Video 93

93. Bhagavad Gita I Chapter 7 Verses 8-12 I Swami Sarvapriyananda

[Music] guru if i remember correctly we had um studied the seventh verse of the seventh chapter right so that's an important verse there's nothing higher than me or arjuna in me is all this all this strung like gems on a string so he gives an example of a necklace so you have all sorts of precious stones in necklace but what is often not screen a scene is uh there is this string which threads the necklace together like the thread on which all the gems hang or in his commentary to this verse shankaracharya gives the example of a clause which is nothing but the thread which is woven into the class so when you inquire into look into the cloth you find just thread it's woven back and forth up and down and that's the class um here one must not make them fall into the mistake of thinking oh so the gems are something different and the thread is something different it's true that the thread keeps the gems together but they're different things in this case for god and the universe they're not different things the universe itself is a manifestation is exists because of god because god is existence itself such being itself without god there's no being in that sense if you extend the metaphor then god is both the thread the string and the gems then the necklace example doesn't work too well in that case but here krishna just means that i am that which keeps this entire universe together the whole universe is set in being in existence just like you might say all the pottery is set in clay or all the waves are set in water now we have been introduced so far to three concepts of god the seventh chapter onwards that i have remarked earlier from here the emphasis is going to be on god before this emphasis was on inquiry into who am i or what am i the self now from seventh to to the 12th chapters six chapters the emphasis is on that god the ultimate reality of this universe we have been introduced to three concepts of god so far the first concept of god is god is the personal god whom we love adore worship who is the god of all religions vishnu in vaishnavism in hinduism we have a whole range of conceptions of this this sort vishnu and vaishnavism the devi durga or kali in shaktism um in shaivism which is shiva so these are all multiple conceptions of the same reality which in vedanta is called saguna brahman with attributes brahman with qualities also this is the god of theistic religions you find the same conception in christianity islam judaism why do we why do you say it's the same conception because of this thing which krishna says i am the cause the sustainer and ultimately the dissolver of the entire universe so whichever religion you have when they talk about god one thing will be common that god is the creator of the universe god as the creator so that if that idea is there then we are all talking about the same reality we are talking about the personal god of the universe but this god is different from the universe god produces the universe by his her or its unlimited power and intelligence and glory but god is not the universe the second conception of god we get which krishna says here is that the universe and all its living beings all its sentient beings like us and all other beings we are not just the created we are not something separate from god in fact we are all in god and inseparable from god we are all let's see put it this way we are all inseparable parts of god so god and the universe and all sentient beings are an organic unity the way krishna put it in this chapter is that i have two natures one is my higher nature which is all sentient beings whose nature is i myself i as consciousness existence place and the lower nature as this entire universe so this is the second conception of god swami vivekananda says we hindus worship a transcendent imminent god a transcendent imminent god transcendent means god is of course beyond the universe god has to be transcended imminent comes next transcendent means beyond this universe transcending space time creation beyond this if it is not if god does not transcend the universe in some sense then it's not god it's part of the universe it will be like stars and planets and whales and amoeba and all one more thing in this universe no in that case it can't be god the one thing which distinguishes ideologies said something like communism or freudian psychoanalysis or capitalism things like that ideologies of you know some people say aren't they like religions no they are not like religions freud himself has made the distinction what is the difference between religion and all other ideologies the material ideologies are all they have one thing in common there is nothing transcendent it is this universe only whatever they're talking about it could be marxism it could be ecological movement it could be communism capitalism they're all of this world religion is that which talks about something which transcends this world so transcendent god but also imminent this is the second conception of god god is not only transcendent but also imminent in this universe imminent means shri krishna here has explained that this universe is my nature there is nothing beyond me and so this universe is also not outside of me i am the material of this universe so now then comes the question of the cause of the universe so uh there is this material cause and what you might call intelligent cause nimitz like a carpenter makes furniture out of wood the wood is the material cause uh and the carpenter himself is the intelligent cause whereas in vedanta are in fact in general in hinduism the two are not different after all if the if god is only the intelligence behind the universe and not the material of the universe then the material of the universe is something that exists outside god apart from god and there are such conceptions in the naive philosophy for example they talk about god being the you know the supreme soul and the universe is constructed out of free floating atoms which presumably exist apart from god pretty scientific or at least very good scientific thinking in pre-scientific times but the idea