Video 75

75. Bhagavad Gita I Chapter 6 Verses 5-6 I Swami Sarvapriyananda

[Music] guru we are studying the sixth chapter of the bhagavad-gita though the chapter is about meditation still shri krishna is starting with some preparatory practices he says meditation is an advanced practice first the mind must be prepared those who wish to scale the ladder of yoga they must first purify themselves so action is the means to begin with and then meditation becomes the means later on means to what means to enlightenment to guard realization or self-realization so first it is action and action means all kinds of action not only our daily round of duties and activities in the world but also um you know worship ritualistic action of all sorts so all of that is uh preparatory and it purifies and makes us ready for meditation now comes the fifth verse is a famous verse and justly so it's very inspiring very positive and often quoted the fifth verse [Music] one should raise oneself through the self and never lower oneself for the self alone is one's friend and the self alone is one's enemy basically it's a call to self-effort raise yourself up by yourself you are your own best friend you are your own worst enemy so that is a wonderful verse and it points to one very very central fact about spiritual life that it's a choice one must choose one must be ready to make this effort i remember this monk swami ramananda saraswati he is referring to so he was from a village i think and he said then in the village all the farmers knew that when the newborn carves which one will survive and which one will not survive said if they would try to make the calf stand up the farmers would make the dairy farmers would make the calf stand on its own feet and the calf the calf newborn calf which struggled to stand on its own feet you could help it but there was some who might be weak or sick and they wouldn't want to stand and the farmers knew that these ones won't survive they'll die so it is now it's a very interesting little anecdote which which are an example which shows the combination of self-effort and god's grace it's really the farmer is much stronger than the coffin and it's the farmer who helps but the calf must show its desire to stand similarly we must show our that we really want god that we really want uh liberation enlightenment and then everything else is done by god god will do it for us and so god is the is the most liberal of everybody if whatever we want we get that's putting it in devotional language in more philosophical language we are evolving spiritually whatever we are ready for at that stage we get that whatever we are fit for or suited for um in the mahabharata it's a very instructive story which i love you know people say that why did krishna teach the gita to arjuna who's the hero why not to the villain it would have saved a lot of bloodshed and lot of problems you know the huge amount of suffering if the if the wicked could be reformed why teach spirituality to people who are already good well krishna tried god does try it's the problem is the wicked are not willing so he went to duryodhana and said look what you are doing is not right this is not dharma this is not ethical you should give your cousins what they deserve their portion of the kingdom and even a little bit and duryodhana refused and he said something very perceptive duryodhana said that i know what is right and i know what is wrong and you don't have to teach me that that is not my problem it's not that i don't know i'm making mistakes out of ignorance i know what i'm doing is wrong but i can't stop myself from doing it i know what i what what one should do what is ethical but i don't feel like doing it so he is pretty blunt and forward with it jaanami so i know what is right what is dharma i have no desire to do it i know what is wrong and unethical i can't stop myself from doing it and why not well because there is this force within me released it and in my heart there is this power which impels me on this path and as i'm impelled as i'm pushed along this path i do what i'm forced to do i i mean i'm sort of he gives up he says it's it's at no point does he say that look i am in this trap can you help me out can you make me a better person he has no question to ask krishna he has no um you know he's not willing he is he feels i'm this is the way it is and that's it and it's interesting in the bhagavad-gita we'll see later arjun asks the same question arjun asked the same question impelled by what does a person do wrong things knowingly knowingly exactly what duryodhana said does a person do wrong things knowingly as if forced as if as if pushed by some impelled by some force almost the same language as duryodhana but there's a difference arjuna wants to know how can i overcome this please help me i'm your student tell me what i can do to to come out of this is there a way out of it i want to be better i want to be ethical and moral i want to be a good person i want to be a spiritual person i want to be noble now this willingness so this is what krishna is talking about here this is the first the first step the most crucial step towards spirituality um upanishads the mantra from the brihadar nikopanishad which we are discussing these days on sundays if i were to know if one were to know this is what i am this infinite existence consciousness if we were to realize that then desiring what and for whose sake would one continue to suffer along with the body a lot is packed into that verse and we are unpacking it on on successive sundays but i today i just want to draw your attention to one word the very first word if if one were to realize that if comes in the number of times in the upanishads in the keno punished mahathir it says in this very life if you realize your true nature that you are the the self brahman then you are established in immortality if one does not realize this great is the loss mahadevan ashti great is the last the greatest the destruction you have lost a tremendous opportunity the most valuable thing has been lost in life so again