Video 114

114. Bhagavad Gita | Chapter 9 Verses 26-28 | Swami Sarvapriyananda

oh vasudeva sutam devam comes so we are studying the bhagavad-gita beyond the ninth chapter and I had mentioned earlier that the bhagavad-gita divided into 18 chapters one way of looking at the whole Gita is that you can divide it into three three parts of six chapters each chapter one to six seven to twelve and then 13 to 18. what would these three these divisions mean the central teaching of vedanta is you are that or that thou art According to some teachers for example um the Gita can be divided into three parts based on this Central teaching that thou art you are Brahman so the first part the first six chapters talks about the nature our real nature who we are the nature of the self that we are not body mind that we have witness Consciousness and so on the second six chapters talks about God God of the god of religion the Creator will preserve a destroyer of this world which is worshiped as God in all theistic traditions and whose Incarnation is Krishna so that's the second six chapters talks about God the last six chapters are supposed to be about the identity you are that how in what sense you're not literally God sorry but in what sense are you identical with with the divine of course it's a very broad way of looking at it and in each of these sections there are many things not just the nature of the Soul or God or the identity there are many many things are talked about anyhow the point of all of this is this is the big picture the really big picture which is the whole of the bhagavad-gita the point of saying all this is we are in the ninth chapter which is uh in the middle of the second section where the discussion is about God so what's going what's going on now is primarily about God about ishwara bhagavan and in today's discussion you will see it's all about God devotion and how that sets us free from samsar um Krishna before this he has talked about how you know a question might be raised that if in all rituals in the worship of all deities ultimately you are the reality Krishna or God ishwara bhagavan is the reality behind all of these rituals then why is it not that if someone does Vedic worship Vedic sacrifice all of those worship that should be your worship and Krishna explains that it is true that all worship ultimately comes to me because I exist in all forms you know in all beings both sentient beings and deities also everything however those worship those kinds of Vedic worship rituals are done with worldly desires or other worldly desires you know either I want wealth or success in this world or you know rainfall conquering enemies things like that or people want to go to a heaven after death a variety of delectable Heavens are on offer so you want to go to one of these Heavens these are the worldly or otherworldly desires and since they want that Krishna says they don't want me they don't want God they don't want Enlightenment they don't want freedom so they get what they want they will not get Freedom they will they will get heaven after death they will get what they want but those who want me they get me that means what is the result of that freedom Moksha now he comes today the next three verses are very important very beautiful verses um the question may be raised that The Vedic sacrifices which constituted sort of um you know the mainstream religion in those days they were expensive Affairs very elaborate expensive big affairs so if those are smaller and you are the Supreme Lord then your worship must be a really expensive Affair it must be really very difficult to worship God and so he explains here no in on the contrary it's the easiest it will not bankrupt you not at all and I'm not looking for an elaborate worship it's more devotion love which God wants so that's the theme of the 26th verse 26th and 27th verses are really beautiful today we have 26 27 and 28 very beautiful verses and they are they form a complete unit in themselves these three verses 26. he who offers he who with devotion offers me a leaf a flower a fruit or water that devout offering of the pure minded one I accept so this is an incredible thing not an elaborate sacrifice not extraordinary rituals mantras and a host of priests not like that offer me a fruit a flower a leaf some or maybe water because coming close to shivaratri you see those are the offerings which are made in the Puja of Shiva fruits and leaves and flower and maybe milk so simply you offer it with devotion he says with devotion such this offering of a pure-minded one I accept the two products of Maya the power of God in this samsara we see our objects things things in this world and activities kriya and objects and kriya activities and these are the two if we are not careful these are the two which bind us in samsara how it binds Us in samsara we want those things we are here for certain things in samsara and we do action for that and thus we are bound in samsara our attitude to things is I like these things I want more of these and ownership I want these and our attitude actions is I am the doer of these actions the moment I am the doer of these actions and what am I doing them for forgetting those things if I'm the doer of these actions for getting those things then I am also the what is called means the the experiencer often it's translated as enjoyer not always enjoy mostly not enjoyment it's a sufferer enjoyer and sufferer the experiencer of the results of action this is karma good good bad bad and non-escape the law whosoever wears a farm wears the chain to what is the chain this series of um cause and effect which I have set in motion since ancient births from ancient times we have set in in place a chain of cause and effect the result of which is what we see twofold things keep happening to us in the world good and bad desirable and undesirable why do those things happen to us in the world we have set in motion Karma this cause and effect not entirely individual there's also community and all of that so we've set in motion Karma and that the results are coming to us and twofold inside us also the kind of person I am that is also because of karma samskar the way I have been in this life and past lives that has conditioned me to be the kind of person I am now the problem with this is it's a great bondage especially when we want spiritual Freedom we soon notice we cannot ignore our past our past has made us a certain kind of person we have designed not carefully in fact most carelessly we have made our