Video 115

115. Bhagavad Gita | Chapter 9 Verses 29-31 | Swami Sarvapriyananda

oh vasudeva sutam devam come such Namaste everybody and welcome back to the bhagavad-gita class can you all hear me clearly yes yes we're on the ninth chapter of the bhagavad-gita and here in the 26th and 27th verses some very powerful practices of bhakti were given devotion love of God 26th verse said Krishna is saying worship me and how simple and effective and Powerful the worship of Krishna is he says leaves flowers just water fruits shivaratri tomorrow so this is that's how you worship Shiva for example and one of the names of Shiva is ashutosha ashutosha is the one who is easily pleased ashutosha easily pleased it doesn't take a lot to please Shiva and so he says the worship of God is very simple the offerings themselves are not expensive nor are they complicated nor is the process complicated but what is necessary is love what's it necessary is is devotion reverence love love a pull towards God I was reading Vivekananda says the old rule applies here in spirituality as everywhere you get what you want and then he says it is not as easy to want spirituality as one might think it's easy to want the world to things in the world but it's not all that easy to want spirituality why not because it's sort of the reverse one has to stop that and then only this this want for God increases the two do not go together because it's the same Force basically if it flows out to the world then the that much less desire will be there for God in fact God spirituality in any form does not seem real as long as there is a tremendous attraction to the world so he says devotion with devotion even the smallest of offerings in the simplest of offerings um and Krishna says I accept these offerings this is one powerful way of devotion what is that way what is called you offer things to God In Worship even more a pervasive a larger more powerful way the 27th to dedicate whatever we are doing to God so not just a specific worship but just whatever we are doing and it can be done um you know that erases the difference the Gap we make between spiritual life and secular life so this is spiritual but what I do outside is secular meditation is spiritual but reading a book or talking with somebody else is is a secular no he says whatever we do in this world whether we consider it religious or we consider it secular all of it can be spiritualized they're not automatically spiritual but can be spiritualized how 27th verse whatever you do what do we do and he gives the divisions of that the the classification of what we do yeah see whatever we consume literally what we eat but also what we see with our eyes what we hear what we smell taste touch whatever things we buy from the world consume from the world all of that he says you offer it you you do that as an offering to me so whatever we consume in the world we offer to God and the the rule is to offer to God before consuming right so I've seen many devotees among spiritual practitioners eating so eating is something that we do all the time eating and drinking so make a little habit of just for a few seconds before we eat or drink offer it to God it becomes Prasad the offered food the sake this sacred food so food drink mentally offer it and then take it and it becomes a lifelong practice it's a powerful practice because you're going to eat anyway so whatever you consume that you consume as an offering to me all the Yoshi literally means whatever we give in sacrificial offering it's a reference to The Vedic worship the kind of religion which was common at that time so they would light a sacrificial fire in the accompaniment of Vedic mantras offerings would be put in the fire so the but basically every religious action do you do a Puja do you do do you kneel down and pray do you give offerings at the Temple Church mosque whatever you do any kind of religious activity that we do he says you can do you can offer it to God we do generally but make it that it is an offering to God that attitude whatever you give in charity it could be money it could be a time and effort and energy it could just be a good turn to somebody just go out of your way volunteer somewhere help somebody or it could just be you know the effort it takes to be nice to somebody when you're especially when you're not feeling like being nice so whatever you give and of course it means money property whatever you give all of that mentally internally you give to me whatever you're doing in the world that goes on internally the attitude is that I am giving to Krishna I am giving to God in whichever form you worship God whatever spiritual practices we undertake repeating a mantra um you know fasting which will do fasting so the fasting all of that is again an offering to me so whatever we do he has divided it into four categories whatever we consume whatever we give whatever religious activities we perform and whatever you know like self-control self-improvement all the activities that we perform to you know deliberately control our body and mind all of that mother pranam [Music] um yes these are the two powerful practices he has given now we'll go ahead 28 verse had mentioned last time we'll start from there what is the result of these practices the 28 verse was let's just repeat it again you will get rid of the bond of karma bondage of karma you'll be free of advantage of karma basically you will attain Liberation Moksha mukti being freed of whatever is good and evil auspicious and inauspicious [Music] now this Subhan ashubha um there's something to be understood here these are words which are common in most Indian languages is sanskrit of course shubha means which is a good which is auspicious um some activity some language some time someday some you know um space some some place these are shubha and some are inauspicious some are not not good however there's a lot to understand here you know um from the perspective of karma in which perspective this is said the the usual understanding of good and bad auspicious inauspicious from the perspective of karma is this the law of karma that if we are deliberately what we do is good dharmic Dharma then the result is it generates a merit called punya and that Merit ultimately gives rise to something pleasant something good something nice in our lives material benefits in Sanskrit sukha pleasure happiness so this is basically the law of of karma you do the good it generates Merit and that Merit generates something pleasant in our lives Dharma punya sukha we deliberately are naughty the other if I do something deliberately I don't know it to be wrong and I do it alharma leads to Papa which is demerit and that leads to dukkha suffering is suffering so the first part of it Vivekananda summarized it even more powerfully good good bad bad and none escaped the law now that good good that part is called shubha and the bad bad that part you know the other sinful activities leading to suffering is called ashubha and here Krishna says get rid of both be free yourself from both why both we understand who nobody wants to be unhappy and so if you don't want to be unhappy Don't Do Bad Karma don't do don't be adharbic there's a saying that nobody wants to do Dharma but they want the result of Dharma that is sukha happiness nobody wants to be unhappy and nobody um you know wants to be unhappy but they want to do the other which leads to unhappiness so um is Good Karma leading to good results ashuba is evil karma leading to bad results and unpleasant results and Krishna says give up both Vivekananda explains so chains dough of gold and not less strong to bind then off with them board off with them both sannyasi bold say home that's at home so chains made of gold are not less strong to bind change made of iron can bind us the chains made of gold also bind us how do they do that so the understanding in vedanta in all of Hinduism in all of Buddhism Jainism all the Indian you know paradigms of spirituality is that we are