 to 3, but we've now changed it from 12 to 2 live again on Tuesdays. That's Eastern time. Now because David shows are all live, that means that you are welcome to call in if you would like to join into these discussions. Now normally on a dark outpost, that is where we have been thoroughly going through all the missing books of the Bible, which again, I do recap on Wednesdays here on my channel. However, we've taken a break from the missing books of the Bible to read through the Yoga Sutras of Patanjalin, which is also a very, very old, old manuscript. It was written about 5,000 years ago. Now again, if this is your first time at tuning in, down in the description box below, I have put the first few parts of the Yoga Sutras so you can start at the beginning if you would like to. Once again, to remind everybody, if you are interested in thoroughly studying the Yoga Sutras, I would as always suggest that you get your own teacher that you can meet either in person or over Zoom. Now with Asana classes, the Yoga posture classes, I have a firm believer that you should have a hands-on teacher for many, many reasons, one of which so you don't get injured. So the teacher can help you and can see things, problems, dangers in your body that you might not be able to see that can hopefully prevent some type of injury. Of course, anytime you engage in any type of physical activity, you do run the risk of potentially injuring yourself. I mean, hell, you could walk down the street and injure yourself. That's just a human thing. But with the Yoga Sutras, if you're looking to do a deeper study of the Yoga Sutras, especially when it comes down to the Sanskrit, then I would definitely suggest finding your own personal teacher for this read-through. I'm some of the Sanskrit, I am saying if I feel it's necessary to say, but in other times I am skipping over the Sanskrit just because this is a general reading. I do want you guys to understand that the Sanskrit, though, is very, very important. Remember that the three principles of our Iveta is breath, food, and vibration. So language is vibration. We've learned that with this whole Jalantriya sensation that there is a rhythm to our words. And so it is very, very important that Sanskrit is honored as the language that these sutras were written in. Also, if you do take an asana class, it is very important that the asanas, the postures, are called in their Sanskrit name because that's their proper name. And we want to hit that vibration. But again, with that being said, because this is a general reading on YouTube, I'm not going to be using much of the Sanskrit just so you guys have a base idea of what the Yoga Sutras are saying. Now, again, with the Yoga Sutras, I say this on David's show all the time, the Yoga Sutras, like any type of scripture, the Bible, the missing books of the Bible, the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, all these old scriptures, they're books that are meant to be read over and over and over and over again. And the Yoga Sutras for me, this is a book that I have read every year for like the past 15 years. And every year, I find something in the sutras that I missed before. And normally that comes down to your own spiritual development, like things that you noticed that you didn't notice before as your understanding and your consciousness starts to shift. You pick up on different things. And so I do encourage everybody to get their own copy of the Yoga Sutras. Again, the copy that I am reading from is Sri Swami Satchitananda's commentary and translation. This is one of the more popular commentaries. You can find multiple commentaries. So in fact, I actually do have multiple commentaries on the Yoga Sutras. But this is by far my favorite. I really like the way Sri Swami Satchitananda discusses these sutras. There are about 200 sutras in the Yoga Sutras, but then he writes, he goes into great detail about the meaning behind these sutras. And the sutras, of course, were written by Patanjali. So I just really like his commentary. Now Sri Swami Satchitananda is no longer with us. And some of the commentary you might think might be a little bit outdated because I believe he wrote this commentary in the 1940s if I'm not mistaken. But most of it is still really, really helpful and really, really awesome. You can also find Yoga Sutras, which just carried the straight-up sutras with no commentary. Some people prefer that. It gives them a chance to think on it themselves. That is, again, totally up to you. But I will put a link down in the description box below to the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali with the translation and commentary by Sri Swami Satchitananda if that is something you want to follow along with. Now again, if you're joining us on the Dark Outpost, it is taking us a little bit longer to get through all of these sutras because each sutra is packed with so much information that David and I often discuss it while also reading the commentary. And so that's another highlight of being on the Dark Outpost, which again, that link is down in the description box below. It is a private platform. As most of you know, David was purged off of YouTube back when the Great Purge happened. I think God, maybe a year and a half ago, I'm not 100% sure on the dates, but it was a while ago. And so he has his own platform now. I do believe he has a channel on Bitshoot and Rumble as well. But he really puts most of his content now on his own platform. Again, that's the link I have below. It is, I think, about $2 a month or like $30 for the year, which is super cheap. And that money goes to basically support the platform to pay for the fees to keep the platform up. And I know that he takes a percentage and donates it to organizations that he trusts that are helping children. And I think you guys know what I mean when I say that. So it is worth it. And because it is his own platform, we don't have to worry about censorship. Now, once again, I am on for two hours every Tuesday. Now, again, the time has changed from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. So the first hour is when we typically go through the Yoga Sutras. And in the second hour, we have been breaking down Fundamentalist C-U-L-T's. Really looking into these really, really high controlled groups that are coming from a more fundamentalist background. We've been focused a lot on the Christian communities. Right now, we're talking about Michael and Debbie Pearl. And they're very toxic theology. If you are following along the dark outpost on Tuesdays, we are reading through to train up a child, which was their book on child rearing. Because of the methods taught in this book, there have been multiple children who have lost their lives at the hands of these methods. This is a very, very toxic book. And sadly, a lot of churches do carry this book in their church library. I'm not saying that all churches support this method of child rearing. In fact, I know a lot of people who are of the Christian faith that are horrified by this book. But you know, as we move forward into this new earth, we really need to understand where we went wrong and how we allowed certain individuals to lead us astray. And it is my opinion that Michael and Debbie Pearl have led many people astray in their walk with God. And so because the Pearl's books are so just a lot of A, B, U, S, C in them, I cannot read through them on YouTube. That's how bad they are. So we have to discuss this on David's platform with some of the other stuff we've looked at with these fundamentalist groups like the IBLP, Steven Anderson, some of these other groups. I have been able to do a catch up on YouTube, but it is just too much the Pearl's theology and reading through what they've written. It's just there's too many trigger words that YouTube would probably end up taking the channel down. So I cannot put that up on YouTube. So that's something you're interested in. That's definitely going to be in the dark outpost. We are almost finished with to train up a child and we are, I am going to be sending the book to my mother, who was an early childhood development major, and she also is a conservative