Video 51

51. Bhagavad Gita I Chapter 4 Verses 20-22 I Swami Sarvapriyananda

[Music] guru we are studying the fourth chapter now of the bhagavad gita and there we came across the most interesting verse which is one of the paradoxical verses and very important as far as advaita vedanta is concerned and we saw that karman karmaya pasheth the one who sees there is no action in the midst of all activity akarmani chakarmaya and where apparently there is no action that one or one who sees that there is actually action sabuddhima this is the wise one this is the enlightened one among all human beings manushi issue this is the one centered in yoga centered in self-knowledge krishna circuits this is the person who has accomplished the goals of life and we explained what it meant and then sri krishna goes on to show how one can live this in day-to-day life not only enlightenment but after enlightenment post enlightenment how does the enlightened person carry over that enlightenment that wisdom into day-to-day life does that person have to become a monk and uh you know you know renounce all activity go off into the mountains or can that person remain engaged in activity if that person remains engaged in activity how is that person different from the unenlightened person and what can we even before enlightenment what can be learned from all of this and apply it in our own lives so how to spiritualize our day-to-day life what is enlightenment that becomes clear by by looking at that verse 18th verse through the paradoxical language he points to the advaithic truth and then how to apply it in our life so we were looking at that last time the basic idea is this look at it at three levels at the level of the self at the level of the mind and the level of the body what krishna is saying is that at the level of the self um the enlightened person sees that there is no action i am pure consciousness awareness existence consciousness bliss there can be no possibility of action action implies change there is no change there increase or decrease getting something that is not yet attained action implies a person there's somebody who is an agent of action action implies that there are instruments of action and some object to be attained by action none of which are possible in the absolute where there is only infinite being existence bliss existence consciousness place so at the level of the self atma real self no action is there nor is it possible nor is it necessary actually it's not just so the the all the questions of the world do not arise there that's one for the enlightened person for the unenlightened person there is activity at the level of the self because for the unenlightened person before we realize i am of the nature of shiva i am shiva before we realize that we firmly feel we are this person i am this person server priyanka i am this way i can point out who i am here this fellow this body and the person inside this is my idea of self so at that level is their action of course goes without saying for the unenlightened person at the level of the self there is action i am the doer of all actions i do action and i can restrain myself from doing actions i mean krishna i said in both cases you are involved with karma you are the doer or of actions or the doer of not doing actions then at the level of the mind at the level of the mind the unenlightened person does action for fulfillment i get involved in life i try to get money and relationships and objects and maintain my physical health and have a series of pleasant experiences all of these i do for fulfillment and all of these include this involves action all karma i do in the hope of getting fulfillment peace satisfaction unenlightened person at the level of the mind psychological level psychological level the enlightened person does not do any activity for fulfillment because the enlightened person is already fulfilled does not require anything from the world so from the psychological level enlightened person acts out of fulfillment from fulfillment as a manifestation of the divinity within in swami vivekananda's language for loka sangra welfare of the world in sri krishna's language out of compassion in buddha's language out of love in jesus's language so the enlightened person psychologically speaking is quite different the action the the activities of the enlightened person quite different psychologically speaking at the level of the mind psychologically compared to the unenlightened person then at the level of the body at the level of the body an enlightened person is acting all kinds of activities are going on an enlightened person is also acting all kinds of activities are going on so at three levels considered three levels physical level bodily level you will see unenlightened person is also acting and buddha and shankaracharya and vivekananda and krishna they're all acting they're acting means we're doing work they're involved in activities involved in life it is going on even someone like ramana maharshi or like total for yourself who's withdrawn even then some physical activity is there the person is walking around talking going for begging for food at least so that much is there so physical level activity is there for enlightened person an unenlightened person psychological level enlightened person acts out of fulfillment out of complete happiness and peace for out of love out of compassion out of the desire for the welfare of everybody so that's why the un the enlightened person acts the unenlightened person acts in order to get fulfillment in order to satisfy desires and at the level of the self the enlightened person is quite clear because the enlightened person is no longer a person knows that i am not this person i am this infinite awareness that level there is no action part possible pure consciousness does not act and the unenlightened person acts even at the level of the self and then that person thinks i am this body and mind i am this person and of course i am doing all sorts of activities i am involved in karma to put it in a nutshell though involved in karma the enlightened person is not bound by the law of karma and the unenlightened person whether trying to do activities or trying to withdraw from activities is fully bound in the law of karma that's it now what about the question of becoming a monk or being a householder withdrawing from activity or engaging in activity krishna says in both cases enlightened person can be a householder can be enlightened person a monk can be enlightened person activities can go on in the case of the householder and can go on in the case of the monk also or one can after enlightenment one can continue with activities or one may withdraw from most of the ordinary activities of life one can become a a complete hermit you know like a wandering monk like dhotapuri all these are possible and those ones he's going to talk about enlightened householder what is the spiritual life of an enlightened householder how how the enlightened householder goes about the business of life then next the enlightened monk how does this person go about the