38. Bhagavad Gita I Chapter 3 Verses 32-34 I Swami Sarvapriyananda

0:04 Om Vasudeva Sutam Devam Kamsa Chanuramrdhanam Devaki Paramanandam Krishnam Vande Jagadgurum Good evening and Namaskar everybody. This is the Bhagavad Gita class. And today our co-host is Jayant, who will keep a lookout for your raised hands. If you can raise your hands virtually, that's the best. There is a button for that at the bottom of your panel's participants. You click that, you'll get an option to press the raise hand button. You can ask questions or make an observation or a comment and I can reply to you. In general, everybody will be muted. But whenever you want to speak, you can always.

0:52 And also you can write something in the chat. You can communicate with each other or with the co-host, with me. Those facilities are there. All right, let us start. In the third chapter, we had done 31st. I thought we had done the 32nd verse, but now I see that we have done up to 31st. The 31st verse, Sri Krishna says, ye me matam idam nityam anutishthanti manava, shraddhavanto anusuyanta mucchyante tepi karmabhi. So those who follow this teaching of mine, matam, my matam, my view or my teaching. So you can see the amazing humility. He's not saying this is the ultimate truth. This is given by I am God, I'm telling you this.

1:39 There are various opinions, paths to spiritual life. My matam is this. I am telling you. What is this matam? This is there in the 30th verse. This is the most important verse in this section. Mayi sarvani karmani sanyasya adhyatma chetasa, nirasheer nirmamo bhutva yudhyasva vigata jvaraha. This is the essence of Karma Yoga. With a spiritual attitude, what is the spiritual attitude? I will realize my own nature. I will get moksha, God realization in this very life itself. That is my goal in life. That's the purpose, overall or ultimate purpose of life. Adhyatma chetasa. And then what do you do? All activities, you need not stop them. Everything that you have to do in life, you go on doing that.

2:25 But mayi sarvani karmani sanyasya. Offer it to me, to God, to Bhagawan. Offer like you do your puja, like that you offer all your activities to God mentally. It's a mental shift. And nirasheer, without any desire or attachment, nirmamo, without the feeling it is mine. I am the doer and I shall get the result of this. No. Nirmamo bhutva. Vigata jvaraha, without any anxiety anymore, giving up all anxieties and tensions, because you have given up attachment. That's why there is no anxiety or tension. Vigata jvaraha means free of fever. Yudhyasva, fight the battle of life. Those who follow this teaching, they are freed from the bondage of karma. Bondage of karma means, they will be freed from the effects

3:15 of karma and then with through purification of mind by karma yoga, concentration of mind by meditation, through jnana yoga, they will be finally freed from samsara. They will get moksha. Then comes verse number 32. But if you do not follow this teaching, so Sri Krishna is pushing the teaching or advertising the teaching very strongly. Positive. If you follow, you will get this. If you don't follow, 32. So know them to have a jada, inert and ruined life.

4:04 Who were deluded with respect to all knowledge. They do not get any knowledge at all. Who criticize this teaching of mine and refuse to follow it. So that's a pretty strong statement. If you follow it, you will get moksha. If you don't, basically if you don't follow it, then we will fall into samsara. We will remain in samsara, go through ups and downs, life after life. Achetasaha. The root is this. They do not want spirituality. They do not want God realization. At the root is the problem that God realization, moksha, liberation is not my goal. That is achetasaha. No spiritual attitude is there to life. And then what do they do? Because there is no spiritual purpose in life, first of all, they criticize

4:53 this doctrine, this teaching. They criticize it. You will notice something. One thing is that those who are atheists or those who are strongly materialistic, they also feel a strong need to criticize religion. Why? Because if religion is true, then I the atheist, I'm in trouble. Then my whole view of life is wrong. So I must make sure that religion is wrong. And then only I can be right. I can be at peace. If you are a spiritual seeker, if you seek moksha, God realization, you really don't bother about the materialist or the atheist or the person who is very worldly. You know slowly they will progress and one day they'll come to spiritual life. You are not really bothered about criticizing that person.

5:39 But the materialist has to criticize the spiritual person. Otherwise, the materialist way of life cannot be justified. So, they criticize spirituality, especially this teaching of mine about karma yoga. And of course, they don't follow it. What happens? They are bereft of all knowledge. What knowledge? This viveka has different levels. This knowledge has different levels. First level is the difference between dharma and adharma. What is right and what is wrong? That itself they don't understand. So they get deluded by their own raga-dwesha, their own desires and aversions. What is adharma? They take it to be right.

6:25 What is dharma? They don't feel like doing it or they don't take it to be right. The higher level dharma dharma viveka, next, nitya anitya viveka. What is eternal? God alone is eternal. This world is temporary, transient, passing. This feeling does not come. This world alone seems to be real and they want to hold on to this. Then, the even higher level of viveka, satya mithya viveka. God alone is real. World is not only non-eternal, not only temporary and passing, but also false, appearance, an illusion, like a movie, like a dream, like a snake in the rope or mirage in the desert. So, you see three levels. First of all, most important, right and wrong viveka.

7:12 What is right and what is wrong? Dharma adharma. That itself is not clear to such people. Then, deeper level, nitya anitya. God alone is nitya. Nitya means eternal. The world is anitya. Everything is temporary. You say, who does not know that? Even if people who do not believe in God, atheists do not believe in God or say Buddhists do not believe in God, but they all know that world is non-eternal. World is temporary. They may know that, but they do not behave accordingly. Most people, you see, worldly mind is, though I know that everything is temporary, nobody lives forever. I also will not live forever, nor are my possessions forever. Everything is subject to up and down, coming and going, increase and decrease. I know that, but I behave as if I will live forever.

8:00 I behave as if all these things I am struggling for, they will be with me and I push that knowledge of the temporality of life to the background. Then only samsara is possible. Then even deeper knowledge, satya mithya. God alone is real. The world is unreal. Sri Ramakrishna says again and again, Ishvari vastu arshava vastu. God alone is the reality. Everything else is an appearance. This is the final viveka, final, deeper knowledge. All this kind of knowledge does not appear to and is not available to such people who criticize this teaching of mine. So this is 32. Then 33. 33 and 34 are important, are very practical.

