[Note: This is a translation from the Hindi Neo-Yoga Sutras, which is in the process of being edited. It is for research only.]

 

 

My Beloved Ones, Yesterday, I talked of four sutras of Yoga. Today, I would like to talk to you on the fifth sutra. The fifth sutra of Yoga is: What is in the atom, is in the whole; what is in the micro, is in the macro; what is in the smallest, is in the biggest; what is in the drop, is in the ocean.

 

Yoga has always declared this sutra, but science has only recently supported it. Nobody had even thought that an atom may be containing so much energy in it; that so much may be hidden in the smallest part, in the almost nothing, that everything could be blasted away.

 

The splitting of the atom has proved this insight of Yoga to be scientific. The atom is not even visible to the eyes but in the invisible atom is contained such a vast energy. This explosion is possible. In man, the atom of the soul is not visible but enormous energy is hidden in it and an explosion of God is possible. This is the meaning of Yoga’s declaration that in the micro is present the macro, that in every particle is present God.

 

Why might Yoga have emphasized this sutra? Firstly, because this is the truth. And secondly because if once it is remembered that in the micro is hiding the macro, the way is paved for man to remember his own self potential. There is no reason for man to feel that he is small. There is no reason for even the smallest to feel small.

 

It is necessary at this point to keep in mind the opposite side also that even the vastest, the biggest does not need to be filled with ego because even the smallest possesses the same. If an ocean becomes full of ego, it is madness because what it has is also possessed by a small drop. There is no reason for even the tiniest to feel inferior and there is no reason for even the biggest to be full of ego.

 

Neither inferiority has any meaning nor superiority has any meaning. They both are meaningless. This is the conclusion of this sutra. Man wastes his life in the trap of only two things. Either he suffers from an inferiority complex or he suffers from a superiority complex. Now Adler has made the word ”inferiority complex” so popular.

 

So, either man suffers from an inferiority complex and constantly feels that he is nothing…. You may have heard the famous phrase of Omar Khayyam: ”Dust unto dust”; that dust returns into dust and there is nothing else to it.

 

If inferiority complex gets hold of a man, he becomes sick in his very depths. If someone starts living as if he is nothing, his very survival becomes difficult. He is dead even while living. There are very few people who keep alive till their death; most people die earlier than their deaths. Generally it is that they are buried at the age of seventy, the dying has already happened much earlier.

 

There are gaps of thirty years, forty years or even fifty years between the dying and the burying. The day one finds he is feeling inferiority… and if you look at the immensity spread all around you, you are bound to feel inferiority. What is the status of a man? Nothing. He appears like a straw on the waves of the ocean. Neither he has any power nor any direction.

 

So, if such an inferiority grips the mind, one’s life becomes sad and dead even while living; it becomes ashes. Fire becomes dull. And if your own life is dull and extinguished inside, the flame of your own lamp is extinguished, what will you do even with the light of the sun? Sun carries no significance for you.

 

It is necessary to remember that the whole immensity exists within man; it is necessary to remember that the Divine exists within man, so that he does not become inferior. And the interesting thing is that in order to destroy his inferiority complex, man falls into the fantasies of a superiority complex.

 

He starts finding ways to suppress the inferiority complex. When he feels inferior inside, he starts making wealth so that having amassed the wealth he may show the world and may feel himself too that not only am I not nothing, I am quite something. The inferiority complex rushes and man starts climbing thrones so that standing on the throne he may declare, ”Who says I am nothing? I am something.”

 

Inferiority itself becomes the race for superiority. So, all the people who go in the mad race of becoming superior are necessarily suffering from an inferiority complex inside. Adler has said many amazing things. His statements are significant. He has said that often those who come first in running races, are the people who limped in their childhood. And those who become very skillful in music are those who were a little hard of hearing in their childhood.

 

And those who become presidents, prime ministers, are often those who sat on the back benches in school. Because of that hurt of inferiority they set out to prove to the world that they are something; they want to show that they are something. Hence, if a politician suffers from inferiority, there is nothing strange in it.

 

A worm goes on eating him up inside that he is nothing. And it hurts the mind, it puts one in difficulty, causes him to run. When Lenin sat on a chair, his legs did not reach the ground. The upper part of his body was long and his legs were short. When he sat on a chair, his legs could not normally touch the ground. Hitler was a man of very ordinary intelligence, an ordinary soldier in the army. And he was turned out from there also as unfit. Stalin was the son of a shoemaker, and Lincoln was also the son of a shoemaker.

 

If we take a look at the past of the politicians of the world, we will be simply surprised. The hurt of inferiority felt somewhere in their childhood has become their race. They started running madly. And as long as they did not climb some peak, they did not feel contented. By climbing the peak they showed to the world that they were something, but certainly in themselves they were nothing. Hence all positions, all riches, all fame, become meaningless to the one who aquires them. When he stands up on the throne, he finds that he is the same -- he has achieved the throne alright, but he has remained the same. And the worm of inferiority goes on eating him up. Hence even the biggest of positions do not bring any contentment. The race still remains there to go further ahead.