Christian. And so I'm going to have her read the book and hopefully come on and talk about her viewpoint on their methods of child rearing. My sister and I were not raised this way at all. I know my mother's probably going to be horrified when she reads this book. And we're also interested in getting some therapist on the channel as well to discuss the harmful teachings in this book and some red flags that some of these therapists have seen in Michael and Debbie Pearl's method. So that's to me something that I love. I love discussing psychology obviously with the yoga sutures. That's also a form of psychology as well. So that's just where we are on the dark outpost. And once again, if that's something you're not on yet, go ahead and click on that link down below. Again, it's like $2 a month. Now just to heads up, I have heard some people say that they cannot find my episodes on the dark outpost. So I am on every single Tuesday. So if you look at the calendar and you look at the dates, you'll be able to find the episode that I'm on. Now David is a pro. He is like the Mac Daddy when it comes to doing this type of work. And he runs the dark outpost almost in the same way that stations like ABC or NBC run their news. You know, like in on ABC, I believe they have what Good Morning America and on the Today Show they have. What is it today or something? I don't know the title of their other did. Sorry. Yes, the Today Show is on NBC. And then Good Morning America is on ABC. It's been a long time since I've watched the mainstream media guys. So I apologize if I can't remember the correct name for these shows. But with these shows, they run for like three or four hours every morning. And that's how David runs his show as well for like three or four hours. And so when I'm on Tuesdays, I'm not the only guest on the show. And so that might be why you're not seeing my name on some of the Tuesday slots is because there's multiple guests on the show that day. So just just play everything on Tuesday and you will see. I think it's like a David does like the news for like an hour and then I'm on the show. So you can go like an hour in and then obviously David has incredible guests that are on his show. Very, very potent guest that are on his show that absolutely cannot be on YouTube because of the information that they're bringing. So it's an incredible platform to be a part of. And again, it's extremely cheap. It's only like $2 a month or $30 for the year. And again, that goes, that doesn't go into David's pocket. It goes into supporting the platform. And of course, a percentage goes to helping our young people that that need our help. So with that being said, let's go ahead and get started with the Yoga Sutras. Now we ended with the last sutra we we read in part four was sutra number 33. And I'm going to go ahead and just reread sutra number 33 because sutra number 33 is probably one of the most important sutras in the whole Yoga Sutras. And Shri Swami Satishnanda actually talks about this as being one of the most important sutras to help you keep peace of mind because that's really what we're looking for in Yoga is to calm our mind down. Because if you know how to control your own mind, then nobody else can control you. So this goes again, sutra number 33 by cultivating attitudes of friendliness towards the happy, compassion for the unhappy, delight in the virtuous, and disregard towards the wicked. The mind stuff retains its undisturbed calmness. So mind stuff again goes back to the second sutra, which is Yoga Chitta Vritti Narodaha. And Chitta is mind stuff. So if you remember back to the second sutra, Yoga Chitta Vritti Narodaha. So yoga is basically calming down the mind. The Chitta is mind or mind stuff and vrittis is like thoughts. So it's like dropping a pebble in a lake and you see the ripples come out. That's vritti. So every time a thought is made in the mind, it has a ripple effect throughout the body. In yoga, we talk about how the body is the mind field. The body reacts to the mind. And then of course, Narodaha means nothing. So Yoga Chitta Vritti Narodaha. Yoga is basically stopping the thoughts of the mind. One of my favorite quotes is don't believe everything you think, right? Our thoughts get us into so much trouble sometimes. And so this is really the practice of yoga is trying to calm that down. And when we can start to calm our mind down as spoken about prior in a prior episode, we then are able to surrender to God more because our mind is not getting in the way, right? So he's saying again, sutra number 33 by cultivating attitudes of friendliness towards the happy, compassion for the unhappy, delight in the virtuous and disregard towards the wicked. The mind stuff retains its undisturbed calmness. So this is what Sri Swami means. So Chittananda has to say about that. Whether you are interested in reaching Samadhi or plan to ignore yoga entirely against Samadhi means total oneness with God, I would advise you to remember at least this one sutra. It will be very helpful to you in keeping a peaceful mind in your daily life. You may not have any great goal in your life, but just try to follow this one sutra very well and you will see its efficiency. In my own experience, this sutra became my guiding light to keep my mind serene always. Who would not like serenity of mind always? Who would not like to be happy always? Everybody wants that. So Patanjalin gives four keys, friendliness, compassion, delight and disregard. There are only four kinds of locks in the world. Keep these four keys always with you and when you come across any one of these four locks, you will have the proper key to open it. What are these four locks? The happy people, the unhappy people, the virtuous and the wicked. At any given moment, you can fit any person into one of these four categories. When you see a happy person, use the friendliness key. Why should Patanjalin say this? Because even 4,000 years ago, there must have been people who were not happy at seeing others happy. It is still the same way. Suppose somebody drives up in a big car, parks in front of her huge home and gets out. Some other people are standing on the pavement and the hot sun getting tired. How many of those people will be happy? Not many. They will be saying, see that big car? She is sucking the blood of the laborers. We come across people like that. They are always jealous. When a person gets name, fame or high position, they try to criticize that person. Oh, don't you know her brother is so and so. She must have pulled some strings somewhere. They will never admit that she might have gone up on her own merit. By that jealousy, you will not disturb her, but you will disturb your own serenity. She simply got out of the car and walked into the house, but you are burning up inside. Instead, think, oh, such a fortunate person. If everybody were like that, how happy the world would be. May God bless everybody to have such comfort. I will also get that one day. Make that person your friend. That response is missed in many cases, not only between individuals, but among nations. When some nation is prospering, the neighboring country is jealous of it and wants to ruin its economy. So we should always have the key of friendliness when we see happy people. This is something important to me, too. I always try to be in a place of happiness. That's something I've worked on in my life. Whenever something good happens for my friend or a family member or someone just in general, I always try to think about instead of feeling jealousy or stressed because I'm not where they are, being truly happy for them. It does change you. I think it is human nature sometimes to get jealous or get scared because our whole matrix is set up on this, like keeping up with the Joneses, right? We often feel that pressure of having to keep up with everybody. When we feel like someone's doing better than us, we often scoff at that with our own fear, which can be seen as jealousy. And so when we take a step back and we learn to truly be happy for somebody else, even if our life is falling apart, to still be happy for someone else, it does change you. It does change your