Brihadaranyaka Upanishad Ch.2 1.9-13 Lecture 47 on 04 July 2026 Q&A

Question: Suffering vs. Worrying – Karmaphala and Samskara

Question: I want to confirm one thing, Mahārāj: the difference between suffering and worrying. I understand that suffering comes from bad karma, which we do not have control of. So, trying to accept the situation in the best possible way, we exhaust the bad karma. Whereas worrying is actually when we do that, we are actually creating bad karma.

Response: Correct—saṃskāra. So we have to understand the distinction between karmaphala and saṃskāra. They are deeply connected. So Śrī Rāmakṛṣṇa would not worry about anything. A baby doesn't worry about anything. Two children I have seen quarrelling violently; after two minutes, the parents never forgot, but the children totally forgot, and both of them were hugging each other and playing, and this puppy's play will go on. Have you heard the expression "a dog worrying a bone"? Have you heard?

Questioner: Yeah, I haven't heard—if you can imagine.

Response: Yes, that is the proper expression. So it turns it this way, that way, trying to squeeze a little bit of juice from it. Yeah, that is called worrying. So when a person is worrying about something inevitable, what is he trying to do?

Questioner: He gets a lot of rasa—bad rasa, negative.

Response: No, happiness. Because this is a very peculiar psychology. If you are suffering, you want to get rid of that suffering as soon as possible. But here is a person—you tell him a billion times, "Don't worry," he will not give up that habit of worry. Yes, then you have to question: he must be getting something from it.

Questioner: Sure, Mahārāj, like that camel chewing on thorns.

Response: Ha! He must be getting something, otherwise if it is giving him pain, you don't need to tell anybody—any pain we want to get rid of as soon as possible, as quickly as possible. So this person—there are some people what is called constant worriers. So even the smallest thing shows a great psychological truth. Why is this person? Because the way to get rid of this worrying is not to think about the worry, but to think its opposite—pratipakṣa bhāvanam. So it takes time, but it works, because the more we think about the same thing, the deeper becomes the habit—saṃskāra. That is not good. But these people have to go through painful experiences; there is no doubt about it. Most of the psychological cases are like that. Long back, somebody whom you didn't like died; along with that to death, all those things we should have gotten over. That is why Jesus Christ says, "Let the past bury its dead. You enter into the kingdom of heaven." So yoga means what? Substitute a negative thought with a positive thought. But it should be the opposite thought. Pratipakṣa means exactly the right medicine for that particular problem.

So the worrying we can change. Most probably we cannot change karmaphala. If there is any change in the external world, that is also karmaphala only. It is not because we are clever or anything. So there is a period of śanigraha—there is. Swamiji used to tell a story: some people's lives there will be a change. And that change is not because of my worrying or cleverness; it is the result of some karma I have done, of which I am not aware at this moment. Yeah.

Question: Happiness as a Reflection of God's Ānanda

Questioner: So I have a question. It is about the other day you mentioned that everyone is a devotee of God, and that we are all searching for happiness, which you have said many times. The other aspect I want to connect this with is this idea that when we feel happiness, we are in fact feeling an aspect of God's Ānanda. But can I derive that? For example, to take an extreme example, someone who is a heroin addict—the sukhyam that they would feel for a very temporal, short time—that is in fact a fraction of God's bliss?

Response: Yes, and nothing else.

Questioner: It is the same?

Response: It is the same, yeah. And you know, I have my own funny way of misinterpreting these things. So, in svargaloka, they live a long time. On the earth, we live only a short time. So the happiness we get on this earth is short-lived, and the happiness supposedly one gets in heavenly worlds is long-lasting. That is a contradictory term. You know why? Happiness means no time; time means not happy. You go on a holiday for seven days; it looks as if you went yesterday and returned back today. So when you go to heaven and you are very happy, are you aware of time? No. Then when you are kicked out—some people are what is called engaged in that activity. As soon as the puṇyam there—they have a watch at what second, millisecond this puṇyam gets exhausted—with heavy boots, they will kick them out. So when these people fall down, they say, "I just went and we just came back." Because happiness and time do not go together. When you are happy, you do not count time. When you count time, you are not happy. Whether a person lives one thousand years or ten thousand years, it makes no difference.

What I am trying to tell you is that it is all reflection. That reflection depends upon the medium—the reflecting medium, which is our mind. Happiness has nothing to do with body or sense organs; it is purely to do with the mind. So what is that function? Forgetting time. That is why you don't count time in deep sleep; you count only upon waking up—isn't it? Yeah, that is all. So did you sleep for seven hours? Did you sleep for only one millisecond? When you are outside time, then one millisecond or one thousand years make no meaning. Okay, anyway, so it is all reflection. That reflection depends upon the reflecting medium, and that reflecting medium is our mind, and that mind—as a result of karmaphala, saṃskāras—how pure it is, how dirty, dusty it is—so the reflection becomes that way.

Question: Patience and Time

Questioner: One follow-up question based on what you just answered, Mahārāj. Patience—it is said that God has infinite patience.

Response: Yeah.

Questioner: God is beyond the concept of time.

Response: Yeah.

Questioner: So patience is a quality that is with respect to time.

Response: Correct.

Questioner: So by developing patience, are we actually trying to go a little bit beyond the concept of time ?

Response: You see, patience is a means by which we are slowly trying to sublimate the suffering. Supposing you are suffering from a headache. First day it will be terrible; second day it will be less terrible. Do you see? When your mind starts accepting it, when you don't expect it, if it comes, it is terrible. And when you say, "This is my fault," so the moment you accepted it, its impact becomes less—much less—because you are not expecting. Suddenly it comes, you feel more. That is how patience—if we have patience—itself will elevate us so that it acts as a counter-medicine for unhappiness, suffering, or whatever you call it. Otherwise, if you don't have patience, what will you become?

Questioner: A patient!