Yoga The Alpha and the Omega, Vol 7 Discourses on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali Chapter #2, The mind is very clever Question 4

Question 4

WHY, WHEN I TRY TO LISTEN TO YOUR LECTURES

WITH TOTAL ATTENTION, CAN I AFTERWARDS

NOT REMEMBER WHAT YOU HAVE SAID?

There is no need. If you have listened to me with total attention there is no need to remember what I have said. It becomes part of you. You eat something do you remember what you have eaten? What is the use? It becomes part of you -- it becomes your blood; it becomes your bones. It becomes you. Once you eat something, you forget about it. You digest it, not that you remember it.

If you listen totally, I am converting into your blood, I am converting into your bones, I am converting into your being. You are digesting me.

There is no need. Whenever there will be a situation, you will respond; and in that response all that you have heard and listened to in totality will be there -- but not as remembered... but as lived. And this difference has to be remembered.

Whatsoever I am trying here is not to make you more knowledgeable, to give you some information. That is not the purpose of my talking or my being here with you. My whole purpose is to give you more being, not more knowledge. So remain with me, listen totally; there is no need to remember afterwards. It becomes part of you. Whenever there will be a need it will arise. And it will not arise as a memory; it will arise as your living response.

Otherwise, there is always a fear it can become your memory. Then you are not changed; only your memory tank becomes bigger and bigger and bigger. Your computer becomes more informed. And whenever there will be a real situation, you will forget: then you will act out of your consciousness, not out of your memory. Then you will forget me. When there will be no real situation and you will be arguing with people and discussing, you will remember.

Watch. If what I say becomes just a memory in you then it will be good for discussion, argument, debate -- showing your knowledge to other people, convincing them that you know -- you know more than anybody. It will be useful for that, but in real life.... If you are talking about love you will be able to talk much from the memory that I have said to you, but when the question arises -- you fall in love -- then you will act out of your self -- not what you have heard -- because nobody can use a dead memory when a real situation arises.

I have heard an anecdote

One day, while in the jungle, an explorer ran into a tribe of cannibals who were getting ready to sit down to their favorite dish. The head of the tribe, surprisingly, spoke excellent English. When questioned as to the reason, he admitted to having spent a year at college in the United States.

"You have been to college, exclaimed the horrified explorer, "and you still eat human flesh?"

"Well, yes, I do," admitted the chief. Then he added in conciliatory tones, "But now, of course, I use a knife and fork."

That will be all. If you make me only part of your memory, you will still go on being a cannibal but now you will use a knife and fork. That will be the only difference. But if you allow me to enter your innermost shrine of being, you listen totally -- that is the meaning of listening totally -- then forget about the computer and the memory there is no need.

Your real examination is not going to be in any examination hall of some university. Your examination is going to be in the universe itself. There will be the proof of whether you listened to me or not. Suddenly you will see that you are loving in a different way, that the situation is old but you are responding in a different way. Somebody is annoying you, but you are not annoyed. Somebody is trying to irritate you, but you are silent and tranquil. Somebody is insulting you, but somehow you are untouched. You are like a lotus flower: in the water, untouched by it. Then you will realize what has happened being with me.

It is a transference of being, not a communication of knowledge.

Chapter-2

THE YOGA SUTRAS OF PATANJALI

The mind is very clever

Fourth Question