energy. He goes on to say, and what of the next lock, the unhappy people? Well, Swami said everybody has his own karma. He must have done some wretched thing in his last birth, let him suffer now. That should not be our attitude. Maybe he is suffering from previous bad karma, but we should have compassion. If you can lead a helping hand, do it. If you can share your loaf, share it. Be merciful always. By doing that, you will retain the peace and poise of your mind. Remember, our goal is to keep the serenity of our mind. Whether our mercy is going to help that person or not. By your own feeling of mercy, at least we are helped. Then comes the third kind, the virtuous people. When you see a virtuous man feel delighted. Oh, how great he is. He must be my hero. I should imitate his great qualities. Don't envy him. Don't try to pull him down. Appreciate the virtuous qualities in him and try to cultivate them in your own life. And we think about that with us in the Western world who are coming from a Christian background. Who do we try to imitate? We try to imitate the Christ. We try to do as Yahshua would do. Right? So that makes sense. And lastly, the wicked. We come across wicked people. Sometimes we can't deny that. So what should our attitude be in difference? And I want to say this. I pointed this out in the dark outpost. So again, he wrote this commentary, I believe, in the 1940s. And so we know a lot more now than we did then about how wicked people could actually get. So I know for a fact that with the yoga practice that we are to stand up for what is right. And so what we are doing against this bunch of really bad people in the world is actually in mind with yoga. The wicked people, I believe he's speaking about here, are not the people who are doing rituals, you know, on islands. He's talking about just wicked people in general, the ones that are just nasty people that we come across in our lives. So I want to make that very, very clear because I do agree with what he's saying here. You know, again, he's not talking about people who are actively hurting other people, but people who are just nasty. So please keep that in mind. So again, let's start that paragraph over again. And lastly, the wicked. We come across wicked people sometimes. We can't deny that. So what should our attitude be? Indifference. Well, some people are like that. Probably I was like that yesterday. Am I not a better person now? She will probably be alright tomorrow. Don't try to advise such people because wicked people seldom take advice. If you try to advise them, you will lose your peace. It's funny. In one of his books, Eckhart Tolle says, do you want to be right or do you want to have peace? That's one of his quotes. And I'm not a huge Eckhart Tolle fan, but I do like that quote. Do you want to be right or do you want to have peace? There are some people you just cannot argue with because it's going to end up making you angry and frustrated because they can't hear you. They're not in a state to hear you. And so in that instance, you just have to disregard and ignore. So it goes on to say, I still remember a small story from the punch of tantra that I was told as a child. One rainy day, a monkey was sitting on a tree branch getting completely drenched. Right opposite on another branch of the same tree, there was a small sparrow sitting in its hanging nest. Normally a sparrow builds its nest on the edge of its branch so it can hang down and swing around gently in the breeze. It has a nice cabin inside with an upper chamber, a reception room, a bedroom down below, and even a delivery room if it's going to give birth to little ones. Oh yes, you should see and admire a sparrow's nest sometimes. So it was warm and cozy inside its nest and the sparrow just peeped out and seeing the poor monkey said, oh my dear friend, I am so small. I don't even have hands like you, only a small beak. But with only that, I built a nice house expecting this rainy day. Even if the rain continues for days and days, I will still be warm inside. You should have seen the face of that monkey. It was terrible. Oh you little devil, how dare you try to advise me because you are warm and cozy in your nest? Wait, you will see where you are. The monkey proceeded to tear the nest to pieces and the poor bird had to fly out and get drenched like the monkey. This is the story I was told when I was quite young and I still remember it. Sometimes we come across such monkeys and if you advise them, they take it as an insult. They think you are proud of your position. If you sense even a little of that tendency in somebody stay away, he or she will have to learn by experience. By giving advice to such people, you will only lose your peace of mind. Is there any other category you can think of? Potentially groups all the individuals in these four ways, the happy, the unhappy, the virtuous, and the wicked. So have these four attitudes, friendliness, compassion, gladness, and indifference. These four keys should always be with you in your pocket. If you use the right key with the right person, you will retain your peace. Nothing in the world can upset you then. Remember our goal is to keep a serene mind. From the very beginning of the Patondeline sutras, we are reminded of that and this sutra will help us a lot. So this brings us to sutra number 34. Or that the calm is retained by the controlled exhalation and retention of the breath. Here Patondeline talks about pranayama, or the control of the movement of prana, which we find in our breathing. So last week on the Dark Outpost, we really got into a very deep discussion about pranayama and breathing. Because we have two forms of breath, the inhale and the exhale. The inhale is associated with our prana, which is our upward moving energy, where the exhale is associated with our upana. And there's a lot that you can learn about with your breath. And I'm not going to go into all the details we spoke about on David's platform on this show. But if you guys want, and let me know down in the comment section below, I think I am going to leave the comments up for this one particular episode. I usually take them down for the yoga stuff, just so we don't get any fundamentalists trying to AB USC us for talking about yoga. But I think I'm going to leave them up now, because if you guys want, we can do a full episode. I can get some of my friends, who are like specialists in pranayama, and we can actually do a round table just on breathing. If that's something you guys would like to talk about, about the different energies associated with breathing, the different nostrils on your nose, what happens with your nostrils, how it's associated to the Bible, because the Bible talks a lot about breathing, how your breath is associated with your nervous system, all that kind of stuff. So that's something you are interested in, and doing an episode just on breathing, then let me know down in the comment section below, and I will start working on that for you guys. So let's start again here. Patanjaling talks about pranayama or the control movement of the prana, which we find as our breathing. Some pranayama specialists say Patanjaling meant that we should retain the breath outside. Instead of breathing in and holding the breath, breathe out and hold. But Patanjaling didn't go that deeply into different kinds of breathing exercises, and he probably meant that we should just watch and regulate the breath. You can begin with a deep exhalation and watch the breath slowly in and out. This is also given in a Buddhist meditation called anapana sati. Anapata is similar to prana apana, which I just spoke about, the upwards and downward hatha yoga. The force that moves upward is prana. The force that moves downward is apana. The aim is to bring together the prana and the apana. In fact, hatha yoga is based mainly on the equilibrium of these two forces. Hatha means sun and moon. The two opposites must be blended together in a gentle way. So here he says that to bring peace of mind, watch and regulate the breath. So hatha yoga is spelled H-A-T-H-A. You hear a lot of people in the West say hatha yoga. It's not hatha yoga. Again, this is a