all bound by causality causality simply is cause gives rise to effect actions have consequences and we are bound by that so what we are experiencing now is the consequence of our past lives what we are now is what we are built in ancient lifetimes and what we are doing now goes to build what we will be in future but this is not spirituality this is worldliness this worldliness and next worldliness this is bondage this is not particularly wiser spiritual in fact all our spirituality is trying to go beyond Karma Beyond causality this is one way of understanding spirituality in a philosophical way is to go beyond causality within causality's bondage what is bondage it is being bound by law you're strictly determined and there's no Freedom here so the goal of spirituality is to attain freedom that means to go beyond Karma when we talk about karma in the law of karma I find so many people are fascinated in fact in on YouTube I think our I.T team they clipped out one part of some talk it was on Karma and this is put that part and that's like one of the highest viewed Clips ever but that was not my point at all my point is to go beyond that people are fascinated by that why it's because we are we are fascinated by the contents of Our Lives mm-hmm our problems especially our hopes desires and our problems how to solve them and our hopes how to satisfy how to fulfill our hopes you might think you're looking quizzical puzzled what's wrong with that that is the very nature of bondage these are two kinds of religion one is the conventional kind of religion which helps us which tells us that you can rearrange your life to to your liking so the more of the present less of the unpleasant so that is conventional religion in vedantais is called private election that is the preliminary part of The Vedas the ritualistic part of The Vedas and if that sounds too archaic it's always there you just look around when you go to a church or a temple the majority of people who are going there what are they going there for Liberation Enlightenment to become a Buddha no no no no far from it now they are going there because we have this life and we are rightly so concerned with this life we have many problems and many desires and hopes now there's one way of tackling them in this world and we don't see any way of really overcoming many of those problems and really know much you know hope of attaining all those desires that I have in my mind um I remember when our first class in economics economics was defined as the science of satisfying unlimited human wants with limited resources that's the diff that's the first thing you learn in economics class and obviously you can't do it it's not possible now religion goes takes up from there since you can't do it here's a magical way of doing it you know here is God and if you pray and if you give these offerings and um and uh if you are a good person maybe just maybe God is going to magically reorder Our Lives according to our liking maybe and he does work sometimes why does it work is it coincidence no I firmly believe it does work God wants it to work also that our faith in God increases well then why doesn't it work all the time why doesn't God make everything perfect make us perfect make our lives perfect as we want it to be because it cannot be done because it would trap us in samsara and samsara is never Perfect by definition that was the Deep Insight the first thing that the Buddha discovered the first Noble Truth why is everything sorrow because that's the very nature of samsara samsara cannot be made perfect there is perfection available in Enlightenment God realization Moksha mukti Nirvana whatever you call it salvation all religions say that there is a Perfection possible there is an escape beyond causality beyond samsara there is an attainment what we want what we really truly want fulfillment that's possible but not where you're looking not in the contents of your life when Swami put it very very roughly but precisely somebody had come with problems you know sorrow and suffering in samsara and the Swami shouted at this person I am not interested in your problems how harsh how unkind not interested in your problems I'm interested in you immediately opens up a gap between I and my problems I am not my problems my problems do not Define me I'm interested in you I'm not interested in your problems vedant is interested in you vedant is not interested in your samsara in fact where the vedanta wants to get rid of your samsara which is why both the Good Karma and Bad Karma needs to go with auspicious inauspicious the good and the bad both the golden chain and the iron chain what does it mean golden chain and iron chain it just means good and bad karma gives rise to continued limited existence and this but this life it will end very soon don't look surprised it's going to end very soon for all of us some of you in 75 80 90 100 years maybe some of us within a short time it it will end but it doesn't end there our life goes on nobody nobody is uh it's it's physical death is not the end of life so life goes on and we will have further lives are they random no they're produced by causality cause and effect our stored the causation which we have built up over many lifetimes that produces Life After Life After Life some of them very pleasant nice but all too brief and over and some of them very unpleasant we're also brief but they seem very long because they are unpleasant so this is golden chain and chain and both we have to get rid of that's what Krishna is saying overcome get rid of Good and Bad Karma how do you do that the different ways but the bhakta will say by the devote the devotee of the Lord by love of God by the grace of God our karma is wiped out presidential pardon for all so it's by the grace it's it's all wiped out that's one or by the way of non-dual knowledge you realize your Brahman ever free you always wear free of causality you are this infinite existence Consciousness please you you realize this and you see it's a fact so you are free of it no matter who the villain is no matter who the hero is no matter who whatever people have done if it's a movie the screen has no problem with anything at all the movie screen on which the hero and the villain are appearing and doing terrible things and good things neither touches the screen so the that is the way of getting over this is this is called karma from the Karma's perspective means good karma leading to present life Bad Karma leading to unpleasant life this is what is meant by shubha ashuba auspicious auspicious um from a bhakti perspective devotional perspective what is evil or bad from a devotional perspective it's not um that which gives rise to Pleasant consequences like to Dharma and there are Pleasant consequences no if their present consequences I will forget my beloved Lord sometimes unpleasant consequences remind me of of the Lord but then the problem is if you are a devotee if you are a saint the things they won't be unprecedent consequences for you because you are really a really very good boy or girl so um kunti the mother of the pandavas at the end of the Mahabharata War she prays to Krishna that let me be born again and again even in suffering so that I remember you that I do not forget you so she's not really worried about the pleasant and unpleasant consequences and what will come in life in future lives no I just want to remember you as long as God is in my mind as long as my mind my lips repeat that the holy names of God the Mantra of God as long as these hands are engaged in the service of God that is Shiva for me that is auspicious for me even the most Pleasant of occasions if I forget God if I get engaged in samsara that is inauspicious for me although from the perspective of someone outside it might be very very nice and very pleasant no so from a bhakta's perspective love of God remembrance of God that day is a good day when I I take the name of Krishna or take the name of of a Hari Yeshiva that day