Video 94

94. Bhagavad Gita I Chapter 7 Verses 13 -16 I Swami Sarvapriyananda

[Music] guru so we are on chapter 7. some more people are coming in sometimes this microphone rubs against the shawl just like i think it produces a scratchy sound so if giant you notice that let me know i might not see the message but you can unmute and tell me all right i think we can start in the seventh chapter if i remember correctly we were doing the 14th verse is that right we were doing this yes so sri krishna has said in the 13th verse he said so this all beings in this world um are deluded because of the of maya and its products maya is constituted of the three gunas satwik rajasik and the entire physical world idam jagat whatever is manifested here as this whatever you can say this this person this object this body this thought this desire all are products of the three goodness by these av by these mohitam deluded we are um fixed in this and this moha it also includes it into three things moha raga and dwisha moa is delusion which is tamasik born of tamas delusion confusion foolishness and raga and dwisha are born of rajas strong likes and dislikes without this thing without this person without this job without this kind of money or without so many facebook likes my life is worthless or the opposite um doesn't anger irritation grudges um you know annoyance and others so this this what what constitutes our mental world and all of these are our products of maya these are actually the veil which covers god the lord god krishna here he says is hidden by this whale and this veil what is it constituted of it's not a whale of cloth it's a veil made of more delusion and like strong likes and dislikes raag advaisha you know desire hatred all of this whom so i they do not know me ebia who am i i am not part of this so this entire physical world made of three gunas our entire mental world made of three goodness all the living beings are made of three gunas all the bodies this some subtle bodies the sensory system all are made of three gunas but there's only one thing which is beyond these three gunas we call it the atma or paramatma the self or the supreme self that is beyond the three gunas here here of course the topic is god saguna brahmana paramatma so he says i am beyond these three gunas and i am not seen by the sentient beings in this world because they are so engrossed in this veil of maya then he goes and then what can be done he says we did this last time this maya what is this maya it is mine devi uh mama maya it is my power and therefore i am not god says i am not helpless here i am beyond that power i am the lord of that power not only that by my help you can come go beyond this power so mama maya duratia what is the way out of this maya how can we transcend so first of all why do we want to transcend because it is suffering it is limitation we open ourselves up to terrible suffering in this world of maya and we repeat this suffering again and again in lifetimes so we want to come out of it not only is it suffering suppose this there are times when there is no obvious suffering in our lives but there is a lack of fulfillment we are even when there is no real trouble in our lives we are not deeply fulfilled we do not know the secret to the mystery of this universe what is the purpose of life we do not feel satisfied with whatever we have got or whatever we can reasonably expect to get in this life lack of fulfillment plus suffering it drives us to seek a solution to this problem of life problem of samsara and he says there is only one way out of this maya first of all realize this maya it's very difficult to cross over it's like crossing an ocean very difficult and one must recognize this one at one point or the other one comes to this realization that it is very difficult to cross over and we need help so the help comes from god why why does the help come from god because god is the master of this maya and only by catching hold of god so what is the solution those who take refuge in me um so they take refuge they hold on to me they alone can go beyond maya one sadhu gave a very nice example the literal word prapati means surrender that's how it we translated but you know even more literally if you take it it means holding on to the feet means the upper portion of the feet the lower portion of the feet below our foot ours the sole of our feet is are called um the the the surface at the bottom of our feet but the upper portion of our feet that is called prapad the propaganda one meaning would be to actually hold on to the feet of god now one sadhu gave a nice example he says fishermen in in you know shallow waters they enter into the water and they cast a net and they catch the fish in the shallow waters but those little fish who cleverly swim near the feet of the fishermen they are not caught because the net is little further away the net will not fall on the feet of the fissure man himself so those fish those who try to run away swim away they may be caught but those who come near to the fishermen and catch or they are at the feet of the fishermen they are generally not caught so he gives very nice example that if you hold on to the lord of maya to the to take refuge in the feet of the of of ishvara of bhagavan or the avatar of bhagavan like krishna then you will be saved saved from samsara but there is a condition he gives me alone not that see the thing is we do take refuge in life we do take refuge we take the support of what we take the support of um of money uh of of our power or of our you know youth and beauty or we take the support of other people who in our friends our supporters our family members or we take the support of you know our own knowledge and strength and fame and popularity these are the supports we take refuge in them they are treacherous they will fail us they have to they are limited in in samsara none of them can offer you surety and security so mom eva not by the help of others by the help of god alone i will solve my problems not by the help of wealth or power with the help of god alone i will solve not even by my own resources some people have the tried you know i don't depend on anybody else i am independent i do my own thing even that has to be understood that that is also by the grace of god only a little thing a little stroke somewhere in the corner of the brain and all our capacity our energy our you know health everything will disappear in a second it'll be totally helpless the next moment i remember two years back harvard university one course we were studying was christian contemplative prayer so reading books written on prayer by christian saints so the saint is writing to his disciples that you take care of your health again and again we say that you take care of your health um see that you don't fall ill so some so the professor was saying that you have to remember in those days people used to be sick a lot that's why the advice is there you have to take care of your health as if these days we don't fall sick and i was just thinking within weeks of that kovid hit entire harvard was shut down everybody was running for their lives