Video 49

49. Bhagavad Gita I Chapter 4 Verse 18 I Swami Sarvapriyananda

[Music] [Music] guru in the fourth chapter of the bhagavad-gita you're saying that sri krishna is building up to teach something very profound so uh in the verses 16 17 um shri krishna has already told us that what is karma what is action and what is not action even the wisest of people are confused here and i shall tell you that this secret i'm going to tell you a secret by knowing which you will attain liberation moksha say ashubhat you will be free of samsara you will be free of the inauspicious he means samsara here you will get the highest thing that is liberation salvation freedom um he goes on to say that you know one might think what is so special about action and not action i mean if you do something that's action if you just sit quietly that's not action that's all i lie down that's not action no he says uh krishna said in the 17th verse there is something deep to be understood about action there is something deep to be understood about what is wrong action and something equally deep to be understood about what is not action because he said ghana karma nogati mysterious and profound are the ways of action so with this background sri krishna has come to the 18th verse which is one of the most impo important verses of the whole bhagavad-gita in this verse this already advertised and promised secret will be revealed to us and what he's going to do here in this 18th verse is basically um the essence of gyani yoga the path of knowledge what is the crucial teaching it's he has already said that in the second chapter that we are the atman or we are brahmana that has been taught but now the big issue is how to make it manifest in our life you see the uh one thing is to become enlightened one thing is to know the ultimate truth but then others another thing and equally important more important is to live it is to live that truth to walk the talk as swami vivekananda very profoundly defined religion as the manifestation of the divinity already within us so it's not just knowing or realizing the divinity but it has to be expressed we must feel it within ourselves it must be expressed in our speech and our action so the manifestation of the divinity how can we demonize our lives how can we get the promised benefits from that ultimate reality of realizing that i am brahmana so what is the core teaching and how do you make it manifest in life i think this is the sum and substance of spirituality and that's what he's going to talk about in fact he will start on in this verse the whole the essential teaching will be in this verse that is the most important verse uh 18th verse or fourth chapter very important but then he will expand upon this theme for the next few verses reaching a climax in the 24th verse so from the 18th to the 24th is a kind of summation of advaita vedanta the path of knowledge the 24th verse is probably very well known to all of us it's what we chant before our meals brahmapanam brahmavi so it's going to reach a climax in that verse but the crucial teaching is in this verse which is coming up now um this verse is interesting let's just i'll chant the verse and translate and then we'll look at it so today's entire class is devoted to this one verse it's very important that we get a handle on what's going on here he who sees in action in action and action in inaction is wise amongst men he is poised and a performer of all actions paradoxical language [Music] how do you see when there's activity going on you say there is no activity and then there is no activity you see there is activity and how is this being wise and so on so it's paradoxical language um why does krishna not stray say outright you are brahman and then live your life as if you're brahmana instead of saying that why does he go through this paradoxical language um two reasons one there is a there's a cute story about this so let me share the cute story first and i'll give you a deeper philosophical reason next why this difficult paradoxical language the story goes back to the writing of the mahabharata so the bhagavad-gita is of course part of the bharata which is huge is tremendously long epic i am just reminded yesterday i was in this online class at the harvard divinity school with a group of phd students among them is uh nell hawley who is professor jack holly's daughter you know jack holly came and gave a talk at the vedanta society and she is the sanskrit teacher for harvard university now and she is doing her phd at the same time and her phd is on the mahabharata so this enormous text now the cute story about this is of course vyasa composed it the sage vyasa and for his stenographer for his crime he had none other than ganesha ganapati ganesha ganesha was supposed to write it down and ganesha had a condition ganesha said to vyasa that i'll do it i'll write it you dictate what you want me to write and write this thing down but the condition is you can't stop if you pause i will just walk away i'll leave it i mean sort of i'll be ruthless about it i won't come back to the work it'll be unfinished so today we have said that the kid has serious adhd you know attention deficit hyperactivity disorder give him a pill but uh ganesha that was ganesha's condition vyasa was no less because vasa knew you have to if you have to if you compose it you have to take a breath and to think about it and you're writing it in verses in sanskrit verses no less to compose thousands and thousands and tens of thousands it is more than a hundred thousand verses so to compose that without any any break that's impossible so he had to make build in some kind of fail safe you know so he said all right done i have a condition too what's the condition i will compose and dictate to you you write it down but the condition is you must not write anything that you don't understand so you have to understand and then write it down you know it's often very easy to take down dictation uh i i without understanding if you if you have written or typed when somebody is dictating i have done it you get into a flow and when you realize you're not really listening to what is being said it's somehow bypassing your conscious um you know the capacity to to interpret and uh cognize what is being said without doing understanding also one can keep typing it out so ganesha had he agreed to this condition all right i won't write anything without understanding so what vyasa did was when he was running out of steam maybe running out of breath and he would compose a particularly difficult verse in sanskrit these are called granthi granty means not so he would have to he would compose that and it would take ganesha just a moment you know he's tremendously intelligent but he would pause hmm what does that mean and by the time it took ganesha time to understand what was meant vyasa would have composed maybe dozens more verses and he could go along sail along nicely so some of these difficult verses um they are scattered across the mahabharata in the bhagavad-gita also there are few and this is one of them so this was to put the brakes on ganesha so this is just a story there's this acute story about it the deeper philosophical reason is the truth about advaita vedanta that we are this pure consciousness it cannot be expressed in language why it cannot be expressed in language we keep hearing it it is beyond language beyond thought why it cannot be expressed in language i have given a whole talk about that advaita vedanta and the