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Atha yoga anuśāsanam. What does Patañjali say? Yoga begins with discipline. Yogaś citta vṛtti nirodhaḥ. Through the practice of yoga, you control the citta vṛtti—the modifications of the mind. Your yoga begins, or will be successful, when these vṛttis are controlled. Vṛttis take you away from your reality. There was a man, about seventy years old, who went to his room for meditation. He told his daughter-in-law, "I am going to meditate for one hour. I have an appointment with someone. If he asks for me, do not disturb me. Let him sit and offer him something to drink." After thirty-five or forty minutes of meditation, the man arrived. He knocked, and the young lady opened the door. He asked, "Where is your father-in-law?" She replied, "My father-in-law went to the supermarket to buy shoes. But he told me you would come, so please take a seat. Would you like something to eat or drink?" Her father-in-law heard this while meditating. She had lied. He thought, "I told her I am in my room meditating. How can she say I went shopping for shoes?" The guest sat in the living room, had a cup of tea, and waited for his friend to return from shopping. To his surprise, the father-in-law emerged from a room. Perhaps the room had another door. They spoke, and the guest asked, "Did you find good shoes?" The father-in-law said, "No, I was not shopping." After the guest left, the father asked his daughter-in-law, "My daughter, why did you lie? I told you I was meditating, and you told him I went to the supermarket to buy shoes." She said, "Excuse me, Father. I am sorry to speak to you like this, but at that time you were thinking. You were in the supermarket looking for shoes, considering where the best shoes could be bought. Is that not true?" He said, "Yes, that is true. I was thinking that after meditation and after the meeting, I would go to the supermarket to buy shoes. I know they are on the second floor, in which corner. But tell me, how did you know this? I have been meditating for sixty years, since the age of fifteen. Till today, I know nothing. You are just twenty-two or twenty-three. How did you know I was in the supermarket in my thoughts?" She said, "Father, because I practiced yoga and dhyāna (meditation)." That is the vṛtti. When a thought arises, and these thoughts are related to something, they pull you there. Mīrābāī said in one bhajan: "My soul, my prāṇa, is there where Kṛṣṇa is, where my beloved is. Here is only this bag, this empty bag, this body. I am not here." When your feelings are not here, and your thoughts are not here, then reality is not here. That is how accidents sometimes happen. While driving a car, you are suddenly thinking of something so intensely that you are somewhere else; you do not see anything, and accidents happen. Therefore, Patañjali said you should have control over your vṛttis. There are many different kinds of vṛttis: personal vṛttis, impersonal vṛttis. Some come from within you, and some come from outside. Unnecessary vṛttis can be produced. You may be walking on the street or in a bus, shopping. Someone comes to you and says, "I love you." You may say, "Stupid person," or "Idiot," or you may smile and say, "Thank you." But this one sentence—"I love you"—may linger in your mind for many days. Whenever you pass that spot, you will remember, "Here someone told me, 'I love you.'" Or if someone tells you, "You ugly one," that thought you will not get rid of. So thoughts come from outside, and some thoughts come from inside. You must control them all, meaning you can direct your thoughts. We cannot stop thoughts. We cannot block thoughts. A river cannot be blocked; a river can be directed. So Patañjali says all the thinking processes, all the movements in your consciousness, you should filter them, purify them, control, guide, and direct them toward oneness. When I meditate, it is not necessary that I think, "Someone told me, 'I love you,'" but it will come. Remember the analogy of the beautiful pond with clear, motionless water. If you throw a stone inside, waves are created. Every thought is like a stone thrown into your consciousness. There are five indriyas, five senses. These senses are the doors through which vṛttis enter your consciousness: through looking, smelling, tasting, hearing, and touching. Therefore, it is said: control your senses. This means to control the thoughts. There is a very old story in the Vedas, in Vedānta: "Do not see evil. Close your eyes," because when you see a bad thing, that vṛtti constantly returns. Do not hear negative words and criticism. Close your ears. And do not speak badly. These are the three mudrās. If you can control these three, you have controlled many vṛttis. Otherwise, vṛttis can make you unhappy, and sometimes you cannot digest the truth or the knowledge of the truth. Truth or knowledge can make you unhappy. Knowledge can make you aggressive. Knowledge can kill you, and knowledge can lead you to kill someone. You are all searching for knowledge, for reality, but you are not ready for it. You cannot digest it. As long as you do not know, you are happy. But when you come to know, you may become so unhappy that no one can help you. That unhappiness can create fear, jealousy, anger, hatred, sadness, and suffering. Therefore, knowledge is not easy to digest; it is very rich nourishment. This means we have not mastered the vṛttis, the thoughts in our mind. That is why God did not give us memory of past lives or knowledge of past lives. You do not know how your past life was. Be happy, because you are not able to master this life. This life has become a burden for many. Many say, "My life is miserable. Why did God give me such a life?" Problems, illnesses, sufferings, friends die, parents die. If you knew how it was in your past life, you would now have two burdens. And if you knew the past past life, a third one, you might hang yourself immediately. And in the next life, you would again see that you hanged yourself. So, thanks to God that He did not give us that memory from the past. Also, God did not give us knowledge about the future, and