Transcription
[Music] [Music] Guru, we are studying the sixth chapter. The chapter is on meditation. But before teaching meditation, Sri Krishna emphasizes the importance of preparation. He said that first, the mind has to be purified through Karma Yoga. That verse, Yoga, that was verse number three. So those who are climbing the ladder of Yoga, climbing the ladder of spiritual progress, for them Karma Yoga is the means. They should give emphasis on Karma Yoga by which the mind is purified. Once the mind is purified, then more advanced practices like meditation become the means. That the stress now shifts to the higher practices. And then, uh, he goes on to say, there were very nice verses: "Lift yourself up by yourself. Do not depress yourself or lower or demean yourself." Because, uh, you are yourself your best friend, and you are yourself your worst enemy. Then, Bandhu, how are you your best friend? Which self is the best friend of the self? That self which has been purified, which has been brought under control. Uh, that is your best friend. The self when we are identified with the body, mind, and we, um, we think of ourselves as the body, mind, which are, which are not the self, they are anatma, not-self. Yet identified with them, the self which becomes identified with the not-self is the enemy of the self. That means we are our own enemies when our, we are our own body, mind, are we, we embrace them as ourselves and we are unable to control them.
Then the seventh verse, verse number seven: "The self of one who is self-controlled and serene is alone poised in heat and cold, happiness and misery, as also in honor and dishonor." It's a very nice verse. It talks about this transition from the foundational practitioner practices of purification of the self, purification of the mind, control of the self, and then the higher practices of meditation and knowledge. So it's a very important verse. Wonderful insights into spiritual life are given there. "I like in heat and cold, I like in pleasure and pain alike, in honor and dishonor." Here, I was reading in, um, our Gita Sanjivani, Ram Suk Dasji's commentary in Hindi. So he gives a very nice insight. He says, "Look, heat and cold, that's the, the surface meaning of that meaning, literal meaning, that it's too hot and I don't like it, or it's too cold, or I am suffering. I get agitated with, you know, heat and cold." We all do it. Tomorrow it's supposed to be in the 90s, uh, in the lower 90s tomorrow here in New York. So it's very hot here. But I was thinking that would be like the, uh, usual temporary temperature. We actually have a nice day in India in most parts of India in summer where it is 105 in the shade in Calcutta with 100 humidity. So the heat and cold when we complain about it, that's one thing to be, uh, even-minded, not to be upset by, uh, fluctuations in temperature. But that's not the actual meaning, the deeper meaning.
So he says, Ram Suk Dasji, he says, "It is not just the heat and cold which is experienced by the skin, but also pleasurable and, you know, like nice tastes or unpleasant tastes experienced by the tongue, fragrance or bad odors experienced by the, um, by the nose, then things you like to see, you do not like to see, sound which might be musical and sweet or harsh and discordant and noisy." So these opposites of all the senses. And he says, "You go deeper. What is meant by heat and cold is not just the range of experiences of the senses, but you go deeper." He says that when there are pleasant circumstances, you see something of someone you like and it creates a pleasant feeling inside you. You taste the food, you get like, like you hear music. So the sense inputs are pleasant, which are agreeable to oneself. He says that creates a coolness within us, *shita*. It's a coolness. You settle down, you feel relaxed and nice and peaceful and calm because things are going well. The sensory environment is to your liking. And when the sensory environment is not to our liking, I see or hear people or things which I don't like, or it is, it is too hot or too cold, or whatever sensory environment is not to our liking, he says it generates a heat within us, *ushna*, a reaction, a heat within us. So that is the deeper meaning of *shita-ushna* according to. And I found that nice. That's sort of the real problem is not the sense inputs. The real problem is our reaction to them. So our reaction can be one of liking and pleasantness. It's, it's nice. Or it can be of rejection, of irritation. And Krishna here says, as we go and ahead in spiritual life, one must be steady alike in both. So this stream of experiences which we are having, one must be steady in the midst of it. It's not just, it's, it's not just heat and cold. All the five sense inputs, then, um, all the states of the mind, thoughts, feelings, emotions, agreeable and disagreeable. It could be people in the world whom you like, or you're indifferent to, or you actively dislike. Then it could be events which are to your liking and which are not to your liking. It could be places, uh, so circumstances. It could be a job to your liking, not to your liking. None of them should produce that excessive reaction within ourselves. Is one sign of going forward in spiritual life is this steadiness?
How does this work? And I was just thinking, just about heat and cold, it immediately brought to my mind when I go for walks in Central Park. So I see these moms or nannies, you know, they had got the prams with the babies in them, and they're going out for walks. So whether it is in cold, in winter, it's very cold and freezing, I see them. They're very careful to see that the cold wind is not striking the baby directly. They're careful to put little mittens on the baby's hands and, you know, so that the, the child is protected. Or in the heat, recently I saw. So they're going with the lady with the pram, and she's careful that the direct sunlight should not fall on the child. Now notice this transcendence. Before protecting myself, before protecting myself from the direct heat of the sun or the cold wind in winter, um, the first concern is, is the child alright? So similarly, one must have concern not just for one's own child, but for everybody else. That person is suffering, whether from cold or from hunger or from disease. Um, what can I do to help? That urge must come. That is the first step which, which shows us how to transcend our own internal reactions to this, you know, heat and cold, pleasure and pain, and all of that. First is this concern for others. Then that deepens. So then one begins to understand how one can keep one's mind on God in spite of, you know, pleasure and pain, heat and cold, different sensory inputs. So the basic idea is, in the world, *Prakriti*, *Prakriti* gives us a stream of heat and cold, pleasant and unpleasant, taste and music and discordant noise, you know, sounds which are not to our liking, um, to taste, form, sound, smell, touch, pleasant and unpleasant will keep coming. It's by the stream through *Prakriti*. And the stream is determined by our past karma. Not just these things, but also people will come and go and pass through our lives. Some you like, some you dislike, some you fall out with. So these also will come. Events, places, jobs, careers, so many things will come and go in our lives. One should be steady in the midst of that. Spirituality demands that. This is the, this is the groundwork of spirituality.
