Vedantic Way to Happiness | Swami Sarvapriyananda

2:19 Maharaj. Namaste everyone. Hello and welcome to this special program vidantic way to happiness with Swami Survyanandanda organized by Ramak Krishna Vidanta so Society of North Texas. I know this is the moment we have all been waiting for days, weeks, months. But before we begin, I want to share an interesting incident related to the event. So back in January when we were trying to look for a venue for this day um all our usual choices were surprisingly unavailable and I remember it was March 14 Saturday some of us were here we came to know of this place we came here looked at it confirmed it and the next day uh March

3:07 15th Sunday uh when we visited our center for the Sunday service our eyes fell on the picture that you're going to see on the screen. And yeah, it's right here. And you're going to see October 24th, 1976. Dear friends, October 24, 1976 right here. Unity Church, Dallas. This facility was built in 1973. It was pretty new that time. and Swami Ranganatan Gi Maharaj 13th president of our order had delivered a talk

3:53 and we came to know of this uh after we had confirmed this place. So after 50 years we are back again in this location blessed occasion. For the outside world, it's two terms, chance or coincidence. But in vidanta, we know every effect has a cause attached to it. And sometimes it's hidden from us. Vidanta movement in Dallas Metroplex started way back in 1960s when distinguished monks of our order from India, United States as well as all over the world. They came delivered retreats, workshops and it continues till today

4:40 under the spiritual guidance, vision, leadership and inspiration of revered Swami Swahanandhi Gi Maharaj, former head of Vidanta society of Southern California and with the tireless, selfless, dedicated initial founding members on March 3rd 2007, Ramak Krishna Vidant Society of North Texas was established. Today we have an active and thriving center that is a spiritual home for many. We have Saturday and Sunday study circles on Vdanta, Bhagavad Gita, Karma Yoga

5:26 activities, devotey speaks events. Along with that we have we are also engaged in philanthropic and service activities of blanket drive, food drive and above all we have a Sunday school for children to introduce them to the ancient Vantic wisdom. Some of those initial founding members are not with us anymore. Some of them are alive but due to circumstances, age, health, they are not with us here today. But some are here with us in the auditorium. Dear friends, please join me in expressing our sincere gratitude and

6:12 thanks to each and everyone for the last 20 years who has made the journey possible. Thank you. It means a lot. Quick reminder, um after the talk, we will have Q&A. So, you should be able to queue up uh the aisles and there will be volunteers. Uh sincere request. Uh keep the question short and to the point so that everybody can get a chance. Swami Survyanandanda needs no introduction.

6:57 A renowned speaker, scholar, deep thinker, philosopher. He is loved by all. He makes vidanta real, practical and accessible to us. I'm sure I was telling in the morning there are many who doesn't spend a day listening to one of his talks even if it is for a few minutes but today the good thing is we don't need to click a link to listen to him he's right here with us fortune magazine has recognized Swami as one of the best speakers of vanta in the world today

7:46 and this is something I'd like to share in front of everyone. This is not my idea. Many people believe and Swami is right here. We haven't seen Swami Viveanata. We have read him. We have heard about him. But if for a moment we have to think the shi the power in action in today's day and age and if we have to put our visualization our imagination for today's day and age ladies and gentlemen I think it will be Swami Svapan. Swami is the resident minister and

8:32 spiritual leader of Vidanta society of New York established in 1894 by none other than Swami Viveanandanda himself. Swami joined the order in the year 1994 and received initiation from revered Srimat Swami Bhuteshananduju Maharaj 12th president of our order. in 2004 received syasa from revered Srimat Shami Ranganatanandi Maharaj 13th president of our order. Swami served in India across multiple Ramak Krishna mission educational institutions before coming to the US until 2017 Swami was assistant minister at Vidanta society of Southern

9:17 California. 2018 Swami as part of interfaith harmony delivered talk at United Nations headquarters in New York at the world parliament of religions in Toronto in October 2025. Swami met the Pope Francis at Vatican in Rome and I can go on and on. >> Leo Leo. Yes, Leo. And I can go on and on but the intent is to listen to Swami and not me introducing Swami on and on. So without further ado, it is my absolute pleasure and honor to

10:03 welcome Swami Sva Priyanandha. Oh, shanty. Shanty, shanty. Om lead us from the unreal to the real.

10:50 Lead us from darkness to light. Lead us from death to immortality. Om peace, peace, peace. Namaste and welcome to all of you. am particularly grateful to the uh Rama Krishna Vanta Society of North Texas for organizing this event and for inviting me here to speak before all of you. I'm also grateful to the unity church of Dallas. you know the unit unarian uh they were the first to welcome Swami Viveananda when he came in the late 19th century to uh the United States and I think this tradition continues

11:37 till today. I'm also very delighted to learn that revered Swami Ranganatanandha G you saw on the screen just now he actually spoke here uh when it was yes that's it Swami Ranganatan Gj spoke here 50 years ago 50 years ago exactly from at this time at that time it was a newly constructed church and he spoke here and I noticed the subject is the spiritual training of the mind which we will talk about a little bit I'm so happy to be here with with all of you this evening and the subject is happiness. What could be a better a more happy subject? Vanta recognizes that our instinct is

12:25 happiness joy peace fulfillment. That's what we are searching for. When you ask somebody why are you doing something? Why are you going on a vacation? Well, because it makes me happy if you But then you can't ask why do you want to be happy? That's a very strange question to ask. Whatever we do, if you push it further and further, you see it makes me happy. I I get peace from it, joy from it, contentment from it, bliss from it, happiness from it. And then you cannot ask any further question because that it's the bottom. It's the fundament it's fundamental to our nature. Vanta would say that's very natural because our nature is satan, existence, consciousness, bliss. That is

13:10 why it is fundamental for us to want to live because our nature is existence. Nobody wants to die. We want to live. We want to exist. Continue existing. And we don't want a existence which is an unconscious existence. Yes, you will live but you'll live in a vegetative state in the the intensive care unit of a hospital in a come state. No, I don't want that. I want a conscious life. I want to be aware. I want to know. All right. You will live and you will know. But you you will only know misery. You will suffer and suffer and suffer. No, no, no. I don't want that. I want to live and I want to be conscious and I want joy, peace, fulfillment. These are reflections of our real nature. Sat an existence consciousness

