Patanjali Yoga Sutras Lecture 064

Full Transcript(Not Corrected)

OM SAHANAVATU SAHANAVUBHUNAKTU SAHAVIRYAM KARAVAVAHAI TEJASVINAVADHITAMASTUMAVIDVISHAHAVAHAI OM SHANTI SHANTI SHANTIHI HARIHI OM OM YUGENA CHITTASYA PADENA VACHAM MALAM SHARIRASYA JAVAIDHYAKENA YOPAKAROTAM PRAVARAM MUNINAM PATANJALIM PRANJALI RANATHOSME I bow to the eminent sage Patanjali, who removed the impurities of the mind through yoga, of speech through grammar, and of the body through medicine. OM SAHANAVATU SAHANAVUBHUNAKTU SAHAVIRYAM KARAVAVAHAI TEJASVINAVADHITAMASTUMAVIDVISHAHAVAHAI OM SHANTI SHANTI SHANTIHI HARIHI OM OM YUGENA CHITTASYA PADENA VACHAM MALAM SHARIRASYA JAVAIDHYAKENA YOPAKAROTAM PRAVARAM MUNINAM PATANJALIM PRANJALI RANATHOSME I bow to the eminent sage Patanjali, who removed the impurities of the mind through yoga, of speech through grammar, and of the body through medicine. We have entered into a very important stage. This second chapter is called SADHANA PADA, the chapter on actual practice. This practice of Patanjali Yoga, it consists of eightfold steps. Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana, and Samadhi. I also mentioned, this again is divided into two parts. The first five, until Pratyahara, it is considered as the outer eights. And the last three, Dharana, Dhyana, and Samadhi, they are called the inner circle. And even these two also, again it is the last three, Dharana, Dhyana, and Samadhi, they are Sanyama. Through the Sanyama of these three, the tremendous special powers will be obtained by the Yogi. Let us now discuss about the 29th. Yama, Niyama, Asana, Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana, Dhyana, Samadhi, Astau, Angani. Angani means parts. Astau means eight. Eight parts. I also had mentioned, Yama and Niyama are like a platform from which the rocket takes off. It is not only a platform, but it is the foundation. Just as there cannot be a building, especially a strong building without a strong appropriate foundation, there cannot be either happiness in this world nor happiness in spiritual life. There would be no spiritual progress. Fine. What about worldly progress? No. Why you know? Yama and Niyama. Let us take an example. A scientist wants to discover something. What is the most important requirement? There should be at least two special characteristics. The first characteristic should be, he should be totally free, undistracted from everything else excepting his own subject. Second, he should be able to completely focus his mind upon his subject. That is why Swami Yathishwaranandaji used to tell that scientists are much nearer to God than many so-called spiritual aspirants. Why? They have three wonderful characteristics. First of all, they have got concentration, power of concentration. Secondly, they have got self-control. Thirdly, they are highly disciplined. So, discipline, self-control and concentration. The instrument is ready. Interestingly, Swami Vivekananda, he spoke about the problems of the world in general and problems of India in particular. What is the cause of degradation? He said education. He defined education. What is education? Is it certain amount of information stuffed into your brains? No. He said, it is the developing the power of concentration. And if we want concentration, two things are necessary. Self-control and self-discipline. We are all spiritual aspirants. We want to meditate upon God. Why is it that we are not able to succeed even after so many years? Concentration is not there. Why is concentration not there? Because lack of two steps leading to it. What is it? Self-control and discipline. What is the distinction between self-control and discipline? Discipline means there must be a set routine. In my last class, I told you something very important. The distinction between Shraddha and Nishtha. Shraddha means absolute faith both in God as well as in myself. What did I say about Nishtha? Nishtha means ability. Once I set a program, this is what I am going to do. Even at the point of death, until I die, I am not going to give up. I am going to follow the routine that I had set for myself. How many so-called great devotees I have seen fallen by the roadside? Because there comes a point and then they say, Oh, we have been going to the Vedanta center for so many years. And not only I haven't got anything, and Shri Ramakrishna doesn't even look after me. So many people have given up. Simple example, you know, Madam Curie who discovered that radiation. Do you know, she died of that problem. Her husband died of that. What a wonderful thing it is. Whether they succeed or they do not succeed, they do not give up. That is called Nishtha. This discipline to do what a person sets out to do at the right time, in the right way, completely dedicated to it and with faith. These are the characteristics of a scientist. That is why there is no margin of error in scientific calculation. What was Swami Teesrananda saying? That scientists are nearer to God because of these three characteristics. They have concentration, they have discipline and they have self-control. Now, I made also a remark. Some people have tremendous concentration. But without Yama and Niyama, it is possible to have concentration to some extent. But that could be highly dangerous. Swami Teesrananda used to give the example of Hitler. We can