Video 96

96. Bhagavad Gita | Chapter 7 Verses 20-23 | Swami Sarvapriyananda

[Music] guru so giant is our co-host this evening and he's letting other people in as they come in but we'll start and as usual you can give your comments and questions in the chat box and also raise your hand if you want to interact directly we are in the seventh chapter of the bhagavad-gita and we had just seen that you know four kinds of devotees and those who are in distress those who want something those who are enquire spiritual inquirers and finally the enlightened one and the fully enlightened one is the one who sees brahman everywhere that brahman alone exists and the realization of this fully enlightened one is vasudeva mahatma this mahatma this great great one is very rare indeed who realizes that vasudeva or krishna brahman in that sense is everything in advaithic sense brahman alone is it's not that brahman there is everything and sama brahman has become everything no brahman has not become anything we realize that god alone exists or brahman alone exists and that is the soul reality was such a one is rare indeed now why don't people realize this or why don't people um become devoted to to god four kinds of devotees you know those who are in distress those who want something those who want are in spiritual seekers and those who are enlightened so why don't people become like that the 20th verse we're now going to start the 20th verse deprived of discrimination by particular desires they worship other deities observing particular rights being swayed by their own nature so why don't people become devotees of god if that's that is such a great payoff all your worldly desires will will be fulfilled you'll be protected in this world and you will become enlightened so why doesn't us why don't people everybody should become devoted to god one kind of devotee or the other but most are not why not because their knowledge their understanding is um is swept away they are in the delusion for what kami kami by those individual just doesn't just say by desire those desires tahiti means by those by these these desires showing there is a multiplicity what desire sweeps away our understanding well if there was one we could tell you they are thousands as many things are there in the world and there are desires for sense enjoyments there are desires there are particular desires associated with the greed there are particular desires associated with obsessions and delusions people get obsessed by things by um you know hobbies and by by other people people get obsessed um by even negative things like anger or depression they hold on to anger you're obsessed by that by a sense of resentment and anger or sometimes by sense of pervading depression unhappiness with the world all of these things many many this desire takes many forms might say what is desire god to do with depression depression is just a reaction to desire depression simply direct reaction to desire desire is there not getting fulfilled not sufficiently fulfilled depression so anger depression greed then obsession karma growth all over all of them behind all of it is actually karma desire and a variety of desires what do they do they sweep away our understanding and then what happens then it's very interesting propaganda it's not that they give up religion or spirituality but their religion becomes a lower form of religion they become interested in particular religious rituals or practices which will fulfill their particular desires their particular obsessions anya devata means the other devatas the other gods here one must understand in hinduism there is god with the capital g and there are gods with small g small g gods are the devas the devas are nothing other than sentient beings like us they're just like us jeevas but they're very exalted in the sense with tremendous good karma they have attained to powerful positions so the position of the god of thunder or light and god of sun and the god all small g so different different natural powers they have these devatas god with small g is behind them and they have they are like you know in america now you instead of the small g gods you have um super superman batman and all these marvel comics heroes yes somebody told me that we are a young country here in the united states so we don't have your ancient mythology of gods and demons and so but it's a natural uh natural kind of want kind of inc kind of tendency in human mind to think of beings which are far more powerful than me so i have certain capacity but suppose someone is a hundred times stronger than me i'd like to i know i am not but i'd like to imagine such a such a person or such a being or i can't walk through the door i can't walk through the door but i can't walk through a wall i can imagine somebody who can walk through a wall or somebody who can become invisible so these are fascinating things for the human mind and we like to think about it that such powers are possible now actually they are possible there are such beings according to our at least uh in ancient stories in our mythologies in our understanding in patanjali yoga sutra speak about some of these powers so it's not impossible and it has been known um in spiritual communities especially tantrics and all they possess i firmly believe that certain things are there they are not supernatural they're not at all supernatural it's just they're also natural these powers are natural i have seen some of these demonstrated you can't explain it in any way any any way in you know in modern scientific ways they are they are also natural these powers are natural it's just that we our understanding of nature is not comprehensive enough if our understanding of nature becomes more comprehensive then we will understand these powers are also part of nature so there are beings with these extraordinary powers and some of these beings they have they exist in higher worlds called sarga various kinds of heavenly realms are there locals various locus heavenly realms and they they have various kinds of powers now they have the power to grant certain boons and there are people who want their desires to be fulfilled quickly become rich or quickly do some universe you know black magic do some harm to um some some particularly annoying neighbor i remember funny story once i was in our monastery in in india and main monastery so at the gate of the monastery this lady came up and she asked me baba that means monk baba can i ask you a question i said yes it's very eagerly and this is obviously something important to her so she asked do these mantras work i said of course a mantra will will definitely it will work and it has its own effect she burst into tears oh my god what will i do now i said what's wrong well she said my neighbor is particularly evil you know but uh she has cast a black magic spell upon uh upon our family and recited certain mantras and you are saying that it will work and then we'll be ruined what do i do now i immediately said oh no no they don't work these are all mere superstitions forget it then she looked at me up and down and clearly i was completely untrustworthy by that time in her just