Video 28

28. Bhagavad Gita l Chapter 3 Verses 4-6 l Swami Sarvapriyananda

Oh Vasu Deva suitum deivam comes a child odama Donham Devaki paramanandam krishnam vande a jagadguru in the bhagavad-gita we have started chapter three which deals with action in fact the name of chapter three is karma yoga the chapter starts because Arjuna has a doubt a question and his question was you have spoken to me of two things one is the path of knowledge the other one the path of action now both of them you have praised and it seems to me that enlightenment is possible only by the path of knowledge and yet at the end of it all you tell me to perform action and what kind of action the worst possible action with this war that we are going to fight so which one should I do should I give up action and dedicate myself entirely to the pursuit of enlightenment or should I do this what is in front of me right now tell me one and then sri krishna's answer was locust Mandriva danisha para prokta my honor ha there are these two paths but you are making a mistake they are not options they are not alternatives not that you can do one and not the other rather their to be combined one after the other in sequence Karma Yoga provides you with the necessary preparation for Gyana yoga Gani Yoga is the path of knowledge karma yoga the path of action do the action in front of you what is in your life right now your job your your duties do it but do it as a spiritual practice and what is the method of doing that karma yoga so to convert all of your actions into Karma Yoga do not give up your actions do not give up that what is in front of you right now convert all your activities into spiritual practice into Karma Yoga and there's a way to do it and then that prepares the mind for the higher practice of Jionni yoga the path of knowledge and that leads to enlightenment so this is a framework I mentioned it last time also the traditional Advaita Vedanta framework karma yoga gives purity of mind cipta should be then OOP asana meditation gives focus of mind a car grata and with a pure and focused mind when you come to vedanta then vedanta will give you knowledge gianna which removes ignorant ignorance about what our real nature who am i what am I so within then we realize what we are and that is enlightenment that leads to moksha freedom freedom from suffering freedom from samsara so this was krishna's answer and he goes on we have done up to verse number three so forth words no karma nam Inara ma-na ma-na ma-na rambha nice car me importunate a nice car me importunate a nachas Aeneas anodd Ava Natchez on Yassa nod Ava Sid dim Samadhi got chatty Sid in Samadhi got dirty so Krishna goes on by saying by just giving up action one does not reach perfection enlightenment we are using the words perfection or enlightenment but that's not the word Christian has used the word Krishna uses is nice car Mia which is very contextually appropriate it means act the action less state by giving up action alone one does not attain to the action less state and he says even attain is not quite correct Anitha means enjoys one does not enjoy the benefits of enlightenment just by giving up at tivities actions not just Annie asana diva not just by giving up the activities of life of samsara Siddim samadhi get chatty silly means perfection realization enlightenment one does not really reach enlightenment just by sannyasa by giving up sannyasa can mean specifically the monastic life giving up all activities in the samsara or in general it could mean giving up the duties of life just by that one does not reach perfection so what does he mean I will read a little from the sanskrit commentary which i have in hand this is by Sridhar Swami who wrote about 600 700 years ago so he introduces this verse by saying the Sanskrit first utter Hossam miageta sugar Tong yan output T berry anthem varnish remote satanic harmonica table Yanni he says one should perform one's duties one should perform action what action what are one's duties prescribed what is in front of you though what words he uses are varnish Ramos Italy appropriate for one's own position in life you know in ancient Indian society society was very stratified hierarchically divided into castes and stages of life the four stages of life youth a student then grease the a householder then vanaprastha one was retired from life and then retired from life means not dead retired from the activities of samsara when you when you retire nowadays especially New York nobody retires you know vanaprastha it literally means the forest the one who is set off for the forest and then sannyas one who gives up samsara all together and becomes a monk or a nun so these are the four stages of life and they're all mentality ultimately for achievement of enlightenment and then there are the four traditional castes the priestly class the brand Brandon's the Warriors district riyals the commercial class the wishes and the laborers the shooters so the very broad division and so at any time in this kind of a very rigid social setup you would you would find yourself in one of this it's like a matrix so either you are a Brahmin brahmacari that means you are a student and you belong to the caste of Brahmins therefore you have certain things to do or you are actually a householder for example arjuna and krishna both of them are of the warrior class and both of them are householders so according to that they have certain duties all that was fine earlier but doesn't have much meaning in 21st century in Manhattan or even in India today the old order is God but what it simply means is what's it what's in front of you in our own lives so you have a career you have a spouse and kids and family to take care of and a house to maintain your own health your own finances this is your battlefield there's an option I could give it all of all up tell the kids tell your spouse I am not picking them up or you want me to pick them up yes from now on because I'm off to the Himalayas this is goodbye I'm not coming back I've got my visa Indian visa I'm not coming back here and so goodbye to all that I have turned in my papers at the job and that's it now that's not as funny as it sounds because a lot of people when they become very interested in spiritual life genuinely a spiritual seeking starts they tend to have a head for the high mountains for the high Himalayas so that's all right but Krishna is not in favor of that that's what Arjuna wanted to do remember Arjuna came fully ready to fight this battle and then he changed his mind he said it's not worth it what did in what sense worth it in the sense of worldly gain or loss and then Krishna tells him about Vedanta and Arjuna sees that's even better this is really great I will now dedicate the rest of my life to this and I'm off to the mountains you fight your war that's it you can take my sword too and my bow and arrow - I actually did that you know hi not a sword or a bow and arrow when I