Video 76

76. Bhagavad Gita I Chapter 6 Verse 7 I Swami Sarvapriyananda

[Music] [Music] guru we are studying the sixth chapter the chapter is on meditation but before teaching meditation sri krishna emphasizes the importance of preparation he said that first the mind has to be purified through karma yoga that verse yoga that was verse number three so those who are climbing the ladder of yoga the climbing the ladder of spiritual progress for them karma yoga is the means they should give emphasis on karma yoga by which mind is purified once the mind is purified then more advanced practices like meditation becomes the means that the stress now shifts to the higher practices and then uh he goes on to say there was very nice verses lift yourself up by yourself do not depress yourself or lower or demean yourself because uh the you are yourself your best friend and you are yourself your worst enemy then bandura how are you your best friend which self is the best friend of the self that self which has been purified which has been brought under control uh that is your best friend the self when we are identified with the body mind and we um we think of ourselves as the body mind which are which are not the self they are anathema not self yet identified with them the self which becomes identified with the not self is the enemy of the self that means we are our own enemies when our we are our own body mind are we we embrace them as ourselves and we are unable to control them then the seventh verse verse number seven the self of one who is self-controlled and serene is alone poised in heat and cold happiness and misery as also in honor and dishonor it's a very nice verse it talks about this transition from the foundational practitioner practices of purification of the self purification of the mind control of the self and then the higher practices of meditation and knowledge so it's a very important verse wonderful insights into spiritual life are given there i like in heat and cold i like in pleasure and pain alike in honor and dishonor here i was reading in um our that gita sanjivani ram suk dasji's commentary in hindi so he gives a very nice insight he says look heat and cold that's the the surface meaning of that meaning literal meaning that it's too hot and i don't like it or it's too cold or i am suffering i get agitated with you know heat and cold we all do it tomorrow it's supposed to be in the 90s uh in the lower 90s tomorrow here in new york so it's very hot here but i was thinking that would be like the uh usual temporary temperature we actually have a nice day in india in most parts of india in summer where it is 105 in the shade in calcutta with 100 humidity so the heat and cold when we complain about it that's one thing to be uh even-minded not to be upset by uh fluctuations in temperature but that's not the actual meaning the deeper meaning so he says ram suk dashji he says it is not just the heat and cold which is experienced by the skin but also pleasurable and you know like nice tastes or unpleasant tastes experienced by the tongue fragrance or bad odors experienced by the um by the nose then things you like to see you do not like to see sound which might be musical and sweet or harsh and discordant and noisy so these opposites of all the senses and he says you go deeper what is meant by heat and cold is not just the range of experiences of the senses but you go deeper he says that when there are pleasant circumstances you see something of someone you like and it creates a pleasant feeling inside you taste the food you get like like you hear music so the sense inputs are pleasant which are agreeable to oneself he says that creates a coolness within us so it's very nice interpretation shita it's a coolness you settle down you feel relaxed and nice and peaceful and calm because things are going well the sensory environment is to your liking and when the sensory environment is not to our liking i see or hear people or things which i don't like or it is it is too hot or too cold or whatever sensory environment is not to our liking he says it generates a heat within us uh ushna a reaction a heat within us so that is the deeper meaning of sheath ocean according to and i found that nice that's sort of the real problem is not the sense inputs the real problem is our reaction to them so our reaction can be one of liking and pleasantness it's uh it's nice or it can be of rejection of irritation and krishna here says as we go and ahead in spiritual life one must be steady alike in both so this the stream of experiences which we are having one must be steady in the midst of it it's not just it's it's not just heat and cold all the five sense inputs then um all the states of the mind thoughts feelings emotions agreeable and disagreeable it could be people in the world whom you like or you're indifferent to or you actively dislike then it could be events which are to your liking and which are not to your liking it could be places uh it so circumstances it could be a job to your liking not to your liking none of them should produce that excessive reaction within ourselves is one sign of going forward in spiritual life is this steadiness how does this work and i was just thinking just about heat and cold it immediately bought to my mind when i go for walks in central park so i see these moms or nannies you know they had got the prams with the babies in them and they're going out for walks so whether it is in cold in winter it's very cold and freezing i see them they're very careful to see that the cold wind is not striking the baby directly they're careful to put little mittens on the baby's hands and you know so that the the child is protected or in the heat recently i saw so the they're going with the lady with the pram and she's careful that the direct sunlight should not fall on the child now notice this transcendence before protecting myself before protecting myself from the direct heat of the sun or the cold wind in winter um the first concern is is the child all right so similarly one must have concern not just for one's own child but for everybody else that person is suffering whether from cold or from hunger or from disease um what can i do to help that that urge must come that is the first step which which shows us how to transcend our own internal reactions to this you know heat and cold pleasure and pain and all of that