Video 74

74. Bhagavad Gita I Chapter 6 Verses 3-4 I Swami Sarvapriyananda

[Music] [Music] guru we are on the sixth chapter and we had done the first two verses one second in the first two verses sri krishna re-emphasizes the importance of karma yoga though this chapter is on um dhyana on meditation before starting the actual theme of this chapter krishna once again talks about karma yoga basically how to spiritualize one's actions so that it becomes a part of one's sadhana i had i don't know if i mentioned to you the swami some of you may have seen him anu bhavanandaji he is known as popularly known as the laughing swami very humorous so once i heard him say um he was giving a talk in hindi on the gita and he said have you noticed one thing shri krishna teaches arjuna so many things in 18 chapters of the gita not one of which arjuna follows nothing arjuna does not do and practice anything for example what will be taught in the sixth chapter here none of it is useful to arjuna that you sit in this posture you breathe in this way keep your eyes closed and then focus like this he can't do that durian will fire an arrow at him if he tries to do that so now none of it is possible in the middle of the battlefield uh whether it is bhakti or the or inquiry self-inquiry let alone the meditation which you are going to learn in this chapter except one thing how to spiritualize his actions what he is doing throughout the day so the importance of karma yoga especially in today's day and age um we often run it down as a preliminary practice and krishna here also will say that it's foundational it is but it's a necessary condition for spiritual life this is a way of you know it's a necessary condition and sufficient condition the necessary condition is without that what you want will not happen without karma yoga this god realization enlightenment will not happen but it is not a sufficient condition at least according to advaita vedante that so if i do my karma yoga properly will i get enlightened no there is a little more to be done so there is this meditation which is going to talk about now and also ultimately self-knowledge ghana now before that he re-emphasizes importance of karma yoga and the way he does it is in the first verse he says greater than the sannyasi who has given up everything who has given up the daily activities with the ritualistic worship or um secular like the job or a family all kinds of social interactions and become a maybe a wandering monk or a hermit a sannyasi who has given up greater than that then greater than the yogi yogi in this traditional sense of a person who sits and meditates like a maybe a hermit who whose main spiritual practice is meditation greater than a yogi also greater than a sannyasi is the karma yogi he says how so how is the karma yogi greater than sannyasian greater than yogi because the karma yoga is actually performing actions and the sannyasi has given up the actions and shri krishna says not greater in the sense that the real sannyasi the real renouncer is the karma yogi the real yogi is the karma yogi how so and in the second verse which we saw last time yom sannyasa mitti prahu yogam tambidhi pandava nahi asanya sangkalpu yogi bhavati this is how is a karma yogi equal to a sannyasi how is a karma yogi equal to or greater than a meditator in this way the sannyasi gives up the desires for you know worldly pleasures worldly pursuits and also gives up all the activities related to that so may not be earning money does not have in fact is not earning money and does not have worthy possessions does not have early relationships so all the activities which are pursued for getting worldly pleasure worldly satisfaction so the pursuit of worldly satisfaction is given up and the activities related to that is are given up that's a sannyasi how is this karma yogi equal to sannyasi because the crucial thing about becoming a sannyasi is one must internally rise above the pursuit of worldly goals the pursuit of worldly pleasures the idea that by um you know by having a lot of sense enjoyment uh by making merry in the world by being by earning a lot of money and having a lot of property i'm going to be happy this this whole all-consuming pursuit of worldliness this sannyasi has given up completely this is sannyasi is very clear that this will not give me happiness this is not not the way to happiness the way to happiness is god realization spirituality self-realization whatever you call it and the karma yogi has the same thing the karma yogi also realizes the pursuit of worldly pleasures pursuit of worldly success is not the way to happiness except now the difference between the sannyas and the karma yogis sannyasi has given up the desire along with the activities along with the activities but the karma yogi has given up the desires but still continues to perform his or her duties as spiritual practice so it has not actually withdrawn from the world may still be holding a job may still be taking care of the family and the community but now internally the change has come internally now the goal is that i uh the purpose is my own spiritual evolution this purpose is is god realization i now understand in my own heart that the only way to find happiness is by realizing god or by getting self-knowledge this maturity has come but instead of formally giving up everything and going away the person continues as it is in the world in the world people may not see so much of a difference little difference maybe um earlier the person was very much involved in worldly activities swami ashoka and this used to say in i read once in one of his talks he's saying the 1950s in his into his audience in san francisco he is saying that once you become interested in spiritual life your friends or your children may say oh mom is no fun anymore so and your friends and your relatives may say that oh she's not interested in um on all the things you know she used to be interested in nashua kanji says i say good riddance i say good riddance um just today i was reading about this uh gentleman who is one of india's leading publishers and uh you know a very creative person in advertisement and all of that so he became very interested in spirituality in advaita vedanta he met uh eckhart tolled uh the power of now so he became very influenced by that and so on and then uh one day he writes himself that i went to i told eckhart tolle that uh i have i'm losing interest in you know advertising and creativity that you know making new and new advertisement campaigns so i'm just losing interest in that alexa totally immediately said thank god thank god that is a sign of progress yes it should be combined with interest in spiritual life if they say i'm losing interest in everything in the world i don't like anything but what about the vedanta what about meditation what about you know devotion some kind of spiritual do you like that that also does not appeal to me that's not good that's a