View source for Bhagavad Gita Ch14 part 08 on 06 June 2021

== Full Transcript(Not Corrected) ==
OM VASUDEVASUTAM DEVAM KAMSA CHAANURA MARDANAM
DEVAKI PARAMANANDAM KRISHNAM VANDE JAGADGURUM
SARVO PANISHADO GAVO DOGDHA GOPALANANDANAH
PARTHO VATSA SUDHER BHOKTA DOGDHAM GITA AMRITAM MAHAT
MOOKAM KAROTI VACHALAM PANGUM LANGAYATHE GIRIM
YAD KRIPA TAMAHAM VANDE PARAMANANDA MADHAVAM
We are studying the 14th chapter of the Bhagavad Gita.
This is one of the most useful and very practical chapters perhaps in the whole of the Bhagavad Gita.
Practical Vedanta. This was what Swami Vivekananda used to call.
In our last class, we discussed a very important point.
What happens when we find a particular guna dominant in a particular person?
For the time being, it dominates and suppresses the other two qualities.
When sattva is dominant, it will suppress rajas and tamas.
When raja guna is dominant, it suppresses both sattva guna and tamo guna.
And when tamas is dominant, it suppresses both sattva guna as well as raja guna.
Now we have understood what are the characteristics of these gunas and how do we recognize them
when they manifest in each one of our lives and what effects they bring about
and how they influence our activities and what type of results they bring in quite a detail.
Now the question is what do we do with this knowledge?
Why were we given this knowledge?
When we look at the whole world, whole creation including our body, our mind and everything else,
it is nothing but consisting of three gunas manifesting one or the other.
It is these very gunas that make up our life, our health, our happiness, our power, our positions
and everything that we get is the interplay of these gunas for good or evil.
We are the victims of these gunas.
But the question is can they help or can they hinder?
Yes, they can help, they can also hinder.
How?
It depends upon us how we understand, how we adjust to these gunas.
So what should be the goal of life?
We should be taking advantage of these very gunas and we can grow in every way.
We are not talking about spirituality only.
Even a person who wants to be healthy, happy, enjoy this world,
the control of the gunas is very important.
Here I am going to emphasize a very important point.
It is yoga is defined as yoga chitta vrutti nirodha.
Complete control of one's own mind, one's own thoughts is called yoga.
Now mastering means not suppressing them but controlling them so that we decide
when a particular guna comes into play.
That depends upon what circumstances are, what we want to do and how we view our life,
our events.
Everything depends upon us.
A yogi is one who can manifest any of these gunas at any given time.
He is a perfect master of his mind.
Mind means gunas.
For people like us, we will have to travel from a lower guna to a higher guna.
From tamas to rajas, from rajas to sattva and go beyond.
This is the only purpose of life.
This is the only goal of life to go beyond the gunas and to claim what we really are.
Now how can we do that?
How can we slowly increase?
The point I made, I am emphasizing again and again.
Even for a worldly person, it is most important that he should develop a particular guna which
controls the other gunas so that he can achieve the goals he set for himself or herself.
In our last class, we have seen, I have quoted from a particular verse from the Bhagavatam,
11th chapter, 13th section, 4th shloka, Agamaha, Aapaha, Prajaaha, Deshaaha, Kaalaha, Karmacha,
Janmacha, Dhyanam, Mantraha, Atha, Samskaaraha, Dasaite, Gunahe, Tavaaha.
Our life manifests in these tenfold ways.
We have already discussed, I think, six points we discussed.
That scripture which advances us, who makes us, helps us progress in life, that is the
scripture for us.
That water which makes, leads to both the health of the body and mind is the best water
and the company of those people who will advance our life and those places by avoiding some
places, by actively, consciously cultivating some places, we can progress ourselves.
Then what is the best time?
Every day also and every religion recognised it, that early morning and when the two junctions
of the day and night are coming together, early morning, dawn, dusk, midnight if possible
and midday, these are the best times for trying to achieve mastery over our mind.
Then we have also seen karmas.
What type of karmas?
There are certain karmas not only imposed by society.
Karmas are imposed by three factors.
First factor, of course, is our own wisdom garnered from our elders, other people by
reading books, etc.
Second, whenever we want to advance in any particular field of life, we have to pay special
attention to the best books.