that if that if entirely depends on our choice i mean at least we must make the effort um ashtavakra the highest non-dual teachings he says if you can see that you are not the body and rest and relax into consciousness itself means realize that you are pure consciousness right now right now in this very condition right now right here um you know that he says you will be free sukhi shanto you will be free of all suffering you will attain fulfillment and you will be free of bondage but again if so that if is is is crucial to um to beginning spiritual life otherwise it doesn't make nobody can do it for us we must be willing the buddha okay so buddha so the buddha the noble eightfold path do you um remember that the first one is samyak drishti the the right view but the second one is samyaksankalpa right intention a right resolve so the right view is in a buddhist perspective that you understand the four noble truths that there is suffering and all of life is pervaded by suffering and there is a cause of suffering which is desire and there is a solution to suffering which is nirvana and there is a way to do it it is a system a method of something to be done which will take you to nirvana so that's the right view but the buddha says after getting the right view one must then make up it's then then it's your choice you've got the right view you have heard me out now make up your mind that i have heard this i am convinced and there is nirvana before me enlightenment and freedom and i choose to follow this path and search for enlightenment this resolve has to be made until this resolve is made the other parts of the path the eight-fold path the other six path will not start so this this result has to be made and it's my belief that the stress upon conversion in for example christianity and islam is basically this idea that one must make a choice for spiritual life it's not so it what it became later on was converting people from other religions to your own religion but if you look at it everything in in these religions has is based on some kind of wisdom so the original wisdom must have been to to convert a person from a worldly life into spiritual life to awaken the person to the possibility of spiritual life to the possibility of overcoming suffering it's that same if and here we are um asked to make a decision i had written down certain things about yes so somebody also mentioned it here does the praveed bubble does the choice come from or some scars notice something it's very interesting that immediately when we talk about this the first question that comes to our mind is at least in the vedanta group here will be the free will question so does it come from a samskaras am i programmed to make the choice so if i don't make the choice those who don't make the choice are they doomed um one thing is clear from this verse that whether it is krishna krishna clearly says for all practical purposes he accepts free will for all practical purposes and every religion which says do this and do not do that and every religion does that you do this and do not do that they all assume free will without that for practical purposes there's no question of making any progress in spiritual if this is civilization itself is not possible you see law and a consumer choice and our whole economy or none of it is possible without some kind of free will so practically speaking everybody assumes free will i know of senior monks who scold the younger monks who would you know read books and try to imitate the senior monks by saying taku really chats the will of sri ramakrishna and the senior monk i remember he would snap at us and don't say things which you don't mean you don't understand it and you don't mean it say that you are doing it or you are not doing it it's it's right now it one has to be up and doing so ultimately yes it's a very deep metaphysical question whether there is any free will or not and i have told you on occasion about the vedantic perspective that ultimately there is not three levels of it you know um that from the practical level it appears to us yes there is it seems to be absolutely obvious it has to be so then the second level if you inquire into it philosophically inquire into it theologically inquire into it and nowadays neuroscientifically scientifically inquired into it not just neuroscientifically even in principles of science and causality inquiring to it it seems free will is not possible in a deterministic universe in a neuroscientifically determined um you know human consciousness um or theologically every theistic religion says ultimately it's god's will not your will so it seems upon investigation at the second level there is no free will so there are theories which say there's no free will there are theories which say there are there is free will there are theories which try to try to combine the two you know there are deterministic theories there are libertarian theories there are compatibilist theories uh one beautiful article in this i've shared with many people earlier um professor arundham chakravarti's article on free will you know he puts it very very elegantly he says why pray to a god who can hear the anklets on an ant's feet so he's quoting sriram krishna here see this ram krishna says god hears everything he can hear the sound of anklets on the feet of an ant in india little children they put anklets with tinkle you do something like that here in the united states i've seen kids they have these squeaky shoes when they walk it encourages them to walk i think it makes squeaky sounds and flashes lights and all so anklets now imagine anklets on the feet of an ant how tiny they would be the tiny feet of a net and so sudama krishna says god can hear the sound of the anklets and ant's feet now this philosopher he asks why pray to a god who can hear the sound of the anklets on an ant's feet so that's how he asks and the whole article is about free will about what is free will is there free will what is the use of free will so he says on the second level it seems upon investigation on the whole there is no