RIGHT KNOWLEDGE HAS THREE SOURCES (pramaanaani): DIRECT COGNITION (pratyaksa), INFERENCE (anumaana) AND WORDS OF ENLIGHTENED ONE'S (aagamaah)🔗

In this sutra Patanjali describes the source of right knowledge. How does right knowledge happen in a person? What are the methods or techniques, which can make right knowledge, happen in a person? Very clearly Patanjali describes three sources of praman or right knowledge. The first source is direct cognition or pratyaksha. We need to understand this very carefully as this is the most misunderstood one. Generally direct cognition is understood as something, which is directly cognized through the senses. So if we see a thing in front of our eyes or we hear some music we think it is direct cognition. But we forget the fact that here senses are the medium. We are not cognizing it directly, rather we are just trusting the report given by our senses. Whatever our senses report, we have to accept. We have no other choice. But this is not direct cognition. Direct cognition happens when there is no bridge between the knower and the known. It is a state of union when the knower becomes the known and dissolves into pure knowledge. The knower is not separate from the known.

Report of the senses is deceptive. We cannot trust our senses for knowledge. Because the information provided by the senses is limited to the capability of that sense organ. For e.g. a dog has much keener sense of smell than humans. Because their sense organs are more developed. Owls can detect sound waves which human ears cannot detect. So a sense organ is limited by its functionality. So obviously what our senses report cannot be fully trusted. The information gets filtered through the very process of its passing through the senses. Even in scientific experiments, however powerful microscope you may use, still the information cognized is limited to the perception capability of the human senses. You can see only those things which you know. You cannot see unknown things. Idea precedes the object. Unless you know what is a building you wont be able make any sense of a structure called building. It is said that when Columbus's ships came to America for the first time the red Hindus could not see the ships for a long time. Only after continuous gazing they could see the ships. The reason was that they had never seen any large object floating on the surface of water. They had no idea that ships existed. So all they saw were just ripples on the surface of water. So unless you have an idea, you cannot see.

In the night we dream. And when we are in the dream we don't realize that this is unreal. Only after we wake up from the dream can we know that this is unreal. Inside the dream we go through all kinds of emotions. We use our senses to touch, smell and see within our dream. But after waking up you realize that all that the senses reported was unreal. You don't cry over any loss that happened to you in your dream. You just discard it saying that it was just a dream. So extrapolating this to our waking state, it is also possible that whatever we see, know is a dream and after waking up we may realize this. This is always a possibility, which cannot be rejected or dismissed. Just the way you know that the senses in your dream reported something imaginary and unreal, you may know that the senses in the waking state may also be reporting something imaginary and unreal.

So senses can report to you wrongly. It's the sense mind interaction, which causes the distortion of any object. We see everything though the glasses of our imagination. If you are in love with someone you will start seeing every thing beautiful about that person. Even if some woman is ordinary in looks you will see her as beautiful. That is the reason it is said that beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. Similarly if you hate somebody you will start finding faults in every action of that person. Whatever he or she does you will condemn it. Because you have already created your judgment and opinion and you are just collecting arguments to support your judgment. These are two things: either you collect arguments and then make a judgment or you just collect arguments to support your judgment. The later is dangerous and should be avoided.

If your mind becomes pure then the senses can also become pure. You can purify your senses. Once that happens you get the divya chakshu the divine eye. You see things as they are. You start cognizing things directly. It's our judgments and opinions, which dilutes the information. For e.g. a camera can see much more through its lens than what you see through your eyes. The reason is that the camera does not have any judgment. It does not favor one object more than some other object in the room. It sees all objects with an equal vision. It's the tendency of humans to discriminate and differentiate. Which is the root cause of all trouble. It is said that world is a dream and it is nothing wrong in enjoying the dream. But problem happens when we start liking one part of the dream as opposed to the other. When you start differentiating within the dream you start treating the dream as real. You end up in bondage.

Sankara describes a phenomenon called rajju – sarpa (rope – snake). When you are walking in dark and you see a rope lying on the ground you scream thinking that it was a snake. For a moment you feel that it is a snake. After realizing that it is a rope you come back to normal. This is how we are seeing the world through our senses. We are caught up in fear and greed because we see it like a snake. Only when we realize that it is not a snake and it is a rope, we drop our imaginations and fantasies and start living naturally spontaneously without the burden of fear and greed. Seeing a rope as a snake is not pratyaksha. Seeing the rope as a rope is pratyaksha.

