Video 31

31. Bhagavad Gita l Chapter 3 Verses 16-18 l Swami Sarvapriyananda

Oh Vasudeva Suton daivam come such a Adama Dunham Devaki paramanandam krishnam vande a jogger good good evening everybody we are resuming our bhagavad-gita classes temporarily for about a month so I'll be here till the end of January so we'll have our regular classes on on Fridays and we'll take it up where we left it we are doing the third chapter of the bhagavad-gita and we had done up to the sixteenth verse don't forgive a little bit of in recap I remember this statistics teacher we used to have and he would you know in statistics nowadays it's called data science but you start with long derivations so this implies this implies this this imply this and the whole blackboard would be full of formulae and this gentleman would fill up the blackboard and the end of the session comes summer vacations and when he comes back to the first class after the summer vacations he starts of it comes straight picks up a chalk this implies and then he goes we are totally at sea the third chapter of the bhagavad-gita Shri Krishna is talking about that yes ultimately we have to attain enlightenment call it God realization or self-realization but until that point what do you do with life we are still working we are still living our life in this world and how do you live life as a spiritual seeker sri krishna's answer is karma yoga transform your actions into spiritual practice which actions all actions while explaining karma yoga shri krishna introduces a beautiful paradigm of the cycle he says in the 16th verse which we did he talks about this cosmic cycle where we are part of the universe witches there is give and take we receive from the universe and we give back to it and this cycle we should support this cycle by our actions if you violate this this brings sorrow not only to ourselves but to the rest of creation this is the basic idea which Shri Krishna talks about the sixteenth verse let's chant that I will chant it and then you please follow after sixteenth verse of chapter three we have done it last time but this is the recap even travel Tetum chakram even property turn chakram no no Bertie no no Bertie aha your entry ah aha India Rama Mohan passage IVA t mo humberto Sergey Bertie so Krishna says to Arjuna Arjuna or partha the one who does not follow this cycle which cycle is already spoken about that in the in the verses before this one who does not follow this cycle which has been set in motion by me by me as God that person leads a sinful life what kind of sinful life full of indulgence in sense pleasures in three are more the whole point is to have a party the whole of life becomes about about a pleasure and such a person lives in vain moham parts as a g-body so this is his conclusion what is he what is he talking about if you remember he mentioned a cycle that you please the gods it means the Vedic gods you please the gods with the sacrifices which are mentioned in the Vedas and the gods pleased by your sacrifices sent forth rain and the rain causes crops to grow and you these this food sustains you and from this comes progeny and they in turn perform the sacrifices and the cycle goes on basically this idea of a cycle is very interesting I will not go into all the discussions which we had last time but just to remind you a little bit we talked about Deep Ecology that we are all part of nature the entire modern green movement all of that that we are all part of nature we are not separate from nature nature is not our property so what we do to nature nature does to us also nowadays we don't have to say that very much because if you if you violate Azra krishna says with one violates this cycle this natural cycle then this result is sorrow in global warming rising temperatures and so many problems across the world it's very natural it will just don't take care of nature Nature doesn't take care of you everything goes around in a cycle here when we were kids we learnt about the water cycle and I we have to draw this you know that water goes up in its reverberation and comes down as rain and then it goes through the natural cycle and then again back to the so this is what exactly we used to draw but it's not just water everything in this world not even just physical nature even in society in economy in our at our personal life in emotions what we get again we have to replenish this we have to let go back into society because we are part of that wealth so accumulation of wealth very natural but that accumulated wealth must again flow back into society for not only for a healthy society but also for a healthy personality one yogi in India he put it in a simple rustic way he said that we fools we think that we hope we are holding on to wealth we don't understand that wealth is holding on to us if I hold on to this chair firmly I think I'm holding on to the chair but I am equally trapped now I can't go anywhere I'm stuck to the chair now I'm holding on to money I think I am holding on to money money is holding on to me so at one point one has to let go this is of course said in a very simple and direct way but I heard something similar very interesting recently some of you must have heard you must have heard recently that Ram Dass who was a leading figure in the 1970s spiritual movement in the United States he passed away day four yesterday he was suffering he was from cancer I think he was living in Hawaii he was a major figure at one time he wrote a book be here now I think and that became a central like sort of a key book for 1970s generation he was before becoming Ram Dass he was a professor at Harvard University he was a in the Department of Psychology and his other more infamous colleague Timothy Leary so they started this whole thing of experimenting with drugs LSD and all of that psychedelics so the whole movement started at that time anyhow he was lucky he moved on to he got the grace of a very great sadhu in India neem Karoli Baba and he himself became Ram Dass and many famous people members of the spiritual movement here right now in New York you have Krishna Das who is well known for the bhakti chance or not singing bhajans kittens he was inspired by NIM Karoli Baba and others also anyhow my point here is I listen to a talk by Ram Dass the net when I heard the news that he had passed away so I was looking for some of his old talks in 1970s so this is a humorous incidence II incident him mentions his friend was Milton Friedman who was the Chicago School economics Nobel Prize winner very brilliant economist Sir Ram Dass mentions that how Milton Friedman once told him this story a church in California big church called Milton Friedman once they call from that church and they said this year we have a huge surplus huge amount of monies left over and we want to ask you about it so Milton Friedman said yes what can I say so we want to ask you which is the best investment money left over in the church so Milton Friedman said have you considered giving it to the poor this is the story being narrated by Rhonda have you considered giving it to the poor and that person from the church he said are you the real Milton Friedman a Nobel Prize winning economist monetarist is saying giving it to the poor are you the realism Milton Friedman and Milton Friedman replied are you the real church this idea accumulation of wealth to let go and give it back into society of course giving back also it's not as easy or as simple as it sounds we are now in the day of big charities there's a gentleman called Anand Gehry Derrida's he's a writer a political commentator I think is written in this book winner-takes-all is a critique of this you know cult of billionaires today anyway I didn't know much about him but somebody recommended him and he was giving a talk at Harvard in the Kennedy School I wanted to go so I was all ready to go but that unfortunately that day we had 6 hours of lectures at the end of it all my needs to call it in those days into it was gone I had no motivation left to listen to one more lecture unfortunately I had missed it it was a very good talk it seems luckily