12 November 2014 - QA 2

In Patanjali Yoga Sutra, you have talked about the five states of the mind. You say that when the mind gets into wrong knowledge, it often thinks that it is the right. If that is the case then what is the way out to come out of this wrong knowledge?

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

Viparyaya (wrong understanding) is one of the modulations of the mind. It doesn’t stay too long. That’s why in Ashtanga Yoga (The Eight Limbs of Yoga) any one of the limbs will trigger the mind and say, ‘This is pramana viparyaya', meaning, it the wrong knowledge. This comes to one’s understanding.
If you have been judgmental, when you come out of being judgmental you say, ‘Oh, I have been judgmental’. Time will trigger that point in you.

There are two ways of coming out of Viparyaya:
1. Time
2. An expanded consciousness, when you are able to see, ‘What I am thinking, is it correct or not?’
The whole Nyaya Shastra is built on that. It is one of the Angas (limbs) of the Upangas (yoga). You have a certain understanding, but how do you know if it is right or not? So to know whether it is correct or not, they have given a whole process for it, which is called the Nyaya Darshana.
The Nyaya Shastra is the most fascinating treatise. It is to know or identify whether the means of knowledge is correct or not. It is to identify whether the understanding that you have is a reality, or just one of the games of your mind. They have given many examples and ways to find out. Some other time we’ll discuss the Nyaya Sutras.

Gautama’s Nyaya Sutras say, 'You see the sun rising and setting, but you know that the sun neither rises nor sets. Similarly, you have a beaker of water and you put a pen into it and it appears to be bent, but in reality it is not bent'.
It is a way to go beyond the perception.