Video 117

117. Bhagavad Gita | Chapter 9 Verse 34 Revision | Swami Sarvapriyananda

Guru so the last verse of the ninth chapter we're on the ninth chapter and the end of the ninth chapter and the last verse I know I had already talked about it last time but it's so important that I want to dwell on it little further today before we conclude the ninth chapter so let's repeat it again [Music] [Music] fix your mind on me be my devotee sacrifice unto me thus fixing your mind on me and having me as a supreme goal you will attain me alone in the ninth chapter he's been talking about bhakti Krishna has been teaching Arjuna about the love of God so how do you practice this bhakti love of God and this is what he is discussing here he's teaching us here in the ultimate verse of this chapter this is the midpoint of the bhagavad-gita nine chapters and it's actually I didn't know this um it seems this is actually the middle shlok of the bhagavad-gita half of the Gita so congratulations we are halfway through no we never complete the bhagavad-gita we go round again you repeat it again so even even here in our morning chanting we chant five verses of the bhagavad-gita every day in the morning and when we reach the end of the bhagavad-gita we don't stop there we again chant the first verse so that it's a continuity but anyway Midway so we are Midway here Midway remind always reminds me of you know I am a World War II history buff so there's an island called Midway it's part of the U.S territory and it was a major battle in the second world war it was midway in the war the Pacific War changed because of the Battle of Midway if you look it up and it's sort of midway between Asia and USA and the American not the American continent anyway nothing to do with Midway of the bhagavad-gita also it's interesting this particular verse has been repeated at the very end of the bhagavad-gita Krishna repeats this almost verbatim the thing is the last teaching of Sri Krishna and the bhagavad-gita is a famous verse a lot of people know about it giving up all other ritualistic practices all other religious spiritual practices take refuge in me alone Krishna says at the end of the 18th chapter um so if I give up all religious practices won't I incur sin um I shall free you of all sin whatever you have committed in secular life or any religious offenses I shall set you free I'll give you a freedom moksham grieve not so that's the in fact that's the last teaching which Krishna gives in the whole bhagavad-gita and that's taken as a sort of summary of the teachings you know if you if you ask Krishna to tell you one practice one practical thing if you would take away from this teaching so that would be it but because of its proximity to this very important verse very important this last teaching very soaring Sublime powerful teaching close to it people are Overlook it and if something is very powerful great next to it something wonderful might be there but it gets overlooked because of its proximity to something even more great um sometimes I say that Swami brahmananda himself called him a spiritual Dynamo where he tends to be overlooked because of his proximity to Vivekananda when Swami Vivekananda passed away on the 4th of July 1902 is only 39 he used to say I won't live to see 40. before he passed he said one thing that I must go many a leader has ruined his followers by remaining too long with them so he felt brahmananda was ready to lead to become the president of the he became he was the president of the order so he left anyway close to it this verse is very close to that final verse it's just the verse before that um final teaching it's not the final verse of the Gita in the 65th verse I think of the bhagavad-gita in the 18th chapter if you go to 18 chapter 66th verse is the famous this is chapter 18 verse 66. but just before that you will see almost exactly the same verse this is 65th verse of the 18th chapter we just changed the last quarter of the verse this is a promise I'm making to you know this to be true that if you are devoted to me if you are mindful of me if you spiritualize all your actions offer everything all your actions to me and salute me salute the Lord you will attain to me know this to be true this is a promise I give unto you and then comes the great next verse anyway now this verse I mentioned last time I give a very big picture interpretation of the verse not something that the traditional commentators do the big picture interpretation would be you can see all the four yogas in this verse what are the four yogas if you see the spiritual teachings of Krishna in the bhagavad-gita one is one Central teaching of course is devotion God exists be devoted to God especially the Avatar of God like Krishna is the Avatar of God be devoted to the Avatar of God and you will attain God realization you will attain spirituality rate in God realization that is bhakti yoga then there is Guyana yoga if you know the your real nature and the real nature of God you will know that you are identical one and the same that sets you free because that that real nature is free it's not that something will happen and it will become free you'll realize you are free you always wear in your real nature as one with God the third one he teaches is um meditation especially sixth chapter of the bhagavad-gita The Yoga of meditation how to calm and focus the mind we are not aware how Disturbed and fickle and shaky our minds are very shaky very fickle generally so that's the very nature of the mind and especially in this day and age thanks to our digital friends there was a book years ago effect of computers on school children and this was long before the inter internet was invented in 1990s you know before it became common and the name of the book is a survey name of the book was very evocatively the flickering mind like in those days the screens were flickering though if you go that far back you'll remember the screens were flickering the flickering mind so the way to concentrate my the Mind meditation he teaches the yoga of meditation and finally very importantly The Yoga of action how do we convert our activities in this world both religious and secular into spiritual practice Karma Yoga Karma Yoga bhakti Yoga Yoga and dhyani yoga he teaches all these yogas um all of them you can find here actually if you look at it in a broad picture way Mana give your mind to me in this if you take it in the sense of uh intellect understanding so the path of yoga the path of Ghana yoga is is here The Path of Knowledge give your mind to me understand who I am in relation to you that means we are identical here obviously bhakti yoga can be you can segue in bhakti yoga into this and then madhyaji yaji here means the one who gives offerings into the sacrificial fire in Vedic fire rituals the one who does yagya but all activities can be offered to God whatever we do in life as long as it's not entirely mischievous or naughty or awful everything can be offered unto the Lord so madhyaji means offer unto me all your activities are For unto me I spent some time on this the importance of actually physically bowing down to God we have become very arrogant in this day and age for multiple reasons we were forgotten to bow down to anything and you know I me mine and supreme we are not I think it