Video 14

14. Bhagavad Gita I Chapter 2 Verses 39-40 I Swami Sarvapriyananda

Oh Vasudeva suitum daivam come such are no Dumber Dunham dave aqui para maana and krishna monday jagadguru so in the bhagavad-gita is studying the second chapter we are at a point of inflection that means the point of change now the subject matter is going to be changed now until this point Sri Krishna had taught Gyana yoga the central teaching of the Bhagavad Gita the doctrine of the Atman that we are not the body not the mind we are immortal spirit pure consciousness so that's what he had taught and also and now he's going to talk about karma yoga how to transform our actions into spiritual practice in between there was this short interesting section from verse number 31 to 38 yes where Sri Krishna used a battery of ethical arguments practical arguments to convince Arjuna to do his duty and so that section has come to an end with the 38 verse which we read last time did we not read it last time 38 so Kade okay so make with 12 Allah o jo-jo thought o you die or you just for neighbor Papa mo ops you see regarding pleasure and pain suka suka pleasure and pain alike gain and loss lavalava alike victory and defeat Jaya Jaya alike prepare yourself for doing your duty in this way you will not incur sin just a note that these terms are causally connected if you look if you read closely you'll see pleasure and pain in the battle that is going to fight it comes out of whether he has gained or lost if he gains Debbie we if we get gained and we if we are the winners which we gain then we feel happy if we lose then we feel under dejected a pain and what is gained in this context it is victory in battle what is loss in this context it is defeat in battle so look at the sequence suka pleasure is caused by lava that is gain and lava means Jaya that means victory dukkha sorrow is caused by a lava that is loss loss is a Jaya that is not victory or defeat in battle so it's actually causally connected but what he is saying is be serene in with regard to these how can you be serene in regard to this only in one way if you are doing it as the right thing to do see if you're doing it for victory which Arjuna was which is a common sense that where you're fighting you're do taking up any action what what do you want to get out of it if you want worldly a success a worldly success so for Arjuna that meant victory that meant revenge on the evildoers and so and so forth taking back what is rightfully belongs to him and to his brothers but shri krishna urges him to give up all of that see in between what has happened is Arjuna came to the battlefield with all these armies for that purpose to get what is rightfully his and to defeat the evildoers and so on and so forth now when he sees the terrible cost of that truly like any good person he feels it's not worth it it's not worth it I will gain something but at what cost my relatives this is this is a terrible thing to do and he's right he's doing right that's a terrible thing to do if and if the thing is his personal gain but what Srikrishna points out is that it's not really a question of your personal gain you are in this great dilemma because you are it for yourself in a legitimate way in a righteous winner but not nothing bad about it but still yourself was central to it all you're doing it for yourself but now think about it this way I am NOT doing it for myself I am doing it for the welfare of of the kingdom I am doing it because it is which is what I am supposed to do my duty in this situation in that case it makes a huge difference does it yes it does if you are doing the right thing you very convinced that you're doing the right thing then whether you succeed or not is not so German is not so important if you succeed you'll be happy I did the right thing and I succeeded in doing the right thing I'm happy I did the right thing but I failed didn't work out all right unhappy but still but still it's not as terrible as I fought a war entirely for my selfish purposes and and created such havoc and I failed it's all round failure then but here he has done the moral thing the ethical thing the good thing and maybe who knows might have failed even then it's all right so he says no Papa miops you see you will not incur sin do it with selfish motives then whatever you do is sinful you're doing it for yourself so if you win it's still sinful if you if you lose it's still sinful so the importance of the mental attitude in action has been pointed out here but we had done this now comes the switch in subject 39th verse please repeat after me a shot a vita Sankey a shot a vita Sankey boot dok2 imam sri no boot dok2 imam sri no buddha yocto yah yah but yocto Yamato karma Bandhan praha CAC kuruma Bund Umbra hacia see the teaching about the self has been given teaching about the Atman has been given to you now listen to the teaching about action Karma Yoga being equipped with which being endowed with which you will transcend the bondage created by action I'll repeat again you have heard that the teaching about Atman Who am I what is the reality about our sim myself you have heard that now listen to the teaching about action karma yoga what will that do by practicing that you will transcend the bondage created by action so it has to be unpacked and what he will do from now on is going to unpack it one question here the teaching about the self Atman one might ask I am Brahman did on and Rupa her shivoham that was the teaching I am Brahman I am pure consciousness the world is an appearance the central teaching of advaita vedanta taught to amma see that thou art that has been given so what else is needed what is this now why does this topic come up at all what's the point the point is this first of all even after giving that that teaching it often does not work there might be a rare person who becomes illumined being told that you are the Atman you are the witness consciousness all right done thank you very much Gita over half the second chapter and the whole Gita is finished but Arjuna like the rest of us has many questions and many other problems it doesn't straightaway work philosophy itself being realized in in life becoming enlightened directly by the teaching it might work but for for a very few for most of us we have many other problems so those things have to be dealt with then there are other other issues