8:50 Practical in the sense, we all have this question. Again and again it comes. Why is spiritual life difficult? Why is it so difficult to change? I read so many things, I understand so many things, but why can't I change myself? It's so slow and difficult. So what is the problem here? Why is it difficult to be spiritual? This answer is there. What is the obstacle and what is the solution? Both are given. Very interesting. 33 and 34. A great deal of psychology is involved here. 33.

9:39 Even a jnani, man of knowledge, behaves according to his nature. All beings behave according to their nature. What can repression do? So, very interesting verse. People work according to their own nature, prakriti. According to their own prakriti. Even the man of knowledge, even the jnani, one who has attended all Vedanta classes and got full notes, I've got all the recordings in my hard drive. So jnani, maybe even an enlightened person, even jivanmukta, brahmagyani also. What to speak of ordinary people? Prakriti myankhi bhutani. They follow their own nature.

10:25 Nigraha kim karishatiya. Hammer blow. What will self-control do? What can control do? What can repression do? People will act according to their nature. Now this is a very interesting verse. What is Sri Krishna telling us here? What is prakriti? Prakriti is our nature. Our nature means? Did you not say our nature is that we are atman, sachidananda? Yes, actually we are sachidananda. Our real self is existence consciousness bliss. Satyam jnanam anantam brahma. Existence itself, consciousness itself and infinity. Infinite being and consciousness. That is our nature. Atman, brahman, turiya, whatever you call it. But prakriti refers to body mind.

11:13 So this mind we have got intellect, mind, memories and the body. This particular body we have got in this life. All of this, these are products of maya, of prakriti and so they are called prakriti here. Prakriti here means our body mind complex and there also in the mind our whole personality which is shaped by our tendencies. So body mind complex is prakriti. Especially the mind and especially in the mind the tendencies which we have got, in Sanskrit, samskaras. These samskaras, they are different for each person. As Atman, Atman is same for all. We are all pure being, pure consciousness. It is impersonal. But we each have a different personality.

12:01 Each has a different personality. Even in a family you see each child is different. From a very early age you see the differences. Now this different personalities, this is prakriti and this differs from person to person. Where does it stay? Especially it stays in the mind. It is in the mind. Where does it come from? Our past lives. Each jiva that is Atman plus sukshma sharira or mind or sukshma sharira. That sukshma sharira is the storehouse of our nature. All the tendencies which we have accumulated, samskaras, vasanas, desires accumulated life after life. That is the totality of our prakriti. And again here also in each life a part of it is manifested.

12:48 Whichever part of our accumulated karma becomes active, producing this life. That part becomes manifested in this life. And that is very specifically called my prakriti now. Here and now my life. Shankaracharya says in his commentary, he says, that is prakriti. Which is prakriti? Purva krita. Whatever we have done. What have we done? Dharma adharma. Good and bad things. And what we have done has created samskara. Samskaraha. What happened to the samskara? Part of that. Vartamana janmado. In this life and lives to come, abhivyakta.

13:36 It becomes manifest. Not that all our samskaras are manifest. We have gone through so many lives and so many bodies. Animal body, bird body, devata body, maybe asura body. So many lives we have gone through. Not that all of them will become manifest. Impossible. In this body, particularly some kind of samskara is manifest. That is called prakriti. Prachina means ancient births. So many births which we do not know about. Those things are giving their results now. See the karma that we have done. Our prakriti is made by ourselves. Our destiny we have made. See it is very interesting. In our karma vada, in Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, all Indian philosophies, we believe in past karma. So it seems to be fatalistic.

14:21 It is my karma which has given me this life and these tendencies. But this karma I have myself manufactured. I have woven the web in which I am trapped today. My destiny I have made over many lifetimes. And how I will act now will make or unmake these things over the next, this life or next life. So actually karma is a positive doctrine. That what we do, we get the result. Karma has two important effects. One is called samskara. What we consistently do again and again, good and bad, whatever it is, it will create an effect on our mind. That is very clear. Everybody understands. Our repeated action becomes our character. What we repeat again and again, that becomes a habit.

15:07 And habits, total habits together is character. Actions, repeated, habit, habits together, character. So that is one. It is called samskara. And these totality of samskara is our prakriti. But karma also has another effect, what you might call a cosmic effect, which is paap punya, which I have talked about earlier, good and bad results. And that paap punya will give, will give rise to events in our life. One is the samskaras, tendencies which we all have, prakriti. The other one is what will happen in our life, our parents, our birth, this body, our health, what big events happen in our life, in our secular or even spiritual life. These things, friends, relatives, husband, wife, children, job, prosperity, health,

15:56 illness, all of these things are more to more or less determined by my past karma. And now that is the playing field into which the jiva is thrust. Now how you play, you have a freedom. With whom you are playing, with the game equipment, balls and bats and all, those are given by God, by your own prakriti, by your karma, karma phala. The playground is arranged by God, according to your karma phala. But how you play, we have some freedom there. Now, these samskaras are our past. And they have given rise to our present prakriti. This prakriti is expressed in the form of raga dvesha. How do we know, where is prakriti acting?

16:43 As raga dvesha. Raga dvesha means likes and dislikes. Raga is like, desire, wanting. Dvesha is aversion, don't like. I don't want or want to get rid of something. And these are expressed in our day-to-day life. Every person, you will see, they are defined by likes and dislikes. And these likes and dislikes guide our actions. Prakriti myanti bhutani. In our day-to-day life, the things that we pursue, what we want to do in life, the food that we like to eat. One more thing. Prakriti is not just past karma. After birth till now, there is this life's experiences.

17:28 Conditioning of this life is also there. The childhood experiences, parents, how they treated us, teachers, relatives, friends, our own body health and illness, our experiences of life and the community, what we have been taught in school and by the community. All of these experiences in this life, they also go into the prakriti. So, there is a very nice phrase, nature plus nurture. Nature and nurture. Nature is what we have inherited. In scientific terms, it is mostly the genetics. Nature is our genetics. But nurture is what has happened to us in this life. How we have been treated, educated, taken care of, nourished. Altogether, our prakriti.

18:14 This is, as you can understand, this is really important. It is true that we are all sachidananda. No problem there. Atman or brahman has no problem. Problem is in our prakriti. Each person has different tendencies. You will see the way we behave. Some are very calm, some are very excitable, some are dull, some are active, some are intelligent, understanding, some are aloof, some like this kind of food, some like that kind of place, some like mixing with people, some do not like mixing, some like only a few friends, some like, are gregarious with many friends, so on. So, this is one thing. The other, another aspect of this is, prakriti is made of three gunas.

