Video 56

56. Bhagavad Gita I Chapter 4 Verses 33-34 I Swami Sarvapriyananda

[Music] guru good evening everybody and namaste so we are studying the bhagavad gita um chapter four and we were on first as far as i remember on verse number 33 we were doing remember that sri krishna had described spiritual practice as yagya here due to the format of a vedic fire sacrifice but to describe all sorts of spiritual practices um now he concludes that section in the 33rd verse 33rd verse to sacrifice through knowledge is superior to sacrifice performed with materials or sculpture of foes all actions in their entirety of partha are comprised in knowledge all right here he's making the point that the point of all of these spiritual practices is ultimately knowledge our whole problem is that we do not know the reality reality about ourselves reality about the world and that's the source of our problems shankaracharya's phrase avidya kama karma avidya means ignorance kama means desire karma means action this is the chain because we are ignorant of our nature what nature infinite ever fulfilled nature because of that we uh we think we feel that we are not fulfilled we need things people activities many things we our happiness is dependent on external circumstances and therefore we engage in actions incessant action endless action life lifetime after lifetime of action and the actions always have consequences and thus our the cycle of samsara goes around well it's not bad what's wrong with it what's wrong with it is suffering what's wrong with it is lack of fulfillment if it could give us happiness if it could make you happy make um make things we are looking for fulfillment if we got what we wanted then it would there would be a point to it but we don't get what we want so that's the problem and so the problem is the solution is not to in the world outside not to keep changing things in the world outside through karma it is to realize our true nature to realize our true nature we need knowledge gyara which will overcome agyana or another word is vidya knowledge which will overcome avidya ignorance so the knowledge yakya is the uh highest the most superior yakya which is this knowledge yagya what what are we talking about remember 24th verse most well-known favorite verse brahma pranam brahmavi we always we have connected it nicely to food so we'll all remember that's the advantage of remember that we'll remember it that is the highest practice to see god in all actions in everything in all activities in every aspect of our lives so that is that is the highest and he says here krishna says to arjuna concluding this whole section much better superior the highest is the knowledge again over you know the highest is knowledge knowledge seeing brahman in all activities seeing god in everything um higher than what dravidya maya yagyat all the other practices we mentioned i think we made a list of 12 practices you know vows of silence or vow of austerities then sense control or then another one was whatever we see here smell taste touch we can visualize it as a yakya as an offering or control of food fasting or pranayama and yoga or meditation all of that all of that without exception is inferior to the the gyani to knowledge knowledge is the point of all of that this is an important thing to be noticed all of these practices should culminate in knowledge this is a relationship all of these practices have their fulfillment in knowledge what knowledge me i am brahmana this in that one infinite reality everywhere that is the fulfillment of all of these practices on the other hand so if the question might be there if that knowledge is the supreme is the highest and that's the point why not jump straight to that not possible not possible it has to be built up uh through all of these spiritual practices they are necessary to perfect the instrument to purify the instrument purity of the mind chitta should he concentration of the mind these are achieved through all of those practices suppose you say i have enough of that then you are fit for the for the knowledge sacrifice it will work for you uh but there are very few very rare very few who are fit to begin with you know you come equipped for all of that it's not that such people are not there but they are few in number what is normally the case it is not that you come already purified and ready for enlightenment and immediately there is enlightenment no it is also not the reverse case we should spend 10 20 30 40 years fasting and repeating a mantra then only come to the gita class and entry for the gita class how many millions of times have you repeated the mantra how many kardashian fasts have you done how many pilgrimages have you gone how many dips have you taken in the ganga show me your total your track record then only you'll be admitted to gita class it will never work that way all of it has to go together our spiritual practices at the core of which should be this vedantic inquiry not just bhagavad-gita geeta upanishads all of it the vedantic inquiry designed to to generate that knowledge that flash of awareness which will liberate us so the purpose of all spiritual practices all these spiritual practices krishna calls drabiya maya yagya drug means material so the spiritual practice is conducted with a variety of materials usually the um the vedic fire sacrifice was conducted with materials you had to have an altar you had to have offerings you had to have a fire a priest all of that was necessary money was necessary to conduct those things so that's the paradigm krishna is taking but every other practice all of these practices we can put under the label karma yoga all our religious practices all our secular practices must ultimately be streamlined pointed towards enlightenment that's the point of everything then he makes a very beautiful poetic grand statement very profound sentence oh arjuna he says after all everything that we do in life all our lives all our experiences culminate in in one thing only knowledge vivekananda starts his karma yoga book with the first sentence is the point of all karma activity is not enjoyment in life the point is knowledge aurobindo says life itself is yoga you do it deliberately if you do spiritual practices deliberately you can call yourself i am a yogi i'm a spiritual seeker if you don't do it just live life you say i'm just living my life but that living life is also yoga in the sense that ultimately it will lead us towards enlightenment the only difference is if we do it consciously deliberately wisely the path is shortened our lives even from right now onwards it will be blessed you will have strength peace sense of purpose and direction in life if we don't do it if we change other things or simply float along on the stream of life then we'll be frustrated unhappy meaninglessness emptiness in life will be there but still life will teach us life itself will bring us to this so instead of waiting lifetime after lifetime we at one point the soul becomes mature enough the g atma becomes mature enough the samskaras are ripe and we