life for ourselves which we see and we seem to be trapped in it and worse we have become a certain kind of person yes we are all pure Consciousness existence Consciousness please sachidan and that's what's called swarupa our real nature but there is something called swabhava the particular shade and flavor of Personality each one of us has got and mostly it's a prison what happens is when we read about spiritual life and all these powerful spiritual practices yes they are powerful prayer is powerful meditation is powerful Mantra japa is powerful vedantic inquiry most powerful if you do it right mostly we can't do it right we can't even make a proper beginning the reason being we seem to be unable to do so not either The Willpower is not strong enough either we are not disciplined enough or we really don't even want it enough and that's because of the kind of personality we have got our some Scholars this is called swabhava swabhav and swarup are two different things swarupa our essential nature our essential nature is divine existence Consciousness place that's perfect everybody has this but the outer layer the covering of that the personality the Tendencies the samskaras the what we have generated what we have now the conditioning of the mind that is the problem how do you overcome it two powerful practices will be given easy to do and Powerful with quick results very transformative practices and freeing practices will be given now these two how what are the what do these practices involve these two things of the world things of the world how to use them not to get trapped in them but to use them in in for Freedom so basically he will say how to offer it everything to God just to offer everything to God and by that offering how does one become free and second actions kriya actions how to channelize direct all our actions to God and thereby be free of the the bondage of action of karma and then what will be the result of that so the 26th verse is offering to God doing things for God or giving to God 26 verse 27th verse is working action for God and 28 verse is the result of this so that's the story today so here he says the first point he makes is it's really easy it's as easy as offering a leaf or a flower or a few fruits or water but with devotion bhaktiya with devotion God accepts that which is given in love it's not so much of a question of you know the how gorgeous are the offerings how how many Sanskrit mantras have you chanted whether you have an array of of priests and I remember A Home of Vedic sacrifice performed and the monk who did it I mean who was there so he told me that people don't understand like when somebody said the homo was done very well and this monk asked that person how did you know well the Flames went pretty high you know the Flames don't have to go the the sacrificial fat they don't have to go very high what is done with with devotion so that the Lord accepts there is the Beautiful Stories are there to to this point there's the story of um of draupadi you know when they were in Exile and she had this pot which which had food in it and it would be enough to feed everybody in I mean her husbands and people uh in around them the small group of people and every day it would be full but it would be enough just for one meal and the last bit she would eat herself now one day what happened was that the Great Sage I think it was probably was always noted for his hot temper so he arrives with his thousands of disciples it's a test for the Palm devils and they're in the forest how can they feed the sage and all his disciples he says I'm going to take a bath in the river and we are all going to come and eat at your place but by the time they arrive strategically when they have already had the meal so there's no chance of filling up the pot again is terrified how is she going to feed so many people and there's no food anyway because everybody's eaten and then she prays to Krishna and Krishna turns up and we know this story is a very well-known story Krishna turns up and she's relieved oh Krishna will do something will save us no Krishna says feed me and so you too but there is no food Krishna said just take a look I know I have finished eating there's no food left in that pot but take a look if she finds one grain and Krishna says give that to me and she he puts it in his mouth with great relish and he says I'm quite full and lo and behold the the sage terrible sage and all his disciples who were taken a bath were coming suddenly they all felt very full you know they started burping and then yeah and they said we just don't have any appetite left we can't eat anymore we feel so full so um when the Lord is satisfied the universe is satisfied so Krishna knows that he's identified with the entire universe if he is happy then everybody is fulfilled everybody is satisfied so that's how draupadi by offering just a grain of um rights to Krishna satisfied the Lord is another story not so well known I don't know how many of you have heard of have you heard of gajendra Moksha there's some some of you many of you may have heard it's the story of the elephant who was rescued by Vishnu so it's a very cute story you find it in the bhagavatam the the basic story is well known the background stories stories because there are always stories within stories I'll tell you a couple of stories today story time so gajendra Moksha is a very well known story of of devotion the basic story is pretty well known it's in the bhagavatam so there was this um great elephant gajendra gajendra literally means the lord of the elephants so the king of the elephants the great elephant who was a devotee of Vishnu why was the elephant devotee of Vishnu those stories are in the background I'll tell you later but first the basic story so and he would worship Vishnu every day in Sanskrit I think but so one day he goes to this um pool to take his bath and there's a big crocodile there which comes and catches hold of his leg and he can't get get out of it it's like a swamp and the crocodile has got his the and his foot and he's in great pain it's a giant crocodile and he struggles and struggles all the other elephants his family they come to the shores it's quite something like out of National Geographic or Discovery Italian they come to the shores of the Great Lake but they are afraid to get into it and they watch in worry and fear with mounting fear when the you know the great dead leader the gajendra the great elephant he can't escape he trumpets and he groans but he is getting