Yoga

Eliminating the Cause of Pain

Patanjali Yoga Sutra Knowledge Sheet 59

If you look into the pleasure or joy that you get in life from the time of birth, they all come with a tax. You have to pay a tax for that and this tax is sorrow. In the next sutra, Patanjali says:

“Parinama tapa samskara dukhaihi guna vrutti virodhachcha dukhameva sarvam vivekinaha’’ (II Sutra 15)

parinama = the result of an event; tapa = anxious waiting; samskara = impressions; dukhaihi = sorrow; guna = qualities; vruttihi = feverishness; virodhat = contrary; cha = and; dukham = pain; eva = indeed; sarvam = everything; vivekinaha = intelligent one

“The result of an event, the anxious wait for an event, the feverishness to achieve and the impressions of these events cause sorrow, and more so when things happen to the contrary. Therefore, for an intelligent one, everything is indeed considered as painful.”

Every event causes pain.

Every event causes some pain. However an event may be pleasant, it finishes, ends. So the ending of an event, however pleasurable or joyful, comes with a little pinch. The greater the joy, the greater the pain too, Isn’t it? Parinama, the effect, the result of an event, brings you pain.

“Tapa dukhaihi”, the longing for an event, waiting for a pleasurable event, is again pain. Samskara dukha – the impressions are there. Memories are there. The memory of a pleasure too brings pain. So, before you want something, that wanting, that feverishness to achieve what you want is painful. When you have it, the fear of losing it is painful and when that is gone, the memory of the joy is painful. So the whole thing is painful.

For a viveki, for an intelligent one, the one who is awakened, he sees the whole thing as painful. So, there is nothing that is not painful; "sarvam eva dukha mayam". Everything is painful. You say love is beautiful, but love is also painful. How much close can you get? Bodies can get closer but still there is no satisfaction. Each one wants to get into, enter into the other's body. How can you enter? Is it possible? You get frustrated.

Often, the male takes the female body and the female takes the male body in the next life. That is what craving or longing does to a person. The mind is more prominent. That is why in every male, you find a female and in every female, you find a male. This is because there is some impression from the past. Very true.

Love takes you to cannibalism.

The soul is not just satisfied by the physical body coming closer. It wants something more. It wants to merge, it wants to vanish and disappear. This is what you call love. In love, there are two expressions: one is, “I want to disappear into you”, and the other is, “I want to eat you and you disappear”. These are the two experiences that lovers tell each other. They do not know why they are saying this. “Oh! You are so sweet, I want to eat you up”. Cannibalism! Love takes you to cannibalism.

If that were possible, one would really do it, literally. Reduce their boyfriend or girlfriend into a small toy and gulp it through. There is no more worry about whom they are looking at, where they are looking, where they go. Their mind becomes constantly engaged in looking at where their friend is, what they are doing and who they are looking at. Lovers become watchdogs after a while.

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(This is part of a series of knowledge sheets based on Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar's commentaries on Patanjali Yoga Sutras.)