thanks to Him, we can only gaze, imagine through our intellect or through some instruments: "How will the future be?" But that is only gazing, imagining, and that is good. If you knew what would happen to you in five years, if it is good, you would be happy. But if it is something bad, you would already be nervous today. So thanks to God He did not give memory of past and future, so that we can master our present situation, our present life. But as far as you develop spiritually and your inner self becomes pure above everything, then your knowledge will widen. At that time, you become Trikāla Darśī—a seer of the three times: past, present, and future. That means you have become one with the supreme consciousness, the cosmic world. So vṛtti is again the problem; our thought is the problem. With thinking, you develop love for someone, and with thinking, you lose love for someone. Always think about what you are thinking. What did I think? Why did I think? What should I think? And why should I think? What is the purpose of my thinking? Every thought is creative, either creative or destructive. But destructive is also a kind of function. Humans have the willpower to put their thoughts into reality. You imagine—that is called the mental program. First you imagine, then you draw, you make a plan, and then you work out the plan. There is human will, human knowledge. So all is in your vṛtti. Try to learn to control your thoughts; then there will be no depression, because depression means you withdraw yourself. Your mind goes away; it does not take responsibility anymore. And when your mind does not take responsibility, your situation becomes very critical. You cannot master the situation. When you cannot master the situation, the mind is like a fearful monkey, the monkey which runs away. For example, you drive a car and your mind is so happy: new car, new driver, new license. You drive and overtake, thinking, "These are all stupid people, how they are driving slowly." That is new blood, new driver. You go about 150, 160 speed. There is a sign for a curve, but you do not care. If there is a curve or no curve, you have a license; you are not driving for an examination. At 160 km an hour, your mind is full of ego, happy, proud, and a curve comes. Now the mind cannot control the speed, and the mind says, "Sorry, it was not me." The mind goes away, and you are alone, and you cannot master it. So it is said in German: the understanding takes away its responsibility, and the state without understanding is very dangerous. The situation without clarity in your mind is very dangerous. These are vṛttis. Young people have such strong vṛttis. They want to change the whole world. What parents are doing is stupid; they are too old. "We study more. We know the computer and everything. We know how science works. Stupid, my parents do not allow us. Better they should go on holidays and leave the car here and the car papers. We will manage everything." Then you call the hotel where the parents are: "Father, how are you? When are you coming?" When such a sweet telephone call comes from children, you should be prepared. Calm down your nerves and do not ask what happened. So, vṛttis—control the vṛttis. The same is true for the yogī, for the yoga path, for meditation, for your sādhanā. Yogaś citta vṛtti nirodhaḥ. Through the practice of yoga, you can control your vṛttis. Without controlling the vṛttis, there is no success, no development in yoga. And you can control vṛttis only if you have discipline. No means no. You tell your children no. When they do not understand, no is no, or yes, yes means yes. So discipline: yes and no. It is easy to say to children or to someone, but very difficult to say to oneself. So your inner child must be educated. Try to learn to say to yourself, "No," and try to say to yourself, "Yes." No means no: you will not sleep too long. Yes means yes: you will get up. At that time when a yogī meditates and vṛttis are controlled, in the third sūtra, Patañjali says very nicely: "tadā draṣṭuḥ svarūpe avasthānam." Do you understand? Very clear. When your vṛttis are under control, at that time, draṣṭā, the seer. Who is that draṣṭā? You. You see yourself. You see your vṛttis. You observe your mind. Sometimes it is funny: the Self is searching for the Self. Sometimes it is also funny that the Self would like to get Self-realization. The Self would like to know the Self. Your husband comes home and says, "I am a husband, and I would like to know the husband." You will say, "What are you talking about today? Were you somewhere in a party? Or did you have some kind of celebration in the office?" The Self is searching for the Self. There was one young lady, about thirty years old. Is she a young girl? Yes. She had a little child in her arms. Suddenly her vṛttis came, and somehow her thoughts took her away. She said, "My God, where is my child?" And she is holding her child. She went to the neighbor, knocked on the door, and said, "Do you know where my child is, please?" The neighbor was very nice. He said, "Yes, I know. Come and sit down." She said, "No, I must search for my child." He did not want to offend her. He said, "You and the baby both come inside." She said, "Oh God, yes, sorry. I do not know what I was talking about." The child is in hand, and one is searching for that child. So the Self is with you; you are the Self, and you would like to know, "Who am I?" You are searching for yourself. You have lost it, but you have lost it nowhere. You are lost with yourself. So we have to direct our concentration. We have to direct all our thoughts and feelings toward our aim, nothing else. There is a rope dancer dancing on the rope. All the observers are smiling. They say, "Bravo, bravo," and she smiles and looks at them. But her main intention, concentration, and awareness is on the balance, that she will not lose her balance. In this way, we are dealing with the world, with everything, but we should know what our aim is, for what we are working. Like a businessman: he is very friendly to his customers, very polite with his clients, but he knows his fixed percentage. If he wants