was that if god is truly infinite then there cannot be any reality apart from god so the material of the universe whatever it is must be nothing other than god so it must be you know projected or produced or it must be an appearance in god and so in vedanta the example of a spider is given it's given in in the munda kopanishan yathor nanavis as the spider spins out a web and absorbs it back out of its own body so the web is produced by the spider not out of anything else but out of its own body the spider is a sentient being is the intelligent cause of the web and the body of the spider is the material cause of the web so nimitz intelligent cause and material cause are one and the same entity that is why in vedanta brahman the ultimate reality here saguna brahman brahman with attributes is called the one indivisible intelligent and material cause of the universe brahman is the one single entity which is the intelligent cause and the material cause why am i going on and on about this what difference does it make it makes a huge amount of the big difference because if god is the material cause of this universe then god exists in the universe if clay is the material cause of the universe then the part of the clay is there in the part itself once the part is made you can't ask that oh clay is the great transcendent cause and you can't see the clay you can only see the part the poor part is there but the part is nothing but the same clay so just as water is the material cause of the universe of the up the ocean and water exists in all the waves of the ocean similarly if god is the material cause of the universe then god is there in everything that comprises the universe and then god is defined as existence consciousness bliss especially when god is defined as existence then it becomes pretty obvious it becomes a no-brainer so to say when you look around everything is existing so in that sense god is the material cause of the universe anything to exist must depend on existence itself so um now we have the second conception of god god has not only transcendent but transcendent and imminent god is not only different from the universe but um the universe as imminent in and through the universe available everywhere in the universe there's a um a monk asked the question where will you find god and the answer is actually swami ashoka randarji our swami in san francisco many years ago so he asks one in one of his talks rhetorically where will you find god foolish question where will you not find god if god is the imminent reality in this universe then whatever you experience in the universe is god rightly seen a cup it's a cup a plate is a plate no doubt it's not god but then rightly seen you will be able to discern the divinity right there itself so imminent transcendent imminent god this is the second conception and that's what he's talking about right now krishna is talking about by saying that the universe is my lower nature he means that that it is i alone which appears in that form then the third conception of god third conception of god is the ultimate reality the conception in advaita vedanta brahman is existence itself consciousness itself bliss itself how do we come to the third conception of god it's of course then the open issues but let us follow the same track of the material cause so god is the material cause of the universe that means all that we see around here there must be god there just like in all the pottery there is clay in all the waves there is water in the entire universe there must be god now the material cause of anything when you produce something you make something generally you work on the material cost the carpenter does something to the wood and makes it into a table and a chair and the potter does something to the clay and makes it into different kinds of pot even more so the clay does not change too much wood doesn't change too much but something like milk so what is the name of that ice cream thing that stone cold stone no stone cold something like that so there if you go they are taking the milk and it's not just milk you're transforming it into into various kinds of products milk when you make it into yogurt uh you cold stone creamery correct so you it is transformed it's no longer milk when it's yogurt for example it's no longer milk really it has been translated the major changes which have taken place in it so it is the same material but it is transformed it is changed now when god is appearing as a universe tables and chairs and cups and plates and human beings and animals what a tremendous change so god has changed has god changed into the universe what kind of a material cause is god does is it a changing material cause so if god changes into the universe that is called in um in vedanta it is called paren so the material cause which is transformed into its effect the cause is transformed into the effect milk is transformed into yogurt a seed is transformed into the seedling the sapling of the plant could be a huge transformation it's not the same thing transformation is not apparent so much in say wood into furniture or clay into parts or even less in say water into a wave but in some cases there's a huge transformation so this transformation of the material is the same material but pretty transformed that is called parina amavada which says the original material is no longer available it has been transformed into the effect milk has been transformed into yogurt that's the classic example is god like that has god been transformed into the universe then huge problems arise first of all that means god is not an eternal verity that which is not subject to change that means god is subject to change god changes god is cannot can now can be affected if god has become this universe god is entirely within the range of law it's cause and effect in the law of karma then god becomes trapped in the universe then what kind of god is it if god is affected by the good and the bad of the universe really change if god has really been changed into especially bad things in evil and suffering then it's not much of a god then then why call it god just call it the universe so that is one kind