Video 118

118. Bhagavad Gita | Chapter 10 Verse 1-3 | Swami Sarvapriyananda

um vasudeva sutam devam comes [Music] so we have done we have finished the ninth chapter and that's halfway through the bhagavad-gita and today we're going to start the 10th chapter the 10th chapter is vibruti yoga the yoga of glories yoga of splendor the glories of God somebody looked a little puzzled at oh for a moment I thought it's my glories now the glories of God but yes in one sense our own Glory also from an advantic sense all right before we start the 10th chapter just a few words of introduction and then we'll go on so take a look at the big picture one way of understanding the bhagavad-gita which I have mentioned earlier is to see it as the mahavata masi that thou art does this a number of advaithic teachers do that what they do is they divide the 18 chapters into three groups of six chapters each the first six chapters are about our real nature who am I about that thou art about you and then the next six chapters from 7 to 12 are about that God and then the last six chapters from 13 to 18 are about the identity of that and thou you and God very neat the Gita doesn't really fit into that need categorization because in each of these groups you will find lots of stuff which don't actually fit into that category but there's a broad classification there is some truth to it because you'll see especially in these six chapters from Seventh chapter to the 12th chapter it is about God it is about Devotion to God it's heavily tilted towards that um so in the last few chapters we have been talking about God and we were introduced with this concept of God's higher nature and lower nature prakriti God's higher nature is consciousness and lower nature is material nature this entire universe and that's a neat way of looking at it because our experience it neatly falls into these two categories I the conscious knower and this the universe which I know everything that I know is an object to me the Consciousness and I am the conscious knower so Consciousness and material nature in fact these are the two great categories in sanke philosophy and yoga philosophy purusha and prakriti now where God comes in is this this consciousness pure consciousness in association with material nature with the cosmos is the god of vedanta I'll repeat that Consciousness in association with the mid of the cosmos itself everything is the god of vedanta those who remember Mandu ke upanishadika consciousness plus the power of Maya is called God or ishwara Consciousness plus the power of Maya plus all Minds the entire Cosmic mind is called um The Cosmic mind and Consciousness plus the power of Maya plus all Minds The Cosmic mind plus the cosmic body all bodies living bodies and the insentient universe all together that is called Virat what Arjuna XP will experience in the 11th chapter of the bhagavad-gita but this is Virat this is the vedantic conception of God basically Consciousness and material nature awareness and the cosmos it's a lot like us the difference is this we are the same consciousness but with one fraction of the associated with one fraction of that material nature not with the cosmic body of the universe but with one body and not with the cosmic mind with one mind and with a fraction of the power of Maya in our case it is called again or the causal body so we have a causal body a subtle body and a physical body but one and a tiny bit of this huge material nature the causal body is part of material nature um the subtle body is part of material nature and the physical body is part of material nature associated with the slice of that you become an individual sentient being Consciousness becomes an individual sentient being like us associated with all of that Consciousness is God so this is the vedantic idea of God of course the Core teaching of advaita vedanta is beyond that the fourth not the Waker dreamer deep sleeper but the turia which is consciousness itself but we are not going there now we are we are now sticking with the with the idea of God with the teaching about God so this is God and this is the individual sentient being what's God pure Consciousness Limitless Consciousness plus Maya plus Cosmic mind plus Cosmic body what's us pure Consciousness the same pure Consciousness but limited through reflected through one tiny bit of Maya which called again which is called again and one mind and one body all right we'll leave it at that now what about the world this physical world this material world of which our material bodies are also apart and this in sentient universe is also a part you know planets and stars quarks and quasars and all of that this material universe that's what he's going to talk about primarily in this chapter that all of this material universe is the glory of God is the Splendor of God that's this what this chapter is about where does this come from God is the creator of this material universe that is the idea of God in all theistic religions all religions which believe in God they think of God as one one common idea is God is the creator God made this universe God made all of us in the sense of the bodies and the minds and the physical universe and in Hinduism god is the creator preserver and Destroyer Who projects this universe who maintains it and finally dissolves it only to project it again now and in a sort of preliminary idea is God is separate and the creation is separate but in vedanta we don't say that we say that the Creator and also the creation there are this one reality God creates the universe true but out of himself herself itself in technical language these two there are two terms cause so a carpenter is the intelligent being who creates this table so the carpenter is the intelligent cause and the table is made out of wood and the wood is the material cause in this case the Carpenter and the wood are different the material cause and intelligent cars are different the carpenter doesn't become the table luckily for the Carpenter and for all of us also but there are cases in which the intelligent cause in the material cows are the same the spider spins a web out of its own body so spider the sentient being the creature the tiny little creature is the intelligent cause because it spins the web but its own body is the material