Five Modifications of the Mind

Right Knowledge < ----------------------------------- > Wrong Knowledge

Now we should enter the sutra.
The Second Sutra:

The first is praman, right knowledge. The Sanskrit word praman is very deep and really cannot be translated. Right knowledge is just a shadow, not the exact meaning, because there is no word which can translate praman. Praman comes from the root prama. Many things have to be understood about it.

Patanjali says that the mind has a capacity. If that capacity is directed rightly, then whatsoever is known is true; it is self-evidently true. We are not aware about it because we have never used it. That faculty has remained unused. It is just like... The room is dark, you come in it, you have a torch, but you are not using it - so the room remains dark. You go on stumbling on this table, on that chair, and you have a torch, but the torch has to be put on. Once you put the torch on, immediately darkness disappears. And wherever the torch is focused you know. At least that spot becomes evident, self-evidently clear.

Mind has a capacity of praman, of right knowledge, of wisdom. Once you know how to put it on, then wherever you move that light, only right knowledge is revealed. Without knowing it, whatsoever you know will be wrong.

Mind has the capacity of wrong knowledge also. That wrong knowledge is called in Sanskrit viparyaya - false, mithya. And you have that capacity also. You take alcohol. What happens? The whole world becomes a viparyaya; the whole world becomes false. You start seeing things which are not there.

What has happened? Alcohol cannot create things. Alcohol is doing something within your body and brain. The alcohol starts working the center that Patanjali calls viparyaya. The mind has a center which can pervert anything. Once that center starts functioning, everything is perverted.

I am reminded...

Once it happened that Mulla Nasrudin and his friend were drinking in a pub. They came out, completely drunk, and Nasrudin was an old, experienced drinker. The other was new, so the other was affected more. So the other asked, "Now I cannot see, I cannot hear, I cannot even walk rightly. How I will reach my home? You tell me, Nasrudin please direct me. How I should reach my home?"

Nasrudin said, "First you go. After so many steps you will come to a point where there are two ways: one goes to the right, the other goes to the left. You go to the left because that which goes to the right doesn't exist. I have been many times on that right also, but now I am an experienced man. You will see two paths. Choose the left one; don't choose the right. That right doesn't exist. Many times I have gone on it, and then you never reach, you never reach your home."

Once Nasrudin was teaching his son the first lessons of drinking. So he told him... The son was asking, he was curious. He asked that, "When is one to stop?" Nasrudin said, "Look at that table. Four persons are sitting there. When you start seeing eight, stop!" The boy said, "But father, there are only two persons sitting!"

Mind has a faculty. That faculty functions when you are under any influence of a drug, any intoxicant. That faculty Patanjali calls viparyaya, wrong knowledge, the center of perversion.

Exactly opposite to it there is a center you don't know. Exactly opposite to it there is a center. If you meditate deeply, silently, that other center will start functioning. That center is called praman, right knowledge. Through the functioning of that center, whatsoever is known is right. What you know is not the question, from where you know is the question.

That's why all the religions have been against alcohol. It is not on any moralistic grounds, no! It is because alcohol influences the center of perversion. And every authentic religion is for meditation because meditation means more and more creating a stillness, more and more becoming silent.

Alcohol goes on doing quite the opposite, makes you more and more agitated, excited, disturbed. A trembling enters within you. The drunkard cannot even walk rightly. His balance is lost. Not only in the body, but in the mind also balance is lost.

Meditation means gaining the inner balance. When you gain the inner balance and there is no trembling, the whole body-mind has become still, then the center of right knowledge starts functioning. Through that center, whatsoever is known is true.

Where you are? You are not alcoholics, you are not meditators, you must be somewhere between the two. You are not in any center. You are between these two centers of wrong knowledge and right knowledge. That's why you are confused.

Sometimes you have glimpses. You lean a little towards the right knowledge center, then certain glimpses come to you. You lean toward the center, which is of perversion, then perversion enters you. And everything is mixed, you are in chaos. That's why either you will have to become meditators or you will have to become alcoholics, because confusion is too much. And these are the two ways.

