Video 88

88. Bhagavad Gita I Chapter 6 Verses 36-42 I Swami Sarvapriyananda

guru all right so we are studying the sixth chapter of the bhagavad-gita and there arjuna asks this important question this yoga that you have taught which consists ultimately in seeing the same brahman everywhere god and everything some other the sameness the same divine essence everywhere it's not possible because the mind is fickle uh the fickleness of the mind it makes meditation impossible and the meditation that you have taught does not work that was his objection and it's a question that we all have it's very difficult to handle the mind knowledge that i am brahman is not very difficult to grasp if you stay with the vedantic teachings for some time you begin to see what they are talking about devotion one wants to be devoted such a beautiful thing to be to have devotion for god selflessness one wants to be selfless and one realizes that it is a sign of maturity that selfish pursuits do not ultimately bring lasting happiness any kind of deep fulfillment all of that one understands and one wants that but you know what sabotage is the whole thing it's the mind and the crucial problem of the mind is the fickleness of the mind it grasps one thing understands one thing wants it and then next moment it's off somewhere else so arjuna recognizes that problem it's a common problem we all have it and he asks the question and krishna first acknowledges that it is a real problem this is the 6th chapter 35th verse the mind is very difficult it is fickle very difficult to control and it is fickle and krishna acknowledges that having acknowledged it he says however it's not impossible it can actually be done all of us can bring the mind under control and he says how it can be done and we saw this last time it is bought under control by um that is practice repetition systematic practice one and dispassion this i dwelt on at length last time because it's an important teaching and also on this in the sunday uh class after that the sunday talk i gave meditate better but i just wanted to talk about this systematic practice core idea there being in one word repetition systematic consistent repetition that can bring the mind under control remember the elephant and the mahout the mahout is the intellect which attends classes and seminars and has a you know has a wow moment in eureka moment understands this wants that very good but the uh the rest of the mind the lower mind our emotions uh and our physiological being that's the elephant and that does not respond to brilliant ideas and philosophy papers and bestseller you know self-help books no what it responds to is systematic training just like the elephant response to systematic training not to pep talk and together with that vairagya dispassion and often this is not taught especially in you know new age spirituality uh which is very popular here and more so in california i think the feel good kind of spirituality because we live in a materialistic age and it's considered discouraging to talk about dispassion renunciation but it will not work without dispassion or renunciation and the dispersion orientation which is being talked about here is an internal attitude not so much what color of cloth you wear whether you wear the robes of a monk or not that's secondary that's just a formality but what's internal internally one has to be monk-like for a spiritual speak seeker the beautiful story about the parable of the three drunkards who went on a boat ride and all night they rode and the next day in the morning they found they were exactly where they had started because they had forgotten to untie the boat forgotten to untie the boat the boat is firmly anchored to the shore even if you keep rowing it won't work it won't take you anywhere just like that uh ultimately all efforts at meditation will not work if the mind is anchored to the world in how is the mind anchored what's the rope that ties the mind these delusionary seekings you know that this kind of pleasure this kind of achievement this kind of accumulation will make my life worthwhile you know you might ask won't it no it hasn't so far just think about it you're 20 years old 40 years old 60 years old 80 years old has it worked no the only things which have worked which have given you lasting you know peace and you feel happy about it one whatever that we have done for others the least bit that you have done for others without any selfish motive any kind the least altruistic action that we have done that gives lasting peace of mind it's very interesting i work for my own happiness and that just leaves me with no happiness and a bitter taste in my mouth but i work for the happiness of others it's counterintuitive work for the happiness of others that leaves me with lasting satisfaction as time goes by when we look back we will look back upon the little things that we have done for others the money that we have given for good causes um the selfless acts that we have done in life whatever we have done if you remember it look back upon it it will always be with fulfillment with satisfaction the moments of peace the moments of devotion that you know where the soul is given up in prayer to the almighty to the lord if you have wept for god if you have prayed to god with all your heart not for little things for devotion for god those are the things which give last lasting the deepest moments of meditation profound meditation that will give lasting satisfaction and if if we have had any intuition of our real nature that of course ultimately that's the the greatest thing so what gives us lasting satisfaction lasting happiness it is karma yoga it is bhakti yoga it is dhyana yoga meditation and ultimately gyani yoga yoga gives lasting satisfaction not boga bhoga means the enjoyment of experiencing the world through the senses otherwise um why is dispassion necessary why won't these objects of the senses give pleasure to when we give lasting happiness to us the shankaracharya in his commentary different places but qatar oppanishad we were reading recently in the qatar panishad commentary shankara says etc anitia