free will and then he goes to the final level the third level from an advaita vedantic perspective there is no free will but there is freedom ultimately there is freedom as pure consciousness as as such you are free you always wear free at the deepest metaphysical level and then what i like about that article is he brings it all together what's the upshot what's the final conclusion the final conclusion is very very um you know it's often academicians are not bold enough to make such statements but he makes a very beautiful uh boldly he says this he says ultimately this first stage it appears to be that there is free will second stage it appears that no there is no free will and the third stage it appears again that there is freedom if not free will then what do you do take this appearance of free will to acknowledge that ultimately there is no free will it is all god's will so use this appearance of free will the best use of free will or this so-called illusion of free will whatever you call it the best use of it is to acknowledge god to continuously surrender to god that much choice you have got so i like that conclusion i think srirama krishna would approve and that answers his question why pray to a god who can hear the anklet sound of anklets on an ant's feet because that's the best use of your free will that's why you have got free will to pray to pray to god um so is this choice determined by some scars we will see partly yes partly no it does not depend entirely on our samskaras um the second point i wanted to mention so i've written down some points because there's so many things to say about this verse second thing i wanted to mention was um you can understand it in two senses you know three and re ut and ut plus three or uth plus three the difference in the meanings would be one is re means to snatch away to take away so when you have fallen in bad company when you're falling in the trap of the senses and of of desires and the world how can you snatch yourself away you have to snatch yourself away from that like duryodhana was not willing to do that he was just he just wanted to live in that mid in that depraved life and arjuna wanted to rescue himself from that to rescue yourself from that to snatch yourself away from the the snare of the senses and of worldliness that is one meaning of uddharit the second meaning is udri means to raise yourself up so from meanness to something noble to something higher you know there is a saying that inferior people discuss other people people of uh of average quality you know they discuss events and superior people discuss ideas so gossiping about other people is that's inferior and if you neutrally discuss the pros and cons of some some actual event all right that's better but to discuss to think about and discuss the subtle underlying concepts you know in whatever subject you're discussing that's a superior thing to do so that is raising yourself higher i remember that one of the mantras we we chanted in our the ceremony to become monks so one of the things we said was henceforth let us talk only about the noble the vast and the great what a beautiful idea let us no longer think or talk about dwell upon mean things worldliness little things miserable things let's only talk about the great let's only talk about noble things and high things literally means talk about the fast so this this lifting yourself lift yourself from the realm of the senses to the realm of the heart and to the realm of the mind and the realm of the intellect and finally to the realm of the spirit so from lower to higher this is lifting yourself higher snatch yourself away from the from the bad company of anger and passion and greed when he says atmana lift yourself up by yourself so what self are you talking about so lift yourself up by yourself what is that by yourself what whatsapp it can't be the pure consciousness so here all of it is meant by it is meant body and senses and mind and intellect and ultimately the atman also what does it mean the word atma in the upanishads is used or in the vedas also is used for all of them atma just means self so for example we have studied the method of the five sheets of the human personality the physical and the vital and the mental and the intellectual and the causal of the bliss sheath the annamaya pranamaya manomaya vignamaya anandamaya these are the levels of our personality and the way we study it in vedanta is to call them sheaths kosha the idea being the real self existence consciousness place is sort of like a nesting doll the russian nesting dolls are there the smaller you open the door there's a smaller doll inside open that there's another little doll inside so somehow the idea is given to our minds that we are some kind of you know consciousness existence consciousness place and hidden by five levels of five sheets it's a later development if you go to the source to the upanishad itself where this is talked about in the brahmana and the valley second chapter of the titanium it does not say sheets the word koshan comes nowhere and the upanishad says the self made of food pranamaya atma the self made of vitality mano my atma the mental self the intellectual self at every level they're talking about a self ajiva purusa physical vital mental intellectual so at every level you use that to lift yourself up the body the lord has given us these fingers so why not use it for account to keep count of the jaipur has given us the tongue to take the name of the lord and has given us you know breadth you can do pranayama with it you can or keep track of your mantra with the in in going and outgoing of the breath uh has given us a mind to think about god a heart to love god an intellect to do which our inquiry into who am i engage all of these at different levels so atmana means by oneself which self yes physical self you must be bold enough to say even at the physical level also it's a self we feel right now our physical body i am this very good upanishad says there's nothing wrong in that you uh you can you can what will you use the body for what will you