Sanskrit word, and Sanskrit, the T-H, does not make the th sound. It's hatha yoga. And that again means sun and moon. And so prana, the upward rising breath or energy is shown by the sun. Apana, the downward energy or the exhalation is shown by the moon. And so a lot of people think that when we do sun salutations in yoga that we're like worshiping the sun and that is not true at all. In fact, I said on David's show that just shows ignorance that people really just have jumped to conclusions and have not done their own research. Because it's not literally about the sun. It's about your upward rising inhalation. What is it say in the Bible? It says God breathed life into man and man stood up. Standing up is an upward rising motion that's breathing in life as the prana, the inhalation. God is giving us that inhalation to stand up to rise up. Now with the prana, when we get our prana moving in our body, we start to sweat. Our body becomes alive. We start to feel our blood pulsing through our veins, through our physical gross body. And so that is what sun salutations are, Surya Namaskar as it is in Sanskrit. Namaskar salutations is a greeting. So sun salutations basically means igniting your prana, igniting your life force. And that gets your body prepared then to go into deeper asana work. And so if you go to the gym, you know if you're a gym rat, you're probably warming yourself up before you do heavy-duty weightlifting or running or whatever it is you do for exercise, you probably have to do a warm-up to get your blood pumping. That's the same as this, that those are your sun salutations. You're warming up your prana. So the upana, the moon, again is a downward energy. So anything a panic would be like going to the bathroom where you're having to push down or for women having a baby. I know I've said before women are associated with upana, men are associated with prana. Now both men and women carry both, obviously carry both, but women are dominant in upana because we have babies and because we have a monthly cycle, the moon, the monthly cycle, whereas men are chronic. They have a three-month cycle because they're based mainly off of that solar energy, that pranic energy. That's also why women are stronger in their legs and not as strong in their arms and why men are typically stronger in their arms, the upward rising energy. And so that's where that comes from, which I find totally fascinating. And again if you guys want to do a deeper episode on this, I will be more than happy to get some of my colleagues on a call and see if we can do that for you guys. Just let me know in the comment section below. So we should always remember that the mind and the prana or the breathing have close connections. The great South Indian saints said, where the mind goes, the prana follows. We can agree with that. Where your thoughts are is where your energy goes. We see that in our daily life. If your mind is agitated you will be breathing heavily. If you are deeply interested in reading something or thinking seriously and break that concentration to watch your breath, you will notice that you are hardly breathing. This is why after deep thinking you sigh heavily or take a deep breath. This proves that when the mind is concentrated and made still, the breathing stops. This is called automatic retention of breath without your effort. People who go into deep meditation will discover this. So in the reverse way, if you regulate the prana, you regulate the mind automatically also. That's why whenever you are agitated, worried, or puzzled, you should take a few deep breaths, putting your entire mind on the breath. Within a few minutes you will find that the mind is completely serene. It is very useful hint for our everyday lives. Suppose all of a sudden you are getting into a fit of anger. Take a few deep breaths, watch the breath, and the anger will go away. Whatever be the agitation in the mind, regulating the breath will help. We also know that the breath is associated with a nervous system. And anytime you're deeply excited or scared, you immediately hold your breath in a very aggressive way. People will hold their breath. And so when I'm assisting students as a teacher and as a student myself, something I always tell my students to do is to watch their breathing in their asana. If they find that their nervous system is reacting to a posture by holding the breath, then there's something interesting there that we need to look at and see what's going on. And when you're when you're aware of that, when you know that's what's happening, you can start to then calm the nervous system down by allowing yourself, telling yourself to breathe, even when you don't want to. So the breath is super fascinating in all of this. This brings us to sutra number 35. Or the concentration on the subtle sense perceptions that causes steadiness of mind. At certain points during the initial practice of concentration, various extraordinary sense perceptions occurs. They themselves could become the helpful objects for further concentration to make the mind steady. If you practice yoga and do not see any benefit, you might lose interest and begin to doubt its efficiency. So to make you more confident, you can concentrate on the extraordinary sense perceptions that come after some of the continuous practice. In this way, you understand that you are progressing in the one pointedness. It is something like the liptus paper test. One example is to concentrate on the tip of the nose. Do not strain or you will cause a headache. Do not actually stare at the nose as it is if you are looking at it. Keep the mind on that. If the mind is really one pointed after some time, you will experience an extraordinary smell. You may even look around to see if there's any flowers or perfume nearby. If that experience comes, it is proof that you have made the mind one pointed. It will give you confidence but in itself it will not help you to reach that goal. It is just a test. That is all. Don't make concentrating on the nose and getting nice smells your goal. So this is a pretty heavy topic and I don't know if I do it just if I can justify explaining this because this is something that a topic that has been interwoven throughout my whole yoga career as a student and as a teacher and it's something that is mistaut in the West. So we do not close our eyes during our asana practice, during the posture practice. That is something we do not do. Instead the eyes which each posture has a drishti. A drishti is a focal point. In fact in the asana method we practice the tristana method which is the tri method of meditation through asana through postures. And the three different points of the tri method of the tri method, the three-point method is breath, breathing, the asana or the posture which posture means seat for meditation and the drishti where your eyes are focused. And again there are nine different drishtis. Each posture has a specific drishti. It's not a free-for-all. You have a specific place you are supposed to be directing your eyes. The eyes are the tops of the spine and the top of the spine is the top of shashuna which is a very important naughty that runs up your spine, a spiritual naughty which we won't get into but there is a reason why. So when you focus your eyes on an object it stops you from being able to look around the room. When you look around the room or when you close your eyes you're allowing the mind to wonder. You're creating what my teacher calls monkey mind. And the whole point is to get the mind to calm down. So if you can focus your eyes on the tip of your nose or to the right, to the left, up, down, all the different drishtis, the tips of your fingers and breathe and be in the asana. It really brings you into yourself, into your own experience on that yoga mat and your own spiritual perception of what's happening to you. It brings a lot of realizations because you're not aware of other people in the room. You're not focused on other people in the room. You are simply within your own space. And that is such a powerful tool for self-development and finding your own spiritual sovereignty and your own spiritual healing. And we