There is nothing in the creation that is devoid of pain.
Patanjali Yoga Sutra Knowledge Sheet 60
Contd. from knowledge sheet 59
Often, those who come to the course do not meditate. They open their eyes, “Is my girlfriend meditating? How is she doing? Is she enjoying the course? I forced her to come to the course. Is she having a good experience?” Many a times we have to say, “You keep your eyes shut and go deep into meditation and do not worry about your girlfriend. We will take care of her”.
If it was possible, people would really do that. They would swallow their girlfriend or boyfriend to keep them safe! “I keep you in my heart”. They would do it physically. Keep them in their heart, very safe in their tummy, so that they cannot do anything, cannot look at anything, or cannot go anywhere without their permission.
Love also creates pain, tremendous amount of pain. Separation is pain, tremendous amount of pain. A wish is tremendous amount of pain present in the mind. Trying to please creates pain. Whether the other person is pleased or not is pain. You want to know through and through the mind of the other person. How can you, when you do not even know your own mind? You want to know somebody else’s mind! It is impossible to know anybody else’s mind just by their words or movements of their lips and tongue.
It is said that the tongue has no bone. It is not steady. It says something today, and tomorrow it may say something else. You can trust anything in the world but you cannot trust your own tongue! Trying to know somebody else, knowing what is there and sitting on it is painful. You experience some good feeling - love - you feel wonderful and joyful, and suddenly it is not there the next moment. It is painful.
If you do spiritual practices, an effort is needed to do them. That is painful. If you do not do them, not doing Sudarshan Kriya is even more painful. You think, "Oh! I did not meditate. It is not good at all." Once you meditate, you feel "Oh, it is finishing. I have not done enough. It is not happening". Something to complain.
“Sarvam eva dukha mayam”. If you really look at this creation from the eyes of wisdom, there is not even a bit in this creation which is devoid of pain. Pain is the tail of everything in the world. It comes along with everything. You get it along with everything as a free coupon. Buy anything and you will get double. The double is pain, the coupon. Then what do you do? When you realize that everything is pain, then how do you go ahead with it? What do you do? You have to do something to stop this pain. How will you do it?
In the next sutra, Patanjali says:
“Heyam dukhamanagatam” (II Sutra 16)
heyam = avoidable; dukham = pain; anagatam = which has not yet come
“The pain which has not yet come is avoidable (can be avoided).”
The root cause of pain needs to be eliminated. We have to eliminate the root cause of pain. That pain which has not yet come in life, that sorrow which has not yet sprouted, should be ripped off right in the beginning. How do we do that?
(To be continued…)
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(This is part of a series of knowledge sheets based on Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's commentaries on Patanjali Yoga Sutras.)