they uploaded it on on YouTube so you can see it a conversation with an ungraded us at the Harvard Kennedy School where he critiques this whole movement of giving he says this modern form giving his good was modern form of giving charity by billionaires his critique is that by donating a few million dollars they're keeping alive a system which allows them to accumulate billions and billions billions donating to causes homelessness or the public education system those causes which could have been addressed if the taxation system and certain other things had been taken care of which would have made such enormous accumulation of wealth improbable but they knew that enough punch left over to look after these causes now you have these problems now there are some people who accumulate huge amounts of money and they he says they whitewash it by giving certain amount of money and he was very bold sitting in Harvard he said Harvard is one of the key places where he called it a reputation laundromat but that apart not only wealth knowledge Swami Vivekananda says in one of his talks in balloon much to the monks what good is your learning even if it is not for the benefit of others your life your health your learning your wealth all of it is again channeled back into society and if one does not do this why would one not follow this cycle shri krishna says india rama an immature mindset for it's all for my pleasure I am mine let me grab it I will use all of this money why should I give it to anybody else I'll have a blast I'll have I'll enjoy myself I'll buy gadgets and go on vacations and do this and that why should I spend for anybody else so this kind of an immature mindset what's wrong with this it does not lead to happiness why does one do this one does this because one expects one will be happy I have earned a lot of money now let me spend it on myself why because that way I'll be happy it does not work so I'm awakened says in one place that the it takes a little bit of maturity to see that doing things for others makes you happier it's counterintuitive I would think that doing things for myself will make me happier doing things for others makes me happier that seems a little counterintuitive but is that is true that's actually true it and he's right way back and that goes on to say the wise learn it quickly and the others take more time they suffer they go through suffering till they learn this thing indriya Rama this engagement is pursuit of sensual pleasure and therefore for I and me and myself that line from Somerset mom which I love so much in the razor's edge he says that if you single-mindedly pursue pleasure very soon you find nothing pleasing anymore single-mindedly pursue pleasure you very soon you find nothing pleasing anymore so Shri Krishna says this a one property thumb chakram in this way this cycle which has been set in motion those who do not follow it they live in vain you do not get happiness for yourself you do not get happiness and the society also does not benefit a social society itself is harmed in contrast the seventeenth verse let's all chant and please repeat after me just taught Marathi I was shot just taught Marathi leave a shot at my trip to shaman of Atma tripped our shaman art money verges on douche hot money purchase and toaster Tasi Acharya Naveed dirty the Sakarya Naveed dirty in contrast the person who delights only in the self self fear means admin you can substitute God if you are of the devotional inclination you can substitute God one who delights in the self in the admin who is satisfied with the self is content in the self alone has no duties to perform dust you carry on a bit deity what does this mean the world - in Sanskrit means butt so it indicates a change of tone in contrast to what has what was just said in contrast to the person who does not perform Karma Yoga here is the person who has performed Karma Yoga Shankar Acharya there he has a long introduction to this verse the idea is suppose one follows this cycle and does one sparked and lives unselfishly a spiritual seeker who does this is now ready for enlightenment is now ready for realizing that I am the admin the admin which is pure being pure pure consciousness pure bliss I am that I am that infinite infinite self and then doing that this person now is ready to remain centered in the Atman in in the infinite being within has no need of anything outside so it using the words at Marathi delay takes delight in the in the Atman Atma Tripta is completely satisfied by the Atman atmos untouched it's completely contented in the Atman suppose somebody says all right I can do that I have heard heard a number of classes and I can meditate and I can feel that I am the Atman so I'll be the I'll remain content it am i at this stage how do I know that I've reached this stage how do I know that I have tried sended the stage of karmayoga if this is the question Shankaracharya news commentary says that Krishna things Arjuna may have this in his mind alright you have taught me about karma yoga you have taught me about Dannette this cycle the cosmic cycle and how to live life a moral ethical giving unselfish life now what next because after all the goal is enlightenment so how do I know that I have reached the requisite qualifications for EDD lighten meant how is this do you go on doing this all your life or do you now graduate to the next level of enlightenment to realizing that I am the self to becoming an enlightened person Jeevan Muktha the question can be put in this way is it enough to be good is it enough to be ethical is ethics the final word and this is an interesting question we had such interesting discussions with the professors there in the Divinity School in the philosophy department one thing I heard there and I've heard earlier also is that there is so little discussion deep discussion philosophical discussion of ethics in Indian texts there very few for example I attended a class on classical Buddhist philosophy in India a period of nearly a thousand years and one text was the Bodhi journeyer Vitara of shantideva which is all about altruism and the professor said look this is the only text in this entire course which is about ethics but ethics is such a big part of Western philosophy so it's so strange that in is huge amount of literature in Indian philosophy there is only very little or almost no discussion of ethics why is that so now I was thinking about it and the answer is very simple the answer is that there is a deep deep confusion in modern Western philosophy the confusion is that enlightenment God Brun oneself all those things don't exist taken for granted those are superstitious those are religious and nothing to do but yes ethics is important and so we should talk about ethics and ethics becomes a branch of philosophy now the deep confusion is this that number one by discussing arguing about ethics true reason can you actually come to an understanding of what is right and wrong or you will keep on going subtler and subtler arguments there's no end to the discussion can reason lead to an understanding of right and wrong ethics in Western philosophy says yes the whole of aesthetics in Western philosophy is reasoning about right and wrong so that's the first thing and many of many philosophers for example like Wittgenstein are this is it the ethics is not a matter of reasoning ok this is one point but worse even worse after suppose you have you have been able to decide after a lot of reading lots of ethics textbooks and writing assignments and all of that ethics 101 you finished the course now you have decided right and wrong after deciding right and wrong through reasoning to the power of reason itself can you become a good person having decided what is right now by that decision can I now from now on be a good person can I stop doing bad things can I start doing good things no we know that everybody knows this is the human predicament we know what is right you don't feel like doing it doesn't know we know what is wrong can't stop myself from doing it the Duryodhana's famous replied to Krishna Krishna said to him that what you're