use the prana the physiological energies flowing through us what will you use the thoughts so many thoughts are continuously happening throughout the day now i i want to address what prabhupada brought up the samskaras see what is the role of our previous conditioning it is this the idea is that if we do not make an effort what will happen do not make an effort what will happen if we do not make an effort whatever is packed in our samskaras and whatever is evoked at that moment that will pop up there's something called a default setting like in a computer in old computers used to boot and whatever is in the default setting then it would come up like that unless you interrupted it so the way we have been set what has been packed in us over lifetimes that's coming out by default and you make an inter you interrupt it at the physical level at the mental level at the emotional level and introduce something positive you take a decision you have the power of deciding what will i do what will i say what will i think what will i do at the physical level what will i say at the verbal level what will i think at the mental level and we have this choice this is the window of free will we may call it ultimately from a metaphysical level an illusion but for practically for us it's there it's a tiny vanishing window the idea is that these samskaras our conditionings they bubble up see i have a desire suddenly but suddenly means what where did it come from if you just because we are not aware we are not cautious it's suddenly come up and taken over my mind now i must have that cookie uh so where did that come up from it came up from uh in the conditioning and it's been developing over a few seconds at least it's bubbled up from the depths of my unconscious i did not notice it at that time it was weak and you could have without it it has not yet summoned up our psychic energies and forced you to fulfill those desires so it is bubbling up at that point you could have replaced it with a positive thing no i will not do that i will do this no i will not say that i will say this i will not think that thought i will think these thoughts i could have replaced it i could have replaced the mantra and any negative thing with the mantra i'll repeat the mantra in my mind but if i miss that little opportunity that little window and it's a small window and there have been very interesting neuroscientific studies i remember a scientist from india's leading neuroscience institute nimhans he was giving an a presentation about the effects of meditation on decision making so he says that we tend to normally react in a knee-jerk fashion in an instinctive fashion too whatever we have been programmed with whatever the impulse is coming from outside we react immediately to it what meditation does is it slows down that reaction so that there's a chance for some some conscious thinking and consciously deliberately doing something which is a beautiful thing and he actually showed data that uh long-term meditators you can see then the um difference in in the neuronal firings that certain the prefrontal cortex that is more active or something like that he was showing but the the upshot was that there is a window of opportunity and if they are alert especially meditators he'll teach meditation the sixth chapter now if you're alert enough you can catch that window of opportunity and substitute the negative reactions coming out um you say why does it have to be negative we have all kinds of samskaras this but mostly what kind of samskaras do we have what we have gathered over many lifetime lifetimes very beautiful term used by sridhara swami prachi nakarama samskara prachina means very ancient very ancient means many many lifetimes and if we are what kind of samskaras we have a very good way of seeing is what kind of what is the situation we are in right now the situation is not very bright then we understand what kind of samskaras we have gathered over many lifetimes if it was very saintly we would be enlightened people maybe we would be jihad muktars or something like that but if i am not then it means my samskaras are at best a mixed bundle um one swami put it this way you have to make an effort hair grows by itself then you have to you have to cut it and clean it and comb it that much effort you have to do to take care of it growing by itself is automatic i remember this nice story about the french revolution so at that time they were very much against the catholic church and the revolutionaries were overthrowing all kinds of religion so um there was this man who was a priest in a small church and he had a friend who was a revolutionary so the friend was visiting with his friend the priest and he saw the priest was teaching his little son the bible and the revolutionary was completely against he told us his friend why are you brainwashing him you should not uh you should let him grow freely and he said what should i do let him grow freely and then when he grows up he will choose for himself whether he should have a religion or have no religion the priest did not say anything it so happened that the priest also had a beautiful garden of beautiful flower garden small garden so the revolutionary one once again came to see his friend the priest a few weeks later and then he saw the garden was devastated there was no garden it's just overrun with weeds and he went to his friend my god what happened to a beautiful cultivated garden he said no i took your advice i just let it grow freely you go feel it what will grow the weeds will grow they'll choke out everything else so for a long time it's not that this is endlessly so there will come a time there will come a time when the mind will be sufficiently pure when we have good samskaras automatically our subscribers will come out positive samskaras will come out godly samskaras will come out then you don't have to make the effort of replacing it and struggling all the time with it sriram krishna says have you not seen the boat men in the ganga when they launch their boats into the river how mightily they row you