business of life in day to day activities these two we will see now verse number 20 enlightened but a householder enlightened but involved in all activities how 20. so [Music] verse number 20 renouncing the attachment for action and its fruits ever contented without any refuge he does not do anything even though engaged in action so there here krishna is referring to a person who is fully involved in the business of life a householder someone like arjuna someone like krishna himself so what does this person do first of all nithya tripto tripta means satisfied nithya ever ever satisfied not sometimes satisfied or like most of us never satisfied so there is difference between enlightened and unenlightened unenlight unenlightened never satisfied an enlightened person ever satisfied so this person is ever satisfied ever content why how because of self-realization i am this immortal awareness i am not subject to birth and death but and death are of the body only why should i be afraid of death even when the body dies why should i be afraid of death krishna has already said in second chapter it is just like changing a a suit of clothes so for the enlightened person that is also the great fear of death is no fear at all then uh what do i need as a body as a mind we need as a person we need certain things because we are limited this person is unlimited neither in time nor space nothing limits the infinite self there is nothing that is not the self also everything is included within the self everything is an appearance of the self there is nothing that this person needs from the world nothing that the world can give the enlightened person because not a person i keep saying person enlightened being the jeevan mukhta the free while living nothing that the world can add to to him or her nothing that it can subtract also so nithya tripta ever satisfied and because they were satisfied there is no hankering looking into the world outside for fulfillment remember shankaracharya's [Music] ignorance desire karma ignorance of the self so because i do not know the rope i see a snake i do not know that i am the i'm i'm the atman pure consciousness and therefore i think i am this body and mind the body and mind appears the difference between enlightened person and non-enlightened person is this the body and mind appears to both but the unenlightened person thinks i am the body-mind and that's it the enlightened person knows either i am none of it world body mind none of it these are all appearances in consciousness or i am all of it so i am not limited by the skin only inside the skin i am outside the skin other no that is unenlightened so the enlightened person is not subject to avidya but unenlightened person avid their ignorance once ignorance is there there will be superimposition what is superimposition taking oneself to be what one is not taking oneself to be body mind one is pure consciousness but what do i think i am body mind once i do that then kaaba desire will come why will desire come because as body mind i truly am limited i am terribly dependent upon the world little kovid 19 can kill me so i want what vaccine kovite 19 and i want to survive as this body i'm afraid i want not only food and clothing and shelter but i want everything else that comes whatever the world can show me everything seems attractive more gadgets more positions more money more people more engagements i feel i need all that to be happier and happier and happier so that is the karma and to get all that i get involved in the world that is karma so once i'm involved in the world then the law of karma will come into play and i'm caught in samsara dharmic karma will generate merit punya adham dharmic karma will generate papa demerit and papa and punya will generate pleasure and pain and this cycle will go on and that is our lives so that that is the life of an unenlightened person but this person is nithya ever satisfied because of self-knowledge and therefore nirah shraya does not depend on does not take refuge in the results of karma i will get certain things then only i will be happy no the happiness of that person is always there so does not depend upon external world does not depend upon sense objects does not depend upon people i am lonely if i have people around me then only i am happy or opposite that i don't like people so i want to be by myself i think it's sad who said hell is other people what is hell other people so that also is a sign of ignorance because i think of myself as a person an enlightened person is is unresisting like the sky the space what it gives space for everything whatever comes and goes space neither sticks to it when something goes away neither resists it in fact allows for all things to be pure consciousness is like that whatever appears in pure consciousness in awareness itself you don't resist it nor do you stick to it so same with people niraj try i'm not dependent on the if people come well and good if people don't are not there well and good i i mentioned the monk i met in the himalayas who is to live all year round so when i met him in the high mountains there his little heart he lived there were pilgrims at that time in summer children would come and play with him because he had a very long beard and they were fascinated by it and so i asked him well now you're very happy there's so many people around but what happens in winter when there is nobody around and the snow is knee deep literally knee deep you put your foot down and on the ground it goes all the way almost up to your knees so deep and we they're the monks are sort of they have their own community but that's they told me how just to you know for the little social contact and to make sure everybody's all right they get together once a week so it's a very interesting community there are about maybe 15 20 monks who stay over in that vast area in deep winter so it's all snow bound and so they get together and the place they get together is by turn um uh each monk's hut or cave they will go and sit together and maybe talk a little bit they brew some tea and then talk some more and then they disperse and they have flashlights so they were saying that very interesting how they uh lived there so they go back to their huts or caves and from the mouth of the cave they have to give a signal with the flashlight like this which from a distance it can be seen from far away so that they know that each person has reached their cave or their their hut now i asked him in deep winter even though nobody is around then aren't you lonely so he asked answered in punjab it was a punjabi swami he answered in hindi he said i am very happy now and when there is nobody around i am even happier so niraj no do not depend on anybody one monk very early i joined he really liked me a lot and we talked but he said know one thing for certain here i am spending so much time with you talking with you and but know that when you're not inside you're also out of mind i don't think about anybody who's not present i'm i don't um you know they're not attached in that way it may sound heartless but that's the way