Video 4

4. Vedantasara | Texts 16-26 | Swami Sarvapriyananda

[Music] so we have been studying the vedanta sarah and let us remember the purpose of studying the vedanta sarah that it will give us a foundation for an entry into the upanishads so in the vedanta sara we were on text number 15. what is going on now when we enter into the study of any of these classical texts we know that there are four preliminaries which we we have to take care of which which we have to pay attention to these are the these are the four preliminaries which encourage us which uh inspire us to study the text one is vishaya what is the subject matter the second one is adhikari who is qualified to study it in fact adikar is first because we are studying that now adhikari who is qualified to study it subject matter what it what what is it that we are studying what's the book about third is samantha relation between the subject matter and the text itself and then the last one is prior which means the purpose the goal what are we studying what do we intend to get out of this so in that the first topic first preliminary is the discussion of adhikari who's qualified we remember that by adhikari they mean if a person is properly qualified then a systematic study of the text will lead to enlightenment will lead to the promised results but even if we lack the qualifications we'll still gain something by study of the text now what are the qualifications this was outlined with very long sentence in text number six if you remember videos foreign long sentence which we broke up into uh parts and we took took a look at all the components basically the idea was that by leading a moral life a religious life one becomes competent for the study of vedanta what is the nature of this competence four characteristics they're called sadhana the four-fold practices which enable us to study vedanta fruitfully so the last phrase is important in this long sentence in text six sadhana s the one who wants to know who is who has these four qualifications equipped with the four qualifications all right so what are these very important for qualifications uh that's in text number 15 where we are starting today this is the important part what are the four qualifications don't confuse it with the four preliminaries four preliminaries are the competent student the subject matter the relation between the text and the subject matter and then the the purpose of the study that's the four preliminaries we're studying that in the four preliminaries in the first one competent student competent student needs four qualities or four practices that's what we are doing now text number 15. [Music] so these are the four qualifications what are they the means to the attainment of knowledge are one discrimination or let us say discernment between things permanent and transient between what is permanent eternal what is transient non-eternal temporary changing one two renunciation of the enjoyments of the fruits of actions in this world and hereafter that means not pursuing worldly goals or even other world equals we'll see what that means third the six treasures basically discipline shut somebody such as control of the mind etc and fourth probably the most important the desire for spiritual freedom so what sri ramakrishna used to call rakulata in the bhakti language it is vaguely means an intense restlessness for god a strong a deep restlessness divine discontent or god realization a hunger or thirst for god that is called biakulata that's in the language of bhakti devotion the same thing in this path is called mumuksutum intense desire for freedom and intense inquiry um so so these are the four qualifications now just one a couple of words before we go in one is that um the fourfold qualifications when we go into this when you listen to this list you may have this question it sounds like a strange list when you want somebody to be spiritual to be a spiritual person what are the qualifications you would expect of a saintly person you know a person must be honest must be loving must be unselfish must be disciplined um but these seem to be quite different from uh that list so what's going on here is all that is already assumed by leading a moral life a dharmic life which which has two components a moral life and a religious life by leading a a good life one is already a good person one is already a good person so these are higher practices which prepare the ground for vedanta so the basic idea of being a good person is assumed it's already known one can't be a villain and then jump to enlightenment one has to go through a period of moral and ethical life um that's one i know that swami is you know in our monasteries and others also days to tell young men who would come to become monks would say become a gentleman first so that's a very good way of putting it before you acquire these qualities one is a gentleman that means a good person first and then a good person a cultured person and then you acquire these qualities second thing i wanted to say was don't be intimidated as we go into it don't be intimidated by this and feel uh you know helpless oh i don't have these qualities maybe it's not for me no it is for everybody according to advaita vedanta we are brahmana why should it not be for me this whole book is about what i truly am so maybe i have many problems with the conditioning of my mind maybe our physical problems and so on so forth but my nature is that i am the spirit i am drama i am one with god why should it be beyond me as rama namashi said i've said again and again somebody went and asked him am i qualified for vedanta and he said did you say i you know his method was who am i so if you can say i you're qualified if you can just say everybody can say aye so you're qualified to ask who am i you're therefore qualified for vedanta so yes in one sense we are all qualified just that um maybe we don't have enough of these qualities they are not at the level of excellence so we need to keep an eye when you drive you keep an eye on the gas you keep an eye on your speed you keep an eye on certain things when you're driving similarly in the spiritual path there's certain things you need to keep an eye on and these four are very important this is where the shoe pinches in practical terms when we run into trouble in spiritual life we'll almost always notice it is something to do with these four one or more of these when you come back and look at it where am i lacking do i lack dispassion do i lack conviction that there is this ultimate reality do i like discipline or just do i lack the motivation that from