13:58 please. That's the proclamation of vanta. And Vantaab says that it is possible to attain deep lasting fundamental fulfillment, joy. The term used in Vanta is anund, bliss. It is possible. And um in fact, not only is it possible, Vanta says that's what we are searching for in everything that we are doing. Whether we admit it or not, whether we know it or not, whether we recognize it or not, we are searching for deep lasting fulfillment. And Vanta says we we're trying to overcome suffering, dissatisfaction, unhappiness. And Vanta says it is possible. In Sanskrit the words used are

14:45 attainment of joy, peace, bliss, lasting, fundamental, eternal and transcendence of sorrow once and forever and it is possible. Vanta makes this big claim, huge claim. We live in an age in the 21st century where very fortunate because there are these movements. For example, right now consciousness studies is very big and and it's very nice to be in in contact with people in different fields in the world who are interested in consciousness studies because vanta is the original consciousness studies. Professor Evan Thompson in his book waking dreaming being he says consciousness studies is not a new subject. It started 5,000 years ago on the banks

15:32 of the rivers in India in the in the you know the texts called the upanishads. So thousands of years ago consciousness studies. So that's one area which is very um very active intense now. It's a big thing now. What is consciousness? Uh if you search it's every week every every other day in um on my phone I get articles on consciousness. What is consciousness? is the mystery of consciousness. Another area which has taken off recently something called positive psychology. So things like happiness, resilience, concentration, focus, all of these are receiving scientific scrutiny, scientific study for the first time. What what do I mean by that? Uh they

16:19 they have always been part of pop psychology or you know self-help books. Barnes & Noble. If you go there, you'll always find big section, self-help section, how to be um rich or how to be uh popular or how to lose weight or uh how to whatever all the stuff that we want and there are ways to do it and that's but often it has been uh non-academic, non-rigorous, sort of anecdotal. A lot of truth is there in those books but anecdotal. But recently in the last 25 30 30 years or so there is the rise of a branch of psychology of a movement I wouldn't even call it a branch it's a movement in psychology called positive psychology and that has started here in

17:06 the United States um in fact happiness is one of the main areas of research professor Celigman I remember he's a pioneer so professor Celigman Martin Celigman and his area of research was happiness and he he says in a talk he says how it all happened about 25 30 years ago he became the president of the APA American Psychology Association. There are two APAs American Psychiatry Association American Psychology Association. Both have their headquarters in Washington DC not too far from each other. Big bodies very powerful bodies. both hate each other but but they have become interested in this branch of study this new movement

17:51 um positive psychology. So in a very humorous talk professor Seligman he outlined a TED talk actually outlined how this started. So he joked that um once I was interviewed by a network news network and they asked me uh professor Celigman they want to know from you what's the state of psychology today but remember this is TV in those days TV was big so this is TV and you get only a sound bite you know oh Seligman said how many words one word all right professor Seligman what is the state of psychology today he said Good. No, no, no, no. Cut, cut, cut. Stop, stop. You have to give us more than that. Uh, you get two words this time.

18:41 Professor Seligman, what is the state of psychology today? Not good. So immediately they're confused. What do you mean? Stop, stop, stop. What do you mean? How can it be good and not good? You have to explain more. Three words. Now it's a joke. But uh he said Celigman what's the state of psychology today and he says not good enough and then he goes on in that it's a beautiful talk he goes on to explain how psychology is good how it is not good and how it can be good enough so it's good because psychology and psychiatry have learned to treat lots of mental conditions illnesses have categorized them understood the symptoms causes methods of treatment and so on some

19:28 successes there but not good enough because it can be better. He says he asked the question why can't psychology be of help to everybody? Why should I only have to have a mental condition or illness then only psychology or psychiatry can help me? How suppose I don't have any big mental issue but can't psychology help me to make my life better as he put it not only from going from minus5 to zero but how about going from 0 to + 5 so what about the strength human strength our happiness concentration focus very much needed today resilience in face of suffering character all of these things can't

20:14 psychology ology scientifically study that and so he started this movement and the position of the president of APA is very powerful actually because they control grants and things like that. So he directed research there and lo and behold a new subject or a new branch of psychology was born. A movement in psychology was born. One of the areas his own area of research if you look it up it's big now it's called authentic happiness. It is a whole website and all. So what did long story short what did they find about happiness? Let's begin there. the latest thinking cutting edge work on happiness and scientifically done academically rigorous work being taught now by the way some of the most popular courses on campus I saw at Harvard myself and then

21:02 I've read about it at Yale and other Ivy League and other colleges popular courses and popular I mean number of students turning up for those classes are psychology courses on happiness positive psychology courses Hundreds of students sign up. Usually in a graduate class I saw 10, 20, 30 students who would be there. There's a very well-known psychologist, one of the leading psychologists of the world today at Harvard University, Steven Pinker. And I used to go sometimes just to attend his classes too, just to see what it's like. And I was amazed to see class, regular class, a course. You know, the classroom was an auditorium. that have several hundred students

21:47 bigger than this auditorium. It's just a classroom. How many students? Because it's positive. They want to know about the mind and especially about the human strength focus character happiness and so on. Anyway, let's zoom in on Feligman's work. Um what did they find and what's the takeaway? This is one of the basic takeaways from today's talk. nothing to do with vanta and everything to do with vanta. It's the beginning the point where we take off. What did they find? He's uh his work can be summarized in this equation. I don't know if he actually used this equation or I sort of summarized it that way. I've forgotten now. H is equal to P + E + M. H

22:33 happiness is P E M. Three things we'll see what are they. That's what happiness is composed of. If you analyze happiness, the sources of happiness, the first he says is pleasure. Yes, when we want to be happy, when we are seeking happiness, our first instinct is to go for pleasure. The cookie which I like, my favorite coffee or a walk in the park. I mean something that is pleasurable for me. My favorite or nowadays most of all especially the younger people focused there all the time. That is an immediate source of pleasure and we'll see why it is. So the source of pleasure that gives me happiness and it does but

23:19 the thing is it gives me very little happiness and it is very transient. uh the first lesson that we learn in economics class you know diminishing marginal utility each unit of consumption gives you less and less and less utility you know microeconomics the first lesson you learn so it's not that more and more pleasure will give me more and more units of consumption will give me more pleasure and more happiness no unfortunately one problem about pleasure is it's a downward curve it's a diminishing marginal utility so the more units of consumption I have one cookie makes me happy, gives me pleasure. So said two cookies should give me more pleasure. Well, it does, but not as much as you would think. Three, um, too much.

