Video 120

120. Bhagavad Gita | Chapter 10 Verse 7-9 | Swami Sarvapriyananda

oh was Guru [Music] so beyond the tenth chapter and um this is called vibhuti yoga The Yoga of divine glories what does it mean Divine glories there are three ways of looking at three stages three phases of looking at this world looking at God and looking at ourselves by looking at means understanding seeing ourselves ourselves sentient beings and this world which we inhabit and God Ultimate Reality three ways three levels first level is um if you just take the world world itself the first level is this world is the Sanskrit word is here to be discarded to be transcended to be renounced as the Buddha said it is productive of suffering It Is pervaded by suffering it is all change all suffering Krishna also says in the bhagavad-gita Imam having come to this world of Sorrow Worship the Lord worship me Bible also describes this world as a veil of Sorrow so this is an Insight that all religions of the world saw they Reign on your parade it's not a good place it's not a good place those who think it is a good place are immature so this is here and the bhagavad-gita I've mentioned earlier also that um takes it in three stages one is that it is it is full of Sorrow it is anithyam it is impermanent everything here changes the Sorrows also change but the good things also change they go all everything goes away and not only that the Gita goes so far as to say it is mithya it's false where does it say that in the second chapter of the bhagavad-gita the 16th verse assat an appearance it's like a mirage and therefore it is so that's the first stage of understanding it the second stage of understanding this world is it is the glory of God the same word it is extraordinarily beautiful it's the glory of God and we're third and so this chapter that's why this chapter is about the second way of understanding understanding this word and the Third Way will be that this word is nothing but the absolute reality but very carefully here it is immediately prone to be misunderstood it's not materialism you're talking about the absolute reality is the world is not one is throw away the word look for God the other one is find God in the glory of the glory of God everywhere you look everywhere I look the face of the Beloved flashes before me there's a song actually and then even further it's not a world it's absolute reality itself is shining here nothing good here God Alone is good stage one stage two everything is God here stage three everything is not God Alone is so this is the way of understanding this this word this word the three ways of understanding God one is God is some God exists there's some power some Divinity somewhere which is the creator preserver and destroyer of this world which is omnipotent omniscient omnipresent the way we describe God a maximally perfect being in all the theistic religions of the world that's how God is described that's the first way some God is there not this word not us something is there some Ultimate Reality and remember all of these are good ways of looking at the world at God and as ourselves so the first stage is looking at upon God as some being Supreme Being a deeper understanding which will come here the second stage which is coming here is not some being in everything in and through everything it's not one super super powered being among many other things but no in and in through everything the Divinity is is manifested is God Is Everything there's a second way of looking at God and the third way of looking at God is as the absolute reality which is identical to you you are that that you know Brahman as pure being pure awareness pure consciousness three three levels supremely powerful being one two supremely powerful of course but everything third beyond that know everything just that pure being alone Brahman alone third level similarly there are three levels of looking at ourselves who am I I'm just this guy just this person is born Hindus and Buddhists and jains will tell me and Sikhs will tell me I was born many times I'll be born in future also but anyway in this life I'm just this person this body this personality just this person and struggling through life just the way we look at ourselves that's one way of looking at it a deeper way of looking at it would be I am a spiritual being when everything is the glory of God there's a second stage you know and God is everything in that case I also must be a spiritual being so that's the second way of looking out ourselves not just this person this is the way I am right now spiritual being having a human experience the first stage is a human being trying to have a spiritual experience the second stage is spiritual being having a human experience and we have had many such experiences earlier and this will go on third finally I am that absolute reality somebody told me that Sam Altman of uh of chat GPT Fame the open AI Fame he tweeted Atman is Brahman did somebody asked him tell us one thing that you believe which is not generally understood or believed and he said I believe that Atman is just what I saw somebody sent it to me so that's the the ultimate way of looking at ourselves you are that absolute reality so three stages each is connected if you look at yourselves as just this person I am this person then God is another person for you supremely powerful person a supremely loving person a perfect person a maximally good person how do you know you don't that's why it can be doubted it can be there are people who may not be believers it's taken on faith not that it's foolish to take it on faith no I think people who take it on faith deeply seriously believe they are more intelligent than do those who claim to not believe so taken on faith that's the first stage but and the world also will be a world of sorrow and suffering I turn from this to my beloved card that will be the attitude that's the first level of spirituality and spiritual not wrong not lower not to be condemned but a deeper um would be that um I this one spiritual being seeing the Divinity of God reflected everywhere and God is that which encompasses me and this world also and of course supremely powerful in all of that and even further I am not a body of mind I'm not even a spiritual being I am that absolute reality I am Brahman the adoitic realization you can sort of map it to the three stages of vedanta three schools that is the qualified monism and advaith and non-dualism and none of these are wrong vivekantha says they can be likened to taking pictures of the Sun from a distance from we take it from here you have a little you know from outer space you take it further reaches of the solar system you have a dot in the sky and then you come from the sun from the earth you see is a fiery disk you go closer and closer it becomes bigger and you'll come close to the sun it's huge now none of them are wrong pictures it is taken from distances now why am I saying all this this is that middle stage where world is not to be you know condemned renounced no having known it's not denying it's not pulling putting a wool over your eyes not um looking at the world through Rose tinted glasses you see the miserable horrible side of the world but then see the Lord is saying everything here is from me because I am everything that's what's happening now this there's one more Beyond this but he's not going there now Krishna is not going there now so this is the background to what I was saying now we go on to the seventh verse if you want you can repeat after me both of [Music] he who knows in truth this glory and power of mine attains unflinching