first is this concern for others then that deepens so then one begins to understand how one can keep one's mind on god in spite of you know pleasure and pain heat and cold different sensory inputs so the basic idea is in the world prakriti prakriti gives us a stream of heat and cold pleasant and unpleasant taste and music and discordant noise you know sounds which are not to our liking um to taste form sound smell uh touch pleasant and unpleasant will keep coming it's by the stream through prakriti and the stream is determined by our past karma not just these things but also people will come and go and pass through our lives some you like some you dislike some you fall out with so these also will come evens places jobs careers so many things will come and go in our lives one should be steady in the midst of that spirituality demands that this is the this is the groundwork of spirituality um [Music] one example i liked was one sadhu in hindi he gave this example just imagine this little this little hut there's a man in the hut it's dark inside the hut and the man sees a strange dim light in the hut and he wonders where is this light coming from and then he looks around and he sees near the what is one a little window so near the little window there is a dish with water uh in it and he sees it sparkling so he goes to the dish and he sees the water in it it's sparkling there's a little sun in that water that means it's a reflected sun so that's sparkling and that's and that light is being scattered in the room which feeds the dim light and he wonders again where did that light come in the water because water doesn't have light and then he looks out of the window and he sees the sun in the sky so the sun in the sky is reflected in the water the little sparkling sun in that dishwater is uh scattered in the dark room and you feel a faint light in the room what does this mean our senses when you sense heat or cold pleasure or pain when you sense taste and fragrance and sound you see all of these experiences we note there's consciousness there there is awareness our senses are aware um our eyes and ears and nose and tongue and skin they're all lit up by awareness chaitanya all our sensory system and we wonder where is this coming from these senses are just matter so where is this awareness coming from and then you look in words and you find that all of it is coming from i this awareness in the mind you see all of the senses are being lit up by awareness coming from the mind and when you look at the mind you find that there is a core of awareness this you can feel it right now i am aware and from there vedanta shows us how to attain or to discern uh the pure consciousness which is being reflected in the mind so now you can match the example with this exam with the exemplified but you know the experiences we are having in the world are lit up by this uh flickering awareness this is like the dim light in that little room in all our it is found in our seeing hearing smelling tasting touching all of that now we wonder where is this coming from now this awareness in the senses is coming from the mind the mind is like that water in the dish the dish is like the body the mind is like the water in the dish and in the dish in the water there is a sparkling sun in the mind there is awareness this is called reflected consciousness like the little sun in the water dishwater there is this core of awareness in the mind which we find just now and this is called a reflected consciousness just like that little sun in the dishwater is actually a reflection of the real sun when the man looks out into the sky he sees the blazing sun in the sky and exactly like that from the the chidaw bhasa is just a reflection or a limitation or a generalization of my real nature which is pure consciousness atma so you have sun in the sky there's an that's the example for the atma pure consciousness whatever you call it pure consciousness then you have the water in the dish the water is like the mind and the dish is like the body and in the water there is the little reflected sun sparkling there and in the mind there is the reflected consciousness and through that little sparkling light you see a little bit of the room just a tiny little illumination similarly we have a tiny little point of illumination which we focus through around the world and experience heat and cold pleasure and pain and all of that now the point here is this is the way of methodology of vedanta to grow go from the experienced object to the experiencing senses to the experiencing mind to the consciousness in the mind and from there by a process which only can be intuited and you can only be helped pointed towards you grasp that oh this is who i am this pure unlimited consciousness now the point here is that if i am too much concerned with what is being revealed by the dim little light little pain here little pleasure there um little honor or dishonor here and there um taste smell touch if i am continuously engaged in these things i am not going to be able to trace back from the senses to the mind from the mind to the reflected consciousness to the pure consciousness it will not be possible the sadhu put it in simpler language he said the pure consciousness the supreme self is a one homogenous consciousness there's no flickering there if you're continuously absorbed in the flickering scenes of the world you have distanced yourself from the unchanging consciousness within made a comment with which i do not totally agree with with respect he says that we have a natural peace within us this is a natural peace which is damaged or distorted the moment we get involved in either trying to get pleasure from the world or suffering from pain in the world the moment we react to a little drop of pleasure in the world and we i want that i wanted you lost the natural peace and when i react to a little bit of pain or trouble you know heat or pain or whatever is in the world outside i again lost the natural peace so the only modification i would like to make there is the natural peace is not lost your nature as the atman is peace according to manduka karika manduk upanishad 7th your very nature is peace itself not peaceful it is peace itself that's the natural peace that's our nature that's our reality and that can never be lost but we skillfully occlude it cover it up it's as if lost by directing our attention