164. Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 14, Verse 6 I Swami Sarvapriyananda

[SPEAKER_00]: O, Vasudeva, Suttam, Devam, Kamsa, Charnuram, Ardhanam, Devaki, Paramah, Nandam, Krishna, Vandijagad, Guru.
[SPEAKER_00]: So this is our Bhagavad Gita class which we have been playing Dilling Quint for quite some time now.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've been traveling and missed out a number of classes and we got a lot of mail for it also saying please please can we have those classes back again or could you complete the Bhagavad Gita?
[SPEAKER_00]: That's going to take some time.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are on the 14th chapter and we had started the 14th chapter
[SPEAKER_00]: before I went up on various travels.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we have done the first, we have read the first five verses of the 14th chapter.
[SPEAKER_00]: The 14th chapter is called Guna Treyah Vibhaga Yoga.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the science of the Guna's and what are the Guna's?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's something that you come across all the time when you're studying Vedanta.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Saptwar Rajas and Thamas.
[SPEAKER_00]: often translated as qualities, characteristics, actually technically these are components of Maya of Procrithy.
[SPEAKER_00]: They are more like one of the older descriptions is in a rope you have these fibers or threads they are intertwined and then you make a rope like braids in a rope like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is I think of about the double helix structure of the DNA or something like that or just a just a thread which has these fine strings inside it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, these three are components of Maya according to Vedanta, all of the universe is created by a projection of these three as mixture of these three.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, whatever exists in the universe, whatever we are seeing right now, whatever we are experiencing right now is a mixture of Satu, Rajas and Thamas, the three qualities.
[SPEAKER_00]: And an understanding of these gunners is important for our spiritual life, for the practical aspects of spiritual life.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's very good psychology actually.
[SPEAKER_00]: I remember there's a caution before you go into it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's quite, it's good psychology is pretty powerful.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can immediately see how, when you read it, you'll see how it can be applied immediately.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the temptation is always to apply to others.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not meant to be applied like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ah, I see, you're tamasik.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're tamasik, fellow, or that's so rajasik.
[SPEAKER_00]: Implication being that I am satvic.
[SPEAKER_00]: somehow satisfies the good one and the reges and the Thomas for the bad ones, but all three are needed to make this world.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's psychological characteristics, but there are also physical, in fact sort of everything in the universe is supposed to be a mixture of these three.
[SPEAKER_00]: I remember before teaching us this stuff, the monk who was the head of the monastery where I became a monk, where I joined, he told us, he gave us a caution.
[SPEAKER_00]: She said, apply to yourselves, don't apply to others, apply to yourselves.
[SPEAKER_00]: So in the first five verses, what was done?
[SPEAKER_00]: Krishna Pramises in the first verse, Param Bhuviyam Prabhakshyami, Gyanana Nam Gyanam Uttamam, yet Gyanthva, Muneya Sarve, Param Siddhemi Toghata, I shall teach you once again that most excellent knowledge by which the passages have attained to the highest goal.
[SPEAKER_00]: What is that most exiled in Trump's knowledge?
[SPEAKER_00]: Vedanta, I'm going to repeat that in a new format.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then the second verse said, The second verse said, The second verse said, The second verse said, The second verse of the 14 chapter.
[SPEAKER_00]: But what is the nature of this ultimate reality which you will attain?
[SPEAKER_00]: This moksha, he says, you will come, you become unto, like unto me.
[SPEAKER_00]: So as God, he's talking about Himself as God, Krishna, we know is the incarnation of God.
[SPEAKER_00]: So in my real nature, what is that real nature?
[SPEAKER_00]: Vedanta, of course, we say, Satjad, Anand, the existence consciousness, please.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you realize you are that, you become one with me.
[SPEAKER_00]: you already are one with me Vedanta but are you but anyway in whichever school of Vedanta it's that finally we attain a divine status so that's the common understanding in different schools of Vedanta and as a result of that he says
[SPEAKER_00]: you will at the time of creation you are not thrown forth like everybody else all other beings you are not born in these little cages of flesh and blood again and going to the cycle of birth and death you are free of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is freedom.
[SPEAKER_00]: And, at the time of literally means the cosmic dissolution, at the time of the dissolution of the universe, end of the universe, you are not shaken, you are not terrified, it's all ending.
[SPEAKER_00]: Pralaya can also mean the death, the physical death, the falling apart of this particular physical body.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, at the point of death, the enlightened one is not shaken, and because they know that they are not this body.
[SPEAKER_00]: And at the time of cosmic dissolution, if you interpret it that way, imagine the universe is ending.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're okay with it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Being there done that.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know it does not affect you.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like the movie ending.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's all right.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the movie only.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nothing else is, nothing is lost.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then the third verse says,
[SPEAKER_00]: about how the universe is created.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mamayonir Madh Brahmatasmin garbhaṁ dadhāmiyaḥam sambhāva sarva bhūtānaṁ tatōbhāvati bhārata.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, Maya is the womb into which I put my seed, Krishna says, as God.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, this divine act of creation is the commentator we saw, explains what is meant by that.
[SPEAKER_00]: In Vedanta, this act of creation is,
[SPEAKER_00]: You are, or God, or Ishwar, or Brahman, is limitless consciousness.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in Maya, this is reflected as reflected consciousness, and thus it appears as a sentient being.
[SPEAKER_00]: To repeat, Brahman appears as Jiva.
[SPEAKER_00]: Limitless pure consciousness appears as a sentient being.
[SPEAKER_00]: What's a sentient being?
[SPEAKER_00]: That's you.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not just one sentient being, millions and millions, that's all of us.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, the ultimate reality is reflected, imagine going to a barber shop and you create a cosmos by yourself, you sit there and then you suddenly surrounded by all these mirrors, you see yourself in all those mirrors, endless reflections of yourself.
[SPEAKER_00]: something like that, Cosmic Barbershop, and so I won't extend that analogy any further.
[SPEAKER_00]: God going there for a haircut or a shave or something, now then
[SPEAKER_00]: Number four, Sarva Yoni Shukanteya, Mutaya Sambhavantiya, Tarsam Ramahamahad Yonir, Ahambhiya Pradappita.
