Video 1

Karma Yoga: The Path of Action (Part 1) | Swami Sarvapriyananda

[Music] assert Oh Massa Gama yah Thomas oh ma jus T gamma yeah great your mom written gamma Y our own chant is shanti shanti who lead us from the unreal to the real lead us from darkness unto light lead us from death to immortality Oh bees bees bees so the subject of the four yoga's it covers the entire range of spiritual life one way of understanding the four yoga's is this see the answer to spiritual at the question of spiritual life depends on how one conceives of the problem karma yoga the way of work or service bhakti yoga the way of love devotion Raja Yoga the way of meditation and gaane yoga the way of knowledge what is the problem and what is the solution all of these are about spiritual life in themselves they are paradigms of spiritual life in karma yoga it is understood as the problem is selfishness and the solution is unselfishness it is selfishness that ties us to this little body and mind this little personality so all the efforts that I do in life all the work that I do all my thoughts everything through the days and months and years of my life is directed at making this happy why why this why particularly this because I am this I am this we never question it it goes without question that I am this thing I'm reminded of a couple of very interesting incidents today I received an email from a doctor in Edinburgh he says all my life have never been particularly interested in spirituality or religion oncologist yet recently just a few days ago a few some time ago what he did was he says we're examining I was looking at x-rays of the body and then I thought I can identify every bit of this body looking inside the body also every bit of it I know I have studied it I can identify it I can actually see pictures taken by x-rays and yet we're in all of this is I know it might seem like a simple question yet it struck him with a full force for the first time in all of this where is I the one who is thinking now the one who is enjoying suffering the one who I call myself where am I in all of this each is a piece of this body so that was his insight recently I was on a flight from Nova Scotia to Toronto and in the seat next to me there was a young mother with a little daughter a baby daughter Victoria she was 17 months old and mother was pointing out different things which is continuously talking to the child and pointing of different things and naming it for the baby one thing I understood is that babies understand language much before they can speak I think this is like common knowledge for any mother or father but I never thought of that they understand language they understand what you are saying very clearly just that they are babbling at that time they can't actually talk they can't pronounce clearly so whatever the mother said she understood the baby Victoria and she was I think fascinated by this color or something so whatever her mother showed she would turn around with big eyes and show me also like so look there is a there's a cloud in the window look there's a plane and she had a little soft toy look that's mr. bear that's relevant to bears mr. Lu and she would show Victoria would show too big a big smile and then the mother showed a picture of the baby her own picture the baby's picture on her mobile phone who's this and the Victoria turned to me with big eyes and proud look and I know what struck me later not at that time later struck me it's a very venting insight what is the insight when she is saying plane that's a plane cloud she's showing me that is a cloud mr. bear this is mr. bear but when she's shown the picture of baby Victoria and she says this she is not saying this is baby Victoria like mr. bear this is cloud plane she's saying I am this 17 months old I am this do you see the distinction automatically all the other things are this this this this you should also say that picture is this no I all right automatically they identify with the body and yet as the doctor saw where in this body am i which one is me outside which one is me inside with all the x-ray pictures which one is me so we take this body and mind to be ourselves without question and Vedanta of course says this is wrong and this is the root of samsara and then we try our best throughout the lifetime to is this body give it the food at once give it the music at once give it the things it wants to see and all of the pleasing the senses and then whatever is related to the body my house my property my father mother my husband wife child grandchild mine my means which my his body this is called selfishness Sri Ramakrishna put it this way he had an image in amenable way of playing with words he said my nephew my niece this is called Maya all are my Gopala my my baby Krishna is everybody my crime Krishna is appearing in all these forms he says this is called daya he's playing on the words my I am daya worldliness and spirituality look the same people this is mine and that's not mine my nephew and my niece my son my daughter and not mine and just the opposite all are my beloved Lord so this movement from selfishness to unselfishness selfishness is the problem which traps us in samsara and unhappiness and unselfishness is the solution this is the Karma Yoga paradigm bhakti-yoga paradigm is our desire all our attraction flows outward this is nice this is beautiful I must have this I must enjoy this I must see that the desire for sense objects is the problem and the solution is to take all that desire and focus it on God the desire is the same I want but the object has changed now first is I want the world now it becomes I want same I want but God I want God the world giving up changing the focus to God that is the bhakti-yoga paradigm the problem is all our passions desires flow to the world and then turn that river around and focus it towards God same desire same desire focused towards God bhakti that is the solution that's the bhakti-yoga paradigm the Raja yoga meditation paradigm is all my thoughts are scattered and about the world and because my thoughts are scattered the truth is not the spiritual truth is not revealed to me the problem is the raja yogi says