means because they're impermanent transient ephemeral that's why these things are of no lasting value they don't last and we discussed you know in other classes we've discussed so what is it that if it's something doesn't last what's wrong with it i give the example of a cookie would you want a cookie which is eternal a cookie which lasts a few seconds so you want a cookie which lasts a few seconds what's the problem if it doesn't last the problem is this all these um sense objects which give us some amount of pleasure and satisfaction as they go away the pleasure the satisfaction also disappears very fast and then we still persist we are still there and we are left with nothing possessions go away at one time or they become unsatisfying people go away our achievements fade away and then we are left with nothing a feeling of emptiness if it get if you left everything left and left you fulfilled yes i've done everything in life i'm perfectly contented and happy and not for one moment it's deep profound it can't happen that doesn't happen so the transience the ephemerality of things is a very big cause why one should have dispassion for them second is because it is asara empty there is nothing profound there the more we try to enjoy things in the world the more thirsty we become there is no it does not have the capacity the world does not have the capacity to quench our spiritual hunger the third shankaracharya just says in one place etcetera etcetera about being for example the ability to bind us so it's like an addiction whether it is possession or money or relationships or you know addictions and obsessions from mild to extreme and we are tight the more you hold on to anything in the world your possessions your it could be gadgets clothes it could be people father mother brother sister husband wife children grandchildren more you hold on tightly the more you are bound you see you will be dragged through the mess of samsara one can always do good to others and be a well-wisher without being caught in the moment you're caught in their lives they will drag you through the mess of their lives also so banda and then the at the craving which is generated i get the iphone 6 and very soon it is no longer satisfying than the iphone 7 or iphone 8 and then i'm not against iphone whatever it is any object of the senses it creates an addiction after some time that is not satisfying not only do you want that again you more of it you want more varieties of that more sophisticated more um you know intricate more expensive varieties of that whether it's gadgets or vacations or houses whatever it is it is addictive it is binding because of these reasons these are the faults with with materiality they are not their thoughts that's the very nature of the world but what we demand from them that's our fault we demand a deep lasting happiness from the world which it cannot give it was not designed to give that so because of this one must have dispassion one must develop it's no use saying have dispassion there's a thing like this the dispassion is already the maturity brings some dispassion for the world some understanding maturity brings dispassion increase that dwell upon our where we get stuck our own attachments our own weaknesses dwell upon it and we begin to see the utter worthlessness of those things especially in contrast to the possibility that one may actually realize god in this life that one may actually become enlightened what a wonderful opportunity it's krishna says to us in a different context here earlier in the bhagavad-gita he says without any effort on your part the gates of heaven have been opened to you you just have to walk through this is spiritual life so vairagya so two things are necessary to bring the mind under control systematic practice repetition and dispassion untie the boat untying the boat um suramar krishna also gives the example of a water pot where you put water but there are holes in it it leaks out similarly the mental energy is limited so if the mind is hankering after half a dozen different things they're like half a dozen little holes in the mind and your psychic energy is pouring out of that and it will not um meditation will not be deep another example he gives of being attached to the world lack of a lack of dispassion he says there is this mongoose which is trying to leap through a hole in the wall but it can't because some naughty mischievous boys have tried tied a brick they have they've tied a brick now mongoose has a long bushy tail so they have tied a brick to its tail the moment it tries to jump through the weight of the brick pulls it down on the other side it can't pass through and i suppose it's a tricks mischievous boys in villages might have played that's where islam krishna must have seen such things but we our condition is like that a brick ties us to this world and we keep falling back into this world we can't jump through and therefore krishna says in the 36th verse [Music] for one whose mind is not controlled i consider yogurt hard to attain but it is attainable by one whose mind is under control and who strives through the prescribed means mind not under control the sanskrit words he uses um here atma does not mean the self does not mean sachidan and the ultimate reality it just means the mind shankar recommends antakaran the inner instrument mind intellect memory ego digit that one that complex the inner instrument which we have if that is not controlled controlled how the commentator says look back on the earlier verse controlled uh by the combination of repeated practice and dispassion for the world for things and people in the world again remember things and people in the world this passion doesn't mean you have to throw everything out you know a garage sale i've developed this passion and kick people out of the house i've developed this passion for you no in fact you can handle yourself much better in samsara if you have the detachment much better otherwise you are the one who gets hurt continuously you are the one who gets you know mixed up in that mess so by um dispassion by systematic practice and dispassion if this