24:06 Four, absolutely not. Five, it's torture. It becomes negative. It becomes, uh, it is no longer pleasurable. It's painful after some time. So, it is it is uh diminishing. Second, it is transient. It goes away very fast. Any kind of pleasure, especially sensuous pleasure, it goes away. Even things like sophisticated pleasure like art, you know, music, art, which we enjoy, we have to train ourselves to enjoy that. That also it goes away very soon. It it is very delicate. It's very perishable. Yes, let's put it that way. Very quickly, it goes away. Third, it is habit forming

24:52 addictive. The same thing will not give you pleasure all the time. The thing the toy which gave me pleasure. It was the life my whole life when I was a little kid. Second day did not give me that much pleasure. Third day very little. When I next year when I went to a higher grade the toy was forgotten. Today I don't even remember the toys that I had. So which was dearer to me than life those toys they gone. So habit forming we need newer and newer varieties and more and more of that whatever it is that gives me pleasure and so it is problematic. I always quote Somerset mom the great English novelist who said if you chase pleasure

25:40 single-mindedly you will find very soon nothing pleasing anymore. So if single-minded if you're parting and parting and chase trying to be what are you trying to do happy and what what's what are you becoming unhappy single-mindedly chase pleasure you will find nothing pleasing anymore you get sick of it luckily there is a better source of happiness seligman's go back to Seligman's equation H is equal to P + E plus M P is pleasure Seligman says a much better source of happiness is Not pleasure but engagement. Engagement that what that's what E stands for activity especially work. He says if you are

26:25 among those lucky few who get who enjoy what you do for a living then you are very lucky because that gives you much more happiness than mere pleasure itself. Think about it. There are adults in the room. Most of us here are adults. Maybe a few are teenagers and nobody else nobody's a kid. Maybe as adults most of your week, most of your day, most of your week, most of our time is taken up by work, by activity, not by pleasure. How much of it is pleasure seeking? Very, very little. Most of it is by some kind of activity. And if we get happiness out of that activity, often that activity is drudgery. It's a burden. It's a duty. Viveandanda calls it the scorching son of duty. It has to

27:13 be done unfortunately. No, if it is a source of happiness then you are very lucky and luckily engagement work activity is a source of happiness. Celigman says not Seligman another positive psychologist Mihi Chicks and Mihi he says uh surveys were done on people when are you most happy? Um most people would say when work is over. That's what we think about work. after I finish my work I'll be happy when I go on in the weekend I'll be happy when I go on vacation I'll be happy but um chicks and me I said the studies show something very interesting actually when people are engaged in work if you survey them at that moment they actually report

28:00 high levels of satisfaction when people some you're engaged in at office or you're working at home maybe in kitchen preparing a meal or doing your assignment in school at that moment. Yeah. If you're asked how do you feel? You're busy. Okay. I feel good. If our faculties are challenged and engaged, you feel good. You're engaged doing something meaningful, working step by step towards an achievable goal. You feel good that there is a goal here which I can achieve, but it'll push me. I have to push myself. I have to strain myself. But I know what to do step by step and I can achieve that goal and I do it day after day after day. That's work. So

28:46 work does give happiness. Engagement does give happiness. And that's why people who don't like the work they do but you can still get happiness from engagement. That's why people take up hobbies pastimes games. Notice work. It may not be pleasant. Sometimes work is unpleasant. Even a sport, it may not be pleasant. It's much more pleasant to lie down on your couch and be a couch potato than to go out and play. That's a lot of hard work, especially in the Dallas heat. Oh, by the way, I didn't know this is a soccer city to now. It's a World Cup city. I didn't know that. It's a city is busy with the World Cup. So, how much joy is there?

29:31 Who gets more joy? the one who watches the game on TV or the one who's playing on the field, the one who's engaged. And not only that, you don't have to be a world class world class football or soccer player. You can just go out and play. You can be a very poor player also, but actually going out and playing gives you a different kind of happiness than sitting back and watching a World Cup match on on television. That gives you a lot of excitement. But more than that which is when we are actually out there and playing our poor little game may no match comparison to professional stuff but still gives me fulfillment. That's the difference between passive consumption and engagement. So engagement actually doing it playing

30:17 a game um you know music dance when we when we do it actually no matter how poorly it gives fulfillment. That's what Seligman said. Um, achievement in the world, some kind of achievement in the world gives happiness and more happiness and more lasting happiness than pleasure. Okay. Now there is something more even greater. Seligman found in his studies the greatest source of happiness in the world he calls it meaning. Something worthwhile which you consider to be worthwhile. Uh maybe often it is something beyond ourselves. When we expand beyond ourselves, not just see pleasure is selfish. It's almost entirely selfish. Activity can be a little less selfish but still

31:03 self-centered. Activity, work, a game, a pastime, but something beyond the self, a selfless engagement that gives meaning, that automatically gives meaning. A lot of people find it with children. That's why people uh you know Swami you don't have kids you're not married you don't know what you're talking about kids are a lot of work it is true it is true but parents also rece that's why people uh love children but that's just the beginning when you expand and beyond my own self or my own

31:52 family that limits that biological limits then a source of a greater source of meaning sets in doing something for the community doing something for people at large people who need it that gives um a source of meaning or it could be may not be service may not be other people it could be science uh it could be art something you pour yourself that gives a source of great meaning to your life And meaning in life is a greater source of happiness. Very great source of happiness. It often the things which give meaning in life may not be pleasant at all. Can be very difficult. Can be very hard. Um so equation H is equal to P + E + M. And

32:40 remember they're not equal. P is a little bit of happiness. E is a little more happiness. M is a lot more happiness. And so this is one takeaway. You don't have to go to Vanta for it. The positive psychology gives us this takeaway. But when I read this, I was immediately reminded of the uh the Hindu view of life. What is it that we want in life? And Hinduism, we all know the formula. We recite it without thinking twice about it. Dharma moka. Four goals of human life. Not that you should have these goals. Hinduism vanta says we have it. We instinctively search for that.

