Bhagavad Gita Ch18 part 23 on 05 March 2022

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

Om Jananim Sharadam Devim Ramakrishnam Jagadgurum Pada Padme Tayo Shritva Pranamami Mohur Moho Vasudevasutam Devam Tamsa Chanuram Ardhanam Devaki Paramanandam Krishnam Vande Jagadgurum Sarvopanishadho Gavo Dogda Gopalanandana Partho Vatsasudeer Bhokta Dugdam Geetam Ritam Mahat Mookam Karuthi Vachalam Pangum Langhayate Girim Yath Kripathamaham Vande Paramanandamadham We are studying the 18th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita. It is the last chapter. In our last class Bhagavan Krishna is outlining all the human beings can be classified into four divisions Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Sudra. And it is not, this is a very important point, classified based upon birth but upon gunas, qualities sattva, rajas or tamas in varying combinations. The highest sattva is Brahmana. When he takes secondary place, he becomes a Kshatriya. When he takes a second place, but Rajoguna takes first place, he is called Vaishya. And when Tamoguna dominates, assisted by Rajoguna and Sattvaguna, such a person is having the lowest type of capacity, understanding. So, the division is purely upon their capabilities, not upon by birth at all. This is the first point. Second point we need to understand that spiritual progress, any progress, whether it is cultural, artistic, intellectual or moral or spiritual is to slowly take advantage of whichever guna is dominating and try to convert it into a higher guna. Let us remember that all the three gunas are three manifestations of one single guna. They are not three separate gunas. It is like a dimmer switch. Okay. This is the second point. Third point Bhagavan wants to introduce now, which he says everybody has to do his duties and these duties are dependent upon the person's both intellectual and physical capabilities. But nobody is inferior. No work is inferior. Every work can be transformed into a Karma Yoga. Every person even need not be born into the higher life. For example, a Tamoguni need not be born, a Shudra need not be born into a Vaishya, then into a Kshatriya warrior and into a Brahmana or spiritual person. Of course, internally one has to change from Tamoguna to Rajoguna to Satvaguna. But physically there is every opportunity for everybody that he can change his life. He can change his attitude and slowly, surely he can become attain to higher guna, that means higher class, that means spiritual progress, moral progress, intellectual progress. Let us remember, if a person is spiritual, it can never be that he cannot be intellectual, he cannot be aesthetic, he cannot be moral. All these go together because religion, which means morality and spirituality, intellectuality and this is what is called science or rationality and art. Science, art and religion and spirituality, they are but three expressions of the same person. When a guna, a lower guna, slowly transforms into a higher guna, the manifestation in these three areas also correspondingly changes. There is absolutely no doubt about it. This is what the Lord wants to tell, but in our last class we have discussed the 44th verse. There are people whose mind, whose personality is dominated by Rajoguna, assisted by Tamoguna first and below that Rajoguna. Such a person is called a Vaishya, a merchant, a money-minded person, a businessman and for such people, Krishi, that is cultivation of any type of field, especially growing crops, etc. Gauraksha is a beautiful, very significant word. Gauraksha means not merely rearing cattle to be butchered, but to protect them, to look after them. That is what Hinduism has been teaching. Every cow especially has to be revered as one's own mother and literally many children who lose their mothers soon after birth or at birth, they defend the milk of the cow. The most suitable one, naturally having grown up, like mother's milk, substitute to mother's milk, how can a person have the mentality or even the thought that I can butcher it, I can eat its meat. It is like trying to kill one's own pets. Peculiar human nature can be seen here. There are so many people who do not hesitate to order the meat of many, many animals, but when it comes to their pets, the simple question is, after all it is an animal and you are already eating these animals, why don't you eat this also? No, some different equation comes into being which Hinduism or Vedanta does not recognize at all. It is impossible for Hinduism to recognize that. After all, wherever there is a feeling, there is a life and it is very necessary that this life should be respected. Why? Because the feeling, emotion, it is foolish to think an ant feels much less. Become an ant, you will understand. An ant's feeling is 100% for an ant. No creature wants to suffer. No creature says, I suffer very less. You have a right to kill me. This understanding, unnaturally, will not come to us at this stage, but very naturally it will come as we grow spiritually. So, the Lord is telling that protecting, saving, that means looking after them. And there are many wretched Hindus who do not hesitate to worship these cows with flowers and occasionally with fruits, garlanding and plumbing them with sandal paste, with kumkum, etc. But when they are alive, they give the least bit of food and make them go through tremendous amount of suffering. So, that is not right. If you really think, take advantage. What it can give, you take it and use it. But you also look after him. That is said, that dharma rakshati rakshitaha. When dharma is protected, dharma will protect us. When cows are protected, animals are