#71. Open Up To The Infinite Space Within | Yoga Sutras Of Patanjali

Namaste and a very warm welcome to all of you in this daily live meditation session with me,

Dehansi.

We are meditating on Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.

These 30 minutes that you put into this session,

That you put into reflection,

Into contemplation,

Into silence,

Into meditation,

They are leading to inner peace,

Silence,

Love,

Compassion,

And a little more wisdom in life.

This is a claim I've been making,

A statement I've been making in all these sessions.

But how does that work,

That these just 30 minutes lead to an entire life of love,

Compassion,

Inner peace,

And so on?

Not just these 30 minutes of inner peace,

Love,

Compassion,

But an entire life of love,

Compassion,

And inner peace.

How does that happen?

In the ordinary mathematics of this world,

If I say that you give me one dollar and I give you two dollars back in a few minutes,

You will say,

Hmm,

Makes sense,

We can still make the deal,

Doesn't sound unreasonable.

Then if I say,

Give me one dollar and I give you ten dollars back in a few minutes,

You will think twice,

What is he saying,

What is he meaning,

How is he going to take my one dollar and convert them into ten dollars?

And if I go on saying,

Increasing this number and saying,

Give me one dollar and I give you a thousand,

You will be concerned,

You will think,

What kind of a Ponzi scheme he's playing,

He's getting me into.

And you would rather not go into this scheme.

In spirituality,

The claim is that you give one dollar and you get the infinite.

This is the claim of Patanjali,

This is the claim of all spiritual masters that have come,

That have expounded on the path of spirituality.

Because these investments of few minutes that we put into meditation,

Into contemplation,

Into introspection,

Are not just resulting in these 30 minutes of peace,

Somehow 30 minutes of silence,

But they open up a new door.

They open up a complete new door to the infinite,

To the infinite space,

To the infinite time.

We are feeling all the misery,

All the pain,

All the stress,

And all what we are carrying,

What we are trying to somehow resolve,

Is because we feel limited by time,

We feel limited by space.

But in meditation,

In silence,

You open up to a door which is of infinite space.

You transcend the space and time which is created by your perception,

By your mind.

You transcend in that silence,

Your mind,

Your idea,

Your perception of the limitation that you set for yourself.

And in that transcendence to the infinite,

In that transcendence to the infinite space,

Infinite time,

There is inner peace,

There is love,

There is joy,

There is compassion.

Another way to understand this is,

Just imagine for a moment the possibility of you having infinite time,

You having infinite space.

Everything sorts out in that infinite space,

In that infinite time.

All solution is there,

All search that we are looking for in life,

Ends when we reach,

When we transcend to this infinite time,

This infinite space.

How do we enter this infinite time,

Infinite space?

Is this just a perception?

Is this just another mental projection?

Or there is any reality to it?

This can be only explored,

This can be only validated in one's own experience.

Once you go through the path of yoga,

Go through the path of spirituality,

Patanjali has laid down these steps very clearly in a very structured way for you to take this jump even in steps,

To take this leap in manageable steps,

To learn step number one,

Step number two,

And slowly move towards this state which opens up the infinite.

We have been taking this journey for several months already,

Where we are on the vibhuti padha,

Where Patanjali is explaining different accomplishments,

Different ways of applying meditation to open up new doors in life,

To open up new possibilities in life.

And today's sutra is exactly referring to opening up this infinite space,

This infinite time in one's own life,

In one's own experience.

Let us hear what Patanjali has to say for today's sutras before we try them out in our own experience,

Before we meditate over them.

Patanjali says,

By samyama on the relationship between ear and ether,

Divine hearing becomes possible.

By samyama on the relationship between ear and ether,

Divine hearing becomes possible.

Two things have to be understood in this.

One is,

He is talking about the relationship of the ear and the ether.

Why the ear?

When we look at all our senses,

Our sense of seeing,

Our sense of listening,

Our sense of touch,

Our sense of smell,

Our sense of taste,

We rely mostly on the sense of seeing.

Whatever we see,

We take it as a reality.

Deep down we all know that this,

What we see,

Is just a projection of our mind.

This is just a projection,

It is not the reality,

But we believe on it,

We rely on it,

We rely for this entire experience of our life on the eyes that we see.

But here Patanjali is emphasizing,

He is saying,

Bring your awareness to the ears,

Pay attention to the ability of listening,

And use this listening to heighten your awareness.

That is why in meditation you close your eyes.

You close your eyes to what you see,

What this world is projecting in front of you,

And listen.