involved what about I realize I'm the admin but what about this life I have got things to do in this life there are people in my life there this action there's my life to lead how do I connect it to my spirituality are there two things one is spiritual life another one's secular life if there are two things you know and that's what happens to most of us spiritual life we ran through society Friday evening seven-thirty rest of it secular life the spiritual life is going to lose and lose badly why because the demands of secular life are so tough you have a family to look after you have a job to hold you have health problems financial problems community social political problems so many pressures on life that spirituality is nice a talk now a little bit of mindfulness some time a little this and that and good but the moment some pressure comes we immediately start dealing with that and spirituality takes the backseat that which was meant to solve all the problems in our life it doesn't help us in it crisis not only that it sometimes becomes an additional problem to-do list so many things to do and also a Gita class on top of that usually the Gita class is the first to be sacrificed and not you because you have taken the trouble to turn up on a cold day but it it's natural it's natural I remember the difference between karma and meditation as a senior monk telling a novice in our ashram there that as novices we all had duties so that now is his duty was to to sell books in the bookshop so he has to maintain the bookshop the senior monk was telling the novice I hope you get up early and meditate see my boy there's nobody who's going to tell you to do that the bookshop will make you work because people will line up and if you don't open the bookshop they're going to complain to the senior monk about you look at the Brahma cherry the novice is so lazy he hasn't opened the bookshop on time it's not clean it's not kept nicely this book is not available and so and so forth so the world will extract work from you as far as your external activities are concerned let it be karmayoga let it be just your ordinary duties in life the world will extract it from you it will make you perform but you and God is sitting quietly in the in the early morning darkness and meditating on God God is an easy boss apparently he's not going to hold you accountable you don't turn up for meditation all right it's your loss God has nothing to say it's going to sit quietly so you're going to meditate or not meditate there it depends on you that often happens that becomes the problem if you split up spiritual life and secular life so spiritualizing the whole of life is important spiritualizing the whole of life is important because I often hear this question I talk a lot about Advait Vedanta and people like it but what common question the most common question is Swami have heard the talks I read the books now what now what if a greater Vedanta works as it is supposed to work you wouldn't even ask the question now what but because we asked the question shri krishna has a new section beginning now on karma yoga now this this is what you're going to do there's a word here - - imam shri new in sanskrit - the word is Baraka donna with Jada thumb which means to differentiate between two sections of the same chapter so one section is over now we are beginning another section IANA Yoga is over Karma Yoga is starting now to Imam Shin do gong to a mountain to a few before we start a few words about the terms used here yes you might ask your using words like Advaita and Vedanta and Ghani yoga where is Krishna use such words so the krishna uses the words Sankhya now this is a very old use of the word Sankhya Sankhya means knowledge here knowledge about the Atman specifically knowledge about the Atman the other term other meaning of the word Sankhya we know it's a system of philosophy one of the six systems of Orthodox Hindu philosophy Neera rachet chika Sankhya yoga yes you heard correctly yoga yoga is among many meanings of yoga one one is the philosophy of yoga yoga purva mimamsa sutra mimamsa six systems that would turn mimamsa the later my mom says is the technical name for vedanta what we call vedanta so Sankey is one of the systems of philosophy but here it's that's not what is meant when krishna says I have taught you Sankhya I've taught you knowledge about the Atman the philosophy of Sanka is also about the Atman about this self but here specifically he means I've given you knowledge about the real nature of the self till now now yoga would do yoga to emulsion now listen to the teaching about yoga what yoga is referring to here now there were karma yoga so yoga here refers to karma yoga so the if you I said Gyana yoga and karma yoga two sections in Krishna's words Sankhya and car and Yoga Yoga means karma yoga and Sankhya means Gianni yoga in our terminology there is a very ancient saying they don't know who said it but it'd be beautiful and very important saying for our spiritual life sank as among Yanam nasty yogam yoga saman Balaam nasty there is no knowledge like the knowledge of the self Sankhya and there is no power like the power of spiritual practice yoga in life what do you need you need knowledge and power you need to know and the power to do that knowledge our real nature from adwaita vedanta Organa yoga and what you have to do bhakti-yoga Karma Yoga and Hana Raja yoga those at the three all right being equipped with this knowledge what so Arjuna might ask so what what will happen to me if I get that this knowledge you will overcome the bondage created by action karma otherwise creates bondage keeps us in samsara how can we use that very Karma to escape from samsara to get freedom from samsara so I move a can to say that you cannot run away from samsara you must learn to work the machine this is the word the other words he uses one must learn to work the machine so that the Machine sets you free if you try to run they will be crushed by that machine learn to work the machine operate the machine so that it sets you free how do we operate the machinery of life so that we are liberated from samsara we get salvation enlightenment moksha Nirvana that will be the teaching now another point see these are the points which commentators bring out it may not occur to us but they think very deeply and they have this if this was the purpose to