19:00 Sattva rajas tamas. This we have read again and again. These are the constituents of prakriti. And all of us, our personalities, have a predominance of one or the other. All of us have sattva, rajas, tamas in our prakriti, in our personality. And in some of us, tamas is more where dullness, slowness, heaviness, unwilling to change, that is tamasic. Rajas is more in some dynamic, energetic, but full of desire, active, restless. And a few lucky ones are predominantly sattvic, calm and serene and by nature pure, controlled, disciplined.

19:47 Now, the thing is, spiritual life is possible only when we bring our prakriti into control. Normally, when we act, it is according to prakriti. This is what Krishna is saying, prakritim yanti bhutani, people act according to their prakriti. Almost everything that we do, act and react, what we do in life and how we react to life, it depends on our prakriti. But this prakriti has to be brought under control and channelized towards God realization, channelized towards sadhana. So, this is the whole task of sadhana. See, spiritual practice, whether it is karma yoga, you are doing seva, whether it is bhakti, you do worshipping God with devotion, whether it is meditation, you are doing japa or whether it is attending Vedanta classes, jnana yoga, bhakti yoga,

20:35 raja yoga, karma yoga, all of these, they cannot do anything to the Atman. You, the Atman, you are sachidananda, nothing will increase, nothing will decrease there. You are perfect. But what these do is, they polish our prakriti. All of them, polishing means, they are trying to make our prakriti, our mind specially, more sattvic. Now, those of us, most of us, we have generally tamasic, rajasic predominant minds. And this offers resistance. A few people are already sattvic by nature because of past life sadhana. Their sadhana in this life becomes easy. I have seen myself in the training center where I used to teach monastic novices,

21:23 those brahmacharis who have come to become sanyasis. And see, these young men who have come to become sadhu, they already have decided, we will be, God realization is our life, life's goal. Adhyatma chetasa. They have got that spiritual attitude very clearly. And they have made the sacrifice of giving up everything else for the pursuit of spiritual life only. Yet, yet, there is so much difference between them. Why is one of them, why are some so happy to get up so early in the morning and happily going there and meditating and while another person, another one finds it difficult to get up in the morning, has to be scolded, go and sit for meditation.

22:09 One finds the classes so interesting, Vedanta, another finds it so dull, boring. And one finds devotion so interesting and has a seva bhava, attending to the brothers who have fallen ill, those who need something, always eager to help others, while someone may be trying to avoid work and avoid responsibility. Why? All have come to be spiritual. Where is the problem? All are sachidananda brahman. Or if you take a devotional approach, God dwells equally in the hearts of all of them. Then what is the problem? Problem is with prakriti. Each one has baggage. The background, life after life, we have come with a lot of history, personal history.

22:56 But that comes in the way. That is what is blocking us in spiritual life. This is what Shri Krishna is saying. In Arjuna's case, he is a warrior. His basic nature is rajas, that dynamic spirit. And he wants to be spiritual, but he wants to be spiritual in the way a yogi is in the mountains. He says, this I will not do. I will rather go to the mountains and sit and meditate. What Shri Krishna is trying to tell him is, your prakriti will not allow it. You are a dynamic person. You are a warrior, a kshatriya. Now, your spirituality should also be according to your prakriti.

23:42 This is the great teaching. It will come in the next verse. What are we to do if the prakriti is standing in our way? Arjuna is being told, now you must fight this war. Not give up the war. Not go to the mountain and sit like a muni there. You will not be able to do that. Maybe you will end up there in Gangotri, if Arjuna goes there and sits. What will happen is, either he will sit quietly and try to meditate and mentally it will go on. That Duryodhana is a crook. When I got the chance, I should have thrashed that fellow. I wonder what he is doing now. Or if he is active, he will probably, he will organize the sadhus into sadhus union or something like that. Dynamic nature. I saw one sadhu, very good sadhu, but also very rajasic, very dynamic.

24:35 So, see the reaction. He was telling me in Gangotri, the pandas, the priests, so their children, they have to survive also. Because there is a large number of pilgrims coming, so they started a hotel. In the hotel, proper, this what you call, waste disposal is not there and the waste is going into the Ganga, which is very hurtful for the sadhus and all. They consider it the holy mother Ganga. So, he took these people, the priests and their children to court and pursued a case up to Supreme Court, where he finally lost the case also. And now, of course, Gangotri is very highly, you know, like so many hotels and things are there. Anyhow, I was thinking when he told me the story, that he lost the case.

25:24 Not only did he lose the case, finally, it was a long process and he used to go regularly to New Delhi to fight the case, from Gangotri. And then, when he finally lost the case, he became so disappointed, so frustrated, he decided to commit suicide, that he will jump in the Ganga. And he said, he walked down to the Ganga one day, taking the name of Shiva, you know, Om Namah Shiva, he was chanting, he is going to the Ganga. As he touched, he said, before entering the Ganga, I will do pranams, I will touch the water. It is very fast flow. If anybody steps in, he will be killed. Even when I was there, just the day before, somebody had been killed, he will be swept away. During rainy season, lot of water is there. So, he said, I was going to kill myself in the Ganga, I touched the flowing water and then I felt something there and I brought it out. This is perfect natural Shiva linga.

26:12 And so, in me, by touching that, his entire mindset changed and he decided not to commit suicide, thank God. And he brought the Shiva linga back to the ashram and it is kept there. So, my, how I knew this story is, I saw this very extraordinary Shiva linga under a tree in his hut, just outside his hut. And I asked, how did you get it? So, this whole story he told me. But my, also the lesson, it is nice story, but the lesson I learnt also was, see, this person who has come to be a sadhu in the Himalayas, good part of his time that he spent in fighting a case in the High Court and Supreme Court. But that's also the nature, prakriti. So, prakritim jnanti bhutani. Jnana vanapi. See, yes, ordinary people are subject to prakriti.

27:00 No, even jivanmuktas, brahmajnanis also. What do you mean? Well, don't you see the brahmajnanis, how different they are? They are all brahmajnanis. They have all realized aham brahmasmi and the same brahman, satyam jnanam brahma. They are exactly the same brahman. They have realized that their true nature, even if they are jivanmukta. There also you see so much difference. Ramakrishna's character and personality are different from Vivekananda's. Vivekananda's personality is different from Brahmananda's. Holy Mother's personality is another type. All are brahmajnani. All are the same. The classic example they gave is Ramachandra and Shri Krishna. So, both are avataras of Vishnu and obviously always are.

