An ulcer, which will appear in the stomach after six months, is present now in a subtle form, and can be detected now. Diseases that manifest in your body are present in subtle form six months before they appear in the physical body. A manifested disease is second hand

Chapter 9 - Liberation From Lust 

Day 51

At this moment, you are sitting here awake, or perhaps you are half-awake and half-asleep or you may be dreaming, thinking about something else. However much you are awake now, is this life? Is life not more than this? 

At night, you will leave and sleep. Life is present even there. When you are dreaming, it may be a different life. In this way, life has different compartments, but there is no contact between compartments. 

There are no windows, doors or any other connections. Somehow, you still move from one compartment to the other, though you cannot see from one to another or experience the others.

All the situations that take place in the waking state are not so significant. They come and go. Whatever comes also goes, we cannot keep anything with us. The mind should be this dispassionate. 

The mind will be dispassionate when sahaja vidyajayah happens. We'll look at an example. If someone were to ask you what you had for lunch last Thursday, would you remember? 

You may not remember, but you remember the feasts at the marriage reception, the death ceremony or some special holiday and what sweets and dishes you ate there. 

But for ordinary days, we do not keep much in our memory. Similarly, all the ordinary events that happen in our lives - some good words, some words of abuse, some good times, bad times, anger, hatred, love praise. 

We do not carry these around. We do not need to give much importance to them because they are second hand. The waking state should become second hand. 

Only then can we return to it. Until then, our mind stays small. We need to understand the waking state as our second hand. When the mind gets upset over something or someone, and if we feel hatred, aversion and jealousy toward them, this sutra is enough. 

Realise that all these are just happenings in the waking state. We do not fear a tiger that we saw in a dream. If we are afraid, it is foolishness. A tiger seen in a dream cannot be killed with a real gun. 

Can the jackfruit in a dream be cut with a real knife? See how beautifully this sutra has been woven in. But if someone says, I cannot get over attachment. How to get over it?" 

In the waking state, you cry, "My son, my house, my job." This happens not in dreams, but only while you are awake. This is the second hand. Go beyond to the fourth state, to pure consciousness. 

There you will understand that you have done this many time, you have had many children like this and many families. You have been attracted by many people. 

You have cried, "I cannot go on living without them. Yet they have passed away, and you will also pass away one day. Now they may have been born somewhere in Africa, and you are in India. 

You have risen out of many such attachments after getting entangled. Understand that this is the waking state. This will become clear when you reach the fourth state. life is a drama. 

Whatever happens in this waking state is a type of second hand knowledge. It is like a pre-recorded audio cassette. It has already been recorded and you are listening to it for the second time. 

Or it is like a film, which has been shot somewhere, and when we play it, scenes reappear. Similarly, whatever happens to us in the waking state is just a show or a replay. 

All of it has already happened in a subtle way. What we see now is just a reflection of life. That is why it is called second hand. First, events take place on the subtle level and later they manifest on the gross level. 

This is not a theory of destiny, but it is the relationship and the distinction between the subtle and gross planes. Everyone has a subtle radiance around them, which can now be seen with Kirlian photography. 

An ulcer, which will appear in the stomach after six months, is present now in a subtle form, and can be detected now. Diseases that manifest in your body are present in subtle form six months before they appear in the physical body. 

A manifested disease is second hand. What comes in the waking state comes for the second time, it is a shadow. Only when something exists does it have a shadow. Ignorance is to take the shadow to be real. 

It is here to make you aware that it is just a shadow. That is why it is important in yoga. Misery has not yet come. We prevent diseases by taking vaccinations before diseases come. 

This is what intelligent people do. The unintelligent treat a disease only after it is a problem. By chanting and meditation, the problem that has appeared only in a subtle form will disappear. 

It will be set right. You may have noticed that when you come for satsang, you feel some change inside, even if you came with a head full of worries. 

Once you enter the environment of satsang, gaps in your subtle layer get filled up, and the mind becomes happy.

Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankarji

SHIVA SUTRAS