of material cause so in advaita vedanta that idea is rejected the second kind of material cause is accepted what is the second kind of material cause the apparent transformation in sanskrit this is called vivar tavada what was the first one called real transformation apparent transformation example snake rope the rope does not change into a snake it appears like a snake blue sky morning startling blue of the sky so today it was so blue and um you know the sky outside and shiny and from inside the you know your room you wouldn't guess that it was minus 17 celsius outside uh in here in new york i mean it feels like it was actually nine minus nine celsius and then with windchill it was minus 17 or minus 18. blue the startling blue of the sky is it blue did the sky become blue no in the night does the sky become black no it looks like that because of the scattering of light it looks like that so without any transformation of the rope into the snake it looks like a snake cause rope affect snake but that causes not been transformed into the effect cause sky effect blue sky but the sky has not been transformed into the blue sky it it's just looks like that apparent apparent transformation viva now here is the thing advaitha vedanta says it is true brahman is the cause of the universe but here's how it works brahman is the material cause of the universe but brahman is the vivartakaran is the apparent apparently transforming material cause of the universe brahman remaining brahman appears as this universe maya the power of brahman is transformed into the universe brahman is the vivartakarana and maya is the parent of the universe so maya is transformed maya is constituted of three gunas and the three gunas combine and recombine and change and then produce the elements and they again combine to produce the gross elements subtle elements to gross elements to the you know the mind and life and body and the worlds all that we saw in the vedanta sarah the cosmology of the universe but all of that is the transformation of maya appearance of brahman brahma maya parinama i'll repeat that appearance of brahman transformation of maya like our dreams it's an appearance in the mind and a transformation of the uh the state called deep sleep it is or sleep sorry you fall asleep that sleep itself is transformed into the uh illusion of the of the dream and what is appearing there mind it's not that mind has been actually transformed into people and things and places no it's an appearance in the mind but what is the cause there which is transformed into all of this the call the transforming cause you if you anything at all you'll call it the sleep which is like ignorance similarly the apparent apparently transforming cause and maya or ignorance is the transforming cause paren so brahman itself then is together because maya and brahman are not separate so abhinna nimitto padana karana vivatta all right in that case if brahman is only appearing as this universe if the rope is only appearing as the snake then there is no real universe really nothing has happened it's not that there is a snake which beca there is a rope which became a snake like the milk which became yogurt the milk really became yogurt but the rope did not really become a snake there are not two things there is only one thing which is a rope which by mistake appears as the snake you correct that mistake a rope remains a rope no question of a snake anymore similarly brahman did not become this universe it only by error it appears as the display of the universe correct it for an enlightened person if you ask that enlightened person he said do you see this universe say yes you really see a universe say no it is it's brahmana brahman so there is no real universe here if there is no real universe here brahman there is not the ultimate reality is not a cause of the universe of what would it be a cause if there is no real effect then there is no real cause also so the brahman loses its causality it's not a cause of this universe this very topic is explained in great detail in great sophistication by gaurav padha acharya in the third chapter of the mandu kakarika which is called advaita prakaranam so there he uses logic very subtle logic to demonstrate brahman is actually not the cause of the universe god is not the creator of the universe oh then who is the creator of the universe no question there is no universe where i talk about a creator so brahman is the only reality that is so that's the third conception of god which is nirguna brahman brahman is pure being existence consciousness bliss what is it to us you are that tatwa see here is a very big difference practically it makes a very big difference the first conception of god personal god of religion vishnu shiva devi allah father in heaven jehovah what do you do with that you have faith in god you are you worship you are devoted bhakti devotion faith adoration the second conception of god same bhakti devotion faith and tradition worship but now intimately available everywhere in all things in thousand different ways god is revealing himself to this this idea is there in when swami vivekananda formula he got from sri ramakrishna knowing the jiva to be none other than shiva you worship so it can be interpreted in this way but again it is worship uh brahman the word brahman to be worshipped but the third one the nirguna brahman the absolute of advaita vedanta is the gay abram and the brahman to be realized known as i myself i am that that is i so these are the three conceptions you can easily see dwitavedant is primarily the first conception vishishta dwight vedant is the second conception and advaita vedantes primarily is the third conception but now we are in the second conception and uh krishna is going to not say i am the cause of this entire universe is held together in me like pearls or gems on a string and then he's going to talk about the universe let's see what he does from the 8th 9th and 10th 11th 12th verses so the eighth verse pranava s i am o son of kunti stupidity in water lustre in the moon and the sun the syllable om in all the vedas sound in ether and enterprise in man what did he say here look