For example, somebody wants to become a best doctor, he should read the best books on medicine
that are available.
Why do I say best books?
Because knowledge is constantly improving, new knowledge is coming forth.
Anybody who doesn't keep up with it, not only he doesn't become redundant, he will
become dangerous.
Many years back, nearly I think 40 years back, I was very fond of an author called Arthur
Healy and he had written a book called Final Diagnosis and it is a story of an old pathologist
who refuses to update his knowledge as a result brings the death of unborn babies in a particular
woman.
A new doctor joined and he was constantly updating his knowledge and he suggests an
experiment, a test which the older man point blank refused because he was in a position
of authority for this man.
Privately got the test done for that particular patient and it turned out that there was something
wrong and that could be corrected.
The younger doctor corrects it and this incident comes out and the trustees decide that the
old man has to retire gracefully and then the end is so illuminating.
The author, by the way, is a very good research author, Arthur Healy.
At the end, the old man was going out and gives an advice.
I committed the mistake of stagnating, not updating my knowledge.
My advice to you is please continue to update yourself and then he departs.
Continuously if you want to update the best books, ask people and nowadays you can search
on the Google.
So this is how our very actions can help us.
Of course, if one wants to be great aesthetically, has to understand what is art, what is emotion
and how to develop etc.
Now take up the seventh point, janmas.
We are already born, therefore there is nothing much we can do about it but we can do what
potential it is like.
Simple example I will give you.
Suppose a person for whatever reason is born weak in body, he can go to the gym and take
the advice of some gymnasium expert and then he can also go to a nutrition expert and he
can get good advice and rigorously he can follow.
There was a very funny incident.
Once a person came to Shri Ramakrishna and Shri Ramakrishna looking at him told him that
look in this life you are not going to realise God and that man had a very strong will.
So he challenged Shri Ramakrishna, why do you issue such a statement?
Shri Ramakrishna said that your body is very weak.
Nayam atma balayi nainal abhyah.
So this Atman cannot be realised by weak people.
Weak in body, weak in mind, weak in intellect, weak in morality in every field of life.
This man heard it, saluted Shri Ramakrishna, went and he determined I will not come to
Shri Ramakrishna until I make my body muscles of iron and nerves of steel.
He entered into a gymnasium, took the guidance of the expert person there and he developed
his body in such a strong way.
Then he visited Shri Ramakrishna and said Sir, what do you say now?
Shri Ramakrishna said yes, it is possible, you can realise God if you can apply the same
strength of mind, determination, will power and follow the same routine.
Now why did Shri Ramakrishna say you will not realise God?
Was he telling a lie?
No, Shri Ramakrishna had many approaches and one of the approaches is to seemingly discourage
the person and pointing out the defect quite clearly.
There are some people who get discouraged, of course Ramakrishna will not give this advice
to such people in this way, he will give a different advice because Ramakrishna remember
he understands himself fully and he thereby understands others also.
Here is a very important psychological truth, we can understand others, we can understand
the world only to the extent that we understand ourselves.
There is no such thing called I do not understand myself but I understand the world much better,
that's not possible.
We always look at the world through the prism of our own body and mind, in other words through
the prism of our own understanding of our own selves.
So this is a very, very important law.
When we are judging other people then we have to be extremely careful especially when we
are about to find the fault and criticize them.
What is that criticism?
Oh, you are a miser.
How did you know I am a miser?
Unless you are a miser at least you knew what is miserliness and that quality must be there
in one of our languages.
This beautiful local saying is there, unless we have faults we cannot understand the fault
of the other people.
Swami Vivekananda illustrated this in a most marvelous way.
He said, he gave an illustration, supposing a man enters at midnight into a room where
a husband, a wife and a child are there.
Now this man enters, breaks the window and enters into the room and the husband puts
on the light and confronts the man.
Swamiji says, you ask the husband or wife and they label him as a thief.
You ask the child, he cannot label that person as a thief.
He can only tell about him that he is a stranger and frightened of him.
Why?
Because the child has no knowledge of what is theft.
He has not been trained by the parents until that time.
Later on they will of course train him directly, indirectly, willingly, unwillingly, consciously,
unconsciously, every parent, every society, every school, every newspaper, anything that
is what we call public feed, it is influencing us.