problem is not God whether you will avant-garde or not whether you're selfish and unselfish the problem really is our minds are unsteady they keep flickering the keep they are scattered if we would focus the mind if we would only focus the mind then the truth would be revealed to us so from scattered mind to focused mind from wine scattered in the world to mind gathered and focused on God othman whatever you call it from unmedicated mind to meditative mind that is the problem and from there to the solution that's the raja yoga paradigm the Gyana yoga the way of knowledge they say the paradigm is the problem is ignorance we do not know what we are who we are right now right here and this is called ignorance and the solution to ignorance is knowledge so from ignorance to knowledge the iana yoga paradigm from scattered mind to concentrated meditative mind raja first was gaining of a paradigm second one is Raja yoga paradigm from mind desires pouring out into the world to desires all concentrated on God bhakti-yoga paradigm from from selfishness scattered in a hundred selfish pursuits for this one body and mind the all the activities are now analyzed unselfishly that is the Karma Yoga paradigm of course I am giving you general case very oversimplified version we will slowly into the depth of it so right now the discussion is on karmayoga this this session and the next one now karmayoga has something unique first of all of all the yoga's this is the only one which is not private your meditation your devotion all your philosophy it's all up it's yours really doesn't have too much to do with me I may get the fruits of it when you are fairly well along the path but otherwise not much to do with me but karma yoga is engaged with the world which put it with the public so your Karma Yoga is that spiritual path which is directly in contact with the world another fact is in today's world work is very important all of us whether you are in ashram or in the family or in a workplace you are active you are doing things you're coming in contact with people we are coming in contact with problems now this takes so much time and energy that if we cannot spiritualize our work life then spirituality is a losing proposition it will always lose if we clearly make a distinction my secular life and my spiritual life then out of 365 days how many days retreat start like retreat three days 362 days what about the other 362 days not spiritual to 24 hours in a day how many hours are spiritual maybe at the most half an hour busy days then five minutes 10 minutes and the rest a good deal of it is spent in sleep and the rest is spent in like Manhattan the city that never sleeps I saw I saw a poster Manhattan the city that never sleeps but always dreams so yeah that's a good one so we saying it's a good one I'm sure somebody in Wall Street must have come or some Madison Avenue somebody must have come up with it yeah so spirituality will always lose if you do not spiritual eyes your whole life our energy time concerns are mostly with the world mostly with the work only a little distort for spirituality one Swami told me and if you cannot spiritual eyes your work then you're a vagabond as a monk when I first came to - Rama what are you doing other people out there in the world they are earning money they are they are doing they are working the raising families what are you doing see you're working in a school or a hospital and all if that's not spiritual if that's not connected to your goal of God realization then why are you doing it others are doing it the doctor is doing it because he earns money the teacher is doing it because he earns money he takes care of his family why are you doing it unless you can spiritualize it so work has to be Spiritualized otherwise this different this distinction between secular and spiritual it's Karma Yoga erases that it makes everything spiritual it makes everything spiritual so we're going to talk about karma yoga there's a lot to learn and I'm going to recall it an info dump so I'm going to and tell you a lot of things remember if you have any short specific questions I can I can answer right away otherwise we'll keep it till the end of the class I'm primarily going to be using swami version and the disc he wrote a little monograph about it a very spiritual saintly very illumined very intellectual monk of our order so his work is based mostly on Swami Vivekananda's Karma Yoga I think we have copies of it here yes so that's this standard work to go to Swami Varrick and it was his favorite yoga you might say he gave great emphasis on karma yoga great emphasis on karma yoga so we'll see more and more why so first so I'm going to give you several points one after another today and tomorrow in the morning there's a lot to understand here a lot to clarify karma yoga we don't think much about it but yet it's so important for us especially in Manhattan in the United States in America and 21st century in the advanced countries of the world I was in Boston day four yesterday and this uber driver he's from he said he's from Liberia and I said do you ever go to your country he's there every year and he's very funny nice young man he said I go there to relax I work here here you can't work you know here you can't relax you know man you cannot relax here and then he says you go to Liberia man you just let it go for some time why all this so when you are working so much and you cannot you cannot not work if you if you know if you do that if you try to do that by force you will end up feeling guilty you'll end up feeling uneasy in this this economy in this society so how do you spiritual eyes work so karma so let's get into it I've got actually some notes and stuff that's why I wanted this karma translates into work but here's the thing not all work the moment we say work there are different meanings of that word so for example physics motion is related to work all motion there's so much motion going on in in nature the Sun and the moon and the even the river and the wind motion is going on is that work no machines are doing some in fact there are formulas we learnt in physics classes as kids calculate work done in energy units