163. Bhagavad Gita Chapter 14, Verses 1 - 5 I Swami Sarvapriyananda

[SPEAKER_02]: O, Vasudeva, Suttam, Devam, Kamsa, Charno, Ramadana, Devaki, Paramanandam, Krishnam, Vandayjaga Guru.
[SPEAKER_02]: Guna traya vi bhagya yoga, and analysis of the three Kunas.
[SPEAKER_02]: Why these three Kunas, throughout this, in Vedanta, in the Bhagavad-gita, you keep hearing about three Kunas, sattva, rajas, tamas.
[SPEAKER_02]: These are the three constituents of material nature, prakriti.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is an ancient Vedic and Sankhian cosmology.
[SPEAKER_02]: What is this universe made of?
[SPEAKER_02]: What is the source material of the universe, which is material nature?
[SPEAKER_02]: But what is material nature made of?
[SPEAKER_02]: And they will always come to Sattva Rajasthama, the three constituents.
[SPEAKER_02]: whatever the cause is made of, that defect will also be made of.
[SPEAKER_02]: If the cause is clay, then the effect, the product, if it's a clay pot, if you check the product, if you test it, what will you find there?
[SPEAKER_02]: clay?
[SPEAKER_02]: If the cause of the universe is practically made of three gurus, what will you find in the universe?
[SPEAKER_02]: Three gurus, it's a play of three gurus.
[SPEAKER_02]: So the time has come, it's a secretion of fields.
[SPEAKER_02]: We must pay some attention, look at these three gurus, especially how they affect our spiritual life.
[SPEAKER_02]: So we must learn a little more about it.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so the Guru Nathreya, Vibhagayoga.
[SPEAKER_02]: Commentator, the book I am using is Sri Dharaswami's commentary, and many commentators are there.
[SPEAKER_02]: This particular commentator makes a raises a point that in the earlier chapter, Shaitrakshetrakya Vibhaga Yoga, the yoga of the field and the field knower, of consciousness and matter, of spirit and nature, that yoga there,
[SPEAKER_02]: It sounds very much like Sangha, the ancient sanghians, where dualists, there are two things there, consciousness and matter.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's very intuitive because we ourselves, we are subject, we all know, our experience is what?
[SPEAKER_02]: I am there and everything else is there.
[SPEAKER_02]: Here I am and everything else is all around with the universe.
[SPEAKER_02]: That itself was refined into the Sankhya, the Sankhya concept of Purushan-Prakriti.
[SPEAKER_02]: Consciousness, you subject, I, we are Purusha, selves.
[SPEAKER_02]: What have we made of?
[SPEAKER_02]: Just consciousness.
[SPEAKER_02]: We are made of consciousness.
[SPEAKER_02]: We are consciousness.
[SPEAKER_02]: And everything that we are conscious of is matter, is amit all originates, the name the gave is Prakriti nature.
[SPEAKER_02]: Very scientific that way.
[SPEAKER_02]: Except that modern science is not a dualism.
[SPEAKER_02]: Modern science is a monism of matter, even consciousness is reduced to matter.
[SPEAKER_02]: The sun can stop, they realize that consciousness cannot be relegated to matter.
[SPEAKER_02]: Consciousness cannot be produced by matter.
[SPEAKER_02]: They understood the hard problem of consciousness long before it became fashionable.
[SPEAKER_02]: And they stopped at a dualism, consciousness and matter,
[SPEAKER_02]: According to this commentator, what the 13 chapter introduced was that the shankyans are godless.
[SPEAKER_02]: They do not believe in Ishwarabhagavan, the creator of the universe.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the 13 chapter introduced, recrystionous, says, everything in the universe is produced by consciousness and matter under my supervision, by property and purisha, under the supervision of Ishwarabh.
[SPEAKER_02]: So this idea of Brahman, Saguna Brahman, ishwarabhagavan, God has been introduced in the 13 chapters.
[SPEAKER_02]: So this commentator says,
[SPEAKER_02]: So not like the Sankyans who are godless, nervous to a Sankyana.
[SPEAKER_02]: There is actually the reason these things is that there is a brand of Sankha, later Sankha, which accepted God, but basically the Sankha structure is, there is no space for God.
[SPEAKER_02]: There is, there are the souls, the selves, Purusha, and there is material nature.
[SPEAKER_02]: And by the combination of the two, because of the interplay of the two, the universe is produced.
[SPEAKER_02]: What are we, for example, right now, if you look at ourselves, we are matter and consciousness together.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is, we are a bundle of matter and consciousness.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's what Sankhya means by the interplay of Prakriti and Purushya, or in the language of the 13 chapter, the interplay of Saitran, Saitra, Gya, field and field knower.
[SPEAKER_02]: Life goes on, that's what's going on in us.
[SPEAKER_02]: The universe goes on also.
[SPEAKER_02]: But here it says, it's not independently.
[SPEAKER_02]: This conjunction of consciousness and matter is not about what independently.
[SPEAKER_02]: There is a power behind the whole play.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not that we are only sentient beings and there is this world, that's all.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, world sentient beings and there's a third one, ishwara.
[SPEAKER_02]: The triangle, jiva, jagat, ishwara.
[SPEAKER_02]: Even this is not a Advaita.
[SPEAKER_02]: Advaita is one step further beyond this.
[SPEAKER_02]: The triangle G was agatish for a very big fact has been missed out by the sanctions, a very big fact has been missed out by the yoga philosophy, a very big fact is missed out in Buddhism in journalism, the existence of God.
[SPEAKER_02]: Not therefore, this is one approach we are taking, if you are taking a devotional approach, a religious approach, then it will seem like a fault.
[SPEAKER_02]: a very wonderful monk in our order, spiritually, very advanced person and very devout.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, a very scholarly, he says once, how is Buddhism religion, it's half a religion?
[SPEAKER_02]: Why?
[SPEAKER_02]: Because there is ethics there, meditation there, everything is there, except God.
[SPEAKER_02]: So without God, it's half a religion.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now remember, from the Buddhist perspective, it's not a fault.
[SPEAKER_02]: But for those who are religiously oriented, God oriented, it will seem like curious lack you know, how can you have religion without God?
[SPEAKER_02]: You can actually, but that's a problem from, it's our problem because we are God oriented.
[SPEAKER_02]: I remember I once attended an interfaith conference a long time ago it was organized by the Sikhs in a place called Nandade which is where Guru Gobind Singh Ji was there and he made the Guru Granth Sahib the final Guru of the Sikhs no more Guru's will come it will Guru Granth Sahib the text will become your Guru.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was interfaith conference.
[SPEAKER_02]: So people from different faiths, religions were invited.
[SPEAKER_02]: I was there from Hinduism, and they were Sikhs, of course, Muslims, Christians.
[SPEAKER_02]: They was a rabbi from New York, a rabbi from New York, then, and they were Buddhists.
[SPEAKER_02]: a very delightful little group, not one, not two, five or six of them.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think there was some kind of miscommunication, so they had, they had asked for a speaker, but they sent a choir, a choir means a chanting party, anyway.
[SPEAKER_02]: So they were very nice with this amongst Lamas, they were sitting at the back.
[SPEAKER_02]: And speaker, after speaker comes up and speaks, so under the providence of the blessings of the one God, we all worship the same God, by the blessings of God, by the grace of God, God, God, God, the Buddhists at the back of smiling.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, very little, do you know?
[SPEAKER_02]: Father, I mean, it's a fairytale.
[SPEAKER_02]: What are you talking about?
[SPEAKER_02]: Rabbi was as usual, very Jewish, full of wonderful, the special brand of Jewish humor, we were at breakfast together, so that Rabbi was there, and the Christian delegate was actually a Jesuit priest from the Catholic, from the Jesuit order.
[SPEAKER_02]: So he was sitting there, I was there, and the Rabbi was, you know, pulling, you're like, he's saying, there are two
[SPEAKER_02]: asked what?
[SPEAKER_02]: And he said, looking at the Jesuit, he said, how much money the Vatican has?
[SPEAKER_02]: One and two, what's on the mind of a Jesuit?
[SPEAKER_02]: He laughed, it's old joke.
[SPEAKER_02]: I know the time I sat down for breakfast with the Lamas, with the Ford Lamas and I was there.
[SPEAKER_02]: There was a professor of religion from Montreal, the famous UN University's there.
[SPEAKER_02]: Megalya University, his professor of religion, she was there.
[SPEAKER_02]: I remember, she was a professor of religion, very interested in Buddhism, she was Jewish herself.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I remember she was a kickboxer, so very interesting combination.
[SPEAKER_02]: I said, sit, you will watch two ancient enemies fighting it out.
[SPEAKER_02]: The Vedantans and the Buddhists, the Mahayana, with these Tibetans.
[SPEAKER_02]: So only one of the Buddhist's new English, he was translating, not English, he was translating into Hindi.
[SPEAKER_02]: The other is new, only Tibetan.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so they asked, please explain your Atma to us, Atma Brahma.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, whatever I said, such as on and on the existence consciousness, please, they would say, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, one who knew would translate it to Tibetan, they would say, no, no, no, no, no, and septem ghaanam anantam rama, brama, niz infinite existence and consciousness, no, no, no, no, and so this will not work, have to change tracks.