Patanjali is not concerned with Charvakas philosophy. Charvaka was an atheistic philosopher who also used this word pratyaksha to describe his philosophy. He only accepted the report of the senses as real. For him there was no other reality. He did not accept the existence of a soul or God because they cannot be seen through these physical eyes. He rejected everything that he could not see with his eyes. He did not accept the panchabhutas (the five elements) and instead accepted just four, as ether the fifth element cannot be seen. To support his philosophy he even gave a sutra that said: -

Yavajjivet sukham jivet Rinam kritvaa ghritam pibet Bhasmibhutasya dehasya Punaraagamanam kutah

As long as you live, live happily. If you don't have enough money, borrow from others and just enjoy. Once the body is destroyed to ashes, where is the question of coming back?

Charvaka did not trust anything other than the senses. He said that whatever is pratyaksha is real. But his understanding of pratyaksha is totally different from Patanjali's. His understanding was not based on direct cognition but was based on the report of the senses. Patanjali is not interested in this materialistic philosophy. He is only interested in striking the core. He is interested in sharing his deep understanding scientifically and methodically so that all of you can reach his state.

In direct cognition there is no mediator. The knower and the known are face to face. In fact the knower and the known have merged. Direct cognition happens only in deep meditation. A Buddha does not have to uses his senses in order to know. He knows instantly. Even before you know what is in your mind, Buddha has known. When people come to me, I ask them their problem. They say that you know it THE SUPREME PONTIFF OF HINDUISM BHAGAWAN SRI NITHYANANDA PARAMASHIVAM there is no need for me to tell. But I tell them that I know your problem but the problem is that you don't know it correctly. So I ask them to repeat the problem and verbalize it. Many a times it happens that they are not able to put the problem into words. Because there never really was a problem in the first place. They were just afraid to face it and see. This is what happens in most of the cases. We turn our back towards any situation and call it a problem. We think we are in trouble. The only trouble here is thinking that we are in trouble. There is no other trouble. The trick is not in solving the problem but the trick is to realize that there is no problem.

As long as you don't know yourself correctly you can never know anything outside. How can you take the world as real when the self who is cognizing it is intangible? So the self has to be known first. Only then other things can be known. The self has to be cognized first. That is the reason we are always confused about what we want. Whenever we are presented with a goal, the mind immediately feels attracted towards that goal and once the goal is achieved we start running behind other goals. If you are placed a question "What do you want finally?" you can never satisfactorily answer this question. If you attempt to answer, a hotchpotch kind of response will be delivered. Because unless the self is known, you can never answer any question satisfactorily.

Similar thing happened to one of the great sage Narada when he confronted Sanatkumara; the first born of Brahma the creator. Narada prostrated before Sanatkumara and said that he has no peace of mind. Sanatkumara asked Narada to tell him what he knew already so that he gets some history about Narada before he gives Narada some solution. Then Narada opened his book of knowledge. He narrated the list of sciences and arts in which he was proficient. He said that he knew every science and art under the sun. He knew physics, chemistry, biology, metaphysics, theory of knowledge, astronomy, aesthetics, ethics, sociology, political science, culture, religion, philosophy and many more things. But he said that he had no peace of mind. Then Sanatkumara told Narada that he was in great danger of the egoism of his learning. He says that whatever he knows is nothing but a bundle of words with no content inside. He has smeared his personality with a veneer of apparent knowledge but he is quite different from that knowledge. He finally tells Narada that he needs to know himself first before knowing anything else. Unless you don't know yourself, whatever you learn or do in your life is ultimately futile. Once the self is known then automatically everything else is known, as it's the self that shines through every cell and particle observed in nature.