so as if in the 21st century or that those things are in the past medieval times we don't fall sick these days you have to be told why they are mentioning take care of your health those days they used to be ill a lot there were a lot of diseases in those days any time it can happen we should not take the refuge of anything else everything else will work people will be there medicines will be there money will be there but remember behind it all it all works for us because of the lord when sadhu said very nicely so even the law of karma operates by the power of god we think we we hindus buddhists giants sikhs we believe in karma good karma good results bad karma bad results punya dharma leads to punia punya leads to sukha adharma leads to papa papa leads to dukkha we all believe these things but it's not actually true there is a deeper reason it does not lead automatically those things are given by the lord ultimately the operation of the law of karma also depends on god on on sagun abraham in all the hindu traditions whether it is the worship of the divine mother shiva or vishnu one of the titles which will be given when you are praising god when you are praising ishwara bhagavan whatever the tradition of hinduism one of the titles will be karma daksa karma dhyaksha the lord of karma what does it mean lord of karma it is not automatic so it depends on the lord and the lord will generally give us the results of our karma but also is entirely free to change it so mama yeah the ones who hold on to me alone for them what happens this veil of maya becomes thinner this veil of maya is starred aside and we see that beyond samsara beyond these three gunas of samsara there lies one ultimate reality our own reality actually our own consciousness our own existence it's that infinite reality uh behind this universe but until that time we are caught here um so swami vivekananda says you cannot run away from the machine you must learn how to work the machine and the machine will set you free what is machine maya machine will set you free how do you work the machine one weighs a long way you you play the game of the law of karma increase your punya do good incessantly minimize papa karma so that a lot of good karma is built up then purify the mind through karma yoga and then um you know focus the mind through upasana and then shavana manananana until it's clear that i am not the body-mind my own nature is pure consciousness which is infinite always immortal free and that is freedom long long road and pretty difficult small things in this samsara are difficult for us to achieve and this seems to be a very tall order but here krishna says there is a shortcut shortcut is this that propaganda catch hold of me that means krishna the avatar of the lord even the lord vishnu you know saguna brahman that's also a little difficult metaphysical for us to understand you know the consciousness associated with maya as vedantist and those who have understood studied the vedanta you remember definition of god here is very easy i hear it is krishna you have read about his life stories in the avatar you know about the avatar rama krishna ramakrishna this is much more manifest and he says take refuge in me alone mom eva not me god plus a little bit of money yes i will depend on my money and my non-knowledge my people who work for me plus of course god no it will not work like that internally only one thing we must catch on out externally everything will be there you'll do whatever is necessary in life but internally you know everything depends on god and god alone mama this maya very difficult to cross they'll be able to cross they will cross easily in fact that's why we use this term um when he's actually praising the guru though by the grace by holding on to the feet of the guru by the grace of the guru one crosses over bhava sagar the ocean of samsara this ocean of births and deaths this ocean of suffering and limited existence crossing over of course in vedanta it simply means realizing your own infinite perfect ever free nature from that perspective you see you're free up so that is the crossing over so if it is so easy then why don't people cross over with it just catch hold of krishna catch hold of your avatar of choice and then you cross over and krishna is also saying yes of course it's easy and these fools they won't do it so the next verse is full of what we say in hindi riches among men the wicked and ignorant do not take refuge in me being deprived of discrimination by maya and be taking themselves to demonic attitude all right a lot of harsh words here what is he calling people who do not uh take refuge in god he says sinners sinners stupid fools the worst among human beings is that all equal to animals asura demoniac what does this mean one sadhu put it very nicely humorously you must not take it in any other sense he says see you would never see such language from sri rama chandra ramachandra was an aristocrat he lived and he was trained and among princes he was the prince of ayudhya so always very cultured very dignified but krishna he was brought up with coward boys so all sorts of language he can deploy immediately and that you see truly in krishna's life and in sudan krishna's life also no hesitation hesitation in using the harshest of uh choicest of words when he wants to scold somebody so krishna here is shri krishna is using pretty harsh language first of all dushkriti is something to be careful about dushkriti means those who actually do sinful things dishonesty stealing bribery you know violating rules of conduct hurting others you know either actually physically or by behavior or by words these are terrible things and what they do is they put such a burden of bad karma on us that it prevents us from spiritual life this is the biggest harm of being sinful it stops us from being spiritual it puts a veil between us and god why one does not turn to spiritual life because of all always they will say bad karma i remember one place in pancha dashi such a high advaithic text after vidyan swami he's as if he's talking to the opponent who says i don't understand this advertiser idea about infinite awareness how am i infinite and vidyar naswami explains i've forgotten which chapter it is he explains and then after the explanation several verses then he says if after this you say i still don't understand i mean is it as simple as possible if after this still it's not clear to you at least intellectually it's not even clear to you then i must say it is your past papa karma he's he is so blunt there your past sins which are blocking you from this it does not seem possible for such a person who has this burden of past sinful life it does not the spiritual life does not seem possible even it seems possible it's not for me somebody else or it's possible i can also do it but no attraction is felt no enthusiasm is felt this is all the effect of past bad karma now one point to be noted if i have this past bad karma does it prevent me from doing spiritual action no you know bhakti devotion like krishna said mama prabhupada so because of my past sinful life can i not take refuge in krishna