that is a sign of depression and negativity it's not a sign of spirituality but one has seriously become interested in spiritual life in any form and less interested not so interested in all consuming interest in worldly life that's good you know with with eckhart cartoon i understand what he says thank god so the karma yogi like the sannyasi has lost the whole uh idea that by becoming by absorbing myself in worldly pursuits i will somehow be happy people have that feeling a devotee wrote to me that many years ago a monk told her that the both of them were watching from the window the city i don't know some city somewhere and they're seeing people going out you know streets full of people busy i'm sure pre pandemic times and then the monk asked this lady that where are they all going and the lady said i suppose everybody is going for their job or for a walk or something everybody has different reasons and the monk said no they are all going in search of happiness see that is true that is true all of them the little kid going out to play in the park the school children going to school and the parents busy taking the children to school and executives hurrying along for their job the old and retired person going for the daily walk all of them are going out in search of happiness and the spiritual seeker has realized that is not the way the way to find the same same search search is the same we all have the same search what the drug addict is looking for what the film actor in hollywood is looking for what the wall street trader here is looking for what the scholar is looking for in there in colombia university or nyu and what the spiritual seeker a monk in the monastery or maybe in the hills mountains looking for same thing same thing the spiritual seeker is more mature that's all so that that giving up has come that both sannyasi and karma yogi they know by worldly pursuits one cannot be happy if the sannyasi has not known that and still has given up external activities is asking for serious trouble so sannyasi knows that the monk knows that worldly pursuits one cannot attain ultimate happiness and has given up the worldly pursuits also the karma yogi also has the same attitude has made that same internal development that by worldly pursues ultimately it has to be done it is your karma to be in the midst of um of the household and people and all but you have the same understanding the same maturity has come ultimately no final uh peace of mind and fulfillment is attainable in these ways so in that sense karma yogi and sannyasi are equal karma yogi has given up internally externally continues with the activities the sannyasi has given up internal internal giving up is the sign is a true renunciation not the externally whether you are a monk or involved in worldly activities worldly active activity activities are themselves activities so um you can spiritualize them that is not so important how is this karma yogi equal to yogi the meditator the yogi's main problem why the mind does not settle down in meditation we shall see in detail later on in this chapter itself arjuna will ask the question why the mind refuses to settle down in meditation is worldly desires so ultimately worldly desires later on arjuna will ask all these techniques you are teaching me he is very blunt there are no use i can't meditate why who is saying this arjuna who is a very uh you know very accomplished person who's supposed to who's famous in mahabharata for his extraordinary powers of concentration that person is saying it meditation is difficult and why so marjano says the mind is restless and krishna says it is true the mind is restless but meditation is possible and he says two things he will say we will see all that later in detail and regular practice that is understandable regular practice is essential but he adds one more thing dispassion for the world without that vairagya for the world worldly activities world will continue to bother you even the slightest thing meditation is a very delicate thing so the slightest disturbance from the world will create a big disturbance in meditation so worldly desires you have to let go let go the worldly desire means it is not important to you anymore so if person the karma yogi has let go has transcended that then the karma yogi has the mind which is prepared for meditation the karma yogi's meditation will be better than the unprepared yogi who tries to meditate directly so that is the meaning of the second verse third verse [Music] for the sage who desires to attain to yoga action is said to be the means and for him alone when he has attained to yoga inaction is said to be the means this verse is important why is it important first of all um first of all you have heard me again and again talk about the structure of sadhana the structure of spiritual practices karma yoga is important meditation and bhakti are important and ultimately by guyana one gets moksha by knowledge one gets realization this structure i have mentioned that the um you know three cross three matrix i've talked about it earlier yes and i'm speaking again from a advaithic perspective non-dual perspective you see from an advaitic perspective non-dual perspective also all the practices are important um advaita vedanta says you are brahmana but that does not help us because until we know that we are brahmana until we realize that it is we are we keep on suffering we may be brahman i don't know maybe you're right we can say to vedanta but i don't know that and even if you tell me vedanta says i've told you now you are brahmana well you're a good person mr vedanta so i guess i can believe you but i don't see it i don't feel it until i don't see it i don't understand it i don't feel it then it will have no effect so realization means knowledge i'm ignorant about my own reality and that knowledge must come but it does not come so why does it not come and vedanta says the mind is disturbed mind is flickering so the mind has to be focused through meditation and we try meditation and the mind becomes restless we cannot meditate also why is the mind unable to meditate because the mind has so much impurity in it so much preconditioning in it so that impurities have to be cleansed purification of the mind that has to be done and there that is called and that can be done through karma yoga so now you have three levels at the first level impurity of mind is the problem and the result we want is pure mind and the method of doing that is karma yoga and that is an essential thing what i said earlier uh necessary condition not sufficient condition according to advaitha necessary condition so karma yoga gives you purity of mind with a pure mind we go to the second stage where the problem is flickering mind unsteady mind um you know restless mind and the result we want is a focused concentrated mind so focused mind how do you attain through dhyana yoga meditation and with a purified mind when you sit for