cause it's a material out of which the web is spun that's why the spider is used as an example in vedanta in the mundak upanishad just as a spider spins a web out of its own body and absorbs it back that's the example in that same way from the akshara the imperishable reality that is pure Consciousness or Brahman the entire universe is spun out now notice in this case just as the spider is the intelligent cause and the material cause of the web in vedanta God is the intelligent cause and the material cause of this universe and one interesting thing is the material cause continues in the effect they if the material is wood then you'll find wood here the effect is the table table is the product and the material is wood in the product the material will continue don't we say touch wood we don't say touch table touch wood because this is the same material clay pot the clay is the material out of which the part has been made and when you have the pot after it's been made the clay is right there similarly if God is the material out of which this universe is made then what is all this there must be God here God must be imminent in this universe not only Beyond this universe but also the creator of this universe and in and through this universe imminent the universe that's why Swami Vivekananda said we Hindus worshiper Transcendent imminent God God who's Beyond Time space and causation but also in and Through Time space and causation and in this entire material universe is present here now this is the basis for this chapter this is the basis for this chapter 10th chapter um [Music] how is this world to be seen in vedanta this world this world we are living in what is it to us when we Are Spiritual seekers in vedanta three things and this I'm I'm quoting from traditional vedanta scholar and monk from Banaras pranab chaitanyapuri so he is a senior Monk and he's been traditionally studying vedanta and teaching vedanta for a long time for decades and decades it's also funny how he got in touch with me he teaches and then one of his students so they are traditional brahmacari students sitting in the class and learning from this monk but now even traditional students are online so at one point one of the students said Master you are saying this but server prayer in the did not say this and he was who's this and I said there's this you know on the internet and on YouTube there are these talks and he taught the same text which you are teaching but he said it this way so I had this annoyed senior traditional monk calling me from India from the holy city of Banaras Swami this won't do you said it like this and you're confusing the students here there was a point in which but then we hit it up very well and so we once in a while he calls and we talk for a while so wonderful insights he gives what is this world in vedanta he says three things hey to be discarded to be given up to be dismissed here one second Divya divine third Brahman the Ultimate Reality these are the three views of the world in the bhagavad-gita with quotations from the different chapters he proves this first most important to start there here why this world has to be given up why is it to be dismissed why do we have to renounce because of three reasons again he says again from the bhagavad-gita because this world is is transient continuously changing and then Krishna himself says this having attained to this transient ever-changing world of Sorrow worship me worship God so it's it is Ever Changing not only is it ever changing because it's ever changing it gives rise to sorrow it's not obvious actually I mean why should change give rise to sorrow why is it that we think something unchanging is good yes I mean like a cookie who wants an eternal cookie it's true that the cookie if you eat it it lasts for a few seconds but it's all right that's good you wouldn't want a cookie which lasted a million years so why is change and temporality and change why is it bad this is the great Insight of the of the Buddha because he saw that to be happy we need a lot of things to go well yeah I must be rich and I must my stock portfolio must show this kind of you know Wall Street the indexes must be at this level people must like me my Facebook likes must be at that level my health must be like this all of this should go well then only I'm happy if one of these parameters goes a little off one little pin prick everything else is good with the body one little pin prick and I'm upset now if you do that that's one side of it all of these parameters have to be Optimum for me to be happy and now imagine all these parameters are continuously changing in that case you have to put in a lot of effort to and you have to be really lucky for you for all these parameters to come to a state where you are it's all very nice for you but what will happen the next moment changing so next moment sub-optimal again in that case most of the time we are bound to be unhappy we are bound to be unhappy the Buddha's Insight change come along with grasping a certain State wanting a certain State trying to achieve that and hold on to that and in a world of continuous change it's a formula for unhappiness desire in a world of continuous change formula for unhappiness grasping that was his great Insight all his sorrow why anity impermanent impermanent all his empowerment impermanent not only impermanent momentary momentary all is momentary not only momentaryam the void void All Is void and therefore because it is transient because it is momentary and because it is empty [Music] it is all productive of Sorrow in so it's not really impermanent but also sorrow not only that advaitha goes even further it doesn't exist it's an appearance it's not substantial at all we read that in the second chapter of the bhagavad-gita the 16th verse idea of the world so it doesn't exist it's an appearance like a dream like a snake scene in a rope and he tried to grasp that and hold on to that you're bound to suffer because it is producive of reproductive of suffering and because it's false because of these reasons it is to be given up that's the first thing now this very world is divine we will see it's permeated by Divinity that is this second chapter this 10th chapter is going to show having given up this word in a sense in don't make it your goal