33:25 What are these goals? Karma. Translate. So karma is a Sanskrit word. Translate pleasure. Karma. Pleasure. We when we looking for fulfillment, we turn towards pleasure for fulfillment. And that's a goal. People pursue it. Hinduism is not saying that you should pursue it. It's just saying it's recognizing that we do pursue it as for fulfillment, for happiness. What else do we pursue? The Sanskrit word ara uh can be translated as uh prosperity, wealth, money, success in life. A in a broad sense, success and doing well in life. And the third thing that also gives

34:11 happiness and people pursue it. You don't have to tell people be rich, try, you know, you must be rich. No, especially here in America, it's a natural goal. People want to be rich and people want they they try for that. They work hard for that and then they want to be uh millionaires and then billionaires and now a trillionaire. Yesterday, day for yesterday, trillionaire. Yes. Is Elon Musk based in Texas? >> Yeah. Right. So, Texas. Yes. That's the goal. Ar that gives more happiness than karma, prosperity, success in life. It gives more happiness than pleasure. And then

34:57 there is something else dharma which is ethics, religion um which gives you meaning and joy and a higher meaning and purpose in life you know a fulfillment in life ethical life a good life. People want it. People want to be good people automatically instinctively. We would rather be good than bad. So if these are instinctive then what does religion have to do with it? You don't have to tell people right be rich and have fun. People want to have fun, calm or pleasure. People want to be rich. So what is religion doing here? What religion does, what Hinduism does or every religion does is yes, these are your instinctive goals instinctively. We want these things. But what religion,

35:44 ethics, spirituality can teach us is how to achieve it sustainably within the bounds of ethics, of decency, of morality. Otherwise, an unrestrained pursuit of pleasure makes you an addict. An unrestrained pursuit of money makes you uncle Scrooge or something like that, you know, a miser or Scrooge. No. And that does not result in happiness. If you think the addict is happy, no, no, no. Deeply unhappy. If you think the miserly person clutching onto the his next dollar is happy, no, no, no. Deeply unhappy. And so it's selfdefeating.

36:29 Remember what was our original goal? We are in pursuit of happiness. In pursuit of happiness, what did we pick up? Pleasure should give me happiness. money should give me happiness but now it is not giving me happiness indeed it's making me unhappy so religion dharma comes in and tries to show us how to be happy pursuing wealth within what limits of decency and morality pursuing pleasure yes within what limits of decency and morality and goodness dharma the technical meaning of dharma in Hinduism would be those ethical acts those religious ious secular and religious acts which we perform gives us a lot of good karma so that after death

37:16 also this party can continue you can go to heaven you can party here and then you can go into heaven and party there so this is the view dharma and that's why in Hinduism we never say karma dharma we don't say pleasure engagement meaning we say dharma karma dharma um Then this success in life and pleasure but all within the limits of dharma on the foundation of dharma that makes for happiness at no point is it saying that these are dos and don'ts no you want happiness you yourself say that you want happiness I'm showing you how you'll get happiness immediately I mapped it if you see

38:02 seligman's equation PM pleasure engagement Meaning, pleasure directly maps to karma engagement you can sort of stretch it maps and meaning and dharma also map you can sort of match them. So it is a very old insight into our pursuit of human happiness. What thousands of years ago and throughout history the general understanding of life as the pursuit of karma on the basis of dharma this modern psychology also more rigorously it investigates and it's worth it's worth taking away

38:48 from the talk what is your takeaway from this evening one takeaway is dharma takama pleasure engagement meaning worthwhile If I'm not happy, if I'm miserable, if things are not going well for me, let me look. Am I running low on pleasure or uh success in life? Most importantly, am I running low on meaning in life? Meaning in life. This meaning in life is is very important. Engagement and pleasure lower order. Meaning in life extremely important. some of the best societies, Scandinavian societies. I I was in Finland at one time, couple of years back, last year although

39:37 this month, no it's last month. I' I've forgotten what month we are in I was in um in Sweden and in Norway. Now I was telling them in talks I gave in Norway and Sweden, you have societies here which in America when people debate how we can make society better, how we can make our health care better, our education better, these are the societies people look up to. So these are some of the finest societies that humanity has created in the world ever in history. the highest standards of living um high levels of um you know social consciousness and and a wonderful society and prosperity everything is

40:24 it's a really wonderful society I remember when I went to Finland in Fin Air they were showing on the TV a documentary about Finland they said you're going to the country with the cleanest air in the water in the world and the cleanest water in the world and the happiest people in the world all of them claimed to be the happiest people in the world and so when I went there after some I really liked it. It was wonderful. But then after some time I noticed nobody was smiling. Nobody. So I asked one of my hosts a young Finnish man why isn't anybody smiling? And he said that without smiling he said we have a saying among Finnish people that if I see anybody smiling it must be a tourist.

41:11 And it's also true that in the most amazing societies you still have they overcome unhappiness in one sense yes in another sense no no no there is meaninglessness there is despair there is loneliness I think in the United Kingdom or somewhere they started a department of loneliness I don't think it's well staffed that they must be very lonely in the department also No. So it's a it's a serious mental health hazard, loneliness, meaninglessness and leading to high rates of suicide. How can you have the finest society in the world? Whatever we thought about of achieving reasonably possible to achieve, you have achieved

41:59 and still there is unhappiness. How is it possible? I um remember this book there's this professor Cecila Boach very interesting person she teaches at Harvard University or at least used to six five or six years ago in department of education I don't know she must be emmeritus now an amazing background this lady she's a brilliant professor of I mean her knowledge in philosophy and education and uh and psychology uh and sociology, economics extraordinary. Uh her husband was the president of Harvard University, also an academic.

