Video 87

87. Bhagavad Gita I Chapter 6 Verses 33-35 I Swami Sarvapriyananda

[Music] yoga i think everybody needs to mute yes i'm getting some background noise good we were on verse number 32 when i mentioned that that is the famous golden rule found in all religions a very important ethical principle maybe the most important ethical principle and what vedanta does is it gives it a philosophical basis why should we follow the golden rule why should we treat others as we treat ourselves it may be a great idea but it can be criticized why should i treat others like myself i'll treat myself like myself and those who are related to me i'll give them preference and others are of secondary importance why not so vedanta gives you the basis that they are you because you automatically give yourself importance but all the others are nothing but you the real you the atman it's one reality you see the sameness everywhere the same divinity shining through everywhere same reality it is the same one consciousness or if let's start from from the outwards and move to the inwards they're all the same human beings everybody's a human being and it's an important thing to recognize everybody is a living being you go further all of it is the same matter you know earth sky fire water wind it's everything here in universe is like that or you go further deeper all of it is is the play of maya in india it's a common phrase in villages you will hear some it's a fact all of this is the play of maya go further all of this is nothing but god god means here is the god of religion the god of religion the saguna brahman that itself appears in all creation vedanta i will not explain here but those who have studied vedanta sara you know what is the material of this creation what is the reality here it is means god the term used the phrase used there was the one [Music] undivided cause of this universe what kind of cause the instrumental cause as well as the material cause the one who's the creator preserver destroyed the universe and one who is the universe but not uh in a pantheistic sense not that god has become the universe but god appears in the universe so there is also oneness there it's all god but vedanta goes further it goes deeper to the ultimate reality beyond god beyond individual and beyond the cosmic what is god the cosmic reality what are you the individual reality but beyond the individual and the cosmic beyond the part and the whole is one undivided reality um which is the ultimate reality nirguna brahman existence consciousness place and that's the only thing and therefore from that perspective it is all of this it's one with you you are that reality you see if you stop at god for example all of this is god even then somebody might say oh all right fine i really don't believe in god i'm not interested let it be god so what i feel i am this person i will protect the interests of this person and i'll take the help of your god if god helps me out because i'm just this person but then you cannot say that if you go to advaita village because you are no longer this person you are the reality which appears as god universe and individuals in that that is the grounding for ethics and the manifestation of the ethics is this golden rule i mentioned how you find it in the united nations building headquarters here also anyway now arjuna the student the disciple is also an eminently practical man remember he's a warrior and so for him the first test is what works all this is fine philosophy does it do any good does it work practical benefit so um it's very american that way you know what's the most american of all philosophies it's pragmatism which was associated with william james but even before that what was the name of the great philosopher um who started pragmatism i'm writing his name right now brilliant man he was at harvard too long ago even before william james he's regarded as a father of american pragmatism but but to oversimplify and deepen the philosophy at the risk of oversimplifying what is this philosophy of pragmatism it's often sort of ridiculed but there's a point there it is called the cash value philosophy what good is it ultimately so and it's a very good test it's a very american test but it's a very good test it could be fine metaphysics it could be um a subtle logic john dewey no not john dewey john dew is the father of american education for the philosophy of education even before john dewey before william james i'm just missing the name it'll come on the source of american pragmatism john dewey applied pragmatism he wrote number of good books in pregnant charles pierce yes charles sanders pierce thank you he was an extraordinary man he went to harvard and i mean philosophers today are rediscovering charles sanders spears his ideas on i think even mathematics or something now people are even now beginning to rediscover again anyway um pragmatism he gave america it's unique philosophy pragmatism if you say one school of philosophy which you associate with america it's pragmatism uh it's a technical name by the pragmatism just doesn't mean being pragmatic it has a relation to that but it's a whole body of thought um so what is what good is it and arjuna comes back and he says to krishna i've heard you all of this is wonderful it's no good it's useless he's going to say that now arjuna yogas [Music] are arjuna said this yoga that you have described as equanimity or slayer of madhu i do not see us see any permanence going to restlessness of the mind it means stability so basically what he's saying is that this yoga which you described as seeing the same brahman everywhere ultimately that's the goal of this yoga is understood perfectly seeing same brahman everywhere it doesn't work it won't work and the cause of that is the restlessness of the mind the mind is not going to be calmed by these methods of meditation and it will not realize so what if the mind is not calm then the ultimate truth which you talked about maybe it is true that there is one brahman everywhere but it won't work it will not be realized it will not become a practical reality for me why because of restlessness of the mind well i taught you meditation to calm the risklessness of the mind that meditation doesn't work and he will say why it doesn't work but one thing i want to point out here is arjuna has understood just want to make a remark here what yoga has krishna taught not only in sixth chapter but in entire bhagavad-gita remember now i'm speaking entirely from the perspective of advaita vedanta he has not really taught the yoga which consists of devotion to him as god is not really taught the yoga which consists of sitting is it like sitting closing your eyes shutting out the world breathing in this particular way that yoga not thinking of anything at all that yoga no not even that that yoga which consists in seeing the same divine reality everywhere he summed