it is nirashraya i do not depend on anybody for my happiness if they do think of anybody it is for the welfare of those persons you often read about the holy mother and others thinking about the welfare sri ramakrishna thinking about the welfare of others suramar krishna is thinking when will niranjan attain god realization then the gospel so they are always worried for the welfare of others that much so not dependent on person not dependent on the ups and downs of stock market not dependent on name and fame therefore karma khalasangam giving up all dependence on karma and the results of karma both are attachments results of karma we get attached we want things to go a certain way and we do not want things to go the other way and karma also people are often people may say that oh i am not really doing it for the results of karma and not for the fruits of karma i just want to do the work for the sake of the work often it's it's not that easy often it's just because the person is cannot sit quietly you must be up and doing something or the other uh a kind of busyness disease i remember one of the first times times i got a scolding from a senior monk in our order the the abbot of the monastery it was a new i was a novice and i was in the monastery just for a few months and then one day the evening after evening prayers and meditation i went to the office and i was doing some work so the habit of the monastery the head from his famous room he could see the lights on in the office and ashram office so he called me and he said he found out who was there in the office he called me what were you doing in the office i said i had this work or that work something he said no after meditation go to your room you can study or meditate or sleep you can even sleep if you like but don't come out of your room until the bell for the night meal rings now what does that mean to prevent that business disease you know we might convince ourselves i'm doing some work some useful work no it's a trick that the mind plays to keep you engaged in some kind of activity or the other that's dependence on activity dependence on activity i knew a monk was one of the most dynamic persons i i ever knew so he's passed away now so i can say that he but but the curious thing about him he was heard at work from 4 00 a.m in the morning till 11 in the night he told the head of the monastery you can count on me swami anytime you want anything you call on me from four o'clock in the morning till 11 o'clock in the night but the downside was whenever this monk sat down for meditation when we saw snoring emerging from he would fall asleep within minutes so this is dependence on karma on activity one should not depend on that also one very senior monk said that he had been advised when he joined the order that develop the habit of reading there will come a time when you cannot do work or this isn't anything to be done so develop the habit of reading then he said develop the habit of japan they may come out come a time when you cannot even read maybe you're too old and sick to read develop the habit of repeating the mantra the habit means you're comfortable doing that and fully engaged in doing that i have seen monks a few at least all day long the mantra that is going on they're fully engaged in that we might find it boring to repeat a mantra for hours and hours they don't they're full of joy and they're focused there but it takes discipline cultivation not attached to the work or the results of god why not attached because they do not depend on it for satisfaction why don't they depend on it for satisfaction because their satisfaction is from this self knowledge the realization that i am the infinite after this such a person karma navi prabhupapi although fully engaged in action so that's why it is said that's why i'm saying this verse is meant for the householder enlightened householder enlightened person of action what kind of karma will this person go around giving lectures on vedanta may or may not this person may be engaged in just the karma that is to be done so in arjuna's case it may just be the duty that is to be done or we can continue to be a warrior and a prince and an administrator a teacher can continue to be a teacher an engineer or a doctor can continue to engineer a doctor a parent and a housewife can continue to be parent and housewife and there are numerous such examples given in the puranas in the mahabharata of people men and women who are enlightened in the most humble occupations in life germany or it could be on the other other end of the scale could be engaged in enormous activity like the buddha or krishna or shankaracharya or vivekananda for the welfare of humanity for the uplift of humanity could be but the point is they are fully engaged in activity and yet very different from the unenlightened such a person naiva kinchet such a person can honestly say i do not do anything i do not do anything why i the pure consciousness do not do anything in the midst of intense activity i the mind of the enlightened person do not depend on these activities for my satisfaction psychological level bodily level intense activity who was more active than the holy mother much of the devi see the activity does not have to be a glamorous activity of spreading spirituality across the world or you know awakening the nation like swami vivekananda it could be as simple as cooking and cleaning the hut and consoling people and looking after a diseased person a sick person a mentally ill person and so on that's what the holy mother did for years and years and years most ordinary quotidian boring kind of work and she was never bored she said i do not know what sorrow is what an amazing statement a very simple statement i do not know what soro is so this is the enlightened householder does one have to be engaged in action can't one be an enlightened monk yes of course that's the next verse one may not do anything and i can entirely withdraw from activity verse number 21 [Music] karma [Music] bereft of desire controlled in mind and body with all possessions relinquished and doing merely bodily action he does not get tainted so this person is also beyond the law of karma who is this person it's the enlightened person but a monk this monk what does this person do no activities as such household activities occupation career nothing any social activities nothing so shari ram kevalam karma only activities pertaining to the maintenance of the body may go for so i've seen many such monks i mean i don't think they're enlightened or not but this pattern of life um they may go for a meal a day or once or twice a day some they beg for their food and they come back to their heart or their cave and that's it that's their only engagement with society maybe some of them they teach maybe some of them they wander around from place to place staying at no place more than three days three nights and some of them to teach the people they come across anybody asks for advice or or maybe they have a round they go from village to village town to town and there are groups of devotees who await their