YOGA (yog) IS THE CESSATION (nirodaha) OF THOUGHT (vritti) WAVES IN THE MIND (chitta)
This is the definition of Yoga. Patanjali is terse and straight. He is not giving any elaborate definition. Simply in one sutra he defines yoga. He says; yoga is the cessation of the thought waves in the mind. In the first chapter we saw what is the mind diagram. Now let us try to analyze in greater detail what is mind, what are thoughts and what are the thought waves in the mind.
First thing to understand is that mind is not something substantial. Mind is not something concrete. You cannot say that this is my mind because you cannot point at it. You cannot demonstrate it. But still you feel that it is. Mind is just an activity. If you are walking and if I ask you what are you doing, you will say 'I am walking'. Now if you sit and I ask you where is your walking gone, you would feel this is a funny question. You would feel that this question does not make any sense. Obviously you can get up and start walking again. But right now you are not walking. Just as walking was an activity, you were doing some time back, mind is also an activity.
Had the word 'Mind' not been coined, life would have been much simpler. Mind is just an imaginary entity, which is not there really, but it gives you a feeling as if it is there. In Sanskrit we use the term 'Maya'. Maya is defined as Yama Iti Maya which means Maya is something which is not there but gives you an illusion as if it is there. Mind is also a result of Maya. Let us understand in detail what exactly is the mind.
Very often we use the phrase 'my mind'. This is one of the biggest blunder and the reason for the sorrow. Whenever we say, my mind we think that the mind is some kind of possession. We think it's our property. Just the way we own house, car and other possessions we think that we own our mind. And then we try to chisel with our mind to make it all right. Our own experience has proved that controlling the mind is impossible. Many people sit for meditation and try to be thoughtless. In the very process of trying to become thoughtless, innumerable thoughts arise. Whenever you try not to do something, you will end up doing that thing.
Once a person went to a great yogi and asked for spiritual powers. The yogi told him that he should not ask for spiritual powers, rather he should try to know the self and get enlightened. The man was persistent and wanted nothing else other than spiritual powers. He told the yogi that if he cannot give him spiritual powers he should just admit it and not give him any other suggestion. Finally the yogi agreed to give him some spiritual powers and gave this person some medicine and asked him to have it after his bath. But he also enforced one condition. While having the medicine, the person should not think of a monkey. This person was very happy and thought that why would he think of a monkey while having the medicine. He thought that he does not even have a pet monkey nor does he have any fascination for monkeys. So there is a very little chance that he would randomly think of a monkey before having the medicine. The man readily agreed. He was just about to leave but then a thought struck him. What if I think about the monkey? He asked the yogi the remedy; what he needs to do just in case he thinks about the monkey before having the medicine. The yogi said that in that case he would have to take bath again and then have the medicine. This person obliged and went back home and took bath and was ready to take the medicine. Just then a thought came in his mind 'I was not supposed to think about something before taking the medicine. Oh it was the monkey'. The moment this thought came he had thought of the monkey. So he again went for his bath. After coming out when he was going to take the medicine the thought of the monkey again appeared in his mind and so he went back to take bath. This process continued for around 9-10 times and he was not able to have the medicine. Finally he ran to the Yogi who had given him this medicine and fell at his feet. He requested him to take the medicine back and said that he was not interested in spiritual powers any more. All he wanted him was to remove the thought of the monkey from his mind. Thought of the monkey had become his greatest nightmare.