to the trouble caused by the world to the promise and temptation of the world eat this you'll be happy go to this nice environment and see the scenes here you'll be happy and we do get a little bit of you know that what ram suggests you say is the little coolness inside and we think that's what we want in life and avoid this kind of trouble avoid too much heat or cold avoid so all of these things we keep on desperately trying to adjust things in the world outside and we successfully occlude or cover up eclipse our nature as peace it's not lost even in the most troubled mind it is not lost you the pure consciousness which is also the nature of peace itself is always there what else did i want to say here okay um then he talks about jitat manaha jithatmana means one who has controlled the body mind and senses here atma the word at majita means literally has conquered the self but the word is used in different senses by now i have repeated a number of times in different classes atma does not actually only mean pure consciousness that's the real nature of the self but the body is also the self because we practically think it to be so and behave in that way so in the uh in in a practical sense in a transactional sense we have a harika the body can be taken provisionally as the self because we practically take it to be the self body is atma senses are atma mind is up these are all dismissed by vedanta afterwards this is not the real self but uh one was conquered the atma here it applies to the body the senses the mind these have been conquered conquered means what so steadiness this is something i've seen in many spiritual seekers especially the advanced spiritual seekers both monk monks and lay persons at every level there is steadiness even physically also that's why swami vivekananda especially and other monks also they insisted on health see at one time bodily health will break down that's the very nature of the body one disease comes age comes body begins to weaken and deteriorate because it will go one day but as far as possible and as long as possible one must make all efforts to maintain the body in good health good health is more conducive to spirituality good health is more conducive to a happier mind a healthy mind you healthy body the old saying goes so it is true good health is conducive to a happier mind and and a healthy happy mind is more conducive to spirituality i heard from somebody that swami pavitra used to say do not abuse the horse you cannot dismount from the horse means you're riding the horse of the body no matter how much you say i'm not the body not the mind you're not able to dismount from it right now you're not able to see it objectively as an instrument right now so it is always good sense to take care of the body a healthy body strong body as far as possible similarly mind and the senses steadiness here would mean focus one thing i've seen among many of the senior monks is exceptional focus what they're studying what they are doing they're almost unaware of their surroundings so reading a book i've seen a number of cases of monks you walk into the room they're not aware of your presence they're doing some work maybe cleaning the room i've seen young monks novices cleaning the shrine they do it with such intense focus you can even see this in belurum but once the pandemic is over those who go this you can see that sometimes the brahmacharis the novices they're cleaning the shrine the afridama krishna or the holy mother and you see what what concentration and focus they don't look around so many people are coming and going they're always working there and you can see how with cloth they're cleaning even the little layer of dust that might be in one part of the grill of the of the window or the door in in the shrine removing every little particle of dust once um a professor from vishwa bharati that's the university in shanti nikita which was established by ravindra tagore shantini ketan so rabindranath room is there and it's been preserved as a museum a heritage site and so and that university has faced many ups and downs political problems so one professor once asked me how is it that the work done by the ramakrishna mission is so uh effective and disciplined and and so smoothly it flows so smoothly and we have so many problems here uh in our institution i said in an inspired moment i had just before that i had gone to see ravindra tagore's room in vishwa bharatiyam in the place uttarayan and then i said to him look when you go right here where rabindranath tagore's room is there you will find there is graffiti outside the room there's a layer of dust over everything in the room you can see it from the window outside you can't go into the room but you can see it from the window and if you go to swami vivekananda's room says they come to who passed away long before ravindranath tagore you go to swami vivekananda's room in balurmat i can guarantee that if you go inside you put your finger on the floor not just the bed or the chair or the table put your finger on the floor anywhere and rub you will not get a particle of dust from there and everything is big and span and shiny how do you know how can you guarantee it i can guarantee it because i did it myself every one of us did it we so particularly we cleaned everything so we had the uh you know like by turns we had these duties of taking care maintaining the place now i said see the people who work here um in tagore's room and they are not volunteers they are not inspired by course ideas they are employees they have been given a job they have their paid employees and some of them do a good job some of them don't but yeah none of them are particularly inspired but they might not even have read a single page of the ghostworks whereas we who are maintaining that room vivek around this room all of us are completely dedicated we have given up everything in life to follow vivekananda now it is the same spirit which is transferred into the classroom into the office into the other aspects of the work both in the ramakrishna mission and also in santiniketan this is the difference so the focus focus is there i've seen this in many great meditators um many monks have seen both young and old when they work with with the focus and the determination also steadiness is a determination the work they take up they finish no matter what the obstacles and this