take up spiritual practice seriously does not matter whether you're a monk or a householder whatever your you take up you come to spiritual life seriously seriously means i now begin to understand this is the point of life the rest of it is just playing around with toys reading at the gospel of sri ramakrishna suramar krishna talks about seeing his son i think a little boy three or four years old and sriram krishna used to play with him in in kamar pakur and the boy was playing all day with his toys and then in the evening suddenly he says i don't want all of this i want to go to my mother and then sriram krishna tempts him with the choices i'll get i'll get a pigeon for you he said i'll get a pigeon for you and the boy says no i want to go to my mother and starts weeping for mother now srirama krishna says tears came to my eyes seeing his state because of course not because sram krishna wants to go to his mother his brother means the goddess the ultimate reality of life that must be our spiritual attitude that must be our inner attitude it's time to go to mother and this is the path consciously deliberately every religion at the core has this spiritual path spirituality is the core of every religion we are all fortunate that way we have somewhere or the other understood this this grand statement by krishna wonderful statement really this is the one which shows the meaning of life itself all our activities in life whatever we have done in life our studies and play and marriage and children and jobs and misery and happiness and achievements and gradual decline old age disease death new life all of it has one point and one point only knowledge knowledge of what knowledge of the ultimate we are moving towards that reading page after page in the book of life each page is one lifetime we turn the page death and a new lifetime begins we are reading that and the purpose of all reading a book is always knowledge nothing else remains with us so where is this knowledge i don't remember the knowledge of my past lives not that kind of knowledge the soul has a deep learning where people ask that um past lifetimes if i don't remember anything what's the point of past life lifetimes we are giving too much credit to our memory you think just because you remember someone something then it makes it worthwhile not at all how much do you remember of your own life very little how much you remember of your childhood of your babyhood of the months after your birth nothing virtually nothing let alone past lives now notice i may have made mistakes i remember it all does it prevent me from committing mistakes not necessarily i will not commit mistakes only when i learned it in my samskaras what made me commit a mistake in the first place desire either fear or temptation until that is overcome no amount of memory will help people have full memory and keep on repeating same mistake people have no memory of past life but good samskaras have come from past life no desire at all is there to commit those mistakes so what is important is not memory not remembering past lives but the samskaras the sum total of learning we bring away from past lives that's important that's what guides a person that's what makes our personality what it is that's not what makes you you are the atman but our personality is made by that all the complexities good and bad points our personalities our samskaras where they come from they are deep learning the deepest possible learning they are the some real things and that changes our spiritual practice works at the level of samskaras it changes our personality at the deepest level possible all these practices and he says the purpose of all practices of course here he means all the spiritual practices the purpose is knowledge but in a deeper sense all things in life the purpose is ultimately knowledge very beautiful verse s it is pregnant in a sense it is it is poignant because it is also sad um because this is a kind of sorrow involved because there is nothing else in that will take away from our lives not your money not your degrees not your children um not your house nothing they'll be gone forever only the ex bundle of experiences we have had in this life that's all we will take away that's all not even memories memory is also with god what a grand statement so ultimately the vedantic knowledge of of who we are that is the point of all of this so now sridhara krishna comes to the point in the 34th verse 34th verse he will tell us so how do we get this knowledge we'll come to the knowledge and teacher now 34th verse another important verse acquire that through salutation inquiry and service the wise who are knowers of the truth will instruct you in wisdom questioning inquiring seva by service to whom to the enlightened masters approach the enlightenment masters salute them take refuge in them question them learn this knowledge from them and serve them upadhikranti they will teach you they will teach you this knowledge you will get get from them so one point here is this knowledge we are seeking where will it come from every knowledge comes from a source of knowledge so one source of knowledge the first source of knowledge we have our senses you see and you hear and smell taste touch and we all know when we start vedanta we all know that the thing we are seeking our reality it can't be seen you can't see with these eyes you can't hear it smell it taste it touch it the sense organs are out of the question in fact um all the usual sources of knowledge we have in for our material world for the external world they don't work here they won't reveal it if they could they would have they would have been no need of religion or spirituality um you know vedanta talks about six sources of knowledge there is practice protection means sense perception seeing hearing spelling tasting touching anumana inference inference is basically how science works you know gathering data and making hypothesis and checking the hypothesis inference common sense logic all of it falls under inference and then there is there are some uh methods of knowledge which i will not explain it it can the whole book is necessary for that in fact there are books on that this is vedantic epistemology uber ana by anal analogical reasoning and then there is arthapati by implication or yeah implication and then there is anoopalopdi knowledge by absence and then finally there is uh shruti which is the revealed scripture or other the knowledge of the upanishads which reveals to us the reality of ourself so what is the source of knowledge from which we can get this knowledge which krishna is talking about and that is the upanishads what are the upanishads as swami vivekananda said they are the collected realizations of enlightened beings the rishis who have realized these things have transmitted it down to us very specifically they are the books found in the vedas scattered throughout the vedas you find the final teachings of the vedas the highest spiritual philosophical teachings this highest truth is found in all religions but the advantage of vedanta