27:46 They are nitya brahmajnani of course, fully enlightened and yet their personality is absolutely different. Both are beautiful personalities. So, brahmajnanis, they are wonderful, holy, highly spiritual personalities but different from each other. Where does this difference come from? It comes from prakriti. Of course, their prakriti has been polished and it is not a problem for them anymore. It has become so sattvic that it manifests the brahmajnana easily. But the difference is there. So, prakriti must be admitted in the case of brahmajnani also. I was joking with somebody. Sri Ramakrishna liked jalebi. He liked jalebi and Swami Vivekananda liked chocolate ice cream. Now, if both are same brahmajnani, how is it

28:32 that their likings are different? So, these things are all product of body-mind and their mental makeup due to their past prakriti. In avatara's case, you might say that past prakriti is not there but in avatara's case, they will say that yoga maya, it is a prakriti created by them for the purpose of avatara leela. But let us take the case of jivanmuktas. Whether it is Totapuri or Vivekananda or Ramana Maharshi or Brahmananda, so different in their whole mental makeup and their approach. So, they manifested brahmajnana but differently because of the prakriti, difference in their prakriti. What else did I want to say about this verse? There seems to be a couple of questions.

29:23 Yes. Rama is asking, can a rajasic person become sattvic by training their mind or is that a transition sign of spiritual growth attained by spiritual practices? Of course, the whole point of all these spiritual practices is to make the more sattvic. What happens is that these spiritual practices bhakti, regular meditation, seva and the jnana vichara which we do in vedanta classes, all of these are spiritual practices and we are doing it. Now, all of these, they become easy if the mind is sattvic. Generally, if the mind is sattvic, that person likes these practices. I was talking about that some of the brahmacharis, they like

30:11 these practices and one thing I have noticed is it is usually the same person who likes meditation, who likes the study, who likes devotion, who is very full of liking for others and doing service to others easily. Why is it that the same person likes all of them, can do all these things together? It is because that one quality is necessary, sattvic quality. That sattvic quality itself makes a person spiritual. Now, it is not that all or nothing. We all have to some extent a sattvic quality in us. Even an ordinary worldly person will also have sattva because prakriti is made of these three things. Everybody's prakriti has sattva, rajas, tamas. It is just that spiritual practices tend to increase the sattva and maintain it in our minds.

30:56 Also opposite is true. If the sattva is there in the mind, if a makeup is sattvic, spiritual practices are easier. We like doing it. If it is not there, it becomes a struggle. But whether it is whether you like it or not, we should do it because this is the only way we are going to become spiritual and attain enlightenment. Notice, before enlightenment, all these spiritual practices make the mind sattvic so that we can go on with our sadhana and attain enlightenment, become qualified for enlightenment. After enlightenment, that same sattvic mindset, already sattvic, that enables them to manifest that knowledge. That knowledge they have, aham brahmasmi, enables them to live according to that.

31:45 Manifestation of the divinity within, that also requires sattvic mindset. Often what happens is we know something, we are unable to do it in life. Manifesting means doing it in life. Unable to carry it out in life because obstacle is put by our own prakriti, lack of sattva in the prakriti. I think this is what I wanted to say about this verse. Two people have raised their hands. Pravin Babu, you are next. Maharaj Pranam. I want to ask you a clarification. The prakriti that is mentioned in this verse is not the same prakriti in verse 29. The question is, I want to ask is that in Sankhaya,

32:34 everyone is separate purusha. Yes. Everyone is separate prakriti, am I correct? Yes, everyone is separate purusha ultimately. But we all have as jiva, the purusha is entangled with prakriti. And the prakriti that each purusha has is a part of the cosmic prakriti. So, our prakriti, each of us, what we have in our minds is a part of the power of the Mahamaya, of the divine mother. It is actually the divine mother whose power is reflected in all our prakriti. That is why bondage and liberation are all under the control, the domain of the divine mother. So, there is one purusha and one prakriti and then we are all the parts of that purusha and prakriti. No no no. You mentioned Sankhaya. In Sankhaya, there are many purushas, bahupurushavada.

33:21 Each of us is a separate. That is Sankhya. Each of us is a separate purusha. And there is one prakriti. Yes, you complete the question. Prakriti also. I am sorry. No, complete the question. What were you saying? So, we also, each of us is a separate prakriti also. Yes, that prakriti is a part of that cosmic prakriti. It is one prakriti, but it has many parts. See, that one prakriti itself becomes the entire universe. I am talking about Sankhaya now. One prakriti becomes the entire universe. So, whatever is in the universe is a part of that prakriti and that includes our bodies, that includes our prana, it includes our mind and intellect and ahankara and memory also. Mano buddhi chitta ahankara. Where in the memory, all our personality is stored.

34:09 Our vasanas, samskaras are stored there. That is all part of the cosmic prakriti. So, we have a tiny part of that cosmic prakriti. In Advaita, yes. Sorry, Sankhaya does not have this pure consciousness or the universal consciousness, whatever you want to call it. No no no no no. See, what you are saying, you said two things. Sankhaya does not have pure consciousness or universal consciousness. No, Sankhaya talks about pure consciousness. That is purusha and you are that purusha, but it does not talk about universal consciousness because we are, as I said, separate purushas. Each purusha is separate. Yeah, many, many consciousnesses in Sankhaya, not in Advaita Vedanta.

34:55 Advaita Vedanta talks about pure consciousness, which is also universal consciousness, one consciousness. And in Advaita Vedanta, maya is the power of that consciousness. Prakriti is the power of that consciousness. So, this is the difference. This is the philosophical difference behind it. But here, the practical problem is, right now, we all, we are Atman, no doubt about it, but we all have prakriti. We, each of us has a separate prakriti and it's mostly problematic. Why it is problematic? It is something that we have consciously, unconsciously gathered over many lifetimes. How do we know our prakriti? Look at our raga dvesha, likes and dislikes. When we consider what's going on in our life, what we want, what we do not,

35:43 what we like, what we do not like. See, what we have read is different. What we have studied and what we have decided, this is my goal in life, spirituality. That's wonderful. But how am I leading my life day to day? What am I finding difficult? So, one sadhu said that, see, what you have read, I am not interested in. What you do in life, I am not interested in. Tell me your struggle. Where are you struggling? Is meditation difficult? Is it difficult to be unselfish? Does bhakti feel mechanical? Does jnana feel dry or I don't understand? Somebody said, Swami, I checked all the boxes when you said all of them.