meditation your meditation is quick easy and powerful and effective with that pure and meditative mind when we come to the final level where the problem is i do not know that i am brahman i don't see it i don't feel it i don't realize it so that ignorance is there the primeval ignorance what you might call primordial ignorance that can be removed only by knowledge and that knowledge arises by shavana manan and idityasana which is hearing and contemplation and vedantic meditation is it asana so that is gyana yoga with a purified and concentrated mind which we have got from the earlier levels that gyana yoga becomes effective and knowledge comes and we realize we are brahman we always wear brahman and the problem is solved and this is not done in stages it's sort of done all together but the emphasis is on karma yoga earlier more and more on on um yoga later on and gyani yoga also afterwards but all of that should go on together it's not that all right i'm not going to come to your class anymore from next time because i've realized my level is karma yoga i will do karma yoga and 20 years later i will come back to your class that will not work one must do it throughout one's life all of it karma yoga bhakti yoga dhyana yoga and gyani yoga so this structure i have spoken about three cross three matrix problem ignorance um solution knowledge method yoga second row problem restless mind the solution concentrated mind method dhyana yoga finally the bottom row problem impure mind solution pure mind method karma yoga so this three krusty matrix where does this come from where did you get it why do you say this is the structure why do you say this is the hierarchy in advaita so here is one of those verses which is um which is telling us which is giving us a clue to this structure it says for those who want to become enlightened yogam with dhyani yoga or karma yoga organa yogi want to become a ghana yogi and realize brahman karma karna much the method is karma yoga after yoga rudasya once purification of mind is attained then he says shamakar meditation becomes the method so ultimately knowledge is your goal so then i should do only yoga i should study vedant what you have taught me in second chapter second chapter only atma was taught in bhagavad-gita krishna taught only atma that's it that's enough won't work won't work first you must fulfill the necessary conditions what is necessary condition pure mind concentrated mind then only the vedanta which we are studying will realize will flash that realization will flash that breakthrough will come so um here is the clue you can see the the seeds are the clue to that structure three cross three matrix which i talk about this verse actually indicates that um one more point of yes meditation is an advanced practice everybody is interested in meditation but meditation is an advanced practice in bhagavad-gita itself which is meditation chapter 6 not chapter 2 chapter 3 chapter 4 chapter 5 only chapter 6 chapter 2 the highest truth is given to you first you are the atman then importance of karma yoga is talked about and chapter three four five yoga karma yoga theory is nicely delineated and after the importance of karma yoga has been thoroughly established chapter six will tell you about the next step which is meditation but there also we are beginning with an emphasis on on spiritualizing our daily activities in in the classic manual of meditation the patanjali yoga sutras which which is the stage of meditation of the eight limbed yoga eight limbed yoga the seventh one is meditation yama niyama asana pranayama so the seventh limb the seventh stage or seventh limb of the ashtanga yoga is the meditation not the first or second the first or second are equivalent to karma yoga yama and niyama are equivalent to what we call karma yoga yama nyama are the signs of a purified mind this is what has been said in the third verse of the bhagavad-gita update of this chapter that first purification of mind through karma yoga is necessary in patanjali yoga sutra also he says first yama and nyama are necessary the moral do's and don'ts the moral disciplines in religion every religion instructs us about that otherwise meditation is not possible i was just reading in a reminiscence by swami caitanya maharaja about his days as a brahmacharya novice in bellurmut the brahmacharya training center he was in the early days of the training center of padi brahmacharis at that time they had a legendary principal the head of the training center the the head monk of the training center bhava maharaja swami bodhatman so who was a disciple of swami i never saw him he passed away long before my time but all the senior monks talk about it because they were all trained by him he was a wonderful like a father figure and a wonderful teacher in fact he used to teach vedanta sarah the class which we are having is to teach that so generations of monks have studied the vedanta sarah with him and swami caitanya who was always i think from the very beginning meticulous about record keeping he says that i took down whatever he said by in my notes and before i left the training center i asked him to read through my notes and correct it and he said even now so many years later i still treasured that little notebook where had taken down notes from bhava maharaja who taught us vedantasalar all right so here is an anecdote which i read just today importance of how delicate meditation is meditation is an advanced thing and how the our worldly our external life affects meditation so the anecdote anecdote goes like this so swami chaitanyanji was a young novice at that time so this must have been in the 60s um he so they used to serve and even now we we i've also done it you serve food to the monks in in in the monastery so one of the duties of the novices is you have to serve food and that's uh from you get buckets you have buckets of rice and buckets of dal and buckets of vegetables uh and buckets of yogurt curd and you have big big you know uh serving spoons ladles and you and all the monks sit on the floor on mats and you put it and you get their portions on their plates and so and occasionally you receive scoldings i have also received scoldings from senior monks and that's part of the fun uh any mistake you make the senior monks will will correct you immediately with a few sharp words so um swamiji tananji says that one day he was serving and senior monk swami gangashan who was senior to swami buddha nanji their principal said something sharp to him or to some other novice critical something scolding and unfairly so unfairly so and uh their principal swami bodhatman and he was sitting there who was very protective he said he was like a mother bird and all the these little these novices were like his chicks you know he would protect them from from unfair uh scoldings or treatment by others so this old monks called it the young novice in front of everybody and that's like 200 monks sitting there