was a professor Bryant who was actually criticizing the advaithic approach I am Ramana Hashmi he said my God I am God you're saying well my God I can't even control my bowel movements and I am God you're controlling the universe God no so that that humility it's a bow down to me Guru um in this way you will attain unto me now I want to go a little a little more once again take a look at this verse and go little more in depth here I'm going to use the commentary by Ram suktasti who was a recent commentator on the bhagavad-gita his very beautiful book massive book sadak sanjivan if you read it it's in Hindi the original but it's been translated into many Indian languages it's huge um in English also so he spent his whole life studying and practicing and teaching the Gita so it's good so I was just going to talk make a few points based on his commentary so he says you start with mad bhakta be my devotee so fall in love with God when you discover your intimacy with God falling in love is being intimately close to some somebody or something so with my Intimacy in God what happens is my false identification so one of the interesting insights of RAM sukhdashi is the Eternal can only have a relationship with the Eternal the Eternal and the non-eternal cannot really have a relationship when we think we have a relationship with something non-eternal we are in delusion what does he mean non-eternal people places possessions all are non-eternal they come and they go and that's the truth this body which I consider not not that I have a relationship with the body it's I am this body who am I this one what is this I and RAM sukhdashi he says it's it's a false idea it's a delusion because it's continuously changing it's flowing away continuously and you try to catch hold of it it's delusion it's delusional you were there before this body you will you are here now and when this body will go one day it will go it will die you'll still be there but the problem is we think we are the body this is the wrong relationship based on falsity this is canceled this is overcome when you set up your relationship with the truth with God so when I fall in love with God when I have devotion and love for God my Krishna my Rama my Divine mother Durga or Kali in whichever way my ramakrishna then it's a true relationship you the Eternal Soul you have a relationship with the Eternal God that's a fact notice this is not the advaithic I am that this is a devotional relationship one reason is very non-dualistic very Advocate but his main school was vishishta dweta the qualified monism whose primary spiritual practice is devotion so you find lot of pointers for the practice of devotion from Ram suktasti so the first thing he says you fall in love with God your relationship now is a true relationship now then what you do next Mana that means give your mind unto me Krishna says give your mind unto me so instead of being you know the high Fallout in philosophy this is all vedanta give your mind unto me to realize that you are Brahman instead of going to that route he says that be mindful of me let your thoughts be about me and just watch our thoughts I am a devotee I love God but what am I thinking about all day long anything except God most of her thoughts are not about God so um he puts it beautifully he says I love you krsna says and I will never forget you but you tend to forget me so you have to be mindful of your relationship with me yes you are my devotee but be mindful of that relationship with me think about me deliberately consciously so that is the meaning of the third he says so sacrifice unto me means you offer all your activities religious and so-called secular as an offering to me whatever you do in the office in your school you know in your workplace in your service in your community and at home and in your personal life whether it is taking a bath or eating food all that you can offer unto me like you would offer a flower here that could offer you know fruits before the altar similarly you offered everything to God instead of saying that all this is my secular life and what I do in the temple or in my Shrine that is my religious life then what happens there are two problems that way one is that my secular life becomes devoid of God one of the things that God does for us even long before Enlightenment it gives meaning to our lives then our secular life becomes meaningless and our spiritual life suffers because the secular life demands so much of our time and effort I mean unless you're a monk even if you're a monk there are things to which to be done in the ashram but if you are in the world world there yeah in samsara as a householder or a student I've seen now I'm beginning to see nowadays in colleges and all the students and not quite like students in our days 2017 lots of time now they don't their days are scheduled like corporate executives and say what's wrong with that what's wrong with that is it doesn't give any extra free time to you know just go to the library and read a book you like not because if it's your recommended reading just because you like just go and explore just waste time impossible it seems to be that it sort of fills up your day and they have it all got it scheduled like some Wall Street executive and these are not b-school students business school students they're just college kids and we have the new technology to thank for it it's all you know they have it in joint calendars and everything so they have their days scheduled in teamwork it's all locked into each other so you really cannot escape from it um anyway so our secular life suffers if you leave God out of it and spiritual life suffers because if you if you you know take spiritual life out of secular life demands of secular life are so much you have very little time and energy left so the beautiful thing in karma yoga and what Krishna says convert all of that into spiritual practice and why not if it is at all true God is the one reality of this world everything in this world is pervaded by God if that's at all true then what we call so-called secular life must be God must be there we just don't see it we have made these differences the Japanese and the Shinto practice they have what are called these Spirit Gates you will find I have forgotten the name for that you'll find in Japanese gardens in in the pond you'll find ornate gate but just the gate there are no walls or fence I mean that side is as good as this side that's supposed to a spirit get that Spirit gate that side is spiritual this side is the world but you can clearly see it's the same side on both sides so what is that gate it's that that change in your paradigm you go through that then you see everything is spiritual offer everything to me and one good practice is food because you're going to eat anyway you're going to eat anyway so um then in that case what food you eat offered to me you offer in puja's Hindu or Buddhist pujas or giant pujas we offer food before the deity like that the food which you are eating you offer it to God and then eat it as Prasad that's what we do in a Puja we offer it to God and then after the ritual is performed it becomes Prasad so similarly mentally offer whatever you're eating there's a practice we monks we inculcate from a very early stage when we're novices we try to