yoga there is no doubt about this so what he says here he uses two words yoga and vibhuti yoga of course is a umbrella term it's used in many many senses of course in New York it means downward dog but if you ask Vivekananda it means bhakti yoga Karma Yoga Raja yoga Ghana yoga in fact his first book published from here in the vedanta Society of New York was rajio was classic it's translation and commentary on the patanjali yoga sutras and in the Bhagavad the squats yoga each chapter yoga here is yoga Maya that is the power of Brahman the absolute reality it has a power of projecting itself as this universe the power of projecting itself as this universe that is yoga as power it is called yoga and when it manifests itself as this universe it is called vibhuti vibhuti means Glory so as the unmanifest power Maya Shakti it's called yoga here as the Manifest universe both seen and unseen it is it is called means Glory basically the glory of the Lord so the Brahman the absolute reality is just absolutely and it's there it has a power that absolute reality existence Consciousness Bliss with this power is called the god of religion in vedantic terms saguna Brahman Brahman or as we know it God and Father in heaven heaven and Jehovah and Allah the absolute with the power of of Maya Shakti when the power is you see it just as power it that's the term yoga that is unmanifest and sometimes it's manifest as this as is extraordinary Universe tremendous diverse universe it's not exactly relevant but I'll just mention it because I remembered this there's this very brilliant mathematician I never met him where I met people who have met him Marvin Minsky he passed a few years ago so he was staunch materialist and is listening to one of his lectures is closer to the truth Robert Lawrence has interviewed him recently I I had an interview with Robert Lawrence here in New York so he also mentioned uh Minsky if I remember anyhow in his in this interview with um Robert he was uh he asked Minsky that so this Consciousness just this Theory Of Consciousness you know there's the very fact of Consciousness does it disprove materialism and of course Minsky is a die-hard materialist he says no he says just all we know is this material world this is the only thing those who think that there's some of the reality is wasting cubic centimeters of their brain to me you know but but the what I heard was all that we know this material reality I would have said to him professor look at the language you used this material reality but you said we you said no how is it that this material reality if this is all that there is but it's dependent on knowledge because you yourself said we know and knowledge in turn is dependent on you we said we you've bought in knowledge you've bought in self you've bought in Consciousness you've bought in self in order to talk about the only reality that there is which is material Universe of course I know what he will say he will say that oh all this Consciousness self and all is is born of the brain but that's already assuming we are already assuming that the you know there's no hard problem of Consciousness and assuming something which near no neuroscientist com Consciousness studies expert will go out on a limb to assert that there is only the brain and brain is producing Consciousness because then they cannot answer how is brain producing Consciousness so anyway um for me that's just that very first sentence all we know is this material realities is immediately self-contradictory because it contains the terms we know then all of it cannot be the material reality foreign in that case you have to show how we and no comes out of that material reality you have to answer the hard problem of Consciousness anyway just by the way it's related to what I'm saying so this yoga the power of God Shakti it's sometimes in a potential State when we call it Shakti or power of God sometimes in a manifest state in Sanskrit it's not difficult to understand it's not theology it happens to all of us all of us every day when you fall asleep in deep sleep it goes into a potential State your world your personal World your body mind personality and the world that you experience from your perspective it disappears into a blankness goes but it's not gone it comes back you wake up you see the same world and you have more or less the same memories same personality which comes back again so from your perspective this is a good way of understanding yoga and vibhuti and this is not what is meant because yoga and vibhuti are not applied to us oh so Swami said when I fall asleep that is yoga and when I wake up that is no that's for God not for us but it's a good way of understanding what is being said here your world the way it is when you are in deep sleep or when you are in under general anesthesia is Yoga it's power we think of it as nothing it's not nothing all of what you consider yourself to be is packed into it in a seed form and it bursts forth when you wake up that is called vibhuti that's your glory we don't think of it that way we don't think of our deep sleep as yoga's power and we don't think of our waking up as Glory we think of our deep sleepers that's nothing and when we wake up we don't think it was Glory we think it's miserable it's horrible it's Monday but from God's perspective it is power and it is Glory so that's what he says here the one who understands it in reality how do you understand it in reality three stages remember one is world is miserable there's a God who's all-powerful second stage is no this is the glory of God this universe This Magnificent Universe everywhere it's the glory of God this is that Twitter in reality and the third stage finally no it is my glory because I am that absolute reality the enlightened one when that enlightened one goes into deep sleep or general anesthesia are in samadhi it sees the whole universe including body and mind disappearing into a potential state enlightened one is still there as pure being pure awareness and when it bursts forth again into body mind waking awareness this universe you see this is a very clear demonstration of this thing going into this thing means this universe your life your experience going into seed State and bursting forth into a into this world so this is the way to look at it that I am when you when the enlightened one realizes I am Brahman this is the way the enlightened one sees the experience of waking dreaming deep sleep then they can claim this is my yoga my vibhuti means unshaken here the second yoga is [Music] um the samyak darshan and the commentator says here it is uh knowledge it is Right View right understanding unshaken this is unshaken one gets unshaken Clarity conviction there's no more doubt about it anymore that solves your problems at three levels it solves your problems if you have a firm deep devotion love of God that solves your problems to some extent at least if you have this idea this is all the Lord's Glory we will see how it solves your problem or if you are at the final realization I am Brahman of course it completely solves your problem in a deep philosophical sense in an existential sense not in the worldly sense it won't pay off your mortgage it won't settle it you'll still have to get medical insurance and all of that it's still there the world will be exactly as it is appears to be how do we know a lot of people are very convinced about many things a Krishna says there is no doubt about this I guarantee this now in the next four verses how this Glory seeing this remember we are at the second stage of seeing the world is Glory first stage discard