Video 63

63. Bhagavad Gita I Chapter 5 Verses 7-10 I Swami Sarvapriyananda

[Music] guru all right so we are studying the fifth chapter of the bhagavad gita and we had done verse number six and we're entering verse number seven in verse number six we saw is that right verse number we're done by verses four five six last time right sannya says to mahabharata the choice of if i want to realize god if i want to be enlightened so why not give up everything else and make a one one-pointed effort you know no need for samsara the family and job and just give it all up and study meditate pray and become enlightened why not do that a monastic life will enable me to do that so sri krishna hears he says that without this without sufficient preparation if the body-mind are not prepared then just thinking that i can live like that it's not that easy look come after me it's very difficult to lead an ideal monastic life unless the mind is prepared that's why in advaita vedanta also they talk about the entry conditions all the teaching will become beneficial if the entry conditions are there in monastic life also there are certain entry conditions otherwise what will happen is i gave many examples last time in the last class that um the great the big problem will be the great spirit with which you set out that i will realize god in this very life itself suddenly to your astonishment you'll find and your display you'll find that spirit itself is diminishing and disappearing um because of the hard shape because of the deprivation all those problems come and then this so without the inner spirit there is no use putting on a special colored cloth and shaving your head and staying in a mountain cave uh it it doesn't work but when the mind is purified yoga yoktamunir brahma when the sage with the purified mind the purification is done through karma yoga which is what krishna is recommending to arjuna so if the mind is purified one can follow the path of gyana of the path of knowledge in the householder life or in the monastic life both will work without the purified mind neither in the householder life nor in the monastic life it will not work it will not lead to enlightenment and the further danger in the monastic life is that uh so the all the supports of householder life are withdrawn all the engagements are withdrawn you think of the all the activities and the engagements in the householder life as obstructions as a burden but there are also supports they give meaning and purpose to your life there are people you have to take care of there are jobs that have to be done there are responsibilities and this is a good training it's a good discipline yeah that is why when uh novices join ashrams a lot of responsibilities given a lot of structure is given to them if you so the the structure imposed by parents and and school or college you leave all that and suddenly become a monk you think you're running away from it not at all even more difficult structure will be imposed upon you immediately and that's really good it's good for it's good for even for mental health also it's good i remember this monk he told me he's a remarkable a senior monk remarkable he's a scientist a chemical engineer who worked here in the united states um brilliant brilliant man so he became a monk many many years ago decades ago and he said when he was a novice he joined our order and he was sent to our ashram in narendrapur which is a very big educational complex just outside calcutta school and college and things like that and he was a brahmacharya and of course very highly qualified so they put him to work in the college i think and he had so much work he grumbled like most of us we all did that he and he actually wrote a letter to the um to the assistant secretary at that time was atma she who later became the general secretary and finally became the president of the order he said i am working i complained i've got so much work so much responsibilities i've joined the order to study and meditate and pray to realize god and i've got so much like you know i have to correct the papers of the students day and night i'm engaged in this and the one line answer came back that you are engaged for 16 hours a day in the service of sri sri rama krishna i am delighted to know this and i bless you with all my heart in bengali it is more formal bengali something like you know to me i am very happy i am very happy to know what you have said and i bless you then so up to this is karma yoga now what is the result of all this if one does karma yoga and one gets the qualification one is told about one can become a monk or one can remain in the householder life itself continue in the household life itself but then one is qualified to practice gyana yoga and attain enlightenment so what happens from the seventh verse onwards a very beautiful description of the final stage of spiritual life and illumination number seven a so he who is devoted to selfless action yoga and pure in mind whose body and senses are under control and whose self has become the self of all is not touched even though he may be performing work so a lot has been said in this seventh verse what is the preliminary practice what is the result of that karma yoga and then gyani yoga and illumination enlightenment what is the nature of that enlightenment and then finally back to the old question what about activities in the world see the whole chapter is that you are spiritual fine but what about the activities in the world in what will they not bind you and if they will not bind you then how to perform them should you give them up entirely we don't give them up then what is the attitude of the gyani with which you will perform those activities your all your duties in the world so answer to that question is also given from a from an enlightened person's perspective how does the world look i mean how does how do all these responsibilities with which everybody's faced how do they deal with it so what is said here first term used is yoga yukta literally connected to yoga practicing yoga established in yoga but what yoga is meant here karma yoga having performed karma yoga and what is this having performed karma yoga it is first of all making up your mind my goal is god realization my goal is enlightenment it's no longer my goal is no longer to climb the corporate ladder it's in delicate balance to be performed here you may still be climbing the corporate ladder if you are in samsara so like arjuna is in samsara so he's the general of the army if he's going to do karma yoga he still has to do exactly the same stuff he was doing earlier but what's the big difference now the big difference is earlier he was fighting to win the battle and get the benefits of winning being the victor in the battle the earlier you were doing it for artha and karma for pursuit of pleasure uh pursuit of wealth and power and satisfaction in this world pursuit of dharma even you know like doing big things good things in this world dharma takama was the goal now your goal becomes moksha enlightenment god realization and yet you're still doing the same thing this is an