[Music] One example I liked was one sadhu. In Hindi, he gave this example. Just imagine this little, this little hut. There's a man in the hut. It's dark inside the hut. And the man sees a strange, dim light in the hut. And he wonders, where is this light coming from? And then he looks around and he sees near the, what is one, a little window. So near the little window, there is a dish with water, uh, in it, and he sees it sparkling. So he goes to the dish and he sees the water in it, it's sparkling. There's a little sun in that water. That means it's a reflected sun. So that's sparkling, and that's, and that light is being scattered in the room, which feeds the dim light. And he wonders again, where did that light in the water come? Because water doesn't have light. And then he looks out of the window and he sees the sun in the sky. So the sun in the sky is reflected in the water. The little sparkling sun in that dishwater is, uh, scattered in the dark room, and you feel a faint light in the room. What does this mean? Our senses, when you sense heat or cold, pleasure or pain, when you sense taste and fragrance and sound, you see all of these experiences. We note there's consciousness there. There is awareness. Our senses are aware. Um, our eyes and ears and nose and tongue and skin, they're all lit up by awareness, *chaitanya*. All our sensory system. And we wonder, where is this coming from? These senses are just matter. So where is this awareness coming from? And then you look inwards and you find that all of it is coming from "I", this awareness in the mind. You see, all of the senses are being lit up by awareness coming from the mind. And when you look at the mind, you find that there is a core of awareness. This, you can feel it right now. "I am aware." And from there, Vedanta shows us how to attain or to discern, uh, the pure consciousness which is being reflected in the mind. So now you can match the example with this, with the exemplified. But, you know, the experiences we are having in the world are lit up by this, uh, flickering awareness. This is like the dim light in that little room. In all our, it is found in our seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, all of that. Now we wonder, where is this coming from? Now, this awareness in the senses is coming from the mind. The mind is like that water in the dish. The dish is like the body. The mind is like the water in the dish. And in the dish, in the water, there is a sparkling sun. In the mind, there is awareness. This is called reflected consciousness. Like the little sun in the water dishwater. There is this core of awareness in the mind, which we find just now. And this is called a reflected consciousness. Just like that little sun in the dishwater is actually a reflection of the real sun. When the man looks out into the sky, he sees the blazing sun in the sky. And exactly like that, from the, the *chidābhāsa* is just a reflection or a limitation or a generalization of my real nature, which is pure consciousness, *Ātmā*. So you have sun in the sky. That's the example for the *Ātmā*, pure consciousness, whatever you call it. Pure consciousness. Then you have the water in the dish. The water is like the mind. And the dish is like the body. And in the water, there is the little reflected sun sparkling there. And in the mind, there is the reflected consciousness. And through that little sparkling light, you see a little bit of the room, just a tiny little illumination. Similarly, we have a tiny little point of illumination which we focus through around the world and experience heat and cold, pleasure and pain, and all of that. Now the point here is, this is the way of methodology of Vedanta to grow, go from the experienced object to the experiencing senses, to the experiencing mind, to the consciousness in the mind. And from there, by a process which only can be intuited, and you can only be helped, pointed towards, you grasp that, "Oh, this is who I am. This pure, unlimited consciousness." Now the point here is that if I am too much concerned with what is being revealed by the dim little light, little pain here, little pleasure there, um, little honor or dishonor here and there, um, taste, smell, touch, if I am continuously engaged in these things, I am not going to be able to trace back from the senses to the mind, from the mind to the reflected consciousness, to the pure consciousness. It will not be possible. The sadhu put it in simpler language. He said, "The pure consciousness, the supreme self, is a one homogenous consciousness. There's no flickering." If you're continuously absorbed in the flickering scenes of the world, you have distanced yourself from the unchanging consciousness within.
Made a comment with which I do not totally agree with, with respect. He says that we have a natural peace within us. This is a natural peace which is damaged or distorted the moment we get involved in either trying to get pleasure from the world or suffering from pain in the world. The moment we react to a little drop of pleasure in the world and we say, "I want that, I want it," you lost the natural peace. And when I react to a little bit of pain or trouble, you know, heat or pain or whatever is in the world outside, I again lost the natural peace. So the only modification I would like to make there is, the natural peace is not lost. Your nature as the *Ātmā* is peace. According to Mandukya Karika, Mandukya Upanishad, seventh, your very nature is peace itself, not peaceful, it is peace itself. That's the natural peace. That's our nature. That's our reality. And that can never be lost. But we skillfully occlude it, cover it up. It's as if lost by directing our attention to the trouble caused by the world, to the promise and temptation of the world. "Eat this, you'll be happy. Go to this nice environment and see the scenes here, you'll be happy." And we do get a little bit of, you know, that what Ram suggests, you say, is the little coolness inside. And we think that's what we want in life. And avoid this kind of trouble, avoid too much heat or cold, avoid. So all of these things, we keep on desperately trying to adjust things in the world outside. And we successfully occlude or cover up, eclipse our nature as peace. It's not lost. Even in the most troubled mind, it is not lost. You, the pure consciousness, which is also the nature of peace itself, is always there.
