Yoga The Alpha and the Omega, Vol 7 Discourses on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali Chapter #4, Be a seed Question 4

Question 4

A FEW TIMES RECENTLY I HAVE FELT THAT I COULD FLY, FELT CURIOUSLY EXONERATED FROM GRAVITY AND LOOKED WITH BOREDOM ON THE 150 POUNDS' TRUTH OF MY BODY.

IS THIS JUST CRAZINESS...?

No. You are a meetingplace of two dimensions. One dimension belongs to the earth the dimension of gravity, which pulls you down -- that 150 pounds' truth of your body. Another dimension belongs to grace the dimension of God, the dimension of freedom, in which you can go on rising high and high and high and there is no weight in it.

Meditating, this will happen. Many times in deep meditation you will suddenly become aware as if the gravitation has disappeared that now nothing holds you down, that it is now up to you to decide whether to fly or not, that now it is up to you -- if you want, you can simply fly into the sky... and the whole sky is yours. But when you will open the eyes, suddenly, the body is there, the earth is there, the gravitation is there. When you were with closed eyes meditating, you forgot your body. You moved in a different dimension, the dimension of grace.

These two things have to be understood gravitation is the law which pulls you down; grace is the law which pulls you up. Science has not yet discovered, maybe it is not going to discover it ever, the other law. It has discovered one law. You have heard the story -- it happened or not, that is not the point -- that Newton was sitting in a garden, and one apple fell. Watching that apple fall, Newton started thinking, "Why does the apple fall towards the earth? Why directly towards the earth? Why not sideways? Why does it not start flying upwards?" The law of gravitation was discovered, that the earth has a pull and pulls everything towards it.

But Newton saw the fruit falling; he didn't see the tree rising up. That's where I have always.... Whenever I read the story. I always felt he saw the small fruit falling towards the earth; he didn't see the tree rising upwards. You throw a stone. It falls back, true, but a tree goes on rising higher and higher. Something pulling the tree up. A stone is dead; the tree is alive. Life goes higher and higher and higher.

Man, in his consciousness, has reached to the highest point on this earth. When you close your eyes to the world, when you are in a deep meditative mood, prayerful, blissful, ecstatic -- suddenly, the body is not there. You have become aware of the inner tree of life, and it is going higher and higher, and suddenly you feel that you can fly.

Nothing is crazy in it, but please don't try it. Don't jump out of the window and don't start flying. Then it will be crazy. A few people under LSD or marijuana have done that. Nobody has ever done it under meditation. That's the beauty of meditation, and that is the danger of drugs. A few people under the impression, under a deep hypnotic impression of some chemical drug, have become aware of this grace, that they can fly. The body is forgotten -- and they have tried. One girl in New York really did it. From the fortieth story of a building, she simply flew out of the window -- then Newton starts working. Then you are the tree no more: you become the fruit. Then you fall to the earth and you crash.

That is one of the dangers of drugs, because they can reveal to you certain truths -- but you are not aware. You can commit something, you can do something which can be dangerous. But never has it happened in meditation, because meditation gives you two things together it gives you a new dimension and it gives you more awareness, so you know it is there, but you are also aware that the body is there. You are still spread in two dimensions.

One day, a very fat, stout gentleman was discussing his tennis technique. "My brain tells me run forward speedily, start right away, slam the ball gracefully over the net."

I asked him, "And then what happens?"

He said. "And then?" The fellow became very sad and said, "My body says, 'Who, me?'"

Remember, you are both the body and the consciousness. You are spread in both the dimensions. You are the meetingpoint of the earth and the sky, of grace and gravity. Nothing is crazy in it. It is simply a truth.

And sometimes it is possible, because it has happened, and it is better I should make you aware of it sometimes it is possible that actually your body rises a little higher. There is a woman in Bavaria who rises four feet high while meditating. She has been put under scientific observation and has been found not to be deceiving in any way. She remains for a few minutes, four, five minutes, hanging in the air four feet high. This is one of the oldest experiences of yogis. Rarely it happens, but sometimes it has happened in the past. Sometimes it happens now also. Sometimes it can happen to some of you.

If the pull of the grace becomes too much and the balance is lost, then it happens. It is not a very good thing. Don't try, and don't ask for it. It is an imbalance, and it is dangerous for life. When the pull of the grace becomes too much and the pull of the gravity is less it happens the body can rise high. Even then, don't think yourself crazy, and don't start feeling that something like insanity is happening to you.

Newton is not all truth. There are greater truths than Newton. And gravitation is not the only dimension; there are many more dimensions.

Man is an infinity, and we have started believing only in part of it. So whenever anything from another dimension enters, we start feeling that something is going wrong. In fact, in the West, many people who are thought to be mad, neurotic, psychotic, and who are in the mad asylums, in mad hospitals, are not really mad. Many of them have had some glimpses of the unknown, but the society does not accept that unknown, does not recognize it. Immediately, whenever a person has some glimpse of the unknown, he's thought to be crazy, because he becomes somebody strange. We cannot believe him.

There are books written on Jesus in which it is said that he was a neurotic because he used to hear God and his voice. There are books written about Mohammed that he was mad he must have heard the Koran in delirium -- because who is there to talk to you? -- and he heard God speaking and the God said, "Write!" and he started writing. Because it is not your experience, it is a natural tendency of the mind to say that he must have gone in some madness, must be in delirium, must have been in a high fever, because such things happen only when you ale not in your senses.

Yes, these things happen in madness also, and these things happen in supersanity also, in superconsciousness also. Because the mad person falls below the normal level of consciousness, he loses control of his mind. Losing the control of one's mind, one becomes available to the unknown forces. A yogi, a mystic, achieves to samyama, control of his consciousness. He rises high and goes beyond the normal -- again, the unknown becomes available to him. But the difference is that the madman is a victim of the unknown and the mystic is a master of the unknown. Both start talking in the same way, and you can misunderstand. You can get confused.

Don't think yourself crazy. It is perfectly okay. But don't try it. Enjoy it, allow it; because once you start thinking that it is crazy, you will stop it; and that stopping will disturb your meditation. Enjoy it, as in a dream you fly. Close your eyes; in meditation go wherever you want. Rise higher and higher into the sky, and many more things soon will become available to you -- and don't be afraid. It is the greatest adventure -- greater than going to the moon. Becoming an astronaut of the inner space is the greatest adventure.

Chapter-4

THE YOGA SUTRAS OF PATANJALI

Be a seed

Fourth Question