don't look to it for satisfaction and fulfillment the world as we see it as a separate reality out there on its own tempting us scaring us that world temporary giving rise to sorrow and ultimately not real at all hence give it up here next in that world itself this world is um produced by God and who is the intelligent cause and material cause of this world as clay continues in a clay pot as wood continues in a wooden table similarly God continues in this world this world is pervaded by Divinity but you have to look for it and understand it and notice it this the science of divinity in this world this is what that Swami he said pranava chaitanya he said this is this is vibhuti the glories of God the Splendor of God in this world same word first one must step back with his passion and then look for the glories of God in order to contemplate God in in the experience of this world of course then he goes further one one more step advaita vedanta will say Brahma um interpretation which Maharaja is talking about that will say it is the same Divinity everywhere so that is the even even um deeper and more profound truth that in everything everywhere it's that same Limitless Brahman but that's one step further we are not going there we're just looking for this material world showing us the glory of God this is called vibhuti one meaning of vibhuti which is the same Swami pointed out is how the one becomes the many the one becoming the many is vivahuti the glory of God and the process by which the one becomes the many is the meaning of yoga here vibhuti yoga is Krishna saying how I am this one non-dual reality but I become this many or I appear as this many how by my power and that power which makes me appear as many that is the yoga so vibhuti yoga The Yoga of Splendor of Glory one more point and then we'll go on little further from an advaithic perspective why look for particular glories in you know the sun is the glory of God and the Moon is the glory of God and the ganga is the glory of God well why not the Hudson why not the tapes and from an athletic perspective all of it is the same because the same brahmanas everywhere why even glorious why not awful things why not mean things why not miserable things so everything everywhere there is that same problem if it if it's all an appearance in movies playing on a movie screen and then not only the comedy not only the Epic movie is the glory of the movie screen even the tragedy the horror movie The Awful movie is also the glory of the movie screen so why just some glories uh because Krishna will point out and SRI ramakrishna has also pointed it out that wherever you see Excellence which you appreciate which you inspires you in nature in human beings in wonderful people and living beings and in material nature wherever you see Excellence Glory something Sublime and that is a manifestation of the glory of God a special manifestation that is a good Doorway to contemplate on God everything there is the same Raman everywhere that's that's what advaitha would insist but here is a secret though it is the same Brahman everywhere it's not so easily evident everywhere somewhere it's hidden somewhere it's hidden in more layers of Darkness than other places somewhere it's more revealed um so SRI ramakrishna also said wherever you find a special Excellence you know in you know a great talent or special goodness or special Holiness know that to be a special manifestation of God of the Divine mother Krishna also will say this at the end so that's the secret of this chapter yes God is everywhere but God is not so easily available for contemplation it's not so easy to contemplate God in an evil person in a petty person it's easy to contemplate easier much easier to contemplate God in a noble soul in a saintly person so now the glories of God Emmanuel Kant swamiji is a scholar he famously said that two things fill me with Wonder one is the starry heavens above and the other is the conscience within us human beings the human conscious Within so this Cosmos and what we are within this conscious being especially he said the human conscience actually the moral sense I think he meant that the moral law with it the moral law within and the star you have the cosmos above jalaluddin Rumi beautifully he says that the Lord out of his inexhaustible glories has created the green fields the green fields of space and time and this vibrant living Garden of the cosmos there's a beautiful story about a man who's looking for the Buddha so he was like a he it is said that he tracked the Buddha was trying to find where the Buddha is go and meet him asking people he tracked the Buddha like one would track an elephant in the forest that was the the example given so he kept on meeting people who had met the Buddha and those people told him stories of how their lives were transformed by the Buddha so the more he met such people and the more he heard about it he said this is truly a very great elephant he the science you know these science this amazing science of all these stories of people whose lives have been transformed for the better just by a meeting with the Buddha so these glories of God um the commentary I am using sridhar Swami's commentary there he actually starts each chapter with a verse which tells us what this chapter contains so this verse this is not part of the Gita this is part of sridhar Swami's commentary so there he says in the beginning of the 10th chapter foreign touched upon from the seventh chapter onwards see the same thing he's uh he's following the same scheme seven eight nine is a part of the six chapters on God so the glories of God have been briefly touched upon in the three chapters earlier seven he says seven Etc seven eight nine in this 10th chapter they will be talked about in detail why why he says this is the purpose of the tenth chapter is so that you can see God everywhere our complaint about God is where is God God is hidden show me God and here God will be shown to you Krishna will tell you where to look for God or the signs of God like the great elephant you won't actually see God in any of these things in the chapter but they're signs of God because remember the one intelligent material cause in Sanskrit so the material cause is in the creation so these are signs of God and this is