Video 11

11. Katha Upanishad | Mantras 1.2.3 - 5 | Swami Sarvapriyananda

[Music] may the lord protect us both the teacher and the taught together by revealing knowledge may the lord protect us both by giving us the results of knowledge may we attain vigor together let what we study be illuminating maybe not careful at each other oh peace peace peace so we are studying the qatar panisha and we have just entered the second uh section of the cartridge initial it is two chapters basically or two parts and each part has three sections um so we are in the first part but the second section we have entered and in response to nachiketa's question regarding the mystery of the self what am i the ultimate question what exactly what's what's the what's my real nature um yama told him it's a difficult question asked something else when nachiketa persisted yama gave him a range of temptations temptation with a capital t and nachiketa rejected all of that now yama says that that see there are these two paths which come before every human being the path to the ultimate well-being ultimate welfare that which does good to us he calls it shreya and that which is pleasant that which is instinctive going with the flow which seems obvious and attractive he calls it prayer the pleasant shreya the good and prayer the pleasant shreya the preferred the preferable that which does good to us and prayer be attractive apparently nice and these two come come to us all the time now those who take up the path of the shreya the good by which he means the spiritual path they are attained to the highest goal of human life that is enlightenment nirvana freedom moksha spiritual liberation those who do not those who take to the path of what is pleasant they not only lose that highest goal they don't attain the liberation but this is the tragedy choosing the pleasant they end up in a very unpleasant mess which is samsara being whirled around in this terrible storm of births and deaths and experiences continuously of this very limited kind of animal existence in in various bodies in various lives and this goes on now the question might be if it is true that spirituality is so great why aren't more people uh you know why aren't they spiritual uh why don't more people take up this path of spiritual life and we saw in the last class this was the mantra number two number one mantra number two an important mantra which says it depends on choice one must make a deliberate choice that i am going to pursue spirituality that enlightenment is my goal like the buddha did you know he set out to become enlightened he set out to find an ultimate solution to the problem of suffering like the young naren did which made him vivekananda he set out to see god like before him his master sri ramakrishna did like all great mystics spiritual seekers have done from most ancient times from the time of yama and nachiketa down to us we have made a deliberate choice so he says a choice has to be made unless one makes a deliberate choice unless one sets out to learn spiritual life is not possible it's not natural it won't come with the flow of things so it has to be an effort from our a deliberate conscious choice from our side that's why most people don't do it don't take this make this choice they don't take this decision why not it says both of these come mixed up together the good and the preferable they are both coming to us all the time how do we react to life that that actually shows what we have chosen and the hera the qualified spiritual seeker the spiritual hero this person selects he says vivinakti makes a choice differentiates them two things are mixed up means to separate in srinam krishna's language sand and sugar milk and water this separates separates in what in understanding i see this path will take me where this path will take me where and then i select this path this will take me down into the world into and this will take me to enlightenment to god whatever so this selection is made deliberately prayers over anything the spiritual seeker deliberately consciously selects the spiritual path over the path of of worldliness and the worldly person very interesting language yogurt clearly yamaha thinks less of the worldly person he says the inferior one what does that person do does not make a deliberate choice quite interesting if you look around it is so true when you come for spiritual life you deliberately do that you make it's a mature decision after a lot of things in life but what about the rest of it you know money and relationships and you know material goods and partying and all of that that sort of going with the flow that sort of comes instinctively to us it's not a deliberate considered decision this is an important point he makes go with the flow nature be natural so go with the flow be natural is not a good thing it will nature will take you down to its own level which is a material level um swami vivekananda in one place warns do not handle matter too much because you become um he says you know the incentive dwelling too much in in material thinking materialistic thinking um you you tend to become like that um why do we go with the flow what happens yoga mentioned last time the two things that people are trying to do when you go with the flow basically you are automatically trying to do two things get things yoga things which you which are attractive nice you would like to get that you try to keep getting that it could be more money it could be more achievements it could be praise it could be acceptance uh people of every age gender and every kind of learning every kind of social status you keep trying to accumulate these things and shema whatever we have gained in life all the things that we like we would like to keep them we'd like to maintain them my property my relationships the my standing in society all of this my health all of these have to be maintained and nobody sees anything particularly wrong there isn't anything particularly wrong in this what is wrong is thinking that any of this at any point will amount to anything at all in my life it will not give me any lasting satisfaction so this is why answering the question why don't more people become spiritual because they are swept away by this continuous drive for acquisition and preservation of worldly things things people relations feelings and spiritual life requires that maturity which will enable you to make a deliberate choice i want to be spiritual i want to be enlightened what buddha wanted what vivekananda wanted ramakrishna wanted what the great saints and mystics wanted all across history in all traditions i want that too and yama says it's entirely possible but you have to make the choice very few do now going ahead number three mantra number three ah translation given by swami gambhirah you such as you are you have discarded after consideration all the desirable things that are themselves delightful or are producers of delight you have not accepted this path of wealth in which many a man comes to grief okay he says this choice onachiketa you have made the choice now i'm going to reveal to you the secret we have asked for but i wanted to see whether you make the choice so you have made this a choice what have you done he says you have deliberately clearly given up rejected these worldly goals what are these goals priyan priya rupans just so the commentator says those which are delightful in themselves and