Video 112
112. Bhagavad Gita | Chapter 9 Verses 18-21 | Swami Sarvapriyananda
foreign [Music] as usual we'll be doing the verses You Can chant after me if you're comfortable and you can also ask questions but towards the end just raise your hand and I'll ask you to speak all right we are on the ninth chapter and I think we have done the 17th verse last time 18 we had started we are not started so 18th verse verse number 18 chapter nine gate um so Krishna here is saying I am the gold the sustainer the Lord the witness the Abode The Refuge the friend the source the Destroyer the support the repository and the Eternal seed Krishna speaking as an avatara an Incarnation speaking as God navatara has so in a virtual world you can have your own avatar so that Avatar speaks for you it is what it does it's you are liable for it um so Krishna here he says now if you take them literally as they are translated this is something that God can say um and the goal of everything I nourish everything I am the sustainer I am the Lord Prabhu I am the witness of everything but the commentators here the one which I'm using for example sridhar Swami's commentary written about 600 years ago some of the traditional commentaries they interpret this line in terms of karma the law of karma so gati the in Sanskrit it means the end so directly it might mean God is the end of all things and our ultimate goal is God realization everything ends up in God but no the commentator says here gati means destiny what happens to us in life what happens to us in life and what determines that our Karma we do we do it's not fatalistic but our karma is what we have forces we have set in Motion in ancient lives forces that we have set in Motion in eight past lives and that becomes our destiny not fatalistic because if what we do now how we react to life now that builds our future life also but gati here means is um the trans for example in this commentary sridhar Swami says result Karma phalam bharta I am that Krishna says God says I am that which sustains this law of causality Karma good good bad bad none escaped the law Dharma leads to punya punya leads to sukha in English um good action moral action consciously deliberately done good action leads to Merit and Merit results in happiness a pleasant life a good life adharma consciously deliberately done evil action leads to Papa demerit and papa results in dukkha in this this is the law of karma this is the doctrine of karma all schools of Hinduism all schools of Buddhism Jainism and Sikhism all the Indian the Traditions arising from India they accept it even the abrahamic Traditions as you saw so shall you reap basically it's the same idea just constructed differently once when I was teaching monastic novices in in the main Monastery in India a young monk I still remember brahmacharya asked me where did this come from this law of karma at first I misunderstood I thought he was asking for textual references so I said you find it in the Gita then you find it in the upanishads and you find it in a Proto form in The Vedas in the in the karma Kanda before the upanishads the whole of the karma Khan is basically Karma you do something you get something actions have consequences then he said no no I'm not asking that where does this idea come from this concept one thing leading to another they thought this is nothing more than causality it's something that all human beings instinctively understand I do this that happens I said this cause in motion that effect happens now you extend it and you will have the law of karma [Music] why do I say extend it you know why is it not um a scientific law for example it isn't because when you say um Dharma leads to sukha Dharma leads to punya leads to sukha in between the punya factor is invisible it's not see doing deliberately doing good action we all see that and getting Pleasant results we all see that but the link is not seen that you have to accept on faith that's why it's part of theology a part of religion not not a scientific law somebody said look these are not scientific laws in the sense that you know scientific laws you cannot break you can't break the law of gravitation you try to break it you're going to break yourself but this is true of these moral laws also somebody put it very beautifully you cannot break model laws you can only break yourself against them try as hard as you might I'm going to be I can be perfectly unethical I can lie cheat as long as it is to my advantage it won't be to your advantages very very soon we find out our life becomes miserable a mess that's a lesson we learned though the wise learn it very quickly and the otherwise they take a long time to learn and they suffer they suffer so this is the law of karma it is nothing other than causality which is all of us accept it nobody asks why um why itself is causation and why when we ask why it's natural to any kind of rational thought Science is based on causality common sense is causality our laws legal systems are based on causality you do this this is the punishment for it so all of it is based on causality one natural consequence of this idea of causality is the law of karma it is common to all these philosophical schools in India one month put it this way in Hindi he said this is a very profound Doctrine Hindus don't Buddhists don't believe in God they don't believe in an immortal soul Hindus believe in God Hindus believe in an immortal Soul Atma and yet both Buddhists and Hindus believe in karma and this whole thing about the punar general life after life cycle of birth and death you can see it's simply an extension of the law of karma if causality at all holds then what we are seeing in this life are the effects if their effects start straight from birth their effects Pleasure and Pain there are babies are born into very different circumstances and variety of Life they have what has the baby done to deserve it so the baby must have existed before it was a baby in this life and we do so many things in this life whose effects we don't see so if you don't accept earlier lives and future lives earlier lives and future lives just earlier existence and future existence if you don't accept that then there's a logical fault in the law of karma in Sanskrit it is called the arising of something that has not been caused this life if there's nothing no existence before this Suddenly It's come where from where and kritan Asha the destruction of the cause without giving rise to the effect if there are no lives after this I don't exist after this then I've done a lot of things in this life I won't get any result of it if I've done lots of good I want to exist so that I will get the result of the good things if I've done lots of Mischief I'd rather not exist I want the law to be false and so but then what is done with disappears so it's a logical fault therefore whether you believe in God or not whether you believe in