and swami pradhat manduji he roared out swami don't think that the boy is an orphan he too has his guardians we are there we are the idea is that i am here you got to answer to me if you if you behave that way with with my boys so that was passed and done and swami the old swami who scolded him kept quiet did not say anything now swami chetan ranji says the next day i saw something amazing remember swami ganga sananji was older than bhava maharaj senior to him the next day in the morning he says we saw our principal the head of our um you know training institution going up to the monks quarters where that old swami used to live and knocking gently on his doors while we watched the old swami came out and this bhava maharaja fell at his feet and held his feet and he's he's both of them are senior swamis brahmaraj is the disciple of swami shivananda and the principal of the training center big swami he fell at the feet of swami gangeshan entity and said i should not have spoken so harshly to you in public yesterday this is not befitting it was uh i i i beg for your forgiveness and then and he said i cannot meditate anymore. he said just he said i cannot meditate anymore. and ganga shanti immediately he saw so he said viewers we were so impressed by this ranji immediately pulled him up and embraced him lovingly and he said oh what are you talking about it's such a small thing forget it forget it let it be let it be and then he came back now but that also points out how delicate meditation is if you're really seriously trying to meditate if you have even the slightest anger annoyance guilt uneasiness about what's going on you know what i have done i've hurt other people it won't work it's clearly in the bible it is said jesus christ says that the lord says if you are going to offer things to the lord and you have got some you know outstanding quarrel with your brother he said leave your offerings there go out and make up make amends with your brother then come back and make your offering to god otherwise god won't accept it what does that mean god won't accept it it means whom you have offended outside that same divinity you're trying to meditate upon how is that possible it's a deep contradiction when you say suppose that the other person is not available or that person is not [Music] will not listen to me or will not it's impossible for me to apologize try or at least mentally pray to the lord and ask for forgiveness maybe you will not be able to go to that person and fall at his or her feet it may not be possible but at least mentally try to seek forgiveness if not from nobody at least from god one one becomes aware of these things in meditation one becomes aware of these things in meditation i remember the where young novices in an ashram used to teach students in a school and along with us there were other young teachers who were not monks they were employees they were teachers teachers who were you know they were married people they have with the salary and job that was in one of our schools in the ramakrishna school in india one day a senior teacher told me this story that a young teacher came up to him one day a new young teacher and he said what's the difference between us and those monks you know we also teach this class and um yeah we get salaries that's all they don't they don't take salaries but they also teach and they're like teachers just like us and the senior teacher told who had been in the school for many many decades and the senior teacher told that new teacher he said this is the difference bye bye every day in the evening those monks young and old they retreat to the you know the meditation hall or to their own rooms and they sit in meditation and the whole day's ups and downs good and bad they wash off in meditation you and i if we have a falling out we will remember it and and sort of mentally grumble at each other for the next week or month or year it all accumulates for us and they wash it out otherwise they can't meditate see that's a very very deep insight um so meditation is an advanced practice the seventh level in patanjali yoga sutras the sixth chapter here in bhagavad-gita in the vedas itself if you look at the structure of the vedas [Music] we say veda is divided into karma khanda and gyanakanda the ritualistic portion knowledge portion but that's just a sort of general division actually it's divided into three portions the knowledge the ritualistic portion the meditation portion and the knowledge portion karma upasana the upanishads which are vedanta what we are studying vedanta gita is also vedanta that comes in the knowledge portion before that there is a meditation portion before that bulk of the vedas are rituals where the vedic sacrifices are talked about yagyas most of them are obsolete now because we don't do that in modern hinduism we have replaced it with pujas and all but my point here is meditation is not the first thing that the vedas teach the vedic meditations are not the first thing that the vedas teach the vedas first teach rituals and then there are some things called upasana in advaita vedanta especially the advaithic meditation iditaron is a pretty sophisticated thing it sort of comes at the end of everything you must be prepared mind must be purified and concentrated by preliminary meditation practices then there is a thorough study of vedanta a clarity about what vedanta teaches you reason it out you've got clarity and conviction then only advertising meditation did diyasana is possible you cannot jump straight to individualism it's meaningless completely meaningless so meditation is an advanced thing that's one point i wanted i wanted to bring out um yes the other thing i'm thankful to um praveer babu for sending the email so m master masha the author of the gospel of krishna so in one place later on in his life i mean there are so many people who used to go to him and listen to his discourses and just inspire so many people to spiritual life including many many monks uh young people who became monks so in one place in his uh the recorded uh so in one place he talks about this verse chapter six verse number three so that reference has been sent by prabhupada that reference so it goes like this um m is quoting from tulsi das tulsidas said without holy company there is no talk about god without talk about god there is no chance of getting rid of delusion and without getting rid of delusion there is no possibility of seeing god so here tulsidas has given his own structure of spiritual practice you have to remove ignorance then only you can see god but ignorance cannot be removed without talking about god and talking about god is not possible unless you come to class so then next during a discussion on the evening of 20th june 1931 so it's 1931 m quoted from the gita chapter 6 verse number 3 for a sage who wants to attain yoga action is said to be the means but when he has attained yoga serenity is said to be the means he