Video 47

47. Bhagavad Gita I Chapter 4 Verses 11-13 I Swami Sarvapriyananda

in the bhagavad-gita we are studying chapter 4 and we had seen how krishna declared himself to be an avatar this incarnation of god and then said that in the 10th verse ninth verse and tenth verse the one who recognizes that i am an avatar so arjuna knew krishna as a friend and knew him as as a person as a human being but did not actually recognize that he was none other than god incarnated so one who recognizes the avatar as god incarnated and realizes that the birth and the actions of an avatar are deviant divine not like not like us they will escape from they'll be freed from this prison of the cycle of birth and death so life and death this ever repeating cycle one will be freed from it and will not come back to the samsara a mommy attains me attains attains to god which is the idea of moksha or liberation that's one that's the general interpretation the deeper advaithic interpretation of this would be the word tatwata in reality who knows me in reality what does that mean not only as avatara who realizes that um that you are none other than this witness consciousness pure being pure is-ness and so is god the nature of god and your nature are one and the same thing and by that knowledge you are liberated so the first interpretation would be you recognize krishna as god and worship and surrender to god through the avatar through the incarnation and that's a very powerful way to enlightenment to to liberation to salvation the standard way would be by your own effort by prayer to god and by meditation and good works and all of that ultimately one is liberated of course there also by the grace of god but here you have an incarnation in human form the contact is much more intimate and we catch hold of the incarnation and one of the purposes of incarnation is to grant liberation is to grant enlightenment so that would be one way by the power and the grace of the incarnation in fact the whole of christianity is actually based on that concept the redeeming power of jesus christ this is what krishna is talking about not just jesus christ every incarnation of god has that power to free us from this burden of of our karma our past karma that is basically you know freeing us from in in christian terms the the burden of our past sins so our past karma we are freed from that we attain to enlightenment and therefore moksha that's one interpretation but the deeper interpretation in advaita vedanta would be you realize with by the grace of the avatar that you and the avatar are the same reality that exists existence consciousness plays such a down under the absolute and by that realization you immediately realize that you are free you always wear free you are free you are choicelessly free and that that also gives moksha that realization gives moksha so i gave two interpretations a dualistic theistic devotional and the other one is a knowledge based non-dualistic then one made might ask so if that's so then why don't you give this realization to everybody you are an incarnation you have come to give liberation to people so why don't you give it to everybody so the 11th verse is this where we beware last time the 11th verse goes [Music] by whatsoever way men worship me even so do i accept them for in all ways o partha men walk in my path so if you keep this question in mind why doesn't god give liberation to everybody that's the ultimate goal of life and then the whole thing would be over no it is our choice the lord grants us whatever we want so whatsoever way man worship me not just you know as incarnation or my own self and in the way of gyani yoga the path of knowledge but also for worldly goals people worship god for protection you know from karna virus or something or for or for gaining things in the world more wealth or success or you know learning whatever it is so most men most human beings they do not want liberation it's not that people are are here are coming to god for liberation very few it is only the highly spiritual um the 65 people gathered here more or less these people who are who want this peculiar thing they don't they are not particularly interested in being rich or famous or are even being rescued from trouble all those are good but we want something much bigger we want the ultimate prize the highest goal that is liberation moksha but there most others do not come to god they have faith in god but not for the highest goal not for enlightenment not for salvation or moksha it is usually for lesser goals worldly goals you know most people who come to god who go to temples you know it is the god will help us help us for what not for high spiritual goals but for this life i say this again and again you know there is two kinds of uh religion the lower religion and the higher religion the lower religion is god for my life as a convenience for my life you know a washing machine makes my life better a car makes my life better god makes my life better so for all my troubles in life i take it to god and i want to be helped along it's a physical even financial emotional a crutch something to lean upon psychological something to lean upon and one it's one should not dismiss this it's a huge thing most people they they need this in life and without this people suffer in life just in worldly life i'm not even talking about spirituality or enlightenment carl jung he said that in most adults who have psychological problems in his patients he has seen that in most cases it is because of a divorce between them and their church church means by in their their religion so they have been divorced from religion and that is at the root of their psychological distress who's saying this carl jung and that is for as a support for living life life is full of suffering and tragedy and you need this support nothing wrong with it at all but there is this higher form of religion where not god for my life my life for god that higher form of religion one can call spirituality that's what we are all here for we would be very happy if god helps us out with our day-to-day problems good but that's not really what we are here for we are here for liberation moksha salvation whatever you call it so krishna says most people are not like that that's why i don't give them liberation most people want dharma tagama they want pleasure they want success and they want maybe a heavenly life after death that's it so this worldly pleasure and success and other worldly pleasure and success but that's all of that is worldly this world or that world is still worldly and those few who want liberation i give them liberation so that's the answer to the question and he qualifies this by saying in verse number 12 [Music] siddhi bhavati people seeking the fruit of actions worship the gods in this world but in this world of men the fruit of action comes quickly what might be the occasion for this verse is that people worship not only god but in many religions especially in ancient times they worship the gods with smaller g with the small g the different powers of nature you know so somebody might say but i'm not worshiping you in any case krishna i'm not worshiping you krishna in any case i am shankaracharya says the gods like indra and chandra and you know the moon god or fire god or the king of the gods indra vedic gods so we are worshiping other powers in any case we are not worshiping you so this question doesn't arise of you giving us liberation or not giving us liberation krishna says no all of the gods whom you worship whatever you worship they all derive their power from me in the end and people do worship these other