this sometimes there is a diligent approach to spiritual life in our intellectual life you take up one thing a nice project leave it half finished take up another thing leave it half finished and take up a third thing and then end up being frustrated see the mind requires focus flow and completion so if you don't do that the result is not that enrichment which one would expect from taking up intellectual work or even our creative work or let alone spirituality if we don't complete it if we don't put our all into it the result is actually often a kind of frustration unhappiness focus steadiness in the mind a sign of a satwik mind is a happy mind and it's a happy light and joyful and clean mind which actually has a downward effect on the body also this not just that the physical body when it's strong and healthy it'll uh keep it is useful for your mind to make your mind free for spiritual practices but the opposite also if the mind is kept healthy and happy and in good spirit it affects the body i have actually seen doctors so there's one doctor i remember a monk the first thing and you always remember a brilliant person i mean he is high ranking in his medical examinations and he is a brilliant singer one of our leading classical singers in our order is uh many people don't know he's a sculptor and uh and so many so many talents somebody one senior monk said god is so unfair he doesn't distribute talents equally to one person he gives all just about everything and to the rest of us nothing we really feel like beggars so i said look at this boy now and as a doctor too um he was he is very popular as a doctor also why one one reason above other all other things i'm sure he's a very he is a skilled doctor but above all is what you might call you know the bedside manner of a doctor the how he communicates with the patients the first thing whatever problem you go to i'm sure if you go to him with a terminal illness also his response is is a flat out oh it's nothing you'll be fine very soon that's perfectly all right oh nothing to worry about he'll give this broad smile and which lights up the entire room and clap you on the back and uh and i remember another doctor the monk who is equally skilled even if if not even more very serious wonderful monk but rather grim and so if you go to him even with i suppose a cold or something that a paracetamol tylenol would do he would shake his head dolefully and said oh no you get this sinking feeling in your heart no i'm exaggerating but it makes a difference it makes a difference actually i read some very interesting case where in the united states they're always worried about getting sued so um they wanted the insurance companies wanted to find out which doctors are likely to get sued more so their i think their insurance premiums would be higher probably so they did a study and at first they were confused about the results of the study because there seemed to be no connection between the qualifications of the doctor or their publications or their seniority years of practice no correlation at all highly qualified doctors were getting sued and less qualified doctors were not getting sued senior doctors were getting sued and junior doctors were not getting sued so what is the what is the correlation what is the factor determining is there anything at all or is it totally random and then they found one thing they found that uh the doctors whom the patients liked were less much less likely to get sued than the doctors whom the patients did not establish a rapport with and that's understandable if you really like your gp and even if the doctor makes a mistake you're much less likely to sue this person who's friendly who's nice to you and who with whom we have this nice relationship and so it's not really a function of skill it's not really a function of qualification it's not even really a function of experience it's more a function of the report you have established with the patient and they said i think there are studies to show that this report is actually useful in in the healing process patients heal better so anyway my point here was that steadiness physical sensory and mental and a kind of positive attitude it sounds right when i put it that way but a natural positiveness which is the all these things are very helpful this is called mana then he says so one is alike in honor and dishonor alike in honor and dishonor it's an important thing because um generally what happens is we are very afraid of being insulted or dishonored and we are eager to hear a few words of praise the sadhaka the spiritual person's attitude is whenever i face suffering so for example insult and dishonor my papa is being reduced all the accumulated bad karma is being expended thereby and when i get praise and you know people honor me i'm actually losing my good karma which could have been used to put to better use i'm losing all my credit so the you have many instances of spiritual practitioners advanced spiritual seekers in every religion who seem to actively seek out or even revel in dishonor and some people dislike them or people ignore them slight them they're fine with it and extremely uncomfortable or annoyed if people try to praise them so this is the logic behind it here is an interesting analysis in vedanta we classify persons into these four categories palmara vishai sadhaka and siddha palmara is the lowest lowest in the sense of a person who's who is sort of instinctive almost just almost animalish driven by just the motive of pleasure and gain atta and karma even just pleasure so in an extreme case it might be like a drug addict or an alcoholic or somebody who does not care for anything maybe his own life is falling apart but only that little pleasure which uh that person is addicted to palmer is an instinctive kind of life below the level of what you might consider a decent moral person in the world above this is the vishai vishail means literally worldly person who's interested in vishaya but this is a decent worldly person what you want one might call a dharmika a moral a decent householder a decent person in the world it basically they are the backbone of society everywhere they are interested in they are interested in worldly goals but within the limits of morality they would they would not overstep they like to think of themselves as good people we have certain standards we will not go beyond