[SPEAKER_02]: When I said, asha, naithi, naithi, atma, the Atma is not this, not this.
[SPEAKER_02]: Whatever you can put forward as a candidate, not.
[SPEAKER_02]: Then they went into a huddle, like in a football teams, they going to huddle, and they talked excitedly among themselves in television, and they looked back, they were all smiles.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the translator, he said to me, our Guruji, our master, he's saying, you can be a good Buddhist, come over to our side.
[SPEAKER_02]: So Advaita Vedant is like that, you can plug in devotional, dualistic religion into it, you can plug in a godless sanctia into it, you can plug in the godless Buddhism into it, no problem.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, according to his commentator in the 13th chapter, God was introduced.
[SPEAKER_02]: Consciousness and matter are not the final realities.
[SPEAKER_02]: Higher than both, higher than sentient beings like us, Jeeva, higher than this material universe, Jagat, or Prakriti, source of Jagat, is Ishwar Bhagawan.
[SPEAKER_02]: What is Advaita?
[SPEAKER_02]: Advaita says all three of them are, there is one reality beyond all three, beyond God also.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that is the Nirguna Brahm and the Absolute.
[SPEAKER_02]: Existence, Consciousness, Place, limitless being, limitless awareness.
[SPEAKER_02]: They are the Buddhists and become one with, at least the Mahayana Buddhists, become one with Adwaita, the Buddha nature.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's the thought of Adwaita Garbada, Dharmakaya.
[SPEAKER_02]: They are very much cognate concepts to Brahman or Atman pure consciousness.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then what is the relationship between Nidguna Brahman and the world and God and sentient beings?
[SPEAKER_02]: The formulation, Brahma Satyam Jagatmithya Jeeva, Brahma Ivanapara.
[SPEAKER_02]: Brahman alone is real.
[SPEAKER_02]: World is an appearance of Brahman.
[SPEAKER_02]: And what are you?
[SPEAKER_02]: You are Brahman.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is the traditional formulation.
[SPEAKER_02]: But it's equally true to say.
[SPEAKER_02]: Ramana Mashi for example, put it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Brahman is real, the world is an appearance, the universe is an appearance, and the universe is Brahman.
[SPEAKER_02]: Universe, world is real, Brahman is real, Brahman is real, world is an appearance, and the world is Brahman, the world or universe is Brahman, that means, world is real, but as Brahman, as we take it, it is an appearance.
[SPEAKER_02]: You can even say, Brahman is real, the world is real as Brahman, and the sentient being Jiva is Brahman.
[SPEAKER_02]: You can even say, Brahman is real, the world is an appearance, the Jiva 2 is an appearance.
[SPEAKER_02]: Brahman alone is real.
[SPEAKER_02]: One thing you can never say, Brahman is not real, Brahman is an appearance now.
[SPEAKER_02]: That will not be a threat.
[SPEAKER_02]: So it is the same truth.
[SPEAKER_02]: 14 chapter discussion now the commentator says Krishna is going to talk more in detail about how what is the constitution of this world and specially ourselves and how this knowledge will help us in spiritual life.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a very practical chapter but first he says how the universe is created few verses and then about the three gunas.
[SPEAKER_02]: You can chant after me.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yad Ghatva, Munayas, Sarvi, Yad Ghatva, Munayas, Sarvi, Paramsid, Dimmito, Ghatah, Paramsid, Dimmito, Ghatah, the Blessed Lord said, I shall tell you again that supreme knowledge, the best of all knowledge is knowing which all the
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh no, again 13 chapters are over one second, but it needs to be repeated, needs to be hammered home.
[SPEAKER_02]: We are a visitor, very interesting visitor who has read the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna ten times.
[SPEAKER_02]: I asked him why ten times and he said, each sentence has to be hammered home, hammered into the brain.
[SPEAKER_02]: Each sentence has to be hammered into the brain.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, again, again, I shall tell you, tell you what, that knowledge, that supreme knowledge.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, the supreme knowledge here, the commentator says, knowledge about the supreme, Param Param Arthanishthaam, the knowledge about the supreme, supreme means the absolute reality, Nirguna Brahman, which we just said, the knowledge is not really about the world, the
[SPEAKER_02]: But yes, through and analysis of the world as the three Gunas, through and enquire into ourselves, where three Gunas knowledge will be useful.
[SPEAKER_02]: And through devotion to God, we seek access to the Nirguna Brahman, our reality, by which what will happen?
[SPEAKER_02]: He says,
[SPEAKER_02]: From this world, from this samsara, the munis, the sages, they have attained to the highest realization, the highest freedom, the highest success.
[SPEAKER_02]: What is the highest success?
[SPEAKER_02]: What is the highest freedom?
[SPEAKER_02]: It is Moksha, liberation, liberation from this limited existence, freedom from samsara.
[SPEAKER_02]: How did they attain it?
[SPEAKER_02]: By this knowledge, knowing this knowledge, Param Siddhim itogataha.
[SPEAKER_02]: It all means here, from samsara, kata, they have gone, gone means gone forever, they will not come back again, they will not walk the dusty pathways of this world.
[SPEAKER_02]: Buddha says, after enlightenment, he says to Maya, Mara in Buddhist terminology, Maya, your place over, no more will you build this house of deceit.
[SPEAKER_02]: So the game of life is the game of life and death is over, sounds very boring, ominous, what's after that?
[SPEAKER_02]: After that is what Christians would call eternal life.
[SPEAKER_02]: After that is what Hindus would call Amritat, Moksham.
[SPEAKER_02]: And Buddha is called Irvana.
[SPEAKER_02]: After that is freedom.
[SPEAKER_02]: So Param Siddhim Mitoghata.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is the highest attainment, Param Siddhim.
[SPEAKER_02]: Therefore, this knowledge is the greatest of all knowledge.
[SPEAKER_02]: Gananam, Ganamutamam, of all, the English, for the first time I have seen all knowledge as, so, supreme knowledge, the supreme knowledge in all knowledge systems.
[SPEAKER_02]: Whatever knowledge we have, the greatest of all knowledge is to know ourselves, our real nature.
[SPEAKER_02]: This I will tell you again.
[SPEAKER_02]: Munei, Munei, the word Munei means sage, the commentator says, Munei, Mananashila, those words thoughtful.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, spiritual life is meant for a people who are little sensitive.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, I mean, we very can't they would say that what we want is as you must be immensely practical and immensely idealistic.
[SPEAKER_02]: If you're only practical, you say, that's a brute.
[SPEAKER_02]: You can earn your living and make a way in the world for some time until you get old and sick and die.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's the life.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a life of animals.
[SPEAKER_02]: If you're only idealistic, we must have met a pastor who told me that in every congregation, in every church, you will always find people who are so heavenly that they are no earthly
[SPEAKER_02]: A friend of mine, a monk, told me, you know what is practical Vedanta, I said what?
[SPEAKER_02]: Ask somebody to do something practical and he'll give you a Vedanta lecture, that's practical version.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, we can't just sit both, we can't just sit both, you must be practical and immensely idealistic also.
[SPEAKER_02]: Here money means the person who sings, who sings, sings about life.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is where the moon is in India, it's a philosopher.
[SPEAKER_02]: A philosopher is a moon.
[SPEAKER_02]: Mananashila, man means mind.
[SPEAKER_02]: The one who uses the mind, somebody said, we would rather die than think.
[SPEAKER_02]: Think.
[SPEAKER_02]: I remember meeting this extraordinary philosopher.
[SPEAKER_02]: He has passed away now.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, after retiring from a philosophy department, he was in Manafar Ashram, so very well, big, well-known Ashram in India, where a lot of scholars reside.
[SPEAKER_02]: So this philosopher was also there.
[SPEAKER_02]: And all of this was told to me by a friend of mine who was in that Ashram a monk.
[SPEAKER_02]: He said, all the other scholars were writing books, publishing papers, giving lectures, but this particular philosopher didn't do any of those.
[SPEAKER_02]: And others would get exasperated.
[SPEAKER_02]: Why is the Swami, the head of the Ashram?
[SPEAKER_02]: Allowing Him to stay here, is not doing anything.
[SPEAKER_02]: He'd just stay.
[SPEAKER_02]: And one day, he said, I asked the Swami, why do you let that gentle man stay?
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, what is he doing here?
[SPEAKER_02]: He doesn't do anything.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the Swami said, ah, they should always be one or two such people.
[SPEAKER_02]: But he said, I realize the beauty of that person one day, I asked him some questions and he explained it so beautifully.
[SPEAKER_02]: The fellows have explained it to me.
[SPEAKER_02]: My friend was at that time, a novice monk.
[SPEAKER_02]: So he explained this deep philosophical topic so beautifully.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I asked him, sir, you teach so beautifully.
[SPEAKER_02]: So why don't you give classes or you write books and give lectures, write books?
[SPEAKER_02]: He said, he would speak softly, and rather dramatically, he said, ah, those who speak a lot, they cannot write.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's warning to me.
[SPEAKER_02]: Those who write a lot, they don't think, I think.
[SPEAKER_02]: He said, I think, what do you do?
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't give talks, I don't write books.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think, so I'm always thinking.