protected, they protect us. Truly speaking, anybody who is thoughtful, if that person really says, you look after the dog, it will look after you. Look after a horse, it will look after you. And so many horses, so many dogs, so many animals, even birds. There are instances of their saving their owner's life. I just read this, one of the shows, Fact or Fiction. There was one, I don't remember, it's a big bird and its sound can be heard for a long distance. Once its owner had fallen under a working tractor and then he was injured, he was unable to get out. And the bird saw it. Who can say birds do not have intelligence? It understood, my owner is in life and death situation, I have to protect. It went on shouting in its cage. And then the neighbours heard it and they hear it many times and then they thought it was just naturally expressing. But consistently in a peculiar, pathetic manner, the neighbour, he had an idea, there is something wrong here, let me go and check in. And he came near the bird and saw this owner lying injured, severely injured, unconscious under the tractor. Immediately he called the emergency and they came and they saved it. How many ways, how many animals are serving us? Is it not our duty to protect them? So similarly, it is our duty to protect. So, of course, you know, it is a very difficult thing to not meet people eating meat. Yes, if it is necessary, eat. But at the same time, don't unnecessarily torture them and unnecessarily do not kill them. And slowly try to get up, get out of that bad habit. After all, Mother Nature has substitutedly given us so many things. We don't need so much of meat. Even scientifically, for an animal to produce meat, it consumes so much of energy and it creates so much of what you call unfavourable environment in the form of producing CO2, etc. It is far better. Now so much of research is going on. It is far better to eat vegetables, etc. And there are scientific methods of how to produce a texture, etc. because man is a slave to his tongue so that the animals need not be killed. And if they are killed, what happens? If they are protected, they protect us in peculiar ways which man cannot understand. But if they are killed, they are also going to kill. Human being doesn't understand that the result of actions will come back to that person. Even if you think how much pain these animals go through, especially when they were intelligent, they come to know. It is said pigs are extremely intelligent animals. They know when an owner catches them, they are going to die. The weird sounds they produce are unimaginable and intolerable. Anyway, so here is a person. His duty is to use agricultural animals but it is his duty to protect them, to look after them well, to feed them and to lovingly, affectionately look after them and establish a relationship with them. And of course, any type of business that facilitates the moving of goods from one side to the other without merchants, without business people, it is impossible. So some people, because of their guna, they are born or they soon develop that situation that even if they are not born in the same family of a merchant, they like it, they love it and that comes very naturally to them but they will have to convert into Karma Yoga. Similarly, a fourth class Shudra, he has less understanding for whatever reasons but such a person should not be condemned. Swami Vivekananda went to the extent of saying that if a Brahmana requires one teacher, a Shudra may require three teachers. There is no right, anybody's right that they should be suppressed and that is the greatest sin that Hindus had committed. Suppressing women, suppressing these so-called, labelling them as low caste people and they are not fit, they are like animals, use them for their, like animals to serve them but not looking after them, hating them and untouchable, giving names such untouchables etc. Centuries together, now Karmapala will come back and it has come and our suffering is, I am firmly convinced because of that. So if a person is born and he is endowed with the Shudra nature and remember, even a Brahmin can give birth to a Shudra. Just tell me, if you see a Brahmin in a Brahmin's family, an autistic fellow or what you call, some brain disease or something will be there, what do you call him? He is worse than a Shudra, really speaking. But for whatever reason, it's other people's duty to look after them as much as possible and to reduce their pain as much as possible. So even the less intelligent person, he can humbly approach a person who is intelligent, who will not take advantage of him but who will give him an appropriate job and through that, if that person dedicates, he converts, transforms, his duty, it is a duty, duty means commandment, we have no choice. According to our guna, it comes very naturally to us. Our propensities are like that. So even college students, they don't know what subject to take, so there are people, psychologists, who test them and say, this seems to be your most natural talent goes through, so you better take up this subject, you will get what is called steady satisfaction, it is easier for you to grasp this one and if you get appropriate job, then you will also enjoy, it will give you what is called job satisfaction. But the point is, it is not just doing something but it is a means, a pathway to develop spiritually. So agriculture, cattle rearing and trade are the duties of a Vaishya born with a particular combination of gunas. And the duty of a Shudra, remember, this is not a derogatory term, it is simply a person who requires other people's assistance to guide him, to help him. Born