he does not say that one can actually one can he later he will say that one can and one should if i am conscious of my sinful life if i am conscious of past bad karma i should take refuge i immediately should do more spiritual practice immediately but the the sad part of it is one damaging effect of sinful conduct is one will not do one can do and one should do bhakti is open to everybody later on krishna will say the greatest of sinners that person should be considered a sadhu the moment he takes refuge he or she takes refuge in god such a big claim krishna has made but they don't they will not do it and krishna says why mura because they are fools foolishness what is this foolishness it is like if i am very cold i am feeling cold and there is a blazing fire somewhere i should immediately go and warm myself near that fire but if i say no no no i am not worthy let me first i'm too cold i can't go near the fire let me first warm myself become like qualified to go near the fire and then i will go near the fire what foolishness go straight near the fire you will be warned your suffering will be taken away you are the one who needs it the most advaita vedanta we say such high level of qualifications required fourfold qualifications the southern it was seen to be only for sannyasis now the maharaja of mysore he printed manduka upanishad and i think ashtava cross or manduk upanishad and distributed free among the population of his state he said more than monks it is the people in samsara who need this highest advaithic knowledge right now they are the ones who are suffering they need this the highest teaching of vedanta this is the idea if i feel that i am sunk in samsara that my life has become dirtied by the dust of samsara then the first thing i should do is catch hold of god vedanta may be difficult meditation may be difficult but what is so difficult about taking refuge in somebody as attractive as krishna mame literally catching hold of the feet of krishna and eva you and you alone you will help me i remember very touching one sadhu i i mentioned him earlier rama saraswati and this happened in front of me if i think if i am not mistaken i heard it myself one monk had come to ask for advice he had just become a monk and a young monk and he bowed down to this great swami is one of the few i've met i consider to be jivan mukta enlightened in this life so this ramanujan saraswati this young monk bowed down to him and asked for advice now remember raman saraswati was one of the most erudite vedantic teachers and extraordinarily of his life was voluminous very austere very high order and his knowledge was profound deep his teaching was very powerful and effective now when this monk who is a monkey is basically a practical vedanti the whole life should be given to shravan you know inquiry into brahman brahmajir that's what the life of a monk is for this monk bows down to the swami and asks for advice please tell me what i should do and this swami this great vedantin this very senior monk a very wise i think enlightened person he says great great petas he says i still remember the voice what what will you do what can you do if you if you can do this much catch hold of the feet of the lord the feet of the lord and weep prescribe twice a day take the medicine twice a day catch hold of the faith of the lord and weep what else can you do so the lord is moved more than by um you know good actions more than by meditation more than by um vedantic study with inquiry more than all of this the lord is moved quickly by tears one monk told me that he is sure the only reason he he was able to become a monk and be part of the order spiritual life all all things worked out for him because he said i'm sure because once for some reason as a little boy i had wept for god i know that once i had wept for god and from that time onwards the lord has taken you know an interest in my case but people will not do it the one one great singer one great bengali poet mystic he sings that sitting near the ocean of nectar one is dying of thirst i mean for one drop of that nectar one is drying up thirst and they don't turn around and look just behind them there is the ocean of nectar and then he sings i think it's um probably i'm not very sure he sings that even oh lord even if they do not want you give them that by which their sorrow their thirst will be quenched even if they don't want it grant them that recently a swami passed away bhavishwaranji ajit maharaj it was more than 90 and very interesting funny old swami i had seen him many many years ago but just now i got the information last week he passed it i think he was in jairambati or kamato and the birthplace of sriram krishna or the holy mother um so i had a store of funny stories about him which we did not tell now but what touched me was somebody took a few seconds video clip of him and they posted it on youtube taken just a few days before he passed away and they are saying please tell us something and he's saying with both hands raised may you all have ishvara you all have the vision of god may you all have to be that's the only thing he kept on blessing people may you all have the vision of god so mura foolish ones they don't do it this is this is their foolishness all help is there all support is there they won't take it and then they struggle in samsara then what happens narada they become like animals means the lowest among human beings lowest among human beings means instinctive like animals they look like human beings but their behavior in life is just in the senses as animals later he expands on this asura means demon now the technical meaning of asura is asus those who delight in the senses in seeing hearing smelling tasting touching one might say that sounds a lot like me yes then we are qualified to be asura demon uh one monk was joking oh i was reading the gita and i found krishna is describing me so beautifully my own character has been explained so beautifully that is the divasor of yoga where the demonic and divine qualities are classified and detailed description of the demonic qualities are given so the monk was saying oh it all matches me so asura means asus those who delight in the senses and they are all around us and we also get infected by that sometimes somebody told me that what can i say to you we are arranging gita class we are surrounded there are so many people who should be coming you know they they are well off well settled you know retired from their jobs children are grown up and yet they don't find one afternoon in a month to turn up for gita class why not this party and that party and this social gathering and that social gathering at the beginning for a few months for a few years if you do that there's nothing wrong in it one must experience and taste life into all right but quickly come out of it mature out of it otherwise what happens is after some time it becomes impossible mind becomes used to that it runs in a rut the the ability the energy to pull it out of the rut is lost when one becomes asura instead of taking ashrae refuge in the lord in the feet of the lord we take refuge in our senses and uh