Atma or not Buddhists don't believe in Atma the way Hindu Hindus believe it but they all believe in Karma and multiple lifetimes Giants Buddhists Giants Hindus all schools so he says I am that which sustains the causality exists because of me in vedantic terms it becomes clear what is causality a part of time space causation is Maya Maya is the power of God so causality is the power of God and say that why do you say God is doing these things we can see clearly there are clear explanations the explanation what's an explanation cause and effect and here Krishna is saying cause and effect exists because of me but I sustain it so are you Bound by it is God Bound by the laws of God no Prabhu I am the Lord so the law of karma also operates at my sweet will which means it gives rise to the possibility that little exceptions once in a while might be made if you catch hold of the big boss so Prabhu I am the Lord sakshi it says I'm the witness here in this particular commentators is The Seer the Illumina of whatever happens in our lives Pleasant or unpleasant good tragic traumatic there is one who is watching there's one who knows the one who knows and one who knows deeply as we know it even more deeply than us there is one who knows our life the one who is a witness to our life it can be ominous also there is that I have referred to the poet who talks about the Christian concept of a judgment day at the end of creation when this is the poet said I'm paraphrasing that you may be as clever as you want I can fool everybody can fool yourself but what will you do on that day when you are face to face with the one capital o one with the one who knows how to ask questions [Music] The Seer of all that is good and bad is a witness because in what sense is God like a Peeping Tom or something watching Through the Windows no Consciousness is is aware of everything as in in and through all of us a you know in a direct translation would be God is that in which the entire universe dwells but here he means that commentator says it's also related to the law of karma it is he says he says so the effects of the law of karma to experience that we need bodies we need worlds so this is all created by God in fact God Alone appears as all of this as this universe as these bodies also so we can experience the results of our Karma sounds pretty merciless we are trapped and we have loads of Bad Karma and now here is this big boss who's got us in this game and we can't escape no next word The Refuge this Lord is the Refuge and beautiful translation by the the meaning is given by sridhar Swami rakshakaha The Protector protector from whom actually protected from the effects of our own Bad Karma if it gets too much God can do it otherwise or God can give us the strength to bear it is never too much for us God will give us the strength to Bear if you hold on to God we must hold on um you know when the wheel is rotating it crushes everything underneath it but if you go in near the axle and hold on to the The Hub you're safe you won't be crushed by The View similarly um there's another parable of the fisherman who was fishing and in a shallow pond it's only the little fish which is swimming around the feet of the fishermen which escaped his notice everything else was pulled in by the net so the fish which go to the feet of the lord we hold on to that will be saved from the worst effects of our own carbon not that God is punishing anybody or doing bad to anybody it's our own Karma but if it's too much for us to Bear rakshakaha The Protector sharanam there is a refuge from the inexorable grinding of the wheel of karma also another beautiful word Surat Surat means writ means heart and suret means well Vision well Wisher is a very Bland term but literally means the one who is after your own heart you know the one who is always on your side God is always in your gang God is on your side always unconditionally so it's just that we don't see it that's why we don't take the help of God but always there's only one there's only one Krishna says there's only one who is always on your side and that's God who always feels with the way you feel which nobody else can ever understand our deepest sorrows Joys desires and God is God feels very deeply for us so suret our well-wisher in this inexorable law of karma protector and well wishes we would do well to remember this there is somebody on our side and the most powerful one on our side is it doesn't feel like it I saw on this nice poster sometimes very rather sentimental stuff is written but nice touching it says God is somebody who always walks I always walk with you but then I cried out and in my deepest sorrows you know God says that you see when you are walking you see another set of footprints by your side of your Footprints I'm always walking with you but in my deepest sorrows you are not there there's only one set of footprints which is yes your deepest sorrows I was carrying you so that I saw a poster very sweet little too sentimental for my taste but still sweet but this I have seen in uh Avatar I don't know directly but deeply spiritual people some of the senior monks I have seen one thing you know is that they're on your side they're really truly our well wishes they love love you not in a Sentimental way but in a truly helpful way they're there for you and you need not be afraid of them that's another thing I remember once I went in now both of these monks have passed so I can talk about it I was a novice in the main Monastery with newcomer and I used to go to this wonderful Swami Swami mokshadananda ji he was in my humble opinion one of the few I have seen whom I can say is an enlightened me so he was there wonderful wonderful Swami and I'm not alone in that opinion many monks of Our Generation knew him this this knew him as this old wonderful old Swami and I would go to him often ask a question or just spend some time he was elderly and ailing at that time now there was another Swami uh brilliant eccentric very sharp intellectually and also tongue he didn't mean to be cutting but he was abrupt he was talented in a multiple multiple many many ways language music all of that one day these two swamis this Swami was very close to mokshadhanji in fact Swami mokshadhanji has only one book to his credit he was one of the greatest Scholars of our order but he never wrote books and there's only one book jivan mukti viveka of vidyaranya Swami translated into English published by Dwight ashram and that's written that's that was that translation and commentary was done by Swami mokshada and that was done because this other Swami whom I'm talking about um nagged him for 20 years the book took 20 years to write so this other Swami would often be with um so one day I went in and I bowed down to both of them they're seniors and then um suddenly Swami mokshadanji said to me they were talking about something I didn't know what they were