of his own nature is action consisting of service. This word, service, is a beautiful word. So we think a servant is a 3rd class or 4th class person. But do you know, every father and mother, especially mother, is the greatest loving servant of all her children throughout her life. A grandparent, grandmother is the greatest servant. A friend is the greatest servant. So a parent is the greatest servant. A son also is the greatest servant. Love means loving service with the purest of the mind. And spiritual life is nothing but pure love. There is no doubt about it at all. So Shankara says, Shankaracharya says, whatever be the activity, it can be converted into a duty and that is the point here. Shankaracharya says that those who perform well, the duties appropriate for their situation naturally gain heaven as a result. And he quotes the following from the Apastamba Smriti. Before I go with that, what I want to tell is this. Here is a person. He is born into what we call Shudra class. I feel hesitant to use that word Shudra nowadays. Anyway, people call them workers, honorary workers, etc. Anyway, so, there are many people who have become wise teachers by progressing in spiritual life. Intellectually, they have excelled. Many people born in so-called upper castes and many of them had become highly spiritual and became the guides, the teachers of even Brahmanas. Simple example is even Ramanujacharya's greatest teacher was a non-Brahmin. It is said that Ramanujacharya had the greatest reverence for him because Ramanujacharya understood that this person is nearest to God and God is manifesting more through him and he used to pay reverence. But unfortunately, once this person, he was a householder, came to live with Ramanujacharya and his wife was a cash-stridden person and she hated these people. One day she quarreled with them severely and they felt very much pain. They did not retort back. They simply left the place. When Ramanuja came and came to know the cause of the departure of his Guru's family, Guru and his wife, immediately renounced the world. I don't want to live with this kind of wife whom Shri Ramakrishna used to label as Avidya, manifestation of tremendous ignorance. So here now, anybody can become, any Shudra can become a Vaishya. Anybody can become, same Shudra can become a Kshatriya. Same Vaishya can become, Shudra can become a Brahmana too. According to the change in the qualities, if he uses his duty as a transforming power. Similarly, a Vaishya can become a Kshatriya or a Brahmana. A Kshatriya can become a Brahmana. In fact, many Brahmanas had become Kshatriyas. For example, Dronacharya. He was born as a Brahmana but he forgot his Brahmanatva. What you call taking revenge upon some of the kings there, Drupada etc. became his obsession and he taught only the archery to his disciples with the ulterior motive of capturing Drupada and making him what we call eat the humble pie and insult him. And anybody who behaves in this way, he is not even a Kshatriya. He is worse than a Kshatriya. But there are so many Kshatriyas and in the Upanishads we get the stories once a Brahmana went to a Kshatriya and said I am going to teach you. We get it in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad. And then the Kshatriya humbly said please teach me, I am ready to receive it. And then the Brahmana taught. And then Kshatriya very humbly said that your knowledge is quite limited I know much better than you. And he said that. Then this person, he became offended came to his father and his father accepted that what I know I taught you but this person knows better. Let us become humble disciples of this Kshatriya and learn. And then they went. Of course, he said you need not to formally become my disciples but I will teach you whatever little I know and he taught them, made them equal. In the Upanishads we get this. Many Kshatriyas were realisers of Brahman and many Brahmanas were arrogant. Many stories are there. Shweta Ketu himself was terribly arrogant. If my teacher had known he would have definitely taught me that means my teacher is an ignorant person. Then his father had to say curb your pride my boy because of your pride most likely your teacher did not teach you. Anyway, what is the point that any person whether he is a Shudra, Vaishya, Kshatriya or Brahmana if he adopts a yoga method or converting his duties into a yoga he can progress in that very life. He can become a Vaishya, Kshatriya or Brahmana. He can become spiritual. He can realise God. Plenty of living examples are there. So we have to be extremely careful how we treat other people. In any case, an upper class person is one who is cultured, who is imbued with love who never looks down upon anybody who serves everybody as an embodiment of God because God can come in any particular form etc. Now coming back, Shankaracharya quotes this those who are committed to discharge their duties according to their caste and stage of life that is to say according to caste means Varna Dharma according to life means Ashrama Dharma for example, student's life, married life, semi-retired life and total surrender to God life experiencing the result after death because of the earning of Punya gain a birth that is better in terms of place, caste, family, duty, longevity, learning, profession, wealth, happiness and intelligence but that is not the only reason. These duties are mentioned not only for showing how one can go to higher worlds means higher states of happiness there is a real spiritual reason for it. The same Karma can be converted into Yoga but for what I will get out of it not for what I will get out of it now in