give the example of Genghis Khan. We can give the example of Saddam Hussein. These people have got tremendous power of concentration. But their concentration is derived from a wicked motivation. That is why worldly people have got, what Sri Ramakrishna used to say, they have got more stability in so many matters than most of the spiritual people. You know why? Because worldly people have got a strong motivation and they are getting their result. There was an interesting conversation I just now remembered. One devotee was in the presence of Swami Turiyanandaji and he was talking. There was a book written. The discussion was about the book. That is not the important point. But after discussing about the book, one of the Swamis was telling to Swami Turiyananda, You know, Maharaj, there is something very nice in reading a book. After few days, you know, you have progressed from page 1 to page 20, page 30. You can measure the progress. But in spiritual life, it is not possible to measure such progress. Immediately Swami Turiyananda, who told you that? Worldly people, if they employ some labourers, they give wages. You do this much work and this much of wages you will get. Do you mean to say God is more horrible, worse than these worldly people, that you go on praying to Him, doing japa and He will not reward you anything and He will just let you go? He said there is definitely a way to measure spiritual progress. Anyway, this is incidentally. What I wanted to tell, that Hitler had such tremendous power of concentration. He would be absorbed, his whole life is focused on that. Is it a good thing? It is absolutely rotten thing because that created the Second World War. That created all these problems that we are getting in life, all because of this. What a horrible situation it is. We do not want certainly that kind of concentration of mind. There should be concentration, but it is a purified concentration. Swami Yathishwaranandaji used to tell something, warn his devotees. Do not practice concentration until you attain some amount of purity of mind. Incidentally, again I want to tell you. Is there any danger? Swami Vivekananda said develop concentration, but he also said be pure. Observe Brahmacharya. What was the first step? Brahmacharya. Brahmacharya means what? Brahmacharya means purity of mind. The word Brahmacharya, that translation has acquired very wrong connotations. Brahmacharya simply means living in God. Whereas the translation Brahmacharya means sex control. Who told that sex should be controlled? It is only for monks. What about householders? Sri Ramakrishna said you must have one or two children. If wife is good, the husband must give her one or two children. After the birth of one or two children, the husband and wife should live like brother and sister. Because the very married, why does a man want to marry if he wants to observe celibacy? That is not the point. Even if he wants to observe celibacy, then he should consult his wife and say what is your opinion about it? Every woman, normally they say, they would be much more happy to be called as a mother rather than as a wife. Especially Indians, they say, not as a wife but as a mother. Swami Trishanthi's warning, let us keep in mind. Last week, before closing my talk, I told you something. I said Yamas and Niyamas. Those who are householders, it is easier for them to practice Niyamas. And I said Yamas can be practiced to a great extent only by monks. Why is it so? Let us take up that subject first. What is Yama? First let us read what is Yama. Then we will take it up from there. Before that, I want to just read out to you Swami Vivekananda's commentary on the 29th. That is these 8 steps, etc. A man who wants to be a perfect yogi must give up the sex idea. The soul has no sex. Why should it degrade itself with sex ideas? Later we shall understand better why these ideas must be given up. Receiving is just as bad as stealing. Receiving gifts from others is as bad as stealing. We will discuss it. Why is it so? Whoever receives gifts, his mind is acted on by the mind of the giver. So that the man who receives gifts becomes soon degenerated. Receiving gifts destroys the independence of the mind and makes us mere slaves. Therefore, receive nothing. We will discuss about it later on. But sometimes I forget things. One idea came to me. How receiving is really so? Even giving is bad. Not only receiving is bad, giving is bad. Giving to the wrong person is very bad. Holy Mother used to give the example. One day a butcher was dragging a cow to a slaughterhouse. On the way he was tired because the cow was resisting. Then he was hungry, he was tired, he was thirsty. So a house lady, she saw his condition, felt pity and gave food. And he ate the food and became strong and dragged the cow to the slaughterhouse. And the cow was slaughtered. And a little bit of that sin of killing the cow had come to this house lady because indirectly she had been helpful. Exactly in the same way, there is a saying, an American saying, there is no free lunch. So whatever we receive, immediately it comes with some strings attached to it. That's why Sri Ramakrishna used to receive things only what is necessary, only from pure people. He could never touch anything, even if it is a valuable thing, from the hands of an impure person. He used