commentator says you know children and cattle so you have to remember in those days thousands of years ago so it was not stockton shares and property in in on the upper west manhattan no it was cattle and big family and maybe gold things like that and priya rupan he says like the heavenly nymphs etc which were offered by yama that which provides delight or you expect delight from them the footnote says children are one's own self as it were whereas nymphs are a degree removed from one or return quibbling minor matter now so you have rejected all of that whatever i i showed you you have rejected uh how have you rejected he uses an interesting word uh abhidhyaya you have evaluated you have considered them well and you have rejected them you found them defective let me quote the original text of the of the commentator shankaracharya where he says amid dihyan chintayan you have sort of well over it you even it's not granado oh i don't want all this clearly you are testing me i don't want all of that i want a vedanta class hoping that yama will praise me you know i'm a good boy no i really thought about it i know you can give me all this and i thought over it and i reject it why um dosha he says considering their faults what are the faults he says all right so what does that mean what did he consider what did nachiketa think why should we reject these worldly pursuits why should a spiritual seeker reject this because they are defective in themselves what are their defects what is the problematic nature of these pursuits anityan he says they are impermanent transient i was talking about this in the gospel of sri ramakrishna class yesterday why does sriram krishna get very upset when people talk about money or you know worldly pursuits in his presence why does he get annoyed he says because they are defective they are they are impermanent impermanent means consider how soon everything passes wealth use beauty the people you love all those around you how quickly it passes how quickly we become old how quickly life passes us by how quickly new generations come and take our place and from your mature perspective when you look back they are playing out the same games we played there's no way to stop them you say oh i can offer some words of wisdom well we didn't listen they won't listen either so it the same game is being played out again and again since time immemorial for thousands of years for generation after generation how impermanent all of it is in the great houses which we dwell in how many generations have come up our uh you know when we grew up they were ancestral houses so many generations of uh of your family would have lived there which is not so now you live in little apartments in manhattan but uh in those huge old houses there was some magic there there were the the presence of generations past your possibly your father and your uncles they grew up there and maybe they were children like you and your grandparents maybe they were amazing to think that your grandfather was a little boy like you who played in that very house like you are playing now and that happened how soon all of it has passed all that remains are ghosts and echoes from the past if you're a sensitive uh kid walking in those halls of those old houses you can sense it actually uh so it's all gone how fast things fly um wealth you have to ever tell you right here is wall street so you know how in unstable wealth is it comes increases decreases disappears youth health it can go away in minutes you just suddenly see i become old so all of that and reputation somebody asked a question last time about cancel culture or something reputation can disappear in in minutes in in seconds in today's social media age so all of that is impermanent well let it be impermanent but this the problem is this you might want somebody might ask yeah i know a cookie is impermanent and that's the attraction of it it'll last for a few seconds the taste on my tongue who wants an eternal cookie and that's the sound it sounds rather creepy you're going to have a cookie that lasts forever no but the problem is this you don't disappear this is what vedanta says you are eternal you have seen all this in the past and you are seeing it now and you will continue to see it and therefore all the things with which you tie yourself up the people the positions the the titles and the fame when they disappear when they vanish into thin air and you are left bereft then it is shocking we have been gathering up a bunch of zeros all our life it's no use saying that let them be non-eternal let them be transient no you will not accept it you will be left with the feeling what did i do why did i gather all this it's all gone now it's all it's going to go away it doesn't matter any not at all in the end so impermanence he says you've sought well over this everything is impermanent very nicely put it between the eternal and the non-eternal there can be no relationship if there seems to be that's delusion what does he mean you are the eternal not your body but you will be you have been there in the past you are there now you will continue to be there but this non-eternal things that you tie yourself to objects people reputation money and even our own body they will betray you because they are non-eternal they cannot they cannot stay with you so this you actually have no relation with them but the relation that we are trying to we think we have that causes us pain that's one non-eternal the second problem is shankaracharya mentions the deeply empty or happiness they unsatisfying you know toys when we were kids a nice degree from an ivy league college then a good job a relationship with kids and grandkids of one's own and nice vacations and houses and cars and gadgets and and lots of followers on social media and if they could and good looks and so on if they could give the happiness they seem to promise everybody wants them so they are obviously there's a promise there that will give you a lot of happiness if they could give then it would be something but they can't that's an astonishing thing which we don't look at we think you know what we think is we think oh let me try again let me try another restaurant let me try another car another relationship another spiritual teacher so let me try this maybe this time it will be much better it won't be it's the same kind of thing just variations of the same thing so they are all empty by nature they cannot give us lasting satisfaction none of it can give us lasting fulfillment he calls it asara i don't know how to translate literally it means without essence essence all things in the world are empty empty of essence not their fault they are that's the nature we are trying to load it with expectations which they are not meant to serve so asar they are empty they cannot give us the satisfaction i have mentioned this earlier also how robert wright points out that this is the way nature is designed nature is designed from an entirely evolutionary perspective designed to make us eat certain things designed to make us reproduce designed to make us behave in certain ways because of nature's own goals and in order to make us do those things nature promises us pleasure so if you do those things you will get pleasure but and robert points out that this is a trap here nature cannot fulfill its promises if nature does fulfill its promises then nature loses because if you are deeply eternally fulfilled