is i think to my mind twofold one is it is the first to discover it's the oldest one among all the religious living religious traditions in the world today it comes from the vedas the second one is this knowledge is most highly developed in the upanishadic tradition which is the vedantic tradition why do i say that this core of knowledge is available in all all religious traditions there are christian mystics who have realized it you just have to read meister record to see how non-dualistic he is there are sufi mystics who have realized it um you somebody wrote to me quoting a sufi mystic swami did this mystic ever read um goda pada you didn't have doesn't have to read godhapath the sufis have this knowledge it is there it is there in taoism it is there in um definitely then buddhism tibetan buddhism for example in fact next to advaita vedanta i will say the non-dual knowledge is most developed in tibetan buddhism but apart from advaita vedanta and tibetan buddhism in all other religions in his in judaism in the kabbalah these things are there in all of the religions the two problems which i see frankly if i may say so is that first of all this is not central it has often been marginalized persecuted ignored um shoved to the margins or considered esoteric maybe only for a few or simply um you know discarded this knowledge that you are brahman you are you and the ultimate are one but this is the purpose of religion this has been uh ignored or marginalized in many religions even persecuted people who said this had been killed actually whereas in vedanta it is central in certain mahayana traditions in buddhism tibetan buddhism especially it is central the second thing is more important for us very clearly it is developed in the sense that you see as we will study and we are studying in vedanta step by step in easy baby steps we are led very clearly to this realization the highest realization amramhasmi you see even a introductory text like vedanta sarah which we are studying in our vedanta sarah class that takes you from the basics to the highest knowledge and there are so many many such texts this kind of systematic development you don't find in these other religious traditions for example to the extent that i know schuphism it's very beautiful and the highest truth is given there but how how will you realize another important point is it is rationally established and defended in advaita vedanta if you go to a sufi master the same knowledge he will give you but if you logically challenge show me by reason and logic which can be appealed to a modern philosopher also no nothing there's nothing there because that's a mystical path so many of these paths in islam or christianity which can lead you to the highest knowledge it's there but they are bhakti paths or mystical paths expressed in the language of poetry and love which is very beautiful but does not at all stand the challenge of logic and reason and there is no step by step way of attaining that once you attend to an even an understanding even intellectually if you understand advaita vedanta you immediately can understand the highest truths of sufism or christian mysticism probably better than people in their own tradition can you understand them very clearly one rabbis i was talking to a very learned rabbi he had visited india was talking with him and i said something about about the central truth of judaism and then i said of course i don't want to sound patronizing but it's just our take our understanding of what what is there in your scripture and then he said something interesting he said no it could very well be that your understanding might actually be a better and a superior understanding than our understanding if you're coming from a much higher uh perspective a more developed philosophical system you you may actually understand these truths better than we do who knows so that's that um so where do we get this knowledge from the upanishadic tradition from the upanishad the tradition we get this knowledge and um for that if it's a teaching to if it's a knowledge tradition the role of the teacher is very important who will transmit it is open so can i borrow the book from the library and read it and become enlightened no you can't it won't work why not because it's a very subtle kind of thing even to learn difficult subjects you need teachers in this world you learn to learn advanced physics need a teacher do you need a course you need a structure so brahma vidya the knowledge of brahman you need a teacher a guru so you need to approach a teacher who will transmit this knowledge and there is an unblock broken lineage of teacher lineage of teachers is very important this is called parampara so that's why not only in advaita vedanta in most eastern traditions and in fact the core mystical traditions in judaism and islam there's always this idea of teachers the whole idea of the catholic church is that it's an unbroken descent of power from jesus christ through the church that's the idea behind the the you know the lineage of popes in the catholic church similarly parampara or sampradaya it's very important in spirituality not only vedanta all of eastern spirituality basically so this teaching especially in vedanta so this teaching has been handed down from teacher to student for instance time immemorial and you need to find a teacher and learn it from that from the teacher then it's it's it can work then a couple of points teachers are of various kinds so guru in our tradition the way we look at it guru is the highest but in our tradition guru is the one who gives mantra diksha that's a different thing that's um your direct connection with god it's a spiritual practice a mystical practice so the guru will is a diksa guru the mantra diksha will be given by a guru who gives you a mantra and tells you this is the form of god in which you have to worship how to meditate this is the mantra i have to repeat and then you have to practice it that does a huge amount of work it purifies the mind concentrates the mind makes it absolutely ready but that's not the kind of teacher he is talking about here what he is talking about here is a different kind of feature which is um which is an acharya so that's the kind of role that for example teachers like me and teachers like me and we play that role that here is this mass of knowledge we interpret and teach and pass it on who is higher guru or your guru is much higher guru as i said is your direct connection the one who gives you mantra diksha ishta mantra is your guru if you say who is my guru i learned vedanta from sarva-priyananda and i have taken my mantra from xyz who is my guru that one is your guru i am not a guru i am an acharya who transmits this knowledge to you but is very important ultimately the purpose of all spiritual practices is this realization of this knowledge of course the two can be one the guru can initiate you into a mantra and also teach you all this and there are a number of such gurus also who can do both um okay what else did i want to say about the guru who is the guru he says