yoga is the remedy unless we know what our problem is? So, what is the problem?
What is the difficulty? What is the trouble? Why are we crying? What are we asking
for? If this is clear to the mind, the way out of the problem also will be clear
automatically. We will at once know that yoga is such a peculiar thing that there can
be no other alternative for this problem.
As a little hint, I have mentioned what this problem is. It is the problem of fulfilment
of desires—nothing but that. The whole of life is nothing but this difficulty. The
desires spontaneously arise in the mind but they cannot be fulfilled for various
reasons, the main reason being that they are propelled by an infinite urge which
seeks infinite satisfaction; but this cannot be achieved due to the little aperture
through which the finite movement of the mind moves towards finite objects. Thus,
the means adopted in the achievement of the objective is defective. If the infinite
urge within has to be satisfied, there should be an infinite means to fulfil it. We
cannot have a finite means. The individual is finite, the senses are finite, the mind is
finite, and the objects also are finite. How can we have infinite satisfaction from
them? But that the desire within is infinite is not known to us. We are cleverly
screened away from this knowledge by a trick of nature which keeps the world going
on. Otherwise, we will immediately wake up to the problem on hand, and then defeat
nature of all its purposes.
Nature is very clever and will never allow us to know what her tricks are—a great
magician indeed. So we will not know what the magician is doing, and how things are
coming up suddenly. We are placed in a very difficult context. We are always
embarrassed and caught by both our ears, so that we cannot move either this way or
that way. We cannot keep quiet and not attempt to fulfil the desires. That is one way
we are caught. The other way is that we cannot be satisfied by any amount of
satisfaction of desires. So we are caught the other way also. We cannot keep quiet
and we cannot do anything. This is a problem. How is yoga going to be the remedy
for it?
Yoga is the remedy because it summons to the forefront, to the daylight of
knowledge, the deep-seated urge which is causing this problem. The ringleader of the
problem is called immediately to the court and accosted openly, and the problem is
tackled directly in an open forum—it is not kept hidden inside. Our difficulties are
caused by the presence of the infinite behind them which is the problem. It is not the
finite objects that are the causes of the troubles. We are unnecessarily complaining
that this is like this or that is like that. The world is not the cause of our problems.
The world has been only a cat’s paw that has been thrust forward by the infinite
behind it, which is always kept in the background and never brought to the forefront.
What is behind is something unseen, and what is in front of us is not the cause of the
trouble. But we transfer the cause of the trouble to the seen objects, and then it is
that we make complaints about things. The trouble arises from something which we
have not seen with our eyes, and which cannot be seen. It is the cause of the outward
movement of the mind and the senses.
When the cause is brought to the surface of consciousness, the problem is brought to
the surface of consciousness and then we can deal with it directly in the manner
required. This is what yoga does. In the great endeavour called concentration of
mind, or dharana, we try to pull up to the surface of consciousness the infinitude of
aspiration that is behind the desires of the mind which are limited in nature. If this is