I AM TALKING TO MYSELF - II

THE SOURCES OF THE FIVE AFFLICTIONS CAN BE ABOLISHED BY RESOLVING THEM BACKWARDS TO THEIR ORIGIN. Says PATANJALI

The Five Afflictions :

1. avidya, lack of awareness;
2. asmita, the feeling of the ego;
3. rag, attachment;
4. dwais, repulsion; and
5. abhinivesh, lust for life. These are the five miseries.

Resolving them backwards towards the orgin : Prati-prasav: this is a very, very significant process, the process of prati-prasav. It is the process of reabsorbing back to the cause, bringing effect back to the cause; the process of involution. You must have heard the name of Janov, the man who has rediscovered Primal Therapy. Primal Therapy is part of prati-prasav.

It is one of the oldest techniques of Patanjali. In Primal Therapy, Janov teaches people to go back to their Orgin. If there is something, some trouble, some problem, then you go back to the original source from where it started. Because you can go on trying to solve the problem, but unless you go to the roots, it cannot be solved. Effects cannot be solved; they have to be forced back to the cause. It is just as if a tree is there and you don't want the tree, but you go on cutting the branches, the leaves, and again more branches sprout. You cut one leaf, three leaves come. You have to go to the roots.

So Patanjali says,

'Clinging to life is the uppermost layer. Go deep; behind it you will find a layer of repulsion, dwais.'

But why are you repelled? Go deeper and you will find attachment.

You are attracted towards a thing and if you are attracted, only then can you be repelled. If you are not attracted you cannot be repelled. Attraction can create a repulsion; repulsion is the other pole of attraction. Go deeper – another layer you will find is asmuta, the feeling of ego, 'I am.'

And this 'I'  exists through attachment and repulsion. If rag, dwais, attraction and repulsion both fall, 'I' cannot stand there. 'I' will fall with it. You, your ego, exists through your ideas of good and bad, ideas of love and hate, ideas of what is beautiful and what is ugly.

Duality creates the ego. So behind the duality of rag and dwais, you will find the ego. Why does this ego exist? Patanjali says, 'Go still deeper and you will find lack of awareness.

The root cause of the whole misery of life is lack of awareness. This is the cause, the primal cause of the whole thing. You cannot find it with abhinivesh, lust for life; that is a fruit, a flower, the last phenomenon. In fact, it is not the cause. Go back.

Once you know the cause, everything is resolved. And this is the cause.. lack of awareness. What to do? Don't fight with your clinging, don't fight with your attachment and repulsion, don't even fight with the ego. Just become more and more aware. Just become more and more alert, watchful, mindful. Remember more and more and become alert. That very alertness will dissolve everything. Once the cause is dissolved, the effects disappear.

Ordinary morality teaches you changes on the surface. So called religions teach you how to fight with effects.

Patanjali is giving you the very science of religion: the very root cause can be dissolved. You have to be more aware. Live life with alert ness: that is the whole message. Don't live like a sleepy man, or a drunkard living in a hypnosis.

Be conscious of whatsoever you are doing. Do it, but do it with full consciousness. Suddenly you will see many things disappear.