teach ghana yoga and then karma yoga so after completing the Gyana yoga teaching which was in verse 30 up to 30 should have straight started with this what was that between 31 and 38 what was that that's because according to one commentator when we are going to do karma yoga that is spiritualizing my karma first of all one must know cut off via Karma that is what am I going to do I'm going to spiritualize it correct but what is it that I'm supposed to do what is it that I'm not supposed to do so from 31 to 38 Krishna has clearly pointed out Arjuna knows this but it needed needed to be said what is the duty actually what what should Arjuna do what should he not do it's a beautiful way of teaching these teachers Krishna Buddha Christ mama Shankara all of them and of course Ramakrishna there were master teachers if you just look at the pedagogy involved the way they teach the communication if you notice in verses 31 to 38 he stated what should be done first second he stated what should not be done and finally concluded again with what should be done in between he discussed the advantages of doing what should be done and the disadvantages of not doing his duty those were discussed and he draws it to a conclusion in the end by saying once again stating what he should do I was in a discussion group just yesterday we were discussing how to communicate with children modern psychology so first you have to acknowledge the situation this is the problem and this is what you are saying so an observation acknowledgement then you have to express a feeling Krishna does that again and again you notice how he proclaims that I love you I am your well-wisher again and again here he expresses it's not a neutral teaching from a distance because I am your well-wisher nobody loves you more than me therefore I am saying it and then express our request this is what you should do and keep the person's freedom into intact having said all this you still free I'm not putting any pressure on you at the end of eight 18 chapters what does Krishna say the last thing he says is your choice choice he thought ah kuru after having listened to all this now do as you will I am done but you are free to do whatever you want so you created Rama Krishna also says that Jayakar I do it again actually made a Jedi car tie the knowledge of Advaita to the hem of your cloth and then do as you will that means for base yourself at philosophy and on the philosophy of non-dualism let that that light up your mind and then do what you want what you will but you will winds do whether you want to be a yogi or a devotee or a gurney or engaged in dynamic action for the welfare of the world whatever you want to do do so Ramakrishna says that Jedi car literally means do whatever you want but it's it can often be used in Bengali as a kind of kind of a lot of a scolding mom's often you use it the exasperated moms say to children or do whatever you want to do I give up so judge you take her oh I remember the funny incident where there was this senior Swami in an ashram scolding a young monk who is a very innocent but but up to exasperate the senior monk sometimes the monk the finally the senior monk said whatever are you doing what is this you're doing and the young monks it didn't Swami don't you know what see Ramakrishna said try the knowledge of advaitha to the hem of your cloth and do whatever you like he said oh so you have tied the knowledge of Advaita to your o'clock and the young monk replied I am trying to do a part of it at least half of it do whatever you like so have doing that I am practicing that part I am practicing that part so first Shri Krishna determines what has to be done in the verses 31 to 38 now how do you do it spiritually this is your duty now how do you do it spiritually that's going to start now okay there's one more thing I need to say before I go on notice how Karma Yoga is being positioned here Karma Yoga is being positioned as a means as a practice to enable you to realize gana yoga I am the Atman in order to realize that in my life I need to do these practices to prepare myself so the the inner text the subtext is what we are going to teach you will not give you enlightenment or freedom directly but it will prepare you for the higher knowledge of the Earthmen repeat that Karma Yoga is a practice together yoga as a supplement to as a step to Gyana yoga the commentator here sri there swami this is one one commentator but this is typical he says oopah system Jana yoga Maupassant Heron taught siddhanam Karma Yoga impressed ot having concluded the teaching about Jana the means to that is now being introduced Karma Yoga is a means to that is being introduced but this is a maneuver done by the commentators Krishna never clearly says that it is a means to Karma Yoga is a means to gain Yoga later on you see Swami Vivekananda says each of them independently can take you there but the traditional commentators Shankara for example and Twitter days they put Gannett knowledge at the top and others leading up to that so I have said this earlier but this is the right time to say it and I'll have a occasion to repeat it again what is the framework keep this in mind the framework of spiritual practice they let us call it them let's call it the matrix of spiritual practice what are we to do if that is the question in spiritual life to become enlightened to attain moksha liberation salvation what are we to do according to Vedanta here is the answer make a matrix in your mind three by three in your mind three columns the first column is problem the second column is solution the third column is method problem solution method three columns all right Vedanta tells us you are Brahman your pure being immortal beyond any any suffering your pure awareness beyond the problems of the body be all forever perfect before ever beyond the problems of the mind and stops and we are left sort of scratching our heads that doesn't quite help me why doesn't seem to be a living reality to me it doesn't seem I've heard it I'm not sure I understand what it means and it certainly doesn't seem to be a lived reality to me it's not realized yet it's not it I'm not awake to that reality what you're talking about so problem you said it but I don't realize it I don't know it not knowing not realizing so the problem the first problem is Agana ignorance first problem is Agana ignorant