the world sorrowful miserable it's a veil of Sorrow second stage no it is the glory of God so the glory of God that stage when being at that stage how does it help you to become fully enlightened how you are set free from sorrow four verses will be given now Krishna will tell you the world is I've said this again and again obviously something I'm sharing from the Swami who told me this to be discarded Divya no not to be discarded to see God everywhere that's the purpose of the world we don't see the world in that way we see the world as this is where I fulfill my desires where I make friends and allies where I fight with my enemies and I acquired stuff where I win I become the winner in this world the winner of the actress the top rat this is how we see the world and we we guarantee suffering for ourselves so this is the first stage second stage is no that's not what the world is for the world is for showing me the glory of God I see the face of God in everything and the third stage would be it's not about the world at all it's one unbroken in with eyes closed and eyes open one in deep sleep in samadhi and awake with eyes open experiencing this world one unbroken unchanged radiance but this we are in the second stage now eight nine ten and eleven these are the verses where Krishna will tell us how that second stage is going to help us eight verse I am the source of all everything is produced out of me knowing thus the wise worship me with devotion all right so how do you regard The World God and yourself in this stage you regard God God is Krishna God is saying here I am the source of all everything in this universe is not a separate thing it's all produced out of me by the way those who are Catholics those who know Catholic theology this is deep Catholic theology if you ask a Catholic father who is well grounded in his theology would what is God he would say God is actually contrary to what you might think by reading the Bible that God is some supremely powerful being no no God is one one thing among one powerful being among many no no no God is the being of this universe that from which the entire universe has emanated literally this so um I am that I'm the source of all and from me Everything Has Come foreign it's like think of it this way the carpenter would say I am the source of all this furniture but he wouldn't say from me the furniture has come if the furniture has come from wood so the Creator the intelligence behind it the power behind it is called nimit takaran or or the intelligent cause and the material the stuff out of which this universe is made is called the material cause here Krishna is saying I God I'm both and both do you have examples of that in you know how do we understand it is can there be anything in this universe which is whether a Creator and the substance are one and the same you create something out of yourself spider is a good example the spider spins a Web the spider as a being in sentient being is the intelligent cause behind this web and from the perspective of the spider's body it's a very material of that body which spins out the web so it's a good example we have this mantra as from the spider a web is emanated and pulled back in as from the earth herbs and shrubs come come out as from the living human body hair comes out hair is produced similarly from the akshara from the immutable reality emanates this universe so three examples to show three things the spider to show that it's both the the intelligent cars and the material cars not only God has created the imperishable reality the absolute reality is is behind this universe but also it's from that alone that's the only substance that there is the only reality that there is so somebody might think that then that oh so that's a lot of work the poor spider puts in a lot of work to create a web how much effort God must have put to create this universe so the second example shows as effortlessly the Earth effortlessly you know gives rise to herbs and shrubs and plants and similarly effortlessly from that absolute reality the world appears oh but the Earth you can think of the earth as an incentive being it's like rock and clay and stones and so is so is that Ultimate Reality some kind of material power that would bring a smile to Minsky's face like big bang so that's the third example no as from a living body from our living body comes out hair and nails and notice hair and nails at least from our perspective it's effortless and not only that they're also dead they're of a different nature from yourself from the living body so similarly from Pure Consciousness appears um the incentient universe material Universe from that which is Limitless appears this limited Universe from that which is the subject appears the object and so on anyway these are the examples that's what Krishna wants to say here now he says having known this having understood this Buddha the wise they they no longer think this world is something terrible to be thrown aside they worship me as what as all of this in all things in life why would they worship me you see now everything in life is God because it's made of God it's made of God's stuff material things human beings all of them are God for us now um you know everything comes from God there's this nice story that a old story The Scientist comes to the priest and says that we have synthesized life in the laboratory God is not the source of life and the priest is oh let show me so come to the lab he goes to the lab and the scientist says that first take a little bit of Earth and the priest says oh make your own Earth First so from me has everything come which means in my particular in my life that which I find to be unacceptable miserable people the places the job the state of health the state of finances what I don't like in my life that's also God whether I like it or not it no longer depends on my likes and dislikes in fact those who understand this deeply what will happen their likes and dislikes will even out the bad people are no longer all that bad and the specially attractive pleasurable you know glittering things in the world which attract me money and pleasure and Facebook likes and things like that they're no longer all that good either because I see behind them one Divinity that Divinity alone is good that Divinity alone is good not the way it manifests whatever manifests then what are these good and bad things they are vibhuti the glory of God there's this monk who came to dakshineshwar when SRI ramakrishna was there the Kali Temple he would stay in the Hut and in samadhi for hours and hours but once in a while he would emerge and he would look at the sky and the clouds and the river and the temple and would say in in Hindi you know bravo bravo who is he saying Bravo to God wow what's all this magic show the great magician appearing in this this dazzling display I bow down to God in all of these forms I don't want any of these I don't reject any of these but my focus is now on he says so what does this person do this person's Focus now is entirely on God The Atheist will say where is this God of yours and this person in the second stage of looking at God will say where is God not you see God in a 10 000 ways God is not not hidden anymore God is revealed that's why this becomes unshakable it's in the first stage God is still very much a matter of faith his world is awful I am just this guy having a hard time here and I believe at trying to believe that there is some God but it's a matter of faith and even if you have good faith strong faith it can get shaken you're the strongest of faith gets taken Mother Teresa