What else did I want to say here? Okay. Then he talks about *jitatmānah*. *Jitatmānah* means one who has controlled the body, mind, and senses. Here, *ātmā*, the word *jitātmā* means literally "has conquered the self." But the word is used in different senses. By now, I have repeated a number of times in different classes, *ātmā* does not actually only mean pure consciousness. That's the real nature of the self. But the body is also the self, because we practically think it to be so and behave in that way. So in the, in, in a practical sense, in a transactional sense, we have a *sharira*, the body. Can be taken provisionally as the self, because we practically take it to be the self. Body is *ātmā*, senses are *ātmā*, mind is *ātmā*. These are all dismissed by Vedanta afterwards. This is not the real self. But one who has conquered the *ātmā* here, it applies to the body, the senses, the mind. These have been conquered. Conquered means what? So, steadiness. This is something I've seen in many spiritual seekers, especially the advanced spiritual seekers, both monks and lay persons. At every level, there is steadiness, even physically also. That's why Swami Vivekananda, especially, and other monks also, they insisted on health. See, at one time, bodily health will break down. That's the very nature of the body. One disease comes, age comes, body begins to weaken and deteriorate. Because it will go one day. But as far as possible, and as long as possible, one must make all efforts to maintain the body in good health. Good health is more conducive to spirituality. Good health is more conducive to a happier mind. A healthy mind, you, healthy body, the old saying goes. So it is true. Good health is conducive to a happier mind, and a healthy, happy mind is more conducive to spirituality. I heard from somebody that Swami Pavitra used to say, "Do not abuse the horse you cannot dismount from." The horse means you're riding the horse of the body. No matter how much you say, "I'm not the body, not the mind," you're not able to dismount from it right now. You're not able to see it objectively as an instrument right now. So it is always good sense to take care of the body. A healthy body, strong body, as far as possible. Similarly, mind and the senses. Steadiness here would mean focus. One thing I've seen among many of the senior monks is exceptional focus. What they're studying, what they are doing, they're almost unaware of their surroundings. So reading a book, I've seen a number of cases of monks. You walk into the room, they're not aware of your presence. They're doing some work, maybe cleaning the room. I've seen young monks, novices, cleaning the shrine. They do it with such intense focus. You can even see this in Belur. But once the pandemic is over, those who go, this, you can see that sometimes the Brahmacharis, the novices, they're cleaning the shrine of Sri Ramakrishna or the Holy Mother, and you see what, what concentration and focus. They don't look around. So many people are coming and going. They're always working there. And you can see how with cloth, they're cleaning even the little layer of dust that might be in one part of the grill of the, of the window or the door, in, in the shrine, removing every little particle of dust.
Once, a professor from Vishva Bharati, that's the university in Shantiniketan, which was established by Rabindranath Tagore, Shantiniketan. So Rabindranath's room is there, and it's been preserved as a museum, a heritage site. And so, and that university has faced many ups and downs, political problems. So one professor once asked me, "How is it that the work done by the Ramakrishna Mission is so, uh, effective and disciplined and, and so smoothly it flows so smoothly, and we have so many problems here in our institution?" I said, "In an inspired moment, I had just before that I had gone to see Rabindranath Tagore's room in Vishva Bharati, in the place Uttarayan. And then I said to him, 'Look, when you go right here where Rabindranath Tagore's room is there, you will find there is graffiti outside the room. There's a layer of dust over everything in the room. You can see it from the window outside. You can't go into the room, but you can see it from the window.' And if you go to Swami Vivekananda's room," says, "they come to, who passed away long before Rabindranath Tagore, you go to Swami Vivekananda's room in Belur Math. I can guarantee that if you go inside, you put your finger on the floor, not just the bed or the chair or the table, put your finger on the floor anywhere and rub, you will not get a particle of dust from there. And everything is big and span and shiny." "How do you know? How can you guarantee it?" "I can guarantee it because I did it myself. Every one of us did it. We, so particularly, we cleaned everything. So we had the, you know, like by turns, we had these duties of taking care, maintaining the place." Now, I said, "See, the people who work here, um, in Tagore's room, and they are not volunteers. They are not inspired by core ideas. They are employees. They have been given a job. They have their paid employees. And some of them do a good job, some of them don't. But, yeah, none of them are particularly inspired. But they might not even have read a single page of the core works. Whereas we who are maintaining that room, Vivekananda's room, all of us are completely dedicated. We have given up everything in life to follow Vivekananda." Now, it is the same spirit which is transferred into the classroom, into the office, into the other aspects of the work, both in the Ramakrishna Mission and also in Shantiniketan. This is the difference. So the focus, focus is there. I've seen this in many great meditators. Um, many monks have seen, both young and old, when they work with, with the focus and the determination also. Steadiness is a determination. The work they take up, they finish, no matter what the obstacles. And this, this sometimes there is a diligent approach to spiritual life. In our intellectual life, you take up one thing, a nice project, leave it half-finished, take up another thing, leave it half-finished, and take up a third thing, and then end up being frustrated. See, the mind requires focus, flow, and completion. So if you don't do that, the result is not that enrichment which one would expect from taking up intellectual work or even our creative work, let alone spirituality. If we don't complete it, if we don't put our all into it, the result is actually often a kind of frustration, unhappiness. Focus, steadiness in the mind, a sign of a *sattvic* mind is a happy mind. And it's a happy, light, and joyful and clean mind, which actually has a downward effect on the body also. This, not just that the physical body, when it's strong and healthy, it'll, uh, keep, it is useful for your mind to make your mind free for spiritual practices. But the opposite also, if the mind is kept healthy and happy and in good spirit, it affects the body. I have actually seen doctors. So there's one doctor, I remember, a monk. The first thing, and you always remember, a brilliant person. I mean, he is high-ranking in his medical examinations, and he is a brilliant singer, one of our leading classical singers