Actually the yogi did a great favor to this person by now allowing him to have the medicine. Because once a person gets entangled in the snares of powers or siddhis it becomes very difficult to get him out. But now the person could not stop thinking of the monkey because the idea that he should not be thinking of the monkey had been fed into his mind. So not thinking is not the solution. It's not even in your control. You cannot just stop thinking because you don't know the source of your thoughts. We know that the water comes from the tap and so we can simply close the tap and make sure that flow of water stops. But we don't know the source of out thoughts. We don't have access to the tap through which the thoughts come. Then how can we control their flow? Some great power or a force beyond the mind is required to calm the mind. The mind cannot control itself because mind is nothing but sequence of thoughts. Thoughts come in succession one after the other and their very coming and going gives us the illusion of the mind. Then another thought arises which says that we need to control the mind. How can a thought control its very coming? Or how can a thought prevent another thought from coming? This has to be clearly understood. There is nothing like the mind. It's just the thoughts. Mind is not separate from the thoughts. In fact it's this collection of thoughts, which we call the mind. Out of ignorance we say that my mind has a lot of thoughts. It's not the mind that has thoughts. The mind is because the thoughts are. Mind is not something separate from the thoughts.
So stopping the mind by the mind becomes impossible. It's like water flowing out from the tap trying to stop the further flow of water. It obviously cannot. One needs someone else to come and stop the tap. Similarly mind cannot stop itself. But the mind can train itself to put an end to it. Great patience and perseverance is called for. Some of the great mystics of the past have demonstrated techniques to silence the mind. It may appear very funny but the techniques are very effective.
There was a great saint called Swaminarayan. He had lot of followers in Gujarat though he himself hailed from Uttar Pradesh. He was once walking on the road when he saw a group of people trying to milk a cow. Cow was very violent and was kicking every individual who was trying to go near. All the people were trying out different techniques to get the cow under control. When Swaminarayan saw this he decided to get the cow under control. He asked those people to give him a day and assured that he would get the cow under control. People readily agreed as it had been a long time they were trying to control the cow. Swaminarayan then sat at a distance from the cow with a stick. He touched the cow's leg with the stick. Immediately the cow kicked. Again he repeated the same action. The cow kicked again. This process continued from morning till evening. The intensity of the cows kicking was becoming slower and slower as the day progressed. Finally the cow stopped kicking by evening. Then Swaminarayan went near and started milking the cow.
This is an example of how our mind needs to be handled. We need patience, perseverance and little intelligence to deal with the mind. Just as the saint treated the cow with patience, the mind has to be treated in a similar way. We need to give some time. We need to have some patience for the alchemy to happen. Rome was not built in a day. Impatience is the nature of the mind. It needs quick results because it always thinks about the result. It does not care about the path. It does not realize that the path itself can be blissful. There is no separate bliss to be achieved. The path itself is bliss. This understanding has to be clear.
Once a bull was creating havoc on the road. People were not able to control the bull. Anybody who tried to give it some grass it kicked the person. It was becoming very difficult to control the bull. Finally one man took up the task of pacifying the bull. First he built a fence around the bull. Now he had defined a radius for the bull beyond which it could not operate. The bull tried all its acrobats within the fence. Slowly the next day this person decreased the radius of the fence. He repeated this, and day-by-day he kept decreasing the radius of the fence finally making it as less as the size of the bull. The bull could barely stand within the fence. It could not move. With this continuous effort the bull automatically slowed down. Finally this person went close to the bull and offered it some grass to eat. The bull obeyed him without any problem.
Stories of this kind indicate to us that mind has to be handled very carefully. Mind is like a mad monkey jumping from tree to tree. This monkey has to be silenced. It has to be silenced to such an extent that it stops existing. Mind has to be annihilated. Right now the mind has a survival instinct. It tries its best to survive. You might have observed that you become restless when there is nothing to do. When you don't have any responsibility you feel very restless. The reason is that mind starts losing its identity. As long as there is something to do, the mind is happy. When there is nothing to do then it becomes a problem. People worry because they don't have anything to worry. This survival instinct of the mind should die. The very instinct to survive is the greatest killer. As long as the survival instinct is there you would be dying every moment. Every moment the fear of death would be there. If the survival instinct is not there then the fear won't be there.
