Video 30

30. Bhagavad Gita l Chapter 3 Verses 9-16 l Swami Sarvapriyananda

Oh Vasudeva Suton deivam comes a charnel drummer Ghanim devaki param anand krishna monday jagged it's so wonderful I was just thinking that we get the opportunity to study this this amazing dialogue between God and man Shri Krishna and his friend and disciple Arjuna lost in the mists of antiquity thousands of years ago oceans away a civilization survey and here yet here we are in the 21st century in Manhattan studying this amazing dialogue just yesterday we had a visitor a professor from Penn State who's writing a book related to ethics and Vedanta but he loves collecting editions of the Gita translations so he was telling me that he has a whole cabinet a whole cabinet full of different editions of the Gita Yale University last year they did a workshop in summer on the bhagavad-gita and they have started a collection of all the English translations of the bhagavad-gita you note that they started a collection which you can imagine how many English translations there are even last year I saw this very nice translation was published a free translation it's called God's song which is a literal translation of bhagavad-gita God saw and there was a review in new york times where the reviewer said apparently to read the Gita is to be seized by an inordinate desire to translate it I remember maybe it was about nearly 20 years ago I was wandering in the foothills of the Himalayas and looking for great master spiritual masters and restless to boot somebody told me that there's this monk you should meet he was nearly a hundred years old at that time and I was so Restless I said later and I never got to meet him he passed away few years later when I went back he was gone but he is really a wonderful Swami and his whole life was spent in the study of the Bhagavad Gita and how to find out ways for freeing humanity from suffering wisdom insights from the bhagavad-gita that's all it did he used to say it seems that oh if I feel upset oh there I have the perfect remedy I just sit quietly and repeat the whole bhagavad-gita and my mind becomes calm but that's 700 verses if you can repeat if you can do that I don't think that's not really a very practical solution for most of us but he had some of the most wonderful insights which are relevant here for example he talks about this is relevant to only those who have got a mantra the name of God those have been initiated he would say for example his insights he would say continuously repeat the mantra throughout all tasks all activities in samsara all your activities in samsara let it be service to humanity and all throughout keep on repeating don't forget the jeopardy mantra the name of God and then you sit down morning and evening to repeat the mantra exclusively then don't think about samsara that was his insight in samsara don't forget the name of God and while repeating the name of God when you exclusively do that don't even remember samsara that I'm so so but I am you know husband by father mother or I have these problems and that is samsara easier said than done but anyway it's a good insight [Music] there's only one version bhagavad-gita there are many many translations there are many many translations the one eye we were introduced to is actually a very simple and austere translation by swami sri rupa and i think we have a have some copy serious we have swami svarupa and the g's translation he he was a disciple of swami vivekananda it doesn't have explanations it has the original text and the word meaning word by word meaning and the verse meaning and once in a while every other verse one little note at the bottom just to elucidate things now there is no attempt at any further explanation so you just want the original uncolored by anything else that's a wonderful book to go to when I say uncolored why why I am saying that there are many many schools of Vedanta Bhagavad Gita is a text of Vedanta but there many schools of Vedanta and each school has its own particular view I come for example from the non-dualistic school so the fundamental interpretation of the Bhagavad same Bhagavad Gita which I base my understanding on is Shankar Acharya cementery but that's still I must be honest that's still a particular interpretation there are many other interpretations so many many that's why if you take the original one go straight to the original there is a value in going straight to the original the original is not so difficult to understand there are texts like some of the Upanishads are very difficult to understand without a commentary you'd be helpless if you went to the original but the bhagavad-gita is not like that you don't even need to know Sanskrit if you if you follow a sort of unbiased neutral translation like so it's one we saw Rupa on disease there are other translations I forget the names now if you want some explanation not too much then you have Swami tapasya and the G is translation I think we have a few copies here - Swami tapasya MDGs if you want a lot of explanation and a modern kind of explanation then this Swami Ranganath analogies edition in three volumes so with extensive commentaries on on each verse so that's one way of going about it if you are interested in the classical interpretations of the bhagavad-gita you know the way I study is I study Shankar Acharya commentary on the verses I study mother Susan saraswathi's commentary on the verses and this one this is Sridhar Swami's gloss or tika on the verses that's one way the Swami was referring to who lived in the Himalayas he was in the place called sluggish RAM the one I was talking about who was more than hundred years old he came from another school of Vedanta called Vashisht obturator so his commentary on the Gita is very influential especially among Hindi speaking people in not India today Ron Zook does jeez Sadiq Sanjeev and I can see people nodding so some of you have seen the book but it's a huge book I had a copy but I couldn't get it yeah it's really really this big but you can see there is a if you know the schools of Vedanta you can clearly note a wish to do a thick interpretation they're not very strong but it's there yeah now what is going on here is the third chapter of the bhagavad-gita Shri Krishna is talking about karma yoga the choice is that once we are interested in spiritual life what about the rest of our life yes I'm going to be a spiritual seeker I'm seeking after enlightenment and so I shall meditate and pray and study but what about my job and my family and my duties in in in life what do I do with that do I give it up all together and become a monk on a mountaintop or in the jungle or do I minimize it take a part-time job or something like that and people do that there are many kinds of approaches to it shri krishna was an is unequivocal he says no whatever is your duty in life whatever is your lot in life at present do that spiritual eyes it how do we spiritual eyes it karma yoga what is karma yoga karma is action and yoga is spiritualization of that action spiritual eyes action what action the action which you are doing how do you do that two components the action has to be done for God and one must not be attached to the action or its results neesh karma karma we are using action for our own benefit don't do that you may get benefit from