42:44 Her father, just imagine, her father was a Nobel laureate. Her mother was a Nobel laureate. Imagine having both of your parents at Nobel laurates. So imagine the pressure. You're a professor at Harvard University. Loser. Anyway, I've never met with her, but I read her book. She wrote a book on happiness and she says in the introduction, I'm from Sweden. So, her father was from Indians, so it's very wellknown. Gunnar Midal is a well-known economist. Those who have studied economics, you have heard about it. Um, so she says, "I'm from Sweden." And when I hear Scandinavian countries, they all happiest in the world. Happiest in the world. I said, "No, no, no. I know I

43:32 know my relatives and people from Sweden. They're not at all happy. They're among the grumpiest people in the world." So I said, I said, "Let me check. Let me study this field and see what makes people happy." So she wrote a wonderful book, did investigation into happiness from Aristotle to modern neuroscience. Very learned and very beautiful study. Something higher is necessary. Notice celigman stops with pleasure, engagement meaning. But the Hindu scale of values or goals does not stop there. Dharma, karma, moka, everybody knows this. We say it there is something more, something higher. And that's where vanta comes in. Vanta has not started yet. I'm almost

44:18 out of time I think. But we now vanta comes in and says all of this is limited by all of this you will get some if you get pleasure engagement meaning if you get dharma or takama then you will be less unhappy more happy but that happiness is never permanent it'll never be stable and that unhappiness will never ever go away it'll come back in other and other forms maybe I'm not hungry anymore, but I'm lonely. May maybe everything is perfect for me, but there's nobody and nothing to look forward in life. That's the end of it. I was when I was in in Sweden, one

45:04 gentleman, Indian gentleman, he said he asked a friend of his, a Swedish person, why is there decline of interest in religion in Sweden and the other Scandinavian countries? He said that his friend told him that I think usually people turn to religion because they want something. Well, here society provides us with with what we want and so there isn't much interest in religion. And he says it is only when I find that after designing this perfect society still we are unhappy then one might start investigating spirituality then spirituality becomes important. So I think it is sometimes in these when we look at these perfect societies you don't have to go to Sweden to understand the importance of spirituality when you

45:50 look at this most perfect societies what we are struggling to establish there also the case for spirituality the need for spirituality still remains because the question of the search for happiness and overcoming of unhappiness still remains and vanta says it is possible this freedom from this limited state Moka freedom the attainment of true and lasting happiness. Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita centered in which the heaviest of sorrows cannot shake you. Whether you are in Sweden or Sudan, it cannot shake you. The heaviest of sorrows cannot shake you. Centered in which and attaining which the greatest of nothing greater remains to be

46:36 attained. In Sanskrit there is something attaining which there's nothing greater than that to be attained. You have attained the goal and purpose of human life. There is something being centered in which the heaviest of sorrows. So that means after enlightenment after vanta also what we consider to be sorrows will keep coming. But you are no longer shaken by them. You have transcended it. And that is the goal towards which we are all moving dharma takama pleasure engagement and meaning preliminary but we must move on to moka whether we have attained dharma takama whether you have attained pleasure engagement and meaning and I we

47:22 hope and pray that everybody attains pleasure engagement meaning to their heart's content but after that also the job is not over I was recently in a dialogue with a noted public intellectual, a scientist and a philosopher, Bernardo Castro. Some of you have heard of Bernardo Castro. Yes. And he told me over tea he told me that he says I wish you know Swami I wish everybody could be h rich and famous. If everybody can be rich and famous they will quickly realize these are poulry things. We are chasing them. We're making it the goal of our life. What do you want more than anything else? I want SpaceX IPO. That is my goal

48:10 to be rich. And he says, I wish people would get get all of that. Then you'll quickly move on to something higher. There is something higher and we need that higher. So suppose we have all of it and then we must quickly move on. I hope we have it. Or if we do not have it, if there isn't much pleasure in my life, if there isn't much engagement in my life, if I find my life meaningless, do I have to wait for pleasure, engagement, meaning karma, tad dharma and then go to moka? No, no, no, no. Go directly towards moka. Whoever we are, wherever we are, whatever our condition, even if you're pursuing pleasure, engagement, and meaning, don't make that

48:58 the be all and end all of a life. Rather recognize and let us acknowledge our goal is something higher. Remember, our goal is happiness. the same goal as a child nagging you for a cookie or a or a chocolate or a candy and the saint meditating on God. It's just that the saint has a much more wise and sophisticated and sublime idea of happiness. The child has a very crude idea of happiness. But both are pursuing fulfillment. So in your it is in our own interest. It is in our own project what we are trying to do knowingly or unknowingly. Moka is the answer we have been seeking. God realization, self-realization, enlightenment is the

49:44 answer that we have been seeking. Vanta says that um this happiness we are seeking the insight from vanta vantic theory of happiness. We've already heard positive psychology PM we've already heard dharma takama moka in moka vdanta comes in and says what is the vdantic theory of happiness? It is this this which we are seeking is already within us. Not only already within us, it is us. The seeker is the sort. What the seeker is seeking is the seeker. It's it's you yourself. Our nature as atman, Brahman, limitless existence, consciousness, place. That is what we are seeking. That we all want to

50:31 exist. We don't. Nobody wants to die. But that's because we are already a s pure being immortal. We are not born. We will not die as that pure being. Our problem is we're trying to live as this body. One author in New York was being interviewed. Do you want to become immortal in your works in your books? Do you want to become immortal in your books? He says, no, no, no. I want to be immortal in my upper westside apartment. I want to live here. I want to be immortal like this. But he says something which is very uh uh very close to our hearts whether we

51:16 say it or not. I want to exist like this. That's because why vanta goes to the heart of the problems? Because we think we are this. That's why we want to prolong this. If I clearly clearly see I am not this, I am something distinct from this. Not only that, that which is distinct from this has no birth, no death is immortal. Then the birth, aging and eventual death of the body will be less than nothing to me. Viveand says it's like a dropping of a hair or a piece of nail from you. It's of nothing to you. This one body going away. Overcome the fear of death. So we our nature as existence our nature as consciousness we are limitless

52:03 awareness in which appears our waking dreaming deep sleep they come and go but beyond that there's a light a sun which never dims and that's our real nature pure consciousness and we are pure bliss anund that's our nature but the thing is we don't know it and therefore we seek it outside we want it outside we go around with a begging bowl. Give me happiness. Give me happiness. Give me happiness. The moment we seek happiness outside, it's a deadly mistake. Why is it a deadly mistake? By that very act. I want happiness from where? From pleasure, from engagement, from meaning. By that very act, I am admitting to