talking about it looked down at me and said you when you look at me what do you think I say that I don't know why I said it there's no context I said I think you can see my thoughts but I'm not afraid of you and then and he looked at him and him what do you think and like somebody hypnotized they looked around and I like a paradise said I don't know I still don't know it I would never say such things I said I think he too can see my thoughts but I'm afraid of him I said that and mokshodanji looked at that Swami and said see what did I tell you and that's why we looked grim and looked down you know so maybe he was making a point to that Swami that's what I thought I never followed her but never inquired why but here is somebody who's on your side always you're well Wisher Vivekananda rights to somebody um a disciple who had left him you know and gone out on his own vivekani says once you have taken refuge in me I shall not abandon you no matter whether you abandon me and you go away you may go away from me you may go away from vedanta I shall always be by your side indeed if you go down he says if my disciple goes down to the depths of hell I shall descend there and pull I will pull you out by the tuft of your hair [Music] I shall never abandon you I've seen this many many times so suret he is the Lord is your well-wisher he feels deeply so she was this is sometime after srirama Krishna passed away she was in this little village in rural Bengal and in a neighborhood there was this other woman whose husband had passed some time ago she had no relatives and she had just one grown son who died for some reason suddenly now this was a terrible shock to the poor woman nobody in the in the world and especially in those days remember um women were helpless without a male relative especially in rural areas what could you do so she came to massarada and she was talking about her sorrows like many people came and that was quite a big household of people who were relatives of Maharaja they were devotees they were disciples in that household now from inside the household they were startled to hear the mother she burst out in a whale of crying wailing they ran out to see what was happening and the mother was weeping wailing as if it was her own son who had died that woman was narrating her sorrow now ins instead of giving her philosophy and telling her about the Atman and Karma and or teaching a techniques of meditation the mother wept as if her heart would burst loudly and because of that the effect was interesting the woman calmed down the reason is somebody felt her sorrow she was not alone in the world somebody felt a sorrow as deeply as genuinely as she felt it and then she said go and take a bath give her some oil for her head come and she came back and she fed her fed her sent her back home and said and gave her things to for our household food and other stuff and told her to keep coming sure it somebody is you can count on this person I think Swami brahmananda probably his birthday was a couple of days ago we'll speak about him day after tomorrow there was a young monk a brahmachary who did did something serious offense against monastic life and he was about to be thrown out of the order expelled so as the president of the order Swami brahmanandi finally signs off on these things they brought it to him he said can you can you do one thing for me so yes anything Swami he's the head of the entire monastic order he said on the other Bank of the ganga this on this bank is the main Monastery on the other Bank of the ganga can you build a little little Hut for me they asked why a hut for you the president of the order why he said see this by he has nobody in the world you have monasteries and ashrams and this big organization you stay there's nobody in the world except me I and he we will go together and stay in that little Hut if you expel him so they were immediately said no no that's fine that's why we don't have to expel him the president of the order is saying I will go away from the order I'll stay with him this good for nothing guy so he's always on the side so suret I I myself seen this there was one very difficult young monk we were all young monks uh in that order I mean in that ashram and everybody was including me we're all critical of that troublemaker he was really a troublemaker he made life difficult for everybody everybody was critical of him except the head of the monastery and so one day I and others we went to the head I can tell you the name so I mean he was he is now the vice president of the order we went to him I still remember and we asked him you see it don't you that he's really doing these things so this is creating trouble because it's clear why won't you support us like why won't you acknowledge what's going wrong then he said oh I know all that we were like but if see I am the last word here in this ashram if I to go against him whom does he have left here huh so suret you put up with it you all put up with it but so suret who is your well-bisher more than all of these is is God himself herself itself whatever then he goes on prabhava pralayasthanam prabhava God is the source of this universe so that's why the first line refers to the law of karma the second life refers to God as the Creator so probably the entire universe arises from God with vedantic sense Brahman the power of Maya the entire universe arises in Brahman pralaya means the place of dissolution where does an effect go go to back to the cause in philosophical language what is creation emergence of the effect from the cause the part from clay and what is destruction dissolution of the part back into clay so where does the part go when it's destroyed back to Clay it was always clear what was it in between our our minds trick I say in between it was a part no it was still clay it was always clay um anyway so he says I am the source the origin of all things I am that to which all things return them here means and that in which all things exist am um when everything is destroyed are we gone us as individual sentient beings because the stars and planets are gone at the end of The Cosmic cycle when the universe merges back into ishwar into saguna Brahman into Maya then what about us are we gone no we are not gone just as in deep Sleep we do not disappear we seem to disappear the world disappears before us our own bodies disappear for us and Minds also no no activity but are we gone no next moment we are back there you are exactly what you were earlier so it's all in a seed form in deep Sleep similarly when God goes into deep sleep quote unquote the universe ends however we are not gone all sentient beings and our Karma the bank records and nothing is wiped out it all exists as in a seed form so that repository is called nidhanam and those seeds are not perishable like the seeds you know the seeds of plants is the imperishable seed from which germinates again