in her Diaries you know if you see the last not at the beginning not in the middle towards the end of our life in one place she writes that uh I pray and pray and pray into the darkness there is no answer there is only silence you can get shaken but when you get to you look at God in this this perspective you're seeing all this how can it get shaken in every way it becomes stronger it's still Faith don't get me wrong but it's um sort of Faith becoming as firm as I know I I it's not that I just believe I know because I see it everywhere it becomes a conviction it becomes unshakable is a difficult word to translate very important word in Sanskrit but bhava is basically a spiritual attitude it's emotion it's condensed crystallized emotion very deeply focused on God all our loves our hates our likes and dislikes everything focused on God how do I overcome lust and he says why would you overcome lust strengthen it and direct it towards God greed lust anger all of that there's the Tibetan Buddhist practitioner I think Scott who came who told us three approaches in Buddhism to deal with um you know the enemies in spiritual life anger grief lust negativities how do you deal with it the therawada approach which is strictly monastic approach server approaches stay away from it absolutely but then you can see that you that will work for a monk monks and nuns don't mix with the opposite sex don't touch money and lead a very austere life don't pursue any worldly goal at all just pursue your spiritual goal that's it but then you have to be a monk you can't do anything else though that's why the cultures are very monastic you find them in Southeast Asia in Thailand in in Burma in Cambodia Vietnam in Sri Lanka especially that's the first approach how do you deal with these problems in spiritual life just stay away then the second one is the Mahayana approach the Mahayana approach which developed it Buddhism much more and more householders so when you are agree as the householder you have a job you have a husband a wife and children um you can't stay away from society you have to be in the middle of society then how do you deal with it then there comes the question of upay a skillful means when you're faced with anger lust greed you substitute skillfully you overcome anger with peace such beautiful versus Pali versus we used to chant in as novices and we just chanted mechanically but they're so simple and Powerful Buddhist am by non-anger peace serenity conquer anger by contentment conquer greed by control self-control conquer lust and they sound very simple but they are once you start doing them they are actually powerful techniques of dealing with these problems in life if you're in the middle of it if you can't step away from it that's the Mahayana approach then he says he is Tibetan with this practitioner and this is of course a dividend with this perspective so they'll put themselves at the top so he said there is a third approach um the tantric Buddhist approach where it says don't stay away from them don't replace them strengthen them the negativities anger lust greed and use them write them towards enlightenment those they have techniques they have techniques actually a visualization and so the third one is the most powerful also the most dangerous the most slippers most slippery and dangerous so um here one way of doing the third one is given here that everything that comes is God you see God and everything SRI ramakrishna says directed towards God directed towards God whatever comes love desire hatred anger if you have a complaint a grudge directly towards God tell God a very touching story those who know the story of Sri ramakrishna and Masha Radha you know this incident others have to give a little background so she was married when very young you know that was typical in those days in 19th century Bengal and she lived in this little village and he was the temple the priest of Kali in dakshineshwar so the occasion came when she wanted to come and meet her husband and in those days traveling from dakshineswar now you can do it in a matter of hours [Music] um though even now the roads are not all that good from an American perspective Somebody went to India and came back and told me I for the first time when I was came back here I was so glad that the roads don't have potholes and the buses have shock absorbers so there are many good roads in India but not the ones leading to the small villages and so somebody told me that they were going to come up uh the little village even now and they are going on this vehicle and they see this great big bus tearing down the same little lane towards them straight towards them why are they coming at me why are they coming this way the only answer in India is because they can and don't forget they're going to miss you but only by an inch by an inch so in those days it was even more difficult it was even more difficult and with all the difficulty she comes to meet with all hopes and expectations she knows her husband is this great spiritual who is lost in the love of Devotion to Kali he comes and she's told to get lost because his nephew Ridah who is to take care of him was seized by jealousy that oh she has come she's his wife maybe she'll supplant me now she's going to be like his you know right hand and then I'll lose my position so he tells her why have you come just go back I'm dealing with everything here and there's no need for you to stay here and I can't take care of both of you and this the sad thing is you told me the sad thing is SRI ramakrishna didn't support her he just turned away from her [Music] so here's this young she was a teenager at that time and did she gets this very rude Behavior after all her effort she's a simple Village girl but what does she do she doesn't fight with she doesn't complain to ramakrishna she goes straight to the Temple of Kali I am bows down there and says mother I had come here but it seems you don't want me to stay here I'll go away when you want me to come again I'll come and she went back quietly she she directs even her complaints her sorrow to the mother to to God one Swami Vivekananda was making fun of Sri ramakrishna long after sudama Krishna had attained mahasamadhi some monks were there one of the monks was scandalized he said you're making fun of Sri ramakrishna and Swan Vivekananda turned upon him and he said so what do you think I should make fun of you meaning even the object of my fun is God no no less is the Divine I shall not descend to to smallness pettiness small things with love these wise ones they worship me with love who realize this is all the all my glory how is this your glory this is a terrible world no all this has come from me it's made of God stuff and it is made by God or projected by God ninth verse so this power how do you do that that is explained in the ninth verse The Practice teacher [Music] with their mind and senses directed to me explaining me to each other and talking of me they are always pleased and happy so how do you worship god with love this how do you generate this think of God see we can consider ourselves to be spiritual Seekers but at the end of the day how much time what's your goal in life God realization and today how much time do you think about God not at all days are passing by edit the Diary of a very senior Monk I mean I was not snooping after he had passed he writes there many many years ago days are passing by and I'm not even thinking about God I am astonished to find that the mind is not on God he was a wonderful monk I mean of course but it just shows his spiritual progress so much am I thinking about