that it's not just not being caught by the police or the irs but it's just my own moral uh my own conscience so this is called a vishai this person is interested in karma in in gain and prosperity and and pleasure but on the basis of dharma within the limits of dharma within the limits of morality and ethics then higher than this is a person who is a spiritual seeker who is no longer particularly interested in earth and karma maybe in the world maybe the person has a job and a family to take care of fine but the goal is now spiritual enlightenment the goal is a spiritual quest now almost everybody here belongs to this category so we are all in this category where we are this is called sadhaka sadhaka is still within very much within the limits of morality and ethics on the basis of that no longer is the pursuit of early pursuit another pursuit is moksha enlightenment god realization we may think it's too ambitious to say that i'm seeking enlightenment or god realization but we are actually there's no harm in owning up to that that we all of us we are it's good we are seekers of enlightenment all of us so this is called a sadhakar a spiritual seeker we have come to this level and then finally above this is a the perfected one the enlightened one siddha siddha is the perfected one they are above us what do they want they don't want uh dharma or even moksha they've already attained enlightenment that's why shankaracharya can confidently sing the rule i do not want artha karma even dharma dharma means the you know the shopkeeping kind of dharma where i will increase my good karma and reduce my bad karma so that i can go to heaven afterwards that that term i'm not interested in or even moksha because i'm i know i'm always free so that is the siddha perfected one now how do they deal with this this question of mana mana honor respect being highly esteemed by one's fellow men and upper mana means being insulted and demeaned and ignored and slighted so how do they deal with this so the palmer is is the most degraded in the sense he hates himself has the most horrible view about himself or herself and is full of uh dislike and hatred and this and despises others also so you can just bring to your mind i have seen some very miserable people maybe homeless maybe partially mentally ill also maybe maybe addicted to drugs or something uh we have all seen the scene you know that life is falling apart and sort of walking down the street and yelling abuse at everybody so there is a deep self-hatred there and there is a dislike for everybody else so that's at the level of um sunk in the level of upper mana it is at the lowest level has demeaned oneself then above that is the um vishai the the you know the decent moral person in the world and what does that person do that person actively tries to avoid upon actively tries to avoid dishonor or insult or being slighted and actively tries to get honor i i want to be admired by others i want to get plenty of likes facebook likes or something like friends or something that is a very good indicator i don't want to be disliked i want to be liked this is the level of vishai who actively um tries to avoid misery and you know insult and notice there's nothing wrong in this how would you help a person who is at the lowest level whose life has fallen apart who is angry or has sort of self-hatred and hates everybody else the only way to have you can't that person cannot jump from there to nirvana that person has to first get his or her life together again you'll have to help that person to you know have a regular day to get a job to look after his or her health to establish decent relationships with others only by coming from the palmer level to the vishai level in america they say get your act together and get your life together so that level and there one of the biggest tools for coming to that level is to actively seek the approval of others and be afraid of the disapproval of others uh the the you know insult dishonor it helps to develop oneself at that level then you go higher to the level of the spiritual seeker which is what should interest us there one must strip away the ego which has come which has come to depend on the approval of others which has come to depend on the like the the praise of others and the opposite one must do that one must be quite comfortable with being ignored or slighted or insulted there's no harm you are already on the highest possible path of human evolution that is spiritual realization so it is actually helpful to reduce the ego the which ego the ego which has now been properly developed it was perverted at the lowest level at the level of the decent worldly person it has now been properly developed i'm a balanced person now i'm what you might call a normal person normally it's not particularly normal within quotes so you will find in the lives of the saints in every religion they actively seek out sometimes it may seem strange they seek out dishonor and they actively avoid honor just the opposite of the earlier stage i'm so saint francis for example this very nice book saint francis of scc little flowers of saint francis very inspiring it's devotional but and very inspiring often many would come to him to become monks in his franciscan order he would tell them to seek out you know dishonor put on the sackcloth go and where people make fun of you the children throw stones at you when you go you go through that process your ego is crushed i've seen in ashrams often we were subjected to scoldings by senior monks which may seem which may seem uh unfair at that time a lot of scolding for a minor problem this quote that minor mistake is not the point of the scolding the point of the scolding is what is called ego crushing and steamrolling the the ego i remember when i got my first big scolding from a monk for a mistake i i may think it was a minor but anyway probably it was not by my minor i i was put in charge of the kitchen and very very poor kitchen in charge very impractical kitchen in charge so once uh this monk he had fasted the whole day it was durga puja he had gone out to the city to the place where dashram was to see the different images of durga and come back so he was one of the senior most monks in our ashram and my one of my responsibilities was to keep a plate of food for uh him when he comes back but the day before that he had not eaten neither the day