develop the practice of whatever we eat it could be a snack it could be just a drink of water but mentally offer it to the Lord then it becomes Prasad it becomes a it becomes habitual and it's since it's something that you'll do anyway you can do it at home you can do it in the temple you can do it at Starbucks mentally don't start chanting mantras in in Starbucks I remember this friend of ours a novice amongst when we were in training monastic training so we used to share a room three novices to a room and luxury of luxuries we were the first batch of trainees who had fans you know fans and there was really a big luxury in the monastery because it's very hot there and very humid so that was really good but it was like one fan for the whole room so that's strategically the bed which was below that fan there was the best bed in the whole room anyway um so I had a friend a roommate who was a novice and Brilliant person slightly eccentric I mean they're all monks we're all eccentric but you have to be a little mad to be but he was little more than the rest slightly brilliant man it was a engineer and a PhD from IIT Mumbai he worked on what do you call it fluid dynamics the flow of air over surfaces flow of fluids over surfaces he did his PhD on that he worked for NASA for 10 years and so on and then he became a mug and we were roommates he was way above me in you know intellectually and all of that and he was prematurely graying so you know we had this as some novices we have the sacred tuft of hair so his stuffed of hair was white and so we used to call him Grandpa although it was only a few years older than us not not much anyway all of this is to show um the practice of offering food to God before you eat it he also did that just like the rest of us but he carried it to extremes so for example he would prepare a little snack for us he was very kindly he would I and the other roommate in the same room I remember he would prepare a little snack with puffed rice muri and little uh Chana chur I don't know what you call spicy mixes and all and prepare it and offer it to us to eat but we couldn't eat until he said so so what he would do is he would take a little bit of that and put it here a little Shrine with the pictures of srirama Krishna and Masha Radha and so I'm Vivekananda he would stand in front of the picture of Sri ramakrishna with a little bowl with that snack which he had prepared and the spoon he would take it up and put before soyama Krishna like this and he had a very piercing look he would look at SRI Ram Krishna Straight Like That and we would have to wait we can't start eating until he gives us the go you know like so he will look at SRI ramakrishna very piercingly until he feels it'll take several minutes until he feels that SRI ramakrishna has accepted it but he has cooked in his offering until he feels he has accepted it the moment he feels he has accepted it he will look at us good you're good to go and we can start eating so that's madhyaji offer what you are whatever you eat whatever you do whatever you consume whatever it need not just be food it could be you're watching a television serial or whatever you mentally offer it to the Lord so the attention is on that is a spiritual practice for you whatever you're doing Vivekananda the ones he was joking you're a very funny guy he was joking people were laughing he made a joke about SRI ramakrishna one of the monks was offended and he said is that right you should joke about SRI ramakrishna used to call srirama Krishna the old guy so is that right you should joke about SRI ramakrishna and vivekan this is a turn to and said so do you think I should joke about you what it means is all of what I do even my jokes will will be of the highest and I'll deal only with God and nothing but God one of the vowels which monastics take when you become a monk one of the mantras from the upanishads we speak chant is from henceforth we shall talk of great things and Noble things alone not of low things not of petty things anymore so madhyaji offered unto me whatever you are doing whatever you are consuming whatever you're doing all of that you offer unto me and then he says in this way you keep bowing down to me the last time we talked about bowing down physically but and that's very important but also whole of Life very beautifully house ramse describes how the whole of life is a bowing down to the Lord when we have this deep intimate connection with God you have this feeling I belong to him and he belongs to me I am thine my Lord and you are mine I mentioned this earlier I was saying Teresa of Avila she would describe herself as Teresa of Jesus and then she had a vision one day of Jesus actually and he didn't she didn't know who this suddenly this stranger was appearing before her so I that stranger asked her who are you and she replied as usual she replied I'm Teresa of Jesus who are you and he replied I am Jesus of Teresa I see so how beautiful that's why sister nivedita always would sign sister nivedita would sign her name as nivedita of ramakrishna Vivekananda to bow down to me means continuously identifying myself who am I I am dying you can think of I'm the child of the Lord SRI ramakrishna had that relationship with the Divine mother Kali and thy child you are my mother I am your child it could be child it could be you could be the mother and God could be your child or father and God could be your child that's a very intimate and very affectionate relationship you know if God gopal Irma if God is your child very interesting I you can't ask anything of a child you can only take care of a child and love a child and this is a real thing I heard recently a devotee she told me that her mother always worshiped gopal the child Krishna throughout her life and she was very devoted this lady's mother a very saintly Lady it's because of her that her children became so interested in spiritual life but one interesting story this lady told me that at the end of her life her mother suffered from various illnesses and she was going into one of her multiple operations she had going into surgery and she was suffering so this lady this daughter asked her mother you worship gopala so much all your life why don't you ask gopal or the baby Krishna or didn't you ask him to give you some relief you know take away this pain and she looked surprised the old lady looked surprised and said how can I he's a baby even while going to surgery the only thing she was worried about is who will take care of him who will give food at the right time who will complete the daily worship see how it spiritualizes your mind it your mind is no longer on the problems of the body the surgery you don't even want anything from God how can you say this is a baby it's my baby how can I ask something from a baby so he is mine I am his that is that is the relationship um then what happens he draws ramsukdas she draws some very interesting beautiful conclusions how you can make your whole life a salutation namaskar how to salute the Lord um one is yet you are no longer interested in asking for special favors then I am the Lord's whatever the Lord does for me is fine with me that I am the Lord's plus I want certain things in my life I have a Christmas list wish list yes you're God but you're also Santa Claus you have to