In Integral Yoga, equality (samata) is the foundational limb that enables practitioners to transcend egoistic responses to dualities, conquer enslaved reactions to pleasure and pain, and achieve the calm and peace of liberation. Sri Aurobindo presents two complementary aspects of equality: passive equality (how one receives impacts from the world) and active equality (how one responds to those impacts). The passive aspect involves three progressive steps—endurance (titika), indifference (udas), and submission to divine will (nati)—each with three stages of perfection. The active aspect involves equal enjoyment (sama rasa), equal bliss (sama bhoga), and equal delight (sama ananda). This framework allows practitioners to choose their starting point based on their temperament, as different paths (karma yoga, bhakti yoga, jnana yoga) can all lead to the same goal of spiritual perfection.
EWS #288: Record of Yoga #25 -- Equality & Peace - II (Evenings with Sraddhalu)Added:
Namaste to all disciples, devotees and seekers.
Welcome to evenings with Shandalo.
Tonight we are continuing with the title from last week equality and peace from the record of yoga.
Namaste sadalu.
>> Namaste narud and welcome to everyone.
We are continuing the topic from the last time where we looked at the first chhatushtaya, the first limb of the integral yoga and the text that Shri Orurubindo has written in his personal diary as well as the text which was then conveyed to the disciples in their private notebooks. And there's a slight difference between the two in that the notebook notations are more immediately applied and practical to the disciples from the point where they begin where they are in their journey.
But then there is a third text which we will look at later which is in fact the text of the synthesis of yoga where shribbindu takes the very same thing and then widens out enlarges to the full scope of the knowledge that he was given and which he himself practiced in detail. So the record of yoga remember was a personal diary and in a personal diary you don't write everything because well it's obvious to you but when you have to show someone else teach someone else narrate to someone else then the whole thing needs to be so much more expanded in the text we saw last time Shriorindu spoke of the samata equality in terms of two aspects a passive equality and an active equality.
quality. The passive equality is the way you receive the impacts of the world.
The active equality is the way you respond to those.
And in the passive equality, we he described three steps.
In the active equality again, he described three steps.
And obviously you will see a kind of a correspondence as if to the first step of the passive equality there is a correspondence to the first step of the active equality and so on. But in fact when you look at what he describes in the synthesis of yoga each of these three steps he describes in terms of stages three stages of each of the steps. So you will remember the passive equality begins with endurance and then indifference and then a kind of a submission or surrender.
But to endurance itself he describes three stages.
To indifference he describes three stages and to the surrender or submission he describes three stages.
And all three stages culminate in the same outcome but with three different starting points. Now if you looked at just the diary notes it seems as if there are stages that go across from endurance to indifference to submission.
But the way Shriurbindu puts it in the synthesis of yoga yes this is also there but each of these as a starting point can go through its own three stages culminating upward in a high point. In other words, for somebody endurance could be the starting point without really taking the poise of indifference or the submission purely from endurance. could enter three stages of endurance or degrees of endurance which would culminate in that which would have the same outcome as if you started purely if you started with indifference and went through those three degrees of its perfection or if you started with the submission and went through three degrees of its perfection.
Why is this important? Because none of this exists in the notes on the integral yoga. It's important because first of all you realize how much more there is to it than just what is presented in these notes because what is presented is already very valuable. But in fact the whole science the whole psychology the whole nature of the practice is so much more complete and in particular when you look at it in this way as three different paths. path of endurance, path of indifference, path of submission for the passive equality.
If you look at it in this way, you'll find they correspond to certain temperaments of human nature, types of human nature and even to some extent to alignments of your temperament in the yoga itself. Whether you are a karma yogi or a bi yogi or a dana yogi that is whether your way is the way of works or the way of devotion or the way of knowledge and you'll see those alignments those correspondences and it would make sense that for you for example the natural turn of submission and surrender in bi devotion would be your starting point and endurance may not align to your temperament.
So if then you are told hey you start with endurance and then build indifference I say I cannot be indifferent when I have this devotion and love for the divine indifference at that point somehow doesn't align to my temperament so for such a person to have to go through endurance indifference and then to the submission feels artificial and even unnecessary when I can go straight to submission surrender without having those two which if you read only the notes in the record of yoga would be almost a preparatory to the stage of the full value of the surrender itself and your capacity to surrender fully. So in the synthesis of yoga you do see this continuity but you also see how each one of these could be taken to its acme through three degrees each and then he describes what is the common feature of all those three. The the depth of psychology is so profound depending on which you took. You took endurance as your starting point, indifference or surrender and you built through one of them only without touching the other two. You built all the way to its culmination of the perfect equality. You went through three stages in each of those which are slightly different but there's a common element to all three. And it's as if he's abstracting in the nature of the practice that common element and saying look if you can work on this more directly irrespective of these starting points irrespective of the variations of approach irrespective of your temperament you're seeing there a core psychological process that is universally applicable leading to this outcome.
What an amazing depth of insight.
What an amazing freedom in the path of the yoga itself. What an extraordinary degree of universality in the yogic path. Even though we are talking of just getting to samata equality, it's as if encompasses and includes all the variations of human nature and types and starting points and needs and phases and what an extraordinary thing. But the problem of course when something is so rich and complex and remember this is just we are talking of equality. We have not yet spoken of the peace. We have not yet spoken of the uh joy, the happiness or the delight and so on.
Just the peace is so compreh just the equality is so comprehensive and we find there are three entire chapters. Last time I've mentioned two, it's actually three entire chapters on the theme of equality.
And it also shows you how important this is.
The problem is when the normal human mind which is not trained starts reading this, it gets totally lost. Oh, you're saying this and then you're saying that and then you're saying that and then you're going to three degrees of this and then you're abstracting it to something else and then you're saying but behind that there is this just put it to me simply. What should I do? This is too complicated. I don't know how to turn it into practice.
That's how the normal mind responds because well it's too much to take in and it's beyond its capacity to turn it into an applied form of practice. On the other hand, if you get the hang of this, you could almost say it's as if you don't care what the starting point is. You don't care who it is, what temperament, what type of person it is.
If you follow broadly this direction or you apply these core principles, you will be able to navigate and get to this perfection. So it's actually so simple and yet it's so overwhelming if one does not get the idea of it. I remember I had seen uh I had a conversation with somebody who maybe I can say it. She was in fact the for a while the registar of the ashram school.
She used to be the secretary of Kir Jooshi and then so she had obviously been to his classes and when Kir Jooshi left to go to Delhi for his work he had expected to go for a brief while then come back. So he put her in charge. He said you look after things because you're familiar effectively because he didn't come back soon enough. she became in charge and then she became permanently the registar and so on and I had an interaction when I completed my formal education in the ashram school and I was talking to her about certain things I had suggestions I was coming with a lot of enthusiasm and I found she was very closed but the problem which you can appreciate is the mind was extremely small and narrow it was unable to handle complexity or responsibility or she was perfect as secretary. So while interacting and then she said but you know it came from her study of Shribbindo whoever had taught but none of this is going to work nothing is going to work only the supra mandantle can do it where does this weird idea come from and I found later that there were many people in the ashram who had come to that kind of a conclusion from a narrow little box of a study it's like you go with a lens over a large sheet sheet of paper and your lens can show you only two or three words at a time. So you catch only three words and you go ah yes but this is overriding that oh this is overriding that and you keep going in little bits until you come to the last conclusion where he says oh yes that's what ultimately is required and in your mind all the rest is discarded or forgotten or replaced by this and this happens because of the inability I do not know who was her teacher I do not uh it's doesn't matter but this is the kind of conclusion many people come to when faced with this kind of rich complexity. In fact, what Shriurbindu is saying is start here then build to this then build to this then build to this and the last perfection will come with the supraal.
He's not saying all this is useless.
He's saying all this is necessary as steps and each has its benefits and each has its limitations which is then fulfilled by the next which is then which has its limitations which is fulfilled by the next and so on. And so if you look at it this way, he's starting where you are. The super mind is only the culmination and the peak where all the different facets unite into a oneness.
In fact, you could start by saying, well, ignore that. Begin here knowing that that will complete whatever remains in the final unification.
And you can actually begin the yoga with nothing of that. Not even with an understanding of that. just with the idea. Yes, there is a principle which will unite it all and make it perfect ultimately. But you can approach that perfection to an extraordinary degree without the direct intervention of that and that's how you are going to begin the the practice of the yoga as well as understand the nature the framework the practice and the psychology the deep psychology behind it. Now, if you just took this one thing which I've described about three starting points and the three stages of each of these, you could write an entire thesis.
