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Part VI : Osho’s discourse series: Vigyan Bhairav Tantra
In December 1973 Osho begins the 10-part series in English on
Patanjali's Yoga Sutras, about the science of meditation.
Before we talk about the first sutra of Patanjali, a few other
things have to be understood. First, yoga is not a religion—remember
that. Yoga is not Hindu, it is not Mohammedan. Yoga is a pure
science just like mathematics, physics or chemistry. Physics is
not Christian, physics is not Buddhist. If Christians have discovered
the laws of physics, then too physics is not Christian. It is
just accidental that Christians have come to discover the laws
of physics. But physics remains just a science. Yoga is a science—it
is just an accident that Hindus discovered it. It is not Hindu.
It is a pure mathematics of the inner being. So a Mohammedan can
be a yogi, a Christian can be a yogi, a Jaina, a Buddhist can
be a yogi.
Yoga is pure science, and Patanjali is the greatest name as
far as the world of yoga is concerned. This man is rare. There
is no other name comparable to Patanjali. For the first time in
the history of humanity, this man brought religion to the state
of a science: he made religion a science, bare laws; no belief
is needed….
Yoga is concerned with your total being, with your roots. It
is not philosophical. So with Patanjali we will not be thinking,
speculating. With Patanjali we will be trying to know the ultimate
laws of being: the laws of its transformation, the laws of how
to die and how to be reborn again, the laws of a new order of
being. That is why I call it a science.
Patanjali is rare. He is an enlightened person like Buddha, like
Krishna, like Christ, like Mahavira, Mohammed, Zarathustra, but
he is different in one way. Buddha, Krishna, Mahavira, Zarathustra,
Mohammed, no one has a scientific attitude. They are great founders
of religions. They have changed the whole pattern of human mind
and its structure, but their approach is not scientific.
Patanjali is like an Einstein in the world of Buddhas. He is
a phenomenon. He could have easily been a Nobel Prize winner like
an Einstein or Bohr or Max Planck, Heisenberg. He has the same
attitude, the same approach of a rigorous scientific mind. He
is not a poet; Krishna is a poet. He is not a moralist; Mahavira
is a moralist. He is basically a scientist, thinking in terms
of laws. And he has come to deduce absolute laws of human being,
the ultimate working structure of human mind and reality.
And if you follow Patanjali, you will come to know that he is
as exact as any mathematical formula. Simply do what he says and
the result will happen. The result is bound to happen; it is just
like two plus two, they become four. It is just like you heat
water up to one hundred degrees and it evaporates. No belief is
needed: you simply do it and know. It is something to be done
and known. That's why I say there is no comparison. On this earth,
never a man has existed like Patanjali.
You can find in Buddha's utterances, poetry—bound to be
there. Many times while Buddha is expressing himself, he becomes
poetic. The realm of ecstasy, the realm of ultimate knowing, is
so beautiful, the temptation is so much to become poetic, the
beauty is such, the benediction is such, the bliss is such, one
starts talking in poetic language.
But Patanjali resists that. It is very difficult. No one has
been able to resist. Jesus, Krishna, Buddha they all become poetic.
The splendor, the beauty, when it explodes within you, you will
start dancing, you will start singing. In that state you are just
like a lover who has fallen in love with the whole universe.
Patanjali resists that. He will not use poetry; he will not
use a single poetic symbol even. He will not do anything with
poetry; he will not talk in terms of beauty. He will talk in terms
of mathematics. He will be exact, and he will give you maxims.
Those maxims are just indications what is to be done. He will
not explode into ecstasy; he will not say things that cannot be
said; he will not try the impossible. He will just put down the
foundation, and if you follow the foundation you will reach the
peak which is beyond. He is a rigorous mathematician—remember
this. yoga101
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