is unpleasant even I am so happy and engaged with the world that I forget God there's a very touching story which I heard recently from Swami chaitanyi gopal Erma the old Widow who spent all her life repeating the Mantra of the baby Krishna and had visions of Krishna and so on and sudama Krishna thought very highly of our spirituality so later on long time after srirama Krishna had passed so she continued her life like that and many of the devotees would Supply things for us what she needed she wouldn't accept anything somebody realized that she lived in his tiny little room um and somebody realized that she was being troubled by mosquitoes so they offered her a mosquito curtain a mosquito net here many of you don't know but if you have been in India you know what is the mosquito net and you better have one there so they offered her one and that night when she put it up nicely this nice new mosquito net and she went inside it and lay down to sleep she was worried by thinking that maybe the rats might come and you know cut bite into the mosquito near this fine mosquito net and you know make a hole in it um and she was worried about it the rats might chew on it next morning early in the morning she packed up the mosquito net and arrived at the place where the devotee who had offered it to her and said here I bought it back for you take back your mosquito net I forgot I did not think of gopal like baby Krishna last night I kept on thinking of the mosquito net written take it back so no I don't want anything into samsara including Pleasant things comfortable things which make me forget God one monk said very touchingly he was saying that brahmachary brahmacharis are the novices monastic novices I'll tell you in Hindi it'll be easier for me to translate translate he said [Music] um these days novices monastic novices they keep looking for comfort so once some I get some measure of comfort I shall practice spiritual disciplines meditation and what what not and then he said with a touch of pathos he said Bolo tells me is it possible to Splatter spiritual austerities in the midst of comfort because the very desire for spirituality will become milder and will evaporate when you're in the midst of comfort that explains why um in Old Times whether it is the monks in India in the mountains and forests of India or you know the desert fathers in the the deserts of Egypt just after the time of the Christ all the monks spiritual Seekers Hermits why did they actively seek out difficult lives in isolated lives lives of which we would consider unpleasant or very difficult one reason is this deliberately so devotee that's the devotees attitude what is shoba and what is ashuba then there is the gyani's attitude to gyani the enlightened one the person who realizes what is Brahman it's like this how does the gyani the enlightened one overcome the present and the unpleasant so the classic example of seeing a a snake in a rope the Buddhist the vedantic idea of seeing a snake in a rope example so the Rope by mistake is seen as a snake just like that there is only one existence Consciousness Place Brahman and that is experienced as this objective world and as this individual subjectivity so that is the thing but actually the whole example is like this in the semi-darkness there was this rope but nobody knew it was a rope someone said it's a snake someone else took a look and said no no it's a Garland discarded from the temple after the worship has been done this Garland has been offered to the deity and afterwards someone has tossed it away it's a Garland an enlightened one says oh no it's not a snake it's not a Garland it's a rope now subha ashubha auspicious inauspicious the snake is inauspicious the Garland is auspicious but there's one thing common to both both are not real if the Rope is actually real similarly what we think to be auspicious what we think to be inauspicious what we think to be good what we think to be evil they are appearances there is a reality which is deeper than both the enlightened one sees that a little more about before we go on there's another way of analyzing this uh in vedanta we talk about four categories of of people the Palmera the vishayi the sadhaka and the siddha the pamara the Sanskrit word palmara means a person who leads an instinctive life literally it means the uncultured the law it means an instinctive life I do exactly what I want just now now it's all right if you're a little kid very little kid not to but if you're grown up that's now no way of living so the person who is instinctive just wants pleasure and maybe wealth whatever if I find pleasing I must have it now and some people are just like that um somebody who is an alcoholic or drug addict is trapped by addiction my pleasure is all that that matters to me they are some are pleasure and success in this world as long as the IRS or the cops don't catch me I'm fine I'm not interested in spirituality or religion or whatever so for him for this person what is ashuba what is inauspicious any kind of you know morality philosophy spirituality completely inauspicious and what is auspicious go out there and have fun an opportunity to make money illegally what is called a quick Buck quick buck that is auspicious and partying and so that's auspicious good and bad the next level is the person is the vishayi Vishay means a worldly person but who understands that this kind of Life instinctive life does not lead to happiness it's not sustainable very soon it leads to misery so I still want success in this world but I realize that I have to be a decent person to be successful in this world so this person bases his or her seeking of pleasure and success in the world artha and Karma on the basis of Dharma the first person wants only your time come artha means money success wealth prosperity and Karma pleasure that's all but this this next person the Vishay wants a tan comma on the basis of Dharma on the basis of morality and most people are like that I mean if you dismiss the fancy Sanskrit terms it just means what you would call a good person trying to make his or her way in the in the world all of us almost all of us we have standards of morality we we think of ourselves as good people and there are things that we would not um descend to do so Dharma there is a a moral basis are kind of limits of decency which we do not exceed and we pursue our world equals now what would be Shuba and ashuba for such a person you can think good and evil so yes Misfortune in this world is evil if I lose money on on Wall Street or if you know the menu doesn't consist of the things which I love most that's evil for me but also if I if I am sinful if I break the law if I do something that makes me feel guilty that's evil for me also so such a person wants to be within the limits of morality wants to be a moral person a good person also a rich person you know a happy person in this world soba changes sharply when you go from the first level to the next level then comes the third level the spiritual Seeker this person maybe in the world maybe a monk maybe in the world also however the world is no longer the goal of such a person the goal of such a person is Enlightenment God realization and you might say that might be rare no actually many people just by the fact that you turn up for you know discussion on spirituality on on meditation philosophy it already shows that Force working within us so our goal now becomes Moksha Moksha Enlightenment Liberation freedom and Dharma takama are no longer our goals so the Dharma that we practice is what is called nishkama Dharma nishkama Dharma means without worldly desire the other kind of Dharma which was practiced with worldly desire was that you know which leads to that golden chain which leads to good results I'm doing good so that my life is good my present life no longer that kind of Dharma now the Dharma that we practice we do good because it is good to be good it purifies me makes me a more moral a better person so