Mind is nothing but collection of thoughts. One thought after the other coming in succession. By our very nature our thoughts are unconnected. They are like bubbles in a fish tank. The bubbles in the fish tank are not connected. They are distinctly separate. But they just appear to be connected. In a similar manner our thoughts are not connected though they appear to be connected. You can do a small exercise. Write down all your thoughts as and when they come. Sit for ten minutes silently and simply start recording your thoughts. Don't try to control or stop thinking. Just be silent and witness the thoughts coming. The moment a thought comes quickly write it down on paper. Do this for ten minutes. At the end of ten minutes read out whatever is written. You will see that it's a mad man's diary. There is utter chaos. There is no connection between the previous thought and the next thought. All the thoughts are un-clutched and unconnected. Only when you write down your thoughts you come to know that the thoughts have no real connection. You may be thinking about having a cup of tea and the next moment you may think about some office work, which is pending. There is no real connection between having a cup of tea and the office work. Both are independent events. Even if there are two consecutive thoughts about the same event the thoughts are unconnected as there is no continuity. There is always a gap between these thoughts. There is a time of silence between the thoughts. The thoughts by their very nature are un-clutched.
The problem happens when we connect these thoughts. We connect these unconnected thoughts and suffer. For example; you might have eaten ice cream ten years ago, you might have eaten ice cream seven years ago, you might have eaten ice cream two years ago and you might have eaten ice cream yesterday. All these experiences might have been very pleasurable for you. You might have enjoyed the ice cream every time you ate. The trouble is that you connect these experiences and create an imaginary shaft or an understanding that eating ice cream makes you happy. So you try to repeat this experience in the future. You always connect similar thoughts and create a shaft. It might be your experience that sometimes you don't enjoy the ice cream as much as you enjoyed it some days ago or a year ago. Even if you don't enjoy the ice cream you will make yourself believe that you like the ice cream. Because you have got into the habit of connecting the thoughts, you unconsciously start accepting that you enjoy ice cream.
Similar is the case with painful experiences. The pain which you experienced ten years ago, the pain which you experiences seven years ago, the pain which you experienced three years ago and the pain which you experienced yesterday are independent events. There is no connection between these events. But you create this imaginary shaft and start thinking that my life is a pain. If you had many pleasurable experiences in your life you say that my life is pleasure. But actually neither of it is true. Your life is neither pleasure nor pain because the very process of connecting these events is a mistake. The idea that the thoughts are connected is a misconception. And that too we don't connect all the thoughts. We connect only those thoughts that we remember and create the shaft. Just as from a bunch of flowers you pick up few flowers and create a garland, from millions of thoughts we have, we connect few thoughts that we remember and create a shaft. Creation of the shaft is the original sin. When we create the shaft we suffer.
If you have created a shaft of pleasure then you try to extend the shaft because you want to experience the same pleasure again. If you have created a shaft of pain then you try to break the shaft because you want to avoid the pain again. You can neither extend the shaft nor break the shaft because the shaft does not exist. The shaft itself is the myth. The creation of the shaft has become one more shaft for you. All your experiences are independent experiences. The moment you have connected these experiences you have create a shaft. You have created suffering. Now you will understand why suffering is also imaginary. It is based on something imaginary. It is based on something unreal. It's just an appearance. The shaft is unreal; it does not exist. So the suffering that is created due to the shaft is also unreal. Once you realize this you are liberated.
Each thought carries within itself the energy to create the shaft. Our thoughts are very powerful. We misunderstand the power of thoughts. Thought directly impact the events, which are happening around you. Not only your thoughts, everybody else's thoughts. It's a collective consciousness that operates. There was a research by a scientist in Japan on how thoughts affect water crystals. He has published a book called 'Messages from Water'. He took river water and subjected it to different thought waves. He divided the water into different samples and he created different types of thought waves for each sample. For one sample he used words of love, for some others he used words of hate. For some he used to recite some holy quotes from scriptures and for others he just abused. Later he crystallized these water samples and photographed them. He was amazed to see the results. The water samples for which he had used loving thoughts were crystallized into a beautiful looking crystal. Water sample, which he had subjected to thoughts of hate, had a very disoriented and unpleasant crystal pattern. He was amazed by his discovery that thoughts can do so much to water. Just imagine what our thoughts must be doing to us, as 90% of our body is nothing but water.