important thing to understand this is what krishna is again dr again and again driving into arjuna so this is karma yoga first of all i make up my mind my goal is god realization second then what do i do i look around all the activities in which i have which have to be now be performed as my duty there might be a lot of superficial nonsense in my life which i can easily eliminate if my goal is no longer distraction in the world if my goal is no longer pursuing pleasure or pursuing money then there's a lot of things i can get rid of but there are many things i cannot and i should not get rid of so the obligatory duties you have if you have if you hold a job then you certain duties you have to perform because you are being paid for it if you hold a position in society if you have a position in a family there's certain duties you have to perform and you should perform the certain good activities like being charitable like um self-control like uh you know the religious activities the pujas and things like that one may continue to perform all that but the goal is now god realization and so all these activities are now performed in the spirit of worship of god this is the core of karma yoga all activities now become puja keep the puja paradigm in mind what is the puja paradigm puja means ritualistic worship what is ritualistic worship paradigm here is the shrine here is the image or picture which i'm worshiping god through this major picture and here are the mantras which i utter here are the flowers which i offer here is the food which i offered the incense so there's a whole activity and the purpose of that activity is worship of god the physical activity verbal activity and mental activity all in a puja all of these things are present but the whole thing is i'm worshiping god now krishna says here is the great secret of karma yoga transform every other action your so-called secular action into puja whether you're driving a car cooking food you know doing an assignment in school submitting a report in your office giving a presentation all of that is like puja puja who's puja ishwara puja the worship of god now at the end of puja what do you get so we all there's a very nice way of thinking thinking about it at the end of the puja all the offered food is now distributed as prasada as the sacred food the sacramental food and everybody accepts it as the food which has been given to god now it is prasada for me at the end of karma what do you get at the end of karma what do we get karma of allah the results of karma so if the karma is a puja then the karma fella the results of karma are prasada it is what i get back from the lord i've offered this to the lord now what i get back from the lord it i am no longer judging it see the way we judge when when i get food on my plate we get nice fruits so i judge that look i like the mangoes i want the mangoes i don't like the pears so i don't want the pears and i want more of this and less of that all these judgments are there if we want the want the fruits and the whole purpose is to enjoy the fruits but when the same fruits are prasada my whole attitude is not that i'm going to the attitude the attention is not on the fruit and i'm going to eat this one i won't eat that one i want more of this no whatever comes to me i accept it as um as a blessings of the lord it is sacramental food it has come to me and i'm just filled with devotion to have get a little bit of it whatever comes to me it might be a pear it might be a mango it might whatever it is it is prasada for me similarly earlier in the world we had very specific things we wanted we want success in this we want respect from that person we want good behavior from others these are the variety of things we are chasing in the world now whatever the world throws back at us is the result of my puja is prasada i will quietly accept it the good fine the bad i will tolerate it but it is prasada for me so this becomes karma yoga it's a very beautiful concept and very powerful it will transform my mind it will purify my mind not easy it will be a struggle but it will purify my mind what will be the result he says purification of mind the result of such karma yoga not at the end as we do more and more as time goes by the mind becomes more and more purified more and more purified the the um sign of that is the raag advaisha the strong likes and dislikes the strong obsessions with the world the strong reactions to the world those will become tempered and less endless i won't react so sharply to things in the world whatever happens i won't react so um you know instantly so intensely and even if the little bit of reaction that is there will be unhappiness they will this bound to happen we are not enlightened yet but we can easily overcome it we regain our um you know our balance we regain our peace of mind our serenity very quickly this is one sign that karma yoga we have it's we are progressing in karma yoga depression won't be there or even if it comes it will go away anger at others will not be there even if it comes it will diminish and go away soon as soon as it comes the next moment it is gone jealousy at others won't be there i'm not in the race anymore i'm not no i don't want a bigger house than my neighbor a better car than my name no i'm not in that race anymore so all these negative reactions will diminish many good good effects you will see on the mind then another word is there viji tatma vegeta means controlled or conquered the word atma has been used twice so it's very interesting atma simply means self so in the ultimate sense in advaita vedanta when we say atma it means um existence consciousness place the ultimate the pure consciousness that is the self which is brahman the ultimate reality of the of the universe but atma in a general sense it just means the self so in one sense the body is atma in one sense the sensory system is atma in one sense the mind itself is the atma in whatever way you can take it you noticed and we are doing the vedanta sara class and we saw to the answer to the question who am i the different philosophers different thinkers suggest all these things who am i i'm the body who am i i am the mind who am i i am the sensory system i'm the prana so on so here atma has been used twice neither none of them are in the sense of um in the first line none of them a sense of the ultimate reality vishuddhatma purified atma purified atma here means purified mind atma here means mind then visit atma here atma means body body is controlled mind is purified jitendriya control of senses the tongue is controlled specially important tongue has double role taste and talking so both have to be controlled and the eyes very important ears very important so touch all these senses are um they come under control they don't change their autonomous likes and dislikes each has a tendency certain kind of kind of limited intelligence is there in each of these senses and they have their own likes and dislikes and if we are not careful we will be dragged along behind these senses when we are no longer dragged along strong preferences i like this food