know they use a long bamboo pole even now those little boats are there so they will push against the river bottom and against the bank to push their little boat out into the into the river and they row hard and they sweat it's a hard struggle but once they are in midstream in the current yeah and salaam krishna gives you must have seen this all the time on the bank of the ganga and it says so have you not seen how they sit on the boat they just hold the rudder and they smoke the hubble bubble with the other hand so they are relaxed and the boat sails along merrily because they are in the they are caught by the current of the river they are in midstream now similarly at the beginning of spiritual life one has to struggle without much result one has to struggle and against one's contrary tendencies once a little bit of purity has come then it becomes much easier that is what sri krishna says here aru ruksho muner yogam karma karanam those who are climbing the ladder of yoga for them action is the way that means all sorts of spiritual practices and those who have achieved purity of mind yoga those who have achieved purity of mind the result of karma yoga for them meditation is the way so meditation is a it's a later practice already some amount of purity of mind has been achieved um there's a beautiful zen story about a meditator who was told by his master to meditate and he was very troubled by bad thoughts so he was restless so he told his master your master said do this in japanese gardens they have these smooth pebbles so she said have two bowls in front of you and uh every time um you know like a negative thought a bad thought comes in your mind put a um oh one bowl put a black pebble in the bowl and a positive thought something related to your spirituality comes to your mind then put a white pebble in there and like this watch your mind so he said in the first few days the bowl was mostly black with a few white pebbles in between but over the months the number of black pebbles diminished on the number of white pebbles increased in the yoga sutras the patanjali yoga sutras there is a commentary by vyasa on on the patanjali yoga sutras i think the first sutra there is this explanation this cycle of samskaras is revolving day and night what does that mean samskaras means our conditionings whatever we are the the sum total of which determines our personality remember there's a difference between personality and the real self the real self for all of us is we are all pure consciousness but the individual personality which is the mind which is our person personhood the little person that's also important because that's the lens through which we are interacting with the world so that personality is composed of samskaras conditionings has has a lot of conditioning from past life that's why we are all different now he says these conditionings these samskaras they bubble up once in a while thoughts images and especially desires likes and dislikes especially they are they come up when they come up in the mind they are called vritti a ripple on the surface of the mind and these virtis they manifest as ragadvaisha likes and dislikes sometimes because of something we experience from the world or even when we're not experiencing anything in the world sitting quietly it will come from inside us so these are our samskaras and it's good it's interesting exercise to watch not particularly very interesting at the end of it it's after sometimes it's boring it's repetition of the same patterns we realize that we're not very exalted beings after all just a bundle of uh of the same kind i think most people have some combination of the same kind of samskaras i was reading swami brahmananda he asked krishna how do you see who is satwik and who is tamasik and rajasik and srama krishna said just like you can see your face in the mirror i can see the contents of a person's mind when i look at them and swami brahmana said would you teach me that and suram krishna as you as usually said if it's the mother's will it will happen in a few days time it happened to him and he could see and very soon he saw the danger of it he said that i'm just seeing the garbage in people's minds i'm just looking at them and seeing through them into the garbage in their minds and that and that's how it's entering into me and then he went to srinam krishna and said take this back i don't want it now that's our bundle of samskaras and it is coming up as british and whatever british we entertain on the surface of our mind consciously especially repeatedly that goes back and strengthens certain samskaras now what we are being told is as the samskaras are coming up bubbling up as before they become too strong before it comes to the stage where duryodhana says i can't do anything it's too late i'm just forced by to do something by the forces within me before it becomes like that you replace the virtis with positivities you say no i will not think in this way i will not say such harsh words i will not do this wrong thing and when we make this decision and successfully make a change and entertain a positivity on our on the surface of our minds and at a conscious level that entertained riti will go back into the subconscious and thereby slowly the black pebbles will become little more no no it will be replaced it will start the composition will start changing that is called purification of the mind it's a slow process as atman you're perfect the changing of the mind it's a slow hard and unglamorous process so this is called rescue yourself by yourself now not manam yes our sadhana is in fact this word for depression so do not lower yourself this is the negative side of it positive side was raise yourself up by yourself rescue yourself by yourself and you have to do it nobody else can do it there must be a self-effort to it and do not lower yourself i remember my own little uh a little experience in the monastery once so i was supposed to be sent to the united states my duties were changed earlier i was teaching the novices the new monks so the new batch of monks was coming