Bhagavad Gita’s Spiritual Approach to Life

 


they lucky and Krishna and good morning

and it's good to be back in sunny San Diego I can see so many familiar faces

and so many new faces to this wonderful

retreat which was conceived of by Swami hurry Naaman and the G which takes us

into the heart of the bhagavad-gita that's what we're going to do this morning and this afternoon and again

tomorrow so over two days we shall explore the inner core of the

bhagavad-gita what's a what it's all about and what it can do for us before I

go into it let me give you an outline of what's in store for us there are basically four talks and Q&A sessions so

the first stock is the big picture you can see it's titled the Bhagavad Gita's approach to spiritual life an

alternative title would be the big picture it gives you the paradigm of the bhagavad-gita the second one that's the

tough one and that's the most important one it's called the heart of the bhagavad-gita and it's going to be about

one key verse in the Bhagavad Gita which takes us straight to the core teaching

of bhagavad-gita and indeed the entire Vedanta so that's going to be the next

stock the one after this that's really the heart of the bhagavad-gita and the heart of this retreat - and then

tomorrow we have application of what we learned so love the first talk tomorrow

will be the power of choice and then the last stop will be the result of all of

this it's the talk is called living in freedom what do we get out of all of this the result in Sanskrit column so

that's what we have got over the next this day and tomorrow so we go into the

first talk which is the big picture the

Bhagavad Gita's approach to spiritual life now Houston Smith the famous

professor of religion who wrote the very well-known book on the religions of the

world it's called the religions of the world earlier it was called religions of man and then it became more politically

correct as time as people who as we evolved so it became religions of the world but in that book the first chapter

is on Hinduism and he starts off with Hinduism is so diverse and so rich and

so valid how do I approach this what common theme can I find in Hinduism so

he starts are very beautiful he says one way of understanding Hinduism and indeed Vedanta is you can have what you want so

that's the way he has designed the whole chapter you can have what you want now it sounds very nice but then it immediately leads to question what do we

want and then we go and look at our lives and see what are we pursuing I

mean if what we are doing is possibly what we want to be doing what we want to have in life and if you look at what we

want well you might make a list of things you want you might say that I want money I

want good relationships I want good health I want that the children should be fine

and the community should be good there should be world peace and I should find parking

and they shouldn't be global warming huge macro issues and micro issues there are so many things that we want but if

we try to see overall what are we pursuing if you see if you narrow it

down basically what we want is happiness is satisfaction is peace joy whatever

name you call it some kind of permanent sense of satisfaction or happiness everything else is for happiness

happiness is for itself I mean let me illustrate this

there was this young man who was working you know I had a fine job in a company and he was asked what are you doing

doing all this far and he said I am working because I love my job and then

somebody said you know he will he was told that all right you love your job in that case you can keep on doing the job

you will not be paid and he goes wait a minute wait a minute I will not do the

job unless I'm paid so you are doing the job for the money that you get okay the job is for the money so the money is

for itself yes I guess good you'll be given all the money but you cannot spend it goes no no no I need to

spend that money I need to spend that money I need to buy things for myself for my family and for others then you

said okay but then you will be allowed to spend that all of that you would be

allowed to buy things with that money but you'll not be allowed to use any of it just to think them so they'll be

there but you can't use them you can't let anybody else use it you cannot use it you can buy a car but you can't drive

it you can buy a house you cannot live in it you can you can buy a school

membership but you can't send your kid to it so you get all the things that you want but you cannot use it so no no no

that's crazy I want to use it why because it'll make me and my family happy ultimately I said

so it's for my family okay let everything be for your family but from now on they are not your family it's

just some random family and no no no it has to be my family because because it that makes me happy so ultimately

everything is for your happiness he said I guess and what is that happiness for

you see that that question is so ridiculous everything else is for something else so the job is for the

money in the money's for the things that you can buy the things are for your family the happiness of your family finally it's for your own satisfaction

peace and happiness but if somebody asks you what is your happiness for that

question doesn't seem to make sense it's like asking why do you want to be happy

nobody thinks in that way I just want to be happy that's it so happiness is

fundamental that's one in fact that all our pursuits finally are reduced to our

own satisfaction peace or happiness if that sounds selfish somebody might say

no I'm not working for my happiness I'm working for the happiness of the people around me for the community I'm working

for reducing global warming or for world peace not for myself simple question you

need to ask is will World Peace make you happy or unhappy world peace or reducing

global warming will that make you personally happy or unhappy yes I guess happy so ultimately it leads back again

to your personal sense of satisfaction yes an altruistic person an unselfish person a person who works for great

causes is seeking his or her own happiness in a wiser way than most of us

but still it's your own happiness that you're seeking that's one point in fact

what we are all seeking to do all our lives is attained happiness some kind of

permanent deep profound peace and satisfaction and to overcome unhappiness

you see if you look at all the activities of our life even the smallest one like switching on a fan or air

condition we're trying to avoid the discomfort of heat and humidity or great

things when you're working for world peace or something like that in everything basically they are trying to

achieve some kind of peace and satisfaction and joy one and overcome

unhappiness overcome misery in sanskrit it is called param anand the prompt the

attainment of ultimate bliss and our tentacled collaborative complete

cessation of sorrow that's what we are working towards how successful are we

not quite we've been trying all our lives away from 30 40 50 60 years old

for all our lives we've been trying and at this moment we cannot say that we are

perfectly satisfied we have overcome all suffering world overcome all misery we have not we have been trying to do

something with all our effort in various ways and we are not much further along the road not only us anybody else around

all around you see somebody was saying the indicator of civilization is when

the number of suicides exceeds the number of murders so in uncivilized where the people are

with life is nasty short and brutal and people are murdered and killed and the civilized world is a law-and-order

and you don't run the risk of all italy it's not too bad of being murdered but

then the other thing is depression and misery and suicide and they said that

recently in the advanced countries of the world the number of suicides actually exceeds the number of murderers

and no being killed in violent incidents so really they are not much further

along in the quest for overcoming misery in a permanent sense an attainment of

bliss why is that red antis is that

because we are looking in the wrong place we are looking in the wrong place the way we are trying to overcome misery

the way we are trying to get happiness and satisfaction the place we are looking at the things we are looking at

in in order to get pleasure happiness it does not work we are looking in the

wrong place we are looking outwards whereas according to Vedanta the claim

is what you are looking for lies within not outside you see if you narrow it

down everything that we are pursuing it can basically be narrowed down to two things I have had the experience and

living in two interesting places in the last one and a half years first I lived in Hollywood next in Manhattan

it's Hollywood and Wall Street there is pleasure and entertainment on one hand

and greed and power and wealth on the other hand in one place it was it's a

sign of prestige if you can say that I live next door to maybe Brad Pitt or

somebody like that that's prestige in Hollywood there you know these are the places where the

stars live and that's what people talk about and if you're in the entertainment industry somehow connected to the

entertainment industry in the Hollywood you are really in the mainstream of Hollywood and then I switched to