what I'm telling now is absolutely key to understanding bhagavad-gita from the Vedanta perspective Advaita Vedanta perspective so you have to keep it in mind it many questions you know from now on can be answered I might just say refer to the matrix tell me dance you can easily good answer yourself so what is the matrix first problem is ignorant or guiana sanskrit what is the solution solution knowledge solution for any problem any ignorant is knowledge gharana in sanskrit here I'll point out something which seems obvious but still good to keep in mind knowledge removes ignorant correct provided provided there are two conditions the object and locus of knowledge and ignorance are the same object and locus of the knowledge and ignorance are the same what do you mean that sounds really difficult no it is and it's very very it's really simple really simple it just philosophers love to make simple things difficult what does it mean suppose I am ignorant the question will be ignorant of what I'm ignorant of physics ah so I have ignorant of physics what is the object of magnetons what is it that I do not know physics where is this ignorance in me in me the student the student is ignorant of physics now knowledge will be required to remove this ignorance remember knowledge must have the same object and same locus locus means place residents which means what kind of knowledge is required and where is that knowledge required knowledge of mathematics or knowledge of Sanskrit will not remove my ignorance of physics knowledge of physics will remove my ignorance of physics because the object of knowledge and object of ignorance must be the same one my professors knowledge of physics will not remove minor ignorance of physics that knowledge has to come in me it has to arise in me I must get the feeling that I must know it in that case the knowledge is here ignorance was here that knowledge when it comes here it will remove the ignorance here so ignorant about Atman about the self who I really am that can be removed only by knowledge of Sanskrit gita knowledge of Atman yes knowledge of Atman and my gurus knowledge is not enough Sri Ramakrishna and Vivekananda knowledge is not enough to remove my my ignorance it must come here they can help me but it must ultimately come here I must realize it so knowledge removes ignorant gianna removes Agana problem ignorant solution knowledge method how do I get that knowledge shravana monana needed chasm this is ghana yoga Shravana monana needed t asana literally hearing reasoning meditating hearing reasoning editing hearing here means systematically studying Vedanta which means coming to class listening carefully thinking about it asking questions congratulations you are already practicing Jana Yoga yes the moment you have started Shahada listening to Vedanta and thinking applying the mind to it we're already practicing in fact this is the first step and you know which is the most important stepping there in ghana yoga the path of knowledge it is this listening not the meditation afterwards they say Shravan art Ava Ganim bye-bye what you here alone knowledge comes reasoning and meditation are to remove obstructions in knowledge there are lot of explanations to be done that I will not go into it so method listening I've been studying reasoning and meditation one after another in sequence so now you have the first row of the matrix problem ignorance of the optimal solution knowledge of the Atman how do I get that knowledge listen reason meditate Ramana mañana needed the asana now we again back to scratching our heads yeah well I've been coming to class for something you have come for two years now I've been coming to class for twenty years and I don't see enlightenment coming or anywhere close to it what is the problem now the problem now the second tier the second rope the problem now is what in sanskrit is called wick shape the mind is scattered the mind is restless the mind is unable to absorb this teaching clarity does not down focus does not come we hear it even when we apply ourselves to it the result is we say I get some kind of intellectual knowledge that is the sign that clarity has not yet come so weak shape a scattered mind you see what's the problem I have gone through your recommendation I have done hearing and reasoning and meditation to some extent at least for a long time it has not worked now the problem is why has it not worked or why is it not working many people keep coming to class for years and years and they have so many notebooks in and nowadays you know hard disks full of talks and things like that so what is happening restless mind restless mind problem solution concentration focus solution it's a huge problem these days lack of attention restlessness hyper restlessness especially among kids Daniel Goldman who became very famous writing EQ about the book on emotional intelligence not one book one after another the latest book is written is called focus it's it's about concentration so anyways is the same problem exactly the same problem inability to hold on and focus on n not just in in Vedanta in any sphere of life in any sphere of life to do anything great to make any kind of breakthrough you need focus you need to hold on more than Talent this bearing down upon it to hold on to it some something and seriously plug away at it for months and years and years together that is more important than being talented or being very brilliant I like this American saying this a big shot a big shot is a little shot who keeps shooting focus the ability to hold on I have a friend who is a mathematician tremendous focus now he was saying that this is what is important for to be a good mathematician it's not really important to be very particularly brilliant you need talent so I said then why don't they do it I mean he could have more people we just need to keep doing it he said they won't that's it they don't they get distracted by mobile phones and movies and socializing and so and so forth they would I remember going to in India this IITs are very well known engineering colleges I went to another engineering college to give a talk to the students there and I was talking to the students it's not of the rank of the IITs a little a couple of steps down in the ranking and I remember what I told the students based on my observation I said look whenever I go to a college