do these things for me no you don't do that you don't do that you're happy in just loving God so anybody who wants certain things to go his or her way in life and we all do it can come but we will say it's all right if we do not if we really seriously want this should happen and that should not happen we're still retaining a kind of Independence I'm a saving with my lips that I am yours and you are mine but I still hold on to a certain kind of independent wanting something for this little person which is a strange thing to do when you're in the face of Infinity of God why so much interested in you know when somebody prayed to Sri ramakrishna who was dying of throat cancer couldn't eat please pray to the Divine mother that you can eat and then the SRI ramakrishna said the Divine mother showed me I'm eating through all these mouths how can I pray that this too but then the body will go you'll die please let it go this little body what does it matter why do I want to hold on to it so this is the first thing we lose all uh independent desire to make things better for this little person second it says that normally we have a very clear view of what is nice and what is not nice what is pleasant and what is unpleasant desired for and undesirable we are very clear view we would want these desired for things to happen and the undesirable things not to happen and we work all our life to make the things which we like make them happen although so foolish what we like changes so much throughout life I when I was a little boy what I liked was that little gaudy little toy and this and this little cartoon and today if you asked me to you know play with the toy and watch that cartoon I would run a mile and yet I was so fond of that at that time that's what I really wanted I remember reading this beautiful written book on calculus which was awful for me when I was learning it as a kid now it's fascinating for me so it's our likes and dislikes are is childish childish it's crazy to spend our lives chasing all that so what is nice for me and what's not so nice for me those things if you are a devotee of the Lord if you love God they will not be so different anymore yeah I mean you're not delusional if there is disease if there is unhappiness if there is a shock things don't go our way miserable things happen in life we know it's unpleasant and things nice things happen to us people are nice to us there is success in life the stock market claims you get more Facebook likes and so on it's nice I know that but it doesn't make such a big difference to me my life is not at all about that anymore this is the sameness of the desired desirable and undesirable I mentioned the story earlier also a monk um we were together for some time in the Himalayas in one little town called uttarkashi where living little ashram I need to beg for your food there and then weeks later we're back in the big city in Calcutta and there was a big seminar organized and anyway took a long story short the seminar was in one of the conference halls in the uh snazziest hotel in Calcutta a five-star hotel and whatnot so a group of us because we were engaged in a particular academic Department which was connected with that seminar so group of us monks also went there and they were mostly the others were all teachers from different colleges so when we sat down to lunch in this very fancy hotel and that monk was sitting next to me I said Swami 15 days ago you were begging for food on the streets of this little town five thousand feet in the Himalayas and today you're sitting in the fanciest hotel in Calcutta what do you think what's the difference and he said you know what that place where I was begging for food I think that's not so bad at all and this fancy place I don't I think this they're not so great at all there's nothing really very great about this there's really nothing very bad about that they're not very different from me and I said see this is the difference that renunciation makes look at all these people around you they are all school and college teachers on their salary they can't afford a hotel like this so when they go back home for days and days they will tell stories about what fancy things they saw in this beautiful hotel you know the whole decor and the service and the food and all that they'll have stories to tell people at home it's a great thing for them an amazing thing something that they won't forget and if they were told tomorrow you don't have a job you don't have a family you don't have a home to stay in go and beg for your food on the streets have a little town in the Himalaya they'll go crazy raising life is finished it's a huge difference renunciation make this difference because you don't want anything at all for you it's fine now renalization is difficult the same effect can be attained with much more Delight much more peace much more bliss through bhakti if all our attachment is to God if our love is for God then the two things don't seem very different anymore what happens to us in the world and you know if things go our way nice I recognize things are good things don't go my way oh too bad but it's not not very big I'm not really concerned with it anymore too much so that's one then he goes on to say one powerful way of making things equal and holy see the monk from the monk both were equal why both are given up in Sanskrit worth giving up I am not worried about the poverty of you know begging for food from house to house I'm not interested in the wealth of going to a snazzy Hotel I give up both so giving up makes you equals you know same sighted towards both but bhakti does something better it makes both of them holy how Prasad remember the offered food so what do you do in a ritual in a ritual we um you know offer flowers and incense and chant mantras and meditate on God and offer food to God and after the Puja is finished we offer you know pushpanjali of flower offerings Bow Down chant and then take the partake of the offered food as Prasad prasada literally means the sacralized food the food has just become sacred because it has been offered to God and we mentally visualize it has been accepted by God SRI ramakrishna is to say that God actually does accept if you formally properly offer food to God God does actually accept because he had seen that a ray of light comes out from the deity and touches the offered food items anyway now their offered food item becomes Prasad now once it has become Prasad we all know in a temple when you get Prasad we don't now decide menu right what prasada will you order no whatever we get after the Puja it's taken as prasada in normally I might not like apples I might like mangoes but if in Prasad I get mangoes and apples it doesn't matter it's Prasad it's holy for me it's holy the differences don't matter just because it has been touched and accepted by God it's very important for me similarly the beauty of krsna's teachings is consider all your activities in the world as Puja rituals all Karma as rituals as Puja if all our all my activities are Puja then what happens what do I get out of a Puja Prasad the results of my karma karma the results of my karma are prasada for me what are the results of karma the pleasant and unpleasant effects which come so all the present and unpleasant effects which are coming