doing is wrong and do it and who is the villain in in the war he expresses something that every one of us knows he says my problem is not that I do not know right and wrong don't give me a course on ethics and ethics I know what is right my problem is I don't feel like doing it I know what is wrong adhara my problem is I cannot stop myself from doing it why not why don't you feel like doing what's right and why can't you stop yourself from do what you know to be wrong you had admitted that it's run by can why can't you stop yourself he could say something very powerful that there is a force within me today we would call it the subconscious mind what not he said there's a force in my heart which forces me along this path I can't help it Jeremy dharmam not emeriti I know what is the harm I have no interest in it they are Aeneid Herrmann naturally in every tea I know what is wrong I can't stop myself cane are behaving a holistic ater by some power within my heart utano G toast meet a talker Oh me as I am directed as I'm pushed I'm in pain to do these things that is a hammer blow to our modern conception of ethics you can't even after even supposing rationally after all arguments you come to decision these are good and these are bad and from now on I will do only good things I will never do bad things because this is my decision from now and III have argued it out I have read the textbooks syllabus complete after the syllabus we are all moral Saints never it doesn't work that way what is the Indian approach to it Indian approach is what you see in the Gita what you see in yoga what do you see in bhakti we know that we have to be good how do you do that what prevents us from being good look what he just said what prevents you from following the cosmic cycle in the reerrr this tremendous engagement in sensual engaging sensual pleasures the single-minded pursuit of pleasure it will not if it did any good then Godspeed to you but it doesn't do good it only brings unhappiness upon unhappiness and yet we pursue it it's not a rational decision it's not a decision of the intellect it's a power in our subconscious in modern terms in old terms they would say in my heart Brown in Bengali is a brown honey my prana my heat pulls me so this was understood and the remedy was not arguing about ethics the remedy was practice purifying the mind so that what you understand to be good is also what you want to do now the problem is I know this is good but I don't want to do it when we purify the inner instrument chitta should be they call it chitta should the purification of the mind how by karma yoga by following this cosmic cycle by playing once part in this cycle ethical cycle of this universe being a responsible person responsible citizen unselfish caring about others putting oneself last and others first doing all of this it actually benefits me it prepares the mind it purifies the mind purifies the mind for what for what lies beyond ethics in none of these systems where I was talking about the Buddhist course on Buddhism Buddhism Jainism in yoga in bhakti in Vedanta in none of these systems is ethics the end of it ethics is the foundation for something that lies beyond you a vaishnava will say I have to realize my Krishna my Bhagavad my Vishnu the Buddhists will have to will say that I want to attain nirvana the Vedanta will say I have to attain self-knowledge enlightenment that is the goal and it's real sometimes modern we have these doubts modern doubts you know that I have heard it somebody expressed by some people that isn't it possible that all this talk of God and religion is just to make people good it's not that God exists but if you talk about God and make people believe in God so out of fear of God or out of a desire to realize God we will try to be good so the whole purpose is to be moral no no no no no that's putting the cart before the horse big time God actually exists this Atman we are talking about the ultimate spiritual reality it actually exists it is what while attending some it's attaining this realizing this moksha Nirvana whatever you call it it is truly truly worthwhile so this is our approach to the problem of ethics that's why the discussion is about purifying the mind discussion is about devotion and meditation and service karma yoga bhakti yoga Raja Yoga knowledge not so much about what is right and wrong and I was amazed just a week before coming here I chanced upon this essay by a philosopher Susan wolf I think I don't know where she is now she's in one of the universities United States she still she's active actually I was looking for you know the end end term you have to write papers so I wanted to know what's a really really good philosoph what does it look like in today's modern Western philosophy what what does a good paper look like so I googled it X with active philosophers today best papers best writing among active ela suffers her name came up at the top she's apparently the best writer most clear writer so I borrowed her book the first essay in that collection is that most famous essay why she's famous the name of that essay is moral st. and she says her beginning there is a deep problem with the study of ethics what is the problem I was amazed to see that what I had been thinking about exactly that that she has written there that she said is it possible even after we decide what is right and wrong to become a saint by reading what is right it's neither possible and then she goes on to say that it's also not desirable the way we put ethics we cannot lead your life like that but the interesting thing comes at the end she says then if that is not the goal to argue about ethics and then find out what is right and then become that if that is not the goal then ethics cannot be an end in itself ethics must be for something else and she gives it a name the meta moral meta moral what is the metamodel she said I don't know but there must be something beyond ethics and that's where she ain't stare say she's it's a it's a major essay in modern philosophy no moral Saints exactly this question what lies beyond ethics so here sri krishna says beyond karmayoga lies enlightenment self self-realization that word all of this comes from that word but - which distinguishes this from what went on earlier after this initial preparation one a sense to this stage now the question is how do I know whether I've reached this stage try it for yourself we will immediately our own mind will tell tell us can I remain centered in God or the self Atma as a witness self two minutes one hour two hours very difficult we find it very difficult one sadhu rancic - ji who is to live in India he passed away few years ago he was an expert on the bhagavad-gita that's all he studied all his life he gave a beautiful recipe for practice he said japa mantra those have got mantra it applies to the mantra japa repeating the name of God he said while doing your work in samsara keep on repeating the mantra and when the time comes to repeat the mantra you know why Saturday you have to sit down shut down everything and repeat the mantra yourself sit down quietly in meditation when the time comes to take the name of God forget samsara totally what is the formula when engaged in samsara don't forget God when engaged in calling on God forget some sorrow this is the practice good formula but if you try to do it then what will happen is some sorrow will pull us but remembering God in the midst of samsara very difficult you will find hours have passed I forgot to take the name of my Krishna mahira Rama gone and the opposite when I sit down I will not think of samsara only Rama and Krishna or whatever I want to repeat the name of God samsara will automatically effortlessly enter into all vegetation what the boss said whether this work has been done what shopping has has to be done and so many things little enter what will I do after meditation so all of that will enter in meditation why is this happening this is the sheer indicator that we have not graduated to the state which shri krishna talks about where you delight in God you're content with God and you find