Woman has to flower in her moon-hood as man has to flower in his sunhood; but pratibha is beyond both. Intellect is psychological, intuition parapsychological, pratibha para psychological.
“From this follows intuitional hearing, touching, seeing, tasting, and smelling.” Remember this, that it can happen on two levels. If you are a moon person, a feminine person – maybe man or woman, that doesn’t make any difference – if you function from the moon center, you will be able to hear many things which others cannot hear and you will be able to see many things which others cannot see. You will become perceptive of the hidden. The hidden dimension will be not so hidden for you; the secret will become a little open for you.
That’s what is being studied by parapsychology. Now it is gaining momentum; a few universities of the world have opened parapsychological departments. Much research work is being done, even in Soviet Russia. Because man has failed in a way. The sun center has failed. We have lived through that sun center for thousands of years; it brings only violence, war, misery. Now the other center has to be tackled.
Even in Soviet Russia, which is dominated by the sun center, by the communists, who don’t believe in any possibility of the beyond, even they are trying. And they have done much work, and they have discovered much. Of course they interpret it in terms of intellect – they don’t call it “extrasensory,” they don’t call it “parapsychological.” They say, “This is also sensory, only refined.” Eyes can become more refined and they can see things which ordinarily cannot be seen. For example, eyes can see your inner body just as an X-ray can see it. If the X-ray can see it, then the eye can also see it; one just needs to train the eyes.
And in a way they are right. Intuition is not beyond the senses; it is a refinement of sense. Pratibha is beyond the senses – it is nonsensory, it is immediate, the senses are dropped. This is the yoga standpoint, that within you you are all knowing – all knowingness is your very nature. In fact, you think that you see through the eyes; yoga says you are not seeing through the eyes – you are being blinded by the eyes. Let me explain it to you.
You are standing in a room and you are looking outside from a small hole. Of course in a room you will feel that that small hole gives at least a certain knowledge to you about the world outside. You may become focused on it. You may think without this hole it will be impossible to see. Yoga says you are getting into a very, very erroneous attitude. This hole allows you to see, but this hole is not the cause of seeing – seeing is your quality. You are seeing through the hole; the hole is not seeing.
You are the seer. You are looking through the eyes into the world; you are looking at me. Your eyes are just the holes in the body, but you are the seer inside. If you can get out of the body, the same will happen as will happen if you can open the door and can come out into the open sky.
Because of the hole being lost, you will not become blind. In fact then you will understand that the hole was blinding you. It was giving you a very limited vision. Now open, under the sky, you can see the whole in a total, instantaneous vision, altogether. Now your vision is not linear and your vision is not limited, because there is no window to it. You have come under the sky: you can see all around.
The same is the standpoint of yoga, and true. The body is giving only small holes to you: from the ears you can hear, from the eyes you can see, from the tongue you can taste, from the nose you can smell. Small holes, and you are hiding behind. Yoga says come out, get out, go beyond. Get out of these holes, and you will become all-knowing, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent. This is pratibha.
“From this follows…” the hearing that is of the beyond, the hearing that is not through the intellect nor through the intuition, but through PRATIBHA; and touching and seeing and tasting and smelling.
Remember it, that one who has achieved lives, life in its totality for the first time. The Upanishads say, “tena tyaktena bhunjitha” – “Those who have renounced, only they have indulged.” Very paradoxical: “Those who have renounced, only they have known and experienced and enjoyed, indulged.” Your limitation in the body is making you impoverished. Getting up beyond the body, you will become richer. One who has attained is not poorer – he becomes tremendously rich. He becomes a god.
So yoga is not against the world. In fact you are against the world. And yoga is not against bliss – you are against bliss. And yoga wants you to drop the world so all limitations can be dropped and you can become unlimited in your being, in your experiencing.
THESE ARE POWERS WHEN THE MIND IS TURNED OUTWARD, BUT OBSTACLES IN THE WAY OF SAMADHI.
But Patanjali is always aware to tell you again and again – he goes on hammering the point to hit it home – that even these powers, of immediate hearing, listening, tasting, smelling, touching: remember, they are powers if you are going outward, but if you want to go in they become hindrances. All powers become hindrances when one is going in.