paradox of language there are reasons why why the ultimate reality is beyond language beyond expression beyond thought but given that it is beyond language how do you express it in language because the gita is language the upanishads are language the text language how do you express the inexpressible through language it seems impossible but they have their work the ancient rishis had different ways of working around this problem one way of course we know the famous natin ethi if you cannot say what it is you can at least say what it is not you can say it is not this it is not this though and thereby indirectly indicate what you want to say another way is by paradoxical language the use of paradoxes greater than the greatest smaller than the small how can the same thing be greater than the greatest and smaller than the smallest it moves it moves not the age in the issue how is it that the same thing at the same time moves and moves not it is farther than the farthest and nearer than the nearest how is that possible so paradoxical language is one way of getting around this problem of inexpressibility another way is pointing out through implied meaning there are different strategies about four or five strategies were used by the rishis and the upanishads to express the inexplicable one is this paradoxical language so that's the deeper philosophical reason why krishna uses such language so shankaracharya writes a long commentary page after page most verses is he is uh he's happy to write a couple of lines or a short paragraph but here several pages he goes deep into this uh this particular verse so what i'm going to say to you is based on his commentary if we have time we shall i shall read out actually the portions of his commentary we'll see how it sounds when you read the original so first of all it on the face of it this is strange one who sees things as they are they consider that person to be wise if you see things as they are not if somebody sees the sky and says it is the sky and sees the earth and says it is the earth we say okay he's a wise person he's telling it as it is but if someone reverses it looks at the sky and says there is the earth looks at the earth and says that's the sky you think he's insane so when there is action you should say there is action when there is no action you should say that's no action the person who reverses it how krishna says he is wise he's a yogi he's the accomplisher of all actions how is that person wise who sees no action where there is action who sees action where there is no action how is that wise so let's get into it it is entirely based on shankara's commentary so here goes it goes back to the second chapter where shankara revealed the essence of advaita vedanta a sense of self-knowledge what is the sense of self-knowledge it starts with making a distinction between what is the self and what is not the self why do you make this distinction because advaita vedanta it hinges on the claim that we really do not know ourselves what we are we do not know that and we think of what we think we know about ourselves is what we are not so to to correct this error vedanta engages in an investigation into the self and we have seen this is standard advaita vedanta you question who am i our take the obvious answer the body and then we see why i'm not the body why i'm not the mind and various methodologies are applied here methods of investigation which all of us we can do now straight away easily available to us immediately for example drinkdrishya the one i mean you are familiar with it because it's one of my favorite approaches the distinction between the seer and the scene what we see what we know as an object can't be me i am the knower so what is known by me is an object how can that be me is this crucial distinction understood it's very important very simple distinction that which i know i see it hear it smell it taste it touch it i am the seer hearer smeller taster or toucher of that thing i cannot be that thing so this distinction between subject and object which is implicit but we don't pay attention to it advaita vedanta forces us to pay attention to something that's obvious that you are the seer you are the witness you are not the witnessed object so the body it's an object and i am the witness of that even more so the mind full of objects they're subtle objects thoughts feelings perceptions memories ideas even the ego object i am aware of it and therefore we are pushed back to this pure subject why pure subject pure not in the sense of a very good subject appear in the sense of a subject divested of all objects i am the knower or experiencer or witness of this entire panorama of the world of this ever-changing body even more fast changing mind i was just reading to it in the news it was there quote from recent quote from the famous actress sophia loren she says it's the body which changes the mind does not change it sounds vedantic so i was attracted i i clicked that under red what she's saying is that she's talking how she has become older her body has become older but she says that when she says mind does not change what she means is it's actually a very very good observation our our habits our personality our quirks they don't change very easily the body gets older and but we basically remain the same person with all our faults and strengths and weaknesses it doesn't change so much and that's a very interesting spiritual insight the yogis know about it the subtle body which is what she's calling the mind that changes ever so slowly from lifetime to lifetime that's the one which slowly evolves but the mind changes thoughts feelings emotions they go they come and go very fast i am the witness of all of these other methods also they come to the same conclusion what's another method the method of the five sheets observe physical what we think of ourselves entirety is we are not that what do you know about yourself the physical body it's what what is called the annamaya kosha the vital the physiological body um the the food body the actual physical body then there's the prana maya kosher the body of prana which is the physiological body the vital body where all our life activities are taking place so far observable by the doctor external observer can see the physical body and also the functioning so it's it's what a pathology report will show up to that a good doctor will see what's going on there but now we go into something deeper we observe about ourselves our mind not just the annamaya pranamaya but also the manomaya and this is where it goes beyond the ken of modern science or even even the sharpest doctor thoughts feelings even perceptions that's in the mind and that's the manomaya and then go even subtler look even deeper there's the intellect which is doing all this thinking all this understanding all this vedanta that's also just the intellect it's a thought it's understanding that which comprehends or does not comprehend it's a it's another function of the mind a subtler function of the mind that which gives you a sense of i am this the ego all of that began on my kosher and then beyond that if you try to force backwards if you try to investigate you'll just end up with a blankness like the blankness of deep sleep or the blankness of meditation absolutely calm calm down the mind blank all of this vezanta says notice they're all experiences the body is experienced physiological body chronic body is experienced mind is mano my akosha's experience the vikyana microscope so all of