became a monk I had bicycle which was a fancy one for those days so one of my close friends who knew that I'm going to become a monk he said that's great can I have your backside I said sure you can take it I don't need it anymore No Sri Krishna says rather than doing that what's in front of you the battlefield the battle you are faced with your battle of life it's better to do that and there is a way of doing it which will help you why would you do that jitter should their tongue for purification of the mind for purification of the mind for for preparing the mind for enlightenment up to how long how long should I do that gone out but Tiberi anthem until the arising of enlightenment up to that until you get the result you are seeking for karmani kitab biani action should be performed and what action is already set it's very clear if not suppose I say oh I don't care I'm off to the mountains anyway uh Natasha - should d'ivoire veena gaana no party because otherwise in the absence of proper preparation of mind in the absence of purity of mind and that goes with absence of concentration of mine focus of mind gana uh not party enlightenment will not arise so what you're going off for that will not happen yes purify the mind is we have conditioning in our mind this lifetime and if you have a vedantic mindset then many lifetimes of conditioning basically these sense pleasures will make me happy and so I have been pursuing them enjoying them and so the mind has been colored and when you try to convert try to focus the mind on Vedanta you mind won't do that we think it's my mind it's going to do whatever I want it to do oh no no you are not up to up to speed with what's happening in your own house it's not really our mind you lost control of it ages ago so swami prabhavananda ji gives a very nice example he is commenting on you know Christ's Sermon on the Mount blessed are the pure in heart for this they shall see God look it's exactly what we are talking about here when Christ says blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God this is what is meant here blessed are those who have purified their minds for they will be enlightened now what does it mean swami prabhavananda when explaining that he gives an answer exactly to this question practically what does this impurity of the mind and purity of the mind what does it mean really it means this he says just now try this take a look at the picture of shri ramakrishna maybe are your each today what are your chosen deity whichever form you like of God Christ or Krishna and then mentally try to imagine and decide for the next five minutes I shall think of only God only Shri Ramakrishna or only Krishna in my heart here I shall focus and I shall meditate a simple dat dat visualization practice many of us are initiated in a mantra we do that many many traditions similar things are there but what problem Anji is after is something different he says try it fixed time only five minutes fixed object the form of your deity I'm thinking about it and I have decided my mind will talk or to think about it within not even minutes if you try it now within seconds you will find all sorts of other thoughts are intruding within seconds and then you have to bring your mind back to the object of meditation it might even be minutes after you realized oh I didn't think about it I thought about so many other things I was supposed to meditate what happened it's because of our past conditioning our vasanas desires stirred up in our mind they bubble forth and they remove the particular thought we want to think about notice how easy it is to think about things which you like and you desire and it is even more easy to think of things which you fear and you're scared of you're helpless we hope there now when you consciously want to think of something and at the beginning of our spiritual lives with tremendous desire for God realization it most people are not lucky enough blessed enough to have it we have some desire we have some desire for enlightenment but that's not enough all the past conditioning will bubble forth and sweep that practice out of the mind that is impurity of mind as we practice spiritual disciplines what will happen is those desires are those conditionings are slowly erased and replaced with with more positive conditioning which is conducive to our spiritual practice there's the story of a Zen student who goes to the master to learn Zen meditation and he's told to sit and observe the breath and observe what goes on in the mind and the student says I can't do it master why not because all sorts of dark negative unpleasant thoughts boil up in the mind you know people say Swami when I was not meditating us fine non meditating my mind is so awful it's not that the mind has become awful when you are meditating is a receipt here three here rather those thoughts were always there that conditioning was always there when we are very busy with the world we do not see what's in there what's in our minds we only become aware of it when we calm down and sit quietly it comes up if you have tried it you will know it comes up so the Zen student says it's awful very difficult to meditate or master bad thoughts come up in my mind the master says just keep watching don't be upset and here is a bowl of you know in Japanese gardens of the smooth pebbles so there are white pebbles and black pebbles and there is an empty bowl and when you have a negative thought pick up a black pebble and put it in that empty bowl when you have a thought which is positive and calm and relaxed take up that one and put white pebble and put it in the empty bowl and practice this 1 hour 2 hours a day every day and so when that student started at the beginning of his practice the bowl would be would slowly fill up mostly with black pebbles and one or two white pebbles negative patterns of thinking but over time as he persisted he began to see the white pebbles increase increasing and the dark pebbles decreasing so the negative thoughts began to diminish and the positive thoughts began to increase till it was more or less not completely positive but more or less much better what has happened the conditioning of the mind has changed and there's a technique to do this but in meditation but what Krishna is saying meditation for one or two or three hours in a day is fine but what we do in the rest of our life that is very important and there is where that's where karma yoga comes in karma yoga changes the conditioning of the mind makes it pure unselfish work work done with our body and mind for selfish purposes conditions the mind deeply unselfish work reverses that conditioning makes the mind lighter freer does this answer your question what what is so the impurity of mind prevents you from practicing spiritual discipline and karmayoga increases the purity of the mind and therefore it's basically a moral and ethical lifestyle in and what you are doing already not abandoning it and