the final one all right now let's get into it so the we know by now the method they they'll give us a list and then they'll take up each item in the list and define it so fourfold practices um the fourfold means for attaining let's just call it means four means for attaining knowledge first one it is called viveka viveka that's that's where the name vivekananda comes from viveka means we which in sanskrit to separate to discern between two things two things which are coming to us mixed up right and wrong they come to us mixed up and it's a common term in all indian languages in bengali we say vivek it stands for conscience that something that tells me what is right and what is wrong so that's that's for everybody but here viveka is in a higher spiritual sense the ability to distinguish between the eternal and the non-eternal there is god or there is brahman the ultimate reality and there is this world so we wake it's all an italian inner conviction and inner clarity number 16 nithyananda so what is means the ability to separate and there may be different kinds of viveka as i said the the ability to distinguish between right and wrong for example but here what is meant the ability to distinguish discern between what is eternal permanent and what is transient non-eternal temporary that the kind of feeling that there is a spiritual reality which is eternal which is worth having worthwhile and the rest in this world whatever is going on is non-eternal secondary unimportant so what is this we wake up he says the eternal reality is brahman you will define what is brahman later on um so brahman brahman is the eternal reality everything else whatever is is other than brahmana anityamiti is non-eternal secondary unimportant but non-eternal eti vive chanam this insight this insight this separation discernment discernment is a very good word maybe discernment so this insert this discernment is called viveka this is very important then the next one vairagya means mind has been colored purifying or cleansing the mind of discoloring what coloring the coloring of the world mind has been dipped in the dye of the world so much it has taken on the color of the world it has to be cleansed also means attachment means dispassion passion dispassion so number 17 text number 17 what is vairagya so [Music] dispassion towards trying to enjoy um the results of my karma here and hereafter here hereafter that means in heaven after death so the idea in the vedic religion and in hinduism in fact in buddhism and all the other indian religions is that everything is ruled by karma good karma leads to merit in sanskrit it is called punya and that generates happiness happiness means things will go well for you body will be healthy people will be nice to you you you will earn money if you you will be successful in your job and your education in your relationships things will generally go well for you um so that is a sign of good karma but go well for you in the worldly sense and bad karma so that leads to what is called pak or demerit and the that generates suffering disease failure frustration unhappiness bad relationships all those things whatever is unpleasant in life comes from our bad karma and both of our our our karma what we have done this is something that we have arranged for ourselves that's why we can't use to say none to blame so there is no one else to blame it is action and consequence cause and effect so this is from our past karma which is giving results now um so if you want a very good life you would obviously that you're encouraged to do you're encouraged to do good karma dharma is good karma consciously done ethical action is dharma consciously done unethical action is adharma so dharma leads to punya merit punya leads to sukha happiness adharma leads to parker demerit and demerit leads to dukkha unhappiness this is the law of karma it not only applies here in this world it also applies to after death so we have had many lives and future lives are also ruled by karma in between lives we go to what are called hells or heavens these are all temporary places hells are the nasty places there are seven of them and the heavens are the good places there are seven of those actually 14 words one of them actually in between is the earth so actually the hells are fewer in number they're six unless you count the earth as a hell also so um so there are these 14 words half of them are better each higher one higher mean subtler and subtler those are better and better and the grosser ones are worse and worse one go after death one goes to one of these places depends depending on one's karma so good karma you go to heaven and things are very nice it's a party there um you needn't even wear your mask so you can party for centuries together and they have a choice of drinks and the drinks are there are all varieties of what is called amrita nectar so the gods drink that i don't know if they get maybe it comes in different flavors orange flavor or lime fever whatever they don't get bored and because they drink that they are immortal immortal means they last for a long time and they don't have old age they don't have disease they don't have hunger and thirst so it's just being merry but that's also limited once our good karma runs out we are back there gita says when our good karma runs out as we are having fun we are using up all our credit but equally when we suffer they're also using up our bad company exhausting our bad karma so in that sense suffering is good and enjoying is bad because you're using up all your credit by enjoying and you're exhausting bad karma by suffering anyhow we come back from there so after that also we come back what he's saying here is all of it is worthless this whole thing is worldly this world heavens and hells heavens hell and earth all of those you should have you should turn away from this if you want vegan if you want vedanta if you want enlightenment this is all within the cycle of maya so all of this is what was earlier classified as eternal non-eternal all these are non-eternal whatever you get in this world including this very life this body all non-eternal it will go away one day and whatever we get in in heavens also those are also even if they last a long time they are also non-eternal one day it will be over and we'll be back here again so it's a wise person who want to give all those all those up we had this swami who explained it very nicely this whole concept of heaven in vedanta swami nishraya shanandaji who was the head of our vedanta society in south africa he founded our vedanta work in south africa he came to this