Patanjali is logical and rational, mathematical, scientific. He does not ask any faith. He asks only for the courage to experiment, courage to move, courage to take a jump into the unknown. He does not say, “Believe and then you will experience.” He says, “Experience and then you will believe.” And he has made a structure of how to proceed step by step. His path is not haphazard; it is not like a labyrinth, it is like a superhighway. Everything is clear and the shortest possible route. But you have to follow it in every detail, otherwise you will move out of the path and into the wilderness.
That’s why I say he is logical, and you will see how he is logical. He starts from the body because you are rooted in the body. He starts and works with your breathing because your breathing is your life. First he works on the body, then he works on the prana – the second layer of existence – your breathing; then he starts working on thoughts.
Patanjali says your body must be changed first. When your body changes then your breathing can be changed. When your breathing changes then your thoughts can be changed. And when your thoughts change then you can be changed.
You may not have observed that you are a close-knit system of many layers. If you are running, then your breathing changes because more oxygen is needed. When you are running your breathing changes, and when your breathing changes your thoughts immediately change.
In Tibet they say if you are angry, then just run. Do two or three rounds of your house, and then come back and see where your anger has gone – because if you run fast your breathing changes; if your breathing changes your thought pattern cannot remain the same, it has to change.
There is no need to run: you can simply take five deep breaths – exhale, inhale – and see where your anger has gone. It is difficult to change anger directly. It is easier to change the body, then the breathing, then the anger. This is a scientific process. That is why Patanjali is scientific. Nobody else has been so scientific.
If you go to Buddha he will say, “Drop anger.” Patanjali will never say...he will say if you have anger, that means you have a breathing pattern which helps anger, and unless that breathing pattern is changed you cannot drop anger. You may do, with struggle, but that is not going to help, or it may take a very long time. Unnecessary. So he will watch your breathing pattern, the breathing rhythm, and if you have a certain breathing rhythm that means you have a certain body posture for it.
The grossest is the body and the subtlest is the mind. Don’t start from the subtle because it will be more difficult. It is vague, you cannot grasp it. Start with the body. That’s why Patanjali starts with body postures.
You may not have observed, because we are so unalert in life, that whenever you have a certain mood in the mind you have a certain body posture associated with it. If you are angry, can you sit relaxed? – impossible. If you are angry your body posture will change, if you are attentive then your body posture will change, if you are sleepy your body posture will change.
If you are completely silent you will sit buddha-like, you will walk buddha-like. If you walk buddha-like, you will feel a certain silence merging within your heart. A certain silent bridge is being created by your buddha-like walk. Just sit under a tree like a buddha. Just sit, just the body: suddenly you will see that your breathing is changing – it is more relaxed, it is more harmonious. When the breathing is harmonious and relaxed, you will feel the mind is less tense. There are less thoughts, less clouds, more space, more sky. You will feel a silence in and out, flowing.
If you want to change the body posture, Patanjali will say change your food habits, because every food habit creates subtle body postures. If you are a meat-eater you cannot sit buddha-like. If you are non-vegetarian your posture will be different, if you are vegetarian your posture will be different – because the body is built by your food. It is not an accident. Whatsoever you are putting in the body, the body will reflect it.
So for Patanjali vegetarianism is not a moralist cult, it is a scientific method. When you eat meat you are not only taking food, you are allowing a certain animal from which the meat has come to enter in you. The meat was part of a particular body, the meat was part of a particular instinct pattern. The meat was the animal just a few hours before, and that meat carries all the impressions of the animal, all the habits of the animal. When you are eating meat your many attitudes will be affected by it.
And if you are sensitive you can become aware that whenever you eat certain things, certain changes immediately come. You can take alcohol and then you are not the same, immediately a new personality has come in. Alcohol cannot create a personality but it changes your body pattern, the body chemistry is changed. With the change of the body chemistry the mind has to change its pattern, and when the mind changes pattern a new personality has come in.
It can happen, it happens every day.... Whatsoever you eat changes you, whatsoever you drink changes you because body is a great part; ninety percent, you are your bodies.
Patanjali is scientific because he takes note of everything – the food, the posture, the way you sleep, the way you get up in the morning, when you get up in the morning, when you go to sleep. He takes note of everything so that your body becomes a situation for something higher.Then he takes note of your breathing. If you are sad you have a different rhythm of the breathing. Just note it down. You try; you can have a very beautiful experiment. Whenever you are sad just watch your breath – how much time you take in inhalation and then how much time you take in exhalation. Just note it down. Just count numbers inside: one, two, three, four, five.... You count to five and the inhalation is over. Then you count – it comes to ten and the exhalation is over. Just watch it minutely so you can come to know the ratio. Then whenever you feel happy immediately try that sad pattern – five, ten – and the happiness will disappear.
The reverse is also true. Whenever you feel happy note it down how you are breathing, and whenever you feel sad try that pattern. Immediately, sadness will disappear, because mind cannot exist in a vacuum. It exists in a system, and breathing is the deepest system for the mind.
Breath is thought. If you stop breathing, immediately thoughts stop. Try it for a second. Stop the breathing. Immediately there is a break in the thinking process; the process is broken. Thinking is the invisible part of the visible breathing.
That’s what I mean when I say Patanjali is scientific. He is not a poet. If he says, “Don’t eat meat,” he is not saying it because eating meat is violence, no. He is saying it because eating meat is self-destructive. There are poets who say to be non-violent is beautiful; Patanjali says to be non-violent is to be healthy, to be non-violent is to be selfish. You are not having compassion on somebody else, you are having compassion on yourself.
He is concerned with you – and the transformation. And you cannot change things just by thinking about change, you have to create the situation. Otherwise, all over the world love has been taught, but love exists nowhere because the situation doesn’t exist. How can you be loving if you are a meat-eater? If you are eating meat, the violence is there. And with such a deep violence how can you be loving? Your love will be just false. Or, it may be just a form of hate.
Hi,
Don't blame me if your tongue get struck, :-)
Patanjali is logical and rational, mathematical, scientific. He does not ask any faith. He asks only for the courage to experiment, courage to move, courage to take a jump into the unknown. He does not say, “Believe and then you will experience.” He says, “Experience and then you will believe.” And he has made a structure of how to proceed step by step. His path is not haphazard; it is not like a labyrinth, it is like a superhighway. Everything is clear and the shortest possible route. But you have to follow it in every detail, otherwise you will move out of the path and into the wilderness.
Let's say it's 6.15pm and you're driving home alone after an unusually hard day on the job.You're really tired, and frustrated……