then explained the mystery of karma to the assembled devotees krishna also described the secret of work thus remember me and fight this is called karma yoga unite yourself with god and unite yourself with the lord through karma first think of him then work and again think of him and offer the fruit to him this is karma yoga i'll repeat this unite so this is karma yoga unite yourself with the lord through karma first think of him with capital h him then work and again think of him and offer the fruit to him this is karma yoga m continued swamiji that means swamiji was a hero look at his life he attained samadhi then performed action and again he remained in samadhi he had no attachment for action he was commanded to perform his divine mission working for the welfare of humanity work is not the goal it is the means to realizing god yes so that's inspiring um what else did i want to say so yes if you look at the verse the sage who who is climbing on the ladder of yoga remember the structure so first karma yoga karma yoga is the means and then yoga ruras your one who has already reached that level of purification of mind for that person meditation becomes the means means means becomes effective one must do karma yoga one must do meditation and one must study vedanta also and of course practice devotion along with all of it even in the traditional structure of life grihastha vanaprastha sannyasa householder life the retired life and the uh you know literally the forest dweller and then the monastic life the householder life is karma pradhana emphasis is on karma action the vana presta life is pradhana emphasis is on meditation and the sannyasa life monastic life is supposed to be gyana pradhana the emphasis is on knowledge again emphasis all of that other things continue i mean you might say what about you all you became monks at a young age before entering uh householder life yes but the moment you enter i have noticed now i begin to understand what happens to the novices the first and most important thing that happens in their life is a lot of work i remember when i joined the order in the ashram it was a school and the third the third day of joining i was called by one of the senior monks and said hey you come here here is this uh hostel it's like a dorm and there are kids here they're all 10 year olds 40 of them go and look after them i thought i have become a monk i thought i would be told and taught how to meditate how to study i'll be taught vedanta and i will do the puja of sri ramakrishna and the work at the most maybe i will go to the garden and pick flowers for the shrimp temple 40 kids i thought if i had gotten married i might have had one or two kids here are 40 kids so the first thing that is done to newcomers is that they are stuffed with a lot of work their hold is filled up with a lot of work yes it's the work of the ashram but the idea is the same the idea is karma yoga is important for many many years along with that of course there's a daily routine of meditation of devotional practices and study of vedanta but a lot of time and energy goes in in karma yoga i remember once i was very happy doing all that all that stuff so one gentleman who was visiting the ashram he was praising me to a senior monk in my in my prayers i was sort of passing by i was years perked for praise of course saying that i saw this brahmacharya from the morning he's working in that i saw him working in the temple in the morning he was attending classes then he was teaching in the school i saw him working in the office i saw him serving food in the kitchen i saw i see him you know doing the rt in the evening and now he's supervising the study of the kids it's amazing he's working all day long and the old monk said in bengali he said let him do it if he doesn't do it now when will he do it so that sort of deflated me that work is good now i realize it's it's very good to be engaged all the energies that are flowing through us it should be engaged in in karma yoga and that one can do in the house also that is the great insight of krishna and of swami vivekananda in this age one can do it in the office one can do it in the house one can do it in the ashram but one must do it karma yoga is necessary condition for spirituality may not be sufficient condition all right then the next verse fourth verse yoga has when one habitually renounces all desires and is no more attached either to send subjects or to actions then one is said to have attained to yoga so the question is we're doing karma yoga for purification of mind how do i know when i'm ready when the mind is more or less purified how do i know i'm making progress at all in karma yoga so here he gives a test sri krishna says here is the test when the the engagement with the world this whole idea that my happiness depends on positions on money on success on people on reno on relationships or are on my youth and health and good looks on my achievements on the praise of other people all of this when as long as one thinks that one needs karma yoga afterwards this is not important to you anymore it is childish it may be there you may still be in a position where you may if you eat a cookie it'll be nice but it's not important it's not important that my happiness depends upon nice food it's not important that my happiness depends upon physical comfort it's not essential that people have to be nice to me or praise me then only i'll be happy if people are mean to me then i'll be unhappy all these things are no longer important i have reached that level of maturity it's not that at that level of maturity you shun all worldly engagement if somebody gives you a nice cookie you throw it away no i have my mind is purified now i shall not eat a cookie you will not say that but you don't depend on it see what i mean by dependence is if you go out here in broad broadway for example this place new york food and clothing and entertainment you know that's broadway you have famous eateries all the food of the world and all atrociously expensive and then you have all the famous fashion lines all um closed down more or less right now and then you have um the famous broadway theater and all so arts and culture and entertainment and um you know food and fashion you say what's wrong with that nothing wrong with that but that is what absorbs people that this is i am successful i am happy if i have choicest food if i wear designer clothes if i am rich and i have i fill up my weekends whole week is spent in earning money so if you fill up my weekends in eating out and dining out and going out with friends attending broadway shows things like that depending upon your level of refinement and culture for everybody there is something now this is this is the pursuit of artha and kama in uh the scale of values karma the pursuit of pleasure sense pleasures what he calls here indriyatha sense pleasures from the crudest i want this kind of food to more refined i want this kind