before that also and on this day he still had not come and was waiting with his food and everybody had eaten and gone to their rooms for the customary afternoon siesta then at that time a whole group of devotees suddenly arrived and there was no food so i thought what do i do ah that monk is probably not going to come back let me take the food of that monk and divide it equally among this family which has just come i thought i was doing a brilliant thing and i did that and i thought even if that monk comes back and asks for food he'll probably be very happy because i've read so many times my monks are so happy that i'll go hungry and let others eat and as these devotees had finished their food and were getting up that monk arrived to my um anxiety he called ah i'm so hungry today where is the food come come my boy i had to say but there's no food why isn't there food oh look at they just ate it i pointed to them so i got one of the worst scoldings of my life ever at that time and the monk stormed off and i was stunned i was so shocked i was nearly in tears another month came to me and said why this vp face what's wrong with you i was a brand new novice i said well it's my fault you know that swami has gone hungry today and the moment here that saw me this other swami said oh boy i'm not getting in the middle between these two of you you handle this yourself and then finally the head of the ashram um he heard about it he asked me about it that night when we were walking the senior most monk and i said it is really my fault i did a stupid thing and this is what happened and uh the head had a very different perspective on all of it he said oh i'm so happy it's wonderful it's good for you and it's good for that monk too i said why he said see one should not always hear praises i was getting worried about you everybody was everybody seemed to like you and praise you a lot i thought this is not good for this young boy it's good to be scolded like this and that's good for you and as for that swami he says swami what kind of fasting is it where you deliberately fast it's when you actually want to eat and you don't get food that's the real fasting it's good that he experienced it so that was his way of solving it uh but the ending was good let me not uh skip that part ending was very good that's senior swami and i'm so i still remember that uh he at dinner he called me and i was so scared that she's going to scold me again in front of everybody he sat down and the food that he had on his plate he divided it into two and he made me eat with him and we ate together and i was so so that's that's very wonderful but the point was honor and dishonor in spiritual life when you are in the third stage of sadhaka dishonor is actually if you consciously if you can process it it's very good it's genuinely good for one spiritual evolution so many such stories are there in for example saying uh saint francis is that book itself i remember uh one one story is there a rich man invited saint francis to his home in order to test him we have to invite the franciscan brothers and feed them like a you know food dinner so after food saint francis said that oh i'm so full i'm going to retire and go to bed so we went to the bedroom and this man wanted to see the rich man the host wanted to see what this saint would do he was so famous he wanted to really see how saintly he is and he listened from the room nearby and he heard the saints snoring he had a full meal and he jumped into bed and started snoring but the man didn't give up he persisted he carefully listened from outside the room and late in the night when everybody was asleep in the house uh saint francis saint francis stealthy got up and got down on his knees and uh my lord my god my lord my god whispering like this throughout the night throughout the night he's praying to to god so my lord my oh my god my lord now this man was so impressed actually he he became a monk in the franciscan order the next day itself he gave up all his wealth and um one does not care for honor and dishonor once self-image does not depend on what others say so one one story i might have told you in uttarakhand i saw this vedantic monk his name was um i keep narayananda giri narayananda giri very learned monk he is the one who told me the story of yes such yavo such which has become very popular because of that youtube lecture is this true or is that was that true or is this true the mandu kakarika story which i janaka and ashtavakra which i shared he had told me the story so i had made his acquaintance when i was in the himalayas there in gangutri and other monks also respected him but he was a kind of a little bit of a rebel and so one of the stories i heard about him was it's a small place actually the community of monks there is quite small because it's it's um it's a really a small place and i don't know why but monks tend to be quite gossipy so once a couple of monks came to this narayana and the giddy and said swami do you know what they are saying about you in this in that ashram in india you know what they are saying about you and the swami replied immediately he said it's all true in hindi he said sub sacha they were taken aback they didn't even have a chance to seek or convey the gossip what their people said talking about you he just said oh whatever they are saying it's all true and then this what do you mean he said you wanted to know that there isn't truth in the gossip you know the whatever talk they have about me i'm giving you a blank check you putting whatever you like there i'm not interested and so look at the attitude i'm not at all interested in what people are saying about me good or bad it literally makes no difference to me ramana maharishi's example is there naman mashi somebody wrote an article in a paper criticizing him and they sent a copy to him also not only that the maharishi sat and carefully corrected the grammatical mistakes and improved the language and sent back the copy to the author to the bewilderment of the people in the ashram who were outraged they said that but he was criticizing you didn't you notice he said oh no he's criticizing some fellow called ramana i'm not ramana there was a newspaper editor whom swami vivekananda was once praising and then somebody remarked that but he doesn't like you he has criticized you and swami vivekananda immediately replied what of that can