in our order. Is, uh, many people don't know, he's a sculptor. And, and so many, so many talents. Somebody, one senior monk said, "God is so unfair. He doesn't distribute talents equally. To one person, he gives all, just about everything. And to the rest of us, nothing. We really feel like beggars." So I said, "Look at this boy now. And as a doctor, too, um, he was, he is very popular as a doctor also. Why? One reason above other all other things, I'm sure he's a very, he is a skilled doctor. But above all is what you might call, you know, the bedside manner of a doctor. The, how he communicates with the patients. The first thing, whatever problem you go to, I'm sure if you go to him with a terminal illness also, his response is, is a flat out, 'Oh, it's nothing. You'll be fine very soon. That's perfectly alright. Oh, nothing to worry about.' He'll give this broad smile, and which lights up the entire room, and clap you on the back. And, and I remember another doctor, the monk, who is equally skilled, even if, and if not even more, very serious, wonderful monk, but rather grim. And so if you go to him, even with, I suppose, a cold or something that a paracetamol, Tylenol would do, he would shake his head dolefully and said, 'Oh no, you get this sinking feeling in your heart.' No, I'm exaggerating, but it makes a difference. It makes a difference. Actually, I read some very interesting case where in the United States, they're always worried about getting sued. So, um, they wanted the insurance companies wanted to find out which doctors are likely to get sued more. So their, I think their insurance premiums would be higher, probably. So they did a study, and at first, they were confused about the results of the study because there seemed to be no connection between the qualifications of the doctor or their publications or their seniority, years of practice. No correlation at all. Highly qualified doctors were getting sued, and less qualified doctors were not getting sued. Senior doctors were getting sued, and junior doctors were not getting sued. So what is the, what is the correlation? What is the factor determining? Is there anything at all, or is it totally random? And then they found one thing. They found that the doctors whom the patients liked were less, much less likely to get sued than the doctors whom the patients did not establish a rapport with. And that's understandable. If you really like your GP, and even if the doctor makes a mistake, you're much less likely to sue this person who's friendly, who's nice to you, and who, with whom we have this nice relationship. And so it's not really a function of skill. It's not really a function of qualification. It's not even really a function of experience. It's more a function of the rapport you have established with the patient. And they said, I think there are studies to show that this rapport is actually useful in, in the healing process. Patients heal better. So anyway, my point here was that steadiness, physical, sensory, and mental, and a kind of positive attitude. It sounds right when I put it that way, but a natural positiveness, which is the, all these things are very helpful. This is called *māna*.
Then he says, "So one is alike in honor and dishonor." Alike in honor and dishonor. It's an important thing because, generally, what happens is we are very afraid of being insulted or dishonored, and we are eager to hear a few words of praise. The *sādhaka*, the spiritual person's attitude is, whenever I face suffering, so for example, insult and dishonor, my *pāpa* is being reduced. All the accumulated bad karma is being expended thereby. And when I get praise and, you know, people honor me, I'm actually losing my good karma, which could have been used to put to better use. I'm losing all my credit. So, you have many instances of spiritual practitioners, advanced spiritual seekers in every religion who seem to actively seek out or even revel in dishonor. And some people dislike them, or people ignore them, slight them, they're fine with it. And extremely uncomfortable or annoyed if people try to praise them. So this is the logic behind it. Here is an interesting analysis. In Vedanta, we classify persons into these four categories: *Pāmar*, *Vishayi*, *Sādhaka*, and *Siddha*. *Pāmar* is the lowest, lowest in the sense of a person who's who is sort of instinctive, almost just almost animalish, driven by just the motive of pleasure and gain, *artha* and *kāma*, even just pleasure. So in an extreme case, it might be like a drug addict or an alcoholic or somebody who does not care for anything. Maybe his own life is falling apart, but only that little pleasure which, that person is addicted to. *Pāmar* is an instinctive kind of life, below the level of what you might consider a decent moral person in the world. Above this is the *Vishayi*. *Vishayi* means literally worldly person who's interested in *vishaya*, but this is a decent worldly person. What you want, one might call a *dhārmika*, a moral, a decent householder, a decent person in the world. It basically, they are the backbone of society everywhere. They are interested in, they are interested in worldly goals, but within the limits of morality. They would, they would not overstep. They like to think of themselves as good people. "We have certain standards. We will not go beyond that." It's not just not being caught by the police or the IRS, but it's just my own moral, my own conscience. So this is called a *Vishayi*. This person is interested in *karma*, in, in gain and prosperity and, and pleasure, but on the basis of *dharma*, within the limits of *dharma*, within the limits of morality and ethics. Then higher than this is a person who is a spiritual seeker, who is no longer particularly interested in *artha* and *kāma*. Maybe in the world, maybe the person has a job and a family to take care of, fine. But the goal is now spiritual enlightenment. The goal is a spiritual quest. Now, almost everybody here belongs to this category. So we are all in this category where we are, this is called *Sādhaka*. *Sādhaka* is still within, very much within the limits of morality and ethics. On the basis of that, no longer is the pursuit of *artha*, another pursuit is *moksha*, enlightenment, God realization. We may think it's too ambitious to say that I'm seeking enlightenment or God realization, but we are actually. There's no harm in owning up to that, that we all of us, we are, it's good. We are seekers of enlightenment, all of us. So this is called a *Sādhaka*. A spiritual seeker. We have come to this level. And then finally, above this is the, the perfected one, the enlightened one, *Siddha*. *Siddha* is the perfected one. They are above us. What do they want? They don't want *dharma* or even *moksha*. They've already attained enlightenment. That's why Shankaracharya can confidently sing the rule, "I do not want *artha*, *karma*, even *dharma*." *Dharma* means the, you know, the shopkeeping kind of *dharma* where I will increase my good karma and reduce my bad karma so that I can go to heaven afterwards. That, that term, I'm not interested in. Or even *moksha*, because I'm, I know I'm always free. So that is the *Siddha*, perfected one.