up the goal the purpose of all these practices in the earlier verses very beautiful verses which we have done it this is what this is the yoga which krishna has taught to see the self in all beings to see the entire universe in yourself the one who is established in yoga sees the same divinity everywhere in every experience in the physical so-called physical universe in the so-called mental universe and beyond that in in the absolute reality brahman in the waking in the dream in the deep sleep in life and in death in happiness and in sorrow in success and failure see the same divinity shining through that is the one who is centered in yoga then what about these other practices this um you know the teachings of whether it's bhakti or meditation yoga i'll be little philosophically here in indian philosophy among the schools of indian philosophy these all other teachings they constitute what is called purva paksha for advaita vedanta let me be frank here if you go to the original texts of advaita vedanta shankara and por shankar advaitans they spend a lot of energy and lot of subtle argumentation in cutting down these teachings let me be frank here these are purva paksha we do not accept these siddhantas means these conclusions we accept the techniques we have a place for each of them but not the conclusions what do i mean by that what are these schools which are cut down the school of of nyaya which ultimately culminates in the modern dualistic systems what does nia say ultimately devotion and surrender to god will take you beyond samsara bhakti will take you beyond samsara somebody who's trained in indian philosophy my objective is where do you get this from nyaya philosophy i'll say this philosophy is at the core of the modern or or the later dualistic theistic systems in hinduism if you look at a vedanta um the schools of dualistic devotional schools and if you like open the machine up inside if you find what what are the philosophical parts which are working in that system they're all the ayah they've all adopted the nia system yaya by sheishika system on that they built a devotional theology so that's why i am saying the ancient school of niya and vaisheshika their conclusion ultimately was god exists take refuge in god by devotion to god you will be saved theism built on yaya they were great practitioners of nyaya the logicians they were not logicians in spiritual life they were devotees in spiritual life they are all bhaktas the yoga philosophy of patanjali which says sit in meditation sit in this way breathe in this way focus your mind in this way meditate deepen it into a complete cessation of the movements of the mind there you will see the atman beyond the body and mind for advaitha this is not the teaching of advaita vedanta it is cut down sankhya even sankhya philosophy you might say sankey sounds very much like advaita vedanta what does sankhya say by a discernment of our experience drikdrish which i have often spoken about the seer and the scene you finally isolate you see yourself in your resplendent nature as pure consciousness you don't see actually everything that is seen is an object you are the seer of that object you are pure consciousness the entire universe appears to you and this insight of separating the witness consciousness from all that is illumined by consciousness like a light shining on the room with everything in this the table the chair the man the gadgets the bed everything is illumined by the same light but light is none of them it illuminates everything similarly you are consciousness separate from the entire universe this separation the atma anatma purusha prakriti veka the separation of purusha and prakriti of matter and consciousness how do you separate in your understanding in your insight not physically so this sounds like vedanti isn't this what is being taught no this is not what is being taught advaita does not teach this also then the teachings of purvam imamsa which is based on entirely based on the vedas perform these ritualistic actions generate good karma and you will be assured a good life here and a good life hereafter and in in future in heaven you will go through the cycle of birth and death but you'll be assured of like a good good birth be rth this is a joke where only indians who traveled in indian railway system can understand you always want a good birth in the railway coverage so um advaita says no not at all completely rejects this this philosophy so far advaita from an advertising perspective and the dualistic theistic systems later built on the using it term the core processor of the core lost and logic algorithm of rejected the philosophy of sankhya which separates prakriti and purusa rejected the philosophy of yoga which uses samadhi to attain the intuition of the atman rejected the philosophy of purvam imamsa which which wants to generate good karma and lot of punya fella i mean that means merits to ensure a good life here and going to multiple heavens afterwards rejected what does advaita vedanta say advaita vedanta says all beings in the self they are not separate from me and i in all beings it is the teaching of absolute oneness one undivided reality what did we chant in before every uh vedanta class a condom one undivided existence consciousness place that infinite you are that is the teaching and that's a unique teaching none of the other systems nor the system teaches it at least not mainstream all right now i will take back what i said like what i've said is pretty damaging i will now say no bhakti is not rejected but is extremely useful to attain the advaithic realization doing good works is not rejected good works done unselfishly extremely useful for purifying the mind and attaining enlightenment the yogic meditation techniques not at all rejected it's extremely useful for focusing and advaithic nidhyasana completely borrows the yogic mindfulness techniques the meditation techniques from patanjali yoga the sankhya the sankhya separation between cr and c drigrishya viveka i am often repeated that it is the first step towards that oneness it is separation it is discernment between self and not self but then only oneness can be established on that basis so all of these are incul are invited back into advaita but only the technique only the central insight the philosophy of advaita vedanta is exactly what arjuna has perfectly understood samyana the one not only one oneness it is to experience that oneness one undivided divinity and then come back to life and see all this variety in all its glory in all its misery in all its horror and its beauty and see one radiance shining through all of that and be very free in life transactional life not trying to sit in samadhi all the time not trying to do uh dan sensing the glories of god all the time not being continuously engaged in building schools hospitals and doing good to humanity no you're not focused or you're