trying trying out something new all right you will see that this is the basic teaching of all religions so this is the foundation the groundwork this has to be laid I can't live a very high pressure anxiety ridden life and then on weekends spend it all weekend partying and then just ten minutes in the morning and ten minutes at night I should be in Samadhi No won't work won't work the monkey mind has been allowed to do what it wants all day long all week long and for 10 minutes when you sit down for meditation and tell the mind now think about God mine will say why should I I don't want to so that that is the sign of impurity of mind to some degree we all have it the very fact that there is resistance to spiritual practice that we do not take to the thought of God like the great Saints of different traditions we don't take it it's not easy for us why this is it's not the problem no problem with religion no problem with God it's just us and there's nothing to be disheartened about at all it's just the work that has to be done in her work so the commentator says nice car Miam the word nice car mia means actionless state that his translation is nice car meum jeonnam enlightenment realization why is the realization called at the actionless state because where the enlightenment means you realize that you are this one existence consciousness bliss and the whole of life samsara body mind all of these are appearances like a dream in that consciousness this is what you begin to see not theoretically as a fact not that it becomes like that you'll realize it has always been so I didn't know that when you wake up from a dream you had a dream you're working really really hard to meet your deadline you're a student and your teacher has given you lots of readings and you're working you you worked hard and you fell asleep and your new sleep also you dreamed how hard you are working and in the morning when you get up do you think I finished my readings I worked so hard I met my deadline know all the work that you did in your dream is not to be counted because you didn't do it at all why not it was an appearance it's not really done similarly that is actually the truth once one becomes enlightened then all the work that that goes on all the activities of samsara they appear dreamlike to you you as witness consciousness you as existence consciousness place you are not touched at all this is one way of looking at it or the other way it may sound contrary the other ways all of action and all the work that you do and all the people that you are involved with and all this samsara all of it is the absolute it is Brahman we chant before food Brahma our penumbra Mahavira mahabrahmand autumn the main event of the Umbra Mahathir Mohamad inna by the one who sees brahman in every action that one will ability into Brahman means will be enlightened the one who sees the absolute in every action that means all the work that we do religious work religious action circular action worldly action all of that is nothing other than Brahman it is all pervaded by God through and through now I've just said two things they sound absolutely contradictory one is that action is unreal it's like a dream for the enlightened person or action is nothing other than God Brahman itself for the enlightened person and both of them are actually the same thing I remember one great teacher in Haridwar saying saying something like this and then looking at us and smiling absolutely contradictory Brahman is further than the farthest and nearer than the nearest Brahman is greater than the greatest and smaller than the smallest then he looked at us and he said well monks when you can clearly understand two completely contradicted his things at the same time you have understood advaitha in Hindi he said though we route the bath Aixa Picard may I to advaita acarya ji maharaj ji' two absolutely contradictory things and not that you say oh that's really cool Brahman must be a really cool thing to be greater than the greatest and smaller than the smallest father than the fact it moves and it moves not no no it's not just meant to be paradoxical and cool it meant to be when for the person who understands advaitha it's absolutely clear it there's no problem at all in this one sees very clearly it moves and it moves not think about it when you dream you've travelled from here to maybe Paris and you came back and you woke up in your bed now is it true to say that you moved and you moved not it is true in one sense yes do you experience so much traveling and you're under sense of course not nothing happened but the truth so nice car Miam the actionless state is enlightenment this is from Advaita perspective you can consider it all Maya all action and the results of action are all Maya the entire law of karma what is the law of karma good action leads to merit leads to happiness Dharma leads leads to paneer paneer leads to suka deliberately naughty leads to demerit leads to unhappiness adharma leads to Papa Papa leads to Duke so this is the law of action somebody asked about the teacher so many books are written about the secret of happiness how do we have how can I be happy simple the law of karma tells you dharma leads to happiness good karma leads to happiness dharma generates good karma good karma leads to happiness deliberately done not eNOS generates bad karma and that leads to misery that's that's it the problem of car happiness is solved continuously keep doing saying and thinking what you what you know to be good right now continuously stay away from consciously make an effort to stay away from what your own conscience tells you is not good don't do that don't think of that don't speak about it that is good that is the law of karma and that's all many people become fascinated with the law of karma Sri Ramakrishna did not approve of it law of karma after all is samsara it is if you know the law of karma it's like a it's like being in the samsara but wisely so yes he did not approve of it when somebody talked about something about in the gospel of ramakrishna you find it's not that he did not approve the law of karma he did not approve of spiritual seekers being too interested in that somebody said some such thing is happening it's oh it's that person's karma and Sri Ramakrishna looks at him and says or I'm addicted to me with a little look I you belong to that class of people those who calculate karma good and bad they are fascinated by it so cause and effect action and consequence it's a natural fascination for us so this is what is determining my life now what do I do to make my life better and also anxiety oh god I don't know what I did in the past lives what's going to come what's rushing at me through the highways of karma to hit me tomorrow some scared of it no way you are Yanni or bhakta devotee of God or a person who is in the path of knowledge Advaita Vedanta in both cases the whole point is to transcend this law of karma whatever is