to feel like the stings of a scorpion, like that. These ideas we will discuss later on. So Ahimsa, Satya, Asteya, Brahmacharya, Aparigraha, Yamaha. The first five vows, great vows, they are also called Sarvabhauma Mahavrata, universal vows. Non-killing, truthfulness, non-stealing, continence and non-receiving are called Yamas. Now I want to discuss. I told you that only monks can practice Yama. Householders can practice it to a very small extent. But they can practice and they must practice more of Niyamas, which is Saucha, Santosha, Tapaha, Swadhyaya, Ishwara Pranidhani. I will explain what it is later on. What is this Yama? Consists of five great vows. Non-killing, truthfulness, non-stealing, continence and non-receiving. Let us take one by one. Non-killing. Non-killing means what? No harm should be done to any creature in this world either by thought or by word or by deed. That's why it is called Ahimsa. This is what is the greatest vow of all these ten great vows. This is the greatest Ahimsa and everything else must lead to this Ahimsa. What is the idea behind? Ahimsa. Himsa means injury, hurting others. Himsa means hurting others. What is spiritual life? To get rid of the idea there is anything other than God. If one can see God in everything, can you hurt God? It is like hurting oneself. In a dream you slap somebody. Whom are you slapping? Yourself. Similarly sometimes you know that you have pushed somebody and you fell down. Then you wake up and find yourself on the floor. It is like that. So everything is one, there is only one reality and that reality is God and that is why if we do anything negative to anybody else, we are only doing it to ourselves. By the same token, if we do any good to anybody, to whom are we doing this good? To ourselves. That is why Swami Vivekananda's Karma Yoga, by helping others, by helping the world, you help yourself. That great teaching has come out of this one truth that there is only one reality and that is God. So Ahimsa means non-killing. We will go into slightly more details later on. Truthfulness. What is truthfulness? What was Sri Ramakrishna's definition of truthfulness? To make our thoughts, our words and our deeds, absolutely the slightest deviation is not permitted. That is called Satya. Non-stealing. Do we steal? Apparently most of us do not steal. Of course you know nowadays stealing has become such a common thing. We do not even consider it as stealing. You download a song from the internet. Is it stealing or non-stealing? Belongs to somebody else. Somebody came and confessed to me, Swamiji, I download all your talks. Is that stealing? No, it is not stealing. Because we are giving it away. You take it away. It is on the internet. It is free. But here also they go into the bookshop, help themselves into some these things. There are some people who do that. Is that stealing? That is definitely stealing. With permission if we take, if somebody gives, that is officially alright. No. Do you know what is non-stealing? Not to accept things belonging to others is one part of non-stealing. Not to take anything that belongs to other people. Even to contemplate. Let me do it. Jesus Christ's saying is there. When does a person commit adultery? Even if a person had cast an evil thought upon another person, that person is committing, he had already committed adultery in his mind. But people conveniently forget about it. Then continence means brahmacharya. What is the real meaning of brahmacharya? Just now I said living in God. Then non-receiving of gifts. Now tell me what was my statement? Householders cannot practice Yama. It is mainly meant only for sannyasins. Even for sannyasins, only a person who had reached almost God, almost reached God, only he succeeds in practicing this. Why? Because he sees everything as depending upon God and he totally depends upon God only. Now let us just discuss it a little bit. Ahimsa means non-injury. Non-injury means even to think of an injurious thought to other people. By thought, by word, by deed. We should never contemplate. Why? Just now we discussed. What is the reason? Reason is if I do some injury to others, I will be doing injury to whom? To myself. Swami Vivekananda had defined something very wonderful. What is Ahimsa? Do you know what he said Ahimsa? Absence of jealousy is non-injury. So your friend, who are the people who practice this jealousy? Do you know? Enemies do not have jealousies. It is friends who have jealousy about each other. Think of my statement. Enemies hate each other, but they do not have jealousy. But friends, if one person has got a better car, in the same profession, what? This person got better car than mine? What ride this person? If that person's daughter had got a better husband, then jealousy will start. So many things. But only thing is, all the time we are smiling and congratulating and saying how wonderful it is, so glad to see you and all those things. Monks, there are monks, so much of, they are filled with jealousy. If one monk gets more devotees than the other monk, then there is jealousy. I am telling you frankly. If one monk gets more power, one Swami had written, has asked me, why we are in the same training center? We were training center. Why is it that you have become head of the Ramakrishna Vedanta Center in London? And I am still