these are experiences and you are the with the same witness consciousness this is the method of punctuation or this is the method of the three states waking dreaming deep sleep the whole of the manduk vista we studied it boils down to this thing that you are not the waker dreamer or deep sleeper you are that core consciousness which dressed up as the waker i turn up with this body and this world as server priyanka i the waker and server priyanka here there are 72 counting myself 72 wakers in different bodies different minds but when we fall asleep each of us has a different world and and in that world we also exist we are the dreamer and then we completely deep sleep blank each of us experiences that blanknet every day the same consciousness appears as the waker in experiencing the waker's world dreamer the dream worlds and the deep sleeper blankness but the consciousness is one and through running through all of this again the same witness consciousness so all of these are different methodologies which vedanta says you can first understand the methodology and then come to a clear understanding of yourself as consciousness but most important experientially many people postpone this they say okay i've heard the teaching i have understood it now the experience depends on many years of spiritual practice so i will now engage with it for 40 years later come back and tell you whether i have experienced it or not no no no you're making a big mistake advaita vedanta says just now what spiritual practice do you have to do to experience the body nothing just look at it it's here exactly like that even more so there is no further practice to be done to know that you are this witness consciousness you are right here so if it if one doesn't get it if it's not clear what is being meant here then all the spiritual practices will be helpful but when you finally get it you will know it was there all along all the time so this witness consciousness the real self now making a distinction between self and not self the real self or the self atma not self anatma what is the not self which i had taken to be the self till now body mind intellect ego especially specifically the ego the sense of i this is what i thought till about myself till now i and the ego is surrounded by mind and body so i this this person with this body with these memories with these abilities with these knowledge with these achievements with these memories all of this is who i am now we realize the whole thing is the apparent self not self sanskrit anatma you are the witness of this not self what about so now notice what are the characteristics of these two you the witness must be first and foremost you must be consciousness because you are aware you experience and the anatma the not self is not conscious it shines with your with your reflected consciousness that's why the mind feels lit up by consciousness but a consciousness does not belong to the dhanathma it belongs to you the real self notice you are one eka and the anatma the not self is a composite of many things the body obviously has millions and billions of cells and the mind has so many thoughts so many facets so many modules to it like memory and intellect and um you know personality so many things are there in the mind these are all complex like a complex of things but you are one consciousness self is one the not self is many another thing notice that obviously the world outside is changing and the not self body is changing and the mind is also changing so if you are in not withstanding mind is also changing all of this is subject to change and you the self which is consciousness in itself is not subject to change you say why do you say that are you stipulating that's not subject to stain i'm not stipulating it notice how can it be subject to change consciousness which is uniform awareness change means it must have parts that change in something always is changing its parts consciousness we just we just agreed it has no thoughts it is one uniform how what will change how will it change what will change into what not only that a deeper reason why consciousness there can be no possibility of change in consciousness how would you know if there's a change in consciousness it would be an object if you know about the change in consciousness it would be an object of your awareness then it would not be you the awareness remember object and subject are different did that make sense think about it it's impossible that you can know of any change in consciousness okay we can't know of a change in consciousness why can't there be an unknown change in consciousness not even worth answering the question well you can say anything if it's in principle completely unknowable then anything could be could happen it's no it's no point talking about such a thing at all so there is no change possible in consciousness hold on to that no change possible in consciousness no change possible in the real self all change is in the world and the apparent self the not self atma no change anatma change and so on all trouble very important all trouble is in the not self what we consider to be trouble earlier um sickness body not self it's not my sickness unhappiness mind not self it's not my depression so lack of fulfillment not self another thing the self is consciousness self is perfect it is unlimited we will not go into it it will take the whole class but we have studied it many times it is not limited by space or time or object it is non-dual it's not subject to change not subject to old age disease frustration depression death consciousness is free of our trouble and all trouble is in the not-self and so on so these are all of this is taken for granted in this verse we have studied all these things now now um this distinction between self and not self and just just you know these things but just as an important marker this is also not advaita non-dualism see this is the kind of dualism itself self and not self it's a sankhyan prakriti purusha so advaita will will be that the not self is absorbed back into the self the whole world and body mind appears to consciousness in consciousness is nothing but consciousness this is not mentioned here it will come in twenty fourth verse brahma pranam but anyway i'm just mentioning it the self not self distinction is just by the way it's on on the way but it's very very important distinction that'll it's a key to understanding advaita vedanta all right all this is background now what is the meaning of this verse meaning of this verse is all these distinctions between self and not self which we did self is consciousness not self is not consciousness self is is one not selfish composite notice one distinction very important there is no action in the self and there is all action in the not self pure consciousness does not act does not change is not capable of action there's no question of doing something in pure consciousness or even stopping action what can stop action that which is has possibility of action can stop action karma and karma doing work and not doing work that's possible for something that does work but in pure consciousness which is beyond this there is nothing for it to change into nothing for it to do nowhere for it to do so it is the pure consciousness which we are we notice is actually beyond action but the body mind is ever engaged in action you'll notice the dialogue with uh rupert spire one point i bought up was uh he uses this phrase what is this entire universe and the body mind it