and all is that karma No karma is that which is done by a living being in a living body so karma is the word karma as it occurs in Karma Yoga relates to one work done by living being a living body sentient being that work second it's consciously done work there must be a sense of agency a sense of a feeling of I am doing it so my tummy has is now busy digesting the food we just ate is that karma being done no no no so I am doing it consciously agent ship must be involved there third there must be results for which we are working towards so there is work truth to a book Twitter means the enjoying literally it's karma is cut trick to a agent ship and book treat were means it is translated as enjoyer ship but it's not actually enjoy it can also be suffering mostly it is suffering so the work that we do it comes the results that come from that work we enjoy and suffer that so that also is a part of a part of what we mean by karma here a machine does a lot of work but it's neither enjoying nor suffering neither enjoying not suffering even a computer which does intelligent work deep blue beats of chess grandmaster and the chess grandmaster who played hard to win and loses is feeling feeling disappointed depressed and humiliated but deep blue does not feel triumphant and joyful no so is it beyond triumph and joy beyond depression is it a perfect karma yogi know the term karma does not apply to what deep blue is doing it applies to what the Grandmaster is doing so there is - has to be agent ship in Sanskrit character there has to be enjoy a ship sufferer ship and remember joining new words enjoying and suffering book trick - then there must be what is called the cosmic result that by doing this karma I get some result see number four you write down moral obligation karma has a moral dimension good bad righteous unrighteous these things become involved so for example a baby met consciously do something but what the baby is doing is not not good or bad when baby is very young animals do many things but you don't call the cops on the animal which creates a nuisance nor do you give up although they give medals two dogs notice for bravery in war and all of that but generally good and bad a moral moral obligation a sense of that there is a moral dimension in karma which need not be there in all kinds of activities of work so moral dimension is two parts morality good bad and freedom of choice if we think a little bit we will realize quickly that without freedom of choice without free choice you cannot have good and bad you cannot praise a person for action good action done consciously or you cannot blame a person for evil done consciously unless that per thing was done freely if the person is forced to do something bad you cannot really blame that person and that person unknowingly does something great you cannot really praise that person so moral dimension is there and moral dimension means one is that that must be good and bad involved in that and second is there must be freedom of choice karma another idea and the last one is what is called cosmic result karma fella this is usually the way karma is understood in Sanskrit and in Indian languages say when my karma is bad what do you mean my karma is bad what we understand that the results of our past karma are what we are experiencing now the law of karma the law of karma states good good bad bad swami vivekananda snap for him song of sannyasin good good bad bad and none escaped the law not escaped the rule the law but whosoever wears a form there's the chain too so good good good karma leads to good results good results means pleasant things tend to happen to you bad karma remember in the sense of consciously done immoral action bad karma leads to unpleasant things happening to us so good good bad bad and none escaped the law whosoever wears our form this a body wears the chain - what is the chain the chain is this fifth aspect of karma I'm talking about the cosmic result we have existed in past lives we have done many things and the results are upon us now so that is called our past karma we are what we are now because of many lives so babies they are not not new creatures if you look into the eyes of a baby you see an ancient creature just staring at you out at you so we come with a lot of lot and lot of baggage let me write it down quickly yes yes [Music] he keep that in mind because take it up later that's there what are the results of carbo that's a point I'm going to come to just a little later but right now I'm just clarifying the word carbon so we see five points living being not a machine this distinguishes the word karma views in Karma Yoga from so the word work in science and many other things you can use then agency cut tripped work then suffering enjoying I'm using the Sanskrit word book tripped word it means enjoying and suffering when there is moral dimension which includes choice oh this is very very good idea placing the microphone here I could spend the whole day here moral dimension I've just reminded the famous French philosopher Foucault Michel Foucault he talked about the Greek idea of Paris here Marysia means truth telling the Greeks ancient Greeks had a very interesting idea parecía means truth telling what is truth telling so Foucault explains that the Sun rises in the East so this of fact I've told the fact is the truth telling he says no this is not the idea of truth telling when I tell a truth which is harmful to my perceived interests my own selfish worldly interests it's true but if I tell it I might be exposed to her then I've told the truth sri ramakrishna says something similar he says if a man can confess to his faults simply openly then one must understand there is some spiritual substance in the man in Bengali he said jail of needed dose but what corollary temporary boost ahavat are not the couch watch so moral dimension is there and including choice and this other one the real thing which most people understand by karma are result which will come to us in life this is what most people mean in India when they talk about karma in Hinduism Buddhism Jainism by the way this Karma this idea of karma good good bad bad consciously done good leads