also also the reason why we don't play music in traditional yoga. There's no music played because we want to try to control the senses and not entice them. Right? We don't want any smoke and mirrors. We don't want any trickery. We want to give you a very raw experience with your own self. Again it's kind of like a controlled demolition of yourself. And so that's why he's talking about on the concentration on a subtle item, a subtle object to study the mind. We know that yoga means union but my teacher used to always say that yoga also means focus, finding focus, focusing your mind. And it comes down to the sutra, sutra number 35. So he goes on to say another example is to put your mind on the tip of your tongue. If the concentration is deep enough you will get a nice taste without eating anything. If you do not get it, you will have a long way to go. There are many suggestions like that. Concentrate on your palate or on the middle or back part of your tongue or on the throat region. And you will get certain extraordinary experiences. Those experiences will give you confidence and make you feel you are on the way. They are useful only for that. This brings us to sutra number 36. Our by concentrating on the supreme ever blissful light within. You can imagine a brilliant divine light which is beyond all anxieties, fears, and worry. A supreme light in you. Visualize a brilliant globe in your heart representing your divine consciousness. Or imagine your heart to contain a beautiful glowing lotus. The mind will easily get absorbed in that and you will have a nice experience. In the beginning one has to imagine this light which later becomes a reality. That's something we've been talking about a lot during this great awakening. Right? That light that's what's in that light that is within us. Again that takes us back to Genesis 1.3 when God said let there be light. Again that light is not the sun. That light is that divine spark. That is within us. And that's what he's talking about here. That light that is within you. That touch of God that is within you that God put in you as his child. This brings us to sutra number 37. Or by concentrating on the great soul's mind which is totally free from attachments to sense objects. Many people do not have much confidence in their own hearts. Oh how could I have such a wonderful heart with all this rubbish inside. In that case you can think of the heart as a noble person. Meditate on a heart that gives up all the attachments to sense objects. On a heart that has realized the goal. If you can't imagine that your heart is full of that light at least you can imagine it in his or her own heart. The mind should not be allowed to dwell on something high, something serene. That is the main idea. Again we talked about the before with yoga. A lot of the attachments we have to stuff to just issues in our life or what detach us from God. Because again part of yoga is surrendering completely to God. Letting go and letting God. And that those attachments, those fears, those anxieties that's what separates us from God is when we start to lose that faith because having fear, having anxiety that means we are not trusting just in God which I'm guilty of doing that too. I struggle with anxiety. I know I've been very transparent about that. About my struggles with PTSD, CPTSD and anxiety and so that's part of the reason why the practice is so important to me because it helps me recognize the catastrophe thinking. It helps me recognize when I am cutting myself short from trusting and surrendering to God. And what a test this great awakening has been. I mean am I right? Like we've had to totally surrender to God because this being that we're in right now is so much bigger than any one singular person that we're having to have total faith in God that everything is going to turn out. So what an incredible yoga practice this whole great awakening has been right? So this brings us to sutra number 38. Or by concentrating on an experience had during dream or deep sleep. Sometimes when we sleep we have dreams of divine beings or feel we are elevated to a higher place. If you have such dreams remember them and let your mind dwell on them. It will also bring the same serenity and one-pointedness. Or if you had not had any dreams like that imagine the peace of deep sleep. Everybody goes into a very peaceful state when they sleep. Of course you're not conscious at that time but you wake up say oh I slept very soundly imagine that peace. Sleep itself is is tamasic or inert. So you should imagine peace of that sleep not the sleep itself. If you start to imagine the sleep itself you know where you will go and that's actually something I do because I do struggle struggle with sleep. It's part of the anxiety is when I get in bed at night I try to like go ahead and put myself mentally in a state of I'm already in a relaxed sleep if that makes sense and it does work sometimes it really does. So these are a few suggestions of techniques to keep the mind serene but Patanjali knows that people have their own individuality and that not everybody is going to listen to him. Well suppose I don't like any of these things does that mean I can't get anything someone so does that mean I can't get anything someone may ask so Patanjali concludes this section by saying sutra number 39 or by meditating on anything one chooses that is elevating. It should not just appeal to you but it should appeal as elevating and good. Many people ask on what should I meditate where should I get initiation is there just one way to meditate? Here Patanjali clearly says no you can meditate on anything that will elevate you. If you can select for yourself go ahead if you can then ask for a suggestion from somebody in whom you have faith it is only then that a teacher or an initiation comes in otherwise it is not necessary but there is this advantage in it and instead of your trying this and that and wasting time you should ask a person who already knows the way otherwise it will be like driving in Manhattan suppose I want to go to 96th and West from 84th Street I might go downtown roam around and waste the whole day instead if I just ask somebody where it is I'll get the directions and go there directly. A teacher helps you in that way he or she can give you the right way easily. A teacher also gives you his or her blessing which are even more important because they give you momentum. Normally our batteries are weak the teacher's battery is always fully charged so he or she brings the car close to yours and uses a jumper cable puts a little current in your battery and you go ahead this is the sort of help we get from the teacher but if you crank yourself and put a little current into your battery go ahead there is more than one way to start a car and so this comes down to the important the importance of actually having a teacher which is I'm really big on now again you should not lionize your teacher your teacher it should not be like a I mean guru in my opinion just means a master teacher but like my teacher in India I don't ask him advice on like my daily life here in the West because he's Indian it's a different culture but I seek his advice in the yoga practice and I seek his advice in the philosophy and listen to what he has to say because he's been doing this longer than me and he has crossed certain obstacles that I have not crossed yet and he gives me different ways to see things so that I stay on the right path as a student the teacher's job is not to do the work for you but to guide you in the direction so you can do the work and that's Pratya Hara that sense of self study it's like that saying you can bring a horse to water but you can't make him drink now again the teacher just does have to maintain a very balanced position in the Mysore room and that is very hard to do for me as a teacher even I know you know we have our own stuff going on in our lives when we walk into that Mysore room every in all our energy is focused on our students not on ourselves I mean Krishna Charia did say himself a teacher's job is to meet the student where the student is not where the teacher is so we have to bring ourselves to that