weaker faster and faster and he's beginning to be dragged into the depths of the of the lake and he prays to Vishnu now he would pray to Vishnu by offering lotuses from the lake he would usually pick up one and that his last prayer you know he somehow with his last strength he plucks one Lotus and he offers it to Vishnu who appears in the sky and and gajendra the Elephant he chants this wonderful hymn which is even now chanted to Vishnu gajendra stotram I think you will find it I think on the internet also the chanting is there it's very beautiful it's from the bhagavatam and very few if you see it's a hymn to God but it's so non-dualistic it talks about that one reality in which the entire universe is exists from which the entire universe has come and which is itself the entire universe Brahman which is pure Consciousness so the gajendra Moksha stotram if you read it it's very elevating so the elephant a chance this Hymn of course in perfect Sanskrit and it's so touching you know he takes this he's dying he's being pulled into the lake but he takes this lotus in his trunk and he holds it up to Vishnu who has appeared in the sky so if you in fact if you look at it on the net you'll find this artwork also this is often the artwork is the elephant being pulled in by this crocodile into the lake and Vishnu appearing in the sky and the elephant holding up a Lotus to Vishnu so that's a very I mean it's symbolic it's supposed to be symbolic we are the sentient being the elephant we're stuck in this physical body um elephantine no matter how skinny you are it's still a physical body a gross body and we are sinking in samsara we can't get we can't get out because of this swabha or this what we have generated over lifetimes we are very limited we know we read all all of these attend all the classes and read the books and we know all about meditation and philosophy and devotion but we can't do it almost we can't do anything almost you know we're still the little bit of change that we can make in ourselves is is minuscule so that we are thinking in samsara and now we can only pray to the Lord but why should the Lord respond to us you offer him something a flower so that's the symbology and of course Vishnu comes God comes and he is overwhelmed with the devotion of gajendra and he sends his Celestial weapon the sudarshan chakra The discus some of you look puzzled yeah if you grew up in India you wouldn't look puzzled you would have heard these stories again and again from childhood so there is a discuss it goes round and round and it cuts up the head of evil doors so The discus comes flaming from the skies and cuts the evil crocodile to pieces and so that's the story but the background why is there a crocodile and why is there an elephant chanting in Sanskrit and Vishnu the background story is the stories within Stories the elephant was actually in his past life was the great king Indra dimna Indra dimna was a great king and a devotee of Vishnu in his old age he gave up his kingdom and he retreated to the bank of a river with a little cottage and where he spent his time in meditating on on God and and living a most austere and simple life but what happened was the Great Sage once again made his appearance at this time it was I think agastya probably and he was meditating on Vishnu and didn't notice that the Great Sage has come so he did not bow down to him or show him proper respect because of which the sage all of these sages seem to have terrible tempers was furious with the King and said you you were just like a dull elephant but elephants actually are not Dull anyway just like a dull elephant be you an elephant and suffer in an animal birth and sink in in the you know the whirlpool the lake of samsara fell at his feet and begged for his forgiveness Sage said no I can't take back the words however keep on worshiping the Lord then the Lord will set you free so not only the Lord saved him from the crocodile but that saving was also saving from samsara and gave him Moksha but he had to be born once again as an elephant and even more interesting is the villain of the peace the crocodile the crocodile before becoming a crocodile was a gandharva and gandharvas are Celestial artists you know musicians dancers painters they are brilliant talented and they live in this place then Celestial Heaven called gandharvaloka where it's always song and dance and they're very aesthetic creatures also fun loving also mischievous so you can imagine their world being something like the Juilliard school or something like that you know so they are very talented very artistic uh very elevated but also mischievous among the gandharvas on the noted was are two famous musicians who entertain Brahma not Brahman Brahma and their names are wait for it haha and who who yeah you got it right haha now among the these two who was one day he was taking a bath in the river and he noticed the the sage another Sage devala now if you knew all these backstories he would have been careful he knows what happens to if you annoy a sage but he didn't know so he saw this devaland being a mischievous ganderwa who who swam under the water and pull the sages legs when the sage had gone into the water to do his daily rituals the Sandhya rituals and he literally not figuratively actually pulled the legs of the sage at this age of course you know the consequence the the sage devala was Furious and he cursed he said you wretch you you you will be born as a crocodile who keep on grabbing onto animals legs and that that's going to be your your future and uh the poor gandharma immediately fell At His Feet Again got hold of his feet again but this time not to pull but to beg for forgiveness the sage said no nothing can be done once I've said it you're going this is going to happen however uh one day you will catch hold of a great devotee of the Lord and the Lord will come and kill you and set you free from your crocodile birth and in fact give you freedom freedom from samsara also so this is your last birth also and so that's the back story so not only the Indra who is gajendra became free also who the crocodile became free because of the devotion of gajendra towards Vishnu but it all was occasion by the offering of a flower the elephant so if you see the artwork the elephant holds up a flower it's very touching actually in the midst of all the distress and pain and everything he offers this flower to Vishnu and Krishna says here offer me a leaf or a flower or fruits there is a very touching story of of this poor