Manhattan earlier this year and there I found the gossip and the talk was that

you know the person who lives in the house next door in the apartment next door is a billionaire how many

billionaires live in the skyscraper and who runs which hedge fund and how many millions and billions they have made

that's the main stream they're in in Wall Street in Manhattan now these two

streams these are the main avenues in which we have been seeking happiness all

our lives most of mankind most of humanity through its history sri

ramakrishna put it rather directly he said last ten gold karmic angina he put

it this way that these are the two avenues in which people you know to

spend their lives trying to achieve happiness and overcome suffering desire and meant entertainment and making a

million on Wall Street this seems to be the main avenues of pursuit of happiness

it does not work it does not work neither here in Hollywood nor there in

Wall Street it has devastating consequences in fact for yourself and for the society around

you I mean I know I every day in the

morning I go for a walk in Central Park and and yes I live one block down from

Yoko know this the next lock is the Dakota where John Lennon used to live and you're gonna

lives there and it's a you can see it's a modern pilgrimage site thousands of

people every day they come and they tell the story about John Lennon was shot and and just how the story of the Beatles

and their Strawberry Fields and everybody poses to take a picture and people are singing imagine and things

like that there and so that whole thing the pursuit of happiness through these avenues but yet you look at the tragedy

surrounding the whole story itself the misery surrounding it these two avenues

prime avenues for seeking happiness and yet they do not work the key claim of

Vedanta of of the Gita is we are looking in the wrong direction you see al Juna in the Gita was in this

in a similar situation if you think Wall Street and Hollywood are the embodiment

of Maya imagine he was in a battlefield which was the extreme of of both you

know ultimately with those who know the story of kuruksetra it was basically greed and lust and all of this which led

to the civil war within the same family and the terrible thing in which was happening in the battlefield of

kuruksetra and the result was was that Arjuna was depressed was in deep

depression that's how the bhagavad-gita starts in fact the first chapter of the bhagavad-gita has in turn interesting

name Arjuna which are the yoga if you translate that that translates into the

yoga of Arjuna's depression depression yoga so a lot of different kinds of yoga

and depression events and important yoga that's well the spiritual seeking really first starts when you find everything

that we have been trying to do does not lead to any kind of permanent happiness or peace Vedanta comes in here Krishna

comes in there and tells Arjuna what you've been looking forward it exists it

is possible to find permanent peace it is possible to overcome suffering once for all but it not out there not where

you've been looking it exists within yourself in yourself in your real nature Vedanta

tells you your real nature is infinite existence infinite consciousness infinite bliss and it's already there it

has always been there it is there and it will always be there you need to discover it you need to uncover it and

that that's the whole pursuit of Vedanta that's how Krishna starts up and or not

only that all the teachings of Krishna and the Gita are meant for this one thing finding this secret with him some

even I can't across it the open secret this is what we have been searching for all our lives unknowingly do it

knowingly it's called a nun do it unknowingly it's called life just living

life so this is what is there within us and this is the whole thing about the

bhagavad-gita is this discovery of our real nature Sanskrit word Atma Ghanim

the knowledge of this self knowledge of your real nature of your real self it's

it's not hidden it's actually out in the open but we do not see it this essential

secret is what what Krishna conveys to a Juna in the whole of bhagavad-gita if

you can sum up the whole of bhagavad-gita if you can sum up this retreat which we are going to have today and tomorrow if that one word Atma Ghana

at Magana Atma real self gana knowledge how to realize what we truly are and to

realize the promise of Vedanta and then live that life that's what bhagavad-gita

is all about just a couple of days ago days ago it was 4th of July and that was

the day on which Swami Vivekananda passed away deliberately consciously he left the body and there is a connection

with the 4th of July in the United States because he loved the concept of the idea of Liberty in the United States

the American idea on which the whole American society is founded and in fact he consciously chose this date

to give up the body to attain Liberty so fourth of July we were in richly

mannered way Swami Vivekanand in in upstate New York the Swami Vivekananda stayed for nearly

six weeks he stayed right there for a long period of time and there are sitting and reading Swami Vivekananda

he writes very touching leases as the shadows of evening glow longer fall all

long on your life I think we're coming close to death one begins to realize the

secret of life one also begins to realize why others don't realize it why

not he writes so powerfully he says because they are seeking to find meaning

in what is essentially meaningless they're trying to find meaning in what

is essentially meaningless it is at first a very depressing message trying

to find meaning in wealth in pleasure in in success in the world outside in

relationships even in nature even in science and whatnot all the major pursuits of humanity starting from gross

pleasure pleasure seeking to be higher you know pursuits of we might be

conservation of nature or what might be the pursuit of art or science ultimately in themselves they are meaningless they

have to be rooted in something that is transcendent that has inherent meaning

so that's what he says the whole problem is you're trying to find meaning in that

which is meaningless I also related it to a nice documentary I saw recently Viktor Frankl many of us being no man's

search for meaning here was a person or trained Freudian psychoanalyst who went through a schweetz

who was in the concentration camps and suffered immensely and then came back he

survived that and because he said because hide meaning and purpose in my life and there were others who did not

and they perished its meaning and purpose which sustain human life so I

saw the documentary and I was able to relate there some old clips of Viktor Frankl speaking is originally you know

the talks he gave to students and patients and clients and there you see

the that the core idea is meaning and if you cannot find meaning life loses all

purpose even the will to live it's not life sort of disintegrates one may not

commit suicide but life becomes Hollow and and meaningless this search for

meaning if you do it in the wrong place what they were trying to say is trying to find meaning in what is essentially

