Yoga says, it is futile to choose between the dualities.

 

Yoga says do not make a choice between what is always seen as two in life. They are one and the same. It is only a deception. Face value is one thing, at the back something else. Existence and nonexistence, birth and death, happiness and misery, good and bad, moral and immoral, monk and thief, religion and irreligion, are all the expansion of only one thing. Understand them but do not choose.

 

By understanding them, one transcends.

 

The second sutra of Yoga is: There is duality in energy -- existence and nonexistence. And where peaks of energy rise, the valleys of energy also get created. Where existence gets created, nonexistence is also present. Where there is creation, there is destruction also.

 

Hence this country did not think of the concept of creation alone, but thought of destruction as part of it. Creation accompanied by destruction, existence accompanied by nonexistence. All things that exist, move to nonexistence. And that which has become nonexistence, is moving back to exist.

 

Have you seen waves on the ocean? The wave that has risen up, is on its way down. And the ebb that is formed next to it, is on the way up. Each moment, everything is entering into its opposite. All things are entering into their opposites. One who has seen this, his wishes, desires and his longings all simply disappear. He does not renounce the desires, they simply disappear because desire is nothing but a choice.

 

Yoga's third sutra...

 

I told you that existence has two forms. Energy -- the first sutra. Second -- energy has two forms -- non-existence and existence. And the third sutra -- existence has two forms. One we call conscious, the other we call unconscious. But they are two forms, not two separate things. Those whom we call religious people, take it to be two things. They assume that consciousness is separate and unconsciousness is separate, body is separate and the soul is separate. But there is no such separateness. If you understand rightly, the part of soul that is within the grasp of the senses, is called the body and the part of body that is not in the grasp of the senses, is known as soul.

 

Consciousness and unconsciousness are two aspects of existence. A stone is lying there. It exists but it is unconscious. You are standing near it. You also exist. There is no difference in existence, both exist but one is conscious and the other is unconscious. But a stone can become conscious and you can become stone. They are convertible. That's why you eat wheat and it becomes blood. That's why iron goes into your body and becomes alive. If we take out all the material from the body of a man and put it on a table, then it is not going to cost more than five rupees. A little iron, aluminium, phosphorus, copper, will come out. The major part is water. Hardly five rupees worth of material can be found in man's body. But within the body of the man, there is something more, things have become conscious. If your hand is hurt, it feels the pain and if the same hand had not been part of the body earlier, it would not have felt the pain. Tomorrow again it won't be part of your body.

 

Under the place where you are sitting, at least ten people must have been buried. The people that have lived on the whole earth, are so many that wherever we are standing, on that small place of one square foot, at least ten people's bodies have turned into dust. All the ten were alive at sometime -- today they are lying like dust below your feet. Today you are alive, but for how long? Tomorrow, you will also lie like dust.

 

Consciousness and unconsciousness are two aspects of the existence. There are not two existences, but two forms of one existence. Hence they are convertible. Hence unconsciousness can come out of consciousness, unconscious can move into the conscious. It's happening every day. We are doing it every day. Every day we are eating unconscious material as our food and it goes on becoming conscious inside us and every day all kinds of excreta comes out of our bodies and goes on becoming part of the unconscious. So at the one end man is consciousness and at the other end he is unconsciousness. And as he takes the unconscious in, it turns into the conscious within.

 

Consciousness and unconsciousness are also not two things. There has been a great misunderstanding about it also. Atheists say that only unconsciousness exists, but they find great difficulty in explaining this. They feel difficulty because if there is only unconsciousness then from where does consciousness come? Then, an atheist like Marx has to say that it is a by-product. Consciousness is not any real thing. This has happened as a result of meeting and merging of the matter. It is not a thing, but an event. Charvak has to say that man's consciousness is like a betel man who makes betel by mixing lime, catechu etc. on the betel leaf and when you chew it, red color is produced. That red color is neither in the lime, nor in catechu, nor in the betel leaf, but it is produced by mixing all the three. That is the result of the close contact of all, that is a by-product, that is a cumulative by-product. It is like a case of wine. If you take all the ingredients separately that constitute the wine, you won't get intoxicated. But when we take them collectively as the wine, they intoxicate.