in my life things which keep happening to me they are all prasadena do you see the beauty of this approach mentally if I say this has come to me as Prasad some of it is sweet enjoyable some of it is bitter miserable but if it's Prasad my attitude towards it it is coming from the Lord I accept it beautiful isn't it this is a very powerful way of dealing with especially dealing with unpleasant things in life now next he comes to that um Ram sukhdashi he comes to the next thing that unpleasant things keep happening in life how do you deal with it as a devotee things which we don't want to happen it happens things which we don't would never work for that happens and things which we would we would desperately wish to avoid those things keep happening in life because of our past Karma so how do you deal with that you deal with it in the way that the Lord is giving all this to me it is for my benefit the Lord is my best friend Krishna himself said I am suret I am the best friend of all beings since the Lord is the best friend the Lord Knows Best I don't know how this pain this miserable treatment this awful situation I find myself in life how is it going to help me which probably is going to help me probably it could have been much worse who knows we are assured even if things are bad it could have been much worse I've also told this story once a great philosopher I won't go into details of that it's a long story but this one of the greatest philosophers I knew um Dev Dash Babu very interesting person all his life you know he had gone to Swami Premiership and the once decades ago 1950s the disciple of holy mother so this philosopher devdas and he wanted to know God exists decades later I met him when he was this philosopher was elderly and he still had not taken initiation with he was still thinking whether God exists 40 years later but I found him to be a very spiritual man because that's all he wanted he was interested in more spiritual than many of us would be actually we think of so many things he's thinking only of that he's struggling with this issue anyhow so he was in The Institute of culture there's a big Institute in Calcutta gold Park this institute and this philosopher was there at that time the Swami in charge of that big Institute was Swami lokeshwaranji those who have seen him a great Swami wonderful Swami um and one of my friends was there another Monk of my age he was there at that time so he told me the story about devdas about this philosopher he said we young monks we wondered why is this guy hanging around because unlike other philosophers who are there under other Scholars he doesn't write books he doesn't write articles he doesn't give speeches nothing he doesn't do anything just hangs around and one of us he said one of us complained to the Swami in chart why do you keep him around this guy isn't doing anything he just is and the swamis who knew his value you know he simply smiled he had the sweetest smile Swami location he just gave his famous sweet smile and he said in Bengali he said it's good to have one or two such people but what was the then this my friend told me how he came to understand the metal of this person once he said I was standing near a window looking out on the beggar outside on the street who had only one leg and begging for money on the street I was feeling bad and looking at him and thinking suddenly and this philosopher could apparently he move like a cat you couldn't hear him approach and he would suddenly turn up and whispered in your ear so he says I was looking out in the street and suddenly he's there and whispering in my ear feeling sorry for him are we I said yes obviously ah but if you knew what he had done in his past life you would be running out there to cut off his other leg oh it is merciful God is loving he has only done that much now you might not agree with it but that was his take on the law of karma I asked him a question once this I asked him um about a philosopher I had read Casey bhattacharya Krishna Chandra bhattacharya nobody knows about him he was there in the early 20th Century mid-20th Century in Calcutta and if you look for his books you won't find any all he didn't write any he was probably the deepest thinking Indian philosopher of the 20th century now people are beginning to discover him what he did was he would just sit and think and write something on a scrap of paper and toss it away and well you think what happened to the scraps of paper his wife swept all of them away and tossed it into the waste paper basket but his son rescued some of it and those have been published as studies in philosophy if you look it up studies in philosophy two volumes and they are all scraps one two three four just like that but she's so profound if you read that you you I when I first read it amazing disguise is Light Years beyond all other thinkers and yet how is it that we don't know about him so I asked this devdas who was his student so I asked him you knew him this crazy patacharia why don't we hear about him and I still remember his answer he said ah just as there are musicians of musicians and artists of artists it is a philosopher of a philosopher just there are musicians whom only other musicians understand he's a philosopher only other philosophers will understand and he told me a funny story that we're going way beyond our subject and I can't I'll tell you this one and stop he told me a funny story about how they would after class his classes were also very cryptic no his classes were really good but his writings were very cryptic so instead after class they would all the students would the grad students you know like the senior student they would rush to his house this philosopher's house and he would he would be scared of mosquitoes so this fellows offered and he would sit in inside a mosquito net and then he would teach them and so he said once I asked him that sir why are your writing so you when you teach it's so clear but why are your writing so difficult and he chuckled Casey but actually chuckled and said in Bengali you have to melt it down it's crystallized thought you have to melt it down a little bit so this devdas my friend once asked him so sir you're brilliant why don't you um teach or you know write or give lectures we said something which goes very much against me but I'll still say that he said to my friend he said ah but you see those who write those who speak a lot they can't write and there was a writer lock don't think I think I think so all he does is sit and think anyway these are amazing people back to the subject that he says when things go our way and things do not go our way both are for our our good why what have all this story was to tell you the story of the beggar with one leg could have had no legs we don't know why so this faith that what is happening to us it's all right I'll put up with it and I'll see through to it not all right in the sense of a stoic a strike would say things go unpleasant and you have to be tough concentrate on what you have control over don't be more on what you do not have control over that's the strike approach no here it is the firmed faith that it is because because everything happens in this universe because of the Lord nothing would happen without his wish if it's happening it's for my good how