arrival and they have classes and they teach or maybe they don't maybe they don't many such even now i know of one monk who has this policy of zero zero he i think he is naked or just wears a lawn cloth and lives literally lives under a tree literally lives under a tree very childlike his policy is zero zero zero zero means he starts the day with zero possessions nothing but there are lots of people who come throughout the day they bring food and clothes and money and it has been continuously given away the rule is by sunset everything must have been given away it must be zero again so it's zero zero zero uh so it's like a daily audit is done if the books are balanced at the beginning of sunrise and sunset and all day long people come to him for blessings he teaches very radical kind of advaita vedanta but also very affectionate that's one there are monks who have a minimum minimal uh possessions i have seen if you're staying in the mountains in there you need um a little bit of food a little storehouse where you keep basic minimum food and fuel maybe medicines maybe a change of clothes and warm clothes and stuff like that firewood so whatever it is shari ram kevalam karma only the activities of the body and the rest of the time could be devoted to teaching or to remaining engaged in meditation so for example after uh experiencing nirvikalpa samadhi narendra not vivekananda ramakrishna asked him what do you want to do now and he said i want to remain like this once in a while i might come down from that state and eat a little bit but i won't remain like this of course ramakrishna scolded him as a result of which we are here today but um what he asked for was a very traditional kind of spiritual life the acme of that you remain absorbed in god what's wrong with that nothing it's wonderful it it's the peak of uh and vivekananda said such people they are also the blessings to society just their very existence they they testify to the truth of religion that it can be done and their very existence is a blessing to the society in which they say in which they are so shari ram kemalam karma only work pertaining to the maintenance of the body that's it and who are these people who have given up all kinds of possessions so this is the by this is indicated a monk they have given up money so monk should have no money um should have no property and should have um no uh you know family or special relatives like for the monk everybody is equal so no wife or husband or children um either they did not get married or get into a family life or there are people who have gone through family life and then they have come out of it like the buddha for example so no relatives everybody is the same to this person equally distant from this person no duties so it was well understood in india that where duty lies heavy upon a person what you're supposed to do in life one way of escaping from all your duties is to become a monk then society very happily and with great prestige lets you off from all duties so you are you don't have family duties you don't have economic duties you don't have social duties national duties you're probably if the only duty is to be a good monk to become enlightened that's it and this was given great prestige in india even till today not just in hinduism in buddhism and jainism many many orders of monks and who are highly regarded um some of these monks are very literally so you know these giant monks are very very very austere some of them so they eat only one city of course and so we shave for example and there's no particular rule but generally we shape and these giant monks also they're shaven but their they have to pluck out the individual hairs with the hand like they plug them out and with each hair plucked out they have to shout ah so come on the joy of it i'm sure all they want don't do all don't do it but this is one practice that's uh so it just shows how austere they are and there are many who do not take any kind of uh vehicle they always will walk many of them are barefoot the giant the gamberas are completely they're not they cannot even put on clothes so um this great teacher i remember we invited him to give a talk at our institute of culture in calcutta and the teacher jain master he lived in rajasthan he wrote back oh he should have invited me six months ago why because i have to walk from that's he wants he has to walk across the breadth of india he cannot take a plane or a train or a bus or even a car so so why what is the point of all of this just a little indication about the point of a monastic life see people get married and education money people children all of these are supposed to give happiness and security i have all of this i have a house i have money i have people around me who will take care of me i will take care of them and who are a source of joy for me that's the idea at least practically what happens is a different story but that's the idea now the monk does not depend on anybody or anything for happiness or security for happiness self-realization and for security self-realization as atman there is no need for any security and as the body the monk still has a body you depend on god and depend on your karma whatever will happen it will happen because of karma i remember in the mountains once we were there we used to go to this teacher every day for a class on ashtavakra so the teacher was a very old monk very non-dualistic so one day there was a feast for monks so you know there is a dish called malpua this is a sweet dish so that was given that was the hot news in the monastic grapevine that day in the community that their everybody got malpha in the class the old swami asked that so i heard there was malpua today how many did you eat i said one somebody said two somebody said three and then the old swami said look i didn't go but they sent it for me now you see our karma brings to us whatever we deserve it's like give a very nice example like the postman the letters which are marked for you addressed for you the postman is supposed to deliver it to you and so karma will deliver whatever you deserve i don't have to go anywhere and if i get it well and good it's come by my karma if i need it i will use it if i don't i won't use it and if it doesn't come to me well and good because it's not my karma so they don't depend on people or money or anything else for security or for happiness nirashi they do not depend on other things that's why they can let go of it having let go what's the advantage imagine the amount of freedom and [Music] you know independence one gets so if you have wife husband children property taxes vehicle gadgets job job imagine the amount of how you're tied down and how much responsibility there is for years and decades into your future but if you have none of this completely thrown all of the decks have been cleared for action imagine the freedom the sheer lightness as swami vivekananda put it very powerfully forgotten by the world the world forgetting forgotten by the world the world forgetting see we think that monks are there they're not concerned about the world no it's what