or university I visit the library I love libraries I do that here also whenever I go to a college or university and you have fantastic libraries here when I said here is the difference between you guys and that elite engineering college here I find we have extraordinary excellent you know computer shiny computer departments and labs and a beautiful library and that's what they have in the IIT is - but here is the difference it's not a difference in their in your facilities it's not so much of a difference in your faculty the difference is this when I went to the library just before the talk I'd gone to visit the library so very nice where are the kids oh they were all gone home the computer department rows and rows of shiny new computers empty nobody's there mano - boys and girls are sitting where are they they have gone out or the socializing gone back home or something like that so when I went to the class which I was supposed to address I said when I went to that college which you guys look up to I went and sat in the library to read with the students there and their group of students reading then I went to my room to do some work and you know took a bath and had lunch and I came back and there was amazed to see that eight hours later the same students group of students was sitting around me evidently at it exactly the same way which they have been eight hours earlier and I told the students there in that College that elite1 oh I'm so impressed how these kids in this day and age they've got so much focus and they said Swami you are visiting in in the lean hours that means if you come during exam time you will find the kids they get get into the library to study the moment you know early in the morning it's open throughout the day and they are in the library throughout the day throughout the evening throughout that night next morning they go to the washroom in the library wash their faces and go straight to the examination house 24 hours without a break no coffee break no lunch no lunch no dinner nothing sometimes they do that so I said to those this is the difference so as the professor so if it's that why don't they do it they won't they won't unfortunately it's not possible everybody doesn't have that Kepler that that kind of capacity to hold on now focus is important focus if if distraction is the problem Vic shaper then the solution is a car greater concentration and the method is meditation ooop asana meditation loop asanas meditation worship meditation then people will say back to scratching your head again I you know I took initiation and I have been practicing meditation for 20 years meditations not particularly good I still am so distracted and what is the problem now third tier the last and promises the last year of problems we are going to complete the matrix now the last year of problems impurity of mind I should the jitter in Sanskrit Cheeta mala mala means dirt chit Tamala impurity of mind what is the solution purity of mind jitter should dress a no-brainer purity of mind how is that accomplished what is the method karma yoga this is what is coming in you karma yoga doing what needs to be done with a spiritual attitude spiritualizing your day-to-day activity now you have the matrix let me draw it again for air in your mind's eye just draw it again first column problem so in the first row you have got ignorant solution knowledge method hearing reasoning meditating Gani yoga second row problem problem is distracted mind Sanskrit big shaper solution focused mind Sanskrit a car Greta method who pass on our worship meditation third row why even meditation is not successful third rope impure mind system Allah impurities in the mind solution pure mind chitta should be method powerful method one powerful method karma yoga so now you have the matrix with a purified mind when you sit down to meditate meditation is immediate powerful and effective with a concentrated and purified mind when you approach the teaching of the Atman there is a breakthrough you intuitively grasp oh it is so I am the unaffected witness consciousness tadhana and rupa shivoham I am pure awareness pure bliss it is I don't have to become that it becomes very clear and that is realization enlightenment both he whatever you call it drama that happens so this is the whole spiritual journey but again this is one frame but remember this is the framework according to Advaita Vedanta Shankara if you ask a teacher of bhakti they'll say oh no no no not like this something else yes yes pure mind is no negative thoughts no no it's not that it is a preponderance of pure thoughts you know what will happen is spiritual life becomes desirable and nice and not so much of a struggle you like meditating you like service you like reading about you know you like reading the Gita or the Bible or whatever it is spiritual life becomes desirable nice interesting and you're able to you're able to do it that is the sign of purity of not that once in a while and disturbance greed reactions will not come of course they will come how do you deal with it when they come some people get swept away some people get caught up in it alright I'll give you the sign of Chitra should be what will happen is this over time over time what will happen is the frequency of yes the frequency of these upsets irritation outburst depression inability to control myself the frequency will go down and the second thing which will happen will be the intensity of these negativities will get reduced will go down so earlier I used to fly into a rage now I'm mildly irritated earlier I used to be angry almost every other day now every other week and the recovery time will go down earlier if I am angry in the morning it'll take me three D three days to cool down now if I am angry now moment I'm alright they were saying shadow rock Gillette Doug the anger of a monk should be like a line drawn in flowing water as soon as you draw it it goes away it's not that anger will not be this when we wake under said a fool cannot get angry the wise one does not get angry so yes this is a monk in Chennai he told me this this is a good way to measure your progress in spiritual life it happens over time it's gently even even without any kind of specific spiritual practice maturity is what we could call this is what is called maturity emotional maturity is this thing the frequency of problems the