Yoga Sutra 40 Performing Samyama

Let me tell you one anecdote:

The lodger was asked by his landlady to solve a problem for her. She said to him, “I have got these two parrots in a cage; one is a boy parrot and the other is a girl parrot, but I don’t know which is which. Can you help me?”

The lodger said, “Well, missus, I don’t know anything about parrots, but I tell you what – you put a black cloth over their cage, leave them for half an hour, then take the black cloth off and see which of the birds is a bit ruffed up – that will be the male.”

So she did just that – she put a black cloth over the cage, left it for half an hour, then took it off.

Sure enough one of the parrots was a bit ruffed up.

“There you are,” he said, “that is the male.”

“Oh, yes,” she said, “but how am I going to tell in future?”

So he said, “Tie a bit of ribbon around his neck now, then you will know.”

And this the landlady did.

That afternoon the vicar came to tea. The parrot took one look at his dog tie and said, “Blimey – they caught you at it as well, did they!”

Whatsoever is our experience becomes the interpretation for the whole. We are confined to our experience; we live through it, we see through it. So when a man says there is no God, feel compassion for him. Don’t feel angry. He is simply saying that he has not come across anything in him which can correspond to God, which can give an indication. He has not found even a ray of light within his being. How can he believe that there exists the source, the sun, the source of life and light? No, he cannot believe it. He is completely blind, utterly blind; not even a ray of light has passed through his eyes. Feel compassion for him. Help him; don’t argue, because argument is not going to help him.

Nobody can convince anybody about God. It has nothing to do with conviction; it is a conversion.

“By mastering the current udana, the yogi is able to levitate and pass without contact over water, mire, thorns, etc.” If you have become tuned and you have mastered the prana known as udana, you can levitate because it is udana that connects you with gravitation.

You see so many birds, such big birds, flying. It has yet remained a mystery for scientists how they fly with such weight. Those birds by nature know something about udana; it is spontaneous for them. They breathe in a certain way. If you can also breathe in that way, you will feel suddenly you are cut from gravitation. With gravitation you have a certain connection from within your being. This can be disconnected.

And it happens to many people without knowing. Sometimes meditating, sitting, suddenly you feel that you are levitating. Open your eyes – you will find yourself sitting on the ground. Close your eyes – again you feel you are levitating. Your physical body may not be levitating, but deep inside something has become disconnected and you feel a gap between you and gravitation. That’s why you feel that you are levitating. This can go deeper and deeper, and one day it is possible you can levitate.

There is a woman in Bolivia who has been observed by all scientific technology, methods. She levitates. She can go for a few seconds four feet above the ground – just by meditating. She sits and meditates, and she starts rising up.

BY MASTERING THE CURRENT SAMANA, THE YOGI IS ABLE TO CAUSE HIS GASTRIC FIRE TO BLAZE.

Then you can digest it very easily, and totally. And not only that, when your gastric fire is blazed, your whole body will have a certain radiance around it, a certain quality of fire, aliveness.

And this fire helps the yogi to purify his whole being because this fire burns all that is rotten and rubbish in you, all that should not be there. It destroys all impurities and toxins within your body.

And this fire, if it can be burned really totally, can burn your mind also. Thoughts can bum in it, desires can bum in it.

And Patanjali says that once you have found this fire, by breathing in a certain way and bringing a certain prana energy and accumulating it inside, you can burn the whole desire to live – you can bum the very seed of desire. Then there is no more birth for you. This he calls nir-beej samadhi, seedless samadhi, when even the seed has been burnt.

BY PERFORMING SAMYAMA ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE ETHER AND THE EAR, SUPERPHYSICAL HEARING BECOMES AVAILABLE.

The word in Sanskrit for ether is akash. It is more comprehensive than “ether”; akash means the whole space, the whole emptiness that surrounds everything. Akash means the nothingness out of which everything comes and goes back to, the primordial nothingness which was in the beginning and which will be again in the end. Everything comes out of it and disappears into it.

This nothingness is not just nothing. It is not negative; it is absolutely potential and positive, but formless.

By performing samyama on the relationship between this akash, this formlessness that surrounds you, and your ear…. This is a yoga discovery, that your ear is in tune with akash. That’s why you can hear sounds: sounds are created in akash, in ether, and your ear corresponds to akash within your body. Your eyes correspond to the sun; your ears correspond to the akash, to the ether. If you can bring your samadhi to the akash and your ear and their relationship, you will be able to hear whatsoever you want to hear.

This is something very miraculous, but not a miracle. It has as scientific laws behind it as television or radio. Just a certain tuning is needed. If your ears are in a certain tuning with the akash, you start hearing that which was not ordinarily available. You can hear others’ thoughts. Not only that, you can hear thoughts which were uttered thousands of years before. You can hear Buddha again. You can hear Krishna again giving his message to Arjuna. You can hear Jesus again giving his sermon on the mount. Because whatsoever is created remains in the akash; it never goes away; in a subtle way it is preserved.

In Theosophy they call these records akashic records. Everything is there, recorded, taped, once you can find the key. And that key exists in bringing samyama to the relationship of the ether with your ear.

BY PERFORMING SAMYAMA ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE BODY AND THE ETHER AND AT THE SAME TIME IDENTIFYING HIMSELF WITH LIGHT THINGS, LIKE COTTON DOWN, THE YOGI IS ABLE TO PASS THROUGH SPACE.

And if you bring samyama to your body and the akash and their relationship.

The akash is formless, nirakar, the infinities around you. Your body is just a wave in the ocean of akash. Before it arose it was in the akash unmanifest; after you will die it will again disappear into akash. Right now the wave is joined with the akash; it is not disjointed. Just bring your awareness to the wave and the relationship of the wave with the ocean and you will be able to disappear or appear, according to your will.

A yogi can manifest himself in many places simultaneously; he can meet one of his disciples in Calcutta and another in Bombay and another in California. Once you know how to be in tune with the ocean, you become infinitely powerful.

But remember that these things are not to be desired. If you desire them, they will become bondages. These things should not become objects for your greed. And when they happen on their own, you should go on offering them to God. Tell him, “What will I do with them?” Whatsoever you attain, go on renouncing it, giving it back to God. More will be coming; give that too. More will be coming still; give that too. And a point comes when you have renounced all, God himself comes to you.

God comes at the moment of absolute, utter sacrifice.

So please don’t start becoming greedy about these things. And I have not given you any details, so even if you become greedy, you cannot do anything. Those details are given in privacy. Those details are given in a person to person relationship. And there is no need for you to come to me for those details; whenever you are ready, they will be given to you wherever you are. Your readiness is all. If you are ready they will be given to you, and they will be given only in proportion to your readiness so that you cannot harm yourself, you cannot harm others; otherwise man is a very dangerous animal.

Remember that danger always.