is not done then the mind will not come under control oh arjuna what you said the mind is difficult to control that will remain yoga then the spiritual realization which i talked about that is very difficult that then that becomes really difficult and look at krishna's humility mate this is my opinion this is my understanding you may do whatever you like he always he says you can try it out lead a righteous life leader life of a complete engagement in the world and partying day and night and then come and try to meditate won't work this is my humble opinion but if by dispassion and repeated practice you will find the mind calms down then it is easily bought under control then if you engage it in sravana magnanimo come to vedanta class think about it and then stay with what you have understood it will all work he says by the teaching which i have given it's not that if i have dispassion and i sit down regularly to meditate i'll become enlightened immediately no no vedanta the knowledge has to be there this knowledge which is given by which is acquired by hearing reflection meditation that has to be followed but this is the preliminary preparation without this those things won't work i think somebody raised and did somebody raise a hand okay all right then arjuna asks another very important question question is something that it's in our hearts but um we we hesitate sometimes we are ashamed to ask it but we fear this suppose the question is this suppose i do not attain enlightenment in this life i understand ultimately everybody will attain god realization and all that that's very great but suppose i don't i sort of get the nagging feeling that i want it's probably i'm not advanced enough it's probably too difficult and arjuna asks that he says that i understand what you you're saying and i believe it i sort of believe that it's possible that there exists this ultimate enlightenment i can see that there are very great enlightened people in history and we read about it i have also met maybe some holy people and it would i also believe that one can achieve that status and i would also like to be like that but that i fear that i won't i fear that i won't be able to do it then what happens to me what will happen to me so he asked this this is a very profound question very very a question asked with a lot of feeling this is about the ultimate aims of life and the ultimate destiny we don't know beyond death but at the point of death if nothing has been achieved i don't feel that i have achieved anything very deep then then what so this is the question he's going to ask a very beautiful question arjun asked he who though endowed with faith strives not and whose mind wanders from yoga failing to attain the fruition of yoga what goal or krishna does a person attain notice what he says this person who does not reach god realization does not get enlightenment satori bodhi whatever you call it does not in this life it doesn't work but this person believes in it i says this person has firm faith this person actually believes god exists enlightenment is possible uh i know if i try hard enough even i can get enlightenment and all those things i understand and i am i believe it also after believing all this he says um suppose i don't try hard enough i have this sort of feeling in the back of my mind that i won't try hard enough i have not been trying hard enough and probably it won't happen in this life if i had that feeling and then i at the end of my life my mind has wandered away from yoga literally it literally means at the point of death i'm not thinking about god my mind is not centered in deep meditation or i'm not centered in my real nature i am brahmas me my mind is not like that at the point of death then what will be the the destiny here gold means destiny of such what will happen to such a person or krishna and what's behind him in his mind is the traditional um vedic you know the follower of the vedic religion householder would perform in the due course of their religious life various kinds of rituals and it was promised that at the end of your life if you have performed these rituals you are assured of heaven at the end of your life you go to certain heaven depending on your karma the good karma you have done and you stay for a good time long period of time there may be many many years and then you come you're assured of a good birth in the next life now krishna said you don't need to do all that you give up all those um uh you know rituals and which are meant for this world or next world dispassion bhairaviya means by not getting passion for all of that they're trying to get good things in this world trying to attain a heavenly life after death dispassion for all of that vivekananda he was so shocking to people here in the late 19th century when he came here in one place he tells this gentleman i have not come here to teach you how to go to heaven i have come here to teach you how to stop going to heaven imagine how shocking it must have been for a christian audience in that time so what is this stop going to heaven what kind of heaven is meant here not the highest heaven with the presence of god that's different but this the idea that's there that a multiple heavens are there which are attainable by good karma they are also temporary and after that you again come back all those things are given up by the spiritual seeker we we are not pursuing those things anymore we want only enlightenment we want freedom from the cycle of birth and death not a um not a nice you know cycle of birth and death nice births and nice places in heaven not that we want freedom from the entire cycle but having given up those rituals not having performed those things anymore not pursuing the worldly life with full ambition also people ask this question my lose interest and ambition in things in the world i mean it's enough if i do well and just get by that's fine i don't i'm not seriously interested in running the rat race anymore and what's the point even if you win the rat race you're still a rat so i understand that and i don't want to do it anymore but now arjuna asks having not done that