country there are a few people i think peter phil is here in this today's class maybe and he knew he was close to swamini shanji um so he had a wonderful wonderful way of explaining things this whole idea of heaven he says what is it like so you earn a lot of money and then you use that money to buy a ticket from south africa to mumbai maybe we bought the plane in johannesburg and there is an air hostess who will come and say come come this is your seat this is exactly vedic language you know when one dies a divine form appears and says he come here come here this is your this is the world earned by you by your merits so by performing many vedic sacrifices you have accumulated punya lot of merit and hence you go to get to go to this very special you know fiji or some hawaii or something like that heavenly level so the aerostatus comes and says come come this is your seat and you sit down and it's cool air conditioned and it's all very nice and comfortable then you are at 36 000 feet and cruising at 800 miles an hour and then you are you watch movies and there is food and drink brought to you everything is nice and then you're told you're descending into mumbai and then when things are really going well and you're happy they say all right thank you for flying with air india and we have reached mumbai the temperature is 40 degrees and the temperature is like 100 degrees outside in fahrenheit and with 100 humidity thank you for playing with us and we said no no i want to stay here this is nice then you have to buy a ticket again come back again fly with us again which means it's like you're back to the earth you have to earn your punya again buy a ticket for the heavenly airlines so it's it's a cycle and it it's exhausted so that is this is here it's called amutra amudra means hereafter means karma the result of karma artha what is provided by that bhoga enjoyment this is what one has to turn away from i remember one more word about this many years ago when you were studying this um the swami was teaching us i think swami shiva manji probably so when you say that that you to be a vedanta student you must give up enjoyment here and hereafter so we all said many of us said oh we don't want heaven we don't want these heavenly pleasures and the swami smiled and said just because you don't believe in heaven so that's why you're so eager to give it up remember our ancestors actually believe that these things and they are true so you can't give up a cookie in this world and you want to give up heavenly pleasures not so easy so but one has to these are all non-eternal and that's why we turn away from it and what vedanta promises is eternal now let's break it up the objects which we will have in this world in this life what are they examples shrak uh i'll explain later struck means sandal paste a struck is a is a garland flower garland chandana sandal paste vanita women and sources of enjoyment because they are produced by work by the result of action anitya the enjoyment will be temporary uh will be will will be impermanent amushmikanam um the hereafter the enjoyments hereafter what are they um api means also hereafter also amrita aadhi nectar etc all the heavenly pleasures like nectar etcetera vishaya enjoyment of heavenly objects vishal means objects here between seventy objects they are also impermanent one day it will be over when you say that it is time to get done thank you for flying with us 100 degrees outside and have a nice day from all of this instagram consistently withdrawal from all of this these are no longer my goals you may be in the middle of it you may be here in the middle of all of this your karma will your past karma will keep producing will give you keep on giving results and you will keep on getting this if you do a job you'll get your salary if you are um you can be in the middle of your family you could be in the middle of your relationship all those things are there but that's no longer your goal in life you are not looking to those things to produce uh to to give you peace or happiness you know their limitations just one word here so what does it mean flower gardens flower garlands and channel paste is the ancient equivalent of jewels and you know tiffany's and and perfumes and this reference to women remember it was like taught to mostly men and to monks so that's why the reference to to women as objects of enjoyment so this i mean srirama krishna somebody said did he was he misogynistic he would keep warning his disciples against women but his women disciples said that he he again and again warned them against too much closeness to men so the principle here is the same all right um all right now let me move on you hold on to the questions you can chat um you can give the questions or you can raise your hand we'll just finish these and then i'll take them up then 18 the six-fold treasure are shama dhamma uparati so what do they mean six-fold treasures are restraining of the outgoing mental propensities shama dharma is the restraining of the external sense organs uparati is the withdrawal of the withdrawing of the self or withdrawal of the mind from the world the diksha is forbearance samadhana is focus and shrubbed up is faith so here's a little bit of cheating here four uh means for realization so in the fourth in third means they are packed in six more so the total is now nine viveka viragya then six more and then finally so nine in total what are these uh six they are disciplines of various thoughts we will see them in detail one by one first shama number 19 shama is the curbing of the mind from all objects except except hearing etc so what does it this mean shama is calmness of mind quietening of the restlessness of the mind shamanist means control of the mind pulling back the mind from everything other than shavana manana asana that means vedanta shabana manananananiyasana means um engaging the mind in study and in reasoning and in meditation basically the the three uh practices of vedanta shravana marana tihasana what we are doing right now is shravada right now we are doing shavana when you ask questions and discuss it that is and then when clarity comes you settle down with it that is needed and it says here withdrawal of the mind shama is withdrawals but we are not withdrawn from everything withdrawal from everything except this that means focus on these three activities so i mean very kind of said it again he said keep these high thoughts before the mind again and again we have hypnotized ourselves into pettiness into smallness so this thing is deep notization keep these high vedantic thoughts before