In a way,

When you are in awareness,

When you are in silence,

You are listening.

You are not just listening to the sounds of this world,

The ambient noises that are going all around you,

But you are listening to the soundless.

You are listening to that which opens up the door to the infinite.

Infinite time,

Infinite space.

And what are you listening to?

What are you,

What is your awareness penetrating through?

And that is the second part which is described in the sutra,

What Patanjali is referring to as ether.

We have five fundamental elements.

We know earth,

Fire,

Air,

Water,

And ether.

These are the five fundamental of the reality that we call as our experience.

Everything else,

Every other framework which explains this reality,

This illusion falls short,

Falls short of explaining everything about this experience,

What we have inside,

What we have outside.

But when we break down the experience,

This existence into these five fundamental elements of earth,

Air,

Water,

Space,

And we experience the very fundamental element and we bring this into our awareness that opens up the doors to wisdom,

That opens up doors to the inner space,

To the infinite space and time that we have been talking about in the last minutes of this session.

So Patanjali here is saying that when you connect the listening,

When you connect your awareness through the listening to ether,

To the space,

When you listen to the space in silence,

When you are not bothered by your thoughts,

When you are not bothered by everything going around you,

But you very quietly listen to the space,

Then opens up the door to divine hearing,

Meaning to the divine hearing of that infinite space,

Infinite time where you are transcended,

You have transcended the space and time that your current perception holds.

And related to that he gives on one more sutra.

He says,

Kaya Akasha yo Sambandana Samyamat Labu Tuluwa Samapathe Chaa Akasha Gamanam.

By Samyama on the relationship between the body and ether,

Lightness of cotton fiber is obtained and thus traveling through the ether becomes possible.

What that simply means is when you are in silence,

When you are in perfect awareness of listening to the space,

Listening to your inner space,

And you have opened the door to the infinite,

That's where you can connect your entire body,

The body,

Not the physical body,

But your entirety,

Your entire awareness,

Not just the awareness of your senses,

But your entirety,

It can transcend into where there is infinite space,

Infinite time,

There is peace,

There is silence,

There is bliss,

Arising love and compassion out of those moments.

Let us take this theory,

This claim of Patanjali,

Explore this in our own silence,

In our own meditation.

I will guide you through the steps to take your awareness from the outside,

From what you listen as a step number one,

From what you listen in your ambient noises,

In your ambient sounds,

To bring your awareness to your listening,

To your ability of listening,

And then slowly moving inwards to listening to your inner space and entering,

Transcending the infinite.

Let us close our eyes and move within,

Move in silence.

Please close your eyes and take a posture that is comfortable for you,

With your head,

Neck and spine aligned.

Restful posture,

Yet alert.

Your hands in your lap or on your thighs.

Take a nice deep breath,

Inhale from the nose and exhale from the nose,

Allowing your body to rest,

Allowing your mind to rest and your awareness to rise up.

As your body settles,

Your mind settles.

Shift your awareness to what you listen.

Paying attention to the ambient noises around you,

To listening as far as you can listen.

Any noises in your surroundings?

Around you?

In your room?

Then slowly move towards yourself,

Your awareness,

Listening,

Moving towards yourself,

Listening to your breath.

The awareness from all directions,

Moving inwards,

Listening to your breath,

Listening to any sounds within yourself.

Restful posture,

Yet alert.

Slowly,

The awareness rising and shifting to the area between your ears.

Bring all your awareness to the area,

To the space between your ears.

Simply listen to the space.

Restful posture,

Yet alert.

Awareness in between your ears,

In the space between your ears.

Listening to the space.

Don't try to change anything,

Don't try to force anything.

Simply listening silently,

Being aware of the space between your ears.

Restful posture,

Yet alert.

With every breath,

More and more awareness on the space between your ears.

Listen to the soundless.

Restful posture,

Yet alert.

Restful posture,

Yet alert.

Energy from all parts of your body.

Awareness from all directions,

Focused on the space between your ears,

In awareness of the space,

This inner space.

All your awareness on this inner space.

And allowing it to expand.

Allowing it for more and more silence.

All your awareness on this inner space.

In this inner space,

Become aware of the formless.

Become aware of the shapeless.

Become aware of the timeless.

Become aware of the timeless.

Stay in this silent awareness.

No effort,

No movement.

And very gently and slowly,

You may open your eyes.

While maintaining this sense of awareness,

This sense of silence,

Sense of space that you experience within,

And take this taste of this infinite space within you as you move into your day.

Thank you very much.

Namaste.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.