in and the swami in charge of our training center said to me i wonder if you will teach this session i don't know whether to put you in the in the schedule or not the timetable the routine for the classes um and i don't dare ask the general secretary he might think it's too small that matter i said all right all right i'll go and ask so i went to the general secretary swami at that time and i asked so this is a it's a very funny little anecdote the language i used was um will i uh or or should i teach this time this session should i teach okay his answer was should you eat in bengali i said i mean then his answer was to me was habiki you see the point is you never ask whether i'm going to eat or not why are you asking whether i'm going to work or not of course you're going to work as long as you're in an ashram and then that's in the ashram sridhara krishna you're going to work for suramar krishna so that's i mean this is the explanation but his answer was just two little words as do i teach or will i teach and his answer was will you eat say if you say if you're going to eat you're going to work now our tendency is when we have something positive to do we have to make an effort to do it things like eating and sleeping and pleasure seeking that we never question it comes automatically to us but spiritual practices do not come automatically to us you have to do it consciously like that rose garden being overcome by the weeds i let it grow naturally so if i live naturally what will happen is all the programming within me that will bubble up and i'll never get anywhere i'll never get anywhere this dependence see sometimes the mind says oh it's all god's will if i will pray if i will meditate it depends on the will of the lord we never say that that was the swami's uh what fault he pointed out to me you know you never say that about eating then it's god's will whether the food will come or not no you happily turn up when the um dining hall bell is wrong you are you're there with your bowl and sitting there waiting for the goodies to come whereas when it comes to meditation and study and work and service why do you ask should i do it so this is [Music] yeah do not lower yourself so unconsciously we lower ourselves when swami put it very beautifully how do we lower ourselves at the deepest level from an advaithic perspective we lower ourselves from the perspective of sat chit and ananda from the perspective of sat pure being your infinite existence the moment you throw yourself into a fractured reality i am this much and not the rest you have lowered yourself this is called our sadhana this is the deepest interpretation of our father instead of seeing saying that i am unlimited existence i am only the existence of this body this body only this person and not anything else swami viraja nandaji who was the president of our order he says that the entire universe when i experience the universe the entire universe along with this body and this mind is presented to me together either i am all of it or none of it both will set you free i'm none of it jagat mithya i am the witness consciousness in which this movie is playing or i am all of it brahman alone is this entire universe atma vedam servam the atman alone is everything here is see the lord spread around you know cover everything with the lord yes both ways it will work but what do we do we make a boundary inside this skin i am everything outside the skin other i am the this one this body only little thing this is our sadhana depressing oneself lowering oneself of course at a very metaphysical level is being said lowering oneself to the level of the body a tiny fraction of existence i am instead of all existence then from the perspective of chit consciousness i've thrown all my understanding into objects i have completely missed out that i am the so what is consciousness is hidden from me and the the incentive world becomes my entire object of attention that is that is lowering yourself from the perspective of your infinite consciousness and most interestingly suffering unhappiness you are not allowed to be unhappy every time you are unhappy for whatever reason swami said i don't care for whatever reason you are unhappy you are committing an offense against your true nature your nature as ananda you are committing an offense against it by saying i am unhappy you have some some deadly mistake fatal error has been committed which is why you think you think you are unhappy why they are all connected the moment i limit my existence to one little body moment i limit my existence to one little body the moment i throw my all my awareness on the world outside and not on the consciousness the result of it will be i'll be unhappy dukkha is the result of that so ours are lowering oneself at the level of sat at the level of chit and at the level of ananda what a beautiful idea of course in a much more practical sense avasadhana means doing the opposite of the four yogas so um all sorts of selfishness which is the opposite of karma yoga that is lowering oneself all sorts of the hundred the thousand desires we run in after in the world instead of desiring or loving god that is lowering oneself the distraction in the mind that means continuously flickering mind instead of focus and concentration that is lowering ourselves and not knowing ourselves as sachidan and knowing ourselves as body mind that is lowering ourselves so lowering ourselves from the perspective of karma yoga being selfish not unselfish lowering ourselves from the perspective of bhakti yoga desiring a thousand things in the world and not loving the one god lowering ourselves from the perspective of raja yoga or dhani yoga which is the subject of this chapter is being scattered not focused i was reading this beautiful book we had it was in our syllabus in uh um last year at the divinity school waiting for god um our what's the name the french does anybody remember the great french waiting for good though what was that there's a are you thinking of a play called waiting for a good one no just waiting for for god oh i