Yoga Sutra 47 Re-Born Of Meditation

ONLY THE ORIGINAL MIND WHICH IS BORN OF MEDITATION IS FREE FROM DESIRES.

Now, tatra dhyana-jam – ‘born out of meditation’ is a literal translation, but something is missed in it. Sanskrit is a very poetic language. It is not just a language, it is not just a grammar; it is more a poetry, a very condensed poetry. If it is rightly translated; if the sense is translated and not only the letter, then I will translate ‘which is re-born of meditation’; not just born, because the original mind is not born. It is already there, just re-born; it is already there, just recognized; it is already there, just rediscovered. God is always a rediscovery. Your own being is already there. It cannot be emphasized too much: it is already there; you reclaim it. Nothing new is born, because the original mind is not new, is not old; it is eternal, always and always and always.

Anasayam means: without any motivation, without any support, without any cause, without any ground.

TATRA DHYANAJAM ANASAYAM.

The original mind exists without any motivation. It exists without any cause. It exists without any support: anasayam literally means without any support. It exists without any ground, groundless.

It exists in itself, it has no outward support. It has to be so because the ultimate cannot have any support – because the ultimate means the total – nothing is outside it. You can think that you are sitting on the earth, and then the earth is being supported by some magnetic forces in the planetary system, and the planets are supported by some other magnetic force of some super-sun. But the whole cannot have any support, because from where will the support come? The total cannot have any grounding to it.

You go to the market; of course, you have a motivation: you go to earn money. You come home; you have a certain motivation: to rest. You eat food because you are hungry; there is a cause to it.

You have come to me – there is a motivation; you are in search of something. It may be vague, clear, known, not known, but the motivation is there. But what can be the motivation of the total?

It is unmotivated, it is desireles – because motivation will bring something from the outside. That’s why Hindus call it leela, a play. A play comes from the inside: you are just going for a walk – there is no motivation, not even health. A health fanatic never goes for a walk; he cannot go because he cannot enjoy the very walk. He’s calculating, “How many miles?” He’s calculating, “How many deep breaths?” He’s calculating, “How much perspiration?” He’s calculating. He is taking the morning walk as work to be done, as an exercise. It is not just a play.

The English word ‘illusion’ is almost always used as a translation for the Eastern word ‘maya’.

Ordinarily, the word ‘illusion’ means unreal, but that is not its true meaning. It comes from a Latin root, ludere, which means to play. ‘Illusion’ simply means a play, and that is the real meaning of maya.

Maya does not mean illusory; it simply means playful: God is playing with Himself. Of course, He was nobody except Himself, so He is playing hide-and-seek with Himself. He hides one of His hands and tries to find it with another hand, knowing all the time where it is.

The original mind is unmotivated, with no cause. Other minds which are not original but imposed upon are, of course, motivated, and because of motivation we cultivate them. If you want to become a doctor you will have to cultivate a certain mind: you will have to become a doctor. If you want to become an engineer you will have to cultivate another sort of mind. If you want to become a poet, you cannot cultivate the mind of a mathematician. Then you will have to cultivate the mind of a poet.

So whatsoever is your motivation, you create a certain mind.

I have heard: A lady was seated on a bus with her son. She bought a single ticket. The conductor addressed the boy, “How old are you, little fellow?”

“I am four,” answered the lad.

“And when will you be five?” asked the conductor.

The boy glanced at his mother, who was smiling her approval of the conversation, and said, “When I get off this bus.”

He has been taught to say something but still he cannot understand the motivation. He has been taught to say ‘four years’ to save a ticket, but he does not know the motivation of it so he repeats like a parrot.

Every child is more in tune with the original mind than grownups. Look at children, playing, running around: you will not find any motivation in particular. They are enjoying themselves, and if you ask for what, they will shrug their shoulders. It is almost impossible to communicate with grown-ups. The children simply feel it is almost impossible; there exists no bridge, because the grown-up asks a very silly question: “For what?” The grown-up lives with a certain economic mind. You do something to earn something. Children are not yet aware of this constant motivation. They don’t know the language of desire, they know the language of playfulness. That’s the meaning when Jesus says, “You will not be able to enter into the kingdom of God unless you are like small children.” He’s saying that unless you become a child again, unless you drop motivation and become playful…. Remember, work has never led anybody to God. And people who are working their path towards God will go on moving in a circle in the market-place; they will never reach Him. He is playful, and you have to be playful.

Suddenly, communion; suddenly, a bridge.

Meditate playfully, don’t meditate seriously. When you go into the meditation hall, leave your serious faces where you leave your shoes. Let meditation be fun. ‘Fun’ is a very religious word; ‘seriousness’ is very irreligious. If you want to attain the original mind, you will have to live a very non-serious, though sincere life; you will have to transform your work into play; you will have to transform all your duties into love. ‘Duty’ is a dirty word; of course, a four-letter word.

Avoid duty. Bring more love to function. Change your work more and more into a new energy which you can enjoy, and let your life be more of a fun, more of a laughter, and less of desire and motivation. The more you are motivated, the more you will cling to a certain mind. You have to, because the motivation can be fulfilled only by a certain mind. And if you want to drop all minds – and all minds are to be dropped – only then do you attain to your innermost nature, your spontaneity. It is totally different, a different language from desire.

Let me tell you one anecdote.

There was a case against Mulla Nasrudin in the court. After hearing the early part of the evidence in a case brought before the County Court, the judge directed that the remainder of the case should be heard ‘in camera’. Mulla Nasrudin, the defendant, objected on the grounds that he did not know the meaning of the word ‘in camera’, but the judge overruled the objections, saying, “I know what it means, the defending counsel knows what it means, the prosecution knows what it means, and the jury knows what it means; now clear the Court.”

This having been done, counsel for the defense asked Mulla Nasrudin, the defendant, to tell the court in his own words what had happened on the night in question. “Well,” said Mulla Nasrudin, “I was walking this girl home along a country lane and we decided to take a short-cut across a field. Half-way across the field, she seemed tired, so we sat down for a rest. It was a nice summer’s night and I felt a bit romantic, so I gave her a kiss, and she gave me a kiss, and I gave her a kiss, and she gave me a kiss, and ten minutes later, hi-tiddly-hi-tee.”

The judge said, “Hi-tiddly-hi-tee? – What on earth does that mean?”

“Well,” answered Nasrudin, “the defending counsel knows what it means, the prosecuting counsel knows what it means, and the jury knows what it means – and if you had been there with your camera, you’d know what it means!”

Desire has its own language, motivation has its own language, and all languages are of desire and motivation – different desires. Let me tell you this: Christianity is a language for a certain desire. It is not religion. Hinduism is a language for some other desire, but it is not a religion; and so on and so forth.

The original mind has no language. You cannot reach it by being a Hindu, a Christian, a Mohammedan, a Jaina, a Buddhist, no. These are all desires. Through them you want to attain something. They are your greed projected.

The original mind is known when you drop all desire, all languages, all minds. And you suddenly don’t know who you are. A religious person is one who has dropped all his identity with any pattern of thinking and is simply standing there naked, alone, surrounded by existence without any dressing, without any covering of language and minds – an onion, peeled completely; emptiness has come into the hands.