Video 38

38. Bhagavad Gita I Chapter 3 Verses 32-34 I Swami Sarvapriyananda

[Music] good evening namaskar everybody this is the bhagavad-gita class and today our co-host is giant who will keep a lookout for your raised hands if you can raise your hands virtually that's the best there's a button for that at the bottom of your panels participants you click that you'll get an option to press the raise hand button you can ask questions or make an observation or a comment and i can reply to you in general everybody will be muted but whenever you want to speak you can always and also you can write something in the chat you can communicate with each other or with the co-host with me those facilities are there um all right let us start in the third chapter we were we had done 31st i thought we had done the 32nd verse but now i see we have done up to 31st the 31st verse sri krishna says so those who follow this teaching of mine mata my matam my view or my teaching so you can see the amazing humility he's not saying this is the ultimate truth this is given by i am god i'm telling you this there are various opinions paths to spiritual life my mother is this i am telling you and what is this matam this is there in the 30th verse this is the most important verse in this section is this is the essence of karma yoga with a spiritual attitude what is the spiritual attitude i will realize my own nature i will get moksha god realization in this very life itself that is my goal in life that's the purpose overall our ultimate purpose of life and then what do you do all activities you need not stop them everything that you have to do in life you have to go you go on doing that but my sannyasir offer it to me to god to bhagavan offered like your pudu your puja like that you offer all your activities to god mentally it's a mental shift and nirashi without any desire or attachment nirmam without the feeling it is mine i am the doer and i shall get the result of this no nirmam bhuttwa without any anxiety anymore giving up all anxieties and tensions and because you have given up attachment that's why there is no anxiety or tension means free of fever yuddhyaswa fight the battle of life those who follow this teaching they are freed from the bondage of karma bondage of karma means they will be freed from from the effects of karma and then with through purification of mind by karma yoga concentration of mind by meditation through gyani yoga they will be finally freed from samsara they will get moksha then comes verse number 32 but if you do not follow this teaching so sri krishna is pushing the teaching or advertising reaching very strongly positive if you follow you will get this if you don't follow 32 [Music] so know them to have a jadad inert and ruined life who were deluded with respect to all knowledge that they do not get any knowledge at all who criticized this teaching of mind and refused to follow it so that's a pretty strong statement and if you follow it you will get moksha if you don't basically if you don't follow it then we will fall into samsara we will remain in samsara go through ups and downs life after life the root is this they do not want spirituality they do not want god realization that at the root is the problem that god realization moksha liberation is not my goal that is achaea no spiritual attitude is there to life and then what do they do because there is no spiritual purpose in life first of all they criticize this doctrine this teaching they criticize it you will notice something one thing is that those who are atheists or those who are strongly materialistic they also feel a strong need to criticize religion why because if religion is true then i the atheist i'm in trouble then my whole view of life is wrong so i must make sure that religion is wrong and then only i can be right i can be at peace if you are a spiritual seeker if you seek moksha god realization you really don't bother about the materialist or the atheist or the person who is very worldly you know slowly they will progress in one day they will come to spiritual life you are not really bothered about uh criticizing that person but the materialist has to criticize the spiritual person otherwise the materialist way of life cannot be justified so yanta they criticize spirituality especially this teaching of mind about karma yoga naruto and of course they don't follow it what happens they are bereft of all knowledge what knowledge this viveka has different levels this knowledge has different levels first level is the difference between dharma and dharma what is right and what is wrong that itself they don't they don't understand so they get deluded by their own ragadve their own desires and aversions what is adharma they take it to be right what is dharma they don't feel like doing it or they don't take it to be right the higher level dharma dharma viveka next nityanitya viveka what is eternal god alone is eternal this world is temporary transient passing this feeling does not come this world alone seems to be real and they want to hold on to this then the even higher level of viveka satya mithya viveka god alone is real world is not only non-eternal not only temporary and passing but also false appearance an illusion like a movie like a dream like a that snake in the rope or mirage in the desert so you see three levels first of all most important right and wrong viveka what is right and what is wrong dharma dharma that itself is not clear to such people then deeper level nityanitya god alone is nithya means eternal the world is anitya everything is temporary you see who does not know that even if people who do not believe in god and atheists do not believe in god or say buddhists do not believe in god but they all know that world is non-eternal world is temporary they may know that but they don't behave accordingly most people you see worldly mind is though i know that everything is temporary nobody lives forever i also will not live forever nor are my possessions forever everything subject to up and down coming and going increase and decrease i know that but i behave as if i will live forever i behave as if all these things i am struggling for they will be with me and i push that knowledge of the temporality of life to the background and then only samsara is possible then even deeper knowledge satya mithya god alone is real the world is unreal sri ramakrishna says again and again ishari was too god alone is the reality everything else is an appearance this is the final viveka final now deeper knowledge all this kind of knowledge does not appear to and doesn't is is not um available to such people who criticize this teaching of mind so this is 32 then 33 33 and 34 are important are very practical practical in the sense we all have this question again and again it comes why is spiritual life difficult why is it so difficult to change i read so many things i understand so many things but why can't i change myself it's so slow and difficult so what is the problem here why is it difficult to be spiritual this answer is there what is the obstacle and what is the solution both are given very interesting 33 and 34. a great deal of psychology is involved here 33. [Music] prakriti even a gyani man of knowledge behaves according to his nature all beings behave according to their nature what can repression do what can repression do so very interesting verse saddrisham chestertech people work according to their own nature prakriti according to their own prakrti even the man of knowledge even the you know the gyani one who has attended all vedanta classes and got full notes i have got all the recordings in my hard drive so yani may be even an enlightened person even jivan mukta brahma khan also what to speak of ordinary people prakriti myanti bhutan they follow their own nature kim karishatya hammer blow what will self-control do what can control do what can repression do people will according to act according to the nature now this is a very interesting verse what is sri krishna telling us here what is prakriti prakriti is our nature our nature means did you not say our nature is that we are atman yes actually we are saccidananda um our real self is existence consciousness place satyam gyanamantam brahma existence itself consciousness itself and infinity infinite being and consciousness that is our nature atman brahman turiya whatever you call it but prakriti refers to