36:32 So, this is part of my prakriti. Nothing to be done. We want God realization. So, what Vedanta does for us, even at this stage, it gives us the great assurance and relief that you are Satchidananda and all these problems, if you have even checked all the boxes, ticked all the boxes, all problems I have got. Somebody said, Maharaj, in Bhagavad Gita, total description, my description has been given. So where? They are simply talking about me only. Where? In Daivasura Sampad Vibhaga Yoga, the Asuri Sampad, the demonic qualities Sri Krishna has described, all are matching. I have got all the qualities. Now, great thing about Advaita Vedanta is, it assures you, you are not touched by these things.

37:18 See, whether my clothes are dirty or they are shiny, clean or torn, they are clothes. They are not me. See, if it is a dirty cloth, I have to wash it. If it is shiny cloth, congratulations! But in both cases, it is not you. It is simply a covering. A personality, even the Greek word for persona, it means mask. I mentioned that earlier. It means a mask. It is not you. Our personality, our prakriti is not you. Prakriti is not Purusha. Name and form, body, mind are not the Atma. Vedanta has given you the assurance, you as Atma are already pure, are perfect. The thing is, it has to be manifested. It has to be realized and realization of that requires prakriti.

38:04 It is all realization, all sadhana, all bondage, all freedom, everything is in prakriti. Atman does not have to do any sadhana. Atman does not need bondage or freedom also. Atman is ever free. But because we are now tied up with prakriti, we need to work through this. Swami Vivekananda said, you cannot run away from the machine. You have to learn how to work the machine. It will set you free. That is an important point. Working this machine, understanding the inner workings of this machine of prakriti, we have to understand. In another place, Swami Vivekananda says, very cryptic sentence, all you can do is polish the mirror. All you can do is polish the mirror. What is the mirror? Prakriti.

38:49 What is polishing? Changing our rajasic and tamasic tendencies, make up into more sattvic. Changing or controlling our raga dvesha and channelizing it towards sadhana. That is polishing the mirror. What will happen if you polish the mirror? Ultimately, it will give you enlightenment. Polishing the mirror means we will get those qualities for Vedanta. Viveka, vairagya, the shat sampatti and mumukshutvam, those will become strong in us. This ordinary person becomes a holy person. This holiness, we can actually feel it. You go to a really, I have seen it in many senior monks, when you go to them,

39:35 you feel a distinct quality to you. Not just a good person, there is something very sublime and high about such people. That is the transformation of prakriti. That is necessary. Sadhana can do that. It will not make the jiva into brahman. You are already brahman. Sadhana cannot do anything to brahman. Yes. Question? Yes. Patrick, you are next. Pranam Swami. Namaskaram. So, one of the fourfold or sixfold treasures is controlling the senses, the sense organs. Is that something that should be practiced?

40:22 Can you talk about it generally? Should it be practiced? Is that for maybe somebody beginning in spiritual life, is that something that you should even think about or is that just kind of like down the road? No, it should be practiced and it is going to come in the next verse. Now, the question, I mean, you say all these things and then Sri Krishna ends by saying, nigraha kim karishyate, what can self-control do? If you say that, that is a shocking statement because then what is the use of spiritual life? All our practices are practices. If we cannot do anything to our nature, will everybody will act according to the nature, then what is the point of, you know, telling us about self-control, don't be angry, don't be greedy, control your desires, pray, meditate,

41:07 all these require self-control. So, what does it mean? How are we to tackle this problem of prakriti? So, the answer to what you are saying is coming in the next verse itself. Yes. Then one more. Devanik, you are next. Maharaj pranam. Namaskar. Question is, can brahma jnana be considered a karma pal, like a result of karma? No, absolutely not. Brahma jnana is not the result of karma, but by karma we can set up, we can polish the mirror. The mirror does not provide you with the original face, you know, your face is reflected in a clean mirror, but your mirror

41:54 has not made the original face. It just, when you clean it, automatically by the very nature of the mirror, it gives you a reflection of the original face. So, this reflection itself is brahma jnana. Polishing the mirror is all that work can do. Karma can polish the prakriti, can polish the mirror of prakriti. Knowledge is, so there is a subtle point, karma cannot produce brahman, no doubt about it. Brahman is beyond karma. Brahma jnana is also beyond karma. Why? Jnana is always produced by pramana. Pramana means source of knowledge. Source of knowledge produces knowledge. So, all I need to do, so, you know, you see the snake in the rope by mistake.

42:44 Now, by what will you get the reality? Will you have to drive away the snake with a stick or we have to employ some mantras to drive away the snake? No, all those are karma. Those karma will not work. What you need is knowledge and for knowledge you just need a flashlight and look at the snake and you'll see there is no snake, it's a rope. That is revealed to you directly by the source of knowledge which is pratyaksha. To make it even more clear, knowledge is said to be vastu tantra, depends on the nature of reality. As a thing is, so will be your knowledge if it is correct knowledge. So, if you show a cloth and your knowledge reveals it to be a cloth, helplessly so.

43:32 You have no choice in the matter. If all the senses are working properly, mind is working properly, you are bound to see this as cloth. Whereas in the case of work it is not so. That means in the case of any kind of work, you have the freedom to do it, not to do it, or to do it in a different way. You have options, yeah, there are various options possible. Everybody can do work in their own way and even rituals, even meditation is also work, mental work. You may do meditation, you may not do meditation, each person can do a different kind of meditation, it's possible. But knowledge, you cannot do it in different ways. Every one of you sees the cloth and identifies it as cloth.