is faster is the world forgets about you faster faster you don't forget about the world so fast the world goes on the world is busy so you have left your parents and your relatives behind and those relatives they have their lives you know you have nephews and nieces and they grow up and they've got their own lives to lead and so they might have this story in their family about this one boy who became a monk and that's it and they have their own busy lives but this person who has left everything and gone up into the mountain the person may still have traces well you may still remember the way it was and so that's why vivekananda says the world forgetting forgotten by the world already and that's the state of being a monk and it's great freedom it's great likeness so that time energy is now devoted to spiritual practice or in the case of the enlightened person is devoted to remaining absorbed in god as vivekananda said i want to remain absorbed in nirvikalpa samadhi like totapuri or ramana completely absorbed in the divine what it requires yata chittatma this is important this is one distinction from everything else yatajit tatma means controlled in body and mind disciplined in body and mind here notice the interesting use of the word atma here atma means body we think atma means the self pure consciousness atma just means self the body is also yourself the mind is also a self and the real self is of course the self the atma the body can be called atma mind can be called and in fact in upanishad it is so called the annamaya atma the food self the pranamaya atma the vital self the manomaya atma the mental self and finally finally you go to the real atma the pure consciousness but here atma means body and chitta means mind disciplined austere in body and mind this is the precondition of a successful monastic life of this kind what they are talking about if i want um you see how dependent we become on the little conveniences and luxuries of life so if i want betty in the morning when i get up don't become a monk i remember once in the mountains i was there and i was sitting with this very austere old swami two ladies came and they are obviously well to do families who could see from their sarees and everything they were able to do they were visiting so they were asking the swami swami how do you live like this i can't imagine not getting betty in the in the morning and swami just said it's nothing to do with spirituality it's just a matter of habit it's a discipline you practice of body and mind and you get used to it simple living you get used to it anybody can get used to it but it has to be practiced you can't straight away jump from a very comfortable luxurious life straight into the mountains or into the forest what will happen then is though your motivation may be good what will happen is because the body and mind are not disciplined and not used to that kind of a life they will kick up such a fuss physically and mind especially it will not allow you to do spiritual practice so that austerity simple food don't care too much about physical comfort could be too cold or too hot so not afraid of not scared or anxious so i was it takes some getting used to i was in this little hut and deep darkness all around once this evening falls and howling wind outside cold more a himalayan wind no human being nearby for i won't say miles at least some some maybe maybe a mile or two and my only companion was there's a broken hut next door where the wolf used to live so but i was scared yes so i would of course i could bar the door and i i finally got a big stick from the forest so i don't know who i would be with the stick but somehow that gave me a little bit of courage to keep that and you would have to really screw up your courage to go to the bathroom at night you need a flashlight and to open the door and you to dress up against the wind and you know go out into the darkness outside anyway so that austerity you can't get your favorite foods um company dependencies of many kinds one swami told me after living for several months in uttarkashi doing meditation one day he went to a shop to have a cup of tea and there after six seven months for the first time in those days it was 1960s he saw a man sitting in the village shop reading a newspaper outdated old newspaper two three days old and swami said i could not stop myself from looking over his shoulder to take a look at the newspaper you see now in today's world if you say i can't stay away from my phone then you're going to be in trouble no wi-fi so here i've seen in i think washington square or somewhere here i saw homeless person but sitting outside a general store because they have free wi-fi so the person can use their device just sitting outside the store if you're dependent on these things it'll be difficult yata disciplined austere in body and mind there's so many such stories i could relate to you food i've seen this monk who for his begging bowl he would it looked like a helmet it doubled as a helmet he would put his turban around it and for when we'd go for food he would take it out and have food in that and then wash it and put it on his head again that was his only possession except for one change of clothes um one monk who lived in that hut before me i didn't see him another monk in nearby told me see the monk who lived talked about discipline see when you are alone for example so in the monastery you get up in the morning because there are prayers and meditation others will be expecting you there's a bell which is being run you can't avoid it but you are living by yourself unless you are self-motivated one can easily slip into into laziness and just just you know whiling away time so somebody told me see swami the monk who lived in your heart before you years ago there was a nepali monk who used to stay there and would get up early in the morning just after sunrise he would come outside and meditate one day he failed to get up it was cold it's always cold but it was especially cold and he said later that he snuggled up more into the um the blankets in hindi they say blankets are also particularly uninviting they're scratchy and old and they are all older than me and they're i'm sure they were 40 50 60 years old he crawled into that and slept and by the time he came out it was already bright sunlight outside he was so overcome by remorse together with the blanket he ran into the river and river remember that is the it's fast flowing gun go through that water and it's the water is like knife as cold as that if it touches it's like being cut with a knife it's as cold just ice melt water i know because i used to bathe this you know it's one of the most courageous things i've done is to pour that water over my head this monk ran with the blanket the the blanket into the freezing stream and the water froze around the blanket and then he wrapped himself in that and he said now he's telling his body enjoy it enjoy it even more so i think until he was rescued by others so that that kind of fierceness determination i've got so many monk stories to tell you um swami turiya nanda ji in