Because our thoughts are so powerful, they have the capacity to clutch with other thoughts and create an imaginary shaft. This process of creating the imaginary shaft is the function of the ego. Ego is nothing separate from the thoughts. Instead it's characteristic of the thoughts to create a shaft. So really speaking the ego does not exist because the shaft does not exist. The shaft is imaginary. Ego is just a name we give to this process of creating a shaft. A sense of continuity is created because of this shaft. This gives us the illusion of the ego. Since right now all our thoughts clutch we think that we have an ego. But all our thoughts by their very nature are independent so the idea of the ego is also imaginary as there cannot be anything connecting these thoughts. So by our very nature we are un-clutched. We are enlightened and just we have to realize it.
Once a disciple goes to a Zen master and asks him 'how can I become Buddha'. The master gives him a tight slap on his face and says that you are already a Buddha. If Buddha comes and asks you that how should he become Buddha what would be your reaction? Same is the reaction of the Zen master. So we are un-clutched by our very nature. Just this needs to be understood.
People come and ask me 'Should I renounce for being enlightened'. I say you don't need to renounce what you have; you just need to renounce what you don't have. You need to renounce your fantasies, your expectations, your imaginations etc. People think that they have to go to some forest for enlightenment. The place does not matter, the space matters. What I mean by space is your inner space, your consciousness. People say that I have renounced the world. I have renounced everything. Standing on the very earth they say that I have renounced the world. You cannot renounce anything unless you renounce yourself first. You need to renounce your ego first. You need to renounce this habit of creating a shaft. Only then the real renunciation will happen. So just renounce what you don't have; that's enough. You don't need to renounce what you have. Renunciation has to be understood at a different dimension. When you renounce what you don't have automatically you stop creating the shaft. You start living in the present moment. You drop all expectations or fantasies. You accept the reality as it is. Automatically your ego diminishes.
Renunciation is our very nature. We are renouncing all the time. When we have decided to have a cup of coffee we have renounced the previous thought of watching the TV. There is no need to go to forests for renunciation to happen. Renunciation can happen right here if the right understanding is achieved. You may go to a forest where there is complete solitude but if you are still connecting your thoughts then you have not renounced whereas you can be completely renouncing in a busy market place.
Once a spiritual aspirant goes to an enlightened master for advice. He starts talking about his renunciation. He tells the enlightened master about all the things he has renounced. He says that he has renounced his family, his wealth, his fame, his home and everything associated with him. He has cut all family bonds and has been wandering without any social attachments. He has renounced everything what was associated with him in the past. But he is still not enlightened. Then the enlightened master asks the aspirant. Has he really renounced everything? The spiritual aspirant was surprised. He had just mentioned what all he had renounced. He once again started talking about all the things he had renounced. The enlightened master stopped him abruptly and asked 'Have you renounced yourself'. Unless one renounces his own self he cannot renounce anything else. First the self has to be renounced for the renunciation to be complete. Enlightenment is not liberation from the senses or any other thing, it's the liberation from our very self. Let us analyze what do we mean by the renunciation of the self.
The self we are trying to renounce here is the smaller self. What is this smaller self? It's the imaginary self we have created because of connecting our thoughts. What happens is that when we connect our thoughts we start believing that it was the same person who was suffering or enjoying all this while. If you have suffered due to some illness two years ago and the same illness manifests a month ago we think that it was the same person who suffered. Because of this apparent continuity of identity that we create we start believing that we are suffering or enjoying. But the truth is that our thoughts are un-clutched and there is no connection between these two events. Because of our ignorance we have connected these two events and have started believing that we are suffering. We need to renounce this false identity. Once we have renounced this identity then our renunciation is complete. External renunciation has no significance unless the self is renounced. Once the self is renounced it does not matter whether we renounce externally or not.
