Atha Yoga Anushashanam - Yoga Chirtta Vritti Nirodha - A Commentary

A brief commentary by Jayaram V on the First and Second Sutras of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras: Atha Yoga Anushashanam - Yoga Chirtta Vritti Nirodha

The explanation which I am presenting here is the most basic and fundamental to the Advaita philosophy. It strips of all embellishments and modern explanations and presents the idea in its purest form as envisaged by the early proponents of the philosophy, the true masters and sages who composed the Upanishads and transcribed the Vedas as they heard them in their deepest silence. Listen to this podcast to know what it is and why the world is not real but unreal or an illusion.

This is Jayaram from Hinduwebsite.com. Today, I am going to speak about the pursuit of pleasure and the problem of worry and anxiety and why selfishness is considered the root of all evil. This podcast is based upon the teachings of the Bhagavad-Gita. In fact, it is part of the commentary I have written for a verse in the sixteenth chapter of the Bhagavad-Gita.

Hinduism draws a clear distinction between good and evil. This essay describes the qualities of Asuras or evil or demonic people according to the Bhagavad-Gita.

Ancient Indians were pioneers in the study of human consciousness. As early as 1000 BCE, they developed several contemplative and mindfulness techniques to study consciousness and understand its powers and potentials to improve one’s life, knowledge and intelligence or manifest one’s desires or open communication channels with gods and supernatural beings or resolve human suffering. They tried to harness the power of the mind to manifest reality and fulfill their desire for peace and happiness. In this podcast, we present a comparative review of consciousness in Buddhism and Hinduism, and how they are similar and dissimilar and attuned to their respective beliefs and practices and the methods they use for self-purification and liberation.

In this podcast, I tried to present a broader definition of consciousness as a partly automated and partly self-learning knowledge or information system, considering its states, functions, potencies and abilities. I defined consciousness as a knowledge system with an inborn ability, awareness and intelligence to collect knowledge or information or data from different sources, store it, retrieve it and use it for specific ends or purposes. Those ends or purposes may be preexisting, self-willed, self-learned, self-realized or externally imposed from outside sources and conditions. Of them, survival or self-preservation seems to be the most important purpose. At the most basic level, I identified it as a self-guiding, self-aware, self-protecting, self-sustaining, self-improving, self-preserving and self-evolving information or knowledge system only, which is partly preprogrammed or automated and partly self-learning and self-evolving for further automation according to the information it receives and collects from various sources.

The Hindu caste system probably came into existence around 3500 years ago due to various factors. It brought together people from diverse backgrounds under a social contract to live together and ensure order and regularity of society and polity. Somehow the system was accepted as a workable solution to ensure peaceful coexistence of diverse groups to live together and share social and economic privileges as dictated by their faith. In the early days of its origin, castes ensured stability and continuity of large populations in a rapidly changing environment, at a time when small republics, rural and pastoral communities and provincial principalities (janapadas) were giving way to large empires, well organized administrative systems and powerful monarchies. However, on the flipside, the caste system legitimized and institutionalized widespread discrimination of certain groups and communities as an acceptable and justifiable practice. It was not without consequences. In this discussion we will focus upon a few aspects of Hindu caste system.

Is there a purpose or meaning to life? Why are we here? What are we supposed to do? What is the significance of life itself? Are we meant to pursue our own interests and ensure our survival and wellbeing or do we have to serve a greater purpose or a higher power? These are tough questions for which there is no definite answers.

Sannyasa is the most extreme solution to free yourself from the world and its influence. In many spiritual traditions of India, the acceptable and effective way to achieve the ultimate freedom is renunciation. In renunciation you become detached not only from the world but from everything including your own built-in identity and value system. You give up the world, all your accumulations, mental formations, identities and relationships, so that you become free, uninvolved, disentangled and unburdened.

In the practice of Dhyana or meditation, a yogi faces numerous obstacles mainly because of the unstable nature of his mind. This podcast explains the difficulties, or the obstacles people face in the practice of dhyana which prevents them from attaining Samadhi or mental absorption.