your mind all the time then so you can see if those are following the sanskrit so by the way sanskrit don't be put off if you're not interested not falling into sanskrit there's no problem at all those who have the pdf which i had sent there the transliteration is also there in the english you can follow the sanskrit we just want to but if you don't want to it's all right we'll translate every word if i'm missing something you should flag it you should raise your hand say what does this word mean what did you just say so those are following the sanskrit sravana sravana means or subjects other than these three mana pulling the mind back from from things other than these three the next damaha dharmaha means 20 bahin dharma is the restraint of the external organs from all objects except that except that means that what that means what was referred to earlier vedanta basically apart from your spiritual pursuit restrain the external organs from external organs means your feet and your hands and your eyes and ears so one wants to take a walk and go somewhere one wants to see a movie or catch a broadway show all of it is nice one wants to go out and relax with friends over the weekend all of it is nice but when one has a high purpose like this one must pull back one must minimize or stop all activities all non-essential things they have to be given up and this is nothing special any high pursuit if you are a writer if you are a scientist if you are pursuing any kind of career that demands attention you have to give up whatever distracts you you automatically do remember when we were getting ready for university examinations how much we set aside everything else in life almost sometimes even forgetting to eat or sleep i sometimes think that realizing god or becoming enlightened is a little easier than getting through all the exams that we have gone through in our childhood our so it takes probably less effort and energy but focus is demanded it is certain period of focus mastery in any field who was that who spoke about the 10k rule 10 000 hours rule um the malcolm gladwell i read about it in gladwell's book yes malcolm gladwell so he studied um the lives of masters in different fields and he found approximately they had put in 10 000 hours of concentrated practice so maybe five or six hours a day for a period of few hours a few years and they somebody was a bill gates was a coder and somebody else was an athlete and so on somebody else was a writer but several thousand hours of practice goes in and then is a breakthrough it becomes you become a master of that something like that it's nothing very esoteric and nothing very mystical one must bear down on the subject for some time then so the meaning is clear here then the third of these six treasures is literally rati means engagement with the word especially with sensual pleasures uparat is the reversal of that pulling back 21. so two two interpretations of uparati is given here this is one of the third of the six-fold treasures so two interpretations one the time and energy that one has saved by that one must not flow back into worldly activities to restrain oneself so you you know a lot of people especially young people complain about distractions complain about inability to maintain focus it is the lack of this opportunity you're making an effort maybe you have a study schedule all planned out how you're going to focus but there are surrounded by a variety of distractions and you tend to flow back into them again once in a while and it breaks the rhythm of the study i was reading a book new book on attention and it says the dangers of you know mobiles and social media and all that little ping on the mobile like maybe a text has come or something it says when you are concentrating intensely maybe maybe studying or doing an assignment or something and that one thing and you pick up the moment look at it and then put it down that's all few seconds that one disturbance it takes you around 21 minutes to get back into into that flow again imagine the tremendous disruption you're studying for one hour a single disruption two disruptions you get you take now 20 minutes 20 minutes each to get back into full concentration i don't know if that is true but the point is that it the disruptions caused by these little distractions are quite big are much larger much more damaging than we thought just by the way there is this new documentary it's called the social dilemma so a lot of young people i hear in universities and all um they are disturbed by this by seeing how much of an impact social media has on on us and i've heard of people actually going off facebook and twitter and all the different kinds of social media platforms they're scared by this new documentary what kind of damage it does to concentration to focus now uparati this one word here uparati is pulling back and not flowing back again into the world nevertheless having with the ones which have been withdrawn means s and external organs which have been pulled back from being scattered in the world which have been pulled back having pulled back and don't allow them to flow back again upper ramada means not ramadan means enjoyment in that don't go back and start you know being in the midst lapsing back into it don't do that um alternative interpretation i will tell you what it actually says but i'll tell you what it means alternative become a monk that's what it means here that's a technical way of saying become a monk the vedic duties prescribed for householders in procedurally parity yaga renounce procedurally renounce is the is the ceremony for becoming sasanyasi it is called uh viraja home so that is a vedic ceremony all monks have to undergo so that's basically your religion is telling you officially that you need not follow the uh the the precepts the commandments of religion for household life anymore you are free because why are you free not because i'm tired of it i give up i quit no because you're going to the next level that i want only got realization nothing else for that reason you're set free from all other obligations but for no other reasons so in india monasticism was seen in this way everybody had certain obligations imposed upon them by religion this kind of ritual you have to perform these are the duties you have to perform uh for your parents and so and so forth so many things are there for society all of that you're set free from if you make make up your mind that i don't want anything in this world or in the next world i only want enlightenment then you can be set free from it and it's he says here a secondary meaning