meaningless then but then we are in trouble with anthesis see within yourself there was this discussion with

her with cancer patients in the documentary it's so interesting if you see from a vedantic perspective this

lady who is a cancer patient she she says when I'm suffering I am looking for

something in me which the cancer has not touched my body is touched by cancer my

finances are touched by cancer my social life is ruined by cancer but relationships are rained by cancer my

days are filled with pain and suffering my mind is filled with anxiety all of them are touched with cancer can

i I need to find something within me which is not touched by the cancer you

see that is the Vedantic quest to find something the real self within at Magana

the knowledge of the self within which is not touched by cancer or anything else there you can find meaning and I

was listening to Viktor Frankl speaking sometimes he's speaking just Vedanta he says when everything has been stripped

away from you money success power people health the possibility of

recovery from a disease everything is dwindling and disappearing is there something that remains rock steady

unchanging unaffected and he says that the words look at the words that be

bliss being bliss is the true fount of meaning is a true source of meaning

he's literally speaking went on to there being bliss is sucked and Auden the being is sucked and bliss is Ananda

Vedanta would say that infinite being that infinite consciousness that infinitely bliss which are all one and

the same thing that is the source of meaning where they kinda say is there a

person can stand secure and then you live your life so the essential problem

boils down to this if Vedanta is true if there's this this thing that that we are

this infinite existence consciousness place then the problem is that we do not

know it that's the essential problem we're on that defines the problem as ignorance not ignorant so physics or

chemistry or anything else or the latest gossip but ignorant of our true nature

ignorance of the fact that we are existence consciousness bliss this is

the real secret at the heart of the universe it's a real secret of life Allen Watts in his inevitable main San

Francisco he once said if religion is the opium of

the masses is coating Marx if religion is the opium of the masses is religion

the opium of life then the Hindus have the inside dope [Laughter]

it is bhagavad-gita which gives us the inside dope and what the inside dope in

a sense is I'm going to tell you the next job that this in the heart sort of makes me out to be an unsavory kind of a

drug dealer kind of thing but but here

let's consider what the essential problem is then the problem is if this is true then the problem is we do not

realize it we do not know it it's not real for us we hear about it we read about it but it's not real for us

so the essential problem is defined as ignorance let me write it here and now

this hi-tech stuff will pay for itself when I move out from microphone yes now

we get into the subject with Bhagavad Gita's approach to spiritual life let's see approach the problem and the

solution and the method

or technique the problem is essential

problem is ignorance another ignorant of what all that great

secret that we are drumming we don't know that we are ignorant of that and

the solution can only be for any ignorant the solution always is knowledge yes is knowledge in Sanskrit

aghanim art gala means not gala ignorance and the solution is gala

knowledge and the method is what might be called knowledge Yoga Yoga is just a

method to pass so the path of knowledge I'm writing the Sanskrit Liana Yoga to

put it simply you have to know it you do it now the problem is how do you know it

and the and Vedanta tells you first you hear these truths then you think deeply

about them what questions do you have solve your your all your doubts get

conviction then meditate upon your conviction and it will dawn upon you the scales will be lifted the veil will part

and you will get this realization that I am actually not this body and mind I'm not this little person I'm an infinite

existence consciousness place that's what I am and this will actually be a reality now the problem becomes strong

me that's nice but I have been attending these retreats for longer than I care to think about and it still has not down

the pond it's been decades now then what is the problem the vedanta

says that a problem is that the mind is scattered the sanskrit word is big

shaper we we let's see the scattered miss of the mind or or the lack of focus

let's see lack of concentration of focus

by the way it's not just a problem for without the students it's a widespread problem Daniel Goleman the person who

talked about EQ for the first time emotional intelligence his latest concern is this lack of ability to

concentrate lack of focus and he's written a book called focus about it

especially the younger generation he says they are so busy with their electronic devices that unable to focus

attention spans of dwindled alarmingly once Vedanta was being discussed in the

gospel of ramakrishna you see that my rant is being discussed and sri ramakrishna is sitting right there he does not participate in the discussion

other people are talking about Vedanta he just listens and then finally he makes just one comment he said this is

good what you're talking about but it should be assimilated in Bengali he said cause I will have hollow dhaarana hwacha

that means these words are good what the talk is good but it should be assimilated should become really so a

lack of focus and the solution is focus

easier said than done what is prescribed here is Dhyana yoga Raja yoga meditation

the Gita Krishna tells you you have to focus the whole science of meditation is

start here hmm.well swami actually I have been meditating or trying to for

thirty years now I'm not much further along the road then what is the problem

and that's not just our problem the krishna teaches arjuna the science of meditation in the 6th chapter of the

gita Arjuna's the same thing he says what you're teaching is essentially useless why I might as well try to

control the wind the mind is difficult to control o Krishna it's fickle like the wind it blows where

it will so it's an ancient problem how to control the mind and for that Raja

yoga but why is it so difficult to control the mind the next problem is no

fear this is the last one is impurity of the mind in sanskrit

cheetahmen of impurity of mine mind Cheeta impurity mother impurity of the

mind and the solution are you going to do it for you can tell me spirit yes it

should be it's a tongue we come across again and again in spiritual life tip there should be purification of the mind

and it's there in every religious tradition across the world purity of mind how do you attain that and the

method prescribed in the Gita is Karma Yoga spiritualizing all your actions can

you see it goes from the gross to this subtle to the very subtle it grows from Karma Yoga what actions accomplished

with body and mind to what is essentially mental meditation to what is essentially an insight an insight into

your reality you can see how its graded now what will happen is you know if you

look at the blog about Gita the entire approach to spiritual life is yummy

yogurt run yogurt karma yoga and bhakti yoga Krishna teaches this as an

especially powerful method approach of devotion love of God which accomplishes

both actually purity of mind and focus of life now all of this by all of this

you can attain enlightenment and realize that you are this Brahman I am

this is what is hidden promise right now this is hidden from us by ignorance

ignorance can be removed by knowledge lack of focus can be removed by meditation and impurity of mind can be

removed by karma yoga and in fact bhakti-yoga is powerful way of reinforcing the purity of life and focus