when the next Universe comes we are all we pop back into existence I think last class or something you talked about the cosmic hide and seek one monk told us in fact told us that we are playing eternally playing hide and seek with God right now God is hidden and we are all seeking God not all a few of us we're seeking God where is God Where's God and at the end of the universe where the entire universe disappears um God Alone is left and we all merge back into Maya like this within a seed form we are no bodies no personalities no Minds nothing but it's all there in a potential form now God is searching for us where did those guys go where are those fellows and then he finds us there in Maya and brings us out and Pops us it creates the universe and Pops us back into the universe and he hides himself so that's the cosmic hide and seek I can't resist this being a science fiction fan Isaac Asimov yeah the classic story about this um long time ago I remember I read it um it went something like the short story so oh this is also relevant in you know with this modern AI chat GPT and all that so it's a computer but this is remember Asimov wrote this in the 1950s probably or 60s only this big huge mainframes were there with Punch Cards and stuff like that so he said this big computer had been designed which can answer all your questions um I mean we are literally more or less have it and chargpt says up to 2021 whatever has been and it makes a disclaimer what's happened after that I don't know much about it but before that ask me anything so the the computer has been designed these Engineers attending to it and then one of the ingenious things let's ask it this question you know in physics they say entropy is running down the entire universe is running down and will go towards a heat death that means the universe will run down eventually there will be nothing left so can entropy be reversed so this is the question and they ask the computer and the computer spits out a punch card and it goes words around and heats up a little bit and smokes and then says spits out a punch card and it says not enough data [Music] then years pass now the computers are much smaller and how prophetic Asimov was he says they were on our tables desktops he predicted it years before desktops were a reality and there is somebody who has the same question a scientist and the computer says on the screen even thought there will be screens that it says that not enough data then he goes few hundred years later a spacecraft is going from one star system to another there's a little kid doing his homework in that spacecraft and then he learns about entropy when you ask the computer which is like a all distributed across the spacecraft um can entropy be reversed the computer says not enough data I am not lending the story it's it is actually a short story but I'm trying to make it as short as possible so as Asimov builds it up then centuries pass and millionaire pass and humanity is spread across the galaxies so there is a universal civilization and the computer is now one unified computer Across the Universe it's distributed Across the Universe so some scientists somewhere on some Planet asks this question and the computer says like a voice in the sky you know not enough data and then finally billions of years have passed the universe is dying the stars are running down and the civilizations have failed um all of humanity whatever they are at that time they've uploaded themselves into a cloud and even that requires energy so that's also shutting down the last of the human consciousness no human body is left this is the human consciousness ask this question to the computer Consciousness which is Across the Universe ask this question now it's a desperate question of life and death can entropy be reversed and the computer asked answers immediately not enough data then the universe dies everything is gone he death of the universe but the computer alone is they're still pondering the one question it could not answer its creators still thinking about it then it gets the idea gets the answer but there's nobody to give an answer to the universe is gone it's all dark and nothing's there stars have run out and all living beings have gone so the computer thinks what do I do now I have the answer finally the last question which was asked to me and this everything else I've solved so the computer says let there be light and there was light it's the story of creation you know the creation of the universe a lot like that in the Hindu conception God creates this universe in cycles and he says we are still there and we will continue to be there until you attain Enlightenment then only you are free of your individual existence you can't be free at the end of the universe because another universe will begin and then you will be sent out to play then the next verse I give heat I restrain and let loose the rain I am immortality I am death I am manifest and unmanifest also oh Arjuna so why suddenly rain remember an ancient egrarian Society monsoons were very very important in India everything dependent on that I think will Durant begins his history of India with these words that why were Indians so philosophical he says when the monsoons fail India starves and dreams of Nirvana yeah so rain is very important here Krishna says God says that I am that which gives rain and withholds rain too sometimes what is that and the commentator says the Sun committed to here says so um you know Sun creates evaporation and causes the clouds to form and then there's rainfall it's the energy of the sunlight coming to the atmosphere of the Earth and that that is what generates the the water cycle and all of that you know we all learned it in geography as kids what is interesting here is the commentators were pretty clear it's not that God is somewhere they are giving Rain and stopping rain uh it's God in the form of this universe and acknowledges the Sun and natural laws and evaporation and the water cycle all of that but C is a Divinity behind it and intelligence behind all of that so I and that that which gives rain and I withhold it I am Amrita I'm here it literally translates as immortality but that's not what it means the commentator says I am life the rain you can see the connection rain and then crops and then food and then life I am life too I am Prana in all these living beings this Mystery of Life I am that life and I am behind life but what about death if God is life then why should there be death he says I am death too so he says I am dead too literally if you translate existence and non-existence but what it means is the commentator says in upanishads Gita it means the gross and the subtle that which is formed and which is visible you can see it here it smell it taste it touch it and object to the senses and that which is invisible our thoughts feelings emotions the subtle bodies all of that formed