of operatic could be just become a monk so he gives that option also recommended or prescribed karma rituals these are vedic rituals renouncing not just giving up medina procedurally with with the proper ceremony so amongst let go of rituals but to let go of rituals also there's a ritual and that is called the viraja which is officially you are set free so if you do that then you are a monk twenty second titik shah text number twenty second titik basically spiritual fortitude a world will throw a lot of trouble at you not just because you're being spiritual i'm being spiritual i'm being persecuted for it maybe in certain respects but whatever one wants to do in the world you want to raise a family you want to maintain a relationship you want to hold on to a job how much trouble you put up with from your youth to middle age to old age how much trouble you put up with so that much toughness must be there maybe you are sick but there is a client coming and you have to go out to the airport to meet him there's no excuse you have to go maybe you don't feel like it but the children have to be you know fed and gotten ready and seen off to school and then picked up from school you have to do it it's not it's not optional so you have gone through all of that it takes a lot of toughness to get through the to the duties imposed by the world similarly in spiritual life also don't sacrifice your spiritual life because there are problems often what happens is there is illness or there is unhappiness there's some hassle in the world outside and the first thing to be sacrificed is today there's too much work so i won't meditate today my mind is disturbed i won't go to class no this is what is being said here whatever the world throws at you come um what what is it high water hell on high water what i think what is the phrase i will i will attend the class i will meditate i will pray whatever your spiritual practices you must do it i have seen so many such examples famous examples are of course there there was this disciple of chaitanya mahaprabhu so chaitanya mahaprabhu and his disciples are going to come to this person's house the evening will be spent and the night will be spent in kitan in ecstatic singing and dancing and taking the name of the lord and the caitanya mahaprabhu is coming to your house and the gentleman he got the news that his only son had died just that day and he never told anybody only he knew but somehow caitanya mahaprabhu also knew the whole evening was spent in in taking the name of the lord in caitanya and then again mahaprabhu again and again went into samadhi but he embraced that man you know um so that kind of spiritual toughness even the worst thing that the world will throw at me i will not there is this story um about m the writer of the gospel of sri ramakrishna it has so many such stories writer of the gospel of sri ramakrishna m so he was in in banaras at that time and he would read the bhagavatam for the monks if i remember correctly every evening after the aaron there would be a reading and the monks would gather around one day he was going to the reading and somebody came and there was a telegram handed it to him he read the telegram and put it in his pocket and he went and he did the bhagavatam reading somebody asked him what was the telegram about oh one of the monks said to the other monk when the reading was going on do you know that telegram i handed him his son or daughter has passed away he hears this news he puts it in his pocket and he goes on and does it these this is of course a very high order very high order i personally remember once i was sick in the hospital and i was on iv i was lying down so this intravenous is there and i thought okay i am excused today you know like i'm sick so i don't have to i can do just a little bit of the jumper and that's it finished after all i'm very sick and i saw this old monk who had been sent for an operation after the procedure was done after the anesthesia wore off i saw him sit up um in the bed hours together facing the one sitting straight and meditating so that was a lesson to me this 80 plus year old monk who has just had an operation he will not give up a single day's meditation swami this is the story of swami vireshvaranji this story was told by bhaskaranji who is the head of the vedanta society in seattle now so he when he was in bellurm many many years ago at that time swami vireshwarani was the president of the order and the swami was not keeping well it was very advanced in age he was ill and a high fever so swam vashtaranji went to see him in the quarters of the president maharaja there in beluremont and he stopped so i'm grateful you're sitting up propped by pillows and answering letters in those days by hand and uh said but but swami i heard you are you are sick you're ill you shouldn't strain yourself so much so vishwanji said if a sadhu can sit up he can work in bengali so that's the kind of titiksha they wanted spiritual toughness fortitude i remember you know once this is much lower level at my level i was a young monk and one day i was actually a little sick and there was a meeting at an ashram and for certain reasons i wanted to get out of the meeting so i went to the once the senior monk was organizing the meeting and said i'm not going to the meeting i'm feeling sick he said very calmly either you're in the hospital or you're under meeting one of the two if you're really sick then go to the hospital and stay there otherwise come to the meeting so that's the thing that you know you have to be little tough on yourself the famous definition of titiksha given by shankaracharya it's quoted in this book of course this famous definition we all have to memorize withstanding all kinds of suffering without without you know um recrimination without grumbling without complaint and without too much effort to put things right so uh instead of being desperate to think put things right without anxiety without bilateral means regret and grumbling and complained that is called addiction calmly go ahead with it go ahead with your duties with your spiritual practice don't bother about the small problems of life no matter how much they are troubling you one thing is common sense common sense is very important here i have said this earlier and i'll repeat this example i've mentioned when i was teaching the brahmacharis and training center he was one young novice so he took this to the extremes he had a pain in the knee and he kept on flexing his foot in class was so distracting he was practicing his footing why it was hurting him i said why don't you get