at this universe krishna she is saying to arjuna look at this universe arjuna um in water i am the i am taste in water um i am light in you know the sun and the moon i am the om the essence of the vedas i am sound in ether i am the manliness or the power capacity and in human beings which makes them human beings now this is pretty interesting what he did here you know traditional advertising explanation would have been i am with this water air sun moon human beings vedas all of them i am existence so without me they can't exist so they are all appearances in me because of maya and the reality of all of them it's a straightforward advertising explanation but here a problem may arise yes um your existence but you know water is different from light light is different from earth earth is different from fire you know the five elements space uh air fire water and earth they're all different from each other human beings are different from animals um the vedas are different from secular texts so these differences the unique characteristics of these ones you are saying your existence fine but what makes them different is not existence there is something that differentiates clearly they are different from each other clearly all these entities in this universe you are seeing they are the unique characteristics so these unique characteristics which give i know they that is you give existence to all of it but these unique characteristics which differentiates one thing from another which creates this wonderful variety because of which the universe is there otherwise it would be a featureless existence only so this variety this difference then it's something other than you it is not you so krishna's answer here is the way he has put it is quite interesting what makes each thing in this universe unique that's who i am that is not something other than me so we'll see what what he's trying to say here um first of all a little introduction to the five elements cosmology this i have referred so many times but i've never gone into this aspect of it the five elements space air fire water and earth this is something common to not only indian thought but a lot of ancient thought you find it in china you find it in greece now in sankhya and vedanta just borrows it from upanishads from which sankhya further developed it so the whole universe is made of these things and we saw that in vedanta also from and upanishads themselves say in the titanium he said from brahman or from atman appears sky and from there appears air from there comes fire and water and earth so this is how the five elements have emerged but it goes a little deeper than that why these five elements remember in vedanta this entire cosmology the way the universe is described is not physics or is cosmology as we know it it's not actually a study of the objective universe it is but not with that sense it is a study of how we experience so it's not really a study of atoms and subatomic particles no it's how we experience the world we mean we human beings who are seeking enlightenment so this is remember this is entirely a technology designed not to explain the universe designed to take you to enlightenment this whole vedanta or all these philosophies they are all structured around our experience of the universe so that something is to be pointed out by from this description what do i mean by our experience of the universe what constitutes our experience of the universe just now we see we see things we hear sounds we spell we taste we touch the five senses are our primary source of experiencing life mind is a second hand creature mind just churns under the data provided by the senses if you're completely without senses the mind would probably fall asleep very soon or if you're a yogi would go into meditation or samadhi but the senses are which pull in data and they they it's like what they do is like throwing a stone into a pool if you take a pebble and toss it into a pool it'll set ripples in the in the pool similarly these are like pebbles being thrown in by the senses forms you know colors and shapes sounds smells taste touch and we have all sorts of this multi-dimensional experience which we call life now the way these ancients saw it was what causes us it's true ultimately there's pure consciousness and in that mind is functioning mind appears and functions let's go a little further out clearly the senses have different abilities so what causes us to see forms and they said there's a unique material reality called fire which appears as form to our eyes what causes us to you know feel taste there's a unique material reality called water which creates taste in our taste buds so you can see it's not exactly the water we see outside or the fire with which we talk about all sorts of forms anything that you see is is uh the material fire it gives forms it gives radiance to the eyes then um smell so there is a material entity called earth whose unique experience stability the way we experience it is through fragrance or smell now what they thought was that all these five elements are the locus uh the the cause for giving us these experiences there's something like space which gives us the experience of sound there is something space or ether it gives us the experience of sound there's something like air which gives us the experience of touch something like fire gives us the experience of form and something like water which gives us the experience of taste earth which gives us the experience of smell so five senses five elements this is how they mapped it all this is there in vedanta therefore when you talk about these elements the unique property of space or ether here would be sound the unique property of um of air would be touch but air also has sound and the unique property of fire would be farm but fire also has sound and and what else uh sound and touch then the so unique property of fire would be form but form is in the sense of radiance light and heat then the unique property of um so how does air bring about touch and just wave your hand if i feel touch it's just vibration think about it as the movement of something space by itself doesn't bring about touch