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1、Yoga: The Alpha and the Omega, Vol 4Discourses on the Yoga Sutras of PatanjaliTalks given from 21/04/75 am to 30/04/75 amEnglish Discourse series10 ChaptersYear published:During the early 1980s it was planned to publish the Yoga: The Alpha and the Omega volumes as Yoga: The Science of the Soul. Only
2、 the first three volumes were actually published, the title stayed as Alpha and Omega for the other seven volumes.Yoga: The Alpha and the Omega, Vol 4Chapter #1Chapter title: The seeds of misery21 April 1975 am in Buddha HallArchive code: 7504210ShortTitle: YOGA401Audio: YesVideo: NoLength: 90 mins1
3、. KRIYA-YOGA IS A PRACTICAL, PRELIMINARY YOGA, AND IT IS COMPOSED OF AUSTERITY, SELF-STUDY AND SURRENDER TO GOD.2. THE PRACTICE OF KRIYA-YOGA REDUCES MISERY, AND LEADS TOWARDS SAMADHI.3. MISERIES ARE CAUSED BY: LACK OF AWARENESS, EGOISM, ATTRACTIONS, REPULSIONS, CLINGING TO LIFE AND FEAR OF DEATH.4.
4、 WHETHER THEY BE IN THE STATES OF DORMANCY, ATTENUATION, ALTERATION OR EXPANSION, IT IS THROUGH LACK OF AWARENESS THAT THE OTHER CAUSES OF MISERY ARE ABLE TO OPERATE.THE ORDINARY humanity can be divided into two basic types: one is the sadist and the other the masochist. The sadist enjoys torturing
5、others, and the masochist enjoys torturing himself. The sadist is of course attracted towards politics. There, there is the possibility, the opportunity to torture others. Or, he is attracted towards scientific research, particularly medical research. There, there is the possibility in the name of e
6、xperiment, to torture innocent animals, patients, dead and alive bodies. If politics is too much and he is not so certain about himself, or not intelligent enough to move into research, then the sadist becomes a schoolmaster; he tortures small children. But the sadist always moves, knowingly or unkn
7、owingly, towards a situation where he can torture. In the name of country, in the name of nation, society, revolution, in the name of truth, discovery, in the name of reformation, of reforming others, the sadist is always in search of an opportunity to torture someone.Sadists are not very attracted
8、towards religion. The other type is attracted towards religion, the masochist. They can torture themselves. They become great mahatmas, they become great saints, and they are revered by the society because they torture themselves. A perfect masochist always moves directly towards religion, just as a
9、 perfect sadist moves towards politics. Politics is the religion of the sadist; religion is the politics of the masochist. But if a masochist is not too certain, then he can find some other sub paths. He can become an artist, a painter, a poet, and can allow himself to suffer in the name of poetry,
10、literature, painting.You must have heard the name Vincent Van Gogh, the great Dutch painter. He was the perfect masochist. If he had been born in India, he would have become a Mahatma Gandhi; but he became a painter. He had not much money. His brother used to give him only enough to survive. Out of
11、the seven days of the week, he would eat only on three days, and the other four days of the week he would fast in order to paint.He was in love with a woman, but the father of the woman wouldnt allow him to see her. So he forced his hand on a burning flame and he said, I will keep my hand on the bur
12、ning flame until you allow me to see her. He burnt his hand.A prostitute told him, Your ears are very beautiful, because there was nothing else to appreciate in his face. He was one of the ugliest men, he had ugly features. The prostitute must have been in a difficulty with this man, so she told him
13、 that his ears were very beautiful. He went back home, cut one of his ears off with a knife, packed it, went back to her with blood flowing all over, and presented the ear to the woman saying, You liked it so much that I would like to give it to you as a gift.He continued painting in the hottest par
14、t of France, Arles, in the summer when the sun was very hot. Everybody told him, You will get ill, the sun is too hot. But the whole day, particularly when the sun was hottest, at full noontide, he would be standing in the fields and painting. Within twenty days he went mad. He was young, thirty thr
15、ee or thirty four when he killed himself, committed suicide.But in the name of painting, art, beauty, you can torture yourself. In the name of God, in the name of prayer, in the name of sadhana, you can torture yourself. You will find this type very predominant in India: lying on a bed of nails, tho
16、rns, fasting for months. You will come across people who have not slept for ten years. They remain standing, fighting with sleep. There are people who have been standing for years, they have not taken any other posture; their legs are almost dead. There are people who are living with one hand raised
