#87. The Unchanging Amidst All Changing | Yoga Sutras Of Patanjali

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

Dhyansa.

We're meditating on Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.

On the path of spirituality,

On the path of yoga,

On the path of meditation,

No matter what you're looking for,

If you're looking for more inner peace,

If you're looking for love,

If you're looking for connection,

If you're looking for yourself,

What you will have to go through is an understanding of your own construct.

Who you really are,

How this body,

Mind,

Consciousness are interrelated,

This knowledge,

This understanding,

This realization is a must.

Whether you have a very simple goal in life of relaxation or the highest goal which Patanjali has set of the ultimate freedom of kevalya,

Of nirvana,

Of emptiness,

It does not matter whether your goal is small or your goal is large.

You still would have to go through this understanding of who you really are,

How your body,

Mind,

Consciousness,

All these are interrelated.

Because unless you understand yourself,

You do not understand love.

Unless you understand yourself,

You do not understand peace.

How can you have love,

How can you have peace,

How can you have connection with anybody else,

How can you have compassion,

How can you have any purpose in life if you do not understand yourself.

And this understanding cannot be just intellectual,

This understanding cannot be just out of the books,

This understanding can also not be anybody telling you something.

In these sessions,

We go through yoga sutras of Patanjali,

The effort is not to give you additional knowledge and the effort is not to tell you who you are,

But the effort is for you to know who you are,

For you to wake up to know who you are.

And in this knowing,

In this realization of how you are constructed,

What is your uniqueness,

What is your mind,

What is your consciousness,

What is your body,

In that knowing,

In that self knowledge is inner peace,

Is love,

Is compassion,

Is connection,

Is everything that you want out of life.

Everything that you want out of life is in self knowledge.

So pay attention to yourself.

Give yourself enough time,

Give yourself enough space to be with yourself,

To understand your body,

To understand your mind,

To understand your consciousness.

You have been living with this all throughout your life.

All these 30,

40,

50,

60,

70 years that you have been with the body,

With the mind,

With the consciousness,

With all your energies.

So you must understand how you are constructed.

You must understand and realize this.

Not to create a theory out of it,

Not to project it out in the world,

But for simply you being the master of your own self.

Let us hear what Patanjali has to contribute to this understanding,

How he very carefully guides you to the understanding of your own self.

Let us hear what he has to say for today before we sit in meditation,

In silence,

In self knowledge.

Patanjali says,

Sara janata ha chitta vritti tat prabho purushasya aparenit amitvat.

What that means is,

Due to its changelessness,

Changes in the mind stuff are always known to the purusha who is the master.

What Patanjali here is trying to say is differentiate between the mind and the consciousness.

The purusha,

The consciousness,

He is saying that your consciousness is unchanging.

Your mind is changing.

He is giving you a hint.

How do you differentiate between the mind and the consciousness?

The hint is whatever is changing,

Anything that is changing is mind,

Is arising out of the mind and whatever is not changing is your consciousness.

So this one small formula,

This one small tool to differentiate who you are and what you are not,

You can use this tool in your meditation,

In your silence.

And whatever,

Whatever is changing,

Your body is changing.

That means you are not the body.

Your mind is changing constantly.

That means you are not the mind.

Then who are you?

When you go in the silence,

When you go in the awareness of your inner space and look for what is not changing,

You will find out the consciousness,

The awareness through which everything is known is what is unchanging.

And this is not unchanging now.

It has always been unchangeable,

Unchanging all throughout the existence of your this life,

Of your old lives,

Of all times.

The constant that is there in you is the consciousness.

And in that constant consciousness,

You can see the change,

You can see the mind changing,

You can see the body changing and then you will know what to do because Patanjali here says Purusha,

Who is its master,

The Lord,

The consciousness is the Lord,

The consciousness is the master,

Not the mind.

In our life,

We have given enough room for the mind to play the master,

To rule us and make us do this and that.

Mind is changing and it makes us also move along with it.

But the master is the consciousness,

Is your inner light,

Is your inner awareness.

The unchanging in you is the master and this process of meditation,

Of moving in silence,

Of moving in awareness,

Once again allows this consciousness to take its position of mastery and puts the mind in its right place.

Mind is not the villain.