to what the yoga is a part of love devotion to God and one can see how that can work you know just an aside about

bhakti-yoga basically buckteeth love of God if you can if you're lucky enough to

have faith in God then what yoga works wonders what it does basically you see

desire works more at the level of the heart than the intellect we are saying

the heart wants what it wants it's not the your intellect wants what it wants

it's the heart which one wants what it wants ignorance works at the level of intellect you get knowledge in the

intellect and remove ignorance but the thing is if the heart is not purified

that if if the desires are not sublimated then what happens is that

blocks enlightenment your mind and the tendencies that continuously flow

outward to the to the objects of desire he works at the level of the heart you

know what's the nature of design in what's the nature of bhakti the nature of desire is I want the world and the

nature of bhakti is I want the same I want God just replace world with God

again easier said than done but but that's the nature of bhakti and you can see how that automatically purifies the

mind and focuses the mind to so but Yoga Karma Yoga Raja yoga yoga in some this

is the teaching of the bhagavad-gita by all of this attain enlightenment that

you are not this body and mind you are in infinite existence consciousness bliss and and then live your life life

still continues it does not disappear in a flash of you know blight and that's the end know

in spiritual life you need to go away and you need to come back you need to go

away and he'd need to come back this put this teacher I love his the way he puts

it I think was jack Kornfield probably he writes then after the ecstasy the

laundry after the retreat the laundry still there back at home unfortunately

it stays there so Arjuna after all the Vedanta he still have to fight the

battle of life after all our enlightenment and philosophy and meditation and whatnot you still have

your life to go back to so all of this will give you the Enlightenment in the light of which you can lead your life

that will be the subject of the last term living in freedom so this encompasses the whole of the teaching

you can see a structure has been set up here the problem has been defined as

ignorance and the solution is knowledge but because it doesn't seem to work you

investigate further and see what else is there what else is holding us up what coding is back so one is lack of focus

in Sanskrit big shader and the training in meditation helps us to focus the

meditation itself does not work too well because the mind is full of garbage which we have put in in this life maybe

in past lives that needs to be cleaned up to a certain extent and so the

impurity of mine has to be cleaned up Chitra should be has to be attained Karma Yoga is taught as a powerful

method when in the Gita again and again action the importance of action is

emphasised that action helps you to prepare your mind for higher spiritual pursuit in fact when Arjuna is taught

Vedanta his first reaction is this is goodness just what I want I want to be

enlightened and realize umbrella man so I don't want to fight this battle and Krishna says no you have to do this you

still have to live your life wherever you are what you are doing but now what you were doing it for worldly purposes

now you do it for spiritual as a spiritual practice you may be teaching

for the purposes of earning your your or working it maybe maybe even working

in your hedge fund in Wall Street or being an actor in Hollywood that was

being done for spiritual for a worldly purposes earlier the same thing the same battle of life can be converted into a

spiritual struggle and by the science of karma yoga that's very important because

I again and again come across this question so I'm it's okay for you you're

a monk the whole of your life is a spiritual practice but we have as it played two lives there's something that

we are doing here coming here for Avedon to retreat and also I have my life of

mortgages and kids and health problems and relationship problems and the whole whole life out there and the whole

problem is that life out there is so real it swamps my spiritual life there's

very little time left over for spiritual life there's very little time really very little energy left over for vidonne

third meditation any of these yoga's or whatever then that's where karma yoga

comes in these thousands of years ago in Krishna said Arjuna you don't have to go there to the mountaintops to become a

yogi you can become a yogi right here in the middle of the battleground of life

in fact this is where you must do it where they can to put six of powerfully he says the one who runs away from life

to meditate and die in a Himalayan cave he has missed the way the one who won

who plunges headlong into the vanities of life he too as mr. way now this is

paradoxical if you run away from life you mr. way if you embrace life as it is you have mr. bit and what is the way

there's only two ways either you are in life or you run away from life as it seems to me he says the way is to defy

life itself to find God where you are with whom you are in whatever situation

you are never approached anything except as God as this ultimate reality and

we'll see how to do that so that's when life becomes yoga karmayoga your work your daily

activities whether in at home whether personal or in the in the office on the

workplace or your activities for the community they all become spiritual

practice it's a powerful science that's one of the major themes of bhagavad-gita how do

you deal with your life and convert it 24-hour spiritual life not a weekend

spiritual retreat but all week people sometimes ask me what's the strangest

place you've given talks and one of them is I gave a talk in like you have the

TSA security check in the airports once I gave a talk in and that's a security

check in India I was the only passenger passing through at midnight in Lucknow airport and the security people the

central industrial security force we called him in India they sort of put you in a box on top of that and the frisk

you now the policeman there he saw me

dressed like this and said Swami give us a talk and he called the other security

people around and they gathered around I was thinking what do I tell them and then I told this person your officer but

when you leave home do you do would you worship God in any form and in you leave

home and this is in utter pradesh and central central india so he says in

Hindi huh the one T Capuchin out there I I when I leave home I put a flower at the feet of Lord Hanuman I said good now

what you do is when you are doing your duty throughout the day you're working every time a person comes in front of

you and you check this person do it politely do it to the best of our ability do it firmly and then mentally

when you're done offered one more flower at the feet of Hanuman mentally and then

the next person and the next person and so on for hundreds of person who go persons who go through in front of you I

mean so how do you know he liked it he burst out in a simple man first out in Hindi he said Arava been

one of the ones iike pooja Wow I'll do the washing for anyone throughout the day that's karma yoga

where now I'm doing the same thing but I've converted it into spiritual

practice I've seen monks among about to enter a classroom before he enters the

classroom to teach kids 10 year olds he met he bows down they can't see him not

as if I still have a field day with him he falls down quietly and then he enters asked him afterwards what were you bowing down to and he said

I see them all as the child Ramakrishna I worship Allah Ramakrishna I see all of

them as child Ramakrishna in in India you have this in Christianity - the Christ baby the Krishna is as a baby