intensity of problems and the recovery time from the problems they all go down or what years you will notice it is happening yes [Music] [Music] yes and now does do you lose the ability to focus yes and no if you if you do not keep in training you will lose these abilities so I have seen students who became academicians researchers they retained the ability to focus because they are focusing a student who goes into managing a multinational corporation with a hundred and everything all are a busy mom so very difficult to focus on one thing because half a dozen things are calling for your attention I saw a cartoon it was a philosophy journal the issue the time the thing was time so the cartoon was on one side is the old man with a side standing it's written father time you know he's looking brooding father time old man and the next picture is of this lady she's got a handbag and two kids hanging onto a hand and another kid on the pram and racing along she looks harried it says mother not enough time father time and mother not enough time so sometimes you are put in a situation where it's difficult to focus but even they notice the person who can focus we get much more done much better than the person who cannot focus yeah and these practices help you to maintain and develop your power of focus meditation it does it does help the ability to sit still and hold on to one thought for a while that is the very essence of concentration a focus nowadays there's so much emphasis on mindfulness it's it's a huge thing in USA now children are being taught mindfulness not just for focus for calming down for distressing but for focus also for awareness yes oh you noticed god somebody's noticing yes there's a difference there's a big difference the meditation which is done in the first one that is called needd asana vedantic meditation the meditation is done in earlier in the second row that is the yogic meditation that is dianna or rope asana now there is a difference I will not go into that but if you want I will refer you to a parochial booty I have a series of lectures towards the end of those lectures in a production of booty from verses 101 onwards Shankar Acharya talks about Vedantic meditation that is the row one kind of meditation but he also contrasts it with the yogic meditation the purpose of a the Vedantic meditation is to realize that I am Brahman the purpose of yogic meditation is to develop the power of focus I leave it at that but there are there is a difference in principle there and min practice also alright and this is as much as I wanted to say this is the framework and we will use this throughout our study of Gita but remember this is just a framework you if you did come to some other spiritual tradition they may have a different framework the bhakti traditions for example they will never say karma yoga then OPA sauna and then gana yoga no no work the alone beginning middle and end bhakti devotion you want purity of mind but the devotion will give it to you you want focus love what gives you more focus than love and you want knowledge and love of God will give you knowledge ultimately God will give you knowledge so all will come from love are they wrong no not wrong that's another another way of looking at it but Advaita Vedanta the approach is like this all right having said this let us go on I'm not going too much into this karma Bandhan prahasta see by following karma yoga you will overcome the bondage of karma what does that mean Krishna himself explains 40 maharba Cremona Shasti neha Cremona Shasti protea Verona be dirty Pratibha jana bit dirty so album a PCSO dharmasya so album appiah Hermosillo trotty maha - by odd trotty Mahato by odd in this practice karma yoga in contrast to worldly karma action in the world worldly action family job whatever it is in contrast to that worldly karma this karma yoga when you're doing the same action but when you change your attitude and make it to karma yoga what will happen there is no wastage you begin something do not complete it is it you have to write it off total loss No whatever you do it goes towards your spiritual progress if that's what you're interested in spiritual progress then pretty of Iona with deity there is no opposite effect or no bad effect no side effects to this medicine then welcome up questioner Monsieur try at a Mahato Bharat whatever little you practice gives result it protects us from great fear the fear of birth and death the fear of samsara even a little bit of practice not that you have to become a Vivekananda in good time then only you get the result oh no then very very few people would practice it but to the extent that we are spiritual to the extent that you pray to the extent that you meditate to the extent that you study and think about it to that extent you will get peace of mind you will get joy you will get strength I have seen many times people who say that oh I've been doing with meditation or violent or something Buddhism for a long time not I haven't really gone gotten much out of it I've not really advanced and so many problems still remain and when I say all right stop it then give it up oh no no no I can't do that in many of these cases they will say in most cases they will say that is the most precious thing in my life now ah then how can you say that you have not got anything I remember when I became a monk as a novice three days afterwards I told another monk not a very senior monk were too scared to approach the very senior ones a fairly middling level monk and I said oh nothing is happening I mean I'm not progressing three days into the monastic life and he shot back with something I'll never forget he said okay go back home I said no I can't do that I can't imagine not imagine going back home then he said look that place you call home for 23 years has within three days become unthinkable for you is that not progress it's incredible progress not that it's become very bad it's exactly what it was earlier but now you have got a taste of something which there's no comparison you would rather keep on doing this I remember some of those things with the early lessons we learned really worthwhile I'll share a couple the first day it was a monastery at at the school attached to it it's in ramakrishna mission with the RPG ocher so third or fourth day when I was there one of the monks took me to the school to teach the