body mind so this mind we have got intellect mind memories and the body this particular body we have got in this life all of this these are products of maya of prakriti and so they are called prakriti here prakriti here means our body mind complex and there also in the mind our whole personality which is shaped by our tendencies so body mind complex is prakriti especially the mind especially in the mind the whole what the tendencies which we have got in sanskrit samskaras our these samskaras they are different for each person as atman atman is same for all we are all pure being pure consciousness it's impersonal but the we each have a different personality each has a different person personality each even in a family you see each child is different from a very early age you see the differences now this different personalities this is prakriti and this differs from person to person where does it say stay especially it stays in the mind it is in the mind where does it come from our past lives each jiva that is atman plus sukshma shadhira on my industry that sukshma sharira is the storehouse of our nature all the tendencies which we have accumulated samskaras vasanas desires accumulated life after life that is the totality of our prakriti and again here also in each life a part of it is manifested whichever part of our accumulated karma is becomes active producing this life that part becomes manifested in this life and that is very specifically that is called my prakriti now here and now my life shankaracharya says in his commentary he says that is prakriti because which is prakriti whatever we have done what have we done dharma dharma good and bad things and what we have done has created samskara samskara what what happened to the samskara part of that vattamana janmado in this life and lives to come abhibyakta it becomes manifest not that all our samskaras are manifest we have gone through so many lives and so many bodies animal body bird body devata body or maybe asura body so many lives we have gone through now that all of them will become manifest impossible in this body particularly some kind of samskara is manifest that is called prakriti prajina karma samskara prachina means ancient births so many birds which you do not know about those things are giving the results now see the karma that we have done our prakriti is made by ourselves our destiny we have made it interesting in our karma vada in hinduism buddhism jainism sikhism all indian philosophies we believe in past karma so it seems to be fatalistic it is my karma which has given me this life and these tendencies but this karma i have myself manufactured i have woven the web in which i am trapped today my destiny i have made over many lifetimes and how i will act now will make an or unmake these things over the next this life or next life so actually karma is a positive doctrine that what we do we get the result karma has two important effects one is called samskara what we consistently do again and again good and bad whatever it is it will create an effect on our mind that is very clear everybody understands our repeated action becomes our character what we repeat again and again that becomes a habit and habits total habits together is character actions repeated habit habits together character so that is one is called samskara and these totality of samskara is our prakriti but karma also has another effect what you might call in cosmic effect which is papa punya which i have talked about earlier good and bad results and that papa punya will give will give rise to events in our life one is the samskaras tendencies which we all have prakriti the other one is what will happen in our life our parents our birth this body our health what big events happen in our life um in our secular or even spiritual life these things friends relatives husband wife children job prosperity health illness all of these things are more to more or less determined by my past karma and now that is the playing field into which the jiva is thrust now how you play your freedom your with whom you are playing with the the game equipment balls and bats and all those are given by god by your own prakriti by your karma karma fellow the playground is arranged by god according to your karma fella but how you play we have some freedom there now these samskaras are our past um they have and they have given rise to our present prakriti this prakriti is expressed in the form of ragadvesa how do we know where is prakriti acting as ragadvesh ragadvaisha means likes and dislikes raga is like desire wanting dwisha is aversion don't like i don't want or want to get rid of something and these are expressed in our day-to-day life every person you will see they're defined by likes and dislikes and these likes and dislikes guide our actions prakriti yanti bhutani in our day-to-day life things that we pursue what we want to do in life the food that we like to eat um one more thing prakruti is not just past karma after birth till now there is this life's experiences conditioning of this life is also there the childhood experiences parents how they treated us teachers our relatives friends our own body health and illness our experiences of life and the community what we have been taught in school and by the community ah all of these experiences in this life they also go into the prakriti so there is a very nice phrase nature plus nurture nature and nurture nature is what we have inherited in scientific terms is mostly the genetics nature is our genetics but nurture is what has happened to us in this life how we have been treated educated taken care of nourished altogether our prakriti this is as you can understand this is really important it is true that we are all saccidananda no problem there atman or brahman has no problem problem is in our prakriti each person has different tendencies you will see the way we behave some are very calm some are very excitable some are dull some are active some are intelligent understanding some are aloof some like this kind of food some like that kind of place some like mixing with people some do not like mixing some like only a few friends some like min or gregarious with many friends so on ah so this is one thing the other another aspect of this is prakriti is made of three gunas sattva rajasthan sattvarajasthamas this we have read again and again these are the constituents of prakriti and all of us our personalities have a predominance of one or the other some are all of us have sattvarajasthamas in our prakriti in our personality and in some of us thomas is more where dullness slowness heaviness unwilling to change that is tamatama sick rajas rajas is more in some dynamic energetic but full of desires active restless and a few lucky ones are predominantly satwik calm and serene and by nature pure controlled disciplined now the thing is spiritual life is possible only when we bring our prakriti into control normally when we act it is according to prakriti this is what krishna is saying prakriti bhutani people act according to the prakriti almost everything that we do act and react what we do in life and how we react to life it depends on our prakriti but this prakriti has to be bought under control and channelized towards god realization channelized towards sadhana so this is the whole task of sadhana see spiritual practice whether it is karma yoga you are doing seva whether it is bhakti you do worshipping god with devotion whether it is meditation you are doing japa or whether it is attending vedanta classes gyani yoga bhakti yoga raja yoga karma yoga all of these they cannot do anything to the atman you the atman you are saccidananda nothing will increase nothing will decrease there you are perfect but what these do is they polish our prakriti they all of them is polishing means they are make trying to make our prakriti our mind especially more satwik now those of us most of us we have generally tamasik rajasi predominant minds and this offers resistance a few people are already satwik by nature by because of past life sadhana their sadhana in this life becomes easy they are i have seen myself in um in the training center where i used to teach monastic novices those brahmacharis who have come to become sannyasis and see these young men who have come to become sadhu they already have decided we will be have god realization is our life's life's goal they have got that spiritual