student's level to help keep them on the right path they have to walk the path but we have to help help keep them it's like the the bumpers and bowling if you ever go bowling you put gutter bumpers up it's like the teachers are those those those bumpers in the gutter to keep you down that path so that you don't stray and fall into the gutter I hope that makes sense so this brings us to sutra number 40 gradually one's master in concentration extends from the primal atom to the greatest magnitude that means you can attract the entire universe from the atom to be unlimited vastness and new in Sanskrit means Adam ATOM Adam they had discovered the Adam even several thousand years ago and here Patanjali not only uses the term Adam but he says the primal Adam the Adam of the atoms are the minute particle there will be nothing that is unknowable by you you can attract anything and everything by the meditations explained in this previous sutra it is only if one achieves the that meditation that he or she becomes a yogi not just a person who sits for a while in the name of meditation but then goes to the movies no want to establish yourself in deep meditation using any one of the foregoing methods or anything you selected by you and have gained mastery over the mind nothing is difficult for you to meditate upon it is simply for you to choose on what to meditate from an atom to the entire universe so it's not interesting talking about like our history being rewritten here we have this script that's saying this sutra that is 5,000 years old and they're talking about the atoms in the sutra so there you go I also want to talk about the whole yogi thing as well because that's something that I I talk about a lot with my students I'm not a yogi I'm not a yogi I'm a yoga student and a yoga teacher but I'm not a yogi a yogi is someone who has mastered that sense of enlightenment mastered that Samadhi that oneness with God if I had reached that point of being a yogi then I would no longer have to practice yoga because I would be in that state of mind of controlling my own mind and so it kind of drives me crazy when I hear people say oh I'm a yogi I'm a yogi no no no you are a yoga student if you are a yogi you would probably have a very different perception of life and so I always think that it's important to maintain that humility as yoga students and as a yoga teacher and first and foremost yoga student as well I'm only a teacher when I'm actually teaching in the class for the rest of the day I myself on the student so so we're always in that state of just learning and trying to understand this brings us to sutra number 41 just as the naturally pure crystal assumed shapes and colors of objects placed near it so the yogi's mind with its total weakened modification becomes clear and balanced and attains the state devoid of differentiation between knower knowable and knowledge this accumulation of meditation is Samadhi so there we go that's kind of what I was already saying so you get to this place of Samadhi where you where the seer and the sea of bulls the parusha the property and the Ishvara the God there's no boundary anymore you've become one with it all so he goes on to say the mind of the yogi with its totally weakened modification means the yogi has cultivated one thought form at the cost of all others when you cultivate one alone all other impressions become weaker and finer to give a physical example if you concentrate on the development of the brain alone you are apt to ignore the other parts of the body this reminds me of the story by HG Wells where the future generation is described as having only big heads with little limbs like the roots of potatoes because the people do not use the limbs there would be at no need for the limbs these people are these people just think I must have food and the food comes no need to even use a hand to flip a switch because the switch will be activated by thought in fact science is devising cars now where you can sit in the car and say all right start go ahead be quick hold on stop and even that seems to be unnecessary now that they have printed circuits if you want to go to Boston take the Boston card put it in the cards computer sit quietly and soon you're in Boston all you will have to do is to buy those cards wherever you want to go to put the card into the machine and just do anything you want in the car talk business chat or watch television then the car will remind you sir we are in Boston that's all no part of the body is put into use so it will slowly reduce in size that is not only true the physical body the same is true of the mind if you would develop one idea through constant meditation all other thoughts and desires will gradually die away in our daily lives we see that in the ancient Hindu scriptures we've come across stories which illustrate this point for example there is a story of the highway man sage Naranda was passing by and as usual the highway man accosted him and said hey what do you have in your pockets oh I don't even have pockets sir what a wretched man I've never seen a man with nothing you must give me something otherwise I won't spare your life the Naranda said all right I will try to get something for you but don't you think it is a sin to harm innocent people oh you swamis talk a lot about sin you have no other business but I have to maintain my wife children in my house if I just sit and think of virtue our tummies are not going to be satisfied I have to get money somehow by hook or by crook well all right do it if that's your policy I don't mind but you say that you must feed your wife and children by hook or crook you should know that is a sin and you will have to face the reactions of it well I don't bother about that you may not bother but since you are committing sins to provide for your wife and children you better ask them whether they are willing to share the reactions of the sins also undoubtedly they will my wife always says we are one and my children love me like anything so naturally all I do for their sake will be shared by them well maybe so but don't just tell me go find out for sure will you run away no okay you stay here I will run there and find out so we ran to his house and he said hey this man asked me a funny question just now he said that I'm committing sins and certainly there's no doubt about that but I'm doing it for your sake when you take a share of the food will you take a share of the sin also the wife answered it is your duty as a husband and a father to maintain us is immaterial to us how you do it we are not responsible we didn't ask you to make a sense you could do some proper work to bring us food anyway that's your business and your duty we're not going to bother whether it's right or wrong we won't take share of your sins my god my beloved children how about you as mommy says dad what a dirty family I thought you were going to share everything with me you're going to share only the food and nothing else I don't even want to see your faces he ran back and fell at Narada's feet swamiji you have opened my eyes what am I to do now well you have committed a lot of sins you have to purge them all please tell me some so Naranda gave him a mantra saying all right can you repeat Rama Rama what is that I've never heard of it I'm just in a litter I'm just in a literate person I can't repeat it can you give me something easier oh what a petty let's see look at this he pointed to a tree what is that this tree all right can you repeat it sure that's easy fine sit in a quiet place and just go on repeating tree tree tree is that it that will save me from all my sins certainly well sir I believe you you have already enlightened me quite a lot you seem to be a good swami I'll begin right here and now I don't want to waste my time so he just sat under the tree and went on repeating tree tree tree tree Rama Rama Rama see tree soon became Rama he sat for years like that until at least until at last an anthill was formed completely covering his body yes because he was so deeply interested in that he forgot everything else even his body became numb as as if the fuse were blown in the main powerhouse this is