You could build around this. Do a few psychology tests with a few students or members of the public. Show how this works. Show how this progresses. And everything that he's described there in that chapter, probably more than one thesis. You could write three pieces of thesis and then write a fourth thesis which would show the relationship across these three. There is so much one can draw from and entry has just given it to you in a few brief paragraphs.
That's the kind of deep condensed rich fullness of knowledge that he's able to share in his writings and which represents a tiny part of what he holds in his consciousness.
So just to appreciate just to adore and just to be so grateful for uh what he held and what he has shared. I dwelt on this a little bit. I hope you will appreciate and enjoy with me the value of this. But we come back to the portion we had read last time. the three starting points or the three steps or stages of the passive equality and then the three of the active equality which we saw also uh in terms of the quality of the that the divine enjoys in each thing and the the pleasure of the mind in the rasa and then the delight the anunda of the divine partaking of every experience and that becomes the active aspect of the equality and when this equality is perfected It makes possible the fullness of the peace. And the peace itself we briefly touched and even today we might not elaborate fully uh is a vast it could be either a vast passive calm based on this indifference or it could be a vast joyous calm based on this relationship of surrender to the divine. And at least in the context of the integral yoga, it is the latter which must be the culmination. Even if you begin with the vast indifference in the calm.
So this is broadly what we touched upon last time. We are not yet touching suka and ham. There was a question from uh Isak about sukam and hassim. We will take this up later and I hope to your satisfaction. But at this point, we are still looking at this equality and peace. And we're going to dive a little deeper into this these two.
But before going deeper, let's step back and ask yourself why is it that this has to be the foundation.
And so we will look at one single paragraph of Shriurbindo in the synthesis of yoga where he tells you that before you begin any kind of yoga you need some kind of foundation upon which all the that you develop should can be built and the nature of that foundation is this equality and peace and why and how and what is the truth the fundamental essential principle of this with which then you will be able to see how even all that we have discussed last time becomes so much simpler, so much easier and so much more spontaneous. So it's as if he will give you the master key in this description.
So we're going to jump briefly to the chapter called the elements of perfection in the synthesis of yoga where he describes broadly the six limbs. The whole STA framework itself he describes with a paragraph dedicated to each of the limbs and the one paragraph which is dedicated to this equality is what we will read from.
So he describes how and I'll read from a little earlier.
We may cast these elements into six divisions interdependent on each other to a great extent but still in a certain way naturally successive in their order of attainment. So these are the six limbs.
The movement will start from a basic equality of the soul and mount to an ideal action of the divine through our perfected being in the largeness of the Brahmic unity. So you're starting with equality and then you're rising to divinely inspired action in a human being who is perfected in a vast consciousness of Brahman of oneness.
That is all.
So let's look at the starting point and the starting point he says the first necessity is some fundamental poise of the soul both in its essential and its natural being regarding and meeting the things impacts and workings of nature. So if you're going to enter life, you're going to start a whole new program of self-improvement, self-development, self-perfectioning, yoga, whatever phrases you may use.
You must have something which is sufficiently stable upon which you can build. So a fundamental poise, a fundamental shift in attitude that is going to be your starting point. So for example, if uh you were to enter the a training class for music, there would have to be some fundamental poise from which you relate to the whole experience of your training. If you were going to enter the training for martial arts, there'll be some fundamental shift of poise which will be as if a substratum to everything that you learn. So what he is providing for you here is this not just in the journey of the spiritual growth in the yoga but as a general poise from which to live and enjoy life.
So the first necessity you must have something which is like a base some fundamental poise of the soul both in its essential and its natural being.
So what is this essential and natural being? Essential being. So soul here is not the inmost soul. It is the person.
So the essential poise of the soul is as if you are taking yourself to a deeper and deeper inner poise in the person that you are.
In the natural being is your outer nature. Mind, life, emotions, uh body.
That's your natural being. that is the essential being. So if you use a more a later vocabulary of Sherbindu, you would say in your inmost soul or in the perspective of the psychic being and then of the nature, the instruments of the nature etc. So he's distinguishing between these two but this poise has to be in both.
So what is this poise that you have to hold in the essential and the natural being regarding what? regarding and meeting the things impacts and workings of nature. So outside you regarding is looking to and then meeting engaging with. So there are two variations. Why is he so precise? Why is he looking at all these fine distinctions? Because in fact there is a deep consequence of this difference. So there are those who will take in the aesthetic yoga for example the stance of equality regarding nature as unreal as irrelevant as uninteresting and they choose only regarding not meeting and then there are those who will say well nature I'm part of nature nature is a part of me and we cannot but meet we cannot step back we cannot separate so in fact for Each of these words there are entire systems, belief systems, practices, religions or even yogic specialized systems which hold only that or only the other. What Shribbindu is telling you is in the framework he's presenting to you this as well as that or the need of this or that or the poise of this or that are all included.
By pointing to these two, he's saying it covers all these variations. Even if you take a poise of regarding, even if you take the poise of meeting, you have this common fundamental requirement.
So regarding and meeting the things, impacts and workings of nature. Again, why this fine distinction? He could have just said all nature.
So there's a fine distinction made when you regard or engage with things.
So things happen, things are there, objects are there, interactions take place.
But there's a difference between things and then impacts. So literally something is coming to bang, hit, force itself in your life, in your mind, in your emotions, in your thoughts, in your on your body etc. So the dealing with things can be done in a kind of a equality which is very limited but dealing with impacts demands of far greater capacity and then dealing with workings of nature. Uh literally you're looking at the laws and the processes by which nature operates and you want to engage with that from a poise of equality and even change that.
So there the requirement of your fundamental poise, fundamental first necessity etc. are far greater. So he's showing you again by using these three terms that what he's offering you as a foundation in fact takes care of all these requirements, all these variations, all these um challenges that life would offer to you.
So this poise we shall arrive at by growing into a perfect equality samata. So this fundamental poise of the soul both in the essential and then in its natural being two parts soul and nature in the engagements of all kinds with things impacts and workings of nature.
the thing which will be required from you is a certain poise. He's not saying equality is that poise. He's saying we will arrive at that poise by growing into a perfect equality.
So here again this fine distinction he's not saying this kind of he's not giving you these nuances in the diary notes of the record of yoga in the record of yoga. Okay, equality but he's saying actually equality is the way by which you will arrive at this poise and the poise therefore has equality as its principal quality or principal means of realizing but it's more than just an equality. It's in fact a poise of consciousness which is has a stability which has a base which is unaffected come what may and by growing into a perfect equality you will arrive at this. So you see now equality is more the way and the specialized aspect of that voice.
What is that?
The self spirit or Brahman is one in all and therefore one to all.
The Brahman you must understand the term used includes the idea of underlying oneness which includes everything. So that's Brahman.
Self can be just a subjective sense of that which is the underlying reality of all things. Spirit is a more objectivized way of looking at the whole thing as some underlying unchanging support base truth consciousness which is behind all things supporting all but Brahman is the most comprehensive in terms of concept includes both these and the all and the oneness of all and this oneness is critical as we will see later the aspect of oneness is essential and the all is also essential. potential. So Brahman is one in all. So you look at the flower, you touch or hold the flower, but it is the same Brahman in the flower, it is the same Brahman in the finger which holds it. Or if at that moment there's a deer which comes and eats the flower.
Well, there's the same Brahman in the deer. So is one in all and therefore one to all. So because it knows itself equally in all things, its relationship also is the same to all things. So from the perspective of Brahman, the flower is as important as the mountain on which it grows. And the deer which eats it is as important as the flower or the bee which comes to the flower or the human which appreciates the flower.
You have here a key of the true cause, source and means of that perfection of equality because it's already there in the consciousness of the Brahman.
It's equally there in the consciousness of spirit, equally there in consciousness of self. But self lowerase self. So even if you go deep enough into your sense of self, you can have something of a glimpse of this. But it would be most complete in a Brahman consciousness. So it is as is said in the Gita which has developed fully this idea of equality and indicated its experience on at least one side of equality. The equal Brahman sum Brahma.
So in the Bhagavad Gita he says it has developed fully this idea of equality but one side of the equality it has um developed more completely let's say the Gita even goes so far in one passage as to identify equality and yoga that is equality is the perfect yoga Now the problem with this phrasing of the Bhagavad Gita is that you find it quoted quoted everywhere and then it is opposed to another phrasing of the Gita where Sri Krishna says yoga karmasukalam yoga is perfection in works.