it but the whole point is it is - it is the worship of God and I am NOT attached to the results whatever results may come that I'm not attached to that's very easy to say that it's but difficult to do so Sri Krishna makes it much more easy for us he gives us a way to do Karma Yoga a paradigm to understand how can we spiritual eyes our daily lives let's start with the ninth words I think we are bigger the eighth verse shri krishna and the eighth verse clearly said action is better than inaction if you and you know you remember that he said by forcefully trying to give up action one ends up being a hypocrite and all of that so ninth verse here he the secret a technique of transforming our action into worship verse number nine yeah guitar Carmen on yatra yeah guitar Carmen on yatra loco M karma bandhana loco M karma bandhana that some karmic auntie Dada some karma Conte maka Sangha samachar maka sang samachar l this world is bound by action other than that done for sacrifice therefore perform actions for the sacred sake of sacrifice o Arjuna being free from attachment now what does this mean and how does it help us one way we perform action in the world thinks that we do in the world is bad karma I without regard for morality for decency even sometimes without regard for the law people try to grab whatever wealth you know possessions or pleasure comes their way now that's bad karma and that is has bad effects across the board it's damaging for society obviously if somebody violates the law or even the norms of decency or or of moderation it's bad for oneself because it creates tendencies it creates bad samskaras which are difficult to overcome I mean just take for example an addiction so bad for society bad for oneself and self-defeating why does one do that in order to be happy but one is ultimately not happy very soon the negative consequences of say something like addiction or the related things you know somebody steals or whatever the negative consequences come home very soon and once life turns into hell then there are bad effects there is a karmic effect of bad karma which comes back later as unhappiness as misery things go badly for such a person so bad karma is a bad idea all-around better than that is good karma karma done with desired yes I want to be rich and powerful and successful why because this I think this will make me happy it won't but we think that we think that so that's the worldly person's approach what kind of worldly person a worldly person who is decent law-abiding got his or act together so basically what we consider the backbone of societies all around the world decent people in the world we want success and Happiness here we are pursuing it here and so they do karma for like exchange you know I do something and I get something back and that's how it goes but one realizes very soon that also is unsatisfactory even good karma and the results of good karma which are which is dharmic karma not against the dictates of of the Scriptures the results of that are good you will get happiness good karma leads to happiness happiness in the sense pleasant things happen to you things go your way more or less more or less because ultimately nothing in samsara is going to go your way you come underneath the condition is basically unsatisfactory which the French existentialists became a cross existential angst that even well things are going well you still are unhappy with the things in the way the word world is organized way life happens to be is there anything beyond that yes that is where we Dante begins that it is true that God exists it is true that that moksha freedom from suffering is possible it is true that freedom from karma is possible and here at this point when you realize a spiritual life is possible not only possible why should I go in for spiritual life because that alone guarantees true lasting happiness nothing else does it takes a mature soul to come to this this conclusion that only spirit charity in whatever religion in whatever form you you come across at the core of every religion is spirituality outwardly you may see temples and churches you may see organizations you may see you know rituals and so on and so forth but go to the core of any religion there are those great teachers those mystics were wonderful Saints and they're the core teachings of every religion and there it is all about spirituality and that spirituality it's promises that truly happiness is possible a pure lasting deep happiness a solution to suffering is possible that's what the Buddha found that was his quest so at that point what happens is in that case let me give up all my worldly activities turn in my papers in the job and head off to the mountains that's what Arjuna wanted to do or can I stay in this world and yet transform my worldly activities in such a way that they will help me in spiritual life not hinder me why would karma hinder you notice bad karma of course is going to going to be an obstruction in my spiritual life bad karma is an obstruction in spiritual life I can't be a stick-up artist and also be a great meditator at the same time no so bad karma is bad why should good karma the normal decent kind in in the world be any kind of obstacle it is an obstacle because as we kind of put it chains though made of gold are not less strong to bind so a good and pleasant life in this world and all my energies are dedicated to that to makes make my next million or to write and get the next Pulitzer Prize all of which are very good but if that is the goal then you're still trapped in samsara so should I give all that up sri krishna says no you can continue to do good karma but a change in attitude is necessary change in attitude is necessary what you are doing for worldly for worldly success wealth and fame that itself you can continue to do as a worship of God let me give a clear example this when I said next bullet sir it reminded me a very clear example we had right here in New York at very famous writer I always forget his name Salinger JD Salinger they made a movie about him his famous book Catcher in the Rye they made a movie called rebel in the Rye right I think a couple of years back now he became he was a very talented writer maybe the most brilliant during his time in the 1940s 50s I think if it 50s onwards he became interested in Vedanta and to cut a long story short which to show I think a little bit in the movie also when he learns about karma yoga he decides that the celebrity status the worldly life is not for him but he loves writing and is good at writing and is miserable if he's not writing so what can I do so what he does is his teacher Swami Nikhil Ananda who was in the East Side Center taught him how you can go on writing and yet you dedicated it to to God and not for your own sake he was a very determined man it seems so he took it to extremes as a result he went on writing is all his life but he didn't even publish yeah he wrote a lot the estate has his writings have anything it's they're trying to get it out maybe there are other masterpieces hidden there he said I'm only writing for the Lord so I don't want to publish I don't want the money I don't want the awards I don't want the fame nothing now that was his karma yoga that was his Karma Yoga now can you can be don't look so serious you still publish if you consider