with form and without form um and all of that also then he goes on now there might be a question here this is all a little strange to Arjuna because the kind of religion he is used to the traditional religion of those days is The Vedic religion where they will elaborate fire sacrifices and Vedic priests brahmanas holding lifelong vows and elaborate ceremonies the purpose of which would be whatever you want in this life you will get it by these fire sacrifices so you want to you want to be rich you want diseases to be cured you want to defeat your enemies you want rainfall so all of that and you want to go to heaven after death all of that if it's warm you can put on the Family all of that that was religion and you perform these Vedic sacrifices and all of them where do you get them the source for all of them are the karmaconda the bulk of the initial portion of The Vedas the later portion of the upanishads upon which which the Gita is based that's vedanta but before that the common religion of The Vedic people was these sacrifices now um why should they worship you why not follow that religion Krishna will say now what's the problem with that religion the problem with that kind of religion is that it doesn't solve anything if you be religious in that sense your life will be a little better than what it was but still impermanence is there everything comes to an end and with impermanence comes sorrow the Buddha saw it directly foreign impermanent transitory momentary empty and therefore sorrow anithyam ikam um even if you go to heaven you will still come back that will also come to an end and when it comes to an end you're left with nothing it's even worse because you have seen heaven you see alas they say how do the gods descend back to Earth that human life they cry alas alas they have no warning that the credit is running out suddenly it's over and you're tossed Out of Heaven back to Earth we have warning what warning that your time is running out hair gray tooth dropping out aches and pains glasses these are all warning time is running out [Music] so they don't get that warning in heaven everything is fine fine and suddenly not fine at all so there he says if you do not worship God that is God ishwara bhagavan if you persist in the religion of the masses just to pursue your your desires then what is the problem the commentator says Krishna why should I worship one little blue boy parameshwaram is is God is ishwara is if you don't worship you cannot prevent This Disaster called this cycle of birth and death it will go on we'll Flow In this River of Life getting kicks and blows lifetime after lifetime until we learn our lesson but I'm religious yes you will get as in the words of Jesus Christ they have their reward they have the reward that reward you will get nothing more than that is available 20th verse please repeat after me foreign the knowers of The Vedas that means the rituals of The Vedas purified from sins by drinking the Soma Jews and worshiping me with sacrifices pray for access to heaven they have they having attained the meritorious fear of Indra Heaven I think having attained Heaven experience in heaven Celestial enjoyments of the Gods so they have a lot of fun they go to heaven and drink nectar here at least we have Coke and Pepsi a choice there they have no choice that's only nectar I don't know if it comes in different flavors but they seem to have a lot of fun drinking nectar and being happy in heaven so they go to heaven if you do a lot of ritualism you and ritualistic practices you you get enough credit to go to heaven and depends on how much you do upanishads talk about multiple Heavens some better than the others and you need more credit more Good Karma to go to those heavens and that's what this verse talks about means the you know the rigved the Rick Sama and yajur so the tray here particularly it means the karma khander the ritualistic portion of those Vedas those who are experts in that knowledge and they're those who perform these and they go to these heavens and which is strictly temporary we might think Ah that's not me or that's not us those days are passed not at all those days are never passed the religion of the masses is that religion what is the religion of the masses it's you talked about the law of karma my point is that can I do something some rituals some prayers some kind of observance which will convince you o God to use your powers to rearrange the universe in my favor you are going to get the results of your karma that's the problem I don't like my karma I want something better and I understand it's not going to come to me in the in the normal course of events and I'm religious I have faith in God I have faith in religion therefore I pray I do this ritual I do this or that in the hope of getting that and that's that's the religion of the masses you go to the temples the huge lines there what are they there for enlightenment I I am Brahman realization not at all not at all you know in fact better not that better not happen one monk told us about this gentleman he met um a very devout very nice person and seeing his devotion uh he uh this monk told the gentleman oh you're so you've got so much Devotion to God I'm sure you will realize God In This Very life itself and the gentleman was very simple you know he said Swami you're a monk don't say such things because what you say it might come true you know I have a daughter who will look after her you know some kind of idea here if I becomes enlightened or gets God realization maybe he'll die and then he'll look after my daughter so these thousands and millions of people going to these um temples for ritualistic practices and Puja or something what are they going for for that temples churches mosques religious observances across the world I went to a Chinese Buddhist temple and large numbers of people devout people making prostrations lighting these things the just the incense and prayers but all the prayers are for this form of the Buddha or that form of the Buddha to Reign His blessings on me my business my family my patients my children so and so forth nothing wrong with it but it's still worldly and those things have an end they may work with Krishna at no point is he saying that they don't work they are frauds no they do work but this does not solve anything at all even if after death one goes to heaven one of those higher Heavens that also comes to an end Krishna will say let's read that 21. what happens when you go to heaven and you have drunk your fill of nectar foreign [Music] [Music] having enjoyed the extensive Heavenly sphere when their virtue is exhausted they enter the mortal world thus those who take refuge in the religion of The Vedas desires of enjoyments go and come [Music] their world around in this circuit circle of life and death look religion of The Vedas isn't this the religion of The Vedas no they make a clear difference