[SPEAKER_02]: Mananashila, the money means those who are thinking, there is a saying, I forgot in the original Sanskrit, it says, to the thoughtful just as a spider web is it touches your eyeball, so sensitive, the eyeball is so sensitive, even if a spider web touches it, you feel discomfort immediately, you feel it react.
[SPEAKER_02]: It is to the thoughtful, everything in the world is suffering.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a man and a sheel, as I think.
[SPEAKER_02]: Socrates, probably Plato put it in his, anyway, we attribute it to Socrates.
[SPEAKER_02]: The unexamined life is not worth living.
[SPEAKER_02]: If you don't think about your life, that life is not worth living, he said, to which the French philosopher Sath replied, the unlived life is not worth examining.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, Muni, he is one of the sheel.
[SPEAKER_02]: Another ancient saying in India is, Nasa Muni, Yasiya Matam, that one is not a Muni, a thinker, a philosopher who does not have a separate opinion of his own.
[SPEAKER_02]: There is a thing that if two saints, if two saints, two philosophers agree, then one of them is not a philosopher.
[SPEAKER_02]: If two saints disagree, then one of them is not a saint.
[SPEAKER_02]: So Munihi Mananashila, spirituality requires you to think.
[SPEAKER_02]: Religion doesn't require to think.
[SPEAKER_02]: I've met many religious persons who are religious sort of mechanically.
[SPEAKER_02]: The born into it, they think it's okay.
[SPEAKER_02]: I do a little temple visit or a church visit or a little puja.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's fine.
[SPEAKER_02]: Anything more than that?
[SPEAKER_02]: No, I'm too busy for anything else.
[SPEAKER_02]: But those who start thinking, what happens often days first, the first step is often they become disillusioned with traditional religion.
[SPEAKER_02]: I've seen a lot of people, especially young people coming here.
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't believe, I can't believe, but yet I think there is something deep, high spiritual in life, and Vedanta tracks such people, because you are willing to think for yourself.
[SPEAKER_02]: Spirituality requires thinking, religion.
[SPEAKER_02]: One can get into it by habit, by tradition, by custom mechanically.
[SPEAKER_02]: So what is that knowledge?
[SPEAKER_02]: For the more, some more, he's doing some advertisement here, he's advertising the knowledge.
[SPEAKER_02]: What's number two?
[SPEAKER_02]: By resorting to this knowledge, they having attained to my nature are not reborn even at the time of creation, nor are the distressed of the time of disillusion.
[SPEAKER_02]: Very beautiful advertisement for this knowledge.
[SPEAKER_02]: What does this knowledge?
[SPEAKER_02]: What knowledge?
[SPEAKER_02]: The knowledge about our real nature that you are broken, that you are Brahman.
[SPEAKER_02]: Somebody asked me, what's the nature of enlightenment in Vedanta?
[SPEAKER_02]: The knowledge, the realization, I am Brahman.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's realization, that's enlightenment.
[SPEAKER_02]: Not just repeating it, not just reading about it, actually feeling it, actually seeing as a fact that it's true.
[SPEAKER_02]: Then it's done.
[SPEAKER_02]: When this knowledge, what good does it do?
[SPEAKER_02]: Mama sār hār miamā gataḥaḥ, they become like me.
[SPEAKER_02]: Secreśnā says, what is like me?
[SPEAKER_02]: What is recreśnā, is nāvataḥaḥ.
[SPEAKER_02]: Avatara incarnation, not in the Hollywood Sin, all the actually in the Hollywood Sin, it's also based on the original conception of the Avatara, where God downloads himself, herself, herself, into a being, into a human being.
[SPEAKER_02]: So Avatara, Avatara is always incarnation of God, so Krishna is basically God, is an incarnation of God.
[SPEAKER_02]: What is the nature of God?
[SPEAKER_02]: Somershty Agyana Upahita Chaitanya, Pure Consciousness associated with Maya, Pure Consciousness associated with Maya, Nirguna Brahman plus Maya becomes Saguna Brahman, the Attributless Consciousness with the power of Maya, then becomes Ishwara, God.
[SPEAKER_02]: So the essential nature of God is Pure Consciousness.
[SPEAKER_02]: existence, consciousness, place, limitless radiance, light shining, whatever you call it, not physical light, consciousness.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that essential nature is our essential nature also.
[SPEAKER_02]: When Krishna says they become unto me, they become like me, does not mean those who are enlightened will become avatars, no, no, no.
[SPEAKER_02]: You cannot become an incarnation, we are Jeevas, Santy and beings.
[SPEAKER_02]: What we can become is free of this, we can realize our true nature and get free of some
[SPEAKER_02]: Avatara is only God, so does it mean we will become God?
[SPEAKER_02]: No, we will not even become God, there is only one God, but we will become something more than God, we will become one with the sense of God, which is nidguna Brahman.
[SPEAKER_02]: Think of the individual being as a wave in the ocean, think of God as the ocean itself.
[SPEAKER_02]: But think of Nidhgun Abram and the attribute list reality as the water of the ocean.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now the wave and the ocean both depend upon water.
[SPEAKER_02]: The wave is certainly tiny part of the ocean, temporary part of the ocean.
[SPEAKER_02]: But the water is the reality of the ocean, without ocean water can still exist.
[SPEAKER_02]: Water can exist as water vapor, a water in your water bottle.
[SPEAKER_02]: But without water, even the ocean, mighty ocean cannot exist.
[SPEAKER_02]: Similarly, without nirgunabramman, without the absolute, even God cannot exist.
[SPEAKER_02]: The world cannot exist.
[SPEAKER_02]: We of course cannot exist.
[SPEAKER_02]: So when he says, by this knowledge, they become like me.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like me in what sense, as nirgunabramman, as the absolute.
[SPEAKER_02]: You realize you are already, you are.
[SPEAKER_02]: We already are that.
[SPEAKER_02]: But we realize it.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then what is the result of this?
[SPEAKER_02]: Tremendous is the result of it.
[SPEAKER_02]: So Gyapinopajayanti, Pralayna, Bhattanthiti.
[SPEAKER_02]: They are not thrown forth into the universe at the beginning of the universe.
[SPEAKER_02]: They are not disturbed shaken at the collapse of the universe.
[SPEAKER_02]: What does this mean?
[SPEAKER_02]: The whole Vedantic cosmology is, it's like this.
[SPEAKER_02]: What is the point of this?
[SPEAKER_02]: One way of explaining this, one explanation is, it is all meant for the sentient beings.
[SPEAKER_02]: It is a part of our spiritual evolution, so we are given a universe, we are given bodies, lifetime after lifetime, and we work out our spiritual evolution until we realize our absolute nature.
[SPEAKER_02]: That is nidguna Brahman, that is one we have looking at it.
[SPEAKER_02]: And therefore as long as we are not enlightened, we will be born again and again and again.
[SPEAKER_02]: Jhatrasya, he drove him to Dhrumam, Jadimam, Ritesh, Jhatya, Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita, of those who are born, death is certain.
[SPEAKER_02]: Of those who die, but it is certain, but qualification, fine print.
[SPEAKER_02]: It is those who are enlightened, they will not be born again.
[SPEAKER_02]: So those who are born death is certain for whom they are unenglightened.
[SPEAKER_02]: But if you become enlightened, won't that be there for you?
[SPEAKER_02]: No, you realize yourself to a Brahman which is deathless, so you don't die with the dying of the body.
[SPEAKER_02]: So really your freedom, death, your freedom, birth.
[SPEAKER_02]: So this is one way of understanding Vedanta.
[SPEAKER_02]: In fact, all of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism can be explained in this way.
[SPEAKER_02]: What is the project here?
[SPEAKER_02]: We are caught in this cycle of limited existence, is pleasure and pain being born, living, dying, again and again and again.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is called Jannbham Rittu, chakra, samsara, the cycle of birth and death.
[SPEAKER_02]: And freedom from this into our infinite nature is the good.
[SPEAKER_02]: Here, whether they agree where God exists or does not exist in permanent soil or impermanence or whatever is the philosophy, in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, they are, this is the common ground, they all agree that this is, this is the cycle of birth and death.
[SPEAKER_02]: Until we become enlightened, we will not be freed from it, this will continue, this will continue.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was Swami Madhavan and the Jee.
[SPEAKER_02]: was the president of order.
[SPEAKER_02]: He had come to the United States once in 1960s, 50s, 60s, he had a brain tumor, they arranged.
[SPEAKER_02]: Swami Nikhilanji was here in New York on the other center.
[SPEAKER_02]: We have two Ashrams here, this one and one on the east side.
[SPEAKER_02]: In that center, this one in Nikhilanji was there, who was very close, a close friend of Swami Madhavananda.
[SPEAKER_02]: So Swami Madhavananda was the president of the whole order.
[SPEAKER_02]: So Nikhil Ranjee said, I will make all arrangements for your operation, brain operation.
[SPEAKER_02]: The best search and best hospital here in New York.
[SPEAKER_02]: Come.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so Salami Madhavanji came here.
[SPEAKER_02]: And
[SPEAKER_02]: After the operations, there are many interesting stories because the stories have been written on by Americans who nursed him, took care of him, they have written wonderful reminiscences of him.
[SPEAKER_02]: Anyway, I just tell you, just this one reminiscence, this one memory of him.
