Guruji begins His amazing commentary on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali with this conundrum. I haven’t figured it out yet so i thought of handing it over to you all. Enjoy 🙂
Sri Sri:
We will begin with a story, the greatest and most effective way of conveying knowledge. Once upon a time, long ago, all the munis and rishis approached Lord Vishnu to tell him that even though He (incarnated as Lord Dhanvanthari) had given them the means to cure illnesses through Ayurveda, people still fell ill. They also wanted to know what to do when people got sick. Sometimes it is not just physical illness, but mental and emotional illness too that needs to be dealt with. Anger, lust, greed, jealousy etc.
How does one get rid of all these impurities? What is the formula? Vishnu was lying on the bed of snakes the serpent Adishesha with a 1,000 heads. When the Rishis approached Him, he gave them Adishesha, the symbol of awareness, who took birth in the world as Maharishi Patanjali. So Patanjali came to this earth to give this knowledge of yoga which came to be known as the yogasutras. Patanjali said he was not going to discuss the yogasutras unless 1,000 people got together.
So 1,000 people gathered south of Vindhya Mountains to listen to him. Patanjali had another condition he would put a screen between him and his students and told them that nobody was to lift the screen or leave. Everybody had to stay in the hall till he finished. So Patanjali stayed behind the curtain and he transmitted his knowledge to the 1,000 gathered.
Each of them absorbed this knowledge. It was an amazing phenomenon and even amongst the students, they could not believe how they were getting this knowledge, how the master was making each of them understand without uttering words from behind the curtain. Everybody was amazed. Each one of them experienced such a blast of energy, such a blast of enthusiasm, that they could not even contain it. But they still had to maintain the discipline. But one little boy had to go out to attend natures call. So he left the room. He thought to himself that he would go quietly and return quietly.
Another person became curious. What is the Master doing behind the curtain? I want to see. He got so curious that he lifted the curtain to see the Master. But just as he did so, all 999 disciples were burnt to ashes. Now, Patanjali became very sad. There he was, ready to impart knowledge to the whole world and all of his disciples were burnt. At this moment, that one little boy returned. Patanjali asked him where he had gone. The boy explained and asked his forgiveness.
Patanjali was compassionate and felt that at least one of his disciples was saved. So he gave him the rest of the sutras, the rest of the knowledge. But the student had violated the law and Patanjali was not willing to forget that. So he said, Since you have violated the law, you will become a Brahmarakshasa, a ghost and hang on the tree.
And the only way he could liberate himself from the curse is to teach one student. Saying this Patanjali disappeared. Now Brahmarakshasa, hanging on a tree, would ask everyone who passed by one question and when they could not answer he would eat them. He had no choice and for a few thousand years this was the story.
He could not find a single person to whom he could teach the yogasutras. So he remained in the tree as a Brahmarakshasa (the lesson here being that for the one who has great knowledge, and who does something wrong, the state of Brahmarakshasa will come. An intelligent person becoming a criminal becomes more dangerous than an innocent person becoming a criminal.
If a person, who knows all knowledge and then turns a criminal, it is much more dangerous). So the Brahmarakshasa was hanging there and waiting for relief. Then out of compassion, Patanjali himself becomes a disciple and comes as a student to Brahmarakshasa who told him all the sutras, which Patanjali wrote on the palm leaf. The story goes that to redeem one disciple, the Master became the disciple of a disciple. Patanjali wrote the sutras sitting on the top of the tree as that was where the Brahmarakshasa sat.
Also, Brahmarakshasa worked only in the night. So he dictated the sutras at night and Patanjali wrote them on the leaves. He plucked all the leaves and made a small scratch, drew blood and wrote. This went on for seven days. At the end of it, Patanjali was tired and put everything he had written on a piece pf cloth and set it down and went to bathe.
But when Patanjali returned, he found that a goat had eaten most of the leaves. Patanjali then took the cloth bag and the rest of the leaves and walked away. In this story, there is a lot of depth. The puranas do not give any explanation. They just give a story and it is for us to unlock the meaning.
So what is that you all have to find out?
- How did the master convey the knowledge to everybody without uttering a word?
- What was the significance of the veil and when it was lifted why did everybody burn down?
- Why was the one boy forgiven?
- What is the significance of the goat? What is the significance of this story? You should think about all this and come up with your own answers.
This is the first in a series on yoga sutras
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JGD!
I can’t think of any credible answers, please enlighten!!!
I love it when it is in stories. It will be nice reading responses to this. Of what limited I understand of this..