Now, how do they deal with this, this question of *māna*? *Māna*, honor, respect, being highly esteemed by one's fellow men. And *apamāna*, means being insulted and demeaned and ignored and slighted. So how do they deal with this? So the *pāmar* is the most degraded in the sense, he hates himself, has the most horrible view about himself or herself, and is full of, uh, dislike and hatred and this, and despises others also. So you can just bring to your mind, I have seen some very miserable people, maybe homeless, maybe partially mentally ill also, maybe, maybe addicted to drugs or something. We have all seen the scene, you know, that life is falling apart and sort of walking down the street and yelling abuse at everybody. So there is a deep self-hatred there, and there is a dislike for everybody else. So that's at the level of, sunk in the level of *apamāna*. It is at the lowest level, has demeaned oneself. Then above that is the, um, *vishayi*, the, you know, the decent moral person in the world. And what does that person do? That person actively tries to avoid *apamāna*, actively tries to avoid dishonor or insult or being slighted, and actively tries to get honor. "I want to be admired by others. I want to get plenty of likes, Facebook likes or something, friends or something." That is a very good indicator. "I don't want to be disliked. I want to be liked." This is the level of *vishayi*, who actively, um, tries to avoid misery and, you know, insult. And notice, there's nothing wrong in this. How would you help a person who is at the lowest level, whose life has fallen apart, who is angry or has sort of self-hatred and hates everybody else? The only way to have, you can't, that person cannot jump from there to Nirvana. That person has to first get his or her life together again. You'll have to help that person to, you know, have a regular day, to get a job, to look after his or her health, to establish decent relationships with others. Only by coming from the *pāmar* level to the *vishayi* level. In America, they say, "Get your act together and get your life together." So that level. And there, one of the biggest tools for coming to that level is to actively seek the approval of others and be afraid of the disapproval of others. Uh, the, you know, insult, dishonor. It helps to develop oneself at that level. Then you go higher to the level of the spiritual seeker, which is what should interest us. There, one must strip away the ego, which has come, which has come to depend on the approval of others, which has come to depend on the like, the praise of others. And the opposite, one must do that. One must be quite comfortable with being ignored or slighted or insulted. There's no harm. You are already on the highest possible path of human evolution, that is spiritual realization. So it is actually helpful to reduce the ego. The, which ego? The ego which has now been properly developed. It was perverted at the lowest level. At the level of the decent worldly person, it has now been properly developed. "I'm a balanced person now. I'm what you might call a normal person." Normally, it's not particularly normal, within quotes. So you will find in the lives of the saints in every religion, they actively seek out, sometimes it may seem strange, they seek out dishonor and they actively avoid honor. Just the opposite of the earlier stage. I'm so, Saint Francis, for example, this very nice book, "The Little Flowers of Saint Francis," very inspiring. It's devotional, but and very inspiring. Often, many would come to him to become monks in his Franciscan order. He would tell them to seek out, you know, dishonor. Put on the sackcloth, go and where people make fun of you, the children throw stones at you when you go. You go through that process. Your ego is crushed. I've seen in ashrams, often we were subjected to scoldings by senior monks, which may seem, which may seem, uh, unfair at the time. A lot of scolding for a minor problem. This quote, that minor mistake is not the point of the scolding. The point of the scolding is what is called ego crushing and steamrolling the, the ego. I remember when I got my first big scolding from a monk for a mistake. I, I may think it was a minor, but anyway, probably it was not by my minor. I, I was put in charge of the kitchen, and very, very poor kitchen in charge, very impractical kitchen in charge. So once, this monk, he had fasted the whole day. It was Durga Puja. He had gone out to the city, to the place where the ashram was, to see the different images of Durga and come back. So he was one of the senior most monks in our ashram. And my one of my responsibilities was to keep a plate of food for, uh, him when he comes back. But the day before that, he had not eaten, neither the day before that also. And on this day, he still had not come and was waiting with his food. And everybody had eaten and gone to their rooms for the customary afternoon siesta. Then at that time, a whole group of devotees suddenly arrived, and there was no food. So I thought, "What do I do?" Ah, that monk is probably not going to come back. Let me take the food of that monk and divide it equally among this family which has just come. I thought I was doing a brilliant thing, and I did that. And I thought, "Even if that monk comes back and asks for food, he'll probably be very happy because I've read so many times, my monks are so happy that I'll go hungry and let others eat." And as these devotees had finished their food and were getting up, that monk arrived. To my, uh, anxiety, he called, "Ah, I'm so hungry today. Where is the food? Come, come, my boy." I had to say, "But there's no food." "Why isn't there food?" "Oh, look at, they just ate it." I pointed to them. So I got one of the worst scoldings of my life ever at that time. And the monk stormed off, and I was stunned. I was so shocked. I was nearly in tears. Another monk came to me and said, "Why this VP face? What's wrong with you?" I was a brand new novice. I said, "Well, it's my fault, you know, that Swami has gone hungry today." And the moment, here that Swami said, "Oh boy, I'm not getting in the middle between these two of you. You handle this yourself." And then finally, the head of the ashram, um, he heard about it. He asked me about it. That night, when we were