in this life not being ambitious and you know acquisitive and greedy and unlike all other people i've given up all that and i have not done those vedic rituals which will take me to heaven after death then have i lost everything because i have not attained god realization also so after that what will happen to me i have not done the good karma which will take me to heaven and i have not become enlightened so i will not get moksha and then what will happen after that or what life life will i be born to i don't have good karma will i be born as an animal or what or is there nothingness for me so he says i don't you're asking me to give up this worldly life and the pursuit of heaven after death and what you are trying to telling me to do meditation selfless service devotion and the pursuit of self-realization i may not succeed so that is the question she elaborates 38. does he note does he not oh mighty armed one fallen from both and without any support perish like the detached cloud being deluded in the path of brahman pursuing this highest goal of humanity i'm fully convinced god realization is the goal of human life and i'm going to try but i don't suppose i don't succeed and i've not done the worldly things other people are doing after death where is the guarantee that i'll go to heaven what will happen to me i'm not getting enlightenment and spiritual freedom so like a cloud he says um the autumn cloud it doesn't it's not part of a mass of rain clouds it will not give rain it just dissipates into the vast blue sky am i lost like that a cloud separated from the mass of clouds china a separated cloud like a little patch of cloud just dissipates into the sky will i be just lost on on both sides am i going to be a loser worldly state and spirituality also both have lost so that's the question i want us to appreciate the pain behind this question you know that with so much of uh hope we set out on the spiritual path and whether it's devotional that i want to see god in this life before i die i've been promised that it's possible or it's the path of knowledge i really want to realize i am being told that i am not this limited miserable puny little creature i am infinite existence and consciousness can i not experience that can i not realize that with so much hope we set out and the possibility that nothing will come of it i have said this earlier um i can take the name now this gentleman very devout gentleman whom i met at the beginning of my monastic life he was in the ashram where i joined the order in yoghurt in india and uh he had so there's a story about him i heard from a senior monk he used to visit swami premeshanji and his youth this gentleman this elderly gentleman whom i met and he was very interested in spiritual life in monks and in spiritual practices he used to visit many monks and spiritual practitioners you know sadhus tantrics and so on and he would read about them and he would come excitedly and tell these stories to swami pramesh that monk you know he has such powers or that monk you know he has these practices or that monk has such wonderful or that meditator or that tantric has such wonderful experiences one day when he was excitedly talking about some such spiritual master swami premeshanji said very heartfelt very touching words i'll tell you in bengali first and i'll translate it into english in uh she said in bengal uh he was affectionately used to call babu badla or badla this is my boy if the whole world everybody becomes not just a spiritual seeker or a great yogi or something everybody becomes equal to ramakrishna suppose we are all surrounded by avatars which is so amazing suppose it's unthinkable but suppose that happens but still at the end of our lives you don't realize anything at all i don't realize anything at all ultimately what good is it to you or me if we pass away from this life without having any of it a little bit the tiniest bit of it ourselves with something solid and profound for ourselves you don't get it then what's the point that what's the use ultimately i'm sure it's great to meet such wonderful people and read about them and think about it it's all good but ultimately at the point of depth we must get something for ourselves um there is this song which is very haunting it's a song by ravindra which says that if my lord my beloved lord if i do not get your vision in this life this time in this life if i do not see you so it's a very touching song let me i i got the lyrics from the internet let me read out the bengali just so that it's easier for me to translate but this is this is the feeling behind arjuna's question actually so let me just and those who know rabindra sangeet they know some of the best singers have sung this song let me read out the lines and it's by the great poet rabindranath tagore and translate it's very moving my lord if i do not get thy vision if i do not see thee this time in this life that means you know this time around this time in this life i've come to this world and i go away from this world without seeing you i mean then let me remember at least give me this much that let me remember that i have not got thee i did not get you let me at least have that memory in the next life that i failed to get you jana boolean let me not forget that i failed to get you beth let me not forget means what i'm not even asking for memories of past lives let me just be haunted by a spiritual pain in my in my dreams let me be haunted by pain in my dreams that i did not get you oh god of the world this world is a marketplace like a supermarket or we have to think of an indian market which is very busy and you know dusty and lots of people and lots of goods are being sold and bought and people are shouting and there's a huge tumult going on samsara is like that in the marketplace of this world amar jyoti duhade [Music] no matter how much with both hands i grasp and acquire things in this world money and people and achievements memories selfies what not i keep on accumulating in this world no matter how much i accumulate of all sorts of things in this world let me remember let me never forget that i really haven't