don't know the the french philosopher who died very young um oh i'm just i always forget her name simone so she says um she was she was a very intense young french woman just before just before the second world war she was jewish but very inspired by christianity by spirituality deeply spiritual person and yet she could not belong to any particular organized religions she had this problem so that book is a classic now why i'm saying that is that one chapter is that in that is something worth reading by all students she says the importance of studies so she means by that um school and college studies importance of studying and you'll be surprised to know what she says by there she says what is the importance of studying seriously and sincerely says the real purpose of study is to develop the power of concentration so that one can concentrate on god this is the value of school study she said the value of school studies is she says concentration is spirituality distraction is a sin she says what you would say to our modern age i don't know you're continuously distracted you would consider it a most sinful stage um so it is an offense against raja yoga to be distracted and finally from the perspective of gyana yoga it is our sadhana lowering oneself if one does not identify with brahmana or real nature and identifies with body and mind this is literally the word avasadhana means depression abhashad in bengali and hindi it means depression a kind of pathological depression it seems simone vale and um simon du du bovar the french existentialist who was partners with saath so they were classmates or at least in the same school together and they did not get along well at all they had a quarrel yes somebody's given the link there anything else that i wanted to say all right and what is the way how do you lift yourself and how do you not lower yourself the ways we know what was said in the earlier verses karma yoga bhakti yoga raja yoga and ultimately gyani yoga what is the way to lift ourselves in a in a spiritual sense in a more modern secular sense you would say you know positive thinking don't do negative don't indulge negative thinking be up and doing things like that but here very clearly what is meant is engage yourself in the spiritual quest instead of selfish activities karma yoga instead of desiring of the desiring the world love god instead of distracting yourself focus on on the real self or on god whatever your path is um so the three preliminary yogas karma yoga bhakti yoga raja yoga would be the would be the ways in which one lifts oneself one does not diminish or lower oneself now let me read the second one the second verse after that sixth verse says the same thing in positive language number six taha to him who has conquered the self body and senses by himself the self indeed is his friend for the uncontrolled man however the self alone is adverse like an enemy yes control of the body control of the senses control of the mind and the emotions and knowledge at the level of the intellect this is a sign of of a self here by self you mean the entire body mind personality which is your friend friend in what sense in your spiritual journey uncontrolled unpurified like cut openish it says the chariot where the horses are not disciplined where the charioteer is drunk and so you're going to end up in a crash in the same way here the uncontrolled senses uncontrolled mind is your enemy that self is your enemy which self is your friend itself is your your own greatest friend if these spiritual practices are being done you're helping yourself you're your own greatest enemy if you do not do the spiritual practices and be like durian what can i do whatever i feel like i'm just doing that it won't work just things will get worse and worse um let me see i'll just introduce a concept here since we have a little bit of time i don't want to start the next verse it's a deep and beautiful concept and i just wanted to say that self here it refers to four things one is the waking self the dreaming self the deep sleep self and the real self the fourth to the other pure consciousness so what do you do at each level and this is a very nice insight into spiritual life um at the level of the waking self the physical universe you are one consciousness in all bodies bodies are many minds are also many but the consciousness behind all bodies and minds is one consciousness this is called viswatma the one self of the entire universe so the limited self you expand yourself to say i am not just here in service of this one little body let my life be for the benefit of all at least this attitude should be there let my life be for the benefit of all my actions be for the benefit of all what will i do what will i say what will i think which is of which will be which will be in service of this in this world self all beings and then the the dreaming self he says that is at the subtle level a subtle level he says this is at the level of love or belonging to the the cosmic mind your oneness be between the tai jasa and the hiranyakarpa the first level is oneness between you the individual vishwa and the virat the you have to remember your manduka paradigm at the level of the subtle body the dream self the oneness between the tere jasi and the hiranya garbha this oneness between tajas and hiranyakarbha is bhakti yoga the oneness between the vishwa and virat is karma yoga you see the how it comes together how do you do it physically the oneness with the universe physically by directing all your actions for the welfare of of others family community organization nation world all beings without any limit no boundary no you know differentiation based on race and religion and gender no all beings i serve because i am one with all to hate somebody to like this person and dislike the other person actually it's a deep deep error i don't understand that i am the one reality in all beings so to make yourself one with the one self of the universe of the world that's at the physical level how will you express it karma yoga mentally inside the tai jasa and the hiranya