to good results in this life or the next consciously done evil leads to bad results in this life or the next this is something accepted by all the Indian religions Hinduism all varieties of Hindus who do not agree on almost anything else they often introduce in tourism in schools in America when they asked about Hinduism I say that any question that you may ask about Hinduism the answer is usually yes and not believe in God yes and no there are philosophies God is male yes and no the song which Patrick sung at the beginning chacoly tamari cha all is die will his son to God as the mother Divine Mother God has formed yes and no but there is something that all Hindus if they call themselves Hindus believe in that is karma and associated with that multiple lives existences before this but after this and all Buddhists who do not believe in an eternal soul who do not believe in God but they believe in karma but it's believed in karma they believe in many lives jain's so all Indian philosophies believe in this cosmic result why do I say belief notice one thing all these are not really controversial yeah if you think about it they are all we we know this but this one is it's a matter of belief faith there is a component of faith here because there are people who will say no I don't know how do I know that I had past lives how will I know maybe not so anyway this whole thing was a clarification of the term karma that's going ahead so what is karma yoga now we come to karma yoga Dharma religion has two broad aspects in Hinduism in Vedanta for a variety and liberty Swami Vivekananda said there's no good English translation for them but the nearest he can say is probability means circling outwards going out flowing into the world and never Utley means circling inverts turning inwards basically what I sometimes call religion and spirituality or the higher religion and the lower religion so privately means engaging with the world going out into the world but doing it ethically and that's religion mass religion is like that basically and never ET is turning inwards seeking the transcendental not interested in worldly pursuits anymore so that is the higher spirituality one would be I want pleasure and I want success and I want to be rich but how can religion help me here belief in God belief in karma being ethical and moral this is the sustainable way to live in this world this is a good way to live in this world moral and ethical way you cannot have a society without this you cannot have an organization without this you cannot have a family without this so that is called priority and most religion churches temples mosques are all basically teaching this ethical life good life then there is a there is a secret esoteric inner dimension the core of spirituality then there is something beyond this world even a moral life even a good life beyond this also is something higher to be achieved call it Nirvana moksha God realization all mystics saints sages Bodhisattvas whom Avatara so they that was the core teaching every scripture of the world the core teaching is this in every religion the code the essential teaching is there is something beyond even the moral life even they think alike mystical life and moral life is preparation for this higher spirituality so prevalent in every Shankar Acharya and his introduction to the bhagavad-gita he starts the introduction by saying this do we do he do even though he where dr. maha production and intellectual hasta the Vedic religion is twofold first sentence Vedic religion is twofold one is the path of poverty one of the part of neurotic part of Liberty now why am I saying this the work that is done in the part of priorities karma it's not Karma Yoga Karma Yoga entirely belongs to the path of never eating Karma Yoga is a yoga the purpose is God realization moksha Nirvana freedom enlightenment the Karma that is the work that is done in the path of poverty is moral action ethical action yes the goal is still to is still your eyes are on the bottom line of the company but how to what is taught in b-school business school not how to attain enlightenment but business ethics business ethics teaches you how to do business attain your goals but ethically without cheating people without destroying the economy and destroying the company you know when the economy collapsed the last time and it won't be the last time when they occur we collapse the last time there was a article as usual in Time magazine and say that actually we all know what happened at the core of it is is not a systemic failure every time that happens they try to fix it by changing the laws and all of that and the guys who break the laws of smarter they'll fight another way of breaking the law they said it's greed and the form of that greed they said in Wall Street there is a saying YB g ib g YB g ib g means you will be gone i will be gone let's do this let's make our Millions company will collapse Wall Street will collapse then the American economic will collapse along with that the rest of the world economy will collapse fine but we will be will be retiring with millions of dollars now this this is adharmic Karma this is also profiting but it's done unreligious Li immorally how can you live a good life morally that is profiting that is karma Dharma Karma but it is called Sakuma karma karma done with desire how to do it morally religion teaches you that every religion teaches you that but the livery tamargo the higher religion spirituality what is the role of karma there there karma becomes Karma Yoga okay so this distinction then another distinction one just basic errors this is more common in India all people who do a lot of work are not karma Yogi's they may do a lot of karma but they're not necessarily Karma Yoga is why in India you I don't know if still there but we'd see advertisement obituary one great businessman has died say it so-and-so X Y Z he has passed away both body karma yogi tea he was a great karma yogi he established a multi-million dollar business now that said as a praise of that person but that's a misnomer he he was a great worker no doubt I'm sure he was a great entrepreneur I'm sure he was / colleague I'm sure