walking, the senior most monk and I said, "It is really my fault. I did a stupid thing." And this is what happened. And the head had a very different perspective on all of it. He said, "Oh, I'm so happy. It's wonderful. It's good for you, and it's good for that monk too." I said, "Why?" He said, "See, one should not always hear praises. I was getting worried about you. Everybody seemed to like you and praise you a lot. I thought this is not good for this young boy. It's good to be scolded like this. And that's good for you." And as for that Swami, he says, "Swami, what kind of fasting is it where you deliberately fast? It's when you actually want to eat and you don't get food. That's the real fasting. It's good that he experienced it." So that was his way of solving it. But the ending was good. Let me not, uh, skip that part. The ending was very good. That's senior Swami, and I'm so, I still remember that. He, at dinner, he called me, and I was so scared that he's going to scold me again in front of everybody. He sat down, and the food that he had on his plate, he divided it into two, and he made me eat with him, and we ate together. And I was so, so that's, that's very wonderful. But the point was, honor and dishonor in spiritual life. When you are in the third stage of *sādhaka*, dishonor is actually, if you consciously, if you can process it, it's very good. It's genuinely good for one's spiritual evolution. So many such stories are there. For example, Saint Francis, that book itself, I remember, uh, one, one story is there. A rich man invited Saint Francis to his home in order to test him. We have to invite the Franciscan brothers and feed them like a, you know, food, dinner. So after food, Saint Francis said that, "Oh, I'm so full. I'm going to retire and go to bed." So he went to the bedroom. And this man wanted to see the rich man, the host wanted to see what this saint would do. He was so famous, he wanted to really see how saintly he is. And he listened from the room nearby, and he heard the saint's snoring. He had a full meal, and he jumped into bed and started snoring. But the man didn't give up. He persisted. He carefully listened from outside the room, and late in the night, when everybody was asleep in the house, Saint Francis, Saint Francis stealthily got up and got down on his knees, and "My Lord, my God, my Lord, my God," whispering like this throughout the night, throughout the night, he's praying to to God. So, "My Lord, oh my God, my Lord." Now, this man was so impressed. Actually, he, he became a monk in the Franciscan order the next day itself. He gave up all his wealth. And, uh, one does not care for honor and dishonor. Once self-image does not depend on what others say. So, one, one story I might have told you. In Uttarakhand, I saw this Vedantic monk. His name was, um, I keep Narayanananda Giri. Narayanananda Giri. Very learned monk. He is the one who told me the story of, yes, *yāvo yāvo* such, which has become very popular because of that YouTube lecture. Is this true or is that was that true or is this true? The Mandukya Karika story, which Janaka and Ashtavakra, which I shared. He had told me the story. So I had made his acquaintance when I was in the Himalayas there, in Gangotri, and other monks also respected him. But he was a kind of a little bit of a rebel. And so one of the stories I heard about him was, it's a small place, actually. The community of monks there is quite small because it's, it's, uh, it's really a small place. And I don't know why, but monks tend to be quite gossipy. So once a couple of monks came to this Narayanananda Giri and said, "Swami, do you know what they are saying about you in this, that ashram in India? You know what they are saying about you?" And the Swami replied immediately. He said, "It's all true." In Hindi, he said, "*Sab sachcha*." They were taken aback. They didn't even have a chance to seek or convey the gossip. What their people said, talking about you. He just said, "Oh, whatever they are saying, it's all true." And then, "What do you mean?" He said, "You wanted to know that there isn't truth in the gossip? You know, the, whatever talk they have about me, I'm giving you a blank check. You putting whatever you like there. I'm not interested." And so, look at the attitude. I'm not at all interested in what people are saying about me, good or bad. It literally makes no difference to me. Ramana Maharshi's example is there. Ramana Maharshi, somebody wrote an article in a paper criticizing him, and they sent a copy to him also. Not only that, the Maharshi sat and carefully corrected the grammatical mistakes and improved the language and sent back the copy to the author, to the bewilderment of the people in the ashram who were outraged. They said, "But he was criticizing you. Didn't you notice?" He said, "Oh no, he's criticizing some fellow called Ramana. I'm not Ramana." There was a newspaper editor whom Swami Vivekananda was once praising. And then somebody remarked that, "But he doesn't like you. He has criticized you." And Swami Vivekananda immediately replied, "What of that? Can I not see the good qualities in a person even if he does not like me personally?" So Sri Ramakrishna himself was criticized so much. They called him mad and what not. Now, see the interesting thing is, Sri Ramakrishna was praised to the skies also. Ramachandra, that Girish Ghosh, in his lifetime, what is the highest praise one can get? They called him God, an incarnation of God. And Sri Ramakrishna did not like that kind of talk. It amused him. He asked Girish, "Ramachandra, what is it that you see in me? You're calling me God." And he was not moved. But notice, you can't stop it. Sri Ramakrishna, he scolded those people who were spreading this that he's an avatar. But that didn't stop them. They did it all the more. "If he's, if he's saying that he's not an avatar, that means all the more that he must be an avatar. Look how, how humble he is." Now, I was just thinking, if he could not stop these people who were his devotees, who were devoted to him, if he couldn't make them shut up, how can he make his critics shut up? So that's impossible. You cannot keep, make people in the world shut up about anything. Absolutely. Do not be worried about *māna* and *apamāna*, honor and dishonor.