Gopala rama and rama as the baby now why would you want to worship God as a baby

because that's another form though or the strong feeling of love that you have for a baby now that's what you focus

towards God living under said the one way of doing karma yoga is that the

essence of one one teaching of Vedanta secret is this that you human that you

demonize your relationship with the human and humanize your relationship with God Davina is your relationship

with the human and humanize your relationship with God what is the

relationship with human beings earlier it was father mother brother husband wife friend enemy am indifferent

now it becomes all of them are my beloved Lord all of them no matter what

found they come in they are the Lord's himself in all of these forms demonize

your relationship with the human that's one way the counter parties humanize

your relationship with the divine so how do I relate to God God is the father God

is the mother God is my friend like Arjuna and Krishna God is my child like

the Christ baby or the Krishna baby or the maybe God is my child our or even as

lover rather I am Krishna so all of these forms they are human relationships but now you're using them

to to spiritualize your relationship with humanize your relationship with the divine and then that way you serve God

so that's one way of karma yoga see I don't believe in God alright then you serve the same

consciousness which you find yourself within yourself in all of these beings knowing all of these things it's not

that you only a Brahmin if you are bribe and everybody else is from and to you see we don't we'll see later on in the

second talk without the teaches us that everybody is from in fact one Swami who

was a well-known teacher a few decades back here his brother had mental issues

he had delusions and he was locked up in one of those mental asylums which they

had earlier horrible places so he went to visit his brother and his brother said hey brother this is unfair you say

that I am Brahman and people did reveal you they worship you and I say I am God

I'm Brahman and they lock me up and the Swami is brother said look the

difference is this when is I see I am Brahman I say you to our brahmand everybody is prominent that's what we should realize but what

you are saying is I am God now you worship Me so they occupy obviously so

that way one can do karma yoga to one finds the same divinity everywhere if

you don't want to use the God talk many people say don't use the word God all right you use the word consciousness that's what God is pure consciousness in

Vedanta you find that in everybody and you relate to them in that way so that

is the science of karma yoga there's a whole science of meditation six chapter

of the gita but we will not be talking about it today the science of love of God bhakti yoga all of that is there in the

bhagavad-gita these are major themes but our rich today and tomorrow is focused on one and

one thing only the insight that you are Brahman then I am gremlin and that is this level

the final level that's what we will focus on and we will see where we get

the bhagavad-gita now let me take a step back

Vedanta basically is the philosophy the spiritual teachings of the Upanishads

you know the the holy books of the Hindus are called the Vedas and in the Vedas you find the open issues the

Upanishads are the final teachings the highest teachings of the Vedas so they don anta means the end or the final

teaching the final conclusion of the Vedas that's what you find in do pernicious and there are many of these

Upanishads primarily 10 why 10 because Shankar Acharya great philosopher saint

of about 1400 years ago in India he selected 10 of them to write elaborate

comment reasons and we need we use those commentaries to find meaning in them so those who punish shots those

philosophical sacred texts they form the foundation of Vedanta and they're very

abstruse difficult what Krishna did in the bhagavad-gita was to take the

message of the Upanishads the same message I am Brahman your reality is Brahman and then put them in a more

practical way more concentrated way in this text called empowerment leader this

most delightful dialogue between the human and the divine which you find in the Mahabharata bhagavad-gita in seven

hundred verses in fact sometimes Krishna has taken the exact verse the mantra

from the Upanishad and coated it so is the Ori original plagiarist I think and he just uses the verses from the

from the Phoenicians number of times in the bhagavad-gita so the bhagavad-gita

is in a sense the practical teaching this some summary of the open issues one

of a very nice verse puts it this way if all the Upanishads were cows and Krishna

is the cowherd boy then the bhagavad-gita is the milk out of the cows which he he gets from the

Upanishads and gives it forth and Arjuna is supposed to be the calf so the

bhagavad-gita is essential of the teachings of the Upanishads Upanishads are remarkable texts in fact you know

sorrow when he was in Walden Pond he

writes he began his day by reading a few pages of the bhagavad-gita if they're

original what ends there and in in his cabin he had a selection

of books on Indian spirituality Gita Upanishad which he had borrowed from Emerson

Emerson is called the summon authors and Emerson is the mind of America and very

few people know how much of the mind of America is influenced by the Gita by the Bhagavad Gita I think it was Thoreau who

writes that when I read these pages I'm brought into contact with the light of

an earlier dawn the spiritual dawn of him of humanity Ruben our great German

philosopher when he came into contact with definitions he says I consider there is no other study in the world as

beneficial as the study of these open issues actually he came in what he read was a Latin translation of a Persian

translation of the Sanskrit original so he writes actually I consider nor the

study in the world as beneficial as the study of these open issues except perhaps the original he says that and

every day as long as he lived after that he before going to bed he would read the pieces of your Phoenicians he said the

opening shots have been the solace of my life there the soleus of my debt it will be the sunniest of my death his

masterpiece the world has willed an idea I didn't read the whole of it as king

through it but in the very first chapter English translation of the German original in the very first chapter he

said what we what's going to follow in four volumes this is what's going to follow in these pages was best known to

the ancient Indians they called it Maya so we learnt again the inside dope now

on these Upanishads and there's another text called the brahma sutra will not venture into that that's really deep the

territory it is aphorisms based on the opening shots if you have questions

those questions are philosophically argued out there so these three sources Upanishads the bhagavad-gita and the

brahma sutra they form the triple canon the basis of vedanta the final text

which you have to really master if you want to study me on tour these books luckily nowadays we have wonderful

translations on into many languages especially English now there's a reason

why I'm giving you this background more than a thousand years ago there started

this tradition of writing commentaries in Sanskrit on these original texts so

commentaries on the Upanishads commentaries on the Gita commentaries on the brahma sutra and the first and still

the most respected commentary was written by adi shankaracharya about 1400

years ago these commentaries establish different systems of philosophical

thought non dualist system established by Shankara Chinese fairies the

qualified monastic system wished or greater established by by ramanuja

charges commentaries about a thousand years ago the dualistic thought the

system of thought established by the commentaries of madhvacharya and more there is should not wait up a

la Battaglia there is a third rate of Nimba named Bhattacharya there is the attentive hey the veil of

the gaudiya vaishnavas vaishnavism school if you think these are very soft electrons mean nothing to you they do if

you have seen that the ISKCON people singing and dancing in the streets and Hari Krishna if you've seen them I think