Knowing the self is like knowing the electricity within the working of electrical appliances. You may know how fan works, or how grinder works but till you are oblivious of the working of electricity within these appliances you have not known anything because electricity is the substratum; the source. The appliance is useless if the electric current is not flowing. But if you know the source, you know how everything works. Similarly if you know the self, if you have experienced the self you have known everything. And knowing the self is direct cognition. That is the reason whatever an enlightened one does is tantra, his very form is yantra and his words are mantra. He is the very embodiment of the self; He is one with that supreme self which shines within every living being and slumbers in every stone. He is also called as jeevan mukta, a free soul who walks on planet earth like God himself. You can never deceive him. If you think you have deceived him then you are at terrible loss. He might give you an impression that he was deceived but then the loss is yours. How can you deceive a person who is the very embodiment of the self? That is the reason an enlightened person never dreams. He cannot be even deceived in a dream. He sleeps a totally conscious sleep. He is alert in his sleep. He just rests in Samadhi when he is sleeping that's all. There is no element of unconscious in him.

For knowing the self no external object is required. All you need is yourself. You may be in a dark cave. You cannot see anything else. But still you are there. The self can be known, as your presence is the only prerequisite. Once Ramana Maharshi was asked. What is the qualification to practice spirituality? Ramana asked "Do you breathe? Are you alive?". So to know the self your presence alone is enough. There are examples of freedom fighter saints who realized the self when they were in prison. They had nothing to do for many years. Suddenly the mind turned inwards and they realized the self. So nothing external is required for cognizing the self. In fact anything external is a hindrance in realizing the self.

The second source of right knowledge according to Patanjali is anuman (inference). The first source is direct whereas this one is indirect. Patanjali is so intelligent that he is talking at all levels; for all types of sadhakas (spiritual aspirants). There are several spiritual scriptures by great-enlightened masters, which talk about the ultimate reality, but very few really talk from the level where you are. Patanjali is not just talking from where he is; he is also talking from where you are. You cannot stand on the tenth floor and start shouting "come up". You have to show the stairs or the elevators. Only few advanced spiritual seekers can understand the direct message. But most of the disciples have to be taken from where they are step by step. Patanjali is giving here a secondary source of right knowledge called anuman.

What exactly is inference? We can infer or deduce logically, intellectually about the existence of the supreme self or the atman or God. Right now you may not be at a level where you can cognize the self directly or even get a glimpse of it in deep meditation. But certainly you have been blessed with a mind to think logically step-by-step and infer. Patanjali says that this ability to infer is an important tool, which can be used to have right knowledge. You can use your mind and philosophically try to come to certain conclusions that ascertain the existence of the ultimate reality. This is a very nice method especially for the scientifically minded modern man.

But people don't want to think on these lines. They are afraid that such thinking may transform them. They are afraid of transformation and so they don't even want to think on these lines. Have you ever seen in party's people discussing about God? Or people discussing about death. You will never see such conversations because people want to run away from it. They will always live under the fear of death but never talk about it. It is suppression that leads to fear and greed. If there is no suppression, then you will get over fear and greed. That's exactly what has happened with sex and death. Both these ideas are suppressed in the society. We see that all the crimes in the society are linked to these two things. Greed and fear runs through the veins of the society. So if every man sits with himself and learns to infer correctly he will come closer to reality. All you need is some time for yourself. We give appointment to all others in this world but hardly do we give appointment to your own self. I always tell people; you don't even need to meditate with your eyes closed. Just sit with yourself doing nothing for twenty minutes in a day. Just watch your thoughts without creating any opinions or judgments. If there is irritation just witness it. But people don't like this advice. They are happy if I tell them some formal worship to be done. They always want to do something or the other. If I tell them that they have to get up early morning and worship some image or idol, they are happy. They will do it and it is nothing wrong. Worship is beautiful; it's nothing wrong. But it's the quality that matters. Somebody asked me once "Swamiji, can I skip mediation and just do puja (worship)". I asked her whether she feels blissful while doing the puja, if yes then her worship itself is a meditation. If she does not feel blissful then she needs to meditate. But most of the time people are not able to do the worship in a meditative manner. While doing japa (chanting of holy name), they are counting the remaining beads to see how much more is remaining. They are doing it just for the sake of doing it.

If you worship like Ramakrishna there is no need to meditate. But are you at the same stage as Ramakrishna? So I always tell people, instead of upasana do vipassana.