a minute ago he was saying it works now now he says it doesn't work no but there are people who believe these things very strongly in fact it happened to swami vivekananda himself and there was a a particular tantric he came across in kashmir and the tantric told him to get lost you know not not stay in that particular area otherwise he would cast a spell upon vivekananda and viveka and it happened vivekande became violently ill then he came back and complained to mashaaradha that i uh i completely lost faith i mean sort of in a little resentful tone i've lost faith in in takur sriram krishna he couldn't protect me from a little tantric and then masha radha smiled and said one must respect knowledge no matter whatever kind of knowledge it is so she is charlada herself so all knowledge is part of her and one must respect knowledge and these powers anyway the point is people become attracted to these things every village in india had their local deities and local rituals often sacrifices including animal sacrifices in order to propitiate for what for bhakti or advaithic knowledge or samadhi no not at all for the welfare of humanity not at all for casting a spell on your neighbor or for getting you know good profits in business something like that or maybe rainfall some whatever it is some kind of natural benefit notice all of these this so-called supernatural this practices in order to pacify certain deities certain powers and get them on your side behind it is one thing only and that is desire desires of various types but desire basically so desire prompted these people rushed to any devata now today we might think here in america in 21st century we might smile at those superstitious you know indian villagers with their little deities and superstitious rituals and you know petty practices they have not all disappeared many of the villages they still have those practices they still go on they're pretty popular we have in our this country our equivalent and worse it goes under the umbrella overarching umbrella called new age we have got so many things here this one is a in into astral projection that one is into um you know out of body travels another one is into the effect of crystals and another one is in into gem therapy someone is into past life regression a third one another one is into hypnosis now don't misunderstand me i'm not saying that they're all fraudulent or they don't work some of them actually do work some of them actually have effects i know for myself they do have effects but they are all low i am let's be very clear about it they are not spiritual they are and let alone compared to advaita vedas is the highest it's the path of knowledge the final conclusions of the upanishads human civilization in last five thousand years till today has not thought higher thoughts more sublime thoughts than what are found in upon issues they're nothing there nothing compares in the world tell me what compares to the open issues in the world it's not just advaita vedanta these things are not even close to devotion to god bhakti they're not even close to meditation samadhi patanjali yoga they're not even close to nowhere near close to the worship of divinity in all beings through service through good works karma these are sublime these are spiritual all these other things they are lower then no doubt about it if you have come to spiritual life then don't take to these things it's what krishna is warning against it's not some peculiar deity in some out of the way remote indian village they are uneducated and they don't know any better if they are sacrificing a chicken on the altar of some some deity we may think oh we are far superior no they are not far superior we do exactly the same things and we're probably in many ways far more foolish whether it's a small village in some corner in a in a jungle in india or it's in california it's the same thing especially in california so i remember let me tell you a story about a monk i met a very impressive monk non-dualist i met him in the himalayas um i already can take his name also narayananda giri i haven't met him for 15 years now i hope he's well a very impressive very learned monk and traditionally learn it and full of vairagya living alone in high up in the mountains he told me his story he said as a child in a village he was very fascinated not with you know devotion nor gyana and you know knowledge of atman no he was fascinated with tantra and why with tantra not for enlightenment because tantra promised all these you know superpowers so it's just like today a kid might want to be like superman or batman or spiderman just like that so he was very interested that could i get those powers you know to fly through the air and to fulfill wishes and to cast a spell on somebody read minds of other people so he went to he had heard of a great tantric who lived in benares the holy city he told me all this is his personal life story and he said i went there as a young boy in search of this tantric and those who have been to benares you know those narrow lanes um he went he found the tantric's home in one of those narrow lanes so he told me that he went to meet this tantric and there was a queue a line so many people early in the morning had gathered to meet every day there was a long line outside that country's door um so he stood in the line and as the people went into the doorway we stepped into the doorway and walked in into a sunny courtyard it was a winter and he saw there was an armchair and like a shapeless bundle of clothes actually it was this frail old man covered up banaras winters can be cold so covered up nicely with shawls and socks and cap and apparently to all purposes asleep you know curled up on this armchair in the winter sun in the courtyard and all these people they would step up to him bow down to him and give some offering mostly money in front of him and make a wish and then go on and their belief was if they offered something to him in return their wishes would be fulfilled that he was supposed to be such a powerful country anyway so they so this line proceeded until this boy the monk told me that when his turn came he came stepped in front of that old man who seemed frail and sick i'm ill and all covered up bundled up and oblivious of anybody else his eyes were closed it says as i stepped up to him suddenly his eyes flew open and he stared directly at me and he says you can learn this and become a tan trick but you will become like this like me look at me is this what you want so uh this monk said i stood there stunned and i was a shy young boy so i didn't know what to say i looked at him stunned and then that tantric with his glowing eyes sort of looking straight into me he said you go and learn vedanta then closed his eyes and apparently fell asleep again so that was so uh electrifying and shocking anyway then this monk said then i asked him what did you do he said i went and it so happened that i did actually go to an ashram and they enrolled me in in a vedanta course in the university and i studied vedanta and so on and i asked him did you ever learn tantra he said i did i studied it myself text wise but it's not