attitude very clearly and they have made the sacrifice of giving up everything else for the pursuit of spiritual life only yet yet there's so much difference between them why is one of them why why are some um so happy to get up so early in the morning and happily going there and meditating and while another person another one finds it difficult to get up in the morning has to be scolded go and sit for meditation one finds the class is so interesting vedanta another finds it so dull boring another one finds devotion so interesting and has a seva bhava attending to the brothers who have fallen ill those who need something always eager to help others while someone may be trying to avoid work and avoid responsibility why all have come to be spiritual where is the problem all are sachin and the brahman or if you take a devotional approach god dwells in equally in the hearts of all of them then what is the problem problem is with prakriti each one has baggage the background life after life we have come with a lot of history personal history but that comes in the way that is what is blocking us in spiritual life this is what sri krishna is saying prakriti bhutani um in arjuna's case he is a warrior his basic nature is rajas that dynamic spirit and he wants to be spiritual but he wants to be spiritual in the way a yogi is in the mountains you know he says this i will not do i will rather go to the mountains and sit and meditate what sri krishna is trying to tell him is your prakriti will not allow it so you are a dynamic person you are a warrior akshatriya now your spirituality should also be according to your prakrti this is the great teaching it will come in the next verse so what are we to do if the prakriti is standing in our way so arjuna is being told now you must fight this war not give up the war not go to the mountain and sit like a muni there you will not be able to do that maybe you'll end up there in gangotri if arjuna goes there and sits what will happen is ah either he will sit quietly and try to meditate and in mentally it will go on that durian is a crook actually when i got the chance i should have thrashed that fellow i wonder what he is doing now or if he is active he will probably you know he will organize the sadhus into sadhu's union or something like that dynamic nature i saw one sadhu so very very good sadhu but also very raja secretary and dynamic um so see the reaction um he was telling me in gangotri the pandas the priests so their children someday i have to survive also so because this one large number of pilgrims coming so they started a hotel and the hotel proper uh this what you call waste disposal is not there and the waste is going into the ganga and which is very hurtful for the they can consider it holy mother ganga so he took these people the priests and their children to court and pursued a case up to supreme court where he finally lost the case also and now of course gangutri is very highly you know like so many hotels and things are there anyhow i was thinking when he told me the story that that he lost the case not only did he lose the case finally it was a long process and used to go regularly to new delhi to fight the case from gangotri and then when he finally lost the case he became so disappointed so frustrated he decided to commit suicide that he will jump in the ganga and he said he walked down to the ganga one day taking the name of shiva you know om nama shiva is chanting he's going to the ganga as he touched he said before entering the ganga we'll do pranam so we'll touch the water it's very fast flow if anybody steps in you'll be killed even when i was there just the day before somebody had been killed it was swept away and after during rainy season lot of water is there so he said i was going to kill myself in the ganga i touched the flowing water and then i felt something there and i bought it out this perfect natural shiva linga and so immediately touching that his entire mindset changed and he decided not to commit suicide thank god and he brought the shiva linga back to the ashram and it's kept there so my how i knew this story is i saw this with extraordinary shivering under a tree in his in his heart just outside his heart and i asked how did you get it uh so this whole story he told me but my also the lesson it's nice story but the lesson i learned also was see this person who has come to be a sadhu in the himalayas good part of his time that he spent in fighting a case in the high court and supreme court but that's also the nature prakriti so nyanti bhutani gyanavanapi see yes ordinary people are subject to prakriti no even jivan muktas brahma gyan is also what do you mean well don't you see the brahma-gyanis how different they are they are all brahma-ganis they have all realized me and the same brahman satyam yanama brahma they are the exactly the same brahman they have realized that their true nature even if they are jivan mukta there also you see so much difference ramakrishna's character and personality are different from vivekananda vivekananda's personality is different from brahman in this holy mother's personality is another type all are brahmagyani all are the same the classic example they give is ramachandra and sri krishna so both are avataras of vishnu and obviously always on the nithya of course fully enlightened and yet their personality is absolutely different both are beautiful personalities so brahma gyanis they are wonderful holy highly spiritual personalities but different from each other where does this different come difference come from it comes from prakriti of course their prakriti has been polished and it's not a problem for them anymore it's become so satwik that it reflects it ah manifests the brahmagyana easily but the difference is there so prakriti must be admitted in the case of brahma-gyani also i was joking with somebody so ramakrishna liked jalebi he liked jillipi and swan vivekantha liked chocolate ice cream now i bought the same ramagani how is it that their likings are different so these things are all product of body mind their mental makeup due to their past practice in in avatar's case you might say that past prakriti is not there but in avatar's case they will say that yoga maya it's a prakriti created by them for the purpose of avatar leela but let's take the case of jivan muktas whether it is totapuri or vivekananda so different in their whole mental makeup and their approach so they manifested brahma gyana but differently because of the prakritis difference in their prakriti what else did i want to say about this verse there seems to be a couple of questions yes rama is asking can a rajasik person become satwik by training your mind is that a transitional sign of spiritual growth attained by spiritual practices of course the whole point of all these spiritual practices is to make the mind more satwik what happens is that these spiritual practices bhakti regular meditation seva and the gyana which are which we do in vedanta classes all of these are spiritual practices and we are doing it now all of these they become easy if the mind is satwik generally if the mind is satwik that person likes these practices i have i was talking about that some of the brahmacharis they like these practices ah and it one thing i've noticed is it's usually the same person who likes meditation who likes the study who likes devotion who is very you know full of you know liking for others and doing service to others easily why is it that the same person likes all of them all that can do these all these things together it's big because that one quality is necessary such equality but start to equality itself makes a person spiritual now it's not that all or nothing we all have to some extent as our equality in us even an ordinary worldly person will also have sattva because prakriti is made of these three things everybody's prakriti has satwara jasthamas it's just that spiritual practices tend to increase the sattva and maintain it in our minds um also opposite is true if the satwa is there in the mind if makeup is satwik spiritual practices are easier we like doing it if it is not there it becomes a struggle but whether it is whether you like it or not we should do it because this is the only way we are going to become spiritual and attain enlightenment notice before enlightenment all these spiritual practices make the mind satwik so that we can go on