So sit with yourself everyday for twenty minutes and do some contemplation. Your conclusion is not very important. The clarity is what that matters. You should be clear about what you do. Even if you come to the conclusion that there is no God, or no self, let this be backed up with proper logic and reason. The moment there is clarity automatically bliss follows. When you have knowledge of something, you are not bound by it. Its ignorance that binds and knowledge liberates. As I mentioned earlier Charvaka came to totally different conclusions. He gave his disciples a totally different direction, but if you think carefully Charvaka was happy. He was happy with his conclusions. His inference may have been distorted. He may not have thought deep enough but he at least thought something. If not today certainly he might reach to better conclusions; just that his mind should be open. But people don't even think like Charvaka. They live like Charvaka but don't dare to think like him. It needs courage to be a perfect atheist. Vivekananda used to say that I am yet to meet a perfect atheist; someone who can logically debate and defend his conclusions.

There is a nice story from the Upanishads. Ten disciples are crossing a river. After crossing the river they are counting the number to make sure that all have reached safely to the other side. One person starts counting others and counts till nine. He forgets to count himself. Since he has counted just nine people he is afraid that one of them has drowned. He counts once again but still he is only able to count till nine. Then all start counting and nobody is able to count till ten as all are forgetting to count themselves. So they start weeping and wailing, thinking that one of their dear friends has drowned. A sage who is passing nearby sees this commotion. He gently asks one of the disciples to explain the predicament. The disciple tells the sage that they have lost one of their friends in the lake and that is the reason everyone is weeping. He tells him that they were ten who were crossing the lake and after reaching the other end of the lake they could count just nine. Now the sage is puzzled because he is able to see all ten of them. He asks this disciple to count once again. Then the disciple counts till nine. The sage then understands the trouble. He exclaims to this disciple "Fool, you are the tenth". This comes to the disciple as a bolt. He is shocked. He had forgotten to count himself. When he realizes this, suddenly his grief disappears. He understands that he is the tenth disciple which he was forgetting to count and was ignorantly thinking that one person has drowned.

This is what we do. We never contemplate on the self. We are always outward in our activities. The self is always forgotten. Even bliss we try to seek outside when our very nature is bliss. Very rarely when you get some free time, you immediately try to occupy yourself in something. Weekends are also jammed packed with hectic schedules. Then what is the difference between a weekday and a weekend? But people when they find some free time, immediately take the television remote and start scrolling through the channels. If nothing else is there, they will read some novel. Nobody wants to face the self. They are running away from the self. But how long will you run? One day you have to return to the source. You are trying to know everything except yourself. How will you know? It's impossible.

There are several ways you can try to infer about the truth. One of the things that appeal to a human being is the vastness of the universe. So many planets, stars and galaxies, everything moving in perfect equilibrium. Looking at this magnanimity of the universe, one starts thinking about the grand design. And whenever a design is thought of, the designer cannot be ignored. The designer becomes an integral part of the design. So when the universe is comprehended, obviously the designer of the universe is thought off. This was one of the important reasons why philosophies and theories of creation were made.

There was a philosopher called Descartes. He started his philosophical quest through doubt. He decided to reject anything, which is not indubitable. So he denied even God because God can be doubted. Anything that can be perceived, he used to reject because anything conceivable can be doubted. This was a very courageous step. It needs courage to progress on this path. Because before you see the rose you have to encounter innumerable thorns. This quest is like that. Everything will seem distasteful. You won't find interest in anything, as you doubt everything. But one day when Descartes was contemplating, it suddenly dawned on him that he could not doubt himself because even to doubt, he is required. He could not deny his existence because even for the denial he is required. You cannot even say "I don't exist". Your saying proves that you are. Even to doubt you are needed. So this way Descartes finally inferred about the existence of one permanent entity.

Out of the six systems of Hindu philosophy, Nyaya philosophy is entirely based on logic and reason. It shows you a path which involves just inference.

Inference then leads to the thirst to have direct cognition. And this thirst is what propels you to progress and realize the self. Inference should lead to your growth. It should not de-motivate you. Inference should give you the strength and the energy to progress and realize the self. If inference leads you to a void then the inference was skewed. It was not right inference. Inference should not make you lose interest in life. Instead life should become more enthusiastic and beautiful. Another danger is that inference should not be left half way. It should go on till the end. How would you know if the inference was completed or not? If it leads you the bliss, then it was right. It was done till the end. But if inference leads to a void and restlessness, then it was dropped in the middle. You need to carry on. You need to investigate more.