this life but I can transform it into the greatest spiritual practice not merely what result the duty will give me definitely it will give me every action will give me but I can get this from the same Karma infinity instead of gaining finite result. This is what the Lord wants to tell and here is something most marvelous before we go further into it there are so many I can say literally hundreds of thousands of saints who are what is called illiterate they cannot even read but they have attained to God also. So life can be converted the point is if the effort is slow he will get into better life but still better life being reborn again but if the effort is with full sincerity right now and here nothing can stop that person reaching God and realizing. There is no Hindu, non-Hindu there is no religious difference there is no secular and sacred there is no scientist and worldly person there is no believer and non-believer simply it is changing an attitude into a spiritual attitude that is the most important thing we have to understand. The same Karma can be converted into the highest spiritual practice and then one can realize God. This is the essence of what the Lord is going to talk now in the 45th verse 45th verse Oh Arjuna, now I am going to tell you how man can attain to higher perfection by devotion to his own duty. Hear from me how perfection can be attained by anybody who is devoted to his own duty. Sweswe means in one's own karmani means here duties is not a choice duty is abhiratah completely dedicated Naraha, such a person who is intent upon converting his life into yoga convert transforming his worldliness into spirituality such a person alone is a true human being how is he going to attain to the highest perfection completely devoted to transform one's duties into karma yoga how he is going to attain siddhi, perfection Learn it from me I am going to talk about it This is one of the most marvelous verses which levels there is no caste there is no class there is no difference as learned and ignorant powerful and powerless rich and poor even good and evil even an evil person after all he is potentially divine the lord as we studied earlier even if a person had out of ignorance committed the worst type of crimes in the past but it doesn't mean that he is going to go down to dogs no if he once understands what he had done repents and returns to the lord and says oh lord I have done something wrong and really I accept whatever I have done but all because of my ignorance now you are my severe from now onwards I am determined I will only think about you he has turned back completely and then the lord is telling that such a person very soon he is going to attain me broadcast to the whole world if a person becomes my devotee he is not going to perish of course nobody is going to perish but it can be delayed but here the moment a person turns then he can become he can go approach the father in heaven and father in heaven will give him a more gorgeous reception party in bible there is a story of the son who was lost for many years he neglected his father his family was completely immersed in selfishness and then at last after long suffering he realized let me fall at the feet of my father even if he treats me like a slave I am prepared to do now I understand but then the father saw this lost son returning back and then he ran forward and he embraced him brought him and broadcast the glad news my son whom I have lost has come back to my bosom again and then a big feast will be given to him unfortunately this story mentions this same person this boy had an elder brother and then the father also loved him but he never gave him any feast and jealousy started eating him up he came and shouted you never gave any party in my reception party even though I am so good to you father embraced him and said my son you are always in my heart there is no need to prove myself that I love you but here is a son who was lost and who understood now repents and comes back to my bosom this is exactly the symbolic meaning behind this story is the father represents the heavenly father the lost son is one who is reveling in the worldliness neglecting God and his duties but after some time he comes to his senses comes back what does God do not only he forgives him which is really it is a very inferior world God never what is called takes the crime because everybody is like a ignorant small baby it draws him to his bosom and immediately he will make him his own feel him my son you are never lost always with me I am your father whether you know it or not like a loving mother protecting the newborn baby all the 24 hours our attention is there even though the baby is totally ignorant and like people like us are no different from that this is what is the Lord is telling in the 45th that let it be any action and as an illustration remember many times I told you that Mahabharata this Bhagavad Gita occurs in the Mahabharata and Mahabharata has 18 parvas or chapters this Bhagavad Gita is 18 chapters in a way of speaking the whole Mahabharata is a marvelous commentary on each one of these chapters there is the story of the virtuous butcher his business is to go in the mornings to the forest catch hold of animals kill them cut them and sell the meat and whatever he earns he will come and serve his parents is a marvelous illustration such kind of stories very few such stories we get anywhere so graphically described Mahabharata there are stories not merely the story of Kauravas and Pandavas not merely the story Upadesha of Bhishma many many moral and spiritual side stories hundreds of such stories are there and they are