38th Sutra of the samādhipāda Maharṣi Patañjali gives the fourth technique for the manasthiti nibandhanī. We have seen the three techniques in the earlier sutras and this is the fourth technique. A wonderful method suggested by Maharṣi. The experience which we undergo every day.
The sutra is
स्व॒प्ननि॒द्राज्ञानाल॑म्बनं॒ वा ॥ १.३८॥
svapna-nidrā-jñāna-ālambanaṁ vā ॥ 1.38 ॥
svapna-nidrā-jñāna-ālambanaṁ vā ॥ 1.38 ॥
Svapna is dream, nidrā is sleep, jñāna is knowledge, ālambanam is support vā is or. So the meaning of the sutra goes or with the support of the knowledge gained in dream and sleep or with the support of the knowledge gained through dream and sleep and another interpretation is the knowledge gained in dream or through dream in sleep or through sleep or dream sleep. So the meaning is quite clear but when we understand the depth the everyday experience of sleep which we undergo can be a wonderful effective technique for the manasthiti nibandhanī. But only if we have gained the knowledge, jñāna. Not just everyday we sleep but there is no change at all. Because the jñāna is not there, the knowledge is not there and what is the knowledge? What knowledge we gain in dream and sleep ? It is very interesting to understand in the 10th sutra of the same chapter, Patañjali says that sleep is a state without pratyaya and if there is no pratyaya is there, there cannot be a knowledge. But in this sutra Maharṣi says the knowledge gained through, knowledge gained by, knowledge gained in sleep and dream and a dreamful sleep. How is it possible? We should clearly understand though we have no knowledge of sleeping
but we have knowledge of the sleep after we get up from the sleep. It is a very very important dimension before going to sleep we know that we are going to sleep but we do not know that we are sleeping during the sleep and when we get up we say we slept it. Of course we have seen this particular dimension that because there is no pratyaya
but we remember that we were sleeping, there is some sākṣī bhāva there is some state of the citta or the mind within our self which is recording this experience, otherwise after getting up we would not have remembered that we slept. Not only that we qualify it good sleep, bad sleep, deep sleep, short sleep, long sleep. We qualify it based on the memory of the experience we underwent or the result and the effect after we get up from the sleep. This knowledge that what happened to the world, what happened to me, what happened to my body, what happened to my mind, what happened to all the relations, communications, transactions, what happened to all my experiences which were there during my wakeful state, What happened to all those experiences, what happened to all those persons what happened to all those events and circumstances, this analysis gives a tremendous knowledge. And that knowledge is a very important knowledge, that irrespective of what happens to anything around me, irrespective of what is happening around me, I am in sleep all that which attracted me, all that towards which I attracted, all the attachments which are with me, all those things with which I got attached but during that phase of sleep what happened? This discrimination and the knowledge which we gain this analysis itself is a wonderful manasthiti nibandhanī state.
Oh, all this world entire experiences and the events and circumstances all these people, relations, environment is all available only when I am awake, when I am part of it, when I am with that, but when I am with myself, cut away from all this, I am what I am different, separate from all this see how beautiful the knowledge is.
Similarly dream, so many visions will come in the dream, so many experiences will come from the dream, violent dreams, soft dreams, good dreams, elevating dreams, enthralling dreams, joyful dreams, miserable dreams varieties of dreams will come. But once we get up and when we remember it's all just a dream but some dreams give a very strong, deep impression in the mind and having a knowledge out of it. After all it's all a dream, after all this entire world is a dream, after all these experiences are all a passing phase, it's all a dream.
As in the vedānta or the Śaṅkara and many of the exponents of the advaita vedānta they present and propose this dimension. Patañjali must have taken a clue from that but irrespective of it also separately, individually everyday experience what is happening in my dream how dreams have come, what is happening to the dream and as long as I am in that dream, as long as we are experiencing the dream, as long as we are in the phase of the dream, as long as we are under the influence of the dream.
Please remember we do not know that we slept and not only that the wonder of the wonder is we feel that dream is true it is true, it is happening only when we come out of the dream state we remember and we come to know, oh it's all over. In the bṛhadāraṇyaka upaniṣad Yājñavalkya Maharṣi discusses it in the form of avasthātraya viveka it is called - jāgrat, svapna and suṣupti avasthāḥ. It's a wonderful exposition comes in the bṛhadāraṇyaka upaniṣad. But with the support of the knowledge, what is that which is supporting in the dream and in the sleep that makes the mind steady. Let us be clear this knowledge when we get it, this experience which we get it of understanding the knowledge of sleep and dream is for the steadiness of the mind, manasthiti nibandhanī. So this learning from dream, learning from sleep is a very important dimension. And is one of the beautiful suggestions given by Maharṣi Patañjali and that is a wonderful sutra- svapna nidrā jñānam ālambanam vā. There is no need of any other objects of meditation and contemplation, everyday experience in which we are in which we are subjected to it, itself is a wonderful object for meditation and for the knowledge - svapna nidrā jñānam ālambanam vā.
Oṃ 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/QhP_x6eKB2I?si=2XtS7M1BQtlQXRK0
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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
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