satisfaction in God the three words used here sanskrit words rutty rutti means taking delight in being engrossed in something like sense pleasures so one enjoys eating a mango for example and you take great joy in it that pleasure or the taste and the fragrance of it that is Rati and engagement in sense pleasure next word is Tripti these common words in sanskrit which has been almost every indian language Tripti if you translated it means fulfillment i have a desire i fulfill that desire that that fulfillment which comes that satisfaction which comes that is called Tripti so I'm hungry I eat now the hunger has been satiated that is Tripti I feel full and contented fulfilled and then santosha that word he says Santosh to another Sanskrit word very subtle differences of meaning Santosh a means satisfaction or contentment contentment I have so much money I have reached my target being a millionaire or something like that contented not for long but anyway so contentment these three words he uses and all of the me connects to the Atman Rotti and growth being in cross to taking delight in or pleasure in then Tripti and then santosha tryptamines fulfillment and Santosh ah means contentment samsara cannot give you Ravi Tripti santosha some sorrow things of the world because they continuously change they are always changing even if you get pleasure out of it even if you get some kind of fulfillment out of it it's bound to go away after sometime the analysis is this samsara is continuously changing an idiom continuously changing samsara is jarrah its object to you you are aware of it whatever you are aware of is samsara the object there and samsara is destructible not shuara it will be destroyed people die objects are exhausted they're destroyed things break the Atman is just the opposite samsara changing continuously the Atman the self unchanging some solids are a object the Atman awareness just the opposite samsara subject to death the Atman is immortal now between the changing and the unchanging there can be no relationship interesting between the rapidly changing and the absolutely unchanging there can be no relationship they may seem to be a relationship but that actually cannot be a relationship imagine if something is moving and you're not moving there can be no relationship between you and that thing either if you catch hold of it you will be dragged along or it will stop but one thing is moving and you are not moving you cannot hold on to that samsara which is continuously moving and you the unmoving witness there's really no relationship between you and samsara it's a devastating thing to say sounds philosophical when you say it what you're saying is between you the pure subject you have no relationship to what you consider to be even your property what even your house your car no relationship that your is is an illusion husband wife children yes my children illusion they're not even that not just that body my body what is mine about this body do you have the papers for the body and the cops pull you over show me the papers not for the card for the body did you make the body no nature made it do you sustain the body you control the body does the body obey you not at all and it will be absolutely disastrous if the body obeyed you because all the thousands of biochemical processes going on in the body all the time it down to the my new test cellular level if you were given charge now you are in charge drive it medical emergency and 9-1-1 call what did he he tried to run his own body nature does it nature does everything we have an illusion of control over the body you don't own it you didn't make it do you own the material sort of which it is made made the earth and the fire and the hair and the water all the bio chemicals no you don't own the materials out of which it is made it does not obey you not even for one moment then how is it yours I and this body this relationship is an illusionary relationship between the changing and the unchanging there can be no relationship even thoughts perceptions and thoughts houses hearts where are they coming from I think I think my thoughts not really where are they bubbling up from and they shine in your light for some time and then disappear again you know that like a Brownian movement in a beam of light in the morning you see a ray of sunlight in entering your room and you see tiny motes of dust moving around there our thoughts are like that imagine yourself as consciousness awareness thoughts feelings emotions they all dance around in your awareness for some time and disappeared from which darkness they have emerged and into which darkness they disappear we have no idea we do not have a relationship with our thoughts to even our thoughts that is wrong so no relationship yet how does this relationship come about why do I think that I will get joy from samsara I will get delight roughy Tripti santosha from samsara why do I think that the psychology of play the first thing which happens is this admin that we are talking about this is hidden by a primal ignorance - Swami theory not Theory right now if I say suppose our data is true suppose then you are searched on under your existence consciousness place I am that existed the consciousness place do I really honestly know it or feel it if you say no I really don't that I don't know it I accept that it is true and yet I don't know it this is ignorance you are actually admitting to that ignorant so after reading advaitha for a while the question comes to us oh if I am Brahman who has ignorance the mind by itself cannot have ignorance Brannen cannot have ignorance mind is an object what whose ignorance if the mind is not mine then the ignorance of the mind is also of no concern to me so how do I get ignorant are you following me I am enjoying myself I don't know how many who I'm off on a track the it's the opponents will ask this question where does this ignorance whose ignorance Brahman the ultimate reality Brahman Atman pure being what ignorance can there be nothing is like saying this darkness in the Sun impossible no no no me nuran sees in the mind but you said I am NOT the mind I'm Atman Brahman so first of all whether the mind by itself can have ignorant is doubtful and even if it has if it's not me or mine what problem is it to me so this question will come up and it comes up and Shankar Acharya faces this question a few times in his commentaries in the gita commentary in matthew 13 chapter somebody asks this question that whose ignorance wait a minute you've been talking about that you are Brahman and we don't know this and when we realize it overcome ignorance you are enlightened but whose ignorance Brahman can't be ignorant shankara's answer is very interesting there it seems that he's pulling the opponent's leg but it's actually a deep answer whose ignorance and Shankara says why do you ask and this person says because I don't know how you admitted you don't know you could see your ignorance as long as we technically you're correct ignorance cannot be anybody's ignorance ultimately it is true that if you are Brahmin there can be no ignorance but as long as you feel it if you feel it and you feel the effects of ignorance take it that the ignorant is there and try to overcame overcome it in Hindi they put it nicely at the rock and I'll translate for you a gank oh the mad kijiye Gamco katya mahadji do not try to prove the existence of ignorance try to overcome cut down ignorance why did we go down this route I'm weak so we're talking about the psychology of pleasure ignorance veils our real nature as the Atman if I am the Atman I don't know it what I'm presented with is a body mind this body mind it has certain things which are pleasurable to it certain things which are painful and I immediately I the Atman not knowing myself as the Atman I the pure consciousness not knowing myself as pure consciousness I identify myself with an object presented to pure consciousness what is the first object thoughts mind I am this mind these are my thoughts desires ah these are my desires these are my designs means nobody thinks in that way we think as I want