it works is one-to-one vermicellular novice monk was complaining to a senior monk about how people are misbehaving with him and the food is not good and his health is not good then after hearing all that the senior monk said to him until in bengalian translate he said I understand everything is it like detracting from your purification of mind all your spiritual practices are supposed to lead to purification of mind so all these sufferings you're talking about is it reducing your purification of my knowledge you know it's helping actually so um that might be the whole purpose of all the good and bad that happens to us often bad and suffering is a better teacher than the good and the Pleasant so in these ways submitting to the Lord ramsugdusti says [Music] um not separately independently Desiring something nice and pleasant for myself if I really love God second not making such a vast difference between nice and bad and desirable and undesirable I want this and I don't want that don't make so much difference there isn't the difference is mostly our delusion third Prasad take it all as I have done Puja of God worship of God and whatever is coming in my life the karma which is giving result to the effect Karma Pala that is Prasad that is literally the fruits coming from my karma the fruits of prasada which I'm getting I have no choice about it but all of it is Holy it's better even than the Monk's renunciation Monk's pronunciation was I give it all up so it's all same to me nothing would be spectacularly good about the hotel nothing spectacularly bad about going and begging for food it's all same to me but this is even better Prasad if it's something holy coming from the Lord and then the fourth point ramsukdas he makes is when unpleasant things come you see it's coming from the Lord and be happy that the Lord is helping me in my spiritual life I've told the story Also earlier about this Monk I heard this in the Himalayas I never met him it was a true story though there there are two kinds of monks those who go there's a place where monks are fed so you turn up if you're a monk you'll be fed and I used to do that also there are some who don't go but they are regarded so highly by the temples and you know there's so the food is sent to them maybe they are old or something and there was this Monk who would neither go nor ask for his food to be sent to himself if people the villagers regarded him very highly so they would turn up at his cave and leave food outside um so once the villagers decided to and he would always say that you know my friend feeds me Yaar means even more than French like buddy it's more colloquial than that so my buddy feeds me my pal feeds me buddy is God I I depend only on my friend so one day the villagers wanted to test whether he is really so detached so they didn't bring food and they watch from a distance at that point in time the monk came out of his cave he looked around no food he went back and every 15 minutes I kept coming out and taking look around no food but luckily at the end of the day at Sunset The Villages arrived with food and um you know I hope they gave adam food it's not part of the story they just arrived and said what happened your friend didn't feed you today it's like we are feeding you it's not your friend your friend didn't feed you today and the monk he came out of his cave and he broke out into a dance he said how do you translate that well it's a happy day today because today the will of my friend was done and they asked for an explanation what do you mean usually I want to eat and what I want God does that my friend he does what I want I want to eat and he gives me food today also I want to eat I'm hungry but today he didn't do what I wanted he did what he wanted that not give me food I'm so happy today what I wanted was not done but what he wanted was done is absolutely convinced everything that happens in the in the universe is because of the Lord's will and today the Lord's will and my will are not the same that's how it's one powerful way of handling unpresent things in life shocks in life minor problems and huge problems which come in life all right not only accept it I'll be happy so these are the ways and he says finally [Music] keeping me as the Ultimate Gold Refuge that word is very important see all the yogas Karma Yoga bhakti Yoga Raja yoga meditation gyani yoga they can all be presented by the ego into personal projects see I am such a devotee of God or I am such a philosopher and you know gyani and man of knowledge it's it's still the ego everything is for the Lord is done as worship of the Lord I am not anywhere in in the in the equation remove the small eye from the equation there he says and SRI ramakrishna actually this is the most powerful practice ramakrishna says that not I but thou if you want to rest if you want peace not I but thou I am the machine my mother Divine mother you are the operator these are songs from these are lines from a Bengali song to The Divine mother I am the house you are the Mistress of the house who dwells in the house so you are in charge you you do everything in life whatever is comes to me in life and whatever is done is by your will I am like a machine which you operate so much self-surrented to the Lord now always Common Sense somebody might ask so what what about if somebody exploits you or you know teaches you that God wants you to go and kill these people and blow yourself up or knock down two buildings in New York with a hijacked airplane what about that well there one must use common sense religion spirituality is not against Common Sense clearly ethical principles are being violated here God would never want you to commit mass murder or suppose many cult leaders they say you give up your will just do trust me and do what I am saying but they're also Common Sense should be applied is it is it exploitative or is it leading the one principle um there's some principles Vivekananda gave if it makes you strong then that is the truth anything that weakens you reject as poison it's making you more and more dependent on somebody or something then it's not good if it is selfless makes you selfless it's good that which makes you selfish is bad if it unites it's good if it divides it's bad and it's just thinking Mahatma Gandhi he broke the rules he broke broke the law but notice how he broke the law the colonial government the British government there they could they were confounded they didn't know how to deal with him he would announce that I'm going to break this law please come and arrest me and then he would be arrested and he would produce before the judge and he would say I broke the law and give me the I plead for how do you plead guilty and forgive me the maximum possible punishment and the judge said I don't know how to deal with you I've never he there's a beautiful scene in attenborough's movie where he sentences Gandhi to jail and then he stands up in honor of Khan he says I've never had a prisoner like you now that's that's spiritual he's not hiding anything he's not hurting anybody he knows what is moral what is ethical and is taking a stand and willing to suffer for it personally not making other people suffer so yes um a complete surrender to the Divine thou my Lord not I you are the operator I am the machine you are