powers because they are not interested in higher spirituality what's the difference between these lesser gods and capital g god capital g god can give everything including and especially moksha liberation spiritual freedom the smaller g gods in the plural they give lower things uh worldly success you want to defeat you want to conquer a kingdom you want to make rain happen things like that so you pray to these gods but you need not because krishna says they all derive their power from me only thing is these rituals which fulfill worldly desires and other worldly desires they give results quickly in this world in this world of human beings the rituals give results quickly and they people want immediate gratification and those are usually worldly goals that's why they worship these other gods they are not really interested in enlightenment and freedom one of our swami's an acharya in our training center when we were novices he would say humorously don't think that everybody is out to get enlightenment if god comes and says i'm going to give you moksha right now there will be many who will back off not right not right away yes certainly i want that but not just yet just a little late i've got some other things to enjoy in this world and he gave the example of a very gentle elderly man very devoted by seeing his devotion this swami he said i felt so pleased and i said uh oh sir in bengali sir um you are so devoted surely sri ramakrishna will grant you liberation in this very life itself and that man became scared swami don't say this because swami is saying a monk is saying maybe it will be fulfilled no no no don't say that swami i have a daughter who's going to bring her up if i get liberated so no chance of that happening very quickly but you see where we are anchored so i have to bring up my daughter and therefore i don't want liberation he was scared maybe the swami is saying it and right now god is going to appear before me there liberation done no so in this world of human beings the results of actions actions here means ritualistic actions they give quick results and therefore people worship all these other gods a couple of points here one is three points here one is that the um the tendency i have seen in many hindu households especially devout hindu households to keep collecting deities because in hinduism we have no end of these smaller g gods are the capital g god also in different forms god that's one god but you know whether it is vishnu or shiva or ganapathi or ganesha or karthikey or the devi now it's the worship of the devi they all actually are not different they are not countably different they all mean from a vedantic perspective they all mean god one god capital g different names and forms different names forms mantras mythologies rituals you know quranic stories each of them could be the center of a new religion actually they're all sort of comprehended within the vast range of hinduism but they all mean that from vedantic perspective the god of religion all of these capital g and they are not plural there is this joke about one of the you know the englishman coming early before india was was ruled by the british and a clergyman trying to convert the hindus into christianity he says you all must worship god and the hindu says to him yes but what's the name of god what do you mean name of god god is god yes but what what is the name of your god so this the same god is worshipped in different forms with form without form in male form in female form in the form of the elements like space and fire and um are without any form also with many many names they're all the same g now my point is the hindu households collect so many of these and then tension and anxiety if somebody is giving this picture i go to a pilgrimage and there are these pictures of the deity they are being sold so i get one and put it in my house then somebody else presents me with a little uh um idol or an icon i put it in my shrine and now we have this whole uh like a you know like a museum of uh of divinities and then anxiety if i don't keep it there will will that particular deity be annoyed with me it's the same deity why would that particular deity be annoyed with me but anxiety builds up and after all it's god you know maybe god is annoyed with me and every little problem or because i did not offer worship to god in that form and then um it's kind of divine stress stress caused by divinity i have see actually seen that happen never do that never be afraid god is there to help you both in a worldly sense in a spiritual sense the best practice is to keep um image or picture of your ishta devata chosen deity whether it's whether it is shiva or vishnu or whatever it is a devi or an avatar like ram or krishna or whatever it is keep that and if you want more keep it all around you worship that one and mentally bow down or physically bow down to all of them that's it that's it you need not worry about it at all i have seen hindu household extending their puja morning and evening becoming you know like filling up the whole day and not getting peace out of it that's not a way to worship god never be afraid god is not there to punish you that's one problem the second point i want to make is that when you say these gods people worship the smaller gods and not guard with the capital g it may not seem particularly relevant in our time there was smaller g gods have more or less disappeared from our sight and even god with capital g we put under the big question mark so where is the question of worshiping indra chandra and agni and all here you can interpret it in in the other in a much more sordid sense of the materialistic gods we worship when krishna is saying people worship gods here in this world here in this world actually also could mean money work fame you know wealth and success and fame and power and pleasure these are the gods people actually worship they're all the small g's and they give their results immediately but the end is always misery so that's one interpretation you could give and the third point i wanted to make was this distinction between life here in the world god for my life and my life for god i made this distinction in a class at harvard divinity school it was in professor stephanie paulsel's class on christian contemplative prayer a very wonderful class and you'd be happy to see how many young men men and women are interested you know in something like prayer and contemplation the class was always full and the people sitting on windowsills on on the benches you know like desks or like indian ashrams on the on the carpet on the floor so when i made this distinction that notice yes notice that the ones we are reading the um books that we are reading for the course i have a message here which says robert has entered the waiting room for this meeting okay so when i made this distinction that notice the books we have been reading um the early christian contemplatives down to the medieval saints like um saint teresa or the anonymous author of the um dark knight of the soul and so and so forth all of these belong to the second category of spiritual people those who have given their lives for god all these books we are studying they belong to their higher spirituality not god for life but life for god all saints whether they are actually monastic or in household life they are like that now it i generally saw the uneasiness when there were this distinction made among the in the professor and the grad students there and uh see the whole idea of everything here for god for enlightenment it's very transcendent it's sort of very beyond this life and the whole