that I can reach for my spiritual goals one can be good and not particularly spiritual but one cannot cannot be spiritual and not good so this person the third the spiritual practitioner spiritual Seeker is now reaching for God realization and again think will change for this person what is good and bad so for this person it's no longer certainly no longer worldly Prosperity or failure that's no longer the calculus not the standard not even just morality it is my spiritual Endeavors my spiritual practice my devotion my knowledge my meditation if that goes well that is good for me if that doesn't go well that's not good for me so the whole calculus changes and finally you get to the siddha the fully enlightened one where again the the person does not want Dharma Moksha because that person has already attained Moksha has attained Liberation the enlightened one but the enlightened one what is goes beyond both this is what is Krishna is saying so this just this description of these are so much there to be discussed you might think I'm spending too much time on this actually no all of what I said was from sadhu in uttarakhand and He was discussing it in the context of um in the second chapter of the bhagavad-gita when Krishna answers this question about what is it like to be enlightened the second thing he says is no the third thing he says is who the enlightened one has no attachment does not react when shubha and ashubha come and there this monk described the whole range of what is Shiva and ashuba so I just sort of borrowed it from there and put it here when you do this what happens mokshasi or free free of what Karma bandhani free of the bondage of karma what's the bondage of karma the golden chain and the iron chain the bondage of causality you are free the body is never free you as the Atman as pure conscious your Consciousness you are free and what do we have to do for this so the endowed with the yoga of pronunciation what is the yoga of renunciation that's not one I have come across I've come across anger and hot yoga and Vikram Yoga and and what else Kundalini Yoga and but I haven't come across this yoga of renunciation what does what does it mean you hear the commentator I'm taking sridhar Swami's commentary sannyasi yoga mother yoga sannyasam is giving up renunciation renunciation of what that's a big question because it's a very delicate question also because remember right here what is the situation Arjuna is just about to give up this battle he is ready he just needs a little push from Krishna or a little uh okay from Krishna you're on the right track he's about to run away from the battlefield and become a monk or something uh but Krishna says here renunciation giving up sannyasa renunciation means to continue to do what you are doing and give up the results to God offered them to God he says mother pranam exactly what was said in the 27th verse the words before this that practice he says that is giving up that is the renunciation of karma the renunciation of karma is to not stop doing action not to withdraw from everything but to keep on doing it but mentally offered everything to God that I am doing it for you my Lord and he says this practice is yoga so give that giving up is this renunciation sannyasa and the practice this particular practice to continue to do that this is yoga and the person who does this will attain me will attain me means again from the devotional perspective there is Vishnu or Krishna and in heaven why couldn't the vaishnava conception of heaven after death the devotee the lover of Krishna goes there and stays there in the presence of God that's one way the other way the ghanis from the enlightened persons from the person on the path of advaita vedanta is the realization of our true nature so I mean they use this very interesting language he says [Music] um he says that God realization or what amounts to the same thing self-realization very carefully worded it's not that they are exactly the same but what amounts to the same thing it leads to the same result then uh 29th verse I am the same to all beings there is no one hateful or dear to me but they who worship me with devotion are in me and I am also in them um so in the introduction to this verse the commentator sridhar Swami says so you gave Moksha Liberation going Beyond causality you take up the iron chain and the gold golden chain for your devotees that's what you have said Krishna said yes and then the commentator asks in that case those who are not your devotees may not be interested in religion or may you know may not be interested in God or Devotion to God so aren't you partial aren't you being partial aren't you offering you love me and I will give you Freedom don't love me so it's a very needy kind of card is isn't this uh what vaisham is this partiality and if they love you they know you will give Moksha if they don't love you then you don't give Moksha then in answer to that Krishna says no I am exactly the same to everybody the difference does not lie in me or my attitude to anybody I offered myself equally to everybody I offered Moksha Liberation equally to everybody all the time the doors of Heaven are always open but there's a difference in those who walk in and those who don't as Vivekananda said as always it depends on what we want you will get what you want and it's not so easy to want spirituality that's why I kind of said this Krishna is saying that I am exactly the same to everybody those who love me and worship me devotion they come to me I am in them and they are in me so they become one with me let's put it that way or if you are a devotee you attain to the heaven of religion or spirituality so here the commentator shankaracharya and the commentator sridhar swamiji is the example of Fire shankaracharya also says and this commentator also says that just as fire equally gives heat to everybody but in order to benefit from it you must come near it you must come near it and warm yourself with the heat of the fire so you must turn towards it you must not go away from it and then blame fire why are you giving a bomb to the person who is huddled close to you and I who I'm so far away from you why are we partial you know you're not giving me warmth well come close but then you have to come away from the dark which is samsara you come closer to the light so here he says those who resort to fire tamaha shita Darkness cold fire removes darkness and cold for those who resort to fire not for those who do not and you cannot accuse fire of being partial exactly in that that way those who resort to God God those who come close to God for them so the original charge you know in Sanskrit the commentator had said so if only for devotees you offer Moksha you do not offer mock celebration for those who are not your devotees isn't there likes and dislikes of impartiality caused in you because you like some they like you therefore you like them and they are those who do not like you therefore you don't like them so isn't it partiality and his answer is there's no partiality here and then he goes further dramatic statement now it's going to talk about the power of devotion love of God 30th verse um even if a very Wicked person worships me to the exclusion of anybody else he should be regarded as righteous for he has rightly resolved so he says a person who is actually immoral Wicked I was doing evil things suddenly turns you know what we say in the United States finds religion finds God becomes religious spiritual he should be this person he or she should be considered as a sadhu as a good person as you know moral person even a saintly person we immediately Recall why just because he loves God I'm going I have to think of this person as a good person he says because not because this person has become a good person just by loving God so because this person has rightly resolved rightly it's on and we'll see what will happen because of the right uh result later on we'll see next in the next verse but he makes a