by eating the first chocolate chip cookie that's it then you won't eat any more chocolate chip cookies and you will die of starvation you need sugar so nature will promise you it's really delicious try it and you find it's delicious and then after some time it's not delicious anymore but again you will want to try it little later because your body needs that that sugar it will not give you that lasting happiness which you think and nothing in the world can give you and it's designed that way so it's even modern evolutionary psychology says it is design nature is designed that way which which will keep you on the treadmill it's a kind of las vegas gambling machine which you win sometimes but just enough to keep you hooked so that you keep on playing in the hope of winning but ultimately they say what do they say the house always wins that means the casino gambling casino will win you will not win similarly nature is like that nature will get it's what it wants but we will not we'll be cheated if we try to be natural in a quote unquote what else arya says impermanence emptiness a senselessness of all these things and etc etc means for example it's addictive it's binding you can't walk away from it once you spin these subtle forces of attraction liking uh addiction they may be all in the mind but they are powerful and they can bind strongly so i know a friend who everything he he promised like a few months back i am going to cut off all my social media accounts this is goodbye if you have something very important to say this is one email which you can write to me but otherwise i'm not there anymore and this he has done at least half a dozen times in the last two or three years it's like um somebody who's told his friend well i have given up smoking and his friend said that's nothing great great i've given up smoking many times it's like that it's binding it has power these subtle habits habits have tremendous power try breaking them try going against them this is a cocoon that we have spun very difficult to break out of so seeing all these onachiketa you have rejected them unequivocally means unequivocally rejected rejected all this how remarkable as if yamaha the teacher as if he's saying how remarkable is your intelligence this is a sign of intelligence this is the people in the world will think they are intelligent and you are foolish you could be having a grand time being out partying or something why are you attending this a class on an ancient philosophy from india what is the point of it why do you go to church or temple why do you go and sit and meditate in a meditation hall or go to a retreat where it's all you know difficult and dry and every why you could be having fun so you are not intelligent i am intelligent no yama says you have shown real intelligence oh great is your intelligence why shrinkam you have not taken up that path which in which many uh foolish ones they get submerged they sink in the ocean of samsara what is that path the path of prayer the attractive the instinctive going with the flow going with nature doing what everybody else is doing go down that road you'll sink in samsara and it's it's obvious i mean you don't have to you know people learn in different ways the wise ones learn when you read about it you learn from the philosopher from these scriptures the less wise ones learn when to look around in life and even less wise ones the least wise ones learned by their own experience kicks and blows in life but they're all wise the not wise ones the otherwise one they don't learn even the suffering they feel that if i try it some other way maybe it will work he says it will not work we have seen through this network what buddha called after his enlightenment he says to maya mara in the buddhist terminology i have seen through your house of deceit no more he says what happens after enlightenment no more will you weave these webs of deceit for me your game is at an end so this onashiketa you have seen through it and you have selected the spiritual path now it's interesting he uses a term which is used earlier shrinkage what is this term this is if you remember yama offered three boons to nachi kesar the first boon natchiketa i said that let my father be happy with me when i go back so he settled his worldly affairs second one he asked for the best possible religious ritual which will take him vedic ritual which will take him to heaven and yama teaches him that and yama is so um impressed by that little boy's powers of recall and understanding and grasp of detail because najib repeated everything back to him so he offered him a bonus boom do you remember he gave a necklace the necklace the word used that there for the necklace was shrinking man you might think it's a little odd why would in the midst of this very ancient philosophical text suddenly where does a necklace come in i mean they had i'm sure yama had lots of jewels but why are this particular necklace and the commentator there the deeper meaning of this word necklace is the path of samsara all these rituals which will take you to heaven and assure you a good life in this world and the next life this is all bondage so i'm vivekanthu says chains though of gold are not less strong to bind so this kind of conventional religiosity that also is a bondage and here he uses that word he says this shrinkage doesn't mean a necklace at all it is the word this is the path of the pleasant the uh the the nice the going with the flow he calls it the way of wealth the way of acquisition the way of of the world and he says most people um select that path and they sink in samsara they sink in samsara bhava sagar he says says many people um many people sink and what kind of people sing he says they are foolish so yama does not think very highly of people who make it a point that the world is everything that there is that is and that's what we're going to do in this world and there's nothing beyond it he doesn't think very highly of them he calls them foods and he says in contrast to them nachiketa you are intelligent you are extraordinarily intelligent that you have understood this at this young age and decided that i am going to be a spiritual seeker i am going to seek liberating knowledge now another great question so these are actually very important you might be impatient when is he going to start teaching vedanta pure consciousness the witness consciousness i'm not the body not the mind i'm infinite awareness all that will come don't worry but this foundation is extremely important if you're not very clear about this we will be disappointed in the end why didn't it work what else will it take for it to work it's take this this clarity which nachiketa has that's why yama is dwelling on it that's why these upanishads are foundational something like mandu kyopanishad which we did is very sophisticated very subtle very extreme and very compact so it dispenses with all of this and goes to the essence directly and points out what you are that's it but yama takes care to point out using the example of nachiketa what we must be like for all of this to work and make a difference in our lives in the end so another question now comes up next very big question all right granted all this why can't we have both see this is a very big question which comes to people's minds fine why can't i be rich and young and uh and have lots of facebook friends and lots of selfies and also be enlightened