fashion of our age is to everything is here this world this life even god spirituality religion it's good in so far as it enriches our life here and that's it um that is the dominant trend of our it's a miserable trend and it's also the source of our miseries but people feel uneasy if you say that all this is for some um higher spiritual transcendent purpose it's as if you're going back to the medieval ages or the dark ages where the church ruled everything and everything was for heaven and this life did not matter that that's the thing in the minds of people so i realized that uh just by looking at the expressions nobody protested so i ended that comment by saying that ultimately the two are not separate once you have your life given to god god is the center of your life this life itself becomes blessed so you become a blessing to yourself and those around you and that's a enormous source of peace and joy and goodness for society and then i saw smiles coming back to the faces of the professor and the grad students so these are the points i wanted to make all right now important verse number 13 not particularly important from the spiritual point of view or even the philosophical point of view but much more from the um much more from our present context the social point of view this deals with the caste system which is a very very controversial subject and this this verse itself has been the target of many activists gita says it supports the caste system let's take a look at it what is the caste system and why the charges are not right 13th verse [Music] the forecasts were created by me according to differences in attitudes and actions of men through the though the author of them know me the immutable as non-agent first of all we'll take the second part of the verse test remember what is this whole thing discussion from second chapter onwards arjuna's question was what do i do with this terrible action in front of me this duty i have this war and krsna's answer is teaching him about vedanta that the self is existence consciousness place you realize that and you're free of suffering and yet you have to do your duty in this world because if you just say you have to realize that and become enlightened arjuna would be very happy he would say that's exactly what i want to do i don't want to fight this war i want to be a monk and stay in the in the himalayas he actually uses the word in his uh in his introduction to the problem arjuna uses the word bhaikshacharyam which means a life a mandicant life life sustained by begging so it's a holy wonderous life i want to do that i don't want to do this so krishna immediately follows it up with the teachings of karma yoga so first gyani yoga and then karma yoga what is karma yoga you have to realize god that is the goal of your life but what is in front of you now the battle that is in front of you that you have to do your karma has to be which was karma earlier has to be spiritualized now the actions of our daily life still have to be performed no matter even if you are a spiritual seeker we still have to be performed but now it's performed with a new spirit so even if you become a monk just by the way if you become a monk you don't get to get scot free from all action first of all you can't even if you are a solitary ascetic in the mountains you still have to take care of your own body and you have to fill your bellies you have to at least go out for begging and taking a bath in the freezing cold ganga and it doesn't end there work comes your way i just sort of smiling when i heard you know there was a commotion when i was there in the himalayas a sudden commotion why among the monks who lived in huts and caves the commotion was they were government of officials with laptops coming and asking for papers do you have swami do you have papers for this this hut luckily i was passing through they asked me to so i was not staying there i said no i don't stay here my ashram is in near calcutta in belurumat so they said okay that's it but the other monks who stayed there and just imagine you stay in a cave how do you have papers for the cave so but it's it's the bureaucracy they don't make allowances they have to know that they're standardizing everything it's good it's everything is being bought under this but no government ever planned for monks living in caves so see how the world reaches out to you even if you are sitting in meditation in a cave in the himalayas a monk just wanders in and sees a cave is free who knows who stayed there earlier it could be another monk it could be a bear or something actually some of the caves you have to be careful there are monks in some and there are bears in the others so you have to be careful which one you visit um so how do you get papers for a cave uh so nobody escapes work and if you join an ashram as i did the first thing that is done is there lots of there's lots of work in the ashram and as the novices we had to do most of the work so there was uh they used to keep us busy i remember whenever we grumbled and we did grumble that oh there's so much work i hardly get time for meditation it's done on purpose we think we will become a monk and then we will meditate and meditate and then become enlightened in a week two weeks i'll give it six months that never that's never going to happen that's just immaturity so it's a blessing that the senior monks fill our days with good activity service activities schools colleges hospitals so when we would grumble to senior swami swami we don't have time for meditation or we are tired in the time of meditation there isn't enough time for this or energy and the answer would be oh good oh good that's all it's all it's all on track that's what it is supposed to be so whether you are at home in the office or even in the ashram the world will make you work how do you do that work how do you spiritualize work that was the topic of the third chapter here also how do you spiritualize work a deeper secret will be revealed from an advaithic perspective how do you spiritualize work what was told in the third chapter third chapter that you do your work unselfishly without worldly goals as a worship of god you are worshiping the lord through your work that's how you do it here a deeper secret is going to be revealed what will be done in the next few verses will be to show the secret of advaita vedanta and its application to work by an investigation into the nature of work the how advaita vedanta is manifested in work that will be shown and several verses ahead but today he indicates that he says kartaramapi although i am the doer of all work in this universe i means as as the incarnation as incarnation what do i do he has already declared i am here to reestablish religion i am here to punish the wicked and or uplift the wicked i am here for the salvation of the good the virtuous so that's a lot of work so god has a lot of incarnations have a lot of you know to do in their uh list so i have so much work and if you think of me in my original form as god i'm the incarnation of god god has all the work in the universe including the universe itself to create the universe to maintain the universe and to finally dissolve the universe sritis the creator preserver and dissolver of the universe so that's a lot of work and kartaram of it though i'm the doer of all of that know me not to be a doer not to be an agent with the akatharam i do not honestly i can say i do not do anything this is all of course in it is pointing towards our real nature as existence consciousness bliss so it's like on a movie screen there might be an action action movie full of action