actually the presence of God also implicitly as the material cause of this universe so Krishna is going to mention that so that we can see God everywhere from our complaint I don't see God anywhere now Krishna is going to say after this 10th chapter you can't complain anymore you see God everywhere Swami ashokanandity he says in one of his lectures he was the minister of the vedanta society in Northern California for many many decades 30s 40s 50s 60s so he says that where will I see God foolish question where will you not see God after this chapter all right before we start the chapter just one little um like a little flag I want to say something now when you see all these the glories of God will talk about there is a temptation that these this is such an amazing thing you know life the magnificence of this Cosmos so by this can we not prove that God exists if these are signs of God if there's the glories of God then these are proofs that God exists and theologians in different religions have tried to use this in order to prove the existence of God there's particularly one British Theologian in the 18th century William Paley so what he said are is that the glories of God this is the way to prove that God exists what is the proof that God exists we look at the extraordinary design in this universe and he gave what is called the watchmaker analogy that you know in those days the latest technology imagine late 18th century was a watch not watches like this pocket watch when he says suppose you're going along and in you know in the field in nature you find a rock what would you say The Rock has been there it's very natural for a rock to be there but if you're walking along and in the field you find a watch what will you say you won't say watch it's usually found on fields and in God in nature no it isn't somebody made it it's made by human hand and it's it's somebody's watch it's it's clearly artificial why did you do that with the watch even a person who does not know what a watch is suppose in some primitive forest or some place Aboriginal tribe they've never seen a watch but if they see a watch they won't say it's natural to the forest ah these things are always there all around they say no it's something human made how do you know that why do you know it's artificial so William Paley says that it's because of the extraordinary design of that clearly made to fulfill some purpose so it's been designed by some intelligence to fulfill some purpose if you know what a watch is it's meant to tell time even if you don't know it it shows some kind of design meant to fulfill a purpose now he says look at the human body the human hand look at the extraordinary you know life forms clearly there is tremendous design in them and such a design much more complicated than the watch human beings cannot do that so a great intelligence must be behind this so from the science of extraordinary design in nature found throughout nature specially in life but also in the cosmos in the window the planets they were beginning to discover how the planets go around in orbits and all that so natural laws are being followed so the conclusion is that there must be some great intelligence and power behind this very clearly designed universe and such an intelligence and power can only be God it's a great intelligence great power so this is the proof of God from intelligent design you know what happened to that why I am saying this is not a good idea is because I mean the classic answer is Richard Dawkins wrote a book The Blind watchmaker he says you don't need intelligence you don't need a God just the forces of nature by themselves darwinian Evolution can do the job they can produce things which are extraordinarily adapted to survival in in nature and environment so that argument fails if you base your God on that argument Along Comes Darwin to paley's credit I think he was before Darwin so but Along Comes Darwin and says that not necessary you don't need an extraordinary intelligence to produce such amazing design just the blind forces of nature natural selection genetic mutation can result in all of this notice here neither Krishna nor any of the commentators are making such a move they are not saying now Krishna says that you know I am God and the proof is look look at these splendors that proves that I am God no here sridhar Swami the commentator says for the purpose it's a method of practice in order to experience God contemplate God in your natural experiences it's a very powerful move where God seems to be hidden if you say God is pure Consciousness with the power of Maya well neither of them seem to be very obvious to me Maya seems to be some kind of um you know strange word and pure Consciousness I don't know what really pure Consciousness is but if you say the Sun and the Moon and the Ganges and this and that well these are things that we see you can if you're relating them to God and Krishna is saying that so these now become doorways to contemplate on God all right that's the introduction now we go into the chapter itself those who want you can follow me in the chanting yeah yeah the Blessed lord said here again Almighty armed one my Supreme word which I wishing your welfare shall tell you who take Delight in it so this chapter starts without a question Arjuna might be thinking okay I won't ask a question he'll stop now no such luck Krishna is going to repeat again listen to me again why again you know in traditionally in philosophy repetition is seen as a fault you shouldn't say the same thing again and again but he repeats it's full of repetition upanishads are full of repetition Gita is full of repetition the reason is that this teaching is so subtle so difficult to grasp our minds are so fickle that we need to hear it again and again in different ways taught in various skillful multiple skillful ways the same truth has to be pointed out to us and spiritual Masters never Tire of repetition nor the upanishads nor the Gita the scriptures never Tire of repetition because it's for our good and it's difficult and it's subtle it needs to be said again and again sudama Krishna was much more blunt once Rita said to him his nephew Uncle why do you keep saying the same things afraid you know that oh there's all these rich and important people are coming to