it treated so no i won't he's practicing to tiksha basically i'm putting up with all sorts of troubles but in the meditation hall also he's is stretching his leg forward because he can't sit still it's hurting him so he is restless everywhere i said you are meditating on your knee you should meditate on god get it treated and get it out of your system whatever the problem is so that's one extreme shouldn't go to that level where you're falling ill and your mind is on the body all the time that kind of fortitude is no good please take medicine diet exercise whatever get cured and go move on the whole point is to be spiritual not to suffer the opposite is too much anxiety about the body i i mentioned the one young novice who had a stomach pain and who i've said this earlier again so um who was always anxious we were getting treatment for him he went to hospitals and consulted doctors nothing was working he was always anxious he was unable to eat because he felt it'll hurt again this tummy pain will come back finally i told him one day that see everything is being done you are doing everything the doctors are doing everything they are arranging everything now leave it to god you concentrate on your study and meditation and work he's a very good mark so he did that immediately and later on he wrote to me that that was very good advice now the pain is also cured and i'm very happy now that was months later he went to some other ashram so too much don't pay attention whatever common sense do that and then bring your mind back to your spiritual practice then samadhanam this is focus number 23 nigritasya means concentration focus what does this mean is the constant concentration of the mind thus restrained on hearing etc the scriptural passages and other objects that are conducive to these so nigritasya manasseh the mind which has now been restrained focused concentrated has been pulled back from distractions now that must be focused see in monastic life in spiritual life you actually clear the decks for action you give up many other distractions and other responsibilities so that you have time and response uh time and energy for spiritual life now that extra time and energy don't waste it so this is where the the old trope of the lazy monk comes you know having no worldly responsibilities no worldly concerns and your food is provided by the householders you're begging for food and wandering from place to place the traditional monk it often turns out to be a beggar and willing away time because the extra time and energy which that person has got for vedanta is not being used there you just waste it so don't do that that negritus thus controlled mind the mind which is thus controlled engage it samadhi means focus concentrate on what sravana mananana on vedantic hearing reflection meditation and other things which are helpful to that maybe it could you are working in ashram or um just it could be your daily little puja all things which are helpful to vegan let me it could also be a little bit of yoga exercise and all just keeping your health all right if you're in an ashram taking care of the ashram taking care of your guru all of these are included into in in a visa helpful activities um you'll see the novices in the training center they study vedanta at the same time they serve the old monks they go to the main temple of sri ramakrishna maybe they are making a garland for sri ramakrishna they're cleaning the temple these are all anu navisha these are not distracting you might say that do you have to study vedanta sarah day and night no all other ancillary activities then number 24 as taught by the guru guru-padista taught by the guru vedanta the sentences of vedanta that means upanishadic sentences viswasa faith what kind of faith a working faith that there is something to this why working feet see there are one kind of faith is god exists heaven exists in the vedic um sense you had to have faith in the vedic sacrifices that they would get you to heaven because you don't see any direct result in this life you do vedic sacrifices and the promises at the end of your life after death you go to heaven how do you know so you have to have faith but it's not that kind of faith which is being mentioned here that's the faith that's like what is understood as religious faith faith in god which you don't see here it's like a working faith you follow this you will get enlightenment that much is the faith required even that is not there one will not pursue it you have to pursue it seriously i often give example of suppose you enroll in a physics course at columbia so you have some amount of faith in the professor you have some amount of faith in the syllabus and the textbook you don't say that a textbook is fake news and the professor is a liar if you start up like that there's no way of learning anything and that's also common sense everybody has that much faith in any endeavor that we take up that much only is required there is a funny story of in vrindavan brindavan is really the place of krishna vaishnavas so one vaishnava babaji means vaisnava monk who decided to change tracks from bhakti track to guyana track from devotional track to knowledge so he goes to an advaitha teacher and says i don't like that path i think the dualistic path i want to take up the path of knowledge non-dualism very good so you start big from the beginning vedanta and then he comes to this this place you know vivek of iraq all of that and then faith in the teachings of vedanta and guru and he says what faith here too then what what harm did my gopala my krishna do there you always being told you have to have faith in krishna you have to believe in krishna he did not like that so much belief and faith who has got so much and he comes to vedanta and there european is told here you have to have faith in guru and the vedanta he's here too there is faith there is belief yeah but not like that finally and most important i would say moksha yearning for spiritual freedom intense desire for of spiritual freedom this is one thing in this all that we have been studying who is qualified for vedanta if if you're lucky enough to have this desire a strong desire for enlightenment all the rest will come by itself and suramar is to say that only thing needed is vacuolata in devotional language intense discontent for god restlessness for god realization and then he quotes one verse and brings the topic to an end the verse is from uh one of shankara's famous works upadesha so he's quoting first from upanishad why is he doing that so you'll find the answer is always keen to prove that what