Answers by

PROF. HR NAGENDRA,
Vice Chancellor,
SVYASA, Bangalore, India

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Transcription

Buddha essentially investigated the dimensions of misery by himself. So he did not take to the traditional studies whereas Patanjali comes under the traditional things. He put all these systems that were available until then in the shastras, in the scriptures and everything then he wrote this beautiful Yoga sutras, Patanjali. Whereas Buddha as an independent seeker he went round to find out what is this that you call as misery as he was kept away from all situations of misery in his life so that he can become a great king. He was married, he got a child, therefore his father thought now everything is done and Buddha is going to become a great king. But when he went round he saw so much of misery, misery of old age, misery of disease, misery of tensions, misery of stresses, misery of conflicts, then he said what is happening, what is happening. He had never experienced therefore he wanted to investigate and seek solution as to how we overcome all these miseries. So he went round,, left everything, renounced his family life in no time and went into the forest to his sadhana. So his sadhana was an independent search having hardly any teachers, having no scriptures as guidance. Therefore he has to struggle hard, he has to unravel the mysteries by himself, the great adventuric scientist. And he found the root cause for all miseries is desire. Desire is the root cause for all miseries in human life. So what are the solutions? Remove the desires and he walled this methodology. But Patanjali took into consideration only the asthika vadha, i.e. the traditional scriptural Yoga text and the Yoga practices. Therefore in Patanjali sutras you don’t see that Buddha dint raveled, that he went much deeper as in Bhagavadgita. What is the root cause for desire? How does desire arise in this shloka that we chanted today? Dhyatovishayanpunsaha sangahateshupajayate sanjhatsanjhatsekamaha. Desire comes because of the attachment. How does attachment come? By repeated thinking. Therefore Bhagavadgita had gone further two steps down in the analysis compared to what Buddha had done. Therefore the traditional text, our great seers who had done, the search had gone much much deeper than what Buddha had realized and founded this thing. So desirelessness is the key essence of the Buddha’s teaching. Remove the desire, remove the desire and thereby you can reach that. So that’s the point that we wanted to make out.