That's why we have to avoid many things scrupulously, mercilessly.
Okay, we judge the world only according to our understanding of ourselves.
So here is something very important.
We have got the births and now it is too late.
Every one of us, our body, our mind, our family, our society, our opportunity, what Patanjali
calls the Ayurthaya, that is how long are we going to survive.
There is a manufacturing date, there is what we call the expiry date, shelf life.
Then in what species one is born, Jati, Ayu and how much of happiness or unhappiness is
in our lot.
All these things we have to believe.
If we do not believe, we will be only proving to be otherwise.
We have got the births but every birth is a wonderful opportunity.
We have to understand.
Now about the birth, we are born either in a spiritual family or in a worldly family
or in a family which is what we call slum areas.
Parents are drunkards, most uncongenial circumstances, naturally very difficult to grow.
Even though Ramakrishna says a pea seed that is thrown into a field, it can grow into a
beautiful pea plant and yield most marvellous peas.
But rarely it happens.
It is though.
Do we see a son of a carpenter influencing millions of people and even today.
These janmas will affect us.
There is no doubt about it.
So some people are born in spiritual families, I am not talking about Brahmins or locust
people.
Anybody can be a spiritual family or one can be born into a greedy, selfish, what is called
business mentality.
One can be born but one can also be born into the family of demonic and cruel people which
is indicative of Tamasic.
So Satvaguna brings us into contact with what we call a spiritual family and Rajoguna brings
us into this world by being born in a family of greedy, restless, extremely active type
of people, selfish people and Tamoguna is where there is very little scope for us to
progress whether there is more scope for digression.
Now the eighth one is called meditation.
What is Sattvika meditation?
Meditation on God, meditation on the Self Atman, meditation on the Guru, meditation
on saints, meditation on Gunas, great qualities.
This kind of meditation is extremely beneficial, helpful and it produces happiness, serenity
of mind, concentration etc.
and this naturally belongs to Satvaguna.
Before I proceed again I emphasize that we are born with some Gunas, we can reduce the
effect of some Gunas and we can increase the effect of some other Gunas which are helpful
to us and even though at the beginning our meditation may not be so good but through
consistent practice we can develop into it.
So this is Sattvika meditation.
Then the meditation Dhyana is for the sake of obtaining wealth, name, fame, knowledge
of the world and obtainment of other worldly goods that which increases worldliness, selfishness,
greediness, restlessness of the mind, non-tranquility.
If we are doing it that will be Rajasic meditation.
This is how we recognize it.
Sri Ramakrishna radically describes which I quoted Rajasic person Pooja is he will have
normal japa beads but in between some beads are made up of either diamonds or gold etc.
he wants to exhibit.
His shrine room itself is a marvel and all the photos hanging on the walls are of the
kings, queens, great people, great sportsmen etc.
But meditation done for the sake of destruction and for the sake of harming other people is
a Tamasic meditation.
Do people do this kind of meditation?
Yes and Saddam Hussein and Hitler and people like that are sitting and deeply thinking,
hesitating what do you think they are doing, who is our next victim, which country we will
occupy, seize, which woman we are going to rape, whose property we are going to get.
In Indian mythologies, Puranas, we get the people who this kind of people it is most
interesting Ravana, Asura, Hiranyakashipu, they are called demons.
Invariably all of them had done deep tapasya, austerity all for what purpose?
For the sake of obtaining boons from God so that God's creation can be destroyed, can
be harmed so sometimes God himself has to come.
Interesting question comes here.
Does not God know these people are wanting powers and once I grant them these powers
they are going to destroy the people.
This question came to me many a time while studying the Puranas and do you know what
is my conclusion?
You may or may not accept the conclusion I arrive at.
I have a special philosophy you must have noticed by this time.
I am a strong, staunch believer in the scriptures and Prarabdha Karma etc. etc.
What am I talking about?
If these people are destroying is it because of their evilness or because people have committed
a lot of evil and they have to reap the fruits of their own destruction done in the past
and that is how I look upon it.
An interesting incident I mentioned in my other classes.
The Jewish people at first admired Mahatma Gandhi very much and you know so millions
of them have been exterminated in a most unimaginable way, inhuman way.