not locked into any of these all of these are welcome in every aspect of life you will see that one divinity and everything proceeds from that insight so that is samyena that is the the same divinity everywhere and arjun i wanted to just stress this this is the central teaching and of course from advaithic perspective my friends in the different dualistic schools will take strong objection to all these teachings but anyway now whatever it is arjuna has understood he has not misunderstood krishna but he raises a practical question he's a warrior he's a practical man but it doesn't work he dispenses with it he says it will not work it fails because the mind is restless which is interesting the inside that there is one divinity everywhere shouldn't that be enough no with a restless mind you cannot gain that insight and even if you begin to understand it you cannot it will not rectify it will not give the benefits if the mind remains restless so restless mind is the problem now arjuna says it doesn't work i taught you how to sit breathe focus remember sit straight this is the posture of your body uh um he even give this the seat the grass and the uh the tiger skin and then all this and that so many details here krishna has given well why don't you do that won't work arjuna says because the mind is restless and it does not stabilize why what is your what problem is that and in the next verse arjuna gives a detailed description of the problem 34. [Music] the mind is restless turbulent strong and obstinate i think it is extremely difficult to control like the wind so he says it is look at the terms he uses the mind is restless chancellor restless it doesn't settle down even if it settles downs it becomes restless again but let me give an example restlessness in itself is not such a big deal you know if uh people new york have dogs they love dogs so if your puppy you go to somebody's house and a puppy there's a cute puppy and it's restless and running around and the your host says oh i'm sorry the puppy is so restless but you would say that oh it's delightful it's fun to watch the puppy is restless puppy has to be restless that's the nature of the puppy it's cute to watch then the host says no it's not just restless it's also turbulent it it chews up slippers and socks and it knocks over furniture and breaks cups and plates it is turbulent brahmati chanchalam restless could be cute but pramati is not cute anymore which is destructive in your in your life so the mind is not only restless it's destructive it keeps creating problems in in your life generating all sorts of complications in your life and well if it's uh turbulent and it's destructive well you could restrain the dog you could restrain the dog so that it won't it won't create damage but suppose he says suppose it's very strong you can't restrain it it's a it's a you know what pit bull or a rottweiler or something very big and so strong you can't restrain it then you might have to call animal control or even the police similarly the mind not only is it restless it's also damaging not only is it damaging it's very powerful it is powerful in its friends in this in the sense if you try to control it you will realize the power of the mind it's like controlling krishna genesis like controlling a storm a wind and if you say well be patient after some time it will calm down it will relax you go to sleep like the dog might go to sleep no drum it's very consistent the mind will generate these problems again and again and again difficult to control and if you let it alone it will not settle down it will keep dragging you around like that it it will exhaust you it has lifetimes of practice in being nasty it can outlast you so it is drama it is very consistent and very firm very set in certain patterns of thought very difficult to pull out i know people who have problems mental illnesses and they tell me it's all right to say that i am the witness of the mind but when the storm comes in the mind very difficult it's very difficult to remain peaceful though it can work but it requires a very powerful teacher who can implant that idea deeply enough to see the mind storm of the mind is separate from you but otherwise it's very difficult so this is what arjuna says why is it so difficult to control the mind chancellor restless and more worse than that brahmati turbulent destructive problem creating worse than that so strong more strong than myself can't control it and also long-lasting and and uh consistent same problems throughout lifetime it will continue it has continued for many lifetimes so one lifetime is nothing to the mind krishna gives his answer it's a simple answer but i would like to dwell on it for the rest of the class today why because this is the one question that uh you find i've seen in spiritual retreats in india the spiritual retreats organized in our ashram devotees but devotees monks they all have one common question will be there in the question answer session my mind doesn't settle down in meditation my mind is restless common question everywhere all across the world whether it's householders monks everywhere it's common question and we have so many sophisticated techniques so many answers to this but look at let's listen to what sri krishna what god himself has to say and so they gave great importance to this one great swami of our order swami bashkariswaranderjee i got his notes of gita the way he would teach gita was extra extraordinary he was the founder of our ashram in nagpur so i never saw him long before my time but the swami's the senior swamis nowadays who used where brahmacaris during his time they took down notes in his gita classes what even the way he would introduce introduce the gita they would start them up very different from all the other teachers have seen extraordinary for example there's one thing he would say remember always who is the teacher the teacher is not a professor he's not a pundit he's not even a sadhu he's not even an enlightened person the teacher is an avatar none other than god himself keep that in mind if above all else give importance to his words the krsna's words so that's how he would impress the importance of the attitude to which you you should bring to the study of bhagavad-gita what else did he say another thing that i remember he said always keep your cryogenum vibrating in uh vedanta class gita class upanishad class what is prior why am i here why most important that will keep the flame of spirituality burning why am i here what am i doing here why am i doing it i have come here for the ultimate goal of human life to overcome suffering to attain the greatest thing that human being can aim for i have come here to make my life to fulfill my life all human life is meant for this which i am doing nothing compares the importance to that which i am doing now the most valuable thing i will get here nothing in life in lifetimes will