got anything at all none of this whatever we have got in this world it's all nothing it's all zero zero zero and spiritual not spiritual we will all realize it even if we don't think about it that way at the end of our lives we'll realize everything that pertains to this world will go away it will without any remnant whatsoever i know we say we at least samskaras will go with us but we don't know the samskaras as far as we know everything will go away so let me remember that i have not got anything at all no matter how much i may accumulate in this world let me not forget let me let me suffer this pain in my dreams in my sleep julia uh life is a road so on this path of life if out of carelessness out of laziness a heedlessness i lay down to sleep on the path forgetting that it's a path and being very happy and then and then forgetting my spiritual goals i i in that it literally means i make my bed in the dust of the past i stop walking down the path um let me not let me remember that all the paths are still waiting for me i have not walked down them what it means is have i become completely selfless my tears in my eyes for the pain of others you know the the heart that vivekananda had is my heart full of bhakti devotion like meera's heart is can i meditate deeply like vivekananda attained samadhi do i have uh you know full of ghana the realization of brahman like ramana maharshi all those are left i have not even achieved a tiny bit of it all those paths are remaining to be walked let me not forget if i if i am very confident and happy in this world and everything's going well and settle down that's lying down in the dust of the world confidently forgetting that it's it's a path to be walked let there be as much laughter in this world let the life be full of laughter let it be song and dance and music when one is reminded of naji keta who told yama that keep your song and dance and music i don't want it let my life be full of song and it says let the flute play let the you know the music of life let it play um let me decorate my house with all care that means my life you know i with all care degrees and achievements in career and you know husband wife children grandchildren this is decorating my life filling it up with possessions memories achievements so i fill my house house means my life i fill my house with all of this with so much care let me remember let me not forget that i have not invited thee into my house only one thing has not come into my house is you my lord let me not forget let me suffer this pain in my dreams and sleep in lives to come so what a very haunting uh thing in this song and this is the feeling behind arjuna's question he concludes his question with a prayer to krishna that you can answer this for me please tell me what will happen to me um [Music] the avatar knows even our ordinary spiritual teachers may not know but knows who we are what our past lives have been and where we are going who knows at one place in the gospel of sram krishna suram krishna suddenly without seems to be without context turns to m the author and says suddenly tell me i know all your past and your future do i not what comes over m he bows down humbly and he says yes lord you do you know i don't know but you know um ayton me samshayam this doubt of mine or krishna you should dispel in its entirety for there is none else but you who can remove this doubt none else no pundit can answer this no even highly spiritual people may not have any answer to this they can tell us what the books say that's it but you can tell me really you know what is going to happen to me tell me one monk a wonderful reminiscence of swami brahmana swami had these powers he says one day swami ramharanda asked me to press his feet massage his feet and he was lying down and this monk was massaging his feet and when i touched his body he says strange kind of stupor came over me and seemed to lose outward awareness even the inner sense of personality and when i came to it i saw swami brahmananda sitting up keenly looking at my face and asking me some things and i was answering i don't know what he was asking me and what i was saying so fluently so eloquently the moment i became aware of this swami brahmananda seemed to lose interest swami brahmana seemed to lose interest and he lay back again on the bed he was asking the little bit this this monk remembered he was asking me about who i really am where i have come from my past lives and what is it that i'm going to do in this life it seems so at some deeper level we know all these things but uh the moment i became conscious of it so angry gonna lost all interest in what i was saying and he lay back on the bed again uh missed did i miss uh 38 no i i think i i talked about it question nobody brushed uh um china brahmana the cloud remember the cloud which is uh right no and rather it doesn't agree so we did that i talked about the cloud which is uh which is separated from the masses of clouds and then it disappears yeah and uh then arjuna says um we you have to settle this out you have to tell me you you know what happens to me in in in this life and in future krishna gives a very um wonderful answer very reassuring answer this next few verses are great you know sources of confidence for every one of us the blessed lord said verily neither here nor hereafter or partha is there destruction for him for the doer of good my child never comes by evil what are reassurance god himself is saying don't worry you you we will not lose anything you are far better placed than anybody else in this world even the most devout religious person he says kalyanikrit the one who whack walks on the path of the supreme good remember how the shreya and the prayer in the qatar panishad the path of the good and the path of the pleasant giving up the path of the pleasant walk on the path of good giving up worldliness walk on the path of spirituality you have no loss at all neither in this world nor in future even he'll say even if you do not attain enlightenment now you will attain enlightenment but even if you do not attain enlightenment there is absolutely no loss for you you