The person who is going out is going through the moon and to the sun and to the world. And the person who is going in, his energy is moving from the sun to the moon and from the moon to the beyond. Their target and goals are totally different, diametrically opposite.
It happens, then, sometimes you start feeling the first glimpse of pratibha, of the beyond, and you become so powerful – you are filled with power, you are power – and in that moment you can fall again. Power corrupts; you can fall. You can get into the head so much, you can get into the ego so much, that you would like to have a ride on it – the power. You would like to do miracles or other foolish things.
All miracle mongers are in a way foolish – whatsoever they say. They may say that they are doing these miracles to help people. They are not helping anybody; they are simply harming themselves – and harming others also. Because in doing such things they are falling below the beyond. And then their whole thing becomes just trickery. There are tricks of the parapsychic, of the intuitional, of the moon world, with which, once you know them, you can play around. They are tricks, still, and the ego can again use those tricks.
I have heard one very beautiful story: A Catholic priest, an Anglican minister, and a rabbi were fishing in a small boat in the middle of a quiet lake. From dawn till lunchtime they sat there, not moving, not speaking. Then the Catholic priest said, “Well, time for lunch. I will see you two in the pub.”
At which he got up, cocked a leg over the side of the boat and walked across the water to the pub at the lakeside.
The minister then said, “I think I will have some lunch too.” Saying which, he also cocked a leg over the side of the boat, walked across the water in the same direction as the Catholic priest.
The rabbi was amazed and dumbfounded at this display of miraculous Christian solidarity. However, feeling that his faith and traditions were at stake, he offered up a swift prayer to Jehovah and stepped over the side of the boat.
Splash! – Down he went to the bottom. He swam to the surface, pulled himself over the side of the boat and tried again, uttering still more fervent prayers. Splash! Again he plummeted like a stone.
The Catholic priest, having reached the lakeside, was watching this involuntary diving display, and as the Anglican minister also reached the shore, he said, “We should have told the poor chap where the stepping-stones were.”
Everywhere there are stepping-stones. All your Satya Sai Babas – don’t be amazed too much at what they are doing. Look for the stepping-stones – there are. And these people are not spiritual at all.
Patanjali says, “These are powers when the mind is turned outward, but obstacles in the way of SAMADHI.” If you want to attain the ultimate, you have to lose it all. You have to lose it all! This is the way of the real seeker: whatsoever he gains, he goes and sacrifices it to God. He says, “You have given it to me, but what am I going to do with it? I put it again, back at your feet.” He goes on sacrificing whatsoever he attains, and he remains always empty of attainment. That is spirituality: to remain always empty of attainment, and whatsoever comes by the way, one goes on sacrificing it.
Let me tell you another story: A group of ministers were discussing how they allocated their congregations’ offerings.
The Dissenter proclaimed, “Everything my people put into the plate goes on God’s work – I dont keep one penny for myself!”
The Anglican, while applauding his zeal, admitted, “I keep the copper in the collection plate, and the silver goes to God.”
The Catholic priest present admitted that, “I keep the silver and the copper goes to God – mind you there is a lot of copper in a poor parish.”
So far the rabbi had kept silent, but when pressed said, “Well, I put all the collection money in a blanket and I toss it all up in the air. What God wants he keeps, and what he does not want I keep.” Don’t be cunning – don’t be the rabbi. Because in the end only you will be at a loss, not God.
Whatsoever comes on your way of inner growth…. And much comes. Every moment is a new discovery on the inner path; every moment something suddenly falls in your hands – you had not even imagined, you have never asked for it. Millions are the gifts of the path, but only the one reaches to the end who goes on offering those gifts back to God. Otherwise, if you start clinging to the gift, then and there your progress stops. Then and there your growth stops. Then and there you make an abode and start living there.
“TE SAMADHAV UPASARGA VYUTHANE SIDDAIAH.”
If you want samadhi, the ultimate peace, the ultimate silence, the ultimate truth, then never get attached to any attainment whatsoever – worldly, other worldly, psychological, parapsychological, intellectual, intuitive, whatsoever. Never get attached to any attainment. Go on offering it to God, go on offering it to God… and more will be coming! Go on offering it to God.
When you have offered all, God comes. When you have offered all, then it is back to him, he comes as the last gift. God is the last gift.
Tags: Patanjali Yoga Sutra 39 God Is The Last Gift