compare to what i am hearing now so keep that he says keep that vibrating when you are studying the gita what wonderful things to say you know to new students who are coming in to study bhagavad-gita so in those days we didn't have access to digital technology or anything so i had to copy down these notes by hand from another person's old torn notebook again quick what do they call in law sidebar or side note before i enter the text this question of why ryojanam i i heard it described so well by an executive from none other than apple company he says what distinguishes us from the rest of the competition is that we start with why it do three circles it's a famous idea now three circles innermost circle is y the outer circle is uh how and the outermost circle is what uh if you ask what does uh this company do some company suppose a computer company i won't name the competition it's not good to compare he did name competition so if you ask that such and such company what do they do computers they make them what do they do they make computers but in our case we don't say what do we do we don't start there we ask why are we doing this these things what is our goal purpose what are we trying to do here so why are we doing it we are doing it because he says we like elegance simplicity style we like excellence and then how will you do it we will do it in terms of certain products whatever we do whatever product and service we provide from our computer our phone to our showrooms everything will reflect this goal and how do you then what do you do yes we make uh iphones imac and all these things so you see where he's coming from the core idea is why then how and then what what is we people generally in their personal lives in their companies in their careers they're too much taken up by what is going on but much more important is why how and then what most important is why that why is prayerjana cryogenum the goal the purpose that should be that should set me on fire all right now let me go back to the verse krsna's answer to arjuna that yoga does not work how to settle down the mind how to calm down the mind without that no enlightenment without that no seeing the same divinity everywhere sri bhagavan [Music] [Music] the blessed lord said undoubtedly o mighty armed one the mind is restless and hard to control yet by practice and dispassion or son of kunti it is controlled so first krishna acknowledges he doesn't dispute it it's a big problem that makes us give a sigh of relief at least he is someone who acknowledges the problem does not dismiss it just like that oh it's nothing just do some meditation it'll be all right no it is a serious problem it is a serious problem long lasting problem and it will continue to bug us for quite a while but he says the two word two here is but it means to contradict what you have said is not correct why first of all notice how he addresses arjuna or mighty armed one what is indicating you are a warrior you have fought and defeated so many great enemies and here you are accepting defeat without a fight where from your own mind that's what is indicated i had this experience about 15 years ago in ganga 3 i was studying ashtavakra gita from a very great wonderful teacher i had the luck to meet so we used to go and sit near him um at 4 00 at 3 30 in the afternoon he used to live near surya kunda where the river whether you know the water from the glacier gangotri melts and what becomes the gangari where it starts there so it's it's a spectacular scenery and we used to sit in that little ashram uh on the bank of this roaring torrent of water and by at his feet so this old teacher he was a master of non-dual vedanta very old by that time more than 80. so ashtavakra highest non-dual vedanta one day he closed the book and looked at us as means monks and there's a motley collection i was in this dress and there were people some had dressed in black some in white some had beard some were shaven some lived in cottages some lived in caves one lived in a hole in the ground and so on so we had all gathered around him he said this i'll tell you in hindi and then translate he was punjabi you are armed with all these weapons he showed the book these are weapons you're armed with these weapons and the enemy gives you your opponent gives you a couple of slaps and you come back weeping what's the fun in that oh monk oh monks what is the fun in that what are the weapons these this knowledge that you are getting these are the weapons to deal with what is the opponent the mind the mind is the opponent the mind gives you two slaps finished we come back so you are a great warrior now you have to fight the greatest of all enemies you conquer yourself you conquer everything one who conquers oneself conquers everything one must have this attitude of a hero there's a sanskrit verse i don't remember the verse but it says divides people into three kinds of three categories when faced with overcoming obstacles he says nija madhyama uttama the lowest category the middling category and the best the lowest category is those who do not belong begin any task uh because they are they see the obstacles on the way and they think it's too much trouble it's too much trouble so i won't undertake this task and here it's not just about spirituality it's about anything in life will not undertake great challenges because it's too much trouble let alone spirituality even prosperity and even happiness in this life is not possible for such people second the middling class large numbers of people are like this so they take it up but they the moment the inevitable problems crop up the inevitable challenges crop up the inevitable defeats and losses crop up they give it up and the best ones are those who take it up and carry it through in spite of whatever happens carry it through if it's a task doing what doing it's worth doing well so they carry it through to the end it's got doing well i remember very great swami of our order and take the name swami suritan who's the vice president of our order i was very lucky to join as a novice under his training about 27 years ago um he told us this once about his own days as a novice as a brahmacari in those days in balurmat there are some very great enlightened monks there was this swami shantananda was a disciple of the holy mother she was constantly in god consciousness and it was wonderful to visit him those who understood they understood much better even if those who had no idea they would be strangely pulled to him he hardly spoke he was childlike he just said sad quietly people love sitting around him so he says swami sweethand told me that he was a brahmacharya a novice under training in belurubart which is a very strict kind of routine is their schedule so his duty was so at there was a particular time at window in the routine when he could go to swami shantan and then sit there and do a little bit of