he makes a comment about the guru here the ones who know the tradition and means the ones who see the truth so ones who are enlightened ultimately it would be best if you got this teaching from an enlightened master who has actually seen the truth for whom brahmas means a reality and then that person can transmit it to you most powerfully that is best but that's where how do we know who's we have realized so it's better to the second best thing you can do the upanishads say what are the qualifications what should you look for in a guru in vedanta but also in general anywhere in any tradition it all supplies what are the qualifications threefold qualifications um so first of all brahmanista brahmanista means established or dedicated to brahman what does that mean does it mean realized person best if that is so but that is not what is meant because that nobody can guarantee uh how would you know but brahmanista literally means dedicated to brahman not a part-time spiritual teacher not just a university professor a university professor could also be a brahmanista there's no doubt there were traditions of pundits in our traditional pundits in our uh in india who were actually brahmanistas and they were scholars and they were also householders but this person who is dedicated to brahman the whole point of his or her life is that god realization and it's a full-time engagement completely centered in god you might say so such a person that's number one isn't that enough no that might be enough for that person so someone like say latu maharaj for example of course advocate he was an enlightened person but notice that what is the difference between latu maharaja and swami vivekananda did so both of them were enlightened and did swami vivekananda's enlightenment was it a superior gate grade upgraded enlightenment version higher version and advocacy lesser no it is same realization same brahman not a superior brahman same realization is there but the difference is that swami vivekananda has all these extra qualifications which make him a better communicator of the truth there's a saying it is not enough to get a good idea but you must get an idea from it's equally important to get an idea from point a to point b i remember when we entered our mba courses kids i mean as students long time ago we had a course on communications and of course we were all interested in marketing and finance and systems without communications what's the point of it the professor who taught us was a jesuit priest i still remember father freddie and he said he was very he's a very dramatic teacher and he said over the years of your life you will learn the one thing which is most important in your life is communication how do you communicate with others and even more important how do you communicate with yourself and he said that's what you'll learn all these other things you can learn in life they'll be useful most important in your life in your personal life a family life in your professional life is communication how to get one idea from point a to point b um so not only brahmanista but shrotriya a master of tradition a master of the tradition which tradition the tradition into which you are entering so the the person must have mastered the for example in vedanta must have mastered the advaita tradition must know uh the sovereignty is going to teach upanishads must have studied upanishad systematically you must have studied brahmasutra systematically not only that must be empowered must be initiated and empowered swami now tell us now you are in trouble you talked about this please tell us about your lineage and tradition and and your empowerment and initiation so i am initiated by swami bhutesh maharaj who was the 12th president of our order then i was initiated into brahmacarya the vows of a monastic novice by swami ranganathan ji maharaj the 13th president of our order and finally into the vows of sannyasa monasticism in our monastic order by swami ranganathan ji maharaj and this monastic order traces its way back through sri ramakrishna and to his guru torta puri back to shankaracharya through and back to the rishis of the upanishads so it's an unbroken line of uh teaching so we you can see traditionally which order which mata which amnaya you know the things which we belong to so you can check this is the credentials of this person and as a monk uh of the um 10 orders of non-dualistic monks as an acharya for monastic novices this person is has some credentials to teach so this is the shrotriya versed or shruti versed in the shruti versed in the scriptural tradition therefore can communicate then the third one is also important literally means not damaged destroyed or distorted by desire has the teacher got some other desire leader of a cult wants to make a million bucks wants to fight an election and get all your votes no is not power seeking is not wealth seeking is not fame seeking the only thing that person should get out of the whole process is the person should be able to transmit this knowledge and the happiness of the person is that students learn and get spiritually benefited and ultimately enlightened that's the only thing only motive allowable for the teacher nothing else so akarama literally not not damaged by desire or distorted by desire shrotriya well versed in the tradition which is supposed to be transmitted why the tradition to be transmitted remember because it is cannot this knowledge can cannot be acquired by any other source only from the texts which embody the realizations of past masters why do we need this knowledge at all because ignorance is out there is the it has to be removed why does ignorance have to be removed because we are suffering that is the root of our suffering this is the connection let me just quickly go through this verse tad with he realized that know that pranipathena by salutation shankarachary actually says that even gives an instruction how to salute the master you must fall flat on the ground stick straight with the hands extended in fact why don't i read the i've got the commentary of shankaracharya here so it's very nice to read the original text 1400 years ago written by adishan karacharya he's commenting on this verse know this realize this by what way can we get this knowledge acharya the teacher the master so notice he uses actually uses the word acharya here approach the acharya um then pranipathena give a long nice bow to the acharya bow down fall flat on the ground and then bow down to the acharya not for his sake not that that acharya will be pleased with you that's a good pranam so i can teach this with this fellow no it is to create the proper mental attitude in in ourselves then um [Music] then ask the questions he says ask questions from where where does this bondage come what is the nature of this bondage moksha how shall i be free be free of samsara kaavidya seva of the guru or the acharya so it could be normally it is seen as physical saver because in those days students used to go and stay with the with the teacher in the ashram so it could be like all kinds