struggling in this hostel, looking after these boys. You know, I am a little bit humorous. He said, what to say? Kopal, Kopal, it is all fate. It is nothing else but fate. Yes, it is true. I am not making a joke. Everything is dependent upon fate. How one person rises like that, it is all depending upon our Purojanma Karma. So, absence of jealousy is the sure sign of Ahimsa. If we have got jealousy, that means that we are not free from the sense of Himsa. Then, there is Ramakrishna's teaching for householders and for monks. Householders must hiss, if you remember. If a householder doesn't hiss, then he will stand to lose something. But whereas, for monks, no hissing. Ramakrishna said, totally be dependent upon God, whatever happens. Then, Ahimsa. Do you know, when a person takes the vows of monastic life, Sanyasa, one of the vows he has to take, do you know what is that vow? Abhayam sarvabhute bhyo. Let me not be frightened of any creature on this earth. Let no creature be frightened of me. Every creature must feel Abhaya, fearlessness, as far as I am concerned. If any creature fears me, I am not free from the sense of injury. That is why the very first virtue itself, Ahimsa itself, is meant only for us. Do you remember? I just now remembered. The story of Swami Brahmanandaji tells a story. There was a monk. He was sitting on a river bank under a tree. Suddenly, he found a scorpion had slipped from the tree, fell into the river, and is struggling. So, he stretched his hand, brought it out and put. In the process, it stung. This happened three times in succession. Another man who was observing, he said, Brother, why are you trying to help it? Because it is stinging you each time. His reply was, To sting is the nature of the scorpion, but to do good is the nature of the sadhu. This is a beautiful word. Some words cannot be translated properly into other languages. Sadhu means a monk, a good person. Literal translation is a good person, a holy person. But real meaning is, a sadhu means a holy person, a monk really speaking. So, it is the nature of the holy person to help other people. No injury, injurious thought should ever be entertained either in thought or deed or in action. Then let us, the next step is Brahmacharya. Brahmacharya means living in God. One who lives in God, do you think that his mind is thinking about the opposite sex or any idea? What is the idea? Sex idea is related to the body, not even to the mind. It is related only to the body. How do we know? Because only when the body is in a particular stage, when chemistry works, a small baby, do you think he has got sex idea? Excepting these unintelligent western psychologists, who have invented all these Oedipus complex and all those nonsensical things. Do you think a baby is thinking up in terms of sex? He is thinking in terms of food. A mother represents for him, what? Food, protection, affection and all those things. Cuddling, coziness and all those things. Similarly, if a person is suffering from a painful disease, do you think sex idea will rise in his mind? It is only under particular circumstances, that idea is totally related to the body. When that youthfulness chemistry is working, then certain chemicals make him feel, this is a natural phenomena, but it is related, let us not forget, to the body. What is living in God? Just the opposite of any relationship with the body. A person who has got body consciousness, can he live in God? And a person who has got God consciousness, can he have any idea of the body? Incidentally, God means for us Ananda, bliss. When do we get the greatest bliss? Can you not tell me that? After hearing so many talks. When we are in deep sleep, we get the greatest bliss, isn't it? Why do we get greatest bliss when we are in deep sleep? Why? Because, we have totally separate ourselves from the idea of the body. That is called Brahmacharya. Brahmani charati iti brahmachari. Brahmacharya. You can understand now, householders are living, all the time, where is their mind? Centered around what? Money, what Sri Ramakrishna calls Kama and Kanchana. He is either thinking of the body, either thinking of his retirement, thinking of his after retirement, where do I live? How much savings I have? And all these calculations are related with what? Why Brahmacharya is so important in this connection? We all know that death is very common. And when death comes, we don't know. Is there any guarantee that all of us are going to live until 95 years and then one day after dinner, we kick off the body? We don't know. It can happen today, it can happen tomorrow, it can happen anytime. There is no discrimination for death. When the time comes, we all have to go. Then why all these calculations? Some people say we are observing Brahmacharya. Now here is an interesting thought. When a person says, see we are living like brother and sister, but they are intensely attached to money. Are they living Brahmacharya life? My question to you. Strictly speaking, no. Because they connected Brahmacharya life, we do not live, have the relationship of husband and wife. That is fine. But do you have the idea of your body or not? That means what? It is not possible for you. That is why, why this future, what is called, still the ideas are going to come, that I have to store, keep in store something that is