kids and he introduced me to the teachers the teachers there there some of the monks teach and there are other teachers who are paid teachers you know like it teaches in any school any high school but the monks and the teachers work together so when I was introduced here is this young boy who has come to be a monk and he is going to work in the school for the time being and the Swami who was introducing me said he has got these qualifications these degrees and things like that and once senior teacher know gentleman he said ah we are lucky to have him then gods are qualified by we're lucky to have him and immediately the Swami said correcting him no he is lucky to be here look that correction do you see what I mean that consider it the greatest blessing of your life that you are accepted into this holy order we are not lucky to have you you are lucky to be here and I said it's a great lesson to learn for the rest of my life that was one one day I think I was sweeping the road beneath building or something like that and one senior not a senior monk a monk was just senior to me just a few years more than me he was going from there to the main monastery was leaving and I was going to take his place and by leaving he left me with a little bit of advice he said look the sweeping you're doing suppose they tell you all the rest of your life in your monastic life the only thing that you'll ever be good for is just sweeping this road and I don't have the emotion like si si I said it's perfectly all right with me I'm ready to keep sweeping this room for the road for the rest of my life just if you let me stay here and then he was so happy he was not a young man with little a few years older than me he said that's the attitude if you have that attitude it'll be a good knock now so these are this is the spirit of karma yoga yeah and we saw so much of this all right Neha Vikram on our show Asti worldly action if you begin it you must complete it you can't sow the seeds to have a farmer can't do that and and then you have to you have to you know prepare the field and sow the seeds and then water rate irrigate it and they put fertilizers and stuff and supplements and so on and then harvest the crops but suppose somebody says um I'll do maybe i'll sew the seeds rest I will not do so won't I get one-fourth of the crops no you won't it'll be a total loss you start producing a new gadget you invented it good and then you start producing it but if you don't produce it and take it all the way to the consumer to the consumer you won't get a penny back until you complete a world reaction no results are there now that applies for religious actions also which are done for worldly purposes so the puja which is done for a particular it's called Sycamore personna Sycamore karma karma done with desire I want money order so many things the the first part of the Vedas are full of what are called yogi ins sacrifices fire sacrifices basically you're bribing God to help you hurt I mean I'm putting it in a very general sense you I offered this and I want this in life what do you want something in this life let the reins be good to us let disease not touch our community you know what what persons would have hoped for 2,000 3,000 years ago protect us from our enemies and so on so forth now all of those rituals this is a saying that you must perform them properly they must be performed just like any work you do in the world they must be done perfectly then only the result is expected to I have me half-assedly no we don't get anything but in contrast to that he says Karma Yoga for liberation for enlightenment for love of God whatever you do it is not ruined even if you don't bring it to a completion you chant the name of God a thousand times good you chant it ten times still good chanted chant it once still good not that you will do it half-assedly the puja but if it's an offering of love they say why go near the small defect in the puja God does not look at those because it's an offering of love you don't want anything in return you just offering it out of love you want you said no I want purification of mine didn't you just say result is purification that's all right the desire for God is not to be counted among desires so Ramakrishna put it this way and somebody asked Swami you say you've give you're giving up desires to become a monkey bus give up disease but do you want God or not yes then you have a desire sri ramakrishna has answered to that the desire for God is not to be counted among results he says the sugar candy is not to be counted among other candy because candy says causes acidity and is it acid reflux and sugar candy is something that destroys acidity you have to be a Bengali to understand that I think so mystery yes so that is not to be counted rock candy rock candy that is not to be counted among sweets though it tastes sweet so this desire for God wipes out all worldly desire and takes you beyond worldliness so that is not to be counted as a worldly desire so there is no loss on this path that's the point number one number one was it takes you beyond the bondage of karma that was in 39th verse and these three there is no loss there is no negative effect and also a little bit of practice saves you from great fear these are the explanations of that one the first one there is no negative effect side effect it's a purty avaya is an adverse effect an unintended consequence these there are there are actually forces you can call them psychic forces beyond our ordinary knowledge and these whether the Vedic fire sacrifices or the tantric practices they play with these forces in order to get certain certain results in our worldly life now if you do not if you're not careful it can be damaging like a powerful medicine if you don't take it in proper dosage if you don't take it with prop died it can have unintended side effects sometimes the side effects are much worse and much are very dangerous can land you up in hospital the same way many religious acts are there which are prescribed in the Vedas for worldly benefits and if you don't do it properly it can lead to harm so immediately in the mind of the Vedic practitioners the question was this thing you're going to teach karma yoga this Gita gana our meditation Karma all this you're teaching do they have any side effects negative effects adverse if I don't do it well no they don't