Who-man?

Welcome to Sutra A Day.

Lately, I’ve been contemplating a couple of ideas. One is what does it mean to be human? Artificial intelligence, for example, more and more has the ability to create that which seems human-like. So is it this divine spark within?

Humans aren’t always loving or kind, in fact, they can be terrible and destructive. One might argue that humans are destroying themselves. We don’t really need the threat of AI to do it. And who’s to say AI wouldn’t be nicer than we are? I digress, but if what makes us human is also that divine spark that joins all of us (not organs and tissues, not even life or death ) – if it is the divine that makes us human – the very thing we think is “other” or “above” being human – well that makes sense. 

That’s worth fighting for. 

Is that also worthy of our faith? When we say we have faith, what is it that we have faith in – the divine which is also a part of all of us? The Purusa? 

Here I go with my questions again. Let’s just get to the multiple sutras of today. I can’t promise there won’t be more questions.

Active Surrender

19. Bhavapratyayo videha prakritalyanam. “Those who merely leave their physical bodies and attain the state of celestial deities, or those who get merged in Nature, have rebirth.

20. Shraddha Vaiery Smrti Samadhi Prajna Pur Vaka Itaresam. “ For the others, this asamprajnata samadhi could come through faith, vigor, memory, contemplation and / or by discernment.

21. Tivrasamveganamasannah. “To the keen and intent practitioner this samadhi comes very quickly.”

22. Mrdu madhyadhimatratvat tato’ pi tatah. “The time necessary for success further depends on whether the practice is mild, medium or intense.”

23. Isvaraprnidhanadva. Or samadhi is attained by devotion with total deviation to Isvara. 

I’m going to do all five of these this time because they are related. In the last post, we talked about the four progressive types of samprajnati samadhi, while still acknowledging that there is one more layer of samadhi, the final layer – asamprajnata, the layer of true liberation. In the previous four we basically still have attachments, we still have samaskaras, we are still of the world while we are in the world.

According to 19, if we die while in one of these states, we can be gods, but we still have to come back and be human to reach the final state. 

And I understand if this is all a bit to wooowooo, this talk of gods and whatnot. For me, it’s all metaphors and symbols. But maybe I’ll save that for another time. What Satchidananda writes that REALLY strikes me is this: “It is only on the human level that there is a possibility of getting liberation.”

So basically, although we all have the divine within us and we are all part of the larger whole, we aren’t fully divine. Being human is being attached, human nature is to connect. And the negative side of that, is to attach. I see connection and attachment as two sides of the same coin, connection the positive side and attachment the negative side. So, when we reach that state of liberation – are we still human? Or divine wrapped in skin and full of organs and such until we aren’t? It seems the body doesn’t make us human.

In any case, there are two ways to reach liberation as a human: through practice, which we learn about in the next part of the sutras and through devotion to the supreme consciousness. 

Both of them take faith. Patanjali also lists vigor and discernment etc. but really faith is at the root of it all. Faith gives you strength, faith fuels devotion, both paths rely on faith. And faith doesn’t mean passively waiting for something to happen, faith is active, it colors our actions and our way of existing in the world – and connecting with others. 

Faith in what? I return to this question. Patanjali says that Isvara pranidhana is devotion and dedication to Isvara. What is Isvara then? Supreme consciousness, apparently. But what is that? I see it as love, a recognition that we exist in everything and everything exists in us. But Patanjali and Satchidananda both have more to say about this in the next sutras – stay tuned.