17、 towards the sky; the whole hand has gone dead, no more blood circulates in it, it is just bones. These people are ill; they need treatment. But thousands are attracted towards to them.All of your politicians, Adolf Hitler or Joseph Stalin or Mao Tse Tung, need treatment. And all of your Mahatmas ne
18、ed treatment also, because a man who is interested in torturing himself or others is ill, deeply ill. To be interested in torture, either of the other or of oneself, to be interested in torture is an absolutely certain symptom of deep illness. When you are healthy you dont want to torture others, yo
19、u dont want to torture your. elf. When you are healthy, you enjoy. When you are healthy you feel so blissful that you would like to bless everybody. You would like your blessings to flow from your being to the beings of all others, to the whole of existence. You al!e overflowing with bliss. Health i
20、s celebration. Illness is a torture, either of the other, or of yourself.Why am I saying this before I start talking about Patanjali? I am saying it because up to now, Patanjali has always been commented upon by masochists. But whatsoever I am going to say about Patanjali is going to be totally diff
21、erent from all the other commentaries. I am not a masochist, I am not a sadist. I am celebrating myself and I would like you to participate with me. My commentary on Patanjali is going to be basically different from all the previous commentaries. My commentary will be just the same as if Patanjali h
22、imself were commenting.He was neither a sadist nor a masochist. He was a perfectly integrated man with no inner illness, with no psychological problems, with no obsessions. He was healthy, whole, integrated. Whatsoever he has said can be interpreted in three ways. A sadist may come upon it, but that
23、 is rare because sadists are not interested in religion. You cannot imagine Mao Tse Tung, Adolf Hitler, or Joseph Stalin being interested in Patanjali, no. Sadists are not interested, so they have not commented. Masochists are interested in religion, and they have commented and given their own color
24、 to Patanjali. There are millions of them, and whatsoever they have said has completely distorted Patanjalis message, completely destroyed it. Now, after thousands of years, those commentaries are standing between you and Patanjali. Still, they go on growing.Patanjalis yoga sutras are one of the mos
25、t commented upon things; they are pregnant with significance, they are very deeply meaningful. But where does one find a Patanjali to comment upon them? Where does one find a man who is not ill in any way? Because illness will color; you cannot help it. When you interpret, you are in your interpreta
26、tion, you have to be there; there is no other way to interpret. I am going to say things which are not said, and you may find me continuously different from all the commentaries.Remember this fact, because I am neither a masochist nor a sadist. I have not come to religion to torture myself; just the
27、 opposite has been the case. In fact, I have never come to religion. I have-simply been enjoying myself and religion has happened, just by the way. It has been a consequence. I have never practiced the way religious people practice, I have never been in that type of search. I have simply lived in de
28、ep acceptance of whatsoever is. I have accepted existence and myself, and I have never been in any mood to change myself. Suddenly, the more I accepted myself, the more I accepted existence, a deep silence descended upon me, a bliss. In that bliss religion has happened to me. So I am not religious i
29、n the ordinary sense of the word. If you want to find a parallel, you will have to seek it some where other than in religion.I feel deep affinity with a man who was born two thousand years ago in Greece. His name was Epicurus. Nobody thinks of him as religious. People think that he was the most athe
30、istic man ever born, the most materialistic ever born; he was just the opposite of the religious man. But that is not my understanding. Epicurus was a naturally religious man. Remember the words naturally religious; religion happens to him. Thats why people overlooked him, because he never sought. T
31、he proverb: Eat, drink and be merry, comes from Epicurus. And this has become the attitude of the materialist.Epicurus in fact lived one of the most austere of lives. He lived as simply as anybody has ever lived. Even a Mahavir or a Buddha were not so simple and austere as Epicurus, because their si
32、mplicity was cultivated; they had worked for it, it had been a practice. They had thought about it and they had dropped all that w as unnecessary. They had been disciplining themselves to be simple, and whenever there is discipline, there is complexity. There is a fight in the background, and the fi
33、ght will always be there, in the background. Mahavir was naked, nude; he had renounced all, but he had renounced. It was not natural.Epicurus lived in a small garden. The garden was known as Epicurus garden. He had no academy like Aristotle, or a school like Plato; he had a garden. It seems simple a