very big um a claim for the power of devotion but he makes it very clear truly devoted not just lip service I found God now my all my debts have to be forgiven and you I've been nasty to you have to forgive me because I'm not religious no no such a person even will not seek forgiveness from others he'll just hold on to God deeply um and that is so transformative very soon this person becomes a holy person a spiritual person a classic example he was a drunkard and given to all sorts of immorality SRI ramakrishna loved him so much and people were upset with him because he's a man of loose character why does SRI ramakrishna allow him to come close often sudama Krishna could not stand people of lose character those were liars and so on cheats he loved and encouraged so much why there's one big difference Girish goes had tremendous faith in him a tremendous faith in God especially in sudama Krishna and the result was over time the man was completely transformed the people used to come to see him that he has become a devotee a lover of God did he change his ways he did all of it dropped out and oh it was completely transformed in the way he talked thought and the way he lived his life became a saintly person there is the beautiful story of uh angulimal if you go back 2500 years ago I think every one of the incarnations does one of these miraculous things you know takes hold of a lost case and transforms it so radically so you make a good person better it's not not much credit to you and make a hopeless person transform it into somebody who's saintly in a tremendously good person that is miraculous who was this great terrible decoyte who frequented a dense forest and he would kill people and collect their um fingers and made a Garland of it and he would wear that Garden now the Buddha on his way begging for food he was going to cross that Forest people told him don't go in there the terrible anguli Mall is there means fingers Malu means a Garland he's there and if he if he chance upon him he'll kill you saw this lone Traveler so he chased him he came up sneaked up behind him to kill him but he couldn't catch up so he started walking faster still couldn't catch up started running after this lone monk who was walking in the distance and he couldn't he couldn't narrow the gap between himself and that and that receding figure of that monk finally gasped and he shouted stop and the Buddha looked back at him and said I stopped long ago anguli Mala when will you stop and just that transformed him completely he burst into tears and fell at his feet and said save me my Lord and then the Buddha asked him to perform penances and if I'm not wrong he actually became a monk afterwards that's anguli Mala a story of Girish Kosh there is the story of jagai and madhai in the story life story of so I mean many such stories so people who are completely transformed by the by a divine presence then 31st verse he says this next verse he says why should a person who's not good why should we consider this person to be good and even saintly if that person just becomes devoted to God sincerely devoted to God 31stv very powerful verse this person soon becomes righteous minded and attains eternal peace o son of kunti Proclaim to the world that my devotee never perishes this line we you know devotees they they imprint it on their minds know it for certain I Proclaim to you I promise to you my devotee never perishes my devotee never perishes if you love God even in the least he he she it Whatever It Is will love you back many many times more this is oh this is a matter of Faith you know you're just believing such things yes and Krishna says believe it because next the next line he says believe it I'm telling you believe it and he says you can Proclaim it with confidence now Arjuna doubted just like us look I like you and I respect you and you're saying this but this is a little crazy just because someone is devoted to you is going to be transformed it's going to become saintly and you want me to have confidence in that is that's the power of bhakti love for you and that too very fast that it won't take a long time you know many lifetimes for Spiritual practice then that's not a no biggie but just by love of God you'll be transformed it's a bit too much and he's thinking what will my friends commentator says that you are a simple person Krishna after all you Krishna is a cow herd you know so so he doesn't know people in High Society what will people in Manhattan think the Jet Set you know if I say if I say such silly stuff um the commentator says here in Sanskrit I'll read it out and Translate says Arjuna is little Disturbed he can't say it out loud but uh he doesn't he is he says I might make an effort and believe what you are saying and I would like to believe it but I know all of these my cool friends who have who are sophisticated or full of skeptical arguments that they are they'll they'll have harsh and cutting comments to make and they are not going to think this way and accept this is to encourage him and to give him confidence Krishna says he know it for certain I Proclaim to you my devotee never perishes and here Krishna says it's so straightforward so powerfully you're the commentator he magnifies it even further he says and he says he says with drums beating drums which make a tremendous announcement um on all social media platforms you can go and make an announcement go to the Gathering of people where they debate such things and say that God doesn't exist poo poo says things raise both hands rishan come with with no doubt without a shred of doubt pratija make a proclamation those who are devoted to God even if you in your eyes in the eyes of the people they are they are no good that Fallen no good losers he says such a person will never perish not only that they will attain fulfillment they will become enlightened and realize God and be free so I'm reminded of the confidence of of a Socrates who is drinking the hemlock and people are Weeping instruct is his last words he says don't weep for me weep for yourselves I go to a a greater brighter world and for you is this Dark World to to suffer so that kind of confidence he says they will uh they will never come to a bad end and not only that they will attain the highest they will attain God realization tell all those cool people you don't have to avoid them you don't have to feel shy about about it Proclaim it with the greatest confidence so and then he says what will happen and then what will happen to them so their skeptical arguments Swept Away by this tremendous glowing confidence of yours they will accept you as the teacher as a spiritual teacher they'll be converted to your way of thinking and this has happened again and again in the history of I mean in so many places I can I was thinking when I was reading these lines I was thinking of two examples which came to my mind immediately more than a thousand years ago ramanu jacharya the great teacher of bhakti of devotion in the south of India he was already well known as a teacher of bhakti now um this great scholar yagyamuti he came to debate with ramanu jacharya he was named to reckon with people who used to be scared of him because he was so learned and he could defeat anybody just like that and so he went and when he would come he would come with a uh with a you know Convoy of in those days Bullock cards with all the bullet cards had all their all his books nowadays you could put it in a flash drive it might be in a cloud but in those days but it makes a much more intimidating site if you're followed by a convoy of bullet cards you know which raises the dust in the sky you can see it the dust coming from his long distance and people say run for your lives he's going to challenge you for a debit to a debate um so the this Challenger came and challenged ramanuja that you are spreading this doctrine of bhakti but he was going talking about non-dualism and advaitha and so he challenged him to a debate and ramanuja accepted the