Yoga is equality. Yoga is perfection in works. And I've seen this because I've been to some of these conferences where people will quote and at some point when you look inside the mind of the person, they are happy quoting and they get great joy making a point and then making another point not realizing that sometimes they seem to contradict themselves. But they're happy that they could quote and it sounded nice, it sounded practical. But the problem with that is when you make that the sashindu says it goes even so far as to identify equality of and yoga. The problem with that of course is that you can then place those and other statements next to each other and start a whole logical confusion.
But the point is made that literally the perfection of equality is yoga. But it means it in this perspective that it is in Brahman that you have true equality and therefore perfection of yoga is in oneness with Brahman where you have the true equality. If you see it in this way, there is absolutely no contradiction. And then the active side of Brahman is the perfection in works. The Brahman acts as universe everywhere in all things perfectly, beautifully, minutely to the infinite decimal, minuteest subatomic particle is in perfect relation with the atom which is in perfect relation with all the molecules in the flower and in the bee.
And so yoga karma shalam yoga is perfection in works from the po of Brahman and then you find these two have absolutely no contradiction. But if you were to reduce these to a superficial sense of equality or uh perfection of works you would find them colliding.
And that's part of the problem of a lot of what passes as the superficial understanding of the Gita or of spirituality or of yoga or popular teachings.
So it's in a sense if you had stopped with the notes in the record of yoga or in the diaries of the disciples you would have missed this point because although it appears in his own personal notes as he proceeds in the deepening experiences of equality it does appear the Brahman aspect and those things like that we would not fully understand unless he had actually explained and elaborated this and that's why it's very important to not stop with the record of yoga although it is it is so valuable in itself 12 and get to this full understanding.
So Shirbinda continues that is to say equality is the sign of unity with the Brahman of becoming Brahman of growing into an undisturbed spiritual poise of being in the infinite.
So he's saying it like this now that the equality is not really had until you have come to this point where you are growing into this spiritual poise of being in the infinite you are becoming Brahman you are in oneness with Brahman in degrees maybe does not matter doesn't have to be perfect in that but even as you grow towards that you will have the equality naturally now if you take this as your starting point all that we discussed last time at first seems oh he's talking about endurance he's talking of indifference and surrender and what is this now growing into Brahman it seems different but it's not as we will see those are the means by which you will attain to the true equality which you will acquire by the deepening of all three into the Brahman consciousness and that's how you can see how each of those can be an independent path even though they could be successive its importance of equality can hardly be exaggerated.
In other words, you could go on saying it's so important, it's even more important and even more and you would not be exaggerating.
In other words, you could literally extol it to the highest and still you would not have exaggerated. That's how important it is for it is the sign of our having passed beyond the egoistic determinations of our nature.
One of our having conquered or enslaved response to the dualities.
Two, and of our having transcended the shifting turmoil of the gonas. Three, of our having entered into the calm and peace of liberation. Four. So the equality literally means you have acquired all these four at least when equality is perfected or when you're moving towards equality you are actually gaining these four benefits.
So from for us from a practical point of view this is more useful to look at as you grow in equality you are having these four benefits. What are these four benefits?
You have passed beyond the egoistic determinations of our nature that it is a sign that you have. Okay. The so the egoistic determinations of our nature is that our nature has certain tendencies and those tendencies are largely bound within the sense of the narrow sense of eye. For example, if just the fact that I'm a narrow small person and I meet something which is larger bigger I feel afraid. So fear is one of the consequences of that uh of being bound in this egoistic determination of our nature and a whole range of behavior patterns which come from that. So if you start looking at much of modern psychology, a lot of this really reduces itself to the fact that you are small and you're meeting with something which is beyond your capacity and all the different ways in which you are able to meet with those interactions or from which you are wounded because the interaction was too strong or insufficient or whatever else. And that's really the play of psychology.
Most of modern psychology really or behavioral psychology engages on that level.
But you have passed beyond egoistic determinations of your nature when you develop that equality. And with it a lot of these distortions also would find their resolution or correction or at least have a chance to be resolved.
So even from a practical psychology point of view, from a therapeutic point of view, developing consciously the poise of equality would have those benefits. So this is one benefit. The second is of having conquered our enslaved response to the dualities. So the moment you have pleasure and pain, comfort, discomfort, etc. We discussed last time, you have automatic responses of being attracted to this, being repelled by that and then with that the programming that comes in your behavior.
So so much of your behavior is actually coming from this conditioning in order to avoid pain. and I'm not even thinking about it. It's now a deep rooted habit.
But in order to avoid that pain, I have built up a habit of doing this in this particular way.
For example, you distrust. You distrust by habit because you don't want to be disappointed by somebody not living up to your trust and it could just become a habit for the rest of your life distorting your whole behavior pattern, your nature, etc. But you would have been in an enslaved response to the dualities. You're slave of that.
And when you build equality, you become free from that.
In that freedom, those distorted behaviors no more have a place. You find you're able to engage differently equally with all circumstances to your benefit eventually and more importantly to the benefit of the divine working through you which needs that because it does not look at those things the way you look at them. So, so you have conquered the enslaved responses of the dualities by growing in equality of having transcended the shifting turmoil of the gonas. So this is more complex to express the shifting turmoil of the gonas is you have this continuous play of inertia tamas rajas kinetic action excitation etc and satwa which is a kind of an attempt to harmonize balance find some equilibrium etc. So between the three there is a constant play and the play can be quite complex. In a different context describes certain tendencies of civilizations of a people and some of this is in the context of India for example where he says that the tendency for inertia is often covered up by the satic tendency.
So in the kind of a refinement that comes with the satwa you don't want it to be polluted you don't want to be it to be disturbed so you withdraw into a kind of an inertia of doing nothing of not engaging and then you justify that in terms of the satic element that inertia is justified and then I some while when I read it he says when there is the invasion of the colonization then you blame them Oh, they are rajasik, we are satwik. So the rajas overwhelmed the satwa and he says no that's not true. You have become tamasik because you did not have the dynamism to push back and the rajas overwhelmed the sat of the tamas. From this hopefully you will wake up with a little bit of rajas in order to gain the satwa. But once you're settled in satwa and in a kind of a partial limited satwa, it tends to become tamasic or the rajas which breaks the tamas can also disrupt the satwa. So there's a kind of a competition and turmoil and a shifting relation between these three because you have not attained to a poise which is beyond these three and which uses the powers of these three.
This is what Sri Krishna describes in the Gita as the one who has transcended the three three.
So equality will lead you towards that transcendence of the play of the three gonas. Okay. So that's your third benefit and then the fourth of our having entered into the calm and peace of liberation.
So as the equality deepens and leans back towards self leans to immersion in the Brahman, you have also the calm and the peace of the freedom that comes with the liberated consciousness of Brahman.
So growing in equality would tend towards these four directions of benefits or rather equality being achieved would be a sign that you have had these four.
Now if you started with hey you need to overcome the three gunas you need to overcome dualities uh you need to go beyond the egoistic determinations of your nature you need to find deep calm and peace of liberation there are four big programs one lifetime is not enough if you want to build equality ah yes that's very much accessible maybe within a few years you could do it and if you did it with this deeper understanding that he will give you now and last time we touched was just the beginning then you could achieve a practical equality within a few years that would be stable enough to manage the bulk of the uh daily life circumstances. It's within your reach.
That's my point. And you would have already tended towards some practical poise of these four aspects of your freedom or growth revolution.
So if you do this all those benefits come if you try to do each of those separately it's going to be very very hard and possibly impossible because you don't have the space.
So that's why this the importance its importance can hardly be exaggerated.
Equality is so important.
We go to the next sentence. He says equality is a term of consciousness which brings into the whole of our being and nature the eternal tranquility of the infinite.
There is already the infinite capital I the divine consciousness in its infinity and it has a tranquility and in an eternity.
So that infusing into your consciousness settling everywhere within you would be your base of equality perfected completely. So it's a term of consciousness which brings into the whole of our being the nature of the eternal tranquility of the as if that being there you are bringing its characteristics into you.
Implicit is that when that invades you obviously you have the equality but you can build in it by you can build it by kind of turning towards that and reflecting it and growing gradually towards it.
Moreover, it is the condition of a securely and perfected and perfectly divine action. You want a perfect action. You want a and you want a divine action which is not only perfect but which is secure meaning it cannot be shaken. It cannot be mixed and polluted or distorted by various other things. If you want the security in which that divine action could continue then you need this base of equality.