of work done in the ashram you clean and sweep and make maybe flower garlands for the shrine and cook and um and serve the guru but that is the inferior kind of seva the higher kind of save is not the physical service to the guru the highest kind of save is actually to follow the gurus or the acharya's instructions all acharyas or gurus will say if you ask what do you want me to do then follow what i say follow what the teachings are saying and what you do physically or financially for the acharya that is secondary main thing is to practice is to realize these truths so that is the service to the acharya another reason why this service was stressed it was not really for the acharya selfish gain was that this is also a very very good form of karma yoga so if especially if the student stays with the ajay arya like we as brahmacharis we stay in darshan so we don't have work like arjuna has work responsibilities duties which can be spiritualized and converted into into karma yoga but we don't have that i'm staying in an ashram my food is taken care of my clothes are taken care of my daily routine so all of that is taken care of then what do i do in my day-to-day life where will my karma yoga be so work is introduced work is introduced taking care of the ashram and in ramakrishna mission a lot of work is introduced schools colleges hospitals it could be the temple itself it could be serving the poor all of that has to be taken as karma yoga and it's very important for as far as running the ashrama no it's actually important for my own spiritual development without that no spiritual growth is possible no enlightenment is possible there's a funny story in uttarakhand of a young man who comes to an ashram i want enlightenment it goes to the guru give me enlightenment and the guru says tatwa masih that dao art and the young man says yeah i read it i know i read it it's in that opening and now these are the other things i've read and the guru says hmm i understand the problem send him to the cow shed goshala let him go go and clean the cow's head and the poor fellow was sent off to cowshed and this was hard work dirty work smelly work he had never done such i've never been in such trouble oh my god what have i gotten myself into and days passed and weeks passed and he asked when will the guru call me to give me enlightenment he says wait wait they'll call you finally he was eager to he was ready to give up everything and run away from when the guru heard about this said call him tomorrow and tell him to take a bath and the next morning so he goes to the guru and he says the guru says tatwa masih that thou art and this young man is silent and you know the understanding dawns upon him what happened in the meantime the purification of the mind happened the calming down the personality becomes satwik so that is the purpose of sevaya by service hearing hearing means systematically studying vedanta and you know the text of vedanta there will be introductory text like vedanta-sara followed by upanishads bhagavad-gita brahma-sutras and many other prakaranagranthas introductory texts and then you have to think about it reason it out and make get clarity about it then meditate upon it along with all the other young girls which are going on you know you're repeating mantra japa meditation puja service to humanity and taking care of the ashram you are kept busy in your spiritual routine so shankaracharya makes it clear that some they know the tradition but they not may not be enlightened if it comes from an enlightened person shankaracharya says that if it this teaching if it comes from an enlightened person it's much more effective it actually literally uses the word effective here you know he says yes those who have full realization taught by such people the knowledge being taught by such people karyaks it becomes effective effective means it leads to enlightenment questions are important he says clearly go to the masters and question them and question should be shankaracharya makes it clear question should be spiritual question otherwise i have seen the ramakrishna order we have so many in india's here at least i get so many vedantic questions but in india we have so many other activities schools colleges hospitals so when people come to us with questions the questions are usually not about what is bondage and what is liberation how will i get knowledge how will i get enlightenment no how can i get my son admitted to your school or it could be where where can we get prasad where is the food being distributed and and so on i remember once there was a series of talks and the monastic novices brahmacharis were there i was also there i was a junior acharya and the senior monks were giving talks on vedanta and brahms were asking good questions on vedanta and i was thinking so nobody is coming to me with a vedantic question so suddenly one brahmacharya came up swami i have a question for you this was after the talks i thought ah finally somebody has come to me with a vedantic question now they knew that i liked aeroplanes and so this premature is asking so swami how does that aeroplane fly i thought oh no i thought he was going to ask me about brahman and maya and enlightenment so they didn't think i was capable of giving answers to such such questions so the only thing they could think of was how does that airplane fly yes so shankaracharya is very clear ask spiritual questions it is true if you go if you go to ashrams in india even the monks in the himalayas so many people come questions their questions their requests are not at all spiritual they want a little blessing so that some things go well in their family life um please bless us swamiji let son or daughter's marriage education first education let that fellow get through good good institute and then they'll come let him get a good job him or her get a good job and after that after next year he'll come the next question will be we are worried about the marriage of the son or daughter and then it will be what about grandchildren where is the vedantic question no vidanti question that is what krishna is saying and shankaracharya makes it clear ask who am i what is the purpose of life what is the goal of life i'm not saying you are like that you have all god without the questions i think the chat is full of vedanti questions now um let me look at the activity in the chat before we go to the next oh one more thing i want to say about this verse you know when i first came across this verse i had i had not fully read the gita even by that time i had just joined the order in our ashram in yoga there used to be this japanese monk very interesting character he he was a sannyasi and i was just a new brahmachary but he was extraordinarily good at woodwork so on wood he would carve out verses in sanskrit they've been ugly litters and they would be decorated with flowers and creepers and leaves very intricately done you could see the individual you know capillaries in the flowers and in the leaves and all so so well done and he had a workshop where he would do that so he did