belur mutt so in the so that was cold this is the melody mud story is about heat it's just the opposite so um very hot and sweaty so there's a very beautiful sharbath which is prepared and offered to sri ramakrishna in the shrine and the prasad that means the offered shabbat is given each day to one month it is a tradition that still continues so in summer you look forward to that one day in the summer in 60 days it will come to you and you get that very nicely prepared sharper so it the story is that it was brought to swami turian and the disciple of sri ramakrishna this swami this was offered to sri ramakrishna today in that shrine the swami took one sip of it and he said take it back and they said but didn't you like it he said i liked it that's why so so this is controlled in [Music] body and mind another swami told me the story of his guru he stayed with his master and all the other disciples and his duty was to the monks would go and beg for food and bring back food and they would sit for their classes and his duty was to collect the food heat it up and then distribute and feed the monks after the classes so one day he thought that the food was so tasteless so if i could just get a little bit of salt it will be more tasty whatever they bring you can add a little salt to it so he went to his guru and asked for at that time um a few paisa i'll go to the village and imagine the village is 26 kilometers away i know that's a different story now there i'll go there and bring a little salt for you and i will and his guru scolded him so harshly you want salt in your food you are becoming you have become a slave to your senses and scolded him and did not give him the money and this swami said i was so hurt that i was doing it for them in any case i was doing it for them not for myself and with just a little bit of salt and just a few pesse that's all later i discovered how my guru ate when i would heat up the food and then give it to him the different kinds of items whatever was there and to the other monks i saw he would collect all the food and then put all of it into his water pot where the whole thing would be washed by ganga water devoid of any taste whatsoever then only he would eat it so obviously adding a pinch of salt is the heights of luxury decadence for him when you are like this you can be very happy otherwise i've seen in the high mountains of people living like that very soon they become bored if you do not have an intense spiritual urge but not centered then what will happen is after some time i know it's the himalayas i know it's the ganga but it's just rocks and water and wind and loneliness and bitter cold if it is so here we don't understand now we've got we're so well protected even if there's so much cold it's not as cold there in the mountains as it is here in suppose in new york but we have protected warm clothes and temperature control and things like that there if it is 30 degrees outside it's 30 degrees in your hut and your bed is also 30 degrees and the temperature control is when you wrap yourself in a blanket your body heat warms the little so that that's the source of eating such a person bishop doing such work is not affected by the result kill bishop means dirt or sin one point here that good karma gives merit and bad karma gives sin or demerit this is what kill bishop means but here in the case of the enlightened person both are regarded as both are regarded as stains or demerit or or sin both good karma and bad karma because both keep you trapped in samsara the difference is this for a good person in society an enlightened person but a dharmic religious moral person um immoral action would be called kill bishop that which produces stain bad karma so would try to avoid this and do good karma but for the enlightened person for the spiritual person who wants freedom both good and bad karma produce results which keep the person trapped in samsara so both are called kill bishop and this person who withdraws from all worldly activities does not get the results of any kind of karma so future karma is not generated this person is already free at the death of the body there will be no rebirth now again back to the to the next verse 22nd i'll just do this and stop uh 22nd verse is shankaracharya interpret it's for uh for a monk but you will see it's a monk more like us monks with activities in the world so like monks with school and college and relief activities and ashrams and all anyway he takes it as a monk but it can equally apply to a monk a monk with social activities going on or a householder but an enlightened person 22nd [Music] contented with what chance brings transcending the pairs of opposites free from jealousy and unperturbed in success and failure is not bound even though performing actions so when you read like something like um contented with whatever chance brings um you might feel so he's talking about a monk in a mountain or you know dependent on begging for food but then when you read unconcerned in the success or failure of his ventures then it's not a monk who is uh disconnected from society it's somebody who is active in society and doing things in society so you can take it either way but basically it's a an enlightened person yadric saturday satisfied with whatever his karma brings whatever comes by your own karma you're satisfied with it satisfied with it means just because my karma has bought lots of things so i'm going to pack my room or my heart or my cave with whatever the devotees have given so i've seen a monk who couldn't live in his room because it was full of things his devotees had bought so he had to live in on a on a bench outside like a like a hard wooden bench so that was funny but no it just means that i don't need anything more than with that which comes readily by my my own karma for a person engaged in action it does not mean fatalism it means being fully engaged in action and working hard but not dependent on the results of action for one's own personal satisfaction so considered a puja a worship of god so you do it do you do it um okay there are two ways of doing it one worships god if one wants something in life then one does it very carefully so that god will bless me and i want money or success or something that's a person who does worship with desire sakama but suppose as spiritual seekers we worship god we do the ritualistic puja without any kind of desire we don't want anything in a material sense just because we don't want anything in a material sense do will i do it with a like a basical attitude with a you know i don't care anyway i don't i'm not getting anything out of it let me just do it in whatever way no i do it with respect and love and all care similarly all actions in life whatever you are supposed to perform whatever you are engaged in have to be performed in that spirit as a worship of the divine um but what comes to us finally is a result of my prarabdha is it exactly what or if you're devotional is exactly what is given to me by the lord everything here belongs to the lord including this body including other people including my possessions