he earned millions of dollars but crores of rupees but that's not karma yoga so that's one error second error is everybody can become a yogi no no no karma yoga also requires preparation it's it's a spiritual practice like everything else you only have to look at the life of Mahatma Gandhi in this country Martin Luther King or in our in India Vinoba Bhave and many others an ascetic lifestyle with moral and ethical training a high spiritual goal in life with engagement with the world so not if it's not easy to become a karma yogi that meditation is difficult and I fall asleep when I meditate I'd rather be a karma yogi not easy bhakti-yoga is difficult I really don't have any faith in God I'd rather do karma yoga not easy Donahue is difficult it's so what are they talking about Indian it's not very clear the Karma Yoga is easy no all right so karma yoga also requires preparation let me go ahead okay a quick note on what Shankara and Vivekananda thought of karma yoga Adi Shankaracharya you know running around here and there Adi Shankaracharya you know I'm going to summarize his position very quickly he is often regarded as a person who criticized or downplayed karma even Karma Yoga that's true and not true let's see this will be familiar to many people who come to the Vedanta society from adi shankara's perspective what is spiritual practice it's this matrix you remember the problem solution method mr. may area so problem solution and method very quickly do any of you remember first problem ignorant I see that repetition has a value will be ignorance and the solution is yes and the method is Jana Jana yoga the method and then the next level of problems is the scattered mind unfocused mind which is a big problem today even in Harvard University all these brilliant kids but they are always on there and being unfair almost nobody was on there but maybe they were a little overwrought to be on it in Harvard but very soon they'll get back on their screen mobiles are not scattered mind and the solution is meditation he will even put hot tea here because it gives you focus on God in that sense only then third and last bottom level of problems in pure mind solution no-brainer pure mind method area karma yo so this is in Sanskrit system Allah your mind teacher should be if the should be means purification of the mind with karma yoga mind is purified impure mind is removed and you get a pure mind with the pure mind you meditate and scattered mind is concentrated you get a focused mind with the pure mind it's in sanskrit weak shape a car so with focused mind and pure mind when you come to yani yoga knowledge will come this is in sanskrit gianna is knowledge and it removes Aryana ignorance what happens then you realize that I am Brahman and the problem is solved you where Brahman anyway you didn't know it you need to know it you try to know it doesn't work why doesn't it work mind is scattered rajasic of mind when you come to Ghani of it scattered and thinks of so many things I often have this experience when I'm teaching Vedanta I tell you three Grisha Viveca the method of the seer in the scene or the method of the analysis of the five levels of the human personality and in somebody or the other will say Swami can I understand it in terms of space time energy and this something else he has read somewhere that comes in may be at some time you can think about it later but first learn what's being taught here don't bring any of your theories right now so so mind is scattered because of Rajas if the mind has so much Tomas then what will happen is open the shop class Gani yoga going on teacher is teaching they know in Uttarakhand there's certainly some faint humming sound is coming somewhere and this monk who's teaching he says in Hindi nurse it away mr. Raja kaha Mishra ji what happened and he gets up like this tonic Samadhi like goethe that little little a little samadhi add a little Samadhi that is Thomas sick mind falling asleep the moment you start it does often an occupational hazard of I've discovered of being a student I'm the on this side but I'm not getting the experience of sitting on the other side so I have all sympathy so focus is required otherwise scattered mind unable to grasp that is not working again that is also not working why mind is full of desires mind is being pulled away from interior rising so that purity is required and that's where does not say karma yoga will give you enlightenment I am Brahman by karma yoga no no no karma yoga then Mukti or Raja yoga meditation basically the word he likes is to say this is the problem of going to school you have to be careful about what you say because otherwise just yeah yesterday for yesterday and they were saying in the classroom every word you say you have to justify you have to defend every word you put down so there is actually a place where sure worker Shankar Acharya uses the word Raja yoga doesn't matter he likes the word impersonal he likes the word karma Oh possum Jonna these are the words he uses so by these practices by karma purity of my jitter should be by who pass on a concentrated mind then by Gyana yoga we come to the vedanta to our teaching and then you will become enlightened but in contrast to this Vivekananda says do it by work do it by love do it by meditation do it by philosophy uses the word philosophy in his original description by one or more or all of these and be free is he doing something strange is he going against Shankara not necessarily because if you go to a one of the later masters we she stood wider for Ramanuja he also says all of these are necessary but Ramanuja he changes the order karma yoga always the the poor guy at the bottom and then he puts gana yoga and then ramanuja puts bhakti yoga at the top by karma yoga preparation purification of the mind the usual function and then by gana yoga you realize I am NOT the body I am not the mind and a spark of divine consciousness and then by bhakti you really relate this individual spark of consciousness to the supreme consciousness jivatma to Paramatma that's your relationship with God the ramanuja puts it that way all of the arch areas they say that all the yoga's are necessary they