but the screen can if it could it can claim honestly no action i did not do anything i did not go on a car chase i did not swim fight the villains or shoot dinosaurs or whatever it is nothing i did not do anything though you saw it up all those details will be shown later how do you from an advaithic perspective how do you make work into no work action into non-binding and no work i am unaffected ibm literally means unchanged but i am unchanged by all the action that i do krishna he is he's driving the chariot of arjuna in this in the middle of a conflict and of course as an avatar he does so many things yet i am unaffected the results of karma will not bind me and day to day i am serene in the midst of all these activities see what happens we are not so much worried about what will happen in the future what is the result of my karma that's one worry but right now day to day karma is troublesome it's exhausting to work day in and day out the reactions which come from work the frustrations which come the unhappiness which comes the dealing with difficult people in our lives with so many people in the world which work brings us in contact with at home at work all this affects us it disturbs us makes us unhappy unfulfilled of the i am i am not affected by it he says i am not affected by it um so this is an indication of how what should be done from an advaitic perspective and that we will see in the future but now the actual topic which uh of this evening i have made the cast system of of the forecasts based on action and uh occupation on on nature and occupation occupation on qualities and occupation all right a quick introduction to the um varnasrama system of ancient indian society varna means caste and ashrama means our position in life a station in life so the whole system was designed to make a harmonious society and enable us to fulfill our goals two things your personal fulfillment and a good society a harmonious society so when you look at the ashrama the four ashramas it's basically four ashramas and four castes that's it a matrix of four ashramas and four castes four ashramas brahmacharya studentship grihasta the retired one literally forest grove forest goer and sannyasa the monk monastic light the renunciant four states four stages of life and forecasts the brahmana the brahmin the priestly class or i mean it's not a good translation but anyway the warrior administrative ruling classes the caste of the vaishya the the tradesmen the businessman and all and shudra the common laborer so these are the forecasts and the four stations in every cast there are these four stations of life uh which everybody goes through first a quick note on the four stations of life the ashrama so first one one um goes to the house of a teacher and learns about life both worldly life and a secular education but very importantly a religious education education in morals ethics and spirituality so a study of the vedas there was a lot of mass of things to be learned so the child would learn all this and then and would be expected to lead a pure austere and celibate life so no facts or what sororities or things like that so you you lead this kind of a disciplined life and you're ready to take on responsibilities of life at that point most people would go into household life a few would be given the option if they wanted to become a monk directly from brahmacharya so that was allowed upanishads it is said one can become a sannyasi either from the brahmacharya ashram from the studentship that one must go through some kind of education first and then you become a monk or from the grayasthasrama or from the the forest cove or the retired one so from any of the three previous states of life one can become a monk a renunciant brahmacharya grihatwa so either from the studentship or from householder life or from the forest dwelling the retired life what was the condition when do you become a monk yadava abhiraj dispassion for the world intense desire to realize god that day you are free to become a monk wherever you are that was the idea once but most people would not most people would go into householder life so then you get married and you start a family you have an occupation and you have duties towards your family towards society so there are many roles and these roles are most dominant in kriya's the life roles means which you are expected to fulfill if you're a father or a mother you have to fulfill these roles a husband or a wife there are certain duties associated with those roles a child a son or a daughter certain duties associated with those roles if you accept the role if i accept if a householder or a monk certain duties associated with those roles if i accept this role then i have to do it it's no there's no way i can say that yes i'm a parent but i won't take care of my children it it that it goes together accepting the role and the duties that go with it so the greatest ashram the householder life is the basis of society because all the others depend on the graha the it is the householder who is productive economically productive who sustains all of society defends it for example and progress so the students they depend on on the householder for their sustenance the schools and the ashrams the different depend on the householder the retired persons they depend on the householders for their sustenance and of course the monks also depend all the other three stations in life they depend on the householder the household is very very important then um when the children are grown up and then the householder is free to withdraw from society and devote oneself exclusively to a spiritual life to a higher spiritual life during the householder life also there are these rituals religious throughout the four stages of life religious rituals are there something to be done daily some religious begins with some kind of religious ritual and ends with that but the predominant thing might be worldly success worldly duties in the householder life as one goes beyond that one begins to withdraw and concentrate on an exclusively spiritual life in vanuatu and then one day one when one is ready one might go out entirely out of society as a monk or stay even in the house but become very monk like completely isolated from others and exclusively dedicated to a spiritual goal so that's the progress of life and it's a very natural and beautiful program it it makes us mature and ready for spirituality at no point does the hindu way of life forget that the whole purpose of life is god realization ultimate purpose of life is god realization four goals of life dharma takama moksha but moksha is parama purushartha moksha is the highest goat not for a few monks for everybody so even if you don't feel like large numbers of people are not interested in moksha god realization fine but the hindu way of life would say keep it in the background keep it as a possibility keep it as an option which we will take up later maybe but that is always an option such a wise thing um very very wise thing i was listening to a talk by swami ashokhanandaji in the 1950s in california in san francisco at the height of the cold war so he's saying that look both of these economic systems are the best communism and capitalism you know what the problem is with with either of them even if they're successful after some time they offer nothing more to to the individual you have fulfilled your role as a capitalist or as a communist and have built a good capitalist or communist society and then then what and it is even more so today you see this hyper consumerist culture you'll be happy if you buy the next iphone 8 12 now it