that i actually learned it from a guru or something then i asked him once this monk who was actually a very great vedante by the way one thing which has become pretty famous the story of yes sachin was such is this true or is that true you know the story of king janaka the dream and the waking that story i had heard from this month first time he told me this story and now it's pretty popular i think was that true or is this true anyway i asked this monk once so would you consider tantra like technology and vedanta like science so vedante is like advaita vedant is the theory and tantra maybe like engineering you know like you know techniques and then yeah i still remember he said he said that no no no dear monk vedanta is such a high sublime philosophy there's no comparison at all so what i was talking of course he was talking about the lower kind of tantra which leads to all these you know occult powers so that's the point there are those who worship various deities whether they are in little villages tucked away in the forests of in india or in california but they worship various deities and all of them why do they do that they're prompted by desire desire prompted it happens in advaita vedanta also i have seen because of today we popularize something that i am also doing here we throw it open to everybody and this is the age when all knowledge is thrown open and it should happen swami vivekananda himself said that vedanta which was in the hands of a few crew scholars and monks i shall spread broadcast it across the world the vedanta which was in the forests and mountains i shall scatter it across the cities so that's what vivekananda said and it's true this is the age but but and i fully support this but there is something to be said about the restrictions that the ancients put upon it they the the uh emphasis on adhikari the qualified student one who has the discernment between eternal and non-eternal viveka one who has strong dispassion for worldliness vairagya six-fold treasures an intense desire for freedom so all of these things this is called adhikari four-fold qualifications there is a reason for this the reason is only when once has sufficiently developed adhikar qualifications then vedanta you know they take to vedanta um in hindi they say vidhant vedanta gets assimilated digested otherwise what i've seen often people come they're curious they're interested and they are talking about here lessons about pure consciousness and the seer and the scene and the analysis of the five levels of the human personality and the three states of the mind waking dreaming deep sleep upanishads and the brahmasutras and the gita and then somebody tells them you know if you do this kind of a meditation here you will see a burst of light and they say wow that's what i wanted all along now what has happened or you do that kind of a past life regression therapy you will discover who you were in the past life and say wow that's what i was interested in all along all of the vedanta you have heard till now it seems seems some kind of philosophy some kind of abstraction instead of the most stunning direct statement of the truth it doesn't work it's not get it doesn't get assimilated digested why not desire there is still desire in the mind and the other whether it's in some new age technology or some uh ancient deity in a remote village generally the ancient deities in remote villages are actually more powerful than the new age stuff but that promises to fulfill my desire and this is a problem that vedanta has always faced all throughout one monk he writes about his childhood he used to go to a monk who would teach vedanta outside their village on the bank of the ganga so he would gather around with with a few elders from the village and he was only little boy who would go to listen to vedanta and one day he went and he saw nobody else was there and the monk was sitting there and the little boy asked the monk where are where is everybody else the monk said oh there's a tantric who has come on the other side of the river and the whole all villages everybody is rushed there and then the monk said dolefully this is always the state of vedanta through the ages very few people are interested there is a story about this one monk said this i'll tell you the story and don't misunderstand i'm not criticizing anything i am not condemning anything i will qualify the story the story is a bit harsh those who know their story of ramayana they will relate to this so this monk told a story that hanuman when he went and attacked lanka the abode of the demon king ravana in search for you know he was he was in search of sita so ravana's son indrajit the demon king son indrajithi went up to fight with hanuman and he was having a very difficult time of it and indrajit thought he had to deploy his most powerful weapon you know like you have cruise missiles and stealth bombers and so the most powerful weapon uh always is they called the brahmastra the the divine weapon of brahma not brahma not the ultimate reality but the deity brahma so brahmastra supposed to be the ultimate weapon so he deploys that to to capture hanuman to knock hanuman out of the fight now brahmastra approaches and of course brahmastra is an intelligent smart weapon it's got its own artificial intelligence or whatnot it comes and approaches hanuman and says would you please surrender to me it's a matter of prestige i'm the most powerful weapon of the gods and if if you if you are if i don't work then you know then all the the stock prices of the armament manufacturer will go down all boeing and mcdonald's douglas and lockheed they will their stock prices on wall street will crash i have to work it's a question of prestige and hanuman says i have the greatest respect for brahma so yes i'm going to lose consciousness now and he fell down unconscious and so brahmastra had worked now the demons the rakshasas they rejoiced and they thought their great uh this big monkey has been now captured but being demons did they were people of very little face so they thought this brahmastra well it seems a bit iffy i mean i'm sure hanuman this great monkey has been knocked out let's make sure let's tie him up with ropes so they tied him up with ropes now brahmastra felt terribly insulted you know if you if you hit somebody with a cruise missile and then chase and then hit him further with a hammer the cruise missile is going to feel insulted so brahmastra felt oh they don't have faith in me they want i knocked out hanuman and they want to tie him up with these miserable ropes well let them deal with it i'm leaving in a huff he left and the weapon brahmastra went back to heaven and uh immediately hanuman regained consciousness and the ropes were of course no problem for him and we know how he slipped out that's a story every little child in india knows and then he devastated the land of the demons anyway this is the story now what's the moral of the story when you have taken refuge in something higher in the highest don't try to back it up with something lower you are studying realness your own real nature which is unlimited pure consciousness so yes but i'd like to