with our sadhana and attain enlightenment become qualified for enlightenment after enlightenment that same satwik mindset already satwik that enables them to manifest that knowledge that knowledge they have ahm brahmasmi enables them to live according to that manifestation of the divinity within that also requires satwik mindset often what happens is we know something we are unable to do it in life manifesting means doing it in life so unable to carry it out in life because obstacle is put by our own prakriti lack of sattva in the prakriti i think this is what i wanted to say about this verse two people have raised their hands i want to ask you a clarification the prakruti that is mentioned in this verse is not the same property in verse 29 the the question is i want to ask is that in in sanctions everyone is separate yes you might correct yes everyone separate purusha ultimately but we all have as jiva the the purusha is entangled with prakriti and the prakriti that each each purusha has is a part of the cosmic prakriti so our prakriti each of us what we have in our minds is a part of the power of the of mahamaya of the divine mother it's actually the divine mothers whose power is reflected in all our prakriti that's why bondage and liberation are all under the um the control the domain of the divine mother there is one one purusa and one pregnancy and then we are all the parts of that no no no you mentioned sankhya in sankhya there are many parishes each of us is a separate that's sunk each of us is a separate purusa and there is one prakriti but that yes you complete the question i'm sorry now complete the question what were you saying we also each of us is property also yes that prakriti is is a part of that cosmic prakriti it is one prakriti but it has many parts see that one prakriti itself becomes the entire universe i'm talking about sankhya now one prakriti becomes the entire universe so whatever is in the universe is the part of that prakriti and that includes our bodies that includes our prana it includes our mind and intellect and ahamkara and and memory also mana buddhita where in the memory all our our personal personality is stored our vasanas samskaras are stored there and that is all part of the cosmic prakriti so we have a tiny part of that cosmic prakriti in advaith of it yes the pure consciousness of the universal consciousness whatever you want to call it no it doesn't have that no no no see what you are saying you said two things sankhya does not have pure consciousness or universal consciousness no shranka talks about pure consciousness that is purusa and you are that purusa but it does not talk about universal consciousness because we are as i said separate purushas each purusha is separate yeah many many consciousnesses in sankhya not in advaita vedanta advaita vedanta talks about pure consciousness which is also universal consciousness one consciousness and in advaita vedanta maya is the power of that consciousness prakriti is the power of that consciousness so this is the difference is the philosophical difference behind it but here the practical problem is right now we all have we are utman no doubt about it but we are we all have prakrti we each of us has a separate prakrti and it's mostly problematic why it is problematic it is something that we have consciously unconsciously gathered over many lifetimes how do we know our prakriti look at our raga does likes and dislikes when we consider what's going on in our life what we want what we do not what we like what we do not like see what we have read is different but we have studied and what you have decided this is my goal in life spirituality that's wonderful but how am i leading my life day to day what am i finding difficult so one sadhu said that see what you have read i am not interested in what you do in life i am not interested in tell me your struggle tell me a struggle where are you struggling is meditation difficult is it difficult to be unselfish does bhakti feel mechanical does gyana feel dry or i don't understand somebody said swami i checked all the boxes when you said all of them so this is part of my prakriti nothing to be done we want god realization so what vedanta does for us even at this stage is it gives us the great assurance and relief that you are saccidananda and all these problems if you have even checked all the boxes ticked all the boxes all problems have got somebody said maharaja total description my description has been given so where they are simply talking about me only where in davasura sampadvaga yoga the the asuri sampa the demonic quality shri krishna has discarded described all are matching i've got all the qualities now great thing about advaita vedanta is it assures you you are not touched by these things see whether my clothes are dirty or they are shiny clean or turn their clothes they are not me so if it is a dirty cloth i have to wash it if its shiny cloth congratulations but in both cases its not you yeah it is some simply a covering a personality even the greek word for persona it means mask i've mentioned that earlier it means a mask it's not you our personality or prakriti is not you prakriti is not purusa name and form body mind are not the atma vedanta has given you the assurance you as atma are already pure not perfect but the thing is it has to be manifested it has to be realized and realization of that requires prakriti it is all realization all sadhana all bondage all freedom everything is in prakriti atman does not have to do any sadhana athman does not need bondage or freedom also utmon is ever free but because we are now tied up with prakriti we need to work through this swami vivekananda said you cannot run away from the machine you have to learn how to work the machine it will set you free that's an important point working this machine understanding the inner workings of this machine of prakriti we have to understand ah another place swami vivekananda say is very cryptic sentence all you can do is polish the mirror all you can do is polish the mirror what is the mirror prakriti what is polishing changing our satway or our rajasik and thomastic tendencies make up into more satwik changing or controlling our ragadvaisha and channelizing it towards sahajana that is polishing the mirror what will happen if you polish the mirror what will happen if you polish the mirror ultimately it will give you enlightenment polishing the mirror means we will get those qualities of for vedanta vivek the sampati and mumuksutum those will become strong in us this ordinary person becomes a holy person this holiness we can actually feel it you go to a really i've seen it in many senior monks when you go to them you feel a distinct quality too not just a good person there's something very sublime and high about such such people that is that is the transformation of prakriti that is necessary sadhana can do that it will not make the jiva into brahman you are already brahmana sadhana cannot do anything to brahman yes question two more questions yes i think you're next uh um so about uh one of the four-fold or six-fold uh treasures is uh controlling the senses the sense organs um so for is that something that's like should be practiced is that or can you talk about it generally is it should it be practice is that like for maybe somebody beginning in spiritual life is that something that you should even think about or is that just kind of like down the road no it should be practiced and it's going to come in the next verse now the question of you say all these things and then uh shri krishna ends by saying kim karishati what can self-control do if you say that that's a shocking statement because uh then what is the use of spiritual life all our practices are their practices if we cannot do anything to our nature will everybody will act according to the nature then what is the instruct what is the point of um you know telling us about self-control don't be angry don't be greedy control your desires pray meditate all these require self-control so what does it mean how are we to tackle this problem of prakriti so the answer to what you are saying is coming in the next verse itself yes then one more day question is uh can brahmagyan be considered a karma fall like a result of karma no absolutely not this brahmagyana is not the result of karma but by karma we can set up the the we can polish the mirror the mirror does not