Video 89

89. Bhagavad Gita I Chapter 6 Verses 43-47 and Chapter 6 Summary I Swami Sarvapriyananda

[Music] guru we are on the sixth chapter in the bhagavad-gita and towards the end of the sixth chapter and the sixth chapter is about meditation we saw that at the end of the chapter arjuna asks a question to krishna that suppose i do not attain enlightenment in this lifetime then what's going to happen to me i have shaddha i have faith in the teachings and i'm going to practice it but suppose i do not attain enlightenment if i do not attain the goal of yoga then what's going to happen to me will everything be lost and krishna assures him that those who walk on the path of spirituality those who walk on the path of enlightenment spiritual realization they never come to a bad end and he he says to arjuna that even if one does not attain enlightenment in this very lifetime one will go after death to the highest possible heaven in whatever worlds the meritorious persons go to after death and having stayed there for a long time will again come back to this mortal world and you'll be born in favorable circumstances we are you'll be born to a good family you will have no material wants and they'll be prosperous and they'll be devout or at the very least ethical good good people and in the rarest of cases he says that one might even get a very rare kind of birth where one's own parents are advanced spiritual seekers they are yo yogi nami in the family of father and mother are yogis and he says this is a very rare birth because it's a sign of um in that very life you will be enlightened and i don't know if i mentioned it last time but it just goes to show how much important or what how significant the role of parents is in our life i mean quite apart from spirituality whatever we are in our lives the tremendous impact of our parents if having this kind of parents you are yourself a yogi who's practiced yoga for maybe lifetime or more lifetimes but it takes being born into a family which is very spiritual which guarantees your enlightenment in that very lifetime so that was i think that's where we had stopped verse number 42. yes that is verse number 42. what does that mean that this is a rare birth that one may get sufficiently advanced spiritual seeker with lots of good karma you're born to a family of spiritual seekers or advanced spiritual seekers and very rare is this birth what will happen in that birth what will happen um once this person who has not attained enlightenment but did pursue a spiritual path uh in an earlier life and what will happen to this child 43rd verse [Music] [Music] there he comes in contact with the knowledge acquired in the previous birth and strives harder than before for perfection or descendant of guru that is arjuna so or o arjuna this child will now in this child will awaken the wisdom gained in earlier births and will once again strive for enlightenment in this very life itself um so tatra there there means where now one commentator says shankaracharya actually says in that rare birth where your parents are spiritual seekers but you can send it to any kind of birth even the general case of we were spiritual seekers in past lives now we have come back to this life so wherever you are what will happen is you come into contact with the wisdom gained in past lives and this awakens in this life and one tries again for um enlightenment one walks the path of spiritual practice now the um commentator here makes a point that if there's bad karma from past lives then the wisdom which is gained in past lives remains suppressed so that person in this life may lead up you know a pretty worldly life may do things which everybody else does but at one time the effect of that bad past karma will wear off and this um this spiritual seeking will surface it will blossom again and if there isn't any particularly bad karma then from the very childhood you will see this kind of blossoming of of or or an awakening of a desire for enlightenment the point he wants to make is that the result of the spiritual practices of past lives is not destroyed it may not manifest immediately see somebody becomes a spiritual seeker later in life so does that mean that i was not a yogi in past lives i was not a spiritual seeker and this is my first first life because i didn't have these interests when i was a child so it means no it just means that some karma was obstructing it now that is gone and your past life's practices have taken hold the results of spiritual practices done in past lives are never destroyed they will always be there sri ramakrishna makes it very clear it gives the example of a seed of a tree if it falls on fertile ground it will sprout but suppose it falls on a roof rooftop something like that one day in years decades or centuries later that house will collapse and the seed is not destroyed it will fall finally come in contact with the ground and it will sprout so the seed of spirituality is not destroyed other types of karmas may come and go the results will come and will be exhausted but this seed of spirituality which is it is also a practice you may say it might be wiped out not if you if nothing happens any further but it will not be wiped out that's what krishna wants to say it will be there forever and one day it will surely give its result and you will walk the path of spiritual seeking once again the next question is that he comes in this person comes in contact with the wisdom gained in past lives so buddhism yoga that is the term used and what does this mean the wisdom gained in past lives so if somebody has completed up to the sixth chapter of the bhagavad-gita do you start from the seventh chapter in the next life um do if you memorize some verses do you remember all of that no not like that it's not that um you've completed half the library in this life and then you get to complete the other half of the library in the next life it's not like that what happens is the samskaras the tendencies which are strengthened in this life which are accumulated in this life they will come forth in the next life with renewed vigor with with extraordinary