don't reject the yoga's basically practically boils down that we must do all of the yoga's again exception so in the gaudiya vaishnava tradition if you go to chaitanya mahaprabhu and the teachers of Gaudiya Vaishnavism they will actually say that no no all of them are not necessary but the alone is enough to do everything so with that producer so here's the difference Swami Vivekananda gives a lot of emphasis on karma yoga it comes from the way he teaches at Dwight uh Vedanta Advaita Vedanta to put it very simply can be taught in one way is that by emphasizing the falsity of the world to show the reality of Brahman or by emphasizing the oneness of the world that also shows the reality of Brahman how remember the classic snake-rope example rope is false rope is true snake is false that's the result of having a heavy dinner rope is true you understand what example I'm talking about a snake rope so rope is true snake is false you can say that the snake is false one or you can say snake is nothing other than the rope the snake is really the rope or even so far as to say the snake is real as the rope what is what I why are we talking about snakes and ropes here rope stands for Brahman the ultimate reality snake stands for the world which we think is real we thought the snake was real when we investigated it it turned out to be a rope we think that this is the reality when we investigate this ourselves and the world it turns out to be nothing other than drunken often I indiscriminately use the word God some people objected this is not technically correct but I don't want to be technically correct because they are all referring to the same reality one must at at times make it a little fuzzy because if you make too many distinctions between atman and brahman the god of religion and god of different religions you create an impression in the minds of people you're talking about many different things you're not actually there is only one thing all religion is trying to point out okay so Swami Vivekananda Shankara is approximately put they put it he is the person who's saying snake is false jagat mithya the world of appear it's an appearance and hence Brahman is real Swami Vivekananda's saying the snake is nothing other than the rope the world is nothing other than God see God in everything in everybody and it's true it's true our whole problem is we think I am this much and everything else is separate from me Shankara says all that is separate from you put everything into that separateness the world is separate from me but the body is also not you the mind is also not you when you put it all away like that then you discovered the real you prison and you see everything else is an appearance so that is reality Brahman is real the world is an appearance and you are none other than Brahman karma plays a secondary secondary role there but Swami Vivekananda says the world is also nothing other than Brahman you are also nothing other than Brahman and all of these people are also nothing other than Rahman and you can engage work is also nothing other than Brahman truly understood your activities in the world can be and should be spiritual eyes bhagavad-gita take the take the verse we chant before food Brahma heart penumbra movie Brahma hog no brahmana autumn Brahm hey Betina ganged-up 'i'm brahma karma so medina brahman is the offering Brahman is the the fire into which you offer Brahman is the priest who makes the offering Brahman is the action of offering one who sees Brahman in all action it does not say one who regards all action as false it says one who sees Brahman in all action that one attains to Brahman that's what's wrong Vivek and this emphasizing and don't don't think that he is he is deviating from traditional advaita vedanta ramana maharshi who is a very staunch of 18 ramana taken as the epitome of modern advaita he says in one place who can say the world is real our immediate response would be we say we are ignorant people we think the world is real the great enlightened people think the world is false he says no no no it is only the enlightened person can who can say the world is real the enlightened person can say the world is real our saying the world is real it has no value at all we do not know what reality is the enlightened person realizes Brahman the reality and sees that everything is permanent that is the real world what we live in is like a dream but we're all talking about the same thing I hope I've confused you enough so this is the difference between Swami Vivekananda's approach so strong Vivekananda now regards the world as an appearance or as nothing other than Brahman not real in itself but if you know it truly for the one who truly understands it the world is actually a shining forth a manifestation of Brahman just as every ornament is actually expressing golden ornament expressing the gold within every wave is basically an expression of the water in the same way everything in this world is an expression of God so Sri Ramakrishna's teaching Shiva ganas Jeeva saver serve all beings knowing them to be Shiva that becomes the basis for swami vivekananda's karma yoga serve all beings knowing them to be Shiva Shiva means God knowing them not thinking about them not believing them to be Shiva knowing them to be Shiva as just as you know that the waves are nothing but water the ornaments are nothing but gold all beings are nothing but God so that's where they come in the end you can make one more point quickly and then we'll take a few questions you have a question yeah quick clarification yes you have to be in order to know that until you have to believe yes how do we proceed how do we proceed in the path of bhakti we take it on faith bhakti is a part of it and that's why I say in one Saudi no turrican said there are only two ways either you believe what you know in the Johno Yama no don't hear us there either you believe it or you know it now in most of the world especially Western world in USA religion is taken as faith the word in fact the word used for religion in USA is faith but you know it that is an uneasy word for think something like Buddhism Buddhism is not faith in that sense it's an uneasy word