i not see the good qualities in a person even if he does not like me personally so sri ramakrishna himself was criticized so much they called him mad and what not now see the interesting thing is srinama krishna was praised to the skies also ram chandra that girish power in his lifetime what is the highest praise one can get they called him god an incarnation of god and srirama krishna did not like that kind of talk it amused him he asked girish question ramchandra what is it that you see in me you're calling me god and he was not moved but notice you can't stop it srirama krishna he's he scolded those people who were spreading this that he's an avatar but that didn't stop them they did it all the more of if he's if he's saying that he's not an avatar that means all the more that he must be an avatar look how how humble he is now i was just thinking if he could not stop these people who were his devotees who were devoted to him if he couldn't make them shut up how can he make the his critics shut up so that's impossible you cannot keep make people in the world shut up about anything absolutely do not be worried about mana and apamana honor and dishonor so next he says see look at the verse here this is um the controlled one who has controlled the atman here control the atma means body senses mind are under control how are they under control we have seen all the karma yoga and upasana everything that has all the spiritual practices have been done the journey is from jitatma to prasantatma from the controlled self to the peaceful self these two words in juxtaposition are very interesting of the one who has already controlled oneself by these earlier spiritual practices and that one becomes prashanth means the the deeply serene controlled self to serene self control self to the self which is beyond anxiety and sorrow and disturbance prashanth how does how does one become serene one attains one syrian self he says by paramatma the word means actually by being absorbed in the presence of the paramatma now what is paramatma you can be call it god also you invoke the presence of god and be be in the presence of god all the time in the puja that we do if you have noticed the traditional hindu ritual the puja that we do so when i do the srirama krishna puja at one point early in the ritual there is a short sequence where we invoke the presence of the deity krishna these are the hand movements krishna my lord do thou come here be present here that means his blood is everywhere but be manifest here uh yes here sunny they be established here yes be manifest here be be uh rooted here and yes and turn towards me face me and being established here accept our worship now this is the paramatma means in our life we invoke the presence of god paramatma um we do it by by worshiping god through a service of all beings karma yoga we do it by bhakti yoga by the love of god by loving god above all things we do it by dhyana meditation which will be taught now by focusing our mind on god ex not to the exclusion of other things and of course finally we do it by gyani yoga by which we realize that god alone is present right here we i and the world that i experience is the divinity when vedanta tells me that is the reality of this universe of the objective universe which i call god behind this body and mind the reality behind this body and mind how do i find that by an examination of the body of the mind beyond that the unchanging light of consciousness that is my reality the sakshi chaitanya the witness consciousness and the world the one unchanging in the midst of all changing things is that one existence everywhere which you experience everywhere everything else is just name and form being imposed upon it so the names and forms keep changing but that one underlying existence sat and the chit within me pure consciousness which i am not within me which i am actually really and the sat which is manifesting in this universe are one reality that's the meaning of tattoo that's the real practice of paramatma here paramatma supreme self an interesting thing is ramanujacharya the great master of vishishta dwight vedanta in his commentary on the bhagavad gita on this verse he says supreme self here means yourself which is surprising actually because if you see ramanuja's siddhanta his his philosophy his philosophy is we are not the body not the mind we are the witness consciousness that's the real nature of the jiva that's the atma the real self and beyond this is god narayan or vishnu which is paramatma supreme self what is the relationship between atma and paramatma they are not the same thing supreme self and individual self the real individual self is a part a part an amsah or sheisha of the supreme self you are a part of narayana you are not narayana you are a part of narayana as much as a cell is the part of this body the cell is definitely this body but only apart tiny tiny inconsequential part so similarly you discover yourself as the consciousness beyond body and mind but after so this is the process of gyana in knowledge and after that according to ramanuja after that you have to establish a devotional relationship between you the self which you have discovered and the supreme self you are like a ray of light from the sun you are not the whole of the sun there's a whole and part relationship between you and the who this is this is ramanuja vishesh in this verse when paramatma established in the presence of the paramatma you would expect he would invoke god here the supreme self but in his commentary he makes it very clear paramatma means you your real nature not the body and the mind supreme so then why are you calling it supreme self is very clear it's not god that is being talked about here it is your real nature then why are you calling it paramatma means supreme or beyond beyond what this is beyond the bodily self beyond the mental self the bodily self and the mental self which had been controlled in the first stage beyond that is the supreme cell the pure consciousness which you are the real your real nature so here in one of these instances where ramanuja agrees with shankaracharya both of them say that paramatma here means pure consciousness your real nature you find that and be established in that so that is the conclusion paramatma that helps you to be peaceful in all instances of life but first first of all jitatma a steadiness and