#66. Science, Religion And Beyond | Yoga Sutras Of Patanjali

Namaste.

Welcome to this meditation session with me,

Dhyansay,

Your path to inner peace,

Wisdom and awareness.

We are given this birth,

This chance to experience life,

To know this what we call as life.

So life is knowledge,

Life is experience.

How we approach this knowledge matters,

How we are educated,

How we learn to approach this knowledge,

Decides our experience,

Decides what scope,

What portion,

What part of our life we can experience,

We can absorb,

We can know.

So far,

If we see the way we have learnt to approach the knowledge,

To approach life through science,

Through religion,

If we see what these approaches are,

If we go underneath the fundamentals of these approaches,

We will see that they are desperately trying to somehow capture,

Grasp life,

The knowledge of life in their own versions.

Science wants proofs,

Science wants the physics,

Science wants the mathematics,

The biology,

The chemistry of life.

It wants to explain everything in physics,

Chemistry,

Maths,

Biology and its own disciplines.

It wants to capture the rational mind,

This ability of our mind that we have,

That rationality,

That logic.

It wants to convince the logic,

It wants to convince the rational that the best way to know life is through the physics of it,

Is through the chemistry of it,

Is through the mathematics of it,

Is through the biology of it.

Then comes the religion,

Wanting to seduce you,

The spiritual mind,

The spiritual aspect of your being,

It says belief,

It says have faith,

It says have this structure,

Follow this structure and you have the best way to approach this life,

Approach this knowledge.

Both are trying their best to capture.

Science is trying to have the proofs,

Religion is saying have the belief.

Both these are trying to fit life in them.

Life is not to be fit in science.

Science can be put in its right place.

Science can fit in life,

Religion can fit in life,

Spirituality can fit in life,

But life cannot fit in science.

Life cannot be just fit in religion.

The experience,

The knowledge of life cannot be just put in these systems for approaching life,

For approaching this knowledge,

This one chance that we have to know,

That one chance that we have what we call as birth to experience.

This requires a new approach.

This requires the science as well,

But science put it in its right place.

Science which is very young,

Very minor,

The logic,

The proof is of the talk of the science is like of the child.

The use of the rational,

The use of the logic by science,

By its statistical validation,

By its experimentation,

By its wanting the instruments to prove things,

This is very very minor.

Let it grow.

Let this become something more advanced,

Something that allows us to see through that lens as well.

But right now it is minor.

Right now it is like a 12 year old child in the family which has the say but which shouldn't decide about the family.

Religion is like the old man,

Is like the 80 year old,

The 90 year old in the family.

It has seen things,

It has formed its ways,

It has its own beliefs,

It tells you directly what to do,

It doesn't want to explain you,

It has its own place as well but it cannot also decide.

The decision of how you approach life,

The knowledge of life has to come from the youth,

Has to come from the energies of both the understanding,

Both the energy and the awareness.

All of these three,

Four components that you cannot put into a system,

You cannot put into a scientific system,

You cannot put into a religious system but simply you are in this exploration with awareness,

In this unknown with no defined structure.

That awareness,

That exploration is what Patanjali is taking us on.

He uses science,

He is scientific but he is not confined by science.

He is religious but he is not confined by religion.

He encourages the awareness,

The consciousness,

The aliveness,

The life in itself in us to discover life,

To approach the knowledge of life by something much more alive,

Something much more innate,

Something much more real and natural and that is your own awareness.

Through this awareness he says,

Approach,

Bring in the logic,

Bring in the rational.

Through this awareness he says,

Approach the irrational,

Bring in the irrational also and create a complete picture of the rational and the irrational,

The logical and the illogical and in order to hold that picture which we don't know how to call that,

We cannot call it science,

We cannot call it religion,

We cannot call it spirituality,

It is something else but this approach to knowledge,

To life which is based on awareness,

Something more alive,

Something more complete,

Something more holistic is what Patanjali is putting us on the track and while he is explaining,

Teaching how to learn,

To use your awareness,

He is also showing how to also approach this awareness,

Take this awareness and approach life and know life in its entirety.

Let us hear what Patanjali has to say for today's sutras.

Patanjali says,

Nabhi Chakrakaya Yuhas Gyanam,

By Samyama on the navel plexus knowledge of the body's constitution is obtained.

Yesterday we were talking about Patanjali expanding on the knowledge of the cosmos,

How you get the knowledge of the external.

Today the sutras are more focused on knowledge of the internal,

Of knowledge of oneself and he says,

By Samyama,

By meditation on the navel plexus,

Knowledge of body's constitution is obtained.

The way we understand our body,

If you for a moment close your eyes and whatever you have learnt about your body,

If you just visualize when you say,

My body,

What will you visualize?

Bones,

Muscles,

Organs,

Shape and structure,

All that you have somehow learned in science,

That to break down the understanding of the body,

To break down the knowledge of the body,

We use a learned and educated view.

And that educated view is a structure.

I am not saying that structure is wrong or is incomplete,

I am saying in order to appreciate Patanjali's view and in order to have this new view and a view based on awareness,

You have to put the knowledge aside that you had learnt before.