old lady who came to meet SRI ramakrishna she had heard about SRI ramakrishna and she felt great deal of Devotion to him that is the paramahams of dakshineshwar so she traveled she got she was very poor so she got a few sweets which were inexpensive which were very very cheap basically and she came to dakshineshwar to meet him and offer it to him but then she felt shy and diffident I love all these people around him she didn't even dare to go into his room so she sat by the bank of the river taganga there and sadly because she felt she couldn't really approach him SRI ramakrishna so this story I heard it from Swami chaitanya so srirama Krishna was in his room talking to the devotees in an ecstatic mood suddenly stood up and he ran out of the room he raced out of the room to the river and he went with the people sitting near the river he went straight up to that old lady and looked at her and said hello there I'm hungry do you have something for me and in amazement she you know shyly bought out she had hidden the little packet of sweets under uh the folds of her class she bought it out and held it up before him and he took it and then he ate up all of it immediately and then just as quickly as he had come he raced back to his roommate again uh sir I accept that which is offered with devotion the word bhakti is is mentioned twice in this verse that which is offered with love so offered with love um not offered mechanically without feeling and it's inwardly offered and not as part of a daily ritual worship inwardly offered and not offered you know like I'm doing this like a shopkeeping but Vivekananda calls a shopkeeping religion I offered this I want something in return no you offer it as an offering of love I don't want anything in return Nami the thing which is offered the fruit the flower the whatever sweets whatever you offer that thing is offered as love it means what is actually being offered here's an inner meaning of this is not the item itself it's a very humble thing the flower or the fruit or the whatever you offer water is very humble thing what's actually being offered is love it's not an object it is love which is being offered to God and because it is offered to God God accepts not only accepts look how beautiful he says ashnavi I eat it what's the difference between accepting it and eating it eating it you make it one with yourself you consume you to take it inside God eats it up if it is love others we may accept some may not accept but that which is offered with love not only accept he says I eat it the offerings the food offerings which are made in our pujas actually the deity event is properly done the deity accepts it in both in the case of Sri ramakrishna and Masha Radha they have had this mystical experience both of them have testified to it that when it is offered to the deity properly with devotion they said that a ray of light comes out from the deity actually from the eyes of the deity they call it drishti bhaga and it touches every item which has been offered so it is like accepting or eating rishtiboga means eating with seeing with the eyes and this is part of the Puja we believe this but sudama Krishna and Masha also they actually had a mystical experience seeing that it happened it happens really um and that transforms the food this is a part of the the ritualistic Puja it was a part of the Puja technology so it is believed and I also believe it and I I you know devotees they feel it once the food is offered and it becomes Prasad it is qualitatively different qualitatively different I mean I can't explain it because this is the feeling of many devotees they're the same food item if you cook it and you eat it it tastes like one thing you cook it and you offer it properly and then you eat it as Prasad it tastes certainly different and much better somehow somehow I have noticed it in the Prasad in bellurmat for example where the food the pious is offered to Sri ramakrishna we get very little of it because it's just one bowl which is offered and there are 300 monks so uh you might get maybe one spoon or less than one spoon sometimes it's less if the milk is less than the quantity of the pie is offering the you know what would you call it or the milk pudding porridge milk porridge offering is less so you get one spoon I remember there were times when the quantity was so less it's given to all the monks who sit we sit on the floor and depending on the size of the spoon we know that the quantity is more or less if there's a good size spoon we know that this quantity is sufficient that night and if the tiny spoon we realize there isn't much so and the trick is to give it in the plate of each of the monks and race before they catch you before they get mad at you why so little by the time you're gone they can't catch you anymore and I've done it also I've done it it's difficult because you have to balance a bowl in your hand and it's hot and then there's a spoon and everybody's sitting on the floor so you have to bend down and give like that and you have to race along there may be 24 people on both sides of of each row so it takes some doing and sometimes that was before my time I heard the quantity was so little you take a spoon and then sort of shake it over the plate of everybody and one Monk one monk said not on the plate just give it as you know like I can put it on my head you know it's so little you give it to me I can put it on my head but it tastes different I I testify to that it tastes different and in many of the Great temples ancient temples in India the Prasad which is offered the Boga which becomes Prasad after being offered they are well known for the Exquisite taste of that but it's a kind of a Divine taste it's not like you know Manhattan is a Foodies place so you have got all sorts of Exquisite food here but it's not like that it's the same food but it's um and you can call it a Divine taste or something even just eating it is is uplifting now one might say that it's psychological you know it's you are devoted and you believe it true Maybe um but I I mean it's still you can sense it you can taste the difference I know in Puri the Prasad from the jagannath Puri Temple so it is it's actually considered a delicate it's a ritual a devotional thing to um have that Prasad but the taste of it is also very famous The Taste is very famous so it transforms that's another part of it the offering is actually the mystical experience that it's accepted by God and it is transformed then God accepts it so this is offering objects