i don't like that food strong likes and it's like see temperature we in india we always felt these countries in canada or united states are so cold but no modern technology has allowed such a fine temperature control that people here actually get used to a very comfortable temperature and you have to because it is you know people in texas are realizing it can get terribly cold if you don't have temperature control but what that does is that the resistance to fluctuations in temperature is actually much more in india but these fluctuations are much less but still because there's no protection against um fluctuations to temperature you get used to being cold for a while you get used to being warm or hot or sweaty those things you have to take it in stride so um body senses mind are under control the result of karma yoga is one result is purified mind senses under control body is under control notice also as a just as a sort of implication why these things are necessary if you want to become a monk he said this is necessary whether you whether you become a monk or a householder isn't necessary without this you cannot go into ghana yoga it will not work fine but if you want to become a monk also these things are very important who will give you food according to your taste who will give you a climate controlled uh cave in the mountains so all those things you have to put up with and if you are disturbed too much by that then meditation is not possible prayer is not part possible study is not possible now the third time atma is used in this one long term server so third or fourth time it is used here it is used in the sense of the ultimate reality brahman so the word atm is used again once again and here is used in the sense of the ultimate reality brahman what is what is being said here once one engages in a yoga and listen it is not in the sense of a sequence and it's not that you do 30 years karma yoga then you go into ghana yoga it all goes together as right now for example we are trying to convert our life into karma yoga and also we are studying the gita and the upanishads and vedantasara and all of that and thinking about it so what the knowledge which comes from gyani yoga that realization comes in three stages or there are three deeper levels to it uh for the first level is i am not the body mind this body when once the body mind and senses come under control i am not the body mind sensory system i am the witness of it i am the consciousness the driver panchaka viveka avastha viveka the method of the three stage the method of the five sheets method of the seer and the scene and they're in all these different ways we begin to appreciate that i am actually not the body and mind so long i thought or i didn't even think without thinking i took it for granted i am this thing now i begin to notice that this is a thing a thing to whom to me the consciousness to me the awareness i am not this body no more than i am the cloth which covers this body even more amazing i am not the sensory system seeing hearing smelling tasting touching i exist whether i see or hear or smell even more amazing i am not even the mind my precious thoughts and my memories and my personality even that's like a clock which covers the real me and the real me is not a material body the real me is not composed of sensations the real me is not even composed of thoughts and ideas and memories the real me is impersonal it's not even a person i begin to see that i begin to get freedom from the person the person is still there but i begin to see that essence the real eye the self cannot be any of these material objects cannot be any of these objects the subject is really a subject it's in no sense an object the spirit is really spirit it's in no sense material everything else including the mind is material how do you define material these are very simple things in vedanta it will be like even now it these are stunning insights for modern consciousness studies how do you define what is material and what is not material very simple anything that you can experience as an object anything that is experienced or in principle can be experienced as this is jada material an object to consciousness this cloth is it material i said yes you don't need vedanta to tell us that but why i'm giving you the vedantic principle for deciding whether something is material or not yes it's material because it's an object i see it okay the body is it material yes it's material because of course it's made of the five elements and all of that but the vedantic principle hold on to the vedantic principle do you see it yes i see it i touch it i can smell it i can taste it i can even hear the rumbling in my tummy so the body is material it's an object and the breath i feel it breathing in i feel it breathing out i feel it i observe it therefore it's an object and emotions object why because now the vedantic principle comes into its own glory because if with modern psychology or modern physics or whatever it you can't decide whether emotions are made of matter or what but the vedantic principle holds good absolutely rock solid are you aware of it are you aware of the emotions yes when i'm happy i'm aware that i'm happy i feel happy without feeling happy there's no point in saying i'm happy when i'm miserable i feel it if you feel it it's an object so it's material emotions are also material thoughts are material memories are material ideas all these vedantic ideas are material and if you dismiss all of it and there's a blankness if the blankness is unexperienced as an object that blankness is also material that's the anandamaya question you the consciousness are the witness of all of this and see what follows from all of it what follows is an amazing consequence all the properties of these material entities the property of the body to age to become diseased to become overweight or to become skinny to become sick they are properties of the body they are not properties of consciousness i am consciousness when the body ages i do not age the body is sick i am not sick i am the observer of the sick body i am the illuminator of the sick body same thing for the mind and the prana when the mind is happy i am not happy the weird way of putting it but i am the witness of the emotion of happiness if you look at it that way it becomes pretty obvious even depression i am the light of like the sun illuminating the dark cloud i am the sun of consciousness illuminating the dark cloud in the mind so anyway my point is first of all i realize i am not body i'm not the prana the senses the mind not the shadier not the sukhma sharira not the karna shadeers gross body sukhma sharira subtle body karnasharida causal body they are all body i am not body neither gross nor subtle nor causal and therefore all the problems with they are of the body and they should be kept in the body don't make the mistake of imposing them upon yourself the witness consciousness you are free of all of it so tremendous tremendous insight it we need to work on this stay with this this is the first one then the next deeper this thing deepens further you