[SPEAKER_00]: Repeat the same thing, that all these forms, all these beings living and non-living are produced from prakriti.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the seed comes from me, that I, consciousness, I reflect myself as the reflected consciousness there.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am existence, I mean Scott or Brahman.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am existence, I lend existence to all this universe.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I am on and the bliss, that's why stuff in the universe seems valuable, seems worth searching for.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then the fifth verse, he gets down to it, describing the three gurus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Satwam Rajasthamaiti, Guna-Prakriti-Sambhava, Nibhad-Nanti-Maha-Baha, Dihedi-Hinam-Abdiya-Yam.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, we are tied into this limited existence as sentient beings to bodies and minds, which are produced by Prokurethi by nature.
[SPEAKER_00]: And what are they produced made of, they are made of the three Gunas, Satva, Rajas, and Thamas.
[SPEAKER_00]: And these bind us to our limited status, this as these beings.
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, why do the binders?
[SPEAKER_00]: Because we do not know who are what we are.
[SPEAKER_00]: If we knew who are what we are, then we would not be pound.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is not that the bodies themselves are to blame, this physical bodies.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean Vedanta often talks of it as like a cage of flesh and blood as if we are trapped in it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not necessarily, if you think about enlightened ones, they are also embodied, and they also exist amongst us, they walk and talk and eat and interact with us, with us, and thank God they do, that's why we get this genuine spiritual teachings, so they are with us, and here they don't seem to have a problem.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, the real problem is not even embodiment, the real problem is not even the three goings, the real problem is not even living life in a body, the real problem is our not doing who or what we are and thereby becoming attached or identified with these bodies and then the problem starts.
[SPEAKER_00]: Enlightened one is in the body, acts with us, lives amongst us, and yet is not not with us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yet knows their own, they know their own transcendent nature.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, that's a recap.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll look back upon what we have.
[SPEAKER_00]: Covered the ground covered so far.
[SPEAKER_00]: Moving on, now the rest of the chapter will deal with the science of the three gurus, understanding it and how we can apply it in our lives.
[SPEAKER_00]: Those who like, you can repeat the verse after me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Number six.
[SPEAKER_00]: Tatra Satwam Nirmala Tatwat Tatra Satwam Nirmala Tatwat Prakashakam Anamayam Prakashakam Anamayam Sukhasanghi nabhadnati Sukhasanghi nabhadnati Gyanasanghi nabhadnati
[SPEAKER_00]: Janas Angayna, Janagha.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, first, the Satu Agoda, of these, the translation, of these, Satu are an account of its stainlessness.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is luminous and free from evil.
[SPEAKER_00]: It binds the embodied self by attachment to happiness and by attachment to knowledge.
[SPEAKER_00]: O sinless one, that is referring to Arjuna.
[SPEAKER_00]: so what has been said here.
[SPEAKER_00]: The three goonas, Sri Ramakrishna's classic description of the three robbers.
[SPEAKER_00]: So this person who is going travelling on long journey and three robbers, three highwaymen, they catch hold of him in the forest and one of them threatens to kill him, the other one says, let's just bind him into a tree.
[SPEAKER_00]: and they rob him of all his possessions.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now he's helpless and he's crying the third one, the third robber takes pity on him and says, let me free you and freeze him of the ropes and takes him, shows him the way back to the city, shows him the way home.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this man is great
[SPEAKER_00]: What is it called?
[SPEAKER_00]: Stock home syndrome or something.
[SPEAKER_00]: This man is grateful and he says, please come home with me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Come home with me.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have you have helped me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Please come home with me.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this third robber says, no, I cannot do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am a robber too.
[SPEAKER_00]: I cannot go to the city.
[SPEAKER_00]: The police are going to catch me if I go there, you know.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, I have shown you the way, but you must proceed on without me.
[SPEAKER_00]: So these are all components of material nature.
[SPEAKER_00]: Remember, in Vedanta, Sankha, in all sorts of Indian philosophy, material nature includes the mind too, not just the physical world, not just these bodies, but also prana vitality and our mind and intellect, all of it is material nature.
[SPEAKER_00]: How would you define material nature?
[SPEAKER_00]: Whatever can be experienced is material nature.
[SPEAKER_00]: So since we can experience this world, objectively experience this world, this is material.
[SPEAKER_00]: Since we can experience these bodies, they are material.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we can also experience our emotions, our ideas, that's material too.
[SPEAKER_00]: and all of it is made of Sathwar Rajas and Thamas.
[SPEAKER_00]: In this, Thamas is the destructive one.
[SPEAKER_00]: It binds us to laziness, inertia, darkness, addiction, it's downward.
[SPEAKER_00]: It takes us in a downward spiral.
[SPEAKER_00]: Rajas is dynamic, ambition, greed, energy, you know, achievement, good and bad, all sorts of things, but it's movement.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Satu is higher than that.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is balance, it is harmony, it is light, it is knowledge, luminosity, purity.
[SPEAKER_00]: So these three, among them, Thomas is destructive.
[SPEAKER_00]: The more it is there in our lives, the worse our lives become.
[SPEAKER_00]: Rajas, it can do a lot for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: It does.
[SPEAKER_00]: It takes our life upwards in the sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, you want to become rich or successful or get stuff done in the world.
[SPEAKER_00]: You need a little bit of Rajas.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it also leads to burnout and greed and conflict and friction and desire many.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, all of that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Satu is the one, why Satu is stressed, it is the one which is helpful for spiritual life.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is the one conducive to spiritual life.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, therefore, the goal will always be to push ourselves towards more Satu and less of Rajasthanthavas.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, it does not mean that if we have, if I see that I am predominant with Tamasik or Rajasik, but I want to be spiritual.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, good for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: The only thing is, be prepared for a struggle.
[SPEAKER_00]: Be prepared for a struggle.
[SPEAKER_00]: All of us, we want to be spiritual.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why we are here.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we are different, mix up, subtvarajas and tabas.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our struggles will be different.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, we have to see what kind of a structure of personality we have and then follow it accordingly.
[SPEAKER_00]: First, he takes up Satvagan.