service for him and he really looked forward to that time and as it would happen he was given a duty at that time itself to weed to pull weeds out in the garden that really annoyed him here i am pulling out weeds in a little garden i could be sitting i just missed 20 minutes 30 minutes i could be sitting near an enlightened person and i don't know if i'll get this opportunity in the rest of my life and he was thinking his environmental he was grumbling was quickly doing the work so that you'd get at least some time to run up and sit near that swarm then the principal the the master one who's in charge of all the novice masters the monk who is the head of the training center he looked at him and he said to swami sutanji who was not a swami at that time he was a brahmacari he said to him if it is worth doing it is worth doing well and they said that set me right but even something as simple annoying as reading and you to ask yourself is it worth doing it all and if it is then it's worth doing well so mahabharata he says you are a great warrior you must persist if you take up something don't give it up i remember another great swami uh i was witness to this there was a monk um so it was in haridwar on the hotels of the himalayas and we were the swami was teaching something he was a very well-known very great monk in those days i consider him one of the few g1 muktas i would have seen in my whole life one of the monks in that gathering i heard later was a little restless he the study was going on after vedantic text and he said um i feel i think i should go to gangotri to to the highest himalayan peaks on a pilgrimage and then come back and the master who was teaching he said um finish the study first we have started this text it will take a few more months finish it and then you can go maybe next year you can go ah no i think i'll go all right he said go go for the pilgrimage to gungo three and other places and so this monk set off a few days later he was back again what happened oh there was a landslide and all the no buses could go it's a common event i was also caught once so it happens in the high himalayas landslides um so i decided oh well it's no use going to go through and this is very difficult now there's no vehicles going so i thought maybe i'll come back and finish the text so i came back now the master was teaching was sorely annoyed he scolded him so this is this is a very bad trait in spiritual life if you take up something that is worth doing it's worth doing well and he said you're going for the pilgrimage there's a landslide so what i will get down from the bus i will walk over the piles of rubble and rocks and all and cross over to the other side and walk on my walk on foot to bagango three and year one or three if i perish in the cold so be it that mindset you have to have otherwise taking up something and letting it go this is very it's a damaging trait in spiritual life um he says assam shayam mahabharata so this how to become and to you know overcome sorrow how to concentrate the mind this has to be learned it will not come by itself you might say that's obvious no it's not obvious we behave as if it should come by itself i have become interested in spiritual life i have taken mantra diksha or i have gone to a meditation class now why isn't my mind coming down you have just begun you never say that in any um sphere of human life i've enrolled in uh university at columbia university here why haven't i got my degree yet no that's not that it doesn't happen that fast i started a business why aren't i a millionaire yet people would think you're ridiculous if you say such things but we think like that in spiritual life it does not come none of these things come naturally the mind will not become concentrated naturally concentration is not natural nothing in spiritual life or anything in anything good in civilized life itself is natural why i'm stressing this is there is this whole superstition worshiping everything that is supposed to be natural i think it started with russia and the french the romantic movement something there's a truth in that but there's also a great fallacy in that all that is worthwhile has to be taught shankaracharya says that uh naiser ghiko i am loka bahara in the brahma-sutra all this that you see in human life this samsara is natural it comes with birth you didn't have to go to school to become ignorant about your real self and then become attached to the world and then become quarrelsome jealous angry desirous unhappy to be unhappy does not require your training to be happy requires training to become spiritual requires training everything requires training we did not know how to stand our parents taught us how to stand helped us to stand uh we did not know how to eat our parents taught us how to eat we did not know the first letters of the alphabet our teachers taught us the first letters none of that is natural none of that comes by itself let alone the higher arts sciences and certainly let alone the highest spirituality it requires training including controlling the training the mind so training is required let me say here that one story about natural i remember i like it very much it is it concerns the french revolution so when the french revolution was there the revolutionaries were very much against religion which meant uh catholic christianity at that time in france so the story concerns a pastor and his friend the friend was a revolutionary the pastor was of course a priest in the church now the revolutionary came once to the pastor's home and he found that the priest was teaching the bible to his little son and the revolutionary said afterwards he said my friend don't do this don't you know the new thought in our land let things grow naturally don't force these superstitious ideas into a child's mind let him grow up by himself naturally and then if he likes he can pick up bible or whatever it is and then learn the pastor didn't say anything now what happened was this pastor he had a beautiful garden i think a rose garden or something so one day the revolutionary friend came to the pastor's house and instead of the garden he saw it all overgrown with weeds and he rushed inside and said my friend what happened to your beautiful garden so cultivated so beautiful and the pastor said oh i let it grow naturally and that taught a lesson to the revolutionary that if you will grow naturally that will be the result do not flow with nature that is the that is the slogan these days that you have to be natural go with the flow and no if you flow with nature it will take you down to to gross materiality that is the direction of flow in nature so i mean i said it is all spirituality is an upward struggle against what we have been used to nature is prakriti it is by nature tamasic nature is by nature thomas it drags you down to materiality in hindi they say caitanya consciousness is reduced to