is the activity of consciousness he says now he understands perfectly what he means by that the only thing is i just pointed out to him that consciousness in itself does not have activity and he of course immediately agreed he said yes it's like a movie in which a lot a movie is playing on a screen but it is true in his words if you go and touch the screen there's nothing going on there a screen nothing you know even a car chase hollywood car chase cops and robbers in the movie but not in the screen so no action is possible in consciousness all action is at the level of body mind and the world now this is what is meant uh by this verse when we say action it is the ego aham which is a part of the mind an activity of the mind which is surrounded by the mind and the body and which which finds itself to be the doer of actions doer or agent of action how walking with the legs i walk ego ego comes in there i walk speaking with the tongue i speak the ego says that thoughts understanding i understand i remember or just the opposite i do not walk i'm sitting and meditating i do not think i have calmed down the mind all of it is the activity of the ego it is the ego in the mind which is surrounded by activity and claims truthfully truthfully i do i walk i talk i eat i think i understand i enjoy i suffer enjoy and suffer that is called bhokta so two things of actions the enjoyer or sufferer of the consequences of actions so the entire law of karma is circumscribed in this limit of the ego the ego does actions truly and gets the results of those actions actions have consequences good action uh good results merit good karma pleasant results bad action negative results that is proper and the result will be unpleasantness unhappy life so this whole thing the whole secret of action is here meritorious action non-military section the results of good action the results of bad action dharma and adharma the whole thing is a play of the ego with the body of body and mind in the battlefield of life in the world pure consciousness the real self is that which illumines this whole movie that the screen on which the screen of consciousness in which this whole movie plays out and the whole mahabharata plays out if you are identified pure consciousness forgetting itself identified with the ego of one of those characters surrounded by the mind and body of arjuna says should i fight or should i not fight now the truth is you the pure consciousness you are not arjuna rather you are the completely unaffected witness of this entire drama where the whole mahabharata fight is going on or you can say you are all of it you pure consciousness are arjuna and krishna and the good people and the villains and the entire drama everything is within you swami village is one of the presidents of the order he says beautifully is that the entire universe including the body and mind is presented to me the consciousness at once either i am all of it or none of it notice the whole panorama is presented to you the moment you are aware of this waking world including this body and the mind and the person that you think you are our ignorance is to say that i am this one i am limited by the skin from the skin inwards i am from the skin outwards that i and that then start samsara for you what happens pure consciousness not knowing itself has now identified itself with the ego the moment i'm identified i the witness consciousness forgotting forgetting myself identified with the ego i'm still there perfect the screen is still there movie is playing but now i'm identified with the ego now immediately the ego is fully connected with the body so i become connected with this mind the person called sarva priyanda and the body of server priyananda and now this whole world becomes a physically real thing why because this physical body is now considered this to be me then the physical universe also becomes real this is i and this is not i and then samsara starts for me why does samsara start for me says ignorance desire and activity not knowing my perfect nature as pure consciousness remember what did we see all trouble in the world no trouble in pure consciousness all imperfections in the world no per imperfection in pure consciousness not knowing my perfect unlimited purine on the infinite nature now i find myself with a very imperfect body and mind very limited body and mind entirely dependent on this physical universe and others and i want so many things for fulfillment and i engage in action all stemming from desire and desire statement from a sense of inadequacy and a lack of fulfillment lack of fulfillment in inadequacy why because i think i am this thing i have no i've forgotten my completely fulfilled completely adequate pure consciousness nature now forgetting that engaging in action i try to get the infinite through the finite swami raykantha says this is the nature of samsara you you're trying to get satisfaction completion fulfillment you're looking for it where it is not to be found it is to be found in your real nature which is ever fulfilled infinite by i'm using the word infinite but a very precise meaning is there not limited by time space and object not knowing that i engage in action the world cannot satisfy if i'm hungry world can give me food for this body if i am ignorant world can give me some knowledge for this mind but if i want to live forever the world cannot provide me with eternal life if i want to be absolutely omniscient knowing everything in the world you cannot do that there is a limit i was reading about poor hay the famous writer so he had a very i think it was umberto eco probably one of the two he had a huge and growing library and then he sat down and calculated if he read one book per day for the next 50 years of his life if that's also impossible but he said how what a small fraction of the available good books which he would like to read only a small fraction he could read so that did not stop him from collecting books he used to call it the anti-library so what is the library library is the library of books you have that you are reading you're likely to read and the anti-libraries the books you have you have not read and probably are unlikely to read in the rest of your life they're still there in the shelves and this is a good thing to have an anti-library because that reminds you makes you humble reminds you of all the knowledge which exists in front of your eyes which if you could you could get it but you will not so but vedanta says that's impossible and suppose you did get all that knowledge it would fade within a few years it just go but the death of the body will go and wealth whatever we accumulate wealth will go achievements in this world people will forget knowledge will be forgotten or superseded better knowledge will come none of it can give that infinity which we are looking for that infinity is there only in our real self so what vedanta is telling you is realize that you are that witness consciousness and then look upon this world and express that infinity in your you know live the life through this one person not trying to get infinity but expressing and manifesting that infinity you are perfectly at peace and joy as the atman beyond action transcending all activity not affected um not tired out by activity not frustrated by failure not grasping at anything activity but expressing the the joy and fulfillment of being this infinite so what is the meaning of this language what is krishna doing here what krishna is doing is suppose we are