this verse tad with hi pranipathy in a party because it was a school for kids so this verse is very very appropriate um realize the truth approach the masters bow down to them serve them ask them questions they will teach you these knowers of truth so he he drew it i mean he carved it out i still remember he said come and see come and see and he had this amazing thing about he would start praising his own work himself before he could say anything so they were you had no choice but to admire it and he said look isn't it wonderful isn't it extraordinary you have to say yes it's it's wonderful it was good even now i think in develop school if you enter the school building that carving is there in the front very beautifully done huge board with this verse carved out in wood with flowers creepers and very nice artwork now let me look at the questions um bill is asking couldn't the word knowledge also refer to the direct realization of the divine it does but first it refers to the teaching the direct realization cannot be handed over directly by the masters unless it's someone like sri ramakrishna who can touch you and you you become enlightened but there also you have to be someone like vivekananda but otherwise it's the it's the teaching the teaching is true if you want i'll put it on what happened yes so it is transmitted the teaching has to be transmitted upanishads are vedanta is transmitted so that's what's meant by knowledge here ultimately of course it should culminate in realization when buddhist teacher put it well the buddha is the doctor but the dhamma which is the buddha teaches is the medicine what cures you vaccine will cure you a vaccine will protect you medicine will cure you not the doctor directly but the doctor can tell you what vaccine to take what medicine to take so the teacher will give it give the medicine to you but the medicine itself is the teaching which leads to release from samsara gabriel says even the bible says love thy neighbor as thyself so addition to knowledge isn't it all about love as well yes that's true but the thing is why is this knowledge necessary just say love everybody be compassionate be nice to everybody for that you don't need all of this you don't need endless you know meditation and breathing techniques and monks and nuns and you just have to love and be nice to each other be kind to each other i know that's the kind of spirituality which or that kind of new age thinking it's the age effect of new age thinking that be nice be compassionate everything will be all right it won't lead from misery to misery it doesn't work that way ultimately there's a root problem to all of this but isn't it all about love ultimately an ultimate sense yes because once you become enlightened once the truth is revealed to you you will become all loving so love is very deep actually compassion and love are very very deep spiritual qualities they are the manifestations of the truth but you must realize the truth that's why the truth is is trust even the bible you know the truth and the truth shall set you free it does not say be nice and being nice sets you free it's important to be nice it's important to be loving if i'm cruel if i am complicated if i am devious deceptive no spirituality is possible you have to be a good person character is necessary good good conduct and good relations with others being nice to others necessary without that you cannot be spiritual but that's not at all enough what about isn't bhakti all about love yes but bhakti is about love for the divine it must start there and shankaracharya defines bhakti as an intense seeking of this of the true nature of the self swa surupanus then punitaji asks what about those who don't have a formaldiksa who is my guru if you feel the need for a formal diksha you should take it that is my recommendation if you ask what is the spiritual path as i outline again and again take formal diksha if you ask me is it necessary not not absolutely necessary but if you're asking for my advice take formal diksha and you can take it in our order also there are a number of swamis who give mantra diksha take formal diksha practice as taught by the the teacher convert your activities your religious rituals and your secular activities into karma yoga and concentrate on this vedanta teaching that is spiritual life if you ask me so isn't this video enough with so unsupported by anything else it's not enough in most cases but it's not true that it's unsupported by in many cases in most of most of the people here as far as i can see many of you are initiated you have taken mantra diksha even if you have not taken mantra diksha many of you are practicing other spiritual practices apart from just attending classes so those things are there in your life if not they should be there and then the next question is gabriel asking i don't have a guru i don't feel the need for one either i'm perfectly happy with just having you well thank you very much i've learned so much in the past few years yes but at one point if you do feel the need that as somebody who from whom i get a mantra and something to practice morning and evening to keep my mind there it's a very good thing to have again absolutely essential no i cannot say that there are people who can do well without it there are people who have got the mantra who don't go go anywhere near higher spirituality at all um is it important to understand the lineage credentials of raja yoga teachers too it should belong to some kind of ashram or teaching lineage which has some credibility otherwise just somebody off the streets may claim extraordinary attainments and knowledge and might be true also but how do you know unless it belongs to some lineage at least in our case there's a particularly need in other ashrams also other teaching lineages so that gives you a stamp of quality that i don't know much about this one particular person but there's enough recorded about this particular tradition of going back centuries if not millennia so many many people throughout the centuries have attained enlightenment and if i follow this tradition i too will attain enlightenment and also if i'm not in touch with this particular teacher i can be in touch with other teachers of the same tradition tradition is always available books are always available of this tradition completely out of any tradition by oneself it is a dicey it is generally discouraged shankaracharya is very harsh a person who does not belong does not know the the lineage is not part of the lineage has not is not learned in the traditional lineage even if that person has read all the books in the library server shastra with opi when he uses very harsh terms shania should be ignored like you would ignore a fool so as far as your personal spiritual life is concerned there are many wonderful um intellectuals writers whom i also personally enjoy but would i follow them personally in my own spiritual life not at all not for one inch then i also believe karma yoga is not possible without love knowledge and love for humanity have to go on hand in