but there must be some vibration somewhere some contact which brings touch and then then there is water which has the unique property of taste but it also has sound and touch and form then the last one earth has all the other four um we can it can you know senses will contact the earth it has sound it has touch it has uh form it has taste but also has a unique property of smell all right so five uh elements with five unique properties but each is more complex than the earlier one space is the simplest earth is the most complicated so this is how they thought of the universe not as a scientific uh you know way of dealing with objects in the universe where you need a comprehensive description do you remember um in vedanta-sara we talked about the different forms of living beings in such a rudimentary biology four kinds of living beings those which are born of the womb those which are born of the eggs those which are born of um the earth and those which are born of moisture that's so crude but the point is not to describe biology or the variety of believing variety of life the point was to set up the way we look at the universe just directly what is might be in philosophy called um called phenomenologically we look at the universe and then use it to step backwards to step inwards and point out the reality at the heart of it all all this is to give a background to what krishna is going to say why does he suddenly say i am taste in water notice he says i am taste in water i am the light in fire i am he will later on he say i am sound in space things like that so why is he saying those things those are the unique things which make that element what it is i'll repeat those are the unique qualities which make that element what it is so what what does what constitutes the unique quality of water taste and krishna says i am taste and non-dualist in like ourselves we might say yes yes i understand that you are not water is none other than you because you are the existence so water exists therefore it must be none other than you but he says no more than that even the unique qualities which make not only existence which makes water water not only exists but it gives its unique nature as water it feels like water that also i am i the lord are the god of this universe this transcendent imminent reality pervading everything not only as existence but also as the unique qualities which makes for this entire diversity so i am the taste in water oh son of kunti i am the light and radiance in the sun and the moon i am what is the entire vedas it is nothing other than um the whole thing can be condensed in ohm basically so i am the essence of the vedas om i am sound in space what is the unique quality of space sound i am the the manliness in human in men or just the capacity human capacity in human beings that which makes a human being a human being so all these unique and distinguishing characteristics that do i am it raises an interesting question so you are the taste in water you are the sound in uh in space later he will say i am the smell in the earth so can god be smelled tasted touched and heard yes and no not really but yes only in the sense of what we studied in upanishad qatar panishad the idea of upadhi it's like saying suppose there is somebody driving a car in a movie can i say that the screen drives a car no not really but then other than the screen there is nothing if you say that there is a car and the film star the movie star is driving a car in the movie there's a road and there are people around yes in that sense it's all made possible by the movie screen your own mind in the dreams so mind itself sky and earth and chair and table and friends and cups of tea and cookies really so can the mind be tasted and smelled and touched and can you interact as friends no they all appear because of the presence of the mind similarly here not really that god has a taste and a smell and a sound but it makes all of this possible then he goes on and the pure order in earth brightness in fire life in all beings and austerity in the asset ascetics and the smell in the earth the fragrance that he makes sure it's it's not a nasty smell as he says pure and then the commentator shankaracharya adds this should be understood in all in sound in space and you know the touch and the radiance of fire and the taste of of water or whatever it is so all of this uh in a sense of its being manifestation of qualities in their purest and best forms and then what about the rest musangara sarah adds that's all due to our sins this is all due to causality law of karma leading to its manifestation various forms higher and lower but the initial creation by god is all pure and all good the biblical sense you know when creation is talked about and god created dirt and he saw that it was all good here krishna says it is all pure and divine and the rest is our problem one question may be raised here is that oh so for example that the ignorance we are born with because of which we are in in so much trouble we are in samsara and we are suffering all the evil so is why isn't krishna mentioning that all the imperfections that is at our level vidyarny swami calls it jiva srishti god is very clear about this all this i am the very existence of it all not only that all the good things i am the i am responsible for it but what about the nasty stuff you are responsible for the good you must be responsible for the nasty ones nope that's your problem that doesn't seem fair but it's logical it's rational because the proof of this is notice what happens after enlightenment all that seems bad or wrong from our perspective from the enlightened ones perspective that goes away the enlightened one sees all as brahman but all these things created by god will those things remain or not they will remain since it's the creation of ishwara the enlightened one will see the flower and its fragrance as brahman no doubt but also will continue to see the flower and the fragrance we'll see the redness of the rose and the fragrance of the flower we'll continue to see all the variety in the world and know that it is brahman so ishvara srishti the projection or the creation of