ah provide you with the original face you know your face is reflected in a clean mirror but your mirror has not made the original face it just clea when you clean it automatically by the very nature of the mirror it gives you a reflection of the original face ah so this reflection itself is brahma qayana polishing the mirror is all that work can do karma can polish the ah prakriti can polish the mirror of prakriti ah knowledge is so there is a subtle point karma cannot produce brahman no doubt about it brahman is beyond karma brahma-gyana is also beyond karma why gyana is always produced by pramada brahmana means source of knowledge source of knowledge produces knowledge so all i need to do so that you know the you see the snake in the robe by mistake now by what will you get the reality will you have to drive away the snake with a stick or we have to employ some mantras to drive away the snake no all those are karma those karma will not work what you need is knowledge and for knowledge you just need a flashlight and look at the snake and you'll see there's no snake it's a rope that is really revealed to you directly by the source of knowledge which is protection to make it even more clear knowledge is called is said to be was to tantra depends on the nature of reality as a thing is so will be your knowledge if it is correct knowledge so if you show a cloth and your knowledge reveals it to be across helplessly so you have no choice in the matter if all the senses are working properly mind is working properly you will you are bound to see this as cloth whereas in the case of work it is not so cut that means in the case of any kind of work you have the freedom to do it not to do it or to do it in a different way you have options yeah there are various options possible uh everybody can do work in their own way and meditate even rituals even meditation is also is work mental work you may do meditation you may not do meditation each person can do a different kind of meditation as possible but knowledge you cannot do it in different ways every one of you sees the cloth and identifies it as cloth so brahma gyan is also like that it is not dependent on karma one more point and we will move on to the next verse the point is kim karishyati what can force do repression it cannot do anything it will actually harm so the all the psychoanalysis of freud and freud's followers is based on this the harm that repression does if you suppress something it will not go away in fact there's an interesting incident freud himself came to the united states in when he was already pretty famous in one of the talks there is a nice reminiscence he's giving a talk to a group of students so he talks about repression and he says suppose here in this class some students are unruly suppose and we ask them to leave the class and they leave the class but they don't go away they are trying to peek in through the windows they will start hammering on the doors you can't see them but you can sense their presence disturbing presence similarly he said if you drive away disturbing thoughts desires you push them away they will not go away they may you may not be directly aware of them but they will go into your subconscious and they will keep working there and they will keep disturbing you they will keep manifesting in different ways so repression cannot help suppose by force somebody tries to do and i have seen this by force say a very active person decides no i will do a lot of meditation and i have seen this again and again in the himalayas in our monastery in the training center where you know young brahmacharis come and now i will meditate day and night and get samadhi it doesn't work if you forcefully try to meditate more than what is what is suitable to your prakriti i have seen brahmacaris you know meditating hours and hours every day often what happens is it leads to mental breakdown there are people if you force it too much leads to mental breakdown sometimes luckily if they are god's grace is there they are saved so very soon they realize their their mistake one young monk in a very sincere young person so all the yogas the four yogas he will practice to the maximum as far as possible so he would spend hours in the morning meditation hours in the evening in meditation and then when it came to service there was no one more eager and up and doing than him he would you know you give food you serve the food in the where the monks are sitting so it's it's hard work it's hot and sweaty and even one one session if you serve it it's very tiring he would serve the first batch of monks who would eat he would serve the second batch of monks you would eat and the final batch where the only the the kitchen staff and the monks who are in the kitchen they eat and then they go to their rooms he would serve them also and then without eating he will go back to his room now don't do any of these things yourself um do they say don't try this at home he would not eat you won't believe this he would pluck grass from the field and would boil that grass and eat that grass and just boil water and drink that he would not sleep at night he would keep his bed at an incline so that he would there won't be any deep sleep he would sit for meditation or lie down in an inclined way one day we heard a crash in the monastery what happened people got up he had slid off the bed and fallen with a crash to the floor anyhow this is too much and what happens is you are forcefully going against prakriti you cannot win that way what you can do it will come next shri krishna will tell so people try this on the other hand then what should you do i remember the advice i received as a young brahmacharya when i went to the training center there was a great swami one of the few i think whom i would call a jeevan mukhtar enlightened person i had met him he was one of our teachers so he so that day i went to the training center in belurum as a young brahmacharya this was 1999 i think so i went to his room to bow down he was quite ill i mean nearly 10-12 hours a day used to give oxygen to him he had breathing troubles you know but never unhappy always the twinkle in his eyes so i bowed down to him and he said why are you here i said swami i've come for the training in the training center and his answer was so simple and so so wonderful he said oh training center all you need to do is go by the bell in bengali he said training center hunter lee all you need to do is go by the bell what it means is in the training center we have this bell and we still have it there there are 26 bells in 24 hours i counted once belt to get up belt to go for meditation belt to go for chanting belt to go for breakfast well to go for studies well to even take a bath well to go for classes each class has its own bell then for lunch the most uh hated bell i think was the belt to fall asleep because if you're already falling asleep that's you you're woken up immediately now what this swami said just follow the bell those who are restless tragic they want to do more i will become enlightened what everybody is doing i'll do twice that much restless those who are thomasic they try to escape that much whatever has to be done also they try to do less he says just follow the bell there is enough time for meditation enough time for devotion for study for seva very beautifully arranged routine for sadhu life just follow the bell gaunter it takes a satwik person to do that more rajasik person less tamasik person okay now what do we do then what's the solution 34 very important indriya senses have attachment and aversion to the respective object you should not be swayed by them they are obstacles in your spiritual path shankaracharya introduces so follows their own prakriti they work according to their own prakriti and there is nobody without a prakriti all jivas tata purusha karasiya then where is the role for free will where is the role for sadhana first initiative and then he says what will the result be becomes useless anart that means meaninglessness of spiritual instruction so what is being said here remember in our day to day life if you want to know what is your prakrti it is manifested in your reactions your likings and dislikings so these keep coming up as we interact with people and objects anger and desire and greed these things manifest likes and dislikes and they are based on our past prakriti now what happens is this our samskaras