Either you lose yourself into intoxication, then you are at ease. At least you have gained a center - may be of wrong knowledge, but you are centered. The whole world may say you are wrong. You don't think, you think the whole world is wrong. At least in those moments of unconsciousness you are centered, centered in the wrong center. But you are happy because even centering in the wrong center gives a certain happiness. You enjoy it, hence, so much appeal for alcohol.

Governments have been fighting for centuries. Laws have been made, prohibition and everything, but nothing helps. Unless humanity becomes meditative, nothing can help. People will go on; they will find new ways and new means to get intoxicated. They cannot be prevented, and the more you try to prevent them, more prohibition laws, the more appeal.

America did it, and had to fall back. They tried their best, but when alcohol was prohibited more alcohol was used. They tried; they failed. India has been trying after independence. It has failed, and many states have started again. It seems useless.

Unless man changes inwardly, you cannot force man for any prohibition. It is impossible because then man will go mad. This is his way to remain sane. For few hours he becomes drugged, "stoned", then he is okay. Then there is no misery; then there is no anguish. The misery will come, the anguish will come, but at least it is postponed. Tomorrow morning the misery will be there, the anguish will be there - he will have to face it. But by the evening he can hope again - he will take drink and be at ease.

These are the two alternatives. If you are not meditative, then sooner or later you will have to find some drug. And there are subtle drugs. Alcohol is not very subtle, it is very gross. There are subtle drugs. Sex may become a drug for you. And through sex you may be just losing your consciousness. Anything you can use as a drug. Only meditation can help. Why? Because meditation gives you centering on the center which Patanjali calls praman.

Why so much emphasis of every real religion for meditation? Meditation must be doing some inner miracle.

This is the miracle: that meditation helps you to put on the light of right knowledge. Then wherever you move, then wherever your focus moves, whatsoever is known is true.

Buddha has been asked thousands and thousands of questions. One day somebody asked him that, "We come with new questions. We have not even put the question before you and you start answering. You never think about it. How it happens?"

So Buddha says, "It is not a question of thinking. You put the question and, simply, I look at it. And whatsoever is true is revealed. It is not a question of thinking and brooding about it. The answer is not coming as a logical syllogism. It is just a focusing of the right center."

Buddha is like a torch. So wherever the torch moves, it reveals. Whatsoever the question, that is not the point. Buddha has the light, and whenever that light will come on any question, the answer will be revealed. The answer will come out of that light. It is a simple phenomenon, a revelation. [Similar to having a direct connection to what is known as the Akashic.]

When somebody asks you something, you have to think about it. But how can you think if you don't know? If you know, there is no need to think. If you don't know, what you will do? You will search in the memory, you will find many clues. You will just do a patchwork. You don't know really; otherwise the response would have been immediate.

I have heard about one teacher, a woman teacher in a primary school. And she asked the children that, "Have you got any questions?" One small boy stood and he said, "I have one question and I have been waiting - whenever you ask I will ask: what is the weight of the whole earth?"

She became disturbed because she has never thought about it, never read about it. What is the weight of the whole earth? So she played a trick teachers know. They have to play tricks. She said, "Yes, the question is significant. Now tomorrow, everybody has to find the answer." She needed time. "So tomorrow I will ask the question. Whoever brings the right answer there will be a present for him."

All the children searched and searched, but they couldn't find. And the teacher ran to the library. The whole night she searched, and only just by the morning she could find the weight of the earth. She was very happy. And she came back to school, and the children were there. And they were exhausted. They said they couldn't find. "We asked Mom and we asked Dad and we asked everybody. Nobody knows. This question seems to be so difficult."

The teacher laughed and she said, "This is not difficult. I know the answer, but I was just trying whether you could find it out or not. This is the weight of the earth..." That small child who had raised the question, he stood again, and he said, "With people or without?" Now the same situation.

You cannot put Buddha in such a situation. It is not a question of finding somewhere; it is not really a question of answering you. Your question is just an excuse. When you put a question, he simply moves his light toward that question and whatsoever is revealed is revealed. He answers you; that's a deep response of his right center - praman.

Patanjali says there are five modifications of the mind. Right knowledge. If this center of right knowledge starts functioning in you, you will become a sage, a saint. You will become religious. Before that you cannot become religious.