that as a service to society if in fact even his later works franny and zooey north you will find karmayoga raja yoga it's the words are literally strew in there he writes about Swami Vivekananda's books Raja Yoga and karma yoga in one place he writes Salinger he says these two delightful little books are modern classics which our American youth would do well to carry in their pockets Americans are not carrying in their pockets not in the kinky but anyway but that was his view so one can see how alternatively if you had published that culture could have been a service to society right so how do we do that how can we transform our actions so that they do not bind us so that they become a part of our spiritual life so Shri Krishna gives an example here the example he gives us I'll give you the basic idea first karma yoga do it for God and do not be attached to the results it sounds rather dry and difficult think of it this way Krishna's idea is basically this think of it this way every action has two aspects you the doer of the action curta the Karma Yoga says that renounce this agency cut trip to God does everything have that attitude so difficult the moment to try to do it you automatically feel that you are doing it moment I try to do something I automatically feel I am doing it so difficult what's regression says is that these are two aspects of every action agency cut through that I am doing this and second the results of the action Paulo Paulo means karma fellow means the results of the action now think of the ritualistic worship which is done for example in temples in Hindu temples or in at home also what you what we call pooja pooja is over ship so in a pooja you have a deity and you have which are chanted and flowers which are given offered and you meditate and you put food offerings so you do a ritualistic worship of God with many things and there are many activities involved some of them are physical some of them are verbal like like chanting and singing some of they were mental like meditation so a lot of activity goes on and you're doing the puja for what it's all centered around God in your worship room or in the temple or the priest does it in the temple so the agency the agent becomes a Poojari I worship of God and the results of action every Hindu knows that the delicious results of action of the offered food Prasad your food offerings so you offer it to God God is a perpetual cosmic diet so God doesn't eat much God watches his weight so all the food is left over for us now these divine leftovers yeah I just coined that that is called prasada that is the prasada so beloved to to Hindus so now that is distributed you distribute that and you take a part of it yourself as offered food food offered to God I have seen monks and there are priests also in temples who eat only Prasad who will not eat anything except that you suffered holy mother ma Sharda is to say in above all your food always mentally offer it to God before eating it make it a habit this is a kind of mindfulness because we're going to eat anyway so make it a point in major meals in our order on many orders across our inner shrimps you chant Brahm heartburn about some mantras chanted so consciously you remember God but often we take snacks or something else just a glass of water but mentally offer it to God and then take it it becomes some mindfulness exercise where you you are reminded of of thinking about God throughout the day so offer it to God it becomes prasada but why only food what krishna says is money your salary gets also a result of your action if you get praise if things people are benefited whatever happens all of that is prasada notice in prasada it's not the food which matters contrary to what many may think in prasada you generally don't ask that no I don't like that prasada I'd like this person no because all of it is it's coming from God so in the same way the Karma results of karma what are the results of karma whatever is happening in your life good and bad sweet and sour whatever is happening in your life now we react to that we want the good things and we will avoid the painful ones but if it is prasada I lack like mangoes I don't like prunes but if it's Prasad I'll take it I can't reject it if a prune comes to my hand because it's prasada it doesn't matter what the fruit is you understand that it should at least those who are practicing Hindus you will know if it just offered to to you here mangoes and prunes you choose oh I'll take the mango or somebody says here take a prune no I don't want it but here is Posada it doesn't matter but it's a mango or a prune you have to take it because it's coming from God now if all the results in our life the things which come to us in life if they are prasada if you can treat it like that your whole attitude to your life will change there is nothing nothing which you are annoyed about nothing which you can or at least you're not allowed to be annoyed about it nothing that you are allowed to be irritated about nothing that you are allowed to you know why is this happening to me you're getting prasada and this will come only when we convert our our activities to pooja worship so whatever you are doing in life convert it into worship pooja when you get up from your morning meditation which is pooja of course but then when you go to the kitchen to cook that's pooja it's not cooking when you go out and drive to work that spooge other Drive itself is pooja when you go at your work and you meet your co-workers you are that's pooja you're meeting the meeting God in those forms when your clients come to you you are worshiping God in that form that's pooja I've given you the example once a firm and an interesting experience I had that was in many years ago I was passing through Lucknow Airport late at night in India and that was the only passenger and we dressed like this and the security people there like the TSA here so they sort of Pat you down and they're called the CIS of the central industrial security force I was the only passenger and there are many of them one have one one and many many of them so that the the the sergeant there he says he sees a monk and he says well Swami tell us something I said here even if you remember in I don't know if you still have them in India they're little boxes they'll make you stand on top of that and Pat you down so he was stand here on the box and give us a talk that was late in the night eleven o'clock 11:30 I drew nearly midnight I said here we are tell us I was thinking what to say and you call the others the men and women who are there they came with their guns and everything and they're standing around that's my audience in the middle of them middle of an airport near midnight I was thinking what do I say and I said to him it was utter Pradesh yupi so many of them worship Hanuman and God in the form of Hanuman so I said do you worship Hanuman do you do do puja do you do puja and the sergeant said yes every day when I leave home I offer flowers at the feet of Lord Hanuman I said very good as these hundreds and thousands of people go past you every day do your duty gently but politely but firmly to the best of your capacity mentally thinking as one person goes past you you have offered one more flower at the feet of Lord Hanuman and this way whole day and so though he was so