God what am I thinking about the world this is how the vibruti yoga helps us because here you are thinking about the world you're thinking about God Krishna will show us throughout the rest of the chapter here I am the son among all the heavenly bodies and the river ganga or the Hudson among all the all that all the water bodies I am and so on I am this I am that so whatever we come across in our day-to-day lives Krishna is saying there actually everything is God but specifically the more glorious ones which we like which we enjoy which pulls our attention Krishna says there see God there say God they start start there and we come across these things all our all throughout our day and same seeing God in the boss you don't even Krishna doesn't have to say the boss already thinks that he is God so you come across all of this in your day-to-day life and so this will remind you again and again of the divine presence so in the first stage it's an effort because the world is a dreary lonely terrible place and you have to make an effort to think about God who is something or someone somebody else but here it is Divinity reflected everywhere then what do they do Prana their energies here he says sense organs but basically what are we trying to see and hear and smell and taste and touch where are we going walking what are we holding what are we using our tongues to talk about our motor organs our sense organs are they constantly engaged with worldliness or are they engaged with the world with God they will be engaged with the world because that's what the sense organs are far but when you see vibhuti the glory of God in these things you will find that your the senses also flow towards God literally the word Prana means senses but also it means our energies the life energies where are they flowing normally what happens is our life energies and thoughts are directed towards the world this is mine that's not mine but soon it will be mine you want to see what's wrong with that Krishna will say in a later chapter this is the thinking of demons that makes a lot of us puts us in trouble this has been this is what I've got so far and the rest of it it's in my wish list in my shopping cart in Amazon that too shall be mine but the problem with that is Krishna is now pointing out since all of it is none other than God I am claiming something that doesn't belong to me and this this sets up a deep conflict within us we are trying to hold on to something that will not stay still it is the world it will keep changing we're trying to hold on to people who are continuously changing you're not the same person I loved that that was a construct you didn't even know that person you loved and it's literally true it's not the same person you can't help it everybody is changing the um the world is continuously changing jagat is that which deteriorates is the body that which degenerates is the body that which goes into the world that's a very etymological derivation of the word jagat to go so it's continuously changing um and trying to hold on to that as mine is asking for trouble but continuously changing world all of it is God's glory in that case it will all our pranas will be running to God our energies are running to God not to the world anymore they're not hooked to our constructs our imaginings of the world the tension will go away before that when we try to hold on to people and the world or a state of health or state of finances this is good ideal it should remain like this it won't sorry to say it will dissipate when we try to do that we are under tremendous train this exhaustion because it's like pouring water into sandy soil it's wasted our energies are flowing away and dissipated without without any return but when we pour our energies to God when you see all of these as the glory of God in my work in the family in my um you know taking care of this body also all of it is God's glory see none of this in the world nor the people nor the money not the gadgets not the positions none of it is mine I want I say it's mine that person is mine this house is mine that money is mine it is not it's it's a lie it's thievery plain and simple I'm claiming something Krishna is clearly stating the opposite here it's not yours I am that and it is mine including our bodies including our closest people husband wife children so whether they are there or not there it's God's sweet will because it it that person belonged to God and was not none other than God and our possessions our own bodies Our pranas Life energies our senses and our thoughts they all belong to God they have been produced by God manifested by God they are the glories of God then other than these what are we We Are Spiritual Beings that's the second stage of looking at ourselves I am Consciousness and the spiritual being with the equipment of this particular body and mind granted to me by the grace of God so this is like you know you give your keys to your teenage son or daughter take the car out for a spin so God has given us the keys to this body take it out for a spin but it doesn't belong to you it belongs to but when we say that it belongs to God then in every experience we acknowledge that and a great rest comes upon us it's God's God will take care of it one of the Disciples of Sri ramakrishna he is the one who established the ramakrishna mat in Monastery in Chennai Madras so in the early days the monastery was there in mylapore and those have been seen that someone gentleman would come to the ashram and he had many projects and he would tell the Swami about the plans for social reform and social uplift and so many things he would not much of it he didn't do anything about it but he had plans so one day he is saying all this and then the Swami was quiet ramakrishna and he just made one observation he said I'm thinking what did God do before you were born if you're social activist if you're doing you have a good cause you're helping people great great most worthwhile but remember even that is by the will of God and the people you're helping there too are the glory of God this is true renunciation knowing that they are all they all belong everything belongs to God everything is nothing but God see uh this is in his commentary in the Gita nicely he puts it this way he says you go to your friend Jeff and you say Jeff I hereby renounce your guitar and your car and your house what do you mean it doesn't belong to you Jeff will say it belongs to me to me let's try even this first stage of renouncing the world that is transcended here this is a higher way of looking at it it already everything belongs to God in the issue upanishad the first Mantra the first line is very famous everything in this universe moving and unmoving is pervaded by God when you see God in everything but then the second line is also interesting protect your knowledge your spirituality by renunciation by renouncing what will you renounce do not covet it's very simplistic do not covet anybody's wealth but then shankaracharya says do not covet anybody's wealth means do not covet anything that belongs to anybody else or even your own so-called quote unquote then he goes even deeper do not covet anything because there is nothing to covet all is God all is Brahman the absolute reality existence Consciousness place it's like and say I now renounce all this like going to Jeff and saying I'm renouncing all of your positions not Jeff that's Krishna here Krishna will say you have nothing to denounce anyway they all it's all belongs to it all belongs to me it's good that you have woken up to the fact now your life gets much better because you're