he's saying is based on upanishads vedanta is the teachings of the upanishads so are you you know like you are you say so are you imagining all this are you are you being creative and setting forth your own system or is it truly what vedanta teaches so once in a while he will justify what i'm saying is is just classical vedantics from the upanishads audi quote the gita or sometimes the past masters like shankara and suresh foreign and others he does both here he quotes vyazar nikopanishad and shankaracharya it so such an aspirant is a qualified student it is said in the shruti quiet subdued etc it is further said this is always to be taught to one who is of tranquil mind who has subjugated his senses who is free from farts obedient endowed with virtues always submissive who is all constantly eager for liberation this is a quote from upadesha basically what it means is there's a quote from the priyada negotiate peaceful controlled what is it a reference to shama and dharma so the teacher is saying look that sharma dhamma etc which i said six treasures i mentioned it is indicated in the upper nations indicated you will not find exactly this list remember this is a compilation based on all the operations together and the systematization whatever you read here when we go to the upanishads after this you will find these things scattered all across the upanishads and the same thing shankaracharya has said in this very beautiful verse qualifications of a student that funny story is there that a student goes to an ashram to learn vedanta and he says what can i do here and somebody in ashram says well there are two kinds of people here there are students and there's the guru oh what are the duties of a student the student has to be disciplined and get up very early in the morning he has to serve the guru he has to clean the ashram he has to attend classes he has to memorize you know verses and there'll be exams um it's a tough life okay and what does the guru do oh he gives a few lectures maybe oh good i'll be a guru then so that nobody wants to be a student student has very strict qualifications all right so this is the first of the four qualified seeker fine let's look at the questions my question is relating to verse 17 and earthly transient objects you know i attended this academic conference science of consciousness last month virtually run by university of arizona and many of the luminaries and consciousness studies were there and one of the plenary sessions was on psychedelics psilocybin as mainstream therapeutic tools in psychiatry and they see great potential in it and it's not transitory because it has to be taken only once apparently and the changes in consciousness are permanent of course the only problem is that these things are illegal but then i was also thinking about the the ninth mandala of the rigveda which is supposed to be the soma mandala and um and it's appearing to its properties and all that so these are earthly things i guess um and but also mentioned in the in the in the vedas so what is your what is your perspective on that all right first of all um using drugs to alter one's psychological state that is not something that would be recommended though the effects were well known for example the patanjali yoga sutra actually mentions that by the use of certain drugs one can have altered states of consciousness which is what what much later um you know albert timothy leary at harvard psychologist who became around us later on so they experimented and they started up the whole uh the lsd culture and everything like that yes remember it's not an alternation of consciousness from vedantic perspective it said it's an effect on the mind so there's a clear difference between the mind and consciousness so it can have an effect on the mind that's true but remember um that's still transient that which has a beginning will also have an end when they say it has a lasting effect it just means it's a long-lasting effect it just doesn't go away so easily it's more it's more stable that's what they mean for this particular drug you're talking about second yes the vedas do do mention a lot of worldly results and other worldly deserts there are um you'll find constant reference to may our progeny increase maybe have more cattle maybe have more wealth that is repeated again and again so the kind of um things people in uh in the vedic times might want for a pleasant life or a good life of course it's there so that's the lower kind of religion that's what is called karma kanda remember we are talking about vedanta here vedanta is upanishads upanishads are the final teachings of what we talked about in the earlier classes the very meaning of vedanta is the end final highest teachings of iran what are the other teachings the other teachings are exactly what you are being asked to give up here those are also included in the vedas they are not vedanta what are the other teachings by these rituals by the worship of the vedic gods you get worldly prosperity by the performance of vedic rights you get passage to heavens afterwards but what is being mentioned here is all of that all of them as pleasant as they are they are all product of karma being products of karma they are impermanent that's what was mentioned here all the products of karma which are impermanent they are to be given up because you've already made a decision in your mind vairagya is the giving up of the impermanent there's a difference between the permanent and the impermanent the permanent is brahman and the rest is impermanent that which is impermanent the vedas religion itself shows you a religious way a moral ethical way of attaining your goals in life remember the four goals dharma takama moksha moksha spiritual liberation but what about the other three there is ata worldly prosperity there is pleasure karma and there is dharma morality one way of understanding understanding morality is good karma done and the result of that will be artha and karma pleasant things in this life another way of interpreting dharma is those ritualistic actions which will produce heaven in the life after this vedanta is saying all of that can no longer be your goal in life that is not spiritual that is very worldly this world your next worldly that is the vedic understanding of conventional religion it's very much there all around you people go to churches and temples all the long lines in in dakshineshwar kali temple where srinama ramakrishna is to stay on tuesdays and saturdays you'll find long lines before cues to offer pranams and puja to the divine mother kali are they all there for a vision