all to illustrate the glory of human soul and however much he may seem to be lost it is like a person dreaming that I have been far away from my home desert wrecked and there is no hope for me but as soon as divine grace counts he wakes up from the dream and he knows that I have never strayed even one millimeter from my home from my mother from my divine mother from my heavenly father that is what we have to understand everybody has got his own duties but broadly all the duties have been classified into two according to Hindu Dharma that is Varna Dharma Ashrama Dharma just now we discussed if these qualities are there he is a Brahmana, these qualities he is a Kshatriya, these qualities he is a Vaishya these qualities he is a Shudra therefore these activities belong to the Brahmana natural activities these belong to the warrior, these belong to the businessman, these belong to the worker but as just now we mentioned such a beautiful what is called evolutionary idea anybody at any any state of life any stage of life and any class of life he by discharging his duties and connecting them relating them to God turn every activity including breathing in the Bhagavad Gita we get this Pashyan, Shunvan, Sparshan Chigran, Ashan Swapan, Swasan Nigruhan, Unmishan Nimishan you flutter the eyelids you take breath in and breath out and you hear, you see and you taste any activity whether it is physical or mental can be converted into the highest yoga and what is important is with faith if we discharge to the best of our ability then God's grace can lift any person at that very place there is no need for any person to take the help of anything else this is the essence of the 45th this is the only way and in modern times if we have to convert this shloka really speaking there is no Brahmin there is no Kshatriya, Vaishya or Shudra there is an office manager and a CEO and below him there will be so many assistants there will be clerks there will be peons you can say a peon is like a Shudra a file fetching boy or a clerk is something like a businessman not exactly and a manager is like a Kshatriya and facilitating the movement of every activity and harmonizing it so that work can go on smoothly and a Brahmana is one who will be giving more and more creative ideas running the whole show as it were but nobody should be looked down upon and in the west especially in America this is a beautiful idea everybody is a human being treat them like human being even the factory worker should be treated with respect if he is doing his job properly because you can't perhaps do his duty and he cannot much less do your duty but in their own places they are the greatest to illustrate this again Swami Vivekananda gives Mahabharata story how a king and a sanyasi and they go into a forest and there were some birds, householder birds householder's duties so the birds ultimately sacrifice themselves to feed the guests because that is the Atithi Seva and it is incumbent upon the Grihastha's married people and through that they tend to the highest state similarly the mongoose whose half body turned into golden because that part of the body happened to touch one of the greatest sacrifices which is nothing but feeding a guest even if it meant death of the entire family such marvelous stories I have to tell you it is very rare to find and Mahabharata is a repository encyclopedia of such stories of course whenever I get opportunity I will be going on talking about them so the Lord says in this 45th man attains highest perfection by devotion to his own duty devotion means not only lovingly, intelligently rationally concentratedly performing most important I am doing this not to gain temporary result which of course will be coming back to me but my real purpose goal is to approach God nearer and nearer if I do this I don't need to go anywhere God himself will be coming nearer and nearer to me so how this perfection is attained he has to be devoted to his own duty he has to discharge it to the best of his ability above all Ishwara Arpana Buddhi I do all this just to please you O Lord and whatever be the result I don't think about it you think about it you want to give, give if you don't want to give, don't give if you want to give something else you give I will be satisfied just as a baby will be completely content with whatever the mother is ready to feed this is any occupation is good enough now to whom it should be offered to Ishwara, to God and what is God that is the point that is going to come in the 46th verse Krishna says to Arjuna that every man should worship the Lord not merely through flowers, fruits etc. of course a person has a right and it is a joy to worship God through burning incense or for him decorating with beautiful fragrant flowers and cleaning him and devotedly sitting and worshipping that is definitely there but worship occupies very small part of one's time and attention but most of the time our time is spent only in earning our money performing our duties we should not even use that word for earning money that will come but I am in this position this is my disposition and these duties are most natural things for me I not only get job satisfaction but I can turn them into the highest spiritual practice but I have to offer it to Him, to God and who is that God that is being explained here in this 46th verse so Shri Krishna says man should worship the Lord through the performance of each one's peculiar duties for which every person is qualified thus every person obtains divine grace and of course when divine grace comes it comes through liberation when God is gracious He doesn't say like a selfish person