challenge and there was a big debate but the Challenger was so learned and so intimidating in his debating that ramanuja began to lose the debate huh and uh then on the last day when the decision was about to be taken who has won the debate ramanuja knew that he had lost lost the debate he prayed to [Music] um uh Lord srinivasa you know in Sri lankapuram so he played pray to Vishnu and uh that I was just spreading your bhakti Devotion to God now if it is your will that I will lose this and my mission will fail then it I surrendered to you but this is all I wanted I don't want to be in debates or lose debits and it's it's nothing to me so next day he was sitting and this the Challenger came and full confidence but as he approached ramanu jacharya he began to lose his confidence and by the time he approached came near ramanuja acharya he fell flat uh in the pranam in the salutation to ramanuja he fell flat on the ground and saluted drama with tears in his eyes he said please forgive me what foolishness I have been doing to challenge you he actually had a vision of the Lord behind Ramana you know so he so every hair on his body stood on the end and said here is this man who has realized God was God in his heart and what what foolishness am I am I spending time and you know challenging him so he became a very great follower of ramanuja one of the most learned members of his group that is one the other example was um a who chaitanya mahaprabhu so when chaitanya mahaprabhu was teaching the doctrine of bhakti and he went from navadweep in Bengal to Puri jagannath Puri in Orissa at that time vasudev sarvapama was there a very great scholar devotional also but a great scholar of vedanta and he heard that uh a young monk has come who sheds Tears In The Name of Krishna and sings and dances and goes into samadhi went actually he knew caitanya mahaprabhu from navadweep he found this that he has become I know this lad he has become a monk and clearly a very pure soul but what is this silliness in taking the name of Krishna singing and dancing he is a fit candidate for non-dual knowledge said will you come and stay with me I will teach you vedanta Simplicity said yes all right I'll stay with you so he went with vasudev server home and every day they were used to be vedanta classes daily Ambassador would expound the brahmasutras with shankara's commentary and chaitanya mahaprabhu sat quietly did not react did not say yes no nothing no questions quietly after a few days was very upset he said um that look I've been teaching you all this time no reaction like are you dumb or what are you getting what what I'm saying do you understand it do you do not understand it do you agree do you not agree with great humility he said I understand what the text says I don't understand your explanation one bit foreign about the interpretation of the vedanta sutras but anyway to cut a long story short what happened at the end was he not defeating chaitanya mahaprabhu in debate he had the vision of of narayana the combined form of Rama and Krishna in caitanya mahaprabhu and having that Vision he fell down unconscious and when he came to his senses with folded hands and tears flowing from his eyes he fell at the feet of caitanya mahaprabhu and asked for his forgiveness and became a convert to bhakti in the path of devotion so it is this is what Krishna is saying Proclaim it with full confidence don't worry about your your logic and arguments and sounding cool or doesn't matter with full confidence you Proclaim it I am with you you will see all of that will be swept away I remember uh an incident SRI ramakrishna is talking about bhakti Devotion to God and there was a pundit a scholar in that group who was making some cutting remarks you know I was trying to be funny that suddenly SRI ramakrishna turned to him and said what kind of a pundit are you do you not know in how many janmas how many lifetimes of punya of good Merit of lifetimes have married Good Karma one gets a little Devotion to God and you are trying to you know being skeptical and trying to prove that prove that God doesn't exist you're trying to destroy that little devotion that these people have what kind of a Pandit are you he was so ashamed he got up and shame he ran away from that place um so yes this is what Krishna is talking about um we will wrap it up here unless somebody has a question or a comment yes 26 27. yes that is the 27th one where all activities are given to God ishwara foreign offer everything to God in 12th chapter again five step practice will be given first one second one like that five levels um each easier than the earlier one where it all these will be included also but yes offering the results of the action to God here is even offering the action itself to God whatever you're doing you're doing to God for uh for God yes versus somebody who's on the number three and like today of course both of them eventually sort of realization but do they eventually get to the same path or is it different they come I don't know if they come to the same path but they come to the same realization so I'm very kind of very clear about it he says the goal is that each soul is potentially Divine the goal is to attain to Manifest this Divinity already within us and you do it by work Karma Yoga by love bhakti yoga by psychic control meditation Raja yoga by philosophy he says he uses the word philosophy so he means Ghana yoga by one or more or all of these and be free that is the whole of religion books temples doctrines churches are secondary details so this is a very broad picture now when you come to the actual um you know the the schools the darshanas there there is there are particular hierarchical Arrangements so if you ask an advaithin your question the answer would be that no no it doesn't work that way Karma Yoga there's no path of Karma Yoga no path of bhakti yoga Karma Yoga is preliminary for everybody with Karma Yoga one gets purification of mind and then through bhakti and meditation one gets focus bhakti and bhakti yoga and Raja yoga together can be called upasana one gets focus of mind with a focused and pure mind you come to the practices of non-dualism of Afghanistan that generates the knowledge which removes the ignorance you realize you are Brahman so this is the process but notice how the yogas have been arranged hierarchically first Karma Yoga preliminary basic will it lead to the same realization no no it won't it's like saying um I want to go to Mumbai so how do you get to Mumbai well first you take a cab from here to JFK and you take a plane from JFK to Mumbai now if you say no tell me does the one the path of the cab and the path of the other plane from JFK do they both take you to the same goal yes they do but they are not independent paths it's not an it's not an option you have to do both you can't say tell me one now you have to do both that is the hierarchy of the yogas which is established so you should then why not say that why just say four yogas the reason is if you follow that hierarchy it will work it will take you to Enlightenment but that's just one paradigm but if you go to vishes all those paths there they will reverse it for them also Karma Yoga is karma yoga is preliminary it purifies the mind but Ghana yoga is next and bhakti yoga is highest why would that be because their metaphysics are different so by Ghana yoga with Karma Yoga you purify your mind by Ghana yoga you realize you're not the body not the mind you are Consciousness pure Consciousness your Atma Now by bhakti yoga you connect your Atma to paramatma because you are part of paramara you're not identical so devotion must be the final practice if you come to the vaishnava vedanta Paradigm I mean if you go there you'll see even all this Karma Yoga again they were not necessary just bhakti itself will take you from the beginning to the end pure devotion not mixed with knowledge or any anything like that so these are different paradigms now if you want to be inclusive