consult an astrologer too and get a few gemstones you know to wear around my neck and my finger just in case vedanta doesn't work and to protect myself from the painful influence of this planet and that planet no don't do that you're insulting vedanta you're insulting the upanishads all right the qualification to this i am not condemning any of those practices i actually know for a fact that many of them have a code of truth and they do work but the point here is and anybody who is a good astrologer will also tell you they know it for a fact they'll tell you that yes of course vedanta and sankhya and bhakti these are high very high and sublime things don't compare us with them that shows that that person will be a genuine practitioner of his art don't apply this to bhakti or dhyana bhakti is also sublime just as ghana path of knowledge is sublime the path of devotion and surrender is sublime the path of meditation is sublime and the path of unselfish selfless work is also sublime they are not to be counted among lower things some are advaita non-dual fanatics so once you have taken to non-dualism why i heard great advaitha teacher grumbling that they come here and learn advaita non-dualism and the first sign of trouble they run to god they take refuge in god they don't want to stick with iambrum and what can an appearance you know sickness and financial failure or whatever it is the appearances like dreams what is it to me i am the unlimited awareness yes very easy to say when kicks and blows come in life not so easy to withstand them um that's why it's perfectly all right to take refuge in god swami vivekananda says that always he told an american lady here always keep these two sides madam one when i'm i'm perfectly all right and happy i say i am brahman i am the atman and when i have a tummy ache i say mother there's nothing wrong in keeping these two sides [Music] so yes when you talk about the highest knowledge it means advaita vedanta but also included within it are sublime teachings of bhakti and yoga and karma yoga all of that all right again no condemnation of anything or any particular art i'm not or any particular science one must have common sense there are people who can hold on to i am brahman only and not take refuge in anything else swami turian and once he was very sick he was in the mountain of foothills of the himalayan mountains he was practicing severe austerities and became very sick in stomach trouble and then he suffered so much he thought that let me go to the nearby town and consult a doctor the moment he thought this and he thought fire on me what am i doing there's a verse which says narayana is the greatest doctor and the water of ganga is the greatest medicine so he immediately drank the water of ganga and he would rub it on his stomach reciting a verse from the 15th chapter of the bhagavad-gita that four kinds of food vaishwana i am the digestive fire the lord says i am the digestive fire in the stomach which digests all kinds of four kinds of food 15 chapter of bhagavad gita luckily he was cured but it takes a tremendous willpower to hold on to that if we cannot at this stage in our life and we want to take refuge in god and take refuge in the doctor and do that definitely what shri krishna here is criticizing is not taking refuge in spirituality not taking refuge in god he's saying especially it is about devotion not becoming a bhakta of god the devotee of god rather holding on to a whole range of various kinds of rituals little you know practices of worshiping this deity and that deity or a whole range of interests in new age spirituality and so on so that's what krishna is saying become a devotee of god hold on to god they follow the particular rituals of those deities and why do they do that prakritya near they are guided by their own prakriti by their own um natures what is this own nature our real nature is sachidan existence consciousness place but our individual nature is this sentient beings we are all different from each other where does this difference come from this difference comes from a subtle body and this is has been conditioned through many lifetimes of experience we have done many things we have heard many things experienced many things life time after lifetime and these have left samskaras in us and the sum total of these samskaras is our nature today our prakriti today this so these desires and the effects of karma if in ancient lifetimes so those are you know curled up in this bottomless well of our mind and they bubble up sometimes that's our nature our nature is guided by those things as a victim to that we are swept along we have these little fancies our interests in in all these lower forms of belief practices vedanta is very high advaita vedanta is i call it a finishing school for spirituality i've seen many people who drift come to vedanta advaita then drift away from it but they come back to it at least some of them do ultimately after seeing this and that this teacher that book disseminate so many things and then finally drift back into it they begin to see there is really not anything so sublime and high and noble as of right away but why do they drift away at all at the beginning is desire then 21 whatsoever form a particular devotee wishes to worship with faith concerning that alone i make his face unflinching so even the faith in those practices that particular deity i will sacrifice a chicken to it and get a bump in my salary or that particular you know crystal therapy hypnotherapy something by that i will solve my all my problems that faith that comes from god and that faith actually works it gives a certain amount of result faith that firm strong belief there's a tremendous power in that when it is directed to god it leads to enlightenment it leads to god realization enlightenment the goal of human life when it's directed to anything else or the lower deities or some particular practice as long as there's some core truth to it if you direct your faith to it or something worldly my faith is in money my faith is in a college degree my faith is in politics it will take you far strong faith in it that faith itself will take you far that conviction that strength of purpose and oneness it will take you far the one pointedness it will take you far that book which became very popular a few years ago the secret um ronda burn it became so popular that is based on just one thing one simple thing but whatever you want in life if you single-mindedly hold on to it don't take no for an answer from whom from the universe from people from experiences in your life from what other thing what's happening in your life don't take a no anywhere just hold on to that think about it all the time and keep on repeating think that speak about that do that hold on to that in spite of what happens in the world you will get success whether you want money your relationship you want power and power politics success in career whatever health so that's the promise you know of that book it's called the secret and it became very very important as as you can guess best seller list for years and years and years so the and she wrote a new book our rick