52:48 myself that I am not happy. I'm admitting to myself that I do not have happiness within me. It's somewhere outside and thus we have deluded ourselves. Vanta says there is the primal the primordial mistake. You don't need pleasure to be happy. You don't even need engagement or meaning. Meaning you need but that meaning will be provided by what you are already. So selfnowledge vanta points us back must recognize your nature is not that you are happy. your happiness itself which is manifested as happiness in our minds. So that towards that happiness is within us. There's a story sama Krishna narrates the story that there was a dog

53:34 which found a bone a dry old piece of bone and the dog chewed the bone and the bone cut its lip and it bled in its mouth and it tasted its own own blood and thought how tasty the bone is. The bone is so tasty and it carefully buried that bone and whenever it wanted taste something tasty it would dig out that bone carefully and chew on that but taste its own blood and say this is very nice made a mistake. Similarly what we do is we generate desires for things in the world. Some of it we generate a lot of it is generated for us by advertisement.

54:20 Some of it is primal coded into our biology. Some of it comes with from past lifetimes. It is conditioned. We conditioned to it. So those are there stack after stack after stack of conditionings and they sometimes bubble up. I want this. Sometimes by advertisement from outside I want ah SpaceX IP. I want that desire. Or I have tasted something earlier and liked it. A cookie. It comes from from my memory itself. I would like one more of those and then I run after it. This desire is coming up from within and then I um uh chase after it. This is like that dog with the bone. I'm

55:08 generating it. The the psychoanalyst Eric from who's a disciple of Freud. He said in he was talking about America in the 1960s. He says today happiness has become a a a matter of generating tension and releasing it. Generating building up tension and releasing it. That's what people think happiness is. I will have some desires and I will satisfy those desires and be happy. We are like that dog with a bone. The joy which comes Yes. When we get what we want, the joy which comes we don't recognize. This is Vanta saying it. Vant is saying we don't recognize it is our own anand we are tasting. If it is our own ananda why don't we taste it all the time? Because it's

55:54 obscured by the tensions we set up by the desires we set up either now or from our past from our memories and our mind. See it's like reflecting your face in a pool of water. Sometimes you see it clearly often you don't because a pool of water is very delicate. Little gust of wind will make set up ripples and then you it's our mind our face is distorted there. Similarly if our nature is joy but the mind is very delicate even the slightest problem and the and the slightest desire can um distort the reflection of our joy. And therefore what we want is there's a desire you satisfy that desire for a moment the mind is silent and fulfilled

56:40 and quiet and still and our natural happiness shines forth and we said ah that thing really made me happy. That activity that object that Amazon Prime delivery it really made me happy. But I had generated that desire and it obscured my intern my my real nature my nature as ananda. And when I satisfied that desire a little bit of happiness came flash there. But why is it not constant? Because there are other desires desires unhappinesses problems issues they keep coming and disturbing the surface of the mind. And my nature as spontaneous happiness is broken up again and again and again. And therefore we do not feel happy.

57:27 Our very nature as the atman our very self satan it is anund it is happiness itself. The great vidyariny swami who wrote the post shankara classic work of nondual vanta uh panchadashi gives a very unique way of reasoning there in the first chapter itself ninth verse uh he says look the reasoning goes like this stuff which makes us happy we want it if we don't have it we try to get it we to get it purchase it and get it or do the stuff which makes us happy activities stuff um objects And we want to if we have it, we want to keep it. That which makes me happy, I want to get it. I want to keep it or I

58:13 want to do it and I want to keep doing it. What makes me happy? What makes me unhappy? What doesn't make me happy any longer? I want to get rid of it. So the characteristic, what do I do with what makes me happy? Acquire it and maintain it. What do I do with what does not make me happy? Get rid of it or avoid it. If it's not there, avoid it. People, activities, objects which make me unhappy, I avoid it. Or if it's there already, I get rid of it if I can. The I read about it. There was this this Japanese lady Mary Condo. She has she's popular for her advice on simplifying your life. And so I haven't read the book itself, but I read her uh her recommendation.

58:59 people especially Americans have a lot of stuff at home. It keeps on increasing and he she says how do you simplify? It's very difficult to get rid of your own stuff. He says here's the rule. Walk around your home touching things you know and if it by touching the thing if it gives you a little bit of happiness keep it. If it doesn't make you happy gives you no happiness or makes you unhappy get rid of it. So touch it. Touch go on touching people. Spouses be beware. So if it does not give you a little burst of happiness, you get rid of it. So this is nice rule, psychological rule. Vidya Swami said the same thing 600 years ago. He says the stuff which

59:45 makes us happy, we try to get it and we try to keep it. Stuff which makes and it can be the same thing. The same iPhone, I really really want it and I get it and I get some happiness. I want to keep it. One year later when the next one comes along, that old one, the same old one does not give me happiness anymore. I want that one. I want to get rid of it and get exchange it for the new one. So what's this? What's the point? Then he says, Vidyan Swami says, look at yourself. The self, whatever you think of yourself, notice one thing about it. You never want to get rid of it. Nobody says let me die. Everybody says let me live. I want to be ourself. We want to preserve it. We want to preserve it. Nobody wants to die. Swami, what about

1:00:32 suicide? Yes. But you know, it's only under some external influence. I have enormous amount of debt or the stock market has crashed or something like that, something terrible, my relationship has gone wrong and so I want to die. But suppose those problems are removed. your debt is paid off and the stock market rises and your makeup or you have a new relationship then somebody asks you you are about to die what happened oh no that's all right I'd rather live so it's not our own self which is the source of um that I want to get rid of the self it's the problem I want to get rid of the unhappiness nobody wants to get rid of themselves everybody wants to preserve their own self that I want to continue existing