1. Seems like knowledge in words is just another concept. True in one situation, false in another.
2. There is no source of knowledge as “all” is everywhere. The veil might signify our ignorance and as soon as it is lifted, the “I” ceases to exist.
3. Forgiveness seems the key for the existence of “Maya”. Otherwise there can be no options and no combinations.
4. The Goat seems like “I” that is unaware. Also it seems that it signifies that knowledge has many dimensions and meanings and cannot be accessed through literature alone. It unfolds itself through Grace using events and experiences.
JGD
Dear Bhaiya,
Absolutely mind churning? AMAZINGLY AMAZING!
Thanks a lot for sharing such wonderful ‘GYAN’
LOVE
JAI GURU DEV!
Wow! This sure looks like an amazing wealth of knowledge that I am missing out on…. Looking forward to more of these blog posts…
I have been wondering about these questions since the day I heard them first. Please share the knowledge if you have the answers to the questions.
Jai Gurudev!
Sriram
Whoa ..nice story ..it was like 15th Park Avenue ..interpret as you wish and as you try to interpret you realize you have screwe up :).
Nice exercise to make us scratch our grey cells.
The passage and the questions are harder than a CAT passage 🙂
@ Viel,
It can be construed as “the faith on the master”. One shouldnt e concerned with the ways and means of getting knowledge from the master, just have faith an experience the miracle.
On lifting the viel the disciple was challenging the faith on the master and so was punished. But I dont get why others were punished !! is it because no one tried to stop him ??
@ boy,
He was forgiven just for us, the people living on earth. He was te only one to whom Patanjali could transfer the knowledge to.
@ goat.
She can be interpreted just as a means who took away knowledge from us. She is there in the pcture just to make us realilze how vaaast the yogsutras were and what we are left with is just the subset, thanks to the goat.
@ 1st Que : Pass 🙂
Eager to know your take.
Hmmm… Excellent!
I will think about this today.. and will post a comment soon.
Btw the very same questions intrigued me when i was listening to it.. but never bothered to think/ponder over it 🙂 My bad…
Now i will think..
Thank you so much for writing this wonderful story and also for starting the amazingly fantastic series 🙂
love you loads..
Siddharth
yea!! i m the first one to comment!!
mind blowing!! thnx for posting!!
…’evil’ tendencies were/are arising in me…n this post helped me a lot….
the questions r very deep…some of them r bouncers…
(1) How did the master convey the knowledge to everybody without
uttering a word?
For this a hv some clue…when i sit in silence…the rigth knowledge comes…and so the knowledge must hv flown thru the master…the master being an embodiment of silence…
(2) What was the significance of the veil and when it
was lifted why did everybody burn down?
hm…the divinity is very mysterious…the more i try to understand it, the more conflicts arise, my mind gets tired and burnt out…though my mind gives an illusion that i know a lot….
(3) Why was the one boy
forgiven? hm…to give me the knowledge of Brahmarakshasa 🙂
(4) What is the significance of the goat?
hm…with time the knowledge gets old…and needs to be renewed with the changing times…thats why so many enlightened masters hv come on this planet…
(4) What is the
significance of this story?
this story made me realize that i hv so much knowledge but i dont apply it in my daily life…why…i need to ponder upon that…
btw i wanted to tell u that the session we had with u last YES!+ meet in bombay…is helping me a lot still…whenever my mind tries to make a concept out of something….i remember ur talk…thnx a lot for that … 🙂
…n i also want to say that i m in love wid ur songs…u so beautifully express the divinity…the infinite in them….vikram bhaiya…u rock!! 🙂
LOVE
Amit
JGD Vikramji, I shall be writing in if I could draw more inferences over a period of time. The following is how I chose to understand the story today:
Q1.How did the master convey the knowledge to everybody without uttering a word?
Ans: It’s said that the highest and purest form of communication is telepathy or mind-to-mind communication. Over the period four Yugs (Satyug, Dwaparyug, Tretayug and now Kalyug) we have experienced the deterioration of our means of communication. The tongue it seems is the lowest means of communication. It’s not unbelievable for me (on basis of few personal instances) to acknowledge that the Master could have indeed communicated to the disciples without uttering a word.
OR
The master wasn’t really telling the disciples anything new that they dint had already known.
Q2.What was the significance of the veil and when it was lifted why did everybody burn down?
Ans: The veil could have represented a measure/indication of time. It’s believed widely that nothing shall happen before time and nothing shall happen after time. I think it’s not the lifting of the veil that burnt people, but it could have been the inappropriate timing of doing so that caused the mishap. Development needs time, if it happens too fast and too soon it could only cause chaos.