what happens in Samadhi so after a long long time somebody just passed and happened to stir the anthill and the saint emerged later he got the divine vision of Lord Rama's life and wrote the entire epic story of the Ramayana even you can read it in the Ramayana so the Ramayana is actually one of my favorites of the Hindu stories and Ram is the god is the avatar of God in that story so when you're repeating Rama Rama Rama you're repeating God and as our guru used to say everywhere looking God seeing so basically when he got him to say tree tree tree tree tree tree tree it turned into God God because God is everywhere and everything and so that's quite a powerful understanding to have what is to be learned from the story he just concentrated on the mantra and forgot everything else all the sins slowly dried up for want of nourishment and died away if you do not pour water on your plant what will happen it will slowly weather and die our habits will also slowly weather and die away if we do not give them an opportunity to manifest you need not fight to stop a habit just don't give it an opportunity to repeat itself that's all you have to do any kind of habit can be easily removed this way and that is possible by cultivating one proper habit the mind must have something to hold on to so you can stick one thing and all other things die now to finish the sutra the mind of the yogi with its totally weakened modifications attain a state in which there can be no differentiation between the knower the knowable and the knowledge the yogis whose vrittis are thoughts have thus become powerless by the cultivation of one particular vritti cease to distinguish between the knower the knowable and the knowledge in meditation you are conscious of all three subject object and process of meditation but at this point the three become one either the object becomes a subject or the subject becomes the object and when there is no subject object separation there is no process either the mind is completely absorbed and loses itself in the idea object of the meditation baton jelly gives the example of an object near a crystal if you put a red flower near a crystal the crystal itself appears to be red like the flower it becomes one with that it accepts that likewise the mind accepts the idea of your meditation and takes that form this brings us to sutra number 42 the samadhi in which name form and knowledge of them is mixed is called samadhi with deliberation from this sutra on patanjali tries to define the different kinds of samadhi's again we remember the four kinds of samadhi's that were explained back in sutra number 17 he once again reminds us about them in this sutra he says that in particular samadhi you can actually understand the sound the meaning of the resulting knowledge of an object normally every time we hear a sound we simultaneously do all these three things hear the word try to understand the object denoted by the sound and gain the knowledge of that object for example if you hear the word dog the sound goes into the brain and then tries to find similar groove there if it finds such a groove made by hearing dog before you understand yes the word dog which I hear now is the same as that I heard before and then you know what dog means so the word the object and the knowledge happened simultaneously but in this samadhi we can separate them one after the other we can arrest the process wherever we want sutra number 43 when the memory is well purified the knowledge of the object of concentration shines alone devoid of the distraction of name and quality this is samadhi without deliberation when the memory is purified are devoid of qualities then there is only the knowledge of the object meditated upon in a way it gives you the knowledge of the knower also sutra number 44 in the same way reflective and super are non-reflective samadhis which are practice upon the subtle subtle objects are explained in the previous two sutras we looked at these two different samadhis here are two other kinds of samadhis which are more or less practice in the same way but which have the finer elements of their objects sutra number 45 the subtlety of possible objects of concentration ends only at the undefinable in other words the finer objects ultimately end in the primal force called property or the primordial basic substance in its unmanifested condition or nature practice property is nature in that condition there is no name no form or in no thought only the fully balanced tranquil unmanifested state of nature so the mind has the power to go to the very root of the unmanifested nature sutra number 46 all of these samadhis are with seed which could bring one back into bondage or mental disturbance and all these samadhis the goal has not yet been reached even after acquiring all these states you can come back to an ordinary person because the impressions are still there all your desires are still in a seed form not completely fried because you have not completely purified the mind this is why you should make the mind pure before you practice deep meditation blessed are the pure they shall see God that does not mean that the impure cannot see God if they work for it they can't but their God will appear as a demon to them because of their impurity their vision is colored they can't see God in his pure nature they see him from the wrong angle if you write God as God and read it from the right angle it is God read it from the wrong angle doji it is dog the impure mind reads it from the wrong angle so the mind must be pure it is all well and good to learn the different methods of meditation and the experiences that could come to you but if you're really serious about this business and really want to go deep into meditation take time to have a clean mind otherwise you're not going to get it wow that's super important right that's how I feel like you know we talk a lot about the deep fundamentalists probably going are going to be the root that has the hardest time when the great awakening happens because they're looking at God from the wrong angle they're looking at God from a very un-pure angle you know they want to they want to use God as a weapon a lot of times that's not God we also know that like my teacher does not want to do exceeded meditation because our mind is not ready for it and we see her wife you are doing seated meditation your mind isn't ready for it it can cause psychosis it can cause some problems and so this is kind of what this is talking about that's why we use the physical practice as our active meditation is because studies the mind so we can get the mind as pure as possible in order to try to cleanse continue to cleanse it even the so-called scientific discoveries and inventions are a result of concentration in meditation the scientists met meditated on the material state on the gross elements and found out many things created many machines and we are all enjoying the benefits they went deeper and deeper and ultimately we went to the atom itself it is all meditation their yogis no doubt they were able to plumb the secrets of the atom but what is happening now with those secrets is become a terrifying force is there anything wrong with the atomic force nothing we can't blame it nor need we condemn it or stop the atomic research what is to be condemned the minds of these people using those forces that is why the entire world is terrified if we are going to go into the secrets of life in the universe and gain control over them then we should have pure minds take the proper use of them otherwise we will bring destruction on the entire humanity the purification of the mind is very very necessary that goes back he's talking about the people who figured out the atomic force which of course created something that a BOMB I can't say the word on YouTube but we talk about a lot right like all of these tools all of these things that exist they are purely just existing in their own state as humans the conduit that uses these things are using them for better for good depending on the state of mind of that person like tarot cards for example tarot cards is just cards that's all they are they're just cards there's