Micah past Karma I offer it unto the Lord I shall I will see what what is to be done and whatever I am doing now I shall do it as a worship of the Lord that's a devotees approach Gandhi's approaches the whole thing is like a dream anyway it's an appearance in my consciousness all the whole thing is Brahman in that case good and bad I don't make a difference happy and unhappy from for me I'm serene in both why is bad disappears I talked about the law of karma in some detail just a short thing which was put up on YouTube and it looked up on which are the most popular talks right now this law of karma which I considered absolutely unimpeached not an unimportant but it's not not something that a spiritual seeker should focus on just keep an eye on it that the law of karma works is working for you and that's it but that's not your spiritual practice that's something you to get beyond and that talk is the most second most popular talk on YouTube now which I wouldn't consider important at all I mean on our channel in the Vedanta Society Channel I think the first one is no mind or something or the ultimate truth something to do with Manduca carica which is very good somebody's interested in brahman but the second one is the law of karma then he talks about not just Jitsu dimmed in our sannyasa now they were ganna show nod Sid dim motion somebody got chatty prop no tea without purification of mind if one does sannyasa the formal renunciation of all activity and becomes a monk they will be he says garnish on Yod there will be no and our enlightenment will not arise and one does not attain moksha liberation the whole purpose of becoming a monk or giving up worldly activities is to attain liberation and yet one does not krishna says a very very clear one more attitude towards karma I wanted to mention this is the sankeien attitude Sankhya the philosophy of Sankhya divides the entirety of the universe your life into two parts you the consciousness and the rest of it is nature prakruti prakruti Purusha you are pure consciousness immortal and the rest of it this universe your body even your mind even the intellect which you are using to understand Sankhya all of it belongs to nature it's nature's property those apps belong to the company they are not you now where will action fall in this division your share or nature share nature share you you are there without you no action is possible but you are not you are neither the actor nor the action nor the result of action all of that belongs to prakruti action has its action is related to prakruti you the self in a theistic framework you your relationship is either you can put it this way either to your higher self or to God in a devotional framework your religion is to God action is related to some SAR Prakriti samsara this must be clear what we normally do is I not being aware of my real nature I identify with this body and mind and I think I am this person and now that I have this power of action things to do and I use it to gratify this body and mind and then I'm caught in the in the in the Machine of samsara why because I have put my hand somewhere it does not belong it is pretty it is samsara action belongs to prakruti I'm trying to catch hold of it and get my desires satisfied with that Karma Yoga says let action be related to some let it be for the welfare of others you connect yourself to God that's what can occur my yoga sees without purification of mine one cannot give up action you know what happens if you give up action without purification of mind if one say practically let's say runs up to the mountains I've seen this happening again and again and you want to sit there and quiet in meditation first of all why do you want to do that it seems very common for especially when you will seriously become interested in spiritual life many people will say oh no no I know I never feel like doing that I'm really devoted to God but I am really into my life in samsara that means you are really into some sorrow not into God what you are into is samsara is important for me and but I am so interested in religion yes God and religion will help me in samsara God for my samsara God to make my life better not my life for God serious spiritual seeking starts when I want God realization when I want enlightenment so we are taking the case of a person who wants enlightenment why does this one want to give up all activities in the world because first of all now they don't seem to be related to my goal in life which is enlightenment second there is a trick of the mind it's actually a desire for you know relaxation desire to avoid trouble the moment the lucrative part of it the the sensual part of it the reward at the end of that the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow vision nobody ever gets woman that is removed then I don't feel like doing anything about it anymore so I have seen what happens when a person runs off literally I've seen so many monks in the mountains when I was there three consequences are possible if the mind is already basically sucked to it that person will spend his time or her time in meditation and in scriptural study in prayer leader holy noble life mostly if the mind is rajasic that person will sit down for meditation but will entertain a lot of other thoughts if the mind is Thomas Singh that person will spend time in laziness and sleeping this place the base time inevitably it does not matter so much on what you have thought about see this this decision I'm off to the Himalayas to meditate that comes from the level of the intellect this sounds great in other the philosopher who came or in the objective or thesis I had this desire now to retire to the bank of the Ganges and I'll have a little cottage and the consul-general was here Indian consultant he said maybe the Consul General can give me the cottage he'll arrange for a cottage and I'll stay there so that's the desire to retire away from activities but that's the taken by the intellect the mind and the subconscious mind which have not been purified yet when you actually try to do that they will swing into action they will say I didn't sign a sign on for this program I want my bed tea and my Starbucks and my TV or my internet or whatever and my parties all of that I want I didn't say that I would sit in in in a rocky cave and the cold and so with eyes closed at eight hours a day and meditate no the mind will rebel that is rajasic rajasic and tamasic is laziness even though I decided to come here to the mountains and sit and meditate I find I'm dozing off the moment I said why my name is Thomas is full of Thomas I remember this funny story the middle stage rajasic one of our monks a senior monk we were the ashram I was in it was a school with kids five hundred kids you can imagine five hundred kids so this Swami said I need a break once in a while even from the ashram that have taken a break from samsara and then we're taking a break from the ashram I will go