Yesterday in one of the commentaries,

One meditator said,

Is mind a villain?

Because we are always talking about mind,

How bad it is and how it is coming in the way.

No,

Mind is not the villain.

Mind is simply out of its position.

Mind needs to be put back in its position.

Consciousness needs to take once again the mastery.

The focus is on consciousness taking its mastery and when that happens,

Mind automatically takes its position.

So we don't need to attack the mind.

We don't need to be bad to our mind.

Our mind is also our friend.

It is also helpful but it needs to be put in its right place.

And the way to differentiate between mind and consciousness is to see,

To feel in your own inner space what is unchangeable,

What is not changing and what is changing.

What may help here is to also realize this fact that even what you call as your body,

All these trillions of cells,

All those cells that you call as body right now,

As me,

As my body are not at all the same as they were at the time of your birth.

All those cells that at the time of your birth were there are dead now.

They are constantly changing,

What you are as the body is a completely new set of cells.

What you are as the mind is a completely new set of things,

New set of ideas,

New set of thoughts.

So what are you?

If all the cells that were born when you call yourself as you were born are not there anymore,

If all the elements of the mind that were previously there and are not there now,

Who are you?

You are not the body,

You are not the mind,

You are the unchanging consciousness.

This is the message,

The indication of Patanjali in today's sutra and the more we meditate over this,

The more we absorb this in our silence,

This separation between mind and consciousness becomes clearer.

You cannot do it,

It happens on its own.

In the silence,

This happens on its own,

Where once again the consciousness rises,

The mind settles.

The changing settles,

The unchanging rises.

There are several connected sutras that we will elaborate in upcoming 3-4 sessions.

For now,

Let us absorb this one nuance of the difference between the mind and the consciousness and take this in our practice,

In our meditation.

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

That is comfortable for you.

As your posture settles,

Make sure your head,

Neck and back are straight and relaxed.

There is a natural balance in your body.

Tune into that balance.

That your body is not leaning forwards or backwards,

Is not leaning on the right or the left,

Is not towards the top or the bottom.

In all directions,

Your body is in balance.

Give yourself a few moments to arrive to this balance,

To allow this balance to arise in you.

Just ultra ransomware around everything is at MGU.

As your body settles,

Take a nice deep breath in,

Inhale from the nose and also exhale from the nose and letting go of your body completely into rest,

Into its natural balance.

Notice in the stillness of the body,

There is still something changing,

Movements,

Sensations,

The body is in constant change.

It is not static.

Simply observe the body changing,

Moving,

Sensing,

Allow your awareness to observe your body and feel the changing,

The movement,

The sensations arising in the body,

This constant change in the body.

Every second,

Every moment,

The body is becoming a new body.

Feel this movement,

And shift your awareness to your mind,

To your thoughts,

To the images,

To the inner chatter,

And simply observe your mind.

The emphasis is on the change.

Notice the change of thoughts,

Ideas,

Images,

Words,

Whatever arises in your mind.

Simply observe this constant change happening in your mind.

You Don't try to stop anything.

Let the thoughts arise and disappear,

The ideas to come like clouds in fade away.

Simply observe this changing landscape of the mind.

As you see your mind constantly changing,

Shift your awareness to the observer.

Who's observing the mind?

Who observes the body?

Who observes everything in you?

Notice the observer remains unchanged.

The awareness is constant.

The awareness is still silent.

Who's observing the mind?

Who observes everything in you?

All your energy towards the unchanging.

The observer remains unchanged.

The observer,

The awareness.

Leave all effort and stay in this silence,

In this stillness,

In this un-tillness.

Unchanging awareness.

Unchanging awareness.

Everything around you is changing,

Moving.

You are at stillness,

At the center.

Unmoving,

Unchanging.

Unchanging awareness.

Let go of all that is changing.

Let go of all your ideas.

Let go of all your ideas.

In this silent,

Aware,

Conscious,

Unchanging space,

You are.

And slowly getting back to the body.

Feeling your breath.

Feeling your body.

The sensations in your legs,

Hands.

Feeling your head.

Becoming aware of your mind.

And very gently and slowly,

You may open your eyes.

Taking this awareness,

This silence,

This centeredness to your day.

Thank you very much.

Namaste.