nothing wrong with them they don't do anything it's the person reading the cards that's either pure or unpure and so we really understand that now astrology is the same way everything is just a tool depending on the person using it this brings us to sutra number forty seven in the purity of Samadhi the supreme self shines which brings us then to sutra number forty eight this is the absolute true consciousness after attending the pure non-reflective Samadhi the yogi gets wisdom filled with truth this is the meaning of this what is it actually patanjali continues by saying in sutra number forty nine this special truth is totally different from knowledge gained by hearing studying of scriptures are infirmates when you achieve this absolute true consciousness you understand everything without study when you transcend the mind through proper concentration you feel the cosmic force or God you can check your experience with the scriptures are through the words of sages and saints but it is known by you through your own experience until then all you have heard and read and visualized will be by your own mind experiencing God is something that is genuine and comes only when you transcend the mind God cannot be understood by the mind because the mind is matter and matter cannot possibly understand something more subtle than matter again property parusha is water property is nature the mind the brain is part of nature and parusha the soul that's within us is what connects to a shot our God so that's what he's saying the mind is not going to connect with God it's something deeper inside of you that goes back to the gnosis of the nostics the original Christians the inner knowing what Taylor and Stephanie I have been talking about so much listening to your feelings your inner knowing about things instead of the mind because the mind is never going to steer you in the right direction it's always going to be the inner knowing he goes on to say western psychology talks about the mind saying unless you understand your mind you can't know something at the same time it says but you can't cannot know everything by the mind that is all it stops there but yoga tells you that you can know something without the mind there is a higher knowledge which can be understood without the mind as the man duke Upanishad says not inside knowledge not outside knowledge not knowledge itself self not ignorance it's all expressed in the negative you can't grasp it you can't think of it you can't market with a symbol it has no name or form and you can't explain it hundreds of people might sit in front of someone and he might talk for hours and hours about God they might sit and listen for hours and hours but it's all nonsense yes he has said nothing about God and they have heard nothing about God he has only said something about God that he could fit into his own mind and they've only understood the God that they could grasp in their own mind that's all nobody has said anything about the real God and no one has understood the real God it's unexplainable we've talked about this so much in the dark outpost that everybody especially in these really high-control groups they try to put their own perceptions and their own opinions and personality traits on God and that's not God because God is not human God is omnipresent God has no beginning middle or end and so that's what he's saying here you can go and sit to these lectures about God but you're not actually learning about God you're more learning about the person giving you the lecture on God than God than actually God because understanding God that's inner gnosis you know in the with the Gnostics the original Christians we've talked about gnosis versus Edo Edo is outer knowledge Edo is is the study of the scripture Edo is getting your PhD Edo is going to college but that's basic compared to gnosis no one can teach you gnosis that is something that you just possess within yourself so in this absolute true consciousness you transcend the mind and gain a knowledge that is realization for that the mind must be completely silent that is why in Hindu mythology there is one form of God who sat with four disciples in front of him they were all learned people they all read the Vedas and the Upanishads and heard all that must be heard but they still couldn't realize the truth so they came and they requested him to explain the highest Brahman are the unmanifested God he just sat there in silence and after a while they got up and bowed down and said Swamiji we have understood and they went away because only in silence can it be explained the unmanifest supreme principle can only be explained by silence not words it is not only the physical silence but the real mental silence that wisdom dawns this brings us to sutra number fifty the impressions produced by this Samadhi wipes out all other impressions the impressions that result from this Samadhi by which you get the absolute true consciousness will obstruct all other impressions everything dies a ways and there is no more coming back as an ordinary person ignorant of your own true nature when you come to this stage you always retain its knowledge in this state you become a jiva mukti a realized saint jiva means one who lives mukta means liberated so such person is a liberated living being you live eat and talk like anybody else even do business like anybody else but still you are liberated a jiva mukta may be doing anything he or she need not be sitting in samadhi in some cave this person may be in time square but it is still a jiva mukta a jiva mukta is involved in the world for the sake of humanity without any personal attachment and nothing is exciting to jiva mukta as the beautiful tamil verse says if he sees the cool ray of the moon in the broad daylight or the three-day old corpse getting out of its coffin to walk he will not wonder oh how can that be nothing will be exciting to the jiva mukta because he or she knows it's all a phenomenon of nature or property and the universe many things happen so the liberated ones don't worry about that they will just take the golden present in hand and prompt by the higher will just do what they can do and pass by no old thought will bring them back to the ordinary life although they appear to be normal the seed of mental impressions are completely burnt out and they always live in the unattached state so this brings us to sutra number 51 which ends book one or samadhi pada so next week we will actually start book two so last sutra of book one says when even the impression is wiped out every impression is totally wiped out and there is a seedless samadhi only now does patanjali describe the highest samadhi even with the absolute true consciousness the subtle mind is there there is still a division between wisdom and the owner of that wisdom even the feeling I have realized God should go and you are completely free you have obtained true samadhi and there's no more birth or death for you you realize your in mortality and it's interesting I don't know if I told you guys this before maybe I did in our introduction to yoga normally when we officially study the yoga sutras like in a class you actually start with a second to pada and then go back to the first one but I'm going in order right now just to keep it easier for people who are not used to this type of study so next week we'll pick up with the second pada which is again typically the one you start with and then you go back to the first one where he talks all about the consciousness that we just read through so I hope you guys enjoyed that I've gotten so much positive feedback from us going to the yoga sutras and I'm so happy that so many of you have started this journey it's it's a very hard path to walk sometimes but it's worth it and everything you do every effort you put forth to healing yourself and finding that connection to God is always worth it so I'm very proud of all of you for for undertaking that path it's definitely not a path for the week of mind or the week of body so I'm very very proud of you all alright guys I hope you're having a fantastic day are coming up on the new year so happy new year and I will talk to you all soon bye