to apply to yoga for example but Angelia we see we will see Raja yoga and definitely it's it's not a appropriate word to apply to add the right of Atlanta it's a path of knowing now until you should know but until you know you have to believe not in the sense that you believe in other other religions it's more like even you go to college you go to a teacher I give this example many times what ha what is our attitude to what the teacher is teaching in a physics class or a math class or somewhere our attitude is the teacher is telling the truth the textbooks are correct I don't get it yet let me work at it I'll get it and the purpose is to get it the purpose is not to believe it because see the teacher tells you something and says do you get it and if you say I don't understand but you are great I believe you teacher is not going to be happy at all so you have to understand it that is the difference between the path of Yan and the path of bhakti so in the path of Gareth of always the effort is to understand in the path of bhakti you'll be told there's no point in trying to understand now believe it and live accordingly and it will be shown to you in time usually a post-mortem after death okay one more point quickly and then I'm done are the snacks after 8:30 and and are they available for sometime or will they disappear almost 30 minutes so I should not take too much time okay that the effects of karma yes John oh yeah mono mono means believe it God exists in karma exists after death he will continue to exist before but you were there how do I know that if you said now you don't know I do have to believe it that's one path most religion is like that another path is that I am NOT the body and mind this actually can be understood not not believe so Gyana yoga is the path of understanding it jonno means gana knowledge it's not question of believing it you have to understand it the effort is continuously to understand it and it can be understood the whole point is that we do not understand and the point is to understand it the problem is we don't understand the solution is to understand remember understanding is not the end of it that understanding has to deepen into enlightenment or realization but understanding is part of it the other path understanding is not so much important doing it is important karma yoga in bhakti yoga doing or understanding is not in that that much important believing having faith is important so different paradigms just to address your point karma has three effects karma action has three effects in the in the sense we mean karma what are the three effects one is the immediate effect you give food to a hungry person the hungry person is fed and the hunger is removed direct effect everybody sees it no question about it second is what you said an effect on your own mind keep doing it and you develop the good habit of sharing the joy of doing things for others psychological effect it's called samskaara third one is karma fala which we talked about here in sanskrit pop upon your merit demerit which will result in some pleasant or unpleasant effect suka dukkha so the law is like this dharma good action consciously done leads to punya these are words which are used by just about every indian but we use it unthinkingly dharma leads to put in the opinion means merit merit leads to suka happiness so the meaning is all good things which are happening to us now or because of some merit we have and that we earned in earlier lives but equally all the unpleasant things happening to us nobody's fault it's we who have generated it we've set in motion mighty energies though subtle in some ancient time and the result we are getting now so our dharma leads to Papa Papa means sin or demerit and Papa leads to do come and they are all limited consciously done good action generates some limited amount of merit that generates some limited amount of nice things similarly so that's why there is no unlimited heaven or unlimited hell they're limited heavens and limited health and they are all worldly this worldly that worldly but all worldly they are not spiritual spirituality is freedom from all of this freedom from the whole mess worldly mess otherworldliness worldly mess is called this another worldly mesh is that that stands for heaven and hell both our mess and freedom from this causality is so Swami Vivekananda's poem good good bad bad and none escape the law but whosoever wears a form wears the chain to this much is karma then what is vedanta far beyond name and form is Atman everfree know thou art that say ohm that's at now thou art that sannyasi bolt say ohm that's on that beautiful note let's end those want to let me do a shanty chant and those who want to grab a quick snack yeah well we all wait for questions don't worry but we don't want this snacks to run away Shante Shante Shante he hurry he owned that sat sri ramakrishna Aparna must yes yes or you can pass the microphone or you can come up here and ask the question and others please feel to leave question life is only real when I am yes my own real you just repeat the pet comment just the comment was that good jeff has a book named life is only real when I am very deep point yes the question so I can you explain it a little bit more the difference between bhakta and cosmic result is this box Isis this life you enjoy having bhakta means Naga that means to experience whoever can be of two types Yoga means to experience to get to have some experience it could be a pleasant experience which is called Easter which means desirable experience an unpleasant experience pain and disease and unhappiness and failure so it's called Anisha undesirable experience but both arboga and I am the bhakta the moment I say I see I hear I smell I taste I touch so I suffer I enjoy I am bhakta and thought that I do work to get the desirable Baga the objects of enjoyment and to avoid undesirable experiences this is called book trip tour so karma is connected with rope trick tour yeah but the even the cosmic result is the same thing no cosmic result is by doing karma this this experiences come to me the boga comes to me the boga is generated by the cosmic result raga is the thing