that is the straight path to doom which the little nachiket understood we were reading cut open he said whatever you're offering me in temptation oh lord of death they're all the same the pleasures of the senses the powers of the senses are limited and even if we enjoy what you are giving us the enjoyment will be limited it will be there here today and gone tomorrow and at the end of it all oh lord of death oh yama you are there full stop to this particular life at least so i don't want these things it's just the opposite of the asura the little boy nachiketa so look at the development or our degeneration dushkriti heavy weight of past sins and unfortunately it prevents them from rescuing themselves because they become foolish they don't take refuge in god though it is open to them bhakti is open see ghana may be closed because fourfold qualification yoga is also difficult because a certain level of conditioning of mind is necessary before you can actually meditate properly karma yoga will be difficult because that desire to do altruistic work desire to be selfless that will not come but bhakti is actually open to everybody at any stage of life but they are foolish they will not go to the lord then because of that narada animal life animal like means enjoying only in the senses asuram bhava literally it means those who delight in sensual life why is all this happening their knowledge their understanding is swept away a swept away the commentator uses erased or occluded or covered by maya your ghana does not mean vedantic knowledge it means the simple conscience this is right and that is wrong that idea little voice of conscience within us whatever we have learned from society that we don't follow why we don't follow strong likes and dislikes and because of more delusion delusion means that which is um right seems to be not worth it or wrong that which is wrong seems to be right ragadveisha likes and dislikes we know what is right and wrong we are not deluded but our likes are so strong my greed is so strong my desire passion is so strong that i can't stop myself i overstep the limits of right and wrong which i know in the in the state of delusion one does not know one is completely forgotten what seems to be um wrong what seems to be right is uh is forgotten and the wrong seems to be right that is delusion but in the state of ragadvisha our typical state of you know rajasik state of mind the sense of right and wrong is not forgotten but we can't control ourselves we overstep the limits of right and wrong and because of strong desire greed passion greed or the opposite anger growth and then we go ahead and do it do wrong things and so this is called maya aparita gyana how this works yoga sutras they tell us that this is just little diversion i'm telling you very nice insight which i got from a sadhu of course the topic here is not meditation but i'm still bringing it up here the yoga sutras say what is meditation complete cessation or quietening of the virties of the mind you are awake but the mind is not breaking out into movements into thoughts and you know desires and all um then what happens what is the point of that tadadars to swarupia was then the witness consciousness is realized in its own nature so all that is the patanjali yoga theory that is from the yoga sutras but the next sutra he says if you are not in a state of deep meditation then what will happen to us what's the usual state of our mind that's the fourth fourth sutra in patanjali yoga sutras what does it mean you sentient being consciousness you become identified with the british of the mind now what what what happens is the victory of the mind means some particular modification of the mind you that totally takes you over you forget your real nature and for the time being you become one with that i this awareness who am not the mind suddenly a powerful writie arises anger and i become one with anger written and become one with anger what does being one with anger mean it means now anger feels right see you are the you are right right means you are perfect you are consciousness you are purusa you are atman being of pure awareness that is the reality but now that rightness that reality becomes mixed up with the vritti anger and then what happens that anger feels right i am right that person should be punished that person is wrong and i will scold him or beat him up or whatever you'll say what's wrong with that what's wrong becomes clear immediately afterwards within a few minutes or a few hours or a few days when that anger fades away the british will change but he will always come up and disappear when that anger fades away and you are left without that anger then it's replaced by regret by guilt if the anger was right you should never feel guilty about it but we will feel guilty about our negative actions i should not have spoken so harshly i should not have yelled at that person i should not have or even thought such harsh thoughts about that person i should not have hit out at that person now what happens that anger which has faded away you follow this carefully that anger which seemed so right and so justified at one moment now does not seem justified at all it seems wrong when does it seem right when you're totally at one with it when does it seem wrong when it is fading away those who are you know sensitive thinking people they will immediately feel guilty after doing anything wrong those who are not so sensitive they will try to keep on justifying they begin to feel that it was not right at all that justification begins to fade but they struggle to somehow justify that no it was necessary or whatever it was it was inevitable or what could one do it something like that but a sensitive person will always realize no any deviation from moral life any deviation from truth any deviation from non-violence any deviation from self-conscious uh self-control satya ahimsa any deviation from these primary virtues we will inevitably regret it the regretting it means we were why did we not regret it at that time because we are taken over by the triti vritti sarupyam oneness with davidi then so this is the condition of [Music] it starts with lot of bad karma and then this is the terrible condition that's why people do not take out the easy route of taking refuge in god god can help us through samsara very easily but we don't take refuge then the next very well-known verse 16th verse then who takes refuge just the opposite those who have good karma four kinds of people who have done virtuous deeds worship me oh arjuna the distressed person the aspirant after knowledge the seeker of wealth and the man of knowledge or best of bharatas okay who is who are those who who take refuge in god take refuge in god you will go beyond maya maya is very difficult to cross over that's why religion spirituality seems so difficult but it can be crossed over by the grace of the lord um if you take refuge in the lord or the incarnation of lord david but who will generally with the lot of you know what we might call a sinful life or a bad a lot of weight of bad karma they will not who will take refuge in god easily directly