matter does not actually reduce to matter but it becomes matter like the sentience which is our most valuable thing that we are aware that is lost slowly the more you more you flow down with nature i have seen a friend who i thought was very spiritual in our college days but he would meditate he is the one who introduced me to the books of ekna desvaran you know very beautiful books on geeta upanishads very beautifully written but anyway this friend um he was spiritual but i noticed that about meditation say i would i meditate only when the mood seizes me when i feel meditative and i meditate and i get good meditation i felt there was something wrong with that kind of thinking it's true that if you do that very soon that mood will not come again mood will come once in a while and then they you will get nowhere the mind will not be developed so don't flow with nature because you'll flow down you have to go against nature and for that abby practice is not necessary what is practice repetition in one word practice is repetition there's great power in repetition there are these two basis of spirituality in ancient indian thought yoga yana means knowledge yoga means practice yana is intuition insight realization yoga is repetition there is a very ancient saying even patanjali yoga sutras the commentaries on that they quote it so that means it must be older than that older than the commentaries on patanjali yoga sutra the knowledge of self and not self i am consciousness existence consciousness place the world is not me not self that sunk here insight that who am i the answer to that question there is no knowledge like that it says there's no knowledge like the knowledge of who am i what am i and it says there is no strength like yoga there is no power like yoga yoga here is the practice the repetition the central idea so if you want power and strength it is yoga and your knowledge it is self not self knowledge who am i both are necessary both are necessary and spiritual life both have to be combined in spiritual life that's why swami vivekananda says religion is the manifestation of the divinity already within us not just the knowledge of the divinity not just the philosophy of the divinity within us so manifestation that means you have to realize who am i but it also must be reflected in your life in my thoughts in my feelings in my speech and in my actions how i interact with the world my spiritual realization should show should shine forth that shining forth that requires strength enormous practice has been done in many lifetimes in the opposite direction by going with the flow that's also a kind of repetition and that generates enormous inertia now you're going to move against that you need enlightenment but you need to manifest that enlightenment also that manifestation you will come up against the the preconditioning of the body mind especially the mind which has been conditioned to worldliness in many lifetimes that push back it requires strength so manifestation of the divinity already within us let me go a little deeper here i mentioned this earlier but it's very relevant here the insights of which are given by jonathan height who is in um in the uni stern school of management here in new york mister in school he is regarded as right now among the living psychologists in the world he is regarded as like some i think in the top 25 in the world today his masterpiece which i read was long ago it was happiness hypotheses happiness hypothesis um there he says takes up this question why do our efforts to change ourselves fail so this is enormous range of self-help books available go to barnes and nobles rack after rack entire rows of books filled with all sorts of self-help books and nice you know it will promise you um you can make friends you can lose weight you can be an effective communicator you can control your mind and be at peace and learn to meditate you can become creative what not you can find romantic love what not all those things are promised there and it's not false many of them contain wonderful insights so mostly anecdotal but many of those things are now being confirmed by modern positive psychology which is an academic discipline but what jonathan haidt asked was why doesn't it work these books are all there in a popular form and they're very popular so many people are buying them so are their lives being transformed are they getting some benefit of it at least not much not much why not so he asked this question what is happening and then he said um our mind has the structure he is a very indian metaphor has the structure of an uh of a mahout and an elephant the elephant and the mouth is the one who writes the elephant to control the elephant i think it's an english word also right mahut i don't know yes the one the elephant who controls telephone sits on the elephant mahout it comes from in indian languages so the mouth controls the elephant now notice what how it works the mahout knows where he wants to go i want to go this way and that way and he can command the elephant to go this way and that way now if the elephant obeys the mouth it will work but the elephant does not obey them out the elephant wants to go that way and the mouth wants to go this way elephant finds some bananas there which it wants to eat and it wants to go that way the mouth cannot do anything to the elephant elephant is far far stronger than the mouth nothing that mouth can do to the elephant exactly in the same way our mind he says there is an intellect so this is so vedantic the psychology which john tonight speaks about there's an intellect which understands uh which processes information which gets new ideas which gets excited a wow factor this is wonderful i've taken this seminar i've attended this class i have bought these books i got load of books from barnes and nobles all of this is wonderful i am sold i'm going to do these things all right what am i going to do um say i want to wake up if i'm sold on the idea you have to get up early in the morning it's a wonderful idea to change your life so i'm going to get up early in the morning and meditate and do yoga and so on good convinced next morning you get up it's cold below zero today we had gone out in the central park and late november it started snowing with a few few snowflakes it stopped luckily so it's cold outside it's freezing and cold in the room and i've decided to get up and want to get up but here is the problem it's not the intellect which has to get up it's the body which has to get up and the body says you never asked me i didn't sign up for this i'm the one who's going to suffer in the cold and the one who's comfortable under the blanket so i'm going to stay right here if you want oh intellect if you want to get up and do yoga you're welcome to go do and do yoga in your own mind i am not going to get up we face a resistance from the body not just the body we face