to God then the next one he says our actions 27th an even more beautiful verse yet yes whatever you do or eat or sacrifice or give whatever austerity you perform that o son of kunti offer unto me so truly beautiful verse the same thing which binds Us in samsara Karma action the same thing can set us free how do you do that what's the secret what's the technology behind it he says whatever you do yet Karoshi see the beauty of this thing is the earlier one let's tell a specific ritual that whatever you have you um in the simplest thing also you procure them and mentally at least ritualistically offer it to God but here not even a specific ritual whatever you're doing anyway as a matter of course throughout the day that you offer to God as actions so he says see the Lord has given us freedom Lord has given us freedom ishwara has given us a bit of free will and what this verse says is actually what do you do with that Free Will with the the best use of that free will this is always a discussion matter of discussion among spiritual Seekers do we have free will or not we seem to have free will but upon investigation it seems that we do not have free will and in fact SRI ramakrishna others many great Saints have said we don't have free will it's all the will of God so what do you do in this case the best article I have a best analysis of this I have found I mentioned it earlier is Professor in them chakravarti he had he has written this article called um why pray to a God who can hear the anklets on an ant's feet that's a quote from Sri ramakrishna SRI ramakrishna says God hears everything he hears the sound of the anklets on the feet of an ant so this requires some explanation little children wear anklets like toddlers in India they put anklets on the ankles of little children so they make a jingling sound when they walk some variant of that is nowadays you know they've seen little kids with squeaky shoes I guess it encourages them to watch yes squeaking and clashing lights and stuff like that so anklets on the feet of little children now imagine if the anklets are on the feet of an ant how tiny they would be and what a tiny sound they would make but even that God hears so SRI Ram Krishna said this now the philosopher asks if God hears all of that then why do you have to pray God knows everything and then actually the the essay is uh an analysis of this concept of Free Will that's what it's about so first of all he starts off by saying that we all have this feeling of free will everybody feels it not only we feel it it is assumed you see the law assumes Free Will why would anybody arrest a person and throw a person in jail and uh you know unless it's assumed that the person has done Mischief out of free will in fact one good defense is that the Mischief was done not out of free will it was under coercion or some mitigating circumstances were there so free will is assumed by law Free Will is assumed by advertisement Why does why are there so billions of dollars spent on his advertisement in order to influence our Free Will so that we can buy the things The Advertiser wants us to buy free will is assumed in consumer choice so free will is assumed everywhere in society then in the second level this is the first level the second level is when we investigate free will we find that there is actually no free will shows in philosophy in religion even in Neuroscience latest discoveries they're beginning to show that there actually isn't free will we feel we have free will Society assumes we have free will we cannot function without the concept of free will but actually probably there isn't free will there are scientific reasons it's called determinism anyway that's a big part of that article and then the upshot the third level the final what's the point of that entire article which I'm trying to make here the end the third party says is there is freedom vivekanth also says Free Will is a misnomer will is already within Maya within causation so there is no Freedom within Maya but there is freedom Beyond Maya the Atman is free there's no Freedom within the law of karma but beyond the law of karma you are there Atman sachidan and the you are free on this famous verse which I just quoted good good bad bad none escape the law That's the Law of karma whosoever wears a form where's the chain two what's the chain each form has been each body has been produced by past Karma so it is a chain but what does vedanta say far beyond name and form is Atman ever free no thou art that sannyasi bold say om that's at home so this is vedantic message that you realize your nature which is beyond causation Beyond samsara Beyond Maya so there is freedom ultimately not free will but freedom now what do you make of all of this this is what the beauty of that article by Professor chakravarti he says the real use of free will is that first level you admit that you feel you have free will second level you admit upon philosophical religious scientific investigation there isn't free will third level that there is freedom to be attained then what do you do what do you do what's the point of it the practical application the practical application is to take this illusion of Free Will which we feel we feel it but investigation reveals that's an illusion and it used that illusion to acknowledge that only the Lord is free to continuously submit to continuously use that illusion of freedom to say that not I but thou continuously surrender to the Lord so notice it's a beautiful solution because it does both things it honors our sense of free will because you're doing something you have a choice which also acknowledges the wisdom that ultimately there is no free will that ultimately that only freedom is there Beyond Maya within Maya no free will so aranam chakravarti says in that article you continuously say namaha namaha means salutations but he plays on the word he says all objects everything in this world is for you and all my activities are a worship of you so that is the core idea behind this we have been given freedom quote unquote by the Lord and the best use of that freedom is to surrender it not to the world not to the world to to God the source of that freedom so he says we have freedom to do apparently but then whatever you do you do it for my sake for the sake of God so yat Karoshi whatever you do but what do we do he gives he divides this doing into five categories and says do all of them for God ashnasi whatever you consume so it stands for whatever we do for ourselves with this body mind