power we may not remember we may not remember being a yogi or a yogini in past lives we may not remember that we were in such and such place and we did these spiritual practices we may not remember but we'll notice something in that child a liking for spirituality an interest may be you know in ashrams or you know temples or bhajans or something connected to spirituality in books of philosophy and spirituality some kind of pull you will find and things which might be not interesting to others which might even be difficult to others this child finds it pretty easy because this is something that this child has experienced in past lives so concepts of philosophy teachings of yoga vedanta will all come very easily it and also it will feel it some things will feel familiar it will feel that i have i have known this earlier i have seen this earlier or have felt this earlier like like a deja vu not exactly a deja vu but a bit like that so these things will come in this life and there are many such people um these people make much faster progress in spiritual life we were always told by seniors others when we would see some extraordinary monk and the common phrase in bengali would be which other senior monks would tell us they are not monks of of one birth they have been monks in past birth or spiritual seekers at least in past births who have not attained enlightenment but now you see them extraordinary in this life but that being extraordinary has been gained painstakingly in past births so krishna says coming back to this world again you will gain the benefit of that you will not get the actual memory of that knowledge but you will get the benefit of those practices in this life you will start from there so i have told you earlier also i've seen among monks everybody has come there to be a monk you know in our monastery everybody wants to become enlightened but why is it for some you know waking up early in the morning and sitting and meditating and chanting all of these are are joyful they're eager to do it and for others who want to become enlightened and yet it's all very difficult getting up in the morning is difficult meditating you feel sleepy this books and vedanta feels boring and why when you work the practices are there if there's no inspiration from within it is all because that has not been done yet that is yet to be covered yet to be done we are we are going through that process now what will happen number 44. [Music] by that very previous practice he is irresistibly carried away even a mere inquirer after yoga transcends the vedas so this person means the weight or the inertia of past practice past practice past lives there is a power which has been generated we have set into motion these subtle energies which are now played out in this life and this person what a awasha means irresistibly even you may not even particularly be interested and yet things will fall in place you will get the right books the right teachers the right things will come together to say at the right time and uh things will happen one after another whereas for another person every every little bit of progress in spiritual life might be might have to fight against endless obstructions and this person everything comes up one after another it's because this person's already done all that earlier it's already it belongs to them and irresistibly krishna says such is the power of past past spiritual practices you will not have any more choice in it you will be swept towards yourself towards god you will be swept towards enlightenment in this life even an enquirer after yoga that is yoga spiritual practice in general i mean specifically i mean vedanta yoga but in general somebody who's interested in spirituality even a person who is just interested in spirituality uh exceeds just those who are um you know who are learned in the vedas or who may have a many more conventional religiosity the difference i'm making here is this between what i would like to call a higher religion and the lower religion between spirituality and conventional religiosity conventional religiosity i'm not particularly interested in religion whatever your religion may be but i do what everybody else does i have a sort of vague belief in god yeah i think god may exist and of course i go to temple or church and especially when i there's something to be done i want to pass an examination some young people told me the only time we would go to the temple in our college or university campus was just before examinations so what does that mean i have a general belief that there might be some such power and when i really really need something i'll desperately appeal to any power whatever can help me but my eyes are not on that ultimate reality my eyes are very much on this world so conventional religiosity and many many people are religious in that we are nothing absolutely nothing wrong with it that is called mass religion that's how mass religion survives everywhere across the world but in contrast to this are the spiritual inquirers can i actually experience god can i realize god can i experience god is it possible to be illumined to know who i am really is it possible to go beyond sorrow so these are the deep fundamental questions the big questions if you're seeking answers to these questions you're a spiritual seeker and he says just a person who has not even started practicing even a person who's interested in this he says he exceeds goes beyond is superior to the conventionally religious person so vedanta is the higher spirituality yoga is the highest spirituality bhakti by bhakti again i mean that means bhakti devotion for god realization otherwise there's a lot of other kind of devotion also people generally have a kind of you know practical faith in god that is not meant here it is devotion to god for the sake of god yoga meditation for the sake of enlightenment the pursuit of knowledge for the sake of self-realization all of these this is the person who is even interested in these things is actually superior to the conventionally religious person brahma here means vedas then next uh mantra the next next