the prakriti it generates first of all a thought in the mind it comes up as a bubble stage one just a thought about anything it could just be nice cookie and if you hold on to that thought and nourish it then it will become stronger i want the cookie then it becomes at one point becomes speech walk i want it then it becomes action karma so child may grab for the cookie so you see the stages from the prakriti or from the vasanas which are prakriti stage one thought comes that is in sanskrit called vritti stage two when you nurture that thought hold on to it it becomes walk speech and is expressed as action karma with the work karma mind speech body becomes action now what has to be done about this he says now at this point you have to consider that what is coming out of my prakriti is it helpful for my spiritual path or not we do that all the time anybody who's disciplined if you're holding a job if you are working in academia if you're working you know doing your phd or whatever any big task you have taken up whatever your likes and dislikes keep coming up we control it only that which is helpful for us in our day-to-day life we allow that to happen and the rest we suppress it if we do not suppress it or you know then a person becomes you know like you say what you call it impulse buyer i like this i immediately buy it then later i regret it acting on impulse suddenly angry prone to anger or suddenly um so amazon is based on your impulse buying it will make it very easy for you you like something and the transition from raga to action speech and action is very fast because it's all you have to do is click one one button before you know it you have bought it raga has been translated into action immediately what he says krishna says is tayo na vasha markarchy you have to short circuit this process you have to use your understanding all that we have in our practice is not bad some of it takes us towards our spiritual goal lot of it pulls us back or diverts us that which is not helpful at the level of britti itself what is coming from samskara you have no control over that at the level of rikti itself you should like a traffic policeman divert bypass that or allow it allow it if it is good for our spiritual path if it is not say no replace it with something that is good so what we nourish at the level of mind that itself becomes speech and action and not only that what we nourish at the level of mind and what we give went to which we manifest as speech and action that again goes back into our samskara and becomes part of our prakruti it's a loop what comes up from within subconscious mind if we entertain it and then we speak about it or do it it again goes back into the subconscious mind and strengthens that tendency whereas if we intercept it if it's not helpful i have had enough sugar today i will not take the next cookie stop what was the briti i want the cookie what did you say no then what happens is it's not nourished in the mind not given rising not giving rise to speech not giving rise to action and therefore it does not you don't express it in your life and also you don't add to that samskara and slowly over time what happens is the samskaras themselves change prakriti changes so after some time months years of this kind of sadhana you will find only good tendencies coming up good virtues coming out of prakriti good means according to your spiritual path sriram krishna put all this in a very simple way he says the boat man you know you know he lived near the ganga so when the boat man goes out into into the ganges they have this long pole with which they push against the bottom of the river and they push the boat out as they are going uh by the time it reaches the midstream there is a current and it catches the current sometimes they have a little sail and the boatman sits down sriram krishna says very nice example he sits down and holds the rudder and the boat is going along merrily without any further effort and the boatman smokes tobacco in bengali said proof now what we what it means is at after some time as the prakriti becomes spiritualized satwik it becomes natural and effort is less but at first there's some effort because you are constantly trying to watching your own prakriti and making a decision whether i will do this or not whether i will think this first of all and stop thinking that then stop speaking about it will stop the speech and level of action if we do not control it what happens is not only are our samskaras not only it has bad effect on our life i may have decided to be spiritual but day-to-day life will be ruled by prakriti by the raga dwesha it will keep on strengthening the old samskaras and divert me from my spiritual life so that is the problem of so that that's how you slowly transform prakriti we do this all the time when i first joined so we are told you have to get up early in the morning it's a struggle see the one thing let me tell you um i'll share quickly with you um there was this this psychologist jonathan hyde h a i d t uh i think he's i don't know he was at um one of these east coast universities jonathan heights he wrote this book happiness hypothesis happiness hypothesis i read it a few years ago and is very interesting he takes up this problem why is it so difficult to be good so much of self-help you know if you go to barnes and noble don't go now but if you go to vancouver noble you will find whole section self-help all if you if you follow that how to meditate better how to lose weight how to interact get friends it's so many thing how to communicate effectively if even 10 percent of that advice one can put in one's life one would be super successful life would be perfect but it's so difficult you may have a whole library of self-help books same person same old person why is it so difficult we know the answer prakriti but why is it so difficult to change the prakriti the reason is this jonathan haidt said his reason is this he says all our study and our understanding it affects the intellect it goes it's it's an intellectual process but the body mind is a complex of different parts interacting parts he says he give a nice example he gives of elephant and elephant rider mouth mahout on top of an elephant now the mouth the elephant rider is the intellect the elephant itself is like the body of the lower parts of the mind the prakriti the vasanas and the body now it's the mouth who is excited by knowledge it's the mahutu goes to seminars and attends vedanta classes and all of that and has excited i have understood i have to get up early in the morning and practice meditation i'm convinced by it i've read all the books it's really good it's going to transform my life early morning i will get up one hour earlier from now on and use that time for meditation what happens you really want to do that next morning what happens alarm goes off and you are awake but now the problem is the intellect decided i have to get up early in the morning now the body which is nice and warm under the blanket will say you did not ask me did i ever get a vote in this i never said i will get up at five o'clock in the morning you have attended your fancy seminar and decided it's nice to get up you get up i will remain inside the web a bit so what he says there is we should not think of the body and the lower parts of the mind as a machine like a computer the computer offers no resistance to you whatever you do the computer whatever you want the computer does accordingly usually body mind has a sort of autonomy like the elephant the mahout is weak compared to the elephant the mouth understands lot of things more than the elephant may be but physically much weaker than the elephant so the mouth may decide i will go like this this way and that can reach that destination now he will guide the elephant that way but it will work only if the elephant obeys the mouth if the elephant does not obey the mouth the elephant has plants of its own mouth has no chance of controlling the elephant mouth has no chance of forcefully taking the elephant to the destination because elephants much stronger than the mouth and that's what normally what happens what normally what happens is our prakriti raga does so strong it comes up dominates the mind and then the body takes over body has its own natural intelligence nowadays they talk about autonomous intelligence in the bodies they talk about intelligence in the gut for