And not see your body just as a bag of organs with some muscles,

With some bones,

With some activity going on,

Which we call as happening in the brain and controlling the entire body.

If we put that knowledge,

That understanding or that assumption aside and see this in new light,

Maybe there is something more to learn about oneself,

Maybe that learning that arises in the awareness helps you much more,

Solves and serves your purpose,

Your understanding of oneself much more.

Find it out by yourself by following what Patanjali is indicating and experimenting on your own.

He says,

By Samyama on the navel plexus,

Knowledge of the body's constitution is obtained.

So if you think about your body,

If you visualize your body in energy chakras and bring your awareness and attention to the navel area,

And imagine that there is an energy center here in the navel area and start meditating upon this area,

You are bound to know about the entire constitution of the body.

You are bound to know how the life energy flows from this navel center to the entire system,

To the entire body.

In relation to the inner,

He goes on saying and giving more sutras,

He says,

Kanta kupa kusht pipasa nivritti,

By samyama on the pit of the throat,

Cessation of hunger and thirst is achieved.

So here he is saying,

Do the samyama,

Do the meditation on the throat center,

On the throat chakra,

The vishuddhi chakra,

And other than the knowledge that happens along with bringing this meditation,

Cessation of hunger and thirst is achieved.

So for a yogi who is so dedicated,

Who is just focusing entirely all his energies on meditation,

On this knowledge,

How he overcomes thirst and hunger is by bringing his awareness,

His samyama on the throat center,

On the vishuddhi chakra.

Kurma Nadiyam Sthiriyam,

By samyama on the Kurma Nadi,

Motionless in meditative posture is achieved.

So if you want to bring stillness in your meditation posture,

If you want to achieve that stillness where your body is not constantly bothering you,

Your body is not constantly drawing your attention,

Disturbing you,

Showing you where the pain is,

Showing you where the sensation is,

And you want to go deep in meditation,

This sutra reveals the secret,

The yogic secret.

He says,

By samyama on the Kurma Nadi,

Kurma Nadi is an energy channel which is one inch below your throat center,

So below your collar bone,

If here,

Somewhere below your collar bone,

Above your heart center,

If there you concentrate while you are becoming aware of your breath.

So there are lots of meditations in which you are becoming aware of your breath.

Along with that awareness of breath,

If you focus on Kurma Nadi,

Which is one inch below the collar bone,

Just like the turtle,

Kurma means turtle,

Just like the turtle,

It pulls all its limbs into the shell and becomes motionless,

You can pull all your energies into this center here and become motionless.

When you become motionless,

When you become still,

That is the chance for you to go deeper in yourself,

Where your body is not disturbing you,

Where nothing is able to disturb you anymore.

Then he says,

Murda Jyotishi Siddhadhar Darshanam,

By samyama on the light at the crown of the head,

Visions of the masters and adepts are obtained.

So all the knowledge that has been gathered by masters,

By previous seers,

If you bring your awareness and do the samyama on the Sahasrara chakra,

The top,

The crown chakra,

The seventh chakra,

Then you have this direct knowledge which has been gathered by previously other masters.

This is the only way to receive knowledge from somebody else,

From the other,

From the master,

From the previous seers.

If you want to do that,

Then you have to bring your awareness to the crown chakra.

Then there are a couple of more sutras which we will discuss tomorrow.

For now,

Let us move into silence,

Let us move into meditation and learn to bring our awareness,

Do samyama on energy centers,

On chakras.

Take a posture that is comfortable for you.

With your head,

Neck,

Spine aligned,

Resting yet alert.

Face relaxed,

Eyes closed and relaxed,

Breath flowing in and out gently,

Softly,

Quietly.

Give yourself a moment to settle.

Today we will meditate on two energy centers,

The navel chakra and the throat chakra.

Shift your awareness to your navel center,

The region at your navel.

With every breath,

Awareness,

Directing,

Pointing at the navel.

Slowly move from the physical to the non-physical sensation of this energy center.

Feel the sensations,

Vibrations and allow the center to rest.

Your awareness to be on this center.

Need it.

Hold your awareness on your navel center.

Hold your awareness on your navel center.

Hold your awareness on both sides of the navel center.

As you bring your focus at your navel center,

The energy pulsates,

The sensation becomes stronger.

If that happens,

Allow it to happen.

If it doesn't happen,

It's fine.

Keeping your awareness at your navel center.

Now gently shift this awareness upwards to your throat center.

Awareness in your throat region.

As the awareness settles,

Move from the physical to the non-physical sensation in your throat region.

As the awareness settles,

Move from the physical to the non-physical sensation in your throat region.

As the awareness settles,

Move from the physical to the non-physical sensation in your throat region.

Growing your awareness from all directions and placing it at your throat center.

With every breath,

Reminding yourself of your awareness.

Reminding yourself of the energy,

Of the focus,

Of the awareness at your throat center.

Notice the stillness,

The silence that arises.

The silence that arises in your body,

In your mind,

In your energies.

Let go of all focus,

All effort and stay in the stillness,

In the silence.

Let go of all focus,

All effort and stay in the stillness.

Let go of all focus,

All effort and stay in the stillness.

Stay in this meditative silence as long as you like.

Continue in awareness,

In silence.

Namaste.