verse is verily a yogi who practices assiduously being purified by of purified from all sins is perfected through many births and then attains the supreme goal so why is a yogi superior even a person who's just starting out because by the practice of by spiritual practice by devotion by meditation and by self-inquiry one can overcome this is all the impurities all the trash that we have collected in life after life and then ultimately realize one's true nature god realization the realization of brahman moksha nirvana satori whatever you call it it is entirely possible over and this is an effort of lifetimes by progress through lifetimes and thereby goes to the ultimate goal of moksha liberation freedom from the cycle of birth and death attaining to your infinite nature so this is the great human adventure you're doing it knowingly you're a spiritual seeker you are a yogi if you say if somebody says i have no belief in these such things in that case we're drifting from from one thing to another lifetime after lifetime but we're still seeking the same thing unknowingly we just call it i'm living my life or as we would say living your lives in the plural one after another and one day we will all come to this just one point here let this this progress through many lifetimes culminating in ultimate liberation or spiritual realization let it not just be discouraging oh many lifetimes i think then i'm several lifetimes away from it may not be we have no idea when we'll become enlightened when it happens it can happen suddenly so it can happen in this very life this is entirely possible entirely possible and one should always proceed in with that assumption in mind that it's going to happen in this lifetime itself i want enlightenment god realization in this lifetime itself so help me god take the help of ishvara bhagavan god ask for that blessing may i be enlightened in this lifetime even if even if just at the point of death also that's more than enough in this lifetime itself i will realize god that should be our attitude see isn't it an overly ambitious thing not necessarily you see what we we need salaam krishna would give the example of the mountain of sugar and the ant who discovered that mountain of sugar and it dragged away one grain of that sugar with great difficulty to its whole and looking back it thought i'll come back for the whole mountain it doesn't have to it can't take the whole mountain back and it cannot come back for the whole mountain all it needs to fill its little belly is that one grain of sugar we are like that little ant all we need is that one touch of that infinite once you touch that that the limited individuality dissolves and you are one with the infinite so we don't the goal is that you don't have to become like vivekananda ramakrishna or jesus or buddha that's not the point the point is to become enlightened and realize that you are brahmana and be free of this travail of lifetimes of sorrow and toil so anika janma many lives how do you know that you have not traversed many lifetimes of effort so this might be the culmination it's quite possible then further krishna says verse number 46 yogi bhavana yogi is regarded as greater than ascetics greater than even men of knowledge and greater than also those devoted to work therefore be a yogi or arjuna so this is more this chapter is about yoga the yoga of meditation specifically so he is telling urgent to practice the yoga of meditation this is more advertisement that the yoga of meditation is the best of all tapas we behave yogi so the commentators help us here to tell us what is meant by these tapasvi means the person who practices austerities so somebody who practices many fasts there many people who fast on this particular occasion on some you know so that kind of disciplines higher than that is this spiritual path of meditation we are trying to become enlightened through meditation knowledge and meditation this is much higher is higher than the person of knowledge the knowledge here means commentator says shastra that means a person who has read the scriptures who may know lots of sanskrit verses and sanskrit grammar and logic and all of that is a pundit is a scholar higher than that is the person who is actually practicing spiritual disciplines right here spiritual discipline of course means meditation but if you are actually a spiritual seeker you are practicing it your goal is god realization then you are higher than a person who just knows the scriptures and i've seen this there are many pundits who are well-versed in vedanta but their goal is not enlightenment the goal might be to get a degree or publish a paper or get a teaching position in a university or give lectures that's the goal and the urgent feeling that god realization enlightenment is possible and that's what i want above all things that's not there compared to such uh scholars a spiritual seeker who may not know much knows just enough i've got the mantra from the guru i know how to meditate i have firm belief that god exists i'm meditating on god or have studied vedanta under a teacher and i know the way to discern my own witness that i am the witness consciousness not body and not mind and this really seems this seems true to me and i'm trying to establish myself in that you know there's a spiritual seeker this is superior such a person krishna calls a yogi who systematically practices spiritual disciplines and this person is higher than greater than a scholar karmi bears here he means by karmi the person of action he means vedic action that means the person who performs vedic rituals higher than that is the yogi the meditator higher than a ritualistic person is the meditative person it's a superior form of spiritual practice the smart yogi bhava arjuna therefore o arjuna be a yogi you be a spiritual seeker a meditator then the last verse of this chapter yogi nam api shaddha of all yogis even he who possessed of faith worships me with his mind absorbed in me is in my opinion the greatest me here means god saguna brahman there might be people who practice various kinds of meditation you know mindfulness meditation