be like a buddha all of that together why not that sounds nice i see lots of smiles now yeah that look looks good unfortunately yama will say won't work won't work this is very important this next uh mantra and tell us why it won't work and then you have to carefully handle it it's like a time bomb or like a grenade without it it's been pulled to be handled carefully what does he say in fact let me read shankaracharya's introduction to this mantra one line he says it has been said among these two paths one who takes the path of spiritual life comes to comes to good sadhu bhavati means attains the good attains the highest which is moksha actually freedom here but the one who that one falls away from the ultimate goal the one who takes the pleasant path in the attractive path it has been said that but why why not both why not have both we have the pleasant and as well as be enlightened and the mantra goes [Music] um english translation would be that which is known as knowledge and that which is known as ignorance are widely contradictory and they follow divergent courses i consider nachiketa to be an aspirant for knowledge because all these enjoyable things multifarious though they be did not tempt you why cannot they be combined shankaracharya is uh yama yeah and upanishad is categorical they are contradicted you can't combine contradictory things you can't combine darkness and light shankaracharya is so harsh he says materialism worldliness and spirituality is like is darkness and light spirituality is light and worldliness is is like darkness what does he say i'll read out the original text he says there's a tremendous chasm an abyss which separates these two paths the spiritual path and the worldliness they are they go in opposite directions they could be an abyss but suppose they go in parallel directions that would be nice no they go in opposite directions he says they are they exclude each other and he says like light and darkness where light is there cannot be darkness the darkness is there can't be light anybody all the higher spirituality in every religion recognizes this this is not exclusive to vedanta you're immediately reminded of you know the new testament jesus says that you cannot worship god and mammon together either you will love the one or hate the other or you will you know hold on to one and reject the other so i forget the exact language god and mammon cannot be worshipped together these are not these are not popular teachings now in this very materialistic age i remember it was a very moving film made by an italian filmmaker brother son sister moon on the life of saint francis of assisi so this uh saint francis he is summoned to the he goes to the vatican to meet the pope and there he sees the glory you know all the jewels and the artwork and the magnificence and he speaks the truth through truth to power he speaks to the pope it's very beautifully done um scene if you see it very moving he looks up at and all these bishops and cardinals and the pope is there and saint francis says that have you forgotten what our lord taught us that you cannot worship god and mammon together here you have piled up enormous wealth either you will have one or reject the other and so on and of course the and the scene is so beautiful the cardinals and all the high officials they are very annoyed with the same with saint francis they said who is he is teaching us the bible we are high officials of the church who is he to teach us but the pope himself is very moved if you remember the movie he comes down from his throne and he he catches hold of saint francis by the hand and he says that [Music] you remind me of myself when i was young that i had that same fire the same desire for spirituality but over time the responsibilities of the church and the administration and all these you know the politics and all these things they are they covered all of that and now you see what i am but he says and then very moving scene he says it is the church is actually safe in the hands of people like you and he says this is safe in your hands and then he says at your feet and he bowed bows down in a very indian way he bows down and touches the feet actually he kisses the feet of saint francis in front of the entire um vatican assembled so i found it so moving that is that is true spirituality that these are contradictory like light and darkness then what else are they contradictory he says one depends on viveka on separation already yama has said there must be a conscious decision the two are mixed up the pleasant and the good they come mixed up the the spiritual seeker must be able to separate them and select one and reject the other so this is called viveka vehicle literally means separating good and bad are mixed up i take the good and reject the bad god and world are mixed up i reject the world and take god self and not self are mixed up the not self is rejected i remain centered in my real self not the lower self this is atma then why else are they contradicted [Music] because the results of the what if you follow these two paths the paths are divergent they will take you to different places in simple terms one takes you to moksha spiritual freedom the other one takes you to samsara he says one is the cause of moksha the spiritual path spiritual freedom freedom from suffering attainment of of lasting fulfillment the other one is constant striving and strife and trouble from lifetime to lifetime you know she's wondering in you know ancient pathways which we have gone through many times we go round and round in them this is the difference that's why they cannot be combined so swami ashoka nandaji he gives this advice for spiritual seekers is when you try to be spiritual the advice people will give you around you that's not bad it's good really but we do both you don't give up your parties and your engagements in the world meditate also do both ashokanji says it's like saying here is on one hand uh a cup of nectar another one the cup of poison you sip from both both are there little combine both nectar and poison why would you combine poison if you know it is poison it will only produce suffer so the two cannot should not be and cannot be combined then he says that one is of the nature of vidya and the other one is of the nature of avidya one is of the nature of spiritual knowledge uh another nature of ignorance that's why they cannot be combined when knowledge comes ignorance disappears like light and darkness if you try to keep them both it will not work i was reading swami vignan the disciple of sri ramakrishna i mentioned it in the talk last sunday once when he was young you know as going to srama krishna he goes he used to read philosophy books he goes and asks ramakrishna sir have you read kant have you read hegel and sridhara said he says what are you saying those books are products of ignorance throw them away soul of samsara is um based on ignorance ignorance of my real nature i do not know um that i am pure consciousness i do not know i am the atman i think i am this little body and mind and i will go through the pathway of life i will age and get old and die and that's all that there is this is the product of ignorance based on this i lead my life whatever i try to do is based on this ignorance how the money that i try to accumulate the education that i try to accumulate the the acts that i drew right this is i for myself these are mine