between the lower religion the higher spirituality they make a clear difference between the karma Kanda their section dealing with rituals which is meant for is all all of that they have only one thing that there you know oh God arrange things to my advantage make sure that you know it thinks go my way even if I don't deserve it let things go my way that's that's why I'm doing all this if God says no it's not in your karma I know but I did this Puja you know that's why I did it if it was in my karma why would I do Puja to you I mean I'll get it anyway so all of that is this kind of religion that is the lower kind The Vedas also contain the upanishads which talks about vedanta Enlightenment guard realization Moksha freedom from this entire cycle and that's Gita is based on that so Gita Krishna is not referring to that he's referring to the karma Kanda this idea of going to heaven Vivekananda shocked so many people good Christians here the whole idea of going to heaven Vivekananda said I have come to teach you how not to go to heaven I've come to teach you how to stop going to heaven now you've seen what sense he said it but that would have been very shocking who started the vedanta work in South Africa many many years ago uh he came to the West also did you see him he came here right so he had this remark I never saw him long before my time but he has this remarkable way of teaching vedanta so this one he would explain by the story of how he says well when I want to go from Durban to um Bombay Mumbai in those days Bombay I how do I do that I purchase a ticket in Air India and then I get into the plane so you have to have money enough to purchase the ticket so I've got money and I purchase the ticket as I get into the plane these air hostesses are there they say come come this is your seat now this is actually innovators there are references they are the ones after after death postmortem we go and people doing near-death experiences report these things actually there are these beings of light who say come this way like air hostesses you know so sure he says she says come come this is your seat this is what you have purchased then you have earned so those beings say this is um what your karma has earned you they say that this is this is where you go then I sit in that seat and then we go up 30 000 feet in the air the pilot announces we are going at 800 kilometers per hour and 30 000 feet in the air and they were they show us a movie and then in those days they didn't have screen they had one big screen to show a movie I think and then the air hostesses come with drinks you know nectar and and then uh so you're having a really good time and then you feel it descending and then it touches down and the pilot says thank you for flying Air India is where we are in Mumbai welcome to Mumbai it is a hundred degrees in the shade outside and 100 humidity and thank you for flying in Air India we hope you will travel with us again which means you can't can't I stay here I don't want to go down no you have to leave if you want you can come back again you have to purchase the ticket again so this is how he called this is he said the karma Kanda the um try Dharma it is you earn enough Merit and you get the results of that but the problem is it again and again comes to an end whether this world or the next World they all come to an end the way out is spirituality the next verse is very beautiful let me just do that or should I stop because we have only a few minutes left the next verse it tells you um let me just start okay I want to start that and then pick it up next time 20 second verse um so here he says in contrast to this is this spirituality I'm teaching you those who have one pointed devotion the translation is those persons who think of nothing else and worship me through meditation the accession to and maintenance of the welfare of such ever devout persons I look after okay so in one pointed Devotion to God and to nothing else and their attention is always on me on God they will not go through this cycle they'll be freed of it now the question might arise wait a minute at least these people who are doing this the regular kind of religion they hold jobs look after their families and they're taking the blessings of God so that their families go well and after death they'll go to heaven and all of that if I don't do all that who's going to take care of my life here and and afterwards okay afterwards you're saying there's some Moksha something like that fine but right now family job money Health if I'm just you know thinking about you and repeating Mantra who's going to do all that when Krishna says for such people who have one pointed Devotion to me yoga I will do it for you don't worry hum this is the you know this is the motto for what LIC yes the Life Insurance Corporation of India yes so they have taken it from the Gita from this chapter and they have made it it's a huge huge organization that's that's basically what insurance was in India now it's a lot of new things are coming like this country but for many many years that was like like Insurance in India and their motor for this huge organization was this line yoga literally it means I carry to such persons such devotees yoga here means things that which has not been attained I give you that I give them that which they have not yet attained Shema means what they have I protect that basically this is what life is what what are you seeing people in this vast City doing trying to get something which they don't have and protect which they have and Krishna says I will do that for you if you are one pointed Devotion to God if you hold on to God I will do that for you that's what life insurance cooperation wants to do for you I will do that for you this is a very beautiful story about this literally means I carry for such devotees literally I carry for such devotees whatever they need and what they have I protect now the beautiful story is there was this great Pandit and a devout a devotee of Krishna who was writing a commentary on the uh Gita on the Mahabharata actually and he was writing this and he came to this verse yoga and he thought that I carry no this is against the glory of God why will God Clary a carry For Us carry is somebody like somebody who carries on the head so he changed it he cut it out the word of the Gita he cut it out and he said I grant so that fits the glory of God now it was time for him to go and take his bath and his wife said look get something there's nothing you just spend your time writing books there's nothing in the in the house we we have no food and he said I'll see what I can do and he left very soon the most beautiful little boy came carrying a basket of the most delicious food on his head and he landed up at the doorstep of this lady and she said who are you my boy and he said that your husband has sent me with all the food this food and she saw all