of course let me give first the technical meaning here and then i'll expand on it the commentators say that those who there might be yogis who meditate on other deities the lower deities but the greatest yogi is the one who meditates on god god is one there might be other kinds of divine beings and some yogis meditate on that that's not meant here you're meditating on god but that's understood for us in our modern context we have this phenomenon of where meditation is very popular but krishna would not be happy here he is addressing this verse to such meditators why are you doing so much of mindfulness meditation productivity will improve you can make more profits immune system will become better aging will be all these are good things yes they're all good things but that's not the point what krishna is trying to make here that's still pretty worldly that you are using the techniques of meditation to achieve a better worldly life nothing wrong in that but it's not spirituality not spirituality so if you if your goal is god realization that meditation is mentioned meant here so this is the sixth chapter it is called dhyana yoga nama shasta the sixth chapter of the bhagavad gita ends here and it is called the way of meditation or yoga of meditation there is a always these chapters when the end there is a concluding line which has to be chanted so i'll just chant it hence ends um the sixth chapter called the yoga of meditation in the dialogue this wonderful dialogue of krishna and arjuna this dialogue what is it about it's about brahma vidya yoga sastra it's a knowledge of brahman and the discipline of yoga and this is part of the bhagavad-gita and gives bhagavad-gita the stature of an upanishad bhagavad-gita but it is it is so exalted it's treated as an upanishad it's treated at par as with an upanishad all right let me quickly run through what was done in this chapter very quickly we have got some time um [Music] let me see should i take a look at the comments first and then go to the summary okay let me take a look at the comments just by the way before i forget we have actually reached a significant milestone in our study of the bhagavad gita the a certain commentators divide the gita into three parts six chapters each 1 to 6 and then 7 to 12 and then 13 to 18. so we have finished six chapters some gave further significance to this the whole point of the gita is tattva masih that thou art you are brahman and the first six chapters one two six which we have done just now are supposed to be all about you your real nature in technical terms this is called an investigation or uh or of inquiry into the you into the the self individual self the next six chapters which we'll talk we'll see now from seventh to twelfth is about that means that and here it means god or more technically the absolute with attributes which is the god of religion so the next six chapters will be about god and and it pretty much is true actually when you see from the seventh chapter onwards the emphasis shifts from our real nature as pure consciousness to god to devotion to faith all of that happens bhakti and all of that will come in now from the seventh to the twelfth chapters and finally the last six chapters from 13th to 18th are about the identity of the individual and of the cosmetic you the individual being and this god we are going to talk about in the next six chapters you and this god are one reality how is that possible i'm this little creature i'm arjuna this warrior prince and god is the cosmic being the creator preserver destroyer of the universe this tremendous difference it's like difference between a wave and the ocean how can we be one well you are one not as an individual being not as god but as a fundamental reality which is beyond god and individual which is brahman the absolute it is the absolute which appears as god universe and individual jiva jagatishwara god ishwara jagat universe and jiva you so i will not go into that that is the whole analysis of the mahavakya which we have done in vidantasara and all of that anyway my only point was we have done six chapters which is the first one third of the bhagavad gita now let me run through the questions sean lee says we all know life is unpredictable and we are reminded by that very often in the pandemic how can we prepare our mind in this transient life this is what krishna says at the very beginning for those who are born death is certain life and death come and go like shadows he says even he says in the second chapter that in this life also all that happens the experiences that we have the possessions that we have even uh and our closest relatives father mother husband wife children grandchildren all of it is transient all of it is passing even this body it will age and it will pass for some it will pass suddenly quickly so um krishna krishna emphasizes this be aware of the transient nature of life it is there are many ways of describing it in buddhism they talk about it is like a bubble on a fast flowing river see how transient it will be like a phantom in the dark like a shadow you see in the dark children get scared of it our life is like that like some kind of movement in the dark we don't know what's going on and like a flash of lightning in the night sky so transient is our life another example is like a drop of a dew drop extended on the tip of a leaf see d drops they slowly roll up so our life is a dew drop extended on the tip of our leaf it's going to fall just now so yes we must be aware of the transient nature of life nothing can stop it even vedanta can't stop it vedanta can give you immortal life but not in this body vedanta gives you immortal life because you are immortal in your real nature and that's revealed by vedanta all spiritual paths they want to take you from death to immortality all religions actually if you think about it some religions like vedanta use very logical philosophical language others use mythical language language of faith or of stories but they want they all want to tell you the same thing they want that you to go beyond our mortality into immortality that is the promise