the dweller and the house SRI ramakrishna is his prayer to the Divine mother so and such a person the one who is connected to me in this way in which way by keeping your mind on me your love giving your love to me all your activities to me and making your life one continuous bowing down to the Lord surrender to the Lord so this is how you practice bhakti and he will repeat this again at the very end of the Gita in the shadow of the more famous verse all right let's um take a couple of questions before we end almost run out of time observations questions no yes Tillerson you don't have to tell the name there's no recording going on there is but it's uh yeah tell me a question but context of non-duality right is Krishna he really reincarnate of God or is he just a human being who God who got no he's saying all these things worship me worship me Etc but isn't that essentially um defining himself as different or holier than thou than Arjun for example yes yes right so first apparently it makes a big difference because this doesn't sound non-dualistic so I'll tell you how it is not non-dualism and then I'll tell you how it is non-dualism first it's not non-dualism because um non-dualism is you and Brahman are one in the same same Brahman but this body and mind is you the person same Brahman as the one absolute reality of the universe that is you know the Creator preserver destroyer of the universe you and God are one in the same reality actually there's no difference between you and God that's why it's when SRI ramakrishna said to Vivekananda he who was Rama he who was Krishna is in this body ramakrishna but not in your vedantic sense free means that Brahman who who appeared as ramad in some age and Krishna in some other age as incarnations is in this today in the form of ramakrishna but then the non-dualist would say yeah and I can say the same thing also he who was Rama who he was Krishna is in this body this is Joe right another would say yes absolutely so is everybody we are one and the same is not in that sense I mean it really there is a God who is not individual sentient beings he's the lord of the universe you are a limited being in Professor Brian's sense the Lord controls the universe and you can't control your bowel movements this is the difference and this difference from that perspective I am an incarnation of God with all the differences between an Incarnation and a ordinary sentient being like us we have no control over our life and death we are we are thrown from Lifetime to Lifetime by our past Karma we didn't choose to be born in this way it's produced by our past Karma it's we are strictly under the domain of causality or incarnation of God is not under the domain of causality incarnation of God is independent does not come because of past Karma it comes with all the power and glory of God in order to intervene in human history in order to change human history and uplift those who want spirituality and all of human humanity and all of that so all of that the whole doctrine of the Incarnation ramakrishna says you have to take it seriously not dismiss it non-dualistically so when Krishna is saying this it is not non-dualistic he means it seriously that there is God and I am the Incarnation of God and you are ordinary sentient beings like Arjuna and you're caught in this cycle of samsara and I'm here to help you liberate yourself in all these ways and all these teachings so take it seriously as it is said now can you reconcile non-duality with it yes you can if you look the standard advaitha model is one existence Consciousness based non-dual there's no second reality apart from Brahman uh the non-dual existence Consciousness place that's the only reality the entire universe is an appearance of that reality that's that's the standard idea Brahma satyam the absolute is the real jagat mithya the universe is an appearance and what are you are none other than that absolute or I am Brahman that's the teaching in that case the world which is an appearance and God is also part of this world or the world is part of God so Brahman appears to you as God universe and individual being in this universe when we clearly see ourselves as embodied individual beings inhabiting a vast universe then religion says that Beyond behind all of this is one God and advaita says behind this or underlying this triangle God universe and you underlying this triangle is one reality that's the non-duality it's the same non-dual Brahman who is the God of this universe is this universe and is you also that's why this doctrine of two truths is very useful absolute truth and relative truth which is which Buddhists also to the Mahayana Buddhists also take records to the doctrine of two truths they have no God talk there but there is an absolute realm of Truth and there is a conventional truth in conventional truth advaitha would say God is as true as you are if you take yourself seriously as I am this being and we must and if you think this world to be real then God is equally real how real as real as you and this world well this world is not ultimately real okay God is Not ultimately real the world is an appearance and you are none other than Brahman in that case what about God it's remains silent about God so God is also none other than Brahman if you are none other than the absolute reality is God all something different from the absolute reality no God is also that absolute reality when we take the relative world to be real that absolute reality becomes the god of religion for us you want a precise definition of God in advaita vedanta there is a very precise definition I'll give you the Sanskrit and give you the English translation leave it at that um what is ishwara or bhagavan or saguna Brahman ishwara means god bhagavan means god saguna means Brahman with attributes definition it is the absolute reality pure consciousness associated with Maya associated with Maya what are we then you are the same absolute reality limited by again or ignorance and what is the relationship between ignorance and Maya ignorance is a fraction of Maya or a power of Maya the different philosophies which understand it differently you can put it this way God is the totality we are part of it we are tiny part of each of us and what is Brahman neither totality nor part of it it's there's no totality or part there there's one reality which appears as this whole mass in which we are tiny parts and there's a hole to it the totality the cosmic the totality God the individual us but beyond the cosmic and the individual is one non-dual reality which is Brahman which is you actually yeah that's what Sam Altman somebody asked him so I got the reference somebody in YouTube wrote I gave a talk and I mentioned it's somewhere vaguely I mentioned I have heard this and then somebody on YouTube wrote a comment that if you look up his Twitter feed somebody asked him Sam Altman that tell us one thing you believe which mostly people don't believe and he said I believe in the absolute equivalence of Brahman and Atman using those words so I think he's a non-dualist maybe in a way down thick sense okay I'll come to you but gentleman at the back yes yes let's say for example you're doing it because you're attached a cash Center for example doing it for ego different ly can you just talk a