those those who have good karma he will say who are those people he will tell us but notice what he says those who have done good in this life or in past lives so the take away from this is never cease to do good never give up an opportunity to do good and every time i'm forced into doing something that seems questionable in my own conscience hesitate pull back try to resist as much as you can try to replace the negative with the positive so critique those who have lot of good karma one sign of that is they have uh an easy devotion to god the catch hold of god who are they they belong to different categories they are not the same they come in different flavors let us say those who take refuge in god one straightforward meaning i'll give you then the deeper uh meaning i'll give you the straightforward meaning first of all who takes refuge in god those who are suffering we are driven to spirituality by suffering it could be serious suffering pain disease terrible loss bereavement and we without we find no other way of finding consolation finding peace of mind we catch all the hold of god and that's perfectly all right and shri krishna says they are so creative they have got a lot of good karma because that good sense came to them then i often say that that this is phrase there are no atheists in the foxholes so in first world war when there was heavy shelling soldiers used to dig like a hole like a trench in the ground to hide and protect themselves against the incoming shells so you'd be hiding there in the mud and the dirt in that hole and hoping that the shell will not land on you and shaking in fear and in that stage there are very few people who will say i don't believe in god i mean he still even atheists will start praying hospitals i have seen so they all often have prayer rooms people who are sick or especially if you're somebody beloved or close to you is sick it's very difficult not to pray for their welfare and you know it is really out of the hands our hands of the hands of doctors and nurses that that is artha in distress then not in distress but they want something in life authority they want wealth power success success in examinations is one big thing in india funny story i remember when we became monks so three days you have to go out and beg for food now in our main monastery nearby the people who live nearby they know that uh at this time of the year there'll be a batch of new monks and they'll come out to beg for food and they consider it a great good karma to punya to cook food and offer it to the to the monks who come to your gate and ask for food so and we all had very funny stories you know sometimes to share um so one of the funny stories was a friend of mine he so he said that today when i went out to beg for food this lady came out and said baba please come yes i'll give you the bhiksha but my daughter is going out for her college examinations please bless the pen with which you will write the examinations so we asked what did you do i blessed the pen now we know that friend of ours is a very good person very nice and jovial monk but the last the one thing he did not like was studies so he was really poor in studies so we joked with him that tomorrow take a different route don't go to the same house they'll be waiting with a stick for you i'm sure that daughter's exam may not have gone all that well with your blessings um so he says authority we want something i've heard from students that we had little temples in our colleges and universities but the only time i was interested in spirituality was just before examinations i would go there and you know bow down to the lord uh and pray so that i i can pass the examinations i remember when i was a little kid i had a pundit who's to keep come to teach me sanskrit a wonderful man but sometimes i would not have done the sanskrit homework and i would you know wait in dread for the pundit to turn up he came with a he was a very poor man he came in a bicycle and the bicycle was uh creaky and old and you could hear the creaking of the bicycle chains a long distance away and i still remember praying uh desperately to srirama krishna hurry mother swamiji in my mother's shrine but let him not come today i promise i will do the homework next time and i but those prayers were never answered inevitably after a few minutes i would hear the creaking sound of the chain and the pandit has arrived so authority i want something in this life of course that was not authority that was more like arthur in distress those who want wealth success and so on then the third one is those who want jigyasu who are inquirers they don't want anything in this world they don't they're not in trouble also but like narendra not he wants to know whether god can be experienced and sincere desire not a not curiosity he goes to all the great religious teachers and preachers in calcutta at that time and he asks them have you seen god what does he want he's not in trouble he is not asking for anything in a worldly but then why is he approaching god what is his interest in god he wants god he is an enquirer he is a seeker and we basically most of us we belong to that category we are spiritual seekers they are called jig again sukritina they are they have got a lot of good karma in the past only then such inquiry arises in the mind and then finally the enlightened one what is krishna saying here who all take refuge in god who worship god who love god so the enlightened one gyani enlightened one also loves god not for anything not for wealth not that the enlightened one is in trouble not even for enlightenment because it's already enlightened but still this enlightened one loves god the bhagavatam says that the qualities of hari of the lord are such excellencies under the qualities of god that even the great ones who have realized their identity with brahman who have no ties to this world who roam the earth and as free as the wind and as a blessing to humanity even they are full of love for the feet of the lord hari such are the such are the glories of the lord hari so even the gyani loves god in fact we'll see the gyani is the one who truly has bhakti for god but we'll see that later so this is the direct meaning the preliminary meaning those who want um they're suffering to cease they take refuge in god those who want to get something in this world they take refuge in god those who are spiritual seekers they go to god and those who are enlightened they also worship god these are the four and they have they're all sukriti they're all good people they have been almost good past karma because of that they're doing this now deeper meaning this meaning comes from the bhagavatam see it's a very beautiful meaning if you have read the bhagavatam you know one sadhu said you will immediately realize what krishna is thinking about when he says this he's not talking about people who want money who want you know the suffering to seize what he's talking about are those who are closest to his heart the gopis of vrindavan now what is if you see the bhagavatam how they are described their love for krishna one is they terribly terribly miss the