seeing the proverbial snake in the rope and krishna is telling us look at the snake as a rope we are puzzled it's a snake it's krsna's saying the wise one sees the rope in the snake this is where you say that to see a snake as a snake is wise and to see the rope as a rope is white but how can you see a snake as a robe because we are making a mistake and krishna is trying to correct the mistake there's only one way of correcting the mistake because we are seeing the snake only the krishna has to start there and what he means is it's not a snake it's a rope that's what he wants to say so he says the wise sees the snake as a rope and in this case what is so-called activity i am doing so many things good things or bad things the wise person sees that i am not doing all the activities of arjuna whether you will fight this battle or you will not fight this battle all those activities are not really your activities you are the screen the the unlimited consciousness in which has appeared the arjuna personality the arjuna body and this arjuna's waking world and you're playing out this movie nothing at all is happening on the screen as rupert said if you go and touch the screen in the middle of a intensely active you know action-packed movie you'll find nothing is happening there krishna is saying recognize in the middle of all activities there is no activity going on you as consciousness own up to that notice that and no need to switch up the movie the fun is in the movie but as long as you recognize it as a movie let the activity go on you cannot stop the activity of body mind earlier verse krishna has said not even an instant goes where you can stop activity body and mind are constantly in motion it is the very nature of prakriti of nature to be in dynamic motion so throughout the day the body is acting activity is going on you can't stop it what you consider to be stopping activity is the rest of the body and mind when i go to sleep no activity or i'm sitting in deep meditation that is no activity that is in the view of common people it's entirely wrong that is the ego which is holding forth the body and mind and saying i'm meditating no activity that's also an activity when you say um i fast what are you doing i am fasting fasting means not eating so it's not an activity and yet you say i am fasting it's an action that we are doing because it's truly an action the ego in connection with the body and mind is restraining the hunger urges and holding it back that's an activity it takes a lot of activity it's more difficult than eating eating is an activity and not eating is a more intense activity it takes much more willpower and conscious effort not to eat so fasting is an activity though literally it means not eating not doing something even sleep when we naturally go into state of inaction physically the body is doing everything and there is a seed of conscious action the moment we spring up from bed next next day in the morning just reading this philosophy book which says how do you get out of bed he said the great philosopher the existentialist kamu he said the only important philosophical question is whether we should commit suicide or not that's that's the first thing to decide whether life is worth living so this philosopher says i'm not all that great but let me ask this smaller question should i get out of bed or not and he's giving examples um nietzsche he used to get up at dawn every day wash his face and sit sit at and write his you know do his philosophical writing straight till 11 o'clock and 11 a.m and he says he was a child compared to kant who would get up in and when even before dawn when it was dark in koenigsberg and he would wash his face and take weak tea and then start working till late in the noon so they got out of bed the then he says go back to the great stoic philosopher marcus aurelius who was the emperor of rome great at its peak and he says he was not a morning person he lay in bed till noon but of course thinking a great philosopher so do you get out of bed when you get out of bed you have all these activities in seed form i have to rule the empire rome or i have to write philosophical books nietzsche or can't so activity is there in a seed form in deep sleep also when it get up it comes out so all the activities of the body in all the phases of body mind it is full of activity you cannot stop it you cannot get beyond it and pure consciousness you you in the real you no activity it's not possible there's no question of stopping it or starting it so the wise thing is to recognize this and rest in your serene pure awareness and let the body and mind engage in action you will notice ethical action becomes much easier it's only when i am the little ego threatened by the word i act out of fear or out of desire there is temptation or terror when i am completely fulfilled and completely untouchable by death or disease or frustration or failure what will tempt me what will scare me you become completely fearless in action come completely ethical ethical action becomes easier that's what krishna is recommending you will have very deep peace in the midst of action then he says such a person is wise among all human beings what is this wisdom so see normally wisdom is understood as seeing things as they are krishna is saying actually you are not seeing things as they are so this wisdom is to see just the opposite to see in the midst of all activities you see there is no activity going on the screen is not acting in the midst of a action movie no action and in the activity in the non-activity of the of the unenlightened person when you with the ego you restrain the body and mind that the wise one sees as activity the ordinary non-activity people think sitting quietly going away to the himalayas as arjuna was proposing i will not engage in action i will go back i'll go off to the himalayas and sit and meditate there that's still part of the movie that's also different kind of activity krishna says the so-called non-activity of the ignorant the wise one sees activity there too so in the midst of all activities the wise one sees no activity because i am pure consciousness there's no activity there no action no karma transcends karma and in the foolish thinking of the ignorant who identified with the body and mind sometimes they think i'm acting sometimes they think i'm not acting that not acting is also action that's also still caught in karma you're still trapped within the veil of karma buddhima this is wisdom so this is wisdom this is the wisdom which sets you free free from the wheel of karma not by running away from activity as or you know you're proposing not by plunging into activity as for example your brother brothers are proposing to plunge into dharmic ethical action to do their duty not even that or into unethical activity like those villains across the field are trying to do not by that by realizing what what you truly are and then engaging let the body and men engage so they can't put it well he said intense action combined with eternal peace intense action combined with eternal peace how is that possible eternal peace as the atman intense activity of the level of body and mind you can sit in the calmness of the eternal calmness of this nose of the himalayas your mind could be working like a blast furnace it's not just quite quietness of the mind mind can be active body can be active you know that you do not do nothing so that's the peace in the midst of action and that is wisdom say yogi so yukta yukta