It's the condition in which the divine action could be secure and perfect.
And then next he says the security and largeness of the cosmic action of the infinite is based upon and never breaks down or forfeits its eternal tranquility. So he is comparing this with the action of the divine infinite consciousness in the cosmic action in the largeness and security of that cosmic action. In that cosmic action, never is there a mixture. Never is there a a weakness. It never breaks down or loses its eternal tranquility. That's what you will grow to gain as the equality deepens. So again the hint is you may deepen equality towards that because that already has this benefit.
But as you grow you will have something of this in your action. He's not saying it becomes perfect immediately. But what will happen is in your action you will have something of that deep tranquility something of the character of the eternal tranquility in a large action and securely large action. As the equality grows you'll be approaching that too must be the character of the perfect spiritual action. If that is the case there will it this is what you should have here to be equal and one to all things in spirit understanding mind heart and natural consciousness in your nature even in the most physical consciousness and to make all their workings whatever their outward adaptation to the thing to be done always and iminuably full of the divine equality and calm must be its inmost principle. So he's setting you the large ideal. It doesn't mean you're going to reach it instantly. You grow towards that. That's all that matters. So don't worry when you see something like this.
Don't fall back like the small boxed minds who say, "Oh yeah, this is big.
Until that happens, nothing will happen." So we have to wait for it to happen. And that was her conclusion.
Don't make that mistake. You are growing towards it. As you grow, you will gain more and more of this. What is this that you gain the perfect spiritual action which comes when you have this equality to all things in all parts of your nature. Okay. So you begin where you can and already there the action will become more and more tending towards this perfection of a spiritual action. So to be equal and one to all things. Okay.
So you are equal but also there is the underlying sense of oneness and we will see increasingly this becomes more important. The underlying sense of oneness which makes possible this equality in spirit in understanding in mind in heart natural consciousness even in the most physical consciousness. So when he says even in the most physical consciousness literally he's saying that's almost the last perfection that last part of the perfection which when that is perfect will actually be that when you have a blow instead of the body reacting oh I got damaged I'm broken now I'm bleeding it would have the equality in the physical substance that says h I'm unaffected no damage now this This is not such a big miracle when you think about the fact that in certain martial arts this is actually taught but it is taught not as a physical perfection. It's taught as a life vital energy perfection then imposed on the physical.
There is the incident narrated in a book which is called I believe it's the Zen in the art of archery.
I don't know if it is that but it some such book of that period. The incident narrated was of this uh martial arts master who took a sword and demonstrated it. At that time it was a western author who had seen this. Normally they don't demonstrate. So it was a big deal that he actually showed somebody. And he took the sword. It was so sharp. He took a piece of wood and just tapped it and it literally cut through like butter. Then he concentrated on his arm and it's only when he reached this point where he had the immunity felt and stable he pointed to a particular part of the arn and with the sword they hit the arn quite hard.
Obviously, if it could cut wood, it should cut this totally. And the only thing which happened was the impact of a kind of a reddish mark of the blow of the impact, but no cutting.
And that just shows you that it's possible to infuse into the physical consciousness even that degree of immunity. The means used was primarily through life force and the subtle physical body. Nevertheless, it could be done by that without a an obvious spiritual development.
And then after that he had to concentrate and so to say withdraw that intervention he had made. And then his hand was again vulnerable.
So it was a specialized state not easy to hold in a continuous. It was not a natural state. It was not the normal habit of the biology and of his nature. It was a specialized state imposed on the body by specialized beings. Occult beings we will say. To that extent it was unnatural.
But such a thing would be natural when the physical consciousness itself acquires this kind of perfection of the equality. So but that's still even in the most. So he's saying that's kind of something to come later to begin with to be equal and one to all things in spirit understanding mind heart and natural consciousness. So there's a natural sequence to this starting with that which is most flexible in which you can do this. So in spirit in your general consciousness you look upon all things for example as the one Brahman and it's easy to do in a kind of a rarified part of the mind from there it will settle in your understanding from there it will settle in your normal working of mind and normal working of heart etc and to make all their workings whatever their outward adaptation to the thing to be done always and iminuably full of the divine equality So whatever happens externally, whatever work you may do in all these parts, you must be able to hold this divine equality and calm and this should be the idmost principle. So he's setting you the standard of the perfection to which you have to grow. Now we can hold this as a reference, grow towards it without worrying too much how close we are to that. Rather notice the steps of growth and improvement in your overall general consciousness.
So the problem of this text is that most people fall back just looking at the standard set. Wow, that I'm very far from it. Yes, of course you are.
But he's not saying that you have to be there. He's saying that's the direction you have to set. The advantage of reading the same text in the record of yoga and in the diary notes in the notes of the disciples, he's giving you hey start like this. He's not telling you get to that. So it seems accessible, it seems doable. But in fact, as you will see in the synthesis of yoga itself, he gives you the starting point. But he's always setting these large uh perspectives of where it must go to towards what. Why it is important is because it would be very easy to stop halfway and say, "Ah, yes, this is it. This is all that's possible." And he's saying, "No, you have to be able to go all the way to that." That's when it is perfect.
So you don't stop halfway. That is one important reason. The second which is a more deep spiritual reason is when he says you go this way this way towards this let's say perfection.
He's telling you the principle upon which your actions will be effective and become perfect. So for example when he mentions the Brahman's oneness and that it lead relates to all things in equality naturally because it is one with all things.
Here he has given you the clue that it is the influence of the Brahman consciousness its approach its attitude its relationships its reality as it dawns into you more and more that will make your equality spontaneously more complete and more perfect.
So rather than fighting with forbearance and building which would be a starting point or as you're fighting with the forbearance you remember the forbearance of Brahman as you poise yourself in some kind of indifference you remember the indifference and freedom of Brahman.
As you dwell on the movement of surrender, it is to Brahman and the working of the larger divine consciousness or the divine shaky etc. So by putting that in the relationship, dwelling on it as reference, it's as if you're inviting its natural poise to infuse itself more and more in you. And therefore the effort you make is a small part. The benefit you gain from its infusion in you is the bigger part.
So it feels almost with a small effort on your part, oh the result is so much bigger.
So when you read something like this in shribbindu when he's showing you the goal and he's showing you the underlying principle behind oh Brahman is like that therefore in your own action it should be like that don't say oh this is beyond my scope you say oh this is the means this is what will happen it's not my effort it is that working in me and the whole thing becomes so much easier and more rapid and more joyous and then the last sentence of just this one paragraph that may be said to be the passive or basic the fundamental and the receptive side of equality. So what he's been describing so far which he has related to this infinite and the cosmic action of the infinite that may be said to the to be the passive or basic the fundamental and receptive side of equality but there is an active and possessive side and equal bliss which can only come when the peace of equality is founded and which is the beatatrific flower of its fullness. So when your peace of equality is sufficiently stable and this passive side is perfected, you will have also the active side and the equal bliss which will come once this is developed.
So interestingly in the synthesis of yoga this other side he does not place immediately before you. He says focus on this then this will follow. Unlike what you see in the notes in the record of yoga where he's giving you both equally and saying the three processes here, the three processes here etc. And it's almost as if you start well let me do this first.
Here he's telling you build that first this will follow naturally effortlessly.
So across the three chapters you'll actually find this developed.
Read the names of the chapters. The first is called the perfection of equality. The second is called the way of equality. The third is called the action of equality. That's where the active side is being developed. So literally two chapters dedicated to building this first upon which then the action of equality would become natural and perhaps even relatively effortless and that's all there is. This is the only one paragraph which describes this limb of yoga the samata chhatushtaya or shanti chhatushaya and then the real thing starts in the very next chapter which is called the perfection of equality. We are not going to look at that now. Having read this, we are going to go now to the record of yoga and the notes in the notebooks of disciples. This is the second text. You remember I had put two links. Last time we read from the first of them. This time we are reading from the second. And you'll see now why it was important to read this to come here.
So in the disciples notebook there's first a kind of a table I'm going to skip that where he's linking the pass the three facets of the passive side and the three facets of the active side and placing them like this and then describing how one of them is more poised in the mind and intellect one in the prana one in the spirit in sequence.
So we'll not touch that now. We'll read the text first.
He's explaining what is equality. Samata is accepting everything in the same way without any disturbance in any part of the being. So whatever happens, you're not disturbed in any part. That's equality. Disturbance is caused by the want of harmony between the chitshaki in myself and the contacts of chit shaky outside.
So you see here is a very different approach.
