Patanjali Yog Sutras AJA...BHAsKSITA

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Sir ji,

AJA(bi) BHAsKSITA ETAh.

When the mind unites with the soul, when the body unites with the

breath, and when the soul unites with the paramatma, yoga happens.

There is this story on Maharshi Patanjili. There were thousands of

disciples of Maharshi Ptanjali. One day they were all at the session

with Maharshi. Maharshi had a rule that there will be a curtain in

between Maharshi and the student. No one was supposed to see the

Maharshi. This continued. The students were taking knowledge from the

preceptor and the preceptor showering the knowledge to the disciples.

One day something happened! One of the students wanted to go to the

toilet. He thought why disturb the Guru anyway the Master will not

able to see (since there was a curtain in between them)!! He silently

slipped off the class and went to the toilet. On the other hand, among

the rest of the students, one felt the terrible urge to see the

Maharshi. He whispered to the other fellow disciples that they should

see their teacher, and the teacher being all compassionate will

definitely forgive them and will not be upset on then.

So suddenly one of the disciples got up and removed the curtain. And

as he removed the curtain off, there happened a terrible disaster!!

Everyone who were present there turned into ashes!! All the disciples

who were present infront of the Maharshi Patanjali just turned into

ashes!! In the meantime the only disciple who had gone out to the

toilet returned. Maharshi told the student that he had done a great

mistake by going out of the class without the preceptor’s permission!!

And now the boy has to undergo a curse!! Maharshi cursed him to be a

Demon(Brahmadaitya) and that he should sit on a tree and write down

all that he learned from Patanjali. The boy immediately turned to a

demon and went up the tree and started writing that entire he learnt

from the Maharshi. He was writing on the leaves of the tree. It is

said that there was a goat sitting at the base of the tree. The

disciple who turned a demon kept writing on the leaf and throwing each

leaf on the ground and the goat started eating all the leaves one by

one!!

Now who are those disciples who turn to ashes? Why did they turn to

ashes? Why was that only disciple saved? Why did he become a demon?

Why was he asked to write all that he learned? Why the goat did eat

away all the leaves? These are the questions that you should think and

ponder.

There are two kinds of disciplines.

 

 

We will begin with a story, the greatest and most effective way of

conveying knowledge. Once upon a time, long ago, all the munis and

rishis approached Lord Vishnu to tell him that even though He

(incarnated as Lord Dhanvanthari) had given them the means to cure

illnesses through Ayurveda, people still fell ill. They also wanted to

know what to do when people got sick. Sometimes it is not just

physical illness, but mental and emotional illness too that needs to

be dealt with. Anger, lust, greed, jealousy etc. How does one get rid

of all these impurities? What is the formula? Vishnu was lying on the

bed of snakes the serpent Adishesha with a 1,000 heads. When the

Rishis approached Him, he gave them Adishesha, the symbol of

awareness, who took birth in the world as Maharishi Patanjali. So

Patanjali came to this earth to give this knowledge of yoga which came

to be known as the yogasutras. Patanjali said he was not going to

discuss the yogasutras unless 1,000 people got together. So 1,000

people gathered south of Vindhya Mountains to listen to him. Patanjali

had another condition he would put a screen between him and his

students and told them that nobody was to lift the screen or leave.

Everybody had to stay in the hall till he finished. So Patanjali

stayed behind the curtain and he transmitted his knowledge to the

1,000 gathered. Each of them absorbed this knowledge. It was an

amazing phenomenon and even amongst the students, they could not

believe how they were getting this knowledge, how the master was

making each of them understand without uttering words from behind the

curtain. Everybody was amazed. Each one of them experienced such a

blast of energy, such a blast of enthusiasm, that they could not even

contain it. But they still had to maintain the discipline. But one

little boy had to go out to attend natures call. So he left the room.

He thought to himself that he would go quietly and return quietly.

Another person became curious. What is the Master doing behind the

curtain? I want to see. He got so curious that he lifted the curtain

to see the Master. But just as he did so, all 999 disciples were burnt

to ashes. Now, Patanjali became very sad. There he was, ready to

impart knowledge to the whole world and all of his disciples were

burnt. At this moment, that one little boy returned. Patanjali asked

him where he had gone. The boy explained and asked his forgiveness.

Patanjali was compassionate and felt that at least one of his

disciples was saved. So he gave him the rest of the sutras, the rest

of the knowledge. But the student had violated the law and Patanjali

was not willing to forget that. So he said, Since you have violated

the law, you will become a Brahmarakshasa, a ghost and hang on the

tree. And the only way he could liberate himself from the curse is to

teach one student. Saying this Patanjali disappeared. Now

Brahmarakshasa, hanging on a tree, would ask everyone who passed by

one question and when they could not answer he would eat them. He had

no choice and for a few thousand years this was the story. He could

not find a single person to whom he could teach the yogasutras. So he

remained in the tree as a Brahmarakshasa (the lesson here being that

for the one who has great knowledge, and who does something wrong, the

state of Brahmarakshasa will come. An intelligent person becoming a

criminal becomes more dangerous than an innocent person becoming a

criminal. If a person, who knows all knowledge and then turns a

criminal, it is much more dangerous). So the Brahmarakshasa was

hanging there and waiting for relief. Then out of compassion,

Patanjali himself becomes a disciple and comes as a student to

Brahmarakshasa who told him all the sutras, which Patanjali wrote on

the palm leaf. The story goes that to redeem one disciple, the Master

became the disciple of a disciple. Patanjali wrote the sutras sitting

on the top of the tree as that was where the Brahmarakshasa sat. Also,

Brahmarakshasa worked only in the night. So he dictated the sutras at

night and Patanjali wrote them on the leaves. He plucked all the

leaves and made a small scratch, drew blood and wrote. This went on

for seven days. At the end of it, Patanjali was tired and put

everything he had written on a piece pf cloth and set it down and went

to bathe. But when Patanjali returned, he found that a goat had eaten

most of the leaves. Patanjali then took the cloth bag and the rest of

the leaves and walked away. In this story, there is a lot of depth.

The puranas do not give any explanation. They just give a story and it

is for us to unlock the meaning. So what is that you all have to find

out? (1) How did the master convey the knowledge to everybody without

uttering a word? (2) What was the significance of the veil and when it

was lifted why did everybody burn down? (3) Why was the one boy

forgiven? (4) What is the significance of the goat? (4) What is the

significance of this story?

 

Regards

Kulbir Bains