whatever we eat for example whatever we drink for example whatever we consume with our eyes and ears the television serials that we see the music that we hear the conversations that we whatever is entering into this body mind complex think of it as an offering to God whatever we do for this body we take rest at night one of the songs beautiful songs the Divine mother is um pranam again that when you lie down you visualize you feel that you are you are lying down in the temple and doing pranam salutations like a full body salutation through the Lord and indeed in sleep think of it as I'm meditating on the Divine mother it's nice you don't have to meditate you actually can sleep but you think so everything that is done for this body consumption maintenance Health whether it is food or drink or medicine all of that is an offering to the Lord the Lord is here in this body think of it visualize it you are feeding the Lord you are offering it to the Lord [Music] which is actually a fact no we are eating that's a delusion this body the digestive processes the hunger the entire process of you know food and consumption and assimilation of which part of this do we have control over nothing nothing it's being done by something call it nature call it God whatever it is prakriti God whatever is consumed not only consumed whatever is done for this body mind do it for the Lord for the Krishna says do it for me now it helps if you have a deity not God in general and Abstract the feeling will come when it's personal Krishna Rama my Divine mother Durga Kali ramakrishna Christ in some form if I have a personal deity I can relate to that's why we have the whole idea of ishta devatha um God in a particular form which Guru gives to you yadash Nasi then next he says two kinds of action that we do not for ourselves for the world one is religious action literally the term is used for uh sacrificial offerings so the offerings that we make in a sacrificial fire johomi I give um in fact the core idea of again is this is the Sanskrit term for Vedic fire sacrifice the core idea is this is not mine this is for the for for the deity that is the meaning of uh this is not for me this is for the deity Indra so this is the basic idea of um of a young of a fire sacrifice so every religious activity that I perform your juhoshi it could be offerings in a temple it could be donation to your um you know church or Temple it could be ritualistic offerings of what you did earlier flower fruit water whatever it is whatever you offer religiously you offer unto me unto God he says whatever you offer to the world so the people around you in your family in your community in your place of business in a place of work it's not just if you do it voluntarily if you do it out of Charity if you do it as as uh offering to you know you're helping people that's good that's extra powerful but even if it's just part of your regular job that's very important you're doing a regular job you might say but I'm not offering it I'm earning money there good there's no problem but you're dealing with the world you're earning money only because somewhere you're offering a service somewhere to somebody you're offering a service that that service mentally offer it to the Lord again that's true that's true because after all if vedant is at all true all those people you are serving they are they are God basically so the service only at the samsara level it's a job you can transform it into spirituality as mentally as an offering whether it's the customer in a store whether it's a student in a classroom whether it's a patient in a hospital whether it's your co-workers you know everywhere mentally whatever you do for them even as part of your regular duties mentally you're offering this to God see how powerful an activity that becomes so everything done religiously do it for God everything done secularly in the job do it for God you're Jewish tadasi your tapasi whatever spiritual practice YouTube literally means austerities suppose you are fasting you do it as so tapasya literally means consciously taking on some amount of discomfort it could be your fasting it could be you're waking up early you know 3 40 in the morning for meditation it's discomfort but you're doing it for God it could be the japa that you are doing it could be the meditation that you are trying doing or we're trying to do and it could be uh it could be Duty that you're doing it may not be particularly pleasant but it's your duty to look after these members of your family or a community or you turn up for your responsibilities in office when you're not feeling too well in whatever place you are turning up for Duty and you're doing what is expected of you we do that and you put up with some trouble for doing that that is also tapasya he says do it for me and when we indria nigraha when we control ourselves I want to eat this I want to see that I want to touch this control no that control inrio do it for God I'm doing it for God then um meditation of course when you control not only the external body and senses but the mind you focus it on God that also do it for me vedantic classes guitar classes I'm doing it I'm turning out taking the trouble for turning up for Gita classes listening attentively this is my worship of you this whole activity this time energy effort I've spent I'm doing it with the reverence because this is my worship of you my Lord in this way that you you offered unto me here five things have been said yet five times yet has been used yet means that any one of these things if you do for God just your religious activities you keep on offering to God are your daily activities you keep on offering to God any one of these if you do these are powerful practices but if you do all of them then imagine whole of our life will be spiritualized all actions are spiritualized and you begin to feel uh the presence of God all the time not just in time of meditation or in the temple but all the time it's God is accessible basically this is giving ourselves to God [Music] it is giving up our this feeling of free will to acknowledging that God there is no free will it is actually God's Will and we are continuously giving ourselves up to God I remember um sister nivedita disciple of Swami Vivekananda she would always sign her name as nivedita of ramakrishna Vivekananda her name she would say nivedita of ramakrishna Vivekananda that I belong to them I have no other identity apart from that um I remember I had gone to her the church where her father was a priest in