most of you have they belong to one of these schools the body of vegetable school so they are in fact what you see

is the visible face of Hinduism at its root if you mind deep into the ideas

behind them you'll end up with one of these schools and these schools are all based on these commentaries and these

commentaries are all based on the Perot and theta and Upanishads and brahma sutra so that gives you the big picture

of Vedanta one more thing then I'm done I'll go into Q&A you see among all of

these commentaries I am relying on a particular commentary those who are read Indian philosophy know this we are in

the Vedanta Society here we are primarily non duelists but not in a strict exclusive sense we are non

duelists in an inclusive sense so we say that there is truth in all the systems

there are wonderful insights in all the systems but primarily our backbone our foundation is the non-dual with anta

based on definitions special especially based on the commentaries of Shankar Acharya why I am saying this is because

in the next session as we go into the heart of bhagavad-gita I am basing it

entirely on the commentary of Shankar Acharya and I will actually I'll be reading a text with you right here and

trying to gain that essential insight but based on the commentary of Shankar

Acharya even this structure there is a

buyer beware caveat emptor so just for the for an

interests of full disclosure this structure is based on the non-dualistic

approach you might have already understood you can see how it privileges knowledge above everything else so the

problem is ignorance and so the solution is knowledge and obviously the answer will become yoga which Advaita we don't

take sense in non 12 in our current all the others are retained this is a brand

of vedanta doing the circus now especially popular in the west which says you don't have to meditate you

don't have to talk my have devotion to God you doesn't even talk about moral life and doesn't even talk about ethics

nothing I'll just give you you just realize your problem that's it finished what you have to do there's nothing to

do now they are not wrong you will realize in what sense they are right but

it's also deeply misleading to say that nothing else is required it's if that's

not true there are other problems which require solutions there are problems are these levels and at each level there is

a different solution so you see the traditional teaching of non-dualism of Shankar Acharya meditation is not

abundant devotion to God is not abundant your puja and your rituals and karma

yoga action in the world is not abandoned all of them are extremely useful for generating the final insight

which comes from the path of operator of the our Yoga basically but all of them

are useful so all of them have to be retained that's the approach if you want

to approach a different kind of teacher a qualified Manas teacher or a dualist

teacher then the structure would change same text bhagavad-gita but the structure would change let's say a

dualist feature man like man watch I would immediately privilege bhakti yoga to the top would say you start up with

karma karma yoga and then in between Gyana yoga the part of knowledge in the

path of meditation are useful ultimately devotion is what will get you to that you do

enlightenment you see it's because the way they are framed the problem the way

that problem has been framed by by in a pack of knowledge ease the problem is ignorance of your real nature and so the

solution is knowledge but if you go to a yogi a Patanjali yogi part of meditation

they say none of the ignorance is not the problem the real problem is our minds are scattered concentrate the mind

I will show you a systematic technique of meditation focused on my settle the

mind deeply calm deeply focused mind will reveal the truth to you

scattered Ness of the mind lack of focus of the problem and the solution is all this meditation you see the problem has

now been shifted different problem not ignorance and this has big impact on our

spiritual practice I ran into this yogi in the Himalayas who was in a cave nearby young man so he was very

interested in Patanjali yoga but until yoga tells you the method is Samadhi the

method is not only learn to retreat so much talk will not help you sit and meditate and you will realize God you

get enlightenment so he was looking for Samadhi the deepest state of a deepest

meditative straight I asked him what about the path of knowledge would you

like that and he said to me yeah it's okay but they talk too much they don't

have any any realization it's an in meditation that you get realization so

you see how he has framed the problem the problem is mind is not calm and focused if the mind is calm and focused

you will get enlightenment if you go to the teacher of bhakti they say no no

scattered miss of the mind is not a problem ignorance is not a problem the real

problem is lack of devotion on faith to God and surrender to God you have

devotion to God faith in God and surrender to God everything else will be taken care of you see how the problem is

again reorient it now Vivekananda's genius here was he pointed out if we

take an honest look at ourselves all of them are are our problems we are

ignorant of our real nature minds are scattered and really we do not have strong devotions or in their faith

in God so all of those solutions will be very useful to us he recommended a harmony of the four

yoga's the harmony of the Gangnam Park tea meditation yoga and carbon so har

Mia for yoga's was strongly recommended by Vivekananda and in one sense all of the teachers Krishna included Shankar

Acharya Ramanuja all of the Masters actually recommend in some sense a

combination of the four yoga's we may have hierarchies this is final this is supporting and this is central others

are peripheral but they all emphasize that they are all needed all the practices are needed because they

realize we have all we all have these problems but again to narrow it down

again our focus starting from now in the next session will be the final

enlightenment that I am Brahman right here right now why can I not know it

what does it mean to be prominent what is Brahman what does it mean and how can

I get that intuition will go directly into it there is one verse because this

is the myth the essential teaching of the bhagavad-gita so there are many verses about the self-knowledge at

Makaha there are many verses wonderful verses but among the most profound I

would say the most profound in the whole of the bhagavad-gita I've heard one teacher describe it in Hindi as yet o

Gita is read ahead literally it means this verse is the heart of the bhagavad-gita that's where I got the

title of the talk the heart of the bhagavad-gita so we will take up just one verse it will reveal to us what

Vedanta means by Brahman what is this ultimate reality talks about and it will reveal at least

attempt to show us because this thing is already present I should be able to know

it understand it ascertain it get an intuition about it right now it will attempt to show that to us

that's what we will try to do in the next up the inside too

but before that we have got some time going into it and let's have a few so

there's a question there all right we've become next to this gentleman all right

we again see the the context the context was spiritual life seems to take a

backseat to our so-called real life in the world you have a life in the world

they're out there and many people come with this complaint that I don't have time and energy left over for study

prayer meditation all of these seem to be making heavy demands on my time and don't have time out to earn a living

you're a monk so it's easy for you but for me to have these so many competing

demands on my time and energy how do I practice spirituality it seems to be a real demand for time and energy and it

takes time and energy so the answer here is karma yoga Karma Yoga is a remarkable

teaching which enables you to convert your so-called secular life into

spiritual life our so called seems to be worldly actions into a spiritual

practice so the example I gave was an experience I had in an airport that was

in Lucknow in India where the security person said you know give me a talk and

I asked a person before leaving home do you worship God and he says yes I put

flowers at the feet of Lord Hanuman now look in his mind there's this bifurcation I am a security man at the

airport that's my job and I worship the Lord in this particular form just for a

few minutes before I leave home in the morning so these are two different things one is religious sacred the other

one is word the secular what karmayoga does is you

cannot stop you cannot give up your job you went to starve you cannot sit at home putting flowers at the feet of Lord