One day a sage comes to Janaka's court and Janaka very respectfully and warmly receives him. Janaka is a maharaja, and the sage is a poor ascetic Brahmin, both were however costudents of the same guru. The sage scolds Janaka for forgetting what all that their Guru has taught and admonishes him for leading a life of pleasures. Janaka expresses his helplessness and blames it on the circumstances. But the sage insists that he is just giving excuses to enjoy. Janaka then says that he is willing to do anything what the sage advises. The sage then asks Janaka to come with him to the forest and lead an austere life. Janaka follows without raising a question, without even formal delegation of authority or bidding farewell to family. The sage is rather surprised at the sincerity of Janaka. Throughout their long walk through the terrain, fields, thorns etc, he notices that Janaka is suffering, and bleeding but is coming with him, without complaining. After some walk, the sage feels sympathy for Janaka and asks him to take rest under a tree, while he goes out for fetching water from a nearby lake.
Meanwhile, a provincial king (a king of a neighboring kingdom who recognizes Janaka as emperor) happens to come over that way with all his paraphernalia. Another neighbor was planning to wage a war against this small king, and he was coming to Janaka to ask for assurance of his support in any eventuality of war. He was pleasantly surprised to see Janaka under the tree, even before reaching his kingdom! His entourage makes a temporary but elaborate tent and Janaka is offered the main seat, and the king sits down near him, explaining the situation. In the meanwhile the sage comes back with water, and to his amazement he finds all military activities etc, but Janaka is not to be seen under the tree. He enquires about Janaka and comes to know he is in the tent. He tries to go in but the gatekeeper does not allow the sage to go in. A messenger informs Janaka and Janaka comes out and receives sage.
The sage is shocked to see the incident. Then Janaka explained to the sage that the sage had misinterpreted their Guru's teachings. The Guru had asked them to live a life of detachment; he had not asked them to live a hard life full of pains and suffering. Janaka said that even pleasure could haunt you if you are attached to it. So you have to be detached from pleasure too. Substituting pleasure by pain is not the way to get detached from pleasure because pleasure can follow you even in pain if you are destined to enjoy the pleasure. The real trick lies in not falling into its snares and enjoying the pleasure unconsciously. If you experience pleasure with complete awareness then the pleasure cannot touch you. You don't create one more shaft of pleasure. Janaka tells the sage to look at his state. He was in the forest experiencing hardships but was now trapped in this condition inside the tent with the other king even though he wanted to leave everything and lead an ascetic life. So we can't even run away from our pleasures.
A person based on one's destiny experiences pleasure and pain. You don't have a choice. You cannot choose either pleasure or pain. But you have the choice of not connecting these experiences and creating imaginary shafts. Just as Janaka, who was staying amidst luxuries and riches, was untouched by it we can also be untouched by the things outside of us. Being untouched means not creating a shaft. You are attached to a person or a thing because you create shafts. The relationship, which you experienced three years ago, the relationship, which you experienced a year ago and the relationship which you are experiencing now are independent events. The moment you connect these events then you are trying to extend or break the shaft. If the relationship is a pleasurable relationship you expect the relationship to be pleasurable even in the future. If the relationship is a painful relationship you try to break the relationship or you create an idea that the relationship is not good for you. But you don't realize that at each instant you are experiencing a new relationship. Because at each instant two new people are associating as by our very nature we are un-clutched. The real problem is not caused because of pleasure or pain. The real problem is caused due to our incorrect understanding of both and eventually the creation of imaginary shafts. In the case of a sage, if there is pleasure he will enjoy the pleasure and forget it. If there is pain, he will suffer the pain and forget it. He does not carry these experiences in horizontal time. The moment we carry an experience in horizontal time we suffer.
We can experience life living in this world and still be centered in peace and harmony. There is no need to renounce anything external. The smaller self has to be renounced. Once we stop creating the shaft we will realize that the identity, which we were trying to hold on to, was the very reason for suffering. The moment we drop that identity, we enter into bliss. Then the outer incidents won't affect you because you have given up the habit of connecting these incidents. So every incident is a new incident for you. You start seeing life in a much more beautiful way. Everything seems joyful and blissful. You stop taking things for granted.
