Yoga Sutra 36 Compassion And Love

BY PERFORMING SAMYAMA ON FRIENDLINESS, OR ANY OTHER ATTRIBUTE, GREAT STRENGTH IN THAT QUALITY IS OBTAINED.

First one has to become aware, and immediately the second step is: to bring your samyama on the feeling of friendliness. Love, compassion.

Let me tell you one story:

It happened, a great Buddhist monk, Tamino was his name, persevered, worked hard, and entered the state of satori – the state of samyama. And there he was aware of nothing….

When you are really aware, you are not aware of anything. You are only aware of awareness. That too is not good to say, because then awareness looks like an object. No, you are simply aware of nothing – just aware.

… And there he was aware of nothing, and his soul was like nothing. And this state was beyond even peace, and he would have been glad to remain in it forever….

Remember it, when one attains to samyama, one would like to remain forever in it, one would not like to go out of it – but this is not the end of the journey. This is only half the journey. Unless your samadhi becomes love, unless you bring whatsoever you have found within you to the greater world, unless you share your samadhi with others, you are proving yourself a miser. Samadhi is not the goal; love is the goal. So whenever it will happen to you, any of you, you will also come to a point when one wants not to move out. It is so beautiful, it is so tremendously blissful, who bothers?

… And this stage was beyond even peace, and he would have been glad to remain in it forever.

But as it happened, on that day he had gone out to meditate in the little wood that surrounded his monastery. And as he sat there by the way, lost in meditation, there passed a traveller, and thieves leapt upon him and wounded and robbed him and left him for dead. He cried for aid to Tamino, but Tamino sat there unconscious, seeing and hearing nothing….

Tamino was sitting there, and the man was dying there, and the man was calling for help; but he was so deep within himself that nothing reached him. He could not hear. He could not see – the eyes were open, but he was not there in the eyes. He has gone to the very rock bottom of his being. Just the body was breathing, but he was not there on the periphery.

And so the man lay bleeding on the ground, and there he was when Tamino returned to earth – came back to his body, came back to his senses. Tamino was dazed and for a long time did not understand what he saw nor knew what he had to do….

It takes a little time to put yourself together again on the periphery. The center is so totally different.

You move almost in an absolutely unknown territory. And when you come back it is difficult to again get in tune with the periphery. It is almost like people who have been to the moon: when they come back, for three weeks they have to be put in a special house prepared for them – to get ready again to move on the earth. If immediately after coming back from the moon they go to their home, they will get crazy or mad; because the moon is so different. The gravitation is not much there – one eighth of the earth. One can just jump sixty feet, seventy feet, easily. One can jump on anybody’s terrace, no problem. The gravitation is almost nil. And the moon is so empty, one is dazed. And the silence is so tremendous, uninterrupted for millions of years – so heavy – that when one comes back from the moon, one is coming as if after one has died and is again coming back to the earth.

When the first man walked on the moon, he was not a theist, but suddenly he fell on his knees and started praying. The first thing that has been done on the moon is prayer. What happened to him?

The silence was such, it was so deep, and he was so alone, suddenly he remembered God. In that loneliness, in that aloneness, in that solitude, he forgot all about that he didn’t believe in God, that he is a skeptical mind, that he is a doubter. He forgot everything. He immediately fell down and started praying.

When one comes from the moon, he has to be re-acclimatized to the earth; but this is nothing compared to when you go to the center of your being and come back.

… Tamino was dazed and for a long time did not understand what he saw nor knew what he had to do. But presently, as the current of his life in the flesh set in again, he went up to the man and bound up his wounds as best he could. But the man’s blood had flowed too long. He looked at Tamino and died – and those eyes Tamino could not forget; and those eyes haunted him; and he was so much disturbed – the whole satori lost – he forgot all about the center. He was puzzled.

And in his eyes, before he died, Tamino saw the look he had seen once on the battlefield; and all his peace, so painfully won, fled from him. He went back to the monastery and passed over onto the island and mounted to the topmost terrace, and there sat down beside one of the images of Gautam Buddha. It was evening, and the setting sun alone shone on the stone face, till it seemed to flush into life.

Tamino looked into the eyes of the face and said, “Lord Buddha, was your gospel true?” And the image answered back, “True and false.”