absolutely, a monk is forbidden even to think about it. Okay. Asteya. Asteya means non-stealing. Asteya means stealing. Asteya means non-stealing. Let me tell you an interesting story before we proceed further. You know, Sri Ramakrishna was looked after so wonderfully well by Madhurabhau. Madhurabhau was the son-in-law of Rani Rasmani. Rani Rasmani had four daughters. One of her daughters was married to Madhurabhau. That daughter died. Therefore, three daughters remained. What happened? This Rani, she was a very intelligent person. She knew that quarrels would break out in future. So, she divided her property. Equally, among her three daughters. And Sri Ramakrishna was living at that time when this division took place in her house. Now, what happened? One day, Sri Ramakrishna went. It was a huge compound. I don't know how many of you have seen Rani Rasmani's house in Calcutta. It's a huge palatial house, Rani's house. And that property was also divided into three portions. How equally, I don't know. But into three portions. Now, what happened? Sri Ramakrishna knew which part of the property belonged to which daughter. Now, one day, one of those daughters came out and she started picking up greens from a field which was legally allotted to her. But they were all living there and sisters. And Sri Ramakrishna said, Have you taken your sister's permission to pick up the greens? And she said, she understood. And she started playing with him. Baba, please don't tell to anybody. Secretly, I am taking these things. And Sri Ramakrishna was very, you know, 100%, 150% serious. What is this you are doing? In the meantime, that sister to whom that part of the field belonged, she came, happened to come. Immediately Sri Ramakrishna ran. That's why keep Sri Ramakrishna at a distance. Otherwise, all your secrets will be out. He told her, Do you know what your sister is doing? She is picking up greens from the part of the field belonging to you. She also understood. She started playing. Baba, is it so? How wrong of her to do? Of course, she could not keep up the charade. And then she burst out into laughter. And Sri Ramakrishna was puzzled. I am talking about truthfulness. And this non-stealing. And why you are simply smiling like that? Laughing like that? He didn't understand that we don't consider it as stealing. And you know Sri Ramakrishna's truthfulness. I will give an example very soon about it. Non-stealing. Non-stealing means what? Not taking anything belonging to other people is part of the non-stealing. Only part of it. Another real part is there. Not even contemplating how wonderful it would be if I have what the other person has got. That is also part of non-stealing. Yes, you have not physically stolen but mentally you have already stolen. That was what Jesus Christ was telling. The very thought you cherished, an undesirable thought towards your neighbour's wife, you have already committed adultery in your mind. These two parts are there. One is not actually taking anything belonging to others. The other is also even to cherish that idea. And there is another part. That another part is if I possess something which is more than necessary for what I require, that is also part of stealing. That is why Swami Vivekananda said if you eat one handful of food more than what is necessary for you, you have starved another person. You have stolen his food. This is such a difficult idea to understand. This is my own money. I have not stolen this money. I worked hard. I earned this money. I bought this food. And I have eaten more than what I require. But the thing is this world's resources do not contain enough so that everybody will have more than enough. One person taking more means it is deprivation for another person somewhere else. This was what Swami Vivekananda had said. We will move on to the fourth one. Fourth one is called Satyam. So according to Shri Ramakrishna to make the thought, the word and the deed one, one mukha ek kora, that is the Satyam. There is the story of lemon. Shri Ramakrishna was at Dakshineswar and he was sick. The physician had prescribed, Sir, you drink the juice of one lemon every day. There was neighbouring. There are so many gardens are there. So Swami Yogananda used to go usually and collect one lemon with the permission of the owner of that garden. Now one day as usual Swami Yogananda went there and took one lemon from there. You know in those days lemons were, so many lemons used to fall on the ground and then go to waste. Nobody would mind. In fact you take more than one lemon it doesn't really matter. Anyway they are not using there. So Swami Yogananda went, brought the lemon and that day Shri Ramakrishna could not even touch. So he was trying to hold it with both hands but he didn't succeed. He said what's wrong with it? Why am I unable to catch hold of this? Then Swami Yogananda was puzzled because the same garden, same watchman. So he went to the watchman and asked has anything happened to this garden? He said yes. Yesterday this was sold to somebody else. The permission was taken only from the previous owner. How hard it is to be spiritual and do not think that quality belongs only to Shri Ramakrishna. If we deviate from truth then we have deviated from truth and if we deviate from truth we have deviated from God because God is truth or some