Next, he says, "See, look at the verse here. This is, um, the controlled one who has controlled the *ātmā*." Here, "controlled the *ātmā*" means body, senses, mind are under control. How are they under control? We have seen all the Karma Yoga and Upasana, everything that has, all the spiritual practices have been done. The journey is from *jitatmā* to *prashāntātmā*. From the controlled self to the peaceful self. These two words in juxtaposition are very interesting. Of the one who has already controlled oneself by these earlier spiritual practices, and that one becomes *prashānta*, means the, the deeply serene, controlled self to the serene self, control self to the self which is beyond anxiety and sorrow and disturbance. *Prashānta*. How does, how does one become serene? One attains one's serene self, he says, by *paramātmā*. The word means actually by being absorbed in the presence of the *paramātmā*. Now, what is *paramātmā*? You can be, call it God also. You invoke the presence of God and be, be in the presence of God all the time. In the puja that we do, if you have noticed, the traditional Hindu ritual, the puja that we do. So when I do the Sri Ramakrishna puja, at one point, early in the ritual, there is a short sequence where we invoke the presence of the deity, Krishna. These are the hand movements. Krishna, my Lord, do thou come here. Be present here. That means his blood is everywhere, but be manifest here. Yes, here, *sannihitā*, be established here. Yes, be manifest here. Be, uh, rooted here. And yes, and turn towards me, face me. And being established here, accept our worship. Now, this is the *paramātmā*. Means in our life, we invoke the presence of God, *paramātmā*. Um, we do it by, by worshiping God through a service of all beings, Karma Yoga. We do it by Bhakti Yoga, by the love of God, by loving God above all things. We do it by Dhyana, meditation, which will be taught now, by focusing our mind on God. Ex, not to the exclusion of other things. And of course, finally, we do it by Gyani Yoga, by which we realize that God alone is present right here. "I and the world that I experience is the divinity." When Vedanta tells me that is the reality of this universe, of the objective universe, which I call God, behind this body and mind, the reality behind this body and mind. How do I find that? By an examination of the body, of the mind, beyond that, the unchanging light of consciousness. That is my reality, the *sākshi chaitanya*, the witness consciousness. And the world, the one unchanging in the midst of all changing things, is that one existence everywhere, which you experience everywhere. Everything else is just name and form.
being imposed upon it. So the names and forms keep changing, but that one underlying existence, sat, and the chit within me, pure consciousness, which I am not within me, which I am actually really, and the sat, which is manifesting in this universe, are one reality. That's the meaning of tattva. That's the real practice of paramatma here. Paramatma, supreme self. An interesting thing is Ramanujacharya, the great master of Vishishta Advaita Vedanta, in his commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, on this verse, he says, "Supreme Self here means yourself." Which is surprising, actually. Because if you see Ramanuja's siddhanta, his his philosophy, his philosophy is, we are not the body, not the mind. We are the witness consciousness. That's the real nature of the jiva. That's the atma, the real self. And beyond this is God, Narayana or Vishnu, which is paramatma, supreme self. What is the relationship between atma and paramatma? They are not the same thing. Supreme Self and individual self. The real individual self is a part, a part, an amsha or shesha of the Supreme Self. You are a part of Narayana. You are not Narayana. You are a part of Narayana as much as a cell is the part of this body. The cell is definitely this body, but only a part, a tiny, tiny, inconsequential part. So similarly, you discover yourself as the consciousness beyond body and mind. But after, so this is the process of gyana, in knowledge. And after that, according to Ramanuja, after that, you have to establish a devotional relationship between you, the self which you have discovered, and the Supreme Self. You are like a ray of light from the sun. You are not the whole of the sun. There's a whole and part relationship between you and the whole. This is, this is Ramanuja's vishishta. In this verse, when paramatma, established in the presence of the paramatma, you would expect he would invoke God here, the Supreme Self. But in his commentary, he makes it very clear, paramatma means yourself, your real nature, not the body and the mind. Supreme. So then, why are you calling it Supreme Self? It's very clear. It's not God that is being talked about here. It is your real nature. Then why are you calling it paramatma? Means supreme or beyond. Beyond what? This is beyond the bodily self, beyond the mental self. The bodily self and the mental self, which had been controlled in the first stage. Beyond that is the supreme self, the pure consciousness which you are, the real, your real nature. So here, in one of these instances, where Ramanuja agrees with Shankaracharya, both of them say that paramatma here means pure consciousness, your real nature. You find that and be established in that. So that is the conclusion. Paramatma that helps you to be peaceful in all instances of life. But first, first of all, jitatma, a steadiness. And then prashanth, means the serene self, controlled self, serene self. Uncontrolled self, directly jump to serene self? Not possible. All right, let us see the activity here. The next verse is very nice. Talks about gyana and vignana. So interesting verse, especially in the light of Gyan Maharaja's book on Vijnana Vedanta. So we'll see that verse next time. Poonam ji has written, Krishna talks about the same thing. Chapter 2, verse. Titiksha is a solution. Yes, titiksha is a solution. To means forbearance. The contacts with the senses produce heat and