of every religion but no religion says you can have it like this right here on earth in this aging dying body you can't this will go this can't be stopped um john anderson says in this answer to arjuna what is the purpose of the time in the highest heaven before returning to birth in beneficial circumstances yes uh even refer back to arjuna's question that is both lost if i don't attain enlightenment so i didn't get the purpose of spiritual life i mean i'd entertain what was i was trying to do but in the meantime i haven't done what other people are doing they are working to secure their conditions in this life and they are performing all these wonderful vedic rituals which promise them going to heaven afterwards so i'm not doing any of that i've given up all those pursuits the conventional religion i'm not following that so won't i go to heaven after death i'm not getting enlightenment fine then i'm going to still be as an individual being just like everybody else but this individual being which i am what will it be it's what will be its fate i don't have the good karma generated by all the rituals which all the others are doing so krishna says you need not worry you will go to heaven just like they you will go to the highest heaven you that means nothing is lost for you the spiritual path is such a wonderful path you are not really losing anything in this life or the next all of it will be there for you you suffer no loss anywhere not only that your spiritual progress is preserved you will start right there next life so it's a very it's a wonderful message from krishna very very encouraging this is one path where you need not be discouraged at all rick says one thing may lead to the next many times i've seen people learn meditation to lower their blood pressure something mundane but after a while realize there's more to it and get inspired to higher values absolutely people come to spiritual path in so many ways i've seen yoga teachers who teach hatha yoga but as once they become teachers they want to know a little more about what they are teaching so then they study the yoga sutras when from there they come to philosophy they come to sanskrit they come to the gita so one thing leads to another sangeeta says why exactly does krishna say in this context that a yogi is superior to the man of knowledge a pundit yes a drift that some are in direct experience emphasized as being superior versus knowing just theory more than experience practice more than experience practice and seeking one may read but one may not be interested in pursuing that there are any number of scholars who are pretty well read in in philosophy in vedanta in the yoga sutras i've met people and the whole purpose of that is to get a teaching position you know in the philosophy department or somewhere and and they again as rick says they again will become interested and may actually become genuine spiritual seekers in time but for the time being since they are not spiritual seekers um the spiritual seeker practitioner who is doing spiritual sadhana was meditating doing karma yoga bhakti yoga who is doing shravada mananananasana you know systematically studying vedanta pursuing it that person is definitely superior okay now let me quickly run through what we have done in this what have we got in these in the sixth chapter it's a very wonderful chapter it's personally a little dear to me because when i became a monk i mean as a novice our superior the one who was in charge of that particular monastery that ashram he would ask us to memorize the gita and for some reason he would give different novices different chapters to memorize to start us off of course all 18 chapters would have to be memorized but you start off somewhere and i was given the sixth chapter so i remember starting off on the sixth chapter what's there in the sixth chapter so this chapter is about meditation and before we meditate if you are meditating for spiritual realization our life must be must be purified first so our actions the work that we do it must be not only moral that goes without saying we clean up your life in america they say clean up your act so clean up your act but also selfless convert our actions into a worship of god actions means everything that we do in uh life driving cooking reading taking care of people around us doing a job yes you're doing a job for the for the salary but internally your attitude is now i'm going to do it for as a worship of god so the first thing krishna says in a chapter in meditation the first thing before meditation karma yoga is important so his first verse the one the karma yogi is the real yogi he says who does the work which comes to one slot whatever work it is whatever you are facing in life you do that without worldly motives you are not pursuing you know you are not doing that i will get happiness out of this money i will get happiness out of this success or i'll get happiness out of this family you still have a family of a job you have got money but now you are doing all of that as uh worship of god your internal attitude externally people may not find so much difference so you have converted your actions into karma yoga then he says in the third verse those who have begun on the spiritual path for them karma yoga is important those who are pretty far advanced in the spiritual path the mind has been purified for them meditation becomes important or meditation becomes really possible so remember i have always mentioned this matrix in which uh the the yogas and the the roles that they play in our spiritual life mind is impure mind has to be purified for purification of mind karma yoga is powerful with the purified mind next problem is mind is flickering the flickering mind has to be quietened and focused for that the method is raja yoga meditation and the purified and focused mind it will grasp the teachings of vedanta very fast so the third stage is you have got some amount of purity you've got some amount of focus and that mind can now grasp vedanta very quickly and that leads to illumination enlightenment see three kinds of problems the problem of impurity of mind the