happy in Hindi he said I really didn't want GK puja Wow whole days the puja of Lord Hanuman yes you can do that you can convert your whole day into the worship of God well I'm reminded of what that Swami said Ram so dusty how to keep alive that awareness I'm worshiping God very beautifully that old Swami he he said throughout your day when you are in samsara when you're engaged in samsara do not forget the mantra and when you are repeating the mantra when just time for month only do not ever remember some Shar we do exactly the opposite throughout the day o day has gone I don't remember the mantra I didn't remember God even once and sitting in meditation all sorts of thoughts all sorts of thoughts of samsara keep crowding in and my mind does not concentrate there's this story we think about it we know the story but remarkable in the Kali temple of duction issuer the rani roschmann who's the founder and owner of the temple has come to visit the temple and Sri Ramakrishna is just a priest in the temple today Sri Ramakrishna Sri Ramakrishna we think he's an Avatara and we worship Him and all of that but at that time is just a priest and Rani rushman he was a noble lady and she was the founder of the temple owner of the place she comes to see how the to join the worship which she did she had great reverence for Sri Ramakrishna she's sitting next to Sri Ramakrishna Sri Ramakrishna is worshiping singing now the the Iranian Rush many irani had come from I think she had come from court or she was thinking about a case which was going on in court and she was thinking about that too not mindful of the worship which is going on Sri Ramakrishna looks at her he can see through our minds not very comfortable to sit next to such a person I have met at least at least two that I know and I still remember in one case a sinking something and this Swami standing behind him the old Swami he turns around and looks at me and tells me exactly what I was thinking so may enough to make the hair on your head on your hand or your body stand on its end it can be quite scary but it's not bad because they are you know that they're on your side they are really sympathetic it might be embarrassing but but they really want your welfare they wouldn't do anything to harm you yeah Sri Ramakrishna looks at looks at her and sees what's in her mind and slaps her in front of everybody and and rebukes her what to think of such things here - are you not ashamed of course and people are horrified I think the body guts were ready to give Salam aggression a good thrashing but she stopped everybody and said the master is right tacorian that he is right I was not in paying attention to the worship I was thinking my point here is thank God he's sitting quietly in a picture when you're sitting and meditating this one Swami said his hands would be aching better or having number of slaps he would have to be bigger to get the liberal is true around us I don't know if this is relevant but let me just share with you once many many years ago I was a young novice and I went to one of those Swami's whom I said I I always felt that he and and I'm convinced he knew what was in your mind he had those powers but I was a novice at that time I didn't understand these things so I went and it pronounced to him the two Swami's sitting this great Swami was talking about and another Swami younger extraordinary very brilliant and extraordinary scholar and and very talented musician so and so forth but I was scared of him the other Swami the younger one and the two were talking I went in then there and did pronounce and suddenly disorder Swami he looks at me are of completely out of context it seemed to be suddenly he said when you look at me what do you think I blurted out I don't ill today I don't know why I did that I blurted out I said Swami I think you can read my mind you know what's in my mind but I'm not afraid but I'm not afraid and when you look at him what do you think I looked at him I don't know why I blurted this out in front of you I think that he too can understand what's in my mind but I am afraid of him and then this old Swami looks at the other Swami and says see see what did I tell you and the other Swami looked too tably grim and you as if he's acknowledging something like yes I see now so it is not about me that all this one was teaching something to that that other Swami came but it isn't very interesting so how much shri ramakrishna would have to slap or give slaps all around not paying attention convert your daily activity into worship if you do that what will happen is throughout your activity you will be keep you'll be keep thinking about God and when you sit down morning and evening to think only about God exclusively your mind will not think about some solid it mind gets trained the mind gets trained to it so this attitude of worship summing it up make your activities which activities at home in your community and your job whatever it is make it into a puja and you are the Poojari so the agent becomes the puja ricotta becomes the the one who's worshipping God and whatever happens in your life whatever you get out of that job whatever comes to you in life all of that is what Prasad Prasad Ivaldi Prasad TT when you have Prasad with the that means the attitude D means attitude the attitude that it is the offered offering to the Lord which is coming back then you don't choose then you don't complain uni don't grumble then you don't say think why are bad things happening to me why'd are good things happening to the other person it's like saying in the Prasad why did he get the mango and why did I get the prune it doesn't matter its Prasad all right now this is the meaning of what Sri Krishna said but he did not say it this way that's why it takes a little bit of interpretation remember this is very very old very old he meant to say what I said but at that time this the way we do or Hindus do puja now it was not there big temples and deities and kind of puja that we do in Vedic times the mode of worship or ritual was the fire sacrifice called yoga now picture if you will an open altar with a fire pit in between in the middle where ritualistically a fire is kindled there are Brahmin priests who they had the roles and the ritualistic ritualistically make offerings into the fire chant evade ik mantras and the way the gods would be pleased by these offerings and would grant the wish of the one who sponsored the Yaga the priest acts as an agent for you your sponsoring so you have to swipe your card quite a number of times and they were expensive Affairs there are a whole range you could have a cost coat at kind of fee idea and a very upscale kind of yogi also but and the results would be your wishes would be fulfilled if you had worldly wishes your worldly wishes will be fulfilled if you had otherworldly wishes otherworldly wishes means I should go to heaven after death that would be fulfilled how do you know it's a promissory note we promise you after death you're going to go to heaven but the payment is now not after that not postmortem and people had faith just like in all religion people had faith and if you did not want anything those very that very ritual would serve to purify your mind and make you fit for spirituality Vedanta so that was the whole worldview in those days especially the chanting