 

So, the language of an atheist, whether it is Charvak or Marx, is different. In fact their difficulty is that consciousness is visible but how to explain it? They have only one way. They say that unconscious things when mixed together, produce consciousness. But it is a very unscientific statement and does not feel right from the mouth of Marx who claims to be a scientist. Because anything which is born out of a thing, must be somewhere hidden in it, otherwise it cannot be born. If red color comes from betel, agreed, it was not in each thing separately but the red color was hidden in all of them, and it became apparent through them, but it was not visible separately. If we drink oxygen and hydrogen separately, the thirst cannot be quenched. Neither hydrogen contains water, nor does oxygen contain it but if both are mixed together, water will be formed and then the thirst will be quenched. From where does this water came? This water was within the oxygen and the hydrogen but could be apparent only when the two meet.

 

You are sitting alone in a room. I enter your room and we both start talking. Now this conversation does not descend from the sky, this was within me and within you. But if you talk alone in the room, people will think you to be mad. As I arrived, no one takes you to be mad; now it becomes convenient to express ourselves.

 

Anything that manifests, is hidden in the same thing from which it manifests. Hence the claims of atheists that consciousness is simply born out of matter, it does not exist, it did not exist, is extremely unscientific. Yoga is not ready to accept them. Theists talk just the opposite. Their difficulty is also the same, they are complimentaries to each other. They say matter does not exist, nothing is unconscious, all that is, is just God. The question arises that all that is seen all around, from where does it come? So, Shankara says it is illusion, it does not exist, it too is a phenomenon, a pseudo existence, it actually does not exist.

 

The difficulty is the same for a theist as well as for an atheist. The difficulty is how to explain the other part. Because the other part also exists. Hence the difficulty. Hence all kinds of arguments had to be invented. But they are never able to prove anything through their arguments.

 

Yoga says, both do exist. Hence Yoga does not involve itself in any round about logic. It says, both do exist. And it also says that both are not two, otherwise there will be trouble for the synthesis of the two. Both are two aspects of one thing, for instance, like my two hands, left and right. They appear as two, but for me they are not two. They appear two in you -- they seem to be two. For me, only one energy is spread in both. It is interesting -- if I want to I can make both hands fight! And both are only one energy.

 

Consciousness and unconsciousness are only one existence -- they are two ends of only one existence. Consciousness can become unconscious, unconsciousness becomes the base for the conscious. This is the third sutra of Yoga.

 

It is essential to understand the sutras because it is on these sutras that the whole structure of all the practices of Yoga are based. The existence of the conscious and the unconscious is now accepted by science. Now science uses a new word: 'psychosomatic'. Previously, it was thought that diseases were of two kinds, physical and mental. One disease is mental and one is physical, because mind is separate and body is separate. Now medical science uses a new term -- psychosomatic or somatic-psychic. Now medical science says, no disease is purely mental, nor purely physical. Disease is psychosomatic. Both are the ends of the same.

 

If your mind becomes sick, your body also becomes sick. And if your body falls sick, your mind also becomes sick. When I make you drink wine, then I don't make your mind drink. The wine goes in your stomach, it goes in your liver. The wine does not go in your mind. But as soon as wine goes into the body, mind starts talking nonsense. It should not, but it does. The wine has gone into the body but its effects reach the mind. And when the mind is sick, worried and depressed, the body immediately becomes sad and sick. If a disease is inserted in the mind, the body follows it.

 

About ten or twelve years ago, America had to make a law called the Anti-Hypnotic Act. A law had to be made against hypnotism, because a strange thing happened in the hostel of a small college. Four boys were reading a book on hypnotism in which it was written that whatever mind agrees to assume, it happens. The four decided to see it through experiment and they made their fifth associate lie down and as was described in the book, they gave suggestions to him to become unconscious. After switching off the light of the room, these four boys repeated loudly to the boy for ten minutes: You are becoming unconscious, you are becoming unconscious, you are becoming unconscious. That boy went into deep sleep within ten minutes and became unconscious. When they pierced a pin into his hand the same remained unnoticed and when they put clay in his mouth and told him that he was eating sweets he ate it tastefully like a sweet. Then they became more curious. They took the boy up and asked him to dance, telling him that he was a dancer and he started dancing. And they told him that he had become mad and he became mad. Then they asked him the last thing. They told the boy that he was dead, and he died! That is why a law had to be made that now nobody can hypnotize anyone without prior permission from the government except while doing research in the university or in some hospital or doing some experiment under a doctor's supervision. It is not that anybody can hypnotize anybody. Now that boy did die. They told the boy repeatedly to become alive but there was no one to hear, he had already died.

 

This incident of 1952 surprised the whole world. When some astrologer tells you that you will die on a certain day, you may die. Not because the astrologer is saying the truth, no, it is not so. But if this thought settles down deep in the mind, then death can happen. By putting thought in the mind all types of diseases can be created and if the thought can be put in the mind, all types of diseases can be cured.