Mahatma Gandhi used to say truth is God. I would say truth is God. There is beautiful prayer of Shri Ramakrishna. You know one of his heartfelt prayers Oh mother here is your dharma here is your adharma take them both and grant me pure love for your lotus feet and he said here is your punya your papa your good your evil but he said he added something very important he said I could not say oh mother here is the truth here is the untruth take them both he said if I give up truth then my whole prayer will be futile and meaningless. I remembered in a funny story there was one man who had a daughter to be married so he went to interview he is a prospective boy and he was asking the mother of the boy is this boy good has he got any bad qualities does he smoke does he drink does he do this does he do that she said no no no no he doesn't steal he doesn't lie he doesn't injure others he doesn't do not one bad quality said yes there is only one bad quality he has got he tells lies that means what he is doing all those things so Sriram Krishna said in this Kali Yuga what is the greatest austerity speaking of truth and there are people monks, householders, devotees who have been so called practicing truth so here is a secret I am telling truth is God therefore if anybody observes truthfulness and said for 12 years then he would realize God this is actually Sriram Krishna had taken this from Tulasidas Doha if anybody is truthful and doesn't covet his neighbour's wife and if such a person doesn't realize God then Tulasidas is a liar says this Sriram Krishna used to tell truthfulness is the greatest austerity for this age if anybody observes truthfulness for 12 years then he will realize God how many years we have all been practicing spiritual discipline and why is it that we are anywhere nearer to God ok here is the secret the secret is that much of truthfulness we practice that much we progress in spiritual life so what is the whole spiritual life it is travelling from a lower truth to a higher truth it is a travel in truthfulness the ultimate truth is or called reality also is to get rid of all this unreality and to reach that highest reality so the more we practice truthfulness that means the more we are progressing in spiritual life that is the truth here is Sriram Krishna telling practicing so now tell me is it possible for a non-monk householder to practice these yamas non-injury then Brahmacharya can't perfect living in God then non-stealing and not receiving any gifts and observing pure truthfulness all these things there is one last one aparigraha aparigraha means receiving aparigraha means non-receiving so does a monk receive or does not receive for householder that question should not be put because householder's life is giving and taking all the time what about monks does a monk really take what does this really mean first of all one should not receive any gift from anybody a monk should never receive any gift from anybody how does he live he receives what is the rule he should not receive from anybody then he receives where from is he receiving that is why bhavati bhiksham dehi so when a monk receives something there are certain conditions imposed upon him the first condition is he should receive only as much as he really requires Ramakrishna's life is such a wonderful life you know the incident of Gopala Yama in case you do not know once Sri Ramakrishna was living with Balarama for several days at that time Gopala's mother Aghor Mani Devi she also happened to go to Balarama's house in fact Sri Ramakrishna had sent for her so that the other devotees would see how a devotee should really be she came and they respected her highly and she stayed for some time in that house then they all were coming back Balarama also knew that Gopala's mother was a poor lady and then so he had bundled some utensils and then gave it to be taken and Sri Ramakrishna noticed that bundle and he did not like it he went on looking at it and went on indirectly criticizing some people they go not only they go and stay there while they come away they will take bring back what a burden some people to the householders where they visit etc. he was passing clear remarks and Gopala's mother was inside as though somebody was touching her with a knife she was feeling poor lady what to do this tirade continued until they reached Dakshineshwar as soon as they reached Dakshineshwar Gopala's mother took that bundle ran to holy mother and said Gopala our Gopala didn't like this one what shall I do you know what holy mother said mother you took them because you are poor and these rich devotees will give you there is nothing wrong Sri Ramakrishna was telling there is something wrong because he was a monk whereas holy mother is telling what you have done is perfectly right but still Gopala's mother she gave away lot of things to other people one or two which is absolutely necessary for her so strict why was Sri Ramakrishna so strict aparigraha because if you receive then you have to today or tomorrow there is no free lunch that is why when a monk takes first idea is it is it is not anybody else who is giving it is only God and that too he takes only what is absolutely necessary not only that the third condition is how does he give back through japa through prayer through spiritual advice this is why Swami