You're saying okay you have to have no disturbance but from where does disturbance arise? This is a question you will not find any psychologist or any modern exploration of human consciousness even addressing from a spiritual point of view. If you say all is Brahman and Brahman is meeting Brahman when I look at the flower or touch the flower. Well, why should there be some disturbance? It's Brahman's harmony meeting Brahman's harmony always, isn't it? So you have to address this question because otherwise your whole understanding falls apart and this is the only place you'll find where in all the literature of the world where he's saying it so obviously and directly disturbance is caused by the want of harmony lack of harmony between chit shaky and myself and the contact of chitchaty outside. So here's the flower the consciousness force shaky remember it's satan the consciousness force everything is formed of the form of sachidan the consciousness force in my finger and the consciousness force in the flower well they're both that chit shaky and as the two meet and there is contact there is a lack of harmony and the lack of harmony is what produces a disturbance. So as I touch the flower petals, ah yes, this is so soft. There is a natural harmony.
And I hold in my enthusiasm, I say, "Oh, this is so beautiful. I want this." And I reach out to pluck the flower and I grab the stem and pull to pluck it.
Except my finger now has touched the thorn of the rose, which pokes painfully.
And I have a huge reaction.
The same thing which touching the petals and the softness and oh this is so pleasant. Now when it pokes in the thorn has a huge reaction.
What's the difference with the petal it was within the capacity for harmony of the consciousness force in my finger when it poked when the thorn poked in it was beyond its capacity. So the want of harmony with the contact of the consciousness force outside then he explains pain, grief, dislike etc. are merely the system's way of saying that it objects to a particular contact because of want of harmony.
So there's some misalignment, some lack of harmony and my system is saying I don't want this. I want to push away because I don't know how to handle that lack of harmony. So it objects to this contact. It says I don't want this is not good. This is not right. This is unsafe whatever it is because I can't manage that lack of harmony. I don't know how to find that harmony.
The system cannot bear an inharmonious contact or even a pleasant one if it is too intense or too prolonged.
Interesting.
So you have a contact which does not have harmony.
I'm unable to manage that. So I have all these reactions. But then he says it can even happen to a pleasant contact if it is too intense or too prolonged.
So I take a little drop of honey. Oh, so delicious.
And now if somehow I could add more and a continuous series of drops of honey, there's a point where the whole tongue becomes numb and oh, I can't bear it.
This is too much.
There's a I had read somewhere in the the context of the example of the rose that modern roses have largely lost their uh perfume. You still find a little bit of that perfume in wild roses, but the modern roses were crossbreed for colors and so they bred out the perfumes. And there was a time, it seems, when in the Roman excesses they would have an orgy of flowers. So they would bring so many roses that the smell would overwhelm you and intoxicate you and put you in a state of intoxication.
So already that the system is finding it beyond its capacity to manage it goes into some kind state of inbreation.
But if it was continued if it was too intense you would have a reaction. If it was too prolonged you would have reaction even if pleasant.
So you notice your system has two problems. It cannot handle intensity beyond a point whatever it may be. Even pain small amount of pain you can handle. But when it goes too much beyond a point you cannot or pleasure beyond a point you cannot or it's too long it continues for too long and your system reacts and both forms of reactions take on some form of pain grief dislike etc because you can't contain disgust fear horror shame are attempts of the system to repel the unpleasant contact and defend itself. So notice what these responses do is they either push away that thing or they pull you back from that thing to protect itself because it doesn't know how to handle it is overwhelmed.
Now if you start thinking from this point of view the whole approach to equality can be fundamentally different that you're saying listen I need to find some internal harmony from this and the this to that the life the chit shaky consciousness force here with the consciousness force in that and if somehow that could be aligned then the same thing would be equal bearable or at least at the very least equal my ability to handle would be there.
Now uh much of this implicitly is about the reaction to pull away to protect to defend itself. But you understand in principle the same thing would happen if it is very pleasant. It would attract you and so the system is it's as if leaning out to reach to possess.
It cannot be maintain its equality because again there is an imbalance inability to manage that pulls you as if so when there is the perfect harmony then there will be naturally the poise of equality you will still enjoy but from a poise of equality I'm going to give a few examples of how this could happen in a very superficial way I'm not going to that depth yet but to show you how this can be reprogrammed let's say now somebody is you're sitting alone.
Maybe you're in deep daydream.
Someone comes next to you and whacks you on your shoulder. Hey, so long since I met you.
That shock throws you. And you turn in anger, hatred, disgust, shock, whatever the reaction is at that point. And yet the fellow was a friendly pet, isn't it?
Look at a different situation. He caught you by surprise in this case. This time he comes from in front of you, greets you from afar. Hey, so nice to see you.
And as he approaches you, he he raises his hand to whack your shoulder. You know he's going to whack. You know it's coming from a good intention. And this time as he whacks you hard with the same force, you're happy about it.
What was the difference? He did it from behind you surprising you with the same affection. He does it from in front of you without surprising you and you perhaps even enjoy it and see it as a mark of his affection for you. What's the difference?
You notice there was a certain internal preparation that prepared for that impact and you were ready for it. You could meet it and you could hold harmony.
when you were not ready to meet it and the impact came it overwhelmed you could not hold harmony and you had all those reactions if now let's take it a further step you have to show somebody you know he came and whacked me with so much affection well how how strongly did he hit you and you take your own hand and go he hit me like that and you hit as hard as he hit you Did you feel pain? Did you feel disgust? Did you feel any reaction?
Cuz you were meeting you.
There's your clue. When it was the other meeting you, you needed to adapt to harmonize. When it's you meeting you, the harmony is already there as if or it's already adapted internally somewhere without even consciously intending it.
It's exactly the same thing in the example. You take your hand, you're swinging, you're walking, you don't notice there's an object in the way, and your palm hits hard. Ow, that stings.
You have just had a beautiful show of theater. You're clapping.
You're hitting just as hard, both palms at the same time, but you don't feel that sting. You don't feel that pain. You don't have that reaction cuz it's you meeting you.
If in your consciousness now let's assume and let's do it as a imagine an imagination.
You you are so identified with the other person that as he comes to you and prepares to whack you, you feel him as yourself.
And as he whacks you, it's as if your own arm whacked you.
You would have exactly the same pleasure or equality of your hand whacking your own hand, clapping, whacking.
In fact, that's what happens when a friend, a beloved or a close family member, etc., interacts with you in some familiar way, you don't have a problem because you're used to and a kind of a relationship, harmony, affinity has already been built up. So you see at the core of it will be a kind of a realignment of the consciousness within you and within them and if the consciousness is aligned the external form can manage.
Think about this because it's a clue of how you would find a natural spontaneous effortless equality when you begin to feel the one Brahman in yourself and in all things equally and then the contact is of Brahman meeting Brahman but in an active awareness and harmony and then perhaps you don't have these reactions or the reactions exist in the part which cannot handle. So my fingertip uh pressing upon the thorn of the rose will feel hurt but I who have not identified with the body in other layers of me in those parts would still enjoy. Oh that's interesting.
You would not have that reaction in those other parts at least where the harmony has been built up. So you are getting a clue here of how you would need to change the relationship and ultimately it all comes to setting the right relationship in the inner layers and then bringing that all the way into all parts of your consciousness in all layers. How would you do that? And then what you get now is the program of how to do that. And the same points that we saw last time. First step would be endurance. Second step would be standing above in indifference. The third third step would be submission to God's will etc. So you're seeing a very different kind of approach based on a more essential key. But this you appreciate after having read what we just read before from the synthesis of yoga where he goes straight to the heart of it. The one Brahman, the oneness of the Brahman.
So we continue with the text here.
Titika means the power of endurance.
You bear the unpleasant contact yourself standing back from it with a watching mind and teaching the system to bear it.
So something happened, it hurt and you say I separate and I say okay you should be able to manage this much.
So what was the unpleasant contact?
Maybe it's a smell. There's kind of a foul smell here. It's in the air. Well, I can't avoid it. It's everywhere in the air. Fine. Bear it. Learn to bear it.
Don't react. Don't jump. Don't be disturbed.
And it's a part of your mind separating and in to from the layer where the reaction is there and saying, "Okay, take it easy. Nothing is going to happen. You're not going to be damaged."
You would not do that if the thing you touched was very hot and could burn.
Then you'd say, "Hey, my fingers warning me."