There lived an enlightened master in north Bharat. He used to eat the same kind of food everyday. His disciple used to cook the same vegetables and the same kind of salad and serve him. After many years the disciple asked the master 'I feel bored cooking the same food everyday, don't you feel bored eating the same food everyday'. The master replied that he is not eating the same food everyday. How can he eat the same food everyday? Once he eats some food he cannot eat the same food again. Yes, he is eating the same kind of food but not same food. Then the disciple understood what the master was pointing at. Because the master was unconnected with the past experiences he was enjoying the same kind of food daily without any complains. It was not that he was eating the food with dispassion. He was enjoying the food daily because the hangover from the previous experience was not there. If you understand that you are un-clutched boredom can never strike you. A person feels bored because he creates continuity in time. He starts connecting all the moments in time and creates an imaginary shaft of boredom. Then he tries to break that shaft. You can neither break this shaft nor extend this shaft because the shaft does not exist.
Once you start accepting life from moment to moment, bliss happens to you naturally. External circumstances can impact you only if you allow them to. Nobody can disturb you without your silent permission. People complain that we may live our life in the moment but if others around don't, then they will exploit us. Be very clear, nobody can exploit you or disturb you without your silent permission. Once you understand that you are un-clutched then bliss naturally follows.
Once a Zen master Hakuin was praised by his neighbors for living a pure life. A beautiful Japanese girl whose parents owned a food store lived near him. Suddenly, without any warning, her parents discovered she was pregnant. This made her parents very angry. She would not confess who the man was, but after much harassment at last she named Hakuin.
In great anger the parents went to the master. "Is that so?" was all he would say. After the child was born it was brought to Hakuin. By this time he had lost his reputation, which did not trouble him, but he took very good care of the child. He obtained milk from his neighbors and everything else the little one needed.
A year later the girl-mother could stand it no longer. She told her parents the truth that the real father of the child was a young man who worked in the fish market. The mother and father of the girl at once went to Hakuin to ask his forgiveness, to apologize at length, and to get the child back. Hakuin was willing. In yielding the child, all he said was: "Is that so?"
This is the state of the enlightened master. He is unconcerned. It does not mean that he is not caring, compassionate. In fact he is the very embodiment of compassion because the person who is selfless loves the world. But he is unconcerned about the events happening around and is always centered in bliss.
Currently we are not able to control the thoughts because all our thoughts are clutched. They create a way for further thoughts. Thoughts are powerful enough to clutch and create a shaft. And because they clutch more thoughts are created to extend the shaft or break the shaft. The moment we stop creating shafts automatically the thoughts starts dying down. When you are completely un-clutched you reach the stage of chitta vritti nirodaha. Then the chiita becomes free from any vrittis, thought waves. Then you start living in spontaneity. You don't need thoughts to exist. You just act out of intuition. An intelligence, which is beyond thoughts, dawns in you and guides you at each moment in your life. Then you reach the stage of Yoga where the thought waves have stopped appearing in your consciousness.
You may wonder how can a person live without thoughts. Or how can he act without thoughts. Do you need thoughts to breath? Do you need thoughts for your heart to beat? In a similar way your entire life will go on without thoughts. You will just witness the scene without any judgments. The very act of witnessing takes you beyond the mind. Witnessing is anti-mind.
Once a king went to Buddha and said that his mind is very uneasy. Then Buddha advised him to come the next day at 4am in the morning and he would treat his mind. He also asked him to get his mind along with him. The king was perplexed. He had no idea what Buddha was saying. How could he get his mind along with him? All this while he had the notion that if he is here his mind is here. But still he decided to follow Buddha's words. Next day morning at 4am the king visited Buddha. Buddha asked him; have you brought your mind. The king said, I don't understand what you mean by bringing my mind. If I am here, my mind is here. It's with me all the time. So Buddha asked the king to show him his mind and once he does that he assured that he would put it at peace. The king closed his eyes and started searching for the mind. After some time he realized that it was not there. He told Buddha that he could not find the mind. Buddha immediately exclaimed that 'Look I have put it at peace'.