Vivekananda defended the monks and said somebody remarked monks are all like parasites they suck the blood of the society he said it is the monks who kept the society absolutely in pristine condition but for monks you would have gone to dogs long back so how do they do that a monk will come perhaps he would sing a nice spiritual song perhaps he will tell you he will tell you something from the scripture he will recite some verses from Bhagavad Gita or Bhagavatam or Ramayanam or Mahabharatam or whatever at least he will do some japa and that is what Sri Ramakrishna said because monks receive they must do extra japa so that they can give back to the householders so monks can give there is something which they can give much more valuable and that is if anybody says that I have a right only to receive and not to give he is a fool he is living in a sinful life and he will be nature will extract from him sooner or later so these three conditions accept only as much as one needs secondly that you think that it is given not by anybody but by God you give back through prayer japa etc parigraha do you think householders can observe these five rules who can observe really that's why it is said they are meant more for monks or householders who are in that highest stage of spiritual progress yes it is possible but by that very token they are not householders any longer they are totally dependent upon God Ramakrishna's father himself was like that then the next five is called niyamas you know what is this niyamas saucha santosha tapaha swadhyaya ishvara pranidhanani niyama internal and external purification contentment mortification study and worship of God are the niyamas the first five are now niyamas are meant only for practice to be practiced by mostly by monks but does that mean that householders cannot practice at all no you can practice but you are very limited in your practice because of the very nature of the conditions under which you live but even do all these things they have to tell and they have to do undergo through a lot of these problems one funny incident comes to my mind in Mumbai in Bombay we have an ashram in India Mumbai is considered like New York of USA a financial capital of India and the incident that I am going to narrate took place at a time when Swami Sambuddhanandaji was the in charge of that place Sambuddhanandaji so once I don't know which monk came he came to and they were friends also so both of them were senior swamis and the rich merchant to whom always he goes so once he thought I will take this monk to that person he is likely to give some money so he went there unfortunately for them that householder saw from his upstairs the swamis approaching immediately he rang to his watchman and said tell to the swamis that I am here he said babu is not here then Swami Sambuddhananda was not a person to be put off so easily he said ok where has the babu gone he has to come we will wait until he comes but the dharwan was instructed he knew that they should not be allowed to go inside so he was preventing the senior swami trust he fell down the other swami was squirming that you know all because this insult a watchman had thrown an elderly swami down like that so anyway seeing this commotion the babu he felt bad because he knew the swami and he came down and apologized and took him and said Maharaj I feel so bad inside me because of me you have to go through this insult swami sambuddhananda laughed and said what does that matter we came for money we got money be happy about it wherever there is money concerned there is a lot in it we have to go through this insult because it has to go through this insult in that way saint john just died so saint john died in his own body And when this monk is focusing on worldly things, all in the name of God again. We want to construct a hostel, we want to construct a hospital, we want to construct a guest house, we want to construct a temple. Very, very interesting experiences I had when I was in Bangalore because I was instrumental in constructing one of the temples. I will not go into the details now, but the point is I have to deal with all sorts of problems. Just to end this topic, I will just give you a test. Why am I telling all this? It is because even for monks, if we are concerned with worldly objectives, then we also have to take to all these worldly tantrums. And that is how monasteries come down in their value. Why do you think that this Buddhism had come down, Christianity had come down, Shankaracharya's mathas had come down? All because of what? The moment we involve ourselves too much in the world and we forget our ideal by hook or crook, we have to accomplish something, then we are no better than householders themselves. All this truthfulness, non-stealing, non-acceptance of guests and then observing brahmacharya and all those non-injury, it is possible only for monks and even not all monks, only certain monks and at the same time householders can practice a little. Then what is the way for them out? They must practice a little. But the emphasis is the next five virtues that one has to develop, niyamas, they can develop that. In fact, their life will be much much more easier and better for observing that, which we will discuss in our next class, I think on 15th of February. Om Shanti Shanti Shanti Hi.