Another problem with inference is that people sometimes get stuck with their conclusions. I am not saying that one needs to vacillate from one conclusion to another but the mind should be open to accept other ideas. You should be able to test your conclusions against all logic and reason. Only then your inference is flawless. The moment your mind becomes closed to others ideas and inferences, it's your fear that is reflected. You have not probed deep enough or you feel that there is some loophole and are scared that somebody might point it out.

Sometimes inferences can be wrong also. If the mind is established in viparyaya, the inference is totally fuzzy. It is sometimes funny also. Once three people were interviewing for a position of the detective. The first person was asked, "Who killed

Jesus". He said the Romans. He was admitted in the academy of detectives. The second person was asked the same question and he too answered correctly. He was also admitted in the academy. Then the third person was asked the same question. He did not know the answer. He started thinking. Finally he gave up. The inspector, who was questioning him, gave him one day to think and answer. That night when this third person came home, his wife was anxious to know the result of the interview. This person said that the academy was so much interested withs him that the very first day they gave him a very complex case to analyze.

Inference and logic can sometimes be really funny. Once a person was explaining to his neighbor, how logic works. He asked him whether he had a fish tank. The neighbor says yes. So he asked him if there were fish in that fish talk. The neighbor says yes. Then he asked him who feeds the fish. The neighbor says his wife. So this person explains to his neighbor that he has inferred from this conversation that he is married. Just from the initially link he logically derived that he has a wife and he is married. The neighbor is impressed with this logically analysis. So this neighbor goes to meet one of his friends and asks him if he had a fish tank. His friend says no. So this neighbor concludes that he is not married. Sometimes due to foolishness we might come to such silly conclusions.

There was a philosopher who denied he existence of God. He said that the world cannot have a creator because a person can never be perfect. The universe works in perfect harmony with all elements abiding to their natural laws. He said that such a perfect design is not possible for any being. He has to commit few mistakes. He argued that why doesn't a single law provide an exception. Why do all laws always work? Once in a while it's fair enough for something to fail. So he inferred that the existence of a creator is impossible because of this apparent perfection in the universe. His inference is right to a degree but again he had not probed deep enough. He was just looking at the perfection in the universe but to a large extent it is chaos also. So I say universe is chaos in order and order in chaos.

There was another philosopher in the past; he kicked a brick and said that it hurts. So he inferred that the world is real and a rock solid block outside of him. But again what he felt was just an experience. It was purely an experience and that does not testify the existence of the world outside. You do experience many things in your dream but then you know that the dream was unreal after waking up. Similarly there is every possibility that you are a part of a dream now, which you will know as unreal after getting enlightened.

But inference is not which everyone likes to do. There are disciples who don't like intellectual gymnastics. They are just not made for it. But there are some disciples who are highly intellectual. If I tell some disciple that God exists he will accept it without any logic or reason. But another disciple may ask me to prove it to him. He might put forth several questions. And only when his intellectual thirst is quenched he may start believing in what I say. But sometimes this becomes a vicious cycle. Once a disciple asked me whether a soul exists. I asked him to meditate and said that he would come to know. But then he was not ready to meditate because he thought that if the soul did not exist, his meditation would be in vain. He would be wasting his time in that case. The only way to experience the atman is through meditation. You cannot know the atman and then start meditation. If you have known the atman then you don't need to meditate. But he was not convinced. He said show me the Atman, give me a glimpse and only then I will meditate. Vivekananda could be given a glimpse by a mere touch because Vivekananda was ready. Not everybody is ready and so meditation is the stepping-stone. But why would you even start meditation if you have not seen or experienced the object of meditation. But certainly you can base your meditation on certain inferences, which you believe are true. Isn't science too made up of assumptions? Don't they assume certain things and then prove that their assumption is correct. If you are asked the value of x in the equation x + 2 = 4, what would you do? You will assume x = 2 and then replace x by 2 and see that 2 + 2 is indeed 4. So you then conclude that your assumption was correct. But what if you start arguing even before trying. Why should I assume x as 2, why cant I assume it as 10. Would that help? So inference if done rightly can take you closer to right knowledge.