god will not go away after enlightenment oh so everything is going to remain as it is not as it is you will realize it is none other than brahman what krishna is saying here all these varieties of difference which you see here i am that that will that you will see right now for example we taste smell hear see our senses are working but we don't see it as krishna we don't see it as god the enlightened one will see that and that solves the entire problem of creation for the enlightened one for us we just see air water fire earth we just smell taste touch here and that's it we don't see the divinity behind everything so he says i am the pure order in the earth and shankaracharya says extend this to everything pure taste in water the pure forms of all radiance of light and so on and the sound in the in the ether and so on i am brightness in fire i am life in all beings and austerity and aesthetics life is that which makes us living beings that is god austerity that which gives power to the ascetics all the yogis and all that also comes from god god alone manifests us all that sankaracharya all his commentary he says pratham all these things are set in god remember this is the second conception of god where all this universe is included in god not as a bowl in which you put some peanuts or something but rather like the pearls in a necklace or even more like the cloth which appears when you weave thread together thread is god the cloth is we see this as this universe so the whole universe is set in god the word words he uses are so all the ascetics are set in uh brahman the word the word all living beings are set in brahman all you know heavenly bodies and everything vedas human beings all are set in brahman [Music] to be the eternal seed of all beings and the intelligence of the intelligent and the prowess of the powerful so he says bijam sarva i am the seed of all beings at this point we might say seed means origin the cause of all beings we might say you already said that you are the cause of the universe you didn't have a long discussion material cause instrumental call and so on no here he's saying something more he's saying each individual thing has its own cause and i'm the cause of each individual thing i am actually the seed of the plant i am actually the milk which becomes the yogurt i am actually the father and mother which becomes the child so actual causes and effects in this world all that i am not just pure being saccidananda not even just god with the power of maya beyond that individual causes also i am they are not outside me that's what he means he know me to be the cause of everything that happens here and and every being that you see around you um i am the intelligence of the intelligent that is my power and i am the splendor of the the glory of the of the effelgen the teja means the radiant or the you know those who are powerful then next [Music] the same vein is continuing i am the strength of the strong free from passion and attachment and o best of the bharata's arjuna i am the passion in the people and that passion in people which is unopposed to one's duty dharma so again he is saying here in the strong in the mighty i am strength and those who have desire i am that desire and immediately qualifies it he says i am the strength in the mighty in the strong which is free of kama raga viva this is ragadvesha this is the opposites of you know which which creates all this samsara in this world this bala the power strength it is affected by our individual conditioning what is the conditioning there are things which we want in this world and the things which we have already got which we would like to protect in this world so the commentator says that those the things which we do not have we want to acquire those and things which we already have we want to um hold on to those and often this is the tendency which takes us beyond morality beyond ethics i want something so badly i'm attracted to it so badly though i know it to be wrong i overstepped the limits you know the lakshman reika which is uh overset the limits of what i i can or should do i dislike somebody or someone so so much something somebody someone so much that i become angry and i am unfair i'm unjust i'm cruel i am you know i i'm unethical in my behavior or not kind in my behavior just out of my repulsion that's my individual conditioning you might say no but things are good and bad there are good and bad things true but remember two different people will deal in the same situation deal different differently so our conditioning is very important very central to our reactions to the world our conditioning is ragadvaisha now balambalavata the power strength free of this advaita not conditioned of this raga tradition this is what what krishna says god says i have given you power but that you are distorted by your likes and dislikes that you have distorted by your conditioning distorted by your conditioning now you use it for um you know personal gain you use it for hurting others and you are trapped in samsara the strength which i gave you the power which i have given you so it need not just be physical strength it could be you know it could be talents somebody is a great writer somebody is a wonderful singer or an actor and these talents can actually be used and should be used they can help us in our development ultimately in spiritual life all of these can help talents can help but we are not we but our likes and dislikes ragadvaisha you usually hijack everything they spoil everything in life the moment they touch our likes likes and dislikes touch our talent it becomes subverted to some samsaric purpose the ego now uses the talent to glorify itself so i am a great singer or a writer but now am i famous on what level is my am i getting awards how much my book is selling uh how much views my song is getting so all this is raag advaish likes and dislikes every talent is you can see it as god-given but it it has to be used for one's development i'm not even seeing spiritual development first of all one's own self-development what maslow called self-actualization that really forms a well-rounded personality a fully developed