44:19 So, brahma jnana is also like that, it is not dependent on karma. One more point and we'll move on to the next verse. The point is, nigraha kim karishyati, what can force do? Repression, it cannot do anything, it will actually harm. So, all the psychoanalysis of Freud and Freud's followers is based on this, the harm that repression does. If you suppress something, it will not go away. In fact, there's an interesting incident, Freud himself came to the United States when he was already pretty famous. In one of the talks, there is a nice reminiscence, he is giving a talk to a group of students. So, he talks about repression and he says, suppose here in this class, some students

45:09 are unruly, suppose, and we ask them to leave the class and they leave the class, but they don't go away. They are trying to peek in through the windows, they will start hammering on the doors, you can't see them, but you can sense their presence, disturbing presence. Similarly, he said, if you drive away disturbing thoughts, desires, you push them away, they will not go away. You may not be directly aware of them, but they will go into subconscious and they'll keep working there and they'll keep disturbing you, they'll keep manifesting in different ways. So, repression cannot help. Suppose, by force, somebody tries to do and this, by force, say a very active person decides, no, I will do a lot of meditation. And I've seen this again and again in the Himalayas, in our monastery,

45:55 in the training center where young brahmacharis come and now I will meditate day and night and get samadhi. It doesn't work. If you forcefully try to meditate more than what is suitable to your prakriti, I have seen brahmacharis, you know, meditating hours and hours every day. Often what happens is it leads to mental breakdown. People, if you force it too much, leads to mental breakdown. Sometimes, luckily, if they are, God's grace is there, they're saved. So, very soon they realize their mistake. One young monk I knew, a very sincere young person, so all the yogas, the four yogas, he will practice to

46:41 the maximum as far as possible. So, he would spend hours in the morning in meditation, hours in the evening in meditation and then when it came to service, there was no one more eager and up and doing than him. He would, you know, you give food, you serve the food where the monks are sitting. So, it's hard work. It's hot and sweaty and even one session, if you serve, it's very tiring. He would serve the first batch of monks who would eat. He would serve the second batch of monks who would eat and the final batch where the only the kitchen staff and the monks who are in the kitchen, they eat and then they go to their rooms. He would serve them also and then without eating, he will go back to his room. Now, don't do any of these things yourself. They say don't try this at home.

47:29 He would not eat. You won't believe this. He would pluck grass from the field and would boil that grass and eat that grass and just boil water and drink that. He would not sleep at night. He would keep his bed at an incline so that he would, there won't be any deep sleep. He would sit for meditation or lie down in an inclined way. One day, we heard a crash in the monastery. What happened? People got up. He had slid up the bed and fallen with the crash to the floor. Anyhow, this is too much and what happens is you are forcefully going against Prakriti. You cannot win that way. What you can do, it will come next. Sri Krishna will tell. So, people try this. On the other hand, then what should you do?

48:16 I remember the advice I received as a young brahmachari when I went to the training center. There was a great Swami, one of the few, I think, whom I would call a Jeevanmukta or enlightened person. I had met him. He was one of our teachers. So, that day I went to the training center in Belur Math, as a young brahmachari. This was 1999, I think. So, I went to his room to bow down. He was quite ill. I mean, nearly 10-12 hours a day, they used to give oxygen to him. He had breathing troubles and all. But never unhappy, always the twinkle in his eyes. So, I bowed down to him and he said, why are you here? I said, Swami, I have come for the training in the training center.

49:03 And his answer was so simple and so wonderful. He said, oh, training center, all you need to do is go by the bell. In Bengali, he said, training center, koob bhalo ghantar shange churley hobe. All you need to do is go by the bell. What it means is, in the training center, we have this bell and we still have it there. There are 26 bells in 24 hours. I counted once. Bell to get up, bell to go for meditation, bell to go for chanting, bell to go for breakfast, bell to go for studies, bell to even take a bath, bell to go for classes. Each class has its own bell. Then for lunch, the most hated bell, I think, was the bell to fall asleep.

49:49 If you're already fallen asleep, you're woken up immediately. Now, what this Swami said, just follow the bell. Those who are restless, rajasik, they want to do more. I will become enlightened. What everybody is doing, I'll do twice that much, restless. Those who are tamasik, they try to escape that much. Whatever has to be done also, they try to do less. He said, just follow the bell. There is enough time for meditation, enough time for devotion, for study, for seva, very beautifully arranged routine for sadhu life. Just follow the bell. It takes a sattvic person to do that. More rajasik person, less tamasik person.

50:37 Okay. Now, what do we do then? What's the solution? 34, very important. Senses have attachment and aversion to their respective object. You should not be swayed by them. They are obstacles in your spiritual path. Shankaracharya introduces, if everybody, every jiva follows their own prakriti,

51:27 they work according to their own prakriti and there is nobody without a prakriti, all jivas. Then where is the role for free will? Where is the role for sadhana, for initiative? And then he says, what will the result be? Shastra becomes useless. Shastra becomes anarthakya dosha, that means, meaninglessness of spiritual instruction. So what is being said here? Remember, in our day to day life, if you want to know what is your prakriti, it is manifested in your reactions. your likings and dislikings. So, these keep coming up as we interact with people and objects, anger and desire and greed, these things manifest.

52:17 Raga, dvesha, likes and dislikes, and they are based on our past prakriti. Now, what happens is this. Our samskara, the prakriti, it generates first of all a thought in the mind. It comes up as a bubble, stage one. Just a thought about anything. It could just be, nice cookie. And if you hold on to that thought and nourish it, then it will become stronger. I want the cookie. Then it becomes, at one point becomes speech, vak. I want it. Then it becomes action, karma. So, a child may grab for the cookie. So, you see the stages. From the prakriti or from the vasanas, which are prakriti,

53:04 stage one, thought comes. That is in Sanskrit called vritti. Stage two, when you nurture that thought, hold on to it, it becomes vak, speech and is expressed as action, karma. Vritti vak karma. Mind, speech, body, becomes action. Now, what has to be done about this? He says, tayor na vasam agachet. Now, at this point, you have to consider that what is coming out of my prakriti, is it helpful for my spiritual path or not? We do that all the time. Anybody who's disciplined, if you're holding a job, if you're working in academia, if you're doing a PhD or whatever, any big task you have taken up, whatever you're doing, whatever likes

53:52 and dislikes keep coming up, we control it. Only that which is helpful for us in our day-to-day life, we allow that to happen and the rest we suppress it. If we do not suppress it, then a person becomes, what do you call it, impulse buyer. I like this, I immediately buy it, later I regret it. Acting on impulse, suddenly angry, prone to anger or suddenly, so Amazon is based on your impulse buying, they'll make it very easy for you. You like something, raga and the transition from raga to action, speech and action is very fast because all you have to do is click one button.

54:38 Before you know it, you've bought it. Raga has been translated into action immediately. What Krishna says is, you have to short circuit this process. You have to use your understanding. All that we have in our prakriti is not bad. Some of it takes us towards our spiritual goal, lot of it pulls us back or diverts us. That which is not helpful at the level of vritti itself, what is coming from samskara, you have no control over that. At the level of vritti itself, you should, like a traffic policeman, divert, bypass that or allow it. Allow it if it is good for our spiritual path. If it is not, say no, replace it with something that is good. So what we nourish at the level of mind, that itself becomes speech and action.