off to the to the villages some of the monks did that there outside the city far away from the city I will beg for my food and I will stay maybe one or two days and some old temple or somewhere on even even under the tree and after a day or two I'll come back to last room and he started doing that now then we saw with he would set off then not only once a month but he would set off every weekend twice a month twice a month and he would have this determined look on his face he would hop on the rickshaw and go off to the station and then go we thought what's going on with him and then once the senior monk asked him the monkey in charge what are you alright what are you doing there right you're going more and more often for a break from the school and he shamefacedly said well I've got to confess something to you what that village where I went well I started a school there I started a school there because I saw the little kids there there's no school and I felt bad for them so I got them together and I told pursued in the parents too you know like a little heart and I started teaching well that's what you're doing here that's the mind and that's a rajasic mind mind which is full of things to do up and doing yeah the number-5 know he could cheat shanem appeal crusted shanem opee Giotto testa Tucker mcreech Judas Tadeo karma Crete carrier Teja Vasa karma karoti yah Basha karma Salva Prakriti Gerry Cooney Syrah Prakriti what does this mean here's the problem even for a moment you cannot stay bit without work some kind of action will go on in your body in your mind you can even if you say I want to give it all up and sit in meditation even then action is going on why carry ot here wash our karma your helplessly will be engaged in action why serve a prakruti je connais because they are your cut that they are all born of the gunas of prakruti of nature nature is ever Restless look at the universe around you from the galaxies and the stars up to the tiny particles whirling around the nucleus in the atom ever Restless ever in motion continuous change and our bodies and our minds are all they belong to you are practically they belong to prakruti to nature so they share in the in the nature of nature that is continuous change so action is continuously going on in the body you cannot say if I'm sitting still there's no action of course there is action going on if I'm to try to keep quiet mind will be active so you notice this fact about your own nature o Arjuna you cannot stay even for a moment without action if this is true if this is true then the wise person will not make a fools attempt to stave without any action this is not possible rather these energies are flowing through me prana is flowing through me I must channelize it if there's a particular thing I won't want like the way I pursued what I wanted in the world now I want to pursue enlightenment let me channel eyes my inner light energies towards enlightenment a wise person will do that instead of trying to stop everything altogether the sanskrit commentator makes an important point Carmen and Jason yeha they issue and are sakti Mottram not to Swarup in a rocket wad what does giving up action mean Carmen and Sandhya sannyasa means giving a pronunciation so sannyasis a monk was given up what is giving up action what does it mean he says tijuana sakti Mottram just being detached from them not using them to fulfill worldly desires that is giving up action not to Swarup aina not actually stopping action not just becoming a statue sitting still why not assure catwalk because it's impossible it's just impossible many people find it difficult to sit still that's bad you must learn how to sit still Swami Shankar L and the G was the president of our order long before my time by all accounts a formidable really formidable monk and by all accounts he was huge and he was very fair now and he would be very very still when he would sit even his eyes he wouldn't blink now those who have gone to the temple of Sri Ramakrishna in Belem at you would have seen the statue of Sri Ramakrishna is a white marble statue which of course being a statue sits still and the tradition is you go to the temple bow down to the image of Sri Ramakrishna then go to the head of the order the precedent of the order and offer your pronounces salutations to the president of the order it so happened this was in the 1950s Swami Shankar Ananda G was president and this mother and a little little child a little boy so they had obviously come to the main temple and they bowed down there and then they came to the president porosity the head of the order and while they were bowing down the little boy he looked carefully at the Swami this huge person so white you know fair unblinking and moving absolutely still sitting like that and he looked very carefully and crept up before anybody could do anything he crept up to the Swami and Swami's tai he did this and the Swami it seems he had a cavernous voice like a booming voice a person well my grandmother she was a disciple of that Swami so she told me that whenever my guru spoke to me it seemed as if his voice is coming out of a cave you know so suddenly the Swami looked down at a little boy and he said not a statue and the boy was so startled he rushed and hid behind his mother sari another little peeked out from behind Smith in Bengali said statue now because he understood the little boy psychology that Marie the boy must have gone to the temple and see in the statue of Sri Ramakrishna and then come here and looking at this thinking this one is also like that yes one must learn how to sit still and there are many men really I'm just not related right here it's related to meditation people say my mind is doesn't settle down in meditation wanders here and there there are different ways when the breath is calmed mind is calm when the eyes are fixed the mind is fixed when the body is still the mind is still sharee Drishti pronounced idea in this is that a teacher told me I read about it in Uttarakhand what does it mean one way of making the mind still is making the body still sit still don't not rigid if you sit rigid after some time the muscles will become tired and then you'll have to move so relaxed but don't fidget be aware that you are really really still one way is this is the Buddhist idea imagine you are holding a bowl of water and the water is full to the brim absolutely full to the brain even if your hand trembles a little a few drops will spill over so imagine how carefully you have to hold and how much attention you have to put there it you don't want to spill even a little of the water now imagine your mind is that bowl so how careful you have to sit so that there's no any shaking of the bar body the mind will be disturbed like that bowl of water keep that strongly in your mind that image of the bowl of water and the water filled to the brim little trembling of your hand it'll spill similarly a little trembling of the