has come so it is promised by this culture you'll be happy if you have money if you have body-centric culture the perfect body um the you know the perfect vacation gadgets all kinds of pleasures you'll be happy if you're not happy little more more better better car better you know gadget better vacation better house what else is there nothing else that's it will it make you happy it won't so the stages of life understood this inner psychology human psychology that one must evolve from the immaturity of teenage years through the the pressures and the responsibilities of a householder life see even in householder life even at most the selfish irresponsible teenager at least has to now expand and take care of family and especially children you it it stretches you even the most selfish person and of course in most cases you expand much more beyond that into the community now this whole thing depends upon you not just this one family but the entire community depends on your nation depends on you and then you push further um so householder life after earth and karma after pleasure and you know children and success in life those things you have got to some extent it was understood that one person would would want something higher in life so dharma a welfare of others expansion further expansion or even better a spiritual life if you have that kind of progress which all of us we here we have that's why we are here spiritual life has to be taken up at some stage one must come to the maturity this world cannot give us lasting happiness or fulfillment one must look something to something transcendent i have seen it actually in the lives of people have come to me you know people of my age we married and have children and have jobs and we now begin to realize that this is what my life is going to be now at least i have to take care of the kids until they are in the early 20s or something or even beyond maybe and this is the job i have to hold on to the job to provide for myself and for the kids what else do i do in life i mean it's already i'm i'm locked into a particular path then so is this my life and very soon 20 years later i'll be old and i'll retire and is that all of life then you this this what is promised by a present society um you know a better iphone a better vacation a better car a better lifestyle and people keep telling me that swami have no idea of how crass it is uh out there because you are always immersed in reading upanishads or gita or something people have no exposure to these higher things in life and the only thing that they are constantly bombarded by society by tv somebody said made a very important you know insight that that phrase is keeping up with the joneses like keeping up with your neighbors so the people you lived with maybe the rich person in the neighborhood had something more than you you aspired to that it was a natural human instinct still a very materialistic aspiration but now your neighbors are not you know some young boy in a documentary was saying i know the names of the kardashians and i don't know the names of my neighbors so your neighbors are not your people who live around you they are the models the the lifestyle that is being projected on tv those people are now your neighbors and that's what you are aiming towards that's a that's a crazy aspiration and most of what is being shown there is also an illusion it's an illusion so it just brings unhappiness one must move beyond artha and karma pleasure and you know success in material terms into dharma if it is not even spirituality some people say i'm not attracted to spirituality but i would want to do things for others didn't vivekander say that he who loves human beings truly loves god all right move into that when people ask me we we feel a kind of hopelessness in life what do we do is that all that there is to life then i tell them if they're not interested in spirituality i'll tell them move beyond your little circle me and mine i and my little family move beyond that there are big causes where you can help so many people dharma dharma is a wider thing helping other people helping society ally aligning yourself with something larger than this this body so that is dharma and beyond that of course moksha anyway but my point here was this development from brahmacharya to grihastha to vanaprastha to sannyasa is a very natural and very necessary progression of maturity of human maturity one must go through this and what what if one does not unhappiness lack of fulfillment one won't know everything is going well but i am not happy why not you don't have that higher thing which you need if you are if you are kept with a i mean uh what you call it a popsicle um kids love it um so popsicle very nice but if you kept it a popsicle when you're a teenager and you're an adult and you will get sick of it same thing one must become more and more mature now this is the four stages of life the four the four um castes which is what krishna is talking about here so how do you understand these forecasts which are you can see it in indian society one way of understanding krishna says is gonna by nature by nature it means the whole psychology here is based on sankhya sattva rajasthan a satwik personally i'm not explaining saturday's thomas now basically subways is um is serenity inwardness calmness intellectuality refinement rajas is dynamism energy ambition passion thomas is inertia slowness dullness now one kind of nature is the brahminical nature the brahminical nature is would be generally introverted intellectual given to even given to pleasure but a kind of refined pleasure so that person might like good literature classical music remember it's not the brahmin who is a brahmin by birth it's the nature of the person it could be a person who is a brahman it could be a person who belongs to a shudracast it could be a person who has nothing to do with india or indian society you will find them in all societies at all times in human history introverted intellectual thoughtful sensitive quiet generally a very decent kind of person morally so this is a sort of a disciplined simple the whole idea of a simple life and high thinking so um this is a brahminical mindset it's a brahminical psychology the personalities let's call it a personality so that's a brahmin that's a brahmin by quality a satwik nature all the other colleagues are also there but sattva guna predominates generally followed by raja guna and followed by tamagona so sattva goda mainly and rajasthan thomas are there in small quantities that's a general structure of the personality now the other kind of personality is that may be very intelligent but also very dynamic energetic a doer a mover and shaker wants to do things in the world so predominant of rajas um so a very active doing kind of person achieving kind of person that person would be what's the point of just sitting quietly and reading a book in a library go out there do something why why did he just read history make history so i remember pandit he wrote this book the discovery of india i think he wrote it as you know like lessons in indian history for his daughter indira who would later become the prime minister and one of the touching things he writes at that time indira was a school kid i think one of the things he writes is that i'm writing this for you remember it's good to read history but it's better to make history and it's so touching to see that he's writing it to this young girl who later becomes the prime minister of india so she also made history afterwards anyway that's irrelevant so a doer and a shaker so rajo guna rajas predominates and there is