ask the question we have gone through this many times advaita vedanta you know you you deepened the question by asking is there one such consciousness or many such consciousnesses in each body and mind is there a separate consciousness or is it one witness consciousness and advaita vedanta krishna will tell us in the 13th chapter advaita vedanta tells us consciousness is one if you think that there are different selves the different consciousnesses then that is sankhya sankhya philosophy but advaita vedanta says it's one consciousness and there are arguments for that there are ways to understand why it has to be one consciousness the simple argument it would be that how would you differentiate why would you even say there are different consciousness you can easily differentiate bodies you can easily differentiate minds but what would you differentiate why would consciousness be different then so this is the second stage and one more stage is there the third stage is this one consciousness to which appears the universe the body the prana the senses the mind intellect thoughts feelings even the causal body all these things the material the object which appears to consciousness the subject is are they really separate from consciousness or are they one with consciousness notice that the way i'm asking the question i'm changing it first we asked am i separate from this am i the body or am i separate from the body and we came to the understanding we you are the subject the body is an object you are the seer the body is the seen you are clearly separate i am separate from the body but now i'm asking the question is the body separate from you is the mind separate from you is the world separate from from you you the consciousness from you the consciousness whatever is experienced in consciousness whatever is experienced in consciousness consciousness is separate from that but are those objects to consciousness separate from consciousness in hindi the sadhu from whom i heard this after teaching viveka separation of the seer and the scene he said the seer is separate from the scene correct you are separate you are not an object you are not material you are the spirit you are consciousness you are the seer but that which we separated till now is it sep really separate from you the consciousness and the answer will be no all of this is an appearance the ultimate the third stage of advaita vedantes all of this is an appearance in consciousness not separate from consciousness nothing but consciousness it just appears to be an object there is no other way of experiencing the only way of experiencing means immediately means that there will be a knower and a means of knowledge and an object known pramata pramaya pramada or to put it even more simply subject object but is the object something separate a second entity apart from the pure subject and advaita's grand conclusion is no pure subject alone exists it appears as its own object what is this own object universe body senses mind intellect and the causal body too so this is the grand conclusion of advaita vedanta when krishna says he's talking about the second stage the you are consciousness and you realize you are the same consciousness in all beings and then what happens the question about how do you deal with life so will it all siege uh sees finally people have these wrong conceptions of advaita vedanta i saw somebody written a comment in one of the to one of the lectures on youtube so this advaita is it against all action and i think it's a very negative philosophy it is not against action some people think that oh brahman is against is not active brahman is beyond action and what happens in advaita you realize you are brahman so you will go beyond action so all action will cease everybody will stop working the economy will collapse no we're strongly entrenched in the body when i say i am brahmana i think somehow the body is brahman and the body will stop working no means while doing while active while intensely active is not stained not uh not affected by the results by action and its results there is one kind of spirituality it's very understandable in initial stages of spiritual life we want peace we want peace we are so troubled by the world or by our own thoughts feelings emotions guilt frustrations that we want peace troubled by the external world troubled by our own thoughts and feelings we want peace so the way we look for peace is this generally is to shut down everything i don't want to be engaged with the world anymore the moment i say i don't want anything from the world my first reaction is then i don't want to be engaged with the world anymore i don't want a job i don't want to have anything to do with the family and relatives and i don't want to interact with people outside i so people think that this person has become very spiritual not to be seen in social circles anymore so you join it's very understandable that's a natural reaction first that we withdraw a kind of withdrawal from activities from society um but that is not what advaita vedante is talking about that's not the only way that's the yogic way the yogic way is to shut down the world in the ultimate goal will be samadhi although even in patanjali yoga the ultimate goal of samadhi is again knowledge from samadhi arises knowledge but still the method is samadhi so the method of samadhi is to shut down the world my interactions with the world my activities even my mind stop thinking so that's the yogic patanjali yoga approach yogas cessation of the cessation of the movements of the mind is yoga but advaita vedanta is not that there is another way the the way of bhakti where you don't shut down the word you connect it all to lord you connect it all to my beloved krishna beloved ramakrishna my mother assalamu would say my mother is all of this why should i be afraid of anything why should i hate anybody why should i be disturbed by anybody the good and the bad and the ugly all is my my divine mother and so it is beautiful i find my lord in everybody and everything and i am only with my lord so i'm happy no matter how people behave with me no matter if there are people whom i like people whom i dislike places activities foods liking and dislike that doesn't matter it is all my lord or it belongs to my god so i'm happy with it i've seen people like that also they connect everything to their ishta devata to the lord bhakti approach but even that is not advaith approach the advaita approach is that let everything be as it is don't shut it down as in yoga don't even superimpose the idea of god upon it you realize the underlying oneness i am brahman and all of this none of it is different from me the most annoying person is nothing but i alone the um you know very annoying sound is there somebody was complaining there's so much sound i cannot study now notice i said that notice the sound is in your mind thing is annoying when i feel it is from outside and disturbing me and pulling my attention away but the fact is even without advaita vedanta think about it sound which you experience you experience in your mind from outside it