[SPEAKER_02]: After the operation he was recovering, if I am not wrong, he was in the ashram and at that time a big topic was the birth control pill.
[SPEAKER_02]: It had just been discovered and it has just been invented and there was a big debate among people whether it is good or bad should be adopted or this was an issue in 1960s I think.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, some of the devotees were discussing it hotly, some are far, some are against, and the Swami was sitting at a distance.
[SPEAKER_02]: They thought the Swami is not interested in these things, he won't know.
[SPEAKER_02]: And from there, the Swami said, I am for it.
[SPEAKER_02]: They looked, oh Swami, you know about this, you know, so you have an opinion, yes.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, birth control, no birth, no death, freedom from birth and death.
[SPEAKER_02]: But that will not be our, it will not be attained, we will not achieve it until we are enlightened.
[SPEAKER_02]: So Ramakrishna says, once you enter the hospital, you will not be released discharged, until you are cured.
[SPEAKER_02]: You can't discharge yourself, the doctor will come and discharge you.
[SPEAKER_02]: Until you are cured, you will have to stay there.
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, a little side story here.
[SPEAKER_02]: I remember I was in the hospital, but this was hospital for monks.
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's already peculiar.
[SPEAKER_02]: The monks, everything what monks is peculiar, all little crazy.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I was sick.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I was in the hospital.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the senior most monk in our order, he was already a hundred years old, 99 at that time, I think.
[SPEAKER_02]: So he was in the bed next to me.
[SPEAKER_02]: And he came and admitted himself.
[SPEAKER_02]: He said, this is really, really tough old man.
[SPEAKER_02]: in Calcutta.
[SPEAKER_02]: He walked down and came to the hospital, went straight into bed and laid down.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's his way of admitting himself.
[SPEAKER_02]: People were in the puzzle.
[SPEAKER_02]: Who is this?
[SPEAKER_02]: Why is he come?
[SPEAKER_02]: What's wrong?
[SPEAKER_02]: He laid.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I say remember, the doctors and nurses running around and the Swami in charge of the hospital came hurriedly.
[SPEAKER_02]: He said, Maharaj, what is wrong?
[SPEAKER_02]: I feel sick, I have a temperature, so I have come here and laid on it.
[SPEAKER_02]: But what has been to do some paper work and you know, I try to find, so he was there next to me.
[SPEAKER_02]: As the youngest monk, he was the oldest monk in the world, I was a young brahmacharya and he was nearly 100 years old, it was a very interesting time in the next bed.
[SPEAKER_02]: One day suddenly, he felt good, he got up and he walked out.
[SPEAKER_02]: And there was Kamos, where is the patient gone?
[SPEAKER_02]: He discharged himself.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it led to endless paper work, you know?
[SPEAKER_02]: It is a big issue.
[SPEAKER_02]: One patient is missing.
[SPEAKER_02]: So Mr.am Krishna says, you will not be discharged until you are cured.
[SPEAKER_02]: But then death will continue.
[SPEAKER_02]: So enlightenment will free you.
[SPEAKER_02]: Then what will happen?
[SPEAKER_02]: Once you are free.
[SPEAKER_02]: So the one more fact is necessary.
[SPEAKER_02]: The Hindus, Buddhist, Giants, we all believe in a cyclic universe.
[SPEAKER_02]: Universe which is created, the whole Big Bang and Big Crunch matches this.
[SPEAKER_02]: Universe which is created lives on for billions of years and finally collapses.
[SPEAKER_02]: And suppose some sentient being is there who has not attained enlightenment in the lifetime of a universe.
[SPEAKER_02]: We are all like that.
[SPEAKER_02]: You don't have to see what a loser didn't become enlightened.
[SPEAKER_02]: The very fact that we are here is that many universes have come and gone.
[SPEAKER_02]: We are still jokatyo in Hindi, just like as much worldly as we always.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's why we are here today.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now suppose someone has not attained enlightenment, the question will be, what will happen to that person?
[SPEAKER_02]: The universe is gone.
[SPEAKER_02]: There are no more stars and planets and worlds and no more menhattan and no more bodies.
[SPEAKER_02]: There is no more food to eat, no bodies to eat.
[SPEAKER_02]: There are no other people, nothing, just gone, everything is gone.
[SPEAKER_02]: So what happens?
[SPEAKER_02]: The Vedanta says,
[SPEAKER_02]: The whole of the universe is absorbed back into Maya.
[SPEAKER_02]: So only the Ishwar, a Bhagavan, is there, nothing else is there.
[SPEAKER_02]: Pure consciousness with Maya, Maya contains the seeds of the future universe.
[SPEAKER_02]: Among the seeds are also the seeds of sentient beings, seeds of sentient beings means.
[SPEAKER_02]: Whatever we have done is backed up into Maya, all data is there.
[SPEAKER_02]: Nothing will be erased.
[SPEAKER_02]: And when the next universe is ready, we'll be again projected into it.
[SPEAKER_02]: So again, we'll start our evolution.
[SPEAKER_02]: Sridamakrishna puts all this complicated stuff in very simple words.
[SPEAKER_02]: He says, at the end of the harvest season, the granny, it's imagine a village.
[SPEAKER_02]: The granny, she goes forth and collects the seeds of various plants and nata in Bengali and liticles.
[SPEAKER_02]: pieces of rags, cloth.
[SPEAKER_02]: She makes little bundles of them, different plants, different seeds.
[SPEAKER_02]: They make little bundles and she keeps it until the time for the next sewing season comes.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then she puts them and the new plants again come forth.
[SPEAKER_02]: So in between, nothing is there.
[SPEAKER_02]: No universe.
[SPEAKER_02]: Granny is sitting.
[SPEAKER_02]: She's got the whole universe in a little cloth, little bundles.
[SPEAKER_02]: So the Granny is Maya or Mahamaaya.
[SPEAKER_02]: So we are still there.
[SPEAKER_02]: Except the enlightened ones.
[SPEAKER_02]: Those jolly fellows are free.
[SPEAKER_02]: So next time Granny creates the universe, Sergei Pinau Pajayante, they are not thrown forth into the universe.
[SPEAKER_02]: Your freedom is permanent.
[SPEAKER_02]: You remain as pure consciousness, beyond Maya.
[SPEAKER_02]: So you, Maya will not catch you.
[SPEAKER_02]: Maya will not catch you.
[SPEAKER_02]: And,
[SPEAKER_02]: At the end of the universe, those beings are all are scared.
[SPEAKER_02]: The universe is ending, a terrible, we won't be around for this.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not that terrible, but the universe will end.
[SPEAKER_02]: But the enlightened ones who remain as limitless consciousness, for them it's nothing, for them it's just the breaking of a dream.
[SPEAKER_02]: Nothing.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, needs of the beginning of the universe, troubles them, not the end of the universe.
[SPEAKER_02]: And if you see the personal life, that particular death of the body, in which they attain enlightenment, that death also doesn't trouble them.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's nothing to them.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, sir, Gayapinau pajarayam ti pralayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayay
[SPEAKER_02]: Gulas, third verse.
[SPEAKER_02]: The great nature is my womb, in that I place the germ and from that of descendant of Bharata is the origin of all beings.
[SPEAKER_02]: So here, a very profound insight.
[SPEAKER_02]: So what happens?
[SPEAKER_02]: Here Mahat Brahma does not refer to Brahma, and it refers to Prakriti nature.
[SPEAKER_02]: Not the ultimate reality refers to nature, Maya.
[SPEAKER_02]: And he says, I, I here, is Ishwarabhagavan, God, Saganabhramman, at the beginning of creation.
[SPEAKER_02]: And what do I do?
[SPEAKER_02]: I reflect myself in practices.
[SPEAKER_02]: Prakriti is the womb in which I put the seed.
[SPEAKER_02]: What is the womb, Prakriti?
[SPEAKER_02]: Nature, Maya.
[SPEAKER_02]: What is the seed?
[SPEAKER_02]: Reflected.
[SPEAKER_02]: I reflect myself in that.
[SPEAKER_02]: So consciousness and matter, the interact, and then starts the whole of creation.
[SPEAKER_02]: So this is from that all beings are created.
[SPEAKER_02]: See, here it preserves the initial, the ancient sunken inside.
[SPEAKER_02]: The whole universe is a play of consciousness and matter, pollution and property.
[SPEAKER_02]: But here it says, beyond consciousness and consciousness and matter are not two separate things.
[SPEAKER_02]: These sentient beings and the material universe.
[SPEAKER_02]: The material universe is source is property, material nature.
[SPEAKER_02]: that the material nature is not a separate reality, it is my power, the power of of Ishwara.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, what what Vedanta does is, it takes the property of sankya and makes it into the Maya of Vedanta.
[SPEAKER_02]: The practicality of Sankhya has independent separate, interacting with consciousness.
[SPEAKER_02]: Here, Maya is not independent or separate, Maya is the power of consciousness.
[SPEAKER_02]: It is one reality, not two realities, not two realities interacting, it is one reality, that reality is what we call God.
[SPEAKER_02]: In Sanskrit, Saguna Brahman with attributes.
[SPEAKER_02]: Another name, Ishwara, the controller of all, another name Bhagavan, the one who has all these own equalities, omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent and all that.