OR
Perhaps there was nobody sitting behind the veil at all. The veil could have represented innocence. The 1000 disciples might have not actually been burnt but they might have lost their innocence equivalent to burning or loosing of innocence. Lifting of veil could also indicate mistrust on the Master and therefore facing the outburst of the Master equivalent to being burnt.
Q3.Why was the one boy forgiven?
Ans: The boy was the only being who still had his innocence intact (perhaps a little more than others).He left to attend natures call and not in mistrust towards the Master. He maybe became an enlightened being that perhaps was not accepted into the human life, therefore becoming a Brahma Rakshas.
Q4.What is the significance of the goat?
Ans: The goat could represent ignorance. If one were to be careless with one’s mind our knowledge could easily be devoured by our animalistic desires.
Q5. What is the significance of this story?
Ans: .Be patient-Nothing before time and nothing after time. Forgive: Mistake is a mistake.
Be in awareness: It’s easier to climb down a staircase than climb up. So be in awareness. Faith: Have faith in the higher consciousness. Having all the knowledge does not guarantee happiness. Love and grace is most certainly needed.
Regards
Shilpa
Well, what I feel at this moment is that :-
(1) The 1000 people gathered there had genuine jigyasa in them and therefore their mind was automatically aligned in the energy field of the Master. The Master’s teachings became their thoughts.
(2) The veil was put probably because the Master wanted to detach his teaching/knowledge from his appearance. Otherwise the disciples would have been distracted by his physical appearance and would not have absorbed his knowledge. The lifting of the veil and subsequent burning of the disciples is perhaps symbolic of loss of knowledge for a community getting lost due to one person’s misplaced curiosity (a sign of immature mind ?)
(3) The one boy who was forgiven was natural. He followed his instincts and was fully aware of what he was doing. At the same time, he was humble and brave enough to admit his omission before the Master and ask for forgiveness.
(4)The knowledge that was relevant for the time being was left and that which was not meant for the world was eaten by the goat/ withdrawn by Providence or act of nature.
(5) The story signifies that on the path of knowledge, it is so very important to accept yourself as you are and keep on moving. Even if you are not the best disciple outwardly, but if your heart is at the right place and you are willing to learn, you will gain the highest knowledge. Just be yourself and enjoy the path.
I hope I did not bore you Vikram ji.
Jai Gurudev…
What I understood is ……..
1) Awareness – 1000 Awared people can get the knowledge as it so powerful…or so precious..or it is so precious as euivalent to 1000 Awared human beings.
2) Secrecy – The Knowledge is so precious it has to be secret like an Atom Bomb ….if gone in wrong hand can destroy the human mankind.
3) Surrender – Masters words are final…if doubts/confusion/curiocity is there …disciple loose the knowledge or will loose the awareness.( Burnt..or will go again in Life cycle)
4) If knowledge goes in wrong hand some body can become Brahma rakshasa also.
5) Knowledge is so precious , sacred that one can not leave it just here & there. (Like Kriya tape etc..)that it can not be left just like that for the ignorant person.( Goat)
dearest bhaiya ……
whooooop , ball went bouncer ……
actually this story was told in one the sessions a few years back n it had completely churned my mind. now again ..i think GURUJI actually churns our mind from time to time .
luv this post a lot waiting for more of such ..
luv u
jai gurudev
No idea about the answers….
One interpretation that I had read somewhere is that Patanjali was Adisesha – 1000 headed serpent, that’s why the 1000 students as well.
As regards the Goat,G says in Shiva Sutras “Vidya Avinashe, Janama Vinasha” – As the weeds eat up the fence, the ignorance in us eats up the knowledge, so I guess it represents the ignorance.
Dear Vikram, I have watched Guruji’s discourse on Yoga Sutra’s of Patanjali. But do not recollect hearing to this story. Is this a new series of talks? Or am I missing one of the CD’s in what I had purchased? Please let me know.
Jai Gurudev
(1) How did the master convey the knowledge to everybody without uttering a word?
> Not sure.
(2) What was the significance of the veil and when it was lifted why did everybody burn down?
> Again not sure, but here is a guess.
> Veil is there to ensure that the students don’t get caught in the gestures of the master, but truely believe in the knowledge they are receiving. They should not try to immitate the master, but findout there own way of teaching the knowledge depending on the deciples.
> Burning down of everyone seems to be a metaphore. The fact that the veil was lifted signifies that the goal to impart the true knowledge, independent of the causal relationship, can no longer be realized for the 999 disciples.
(3) Why was the one boy forgiven?
> The boy was given the knowledge because he’s the only one who is not interested in causal relationship. Even after receiving so much knowledge, he is still surrendered to the master.