archer has interviewed her the new book is the greatest secret uh or the final secret the and that book says that the greatest secret the final secret is advaita vedanta higher than that earlier secret so the earlier secret greatest secret yes rick says greatest secret so the earlier book is you can fulfill your worldly desires by sheer faith one one pointed belief and you must follow it up with thought and thought word and deed and you will get it hold on to it long enough the universe will give you what you want actually swami vivekananda says that but he says just one twist the secret says that you pursue what you want and hold on to it one pointedly you will get it swami vivekaran says never desire anything because you will get it you will get it shankaracharya in the commentary in another the next verse he says basically the same thing he says that do not desire anything there is nothing good about desires the non-fulfillment of desires leads to frustration unhappiness the fulfillment of desires leads to addiction and further desires with us visas keep on increasing no good comes of cultivating desires anyway but the point is what rhonda byrne is saying and vivekananda is saying they're saying but same thing but you will get it if you want to and the secret of that krishna says here is that one pointed faith and krsna says i give them that faith unflinching faith in that little practice then the next one 22. come endowed with that faith he worships that deity and from him gets his desires which are indeed granted by me alone so endowed with that faith literally this is the core idea of uh the secret that book ronda burn secret yukta means hold on to that how long as long as it takes till you get the result when every moment moment to moment at every point you have the power to take a decision so i can't hold on to something even for a few hours what to speak of days and months you don't have to hold on to anything for a few hours can you hold on to something a thought for one moment yes all of us will say we can hold we can have a thought for one moment it's just that i can't sustain a thought it doesn't matter the next moment is another moment of freedom of choice that next moment i have a choice about what to think what to say and what to do take a take a decision decide i will now think of this particular desire and i will speak accordingly and i will do accordingly next moment we will take care of itself again the choice will come again the freedom will come that freedom comes to us moment to moment minute to minute hour to hour day after day week after week month after month it's a great power the power of choice mind tricks us you don't have the strength of mind you make a choice and then within hours within a day you don't follow anything that's because we are not repeating the choice you have to keep repeating you have the freedom to repeat the choice anytime so that thing says he engages in that practice he makes it that faith that choice he makes it a practice whatever deity or worshiping whatever new age philosophy of practice you are following and you get the result the results also come krishna says i give those results i give those results here in the commentary shankaracharya makes a point he says none of this leads to any good ultimately of course he's speaking from an advaithic perspective ultimately none of this leads to any good fulfillment of all these desires just traps you further and further in worldliness quickly a wise person should quickly come out of it satisfy some of the desires and see that all the other desires i've got a million dollars or say a hundred thousand dollars is the same thing as getting a billion dollars and 10 billion dollars and 100 billion dollars in principle it's the same thing if you win the rat race you're still a rat so in principle it is the same thing a wise person will see why follow it any further time is going away age and energy and you know all of this health are slipping away from from us just like so fast this time once it goes up it will never come back this health this youth this energy this freshness will never come back so do not waste time in frivolities if your aim is god realization brahma gyana enlightenment then as quickly as possible jump into it and hold on the way you held on to the pursuit of desires with that kind of vigor and energy hold on to the pursuit of enlightenment it's the highest pursuit the greatest adventure that human beings can embark upon the adventure to know god adventure to realize our own infinite nature the adventure to fulfill the goal of human life the purpose of human life this is what we are here for so shankara says in his commentary on this verse actually that it is no good pursuing desires is no good see the moment you pursue desires when sadhu put it this way you have made yourself a a beggar you who are infinite immortal existence you make yourself small not infinite existence tiny existence that's why i want something from outside i feel the lack in my existence i feel the lack in my awareness i feel the lack in my satisfaction my satchit ananda i do not believe them to be infinite therefore i go out begging but nothing in the world can give you this it's your own reality whatever the world is giving it is reflecting your own reality back to you in a fragmented way nothing can satisfy fulfill us which the world gives it cannot fulfill us so it's a fool's quest to try to find fulfillment in the world world engagement with the world can help us to go grow spiritually certainly that's why the world is there but to expect it to fulfill us that is a fool's question it's a mature person who learns it quickly enough in immature persons keep on trying to get happiness in this way and that way the most foolish persons they keep on trying the same thing hoping it will give them happiness that's the definition of insanity to keep on doing the same thing in the hoping or in the hope of getting different results the definition of insanity the more intelligent persons they try different ways of getting fulfillment money and learning and relationships and politics and social work and better and better with art science better and better things where a variety of things to get fulfillment still it doesn't work ultimately you're thrown back upon yourself who is the one is who's seeking fulfillment what is this thing which is seeking fulfillment in an object when we look towards ourselves and we find we are ever fulfilled that to ask something of some something of some somebody or the world you know is to make yourself a beggar so that secret i want this from the universe and continuously i want want one but what am i making myself in that case i'm affirming that i lack but do i really lack i've never investigated do i really like anything i've never investigated it then 23 antavato palam pesham mamapi so these people the translation is but that fruit of these men of little understanding has an end the worshippers of god small g go to the gods but my devotees come to me what he says here is what's wrong with this approach you know various little practices to fulfill various desires in this world