presence of krishna this is called viraha viraha is a special kind of bhakti where you miss the presence of god you feel terribly bereft a divine discontent that i i i do not feel the presence of krishna so all mystics devotional mystic those on the path of devotion they have this at and these are very advanced states of devotion it is an intense sorrow what sorrow is this i can't feel the presence of god i can't see krishna so that is called and tears said so isn't this sorrow but the tears shed in this sorrow are more enjoyable than the greatest enjoyments of the world i think it is not till she does some another great mystic who said this maybe surgas who said that tears shed um because you are missing the you're feeling the absence of lord rama those tears are more enjoyable than all the enjoyments of the world even the sorrow for god is is a great joy anyway this the that i miss the presence of my lord that is the first one in distress distress for what not because of any worldly reason it is for that i am missing the presence of god i feel deeply keenly feel the absence of god then what did the gopis do then comes jigyasa you see very interestingly you would think that those who are in distress those who want something in the world and those who are spiritual seekers that would be the order but actually if you look at the verse what is mentioned first art those who are in distress then second one those who are inquirers third one are tati those who want something so why that particular order it comes directly from the path of the gopis these um coward girls of vrndavan when they intensely felt the absence of krishna so absence can be felt you see there is a presence of the absence i remember professor gerald larson who was a professor of sankey philosophy an american a great professor sanki philosophy he used to come to the institute of culture in gold park in calcutta and gave talks and he was very close to swami lokeshwara a very great swami of our order who was there an institute of culture so when lokeshwaranji passed next year professor larson visited and in the memorial meeting he said i am acutely conscious today i am acutely conscious of the presence of the absence of swami lokeshwara the absence is also a very great presence you can feel it that this person is not there anymore similarly when the gopis intensely felt the absence of shri krishna what did they do next they went around seeking they asked the trees aprindavan have you seen my krishna they asked the river yamuna have you seen my krishna they asked the signs on the bank of the river yamuna have you seen my krishna they asked the flowering trees and the creepers have you seen krishna inquiry and then the third one is when they sit down and meditate or they pray krishna and they get utter means to get something and here the only thing they want to get is krishna so when they they meditate and try to feel the presence of krishna i had the vision of krishna or let krishna come in their midst that is authority so they are even more focused there and finally what happens gyani they krishna comes in the midst and they are fulfilled and they are they are with the beloved lord that is the state of enlightenment for them now for an ordinary devotee it may be that first there is a there is a sorrow my life is unfulfilled and then comes the next i seek god you know i study devotional literature i go to saints i listen to devotional talks and listen to hymns and bhajans and all that and you know i'm taught about the ishta devata and the mantra then the third stage is when i want to have the vision of the ishta devata i sit down and repeat the mantra pray to god shed tears i want to get that the wanting to attain that that is at that and then you have the vision of your ishta devata that is gani so this is the from the bhakti side of it and the beautiful thing is that sadhu implied that if you read the story of the gopis in the bhagavatam it's unmistakable when krishna is talking here he's telling arjuna about it in the battlefield of kurukshetra he's actually talking about his beloved gopis that how they seek god the fourth stages seeking and then um settling down and you know becoming intensely absorbed and then gyani that means the realization of god the other way of interpreting this same thing is from the vedantic side where it's pretty straight forward artha means dispassion for the world the world is full of sorrow i realize the nature of the world and i've become i'm dispassionate about the world that is distress the next stage is the jigyasu the same sequence i become a seeker that i i turn up for the vedanta classes youtube lectures and then i read vedanta i try to understand it and then the third one is arthurti but the reality has settled down on the reality needed i have heard it all i've turned away from the world from worldliness i've heard it all i've understood what vedant is telling me now i want to settle down on what i have understood needed vedantic and then gyani would be i become enlightened jivan mukta i realize i am brahman so from a vedantic perspective and from a bhakti perspective this is the deeper meaning of the four kinds of people who have great good karma who worship me krishna says the distressed you have to fit it in the general meaning the devotional meaning and the knowledge path meaning the ghana meaning or the vedantic meaning and then the seeker enquirer after god and then the third one is wants something and something here would be god and then gyani the enlightened one okay then the next one next two we'll see next time because he will say among all of them my favorite is the gyani krishna says the one who is enlightened is my favorite but it's not playing favorites he explains because it is only for the ghani that i am a constant reality the bhakti of the gyani is based on reality has already become one with me i am one with him he is one with me and here shankaracharya is very happy because this is advaithic oneness we and i the saguna brahman and the jiva they are both one infinite existence consciousness please shankaracharya says this in this realization see one's own atma you yourself can you ever be separate from that you can be separate from other people you can be other people may go away money may go away you know places may change our health age turns our body into old and sick even life itself may go away but you cannot go away from yourself whatever it is you are always there good or bad that you is now realized to be none other than god with oneness between your own inner nature and god so god cannot go away from you anymore god you are always centered in god choicelessly so who can do that only gyani otherwise in bhakti an ordinary bhakti not the highest but ordinary bhakti it depends on attention and devotion sometimes it may be more sometimes it may be less sometimes faith may be strong sometimes there may be doubt even saints have doubts so it is flickering until you become enlightened it will flicker it will increase and decrease there will be periods of dryness so for an ordinary bhakta this person was not advanced to the highest level of