there's no side no harmful consequence to it whatsoever anything that you do for spirituality for the love of God for God realization put it which see I'm using two kinds of words self realization or spirituality or the way I say or God realization means the same thing in a greater way Dante you can say both ways they have knows no negative consequences no negative consequences there is a story I it is traditionally told so there's I'll tell that story and end here the story of Britt restaura when you're talking about negative consequences it's as an illustration always that the traditional teacher will tell the story but we have had many Indian children didn't know the story I knew it from those emerging toccata comics the story goes like this in the ancient days of the wars between the demons and the gods the sage washed out his son whose name was surprise surprise vishwaroopa who was also a sage he was killed by mistake by Indra the king of the gods and Twista was furious with the king of the gods Indra and so he wanted to destroy Indra the king of the gods so he performed this elaborate Vedic sacrifice see this kind of work with a specific worldly desire or otherworldly desire the desire was the demon who will be boy or not this sacrifice will be manifested by this a supernatural force a demon terrifying demon that demon will be powerful enough to kill the king of the gods so there's an elaborate procedure to generate this force this demon now the story goes the mantra which is to be chanted while the fire sacrifice is going on in Russia Thrun what the swih in indra shocked room what this well it really means let the enemy of Indra develop or grow or manifest now there is a specific way of chanting vedic mantras where you have to put stress on the intonation it is connected to the way of chanting and grammar in a very intricate way we will not go into the details but suffice it for this much if you say in Russia true but what does wha it means let the one who will destroy the enemy of Indra who will destroy Indra let that one come out this is what the the sage wanted but now the gods knew that our King is in danger so they conspired and the goddess of learning Saraswathi she manifested on the tongue of the the rishi the moment he was about to chant at that time a tongue-twister so she made it so that the rashid chanted it wrongly instead of putting the emphasis on the last syllable in russia true he said in russia through what thus were let he who will be destroyed by indra let him be manifested the meaning changes immediately depending on where you put the stress because why again there is there is two types of Sanskrit okay I will not go into details grammatical conjunctions samatha is that such teetered purify Purusha and baristas so if you on depending on pronunciation the the grammatical conjunction Changez and so the meaning changes and so he made a mistake and what he wanted happened a terrible demon came up and went out and fought against the gods and defeated the gods and defeated Indra I think he swallowed in drawer something like that or things like that now what happened was Indra had gone to the great sage Dadhichi so story within story and they said that only a weapon the Thunderbolt in fact Indra is called the wielder of the Thunderbolt Raja the Thunderbolt can destroy this demon nothing else can destroy this demon so what is the Thunderbolt means so you can see Indra is also the god of rain and thunder so what what he uses when there's a thunderstorm that is interest in the Thunderbolt so where will this Thunderbolt be produced will Boeing make it or not drop or Lockheed so it is the sage Dadhichi the most righteous among sages his bones will are enough are required to make this Thunderbolt so it is a person who is led a life of perfect a perfectly ethical and moral life so they go how can you ask this we want your bones and the sage she was so unattached to his worldly existence he said all right I shall good I'm going to give up my body India yogic meditation it sat in meditation and left the body you can use the bones and so they manufactured the Thunderbolt out of the bones and Indra using the Thunderbolt finally killed the demon Vitra so from then on Indra that king of the Gods is known as the wielder of the budget of either of the Thunderbolt and so on so the story this is like that but the point here is that the wrong pronunciation led to a wrong - absolutely opposite effect so for all worldly kinds even though our religious ritual but if your desires are worldly then you have to be very careful of how you perform the ritual but for karma yoga bhakti yoga gana yoga whatever you do for the love of God all right this specifics don't count so much in which it is a nice fable practically practically big thing I remember our the head of our monestery the one we were trained under he taught us these beautiful lessons he said it's not the work that you do that matters it's what the work does to you that matters what did you get out of it not what did you do in the world outside so sometimes we've as in the enthusiastic newcomers we made mistakes he was not worried about that he would see that did we try did we do it with the proper attitude and did we learned from it that's all sometimes mushroom which didn't have much money it suffered there was somebody who you know a biogas plant and something so one of the Bromwich eyes was in charge of that he messed up and the thing failed and the ashram lost 20,000 rupees and we thought he is going to be in serious trouble now and Swami was not at all concerned he said I'll raise the money somehow but the thing is what lesson do you take out of it what lesson do you take out of it how do you grow spiritually that's what's important in work not the worldly result that's the difference between worldly work and Karma Yoga but don't try it with your boss I have grown spiritually boss but about the bottom line the bottom line is dropped out then you are in trouble all right we will go on with this next time Shante Shante Shante hurry he that sat sri ramakrishna aparna must this subject will go on from that this 39th verse up to 53rd verse the subject of karma yoga then there'll be a change in subject again when Arjuna will ask the question how do we know a person has become enlightened so by what signs that will be the last topic of this chapter