The third source of right knowledge according to Patanjali is the words of enlightened ones or agama. There are few things that you cannot infer. Your intellect will work up to a certain level. After that the intellect cannot proceed. Things start getting really fuzzy. At this stage the third source comes to your rescue. This is a very reliable source as it is the truth itself. There is no gap between the words of an enlightened one and his enlightenment. Both are one and the same. The vaak (speech) of an enlightened one is pure. There is no gap or filter between his thoughts and words. He is absolutely spontaneous and alive as his thinking and talking is happening simultaneously. As of now a man thinks, edits and then speaks. But an enlightened one thinks and speaks simultaneously. His words are mantras. Just by listening to an enlightened one you can acquire right knowledge. As when you are listening to him, you are listening to right knowledge itself.

As of now you have innumerable thoughts. All thoughts are not coherent but they are contradictory. So you experience success and failures in life. You might ask why your desires are not getting fulfilled? The reason is that your desire is not strong enough. Or it is self-contradicting. You have a desire to eat delicious food and simultaneously you also cater a desire for good health. You eat all junk and then suffer when your body revolts. Your desires are self-contradictory. Also you entertain so many desires that only few are accomplished. Most of your desires are not worth asking. But in the case of an enlightened one, his words carry the power to materialize and execute. They carry the energy for execution. Hence people take blessings from enlightened ones. When they say anything, their words create a positive vibration.

Enlightened ones work intuitively. They see what you don't see. There was a householder in Maharashtra in the twelfth century. He ran away from his house leaving his wife alone and took sanyas. Few years later his Guru advised him to go back to worldly life. Since he was a perfect disciple, he obeyed his Guru's orders and went back to his wife. Later he had four kids and all four of them became enlightened. This insight, this vision only the enlightened ones can have. That is the reason his Guru told him to give up sanyas. From a societal perspective such kind of an action especially in that age was a dogma. And this saint along with his wife and kids were treated badly by the society. So much so that the saint was forced to give up his life because giving up sanyas was an unpardonable sin that time. But he gave birth to four enlightened children who became icons of spirituality in Maharashtra.

No statement made by an enlightened one is casual. Sometimes I casually tell many things. Disciples don't pay much heed thinking that it was just a casual statement. Later I ask them about what I spoke. They are shocked. They ask how did you remember. The reason is that no statement comes from an enlightened person without awareness. So every word from him carries the energy, carries the force. Even when the enlightened one forgets something, it is for a reason. Many times when I want to meet with my disciples I call few people by their names. I don't call few names, which I would normally call. People think that I forgot to call their names. But in reality that lapse of memory is for a reason. No action is casual.

Though this is the most reliable source of right knowledge it is the most difficult. What an enlightened person says may not seem logical to you. He sometimes may even sound crazy. Once a student goes to a Zen master. He requests the Zen Master to accept him as his disciple. The Zen master asks the disciple to dig a well at a certain spot. The disciple is happy and starts the job early morning. By evening he has finished digging the well. In the evening the master says that he does not like the well at that particular spot and would like him to dig at some other spot. The disciple gets frustrated. He thinks why did the master ask him to dig at the wrong place. He could have directly asked him to dig at the right place. So he was not able to logically comprehend the Masters behavior. He left the Master. The zen master laughed and said that he is not the perfect disciple because he did not have trust in the Master. He started doubting Masters actions. So how can the Master work on him. Only when pure trust develops between the Master and the disciple, the real work can happen. Masters often test the students in the initial stages. Once they are sure that a student is an eligible candidate to receive the truth, they accept them as their disciples.

You might ask how do we trust if a person is enlightened or not. What is the proof of his enlightenment? A valid question indeed! I would say there is no way for you to figure out whether a person is enlightened because a person in darkness cannot see light. So you cannot figure out somebody's enlightenment. But if you fall in tune with someone, if you can relate with someone from your heart then you can start following him. Many people come and ask me if they should accept me as their Guru. I tell them that this very question shows that the connection has not yet happened. If the real connection has happened this question would not have arose. You will simply start relating to me. The guru disciple relationship will start happening.