body sit another way these are meditation masters they have they have investigated this so much over the centuries and millennia see this is one way of giving instructions you sit straight and relax don't be rigid but don't be bent over keep the spine and the neck and the waist in one line these are what are called linear instructions one two three four five six like a drill sergeant it works that's one way another way is shortcut bypass the intellectual mind goes straight to the subconscious you know what they say sit like a mountain breathe like the wind whatever that means your subconscious mind knows how does the mountain sit just think if you imagine that you're at the Mount you're not you anymore you are the mountain that's the power of the subconscious mind you will see immediately the sitting becomes much better or another way imitatio in Latin it is called in yoga also it is used take the example of a yogi Vivekananda he's sitting here perfect this is the Raja yoga posture meditation posture now if you know something about where they can't really work better that way if you read about the Vaikuntha you know about him how he's in Samadhi imagine now when you're sitting it's not I who am sitting I'm gone now it's Vivekananda sitting how is really currently sitting what are the thoughts in the mind of Vivekananda subconscious mind of course it's still you but your subconscious kicks into action what happens is I am meditating and your subconscious mind says hey you I know you you can't meditate your mind is going to be disturbed and your mind becomes disturbed because it's your mind I my mind cannot be but disturbed so it's going to be disturbed but if you tell the subconscious not me it's vivekanandan subconscious says Harvey the kind of course he's a great meditator now you have your meditation is very deep now an imitation will be deep you can try it and see especially if it's somebody you know some people get scared isn't it blasphemous to think of myself as Krishna or Jesus in fact one of the novices went to the his guru I remember he told me later he said can I think of myself as shri ramakrishna and I was a teacher so I said I can't say that you have to ask her guru is it is it a good thing to think and it's good who told him yes he looked at him carefully but a specific instruction to that person you can do that meditation becomes immensely deep immediately effortlessly so anyway that's beside the point here the point here is you cannot stay for even a moment without action suppose you try suppose you try in spite of all of these warnings suppose you have seen so many many who try disaster when you try very hard what happens you know stubbornly no the Swami is telling us all this but he's a monk so I'm going to become a monk no matter what he tells I'm going to become a monk and I'll show him I'll go to the highest cave in the highest mountain I'll meditate what will happen sixth words Kerman rhiarna sang yum-yum kermin rhiarna Sonia Muir yaste - ozman yaste - aspirin in Riyadh Honda mood Indre our town be more atma-vichara Sogeti Mitya Chara Sogeti a strong warning he says that deluded person we moved up and eluded person or the fool who forcibly controls the external organs I will not walk and talk I will not turn up for my job or pick up the kids I'm going to sit quietly and meditate and then internally what's going on outwardly sitting quietly eyes closed even still well sitting like the mountain internally what's going on in Riyadh on Manus Ozma a nasty mind is continually dwelling on the world and things of the senses I want that would be nice that movie is very nice we can I get a ticket for that that person I think wants to insult me well wait a minute when I go tomorrow I go back I'm going to give him a piece of my mind meditation going on on God then what and the it's the krishna is particularly harsh thr associate e that one is called a hypocrite Makara the one who acts in authentically a hypocrite i want to meditate on God or I want to stabilize in the knowledge that I am the witness and I'm doing anything but that so for large periods of time it can happen and I've seen it and those who force it even further nervous breakdown I've seen did they lose their mind unfortunately I've seen in the case of a few who do much more than what they actually should be doing hours and hours of meditation not enough sleep not enough food why one senior monk is to joke a wonderful old Swami he used to joke ah because I will get enlightenment first and win the first prize but that's the childish mentality we have you don't have put it that way so in such a silly way but I want enlightenment right now I'm going to be the Buddha right now nervous breakdown I've seen people who literally going up their mind forcibly what happens is it awakens maybe some scara's of this life or even past lines and you're not ready to deal with it like demons being awakened I literally saw one young monk not a monk a novice kill himself in front of my eyes I didn't know he just suddenly ran past me I was bowing down in template so this person running and then he takes a jump into the river and I thought maybe he's going to take a bath because that's where people were taking baths and they didn't realize until they saw he was not coming up and when they went to see gone and then they asked what happened it had been meditating day and night and suddenly he thinks he's enlightened all sleep is gone all these things happen but it's pathological special logic it's meant I'm a nervous breakdown and I've seen how the other cases to overdoing never good never good especially these subtle spiritual practices they have an effect they have a very powerful effect if we cannot handle it yes yes yes that is true no rules for our Tijeras avatara's are basically incarnations of God so these are extraordinary you will see the founders of the religions or those who are at the source of spiritual traditions one has to admit people have different capacities and one has to be honest about it when I look at myself my physical capacity is my mental capacities my intellectual capacities and therefore my capacity for spiritual practice is very different from many others the people who are much stronger than me physically who cannot oak and deny that they're people who are much smarter than me intellectually they're people who are much deeper spiritually I have seen it I've been teaching novices for eight nine years and I could see these young novices who have just become monks two or three years ago now I've been a monk for ten or twelve years and there are other senior monks who've been monks for twenty thirty forty years and these maybe one or two in each group of novices maybe thirty forty novices maybe one or two are exceptionally developed that comes from past lights so the kind of meditation that they can do difficult for others to do so there are different capacities and the capacities of the avataras are