“What was true in it?” asked Tamino.

“Compassion and love.”

“And what was false in it?”

“Flight from life, escape.”

“Must I go back to life?”

But the light had faded from the face and it turned to stone again.

It is a beautiful story. Yes, Tamino had to come back to life. One has to come back to love from samadhi; hence, Patanjali’s sutra immediately after the samadhi, in which death is experienced: “By performing samyama on friendliness, or any other attribute,” compassion, love, “great strength in that quality is obtained.”

Contemporary psychologists will also agree – up to a certain limit. If you constantly think about something, it starts materializing. You must have heard the name of Emile Coue, or if you have not heard the name you must have heard his slogan: Every day, in every way, I am getting better and better. He treated thousands of patients – in great trouble, people in great trouble – and he helped them tremendously. And this was his only medicine. He will just say to them, “Repeat: every day, in every way, I am getting better and better. Just repeat it, just feel it, just surround yourself with this idea ‘I am getting better, healthier, happier.’” And thousands of people were helped; they came out of their illnesses. They came out of their mental diseases. They came out of their troubles and anxieties. They thrived again, they became alive again, and there was nothing in it – just a small mantra.

But what happens: you create the world you live in. You create the body also you live in; you create the mind also you live in. You create with your ideas. Whatsoever you think sooner or later becomes a reality. Every thought becomes a thing finally, eventually.

And this is so with such an ordinary mind, which goes on changing the object every moment, goes on jumping from here and there; what to think about samyama? When there is no mind and just the idea of friendliness arises, one becomes so en rapport with it, one becomes it.

Buddha has said, “The next time I come into the world, my name will be Maitreya, ‘the friend.’” It is very symbolic – whether he is coming or not, that is not the point. But it is very symbolic. He is saying that after becoming a Buddha, one has to become a friend.

After one has attained to samadhi, one has to attain – to compassion. Compassion is the criterion whether your samadhi is true or not.

Remember, don’t be a miser; because habits persist. If in the outside world you are a miser and you cling to things, to money and this and that; when samadhi arises in you, you will cling to samadhi.

The clinging will continue – and the clinging has to be dropped. Hence, immediately, after death, when you start feeling – the deathless, Patanjali says bring friendliness in, now think of sharing.

There are two seas in Palestine. One is filled with fresh and sparkling water. Trees and flowers grow around it. Fish live in it, and its banks are green. The pure waters of this sea, which possess a healing quality, are brought down by the River Jordan from the hills around Mount Hermon…

Jesus loved this river; Jesus loved this sea. Many miracles happened around this place with him.

… The Master loved this sea, and many of the happier moments of his ministry were spent beside it. It is a place filled to this day with serenity and power.

The River Jordan flows south into another sea. Here there is no life, no song of birds, no children’s laughter. The air hangs sinister and heavy above its water, and neither man nor beast nor bird will drink. This sea is dead.

What makes such a mighty difference between these two seas of Palestine – one so alive, so tremendously alive; and another so dead, so deadly dead?

This is the difference: the Sea of Galilee receives but does not keep the waters of River Jordan.

For every drop that flows into it, another drop flows out. The more it gives joyfully away, the more it receives in return. This is the sea of life – the Sea of Galilee.

The other sea hoards every drop of water reaching it and gives nothing in return. The Sea of Galilee gives and lives. The other sea gives nothing and does not live. It is truly named “The Dead” – the Dead Sea.

And the same is true about human life. You can become the Sea of Galilee or you can become the Dead Sea. If you become the Sea of Galilee, sooner or later you will attract the consciousness of Jesus to you. The Master will walk around you again. Again he will be seen with his disciples near you; again you will be in a totally different world. You will have the touch of the divine. Or you can become the Dead Sea; then go on receiving and don’t give; then go on hoarding and don’t give.

How did it become dead? A miser is a dead person; a miser dies every day. Share, whatsoever you have, share, and you will receive more. That is the meaning of friendliness.

And Patanjali says bring your samyama to compassion, love, and friendliness; and they will grow.

Not that you will become friendly: you will become a friend. Not that you will become friendly: you will become – friendship, friendliness. Not that you will love: you will become love, you will be the very quality of love.