problem of of the unsteady mind flickering mind lack of focus concentration and finally the deepest problem of ignorance the primal ignorance of not not knowing what i am the first one impurity of mind is knocked out the method is to is karma yoga the practice is karma yoga the second one and the focus of the mind unsteady mind that problem is knocked out by focus of mind and that is attained by meditation and finally the ignorance the root problem that is overcome by knowledge and that knowledge is given by gyana yoga which it consists of shavanam a systematic study of the vedantic texts guided by competent teachers reflection trying not to accept it somebody said to me what is the need of all this logic chopping you know i just accept it i believe it no that will not work in the path of knowledge you have to get it what is being said here so uh reasoning it out is important and then vedantic meditation so what this chapter is about vedantic meditation actually there are two kinds of meditation it seems to be you know that to focus the mind meditation comes in there and again you are saying in gyani yoga also there's another kind of meditation so just keep that in mind if you're interested we'll talk a little more about it but let's go ahead now having said that beautiful verse number five krishna says he says lift yourself up by yourself make a change in your life so here krishna sounds a lot like tony robbins or something you know like a motivational speaker you this is the first thing that is needed in any kind of positive growth in life you know whether personal wellness change in your career your relationships or spiritual life the possibility the desire to be better off to lift oneself up so and then he says you are your best friend you are your worst enemy this is wisdom for the ages it is true whether you are a yogi or not it's always true and when we are yogi this becomes so much true we see in spiritual path in other paths we can whether you're in a path of education career relationship you can always blame other people in a spiritual path when you meditate and you're devoted you notice every problem is internal problem really external problem very little it doesn't matter much what other people say or do everything that other people say or do can be converted into a spiritual practice for yourself the problem is with one's own mind so it becomes so clear you are your own best friend your your own worst enemy so evident in the spiritual path then um then krishna comes down to actual instruction on meditation from the 10th verse onwards so he says first you find out a suitable spot you know solitude and then what kind of spot is suitable for meditation then he gives detailed instructions how do you sit where do you sit even the meditation mat he describes what it's to be made of how do you sit the posture how you have to sit straight and relaxed uh where do you keep your gaze you know to enable focus so what he does here we can recognize the well-known stages of yoga in the patanjali yoga sutras the ashtanga yoga of the patanjali yoga sutras they're the eight limbs yama and niyama one and two these are the moral and ethical disciplines this krishna has already talked about as the karma yoga portion of it then comes asana sitting and then comes pranayama control of the breath in order to quieten the mind then comes pratyahara withdrawal withdrawal withdrawing from engagement withdrawing the senses from engaging with the world but do you know this pratyahara withdrawing our senses i just mentioned something here it is actually a mental attitude of turning away from the world i'm very interested in what's going on what people are saying behind my back and i put ear plugs that is not pratyahara i want to know but i'm trying not to hear that will not work i am not interested that is practical a very great monk of our order very senior monk of our order i heard this story from just today or yesterday from a visiting quadcom and he had associated with this other uh great monk uh so you're saying this other person who was in a very high position he was a general secretary of our order and so much work and so much problems and responsibilities so many things to deal with decisions to make all throughout the day and this monk told me this young monk he said i always saw that swami was so calm all throughout always peaceful and relaxed he didn't get ruffled so i asked him how do you deal with it so much pressure and his answer was withdrawing the withdrawing is an inward turning away from the turmoil of the world then after pratyahara dharana dharana means focus trying to hold on to the same thought at a stretch not allowing the mind to get scattered then this deepens into dhyana dhyana means meditation then dhana deepens into samadhi samadhi is the actual the purpose of meditation is to become absorbed in the object of meditation where you forget everything else there's no experience of the world no experience of the body and at one point no experience of the difference between the meditator and the object of meditative meditation so this he explains in a few verses from the 10th verse onwards and by the way he gives the importance of balance in life in the 16th and 17th verse he says if you eat too much you can't have meditation if you sleep too much you can't have meditation if you eat too little if you sleep too little sleep deprived you can't have meditation and then he says a balanced life your daily routine must be balanced for meditation to work then he gives a beautiful example if there's one verse which is famous in this entire chapter it is this one the verse number 19. the example of the lamp the the unflickering flame of the lamp so what is the mind like in dhana meditation and in samadhi he says so as the flame of a lamp it's it's burning it hasn't stopped running it's burning but there's no wind there there's no breeze there so the the flame burns straight it doesn't flicker it's such a delicate thing even the slightest breeze and you flicker but it's not flickering similarly the mind is awake you haven't fallen asleep which is grasped one