and the rituals had to be performed they were they were very complex and the chanting of the Vedic mantras had to be performed precisely and it's not all gone out of vogue so nothing in India ever goes out of vogue its survives in some form or the other so the Vedic Yogi's are still performed by Hindus you will see in any major ritual in Hindu temples sometimes there'll be something they call a heaven in Hindi we call it a heaven in fact in one reform school of Hinduism in 19th century the Arya Samaj they tried to take it back so instead of poojas and temples and images go back to the Vedic fire ritual so that was it didn't quite catch on but the arya samaj did that even now you can see in some form in major poojas for example in eastern india durga puja which is a puja there's an image and there is a very complicated puja but as a part of that there is a Vedic fire ritual so you can actually see that and your honor if you want if you have never seen it it's interesting can see it on YouTube also if you google and Vedic fire ritual or you can see what it's what it looks like the mantras had to be chanted with precise intonation and not dependent on that so you had to have trained priests for example there's a very nice story not relevant but I can't resist it we read the story when we're kids you know we some of you may have seen how much Chitra katha comics so there come it's the story of brick traceur the demon with with rod the demon the mantras double the moral of the story is that the mantras in the Vedic ritual have to be chanted properly if you do not chant if you chant it properly the results will be as you want it if you chant it improperly you may not get results or you may get entirely the wrong result you're not looking for so the story goes like this one of the great Rishi's was sorely aggrieved at Indra the king of the gods and there's a story behind that and a story behind that story - I'm not going into that so this great Rishi's the great sage wanted to take revenge on Indra the king of the gods because he had been wronged by Indra so he performed a Vedic fire ritual a yoga for what purpose to produce a demon a demon would be born of that fire who would destroy Indra which is a big job big deal because the Devas the gods are supposed to be immortal so to destroy them is no mean task and here is the king of the gods after all so now the gods were scared they had officiants pi-network they they got wind of it so what to do long story short the goddess of learning Saraswathi made sure that when the Rishi was about to chant the mantras he mispronounced it so the mantra he was going to chant is Indra shocked ruin what does SWA let the enemy of Indra grow let the enemy of Indra grow here now enemy of Indra in Russia true that the word it can be pronounced in two ways with accent on the first syllable or accent on the last syllable now if you pronounce it one way it means the enemy of Indra the one whom the one who will kill Indra if you accent the last syllable or another celebrate the wrong syllable the meaning will become the one who will be killed by Indra and Saraswathi made sure that there was a glitch in the programming a bug so the Rishi mispronounced the odd missed miss accented by mantra in Russia thrown what the sewer gave the right offerings and lo and behold this terrible demon steps out of the the sacrificial fire all ready to go and wipe out the gods and he leads his army of demons and attacks heaven takes heaven by storm and and the gods put up a brave fight but they are defeated and and so on so forth long story finally they go to the the gods go to the rasheed Adichie who is a very austere and holy man and they ask deep moral here they said for the welfare of the universe we have a boon to ask of you and there is she the sage says what do you want he's a simple old man sitting on his little Hut in meditating he said we want to make this weapon which will kill the weapon is called the Thunderbolt Vajra which will kill this great demon vikre said all right what can I do the weapon is going to be made out of your bones because you are the most righteous man so your bones that surcharge with your righteousness and power which means he has to give up his body and the ditch immediately agrees for the welfare of the universe III can always sacrifice my life and he sits down and in meditation it gives up the body and the the day was collected of the gods collect his bones make the blood thunderbolt and that becomes indras weapon mounted on his white elephant I don't know if there's a story there white elephant anyway and then there's a terrible fight I all remember this from the comic book sir and he kills the demon but anyway the moral of the stories the mantras have to be pronounced correctly so so this was the this was the kind of ritual they were used to in those days and here's three Krishna says consider the rituals that you perform over Juna make work into the ritual by that what does he mean start your fire ritual no no no it would be meaningless most to most Hindus also it's meaningless now most Hindus do not practice that and today into a 21st century in Manhattan if I say start fire rituals you'll get the New York Fire Department down here here in no time at all no that's not what he means he says consider look at the yagya which you are used to consider life itself as a Yankee in fact I have created life itself as a great ritual make your whole life into a worship into a fire ritual what do you do then all work do it as a younger as a fire ritual just like puja so you are the worshipper and the results that come out of that which are for the benefit of everybody whatever falls to your share take it as prasada yeah so that it only in this way will you be able to convert your action into spiritual action you don't have to give up action don't but you cannot leave it as worldly action because that will interfere with your spiritual practice or pull you back convert your action whatever you're doing into spiritual action let my life in the world be a life of service wherever I am life of worship of puja of yoga so he says yeah guitar karma no one neutral okay I am karma bandhana other than in this is the format and this is an entirely internal shift nobody need no you are not going to light a fire in your office and start pouring oblations in the company - with accompaniment of Vedic hymns no you're going to go and sit down at your computer and and get that report out on time but that in your mind is a worship of the Lord because the Lord has said this entire cosmos is a huge fire ritual in which you are there offering and whatever Prasad is given whatever is the product of that ritual whatever comes to your plate the money success pleasure take it as coming from God if it's unpleasant that also is is prasada for you so this is the cosmic view launch Krishna is going to expand on that the commentator here he says yet do what ravish new your giveaway Vishnu from title Sangeeta the commutator says this yoga this worship this fire ritual this itself is God or it's a way to realize God and he quotes from the material from the Vedas itself that fire ritual itself is to be seen as God so when you do the fire ritual the right attitude is that I am worshipping God whatever activity you do in life now he expands using the