my wife and husband and my children is priority number one and then they are others not mine this whole idea which i have and by using this body and mind i will do certain things which will give me some kind of lasting happiness which will help me to overcome suffering won't it won't work this is called ignorance and life based on ignorance you say how do you know it won't work look around take a look around read read about history read about the most powerful men the ones who have enjoyed life to the hilt ones who have ruled over empires ones who were enormously rich were enormously learned what exactly happened to them ultimately we'll say well that's the best that can one can have this another argument in life there's nothing more than that no there is look at the lives of the saints and mystics of different religions one thing is common to all of them they all claim to have attained fulfillment what they have found is enormously valuable none of them ever said all right now i have found jesus or allah or krishna now let me go back and make a million on wall street none of them ever said that now let me go and rule an empire or get lots of children and cattle like yama is saying no but that means what they found satisfied all their wants they have nothing more to look forward to not only that they became centers of great power of benefit for humanity so he says this is the difference between vidya and avidya sriram krishna made this distinction he says all that we see in life is maya no doubt but this maya is of two forms avidyamaya is i and mine and accumulation and greed and anger and envy and desire and continuous striving and suffering in life that is avidyamaya the maya of ignorance and there is the vidyamaya it's also maya but that is you know as nachiketa demonstrated integrity self-control um a simple and austere life and a high thinking uh nobility of of character and spiritual quest seeking the quest what is the ultimate reality of life who am i or what am i the quest for transcendence this is vidyamaya it's also maya why would you call this maya because ultimately this is also not the ultimate reality ultimate reality is you are brahman already we just don't see that but vidhyamaya reveals it to us and avidyamaya covers it up you can't combine the two okay now one point i want to make here here a possible uh problem might arise it is this that oh so this is where we are being told to renounce the world and become monks and nuns so probably without becoming a monk without giving up the world and sitting in a cave you cannot become enlightened no that is not what is being said here is an important point what is being said here is an inner attitude is your inner philosophy of life what happens externally may remain the same janaka a great brahmagyani he was an emperor and after becoming enlightened what did he do he continued to be an emperor ramachandra he was a prince and he was enlightened what did he continue to do he remained a prince there were some rishis who were monks like shukadeva some rishis who were householders were they enlightened yes they were enlightened look at yama the lord of death clearly it's mentioned his household and there's a hint that they may that maybe he has a wife and ministers and people and all of that so he's definitely a householder and naji keta probably grew up there's no record that he became a monk it probably grew up to be a rishi sage but most of the sages were householders so they were in the midst of all of these things wealth as in those days cattle and families and children and all of that and yet how is it that they are talking about complete renunciation that this is the path of darkness that is the path of light give up all these and go to the path of light it's an inner attitude what do i mean by inner attitude it's a complete reorientation the purpose of life is god realization and that's what i'm all about the external circumstances of life whether i live in a monastery live in a cave or in a palace or in an apartment in uh in the upper west in manhattan whether the apartment and upper west i was thinking the place where i'm sitting is a monastery it's also a bit of like a cave where i stay but it's also an apartment in the upper west and it's pretty palatial by the standards of of manhattan so it's all together now it doesn't matter the external circumstances the internal attitude matters look at the bhagavad-gita that's the most amazing example arjuna came to that battle with an entirely good purpose but an entirely worldly purpose the kingdom which my elder brother and we deserve that has been snatched away by these villains and i have to and they have committed many atrocities i will take away what is i'll fight for what is rightfully due to me and my brothers and avenge all those atrocities and punish these villains this is dharma for a warrior it's like a policeman or a soldier and that's a pretty worldly thing he came with that attitude now when krishna teaches him vedanta his attitude completely changes he wants to become enlightened now you obviously yama will say path of darkness path of light you have to give up the path of darkness to follow the path of light good arjuna does that but practically at the end of it what does he do what does krishna tell him does he tell him to go away and sit in a bed cave and meditate actually arjuna wanted to do that at one point and krishna says no externally this thing can continue you can do give it up and go away but externally this thing can continue and you can be in the midst of all that all of that but the goal should now be god realization and your life should be like that what is the test there is a test to see if you're genuine where is your mind and what are your activities like if you're still pursuing the next million dollars next relationship more facebook friends if that's going on and that's the goal then we have not really shifted but if all of those pursuits are there there's there is money or something which you are devoting for the welfare of others for example you have made it into a spiritual practice it's a karma yoga folly a service of others then apparently you're still doing the same thing but it's uh it's become a part of spiritual practice now then you are walking on the path of light and what i'm trying to say is externally one may not change very much you may still be in your family still have a job still not put on this orange robe you may still put on trousers and pets and yet you may be entirely on the path of spiritual quest that is an important thing to understand otherwise this distinction which sharply yama is making can if you think about it it can give rise to serious misgivings and it has over the centuries so there are very ancient teachings in buddhism in some schools of buddhism jainism some schools of jainism enlightenment is only for monks the best that a householder can hope for is to be a righteous person in this life next life will get the opportunity to be a monk or a nun and attain enlightenment in in extreme forms of jainism for example which is a very austere religion the more rusty of the monk then only you get enlightenment there are the big number ones who are completely naked and their doctrine is that the other monks who wear simple white clothes they cannot attain enlightenment because they are wearing clothes so it goes to that extent that you have to physically give away everything