about all of them what's the broad picture spiritual practices take you to God and all spiritual practices Vivekananda sort of broadly classified under the knowledge practices the meditative practices devotional practices and action psychologically also it makes sense the you know modern psychology will tell you we have these four capacities one is the the cognitive Dimension knowledge understanding the other one is the effective Dimension feeling heart and the third one is the connective Dimension the will will power the ability to do things and the last one is focus which is so important now notice these four they correspond to the four yogas cognitive dimension of our ability to think and understand gyani yoga effective Dimension the ability to feel bhakti yoga the cognitive Dimension the ability to work willpower karma yoga and focus the meditation Raja yoga so it's a sort of broad picture now there is more to be understood about this when your question was Will somebody on the path of Karma Yoga attain to the same realization of the path in the path of bhakti yoga so what I said so far in the traditional schools if you go and ask such a question they will say there's no path of Karma Yoga as such it'll dovetail into the other paths your path of Karma Yoga will lead you to bhakti and in fact it's not that you start off with karma yoga for 20 years and then bhakti yoga for 10 years and then gani yoga for five years no all of them must go together one must be devotional one must serve one must meditate regularly and inquire this is a sort of integral path of vedanta um but Vivekananda he gave special emphasis on Karma and he says even by action but his action the karma yoga if you read that is basically it contains the essence of Ghana yoga and bhakti yoga already so he says even by the path of action one can attain Enlightenment but what he means by action you will see basically it comes out as vedant advaitha or or bhakti both can be done I'm sorry to leave it at that there's a lot to be said about this very interesting and then he talks about the harmony of four yogas he says any one of them will take you to Enlightenment or more than one will take you to Enlightenment but he recommends the harmony a combination of all four people may think that something unique to Vivekananda but actually it isn't all the traditional acharyas if you look at the teachings of shankara ramanuja in fact in sanatana Dharma generally meditation devotion vedanta vichara and Puja Seva Karma all of them are always these ingredients are always there but the combination may be different the hierarchy may be different in different practices but somebody else had raised their hands I'll come to you next gentlemen here foreign yes spiritual and spiritualistic I feel like this addresses the how but not the why I mean why should we even break this like yes because of suffering because we are trapped here cycle of karma means causality cause and effect so I have generated some causes and this has given me this life here and it is not fulfilling and so yeah the law of karma would say you want it to be more fulfilling will do more good generate better causes you will get better results next time so that is the philosophy of the purva imamsa the earlier portion of The Vedas they say this is what you can do in life and most people try to live like you know the idea would be a better life little better than what I ever got but spirituality is much more radical in all spiritual traditions and vedant especially he should at no point will you reach a final resolution you will keep coming back into suffering again and again and again and nothing ever will be fully satisfying or fulfilling that's why you must a mature Seeker will finally seek to go beyond this limited existence you had to follow on yeah yes suffering or dissatisfaction because some people say we are not suffering especially a lot of people in Manhattan are not really suffering very terribly but but perceived suffering or dissatisfaction yes last week when you mentioned another swamiji within the order who was almost fully paralyzed this person as one of the most contented satisfied people right right offering itself is the reason to break the cycle I mean it is just perceived suffering at the end of the day yes and to go beyond that to see that this suffering there is a broken body is at the level of the body and I am not the body not the mind that's why he did not see it as suffering at all so what will happen what happens at the level of the world at the level of the body that will continue to happen that will not change because suddenly I've become you know I found religion the body will continue to do with the body the world will continue to be the world and if I do not either you know get self-realization or God realization I will suffer to come to that level of that Swami you need spirituality yeah there are just two ways of going Beyond Karma one is to get hold of something which is beyond Karma itself what is that there's a lot of karma issue or a god bhagavan God is beyond causality causality is basically the power of God it's part of Maya the power of God so catch hold of God by the grace of God you go beyond Karma that is the devotees way or you realize yourself to be Beyond Karma that is the self-realization way I am Atman I am Brahman and suddenly you see it's all right I'm perfectly all right so these are the only two ways I'll come to you yes I'm glad you raised this topic actually these these two verses they mean us when we talk about even evil person is transformed into a saint and we talk about anguli Mala at least we think that yeah it's about angulimal I'm not a serial killer so I it's not he's not talking about me yes we are not serial killers that's true very good but we we all of us we have guilt it's a very good question and that burdens us that forms a barrier between us and God how do you do about that that's why repentance price chitta in Sanskrit is an important part of the beginning of spiritual life in Christianity it is confession in Hinduism there is price chitta that is um how would you translate that means repentance Redemption repentance yes so we have built up we have set into motion such powerful forces in past life you believe it or not but there we have had many lives and so what was I in a past life don't bother to find out you want to get a glimpse of what I was in the past life look at our own lives now this is the result of what we wear in the past how do we break out of it and we need help there that's why many of these spiritual practices meditation techniques the Fantastic insights of non-duality that you are the witness Consciousness and all of that is so powerful but at the end of the day they don't seem to do much for us not their fault it's our fault we carry a burden vivekantha says we come trailing Clouds Of Glory says the poet but not all of us come trading Clouds Of Glory we come many of us come trailing clouds of black smoke and in this life we have a burden of guilt so here he Krishna gives the solution to that he is actually speaking to us and he says one powerful way of transcending this and transforming this and this burden of guilt is Devotion to God don't keep your mind on I'm miserable I've done this or that I am a sinner keep that mind on God so powerful so purifying that the Lord will show our way out for us so we don't have to pay for what we did and the holy mother says that where a person would have been pierced by a spear where I would have lost a leg you get a pin prick because of this Armor of God of Devotion to God and the goal is no longer that I will escape punishment by being devoted to God my love of God is so deep and so burning and so all-consuming and if the Lord wants me to be punished for it I'm fine with it beautiful hymn he prays to the Lord Vishnu to God he says I stand before you so Fallen such a sinner I am that I cannot even I do not dare to ask for forgiveness do with me what you will no