[SPEAKER_00]: He'll take up each one in turn and tell us what are the pitfalls, what do we have to do and so on and so forth.
[SPEAKER_00]: First, Satvagan.
[SPEAKER_00]: But let's take it this way.
[SPEAKER_00]: All of all three, it's like our, you know, it's a part of our spiritual evolution.
[SPEAKER_00]: One may be lazy or unmotivated, unenergetic, unstriving, you know, I am relaxed, what is the word?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's all chill, cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now that is Thomasic.
[SPEAKER_00]: one may wake up from that and get up and start doing stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: Making changes in one's life, making changes in other people's lives and doing stuff, getting stuff in the world be attracted to do something in the world, to get something is for selfish reasons for oneself.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then one has gone from Thomas to Rajas.
[SPEAKER_00]: and then a higher faculties develop.
[SPEAKER_00]: One is no longer motivated by money making or chasing pleasure or power.
[SPEAKER_00]: One may now be interested in higher things like creativity like doing good to others, being of use to others or creativity in art and sciences and philosophy and music and
[SPEAKER_00]: all of that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Those are all septic functions because they are all functions of knowledge and intellect and in the higher functions of life.
[SPEAKER_00]: And spirituality comes in this third category.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, one may have a spiritual urge.
[SPEAKER_00]: In that case, our struggle will be to transmute the
[SPEAKER_00]: Often what happens is the tamas seems a lot like the sattva, both of them are sering quietly.
[SPEAKER_00]: Both of them are peaceful, we are not given to conflict, they may be, they may be calm, quiet people, humble, but one is lazy, the other one is a saint or trying to be a saint.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is a difference between the two and it is easy to mistake it and my meditative or I am just lazy.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, even societies can be like that, there is a well-known story of Benswami Vivekan, the goes back to India.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the late last part of the 19th century, remember it was a colonized country.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, from the ship, Sister Nevedhita, who accompanies Swami Vivekan, she looks at, she has heard so much about India, so she says to Swami Vivekan, from the ship she sees the coastline of India and says,
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh Swami, how peaceful.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Swami Vivekananda says, No, this is not peace.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is the peace of the grave.
[SPEAKER_00]: People are starving, are illiterate, are superstitious.
[SPEAKER_00]: They don't know any better.
[SPEAKER_00]: They are on the dominion of a foreign power.
[SPEAKER_00]: They don't know any better.
[SPEAKER_00]: They don't, they don't see anything else to do in life, they help less sort of.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's why it seems peaceful, nothing much is happening.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's been like that for centuries.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it, nothing stays in a status, it gets worse and worse.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it degenerates, things get worse and worse.
[SPEAKER_00]: So when Vivekananda, he did not want that.
[SPEAKER_00]: What he wanted was, now the thing is, yes, he wanted spirituality.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's a spiritual master.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't go directly from being good for nothing to being a saint.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's be from go from good for nothing to be good for something and then be good for the sake of being good.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the path lies from Thomas to Rajas to Saktva.
[SPEAKER_00]: Whether it is in our personal life, whether it is in the life of a community or a society or an organization.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they are deep meanings, differently for spiritual life.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is for spiritual life, but you can apply it in our day-to-day lives for the community, for organizations which are part of, you can apply it for the education of children in schools or colleges.
[SPEAKER_00]: All of them, they all have applications there.
[SPEAKER_00]: in human resource management.
[SPEAKER_00]: For example, I have thought about it and a lot of these issues can be understood in a new way if you put in the framework of Satvara just in Thamas.
[SPEAKER_00]: And remember it is a spectrum.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nobody is just tamasic or Rajasic or Satvic.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is a mixed and there is a spectrum.
[SPEAKER_00]: One moves from Thamas to more of Rajas from Rajas to more of Satvara to a pure kind of Satvara.
[SPEAKER_00]: So when Vivekantha wanted, he knew, he can't make a nation sathwake immediately.
[SPEAKER_00]: He wanted energy, dynamism, let people, they are hungry and starving.
[SPEAKER_00]: He wanted people so that you are self-sufficient.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was very harsh on Indians at that time, when he came to the west, he defended India to the health.
[SPEAKER_00]: But when he went back there, he was merciless.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, oh, you cannot, you do not have the wherewithal to produce a pin, a needle, he said a needle, you do not have ability to produce a needle and going around saying we are spiritual masters, we are here to teach the world the foolishness of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So energy, dynamism, yes, ambition, yes, the pursuit of prosperity, behind it was Sri Ramakrishna's mantra, little saying, he says, in Bengali, Calipated Dharmohana, you cannot have religion, you cannot have spirituality on an empty stomach.
[SPEAKER_00]: That covers so much.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not just hungry.
[SPEAKER_00]: If somebody is hungry or unhealthy or sick or jobless or no higher attainment in life, no aspiration.
[SPEAKER_00]: All of those are empty stomach and true spirituality is not possible in that.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he wanted this dynamism and then he says it's true prosperity, through education, through industry It's interesting, he's a monk and he's saying all these things Then only a nation can stand on its own feet.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then only spirituality is possible And he has always been spiritual, there have always been spiritual masters, but to appraise this to To raise up the society as a whole, it must move from Thomas to Rajas to Satwa and that is true of us also personally
[SPEAKER_00]: think, maybe if I'm feeling lazy or tired, well, let me sit and meditate, you can't.
[SPEAKER_00]: You cannot.
[SPEAKER_00]: You just fall asleep.
[SPEAKER_00]: Meditation is when mind is serene.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have energy, but it's under control.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the always the advice will be of meditation masters.
[SPEAKER_00]: Get up and do something.
[SPEAKER_00]: And maybe surveys or some kind of karma yoga.
[SPEAKER_00]: Afterwards you will find your meditation is deeper and more profound.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've seen by self, when I was in an ashram, these two keep us busy from early morning to late night.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we would grumble newcomers in mature.
[SPEAKER_00]: We'd grumble, I'm not getting enough time to meditate in all of that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Later on, I did get time.
[SPEAKER_00]: When I went after the Himalayas by myself, I stayed for months together, you know, begging for my food, staying in a little cottage, high up in the Himalayas.
[SPEAKER_00]: The whole day is mine.