comes into your ears it's just a wave sound wave and then it becomes neural impulses in your auditory nerves then it goes to the brain center from there somehow nobody knows how it jumps into a first person experience in the mind there's a writing in the mind noise in the mind the form of noise and i get annoyed why is that dream so making so much noise but i have really no connection with the dream i have connection only with my mind and that mind is nothing but of like a wave in me the consciousness so advaita vedanta regards everything as you yourself whom are you getting annoyed with whom are you getting angry with whom are you getting jealous with that's why vivekande said whom to blame or whom to praise when blamer and blamed praiser and praised are but one that one is yourself i really like this which i heard from a sadhu that advaith is not for wiping out this transactional world infinite limitless in the transactions of the world you are fearless you are serene you are loving you are understanding you are gentle because there's nothing here that can disturb you because it's only you so this is and that you are the consciousness in all beings all beings are you actually and therefore while working none of it disturbs you for the further reason that work is at the level of the book level of the body work is at the level of the body work is at the level of the prana of the senses work is at the level of the mind consciousness does not act consciousness only illumines all of this so it is not does not act and it's not stained by the action or its results so guru van na pina lip while all activities are going on then why are you saying doing guru one who is doing ultimately you alone are doing without you the consciousness body and mind would not act and yet you are free of it so this is the magic this is how an enlightened person uh handles the activities what activities go on all activities will go on of course good dharmika because why the why why the why moral if the enlightened person is not affected by action the enlightened person could do any moral activities also but notice what was said just before to become enlightened first you need the purification of mind you need the control of the body you need the control of the senses such a person would be unlikely to do anything adharmic evil immoral why not because think about why people do evil actions why people do immoral actions not that people want to be moral not that people want to be unethical they do it people are unethical or immortal because the results of that they can't resist it it's either fear or temptation either by fear one tells a lie because the result if i tell the truth i might get into trouble so tell a lie that is unethical out of fear not that that person is in love with lying just in love with cannot resist the cannot resist the fear of getting into trouble of telling the truth or the opposite temptation i will get so much money by taking a bribe the person is not in love with taking bribes or being corrupt the person is love so much love with money cannot resist so a people are immoral people are unethical not because they are performing karma yoga i will be immoral for the sake of immorality i don't want anything else out of sheer you know disinterested immorality disinterested unethical activity i don't want anything i don't gain i stand to gain anything it is my worship to be immoral no it is ridiculous nobody ever does that so one does that because one cannot control it it's driven by fear driven by temptation one does wrong things and so when one has purified the mind when has controlled the body as controlled the senses will no longer be driven by fear or temptation therefore one will not perform immoral activities long before getting enlightenment after enlightenment why would such a person person be moral all activity is true that neither moral nor immoral actions will taint the consciousness which the enlightened person realizes himself or herself to be yeah what activities go on next few verses will tell us verse 8 and 9 basically everything can go on this this wrong idea that why once one become enlightened enlightened does an enlightened person eat somebody complained about me i'm not i'm not claiming to be enlightened by the way but you complained this person is not a gyani because ghani is don't talk so much so he's talking too much so let me give some examples guys once one gets enlightened so he has a particular idea of a gyani of an enlightened person who accepts it quietly well i'm saying thank god that some gyan is at least talk otherwise we would not have got all these precious teachings some yanis talk and they teach and they put their realization down in the books and give lectures and so we get all of this all activities go on villagani eat the person is eating that means can't be an enlightened person so the poor and i told you the story of this monk who was in the mountains and he was very austere he slept with his head on up on a brick not a pillow but a brick and the village women were going to collect water from the river and they saw this monk lying down and his head on a brick and one of the women commented to the to her friends loudly so that the monk would hear see how addicted he is to comfort he needs a pillow and the monk was so affronted that even a brick and these people are criticizing me for it so he threw away the brick and immediately the woman commented look he's a monk but he still hasn't overcome anger he's getting angry verse number eight and nine so all activities you will see naiva kinchet [Music] the man of selfless action who knows the truth means who is already enlightened thinks i am not doing anything even while seeing hearing touching smelling eating going sleeping breathing speaking excreting grasping and opening and closing the eyelids believing that the senses rest in the sense objects notice every activity of the sense organs every activity of the motor organs this is sort of indicated here all activities go on the enlightened person um it means one who has realized i am brahmana ahmram has been one has realized then what does this person see sees the same world and sees the body and mind fully active what is going on question i am seeing seeing is going on srinivam hearing is going on smelling is going on eating is going on including tasting enlightened person should not taste no can taste it might be indifferent to taste might not ask for delicious dishes but can definitely make out so don't think that i'm inviting an enlightened enlightened person and i'm going to serve him food but because his enlightenment doesn't matter whatever is happening he's not going to taste now he's going to very much going to taste may not complain but it's going to taste so ashnan eating gachan walking moving around going from place to place can go why not the body is there body can walk so open can does the person sleep yes sleeps swashan breathing in and out pranapan speaks so see i should tell that person the quote from the gita enlightened person can speak so if enlightened person can speak i can also speak then