Even now I don't know their own brother religions because remember Judaism, Christianity and
Islam they are born of practically the same tribes.
These are called Abrahamic or Semitic religions, David's religions.
Why they hate each other it is a mystery to me even today.
Now what is the point?
Point is these Jews, their target for practically every country they came across excepting one
country and that country I am very happy to announce is India.
The Jews came and nobody tortured them, criticized them, tormented them, gave them complete freedom.
This is what India had been doing since aeons.
Whoever comes, the first Christians, Thomas, he came here into India.
He was given a place but what these people did later on that's an entirely different issue.
Anybody who had run away and took shelter in India ever afterwards India had warmly
welcomed them.
The latest example is Dalai Lama who fled from Tibet and our government had given him
a beautiful place called Dharmashala.
Even today that community is thriving and Dalai Lama is so safe and is able to propagate
everything because of these countries believe in that principle Ekam Sat Viprah Pavdavadam.
Truth is one but people choose to call them by various names and follow in various names
that means God is one and he is called by various names, worshipped with various forms
and meditated upon with various qualities etc.
Let God bless everyone and let us all go forward.
What I am trying to tell there are demons who do tremendous amount of tapasya, hardship
in order to torment.
The final purpose of their life is to torment.
This is what Bhartruhari says about some people that there are four classes of people.
The first class people they do not wish any return but to do good only to other people
whole life.
Second class of people business type of people give one thing I scratch your back you scratch
my back I give you something you give me something back.
A third class of people I will not give you anything but I want to squeeze as much as
possible from you.
This is Sattvika, Rajasika and Tamasika type of people.
Then he adds on goes on to add there is a fourth type of people.
I do not know how to categorize them.
These people they do not get anything and yet they go on become cruel, torment, torture
and give all sorts of troubles to other fellows even though they do not get any benefit for
themselves.
So meditation also we can understand.
By understanding all these things what happens that we can progress from the lower guna to
a higher guna, from a lower nature to a higher nature, from a lower truth to a higher truth
and the highest truth is beyond all truths.
Ninth category Bhagavatam tells us mantras.
There are mantras, wonderful mantras.
These are called white mantras, these are called spiritual mantras, they only bring
the welfare of oneself along with the welfare of everybody else.
Sattvika mantras, repetition of mantras for the sake of spiritual progress and God realization
and the service of humanity are born of sattva guna.
So if we can keep this in view as goal, I want to progress towards God.
My Guru has given me this mantra so I would like to repeat it only for the sake of progressing
in spiritual life.
That is how we transcend lower gunas.
This is sattvika mantra.
Then there are people what is called praying to Saraswati for knowledge, praying for Lakshmi
for wealth, praying for success to Ganesha, praying for dominance over enemies to Kartikeya.
Every country practically they vocalize it even though in different names etc.
They are obsessed, they are enslaved, they are up by various, very strong desires to
enjoy and all those things but they also have faith in the scriptures or higher type of
life and they have faith in some mantras and this by repetition of these mantras one can
get what one desires to get.
I know personally that these mantras do work.
In our scriptures there are mantras, I will give some examples.
There is what is called Sri Suktam in the Rig Veda.
Sukta is Vedic hymn.
Sri means Lakshmi, the Goddess of wealth and happiness.
If anybody really recites this mantra, this Suktam regularly with devotion as per the
description then the person slowly he will get wealth etc., happiness etc. is absolutely
no doubt about it and there is what is called Medha Suktam.
Those who repeat it their brain, their understanding capacity becomes extraordinarily great.
It is called Medha.
Medha means deep capacity to understand things rightly especially they can understand the
scriptures very well, this is Medha Suktam is there.
Not only that, there are so many other types of Suktams are there.
These Suktams are mantras and then Durga, Chandi, Saptashati and all these are full
of mantras.
I mentioned while talking about Durga Suktam that this Durga Puja whenever it is done,
the recitation of Durga Saptashati called Chandi, called Devi Mahatmya is part and parcel
of that Puja.
Even in our Belur Math, there is a special priest, Pujari Swami and he sits there and
he recites all those four days.
Now there are many mantras, it is called Mantra Shastra.
It can be recited with devotion, it can also be recited with the purpose of benefiting
from some great quality.