Hanuman all day long so what you can do is take that work which you are doing

each time a person comes in front of you you you check that person do your job to the best of your ability and mentally

consider this action a flower which you are offering at the feet of your beloved Lord it is worship of God as we go on to

understand Vedanta we will see it's not imagination it's literally true if

Brahman is the one reality of this world then anybody who comes in front of me is Brahman as may be kinda said never

approach anything except as God it's a statement of fact it may start off as

imagination because we don't know it we think what we what we know as the world

is a false super imposition which we shall see later on so when you say that

you're worshiping God in this person in front of you it's actually a statement of the truth though we know it not right

now Karma Yoga enables you to convert daily action cooking driving your office work

you're working as a nurse as a teacher anything that you do it converts it into spiritual practice you can still go on

with your life and and you can still be doing spiritual practice at the same time that's the power of karma yoga

there's a question

right the question of divine grace now you see even that question comes up if

you are believer in God right there is God without God's grace nothing happens

so that's Advaita would say first of all that's dualistic talk now in advaitha

you are Brahman if there's any grease that's your own grace not only that when

you say if you do all of this actually if you do any of this it's already a sign of divine grace that the fact that

we are in Vedanta that the fact that we are exposed to the core teachings of spirituality is actually in the

Himalayas the monks say if your good karma if you have good karma you'll have

a nice life happy healthy prosperous things will go well for you if you have

really really good karma you come to bed under this they see that yes so it's

already a sign of grace in I think the avenue to Gita one or texts of radical

Advaita Vedanta it starts of the very first verse is Ishwara a new kavadi upon Solomon plate of asana

it's by the special grace of God that an individual gets a liking for non-dualism

Advaita wasana the desire the desire for transcending duality that itself is the

grace of God now to answer your question directly where does that way to talk about grace in the Upanishads there is a

saying that there's a verse which says that whoever the Atman chooses to him it

reveals itself Yami evasion routine test

the stability Tulum swamp whomever he chooses to him it reveals itself him it

means the real self release accepts now the dualistic commentators see that is the grace of God

whomever God chooses to that person God reveals himself herself itself whatever

you call it the non-dualistic have the luxury of calling it come so it says

whomever he chooses now that makes it arbitrary so whatever I do all of this in terms of a question has no meaning

until it chooses me but then whom does it choose the question arises and the

commentator Shankar Acharya says there the Atman chooses the one wait for it

the Atman chooses the one who chooses it

if you want enlightenment you'll get enlightenment again in not again in

non-dualistic language ramana maharshi somebody approached him and said and i

really qualified for all of this with a really good enlightenment word and ramana maharshi he said did you say just

a minute did you say I all right yes then you're qualified anybody you can

say I is qualified and who cannot say I'll because you remember his essential teaching was going by if you can say I

know you qualified you you are you have the material to look into it in and investigate question okay there's one

question there are impacting [Music]

we as we are we are divided and then I

have read yes yes as we know ourselves

bag of flesh and blood a mind a body mind complex nothing particularly divine about it its

material if you say this is divine a scientist or sailor philosopher can see

you are just playing with words what is the material mass of blood and flesh and blood and bones tissue and organs if you

want to call this divine it's nothing particularly divine about it well you're welcome but it doesn't make sense so as

we know ourselves let's not define nothing particularly divine about it but as we daren't the

promises that we are and you should see in the next talk what we really are

that is divinity so to answer your question directly what we know of

ourselves in ignorance is material it's not not defined when we get knowledge of who we really are this problem then we

have a right to say that I am divine here's a question here I'll come to

mommy ya can hear ya can I just hear the question yes um why do you feel it has

been made so difficult for us to get past everything that moves us out there

our senses move us out there the world is very seductive with all this stuff to

talk about for me I'm glad you mentioned

Emerson when I was in college I came across the transcendentalist yes who had

discovered the Indian tents and started to talk about something I never heard of

before it seems we have Ally the competition

first virtuality right in our makeup and in the world right okay it's a good

question first a little bit about Emerson I just remember this interesting story about there's this book American

Bay that Philip Goldberg he writes about how Eastern spirituality came to due to

the West first to the transcendentalists and then especially through Vivekananda he

mentions in the whole chapter on how the Vaikuntha came and he fell on to society started first one is where I am in New

York so he tells that story in the course of telling that he says in India

on the banks of the Ganga in near the foothills of the Himalayas he came across this very traditional Indian

Swami who was sitting in a little little cottage and he went and asked that Swami

you speak English and he spoke perfect English and then he asked him how did

you become a monk and Swami replied well I was I was not interested in religion

there was an atheist I got a chance to read literature I went to an Ivy League

college maybe I think he mentioned Harvard I went to an Ivy League college I got a chance to go there in the United States I went there read Emerson decided

to become a monk I mean the monk you see the pizza effect very interesting and

Emerson got his ideas from the Gita and the Upanishads all right now to answer

your question the answer to the question is it has not been made difficult for us

we've made difficult for ourselves all of these problems are our problems

complications that we have designed over a lifetime many lifetimes let me tell

you little story that Allen brats used to say he said that the best way of

answering these questions with a little story with children thing to get immediately and there's not so quickly

but you know the whole mystery of life and why is it like this so he puts it this

way God the only reality that ever was is or will be gotten lonely naturally

all by himself his lonesome self so he decided to play but where would he find

playmates there's nobody else for God he lit upon a nice plan what's the plan he

pretended to be not himself God pretended to be not himself he pretended

to be you and I and him and her and God

got so good at this game God forgot that he God was God and God

thought it was I am you and him and the game went along merrily sometimes

miserable sometimes happy and going through bodies and minds and many experiences and lifetimes until God got