one thing comes up from the mind and I am this consciousness now I want body I am cold I feel hot I am ill I am healthy this body ill and healthy is more product than body I am hungry and thirsty prana I am depressed mind I am ignorant intellect not me any of them but I become identified with all of them and a set of desires from past lives which which bubble up and I try to try to fulfill those desires when I do succeed in fulfilling a desire temporarily what happens is the desire sub-sites for a moment I am hungry I eat something the hunger subsides for a moment I want entertainment i watch a movie the desire for entertainment subsides for a moment when desire subsides the vedantic psychology is the innate peace and joy and contentment of the self shine forth mind feels that touch of peace of the spontaneous fulfillment which is our always our nature but what happens is because we do not know the other Atman that touch of joy and peace and contentment we mistake it oh I satisfied my desire that's why I got pleasure that's why I got happiness that's why I got peace I bought that object so I felt happiness that happiness is gone now very quickly now I must buy one more then I will feel again happiness I ate that cookie that's why I felt pleasure now the pleasure has gone numb by one eat one more cookie then I will feel that pleasure unfortunately does not work that way also law of diminishing marginal utility economics we learn the more units of consumption the less and less happiness utility you get out of it this is the psychology of pleasure Erich Fromm who was in this country a very perceptive psychoanalyst he says we have counterfeit happiness what is happiness in our modern time building up tension and releasing it that's what we are doing in modern society building up tension by this by this do this you know good go to this vacation buy this product and that desire builds up and then you release that tension by doing that activity or buying that thing or enjoying that thing and that we think is happiness building up tension and releasing it that's what goes under the name of happiness today Erich Fromm said 1960s I think but the problem is this kind of chasing happiness is chasing a mirage lack of fulfillment unhappiness returns very quickly not only that now we need more desires first of all fulfilling these desires can never lead to satisfaction why you're trying to get satisfaction from samsara which is changing which is general is an object and which is subject to destruction you're trying to get satisfaction from that you need never be satisfying when whatever little satisfying the satisfaction we get will never last that'll go away the unsatisfactory temporary nature of worldly pleasures leads us to try to repeat them increase the variety of objects that we want and therefore sign up to a to a lifetime of sorrow imagine in this changing samsara where we try to arrange things to our benefit suppose our our desires were fulfilled everything that I want the house that I want to live in I get that house the car that I want to drive I get that car not only that the more subtle things the behavior that I want from people people around me father mother brother sister colleagues husband wife children especially children the way I want them to behave they start behaving that way everything is perfect suppose suppose it is possible one day everything falls into place how nice I can see some people smiling how nice it will be but if samsara is changing what will happen in the next moment change a change from a perfect state with necessarily by definition will be an imperfect state so the next state of samsara will be something that is unacceptable to me but definition there cannot be any stable lasting happiness to be got from samsara relationships perfect strangers meet they don't know each other fall so much in love they decide to live together for the rest of their lives after some time they become so disgusted with each other they did they decide never to see each other's face again you see ashtavakra says my Ananta Mahama though archery mg of each other wouldn't ignant ik halen t provision peace of heart in me the infinite ocean of awareness how strange and wonderful are these jivas sentient beings they come up like waves in this ocean of awareness wouldn't they are born kaylynn t play with each other one so I mean Gangotri was Punjabis are you saying Cailin do they play with each other he says I love you I love you none T fight with each other divorce divorce provision T they die go back into into that ocean of awareness how strange and is the play play of jiva's of the individual sentient beings then trip T so this is Rati delight in sense organs it how strange trip t you eat something hungry eat something again in the evening is it done finished no more eating the rest of the life no no no again evening uber eats evening so again if to repeat and then contentment I have certain targets if they always ask you where do you see yourself five years from now ten years from now so I have certain targets my bank balance must be this much my relationships must be in this place my career must be there I must get this promotion and that promotion next and funny story I remember in a perceptive really interesting story it concerns Tata those who are Indians you have heard the name he is one of the leading industrialists Ratan Tata in India of the Tata family in fact I was impressed to see in the Harvard Business School the first building that you see when you enter the campus on side of the road most impressive first building is the tata building rather than tata donated money for that Howard Business School haven't top Business School in the world I was just walking around and the lady there at the counter she said oh he has something to do with the eye thing I said I also think so something to do anyway that the story I want to share with you is this I heard it from a brother monk who saw this this was many many years ago Swami bloatation and the G was the president of the order he was the 12th president of the order in ramakrishna mission in our main monastery in bel air but in near Calcutta on the bank of the Ganga so on the Atmos Town on the G was the general secretary of the order at that time this was in the late 90s or early 90s and Ratan Tata came on a visit of two Bell orbit so what happened the interaction that I heard from this monk he said Ratan Tata asked the general secretary so how do you train these young monks what happens stage by stage and it was explained to him that the young men they come they come as novices then they become what is called pre probationers after seven years and after certain years they become probationers they get the vows of raw material and then finally after about nine or ten years they get the vows of sannyasa and and their responsibilities and work also keep on increasing and things like that then he said oh it's not so different from the Tata industries he said that's how we recruit young people they come and then we induct them and we train up and give them higher and higher responsibilities over time as it precedes Swami petition and he was the president he said there's one big difference what when a young man enters your industry the Tata company he always this young person man or woman always thinks that one day I will be the manager and the general manager and the CEO and president this is by progress and it's very natural for him to think that that's the source of contentment target goal none of these young people who come to this monastic order they ever think that one day I'm going to be the head of this ministry then I'm going to be the head of the whole order or something like that never what do they think of what is the golden they always think how can I be a better sadhu how how can I become a solder how can I become a good Punk how can I improve my how can I become a good meditator how can i cultivate devotion how can I serve others how can my life be blessed right by doing these things so this is the difference worldly person and a spiritual seeker as far as desires are