34、nd beautiful. A garden seems more natural than an academy. He lived in the garden with a few friends. That was probably the first commune. They were just living there, not doing anything in particular, working in the garden, having just enough to live.It is said that the King once came to visit and
35、he had been thinking that this man must be living in luxury because his motto was: Eat, drink and be merry. lf this is the message, the King thought, I will see people living in luxury, in indulgence. But when he arrived he saw very simple people working in the garden, watering trees. The whole day
36、they had been working. They had very few belongings, only enough to live. In the evening, when they were having dinner, there was not even any butter; just dry bread and a little milk. But they enjoyed it as if it were a feast. After the dinner, they danced. The day was over and they offered a thank
37、sgiving to the existence. And the King wept, because he had always thought to condemn Epicurus in his mind. He asked, What do you mean by saying, Eat, drink and be merry? Epicurus said, You have seen. For twenty four hours we are happy here. If you want to be happy you have to be simple, because the
38、 more complex you are, the more unhappy you become. The more complex your life, the more misery it creates. We are simple not because we are seeking God, we are simple because to be simple is to be happy. And the King said, I would like to send some presents for you. What would you like for the gard
39、en and your community? Epicurus was at a loss. He thought and thought and he said, We dont think that anything else is needed. Dont be offended; you are a great King, you can give everything - but we dont need. If you insist, you can send a little salt and butter. He was an austere man.In this auste
40、rity, religion happens naturally. You dont think about God, there is no need to; life is God. You dont pray with folded hands towards the sky; it is foolish. Your whole life, from the morning until the evening, is a prayer. Prayer is an attitude: you live it, you dont do it.Epicurus could have under
41、stood Patanjati. I can understand him. I can feel what he means. It is for you that I am saying all this, so that you dont get confused, because there are other commentaries which say just the opposite.KRIYA-YOGA IS A PRACTICAL, PRELIMINARY YOGA, AND IT IS COMPOSED OF AUSTERITY, SELF STUDY AND SURRE
42、NDER TO GOD.The first word is austerity. Masochists have converted austerity into self-torture. They think that the more you torture the body, the more spiritual you become. Torturing the body is the way to become spiritual: this is the understanding of the masochist.Torturing the body is not a way;
43、 torturing is violent. Whether you torture others or yourself, it is violent; and violence can never be religious. What is the difference between torturing someone elses body and torturing your own body? What is the difference? The body is the other. Even your own body is the other. Your body is a l
44、ittle closer and the others body is a little further away, thats all. Because yours is closer it is more likely to become a victim of your violence; you can torture it. And for thousands of years people have been torturing their bodies with the false notion that it is the way towards God.In the firs
45、t place, why would God give you a body? He has not provided you with any implements to torture your body. Rather, on the contrary, he has provided you with sensibilities, sensitiveness, with senses: to enjoy it, not to torture it. He has made you so sensitive because through sensitivity awareness gr
46、ows. If you torture your body you will become more and more insensitive. If you lie down on a bed of thorns, by and by, you will become insensitive. The body will have to become insensitive, otherwise how can you continuously tolerate thorns? The body will become dead in a way, it will lose its sens
47、itivity. If you stand in the hot sun continuously, the body wilt protect itself by becoming insensitive. If you sit naked in the Himalayas when snow is falling and the whole mountain range is covered in snow, by and by, the body will lose its sensitivity to coldness. It will become a dead body.And w
48、ith a dead body, how can you feel the blessings of existence? How can you feel the constant shower of blessings that is happening every moment? Existence goes on pouring millions of blessings upon you; you cannot even count them. In fact, you need more sensitivity to become a religious man, not less
49、, because the more sensitive you are, the more you will be able to see the Divine everywhere. Sensitivity should become the eye, the penetration. When you become absolutely sensitive, every small breeze touches you and gives you the message, and even an ordinary leaf shaking in the wind becomes such a tremendous phenomenon because of your sensitivity. You look at an ordinary pebble and it becomes a kohinoor. It depends on your sensiti