yagya model the fire ritual model in the next four verses that's what's going to happen so keep the fire ritual in mind he's going to talk about that verse 10 sahaja yoga produced wa sahaja yoga rajeshwar pure water Prajapati pure water Prajapati Annina preservation Annina preservation asia bow stage to a comic a shallow fish to a calm and who Prajapati the creator of the world's created the beings with the sacrifice with this fire sacrifice and said by this you multiply in this world and let this yield you all your objects of desire this karma took is you know that is the the mythical cow in heaven come at any whatever you wish it will give you or the the Kalpataru the mythical tree under which you sit and you you mythical means it's symbolic actually it's symbolic of our mind when it's properly guided it gives you whatever you desire in life so in days of yore when the universe was created Brahma the creator of the universe he creates the universe with this concept or with this practice of a cosmic fire ritual you contribute you do your part in this worship and you will be sustained by it if you want your objects of desire you will get that if you want spirituality and liberation you will get that too you know nowadays there is this concept of Deep Ecology what is Deep Ecology ecology is our natural environment the environment we live in and its interconnections Deep Ecology considers human beings as a part of that we are part of the interconnected web of nature so it's a big movement now all over the world it's basically the philosophy behind our green movement here in the West and everywhere else so it's really important but this deep ecology concept was there in India thousands of years ago it's very natural to the Indian way of thinking we are part of nature of course the reason is in India the ultimate reality God or Brahman is seen as transcended and imminent present within nature and we we go through many lights so sometimes we are in a human body earlier life so you may have been in plant or animal bodies so there are sentient beings in all all living creatures in animal bodies in plant bodies everywhere and there are beings who are higher than us also the gods we are speaking about the debating cards so this kind of interconnectedness of nature this deep ecology concept is very natural to the Indian way of thinking not so so much to the Western Way of thinking which derives from the Abrahamic Way of thinking from the Old Testament where initially the idea was that God has given this to you be fruitful and multiply literally the same words he says you multiply here you this is yours and you multiply but the difference is this here it is stated as I'm a cosmic ritual in which you participate you do your bit you get back from it and that's the only sustainable way of living whereas the way it was stated in the Abrahamic traditions was God has given this to us for you now it's open to interpretation the way it was interpreted for a long time was nature belongs to man so we are going to exploit it it's for us we went to tame nature we're going to exploit nature for our benefit and that went on for a long time but in this industrial age when you do it on an industrial scale its effects on nature and the world are terrible so everything is thrown out of kilter global warming and all all the problems that you see going around in the world and now thinking in the Western world and throughout the world has swung around to this Deep Ecology idea and that no it is not for us we are part of it they are part of it it's not a resource that we can use at wilfer to satisfy our desires whatever we want because because we are part of it if we damage it we are going to suffer too if we destroy it will be destroyed too so this is the idea behind Deep Ecology and amazingly the Christian Church also Catholic Church also swung around to this point of view there was actually an encyclical from the Pope from Rome they give these yearly messages from the Pope they are written in Latin I don't they still written in Latin but they were written in Latin I think they are still written in Latin so the new the new doctrine in the church is we are custodians of nature we are trustees of nature when God gives us nature to us not to exploit not to it's not like it's an endless resource we can have a free lunch and no it's it's something that you have to take care of it's a responsibility and you are and there was a there was a seminar I remember when this encyclical came I was part of the hindu catholic dialogue in Los Angels so in Loyola Marymount University there and father Alexei who was the Catholic the priest the counterpart in this dialogue he was explaining this this new approach and there's a whole seminar about it that was when the new pope came Pope Francis and so I went to him and I said when he was telling me about it I said to him well congratulations on getting your first hindu pope [Music] he was not amused no but this is this is what they are talking about you will see as we go on this idea of a cycle of nature in which you are a part of it and you play your part or you suffer nature also suffers and you suffer too this idea is so implicit in this and thousands of years ago this was part of the spiritual teachings of Vedanta 11th verse d-von poverty Nina Devon poverty Nina PD vibhava into T Deva Hawaiian - Parris param bhava and Paris param dhama and Shri Rama Bob SATA Shri Rama Bob sea otter complete the section the four verses and then I'll explain so by this worship the gods at the Vedic God's the way the gods were in charge of different functions of nature so worship the gods the Bhuvan functions are in charge of nature and they will sustain you in turn sustain them so statistically you if you look at it in a modern sense sustained nature nature will sustain you 12th verse Easton Hogan he bowed Ava and Hogan he bowed Ava - Ian taeya GABA vita das ent evita hey Donna Prada a pure Thai Donna Prada yo boom tasty naive ass uh yo boom tasty naive was if you worshipped up the gods that means the powers of nature and they will sustain you the one who exploits nature without giving back to nature is called a thief stain I ever saw here doesn't say nature it says the day was the but if you investigate what were the way the gods they were actually a powers in charge of different forces of nature 13th verse yoga sheesh casino Santo yoshino Santo merchants a cervical be shy merchants a cervical be shy punjah TT to empower bonjah TT talkin Papa yep a chanted makar or not yeh pachán khatma car or not those who take the remnants of the of the yagya prasad they are freed from all the bad effects effects of karma but those who cook for them literally says those who cook for themselves they eat sin literally that the what is it is used so just not not just food being cooked all our activities I have set it up so that I and me and mine this is the one who's going to benefit first person I benefit he says you're eating sin do it as a service to the world whatever comes out of that you can sustain yourself on that and that is perfectly alright that is spiritual 14 another event a boot on e inaudible t boot on e but jenny adonis mhmm but jenna some yeah god poverty / junior guard poverty / junior Yaga karma Samad baba yaga muhammad baba from from food comes from food are sustained