sattva and thomas less sattva and even less than us so that kind of mentality that kind of personality is called akshatriya personality shatriya these are good soldiers and administrators and you know corporate leaders things like that leaders basically then the third category is the where the vaishya personality where the rajoguna is there predominant just like the kshatriya but um instead of the sattva the tamas part is more than the sattva so rajasik tamasik and satwik so here for the difference is for the katria personality the doing and the achieving is important that's the point of it and like an alexander the great you would rather die than be as a head of a small greek principality you want to rule the world and all the trouble that you undertake is nothing to you you just want to do that but the vaishya personality is dynamic active but the point is not to achieve something point is to gather and accumulate and be rich especially in material terms more and more and more not so much the achievement part of it akshatriya for example would be happy to be ruined if we can win a war or be the leader or something but the vaishya would not be happy to be ruined i'd rather be rich rather than be successful in other terms so vaishya personality is the accumulative kind the kshatriya is the doing kind again it's nothing to do with the being a businessman in india or being a part of the business class it is found all over the world everywhere and finally the shudra personality is where thomas predominates and satwa and rajas are less so that kind of person is prone to action but it's of a mechanical kind or prone to becoming indolent or lazy and the kind of action a tamasik person would be comfortable with would be something that is not too demanding the the tensions and pressures of the wall street trying to acclimate accumulate money no i don't want that or the dangers of being a conqueror or a soldier or a policeman no no absolutely not and the pressures of writing papers and assignments in the university no i don't want any of that i want a simple quite earn earn my little bit of money and watch tv and that's it that's the shudra kind of personality uh mechanical uh unskilled labor that kind of personality so these are the four kinds of personalities of the brahmin the kshatriya and they are to be found irrespective of society of civilization everywhere here in this society and also remember in every institution so it does not mean that the krs are only in the police and the army and the brahmins are only in the university not at all every institution will have these these types also a university has professors they have the brahmins there and grad students but it also has administrators it also has campus security it also has the campus you know the the janitors and the cleaning staff and all of that a corporate say a big corporation multinational corporation they have the ceo who might be uh more of a criteria a doer an achiever but they also have the i.t people and the systems people who are like more like brahmins or the hr people who are like brahmins there are also of course the vaishya type and the shudra type so all types are found in society and in organizations in ashrams so there might be a swami who is a spiritual teacher that's a brand new so what i'm doing is a brahmanical function but there might be a swami who is the head of a huge ashram is more like a chief executive officer or like the pope or something like that that's more of a kshatriya function there might be someone who's very good at collecting money and so and there's a swami maybe who's just a very hard working simple soul like the backbone of any ashram so all these classes are there in society regardless of where which time you are in doesn't have to be ancient india the second way of looking at this caste system is what krishna says karma occupation here karma means occupation so this is simple anybody doesn't matter which family comes from which country comes from anybody who is a teacher who is a priest who is dedicated to knowledge functions is a brand anybody who is engaged in military activities police activities administrative activities no matter see now it may not be suited for it right so may not be suited maybe i have seen people in india who are ias officers like the top they're like federal bureaucrats i remember one person was very unhappy was telling me you know i had this chance to be a professor in university and my parents pushed me into this ias job which is very glamorous for indian parents in those days not now anymore so but i always wished that i had studied physics and become a professor so that person is by quality inner personality is brahminical but by job he's akshatriya he's a police officer he was a very a senior police officer in bihar so now so this is actually what you are doing actually what you are doing doesn't now it and we are not taking into account your personality it's just what you are doing that's your your cast it might change also who knows in a life though a personality does not easily change but your job might change actually then the third way of um of understanding caste is what is normally understood as caste in india in indian society it is by birth jati so which is not at all what krishna is speaking about jati here means literally jyati means birth but that's the word used in india for caste they will ask what's your cast and there are some states in which catholicism is very prevalent they'll outright ask you what's your cast now that jati gas system is what is the source of all the problem it's almost like a prison cell you know you're you're locked into a particular section of society just because you're born into a particular family and community indians who are in this group they know you can more or less not always more or less find out what is the cast of a person just by looking at the surname the title of a person so indians know oh okay he is or she is from the south of india and is probably a brahmin or a chatri or some and there are numerous castes and subcast i mean the four castes are divided into numerous sub castes it's it's a sort of locked society it froze the mobility in society for centuries and centuries no inter marriage no intermingling little communities somebody put it very nicely it's that it's like a mosaic floor it seems to be very diverse but the mosaic floor is actually not diverse the black and white and red tiles are there all um neatly divided from each other the black tie is only a black type the red tile is only a red type the blue tile is only a blue tile and clearly demarcated from other tiles so indian society became fragmented like that over centuries then came the monster of privilege so certain people by their position you know brahmins or kshatriyas who had privileged positions to grab power and and this this started a cycle of exploitation of the masses so there are many many evil effects of this system if you look at the caste system krishna is talking about by quality and by your occupation but as human beings are you are all equal and of course in the ultimate vedantic sense you are one reality you're all divinity so this is the difference the problem which people are furious about and and people i've seen it especially social justice activists in india they are mad at krishna and the bhagavad-gita and saying that oh he is saying that he is at the source of the caste system but krishna never said the family based the birth based cash system doesn't matter what your personality is what your your your tendency is doesn't matter what your community occupation is see the