he's a saint I mean what a sinner is he nothing he has not done anything but but that's the attitude so anyway the answer to your question is this is the answer to your question that's what Krishna is actually giving the answer to this question which we all should have what do we do with guilt in our lives you offer it to the Lord and love God love God as much as you can and that will you'll see in time we are cleansed of that direct disciples Swami Shivan and the brahmananda and all these their answer to this question of feeling of repentance of guilt of Sorrow is that um don't do it again and say sorry to God to you know ask for forgiveness from God and don't do it again if you feel that's not enough then they would give some practice some we often don't feel it's enough we feel we need to suffer in God's eyes it's all right you're with children but we need to stop doing it and we need to change our life that is very important there's a song Bengali song which says that you my Lord are all forgiving you forgive everything except that which demeans your forgiveness a that which demeans your forgiveness and the Christian doctrine of you must also forgive others that's also very very powerful if I'm unforgiving God also will be unforgiving to me and if I devalue God's forgiveness then again go back to repeating the same thing again then that is not that that should not happen God's forgiveness is very valuable very valuable quickly we have run out of time you you and Lady there yes and you had your hand up did you have a question let's quickly hear the questions and see if I can address them foreign yes but then you have to reconfigure that auspicious inauspicious in terms of vidyama and avidya Maya avidya Maya is that which leads us into samsara vidyama is that which leads us Beyond samsara both are Maya just as one is the Garland another one is this snake but actually the Rope is the reality yes the people on four different levels that you mentioned is it proper to interpret if somebody on the second level is doing good action and that same action is done by somebody on the third level the second one is bound by the golden chains but the third is not yes the motivation of that action yes the same action externally that's what Krishna says but internally that third level person in the third level is internally offering it to God yes I'm bound to hold a job I'm bound to so I have these kids I'm bound to raise them I have this responsibility in life I'm bound to do that good this is an opportunity for me to practice spiritual disciplines so I am doing the same thing which my neighbor is doing but the neighbor is doing it because he's on the second level a responsible citizen a good person is doing that so that his life is good his or her life is good I'm doing it for the love of God internally there's no difference externally and try to keep it as hidden as possible internally so the more we express it outside the more force it loses yes uh lady there [Music] even then prayer or devotion or spiritual practices does not affect the karma of the body no it doesn't it can it can reduce feel it can affect in many different ways if I a spiritual Seeker is generally a good person so you're consistently doing good things now when you consistently do good things many things happen one is the grace of God is with you then second our past karma is a whole storehouse but there's a good and bad but generally if you keep on doing the good it's the good part of it which gets activated you get the results of that um more good that we do even the bad karma which gives results of unpleasantness we are not affected by that so much we because we are not looking for worldly gains or we're not very upset with worldly losses also is that what you're asking yes yes no it will the world will continue as it is that's the beautiful story about the Buddha the monk asked the Buddha that what good has your teaching done because you said suffering is old age disease death but you are becoming old you are getting disease and probably you'll die many of us who are following your teachings we are getting old some of us have died some we are getting disease also with the Buddha's answer very simple but it shows us what is the meaning of spirit what does spirituality do if it you see that it's the goal is to remove suffering but suffering is continuing because you define suffering as old age disease death old age disease deaths are coming to enlightened people also then the Buddha's answer was suffering is like being hit by two arrows one arrow is what the world throws at you old age disease death how people treat you and all all sorts of troubles in this world the second arrow is your reaction to it and most of our suffering is caused by our reaction to it almost all of it the first Arrow you have to deal with what the world throws at you you have to deal with it through worldly means stomach kick is there take a medicine um there's somebody a burglar in your room call 9-1-1 so that's a worldly way of dealing with it it will never solve the problem entirely this is the first Arrow but the second Arrow their spirituality works devotion knowledge meditation these completely change our reaction to the world and our real suffering is in the reaction are you that person he mentioned last week's example of the Swami who was paralyzed in both legs was blind so joyful that the second narrow doesn't bother him anymore that's what spirituality does if you notice sudama krishna's body passed away due to throat cancer had a tumor and that's the way they died but throughout their lives also little problems ups and downs kept coming into this read the lies of the Saints they seem to have more trouble than ordinary people but they are always joyous one common thing about sarama Krishna Ramana mashir all the saints of all the religious Traditions you will read they don't complain they don't feel that they have anything to complain about we feel we have lots to complain about they don't feel guilty they don't feel anything they just that's the first level Palmera yeah the second Arrow but you just you wait and if you have the intention of Moksha is that is that creating a no is it different from Bliss or Anand the Moksha is different from place around from an advaithic perspective no your nature is Ananda and your nature is Moksha you know according to dweta vedanta you are already Moksha swarupa your very nature as Brahman is always free so Moksha is always attained is strange in that way what do you get what you've already always got what can you get read by advaita vedanta what was never there when you become enlightened but your samsara was never there and you will realize your Brahman but you're always where Brahman whether you realize it or not that's what the advaitha does question yes yes there it says in this body with nine the city with nine Gates what's the city with nine Gates God resides in a city with nine kids what's that City that's the body and God recites Atman recites pure Consciousness there neither doing nor causing to be done that's our real nature as a witness Consciousness it's only when we see ourselves as this eye this ego immediately feel I am the one who does things I am the one who's enjoying or suffering or I want to enjoy and I do not want to suffer I that's at the center SRI ramakrishna identifies this eye as ignorance so when we step back from this apparent eye into our real nature which is that neither doer are not causing to be done the witness Consciousness see all the Terrible Things That Go on in a horror movie can you blame the screen for it why do why were you so horrible screen says no I'm the same if it's a comedy I'm the same it's a tragedy I'm the same if it's a horror movie or a science fiction movie I'm the same if there's no movie I'm the same that existence Consciousness place that's what we are already we're already that that's what is being pointed out so on that very high note let's wrap it up today um