still in the same place same family same job same environment but now you see everything as the glory of God then what do these people do they talk about God as I said shall I make fun of you what will you talk about no that's an interesting thing Whitehead he said religion is what a person does with his solitude which is solitariness actually or Swami maidan and iron March quoted this recently um what a person does with his or her solitariness so when I'm set free when I've done all my work I'm free what do I do ah it's all done now I'm going to relax what is my relaxation is the name of God my relaxation is reading about vedanta or the lives of the Saints I saw one monk who's very ill he would he had a small picture of Sri ramakrishna he would look at that sriram Krishna picture that's his relaxation and sometimes when he would feel very sick he would keep the picture on his close his eyes and keep the picture on his chest and hold on to that even spiritual practitioners so we have got Mantra we have got meditation techniques we have vedanta classes to go we all put that as things to do it's not relaxation that's I have done my meditation thank God it's done one monk came once he said in Bengali but I'll tell you in translated in English you've done a lot of japa for a long time he did japa repeating the Mantra and he he came bengalis will appreciate it he said uh he came down and triumphantly said I just you know I don't know how to translate that ten thousand I just repeated the Mantra ten thousand but that's not the flavor of the Bengali it's like you know I just how would you put it I pounded out ten thousand yeah I found it at 10 000. if you ask yeah I'm working really hard at Enlightenment no no no no no no what do you do with with not with your strenuous spiritual practices what do you do with your Solitude with your relaxation with your leisure SRI ramakrishna says in the gospel of srinama Krishna what do I see people elderly people they've retired from jobs what are they doing in the Leisure he says they're playing cards I look at them and I think isn't it yet time to call on God but of course he's just saying that time is passing and you have to come you have to become you have to start spiritual life in Earnest in whatever form but what he's also saying is look they have leisure stop I remember Swami bhuteshananda he told us once his 12th president of our order once he was telling us about his spiritual practices in the Himalayas where he would spend day and night in meditation repeating the name of of the month uh of Sri ramakrishna and then he said after long practice day and night and how he struggled my God I've seen the place where he used to meditate a little cottage up in the Himalayas it's still there some of his disciples they repaired it um there was a time when he would he said snowing so hard he couldn't go to beg for his food so he only had a little bit of rice and Dal so he thought he would make kitchari khichiri with it yeah and boil it he had he lit the fire and he put the pen and and he put rice and Dal it's not boiling because it's so cold and then he tried and tried and then he said fire upon me have I come here to make khichdi to the Himalayas I have come here to repeat the name of God so he quickly cooled off because he had just got ice melted water from outside to to boil the so whatever that half cooked rice and Dal he said he cooled it down he stuffed it into his mouth wiped his face and he sat down for meditation like that once he said you're sitting for meditation dark of the night as the evening was falling the door wouldn't close it was a broken door and he saw this huge snake slithered into the cut and the next moment Darkness fell so we asked him what did you do and hear this slow draw you know in Bengal in Bengali translated in English he said I stayed and he also stayed I'm your taklam the next morning when light came he saw the snake had already slithered out sometime in the night how would you stay and meditate in a room small small Hut with a snake next to you I don't know I couldn't I would rather stay outside now why I'm saying all this in this way he passed his days and one day he wanted to test himself so he said here I am meditating on SRI ramakrishna and I told my mind you go wherever you like because nobody listens watching you except I myself let me see just go where you like just think about what you want to think no longer discipline no longer practice and he says I noticed the Mind ran straight to the Lotus feet of the Lord in Bengali he said so that is what you do with your leisure when you are set free to do whatever you like that's what you like and such people both they explain they talk about God to each other would say when people come when these young disciples came he said thank God you have come all these worldly people come and talk about worldly things my ears are burning you talk about money and politics and all these stuff my ears are burning I remember the story of a monk I heard it from another Monk so this was in Banaras in our ashram there this monk who told the story to the other monk who told me so he was reading a newspaper let's not forbidden to read a newspaper he's reading it and those were old days like 60 70 years ago and newspapers have barely had one or two photographs black and white fuzzy photographs and that's all who was a disciple of the mashara that was real regarded as brahmagyani enlightened person in his lifetime he was very ill he was being taken in a perambulator a wheelchair and the young novice who told me the story later he was taking revealing him across the courtyard and he saw this monk reading a newspaper carefully and he said he shouted across the courtyard which everybody could hear read it read it carefully carefully look at the picture of all the women in the advertisements there and this monk as if he was called it you know he threw the picture paper down in in his face flushed with embarrassment he uh went away he told this novice years later since from that day onwards I haven't been able to touch a newspaper there was a teaching what do you want to spend your life on in in Leisure Time think about high things talk about high things so when devotees gathered together they will talk about spirituality God and so on ity the commentator also says all not just my theory of God and my let me tell you about my understanding no based textual based on what I studied in the Gita and the upanishads in the Starbucks something solid texture logically with reasoning literally means speaking about me again but here it means singing you know Keith and here it literally means that means singing the glories of God nithyam not once in a while not one more practice to be done Krishna said I must sometimes talk about God so let me do that and thank God it's done I've done my quota about talking about God it's because I like it and don't force it but this is what it should come to mind should slowly become like this I like it don't be a bore however well I want to talk about God but my kids are not interested that's what moms do often the moment they become passionate about vedanta spirituality or anything they first want to impose it on their kids don't be a boar they are always pleased and happy oh I wanted to complete all four but anyway um so any questions the observations yes so once Arjuna asks right answers in 18 verses describing in detail literature because when I look at the Nana literature like uh [Music] so I'm sure not both are May somehow mean the same thing no but the status the answers given by Krishna to Arjuna Arjuna asks what