[SPEAKER_00]: Only for half an hour or one hour we go and get food and that's it.
[SPEAKER_00]: The rest of the day is mine.
[SPEAKER_00]: Initially, it was great.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would meditate for hours and hours and I thought, this is wonderful.
[SPEAKER_00]: Why did I go to the ash?
[SPEAKER_00]: I could have come here.
[SPEAKER_00]: But over time, I began to see, I'm settling into a relaxed routine, and that intensity diminishes.
[SPEAKER_00]: So two, to at least some maturity had come by the time.
[SPEAKER_00]: By the time I spent ten years as a novice, and I become a monk and got the
[SPEAKER_00]: some maturity had come.
[SPEAKER_00]: I realized the difference between two months in the Himalayas and 20 years in the Himalayas.
[SPEAKER_00]: Two months, you are inspired and you can do a lot of things.
[SPEAKER_00]: But afterwards, two years, 20 years, no.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, the, the South Creek nature has to be built up and I noticed the depth of meditation I did in the middle of a lot of work in the Ashram.
[SPEAKER_00]: With the depth of meditation I got, maybe much for a much shorter period of time, but it was better than sitting quietly in the Himalayas.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm just talking about myself.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are advanced meditators who can do much better there.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, Thomas, to Rajas, to Sathva, the Rajasic mind, if you take it up to the mountains or to a meditation center, initially, don't make the mistake of thinking, ah, the Swami was wrong, I am getting great meditation in this meditation center, yes, today, and tomorrow, and day after, but after two months, after six months, most people won't be able to sustain it.
[SPEAKER_00]: The rajasic mind, what will happen to the tamasic mind is it will get worse.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is a lazy life.
[SPEAKER_00]: What will happen to the Rajasthik mind is, it will get so restless that it will, um, it will, it will want to do something.
[SPEAKER_00]: I want something to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: I remember the story of this monk in one of our Ashram's long before my time.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was very dynamic and he used to work in the school in that Ashram teaching kids and did a lot of work.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the Swami used the head, the monk, the head of the Ashram noticed.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was, um, restless, extroverted, you know, more rages.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you told this monk, what you're doing is good, but every month, at the end of the month, one weekend, you go away from the ashram.
[SPEAKER_00]: Go into the forest or the village there, beg for your food, stay under the tree or in a temple courtyard, and spend a couple of days and meditate there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just away from all the work.
[SPEAKER_00]: good.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then they found that the monk he started going one week in the month, then there were two weekends he would be away.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then three weekends, somebody asked him, what are you doing?
[SPEAKER_00]: And sort of sheepishly he admitted, I started a school there in that way.
[SPEAKER_00]: I saw there's no school for the kids there.
[SPEAKER_00]: I should start teaching.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, a gathered kids around
[SPEAKER_00]: If a king is sent away to a forest, he'll establish a kingdom there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's rest in mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: A restless mind should be engaged in action.
[SPEAKER_00]: They may think, these two think as newcomers, too much work.
[SPEAKER_00]: I need more Vedanta, more yoga, more meditation, more inner time.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, it was a mistake.
[SPEAKER_00]: The too much work is good, initially.
[SPEAKER_00]: And over time, the Bhagavad Gita also sixth chapter, Arū Rūkṣo moneryogam karma karana bhuccata yoga rūrasyata see vāshama karana bhuccata.
[SPEAKER_00]: The beginning of the sixth chapter, third verse, it says, For those who are beginning on the path of yoga, work is the way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Karma karana bhuccata.
[SPEAKER_00]: Those who have purified their minds, that means satvic mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: Meditation is the way.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, depends on our phase and we can understand our state of mind a little bit of experimentation will show us.
[SPEAKER_00]: That doesn't mean you give up your meditation practice.
[SPEAKER_00]: R. I realize, my mind is Rajashek.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I better get back to my laptop and work there.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't do meditation.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now that's a trick of the mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: At least the basic minimum one should stick to.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even if the mind does not, even if I'm not doing good meditation, still stick to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is a saying, there is no bad meditation.
[SPEAKER_00]: The only bad meditation is not sitting for meditation.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, that's the background.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then he comes to Satura, takes up Satura gooda first, the will, the will, tamasic personalities are characterized by lack of will.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's too much trouble, that's the slogan of the tamasik governmental make-up, too much trouble, or procrastinate.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I would like to do that, but someday not today, that's also tamasik.
[SPEAKER_00]: Procrastination is a sign of tamas.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would like to, yeah, I would like to make a change in my life.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's like that's too much trouble.
[SPEAKER_00]: These are good things.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the world, a lot of things deserve my attention.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I would really like things to be different.
[SPEAKER_00]: But that's all.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would like it to be different.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not that I'm going to do anything about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then the Rajasik person has will, but in Rajasik person, the will becomes passion.
[SPEAKER_00]: it becomes the moment the what the Rajasik mind likes and wants.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is a lot of determination and up and you know go get her attitude.
[SPEAKER_00]: I really want this.
[SPEAKER_00]: It could be something from the on black Friday I want to go and like I'll go out there and stand in like the Tamasik percent will say, oh all this is you know it's too much trouble.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm satisfied with what I have.
[SPEAKER_00]: and the rajasic person will say it's a big deal we must go and get it you know it's 20% off 30% off and I'm willing to stand in the rain and the wind and the cold for 2 hours or 3 hours in the line just to get the deal that's rajasic.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the satvic mind will be there is the will, but the will is under discipline and control.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is not so much under the domain of dominion of what I want.
[SPEAKER_00]: Rather, what is my goal in life and the will will take me towards that.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are sometimes the mind tricks itself.
[SPEAKER_00]: The tamasic person might just say, look at the rajasic person, oh, you are just to materialistic.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't have this materialistic.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, you are lazy.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's all.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Thomas can often put on a cloak of sattva.
[SPEAKER_00]: The difference is this, we would see that among the monks in the Himalayas all the time.
[SPEAKER_00]: See, the Ashram you can't make out because there is a strict routine.