But eventually, even that might be perfected in the physical level. But at at least at a psychological level, you are totally safe irrespective of what the smell or thing will be. All right, I will learn to bear it, ignore it. And you notice in a very short time as your attention shifts if you have taught that part to be to endure it stops bothering you. If on the other hand at each moment it is jumping and you have not taught it to endure. It is jumping it's bad smell.
It's a bad smell. I need to get away.
How long do I have to stay here? I want to go. I want to go. You can see what a disturbance it will create in everything else within you.
So you notice somewhere what you do in terms of response will determine whether this habit continues or it changes.
So he's teaching you here with a watching mind teaching the system to bear it. You're modifying the habit pattern and reaction.
Once you've built this up let's say with a particular kind of smell in a particular context. The next time when that happens you'll notice ah that smell h doesn't affect you.
If you start doing this bit by bit, you will notice how quickly you can learn to become indifferent to unpleasant inter actions or contacts.
In a sense, this is what tends to happen in life. Inevitably, life teaches you this by persistently exposing you in a way that you have no choice. And you say, "All right, I will suffer. I will bear etc. But there's a difference between merely bearing and suffering but I'm still unhappy and teaching that part to endure without reaction. And this is where it becomes yoga. There it becomes just forbearance and endurance or suffering.
When you make this shift consciously you do not have anymore the sense that I am enduring, I am bearing or I am suffering but I'm hanging on. You've changed the response itself.
and you say ah okay it's there you do not become insensitive you do not desensitize but you do not react so this should be your first step and you notice here already there is this idea of reprogramming the reaction the next step what follows is so remember he's now teaching you in three steps although in synthesis of yoga you have these three steps and then three ways of perfecting each of the steps to its ultimate. So keep in mind there's actually a much bigger context of how the thing could be done. But this is the simple starting point. What follows only when you have done a little bit of the endurance. What follows is udas.
Udasin means standing high. Udasa is indifference.
The purusha the witnessing consciousness. standing high above these contacts and not minding what they are.
So let's say you are working in an industry, a chemical factory which is producing all kinds of things which has ammonia in one section and some sulfur in another section and various others.
There's a point where this is so much a part of your life and daily routine you don't even notice the variations.
But if you enter the factory as a visitor, oh my god it smells of rotten eggs. Oh my god, this is smelling so terrible. And you have all the reactions. But the person working there actually laughs at you. Ho ho. Yeah, I also had that when I first came. I've adapted myself. The difference is his adaptation was not yogic. It was a partially a desensitization and indirectly an endurance or even a standing back of indifference. But indirectly secondarily you are doing this consciously. You're entering the first time you say is there a danger? Is this smell a danger sign? The fellow says no. I say okay. So let me adjust and I train myself first to bear. Once I can bear then I can stand above and not mind. So there's a sequence.
Third one. Nati is the subsequent one.
So when you have done the second then the third becomes possible. It is the feeling of submission to God's will. All contacts being regarded as the touches of God himself.
So now here is when you are connecting to the deeper truth of the Brahman and the chitshaki consciousness meeting consciousness and by putting yourself in relation to that because you don't have it you don't feel chitshaki you don't feel the oneness of Brahman but that knows that is that responds that way and you put yourself in relation to that and its influence filling you changes and brings its true equality into So understand this in a different way.
Now if this it is the feeling of submission to God's will all contacts being regarded as the touches of God himself. So I have the beautiful rose and then I have a little bottle of ammonia and a little bit of sulfur somewhere coming from whatever and I smell the rose and I smell the ammonia and I smell the sulfur. I say hm there are variations of God's play of God's delight. God enjoys himself in the perfume of the rose through the bee and through the rose and enjoys himself in the smell of sulfur among I don't know which animals would enjoy that would be drawn to that but he is still enjoying it through the rocks through the air which carries the sulfur and in the sulfur itself he's enjoying himself I took in partic of that and said hm this is god's touch coming in this form and I submit to God's delight, God's will.
What is interesting when this happens is the character of the experience changes.
You actually experience a kind of a delight, joy which is not bound to your enjoying the taste of this or not enjoying the taste of this. It is coming from the delight of the contact with the divine presence.
So it's as if even in the thorn. Okay, I shouldn't take thorn because that's a too painful an event. But something rough when you expected something smooth. Okay. Oh, surprise.
And then again, there's a different relationship, a different substance, different texture.
And it's still the touch of the divine consciousness through this form.
And I'll relate to the divine presence there. And the joy you get is of the contact with the divine presence.
But in a sense it is colored with the rasa the juice of this contact. And so it's different when I still have the contact of the divine presence and the joy when something else let's say perfume of rose smell of ammonia different but the contact of divine presence is what is what gives the joy and then it has a shade it has a color that's when you touch the true essential character of what is called rasa the way the divine enjoys it is how you are kind of enjoying it now by kind of a reflection by kind of an infusion and it is an experience which when you have it, you recognize ah that's what it is and it's totally worth it because you realize at that point you can feel this in any experience of life.
Let's avoid for the moment the more extremes but in broadly the range of common variable that's why the first endurance within the domain of your endurance currently pretty much you can have this with anything. So in long back this was about now 22 years ago uh when we were studying the synthesis of yoga in Uraville in Savvitri Bhavan weekly talks and I said we're talking about so many things and it's so nice to talk about it to understand it and think about it but we have to experience it even all this it's nice you hear it you read it you say it's so nice good now I go back to my life nothing has changed changed. I want to experience this and I want people to experience this. Is it even possible? Can I take them to a point of experience? That was my first attempt to do something like a applied practice and so we called it a retreat and a group of us from Oruroville. We went at that time Taraj Johar had just started her programs in her place in Ninal and it was the first one literally that uh we did. She herself came to make sure everything was arranged and we were doing certain exercises and practices of various kinds and at some point I was trying to explore what else can you do to push the variety of these experiences and we had got to a certain stage of deep the descent of the peace and a deep equality that came in the peace. We were settled in that and most of the group had it pretty well. So I said now when you go to have your lunch I want you to taste the food from this poise.
So there's a everything that you will eat you stay in the poise. Don't lose yourself in the normal state in which you eat food. Hold this poise and you see what happens to the food itself and your relationship with the food and even your relationship with the taste of the food.
And there was a chili there. So I said you can try taste the chili also.
So they went and afterwards we had a feedback and one person said I took the chili and I was feeling this relationship and then I took a little bite of the chili and it was so perfect and at that point he said I said oh this ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch chili is delicious.
I must eat it. And he fell into his normal relationship and bit into the chili and it burst into heat of burning.
the poise had shifted when the poise was the other it tasted different the poise shifted it it had all the reaction and other responses so I'm just showing you how interesting it can be as an exploration in proportion to the degree of shift in consciousness that you're able to evoke keep all three in sequence build endurance standing back from it standing high above not minding what happens a kind of an indifference and then from there accepting all these as contact with the divine. See if you have not built the first two steps you can't say contact with the divine ouch this hurts. You must be able to bear it and disconnect from it. And then from there you can re-engage as contact with the divine. God's will submission to God's will. All contacts being regarded as the touches of God himself. Now if you come back to the earlier part where we read it's a want of harmony between the consciousness force in me and the consciousness force outside. So when you put yourself in that relationship and regard all as contact of the divine that harmony implicit already within becomes more explicit more emergent and so it changes the relationship.
So you see how different this whole uh text is from what we read last time which was much more generic. Here he is the way he's guiding a disciple to put this into practice.
The next uh three points correspond to what was described last time as the three steps of the active equality. This was the passive side of equality. You're allowing you're changing the way you respond to what comes to you.
Now you're changing the way that you respond in in return to the active side. And you remember there were three terms used there also.
The words words used were different.
They were referred to as rasa that is the underlying delight.
Priti the pleasure of the mind and the anunda which is the divine enjoyment.
But in the vocabulary he uses here, it's slightly different. And he makes a correspondence between these. Remember I said there are two three lines before which I skipped in a table. So he's describing there what it corresponds to.
And it's quite fascinating.
Uh in the endurance there is an equivalent positive side which is the equal russer. In the indifference there is an equivalent positive side which is the uh equal enjoyment and in the last submission surrender there's the positive side which is equal delight. So the first one he says titika samarasa mind and intellect then udas which is indifference sa equal enjoyment prana life force and then nati which is submission with equal delight sama anunda spirit so he is actually touching as if three different parts of consciousness making this correspondence I wouldn't give too much importance to this now it's a useful correlation for understanding understanding but does not change the nature of the practice. So but for the purpose of practice the vocabulary used by him is not so important. The application of it is what matters. So sar rasa or equal russer from all things happenings experiences objects etc. So again this listing of things, happenings, experiences, objects etc. is to remind you that you tend to focus on something contact with an object contact with an interaction of a person but also there are experiences psychological experiences and how you respond to those experiences. An event happens how you respond to that event. So he's making sure that you're looking at the full spectrum of impacts and the way you respond. So taking equal russa we have to take through our mind and intellect. So it's as if in this part the mind is yours liver to say oh behind this it is the same one delight.