[SPEAKER_02]: So these are all different names of what Krishna is calling here, I, the beginning of creation.
[SPEAKER_02]: So it can't be Krishna himself as this person, as the child of Yashoda, not that one, because he's the, that is the incarnation.
[SPEAKER_02]: He was not there at the beginning of creation, but he was there in what sense, in sense
[SPEAKER_02]: Narayan, Bhagavan, Vishnu.
[SPEAKER_02]: So what do I do at the beginning of creation?
[SPEAKER_02]: Into nature, here he calls nature, my womb.
[SPEAKER_02]: In that I put the seed, what is the seed?
[SPEAKER_02]: I consciousness and reflected in in Maya.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then my ass starts creating the universe.
[SPEAKER_02]: What does it do if projects the material universe?
[SPEAKER_02]: And it projects the beings in material bodies.
[SPEAKER_02]: And in all the beings, I am reflected.
[SPEAKER_02]: That is called Jidhava as a reflected consciousness.
[SPEAKER_02]: The original consciousness, God, the reflected consciousness, us, I mean, which we very careful here.
[SPEAKER_02]: Original consciousness, God, but what is God, pure consciousness itself, plus Maya, plus the Maya is original consciousness, here think of Maya as a mirror.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then God reflected in Maya, in each creation of Maya, becomes sentient beings like
[SPEAKER_02]: But what is the ultimate reality?
[SPEAKER_02]: Neither the reflected consciousness, nor the original consciousness, beyond reflection.
[SPEAKER_02]: When do we talk about original face and reflected face?
[SPEAKER_02]: When a mirror is present.
[SPEAKER_02]: If the mirror is not present, what is the meaning of saying original face?
[SPEAKER_02]: So without the mirror, the face itself, let us say, that is nirguna Brahman.
[SPEAKER_02]: With the mirror of Maya, the face becomes God.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the reflection of the face in thousands of mirrors becomes the G-Vas.
[SPEAKER_02]: One caution here, if you're followed so far, there might be a misconception.
[SPEAKER_02]: If you're not followed, you're safe.
[SPEAKER_02]: You're followed so far, don't think of yourself as the face reflected in the mirror.
[SPEAKER_02]: Think of yourself as the original, the deface itself, beyond any mirror, you are this.
[SPEAKER_02]: So otherwise one will create internally in our understanding a gap between yourself and the reality, you are the reality, reflected in a mirror.
[SPEAKER_02]: then the commentator says that so the my point was notice how he has maintained the original sunken inside the whole universe is created by a play of consciousness and matter here he says that consciousness conscious beings and material nature are one reality called Maya which is my power I am reflected in it see consciousness and matter they are again interacting and then
[SPEAKER_02]: The commentator says here, say that samitadeva prashang say a sotaram avimukikritya.
[SPEAKER_02]: He says, by advertisement, sotaram avimukikritya having attracted the attention of the heroes.
[SPEAKER_02]: Who this sounds very profound.
[SPEAKER_02]: Let me hear what's going on here.
[SPEAKER_02]: cutting edge stuff.
[SPEAKER_02]: Deep cosmology here.
[SPEAKER_02]: Let me listen.
[SPEAKER_02]: Paramishvaradhi na yoho, prakriti purusha yoho, sarvabhutat paktim prathi heitutam.
[SPEAKER_02]: He says,
[SPEAKER_02]: It is under the control of Parameshwar, another name for Bhagavan, Ishwar, God is Parameshwar, the Supreme Lord, under the control of the Supreme Lord, our sentient beings and nature, material nature.
[SPEAKER_02]: And their interaction creates the universe, Na Swatantriya Na, not independently, who says independently?
[SPEAKER_02]: Sangya, this distinction is going on here.
[SPEAKER_02]: So Vedantic system building is going on.
[SPEAKER_02]: They are taking the materials from Sankhya and building this and introducing God into it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Curious use of terms.
[SPEAKER_02]: Prakriti, Maya here is called Brahma.
[SPEAKER_02]: Mahad Brahma, the vast Brahma.
[SPEAKER_02]: The commentator explains,
[SPEAKER_02]: Maya is not limited in time and space.
[SPEAKER_02]: Why very obviously because time and space are products of Maya.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, Maya is not limited by time and space.
[SPEAKER_02]: Time and space comes after Maya.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, one must be careful here.
[SPEAKER_02]: If you remember Taitiri Upanishad, Satyam, Yadaman, Antham, Raman is that which is not limited by time space object.
[SPEAKER_02]: Isn't the definition of Raman and Maya
[SPEAKER_02]: No.
[SPEAKER_02]: Berman is not limited by time and space, but Berman is not limited by object also.
[SPEAKER_02]: But Maya is limited by object, it was stupidity, because Maya is not Berman, I mean in the sense it is not apart from Berman, but Berman is apart from Maya, Berman is not limited by Maya.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, Maya has not, does not have the infinitude of Brahman, but certainly, it is not limited in time, not limited in space, practical purposes Maya is infinite from our perspective.
[SPEAKER_02]: If this makes sense, good doesn't make sense, not important.
[SPEAKER_02]: The whole thing is to say, another Chinatwath Mahat, because it is not limited by time and space, being the producers of time and space, therefore it is called Mahat, vast, great.
[SPEAKER_02]: Why is it called Brahman?
[SPEAKER_02]: Normally you call God Brahman or the Absolute Reality Brahman or even Jeeva is ultimately Brahman.
[SPEAKER_02]: Jeeva Brahman is a Brahman.
[SPEAKER_02]: Generally, you don't call Maya Brahman.
[SPEAKER_02]: Why is it called Brahman here?
[SPEAKER_02]: Bring her a toad, sokaryana, britti, heitut, toad, vah, Brahman.
[SPEAKER_02]: Because it swells, because it expands into the universe.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, Karyanam Vriddhiya Tuttvaad, because it nourishes and produces nourishes and flourishes, all its products, sentient beings, the five elements, the cosmos, the all the worlds.
[SPEAKER_02]: Therefore, Brahman, the literal meaning of Brahman is that which expands without limit.
[SPEAKER_02]: Breya Tuttvaad, bring Hanattvaad, because it expands without limit, that ultimate reality is called Brahman.
[SPEAKER_02]: Ramana Marshe is very beautiful, comment I liked.
[SPEAKER_02]: The universe is the expansion of the self.
[SPEAKER_02]: The universe is the expansion of the self.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's the expansion of Brahman.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's the expansion of pure consciousness.
[SPEAKER_02]: But here, he says, the universe is the expansion of Maya.
[SPEAKER_02]: That is true.
[SPEAKER_02]: Literally pure consciousness does not expand, not physically.
[SPEAKER_02]: So in the presence of pure consciousness, Maya expands into this universe.
[SPEAKER_02]: Therefore, Maya is called Brahman-Why?
[SPEAKER_02]: Because it expands.
[SPEAKER_02]: The meaning of Raman literally, etymological is that which expands without limit.
[SPEAKER_02]: What else?
[SPEAKER_02]: Why is it called the womb?
[SPEAKER_02]: Karbhung, Jagat, Vistara, Hethung, Chidabha, Sambhadhami, Nikshipami.
[SPEAKER_02]: Because, like the seed being put in the womb, I put this consciousness, I reflect myself in my own.
[SPEAKER_02]: This jidabha, very clearly the term is used here, reflected consciousness, I reflect myself in the mirror of my own.
[SPEAKER_02]: So my eyes call the womb in which for the universe.
[SPEAKER_02]: Then number four.
[SPEAKER_02]: Sarva Yoni, Shukantaya, Sarva Yoni, Shukantaya, Murtaya, Sambhavantiya, Murtaya, Sambhavantiya, Tashaambramha, Mahadjoni, Tashaambramha, Mahadjoni, Aham Bija Pradha, Pita, Aham Bija Pradha, Pita, Pita, Pita, Pita, Pita, Pita, Pita, Pita, Pita, Pita, Pita, Pita, Pita, Pita, Pita, Pita, Pita, Pita, Pita, Pita, Pita, Pita, Pita, Pita, Pita, Pita, Pita, Pita, Pita, Pita, Pita, Pita, Pita, Pita, Pita, Pita, Pita, Pita, Pita, Pita, Pita, Pita, Pita, Pita, Pita, Pita, Pita
[SPEAKER_02]: Whatever forms, oh son of Kunti, are born in different rooms of them the great nature is the womb and I am the seed giving father.
[SPEAKER_02]: So not only at the beginning of the universe, even now, everything that is being born.
[SPEAKER_02]: Human beings, plants, animals, non-living things are coming.
[SPEAKER_02]: Everything is actually arising from the source, which is the mother's source, Maya, and behind that we can call it the father of the universe is the absolute reality.
[SPEAKER_02]: In conjunction with Maya produces this universe, that's what he's saying here.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, the topic of the chapter.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is all advertisement and background.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, what's happening?
[SPEAKER_02]: The three gunas have to be introduced.
[SPEAKER_02]: And for the rest of the chapter, we'll talk about the three gunas.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm not translating the word guna.
[SPEAKER_02]: It can be translated as ropes, strings, qualities, attributes.
[SPEAKER_02]: Attributes.
[SPEAKER_02]: Verse number five.