[SPEAKER_00]: Whether one is Thomas, Sikha, Rajas, Sikha, Sattvik, this is the time to get up, it's the time to get up for everybody.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Sattvik person is up before the bell rings.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Rajas, Sikperson, Grounds and gets up in the bell rings, but then is up and doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the Thomas, Sikperson, Grumbles and complaints, but there's no other way out, you have to get up.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this is the time for meditation.
[SPEAKER_00]: The tamasik person may sit there and fall asleep, but he still have to go and sit there.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't avoid it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the sadhrik person will meditate beautifully.
[SPEAKER_00]: The rajasik person will meditate with with the one eye open looking at the clock.
[SPEAKER_00]: How much longer?
[SPEAKER_00]: So, the will is disciplined in the satvic person.
[SPEAKER_00]: What goal is the satvic person can deploy the will.
[SPEAKER_00]: It does not matter so much what I like or dislike or what my mood is like to be on.
[SPEAKER_00]: The rajasic person is under the dominion of the passions and the desires and the ambition and the rajasic person is motivated by greed, by lust, by ambition and the
[SPEAKER_00]: anger, all of these things motivate.
[SPEAKER_00]: The anger is too much trouble for the, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a,
[SPEAKER_00]: is made the categorization into three, the fool, who cannot get angry?
[SPEAKER_00]: Even when it demands, with some place demands, indignation and righteous anger, the rajasic person will get angry, gets upset, gets angry, and sometimes that can motivate you, anger can motivate you to do something.
[SPEAKER_00]: The wise person will not get angry, but will do whatever is necessary without getting angry at all.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is the sattuik person.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, why is means sattuik person?
[SPEAKER_00]: I read this anecdote about the Great Painter, Pablo Picasso, so he wrote a very nasty letter to a critic, an art critic, and somebody asked him, that critic never criticised you or your work, why are you making an enemy, and Picasso looked astonished, can one do great work without great enemies?
[SPEAKER_00]: So, on purpose is making an enemy of that critique.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, that critique will hit back at him and then he will be yes motivation.
[SPEAKER_00]: What motivates us?
[SPEAKER_00]: Notice, for the tamasik person, probably the only thing that he motivated is fear.
[SPEAKER_00]: The tamasik person is fear.
[SPEAKER_00]: He might say, fear is too much trouble, I won't bother.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, no, no.
[SPEAKER_00]: The tamasik person has anxieties and fears and nothing should disturb me or hurt me.
[SPEAKER_00]: The tamasik person is not a peaceful person.
[SPEAKER_00]: The sadhic person is internally a peaceful person.
[SPEAKER_00]: The tamasik person has a lot of inner issues.
[SPEAKER_00]: The termistic person, for example, is utterly concerned with oneself, expenditure of energy, the termistic person is often always tired, not always not doing much, but the self-concern is a great consumer of energy.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am worried about my health, about my life and how it's all about me and how people are to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a darkness in the mind and it drains and saps you like everything.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Rajasik person also may run out of energy, Rajasik person is lots and lots of energy.
[SPEAKER_00]: It comes from desire and ambition.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have to do this with this up and about and can also get very tired but it gets tired because of the expenditure of energy.
[SPEAKER_00]: because it does a lot of pores himself or herself out into something and then gets tired, crash, and then get up again and work.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the satvic person also has a lot of energy, but it's controlled and balanced and can do great amount of work without getting tired, that reading somewhere relaxation is change of occupation.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a very satvic characteristic.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, I mean, Gumbhiran and the Geulator became the President of our order.
[SPEAKER_00]: At one time, he was the President of our Advait Ashram, which is our Publication Center.
[SPEAKER_00]: and this story is told by Swami Caitanyaanjee.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, once Kambiraanjee had a severe stomach pain, I think Kolayat is or something.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, this old monk, he was sitting, Jaitanyaanjee saw with a pillow on his tummy and with a writing tool in front of him, like a little table and correcting proofs, you know, on those days by hand proofreading.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, he told the Swamigamiranji, why are you doing that please rest and Gamairanji said this change of work is rest for me.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is correcting proof, this is the rest of the performance.
[SPEAKER_00]: So motivation, back to motivation.
[SPEAKER_00]: So what motivates, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a, a
[SPEAKER_00]: There is, that is, but that is the beginning of religion, that is the kindergarten of religion.
[SPEAKER_00]: to scare somebody of sin and what will happen after death and God is going to get you.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you better be up and doing and turn up at the temple or church or, but that's the motivation only for a tamasic person, that's not very high or ennobling at all.
[SPEAKER_00]: Spirituality should
[SPEAKER_00]: in human resource management, when they talk about motivating teams.
[SPEAKER_00]: I say, so depending on the readiness of the team and the dynamics of the team, there is a kind of team which is, which is an expert, they already know what they are doing.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you as a leader, you should get out of the way, you should let them do you, what?
[SPEAKER_00]: You take responsibility, but let them do what they are doing, because they know what
[SPEAKER_00]: Then there is another in the same spectrum, a little lower than this team which is willing motivated but doesn't know what to do, then you have to show them, you have to give leadership and show them and establish procedures to make sure that they are doing what what you expect them to do, what the organization expects.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then there is a team which is unmotivated.
[SPEAKER_00]: So there you have to leave, you have to force them.
[SPEAKER_00]: I remember our psychology professor, this is the final motivator, it's called the Kita, a kick in the A.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, it's part of, it's a psychology textbook, it's part of, not psychology, human resource management textbooks, so the Kita method.
[SPEAKER_00]: If it's the unmotivated unprepared kind of team, if you get out of the way, everything will fall apart.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, they won't do anything.
[SPEAKER_00]: If it is the middle kind, so they are full of energy, they'll create chaos if you don't guide them.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there's the highest kind.
[SPEAKER_00]: There, if you get involved, you're only getting in their way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, one, you can call one tamasik team, another rajasik team and the other one at Sapwik team, three kinds.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, anyway, you can apply these in so many different ways.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, back to verse number six, this is all the background to see how you can apply sattu rajas and tamas.
[SPEAKER_00]: Remember, there are shades, there are mixtures, every day we go through these.
[SPEAKER_00]: When you are tired, when you are sick, thermosick, when you are bursting with energy, Rajasik, when you are calm, collected, serene, suffix.