then prashanth means the serene self controlled self serene self uncontrolled self directly jump to siri in self not possible all right let us see the activity here the next verse is very nice talks about gyan and vigna so interesting verse especially in the light of ayan maharaja's book on vigna vedanta so we'll see that verse next time poonam ji has written krishna talks about the same thing chapter 2 verse titisha is a solution yes titiksha is a solution to means forbearance uh the contacts with the senses produce heat and cold pleasure and pain um how do you deal with that in spiritual life and krishna says there's no way there's no solution to that you have to you have to bear all that you have to forbear all that the dikshan steadiness titiksha is the way to practice steadiness to begin with then rick says studies show that meditators tend to have more stable physiologies yes less reactive to stress quicker and easier to recover from it true truth so many such studies are coming out actually clinical studies done it's good for our health to be also to be steady meditation gives steadiness but steadiness also is helpful in meditation here's krishna prescribes it before meditation a steady person can meditate much more easily see this steadiness this what is called here jitatma control over body senses and mind this is this comes from the purification which has resulted from karma yoga this enables all spiritual practices to be much easier and more effective without the initial preparation of the mind purification of the mind karma yoga unselfish action you don't feel like being unselfish you like the idea of being unselfish but it's not so easy to be unselfish engaged in unselfish action then bhakti yoga i will love god with all my one pointed love i i will take all the you know the passion which is flowing towards the world in 100 different channels and gather it up pull it out from there and direct it towards god doesn't happen we don't feel that love for god it seems mechanical our bhakti seems mechanical then meditation sit in absolute serenity concentrated on the madra on the visualization of the deity in your deity meditation practice yes but if the mind is not pure what will happen is either there'll be no taste in meditation it'll seem boring and if you force the mind to do it it'll either fall asleep or be restless gyani yoga the witness consciousness beyond body and mind either if the mind is not purified what will happen is either one will not get it at all what's being talked about i don't get it or one may get it but it will not feel real it will feel theoretical only the body and the mind will feel real all of these are rooted in the impurity of the mind purity of the mind makes all the practices easier and effective swami yes and that is the swabi yes he's fight um right now he's fighting against corona virus there and all our hospitals actually are engaged if you look up in the balurmat website hospital in the lucknow hospital in the vrindavan hospital all our hospitals in the india are full-time engaged full-time means they have coronavirus wards for corona patients go with patients not only that many of our institutes i'm getting the news just about every day schools and colleges have been emptied out and they have been turned into coveted safe houses so that people can come and recover there krishnamurti vishwanathan says thank you for the comment about good health being conducive for spiritual work swamiji how can one become one can one avoid becoming too obsessed with health goals and do it in the attitude of karma yoga i often think about the tension of wanting to work for optimal health versus remembering the body's temper and doesn't belong to us and therefore not really in our control well one thing is sure that if if i'm ill it will really not be in our control it's only when there's a some amount of fitness and health then the body is actually to some extent under our control and health also as we now know and it's a lot of it depends on lifestyle choices so regarding it as an instrument we're always told in the ramakrishna order when you become a monk your body now belongs to god so just as you would not damage the instruments machines in the ashram you would not want to damage the body also cordelias is the purpose of making monks beg for food and exercise to decrease one's ego i i think so uh we're supposed to beg for food from three houses or five houses uh it's also a good way of getting out of washing dishes you know cooking you have to wash so many dishes and if you have if you beg for food you only your own begging bowl to wash that's a big chore in one of our ashrams in orange county in la in trebuco canyon with a very beautiful ashram there a retreat center so they have a unique approach to washing dishes after food is done they lock the doors they will not open the doors until all the dishes are washed so nobody can run for it after food so you all have to wash the dishes girish says how did sri ramakrishna describe what it was like to be him like to be enlightened you must have asked been asked that several times yes in the gospel of salaam krishna you find many descriptions of his own spiritual experiences numerous descriptions of his visions and if you match it with the gita with the panchadashi other vedantic texts you begin to see how it is different this is a question that actually arjun asks shri krishna at the end of the second chapter what is it like to be enlightened sitha prague gets how how is it different how does an enlightened person walk and talk and sit and lit by that he does not literally mean walk and talk he means walking means how does he go around interacting with people and objects and things in the world how does he sit means how does this person withdraw from the world and meditate and talk means how does this person react to good and bad things in the world which you know pleasant and unpleasant things so how do we do that and how would an enlightened person do that and so what difference does enlightenment make and shri krishna's answer is one of the most inspired parts of the bhagavad-gita this titan those few verses gloria says jesus also said why do you call me good god alone is good yes well you can't make either critics shut up or even your admirers shut up so it's best to give up that attempt all right we'll meet tomorrow again omg shanti foreign