[SPEAKER_02]: Satuam raja tama iti, Satuam raja tama iti, Guna prakreti sambhava, Guna prakreti sambhava, Nibhad nanti maha bahu, Nibhad nanti maha bahu, Dehe dehe nam abjayam, Dehe dehe nam abjayam, Satuar rajas tamas.
[SPEAKER_02]: the quality of light, the quality of dynamism, the quality of darkness, these gunners, O mighty armed one, that are born of nature, property, bind fast, the immutable embodied being in this poly.
[SPEAKER_02]: So now we are going to get to the crux of it.
[SPEAKER_02]: The commentator introduces this section, saying that they were paramishwara Dhina Bhyam, Prakriti Purusha Bhyam, Sarva Bhuta Bhatim Nirupya, in this way, showing that under the control of God, under the control of Paramishwara, the Supreme Lord, under the control of Ishwara Bhagavan, what is there?
[SPEAKER_02]: Prakriti Purusha, sentian beings and material nature.
[SPEAKER_02]: What happens there?
[SPEAKER_02]: Why?
[SPEAKER_02]: Server Bhutaut Patthim, the origin of all things.
[SPEAKER_02]: From the one reality, 10,000 things originate.
[SPEAKER_02]: This Taoism, from the Tao, 10,000 things originate.
[SPEAKER_02]: The 10,000 things means 10 billion things.
[SPEAKER_02]: The entire universe comes from there.
[SPEAKER_02]: Server Bhutaut Patthim, the group you're having described this, the source, how it all happened?
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, it's running now.
[SPEAKER_02]: Prakriti Sangyogi, Na Purushasya Samsa, Rapampan Chayati, Chaturthashabhi.
[SPEAKER_02]: how the samsar of the sentient being happens in conjunction with progrity.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's our contact with progrity.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's in our contact with Maya being in meshed in Maya being trapped in prison.
[SPEAKER_02]: We have samsar.
[SPEAKER_02]: How that happens is being going to be shown in the next 14 verses.
[SPEAKER_02]: Chatur Dasha, in the next 14 verses, which is basically the bulk of the this is a bulk of the
[SPEAKER_02]: What did he say?
[SPEAKER_02]: What are the three Gwinnas?
[SPEAKER_02]: Sattur Raja Tama, three Gwinnas.
[SPEAKER_02]: Sri Ramakrishna gives and they are the ones who bind us in Samsala.
[SPEAKER_02]: Sri Ramakrishna gives a nice story about the three Gwinnas, the three robbers, the three robbers.
[SPEAKER_02]: The man was going on a long journey and in the forest, he fell into the clutches of three robbers.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now, they robbed him of everything and one of the robbers says,
[SPEAKER_02]: And that was Thamas, the one which wanted to destroy him.
[SPEAKER_02]: The second Robert said, let's not kill him.
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's just tie him up and leave him here in the forest.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, they tied him up.
[SPEAKER_02]: And they went on their way, but the third driver, he took pity on the person, and he came back and untied him and said, oh, are you hurt?
[SPEAKER_02]: We are very sorry after robbing.
[SPEAKER_02]: And he says, and the man said, can you show me the way out of this terrible forest?
[SPEAKER_02]: Some saw, some saw.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the third driver says, yes, I can show you.
[SPEAKER_02]: I can show you the way home.
[SPEAKER_02]: And he takes him and shows him the high road and says, go down this, you'll find your home.
[SPEAKER_02]: And this man is very grateful, value of help me, all the years he robbed him, which is I think in case of Stockholm's in the syndrome, I think.
[SPEAKER_02]: So he says, you have helped me, please come with me.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll give you a cup of tea.
[SPEAKER_02]: You come to my home, please come and meet me.
[SPEAKER_02]: So the robber said, no, I can't go with you, because I am a robber.
[SPEAKER_02]: I can't go there with a police officer.
[SPEAKER_02]: I can't go to that place.
[SPEAKER_02]: So it's the story.
[SPEAKER_02]: The three robbers are Satwarajras and Thamas, the three corners, and they bind us in some Sahara.
[SPEAKER_02]: The dark one, the Thamas, Thamas literally means dark, darkness.
[SPEAKER_02]: That destroys, that destroys, slot laziness, inadvertence, error, confusion, delusion.
[SPEAKER_02]: sleep, it destroys it, it slowly, it addiction, things like that, it wipes you out, it disintegrates and destroys a personality.
[SPEAKER_02]: Rajas, the other one, it's dynamism and how does it bind, so the Thomas binds by destroying, by degrading us.
[SPEAKER_02]: What, how does Rajasbind?
[SPEAKER_02]: Rajasbinds by dynamism, by greed, by lust, by ambition.
[SPEAKER_02]: So it ties you into the network of karma.
[SPEAKER_02]: I want some stuff.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to work day and night to get it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Through honest means, if you are lucky or dishonest means, if a person is unethical, but pursuing goals impaled by desire, Rajas.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then there is a third rubber.
[SPEAKER_02]: What does it do?
[SPEAKER_02]: It brings in ethics.
[SPEAKER_02]: It brings in sensitivity.
[SPEAKER_02]: It brings in reflection.
[SPEAKER_02]: It brings in a desire for freedom.
[SPEAKER_02]: It will not give you freedom, it will help you.
[SPEAKER_02]: It will help you.
[SPEAKER_02]: It will give purity of mind.
[SPEAKER_02]: It will give you ethics.
[SPEAKER_02]: It will give you spiritual discipline.
[SPEAKER_02]: Spirituality becomes possible.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thomas, spirituality is not possible.
[SPEAKER_02]: Rajas, spirituality is very, very fickle, very difficult.
[SPEAKER_02]: Satu, satvic life, spirituality becomes possible.
[SPEAKER_02]: All these things, yoga, bhakti, ghana, all of these things become possible in satvic qualities.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, satvic qualities are very useful for spiritual life.
[SPEAKER_02]: It frees you from some sort and shows you the way towards enlightenment
[SPEAKER_02]: But it will not go there.
[SPEAKER_02]: Was it belongs to some sorrow?
[SPEAKER_02]: There, only your real nature is there, pure consciousness, upman or Brahman is there.
[SPEAKER_02]: So that is the story.
[SPEAKER_02]: Robert will free you.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, the gentleman there.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
[SPEAKER_02]: Is where the microphone?
[SPEAKER_02]: Tell us your name and ask the question.
[SPEAKER_02]: My name is Jose.
[SPEAKER_02]: On the new growner cosmology, are we guaranteed?
[SPEAKER_02]: Mooksha?
[SPEAKER_02]: On the Nirguna cosmology there is no question of motion.
[SPEAKER_02]: The Nirguna, the absolute, the attributeless absolute, Brahman, the ultimate reality of things.
[SPEAKER_02]: You already free, who is there to be free or all freedom and bondage are with respect to samsara?
[SPEAKER_02]: If you say Nirguna Brahman, the absolute is those samsara there.
[SPEAKER_02]: From that perspective, even now there is no samsara.
[SPEAKER_02]: And there means Nirguna Brahman is right here.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's our real nature.
[SPEAKER_02]: In fact, the way we get freedom, in a Dwight of it, I'm talking about a Dwight of it, the way we get freedom is to come to realize that we are nidguna bhramman and the nidguna bhramman alone is there.
[SPEAKER_02]: In Buddhist language, upon the primordial ground, there is a magical display of samsara and nirvana.
[SPEAKER_02]: What is the primordial ground?
[SPEAKER_02]: Is the Buddha nature?
[SPEAKER_02]: It is the Dharmakaya.
[SPEAKER_02]: in a Vedant that is called Nidh Gura Brahman, that tributeless absolute.
[SPEAKER_02]: On that, if you do not know the attributeless absolute, if you do not know I am that, that attributeless absolute will appear as some sorrow to you.
[SPEAKER_02]: it will project a world of separation, difference, embodiedness, struggling in life, birth, death, and cycles of birth and death, endless struggles.
[SPEAKER_02]: Sometimes an upward struggle of ethics going into spirituality, sometimes a downward struggle falling away into immorality and a hellish existence, this will continue.
[SPEAKER_02]: until we become enlightened.
[SPEAKER_02]: And what is enlightenment that I am the absolute?
[SPEAKER_02]: I am the Nirguna Brahman.
[SPEAKER_02]: Then there is a very question of moxha.
[SPEAKER_02]: It goes away.
[SPEAKER_02]: Not only guaranteed, it is super-carmented because it is already attained.
[SPEAKER_02]: The non-adroitic schools will tell you, no, we are actually in bondage, it's not attained, you have to attain it.
[SPEAKER_02]: And therefore, the spiritual journey will take you to that.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's unattained, will take you to that code.
[SPEAKER_02]: Adroita says, it's already attained because you are that nipgun abrahman.
[UNKNOWN]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, the two hands here.
[SPEAKER_02]: You come to prayer first.
[SPEAKER_02]: Tell us your name and ask the question.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's why I'm prayer.
[SPEAKER_01]: So in Advaita Vedanta is God-realization more like a step to realizing the Brahman because God is consciousness plus Maya.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, but an Advaita Vedanta remember God Realization is an English term.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, Advaita Vedanta did not consider it as a step.