else then only you'll be commenting but in vedanta you see most many of the teachers some were monks world renouncing some were kings like ramachandra like krishna himself like arjuna some were householders um yamaha uh yamaha or many of the rishis or um the king jamaica so these things this has to be understood it's an external thing external things have to be spiritualized your activities possessions if they are dedicated to spiritual realization then you are on the right path you are on the path of enlightenment as much as any monk is but where is the test um rama when he was he was about to be crowned the crown prince of ayodhya that you will become the next king of ayodhya the city of ayotte and because of so many political moves and all that overnight he was exiled to 14 years in a forest from a crown prince of the city you become a beggar virtually and that to exile to the forest and there was not the least change in the the soft smile which was always there on rama's face so tulsi does in the you know the ram nam which we chant every fortnight in bellurmut in the introductory verses he bows down to ramachandran you know ramachandra is one of the avatars of vishnu so i bow down to ramachandra which ramachandra says whose the the impending exile to the forest the pain and the dishonor and the sorrow caused by losing a kingdom overnight and being thrown out by your nearest ones and sent off to an uncertain future for 14 years in the depths of the forest it could not cast the least shadow on the smile of rama's face on rama's face that rama i bowed onto now notice if it was the conventional religion kind because you can devote conventionally devout moral person good person i am i i believe in god god will take care of me and i am going to be the next king of ayodhya and and all is good if tomorrow in a completely unjust way and thrown out of all of that then will be a big shock to you because what was primary for me god was not primary for me what was primary for me was the world god was there helping me in the world i believe in god so i should get a good deal in the world that's the thinking of many devout people that is not the highest spirituality am i speaking about but because rama was completely tuned to his own divine nature to the to brahman so when the external world change suddenly around him he it's a tremendous demonstration for us in our own age sridharma krishna once there was a complaint against somebody who was a priest and the owner of the temple was it was being managed by mature baba at that time so he gave a command to the temple gods that that particular person should be turned out of the temple uh temple garden of dakshinesh for the temple of kali and the minions misunderstood the command and they not only threw out that person they also told ramakrishna that you have to leave the master has told us the owner manager of the temple has told us that you have to be removed from this temple so ramakrishna was sitting there it says that he put his cloth i think maybe a towel over his shoulder he just got up the moment he heard this he got up and started walking towards the gate at that moment itself no shock no uh uh upset to such an extent but what happened was luckily i think mather babu came running and fell at his feet and said why are you going you have told me to go no no they are absolutely mistaken please come back and he came back and sat down and continued the conversation where he had left it off such tremendous detachment why because you know is at no point is he attached to any of that he is attached to his divine mother kali to god that's his only attachment nothing in this world so he is remaining he is a priest he draws a salary he is he has a room to stay stay in he's in the midst of a temple garden he has a position in society all of that none of it is he is attached to attack that is the test it's not literally that you have to give everything up including your clothes and sit naked in a mountain cave and meditate then only you have given up the world no you have to have a positive quest for god and the rest has to be harmonized in your quest for god [Music] living in the midst of ignorance and considering themselves intelligent and enlightened the senseless people go round and round following cricket courses just like the blind led by the blind a stunning condemnation of the so-called intellectual you know i don't believe in any of this i am strictly logical scientific i believe in my particular ideology whatever it is marxist friday and whatever it is and uh none of this i don't believe anything beyond this word it says and uh yama he condemns this he says they think that they are good people they think they are uh wise pandit pandit means one who literally the original meaning of pandit was panda panda means which means the realization of who am i a person who has gone that's a real pundit but nowadays of course there are wall street pundits and there are election pundits and so many pundits so pandit means a expert in some area thinking themselves to be you know masters of the philosophy of life we have understood what life is all about he says you just you know it's known by its results it says such people they wander around life time after lifetime horrifying is their faith don't see it thunder go round and round round and round round and round not in one life multiple lives and they are blinded one poet says blinded by the dust of this ancient walkways which i walked for countless ages he prays to the lord that won't you take pity on me that all of this teaching you're giving me has no effect on me because i am helpless i am covered with so much mud and dirt which i have accumulated lifetime after lifetime all these wonderful teachings have leave no mark upon me so i throw up myself up at di mercy so he says wandering around in the pathways of life and death many ancient lifetimes have been have we gone through so all of these ancient philosophies in india buddhism jainism schools of hinduism they all say that we have had thousands of lives earlier we have gone through untold suffering many lives and now we are just this is glimmering of awakening you might say this just a way of putting it so that we are serious about spiritual life but who knows really and so we should take this opportunity very seriously that it has come and it may not come again in many lifetimes so it has come by some circumstance by some grace let us take it up very seriously and become enlightened in this very life or at least make so much progress that the next life also as krishna will say in the gita you will become you'll inevitably walk the spiritual paths in next life by the way in the gita we will see next arjuna asks this question suppose i don't get enlightened in this life is it all lost i want to get enlightened but i don't think krishna assures him once you have started on this path even if you don't get enlightened one thing i can assure you you will not go to lower lines you will continue next life itself again you will be a spiritual seeker and you will continue from where you left off where you left off does not literally mean suppose i don't attend one more class of cut open the shirt so in the next life we like start from the next mantra or we'll have to repeat the whole cut open it doesn't mean the actual texts or the memorization of verses or you know it just means you it means something much much