personal tendency and your community occupation this was the structure of i would say cast in every society in every civilization down to today today especially it is mostly luckily it is mostly our our personality what we are suited to do especially your country advanced countries like the united states and other advanced countries rich economies of the west you're always encouraged find out what you like to do what you're good at doing what would you want to do in life and that's the dream of every person to do what they want to do which means they will follow their personality their inner tendencies characteristics guna guna jati until recently people mostly followed the occupations of their forefathers so that was the karma jathi occupation that's how guilds came up communities of tradesmen but this monstrous thing people are locked in no matter what you are inner desires are inner capabilities are no matter what your occupation is it's all determined by whom you are born to with your family disastrous and this weakened and disturbed sort of perverted indian society for centuries of course it is all that jati cast by birth is now not recognized by the state it's illegal to discriminate on caste by birth and say it is illegal to discriminate on cash by anything not at all every say for example every education system discriminates on caste based on quality what what are examinations what are sat scores what are aptitude tests there are tests of cast by by quality by your inner tendencies anyway i think we have all got the idea basically what this is all about um i have been faced with activists uh indian activists in um i remember one conference in california where this lady stood up she's a scholar from india and said the gita should be banned you know it should be banned because it promotes caste system not in that sense it does not promote system and in the sense in which krishna is talking about caste that's natural i mean it's just human nature or social structure i mean sense of occupation economic occupational structure that's there and that's almost guaranteed to be there in every kind of society from the most primitive tribal societies to the most sophisticated post-modern societies we have got today okay that's what i wanted to say giant notice it doesn't have much to do with the whole of the of krishna's teaching or vedanta it's more to do with the current context especially in india cast in india by the way those who do not know those who are in the west it's it's something like racism in the west so anything that you might say in which sounds even faintly supporting us is politically and socially very controversial in india okay namaste i have a question about uh the twelfth verse where uh sri krishna teaches that uh humans uh do perform actions in this material world for success in uh the material world yes and uh i i wanna acknowledge that i am sure that the teaching is true and the question that i have is because of my own ignorance uh so the the background is that i i was brought up by brought up in in a brahmana family by very devout and religious parents and i although later in life i noticed that when a serious health issue struck our family then the religious practices of my parents didn't really solve our problems even in the material world so i i feel fraught by this doubt that uh that my own enlightenment depends on me uh depends on the grace of of the same servant of brahman that if by the grace of the same brahman uh i may or may not get enlightenment so okay yeah i think yes complete the thought so my question is that for someone who's bhakti sense is not very well developed at this point uh is it just a matter of continuing the practice and hoping that it will grow or is there a different way for me to offer my work to god and practice karma yoga in in the way uh in which illustration i thought in the third chapter all right um first of all one question and you didn't maybe ask it i thought that was that was where you were heading it's an interesting insight which i had not thought about see what he indicated was so you have devotion to god and here god says your worldly problems will be solved when you ask for you know like you help ask for god's help to rescue us from illness for example health problems and so god by god's grace it will be solved but immediately one can object it's not always solved people do die even after praying a lot if even if you're praying for your dear and near ones or friends they still die and there are dying there are people dying all the time even here in the most advanced societies of the world perhaps more where more than here in new york in april may and all thousands and thousands of people so and people pray for success well and maybe all students have had their feeling the experience of praying for getting through examinations and getting good grades or passing examinations some do and some don't so the point is god who says i will help you in your worldly endeavors protect you in the worldly sense does sometimes and and does not do so sometimes that's one now do i depend on such a god for enlightenment then it may be that by the grace of that god i will get enlightenment or sometimes i will not get enlightenment it seems a very risky affair there no it doesn't work that way remember ultimately the whole purpose of this game of life is not success in this life is not being rescued from illnesses no the whole purpose of it is enlightenment god realization moksha if being free of diseases was the purpose of all spiritualities and spirituality is a big failure there are so many religious people who get diseases in fact in number of cases and i'm not saying just one religion because i have seen it in the case of christians jews muslims or even very superstitious people of all religions in the corona virus time being completely unconcerned with the basic precautions not socially distancing not sanitizing their hands not wearing masks god will protect me god must be rolling his eyes so no that is not the purpose ultimate purpose of religion the purpose of religion is enlightenment and all the rest are are designed in such a way which will finally take you to enlightenment so depending on our good karma or bad karma sometimes god our prayers will be answered sometimes not answered remember in each case it's only helpful for us in spiritual life one thing that is guaranteed is krishna will say that in sixth chapter those who walk on this path of enlightenment guard realization for them success is guaranteed maybe not in this life but inevitably the one thing that you will take from life to life is this your spiritual progress that is never lost and it will ultimately lead to success okay the other thing you said was bhakti yes in for in many cases it can be mechanical it's good to hold on to it meditation devotion service and uh gyana knowledge these are the four broad yogas which one we can they talked about and sanatana dharma talks about these four yogas basically and if you see the different philosophies like advaita vista they will just they will accept all of it we'll just arrange rearrange the hierarchy of the different approaches the highest that is the only one that will take you to enlightenment bhakti and meditation and karma they only support and so on in dwight vedanta bhakti is the highest others are in a supporting role karma is poor karma is always in a supporting role in everywhere never the hero always the the bit player but very essential very important otherwise there will be no enlightenment so you can do karma you have to do karma we all have to do karma even if it is