cold, pleasure and pain. Um, how do you deal with that in spiritual life? And Krishna says, there's no way, there's no solution to that. You have to, you have to bear all that. You have to forbear all that. The diksha, steadiness. Titiksha is the way to practice steadiness to begin with. Then Rick says, studies show that meditators tend to have more stable physiologies. Yes, less reactive to stress, quicker and easier to recover from it. True. Truth. So many such studies are coming out, actually. Clinical studies done. It's good for our health to be also to be steady. Meditation gives steadiness. But steadiness also is helpful in meditation. Here's Krishna prescribes it before meditation. A steady person can meditate much more easily. See this steadiness, this what is called here, jitatma, control over body, senses, and mind. This is, this comes from the purification which has resulted from karma yoga. This enables all spiritual practices to be much easier and more effective. Without the initial preparation of the mind, purification of the mind, karma yoga, unselfish action. You don't feel like being unselfish. You like the idea of being unselfish, but it's not so easy to be unselfish, engaged in unselfish action. Then bhakti yoga. I will love God with all my one-pointed love. I, I will take all the, you know, the passion which is flowing towards the world in 100 different channels and gather it up, pull it out from there, and direct it towards God. Doesn't happen. We don't feel that love for God. It seems mechanical. Our bhakti seems mechanical. Then meditation. Sit in absolute serenity, concentrated on the mantra, on the visualization of the deity in your deity meditation practice. Yes. But if the mind is not pure, what will happen is either there'll be no taste in meditation. It'll seem boring. And if you force the mind to do it, it'll either fall asleep or be restless. Gyani yoga, the witness consciousness beyond body and mind. Either if the mind is not purified, what will happen is either one will not get it at all. What's being talked about? I don't get it. Or one may get it, but it will not feel real. It will feel theoretical. Only the body and the mind will feel real. All of these are rooted in the impurity of the mind. Purity of the mind makes all the practices easier and effective. Swami, yes, and that is the swami. Yes, he's fighting. Um, right now, he's fighting against coronavirus there. And all our hospitals, actually, are engaged. If you look up in the Belur Math website, hospital in the Lucknow hospital, in the Vrindavan hospital, all our hospitals in India are full-time engaged. Full-time means they have coronavirus wards for corona patients. Go with patients. Not only that, many of our institutes, I'm getting the news just about every day, schools and colleges have been emptied out and they have been turned into COVID safe houses so that people can come and recover there. Krishnamurti Vishwanathan says, thank you for the comment about good health being conducive for spiritual work, Swamiji. How can one become? Can one avoid becoming too obsessed with health goals and do it in the attitude of karma yoga? I often think about the tension of wanting to work for optimal health versus remembering the body's temper and doesn't belong to us and therefore not really in our control. Well, one thing is sure that if if I'm ill, it will really not be in our control. It's only when there's a some amount of fitness and health, then the body is actually to some extent under our control. And health also, as we now know, and it's a lot of it depends on lifestyle choices. So regarding it as an instrument, we're always told in the Ramakrishna Order, when you become a monk, your body now belongs to God. So just as you would not damage the instruments, machines in the ashram, you would not want to damage the body also. Cordelia says, the purpose of making monks beg for food and exercise to decrease one's ego? I, I think so. Uh, we're supposed to beg for food from three houses or five houses. Uh, it's also a good way of getting out of washing dishes, you know, cooking. You have to wash so many dishes. And if you have, if you beg for food, you only your own begging bowl to wash. That's a big chore. In one of our ashrams in Orange County, in LA, in Trabuco Canyon, with a very beautiful ashram there, a retreat center, so they have a unique approach to washing dishes. After food is done, they lock the doors. They will not open the doors until all the dishes are washed. So nobody can run for it after food. So you all have to wash the dishes. Girish says, how did Sri Ramakrishna describe what it was like to be him, like to be enlightened? You must have asked been asked that several times. Yes, in the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, you find many descriptions of his own spiritual experiences, numerous descriptions of his visions. And if you match it with the Gita, with the Panchadashi, other Vedantic texts, you begin to see how it is different. This is a question that actually Arjuna asks Sri Krishna at the end of the second chapter. What is it like to be enlightened? Sthitaprajna gets. How, how is it different? How does an enlightened person walk and talk and sit? And lit by that, he does not literally mean walk and talk. He means walking means how does he go around interacting with people and objects and things in the world? How does he sit means how does this person withdraw from the world and meditate? And talk means how does this person react to good and bad things in the world, which you know, pleasant and unpleasant things? So how do we do that? And how would an enlightened person do that? And so what difference does enlightenment make? And Sri Krishna's answer is one of the most inspired parts of the Bhagavad Gita. This titan, those few verses. Gloria says, Jesus also said, why do you call me good? God alone is good. Yes. Well, you can't make either critics shut up or even your admirers shut up. So it's best to give up that attempt. All right, we'll meet tomorrow again. Om Shanti.