These days there are so many masters that often disciples get confused as to whom to follow. That's what I say jokingly that previously it was a sellers market, now it's a buyers market. You may think that if you follow someone and if that someone turns out to be a fraud after two years then you have wasted your two years. You would feel cheated. But you have no other choice. If you don't follow a master you have anyways wasted your two years. By following a master at least you have created a possibility to grow. Risk is always there but life itself is a risk. Your very next moment is unpredictable. When you desire something as ultimate as enlightenment, obviously the risks will be more. That's why it is said that spirituality is like walking on a razors edge. And you can always learn from any experience. Even if someone deceives you, you have learnt something. Now no one else will be able to deceive you so easily. So it's worth taking the risk. And it is always a risk because there is no guarantee. It entirely depends on your trust.

But let me tell you this. If you have really trusted this person then even if he turns out to be a fraud you won't feel cheated. The trust carries so much energy that it will transform you. It will make you grow spiritually. Even if he was not enlightened you will get enlightened if the real trust happens. On the other hand if you don't trust completely a real enlightened master, then even he cannot help you. During Krishna's time there were so many people around him who were oblivious about his divinity. Even Balaram, his cousin was not aware of his divinity. When the Masters are in their body, it is very difficult to believe them. Only when they have left the body we start accepting their divinity. I always say that when the grandfather is old he lives in the outhouse, when he passes away his photo comes in the drawing room. It's very easy to follow the teachings of a dead master. Because a dead master does not interfere with your life. You can live any way you want. And spirituality can become a part time affair for you. But in the case of a living master he becomes a nightmare for you. He is the simha swapna:- the lion in your dream that will wake you up from this sleep. Only thing what you need to do is trust him completely. Nothing more is expected from you.

Masters trust the disciples. But the disciples can never believe that they can be trusted. We never believe that we can be trusted because we ourselves don't trust anybody. If someone smiles at us we think that he has some vested interest. We can never trust anyone completely. In all our relationships we mean business. It's like a business bargain going on. We never live any relationship completely. We always play a safe game. If you play a safe game in your relationship, you will be safe but it will be graveyard security. In a graveyard you are perfectly safe but you are dead.

Once a person went to Ramana Maharshi and asked him what spiritual practice he should do. Ramana Maharshi asked him to do Atma Vichara:- self enquiry. After a month he came back and said that self-enquiry is very difficult can he do meditation? Ramana Maharshi said all right. Again after a month this person came back and said that meditation is very difficult can he do some japa:- chanting of a mantra. Ramana Maharshi said all right. Again after a month this person came back and said that japa is very difficult, can he do just pooja:- rituals. Ramana Maharshi said all right. Again after a month he came back and said that Pooja is very difficult, can he just visit a temple. Ramana Maharshi said all right.

Masters give freedom to their disciples because they trust the disciples. The disciple needs to have the same trust towards the master. Then the real alchemy can happen. The words of enlightened ones are like the torch in darkness and will take you towards light. In Vedanta there are three recognized steps on the path to self-realization viz. Shravana, manana and nididhyanasana. Shravana means listening to the enlightened master. Listening to the truths. Then comes manana where you contemplate on his words. Finally the next step nididhyasana, which means entering into meditation and realizing the truth. The first step is most important. Just listening. That will liberate you. We have lost the art of listening. We never listen. Even when we are talking to our friends we don't listen. Even when we listen, we allow them to talk so that we can start talking soon. But we don't have any interest in listening.

Listening is an art. It's a spiritual quality. Listening automatically puts you in silence. And silence then starts working on you. Only when you listen with awareness, the words can have any effect on you. Else the words won't have any impact. When disciples sit with me, I talk so that they don't talk. Else everybody is ever ready to blow his/her own trumpet. So I keep talking. But finally you have to go beyond words and enter into silence. Then the real work can happen. If I am talking to you, understand that no real work is happening. If I stop talking then I am working on you. For work to happen your mind should be present here. But with words you keep wandering here and there. But master uses his words like a healing stick for your mind. He helps you mind to calm down. Not everybody is capable and eligible to enter into silence directly. So the master showers some words on you. These words are powerful enough to make a transformation. The only expectation from you is the listen with utmost trust. That is the reason patanjali is giving this third source as the ultimate technique to realize the truth.