[SPEAKER_02]: Advaita Vedanta, God Realization, the term in Sanskrit, would be Brahma-Ghara, the Realization of Brahman.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that has only one form.
[SPEAKER_02]: I am Brahman, a hum Brahma-Smi.
[SPEAKER_01]: God-realization and self-realization or you like that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Because God-realization is, in Advaita Vedant, it's not the realization of the Saguna Brahman in Ishvara.
[SPEAKER_02]: In Advaita Vedant, you can have devotion to Ishvara, to God.
[SPEAKER_02]: The word used is Upasya Brahman, the Brahman to be worshipped.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the attributeless Brahman is called, gain a Brahman, the Brahman to be realized.
[SPEAKER_02]: Why would you worship?
[SPEAKER_02]: Because the worship of this is the door way to that realization.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_02]: Tell us your name and ask the question.
[SPEAKER_02]: This difference between Swarupa and Swabhava is this precision, these come much later in the development of philosophies.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, sometimes he will say Swabhava, when he means my nature, when he says, sometimes Swarupa, here he says, sadharmiyam.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, this gives of course, a lot of space to develop lots of theology, but that is all right.
[SPEAKER_02]: Here if you just take it in the direct ultimate sense.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, the gentleman there.
[SPEAKER_03]: Hello, how are you?
[SPEAKER_03]: Good evening.
[SPEAKER_03]: Good evening.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, it's a very ancient Vedic name, Esho-Panishad, the salutations to Pushan.
[SPEAKER_03]: Got it from Sharia Vindogosh philosophy.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, but he got it from the Esho-Panishad, which was his favourite to Panishad.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, salutations to Pushan is the name of the Sun.
[SPEAKER_03]: All right.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_03]: So my question is if there is a realization already of being absolute.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_03]: So when I study Rajyog from Swami Vivekananda.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_03]: There they mentioned it is not secret, but there is a way that you approach Sadhana.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, if this realization is that simple, then why would there be a sadhana and certain practices really take it very secretively when they pass on the knowledge to their disciples.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_03]: So, I would want some clarity on that from your side.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, why if it is so simple, why is there a size and why is there a spiritual practice?
[SPEAKER_02]: Should just happen automatically, it is very simple.
[SPEAKER_02]: But who said it is very simple?
[SPEAKER_02]: You just said it.
[SPEAKER_02]: It is not really that simple.
[SPEAKER_02]: From an Advaitic perspective you are it, why should it be nothing other, what you should it be other than simple, but also the fact is that if you are here we have gone through lifetimes and lifetimes, indeed universes have passed away but we have not yet become enlightened.
[SPEAKER_02]: So even Advaiting say it will never happen by itself, it hasn't happened till now, it will not happen unless you do something about it.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is why it is simple, but it is the very nature of ignorance.
[SPEAKER_02]: Ignorance does not go away by itself unless you bring in knowledge.
[SPEAKER_02]: Knowledge will not arise by itself.
[SPEAKER_02]: Every time you have got knowledge, you require inquiry.
[SPEAKER_02]: Without enquiry knowledge will not arise.
[SPEAKER_02]: Therefore, the Vedanta sutras starts with Athatobramhajya-gya-sa Hence, therefore, enquiry into Brahman enquiry.
[SPEAKER_02]: What will enquiry do?
[SPEAKER_02]: It will lead to knowledge.
[SPEAKER_02]: What will knowledge do?
[SPEAKER_02]: It will solve all your problems.
[SPEAKER_02]: You'll become enlightened, you'll realize I am Brahman, and it solves all your problems.
[SPEAKER_02]: By the way, that's very interesting.
[SPEAKER_02]: It says, doesn't say, hence, therefore, worship Brahman, hence, therefore, serve Brahman, hence, therefore, meditate on Brahman.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, no, no, no, he says, hence, therefore, inquire into Brahman.
[SPEAKER_02]: That, though he thinks, will argue, therefore, the framework of Vedanta is knowledge is being sought here.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's why the Sadhana, the practice is inquiring.
[SPEAKER_02]: The practice is not, you know,
[SPEAKER_02]: Asana and Pranayama and meditation, the practice is not ritualistic worship, the practice is not building schools and colleges, none of that.
[SPEAKER_02]: The practice is inquiry and inquiry would be who am I, beautiful, yes, so that's why it looks very simple but then why is it not simple because we are complicated, we are terribly complicated people.
[SPEAKER_02]: and we have put on layer after layer of complication after lifetimes, and we those not which we have, they have to be untied and therefore a variety of practices are there.
[SPEAKER_02]: Usually the knowledge is the necessary of the ignorance is the problem, knowledge is necessary, knowledge comes from enquiry, good enough, so already you have got one practice enquiry and that is not an easy practice, enquiry into who am I, try to do it, it will not work.
[SPEAKER_02]: Why not?
[SPEAKER_02]: We find another problem.
[SPEAKER_02]: Mind is very restless.
[SPEAKER_02]: It will not hold on to it.
[SPEAKER_02]: The master will say, I can point out your real nature.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not very difficult.
[SPEAKER_02]: If you listen keenly, you will get it.
[SPEAKER_02]: If you don't get it, listen again and again, when a short while you'll get it, Vivekantha says, it is not difficult to understand.
[SPEAKER_02]: But then the master will tell you, got it?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_02]: Stay there.
[SPEAKER_02]: I can, maybe, one minute, but not more than that.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, the inability to stay there, the inability to live from, I have got it.
[SPEAKER_02]: I realize I am Brahman, but I don't behave like Brahman.
[SPEAKER_02]: I am still the same old dude.
[SPEAKER_02]: Why?
[SPEAKER_02]: Why?
[SPEAKER_02]: Because our intellect and our heart and our will are not in the same line.
[SPEAKER_02]: We are being pulled in different directions.
[SPEAKER_02]: Our understanding goes far ahead of the rest of our being.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, we need meditation, we need purification of the mind, all sorts of practices and above all, we need help.
[SPEAKER_02]: We need help.
[SPEAKER_02]: God.
[SPEAKER_02]: In which ever form, Divine Mother, Sri Ram Krishna's Tvarship, Kali, Vaishnava's Varship, Krishna, Rama, the Christians, Varship, Jesus Christ, the Varship of an incarnation is exceptionally powerful.
[SPEAKER_02]: You know why the Varship of an incarnation is exceptionally powerful, not for a good reason.
[SPEAKER_02]: We are so body conscious, we need to catch hold of another embodied ideal.
[SPEAKER_02]: If we were little better off, high quality aspirants, then the direct teaching pure consciousness would make sense to us.
[SPEAKER_02]: I would be able to regard myself as pure consciousness, then the limitlessness of my pure consciousness nature would become apparent to me, that's it, it's freedom.
[SPEAKER_02]: you are awareness, just awareness, step one, that awareness is limitless, step two, finished, you are free, not just by seeing it, not just by understanding it, becomes a fact, the moment you say it becomes a fact, because you recognize the fact, it is already a fact, but that requires a mind which is pure, which has a lot of clarity, a lot of strength.
[SPEAKER_02]: to develop that fitness, all of that sadhana's are required.
[SPEAKER_02]: I am talking about Advaita Vedanta.
[SPEAKER_02]: Advaita Vedanta itself says, all of that sadhana's are required.
[SPEAKER_02]: And they are welcome.
[SPEAKER_02]: Pooja is needed, where ritualistic worship, service to humanity is needed.
[SPEAKER_02]: Then prayer is needed, chanting is needed, then meditation is needed, yogic meditation, samali is needed, all of those are very essential.
[SPEAKER_02]: They are necessary conditions, but not sufficient, sufficient ghaana, sufficient condition, enlightenment.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll do the peace chant because still keep on talking he'll come with the basket.
[SPEAKER_02]: Om shanti shanti shanti he hari heom tatsak shri Ramakrishna Rupanam must do please raise your hand.
[SPEAKER_02]: He'll come with the microphone to you.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, we can take the microphone there.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is one caution which a senior monk gave me when we were first time studying these chapters on the three gunas.
[SPEAKER_02]: Our teacher, a very senior monk of the order, told us, remember, these are for self-analysis.
[SPEAKER_02]: Our image attendance is wow, but as you will go deeper, you'll see it's a vivid picture of human nature.
[SPEAKER_02]: And we immediately apply it on others.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's a tamasik fellow.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's a Rajasik.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now it's all meant to be applied to yourself.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_05]: Thank you, Swami.
[SPEAKER_05]: This is Prithi here.
[SPEAKER_05]: I am assuming a lot of the progress that humanity has made, whether it comes to technological or medical, it is because someone had rajas, some human.
[SPEAKER_05]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_05]: How can you balance rajas with Satraik or Satra?
[SPEAKER_02]: In fact, all breakthroughs and all whatever advances have been made is a combination of rajas and Satra.
[SPEAKER_02]: Satwik qualities, there is a whole spectrum.
[SPEAKER_02]: One can be deeply tamasik, but not many people are deeply tamasik, most people are in the spectrum of Rajas and Thamas.
[SPEAKER_02]: Then there are purely Rajasik people, intensely dynamic, work-aholic, exceptionally motivated people.
[SPEAKER_02]: Those are actually great qualities, not to be condemned.
[SPEAKER_02]: Then there are people who are in the range of satwik and rajasik in between.