 

One man's house caught fire. He had been paralyzed for two years and could not get up. He was almost in delirium. When in the middle of the night the house caught fire, all the members of the family ran out. When they came out, they started to wonder what might have happened to the old man of the house because he was paralyzed and would not be able to come out. But at the same moment they saw that not only was the old man coming out but also he was carrying his little box with him. They were surprised because the man could not usually even get up. When he came and stood up amongst them, they asked, "You -- and walked!" Then the man said, "How can I walk?" He fell down then and there. The paralysis returned. What happened? This man had no paralysis. This man had only mental paralysis. His mind had caught paralysis, the body was following it.

 

The opposite can also happen that someone's body is really paralyzed. If his mind refuses, it will be difficult for the body to carry on the paralysis. Hence those who have strong will power can fight any kind of disease and those who have weak will power, can be troubled by any kind of disease.

 

Yoga says there are not two things in us like consciousness and unconsciousness. In us, there is only one existence and these are two polarities of it. Hence a man can be influenced from either pole.

 

In Tibet, there is an experiment known as Heat-Yoga. There are hundreds of monks who can remain sitting in the snow naked, snow is falling all around, snowy winds are blowing and their bodies sweat! What has happened to them?

 

These men are experimenting with the Yoga sutra. They have refused to accept in their minds that snow is falling. With eyes closed they are saying that snow is not falling. With their eyes closed, they are saying that the sun is burning and its heat is raining. And with eyes closed, they are saying "I am burning with the heat." And their bodies are following it, they are sweating.

 

In South India, there used to be a yogi named Brahma Yogi. He showed some experiment in three universities, Calcutta University, Rangoon University and Oxford. He used to drink any kind of poison and within half an hour he would throw it all out through urination. No poison af any kind could get mixed with his blood. All kinds of x-ray examinations were taken but it was difficult to understand what the matter was. That man used to say only this much, that I only know that I say to my mind that I will not accept the poison. So, this is my whole secret. But in Rangoon University he died after the experiment; the poison entered the blood. His will power was working only upto half an hour. Hence it was essential that he urinated within half an hour. After half an hour, even he used to become suspicious that poison may enter the blood. For half an hour, he could keep his will power strong. After half an hour he used to become doubtful. Doubt is a very strange thing. It overpowers even such a man who keeps the poison away from the blood for half an hour. He left Rangoon University by car and wanted to reach where he was staying. But the car failed on the way and he could not reach his place in thirty minutes, he reached it in forty-five minutes but in an unconscious state. That fifteen minutes became the cause of his death.

 

There have been hundreds of yogis who declared their control over blood circulation. You may cut any vein, anywhere, but the blood will follow the Yogi's orders to flow or stop flowing. It will be good if you also do some small experiments. Count your pulse and wait for five minutes. Only you have to be thinking in your mind that your pulse is becoming faster and faster. And after five minutes you will see that the pulse rate has increased. If you experiment for a long time, the pulse can be stopped also, even the heartbeat, more subtle parts can also be stopped; the blood circulation can also be stopped.

 

Body and mind are not two things. Body and mind are the expansion of only one thing, different parts of only one thing. The conscious and the unconscious are the expansion of one and the same thing. All experiments of Yoga are based on this sutra. Hence Yoga accepts that it can be started from anywhere. The journey can be started from the body or from the mind. The disease, the health, the beauty, the energy, the age, everything is influenced by the body as well as by the mind.

 

Bernard Shaw had chosen a village twenty miles away from London, to make his grave. A few days before dying, he went to live in that village. His friends asked what was the reason for choosing that village. Bernard Shaw told them that the reason for choosing that village was very strange. "If I tell you," he said, "you will laugh. But then there is no harm. Please do not laugh -- I will tell you the reason. One day I came to this village, just for a casual visit. I went up to the cemetery of the village by way of wandering. There I saw a stone on a grave and because of that I decided to stay in this village. On that stone in the memory of a dead man was engraved: 'This man was born in 1610 and died at an early age in 1710'." So, Bernard Shaw said, if one wants to live long, it is good to stay in that village in which people consider one hunded years to be an early age to die. He told it by way of joke, but Bernard Shaw lived a long life. It is difficult to say if he lived long due to that village, but he chose it because of that stone. This choice of his mind was certainly part of his desire to live longer.