example ah wherever there are strong concentrations of nerves in the body there is a little bit of autonomous intelligence there and that has its own tendencies that may not agree with your intellect which has studied gita and mondo cooperation and all that that has nothing to do with it but unfortunately you need the cooperation of all the entire body and the mind for sadhana so resistance is there in the body just like the elephant can resist the mahout mahout responds to knowledge intellect responds to books and talks and seminars and classes are inspired and excited body does not respond to that like elephant does not respond to the mahouts knowledge or desires now the question is what does the elephant respond to what does the elephant respond to training what do you do with the elephant you train the elephant you don't give it any um you know inspirational talk tony robbins or something like that elephant does not care but elephant responds to training to repetition the essence of training is repetition and we see that the same young person who was first told you have to get up at 3 40 a.m in the morning what never got up before 7 30 or 8 in the morning it's amazing for this person but i mean it's very difficult for this person but within few weeks within few months it becomes natural after 3 40 by 4 am i remember when i went to the training center as a young novice you have to get up at 3 40 a.m in the morning and they will ring a bell very politely next to you but they will not seize until you get up is it difficult not really when everybody is doing it very soon you start doing it i remember in two years in training i missed it only twice once i really overslept and the second time um it was i was sick so other than that quite effortlessly you get up with everybody so your nature changes one when the practice changes it becomes easy like sriram krishna says in the midstream and he is smoking the tobacco and holding the rudder of the boat no more effort is necessary in fact it will become very annoying and difficult if you do not get up that early in the morning and that you can do practice of anything anything whether it's diet or exercise or prayer or study or meditation all things simply a matter of changing the prakriti not easy but can be done and the way to do it is not more knowledge it is now practice and what practice repetition systematic repetition any of the yogas raja yoga systematic repetition bhakti yoga at least beginning systematic repetition after that love comes and that it becomes natural karma yoga also systematic repetition all the yogas depend upon this repetition okay i'll stop here yes yes can you please talk about viveka and buddhi uh buddhi is the one which exercises viveka see our inner instrument antakarana what we generally call mind but more detail it has got four components manas which considers different alternatives chitta their memory buddhi the determinative faculty there is a definition of buddhi nishayat mika buddhi buddhi is the one which decides where knowledge dawns understanding tons when you're struggling mentally with the problem for example that is mind when you get the flash of understanding or a decision that is buddhi and ahamkara is the final fourth component which which is which appropriates everything say i am thinking i am confused i understand so these are the four four uh components of the mind or sushma or antarctica and uh buddhi is the one which exercises viveka viveka means the discernment the ability to separate two things right and wrong um eternal non-eternal real and false dharma dharma viveka nityanitya viveka and satya mithyam yeah there is one more from bill what is the difference between this same no and the repression when you talked about the the british they come up in the mind you've diverted them so his question is related to that yes this when you say no why are you saying no we have a higher purpose here so it's more like channeling something that this is the time for my meditation and is my mind is restless all my mind is sleepy these are the two distractions to meditation i take the decision no i will sit here for meditation it may be a struggle but it's no longer repression you are diverting your energies towards a high purpose higher purpose you are simply repressing one move you are simply replacing one movement with another movement so there's two questions one is from shekhar shayfer you are next namaste swamiji so i have a big question in one of your thoughts you mentioned vasana so this practice that you just talked about basically it's the same yes it leads to asanaksha um both vasanaksha and manu nasha vasanakshaya is slowly you purify the storehouse of vasanas it will not destroy the vasanas which are there but will replace them with better ones more spiritual ones which will help you in spiritual viewers in spiritual practice and spiritual progress i still remember the difficulty of doing this one great monk under whom i i got trained lucky enough to get training in the beginning of my spiritual life i still remember walking with me at night and he is telling me yes go on practicing like this i was talking about my daily spiritual practices he says go on practicing like this after a lifetime of effort he says after a lifetime of effort you use his finger like this you will see your if you sincerely work hard throughout your lifetime you will see your prakriti will change by this much now you might say then that's very disappointing not really you need just that much of polishing of the prakriti so that your real self is reflected there and you get brahmakiana you see once i asked a monk that monk i told you about who said just follow the clock and just follow the bell i can tell you his name he has passed away swami mokshadan and ram maharaja he he also told me once once i had gone to him with a question that all these sadhana we are doing i begin to understand that it is actually transforming our prakriti our nature likes and dislikes our our subconscious is being purified and all that uh i said what is the use of it actually ultimately because you do put in all this effort and very soon we will become old and i'll die that's it so what was the effort for if i don't get brahmaganya what was the effort it's all gone i don't remember what he said but basically it was this he said first of all it's not all gone whatever spiritual effort you have made till now that polishing that remains that becomes a samskara itself and remains along with all the other samskaras next life that will be there for you it is the most powerful resource for you that is the best thing you can take away from one life if one does not get realization in this life second is that polishing itself will lead to realization one day what you have understood in vedanta will become a living reality for you when the polishing is just enough you don't have to make your prakriti perfect you don't have to make your personality like vivekananda or brahmananda or like ramana maharshi no not to that extent also just enough for you to realize me then you are free what can why is it sakama karma because it is based on me and mine this is i and these are mine and hence i am taking care of them i and mine um but how can we transform it into nishkama karma i see the lord in all of them the lord has put me in this situation because of my past karma i am now in this family and i've got this body and mind because of my past samskara this is my prakrati and this is the playground i have got all due to my past karma only god has graciously given this to me now my purpose is to realize god my lord alone is in the form of husband wife children grandchildren and relatives father mother now let me do the best how can i serve them sir i am whether i am taking care of parents or husband wife children relatives neighbors everywhere i'm actually serving my gopala my krishna or my ramakrishna you don't have to tell them that mentally that should be the attitude then that sakama karma becomes nishkama why then it will no longer be me and mind so much you will see once you start doing that your love will generally spread to all slowly it becomes you will begin to see there is not much difference between my relatives and everybody else this child it starts off as this is my child and everybody else is different but as we become more spiritually mature you see there is not much difference between