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Twelfth Sutra is a continuation of understanding of the past, the present and the future. How they are actually notions and as such there is no past and there is no future. But we continue to use these words. Maharishi Patanjali handles, analyzes, deals with this particular dimension of the time. The sutra number 12 of the Kaivalya Pada is
अतीतानागतं स्वरूपतोऽस्त्यध्वभेदाद्धर्माणाम् ॥ ४.१२॥
Atīta Anāgataṃ Svarūpato'styadhvabhedād Dharmāṇām.
Atīta is gone, that is past, Atīta, over, Anāgatha, Āgatha is to come, Anāgatha, not yet come, that is future, Atīta is gone, over, past, Anāgatha it is not yet come, that is future. Svarūpataḥ by their nature. by their nature, by its own nature, Asti it stays, it is, Adhva is the direction, very important word in the sutra, Adhva is the direction, Bheda is the difference, Adhvabheda means difference in direction, Dharmāṇām the particular fundamental characteristics. So the reading and the normal meaning of the sutra is the past and the future, they exist in their own form because of the difference of dharmas or properties on account of the difference of paths. Difference of dharmas means difference of the characteristics, characteristical differences, differences in the properties and these differences of the properties having different directions, past and future are perceived. Means the perception and the notion for the past and the future is the dharmas, the properties in different directions. Means this particular sutra emphasizes that there is no past. There is no future. It is only a notion, it is only a feeling. How can there be a feeling and a notion if it is not there? It is a natural question which comes. The feeling and the notion is because even though it is not there, the properties of an object, properties of a thing are in the different directions Adhvabheda it is because of the Adhvabheda, we feel it is atīta and anāgatha. The cause of the notion for the past, the cause for the notion for the future, the cause for the past, bhūtakārṇam, the kāraṇa for the bhūta, and the kāraṇa for the bhaviṣya, actually there is no kārṇam it is only a notion even the cause for that notion is change of the properties of that particular one in that direction. Change of properties or change of characteristics of what we say as it was past, what we say that it will be future, what we are referring, what we are pointing as past, its nature, its dharma, its properties, its characteristics. Similarly what we are pointing, we say that it will be the future. Referring to what? With reference to what is the future? With reference to what is the past? That past and the future is because of the change in the characteristics and the properties, dharmas, in the direct change of the direction. Beautifully, the past and the future exists in its real nature there being a difference of the paths being the characteristics.
Second chapter of Bhagavad Gītā, Bhagavān Śrī Kṛṣṇa, beautiful, wonderful shloka we have here.
nāsato vidyate bhāvo nābhāvo vidyate sataḥ ubhayor vidṛṣṭaṁ taha sthat anyo tva darśibhiḥ
There is no past, there is no future it is only the viewer, it is only the perceivers, dṛṣṭi it is. Time is past, time is there, we have time, we have lost the time, all such past references to the past and future nāsato vidyate bhāvo nābhāvo vidyate sataḥ ubhayor vidṛṣṭaṁ taha sthanayor sthat tva darśibhiḥ It is only a notion, both are notions. Entire concept of time has been solved or answered by Maharshi Patanjali in this particular sutra. That is, these notions of past and future and the cause for the notion, cause for the feeling is because of the difference in their real nature. Real nature means in their dharma, the difference in their character, difference in their properties, differences in their real nature and destruction means about to change into a new one and the birth means starting of the new one, change of dharma it is. Water changes into say steam, the dharma of the steam is different, the dharma of the water is different. The nature, characteristics and the properties of water is different, the nature, characteristics and properties of steam is different. Because of the difference of differentiation in the nature, properties and characteristics of water and steam, we say water is past, steam is future. Or, past of the steam is water, future of the steam is something else or, past of the steam was the water and future of the water will be the steam. A kārya kāraṇa samandha has been established here, it is only a notion. It is not that there is no steam or it is not that there is no water they are there. But the reference as past and future is not there and the reference of past and future is because of the change in the characteristics, properties and the nature of the two things or of the same one. A better example for understanding, may be a person who is travelling in a train, he is stable but he sees places are passing away and places are coming, passing places are passed away, places are going to come, that is the anāgataḥ, anāgatasthāna and atītasthāna. It is not that there are no sthāna but saying that places were past and places in future. This reference of future and past is because of the difference in the property, characteristics and the nature of the places which were past, places which are going to come. It is in the differentiation and the direction and not in the actual, the future and the past. This can be applied to anything in all our experiences. Both are noted and both are recognized. Because of the recognition and the perception of the both by a person who is stable that leads to the notion of the past and future. Just example, just have a feeling that both are moving, the change is not noticed like in two parallel tracks, both trains are moving in the same direction with the same speed, recognition and perception of the past and future vanishes. So it is the same with all bondages and it is the same with all kālabandha, the bondages of time and that is how this beautiful sutra tells, explains, hammers. How Maharishi Patanjali is analyzing and presenting the psyche of the human personality. It is almost a surgical dimension of our own psychology, I tell you. Wonderful, beautiful sutras taking us into the depths out of it and trying to present to us the world in which we live, which we claim is all actually a notion and there is a perceiver who never undergoes a change, that is the puruṣa and let us see the further sutras.
Om śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ.
ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः||
To Be Continued.. ---------------------------------------
These are transcription of session delivered by Vice-President of Vivekananda Rock Memorial & Vivekananda Kendra, Sri M. Hanumantha Rao Ji.
Audio Link - https://youtu.be/XZTWx711baU?si=Df6DCVpwOOEvZM4s
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मुक्तसंग्ङोऽनहंवादी धृत्युत्साहसमन्वित:।
सिद्धयसिद्धयोर्निर्विकार: कर्ता सात्त्विक उच्यते ॥१८.२६॥
Freed from attachment, non-egoistic, endowed with courage and enthusiasm and unperturbed by success or failure, the worker is known as a pure (Sattvika) one. Four outstanding and essential qualities of a worker. - Bhagwad Gita : XVIII-26