this person did so much of job I will only give appropriate wages many people even don't do that but God is more than loving mother I gave the example there is a village and villagers know only about sweets made out of jaggery which is of so called inferior quality until they come to know better things and then one day she gets a first class sweet from the city maybe some friend or some relative has brought it and then the mother has only one such sweet and it is not enough even for her to one person to satisfy herself and then the child comes from the school or play says Ma I am very hungry please give me some jaggery and then what does the mother do does she think my son doesn't know I got a wonderful sweet from the city so I will hide it he will be more than happy if I give him a little more jaggery than what he demands is there any mother in this world like that she says my child has come and he is the fittest person and he is hungry he will enjoy it I will give this sweet to him and even if I don't eat it is I will derive joy he will also derive joy that's what Ramakrishna said when he was unable to eat when somebody requested to get to get himself cured by prayer he replied why am I not eating through all of you your eating my eating is absolutely the same this is what Ishwara now what is an Ishwara I will give a small introduction then it will be very easy for us to understand now when we look at any object in this world we see a minimum of two causes actually three minimum of two what are these three one is intelligent cause another is material cause another is instrumental cause now suppose you see a table a chair and then who made it an intelligent person called him carpenter a wood doesn't itself think and try to become a table or a chair an intelligent person evaluates it this is a beautiful material I can very easily transform it into an object to suit my purpose ok then material a carpenter cannot what is called chip and plane and cut himself into pieces he requires a material and that is called material cause and in this case it is wood wood is the material cause many times we require an instrument a potter requires a wheel a carpenter requires a chisel a hammer a saw a planer and a screwdriver etc etc these are called instrumental causes and this is an invariable example of whatever we see in this whole world every object must have these three causes ok we all come from parents and parents must have an idea that we want to get some children and they take certain measures or certain means and they employ certain instruments for that and through that only the offspring will come that is the truth now imagine before the creation of this world only one being is there and he is called Ishwara and then he desired that let me create so he desired who can desire an intelligent being alone can desire and then he is called the intelligent cause naturally because he thinks what type of world I want to create how many varieties whether it is living non-living whether it is human beings man or woman whether it is animals birds plants insects etc etc everything that we see it has to come from him what is the material there is no material besides him so he is the material that is how Vedanta explains the biblical saying God created the world out of nothing means there is no second substance besides God if there were to be that second substance will become second God and God becomes limited he doesn't remain infinite he becomes finite where there are more than one it is finity so God is the intelligent cause God is the material cause now what is the instrumental cause God himself through his mind he designs and he creates now this word creation according to Advaita Vedanta it doesn't mean like a potter taking a lump of clay fashions a pot out of it a carpenter takes a piece of wood and slowly shapes it a sculptor takes a piece of marble and removes all the unwanted things and then manifests a particular Goliath David etc etc no he himself becomes transformed like light becomes transformed on a screen into man woman birds this is our everyday experience you look at your monitor and you just put it on and only a white screen will come out white means it could be black or blue whatever it is that is not the point is it is blank and then suddenly you want to see a drama you go to YouTube and then soon you forget about the screen then the screen is the focusing point but what is that all the figures nothing but pure light in different colors in different densities somewhere it is bright somewhere it is less somewhere it is absent because that absence or light is created by the film the point is it is whatever we see on the screen on the monitor is nothing but pure light and this is the idea of creation God himself like clay becomes a pot clay doesn't create the pot clay itself when it is in one particular form you call it lump shapeless form and if you do it intelligently in a particular shape that is called a pot a tumbler a plate a big vessel etc or a wall etc etc this is the theory of Advaita Ishwara has not created he is manifesting like we ourselves become in our dreams our individuals the whole entire dream world and the witness who is witnessing the whole drama of oneself interacting and interacting with the whole world and that is the idea Bhagwan Krishna brings here and says by worshipping him from whom all beings proceed and by whom the whole universe is pervaded by worshipping him how through the performance of one's own duty does a man attain first two points from whom all beings proceed that means it is the clay even if you make a billion pots it is the same clay the material