[SPEAKER_00]: Every day we go through these, there are phases in our life and one is predominant, other is not.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they keep changing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Krishna will tell us, keep rising and falling.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our aim is to make ourselves predominantly suffix, that's all.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can't avoid that too, because there is all prakriti or mayam, and the three braids of prakriti are intertwined.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can have more of one and less of the other, but others will also come up sometimes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now he says, first, let's take saptva, so because of nirmalatva, it is pure.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is the clearest of the pureest part of prakriti or nature.
[SPEAKER_00]: and it is of the nature of precaution, precaution means knowledge, illumination, light.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, for example, in our constitution, human constitution, or any living being, the mind, the sensory system, they are most satvic then the rest of the physical body.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why there is a reason why we see with our eyes here with our ears and we don't see with our elbows or here with our knees.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, the sensory system is more satvic, the mind is much more satvic is conducive to knowledge.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, in two ways, one is
[SPEAKER_00]: In a general worldly sense, Satu is that which gives us the fondness for knowledge.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would like to read and educate myself and know and be more informed.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is a joy in learning more and being more informed in the worldly sense.
[SPEAKER_00]: Knowledge is, that is a function of Satu.
[SPEAKER_00]: In a spiritual sense, one gets deep insight.
[SPEAKER_00]: The text makes sense, they speak to you, they become luminous suddenly and it's often you can anticipate what the text is going to say because you see it.
[SPEAKER_00]: The questions, so I'm Torianji says that there was a time when I could see it straight into the mind of the questioner and I could throw a great flood of light upon it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Many wonderful ideas will come up, many deep insights into human heart will come up.
[SPEAKER_00]: Also, Sattva-guna is conducive for happiness.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's when the bind comes down that there is happiness.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a difference between excitement and happiness.
[SPEAKER_00]: Excitement is Rajas.
[SPEAKER_00]: Excitement is Rajas.
[SPEAKER_00]: No excitement, no happiness, that is Thomas.
[SPEAKER_00]: But excitement is Rajas.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if a person is very excited, you'll notice they cannot enjoy it.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have to calm down a little to enjoy what you wanted.
[SPEAKER_00]: Suppose you get what you wanted and you are so thrilled, you spend time and energy being thrilled, you go to the movie you wanted to watch and you are so thrilled that you have got it in F, then later on you won't even remember what happened in the book because you are thrilled to bits.
[SPEAKER_00]: You have to calm down to enjoy something.
[SPEAKER_00]: It could be a cookie, it could be a music, it could be art.
[SPEAKER_00]: Excitement is not conducive to pleasure.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mindfulness is conducive to savoring, to pleasure.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even to enjoy sensory pleasures, one needs mindfulness.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mindfulness is a characteristic of Satva, one needs to calm down.
[SPEAKER_00]: So joy and knowledge are characteristics of Satva.
[SPEAKER_00]: painters, artists, singers, dancers, all kinds of artistic endeavours.
[SPEAKER_00]: Satokunize there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Creativity always takes Satokoda.
[SPEAKER_00]: Intellectual endeavours, philosophers, scientific research, the curiosity to get to the bottom of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: You'll notice they are one sign of Satokunize focus.
[SPEAKER_00]: tremendous concentration, they can focus and hold on to focus, the thermosic mind cannot focus, it will fall asleep.
[SPEAKER_00]: The resistic mind can focus if it is a matter of greed or anger or then you can focus or something to be gained very soon, otherwise it will flick from thing to thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why the Rajasik mind our these modern social media and all as making us more Rajasik mind flickers continuously.
[SPEAKER_00]: The sadtrik mind can hold on to something and focus for a long time.
[SPEAKER_00]: So for success in education, for success in art and music and science, all of them, focus is very essential.
[SPEAKER_00]: Focus and Satu Aguna go together.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, in spiritual life also, sub-Twaguna, and in worldly life also, sub-Twaguna is conducive to the higher pursuits of art and knowledge and creativity, it is conducive to a happier mindset, generally these people are happier.
[SPEAKER_00]: Notice that they are not greedy, they are not so worldly as others, you will find a person who is devoted to knowledge, to science or philosophy, they will not stand in queue for black Friday.
[SPEAKER_00]: they will not take go on endless vacations or this trip and they are what which trip will I go to this year?
[SPEAKER_00]: No, it is a waste of time for them.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is not a waste of time.
[SPEAKER_00]: They are not trying to use their time because they are focused.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anything else seems to be a disturbance to them.
[SPEAKER_00]: That focus gives happiness.
[SPEAKER_00]: To the Tamasic mind, focus is difficult and painful.
[SPEAKER_00]: To the Tamasic mind, focus is good only when there is a heart is in it.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is a passion, something I want to really.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then they are very focused.
[SPEAKER_00]: So knowledge and happiness comes from Subtua going to both for the worldly and for spiritual seekers also.
[SPEAKER_00]: spiritual knowledge and spiritual joy also comes in the mind is satvic.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then there is a joy in meditation, great joy.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is a joy in prayer in, you can have joy in rock music and you can have joy in spiritual music.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is a difference.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is a joy in prayer, in meditation, in study of philosophy and Vedanta and all of that.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is a great joy actually in that.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now he says, be careful.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is also a robber.
[SPEAKER_00]: Three robbers.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is also a robber.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sukrasanggainabhadnaati, Gyanasanggainachanaga.
[SPEAKER_00]: This subtogonize also a robber.
[SPEAKER_00]: It will trap you with happiness and it will trap you with knowledge.
[SPEAKER_00]: Trap you with happiness and knowledge, even in the worldly life, a person, what are you doing?
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm reading and I'm reading, that's a love reading, and then what do you do?
[SPEAKER_00]: I just love reading.
[SPEAKER_00]: The people who love spending the time in libraries, all the time.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there's nothing bad.
[SPEAKER_00]: In today's world, it's something to be, you know, good that they're reading their libraries.
[SPEAKER_00]: You hardly find anybody there.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's great, but they don't go any further than that.
[SPEAKER_00]: They love accumulating knowledge.