delicious stuff which they never had such such they're poor people and but she saw to her horror that by had a scar on his back as if someone had caned him a red welt on his back she was shocked who did this to you and the boy said why your husband did it to me and she was shocked horrified why would he do such a thing to you wait let him come back and the boy went away and she never saw him again and then the husband came home and he uh he said what's all this all this food well you sent it right no I didn't well the boy bought it and and by the way why did you hit that boy with a poor boy what came over you the husband was bewildered what do you mean what boy I never met him and and of course I wouldn't beat a child and then he realized to his um to his amazement he looked at the the you know the manuscript and on that that red line he had cut across the words of krishnaam and he corrected it that's the life which was on the back of the of the child so the child after it's Krishna who actually demonstrated that I carried this for you and I I gave it to you beautiful story this is a story of a great devotee of Kali of Durga who is to write these beautiful songs in Bengal of about kaliyadurka and he he was supposed to be a night guard in a particular place and the officer commanding got reports that he is being absent you know he gets immersed in writing those songs and he forgets that it's time for him to go on duty so he went out to check the officer went out to check and he saw the guard was patrolling in the dead of the night and he came back and he called that man and said I'm sorry that we suspected you but that man was honest he said but I wasn't there I'm sorry it's true that I wasn't patrolling the the fence at that time I was at forgotten I was writing these songs who was patrolling on his behalf so it's the mother these are stories I carry for you what you need there's more to be discussed about this um so does it mean if I am very devoted to Krishna very devoted to God then all my Christmas lists what I need that will come and all my investments will be protected against ups and downs of Wall Street no that's not what it means we'll see next time foreign does anybody have last minute comments questions we're also very glad to have Shivani chaitanyaji today in our midst yes tell us your name and ask the question [Music] actually existed on as a physical person I would be inclined to believe that something like that there was it was there there is no smoke without fire and it's true that we do not have an exact history of Rama or Krishna but the textual evidence the archaeological evidence the cultural evidence of all of this points to something or somebody who was there so Krishna I believe I personally believe that there was krishna's somebody like this who existed layers of myths and story making and and they have come and these myths you know when we say myth is not exactly a correct word for it myth literally means something that's that's not true in a historical sense but I think it was the scholar Reza Aslan I think he said he said myths are always true because the point is they are trying to point out some kind of moral or spiritual truth and that's true it's it's a story which uh um which gives you that teaching now which is it is Krishna a myth in that sense a moral of spiritual teaching or actual historical fact in the way we would understand history today I am inclined to say that it's the latter one but the thing is it's whatever it is is so distant from us in the past that many layers of what we would consider myths have come between the historical Krishna and the way we understand Krishna today and I'm here I'm quoting Vivekananda the need for a new Avatar this is a drama and Krishna he says they are both true but today the way we receive Rama and Krishna is through so many layers that it's very difficult to recover what they were originally I mean it's lost in the ancient past yes when you were talking about the law of causality you mentioned how a person can like hold on to God either for the strength or maybe for some exceptions right I was wondering like what does a Buddhist do because I guess my understanding was that there is no doubt in that case yes but they have powerful deities which are very Godlike so these deities are especially in Mahayana Buddhism specially in Tibetan Buddhism and they are always invoked for grace for benefits you know if you go to a Mahayana Temple especially or Tibetan to this Temple they are full of rituals and prayers and and especially many of the devotees who come there and pray they are always praying for favors so it might work in different ways one way is the Buddhas the bodhisattvas they're always accumulating enormous amounts of Merit on our behalf now if you want to use the Merit a little bit of it you want to divert it towards you know playing the stock market or you might so this is another way it works that uh Grace what we might call Grace of God there it might just be they're very logical so if you want to upset the law of karma or divert it you need that kind of good karma you don't have it well the bodhisattvas who are earning that enormous Merit on your behalf so there are ways of getting around it but you know spirituality always means transcending the law of karma look at Karma Yoga what's the difference between Karma and Karma Yoga Karma Yoga is you give you do and you ask for nothing in return aren't you violating the law of karma so will it not come in return it will come but you don't want it anymore you're not doing it for getting something you are not doing it for enlightenment purification of Mind whatever for for God realization bhakti yoga is it's called love without any conditions but that's by violation of causality the crudest kind of love is I want to be loved and I am very miserly about giving love to anybody else the more normal kind of human love is we love each other but we do expect some consideration in return for my love more the most unselfish types of human love are there where don't expect really much you just love beyond that is spiritual love and it's not uncommon you can see it in Great spiritual Masters and teachers I've seen it again and again they without any cause or condition even if you harm them if you um if you're we are recalcitrant we are not worthy still they go on loving because they see the Divinity in us and they see that all the trouble which we are causing is just temporary now that love is unconditional again it's not causality it is going Beyond causality in dhyana yoga meditation up to dhyana meditation this causality because effort is involved in restraining and focusing but there comes up time an advanced level in meditation dhana onwards samadhi so dharana samadhi their our effort in fact effort is counterproductive you must seize effort at that point so again you're going Beyond action action stops you don't