concerned multiplication of desires and satisfaction of desires is the definition of happiness for a worldly person right or wrong just think about it the whole advertising industry and Madison Avenue and everything what is it multiplication of desires and satisfying those desires and that is the definition of happiness that's how happiness what happens is and how it is to be attained that's for the worldly person the spiritual seeker just the opposite transcending desires desirelessness is the criteria for happiness we can minimize our desires transcend our desires that gives the spiritual person happiness not fulfilling desires not having desires dukkha for a worldly person suffering having desires unable to overcome desires is dukkha for a spiritual person suffering for a spiritual person this is the difference what is the solution suppose I cannot reach that state where I am where I am contented with the Atman where I take delight only in the Atman where I am fulfilled by realizing that I am the Atman suppose I cannot reach that stage he says Karma Yoga transform our activities live a life so transformer activities into spiritual activities that's still a little vague what do I actually do and he says fulfil your part in the cosmic cycle what you're receiving always give Swami Vivekananda says gave gave and do not look back whoever looks but whoever looks back his ocean dwindles into a drop if you look back I have given so much that's enough enough for my taxes for this year the ocean dwindles into adopted spiritually speaking it's good to give anyway so one place one lives this moral ethical responsible way of living this is not the goal but this is the preparation that prepares the mind for the higher spiritual life this remaining stabilized in the self and he says here that's your car iam Navi deity when one reaches that state there are no more duties card iam literally means the duty the thing to be done there's nothing to be done for this person for this person who has accomplished karmayoga who has purified the mind nothing to be done means three meanings are there tests see Acharya Nvidia tape you can that person has no more work to be done has to be understood in three ways at least one way is because there are no desires to fulfill there no there's no more action to be undertaken for fulfilling desires most of our action is for fulfilling our own desires for myself for the self we may think not this is very selfish way of thinking for me no actually that's the way we think and we are not recommending that you think that way but that's the way we think there's this story of a an executive of a multinational corporation who said I really really love my job I'd do it because I love the job then the person was asked so suppose we stop paying you will do the job because you love the job so much and say no no no no you have to pay pay me so you're doing it for the money not for the work itself and give me a given a choice suppose you get the money and don't have to do the work or you do the work but you don't get the money which one will you choose I said I know you're right I'm doing it for the money but is it for the money is it really for the money suppose you're told that you're given all the money but you can't spend it so no no no I have to spend it I have to buy things for my wife and children and parents and all of that then the person was told alright you can buy things for others you can use the money that you're given but they are no longer your wife parent children they have no connection to you you spend for others so no no they have to be mine so ultimately all of that whether it's the job or the money or the parents or wife children all leads back to itself that's where we rant attacks the whole problem is if we consider the self to be this limited being physical body and mind then the whole of samsara comes in if you what Vedanta does is it shifts the reference of the word I when I say I what does it refer to this in that case samsara the witness consciousness freedom from samsara so that shifting is accomplished by Vedanta so that is one meaning of the of the phrase there is no more work to be done by such a person the person who has realized the self does not need to do work to satisfy desires does not have these desires to be satisfied so will not do any desire prompted actions there's no more work to be done second meaning is in a deeper sense in Vedanta considers all action that is going on in the universe especially the work that we do all of it is ultimately meant for enlightenment Arobin the beautiful statement rishi or window he said life itself is yoga if you do it consciously or you could say I am a yogi but if you do it unconsciously you say that I'm just living life do it unconsciously you're living life with it that's an unconscious process takes time and much more suffering consciously if your spiritual a yogi so life itself is yoga all action is finally meant to take you to enlightenment whatever we have done in life we may not be maybe the rankest atheist no belief in God religion spiritually nothing at all I'm here to earn money fine that action is also taking you to God word very indirectly roundabout way lifetimes of effort but it is taking you there we are trying to find lasting peace and satisfaction and that is found nowhere else except in the our now real nature in the self in the real nature so all actions meant for that suppose this person has already realized that and is centered in the Atman the no more action is necessary if all action is meant to take us to enlightenment and you have achieved that or you have made that breakthrough and you're centered in that you're not shaken away easily from that then action is not necessary for you third meaning of this the co karyam nvidia the third meaning is this there is actually action after an Enlightenment you just have to look at the lives of enlightened people Vivekananda tremendous action even sri ramakrishna holy mother all of them till their very last day they were fully engaged in action but action work now becomes an expression of their enlightenment and is always for the welfare of others rather than this one limited individual being so trusty Acharya Navi deity yet that person has no more duty to be accomplished it does not mean that after enlightenment is no action third meaning is there is the action which is an expression of that enlightenment do enlightened beings act do they do anything technically from analytic perspective no if you ask that enlightened being are you are you doing lots of things no and the am Brahman Brahman does nothing but practically from the outside if you look at that person take a third person view often they are much more active much more helpful to society than the rest of us their lives are a blessing to the rest of us so these are the three meanings of Trustee acharya mean a bit getting this to one more person you will stop na watashi o are too naive Adagio kriti nor to knock retaining a question knock retaining Akash channel natasja suribabu tissue natasha suribabu tissue Koshchei d'ottavio shreya curse J dot avi apart Raya this person enlightened person has nothing to gain from doing something nothing to lose also but by not doing something by doing something does not gain anything by not doing something it does not lose anything here because the person has realized the self which is the all in all not only that not just your server booth ashoka siddhartha Blippar shreya this person is truly internally independent does not depend on anybody or any anything for any for anything at all it does not depend on anybody on any being there's no dependence with this person is centered in the self in the Atman these two problems one is activity and the other one is inactivity the problem of activity we know very well Manhattan busiest city I saw this slogan in an airport but I think JFK or LaGuardia it says the city that never sleeps but dreams the city that never sleeps but dreams it's true it's one of the busiest cities in the world here if you sleep it counted as a wasted time wasted if you are