October 25, 2025
Man has set his boot on the moon. Now he has landed a machine on Mars. Exploration of outer space is progressing at great speed and greater expense.
Some yoga teachers got together for an annual fortnight long seminar during which we tried to explore inner space. Mars may or may not be a warlord; but man is. Moon may or may not be responsible for the moods of the mind, but man himself is responsible for his emotions. Who is responsible for a man's sorrow but himself?
But, what is emotion? What is sorrow? Why is man unhappy?
The Sanskrit word for sorrow or unhappiness is dukham. Kham means “space” and the prefix "du" indicates that space is bad, evil, polluted. Dukham literally means that there is a space in and around man which is evil and polluted!
How did man create the space around himself in the first place? Surely by thinking that he is independent of and separate from the rest of the universe. This thought itself in space. This thought (which is the “I”-thought) generates other thoughts in order to assume and to establish a relationship between the individual and the rest of the universe. These thoughts pollute that inner space.