55:28 And not only that, what we nourish at the level of mind and what we give, went to, which we manifest as speech and action, that again goes back into our samskara and becomes part of our prakriti. It's a loop. What comes up from within, subconscious mind, if we entertain it and then we speak about it or do it, it again goes back into the subconscious mind and strengthens that tendency. Whereas if we intercept it, if it's not helpful, I have had enough sugar today. I will not take the next cookie. Stop. What was the vritti? I want the cookie. What did you say? No. Then what happens is, it's not nourished in the mind, not giving rise to speech, not giving rise to action and therefore it does not,

56:15 you don't express it in your life and also you don't add to that samskara. And slowly over time what happens is, the samskaras themselves change. Prakriti changes. So after some time, months, years of this kind of sadhana, you will find only good tendencies coming up, good vrittis coming out of prakriti. Good means according to your spiritual path. Sri Ramakrishna put all this in a very simple way. He says the boatman, you know he lived near the Ganga, so when the boatman goes out into the Ganges, they have this long pole with which they push against the bottom of the river and they push the boat out as they are going. By the time it reaches the midstream, there's a current and it catches the current.

57:01 Sometimes they have a little sail and the boatman sits down. Sri Ramakrishna says a very nice example. He sits down and holds the rudder and the boat is going along merrily without any further effort and the boatman smokes tobacco. In Bengali he said, purut purut karta makhaya. Now what it means is, after some time, as the prakriti becomes spiritualized, sattvik, it becomes natural and effort is less. But at first there's some effort because you are constantly trying to, watching your own prakriti and making a decision whether I will do this or not, whether I will think this first of all. Then stop thinking that. Then stop speaking about it. It will stop the speech and level of action. If we do not control it, what happens is,

57:48 not only it has bad effect on our life, I may have decided to be spiritual but day-to-day life will be ruled by prakriti, by the raga dvesha. It will keep on strengthening the old samskaras and divert me from my spiritual life. So that is the problem of, so that's how you slowly transform prakriti. We do this all the time. When I first joined, so we are told you have to get up early in the morning. It's a struggle. See the one thing let me tell you, I'll share quickly with you. There was this psychologist Jonathan Haidt, H-A-I-D-T. I think he's, I don't know, he was at one

58:33 of these east coast universities, Jonathan Haidt. He wrote this book, Happiness Hypothesis. I read it a few years ago and it's very interesting. He takes up this problem, why is it so difficult to be good? So much of self-help, you know, if you go to Barnes and Noble, don't go now, but if you go to Barnes and Noble, you will find whole section self-help. All, if you follow that, how to meditate better, how to lose weight, how to interact, get friends, and so many things, how to communicate effectively. If even 10% of that advice one can put in one's life, one would be super successful. Life would be perfect. But it's so difficult. You may have a whole library of self-help books, same person, same old person. Why is it so difficult?

59:18 We know the answer, prakriti. But why is it so difficult to change the prakriti? The reason is this. Jonathan Haidt said his reason is this. He says all our study and our understanding, it affects the intellect. It goes, it's an intellectual process. But the body-mind is a complex of different parts, interacting parts. He says, he gives a nice example, he gives of elephant and elephant rider, mahout. Mahout on top of an elephant. Now, the mahout, the elephant rider, is the intellect. The elephant itself is like the body or the lower parts of the mind, the prakriti, the vasanas, and the body. Now, it's the mahout who is excited by knowledge.

1:00:04 It's the mahout who goes to seminars and attends vedanta classes and all of that and is excited. I have understood, I have to get up early in the morning and practice meditation. I am convinced by it. I have read all the books. It's really good. It's going to transform my life. Early morning, I will get up one hour earlier from now on and use that time for meditation. What happens? You really want to do that. Next morning, what happens? Alarm goes off and you are awake. But now the problem is, the intellect decided, I have to get up early in the morning. Now, the body which is nice and warm under the blanket will say, you did not ask me. Did I ever get a vote in this? I never said I will get up at five o'clock in the morning.

1:00:49 You have attended your fancy seminar and decided it's nice to get up. You get up. I will remain inside the bed. So, what he says there is, we should not think of the body and the lower parts of the mind as a machine like a computer. The computer offers no resistance to you. Whatever you do, the computer will, whatever you want, the computer does accordingly, usually. Body-mind has a sort of autonomy. Like the elephant, the mahout is weak compared to the elephant. The mahout understands a lot of things, more than the elephant maybe, but physically much weaker than the elephant. So, the mahout may decide, I will go like this, this way and that way and reach that destination. Now, he will guide the elephant that way, but it will work only if the elephant obeys the mahout.

1:01:35 If the elephant does not obey the mahout, if the elephant has plans of its own, mahout has no chance of controlling the elephant. mahout has no chance of forcefully taking the elephant to the destination because elephant is much stronger than the mahout. And that's what normally what happens. What normally what happens is our prakriti, raga, dvesha is so strong, it comes up, dominates the mind and then the body takes over. Body has its own natural intelligence. Nowadays, they talk about autonomous intelligence in the body. They talk about intelligence in the gut, for example. Wherever there are strong concentrations of nerves in the body, there is a little bit of autonomous intelligence there and that has its own tendencies. That may not agree with your intellect which has studied Gita

1:02:21 and Mandukya Upanishad and all that. That has nothing to do with it. But unfortunately, you need the cooperation of all the entire body and the mind for sadhana. So, resistance is there in the body just like the elephant can resist the mahout. Mahout responds to knowledge. Intellect responds to books and talks and seminars and classes, they're inspired and excited. Body does not respond to that. Like elephant does not respond to the mahout's knowledge or desires. Now, the question is what does the elephant respond to? What does the elephant respond to? Training. What do you do with the elephant? You train the elephant. You don't give it an inspirational talk, Tony Robbins or something like that.

1:03:08 Elephant does not care. But elephant responds to training, to repetition. The essence of training is repetition. And we see that the same young person who was first told you have to get up at 3.40 am in the morning, who had never got up before 7.30 or 8 in the morning, it's amazing for this person. But, I mean it's very difficult for this person. But within few weeks, within few months, it becomes natural. After 3.40, by 4 am, I remember when I went to the training center as a young novice, you have to get up at 3.40 am in the morning and they will ring a bell very politely next to you but they will not cease until you get up. Is it difficult? Not really. When everybody's doing it, very soon you start doing it.