of entertainment broadway show or performance in the juilliard school of music and whatever or um to get all of this fine clothes fine entertainment fine food i need a lot of money so i'm busy working 14 hours 16 city that never sleeps new york city that slogan the city that never sleeps but dreams i don't know what day dreams or what day what how people dream without sleeping but what does it mean it's so busy here in new york from again pre-pandemic times so from monday till friday busy earning money and then spending that money on saturday and and sunday and this is i do not question it this is the way to be happy that's why people are so upset locked down you can't go out to eat what does it mean you can't go out and catch a show you can't even meet your friends social distancing that swami i mentioned anubhavan in the samsung monk in that talk in hindi he was he's very witty he says what is the meaning of social distancing first you wash your hands and sanitizer you wash your hands of the world all your activities then social distancing keep away from people and the world and so he related every stage of the practice of meditation to the pandemic restrictions so the activities the karma that we do technical terms sadhya and sadhana sadhya means goal what is my goal i will eat in the finest restaurants here i will wear designer clothes and i will go to the fa the broadway shows hundreds of dollars every ticket so this is my goal this is sadhya what is it called kama desire for this what do i need i need plenty of money so for that from monday to friday i will work hard what about spirituality vedanta no interest no time no energy left over what does krishna say here just the opposite that's why this is unpopular vedanta is unpopular he says you have reached spiritual cleansing purity of mind when this obsession this engagement with fine food fine clothes fine entertainment indriyatha that is not there anymore and what you need to get all of this that is called sadhana sadhya sadhana sadhya means the goal goal is all this fine food fine clothes fine entertainment and what is the southern of the means karma action i need the most high paying job on wall street so i need to do that but that will absorb you 14 hours a day and there'll be nothing left over doesn't matter i need lot of money when you are krishna says neither those things interest you the things the fine food fine clothes fine entertainment not interested i've had enough of that i'm moving on now very good as eckhart tolle told that gentleman thank god and i don't think that i need millions of dollars now karma swan i think i have enough whatever i have and the ref of the rest as for the rest i will depend on god a gentleman told me swami in this country you know you never feel safe so you have to keep on earning money no god knows how much you might need in your old age don't do that be reasonable you are in the world you know what basically what is necessary that much but put a put an end to it ultimately we are protected not by money not by medical insurance also you're protected by god alone yes it's absolutely true i have seen monks at least in my case for example what is a monkey what protection does a monk have no money no possessions no people relatives or people around him nobody so what does a monk depend on at least i am part of an order so i have an ashrama and there are other monks and there are devotees so there's a whole setup but i have seen monks living in little huts on mountain tops in caves nobody nobody to look after them nobody knows them also whom do they depend upon they depend upon god either they are devotional depend on god or they are more dry vedantin types and i've asked them that how do you deal with it they depend on karma they say that fights fine whatever happens to me it's my bad karma that's why i'm suffering and when my good karma will practify nobody can prevent it no support in the world can prevent bad karma from giving its results and no opponent in the world can prevent good karma from giving its results i as a monk as a follower of vedanta i'm interested in neither i'm not interested in the bad karma i will bear it for bear diksha when bad karma comes illness comes people misbehave with me you know there's problems pandemic comes whatever comes i'll forbear i'll hold on it is called titiksha and when good karma comes things go my way people are nice to me i will not get attached always that that slogan let it come let it be let it go so that takes toughness so some of these monks generally the non-dualistic monks i've met in the mountains pretty tough lot physically mentally emotionally pretty tough lot and they have had to face with difficulties serious difficulties but still i noticed their reliance is on karma and on god on ishvara even i can share this so we have must have seen this we have this place in our main monastery where old monks or very very old or very sick they stay for the last years of their life so one monk i knew i'm not even sure whether he's still i think he's passed away um so he's very simple old swami and i'm very affectionate towards me from the time i joined so i knew him closely he had no money at all he'd never kept any personal money now one day he went to the you know the administrative head of the whole monastery who are younger than him and he was very humble he would go and say swami can i have a word with you and that that administrative head of the monastery said yes you know i feel embarrassed to bring this up but i have seen some of the other old monks you know who stay in in that place they have some money so if they want to go somewhere in calcutta maybe they want to go from belurum to another ashram so they have money to pay for the boat and the rikshaw fair or i don't know what are the things he needed but i have nothing so i feel you know like he feels a little bit of a pressure about this a little unhappy about it and that a monk who was whom he was talking to so his response was wonderful and very inspiring i can tell his name swami sweet anandaji who is now the vice president he listened very patiently he's very affectionate towards the senior song he's very respectful also he said swami i understand i feel for you what you are saying i understand the little things little conveniences you can't get in your old age because you don't have any money but he said there are also many other monks there who don't have any money and they've made it a point not to keep any money if you want you can live like that you know it's it's not bad it's all right and this senior swarm was immediately i was very happy with that answer he said you are right you're right and he went away so um no positions and the dependencies on god and ultimately they are right the only secret really security does not come from money or people it doesn't really it's it's a it gives you some sense of security of course you must have common sense don't immediately