tired of the play and decided to get out of the game and find himself all over

again that's when he came to a Vedanta retreat now the problem is God with His

infinite powers has made the situation so complicated for himself that's why he needs all of this but but you know the

interesting thing is it need not be so complicated we'll go into the next stage

the next talk and you will see I do hope you'll follow it very carefully at the

very least just about every question will be answered only if we get enlightened that intuition is the grace

of God is your own grace upon yourself but at least if you follow it carefully I cannot see any question in spiritual

life that remains unanswered after that in one sense the game is over after that top that's how I'm pitching it but

so that's the my answer to you we have done it there's a whole philosophy called Kashmir Shaivism in Vedanta we

speak about ignorance Maya which blocks us and the competition we have from the senses sense objects the senses flowing

outwards they cannot concentrate we cannot believe in God we do not seem to get the intuition all of these problems are

there because of Maya when Kashmir Shaivism this is not even Maya can stop you you are Shiva the ultimate reality

what can stop Shiva Shiva will do exactly as as Shiva pleases right now

Shiva wants to play in this world she was playing she knows Swami I want to get out of this world

III want to be enlightened well Navin say that right now Shiva wants to be

enlightened so she was playing that wanting to be enlightened the moment Shiva decides to be enlightened will be

enlightened nothing can stop you we will actually see how simple how

fundamental it is in the next next stop in the next talk is a question there was

a question the back I'll come to you after this one

[Music]

there's a question there one last question I'll okay with let's see if we can make

questions it does and not only that what

we dont't shows you after we will see ultimately even the entertainment of

Hollywood and the wealth of Wall Street are they not Brahmin they must be if God

is all of this is playing hide and seek with himself then Hollywood also Ascot Wall Street also his car the battlefield

of kuruksetra arjuna was is also got everything that we experience is gone that insight alone is what is necessary

you don't have to give up Hollywood or Wall Street in fact that's how God is

manifesting itself right now Brahman is manifesting itself for us if you realize the background of it then play the game

it will not hurt you you will play in peace and joy and light nothing will

touch you there and you will the whole of life will become one big big big I

don't want to say party but a mark of joy so Ram Krishna is to say a mark of

joint the question

they accept us come so I'm gonna set it

up and I want to add first apologize to my fellow seekers please don't see this as a as an

exercise into depression but you see please see this as a possible way for us

to learn so I've made my friends Christine we were driving down this morning and just a conversation came up

about where she went goes for walks with her dog and in some Park in Rancho

Bernardo and then after that she couldn't help but think and she said you

know but the only thing about this park is it reminds me of that it incident that happened and those of us in Rancho

and I mean I in San Diego problem with might remember there was a heinous crime committed by a person in that me that

whatever the Escondido a park at Lake Hodges area and it was heinous heinous

beyond belief and so at that point I I

couldn't help but think well let's see how does Vedanta how are we to look at

this this person who committed that crime and see God or see that

consciousness the same consciousness that pervades you and I and all of us here

what is what is to be our attitude towards that as a person on a personal

level and as well as on a societal level do we lock him up the electric chair so

this is basically what is called the problem of evil if such deep suffering exists in the

world does it not argue against the existence of God spirituality or

anything like that deep in me in humanity one incident itself so bad so

and there are many such incidents and throughout the history of humanity there have been and they are they are right

now going on and there will be in future so how do you reconcile this this

problem becomes a problem with especially with dualistic religions when you say all-powerful loving and just God

Hodgins with the horrible world in non-dualistic religion also and in Vedanta how do you

reconcile this with one existence consciousness bliss and quite horrible things should be there now there are

there are these two approaches to understand this in Vedanta first of all of course as we will see in

the next next chalk it's no longer a question when you when you understand what what will be talked about in the

next job it's no longer question of whether you should see it as God are you or how can you see it as God it will be

a fact that it is Brahman undeniable it may be a horrible appearance of random

or a benign appearance of Brahman but whatever the appearance is you see if you make out of gold a demon and out of

gold and angel right it does not change the fact that it is gold that's the

level at which we learn to operate evil as well at the level of what we call name-and-form the appearance of that

reality now there are two possibilities which mitigate evil in non-dualism one

is suppose all the evil in the world is committed by me upon myself it becomes

evil then one person does it to another person but if I say if I go to a cop and

say I was assaulted okay tell me he'll whip out his notebook who did it better

did it happen he said at that place and such and such circumstances at that time all right can you describe the person he

said I sure can it was me I hit myself the cop is going to slam his book shutting he might even book you for

insulting an officer why it says alt you assaulted yourself but why is it not a

crime why is it not even why is it not terrible if I slap myself why is it not

terrible because you are the person who is committing the assault and you are doing

it upon yourself it's not the same as one person doing it to another now if

there is one reality behind the entire universe that everything is done by that reality in that reality to

itself when akanda says praise or praised blamer blamed are but one whom

to praise whom to blame when they are but one if i hit somebody that person

can complain legitimately if I hit one hand with another hand who's to complain to whom so if there is a realization of

unity that's one answer the other answer is has all become relevant to the next

stop if it is not real if there is something a greater reality you see

what's the only time when we enjoy even then even a good person enjoys even the

only time in a movie in Hollywood the

worst of things happening on screen and you react with you feel you clap and say

wonderful give the guy an Oscar when you are not doing that so if you're firmly

set in a dualistic way of thinking you will say no this doesn't work this is terrible this is you're trying to deny suffering but here we must be

philosophically let's take that one step further then look back practically does not make so much of a difference

practically you still have to deal with the individual Brahman in its in individual appearance the one who is

suffering and the one who is inflicting the suffering so inflicting the suffering depending upon the enlightenment of the society and the

period you might seek to punish or to reform and the person who's suffering you will try to soothe and make up see

if it is if that's happening in you as an enlightened person you have to live

in the light a light of your enlightenment how do you deal with the victim how do you deal with the perpetrator of the kind right using your

enlightenment I'll leave it at that we'll see thank you one for the men

upstairs and two bathrooms downstairs women so you can please use those otherwise we have refreshments snacks

water coffee tea in the bathroom please go through this store and go out to the back door if you can't you need use

bathrooms then just go behind you will begin in in a half an hour will be a

bell so Facebook will continue back at

ten 11550 thank you