resistance from our emotions we face resistance from our likes and dislikes so this happens now the elephant this this lower mind the body this is the elephant and the intellect is the one which understands vedanta which understands positive psychology which wants to do all sorts of things but the lower mind and the body i have not signed up for this they don't understand the body does not understand positive psychology the elephant does not understand google maps or anything like that so now what do you do the question is then what's the option if you can't convince the elephant argue and logically give a seminar to the elephant no then what do you do with the elephant think about it what do mouths do actually they train the elephant not convict convincing it they don't argue with the elephant they don't give lectures to the elephant and they don't send it to seminars and you know self-development workshops no they train the elephant and what is the nature of training the elephant it is repetition again and again until certain patterns of behavior are inculcated in the relevant exactly like that jonathan hyde says our body mind the lower mind and the body have to be trained and training means repetition generating and sustaining new habits there's also many of these ideas up there 21 days one new habit you must do it consistently for 21 days you break it even once repeat it again for 21 days it seems it takes some kind of some amount of time it may not be 21 days could be 30 days i don't know but repetition is important and neuroscientists entirely agree here this new neural pathways are generated the brain is is plastic all these things are now known which is not known earlier actually the brain rewires itself but the rewiring is a physical process and like any physical process any biological process it takes time it takes a lot of grunt work hard work there repetition repetitive repetition is the key to obviously this is the key to yoga gyan yoga insight is the key but karma yoga bhakti yoga raja yoga repetition is the key you want to like selfless work it won't happen just by reading about altruism and selflessness you keep doing it you'll develop a taste for it you want to feel the love of god just by reading books you might get some but if you start little puja a little devotional you know listen to songs make it a practice every day very soon you'll feel an attachment to god similarly krishna says now meditation is your problem arjuna so the answer to your question is repetition systematic repetition and fixed time fixed place repeat repeat and repeat do it do it again and do it once again that is the answer so abhyasa is very powerful repetition is very powerful i've seen this again and again i've mentioned this to you i've seen a monk i haven't seen that the i see you in the hospital they told me that this old monk who passed he was dying and in the dark and not dark actually always lit up the icy is always lit up but you can't make out with its day or night outside and this monk who was not very conscious of anything outside at 4 00 am just before 4am he would struggle and sit up like that with the on the pillows and his hands would start moving with the jumper now what is that that is lifelong practice repetition and that must be first at first that's where you have strict rules why are the brahmacaris the novices put under such a strict regime it it inculcates those habits i remember one brahmacharya novice was grumbling about having to get up so early in the morning at 3 40. he was telling the senior song the same swami i mentioned so i'm sweet on energy this happened in front of me he was saying that he thought he gave a pretty good argument he said you know it's difficult it's i don't get good sleep at night and if i get up at 3 40 the thing is i feel sleepy throughout the day and i can't do my work properly now the senior swami see through our psychology the answer from the swamiji was that i don't want any work from you the only thing i want from you is for day you get up at 3 40 and go for meditation at 4am you see he says whatever work you can do after that i am happy with that so i am i don't uh this is the trick the mind plays so i have to do work that's why i must sleep late what the mind really wants to do is to sleep late it's not that the mind is very concerned about the work itself the swami said he immediately he sees through what is what even we don't know what is in our own mind he sees to and he says i you get up at 3 40 after that whatever work you can do that's fine with me only thing that i want of you is that you get up at 3 40 in the morning and go and meditate at 4am so repetition i'll illustrate the difference between the gyana and the and the yoga in this way in guyana when you say tattwa ahambram what is that meant for it is not meant for repetition it is meant for realization enlightened you must realize i am brahmana and for that vedantic entirely is there but when you do om nama shivaya omnamo bhagavati vasudeva what do you do with that you repeat it mantra mantra is that if you repeat it it saves you means saves you from samsara repetition of the mantra but means it's not a mantra it's not meant for repetition i've told you this story earlier also but let me repeat here see repetition uh swami atma priyana did he told this to us anecdote to us a very senior monk of our order he was the vice chancellor of our university until recently so he said when he became a monk a sannyasi and took the vows after 10 years of being a novice so they go in a group after getting the vows the next day in the morning they give go in a group to the president of the order who has given them the vows of um of sannyas monkhood it goes and so they can ask questions about the new knowledge they received so swami akhta priyanji he said i was the spokesman for the entire group i went and asked swami gambhira nandaji who was the 11th president of our order and he was of a very grave nature the very name means grave gambhira means grave who's whose joy is in being grave that's you can say there was joys in being gruff he was sitting there quietly he used to sit with his eyes closed it seems and swamiyat and he said any questions you asked the brothers want to know um this mahabharata we received last night asked me i am brahman this um how many times should be repeated because earlier we have received the initiation mantra mantra we've been told how many times thousands of times you have to repeat it and so on so how many times should we repeat it daily swimming ranji said it is not for repetition it is for realization any other questions no you may go that is the difference between ghana and yoga yoga depends entirely on repetition on doing a saying repeat stay with it krishna says to arjuna but that's not enough he says ja and one more thing is necessary a dispassion for everything that is worldly dispassion for