what's wrong with it you know all of these these things you will get this is saying they're not saying that you will not get it these practices of worship of the various deities they have their results the result is very limited you think by doing this particular ritual i will become healthy or you might for a time from that particular disease another disease will come and in any case after some time the same disease can come back again by this let me get wealth so this is if you wear a particular gem around your arm or do this particular ritual you will get wealth you might what you deserved a little more than that one one it might come shankaracharya comments that um according to our karma fella we get by the worship of these deities one might ask that if we get things according to our karma why would you need to worship these deities the thing is our karma is vast it's like a huge storehouse and we have no idea what's there but if you engage in particular practices certain things become expedited you know out of the storehouse something might be uh released faster but that will still depend upon the limits of our karma so two persons so maybe great king performs a a particular ritual to get victory and wealth might conquer an empire and a little village trader performs a similar ritual so the village trader according to his karma will get a little more money maybe get a couple of more shops in the village and the king will get um add a few more countries to his empire the karma scale is different but yes success is there according to our karma we will get more success than we would have otherwise got um but untawat all of these things come to an end and very soon this is what the little boy nachiketa realized when the lord of death yama and then cut opinion we are studying yama tempted him he said you don't have to perform any of these rituals whatever people they desire in this world and the next you get all of it don't ask me the question about vedanta you get all of these things in your life all wealth and pleasure and power and fame and nasi keta's argument was i said i don't want anything why not they all come to an end survein jarayan teether all our api servant everything is too little i'm offering you so much wealth and pleasure without end and he says live 100 years have grandsons and great-grandsons and enjoy a wonderful you know professional life family life community life and the little boy says it's too little it's just too little why is it too little when it ends it's all gone it's gone forever nothing is left behind he says you are there oh lord of death you are there as long as you are around everything is too little the moment i'll come to you as end comes everything is taken away from me well at least you have enjoyed a lot in this life you can enjoy as much as you want no our capacities for enjoyment are also very limited how much can you eat how much um you know how many movies can you watch how many vacations can you take how many phones can you talk in so up in riyadh our body mind is worn down is worn down wear and tear i will live life to the hilt well you'll get worn down yourself your capacities are very limited then nothing will seem enjoyable anymore summer said mom i like coating he says that if you single-mindedly chase pleasure very soon you find nothing pleasing anymore single-mindedly change pleasure very soon you find nothing pleasing anymore very good observation here krishna says you may do all these practices but everything will be finished and gone when they're gone they're totally gone and in the meantime your life has been frittered away this most precious human life therefore he says alpha made assam they are foolish they have very little medha what is very little maida buddhi and male are different buddhi means intellect some of these people may be pretty smart very smart people we can earn millions on billions on wall street uh or you know be philosophers or whatnot very intelligent people and they have all the arguments at their disposal but why alpha made assam the distinction is between intellect and some a peculiar quality called medha that dharnavati buddhi the buddhi which is able to retain spiritual teachings the intellect which is able to retake you talk about i'm not the body mind that every now simple things like all things come to an end all these are ultimately not fulfilling something that najib saw very clearly so many um grown grown-up rich talented intelligent mature people they don't see they are completely immature compared to the little boy nachiketa they don't see it it's unable to retain the teachings we study vedantas get all these things the simple things like things are impermanent you go yes i know so and still go on and chase those impermanent things but what a devastating thing that that statement is a buddha statement impermanent impermanent all is impermanent transient momentary momentary all is momentary empty empty all is empty therefore suffering suffering all people don't see it this ability to retain the spiritual teaching let it sink in it's sinking in retaining it this is called dharana the ability to hold on grant the ability to hold on to the the significance of a teaching of a text not just the verses not just the words that is memorization but the essence is assimilated i point out often when vedanta is being discussed in the gospel of sri ramakrishna at one point sriram krishna sitting and listening carefully at the end of the discussion about vedanta brahman atman maya all of that in salaam krishna just commenced the words are good but it must be assimilated in bengali said kosa the words are good but dharanam is there so that power of assimilating a subtle truth an insight and how do you know it's been assimilated you see it in the life of that person life will change you can't live the old way anymore the psychoanalyst eric from he said insight separated from practice remains inside divorced from practice remains ineffective insight you understand something about life but divorce from practice you don't do anything about it then it remains ineffective it will have no no effect on your life you understood something about life doesn't help you insight divorce from practice remains ineffective then he says so he says alpha made assam these are foolish they have they don't have medha they may be intelligent but they don't have the power of holding on to that insight i think we have almost run out of time all right the next few verses we'll do next time let's quickly look at the comments jerry says the bar is very high to be an adhikari a true but that is it's not all or nothing we all have it to some extent so very fact that you are here it means that we are an adhikari just that we have to be um it's we have to watch those those like those dials in a car when you're driving you keep an eye on the you know the gas in your tank the speed dial how fast you're going um the temp engine temperature and take a look at the mirrors which you'll be aware of the environment we must be aware of our internal spiritual environment is my discernment viveka strong is my dispassion for the world strong are my