mechanical i am doing this of the worship of the lord or there is another way which krishna will talk about in this chapter from a from a gyani's way of looking at karma we will talk about it brahma pranam ramhavi we'll talk about that later yes [Music] though i am the doer actually if you know me in truth what i i am really you will see i am a non-doer and the what advaita is saying that's true of you also we naturally feel i am the doer of all these actions but when when we get this insight into who i am as the witness consciousness i see i'm not doing anything the when the screen has forgotten itself and arranged and identified itself with the with the cop in the car chase hollywood car chase and in the movie think i am the doer of this action i am a cop chasing a villain in a car when it realizes no i am the screen and on me uh a hollywood cop movie is playing so i am not chasing anybody anywhere he realizes that although the same experience is still going on when you wake up from a dream you realize i did not meet those people i did not say those things i did not go there i was i did not have those good or unpleasant experiences none of it though i experienced all of it why it was a dream in one awareness the dreamers awareness similarly in me the awareness all this is going on this is what it is so i am krishna says i am a karta i am not the doer because i know my real nature is brahman sachitana you are also like that that we can become clearer he will say that very extraordinary verse the one who sees action in inaction and inaction in action that one truly sees and that one is the true yogi and that one is truly the doer of all actions it will come very soon then brahma pranam ramahavi all action is brahman all that will come how do you see brahman ultimate reality in action in the midst of activity yes hi swanee hello i have a particular problem um i have been trying to focus for the last year entirely on my spiritual path on my spiritual life and i've been trying to let go of attachments i've been successful i've been disconnecting from the world i deleted my upper nose i'm disengaging more from friends but the biggest struggle that i have is since i started studying with you i noticed that even my out of body travels and other spiritual gifts that i have it's just another form of attachments and experiences so it's it's none of it is real so i've been trying to let go of these but i i found that i stopped out of body travel and i'm trying not to focus on my um spiritual gift anymore and trying to let it go but by letting go i feel i have a void that now i'm trying to fill through more worldly despairs again so i feel like i'm going around in circle i'm trying to let go but by letting go of these things it has created a void that i'm trying to fill in another way so how do i deal with this fill all voids with the four yogas fill it with devotion to god and read devotional texts read the lives of saints read the life of sri rama krishna or die for vivekananda holy mother likes of saints of all religions that will create devotion spontaneously you will have the feeling of devotion meditate morning and evening yes you are doing it and stay with this idea i am the atman i am the witness of out of body travel of the worldly desires coming up in the mind we are all at the level of the mind so when you do this you will not be affected it will be all right i've been reading and studying and reading books and i have piles of books on my nightstand but there's only so much i can read and listen to your podcast you don't have to over exert yourself in fact upanishads say um bahun shastraam nanwa dai that means do not read too many scriptures it says give up all um irrelevant texts or irrelevant discussions so simplicity is better than complexity yes but if it's all about spiritual life because you are interested in philosophy and spiritual life that's good and at one point it becomes less than this i like the story i read in the anecdote i read in the reader's digest of this gentleman um who was a professor probably he said that at one time i wanted to reduce my big library into you know short like just the essence so that is all the classics of um western literature western civilization that was he was probably an englishman that's what that was my library then i decided to reduce it even to just the basics core um spiritual books and important works of philosophy that's it and he says now in my old age and all i need is my rocking chair and my bible that's it it all comes down to that then srirama krishna he talks about this monk who would come a visiting wandering monk who would sit and as long as there was daylight he had this little book he would read the book very intently it would be absorbed in it so when sudama krishna was curious what's there and he saw on every page of the book was written rama that's all that's just the name of god and that's really what he was reading page after page after page so that's how we become more and more and more focused but focused on the highest i remember since i've been trying to do that uh it created since i've been trying to focus more on the highest by letting go out of my out of body experiences and out of body travel which i enjoyed and another spiritual gift that i have so i'm trying to let go but it i had to fill it with something else and the books are not enough don't worry about it don't worry about it it'll be all right don't relax take your time with it it'll be all right don't worry yes okay thank you thank you thank you yeah pranav has said that uh in sapiens you will hariri makes the compelling case capitalism and communism also forms of religion lower religion yes in a sense they do seem like religion isn't it people are like maybe more crazy about communism and capitalism than they are like they were about religion in past ages but technically the only problem is why why can't you consider science to be a form of religion why can't you consider capitalism or communism to be a form of religion no actually you cannot for a technical reason one common aspect of all religions is transcendentalism that there is something that transcends this material universe so even buddhism which does not believe in a god or even an immortal soul is still transcendental because the nirvana enlightenment the freedom is a transcendental freedom which transcends this material universe so all religions theistic religions non-theistic religions the most spiritual most philosophical the most ritualistic and most devotional all of them have one common feature transcendental beyond this universe but science and capitalism and communism are very much this world so that's why you cannot consider them to be religions but yeah but the point is taken very good let us end it here om shanti shanti shantihi harihim i pray to the divine mother this is the time of the worship of mother durga so those who are interested you can see a very wonderful form of worship is done very genuine in balur mud so if you go to the balur mati youtube the channel you can see the daily worship which is done especially the evening aarothi that's very uplifting and this time it's it's also unique because because of the corona virus restrictions the public is not allowed in generally it is very very crowded tens of thousands of people all the time this time it's only the monks so you can see that but luckily they have put they put it on you know like you can see the video and and the live telecast of that on the youtube channel it's very interesting i pray to the divine mother for her protection her blessings for this world and for enlightenment both