 

And when someone asked Alexander: "I have heard you want to conquer the whole world. But have you ever thought what you would do after conquering the world? Because there is only one world." Then, I have heard, Alexander became very sad and he said, "I haven't thought of that. You are right, if I conquer the whole world, what would I do next? Where is there another world?" Because even after conquering the whole world, there is no escape from the inferiority which must have gripped Alexander's mind. There is no escape even if there was another world and he conquered that too. It is the inverted inferiority complex which becomes a superiority complex.

 

So, a man who displays arrogance deserves pity because he suffers from inferiority. Just an accidental push from someone and he says: "Don't you know who I am?" The poor man is suffering from inferiority. One who gets angry for trivial matters, one whose ego gets hurt for every little thing -- someone is laughing on the way and he presumes that people are laughing at him -- know that he is suffering from an inferiority complex. This anguish throws him in the mad race of becoming superior.

 

Inferiority is a disease. Superiority which comes to suppress the inferiority is a greater disease. Many times, the medicine proves to be more dangerous than the disease itself. So, Yoga wants to remind us of the other side also. It actually says that if there is any God, he too need not be filled with an ego that he is something, because that which he has, the smallest particle of dust has also. Hence, on one side, even small particles of dust need not feel inferior and on the other side, even God need not be caught up by superiority. And only when one is free of inferiority and superiority both does he gain balance. This declaration of Yoga is an effort to free man of his deep psychological disease. But it is not only an effort to cure the psychological disease, it is the truth also. Neither the small has any reason to weep nor the absolute has any reason to become egoist. Here, one who appears to be very big and one who appears to be very small, they all have similar treasure.

 

Jesus has told a small anecdote. One day a very rich man engaged some laborers in his garden. Then at noon time, some more laborers approached the rich man and they said they wanted work. The rich man engaged them also to work in the garden. When the sun was going down some more laborers came to the rich man and asked for work. The rich man engaged them also to work. Then just as the sun was about to set some other laborers came and the rich man engaged them too to work. Then the day was over and the wages were given to all the laborers for that day. The rich man gave equal wages to all of them. Those who had come in the morning, they stood up in anger. They said, "It is unjust. We have been working since morning. Some people came in the afternoon and a few came just when we were about to finish the work, and equal wages to all -- it is unjust!" The rich man asked, "What you have received, is that too little for your work?" They said, "No, that's more than enough for our work. But what about those who came so late ?" The rich man said, "In the kingdom of God, neither is anybody early nor anybody late, all are equal."

 

Yoga is saying the same thing. What it is saying is that even a particle of dust has no reason to grieve, and God himself has no reason to be filled with ego. In the play of this life, neither is anybody ahead nor anybody behind; neither is anybody big nor anybody small. Yoga shows the supreme in the trivial and the trivial in the supreme, shows the ocean in the drop and the drop in the ocean. This is the truth also, as I said. And now science too is saying very strange things.

 

When Rutherford first split the atom, a very strange experience came to light, which was that even the atom of least mass is similar to the solar world of the great suns. In the smallest atom there is a center and there are electrons that go on spinning around the center. The speed of this spinning is similar to the high speeds of the planets Earth and Mars and Jupiter going around the sun. And the energy hidden at the center of the atom is similar to that of the energy of the sun. It is as if a miniature solar family resides in the atom. The difference is of the quantity only, there is no difference in quality.

 

So, science has started saying what the oldest sutra of yoga says. Perhaps you remember it: "The macrocosm is in the microcosm." This is what the scientist Rutherford and his colleagues say. The whole cosmos is present in a tiny microcosm. That cosmos is in such a small form in the microcosm that even seeing it is not possible. It is only inferred that it is. It is only through inference that we know that it spins.

 

The difference is quantitative. It is like saying, the difference between two and four is the same as the difference between twenty and forty. The same is the difference between two hundred and four hundred. The same is the difference between twenty million and forty million. The proportion is the same between all the figures. Only the figures have expanded, the proportion remains the same. Exactly in the same manner, the difference between the macro and micro is that of proportion.

 

Understanding is truth one should keep in mind two things: an inferiority complex is madness, a superiority complex is greater madness. One should understand it well. It is madness to think of oneself as nothing, it is also madness to think of oneself as something.

 

Yoga says: Inferiority or superiority have no access to that which you are. You should know only this much -- that you are. This much is enough. Its other meaning is: do not compare yourself. There is no sense in it. Do not compare at all. There is no point in comparing. If you compare two and four to twenty and forty or twenty million and forty million, it makes no difference, they are equal; their proportion is equal. Hence, comparison is meaningless.

 

Hence yoga says: Do not compare a drop and the ocean because a drop is nothing but a small ocean. Also do not give any chance to the ocean to be full of ego because ocean is nothing but an expanded drop. The difference is only in their expanse.

 

Now scientists think that soon, perhaps by the end of this century, we will be able to reduce or increase the expanse of things.

 

- Osho, "Sun of Consciousness, #3"