[SPEAKER_00]: or ghanasanggainabhadnat, it ties you to knowledge, ties you to happiness, often satvic mindset is a peaceful mindset, they derive joy from being satvic, a calm mind, a peaceful mind, trouble, they don't want to take up trouble.
[SPEAKER_00]: they regard many things in the world as trouble, they want they would like to avoid it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Good people, but may not be particularly useful for building a business or fighting a war or something like that or politics or no, they are not in it, they will say, I am out of this.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that can trap you, the desire for peace, the desire for happiness, desire for knowledge.
[SPEAKER_00]: These are for worldly people.
[SPEAKER_00]: Subtwick worldly people.
[SPEAKER_00]: So there's a difference between the worldly sattva and spiritual sattva.
[SPEAKER_00]: Spiritual sattva is called shuddha sattva, a pure sattva.
[SPEAKER_00]: So a pure in itself, but a pure sattva makes a person's spiritual.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then there's something called malina sattva, mixed or impure sattva.
[SPEAKER_00]: They are good people, they are calm people, they are mindful people, but not a spiritual bone in their bodies.
[SPEAKER_00]: So they are interested in ideas, provide about spirituality and light and man God-realization, transformation of character moving ahead on the path of spirituality, no, no, no, no, no interest.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's because the Satu is there, but it's a mixed
[SPEAKER_00]: Now for spiritual people what happens is it can tie us to the happiness which comes out of spiritual practice and one can get attached.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is a subtle point but it is good to note one can get attached to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: What is wrong if you get the happiness in meditating peacefully?
[SPEAKER_00]: It is good, isn't it?
[SPEAKER_00]: If someone wants that happiness?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, but no, remember even that happiness is a product of Maya and something in the mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your goal is the witness of that happiness, that consciousness which reveals that peaceful meditative mind, your goal is that not to hold on to that peaceful meditative mind, because if one does that, one may be able to hold on to it for some time, but it will change again.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the mind, it's sub-tourages, termas, in cycle.
[SPEAKER_00]: and then one will be unhappy and then we'll try to recover those stakes of the mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are people who have done that who have practiced for many years and they say I used to have good meditation at one time, I used to be so peaceful in the mountains and now you know in the recent years too many responsibilities they send that and it's all gone no no no you were attached to that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your goals should be enlightenment not a particular frame of mind no matter how nice.
[SPEAKER_00]: I remember this monk in our order, Sr. of mine, whom he stood mad, he was really a peaceful.
[SPEAKER_00]: He could see the joy beaming from his face and long hours he would sit in meditation.
[SPEAKER_00]: But one of our teachers were surprised when he criticized this monk and said to us,
[SPEAKER_00]: So, this is the piece of Saktu Aguna.
[SPEAKER_00]: Definitely his head of us, his pure mind and his centered in meditation, but he likes that.
[SPEAKER_00]: He is not willing to give that up.
[SPEAKER_00]: But let's not say thank God I don't have that.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's better to have a Rajasik mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: No.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have not even tasted that that John.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know tasted it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's very attractive.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then there is the bondage of knowledge for the spiritual mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: The idea that I understand, I know the truth.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know the secret of the universe.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know what I am.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know more than others.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know the texts, I understand all the arguments, I have answers for every question that there is.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know it all.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a great bondage.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's also the mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: Suppose, suppose, God forbid, but Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, something happens.
[SPEAKER_00]: And all that knowledge is gone.
[SPEAKER_00]: The mind has become dull.
[SPEAKER_00]: maybe sleepy and that's after 30, 40, 50, 60 years of spiritual practice.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can it happen?
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh yes, it can.
[SPEAKER_00]: Unless one has seen that which transcends the mind, then one will be terribly disappointed.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, there is something beyond the mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is, that's our real nature.
[SPEAKER_00]: Call it the Atman, call it Brahman, call it God, whatever it is.
[SPEAKER_00]: If I'm centered in that, then after some time I find, I don't get the deep meditation which I used to get in the Himalayas.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't get it now.
[SPEAKER_00]: So have you fallen in spiritual life?
[SPEAKER_00]: No, no, no.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have seen the one from which there is no falling.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have found the one from which there is no falling.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have got the peace that passeth understanding, yes, the words of Jesus are so precise.
[SPEAKER_00]: The peace that passeth understanding mind, intellect, there is a peace of the mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is a calmness of the intellect and the mind, which you attain through meditation, but there is a peace that passeth understanding.
[SPEAKER_00]: The calmness of the mind, the peace, the joy in the mind of a spiritual seeker.
[SPEAKER_00]: that can increase and decrease, it can come and go.
[SPEAKER_00]: But the joy that is our real nature, the peace that is our real nature doesn't come and go, it doesn't increase and decrease.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because I'm saying this because I've seen these two cases.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've seen monks, spiritual masters who at the end of their lives, definitely there is a decline in certainly in the health and in the memory, vast knowledge, the most knowledgeable monk I knew.
[SPEAKER_00]: Towards the end of his life he couldn't remember any of this Vedanta, something that he had accumulated over 40 years of study and memorization and everything.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he was full of joy.
[SPEAKER_00]: He told me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I used to go to him with questions.
[SPEAKER_00]: I asked him a question once towards the end of his life, just a month or two before he passed.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he saw it and it's not, and he couldn't remember.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he said, with a big smile, he said to me, I still remember he says to me, let it go, it's task is done.
[SPEAKER_00]: Can you say that?
[SPEAKER_00]: You can only say that, you can even say that for the mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: The mind can't meditate and it's tied to the body.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the body is sick and weak, it can't.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some people can, some people cannot.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you can, you are very blessed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Suppose you cannot.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you have touched that transcendent, you won't be even mind if the mind cannot meditate or center it out.
[SPEAKER_00]: You'll be fine with it.
[SPEAKER_00]: or a devotion.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is from the path of knowledge or the path of devotion.
[SPEAKER_00]: If our faith is so strong and deep in God, doesn't matter if the body mind is deteriorating.
[SPEAKER_00]: Doesn't even matter if I cannot you know feel the presence of God which is to feel 20 years ago.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now I don't anymore and I'm going to die now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Alright, because it doesn't depend on me.
[SPEAKER_00]: It depends on God.