means that person is a true yogi not the the common sense idea of a person who sits quietly in meditation eyes closed apparently not doing anything that person is still acting as long as that person is identified with body and mind i the great yogi will sit quietly and meditate no i've shared a story of a yogi i found in gungo three very nice young boy from nepal he had this dreadlocks and sitting on a in front of a cave in a very spectacular location with the ganga flowing fast below 200 feet below him and from the other side of the bank he said all these tourists come and they take pictures of me and i feel good so he's innocent but that's also activity clearly there is desire and there is activity um so this person is a yogi not who you think is a yogi this person be such a yogi arjuna fight this battle do your duty in the world and be completely serene centered in advaithic knowledge of the actionless atman shah krishnakar makrit very important thing a very interesting phrase after making them a complete mess of our general ideas of action and actionlessness he says such a person is the doer of all actions what do you mean why do we do any actions at all in the world with the body and mind for fulfillment and such fulfillment is ultimate fulfillment the world cannot give action cannot give action is not meant for that action is not meant to give you fulfillment fulfillment comes from the knowledge of yourself as brahman the realization being settled in that that when you're clearly fulfilled deep inside having got that beyond which nothing more is there to get being established in which the deepest of sorrows cannot shake you having got that the knowledge that i am brahman you are the doer of all actions doer of all actions means you have got what actions are supposed to give you people engage in action for fulfillment you've got it therefore you are the true doer of all actions you have accomplished action not that this person has done everything that is to be done in the world you know there's a give list hundred things to do before you die don't you ever start on that the waste of time so you have completed all those lists because what people in the world are seeking for through money making through chasing pleasure through chasing power through doing good through changing chasing knowledge in all these ways of some of them good some of them not so good you have you have got that that ultimate everlasting fulfillment okay so that's the meaning of the verse now let's quickly look at as promised i'll look at the chat first and then we will take questions what percentage of people get it from the outside very small it seems so some practice purification is appropriate for the vast majority freak of course the whole of the gita is meant for that but remember this is the core teaching not from the outset arjuna will have many many questions questions about meditation questions about prayer questions about belief questions about the fickleness of the mind questions about desire all of these will be answered including exercise and food and all of that so it's uh everything has its place but it's good to get the core idea very clear i mean that seems once you get it clear it's also you know a certain peace of mind comes by knowing that at the deepest level at this point also it's all right i can go about my business setting things right clearing the path for spiritual realization but knowing that i have it what what i'm seeking for it's already there it's more a question and it's imperishably mind because it is me it is i myself it's a question of making it a living reality yes practice purification appropriate for vast majority absolutely we must be honest start where we are so i'm very kindly to say i know where the shoe pinches it's not in philosophy it's it's more in our day-to-day life the little problems little struggles of life then new jerry is asking is individual jiva being referred to as the anatma you have to be careful here individual jiva the jiva is always individual it's an individual sentient being remember from perspective in ignorance it thinks of itself as this body mind and ego body mind ego identified with body body and mind this is the jiva in ignorance the same jiva when this knowledge dawns knows that i am brahman the whole teaching is meant for the jiva so when you say the vedanta teaches i am brahman who is that i is the jiva who is supposed to realize that i am brahmana when you say tatwa masih that thou art who is the thou being referred to there thou is the jiva the one who in ignorance thought of itself as the jiva who in knowledge realizes i am brahmana so is the individual be jiva being referred to as anatma in ignorance what it thinks of itself is the anatma in knowledge what it knows is the atma yes notice this is entirely the core of the path of knowledge what is going on now from this 18th first to 24th verse the core of the advaithic path bhakti not only bhakti the karma yoga the meditation the raja yoga all of these these are practices which are ancillary and helpful but yes true not the not what is being talked about here is bhakti about the non-akhman no it is ultimately about the atman it is ultimately about the uh the um about brahman you know what is bhakti swami turiyanandaji says in one place very touchingly he says vivekananda i am brahman this is does not come so easily to me it does not come so easily to us so we say thou not i that is bhakti thou to whom that same brahman which is my real nature it might be helpful for a long period of time to revere that worship that and and be centered in that as thou my lord that is bhakti so ultimately it's not about the ego in fact all the spiritual practices are about transcending the ego whether it is meditation see unselfish action unselfish that is unegoic action action done not for the ego and its body mind but for the others meditation where in deep meditation one of the first things you forget in deep concentration on the first things you forget is the sense of i that's gone you transcend the ego bhakti where you lower the i and god becomes bigger the i become smaller and disappears and the lord becomes bigger not i but thou so everywhere it's not about the ego it's about transcending the ego how long did ganesh pause at this verse not as long as we are pausing i'm sure he's a smart kid he got it far faster than we did i think doesn't this verse belong to chapter 2 no chapter 2 gives the the prabhupada was asking this chapter 2 gives this basic idea which i just imported from chapter 2. but now second chapter third chapter krishna has talked about karma karma yoga now the question will be tied together bring it together my advertising realization which was given in chapter two and my life in the world i arjuna as a warrior we in our lives whether your householder or monk a husband or wife you are son and daughter you are a teacher you are a corporate executive politician in this life how do i live that advaithic realization that's the question so it belongs in chapter four definitely it's the that advaithic spiritualization of the whole of life good so their people have raised their hands prakat you have to unmute yourself yeah uh yes uh good evening swamiji um i'm not sure how to ask this question so i'll try to use a metaphor uh for it who's asking like what uh dimitri oh dimitri yes go ahead yes so it's hard for me to formulate it in a specific language therefore i'll try to use a metaphor like when you use the the parable of the