listen to you they'll get bored they'll stop coming all these big people are coming from Calcutta to listen to but if you just you just say the same old thing say to everybody and SRI ramakrishna said your Rascal these are my words I shall say them a thousand times what's it to you what's it to you Krishna is very much saying the same thing but in Sanskrit chased Sanskrit yes he says I'm and he adds [Music] priyamana you I'm going to say this to you who are you you who Delight in these teachings so he's Arjuna might feel that I'm feeling a little boxed in here right I'm telling you because you love hearing this I guess no you can't do anything you've been told that you love hearing this it's important we are here because we it's important to us and it's delightful um often it does it doesn't seem so you know some of the most spectacular yawns ever seen are seen in vedanta classes you don't see it I see it all because I'm seeing from this point of view the surreptitious glance at the time and and the incredible inducing it's difficult it's dry it's subtle so yes that's why Krishna is saying you love it and that's why I'm telling you all over again I'm going to start a new chapter now one of our great swamis who established our Center in nagpur um he um he would start his bhagavad-gita class with a talk he would first mention prayogana priyojana means the need keep the need for this vibrating within you when you are in class it would tell the assembled monks prayogen means why am I here I am here because I am seeking a solution to the problem of life this is the greatest question that I will ever ask in my life and here I am hearing one of the greatest answers that Civilization has provided to us in all of human history that's why I'm here keep this need vibrating prayogana need vibrating within you when you sit in class it's really important for me that's why I'm here and then he would say um be also aware of who is speaking it's Krishna who's speaking the Incarnation of God God is speaking to Arjuna and through Arjuna to all of us it's not your professor it's not your you know New York Times column writer it's the not uh but a talk show host on television it's God who's speaking to us so that's why again you know that that attention that urgency let me hear this sridas Swami makes some comments here he says what are these words I'll repeat to you he calls here very interesting he calls it vachana Amrita this is literally which we study in on Tuesdays the nectar like words he says my nectar like words Krishna says why are they nectar like they're Transcendent because they point you towards the highest reality your highest goal what is your highest goal Enlightenment and freedom Moksha Nirvana salvation mukti that's what these words are about and therefore they are nectar-like that's why M when he wrote down the conversations of Sri ramakrishna he called that book katamrita the Hindi translation in fact is translation exactly the words uses here also one more thing often in the Gita Krishna addresses Arjuna as mahabhu one of Mighty arms because he's a warrior hmm what I mean what do they call it six packs ABS or something so probably he had six pack abs or something but in a mighty arms but here sridhar Swami gives an explanation of that what is mighty arms he gives two explanations one he says the power to do one's duty you are capable of doing your duty which is very precise because that's what he did Arjuna didn't want to do the whole Gita is about that that's one explanation and second one is even more inspiring the power to serve to greatly to serve foreign great in your arms are great in performing your duty like this battle in front of you I was reminded when I read this of Vivekananda he says about Duty he says there is the way to grow is to do the duty just in front of us this one interpretation the next one he says even more inspiring kushalo the the hands which are expert in dextrous in engaged in in great service it can mean the service of the Great when you serve the guru or the wise one but it could also mean Sanskrit is great that way it could also mean great service and now you see Vivekananda are all of the great ones who are engaged in the service of humanity they are mahabha of Mighty arms because they're engaged in great service and why do I say this because I'm engaged in your welfare I desire your welfare that's why I'm saying this I have no other motive this is not a crash course in vedanta you know we pay a hundred dollars a thousand dollars and and deliver 18 lectures to you no no no I'm not getting anything out of it from from you SRI ramakrishna says about those young boys who became the monks later on he says why do I love these boys they don't even have a price so many big people rich people come from Calcutta these boys that don't even have um Paisa to give me one cent to give me or a torn mat which they can offer me for to sit upon but why do I love them so much because they love God they want to attain God Krishna says for your welfare because you want to attain God that's why I'm telling you number two verse number two numbers [Music] neither the gods nor the great sages nor my birth for I am the cross of the Gods and the great sages in all respects actually explaining why he's repeating it because it's very difficult to know why is it difficult to know there are other great Masters I can ask them great sages said no they do not know why do they not know because they are after me I am before them the cause is always before the effect the clay always precedes the pot the wood precedes the table and God precedes the universe it's only when God starts creating then the gods with smallji the devatas they appear and the sages much later the sages who have given us the upanishads and everything we can go to the sages and ask them the great spiritual Masters no they do not know they know only if I reveal it to them but they do not know they cannot Discover It by themselves they are the knowledge is given to them from me because I precede them here is this uh he is declaring his avatarhood that he's an incarnation of God the mundak upanishad starts with that [Music] the first mantra of all the gods Brahma was created first Brahma emerged first and Brahma created this universe Brahma he created this universe