Remember all this will follow after the first three are done. So you have already a briefly the idea that through it it is the divine consciousness that you're touching that you're meeting the divine mother through the touch of the divine mother through that form through that contact you've already built sufficiently the endurance indifference and then this aspect now when you say you take the delight it is this because you already tasted the delight in that joy of the contact that delight itself you will take equally in all things and it is the mind which will put the relationship that it is in each thing it will be equal.
In practice, if you have already brought it to this point, assuming you've done the basic bearing for bearing indifference and something of this opening to contact with the presence, any kind of food could come before you and you would be able to have in the taste something of the savor of this delight and say, "Wow."
And this is wow. And even if the food is bad, even if it's got rotten, you may take it and it'll savor the delight of that badness. Doesn't mean you will eat it. You may still say, "Okay, this is bad. It's gone." But you will not have the reaction.
So you'll notice here that could be reaction on many levels. The mind which is oh my god, how could this happen?
Emotions which would get why did you do this? Why did you neglect? Or it could be in the physical tongue where at the moment of the contact the tongue says ew and pulls back or the life force in the body says ew and pulls back I want to throw it out spit it out. It could happen on any any of these levels but in all these if the equality is established it'll come on your tongue and say okay I leave it.
So this is equal rasa we have to take through mind and intellect. Now we are building remember the positive side. So all is about um positive response. The next is sama is the equal enjoyment in the prana of all things happenings experiences objects etc. So the mind enjoying and then the life force enjoying. U what's the difference? If you notice carefully in the eating of the food, there are two components. There's the mind's appreciation and it's that's where we put colors, flavors, etc. Where even before you eat, there is a value system put by the mind. Oh, this is beautiful, this aesthetic, this is clean, this is tasty in a refined way. And then there is the response in the life force which says you know you often feel a craving or a revulsion but the life force is what tends normally to seize upon in its enjoyment. It is the life force which takes in and feels nourished.
Remembering some somebody who responds like this when the food is good. It's really I enjoy it. I love to eat like this. There people you'll see people like that. That's the life force coming.
It's not the mind coming. It's the identification that takes place in the reaching out of the life force to seize to take to draw in etc. And obviously you don't have the equality there. But let's assume now we have built the equality and it has come into the life force. And then in this grade of experience also while you will enjoy the food it will be the equal enjoyment in the prana of all the things. So in your prana I eat this I eat that and I can equally enjoy. Doesn't mean they taste the same they taste different but my enjoyment is equal in each thing.
And then the third summer equal anunda is the joy of unity in everything and with everything. So the delight now comes the true delight and the spiritual delight comes when you feel the underlying sense of unity and oneness in everything and with everything. So you take it in everything you feel this and then with everything you feel the underlying sense of oneness.
So it's as if take the earlier example of the hand clapping.
Now I am eating something which is already mine or a part of me and the food is already mine.
This is actually the underlying truth already present. You have only woken up to it.
In fact, I'm going to go into a little more superficial examples to show you that this underlying truth reflects itself on so many other levels.
When you take in food that comes from outside, outside you, your body does not immediately absorb.
It can only absorb if it develops a relationship of oneness with it.
Otherwise, it rejects. It says this is foreign. This is not mine. This is not me. How can I merge with it or absorb it?
And so the process and a very physical level is to build an artificial sense of oneness which is done how?
You take the food in your mouth and mix your saliva into it until your saliva entering it makes it yours.
Okay, you get the difference. If a piece of food goes into your mouth and you take it out right there before the saliva touches, sometimes a relative, close family, friend might still take or share with you. But once it's mixed with your saliva, nobody will take it because it's yours. It's no more separate. Your body has made it through the mixing with a part of itself. And that saliva breaks down the food, modifies it, reduces it to its terms of familiarity.
That's what we call predigestion that takes place in the mouth. At the same time, you're chewing it to make it of the consistency that corresponds with your materials need to make it more like you. So if the mouth saliva mixing and chewing has not been correctly done, the same food entering the stomach is not properly digested and is expelled because it's not yours. When the saliva mixing, chewing etc. is properly done as it enters you, it's already yours, your body happily absorbs and only what it cannot absorb, it rejects as well foreign not mind.
If you understand how a deep spiritual truth is reflected in this very physical process, you will see a profound symbolism in all material functions of your biology of course but also many more things.
But you see the principle here is until something is experienced or felt as one with you, you will never have the full joy or the true relationship with it.
And so this needs to be attained of course at an essential level and a psychosspiritual level. So and that's the sama ananda is the joy of unity in everything and with everything. This is me. This is a part of me and as I in this case the food or interact with something someone situation events you can have the equal delight in all these things.
When your consciousness widens enough that all that happens is felt as if within you or a part of you, somehow you but differently you then you begin to experience this naturally. You can stand on the edge of a valley on top of a mountain on the shore of the sea or a river in a garden. And if you feel this deeper sense of oneness with what is before you, there's such a deep wide free joy and you can walk through and enjoy everything without being attached. You will not say this flower is more beautiful. That is not good at all.
You'll actually see beauty in everything. different nuances, colors of delight of the beauty in everything and equally. So I took this example first of the valley because there the whole valley is wow beautiful but then as you approach each flower each tree each plant each animal bird sound is beautiful differently but equally beautiful and so this becomes accessible to you through this graded step but also occasionally spontaneously you have glimpses of this if you have had it once you know what we're talking about but you can now consciously build towards this until this can become more and more frequent in your life at least in basic common experiences of interaction and eventually it will extend to the less common interactions and you can imagine what kind of a life it makes.
Now to complete the psychology and the discussion here the next sentence says sama rasa the first of these three and sama bhoga the second of these three the mind and the vital cannot be secured unless we have sama ananda the third the equal delight. So in other words the enjoyment of equal russa enjoyment of equal uh pleasure enjoyment and the delight in these three the third delight u the first two cannot be secured unless you have the delight. It is this delight which will make those two possible. In other words once you have this sense of underlying oneness the other two become easy. But he says but it is difficult for sama ananda to come unless mind and prana have been taught equality in rasa and poga.
So you need to do these two to gain the third. But when you gain the third that's when the other two become secured until then they are unstable. So he's showing you the relationship.
The two other two become secured because here you have the underlying sense of oneness which makes those two secured.
If the underlying oneness is missing, the two are not secured. They come, they go, they are fickle.
But if you have worked on those two, then you can gain the underlying sense of oneness and with it the delight.
So once you get the hang of this, you notice how if you have already worked upon the other aspect of the negative equality or the passive equality and you've already felt there's something of the Brahman and the underlying sense of that is already present then the third is acquired much more rapidly and easily which makes possible the other two to become secure.
So you see how all these different efforts intermingle mutually support and always the highest deepest of it will make the others more stable but the others would be steps leading to the highest or deepest.
There's a general observation in the relationship between these practices.
So so far we have focused only on the equality aspect. We'll complete the text here by reading what comes next without dwelling too much in it. We'll keep that for next time. The result of complete samata equality is complete shanti peace. On the other hand, if there is any touch of anxiety, grief, disappointment, depression etc. It is a sign that samata is not complete.
Equality is not complete. When we get complete shanti peace then we get complete sukham joy.
Shanti is negative. It is a state of freedom from trouble. Sukama is positive. It is not merely freedom from grief and pain but a positive state of happiness in the whole system. And then comes the fourth atma prasada is a state of clearness, purity, contentment in the whole self. That is the essence of sukum the happiness.
When sukum begins to become strong anunda then it is ha the delight a state of positive joy and cheerfulness which takes the whole of life and the world as a pleasant and amusing play.
So this part we had also read from the other text last time without elaborating.
But you see how sharbindu barely dwells on these. He does not speak of three steps, three processes, degrees, nothing. He says get this, it leads to this. Get this, it leads to that and then this becomes constant. Very simple.
suggesting that that is an almost spontaneous natural consequence of this work. So the first few steps are the ones where you have gone into fine substeps get them the next becomes easier then the next even easier then the next even easier or spontaneous um already here implicit in all this remember is the underlying sense of oneness.