object of thought and it's that it's focused and you know in the radiance of god it's merged there it's not flickering away and going into something else again i'm using general terms but actually what it means is you are the mind is not thinking of any object it is tilled in the pure subject i am this objectless awareness i am awareness i am consciousness in this radiance without any thought it's light but without any object to reflect that light no thought comes there that is the samadhi which is being spoken of here and then he gives some characteristics of that samadhi yatra paramate the mind becomes tilled no thoughts even good thoughts are not there mind is tilled so is it blank have you fallen asleep no i am pure awareness it's indescribable but that's very clear you are more awake than you have ever been in life in fact one characteristic of this state is being awake that is the meaning of the term buddha buddha means awake the one who has woken up another characteristic another feature of this samadhi he gives here is where the atman is revealed you the pure self you are shine forth revealed to the mind which is in samadhi mind which is absorbed in samadhi is irradiated as it were by your own light as the atman and it is it is full to the brim with a joy unspeakable another characteristic he says so is it a joyous state yes this is the most extraordinary the acme of all bliss of of joy but it is not something that is experienced through the contact of something you know the sense organs contacting seeing something gives you happiness tasting something gives you happiness you know sense objects give happiness not that kind it's also not the joy of thinking very very pleasurable thoughts or daydreaming it's not that kind of joy it's not the joy of calling up pleasant memories not the joy of desiring something expecting to get nice things none of those things no object is present there and yet it is the most extraordinary joy ever then another characteristic he says there the mind is centered in reality atman is the reality and it does not move away from there that is samadhi if it moves away it is meditation but not samadhi yet very beautiful verse i gave a whole talk on this once you have got it later when you come out of that samadhi you will know one thing for sure that which i have that which i am is there's nothing greater than that i have got the greatest thing in human life if you are theistic you will say i found god actually not in a sense i believe in god but i actually god has become real for me forever but in the vedantic terms i have realized the atman i am saccidananda like shankaracharya you can honestly now sing saying i am of the nature of consciousness i am the nature of bliss i am shiva i am shiva so you have got the greatest thing having got which nothing greater remains to be god just means centered in which the greatest of sorrows cannot shake you greatest of shocks so the sorrows and shocks will keep coming in the world because of our past karma life will go on as long as you're in the body things will keep happening around you and some of those will be unpleasant but with reference to what you have found in this meditation in this enlightenment none of those things can shake you anymore centered in which the greatest of sorrows cannot shake you anymore another characteristic of this samadhi says yoga what kind of yoga is this this yoga is yoga sangeetha this is called yoga which is yoga it is the yoga the disconnect with the connection with sorrow yoga has one meaning of connecting joining when you're joined with sorrow that joining with sorrow has been disconnected this is called the connection called yoga so i'll read out the phrase yoga is termed as that which cuts away the connection with sorrow then a bunch of beautiful a few beautiful verses i'll just read out you'll recollect we had spent a lot of time on them what do you get out of all this what is the result all right samadhi i found this great thing so what what is the net result what have you gained out of the spiritual pursuit what is the result what is the benefit of enlightenment he says the one who is enlightened sees all beings in the self and the self in all beings you see the oneness everybody everything is nothing other than you you are there in everybody and they are all in you samadar you see the same everywhere same means the same divinity everywhere talking about the results of enlightenment the one who sees that one divinity everywhere and sees everything in that divinity that one is always connected to me krsna says is always in me in god i am never lost to him he is never lost to me will will i ever come down from that state it's not a state it is reality and so you can there's no question of slipping away from that state it's it's there forever it was there we didn't know it it's just been uncovered and then the beautiful verse we talked about it the golden rule it is the you know central ethical rule of all religions around the world from most ancient times till now so the golden rule is found here the 32nd verse 32nd verse of 6th chapter you find the golden rule that is the greatest yogi who sees the sorrow and the happiness of others just like one's own sorrow and happiness treat others as you would have them treat you you feel the sorrow of others as you feel your own sorrow the golden rule this is the difference between what is the common-sense approach is that i'll treat them well if they treat me well i'll treat them badly or ignore them if they treat me badly i'll give them what they deserve nothing wrong in this but this is the conventional approach spiritual approaches golden rule is not how they treat me how i want to be treated by them i will treat them like that how would i want to be treated by others i will treat others like that doesn't depend on what they are doing it is my practice it's my spirituality it is my philosophy this is spiritual life this is the golden rule then arjuna asks two questions very important and the chapter concludes with that first question is all this is great krishna but it's not practical none of this works