extraordinary they are not here to attain enlightenment they are here to teach us so you will find what they do in two years or one year in three years or nine or eight or nine years in case of Buddha it may take lifetimes for the others to come even close to that you take one day in the life of sri ramakrishna is going in and out of Samadhi so many times and once maybe a spiritual seeker can attain that kind of a spiritual absorption maybe once or twice in his lifetime so one must admit different capacities just as there are different capacities in our practical day-to-day life you know physical capacity mental capacity are different and there's nothing wrong in that they're perfectly all right one should start where one is even the Buddha in fact last week was Buddha's birthday hmm tries blessed day and I just happened to be the UN at that time and just showing a Swami had was visiting showing him around and in one of the halls there was Theresa May the British prime minister she was giving a talk on mindfulness yes and she was not there physically it was a video link from London so they were celebrating Buddha's birthday maybe she needs mindfulness not alone yeah yeah so capacities are different no doubt about it yes please sit please yes well true true now the problem is we are ignorant our of our real self why are the ignorant if you ask in Uttarakhand sadhus have a very nice answer to this this is a yong-go a ganker party state but kgm at medea Gamco cartier don't try to establish ignorant try to remove ignorance the point is there are answers to that the answer to that question but right now the practical answer is if this is true now what do I need to do now not to go on a theoretical question how it all began rather to get out of this problem right so yes we are pure consciousness we are the Earthmen Brahman whatever you call it we don't know it now we don't feel it now but enlightened people assure as it is possible the teachings of the great religious traditions they all assure us in different language in different different systems and that's what we should pursue if you ask I have discussed this question those who are here I've discussed this number of times how did it all begin or one answer in Vedanta is Maya if you say why Maya then you know my answer the question why cannot be asked there why can't the question why cannot be an as there then leads to a subtle discussion of causality and so on so the straight answer to your question is such a situation exists now I must get out of it that would have been Buddha's answer also why I bought a Buddha was two reasons one you asked about meditation and capacities he did an extremely hard practice nearly died as a result of it and then what did he come to the conclusion the middle path the middle path not luxury and looseness and and dissolution dissolute life no not distort churring the body there's so many Yogi's in India especially who do that as it extend to do that some of the Desert Fathers in early Christianity is to do that torturing the body that also is not helpful because if the instrument is damaged the Buddha gave the example of the veena he said Oh monks if the strings of the veena are lose will you have music you know if you tighten it too hard what will happen it'll snap it has to be just so of course his middle path was a pretty austere middle path we would consider it pretty extreme if you actually read about what he wants us to do yes a follow up yes yes okay when it comes back though yes many eight vedantists here eager to answer me me let me answer so witness consciousness part of ego or part of Atman Atman yes witness consciousness is part of Athens but part is also not the not the correct word it is the Atman it is the Atman if you say part of it part of Brahman that leads to vashisht activator advaita vedanta says Sakshi chaitanya the witness consciousness it's not a consciousness which witnesses not as an act I'm sitting here in witnessing consciousness you know like with a telescope or something witnessing something no not like that it just is and it shines such and in its light everything is revealed that which is revealed if you take it to be a separate existence universe body mind they're all separate real out there and you are the uninvolved witness consciousness what is this philosophy called Sankhya ok but if you say all of that is an appearance in you the witness consciousness like you like things which you are experienced in a dream what you experience in a dream is not out there it was in your mind now in brahman if all of this is appearing not apart from Brahman then what would it be advaitha yes Advaita Vedanta so in that sense witness consciousness yes one more verse oh let me just read out the one line which the commentator has made a very very nice comments here this hypocrite who sits and things of the world pretending to meditate he says in the guise of meditating on God sits there things about the things of the world why the cause of impurities of mind remember he wants to meditate on God he really doesn't want to make think about that does not want to meditate on on his boss or on whether parking has to be renewed or something like that it doesn't even that doesn't want to but automatically it comes up why because of impurity of mind and what does it lead to instability you are not stable in the meditation on the deity if you're meditating on Krishna or on the self the capitalist you can't stay there as a witness people keep saying it was there for half an hour so God was there for half an hour the absolute beyond time space and causation was there for half an hour now the mind sort of settled on it and then let me read out the Sanskrit Raghava dianna chilena chalahe means pretending to be Bhagavad Dianna chilena in three art envisions modern nasty estates it's smart thinking of things of the world why are we should data our Manasa because of impurity of the mind not yet P refined then the result is art man East idea how odd lack of stability in the Atman in the state in the self in contrast to this okay we've run out of time anybody wants to make a comment yes solution to this situation oh right right for that you have to come to the next class I thought I would do more to the answer is there krishna begins to answer from the very next verse seventh verse of third chapter he begins the answer what should be done if you cannot come an executive summary nowadays you know you don't have to read the book it seems the secretary will perform will make an executive summary for the boss so that the boss can claim that he has read the book so you can claim that you've read the Gita executive summary there for bringing the sense organs under control with the help of the internal organ mind intellect memory mana bodhichitta Hank are engaged now in action moral action your action duty that person will attain enlightenment and he says near tumkur o karma to UM be continuously engaged in