in Devonshire in England so she died in India she came to India gave her whole life for Swami vivekananda's work especially women's education many things she did she died um in their family crypt in Devonshire where her father her brother her really mother they are all buried there her ashes are also there how jagadish boasts the scientist after she died in India she was cremated he took some of her ashes and when he went to England he went on that journey to that remote Village it's still one of the tiniest little villages on the western coast of England in Devonshire he went there to that church and he put some of those ashes in the family crypt and there was I put an inscription there here lies nivedita of ramakrishna vivekantha and I went there and I saw faint letters the letters have become faint and we were at that time it was a initiative by devotees and the government of West Bengal also to install a bust of sister nivedita there so we did that but it was very touching to see in the faint letters there written more than a century ago here lies niveerita of ramakrishna Vivekananda that complete giving of herself to the herself to the Lord and this comes from Saint Teresa of Avila she would always call herself um Teresa Teresa of Jesus so there's a very beautiful story The Saint she had a vision of a divine person with a beard Jesus Christ she had a vision of that and in that Vision this person asked her who are you and as was her nature she automatically said I'm Teresa of Jesus who are you and that figure replied I am Jesus of Teresa so that closeness which comes to God when I give everything see we have limited ourselves by thinking that we are this one I am this person this is my life this is who I am but we have limited ourselves we have become very small the moment we let go of this little identity we throw it into the ocean called ishwara bhagavan we become infinite we don't become zero we become infinite which is our real nature Brahman sachidananda we get that by getting which nothing more remains to be God we become established in that by being established in which the greatest of Sorrows cannot shake you Krishna himself says that being established in which the greatest of Sorrows cannot shake you so Sorrows will keep coming past Karma which we have set up they will keep coming but now you are they cannot touch you you have you are now centered in your infinite nature so he says then just one more Point here at what happens if somebody says that all right all the wrong things mischievous things illegal things which I am doing I'm going to offer that to the Lord why are you stealing well it's my worship of the Lord and there are people who did it they were these decoys and so they they went out to Rob religiously they would first worship the terrible form of the Divine mother Kali and then go out to Rob now is that allowed he says no mother you are remember you are offering it to God so that which is you're offering to God if you're offering something to God you it must be according to the commands that dictates the the ethics set out by God if God says no to something how can I do that and say I offer it to God then I'm going then I'm doing what I want not what God wants so evil destruction harm cause to others cannot be offered to God in the technical term is nishidha the prohibited actions cannot be offered to God in one place says anything that we do can be done to God as long as it is not like openly immoral or unethical so what happens is the unethical the immoral goes out of our lives and everything else becomes connected to God and offered to God the result 28th verse is freedom Moksha yeah let me just finish hold on to the question I just finished the 28th verse foreign thus you will be rid of the bonds of action resulting in Good and Evil being free and with your mind endowed with the yoga of renunciation you will attain me so the result will be we will continue to live in our lives and work as we are doing now but he'll be free of the law of karma that where we started we are trapped we are like that elephant sinking caught by our past Karma that crocodile represents our past sins holding us and dragging us ever deeper into samsara and we are unable to escape we don't have the strength to escape by ourselves so by doing this offering to the Lord and connecting every action to the Lord we are free we become free of the good and evil effects of karma why good effects because good effects also bind Vivekananda says change though of gold are not less strong to bind so the chains of gold are punya good good karma what happens with Good Karma you get to go to heaven foreign this is equal to monasticism this is equal to becoming a sannyasi um this is the core idea it's not putting on a fancy dress you know somebody said why are you Dr have you draped yourself in bed sheets in an orange bed sheet so the real meaning of sannyasa is actually this complete giving up of oneself not I but thou my Lord in all my actions in all my possessions not my positions everything Belongs to the Lord and all activities are done for the Lord so this is called sannyasa the commentator sridhar Swami here says being free of them this effects of karma sannyasa what is what is becoming a monk or sannyasi Karma mother yoga I says yes yeah so the one whose mind has this attitude that I am offering all my actions and the results of the actions to God that is sannyasi that you you may be working on Wall Street you may be a family man but internally this is what Krishna considers to be a sannyasi but it's a revolutionary change in our view of life we either what we do is we are either not interested in spiritual life or when we are we make a part of our life spiritual the rest of it is mine now this is not mine Le all of it is the Lord's you see the tremendous freedom and peace and joy you will get it yes so Girish goes famously he was he used to drink heavily and um sudama Krishna said it's all right just offer it to the Divine mother and take it as her Prasad and he did that and over time he he became a saint he gave it all up I mean and it didn't have to make a tremendous effort of will it just dropped off he didn't want it anymore so uh can you do that you can you can I knew this monk we might sound strange that monks smoke but once upon a time everybody smoked and monks also smoked nowadays Nobody Does it but so this monk he was an Irishman and a very elderly monk when I saw him a disciple of Swami shivananda his name was Swami pavanan and we used to call