everything that is not self you want to inquire about the self realize i am i am brahmana that which appears to you as not self you will realize ultimately there's nothing other than the self but before that everything that seems not self there must be dispassion not god and world then you won't get it you must let go of the world not physically if you are in samsara if you have got a family that still is there if you have an ashram that still is there but that is no longer your goal no longer your your central concern so why not get this passion from this ramakrishna story about the three drunkards who stumbled around at night and sat on a boat to row to their home across the river and they road and road and road all night long in the morning they found they were exactly the same spot what happened they had forgotten to untie the boat so there was a throwing like that in the darkness so that untying is the very the dispassion we have don't have time i wanted to say more about this vairagya but um in fact this sunday the subject that had kept for the talk meditate better was actually inspired by sri krishna's this this verse so i will explain more in length and this sunday talk meditate better freedom from the mind control of the mind freedom from the mind one sign of freedom from the mind you might surprise don't be surprised is the ability to accommodate others is the ability to get along with others you know why we don't get along with others this sankalpa's in the mind the thoughts the desires the determinations i want this this is right my opinion my desire my way my way or highway that one it's a product of the mind and it captures us and that leads us into conflict with others the one who is free of that that means the mind is generating its likes and dislikes whatever it wants to say but you're completely not you're completely free of it you're a witness to the whole thing or the mind is pure enough not to generate those thoughts then such a mind will be happy and easy to get along with with everybody else you will be happy with your own mind and you will be happy with everybody else let their opinion be done what is it to you today do this instead of that it's a matter of opinion in most cases most quarrels between employees between married people between parents and children even guru and disciple it is matters of opinion minor matters let go the ability to accommodate a thousand minds that only an enlightened person can do because that person is free of his own mind has got control over his own mind control means the mind is fully decide in in to that enlightened one enlightened one means the self the atman others we are captured they are held hostage by our mind and the mind makes us do these things and it leads to conflict with everybody else around us this is of course the state of a jivan mukta even mukta one who can accommodate all others is free of the sandcalpers of his own mind therefore can accommodate the same culprits of others can give good advice to others also this is of course a very high state given but we see how it is possible notice in our own life in samsara life also you will see those who are more mature are much more accommodating than others parents are more accommodating than children grandparents are more accommodating than parents uh older more mature wiser you are generally you'll be more accommodating with others and that shows us a maturity that maturity increase it um thousand times million times more and it is spiritual freedom freedom from the decisions of one's own mind i remember i'll leave you with this story i really have gone overboard um one monk i met in in our ashram in india this monk was the head of a of a school in india what we call a college with like a college here and that college was always afflicted with union troubles with the staff and the teachers and the monk said you know today i had to give special leave to some teachers who are fighting a case against me in the court because they have a court hearing today against me so i have to take up the slack because they're going to the court to fight a case against me and i have to approve approve of the leave i said what did you do i said i did it i was happy and i had shared a cup of tea with them and they went to fight a case against me said that's really difficult he said you know i have understood the the he says my idea of strength is the ability to pull along with contradictions multiple contradictions in life you can still pull along still get your job done still live your life with them in the middle of this muddle that is a sign of strength that requires control over your mind you can't get angry and revengeful and furious because these people are going to stab me in the back now all right go ahead stab me in the back you're doing what you're supposed to do i'll do what i'm supposed to do and i have not the least ill will towards anybody okay let me stop here um i will just look at quickly look at the questions but i will not answer them now you're really gone over time excellent control of his mind you could focus attention one small object yet he's so worried about restless mind why so yes he could focus tremendous power of concentration focus but here he is uh he is worried because i wouldn't come to that vairagya he does not have that dispassion towards his own relatives the moment it comes to the fact that i have to fight against my own cousins and my own revered teachers even though they are on the evil side i can't do that and his mind becomes shaken maybe not his mantra guru but he regards him as guru because he learned everything from swansea so whenever he says my guruji he means means mascara swamiji why how what graphic please look at this ramya says until mind control is achieved can we take the struggle or friction in sadhana itself is an indication that we are doing it right certainly certainly there's an anecdote about this but i won't tell now because there is no time and then fourfold qualifications viveka comes before vairagya sri krishna does not mention viveka here is it already assumed yes and why is abdharsa not mentioned in southern chatrushtra i will not answer that no it is there you remember subtleness of mind can we train an old body it gets harder with age correct isn't that why spirituality is best started early in life correct but remember one great power beyond all this training now i'm going up a little bit from advaita vedanta one great power on your side is ishvara god is there what others will take a lot of effort to achieve you will achieve with a little bit of effort because god is there recalling swami tathagatanji's golden words he would shoot off someone would prostrate to him all this is okay but the most important thing is that you behave well with all others so important i i wanted to talk about that today also but we'll see we'll see in the sunday talk om deshanti be