go out and donate all your money one must have common sense but remember always to hold on to god seriously to hold on to god the only ultimate security is is ishwara is the grace of god that i have learned without i mean no doubt about it at all the more one depends on god the more you begin to feel that god exists that so this this uh security one does not seek in worldly things one does not seek pleasure or happiness in worldly things one does not seek it in worldly activities one does not is not engaged in either the goal which is sadhya things to be enjoyed in the world no longer very interested like eckhart tolle said thank god and no longer very interested in the means of earning always on the lookout what is what are the stock prices today always on the lookout where can i earn a few more dollars next job that kind of interest it may be good in the beginning one may go through it what i'm saying here is for the gita audience i will not say this to a group of young students you know mba graduates or somebody it'll just depress them so it's this what i'm saying is for a mature audience and the krishna of course is speaking to a mature person it's only when arjuna asked him a spiritual question krishna krishna is telling him all this once one comes to that level one can be sure that there is a purification of the mind now krishna takes something for granted but srirama krishna makes it explicit he says this uh lessening of interest in worldliness combined with increased desire for god realization of spirituality this is vairagya this is the sinus of purification of mind krishna takes it for granted that we have an interest arjuna has an interest in spirituality that's why he's asking this question but it should not be i'm just plain depressed that's why i don't feel like getting out of bed i don't want to go to a broadway show or eat out i don't even want to go and earn money so have you become very spiritual attain purity of mind no i'm just depressed no not because of that or just because of the pandemic not just because of that there must be a positive interest in spirituality of god realization suram krishna put it very simply vishai birag is shari or nurag so it works very nicely in bengali and indian languages vishwaya viraga a vairagya dispassion for worldly things ishware anurag a love increased attraction full love for god this is a sign of purify purification of mind chitta the next some very famous verses are coming lift yourself up by yourselves so very inspiring positive verses we'll see that next time quick look at the chat charles charles says today we learn about equanimity when the bhagavad-gita may i find specific tools and techniques for the sanctification of work perhaps these are embedded in the 18 chapters as karma bhakti and gyani yogas can you please advise how equanimity can be linked to sanctification of work perhaps how swadharma can be aligned with subhava then it will be the will of god correct yes today we mentioned a few things one is like m master master says look this is karma yoga unite yourself with god and work before the work think of god then do the work then offer the fruits of work to god so this this is one way of doing it second is um all of my work is a worship of god that is the spirit of karma yoga then one attains equanimity when does one not attain equal equanimity when is one not serene when through the work i have specific goals to attain i must earn this kind of money i must get this kind of praise from my boss or my colleagues and that's what makes me happy then the opposite also will make me very unhappy whereas i am doing this as a worship of my lord my ishta devata who is in my heart and in all beings if i am i am worshiping my lord in all these activities then what exactly happens in the world if it goes well good it doesn't go so well okay it doesn't matter have i done my best have i done a nice worship of my of my lord so that anecdote about bhava maharaja who yelled at a senior monk and then next day in the morning went and apologized to him and fell at his feet why did he do that it sounds like a strange thing to do but because his whole attention is on god and he finds that even that very justified bit of anger you know he lost his equanimity and he shouted at that old monk don't think that this boy is an orphan he has guardians when he did that but even that sounds very justified and yet he felt that unhappy but his unhappiness is related to meditation and god his unhappiness is not related to the world outside what people think of him what what what are the reactions of others he doesn't care about that so our pain and pleasure should be connected with god not with the world that's a good way of putting it equanimity will come we want to have equanimity towards the world you don't want equanimity towards god whether i'll attain god realization or not that in god realization i'm fine with it i'm cool with it then nobody you're not going to make any spiritual progress that way i am really serious about attaining god realization i'm really unhappy if i've done something wrong and that is in the eyes of the world it may be nothing i this is not relevant but let me it's very touching for me the personal anecdote i can share a similar anecdote like um the swamiji than just mentioned about his time as a novice in my time as a novice which was uh in the 1998-99 around that time i too was serving food and the monks called it me what he's calling me about i've forgotten that that he even scolded me i didn't even register he said something sharp to me i was making some mistake obviously and then i i did i didn't remember it at all but after the food was over i went out to wash my hands that monk came up to me and i thought oh god maybe i've done something again i'm going to get more scolding but in with great politeness he said my boy what's your name i said my name is vishwaroop i was brahmachary vishwaroop at that time he said all right you know you have a wonderful swami as your principle so my principle swami there is a haranak maharaj is a very senior monk in our order so he was my principal so this monk told me after i scolded you and you walked away your principal your principal swami was sitting in front of me and he said to me i'll tell you in bengali what he said and then i'll translate he said to me well sir you scolded him but do you even know the name of that boy meaning thereby that do you really care about them or you're just yelling at them for no purpose and this swami was so impressed by it he came out and he waited for me and he asked me my name and he said you have a truly wonderful swami as your principal um yes which book by chetan ranji is this cordelia asks this is unfortunately i don't think there's an english translation this is practicing shadow there caught for one second i'll show you the book so uh two volumes are there this is the first volume and then the second one so the many many