Just as you first learn driving and then you drive without thoughts in a similar way you can live your life without the mind. When you know the turn you are going to take on the road, do you think about how you should take a turn? You simply take the turn. Similarly you will simply cruise through your entire life blissfully without getting affected by its ups and downs. The idea that leading life needs a mind has to be abandoned. You can lead your life perfectly well without the mind. In fact you will excel in your life tremendously if you start living without the mind. Mind is the load you have been carrying all your life. The time has come to drop it. Drop the mind and you will see the bliss flowering in your being.
Hogen, a Chinese Zen teacher, lived alone in a small temple in the country. One day four traveling monks appeared and asked if they might make a fire in his yard to warm them. While they were building the fire, Hogen heard them arguing about subjectivity and objectivity. He joined them and said: "There is a big stone. Do you consider it to be inside or outside your mind?" One of the monks replied: "From the Buddhist viewpoint everything is an objectification of mind, so I would say that the stone is inside my mind." Hogen said "Your head must feel very heavy if you are carrying around a stone like that in your mind."
We have been carrying a load in our consciousness by clutching on to our thoughts. Once we become free from our thoughts then our consciousness becomes like a clear lake. If a stone is thrown in a lake it creates ripples. Similarly when a thought appears in the mind it creates ripples and creates more thoughts. Without thoughts the consciousness becomes free from ripples and the true self manifests itself. If there are ripples on the lake you cannot clearly see what is at the bottom of the lake. You just see the surface. So as long as the consciousness is not clear we just live on the surface. We don't experience life fully. When the consciousness becomes clear we explode in all directions.
People often ask me whether I should lead a material life or a spiritual life. The moment you make a choice you end in suffering. If you choose material life you will miss the spiritual life. If you choose spiritual life you will miss material life. Only when you are un-clutched then you go beyond the so-called material life and spiritual life and you explode in all directions. Whenever you encounter opposites be very sure that you are away from truth. Being spiritual is just a way of not being material. It has nothing to do with enlightenment. People are advised to be spiritual because they have been material all this while. For the pendulum to settle down at the center it is necessary for it to go towards the other end. Only then it will come to the center. So people are advised to meditate and go inwards.
Sankara says in Nirvanashatkam 'Sada me Samatvam Na Muktir Na Bandhah, Chidananda Roopa Shivoham Shivoham" I am neither in bondage nor liberated, I am always in the state of equilibrium. I am of the nature of pure auspiciousness, the energy of shiva. Both bondage and liberation are concepts created by the mind. Liberation exists as long as there is bondage. But if there is no bondage, liberation will also loose its meaning. That is was Sanakara is referring to.
If you are trying to go inward or outward as long as you are going somewhere you are missing the truth. The very process of traveling or going takes you away from the truth. Truth is here and now. There is no need to go anywhere. No need to travel anywhere. Again the very process of traveling shows that we have created a shaft. We are seeing some progress. There cannot be any progress, because there is nobody who is progressing. The individual is dying at every instant. Then who will progress? When you are un-clutched automatically you will explode in 360°. Then the question of being material or being spiritual won't arise.
Our self can never be improved. Some people work on self-development. What self will you develop? Is there a self to be developed in the first place? A sequence of un-clutched thoughts is all what you are. If you try to develop the self all you would end up doing is to create a shaft of the idea that my self is developed. It will give you a feel good feeling. There might be one thought that thinks that the self is developed. But it's merely a feel good feeling. Really speaking the self cannot be developed, the imaginary self can only be eliminated. As long as you are trying to develop the self, you are creating a shaft. So be un-clutched and realize the potential and the meaning of this powerful sutra given by Patanjali.
तदा द्रष्टुः स्वृरूपेऽवृस्थानुम्
Tadaa drastuh svaruupe vasthaanam