and yes knowledge and love for humankind have to go hand in hand more precise uh precisely knowledge and love for the divine through humanity in general knowledge and love for love for humanity is a victor um if you have love for the divine inhumanity god in all human beings in all living beings it should be focused that way then takur was very unbiased he learned from many spiritual masters but why does lineage come from dotha puri our lineage comes from tata puri chakra would learn from many remember was an avatar and especially in avatar of dharma the harmony of religions so he was extraordinary in that way that many lineages flowed through him he had a tantric lineage he had a vaisnava lineage he had obviously a shakta linear he was initiated first of all by a a pundit who gave him a kali mantra he had a ramachandra lineage through his own family and vedantical indians he learned islam he learned christianity sufi islam he learned christianity and practiced them so he belonged to all of these lineages and all of these lineages flowed through him but he was an avatar incarnation when the question is why only total so professor of inaudib university uh once she was writing a book on south asian religion and she asked me why do you rama krishna mission monks keep stressing vedanta advaita vedanti so much sriram krishna was a vaishnava he was a tantric why not all of those things i said well first of all are we stressing it too much there's always a debate among our monks that one group of monks would say we are not stressing it enough should be more stressed the advaithic aspect and i'll just say of course you know you're stressing it too much but why why do you do this because we are advaitans there aren't your dwithins also dualists also tantrics also no no no no not at all let us be very clear about it we are non-dualists in the tradition of shankaracharya how so and why so um why so because this is what was this was the direction in which sudama krishna pushed vivekananda and this is the way vivekananda set us up technically if you i can't tell you the details but if you look at the mantras of our sannyasa the vows which we taken at the point of monasticism when we are initiated into monasticism by our gurus i was initiated by swami ranganathan those core texts some of which are not revealed i mean they're not available publicly they're just meant for monks and in fact there is one core text if that is told by the guru to the disciple and i am on on the verge of of going into forbidden territory in uttarakhand in the high himalayas there are simple villagers who really believe that if you hear that text you have to become a monk immediately you cannot remain as a householder anymore anymore after that you have to give up so they'll be terrified don't tell us that one so anyway the point is those ones make sense only in non-dualism those are the mantras the texts by which non-dualistic monks are initiated in the himalayas in in shankaracharya's matas in the monasteries established by shankaracharya not in other lineages and they will ask you in the if you are a monk like this they will ask you in the himalayas there are this monastic police you won't know but monks know they will check your id and they will ask you they'll they'll tell you the first part of of one of those texts and you have to complete it and they'll immediately know which particular order you belong to or you don't so technically there is there is no doubt about it if you look at the the process of taking monastic initiation and the actual vows taken by us they belong very clearly to shankara's orders of non-dualistic monks and how did that happen that happened because swami abhidhannanda he had met one of those monks and he had taken down those mantras from him he had he had noted it down and when srirama when swami vivekananda was ready to formally initiate all already the blessings of monasticism had been given to these young disciples by srama krishna who had given them the ochre robe and it was in fact on this day oh that's very nice coincidence that we are talking about it on christmas on christmas eve actually all the the 12 young disciples of sudama krishna after suramar krishna's passing away had gone to the little village of aatpur which is in bengal somewhat near calcutta actually but it's a small village even now it's a small village it was the birthplace of baburam who later became swami premananda and babaram's mother who was very devoted to srama krishna she invited the young boys to come and stay in their ancestral homing village that winter december last week 1886. and that night they didn't know it was christmas eve they sat around they lit up fire and they sat around and that place if you go now it's all nice uh carvings and sculpture is there which shows the whole scene and the place has been enclosed now so these young 12 young boys led by narendra nath who later became vivekananda they sat around and actually even without knowing it was christmas eve somehow sitting around that fire that cold december night narendra told them about jesus christ told them about the apostles of jesus christ and told about the renunciation of the apostles and then they started thinking about we'll dedicate our lives to the pursuit of guard realization and spreading the message of sriram krishna and they decided to become monks and they took their vows in front of that fire formally they took their vows later next month when they came back to the monastery in and the you used the mantras which swami abedan anderjee had already got which were the traditional mantras of monasticism which which are even now used in all the monasteries of shankaracharya when the shankaracharya is today they give sannyasa the vows of monasticism to the next generation you know every batch of monks they use the same mantras very clearly non-dualistic and finally one more point is um the holy mother so in in the ashram the advaitasram in mayavati swami vivekananda established that for the sole purpose expressed purpose of the practice of non-dualism now in his last visit to that ashram swami vivekananda saw a picture of sri ramakrishna had been installed there it was being worshiped and swami vivekananda said what the old man has entered this place too remove the picture and the monks were hurt by this they felt hurt why is he asking us to remove the picture of sridhara krishna because in every ashram krishna's picture is there it's actually worshiped so some one of them wrote to the holy mother to mashaara the devi in a sort of complaining tone and sure of our support that we had kept the picture of srila krishna like we do in all our ashrams so we had kept it in ashram in mayavathi and naren vivekananda he came and told us to remove it was that right and to his utter surprise the holy mother replied she used to dictate the reply holy mother replied um what naren has done is absolutely right your guru was the non-dual reality he said the mother guru children he did she did not say sri ramakrishna was a advaithin she said the sri ramakrishna was