That's why Jesus or Mohammed, they look mad - because they don't argue; they don't put their case logically, they simply assert. You ask Jesus, "Are you really the only son of God?" He says, "Yes." And if you ask him, "Prove it," he will laugh. He will say, "There is no need to prove. I know. This is the case; this is self-evident." To us it looks illogical. This man seems to be neurotic, claiming something without any proof.

If this praman, this center of prama, this center of right knowledge starts functioning, you will be the same: you can assert, but you cannot prove. How can you prove? If you are in love, how can you prove that you are in love? You can simply assert. You have pain in your leg; how can you prove that you have pain? You simply assert that, "I have pain." You know somewhere inside. That knowing is enough.

Ramakrishna was asked, "Is there God?" He said "Yes." He was asked, "Then prove it." Ramakrishna said, "There is no need. I know. To me, there is no need. To you there is a need, so you search. Nobody could prove it for me I cannot prove it for you. I had to seek; I had to find. And I have found. God is!"

This is the functioning of the right center. So Ramakrishna or Jesus look absurd. They are claiming certain things without giving any proof. They are not claiming; they are not claiming anything. Certain things are revealed to them because they have a new center functioning which you don't have. And because you don't have it you have to prove.

Remember, proving proves that you don't have an inner feeling of anything - everything has to be proved, even love has to be proved. And people go on. I know many couples. The husband goes on proving that he loves, and he has not convinced the wife, and the wife goes on proving that she loves, and she has not convinced the husband. They remain unconvinced and that remains the conflict. And they go on feeling that the other has not proved.

Lovers go on searching. They create situations in which you have to prove that you love. And by and by both get bored - this futile effort to prove, and nothing can be proved. How can you prove love? You can give presents, but nothing is proved. You can kiss and hug and you can sing, you can dance, but nothing is proved. You may be just pretending.

This first modification of the mind is right knowledge. Meditation leads to this modification. And when you can rightly know and there is no need to prove, then only mind can be dropped, not before it. When there is no need to prove, mind is not needed, because mind is a logical instrument.

You need it every moment. You have to think, find out what is wrong and what is right. Every moment there is choices and alternatives. You have to choose. Only when praman functions, when right knowledge functions, you can drop the mind, because now choosing has no meaning. You move choicelessly. Whatsoever is right is revealed to you.

The definition of the sage is one who never chooses. He never chooses good against bad. He simply moves towards the direction which is that of good. It is just like sunflowers. When the sun is in the east, the flower moves to the east. It never chooses. When the sun moves to the west, the flower moves to the west. It simply moves with the sun. It has not chosen to move; it has not decided. It has not taken a decision that, "Now I should move because the sun has moved to the west."

A sage is just like a sunflower. Wherever is good he moves simply. So whatsoever he does is good. Upanishads say, "Don't judge sages. Your ordinary measurements won't do." You have to do good against bad, he has nothing to choose. He simply moves to whatsoever is good. And you cannot change him because it is not a question of alternatives. If you say, "This is bad," he will say, "Okay, it may be bad, but this is how I move, this is how my being flows."

Those who knew - and people in the days of Upanishads knew - they have decided that, "We will not judge a sage." Once a person has come to be centered in himself, when a person has achieved meditation, once a person has become silent and the mind has been dropped, he is beyond our morality, beyond tradition. He is beyond our limitations. If we can follow, we can follow him. If we cannot follow, we are helpless. But nothing can be done, and we should not judge.

If right knowledge functions, if your mind has taken the modification of right knowledge, you will become religious. Look, it is totally different. Patanjali doesn't say if you go to the mosque, to the gurudwara, to the temple, you do some ritual, you pray... No, that's not religion. You have to make your right-knowledge-center functioning. So whether you go to the temple or not, it is immaterial; it doesn't matter. If your right-knowledge-center functions, whatsoever you do is prayer and wherever you go it is a temple.

Kabir has said, "Wherever I go, I find you, my God. Wherever I move, I move into you, I stumble upon you. And whatsoever I do, even walking, eating, it is prayer." Kabir says, "This spontaneity is my samadhi. Just to be spontaneous is my meditation."

Second is viparyaya - wrong knowledge. If your center of wrong knowledge is functioning, then whatsoever you do, you will do wrongly, and whatsoever you choose, you will choose wrongly. Whatsoever you decide will be wrong because you are not deciding, the wrong center is functioning. The wrong center is deciding.