all these beings we live on food and food the crops they are the food comes from crops from nature and the crops they they grow because of rain and rain comes because of the vedic fire ritual a kind of natural cycle it's a wait just a minute what did you see at the end you know till this point we understand because we have a very naturalistic way of thinking now yes I understand and there is a cycle of nature and so rainfall and crops and food and it all goes around and round but where is the dreaded the Vedic fire which will come in between so you have to understand it in the Deep Ecology sense you take care of nature nature takes care of you but again I must be clear literally what Krishna is saying is that you perform the against the fire rituals the gods take care of nature and nature provides you with rain and the rain provides you with abundance of crops and these crops give you food and on food you and your children are sustained so this is the cycle which goes on 15 karma Brahmotsavam the D karma Brahma vivan did be Brahm Haris Ahmad bhavam Grenache Aras imodium the small surrogate Ambrym the smart sorry begotten Brahma nityam yog a Pradesh tetum nityam yog a Pradesh Tatom all these actions they are where do you find these rituals if they are in in the Vedas hear the word Brahma means Vedas and the Vedas come from God so these were the all these actions they are the fundamental teaching of the Vedas remember you are talking to an ancient Hindu Arjuna so this is this is the way it makes sense to him the central teaching of the Vedas is this action this fire ritual but this fire ritual don't take it just as the literal ritual performed by the priests make your entire life into this cosmic fire ritual this is the creation of God and live like this 16 and this is very concludes the section a 1 property term chakram a vamp Robert item chakra nah no but Yeti uh uh no no but Yeti ha ha ha your indriya da mo ik are you in Riyadh ah mo mo comparsa G but the mohim but Sir G Bertie this cycle which has been set into motion by me which is a very modern ecological term this cyclist is a bump reverted thumb chakram this cycle which has been set into motion by me the one who does not abide by this the dude one who does not see oneself as being a tiny part of a cosmic cycle being integrated into life and nature and society one who does not live like that then how does this person live India Rama impelled by the the desires of innocence pleasures I want it I'll grab it does it belong to you does it do good to society are you thinking of the larger good no I this person it must all come to this body that person he says AHA you worthless is the life Morgan parts are so Jeeva t he lives in vain indeed indeed he lives in vain indeed why in vain because the higher spiritual goal will not be attained in the preparation for spirituality enlightenment will not be there second even the worldly goal of happiness a sustainable good life in this world a good society in nature society and your personal life all of it is sustainable good and happy and happy that also won't be there Morgan in vain have you lived very soon unhappiness will be a lot or it will be the lot of such a person so this is the idea of yoga the old idea of yoga fire sacrifice to be understood as in terms of the modern idea of puja performed by the Hindus to be understood not as a ritual but all of life and Krishna recommends you think of life like that and continue to perform action you will be spiritual in no time you don't have to walk away from just one more thing I must mention here for completion in the Hindu scriptures there are actually recommendations they were called puncha Maha yoga the five great sacrifices make fire sacrifices which every devout Hindu was supposed to perform five if you say whole life is a kind of big cosmic ritual yeah that's still a bit vague precisely what do I have to do tell me so five things which devout Hindu was supposed to do Brahma again grandma Yoga is study and teaching of the Scriptures what the Masters have handed down from generations to generation this valuable spiritual heritage study it come to class study hit and then pass it down teach it also that's Brahma you get it that is the knowledge sacrifice he has spiritual knowledge is meant then in Brahma yoga also is known as Rishi again the sacrifice to the great spiritual masters then de vie again sacrifice done to the Vedic gods or in modern terms very few of us here worship the way the gods anymore but worship God in some form so there should be daily act of worship on your part go to temple church or at least a little prayer corner in your room something should be there particularly your own personal ritual they wear cap then then Petrie again sacrifices to the ancestors for every Hindu householder this was a compulsory that a remembrance and that's there in many religions I know it's there in Judaism definitely so the remembrance of generations past to whom we owe all this you can see that it's a big cycle a part of that cycle is those who give us knowledge a part of that cycle is the power of divinity behind nature a part of that cycle is our own ancestors our own ancestors I share a little story with you it's a little private but it is remembered once I was in Haridwar which is at the of the Himalayas and I saw this old temple and suddenly I remembered something that my mother had told me when I was a little kid her grand uncle grandfather's brother was he was of a monastic tendencies so he had run away from home to become a monk and they found him and pulled him back and got him married off but he was always sort of aloof from worldly life and towards the end of his life he went off there was a great spiritual teacher in Haridwar in those days Bala Giri Somy had many Bengali devotees so apparently the mother's grand uncle was one of them he went off and spent the rest of his life in in Haridwar he built up temple a little temple on the bank of the river Ganga with a the MA installed Shiva and he would worship Shiva every day and he would spend his time in meditation and that's how he lived and he passed away so I remembered the story and then I asked a monk there do you know of any such such place here in this ancient temple he said yes there is Alton but there's a temple right on the river and there's only an underground passage to it it was established by a Bengali gentleman many decades ago and he he worshiped here and he and he passed away and so we still open it and clean it and put a little flour on on Shiva there so as it can you take me there soon all right come with me and I went there but it's so amazing to see somebody whom I never saw one of our ancestors who was so spiritual as to devote the last part of his life decades indicates living in that in that holy city and and worshipping Shiva and the same Shiva he is gone but she was there so I I did my little worship of Shiva now that is called you recognize the contributions of the ancestors it's because of such people I felt at that moment that my spiritual impulse that my spiritual nature is not mine alone it's not my credit so many people have contributed to it and so it's a blessing of many generations past whom I never knew also so that is another sacrifice you do a remembrance of your ancestors and thank them for what we are