screen and the movie or like the stewart and the master yeah like the screen cannot change the movie right like you cannot just okay like walk outside all you can do is actually witness it because like what i'm trying to hint at like is it the remnants of the ego that sort of says well how come if i'm a brahmana i have no power remember yeah i understand the problem if you take that uh screen and movie analogy a little further you might come up with this question so the whole movie is playing out in me uh in me the screen but i don't seem to have any control over the what's happening there notice first of all when i say i want control i would rather have it this way rather than that way and it's a good thing to have it's already the ego which has preferences which would want that now power do we have that power who does not have the power i don't think i have much power as server priyananda so that same consciousness identified with the body mind of server priyanka the ego of salvation does not have much power because the the body and mind are very limited but the same consciousness shining through the ego of god i the lord of the universe god is the other form of the absolute absolute in relation to the universe has all the power it's the director of the movie that's the god we worship in religion and what we are talking about the screen the screen is behind both the screen is is underlying is the absolute which appears as god and as the individual dmitry or server prior and then like the next question would be if i'm that reality behind god and how come i experience only dimitri ah yes so in both cases it's dmitry's mind who's asking that you experience you experience dimitri because that would be that's exactly what you're intended to do you means this body mind which experiences itself remember this question comes from an inadequate separation between consciousness and mind right it's like going into a dream and then you're being told look you are not not only that person you're me and everybody else you are the dreamer who's dreaming this entire world that you are the trees you're the sky you are the earth you are all the people and animals and the plants and you dimitry too you are that and then you might ask this question if i have everything how come i don't experience it through your eyes and i don't know what the other person is thinking how can i be everything and yet it would be a fact it would still be a fact that you dimitri's mind is dreaming of this dream in which you are there even in a virtual simulation when you're in total control of it when you enter it you take the perspective of an avatar and not others yeah if you're in total charge of the whole thing you can switch other thoughts and you can you can go from one perspective to another uh which god can do and yogis can do a certain certain um you know in patanjali yoga they can see it from different perspectives kashmiri shaivism says you can after enlightenment a person shiva yogi can actually get the perspective of shiva to see through all perspectives but advaita vedante is very grounded in the here and now what can we expect right now you can expect to see be the absolute not god you as dimitri you can know your own absolute nature which is also the absolute nature of god there you and god are one um as maester record said the ground of god and the ground of my soul are one and the same which is exactly what advaita vedanta says that one consciousness appears as world every individual and the god of this world now that's enough for enlightenment that's enough for freedom from from suffering the rest of the questions what about different perspectives what about the powers of god if i am everything i don't i have any power you have the absolute power of giving reality to the entire universe awareness to the entire universe value to the entire universe but to fiddle around with bits and pieces of the universe that that power is reserved for god within the movie yeah so the analogy does not stretch totally and no energy does of course so in advaita vedanta uh it they're very clear the jiva even when enlightened cannot does not become god the distinction between god and jiva remains within the framework of appearance upon enlightenment it sees in an absolute sense they are one reality the differences are because of the mind of the jiva which we still would like to have from less power to more power less knowledge to more knowledge so that that is that's what the jiva wants and that's why these questions these questions arise think about it expectation yes what were you saying oh i didn't want to interrupt no i'm done yes expectations so then the expectation is the same because those are intellectual questions that arise like practically it's very clear like well like for for this uh ground reality of what it is or what is the work to be done but like those intellectual questions they arise yes and hence i'm asking them so is it advisable to continue to think about it if they're right think about it you say like like well it's not really practical therefore focus on the you know the task at hand better yes but the questions are also interesting and they are also helpful for our spiritual this our understanding a deep understanding of what is being said here um so what the question is why don't i become god when i'm enlightened and advaita vedanta says if you put it that way you see the obvious impossibility when you realize you are water the little wave does not become a tsunami wave little wave becomes the entire ocean in that sense i am water everywhere but when it comes back to itself and you can think of the waves and all it still finds itself as a little bit and it looks and it knows i am one with everything i'm the one with the entire universe including one with god also but i still am not i didn't suddenly increase and become god yeah okay all right um is anybody else yes rick so you said that in the phrase he who in action sees in action the word inaction refers to pure consciousness or being or from the silent right okay now in the next phrase if we define the word inaction the same way who he who in action sees action then consider you know if a person has achieved grammar consciousness or you know then all of this is that that alone is we see that you know primarily our vision is of consciousness and yet there's all this activity taking place of the dynamic universe and so perhaps from that person's perspective one is seeing the dynamism of creation within the inaction of consciousness so maybe that's a possible interpretation it could be a possible interpretation but there are a couple of issues with that one is from an athletic perspective there is a ultimately no action at all uh that if you if you look at it from the absolute perspective there's no action going on at all from a screen perspective perspective there is the movie which is what the screen appears as but there's no real action there so to see um action in brahman it would be very dicey for nonviolence to say that so what the nonviolence does is um what shankara's interpretation is is that he says from an enlightened person's perspective where you think there is action he sees no action and where you think uh there is no action i am sitting quietly and meditating he clearly sees there is action how about leisure video though there's this even in the highest state of consciousness there has to be some kind of recognition of relative activity in order to function and perhaps that relative