I will give you a few examples.
Supposing somebody is not getting sleep, there is a mantra, Yadhevi Sarva Bhutesho Nidra
Rupena Samsthita.
Pray to the Divine Mother, repeat this mantra, go on repeating it.
One can get rid of the sleeplessness, amnesia or whatever you call it, it will work as a
mantra.
Supposing somebody wants what is called Shraddha, development of Shraddha, Yadhevi Sarva Bhutesho
Shraddha Rupena Samsthita.
Go on repeating it with intense faith in the Divine Mother and surrendering oneself.
Slowly Shraddha will take over a person's life.
When somebody wants Buddhi, Yadhevi Sarva Bhutesho Buddhi Rupena Samsthita, right understanding,
he will get Buddhi.
Medha Suktam is one, this is another.
Suppose somebody wants knowledge, special knowledge, I want medical knowledge, I want
engineering knowledge, I want computer knowledge, I want different types of knowledge, Yadhevi
Sarva Bhutesho Vidya Rupena Samsthita, he will get it, he or she will get it.
Suppose somebody is jobless, Yadhevi Sarva Bhutesho Vritti Rupena Samsthita, go on doing
it, experimenting, but have faith, never become sceptical, give it a try and it does work
really.
So those mantras which are used for promoting one's own worldly happiness is called Rajasic
mantras.
But in this example I was giving, if we want right understanding, if we want to endow with
deep faith in the scriptures, if we want to progress towards God, lessen our faith, for
example, a person is too tamasic, he feels like sleeping, repeat the same mantra, Yadhevi
Sarva Bhutesho Nidra Rupena Samsthita and in fact the story of Chendi starts only with
that, I will not go into the details, you do for it yourself, you will understand what
I am talking about.
This mantra, those who are, helps one, those who are having too much of sleep, slowly slowly
a change will come in their lives, but give it time, have faith, do not give it up just
because after few days you look here and there, nothing is happening, nothing in life, nothing
great in life happens just by a few days of effort, whether we get or not, we will have
to go on trying, that is the right spirit and that is the only way, out there is no
other way.
So mantras are of three types, that which promote Sattvika Guna, that which promote
Ranjha Guna and they which promote the Tamo Guna and accordingly our actions also will
come and remember as the action so also the result, as we sow so also we reap.
Then lastly, tenth one, we come to the Samskaras, we are already born with some Samskaras, our
whole life is to progress in life and further change of Samskaras, a lower Samskara and
slowly transform it into a better Samskara, transform it into a higher Samskara.
Samskara means the deep impressions we have brought along with us and they are active
in the third body which is called Karana Sharira, causal body.
This question often comes, where do these Samskaras hide?
The answer is they are stored as it were in the causal body, Karana Sharira which we experience
at the time of Sushu.
So if a man goes on developing some good habit and slowly the opposite bad habit becomes
attenuated, becomes less and less and the good habit becomes strong and stronger and
that habit is stored in the form of impressions in the causal body and after some time we
do not need to do anything because that Samskara habit itself will carry us forward.
The power of habit is extraordinarily great, there is no doubt about it.
Those type of thoughts which we have to cultivate, which purify the mind, increase the concentration
of the mind, faith in God, love and devotion for God, reverence for scriptures and reverence
for saints and sages and good people, faith in the goodness of people and that kind of
thoughts, they are called Sattvika Samskaras and those thoughts which increase attachment
to this world and increase the desire for the enjoyment of worldly objects and that
which increases restlessness, greediness etc. as we discussed earlier that these thoughts
belong to Prajopana and those thoughts which develop hatred, thoughts of destruction and
harm to other people and destruction to oneself and others, they belong to Tamoguna.