whis region excretion then greenhand accepting things or holding things on mission emission down to the blinking of the eyes opening and closing the eyelids all those actions are performed just like anybody else and yet not like anybody else it is the difference what difference does enlightenment make here naiva kinchit karum it is absolutely clear i which i pure consciousness i the illuminator of all actions do not do any action it's impossible for me to do any action anyway i shine upon all of these the activities and the absence of activities also when there's no activity when the mind has shut down senses are shut down in deep sleep or in samadhi i shine equally there i am that one shining everywhere naiva kinchit all the time in the midst of all action there is no there is no conflict with action now what action will that enlightened one do exactly what is designated for that body and mind so the enlightened one might teach vedanta might sit in meditation might feed the poor might um you know have a school or a college might be an activist you know might or have been invited to give a talk about mahatma gandhi later next month so might be a person um you know fighting for the freedom of a colonized people against the oppressor but notice the difference will be he will not hate the colonizer very interesting he will look upon them equally i i remember reading at one place the holy mother mashaladevi so they were the you know the people around her at one time this was during the british rule in india so they were complaining about all the atrocities that the british were doing on the indians and on the colonized and the mother did not join in the condemnation of the british i mean she condemned the atrocities she had absolutely she was very angry with all the atrocities that had been done but she did not join in in the the condemnation of the british and the hatred of the english she just said they too are my children so there it is exactly the same from there from the enlightened person's perspective all of them even if the person thinks that i am the enemy of this enlightened person of this whatever the enlightened person would not think of you as the enemy at all would think of you as exactly the same as the closest friend naiva kinchit karo meaty i do not do anything so intense activity at the level of the body and mind fully compatible with complete and total peace and serenity and because consciousness is always the same serene shining the mind also becomes very peaceful this is another thing the mind can be active and yet be at peace the body is fully active and the mind is also active and yet peaceful not disturbed by actions not disturbed by the consequences which come by actions naiva kinchit karumiti centered in the truth who that person this is the attitude the attitude of the knower of truth the one who realizes i am brahmana then there is one beautiful verse i'll just read that and then we'll take the questions it concludes this topic by saying some beautiful example is given you see he who performs actions dedicating them to the lord and giving up attachment is not attached not touched by sin as a lotus leaf by water so the lotus leaf remains in the water but the water slides up the lotus lip leaf it does not accumulate there so similarly karma does not touch the enlightened person now here it is said this translation which i read dedicating the actions to the lord so that's the karma yogi's attitude that can also be the bhaktas attitude but brahmani aadhaya karmani the exact term here from a gyana yoga perspective means being centered in brahman and performs all actions so it is like what we read earlier who sees all actions as brahman and all the accessories of actions the instruments with which you perform the actions the brahman the action itself is brahman the ones for whom you perform the action is brahman you the person who's performing the action is brahman and of course you are the ultimate reality brahman itself all of these the person the action the instruments the people from whom you are doing action they are all appearances in brahman and one who whose attitude is this that person attains brahman attains brahman means realizes i am brahman so brahman being centered in brahman whose work who performs all activities does not cease from activity sangam giving up all attachment to it so all attachment is possible giving up is possible at two levels one is at the level of karma yoga when you are doing all the work you still think of yourself as a person the karma yogi thinks of oneself as a person i am this person this is the body the mind i'm trying to realize i am brahmana but i still have not realized that and i am i think of brahman as god god of the universe and i'm performing all my actions as worship of god so in that way i'm performing actions as a karma yogi but as a gyane yogi when i understand my nature as brahman then i realize i am brahman all the actions of brahman everything and every person i come into contact with in these activities is brahman so that becomes so that itself is the detachment from action sangam taktva means giving up attachment so giving up attachment can be done in two ways one is the or the preliminary karma yoga way i am no longer doing it for my own personal gain i am doing it as worship puja just as you are not attached you don't have personal access to this flower and giving of course one can do puja with a full attachment i'm offering this flower and this food and these offerings so i want certain things this much money or this much success or this job that is sakurama puja but nishkama puja come puja which is done without any acts to grind any personal motive i offer these flowers and this incense and this food to the lord out of love of my heart this is the way only way i find of adoring you exactly like that i do all work i still think of myself as a person i'm doing all this work as worship offering them to god that is one way of being detached sangam taktwa giving up all attachment the higher deeper way of being detached is to see brahman in all activities that is the deeper way everything is brahman then what will be attached to water there is no need as brahman i do not need anything therefore i'm not doing activities for the sake of getting anything all the people i come into contact with all they are i'm not really coming into contact with them they're all appearances in me in brahmana they're all one with me so this is uh um [Music] in all beings of the world you find in every activity in every person and every living being every state you find the same same divinity everywhere that itself is a renunciation realization itself is renunciation and do not covet anything and shankaracharya comments there do not covet anybody's wealth there is no wealth to be coveted at all because it's all brahmana they could go on they'll just indicate here for your interest those who have read the show punished the second mantra guru never visits the you know the stain of karma being caught up in the cycle of karma now shankaracharya gives one interpretation of that he says if you