little bit more about that concept yes it's subtle the ego is very subtle yeah it it can when you want it to be when you want to be spiritual and rise above the ego the ego will come and say I can help you do that it'll volunteer I'm going to be a good ego from now on and for a long time we can't help it because we are so closely identified with the ego the sense of I it's very difficult you can say that I am witness Consciousness I am the witness of the ego which is actually the fact but we still feel and act like that and speak like that that we are the ego so till that time the practice of this bhakti has Krishna says in the ninth chapter to continuously surrender to the Lord and make the ego smaller by the presence of a greater I not the ego which is the small life but a big eye which is the eye of God if you make it I am Brahman that ego itself will become inflated and I am yeah that's good I like that I am Brahman no so it's much better Swami turian energy a great vedantist himself he says I don't say I am Brahman because Vivekananda could say that but for us it's better to say thou and not I so that's one way we especially in this day and age we are very self-obsessed my problem my issues my I have a portfolio of problems which I am very careful about maintaining even more than my stocks and bonds portfolio no no no let go make it small and in each of the yogas it can inflate the ego the Ghana yoga can make me I have read all the books and I know all the arguments and I am more knowledgeable than you are the bhakti yoga I am the servant of the Lord I'm more humble than you are and it will become this is there is a conflict then who is the the unless the least egotistical of all the ego becomes about that I am a better meditator than you are are in the field of action of course I'm a better work that action can inflate the ego like anything because some people are better workers and it becomes evident so you can set up institutions and get awards for the recognition for your good works in society and that inflates the ego so all of these ways one has to watch out for the ego each each of the yogas can do a can inflate the ego in a particular way and just has to be careful bhakti is a good way of of you know this bowing down there must be some place the Lord and then Guru some person living person before whom I unquestioningly bow down I I lower my ego here so my question is as one moves towards the total surrender will they self-effort fall off by itself yes and the Lord will take care of you Lord promises I will take care of you suppose I am so much engaged with God what about my job and my you will do that anyway is Krishna going to do my job so not literally not right now but you can see you can't even stop yourself from doing your job so you will do it but it's no longer the central concern of your life and don't worry you'll be taken care of all right last question yes that's a good question but first level of Consciousness in vedanta we are always uncomfortable we talk about levels of consciousness States Of Consciousness in vedanta is consciousness is one and you know the absolute reality so there's levels of mind and it's just a quibble but it's important to know levels of mind or states of mind waking dreaming deep sleep samadhi these are states of mind not of Consciousness Consciousness is like one light and that's your real nature pure consciousness of course but now your question was different it was about the ego in this world you need to maintain a certain level of like what's what might be called a healthy ego it's good it's a good question because yoga vedanta even bhakti this is not for shaky people this is not for weak people often people's egos are not well developed not in the sense of not being egotistic but not healthy people a lot of guilt shame shaky lack confidence in themselves so often these talk about complete surrender to God or I am not the body not the mind I am one Consciousness be you know in everybody this kind of expansion beyond the ego this can be misunderstood by a person who is not yet well developed a well-developed personality is a prerequisite for spirituality so one one aspect of a well-developed personality is a difference between aggression and resistor teachers this of course it was a course called assertiveness training so on one end of the spectrum is aggression um you know being angry and bullying others to get your way and aggressive the other end of the spectrum is um is manipulativeness is manipulativeness so not being aggressive but trying to get your way by you know playing politics and lying and sneaking around manipulative so neither of them is good what is good is a healthy ego will be assertive so you say no when you when you feel that you have to say no you say if you want to ask for something you ask for something don't try to extract don't try to video or whine your way into it ask you have a right to ask the other person has the right to say no both should be fine with you so this is the start and we used to joke about it assertiveness training is to say telling us how to be rude for free assertiveness training that's one sign of a healthy ego I mean a good deal of modern psychology is to develop a healthy ego whether it's Friday and psychoanalysis or modern cognitive behavior therapy and how to deal with others in a healthy way a healthy ego is it's Freud was asked once about this healthy ego because in Friday and psychoanalysis anything and everything is a sign of trouble so he was asked so in psychoanalysis how do you define a normal person if you say I have no problems at all then the psychologist will tell you that's a sign of a serious problem you're suppressing everything I don't have an issue oh then you have very serious issues you're suppressing everything so what is it to be normal and right give a beautiful answer what's a healthy ego what's a normal ego he says if you have the ability to work and love you're normal if you can relate normally to people that's the sign of health and if you can do your own work that's a sign of Health even now psychiatrists do that they just look which is the person is able to take care of himself or herself and just do the basic things you know they tick off take care of personal hygiene food a basic routine the job which is not your high pressure Wall Street job just the basic job that also if a person is able to fulfill the basic requirements also turn up for the job for example and so on then a person is normal so that kind of it's a good question one one person you may have heard of him Rajiv Malhotra so he's in Princeton he's written a number of books on Hinduism so he said to me that I am often Disturbed that when gurus and swamis they keep talking about transcending the ego surrendering or you know expanding we say I'm I'm one with everybody but even before a person is confident and strong in you know himself or herself in its own language culture religion even before that if you say um surrender everything or become one with one this is and I said you are right first Vivekananda was very clear about it first be a strong person first be a good person then a spiritual person a confident person so I'm Vivekananda gave great stress on character development as the basis for spirituality good um [Music] [Music]