get the best of everything in heaven in this world also you will not lose anything because you are assured of you will tell later what you will get and also heaven even if you have not done all those rituals good karma which can take you to heaven what you have done he says kalyan you have walked on the path of spirituality that's more than enough to give you at the very least heaven even if you don't get enlightenment all that others achieve you will get everything and we have seen this in many cases not always but in many cases in this world itself spiritual seekers often say whatever i could have wished for it just happens i just get whatever i wanted things just happened that way and i wouldn't have got it otherwise but all my desires have generally been fulfilled in this world i'd really there's nothing more i could ask for um affectionately my child this uh this person you the person walking on this path of spiritual life and non-spiritual life you will never come to a bad end there will be no harm to you ultimately there's harm possible in other ways the one who follows adharma who is immoral and not self-controlled that person suffers in this life and goes to hellish regions and afterlife and suffers and until the bad karma is exhausted even those who perform vedic rituals big pujas and rituals for worldly purposes even a slightest mistake there and then they will not get the result but here you walk on the path of spiritual life and on the spiritual path you will always get a good result what will you get what will such a person get if you don't get enlightenment if you get enlightenment is done but if you don't in this life then what will happen um at death and beyond that krishna says beautiful verse having attained the words of the righteous and lived there for many many years one who has fallen from yoga is born again in the house of the pure and the prosperous so fallen from yoga means has not attained enlightenment the commentator makes it very clear full enlightenment has not been attained you have done practices you have been selfless you have meditated you have come to all the vedanta classes watched all the youtube lectures and you've been a nice person um then he says and all those other people who were doing all those vedic rituals you know the great great fire sacrifices and all going to heaven the worlds that they will attain those highest heavens they attain by those huge complex expensive rituals by lifetimes of following dharma you will attain that just because you did you you worshipped god you were selfless you meditated you pursued your vedantic studies because of that you will attain the highest heavens and those heavens are temporary so you will remain there but for a long time you will remain but not permanently there's no permanence in this world or the next and then you'll become you'll come back all right what will happen to me next life um he says you will be born this he calls it yoga prashta yoga breast means one who has not attained the goal of yoga will be born in a good family you'll have loving parents who are righteous people shuchi nam it means pure the commentator says who are righteous people they are moral ethical one thing i've noted among those young men who came to be monks i saw the few i met whose parents i met the parents were of various kinds some were very rich very qualified people uh some were simple village folk depending on the family where these boys came from but one thing i noted in common some very interested in spiritual life some were not interested in trolling spiritual life they thought their son had gone crazy what is this becoming a monk but one thing i noted they were all good people they are all ethical people i generally don't have a great spiritual seeker coming out of a family of crooks so they were all at the very least they were moral ethical people and he says srimatam it will be a prosperous family you will have no want things will go your way you will burn with a silver spoon in your mouth maybe not millionaires but definitely you will not suffer from material want in such a family this is a sign of very great good karma and all of that you get because you are a spiritual seeker even if you don't do anything else or he says the next verse 42. [Music] or he is reborn even in the family of yogis who are wise such a birth is rare in this world there may be a few and what is the distinction he says the what i just said they'll be born in the family of prosperous people good people in the next life this is for any spiritual seeker all of us there are few who are advanced spiritual seekers have made plenty of progress in this life and for some reason have not attained enlightenment such people a rare few in number they will be born in a family of yogi's when father and mother will be highly spiritual he says yogi nam eva and the commentator says they may be poor very interesting comment the multiple commentators make often we find such highly spiritual parents they may be materially they may be a very humble folk but they'll be deeply spiritual and he says such a birth is very rare in this life krishna says such a birth is very rare in this life it's very valuable extraordinarily valuable why is it valuable to be born to parents who are deeply spiritual the commentator says enlightenment and liberation is guaranteed if you're born in such a family in this this is the last life for you of course you are already a spiritual seeker in passports and you have such periods which shows i think what the importance of parents what our fathers and mothers do to us this is something that we actually discovered a lot in the 20th century especially here in the united states you know thanks to freud and the jung and the importance of the effect of the father the mother especially mother on the child the nature of the father and the mother nature of the family life we get it has a huge impact on the child yes we all come with past samskaras an enormous impact is made by how we are dealt with what kind of environment we grew up in um which is thanks to our family so the kind of environment that this child