garbha the individual and the cosmic i am one with that cosmic how do you express it through love so mentally towards all beings i have this feeling of overwhelming love of being one with them at the level of my mind physically service at the level of my mind love this is bhakti yoga and then the inside goes on further at the causal level where our experience is what deep sleep and the cosmic experience is ishwara god so the cos at that causal level not deep sleep but samadhi being absorbed in that savikalpa samadhi oneness with with my ishta devata with my with my chosen i uh ideal oneness with god in samadhi that is yoga raja yoga the ideal of raja yoga so at the physical level karma yoga at the subtle level bhakti yoga and at the causal level samadhi or raja yoga you see you are saving the best for the last the advaitha the gyan yoga yes because this is all perspective from gyani yoga anyway so the gyan yoga perspective is the knowledge that i am the turia in reality i am that one consciousness appearing in these three ways which are three ways physical subtle and causal solar level karma yoga social level bhakti yoga karana level samadhi or rajya with one way of looking at it just an insight i'm sharing and the knowledge is that i am one with all swami vivekananda see what is the best idea he says notice how he puts it let all vision sees or if you cannot dream but truer dreams which are eternal love and service free you see let all visions cease that means become established in the truth that you are brahmana finished the game is over for you or if you cannot if it's not possible yet what's the what's the next best alternative what's the best uh philosophy of life what should be the ideal in life he says eternal love and service free eternal love bhakti yoga service free karma yoga hanuman when ramachandra asked him um what do you think of me he said at the level of the body you are my master i am i am your servant in the hanuman chalisa which many people recite devoutly not only in india i saw in the united states there are groups which are hanuman worshippers new mexico and other places you know i think it's because of neem karoli baba so naruman chalisa hanuman is described as being ramakaaj kareem most eager to do the work of the lord so at the as long as we have a physical body it should be used it should be we should dedicate it to the work of the lord in service repeat the name of god do whatever in whatever way engage ourselves in work of ishwara that's a physical level and at the mental level he says you are the whole and i'm your part you i'm i'm shatwa this is that um the equation between taijasa and hiranyagarh part of the whole bhakti level and then he says [Music] that from the perspective of the self he says means from the physical level you are the master i am the servant jiva buddha as a sentient being you are god and i am thy part and we have a relationship of part and whole devotion and atma buddhists ultimately as the self has pure consciousness you and i are the same that is of course the turia yeah so i just wanted to share that right there's a link here yes waiting for god simone why pronounced simone view um rick says i can understand how the self could be an enemy how does how can the self be an enemy no the self cannot be an enemy a self cannot be your friend also you are it so here that's why i said what is meant by self here the atmana by the self how can the self be an instrument in anything so what self is meant here physical self is meant here the sensor itself is meant here the mental and emotional self is meant here the moral self is meant here that's why i was referring to the thai theory openation where what we now dismiss as sheets it's a later post shankara development physical sheath vital sheath mental sheath intellectual sheath and somehow like a nesting doll somewhere inside the atman is there the original text does not bear that out the original text in upanishad considers all of these as selves physical self vital self mental self sensory self emotional self intellectual self and those selves can be our friend and our enemy on our path to enlightenment nothing helps us as much as ourselves and nothing really harms us nobody nothing can harm us more than we harm ourselves shashank says our scriptures repeatedly called six enemies yes shadripu what is the relationship of these to fear and what is the root of fear is fear a byproduct of one of the other qualities is fundamental so i'm very kind of said strength strength is what dopamine should speak to me from every page correct so fear is fundamental from an advertising perspective again and again say uh um whoever sees an another whoever sees difference for that one there is fear so fear is fundamental fear anxiety is fundamental and that comes from seeing a second seeing them seeing a second means you see a second but you don't consider the second to be a second you consider all of them to be one reality if we do not see that if we do you feel that i am cut off from others a fractured reality then there is fear moment we are in do and in the dualistic vision we are in in fear i am separate from all every everybody else fear notice how at every level um we are told at the physical level make yourself one with the world soul that all everything is now for not just for this one body for the welfare of everybody at the mental level one with god through devotion and at the causal level one with god through meditation samadhi so all of these this this all shows the oneness the actually oneness exists only in the reality in turia where you are you are already that so bhutasananji used to uh he said in one place very clearly he made it made this point brahma darshan abram gandhi so darshana means having a mystical experience you do not have a mystical experience of the highest reality you have knowledge of the highest reality the knowledge is i am that that cannot be experienced as an object because you are it on that very high metaphysical note let us end today we'll meet tomorrow for uh mataji's talk oms [Music] namaste