We have to remember a very important law here, if we are destroying others we will be destroyed,
if we are helping others we will also be helped, as we sow so we reap, that is a great something
we have to understand. Now these are the 10 ways we can definitely grow from lower Guna
to higher Guna. Again please remember one thing very important, what is it? It is that
life is an opportunity for us and we have to have faith that there is a given goal in
life, there is a purpose in life, there is a meaning in life and progress is the meaning,
fulfillment, finding meaning in life which the psychologists like Viktor Frankl emphasize
very much is available only when we strive our best to progress from a lower quality
to the higher quality, but as I mentioned many times no quality is bad, every quality
has to be employed at the right place in the right way and that what makes life an integral
harmonious whole. Next, how do we know that Sattva is growing within us? This is being
explained and how we can find it out by Sri Krishna in the next three verses, not only
Sattva Guna, he describes graphically but every Guna that how it manifests, how we can
find out even in ordinary life when we look around and you look around three people you
can find out is very good person, this is a selfish person and this is a very dangerous
criminal person, even we have got this kind of intuitive understanding, not much intuition
but somehow it is there. Children, animals have a highly developed sense of intuition
because rationality has not yet suppressed their intuitive power, instinctively they
shrink away, slink away, dogs etc. when they find somebody who has a wrong intention somehow
they understand, dogs are highly intelligent, they are trained how to even smell certain
changes that are going to come in the bodies of the people, accordingly they are trained
to smell dangerous chemicals etc. in airports and other places to dig out people who are
buried in the depths of snow, for so many ways these highly intelligent dogs and every
species of dogs has some special quality and we understand that and take an advantage
of it and trying to do good, even police also have trained them for various purposes.
If dogs can be trained and dogs can be classified as Tamoguna dog, as pit bulls for example
full of Tamoguna but there are some Alsatian etc. full of Rajoguna and there are some dogs
they are so lovely, your heart just melts into pure water and evaporates, one look from
them and you are finished, we can have some understanding what a person is and it is all
about knowledge about the Guna and Gunas manifest as I said in the form of their thinking, their
actions, their reactions and the results of how they experience life.
In the 11th Shloka, Sarva-dvareshu deheyasmin prakasha-upajayate jnanam yada tada vidya-vivruddham
bharata-rshabha jnanam yada tada vidya-vivruddham sattvam ityutah
When the light of knowledge starts shining through all the gateways of the body then
it may be known that Sattva Guna is increasingly manifesting in that particular person.
utah, now we are going to talk, yada asmin dehe, when yada asmin dehe, in this body,
Sarva-dvareshu, through all the doorways, what are the doorways?
The five organs of what is called knowledge, the eyes, the ears, the nose, the mouth and
the skin, they are like doorways.
What is a doorway?
A person can go outside, he can also come inside, for example, the eyes, as soon as
they are open and we become conscious of what objects are standing and then we take them
in and we get the knowledge and then is it a tiger, is it a great sage and is it something
a lovely sweet or a fragrant flower, immediately we react according to that understanding.
So knowledge can go out, how does it go out?
I am going to tell about that.
All these sense organs, remember including the mind are the instruments by which we get
knowledge of the objects both inside as well outside, outside means the world we encounter,
inside means the reactions, the thoughts, the emotions that we can recognise.
Recognition of the thoughts is one of the greatest helps in life, then only we can become
tranquil, serene and react appropriately.
So all these sense organs are like the doorways through which knowledge comes in and goes
out.
A door can help us either to get in or get out.
Now when sattva guna is on an increase, as Sri Ramakrishna says, a person becomes like
a swan.
It is said a swan can separate milk from water and only it will drink the milk part of it.
So a person endowed with sattva guna can discriminate well and separate what is good from evil,
what is happiness leading to what is leading to unhappiness and what does good to other
people and himself and what doesn't.
This is called the process of discrimination and then sattva guna is on the increase.
This particular quality grows very much.
Oh, one example I will give, such a person whose sattva guna is increasing, you must
have noticed, I am using these words, Sanskrit words, sattva, rajas and tamas, they cannot
really be translated into any other language.
I hope by this time you have understood.
So when sattva guna is on the increase, such a person, man or woman, his or her eyes perceive
only what should and avoid perceiving, seeing what should not be seen.
What does it mean?
It means it is not only how we experience the world through the eyes and sattva guna
but how, what type of attitude, philosophy we develop that controls how we see things.
I'll give you a very funny example also.
Once I was in Bangalore only before going to UK.
I was in the Salsura Ashrama, there was an old Swami who was suffering from cataract
but he was a great gardener.
He could do a lot of magic things with flowers, flower plants, especially roses.
One day we were sitting in the veranda and at a short distance there were some rose plants
and I was also looking at it and the Swami suddenly said, look that rose plant is full
of tiny bugs and he pointed out, I looked and looked, for me everything looked absolutely
green and normal.