already with good samskaras from past lives a spiritual practitioner and now finds a home where the father and mother from childhood you see they are they are spiritual seekers and he says this is a rare it says rare birth is rare in this world indeed and you see the insist in the lives of many great spiritual masters um one second so the commentator says [Music] in such a life we guarantee that that with such a birth one will get enlightenment in this very life of course it's not essential that if your parents are spiritual you're going to be spiritual there are some cases you know i've seen among those young men who came to be monks in most cases the parents were very unhappy they came and they would yell at us for you know kidnapping their kids they're all grown up people but so but in the rare case i have seen um mother very spiritual but and so wants the child to be a monk the boy to be a monk and comes and puts the boy in the monastery and the boy is not at all interest it's a torture for the kid to be a monk so those are rare and few funny incidents but in most cases you see the parents are spiritual which are very rare and children also spiritual this wonderful thing wonderful to see then what happens for such a person and that we will read next time let me see if there are questions here what is the difference between vairagya dispassion and uparati desisting from worldly pressures how do the two differ in practice vairag is a dispassion a deep realization is a sign of intelligence yama the lord of death tells naji keta his praise that you have great dispassion and the commentator shankaracharya says this is a hallmark of spiritual intelligence this passion for you know these worldly pursuits but uparati is a discipline it's one of the six treasures six fold treasures the discipline of not being too entangled in worldly engagements rati means where all my senses flow out into the world uparati means pulling it back so eyes want to see many things the ears want to hear many pleasant things hand wants pleasant touch nose wants present fragrance the tongue wants to taste pleasant things to hold it back that is uber it's a deliberate conscious practice prabhupada doesn't this question come up again in the 12th chapter yes in another form gaurav says in the waking state i think i've gotten at least intuitive understanding of dweta vedanta and understood it to be a fact but i remember some of my dreams it seems that this knowledge does not carry over to the dream state sometimes it appears that it is at the level of the mind and will get lost after that true true do jivan mukta see themselves as pure consciousness in all three states waking dreaming and deep sleep will we feel at some point in our life that some of this knowledge will exist in all the three states yes but one has to be careful there what will happen is when one makes a breakthrough and i see i am the witness of this body mind i am the consciousness which illumines the waking dreaming and deep sleep one will see that one no longer depends on the mind for this anymore even the mind has certain dreams and is not thinking that i am the witness consciousness does not matter notice that i feel i am the witness consciousness this is a thought in the mind it's a kind of understanding in the mind as long as i feel dependent on that the breakthrough has not happened yet it's a kind of understanding but i feel i have to understand that and i have to remain with that understanding stay like that think about that meditate on that good you're on the right track but this is not the breakthrough breakthrough will be a clear separation you see that i am not at all dependent on the mind let the mind think what it will it is nothing to me that i am really not the mind that that clarity will come then you are not so worried about what the mind does or does not do in the deep sleep in deep sleep of course it doesn't do anything in the dream also now still the question persists does an enlightened person have this knowledge in dreams also the answer is yes by deep needed by the practice of samadhi and staying with this enlightenment it becomes our mind becomes so impregnated with these seeds of enlightenment that day that they blossom not only in the waking also in the dream whenever the mind functions that clarity is there so that is the state of a jivan mukta but remember that g1 mukta i will not go into details it it is dependent on three things the culmination of its dispassion for the world to its highest and manonasha literally does not mean destruction of the mind it means merging the mind in samadhi samadhi must have been attained once these are done you will see when you let the mind function afterwards all the time that clarity will remain just as just as right now we have this clarity that i am the body-mind this delusion is so clear now for me that i am this one it does not take any take any effort whenever the mind is functioning it's functioning as if i'm body mind that clarity will come if jeevan mukti is attained then you like the translation of the song yes thank you that translation was my own pre-translation as i was reading it out then [Music] um sri says is it not god's will that we reach the goal it's always god's will that we reach the goal but in the sense that god wants us to reach the goal but it also do we want it as long as we don't seriously want it when we want it and we do spiritual practices and we reach the goal all of it is god's grace but until we want it we will not reach even if god wants us to reach ultimately we have to go through these experiences in life till we seriously seriously want it bengali we sit out garage for his own reasons we read in the gospel tarkul was seeking out people and even showing up at their homes does he not look for us to put us on the course also absolutely we are we are answering the same call um which sudama krishna gave the direct disciples were far ahead in the past and we are following in the same path nigeria says if a child is born to such parents the child tries to follow the path does not succeed what does that say that the child is still burning