disciplines sixfold treasures strong and do i have a desire for enlightenment freedom from this world that's enough is there an acknowledgement parole says is acknowledgement pearl singer says good morning from india aren't you in singapore is there an acknowledgement of the concept of buri nazar evil i in vidal yes it's a very um common thing in india or in many many cultures actually somebody's cast an evil eye on you vedanta don't talk about those things then peter says okay something else sangeeta says it's bears noting that birthday observance titi or determination date and time uh of the puja seems to be based on vedic calendar which adds to the framework of vedic astrology yes the vedic astrology it's part of the six vedangas very ancient and munda kopanishad mentions it in addition to the vedas there are six disciplines which are necessary to understand the vedas is one of the what is called the six vedangas the six auxiliary disciplines which help us to understand the vedas so there's no criticism of astrology there astrologers need not get upset and that krishna is criticizing them or i am criticizing astrology no what krishna is criticizing is don't depend on astrology for um you know taking you beyond suffering catch hold of god let your goal be through god through devotion to god i shall overcome suffering in this world attain moksha god realization that is the goal through god plus little bit of astrology bill says the greeks say gods punish man by granting their prayers astrology is very very powerful i once was invited to a conference international conference of astrologers so i went there and i was surprised and the whole audience was full of astrologers that gathered from all over the world and i was surprised to see uh on the platform the speakers they were ministers and governors and all big people from society i asked the one of the organizers how do you get all of these people you know on on stage together and he whispered oh but they all come for predictions about their life you know to us all of them no matter how well knowledgeable powerful politically well connected they are all beholden to the astrologer they may not be particularly interested in vedanta they won't come to the swami or to the philosophy professor they find that pretty useless in life but astrologer no very important bill says the greeks say that gods punish man by granting their prayers correct fulfilling desires patrick says the greatest secret is not a huge bestseller like the first one yes correct advaith is not as a huge uh you know the gyanakanda is not a huge bestseller like the karma khanda i've seen this again and again talk about the highest philosophy vedanta and so on and then finally mention a particular ritual or a particular breathing technique and i've literally seen this reaction right that's what i was looking for after all vedanta and what to speak of others a great scholar one of the greatest scholars i've met um he became very interested in astrology in his you know late in his late 80s early 90s so once i was speaking with this great great pandit he has passed now so anyway i won't take his name and he was really a very good pundit so i was on the same stage with him he was hard of hearing so i had to shout my questions i said sir why after studying vedanta and sankhya and all you're mastering all of that why are you giving so much time to astrology and you know he leaned like this he was a prank old man he had nothing he didn't mince words he listened carefully and he said oh that there's no money in vedanta or sanction he said he did it no money in vedanta so money he's very clear about it astrology gets him lots of money he proudly told me how uh india's greatest film star flew him by by playing to mumbai to give to consult on his son and sons marriage to his daughter and they are like india's most famous star couple i mean i have not named them but film stars so there was some problem in the astrological matching their their horoscopes and all so this astrologer this great scholar of the advaitha and all he was called not for brahman and athman and all that but to talk about matching the horoscopes and what rituals had to be done so that the bride and bridegroom could be matched properly rama says what is the difference between asking god for a worldly pursuit and asking other deities for the same it seems the same isn't god who ultimately helps us whether we worship him in the form of deity or god himself no the form of the deity is ultimately it will not take you to god realization remember uh god si krishna himself has said that those who worship me for what material things those who worship me for rescue from distress their faith in me in faith in me means faith in god with capital g and that will ultimately lead them to liberation but if your faith is in crystals or hypnotherapy that will give you some benefit maybe nothing much more than that patrick says do these rituals generate good karma yes they do that's how they work last class rick had asked how do these vedic rituals work so the idea is that the vedic rituals the chanting of the mantras and the performance of those rituals generates um a huge amount of good karma there's a technical word for that in memsa called apoorva a unique result which is invisible result we say how do we know by faith but why should we have faith because the vedas say so so that way it works like that because of those huge amounts of good karma you get the results rituals are supposed to do the same thing ramya says so when shri krishna says he stabilizes their faith lesser deed gods he's basically bringing these people into the categories of art and arthur is that correct no he stabilizes the way lester gods and they pursue those ends and they get what they want but that's it then they will be disappointed in that and finally come and take refuge in god with capital g what krishna is saying is that this is not wise it is much better to realize that pursuit of the lower goals and karma will not give you happiness and have devotion to god and be devoted to god finally god realization moksha is the goal bill says one has to experience the emptiness of all these coveted things in order to turn once back on them logic won't convince true that's what sri ramakrishna used to say that unless the time is ripe it will not work you can give lots of lectures that's why krishna's approach is actually better those who want things in the world very much don't stop them what will happen is if you give them long lectures on vedanta and god realization is actual goal and what you are pursuing that will not make you happy ultimately it will make you unhappy don't do that don't run after money don't run after relationships don't learn after political power then what will happen is because what you are saying is true that person will feel true to that person but it will just damage their their face so don't damage the faith of anybody if a person deeply truly believes that becoming rich becoming powerful is the way to do it at the best if you can help make them do it in a in a moral way in a sustainable way dharma dharmic way pursue worldly goals in