(4) What is the significance of the goat?
> Goat signifies that no matter how much of a herculear effort you have made to achieve something precious, you have to make equally great efforts to preserve it. It is the fundamental law of life. Everything or value needs protection, not necessarily from other entities, but from time itself. In sciece it is called the second law of thermodynamics.
(5) What is the significance of this story?
> Four things:
(1) Faith in the master.
(2) Faith in the technique & teachings of the master.
(3) Faith in oneself.
(4) Delegence/Sadhana/Tapas to continuously polish & protect the knowledge.
(1) How did the master convey the knowledge to everybody without
uttering a word?
There are not enough words to convey everything that exists! It was purely the master’s intent that could convey this sacred knowledge to his disciples
(2) What was the significance of the veil and when it
was lifted why did everybody burn down?
There is a time and place for everything. Perhaps the students were not strong enough to face the intensity so the guru protected them through the veil. Is this veil maya?
(3) Why was the one boy
forgiven?
Guru’s compassion and unconditional love
(4) What is the significance of the goat?
Agree with others, ignorance
(5) What is the
significance of this story?
This is still a beautiful mystery trying to remind me of my roots. Its like my perspective in life decides if I’m the goat or the brahmarakshasa or the disciple or the guru.
(1)How did the master convey the knowledge to everybody without uttering a word?
There are 4 modes of communication , out of which verbal communication is not so deep . The master conveyed the knowledge in silence
(2) What was the significance of the veil and when it was lifted why did everybody burn down?
The veil is the symbol of ignorance , once the veil of ignorance was lifted 999 disciples were liberated …the burning probably means being freed from the physical body …
(3) Why was the one boy forgiven?
The boy was forgiven so that he could share the highest knowledge with others …. it may also signify innocence ….
(4) What is the significance of the goat?
The goat may signify that the highest knowledge can be eaten up by a small animal like goat ( the mind is stopped from getting the highest knowledge by trivial issues)
(5) What is the significance of this story?
The knowledge/freedom is available to all who are ready to listen to the master and ready to drop their veils .
hmmm Very interesting !!And what I understand is like this…..
1.Truth cannot be spoken so the knowledge was being given in silence!
2.It was the doubt that forced one of them to remove the veil..they turned into ashes because of there doubt.
3.The child could save and was forgiven..as he was innocent.
4.The goat ate all the leaves..because it was only food for the goat nothing else…only with the desire to have knowledge one can see and recieve knowledge.
5.Significance of the story is that when the knowledge comes it should be recieved without any doubt.Trust the master !
Please find my understanding of the qs
1) How did the master convey the knowledge to everybody without
uttering a word?
Ans: If one is still seeking, no words can explain. If one has found it, words are not necessary. Only experience can penetrate the mind and experience is only what was being imparted.
(2) What was the significance of the veil and when it
was lifted why did everybody burn down?
Veil is the ego that differentiaites body from the soul. Our existence in our bodies is what makes us capable of percieving ‘God’. Once that veil is lifted, there is no need for the body .the body will not survive without the ‘I’ that binds it.
(3) Why was the one boy
forgiven?
Of the chosen ones, he was the only left who had not merged with the consciousness yet. He was the only one capable of still living the difference. he needed the sutras.It was for him then that patanjali had taken form.
(4) What is the significance of the goat?
a)What is precious to one may be insignificant to another.
b)accept things as they are. a goat would be a goat. you cant hate it for what it does. You have to be careful of what/who you are and preserve yourself without hurting others or holding their hurt against you . whatever they did may have been done in ignorance..because they do not know any other way to be.
(4) What is the
significance of this story?
a) Experience and not knowledge will set you free
b) God never punishes. He teaches. In his own way, he taught the kid how difficult it was to be a teacher and teach just one person.When enough time had elasped, he himself came down to relieve the kid.
c)Preserve what is sacred to you. The goat could not have been any other way. { When one argues or dislikes something, one always justifies – he/she made me do it, made me angry , made me …- they are just the goats, they dont know otherwise but you do, so dont let others loose what is precious to you, specially when you have worked so hard to acquire it – in the story, patanjali writes the sutras with his blood}
Mainly
d) Even if you do loose it, dont fret.
. Patanjali was writing so he could relieve his disciple. He knew from the start that experience not knowledge is important else he would have written the sutras on leaves long back 🙂
Also, we dont see the story ending with patanjali cursing the goat.meaning knowledge is important but it is still transient – it can be taken away. experience is permanent
e) Nothing ( not even spiritual pursuit) should take away your inherent essence.