his own past karma maybe but what exactly the child will do after being born in such a family those are the next two verses very interesting verses and you see that in the lives of people who are spiritual from the childhood itself gloria is it possible the child could be born into a family to redeem the parents both ways if you have really good karma you will get such a child and the child will be a blessing to you we have this saying in india that if a person becomes a monk then seven generations are liberated not only your parents grandparents great grandparents back to seven generations now this is what is called atavada atawa means you don't take it literally it's like an advertisement so you don't take advertisement literally it just means this is a great thing this is a wonderful thing it just means when what americans say when they meet when they say wow awesome so it's a very good thing it's a great blessing if somebody in your family in your lineage it's literally becoming a monk is one thing but actually seriously is a spiritual seeker and it becomes among great formally or even if not that is a dedicated spiritual seeker a sadaka a spiritual practitioner what we call that is a great blessing not only to that one person to others also um i had this very interesting experience i just mentioned it to you this time i was wondering after my um getting my vows of monasticism becoming a sannyasi this was in 2004. after going to the himalayas and i came down to haridwar and [Music] yes i was visiting different monks ashrams just like that spiritual tourist i mean i was had my own practice but i was like a wandering monk um often unknown unrecognized so one ashram that i went to um bhulagiri ashram bengalis will recognize bola giri was a great monk an enlightened person jeevan mukhtar he was punjabi but he had many devotees in calcutta and there many bengalis were his devotees some time back in the late 19th century early 20th century so i saw that there's a big ashram there and his followers are still there now i went there and i vaguely remembered in childhood my mother had told me that her grandfather's her grandfather's brother was a disciple of bhulaguri and he was a very dedicated spiritual practitioner and in the end of his life he went and stayed in uh in haridwar in polagri's ashram and his guru's ashram and so on those things she had told me i had a very vague memory so i went there and i met a monk of that ashram and i said my mother had told me something like this and that monk said oh you belong to that family they showed this very big house it's called gurudham or something so that was built by your mother's grandfather's brother and he gave his money for this guru and he built this for them and now pilgrims stay there and then he said um come with me and he told me that the person you're referring to your mother's uh so and so this person his name was achal nath mitra come with me when he took me underground under that big old that built building there was this stone tunnel and he took me inside a dark tunnel and then it emerged just on the ganga the vast river flowing very fast that it's just come down from the himalayas there so it's very cold but it's very pure the water and on the ganga there's a hidden little shiva temple a little shiva temple he said this is uh where your great great grand grand uncle whatever it is to you uh he lived his last years of his life and he established this little shiva temple this is called achaleshwar shiva we call it after him the last years of his life he spent here meditating and worshiping so he said you should go and bow down here and it did and there's it's very small and it's it's very quiet and it's just you can from there you can only see the river and you can't see anything else nobody from anywhere else can see that so it's only that secret tunnel to approach that little temple of shiva now my feeling was there is something to that seven generations thinking somewhere some people have done deep spiritual practice and as a result you attract these spiritual seekers to your lineage and these spiritual seekers also get the benefit of the great good karma of these past and ancestors that's why in all these traditions you not only bow down to the saints but bow down to the spiritual masters but bow down to your own ancestors who knows who at one point where in hundreds of years ago were deeply devoted who wept and prayed to god and blessed those who would come after him and you we get the benefit of all of that i never knew this person i had only the vagus you know notion of this person but you see so this is an interesting connection somebody is doing pranam from haridwar alpana oh i see very good charlie says as a spiritual practice pass from generation to generation if you are devoted to god it does as i just said spiritual practice does not pass good karma the blessings pass so your spiritual practice is your own your spiritual progress is your own but we are helped by so many not just family generations teachers gurus your community we are very spiritual at home and dedicated to god and my nephews turn out to be devoted to god we just ask every evening if you've done our prayer now that's so good it's such a blessing patrick says if someone becomes enlightened it is said that it helps once and sisters what explains that this is exactly what i was talking about remember seven generations become liberated no seven generations don't become liberated they are helped it's good karma okay let's just uh the child redeeming their parent bhagavan ramana's mother accepted him as a guru and bhagavan guided her till the end of her life and that she reached the ultimate goal if you have such a son which is jivan mukta of such a high caliber then you are safe that person actually can give you liberation but also means you have success and means you already yourself are pretty far along in the path you are definitely what in sanskrit we call punyatwa ajiva sentient being with lot of good karma a lot of holy karma done in the past you're already a very good soul um okay let's wrap it up here omg [Music] krishna namaste