Swami said, I would not repeat it, go near the plant and then see, I went near the plant.
What did I find?
The whole branch, that stem was completely filled with green small bugs.
Because the stem was green and also these bugs were green, I could not distinguish.
Then the thought came, oh, is this what Sri Krishna was talking?
Even though this man physically he could see less than me but he could find out because,
because of his love for the plants, even his sense organ became extraordinarily sharp,
like as if a magnifying glass was held in front of, he was holding in front of him
and seeing this plant.
Now understand, if a person is deeply interested in any particular subject, he will see that
particular thing.
There is a saying in English, I do not remember exactly, seeing Helen in the brow of somebody
who is not that beautiful.
There is some saying, I cannot recollect it but what it means is, when a man loves a woman,
everything about that woman seems to be she is an Apsarasa, a damsel fallen from heaven.
Here, according to when Sattva Guna increases, his eyes will be same eyes, 20 by 20 only.
If he has got cataract, he has got a cataract.
A Rajasic person, Tamasic person and a Sattvic person, they see exactly the object will be
the same but the perception, the understanding of the object will be totally different.
I will give an example, even though all the sense organs function exactly in the same
way for all people.
So, one's spiritual outlook makes a great deal of difference, not in the way of our
physical seeing but in the way of what we call perceiving or understanding.
Seeing and perceiving are two separate issues.
We use these two words very discriminatingly.
Seeing means just to see an object exactly as it is.
Perceiving means seeing the same object with a particular frame of mind.
One example is given, you take in front of you a small glass, a looking glass and it
is what is called black colour.
Anything that you look at appears only smeared with black.
Suppose it is red colour, appears as red.
Suppose it is what is called no colour and the object appears exactly as it is without
any stain or anything.
Now the point is in our scriptures, Sattva guna is compared to white, Vajra guna is compared
to red and Tamo guna is compared to black.
That's why in bull fights you will always see a red coloured cloth, the matador, he
will be weaving and then the bull sees it seems, I don't know how and then it comes
rushing, it doesn't like it and then the fellow has to escape and somehow subdue that
bull.
Anyway, the object being the same, the way of seeing also physically the same but the
mind makes a magic and that is called perception.
For example, one day Shri Ramakrishna saw a public woman waiting for customers.
This is what we see but what did Shri Ramakrishna see?
She saw the divine mother Sita waiting for Shri Rama.
Every customer that comes to this public woman in the eyes of Shri Ramakrishna transformed
himself into an embodiment of Shri Ramachandra.
So a person endowed with the quality of Sattva.
Suppose he has to speak five sense organs, there is he speaks but he speaks only truth,
speaks only about God and speaks only about spiritual matters, speaks only positive things,
speaks only what is helpful for the welfare of that person and by the way the definition
of truth is whatever brings about the welfare, the good of other people that are for oneself
that is called truth.
Truth is not what we experience and express.
Truth is that which is beneficial for all people.
By definition, truth always must do only good, never do any harm.
So here is a Sattvika person.
We also speak.
He also speaks.
What does he do?
Speaks only about God and spiritual matters, what is good for others, advises.
He also does whatever he does.
Wherever he goes, he brings all good to everyone and his speech promotes health, happiness
and spirituality.
When we look at Shri Ramakrishna and he is an example, a great spiritual light seems
to be pouring out of him, illumining everything surrounding him.
People saw light coming out of Shri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda and other triad disciples,
Brahmana Maharshi, Holy Mother etc.
I will deal with this afterwards.
When we come across a person who speaks and whose speech brings peace of mind, serenity,
makes our restless mind calm and quiet, helps us to understand things better, helps us to
move forward in life, helps us in every way to progress in life, you have to understand
Sattva Guna is working through that person.
So important point is not only a great light seems to be coming through every pore of his
body, the body itself seems to be made up of light.
That is what some of the saints' pictures, we see a halo around them, it is to indicate
that Sattva Guna is most prevalent.
By the way, we can never understand spirituality unless we are spiritual.
But the manifestation of spirituality comes in the form of these three Gunas in the right
proportion.
