Somebody went to Osho and he has been doing a certain type of mantra for many years, and he says, “Distraction comes again and again.” I asked, “What is the distraction?” His wife has died and he loved her very much. And I used to know that woman; she was really a beautiful person. He has never remarried. He really loved her. No other woman ever attracted him. Now she is dead and the vacuum is there, and he feels the loneliness. Because of this loneliness he went to some teacher, that “How to get rid of the memory of my wife?” So he gave him a mantra. Now, he has been chanting the mantra for at least three years, and suddenly again and again while he is chanting the mantra like a robot, the wife comes, the face appears. He has not been able to forget the wife. The mantra has not proved strong enough, so he was here, very miserable. He said, “Three years have passed and I am always haunted by her memory, and it seems that I cannot get out of it. And even this mantra has not helped. And three years, really and religiously I have been doing it.” I said, “You are a fool. There is no need to do this mantra. Repeat your wife’s name; make it a mantra. Keep her photo before you: look at the photo and make it the image of the divine.” He said, “What are you saying? She is my distraction.” So I said, “Make the distraction your meditation. Why create conflict?”
Distraction can be made the very object of meditation. And it is a distraction because there is some appeal deep down, some harmony. That’s why the mantra proved impotent, futile because the mantra is just overimposed. Somebody says some word and you repeat it, and the word has no appeal for you. It never existed for you before, it has no roots in you. The wife is very deep. Love is deeper than any mantra, so why waste your time? He said, “I will try.” And just after a few days he wrote a letter that, “This is tremendous! I am feeling so calm and so peaceful. And really, my wife is so beautiful. There is no need to think that she is distracting me.”
Remember this, because you may be doing many things like that. Whenever you feel something is distracting, that simply shows that you are naturally attracted towards that, nothing else. So why create conflict – move into the same direction; make it an object of meditation. Be natural, don’t be suppressive and don’t create conflict, and you will attain.
Nobody ever attains through conflict. Conflict will create a split personality. Move to the natural attraction; then you are one, then you are whole, then you are together. Then you are one piece, not a house divided against itself. And when you move as one piece there is dance in your step and there is nothing which is not divine.
You may be surprised – it happened: one great Buddhist monk, Nagarjuna, was staying in a small village. Somebody came… somebody became very attracted to him. But the man said that, “Your style of life, the way you move like an emperor in the robes of a beggar, appeals deeply. I would also like to become a religious man, but there is trouble. I have a cow, and I love her too much. And she is so beautiful. And I cannot leave her.” Just a cow… He had no wife, no children, he never got married, but he loves the cow. And he felt a little foolish while he was saying this. He said, “Because I know you will understand, that’s why I am saying. But this is my whole trouble: so much attachment with this cow. And I have brought her up and she has become so much one with me and she loves me. So what to do? So Nagarjuna said, “There is no need to go anywhere. If somebody loves someone so deeply, then there is no need to move anywhere. Make this love your meditation. Meditate on the cow.”
Don’t create any conflict. Remember, if love and meditation are in conflict, meditation will be defeated. Love will be victorious because love is so beautiful. Meditation can be victorious only on the wings of love. Use love as a vehicle.
This is what Patanjali means: ALSO, MEDITATE ON ANYTHING THAT APPEALS TO YOU – whatsoever it is; I make no distinction. And there is no need to cling to one object, because objects may change. This morning you may feel like you love your child, and tomorrow you may not feel. Then don’t create any conflict. Always find wherever your love is flowing; ride on your love. Today it is a flower, tomorrow it is a child, the day after tomorrow it is the moon – that’s not the problem; every object is beautiful – wherever your appeal, flow naturally, ride on it, meditate on it. The emphasis is on being whole, undivided. In your undivided being, meditation blooms.
THUS, THE YOGI BECOMES MASTER OF ALL, FROM THE INFINITESIMAL TO THE INFINITE.
From the smallest to the greatest, he becomes master of all. Meditation is the door to the infinite power. Meditation is the door to the superconscious.
Conscious you are: move into the depths of the unconscious. It is going into the basement of your being. Gather more and more awareness so you can move into sleep, into dreams. Start by gathering awareness in your waking hours; that will help you to move into the unconscious. Then gather more awareness into the unconscious; that will help you to move into the superconscious. Energy will be needed. Your energy right now is just like a flicker – not enough. Create more energy through awareness.
It is just like you heat water, or you heat ice. If you heat ice it melts. On a certain degree of heat it becomes water. Then you have to heat it more if you want it to evaporate. Then go on heating – then on a certain degree, a hundred degrees, suddenly it takes a jump and evaporates. Quantity changes into quality. Quantitative change becomes qualitative. Below a certain degree it is ice, beyond that degree it becomes water. Below a certain degree, again it remains water; beyond that degree it evaporates, becomes vapor. When it is ice, it is almost dead and closed-cold, not warm enough to be alive. When it is water, it is more flowing, more alive, not closed. It has melted, it is warmer. But water moves downwards. When it evaporates, the dimension has changed; it is no more horizontal, it becomes vertical; it goes upwards.
First become more and more alert in waking hours. That will bring you to a certain degree of heat. It is really a certain degree of inner heat, a certain temperature of your consciousness. That will help you to move into the unconscious. Then become more and more conscious into the unconscious. More effort will be needed, more energy will be created. Then suddenly one day you will find you are moving upwards; you have become weightless. Now the gravitation doesn’t affect you. You are becoming superconscious.
Superconscious has all power: it is omnipotent, it is omniscient, it is omnipresent. Superconscious is everywhere. Superconscious has every power that is possible, and superconscious sees everything – it has become absolute clarity of vision.
That’s what Patanjali says: THUS, THE YOGI BECOMES MASTER OF ALL, FROM THE INFINITESIMAL TO THE INFINITE.
Tags: Patanjali Yoga Sutra 11 Distraction Comes Again