There are people, they feel very unfortunate because whatsoever they do goes wrong. And they try not to do wrong again, but that's not going to help because the center has to be changed. Their minds function in a wrong way. They may think that they are doing good, but they will do bad. With all their good wishes, they cannot help; they are helpless.

Mulla Nasrudin used to visit a saint. He visited for many, many days. And the saint was a silent one; he will not speak anything. Then Mulla Nasrudin had to say, he had to ask, "I have been coming again and again, waiting that you will say something, and you have not said anything. And unless you say, I cannot understand, so just give me a message for my life, a direction so that I can move in that direction."

So that Sufi sage said, "NEKI KAR KUYEN MAY DAL: Do good and throw it in the well." It is one of the oldest Sufi sayings: "Do good and throw it in the well." It means do good and forget it immediately; don't carry that "I have done good."

So next day Mulla Nasrudin helped one old woman to cross the road, and then he pushed her into the well.

"NEKI KAR KUYEN MAY DAL: DO good and throw it in the well."

If your wrong center is functioning, whatsoever you do... You can read Koran, you can read Gita, and you will find meanings - Krishna will be shocked, Mohammed will be shocked to see that you can find such meanings.

Mahatma Gandhi wrote his autobiography with the intention that it will help people. Then many letters came to him because he describes his sex life. He was honest, one of the most honest men, so he wrote everything - whatsoever has happened in his past - how he was too much indulgent the day his father was dying; he couldn't sit by his side. Even that day he had to go with his wife to bed.

And doctors had said that "This is the last night. Your father cannot survive the morning. He will be dead by the morning." But just about twelve, one, in the night, he started feeling desire, sexual desire. The father was feeling sleepy, so he slipped away, went to his wife, indulged in sex. And the wife was pregnant. It was the ninth month. And the father was dying, and the child also died the moment he was born. And the father died in the night, so the whole life Gandhi had a deep repentance - he couldn't be with his dying father. Sex was so obsessive.

So he wrote everything, he was honest-and just to help others. But many letters started coming to him, and those letters were such that he was shocked. Many people wrote to him that "Your autobiography is such that we have become more sexual than before just reading. Just reading through your autobiography we have become more sexual and indulgent. It is erotic."

If the wrong center is functioning, then nothing can be done. Whatsoever you do, read, behave, it will be wrong. You will move to the wrong. You have a center which is forcing you to move towards the wrong. You can go to Buddha, but something wrong you will see in him. Immediately! You cannot meet Buddha, because something wrong is what you will see immediately. You have a focusing for the wrong, a deep urge to find wrong anywhere, everywhere.

This modification of the mind Patanjali calls viparyaya. Viparyaya means perversion. You pervert everything. You interpret everything in such a way it becomes a perversion, a distortion.

Omar Khayyam writes that "I have heard that God is compassionate." This is beautiful. Mohammedans go on repeating, "God is rehman, compassion; rahim, compassion." They go on repeating, continuously. So Omar Khayyam says, "If really he is compassionate, if he is compassion, then there is no need to be afraid. I can go on committing sin. If he is compassion, then what is the fear? I can commit whatsoever I want and he is compassion - so whenever I will stand before him, I will say, rahim, rehman: Oh God of compassion, I have sinned, but you are compassion. If you are really compassion, then have compassion on me." So he goes on drinking, he goes on committing whatsoever he thinks is sin. He has interpreted in a very perverted way.

All over the world people have done that. In India we say, "If you go to the Ganges, if you bathe in the Ganges, your sins will dissolve." It was a beautiful concept in itself. It shows many things. It shows that sin is not something very deep, it is just like dust upon you. So don't get too much obsessed by it, don't feel guilty; it is just dust, and you remain pure inside. Even bathing in the Ganges can help.

This is just to show you, don't become so much obsessed with sin as Christianity has become. Guilt has become so burdensome, so even just taking a bath in the Ganges will help. Don't be so much afraid. But how we have interpreted it? We say, "Then it is okay. Go on committing sin." And after a while, when you feel now you have committed many, so give a chance to the Ganges to purify; then come back and commit again. This is the center of perversion.

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