have not realized brahman if you are unable to realize he clearly said those who are unable to realize i am brahman then live your life like this perform ritualistic worship perform moral ethical action and this is the only way to save yourself from the negative karma bad karma to keep on doing good karma without any desire kurvan neve but swami vivekananda gives a different interpretation he says that having realized brahman in this way see brahman everywhere and by that renunciation alone you know so the first mantra second mantra is flying this is in continuance of the first mantra so here it deviates sharply from shankaracharya's interpretation what shankaracharya has done is in his bhashya isha was upanishad he split it into two one set of mantras at the beginning is the state of ghana yoga and enlightenment i am brahmana realizing that and that is clearly described and the rest is the performance of karma yoga to become fit for gyani yoga what swami vivekananda has done is has interpreted it in one flow so enlightenment first mantra shows what is enlightenment and everything else is a consequence how do you work after enlightenment in this way so like a different interpretation i remember the first time i saw this difference in interpretation i was so excited i took it uh to a very senior swami swami prabhan anandiji who is now the vice president of the order he had this name as general secretary i was so excited i was a young monk and i said swami look at this um what swami vivekananda is saying and shankaracharya is saying is very different he um he's given sort of a smirk and he had a way of looking down his his glasses like that and he said i can give you 11 different interpretations i've come across at least 11 different interpretations of that anyway more of that later so that's a very interesting open issue it's a small upanishad but it's difficult because of these tangles all right so lipyattena a person is not um stained by karma papa means sin here bad karma but from an enlightened person's perspective knee bad karma good karma both are karma if you get if you are attached to good karma you will get heaven and you will be caught in the cycle of samsara equally as the persons who have got bad karma they will go to hell and come back to the world to work out their eventual liberation and if you've got good karma you'll go to heaven but you'll still come back again to work out your liberation so the enlightened person even the karma yogi let alone the enlightened person does not want either good karma or bad karma even the karma they just look at the stages um bad karma nobody wants bad karma by karma i am here i mean the results of the karma results of karma because bad karma leads to unhappiness misery but people earn bad karma because they cannot they cannot restrain themselves from doing evil and we talked about it earlier fear or temptation you can't overcome that and so end up doing what is unconsciously doing unethical things that's bad karma and now there are others who can restrain themselves who are moral decent you know god-fearing people moral people good people in the society that's the backbone of society and what do they do they want good karma so this life will go well and the next life will also go well so get more punya more good karma do the duties in life as they are as expected of you do good to society to go to people around you be charitable be be honest and moral all of that good karma for what not for enlightenment but for having a good life in this world and the next and this requires a staunch faith in karma you see when sadhu said you know he's talking about corruption in india and monk in north of india he put it nicely he said i've seen this change literally i've seen i've seen this change in my lifetime when we were kids in a village in the north of india i have seen a person being you know being threatened or tempted to to bear false witness in court to say say something false in court so that some powerful a rich person can win the case and that poor man refused to do so he said i can't tell a lie in court why because i have a family [Music] we have a family the whole idea was if i tell a lie the consequences will be so bad people my family will suffer and then this monk said again fast forward 50 years in the same village i've heard a person who went and told a lie in a court and he was asked why did you lie he said what can i do i have a family. what's the difference the first man has staunch belief in karma and that if i do immoral things even if nobody knows about it i i will suffer for it there is there is justice ultimately and the person 50 years later in same situation did exactly the opposite thing because of the same same thing that my family will suffer for want of food or you know they will i need this money now for immediate gains and the consequences of telling a lie is makes no difference to this person it doesn't believe in as long as i don't get caught he doesn't believe in karma or anything like that so this karma how karma gives rise to ethics and morality is a very clear demonstration same thing two of them said one said it in defense of um not telling lies i have family balbach i can't tell a lie and the other one said the same thing in support of telling a lie i have a family i have to tell a lie that's the second level of karma that people do good things so that they may get a good life here and hereafter the third level of karma is i want moksha enlightenment and to make myself fit for that i'm doing karma yoga so the karma i will do as a worship of god not because i will certainly not do evil things and i will also not do the good things just because i want the results of those good things i just want devotion to god i want purity of mine i want enlightenment and after that after enlightenment from a gyan yoga perspective karma still goes on but karma is no longer karma it is brahman itself brahma itself appearing in these forms in one sense everything goes on as it was earlier tsunami krishna tells us a story of that after enlightenment what happens he tells that there was a clerk who was put in jail for something and then he was released so he says will the clerk come out of jail and dance the jig or will he go back to his job in bengali so similarly after enlightenment the structure remains the same but internally it's not the same at all it's it's all the difference you are all the time invade in the divine radiance of a divine presence you are that presence itself externally it still remains the same you know as he said breathing and blinking and talking and walking and eating all of that goes on all right let me just quickly see the question before i forget tomorrow there's a beautiful talk uh by swami sarvadeva anandaji the head of our vedanta society in hollywood he's the head of the vegan society of southern california i think the talk is at 7 30 at 7 30. you will get the link for the talk just quickly go through the questions sudhir ji says all our experiences subject object and deep sleep subject object merges any stage when we experience subject itself