this child and the other child also and your love extends to all so ramakrishna put it so simply he said um amar bhagne my nephew my niece this is maya all are my gopala he says this is daya he played on the word maya this is mine this is maya but all are my gopala my god my lord is in the form of everybody and i have even if i cannot do anything i have the highest respect devotion to the my lord in the hearts of everybody and this becomes nishkama then one last question in the chat all right will the prakriti itself dictate whether one can say no to the birthday will the propriety itself ah this is a difficult question you say you are saying all these things but anybody will think a little bit about they say that even this effort that you make acting as a policeman this much i will allow this much i will not allow these are the tendencies which are good for my spiritual life these are tendencies which are not good i will stop that it's not easy also if we begin to do that that means vivek has already begun to come into us with this it has become urgent that i want to become spiritual i want to realize god in this life that also that also is the grace of god this is why the ishwara kripa is very necessary guru kripa ishwar kripa is very necessary the guru kripa ishwara kripa actually manifests as atma kripa atma kripa means self-effort or grace of oneself my own mind should be gracious to me my own mind is gracious to me means this desire will be there no i will change my life i will make it better one small thing i can say we all have the power of decision decision means yes or no when do we have the power of decision this is where the mind tricks us yes the power is there but i i i don't i fail i try i try to control myself i fail but remember the power of decision is available to us at every moment last time i tried i failed but right now also the power of decision is available mind will tell you you are going to fail anyway no don't try to take those decisions no you take the decision now suppose i fail i become angry again or i become greedy again all right next moment i can take again to take a decision that no i will not follow the avriti i will replace it with a better written and many things are helpful like routine is helpful whether if i make a good routine for myself a reasonable routine and stick to it then you don't have to take the decision every moment will i get up or will i not get up now swamiyatiswanji says the moment the question you are awake enough to ask the question jump out of bed or if you're very tired and all that it may be that you go back to sleep for some more time but don't lie there should i get up or should i not get up that's the worst kind of thing thomas yes is guru kripa a result of karma might be one disciple swami vishuddhananji was president of the ramakrishna order and when this one devotee was following him around and saying maharaja kripa karun kripa have kripa on me after some time i think maharaj got a little exasperated and he said kripa do you know the meaning of kripa krippa means grace do you know the meaning of kripa first kri and then kri means do kriya means to action power means to get so first you do something then you will get kripa yeah so ramakrishna said the wind of grace is always blowing god's grace is always there remember he lived near the river so the wind is always blowing but the boat has to raise its sail you have to raise a little sail which will catch the wind that much raising the cell you have to do that i want it this this life i wanted nice observation jonathan hyde so i think everybody can see this comment daniel kahneman thinking fast and slow system 1 and system 2 correct that's a very nice book thinking fast and slow in fact michael lewis also has a easier version of this is the original book thinking fast and slow michael lewis is an easier version of that more racy better read its called the undoing project so the psychologists daniel kahneman and one more israeli psychologist the two of them they worked on this idea that there is a conscious decision making and cognitive process in our mind and one impulsive process in the mind and usually our default setting amos travis yes ah our default setting is the impulse thing if you do not do anything we will always act according to ragadvesha this is the very important thing to understand ragadvesta always bubbling up from our samskaras and if you do not consciously take a decision if you do not engage what he calls the system one our usual response will be automatic response what you call in computer language default setting default settings always guided by prakriti that has to be replaced by conscious decision making until that becomes the default setting itself yeah yes yes i should have given that probably always reminded me duryodhana and krishna example maybe next time we will talk about it duryodhana talks about why automatically he does what is wrong and he does not want to do what is good he knows what is good and what is wrong but he can't he he cannot bring himself to do what is good he cannot stop himself from doing what is bad the perfect response to that is krishna's this verse number thirty ah three thirty four tayorna vasham you have the power to say yes or no this is the important thing ragadvesh are coming up from our nature but you have the power of saying yes and no now one more point although we have run well over time just one more point you have the power but that window of opportunity is very small only when the thoughts have come up and are weak then your yes or no has some value when already it has taken on a big like a wave in the mind anger you're already angry or greed i've already decided i am going to purchase that thing about to click the button very difficult to stop even if you if you at that level if you stop it what will happen is next time you won't be able to stop it anymore once you will be able to stop two times two more times you will fail to stop um at that time willpower is overwhelmed the buddhi becomes overwhelmed by the force of that that virtue which has come up in the mind by the time you angry already shouting insults at the person who's made you angry are already going to punch that fellow at that time to stop it is very difficult it has to be stopped nipped in the bud at the level of vritti itself that takes a calm and meditative mind for most of us it already has gone to the level of a strong wave and another problem is when it goes to the form of a strong wave in the mind already its anger is there or greed is there then what happens is the buddhi the intellect that also becomes contaminated so instead of trying to stop it and take the decision that starts supporting the decision yes i am angry that fellow deserves to be scolded that fellow deserves to be insulted a very bad person who is telling the buddhi itself which should have stopped me later on the same buddhi will regret will feel guilty why did i do that but by that time the buddhi gets infected by that wave also it becomes a supporter instead of so it's like the mouth who becomes confused now the mouth starts thinking like the elephant also where the elephant is going yes this is where i want to go then you will never reach your destination so yeah so this is one insight it should be controlled in the in the bud itself and lot of interesting things are there i remember a discussion a talk by a neuroscience researcher on meditation from the neem hands in in bangalore which is early it's a very advanced institute for neuroscience meditating on doing research on meditation and the effect on decision making and he showed this fmri scans that people who are regular meditators there they have a bigger window of decision making i related he did not talk about this i related it immediately to tayonna vasham such people can easily control much faster much better than other people anyway one can go on we'll take it up next time but krishna and durya is an example is good i think even if i forget prabhupada please remind me i should start with dictionary at an example next time om shanti shanti shanti harihi um sri please take care let me see the gallery view of everybody all right take care of krishna let me see yes um take care everybody prabhu babu bharat bin sushmaji i will see you in class tomorrow again for the kashmirishivism class yes take care rajashiparna see you both yes yes all right you