para bhakti until that point bhakti will flicker but the one who is enlightened who has got vedantic knowledge for that person bhakti is constant because the one you love is one with you you cannot discard it you are always present with you so he will say that in the next verse that the gyani the enlightened one is my true devotee okay let me just look at the sridhara says what does rising raising oneself by oneself mean and what is its relation to prapagyante raising oneself by oneself means not to lower your oneself not to give into uh our ra gadvaisha and moha sriram krishna puts it this way and he plays on the bengali word manush manush means human being common to many indian languages and sanskrit also but he plays on it with puns he makes it it splits it into two things means an awareness man means dignity or depth so an awareness of our dignity as human beings that's the first thing if one is not aware of one's own glory one's own dignity one will fall uh we'll fall prey to our own rag adhesion our own passions and greed will drag us down our own anger and irritation and hatred will make us do terrible things and then our tamasik move or delusion will get caught in a network of fancies and delusions so this is lowering oneself not allowing not falling prey to this is raising oneself by oneself would be the best way to do so to throw yourself at the feet of the lord you see uh in vishishta dwight vedanta the shri vaishnava tradition prapati is the highest sadhana bhakti there are many grades of bhakti but in in the path shown by ramanujacharya path karma preparatory and guyana knowledge is knowledge of that i am this this consciousness not body mind i'm a sentient being part of the lord but after that comes higher is bhakti i the jivatma has bhakti to paramatma i am a part of vishnu i'm a part of narayana i'm an amsha part and god is the whole the totality am she another way they put it is sheisha and my relation to the lord is one of bhakti but that bhakti also has higher and higher levels and the highest level is prapati this total self-surrender to the lord it's not verbal once it happens this it is unflickering unceasing you see some of the demonstration in in the lives of people like girish kosh and some others who gave total uh been totally surrendered to sudama krishna apparently the promise suramar krishna said that all right surrender to me you can't even take the name of god twice a day no i cannot promise that then surrender to me you don't have to do anything give all your burden upon me now they thought that was a nice bargain so you will take charge of my spiritual life then i can go around doing whatever else i want to do in life no it didn't work out that way towards the end of their lives in girish gaushi's life it was seen he says i cannot even draw a breath without thinking about sri rama krishna because now i have nothing i have given up everything to sudama krishna every breath belongs to him every thought belongs to him every action every word belongs to him it becomes a continuous remembrance of god that is one aspect of prapati the prapati is the highest bhakti kunal patel says can you please speak about the need for mantra chanting mantra chanting is useful in spiritual life how does it work so it's a very big subject i will not say much about it here two aspects of it i will mention first of all uh the psychological aspect and the second one is the mystical aspect the psychological aspect is very powerful our whole problem is in controlling the mind we may have good intentions we may read things and we make up our mind also to be spiritual but because the mind itself is flickering all these intentions are swept away sometimes the desire or the aspiration for spiritual life is strong sometimes it's weak sometimes it fades away real problem is with the flickering of the mind not in the teaching not in my desire for god realization no it is the flickering of the mind this flickering of the mind the real problem one powerful way of controlling this is mantra how does it work it works like this our mind goes from topic to topic it sort of jumps from link to link so this is compared to a monkey which climbs up a tree then jumps from adjoining branch to adjoining branch goes from tree to tree to tree other trees also it travels from one tree to another and roams about around the entire forest but if you have a mantra what happens is the mind is tied down to one thing you repeat the name om nama shivaya om nama bhagavati vasudeva mantra and the next thing what you're supposed to do is to repeat that you may forget but the moment you come to an awareness of oh i've forgotten the mantra will come back again so you're drawn back again and again and over time it becomes easier to remain centered holding on to the mantra it's just a psychological aspect of it of course any word can work transcendental meditation for example i've heard they give even even a secular word will work to do this to bring your mind back again and again to the same thought but now why mantra what a secular word will not do for you is the mystical side so there's a whole science of mantras but to put it in brief as swami tapasyanandaji was the president of vice president of our order long ago he says powerful in one place when you are given the mantra by your guru you have been given god in the seed thought this is a mystical connection through the mantra through your guru to god so ramakrishna says there's a huge log of wood under the fast flowing stream you can't access it normally but somebody gives you a chain a thin chain the chain is tied to that log of wood if you follow the links of the chain you will reach that submerged huge log of wood so that chain repeating the mantra those are the links going you will go go straight to god yoga sutras and of course the devotional texts all of them they sing the glory of the name of god it is there in um even where they do not believe in god in say buddhism both the psychological aspect and the mystical aspect is fully understood there it is there in all the theistic devotional traditions not only within hinduism but in christianity they repeat the lord's prayer that very beautiful book the way of the pilgrim where this russian man he day and night just repeats lord jesus have mercy upon me day and night and then he talks about his experiences throughout life it's a very inspiring book for those who do mantra islam also it's there repeating the names of allah so mantra japa is a very very very powerful way of both psychologically controlling the mind and mystically centering yourself in god mantra literally means if you dwell on the mantra it saves you from samsara means saves means things thinking or dwelling on it contemplating it basically repeating it some say that even mechanically if you repeat it it will work but it's much better to repeat it with attention and with love with reverence then it works much better and immediately and powerfully i knew our um swami gitanandji maharaj was the vice president of our order we have ourselves seen day and night used to repeat the mantra any time you go he is chanting the