personality and then for spirituality some of our old monks would say to young people who come to join what do you want we want to be i want to be a monk so first become a gentleman then you can be a monk so that means there's a certain level of development that one must have in morals ethics in culture in behavior and then we can think of spirituality but all of this is spoiled because of raga and vaishan so not just physical strength any talent is also implied here then he says he goes even further he says desire yes even passion all of that i am krishna says i am the passion and the passionate and the desire and the desires but that which is within the bounds of morality that which is this is not opposed to dharma the desire that makes us overstep the limits of dharma krsna's is saying i'm not that don't blame me just as you cannot blame me for a tyrant who exercises um strength to oppress others oh krishna you said your strength and see he is using the strength to oppress me no that is strength conditioned by limited by distorted by raghav and desire which makes which is the prime cause of making people do evil things [Music] you know detectives when they investigate a crime what do they say follow the money where is the money who wants the money you find that out you will find the criminal they will try to find out who benefits from this crime so crime is done for personal gain for you know one when one oversteps the limits of morality because i just can't control either fear or temptation terror or temptation some people commit crimes out of terror some problem is there they can't face it or out of temptation so krishna says yes i am even desire but that is which is within the limits of dharma certainly desire is the motive force in this universe desire is the motive force that which leads us to self-development and growth for you know in the range of human life there is this i mean if you leave the yogis and the spiritual seekers aside in the generality of human culture if you see people all around ambition desire we wish to do something good that's good that's really developed that person and gets great stuff done by that person things happen because of desire only the desire has to be in the limits of dharma or morality or ethics that's what he says in all beings but not contradicted by which does not contradict dharma which of course shankaracharya the commentator ever the monk so he gives an example of what desire is all right so if you feel hungry you can eat that desire is all right so he is pretty strict about what he is what is allowed and what is not allowed and that also he says in order to retain life in the body for for continuing your life so you need to be alive to continue your spiritual practices to attain enlightenment so it is all right you have a desire to eat you can go and beg for your food in the nearby village and eat what is given there that much is all right not more than that then the next one all these satwika rajasika and tamasika states that are there know them to be born of me alone but i am not in them though they abide in me an interesting comment here so everything it's not just the sun and the moon and the vedas and human beings and passion and strength but everything in this universe is i alone am all of them not only as sachidan and the existence but also the little differences the all the specialities in all of them the uniqueness in all of them they all come from me and they're all good they are not what binds you in samsara remember god's creation this universe sky and earth they do not bind us fire and water they do not bind us in samsara what binds us in samsara is our ignorance ignorance of the real nature what krishna is telling us that i alone am all this this ignorance we don't know it we don't see it that way we just see the appearance we don't see the reality behind it so he says i am all of it what what is all whatever you see here whatever you see here he classifies into three satwik rajasik and tamasik so we know these are the constituents of maya maya has transformed into this universe so everything in this universe must be maya must be maya means must be satwik or rajasik or tamasik what does he mean by these things it means all things all beings all states of mind all actions everything is these three for example shankaracharya says because of past karma some beings have are born in satwik states so a satwik person the body mind is satwik and this is very conducive to the practice of spiritual life others are born with you know rajasik mental makeup and so there is desire anger dynamism all of that is there some are unfortunately born with a tamasic makeup body mind makeup which which makes him prone to maybe inertness slowness even disease so it becomes more difficult to practice spiritual life remember later on krishna will say that all of them can be spiritual all of us does not matter what our makeup is it's just that if our constitution is not satwik our struggle is that much harder the constitution is satwik the practices meditation service devotion philosophical inquiry all of them come easily to a satwik mental makeup a satwik personality to a rajasik or a thomasic personality they have to struggle more that's all but everybody can become spiritual that's the teaching of the later chapter there'll be chapters later which we'll talk about it so he says but all of these they come from me it's not that only the satwik once come from the rajasik and thomasic ones also come from me i alone appear as all these forms of course there's another way of dividing it also the rajasik are the beings who take birth in the higher worlds the devas the the sorry you're not rajestic satwik the rajasik are the ones who take birth in this mortal world like us natanasik are those who take birth in as animals and plants and so on or maybe even the hellish worlds and so on but that doesn't concern us so much it's more us as human beings some we have a predominantly subject disposition some we have a predominantly rajasik and some predominantly thomasic but all of us we can become spiritual and remember all of these come from god [Music] sri ramakrishna namaste