[SPEAKER_00]: And God is fine.
[SPEAKER_00]: that kind of faith if somebody has.
[SPEAKER_00]: Neither of them depend on the mind, but if we depend on the mind that this is the problem, the satvic mind will bind you with knowledge, will bind you with happiness, spiritual happiness, spiritual knowledge.
[SPEAKER_00]: Notice I quoted Swami Thurian and the G is saying that
[SPEAKER_00]: Earlier, when people would ask questions, I would say straight through to the heart of the questioner.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I would throw a flood of light on that question, but earlier, he said, not now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now does he regret it?
[SPEAKER_00]: Those powers have passed.
[SPEAKER_00]: They came and they passed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Does he have become less spiritual?
[SPEAKER_00]: No, no.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's all right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Swami Vivekananda says, in India, towards the end of His life, I have the power to appraise the spiritual consciousness of somebody just by a touch or a look.
[SPEAKER_00]: But there's long years of extreme hard work in the United States.
[SPEAKER_00]: He says, those are exhausted.
[SPEAKER_00]: If I go back, He says, He says, If I go ahead to the Himalayas and meditate for a few weeks, it'll come back again.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it can come and go, but they are not attached to it.
[SPEAKER_00]: But person who's attached to the mind will be attached to the satwik mind also.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then Kavil come, Rajas and Thamas.
[SPEAKER_00]: Comentator, I am reading Stridhar Swami's commentary.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am suki-yani chayati, Manodharma, Tad Abhimani, Shethra, Ghasangyojya-yati.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the Vedantic reason why one gets bound.
[SPEAKER_00]: I am happy, Aham suki.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know, I understand Aham-yani, Manodharma, these are characteristics of the mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: These are properties of the mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this has been superimposed upon the field, Nova, Shethra, Gya, consciousness.
[SPEAKER_00]: What does that mean?
[SPEAKER_00]: I am pure consciousness, but if you ask me, what are you?
[SPEAKER_00]: I am this money, I am this mind, I am happy, I am very knowledgeable.
[SPEAKER_00]: What is this mind with knowledge and happiness?
[SPEAKER_00]: That's me.
[SPEAKER_00]: What are you?
[SPEAKER_00]: I am that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Then you get trapped.
[SPEAKER_00]: Siram Krishna's story, the robber who will not accompany you, you should let the robber go at one point.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have seen spiritual seekers, advanced age, serious illnesses.
[SPEAKER_00]: brain damage Alzheimer's.
[SPEAKER_00]: Apparently, you might feel depressed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, this is the end of all spiritual seeking.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, what did he disperse and get?
[SPEAKER_00]: But at the same time, I've seen very senior monk before he passed away, long years of Alzheimer's Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it was Parkinson's.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I asked him, he spoke loosely once, and then I couldn't understand what you were saying.
[SPEAKER_00]: The asked him, is it that you are fine within?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the body is not responding to your commands, you can't control the body.
[SPEAKER_00]: And this old Swami in a wheelchair about, he looked at me and he said exactly so.
[SPEAKER_00]: But that difference, that separation from the mind body, internally, that must be clear, otherwise they'll be great depression and unhappiness.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, we'll stop here.
[SPEAKER_00]: If somebody has an observation or a comment, yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, three gunners, there are some, he'll talk about it later, some foods which can pull our mind down, can increase Thomas in the body, some foods can increase the quantum of energy and dynamism and restlessness in the body, some foods can have an effect of coming down the mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the Gita also Krishna will say, but it's interesting, he doesn't mention which food does what, he sort of leaves it, leaves it to you, yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you will notice breath.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is a big connection between breath and the guna which is predominant.
[SPEAKER_00]: heavy breathing through one nostril, often the left nostril, heavy breathing where you can hear it, a heavy movement of the breath, that is the indication of Thomas.
[SPEAKER_00]: You will find when you get up from bed unless your nostrils are blocked due to cold or something.
[SPEAKER_00]: You will get up from bed, you will notice your breathing through the left nostrils.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thomas.
[SPEAKER_00]: And breathing from the right nostril often indicates often, not always.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are complicating factors.
[SPEAKER_00]: Rajas, a more active mindset.
[SPEAKER_00]: And both nostrils are almost always an indicator of sattva.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that can be regularly raised through pranayama.
[SPEAKER_00]: The mind, you can increase sattva through pranayama and then that will help you in study in meditation.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a whole science of the breath which is connected to the three goonas also.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anybody else?
[SPEAKER_00]: Let me do a peace chat and then they'll come with the basket.
[SPEAKER_00]: Emotion, I forgot to say this, the tamasic mind generally is not sensitive.
[SPEAKER_00]: They can be pretty emotional about themselves, but not about in much, much else.
[SPEAKER_00]: The Rajasic mind can be very emotional and sort of sometimes uncontrolled emotion.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is a kind of Rajasak mind which feels deeply and the people who come and say, I feel so much, they sorrow, I am so affected by the sorrows of others and the check is what are you doing about it?
[SPEAKER_00]: Often it is nothing.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, what do you do?
[SPEAKER_00]: No, I just feel and they want to be praised for feeling, that is all right, it is better than not feeling.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I have seen the truly satric mind not only feels deeply, but they immediately channel it into service.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was reading the life of the Holy Mother, Sharda Devi.
[SPEAKER_00]: She would notice the smallest things, the discomfort, problems, illness, sadness of people around her, and would do something for them.
[SPEAKER_00]: There is a way of being deeply loving without being sentimental.
[SPEAKER_00]: One can become exhausted by feeling so much.
[SPEAKER_00]: Rather, if I transmit that feeling into some way of helping, suppose one has no way of helping.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes, holy mother herself, she would immediately take her sorrow to Sri Ramakrishna, to God and pray with tears in her eyes for that person who's affected, for whom she cannot do anything.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's real love.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've seen monks, apparently they look very, the most unsentimental.
[SPEAKER_00]: You won't see a flicker of emotion in them, but I've seen them day and night helping.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think it's much better to have such a person on your side than the person who feels and feels and feels and wants to regal you with how much they feel.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they flood social media with their feelings.
[UNKNOWN]: Yes.