my wealth my name and fame all of it belongs to the lord not one bit of anything here belongs to me this one must be absolutely clear and therefore we have no right to complain when things are taken away from us so yadric with completely contented with what comes and with what goes means free of envy free of jealousy free of competition so you have taken this to this path of path of enlightenment now if you think oh i wish i had stayed in the job a little more i could have earned another million you know no don't do that once you have taken up your you have engaged in something much higher you have left that behind you if you're contented with what has gone in your life with what has been achieved and what has not been achieved you are fine with that absolutely fine with that that's maturity you are not jealous or envious of others transcending the pairs of opposites heat and cold pain and pleasure fame and dishonor success and failure transcending means they will be there just because i am spiritual does not mean everything that i do will be successful just because i am spiritual does not mean that i will not get going no all of that will can come or may not come i should transcend even when those are there good things and bad things they are there i am not unnecessarily excited and uplifted if things go my way i'm not unnecessarily depressed or unhappy things do not go my way i have seen this um a monk i know who was a disciple of swami vigyana namdaji the disciple of sri ramakrishna so i began his birthday is coming up his disciple i saw him in this monk's old age he was paralyzed both legs paralyzed one arm paralyzed and blind in both eyes it is old it imagine one of the happiest persons i've ever seen how amazing it was to see this person i first for the first time i understood what is meant by transcending body consciousness transcending body consciousness does not mean you leave the body in a puff of smoke or something like that no everything is there the body is there you're aware of everything and it is sick and one cannot go where one wants one cannot get what one wants legs are not working hands are not working and i am this old monk i have no relatives nobody knows me nobody visits me i'm just i'm that's a little excessive because people did visit him but not the slightest self-pity not ever he could not see so you have to announce yourself that swami and so and so the moment you announce yourself he would ask about you how you are doing and full of blessings he would bless you and all the people you wherever you come from which ashram you have come from how are things going there i remember in the hospital once we were there i was the youngest monastic patient and he was the oldest he was i think in his late 80s probably evening so we once had this nice gossip session going it was we didn't notice it was getting around six o'clock it's not in the monastery it's a hospital so you didn't get don't notice six six six thirty and the old swami what an internal clock he has he's blind he's in the corner and he snaps from there monks hush time for prayers one of the extraordinary cases of be of transcending the pairs of opposites he's not concerned he's not dependent on the world for his happiness he's not dependent on the on the body for his happiness um equal in success and failure now remember equal in success and failure means the worldly success and failure is of no importance to this person as long as this person is able to do the work as a worship of the divine for the welfare of the world whether in a worldly sense the person has been successful or not that is secondary the unenlightened person's account of success and failure is i want something out of this if i get it then i'm successful if i don't get it then i've failed this person does not think in that way at all this person is does not want anything out of it it just is work done with detachment as an expression of the person's feeling of oneness with the universe or if the person is a devotee as an expression of love for god and so it is always successful it's always successful in that sense even while doing action such a person is not bound all right now we are going to uh come to verse number 23 and 24 is the grand conclusion of this section this particular section brahmarpanam ramahavi that will be next time um so 23rd verse also leads into the 24th so that's why i'm not touching it today let's me let me look at the activity on the chat how is this different from being a sitter again no no different this is we are talking about the enlightened person here again and you have got dr long's review of ayan raj's book so you can download those who are interested you can download from here the g1 mukta is ever satisfied and therefore has no desire but isn't acting in a moral or ethical sense for the welfare of the world also a desire what is the difference yes in that sense but the difference is desire is remember avidya kama karma ignorance desire action i am not aware of my true nature and therefore i feel unfulfilled and then i now i act for fulfillment this person does not have the desire like that coming out of you know ignorance of the truth of one's true nature one knows one's ever fulfilled true nature so the there is no desire for trying to get fulfillment from the world outside now this action is a manifestation of the divinity within i see the oneness in all existence so my heart goes out in love and compassion and in the language of compassion language of love language of service so that is the sri ramakrishna answered this question very well desire for god is it a desire or not he said no it's not a desire because it enables you to get out of all desire this is if you call it a desire it's such a desire which destroys all desire it enables you to escape from the cycle of desire um then here's a nice example mishri mishti modenai so the rock candy sweets they create acidity but this raw candy if you have acidity you drink it with water and it's supposed to be a good antacid so this is not to be counted among a sweet though it tastes sweet so desire for god is not to be counted as a desire how about if he is motivated by cosmic desire true then sudhi is asking does the enlightened person sees his own body as an object yes we'll we'll clearly see the body as an object the karma i am doing it now is it the result of my prana the karma no the karma what comes to me the circumstances of my life are proud of the karma then how i respond to it is my karma now girish is saying bill what about the unenlightened person who's seeking enlightenment yes so this is about the enlightened person but what what is what's the lesson that we take away from it so all the characteristics of the enlightened person which are interesting to understand in themselves anyway but for us so these are ways in which we should practice so whether you are a monk you should try to be a monk like that or whether you are an enlightened householder if you are practicing spiritual disciplines and trying to be enlightened in household life in the midst of family life in the midst of the world should be tried to be like that in what is shown in verses 20 21 22. 