a dharmic way at least that will stop them from doing damage to themselves and to society then they will slowly evolve it's a slow process lifetimes maybe but krishna is patient patient we are impatient especially moms and dads are impatient they want to immediately impose it upon their children that i have discovered vedanta so you must discover vedanta too doesn't work that way another thing about shraddha i forgot to say just mention it quickly here it is the sign of a good spiritual teacher genuine spiritual teacher that he doesn't damage the shraddha of anybody god in spiritual things by bhakti meditation by selfless work whatever way in whichever deity you have got do not damage that after a lot of good karma a lot of past lives good karma practices one gets a little bit of devotion in this life don't criticize it scoff it make fun of it once in the presence of srila krishna there was a pandit a scholar of logic and all and there was some devotee talking about devotion to god and the pundit made fun of him you know just criticizing him for or making fun of him for believing in god and this devotion this simple devotion sri ramakrishna was very harsh he told the pandit after so many lives good karma earned in past lives one gets a little devotion little bhakti in this life you are damaging that bhakti and you call yourself a pundit what kind of pandita the pandith was so shocked he got up and left from that gathering this is a great lesson to us i have seen some very well known highly intellectual spiritual teachers very highly regarded by especially by intellectual people intelligent people regard them and i won't take the name one thing i did not like about some of these teachers is their endless criticism of others genuine spiritual teachers will never damage the shaddha of anybody they will always encourage each person and you know take people from where they are take them higher if you cannot then stand aside and pray for their welfare don't criticize and damage jesus christ in um in the bible about certain prophecies he says whatever has been professed let it be fulfilled whatever has been there in the religion earlier let it be fulfilled i'm not here to say that all that is wrong and now i'm going to start something new you may have got something higher what is higher than advaita vedanta but the traditional teachers of advaita vedanta never harm people's belief in devotion bhakti never harm people's belief in yoga never harm people's belief even in the rituals of the karma kanda they say there is something higher than that they never say that's false and you give it up so never damage shraddha if it is of a very low kind then you try to give it an upward turn if it is of a high kind like a divorce it may not be the person may not be interested in advaita vedanta but the person is interested in in devotion to maybe narayana or devi or sin some particular devotional form dualistic if you're genuinely spiritual generally spiritual master will always encourage that will not say that that's lower that's no good come here i will show you hum brahma asks me i am no that's that's an immature thing to do it will you will damage that other person jennifer says what is the correct correct interpretation the word hitan in verse 22 very nicely pointed out because there's a lot of discussion about that vihitan means which is which is mandated i give i mandate those the fulfillment of desires but hitan means those which are good for you and then shankaracharya comments that the satisfaction of desires good for you must be taken only in a secondary in a secondary sense in shankara's commentary why in secondary sense then he goes on to say hitan means beneficial good he says there is nothing beneficial about satisfying desires so the lord is satisfying your worldly desires through these other deities smaller deities there's nothing ultimately beneficial about it you must come out of it as soon as possible so yes the word hitan is actually important there god of says evil is appearance so it might work it ultimately doesn't matter yes it doesn't matter because you are a hardcore advaithin so it doesn't matter i used to analyze dreams before understanding other correct now it is just a dream i remind myself a janaka story also remembering diamond story and seeing awareness is invaluable diamond seems the way to be established in a vedantic correct these are very high understandings very noble and notice they apply all the time they are they will take you to the highest goal and they demand demand very high thinking and simple life disciplined life these are good signs sri says it appears that people turn to the lower practices and offer efforts to gain control in life exactly assuming this lack of sense of lack of control comes from not trusting god is in control of the outcomes i suppose we should pray first and foremost for trust exactly why do people turn to all kinds of deities and all kinds of practices because they feel my life is not going well i wish my life were better and these are ways of somehow magically getting control of my life it's a weakness of the mind and overcome by desires and of course there's suffering in life and so we just hope that somehow this might work you know sometimes it does seem to work ultimately none of this is good ultimately it's much better to trust in god because god is in charge of all of it shri krishna clearly says you have worldly problems come to me with those worldly problems come to god not particular occurred practices we have bindu says we have gods with several names like ganesh saraswati lakshmi do these gods fall with small g regards with small g no so ganesha shadows lakshmi these are all names of saguna from the vedic perspective brahman with power of maya is god with capital g only thing is in the hindu understanding this god with capital g is infinite in forms and appearances it can appear it can be formless it can be with form it will come in the next verse form and formless both are possible and which form is it ganesha is it lakshmi is it durga all of them all of them are saguna brahman saguna brahman god has infinite manifestation and that's all the same one reality god with capital g okay ends with because one can perform it once on dharma though lesser in merit is better than the dharma of another correct we have different tastes different capacities um inherited from past lives in whichever way one can catch hold of god with a capital g and that's good you're catching hold of the same reality it doesn't have to be a non-dual vedanta aham brahmas because you could get a working understanding of what non-dual vedanta says and you can repeat the mantra of your easter devote and be full of love and devotion and surrender to yeshua you'll see in the next verse we'll see next time that um there is a clear advaithic interpretation of that verse shankaracharya shankaracharya avoids the advaithic interpretation and goes straight for the devotional interpretation because now we are in that phase of the gita where god with capital g segunda brahman is primary not the atman or nirgunavram so chapter 7 to chapter 12. good [Music] namaste