It's also the underlying sense in the equality of the shift inward which although not stated here distinctly with the vocabulary of later term psychic points to this because this state of positive joy and and cheerfulness which takes the whole of life and the world as a pleasant and amusing play is the natural state of the psychic being. So what he has done is through the equality and the deep peace and from there a kind of a freedom from grief and pain has brought you in alignment until this natural state of the psychic becomes constant.
But you could by consciously relating to the divine mother open to and draw upon the psychic influence more actively right from the beginning which would be the natural outcome of following that process of nati the surrender to the divine especially when done in with that sense of bi.
So although not explicitly stated, you see this is there already in the overall scheme of things and it is the culmination of that equality, the true equality which leans to the underlying sense of oneness of Brahman, of the underlying sense of self but rests in the psychic from which there is this constant cheerfulness, joy and all life and world is a pleasant and amusing play of the divine. You are like a child of the divine and playing like a child in the beautiful garden of the divine creation. Isn't it? U you can see how in the later practice of the yoga this aspect is highlighted and prioritized which helps to gain those other things also.
It's only a shift in prioritization according to the temperament of the person.
Not everybody would have the opening of the bacti. There are people who feel completely blocked in the emotions and they would starting point would be more through the mental aspects of these. So all types of nature have also been taken into account. But if you can and where you can allow this influence to come forward more and more and the underlying sense of oneness comes through that and its relationship with the divine mother that you now perceive everywhere in all things and through all things and through all events her touch, her support, her carrying you in all circumstances. This being built up from the deeper influence of the psychic poise, you can see how all those other things become also so much easier. So I'm showing you variations that would naturally come from the widened context of the integral yoga but the basic framework is still the same and it's only a question of shifting priority.
I'm going to pause here for today and we'll quickly look at uh the chat box in case there's something of immediate relevance. But keep your comments or questions we'll take them up later.
Okay. So, Mahesh Nar Mahesh is asking is he actually describing equality or equanimity?
I understand equality as recognizing everything to be the same divine and equanimity as facing everything with the same exact internal poise. Now, as far as I have, I would understand equimity is a state of emotions.
Equality is a general state of consciousness. So equinimity will be more a state of calm in the emotions.
Equality is meeting each thing in the same way although they are different.
So equality is what we are talking about not equanimity which is a more of an emotional state.
Yes. So Raviti says in one of the previous sessions on the integral yoga perhaps episode 94 you have suggested several simple exercises one of them being feeling the Brahman in everything and uh simple ones which can be done by anyone. I did try that. How beautiful was that experience? I began wondering how the physical world could be associated with words like misery and sorrow. It felt great while the experience lasted. Later I was back to my usual normal state. Yes, do look at those discussions also. Although much of what we discussed now will cover that. I have not elaborated on forms of practice. But this is a very powerful practice you can do is you go into a space which is relatively easy to manage, calm, comfortable, quiet, preferably beautiful with nature. Maybe a garden, a park where there's not too much human noise or uh chaos. And then you dwell on the sense of the beauty of things and dwell on the perception of the presence within all things. Uh depending on your temperament, you might find the dwelling on the flowers and the beauty and entry point that behind that is such a deep joy which expresses in this beauty of the flowers.
Or if your temperament more naturally turns to the air itself, the entire space filled with this deep sense of the presence of the one of the Brahman or of the divine mother if that is the more natural way you would feel. Uh you enjoy the presence that fills everything and as you dwell in it there are two directions it can take. As you feel the presence you look at each flower and you say oh it is the same presence now expressing through this flower. You look at the leaves and it is the same presence through the leaves. You hear the bird, it is the same presence coming through the sound of the birds.
So it's the same presence in each form and it's converts or corresponding uh other experience will be all this is held in the same one presence that embraces the whole garden and then you widen that embraces this whole earth that embraces this whole universe and like a container holds and sustains it.
So these are as if complimenting experiences. Whichever you find more easy start with that and then find the other and then if possible hold both. It is the same presence in all things. And all this is held in the oneness of the presence. And as you dwell in the sense of the oneness there's a deep joy, a deep freedom and the true sense of the russa of things also begins to fill. So it's a very beautiful powerful experience. It passes when your consciousness comes back to your normal surface limited form. It's as if during the experience you widen out to something more deep and true which is yours always but you don't live in it normally and you tend to come back to a more superficial state. But when you do this a few times you can as if hold this as a backdrop easily or you can lean into it at any point in the middle of anything. Just enjoy this and then come back to your activity. In other words, it becomes accessible and with it the equality becomes almost naturally uh spontaneous and effective.
CDA is saying you mention enjoyment of even rotten things when one has equality. In my experience, I feel it is more contentment with everything rather than than enjoyment. Here I understand enjoyment to be an activation of surface level life forces. My experience is that contentment leads to unconditional enjoyment that is not affected by external factors. Yes. U we are of course at some point splitting hairs on what we mean by those words. But you're right in exactly right in what you say.
These two terms that Shirbindu uses which uh we have been referring to suka and ha actually represent these two degrees.
There's kind of an underlying contentment which is not affected. You may not actively enjoy it but once you have that even with the rotten thing you can actually enjoy it and not in a pursu perverse way just as one of the colors of the play of the divine consciousness the way it can play it h that was interesting that was fun you may not seek it actively because it's not healthy for your biology or something in your biology says I can't take more obviously at that point the equality has not come into the biology but if the biology has experienced the equality it can even take that and digest it. I don't recommend for you to try that because obviously you're not there. But when it is there in the biology, it literally makes it immune like the example of the sword stroke. It can it it you're immune. You can take things which are normally not digestible to the body and the body with its equality state will actually digest it and make some use of it. That's the interesting part. But we are not there and don't force that. That's not important. But that is also possible. But you're right.
The first movement is a more of a contentment.
Okay. So, Rampal is saying, can you give examples of sama rasa at the mind level?
So, much of what we have been taking in terms of examples is starting with the mind's appreciation of the equality.
So, in all things behind all appearances, you hold the idea that it is the working of the divine consciousness, divine shy playing. So whatever happens it is under overall guidance of the shi doesn't mean it's the best thing to happen it's what she's currently use doing in within the limited capacity or acceptance of those instruments she can override that's a different story but she's working through the instrument's capacity for now and so you appreciate her you may still criticize the outcome and the instrument's failure or incapacity that's a different thing but it does not come from a reaction to it just comes comes from an understanding oh yeah that's not optimum but well that's how it's happened let's deal with it let's see what good we can draw from it so these are poises which are easy to reach in the mind's understanding and so um if again I take the example of the food here's a spread of 20 different dishes oh this one has a strong red color it's good it will give you lots of iron that one has strong green chlorophyll it will have these benefits and you can literally find a benefit in each thing.
Even if you were to take snake venom, yes, it's poisonous, but the same venom in a highly diluted state can save a life because it can dissolve clots and it can do things which nothing else can do. So in the mind's understanding it's easy to see the utility each thing has the right place right use and uh right benefit that everything can have and through it the perception of wow this is so beautiful so useful so perfectly placed etc which comes through the mind's appreciation that would be a good starting point for the equal russer from all things happenings through the mind and intellect so I'm going to leave uh this text as it is now. Uh next time we will go a little deeper into the more complex understanding. I don't want to do a whole elaborate commentary on the text from the synthesis of yoga. It would be a little too much. But I will touch upon some such examples of sign significant practical value uh which elaborate on what Shrierbinda has said here. And then we will also answer that question which uh Isak has raised about suka and ha and the deeper understanding of this and that would be I think the best we can do with this samata.
As I suggested last time, do put into practice. Play with all these things.
Sometimes just the way I'm describing it, something within you says, "Ah, yes, this is doable." Catch that moment, catch that mood and extend it into the perception. Bring it into your daily life. Use especially spaces and experiences which are within your band of capacity to bear that they don't provoke you too much. And then within that it's easy to play and touch these experiences. Once it starts you'll find you can extend easily to more intense and uncomfortable experiences where the harmony of chitchaty meeting chitaki is not yet there.
All this is very practical and what Shriurbindu is teaching has massive implications if you just put a little bit of practice. So do take make that effort. Let's take a moment to concentrate on the intention and the aspiration to set the equality and the deep peace as base in our whole being in a graded process of practice always with the help of the presence of the shi the divine mother and the deep vast presence of the self and the Brahman which are right there just behind just above supporting. And as we turn to them, they flow into us, infuse, and settle in us the very thing that we're seeking and awaken it in our experience.
Namaste.
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