to have 20%, he will go to 30%, and just to make the customer happy, he will go a little more down and say, "Okay, maximum, 20%. I cannot go more down." So this 10% was only a playing space for him, the tolerance border where he can move left and right. So what is your aim? For what are you practicing? Concentrate on that. The student is studying. The student should not have any distracting interest. Do not go to night clubs and day clubs. Do not go to morning clubs and evening clubs. Go to the university, come back home, and go to your friends. Your main aim is to study to make your future life beautiful. Whoever has interest to go here and there has destroyed the future and lost the fine feeling of studies. Whatever you are learning, that is your wisdom, and that is your future. That wisdom for you in the present is like a god. Adore your wisdom. Study. Discipline. At that time, you know: "I am the one who is studying. I want to be successful. I must follow discipline." In everything, you are aware of yourself: "I want to be successful. I do not want to fail my examination. I do not want my parents to be unhappy. I do not want my neighbors to be unhappy because I make unnecessary noise. I do not want my friends to be unhappy because I am not good to them. I want to make them happy. I want to help them. I should be a good one. I should accept my mistakes." Always we say, "I like," "I do not like," "I hate," "I love," "I understand," "I do not understand," "I can," "I cannot." Always we have this middle point: I, I, self. So Patañjali says: discipline and control your thoughts. At that time, the practitioner, the draṣṭā, the seer—when he controls his vṛttis, he becomes fixed or one with his own Self. At that time, you are no longer disturbed. All worldly disturbances do not touch you. All stress goes away. You are happy within yourself, unmovable. No one can disturb you. That is called So'ham: I am that I am. At that time you feel near to God. At that time you feel near to your parents. At that time you will see that it was your mistake that you left your wife, not her mistake. At that time you will see that it was a pity that you got divorced. It was his mistake, not my mistake, or it was my mistake, not his mistake. Reality—we want to see reality. But again, I tell you, reality is not easy to digest. Truth is not easy to digest. Knowledge about truth is very, very difficult to digest. "tadā draṣṭuḥ svarūpe avasthānam." At that time the seer, the Self, becomes one with his own Self. And the Self is happiness. The Self is God, the Self is the light, the Self is love, and the Self is truth. When you are near to the truth, or one with the truth, when you are one with love, when you are one with reality, when you are one with God, indescribable happiness is there. And that is meditation. Now you can say that you meditate. But if in meditation you are going shopping or searching for mushrooms in the forest, you are not meditating. You are just sitting with closed eyes. Your Self is in the forest looking for mushrooms. Here is only the physical body. So now you understand what meditation means, and who can meditate. Therefore, in yoga and daily life, practice self-inquiry meditation: What did I think? What am I thinking? Why did I think? What should I think? Why should I think? This is one technique. A second technique, a more powerful one: there is a sound coming that disturbs you. You want to meditate; do not let it disturb you. Receive the sound clearly. What kind of sound is it? From which direction is the sound coming? From what distance is the sound coming? What is the cause of the sound? And why should it disturb you? Let it be. You will get over this feeling of disturbance. Then you will be able to carry the feeling of restlessness, and you will meditate. When you are going by train and you are tired, it does not matter how much noise is in the train, how many movements are in the bed on the train; you sleep. Yes? Can you imagine that in your sleeping room, in your bedroom, when you are sleeping and your wife moves your bed like this, you will say, "What are you doing? I cannot sleep." Because you are not used to this. You did not accept this movement, and you do not want to accept it. But in the train, you accepted it because it is like that. You cannot change it. And if you want to change, then get out of the train. But if you get out of the train, you will not reach your destination. So in life, we shall learn to accept certain circumstances, and then life will be easy for you. Do not become angry immediately. Do not try to prove that you are right. You can be right, or you can be wrong. A wise one will wait. Think it over, and then wait for a certain time to answer. It is said that the scientist Einstein wrote a long letter to someone. At the end he wrote, "I am sorry to write you such a long letter, because I did not have time." He wrote a long letter and said, "I did not have the time." He meant: I did not have the time to wait and overthink. If I had taken time, then I would have written just a few lines, because then I would know what I have to write. So do not react. When you get someone's letter or telephone call which was not pleasant, do not immediately call back and argue. Wait until the waves subside. That is what we have to learn: take time, wait, and accept. Accept it like the movement of the train, but still you can sleep. In the bedroom, if your bed moves, you cannot sleep. When the neighbor walks up or down somewhere in the flat, you feel disturbed. But in the train, there is such noise that it does not disturb you. You are sleeping like a horse. Accepting situations of life makes you wise. That is what Patañjali says: at that time the state of his mind becomes like his own Self. That means he becomes one with kevalya, the samādhi, the consciousness; it is called kevalya samādhi. Kevalya means only one, only one. When he was here, I was not here. Now I am here, but he is not here. Why? Because the street of love is so narrow, two cannot walk together. Two have to become one. So your mind, your consciousness, has to become one with yourself.