Okay, so when a person endowed with Rajas, he speaks, speaks business, speaks about stock
market, speaks about how much he increased his wealth or lost his wealth and whatever
subject you bring up, he will bring down everything to money, pleasure, selfishness, everything
that promotes his selfishness.
He is not bothered about you.
A Sattvika person is more interested in your welfare.
A Rajasika person is interested only in himself.
A Tamasika person, he is interested only in other people, but not in a positive way, but
in a negative way.
This Rajasika person reads newspapers, he sits one where Shri Ram Krishna graphically
describes one leg upon the other and he is twirling his mustache and he says, I know
everything.
I am the most understanding person, my knowledge is unequalled and he says, I will give you
advice and if you try to give advice to him, not only he will not heed, he gets bored and
he leaves that and this works to me.
For me, marvelously, I am just sharing some of my experiences.
Some people come to me, most people are very good, but a few people come, they don't
want to listen to what I am trying to talk with them and generally, I try to tell only
what is good, what is spiritual, I avoid worldly talk as much as possible, excepting to the
minimum.
So, one such person came to me, but a few people, I had the misfortune to come across
and after a few minutes, I understand this person has come only to waste his time along
with me.
He doesn't want to hear.
Then you see very cleverly, I bring in some spiritual topic and as if I am filled with
tremendous enthusiasm and non-stoppable, I go on boring them, mark my words, I go on
boring them with spiritual advice.
You know what happens inevitably?
After a few minutes, they will get up, Swamiji, what a marvellous words you are speaking to
us, but unfortunately, they look at the time.
I have got an urgent phone call to make and urgent work is there and then they make Pranam
and I was smiling inside and that probably, that would be the last time I see them and
whenever they happen to see me afterwards, from a distance, they will make Namaskaram
and leave.
What am I talking about?
That when Prajoguna is in dominance, the person becomes selfish, greedy, he will only talk
about worldly things, is utterly selfish, he doesn't care, doesn't give any opportunity
for others, he will only go on talking about himself, how much he got, how much he lost
and he is not interested in anything.
When we hear this kind of thing, when he speaks, when he looks, what does he look?
He will look for stock, stock market, which company is giving more value for money and
when he looks at anything in this world, the one dominant idea is what advantage can I
get from this object.
This is in general, you can fill it up, the gaps, just open your eyes and with alertness
look all around you and you will get plenty of these examples.
So, we have to understand Prajoguna is dominant in that person and when you see a Tamoguna
person, first of all, he will talk very less.
Secondly, whatever he talks makes no sense.
Thirdly, whenever you are talking, he goes to sleep.
He shows by his non-interest that he is not interested, he would be extremely healthy.
This is called Tamoguna person.
I will end today's talk.
A beautiful story I came across a few days back.
A man was walking down a street, there was a tree.
It was a mango tree and two people were lying there and then one of them suddenly called
this person who was going by, Sir, please come here and then he said, look, a very nice
mango has fallen on my chest.
Will you kindly bring it into my mouth and put it there?
Please help.
The person who was asked became so angry, he started abusing that fellow.
You are the laziest person I have ever seen.
You are a useless fellow.
People like you should be whipped like that for 25 minutes.
He went on scolding him and then walked and then about to walk off.
The second person who was lying there, he was telling, well done, Sir.
This fellow deserved all this abuse.
Look, a dog is licking my mouth for the last half an hour.
This scoundrel is not doing anything after seeing it for 30 minutes.
That means what?
This fellow is even more lazy than the other fellow.
When you see a Tamoguna on the increase by his talks, by his sense organs, everything
we can infer that it is.
This knowledge is very necessary so that we can avoid the company of Tamogunis, Rajogunis
and try to cultivate wherever we can get, whenever we can get the company of Satyugana
people.
Now I will stop here because there are wonderful points we have to discuss about.
This is the purpose of this scripture.
Do not worry how quickly we finish a chapter.
Its more importance is to be given to how we can understand scripture better and how
we can really help ourselves to progress in spiritual life.
That is very, very important.
Om Vasudeva Sutam Devam Kamsachanur Ramadhanam
Devaki Paramanandam Krishnam Vande Jagad Guru
May Ramakrishna, Holy Mother and Swami Vivekananda bless us all with Bhakti.
Amen.

[[Category:Bhagavad Gita]]