deeper much more than these studies classes uh little practices that we do the some scars the deep tendencies that have been built up within us those will stay those we will carry in fact that's the only thing that will carry from this life into the next and that will propel us krishna says unwillingly amazingly without any possibility of spiritual life this person will be swept into spiritual life in the next life and will make continuous progress until he or she attains enlightenment so that assurance is given by none other than god the god is in charge of quality control in spirituality so we are bound to uh so that that to that level we are safe as long as we hold on to spiritual life but it's even better if we attain enlightenment in this life the problem is soyamdhira pandita manyamala they have declared themselves that we know that's the only person who cannot be helped it's the person who thinks i know if i don't know and i'm asking then i can be helped all these things will help but i feel i know and in fact you don't i know then only life can teach you you will not be lost life will teach but life is a hard teacher it's a terribly hard teacher it will break us down before before until we admit that we've got to learn so it's much better to learn this way he says these are fools who do not walk this path and they think that they know and there are those who follow them and yama and ayathan as the old saying goes the blind led by the blind the blind stumbles and falls but if he puts his trust in a master who is blind in a philosophy which is blind what is blind materialism is planned nature is blind you put your faith in that you stumble even more fall even more so that is yama's gloomy and dark prognosis for materialism all right let me quickly take a look at oh there's so many comments brenda says does choice depend on vasanas yes to some extent if i do not preview ourselves if i do not have free will how can i make a deliberate choice between shray and prayer you have free will who says you don't we all have freedom all these spiritual teachings the teachings of the great masters every religion assumes you have free will i know what you're thinking about an ultimate sense we have no free will let's set that aside practically all of this makes sense only if we assume some degree of freedom abhijit says this mantra one point two point three indicates that najib has rejected worldly choice after consideration educators of iraq is coming out of a discernment uh are there other mantras which point to nasi keta having the other two southern chatushas qualifications six treasures and yearning yes already it's done um notice nazi keita's persistence in staying with at yama's door um for getting you know what he wanted that shows the control of his senses and his endless insistence on um on self knowledge on the knowledge of the ultimate reality about oneself that shows his mumu intense desire to be free so all that we later see very neatly it is said the fourfold qualifications viveka the discernment between eternal non-eternal dispatch dispassion for the non-eternal the six-fold treasures that means disciplines of body and mind and then intense desire to be free mumus all these are sort of neatly set out when we read vedanta but they have been excavated they have been you know drawn out mind out from these texts that's why i say when you go back to the upanishads it may not be as neat as you find in vedanta sarah drinkdrish the later non-dualistic texts but it's important to go back to the sources where have they got all this from it's from text like this it's from like for example the story of naji keta john anderson says what is the role of gratitude with regard to life's experiences all be the transitory one must be grateful why there is a beautiful analogy given in sankey philosophy which compares prakriti to this old lady like a grandmother says who carries her weak children or grandchildren whatever you call them across the desert of samsara the desert you know it's a it's a hard place lifetime after lifetime she wants to carry us to enlightenment and she gives us two things it says means experience what is experience it's life itself many many lifetimes of experience it is she who is giving it to us and apavarga means freedom from this limited existence to the unlimited from the limited to the vast this also she is giving us so we must be grateful in a theistic paradigm like in christianity islam judaism or many of the theistic paradigms in hinduism it is god god has that role god has done made creation god has put us in this situation and god is giving us all these experiences so let us be ultimately grateful you cannot be grateful if the world is your goal if the world is your goal then you are very clear about what you would like to have and what you would not like to have then you can't be grateful for miserable things in the world if you are but if your goal is enlightenment then everything is an experience which is taking you towards enlightenment gita dave says nachiketa being so young and being so knowledgeable um you know it's not so much knowledgeable if he was knowledgeable he wouldn't have asked yama for teachings he is he has that insight it's not so much learning that he has as something more important a deep insight into the nature of life a true adhikari indicates he might have been highly evolved old soul in a young body surely surely surely i have come across these very ancient souls in young bodies because i was in a monastery where young monks were trained and it is so clear all these young men have become i have come to become monks they are all walking on the path of enlightenment on the path of light as yama would say but why so much difference among them they're all good people they all want enlightenment imagine such a good company that that is the the whole classroom when i was teaching is full of people who are like nachiketa they're seeking enlightenment what a wonderful place to be in and yet there's a whole range a whole spectrum there some of them are extraordinary they are much younger than me i am the teacher they are the student there is no doubt i can clearly see they are ancient souls they are far ahead of me in spiritual life so it is it's a joy to see such people it's extraordinary to see this people you just pray to sudama krishna that all goes well with them in this life and they attain to enlightenment rick says it seems to me that if one's fulfillment is within one can still prefer a comfortable house to a shack a good card to a jalopy etc without getting attached to them the trick is to be established in yoga before performing action correct one may prefer that but one has to be careful also when you prefer the pleasant it has a way of ensnaring you um there is the story of the um you know it's a famous story among monks for the sake of a loin class and so there's this monk whom his guru told him to do meditation and live a simple life in a you know like a in a hut and he had no possessions except his own loin class and then what happened was one day he saw that this um he had washed the loin cloth and kept it for drying and at night a mouse would come and nibble on the line cloth and try to drag it away it's his only position he thought what can i do and then he hit up on this idea let me get a cat so a cat will take care of the mouse it actually happens i i myself faced it not a line cloth