 

It is not right to think that in the countries where the average age is low, people die because they have less age to live. In these countries, because of the low average age, our expectations about the span of life become smaller. Whenever we start growing old, soon we start thinking of dying. Soon we decide that now the time has come. In the countries where expectations of age are more, people do not decide to die so soon because the time has not yet come. So, if the thought of dying enters early, its results start happening. This country has become ready for dying. If mind is not ready to die, age can be lengthened for a pretty long time.

 

The whole thing depends on the fact that there are two parts to our existence -- conscious and unconscious. And the universe also has two parts -- conscious and unconscious. What we call matter is the unconscious part of the universe; what we call life, is the conscious part of the universe. There is no contradiction between the conscious and the unconscious. Both are connected with each other.

 

I told you that if someone puts his hand on the pulse, its rate will differ. Even when a doctor checks your pulse, there is fluctuation. Hence no doctor can ever check your pulse correctly. When a doctor touches the pulse, it gives a different reading because your expectation differs immediately and if it is a lady doctor, then the difference will be more. Your expectations cause disorder. Your expectations, your mind will move the tissues. Hence an intelligent doctor would take the pulse rate to be a few numbers less than what it is reading, because you must have raised a few numbers right now, which were actually not there. Our pulse is connected with us and hence it is influenced. But I am saying that in the outer world, the unconscious matter is visible to us -- that too is so much connected with our mind. The gardener who loves the flowers in his garden... can you think that his flowers will become bigger? You may say it is madness to talk that way. But if only gardeners said it, we could have considered it as madness. There is a small laboratory in Oxford University. Many experiments have been done in it on flowers and the results are amazing. One Christian monk said, "If I bless a seed, it will bring bigger flowers."

 

In that laboratory many experiments were conducted. From one and the same packet, some seeds were sown in one flowerpot and some were sown in another. One flowerpot was blessed by that monk. He stood in front of the flowerpot and said to God, "May its flowers be bigger, its seeds be larger, and may it sprout earlier." He did not bless the other flowerpot. And the scientists made all efforts to make sure that both flowerpots got similar facilities, similar water, similar sun, similar manure. The results were surprising. The blessed flowerpot seeds did sprout earlier, brought more flowers, and the flowers lived longer. Had it not happened with a few flowerpots, one could take it to be some trick but the experiment was done on several flowerpots and every time the result was the same. What could be the cause? Does man's mind influence the seeds also?

 

In fact, there is no wall between the conscious and unconscious.

 

And what is echoed in the heart, reaches all corners of the universe. And anything that echoes in any corner of the universe, reaches to the heart. We are all a togetherness.

 

Hence, the fourth sutra of Yoga... the rest of the sutras I will talk on tomorrow... the fourth sutra of Yoga says that in the universe nothing is unrelated. Everything is relative, the world is a family. Here all is joined together, here nothing is separate. Here man is related to stones, the moon and stars are related to the earth, our heartbeats are related to the moon and the stars, our thoughts are related to the waves of the ocean. The shining snow on the mountains is related to the dreams of our heart. Here nothing is separate. Here all is related, all is joined together. Here there is no way to be separate because there is no gap in between from where things can separate. To be separate is only an illusion.

 

Hence I tell you the fourth sutra of Yoga — energy is united, energy is one family. Neither consciousness is separate from unconsciousness, nor existence is separate from nonexistence, nor matter is separate from mind, nor body is separate from soul, nor God is separate from the earth, nor from nature. The very word, the very word separate is false. All is united, all is together. The words united and together give wrong connotations because we use these words for the things which are separate. They are only one, just as an ocean has infinite waves, each wave is connected with the other. That wave is connected to endless shores which are not even visible to you.

 

Here all is connected. The sun is at a distance of one hundred million miles from the earth. If the sun becomes cold, we all die. We will not be able to ask, "What concern do we have with the sun which is one hundred million miles away? Let it become cold." We will not be able to burn the lamps of our houses. We will not be able to speak, even. All of us will be dead because you are getting all life energy from the sun. But this sun too is connected with other greater suns. Scientists say that they have counted about one hundred million suns up to now. And they are all connected together. This counting will never be complete because there are expanses beyond and beyond and beyond. It is endless. In this endless expanse, all is connected and joined together. A flower has blossomed and that too is connected to us. And there is a stone lying by the side of the road -- that too is connected to us. Once you have understood the voice of togetherness, not only the pulse will be influenced, even those things may be influenced which are not in your imagination at all.

 

- Osho, "Sun of Consciousness, #2"