st International Conference on Bibliometrics and Theorectical Aspects of Information Retrieval, 31-43

thought.

experience. You usually do not think as intensely as you feel.

But if you generate an intense enough thought, it can also overwhelm you. Only fi ve to ten per cent of people may be capable of generating the kind of thought that is so intense that there is no need for emotion. Ninety per cent of people can only generate intense emotions because they have never done the necessary work in the other direction. But there are people whose thought is very deep. They don’t have much emotion, but they are very deep thinkers.

What you normally think of as ‘mind’ is the thought process or intellect. Whether I am speaking ‘from my intellect’ or from

‘the bottom of my heart’, I would say both are just the mind.

One is the logical aspect; another is the deeper emotional aspect.

‘Buddhi’ means intellect. The deeper dimension of the mind you call heart, but in yoga this deeper emotional mind is known as

‘manas’. The way I feel is still the mind. The way I think is also the mind. Both are very much connected.

Do not create two different poles within yourself. Thought and feeling are not different. One is dry. Another is juicy. Enjoy both. Don’t separate them.

Intoxication

‘Yogis are not against pleasure. They are unwilling to settle for little pleasures, that’s all.’

Shiva, the Adiyogi, they say, constantly drank somarasa. He just imbibed the moonbeams which he carried always in his hair and was constantly drunk.

138 S a d h g u r u

Yogis are not against pleasure. They are unwilling to settle for little pleasures, that’s all. They know if you drink a glass of wine, it just gets you a little buzzy, but tomorrow morning it gives you a headache and the works. They are not willing to settle for that. To enjoy the intoxication you must be alert, isn’t it? All the time, totally drunk but fully alert -- only then you can enjoy it. The science of yoga gives this pleasure to you. The end goal is not just intoxication. This blissful state eliminates the fear of suffering.

Only when this idea – ‘What will happen to me?’ – is completely eliminated from your mind would you dare to explore life. Otherwise you only want to protect it. Once the fear of suffering is taken away from your life, you can plunge into any situation without hesitation. If they ask you to go to hell, you will go there because you have no fear of suffering.

When everybody was talking about going to heaven, Gautama the Buddha said, ‘You say everything is fi ne in heaven, so what will I do there? Let me go to hell and do something, because anyway I cannot suffer.’

As long as the fear of suffering is constantly playing its role, you will not dare to explore deeper dimensions of life. Only this body needs to be protected; nothing else in you needs protection. Whatever ideas, philosophies and belief systems you are attached to, if you are willing, you can just drop them right now and recreate your whole life the very next moment.

‘There is really no such thing as conditional love and unconditional love: it is just that there are conditions and there is love.’

And what about love? Is there such a thing as unconditional love among human beings? These are frequently asked questions.

Generally, we have made relationships within frameworks that are comfortable and profi table for us. People have physical, psychological, emotional, fi nancial or social needs to fulfi l.

To fulfi l these needs, one of the best ways is to tell people, ‘I love you.’ This so-called ‘love’ has become like a mantra: open sesame. You can get what you want by saying it.

One day Shankaran Pillai went to a park. On a stone bench there sat a pretty woman. He went and settled down on the same bench. After a few minutes he moved a little closer to her. She moved away. Again he waited for a few minutes then inched

140 S a d h g u r u

a little closer to her. She moved away. He waited, then inched even closer. Then she moved to the very end of the bench. He reached out and put his hand on her. She shrugged him off. He sat there for a while, then he went down on his knees, plucked a fl ower, gave it to her and said, ‘I love you. I love you like I have never loved anybody in my life.’

She melted. Nature took over and they had their way with each other. It was getting late in the evening; Shankaran Pillai got up and he said, ‘I need to leave. It’s eight o’clock. My wife will be waiting.’

She said, ‘What? You’re leaving? Just now you said you loved me!’

‘Yes, but it’s time. I need to go.’

Every action that we do is in some way to fulfi l certain needs.

If you see this, there is a possibility that you can grow into love as your natural quality. But you can go on fooling yourself into believing that the relationships you have made for convenience, comfort and well being are actually relationships of love. I am not saying there is no experience of love at all in those relationships, but it is within certain limitations. It does not matter how much ‘I love you’ has been said; if a few expectations and requisites are not fulfi lled, things will fall apart. Love is a quality; it is not something to do with somebody else.

There is really no such thing as conditional love and unconditional love: it is just that there are conditions and there is love. When you talk

Love is a quality; it is