or that enlightenment samadhi remember vedanta now you should be able to answer this question for yourself experience the subject itself normally experience means subject experiences object nowhere experiences the known with the help of a means of knowledge pramata knower the i the subject experiences pramaya book no the known object with the help of a pramana pramana means means of knowledge what is means of knowledge eyes for example so i am the subject i am experiencing the object with the help of a means of knowledge the eyes now you are asking how can i experience the i itself if i experience the i the subject experiences itself then the subject will become an object you need another subject to experience that object and to experience that subject you need another subject to experience that subject it will become anavas thadosha that means a regressive ad infinitum then is it is the subject entirely unknown then no vedanta says subject is self-luminous it is always self-revealed you don't need to experience it as you explain see if you understand this you are one step away from enlightenment just one step away why you don't need to experience experience means subject object in that structure why you don't need to do that do you ever feel i have to see my face i can only see it in a mirror or a picture no no no i have to cut out my face and put it in front then i can see it no you never feel that the reflection is enough to see the flesh reflection is enough so what is the place of reflection for after atma for the self what takes every experience in every experience you are revealed because you are the experiencing consciousness whatever you see light is revealed because you are seeing light only whatever object i see it's just reflecting light back to my eyes how will i see light itself that because light is there in a bulb i can look at it directly but suppose i could not then everything that i'm seeing is light because it's the right light being reflected back to me everything that you see is yourself you are seeing the the the subject itself but that requires knowledge um alpana chatterjias building on the above in deep sleep who registers the absence awareness of absence of experience and where who registers the sakshi pure consciousness itself registers but how registration and how where so that is in uh again itself in the anandamaya kosha vedanta sahara has explained this actually if indonesia class by the exceptionally subtle movements in the indi kosha the experience of absence in deep sleep is uh recorded prabhupada asks adharu yes that's what's going on bill all is experienced by consciousness but that is not proof that that which is experienced only exists in consciousness correct and therefore there is a lot of argument very subtle reasoning sankhya would say that all that is experienced based by experience by consciousness but it exists from its own side it has its own existence and then consciousness reveals it so that's the realist way of looking at it sankhya says that now the argument i will not get into it it's a long and con sort of very subtle kind of argument is to ask the question so consciousness is experiencing the object what is the relationship between consciousness and the object light can illumine this object light is different from the book and light reflects of the book and can loom in this object but then light is material the book is also material and a material light can be reflected of a material book but consciousness which is entirely subjective can it ever come in contact with a real object external to it it's very interesting it goes back to that superimposition d superimposition shankaracharya takes off his advaita from there itself how can conscious how can light come in contact with darkness therefore no matter how counterintuitive it seems consciousness is not coming in contact with anything else just as in dreams the dreaming mind does not come in contact with the real world whatever it comes in contact with trees and places and people and buildings and roads it is just the mind itself and there are arguments to prove this pretty interesting arguments um punita ji has given one of those arguments if it exists outside consciousness who is to prove or disprove its existence yes in uh krishna vishwanathan says the third stage of knowing that this universe appears in the self as there is only a single reality sounds like self-awareness prakash exactly no prakash very much from tantra is is like that um consciousness is prakasha and tantra says or kashmiri shaivism says this self-awareness is uh is also a real capacity of consciousness don't dismiss it as false but advaita vedanta does not accept it gloria says is the main block to realizing the oneness of everything the fear of loss of individual identity that is one thing but you know not really also you don't lose individual identity you become an individual for the first time really before that you're just a flux there's really no individual in the body mind if you think about it that's the buddhistic approach actually charles chau says to me self-realization is not only an equanimity it's also an humble acceptance of one's role in this life sawdharma which can link to christian accent concept of will of god correct surrender as far as this individual being is concerned the one result of enlightenment would be surrender actually you would have no problems in surrendering to the will of god yes it's a world of appearance you can say it is a transactional reality lower reality fine whatever it is but there would be no more problem in let this little creature which appears in maya let it leave live out its life as best as it can i know very clearly my life is the infinite i have no problem at all if this creature tumor dies tomorrow or lives for 100 years in misery nothing nothing to me really swami ramakrishna randarji this is a very interesting description of this american lady who was a nun who went to india and she saw some of the direct disciples of sriram krishna i think daya mata probably no i forget her name um yes you're right so she writes in one place when she is talking with swami ramakrishnan maharaja he speaks of his great difficulty in what is wait there is a call yes so great difficulty in um how he established the mutt in chennai and uh you know many struggles in his life and deva mata is she says i felt indignant to think that this holy person has gone through so much struggle and suffering why should this holy person suffer so much and when i express this she says the swami reacted with surprise and he said my real life is infinite let the lord play with this little thing as he will with this little creature as he will very beautiful all right then let us um are the guest lectures available anywhere here later many of the guest lectures which will uh which are uploaded in youtube later on for example the one tomorrow we'll upload it but it's uploaded not on a regular basis over a period of weeks or months but do come if you can for the guest lecture tomorrow that is 7 30 our time and 4 30 at in hollywood in pacific time food