and protects this universe and he transmits the knowledge of Brahman the spiritual knowledge to the to the rishis the great sages of whom the first born was his son atarwa so the lineage of sages from whom we have got this teaching they all Trace their way back to Brahman Brahma emerges you know the iconography Vishnu is reclining couch potato magnificent couch thousand headed serpent Adi shesha thousand hooded serpent and Vishnu declines on that and from his navel the Lotus emerges and on the Lotus is seated Brahma so Envision transmits all power and knowledge to Brahma what is Brahma Cosmic mind what is Vishnu pure Consciousness plus Maya if you take away the Maya what happens what remains you say is the sage the spiritual Seeker after you eliminate everything including Maya who remains it's your pure Consciousness remains that's another way of pushing it away no you remain anyway that's not the subject here you're going to spoil this Divine splendors by talking about advaitha so Brahma and then Brahma proceeds to create this universe and Brahma transmits spiritual knowledge but all of that comes is traced back to Vishnu and krishna's vishnu's Avatar so he says they do not know it has to come from me so spiritual knowledge is always through Revelation that's when Revelation comes first and then you know philosophies and all of that comes later Vedas first darshana later even the bhagavad-gita is based upon The Vedas upon the upanishads so I'm Vivekananda said that Krishna is not the proof of The Vedas The Vedas are the proof of Krishna and and it's literally true because many times here if you read the upanishads cut upanishad for example there are verses which are literally quoted by Krishna from the qatopanisha so Krishna quotes directly from the upanishads here then so because it's difficult I am going to tell you this a little bit about vishnu's couch this is a very interesting story about this um ADI session no not only Vishnu who has come as avatars many incarnations I'm sure at one point the couch also thought I can also do the Incarnation thing so he came as incarnation he incarnated ADI sesha the cosmic serpent incarnated do you know as but actually of course but patanjali patanjali and the Great Sage with whom you you're right associate the yoga sutras yes so patanjali who is a incarnation of Vishnu of the cosmic serpent ADI sayisha vishnu's couch is at the source of three great knowledge systems what he gave to humanity was this Great Sage patanjali he gave medicine for the mind medicine for the speech and medicine for the body for my medicine for the Mind yoga sutras yoga sutras and then medicine for the speech grammar so he explained the paninis grammar the mahabhasha the great commentary on grammar and then for the body ayurveda so in India the famous ayurveda yeah patanjali Stars yes so there's a reason why it's named patanjali is because it is ayurveda is traditionally traced back to patanjali so three great systems of knowledge meditation grammar and ayurveda medicine for the Mind Medicine for the speech why medicine for the speech otherwise you will make grammatical mistakes Sanskrit grammar is really tough if the one Terror of Sanskrit is we try to speak Sanskrit you always the terrorist you can start a sentence but you don't know how to end it because the grammar doesn't match [Music] um I remember we had a master in our training center in acharya who will conduct his classes in Sanskrit he would teach in Sanskrit and you are supposed to ask questions or reply in Sanskrit so by the time I would formulate a question already he's gone past that point he's teaching something else I'll get a question ready and then I would have a question and I would ask the question in my faltering Sanskrit he would coolly point out half a dozen grammatical mistakes which I had made and then he would go on with his what he did I never got an answer to any of the questions it was very difficult Sanskrit grammar is very important for for functioning of Sanskrit so the story concerns the grammar part of it so patanjali was this is Panini sutras are the source of Sanskrit crimer and patanjali wrote a great commentary on that so without the commentary it's difficult to understand the sutras of grammar if you think the Brahma sutras yoga sutras are difficult you should go to The Panini sutras much faster much more complex and extraordinary so The Story Goes it's a long story all of these stories are long so the Great Sage patanjali was teaching grammar and he had a thousand students so the Thousand students would sit and listen to the grammar lessons he would teach the great commentary and they would take down notes maybe or maybe they memorized it or whatever they wrote it down on Palm leaves it was difficult and uh but the condition was that the Great Sage would sit on a stage and a curtain would be pulled so you would sit behind the curtain and teach but the rule was you should not open the curtain before the class is over it was really odd if I did that you know now naturally students if you say something like that don't peek behind the curtain when the class is going on what are they going to do they're going to peek behind the curtain so one day the inevitable happened one student wanted to know what's going on why is the old man why does he sit behind a curtain and the classes were wonderful each of the Thousand students can relate it to the thousand heads of cosmic serpent is a thousand students felt that I was being taught individually yeah it's so wonderful the classes so this student he creeps up to the curtain while the class is going on and he lifts a corner of the curtain behind and lo and behold what does he see not the stage anymore he sees the cosmos the universe and covering the entire universe is this extraordinary being radiant a thousand headed serpent with the Flames of cosmic Fire coming issuing from each of its mouths and he's of course immediately feigns upon saying that and unfortunately one spark of that fire slipped out from the corner of the curtain before he could drop it and immediately the students were all turned into ashes they burnt into ashes and it all the whole place disappeared in fire and patanjali resumed his human form he swept the curtain aside and he jumped in out of the stage and he