activity is you know relation video meaning faint remains of ignorance that relative act you know that i'm just saying for everybody else but that perhaps that relative activity is seen contained within the silence of brahman the science of pure consciousness and it kind of it's just a reinforcement of the point i was suggesting correct and it would just be a logical point that advaitan is making to not take that interpretation in fact in one sense advaita is saying exactly that what krishna is trying to say here is let all this action continue what you think of as this tremendous battle in front of this unpleasant duty that you have to perform ethical action in this world or he will say later after enlightenment before enlightenment karma yoga activity done in a spirit of selfless altruism is good for enlightenment after enlightenment same activity continues but this is the manifestation of your you know oneness with the universe it would be expressed as service to everybody else as love to everybody else so at that level definitely not just a little bit of action all action is acceptable in fact it is from the yogic perspective the potential yoga perspective which goes against action the more you're involved in action more you're involved with prakriti you have to withdraw and whereas from a vedantic advaithic perspective the most intense kind of action what we would consider as action is um acceptable from an athletic perspective you just have to know the real reality and all that intense action is taking place within brahman uh or or the appearance of it is anyway you have there you have action within in action uh yes you can you can interpret it that way but but uh the only thing is krishna later on i think the ninth chapter he will go on to say that look this entire world is within me one then he will say but notice the world is not within me and this is this is the yogaishwaryam this is the glory of my yoga so what he means to say look at it in three stages entire world universe full of activity is presented to you the consciousness this is where second chapter ends you are pure consciousness and the world appears to you it's full of activity presented to you the consciousness later on krishna will say in me the pure consciousness it's not that this world is a world of activity presented to me which is separate from me like you did earlier subject object separate no no no notice that the entire world of activity this entire universe is appearing in me the consciousness as you are saying so that till that point it's perfectly all right all activities appearing in me and there's nothing beyond me i comprehend everything i pervade everything as pure consciousness and make it all possible then next he goes on to say but look there is no activity in me there is nothing in me is consciousness and consciousness alone it's a screen and screen alone if you look at the lake in which you see the reflection you see there are trees and the birds flying around and clouds sailing across the sky but if you touch it it's water in water alone it's one of those both end paradoxes you know where you can sort of see it both ways you can see it both ways and you should see it both ways that's the delight of it that's the delight of it and and that enables you to act with intense activity you know engage in you want to be socially active and you know for doing good to humanity or just living your life as an enlightened being all of that is perfectly all right um whether engaged in activity or withdrawing from activity the unenlightened one is forever restless and anxious the enlightened one though fully engaged in activity is forever at peace the difference is that that flipping is able to see this as perfectly all right all right that's a good point um in the is the sense of individuality a total friction ah gloria right think about this look at the language you used total fiction what is the total fiction total fiction is still a fiction right there's still something happening so harry potter might be a total fiction but it would still make sense to say harry potter went to hogwarts somebody might write a good review about it somebody might write a bad review about it children might discuss the story and it will all make sense though it is totally a fiction similarly when you say individuality is totally a fiction suppose it is it still makes sense for the individuality to talk about it let the individual perform activities and all of this can go on when you say total fiction it does not mean what i think you are pointing towards is it totally non-existent no no no that advaita never says it can be totally fiction and yet everything that you see going on can go on most happily then is it calmness in the midst of work when you say inaction in action yes but calmness is not a mental calmness i'm trying to keep my cool and don't push me too hard because otherwise i might lose my cool no not that kind of calmness this is the calmness that comes out of realizing i am forever i transcend work work and its results do not pertain to me is rodrigo says is that is it that we are so attached to our unenlightened experience that even though we understand that we cannot let them go it is true as rick said earlier a whole course of purification of mind is necessary otherwise it will it's not so easy to let go at all if deep sleep is not considered inaction because of the ego remains formed by this logic samadhi would be considered inaction would not be considered in action yes even samadhi which is achieved through effort it's also a product of effort and if you come back from it there is still the seed of action there the only thing that is beyond action beyond that beyond the law of karma beyond causality is brahman your real nature samadhi is a state of the mind that's still within causality okay let me stop here and uh there will be an announcement the co-host has another host with an announcement yes yes almost everyone we have a couple of announcements first we have an upcoming guest lecture series for this video the study group on zoom the first lecture is tomorrow november 7th 5 30 p.m to 6 30 p.m eastern standard time by revered swami chetan who is the resident minister of of the society of saint louis he will be sharing reminiscences of vedanta monks in the west you should have already received an email about this lecture series with the zoom link please let us know if you have any questions we hope you all can join us tomorrow second if you would like to make a donation to support the vedanta psyche of new york and these classes we will gladly accept it through paypal or checks please visit www.ny.org donate for the donation link and mailing address i've also pasted the link in the chat or you can always go to our website with ny.org to find more information again please let us know if you have any questions about this in the future thank you i hope you have got the link for tomorrow's lecture if you haven't let us know do come if you can and join us we are very lucky that swami caitanya maharaja has agreed to give this talk and i requested him to speak about some of the giants of uh you know yesteryear's spiritual master swami pavitaranji here swami prabhavanandhaji in uh in hollywood and swami i think satrika shanji whom he found in saint louis uh all realized souls and swami chitananji has wonderful revenue senses i just wanted him to share those beautiful memories with us so do join us at 5 30 tomorrow eastern time [Music] oms [Music] be