which you experience the thing will come to you Pleasant and unpleasant things desirable and desirable things will come to you and you will experience it I will experience it so I am the bhakta but the thing which I experience that is the cosmic result that is generated by my past karma so all the things that we experience it comes to us because of our past karma and these are not good things none of the whole thing is not good news at all from a spiritual point of view this is samsara this is what we are trapped in endlessly and to expand beyond this into our infinite nature is freedom yes Swamiji I'm confused by what you said about Shankar Acharya is teaching the cause and effect does though the Karma Yoga purify your mind or does purifying your mind make your karma yogi no Karma Yoga when you practice Karma Yoga purifies the mind we can immediately see why what is the essence of this kind of impurity it's selfishness so trying the best to my of my level best to make this particular body happy why am i trying to make it happy as Victoria said I am this obviously I will try to make it happy because I am this but Vedanta insists you are not this fatal error one did his body will age and decay and die in spite of our best efforts I'm gone also no that's the problem you'll still be dead you suddenly realize I spent my lifetime taking care of the car now the car is broken and gone and still there I should have used the car for my purposes but I lived my life trying to take care of the car damn this is from a famous science fiction story written in the 60s 50s report on Planet three or something alien has come and sees this planet and we'd never mentioned Earth but it sends a report back to its home planet I found a inhabited planet inhabited by intelligent and powerful beings here is a report these intelligent and powerful beings who inhabit this land is this planet they are shiny made of metal and they have four wheels and they have a they have servants whom they carry within themselves and those servants clean them feed them maintain them to do everything for them that is a commentary on the car culture 1950 60s in USA when it was booming very intelligent science fiction story I'll come to you let me let her ask first I will come back to you you had a question if my experience is the result of my karma good and bad how do you reconcile the not the fact that God is the doer and I'm merely the instrument yes we cannot the only thing is because we do not feel that so that God is the doer and I am merely the instrument then you are a perfect karma yogi that is the highest level of Karma Yoga let me quickly state three levels Karma Yoga also has levels people don't understand this first level of Karma Yoga Falacci aha second level of Karma Yoga Karma Yoga and third level of Karma Yoga could trick to a yoga what does it mean follow Thiago means giving up the result I am doing the work not because I want the thing for myself I am doing the work as worship of the Lord so the results i consign unto the Lord so renunciation of the result mentally second higher level than this renunciation of the work itself not that I will not do the work I will do the work but I have no more choice regarding the work I do not Vivek understand about this second level neither seek nor avoid we have choice likes and dislikes about the work but if it is all worship of the Lord why should I say I will worship in this way or not worship in that way that he that person really feels so what becomes so it is a worship and then third level is that trick to a yoga I am not the doer also that is difficult to understand now because we inevitably feel I am the doer and that comes of deep identification with the body body and mind and the third level one begins to clearly see nature is doing everything God is doing everything through nature through Maya all impulses think about it where do our thoughts come from from thoughts come speech from thoughts come speech and action but where do this does the thought come from we think I am thinking the thought not true if you just watch a little bit it bubbles up from unknown depths of our consciousness everything here is being done by nature bhagavad-gita says Prakriti vikarma and kriyamanani service' prakruti alone does every action here in the entire universe when scientists will be so happy but what gita is absolutely correct everything here is done by nature not one thing is done by you the conscious being yah pashyati tada Muharram occurred torrents of our city the one who sees oneself in that way that I am not the doer nature is the doer that person sees the consciousness within does not do anything here he does not bring God into the equation at all but the devotee will say God does everything that was the whole meaning of the song we started with chacoly Temari cha all is thy will my divine mother you do thy work people say I am doing the work do you you make the lame cross mountain ranges and you trap them the elephant in a swamp you you give somebody you make somebody enlightened Brahma Keanu and the other you plunge into the demeyers of samsara we think we are doing it I am a great saint by my efforts that person is a sinner no ultimately you'll see God is behind everything it's fun for the enlightened person not so much fun for the sinner who's trapped but even that so-called sinner is also nothing other than God and that person is also ultimately safe so at that level no more that I am the experiencer of the results you will not think I am the doer I am NOT even the experience you're already free that's the highest level of Karma Yoga work and worship first level work is there and worship is there first level second level work as worship which I know it's work but I'm now trying to see it as worship it's a practice third level work is worship we have a slogan for this work is worship not so easy at all if work is worship we would always feel that we are you know we are always as good as met deep meditation you really should go for the snacks Scylla we will take it up later keep a hold on hold on to your question we'll talk about it as we go along I can see that if I don't go nobody is going [Music] you