19 20 21 22. grisha is the the enlightened person recognizes himself as brahman but brahman has no way yes okay glorious is what is the point of being in the body for the monk in the himalayas for attaining enlightenment or after enlightenment for remaining absorbed in brahman as long as the body lasts see the question is i understand that you are austere monk ever engaged in prayer and meditation and study and all of that to attain enlightenment but suppose you have attained enlightenment why would you continue to be in that body if you have no other action to perform just feeding the body and keeping it in a cave true but such a person would not see any sense in destroying the body either so to keep the body and to destroy the body both are signs of being attached to the body um so that person would you know let that's one very kind that says let karma run it down no more is birth than death for you you have gone you go down from place to place and help them out of maya's wave he'd know more how body lives or dies so everywhere comes language he then know more how body lives or dies let karma run it down its task is done let karma run it down the product the karma i have heard swami bhutesha nanduji say many many years this decades away 1994 he would say very slowly um i have no specific desire to go on living he was nearly 98 at that time was 95 and 96 i have no specific desire to go on living i'm no specific desire to die either somebody asked him how do you see this world what's going on now and he said in bengali indra like a magic show then how do they have boots or are they walking in sandals oh they have boots otherwise they would freeze the monks who live in the himalayan snows but it's tough one monk told me the story he lives in a cave no he was in a hut once in the deep winter he had a fever i think got the flu or whatever he had fever by the way it's not as unhealthy as you might think i'm not at all used to it i spent a couple of months there bathing in freezing water every day in the morning and i didn't catch a cold finally two months later i returned to calcutta i got down in hara station and i caught a cold i think the pollution is more responsible for uh sickness than uh the cold or physical austerity yeah so this monk told me that he had a fever and then he had to go to a hospital to a doctor but there's no doctor around then the nearest village is 26 kilometers away and so there is this police outpost where one or two policemen stay so one of those policemen said i will take you to the village and then you can go to a doctor so how do you do that with a fever 100 and 102 fever this monk has to walk in snow ankle deep or knee deep snow for 26 kilometers and he says that i started walking and the policeman said not so close swami stay away because there are gorges here if one of us falls the other one also will be dragged down so you have to stay several places behind me or ahead of me you can't stay close to me and like that they walked 26 kilometers i would have preferred to die i think rather than do that what simple living through practice of discipline makes sense while simple makes sense it still appears to be a radical act of courage to depend on the rest of the world further no depend on god not the rest of the world there is no rest of the world and it is a very good practice to see that actually it is god who is taking care of us those who are in the world you think that the world is taking care of you not at all it is god who's taking care of us with my little experience i've understood this once um i was telling you about the 26 kilometers away and i know from personal experience so this is the occasion to tell the story i had gone there once for some work from the mountaintops to that village the village itself is 9000 feet high and the place i was living is further up 26 kilometers up so there's a bus which runs back and forth i took the bus and this was in the height of summer so there were people around so i had to finish my work and then get back to my hut before nightfall so there was another bus and i went to the road climbing to climb up to the road up from from the village and because i had no place to stay in the village so i waited for the bus to come back it was around four o'clock three thirty or four in the afternoon and gets very dark very quickly when the sun starts setting in the mountains and then there were no buses no vehicles nothing i asked a villager what's wrong they said oh there's been a landslide and so the vehicles buses nothing is going to come now they're all cut off now imagine my condition i have no place to stay let alone eat or anything like that and my my heart is 26 kilometers up the mountain i mean further up the mountains i guess for one of those mountain monks it won't be they're like mountain goats it won't be such a big problem but for me it was to walk 26 kilometers uh through the mountains nothing to be done what what will you do so i i just designed myself to garden started walking i decided i would sleep under a tree but then it gets freezing cold at night and there are bears and leopards you know so i walked and walked and walked and i had resigned myself to god and see what happens there are no human beings around also and a vehicle came it was one of those mountain jeeps and they stopped and said swami do you need a leaf lift i said yes where did you come from said we were also trapped by the landslide we could not go back they were strapped on the wrong side of the landslide so we decided to come back to congo 3 and they gave me a lift but that's dependence on god what else will you call it i don't know if i would have i guess i would have survived but i don't know and you let go and depend on god some often that see monks devotees many of them have so many amazing stories of being taken care of with that in mind let's just stop or you had a hand up um some people have a hand up yeah swamiji the general belief is that to act without an eye upon the fruit of our activities is the path of action so is this a misunderstanding because we are not asked to renounce the fruit we only ask to renounce the attachment not the fruits correct path of action means karma yoga that is karma yoga so um not the result itself if you are a monk you are you abandon the result also the action and the result and in the case of the karma yogi in the world you abandon your attachment to the result but you do the action and the result will come of itself because you're doing the action for it might be for the welfare of others or fighting for the for the common good arjuna if he fights the battle a result will come definitely so karma will be done result will come but you are not attached to the karma you are not attached to the result why are you doing it then as a spiritual practice for enlightenment if you are already enlightened why are you doing it as an expression of your enlightenment you feel the oneness in all beings and to help them out of compassion or love all right let us end omg foreign