is the nature of an enlightened being I'll describe an enlightened being but that's Ghana literature in the second chapter you will see there is he doesn't he has not even started the topic of bhakti of devotion it's a person who has realized I am Brahman then what's that person like no those are prerequisites those are practices you can see shankaracharya says these are qualities noticed in an enlightened person the qualities which are natural to enlightened beings are clues for practice for the rest of us so if a saint is forbearing all sorts of problems for Bears forbearance is a very good practice for all of us if a saint is peaceful Serene to Serenity making an attempt to be Serene under testing circumstances where do I get testing circumstances don't worry life is going to show you testing circumstances all day long so those are practices Consciousness yeah all we know is material reality um knowledge of Consciousness in the self enhance my worldly life and my worldly Pursuits do you want to see something oh for the microphone I see okay yeah tell me your name yes how would knowledge of Consciousness in the self enhance my worldly life and my worldly Pursuits yeah and personally I I feel like knowledge of Consciousness and the Everlasting Soul which I sort of formative I see that as disincentivizing having any aspirations true true my answer to that would be yes it's disintegrated this incentivizing why and there's a good thing um first of all instead of throwing in your way to the materialist perspective or the vedantic perspective just try to understand the vedantic perspective notice that it's not just physical reality it's not just a world the most accurate description of your experience would be it's a world in my experience isn't it it has to be is there an experience a neutral world out there science will say yes it has to be but no it's all in your experience notice the importance of of knowledge of awareness of mind in this so-called only physical material world that is not a problem for science because science will say that's the only way you can do science otherwise if you can't have an objective sense great but from there to jump and say that this objective universe is all that there is is extending yourself Dangerously then you'll run up against the hard problem of Consciousness because the way a committed materialist would say what position they would take is materialist reductionism that is a reductive materialism there is yeah yeah I said we know all we know is the world with Material World material reality this we and no self and knowledge these are all products of the brain brain is matter matter is producing consciousness how is that a scientific fact is it established not at all not at all in fact I mentioned Sam Altman recently just now what all that for me all that Chad GPT does AI does is to reinforce that Consciousness is very different from mental faculties intelligence you can replicate intelligence you can replicate memory you can replicate creativity modern computers they are writing short stories and painting pictures which are winning Awards in competitions recently they shut down a science fiction magazine because they got so many contributions suddenly burst of pretty good stories all written by AI now what do you do now from my perspective notice now ai is able to do everything we consider to be faculties of Mind except one thing Consciousness the AI is not self-aware is who says ask Sam Altman ask the experts none of them will say the AI is self-aware I hope I get the chance to talk to him I mean why I'm repeating his name was just yesterday I got this proposal that would you like to have a debate with Sam Altman so I said okay that's good we'll see um so that's one side of it that means the mystery of Consciousness is not yet it's at least from even from a materialist perspective Consciousness one must admit that there is a mystery there if you don't admit a mystery there are people who don't admit it's a Mysteries like Daniel Dennett and others are there but I think that's just being that being obstinate Patricia Churchland for example is saying that no none of this philosophy of Consciousness studies enough is important you just need to keep on doing neuroscience and once we will solve it so that's one side of it forget Consciousness also just the thought that we have a thought just now you had a thought before you asked a question what is science's position on that thought if material reality is all that we have that thought also must be a material reality because we are experiencing it you can't deny that we have thoughts nobody denies even Minsky doesn't deny he has lots of thoughts mathematical thoughts now let me ask the question where is this material reality called a thought the only thing that you can point to is electrical activity in the brain but electrical activity is electrical activity how is it a thought where's the jump between bursts of electricity racing between you know the axons and dendrites and all in your neurons and you know equations and feelings and now what good does it do this knowledge of Consciousness knowledge first of all why should it do any good that is vivekan's answer when you ask what what is the utility first of all why should having a utility truth has the utility of its own if it's true we must know about it then second having said that it does tremendous good tremendous good it tells you who or what you are and that who or what you are is so amazing that it frees you from the thralls of matter that our previous self-conception I am this body which was born and aging and diseased and surely going to die that's where it comes you know what you said the anxiety death anxiety this all pervasive death anxiety and basically religion is a response to that a materialist would say it's a false response we are going to die and that's it religion all religions would claim no there's a truth here and the matter is not decided so you will realize this Consciousness is not something that's born or destroyed in that case if you are this Consciousness you are not born you do not die it's a body which is born and destroyed it once you begin to see this it becomes self-evident that this Consciousness is not something that can be created or destroyed things are created and destroyed to this Consciousness or presented to this consciousness does it incentivize pursuit of material realities no it changes your priorities earlier material realities material goals were all that we could think about a viewer you know like most people lead lives of quiet desperation we right we lead lives like like rabbits chased by hounds like racing in fear and anxiety throughout life it'll free you from fear and anxiety you can still pursue your goals but your goals might be different it might not be so self-serving remember if you feel one way of looking at it what would happen if I became enlightened and just look at the lives of people you consider to be enlightened did they all become bored I wish I was not enlightened now I have nothing more to do it's so boring I'm enlightened none of them they are the only one thing they never complained about was boredom they were the freshest of all people all the saints in all all spiritual Traditions the most they had a kind of childlike Delight in this world and and a continuous joy and peace and serenity it's worth getting if you meet some of some such person you know you'll be pleased with that I mean I was seized with it when I saw Swami I didn't even know that there was a term for it there's a term for it holy Envy it's a term for it holy