advaita meaning therefore that he's an incarnation non-different from brahman then non-dual reality and therefore she says therefore i can say she says with with certainty mischievous but i can say with certainty that you tamara you are advaitins you are non-dualists therefore what narendra has done naren has done is right who is saying that mashaarada about removing the picture of sriram krishna so that is why why do we claim to belong to a particular lineage when sriram krishna so many lineages flowed through srinama krishna that was the special purpose of the incarnation of this age that all religions lead to the same truth but if you ask which specific lineage do you belong to we belong to the advaita vedanta lineage of shankaracharya pranam maharaja rama is asking if we have a mantra and we've been doing meditation for several years with mantra do we still need a guru to give you a mantra no not necessarily if you have a mantra and you're practicing it you should go on practicing it in fact if you go to a guru from our order and you say that i've been practicing a mantra and now i want to take a mantra from him they will generally say no your generally say keep on practicing what you are practicing if you have got a mantra in a family tradition many hindus are family traditions or many hindus have been initiated by other gurus very good you should go any mantra which you have been initiated by a guru it will it is it is the mantra of god why will it not work the whole point is to repeat that practice it so that the mind is concentrated of course there's a whole path in that and there'll be the vision of the ishta devata and so on that's a big topic would a new mantra upset the practice of years yes it could so no need to take a new mantra at all if you some people feel the need there are many times when devotees have come to the gurus of our order president maharaja vice president maharaja and said that uh please give us a mantra although i have had this month life i was initiated in my childhood i don't have any contact with that guru um but i don't want that i want to be initiated in the ramakrishna vivekananda tradition from you usually they say no but then if somebody persists either i've heard various things this is something that you have to ask a guru that's why i'm not a guru i'm an acharya the either the guru will tell you to keep on repeating that mantras and gives you a new one or tells you to give up the mantra in the sense that you write it for example i've heard in some cases they write it on a leaf and float it down on the ganga you give it back to the ganga and then you take up a new mantra new ishta devata or the same guru the new guru gives you the same mantra all over again so sort of reconfirming it ramya is asking um how do we know that we are doing karma yoga right yes so my worldly pull will decrease and pull towards god will increase today's gita giant correct that's why we are doing this jesus said my father and i are one yes that is how we we will interpret it at least um i think we'll stop here we've already gone beyond time let us see the somebody has raised the hand anandi mashkashami um this is not a question it's more a comment um when you would teach bhagavad-gita you would tell us often sriram suggests would say hold god with one hand and word with the other and when the work is done hold god with both hands uh in this difficult year on behalf of everybody in the class we'd like to thank you for holding our hands thank you thank you yes yes now so a guru or acharya is not supposed to have any other desires but this is allowable that this is very satisfying for the archery to see that people are benefiting people are inspired by the message which is being transmitted it's not my message at all it is a very impersonal thing i'm transmitting something very ancient i'm also blessed by studying it thinking about it and then being able to transmit it it's a wonderful thing then as anybody else i i had a question but i want to tell you about an experience we talk about mantra so after i started listening to you about seven eight years you're still in india i got very much attracted towards suramar krishna order i was i was initiated before in a shakhtar tradition so so i was very feeling you know a lot of unrest in my mind so somebody told me to take uh initiation again from swami swahan he was still alive uh but i was still very very disturbed about this whole thing so i used to read swami ketara on these books so i made an appointment with him in saint louis and went and saw him and asked him the question and he said definitely not he said you def he said he said you have been initiated definitely not and what is his advice was make your house a temple definitely that means don't change your guru don't change don't change guru so i just want it's correct important point and our our gurus will always say that there's no need to change your guru or ishtari because the central teaching of sri ramakrishna is one reality alone appearing in many forms and you practice in many ways many names many forms why do you have to change from one to the other if you really feel the need to change you really feel the need to take up something new then it's all right otherwise not at all then anybody else okay all right okay can i ask a question yes yes yeah so the question i have is um how do i i'm struggling with this how do i differentiate between a desire and a duty um you know especially in a family situation when you have children you're wanting them to do certain things i'm not really able to understand whether i that's coming out of my desire or whether it's my response don't worry too much about it don't worry too much about it as parents you're always well-wishers for the children so do the best that you can whatever you do as a parent it is generally for the welfare of the child and that's really part of your duty as well as you can but the duty also has duty is very easy to do as karma yoga because it's like doing a puja it's something that i have to do now i mentally offer it to the lord a desire you'll see very clearly that i have a personal angle in this duty is let me do it after that the result is up to god my part was to do it my part was to say these things my part was to guide the children in these ways after that what happens is up to the lord but if i am very concerned about what is happening and the child should be like this and not like that that is a personal uh desire of course thank you all right i had a small announcement giant reminded me so giant talk is at 7 30 tomorrow isn't it oh yes ma'am 7 30 p.m yes eastern standard yes 7 30 p.m eastern time so rabbi ben spratt with whom you are already acquainted acquainted he's actually we talked about the mystical traditions in islam judaism christianity in judaism the kabbalah traditions he's an expert so he's going to speak tomorrow at 7 30 on our in our vedanta society guest lecture series so do join us tomorrow at 7 30. once again happy christmas to everybody namaskar stay safe thank you for [Music] foreign