of the divine mother like ramakrishna are they all there for moksha and brahma ghana not at all not at all they are there for exactly these things what you read in the vedic they are not there for cattle nothing but they might want suvs and jobs and um you know whatever so yeah so there's the lower religion which in the vedic structure would be the karma khan the ritualistic portion and there's the higher religion which is this where the goal is moksha otherwise what's the goal religion tells you instead of pursuing it immorally instead of pursuing it instinctively trying to you know money and pleasure that's all i want in life no that's not sustainable that's damaging for you that's bad karma for you and bad for society we will show you an ethical sustainable way of attaining your worldly goals and other worldly goals that's the that's there everywhere i mean in the christian church for example right here very popular form of um christianity is what is called the prosperity gospel so there are people who say that jesus wants you to be rich that's a oversimplification of the team but why should you not do well in this life that's the idea that this world but the real christianity is beyond this real christianity is god realization similarly in every religion okay then i just recently joined and i'm relatively new probably completely new to these subjects and i'm trying to understand when uh we speak of i and do we mean in this particular context that there is a some temporary i in the mind that is trying to you know achieve through efforts all of these qualifications and expand on these qualifications under the watch of the real life which is brahma true here the i just means the person dimitri because we have not yet started the inquiry into the eye so the discovery of brahman or the atman the witness consciousness all of that is going to come later it's just the person who has come to learn vedanta these are the preliminary qualifications what does that person think of himself or herself i am this person i am a swami or i am dimitri um just this mix of body and mind that what you're talking about that analysis will start later when as we enter into the actual subject matter these are preliminaries um then gary says i also i think also elders actually use drugs yes he did in fact he was a disciple of swami prabhupada and that was one point where they disagreed swami prabhupada prabhupada in hollywood he told elder saxley again and again not to do it um so he was very interested in the effects of drugs on altered mind states and uh swami prabhu said that that kind of samadhi those experiences are to be attained through yogic discipline not by taking drugs yes does it mean strong will and does it help in god realization means strong will yes it helps in god realization but remember when you hear the word sankalpa in a puja in a in a in a ritual there it means the desire you want to you know i i resolve to perform this puja of shiva or of narayana or the devi may this these blessings descend upon us this the whole statement will be called the sankalpa and you do that before the puja so that's a ritual done with desire here the sankalpa is maybe have um maybe have vivek or the qualifications for spiritual life maybe have devotion to god so that would be the sankalpa here maybe hold on to this path until god realization sankalpa means the resolve that is taken when you start out on any kind of religious endeavor it could be the ritualistic part of religion the lower religion worldly kind of religion or this higher path why i'm saying this in bhagavad-gita you will find sankalpa prabhavan kaman sarvanthwa give up all activities or desires which are born of sankalpa so there sankalpa means this resolve to you know perform a puja perform a ritual with a desire those things have to be given up for vedanta um you can see why people would think so this means we have to become monks that's what krishna taught arjuna no you can practice this wherever you are it's an internal thing a monastic life is a good stage a good setup for practicing this but one can do that um the whole point is to be monk like internally that's the whole point all right uh let me conclude here today we have finished which is very important it's these four things the six treasures and mummaks these four are very important for our practical spiritual life we will learn many many things on this journey very deep truths but notice that when you have any serious problem or question about your practical personal spiritual life it's always good to look back upon these four and see what's going wrong there always mostly we will find something is lacking there okay an important uh secret to me is shared here i mentioned this earlier again and again these these four are mentioned whenever you start vedanta most vedanta will start with these four one secret about these four is they are causally connected not casually causally one the first one causes the next one next one causes the next the third one and so on so what i mean by that is if somebody feels one of them is lacking don't fight your battle there i don't have this passion i still have a lot of desires i'm struggling with this passion don't that will be a tough battle what it says is that that is caused by the earlier one dispassion is the second one what's the first one discernment viveka if vairagya is poor if iraqi is not up to the mark then go back to the earlier earlier practice viveka and strengthen that deepen your conviction there is an ultimate goal of of a human life a spiritual goal really really worth having so many saints and sages in all religions stride for it attained it that is the purpose of my life when you strengthen that you come back and to vaeraki you will see your dispassion for other things has increased and your like your desire for enlightenment has increased when you increase these two viveka and vairakya the disciplines of mind and body shama dhamma uparati titiksha they will increase when all these three are strong then that intense desire for liberation it will come one can't force oneself to have an intense desire for liberation you can't simulate that you strengthen the earlier ones the next one will come so this is a good insight to have that they are causally connected one thing is weak don't fight your battle there go to the earlier one and strengthen that one okay on that note let me end on this [Music] all right take care pray to the divine mother this is durga puja time this month divine mother to protect all of us let me see all of you yes to take care all right krishna [Music]