sleeping so as much time as you can spend in in action what is the term workaholic workaholic yes the people addicted to action I heard I don't know how far it is true that in Japan corporate workers have to be forced to take their vacations they have to forced to take vacations and they don't want to stop working even among monks I've seen it was this Swami very interesting funny Swami he's passed away so I can tell the story now he was one of the hardest workers I've seen very dynamic very hardworking he would tell the head Swami just wanna the head of the ashram will be where we were novices at that time brahmacharis so this novice who was senior to me he would tell the head of head Swami Swami I am available at your disposal from 4:00 a.m. in the morning till 11:00 in the night anything anytime you want and really amazing things he could do so any kind of work that you get and he said that and he would take look after two or three departments in the ashram altogether he said I am like those donkeys you know unless you put a big load on them they don't start moving so you give a lot of work to me then I start working but I noticed something interesting about this among when there's no work when he sat down he immediately fell asleep but that is not a good thing you should be calm and serene engaged in action when I when you're called upon to act and yet when you're left alone you should be mind should be alert and and alive and directed inwards in spiritual life so I'm very kinda said in the midst of intense action eternal calmness and in the midst of the calmness of the mountain caves he says in the in the mountain caves there absolute calmness outside internally the mind should be able to work like a blast furnace he says you are intensely thinking something many of these philosophical books we are reading they were written by monks living in caves I grew up in a place just out of which this place is the howl Giri and others in nearby banish were Buddhist monks more than fifteen hundred years ago is to live in those caves and many of them produced philosophical works which we are studying in Harvard now in 21st century well see it sitting in a cave they are not connected to internet and with Starbucks coffee and laptop and writing papers no the once a day they go out to nearby village to beg for dead food and the whole day spent in meditation and thinking in lifetime we they will write when one book which 2,000 years later we're still reading so intense action mentally externally calm intense action outward internally calm that is the ideal of carbon yoga Swami Vivekananda says so addiction to action is not good the opposite is also not good laziness so that's that is Thomas sick addiction to action is rajasic and addiction to laziness is Thomas sick laziness is also connected to dependence won't do anything for oneself I have seen among all the greats warm is one interesting characteristic was in independence not depending serve impaired aversion do come whatever is depends on others if your happiness your peace of mind depends on others suffering is guaranteed no matter what others do I am happy no matter what others say I am happy no matter what others think I am happy no matter what others think I am happy I remember in the Himalayas there's this monk a very daredevil kind of monk the monks also gossip so a group of monks this happened a group of monks came to this monk and they were saying you know Mahatma gee what they are saying about you in that ashram rumors what they are saying about you and ashram and this monk said it's all true in Hindi sits up subject without asking but what what they're saying it's all true what do you mean you just wanted to know whether the rumors are true I don't know what the rumors are but just take it to be true let me make you happy right if you know a little bit very good gossip then a way oh you are getting angry no I'm not angry just don't care you may think something about me it's all true in the he just said in Hindi sub such so it does not my happiness does not depend on and it's easier for a monk you might think it's easier for a monk but that's not really - it's a personality type and it's also an internal training even in the midst of society in a corporate environment in the family environment one can still do that these things are connected if my attitude is I am here to give I'm here to look after to take care of others then I really don't bother about what other things others think about me so you get that great peace and inner strength independence old Swami's I still remember yes I'll come to you I was waiting for a question so I'll come to you I remember this old Swami he was in his 80s in our monks quarter in Belo Ramat hardly able to walk he said proudly the general secretary was visiting the monks quarters general secretary of the order and this old Swami was sitting there old Swami very proudly said I watered the flower pots so he has to walk with you know a walker with a to work with that he takes it with the scan of water and if what is the flowerpots in the morning i watered the flowerpots and the general secretary said yes don't sit and eat in bengali he said worshipper Shahana never said so always wherever you are you give something as much as possible to others yes I was also told we often as novices we had to take care of the senior elderly Swami's and I was told by a Swami that when you take care when you're looking after and there was a very senior so I mean that ashram mean is in nearly 90 years old always let him do what he can do don't try to do things for him out of your eagerness which so that thing I think that's the care of the elderly this one thing you are taught that independence is very important we have a question we'll end with the question occurred to me where does they say a great scientist or a great artist or a musician or anything of that type fit into this picture that you are giving here I mean the work of a great scientist has many repercussions in in the world and to people and and if he does not take pride in that is he and he's but he's not a monk he's doing doing this work say take Einstein's like that yes for the artist say someone like van Gogh or Picasso I mean they are adding total the general life of people yes if you narrow down the question - well how is this related to spirituality that is the spirituality were talking about how is this related is it spiritual or not to be one of the great scientists and artists writers the creative people in our society the answer is yes and no yes it could be spiritual and no it need not be spiritual as less certainly I was just thinking I lived in three interesting places in the last three years one is Hollywood one is Manhattan the third one is Harvard one is glamour and you know Fame and the movie industry one is money here I'm generalizing but it's money and the other one where I am right now there that's learning science and art and research and on and the vibrations of the places are different you can feel it and these are the peaks of human achievement in our world today these are some of the greatest places in the world today to live it although I must say I was in Silicon Valley just a couple of months ago haven't gone to San Jose when I told them I've lived in three this line is I spewed that I lived in LA and it is like you know Hollywood and Manhattan and Harvard and learning and money and glamor they said all that is overrated the best place is Silicon Valley we have the smartest people we have the most intelligent people we have the richest people everything is here and if those places are overrated anyway my feeling is this since I got is what Sri Ramakrishna's said the 1 & 0 if you put a lot of zeroes together it's still 0 but if you have a 1 and you keep adding zeroes to it then the value increases the 1 by itself is still valuable and you add 1 0 it becomes 10 add one more it becomes hundred well one world becomes a thousand but you keep just the zeros nothing what do I mean by that one could be a brilliant writer or a scientist whose work actually has tremendous effect for