mantra you will he will talk with you very gently sweetly but then he'll again go back to chanting the mantra and whole life was full of the mantra jaishri says how would one deal with guilt take refuge in god and ask for forgiveness absolutely immediately turn to god and tell god in your heart of hearts i have done this i will not do it again and you give me strength not to do it again you save me from such situations where i have done things which i regret don't dwell on that guilt dwelling on negativities just increases feeds power into them it's much better to dwell on god if i'm plagued by guilt good it's that means i have the sensitivity otherwise once one loses one sensitivity i remember once as a novice and i was practicing i should not criticize anybody so once in the morning i told a monk that maharaja i feel very bad today i criticized somebody then i spoke badly about somebody then that swami said oh that's all right keep doing it very soon you will not feel bad anymore so we lose our sensitivity you know yes i am feeling back because i criticize somebody and if you keep doing the wrong thing again and again very soon you will stop feeling bad about it so that sensitivity is lost if one feels guilty at least one has that sensitivity and then don't stay there go straight to god hold on to god pray sincerely in your one's heart of hearts i will not do it again please forgive me and you give me the strength to save me from this situation so that i do not do anything wrong again rama says how does god help us come out of maya since he is himself as we we say that um i am beyond all this maya he says krsna says he said beyond the three gunas i exist so the lord is above the three goodness is not under the dominion of maya these two words are there maya maya lord of maya who is that god or the incarnation of god my adhina under the domain of maya who is that sentient beings like us so we can't help it but the lord can help us the lord is free of mind it is the power of the lord for us we are under that power so the well-known story of the cobra which has all the poison in its fangs a little bit of that poison a mouse or a frog is knocked out but all the poison is in the tanks of the cobra nothing happens to the cobra not only nothing happens it is the power of the cobra similarly maya is the power of the lord to create preserve and destroy the universe to lead all us sentient beings to enlightenment through various experiences life time after lifetime that is the power that is the meaning of maya chaitanya ishwar says even having such bhakti depends on past karma is there a free will independent of karma don't bother about it whatever little free will we feel right now use it catch hold of the lord catch all of the lord even if it's mechanically the little bit one does by may even after some time forget it the intensity may decline but the little bit that you have done done prayed intensely simply in a childlike way in your privacy of your heart you pray to the lord the lord listens the lord listens to everything when sadhu put it so beautifully he says this we don't know the whole universe we are sitting on the lap of this material universe the entire material universe is like a speck of dust which sits on the lap of the lord you're always on the lap of the lord you do not see the lord the lord is seeing you you do not hear god god is always hearing you so we are always in the presence of god that we don't see because of maya but the lord is seeing us so if we turn to the lord the lord helps us rodrigo can you explain krsna's ladini so ladini shakti is the embodiment of that it's a particular shakti of the lord the embodiment of the shakti is radha now ladini means the power of delight of joy so it's the highest of the shaktis of krishna this is vaishnava theology in gaudiya vaishnavism all these things are discussed in detail in uh abhijit says in vedantic interpretation is a thought is similar to mumuksu gyani is similar to mumuksu that thought is already in that interpretation antartic is already pretty advanced gaurav says when i see people around me doing bhakti it seems they are having strong identification to subject object relationships sometimes bhakti becomes excuse to continue duality that is true you're a very strong non-dualist so you take this verse in a non-dualist interpretation distress means you are distressed with the world seeker means you're seeking vedantic knowledge means you are centered in aham brahmasmi and then finally hopefully gyani well you'll realize me take it in that sense ratander says could sharanagathi be considered as prapatiyas is a part of prabhati prapathi is a whole practice and part of that is central party sharanagar nagati means to take refuge in god parul says holding on to his feet at all times so living in constant awareness of the one will hold me steady in face of flickering bhakti i have more control of my choices that keep me steady but none on others this causes the flickering sometimes certainly but remember holding on to the lord means the lord holds on to you so this is the very why it is this is bhakti is easier or it's a more powerful day because we are in this path you are not depending upon yourself you are depending on the lord alone even to hold you to lord even that lord will remain in my heart my mind will remain on god there also i am taking god's help that power is very great otherwise we are left to use our own little flickering mind rick says no in tm you don't use a secular word use a traditional b german that's good benson tried to create a tm without hindu trappings he suggested secular words yes i've read about benson's relaxation response you used just like any any word you can keep on repeating and get the same relaxation response i have heard that the power of the mantra is the sound does it still have the same effect when it's chanted silently in the mind yes yes certainly who's saying that sound is not there when you're chanting silently sound is not just what is called the the sound produced through the vocal apparatus which is expressed outside same sound vibrates internally in your mind and same sound is in the in the causal body also there are four stages of sound of speech there is vicari and madhyama and pashanti and para para pashiyanti so vaikari is when we're talking this is vaikari but the thoughts which are being expressed there also the speech is going on in the mind that speech is the madhyama and in the causal state before it becomes distinct thoughts there is a seed form that is called the pastianti state and para is beyond that that speech itself is brahman existence consciousness place so even mantra even sound will take you to brahman from the gross to the subtle to the causal to the one which is beyond growth subtle and causal that is the phrase used in vedanta after repeating the lord's names um holy mother sarah martial what else in spiritual life before besides praying to the master repeating his name and contemplating him and the master who is there after all about him he is our own eternal yes very beautifully said that we can um conclude here um um namaste