because all of it is predicated upon calming the mind focusing the mind upon the success of meditation and meditation is very difficult it's like trying to control the wind and krishna acknowledges it is difficult arjuna but it is possible systematically practice it daily meditation morning evening on one in in our ashram in hollywood they meditate three times a day one hour in the morning one hour in the afternoon one hour in the evening and that's for everybody there so we meditate systematically that is repeated practice we discuss this on you know extensively in one class why repetition is so powerful in yoga not knowledge not classes not lectures or books but repetition is powerful that is yoga and the other thing is dispassion unfortunately a lot of new age spirituality though it's very liberal uh very liberating all it's all very great but it's also pretty worldly so nobody talks about um dispassion the unworldliness they stop chasing things in the world stop begging the world for happiness and going around with a begging bowl and asking for a little bit of happiness from the world no dispassion i do not want and why not that we have discussed what is the problem with things in the world what is the problem with sense objects what is the problem which also the fact that doing this being worldly has not helped anybody look around you look at our in history look around the people around you and let us look at our own lives it has not amounted to anything at all in these in our lives so vairagya dispassion then the final question which arjun asks the second question is also an important question and rather touching you know he says that suppose i do not become enlightened then what happens to me what will happen to me this is a question we will uh we ask especially when we start spiritual practices earnestly and we progress and then we realize it's a long road then what then what what is ahead of us and krishna answers with great positivity he says never fear the one who walks on this path will never be lost is guaranteed by god it's a divine guarantee no other path has any guarantee at all all other paths they are all lost they'll be they'll the world be whirled around in this samsara of death after death with this path there's nothing lost you don't have to begin from scratch all over again you go on what the best of worldly people will get in heaven you will get all of that and then you will get another chance and as many chances as you want and at in each of those chances you build upon whatever you have got in past lives and also guaranteed at the end of it all you will become enlightened you will attain to self-knowledge god god realization whatever you call it so be a yogi that is krsna's exaltation to arjuna sixth chapter let's see if there is any comment means flowing out into the world delighting in the world so that's great no it's not great it keeps you perpetually engaged in the world so one must be able to detach you must be able to throw yourself into work into work relationship into building a family a career all of that is possible wonderful but also should be able to detach should not be dragged here and there by samsara so pratyahara is the ability to withdraw turn away bill says israel bringing the mind back when we notice it astrayed from god no that is part of dharana focus and it strays and you bring it back it strays again you bring it back but pratyahara is when the mind and the senses are feeding ahara means to feed it's feeding on the world you stop it and turn it with pull up pull out these tentacles which we have sent out into the world pull these tentacles back with the firm attitude i don't want what anything at all from from you or world with that attitude you must meditate one swami said when you sit for meditation imagine in your chest there is a sign no admission so the world has no admission into you during the time of meditation gloria says is all the training of karma and bhakti preparation for being able to make the best use possible use of guard realization it makes god realization possible let me use specific terms here when we're talking about advaita vedanta so brahma gyana or atma gyana realization of the self the real self the capitalist that becomes possible if the mind has been purified through karma yoga and if the mind has been focused through raja yoga and bhakti yoga just one point here i mentioned it earlier it said in a sequence but that does not mean you have to spend 20 years in karma yoga and you know 10 years in bhakti yoga and then five years in raja yoga then you come to the vedanta class no that's the council of despair you can't do that we must do all at the same time there must be a because we have a component of work in our life we have a component we are have the capacity to love we have the capacity to study and understand plus we must develop this ability to withdraw into silence at least twice or thrice a day so all the four yogas must be there in our life good i suspect that gloria was asking a slightly different question that all this training in karma and bhakti will help you to make use of god realization and i wouldn't like the term making use of god realization because after enlightenment what will happen will happen by the will of god you don't have to worry about the enlightened person they are perfectly all right what they will do everything is blessed but you have a point if that's what you wanted to ask you have a point the devotional practices and the selfless activities they really blossom they flower forth after enlightenment that person can do tremendous amount of good to others which was karma yoga for him earlier now becomes a source of great good to others blessings for others and the bhakti which was a devotion to god in order to become enlightened earlier now there's no need for anything to ask anything from god then it becomes true love of god for the sake of love that is the highest form of bhakti so after enlightenment advaithic enlightenment that karma yoga becomes a great blessing for everybody that bhakti yoga becomes the highest love the real [Music] um foreign