him shambhu Maharaj so he used to smoke cigarettes and then he would put it out in the little stuff he would light it again and smoke it then somebody came to him and said Swami I'll get you new ones you don't have to do that you throw it away I'll get you a new packet packet of new cigarettes show up throw away these stubs and he said no I can't do that that is swamiji's Prasad what do you mean swamiji's Prasad he offers it to Vivekananda mentally and they takes it as and he means it seriously he means it oh there's another thing one good practice is whatever we eat and drink actually deliberately do that I've seen many many monks that made it a lifelong habit before putting anything into their mouths they will offer it to the Lord mental actually offer it feel that the Lord Krishna Krishna Raman whichever form is accepting it now it has become Prasad it could be a piece of bread it could be a cookie it could be a cigarette now it is not cigarette now it would be a joint but weed so but you feel it's it's Prasad make it a habit not to put anything in your mouth any food or drink without it becoming Prasad first it's it's a practice and after some time it becomes a habit I have seen a monk naluda Maharaja a very interesting Monk incredible he was blind when I saw he was blind in both eyes both legs paralyzed one hand paralyzed and one of the most joyful persons I've ever seen I mean he taught me what it means to be means to transcend the body so transcend the body doesn't mean coming out of the body like a puff of smoke or like a beam of light it means being there in this in that devastated wreck of a body and being complete I never saw that man complain I was in the hospital bed next to him for a month I was the youngest patient he was the oldest patient in that hospital for a month and I watched him day and night this person old man he's a monk has no family nobody to look after him I mean no family members no relatives blind in both eyes he can't see both legs paralyzed he can't walk he's entirely dependent on the caretakers so joyful he never ever complains about the slightest bit of these companies as if he's not even aware of it anytime you go to him he will ask you have to identify yourself he can't see you so you have to tell who you are where you have come from he will ask which ashram you have come from which place you come from how people are doing there please convey my best wishes and my salutations namaskars to them very clear I remember one day in the evening in the hospital we were in the evening I was there and some monks who work in the hospital they used to come to the ward with the patience where and the monks where and they would talk with gossip you know after the end of the day the evening they would come and generally relax and talk with us I would talk I was talking and this old Swami he was in the Cardinal in the bed he couldn't see from there he shouts stop gossiping time for meditation I mean um I mean is the exact translation would be oh monk the evening comes stop your idol chatter um think of the Lord so this kind of person why am I saying this he would not eat anything without offering it to Sri ramakrishna but his offering was Marathon that means he would not start eating until he really felt that sudama Krishna has accepted it so when you give a plate and food before him and somebody has to help him to eat so he will take up a little bit in and put it like this he will sit and put the hand like this and mentally think about SRI ramakrishna and he will stay like that 5 minutes 10 minutes 15 minutes half an hour one hour the food will become cold until he feels that the Lord has accepted it then only will he eat so sometimes his Meal which is at 12 o'clock supposed to be at noon or before noon he would eat at two o'clock or three o'clock so the whole point was I'll never eat anything that has not been offered as not a prasada of God so yes it can transform one need not be shy um small little weaknesses which are not harmful for others not total violations of moral codes if there are total violations one must take the help of God and say sorry and try not to repeat it again if there are small weaknesses offer it to the Lord it will be swept away it will it will not hold you back foreign there was a boy who's to take care of him where he had a a rosary a japa mala which had been given to him by his Guru his Guru was Swami vigyananandi a disciple of Sri ramakrishna so that Japan the boy would put it in his hands because the Swami would always be lying and he was paralyzed and blind and he would keep the rosary on his chest and repeat the Mantra like this I mean it's done the Bible take it and put it in front of a set of pictures of Sri ramakrishna mashara then Vivekananda which were in his room in that Monk's room and flowers would be arranged now the boy's Duty was every day he would change the flowers one day the there was a different boy who came to do that work and he didn't know he was he was told they threw away the old flowers into the river the ganga and put new flowers so you didn't know that the rosary was in the middle of those flowers so he took the whole lot and he threw the whole lot into the river and the rosary was lost which had been given to him some 60 or 70 years ago by a disciple of Sri ramakrishna how did I know about this I was a young novice at our uh monastic Training Center one of our masters and acharya called Swami he told me this has happened I'm rushing to the bedside of that old Swami I said I'll come along because I had seen that Swami in the hospital so I went along and my teacher at acharya the master identified himself I am Swami so and so I've come from the place where the young monks are trained I heard this has happened please don't worry Swami I will go um to the president the president Squad president Maharaja squatters and get a new Rosary for you and you can continue to do your japa your repetition repetition of the Mantra now listen to what that old Swami said lying in the bed I tell you in Bengali and then translate he said Let It Go its work is done now if you can he said to that swamp to my teacher now if you can can you send somebody to read out from the upanishads and Gita to me um it means he has gone to that level where the teachings of the upanishad are realities for him what a mantra is supposed to do the rosary is supposed to do it's done for him that means he has realized that [Music] incredible so these are the things that you see yes have you done the Shanti Mantra yes