1:03:55 I remember in two years in training, I missed it only twice. Once I really overslept and the second time I was sick. So, other than that, quite effortlessly, you get up with everybody. So, your nature changes. When the prakriti changes, it becomes easy. Like Sri Ramakrishna says, you're in the midstream and he's smoking the tobacco and holding the rudder of the boat. No more effort is necessary. In fact, it will become very annoying and difficult if you do not get up that early in the morning. And that you can do practice of anything. Whether it's diet or exercise or prayer or study or meditation, all things are simply a matter of changing the prakriti. Not easy but can be done.

1:04:41 And the way to do it is not more knowledge. It is now practice. And what practice? Repetition. Systematic repetition. Any of the yogas, Raja Yoga, systematic repetition. Bhakti Yoga, at least beginning systematic repetition. After that, love comes and that it becomes natural. Karma Yoga, also systematic repetition. All the yogas depend upon this repetition. Okay, I'll stop here. There is a chat question. From Rishi and Roshni, can you please talk about viveka and buddhi? Buddhi is the one which exercises viveka. See, our inner instrument, antahkarana, what we generally call mind,

1:05:28 but more detailed it has got four components. Manas, which considers different alternatives. Chitta, the memory. Buddhi, the determinative faculty. There is a definition of buddhi. Nishchayatmika buddhi. Buddhi is the one which decides. Where knowledge dawns, understanding dawns. When you're struggling mentally with a problem, for example, that is mind. When you get the flash of understanding or a decision, that is buddhi. And ahankara is the final fourth component, which is abhimanatmika, which appropriates everything. Say, I am thinking, I am confused, I understand. So, these are the four components of the mind or antahkarana. And buddhi is the one which exercises viveka.

1:06:14 Viveka means the discernment, the ability to separate two things. Right and wrong. Eternal non-eternal. Real and false. Dharma adharma viveka. Nitya anitya viveka. And satya mithya viveka. Yeah. There's one more from Bill. What is the difference between this saying no and the repression? When you talked about the vrittis, they come up in the mind, you divert them. So, his question is related to that. Yes. This, when you say no, why are you saying no? We have a higher purpose here. So, it's more like channeling.

1:07:01 Something that this is the time for my meditation. And if my mind is restless or my mind is sleepy, these are the two distractions to meditation. I take the decision, no, I will sit here for meditation. It may be a struggle. But it's no longer repression. You are diverting your energies towards a higher purpose. You're simply replacing one movement with another movement. So, there's two questions. One is from Shekhar. Shekhar, you are next. Namaste Swamiji. So, I have a quick question. In one of your talks, you mentioned vasanakshaya. So, this practice that you just talked about, does it lead to vasanakshaya?

1:07:51 Yes, it leads to vasanakshaya. Both vasanakshaya and manonasha. Vasanakshaya is slowly you purify the storehouse of vasanas. It will not destroy the vasanas which are there, but will replace them with better ones, more spiritual ones, which will help you in spiritual practice and spiritual progress. I still remember the difficulty of doing this. One great monk under whom I got trained, lucky enough to get training in the beginning of my spiritual life, I still remember walking with me at night and he's telling me, yes, go on practicing like this. I was talking about my daily spiritual practices.

1:08:38 He says, go on practicing like this. After a lifetime of effort, he says, after a lifetime of effort, he uses his finger like this. You will see, if you sincerely work hard throughout your lifetime, you will see your prakriti will change by this much. Now, you might say, then that's very disappointing. Not really. You need just that much of polishing of the prakriti, so that your real self is reflected there and you get brahma jnana. You see, once I asked a monk, that monk I told you about, who said, just follow the clock, just follow the bell. I can tell you his name, he has passed away. Swami Mokshadanand ji, Ram Maharaj. He also told me once, once I had gone to him with a question,

1:09:25 that all this sadhana we are doing, I begin to understand that it is actually transforming our prakriti, our nature, likes and dislikes, our subconscious is being purified and all that. I said, what is the use of it actually, ultimately? Because you do put in all this effort and very soon we will become old and I will die, that's it. So, what was the effort for? If I don't get brahma janna, what was the effort for? It's all gone. I don't remember what he said, but basically it was this. He said, first of all, it's not all gone. Whatever spiritual effort you have made till now, that polishing, that remains, that becomes a samskara itself and remains along with all the other samskaras. Next life that will be there for you. It is the most powerful resource for you. That is the best thing you can take away from one life,

1:10:11 if one does not get realization in this life. Second is, that polishing itself will lead to realization one day. What you have understood in Vedanta will become a living reality for you, when the polishing is just enough. You don't have to make your prakriti perfect. You don't have to make your personality like Vivekananda or Brahmananda or like Ramana Maharshi. No, not to that extent also. Just enough for you to realize aham brahmasmi. Then you are free. Poonamji, you are next. Yeah, so Swamiji, in day to day life, most of the work that we do is for the welfare of the family. Yes. So is that sakaam karma? What can we do to… Normally it is sakaam karma.

1:11:01 Why is it sakaam karma? Because it is based on me and mine. This is I and these are mine and hence I am taking care of them. I and mine. But how can we transform it into nishkama karma? I see the Lord in all of them. The Lord has put me in this situation. Because of my past karma, I am now in this family and I have got this body and mind because of my past samskara. This is my prakriti and this is the playground I have got. All due to my past karma only. God has graciously given this to me. Now my purpose is to realize God. My Lord alone is in the form of husband, wife, children, grandchildren and relatives, father, mother. Now let me do the best. How can I serve them?

1:11:48 Serve, whether I am taking care of parents or husband, wife, children, relatives, neighbors, everywhere I am actually serving my Gopala, my Krishna or my Ramakrishna. You do not have to tell them that. Mentally that should be the attitude. Then that sakaam karma becomes nishkama. Why? Then it will no longer be me and mine so much. You will see once you start doing that, your love will generally spread to all. Slowly it becomes… you will begin to see there is not much difference between my relatives and everybody else. This child, it starts off as this is my child and everybody else is different. But as we become more spiritually mature, you see there is not much difference between this child and the other child also. And your love extends to all.

1:12:36 Sri Ramakrishna put it so simply.

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