today and then how many have we got Brahma Yaga David patria then reactionary again remains human beings so worship human a sacrifice unto human beings so take care of people specifically it meant the guest who comes to you but then everybody is a guest in Christian language it might be called your neighbor so do something for them take care of them contribute to their welfare that is very popular I mean that that's that's but that's very powerful in today's world especially in this country the Americans are very generous and they they man Americans here the lot of volunteering goes on where you take care of society take care of other people so that can be construed as react via the sacrifice to the to the to the human beings to the human society around you and the last one is Buddha again the sacrifice to the the larger living world around you that includes plants and animals it could be as simple as feeding the birds or keeping a little bird bath or something like that you know taking care of the plants and so and so forth or on a larger scale so these are the five Pancham aha again so every devout person ever devout Hindu was supposed to do something you do it in your own way but keep so this transforms your life into your gear into a into a cosmic fire sacrifice and thus one can perform one's duties one can perform one's duties in which in fact it is very well known in ancient times that a guest would never go hungry in ancient India because everybody would want to feed the feed a stranger who comes to house and their stories of stories of how hungry people would give up the last morsel of food to feed stranger who has come to your doorstep yeah yes my question which word which word Oh Sam Baba and arising arising yeah yeah food arises from crops which which arise from rain yes who knows who knows well well I don't know but I'm sure we always somebody in the past yes to some extent I've also heard that that to some extent one it's a belief see reincarnation is a strong belief in India among Hindus Buddhists Jains Sikhs so many associated beliefs are there one is the feeling that the same one who was my great grand grandfather is now born as my grandson or something like that yeah so that kind of thing is but it is a belief and you would see why that would not be unreasonable if you are drawn to familiar circumstances so that's culture that family that it would it would seem more congenial may be exactly the same thing you know you're asking whether karma is is karma is consequential karma is causality everything that we do cause has an effect everything action has its consequence if everything isn't basically see you'd say what is the proof of this the proof of this is a simple principle of causality we think that everything must have some cause so if everything in this universe has a cause as far as the physical universe goes then in the moral universe in our what gives meaning to our lives why should we not think there is some cause behind what is happening in my life in terms of my personal happiness and suffering and sorrow I was reading a book about Einstein and Kurt gödel Albert Einstein was here in Princeton an Institute of Advanced Studies and the greatest mathematician at that time logician a mathematician a girdle and they would walk together so Einstein had this principle that the universe is intelligible universe is intelligible means everything every Y has an answer we don't know it but every Y has an answer of course he's talking about the physical universe there is talking about this universe but still the principle stands every Y has an answer the book has writing the author she's very humorous she says basically what he's trying to say is that which every exasperated parent of a five-year-old knows know when when you shout at the five-year-old kid why because I tell you that's why you don't have to say that because what there is a reason the Y has an answer and if you little children if you push that they will push you everything you say because of this will ask why so it's very easy to ask why it's very difficult to give answers after a while but Einsteins belief was every Y has an answer so in our life also the events that we see in our life if you ask a wife or that there is some explanation now is it provable not in the sense a scientific a physical fact is provable because in the modern world cause-and-effect you can observe both and observe the link but here you cannot observe the cause this is happening to me so there must have been some just cause but it's not observed and I am doing this now this is a cause it will give rise to an effect but I'm not seeing the effect yet so the link is not seen it's just the principle and from the principle has come the law of karma but it's a pretty good good thing to think about law of karma if you don't have that then what is the explanation if there's no explanation it's just random that is not satisfactory and goes against Einsteins believe that every y must have an answer our one could say it's the will of God then God is responsible for every little horrible thing the good and bad thing that happens in our lives so the law of karma has been found to be the most satisfactory not completely satisfactory but most satisfactory solution but don't go too much into karma and reincarnation that is not spirituality actually in Vedanta in Buddhism and Jainism and all Indians pair of philosophies spirituality was coming out of this this reincarnation again and again that is not spirituality that's going to happen that's that's the way people understood nature it's going to happen anyway that's the problem the solution the answer is coming out of it answer is God realization enlightenment moksha Nirvana these were the terms you asked about past life has reminded we can end with this I think it was sista Christine or nivedita who asked swami vivekananda about past lives can we know and how can we know what we were in past we are very curious and swami vivekananda scolded her never never be curious about such things he said sufficient unto the day the evil they are off you can't bear the problems of one life and you want to remember what you went through in past lives see what we have in past life's you want a good you want an answer look at your own life that's a pretty good good indication of what has gone on in our past lives the billiard ball the way it comes at you across the billiard table it's a pretty good indication of the way it has been knocked around earlier the trajectory is coming at so that what we see our tendency is our likes and dislikes the general tenor of my life it shows a lot about my past life on that ground so the whole point is convert your life now into karmayoga catch hold of God and try to realize God and then he will come the next verse he will come next is there is a time when you will come out of this you need not do karmayoga anymore he will say for a person who is completely God oriented who thinks of God all the time is immersed in God consciousness this idea of karma yoga this idea of a cosmic fire ritual this is no longer required so this is a preparatory practice but one that we would do very well to emulate let me end here to the Shanti and then we have a couple of announcements shantih shantih shantih hurry he owned that such Sri Ramakrishna Aparna must