1:01:18 now apply the same psychology That which you keep must be a source of happiness because since you want to preserve it so much the self everybody wants to get preserve the self. Nobody wants to get rid of the self. Therefore the self must be a source of continuous happiness to themselves. Another bit of reasoning he gives in the next verse Vidyaras Swami he says not only are you a source of continuous happiness to yourself you are also the source of maximum happiness to yourself. We just don't know it. Source of continuous and maximum happiness. What do you mean maximum happiness? Here is another piece of reasoning. He says if some what we what gives us happiness, we love. So far we

1:02:04 understand. We want to keep it, we love it. Now he says if one thing is something is love for the sake of another then that other gives more happiness than the first one. What you love gives you happiness. But if you love one thing for the sake of another thing, you love it for it gives you happiness. You love that, that also gives you happiness. But you love this for the sake of that, then that gives you more happiness. Example, I give always say a mother loves the toys of her child or the or the books or the clothes her child wore. Maybe the kid has grown up, but you still love it. Why? For the sake of the child. The toy is loved for the sake of the child because it's my son's or daughter's toy or

1:02:51 clothes or stuff they use. I remember going to somebody's house and they showed um the young person who was there, the daughter and they showed this is her shoe from when she was 2 years. The daughter's of course very embarrassed. She said I don't remember any of that. is a little shoe. But why is it loved and kept by the parent? Now, let me ask you, does the parent love that shoe more or the daughter more? The daughter, of course, the shoe is loved for the sake of the daughter. If the shoe is loved for the sake of the daughter, whatever you love, you love it because it gives you happiness. The shoe is giving you some happiness.

1:03:37 Who is giving more happiness? The shoe or the daughter? >> The daughter. Because so the shoe is loved for the sake of the daughter. The daughter gives more happiness. Daughter is loved more. The shoe is loved. The daughter is loved more. And the daughter gives you more happiness um because it is loved more. Whatever is loved more is actually giving you more happiness. Ultimately everything is loved because of the self. The Briadupad says there's a dialogue between the sage Yagya and his wife Maitri and says everything and everybody is loved for the sake of the self. I've given this example about earlier also it works nicely a simple example of

1:04:23 this young man who had a good job and said I love my job. Yes, you love your job for the sake of the job. Yes, I love my job for the sake of the job. It makes me really happy. But you get well paid for it. Now let me let's put give a condition. Let's give you a choice. You come in for to work tomorrow because you love the job, right? Yes, I do love it. But you won't get paid anymore. Or you take the money and you don't you don't have to do the job. Which one would you prefer? So he would prefer no I want the money. So the job is loved. I'm sure you it gives you satisfaction but it's loved for the sake of the money. Then suppose you ask that young person but the money so what makes you happier job or money? Money

1:05:11 the money is loved. So you get the money but you can't spend it. You can't save it. You can't spend it. You can't do anything with it. You have got the money. No, no, no, no. I need the money because it of the things it gives me. Um so all right, you can have the things, but you can't use them or you can't gift it to your family or somebody. So no, no, no. The things I I get with the money. I need it for myself and I need it for the people I love. I need it for my spouse, my children, my relatives and friends. Okay, you can get the stuff you want and you can give it to those people, but it'll be to some random family, not your family. No, no, no, no. It has to be for

1:05:56 my family, my wife or husband or children. You see, ultimately it comes back to mine. So what is loved ultimately the job, money is loved more than the job. The stuff that money buys is loved more than the money. The people you want to give that stuff to, they are loved more than the um stuff themselves. This is the stuff itself. But the people are loved because they are your people. They're connected to you the self. So ultimately what is loved most the self. Now that is selfishness and that's very natural. It's sort of instinctive to all of us. What vanta does is investigate that self and shows us that self oneself

1:06:42 is the self of all beings. It is that one. It's not the body. It's not the individual being. It is that atman existence consciousness bliss that takes us immediately from selfishness to selflessness because it becomes the capital S self the self of all. So the self is the source of greatest h permanent happiness, continuous happiness and the greatest happiness and this selfnowledge is what vdanta introduces us to what I am who am I for this spiritual training is necessary what swam swami ranganatan is that what we saw the topic spiritual training of the mind you notice everywhere in all

1:07:29 those approaches how it leads to happiness Happiness. Karma yoga. See how counterintuitive it is. Karma yoga. Counterintuitive. What we think makes us happy does not and what we think will not make us happy that makes us happy. Karma yoga the basic idea the counterintuitive idea there is that we think by working for ourselves I'll be happy. And karma yoga tells us that it is working for others which makes us happy. We think selfishness makes us happy. Karma yoga tells us selflessness makes us happy. Altruism gives us deep happiness. The least thing that you have given to others, the money that you have spent for some other great cause for

1:08:15 others always is a source of lasting fulfillment for ourselves. Money that I have spent on myself is after some time you either forget it or it's a cause of regret. I have consumed something out of it. Now I wish I had given it to those who needed it more. Altruism, selfless. They said Shiva Ja serve all beings knowing them to to be Shiva. Swami Viveandas powerful declaration. My God the poor. My God the sick. My God the illiterate. My God the unhappy. My God the wicked. These and others are the

1:09:00 object of my special worship. All beings are the object of my worship. But those who need it most, those who are unhappy and struggling, they are the object of my special worship. And how do you worship God the poor? Not with flowers and mantras meditating poor person, homeless person in front of you. Please sit that I'm going to meditate on you. No, you serve by by by feeding the hungry, by housing the homeless. But so by that is becomes worship and you see this divinity in all beings and that worship counterintuitive because why is it counterintuitive? Because it's very instinctive to think if I spend my time and energy and money on myself, I should be happy. Pleasure. Search for pleasure. No,

1:09:48 I spend my time, energy and money on the happiness of others. Amazingly, amazingly. That makes me much more happy. Multiple times happier. Vant explains it. Why? Because you are that is the enlightened selfishness. That is your self. That is your real nature. This expanded sense of self. The moment we expand beyond the limits of this mind and body, we closer to our real nature as anund. And that's why we we feel happier. Then the other spiritual training of the mind bi devotion. See this church devotion. Love of the divine. We think love of a hundred things a thousand desires in the world that will make me happy.