doesn't differ from one pot to the other pot the light doesn't differ from one figure to the other figure on the screen the gold doesn't differ from one ornament to the other the wood doesn't differ from one piece of furniture to the other piece of furniture these are some examples to make the points clear so he himself manifests like clay manifesting in a particular form is called pot is called a tumbler is called a plate etc. not only that if you examine take a pot is a particular form of clay with a particular name with a particular quality that means utility if it is a tumbler it holds water for drinking if it is a pot you can keep things or you can cook your food and a storing place you can do many things with that so according to the utility we separate it from a tumbler from a plate a plate is one from where you eat etc. now if you examine any pot it weighs the same weight of the clay it smells the same smell of the clay it is to the touch it exhibits only manifests only the touching properties of the clay if you taste it the taste will be taste of the clay so if you sound it it will be the sound of the clay everything is nothing but clay and there is nothing called pot and 99% clay and 10% pot there is no such thing everything is exactly the same this is the idea the whole universe is a manifestation of God and if something is in an manifested state it cannot be experienced when it comes to the manifested state that means it becomes perceivable experienceable through our five sense organs only when anything becomes perceivable and experienceable then we call it manifested state so that lump of clay as an example only you have to understand that which you cannot see the pot you cannot see the tumbler you cannot see the vessel you cannot see the wall you cannot see the floor you cannot see the roof anything can be made out of clay because it is all one and but unmanifested state same thing we have to apply here so here the pot is nothing but only a name because of the particular form and every form has a particular utility one of our Swamis is telling something very important when this explanation is being given just as we are discussing now some other idiotic scholar he said Swami you don't know what you are talking about suppose I take this pot and I will break it on your head your head will break do you know that Swami said very calm and quietly coolly that no so you are not breaking my head with the pot what what nonsense are you talking if I take this pot and give it a blow to your head is your head not going to be broken by this pot again the Swami said think over it it is the clay that is breaking over my head it is not the pot because there is no special object called pot it is certain characteristic certain particular form of clay definitely the clay can interact with my head but not the pot I don't know whether the other stupid fellow I should not say stupid if he understood he is intelligent if he has not understood he is really stupid so the whole world is nothing but pure consciousness and that is what Bhagawan wants to tell and that is what is most important here so the whole universe is a manifestation what is manifestation experienceable perceivable by our five sense organs and so that is what we call an object that is what we call this entire world not only that if you examine a pot there will be nothing but clay examine a table nothing but wood if you examine a golden ornament nothing but gold if you really examine this world every object is nothing but pure consciousness only because it is consciousness which imagines the pot which imagines the clay and without consciousness you cannot have any idea of either Ishwara or his manifestation in the form of this world neither this Gita class nothing else this is the most marvellous point so that is called Ishwara that is called creator and that is the idea we have discussed is called creation and in this creation so we are all nothing but different manifestations of the pure consciousness in the form of the different combinations of the Gunas, Sattva, Rajas and Tamas so as if it is all a classification in the mind this is a Brahmana, this is a Kshatriya this is a Vaishya, this is a Shudra and everybody has been given just the appropriate activities allotted this is what you are very well capable of doing you perform them but you have a choice you perform well without God you will get the good result you perform well but with the idea that I am really worshipping Divine Lord through this because this body belongs to Him mind belongs to Him all the sense organs belong to Him and the so called external world belongs to Him it is only a kind of Avidya Maya that makes me divide just as a baker in the dream he divides himself into two dreamer and dream world and also the witness the whole universe is nothing but your Ishwara, Ishwara playing the individual part and Ishwara playing the what is called experienceable part called the world but each one has got this appropriate activities if I can perform the activities well and add I am doing this to please you then Divine Grace will come and He will let God reveals Himself and say that you are me I am you this is what by worshipping Him from whom all beings proceed and by whom the whole universe is pervaded by worshipping Him through the proper performance of duty with a spiritual attitude every man can attain to perfection it is a beautiful idea we will talk about it tomorrow's class Om Vasudeva Sutham Devam Kamsa Chanura Mardanam Devaki Paramanandam Krishnam Andhe Jagad Kurum May Ramakrishna Holy Mother and Swami Vekananda bless us all with Bharatiya Ramakrishna