Envy unless if you are lucky enough to see such a person one reaction could be I want what you have I really want what you have got something I said well this little old man he was 96 years old 12th president and an incredible Fascination for thousands and thousands of people every day we just came to look and stare at him there's a description this I've seen with my own eyes and I've felt it before I learned the term holy Envy I'm sure many others felt it too so yeah this is a great great benefit utility in enlightenment and it's not against science you can still pursue science you can still pursue art you can you can lead wonderful lives in this in this life as long as you have a material existence the lady here and then we'll go to the gentleman at the back and that that's the last two questions yes tell us your name and ask the question presenting that to God yes um the Jews have a concept of wrestling with God when you find it difficult people somebody told me I can't believe in God anymore and I have had such devastating experiences in life it's all right take that to God I'm wrestling with the concept of God itself take that to God if you have a disappointment in this life go and tell God instead of telling everybody if you have an anxiety tell God I mean you have you must have a but it must be a very specific form in Hinduism we have a concept of a chosen deity so God is all pervading omniscient omnipotent omnipresent and so on and so forth but also for me he is Krishna or Rama or the Divine mother durgark so then you have uh something you can hold on to mentally it's called a support or alamb and alamana means a support now you take that to to that very personal relationship with God the study would take it to a beloved parent or grandparent or Mentor you take it to God this is my anxiety you take care of it my Lord I am set free every day in the night whatever I have done with my hands and feet um with my all my sense organs I'm repeating from Sanskrit mantras with my sense organs whatever I've seen spelled tasted touched heard whatever I have thought whatever I've said whatever I've thought whatever I felt all of this I offer this unto the radiance that is Brahman before I go to sleep tonight I I empty myself out into into God everything that we do every action you're taking you're anxious about a job interview about this or all right it's an adventure the Divine mother is with you because this is the vibhuti of God that you are in these dire circumstances now you have to fight the Battle of life and go at it with with Vivekananda says set yourself to work you will see tremendous energy will come hold on to God positive energy will come tremendous energy will come it was questioned from Tanya How do you take speak more about how do you direct the negativities towards God the two gentlemen there one of you please ask and the next person tell us your name and ask the question um oh yes yes yes um so Arjun is sort of a person who's excellent in many regards also very representative of the rest of us um shankarachary answers this question in his in the beginning of his commentary on the bhagavad-gita he says when something is accepted by an excellent person as a you know people look up to in society then it's accepted by many it spreads so that's what I see Vivekananda many of us who come here I also we're all attracted first by Vivekananda people attracted by Vivekananda SRI ramakrishna was Far higher but they think he's crazy he is this weird half man people in his lifetime they thought he's a half mad priest of Kali but they couldn't you know didn't know what to say when Vivekananda becomes a disciples SRI ramakrishna here is this person debate with him as much as you like he's more learned than all of you combined he's more talented than all of you combine he can joke with you and tell better jokes than all the best stand-up comedians he can curse with the worst most foul-mounted amount of people he can wrestle he can he can shoot he can all of that which you would look up to in a person he's got it and he's spiritual and he thinks that SRI ramakrishna is an Incarnation and he is that he gives all of it to Sri ramakrishna and he dedicates his life now then it spreads then it spreads so that's why Arjuna was selected yudish there was maybe too good he's not exactly representative all of us you would expect somebody very saintly like yudhisthira to be selected you know but then we would immediately think that's not me I don't I don't have and you just did not have many of these questions he was already well along the path Arjuna is just great people admire him but also he's every man like Vivekananda asks the same questions as the same doubts and which we would put to Sri ramakrishna that's why the question is Yoga hand in hand with the approach of constantly having to decide between Shreya and Priya and if I'm struggling between those am I not ready no no you are Shreya is that which is uh good prayer is the desirable this to say is that which is beneficial and prayers that which is Pleasant often the pleasant and the beneficial and not the same thing that's the sad tragedy of Our Lives if the pleasant things are always good things then life we would all be great but the pleasant things are not always good things and good things are not always Pleasant um so we have to make a choice the cut upanishad says you always and when you make the choice every moment of your life if you just think now should I sit like this or should I sit like this should I pay attention to what he's saying or should I just when will this be over Shreya and prayer one takes me towards growth and spiritual life and self-development another one makes me degenerate and every moment this Choice comes before us is a great way of selecting Shreya because it shows God in it you can still look at the Sun as the sun a ball of a hydrogen atoms nucleus bashing into each other and becoming helium and releasing light and heat and energy but you can also look at it as the glory of God so it's a choice can we apply Vivaldi yoga becomes a wonderful practice then it's even to do vivo to yoga you need to continuously select the Shreya um those two and there was one more person in the back right back yes tell us your name and ask the question so he's pretty soon is asking how do you channelize your negativities greed and lust and anger towards God ravan he says he was the devotee of Shiva but he is still a villain he was a villain he was a crook of the highest order now how do you but he was not practicing spiritual disciplines he was not channelizing his greed or lust or anger towards God he had his devotion towards God was not for enlightenment or God realization it was a more conventional kind of religion let things go well for me my let my Empire get bigger and bigger let what I want let me get what I want all by the grace of Shiva yeah that's the majority of religious people around the world temples churches marks are full of people let things go well for me in worldly life what about Enlightenment what about yoga oh that's okay I have got worldly certain goals to achieve in my career in my relationships in my personal health and that's what God must help me with and that's it Enlightenment well in addition to that if he gives me Enlightenment I'll take it I'll take it no Robin did not want Enlightenment Raven was not practicing generalizing his negativity then he wouldn't have done what he did so all that was fight of Good and Evil because the evil was there in ravana and he directed it towards the world okay now to a peace chant and then we'll conclude um [Music]