a shorter or longer period on society all that is true what I'm asking what about the person himself or herself one could still be miserable internally one could unfortunately still be a miserable human being also one could be a great athlete artist and an extremely nasty human being one could be a great writer and somebody who would not want to meet socially could be but the other way is also true there are examples among scientists writers artists who are along with the talents along with their achievements they're also deeply spiritual he mentioned Einstein Einstein was deeply spiritual Swami Vivekananda said one can attain that spiritual realization one can do it by religion by science and by art but one needs are greater to understand this this is what he said sister Nevada the courts in sustainability and the introduction to the complete works of Vivekananda he said that our master told us you can actually become spiritual through art you can become spiritual through science also he says as well as religion but that quest must be there so that search for that one must be there just because see after all to a great extent a great scientist or a writer or an artist most of these are talents with which you come and a lucky break in life so there's a driving passion from within you have the capacities the intellectual capacity of the artistic capacity the creativity for some period in your life and you achieve a lot but that may not have much relation to spiritual life may not but could have and if it has then it's all the better spiritual plus a great thinker wonderful that's one plus one more zero one more zero and the value keeps on increasing if a spiritual seeker is also a writer or musician an artist or a scientist wonderful nothing like that that's what I think all right on that very nice question let's let's go you had a question okay the last question there just wait for the microphone I'm afraid this is not really relevant to the topics that we discussed Rebecca vaquita today but personally my problem is unlike Buddhists yesterday shy by in the morning vision about in evening and Christian in the night before I sleep so and it's very personally very hard to find what path is mine or what's the COS name I have to recite so do you have any advised you have come to the right place have you read a book called the perennial philosophy yes I have yes Aldous Huxley there at the very beginning he says underlying all the great spiritual traditions of the world there is what we might call a perennial philosophy that there is an ultimate reality to be attained there is a method to attain it and that is the goal of life this is common to all the paths and all the paths have deep truths in them there is an idea called the Easter Easter means you chose an idea choose yes it's hard to choose because sometimes this state your kills sometimes just this data right so you take initiation under a guru in a particular tradition it could be in our own tradition also but you take initiation under a guru and the advantage of having a liberal and open tradition like this is all the insights that you get from mystic Christianity from Sufism from Buddhism for all those things from shaivism all those things go to to enhance and make your spiritual life richer and stronger and yet you are digging a well in this one place if one digs a well now a little bit here another bit there and then the next next day and another place you'll never get water from there whereas if you had kept on digging at the same place you would have gotten water what you want is that you want to settle down in in one path and search deeply there and yet at the same time you don't want to let go of the other advantages of all the other paths that what you want if you were fanatical and narrow this question wouldn't have come you would have found one in that city everything else is wrong but you notice that there is something very good in each of those paths and something attractive in each of those paths how to get the benefit of all those paths and yet be a sincere and deep practitioner of one path Sri Ramakrishna is to say the path itself is not important but one must sincerely follow one in Bengali said Mart kitchen I Tomy act a kid or his acting I looked at the looted look at the beautiful combination he's not particularly fanatical about this path or that path and yet he says they don't do what you're doing hold on to one and follow one and you can use the insights of all the others to enrich in your path to make your path rich Swami Vivekananda said that by meditation by service by devotion and by knowledge by Vedantic knowledge that means philosophical knowledge by one or more or all of these be free and that is the whole of spirituality of of religion so all the paths will be useful and as you start practicing in one path suppose you take initiation from a guru and start practicing in that way very soon you will see your own tendency will come out that are you basically a philosopher are you basically a meditator are you basically a man of action wants to do good to the world are you basically loving and devotional or some mixture of one or two or three of these it'll come up for every practitioner within a few months few years a certain mix comes to the top so my advice would be see what what pulls you of all the things which pull you what do you feel to be the one which pulls you a lot and you considered it to be high it should be liberal open it should not be a path which tells you now you come to this path that's it then you have to shut the door to everything else you have to consider everything else is false only this is correct and yet to follow this only that will not work for you and that's not a good way to go so you should go and down a path which is open and liberal and yet deep so you have explored enough take up something and start practicing commit thank you very much we'll discuss it later somehow he's very insistent all right question you've really run out of time sorry so I just have one question you keep mentioning about it's an ignorance that the individual being we talk about we are Atman and Swamiji I have a question like you keep talking about this is ignorance this is ignorance so if Atman is the reality I mean if Atman is Brahman so why Atman is in ignorance so that I think we have talked about it more than once in these sessions yes yeah if you think deeply about advaitha you will come to this question you've come to this question and Swami Vivekananda the answer to this was there is no answer to this why not notice one I'll just give you the answer in brief and then we'll stop notice the language of your question why is the Atman in ignorance you're asking this question why is the Atman in ignorance but even the question why is part of what we consider maya ignorant after all what is this ignorance is an English word the Sanskrit word is a video or Maya and there's a definition a specific definition of that Maya space-time and causation deja kala nimita causation causation is cause and effect why whatever you can ask why about is already you're accepted causation see if you say what is the outside space if you ask what is outside space do you see the question is wrong because you've already accepted space when even this inside outside our space is already there if you ask what is before time you have already accepted time because before and after is a time word similarly if you ask why ignorant then you already accepted ignorance because why causation is a part of ignorance yeah that is dance that Sidhu I quoted in Hindi the Torah cansado he said don't try to prove or establish ignorance try to cut down ignorant he said in Hindi math Maggie again costed the mat ki GA again coca tea when we go to the best answer I found was the enlightened people those who are enlightened those of god brahma gana they don't seem to be bothered by this question so somebody said on our side there is the question there is no answer on their side they have the answer but no question good please to end Shanti Shanti Shanti hurry he owned that said Sri Ramakrishna