looked at the disaster and he cried out alas alas alas he was not sad about the students he was worried about grammar because what will happen to the grammar if all the students are dead and then one student was alive he had taken a washroom break that's my theory but he was alive for some reason he came back in and patanjali he ran and embraced the student thank God for you my boy and so this student got the grammar and he's the one who was the source of all the grammar the story doesn't end here now this that lone student graduated and he carried this great commentary on Sanskrit grammar from which we get all of modern Sanskrit on his way back home to establish a grammar school and he goes on his way carrying his notes in those days no cloud or no pen drive it's just Palm leaves bundles of Palm leaves and that's crucial to the story because they're leaves and he's tired and he wants to take rest and there's a big tree he goes to sleep under the tree and keeping his bundle of notes nearby and a goat comes along and it sees the leaves and starts munching on the leaves and student wakes up and horror he sees the goat eating up his precious notes the great commentary on grammar and drives the goat away but alas a part of it is lost which continues to be lost till today and that part of the last portion of the commentary is called the goat eaten commentary that's the story okay I was just seeing a Time passing we'll do the third one and then we'll take some questions foreign he who knows me the birthless and beginningless Lord of of creatures is undiluted among men and is freed from all sins so here he states the purpose of the exercise that's why do you need to see God in all these Splitters in the universe would you experience across the world in the universe in your life so you see God you notice that this is the Splendor of God that is the Splendor of God this is the vibhuti of God what does it lead to it leads to Salvation Moksha freedom the one who's one who will do these exercises serve it who wait who knows will be freed from all sins all sins means all of karma and asamura will be freed of delusion the ignorance which makes us think that we are this little body mind we'll be freed of that and it doesn't say how here of course the advaithin will say I have something to say I said how do if you knew no God is all this it's already Splendid and God is the material cause of this so yeah in some sense all of this is God great but how will it free you from uh you know your bondage and ignorance well because you will realize your identity with God you realize that which appears as this Splendid universe and that which you are are one and the same thing that thou art and then you'll be free because you realize what you what you are is always free of samsara but that's not what is said here what is said here is contemplate the glories of God you will develop faith in God you will develop bhakti devotion for God that's the limit I mean nothing more than that is going to be said here all right questions comments yeah this concept of the world you know it totally makes sense my personal experience as well but I think we all know people that are not spiritually inclined I just have a happy predisposition even in you know negative circumstances they're just somehow through the material world but it's still getting a lot of and truly getting a lot of joy and fulfillment not just how do you give it time thank you it's not in a morbid sense we're waiting for them to be miserable but but it's it's natural even if you're happy see when you say suffering when the Buddhist says suffering it does not literally mean that you are always glum and gloomy and suffering it's just dissatisfying so this is our old Sanskrit saying which says that for the sensitive for The Thinker everything is suffering the contact with the world is like a spider's web touching your eyeball spider's web is no problem but if it touches your eyeball you can you feel it actually similarly the contact with the world is like that if you think if you are sensitive kamu mythicus I think the first sentence the only true philosophical problem is why should I not kill myself right away why should I not commit suicide I once quoted this to a mataji of our order she said something in in in French and I said no no the first sentence is where uh but the only true philosophical problem is why should I not commit suicide and said yes that's exactly what I was saying I was quoting the original French [Music] yeah so it will come to that even the most happy person notice two things one is this this happy person generally happy there are many such people it's not that really the deriving happiness from the from the world itself um sometimes people you can call it a genetic setting they they are they're setting as a little more sunnier disposition it could be it's not really that they are having a really good time in the world they may not be they may be having a worse time than us but they can still be pretty happy we are people who are having a pretty good time and still very gloomy so it's more of a mental character a mental setup but whatever it is unfortunately would it be that it would that would have been enough it isn't it isn't will they come to spiritual life in this world in this life no may not be but if the question has awakened in our mind you um you cannot stop anymore you must go forward you can't go back to that state Voltaire um better Socrates unhappy than a pig satisfied huh he said pig is very happy Socrates is unhappy which one do I want to be once I'm aware of something like Socrates I can't go back to the big state yes Christian Perspective in Saint John in the beginning was the word and the Word was with God was God so the idea of seeing order in the world yes yes and from that comes for example science [Music] we can see how these religious insights are at the basis of our civilization not just religion but also culture even science yes and we think of this as sort of the yes yes method for finding yes for finding ishwara yes because the material cause continues in the product which is just a drive way of saying you know that God continues in this universe there's so much nicer way of saying it more inspiring so in that case you affirm that here is God here is God