but i used to say in this cottage high up in the himalayas there was a mouse which would take away my soap and every morning i had to go and search i knew where the mouse lived so it was wrapped basically and it the soap bar was too big for it to drag into its own i don't know why it like soap something there which attracts a rat so it would go to its its hole but it would not be able to drag the whole bar inside the hole i would come and snatch it out it would look at me with its little beady eyes from inside the hole in fury and i could see it's nibbled marks of nibbling its teeth on the on the soap and it would be a daily affair every next day it's gone again so this monk got a cat now the cat needed milk so the monk thought somebody advised him every day now you're going to beg for your own food plus you're begging for milk for the cat why do why don't you instead of begging for milk why don't you get a cow the cow can beg for a cow can give you milk so you need a cow and then for the cow you needed fields for you know pasture and and then somebody gave him a place to stay and the place for the cow to graze and then he needed somebody to look after these things so he had he hired a servant and finally all these things kept on increasing he needed a better place to stay and somebody advised look why don't you all these things are so troublesome to manage everything you need a wife so why don't you get married so finally he got married and then he had children and a full roaring household many years later this guru came back instead of the little hut he saw in that place a mansion with servants running around and this uh very busy man sitting and doing accounts and giving orders o disciple what happened to you and the disciples said he fell at his feet i'm sorry master which is all for the sake of a loin cloth so when we make a decision what is comfortable in life we have to be careful it shouldn't be for all for the sake of a loving person get caught up but yes the point is that the point is not to endlessly put yourself through hardships the point is whatever helps you to keep your mind on god i remember i was sitting at the feet of this master in the himalayas who was teaching us highest non-dual vedanta and when he heard i and my friend another monk we had come from the ramakrishna mission we are actually little odd in the monastic community because in our order non-vegetarian food is permitted especially the bengalis and people in eastern part of india take non-vegetarian food of course most of the monks they don't i mean who are from the north or the south or west but still and it's well known in the community in the himalayas that they're very strange monks because they're let alone the monks even ordinary people there in those areas they don't eat non-vegetarian food so when we're sitting there and we identified ourselves as monks belonging to this particular order some of the other monks started chuckling and they said oh you're from that monastery well they eat fish they don't they and they chuckled and looked at each other meaningfully and sort of nudging a wink think the master was sitting there i couldn't say anything because it's true the master was sitting there amazingly enough this very traditional old monk he took my side he said in hindi said he said it doesn't matter what you eat you have to keep your mind on god and that's important so that's the the core the key to all of this sean lee says we have to hold on to something to live the life forward otherwise life is boring going with the flow seems not normal and logical otherwise life will be extinct the spiritual path also gives us pleasure and requires dedication to it day after day otherwise we won't get anything okay think about it i'll tell you something keep this along with um all those things which give meaning and purpose to your life see no notice nobody is telling you to turn away your children and kick the dog out of the door and say i'm going to meditate i don't want any of you around no no you can keep all of that but focus on spiritual life and you begin to see that this is what actually matters nothing externally that's why i said no massive change has to be their external and be careful of making massive changes externally it generally doesn't work michael says why doesn't brahman evolve human beings to naturally effortlessly pursue shreya instead of prayer when we go with the flow well why does why do we are why are we here at all if we are brahman then why even be human beings why even be sentient beings why at all this game of life so you can push this question further back and if the straight answer to your question is it does happen that's what is going on only the time frame of brahmana here god the time frame of god is so vast and so glacial that it seems terribly long from our perspective from god's perfect perspective god is evolving us to attain ultimate enlightenment but why then question would be then why at all this game is going on so that goes back to the fundamental fundamentals of vedanta tamiko says how does one discern between true mature by rug and that which is actually born of fear of life what will happen is if it is not true mature by rug it won't last very soon you will see that when things go well for us i'll be delighted to be swept back into the path of avidya into the path of the pleasant it's only when things are going badly then you have fear of life uneasiness uh escapism when things go our way we find moment you withdraw from life and you center yourself things will begin to go your way you will notice the external world begins to fall in place things go nicely and then that is the test will you stick to your spiritual life or enjoy the newfound peace and niceness all around lisa says wasn't king janak an example of someone who had both material and spiritual together yes he had but if you that's the thing he's not combining both if you ask him he's all spiritual exactly like ramachandra this is the point i was making ramachandra he's a king so he seems to be spiritual plus being a king but no when he's thrown out of the kingdom he's not at all affected by it he doesn't say i've lost half of what i had i'm still spiritual but i lost the kingdom no i've got what i had the rest is nothing to me it can be there it cannot be there he's perfectly fine in the kingdom and in the forest janaka also says the same thing he says mithila if the entire capital city of the empire were to go up in flames actually nothing is lost not like nero okay if you're thinking about that rick says most people here are householders who manage to integrate spirituality and world responsibilities should we all run up to join the monastery no arjuna suggested that answer and krishna said nope not your dharma and are we told what happened to nachiketa later on he became enlightened there's no mention that he became a monk sharmini says why can't the same be said about the port and the pope at the vatican we don't see it even though there is prosperity all around why are we appreciating what saint francis said it is because the danger with being in the middle of it all is that it can actually overwhelm you that's what the pope was saying to saint francis it can overwhelm you and you one can slip back into a very worldly way of living that should not happen okay i'm going to stop here because we have really run out of time oh [Music] krishna [Music] you