[SPEAKER_02]: The other people who are thought leaders who are creators, scientists, you need some amount of satwik.
[SPEAKER_02]: It will come next.
[SPEAKER_02]: The problem with Saktu.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's put as a problem, but if you read it, you'll find that these are like superpowers.
[SPEAKER_02]: Saktu is like Saktu, what does it do?
[SPEAKER_02]: It fills you with the radiance of knowledge, and your life becomes joyous and happy.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it says, this is the bondage, you will see.
[SPEAKER_02]: But that's what Saktu is going to does.
[SPEAKER_02]: Knowledge.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is the one reason why spiritual people also love knowledge.
[SPEAKER_02]: But for spiritual people, knowledge is a bondage.
[SPEAKER_02]: But the pure intellectual knowledge is heaven.
[SPEAKER_02]: For the spiritual person, knowledge is, without knowledge you'll fall into laziness and dullness.
[SPEAKER_02]: Knowledge is, yes, it's a great sathana, a great spiritual practice.
[SPEAKER_02]: But it has to be kept under control.
[SPEAKER_02]: The Shiva Sutras says, Kashmishivism, one of the Sutras, startling Sutra.
[SPEAKER_02]: Gyanambandha, knowledge is bondage.
[SPEAKER_02]: You are doing enquiry for knowledge, but what you mean knowledge is Pandit, that generally knowledge is Pandit.
[SPEAKER_02]: It is only one kind of knowledge, one particular knowledge which sets you free, that I am Brahman.
[SPEAKER_02]: But everything else, including scriptural knowledge, it will just go to boost the ego.
[SPEAKER_02]: And keep you and meshed in a very nice samsara, still samsara, still samsara.
[SPEAKER_02]: Remember, intellectuality is not spirituality.
[SPEAKER_02]: But it is intellectually, it definitely is a sign of sattva-guna.
[SPEAKER_02]: Intellectual people, generally, are sattvik people.
[SPEAKER_02]: Sattvik people need not be spiritual people.
[SPEAKER_02]: As you said, sattva-guna is good for spirituality.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, sattva-guna is good.
[SPEAKER_02]: It will all come, sattva-guna is great for spirituality.
[SPEAKER_02]: But they need not be.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, Sri Ramakrishna would say, Jautribulopas, tata-pash.
[SPEAKER_02]: The number of degrees of examination past and the place on the word, past in English, passing an examination, getting a degree and past in Sanskrit or Bengali is a verb to bind you.
[SPEAKER_02]: No number of degrees you have got so many ropes you have got to bind you.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, that is Gyanambuddha, but for whom for a spiritual seeker?
[SPEAKER_02]: Suppose, within I am going to flunk, I am not going to go to college, I will be free.
[SPEAKER_02]: No you won't.
[SPEAKER_02]: You will sink into Rajasattamas.
[SPEAKER_02]: the way out is true knowledge, but don't to get stuck there, go beyond, so being involved in too much knowledge seeking.
[SPEAKER_02]: a great monk under whom I was trained.
[SPEAKER_02]: He said, he was trained by another monk's Swami Pramishanji who was a Brahma Gyanyan enlightened person.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that Swami Pramishanji told this monk who trained me.
[SPEAKER_02]: He said, Thore Bishayama, Actai Bhai, Thur Prashana.
[SPEAKER_02]: I have only one fear about you.
[SPEAKER_02]: Only one fear about your future spiritual life.
[SPEAKER_02]: Your love for study.
[SPEAKER_02]: The reason he told us this, I remember, I saw this Swami who taught me, it is an extraordinary routine.
[SPEAKER_02]: Every day in the morning, he would teach us the young novices for one hour after breakfast, except Sundays after breakfast, Monday to Saturday, one hour on the roof of the monk's quarters.
[SPEAKER_02]: Just on the roof, under the sky, we would sit and study.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then on a Bengali madhu, the choir mat, on the roof, yes.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then he would go to his room for one more hour, precisely, he would study himself.
[SPEAKER_02]: So that was his two hours of scriptural study per day, and he would strictly limit himself to that.
[SPEAKER_02]: We had to motivate ourselves, and he had to limit himself.
[SPEAKER_02]: It can be fascinating.
[SPEAKER_02]: I remember people think it's dry philosophy, no, it's the most fascinating thing in the universe.
[SPEAKER_02]: I remember one of the teachers I studied under, he was also 100 years old, by the way.
[SPEAKER_02]: He lived to 105, at that time when I was studying, he was 99 or 100 years old.
[SPEAKER_02]: And he would literally coat, he couldn't see too well, sometimes he would see what he's saying is not, it doesn't match the book, we all had books.
[SPEAKER_02]: then we realized that was a typo in the book what he was saying is correct.
[SPEAKER_02]: So he's not he seemed to be reading from the book but with later we realized he doesn't he doesn't see too clearly.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's reciting from memory.
[SPEAKER_02]: So one day I said to him how do you remember so much?
[SPEAKER_02]: Then he said, how much I have studied in the monastery, the main monastery, Bellurumat, there's an old library hall, it's not a library anymore, but it used to be.
[SPEAKER_02]: Even I have seen it as a library upstairs, this was 30 years ago.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now it's just a meeting room, there's a nice library, but
[SPEAKER_02]: So he says, in the old library hall, after evening prayers, I would sit down to study.
[SPEAKER_02]: So that would have been about 7.30 or 8.
[SPEAKER_02]: I would sit down, he would be reading the Bhagavatam, life of teaching, of Krishna and the other avataras.
[SPEAKER_02]: I would sit down to study.
[SPEAKER_02]: And when the conscious view for Mangalarati, I would come to my senses.
[SPEAKER_02]: Mangalarati next day at 4am.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the bell for dinner has gone, and there's a bell for going to sleep, most annoying bell.
[SPEAKER_02]: If you're asleep, you should get up.
[SPEAKER_02]: What happened?
[SPEAKER_02]: Go to sleep.
[SPEAKER_02]: All that is passed.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the night has passed midnight, one o'clock, two o'clock, three o'clock, four o'clock, four o'clock, the conch sounds in the temple for the morning meditation.
[SPEAKER_02]: The whole night has passed and he says, not once, not twice, day after day, it's gone like this.
[SPEAKER_02]: This fascination, I have so many such examples, so many, but there you have to be careful.
[SPEAKER_02]: What is fascinating me, is it the logic, is it the beauty of the language, is it the play of grammar, Sanskrit grammar is utterly boring for the rest of us, but for Sanskrit
[SPEAKER_02]: I know such people.
[SPEAKER_02]: I know a monk who is a brilliant engineer, but he dedicates his life to Sanskrit grammar of all things.
[SPEAKER_02]: He is one of gold medals in the final examinations and all he does anyway.
[SPEAKER_02]: So fascinating.
[SPEAKER_02]: Fascinating.
[SPEAKER_02]: There is a footnote to that story.
[SPEAKER_02]: This old monk under whom I studied with a hundred years old, his name was Damo Dharasham.
[SPEAKER_02]: He's so senior, you know, revered Swami Chetana and Ji Maharaj, who is in his 80s now, in St.
[SPEAKER_02]: Louis.
[SPEAKER_02]: He too studied under this Swami.
[SPEAKER_02]: Swami Sarva Devam Ji, who is in Hollywood.
[SPEAKER_02]: He too studied and said, so this Swami has taught multiple generations of monks.
[SPEAKER_02]: So after saying how he studied night after night, after night, whole night, then he said in Bengali, I'll translate for you.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's how I ruined my stomach.
[SPEAKER_02]: He could hardly digest.
[SPEAKER_02]: He had the most mild kind of food he could take.
[SPEAKER_02]: Of course, he was nearly 100.
[SPEAKER_02]: So in Bengali he said, I correct the pet agalo.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's how I ruined my digestion by all nights of staying awake.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, but control, spirituality is beyond this.
[SPEAKER_02]: Scriptural study is a spiritual practice, not for the sake of studying books, for the sake of enlightenment.
[SPEAKER_02]: One final anecdote, I have many anecdotes about studying books.
[SPEAKER_02]: One of the monks I know are senior monks, both have passed.
[SPEAKER_02]: Everyone is Swami Bhuteshya Nandiji, who is a 12th president of our order, tremendously scholarly.
[SPEAKER_02]: And there's another monk, another very senior, very scholarly monk.
[SPEAKER_02]: So this scholarly monk was bowing down to Bhatishanji, who was the president of the whole order.
[SPEAKER_02]: And there was a little argument about some issue about some.
[SPEAKER_02]: And this monk was saying to Swami, but Swami, in this book it says like that, in that book it says like this, and this other book it says like this.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the Swami would speak very slowly, it couldn't be heard.
[SPEAKER_02]: this book it says that book in this book.
[SPEAKER_02]: Swami said, you know, I haven't read many books like you, but the ones I have read, I have read them well.
[SPEAKER_02]: And this monk immediately realized the snub.
[SPEAKER_02]: He bowed down and he left.
[SPEAKER_02]: He walked up.
[SPEAKER_02]: Because he was in the in front of I was there.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was a front of about 200 other monks.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, the ones I have read.
[SPEAKER_02]: I have read them well.
[SPEAKER_02]: All right.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you very much.