here is God I see God everywhere with open eyes I met this monk in the Himalayas he lived for 60 or 70 years high up in the Himalayas his name was sundarananda he was a sevak an attendant for a very great vedanta teacher whose name was tapovan Swami who was the guru of Swami chinman and the Swami chin man who started the chin my mission so the Sunderland he told me a very wonderful story about his life he was uneducated literally I mean we had just we hadn't finished school he was not illiterate but he hadn't finished school but he wanted to become enlightened so in India it's a bit like here people run away to Hollywood to become a film star so in India people would run away to the Himalayas to become enlightened something like that of course they also run over to Bollywood to become a film star um so he ran over to the Himalayas and he did a very long story of his adventures as he was a kid finally he reaches he asks around who is this who is the best enlightened vedanta Master now so if people said that Swami so he reaches this Swami in this Swami um lives at an altitude of 10 000 feet in gangotri very difficult to reach in those days he walks walks walks and reaches that place and then he's turned down because the Swami teaches only the highest non-dual vedant he says if you don't know Sanskrit you can't learn and you are not educated you won't understand what I'm saying and he has only a small code group of disciples so sundaranda said I like you and I like this and I love listening to it though I don't understand I'll just stay here just let me stay here I'll look after all of you I'll clean the place I'll warm the food which you beg and bring and I'll serve it to you and I'll take care of the place take care of all of you just let me sit near you and take care of you and let me listen to you and that's what he did for decades and decades and he became this saint but he told me his Guru told him instruction because you can't study the Gita the upanishads I mean you listen but you might not really understand it in depth so your special practice he says with a sweep of his arms and I was in that spot where the guru told him this you see the Towering Mountains and the glaciers running down and the ganga which is just this bhagirathi they are just beginning it's a narrow very fast stream it just melted from the Snows and the forests the pine forests are forests all around spectacular scenery so with his sweep of his arm his Guru told him this is from the drink Veda look upon the Poetry of God which neither decays nor dies and then he said in special instruction to him from now on you see God and he quoted from kabidas I see my Lord with open eyes How will I see my Lord with open eyes he says you see the Lord in the Himalayas and the Ganga that was his instruction the special meditation he gave to this Swami and from that time onwards his whole lifetime was deadly in fact towards the end of his life he became a environmental activist for protecting ganga from pollution anyway so his special meditation was on the Himalayas and gangas in fact if you look up in Amazon there is a book called the Himalaya Swami sundarananda he became a photographer later on photography means not a professional photographer he used to take I mean he knew the pathways so well the Himalayan pathway is so well he told me all this because he wondered with his Guru in those mountain regions so he knew the pathways so later on after the independence of India when European and American trekking teams mountaineering teams started coming to the Himalayas he became a much sought after guide in those days but now it's of course very well mapped and there are tours and all that but in initial days so he would go with them and he would take them up and he told me some wonderful stories about you know how he they would be busy in setting up camp and planting a flag and taking photographs and he would chant the Shiva tandava stotra and all that you know so wonderful um but what happened was he saw somebody taking photographs in those days with big cameras and zoom lenses and all and that uh is probably a Swiss or Austrian somebody uh Mountaineer when he saw this Monk's interest he taught him how photography photography works and he gave him his camera and his reels and his equipment now the sundaranda had is very very well named sundara means the Beautiful the aesthetic he had tremendous artistic sense I mean even at the old age when I met him it extraordinary the little Hut which he had it was the most beautiful Hut in the entire Mountain extraordinary and just the Artistic Touch of that it's a museum now this old man for 50 years he maintained it with his own hand um so he started taking photographs black and white photographs but they were so good then some something led to something else his Guru had passed by that time and when his Guru passed his Guru told him that you have served me dedicatedly for all you for all these years I bless you you will rise very high in secular life and spiritual life so at least the secular part of it he became a famous photographer because then something led to something else somebody discovered his photographs they were published in the most important um magazine in India in those days those are India of a certain generation that recall Illustrated weekly of India so his photographs were published there then he was called for tours across India slideshows of his photographs and all photographs are of the ganga and the Himalayas all of them because that's a special focus of meditation and later I think an Austrian explorer came there and he saw those photographs and he took them all and he published them from and it's a very beautiful coffee table book which he showed me that they gave him one copy which he cannot read and I asked him this Vision you had in vashishta goha how did that happen and he was startled he said how did you know who told you I said it's there in the book and he burst out laughing he said oh yes he put it all down there in the book anyway all of this is to say the splendors of God the Himalaya in the ganga it's the Poetry of God which neither decays nor dies that's a beautiful way of looking at it and Kabir does with open eyes do I do I behold my Lord on it on that beautiful note let's end today um [Music]