1:10:34 Generating tension and releasing it. That's the chewing on the bone. That will make me happy. No. Viveandanda says take all those desires and turn it into one almighty love of the divine of God called bi love of God it'll make you happy. One monk said, "Do you want to be happy now?" "Yes." "And lastingly and deeply happy and joyful?" Yes. Unmixed happiness not mixed with any sorrow or misery? Yes. Then fall in love with God. Fall in love with a human being that will also give you happiness. But because it's a human being with all limitations, uh it will also have a strong component of unhappiness. Fall in love with God in the with the infinite which is your real own self

1:11:20 actually. It will give you deep lasting happiness immediately immediately. BI is something which gives us results as happiness straight away. To the extent that we feel love of God in our hearts, you feel happy immediately. Immediately happy and that's lasting happiness. It's a very pure and high kind of happiness. Then third spiritual training first selflessness karma yoga. Second, love bi yoga. Third one, focus concentration attention uh silence stillness. Our intuitive feeling is that if I scatter my attention in a 100 different

1:12:06 ways, I do whatever I feel like doing. I think whatever I feel like thinking, I see whatever I feel like seeing. Uh this this is this freedom of choice which America is built on. This freedom, the individual freedom to do whatever you feel like doing more or less that freedom is there that should make me happy and the the crux the highest point of that the peak of that today is those phones these mobile phones and internet which we have endlessly our mind can wander around there as the mind moves what is the attraction of the internet I noticed with interest people were so addicted to television earlier television is not there anymore almost gone. Who cares? And people use television to watch

1:12:51 internet there. They project internet on the tele. They don't they're not very interested in old television. Some are but not so much. Why? Why is the internet more addictive? At that time, decades ago, the internet was very it's mostly textbased. Still more addictive than television. Why? Because the internet had one thing which television did not. Television was pre-programmed, linear. You have to sit down and watch from beginning to end. the internet you can jump around as your mind wills. I'm seeing this there is a hyperlink. You click there it'll take you to another website. You click there it'll take you to another website. Click there it'll take you to another website. And that's how the mind functions. It gets scattered in 100 different ways. Jumps like a monkey from one um tree to

1:13:37 branch of tree to another neighboring tree and so on. And the internet mimics that. That's why it's so addictive and that continues today with enormous content endlessly you can and so that should make us happy. Distraction should make us happy. No, it doesn't. It doesn't. You say how do you know? Notice sit quietly with the phone and browse scroll. What do you new new name is there? Doom scrolling. doom scrolling. 1 hour, 2 hours can pass your time. At the end of it, do you feel a sense of peace? And your laughter says it all. You feel a sense of disgust.

1:14:24 So much time has gone. What did I get out of it? Nothing. And the mind was scattered in so many ways. Scattering the mind. Distraction is not joyful. Focus, concentration is joyful. And that is what Raja Yoga, the yoga of meditation tells us. Focus, attention gives more happiness. Concentration gives more happiness than distractions. So these are the trainings of the mind and the core remains self-nowledge that I am sat anand. The source of happiness is not the bone. it only brings out the happiness within.

1:15:09 So turning away from this begging for happiness from outside this attitude I'll end with this that uh uh when I came went to become a monk to the monastery 1994 more than 30 years ago there was a very senior monk who was visiting Swami Gahananduji who will have went on to become the president of the order. So he was visiting at that time he was the general secretary of the order. He was visiting and he saw some young men like I was there and some others who had come to be monks. So he called us one evening and we sat around at his feet and this very venerable old monk was a man of very few words would be a gasast some of the senior

1:15:55 monks they did not they don't like this kind of long lectures. I heard once about Swami Gandhiran G He said in Bengali he he was a man of very few words and very precise vast scholarship vast scholarship and yet a man of very few words very precise he said in Bengali when he heard the monk's one-hour lecture what do they speak about I personally can't whatever I have to say I can finish in 15 or 20 minutes I can't find anything more to say he would he would have loved today's TED talks you know finish it in 20 minutes in Bengali. He said so within a few words limited. So the

1:16:44 swami was man of few words Swami Ghanji very few words just one comment here or there. So he asked why have you become monks? What do you want? And so we tried to answer as best as we could. Some of us said I want god realization. Some someone said I want peace. um uh I I want to get peace I want to get god realization I want a noble and good life something like that so everybody had some kind of answer that's why we have come here and his only comment which I still remember so clearly a short sentence everybody every one of you has come to get something nobody has come to give anything and I didn't like that answer at that time I thought what can we give. We need

1:17:32 training. We were going to learn and meditate and you know learn vanta and practice it and maybe one day we will have something to give but what can we give now? No, no, no. What the what he was saying is this attitude uh it's not what you have to give this attitude. My attitude is I am not here to get from the world. I really don't need it. I am full. Then what's my what's my relation with the world with people and life and I'm here to give what I can. So from that perspective self-nowledge your heart full of devotion your life engaged in service of Shiva in all sentient beings it becomes a life of

1:18:17 giving. Swami Viveandanda said let all vision seize or if you cannot dream but better dreams if you must dream then dream but better dreams. What are what's the best possible dream? What kind of life is the best possible life? What's the best possible dream? He says eternal love and service free. Unconditional love, unconditional service, best philosophy of life that you love whom? Everybody. Why? No. Why to it? That's your nature to give love to everybody. It's is it possible? Yes. Is very much so. I have seen such people who love without any particular reason or rhyme. There's no cause to that.

1:19:03 There's no condition to that and service. Whatever I can do for you, whoever you are, wherever you are, no limit to it. And that's the best philosophy of life that gives the greatest possible happiness. Our own natural happiness shines forth without condition and cause there. I pray to Sri Ramak Krishna, Mahasharada Swami Viveananda. May they bless all of us. May this anunda bliss may we realize our nature as anund that I am that and may it shine forth in our life in our activities in our speech in our emotions in our innermost life. May that ananda be at the core of our being.

1:20:06 Yes, thank you so much. We have a little a little bit of Q&A. Yes. So, please come to the microphones and you can ask us your name and ask a question. Yes, this is live. Please tell us your name and ask the question. >> Namaste Swami, my name is Venita Salvi and um uh Prasoon mentioned the your trip to Vatican and I've been curious since I heard of you talk about it in one of

1:20:51 your earlier sums as well. What was your experience there? And also um Given that Pope Leo is currently in the news because of its encyclical magnificas

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