(The real meaning of yoga is the way to get united with the real knowledge. And Patanjali (2nd century BC) is well regarded as the father of yoga. His work the Yoga-sutras is a list of aphorisms, each worth hundred hours of meditation. In the current post I will explain one of the sutras from Yoga-sutra, as explained to me by my father.)
Very lucidly this sutra says that "agyana, asmita, raga, dwesha, abhinibesha: pancha-kleshah". The five miseries of life are lack of proper knowledge, I-ness, desire to get good things and not to get bad things, fear of death or time! It all starts with the lack of proper knowledge (agyana). Everyone, everything and every event is interlinked and interwoven in an amazing seamless manner. Open your eyes and try to find a single event without any cause. There aint any. Every event every thing and everyone affects every other event, thing and person. In such a creation, no one has any independent existence. Independence and choice are but illusions. Because many of us don't care to look out and think, we think we are different and separate. We develop ego and I-ness (asmita). Ego is nothing but the accumulation of some past experiences, which in turn define our character and personality. When in an undivided wholeness we assume a separate entity, then we make an evasive boundary. This makes two type of choices. We either like (raga) a thing/person/event or dislike (dwesha) it. This in turn will bring us to the point where we start remaining scared of time! Why? Because we are scared that the desirable thing that we have now will be snatched by the flow of time or the thing we desire to happen or come in future will not happen. This brings us to the last misery, fear of time or death (abhinibesha).
So as we can see, all the miseries start step by step from a single thing, i.e. the lack of right knowledge (agyana). But how can someone who is within the miseries of asmita, raga, dwesha, abhinibesha obtain knowledge? Then this becomes like a vicious circle! The only way to break it is meditation!
Very lucidly this sutra says that "agyana, asmita, raga, dwesha, abhinibesha: pancha-kleshah". The five miseries of life are lack of proper knowledge, I-ness, desire to get good things and not to get bad things, fear of death or time! It all starts with the lack of proper knowledge (agyana). Everyone, everything and every event is interlinked and interwoven in an amazing seamless manner. Open your eyes and try to find a single event without any cause. There aint any. Every event every thing and everyone affects every other event, thing and person. In such a creation, no one has any independent existence. Independence and choice are but illusions. Because many of us don't care to look out and think, we think we are different and separate. We develop ego and I-ness (asmita). Ego is nothing but the accumulation of some past experiences, which in turn define our character and personality. When in an undivided wholeness we assume a separate entity, then we make an evasive boundary. This makes two type of choices. We either like (raga) a thing/person/event or dislike (dwesha) it. This in turn will bring us to the point where we start remaining scared of time! Why? Because we are scared that the desirable thing that we have now will be snatched by the flow of time or the thing we desire to happen or come in future will not happen. This brings us to the last misery, fear of time or death (abhinibesha).
So as we can see, all the miseries start step by step from a single thing, i.e. the lack of right knowledge (agyana). But how can someone who is within the miseries of asmita, raga, dwesha, abhinibesha obtain knowledge? Then this becomes like a vicious circle! The only way to break it is meditation!
2 comments:
I am not sure those are the correct translations for the words.
Also, I think it would be better to use a transliteration scheme for Sanskrit words: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_15919
or better yet in Devanagari itself.
Satya, there is something called "lost in translation"! People have spent years in academic discussions and arguments on the meanings of the Sutras. That has not helped anyone. Secondly, the meaning of words actually change with age. It's almost similar to accent; what is a right accent? As I told, the goal is not academic discourse at all...
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