monks whom he has met and thankfully swami caitanya i think from this from his very beginning he has the knack of keeping records he maintained meticulous diaries so he wrote it all down with dates and who said what um so this book has his memories of so many monks but i think an english translation is on the way swamijitranji said the english translation is either done or on the way um so it's in two volumes right now if you want one these stories if you go to the vedanta society of saint louis on their youtube channel you will find there is a list of talks by swami caitanya and the stories of vedanta monks many many talks so most of these incidents are there in those talks um girish says in explicitly mapping paths to happiness freedom from suffering our hindu philosophy is fundamentally different from western religious philosophies um yes and no hindu philosophies are definitely i won't just say hindu philosophies indian philosophies hindu buddhist jain all the ancient philosophies they are all what are called moksha sastras they are all paths for uh spiritual liberation and freedom from suffering attainment of fulfillment they are not different in spirit from um for example from christian theology or or jewish theology so when you use the term western religious philosophies you are compounding two things together a western religious thought which would mean theology then the spirit of theology is the same as the spirit of the ancient indian philosophies but if you say western philosophy as distinguished from theology as the post-enlightenment philosophy then yes then yes post enlightenment philosophy in a modern philosophy you say modern philosophy the western thought of the last 300 years or so is not explicitly say that it does not say that whether enlightenment or anything like that is possible um whether ultimately one can come out of suffering whether one can attain any kind of lasting bliss or fulfillment some thinkers thought so some thinkers did not um so it was more about thinking things through philosophically rather than finding paths to it but there's a lot of discussion about this there are some french philosophers who don't agree with this they said yes it is the same project which which spirituality had in ancient times and religion in medieval times and philosophy also has the same project basically how to overcome suffering and how to attain fulfillment that is the project when the young monks were given work that they were not necessarily interested in doing at first how did they eventually learn to be absorbed in the same work as sadhana as a matter of time and practice of holding the karma yoga attitude that is true that is true um i remember till now i've asked a monk young monk i mean senior to me but of course not a very senior monk you know isn't it better if you're given work which we are interested in so i am interested for example i was very interested in the library and it would have been disastrous to post me in the library because then i would have made a very bad librarian the worst librarian is the one who one who sits and reads the books all the time um that monk who was just a little older than me he said no you will understand soon it does not matter whether you are interested in it or not it is more a question of which the attitude with which you do the work i didn't quite understand what he meant but over time i slowly understood i for example i really did not think that teaching kids in the school or working in the office or typing out a letter is spiritual i i always felt that i was old-fashioned that way that i i felt that the temple is spiritual and doing puja and the temple is spiritual meditation is spiritual and vedanta i was beginning to like it so vedanta studying vedante spiritual but all this work you know teaching and office work and i mean i've just done an mba so if i'm going to type out a project report or something how is that spiritual i thought it was just like what i was doing earlier and just continuing that um so that's just immaturity how i learned i still remember one of the monks who was whom i admired younger monks the senior monks were little scared of approaching closely but the younger monks were friendly with we means the novices so this monk who was a few years older than me i could see he was a wonderful meditator he would sit like a rock statue and meditate for hours and hours so one day the head swami gave him work during meditation hours you had to go and supervise the children at study and that was in the evening after prayer so i thought this monk must be really upset i went to him and said don't you feel bad this is your meditation time and now you have to go and supervise those those mischievous kids and studying and he said no he said that no not at all he said i still remember i was standing there in the evening he was going towards his i was going up for meditation and he was going towards the school to supervise the study he just said i feel the same i'm telling you honestly vishwaroop what i feel in deep meditation that i feel when i think that i am serving sri rama krishna in all these children so at that time i didn't know what to make of it but then now i think yeah i think it's absolutely possible it's quite possible um yeah somebody's raised a hand so is it possible matter of time and practice and holding the karma yoga attitude i would think so time is very important and consistent practice that not once in a while but you do this for many many years five ten fifteen twenty holy company is important i remember something that swami bhutesha nandaji the president of our order at that time he told me at the very beginning of my spiritual life so when i the day i joined i was still in jeans and a shirt and somebody pushed me from behind and said bow down to the swami and ask for his blessings he was the president of the order and then somebody said to the swami swami this boy has come to be a monk and then one of the things that was a sanji very affectionately he told me was have you heard the story of the fossil surrounding krishnas to tell the story of the fossil the fossil is an animal which which was crushed or stayed in between layers of rocks and has become like a like a piece of rock itself so he said just like a like the fossil staying with the rocks or stones has become a stone similarly by staying with sadhus you will become a sadhu he said to me because the monks behind me had pushed me and whispered in my ear ask him to bless you that you will be a good sadhu so i was like a parrot i said swami bless me that that i may be a good sadhu and the swami said if you stay with salus you will become assad like the fossil now so time consistent practice holy company time and these are very powerful yeah kamala who is kabala who's raised the hand yes you have to unmute yourself kamala who is kamala nobody has disappeared now all right then let's bring it to and close today [Music] namaste