try if you try it won't work and um the path of Ghana is is power Excellence beyond causality the Atman Brahman pure Consciousness is beyond cause and effect it's not an effect not produced by anything and it's not a cause also that's what Krishna says when he says I am the father of this universe the mother well the father and mother are the cause but then he says I'm the grandfather also and that I am not caused by anything else I am the causeless cause and beyond that I'm not even a cause because there is only one reality in this ninth chapter itself Krishna said all these things it's not that I am God separate from these things I pervade all these things step one step two they are I don't pervade them that they are there and I'm I'm in them no they are all in me just as this um Podium this table is in this table is in wood this is strange way of speaking table is in Wood waves are in water jewels ornaments are in gold because gold is the aadhara the reality in this third step Krishna says behold they are not in me the wood here might say that what did you say is there a table in me no there isn't where is the table in me here you touch the table no touch wood you're touching wood here here wherever you touch it's wood where is the table touch it you can't is there notable at all then that also you can't say you can see it you're using a term table you can see it and you can use it you can put things on it you can't say that the table exists by itself apart from the wood you can't say that the table does not exist at all this neither you cannot determine determine it as neither existing on its own nor absolutely non-existent this in Sanskrit is called index principle either as absolutely true or as absolutely not true as absolutely existent or as absolutely non-existent you can't say another term for this is Maya and that's exactly the status of everything in this universe that's the advaita vedanta position thank you last question regarding uh specifically the moral law that covers Us yes really break the moral law that governs us without breaking ourselves first dialogue Universal yes one example that I can do Highly Questionable and on borderline illegal things they break my moral law but certainly not their own one is marlaw universal and two why shouldn't I push the boundaries of my own moral law yeah they may not you might not think that they break the their own moral law but they might you know their their own conscience tells them it's wrong but as long as I can get away with it the IRS don't catch me on the stock what Securities Exchange doesn't catch me I'm fine well that's what they're wrong they're not fine they're breaking themselves against the moral law and we think they get away with it the whole point of the law of karma is they don't nobody gets away with anything we are making an assumption but then you have to look because we see only a little bit right we see only a slice of life this guy made Millions somebody wrote what was his name Bernie Madoff with a name like Madoff why did you trust him yeah in most cases it doesn't turn out well for such people either the law gets them or in their own it's corrosive internally they have deeply unhappy personal or family lives or if even nothing you can't you can't find out what's wrong with it wait this life next life who knows if law of karma operates across lifetimes yeah so we why we say it's it's basically causality extended to the moral sphere that's why there is a component of Faith there why would otherwise it would be an evident physical law but it's not evident that way because the The Missing Link in between that it's bad karma Pune or Papa That You Don't See see every Karma has three effects Karma means action every consciously deliberately done Karma has three effects one is the actual physical effect good or bad you share food with a um a hungry person or a homeless person that's actually feeding somebody somebody was hungry got fed that's the actual thing which everybody can see nobody doubts that second is a psychological effect that has an effect on your mind keep repeating that kind of Karma and you generally slowly become a better and a better person that also one can clearly observe the way we act and behave changes our character that also nobody doubts that and you don't need religion for that the third one is what's called a cosmic effect that's what's meant by the law of karma that it generates something good good karma on your behalf that feeding the hungry person which will result in something good in the future this lifetime usually in the next lifetime so good good that one requires Faith to believe but the first two are no nobody doubts it in the gross effect the subtle effect the cosmic effect that uh one requires some faith what's the alternative the alternative could be no there's no such role it's it's a rule it's just arbitrary maybe but that's leaving it's that would be strange when we say that there is causality that rules everything in the universe accept human life or Society a little strange second you could say that it's because of God but then God would be partial in fact the law of karma is a good protection for God you can't blame God the blame is on us so there's a whole issue in religion called the problem of evil why is there suffering if God exists so one answer is from the law of karma I mentioned his name earlier Arthur Hermann he's written this book the problem of evil in Indian thought through all the theories the answers why is they are suffering because of if God exists why is there so much suffering and he gives not one answer two answers he gives 24 answers which is collected from different Indian philosophies from non-indian you know religions from literature from philosophy across the world and he has a list of 24 answers and he comes to the conclusion the best answer is the law of Karma and he has a whole chapter on defects in the law of karma philosophy logically this is even after these defects it is way beyond all other explanations as far as logic philosophical uh you know rigor is considered concerned at all you want an answer this is a pretty good answer but notice religion is not about law of karma in fact this this um religion which was which was being criticized by Krishna do these rituals and go to heaven and have a blast and then again come back here that is based on the law of karma what he is suggesting is you go beyond the law of karma take refuge in God and transcend there's only one thing which is beyond the law of karma that is God take refuge in God and transcend the law of karma Adventist is you yourself are beyond the law of karma vivekantha said good good bad bad and none escaped Allah but whosoever wears the form where's the chain two then what does vedanta say far beyond name and form is Atman ever free no thou art that sannyasi bold say om that's at om so that's the message of vedanta