action or Juna why karma ji-hyo karmana action is better than inaction as a principle because through inaction you don't achieve until in the Enlightenment even the ones who achieve enlightenment and they say that we have achieved the state of no action and not the persons who are not it's not that they have stopped acting with the body for them even while acting intensely from their point of view there is no action at all so that all those things will come slowly yes all right physically invalid but can think I remember a monk two or three examples very beautiful one monk who was paralyzed just he had only one hand use of only one hand and I I was in the hospital and he was in the couple of beds next to mine and could not even feed himself others had to do it for him but throughout the day whenever he was conscious often loudly he's going on ramakrishna ramakrishna rama krishna krishna krishna krishna like this is going on ramakrishna language it would go on like this particularly touching incident this happened in our Hospital so I was a young novice the youngest of the patients because I was little sick so I was put in the hospital but it it enabled me to see that world was full of it was only for monks there is full of all Swami's who were ailing maybe about to die some did die it gave me a quick glimpse preview of what's in store for me it's very nice it's very nice I'm so happy that I got to see that I was there for nearly two months and that's one of the things I took away from there so this Swami his name was gold moritz he was he passed away a few weeks after that few months after that anyway I still remember one beautiful evening that ward is pretty high sheriff of this town it's pretty high up on the sixth or seventh floor in Calcutta so internal windows that you could just see sort of darkness and the city lights in the distance evening it's all quiet in the hospital imagine these are of old men who are sick and dying basically physically that's what that's the fact on the ground so this Swami who's lying there he's been paralyzed for 11 years 11 years in that state and another monk who was my teacher who had a beautiful singing voice he is there near this old Swami's bed and you know sometimes for some patients you put up barriers on the bed so the the wooden barrier on the bed holding that barrier and this Swami is looking out at this old monk who is paralyzed and he's singing and such a beautiful scene he's singing the lines of the song I forgotten the original lines but today they meant this but imagine the window outside it's dark he says it's a song to the guru guru oh my guru it is time to go now evening has come evening has come but it is so dark and my heart quakes in fear hold my hand o guru let us go together go together it's a song of death and passing you know so I remember that is so beautiful so touching he runs like the individual hairs when you because his voice was so beautiful that's one unable to act and then other monks would help you no I say Swami do you remember who's that will show me a picture of you his guru do you remember his gurus picture and he would say guru guru do you remember so that Taku Ram Krishna yes I remember another monk I knew who was also paralysed a disciple of swami vivekananda ji and is the worst condition blind in both eyes paralyzed in both legs and like that he remained for I think 12 to 15 years I saw him towards the end of his life and a happier man I kid you not I have not met a stronger spirit I have not met not once did I ever heard him I was with him in that same dog in the hospital ward for two months nearly consecutively and later on in the main monastery I was to go and see him not once have I heard him talk about his own body if you would go to him he would be full of cheer because he can't see you you have to tell him who you are and then he would inquire mostly monks would go to see him which ashram you have come from how is the work going on there is everybody keeping well please convey my blessings to them and strong when he was in the world he basically this old paralyzed blind man he controlled everybody else we are all running around doing his baby once the funny the Swami in charge of the kitchen it would come and say Swami I am so-and-so I'm Sharon charge of the kitchen would you like to eat anything special he said I want dosa because this Bengali is hardly had any chance to have those so the Swami said I'll make those afraid don't worry it will be specially made for you the next day he makes it and we watch how it is it has to be fed to him he can't read after that the Swami sort of smugly that kitchen Swami asked well did you like it how did you like it and he says no good what no good what do you mean this is dosa I had in my store when did you go to my soul oh there that the other day you know in 1952 [Music] and this other Swami goes I mean it was before I was born so it's not like that those are full of him with that and incredible it taught me I'll really tell you it taught me what it means to be bodyless to be about to be to transcend the body does not mean like coming out like a puff of smoke out of the body and floating away no it means to be in the body and entirely unaffected by the body what it means to be unaffected by your circumstances of life okay this Swami he was one of the most active Swami's he was well known in our ramakrishna mission or in the report he was there he was was the one in charge of the gardens the agriculture and the maintenance of the buildings which is a huge huge job he was busy from morning till night this Swami imagine laid flat for 12 or 15 years I don't know how long cannot see cannot move real real I could tell on those two months gave me so many stories I can share one day in the evening this monks you know and the Swami is around 6:30 or so other monks have come the hospital is run by the monks so they come to visit the patients who are monks and we would sort of cha a chat and gossip a little and evening the swami can't see that it's evening he's blind he's in the corner and we are talking and sort of gossiping and he had a very strong voice from there he shouts o monks the evening comes time to meditate stop chatting and we would all sort of quieten down and sort of get get get back to meditating can you imagine half a dozen maybe more than that ten old Swami's who have had operations met different kinds of serious illnesses I was the young one others were all old not much chance of getting much better little better little worse and didn't I evenings morning's how they are all sitting on the bed say straight meditating the whole war that particular word has that atmosphere of a meditation huh amazing it's really what seeing that spiritual life really can transform your our lives hold on to it seriously for a lifetime transforms your life on that beautiful note that is IND Oh Shanti Shanti Shanti hurry he owned that such Sri Ramakrishna Aparna must